My opinion on BB3 as someone who plays frequently BB2

[The Immortal]

I am someone who frequently plays BB2 and decided to try BB3 to see how different and how 'improved' it is over BB2.

I have to say,it's way worse than I thought. But I always give the devs a chance to improve things,so I will come back time and time again to check how things are going!

Below will be my criticisms, but they will be respectfully written:

Character animations are stiff and weird, characters are silent when you select them,instead of animating so you would know which character you're selecting.

The KO,STUN and injury animations are absent,which is a huge drawback from BB2, making it a confusing mess to figure out which character is stunned,other than a few tiny stars that are so small,it's hard to see.

The UI is terrible and a lot of the details on the map are hard to see,the camera is a mess and the action wheel is absolutely painful for the eyes(I also wanna add the creation screen for the teams. It is quite confusing. I prefer the more simpler version of BB2.)

The sound design and the repeating commentaries from Jim and Bob don't make it any better.

THose skills icons are unpleasant for the eyes due to the bright colors and strange drawings. The ones from BB2 are still way better. If there is a way to import the ones from BB2,I'd love such a feature!

I think this game still needs a lot of work before a lot of us migrate from BB2 permanently.


Of course there's the famous 'absent mutations' but that's not such a big deal. Although it would be nice if someday the devs do bring mutations!

[dunnothisguy]

You know what funny thing I noticed recently in Steam's negative reviews on BB3? They are usually left by people who have something like 10-30 hours playing it - while positive ones are from people who play it for hundreds of hours. That makes me think what these people base their opinion on then.

I have 800+ hours of BB3 played. Okay, may be up to 1/3 of it is just time it was running in the background - still a lot. So humour me a bit more by telling me how "unplayable" it is.

And as somebody who also plays BB2 occasionally, you puzzle me with the praise of BB2's UI. After playing BB3 and just learning how its UI works, you simply feel incapacitated each time you get into BB2 match. The camera there is the most attrocious thing ever, after getting accustomed to its free rotation in BB3, I constantly feel as if my neck is fixed. You need to resort to gimmicks to see the pitch from another angle.

I also like icons of BB3 much more, BB2's icons always seemed nonsensical to me. Some people use custom icon packs from BB2 in BB3 so I guess it's a matter of taste.

Neither it was ever a problem for me to see which player is stunned, or KOed. Like, literally, if you select a player and see their card, there will be a freaking tag telling you their status. And those stars and bells are visible enough too, even without it.

The only thing (beside complete set of teams) that is better in BB2 is its style, visual fidelity, I can give you that. A clearly talented art director was in charge of its visual appearance, and put a part of their soul into it. BB3's designs, though more high res, still look lifeless and generic, mostly.

[The Immortal]

Regardless, the majority of people did not receive the game well. That remains as testament of proof that Cyanide needs to keep tweaking. Just because something has been more or less positively received,it doesn't change the matter with the rest of the player base.

The camera in BB2 is way better. The free rotation is troublesome in BB3 and the animations remain stale.

The complaint about the UI still is one of the major issues. If they can fix that,we will see how things go in the future.

The one thing that annoys me especially is how when selecting a character,there is no animation or sound made by the character to show that they are being selected. In a game that is currently dealing with a horrible UI,this can cause a mess when things are going fast.

[dunnothisguy]

Originally posted by The Immortal:

Regardless, the majority of people did not receive the game well.

They did, two years ago - because it was a stinking mess of a game. It's a completely different game now, fully playable and enjoyable in MP at least. Not without bugs or some dubious design issues - but the team is working on it, and they are very responsive in their Discord, really bad issues are fixed in a matter of days, like the inducement bug that came with the latest patch.

In the next year it will have most of the missing teams and modes of play, and probably much more, we'll see what they plan for it in January, when the new roadmap is released. But labeling the game in which 50k matches are played in a month "unplayable" is, well, simply a lie. It's funny when it says somebody who just occasionally visits to check on it - sure, bro, you know better than us who actually have been playing it for all these years.

[dunnothisguy]

Originally posted by The Immortal:

The one thing that annoys me especially is how when selecting a character,there is no animation or sound made by the character to show that they are being selected. In a game that is currently dealing with a horrible UI,this can cause a mess when things are going fast.

I won't be dismissing that complaint, it's true that sound is absent - though for me personally that sound was more irritating than useful, as I tend to switch between them a lot often, checking different options for the turn, and it just created cacophony of noises. After you've played a dozen matches with any team in the game, you already know who is who by just the look of their model or their pose (at first, the hardest ones for me were elven union, there linemen are very similar to blitzers; but they actually happened to be easy to tell appart - blitzers are more hunkered down, with their hands spread). And it's not even an issue for most of the teams, like, you hardly need any sound hints to figure out who is lineman and who is elf on the Chaos Renegade team, it's obvious.

