Welcome to…

The Arena of Champions

Buildmaster

by Commche 2005

The Arena of Champions: Buildmaster v1.10 Final Version

Part 1: Can your new builds survive in the toughest arena competition in the realm. Discover your opponent's strengths and weaknesses before devising a strategy to defeat them using carefully chosen equipment upgrades. Appraise both your character build and your playing style via an extensive stat-tracking and arena 'smart-scoring' system.

Part II: When you have mastered the arena, join the massively fun Holy War battle.Try for the battlefield championship award, or simply watch as two uber armies struggle for victory. Sway the battle by alligning with one team or stay mercinary against all odds.

Part III: Put your money where your mouth is and place a wager on your choice of team, challenger or champion. Using the Grim Reaper betting tote, you can bet in a variety of divisions. Will you pick a winner or do your dough!

Features include:

- 20 unique bosses

- Awesome PC and NPC stat tracking system

- Tantalising special effects

- 11 rewarding cutscenes

- 8 minute final cutscene (awesome)

- Join a huge Holy War battle (special feature)

- Win the battlefield championship award

- Interact with your allies after the big battle (surprise)

- Mega-fun arena betting system

- Extensively configured unique opponents

- A powerful equipment modifying system

- Use your prize money to upgrade your weapons

- Win exotic prizes for completing special arena challenges

- 40 tomes that reveal critical information about your opponents

- 4 Different game modes

- Three different arena challenge modes

- Create custom battles

- 6 difficulty levels to master

- A unique and rewarding custom ranking system

- Duel your game host for the AOC reigning champion title

- Multiplayer support

- PvP Duelling facilities

- Massive single player support

- An innovative and informative deity system

- Learn about 21 different deities

- Convenient and intuitive layout

- Bonus original music track

- Dynamic Lamps & Braziers

- Gui sound interfacing

- Support for all classes and weapons

- Ranged weapon support

- A library revealing 15 uber how-to-build guides

- Built in Character manager full of useful features

- Appearance change support

- Bioware Campaign item warehouse

- Bioware Campaign insertion support

- Bioware Campaign crafting support

- Bioware Campaign item modding support

brought to you by Commche 2004/2005

a.k.a Chris

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Contents

Installation. 4

How to play. 5

Introduction. 5

Getting Started. 5

New Characters. 5

Imported Characters. 6

Your first Battle. 6

Your First Upgrade. 6

Entering the Arena. 7

The Character Builder 7

Items. 8

The Arena. 8

Alignment 8

Game Modes. 8

Multiplayer and Single Player Games. 8

Character Manager Mode. 9

Deathmatch Mode. 9

Deathmatch Tomes. 9

Other Drops. 9

Arena Challenge Mode. 9

Reward chests. 10

Lives. 10

Special Duel Mode. 10

The Ranking System.. 10

Arena Tokens. 11

Arena Facilities. 11

The Rank Registry. 11

Monster Terminators. 11

Power Crystals. 11

Rejuvenation Pools. 12

Restoration Fountains. 12

The Storage Chests. 12

The Item Duplicator 12

The Token Refunder 12

The Arena Console. 13

Using the Arena Stat Tracking System.. 13

The Player Board. 13

The Scoreboard of Darkness / Light 13

The Arena Scoreboard. 13

The Deity System.. 14

Using the Shrine. 15

Selecting a Deity. 15

Donating. 15

The Grim Reaper Shop. 16

Life Insurance. 16

Gambling. 16

Betting Divisions. 16

Battle Scales. 17

Interacting with your NPC allies. 20

Cutscenes. 20

The AOC Smart-Scoring System.. 22

The Phoenix Rod. 22

Bonus Challengers. 23

The AOC Persistent Data System.. 24

The AOC Player Registry. 24

The Ticket Barrel 24

CREDIT. 25

Installation

Requirements: NWN HOTU 1.65

CEP version 1.5.

