League #3

[Bob]

challonge.com/blitzleague03

I've decided to use a tiny bit of seeding to do the schedule, so it's only partly random. The first seed was set to be the Goers. The last seed was set to be the Aurochs. Then, I took the top 3 to be the next seeds, so GB is 2, GW is 3, and NS is 4. From there, the rest are pure random.

What this means is that the higher-placed teams will face each other later in the league. For instance, GB takes on the Goers in the last game of the league. So for non-Top 3 teams, you might have some hard games right off the bat, but the season will cool down progressively, while it'll heat up for top teams. Although, as GW are proof, our margins for good and bad teams are very slim, so really the Aurochs are the only "easy" team out there.

And for your reference, the Aurochs and Goers have leveled up, too. 5 levels, just like us, so now Aurochs are all Level 18 (save Wakka, who's 20) and the Goers are all Level 22 (save Raudy, who's 20). Here are their stats:

Besaid Aurochs
Wakka=3|0|0|0|5|2|8|2|0|0|HIGH|BH
Datto=0|0|0|0|4|3|5|6|0|0|LOW|TP
Letty=5|5|0|0|2|3|0|3|0|0|LOW|TP
Botta=0|3|1|5|0|0|0|9|0|0|LOW|TP
Jassu=6|0|3|5|1|0|0|3|0|0|LOW|TP
Keepa=2|1|0|0|0|0|0|0|8|7|LOW|C

Luca Goers
Bickson=3|0|0|0|3|4|10|2|0|0|HIGH|AW
Abus=4|0|0|0|2|4|10|2|0|0|HIGH|AW
Graav=4|1|0|2|5|1|0|9|0|0|HIGH|AW
Balgerda=3|0|5|9|3|0|0|2|0|0|HIGH|PB
Doram=2|0|7|9|3|0|0|1|0|0|HIGH|PB
Raudy=2|2|0|0|0|0|1|5|10|0|HIGH|C

Let's blitz!

...in a week. Get your stats and game one line-up in to me by then.

Good luck, all!

[Fleck]

Okay, question.

So you've got "Risk" which, near as I can tell, functions basically the same as Risk always has functioned, with higher variables across all actions and whatnot. And now you've got "Type" which makes it so that a particular stat is boosted at the expense of another stat. But here's my question, in your original write up for the new Risk/Type stats (on page four of Future Blitzball), you include possible High/Normal/Low risk for the different Types, and that affects how risky each type is.

But now looking at what you've put up, I see no ability for us to differentiate between a High Risk player overall and a player who has a High Risk Type. For example, Bickson only shows "High" and "AW." So does that mean that he is High risk across all stats AND he's high risk with the AW Type? Because in building my teams, I'm running into situations where I want a player to have a specific High Risk Type but NOT be a High Risk Player overall. And it seems like, with this new design, you have to suck it up and be all or nothing. Am I wrong in saying that?

[Bob]

Ah, I basically combined the ideas. I figured that the further we get into Blitz (higher stats and all), the risk isn't going to be helpful with a static number like 3, 0, and -3 like I was using before (or something similar). Eventually, all players shooting or passing will have a high enough stat that there is no noticeable difference between high and low. So all of that is gone.

So now, it's just 10/20/30% kind of risk, with modifications based on type. So they'll do their same fake shot or fake pass using a random value. If success, they attempt the shot or pass for realsies. If failure, they do not attempt.

So no, you're not wrong in saying that. You do have to suck it up, which is why High Risk is now a much bigger risk than before. Though, keep in mind, the numbers before were randomly selected based on the current Normal (20%) model, so it isn't MUCH different from that.

So now, if you want to use one of the Types, personally, I don't think you should pick the stat that your character is best at, but instead, the stat you don't want to fail at. If a character is a good shot, but NEEDS to make successful passes, then it might be best to go Team Player instead of Attention Whore. That's just my two cents though. But that way, you can have a High Risk player, but now their Pass, for example, can be only -15% with Team Player equipped, which is less variability than we even had previously...if that makes sense.

[wyvernxk7]

So, there will be one roster change for each of my teams:

for TME, Xande's Clone is out, The Mask (from FFDimensions, yet another game I haven't played) is in.
for NS, it's Xu out for Alba (also from FFD).

