Only 3% of people play arena. That is the the statistic thrown about as a reason for not updating arena. Really, that 3% statistic is the exact reason that arena needs an update. As the seasons go on and going in to season 2 I have a feeling that player retention is going to be a big issue for Rare. Arena is the obvious solution to this as it can keep things fresh and exciting for players with relatively few content additions once it is perfected.
The main issues with it are
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It tries to do everything (naval battles, on island digging for chests and in person fights) but ends up falling short in all these areas
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It becomes too repetitive, all you need to do is cannon farm and you get a win.
My solution to this is relatively low effort on the development front but high impact. Split arena in to 3 separate game types.
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Have a TDM style mode where all the ships spawn at the same island. Make ladders, cannons and capstans disabled and prevent revives. Have a chance for it to occur inside the storm to shift the meta back and forth between swords and double gun and keep things interesting.
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Have a naval battle mode where the last boat standing wins. Have the shroud move in to prevent running. As soon as the ship sinks take the players back to the tavern and give them rewards for their position. They should also get the option to find another server as well as wait for the match to finish. Don't reward players who scuttle.
This one might be the most difficult to implement, but the true aim should be to sink ships rather than just farm cannon hits or spawn camp like we have atm. If players leaving at different times is too difficult you can just shove all the "losers" in a different area of the map and let them fight it out for no rewards as something to pass the time.
- Have a capture the flag mode where lots of chests spawn at once and whoever returns the most in the time wins.
Then simply cycle through the game types every half hour or so to keep things fresh and keep players engaged. Thank you for taking the time to read this :)
P.S make arena communication opt in instead of completely banned :)
P.P.S please make the find another match key anything but the interact button.
