FBCB 1.1.1 questions and FBCB 2.0 Suggestions!

[Buccaneer]

As I continue my 40+ seasons career, I wanted to make another change. For the past 20 seasons, I have played with 3 teams under conference movement. Now I want to switch teams but this time. I want to get the conferences back to where they were originally, but keeping the current prestiges. I see how to Edit Current League->Edit Teams but it appears to be a laborious process of endlessly swapping teams until everyone is the right places. Is there an easier way of doing this? Perhaps an outside file that can be edited and imported?

Also, why can't I turn the conference movement option back to "None"? It appears to only allow me to do Limited or Full. Is there is a certain time of the season I'm allowed to do this?

I just noticed when going through the FBCB board, there is a 1.1.1 version. I had been playing on 1.1.0 all this time. I did not see any readme or recall any details of what was fixed and changed in 1.1.1. Can someone remind me?

[Radii]

I am 99% sure the last couple of versions were fixes for the multiplayer league. I think they're documented here though, I'll see if I can find the thread.

[Radii]

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB112.exe

That's the latest I can find, from this thread:

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=30586


My understanding is that 1.1.1 primarily added the "Conference Movement" stage at the beginning of each season. This is what we used to get FOFC FBCB up to date with the big east/acc/cusa changes. 1.1.2 added the ability to manually edit a team's expectations, as we found a few occasions where we moved a team to a new conference but their expectations were not properly adjusted for their new situation.

[HeavyReign]

There was a bug that made the none option for conference movement not function on the league options screen so that explains why that wasn't working. I could see an option to simply reset the conferences based on the default league being fairly straightforward to add in. Would that accomplish what you're looking for?

Here is what was in that last update:

---------------------------
Version 1.1.1
---------------------------
CHANGES:
*Added the option to change the team goal in the current league editor
*Added the option to change the conference format in the default league.
*Added the option to change the conference format in an active league.

FIXES:
*Fixed an error 9 that could occur when opening the player file editor when a league was loaded.
*Fixed a bug that reversed the results of a 3p-shot when the player was fouled. Misses were counted as made baskets and vice versa.
*Fixed a bug that could cause the season to start after the first preseason tourney game if you edited the tourneys.
*If you change a player's position using the player editor, they should no longer revert back to their orignal position at various stages in the game.
*Fixed an error 9 that could occur when coaching or simming a game if the team's depth chart wasn't fully set entering the game.
*Fixed an error 9 when scheduling conference tourneys.
*The team goal is now reevaluated if you manually change the team's conference.

[Buccaneer]

There was a bug that made the none option for conference movement not function on the league options screen so that explains why that wasn't working. I could see an option to simply reset the conferences based on the default league being fairly straightforward to add in. Would that accomplish what you're looking for?

Most definitely. Thanks, Brian, I trust you are doing well.

[Klinglerware]

My understanding is that 1.1.1 primarily added the "Conference Movement" stage at the beginning of each season. This is what we used to get FOFC FBCB up to date with the big east/acc/cusa changes. 1.1.2 added the ability to manually edit a team's expectations, as we found a few occasions where we moved a team to a new conference but their expectations were not properly adjusted for their new situation.

Radii, is there a way I can import the conference alignments you guys put together for my own solo plays, or will I have to input all of that stuff manually?

[HeavyReign]

Right now there is no easy way to copy conference alignments from one league to another.

[Klinglerware]

Right now there is no easy way to copy conference alignments from one league to another.

Thanks, HeavyReign...

I just bought this recently--it really is a beautifully designed game. It's all I play these days...

[Buccaneer]

Has anyone figured out a workaround in setting the current league back to the default league without having to endlessly swap teams?

[HeavyReign]

No easy way yet. I did change the team movement screen in the last beta so you can freely move teams without having to swap one team for another. I know its not optimal but its better for now.

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB112.exe

Btw my inbox has room now for those who tried to message me.

[Buccaneer]

Thank you Brian, I think that will work. I really appreciate you looking into this.

[thrym]

Hey, this thread has hooked me back into trying to play FBCB again...

However, I've reformatted my drive several times since my original purchase and I think BOTH the licenses are used/locked...anyone have any experience with customer service on this game? I just need to 'free-up' a license...

