Arena!!!

It would be awesome to have an area in a big city that was an Arena that PCs could pay admission and either watch others battle, or pay an entry fee and battle themsevles.

The enemies could be encounters that scale with character level and based on reputation points you win for being victorious in the arena. After earning enough points, there could be titles or ranks on the line against "arena bosses"...

There could even be different rules of engagement.... like unarmed only... or unarmed with no equipment.... or no spells or magic.... or spells only... no healing... and of course, "no holds barred"...

If you manage to become Arena Champion, there could be some sort of title that comes with perks like cheaper prices from merchants, access to special shops, maybe even a custom item...

A great idea.... and add in a PvP specific area as well... that somehow keeps on-lookers out of harms way vs powerful wide-area AoE's... .. .. sign me up... It could also be an option that anyone tagged as PvP could be summoned to the area to fight a "challenger" and then sent back after victory/defeat.... ....

I like this idea!

So do I. I'd make a trident user just to fight in the arena.

I'd like to see daveyeisley in the arena! Red sauce on pasta!

Seriously, though, this is a great idea!

I would request that the arena pit be 30 feet in diameter.

It would make Al vs Crubis duels very interresting.

Something like this? I bet Amethyst could whip up something along these lines in a heartbeat!

Popcorn, anyone?

Now that looks cool

I'm in the process of building an "arena" for PvP fights. I've got the area built (I'll be placing it in the Calithian Empire to the southeast of the Wanderer's Portal).

Now, it's mostly a matter of scripting out the setting both parties to willing PvP (and locking them into that setting while in the arena), making it so that everything can be handled without DM work, and anything else that I think needs to be done before adding the area to the game.

I opted not to use the arena space that the 1.69 patch added to the city exterior tileset simply because I don't feel like updating the tileset .set file right now (my older version with the narrow alleys currently overrides the newer version from the patch). This one will be a large depression in the sand with a fence around it to keep out the spectators, with a couple of higher vantage points nearby.

Not sure when it will be added, since I've got a few things on my plate the rest of this week with grad school.

Would the area be shaded by chance? Vamps, shadowkiddies and drow would be able to fight under a nice big canopy, but not out under a not-so-nice big sun.

!! Good point !! I'll second the nice big canopy idea... !!

Yes, the entire town will be shaded (so even spectators are protected from the sun).

We gave the arena a test drive tonight.

I think most had fun, but we have some feedback.

The "fog of war" effect was keeping spectators from being able to see the battles in the arena from outside. The distance was too far, and the engine wasn't showing the combatants at that range.

Had a few folks die whose corpses vanished as soon as they appeared, and nobody interacted with them.

Not sure if the spell is intended to work that way, but it seems the "Web" spell from Greater Shadow Conjuration is applying a speed reduction even if the target makes the save. This might be the way the spell is supposed to work, however, even after the victim gets out of the area, they are still "slowed"... so it might not be intended.

Not having any place to rest nearby is rather frustrating.

The "info arena" command seems to be reporting the same variable for wins and losses, rather than two different variables.

Woah, there'a win/loss record? O_O

Yep!

A few notes and suggestions about the arena...

1. Suggestion! There were several instances where people died and didn't leave a corpse behind. I'm not sure why that happend, but a possible solution I had to that was a ring-side cleric, who you could talk to who would "raise" a person in the arena for you. This would be for instances where the body disappears or you have one of those "Shoot, did I use my last raise scroll already?!" things.

I tried thinking of ways to avoid this being abused (dragging people who didn't die in the arena out of the great hall) and thought maybe adding a conditional branch to the script to check to see if the pvp setting for the player your trying to pull out is on or off, as thats something thats automatically turned on/off every time you enter/exit the arena....yeah. The pvp setting wouldnt have to be used, but maybe triggering a different variable every time you enter/exit the pit?

2. GSC web! A note about the speed reduction, it lasts until the affected person rests. Think vine mine, but with GSC web.

3. The arena: Maybe making it a bit smaller (its HUGE as it is) so bystanders can see clearly from outside the ring, as well as maybe adding a few more placeables into the pit (promotes "smart fighting'' by using cover/CSing possibilities/etc as well as adding decoration).

4. A place to rest or a way to recover spells inside the pit without having to down 100k worth of magical renewal potions would be good.

I like what people have said so far, I have been to calithia a few times as well as various surroundings on occasions, but not the arena itself. I have a few more ideas involving things, if it could be done.

I requested a long time ago that half-orcs and non-elvens that know orcish be allowed entry into Knort Scar to interact normally with orcs instead of hostile. It would make sense that a second arena be located there, no? From what I know the arena is not something slaves or monsters take place as contestents in orc culture, they are a place where orcs test their mettle in combat for the respect and honor for their people. It is very rare for those without orcish blood to join in these fights, but considering how orcs on Aenea are as civilized as the orcs of Amn and not beasts like in some games and around northern Faerun, it would make sense others could participate in the orc arena.

Next, in regards to both the calithian and the suggestion arena, I think there should be shops accessable to gladiators based on their amount of wins inside the arena. For those who either have no wins or have less than 10, they can use a standard shop where you can buy equipment worth less than 1000 gold. Gladiators who are highly successful and this have 10 wins can use the next shop, which has up to 3000 gold items and very minor custom items worth of those values specifically for gladiators (like maybe gloves that are only usable for these gladiators?). 25 wins will get a shop with 7500 gold and a minimum level requirement of 5, with a few additional customs in addition to older customs. This process could continue for a while. The arena's could also sell items that only work for the specific arena and offer bonuses for that civilization. Calithian champions who proudly display a banner,armor, or shield as a champion would get benefits in calithia as well as while in the calithian arena, while orcish champions do likewise in likewise place for them.