AOC_hakpac.hak

The Arena of Champions.mod

1. Copy AOC_hakpac.hak into your c:/NeverwinterNights/NWN/hak folder
2. Now simply copy The Arena of Champions.mod into your c:/NeverwinterNights/NWN/modules folder and you are ready to go!
3. Run NWN and select NEW > OTHER MODULES > The Arena of Champions
4. Play the game!

How to play

Introduction

You will notice that you start with pretty basic weapons, armour and items. This is intentional because the essence of this game is that you decide which resistances, damage bonuses, ability bonuses and modifiers you are going to imbue on your items. It will be important to make decisions about which properties you imbue on your weapons and armour first because this will determine the extent of your success in the arena. These decisions will be based on what you perceive to be the weaknesses and strengths of your opponents. For example, you will want to imbue your armour with damage resistance that will lessen the blows of your opponent – and your weapon with a damage bonus that can attack that enemy’s weakness.

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Hint: most of your opponents will be almost impervious to all but one specific damage type.

Getting Started

New Characters

v The first thing you should do is talk to Starfall or Mephisto (depending on your alignment) and choose ‘Character Options’

v You will be given some data tokens when you enter the game. These are for storing your kills and rank should you wish to start a new game.

v Then you will be given the option to gain levels. Take ‘Instant Level 40’ to give yourself enough experience to gain max levels.

v Now simply level your character until you are level 40 and ready for battle.

v Now use the weapon racks, armour stands, chests, bookshelves and cabinet to fully equip your character.

Imported Characters

v Don’t be alarmed that your character has been stripped. This mod depends on its own custom (bare) items to remain balanced and FUN!

v You will be given some data tokens when you enter the game. These are for storing your kills and rank should you wish to start a new game.

v Now use the weapon racks, armour stands, chests, bookshelves and cabinet to fully equip your character.

* Note *: all items are free and you can’t sell them. Use the trash bin (near the player board) to discard unwanted items.

Your first Battle

v Now that you are fully equipped, you are ready to begin earning tokens to upgrade your gear! You will need to defeat opponents in [Deathmatch] mode so that you can accrue gold and learn about your enemies from the valuable tomes that they sometimes drop.

v You will not be able to defeat anything without a little help at this stage, so either flick the Power crystal lever or head straight to the Arena Console and activate the power crystal from the [Options] menu there.

v Now go to the [Deathmatch] menu and you will only be able to select the first of 10 opponents. As you defeat opponents, you will unlock more difficult ones. The more difficult they are, the more gold they drop!

v Click on the power crystal to insta-buff and then release the first opponent using the Arena Console: [Deathmatch] 1. <select>

v Now you should be able to defeat this enemy without too much trouble.

v You can try the new opponents as they are released, but it might be a good idea to kill the easy ones a few times to get some gold and go for a few upgrades.

v Collect the tomes that your adversaries drop. These hold vital information that will help you defend yourself and defeat your opponents.

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Hint: Using a SILVER token, imbue some [Cold Damage] onto your weapon in order to hurt the War Demon. The tomes will reveal your enemy’s weaknesses.

Your First Upgrade

v Got more than 5000 gold? OK, head back into the equipment area and go talk to your host (either Starfall or Mephisto)

v Choose [Purchase Arena Tokens] to bring up the token shop.

BRONZE tokens will afford you ability, skill, feat, basic damage, miscellaneous immunity and damage resistance upgrades.

SILVER tokens will afford you damage upgrades on weapons and ammunition.

GOLD tokens will afford you weapon enhancement upgrades and damage reduction on your shield

*Note*: The types of upgrade will vary depending on which item you are imbuing. For example elemental resistance can only be upgraded on cloaks and physical damage resistances can only be upgraded on armour. So experiment by checking out which items afford which upgrade types. Get familiar with this system, as it is central to your success in the arena!

v Now go to the Eye of Amaterasu (It’s the small round table with a ball on top of it).

v Click on the Eye of Amaterasu to open it up. Now put in an item and a token. Depending on the item and the token, you will be presented with a menu.

v Choose your upgrade and watch the cool effects!

v Now open the Eye of Amaterasu and examine your item. You will now have upgraded your item. And that’s basically how the whole thing works!

v Now go back to the Arena and kick some ass with your new upgrades!

v By now you should have got the idea on how to progress in the arena using tokens and upgrades. Have fun and may the best warrior win!