Any thoughts or help?

[Icy]

Hey, this thread has hooked me back into trying to play FBCB again...

However, I've reformatted my drive several times since my original purchase and I think BOTH the licenses are used/locked...anyone have any experience with customer service on this game? I just need to 'free-up' a license...

Any thoughts or help?
Go to elicense website and explain it to them, they will reissue the license in a few hours, but being weekend maybe you will need to wait until Monday. I have done it in the past and never had any problem.

http://www.elicense.com/usersupport/supportreq.htm

[HeavyReign]

Hey, this thread has hooked me back into trying to play FBCB again...

However, I've reformatted my drive several times since my original purchase and I think BOTH the licenses are used/locked...anyone have any experience with customer service on this game? I just need to 'free-up' a license...

Any thoughts or help?

Send me a pm with your purchase info and I'll take care of it.

[thrym]

Send me a pm with your purchase info and I'll take care of it.

Sent! And thank you so much!

[Buccaneer]

Brian, please check your PM (problem with 1.1.2). Thanks.

[kingnebwsu]

This a good time to plead for an FBCB sequel? This game is fantastic and a sequel would be even fantasticer. HR, any chance on saying "screw it!" to real life and picking up FBCB again? :)

[st.cronin]

This a good time to plead for an FBCB sequel? This game is fantastic and a sequel would be even fantasticer. HR, any chance on saying "screw it!" to real life and picking up FBCB again? :)

dito

[Buccaneer]

Nothing would please me more than to see an update but I would be willing to accept the game as is for it will be playable and enjoyable for years to come, I think. As I said before, FBCB is like Civ2 which despite the dated graphics had been playable for 10+ years. I feel about the same way as OOTP5 but FBCB AI is more solid. It is still my wish to find a pro and college football game in this mode for none of the ones out there appeal to me. But maybe a FBCB-like game is not conducive to football.

Brian, I wish I could stay home from the blizzard outside to fire up the new version but I will later in the day and let you know how it worked.

[HeavyReign]

This a good time to plead for an FBCB sequel? This game is fantastic and a sequel would be even fantasticer. HR, any chance on saying "screw it!" to real life and picking up FBCB again? :)

Well....this weekend I opened up the code for FBB and FBCB for the first time in probably a year to fix a few things. Things have been a bit better in real life in recent weeks so we'll see what happens. As it is I wouldn't mind at least hearing what sort of things people would like to see added in a new version.

[Groundhog]

Well....this weekend I opened up the code for FBB and FBCB for the first time in probably a year to fix a few things. Things have been a bit better in real life in recent weeks so we'll see what happens. As it is I wouldn't mind at least hearing what sort of things people would like to see added in a new version.

This is probably the most exciting post I've read in a loooooooooong time! :eek:

My ultimate wishlist would be a completely integrated pro & college game, though I understand that this would be a nightmare coding wise, as you'd need to have two engines and the like. So, failing that:

FBCB 2007:

1) Transfers. Players would need to have some sort of personality rating, and if they don't get the play time they feel they deserve, or if you decide to redshirt a stud, they may just transfer to another school. This will stop all teams from red-shirting the majority of their freshmen.

2) Players declaring after the season. Have one final 'late recruiting period' where you can offer scholarships to the remaining players in the hope that one will sign on with your school. Players leaving early can devestate teams and with the ability to immediately recruit their successors in FBCB it doesn't have this effect.

3) Ummm... Jeez, there are only really two things I can think of... goes to show how much I love this game ;)

FBB: Brian Strikes Back:

1) Tone down the PGs. It my current league (which uses FBCB draft files, it's true, but this occurs with the game generated PGs, too) there are about 15 or so top-flight PGs that get triple doubles all too often. Rebounding numbers for PGs should probably be decreased in general.

2) Same coaching system as FBCB, with coaches having histories, leaving for other teams, etc.

3) Expansion. Ability to add new teams with blank rosters and then run an expansion draft. Might be a nightmare for scheduling purposes.

4) Create foreign rookies for the draft files, incl. imported FBCB draft files.

5) Make it so players don't dissapear if left in FA at the end of the season. The dissapearance of players should be tied to their ratings; ie. make the lowest ranked guys in the FA pool dissapear.

