The State of the Arena Gamemode

  • I never thought it would be making this post honestly, but I feel as if the Arena Gamemode just serves no purpose in the game anymore. This is most likely due to many factors like the lack of updates, the bugs that make the Gamemode unplayable like the Chest Turn In Ship floating in the sky, the fact that ever since the A Pirate's Life update came out, there have been less players than ever since they changed the User Interface, and moved the Arena Selection page, and many other factors led to the Gamemode's eventual death. I miss the old days when my friends, and I used to play Arena a lot when the gamemode was in its prime. I understand that even from the very beginning, the majority of the community never did enjoy Arena for various reasons, but I believe it never really got a true chance. I feel as if Arena had more gamemode options within the gamemode itself like Team Death Match (2 Ships vs. 2 Ships), Capture The Flag, and other options than just the one option, it might have stood a chance. Maybe if there was more of an incentive to play the gamemode like Easter eggs, better adventure rewards, or if it was advertised to the right audience it might have survived. Honestly I might just be nostalgic for the good old days of Arena, but I feel as if it should be given another shot, with new content for the gamemode. It might have a shot, because of the larger player base than when it released, and if there was a actual incentive to play the gamemode instead of Adventure, I feel as if people would play it. As it stands right now, Arena serves no purpose in the game, and it can take up to 20-30 minutes just to get into 1 match since almost no one ever plays the gamemode.

    Honestly, I want to hear the community's thoughts on the matter, and what they think Arena could have been. Feel free to post your ideas as well.

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  • It's time to dissolve it and move the stuff from it, into Adventure.

  • I was always in arena even after getting L.S.D. and triumphant sea dog. I enjoyed it more than adventure and even was spending money in the emporium to do my part to help the developers (i know the money was going to adventure but i was hoping a part of it was going to arena) but when they announced they wasn't supporting any more i stopped buying from the emporium. Although i still played it.
    When they muted it i just quit all around because the banter in the lobby, chit chat, trash talk (not the toxic kind)
    I lost all interest in it because of the muting because it just feels like going through the motions instead of playing and chatting about the prior match.
    Majority of my game time was in arena all the way till they muted it.
    Dont get me wrong i love adventure but i just think arena wasn't given a fighting chance by rare.
    As for toxicity in the arena, yeah there was some. But since going back to adventure I've come across it waaaay more, from racism or people wishing others to cause self harm. Now others may have experienced different but i personally have come across more true toxicity in adventure than i did in arena. Again other people probably have different results but thats just my observations.
    I honestly wish rare would give arena another chance cause i believe it didn't get a good fighting chance.
    Also rare promised to at least maintain it but last i checked (correct me if im wrong) but the chest beam bug is still in play and has been for months.

    Sorry for the rant im still salty about the no support and muting but i just wanting to get my opinion out there cause i really miss arena and wish it would come back.

  • @personalc0ffee sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    It's time to dissolve it and move the stuff from it, into Adventure.

    Probably won't happen, because there are several XBox-achievements bound to it...

  • I've been an adventure player through and through, but recently a friend and me have started having an arena night once a week...and we love it!

    We are both terrible at PvP in adventure mode so it's been great to practice that, and also just have short, sharp bursts of nautical mayhem. We are achievement hunters to a degree, so once we've got the top 3/200 games/level 50 achievements that'll probably be us done, we win a few here and there but not enough to think 100 is possible.

    Now that we've actually given it a proper go...it does seem a shame that the mode has been abandoned, and I echo some more 'traditional' modes like a CTF or Stronghold would have been great. To be honest even just sorting out the chest location bug once it's been dug up would be something 😂🤷‍♂️

    The most frustrating thing is being a relative arena noob and trying to play it properly, only to come up against people playing their own TDM within it, who then spawn camp you because you "ruined their game"...even though you're just playing properly!

    I know they've announced it won't happen, but I'd love to see a little TLC given to arena ☠️

  • @schwammlgott said in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @personalc0ffee sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    It's time to dissolve it and move the stuff from it, into Adventure.

    Probably won't happen, because there are several XBox-achievements bound to it...

    Not the first time achievements have been rendered unobtainable. Glad arena was dlc, never had to give a rats tail about it.

  • @necronikolai13 sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @schwammlgott said in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @personalc0ffee sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    It's time to dissolve it and move the stuff from it, into Adventure.

    Probably won't happen, because there are several XBox-achievements bound to it...

    Not the first time achievements have been rendered unobtainable. Glad arena was dlc, never had to give a rats tail about it.

