General Q & A

crisco10

[Jackass] wrote: »

Excellent information, thanks a million for that!

And does the level of your scout dictate the quality of player you can scout or just the amount of stars you accrue, but a 50 star player is a 50 star player regardless of your scouts level?

Yeah, scout just dictates how many stars you get per week but a 50 star pull is a 50 star pull. There have also been endless conversations on the offsite as to how many stars should be used to scout for U20s. i.e. is it better to scout one player with 200 stars or 4 x 50 star players or maybe 2 x 100 players...?

Phonehead

[Jackass] wrote: »

Thanks for that. Interesting.

I think if I was going to go for it, it'd be nice to go all out! Try and get a player up to U20 level or so!

Do you know when the optimum time to scout players are each season or whatever to go for U20 status or world cup?

I'm not there yet, but would be interested in doing it in the future.

If you want my advice, don't bother with the Youth Academy at all! esp considering you are not in the game long. I would focus on getting your training facilities up to Level 5 as I really think it would be crippling to try to run both, there are plenty of teams pumping out loads of quality youth players so it's cheap enough to pick up a trainee! I got rid of my entire youth setup because it seemed pointless pumping out the standard 20 to 35k CSR youths when they are ten a penny on the transfer market.

Not until they actually change the entire youth setup will I bother going back to it as it really is only a case of hoarding scouting stars for 2 seasons and then spending them all on 4 or 5 trainees in time for WC scouting.

seanand

well i also woldnt scout anyone if you dont have lvl3 ya. it depends what you want from your ya if its just a trainee every u20 cycle then dont bother with it if you want to build your team from the ya up then go for it iv full lvl3 with my irish affiliate and its very enjoyable

cclampett

Israel_Dagg wrote: »

I send out loads of requests for friendlies and rarely anyone accepts.

I dont know your BR team to send a request, but i'm free the next two mondays

my club


http://www.blackoutrugby.com/game/club.lobby.php?id=85259#page=summary&id=85259

[Jackass]

Bit of a silly question, but when you advertise for a new coach and advertising period is over and you can click to hire him, can you wait as long as you want before hiring the coach? Just want to hold off for a couple of weeks as I'm pinching pennies at the moment.

cclampett

[Jackass] wrote: »

Bit of a silly question, but when you advertise for a new coach and advertising period is over and you can click to hire him, can you wait as long as you want before hiring the coach? Just want to hold off for a couple of weeks as I'm pinching pennies at the moment.

yup, i have lv5 guys ready for a while now that wont be hired for a LONG time

[Jackass]

Quick question, is there any way to improve a players form, or is it just random?

I'm training up a player, but he's been stuck around horrible form for a good while now. Kind of annoying getting pops from him when his match performances aren't where they should be.

eoferrall

[Jackass] wrote: »

Quick question, is there any way to improve a players form, or is it just random?

I'm training up a player, but he's been stuck around horrible form for a good while now. Kind of annoying getting pops from him when his match performances aren't where they should be.

Nope no way other than wait it out, if he is low for a long time at least he'll be in good form for a long time. (my impression is that form either moves quickly or slowly for a player, I have no testing to back this "feeling" up though!)

crisco10

eoferrall wrote: »

Nope no way other than wait it out, if he is low for a long time at least he'll be in good form for a long time. (my impression is that form either moves quickly or slowly for a player, I have no testing to back this "feeling" up though!)

Also, I tend to use periods of low form to rest a player back to supercharged or perfect.

seanand

whats the time line for form change? i taught it wouldnt move like 4-8 weeks after moving yet my form dropped for my affiliates u20 then 2 weeks after dropping it went high again which was great but i didnt thibk that could happen?

FewFew

seanand wrote: »

whats the time line for form change? i taught it wouldnt move like 4-8 weeks after moving yet my form dropped for my affiliates u20 then 2 weeks after dropping it went high again which was great but i didnt thibk that could happen?

