VASSAL Blood Bowl

Be it FUMBBL, PBeM, the Cyanide Computer Game, VASSAL or whatever - talk about online play here.

This is also the place for discussing the various tools for managing leagues, teams and so on.

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GJK
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VASSAL Blood Bowl

Post by GJK »

Hi all,

I'm updating this original post to let anybody that is interested, I've created a simple web page that hosts the game module and also has simple instructions on setting it up and playing it:

http://www.garykrockover.com/BB/

If anybody has any questions, PM me. I hope to see some of you online soon!

Some screenshots:
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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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Player stats are viewed on a mouse-over (no looking off to the side or onto your charts). All pieces have right-click context menu's for annotating their status, announcing blocks, etc.
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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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All moves and blocks are indicated on the pitch as well as logged to the chat/log window
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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

Post by GJK »

The control panel shows the dice results and logs all rolls and player interaction to the log. Your opponent "steps through" the log to see a step by step playback of your turn. Live online play also works.

Message me if you have any questions or comments. Enjoy!
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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

Post by Regash »

Hm, reminds me of FUMMBL somehow.
But nevertheless, this is playing "Online" and should be in the "Digital format" forum, where VASSAL is named in the forum description.

Personally, I don't like to play with these minimalistic clients.
If it has to be online, I'd rather use BBCE from Cyanide, but that is just my own decision.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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Glad that mods moved this to the appropriate forum, my apologies for missing that one.

This module is another way to play the game, either pbem or live. I've been using it for a little while now (I have a pbem going at the moment and just sent off my turn as a matter of fact) and so I wanted to present it to others that may be looking for just this thing. I understand that there's another java based BB utility that will handle pbem and it has been around for some time (but I don't think that it's been updated for some time either). Mine is just another option. I'm hoping that people will find it quick and easy with little/no fuss. I can fire off my pbem turns in <10 min usually start to finish.

BBCE just doesn't appeal to me. Looks nice with cool animations but I feel very detached from the game. I'm a relatively new BB player so I really want to be in there making all of the decisions. With the computer game automating so much, I just start to feel like a spectator and not a player. That's my opinion of it at least.

VASSAL is easy to set up and if anybody needs help with that, I'm more than happy to assist. VASSAL (again, vassalengine.org) has 100's of other games too including BB Team Manager so it's not just for what I designed here.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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A couple of more selling points and then I'll stop bugging you all about it (I'm proud of what I have here in case that isn't evident).

As mentioned, this can be played via pbem. I generates a log of all your moves, whatever text you type in to the chat window, and all your di(c)e rolls. These are small (10kb on average) files that you simply email or dropbox to your opponent.

Conversely, you can play online. If you opt to "look for a game online" when you start the module, it will drop you in to the lobby for this module (and this module alone). You can pre-arrange a game, meet up and then open a room to start a new game or you can always look and see who's online for this (and other) modules at any time at the VASSAL site: http://www.vassalengine.org/status.php (I'm in there now):
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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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And finally, something that I did that I thought helped with the immersion a bit; the pitch will change depending upon the weather and if you choose, you can actually use the range ruler. Just gives it more of a tabletop feel and less of a "digital" feel IMHO.
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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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Excuse me for bumping the thread but I've posted a new download link in the top message here - FYI.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

Post by Itchen Masack »

This looks really good and like you've put plenty of work into it. Not sure why it isn't getting more attention tbh. Seems something that I might be able to play whilst 'working' :p

But I'm lazy, very very lazy :D Any chance there is a youtube vid of you playing a match somewhere? I'd like to watch one, or part of one, before choosing to spend my time learning BB on another platform.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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Itchen Masack wrote:This looks really good and like you've put plenty of work into it. Not sure why it isn't getting more attention tbh. Seems something that I might be able to play whilst 'working' :p

But I'm lazy, very very lazy :D Any chance there is a youtube vid of you playing a match somewhere? I'd like to watch one, or part of one, before choosing to spend my time learning BB on another platform.
Thanks, yes, I've put in over a years worth of work into it. I've played dozens of pbem matches with it now and all have gone very smoothly.

