newbie level in coliseum repaired

[*juggleblood*]

The newbie level mysteriously acquired a bug whereby if u pulled chain to exit a match, it would make it such that pushing the button wouldn't work (it would think there was still a mob in there.)

I fixed it, I think.

I'm kindof baffled of how it could have broke. I notice some people have pretty high recent scores so it must have been working for the most part.

If anyone else had witnessed this bug in the past, please mention it here. I'm curious to know if this has been an issue all this time.

Thanks.

[Gorka]

Back when I was in this coliseum there was a bug where you could push the button repeatedly each time spawning more mobs without having to kill the other ones first. I only noticed this in the newbie coliseum.

Given the fact the coliseum tries to be restrictive with time and items, it would not surprise me if there are exploits for people who can think outside the box to increase their scores. The other day I discovered by accident you can spirit watch a player in the coliseum and they won't be able to push the button. This suggests to me there are possible exploits pertaining to what is a mob and what is a pet. It's also possible to chuck mobs into the sanctuary and push the button again spawning new mobs. I doubt this could be used to an advantage, because time ticks when you toss mobs and push buttons.

Having said that, I think the current high scores appear to have been achieved fairly... although clearly there is a class bias to mages at the beginning, as no other class is able to dispatch so much overwhelming damage in perfect circumstances in such a short time repeatedly each round. This fact plays out more in the smaller coliseums where the mobs don't seem to hit much than in the end. Other classes will have to do the 39 thing to stay competitive.

[*juggleblood*]

Naw, you can no longer summon multiple mobs I'm pretty sure. Also u can not get mobs into the sanctuary. And the spirit watcher thing is due to some redundant checks. The exploits do eventually get reported to me. It's pretty legit currently.

[*teker*]

I probably broke it while trying to fix the multiple mob issue. I observed low level characters pushing the button 8-10 times and then using area blasts to kill them all. That's how those high scores came about.

[*juggleblood*]

I've been mulling over what to do about the scores, now that the bug/feature has been changed. I'm thinking no one gets punished since a reasonable argument could be made that it was a legit strategy. But the scores are compromised. So I'm thinking I'll reset it (newbie level only) at New Year, tinker around and have some fun with the mobs. And I may cap the drachma based on your prior score, may display both prior and new score. Depends how much I feel like working on it. To be clear, I'm talking newbie level only..

Level Newbie *
* Foes *
* Art 90 *
* Juggernaught 85 *
* Mage 68 *
* Basilisk 57 *
* Fandral 55 *

And it would help if you guys could tell me which among you used the aoe strategy to get your scores. I'm guessing its the above five? You're not being accused of an offense. I want to know where the mob balance is. Thanks.

[Teron]

Though I'm not all the above, I've helped 3 out of 5 achieve the goals, in a way, so let me chip in - also because Basilisk/Juggernaught is gone now.

1. I coached Fandral and provided him -saves and maxmana eq and he achieved the 55 score on his own. Shortly after that, Basilisk discovered the trick and beat Fandral. I warned Fandral not to use the trick lest he be punished/his score/drachma removed, so he listened to me and didn't use it, so I am 100% sure that his score is legit.

If you compare his 55 score to other levels, you'll see that he did 57 in level 0 and 53 in level 1, so they are all within margin of mob randomness.

So in my opinion, his score should stand.

2. I've just checked my log, and I don't think Mage used the trick to get his score either. He is a remort mage with maxed -saves and *all* the +spell bonus eq (including quest ones) for his levels, and at the time of his score there was an astrology event that united a BH day, major Sun and minor Battle.

This log file was last written on the 13th of August, so if you have your logs, feel free to check them.

3. Basilisk and Juggetnaught are the same person, I advised him on tactics and gave him -saves eq. He discovered the trick by himself and used it to his advantage. I've warned him not to use it of fear of penalties, but he did it anyway, and he was the first to use the trick in the Coliseum to beat Fandral.

4. Art achieved this in a quick span of several days, I'm sure there was no BH day + a major caster house during that time (I'm tracking astrology meticulously, you know why), so make your own assumptions about his score.

