Death Match Competition

[Dragar]

It seems a shame that players don't enter the death match event, it’s a good concept

What happens in MP games? Do people enter death matches in order to try and take out enemy heroes? What level of prize would be necessary to convince people to enter?

[sum1lost]

I've seen people enter scouts weilding bane charms and slave collars for enemy heroes. Sometimes void eyes if somebody is toting a Cyclops.

[JimMorrison]

My suggestion:

Leave the trident the same, or only improve it slightly, it would essentially just be the *** end of the deal.

Make the real reward be a semi randomized (but based on size of map + date in game) treasure trove of gold and gems, and possibly a random item or two sent to your lab. A little time spent working out the math could easily yield an intriguing but not unbalancing reward system.

In any case, it really should be taken into account the potential level of gearing of the participants. If you can assume that in year 3 most people would spend a minimum of 50 gems on their champion, then why should they not expect to get at least that in return if they survive? What if the spoils of the arena were mostly made up of the gear of the losers? You put enough incentive in there to get the arms race started, and then let avarice escalate the war until you can bet people are throwing nicely geared thugs into the arena in the hopes of being the winner.

Or another alternative, give the winner a random assortment of monster summons as reward. They're arena beasts, of course, crocodiles and bears and lions in early game, branching into bog beasts and manticores and elementals later on.


The sad part is, even as I brainstorm on this, it starts to become more apparent that any incentive that actually works in MP, will probably reach levels that are essentially imbalancing to the game. Perhaps if the losers of the matches were resurrected and sent home? If you remove the harshness of the penalty (they wouldn't have afflictions removed, however), then the small reward is more palatable, and you also don't have this random event hamstringing the AI by tempting in their prophets and pretenders to almost certain death.

[Dragar]

Maybe something like creating a specific promotion/ability for the death match winner, call it Tournament Champion

Its effect should be something very valuable for any combatant, a chunky Awe plus hitpoint bonus, something like that. Something that is powerful regardless of how many turns have played in the game.

[MaxWilson]

How about: the winner of the death match is Immortal until the next death match arrives?

-Max

[reverend]

In any rate, this event need improvement. Maybe even a warning message earlier than just the turn before, giving players time to properly equip a hero for the event.

[NTJedi]

reverend said:
In any rate, this event need improvement. Maybe even a warning message earlier than just the turn before, giving players time to properly equip a hero for the event.

I completely agree.

Currently the arena death match is mostly ignored by players for SP games and MP games since the prize is not worth risking the life of a good commander.

I like the idea behind the arena death match, but its prize needs to be improved so most players will want to risk the life of a good commander.

The reward should be scaled based on the current game turn, something like 10 random gems on turn_10 and 70 random gems on turn_70.