Playing through the vanilla arena quest line was a real disappointment. I beat the Grey Prince at level 2 ... and he didn't even fight back cause of that stupid quest. I guess the arena grand champion is supposed to be one of the strongest fighters in Cyrodiil and a famous celebrity, but I sure didn't feel all that special or proud of my accomplishment. And the arena itself just feels so barebones with the absolute minimum of people and buildings associated with it, like Bethesda slapped it in at the last minute. Time to fix this with mods! These are the issues I'd most like to see fixed:

1) Stronger opponents. You really shouldn't be able to finish this quest before level 10, minimum.

2) Better pay. I find it hard to believe that anybody would risk their life and kill people in cold blood on a daily basis for such a meager reward. Successful arena gladiators should be living the high life!

3) More buildings in the arena district. Why's it so empty? A dinky little arena in an empty district with only a few trees and pillars. Sure doesn't look nearly as grand as it's hyped up to be. There should be bars, training areas, a barracks for the gladiators, weapon and armor shops, merchant stands selling arena souvenirs, park benches, fountains, etc.

4) Homes for the arena npcs. Seriously, they all just stand around 24 seven doing nothing. Sometimes I wonder if Owyn's legs are broken, I've never seen him budge an inch. I mean, It's even sillier because the arena does close, yet they all still stand around staring at thin air. And why does the arena grand champion train in such an inferior, squalid area? He's the champion, he should be rolling in dough! He needs a fancy apartment with state-of-the art training equipment, a four-post bed, stocked up kitchen, the works.

5) Better award for becoming the grand champion. Adoring fan and fighting goblins doesn't cut it. You're a celebrity now, you deserve better! That grand champion apartment I suggested for the grey prince would make a fine reward.

6) More npcs. Let's count all the people in the arena. There's the bet taker, those two arena hopefuls punching each other nearby, and ... a few guards. Wow. I thought people loved the arena? There should be crowds of fans outside, lots more hopefuls training to become gladiators someday, tourists from other cities, merchants hawking trinkets, food and drink to the crowds. You should be able to see all those unique combatants you have to kill walking around before you off em too.

7) A bloodworks for the yellow team. We know there is one. The doors on the opposite side of the arena from the entrance to the blue team's bloodworks, but you can't enter it, and bizarrely, there's no door to it on the *outside* of the arena. No wonder the yellow team champion hangs out in the blue team's bloodworks even though she seems to hate them all, it'd be pretty inconvenient to have to walk across the open combat circle to get there every time. While we're at it, give Owyn and the arena master chick their own office, it's pretty stupid that they hang out in the blue team's room even though they run the place.

8) Challengers to the title. Killing monsters is fun and all, but every now and then you should have to fight a skilled gladiator upstart who wants to become the new grand champion.

9) Choose your team. Why do you have to be on the blue team? Even if it's just a change of uniform color, it'd be nice to have the illusion of choice.

Anyway, that's my arena wishlist. Anyone know any mods that fix any of this stuff, or got their own ideas of what they'd like to see changed about the arena?

The balance issue specifically is addressed by Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. The opponents become progressively more difficult so you can't be the grand champion at level 2.

i used waalx's Real Swords Gladiator Mod a while, it was pretty good. Added all kinds of gladiator weapons and helmets and armor and such. It was pretty good, i enjoyed it. You have to sign up at his site to get it though. you can find it here: http://waalx.com/RealSwordsForum/index.php

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=3268 by Lord_Gannondorf adds a Yellow Team Bloodworks, a blacksmith, combat as Arena Grand Champion, lootable gear, spectator variations and turns the Adoring Fan into a full-fledged companion.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13099 by WillieSea keeps the Arena open 24 hours a day with special night-time lighting, adds one of WillieSea's clocks to the Bloodworks, new posters, spectator variations and more spectators as the player gains ranks, lootable equipment, increased winnings, a few minor changes to the Arena District itself.

I use WillieSea's mod myself. But I stole an idea from Arena Enhanced and added a blacksmith to the mod. I also replaced the new posters with some of the ones put out by the community (the mod's original posters looked garish to me), added a living quarters off the Bloodworks for my character, a new chaindoll that works with Setsuna's Dummy Training mod and a new NPC arena gladiator-in-training that also uses the new chaindoll and sleeps in the new liviing quarters. I actually like the "vanilla" Arena Enhanced better, but I've spent so much time customizing Arena Alive that I feel stuck with it now, lol.