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Hint: As soon as you get 5000 gold, go buy a bronze token and upgrade your boots with [HASTE]. Ooohh yeah! I loooove the speeed!!!

Entering the Arena

First-time characters will be stripped of all gold and items. The arena has all of its own regulated items and a unique monetary system. Any external gold or items would imbalance the challenge. That is why this is in place. New players will be given an Arena of Champions (AOC) membership card. All players who possess this card will not be stripped upon re-entry to the arena.

The Character Builder

Using Starfall, you can receive or take levels, change your alignment and remove items and gold from your character. The primary purpose of this mod is to facilitate the building of characters in the pursuit of perfecting the art of character building. The arena is particularly well suited to uber builds and should challenge them well. The secondary purpose of this mod is to provide a challenging and fun single player arena (never done before, I believe).

Items

There is a range of standard items available. If you wish to upgrade them, you will have to earn arena tokens and use the awesome Eye of Amaterasu to do so. This will be further explained in the appropriate sections of this user guide.

The Arena

The arena has been designed for level 40 characters only. If you can last more than 30 seconds with a lower level character, please send me the build details.

Alignment

If you choose any good or neutral alignment, Starfall will be your host and you will face 10 champions of darkness in the arena. If you choose any evil alignment, Mephisto will be your host and you will face 10 champions of light in the arena. The champions of light are more difficult than the champions of darkness. So when you have defeated all of the bad guys, try going up against the good guys.

Game Modes

Multiplayer and Single Player Games

The arena has been set up to facilitate any number of players in a cooperative arena challenge or a duel using standard arena items. If you wish to duel your characters with their imported equipment, you will have to do the following:

v Open the toolset

v go to edit > module properties

v in the OnClientEnter slot, type in “pvp_set_duelmode”

v This will replace the standard script with one that doesn’t strip players of items. You will still be stripped of gold.

v If you want to revert back to the original script, repeat the above steps and simply type “pvp_set” in the OnClientEnter script slot.

Use the levers in the equipment area to set the conditions of your duels. These conditions will, of course, have to be decided by the parties duelling!

Have fun and most importantly: PRACTICE GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP!!! There is nothing worse than a sore loser.

Remember it’s a FUN game. If you are getting too angry, either get a new attitude or get a new game!

Character Manager Mode

In this game mode, you will have access to a range of character management options via talking to Starfall. Engaging this mode will also unlock the doors to the blacksmith and the store room. The blacksmith will be able to imbue your weapons with a few properties necessary for the Bioware official campaigns. The storeroom will give you access to unlimited gold and every item in all of the 3 Bioware campaigns. Once you enter this mode, you will no longer be permitted to compete in the arena. This is to prevent cheating.

Australis Mode

This game mode is for testing characters for the Days of Darkness Australis Server created by Anake Stone. There are a variety of items available from the server’s palette as well as some server specific monsters and even Avatars of some of the long time players. This is still in development, but is only really a side feature, something that will not affect the main game. (Unless you switch to this mode, in which case you will fordeit your score, rank and progress in the main game.)

Deathmatch Mode

This will be the primary mode of play in the single player arena game until you gain a few ranks and start imbuing your items with the appropriate powers. The monsters you can duel will become available for selection after you defeat their predecessors. The arena gate will be locked upon the initiation of a deathmatch and unlocked again at the end the battle.

IMPORTANT: After defeating either Shiva or Kamaji Berserker, you must complete the arena challenge 1 to unlock the next challenger.

Deathmatch Tomes

Each time you defeat an opponent there is an 80% chance that they will drop a tome, providing you don't already have the same one. These tomes are the key to success in this arena. There are 2 tomes for each enemy. Tomes I will reveal your opponent's strengths, and thus, what to protect against, and tomes II will reveal your enemy's weakness i.e. how to kill them! Your opponens will only drop tomes pertaining to themselves and the enemy directly after them in the list.

