FUMBBL :: Online Blood Bowl League

Drrek

Joined: Jul 23, 2012

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:30

Join the box when I'm online JR. I'm in your timezone (or well, close enough) and I am neither a picker nor a cherry to be picked for you. I just only play box is all.

MattDakka

Joined: Oct 09, 2007

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:35

For me the Majors should allow only pure Box teams, but it's me and it's a digression.
Just, if a team has to play 100% of its games in the Box it will be harder to develop it as fast and well as a team playing on GF. If you don't believe me, try to play an Orc team 100% in the Box, not with a foot on GF and another foot on the Box. If people can't find games in NA it's just because they want to use the GF and not the Box (only 2 people are needed in this Box, in the old one 4. I don't believe that it's impossible to find just another opponent activating). Otherwise, if there were no people in NA time zone, there would be no GF games at all. Instead, the GF games happen, but the Box games don't. Moreover, if I don't find a Box game well, I don't play a game that day.
Better than picking a noob on GF or being picked by a Legend thinking to outsmart me with an unfair offer.
Anyway, for me we could have a shorter Season and/or lower budget. Anything in order to avoid facing super farmed teams.
A shorter Season could even increase the Season 2+ games.

Last edited by MattDakka on Sep 07, 2026; edited 1 time in total

JackassRampant

Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:37

When do you log on? I've never seen you in the wild.

Usually, I end up trying to play at night for me, but that's probably pretty late for you. It's hard for me to play in the evenings ET, because that's my busiest time of day. If I can play at other times, usually it's late morning or early afternoon for me, or prime time (or a little late in prime time) for the site, and that's when I get most of my Box games. But they still tend to suck.

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Drrek

Joined: Jul 23, 2012

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:41

I play mostly after 9 pm my time. Which is after 6 pm your time.

The reason you don't see me in the wild on GF is that all my teams are either leagues or selected to be box only.

Last edited by Drrek on Sep 07, 2026; edited 1 time in total

MattDakka

Joined: Oct 09, 2007

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:44

There are not only noobs in NA time zone, see? Smile

You could play in the Box a fair, balanced game, fun to play for both of you.

Drrek wrote:

selected to be box only.

Aahh, so nice to read this! Very Happy

JackassRampant

Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:46

MattDakka wrote:

For me the Majors should allow only pure Box teams, but it's me and it's a digression.
Just, if a team has to play 100% of its games in the Box it will be harder to develop it as fast and well as a team playing on GF. If you don't believe me, try to play an Orc team 100% in the Box, not with a foot on GF and another foot on the Box.

It's the same game against the same pool. It would take longer to build a team in calendar terms that way, but that's extra time spent spinning in frustration, not harder games. We need to grow the site. Nothing else will solve any of these problems, it's all rearranging deck chairs.

Would my first game have been against Goblins? Yeah, probably, given how that went: I'd been spinning a while, the goblins just logged on and greenlit me immediately, I waited to see if they'd hit anyone else, and took it when it was clear they hadn't. "Please, Mr. Megastar, play my Goblins with your Orcs!" That's kinda the same as spinning into them, and if there'd only been Box, that could easily have happened that way. So yeah, no regerts.

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JackassRampant

Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:48

Drrek wrote:

I play mostly after 9 pm my time. Which is after 6 pm your time.

The reason you don't see me in the wild on GF is that all my teams are either leagues or selected to be box only.

how long after 9? I usually just log on before bed. Until about 11pm ET, I'm either making dinner or working on something (or dealing with my nerves, which usually flare up after dinner). But I do schedule league games in that time if needed.

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Drrek

Joined: Jul 23, 2012

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:49

Depends on the day. But I'll go pretty late some nights. Its not unusual for me to play to 1 or 2 am my time.

JackassRampant

Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:50

One day, then. I've been spinning pointlessly for days now. Sometimes there are people on, but I suspect they only have first-season teams and I'm monoactivating until I get these guys done for FC.

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Joost

Joined: Mar 17, 2014

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:52

JackassRampant wrote:

Yeah, well, at least it's temporary: I get 4 more games with them, then I park them for the FC, and after the FC, le deluge.