I'm not sure it's possible to kill more, than 60-65 mobs, on your own, because it takes time to cast and push button. I guess Mage got to the maximum practical limit, when one-shotting mobs. It's a shame he didn't wait for major houses for other levels, we'd know the limit there, too.

Moreover, can you clarify, what cap you are talking about, and what prior score and new score are?

Thanks.

[*juggleblood*]

Ok, thanks much.

I'm thinking about drastically changing the mobs for that level for fun and resetting the scores. So the 2 scores would be the pre-reset score, and current score.

I'm thinking to cap the drachma because I don't feel like double rewarding the folks who have already trounced the level and gotten a bunch of drachma/honor for it. So I'm thinking I cap the maximum drachma/honor that can be attained from this level, including your pre-reset score.

So for example, let's say I capped total drachma for newbie level to 80. If you've already gotten 80 pre-reset, then you won't be able to get anymore drachma or honor from it, even tho you will be able to register a score if you want to. So basically if your current score+pre-reset score>40 then you will have maxed out on drachma/honor for that character for this level.

[Zlodiak]

I've been mulling over what to do about the scores, now that the bug/feature has been changed. I'm thinking no one gets punished since a reasonable argument could be made that it was a legit strategy. But the scores are compromised. So I'm thinking I'll reset it (newbie level only) at New Year, tinker around and have some fun with the mobs. And I may cap the drachma based on your prior score, may display both prior and new score. Depends how much I feel like working on it. To be clear, I'm talking newbie level only..

Level Newbie *
* Foes *
* Art 90 *
* Juggernaught 85 *
* Mage 68 *
* Basilisk 57 *
* Fandral 55 *

And it would help if you guys could tell me which among you used the aoe strategy to get your scores. I'm guessing its the above five? You're not being accused of an offense. I want to know where the mob balance is. Thanks.

Sorry for late reply, just noticed this post.
I'm playing Art and i want to add my 2 cents about newbie arena.
I had no arena expirience before, visited arena few times with Zlodiak about an year ago and that's all. I was sure summoning many mobs is legit and was quite surprized i can't do it in sub40 arena.
There is how i hit my score:
First of all, I've killed 30+ mobs by "push button, fireball mob to death" strategy and it was quite boring. I started to looking for a new strategy. During this "fireball mob to death" stage i discovered that i could summon more than one mob (occasionally pushed button second time before attacking first mob and had to fight with 2 mobs). I decided to summmon lots of mobs and blast them with mass colour sprays. I was able to push button about 8 times (not guaranteed) before mobs starts attaking me. This strategy had better potential but initially i wanted to try to summon 100 mobs. I improved it a bit and start shifting to tree. Mobs don't attack tree, so i summoned 100 mobs as i wanted. And died in 1 round after shifting back, of course
After lots of tries, I hit my score by killing 4 waves of 23 mobs (2 survived in last wave) and this result could be improved.

I want to say, that this second way of killing mobs is much more interesting and more balanced among different classos. While "fireball mob to death" strategy is pure mage style, and you actually don't need to think much excersising it, hitting many mobs is way more complex. You are still mage dependant, since you need to mass blast them, but you also need survivability. I borrowed some perfect mage eq from Ezekiel and Aaz while trying arena and got like 37 spell bonus and -21 saves, but my results became even worse after it. So i had to use some tankish eq instead of some spell saves/spell bonus eq. This style opens up opportunities for the warriors and other non-casters, because survivability becames really important.

What about to let this style live? I understand that at this moment it allows to hit more mobs than it was intended, but it can be balanced. Easy way to do it is to increase mobs damroll and/or, even better, hitroll.
With these changes we will see close results in both strategy, and there will be a choice for players how to play, and arena will be more balanced for different class orders.

[*juggleblood*]

I agree that it makes it interesting, but it's a non-starter. People take their coli scores a little too seriously and so any changes are just going to make a lot of people unhappy. Combine that with the fact that it's work I don't want, and it becomes a no brainer, to fix it to the original intention of 1 mob at a time.

There's lots of things we could do with it if there were an immortal that were really enthusiastic about it, such as open alternative coliseums that operate differently, favoring different strategies. For example the could be a gauntlet style arena where the mobs keep piling up on you whether you want them or not. Or there could be an arena favoring pet style where the mobs are much larger.

What we lack is someone who wants to do it.