Other Drops

Enemies will always drop gold in Deathmatch mode. In tournament mode, you will need to defeat all enemies to receive your prize.

Arena Challenge Mode

=====================

This mode is like a tournament where the player fights a string of enemies. The arena gate will be locked upon initiation of any one of the challenges. The difficulty of the challenges will vary in the following ways:

1. Healing and recharging pools will vary in availability

2. The power crystal will vary in availability

3. The number of lives granted will vary

4. The number of consecutive opponents will vary

5. Bonus lives will be granted at various stages in harder challenges

Reward chests

These chests will appear upon completion of an arena challenge. These chests will only appear once. The value of the rewards inside the chests will be greater as you complete more difficult challenges. Such rewards will comprise Arena Tokens and Magic Items.

Lives

Lives will be granted at the start of the challenge. When you die, you lose one life. If your lives run out, you fail the challenge. Lives are only utilised in Arena Challenge Mode. In the harder Arena Challenges, bonus lives will be granted after defeating certain enemies.

note: it is not recommended to attempt arena challenges without first training in deathmatch mode and learning how to defeat the various enemies.

Special Duel Mode

When you have defeated all of the arena champions, you will gain a new option in your host's (Starfall or Mephisto) conversation. This will be [Duel]. If you think you are up to it, try defeating them. But be warned. Their CRs are in the thousands!

The Ranking System

When you first enter the arena (module) you are given the lowest rank. As you defeat more enemies, you will be promoted to higher ranks, which come with both greater prestige and ability bonuses. The details of your ability bonus gains will be sent to the message window. These gains will include:

1. AC bonus

2. Attack Bonus

3. Damage Bonus

4. Speed bonus

When you defeat an opponent, you will also gain an extra 500 gold pieces for each rank that you hold. This is your Rank Purse Bonus.

There are two different sets of 18 possible ranks. One set for good aligned characters, and one set for evil. Your rank is calculated by the total number of kills minus half of your deaths i.e. Rank = Kills - (Deaths/2). This means that if you die too many times, you will be demoted and lose whichever ability bonuses were associated with the rank you just lost.

Hint: if you know you can't possibly win a bout - head straight for the monster terminator!

Arena Tokens

The arena tokens can be bought from Starfall using the gold earned from deathmatch bouts. Using the 'Eye of Amaterasu' you can imbue a range of powers onto all of your items. These powers will be essential for your offensive and defensive strategies.

For more details on using the 'Eye of Amaterasu', please examine it.

Arena Facilities

The Rank Registry

Clicking on this facility will store your kills, rank and unlocked opponents. These integers will be stored as tokens in your inventory. It will also export your character. This is more for multiplayer games where the players wish to use characters who have achieved a good rank in the single player game. It is also for players who wish to play a co-operative game against the enemies.

Monster Terminators

If at any point you feel that you are going to lose a bout for sure, or you just wish to cancel an Arena Challenge, just click on the monster terminator. This will kill all monsters in the area, re-enable the pools and unlock the arena gate.

Power Crystal s

This crystal can be activated from the arena console or by using the lever in the character building area. Once activated, clicking on it will buff the player with a number of battle buffs. Examine the crystals to discover which buffs are afforded.

Rejuvenation Pools

Using these pools will effectively rest the player. This means that all spells memorised and all special abilities will be available again. You can block access to these pools using the arena console or the levers in the character building area. This is more for multiplayer duelling where players want to remove the temptation of cheating by heading for these pools to deny their opponent victory.

Restoration Fountains

These fountains work the same way as the rejuvenation pools, only they give the player greater restoration. Disabling them works the same way as the rejuvenation pools.

The Storage Chests

When you collect tomes, your enemies will only drop a tome if you don’t already possess it. This is to stop a ridiculous accumulation of the same tomes. If you want to store any items or tomes in the storage chests, the chests will be checked when the monster is dropping a tome. For example, if you have the Death Wurm tome in a storage chest instead of your inventory, the game will count this as you already possessing the tome and will not drop it again. This facility is simply a handy little place to store things for those people who are a little obsessive about inventory management (like me :P)

The Item Duplicator

This facility is mainly for duel-wield characters who wish to duplicate their weapon without having to earn twice as many arena tokens. It is also useful for duplicating imported items for even duelling conditions.

