Howdy Legend Bowlers! We wanted to start this update off by thanking everyone for all their support and feedback! It's really been super cool to see all of the great comments coming in!
We called this update the Newcomer Update because we felt like we really attacked all of the new player feedback items and added bonuses in the game to make the onboarding experience more pleasant. We realize some folks think Legend Bowl is some child's game, but under the hood we have a full on football simulation happening. Because of this mismatch, we felt like people weren't getting exactly what they were expecting.
Most people are presently surprised by how much stuff is in this game, but a part of them are just not sure where to begin. So a portion of this update helps those folks out a lot! We're exciting to hear how people feel after playing this update, because this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Want to know more? Well we've been listening to everyone's feedback and working around the clock updating the game for a better experience on and off the field. 🐞 Bugs were SQUASHED!, gameplay was improved in many areas and so much more was added into this update.
📢We have a massive list of items for you to enjoy in the details below. Ball carrier logic was improved, over 450 new sounds were added, gameplay has been tuned, tutorial upgraded, brand new help guide to get people more familiar with the game, new weather, and so much more!
Again, please continue to report any bugs on our Discord channel if you want to help! Thank you for your support, and for playing Legend Bowl!!
📢 Thank you to everyone for reporting issues and bugs from this last update!
Update Details
- Ball carrier AI has been drastically improved during the game. Ball carriers will try to follow the designed route more closely while focusing on following key blockers in their path.
- Kick and punt return AI has also been improved so that blockers now help the runner more and ball carriers use similar running logic as normal running plays to give a more dynamic feel on the field.
- Player out of bounds and touchdown detection system heavily improved for more accurate precision when contacting those lines on the field.
- Pre-snap defensive player movement is now possible for the human controlled team.
- Offside penalties added to the game as part of the pre-snap movement feature.
- AI defensive play calling improved during onside conversion attempts to make it more difficult for the conversion to be a success.
- Ticker now appears when the clock is ticking down during a game so the user can see how much time is left on the clock.
- New "Onside Conversion" message appears to make the transition to start an onside conversion more intuitive to the user.
- Moved location of game event notification to the top left to avoid clutter with other UI elements.
- Ball measurements can occur on any down that is close to a first down, as opposed to always triggering on 3rd down plays.
- Chain gang speed slowed down 25% as they were a bit too fast for our taste.
- Field player stat popup window text now has color coding to highlight player names and stat values.
- Added Beasts mascot.
- Tackles now count on sacks and tackle for loss stats.
- Touchback rate increased and player speed has an affect on whether the returner will bring the ball out of the end zone.
- Line of scrimmage no longer randomly moves up or down during any Training Camp modes while on the field.
- Clock now stops during an injury sequence on the field.
- Player injury rate decreased slightly to lower the number of injuries per game.
- Interceptions got a bump up as we weren't seeing many during matches.
- Tipped catches got a very slight bump up.
- Ball carrier dodge ability tuned to get a slight bump up for sequential success moves.
- Fumbles toned down a small bump.
- Kicking doesn't show "SHANK" message every time now.
- Kicking power tuned to have more control over your power so if you kick it short well it's your fault not ours!
- Kicking bar UI adjustments made to put the location of the bar under the kicking arrow.
- Quarterbacks shouldn't throw the ball away on 4th Down or Conversion attempts any longer.
- Timeouts can now be called during onside and 2 point conversions.
- Button delay added to prevent kicking the ball after leaving the pause menu back into the game.
- Defender angle of dive tackle on catches tightened for better chance to tackle ball carrier.
- Wind strength adjusted up to give more of a challenge during bad weather games.
- Player reaction times are tuned to be faster than the previous version.
- New defender push animation added so defenders will not totally fall on the ground after the ball carrier dodges them with a move.
- Player substitutions are now based on current stamina levels when it comes to auto subs. Previously, the game was using the percentage of stamina to injury (fatigue) so injured players with low fatigue levels would go in because they would be let's say 100% of a small fatigue level. We want the highest stamina level to go in before players that were less rested or hurt.
FIXES
- Improved the order at which objects in the game run to avoid issues where a 2 minute warning or timeout is called at the same time the play starts and other similar events occur.
- Referee placing ball in wrong spot fixed.
- Fixed a small graphical issue with the referee placing the ball on top of another ball on the ground during onside conversions.
- Fixed issue where play clock and clock would beep simultaneously when clock was about to expire.
- Fixed issue where AI would stiff arm the wrong direction during a play.
- Fixed receiving yards long stat issue showing the reception yards vs the long.
- Fixed issue with resetting settings not resetting graphic settings correctly.
