New Update 3/5/2013 SEASONS TOURNAMENTS!

[Nate]

Greeting Pit Masters!

This update has introduces Seasons! What are Seasons? Seasons are 2-3 month long tournaments where the top gladiators in the arena compete for prizes and fame!

The top 40 gladiators in Primus were promoted to a new bracket named "Blood Gods". The old Blood Gods bracket has been renamed Blood Lords (along with all titles and achievements). Then each week gladiators who meet the Blood Gods criteria will be promoted. The criteria to be promoted involves being in the top 10 and having above a certain number of ranking points.

Once a gladiator is promoted to a Blood God they no longer fight in the "regular" arena. Their overall record is still updated, but a new record that gets reset at the start of each season will be the one displayed on the ranking page. Blood Gods also have a new system to rank them. The system is based on a rating system originally designed to rank chess players and is now widely used in many sports and video games. The name of the system is called the Elo Rating System and you can find more information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system

The short version is all gladiators have a rating and when matched up against another gladiator the number of points they win or lose is dependent on each gladiator's rating. If two gladiators have the same rating the winner will win X points and the loser will lose X points. If gladiator A has a higher rating then B and wins the amount of points won and lost will be less since it is expected that gladiator A should win. Had gladiator B (the underdog) won, the amount of points won and lost would be greater since gladiator B should not have won. Gladiators coming into the Season late will still be able to raise in the ranks since the system doesn't solely revolve around number of fights but more around who they defeat and lose to in those fights.

Once a week gladiators will be awarded with Blood God Points (BGP) that will be used to buy special gear only available to Blood Gods. The amount awarded is based on their participation, wins and rating with higher rated gladiators being awarded more. Please see below for more details:

* In order to receive any points at all a gladiator must initiate at least 20 fights.
* If a gladiator has initiated at least 20 fights, they then must win at least 30 fights to receive full points. Gladiators failing to win 30 fights will receive less BGP than they otherwise would have.

The special seasons gear will be available at the Blacksmith soon. Each Season new gear will be created and previous Seasons' gear will be discounted, possibly even finding its way into the regular arena.

As always we'll fine tune things as we go if need be.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Cynaidh]

Nice! Looks like this will be interesting.

Since this is such a change to the rating system I am throwing out my former aversion to challenging, as who you fight will be much more important it seems to me sense a random match up with someone with lower points will end up with you receiving less points. So if in the past I have asked you not to challenge me or I have said I will not challenge you please consider all those agreements void at this point. Lets see how bloody the Blood Gods will get!

[Nate]

There is no challenging in Seasons as it would be too easy to game the system. The majority of the time a gladiator will be pitted against another within a range of his or her current rating to keep matches more fair. On occation a "wild card" match could happen where a gladiator is matched up with another far above or below them.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Cynaidh]

0.o you know i i totally missed that challenges where gone.... wow. :) The new toy is even shiner now. Is the top 10 being able to use trophies for more fights also intended?

[Nate]

0.o you know i i totally missed that challenges where gone.... wow. :) The new toy is even shiner now. Is the top 10 being able to use trophies for more fights also intended?

There is no restriction on fighting more often if you would like to. Since there is the risk of losing rating points on each loss, the choice is up to each Master.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

Having a small technical difficulty that I'm taking care of right now so the game will be down for a little bit.

[Cynaidh]

For those that didn't get to see it the achievement for becoming a blood god is +200 hit points.

[HipsterD]

Same retirement rule apply for Seasons? If I have a glad that needs retiring, I'm free to do so at any time during the current Season? No rush, just curious.

[Nate]

Same retirement rule apply for Seasons? If I have a glad that needs retiring, I'm free to do so at any time during the current Season? No rush, just curious.

Yes, the same rules apply.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

Sorry for the outage, the hosting company's power went down. All is back up and seems to be working. If you find any bugs with the new update please let me know. Thanks!

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Sotc]

Awesome stuff! Thanks for your hard work on this, I really appreciate all the new additions.

[Alba Kebab]

No challenges in BG. I like!

