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Just wanted to share a quick little news tidbit -- STEAM is having a sale on Bloodbowl legendary edition offering 80% off the MSRP retail.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/58520

What use to cost 40$ will now cost 8$ for any pc Bloodbowl fans out there. This sale is a weekend only sale ending @ 10am monday pacific time (tomorrow)
Personally, haven't played the game myself, but might be great news for someone who <3's Bloodbowl?

The game plays just like tabletop, I really like it.

Its great for playing other people, but when you play the computer its a cheating .

It's almost like they couldn't be bothered to make the AI any good at the game, so they just let it cheat like crazy on dice rolls. Nothing gets me irritated at this game like dwarves dancing through tackle zones like ballerinas.

Ive found that against the computer its rather difficult to lose, especially if your an experienced blood bowl player. The AI is rather wretched to be sure.

I bought it. I've wanted it for a while just to learn how to play bloodbowl and can't beat that price. now just to learn how to play >.>

The dice are rigged, to emulate handicap, I've heard.
The better team you have, the worse your roles will be.

It's a good game, but you can't win it.

It's a good game.

Having not played BB since 1st edition allot of the changes in gameplay took some getting used to after a while (and a few tiops from some Dakkanauts) started to "get it" and get some wins under my belt.

I wish I had of bought it for $8 rather than the £30 pound game a year or so ago.

I found the first BB was OK - certainly enjoyable. However, as commented above, the AI 'improvements' that they have made in the Legendary Edition are frustrating in the extreme - the AI cheats something rotten.

Ehh. I bought the game when it first came out (like, full price $40 or whatever). I knew it had some lame DRM scheme and was disappointed, but not surprised, that breaking my own code of not buying a game infected with DRM was unwise.

Within a week of buying it, my games HDD started throwing SMART errors a-plenty. I made sure, doubly sure, to revoke my key before reinstalling, even taking a screenshot of the success message. Sure enough, when I reinstalled after replacing the drive, I got an error I had burned all 5 of my activations (or whatever) on what should have been, at most, my second (and due to the successful key revocation, was still technically my first).

After many emails and much finger pointing, asking for stuff I had already supplied, sending screenshots and receipts, I got a snotty email from a condescending support tech at Cyanide saying they'd "give me the benefit of the doubt" and gave me 3 more activations, like they were doing me a big favor. I didn't even bother reinstalling it. I felt pretty burned by the purchase and they've killed any interest I would have had in the Game of Thrones game. It wasn't that it broke, it was the tone, that I was trying to steal the game (by wasting hours going back with tech support, instead of, say, spending 5 minutes just torrenting it).

The game itself I thought was pretty middling, and might have been fun in multi with a human, but with with the computer was too difficult to be enjoyable due to reasons already discussed.

This was the pre-legendary version, so they may have stripped the DRM later, I dunno.

/cool story bro, I know

Exaggerated negativity on DakkaDakka, whoda thunk it

The AI is not excellent. Even playing on Hard is not that hard, if you are a good player you wont have much trouble with it. However! I have recorded die rolls over a half dozen games in a row and found them to generally be statistically average. There was an Ogre team that was just terrible at everything (I blame the snotlings) and a halfling team that couldnt fail an armor roll, but overall the dice weren't rigged or abnormally unfair. The customizability for seasons and options is ace, and I almost wish there was a 'manager' mode like in the FIFA games. The multiplayer is really where the best action is, as a human opponent will give you the best challenge. There are bugs, as there are in any game, but the forums are active and you can actually track the developer's progress on squashing them. For $8, its a total steal. If you like Blood Bowl at all, get it.

On a separate note, the producers are French. An arrogant, condescending tone is included in the price of the game

The real problem is probably due to a d6 not really having enough randomness. I've had multiple games that literally went something like this -

Computer has ball, makes various plays, drops it.
I send a guy over to pick up the ball and commit a turnover.
Computer has ball, makes various plays, drops it.
I send a guy over to pick up the ball and commit a turnover.

Repeat the above for the entire course of the game (aside from the occasional interruption when the computer manages to score a point or two).

As you might guess, it's extremely annoying when you spend every single turn in the game trying and failing to pick up the ball. And because of things like this that I've seen, I've come to the conclusion that the d6 simply isn't random enough.

It is unbearably hard for some reason. I'm not going to imply the computer cheats. That's lame.

But the above analysis is accurate for myself as well. I never seem to get any were before I commit a turnover.