6) Minor leagues. Doesn't have to be a fully integrated minor league system with game results and the like (though that would rule, to put it mildly), just stats.

7) Improved PbP. FBCB PbP is currently far superior to FBB.

8) Improved strategy options. Again, FBCB is far superior here.

That's all I can think of right now. ;)

[Buccaneer]

Well....this weekend I opened up the code for FBB and FBCB for the first time in probably a year to fix a few things. Things have been a bit better in real life in recent weeks so we'll see what happens. As it is I wouldn't mind at least hearing what sort of things people would like to see added in a new version.

I am very pleased to hear that things are a bit better for you. I'll put my thoughts down soon.

[RPI-Fan]

(FBCB)

1) Far too much coach movement.
2) Tied into #1 -- assistants need more personalities -- as it is they're just data cells in a spreadsheet and there is absolutely no attachment to them.
3) Far too many successful foreigners for the college game.
4) CPU needs to do a better job of 'picking up the scraps' late in the recruiting season (January and onward).

[sovereignstar]

-Not sure how big of a deal it is to everyone else, but the HS stats for recruits aren't very realistic IMO. Reminds me of minor league stats in OOTP (not sure if that was ever fixed or not).

-Just not feeling the way coach hiring is done in the game. Not enough personality involved - it seems like assistants just run for the money wherever it is. Where is the love/loyalty? (I'll have to think about this some more).

-I like the flexibility in the scheduling a lot. It's miles ahead of TCB as it is now IMO. It wouldn't bother me if OOC rivals were in there or some other way to establish relationships with smaller schools so as to play them on a regular basis. And maybe have an in-conference rival as well, ala TCY - one that would be your major rival.

-I wish steals and blocks had a better correlation with the players' defensive ratings. I did a dynasty once where I wanted to focus on defense in an insane way. Well, you had to evaluate guys first since it didn't seem that blocks and steals correlated to their ratings at all. You couldn't weed some guys out first, believing that they were already okay defensively. Maybe I'm wrong on this one though. Playing perimeter defense is more than just stealing the ball. But I do imagine that a lot of players that are good at stealing the ball are probably pretty good at locking on guys as well.

I'll probably come up with some more things, but that's only because I love the game and would love it to see it get better. In fact, I think I just typed myself into breaking the game out again. :)

[sovereignstar]

1) Far too much coach movement.
2) Tied into #1 -- assistants need more personalities -- as it is they're just data cells in a spreadsheet and there is absolutely no attachment to them.

Nice! ;)

[RPI-Fan]

5) Scheduling: It's a little bit click-heavy. I wish there a quicker way to do it (drop-down lists of some sort??). Also would be fantastic if you could "officially" develop rivalries, or schedule 2-for-1's, etc.

[Klinglerware]

I'd even love a quickie patch that would update to the current conference structure and correct minor bugs (if any).

I've bought this game only recently, so I certainly don't have the experience with it that others have, but I do have a couple things on my wish list:

Academics - This one could be tough to model, but players with low GPAs and SATs should not be going to Ivy schools. In reality, conferences like the Ivy League have admissions minimums on GPA and SATs for athletes. Perhaps there should be an option where certain schools require higher GPA and SAT minimums for recruited athletes, and/or players with lower academic ratings should have a greater chance of becoming academically ineligible at more prestigious schools.

Again, this could be tough to implement, because excellent schools like Duke and Georgetown do bend on their admissions in real life, and probably hide a few players in easier classes to keep them eligible...

[Groundhog]

Academics - This one could be tough to model, but players with low GPAs and SATs should not be going to Ivy schools. In reality, conferences like the Ivy League have admissions minimums on GPA and SATs for athletes. Perhaps there should be an option where certain schools require higher GPA and SAT minimums for recruited athletes, and/or players with lower academic ratings should have a greater chance of becoming academically ineligible at more prestigious schools.

Again, this could be tough to implement, because excellent schools like Duke and Georgetown do bend on their admissions in real life, and probably hide a few players in easier classes to keep them eligible...

If I recall correctly, someone brought this up years ago on the FBCB forums, and HR said that he had considered this but could not find a place where the minimum GPA/SATs were listed for the schools.

