Blood Bowl 3

[Serus]

If they could make a (semi)-competent AI + add some options for game difficulty in single player, that would be nice. I'd consider sailing on the high seas to acquire it and even giving some gold pieces it if it turned out good. However I highly doubt any of this will turn out true.

 

[MicoSelva]

Anyone interested in signing up for Big Crunch 3 Season 3?
Deadline is on October 1st. I have spontaneously decided to join.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...yslYIU/edit?pli=1&gid=183947098#gid=183947098

 

[MicoSelva]

I have to admit, I like the changes made ine the new edition of Blood Bowl. They make the game better in many subtle ways and fix some (though not all) glaring issues.
Cyanide's BB3 client could be better, though. Hopefully it's UI won't cost me too many matches.

 

[Grunker]

The new level-up system is ass cancer. There was already too little variety in team building, and the new determinist system kills the remaining variety completely. I enjoy the rest of the changes but that change is enough to ruin the update for me.

 

[Teut Busnet]

Doesn't the 'Pick random ability at half cost' rule help with variety? Not in an 'Eternal' league perhaps, but short and medium long formats should see more variety, no?

I also like that it's harder to get strength and agility upgrades, helps to keep a teams' character and style and makes Star Players more important and special.

 

[MicoSelva]

The new level-up system is ass cancer. There was already too little variety in team building, and the new determinist system kills the remaining variety completely. I enjoy the rest of the changes but that change is enough to ruin the update for me.

My thoughts exactly... at first. But it is growing on me as I continue playing. Combined with changes to TV count and ability to rapidly level up players with random skills it just makes a different meta with more roster turnover, especially for lower-cost players. You can get build a player however you want, but it will take a long time and bloat his value, or you can go for rapid level-ups and just fire and re-hire players as soon as they roll Shadowing.

 

[Grunker]

In practice, in leagues with good players, people choose their skills.

The variety is purely theoretical, not least because even in short league formats (which I rarely play as I find them boring) picking random skills often just means firing a player that got the wrong skill. Whereas at least before there was at least a tiny bit of difference between my teams, now they’re built identical. I hate it.

Blood Bowl is such an obvious candidate for a point buy based skill system so we stop treating Block and Sure Feet as equal. But instead they take an already terrible system in about the only direction they could that would make it even worse.

 

[MicoSelva]

I haven't yet experienced the new system in a league format, so maybe I will admit you are right in some time.
For now I am enjoying rapid advancement and chaos of the random skills, especially since I have usually been drawn to the more scrappy teams which regularly re-hire players anyway.

 

[Harthwain]

In practice, in leagues with good players, people choose their skills.

The variety is purely theoretical, not least because even in short league formats (which I rarely play as I find them boring) picking random skills often just means firing a player that got the wrong skill. Whereas at least before there was at least a tiny bit of difference between my teams, now they’re built identical. I hate it.

You can get some value out for random skills. But you do that with players that aren't crucial and in the category of skills that are more likely to give you useful results (General being the most obvious choice for Linemen).

But I do agree with you on of this new system feels. I liked the previous system better. It was simply cool to roll a double or stat upgrade. The current one means most people will simply buy skills, instead risking a random result (or roll random skills and get a perfect team for less TV than their opponents, giving them a huge advantage, which is also not an ideal situation for the game).

 

[MicoSelva]

I've already seen some ultra-optimized teams with AV11+ on every player.
But for league play I would say the new system is good, especially with TV limits.

 

[Galdred]

In practice, in leagues with good players, people choose their skills.

The variety is purely theoretical, not least because even in short league formats (which I rarely play as I find them boring) picking random skills often just means firing a player that got the wrong skill. Whereas at least before there was at least a tiny bit of difference between my teams, now they’re built identical. I hate it.

Blood Bowl is such an obvious candidate for a point buy based skill system so we stop treating Block and Sure Feet as equal. But instead they take an already terrible system in about the only direction they could that would make it even worse.

Right, but the previous system did produce teams that could end up quite different, as you:
- always had reasonable skill up choices
- had a few imbalanced choices that you could not count on.

I faced a Chaos team with a ST6 Block/Guard chaos player before, and it sure felt different from mine (which had 2 Ag 4 beastmen)!
A point buy system would be worse, as everyone would have the same meta builds.

 

[Grunker]

In practice, in leagues with good players, people choose their skills.

The variety is purely theoretical, not least because even in short league formats (which I rarely play as I find them boring) picking random skills often just means firing a player that got the wrong skill. Whereas at least before there was at least a tiny bit of difference between my teams, now they’re built identical. I hate it.

Blood Bowl is such an obvious candidate for a point buy based skill system so we stop treating Block and Sure Feet as equal. But instead they take an already terrible system in about the only direction they could that would make it even worse.

Right, but the previous system did produce teams that could end up quite different, as you:
- always had reasonable skill up choices
- had a few imbalanced choices that you could not count on.

I faced a Chaos team with a ST6 Block/Guard chaos player before, and it sure felt different from mine (which had 2 Ag 4 beastmen)!
A point buy system would be worse, as everyone would have the same meta builds.

Not really. Obviously the point buy system should maintain the randomization, so you could only buy stats and double-skills on stat rolls and doubles. The point of a point buy system would be to make sure less used skills were more attractive within their respective categories. It's funny you mention an ST6 Block/Guard player, because besides the large strength, the Block+Guard is the snooze-fest standard

I've played Blood Bowl on the ladder, on FUMBBL and in multiple private leagues for more than 10 years now, and skill diversity is one of the biggest problems.

