Hi coaches,
Welcome to our new format, the BB3 Dev Point.
Blood Bowl 3 is an ongoing game that is set to thrive for many years to come.
We want to bring you closer to the development process and give you a transparent look at what we have planned, both in the near and distant future. We value your opinion, feedback, and contributions in shaping BB3 into the game we all want it to be. That's why we've created this format—a monthly update directly from us, the developers, to you. Our aim is to provide you with information, sharing updates on what is being worked on, what is ready, what is planned next, as well as potential changes in direction, adaptations, and even seeking your input when necessary. As fans of Blood Bowl 3, your opinions matter to us, and we hope this will give you visibility on the future of the game and help you understand what goes on behind the scenes.
In this first Dev Point, we will focus on Season 1, which launches today, June 22nd.
Season 1 is a very important starting point in the future of Blood Bowl 3. It marks the arrival of much-anticipated features that will accompany the game for the many seasons to come, as well as optimizations to improve the playing experience. We understand that some of the content you expect in Blood Bowl 3 is not yet available. Season 1 is a first step in adding those important elements, and we will keep working on delivering features and exciting novelties over the next weeks, months, and seasons.
After a launch that came with many challenges, Season 1 is the right time to observe all the work the team has done. The most competitive ones among you will be particularly excited by the new content and major improvements we are bringing, and ultimately, we hope our plans for the long term will inspire everyone in the community.
With that in mind, our main goal for season 1 is to concentrate on specific features that will set the course for the game’s future in the right direction.
The Official Ladder
One of the standout features of Season 1 is the introduction of our brand-new Official Ladder, which differs significantly from BB2.
With this Ladder, our aim is to provide an easy-to-launch game mode with fair challenges, regardless of skill level.
If you have played competitive games in recent years, you might be familiar with the Divisions system we are setting up. From Bronze to Master, we want to offer an accessible competitive scene that will let you define your own objective or aim for the top of the ladder.
We know that some of you might be hesitant to embrace this change from BB2, fearing Blood Bowl would lose its identity, going too “mainstream”. Please hear us out.
- The “classic” Ladder you can set up in leagues will still exist, with a ranking from first to last. It doesn’t change that part.
What we are introducing with the Official Ladder is a brand-new game mode. While it's important to know your actual ranking when you're near the top, we believe it becomes less relevant when you're in the middle or the bottom. Being 15,214th or 25,756th, for example, doesn't hold much meaning, making it difficult to know where you stand, to set objectives or to assess your level of play and progress.
To address this, we made the choice of a more concrete approach. The Division system will always give you an idea of your relative level, and help you see your own progress. For instance, if you're in the Silver division, aiming for Gold provides a tangible and achievable objective, regardless of your current position. This approach allows you to gauge your progress, compare yourself with friends and the community, and provides opportunities for rewarding achievements. We believe it adds “meaning” to play competitively for the vast majority of us.
For the exceptional few players, the cream of the crop, we have a special division called " Top 100" that will reign above all other divisions. In this elite Division, every position matters, and we aim to establish a clear ranking to determine who truly rules the Blood Bowl realm and who comes close to dethroning them.
Is "100" the ideal number? The future will tell us. It's a nice round number that looks good on paper, but jokes aside, we will assess its suitability and remain open to adjustments depending on what we monitor during the season. Ultimately, it's our decision based on what we believe to be the best approach.
Player & Teams Statistics
The challenge now is to give you all the necessary information you are accustomed to and more.
We are still working on adding as many stats as possible and we will definitely take your input into consideration on this topic. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what we currently have or are working on:
W/D/L (Win/Draw/Loss) records.
-Skill Rating Points won after a game.
-Star Player Points won.
-Opponent's W/D/L (to be added).
-Opponent's Skill Rating (to be added).
-Team stats (to be added after Season 1).
This version of the ladder is our starting point, and we plan to improve it season after season. So please do not hesitate to let us know what you think of it, and what you would like to see in terms of stats or feedback so we can make sure to have a satisfying ladder experience.
Matchmaking system
Improving matchmaking has been a significant focus for us. We have invested considerable efforts in enhancing the matchmaking system to achieve fairness for all players while maintaining accessibility and speed.
Finding the right opponent is crucial since Blood Bowl games can be time-consuming. In BB3, the new matchmaking system is based on more accurate data compared to BB2, and especially:
- Your Skill Rating (commonly called ELO)
- Your Team Value
W/D/L record does not matter as in BB2. Winning or losing impacts your SR directly. which means that having a lot of win against weaker opponents does not give you the edge it gave you in BB2. To progress fast, you need to play against players of the same level, and finding you one is the priority of this system.
Searching for an opponent has been improved to be more effective, so while it checks for more opponents, it doesn’t take as long as in BB2.
With these improvements to the matchmaking system, we hope that every coach can enjoy each match, avoiding frustration from being matched against pro players or having unexciting matchups when you're a veteran.
This will also favour talent over grinding as your progression will be faster. The first matches with a team will of course be a little less balanced, as the system will need a few games to analyze your results and let you move toward your skill level.
Lastly, this will give even more recognition to the best of the best sitting atop the mountain, as they will consistently face the top contenders and won't have their sights set by random matchmaking.
Reconnection
Having a healthy competitive scene requires a reliable reconnection feature. It just got out of our testing phase, and the feature is active. We will closely monitoring its functionality. But we are quite happy about being able to have it ready on day 1. (I am actually editing this text at the last minute, that how close it was!)
Yet it's not deployed on Consoles for the moment, only on PC. We will do our best to have it everywhere as soon as we can.
Leagues Administration Tools
When it comes to competition, admin tools go hand in hand for many players. We have been making constant progress and have already entered the testing phase with selected league administrators whom we are working closely with to ensure our tools meet their needs.
We are fully aware of how important this is for a large portion of hardcore players who want to play in custom community-made leagues with their preferred settings, handled by community administrators who are doing an amazing job.
It also gives an alternative in terms of competition as we will be strict with our "official rules" and follow our vision for the Official Ladder or specific competitions in the future, which we understand can be frustrating if they don't align with your preferred settings.
The Blood Pass
We have already introduced the Blood Pass. Here, we want to provide more details on how it works.
Our goal is to provide the appropriate level of progression. It’s very difficult to know the right balance without seeing it live so we will monitor this closely, seek your input along the way, and adjust if necessary. However, we are confident that regular players should be able to complete the Blood Pass without feeling the need to grind. We don’t want to force players to play, but rather to reward them for their playtime and provide a sense of progression.
Since we have made Season 1 Blood Pass free, which includes the Lizardmen faction, you still have to click the button to unlock it for 0 Warpstone.
Manager Progression
In addition to the Blood Pass, players will also progress over 100 manager levels. It follows the same principle as the Blood Pass, aiming for a steady progression that feels rewarding and offers free rewards along the way. Unlike the Blood Pass though, this progression is not season based, meaning you can take as much time as you wish to reach the last level.
Please note as well that your manager level will not prevent you from accessing specific competitions or features. This is primarily made to grant rewards while playing.
There will be many other adjustments and changes that we will share in the Season 1 Patch notes. We are already working on implementing various features during the season. In our next Dev Point, you can expect more details on the following topics:
- Inducement phase rework
- “Expensive mistakes” implementation
- More readability optimization like selection circles based on role
- Our first analysis of the season so far and our key learnings
We are also planning future Dev Points, as we will cover multiple subjects. Do you have a topic in mind? Stuff you want to know more about? Please tell us!