Alright Boyz, 'ere we go... WAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!! (The Blood Bowl Impressions Thread) - Page 7

aran · 07-09-2009, 05:45 PM

I decided to time the pre-match loading screen. It takes 1 minute and 21 seconds to load a match. That's on my desktop machine I built earlier this summer. It has 6 GB of RAM, a quad-core processor, and a solid state harddrive. It's basically optimized for loading stuff fast.

That's extraordinarily slow load time.

path12 · 07-09-2009, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aran

I decided to time the pre-match loading screen. It takes 1 minute and 21 seconds to load a match. That's on my desktop machine I built earlier this summer. It has 6 GB of RAM, a quad-core processor, and a solid state harddrive. It's basically optimized for loading stuff fast.

That's extraordinarily slow load time.

What the hell? Seriously? I've been really intrigued but that would bug the crap out of me. And I've only got 2GB and a dual-core.

Eaglesfan27 · 07-09-2009, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12

What the hell? Seriously? I've been really intrigued but that would bug the crap out of me. And I've only got 2GB and a dual-core.

FWIW, my older computer which is similiar to your specs takes about 2 minutes to load a match. I just read something and the wait isn't bad.

Calis · 07-09-2009, 06:44 PM

Loading is definitely long, but I'm in the camp that it doesn't bother me too much. It could definitely be optimized because it shouldn't take that long, but a minute and a half of loading for an hour of playing is probably pretty close to most games out there. I don't mind it too much, I either browse the net, find something to read, or think about the carnage I'm going to cause.

I might try out that AI mod later tonight as well, but I'm in the same boat..currently trying Skaven and I have a lot more games not go my way than when I play as Chaos or Orcs.

RendeR · 07-09-2009, 09:53 PM

Ok, I started a custom championship today. No extra inducements, no player contracts or aging, but everything else thrown in.

I decided to try Chaos since I've tried Humans and Lizards already.

I set the league on Medium difficulty.

I'm 0-7 and haven't been close in 6 of those games. Totally unable to get a dice roll of ANY kind. One game against skaven I NEVER PICKED UP A BALL. Every single time teh ball was on the ground my player FAILED TO PICK UP THE BALL.

Now my players agility is just as good as humans and even most skaven, why the frack is it failing 7 out of 8 tries? and there is no one around these guys, its wide open field.

I'm baffled by this. I understand I can't generate a real passing game until Inget some levels and some skill players built up, but at this rate I'll never leave level 9 of my 36 team championships.

Color me seriously fucking frustrated. How do any of you use the chaos team? I honestly can't see how they ever win a game.

Calis · 07-09-2009, 10:07 PM

Chaos can be insanely frustrating until you get a Beastman or two with Extra Arms or Sure Hands..or maybe both. I think in a normal situation with no tackle zones threatened they need to roll a 3 to pick up the ball, but it always seems like they drop it more often than that. The thing with Humans, Skaven, Orcs and the like is they all have a group of players with access to Sure Hands or something similar so they don't seem to have near the problem. Lizards are the only guys with about the same issues.

You have to always assume that the ball won't be picked up and plan for it. Surround the ball before picking it up, and make sure no tackle zones are threatening. Always pick up last. You'll miss a lot but you want to make sure that the opposition has a helluva time picking it up if you fail.

It's frustrating and is the main downside to Chaos early. I think that's the sole reason they're spoken as being a tougher team and for more experienced coaches, because I think it's a solid team apart from that. They're low on skills but I think having 11 players capable of Blitzing at 4+ strength is a very nice bonus.

Sounds like you got a serious of terrible rolls. I've given up many a touchdown due to not being able to pick up the kickoff, but if you play it more conservatively you'll usually get a couple tries, and you can be bashing the hell out of the team while you're trying.

aran · 07-09-2009, 10:25 PM

I've noticed the AI making more mistakes since I've put the AI mod in. Oops. I wonder if it's just that my understanding of the game has improved or if the AI mod causes problems. It's mainly around when setting up a tackle on a ball-carrier. Instead of moving over to my ball-carrier to assist a tackle, the opponent moved their catcher to BLITZ some random player on my team and failed a dodge.

I don't find the loading that bad, myself. I just thought it was worth noting how unbelievably long it takes considering the quality of the graphics. This game shouldn't take 40 seconds to load sounds when I HAVE THE SOUND OFF. Also, why does Crysis take less long to load when it's a significantly more demanding game? It's poor coding and, unfortunately, it complements the poor game design in some other places and the wonky interface.

aran · 07-09-2009, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RendeR

Color me seriously fucking frustrated. How do any of you use the chaos team? I honestly can't see how they ever win a game.

