Death Match Competition

[PvK]

It's currently worth sending a low-level fellow who could use a trident and whom you don't mind losing... except the odds are fairly low unless no one is bothering, and the AI usually sends inappropriate units such as pretenders and prophets (meaning N-1 such AI units die whenever the arena happens, and appropriately lowly contestants are extra-unlikely to live).

The AI sending powerful units seems like the biggest shame of this to me, since it impairs SP games a bit. I'd say either the AI shouldn't do that, or the prize should be improved somehow so it's worth gambling a pretender at low odds. Like, if the winner got all of the defeated contestants' magic items delivered to their lab (or at least looted to the commander) and maybe a prize of all the gens and gold cost of the defeated units.

[JimMorrison]

PvK said:
It's currently worth sending a low-level fellow who could use a trident and whom you don't mind losing... except the odds are fairly low unless no one is bothering, and the AI usually sends inappropriate units such as pretenders and prophets (meaning N-1 such AI units die whenever the arena happens, and appropriately lowly contestants are extra-unlikely to live).

The AI sending powerful units seems like the biggest shame of this to me, since it impairs SP games a bit. I'd say either the AI shouldn't do that, or the prize should be improved somehow so it's worth gambling a pretender at low odds. Like, if the winner got all of the defeated contestants' magic items delivered to their lab (or at least looted to the commander) and maybe a prize of all the gens and gold cost of the defeated units.

See that's exactly where my train of thought went. Then I started to think about how large the rewards could get, especially in larger games with 18-20 or more nations, and the train derailed.

I think it's going to be hard to make the reward feel truly compelling, without making it potentially incredibly unbalanced.

[MaxWilson]

Immortality is thematic for the "death match" champion, and is still valuable in the late game. It's not readily abusable because it's restricted to your own dominion (and also makes you lose all your items), but it does confer the ability to heal afflictions and that's useful everywhere.

I do wonder: in the game right now, if the "arena" site is somewhere within your dominion and you send an immortal unit to the fight, does he come back to life when killed?

-Max

[JimMorrison]

Actually, so far as I've seen, based on dominion specific modifiers on prophets and such, it seems to treat each combatant as if they had never left the province they are in before the fight. I want to say that I saw an immortal unit survive a loss in the arena, but it was some months back when I actually paid any attention to the death matches. But I do recall very clearly seeing pretenders and prophets with boosted HP, as if they were still in their own dominion. Small chance that I happened to only look at the ones whose dominion actually housed the arena for that match, but that seems highly unlikely to me.

[MaxWilson]

You always keep the boosted HP until the "heal" phase of the turn, which is after combat. Click on HP to see "maximum HP", which is what dominion affects. (Regen is also dependent upon maximum HP.)

-Max

[NTJedi]

Let me try my necromancy skills....
anyone planning for another arena match competition?

I figure once every three years is about right.

EDIT: This is in reference to the arena competition we had on the forums... I think I did necromancy on the wrong thread.

[brxbrx]

I've always seen the trident as quite good, at least for the purposes of winning more arena death matches...

It gives quickness and a nice boost to defense, and has two attacks. It's not the Unquenched Sword, but it's not a bad weapon.
And the death matches can be fun

[brxbrx]

Wait a minute-
this thread is three years old!

[brxbrx]

I saw 6-8, and I figured it was just a few weeks old...

Only after I post do I see it's from 2008...

sorry