Also, @Matt, the reason that happened is not season length, nor is it the way matches are made. It's site volume. There's not enough action in s2+ teams. If we had 5x as much going on in the 2nd+ season Box, we'd have good evaluations. As-is, it's a jungle, and trying to tamp it down will just drive everyone out by making it pointless de jure, as opposed to simply non-functional.

Actually, that might be season length. If we had a 10-game first season, with 40 BBT games, there might be more incentive to keep playing your team.

The only solution against that might be to dispose of the BBT, or to start an additional BBT where squads can make a second run, or where squads are formed of S2+ teams only.

Drrek

Joined: Jul 23, 2012

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 16:59

JackassRampant wrote:

One day, then. I've been spinning pointlessly for days now. Sometimes there are people on, but I suspect they only have first-season teams and I'm monoactivating until I get these guys done for FC.

Well yes, playing season 1 is how you get games in box generally. Most people only play season 1 because of BBT.I only play season 2 teams when I'm specifically building them for a major because its smaller, but I do do that sometimes. Too early in a BBT season for that at the moment though.

JanMattys

Joined: Feb 29, 2004

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 17:03

Joost wrote:

JackassRampant wrote:

Yeah, well, at least it's temporary: I get 4 more games with them, then I park them for the FC, and after the FC, le deluge.

Also, @Matt, the reason that happened is not season length, nor is it the way matches are made. It's site volume. There's not enough action in s2+ teams. If we had 5x as much going on in the 2nd+ season Box, we'd have good evaluations. As-is, it's a jungle, and trying to tamp it down will just drive everyone out by making it pointless de jure, as opposed to simply non-functional.

Actually, that might be season length. If we had a 10-game first season, with 40 BBT games, there might be more incentive to keep playing your team.

The only solution against that might be to dispose of the BBT, or to start an additional BBT where squads can make a second run, or where squads are formed of S2+ teams only.

Or maybe to stop putting barriers where there should be none (or very few) and let new people enjoy a great site with fewer restrictions and more pleasant game experiences. That would increase site volume or at least bring back people from [L]-only environments to open play again.

I don’t trust those who create problems to provide the solutions.

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JackassRampant

Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 19:31

I hate to say it, but I can't summon even the first shred of enthusiasm for BBT. Anything where you play a bunch of games and get a big shiny record and it's over, count me out: there's gotta be history or it's meaningless. Meaningless is okay, but then I don't care about the structure.

I do think some kind of metagroup for second seasons would be cool. Something like, every season, you get points equal to the total value plus agent fees that you could have redrafted but didn't, or something. If whatever it was caught on, we might have more second-season action, and also sell more people on Competitive Division.

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koadah

Joined: Mar 30, 2005

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 19:56

JackassRampant wrote:

I hate to say it, but I can't summon even the first shred of enthusiasm for BBT. Anything where you play a bunch of games and get a big shiny record and it's over, count me out: there's gotta be history or it's meaningless. Meaningless is okay, but then I don't care about the structure.

You sound as though you should be in the [L]eague division. Very Happy

JackassRampant wrote:

I do think some kind of metagroup for second seasons would be cool. Something like, every season, you get points equal to the total value plus agent fees that you could have redrafted but didn't, or something. If whatever it was caught on, we might have more second-season action, and also sell more people on Competitive Division.

S2+ BBT? Assuming that you could get the games

S2+ BBT + The option to move the team to the [L]eague division after seasons 2+.
That might be worth coming back for. Wink

Letting teams leave might seem to work against the goal. But without an escape route, I wouldn't feel inclined to create a team in the first place.

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MattDakka

Joined: Oct 09, 2007

Posted: Sep 07, 2026 - 20:01

For Season 2+ teams there is the IRONDWARF Trophy too.
I would play Season 2+ teams even without any Trophy, just because I like some variety and progression, as long as the development doesn't break the games nor makes games pointless to play.
1-2 developed players are ok, with more the chance of unbalanced games increases too much for my taste (3 developed players don't automatically break the game, but there is a reasonable potential to do it).
To be more accurate, some players with just 1 Primary skill can be ok, while 4-5 stat boosted players, which are basically heroes playing the match single-handedly, make a game less interesting to play. The positioning aspect gets less important.