Jita Park Speakers Corner

Here is my take on the arena, closely resembling the alliance tournament:

At the center of it is a deployable structure, limited to 1 per system and showing up on overview as soon as anchored. Once it is online the owner can set a few options: name of the arena, timelimit and names for RED and BLUE team, also "register" pilots within 125k of the structure for either team.

Once everything is set the owner starts the match remotely. Now a bubble goes up around the structure with a 125k radius. Everyone not "registered" for a team gets pushed outside the bubble. Ships inside the bubble can not cloak or warp, nor can ships enter or exit the bubble, for the duration of the match. Much like a POS it would also be impossible to target ships inside from the outside, and the other way around. There would be a 1 minute countdown before the match starts during wich the velocity of all players inside is set to 0 and no targeting inside the bubble is possible. Then the match starts and the Bubble will remain up for as long as set before. This can be limited to 5-30 minutes. During the match pods might be set invulnerable or automatically pushed outside the limits. Agression mechanics would obviously have to be suspended if it was in Highsec/Lowsec. Once the specified time is up all target locks inside the bubble are automatically broken and then the bubble disappears. The settings for the arena structure automatically reset at the end of the match, preperations for a new match can get underway.

Now for spectators outside the arena but on grid it would be nice to have a window similar to the watchlist that shows pilot name, shiptype and healtbars, maybe even ewar effects, for both teams (that would be the reason to register players by team, and have team names).

I think this would add a nice tool to the sandbox, and players are still required to set up an arena, as well as for making up rules for teamsize, ships, fittings etc. and enforcing them, and declaring winner/looser.
Players could also collect/hand out prizes and set up betting.

I would have no problem if an arena was just a deadspace pocket that could simply be scanned down.

Just no instancing... please.

Hmm... instanced arenas.

Well, considering the Alliance Tournament has established blood sport as a real thing among capsuleers... why not? Should they be instanced though?

Well... if it's in open space it won't be instanced... just, no. That defeats the purpose of a sandbox...

However... if you built an enormous space station at some location as an arena and matches took place inside... that could work. It'd even work pretty well in the universe.

Then you could setup betting around the matches, automatic matching for those that just want instant pvp with a couple rules. Podding yes or no... max size ship, minimum size ship, max meta of modules, and all that could be put into an auto-matching system.

And then you could have it so that the arena automatically hauls the loot and salvage from your kill in the arena to your hanger and so forth.

We'll never have instanced pvp in space... but if there was a dedicated arena station? I could go for that.

I am a fairly new player to the game...
However, the main reason that I chose to continue playing and enjoy it is due to the harsh nature of PvP.
Don't get me wrong, getting griefed sucks but that is how the 'real' world works.
Arenas or set matchmaking ques would turn this game exactly like the rest.
Please don't do this CCP :[
EVE has blown my mind and I absolutely love this game but get scared when I hear the directions that it 'might' be going.


I do enjoy the idea of tourneys though, such as quarterly/bia-nnualy or something of the sort.
But not just a matchmaking que. Dueling is fine but come on, no automated systems.
The reason EVE is unique is due to the natural player run content.
Being a part of something that is unscripted and completely rational yet irrational at the same time is overwhelmingly intriguing.
Yes, subs might go up if you have arenas and matchmaking ques, but do we really want all the terrible people that make up most other popular MMO communities?

A special type of contract where you give each other kill rights for a period of time/location and set a trophy would probably be enough.

I like where Sheynan is going. I don't like the idea that there's some sort of instant arena that's all set up and ready to go. It would be more interesting to break the idea down into component pieces and seed those, to see what people do with them. For instance, you might start with static deadspace areas that can be scanned down, and the following purchasable, anchorable items:

1) acceleration gates;

2) warp-to beacons;

3) hangars that can be configured either to let the owner see everyone's ships and fittings, or to let everyone docked there see everyone else's ships and fittings;

5) a pair[1] of alarm beacons, which when anchored would generate a visible, spherical field whose diameter was the distance between the beacons. The alarm would sound when a ship crossed into or out of the sphere;

6) a special tractor beam that could move LCOs and asteroids.

[1] I use a pair because one beacon would be an obstacle in the center of the arena, and also because it could be used a bit too easily as a security device by mission runners.

You could add things like proximity sensing beacons, for races. And, of course, all these items could be anchored anywhere that anything could be anchored, not just in and around the intended deadspace areas. This way, the maximum possible amount of content is player-generated content. The contract (or treaty, since those are forthcoming) would have an entry cost, a victory condition and a reward, and a penalty for breaking the agreement, all set by players and agreed to by players, so that participants would have the option of breaking the agreement if they had some ulterior motive. And, of course, combat scanners would still detect ships in the deadspace area, so it would be not be hard to find if it was populated.

This way, you don't only have arenas, you have an entire foundation to build-on for player-generated businesses and content. Arenas would only be the beginning.

Agreed on no arenas, even if it isn't instanced. There are mechanisms already in place for planned fights (although flipping cans for a 1v1 will be ruined by the suspect flag) and I see no reason to tie up developer time with arranged pvp when there are better things to do.

See this is what I don't get. Lets say you capture a ship and hold it for random. Wouldn't it be more fun to surround that player with a bubble that kills you if you leave? And then you can throw the lion in on him as the shield is only destructible from the outside.

Another fun idea is droping on agate and dropping an arena bubble, forcing players into a fight on both sides. Unless someone outside blows it up to save everyone inside.

Low sec only of course, cage fight mechanics.

I want arenas. If you want to limit yourself to traditional PvP, go for it. I’m open to something new. I hope they get fancy and have seasons, stats (profile and scoreboard), a back story, and player-outcome effects. This will mean more ships get blown up, and that is good for the economy.

What I really hope is that it can be a lot like the Alliance Tournaments. No, it can never be that cool, but it could be even more fun without the pressure. Maybe some more options, such as choosing warp-in points.

As for the sandbox, no one ever said anything about sharding that I have heard. Honestly, I don’t even know how it works in other games. I only have ever played EVE (in terms of MMOs).

I frankly am all for well constructed arena play mainly because we have the alliance tourney.

However, I can see the otherside in that to cheepen pvp this way would be bad for other aspects of pvp, fw, 0.0, lowsec.

Part of what makes the alliance tourney so great is the vast risk rewards and more importantly the rarity of it. If you had arenas you could have a rematch any time....

So if I was CSM even though I think it could work I'd be forced to vote it down because that's what the people want. And what's best for eve.

Unless things change.

I hope they know that too.