A game mode I wanted ever since Arena. A lot of people will scream "Arena shouldnt be PvE" despite when Adventure mode is most peoples favorite PvP "arena". So why not make the current arena a hyper condensed version of adventure mode where chaos ensues often, constant action where PvE elements will have you change your plans.
Fundamental rules
- Any ship type is allowed to enter, with any number of crews. The game finds any and all to join.
- Not a proper competition, the objective here is entirely selfish to each ship. However, pvp is highly influenced and rewarded (read onwards for that)
- No real Timer, ships join and leave whenever they want. It is up to you when you will want to go back to the tavern, and move back into the fray again (Read onwards on how that works).
- Confined to the same structure of islands and delivery points as of current arena
Actual Rules
- PvE elements are unleashed to appear (often?), such as the kraken and meg and skeleton ships and forts (which should be made much easier to complete). Damaging/Defeating the PvE threats also reward silver.
- points and silvers awarded for PvP are rewarding, but same goes for actual sinking being very punishing to your silver. Players loose 50-40% of their Silver for sinking, when the ship has sunk and fades away, it then also spawns a Reapers chest that rewards the a big Majority(80%?) of Silver that the sunk ship has lost. The reapers chest is seen on the map, and is coloured based on how much silver there is.
White (Less than 1000)
Blue (1000+)
Yellow (5000+)
Red (10k+)
Golden (50k+)
This also means that the ship that sunk can retrieve their silver BACK.
- Each ship has a random objective that they can choose to go for that can be renewed at the cash-in points. Cargo runs reward a worthwhile deal, Treasure dig maps reward more, Skele brawls reward the most silver in their treasures.
- Treasures turned in are instead converted to Silver
- To cash in your silver and get Rep+Gold. You visit a cash-in point, talk to a "Leave" character who sets a 1 minute timer on when your crew will properly leave in a short preiod. More than half of crew members must be present and accept the Leave. After 1 minute, you then fade out and load the tavern. In the tavern, you are rewarded gold+rep for the silver that you accumulated. To go back into the fray, you and your crew vote on a table which it will then boot you and your crew to a new server of an on-going arena.
- You spawn with plentiful basic supplies But cursed cannon balls (yes), and other types of items must be found elsewhere.
- Powder Kegs only appear in skelefort vaults
- You can see other ships's Silvers like currently
- The only notifications that you get is "Ship sunk" to prompt players to look at their maps for the reapers chest.
- Only the top 2 ships with most silver are revealed on the map (Or should it reveal all anyway like now?)
- Rep and Gold rewards are disproportionately larger the more silver you accumulate from the average. (There may need to be a cap, but finishing with 25k silver should reward you with more gold and rep than you do currently in Arena.
My most fun and memorable battles in SoT adventure mode, and pvp in general is when things get chaotic to everyone's dismay. Sudden krakens always excites everyone, a surprise Megalodon or a skeleton ship that gives a potential boarder a second chance at boarding their enemy is always so fun to have in the middle of the fight. With a real risk to loosing a lot of hard work, things tense up and feels more meaningful.
This modes only downside compared to current arena is the lack of that last second clutch to be had.
I know that PvE elements such as the kraken can feel like horrid RNG made against you, but that is the kind of bad luck that happens even in adventure mode. The real difference between adventure mode and Hyper mode is the time spent working for your loss or your steal.
If they are not planning on integrating Arena mode with Adventure mode in a way, then this is the next best thing. Simple player only modes gets predictable. Like in adventure mode, you mostly want to influence the pirates to fight each other and that is enough. This new Arena mode is there to make it pretty much highly likely, while also giving you adventure mode incentives.