Put several beastmen around the ball before attempting to pick it up. Set all of your other players up in a reaosnable cage before moving your last beastman over to make the attempt. Maybe the ball will scatter to a teammate, giving you another 50/50 or better chance at grabbing the ball.

thesloppy · 07-09-2009, 10:42 PM

I don't find the AI all that bad, but that could be because it's still challenging me. I swear there are some times that it seems it DOES recognize that time is winding down, and makes appropriately risky moves, but than there are some times when it obviously doesn't.

You know what I'd like to see addressed, and it might take less work than re-doing the entire gameplay AI, is the AI for selecting skills when a player levels up. It certainly seem that the AI does it randomly, and if it followed some basic logic for each race it could have a positive effect on gameplay.

aran · 07-09-2009, 10:51 PM

I wonder what the roster building AI is like. I've not really paid attention to it so far, because I haven't played through a campaign long enough to particularly care (or be bothered by it). I am seeing reasonable TV growth in my current competition, though the teams really got worn down by the end of the first season. It's only a 5 game season (I think?) and teams were ending it with an average TV barely breaking 900. I'm in the fourth game of the second season ATM and I'm seeing an average TV of over 1100. This is good; maybe there isn't a problem here. (Note that I'm playing without aging and contracts.)

One minor annoyance I've noticed is that the simulation engine may be wonky. I have NOT seen a sim end in a draw a single time in 6 or more seasons. It also seems like there's way too much scoring in simmed games. The games I play rarely have more than 3 TDs. Most of the simmed games have at least 4. Even when you've got Orcs playing Dwarfs.

SirFozzie · 07-09-2009, 11:05 PM

you don't want to know how it decides scores. trust me.

aran · 07-09-2009, 11:07 PM

2d6-2, drop the lower of the two dice, probably.

Honolulu_Blue · 07-09-2009, 11:14 PM

I started a custom competition as suggested. 56 teams, 4 divisions, no ageining, contracts or negotiations.

I played my first game ever against the lizards. That was fun. By then end of the game they had about 5 guys left. I won 3-0.

SirFozzie · 07-09-2009, 11:14 PM

In reply to aran:

(note, I'm putting this in a spoiler, because.. well.. you may not want to see how the sausage gets made here.)

Spoiler

Honolulu_Blue · 07-09-2009, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Ummm, I think so, but I'm not sure.....you try it out and tell me!

You can. That red is very large. I never really noticed it before.

thesloppy · 07-09-2009, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

In reply to aran:

(note, I'm putting this in a spoiler, because.. well.. you may not want to see how the sausage gets made here.)

Spoiler

SirFozzie · 07-09-2009, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Spoiler

BYU 14 · 07-10-2009, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

In reply to aran:

(note, I'm putting this in a spoiler, because.. well.. you may not want to see how the sausage gets made here.)

Spoiler

Not really what I wanted to read, are you pretty certain on this Foz?

Still, it doesn't detract from my enjoyment playing the game, but I was really hoping for more.

aran · 07-10-2009, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

In reply to aran:

(note, I'm putting this in a spoiler, because.. well.. you may not want to see how the sausage gets made here.)

Spoiler

SirFozzie · 07-10-2009, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Not really what I wanted to read, are you pretty certain on this Foz?

Still, it doesn't detract from my enjoyment playing the game, but I was really hoping for more.

There's a thread on the Cyanide board where this was found.

RendeR · 07-10-2009, 02:19 AM

I'm kinda stunned at how little real programming cyanide did for this, then again, they had to deal with Games Workshop and were probably told to do it the simplest least time comsuming (programming wise) way possible. to save a few bucks.

In my chaos competition I'm playing season 2 after finishing 36th out of 36 =( in season 1.

I started out 0-2 but then tied wood elves twice and after that a funny event occurred.

I went to start a new match expecting a game with either skaven or the human team in my division. but no team was listed, it just showed a 0-0 record and 0 for the team name.

I went ahead with everything and ended up playing a superhuman chaos team with NO beastmen, 8 chaos warriors starting and 3 count them THREE minotaurs on the starting line!!!

Every one of them was listed as 1st level players but every one of them had mad amounts of skills and mutations. The team value was 2550!!

Mine being only 1200 I got a shitload of cash to spend and bought apothacaries and re-rolls.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. I figured my team would get butchered, irregardless of the final score. I'd have like 3 guys alive or something.

I WON 1-0 suffering no severe injuries or deaths (permanent ones anyway, I saved one with an apothecary)

I'm still not going to advance to level 8 in the 9 division championship but I'm 1-0-2 in my last 3 after starting 0-8 and after handling that sick team I'm feeling far better about myself =)

Seriously though, WTF was up with that =)

aran · 07-10-2009, 02:49 AM

Quote:

I'm kinda stunned at how little real programming cyanide did for this, then again, they had to deal with Games Workshop and were probably told to do it the simplest least time comsuming (programming wise) way possible. to save a few bucks.