[RPI-Fan]

I'd even love a quickie patch that would update to the current conference structure and correct minor bugs (if any).

I've bought this game only recently, so I certainly don't have the experience with it that others have, but I do have a couple things on my wish list:

Academics - This one could be tough to model, but players with low GPAs and SATs should not be going to Ivy schools. In reality, conferences like the Ivy League have admissions minimums on GPA and SATs for athletes. Perhaps there should be an option where certain schools require higher GPA and SAT minimums for recruited athletes, and/or players with lower academic ratings should have a greater chance of becoming academically ineligible at more prestigious schools.

Again, this could be tough to implement, because excellent schools like Duke and Georgetown do bend on their admissions in real life, and probably hide a few players in easier classes to keep them eligible...

I can understand the appeal to this, but for me, personally, it's something I wouldn't like to see.

If it only affected recruiting (and therefore could probably be optional), it would be too dry for me. If it affected the whole game it would involve too much micromanagement.

[st.cronin]

Too many little guys declaring early, not enough big guys.

[Klinglerware]

I can understand the appeal to this, but for me, personally, it's something I wouldn't like to see.

If it only affected recruiting (and therefore could probably be optional), it would be too dry for me. If it affected the whole game it would involve too much micromanagement.

I guess the best way to handle it would be to do it in an abstract way--don't try to find SAT minimums for each school (other than the NCAA minimums that are already there), but give each school an overall academic rating that further influences the chances of a student becoming ineligible in a given month (ie, at more rigorous schools the chances of poor students becoming ineligible go up slightly). Also, make it optional or a sliding-scale so that the effect can be varied for personal tastes.

I like to play with Ivy schools, and wish there were more consequences for me if I recruit poor students.

Edit - The rating could even be a simple 1-5, with the majority of the schools getting a "3", while very few schools (Ivy, Army, Navy, etc) would get a "5". Elite schools like Duke, G'Town, Stamford, etc that need to make big admissions exceptions because they play in major conferences should get a "4". Or something like that.

[Groundhog]

I like to play with Ivy schools, and wish there were more consequences for me if I recruit poor students.

I'd actually thought about doing this quite a few times by using house rules, but I have NFI what sort of GPA/SAT score these universities look for IRL.

[LloydLungs]

I'd even love a quickie patch that would update to the current conference structure and correct minor bugs (if any).

I want to highlight this comment because, as someone who has played FBCB pretty much constantly over a two-and-a-half year stretch and considers this the best game I have ever played, we're about to hit a point next season where this product is finally going to start to feel dated. Correct conference structures are very important to me, and next year we're finally going to have a situation where teams that do not exist in FBCB (like Kennesaw State, the Dakota States, Central Arkansas, etc) will be settling into conferences. I wonder if there couldn't be some addition to the game that could allow for adding teams (or even subtracting like with Morris Brown). I realize this could be very tricky from a scheduling perspective but it's worth a shot to ask. Failing that, perhaps HR could just update the number of teams himself rather than implementing an "add team" module.

HR, like everybody else I'm glad to hear you're doing a little better and might be looking at these games again.

[Klinglerware]

I'd actually thought about doing this quite a few times by using house rules, but I have NFI what sort of GPA/SAT score these universities look for IRL.

Ivy athletic admissions rules are pretty complicated, and are engineered to both encourage parity within the league and to promote recruiting athletes that are qualified to do reasonably well academically. Basically, IIRC, the majority of your recuiting class has to have a GPA and SAT average within one standard deviation of the non-athletic admit pool (so most athletes will have HS GPAs over 3.5 and SATs over 1250). The bare minimum scores are around 3.0 and 1100, but these recruits are rarely admitted unless they are exceptional athletes.

[Klinglerware]

HR, like everybody else I'm glad to hear you're doing a little better and might be looking at these games again.

Yes. In my zeal to talk about the game, I left out the most important comment.

[Buccaneer]

Going in chronological order:

1. Head Coach phase - I think this is fine. I like how you can switch teams, if you want to try something new to keep a career fresh.

