I personally loved the arena faction in oblivion, that said i felt it could have had much more depth to it.
so i was thinking rather than having blue team vs. the yellow team, we could have prominent house holds that own the gladiators. have a few different house's in every town, each house has X amount of gladiators maybe even some of the meaner creatures. also every house hold has there own champion, and when he/she falls, the next best gladiator gets the tittle. also it was way to short, i never understood why after beating everyone there was no more NPC's to fight. i think with it like this it could be a constantly evolving. maybe have the one main arena, then in smaller towns/ cities have fight pits or just a smaller arena.
anywho i could go on for hours on things to implement into it.
now that you've read my ramblings, let me know what you think. ya or nay.

one more thing. if we do see the arena in the final game i would like to see gladiator armour (ie. a secutor and murmillo style helmets along with the arm armour and a gorget) it would be neat if they where custom tailored to the house hold they represented.

Nothing wrong with an arena, and this thread gives me yet again one more chance to say that I would love to see trial by combat as part of the legal system, and what better venue than an arena, Oblivion did it with the three Argonian prisoners.

I know I'll probably be chased down by a bloodthirsty mob for putting this here, but I would love to see some sort of multiplayer component utilized through the arean system.

Me too man (And it actually being in the game of Skyrim, not some option on the menu, or something, and when you go into the arena you either get matched up with an NPC or with another regular player/ another regular players stats, and just their character's PC, or something, Im not sure how it would work with the majority of players playing singleplayer...)

I like the arena... as long as there's no "fame/infamy" system in Skyrim and winning the last match doesn't get you noticed by the Dark Brotherhood automatically.

Also... the fighters guild better appreciate the fact that I'm the champion of the arena...

maybe have the prisoner battle/ executions in the morning, then progress through the normal gladiators midday ,then the primos in the evening.

Absolutely love the idea Wark!! I could play out my own storylines similar to the Spartacus show on Starz. Great idea! And like another member mentioned, have the fighters guild recognize my accomplishments!

This would be the ONLY implementation of multiplayer I would like to see in TES games.

Yes, some sort of arena like area I would love.

Only, it might be hard to implement, because I dont see thousands of ES players lining up to play the Arena... (though I would love for that to happen...)

Go talk about MP in the other thread where it belongs, keep it out of this thread, thanks.

I agree with Zen, it should primarily be for that use, the other combatants wouldn't necessarily have to die, you could choose to spare their lives with many different outcomes. if you let them live, they might become your friends, or try to kill you sometimes later in an ambush for the humiliation of losing to you. if you kill them, you could make enemies and get chased by persons close to him.

With the new combat system in place I think having another arena is a must.
I like the idea of being able to spare lives,however I will not be sparing any. :tongue:

Yes, trial by combat both as a punishment for the player and as part of the arena quest line,
More fighting against monsters and animals, few fight with other gladiators before late in the quest line. And yes a lower level cap on the other gladiators in the quest line, you will have problems finishing the arena at level 5, the other guilds will have skill requirements but not the arena.

yes! a tougher, more brutal and more rewarding arena would be great also maybe let the reputation you get from it mean more . maybe people fear you for being the grandmaster - and flee from battle with you.

This is something I'd like to see, and would certainly add a lot more depth to the Arena. The outcomes could also be different (befriending or ambushing) dependant on your characters actions up to this point in the game too, supporting the radiant AI on subsequent playthroughs with different characters.

By Azura, by Azura, I loved the Arena and the reward in the end...Wait, what?

Maybe this is how the game will start. We know we will be a prisoner, rumour is that we might be starting with an execution. Maybe we actually start in the arena with trial by combat. Or perhaps the arena is using prisoners as its contestants!?

Taverns are the arenas.

I like the house idea. Perhaps after becoming the Arena champion, you will randomly get challenges from other combatants.

As I have said in other threads, adding a trial by combat option on top of go to jail, pay fine etc. is one of the areas of a game where level scaling kind of makes sense.
Whether you want it or not, being a higher level through your deeds would bring fame or notoriety in it's wake, so you would be required to face a judicial champion of a level similar to your own, and this could be modified according to the magnitude of the crime, a simple theft meaning an opponent a few levels lower, who can easily be bested, while a mass murderer might be required to defeat a fully tooled up, over leveled paladin.
could be lethal or not, maybe at the whim of the court, if you are defeated but live, both hefty fines and a much, much longer stay in prison could result.

I think that is the only way multiplayer would work in the game and I wouldn't mind as long as it doesn't affect anything in the single player

As mentioned earlier in this thread, if I would be given an option to fight for my freedom in the arena.. that would be awesome.

I agree this would be a great multi player feature as long as its completely separate from the single player game.

The arena was cool, and could be done a lot better. I'd like it to return in some form. Also... an arena, being such a controlled and focused environment ~at least has the potential for a simplified multi-player (within the arena itself; and especially if it were segmented into two rival team quarters, that only ever meet on the field).:shrug:

Yes indeed, but I also thought that you could get to know some more of the ones you are fighting against the rumor way if you want to investigate before fighting them. In most fantasy books I've read, the duels and arena type fights actually are planed days ahead and the two combatants know lots of stuff about eachother. I'm not saying all fights should be like this, but some could, meaning that if you find out that they are from a family where failing is not an option, letting him live might just get you that ambush sometimes further in the game. I also think the arena itself could be a bit more interesting when it comes to the pit and crowd, the family members and friends of the combatants could be present.

One thing about the arena and the fights though, I don't think that we should have to face low-life or scum such as prisoners and simply finders of fortune if we are the grand master of something publicly respected or even a higher member in it. The fight should instead be more honorable, where killing the other wouldn't look good in the eyes of the others.