[Pit Lord]

"The criteria to be promoted involves being in the top 10 and having above a certain number of ranking points."
Can we have some more info about the promotion criteria?
Im running non-HOL gladiators and dont want them promoted.

[Apoca1ypse]

I'm liking all of this and am proud of the fact that Blarg and Arg qualified (and that Blarg is performing well there too :P)

Only problem with all of this is that it's going to be harder for me to get them up to a 55% w/l. I've almost clawed them back to 50% (from 46%) and yeah, this may hamper that progress....

[Pit Lord]

The goal for new gladiators is: Reach 825 wins before 1500 fights to ensure retirement. Joining this bracket will never be a good thing.

[Cynaidh]

Nate, what K-factor are you using, out of curiosity.

[Apoca1ypse]

Just curious but is bladeslinger dead? In 40 matches I have not had any glad paired up with him. If so, that seems like a rather sly way to get ontop with ratings and then make it such that you cannot be challenged back. Even if bladeslinger is alive and I'm just not getting paired, there is the possibility for someone to do this at some point.

Nate, is it possible to include an auto rez for bloodgods to stop people exploiting this little trick?

[Cynaidh]

Just curious but is bladeslinger dead?


Not possible for any of my glads i have both the blacksmith and temple automatic services running on both my teams.

So far he has had these for other people fighting him today:

[Mar 06 08:42 am] ARENA - Mother Mercy vs Bladeslinger
[Mar 06 07:55 am] ARENA - Bladeslinger vs Doofus
[Mar 06 07:18 am] ARENA - Belwraith vs Bladeslinger
[Mar 06 06:55 am] ARENA - Beltank vs Bladeslinger

[Apoca1ypse]

all good. wasnt saying you were definitely doing it, and I was pretty sure you already had the temple sorted, just that not seeing you in over 40 matches got me wondering....

[Cynaidh]

Yes you'd think they would have had a match up by now. Looks like there is more variance in who you fight here as compared to Primus, kinda nice i am seeing glads i have never fought before in matches vs my glads.

Nate i noticed there was no achievement for taking 1st or an "Undisputed" title to work towards, is that intended?

[HipsterD]

I'm liking all of this and am proud of the fact that Blarg and Arg qualified (and that Blarg is performing well there too :P)

Only problem with all of this is that it's going to be harder for me to get them up to a 55% w/l. I've almost clawed them back to 50% (from 46%) and yeah, this may hamper that progress....

I'm also a little concerned as I've been working to get Beelze Bob back from below 49% and is doing alright, but if he gets inducted, it won't be pretty as he's been hanging around the middle of primus. I would have liked to retire Pasquinelli as well (one of my first HoL glads and being a bit overwhelmed by how seemingly good they were I pulled the trigger too early), but as fortune has it he will now be hard pressed to get to 55% in Blood Gods. It's more likely going the other way.

I know it's impossible to accommodate all, but those who aren't HoL glads maybe should get an invite as opposed to being inducted? Or give the option of replacing a blood god glad with a HoL caliber slave when inducted. This would give all players a second way of getting their hands on a high caliber glad.

[oedi]

know it's impossible to accommodate all, but those who aren't HoL glads maybe should get an invite as opposed to being inducted? Or give the option of replacing a blood god glad with a HoL caliber slave when inducted. This would give all players a second way of getting their hands on a high caliber glad.
i just sold my blood god non hol 54% W/L glad. It would just be impossible to get him up 55% now. :(
And i had no intentions of just letting him hang around to be a punching bag.
Actually i just sold retired 4 of my 10 inductees.

[Sotc]

I share your concerns about being able to retire glads from Seasons. My non-hol bleeder theatrics is doing very poorly and I am seriously considering scuttling her until seasons is over as I still need 100 more wins to reach the retirement req on her; I don't foresee being able to reach that in the Blood Gods bracket. Perhaps a minimum fight req might be put in place for Blood Gods?

