A suggestion to improve racial variety in perpetual leagues

[garion]

For a big online league such as FUMBBL there will always be a lack of variety to some extent because no matter what you do to try to balance stuff one team will be better at surviving/killing stuff than all the others and therefore will be the most numerous.

agreed, but it could also be alot better than this. If there wasn't quite such a gulf between some of the other bash teams and the CPOMB ones then it would be better for all really.

When box first started under CRP the diversity was incredible, and the longer it has gone on the worse it appears to have become because of the perceived dominance of CPOMB teams.

[DoubleSkulls]

It seems that the likely consequence would be to even the distribution between Chaos/Nurgle/CDs and Orcs/Dwarves a bit. You'll probably see Necro become less popular. That may mean there are ~5 teams that have a more even share of the games played, which is a small win.

[Smeborg]

Of course only play testing will tell what will happen.

My bold prediction is that the following might happen:

Dwarfs and Orcs will improve, but not to their previous level of dominance (better survivability offset by lower SPP acquisition rate from CAS).

Chaos, Nurgle and their ilk (Claw teams played in a killy style) will still be plentiful. Once again, increased survivability will be offset by lower SPP acquisition rates from CAS, and also by more (and more difficult) games played against non-Claw killy teams (Orcs, Dwarfs etc.). More subtlety and variety in development and playstyle will be difficult at first for coaches to adapt to, but over time will lead to an improved win rate (for example, more skills like Tackle will help against the AG teams).

The AG teams will survive better at higher TVs, but will suffer a decline in win rate (more skills such as Tackle in the league, somewhat more play directed at the ball rather than the man).

Some of the "mixed" teams will do a bit better in terms of the balance between SPP loss and gain at higher TVs. Perhaps half of teams (say 12 out of 24) will become playable (i.e. will survive adequately) in a perpetual league, albeit not necessarily with good win rates. That would be good, perfection is not to be expected.

All the best.

[plasmoid]

Hi Smeborg,
I don't know if you've seen my more thorough take on establishing racial variety:
http://www.plasmoids.dk/bbowl/NTBB.htm

Either way, those rules include my fix to the whole CPOMB debacle.

I've changed CPOMB to essentially Mighty Blow with the penalty (follow up, sometimes go prone). This produces stats for POMB that are remarkably similar to LRB4. And stats for CPOMB that are harsher on AV9 and more lenient on AV7 than LRB4. Now, in my mind the balance is good. However, given that, as Garion has recently said - piling on was something very few people took in LRB4, I've made it so that in my version it is much rarer that you go prone.

I think it will dial down the straight senseless bash, and that will be good for the game. IMO.

Cheers
Martin

[Jimmy Fantastic]

Going prone is now an advantage though ...
Buffing DP and bringing back the eye is the answer if you don't want to remove PO.

[spubbbba]

Going prone is now an advantage though ...
Buffing DP and bringing back the eye is the answer if you don't want to remove PO.

Agreed, there is something very wrong if going prone makes you safer. That was never the case in previous editions and I think the fouling nerfs went way overboard.

It is now such a lottery that it is rarely worth it unless you have fodder to spare or the target is so juicy that even a stuff is worth the loss of a player. It also adds to the frustration that brainless fouls are as less likely to get punished than carefully thought out ones.

[Smeborg]

Agreed, there is something very wrong if going prone makes you safer.

Not only that, you are safer being crowd surfed now than being knocked down by a ClawPOMB player.

This is what I meant when I said that I think knockdown damage in the CRP is now out of kilter with crowd and foul damage. For me, the best suggestion is to tone down (only in combination) the knockdown damage (rather than to try to buff other forms of damage).

[Smeborg]

Hi Smeborg,
I don't know if you've seen my more thorough take on establishing racial variety:
http://www.plasmoids.dk/bbowl/NTBB.htm

Either way, those rules include my fix to the whole CPOMB debacle.

Cheers
Martin

Yes, Martin, I have read and enjoyed your suggestions many times, and like many of them. However, my experience of rules reform is that the more changes you attempt at once, the more likely that (a) unforeseen things may happen. and (b) the reforms may be unpopular. Hence I suggest a different approach: One simple reform first to tackle the ClawPOMB issue in perpetual leagues. let other changes follow at their leisure.

All the best.

[plasmoid]

Hehe, Smeborg - I'm glad you like some of them.
I should have been clearer, my point was not that you should adopt NTBB.
My point was that I ran some math on the bash, and I have a suggestion for PiOn, which works out good on the math-side of things.
Mind you, as Jimmy indicated above, it should probably be combined with the small buff to fouling and to SG suggested in the same document.
That's 3 fairly small tweaks with the same focus.
Cheers
Martin