Non-Hostile Arenas

ArchivedUser

I think a non-hostile arena would be actually very fun.

Once you gain a metropolis, you can build an area that can be used by citizens to practice combat, learn new tactics, and just goof around. Other citizens can then come in and watch, and get a buff from doing so. Winning or losing won't affect the participants in any way, but the participants will get a buff as well, that's slightly different from the spectators. 

Then, when players decide they want to participate, they can check whether they want it to be for fun, or profit. If it's for fun, it's just that: for fun.

Though if it's for profit...

Participants pay x Gold to play in the arena's. 
Spectators pay x Gold (or silver) to watch the fight. 
 - The total of these two are known as the "fight stakes"
 - Half of this total goes to the winning team, half goes to the metropolis.

Then, spectators can bet on who they think will be the winner. They can use either gold, OR certain level items to place bets. The items are automatically sent to a metropolis NPC vendor and placed for sale, and the bet is turned into Gold. (essentially the item was purchased from the player by the metropolis.) Then, when the match is over, the winnings are given to those who chose correctly, and a percentage is given to the metropolis. 

This can enable players to:
A) practice fighting tactics, hone skills, and learn what works best against certain classes
enjoy PvP without the downside to losing
C) Earn money and titles/respect from this type of combat. 
D) Watch other players fight, and learn new tactics. 
E) Earn some extra money

This can enable a metropolis to:
A) earn money for upgrades
organize arena events to bolster player relations and economic growth
C) find out who the "champions" of the metropolis are. 


This can also lead to metropolis vs. metropolis arena matches. This can be heavily advertised, and can earn players and metropolis's (metropoli?) a LOT of money. Also, this type of PvP loss/win wouldn't de-level or level the metropolis, just it's wallet. 

What does everyone else think??

ArchivedUser

I think that betting on player controlled actions has been ruled out. Any system involving gold, transfer of gold, and player outcomes, can and will be exploited. So they have decided to go another route.

ArchivedUser

I like the idea of an arena, but really I don't see what is stopping players from doing all this (like tactics and stuff) out in the open (pvp areas or other places), again just like @UnknownSystemError said betting systems would be easily exploited in situations such as this, so that's a no go.

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

I think that betting on player controlled actions has been ruled out. Any system involving gold, transfer of gold, and player outcomes, can and will be exploited. So they have decided to go another route.

AutumnLeaf said:

I like the idea of an arena, but really I don't see what is stopping players from doing all this (like tactics and stuff) out in the open (pvp areas or other places), again just like @UnknownSystemError said betting systems would be easily exploited in situations such as this, so that's a no go.

I can understand the betting thing, (throwing matches and such), and what's stopping players from doing this (from what I understand) is the bounty system in the taverns. Players who kill other players in non-pvp areas. Other than that, you risk dying while practicing in real situations. This arena would be like the duel system in W.o.W. you fight until someone reaches 1hp, then all debuffs are gone, and they instantly start non-combat regen. 

The vision i have is a gladiator arena. Where citizens can come and actually sit in the stands and watch in-real time. If there was some sort of reward system in place, players would be using it often, and the price of admis/fighting would bolster the metropolis's pockets. Also, you could do some sort of citizen-only championship, to see who's part of the 'champion team' for the metropolis. Then, two metropolis could have an arena match against each other, with the winner getting all of the money for admis/fighting. 

I dunno, I think being part of an 'elite gladiator team' representing a metro would be cool. I understand there are some flaws in the design, but I think the concept is kinda cool. I can't think of a game where you can spectate PvP, without participating.

And if spectating gives you a good enough buff as a reward (something like... "Air of combat" 'you're inspired by the feats of prowess you've witnessed in the great gladiator gauntlet' - for the next 6 hours, you gain +1% running speed boost, your total health and mana is increased by 1%, and your in-combat regeneration is increased by 1%.) Something small yet long-lasting, that can be stacked on after you've added other buffs. That way, not only is it worth the small amount of gold to watch a match every once in a while, but anyone trying to go into PvP, or dungeons, would want to watch a match before starting, since it will last the duration of the instance/battle.

If you watch a championship, the buff is increased to 5% for 10 hours.)

Winning participants could gain something a little more substantial, and the losers could get de-buffed. 

Again, I could see some issues with this, but they could be worked with. It's more the concept I'm trying to convey, not the mechanics of avoiding exploits.

ArchivedUser

Well I understand the whole idea of an arena and competition, prizes, titles etc. Just the betting system would be out, so a substitute for it would be required, overall I'm in full support of this idea, but the 'teams' shouldn't be metro teams since only 5 metros can exist at any given time on a server.