*note*: This is exploit-proof, so don’t even try duplicating gold or coins. :P

The Token Refunder

As the name suggests. This chest will turn your tokens into gold. You may add as many tokens as you like. They will be calculated and your gold refunded.

The Arena Console

This is where you initiate all arena challenges. Instructions are provided when you use it. You can also control various arena facilities from the options menu within. Examine this object for more details on its use.

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Hint: examine any object to discover its purpose and how to use it.

# Using the Arena Stat Tracking System

The arena stat tracking system is displayed using 4 strategically placed scoreboards.

## The Player Board

The player board displays all PCs and their current rank. This is a reference for players who have just joined. It helps to know how experienced in the arena you opponent is. This may indicate the extent of his/her possible upgrades.

[Player Name / Rank] The character’s name and current ranking.

[Kills / Deaths] The total kills inflicted and deaths suffered by that player.

[Total PC Players] The total number of PCs currently in the arena.

##

## The Scoreboard of Darkness / Light

These scoreboards display various statistics pertaining to each NPC in the respective team. i.e. the scoreboard of light contains stats about the army of light and the scoreboard of darkness contains stats about the army of darkness.

In order to fit all of the statistics in the small window available, they have been lined up horizontally next to each NPCs name.

[Damage Dealt] The total damage dealt in all of the holy war bouts.

[Damage Taken] The total damage taken in all of the holy war bouts.

[Accuracy] The % of hits landed.

[Kills] The number of NPC/PCs killed throughout the holy war bouts.

[Status] If the player has fallen in the current battle the text: [Dead] will be displayed after all of the stats.

## The Arena Scoreboard

The Arena Scoreboard] has 3 display modes each of which contain statistics pertaining to the player’s overall performance and progress.

1. [Score Mode: Arena PC Stats]

[Name] The name of the character.

[Rank] The current rank achieved by the character.

[Kills] The total kills inflicted from all arena events.

[Deaths] The total deaths suffered from all events.

[Hits] The total number of blows landed .

[Accuracy] The hit percentage [ (Total Hits / Total Swings) * 100 ]

[Total Damage] The total damage dealt to NPCs.

[Average Damage] The average damage dealt per blow [ (Total Damage / Total Hits) ]

[Board Message] A random message of battle wisdom.

2. [Score Mode: Holy War PC Stats]

[Name] The name of the character.

[Rank] The current rank achieved by the character.

[Kills (Tot)] The kills inflicted in the last holy war (total kills in brackets).

[Deaths (Tot)] The deaths suffered in the last holy war (total deaths in brackets).

[Hits] The total number of blows landed in the last holy war .

[Accuracy] The character’s hit percentage in the last holy war.

[Total Damage] The total damage dealt to NPCs in the last holy war.

[Average Damage] The average damage dealt per blow in the last holy war.

[Board Message] A random message of battle wisdom.

3. [Score Mode: Holy War Team Stats]

[Team Name] The name of team 1 (The Champions of Light).

[Wins / Losses] The number of holy wars won / lost.

[Current Casualties] The number of members currently lost.

[Total Casualties] The total number of casualties suffered during all wars.

[Team Name] The name of team 2 (The Champions of Darkness).

[Wins / Losses] The number of holy wars won / lost.

[Current Casualties] The number of members currently lost.

[Total Casualties] The total number of casualties suffered during all wars.

[The Holy War Champion] After the battle, the holy war champion is announced. This title is awarded to the PC/NPC who accumulated the most kills during that battle.

# The Deity System

#

· When you are creating your character for the arena, choosing a deity will benefit your character inasmuch as having a deity gives the character access to a 3% chance of escaping death completely.

· If you are lucky, instead of dying, you will be purged of all negative effects and restored to full health.

· Each time you die, a message will appear in your chat window indicating that you god either did or didn’t hear your prayers.

· If you have no deity at all, a message will indicate that you have no god to hear your prayers.