2. Asst Coach phase - I echo the above comments excep that I wouldn't necessarily need to see more "personalities". I wonder more about the mechanics since it really is a frustrating phase, for both SP and MP. I think there needs to be some kind of indication that one of your asst is wanting to leave and/or looking at offers. Give me a chance to match or exceed a competing offer. Also, very importantly, have me and the AI be able to make multiple offers for a position. Right now, it's too much of a hit or miss gamble. The single most frustrating thing in the game is losing your top asst after 3 clicks and all there's left in the pool are dredges. Since this is a college game, this is about the only part where you could introduce free agent-like bidding, which I always find enjoyable.

3. Schedule phase - Besides the "reduce clicks" suggestion (if possible because I do like being able to chose each team as well), make the schedule mean something. Right now, it can be too gamey when I schedule all of my OOC games every other day from the beginning of the season just so I could have a nice 3-4 weeks break before conf games start. Also, travel time/distance should be a factor - not so much on budget or needing X days to travel (this would introduce too much micromanagement) but for fatigue. If I schedule 4 games a week, my team should be tired. If I travel coast-to-coast, my team should get tired. Even though I tend to go the gamey route and get my OOC done, I do like to schedule games within my region and make a logical road trip (e.g., play Harvard then swing up to Dartmouth).

4. Recruiting phase - I like this and I'm glad much of it is done by the time the season starts. However, it needs to be a little more interactive. I don't want this to be more of a recruit-centric sim because I think the balance between recruiting and season play is perfect - better than any other college game out there. But sometimes, I wish a 5-star recruit would give me clue that he is thinking about going pro before I spend 3-4 months of recruiting dollars on him. I understand if this is a game-balance issue but I think what we are saying is a little more personal feedback. Also, landing a good recruit can be formulaic (Very High + Asst/Head/Visit/Scholly + Asst/Head = successful recruit). Recruiting is currently a challenge, esp. having to allocate limited dollars but it can become a bit of a randomize gamble. In some tests I have run, if you have 3 recruits on line, 0-3 will accept come Nov. 1 and doing this over and over will give different results each time. Perhaps a little much of a dice roll.

5. Training phase - Despite my propensity to create elaborate spreadsheets analyzing recruits and roster players, this is the one area I wish I had more information on the actual screen to make decisions on how to fill in the boxes. The one thing I am always having to spend time on is seeing if the ratings are already maxed out for the potential. It becomes a bit of a chore. Also, this is another part that can be a little gamey. For all of my starters and backups (future starters), I almost go with 10-10-10 in the key areas and leave the rest 0. Additionally, for red-shirts, I always go 10 on condition and 10 in the two key development areas. I usually get real good improvements out of my roster every training (I always track pre-training and post-training ratings in my weighted spreadsheet).

6. Season phase – The only thing I can think of is the early season polls are worthless. The RPI starts out being ranked alphabetical and it takes almost the whole OOC part to right itself. I know polls are tricky (as evident from BBCF) but I do look forwards to Mondays to see who’s where – but not for the first month or two. Also, I don’t follow college hoops much anymore but I do wonder if when coaching a high-prestige team, whether it is real-life or gamey to have a complete cupcake OOC but still end up with a RPI in the 10s just by playing in a 5-prestige conference. For example, playing Syracuse in SP and in FBCB FOFC, I fill up my OOC schedule with Cornell, Colgate, Binghamton, Buffalo, etc., go undefeated and play decently in the Big East and still end up with a RPI of 14. There is no need to play any good teams in OOC and certainly no incentive to play in tourneys. I have read that playing good teams in OOC can increase your defense ratings but by the conference games, my ratings are 100 in the three defenses anyways.

7. Depth Chart – Please make this easier to move players up and down. The current events on the combo boxes do not work all of the time. Usually I can swap players in and out of starting positions, but moving reserves up and down is very frustrating. I usually have to switch to the Strat screen and back to Depth Chart just to kick in the order. Also, what is the point of legal position and the player’s recruit position? I think I have completely ignored all positions in the game and still have great lineups. I analyze every player regardless of position just to see where they can fit and don’t see how legal position matter. Maybe this is true to life.

8. Strategy Screen – Pace/Motion/3P can be formulaic regardless of what kind of team I have. In playing nearly 50 seasons and anywhere from very low (and building them to high prestige) to very high (and keeping them high) prestige teams, these settings don’t vary by more than 1 in either direction. Same thing to some extent to Press/Trap/Double Teams. Regardless how bad my front or back court is on PsD or PrD, you do not go over 5 on double teams and I still end up with PtsAgainst in the top 10% (unless a team is totally out-classed in the conference).