 

[Galdred]

In practice, in leagues with good players, people choose their skills.

The variety is purely theoretical, not least because even in short league formats (which I rarely play as I find them boring) picking random skills often just means firing a player that got the wrong skill. Whereas at least before there was at least a tiny bit of difference between my teams, now they’re built identical. I hate it.

Blood Bowl is such an obvious candidate for a point buy based skill system so we stop treating Block and Sure Feet as equal. But instead they take an already terrible system in about the only direction they could that would make it even worse.

Right, but the previous system did produce teams that could end up quite different, as you:
- always had reasonable skill up choices
- had a few imbalanced choices that you could not count on.

I faced a Chaos team with a ST6 Block/Guard chaos player before, and it sure felt different from mine (which had 2 Ag 4 beastmen)!
A point buy system would be worse, as everyone would have the same meta builds.

Not really. Obviously the point buy system should maintain the randomization, so you could only buy stats and double-skills on stat rolls and doubles. The point of a point buy system would be to make sure less used skills were more attractive within their respective categories. It's funny you mention an ST6 Block/Guard player, because besides the large strength, the Block+Guard is the snooze-fest standard

I've played Blood Bowl on the ladder, on FUMBBL and in multiple private leagues for more than 10 years now, and skill diversity is one of the biggest problems.

Right! But randomization sounded like a good idea on paper, but even for half the TR, it looks like no one selects it.
I was wondering whether having only a few random levels, with more than a single choice would have worked better (ie, like at 4th and 7th level, you get to pick one skill among 3 or something like that).
But even then, it would probably end up with coach just mercilessly firing players (but 1 skill out of 3 could still be workable).

Regarding skill diversity, I remember in one older edition of BB, you had to roll a double for chaos mutation. I was tempted to take something about handling the ball every time, but always ended up with claws+fangs...

 

[Grunker]

In practice, in leagues with good players, people choose their skills.

The variety is purely theoretical, not least because even in short league formats (which I rarely play as I find them boring) picking random skills often just means firing a player that got the wrong skill. Whereas at least before there was at least a tiny bit of difference between my teams, now they’re built identical. I hate it.

Blood Bowl is such an obvious candidate for a point buy based skill system so we stop treating Block and Sure Feet as equal. But instead they take an already terrible system in about the only direction they could that would make it even worse.

Right, but the previous system did produce teams that could end up quite different, as you:
- always had reasonable skill up choices
- had a few imbalanced choices that you could not count on.

I faced a Chaos team with a ST6 Block/Guard chaos player before, and it sure felt different from mine (which had 2 Ag 4 beastmen)!
A point buy system would be worse, as everyone would have the same meta builds.

Not really. Obviously the point buy system should maintain the randomization, so you could only buy stats and double-skills on stat rolls and doubles. The point of a point buy system would be to make sure less used skills were more attractive within their respective categories. It's funny you mention an ST6 Block/Guard player, because besides the large strength, the Block+Guard is the snooze-fest standard

I've played Blood Bowl on the ladder, on FUMBBL and in multiple private leagues for more than 10 years now, and skill diversity is one of the biggest problems.

Right! But randomization sounded like a good idea on paper, but even for half the TR, it looks like no one selects it.

Indeed. Hence why I think a point-buy would be a good idea. For the ideal experience, Block, Guard etc. shouldn't be prohibitively expensive, just expensive enough that the skills that *almost* make the cut on certain positionals right now actually end up being a feasible choice. You'd still see Block, Dodge and Guard as the standard, but one something like GR 3 and 4, CW4 or Knight 4, there'd be an actual strong incitive to build diversified players.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

is single player viable? both in 1 and 2 i played a couple seasons and i couldn't keep up with players wages anymore.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

lack of answers, i had to check myself.

so, the game has more detailed graphics than bb2 and perhaps more animations. everything else, EVERYTHING else, is inferior. the borderlands style is horrible, the interface is a nightmare from 20+ years old pro evolution soccer and it took me honestly several minutes to understand how to simply start a single fucking season, music is just noise, everything so minimalist makes baby cinemaware jesus cry.
i played only one match and had no level ups so i have no idea how the new system works, but i'm not sure i'll ever find out. probably i'd rather reinstall bb2 to play with my beloved lizards, absent here.

also: ai is rather braindead, all it knows to do is the "5" with the carrier, but anything else is completely random, i've seen it reach an unneded position through a dodge, pass slightly forward, and then run backward and build another 5. i played a good amount of bb1 and while not really bright it somehow produced interesting stuff, like pushing a man deep if you moved all your man high and then trying to pass to him, it constantly tried to keep the team around you, always built strength through contact and rarely wasted blitzes. nothing of this happens here, it's just a giant lolrandom shit even a bad player like me has no problem beating.

and on this one please help me: no match stats? really? no players season stats too? has it always been like this? wtf?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

rotflcoptering *HARD*. i tried to give it another chance. "saves are corrupt". with 1 profile and 1 autosave with 1 slot it means that the game can nuke ALL your progress anytime.

 

[MicoSelva]

Yeah, AI is braindead. It wouldn't even score once when I left the ball lying on the pitch for 16 turns.
Honestly, the only advantage of this game over Blood Bowl 2 is the new ruleset and the ability to play in private leagues who have mostly moved on from BB2 by now. The art style is pretty bad and despite the theoretically more advanced graphics the game looks worse.