A spade's a spade. Even if they were somehow not allowed to make a good game around BB, Cyanide have still really half-assed this game and the game suffers for that.

As per your ridiculous story:

Did you install that mod that adds the stronger teams to the game? have you installed any mods? Maybe your competition DB got messed up somehow... That's a very odd story.

Honolulu_Blue · 07-10-2009, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aran

A spade's a spade. Even if they were somehow not allowed to make a good game around BB, Cyanide have still really half-assed this game and the game suffers for that.

As per your ridiculous story:

Did you install that mod that adds the stronger teams to the game? have you installed any mods? Maybe your competition DB got messed up somehow... That's a very odd story.

This really goes back around to the earlier observation in this thread that what's great about this game is the Games Workshop original Blood Bowl stuff. Cyanide did a great job translating the boardgame in look, feel, rules, etc. exceptionally well. That's why multi-player is so good.

That said, the rest of the stuff is incredibly half-assed. I mean, other than the AI (which has it's issues, but is decent enough) and some decent (yet limited) graphics/animations what did Cyanide really add that one couldn't already find in fumbbl.com?

Again, despite all of this, I'm still having a lot of fun with the game, but it's because I really love Blood Bowl. In order to make the game really work single player you essentially have to deactivate all of Cyanide's implementations (ageing, negotiations, contracts).

The sim thing is absurd.

Honolulu_Blue · 07-10-2009, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RendeR

I'm kinda stunned at how little real programming cyanide did for this, then again, they had to deal with Games Workshop and were probably told to do it the simplest least time comsuming (programming wise) way possible. to save a few bucks.

The "Dawn of War" games and others are all Games Workshop games and those games don't seem to have been programmed on a shoestring budget.

Cyanide recently bought the video game rights to the George RR Martin series. I have dim hopes for those games.

RendeR · 07-10-2009, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

The "Dawn of War" games and others are all Games Workshop games and those games don't seem to have been programmed on a shoestring budget.

Cyanide recently bought the video game rights to the George RR Martin series. I have dim hopes for those games.

GW doesn't really give a shit about Blood Bowl though, they don't support it they don't update it. The only thing they're involved with with that title is money.

The dawn of war series of games however is based on their flagship titles that they continue to build, grow and support. They'll fall all over themselves for 40k and fantasy based titles. Blood Bowl is just a money maker that they don't have to really care about.

Calis · 07-10-2009, 10:55 AM

Dawn of War also came from a very big studio with a much better reputation in Relic. Those are definitely AAA level games.

I think it was simply they saw Cyanide ripping them off with Chaos League and thought they might as well capitalize on it. I doubt that they forked over a lot of cash for it.

I'm leery of how much support Cyanide will give though. I guess that depends on sales, but I was extremely disappointed at their lack of support for their Rugby Manager game.

I never played the tabletop version of BB as mentioned but I definitely agree that the enjoyment of this game for me is based on the ruleset. I will give them credit for translating that well but I can't think of anything else they added. The Blitz rules I find to be a joke and imbalancing.

Still been playing the hell out of it but I think I'm going to take some time off from it apart from my league matches. I think I've OD'ed on it and need a break.

Calis · 07-10-2009, 03:35 PM

D_Wilson's Big Boy Mod

I just saw this mod for the game I thought some folks might be interested in. Sounds like it beefs up the campaign difficulty and for anyone who has followed it for a while apparently adds a bunch of Blood Bowl teams from the game's history and players.

I personally have gone over to the Competition route after a couple people here recommended it.

There are some decent looking model changes on their as well. I might install the Wardancer one because I thought they do look pretty odd in game.

I see someone has made a mod to play as the Norse also.(Are the Norse just a bashier Human team or what?) Obviously uses existing models, but that's a good sign.

Looks like there are a good chunk of people working on things, just have to hope it is relatively easy to modify but with how everything else is you have to wonder.

Are there many teams that could be added without the need for new skills?

Glengoyne · 07-11-2009, 01:00 PM

For those doing the competition style. I've gone that route, and liked my first experience better than the campaign route. I've only done a small competition as a test.

I've got a few questions.
-The rules say my team will start at the bottom of four divisions, and work its way up the ranks. If I select 20 teams, and two divisions, will my team only work up one level...or are there actually three other leagues with twenty teams and two divisions?
-If I deselected aging and contracts, does that pretty much "fix" the rosters save for cuts and on pitch incidents?

