Arena

[Ceros]

You can avoid being scammed/hacked/whatever if you apply a bit of common sense.

You seriously underestimate some people. That's could play a bad joke for you sometimes. And you will be very lucky if this will be just a game and not a real life.

If the game itself gives me more grief than being very careful with people does, it's not worth playing. People play games as an escape, not as a training for real life.

But people are the same, you can't escape them. Sad but true. It's just same people you can encounter anywhere else. Maybe a bit better in average due to some reasons, but...

As for idea in next post to fight for some good prize, I like it. Though this can create certain disbalance and easy to abuse. For example what if one player loses intentionally, then another does the same and no penalty for being killed? Voila, both got a steel shied for free . And then value of "steel shield" in total will drop to zero, so even level 5 chars will wear it because they're too common . So idea is interesting but lacks some balancing.

I shouldn't mean to say that both players get a Steel Shield (only the winner would get anything at all), only that those would be prizes in that tier. Say, 1% chance to get those items listed or whatever. More of a chance to get a exspensive item. Think of it as if you were rolling a d1000 [1000 sided die] - a roll of 0-500 would give you nothing but gold, 500-600 from Tier A Normal Items, 600-700 Tier B Normal items, etc, 1000 would be a reroll with a chance for a nice item and double 1000s would be a rare item [Eye Patch, Goggles, Gold Armor, etc - but only at the highest combat tier, levels 80-99 or whatever]. Or something. Also I would rather have prizes awarded for fighting NPC opponents that couldn't throw the game, and I think some sort of limit on how many fights you can do per day would be appropriate (ie, "The crowd grows tired of seeing you fight lad! Come back tomorrow for another shot!".) Think of it like a Gladiator type deal. Human vs NPC with random monsters thrown in the mix. Imagine a level 99 thrown into the ring with another level 99 NPC (similarly or better equipped) but having a Jacko and some skulls floating around too. Things like that.

Humans should be able to fight each other and wager XP and gold within limit (and within levels as stated before) with a chance (much much slimmer) of any item at all dropping. Or have XP awarded at Level+Damage Received+Damage Given or something. Anyway, as a merchant I sure as Chocolate Cupcake wouldn't want Steel Shields handed out for free. I wouldn't want people to be able to grind out in the Arena or PvP as opposed to grinding monsters. But I think the arena should be more enticing (as should PvP combat) then it currently is now..

[Acegi]

In terms of xp gain by creating fake accounts to pvp this shouldn't be a problem because a) you can limit the rewards so it is equivalent to training against something that is recommended at the player's lvl, b) limit the number of pvp's a day, c) limit lvl range and/or lvl difference to fight and get rewards. There are so many ways that it can be balanced to avoid cheating in this way.

Personally I'm mostly intrigued by the high value drop/xp idea in a pvp area. It adds the extra risk of being killed and not being able to get your share of the xp or important drop. We haven't had a monster that drops a lot of high value things (I'm ignoring JackO hats) nor have we had something like a monster that drops gp in the same way as TAW (The Alternate World) like xp.

Suppose the situation above is created:
Advantages:

• If players work cooperatively then they get larger rewards (xp share, gp drop proportional to damage inflicted)
• Players see teamwork is more advantageous promotes better community
• Fake accounts to gain rewards by pvp hampered by risk of being killed
• Botting reduced due to risk of being killed
• Extra element to game rather than just grinding

Disadvantages:

• High lvl players act as jerks and kill off lower lvl players to try to hog monster*
• High lvl groups act as jerks and kill off lower lvl players to try to hog monsters**
• Can cause resentment if killed by team member or friend at the last moment***

* This can be resolved by lower lvl players ganging the higher lvl player. A high level player will not get their xp or any extra xp/gp for killing off the player. More dangerous or more monsters can be introduced or like in the bat caves have a higher respawn time.
** In an ideal world this would not happen. Introducing more monsters or faster monster respawn should alleviate this. A determined enough group will still be beat if the players are organised enough so this adds to the excitement and strategy of the game.
*** Simply put bad luck you chose a bad friend or team player remember to plot your revenge.

For this to even be remotely possible the rewards have to be substantial. You could use JackO type monsters (high damage, high defence) or swarm based monsters. IMO new monsters should be created that tries to balance out classes more. Perhaps new AI logic must be written. A monster that returns to it's respawn site as opposed to just being able to be pulled away with an aggravate spell. Different monsters that can cooperate and prioritise against the stongest/weakest/magic/non-magic/ranged etc. Perhaps this should go into suggestions as opposed to an Arena poll. Sorry got carried away!