ArchivedUser

There will be gladiatorial combat as part of the military nodes election process. Still waiting to see how they work out the inevitable exploit of Guild XYZ decides to make their guy the leader, so they feed guildies to him over and over to get him to the top of the rankings. Sort of like the shitshow ESO emperor trading became early on. They mentioned in a livestream that most likely the spectator feature would not be available for launch, but would be something they are looking at adding further down the line, if I remember the quote well enough. Ideas are great, keep throwing them out there. Who knows, maybe they will come across one and think "Damn, why didn't we think of that." While you are sure not to get any credit for it, you very well may see something you propose make it into the live server mix one day.

ArchivedUser

The military node was said to have combat elections, but I wonder then is there any info on that, like how many times a day can a person be challenged to a duel or how many people per day can do it ?

ArchivedUser

AutumnLeaf said:

The military node was said to have combat elections, but I wonder then is there any info on that, like how many times a day can a person be challenged to a duel or how many people per day can do it ?

I was actually thinking about that at work today. (I work in a warehouse, so my mind wanders), and I got the mental image of just pure chaos of a crowd of people just trying to assassinate each other and the "leader" role being passed every few seconds. Then someone finally gets it and gets away, and manages to stay hidden. Essentially turning the "leadership role" into a cat and mouse game. Then I got another mental image of people being loyal to the leader, and the leader having a ring of bodyguards around them at all times. I know that won't be the mechanic, I just thought it was funny. 

I can see them making it a daily thing, or weekly. What happens if the person just doesn't log on? If you grab the leader rank, and then just stop logging into that toon? How long before the role is up for grabs? I think that deadline would be the same for line, a required regular trial by combat. To stay the leader for a long time, you'd have to hone and keep your skills at peak. Never a slip-up.

ArchivedUser

(Speculation, not confirmed). Term length for node mayors will be standard for all. The quote we have is monthly. So in the case of your military node, on the cutoff date, the person at the top of the special pvp arena leaderboard for that node will become mayor for a month. All points reset, and they grind it out again. As I have posted in the past this has a couple exploitable loopholes to it. A guild or group of like-minded people could "feed" kills to their candidate over and over to boost them on the boards. One way to alliviate this (not eliminate fully) would be to make an arena kill vs a certain person count towards the leaderboard points once. This would stop small groups of people just queuing repeatedly boosting kills. We will just have to wait and see what they come up with, and break it in obvious ways during testing till it can't be "gamed."

ArchivedUser

In game a real month is definately enough time, regarding stepping down from your post is it possible ? in that case would you hand it to whoever you want or re-do the elections for that 1 particular spot, maybe the person who came in second after you automatically gets it ? 

ArchivedUser

They will need to address that at some point. What I can see people doing is voting for one person, then that person transferring power to someone hated, causing a mini-revolt. Or people selling access to dragons at the Metro level. "Want to get the Dragonlord or lady title? Message me for cost of last two days of my term." So there may be a system in place, but they are going to have to idiot-proof it from exploits and anti-social actions like most things. One good note so far is that node treasuries are not able to be accessed by mayors except to spend money on node improvements and defense. So the whole "I'm gonna be mayor and takez all ze golds!" crowd will already be cut out.

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

They will need to address that at some point. What I can see people doing is voting for one person, then that person transferring power to someone hated, causing a mini-revolt. Or people selling access to dragons at the Metro level. "Want to get the Dragonlord or lady title? Message me for cost of last two days of my term." So there may be a system in place, but they are going to have to idiot-proof it from exploits and anti-social actions like most things. One good note so far is that node treasuries are not able to be accessed by mayors except to spend money on node improvements and defense. So the whole "I'm gonna be mayor and takez all ze golds!" crowd will already be cut out.

Going back to the topic - 

I'm mainly trying to think of "fun" ways that a metro can generate income. Taxes are exciting and all, but I think setting up events, fairs, festivals or games would be great. 

Anyone up for some jousting????

ArchivedUser

No jousting, really this is an rpg there are certain things that just shouldn't appear in my opinion, if someone wants to play such a free world mmorpg Chronicles of Elyria is the game for that.

This is just my opinion but if they add too many of those side events then the game will slowly loose its focus.

ArchivedUser

CoE is dead. They ran out of money after building their game around an engine with a fee system that bankrupted them.

ArchivedUser

Ohhh thats news to me, glad I didn't fund back a few months ago since I was planning to xD

ArchivedUser

Yep, their much vaunted SpatialOS has a system where you pay based on the size and duration of your simulations. For an always on, large map MMO that can get spendy real quick. They weren't that strong financially to begin with, and got caught in that catch-22 of needing a publisher for funds, but needing to show profitability to get a publisher. Pantheon went with Unity, which is much cheaper to develop, but looks like crap. Ashes went with Unreal 4, and depending on their package should be fine. I highly doubt they went for the $19/month option and you pay Unreal 5% of profit forever over $3k in sales quarterly model.
https://forums.improbable.io/t/the-prices/1836
http://www.pcgamer.com/unreal-engine-4-is-now-free/