MacroGuru · 07-11-2009, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calis

D_Wilson's Big Boy Mod

I just saw this mod for the game I thought some folks might be interested in. Sounds like it beefs up the campaign difficulty and for anyone who has followed it for a while apparently adds a bunch of Blood Bowl teams from the game's history and players.

I personally have gone over to the Competition route after a couple people here recommended it.

There are some decent looking model changes on their as well. I might install the Wardancer one because I thought they do look pretty odd in game.

I see someone has made a mod to play as the Norse also.(Are the Norse just a bashier Human team or what?) Obviously uses existing models, but that's a good sign.

Looks like there are a good chunk of people working on things, just have to hope it is relatively easy to modify but with how everything else is you have to wonder.

Are there many teams that could be added without the need for new skills?

I installed the Wardancer and Lizzie skins but I have been holding off on the Big Boy mod, anyone install it and play with it? If so, feedback?

Glengoyne · 07-11-2009, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calis

...

Are there many teams that could be added without the need for new skills?

I think so. There would be new models, for new races and the like. The Chaos Dwarves would require new Chaosy dwarves, hob goblins, and centaurs. I think most of the skills are IN, with the exception of the ones that are only assigned to specific race/position combos.

RendeR · 07-11-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

I installed the Wardancer and Lizzie skins but I have been holding off on the Big Boy mod, anyone install it and play with it? If so, feedback?

Yeah I'm waiting on this as I don't want to lose the championship I'm currently sucking wind in.

MacroGuru · 07-11-2009, 04:10 PM

Just lost to a Skaven team 3-2, my thrower attempted to pick it up twice towards my end of the field and failed both times...allowing them to scoop up the ball and run it in with the final turn of the game.

BYU 14 · 07-11-2009, 04:44 PM

Just had an epic game against a Dwarf team with my Humans. Up 2-1, with two turns left and I have 6 players left on the pitch.

They have broken out of their cage and I have only 2 players (my thrower and a Blitzer) that can stop the tying score.

I move my thrower adjacent, then blitz, making a GFI role and knock the ball loose, my Thrower dodges, scoops up the ball, then hits a long pass to my best catcher (needed a 5) who has two Dwarves adjacent to him. They miss the Interception, he catches, dodges out of both tackle zones and hits 2 GFI's to get to their 1. Needless to say they have nobody that can catch him and I walk in on the last turn and take the 3-1 win. Great turnaround that needed a lot of luck!

RendeR · 07-11-2009, 08:13 PM

My third season in competition mode is going much better than the first two. I am 1-1-2 after 4 games and I'm sitting in 3rd (of 4) with 2 games to play. If I manage to play well I could actually get promoted this season, gonna be tough though!

Godzilla Blitz · 07-11-2009, 11:55 PM

Took a quick look on the last couple of pages and it doesn't look like this has been posted yet...

GoGamer has Blood Bowl on their 48-hour madness for $27.90 plus shipping. I was thinking of picking this up, but does anyone know if there would be anything different about the international version that I would run into problems with in the US (online play, etc.)?

RendeR · 07-12-2009, 12:06 AM

I've finally won division 9 and been promoted to division 8. Its taking time but slowly as the skills start building up Chaos becomes a far more playable team. I even have a semblance of a reliable passing game now.

aran · 07-12-2009, 01:09 AM

It's probably a good idea to turn player aging on when you do a competition. Otherwise everyone in the entire league ends up being a legendary-quality player. The AI makes terrible skill selections, so your intelligently built team will probably start really wiping the floor with everyone.

I just hope that the AI will buy players to replace the retired guys and not just rely on inducements.

RendeR · 07-12-2009, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aran

It's probably a good idea to turn player aging on when you do a competition. Otherwise everyone in the entire league ends up being a legendary-quality player. The AI makes terrible skill selections, so your intelligently built team will probably start really wiping the floor with everyone.

I just hope that the AI will buy players to replace the retired guys and not just rely on inducements.

I think my goal is simply to win the top division. once I do that I'll start over with a new team and export the legendary one for posterity. I'll also try and count the total seasons it takes me to manage to win the top level as well.

BYU 14 · 07-12-2009, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

Took a quick look on the last couple of pages and it doesn't look like this has been posted yet...

GoGamer has Blood Bowl on their 48-hour madness for $27.90 plus shipping. I was thinking of picking this up, but does anyone know if there would be anything different about the international version that I would run into problems with in the US (online play, etc.)?

A Godzilla Blitz sighting!!!

I don't believe it would be an issue since as far as I know international version is the the same one released in Britain and there is at least one online league I know of with both English players and a couple east coast US players.

aran · 07-12-2009, 12:52 PM

I think all copies out now are the international version, so it makes sense that they'd all play well together. I hope when the US version is released in September that there aren't separate servers or any other such nonsense.

