The End of Forwards?

[Analogy]

Originally Posted by mike kovitya

I don't think you want to slow down the offensive pace of the game too much. Americans don't like soccer, hockey and baseball much because you never score. From a marketing stand point you want the high scoring games.

You can reduce velocities without reducing scoring. My goal would be to increase the frequency of scoring chances, get more shots on goal, but have a higher percentage of them be blocked. One of the things I'd do is get rid of how the lasso "pulls" the FB's viewpoint around and make it lose its lock at a smaller angle from the crosshair.

As for Americans not liking baseball... MLB has the highest yearly attendance of any sports league in this country. As for Hockey, well, maybe some Americans, but here in Minnesota the Wild have sold out every single game since they were formed at the beginning of the '00/'01 season, and NHL has the highest attendance of any professional hockey league in the world. Football, with the highest average per-game attendance in American sports, averages maybe 5-8 actual scores per game. You could play an entire Smashball match in the time between touchdowns at a football game.

So yeah, I would definitely refute the idea that it takes high frequency of scoring to please crowds. I would argue that what creates excitement is high frequency of scoring *chances,* and a decent ratio of scoring chances to actual scoring is required to make a score an exciting event rather than something routine. Look at basketball... It's a terribly unexciting sport when it's played fundamentally, even though it's one of the highest scoring sports around. The only exciting plays in a basketball game are the big, flashy plays, but even the best dunk in the world is worth exactly the same as the routine layup that the other team is going to respond to your dunk with.

The fd and hb fastball is really fast though, so i'm ok with messing with shooting speeds until we find one that can get the good goalies into a 30-40% block range.

It's not just the shooting speed by itself, it's the combination of shot speed and player speed which adds up to form the total ball velocity, but that's not the only issue I have with the overall pace, my other issue is that with so much speed there's very little time to think about anything and make any real interesting tactical choices, many situations end up being extremely chaotic both to play and watch. I tried watching a match the other day and I literally could not follow what was happening. The overall impression I got was chaos, spam, and more chaos. If you watch organized play in most games or sports, there is a sense of control, like everybody knows exactly what they're doing at every possible moment... I don't get that sense from Smashball.

Every other match probably averages 35 pts. Which is borderline boring.

That works out to a score about every minute and a half. Football averages a touchdown every half an hour. It's pretty clear that scoring isn't the only part of the equation here. If a low-scoring game of smashball isn't exciting, then maybe the part of the game that happens between scoring should be made more exciting? I can't think of a better way of doing that than putting a greater emphasis on tactics than raw speed.

The main reason that the high speed ever gets by me is because they've tricked me into thinking a different direction and i can't readjust fast enough, at low speeds that doesn't happen.

Part of the adjustment would be in nerfing fullback a bit as well.

Us comparing smashball to soccer, hockey, and baseball is bad too, because you don't want them to be like those sports. You want it to be smash ball.

Of course, but looking at what makes other games successful and bringing those lessons back with us certainly can't result in a worse game.

[DoomyDoom]

Originally Posted by 5arge

Every time you had a fast break on me and didn't score... that is why. You wouldn't notice me charge at you because you are flying so fast towards me. Trust me dude, I do this to you because you are the fastest.

Time for moar fakeouts then.

[SniperCat]

Originally Posted by 5arge

Trust me dude, I do this to you because you are the fastest.

ANGREH FACE.

and why again would we ever need to slow the game down? it seems like we just need to segregate the Pro's from the Noobs more.

[Fluffy]

Originally Posted by Analogy

Part of the adjustment would be in nerfing fullback a bit as well.

Mike's a halfback, not a fullback.

[voodooc]

Woah, big discussion here!

The first thing to remember: DON'T PANIC. We're not going to surprise anyone with massive game changes that come out of the blue. Whatever changes get made will always be put in the test build first, where we will have plenty of time to try them out, see how they affect the game, and decide if we want to keep them.

I am of the firm opinion that you can armchair-design all you want, but until a game is played, you won't actually know how the design will work. I prefer to try a lot of different things, and grow a game organically, instead of deciding at the beginning exactly what it's going to be like (this infuriates Krenzo to no end).

I *love* what you guys have done with our game. Every time I read about different tactics you've come up with, or watch a match between two elite teams, I get a warm and fuzzy feeling way down in the cockles of my heart. We don't want to alienate our hard-core players: you're our stars.

That being said, we *have* to find a way to get new players to stick around. We've got a batch of changes in this patch that should help. After the next patch, we'll be trying a few more changes in order to make the game more accessible. You will all get a chance to test and give feedback on those changes.

[Jhouse068]

I think the way to keep knew people playing is to make a better tutorial so it's not so much of a shock when they join a game with good players. I don't think it is necessary to slow down the game or make it easier. I have never played any game remotely close to smashball before this and I was able to learn and play at a decent level so I don't think it needs to be easier for noobs to be able to play. Just my two cents.

[TheMasterOfBattle]

I want to use this image to prove that most things don't need to be changed.



http://www.smashball.tv/matches/16386

I managed to block 44% of all shots coming at me, against a constant 3v1 for the first 4 rounds, and constant 4v1 once toasta joined.

And that was 44% with many shots that I blocked not even get counted.

[[RF]CookieMonster]

You want to know how much over reacted everyone is?


A. Not that much
B. Super super horny gayness
C. A shitload (less than B.)
D. No one gives a shit.

Answer is B.

[DoomyDoom]

Hey Cookie?

[Hamp]

RecipeGirl.com