9. Game and Players Stats – Except for HS stats as already mentioned, I find no faults in this area. The game engine is exceptional.

10. Messages, AD, Budgets – No complaints at all.
Side note: I am a fast-simmer, simming a week to a month at a time. I don’t go over logs and only casually glance at the box scores in meaningful games (just to make sure my TO numbers stay low).

As I play the new version, I will probably think of a few more minor things.

Thanks for listening.

[Buccaneer]

I can understand the appeal to this, but for me, personally, it's something I wouldn't like to see.

If it only affected recruiting (and therefore could probably be optional), it would be too dry for me. If it affected the whole game it would involve too much micromanagement.

Competely agree. Just stating whether the recruit is academically eligible or not is good enough.

It is important to keep the "one-more-turn" feel that makes this game near perfect. No one phase should be bogged down too much by micromanagement.

[kingnebwsu]

Well....this weekend I opened up the code for FBB and FBCB for the first time in probably a year to fix a few things. Things have been a bit better in real life in recent weeks so we'll see what happens. As it is I wouldn't mind at least hearing what sort of things people would like to see added in a new version.

You rock HR! If you're ever in Dayton, Ohio and want a free beer just PM me ;) Glad to hear things are going better and hope things continue to improve for you.

I think the number of posts in this thread just today should indicate how much we all respect the "first" :p FBCB game and how great it is and how much potential it has. Even if there's not another FBCB for several years, that's okay. We'll just mark this thread for when you wanna update it :)

Guess I'll post a few thoughts:

-More transfers. There needs to be a lot more transfers in this game. I don't know how it would be worked out, but players need to transfer schools when they're not happy/too far from home/big crying babies. Maybe each player could have a "perceived loyalty rating" that's a combination of the player's actual feelings and the coach's perception of the feelings. The player may be unhappy, but does the coach know? Also, the player may be happy, but the coach may be unsure of himself and think he may wanna transfer closer to home.

-More stats. Didn't think this was possible since FBCB has so many. When you added conference RPI (my suggestion!) I thought that was awesome. Maybe also like a conference A vs conference B stat. Like the ACC was 17-9 vs the Big Ten this year or something. Dunno how you'd break that down and on what screen. Also, on the player of the year/all-conference player screen, you should also show their stats. Like their PPG and 1 or 2 other relevant categories (RPG/APG/3PT%, etc). I see a list and my guy was 2nd team all-conference. Why wasn't he first team? I'd like to see all that on the same screen.

-"Cancel All Changes" button on the training camp/game strategy/depth chart screens. Maybe this could be done if you ever make another patch for FBCB? That one button would be nice, cuz I'd like to see what the AI recommends for me without having to save my game, see what it recommends, then reload my game to see if I like it. Maybe even also have a "revert to save" buttons so I can quickly compare what I think vs what the AI thinks. I think that would also help me understand how to play the game better which brings me to...

-More control over how the team plays. Maybe I just suck, but I never feel like I have that much control over what's happening. I want the AI coach to sim my games for me, but I don't know what to do if the other team has a good SF who I wanna try and shut down in the pre-game plan (for example). I guess I need to re-read some strategies and stuff.

-More personality and less movement of assistants. I know that's already been said but I think it'd be great, since I seem to lose 2-3 of mine every year.

-More realistic expectations from the AD. It's like, I get promoted from a lvl 3 to a lvl 4 conference after 1 magical national runner up year and I'm expected to reach the Sweet 16. I just got promoted to the lvl 5 conference and I'm expected to reach the final 4?!? I guess it's semi-realistic but it's still frustrating. I think a year grace period after moving to a new conference would be nice.

I'll post more later, but those are my "initial" thoughts. Good luck in your future endeavors HR, whatever they are :)

[RPI-Fan]

I agree with Bucc in pretty much every regard.

Especially, #3, 4, 5, and 8.

[Klinglerware]

Competely agree. Just stating whether the recruit is academically eligible or not is good enough.

It is important to keep the "one-more-turn" feel that makes this game near perfect. No one phase should be bogged down too much by micromanagement.