Personally, my advice would be to go with Arena Enhanced, but they're both good mods.

I found a mod that looks like it fulfills most of the realism I wanted added to the arena district. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33804 by Dreadcore. haven't installed it yet but it looks promising:


Hopefully it's compatible with Better Cities.



Yes, this is exactly the kind of mod I'm looking for! I honestly was convinced that no modder had ever made a yellow team bloodworks before, I've looked and looked but never found anything like, turns out I was looking at the wrong websites, I don't frequent planetelderscrolls. And while normally I wouldn't want lootable gladiators, this mod says it nerfs their gear, so if you can't get the 100% resist magic shield it should be fine. Thanks for the link!

Alright, Arena Enhanced, Arena District Alive, OOO and Waalx's Real Swords Arena... hopefully I can make them all work together peacefully. Gonna start a new character and hit up the arena again, make Spartacus proud!

[Edit] Hmm, on second thought I think I'll leave RS - Arena out of my load order, the readme says it's partially unfinished and still has bugs, so it probably won't play nice with any other arena mods.

I must admit to finding it very hard to take the arena seriously,. Some of my reasoning is similar to the OPs.

We don't know what the casualty rate was for gladiators in the roman arena, but the highest estimate is about 16%! Yes, that low! Don't be confused by people who were executed in the arena or thrown to animals. Think more like wrestling superstars. Not that many fights to the death. Gladiators also had, shall we say, a reputation and the reaction of their fans was cause for much comment.

I find it ridiculous that in Tamriel, people will risk their lives for the cost of a few drinks.

I just gotta say Tamriel Immersion Experience , I don't know if it supports Better Cities, also you might want to try OOO. Tamriel Immersion Experience will make your game very hard and its probably the best choice for you.

@ Symon69 - Yeah, I totally agree. Unless Cyrodiil has a much worse economy than the game otherwise implies and there are hordes of tragically poor people desperate enough to kill or die for pocket change, the arena doesn't make much sense. Considering how poor the pay is and that every fight is too the death, it should be almost impossible to find volunteers and almost every match would have to be between condemned criminals and/or beasts.

Also there is almost no showmanship in the Imperial Arena. Every fight is a simple deathmatch, short and brutal. This is exciting in it's own way, but once the arena gained popularity the demand for gladiators would outstrip the supply and this model of combat would be unsustainable, especially since Cyrodiil doesn't practice slavery. No one would join, very few gladiators would live long enough to ever get famous, and matches would be few and far between. The real Roman arena made up for this in varying ways - they had indoctrinated slave gladiators, there were fights against beasts (regularly, not just for grand champions), comedy fights, "warmup" duels where the combatants used blunted weapons, and referees who would separate gladiators so they could rest before resuming fighting. Also, as you pointed out, most fights (not involving criminals) didn't end in death. The audience usually decided whether the loser would die or not.

Honestly though, the biggest hammer blow that shattered my suspension of disbelief was how amateurish the whole questline feels. There is only 8 or 9 permanent npcs involved, the arena itself is hilariously small, and there are only 3 rooms you can enter in the entire district. Where do the crowds of cheering fans vanish to once you leave the arena? Where do all those random gladiators live when they're off duty? Why do none of the important npcs every move an inch from where they're glued to the floor?

TL;DR - The Arena is highly unrealistic, feels unfinished, hard to take seriously.

I think what I'd like to see is a total rebuild of the Entire Arena quest line:-

Most of the fights not to the death.
Many of them rigged. You get greater rewards if you follow the script with style.
Political shenanigans as you get to meet the Great and Good of the IC who want to rub shoulders, or other things, with an Arena darling.
Fighting against monsters before you become GC. Real fights here.
Be tasked to take out a good opponent who 'doesn't follow orders'; they are a liability now.
An option to be an anonymous Gladiator. The management likes that. Adds to the mystique!
Follow the whims of the crowd - or not.
At least four teams and colours.
A rework of some kind to the Grey Prince.

You get the idea.

Completely agree..

As already pointed out, Waalx released a promising overhaul but afaik it's still beta and unfinished..

Who knows, maybe someone will jump on that and make it fully playable