Total Pro Basketball?

[MizzouRah]

What would a typical season consist of?

A season consists of running the day to day operations of your team including setting lineups and strategies, signing free agents, trading players and other roster management tasks. When a season is complete, players go through a detailed off-season allowing them to sign free agents, draft new players, and put their team through training camp.

How detailed is the game?

The game is incredibly deep from the precise simulation engine to the dynamic player development model. TPB2005 also offers a breakthrough in sports simulation text sims by allowing players to coach or watch their team's games with a 2D display mode that lets you follow the action as it happens on the court.

I can't stand pro basketball, but after reading about Grey Dog's upcoming release, I'm liking what I'm seeing and reading thus far. A 2d display mode?

A fictional universe might just interest me.


Todd

[Huckleberry]

TPB2005 also offers a breakthrough in sports simulation text sims by allowing players to coach or watch their team's games with a 2D display mode that lets you follow the action as it happens on the court.

Uh, doesn't CM have that? I assume the breakthrough is that you can watch the whole game in that fashion. But do you really want to spend 48 minutes plus watching a game sim?

Edit - I guess it could be at hyperspeed.

[Danny]

I think the breakthrough is that its the first basketball game to do that. Also, sim speed can be set, so you can sim a game about as fast or slow as you want.

[Eaglesfan27]

Uh, doesn't CM have that? I assume the breakthrough is that you can watch the whole game in that fashion. But do you really want to spend 48 minutes plus watching a game sim?

Edit - I guess it could be at hyperspeed.
You can watch a whole game of soccer in CM if you so wish as well. Just choose full "highlights" display.

[MizzouRah]

I think the breakthrough is that its the first basketball game to do that. Also, sim speed can be set, so you can sim a game about as fast or slow as you want.
Speed it up until the 4th quarter, then get immersed into the game.

Also, I probably wouldn't watch every game, maybe a few at the beginning of the year, close playoff race, new FA or rookie, etc...

The screenies are excellent.


Todd

[DaddyTorgo]

As someone who has TPB 2004, let me say that for a 1st gen product it was extremely good. There were problems with it (when are there ever not) but Gary was VERY quick at troubleshooting them, and the game definately showed a lot of promise. I hate basketball (you'll never catch me watching even one second on TV) but I still plan on purchasing TPB 2005 the instant it's available. 2004 was that good.

[MizzouRah]

As someone who has TPB 2004, let me say that for a 1st gen product it was extremely good. There were problems with it (when are there ever not) but Gary was VERY quick at troubleshooting them, and the game definately showed a lot of promise. I hate basketball (you'll never catch me watching even one second on TV) but I still plan on purchasing TPB 2005 the instant it's available. 2004 was that good.
I share you views with real life NBA, but if it's as good as you say it will be, I'm in. :)


Todd

[heybrad]

When is it coming out?

[MizzouRah]

When is it coming out?
4th quarter 2004


Todd

[JeeberD]

I'll be checking this out...

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I'll be checking this out...
Ditto.

[korme]

fbb baby

[Gary Gorski]

Uh, doesn't CM have that? I assume the breakthrough is that you can watch the whole game in that fashion. But do you really want to spend 48 minutes plus watching a game sim?

Edit - I guess it could be at hyperspeed.

Thanks for the mention guys - I'm very excited about getting it out and I hope you guys will at least check out the demo.

Just a note on the gameplay - it doesn't take 48 minutes to watch a game on the "normal" speed. And like a few others mentioned you can adjust the speed as you go through the game to speed it up to a part you want to watch if you prefer.

Hope you'll give it a look when its released - its leaps and bounds better than TPB 2003 so if you enjoyed that one you definitely will like this one and if you didn't like 03 TPB 2005 might peak your interest with the completely redesigned GUI and brand new sim engine which includes the aforementioned 2D game play as well as a host of other improvements :D

[MizzouRah]

Thanks for the mention guys - I'm very excited about getting it out and I hope you guys will at least check out the demo.

Just a note on the gameplay - it doesn't take 48 minutes to watch a game on the "normal" speed. And like a few others mentioned you can adjust the speed as you go through the game to speed it up to a part you want to watch if you prefer.

Hope you'll give it a look when its released - its leaps and bounds better than TPB 2003 so if you enjoyed that one you definitely will like this one and if you didn't like 03 TPB 2005 might peak your interest with the completely redesigned GUI and brand new sim engine which includes the aforementioned 2D game play as well as a host of other improvements :D
I'll definitly try the demo out.

