Arena

Arena is a Last Team Standing map created by Jahhur and YeeHaa. It was the very first LTS map and even today remains one of the most popular maps in the mod, having dedicated servers. The map is a remake of the PVK1 map Coloseum which, while it didn't have the Last Team Standing game mode implemented, it had a similar level layout and it served as a deathmatch map.

Stats

• Map file: lts_arena (formerly pvk_arena)
• Mode: Last Team Standing
• Author: Jahhur and YeeHaa
• Release Date: Beta 2.0 (February 2008)
• Theme: Not specified
• Timer:
• Sudden Death Timer:
• Pick-ups: Food (x2), Armor (x2), and Ammo (x2)
• Stage Hazards: Lava (Sudden Death, only)

Overview

Arena is seen as the standard Last Team Standing map. It's rounded layout provides a way to both balance teams and to avoid them to run away from the enemy players. On the middle of the arena there are two floors: the upper one and the lower one; the upper floor has more props that help protecting players from ranged attacks while the lower one is often used to collect pickups. Sudden Death mode enters in action, and to make things hard for players under the central area, lava will rapidly ascend draining anyone's health in no time. The lava eventually stops once it reaches the central area. With the special meter full players who use the Huscarl or the Gestir might find their special attacks handy in order to kill an enemy fast. In some cases the rounds can start in sudden death, much like every other LTS map.

Presentation

Like both the new and the original map's names suggest, the players are at a typical roman colisseum, however it's theme is not clarified wether or not the map is set at a urban location or at a ruin, although the huge volcano may suggest a reference to the roman city of Pompei. The building is empty and the gates are closed, so that no players run away. While the upper floor looks crude and decayed, the lower floor is richly decorated, despite the darker lightning and the suggetive small lava pond at the center.

History

One of the spawn rooms from Arena (Beta 2.2).

The poison gas in action.

The early version of Arena had completely different spawn areas than those seen in the map's current state; each team had it's own room, much like gladiators from the Roman Empire. Once the round started, the gates opened for the players to go out for the arena. If someone stayed in the spawn, poisoned gas would be triggered, draining out the player's health like the lava. At a later update rooms were removed and since then players spawn right outside the colisseum. The original Sudden Death mode was different. While the lava raising was present there was also a flock of crows that emerged from the sky that attacked any player in a similar way as the Captain's parrot. The crows were later removed for being unfeasable for the players to concentrate during Sudden Death. Recent updates made some of the wooden walls destructable by the lava during Sudden Death mode for less chances of a class with a high jump like the Skirmisher to run away from enemy players until the round ends in a draw. The Sudden Death timer was tweaked in recent updates as well. Despite these changes, Arena's presentation and level layout hasn't changed in nearly seven years.

Trivia

• A common bug makes players turn into ice if they die in the lava during Sudden Death. The bug was reportedly fixed in the Beta 3.1 update;