- Fixed issue where player editor color changes were only affecting home jerseys and not away. You would have had to restart the game in order for the changes to appear in game.
- Two minute warnings no longer get called on games that have less than or equal to 2 minute quarters.
- Fixed issue where mapped keyboard keys were not accessible to change through settings.
- Fixed issue where special teams ball wasn't blockable by defender.
- Fixed possible bugs that would come up when loading the tutorial for the first time by removing the unnecessary ticker from the tutorial.
- Removed internal "R" key debug code which caused the game to lock up and was never meant for the release candidate.
- Added code to protect against rare movement math errors that can occur when running with a player.
- Fixed issue with Roster Data that locks up the keyboard when saving a roster file.
- Steam "Tourney King" achievement was unlocked after any tournament game win instead of after winning the entire tournament.
TEAMS
- Team snow weather is toned down a little and flurries happen more often than full snow games.
- LAC Clashers team name changed to LA Voltage and new endzone art added with name. (EXISTING PLAYERS MUST RESET YOUR DEFAULT ROSTER IN ORDER FOR THIS TO TAKE EFFECT!)
- Team rain and snow ratios automatically get set to 0% when selecting a dome in Team Editor.
- New Samurai team logo added.
- Chicago Blues now play a base 46 defense on the default roster.
- Fixed issue where you couldn't select the player's original number after changing it in the Player Editor screen.
- Team Editor screen now shows "DOME" under stadium art when dome is chosen.
- Added all defensive formations to the list of base formations for team settings which means the team will prefer this formation when AI is choosing plays.
- Player overall rating now clamped from 1 to 99.
SETTINGS
- NEW HELP GUIDE added to settings menu which explains advanced techniques about the game.
- New gamepad rumble option added to inputs menu which enables or disables controller vibration.
- Auto subs setting moved from Difficulty to Gameplay menu.
- Auto subs default percentages changed to 50% out and 75% in for less substitutions.
- Added setting to hide the throw bar for quarterbacks.
- Settings help text give a better description on which setting you're changing now.
MODES
- Cold weather conditions only happen later in the season schedule as opposed to at any time.
- Fixed issue where players would get injured during a season while applying facility boosts and not on the field and they would not get an actual injury type.
- Lowered possibility of players getting injured during a season as we were seeing more than expected.
- Unlocked team selections in season mode and any game can be played by the user. So really you can control all 32 teams now during a season.
- Tutorial script revamped and improved for a more enjoyable experience. Also reset the tutorial setting for people to try it again.
- Seasons no longer allow injuries when injuries are disabled in settings. Injuries setting (like QTR length) stick with the Season file as well upon loading into a previously created Season.
- Fixed issue when continuing a Tournament where it would load using the currently loaded roster and not the roster used when the Tournament was first started.
- Simulating games is a little faster compared to the previous build.
- Fixed issue where deleting season file was not refreshing coach folder list on the right.
UI
- Special Teams plays no longer show up during onside conversions when choosing your plays on offense.
- Coin toss menus now show keyboard icons if playing with the keyboard only.
- Weather percentage values are locked down in Team Editor when the dome is set as the team's stadium.
- Scoreboard in the top left corner of the screen is no longer blocked by a blue player card when field starters notification is showing at the bottom of the screen.
- We added 2 new advertisements to the game.
- Team rankings tuned for more accurate ratings based on key player positions and depth charts.
- NEW loading screens added with HELP GUIDE pages to teach new players how the game works while they wait for the game to start.
- Pro Tip text color in stat scroller now lime green.
- Fixed menu bar issue from last patch when exiting tournament or season mode the menu bar would disappear upon first entering the main menu screen.
- Fixed issue when loading a season where logos would show based on the currently loaded roster, instead of the roster used to start the season.
- Two point conversion pop-up notification appears when a team is attempting to go for 2 points after scoring a touchdown.
- Stats ticker shows weather outside regardless if playing in a dome or not.
- Removed first name abbreviation and period symbol when player has empty first name.
- Fixed player stat popup not showing punt return yards on touchdown return plays.
- Changed font in Player Editor so players can see upper and lower case letters easily.
- Fixed issue where some screens were showing the default base gold helmet.
- Fixed stats ticker opacity to dim when career is exiting back to main menu.
AUDIO
- Over 450 new player voice sounds added.
- Menu sounds now tied to SFX sound settings for greater control over the volume of sounds.
- New halftime song in game.
- Turned off gameplay music while in Training Camp modes.
GAMEPLAY
If you experience any bugs or issues please report them here or more preferably in our Discord where you can chat with the community, report bugs, or give feedback on the game.
As always, if you've enjoyed the game so far and like what you're seeing out of the game it would be great if you can leave a review on Steam!