Arena News

A parried throw bounces off you now, like a ball off a bat. It used to fly straight back at whoever threw it, and since this morning it just dropped.

Parrying a throw. Swing into it while facing the thrower and it goes back at him, hard; time it badly, or catch it in the wind-up, and it drops halfway. Turned to the side, it glances off to the side. A raised shield just knocks it down in front of you. A shield bash sends it back with the bash behind it. Once you’ve hit it back, it’s yours: it can hurt the man who threw it.

Two throws that meet in the air knock each other back by their weight. Two short swords both bounce back, slower. Every throw packs about the same punch, so a heavy hammer comes back slowly and a light short sword comes back fast.

Batting a weapon out of the air with a swing follows the same rules, so it can’t fly off at absurd speeds anymore. Getting knocked flying by a weapon hasn’t changed.

The hand axe floating over the well is yours if you run or jump through it. You don’t have to press Use anymore. It comes back 15 seconds later.

The pitching machine and the rondo throw by the same rules: a return takes a well-timed swing facing the machine.

The bots got a few more habits tonight.

• Fists. A bot with nothing in hand used to turn its back and walk off to find a weapon. Now it fights with its fists when you’re close, or when you’re bare-handed too. Thor and Unferth just like it that way.
• They get harder as a round goes on. The closer the leading player gets to the frag limit, the better they fight and the more they keep an eye on him. Never more than half of them on you at once, so it stays a melee. mutate bots arc off turns it off.
• Sprees. Three kills without dying and the bots near you sharpen up until you die or cool off. mutate bots spree off turns it off.
• Rune power from bots is 5 a kill, not 20. Sweeping the field takes longer to earn now.
• Correction: the first post said your best gauntlet run goes on a board. The runs are kept, but there’s no board yet.

mutate bots help has the rest.

The arena came back November 1 after thirteen years dark; a lot has changed since, mostly in the last week. This thread is the changelog. Each new release gets a reply here, and the same entries show up at lowcaliber.com/news and in the game (mutate news).

The arena is back

• Open the console (~) and type open arena.lowcaliber.com. There’s no password.
• Rune Gold 1.07 (it comes with Rune Classic on GOG) is what it wants. The first visit downloads the map and RAK for you.
• It’s the 2003 map and RAK, with some fixes. It’s listed on the 333networks master servers again too.
• On a Mac: lowcaliber.com/mac. That’s CrossOver and a Rune folder with the map and mod already in it.

The map

• A new sky: a pine ridge with a river of fog, running through day, dusk and night.
• Storms. A lightning strike lights the arena from the side it hit, and the thunder comes from that direction.
• HD textures on the walls and floors. The same arena, with less mud.
• A woven war banner with the club’s arms. It sways, and ripples when you hit it.
• The runestone is violent now. Hit it and it throws you across the floor and shatters your weapon. Leave it alone.
• The Low Caliber Laureates board is painted on the runestone: the top ten, rated afresh from every kill since 2003.

Practice

• mutate pitch: a pitching machine throws weapons at you. Send them back.
• mutate rondo: a ring of machines throwing from all sides, behind you included. Anyone who walks into the ring is in it. mutate rondo last is last man standing.
• mutate gauntlet: the ranked one. Everyone gets the same climb, it gets harder every 20 seconds, and your best run of the year goes on the board.

Fighting

• Throw your weapon (or lose it) and you get a random one from your back, not the next one in line.
• Shield bash: attack while blocking. It stuns, with no damage.
• Ping-pong: parry a thrown weapon mid-swing, or bash it, and it flies back at whoever threw it.
• Everyone spawns with a shield, the red round one.

The bots

• Eight of them: Thor, Loki, Skadi, Harbard, Tyr, Hodr, Unferth and Bragi. Each has its own skin, temperament and voice. Thor walks straight at you and never stops. Loki goes round to your back and throws. Tyr blocks and counters. Skadi and Harbard hang back and pick off the wounded. Hodr doesn’t see you until you’re close. Unferth goes for whoever’s leading. Bragi is there for the show.
• They keep the server at eight. When a person joins, a bot leaves.
• They talk, sometimes too much. mutate bots quiet shuts them up.
• They show up on the radar and carry the raven banner on the scoreboard.
• They drink the mead you spawn with, they eat mushrooms, they Hulk on fists and they ring the gong.
• Crucifixion: kill someone who’s typing or eating and RAK nails you up, same as always. Some bots know that and leave you alone. Thor never learns.
• They gang up on a runaway leader, flank you while you’re busy with someone else, and finish off the wounded. They do combos: bash and strike, hop aside and counter, throw and close in.
• Killing a bot gives you 5 rune power, not 20.
• They get harder as a human gets near the frag limit, but never more than half of them come after you at once.
• Bots have their own ratings. The runestone only shows people.

Commands

Anyone can use these; you don’t need to be an admin.

• mutate help: everything, one line each.
• mutate bots help: the bot commands.
• mutate bots duel Thor: just that one bot, so you can learn him. mutate bots duel ends it.
• mutate bots 4 sets four bots, mutate bots off removes them, and mutate bots fill goes back to filling to eight.
• mutate bots skill 0.8: harder (0 to 1).
• mutate bots quiet: no bot chat (again to turn it back on).
• mutate bots status: who’s in, and how hard they’re playing.
• mutate bots arc on|off: whether the bots ramp up during a round.
• mutate news: the latest from this thread.

Thanks

To SHADY and malric, whose notes from the first games shaped most of this; keep them coming, here or in game.