    They changed some, like the one, where you had to have 15 chests on board in arena, but making them unobtainable? I know none of those, do you have an example? Games, which have online modes and that online stuff got closed or turned off, doesn't count imo

  • @schwammlgott I wouldn't count it, it wouldn't be any different than a game with online achievements shutting down their servers, they'd essentially shut down arena servers. I can't think of any off the top of my head that are just removed achievements, for xbox anyways. Civ 6 on steam has 84 deleted achievements (this is what I was originally thinking of, got the platform mixed up)

  • Last week we played some sloop arena, the chest bug is very annoying, but we didn't have any issue to get into three games in quick succession.

  • @personalc0ffee I disagree with your opinion on the matter, There are still some of us that actually like the gamemode itself, and the Developers put time into the gamemode.

    @The-staples-89 When they originally made the gamemode unsupported, It was due to a lack of a consistent playerbase, so it did not make sense to keep supporting it at the time. When it comes to the removal of voice chat with other teams in the gamemode, it was quite justified since the majority of people using it were on the verge of Terms of Service Violations.

    @Lem0n-Curry You must be getting lucky when it comes to getting into matches.

    @schwammlgott @necronikolai13 For one, The could always remove the Xbox Achievements, They have removed a few over the years that the game has been out, but I feel as if the gamemode shouldn't be removed in general since it technically still provides a different type of experience to the game, even if that experience is currently unsupported. I just wish they would give it another chance.

  • @codijayrobot They pulled the plug on the game mode. No more time is being spent developing new features. Only bug fixes. Arena will remain as it is for the foreseeable existence of this game.

    The only people who play Arena now are NAL, TDM, and the sparse actual crew.

    Arena is dead and it is time to bury it.

  • @codijayrobot no achievement in any game on xbox has ever been removed...changed them, yes, but never got removed

  • @schwammlgott said in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @personalc0ffee sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    It's time to dissolve it and move the stuff from it, into Adventure.

    Probably won't happen, because there are several XBox-achievements bound to it...

    There were achievements for doing things in the original arena and those were just removed with the introduction of the new one. I suppose they could just remove them again or modify them.

  • @illbushido305 sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @schwammlgott said in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @personalc0ffee sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    It's time to dissolve it and move the stuff from it, into Adventure.

    Probably won't happen, because there are several XBox-achievements bound to it...

    There were achievements for doing things in the original arena and those were just removed with the introduction of the new one. Not surprising if the just removed them again or modified them.

    They have been changed, but not removed!

  • @schwammlgott some were were removed though. There was things like having 15 sea dog chests on your ship. What was changed was commendations for the same reason with it going from many chests and maps to one chest with a beacon.

  • @illbushido305 sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @schwammlgott some were were removed though. There was things like having 15 sea dog chests on your ship. What was changed was commendations for the same reason with it going from many chests and maps to one chest with a beacon.

    What's up with you guys? That's wrong...they changed it, from having 15 chests on board, to having 100.000 silver in 1 match

    Edit: Again, never ever has an achievement on XBox been removed, just changed, like this one

  • Arena was always a mistake as far as I'm concerned.

    Rare have always gone on about how they're all about the adventure, snd that that was always part of the core.

    They ended up putting this out and it just.. added nothing of value. People like to call it a PvP mode.. but it isn't really that either.

    I was personally glad when they decided to stop working on it, and I assume it will all just be assimilated into adventure and the mode removed entirely at some point in the future.

  • @tre-oni I don't think it was a mistake, but the execution was off from the start which lead to a rapid decline in interest.

    The waiting and loading times are atrocious for a game mode that is supposed to be shorter than the main game mode. If people could pop in, play a 15 min round and then start up another one within 2 minutes it would be a lot more popular but you have to deal with the 5-10+ minute lobby waits, the multiple merging and then the 30s+ black screen before and after each round.

  • Arena is dead let it be! And once again I volunteer to spend 24 hours gathering powder kegs to set all over Sea dog isle and blow that place clean out of sight. It would make room for something useful! That would truly be a Glorious explosion. I'm sure I could get people to help me. I would even stream the 24hours + the explosion.

  • I gave up on the whole legendary sea-dog, nonsense a long time ago. I reached arena level 50 and never set foot in the mode again.

    The tragedy of it all is that you need a ludicrous number of first place wins to get.....what is part of a junk set nobody wears (the basic legend items). When they tried to lower this - there was so much hassle on the forums that they backtracked....and now, arena itself is dead.

    I am sure that i`m not the only one who came to despise the mode for gatekeeping certain basic legendary content. I shall shed no tears whatsover over the modes fate.

  • @codijayrobot I tried to like Arena... but it was just TOO much like Adventure mode for me, so I just play Adventure

    Why are there set matches & match lengths?

