Warning; this is a long post intended for those with an attention span longer than a nanosecond. Its purpose is to keep the topic of SWToR Arena open to ideas for the Developers. Let's face it. Arena is going to happen. Eventually. Sure, we all agree some things need to be fixed before this can be practical. But since we have time, we should put forth our best effort to see that it's implemented properly. From my perspective, I've seen some good ideas that address the problems people have with this type of play. I honestly haven't seen a really good argument against it. I think for the most part, people that are outright against arena PvP, is they're still stuck to WoW Arena. Many cases have been made that WoW didn't quite get it right. And this is our chance to make sure the same mistakes don't happen in SWToR. We can help get it right this time. So here are a few things I think can happen in SWToR to make Arena practical and fun. Remember, this is a new game, and we can help mold it into something great if we put our thoughts out there as opposed to just sitting back and saying what they should have done after the fact. I do not take sole credit for any these ideas. Arena Rewards Only vanity rewards should be unique through the system. No extra gear with more powerful stats or mods. All commendations / marks that you receive are no different than what you can earn in Warzones and Ilum. Mounts, pets, titles, social items, and companion customizations should be plenty to separate the high standing Gladiator from everyone else. If there is going to be gear available, it needs to have the exact same stats as the gear attainable through Warzones and Ilum, just a different texture to reward the player with a unique look. Some supporters of Arena have stated no rewards at all should be available in order to keep corruption, cheating, and external trades out. It would maintain more of an “honorable” system. As valiant as that idea is, I don't think you're going to keep any of those elements out of any system, whether in this game or the real world. So you may as well reward the actual players. I'm pretty sure you'll be rewarding more legit Gladiators than cheaters and exploiters. Team Free System with Personal Rating Scrap the team rating. In fact, scrap the whole notion of requiring a team to be created, named, and filled with a roster. Instead, allow the Arena system to be much more open with players able to queue just like we do when queuing a pre-made Warzone. Personal ratings can be used to average the group and place them against an opponent team, within say, a 100 point average spectrum. The benefits from using a Team free system would out weigh any negative compared to the Team system. You won't be required to mesh a "perfect" composition. You won't have to search endlessly for that specific class you need because all the others are already on a team. You won't feel “stuck” to the team you're already on. You won't have to start over if the team doesn't work out. You can easily bring in any class or friend, on-demand, for the next match and run with it for however long you like, with the only penalties coming from the drop in personal rating if you lose. You and your buddy still want to do arena, but your DPS had to go? No problem, just ask Guild if anyone wants to fill his spot. Getting your butt handed to you by a certain comp that is queuing? No problem, you can bring Guildies with you that can match their comp. Guildies aren't an option? Perhaps a terminal or droid in the PvP section that will display the Personal Rating of everyone on the server to help you choose an ally. Or even be on the lookout for the next foe. 3v3 Only This pretty much speaks for itself. Most of those who like Arena think balance is mostly maintained on a 3v3 scale. This also goes hand in hand with the team free system. Bioware will need to stick more to overall balance of the mechanics for everyone, as opposed to just tweaking flavor of the month comps. Arena Layout No moving or elevator widgets in an Arena map. However, I'm not bothered with a “Higher Ground” section. Should players be able to choose the Arena they participate in? After all, with that kind of power, players will tend to choose a map they feel fits their play style, meaning a closer balance between the match up. We would probably also see a trend in what map players are choosing more than others, which would put the pressure on Bioware to tweak the others for a closer balance in map layout. Also, in the end, if your team simply hates a certain map, they can avoid it. This is just speculation in this area. I can also see the other side of this, being no choice in the map, due to this being competitive PvP. And a player in competitive PvP should be competitive on all maps. Also, a choice in your Arena, would probably extend queue times. So this option may not viable until cross server PvP is available. Immersion Through Progression I have always thought one thing about Arena that I would love to see is more immersion. Sure there's always the number crunching and tactics area. That's always fun. But as a player in this system, number crunching and tactics combined with vanity rewards may not seem like enough. Unless you have it all, you really only have that rating number to look at. After the match, you look at that number, just to see what the new number looks like, whether it drops or rises. And speaking of the match, it may seem I have these glorious battles, but there's no one there to see it. I would love to see and hear an actual crowd in these arenas. I don't care if they're just pixels, but I think on how great it would be to see a half filled arena when I first start my endeavor. And then slowly see the coliseum fill with more onlookers as my rating increased. Perhaps even as one nears a certain pinnacle, the Emperor and Jedi High Council watch down through their Holocrons perched atop one of the highest VIP sections. As an enemy falls, the crowd roars. When an ally falls, the crowd roars. After all, these people came to see someone get massacred, right? That covers about everything I can think of for now. I will probably come back and modify this post as more topics on this subject are addressed. Let me know what you think so far. Thanks for reading!
