The Arena.
Great idea, poor implementation, and I hope to shed a bit of my own insight on perhaps how to make it a bit less obsolete than it currently stands.
I applaud Deca’s commendable efforts in trying to re-instill a sense of purpose for the Arena again, but ultimately that’s just treating the symptom, not the problem.
###Current Problems
The Discrepancy Between Risk vs Reward
Yes, I intentionally chose the word risk. It just fits in thematically with the rest of the game so for the sake of consistency, I’m going to define risk [in this sense] as what you’re putting in.
If we were to describe the largest problem the Arena has, it would be that what you put in does not match what you get out of it.
“But Mr. UnicornSla, you can get life pots and incs out of it for fame, you don’t get that anywhere else in the game, right?”
“But Mr. UnicornSla, tomb keys are 250 gold but arena only costs 51. Mathematically speaking, you could get the 3 life from a tomb using 150 gold; isn’t that worth it?”
The above points would be valid… if they accounted for the time/effort required to get to the higher levels where the loot is at. On the other hand, tombs can be efficiently run with a group in under ten minutes, if you know what you’re doing. There is simply no reason to do the arena - there aren’t even arena-exclusive items save the effusions - when one can gain more loot through average godlands gameplay.
TL;DR The payoff you get from the Arena does not justify the time/effort you must put in.
2 The Disconnect Between Monotony and Difficulty
Both literally and figuratively, there is currently a disconnect between keeping the Arena challenging but not tedious.
In the literal sense, you literally DC during higher waves, hence why nobody has gotten to wave 60 yet. The very nature of RotMG dictates its capacity, and certainly limits the Arena physically in that sense. Why is this important? Obviously, the majority people who partake in the Arena don’t make it to such high waves. But by restricting competitive players on the premise of the game’s limitations, there will be an inevitable lack of interest. The Arena leaderboards had the right idea, in contrast to the then- corrupt (and now still) fame-based ‘legends’ - to recognize players for their skill - but faced a rather abject fate.
However, the main issue here isn’t DC’s. What the true problem, the fundamental problem with the Arena stems from, as MSellers puts it,
One of our team members thought it would be a good way for players to battle without us having to make more new content. Unfortunately it really didn’t work. It never made any significant revenue at all, and wasn’t played with very much.
However, I disagree with Mike here,
We also did some things (e.g. the Arena) that were mistakes or essentially wastes of time
and I believe with some revamping, the Arena doesn’t have to be wasted. It has potential.
That in itself, tells you that the Arena was thrown together impetuously for the sole purpose of money. What am I trying to get at? I’m not trying to play rhetoric here, but there is a fine delineation between challenging content and tedious but demanding content. The Arena arguably falls under the category of the latter, primarily because of how quickly it was made.
For starters, most of the enemies found are existing in game besides the firebomb-trio. While there’s nothing wrong with using preexisting content, the way higher waves mashes together ‘all-things-hard’ makes for an incoherent, chaotic mess. There’s no fun in that, no appreciation for a rigorous and judicious design process, when a spastic rock dragon frolics about while swarms of Ruthven-bats confuse the living daylights out of you as you attempt to tackle an armour-breaking Thessal, who apparently has an affair with Mr. Septavius the Volatile IV. All the while, you are thigh-deep in water.
Such fights become more about perseverance and less about tackling a skillfully-crafted battle. I guess this in itself is another type of gameplay but for the vast majority of us, it’s not all too appealing. RotMG at its heart is distinct for its ability to let players log-in, screw around for ten minutes and yet still feel satisfied for what they’ve accomplished.
3 The Disconnect Between the ‘1%’ and ‘99%’
Similarly, the current Arena discriminates against those with lower level pets, and the ‘Petless Gladiator Event’ was well-founded, in my opinion. That being said, to #MakeArenaGreatAgain so to speak, we must close that gap and allure players of every shape, size, colour etc.