*edit*
Agreed with both of HipsterD's suggestions regarding non-hol glads

[Cynaidh]

I am seriously considering scuttling her until seasons is over

I don't think it will ever be "over" when this season is done the ranks get reset but everyone stays in blood gods for Season 2.

"Once a gladiator is promoted to a Blood God they no longer fight in the "regular" arena. Their overall record is still updated, but a new record that gets reset at the start of each season will be the one displayed on the ranking page. Blood Gods also have a new system to rank them."

[Cynaidh]

Or give the option of replacing a blood god glad with a HoL caliber slave when inducted. This would give all players a second way of getting their hands on a high caliber glad.

In my opinion if a glad is good enough to be inducted into the blood god's then the 1500 fight 55% win ratio should be thrown out as the glad has shown he is one of the best by being inducted, so i'd love to see the requirements changed to:

Must have reached the Primus bracket.
Must have greater than a 55% win ratio.
Must have 1500 total fights or more.
Must be level 50 or higher.
Not fighting in the Blood Games.

OR

Inducted into the Blood Gods
Not fighting in the Blood Games.

[Sotc]

I like cyn's suggestion, makes a lot of sense

[Apoca1ypse]

+1 to that.

[Team Kaos]

I would agree with that as well. My glad Mother Mercy is good, real good for a non-hol. But no way can she hang with the elite day in day out. The majority of glads she is fighting are easy 100 skill points superior. And those non-hol that are at the top, they benefit from some large attribute boosts from early bloodgame wins.
To bad for Mother Mercy she climbed into the top 35 with a good run of wins. But up against all the HOL's, it's pretty much a blood bath.

Blood Gods should be pretty much HOL eligible glads. Just as Cyn described

[Apoca1ypse]

Not all non-HOL glads are totally juiced on blood games boosts and extra achievement slots. Blarg and Arg are just running gold achievements. Pretty proud of that fact.

I think that qualifying for blood gods should let people gain access to HoL glads, but maybe under the condition of finishing X number of seasons with a rating >1000.

speaking of ratings, will bloodgods be staying at 40 members, or will it continue to grow? If it stays at 40 members, will it be a case of top 20 stay for the next season and the bottom 20 tag out with the top 20 in primus? that seems kinda neat to me.

[Nate]

Nate, what K-factor are you using, out of curiosity.

A whole number between 10 and 100. :)

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

P.S. I'm sure you brainiacs will figure it out in no time!

[Nate]

Thanks for the debate and feedback, allow me to interject a few things for you all to chew on:

* The Hall of Legends is exactly that, a Hall for Legends. As such not every gladiator you buy and train is going to make it. Some will, some will not. The average win ratio for the current gladiators in Primus is almost 55% so many are very close to the magic number, it's not some impossibly difficult goal to achieve. If you don't think your current gladiator(s) have the chops to meet the requirements then ask yourself if you are better off selling them and buying a new slave to start over and try again. Only you can make that decision. Contrary to some beliefs, non-HOL slaves are still very capable of meeting the requirements and with many top gladiators being promoted into Seasons periodically it will become even easier.

* You can't predict future wins and losses in Seasons from the first few days of combat. In the beginning everyone is rated the same so stronger opponents are matched with weaker ones more often until enough battles play out and "correct" ratings are established. At that time if you have a gladiator who was winning or losing a lot that will very likely change since they will be matched up more often with other gladiators of a similar rating.

* Each Master has to decide what they find enjoyable in the game. If always being #1 is the only thing you find enjoyable then by all means you'll want to do what you need to in order to make that happen. If on the other hand you are the "it's the journey not the destination" kind of player then make whatever decisions you need to in order to achieve that goal and find what you enjoy.

* If at a later time it proves too difficult for gladiators to meet the requirements we'll revisit it and make appropriate changes. It might be a modified version of something like Cyn suggested or something completely different. I don't think we are at that point right now though, however, I'll keep my eye on it.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Cynaidh]

The average win ratio for the current gladiators in Primus is almost 55% so many are very close to the magic number, it's not some impossibly difficult goal to achieve.