· No specific deities are required; you may even make one up if you wish.

## Using the Shrine

### Selecting a Deity

- If you forget to specify a deity when you are creating your character, you can use the shrine to select one.
- You will be given a selection of deities to choose from based on your alignment.
- Read about 21 different deities using the information option in the shrine conversation.
- Once you pledge your loyalty to a deity, you become eligible for a 4% chance of escaping death each time you are reduced to below 0 hit points.

### Donating

- Donate 50,000 gold to increase your chances of being saved to 5%
- Donate 200,000 gold to increase your chances of being saved to 10%
- Donate 500,000 gold to increase your chances of being saved to 15%
- Donate 1 000,000 gold to increase your chances of being saved to 20%
- Your deity will show his/her appreciation with a nice special effect sequence

# The Grim Reaper Shop

The Grim Reaper offers two special services:

- Life Insurance
- Gambling

## Life Insurance

[Info]

- A brief explanation of the life insurance policy.

[Purchase]

[Pay]

- Pay the 40000 fee

[Haggle]

- A persuade check will determine whether the Reaper will lower his price.
- You can haggle the price right down if your persuade DC is high enough.
- If you fail a haggle attempt, you can no longer haggle until you have used at least one insurance policy.

[Refund]

- You may receive a full refund if you haven’t used your insurance policy,
- Even after a refund, you may not haggle again until you have used at least one card.

## Gambling

The reaper runs quite an extensive betting facility allowing the player to bet on one or many challengers in a variety of events.

### Betting Divisions

[Info]

- Here is a brief description of the different betting divisions available

[Gambling Stats]

- This is where you can reset the gambling stats for your character.
- It doesn’t affect your gold at all, only the record of your gambling.

[Collect Winnings]

- Unless you have any winnings to collect, this option will remain greyed out.
- When you win a bet, the [Place Bet] option will be greyed out and this option will be selectable.
- This system ensures that players always collect their winnings before placing another bet.

[Place Bet]

[Team Victory]

· This division allows you to bet on a team rather than a single competitor.

· You can specify the size of the team after you have set the wager.

· You are automatically allied with your team when the match begins.

· If you attack the other team, you will forfeit the bet.

· If you abort the fight using the monster terminator, you forfeit the bet.

[Duel Victory]

· This option allows you to bet on your favourite challenger.

· His/Her rival will be selected at random from the entire staff of challengers.

· In this mode, your champion may come up against one of his/her own team members. The fight will proceed as normal.

· You are automatically allied with your champion when the bout begins.

· You may not, however, join the fight unless you are prepared to forfeit the bet.

· If you abort the fight using the monster terminator, you forfeit the bet.

[Match Champion]

· In this mode, you are betting on who will accumulate the most kills for the bout.

· There is no guarantee that your challenger will even be in the match when you choose any scale other than [War] – All challengers participate in this mode.

· Because of this, there is an odds bonus multiplier when you bet on either [Battle], [Fight], or [Duel].

· [Battle] scale will return an odds bonus multiplier of x 3

· [Fight] scale will return an odds bonus multiplier of x 5

· [Duel] scale will return an odds bonus multiplier of x 10

· This means that the odds for each challenger will be multiplied by the above modifiers.

· The same rules apply pertaining to forfeiting your bet. No joining in.

*note: If you attempt to attack the other team or even heal your own, you will instantly forfeit the bet.

### Battle Scales

[War]

- In this scale, every challenger in the game will fight for their aligned side.
- There are 10 in the army of light and 12 in the army of darkness.
- Don’t worry, both teams are very well balanced against each other. Any team can win. It depends on a number of luck factors. (i.e. if certain sets of enemies face off first. This affects the outcome because often strengths and weaknesses are aligned to each other, making for a quick culling.)
- These battles have been known to take up to 15 minutes.

[Battle]

- A battle is 6 randomly chosen opponents on each side.
- This is still a large battle, only less CPU intensive and shorter in time.

