Blood Bowl game Catch-All

So got up Sunday morning with a mild hangover, and a free day ahead of me, so I broke and purchased the digital version of Blood Bowl. Started up the download, went off for a morning constitutional and by the time I was back it was almost finished. Installed fine and after a quick auto-update I was ready to fire it up.

Wow, those talking about long load speeds are right. It may be that my rig is a little out of date now, but just loading the game, and then starting a match takes forever. I gave up on the tutorials after the first one as I'd rather wait and then play a game, then just get a rules refresh.

Started up a campaign on the new Blitz mode rather than Classic (do people have any preferences?). Started up a Skaven team and headed out to play. After some initial blunders in the early turns I had turned over the ball and the AI was on it's turn when suddenly the screen fizzed and blacked out and the PC was dead. Rebooted, had to start the campaign again as I hadn't saved, went to play the first game, after about 15 minutes, fzzz, and PC dead again.

Hmm, this seemed like a worrying bug, and I was scared my £40 had just gone straight down the toilet. So I ensured all my drivers were up to date and checked out some threads on the tech forum. Tried the game again encountering the same problem. Was contemplating quitting for the day when I just randomly clicked on a thread about overheating, mostly because it had many pages of replies. Lo and behold here were many posters with the exact same symptoms as I. After a half an hour of reading and a download of a tool that will let me hack my video card settings, I have cranked up my fan to 100% and lowered all graphical sliders to the lowest for BB.

Success! I manage to complete a full game (close 2-2 draw). My graphics card temperature is still pretty high (90 degrees), but doesn't lock up anymore. I manage to take my Warpclaw Warriors to victory in the Clean Cup. Not sure what Cyanide have done to cause these extreme overheating issues, but hopefully they will patch it before the Steam / Bricks and Mortar versions are available.

This seems common, unfortunately. Out of curiosity, what video card are you using? I'm running the game on an overclocked GTX 260 at 1920x1200 and max settings without a hitch.

Started the game about 12 hours ago and there was a new update. After downloading, it mentioned that the game was stepping down the default graphical settings that it detected for my rig. But once in the game, I noticed that it was just the same as it was before, so I rolled initiative and turned down the res myself.

I did find the default graphic settings to be a tad on the high side, and honestly I spend so much time zoomed out to view the whole pitch that I don't really notice the difference.

After 6 one-off matches where I constantly got rolled (ever go 0-3 to a dwarf team?) I started a league of med difficultly with 20 teams in two divisions, playing 18 matches each. Bitz turn-based rules were used but I turned off star players as I would rather watch the other teams slowly build up their squad with equipment & so on.

Took a Wood Elf team called "Leaves on the Wind" with the battle cry of "Watch how I soar!" and had my first actual win, 2-0, against a human team, even though I lost my only thrower to a failed training.

It seems like the rules are starting to click for me. I hope I can keep this up.

Sent you a PM for the league. Don't know what team I will use yet I only seem to be able to get a grip on humans. Does that make me a bad person?

I apparently cannot get a result other than Tie with Skaven vs. Medium AI in classic, but i've got tying down pat.

What happens with a tie to determine who gets more money?

Resolve to wait for Steam version wavering.....

I know. Hurry steam!

What's the ETA for Steam version?

Sept-frickin-ember.

Good thing. Got plenty to play until then.

I hope everyone else waits till September so I can practice. By the time it comes out on steam I hope to be a master at killing your favorite players that just leveled up. So go ahead wait till September my Dwarf spiked steam roller will thank you :p

Yes Dawrfs can have a spiked steam roller

Well I broke down and ended up buying Blood Bowl, I couldn't wait until September

Man that latest update was a pain. Not sure what it fixed, but it changed the resolution and graphics settings. Took me a few restarts to correct the resolution, but Alt+Tab back to Windows is a pain now, where it used to work fine before.

Landshrk - I have joined the league, but had a thought. I live in England, are you guys all based in North America? If so could make matchmaking a little difficult for me. See how it goes.

I picked this up during the week and I've been having a great time with it. I'd need to become more familiar with the rules and the different races, but I'd be down for a September league. Right now, I'm not handling teams that are built on quickness and dodge very well. I got totally smoked in overtime by the rat team. Two runners and two passes on one play were able to take the ball from deep in their zone to score. It was a thing of beauty. I also had a star player killed in the last turn when I was up 4-0. I almost cried.

Also, I've noticed that the AI is pretty cautious when it has the ball -- is this how people play IRL? It seems that the AI doesn't take risks late in the game even when it is down. I have a feeling that once I learn the AI a little more, that the computer would not offer much of a challenge.

From my experience the AI plays with complete disregard to the turns. Meaning it will do stuff that makes no sense considering it is almost the end of the half or end of the game. The Ai isn't as ruthless as other players can be. I've played a few games where the other player will sit at the end zone just so they can beat down on your players some more or run out the clock. Always got to go after the ball carrier, never assume they're going to run it for a TD. Another thing in the single player campaign the AI pays for a bribe the ref inducement and never fouls?

For those of you fortunate enough to have one of those new-fangled FLASH drives, make sure to install BloodBowl on the FD - it really, REALLY speeds up the load times nicely.