As eof says above, seems to be different for different players. I have two near-identical flankers. For the past four seasons I don't think either of them has been on ok form at the one time. Both of them seem to take long ups and downs. In contrast, one of my outhalves will yo yo like crazy during the season, to the point where his kicking is really hard to predict long-term (thankfully I've 3 outhalves) I've another lad in the front row who nearly never changes form. Always satisfactory or slightly better.
This is all anecdotal of course, but certainly it feels like the form is hard-wired into the players (as I'm pretty sure my two flankers are cast from the same mold.)

[Jackass]

Anybody have any idea how to target an oppenents centres?

I'm playing a team where I definitely want to avoid their half backs, would rather avoid their wingers, but definite weakness in their centres and full-back.

Any suggestions?

I know creative can keep it around midfield, but as said, I'd like to avoid his half backs and also I'm really targetting this guy up front, so I don't want to give away sloppy ball with little kick throughs or whatever (what kind of moves will creative try and what players will be mostly used and what attributes are most important for them?)

I'll be looking at ball retention and forward battle, just trying to figure out how to land the killer blows through his midfield....

seanand

high driving and creative they go down the centre most, if you have stronger centres physically do more driving if more creative type players more creative

Bushbleacher

I know there's no real answer to this, but does anyone have a rough idea from experience how many points an intensity advantage is worth in a match? For example if I would draw against someone on normal v normal, how much would I be likely to beat them by in a normal v wnwim or a tnt v wnwim scenario.

Last season I was in Div IV and just used wnwim against bots and tnt against humans so I never got a good feel for the difference. Now in Div III I'm guessing I'll have to be a bit smarter with the intensity setting if I'm to have any hope of staying up. Obviously I know its impossible to give an exact answer but if anyone has a rough idea of just how much of a difference these settings make it'd be a great help in planning out which fixtures I can (hopefully!) win.

crisco10

Bushbleacher wrote: »

I know there's no real answer to this, but does anyone have a rough idea from experience how many points an intensity advantage is worth in a match? For example if I would draw against someone on normal v normal, how much would I be likely to beat them by in a normal v wnwim or a tnt v wnwim scenario.

Last season I was in Div IV and just used wnwim against bots and tnt against humans so I never got a good feel for the difference. Now in Div III I'm guessing I'll have to be a bit smarter with the intensity setting if I'm to have any hope of staying up. Obviously I know its impossible to give an exact answer but if anyone has a rough idea of just how much of a difference these settings make it'd be a great help in planning out which fixtures I can (hopefully!) win.

It's hard to know, tactics make a huge difference obviously. My gut would be something like, two teams draw on normal. If one had gone ltnt, they would have won by c20-25 points. That's a real rough guess tho. Tactics and player selection are the other 2 parts of the 'holy trinity' of br.

eoferrall

Bushbleacher wrote: »

I know there's no real answer to this, but does anyone have a rough idea from experience how many points an intensity advantage is worth in a match? For example if I would draw against someone on normal v normal, how much would I be likely to beat them by in a normal v wnwim or a tnt v wnwim scenario.

Last season I was in Div IV and just used wnwim against bots and tnt against humans so I never got a good feel for the difference. Now in Div III I'm guessing I'll have to be a bit smarter with the intensity setting if I'm to have any hope of staying up. Obviously I know its impossible to give an exact answer but if anyone has a rough idea of just how much of a difference these settings make it'd be a great help in planning out which fixtures I can (hopefully!) win.

i'd be of same view as crisco, I usually guess my score up by 10-15 and the opposition down by 10-15, giving 20+ swing in results. ie 20 - 20 going to 30-10.

as crisco says tactics are massive in BR and team selection, also home advantage has an impact on the score.

seanand

id agree with the two about but with anything luck could change the result aswell

FewFew

When going against superior teams, I look at the tactics/Intensity duo as a chisel and a hammer. The tactics position the chisel at the crack and then the TNT strikes the blow that makes them crack. TNT on its own will just make a little chip, and tactics without enough force will damage but not break your opposition. Guess it's somewhat of a tipping point issue. Every inch and all that.

Bushbleacher

Thanks for the replies, I was guessing somewhere around 15 pts so not too far off.

