Survival Arenas

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One of the signature features of the s.nerd.nu PVP survival server is arena nights, PVP events organized by staff throughout a revision (typically weekly). Arena nights can be many things to many people:

  • 1-2+ hours of guaranteed PVP at all skill levels, to participate in or watch
  • An opportunity to show off your PVP talent in front of an audience
  • A chance to risk your PVP gear for bragging rights and large, valuable prizes
  • Time spent having fun with the rest of the nerd.nu community in a variety of unique, PVP-oriented scenarios

While arenas are taking place, we will usually provide warp commands for you to warp to (/spawnme) and from (/leavearena) the arena. The arena stands are a PvE zone - and you are encouraged to attend and watch even if you don't want to participate! Instructions on how to participate will be provided during the event. Most arena fights require you to bring your own gear, though there are sometimes exceptions.

Stay tuned to the subreddit, spawn, and in-game broadcast for info about upcoming arena events!

Survival Server
Survival logo.png
Current Map Revision: 29
Location: s.nerd.nu

Getting to/from Arenas

  • /spawnme - will teleport you into the arena stands
  • /leavearena - will return you to spawn

These will only work while an arena is taking place!

Arena Rules

There are some special rules we enforce during arenas to help keep things running smoothly, and to make the experience enjoyable for everyone.

  • Don't interfere from the sidelines. This includes (but is not limited to) shooting arrows, throwing potions, throwing potions on spectators, or throwing potions in the arena boxes.
  • Do not ender pearl into a fight. Do not attempt to use ender pearls to participate in a fight or pick up loot. We'll explain how to join in fights properly.
  • Do not ender pearl out of a fight. We'll give some leniency if it's accidental - but repeated or intentional incidents will likely disqualify you from the fight.
  • Be a good sport. Don't gang up with your allies if it's supposed to be an individual fight. Don't take off your gear to avoid damaging it and "save it for later." Your prizes are likely to be reduced or ignored if we think you're not putting in your full effort!
  • All nerd.nu Rules still apply during arena events.

Offenders may be removed from the event, kicked, thored, and/or banned. Help us make this a fun experience!

Fight Formats

Here are examples of some of the fights that might be done during an arena event.

1v1 Duel

  • Two fighters, head-to-head!
  • Teleport each fighter into a box (across from each other, if there are more than 2).
  • Don't let fighters linger in the boxes once the doors are open. (This may apply to other fight types.)
  • If imposing special rules on allowed gear (iron-only, no-armor, no-gear, etc), make sure to check that players are following this. Particularly if you're doing a no-gear (or food-only) fight, you'll want to make sure no one tries to sneak in a weapon attack. (This may apply to other fight types, too.)

1v1v1v1 Fights

  • Four fighters, one winner!
  • Double-check before a fight begins that none of the four competing players are allied with each other. If so, try to swap one of them out into a later fight.

Free-for-alls

  • One big fight for everyone who wants to participant! The last one standing gets everyone's loot plus the prizes.
  • Open up the boxes for players to enter from the (PvE) stands. Give everyone 3-4 minutes to get into a box before closing them, then opening the doors to the PVP arena.
  • Feel free to move some players between boxes if some boxes are more crowded than others.
  • Keep an eye in particular on players trying to disrupt or damage within the boxes (e.g., throwing poison pots in a box).
  • Don't wait for everyone to exit their boxes - give them 10-20 seconds at most, then close the boxes again. Anyone still in their boxes at that point doesn't get to fight!

Team/Clan Fights

  • 2v2, 3v3, etc. fights where it's one team/clan versus another. Last group standing wins!
  • Usually best to confirm that the players on a team are actually allies. As otherwise, there's nothing stopping teammates from killing each other when the other team is down...

Mob Fights

  • It's the players vs. the mobs! Kill all the enemies to win the prizes.
  • This can be set up a couple different ways:
    • You can have one player fight a bunch of mobs (simple, but not many people get to participte), or have a bunch of players fight the mobs (lots of participation, but you'll often have players start attacking each other even if they're not supposed to).
    • You can have a single round with a bunch of mobs, or do several (3) rounds in succession, with escalating challenge. Each subsequent round increases the value of the prizes, but you can't leave the arena to restock between fights.
    • If doing multiple rounds, you can give players new prizes (of escalating value), or make them risk their winnings from previous rounds for a better subsequent prize.
  • Some mobs can only be spawned via /spawnmob, such as giants. You'll need an admin to do these.
  • Try not to use flying mobs, unless the arena is covered (or can be easily world-edited to be covered). Be careful with witches, as they can potentially toss potions into the stands. Never use ender dragons, ever.
  • Remember that many mobs burn in daylight - if you want to use them, consider covering the arena, or setting the time to night (do this sparingly, though, since it also affects anyone not at the arena).

