The Energon Pub

Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:02 pm

that a good point

Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:32 pm

I still use the Arena for my lv 0's and occasionally lv 1's.
It's more a fair test of your team members individual skill, against one enemy. Usually... I'm often facing like 5 decepticons alone in missions, which ticks me off, and then I'm on the arena for the remainder of the day.

Don't remove it. Simple.

Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:43 pm

I like being out numbered in missions. I'd wheither fight more Bots and Maxis to the Cons with whom I have the atmost respect for. Give us the Pit which has been mentioned in most of the comic series. Never have I heard or seen mentioned of an Arena.

News Credits: 1 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:07 pm

You've never read anything talking about Vos and Tarn then...

But Rodimus - outnumbering usually results in greater xp gains, especially with a strafer. And at lvl 0-1, the Bots outnumber the Cons 2596 to 1903, as of March 20th. How you end up outnumbered is definately not through a lack of available allies - perhaps through ... the arena?

Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:16 pm

hey man i get outnumber all the time and still win sometime

Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:22 pm

Um no not to my knowledge. Though the Vos sounds kinda like the Alien race in the Beast Wars series.

News Credits: 1 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:32 pm

MasterCroc wrote:Um no not to my knowledge. Though the Vos sounds kinda like the Alien race in the Beast Wars series.

That's the Vok. Vos and Tarn were city-states in the Golden Age, the home of Cybertron's gladiatorial games, until they wiped each other out in a nuclear war. As luck would have it, I've taken a shine to Vos, and I'm working on describing my own view of it (apart from what I've just said, little it known about it other than that it was ruled by Starscream, who was merely a puppet for a shadowy organisation), so I'll share it when I'm finished.

News Credits: 226 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:48 pm

Vos and Tarn are old Marvel G1 stuff isn't it?

Most people would be more familiar with "The Pit" because it's pretty much become the more recognized of Decepticon origins in recent comic lore. (As bad as Megatron Origins was)

News Credits: 1 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:53 pm

Burn wrote:Vos and Tarn are old Marvel G1 stuff isn't it?

Most people would be more familiar with "The Pit" because it's pretty much become the more recognized of Decepticon origins in recent comic lore. (As bad as Megatron Origins was)

I enjoyed Megatron Origin.

But yes, Vos and Tarn are old Marvel G1 stuff. Gimme ten minutes to finish the rundown on Vos I'm writing. But bear in mind, it'll be extrapolation and imagination as much as canon truth.

News Credits: 226 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:56 pm

US or UK Marvel?

I need to get my UK comics out and work out which ones I still need.

Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:01 pm

Three problems I have with scrapping the Arena (no particular order)...

(1)

Rat Convoy wrote:The second interest is that, at present, I NEED the arena. Without it I'd hemorrage energon too quickly. I'm doing well enough in missions, but since I'm constantly outnumbered I get those dreaded 0 XP/0 energon missions more often than normal, and those wipe out my energon faster than I can earn it in the other missions.

This is something I'm dealing with right now too. With the way Mission Energon payouts are set up, I regularly don't earn enough Energon to cover Repair costs for my highest level characters...even in missions where I'm on the winning side. On the other hand, my three Rammer-Strafers do well in the Arena and earn enough Energon to cover their own repair costs and offset the losses the rest of my squad acrues in missions. What I'd like to see is a change to the "bonus" system in missions, so players on the winning side are guaranteed to earn enough Energon to cover full CR recovery costs. For multi-level missions, set it so the "bonus" is enough to cover full CR recovery costs of the highest level involved. I can't remember how the bonuses are calculated right now, but they're pathetically low; ~350E for being on the winning side in an L6-10 mission, IIRC, as an example.

(2) As others have mentioned, there need to be more Beast-faction missions. One of my biggest Arena opponents is sprockitz, a Maximal. There's currently no Autobot-Maximal mission for the higher levels, so if the Arena goes, there goes a major portion of my opposition.

(3) In terms of xp gain, the Arena is superior at the higher levels, IMO. Even the L9 - 11 missions, an L10 on the winning side is hard-pressed to earn the same xp as winning an L10-L10 arena match, due to the fact those missions usually have mostly L9 players. And an L11 in an L9-11 mission is lucky to make the amount of xp as they would losing an L11-L11 Arena bout. Maybe that would change if the Arena is closed and everyone has to join the missions.

EDIT -

Burn wrote:I still think we're about 6 months away from filling a 9-11 mission completely. We're getting there though.

I'd say we're closer than that. I've seen at least one L9-11 mission recently that was one Decepticon short of being full. I think most of the characters were L9s, granted, but it's a start.

News Credits: 38 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:29 pm

You know what? Before I read the first page of the thread, I thought my decision was in error.

My first thought was "It's good for when I can't find any open missions that I won't be completely outnumbered in, or my team is in the lower end of the required levels in said missions and won't be of much use to my teammates".

But there were some convincing arguments for why the arena should be closed, mainly being THOSE CHARACTERS IN THE ARENA COULD BE PUT TO GOOD USE IN THE EXISTING MISSIONS! -True, there'd have to be more missions (of differing objectives) before we get rid of it completely though...

But, I can see one good use of the arena... PVP! Think your 'Con can kick the crap out of a certain 'Bot? Wanna back it up? Put your Energon where your mouth is? -Then take them on in the Arena!

That'd be where I think the Arena's strengths would lie! But, that'd be why I think the arena should stick around... in one form or another. :-B

Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:07 pm

As is I'm all so for dropping the Arena.