Oh man, I wish I had seen this yesterday. Drats

Ill second the fact the dicerolls are not somehow skewed. Having played past 100 games ive yet to lose to the computer, close at times, a tie or two I think? but there is only so much you can do with that wretched AI. If your newer to the game it will be a titanic struggle if you flub up on your turns (a friend of mine quit the game after 12 games never coming close to scoring a touchdown) it can seem like the game is unfair or cheats in some form; the opposite is true given enough experience.

Blood Bowl, in order to play well, is a resource management game. You will roll bad, so make sure your turns have all the necessaries taken care of before you do silliness.

To the install problems it took me a while when i first got it to figure it out. I had to dork around with my registry because the game was coded bad, but it got fixed eventually.

lazarian wrote:Blood Bowl, in order to play well, is a resource management game. You will roll bad, so make sure your turns have all the necessaries taken care of before you do silliness.

The problem, as I've mentioned, is that some of us literally have games where all that we do is flub the roll to pick up the ball. If you never hold the ball, then it's a given that you'll lose (especially since failing to pick up the ball causes a turn-over). The fault isn't necessarily the randomizer itself. I haven't run any tests, so I can't say that there's a problem with the game's randomizer. But sometimes it apparently gets streaky in just the wrong way. And I end up spending every single turn of a game failing to pick up the ball. I wish I could say that I was exagerating. And I know that if I were reading someone else posting about it, I'd assume that's just what was happening. But I've seen it happen on more than one occasion.

Eumerin wrote:

lazarian wrote:Blood Bowl, in order to play well, is a resource management game. You will roll bad, so make sure your turns have all the necessaries taken care of before you do silliness.

The problem, as I've mentioned, is that some of us literally have games where all that we do is flub the roll to pick up the ball. If you never hold the ball, then it's a given that you'll lose (especially since failing to pick up the ball causes a turn-over). The fault isn't necessarily the randomizer itself. I haven't run any tests, so I can't say that there's a problem with the game's randomizer. But sometimes it apparently gets streaky in just the wrong way. And I end up spending every single turn of a game failing to pick up the ball. I wish I could say that I was exagerating. And I know that if I were reading someone else posting about it, I'd assume that's just what was happening. But I've seen it happen on more than one occasion.

Well there are other factors that might be missing here. How many rerolls? who is doing the pick up, are you saving your rerolls for pick ups? are you moving in a way to mitigate not needing to pick up the ball and still hold the opponent?

I can tell you while mathematically possible, its very unlikely to never pick up the ball in a game, even with Khemri or Lizzies. I dont know, Ive played Bloodbowl for basically 20 years and there has been a game or two where thats happened with good players. Inexperienced players however routinely fail at ballhandling, the game has the highest learning curve for GW games to make your team run like you want it too.

lazarian wrote:Well there are other factors that might be missing here. How many rerolls? who is doing the pick up, are you saving your rerolls for pick ups? are you moving in a way to mitigate not needing to pick up the ball and still hold the opponent?

Who's doing the pickup?

Dark elves.

Do I *really* need to say more?

Can you create your own custom league (hosted and with invites only)?

I bought it, and so far haven't really had any complaints. There's the occasional computer-controlled team dodging, passing and handing off from one endzone to the other in a single turn, but I've generally found that my preferred tactic of beating the tar out of the enemy until I win by default serves me well.

AgeOfEgos wrote:Can you create your own custom league (hosted and with invites only)?

Yes you can, one of the beauties of the game in fact

I don't think the computer AI is that bad - it will never be as good as playing a human opponent, but I've logged quite a lot of hours and while you will get the odd 'funny' game (lots of deaths, lots of turnovers etc.) most of them seem quite average.

Pacific wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:Can you create your own custom league (hosted and with invites only)?

Yes you can, one of the beauties of the game in fact

I don't think the computer AI is that bad - it will never be as good as playing a human opponent, but I've logged quite a lot of hours and while you will get the odd 'funny' game (lots of deaths, lots of turnovers etc.) most of them seem quite average.

Well, that sold me for 8 bucks--now to talk the friends into it.

I like it alot me, i have been playing it for ages and i paid full price.
Im surprised to hear that people think the AI is too hard !! I find it quite the opposite, luckily it is multiplayer where the fun really begins.
There are many online leagues to join too for those that enjoy it.

Damn it damn it damn it!!! I read 10 and my brain went PM instead of AM!!

Oh well, next time!