Empiriana Challenge Arena
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The Empiriana Challenge Arena differs from the conventional battles in the Empiriana dungeon since everything occurs in real-time. Players in the arena do not have to wait for their turn. Instead, players may move anywhere at any time. Players may also cast spells, go to their inventory screen to drink potions, or attack other players or gates at any time. The arena is a very exciting, fast paced competitive environment and makes a perfect compliment for the turn-based pace of combat in the Empiriana dungeons.
Objectives
The main objective of the game is to defend your team's "Gate" while
attempting to destroy the Gates of the opposing two teams. There are three teams in every
arena match, though there is no requirement that all three teams have players in order to
play a match. The three teams are: Fire, Ice, and Air. A team wins by eliminating all
enemy Gates while protecting their own gate from destruction. Once the two opposing Gates
have been destroyed, a 60 second timer starts counting down. If the pending winning team's
Gate is not destroyed or one of the destroyed gates fully repaired by the time the counter
reaches 0, that team wins the match. If the pending winning team's Gate is destroyed
before the counter reaches 0, the count is stopped and that team is no longer the pending
winner. After all three gates have been destroyed, the first team to restore their gate to
full health becomes the pending winner and the 60 second timer is started. At the end of
the match, a statistics screen is displayed which details match records and personal
statistics for the match.
Time Limits
Matches have a time limit of 15 minutes. If no team meets the winning
conditions by the time the 15 minutes is up, the match is considered a draw. Future
enhancements may allow the creator of a match to specify this time limit in addition to
other match parameters.
Messages
Messages may be directed to a specific team. The destination team for your
default message destination can be toggled with the Page Down key or by left-clicking on
the destination indicator box above the arrow keys on the combat screen.
Gates
A damaged Gate will regenerate health about every 15 seconds unless it is
destroyed. A destroyed Gate does not regenerate at all. Gates may also be healed by
healing spells and by players on the same team as the Gate. Players may heal their own
Gate only if they do not have a range weapon equipped. Players heal their team's Gate by
approaching the gate and using the attack button (either clicking the button on the screen
or hitting the INS/0 key (on the numeric keypad)).
Performance
It is strongly suggested that you do not run any other programs at the same time
that you play in the Arena. The Arena is a very CPU intensive part of Empiriana. Thus, for
best results, do not hinder Empiriana's performance by forcing it to share CPU and system
resources with other programs. Additionally, it is recommended that players in an Arena
match refrain from pressing ALT+TAB or CTRL+ESC to get out of Empiriana while in a match.
Not only can this cause problems for the software, but it can also mean instant death in
the real-time arena. It is perfectly safe to ALT-TAB out while in the Arena lobby or the
end of match statistics screen.
Match Grids
There are two different playing grids currently available: The Small Cage
and Core Battle. The Small Cage is a smaller map where players from all teams are
channeled into a small area and forced to fight in close quarters. The Core Battle is a
little bit larger play area with several different routes around the grid. Playing grids
can be very large (up to 400 times larger than the 12x12 play grid found in the dungeon).
Grids are stored on the server and fed to the client software in a very compact notation
upon demand. This enables us to bring more grids online without the need for a patch or a
server restart.
Commands Available
| Tab | Toggles the display of player names or levels | |
| Page Down/Num Pad 3 | Toggles message destinations between All Players, Fire Team, Ice Team, and Air Team | |
| Arrow Keys | Controls movement in the same manner as battles in the dungeon | |
| Delete/Num Pad . | Toggles the attack mode for the currently equipped weapon (Hack, Swing, Lethal, etc) |
Magic
Magic, targeting, and attacking are handled in an identical fashion to dungeon
combat, with the exception that a turn for the purposes of spell duration is about 15
seconds.
Class Abilities
Brigands have a special ability in the arena. They are able to blend into shadows
and become invisible if they remain stationary for 30 seconds. Brigands thus cloaked are
not visible by any player. However a player trying to walk over a cloaked brigand will
find that they can't move to the square the brigand occupies. As soon as the cloaked
player makes any action (move, turn, attack, cast, etc.) they become visible again. The
cloaking for brigands is automatic and not player controlled.
Current Restrictions (Beta Release)
- Arena matches are limited to 12 players per match. This will be raised in the future as we monitor server and client loads under normal play conditions.
- There is only one type of match possible (the default).
- There are only two different match grids available.
- Match grids are currently very small.