I agree here, but academic differences should still count for something. This can be accomplished without micromanaging academics, by making it a cost-benefit decision during the recruiting phase only. The purpose of adding the school academic quality rating would be to make recruiting academic question marks even more of a risk than they already are, if they go to tougher schools. Thus, knowing that a recruit will have an even greater chance of losing eligibility if you sign him, you will have to make a cost-benefit decision whether recruiting him is worth it. End of story, no need to deal with academics except during training camp...

[Buccaneer]

I knew I would forget something obvious.

I know you changed the sort on the Load Saved Game screen a few versions ago but it still needs tweaking. Your sort does Last Save by MM/DD/YYYY or alphabetical by Save Name. For anal retentive savers like me, I would like to have the latest Last Save on top.

Also, anyway to reduce save file sizes? I spent 4 hours this weekend deleting 56 saved game folders. :o

[Buccaneer]

I agree here, but academic differences should still count for something. This can be accomplished without micromanaging academics, by making it a cost-benefit decision during the recruiting phase only. The purpose of adding the school academic quality rating would be to make recruiting academic question marks even more of a risk than they already are, if they go to tougher schools. Thus, knowing that a recruit will have an even greater chance of losing eligibility if you sign him, you will have to make a cost-benefit decision whether recruiting him is worth it. End of story, no need to deal with academics except during training camp...

That makes sense.

[Klinglerware]

That makes sense.

Yeah, I agree that the "one more turn" vibe shouldn't go away. Academics should be kept abstract overall, but it could be tweaked a little to make it more meaningful...

[Buccaneer]

Brian, I just tried out your new 1.1.2. I started to cry because your setting to "Reset Defaults" works perfectly - exactly what I wanted! And thank you for enabling the "None" option on conference movement. After playing 22 seasons (of 44) with [cough] full conference movement (for something new), it is great to get back to default and start with a new team - but still keeping all of the history (and current prestiges), which has taken life of its own.

[gstelmack]

1) Fix the bug with recruiting, scholarships, and guys leaving early. Right now if you fill all your scholarships on the first signing turn, and then somebody leaves early, all recruits have a "None" interest in you even though you have a new scholarship open.

2) Add some sort of "fatigue" factor. This is to fix the issue described above where people cheese the game by scheduling all their non-conference games close together to get their defense pumped up quicker than their opponents, giving them a slight edge in the latter non-conference games. Playing games that tight should have a fatigue impact on your players.

[Radii]

Great to hear things are improving for you HR.

i've glossed over some of the comments above, hopefully these aren't too redundant

current bugs
-- Game crashes on rare occasions when a team has a lot of redshirts/injuries/suspensions and gets into foul trouble, leaving it with less than 5 players who are eligible at that moment.

uhh, is that it for bugs? That is all I can think of right now.


-Late game clock management needs to be tuned a bit I believe. There are far too many posessions where a team down by 4 points with 40 seconds to play will run the shot clock all the way down before shooting

-Something needs to be done to improve Assistant Coach hiring. In Multiplayer this can be an absolute nightmare. Assistants need to be signed to longer term deals so there's less turnover, or a team should have the ability to attempt to retain their coach once an offer has been made... something to prevent good teams from having full assistant turnover every other year.


Multiplayer Requests

-- Assistant hiring would be the big one here. in addition to some sort of improvement to the hiring system, there is no way to auto hire coaches for human teams. There are CPU options for every other function in the game(CPU recruiting, CPU scheduling, etc) that the commish can use for teams who miss a key export, but for assistant hiring, the commish has to manually hire coaches for every team that doesn't do it themselves. With 35 people in a league, this is a problem, and i'd love to see it scalable so the game could support 100 coaches without making it a logistical impossiblility to run.

-- The scheduling feels a bit clunky at times when trying to schedule human opponents. Many coaches simply don't do it. I love the idea behind it, request/response , but it has some holes. If two teams agree to schedule a game, they both put in the request, but for different days, I've seen both games get scheduled before.

-- More scheduling: When you make a request to another human coach to schedule a game(so that the other team gets an accept/decline message), all record of it disappears from the requesting team. In MP this is a problem with real time days between scheduling rounds, if you forget that you made the offer, its too easy to schedule all of your games and screw up the teams that you have requested games with. Perhaps if the scheduling e-mails listed outstanding scheduling requests that you are waiting on a reply from?

