I am a programmer. This is my first and only released
bukkit plugin, which is a work in progress. I also know more languages than Java. I'm also a former minestatus top 50 server administrator/developer. I've left the server staff business to work on development. Small world, I used to work with @
cereal on a daily basis on the same server staff, and I ran into @
Sleaker a few times in IRC while helping cerea1 test LocalShops 4 (dev).
But I digress. After more playtesting of MA, I've noticed the length of games in the sewer arena are longer than desired. It's a rather big arena, so if players are in one corner, they are not directly engaged by all the mobs spawned (I beleive it's naturally a <16m radius for mob targeting to happen [chunk width], excluding endermen which targeting is based on different code ). Shrinking the arena slightly may help.
Another solution is the addition of static hazards: deep water pits, soulsand, cacti, raised platforms, or lava. I don't recommend fire-lit netherrack as it can be put out by players. Hazards add some depth to the game and can hurt or help players. The addition of hazards along the edges also keeps players from camping against the walls. This should help against two players holding their own for ten minutes against hundreds of mobs.
Having the arena destructable also adds more depth. Making it so that the more the arena is destroyed, the more dangerous it is, also adds more "ante" to it as well. Would certainly match the hardcore difficulty of everything else. The only drawback is every time the arena restores itself, it eats a bit of performance. This performance loss is comparable to worldediting a few chunks (small on an admin scale).
