Arena - Flawed Design and One Way to Fix It

DozorDozor Registered Users 27 Posts
In arena you fight AI versions of other players to gain rank and this creates some problems - primarily because the AI is predictable and easily defeated.

This means a player you can defeat in 10 seconds can repeatedly kite your AI doppelganger for 3 minutes and take your rank. Revenge exacerbates this problem. You can battle your way up from rank 20 to rank 1, then in the last minute of the day, that person you pushed to rank 20, takes revenge and there you are... back where you started - the whole effort in vain. You have no control over loss of rank.

In fact, the last few minutes of the day, are really the only significant battles in arena. Unfortunately, where you end up is just a roll of the dice.

How do we fix this?

You need to transition to a point based system instead of the rank swap system that exists now.

Points should be awarded based on the time it takes to win and the PS difference between the fighters.

- More points for quicker wins and fighting better geared opponents.

- Fewer points for taking a long time to win (kiting) and fighting similarly geared opponents.

- No points for a loss.

- The challenge interface would remain as it is.

- Points would reset each day, but rankings would not.


This is better because:

- You don't get penalized when your AI loses - something you have 0 control over.

- It'll make rank changes less erratic.

- (Good for Glu) It is simple to implement. Time is already tracked in arena, but nothing is done with it.

- (Good for Glu) People might actually start spending gems on arena challenges since more than the last few minutes of the day will be significant.

*** These observations were made on the server Olthrose where the player population is relatively low. I assume the same issues would exist on higher population servers.

Comments

  • nightforcenightforce Registered Users 37 Posts
    glad to see more people who take care about the weak game mechanics.
    but we also need offense/defense balancing

    i wonder why GLU decided to use this arena system... never seen such before...
  • trifiretrifire Registered Users 34 Posts
    in EW3 when you met cheaters there was no way to win instead EW4 have some hope!
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