In the end what is important is the skillset of the players, so I always set to show either all skills, or just acquired - and that's enough to instantly see who is who even from top down camera angle.

[Pooltastic]

Originally posted by dunnothisguy:

In the next year it will have most of the missing teams

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*inhale*
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[dunnothisguy]

Oh, and I think 50k matches a month is just numbers for the Ladder. It doesn't include private leagues and solo players, so it's way more in fact. Completely unplayable, true. All those people are here for their daily BDSM session.

[Pooltastic]

Originally posted by dunnothisguy:

Oh, and I think 50k matches a month is just numbers for the Ladder. It doesn't include private leagues and solo players, so it's way more in fact. Completely unplayable, true. All those people are here for their daily BDSM session.

If you have a sh!t bed, but it's the only one you have, you'll still sleep in it.

[dunnothisguy]

Originally posted by Pooltastic:

Originally posted by dunnothisguy:

Oh, and I think 50k matches a month is just numbers for the Ladder. It doesn't include private leagues and solo players, so it's way more in fact. Completely unplayable, true. All those people are here for their daily BDSM session.

If you have a sh!t bed, but it's the only one you have, you'll still sleep in it.

There is BB2, remember? Which is supposedly so much better and everything ;)

[dunnothisguy]

Originally posted by Pooltastic:

Originally posted by dunnothisguy:

There is BB2, remember? Which is supposedly so much better and everything ;)

Oh, don't get smarmy with me, pup. You know what I meant. Can't be that dumb, can ye.

But no way they can play BB3 because it's a good and playable game, right? Because it isn't! We better tell them to get back to BB2, may be they don't know yet how good it is

[dunnothisguy]

Originally posted by Pooltastic:

Originally posted by dunnothisguy:

But no way they can play BB3 because it's a good and playable game, right? Because it isn't! We better tell them to get back to BB2, may be they don't know yet how good it is

OK, wow, you are that dumb. Alright, I'll spell it out:
Blood Bowl 2 is a better product, and it took 2 years and an expansion to get there.
But with Blood Bowl 3 being the only representation of the up-to-date rules and rosters, the previous player-base has no choice but to migrate over, despite the palpable drop in quality.

TLDR; BB2 is better than BB3, but BB3 is newer, so Cyanide/Nacon got us by the balls. And they know it.

"No choice" - wow! Somebody probably threatened them at gunpoint! Because people play in rules, not in games! That is why they have to move to a horrible game and play it though it's not fun at all! They are career BB pro coaches and have to pay those bills!

[The Immortal]

Originally posted by Pooltastic:

Originally posted by dunnothisguy:

But no way they can play BB3 because it's a good and playable game, right? Because it isn't! We better tell them to get back to BB2, may be they don't know yet how good it is

OK, wow, you are that dumb. Alright, I'll spell it out:
Blood Bowl 2 is a better product, and it took 2 years and an expansion to get there.
But with Blood Bowl 3 being the only representation of the up-to-date rules and rosters, the previous player-base has no choice but to migrate over, despite the palpable drop in quality.

TLDR; BB2 is better than BB3, but BB3 is newer, so Cyanide/Nacon got us by the balls. And they know it.

Well lots of us still play BB2 and it's not going away anytime soon!

Hopefully Cyanide fixes the issues I complained about.

[Nacon]

Hi there,

This discussion has strayed a bit, unfortunately, but the core topic is quite interesting—allow me to jump in.

One of our primary goals has always been to create an experience that makes any player who loves BB2 excited to jump into BB3. At release, we clearly failed to achieve that. There’s no need to revisit that in detail, we know it.

As a result, update after update, season after season, we’ve kept that goal in mind.

Beyond making BB3 a great game and attracting new players, we’ve consistently asked ourselves:
• What’s preventing BB2 players from transitioning to BB3?
• What are we missing?
• In what ways is BB2 still better?

Some things can’t be addressed with just an update. BB2 has been out for years and reached a polished, complete state long before BB3 came around. This is something you often see with longstanding franchises.

While we’ve tried to minimize this gap (e.g., launching with more teams than any previous BB game, better matchmaking, and other improvements), we knew from the start that we couldn’t match BB2’s complete state in every aspect right away.
Then, there are the areas where players naturally expect BB3 to excel from day one and where we failed to provide. Some examples :Bug-free experience,.Stability.Interface/UI...

This isn’t an exhaustive list—there are likely other key points I’ve missed, and things where we did good, but let's leave it at that as it's not the focus on my post.

These shortcomings have hurt the game, as reflected in the reviews. We’ve been on a redemption journey ever since. Despite the challenges, we’ve always believed in the game’s potential. I truly feel we’ve been improving BB3 consistently over time, and it’s encouraging to see more and more BB2 players—who initially disliked BB3—start to come around.

