Building a Car Wars Arena

[swordtart]

Or do it the way Wrasslin' does it.

Make a big show of punishment, but recognise the fact that the crowd loves to see a baddie and ensure it is only after the fact. Natural self preservation should make the offender the number one target of every "good" driver in the arena anyway.

Simply disqualifying them after the fact is punishment enough, they still get their car all shot to hell, but now they loose all the prizes and salvage they might have got. In a team game an offender affects the whole team. The only reason for doing it then would be plain orneriness or a feud, but that is good for ratings.

Taking direct action is "the sort of nanny-state stuff that hastened the fall of the government in the first place". GMs "punishing" players never helps gaming group dynamics in the long run.

[owenmp]

Suggested penalties for rules lawyers from ADQ 7/1 could be applied to breaking rules in arenas. This question and answer was previously posted on the HTML ADQ Archive years ago.


ADQ 7/1
ADQ&A

Is it legal to disqualify duellists for being rules lawyer jerks (like the one who made all these questions necessary, for instance)?

Ben Pierce
Washingtonville, NY


Of course. In fact, I heartily recommend it. If you don't like being that grossly unfair, there are other ways to deal with the scum:

Every time he brings up an argument that really gets under the referee's skin, alter the victory conditions so that taking him out becomes more attractive; i.e., + 1 point for anything done to him, cash bonuses (I recommend starting with $500 and doubling it as needed) or even skill bonuses for the one who gets the kill.

Activate a hidden beacon in his vehicle. Preferably one that transmits his location and speed to everyone else's computers, giving them a + 1 to hit the offender. If he points out that the above rule doesn't apply to people without computers, slap a + 2 on him.

Continue with the duel and don't let him know that you hate him. Next time you play and he weasels his way into the game, collect up everybody's vehicles and pass them to everyone else, giving the weakest design to him, and his design to another player (if possible, the one who hates him the most).

Don't let him play until he wises up.

Charles A. Oines
ADQ Editor

[43Supporter]

Turreted weapons are nice, but they have to be able to hit (and cheaters invariably load up on the TH penalties).

Post-event actions, while realistic, still mean the cheater has ruined the promoter's show -- which means the crowds may not come back next week.

The _CW_ universe is one where "direct action" is a fact of life -- you're having a problem with someone, *you* deal with it, rather than letting someone else handle it; and the problem here isn't between the cheater and the other duellists, but between the cheater and the promoter whose events are being trashed by this idiot.

The pro-wrestling method is viable, but as noted, it still means the cheater is ruining the events until he gets disposed of (and the really effective cheaters are nearly impossible to get rid of).

Two pounds of Plastique in the seat back deals with the problem Immediately, and Permanently -- plus, to paraphrase a line from the film _The Infiltrator_: "There's fifty guys who think they can win by cheating. We can't get fifty guys; but if we get *one* guy, the other forty-nine don't sleep so well." >:)

[Toltrin]

I so wish there was a current car wars video game that is like an MMO and focuses on driving, dueling and character progression. I would play that game all day.

[woodchuck]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

Here's one: "How does the arena management enforce rules during events?"

Fine print. Autoduellists would be required sign papers wherein they take full civil and criminal responsibility for violations of the events rules and AADA's Arena Safety Code for AADA events.. Arenas are free to use whatever means they deem necessary to enforce these rules as long as these means do not violate the AADA Arena Safety Code in AADA events.

[swordtart]

I would also argue the advise I heard a senior NCO give a junior officer who was wondering how you deal with insubordination.

"Never give an order that aren't sure will be obeyed."

Whilst this may seem like pandering to mutineers, it makes the officer think about the orders he is giving rather than just assuming military discipline is going to automatically solve his poor man-management for him.

So don't make rules that you know your players don't like following. If you force them to play the game the way you like it, you may find that you have a game with only you in it.

If you have one single player spoiling everyone's enjoyment (and they don't have to be breaking the arena rules for that, plenty of people are just not fun to play with because they are too into rules, loop-holing, victimisation etc.) then regretfully dis-invite that player. Extra rules won't necessary prevent them being a PITA and it may stifle the enjoyment of the other players.

If you don't like tire shots, instead of banning them, just impose a house rule that makes them harder or less effective. You could make tires -5 to hit, or better say that any tire hit does a maximum of 1 point of damage per dice. You don't need to explain it, just state it as a condition of play. You can ignore the rule not to shoot a tire, but you can't somehow make your weapon do more damage.

At worst your player will become involved in a protracted argument about the rule before play starts. You can then use this to identify the PITA and dis-invite him before he has too much chance to spoil the event.

Ganging up on some player or evoking the god like powers of the arena designer to "punish" him for breaking a rule is itself victimisation. We have other tools in our social toolbox.

<Besides the OP didn't mention how to prevent cheating, that was 43's saw>

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by swordtart

At worst your player will become involved in a protracted argument about the rule before play starts. You can then use this to identify the PITA and dis-invite him before he has too much chance to spoil the event.

Although, in my opinion, the person that imposes no-tire shots is the PITA. I never like this rule as there are many ways to mitigate some of the impact of tire shots (and in all fairness, you can never eliminate completely that a tire shot is an effective way of dealing with opponents.)

That being said, if all the players agree on it, why not? Since there is no way to accidently hit a tire on a car with a direct fire weapon, just don't allow players to take the tire shot.

Use "handwavium" to say that the arena requires cars to have electronics installed that lock the firing circuits of vehicles attempting tire shots.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by kjamma4

That being said, if all the players agree on it, why not? Since there is no way to accidently hit a tire on a car with a direct fire weapon, just don't allow players to take the tire shot.

Use "handwavium" to say that the arena requires cars to have electronics installed that lock the firing circuits of vehicles attempting tire shots.

That is, in fact, how it was handled in the groups I was in -- it was understood tire shots (or what-have-you) weren't allowed, so no one took them; and if some rookie came along and asked "munchkin" questions like "how do you stop someone doing that", then came the flavor-text.

"Divine Fiat" has its charms, but it is occasionally nice to be able to put a "logical" (for the game world) explanation to it -- I'm thinking of the discussion in ADQ when someone suggested "biker gangs have ceased to exist by now", specifically.

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

Here's one: "How does the arena management enforce rules during events?"

In events I run, tire shots are disallowed; invariably some wiseguy decides "I'm going to take a tire shot anyway -- how's the arena going to stop me?" (The answer involves a couple pounds of Plastique wired into the crew seats, replacing some of the padding so the weight stays the same; and a trigger using IR rather than radio or radar, just in case someone tries to slip a Bollix past Tech. >:) )

Or for the slightly less bloodthirsty, take modern monster truck rallies. After a few accidents with runaway vehicles they have installed remote kill switches. Same thing for an autoduel arena. Any vehicle that performs a disqualifying action finds their engine and weapons remotely locked out. Probably also activates whatever 'surrender/don't shoot' marker the arena might use. Once the event is over any post duel penalties (negative circuit points, arena bans, circuit bans, fines, etc.) are assessed to the driver or crew.

The weapon lockout could be also activate for surrendered vehicles, and possibly whenever a vehicle crosses back into the pits.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Nikas_Zekeval

Or for the slightly less bloodthirsty, take modern monster truck rallies. After a few accidents with runaway vehicles they have installed remote kill switches. [...]

[nod] Lockouts were also discussed. However, it was reasoned that given the much-higher stakes involved (namely: Cheating can lead to people getting killed needlessly), a much-higher stake was needed to indicate "cheating will not be tolerated". Scattering a cheater all over the insides of his car *really* hammers the point home.