Idea: Gold sink + arena + risk vs. reward

[Egg Shen]

So all the interesting new scripting hitting the server has got me excited and led to some brainstorming. I know plates are full and all, but just seeing the staff implementing new things that revolve around coding makes me think some other automated systems might one day be possible.

So this is a revamp of another idea I proposed a long time ago.

The upperdark seems like a good place to put Halaster or some crazy cleric of waukeen npc. This npc entices adventurers with a legitimately good prize (probably from a modified loot table specific to this "quest"). The catch? They have to pony up an entry fee in gold. The other catch? You'll be competing against other players for this prize, thus entertaining our mad NPC.

That's the gist. It could help be a gold sink. Help players feel like they get an appropriate reward for surviving a harrowing ordeal against legitimately dangerous foes. And help those who like to battle it out with other characters, but rarely get the chance to in the normal course of play.

Ideally, we come up with a set-up that encourages the behavior we want to see with as few OOC rules as possible, but I imagine there will have to be a few to prevent abuse. Or maybe just one. . . if the dm's catch you trying to work the system unfairly, you get dealt with harshly.

I'm thinking this npc will not teleport you to his maniacal deathtrap gladitorial dungeon unless there are at least a few other players also joining (so his return on investment makes sense, of course). I would say a chest spawns in a semi-random location (essentially somewhere on one half of a map) and that chest only contains a single high level item (probably nothing worse than +3). Not an item for the whole party, should you decide to team up, but instead a single item period.

This would force players to decide if they want to try to lone wolf their way to the prize so it will for sure be theirs if they get it, or party up for better chances of survival but potentially not earning anything depending on how your team decides to handle the situation.

Players and/or teams would spawn on one half of the map. The other half would have the chest. There would only be 2 or 3 routes from one side of the map to the other, encouraging skirmishes at these choke points. Randomly spawning traps (skewed towards epic divine and mord's traps I think ), maybe even a roaming monster or two, could be on the chest side to slow things down a bit.

To prevent flooding the server with a bunch of high quality items, the npc would only offer up the "quest" a limited number of times per day.

Thoughts?

*Edit* Thought of one other group this might help. Limited playtime folks (like me ) who want a chance at a good item every now and then.

[electric mayhem]

Interesting!

Kind of reminds me of the Dark Zone in The Division.
Farm some items, get to a communal extraction... then all hell breaks lose.

[NeOmega]

I think just a nice betting arena.

If nobody is in it, you can bet on monsters fighting. It takes about 15 minutes for a fight to set up, and bets to be placed. It's dealt via npc. If you want to PvP, simply bet on yourself, with a little bonus at the end that scales with your level. Winners always get double + bonus, losers lose everything. The gold bonus would go from RNG 10 to RNG 300.

One person can go in, and it's PvE.

Two can go in, and it's PvP.

Might become a real hotspot for adventurers, traders, gamblers, thieves....

[Egg Shen]

Probably need to set up a hard limit based on level if you're going pve, otherwise seems like instead of being a gold sink, it would turn into an epic gold generator. Or possibly the enemy scales up with your bet. So if you slap down 100,000 gold on yourself. You could be facing a boss level enemy.

I will say overall I don't love the idea of arena combat as much as I do a more free form combat map. The hunt for the epic item quest idea will spawn all sorts of new strategies and team vs team combat that we don't currently see.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Interesting!

Kind of reminds me of the Dark Zone in The Division.
Farm some items, get to a communal extraction... then all hell breaks lose.

My favorite part.

[NeOmega]

Probably need to set up a hard limit based on level if you're going pve, otherwise seems like instead of being a gold sink, it would turn into an epic gold generator. Or possibly the enemy scales up with your bet. So if you slap down 100,000 gold on yourself. You could be facing a boss level enemy.

