In the Grand Arena, up to four players can do battle for supremacy. Instead of engaging in direct combat, each player controls a single hero unit, and can conjure a few dozen fighters to the field on their behalf. Each of the four cardinal directions has its own team. In the North is the Fire team. In the South is the Water team. In the East is the Earth team. In the West is the Air team.
Each round of play is divided into 2 parts. In the first part, you conjure your fighters to the battlefield. You accomplish this by clicking on one of the five units within the walled-off part of your preparation area. You can have up to 40 fighters ready at a time. To remove a unit from your field, simply select it. Each unit has 10 HP, and an attack that deals 10 damage. All their vital stats are identical, except for armor and damage type, which divides the units into 5 categories.
The five categories of units are:
Precise- Good against Intercept and Armor, bad against Mobile and Range.
Intercept- Good against Mobile and Range, bad against Precise and Armor.
Mobile- Good against Precise and Armor, bad against Intercept and Range.
Armor- Good against Intercept and Range, bad against Precise and Mobile.
Range- Good against Precise and Mobile, bad against Intercept and Armor.
A unit can kill one it is good against in a single hit. A unit can kill one of its own type in 2 types. A unit requires 4 hits to kill one it is bad against.
Each of the four teams has its own versions of these 5 five categories. The Range units are the only ones with ranged attacks, but the range of them is limited enough to prevent this from being a substantial advantage.
At the end of the selection time, all the fighters for all teams will rush blindly into the center of the arena, outside of anyone’s direct control. At the same time, in the center, 40 arena gladiators will spawn, ready to attack each and every team rushing the middle. These central units also make the map viable for a single player. The combat portion of each round lasts for 60 seconds. If any team has units left standing at the end of the round, that team is the winner. It’s Master gets 600 experience points. Whichever team wins 15 rounds is the victor of the game! After a round’s winner is declared, the arena is cleared of fighters and the next selection round begins.
Each team has a Master that you control. As the battles are waged, the Master’s will gain experience and level up, letting you learn new powers to aid your troops. Each Master has the following powers:
Spy: Using this power reveals the entire map for several seconds. You can use this power to see what kind of fighters your opponent is preparing, and prepare a force to counter them. Spy has three levels. Leveling up this power increases the time that the map is revealed and decreases the cooldown.
Elemental Blast: This is an area of effect damage spell. It has 5 levels, each with a larger area of effect. Regardless of level, this power will do 5 damage to each unit that it hits. The Blast spells have a cooldown of 4 minutes.
Elemental Storm: When a Master learns their Storm spell, it enables the use of a powerful attack. These storm powers cause huge elemental explosions in the center of the arena, causing up to 10 units located there to explode instantly. The Storm power is not activated by a quick button click like other powers. Using the Storm power requires the hero to destroy the Congealed Elemental force found in their respective preparation area. Generally, it takes a Master 2 hits to destroy the Congealed Element.
Champion: When a Master learns their Champion spell, it enables the calling of a powerful Champion to the field to fight for that team. Each of the champions has 150 HP and deals 10 damage with their attacks. Champions deal and receive damage equally to and from all types of units. The Champion power is not activated by a quick button click like other powers. To call the Champion, the player need only use their Master to hit the lever in their preparation area.
Aura: Each Master has a unique aura they can learn.
The Fire Champion has the Hearth-Heat Aura, which reflects melee damage taken by fire fighters back at attackers. At first level, it reflects 33% damage. At second level, it reflects 50% damage.
The Water Champion has the Breakwave Aura, which increases the damage dealt by the water team’s fighters. At first level, water fighters deal an additional 2 damage per attack. At second level, they deal 5 additional damage per attack.
The Earth Champion has the Stoneskin Aura, which increases the armor of the Earth team’s fighters. At first level, Earth fighters take 20% less damage. At second level, Earth fighters take 33% less damage.
The Air Champion has the Lifebreath Aura, which lets Air fighters regenerate health over time (normally fighters have no automatic health regeneration). At first level, Air fighters recover 1 point of health each second. At second level, Air fighters recover 2 points of health each second.
Assuming this version is mechanically finished, I may actually get around to polishing it up a bit more over time. I may add some triggers to let one or more of the teams auto-play if a human player isn’t present. I’ll likely also add some visual polish, a bit more with the doodads and spectators and arena staff, but those aren’t exactly super high priorities unless this map actually gets some attention. Otherwise, I’ll just get to them whenever.
That should be a total overview of everything you need to know about this map and how to play it.
If you discover any issues or errors, please let me know, and I’ll have a fix up inside of a day. Otherwise, just enjoy it, and let me know what you think!
(update: added what I hope is the final version of the map and completely redid the discription to cover all game mechanics in depth)