I don't think I would have had any idea how to play BR properly at the start without this thread and would maybe never have gotten into it so its definitely a great resource being able to learn from the veterans. The one fault I have with the game is Div IV is very boring for anyone starting off because all the bots/inactive managers, I dunno would I have kept it up if I hadn't gotten promoted or into the Boards League this season. I'm not sure what if anything could be done but I'd imagine it puts off quite a few newbies who may be quite active for the 1st few weeks and then go bot (this happened two teams in my league alone last year)

westman1

other leagues keep your interest league iv is for collecting money

[Jackass]

Does anyone know, or suspect, that a kickers personality and / or discipline affects his kicking at goal? Such as (for example) two identical players with stats, a collected / collected player would kick better than an aggressive / rebelious player?

Just curious as my goal kicker is "aggressive" and feel like his return is pretty poor in relation to his ability.

Does experience etc. play an extra factor in this also?

Zagato

[Jackass] wrote: »

Does anyone know, or suspect, that a kickers personality and / or discipline affects his kicking at goal? Such as (for example) two identical players with stats, a collected / collected player would kick better than an aggressive / rebelious player?

Just curious as my goal kicker is "aggressive" and feel like his return is pretty poor in relation to his ability.

Does experience etc. play an extra factor in this also?

Don't know, I imagine that it's more likely that temperament affects whether your kicker will take on more difficult kicks at goal instead of just kicking for touch. Likewise poor temperament may lead to missing touch as your aggressive kicker may try to get to much of of the kick. Conversely the temperament of your captain may affect his likelihood of going for touch in the corner rather than playing it safe for 3 points :-)

FewFew

Yeah, I'd look at the temperament of the captain in terms of touch vs points etc.

Wasn't there something about technique affecting kickers?

[Jackass]

I was going to ask that as well, Technique being important.

So I suppose for an ideal kicker, you want a collected player with collected / controlled / flawless discipline (if that matters?) with strong technique and obviously strong kicking? Anything else to consider? Probably experience?

eoferrall

[Jackass] wrote: »

I was going to ask that as well, Technique being important.

So I suppose for an ideal kicker, you want a collected player with collected / controlled / flawless discipline (if that matters?) with strong technique and obviously strong kicking? Anything else to consider? Probably experience?

definitely experience

johnnysmack

technique has zero bearing on the kicker

cclampett

Can confirm that too, tech has no effect.

Im training up a conservative flawless kicker but its too early to tell anything yet - experience has quite a sizeable impact - as too will the quality of captain in deciding if he goes for the posts or not for penalties, and stats can be swayed by the position of tries scored, a kicker for a team scoring tries out wide with a poor captain should have considerably worse stats than a team scoring tries in the centre of the field and a good captain. obvious enough I suppose..

my collected flawless kicker, with a mediocre or maybe crap kicking skill depending how you look at it (53k CSR) and limited exp, has a place kicking success rate of 71%
with a slightly better rate for penalties than conversions

[Jackass]

Weirdly, I have a crap captain (decent leadership and limited exp) but my return from penalties from my kicker is actually very good, it's his conversion rate that is pure muck. Maybe scoring too many wide tries?

I'm not expecting him to be slotting everything, he's young and a work in progress, but his conversion rate is just about over 50% iirc... Has cost me many a close game sadly.

[Jackass]

On another, unrelated topic, does anyone know how many session at all level 5 (facilities and coaches) on average it takes to get a pop and how many sessions all level 4 etc?

I think I saw it here or somewhere before, but can't find it.

cclampett

yep, probably scoring a lot out wide, right wings seem to score most, even if you don't play much expansive - could put it down to opposition rarely using drift maybe. With my older lad, his success rate improved a lot from playing against so many bots last season and his experience being up a bit, he was complete muck too before that.

There's plenty others with lv 5's to answer on it, i've only got lv4 training.
With lv4 most skills below 10 should pop with double sessions every 5 weeks and single sessions every 8 weeks or so, and you can pretty much add a week longer for the next few past that, as skills get up past 14 then that jump in duration grows quite a bit with each level. I've found speed and kicking to take a lot longer though.