Godzilla Blitz · 07-12-2009, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BYU 14

A Godzilla Blitz sighting!!!

I don't believe it would be an issue since as far as I know international version is the the same one released in Britain and there is at least one online league I know of with both English players and a couple east coast US players.

Hi BYU!

Thanks for the info. I'm going to order this one this evening. Looking forward to it.

RendeR · 07-12-2009, 07:59 PM

Welcome Back GB! Haven't seen you in ages!

Groundhog · 07-12-2009, 09:55 PM

Dissapointed to read some of these impressions re: the single player mode. I guess it's what I expected anyway. Any issues with the multiplayer side of things?

RendeR · 07-12-2009, 10:09 PM

Multiplayer is almost perfect, other than unneeded animations during game play its fantastic and as perfect a translation of the board game that you could ask for.

The single player is just basically an AI thing, its weak. As the people work on mods for the game I'm sure this will get far better. Its only been 10 days and there are already a number of mods out for both game play and imagery and they're all pretty awesome.

If you want real entertainment from the multiplayer do a custom league and turn off the contracts and negotiations and possibly even aging and the game rocks!

I started a 36 team, 9 division championship with no contracts/negotiations/aging/extra crap and it took me 3 seasons to advance from division 9 up to division 8. I'm using chaos and its been a real challenge to compete and get draws, let alone WIN games (it could just mean that I suck too) but now that the players are starting to advance a little its starting to turn around.

I'm really enjoying this. Don't let the negative stuff bother you over much, its really not that huge an issue. Its a rocking fun game!

Passacaglia · 07-12-2009, 10:11 PM

Can this be played in windowed mode?

aran · 07-12-2009, 10:15 PM

Welcome aboard, GB!

I have really enjoyed the single-player experience, regardless of some of the questionable design and general laziness on Cyanide's part. Playing competitions in the "championship" style is very fun--I think it's more fun than playing the campaign. You can customize a lot of stuff, like the number of teams, the number of divisions, the number or matches, and what extra "blitz" rules to use.

The AI mod is pretty good, as well. There are some basic flaws in the AI, unfortunately (it plays all the teams the same) but it can provide a challenge and is a good tool for learning the game.

I've gotten 20 hours out of single-player easily. This game has a lot more replayability than a lot of recent games released.

EDIT: @Passacaglia: yes, it can. You can select windowed mode in the options when you load up the game.

Groundhog · 07-12-2009, 10:21 PM

What races are included? All the standard ones including stunties?

Calis · 07-12-2009, 10:31 PM

Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Chaos, Skaven, Wood Elves, Goblins,and Lizardmen. Undead and Dark Elves are apparently in the works but not in the game yet.

The SP has issues as we've mentioned in the thread but I've still had a lot of fun with it. I definitely wouldn't feel ripped off if that was all I had played, I've easily put in 20 or more hours in the singleplayer, and probably a lot more.

I do think the Multiplayer has some issues also, there's some occasionally wonkiness, and the league functionality and such is pretty minimum. The actual games themselves are great fun though.

Glengoyne · 07-12-2009, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RendeR

...

I started a 36 team, 9 division championship with no contracts/negotiations/aging/extra crap and it took me 3 seasons to advance from division 9 up to division 8. ...

So you are playing in a four team division, and you have to work your way up through nine levels to win the championship?

I think I like that format. I shall name it the Render Ruleset.

RendeR · 07-12-2009, 10:33 PM

Wood elves
Dwarves
Humans
Orcs
Goblins
Chaos
Lizardmen
Skaven

07-09-2009, 09:53 PM	#305
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	Ok, I started a custom championship today. No extra inducements, no player contracts or aging, but everything else thrown in. I decided to try Chaos since I've tried Humans and Lizards already. I set the league on Medium difficulty. I'm 0-7 and haven't been close in 6 of those games. Totally unable to get a dice roll of ANY kind. One game against skaven I NEVER PICKED UP A BALL. Every single time teh ball was on the ground my player FAILED TO PICK UP THE BALL. Now my players agility is just as good as humans and even most skaven, why the frack is it failing 7 out of 8 tries? and there is no one around these guys, its wide open field. I'm baffled by this. I understand I can't generate a real passing game until Inget some levels and some skill players built up, but at this rate I'll never leave level 9 of my 36 team championships. Color me seriously fucking frustrated. How do any of you use the chaos team? I honestly can't see how they ever win a game. __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

07-09-2009, 11:05 PM	#311
SirFozzie Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: The State of Insanity	you don't want to know how it decides scores. trust me. __________________ Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com

07-09-2009, 11:14 PM	#313
Honolulu_Blue Hockey Boy Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Royal Oak, MI	I started a custom competition as suggested. 56 teams, 4 divisions, no ageining, contracts or negotiations. I played my first game ever against the lizards. That was fun. By then end of the game they had about 5 guys left. I won 3-0. __________________ *Steve Yzerman*: 1,755 points in 1,514 regular season games. 185 points in 196 postseason games. A First-Team All-Star, Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Selke Trophy winner, Masterton Trophy winner, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Olympic gold medallist, and a three-time Stanley Cup Champion. Longest serving captain of one team in the history of the NHL (19 seasons).

