Yeah, I have had plans to build an arena for lectures and public performances during expo or after launch. Now, literally every county, and half the towns in my Duchy have one.

It does feel like too much is being sold off and the actual purpose of the game is being defeated.

I think this would be a boon to those who want to build arenas and facilitate tourneys and contests, as well as festivals, performances, etc. I'm also guessing it will be there in the EP store and available for builders in game.

No one's going to be special. It's a drag when someone is like 'aw guess i can't farm/build arenas/dive for pearls/whatever' when they learn another community member wants to do something similar. Find a passion and if someone else shares it, be happy and make friends, even if it means competition. :)

I think there is a temptation for SBS to sell shiny things obviously, but our ability to have any kind of originality to our settlements goes down everytime they put exotic things up for sale, because we all want them. How rare are prize livestock or cardinal bees going to be? Everyone and their uncle will have silver-tipped crossbow bolts and see in the dark potions.

I hope SBS is going to hold back on a lot more of their creative juices, and save the more interesting things for expo, or later, and simultaneously find creative ways to sell more mundane items.

We are going to hit the threshold for gliders and every one of us is going to have one. We will start out in the era of flight :-P

Posted By jonnyz at 8:45 PM - Wed Sep 18 2019

I think there is a temptation for SBS to sell shiny things obviously, but our ability to have any kind of originality to our settlements goes down everytime they put exotic things up for sale, because we all want them. How rare are prize livestock or cardinal bees going to be? Everyone and their uncle will have silver-tipped crossbow bolts and see in the dark potions.

I hope SBS is going to hold back on a lot more of their creative juices, and save the more interesting things for expo, or later, and simultaneously find creative ways to sell more mundane items.

We are going to hit the threshold for gliders and every one of us is going to have one. We will start out in the era of flight :-P

I want gliders so bad, I made a deal with someone that I would give them materials from my county if they need help researching tech for gliders. Now that they are going to be in the store, I don't return his calls anymore.

I do think gliders are pretty major. People will set up towers to glide from place to place, at least I know I will. It's not a flying mount but it's the next place thing for moving from town to town or county to county.

I wish they did blueprints for things like this, I decided against buying it because of that.

With a blueprint those arenas could been modified so they wouldn't be the same copy paste all over the place, and would still require us to arrange for the construction.

I understand it seems good to have it plop down in this case for those who want to get it ready in time for the first tournament, but whoever wins that right gets a free one anyway.

Posted By ShadowTani at 9:35 PM - Wed Sep 18 2019

I wish they did blueprints for things like this, I decided against buying it because of that.

With a blueprint those arenas could been modified so they wouldn't be the same copy paste all over the place, and would still require us to arrange for the construction.

I understand it seems good to have it plop down in this case for those who want to get it ready in time for the first tournament, but whoever wins that right gets a free one anyway.

I actually really like the idea of a blueprint. Then you would need a builder skilled enough to build it as well. That would at least tie back into gameplay.

I really fell in love with the world's first fantasy. Like the first kingdom to get any type of boat would be a power house and everyone would try to catch up. The first arena to be built would attract people from around the world. That would go down in the history of your server.

I was discussing this earlier with others, tbh. I was planning to construct my own arena, so i kinda dislike that they're selling it >.<.

The gliders being sold kinda irk me as well..

I do hope that the arenas at least end up with tribal flair. Honestly given what we know about the arena promo item and what we have seen about tribal variations in architecture, I would say there is a fair chance they will have at least tribal distinction. But I would prefer a blueprint that can be built once for "free" that allows it to be tweaked before building.

Fortunately the gliders (if we get there) are only a blueprint right now. Plus there is nothing saying that these gliders can't be as limited and dangerous as Earth historical early glider tech. Glide down from a mountain, sure. Glide down from a wall? You might get your feet wet on landing if you are crossing a river. (at least I hope that is how it will work out).

I think the fact that everyone will be getting the same arena (except with cultural/biome variations) may make the arenas custom built in game extra special.

Posted By Lira at 11:00 PM - Wed Sep 18 2019

I think the fact that everyone will be getting the same arena (except with cultural/biome variations) may make the arenas custom built in game extra special.

This is true. Whomever make an arena will have to step their game up and make something amazing. Maybe have a tinker at some moving parts to the arena? No sure, what could be done..

I think there is still a chance to build a better arena. Or to build other kinds of venues, such as theatres or opera houses or hippodromes, for other kinds of events.

If you think of the arena like a Roman coliseum it could make sense for it to be so common. Perhaps we could build into the lore why arenas are so culturally central to all the tribes of Mann that they are present in almost every city of note.

I'm going to build the arena but nobody is saying we can't modify it afterwards too.

If I can modify it, It's going to be my city home. Nice little home with a garden in the middle...

In fairness so many people mentioned arena or auditorium style features they were planning that it was an obvious sale item. People couching their areas as "cultured" can point at them as sites for plays, people really interested in empire building can imagine themselves as in Rome.... those of us in seedy capital ports can see them as more grimy locations where people let off steam. A lot of us had plans SBS just made them easier. ;)

Tbh I also see the both sides of the coin in this:

Before only a few people I know wanted to build an arena and this was kinda their initial primary goal in CoE, now a lot of people suddenly went and grabbed it, meaning arenas will be much more common.

On the other hand, I assume arenas would always be available in EP stores or you can still build them in some with during expo using EP..

But the mentality still persists, if you have EP store or in expo you have much more options to pick from, and will focus on something much more relevant to you. When you see only 1 big item as arena now, even if you didn't plan on having it before, "you might as well just get it"

Posted By Abigor at 10:32 AM - Thu Sep 19 2019

Tbh I also see the both sides of the coin in this:

Before only a few people I know wanted to build an arena and this was kinda their initial primary goal in CoE, now a lot of people suddenly went and grabbed it, meaning arenas will be much more common.

On the other hand, I assume arenas would always be available in EP stores or you can still build them in some with during expo using EP..

But the mentality still persists, if you have EP store or in expo you have much more options to pick from, and will focus on something much more relevant to you. When you see only 1 big item as arena now, even if you didn't plan on having it before, "you might as well just get it"

That's actually a very good point tbh. Its also why i have a long list of items I'll probably never use. ;)