The Energon Pub

For a long time now, the arena has been a contentious issue in Heavy Metal War. And as such, I've decided to create a poll to gauge public opinion on its worth. Note, however, that this is not an official poll (despite me using my mod powers to open it ), but merely an opinion poll which I hope will sway those in charge to consider making changes to the game.

First of the reasons against the arena, to my mind, is the simple fact that many of the Decepticon players – most, in fact – continually struggle to find opposition on a regular basis, something which becomes increasingly difficult as levels in the game progress. However, a significant amount of Autobots continue to use the arena despite the steady stream of opposition they would find in the missions. Perhaps, of course, this is due to the vast outnumbering they would face – though were all of them forced to use missions after the arena’s closure, this would not be an issue at any level. Disabling the arena would go a long way towards balancing out the two traditional factions in terms of numbers.

However, this leaves the issue of the beast factions – the Maximals and Predacons. Although I do not have information as to what mission brackets exist for Maximal-versus-Predacon missions, I do know that there are only three Beast-versus-Traditional missions for each of the two factions – at 0-3 and 4-11 for their enemy faction, and at 3-6 for their corresponding faction. The relative scarcity of Maximals and Predacons is only compounded by the presence of the arena, where many of them have been forced to hide due to the outnumbering they face when up against the overwhelming Decepticon war machine. However, were the beast factions to join in missions en masse, or as close to en masse as they can muster, a suitable precedent would be set which may very well persuade other players of their worth and convince them of the idea of defection – and a great enough number of would-be defectors would (should) be enough to sway the powers that be into changing players factions on demand.

Of course, my anti-arena stance heavily colours my arguments, and I would welcome any pro-arena contributions from anyone able to think of any. As I’ve already stated, this is simply an opinion poll, and your opinions are as valuable as anyone else’s.

Jeep! wrote: The relative scarcity of Maximals and Predacons is only compounded by the presence of the arena, where many of them have been forced to hide due to the outnumbering they face when up against the overwhelming Decepticon war machine.

Absolutely no propaganda in that sentance, is there Jeep?

My vote: Remove it only after making a lot of new missions, and moving some missions to the beasts (there is one about maxis vs. preds in its text, but it's a con vs. bot mission... something about a tower)

Some people I came against when arena was down were a-dwellers (Angel##s, Yons)

anti social piece of crap. the only reason i see to keep it is that a few beastie teams say they need it for energon. though that's an entire;y different problem, and the arena is really not the solution for it.

If it can be removed WITHOUT losing HMW again, then Im all for it. I dont arena fight anyway. If the arena netted you more XP im sure no one would want it gone, but thats not the case and to heck with modding it cuz HMW is priority.

Pointless. Arena can go.

Yeah I agree that the arena should go. There is no real point in it anyways. Combine the furries back into their respective factions and incorperate their alts into their faction's alt rotation. War is about winning the missions, not winning a one-on-one match.

Evolution Prime wrote:Combine the furries back into their respective factions and incorperate their alts into their faction's alt rotation.

This is a completely separate issue and I'd prefer it were discussed as such.

Get rid of it. I could use the extra support in the missions

THe simple fact is, when the arena was down, there was plenty of oposition on both sides, and the xp flowed freely. Now? Now there's hundreds of cons fighting over missions with one or none representing the Autobots.

I would however recomend that, were the arena to be removed, that the missions be fixed so there are a LOT more potential beast missions, covering the whole xp range, and (and this is the important thing) finally open up requirment for the beast factions at long last so they can add to their numbers (and maybe put out a fresh apeal for higher ups to defect).

If there are enough missions that all levels can play in all four factions, get rid of it.

i say remove it for the higher lvl player like lvl 1 and onwards but keep it for lvl 0

i means

only lvl 0 bots or con have access to arena but once that bot or con reach lvl 1 they cannot access the arena.

Jeep! wrote:

Evolution Prime wrote:Combine the furries back into their respective factions and incorperate their alts into their faction's alt rotation.

This is a completely separate issue and I'd prefer it were discussed as such.

Well you did mention that they were forced into the Arena.

SpawnDragon13 wrote:i say remove it for the higher lvl player like lvl 1 and onwards but keep it for lvl 0

i means

only lvl 0 bots or con have access to arena but once that bot or con reach lvl 1 they cannot access the arena.

That is a possibility also. Gives them the XP to get to a decent level before being thrown into the mission.

Evolution Prime wrote:

Jeep! wrote:

Evolution Prime wrote:Combine the furries back into their respective factions and incorperate their alts into their faction's alt rotation.

This is a completely separate issue and I'd prefer it were discussed as such.

Well you did mention that they were forced into the Arena.