    Why do I have to dig up treasure and sell - like, AT ALL???

    I would play Arena if it was like just a non-stop deathmatch, where you just login and fight other ships, die, get sunk, fight other ships some more etc...

    What ruined it all for me was STILL having to go dig up treasure, and being forced to sit in the pub for 20 minutes in between every brief 5 minutes of fun...

  • The thing that bugs me is that we still have both versions, splitting the already small player base further. If there was just one version, at least the small amount playing it would be consolidated and be able to get a match easier, and personally I don't care which one is dropped.

  • @gravesilence272 To be fair, digging up the treasure is only viable in sloops lobbies. when you're on galleon lobbies where the Top score is around 8k minimum, the few chests you will be able to sold won't help that much. A chest is less than 29 cannonball hits. If you have 3 players shooting, that's really quick to achieve.

  • @grog-minto But you can't get a Galleon lobby as there is never enough players to start

  • @schwammlgott I know there were some time limited achievements in Gears 4 to celebrate the launch of Gears 5

  • Overall, Arena came too early. They didn't have the mechanics or systems in place to do anything other than ship combat. If it were to be given another chance I would say to focus on hand to hand combat, rather than the boats. It if were like that originally, might've led to smaller load times since there's no worry for ships.

  • Now that the tech to instance hop exists as per Pirate's Life, they should make arena enterable in Adventure through the Sea Dogs tavern, and in turn exit into Adventure from the Arena lobby. As it is, it's this big hub island that nobody ever goes to because it serves zero purpose in Adventure mode.

  • @baronbrr said in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @schwammlgott I know there were some time limited achievements in Gears 4 to celebrate the launch of Gears 5

    Time limited or unobtainable (as in due to a server closure or glitch) are not the same as achievements being removed.

  • the only reason no one played arean was the terrible match making system!

    I have been on this for 2 years saying that the match making was TERRIBLE!

    The reason is, everytime you join in, and I never join without a crew, you see other players load in and are assigned a color as they appear. The issue is, that it assigns players randomly when they enter and never fills a crew, instaed you look at the current players and its always your full ship and one on every other ship.

    Its a simple fix, it should have been fixed years ago.

    players should stay at loading screen or enter lobby unassigned.

    IF they stay at loading screen they are matched with others for open crew
    THEN enter the lobby, would take just a few seconds if EVERY player had to do it this way.

    If they enter the lobby unassigned....
    Then When lobby has x amount of players ASSIGN them to crews, 8 players = 2 crews, not 8 players = 4 crews morons

    Sorry, I get frustrated because the fix has been so simple and they ruined what was one of the only reasons we played so hard

  • @jdge439
    I agree that it would be better if all open crews were unassigned until the game starts, but they should be in a lobby. No one wants to wait in a loading screen for a game to start.
    I believe that what you described is kind of like what happens. When the server merges with another, the open crews get redistributed. Since that's a slow process it's a long wait time.

    I agree, there are better solutions to matchmaking but it's not a one-sided issue.

  • @baronbrr sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @schwammlgott I know there were some time limited achievements in Gears 4 to celebrate the launch of Gears 5

    Xbox achievements? Time limited?No way...show me proof

  • @baronbrr sagte in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    Overall, Arena came too early. They didn't have the mechanics or systems in place to do anything other than ship combat. If it were to be given another chance I would say to focus on hand to hand combat, rather than the boats. It if were like that originally, might've led to smaller load times since there's no worry for ships.

    The mechanics were fine, it was just a mistake in listening to people...a hand to hand combat? In a game based around your ship? You better go to CoD

  • @grumpyw01f

    Well, yes and no. I have no issue with players dumped into a lobby to chat and all in open crew but UNASSIGNED crews. Then they need to be shuffled into crews and then sent to a lobby where that assembled crew stays intact.

    The best way though, if you are in an open crew, youre in an open crew for the entire time you play, your crew will be shuffled! no assigned crews until there 12 players in a lobby. then boom 3 full crews and start. why the game insisted on making the attached photos happen Ill never understand. alt text

    alt text

  • @jdge439 said in The State of the Arena Gamemode:

    @grumpyw01f

    Well, yes and no. I have no issue with players dumped into a lobby to chat and all in open crew but UNASSIGNED crews. Then they need to be shuffled into crews and then sent to a lobby where that assembled crew stays intact.

    The best way though, if you are in an open crew, youre in an open crew for the entire time you play, your crew will be shuffled! no assigned crews until there 12 players in a lobby. then boom 3 full crews and start. why the game insisted on making the attached photos happen Ill never understand. alt text

    alt text

    Yeah, that's what I was getting at.

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