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[zakanater19]

Anyone know how to set-up a working gladiator arena, where you set your soldiers against kobolds ect

[Spy227X]

Either build it and make a squad for the battlers or use the Item Test one.

[neblime]

The way I see it there are multiple elements that make up an arena.

Spoiler: 1 a space which  creatures can be put into but not get out of. (click to show/hide)

by far the easiest way to do this is to have a pit above your arena to throw things in and use doors or other furniture to keep things from getting out and let soldiers in.
if you want to have building destroyers in your arena you will have to use artifact furniture or a hatch on a different z level to what the creatures can access.

Spoiler: 2 the creatures to fight. (click to show/hide)

First off fill the entrances to your fort from both above ground and the caves with cage traps so you can gather plenty of caged animals and invaders.  You can remove armor And/or weapons from caged creatures with the mass designation tools if you want less !FUN!  Then assign whichever creatures you want to the pit
You can also surround a furniture item like say, a table with cage traps down in the caves to lure building destroyers like trolls and GCS in.  It's also surprisingly effective to sprinkle the surface with random cage traps to catch animals and goblins

Spoiler: 3 a way for dwarves to watch.  Safely (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately there are complications to dwarves having open air viewing to the combat.  They c very unsportingly shoot crossbows in, get scared and run around, and flyers or ranged opponents can be problematic.  You either need to put dwarves many z levels above ( which only solves 1.5 problems) or put glass or grates between them and the action.  Then, remove all meetong zones in the fort and place one in the desired spectating area.  For added safety I like to have a room with fortifications that can see into the arena if dangerous enemies need finishing off.

couple more tips;
Put soldiers in THEN release victims, so there is no chance they can run past your entrances when your soldiers enter. ( don't forget to forbid, if applicable)
keep the hospital close, and remember items dropped in combat ( or fired ) will be forbidden so you will have to reclaim if you want a clean arena

[Kerbalrocketry]

Yep, done it many times.
It's good training for the newbies. Set up some cage traps, couple of animal traps if your biome has dangerous animals, and then just release them into the arena along with the designed Gladiators.

Mine just consisted of
Entry tunnel for gladiators with a door at each end, open outer end and station them inside then close that and open arena side.
The Arena, just a simple battle area with a viewing gallery above it (a statue garden)
And a Pitting area for the Opponents, order caged opponents to be pitted here, have a few Milita stationed here during pitting as sometimes they escape.

It worked pretty well, sometimes the Dwarfs came out a bit bloodied but all came out with a bit more knowledge of hitting things with the pointy end.

[Mentalpatient87]

It's slightly tedious and kind of messy, but I always line the walls of my arenas with the cages my prisoners are housed in. I then link one lever to as many "challengers" as I want. This way I can seal all my gladiators inside and release their quarry without any direct interaction by non combatants. Once everything is dead it's fun to watch the haulers "rush the field" in a mad dash for all the cages, mechanisms, and viscera.

[mirrizin]

Glass ceiling?

[Sutremaine]

Use raising bridges and then (h)ide the raised bridge. It'll look like open-air viewing to the player.

Continuing on the 'raised bridges' thread, you could have 1-wide raising bridges and then 1-wide retracting bridges carpeting the viewing area. The raised bridges will be visually indistinguishable from the retracting bridges.

[shali8]

EDIT: wrong thread...