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Arena Control

Arena Control enables players to adjust various aspects of arena matches. These include: 1) Forcing smaller maps to be used. 2) Expanding and enhancing the enemy mech spawn pool. 3) Reducing match durations. 4) Removing night/extreme weather conditions affecting visibility. 5) Altering proportions for the arena match types and mech weight classes.

New with 1.5:

- Created a work around for special Solaris arena maps where not all mechs spawn, which causes an unwinnable match.
- New options to allow the special Solaris arena maps to spawn anytime and anywhere.
- Custom arena weighting will override fame requirements for certain match types (1v1, 2v2, Team Combat, and Exhibition).
- The default for custom arena weighting has been changed to False due to fame requirement override change.


All features of Arena Control are managed through configuration variables. See the details below for the specific variables and their capabilities. These can be edited through the game's Options menu (via Mod Options support) and can also be edited through the ArenaControl section of the user's Game.ini file:

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\MW5Mercs\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Game.ini

Force Smaller Maps

When the ForceSmallerMaps configuration variable is set to True (the default value), only smaller levels will be used for arena matches. The smaller maps place enemy AI mechs in closer proximity to one another, which encourages more fighting amongst themselves and less 'corner camping'. It also creates a more frenetic match and reduces walking time to track down stray opponents.

Reduce Match Duration

ReduceMatchDurations cuts the duration of matches in half, as the standard mission calculation appeared excessive when applied for the purposes of arena matches. Defaults to True.

No Night Matches

NoNightMatches forces all matches to be set during daylight hours, as it didn't seem to make sense to have matches at night when spectators would not be able to see the action. Defaults to True.

No Extreme Weather

NoExtremeWeather forces all matches to have, at most, only trace amounts of adverse weather, as it didn't seem to make sense to have matches in low visibility conditions when spectators would not be able to see the action. Defaults to True.

Enhanced Mech Spawn Pools

EnhancedSpawnPools will increase the available mech variants to choose from when enemy combatants are selected. While DLC3 (Call to Arms) and DLC6 (Solaris Showdown) provided variants will still have higher selection priorities, there will be a much broader list to pull from to enable a wider variety of opponents. However, some mechs (such as LRM boats) have been culled since they aren't well suited for arena combat. For open matches, lighter mechs are also removed from the pool at higher difficulty levels. Finally, the pilot and mech weapon tech levels process has been adjusted to create slightly more challenging arena matches, particularly at higher difficulty levels. Defaults to True.

Disable Melee Objectives

DisableMeleeObjectives will prevent arena matches from offering melee damage optional objectives to the player. Defaults to False.

Force Announcer

ForceAnnouncer enables the player to set a specific announcer for arena matches. This allows Duncan Fisher and the ever charismatic Terry Zee to commentate on matches across the Inner Sphere, in addition to the usual personalities of Ava Masters, Lucas Torin, and Jackson & Cotton. A setting of DEFAULT (the default) will use the vanilla game behavior for selecting announcers. A setting of NONE will disable matches from having an announcer.

Exclude Announcer

ExcludeAnnouncer allows the player to block a specific announcer from commentating arena matches. A setting of NONE (the default) will not exclude any announcer. This setting is ignored if an announcer is selected by the Force Announcer configuration variable.

Limit Idle Enemies

LimitIdleEnemies will cause enemy mechs to seek out the closest other mech to engage after a period of time rather than sitting idle until an opponent enters combat range. Defaults to True.

Restricted Drops

RestrictedDrops will prevent the player from starting an arena match if the deployed mechs are over-tonnage, comprise more than the allowed number, or include a mech class that is greater than what is permissible by the match. Defaults to False.

Disable Adjudication Response

DisableAdjudication will prevent VTOLs from spawning and gang-up behavior in arena matches when the player is over tonnage, drops with too many mechs, or brings a higher weight class than the allowed maximum. Defaults to False.

Solaris Maps Anytime

SolarisMapsAnytime will enable the special Solaris arena maps that are available only after the Solaris Showdown campaign has been completed to spawn on Solaris at any point prior. Defaults to False.

Solaris Maps Anywhere

SolarisMapsAnywhere will enable the special Solaris arena maps that are available only on Solaris to spawn on any industrial hub or other arena supported system. Note this implicitly enables the Solaris Maps Anytime option. Defaults to False.

Customizing Match Types and Mech Classes

Arena match types and mech class requirements are controlled through a weighting system that determines the spawn chance percentage. To customize the weightings, set UseCustomWeights to True. If set to False (the default) the vanilla game weighting system will be used. The weighting variables and their respective default values are listed below. These defaults align closely with the vanilla proportions.

ArenaTypeDuel1v1 - 11
ArenaTypeDuel2v2 - 5
ArenaTypeDuel4v4 - 6
ArenaTypeTeamCombat - 6
ArenaTypeFreeForAll - 19
ArenaTypeExhibition - 6
ArenaTypeScrapyard - 5
ArenaTypeSolaris - 0.38

MechTypeLight - 9
MechTypeMedium - 9
MechTypeHeavy - 8
MechTypeAssault - 6
MechTypeOpen - 15

The ArenaTypeScrapyard variable refers to the "Hardcore" Scrapyard Scuffle match type.

On Solaris specifically, there are special arenas (Steiner Stadium, etc.) that are not offered in Industrial Hubs (if SolarisMapsAnywhere is set to false). The ArenaTypeSolaris variable defines a percentage of how many of these matches should spawn relative to the other regular arena matches. The special arenas themselves are equal weighted within the percentage.

Some match types are locked by default until certain fame levels are reached. These are 1v1 (Level 1), 2v2 (Level 3), Team Combat (Level 3), and Exhibition (Level 8). When UseCustomWeights is set to True, this behavior will be overridden and whatever weights the player specifies will be used.

There are difficulty restrictions on Heavy (40) and Assault (60) mech class matches. If the configured custom weights result in no eligible match types for the player's current status, then the game will fallback to the default vanilla weightings.

Exhibition, Scrapyard Scuffle, and Solaris special level matches are always open class and their spawning percentages are not impacted by the Mech class weightings.

Conflicts

This mod overwrites the arena mission scene generation asset (V1_ArenaSCENGEN) and will conflict with other mods also overwriting this asset. This mod must have a higher/later load order than any conflicting mods or no functionality provided by it will work.

By default, this mod will override the arena changes provided by Coyote's Mission Mod. This is fine as those changes have been incorporated into this mod. Thanks to Coyote for the collaboration and updates to make this happen!