This could be implemented in a bunch of ways but the jist of it is taking a mission that puts you in a queue to duel the next person to take the mission in any system, both players get teleported to "thunderdome station" encased in a big "ice yo" sphere where their respective ships launch simultaneously and a duel is initiated.

Once such a system is implemented the recording system that's been collectin' dust for the past decade could be put to work through the same mission for those who want to spectate past duels, where they'd get a replay of the duel in free camera mode.

Ideally there'd be two modes that would share the same score.

"Freestyle" both parties launch from Thunderdome station with the active ship at the time of taking the mission victor gets to keep his spaceboat, loser ends up at their home station.

"Mirrored" both parties launch with the active ship/loadout of the first player to take the mission, with an additional 15s of invulnerability so the second player has time to customize their weapon groups in this mode if the second player wins they immediately explode to please the crowd or whatever and get sent back to whatever station they took the mission in with the active ship at the time of taking the mission intact.

I figure charging an entry free in both credits/crystals makes sense since you get the convenience of not having to find another willing party and meet them in space, also given that the "mirrored" mode gives a space-boat to the second party for the duration of the duel.

Mode would be set by the second player taking the mission, once the mission is taken by the first party the lil asterisk would show up in the mission list indicating that someone somewhere wants to pewpew!

It's a pretty tall order but I figure it would go a long way to re-popularize dueling and prevent all the match fixing bullshit people have pulled over the years. *You know who you are ya filthy cheaters I'm not going to bother pointin' fingers!*

Mission should available after combat 10 in all barracks stations to keep the unwashed newb masses out.

I found about a half dozen different mentions of something similar searching with the following terms "Duel" "Dueling" "Arena", none of them are as fleshed out as this and the latest one dates from 2020 and the earliest as far back as 2003 so post-necrotic at this point.

Downsides is it'll further reduce spontaneous/organic pvp encounters (Fuckin' big one if you ask me but hey it'll probably make for loads of consensual explosions!)

Upsides is it'll make dueling a hell of a lot more accessible to lazy fuckers like myself not to mention it'll prevent people from cherry picking which duelist they want to engage with since the other party would be obfuscated.

TL;DR: Player A takes mission, player B sees "Duel Thunderdome*" in the mission list, selects whether or not they want matched loadouts and mutual explodin' ensues.

Similarish threads:

Vendetta Online Hosted Combat Zone (2014)
Why VO PvP combat is flawed: the missing piece(2015)
Arena?(2013)
Make an accessible-from-anywhere sector(2015)
Run monthly duel leagues(2022)
Arena of doom! sector(2021)
Random PvP-Function(2015)
space gladiators(2009)

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Quote from the devs

In closing, there is strong potential we'll do some kind of "instanced arena" concept at some point. I'm not quite sure what it will look like.

-Inc 2020

Yeah, I still agree with what I wrote in 2020. It's something I've thought about for a long time (including the recording mechanics, etc). This is something that would be cool and helpful.

I will say that we've been doing a lot of fundamental protocol work, over this past year, that should further improve the basis for this kind of thing. But, I don't really know when we'll be able to prioritize an instanced PvP thingie. (I thought most of the stuff this year wouldn't take.. most of this past year).

Sans-recording, I don't think it would be that complex to implement. But, I have a bad history of saying things like that and then later realizing "it requires re-writing the schmoozit and transfibulator". Let's hope not.

Present-time spectating is (probably) not that hard to add either. Recording, however, is technically doable, but it's like anything where "all the pieces are there": It's not what you want to hear when you go to buy a car on craigslist and someone gives you a box of parts. Some assembly would be required.

I was also considering just offering fixed loadouts, rather than worrying about mirroring or relative balance, at first. To make a car-racing analogy, it could start out as a "spec" class event (everyone drives the same car) and eventually offer an "open" class (people race whatever modified car they want).

Then people could be awarded long-term winners of particular spec classes. Like.. Vulture-hunter versus Prom-bomber or whatever it is.

Recording stuff is just the cherry on top of the cake I'm sure you know.

Issue with forcing loadouts is it'll probably turn some folks off particularly if the implementation requires consensus from both parties - people want to fight in their favorite spaceboat, there's no getting around that unfortunately. (It's going to be dominated by prom-jocks, I can't say I give a fuck I want pew pew and I want it now!)

I want to keep it as simple and as fast as possible whilst taking some control out of the hand of the person that initiates the request.

Pretty much the whole idea behind the way I have it set up is so the folks who want to pew can just take the mission and alt-tab until they get the proximity beep cue to alt-tab back in.

I threw the mirrored mode in there because duels oughta be somewhat balanced and it removes a small penalty for the second player taking the mission, hell if the second player wins they could also keep the spaceboat in question - that'd give a damn good incentive to select mirrored mode to boot.

The crystal/credit cost wouldn't do much except create an additional credit sink and help prevent abusing the mission to generate free ships.

TL;DR: Thanks for taking the time.