SamF7

Well the Middenheim Misfits just joined the BGG Smashmouth Summer 09. I look forward to my inevitable defeat! FOR ULRIC!

I'm holding off until September before Bringing back Elector Countess Emanuelle's Nuln Artillerymen, They had a great run in the pre-season (Beta) and are just resting up for the season proper in September.

Awesome team name Prozac.

Got in about about six games of this over the weekend (one online against a buddy of mine and the rest against the AI). I've been using Skaven for my last four games and I do think it's fair to say that the AI is weak. I don't think it's a disaster yet, but that day may be coming soon given that I've gone from not being able to score in my first couple games to going 3-0-1 in my last four. The last two wins were last night and I found it very easy to shut out an AI dwarf team and followed that up with a 5-2 win against a Skaven team that -to get those scores- required two passes that went more than half the field (and by the time it did score, it was already down 3-0).

A few games, obviously, isn't much of a sample size and I haven't upped the difficulty yet, but it really looks to me like if you play very conservative defense, you can keep the AI out of the end zone as long as the dice don't screw you. I think the AI's strength is in exploiting aggressiveness. If you leave your D exposed, it can punish you. But if you play conservative and disciplined then it *really* seems to struggle. I'm not sure that dwarf team I played even crossed midfield against me. (Normally this wouldn't concern me after just a handful of games, but this is consistent with what I'm hearing from other people; especially experienced players.)

As much as I don't want to pay to "test" a product, I'm hoping this early release for digital downloads leads to a hefty AI patch for the boxed release in September. I know that sort of thing bugs a lot of people, but I'm enjoying the game concept so much that I just want to see it reach its real potential. If nothing else, though, this has the makings of a great multiplayer game.
---Todd

To those of you participating in the BGG Smashmouth Summer 09 league, the season has started!

Please check the in-game matchups and coordinate your first game with your opponent.

If you have scheduling issues, feel free to let me know. All week 1 games should be played by Sunday 7/12.

ubrakto wrote:

A few games, obviously, isn't much of a sample size and I haven't upped the difficulty yet..

I wouldn't pass judgment until you play on the highest difficulty. The AI still isn't quite up to par with a seasoned real life Blood Bowl coach, but it generally does its actions in the correct order, ties up your important players with multiple tackle zones, and plays aggressively, but not recklessly.

It still doesn't always act appropriately with regard to the end of the half or game, but it is much better than the "normal" AI, which to me is approximately at the level of a player with less than 10 games under his belt.

I'd say the single player AI doesn't really have to be good, because at its core Blood Bowl needs to be played against humans.

Just like Resident Evil 5's AI (I haven't heard anybody really complain about it even though it's pretty bad), Blood Bowl doesn't really need an AI because people will play against one another all the time. That's what it's about!

Damn you all... resolve slowly weakening the more I read this thread.... I'm still planning to hold out for Steam though.

Landshrk83 wrote:

To those of you participating in the BGG Smashmouth Summer 09 league, the season has started!

Please check the in-game matchups and coordinate your first game with your opponent.

If you have scheduling issues, feel free to let me know. All week 1 games should be played by Sunday 7/12.

Could be a tight week for me then. I'm out tonight. Can play tomorrow, out to see Derren Brown on Thursday. Can probably play Friday, although I have a few friends over for a games night, and then I'm out all day at the Magic 2010 pre-release on Saturday.

How does the matchmaking work in the league? Will I be able to log in, see who I'm playing and contact them within BB? Or do we have a forum/email list for all participating coaches?

Going off my knowledge of the Beta if participants can't make their weekly ficture the League creator can set the final result. i.e. a 1-0 forfeit. Neither team gets any gold or experience from the fixture though.

Always an option.

Landshrk83 wrote:

To those of you participating in the BGG Smashmouth Summer 09 league, the season has started!

Please check the in-game matchups and coordinate your first game with your opponent.

If you have scheduling issues, feel free to let me know. All week 1 games should be played by Sunday 7/12.

Do you know who Goose is? I sent him a mail in game but have not gotten a reply yet

I never played a game of Blood Bowl before but got into the beta and liked it a lot. I bought the game and have been playing a campaign on medium difficulty as humans. As a newcomer, I am still finding the games challenging so am staying away from joining an online league but once I start winning some games on hard, I'd like to join a league and play vs others. Good stuff!

Landshrk83 wrote:

To those of you participating in the BGG Smashmouth Summer 09 league, the season has started!

Please check the in-game matchups and coordinate your first game with your opponent.

If you have scheduling issues, feel free to let me know. All week 1 games should be played by Sunday 7/12.

Hey Landshrk, is the deadline before Sunday, or basically midnight on Sunday? If so is that GMT or some other timezone?

Just asking as I'm trying to arrange to play Mysteri0 on that Sunday.

Torq wrote:

Hey Landshrk, is the deadline before Sunday, or basically midnight on Sunday? If so is that GMT or some other timezone?

Just asking as I'm trying to arrange to play Mysteri0 on that Sunday.

Ah cool you got my message, I should be available to play on Sunday pretty much anytime.