News Credits: 226 · Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:18 pm

Scantron wrote:I can't remember how the bonuses are calculated right now, but they're pathetically low; ~350E for being on the winning side in an L6-10 mission, IIRC, as an example.

The base xp for winning is the lowest level x 100 + 100
Then I think the energon is half of that.

So for a 6-11 mission it's 700/350

Tammuz threw out the suggestion that it be changed from lowest level to highest level. If that were to be done it would 1200/600

Why the energon is half of the xp I don't know. Can anyone see a problem with energon being brought up to the same point as xp and done Tammuz's way so for example a 6-11 would be 1200/1200?

Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:33 pm

I'm in favour of dropping the arena too. I only ever use it if there aren't any remotely winnable missions up (nobody likes a 6v1...), and never wind up putting more than one bot at a time in the arena anyways. Not to mention that without the arena, everyone would be slugging it out in the missions and they would all be more winnable as a result.

I remember from discussions of V2, a planned solution to the faction imbalance: giving everyone a one shot opportunity to pick from the four factions (and allowing new players to join any of the four thereafter). Could that be done earlier? Combining the beast factions with the classic ones seems unpopular... letting everyone reselect their factions is the only other way to get the beast faction membership up enough to compete in missions (that I can think of).

Keep in mind, even if we drop the arena, we can still use targeted missions to smooth out the gaps it filled. E.g., create a small number of 2v2 or 3v3 missions for the 10-11s maybe, so they can blast each other for more xp now and then.

Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:39 pm

very good point

Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:10 am

The Arena is the exact opposite of what HMW is trying to achieve. Coherence and brotherhood within a faction.

I find the argument of no resistance on either side absolute BS. So far the only thing Arena is used for is getting stats up for people that refuse to level up and just like to pound other robots to pulp, regardless of faction.

Get rid of the arena. give everyone some opposition! I'm tired of seeing the same commanders stacking their bots in Arena just so they can pick on the unsuspecting newcomers while the missions are distraught of any resistance.

News Credits: 226 · Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:44 am

neliz wrote:So far the only thing Arena is used for is getting stats up for people that refuse to level up and just like to pound other robots to pulp, regardless of faction.

Interesting.

You're a level 1'er. Nothing wrong with that, but considering there are level limits in place it's now impossible for people to refuse to level up until level 7. Not really a problem for you is it?

And obviously if everybody's favourite "level bullies" and "overampers" still existed they wouldn't be able to pound their own faction into pulp now would they?

Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:11 am

Burn wrote:Interesting.

You're a level 1'er. Nothing wrong with that, but considering there are level limits in place it's now impossible for people to refuse to level up until level 7. Not really a problem for you is it?

And obviously if everybody's favourite "level bullies" and "overampers" still existed they wouldn't be able to pound their own faction into pulp now would they?

Semantics.. but resetting your bot and decking it out as L1 arena bot is still a favored tactic for those that like to get their stats up.

Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:44 am

neliz wrote:
Burn wrote:Interesting.

You're a level 1'er. Nothing wrong with that, but considering there are level limits in place it's now impossible for people to refuse to level up until level 7. Not really a problem for you is it?

And obviously if everybody's favourite "level bullies" and "overampers" still existed they wouldn't be able to pound their own faction into pulp now would they?

Semantics.. but resetting your bot and decking it out as L1 arena bot is still a favored tactic for those that like to get their stats up.

Burn's point is that you can't do that anymore. You hit an XP cap and become lvl 2, regardless of how your tech specs are.

I've voted no on the arena because, like so many others, I can't remember the last time I used it.

News Credits: 226 · Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:55 am

neliz wrote:Semantics.. but resetting your bot and decking it out as L1 arena bot is still a favored tactic for those that like to get their stats up.

You speak like you're an expert on level bullies and overampers. Wouldn't expect that for someone who's only been here for a year ...

News Credits: 3 · Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:19 am

Burn wrote:Can anyone see a problem with energon being brought up to the same point as xp and done Tammuz's way so for example a 6-11 would be 1200/1200?

Personally, no. It might be preferable.

News Credits: 1 · Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:22 am

So looking at the beast factions there are 50 Predacons and about 66 Maximals total. I can't say for the Maximals but only about 10 Predacons are active that I have seen and most are lower levels and we are not all in the same time zones. So even if you take away the arena most of us still won't have much backup in the missions.Even if we open up the registry to new people I don't think we will see much of a difference maybe at the 0-1 level but nothing that will affect the ones in the higher levels.

Now I hate to agree with them(not that I mind agreeing with Burn and Tammuz just on this)if you get of the arena then your going to have to merge the two beast factions back into the bots and cons. I just don't see this game supporting the 4 factions now unless you open up the registry and reset everyone :-$

Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:29 am

What about setting up missions that allow (for instance) Autobots and Maximals to face off against Predacons and Decepticons? Sure, it would be effectively like merging the Beast factions back into their original factions, but would allow them to keep their separate faction names. We could also retain the single-faction vs single-faction missions alongside the dual-faction vs dual-faction ones.

Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:42 am

Scantron wrote:What about setting up missions that allow (for instance) Autobots and Maximals to face off against Predacons and Decepticons? Sure, it would be effectively like merging the Beast factions back into their original factions, but would allow them to keep their separate faction names. We could also retain the single-faction vs single-faction missions alongside the dual-faction vs dual-faction ones.

Should be do-able since both Bots and Cons could join Quint missions together...
At certain times Preds might have a hard time getting into those before they fill up with Cons.

I'm voting to kill the arena, but only if the mission brackets are sortedout.