07-09-2009, 11:14 PM	#314
SirFozzie Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: The State of Insanity	In reply to aran: (note, I'm putting this in a spoiler, because.. well.. you may not want to see how the sausage gets made here.) Spoiler Here are two lines from the XML file. (0,2) (1,3) So in other words, it decides who loses, gives them a random score from 0-2, and then adds 1-3 to determine the winner's score. __________________ Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com Last edited by SirFozzie : 07-09-2009 at 11:14 PM.

07-10-2009, 02:19 AM	#321
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	I'm kinda stunned at how little real programming cyanide did for this, then again, they had to deal with Games Workshop and were probably told to do it the simplest least time comsuming (programming wise) way possible. to save a few bucks. In my chaos competition I'm playing season 2 after finishing 36th out of 36 =( in season 1. I started out 0-2 but then tied wood elves twice and after that a funny event occurred. I went to start a new match expecting a game with either skaven or the human team in my division. but no team was listed, it just showed a 0-0 record and 0 for the team name. I went ahead with everything and ended up playing a superhuman chaos team with NO beastmen, 8 chaos warriors starting and 3 count them THREE minotaurs on the starting line!!! Every one of them was listed as 1st level players but every one of them had mad amounts of skills and mutations. The team value was 2550!! Mine being only 1200 I got a shitload of cash to spend and bought apothacaries and re-rolls. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I figured my team would get butchered, irregardless of the final score. I'd have like 3 guys alive or something. I WON 1-0 suffering no severe injuries or deaths (permanent ones anyway, I saved one with an apothecary) I'm still not going to advance to level 8 in the 9 division championship but I'm 1-0-2 in my last 3 after starting 0-8 and after handling that sick team I'm feeling far better about myself =) Seriously though, WTF was up with that =) __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

07-09-2009, 05:45 PM	#301
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	I decided to time the pre-match loading screen. It takes 1 minute and 21 seconds to load a match. That's on my desktop machine I built earlier this summer. It has 6 GB of RAM, a quad-core processor, and a solid state harddrive. It's basically optimized for loading stuff fast. That's extraordinarily slow load time.

07-09-2009, 06:44 PM	#304
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	Loading is definitely long, but I'm in the camp that it doesn't bother me too much. It could definitely be optimized because it shouldn't take that long, but a minute and a half of loading for an hour of playing is probably pretty close to most games out there. I don't mind it too much, I either browse the net, find something to read, or think about the carnage I'm going to cause. I might try out that AI mod later tonight as well, but I'm in the same boat..currently trying Skaven and I have a lot more games not go my way than when I play as Chaos or Orcs.

07-09-2009, 10:07 PM	#306
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	Chaos can be insanely frustrating until you get a Beastman or two with Extra Arms or Sure Hands..or maybe both. I think in a normal situation with no tackle zones threatened they need to roll a 3 to pick up the ball, but it always seems like they drop it more often than that. The thing with Humans, Skaven, Orcs and the like is they all have a group of players with access to Sure Hands or something similar so they don't seem to have near the problem. Lizards are the only guys with about the same issues. You have to always assume that the ball won't be picked up and plan for it. Surround the ball before picking it up, and make sure no tackle zones are threatening. Always pick up last. You'll miss a lot but you want to make sure that the opposition has a helluva time picking it up if you fail. It's frustrating and is the main downside to Chaos early. I think that's the sole reason they're spoken as being a tougher team and for more experienced coaches, because I think it's a solid team apart from that. They're low on skills but I think having 11 players capable of Blitzing at 4+ strength is a very nice bonus. Sounds like you got a serious of terrible rolls. I've given up many a touchdown due to not being able to pick up the kickoff, but if you play it more conservatively you'll usually get a couple tries, and you can be bashing the hell out of the team while you're trying.

07-09-2009, 10:25 PM	#307
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	I've noticed the AI making more mistakes since I've put the AI mod in. Oops. I wonder if it's just that my understanding of the game has improved or if the AI mod causes problems. It's mainly around when setting up a tackle on a ball-carrier. Instead of moving over to my ball-carrier to assist a tackle, the opponent moved their catcher to BLITZ some random player on my team and failed a dodge. I don't find the loading that bad, myself. I just thought it was worth noting how unbelievably long it takes considering the quality of the graphics. This game shouldn't take 40 seconds to load sounds when I HAVE THE SOUND OFF. Also, why does Crysis take less long to load when it's a significantly more demanding game? It's poor coding and, unfortunately, it complements the poor game design in some other places and the wonky interface.