Kit Fights

  • The one case where you don't need to bring your own gear! Special fights with special gear.
  • Typical example of a kit fight: archery fights. Give every player leather armor, a bow, and a bunch of arrows (and maybe also food) - no other gear can be brought or used.
  • These are tricky because you're supplying the gear. That means you might have cases where players smuggle in gear to use (e.g., potions), or realize they have to get rid of what they're holding after the fact and don't have anywhere to put it. Just try to clearly explain what needs to happen, and take it slow if need be.
  • Kit signs are the ideal solution for doing these - talk to the tech admins to set these up.

Other Fight Ideas

  • Fight on pigs (or other animals)!
  • Flood the arena and fight on boats!

Prizes

These are some of the typical prizes awarded for winning various types of arena events.

General Guidelines

  • Materials used to make PVP kits (i.e. iron ingots and diamonds) are nearly required, since the fighters likely used up PVP gear to participate in the fight!
  • PVP enchantments (Sharpness, Fire Aspect, Protection) are a nice bonus for special prizes, but stay away from other types of enchantments (particularly Fortune and Silk Touch), as they can provide a disproportionate advantage to the players who win them, especially early in a revision.
  • Consider increasing the prize amounts for a fight, if it's a particularly good fight, or the participants have clearly burned through a lot of gear (e.g., putting on replacement helmet/boots). Consider decreasing the prize amounts if the fight is a total mismatch, or if the winner's gear clearly received little damage.
  • Larger prize amounts become more appropriate, the deeper you get into a revision.
  • Aesthetically-pleasing (e.g., quartz, "square" stone brick) and hard-to-obtain (e.g., spider webs, "square" stone brick) are always nice, though make sure to clear the latter with S admins!
  • Don't give beacons as prizes, as they require a ton of effort to obtain legitimately in game.

Typical Prize Amounts

Remember - these are all just guidelines to make it easier to quickly generate prizes during arena nights. Be creative, and use your own judgment - these are amounts I've found to work well. Just remember to clear the prizes you plan to distribute with the S admins ahead of time!

  • For free-for-alls: 32x diamonds (#264); 64x iron ingots (#265); 1-2 prizes from primary tier (see below); 1-2 prizes from bonus tier
  • For diamond-armor fights: 32x diamonds (#264); 64x iron ingots (#265); 2 prizes from primary tier
  • For iron-armor fights: 16x diamonds (#264); 32x iron ingots (#265); 1 prize from primary tier
  • For no-armor fights: 2-4x diamonds (#264); 16x iron ingots (#265); 0-1 prizes from secondary tier

Bonus Tier

  • 1x diamond sword (#276) with /enchant sharpness 5
  • 1x set of diamond armor with /enchant protection 4
  • 1x enchanted golden apple (#322:1)
  • 1-3x pairs of spawn eggs for pig (#383:90), sheep (#383:91), cow (#383:92)

Primary Tier

  • 32x spider web (#30)
  • 64x wool (#35)
  • 64x brick (#45)
  • 32x obsidian (#49)
  • 32x glowstone (#89)
  • 64x "square" stone brick (#98:3)
  • 32x redstone lamp (#123)
  • 4x daylight sensor (#151)
  • 64x quartz (#155; or chiseled #155:1 or pillar #155:2)
  • 8x hopper (#154)
  • 32x gold ingot (#266)
  • 16x ghast tear (#370)

Secondary Tier

  • 8x bookcase (#47)
  • 1x enchantment table (#116)
  • 1x ender chest (#130)
  • 1x anvil (#145)

Don't forget about music discs as a possible extra fun prize! #2256-2267

Staff Operations

A handy guide on the kind of stuff you'll need to do as staff to run a successful arena event!

Building an Arena

  • Lots of ways to get arena designs: you can design them yourself, or you can ask for designs (do a build contest!), or you may just get awesome submissions from players without asking! Be flexible - don't waste time working on your own design if you already have one available with little modification.
  • Features of the perfect arena:
    • Very difficult/impossible for players to get in without warping (important since stands are PVE)
    • Difficult for players to get out without warping (this is much less important than the last one)
    • An arena floor that's big enough for all kinds of combat, but small enough that everyone can see what's going on
      • Because the PVP/PVE region boundaries have to fit perfectly with the correct areas, design the arena floor such that it can be protected precisely with a few rectangular regions. Circular/elliptical regions are a pain in the ass to make.
    • Spectator stands that provide nice vantage points of the action, but don't make it too easy to interfere.
    • Boxes which open up into the arena floor, when a fight is ready to begin. These boxes should be PVE zones, and the openings to the arena floor should be triggered by a redstone contraption that opens all the boxes simultaneously. (Simplest way is to have a redstone trigger under the arena floor, but you could also redirect it to a control room somewhere.)
    • A pathway from the spectator stands into the arena boxes, for people to enter prior to free-for-alls. This can be as complex as redstone-triggered doors, or as simple as a couple blocks removed out of the back of each box right before an FFA.
    • Ender chests in the spectator stands, for easy access to gear
    • Special features that mix up gameplay, like toggle-able terrain/water/lava, beacons, or potion dispensers. Bonus points if they are redstone-controlled from a central location.
    • Having a lot of varied terrain in the arena can be lots of fun, but it has its downsides - it's difficult to keep track of players, it's too easy for them to hide, and it may extend fights if they can't keep track of each other.

