BEST Arena - (Remake Classic Arena)
Scroll down to "Rework Arena" if you just want the main point.
First I will explain why the current classic Arena needs to be remade. Then I will describe the remade system.
Throw away the old system:
Medals:
Great Hall:
Competition/Challenge:
Rework Arena:
Imagine that the current classic arena and medals is completely removed from the game.
The new arena has 5 tiers. The tiers from lowest to highest: Common, Gold 1, Gold 2, Gold 3, Platinum. Those tiers can be given more appropriate names. For now think of them as placeholder names.
Winning battles from both offense AND defense teams awards medals and points. Arena medals don't have colors, there is only one type. Gaining points will raise you higher in the tier.
Registration:
At the start of the week, players need to register for classic arena participation. Players can register any time during the week but always need to register again after each arena reset. This instantly resolves the issue with inactive arena teams. Even if a player registers at the start of the week and then goes inactive, they cannot remain in the listings after the reset unless they register again.
Incentives can be offered for the purpose of getting newer and weaker players to register for arena participation as soon as possible. For example, 500k silver or 100 gems can be offered to players who register on the first day following weekly arena reset. The incentive offers will diminish as the days go by.
Also, there can be a daily pop-up reminder for all players to register for arena participation, showing the incentive reward.
Tiers:
Each tier has a unique function and reward pool.
Common:
The common tier will be treated as a "casual arena" for the most part. This is the tier that all players will start in. Players will start at 0 arena points in this tier.
Players will reach higher reward brackets based on their arena points. After registration, players will be placed in the reward bracket that they last received, and their arena points will be set at the bracket amount.
If players are in higher tiers when arena resets, those players will be placed in the highest reward bracket for the common tier when they register for arena participation.
Gold 1-3:
The Gold tiers have their own unique arena points. When a player enters the Gold 1 tier, they will start at 0 arena points. Arena points in the Gold tiers will NOT reset when moving between the three Gold tiers because arena points will be used to advance or retreat between Gold tiers, similar to the removed arena's tiers.
Platinum:
My Platinum tier system is the height of prodigal brilliance.
The Platinum tier will have a limit of 1000 players. When players enter Platinum tier, they will start at 0 arena points and the lowest rank.
Players will be able to battle each other in platinum any time, but they will NOT be able to earn arena points or move up the rankings until the last 24 hours before weekly reset. One of the reasons for this is because only a limited amount of players can advance to platinum during each daily reset.
The other reason is so that everyone in platinum will start at the same place. At the same time, players who enter Platinum earlier will have a tactical advantage. Players who enter Platinum earlier will be able to test their defense and offense against most of the other players in Platinum, as well as probe for weaknesses in other player's defense teams.
Players can ONLY manually demote theirself from Platinum tier to Common tier. Otherwise they will remain in Platinum tier until weekly reset.
Tier Promotion/Demotion:
This mechanism is absolutely PARAMOUNT to making this arena system a success.
Common:
Players need to reach the highest reward bracket in the Common tier before they can be promoted to Gold 1. They need to manually promote theirself to the Gold 1 tier (players can manually promote to Gold 1 at any time with enough arena points). To avoid abuse, players in Gold 1 need to WIN 20 battles in the tier to get the Gold 1 weekly reward chest. Otherwise they will receive the Common tier chest for the third reward bracket.
< 500 Arena Points: Reward bracket 1
>= 500 Arena Points: Reward bracket 2
>= 1000 Arena Points: Reward bracket 3
Players can downgrade to the Common tier from any higher tier at any time (except from Platinum tier), but their points will be set at the highest reward bracket in the Common tier.
Gold 1-3:
Arena points will not be used to demote players from Gold 1 to Common. Players can only manually demote theirself from Gold 1 to common.
Gold 2 and Gold 3 tiers require a certain amount of arena points for player promotion, and promotion is NOT manual. Tier advancement will NOT happen instantly. Players with enough arena points will automatically be promoted to Gold 2 or Gold 3 at daily reset (the same time of day as the weekly arena reset).
Likewise with demotion. Players with enough points will be demoted to Gold 2 or Gold 1 at the daily time of reset.
THERE IS A LIMIT to how many players can advance to Gold 2 and Gold 3 at each daily reset. Each player who is above the arena point threshold for promotion to Gold 2 and gold 3 will receive a rank based on their player points. Those ranks will determine which players get promoted. A maximum of 3000 players can be promoted at reset.
This will provide a necessary reason for players to compete with each other, and strengthen their arena defense as much as they can.