Finally, when battles are set up, can there be a NPC that monitors the fights, so players can place bets on their favorite player. Bets can only be placed on characters within 3 levels of eachother maybe, and gold bets no higher than 500 gold?

These are ideas of mine.

The only problem I see with limiting bets to characters within three levels of eachother is, at the epic levels, even with as many epic characters running around now as there is, it's not easy at all to find someone within that tight number range.

And also with the epic levels, it's quite possible for a 22nd level character to compete with and even beat a 30th level character and such. Limiting betting to a 3 level range would preclude betting on a number of good matchups.

I would tend to agree with Manny's points, but I think he would also agree with me when I say that Anthroplayer's suggestion is definitely a cool idea that would really add some "awesome" to the Arena if we modify it slightly.

The merchant wares based on wins would get everyone trying to fight in there

We implemented this over on AR my home server...unless you make something that allows turning off spell usage...it gets to be one sided...and kinda dull...player A spends 15 min buffing...player B the tank enters arena...and gets held by bigby's and then player A annihilates him.

Combat would last like 7 seconds. To spice things up we stuck those spear ramparts and spikes on the walls, they were traps that couldnt be picked...so if you got too close in your fighting you got impaled on em we stuck some spiked pits as hidden traps as well...you ran over it opened(with that pit 3d placeable) and it then held them for 10 seconds to simulate climbing out...and that others could attack them while doing so with no way to fight back due to climbing.

Made it alot more interesting if it was just weapons and no magic.

The problem if it was just weapons is no magic though is the reverse of the scenario with player A the caster and player B the tank. It'd exceptionally dull to watch a wizard or sorcerer try to melee a warrior class without using any magic.

Agreed with manny 100% there.

Magic is a main reason why we play this game. In no situation should it be disallowed for "balance" reasons. There are TONS of ways to deal with magic even if you arent a spellcaster.

Spellcasters themsevles have to put a lot of thought and strategy into how they approach combat, and if one wishes to prevail against a caster, they should need to put in at *least* as much thought and strategy to do so.... not just click on the caster to run up to them, click the knockdown feat and beat the stuffing out the poor dress wearing sissy.

Bigby's is not an insurmountable hurdle. It is not a death sentence. All one has to do is actually think about viable strategies, and maybe experiment with various things to find an answer to it.

daveyeisley wrote:
...not just click on the caster to run up to them, click the knockdown feat and beat the stuffing out the poor dress wearing sissy.

I almost peed myself I laughed so hard when I read this!

daveyeisley wrote:Spellcasters themsevles have to put a lot of thought and strategy into how they approach combat, and if one wishes to prevail against a caster, they should need to put in at *least* as much thought and strategy to do so.... not just click on the caster to run up to them, click the knockdown feat and beat the stuffing out the poor dress wearing sissy.

Everything reasoned decision I've made (from equipment choices, feats taken, skills improved, abilities raised, etc...) is so I can run up to a myriad of different types of opponents and ring their bell. That is the strategy, and I have put a lot of thought into it.

I'm not commenting on the degree of the power of the spell, just saying is all...

i guess i should have clarified myself...we had it so wizards dueled wizards...and tanks on tanks and so on...it helped balance stuff.

It was cool seeing a pair of wizards use cert'amen on each other like outta ars magica.

Ahh, gotcha Kef.

I can see why a PvP server might do that.

Im just of the mind that the Arena is voluntary. If you know a certain opponent has your number, you don't have to fight them... or you can try and arrange terms so that they give up certain tactics in exchange for you giving up certain tactics.

I see Kef's point too, but its just more fun with it being an all out brawl area.... no holds barred... jump in the ring if you like ... melee vs mage or if you prefer 3 melee's vs mage.. or melee vs 2 mage's.. etc etc.... ... when you have an entirely optional Arena such as the one here the only person that makes you go there is yourself.... you need to walk through TWO area transitions just to get in there.... no one can do that but yourself (and maybe a DM insta-teleport.. thankfully their not cruel DM's here).. if you find your being harrassed/ dogged by a particular PC and the simple "not interested" tell isn't working.. then avoid the arena and inform a DM to "have a word".... but I don't think it'll come to things like that here...

Anyway its rather fun for a melee PC to see if they can survive the onslaught of a mage.. they run out of spells (eventually).. and then the tables turn, and turn rather quickly.... .....

If I had one suggestion for fairer melee vs mage matches it would be for no insta-death spells such as disintegrate... but on the flip-side no vorpal weapons...
Of course things such as that would end up being server-wide accepted rules.. just brings into question on a PnP orientated, 1/2 rp server (such as Aenea).. what about all those chaotic &/or evil rulebreakers??.. ??

Bumping this to add another idea.

in the pit master office, an NPC who can arrange to spawn various "ranked" gladiators for you to fight. Maybe 7 or 8 differnt choices with varied abilities and power levels. Maybe even a "select at random" option that grants an additional win point (provided you do win) due to added risk.