Both will be the completely rebuilt players.

[Fleck]

Well, damn. I was hoping that I could just use High Risk Type to pick-and-choose certain stats without totally breaking my characters.

I think I'm going to opt-out of Types this round. If I'm wrong, then Loveless and GW will be this season's Aurochs. If I'm right, then we may want to consider separating the Risk and Type adjustments. We shall see.

[Fleck]

My teams are submitted now as well. Sucks that I'm on a selfie game first round, but whatever.

As per the rules, here are my rebuilds:

Loveless is rebuilding Genesis yet again (third time's the charm?)

Guests Who are rebuilding Minwu to double down on their offense.

Aside from that (and the extra 5 levels all around), there are no changes to my teams.

[Bob]

Aside from Count, all of us finish our selfie games in the first two rounds, interestingly enough. Count is Round 8. Even the Goers and Aurochs are first round, but that's going to happen every single time, I think, since they're the top and bottom seeds every time. I suppose I'd give the #1 seed to a different team if they won the league ever, but that'd be tough.

[wyvernxk7]

So... how's the team development coming? I ask because, when all is said and done, I would like to perhaps get my lineups in for a game or two as soon as possible, since we'll be driving across country to move to Austin between the 9th and the 12th...

Hopefully it's going well! I'll be posting the formation images for SweepR and SweepL later tonight.

[Bob]

Did you want to delay the league start? Since that's just next week and we were planning to start Sunday, we can wait until the Sunday after that to do it. Might give us time to get a few more formations in and tested, though you might still want to submit your first couple line-ups, just in case internet takes awhile to set up (because, sadly, it does...took me a couple weeks to get internet at our new place).

[wyvernxk7]

If that's alright with y'all, I suppose that would be preferred.

Thanks... I look forward to blitzing!

[Bob]

Works for me. I noticed in my code that I have another thing that needs to happen for formations, so there's a bit more to be done. I'll hope to the formations thread and let you guys know what you can do to submit formations.

[Bob]

Okay, let's kick this thing off on Sunday! Get your line-ups to me sometime tomorrow, if possible, and I'll have results up as soon as possible. Blitz tiiiiiiiiiime!

[countlieberkuhn]

I can't remember if I mentioned this to everyone, but I've remade Balthier on SM7.

[Bob]

Okay, guys! The new season has kicked off, so check out the results! One thing I'd also recommend is that people using a new formation should check where their players are throughout the series to see how effective they are. For instance, SM7 uses the JECHT formation and, while Jecht was a large player in their game, you'll note very few points were scored along the x-axis (y=0) because he hadn't gotten on his path just yet.

Also, umm, you ever had those times where you fought hard to get something removed, only to find you kinda want it back? That's me and the Super Goalie. I don't know if it'd make the difference, but you'll notice that points are not only scored more frequently now, but a bit too easily, too. I dunno. I'm considering putting Super Goalie back up to 2 in the future, but we'll see how this league goes.

And know what's awesome? Check out challonge.com! They have Points Scored and Points Given Up now! Sweeeeet. Easy for us to determine tie breakers now! They have them for old matches, too, so might be fun to check out old results. Currently looking over League 2 to see who gave up the most (SM7) and the least (Goers, then NS).

SPOILER PART:

Some excellent games played and some interesting results. I can't tell if Wyvern's Sweep formations worked really well, as his teams both won, or if the Crescent formation is just really bad, since both teams played against the Sweeps and lost.

Perhaps the most strange result of the night was Goers vs Aurochs. Goers won, but only by a single point. They were tied for the majority of the game. I think we're going to see a few Goer losses this season. I have little doubt in that, in fact. Further proof that we might need to beef up goalies a bit. People are good enough shooters that they don't need to even engage our defenders now, so we need to fix that...possibly. I dunno. We'll see. Only one round down at this point. I argued against last season, too, and now I'm thinking last season was actually pretty dang good. Flip flopper! Whee!

Bummed about Mercs though. It was a giant cluster match, but they got a single point in before the eternal cluster began. Still gotta figure out a way to program the game to prevent or fix clusters. They make for pretty boring games.

[Fleck]

Wait a second.... LOVELESS SCORED GOALS? Loveless has something resembling an offense? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?