07-09-2009, 10:42 PM	#309
thesloppy Pro Starter Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: PDX	I don't find the AI all that bad, but that could be because it's still challenging me. I swear there are some times that it seems it DOES recognize that time is winding down, and makes appropriately risky moves, but than there are some times when it obviously doesn't. You know what I'd like to see addressed, and it might take less work than re-doing the entire gameplay AI, is the AI for selecting skills when a player levels up. It certainly seem that the AI does it randomly, and if it followed some basic logic for each race it could have a positive effect on gameplay.

07-09-2009, 10:51 PM	#310
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	I wonder what the roster building AI is like. I've not really paid attention to it so far, because I haven't played through a campaign long enough to particularly care (or be bothered by it). I am seeing reasonable TV growth in my current competition, though the teams really got worn down by the end of the first season. It's only a 5 game season (I think?) and teams were ending it with an average TV barely breaking 900. I'm in the fourth game of the second season ATM and I'm seeing an average TV of over 1100. This is good; maybe there isn't a problem here. (Note that I'm playing without aging and contracts.) One minor annoyance I've noticed is that the simulation engine may be wonky. I have NOT seen a sim end in a draw a single time in 6 or more seasons. It also seems like there's way too much scoring in simmed games. The games I play rarely have more than 3 TDs. Most of the simmed games have at least 4. Even when you've got Orcs playing Dwarfs.

07-09-2009, 11:07 PM	#312
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	2d6-2, drop the lower of the two dice, probably.

07-10-2009, 10:55 AM	#326
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	Dawn of War also came from a very big studio with a much better reputation in Relic. Those are definitely AAA level games. I think it was simply they saw Cyanide ripping them off with Chaos League and thought they might as well capitalize on it. I doubt that they forked over a lot of cash for it. I'm leery of how much support Cyanide will give though. I guess that depends on sales, but I was extremely disappointed at their lack of support for their Rugby Manager game. I never played the tabletop version of BB as mentioned but I definitely agree that the enjoyment of this game for me is based on the ruleset. I will give them credit for translating that well but I can't think of anything else they added. The Blitz rules I find to be a joke and imbalancing. Still been playing the hell out of it but I think I'm going to take some time off from it apart from my league matches. I think I've OD'ed on it and need a break.

07-10-2009, 03:35 PM	#327
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	D_Wilson's Big Boy Mod I just saw this mod for the game I thought some folks might be interested in. Sounds like it beefs up the campaign difficulty and for anyone who has followed it for a while apparently adds a bunch of Blood Bowl teams from the game's history and players. I personally have gone over to the Competition route after a couple people here recommended it. There are some decent looking model changes on their as well. I might install the Wardancer one because I thought they do look pretty odd in game. I see someone has made a mod to play as the Norse also.(Are the Norse just a bashier Human team or what?) Obviously uses existing models, but that's a good sign. Looks like there are a good chunk of people working on things, just have to hope it is relatively easy to modify but with how everything else is you have to wonder. Are there many teams that could be added without the need for new skills?

07-11-2009, 01:00 PM	#328
Glengoyne Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Fresno, CA	For those doing the competition style. I've gone that route, and liked my first experience better than the campaign route. I've only done a small competition as a test. I've got a few questions. -The rules say my team will start at the bottom of four divisions, and work its way up the ranks. If I select 20 teams, and two divisions, will my team only work up one level...or are there actually three other leagues with twenty teams and two divisions? -If I deselected aging and contracts, does that pretty much "fix" the rosters save for cuts and on pitch incidents?

07-11-2009, 04:10 PM	#332
MacroGuru Coordinator Join Date: May 2003 Location: Utah	Just lost to a Skaven team 3-2, my thrower attempted to pick it up twice towards my end of the field and failed both times...allowing them to scoop up the ball and run it in with the final turn of the game. __________________ "forgetting what is in the past, I strive for the future"

07-11-2009, 04:44 PM	#333
BYU 14 Coordinator Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: The scorched Desert	Just had an epic game against a Dwarf team with my Humans. Up 2-1, with two turns left and I have 6 players left on the pitch. They have broken out of their cage and I have only 2 players (my thrower and a Blitzer) that can stop the tying score. I move my thrower adjacent, then blitz, making a GFI role and knock the ball loose, my Thrower dodges, scoops up the ball, then hits a long pass to my best catcher (needed a 5) who has two Dwarves adjacent to him. They miss the Interception, he catches, dodges out of both tackle zones and hits 2 GFI's to get to their 1. Needless to say they have nobody that can catch him and I walk in on the last turn and take the 3-1 win. Great turnaround that needed a lot of luck!