But I didn't say drop them.

So, we need to move on... Can somebody add missions to the roster? I think we need 5-11 mission brackets for D-con vs. P-con and Max vs. Bots (I think 5 vs 5 will be enough)

Jeep! wrote:This is a completely separate issue and I'd prefer it were discussed as such.

EP got you there, you did bring this up in your original post.

Evolution Prime wrote:That is a possibility also. Gives them the XP to get to a decent level before being thrown into the mission.

You quoted your own quote trying to quote another quote that is quite quotable.

I'm not going to vote, but only because I've got two at-odds interests in it.

The first interest is that I dislike the arena. The missions are just more fun to me, and I've found that builds that work well in the arena are few and very skewed from what works in missions. I never hit the arena prior to becoming a Maximal.

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.

(And BTW, in spite of this problem I IN NO WAY SUPPORT our dissolution as a faction. I think there are other more elegant solutions that will keep everyone happy. Specifically, in mission selection. If new missions were added that paired two factions against two factions, it would help solve a number of problems while allowing beast factions to continue to exist. It could also be made more interesting by not just limiting it to Autobot/Maximal v. Decepticon/Predacon.)

Edit: I'd also like to raise a very good point that someone, I think Burn, has raised in the past - if you eliminate the arena, you eliminate one of only two current ways to play the game. This is not necessarily a good thing, my own feelings on the arena aside.

First Gen wrote:

Jeep! wrote:This is a completely separate issue and I'd prefer it were discussed as such.

EP got you there, you did bring this up in your original post.

No I didn't. My original post advocated helping the beast factions. It would be appreciated if people stopped putting words in my mouth. I say enough of my own accord, thank you.

I say scrap it as the only purpose I can find for it is logging of data for weapons and armour. I just wonder will any one vote to keep it as for the most part those that use the arena seem not to be active in the boards.

First Gen wrote:

Jeep! wrote:This is a completely separate issue and I'd prefer it were discussed as such.

EP got you there, you did bring this up in your original post.

Evolution Prime wrote:That is a possibility also. Gives them the XP to get to a decent level before being thrown into the mission.

You quoted your own quote trying to quote another quote that is quite quotable.

There I fixed it.

Jeep I wasnt trying to put words in your mouth, just saying that you meantions htey were forced to the arena.

I think that if they arena is eliminated, then the Maxis and Preds can stay. Just was stating ealier on what I thought should be done. But I will save it for a later date.

Jeep! wrote:No I didn't. My original post advocated helping the beast factions. It would be appreciated if people stopped putting words in my mouth. I say enough of my own accord, thank you.

I read your post over twice, it sounds like the way to help the beasties is by merging them back into the traditional factions. If you meant by adding more beastie only missions or by including them into traditional faction missions, that was not clearly stated.

Either way, as long as it doesn't put HMW down again, Im all for it.

the only reason i see for having it is to get extra energon to lvl 0s for the free CR cost,other than that i dont see any use for it,if cutting it aids on server lag.

Waylander wrote:the only reason i see for having it is to get extra energon to lvl 0s for the free CR cost,other than that i dont see any use for it,if cutting it aids on server lag.

Missions also give free CR for lvl 0 players.

First Gen wrote:If you meant by adding more beastie only missions or by including them into traditional faction missions, that was not clearly stated.

I wrote:However, were the beast factions to join in missions en masse, or as close to en masse as they can muster, a suitable precedent would be set which may very well persuade other players of their worth and convince them of the idea of defection – and a great enough number of would-be defectors would (should) be enough to sway the powers that be into changing players factions on demand.

Explain my ambiguity. I'm in favour of a four-faction approach (five, in fact, as Blendtrons/Unicronians would be very welcome), and any lengths to increase their standing and numbers would be something I'd definately get behind.

Jeep! wrote:

First Gen wrote:If you meant by adding more beastie only missions or by including them into traditional faction missions, that was not clearly stated.

I wrote:However, were the beast factions to join in missions en masse, or as close to en masse as they can muster, a suitable precedent would be set which may very well persuade other players of their worth and convince them of the idea of defection – and a great enough number of would-be defectors would (should) be enough to sway the powers that be into changing players factions on demand.

Explain my ambiguity. I'm in favour of a four-faction approach (five, in fact, as Blendtrons/Unicronians would be very welcome), and any lengths to increase their standing and numbers would be something I'd definately get behind.

As I already said...

Redimus wrote:I would however recomend that, were the arena to be removed, that the missions be fixed so there are a LOT more potential beast missions, covering the whole xp range, and (and this is the important thing) finally open up requirment for the beast factions at long last so they can add to their numbers (and maybe put out a fresh apeal for higher ups to defect).