Improving the Arena Death Match event

[General Tacticus]

Originally posted by Wendigo:
I always send someone to the Arena, and I am talking multiplayer here.

The Arena is one of those small details in the game that add to the fun & immersion, it doesn't need any boosting with game-wining rewards.

I try to send at least a scout. I always look at the battle replays. I cheer while the AIs lose their pretenders stupidly.
But there is a problem when the human players are not even trying to win, only (sometimes) to curse/horror mark the AI. Either the AI must learn to reevaluate the reward (and stop sending pretenders when the mortality rate is around 80% for them in the Arena), or the reward must be boosted so the one that does survive really gets a leg up. Right now, for me, the Arena is a "Watch 3 AI pretenders die, laughing all the while" event.
One problem is that the prize must
- not be completely unbalancing when won on turn 3
- have any kind of worth on turn 40, when I'm already forging artifacts at a large discount...

I think that :
- Pretenders should be Banned from the Arena. Gods, or would-be Gods, have no business slugging it out for the amusement of mortals. And defeat would be far too embarassing for them to risk.
- The prize should bear some relation to the level of opposition, and the advancement of the game. For example, a gold prize equal to the gold value of every unit that was defeated in the arena (or part of that value), and/or the winner's choice of three magical items that belonged to the defeated ones, to be sent directly to the lab...

I agree that the arena adds dimension. It probably works fine in multiplayer (although in 17 mp game there will be a lot of competition and only one winner, but the same prize). But in SP, it's just a AI trap, and not because the player always win; in fact, he never does...

[ January 23, 2004, 10:35: Message edited by: General Tacticus ]