PvE would just give bonus at the end. betting on yourself would only be possible in PvP. Also, having an odds maker formula would be interesting. So if more people bet on the Efreet vs the wyvern. All player bets would have to have another player counter-bet. I imagine a pop up like the barter. Each player places their bet amount. if one places 100, and the other places 1000, if they agree, thats the terms. If others join in, it would make a betting pool. The pool distributed among the winners according to how much they bet.

For example, if two players bet on red, Player A puts down 100, Player B put down 200, then when red wins, a gets 100/300ths of the pool, and b gets 200/300ths.

I actually think this would be the new hub of gathering, far more popular than the FAI. Might be neat if it was in the upperdark, or a secret hideout in Baldurs Gate area, and "illegal" to attend or participate in.

Also, remember the arena would nly host one battle every 10 or 15 minutes. So "grinding the arena" wouldnt really be an option.

and of course, domt forget the halls of fame, posting the top ten records for EvE, PvE, and PvP.

[electric mayhem]

Interesting!

My favorite part.

ouch, yeh it was pretty buggy.

[chad878262]

sounds line a great opportunity for some guild to get some coin together and rp creating such a arena! Would be great if more ideas had rp behind them to make this stuff happen in game instead of just posting to the forum.

[the_flame_of_anor]

Would be great if more ideas had rp behind them to make this stuff happen in game instead of just posting to the forum.

It's a chicken or egg scenario. Posting to the forum to get something launched in game can catalyze RP too.

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I love this idea by the way.

[Egg Shen]

sounds line a great opportunity for some guild to get some coin together and rp creating such a arena! Would be great if more ideas had rp behind them to make this stuff happen in game instead of just posting to the forum.

Probably worth finding out if a) there's any interest from the playerbase, and b) our staff thinks it's mechanically feasible before we travel too far down an in character path that leads only to OOC disillusionment.

*edit* for instance, after 197 views I've got one person who likes the idea, one person who is at least interested, and one person who immediately tried to revamp the idea into something more to their liking. If I'm a staff member reading this, it doesn't seem like it would be worth the time to implement given that the players aren't exactly clamoring for it.

on second thought, maybe getting a DM interested in your pc and doing it organically via role play is the only way! Lol. Sadly, I haven't the time.

[NeOmega]

your idea is cool, but complicated, and takes probably more participation than can normally be found.

plus the whole "nothing worse than +3" means that only high level players could pay what would have to be 50,000 at least for the guarantee of a +3 item, and chance at even better. So again, the available player pool has dwindled. You would indeed have a bunch of work done, for very few people using it.

sorry dude, i just proposed a simpler, more accesible, less costly to the player, and therefore more likely to be used arena, because ive propsed an arena before, and because i didnt want to just rain on your parade.

[Dagesh]

If a particular merchant player wanted to get something like this going, it might provide an avenue for including it on the server. To be honest, it could be a money maker depending on the number of people who are trying to enter. A good area to start something like this would be the Troll Claws by Kraak Helzak. A person could drop a specific item needed to turn in for the reward.

Sounds like fun.

[Egg Shen]

If a particular merchant player wanted to get something like this going, it might provide an avenue for including it on the server. To be honest, it could be a money maker depending on the number of people who are trying to enter. A good area to start something like this would be the Troll Claws by Kraak Helzak. A person could drop a specific item needed to turn in for the reward.

Sounds like fun.

Its fun, but It's honestly a ton of work. I ran an arena tournament with zero DM assistance about 8 years ago. Prize was a million of my own gold and I spent a good two weeks, maybe a little more, promoting it both in game and on the forums. There was no entry fee. I think we had about 10 combatants and maybe 12 spectators. That's a decent turnout, but it's really not something that's easy to pull off, which is why I would push for a more automated system. An automated system won't get burnt out or discouraged or pulled away by real life responsibilities. It will always be available should a group of players wish to use it, as opposed to hoping the next player run event coincides with your time slot. It would become a part of the fabric and mythos of the server, and might keep people interested at max level for a little bit longer (from a mechanics standpoint, mostly).