Not disagreeing but would like to think about that for a lot of Non-HOL glads, they where able to do this because of the challenge system, challenging other non-hol glads or even hol glads (including down challenging glads that where not part of the top 40) that they had a good style match-up against to get more wins then losses. I think that is why Seasons is freaking out people managing non-hol glads that got sucked into Blood Gods, they have lost that ability to challenge favorable match ups and are now going head to head with those HOL glads they normally avoided a lot more, thus lowering their win/loss ratio and giving them no hope that it will go back up due to there loss of there ability to control the fights. Add in the fact that now when you loose a couple of fights you don't drop 20-30 ranks in primus and are now in the top 60 fighting those glads, your now stuck in blood gods fighting the top 40 and no one else. Its a difficult shift in how they can control their fights for managers who are just trying to get a normal glad to 1500 fights at 55% win.

[Alba Kebab]

Well, it is a sort of catch 22, if you are trying to build up your win rate through challenging/challenge avoid everyday, every fight, you will rank higher than you otherwise would, possibly earning you an entrance to BG you may not want.
If someone didn't actively game the challenge system so much, and there are managers who do nothing but down-challenge everyday, they may not have gotten thrown into the BG pool in the first place.

This obviously don't apply to all, but you can't be actively gaming the challenge system to get a higher than should rank and then complain about being moved to a tougher bracket.

[Apoca1ypse]

with the way points were awarded, you could lose every 2-3 fights and not progress in rank/points. That's what seemed to be the case anyway when i was watching random matchups.

[Prinny]

When does "The Next Week" Kick in, Prinny wants to enter his glads! :D

[Cynaidh]

Well if its 7 days after it started should be today, or tonight.

Anyone got any guesses as to what the ranking points cut off is going to be from "The criteria to be promoted involves being in the top 10 and having above a certain number of ranking points", so from that the most we could see promoted per week is 10 since you have to be in the top 10.

[Nate]

Well if its 7 days after it started should be today, or tonight.

Anyone got any guesses as to what the ranking points cut off is going to be from "The criteria to be promoted involves being in the top 10 and having above a certain number of ranking points", so from that the most we could see promoted per week is 10 since you have to be in the top 10.

I'm working on getting some in-game documentation regarding Blood Gods/Seasons that will explain some of these things. Tuesdays at 2am PST are the day Blood Gods are awarded BGP and qualifying Primus gladiators are promoted.

Thanks for your patience and good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Apoca1ypse]

cool. now to make sure Bruce stays on top till then. goal is 1400 rating (made it to 1392 before a loss...)

[Cynaidh]

So i see Belca Noctircus made it in! But was he the only one, I don't see any others? Last i checked Belca and Bloody Lady where only like 500 points apart and i see Bloody Lady is still in Primus, did anyone catch how many points Belca had when he got promoted? Was he over 360k maybe and that's why he was the only one that went in?

[Pit Lord]

Belca Noctircus was just above 350k from what i saw. So i guess the cutoff is 350k.

[Cynaidh]

Yup i'd say your right, was hoping it be lower so we would get some fresh glads in the blood gods.

[Apoca1ypse]

:(

also means those glads at the bottom of the ELO are going to be there for a while. Hopefully it doesnt upset those managers too much. At least the points you earn are pretty generous across all ranks. For those wondering, it's equal to your rating at the end of each week so you should be getting at least 800 points

TBH I dont see much of an issue with allowing people to opt out of seasons because at the end of the day, if they opt out, they are missing out on season points and access to the gear.

[Prinny]

Well atleast I got 1 of the 5 in^^

[Pit Lord]

Bloody Lady will not start any battles last 12 hours before promotion to not mess the plans for gladiators who are near the cutoff, accidentally pushing them in or out.

[Prinny]

Plans my arse just fight and see what happens, any1 that doesn't make the cut isn't worthy of entering Blood Gods yet! :D

[Nate]

Greetings Blood Gods!

The first set of Seasons gear will be ready toward the end of the month, so battle hard, earn your BGP and thanks for your patience!

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Apoca1ypse]

Yay!

Getting to see what we're all fighting for will be good :)