Season 4, Event 1: Battle Royale

There's a ton of untapped PvP potential in this game. How about a Battle Royale race? Combination Cut-throat + Descent. Inspired by movies like Battle Royale and The Hunger Games.

So how does this work?

• Hardcore: you get one life in this race. Any player who dies is eliminated from the tournament (single elimination).
• Phantom event: Characters and their items are permanently destroyed once a Battle Royale event ends.
• Solo, free-for-all, cutthroat PvP - every man for himself. All items, including gems & flasks, are dropped on death.
• 30min in advance race registration opens.
• When the race starts, registration closes.
• Players are evenly distributed, into random pods of 12 players or less.
• Each pod gets its own self-contained instance, with no entrance nor exits.
• The zones are populated by monsters.
• There is no town and no town portals drop.
• All players start out equidistantly scattered around the zone.
• Each player gets a class-based Starting Provisions where he starts. Possibly Alluring+Curious instead, with 2 different options of "starting provisions".
• Each pod ends when there is one last man standing.
• When all round 1 pods are finished, a new round begins. Same idea, evenly distributed pods containing all the winners, retaining all items and experience acquired, in the next higher level zone.
• In the 2nd round and on, there are no chests where you spawn.
• In all zones, X (based on #players starting in the zone) class-based Alluring/Curious chest pairs are strewn about the center of the zone (this creates a focal point of activity).
• The zones can be designed in a similar way to the 15 Descent levels. Only 4 zones/rounds are needed for 1,729-20,736 entrants. 3 zones/rounds for 145-1728 entrants.
• If you leave the game or are disconnected while your pod is active, you are eliminated from the race. This is the only option fair to all players. Any time you spend outside the game is 100% safe, which is not fair/viable. The races will be quite short anyway, i don't think it will be an issue. (For this race type only i would strongly recommend tuning the inactivity window that causes disconnection. A player would rather be sitting there inactive for 30 seconds, than be taken out of the race entirely after the current ~5 seconds before connection drop.)

Other possible ideas:

• A losers bracket, for the 92% of us that get eliminated in the first round, and then the 92% of the 8% remaining in round 2, etc. This would be much more complicated to develop and may not be worth the effort. The "top rewards" could be changed from pod-based to class-based if this scenario is used.
• If there could be a problem with a pod lasting too long/indefinitely, there are some options. Make zones smaller; show all characters on the minimap at all times no matter how far away; add map mods like a permanent Chaos DOT, creating a sense of urgency as everyone will die before long.

RULES

• Hardcore: A character killed in Hardcore is moved to its parent league.
• Drop equipped items on death.:
• Harsh death experience penalty: Increases the death experience penalty by 30% on all difficulty levels.
• Hostile by default: Non-partymembers are hostile by default when you are not partied.
• Death penalty awarded to slayer: When killing a player, their death penalty is awarded to the player doing the killing.
• Increased player caps: Doubles player capacity in non-town instances. Does not increase the party size.
• Solo: You may not party in this league.

This league has Cutthroat, Hardcore and Phantom enabled, when you die to enemies of any type you are eliminated.

A summary of hardcore Cutthroat rules:

• There's a PvP damage multiplier because players start with a lot more life than they do damage. This multiplier will be adjusted substantially based on feedback from this event and others.
• Players are hostile by default to players who are not in their party.
• Cut-throat instances can hold a maximum of 12 players.
• This is a hardcore league. When you die, you lose the normal experience penalty for your difficulty plus 30% of your current level. You also drop all inventory and equipped items. Your flasks, skill gems (even ones in your inventory) and quest items are dropped.
• If you were killed by another player, your lost experience is split among their party.
• Non-partied players only show up on the map if they're nearby.
• You cannot apply microtransaction effects to items in cut-throat. You may dance and have pets.

Standard rules for league events apply. Please click this link if this is your first race event.

For information about Race Season Four, please check out this announcement!

To see your points in the current season (and its prizes), go to this page.

Top Prizes:

The overall alive top player will receive 10 Reward Points.

The top players by pod will receive:

• Final pod: 10 Reward Points
• 2nd-last pod: 6 Reward Points
• 3rd-last pod: 3 Reward Points (if there are 4 rounds)

Prizes for reaching specific levels:

• Level 8: 10 Reward Points
• Level 7: 7 Reward Points
• Level 6: 6 Reward Points
• Level 5: 5 Reward Points
• Level 4: 4 Reward Points
• Level 3: 3 Reward Points
• Level 2: 1 Reward Point

Random Prizes:
Each Reward Point you earn in this race counts as a ticket in a random draw for one of the following items:

• Alternate Art X Unique Item (XX available to be won)
• Alternate Art X Unique Item (XX available to be won)
• Alternate Art X Unique Item (XX available to be won)
• Alternate Art X (X available to be won)
• Alternate Art X Unique Item (X available to be won)
• Alternate Art X Unique Item (X available to be won)

good idea :)

like