Recent reviews are at 88% (from the last 169), which means a lot to us.
That said, we’re not there yet. There’s still a long road ahead—not just to win over BB2 players but to make BB3 the best it can be overall. This is a multi-year effort, and we’re committed to seeing it through.
I hope these words don’t come across as empty promises but carry more weight now, given the consistent improvements we’ve made.
We’re still working hard on many aspects of the game—factions, new game modes, UI improvements, stability, events, the competitive scene, and more.
I’m proud of the progress we’ve made so far, but it’s also valuable to see that some players remain unconvinced about leaving BB2. Your feedback keeps us motivated, and we’ll continue working until you do 😊

[The Immortal]

Originally posted by Nacon:

Hi there,

This discussion has strayed a bit, unfortunately, but the core topic is quite interesting—allow me to jump in.

One of our primary goals has always been to create an experience that makes any player who loves BB2 excited to jump into BB3. At release, we clearly failed to achieve that. There’s no need to revisit that in detail, we know it.

As a result, update after update, season after season, we’ve kept that goal in mind.

Beyond making BB3 a great game and attracting new players, we’ve consistently asked ourselves:
• What’s preventing BB2 players from transitioning to BB3?
• What are we missing?
• In what ways is BB2 still better?

Some things can’t be addressed with just an update. BB2 has been out for years and reached a polished, complete state long before BB3 came around. This is something you often see with longstanding franchises.

While we’ve tried to minimize this gap (e.g., launching with more teams than any previous BB game, better matchmaking, and other improvements), we knew from the start that we couldn’t match BB2’s complete state in every aspect right away.
Then, there are the areas where players naturally expect BB3 to excel from day one and where we failed to provide. Some examples :Bug-free experience,.Stability.Interface/UI...

This isn’t an exhaustive list—there are likely other key points I’ve missed, and things where we did good, but let's leave it at that as it's not the focus on my post.

These shortcomings have hurt the game, as reflected in the reviews. We’ve been on a redemption journey ever since. Despite the challenges, we’ve always believed in the game’s potential. I truly feel we’ve been improving BB3 consistently over time, and it’s encouraging to see more and more BB2 players—who initially disliked BB3—start to come around.

Recent reviews are at 88% (from the last 169), which means a lot to us.
That said, we’re not there yet. There’s still a long road ahead—not just to win over BB2 players but to make BB3 the best it can be overall. This is a multi-year effort, and we’re committed to seeing it through.
I hope these words don’t come across as empty promises but carry more weight now, given the consistent improvements we’ve made.
We’re still working hard on many aspects of the game—factions, new game modes, UI improvements, stability, events, the competitive scene, and more.
I’m proud of the progress we’ve made so far, but it’s also valuable to see that some players remain unconvinced about leaving BB2. Your feedback keeps us motivated, and we’ll continue working until you do 😊

Thank you for replying and taking into consideration my criticisms!

i am looking forward to seeing the game change and become better as time goes on!

I do truly hope however that some animations and sounds could be brought back(such as stun,KO or injury animations and the sound related to them) as it helps make the game far more immersive than simply writing 'badly hurt,seriously injured,death'. I feel the effects carry far emotional and mental more consequences in BB2 than in BB3,somehow.

would help if the sidelines can have the BB2 version of the ko and injury areas. Those areas added a lot to the immersion of the game,instead of simply lining up the injured and ko'd and regular characters in one area together.

Would also be nice for players to animate when we select them,like they do in BB2. When goblins are selected in BB2,they jump to show they are being selected,while ogres wave with their hands for example. Tiny details like these add to the immersion.

Finally I do hope the sound design could be polished a bit,because everything feels so quiet(The hits,the impact of the hits,the general movement,the players.)


Overall I do enjoy the different map designs,some of the character redesigns and the new additions. I do really like the 'ooligan but I do wish the music box he is carrying could produce maybe sounds or music,instead of simply being silent(However these details aren't as important as the overall other details.)

[WulfByte]

Originally posted by The Immortal:

...I do truly hope however that some animations and sounds could be brought back(such as stun,KO or injury animations and the sound related to them)

Are armor break animations disabled in your BB3 setings?

See Options > Game > Gameplay > Armour Roll Cinematics > Always / On armour break / Never.

[The Immortal]

Originally posted by WulfByte:

Originally posted by The Immortal:

...I do truly hope however that some animations and sounds could be brought back(such as stun,KO or injury animations and the sound related to them)

Are armor break animations disabled in your BB3 setings?

See Options > Game > Gameplay > Armour Roll Cinematics > Always / On armour break / Never.

Not related to what I'm saying and no,they aren't disabled.

It's simply details that add to the immersion to the game. Removing such details from a previous version that existed in 2015 is just.... wrong.



There's also the thing when skills are used,the icons should appear more often above the player. So far,I've only seen dodge or block mostly appear,but haven't seen loner or others such appear above the player,can make things distracting to read the log all the time.