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Arena Concept

Good day/night everyone!!! I have come here to state and discuss my opinion on how Arenas should work in Ashes of Creation. This is all just a concept and if you feel like you have a better idea in mind, feel free to comment! :smiley:

First things first, I am new to the MMO genre but Ashes of Creation has really caught my attention, and I can't wait to try out this game and see if it is fun and if I am into these types of games. I never had any real experience with MMOs so bear with me and please let me know if my ideas don't actually fit or is not great to be implemented in MMO games such as AoC.

One of the things I am really curious about is how does the PVP combat system feel like but for now, I will instead be focusing on the Arenas. After a bit of reading, it seems that Arena is an event where people fight against each other in groups or individually. If you win a match, you get arena points or something. The Arena concept is currently not being explored too much but I have conceptualized something that might be great and give more meaning to the Arenas.

In this concept, I am disregarding the potential addition of cross-server arena even though it can potentially happen. Anyway, my idea is having a Coliseum where the Arenas are held, that can be built in Militaristic nodes in the node stage of city or metropolis. Since I am not sure how much work it will take to upgrade the stage of a node, I'm not sure if either metropolis or city is the better option. I want Arenas to not be too common nor too rare. Whenever players enter the coliseum, they are teleported to the arena map which is completely separated from the original map. You can exit the arena server to return to the original map.

The arena server will encompass two areas. Outskirts and the actual Coliseum.

The Coliseum is where the battles happen. It is where people fight against each other in groups or alone. However, to make it seem more like an arena, I think it would be better if people could spectate the match, bet and cheer on the people who fight below. People can meet each other inside and they can place bets against one another and if their side wins, they get the money from the bet. You can also get drinks and sit on tables for card games, and you can also meet other people there.

The outskirts on the other hand, is the place where everything other than combat and gambling is held. People can sell weapons to gladiators or to people with an upcoming battle ahead of them, people can sell potions and ingredients to others, people can sign up for a battle in the coliseum, and people can meet each other and interact.
It can be like a hangout zone for people wanting to meet other people.
The outskirts can also be a place where people sign up to fights. If they want a 40v40 match, all 40 players of each group has to be there to sign up.
The outskirts can also be a marketplace where people can transport crafted equipment and raw materials from their nodes and they can bring it here to trade or sell it to others. When I told my friend this particular concept, he told me it probably makes the game 'pay to win' but then again, I read that there is no way to convert actual real money into in-game currency. This means that in order to buy stuff that people are selling that's actually good, you need a lot of in-game currency. This gives a lot more meaning to in-game money and the feeling of being rich. This gives value to in-game money and being rich and having a lot of money becomes an actual meaningful and fulfilling goal to achieve.

The presence of a high number of people spectating the arena battle from above can make it a bit laggy for the fighters below. But then again they said they were going with 250 vs 250 battles. So as long as the number of players spectating the battles don't go near or more than that amount, the fighters have a high chance of having a lag-less fight.

Only one Arena battle is held at a time (one after another) so that battles are given more importance. This gives the feeling or impression for the players or fighters below in the arena, that they are actually in a real arena as gladiators. Everyone's eyes are on them and winning is more important and more rewarding when people actually see you win.
In order to sign up for a battle, my proposal is that all participants should be present in the outskirts. This means you either bring your friends with you when you go to the outskirts to sign up or you try to meet people in the outskirts, talk to them and form groups so you can fight together. After signing up, that group will be given a time where their fight will be held(For example: Your fight will be held in 12/30/20 9:00 A.M. - 12 hours left before Arena Battle). Although this makes fights alongside your friends less frequent, it makes it rewarding and more memorable as you win together with the power of friendship with everyone cheering on you and watching the battle unfold from above. Anyways, you get the date and time when the battle will occur and you can choose to accept or delay it(if for example the time of battle is like 2 am in the morning and most of your teammates are probably asleep at that point). When it is time for your battle, you are given a minute to gather in the coliseum and wait. If your team is missing a few members, the battle will still go on without the absent players. If no one is present, the other side will automatically win.

Betting is a great option to gamble away your money. You put your hopes and money on a group you support to win and you find another person that thinks the opposite and is cheering for the other team to win. You reach for an agreement (for example: 500 gold) and if your team wins, you get his/her 500 gold and now you have a thousand. It is a fast way to earn money and a fast way to lose it as well. It gives more meaning to gambling as it is not affected by random chance and instead affected by the performance of the players fighting below which makes it more exciting than seeing yourself win because of some rng miracle.

I haven't played any MMOs so I don't know if Arena is just like people fighting each other or theres more to it. If there are more game modes for Arena it would be awesome. There can be like a battle royale similar to Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse. There could also be a mode where players respawn and kill each other over and over again and the team with the most kills at the end of the time limit wins. There can also be capture the control point or something similar to that etc.

Arena victories are up to the devs to decide. They say glory points to climb a ladder of some sort but that's boring if you ask me. I'm not sure if cosmetics as a reward will do the trick. It depends on the devs if they want to make Arena just a place where you and your friends can have some fun or a place to prove your skills. If they want it to be competitive, they can add ranking systems and leaderboards while if they want it to be chill and just a place where you can have fun and test out crazy things, they can just add cosmetics as a reward for winning. But then if you make it not competitive, it lowers the motive of players to actually try to win an Arena battle and could undermine the existence of preparing for the battle, selling of goods out the arena and betting on a team against another. At the end of the day, I'm kind of leaning towards a more competitive Arena but with no ranking system. Adding a ranking system might make the game too toxic and over competitive that casual players might not even try the Arena at all. The rewards in my opinion shouldn't be cosmetics but instead should give players fancy loots, very rare materials, experience etc. Losing teams should get some as well but to a lesser degree.

There's many things I'd like to see in the game but I know not everything will be implemented. At the end of the day, all of this is just a concept. Just what I want to see from this game. If this game lacks any of this, I won't be disappointed. It's just an idea from a person that likes to formulate them. Thank you for reading my Arena Concept and if you are still reading at this point then I thank you for hearing me out. Peace :wink:






TL;DR:
1. Arena is separate from the original map and isn't cross-server.
2. Arena is only accessible through a Coliseum, a building only accessible by city or metropolis level Militaristic nodes.
3. Coliseum has two main areas: Outskirts and Coliseum
4. Outskirts is where you trade/buy/sell/sign-up/meet/group
5. Coliseum is where you fight/spectate/gamble/drink/meet
6. Only one battle can occur in every Coliseum at a time.
7. There can be many game modes for Arena Battles
8. Arena battles occur at designated times for any who sign up.
9. Arena should not have a ranking system.
10. Arena should be competitive with rewards of loot, raw materials and experience.
That's it. Bye!!!
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