Operating an Arena Night

  • Before the first arena night in a new arena, make sure that:
    • All the protections are correct. The entire arena should be build protected, g:ModMode should have permission to build (this allows mods in modmode to put prizes in chests), and the chest-access flag should be set to allow (so players can open said chests). Make sure there's no location where:
      • Spectators can fight each other in the stands, or fighters on the arena floor
      • Players can attack each other in the boxes
      • Players can't be attacked by other players on the arena floor
      • Players can attack spectators from the arena floor
    • The location for players to warp into the arena has been set - /setwarp arena.
    • A short version of the arena rules, and directions to the arena boxes (for FFA) are posted somewhere.
  • You'll want one person to be the main organizer of the event - they'll be the ones planning what kind of fights to do when, deciding who participates in each fight, opening/closing the box doors, controlling redstone, and managing /broadcasts. It's really helpful to have one person do this, as arenas tend to drag on if everything's being decided by committee.
  • Other tasks that need to be handled:
  1. Teleporting players into boxes before a fight (and checking that they meet the requirements for the fight, gear-wise).
  2. Teleporting winning players off the arena floor (after they've gathered their loot).
  3. Clearing the arena floor of leftover mobs/loot.
  4. Keeping an eye on players interfering in the stands, from the boxes, pearling out of fights, etc.
  • I typically have one person handle #1, another handle #2 (if available), then have the rest of the staff handle #3 and #4 as needed.
  • Plan your arenas ahead of time! Knowing what fights you want to do or prizes to give out, even roughly, will make the arena event itself go much more smoothly.
  • Have two temp warps set up in the arena floor: /warp prize (wherever you're going to give players prizes, on the arena floor; build a little platform for it) and /warp control (wherever the mechanisms for the arena are). Makes it much faster to move around. You may also consider making a temp warp in each box, i.e. /warp box1, /warp box2, etc.
  • A single person can manage an entire arena, though it will be slower. Sequence is (1) find people to fight, (2) warp to boxes and /tphere them in, (3) /warp control and ask if they're ready, (4) do a 10-second countdown and open the doors, then (5) /warp prize to give out prizes to the winner when done. You may have difficulty keeping track of everything that's going on, though (like ender pearling / interference).
  • Moderators are always encouraged to run arenas! An admin doesn't need to be present - we've tried to configure the arena setup such that mods can do everything that needs to be done. The main difference is that, since you'll be in modmode, you'll need to give prizes in chests, rather than dropping them. Please clear any prizes you intend to give out with S admins before doing so!
  • When setting up fights that aren't free-for-alls, it's usually easiest to have players sign up by typing in some keyword. For example:
    • /broadcast To participate in the next (fight, set of fights), type "fightme"!
  • Make sure players know that once they sign up to fight, they better be ready to go. Still, always helpful to double-check that all fighters are ready before starting the countdown.
  • Right before opening the box doors, /broadcast a 10-second countdown (something like "Fight begins in 10 seconds!"), then count it down in your head and open the doors.
  • Some mechanisms for speeding up the outcome of a fight, if it's dragging on too long:
    • Turn on a strength beacon
    • Start spitting splash strength potions out of dispensers

Mixing Things Up

Make arena fights more interesting!

  • Throw in potions! (We often set up arenas to have auto-dispensing potion dispensers.)
  • Turn on beacons! (This can be automated via redstone + pistons.)
  • Add in water/lava features! (This can be easily set up to turn on/off via redstone, too.)
  • Add mobs! (either /spawnmob, or place mob spawners and world-edit them to certain types)
  • Change the terrain!
  • Other ideas?

Special Arena Formats

  • Lightning rounds. Create a single-file list of willing participants - you may consider creating separate lists based on what gear they are wearing. Pull the first two on the list into the arena, and have them fight until one wins. Then, for each subsequent fight, have the winner of the previous fight fight the next person on the list. Don't let the winning player leave the arena floor to re-gear or heal up (though they can certainly use whatever the losing player dropped). Players get escalating prizes based on how many fights in a row they win before losing (perhaps capped at 5 in a row). You may also choose to have it be a "double or nothing"-like scenario, like we sometimes do with mob fights, where they risk winnings thus far to keep going for better prizes. This is a nice format because you can get through a lot of fights quickly - while 2 are fighting, you can go ahead and move the next fighter into a box.
  • Elimination tournaments. Single-elimination brackets, which are easy to make websites for - see, for example, http://www.bracketmaker.com/. Winner of each fight moves on to the next spot in the bracket. This are often used to plan arena participants in advance, but be forewarned that the further in advance you plan a bracket, the more players in the bracket you'll have no-show - and it's tricky to decide whether to giving the remaining players a win by default, or to match them up with a late entrant.
  • Survival Arena League. Format being done this revision - for more info, see these links:

Multimedia

Whether it's images of old arenas or proposed ideas, videos of fights, or anything along those lines - post your images and videos here!

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