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[Tournament On] Blood Bowl
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If they are using the Living Rule Book rules they can't really mess up the game, so what I want to know is:
*Interface. Is it playable? Does it feel good?
*Presentation? How does it look? Animations? Does it feel as satisfying as it should having your ogre step on a goblin? Are there special animations for skills, Pile On and such?
*AI. People are saying it is pretty good?
Maybe I'm missing something totally obvious in the UI, but now that I'm out of the public league and waiting for my application to the PA league to go through, how do I challenge other random players?
You can't with the team that's waiting on getting into the PA league. You can only play against random players with a public league team. Idea being, teams in a private league should only be improving their records and players against other league teams, not cleaning up on random scrubs and then using a superior team against league opponents.
If you do have another team made that you want to use in the public league, then what you need to do is click on that team in the upper left of the main online screen, and then go looking for opponents as normal.
Guess I'll have to make a second gobbo team now for when no one's on.
Thanks though!
Interface: I've found it intuitive. Most everything is handled with context sensitive right clicks, and the icons are good about telling you exactly what action you are performing. There is a chat box detailing in text what rolls are happening and giving outlining results and modifiers applied. All actions are also illustrated graphically on the field, with text popping up as needed (like when casualties happen, or when saving throws are made). In certain situations you have to remember to toggle blitz on manually (if you are blocking first and then moviing, for example), but otherwise I don't even think about the interface.
Animations are good, although I'll admit I'm usually to busy playing to really pay attention. Each player type and action has its own animation, the best ones probably belong to the goblins with secret weapons. Its great when they whip out the chainsaw and do some damage. The goblin cheerleaders are pretty hilarious as well. I should also mention that the announcers are pretty damn funny, and in 20+ games they haven't really gotten annoying. Usually in sports games the announcers are stupid and I immediately turn them off, but I haven't needed to do so here.
The AI is a challenge, and really kicked my ass the first 5 games or so. Once I figured out what I was doing I can beat it on medium, but it is very good at capitalizing on mistakes and bad rolls. It will punish you for turnovers, and if you give it an opening it will use it. Its even pretty good at handling the different races playstyles. The AI won't hesitate to stomp you with the more physical teams, or dance around you with elves or stunties. The only quirk I've been able to notice is that it sometimes makes unnecessary Go For It rolls. Its more than adequate for learning the game before you tackle multiplayer, and on medium its good enough to beat me a third of the time.
Just signed up to respond to this thread and get my name out there so I can hopefully jump into the tournies run by PA.
To answer the questions:
Yes, the game is (AFAIK) blood bowl to a tee. I love it.
Interface is awesome. Easy to use. Guys taken/cant take an action are red, guys that can take an action are green. Easy to see where/when you need to roll dice (when you are moving for dodges etc) and most of the time it shows you what the required score on that roll would be. Only thing I have difficulty remembering is if I want to blitz when standing next to someone, I have to hit blitz first before throwing the block (if you aren't next to them when you click on them to block the blitz automatically gets applied). The team roster section is also easy to use and lets you know after every game if you have a level up pending. I ran through the tutorials quickly and that explained most of the stuff I needed to get into a game and learn everything else trial by fire. I have only played the classic mode, Turn based IMO is going to be way better than the other version.
It looks great. Dodges and blocks have animations. I think they could have done a bit more with the special big guys and weapons, but that is minor. Touchdown cutscenes are funny. The dialogue of the commentators could have done with a LOT more work (i think i'd heard everything they have to say in the first game). Pitch variation is good, not always the same thing. Cheerleaders are a little lacking, but they don't play a massive part so guess its not too much of a problem. No special animations for skills that I have seen, which is a little dissapointing, but wasn't a game breaker IMO. The fouling seems a little lack lustre, but I think that is just me getting poor results out of the dice rolls, it is pretty funny when 5 guys stomp on one guy down in the dirt.
