Today Jason Cross, Producer of The Arena, announced improvements to the Tavern (lobby) waiting times.
We have just implemented the following changes which you will begin to experience immediately:
Reward Timer: 15 seconds – down from two minutes. (Time spent in the tavern following a contest when rewards are given and the banners are unfurled.)
Staging Timer: one minute – down from five minutes. (Time spent searching for a fifth crew when you have four crews in the tavern. When this timer expires, your game begins the Ready Timer.)
Ready Timer: one minute – unchanged. (Time spent when all crews are ready to go, the countdown music begins to play and you can prepare for battle!)
Jason goes on to explain that in most circumstances your tavern wait will be reduced from over 6 minutes to about 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
One exception is if there are only 3 crews in the taverns you’ll have a slightly longer wait as matchmaking attempts to add 4-5 crews to an Arena battle when possible.
We’re sure to see more improvements come to Arena over time, but this is a great start!