Arena fix

[chrispedersen]

Everyone says the battle arenas are irrelevent. I agree.

Why doesn't some enthusiastic modder change the statistics on the prize?

I suggest one or more of the following:

1. Give the wielder the ability to send horrors.
2. Give the wielder +2 in all magic paths possessed.
3. Give the wielder 25 forge bonus.
4. Give the wielder the ability to teleport. (Heck, it would explain how he got back to the tourney.
5.
6.
7.

[HoneyBadger]

I don't agree that they're irrelevant, they just aren't terribly useful--and the arena prize is fine, as long as you're not foolishly putting your SC Pretender into the Arena.

If anything, I'd make the trident 1 handed, and allow the arena champion to recruit or summon 1 battle gladiators.

[Gandalf Parker]

The problem with making the prize better is that winning the arena means that the same unit must participate in the next arena. Making the prize too good would make the first arena more worthy but make all following arenas worth less. Taking the "best fighter" and making it a better fighter would not help the arenas.

Also granting a weapon that cannot be dropped will always be a problem for some arena people. Maybe it should be a misc item, or a helmet. And give it bonuses that are good to have but not applicable to the arena.

Items
3. Give the wielder 25 forge bonus.
4. Give the wielder the ability to teleport. (Heck, it would explain how he got back to the tourney.
would be great ideas. Lets continue along that line.

Maybe add Fortune Telling. (decrease bad events in the province he is in)

Gandalf Parker

[thejeff]

Replace the item with a better one each time a Champion wins.
Either each arena fight, or only when the previous Champion wins again.

In general unless the item becomes completely overwhelming, knowing the Champion's stats should be enough to give every one else a sufficient advantage.

[Omnirizon]

how but just getting some gold/gems/items that can be used in anyway the winning nation likes. This is very easy to balance the power of.

Giving a unit forge bonus or teleportation has unit*prize interaction effects that cannot be controlled. For example, a unit with no or little magic isn't so good with a forge bonus, and a unit that's good for forging would not benefit at all from teleportation. Advertising beforehand what the bonus will be will invariably end up in some bastard sending a unit good at killing things that benefit from that bonus; even if that particular unit he sent will not benefit so much, at least s/h/it gets to kill many of the other players units.

A liquid currency like gold is easiest to balance. Some random gems or items that are the winning nation's to keep would add flavor and make the arena worthwhile.

[HoneyBadger]

What if one Nation had the ability to "host" the Arena, with say a gold bonus, but would in return have to put a prize in, themselves? That way, there'd be prize variation, and the host would have motivation to put in a good prize, because the more people who participated, the bigger their gold bonus would be. If gold weren't a good enough motivation, gems could be substituted later on in the game.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well a variable prize could be done by mod using the Scenario method. Id have to do a check but Im pretty sure that something shows up in the game.log that could be clued on to modify the mod file with a new version of the Champions Trident. Im not sure how the other awards would be done by mod file.

Edit:
come to think of it...
if the Announcement of the Arena were picked up then the MOD could be changed to downgrade or maybe even remove the Champions Trident so that major beneficial bonuses making it worth winning and having would not affect the next Arena combat. Then after the Arena was decided, the new awarded trident could be modified.

Edit Again:
Brain Fart. As little as I was interested in this subject maybe we could totally Gandalf the thing. Make the awards wildly random with wildly random effects. Every time the 3rd-party program sees an arena announced in the game log it could change the mod that the game is using in order to downgrade the previous award, then assign a completely surprising prize after the arena is won. Now THAT is something that would make me seriously consider sending a REAL competitor to the Arena. I LOVE surprise gifts.

[Deadnature]

Have the arena be "no magic allowed" (only non-spellcasting combatants) and make the prize a lot of money plus XP.

[Ironhawk]

Making the trident allow the user to perform a ritual summon is actually a pretty good idea. Since you get a solid benefit from the unit in question but only for the period that you hold the trident. What to summon tho? Need something sufficiently powerful, but not totally unbalancing...

Crushers, maybe? Ether warriors?

[Gandalf Parker]

As a ritual summon it would work as a "free summons" action on the units menu? So it would not be a combat summons and wouldnt affect future use in Arena? Yeah that would work great.