AI - I used to play a long time ago, so I am familiar with the rules and strategy in general, however I couldn't remember the actual order of things etc. So my first couple of games I played on medium just to get a feel for what to do and how to do it and lost quite convincingly. I then started a campaign as chaos, won the first match, then lost the 2nd (to a skaven team, wasn't expecting the mobility of those guys), now I am on a 9 game winning streak, highest win so far is 5-0. The dice haven't been super unkind to me, but they have caused some turnovers which end up in the opposition scoring (Minotaur rolling 3 attacker downs on a 3 dice block shat me, also having the ball IN my touchdown zone, but continually fumbling to pick the damn thing up when the skaven runner comes grabs it moves a bazillion squares throws it down the end of the field the other guy runs a bazillion squares and gets a touchdown), so that could be a factor, or perhaps I am playing an easy team? I noted a few posts that say chaos aren't for beginners, so maybe they just play easily, if you know how? I was still re-learning a few of the skills and made some poor choices, so I am going to restart on hard and see where that takes me, hopefully more of a challenge (undefeated is awesome, but I want to be the one who gets the bonus special characters and wizard scrolls etc). For this reason I am keen to get into one of the PA leagues also, the unpredictability of a human always adds an interesting element.
However, in saying that they don't do stupid stuff (at least not on medium). The dwarf teams always bunch up and go for a drive down the centre. The skaven and humans are always running around everywhere and pass a lot. Occasionally the ball carrier will run towards my touchdown zone and be left unguarded, which seems a little strange (especiialy because its usually the dwarfs who do this), but maybe they had a bigger plan which was interupted by a turnover? Came across a dwarf team that had lots of people with the guard skill, man that was tough to play against, so they pick good skills and such.
How long the thrill lasts I dunno, but I am so itching to get out of work to go play it, it isn't funny.
Bit of a ramble, hope that helps anyone who was interested in buying.
Origin: KafkaAU
Though, if I do get the Chat Channel to work properly, it would probably be worth having a League just for that. (unless I tie it to Steam I guess... anyone setup a Blood Bowl Steam Group?)
The match loadtimes are pretty big (Maybe 1 minute on my quadcore/9800gtx/4gig ram machine) on singleplayer. But the matches last a long time, and it's only 1 load / match. The commentary is loopy as hell , otherwise the presentation is great.
It's definitely an interesting game to play.
Until All Are One...under the Newell
My Boardgames
Nintendo Network ID: RollaJ
No region restriction that I'm aware of. Half the players around just about any time I'm on are French, and I'm playing from the US.
1 minute?! I should be so lucky. I haven't timed it but it feels like a good three or four for me. I'm worried to play online for fear of pissing off people with no patience. Like you say though, one load at the start and your good to go for the whole match.
The UI is absolutely fine. The only issue that I can see that anyone could possibly have is that you're not as familiar with it as you are with FUMBBL. Yet. Play a few matches and you'll see that it really is fine. Plus it will warn you when planned movement would cause a tackle and gives you an advance heads up on target rolls/number of block dice so it's much more friendly to someone who hasn't memorised the rules.
Here's hoping this does really well and we can get an expansion to beef up the roster a bit.
WiiU: JamWarrior
Great stuff! Whens the next PA tourny or league?
Until All Are One...under the Newell
My Boardgames
Nintendo Network ID: RollaJ
I'm currently working my way through the campaign with a lizardmen team and it's going pretty well, I havn't played the tabletop game for a few years but from what I remember they've done a great job of bringing the rules across.
Think I'll give multiplayer a try once I've given the other teams a try, so I know what to expect from the teans I'm playing.
I'm not sure if I'm blind, or just not looking closely enough.. but is that just the 1/2/3 white/red dice that pops up? Or is there a more detailed reading somewhere?
EDIT: Oh yeah, the Penny Arcade Casual 2 has filled up, and I've started the season... I'm not sure how well this is going to work though.
I'm really starting to like the idea of linking Blood Bowl to steam, and having a PA steam group/chat room, where we can all hang out and setup 1-off matches instead. I will probably look into it later.
Just stuck on a match vs Skaven where they have a rat ogre, and a hero rat ogre
I have yet to see a PA'er who isn't already in a game. Whenever I log in there are exactly two people online, and they are both already playing. Are you guys organizing matches using in-game chat, or some other method?