Lets get some in-game 2d screenies posted!! :)


Todd

[jbmagic]

what the web site address?

thanks

[JeeberD]

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/tpb2005.php

[Axxon]

I think the breakthrough is that its the first basketball game to do that. Also, sim speed can be set, so you can sim a game about as fast or slow as you want.

SIGH

Doesn't anyone remember XOR NBA Challenge?

The game came out in 1987 and had 2d graphics. It followed XOR NFL challenge which was great and also had 2d graphics. How quickly we forget and how eager we are to call something we haven't seen in a while a breakthrough.

Damn, when we get to talking about games, I feel even older than Buccaneer. ;)

[Danny]

Sorry, I was 4 years old :(

[Axxon]

Sorry, I was 4 years old :(

Danny, I wasn't aiming that at you I was aiming that at the designers who make bold statements without knowing the history of their profession. An example was when ITP was touted as the first, first person role playing sports game and that simply wasn't true. Marcus was very cool about it and didn't know that New Star Soccer even existed and I'm sure that these guys have never heard of XOR either.

I'm not trying to be mean but just taking a jab at the blustering of the marketing types. :)

[Danny]

Danny, I wasn't aiming that at you I was aiming that at the designers who make bold statements without knowing the history of their profession. An example was when ITP was touted as the first, first person role playing sports game and that simply wasn't true. Marcus was very cool about it and didn't know that New Star Soccer even existed and I'm sure that these guys have never heard of XOR either.

I'm not trying to be mean but just taking a jab at the blustering of the marketing types. :)

I'm not blameless :). I am the webmaster with Grey Dog, so while I may not have written the comment, I did approve it and post it on the site. I think the word advancement instead of breakthrough probably would have been a better choice?

[Axxon]

I'm not blameless :). I am the webmaster with Grey Dog, so while I may not have written the comment, I did approve it and post it on the site. I think the word advancement instead of breakthrough probably would have been a better choice?

An excellent choice IMHO and let me just say that I am 100% behind these "advancements" and can just say, "It's about time" ;)

Oh, and CM, which never claimed this btw, wasn't the first Soccer management sim with 2d either but their advancement in this area was incredible. :)

[MizzouRah]

SIGH

Doesn't anyone remember XOR NBA Challenge?

The game came out in 1987 and had 2d graphics. It followed XOR NFL challenge which was great and also had 2d graphics. How quickly we forget and how eager we are to call something we haven't seen in a while a breakthrough.

Damn, when we get to talking about games, I feel even older than Buccaneer. ;)
You old fart! How about those fun Lance Hafner games?

:D


Todd

[Ramzavail]

forget about Lance Haf"f"ner

I am pretty thrilled about this 2d display and I don't give two craps about the NBA.

I will definitely be d/ling the demo.

What I would prefer more is a 2d display on a hockey game!

[DaddyTorgo]

Ram...I already have inquired about this to Riz and MV and word is that since EHM:FE was brought into the fold they wanted to release it with a more stable code-base so they put it in on the old CM 02-03 codebase (pre-2d) but that moving forward I believe they said (don't quote me on this though) that future versions of EHM will be on CM4 code (or now maybe even FM2005 code!?!?! *drool*).

Hey Gary...how bout we get that demo sometime soon? We're all dying over here!! :D

[Radii]

Good stuff, good luck Gary/everyone at greydog. I like college infinitely more than the pros, so here's hoping advancements made in the pro game can be carried over into college games in the future as well :)

[Gary Gorski]

Hey Gary...how bout we get that demo sometime soon? We're all dying over here!! :D

The good news is that the game is very stable and everything is looking normal and believable - the "bad" news is is that is not good enough for me. I'm working with the betas to increase the already very good precision of the stats and tweaking minor things here and there to make sure it works the way it truly should.

Oh yeah, and my wife is going to be induced into labor on Monday so there's going to be a *slight* break in coding - somehow I don't think my laptop would go over too well in the delivery room - actually now that I think about it my laptop probably would go over well...right over my head and out the window :p

Needless to say once mommy and baby are back home and doing ok I'll be finishing up the coding and releasing the game and demo and it should be in time for the NBA season which starts Nov 2.

[DaddyTorgo]

Congratulations on becoming a father soon Gary! Do we know if the baby is going to be pink or blue yet?? Enjoy the first few weeks of sleepless nights!

