When does the Arena start?
We're hoping for a start this Friday (the 9th of May) at around 1900 game time. It might be pushed out a bit depending on dev availability and how long it takes to push out a new patch that will accompany the Arena launch, which may happen either close to launch time or earlier in the day. There will be a global announcement when this happens.
How do I put an alt into the Arena?
As of the latest update, every player has a single separate slot only for Arena characters. The Arena may be entered only by creating a new Arena-bound character. These will be normal level 1 Mortals, with some starter equipment.
Once inside, characters live their whole lives in the Arena. There are no exit portals, but releasing a character will remove it from the Arena and turn it (irreversibly) into a regular character that you must have a regular character slot to use. When the Arena ends, all Arena characters will go dormant.
How does the Arena play differently than the regular Nexus?
All characters in the Arena will respawn within it, regardless of class or Guild affiliation. The Arena is a small, high-pressure plane containing a broad range of Nexal items and terrain. Because the Unaligned forces of Free Will won the first Arena round, the new Arena will reflect that victory in what is and isn't findable.
Characters in the Arena do not join Factions, but choose their infusion alignment at Level 10 via Guilds, whose shrines can be found at geographic extremes of the plane. Evil characters cannot be in the Forces of Good and Good characters cannot be in the Forces of Evil. Only Transcends can be in the Forces of Free Will. Arena characters without a Guild affiliation do not infuse.
CP caps out at Level 30 inside the Arena and Ranks cannot be earned there, nor can CP-earning badges be found.
Some skills that teleport you across planes, influence where you respawn, or otherwise relate to mechanics that are supposed to be disabled inside the Arena. (Stepping of the World Gate, Portal Cleaving, Word of Recall, Hellspawn, Transcension, Empyreal Bond, Phylactery, Void Pockets).
How is this different from the first Arena round?
Last time (Late 2023, for folks who joined the game since then), we had Infusion as a single score of victory. That wasn't very popular since people felt they needed to organize their play around it. This time, there are several values being tracked for victory. Infusion is one, but also stats such as kills. The highest-weighted value being tracked is a mechanic unique to the Arena.
We aren't releasing the weights of victory values for now, but are tracking everything. We are interested in how this plays out, and have a similar tracking mechanic in the pipe that we are exploring for Breaths as well.
There is also at least one cool new mechanic that we are taking the opportunity to test in the Arena. It should be pretty clear when you find it.
Is this well-balanced?
Goodness no. But it's something we all learn something about balance from. A small event with a definite endpoint is a good exploratory sandbox.
When does this round end?
The round will end two months after it starts. The team with the highest score will be declared the winner, and who that is will influence the nature of future Arenas.
How does this relate to the Breath change date?
The Breath will not end sooner than the Arena does. Depending on how things on our end go, it might not end a whole lot later than the Arena does. (Edit: sometime after this post, the Breath launch date was revealed to be August 1st, a few weeks after the Arena endpoint.)
I can't be online at the date and/or time the Arena launches. Does this mean that I'll be forever behind compared to people who can afford to arrange their real-life schedule around a game?
One of the new mechanics we're exploring is an XP modifier that boosts your progress a bit based on the difference between your level and the highest level in the Arena. This should help players to catch up - as a development team, we strongly believe that players shouldn't feel punished for having real-life responsibilities that mean the game has to take a back seat.