Where's the PA league information? The OP is all FUUMBLE stuff.
The bummer is that with their tails it's hard to run away from those fuckers. I suggest fouling them into the ground, after you do the same to the Guttersluts.
I just had a game with my new human team. My Thrower fails a throw roll, auto-rerolls...and rolls a 1, fumbling the ball. He then proceeds to do exactly the same thing three more times during the game. I eventually let one of my linemen try instead...and he did exactly the same thing. I think the Skaven I was playing against had gotten the ball all slimy.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
My goblin running back/free safety is the pride of the Orcs. I just know that poor fucker is gonna get killed soon.
Couple of questions though. I just looked on the website and it made mention of 8 different races. Do we know if they will expand this number going forward? It'd be cool to have all the other teams like Norse, Amazon, DE, HE and especially the big hats! Also does anyone have any screenshots of what the game looks like with all the UI on? The stuff on the website doesn't show any of that and I'm curious
Now if only I could figure out a way to level up my players. The team is all level 1 with a tiny amount of SSP on all of them with one level 2 Beastman with tentacles and my level 3 star, another Beastman named Milly Mantle (name generator seems to have some joke names in there) with an extra arm and Sure Hands (who still managed to fumble picking up the ball 4 times in a row one game).
My mistake was playing them first, their hardiness and durability spoiled me. I tried given skaven a try and on the second turn one of my guys died and I was like "Nope, can't do this, back to dwarfs."
We should set up a tournament soon so I can attempt to grind your bones beneath by dwarven feet.
Here's what I've been thinking about going with this time for development:
3 Chaos Warrior Blockers: Block, Guard, Mighty Blow, etc...
1 Chaos Warrior Runner (for cage tactics): Sure hands, Block, Fend, Two Heads (dodge if double)
2 Beastman Runners (for breakthrough plays against slower teams): Sure hands, Two heads, Fend, (dodge)
Beastman lineman: Block, Guard, Tackle, Mighty blow (Diving tackle)
Beastman blitzer: Block/Wrestle, Tackle, Mighty blow, Claw(Diving tackle)
Minotaur: The usual:
Anything I'm missing?
Wesleyyyyy
One issue though, I can't for the life of me get a multiplayer game working. I sat in the public chat challenging everyone that was saying "LFG" but got no replies, even seeing the same person I challenge looking for a game after I sent a request.
Finally, after sending 20 some odd challenges, someone challenges me and I accept. Sweet! Game loading screen finally comes up, the game loads annnnd.... CRASH TO DESKTOP. wtf.
Does anyone know if this a common issue?
Had my first tournament game with my humans against Jolly's Lizardmen, it was pretty epic. When I saw his saurus line I was sure I was going to lose. And he did stomp all over me. In the end I claimed victory only because of a lucky passing game and a very crucial fumble going my way. My blitzer recovered the ball way back on my side of the field, and proceed to get boxed in by his hulking lizard monstrosities. I was desperate, and knew I would lose the ball the next turn. So I dodged out to an opening and completed a long pass for a touchdown. Final score 2-1 for the Wangoliers, and about 10 KO's total. Most exciting game I've played so far!
Edit: Here's the replay if anybody cares. It was a really close game.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FW21Y0TP
It looks like the most boring White Wolf game ever.
Something to consider for your Mino--Tentacle. Basically it causes anyone trying to Dodge away from him to pass a Strength roll, or they're stuck in his tackle zone. It leaves the player in prime Frenzy position, and the players that will be dodging most are the weaker agile guys (Catchers, Skinks, Goblins, Guttersluts) who can't resist the tentacle well. I know some people like to use the Mino for blitzes to take advantage of his horns, but I don't think that's worth it: the increase from 5 to 6 strength isn't as important as giving a blitzing Beastman 4, and you don't want to waste the Blitz on a guy who might go all Wild Animal on you.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Anyone have some time?
Candy Is dandy, But liquor Is quicker
I don't see how closed ports would cause a full on crash, but I guess it's a possibility
I'll post again here when I get home in a couple hours.
I personally wouldn't consider it poor sportsmanship to have it done to me, not that it wouldn't suck.