[Fight]

- This battle is 3 randomly chosen challengers from each team.
- This resembles small party PvP and is very fun to watch.
- Sometimes only 2 challengers will appear on a team. There is only a very slim chance of this

[Duel]

- This is a one-on-one duel to the death between 2 randomly selected challengers.
- Only light versus dark will occur. No same-team versus same-team will happen.
- This is a quick but risky way to bet.
- If you bet on championship division, you can get 600 : 1 odds on a gold dragon winning. The chances of winning this bet are hundreds of thousands to one!

# Interacting with your NPC allies

- Whenever you place a bet on a team or a particular challenger, that team or challenger will be automatically allied with you.
- This means that area of effect buffing spells will benefit you or them, depending on the caster.
- If you cast any magic on your allies, you will forfeit any bets in play.
- You can not attack your allies because of PvP settings.
- If for some reason a challenger is idle during a battle, try talking to him/her.
- You may speak with your allies after the action has settled down.
- They will respond according to the circumstances. For example, if you forfeit a bet by joining the fight, they might think you rather irresponsible.
- There are over 200 possible responses based on: your performance, their performance, the match circumstances and specific actions by the player.

#

# Cutscenes

#

There are 11 cut scenes, which together total 40 minutes of viewing pleasure.

You will trigger a cutscene when you:

- Defeat the final challenger in Deathmatch Mode. (1 cutscene)
- Complete each of the 6 Arena Challenges (That’s 6 cutscenes)
- Defeat the Master of Champions in a Duel. (1 Cutscene)

You will receive a bonus cutscene when you:

- Complete the [God] difficulty level Arena challenge. (2 Cutscenes – back to back)
- This is a 10 minute cutscene with some very nice visuals and a surprise.

You will see the grand finale cutscene when you have:

- Defeated the final challenger in Deathmatch Mode, Completed all of the Arena Challenges, and won a duel against your Master of Champions.
- This is 3 back-to-back cut scenes and by far the best of them all.

Special:

· The cut scenes have more of a function than simply a nice reward for your hard playing.

· These scenes are an integral part of the extensive stat tracking system embedded in the Arena of Champions module.

· Challenge performance scores are reported separately from your overall score, however they are included in it statistically.

In almost every cut scene you will be given a report on:

- How many hits you landed
- An accuracy percentage
- How much total damage you did
- How much average damage you did
- A final summary (in words) of your overall performance for that event.

# The AOC Smart-Scoring System

- A score based on your (accuracy * average damage) will be awarded: i) after each challenge is completed, ii) after your duel with the MC, and iii) after the final deathmatch boss has been defeated.
- This is not only an indicator of how your build performed, but is also an indicator of how you played that build.
- Data is tracked based on your: swings, hits, damage dealt, damage taken, hit %, kills, deaths and rank.
- In the final cutscene, you will be rated on your entire performance throughout the arena and then awarded your final AOC Official Score.
- This score will be the best indicator of how that particular build rated.
- You can view the progress of your Official AOC score anytime on the player board near your MC.

# The Phoenix Rod

This incredible artefact is your reward for defeating Starfall or Mephisto in a duel for the title of Master of Champions. The only way to beat these guys is to be maxed out with both defensive and offensive item imbuement. The Rod, when used, unleashes a formidable Phoenix-Dragon that circles the sky and then plummets into the ground causing a massive elemental maelstrom that deals a staggering amount of damage to all enemies in the area.

- The rod can be used 2 times per day.
- The rod uses incredible power and needs to recharge after every use.
- During the day, the rod will recharge in 5 minutes (2.5 game hours).
- During the night, the rod will recharge in 7 minutes (3.5 game hours).
- The rod creates a massive shockwave, damaging its user for 150 points of energy based bludgeoning damage.
- This sequence, in my opinion, is one of the best special effects I have seen.

# Bonus Challengers

These bonus challengers can only be fought during a Holy War battle. Being the army of darkness, they brought along two more soldiers of darkness to give them the upper hand. What they didn’t expect was the increased power of Tyriel and Thor.

Name: Fallen Disciple

Description:

This challenger may seem like a mere flaming skeleton, but he is one of the most powerful creatures in the game. With a pile of hit points and no obvious vulnerabilities, the fallen disciple is the bane of the light team’s existence. Taking this guy out early would give the light team a huge advantage and probably sway the outcome irreversibly.