There's two reasons why there's not more attention. Well three really. 1) GW licensing won't allow anybody to post a Blood Bowl module on the VASSAL website. That's the first place that a person that knows Blood Bowl would go to look for a VASSAL module for it. 2) VASSAL is somewhat obscure; not a lot of people know about it I suspect (mostly wargamers). 3) I mentioned it here about a year ago and on another gaming forum but that's it so it just hasn't been heavily advertised until recently. I just want to share this with others, it's a shame for me and a handful of others guys (only) to use it.

I have several logs of complete games saved and in fact, a zip archive of one of those games are on my site. But that would require you to go through the process of installing it so sure, let me see what I can learn about doing a video of a playback and I can post that to my site or youtube or something. Will keep you posted.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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Ok, took all day and it's not the greatest or most entertaining of videos I'm sure but there is a Youtube video on the home page now: http://garykrockover.com/BB/. That should give everybody a good idea of how it works.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

Post by MattDakka »

Well done, although I really don't understand why not playing on FUMBBL, the client is way simpler, faster and with many automated features.
Nice pitch you have made btw, like it.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

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MattDakka wrote:Well done, although I really don't understand why not playing on FUMBBL, the client is way simpler, faster and with many automated features.
Nice pitch you have made btw, like it.
FUMBBL is great, no doubt. This is just another way. Why did I make this and not just play on FUMBBL?

1. Didn't care to sign up and join a league. I'm too casual of a player- just want to play some pick up games every now and then.

2. I don't like automation. I like playing on the tabletop. I wanted to translate that to playing on a computer. It's why I still play board wargames instead of computer wargames. Personal taste.

3. I don't know about the speed comparison. As noted in the video, I have an old and slow computer. By the time I launch my browser, log in to FUMBBL, find my game, join the session and start playing I think that I could be a few moves in to my pbem log already. I can launch vassal and knock out a turn in <10 min usually.

4. Primary reason though was being able to pbem. I usually can't sit and finish a complete game in one sitting. Not sure if you can save a game in progress on FUMBBL, but you can with VASSAL when playing live or if playing via email, you manage your turns as time permits.

Thanks for the compliment on the graphics. Some of them were borrowed (obviously) but I did come up with the pitch and weather effects.

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Re: VASSAL Blood Bowl

Post by MattDakka »

GJK wrote: FUMBBL is great, no doubt. This is just another way. Why did I make this and not just play on FUMBBL?

1. Didn't care to sign up and join a league. I'm too casual of a player- just want to play some pick up games every now and then.
No need to join a league in order to play pick up games. There are 3 divisions:
- League, for casual gaming, private leagues, matches with friends. Some people play there after joining a private league, but other just play matches with friends.
- Ranked: there is a Gamefinder showing all the teams looking for a match, you can challenge the teams you want by ticking on the box near them. The other coaches can either accept or refuse the challenge. You can't play more than 1 on 10 matches against the same coach, all the matches affect your Coach Rank.
- Black Box: every 15 minutes a random draw takes place. You can activate your team 5 minutes before the random draw, if at least 4 coaches have activated and the matching requirements are satisfied then you are paired with a coach and play the game.
GJK wrote: 2. I don't like automation. I like playing on the tabletop. I wanted to translate that to playing on a computer. It's why I still play board wargames instead of computer wargames. Personal taste.
I think that FUMBBL client has the "board wargame" flavour, no shiny graphics, top down view, icons are minimalistic, the automatic features are there just to speed up things and make them simpler but don't spoil the game nor the tactics.
GJK wrote: 3. I don't know about the speed comparison. As noted in the video, I have an old and slow computer. By the time I launch my browser, log in to FUMBBL, find my game, join the session and start playing I think that I could be a few moves in to my pbem log already. I can launch vassal and knock out a turn in <10 min usually.
A FUMBBL match is turn based but you don't need to send a email, just click and move your players, the outcome of actions is immediate. No need to wait for an email from your opponent.
GJK wrote: 4. Primary reason though was being able to pbem. I usually can't sit and finish a complete game in one sitting. Not sure if you can save a game in progress on FUMBBL, but you can with VASSAL when playing live or if playing via email, you manage your turns as time permits.
Yes, FUMBBL automatically saves the match, so if you have to go suddenly the game can be resumed easily, by just connecting to the site and clicking on a link near your team.

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