07-11-2009, 08:13 PM	#334
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	My third season in competition mode is going much better than the first two. I am 1-1-2 after 4 games and I'm sitting in 3rd (of 4) with 2 games to play. If I manage to play well I could actually get promoted this season, gonna be tough though! __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

07-11-2009, 11:55 PM	#335
Godzilla Blitz College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000	Took a quick look on the last couple of pages and it doesn't look like this has been posted yet... GoGamer has Blood Bowl on their 48-hour madness for $27.90 plus shipping. I was thinking of picking this up, but does anyone know if there would be anything different about the international version that I would run into problems with in the US (online play, etc.)? __________________ Current Blog Projects: Final Fantasy: Lost in Japanese Kaboom Review

07-12-2009, 12:06 AM	#336
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	I've finally won division 9 and been promoted to division 8. Its taking time but slowly as the skills start building up Chaos becomes a far more playable team. I even have a semblance of a reliable passing game now. __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

07-12-2009, 01:09 AM	#337
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	It's probably a good idea to turn player aging on when you do a competition. Otherwise everyone in the entire league ends up being a legendary-quality player. The AI makes terrible skill selections, so your intelligently built team will probably start really wiping the floor with everyone. I just hope that the AI will buy players to replace the retired guys and not just rely on inducements.

07-12-2009, 12:52 PM	#340
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	I think all copies out now are the international version, so it makes sense that they'd all play well together. I hope when the US version is released in September that there aren't separate servers or any other such nonsense.

07-12-2009, 07:59 PM	#342
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	Welcome Back GB! Haven't seen you in ages! __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

07-12-2009, 09:55 PM	#343
Groundhog Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sydney, Australia	Dissapointed to read some of these impressions re: the single player mode. I guess it's what I expected anyway. Any issues with the multiplayer side of things? __________________ Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce

07-12-2009, 10:09 PM	#344
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	Multiplayer is almost perfect, other than unneeded animations during game play its fantastic and as perfect a translation of the board game that you could ask for. The single player is just basically an AI thing, its weak. As the people work on mods for the game I'm sure this will get far better. Its only been 10 days and there are already a number of mods out for both game play and imagery and they're all pretty awesome. If you want real entertainment from the multiplayer do a custom league and turn off the contracts and negotiations and possibly even aging and the game rocks! I started a 36 team, 9 division championship with no contracts/negotiations/aging/extra crap and it took me 3 seasons to advance from division 9 up to division 8. I'm using chaos and its been a real challenge to compete and get draws, let alone WIN games (it could just mean that I suck too) but now that the players are starting to advance a little its starting to turn around. I'm really enjoying this. Don't let the negative stuff bother you over much, its really not that huge an issue. Its a rocking fun game! __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

07-12-2009, 10:11 PM	#345
Passacaglia Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Big Ten Country	Can this be played in windowed mode?

07-12-2009, 10:15 PM	#346
aran High School Varsity Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Jersey, USA	Welcome aboard, GB! I have really enjoyed the single-player experience, regardless of some of the questionable design and general laziness on Cyanide's part. Playing competitions in the "championship" style is very fun--I think it's more fun than playing the campaign. You can customize a lot of stuff, like the number of teams, the number of divisions, the number or matches, and what extra "blitz" rules to use. The AI mod is pretty good, as well. There are some basic flaws in the AI, unfortunately (it plays all the teams the same) but it can provide a challenge and is a good tool for learning the game. I've gotten 20 hours out of single-player easily. This game has a lot more replayability than a lot of recent games released. EDIT: @Passacaglia: yes, it can. You can select windowed mode in the options when you load up the game. Last edited by aran : 07-12-2009 at 10:16 PM.

07-12-2009, 10:21 PM	#347
Groundhog Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sydney, Australia	What races are included? All the standard ones including stunties? __________________ Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce

07-12-2009, 10:31 PM	#348
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Chaos, Skaven, Wood Elves, Goblins,and Lizardmen. Undead and Dark Elves are apparently in the works but not in the game yet. The SP has issues as we've mentioned in the thread but I've still had a lot of fun with it. I definitely wouldn't feel ripped off if that was all I had played, I've easily put in 20 or more hours in the singleplayer, and probably a lot more. I do think the Multiplayer has some issues also, there's some occasionally wonkiness, and the league functionality and such is pretty minimum. The actual games themselves are great fun though.

07-12-2009, 10:33 PM	#350
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	Wood elves Dwarves Humans Orcs Goblins Chaos Lizardmen Skaven __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

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