Name: Dark Archer

Description:

The army of light thought that they would be the only side that afforded themselves the luxury of a marksman. They were wrong. The Dark archer not only possesses deadly accuracy with a bow, but also has the ability to impair her enemies whilst healing her allies. Watch out for her penetrating arrows, unless of course, you are her ally.

# The AOC Persistent Data System

· When you first enter the arena, you will be stripped of all items and gold and receive 9 data tokens (cards) in your inventory.

· This is to ensure the best playing experience inasmuch as importing characters with custom items and pre-acquired gold will spoil the challenge and surprise factor when competing in the arena.

· Once you export your newly AOC-readied character, he/she will not be stripped the next time they enter, in fact, they will be welcomed!

· The data tokens are used to retain stat tracking data when you export your character.

· This allows players to enjoy playing their ‘Arena-Veteran’ characters with updated versions of the Arena and also with new multiplayer games.

· This is a very CPU friendly database system that uses a clever tag-based scripting system to store data.

· This was achieved by copying the tokens and assigning an integer value as a tag.

· Every time the character joins the module, the tokens are recognised by their resref and then their tags are converted from strings into integers and assigned to their corresponding local integers.

· Unfortunately the eye of Amaterasu is not a persistent object, so you will not be able to continue certain upgrades from where you left off.

· This is only a minor inconvenience because it doesn’t take long to acquire gold in the arena.

· The tokens store information about your hits, swings, deaths, kills, total damage, rank, deity, death matches completed, arena challenges completed.

## The AOC Player Registry

· To enable the functionality of the AOC persistent data system, you simply click on the AOC player registry sign and the rest will be done for you.

· Clicking on this sign will update all of the stat tracking data and store your deity (if you selected one using the shrine.

## The Ticket Barrel

· This is an advanced feature mainly used for debugging.

· If you accidentally delete your data tokens while using the ‘purge items’ utility, you can be re-issued with all of your tokens.

· Simply activate the AOC Player Registry again to re-export all of your data using the new tokens.

CREDIT

v The music track used in the Hall of Heroes: “Season’s in the Abyss”, was created using Fruity Loops Studio 4.0 and Cool Edit Pro 2000 and was originally written by Slayer © in the 1990s.

v The music track used in Star Lake: “Stay” was composed and created by Commche using Fruity Loops 4 and Cool Edit Pro 2000. The original version had vocals but was modified for The Arena of Champions NWN module.

v Thanks to Tristen for his awesome work in his module 'Campaign Stockpiles' Store and Character Manager «CEP»

I ripped all of the items and shops out of his mod and a few of the conversations (although I modified them a bit). The primary purpose of The Arena of Champions is to refine character building, but I was inspired by Tristen’s mod, so I thought I’d offer some campaign management while I was there! I’m sorry if this seems a bit slack, but your work was so meticulous and comprehensive, I couldn’t possibly better it. So I decided to further immortalise it and use it in my mod.

v A huge thankyou to Lilac Soul for her awesome script generator. I have become quite proficient at scripting thanks to this awesome utility and learning tool.

v Another big thankyou to Jay Clark (awol@puregamer.com) who created the incredible Fireworks exhibition script. This is easily the best special effects script on the vault. Pure genius. I had to have it in my mod after being blown away by its mesmerising forms.

v I couldn’t have added all of the effects and achieved the level of scripting that I did without the help of the absolutely wonderful NWN Lexicon. That would have to be the single most useful utility in terms of learning how to script. Awesome work there! Huge thanks to the team!

v A huge ‘well done’ to Bioware for such an awesome toolset. The Script editor is a great tool and makes scripting very convenient. The built-in function- definition system really saved me so much time. I must say that the editor itself served to teach me a bit about the scripting language that NW uses.

v Finally a great big fat THANKS to all of the NWN dev team not only for making the be-all-end-all D&D Electronic game, but for also making the most re-playable game across all platforms in the history of gaming.