Arena salvage rules?

[Topgunk]

When a duelist wins an arena event, is he only allowed to salvage his kills?
And what if the owner of the vehicle he scored the kill on is still alive? Can he still salvage his vehicle?

Thanks

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Topgunk

When a duelist wins an arena event, is he only allowed to salvage his kills?
And what if the owner of the vehicle he scored the kill on is still alive? Can he still salvage his vehicle?

Both of these vary with the arena, and the event. Some arenas may allow salvage of everyone who "didn't win"; some might allow only the winner's actual kills; some might not allow salvage at all (for ex.: "Amateur" events), only "buyback" (cash equivalent for kills). Same with salvage on someone who's still alive -- one arena might say "you lose the event, you lose your car"; another might allow "ransoming" (the car operator has a chance to "buy back" his car from the winner); still another might say "the winner gets cash equal to the value of the car he took out".

[owenmp]

According to the description of Amateur Night events in Car Wars Expansion #4: Armadillo Autoduel Arena, the winner of a six-car Amateur Night event gets to keep all six vehicles of the field of autoduellists.

As mentioned previously, salvage depends on the arena and the event.

An ADQ Custom Feature, an interview with a Division 5 champion autoduellist, mentioned salvaging kills in Division 5 was a common practice because prize money for Division 5 events was low.

[swordtart]

It further depends on the definition of KILL and whether the driver refuses to leave the arena and fight on. A mobility Killed car may still be able to fire, and a firepower Killed vehicle can still ram.

Many arenas have "safe areas". If you can get here you may not be targeted. Some arenas state that escaping is sufficient to prevent your vehicle from being salvaged. Most however want you to fight rather than run for cover and therefore enact some discouraging clause.

A driver may be permitted to continue to fight from inside a mobility and firepower killed vehicle and any that choose to do so are still "in the game". In this case there becomes an economic consideration on how much damage you are willing to inflict on the salvage in order to be able to claim it. A competitor may wish to discourage such decisions in the future by reducing it to scrap and the driver to red paste. Gaining such a rep, won't affect today's fight, but next time a driver might prefer to take the surrender option and survive.

Does your arena even allow surrenders (in which case the vehicle may no longer be fired upon / rammed without the attacker being disqualified). A driver that has surrendered is usually deemed to have given up any claim on his vehicle (and sometimes any vehicles they have killed). If you don't allow surrenders then why wouldn't you fight to the death (and in this case that usually means every thing of value has been destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair).

We have had games where the driver has got out of wreck and rather than run for the safe bunker / exit has continued to fight with hand weapons. In some events they have even been successful. In those cases they did not give up their rights to their own vehicle (and were entitled to salvage on the vehicles they killed while on foot as well). Some arenas deem that exiting a vehicle is an automatic surrender of the vehicle (though the pedestrian still retains rights to their kills and can even rack up new ones).

In my games:
If the arena supplies the vehicles, there is no right to salvage, there is a flat appearance fee for all competitors and a bonus for winning. The arena takes all salvage and recycles the vehicles to save on cost.
If the event is a Pro event where competitors supply their own vehicles then salvage rules are agreed by the competitors (or more usually their sponsors). Often there is prize money, but you take home what you came in (i.e. no salvage). Few Pro drivers are willing to risk their life for a burned out wreck. Rarely special "grudge" events are organised where victors salvage kills (these are sometimes fake events and actually the sponsors have a private arrangement for salvage anyway).
In dirt poor arenas (BLUD?) where cash is limited you tend to have fights where you bring your own vehicle and "winner takes all" in salvage, but no other reward. As competitors want the vehicle to retain as much in value as possible these become exercises in efficient kills and the preference is to incapacitate/kill the crew (since they have no salvage value). These therefore tend to be fights to the death. This increases their popularity with the networks who provided the arena with its principle income (tickets have to be cheap as the crowds are generally poor as well).

In short there is precedent for plenty of rulings, there is no RIGHT answer , just opinion. Choose what works for you, but make it clear at the outset of the game to avoid post fight bickering.

[Topgunk]

Thanks for the replies !

I'm just getting back into Car Wars after a long hiatus. And I've been refamiliarizing myself with the rules. I remember buying the original clam shell boxed version in my hobby store in the early 80's-). The game play and customization are unparalleled.