Lower-level pet users are currently penalized for not having an OP pet: to the point where your average player will barely make it to ~wave 30. To reiterate the discrepancy between risk v. reward mentioned earlier, this further drives away ‘noobier’ players because they can’t even get the measly life/mana/inc.
Not to mention the broken weekly leaderboards; the average player, who can only dream of being on the leaderboards, will get nothing out of that immortally bugged system, where a fix could potentially reinvigorate the feeling of competitiveness.
Additionally there is a certain charm to playing solo… but there are also limitations. RotMG is first and foremost a co-op game, and the isolated nature of the Arena doesn’t quite fit [at least thematically] with the rest of the game. It’s that facet of cooperation, playing with other players, trying to impress them, to save them, to accomplish something with another, that holds the spark and life-force of this game. That’s why I love guilds, but also hate them for causing me such strife when actual need to be connect to life in the physical realm.
###Proposed Changes
Now that we’ve identified some problems, let’s talk about some solutions.
Guild/Coop Arena
Suggested a million time before (and probably another millions times to come), this is a great idea IMO. It, in a sense, addresses all of the problems identified. There could be both intra and inter guild competition, say a leaderboard specific to the guild. The only problem with this how to implement it tastefully and avoid the current problem of a lacklustre DPS wall/lag-fest.
Better Drops
You’re going to have to justify the risk v. reward if you’re gonna get anyone to do it. Even the LOD, so substandard in loot, has an appeal because at least there is a chance of getting something exclusive to that dungeon. Not to mention it take a hella’ less time. Perhaps some Arena exclusive skins (similar to gladiator skins, but not those), dyes, vanities or even UT.
Improved Leaderboards
Fix the current weekly leaderboards. Perhaps the top 3 each get a key or ambrosia, maybe for the monthly leaderboard. Make one for competitions between guilds and within a guild. To appeal to more people, have a petless option (or if Deca’s really up for #MakeTheArenaGreatAgain, a category for each pet-level) which could possibly be scaled down in difficulty and a separate leaderboard for it.
Wave Selection
This might sound OP, but is it really? Right now, the earlier levels are a joke and it’s a race against time, against the barriers of hardware. Thus wouldn’t it be reasonable that there are certain ‘checkpoints’ (i.e. easy, medium, hard) where people can start at? This also helps with the whole notion of tedious/time taken; while the nature of an Arena-style event means that it should take longer time than normal dungeons (e.g. haunted cemetary), it shouldn’t take people an hour to feel like they’ve accomplished something. It just goes against the philosophy of RotMG.
Remove Revives
Self-explanatory; they just seem so petty, a cash-grabber. That being said, however, a checkpoint system mentioned earlier could replace this, so players have a chance to restart their clients. Rankings should reflect the capability of the player, not of the machine.
Edit: Thanks @Legolegger for pointing that out, thought that the removal of revives was purely for the gladiator challenges.
Remove Water
I don’t like the water. I understand how it adds a layer of pressure with the time limit but I don’t like it. (no explanation, please hate)
Redesign of Wave Composition
I don’t have any specifics, but right now higher levels are lag-fests. To be fair, it does have some degree of mechanics (i.e. Arachna with the slow webs) but something more thought out would be nice. Hence why this is in General Discussion because I’m just a whiner.
@WunderWafe’s colosseum seems very intriguing, and the bosses could be integrated into the current Arena.
Spectator Mode: Credits to @Werbenja @Stupidity I’ve always looked at the lifeless pixels that watch the arena; why not have real people watch? A simple idea for implementation is that people could just enter and walk around the bleach areas, but not shoot or do anything. There is the problem of no-clipping thru the walls but it’d be cool nonetheless. Stupidity also suggested live ‘battles’, where multiple players compete with certain settings (i.e. petless, no HP pots, always slowed, melee only) and people can watch.
TL;DR: I suck at the Arena and I want it to be easier.
I’ve forgotten the rest of my ideas lol, I just frickin’ want to get this post out ;-;