< 500 Arena Points: Gold 1
>= 500 Arena Points: Gold 2
>= 1000 Arena Points: Gold 3
Platinum:
The Platinum tier has a limit of 1000 players. From the Gold 3 tier, only the top 250 players will be promoted to Platinum tier at daily reset.
Players CANNOT be demoted from the Platinum tier automatically. Players can only manually demote from Platinum to Common.
On the last day of Platinum tier promotion, if there are more than 250 open slots in the Platinum tier (if players manually left the Platinum tier), those open slots will be filled to the player limit from the Gold 3 tier.
In the last 24 hours before weekly reset, players CANNOT manually demote from Platinum. They will be locked in until reset.
Illustration:
Below is an illustration of an estimation for how an average week of the new classic arena will play out. I know, i'm not too skilled with the art software.
Matchmaking:
In addition to manual match refreshes, the matchmaking list for all players will refresh automatically on a daily basis (the same time of day as the weekly arena reset).
Plarium should add ways to prevent players from cheating by boosting the points of their clan members; especially in higher tiers of the arena. One method could be that players can't be matched with their clan mates. Another method could be limiting the amount of times a player can lose an offensive battle. I'm sure Plarium will do a fine job of mitigating this.
Common:
This tier will not have player ranks and therefore will not matchmake players based on their rank in the tier. Players will be matchmade based on arena points.
Gold 1-3:
Matchmaking will be based on player points like Common tier.
Platinum:
For the most part, matchmaking in Platinum will be freeform. This is because players in Platinum will not be able to gain arena points or increase rank until the last 24 hours before weekly reset. Anyone can be matched with anyone.
24 hours before weekly arena reset, the matchmaking will be based on both arena points AND rank. Players can be matched with anyone within 20 ranks of them, but if their arena points are too much lower, only the close 10 ranks will be visible.
Also, in the last 24 hours the matchmaking list will refresh every hour on the hour in addition to manual refreshes.
Ranks:
The Common tier does not have ranks.
The Gold 1 and Gold 2 tiers ONLY have ranks for players above the arena point promotion threshold. This is because there is a limit of 3000 players that can be promoted at each daily reset from those tiers.
Gold 3 has ranks for everyone because the top 250 players in Gold 3 will be automatically promoted to Platinum tier at daily reset.
Platinum tier will not have any ranks UNTIL the last 24 hours before reset. When that time comes, players will be given ranks 1-1000.
Arena Medals:
There is NO distinction between medals. Players will earn medals from both offensive AND defensive victories. There are two factors that will determine medal rewards from winning arena battles: arena tier, enemy team power.
Each higher tier will award significantly more medals per victory compared to the weaker tier. For example the common tier will award two medals, gold 1 will award four medals, gold 2 will award six medals, ETC. This will provide necessary incentive for players to climb higher in new classic arena.
Additional medals will be awarded based on the enemy team power. For example ETP (enemy team power) 1-49k is 0 additional medals. ETP 50k-99k is 1 additional medal. ETP 100k-149k is 2 additional medals. This will not only provide necessary incentive for players to fight stronger battles, but also will make it more worthwhile for players to inevitably fight stronger battles in higher arena tiers.
Arena Points:
(The arena point system is still being thought out. I'll make changes if I have better ideas but for now this is it.)
In the removed arena, the amount of arena points gained in a battle seems to be largely based on how many arena points the opponent has.
In this new arena, there will always be a baseline reward of 5 arena points. Additional arena points will be awarded based on the player power of the enemy.
Players will earn double the amount of arena points for winning defensive battles, while only losing half the amount for losing defensive battles.
Rewards:
(The rewards section is incomplete. I'll complete it later.)
The common tier will have 3 reward brackets. Each bracket will give mostly the same rewards as the removed arena's gold 4 tier; except that rare skill tomes and silver are in the reward pool. The difference in the bracket rewards will be lower chance for better gear and shards, lower amounts of currency, ETC.
All Gold tiers have 2 reward brackets. Both brackets will give the same rewards, but the stronger bracket will have a higher chance for better or more rewards (for example higher chance for 6 star gear over 5 star). This will incentivise players to move up in the tier.
The Platinum tier will have 10 reward brackets for each 100 places. The top 10 players will be awarded additional rewards.
Stat Bonuses:
Drop arena tier stat bonuses and instead fortify those stats in Great Hall. Tying stat bonuses to arena tier progression is a primitive and barbaric practice that is not needed in my arena system.
End
Plarium if you implement a feature in the game based on this idea, put 100k gems into my account.
This idea is massively brilliant.