As I recall, back in Hylian Shield, players could opt for a non-PvP battle. Basically, one player would enter the arena and the Coliseum Master would unleash monsters for the player to fight. Obviously, since the fights were essentially the admin choosing some advanced monsters to defeat and letting the player take the rest, the fight was expected to be well-written and reasonable. For instance, the player could not simply have a powerful monster slip up immediately and then be killed with a "lucky" fatal blow in the first few paragraphs. As an example, I remember such a fight I conducted on HS's final incarnation, before the hated board shut-down took place, in which I had Idarian enter an arena much like the Roman Coliseum, so as to give no particular advantage or disadvantage. The Arena Master (I think it was Bud) began by sending a Wizzrobe into the fight, which immediately summoned a Darknut an Iron Knuckle. That enemy gave Idarian some trouble, beat him up and tossed him about for a bit. In the process of beating it I had Idarian break his spear trying to thrust through the Iron Knuckle's breastplate. Then, the Wizzrobe attacked, and I had to keep in mind Idarian could not fight magic very well, so that was played through with considerable trouble from the Wizzrobe. After that, Bud gave me six armored Stalfos spearmen and a seventh, large Stalfos captain or whatever it was with heavy armor and a large, flaming morning-star flail. In any case, that second half of the fight, involving the Stalfos, I mean, took nearly half of the collective battle, which never got graded... Anyway, I recall those types of battles being available in Hylian Shield, and I'm wondering if such fights can be done here. Specifically, such curiosity was provoked by my reading about the option for a Surprise Arena Match, involving input from the Arena Master, and I am not sure exactly what that match means. Is that a match where I enter the arena and the Coliseum Master gives me a fight, as the "Surprise" would suggest, or do I have a PvP battle with some extra intervention from the Arena Lord? If there are currently only PvP battles, can we add monster battles as an option to RP, have graded, and possibly win Rupees?
Those were called Colosseum matches. They weren't random there was a system behind them. Like there was ten ranks and ten levels each rank. Every rank has a set of monsters that can be chosen at random that got harder with each rank. I loved those and would love for those to come back. By surprise Arena match I believe he means a PvP match where the arena suddenly is changed by the master into his own whims to make things more difficult.
I'll get back to you on this one as soon as possible. Guy and Adaar are in charge of all Arena things, so I will have to ask one of them (though they have been quite inactive lately....). Hopefully, because of their inactivity, I will be able to procure all the necessary information from Guy and get the Arena up and running. If I make any progress, I'll make sure to PM you.
This is a bit past due, but we now have a new Regulations of the Arena thread, provided by the Arena Lord himself. It offers a few new options and insights, one of which is something called "Gauntlets." It's pretty similar to the old Colosseum of HS, albeit with the Arena Lord taking control of the monsters. If you want to just fight monsters normally... well... you can just make a quest for that, really.
The tiers of arena fighting was fun though. It could be a way to raise favor with the Arena Lord to lead up to the gauntlet perhaps? Maybe have specific rewards for each tier. I just remember those fights being really fun.
There's another reason the thread was overhauled, but I suppose the hints were too vague for someone like you to notice. It's called renown. If you actually participate in the Arena and use the Arena Hall to interact with the Lord, regularly, you may notice it. That's all I've got to say about that; figure out the rest yourself.