And hey...I think the "bad" news is actually good news also. I'd much rather wait until the developer is comfortable and confident releasing the game then have a rushed product.

[MizzouRah]

Congrats Gary!

Game does sound interesting and I'm willing to give the demo a go.

Will we be able to purchase the game and continue our dynasty after the demo runs out?


Todd

[Gary Gorski]

DT - its a boy and I already have enough sleepless nights now with TPB as my "other job" so I'm used to it and Mizzou yeah any files you create with the demo will be able to be continued after the demo ends

[DaddyTorgo]

Awww....awesome. Congrats on the lil dude Gary, hope everything turns out smoothly.

[jbmagic]

Gary Gorski


wil this game be for online leagues too? will it have custom league size?


will we be able in league setting change salary cap amount?


and how realistic are the trades ? will we be able to enabled or disabled trades, set the trade diffculty? set it to favor veteran or rookies, etc

will cpu trades among themselves?

can you do fictional leagues too ?

game going to be challenging ?

thanks

[Arles]

Danny, I wasn't aiming that at you I was aiming that at the designers who make bold statements without knowing the history of their profession. An example was when ITP was touted as the first, first person role playing sports game and that simply wasn't true. Marcus was very cool about it and didn't know that New Star Soccer even existed and I'm sure that these guys have never heard of XOR either.

I'm not trying to be mean but just taking a jab at the blustering of the marketing types. :)
I think it's not only the fact that TPB2005 has the 2-D engine, but also the way in which it is run and is worked into the game. That whole package makes it pretty breakthrough IMO. Still, I do think it's important that we pay hommage to the great games of the past and am glad to learn about XOR.

[Gary Gorski]

wil this game be for online leagues too? will it have custom league size?

will we be able in league setting change salary cap amount?

and how realistic are the trades ? will we be able to enabled or disabled trades, set the trade diffculty? set it to favor veteran or rookies, etc

will cpu trades among themselves?

can you do fictional leagues too ?

game going to be challenging ?

thanks

Yup, game will still be able to run MP leagues - with a few extra options this time than before. It does not have custom league sizes but it does have 5 different sizes to choose from.

You will be able to set the salary cap at whatever amount you like and enable/disable the option for the cap to increase over time based on the Basketball Related Income of the league.

There is only one trade setting - realistic. You cannot rip off the computer and the computer is not dumb enough to take a pile of crap players or crap picks for one of his good players nor will the computer take your crappy guy you signed to a multi-year multi-million dollar contract off your hands for you. And yes, the computer will trade amongst its own teams plus it will make trade offers to human owned teams that place players on the trading block.

The only leagues you will be able to do are fictional unless you download and use a third party NBA roster pack - which I am sure will be available very close to release by one of the TPB community members.

And absolutely the game will be challenging. There are three different levels on which you can play the game and on each level you can set initially some characteristics of yourself as the GM so you can make yourself a real novice or a real pro at evaluating players which will hurt/help you in evaluating players.

Feel free to ask any other questionsn - Im more than happy to provide answers.

[jbmagic]

wow thanks gary looks great cant wait to try demo



will game gave sound, and play by play announcer?


will we be able to set the starters and bench players...like how many mins you want the players to play each?

will we be able to setup the play style for offensive and defensive?

and how will the subbing the starters for bench players?

will tire player and day to day injury affect there rating and play?

when u sim, does cpu do a good job not to play an injure player and follow the orders u have in gamesetup

thanks

[Danny]

Hey guys, we released some new screenshots, featuring the game play. The new 2-D engine is included http://www.greydogsoftware.com/news.php?id=115

[MizzouRah]

Hey guys, we released some new screenshots, featuring the game play. The new 2-D engine is included http://www.greydogsoftware.com/news.php?id=115

Holy sheet!! Those screenies look unreal. If the game engine can match the beauty, well... this game just might be a "must buy"... and I can't stand the real NBA.

Good work by your graphics guy and Gary thus far. I would love to read a "diary" so to speak of the game experience. :)


Todd

[RPI-Fan]

The screenies do look great - I particularly like the idea of fake player photos. It may not be a big deal to some, but that is the kind of thing that can really get me immersed in a game.

[Subby]

Wow. I heart pro basketball and this just looks amazing...the MP capabilities make it a must have, imo...

Very exciting!

[Galaril]

I have been playing the heck out of this game as I let the Bush victory and four years of God knows what sink in.TPB 2005 is ahuge improvement over 2003.