Building a Car Wars Arena

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

[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.

By the time you need to stop a cheater he's either already finished the deed, or is still working on it. If the later is the case, you need to stop him right now.

Weapons cost money, take time to stop someone, and ruin valuable salvage. Whereas a simple killswitch is instant, and preserves the vehicle. Because the cheater will probably face large fines (and a gauntlet of other duelists with lead lined rubber hoses), and the car is often a duelist's biggest asset.

Which is another argument for the killswitch and getting Draconian in the after duel penalties. See, someone getting splattered in the arena is normal, expected. It being done by the arena might be a couple day's buzz, but not much more. Separating the punishment, particularly if it breaks a cheater financially to the point he can't continue in the division? That gets remembered.

[swordtart]

I am not sure what "problem" we are trying to fix here?

If this in-character cheating it can be resolved with interesting role-play opportunities and campaign impact. Rarely is a "your character is instantly killed" option necessary or desirable.

If it is player cheating then dressing this all up is pointless. Just don't let them play. Disallow any effects that their cheating causes, don't dignify it with an in-game explanation. No-one would countenance an over budget or overweight car and make up some rationale to prevent it happening. You just don't get to do it.

Maybe the issue is really people not being clear enough what is an arena rule (which can be broken with consequences) and what is a game rule, that will not be allowed to be broken.

[owenmp]

Bruce Lam of AVRO wrote a good article on arena design. The AVRO Web site is no longer online, but I have a copy of the article on my Web site.

SWAT HQ Salvage Yard - AVRO Resources - Arena Designing
http://www.seanet.com/~owenmp/avro-2000/index.shtml
http://www.seanet.com/~owenmp/avro-2...na-design.html

[jbjsignup]

Originally Posted by owenmp

Bruce Lam of AVRO wrote a good article on arena design.

The article is excellent! Thank you.

[MattV]

Yea, I like this post. You can just think of the astestics of arena, or you can give it a well thought our history and story which I think adds to the duel.

Who are the sponsers?
What do the sponsers want in a duel?
What will they provide?

[MattV]

Yea, I like this post. You can just think of the astestics of arena, or you can give it a well thought our history and story which I think adds to the duel.

Who are the sponsers?
What do the sponsers want in a duel?
What will they provide?
Some of the arenas is the regional books listed how popular an arena was and your prestige was based on that. The more popular, the more prestige you got as it was probably more televised. Not so with the lower end arenas.

How was this arena created? Some arenas were previosly built places, the Armadilllo comes to mind. There was a article about how they would wall off multiple blocks in Tokyo and create a city arena. How did the arena come to be????

Where are the cameras placed? Could there be a known area in the arena that you would know would be filmed so that a confirmed kill doubles the prestige.

An arena can have personality and advantages and obstacles. It can add to story as much as the contestants.

I still want to create an arena dedicated to trike combat that was popular for the companies that were still cutting down forests to create lumber. Somewhere in the CW lore mentions that loggers preffered trikes. How about and arena that has multiple obstacles like a forest where different trike companies have duels showing of their wares.......

[owenmp]

Require each vehicle have a flechette discharger installed in the steering wheel (and at a targeting console for a gunner). If a rule is broken, the flechette discharger is remotely activated by arena management. The interior damage to the car should be low, permitting the car to be used again. :o)

The main problem with this idea is cleaning the interior of the car might take a while. (Evil smile)