Freeze Tag is a very good take on "Arena, but with respawns" which I strongly recommend.

For this submission, the intent was to create a faithful port/fix, rather than Arena 2.0. In fact, I was planning to propose some changes, but got convinced that it's be better off as a separate submission.

I like arena, and would like to play it, with the normal maps, not just Halloween maps. Also, adding in the MVM ReAnimator Devices with the upsides and downsides would improve the Arena mode. Maybe also improve the maps by adding in some sort of mini control points that can either buff your remaining team or revive you teammates? the Halloween Arena Graveyard has Dispencer Ghosts, maybe adding in Dispenser drones would work?

bro no one likes arena

Arena would actually be so fun for new TF2 due to limited respawns
(leaning on a suggestion where classes are limited but MVM respawn canisters are dropped upon death)

how about BOTH Freeze Tag and Arena. If Arena is a hassle, also give the MVM Reanimators(with the stats, meaning the more you resurrect, the more time it takes) as a way to make Arena more interesting.

of course IF Freeze Tag and Arena are added in, make them Alternative Game modes.

I think Freeze Tag is a better solution for bringing back Arena to Casual than just trying to bring back the gamemode as it was with the original permadeath mechanic

lumberyard is my favorite map from TF2 but it's an Arena map... so i hope this can have lots of support so we can have it on casual

My personal suggestion for Arena Remade is turning it into some sort of Team Deathmatch, but with limited amount of lives/respawns.

This means that after dying you will respawn again, but you will also lose one of remaining lives. Once you spend them all, you won't respawn anymore later.

For amount of lives I think 4 should do the trick.

That's my own take.

Really id be down for the ghost healers from lumberyard event where you can heal while dead, like they can just be sentry styled healing drones etc

Yes please

It's both

The problem with Arena isn't that it's "more skill-based" or "doesn't let bad players contribute" it's the fact that if you fuck up and get headshot or backstabbed or random crit you have to wait out the entire round, not to mention unlocks that provide healing completely break the balance. If Arena had respawns it would be significantly better and fit with the rest of TF2.

TF2 was designed so no matter how bad you are at the game you can contribute somehow, capturing points, securing points etc, Arena does not do any of that.

Oh interesting, I always assumed it was due to Valve forgetting it and no one made enough noise for them to notice before

Arena mode is just flawed. It's not like Valve forgot about it or something (they literally tell you to "Go play Counter Strike" as its description). It would require an overhaul to make it better.

Arena Mode was also left out of Quickplay. Seems like its exclusion from Casual is more to do with Valve moving away from the gamemode rather than some sort of incompatibility.

Bro Area Mode would suck more ass if it had bosses in it.

I would also add that I don't care that Arena is in Alternative game modes, I just want to play it again.

also, something with Arena improvements like the Graveyard/Lumberyard event Ghost Dispensers turned into Drone dispensers for Arena, Last Man Standing from a team getting a minicrit boost, the MVM Reanimators with their mechanics from MVM in Arena, yes or no?

maybe also make map specific additions with new boss entities fitting for the map? Lumberyard gets a Lumberjack bot and you get a Lumberjack axe reskin for Demoman's eyelander and all class hat, stuff like that could work.

because its not a map

Why is this in the item section and not the map section.

The leading theory is that something about Arena's implementation in the game's code makes it incompatible with Casual. This is the speculated reason why it was never added.
By remaking Arena to technically be Player Destruction, we can solve this issue without Valve having to do anything.

I'm a little confused, what is actually wrong with how Arena was previously implemented? Did the logic entities on those maps break to not work in casual?

Nobody likes arena mode because they don't want to wait 5 minutes to respawn. It was taken out for a reason. Even if it was put back in I can bet it would die in under a week.

Arena Mode was removed from the game for a reason

Will this include offblast as one of the backported arena maps?
Regardless, your efforts are much appreciated and hope Valve changes their minds when it comes to their stance with arena in casual.

This looks awesome, I’d love to see Offblast too just cause it looks fun from screenshots

Uploaded!

thank you!

After some discussions, I've decided to remove the balance changes and leave mini-rounds as the only gameplay changed when compared to stock Arena.
The port to Casual is the important part, not the balance changes.
Will upload shortly.

Putting this here for the sake of discussion:
I think the mini-round system is superior, 100%, but community fixes I think should be reserved for, FIXING things that are broken.
- You remove one crit mechanic in First Blood, but add a new one in Last Mann? why?
- Sure Random Crits suck, but every single other gamemode in the entire game has them on by default, why not this one?
- Arena doesent need a timer because the control point is already the stalemate breaking mechanic.
For a port of an existing gamemode, I think your goal should just be to port the gamemode as 1:1 as you can, and leave any whacky ideas out, because we all know valve doesn't wanna do game design anymore, so whatever the settings are you ship with, is what they'll use.

Also worth noting that graveyard, one of the two maps the miniround system is based on (the other being perks), recently removed that system, just running 15 rounds instead like vsh and zi, That to me puts into question if arena is incompatible at all, whats preventing valve from just adding back stock arena with 15 rounds?

YES PLEASE

I definitely appreciate the attempt here, and the ruleset changes seem good. But removal of random crits feels out of the scope for just one gamemode. Either casual as a whole removes it or it stays as a universal.
Last man standing buff seems kinda unnecessary to me too.
I did like first blood crits, but removal of it isn't that much of a deal breaker.
Though a change I think would be worth looking into are those team specific health kits tf2 classic has for arena mode, where killing enemies drops a mini kit that only your teammates can pick up. That's a change I think fits perfectly fine for Arena and helps the mode I think.
Overall this seems like a good attempt, I will reluctantly say yes.

Te quiero mucho Lizard of Oz <3