Posted on 09 April 2006 at 03:38:16 by Magi. |

Arena layout/mechanics 2v2

   A  B
  //////
C////X/D
  //////
E//////F
  //////
   G  H

/ - arena space
A:H - spawn points
X - heal gate


The first *win*
Probably the most important point in the arena is which team getsthe first win, or essentially the first run at control of thearena. This then allows them to setup wherether they want andlets them control if the other team can reform and where.

By some basic numbers 4 is better then 3 and 2 and 1 and so on.Given that these spawns are random you end up with situationswhere say team CATS spawns in gates C and B. And team DOGS spawnsin gates A and H for example.

Now with this layout the first encounter will be a 4v2, in favourof team CATS. Which they should win, and then move onto the twonewly arriving team DOGS members, for another 4v2.

This can be even worse with things like 4v1 or 3v1 and so on.


Arena Control
While not necessarily a result of the above scenario, once a teamestablishes control of the arena they can essentially run to theexit points of these spawns and always end up in a numericaladvantage.
There is teleportation, but this for the most part will actuallywork against the team trying to get back together into a team andsimply make it even harder for them.
Simply put once a team wins one encounter they establish adominant lock on the arena and how it is played with a heavytilt in their favour.


Healing Gate
The entire arena is fairly symmetric, which makes it ratherinteresting to find this major play piece just sort of sitting ina specific corner on it's own.
This positioning favours whichever team can spawn closest to itto simply lockdown access to this gate and use it strictly forthemselves as soon as it is available. All they have to do ismine the ramps and they pretty much control access to this gate.
The main thing with this is the positioning of the gate, itshould be more central and have a similar access time from anyopposite points with it at the center. Summary: the gatesposition favours random lucky spawns and it's 2 access routes areeasily locked down by one team, or even one class.


Summary/Solutions
Personally I see the above factors as fairly major things thataffect the arena, that all come down to a random roll right atthe start before anything begins that depends on who spawnswhere, doesn't seem very arena like to have a large part of thebattle based on this randomness.

The easiest fix of course is to do a balanced spawn pointfor the starting round. So that all players are evenlydistributed in the spawn points which should lead to ameeting point in the center of the arena and short 1v1 fights onthe way to this central conflict zone.

After the initial round spawns can and should be random. But Ialso think that the timer system that teleports you if you do notleave the spawn area fast enough should be synchronized sothat a team gets warped out to a spot at the same time.

Work it kinda like in WoW with battleground graveyards, there isa repeating X second countdown to 0, you can either go out onyour own and try to meet with your team, or wait to 0 so that allin spawn area teammates are teleported to a circle at the sametime, forming the team up.


Healing Gate relocation
Like I said, the position of this gate is biased. There isalready a perfect place for it though. In the center of the arenathere is a pit with structures around it. Why can the gate not bein mid air above this pit, preferrably rotating so that itcan be accessed from 4 ramps on the North|West|East|South rampsin this center area, OR 2 gates, stacked on top of oneanother, allowing for one to be on the North|South cross ramp andthe other one on the East|West cross ramp.

This accomplishes several things. It makes the key gates morecentral to an arena fight. Brings combat to the middle anddoesn't allow one team to lockdown the lone gate and 2 accesspoints as it is now, as the area is too big and too competitive.