-- HTML output. Postseason tournaments are not reflected in the HTML output at all. This is one of the biggest barriers to multiplayer immersion IMO. Preseason tourney information on the HTML output would be nice too, as would more historical information.

-- CPU Recruiting. If a coach has been recruiting actively but fails to export one month and the commish turns on CPU recruiting for them, the CPU totally screws up everything. After the first month, it would be nice for the CPU Recruiting to look for some continuity in going after recruits that already have a scholarship offer instead of cutting scholarship offers and starting everything over.


Feature Requests for Next Version

-- Situational gameplanning. 10 minutes to go, I'm up by 15 points running a fast paced offense. Perhaps I'd like to slow the game down and hang on to my lead. Some sort of situational options like FOF would be nice I think, not that many situations, but 1st half trailing by 10+, leading by 10+, things like that might give people more control?

-- Redshirting isn't something that's done for every freshman in the country. If you're a top 100 recruit, you're not going to take well to beign redshirted in most cases, yet in FBCB, it seems that every freshman in the nation should be redshirted, there is no downside to doing so.

I agree with those above who listed the fatigue between games as an issue as well.

[gstelmack]

For FBB, I'd like to see better draft tracking. I run an FBB league so the FOFC-FBCB guys can see how the college players are doing in the pros, and I had to write a utility to generate the draft HTML pages. I have to run this immediately after the draft, as the CPU teams drop some of their draftees right away after training camp, so I lose the info on who picked them. I'd like to see the game:

1) Remember draft position and team for all players.
2) Track old draft classes so that as guys leave the league, you can still see who got drafted when.

Both of these would help greatly with the FBCB -> FBB draft process.

[Eaglesfan27]

I think guys have already mentioned the things that I would like to see improved/added. I can't wait to buy FBCB 2, should it ever come out. I hope things continue to look up for you, HR.

[hoosiergoody]

Great thoughts/suggestions. I know that a couple of us have pondered doing high-school mods (in essense, auto-recruiting, since you cannot/should not technically recruit for high school). Maybe a "stripped down" version that allows us to set things up as if it were high school (ie, shut off recruiting and have the players be auto-generated, with prestige playing a factor in player abilities, yet still allowing for the small-school aka Milan in Indiana (see the movie Hoosiers- based off of them) to have that magical run).

[MrBug708]

For recruiting

More players from certain metro areas. The eastern coastal states in the south, Seattle, Nor and SoCal, Detroit, Houston, New York, Philly. It's got to be a really rare time when you see a 5 star SG from Alaska

Human Coaches

I like to see the list of open positions and the coach needes to apply for the job. I do like the aspect of your assistants follow you but sometimes if you get offered a good job you might not want to have your assistants follow you as they might not be as good. I wouldnt mind also seein the AC being hired at the old position

[Buccaneer]

Brian, I hope these suggestions are not discouraging in any way. I think for a first version, you did superb and the tweakings suggested here show that.

[st.cronin]

One more suggestion: Keyboard shortcuts (enter key, spacebar).

Mouseclicking gets tedious.

Also I second the folks who say this is a tremendous first edition.

[sovereignstar]

Don't think this has been mentioned yet. The ability to pit multiplayer teams against each other using the Exhibition Game feature needs to be axed. Some guys admitted that they used this until they liked their "percentages."

[Balldog]

There is way too many technical fouls in my opinion.

[Sweed]

HR, glad to see you posting here and to hear that things are going well. FBCB is still one of my favorite games and has given me hours and hours of enjoyment.

The suggestions already listed include include that things I would ask for.

Good luck in what ever you decide to do.

Sweed

[bullman]

For recruiting

More players from certain metro areas. The eastern coastal states in the south, Seattle, Nor and SoCal, Detroit, Houston, New York, Philly. It's got to be a really rare time when you see a 5 star SG from Alaska


Here, here. There is a web site that allows you to query all public and private high schools in the USA and will return enrollment statistics, including racial breakdowns, that if properly implemented would give a more realistic distrubution. I live in Oregon and there are usually less than five high major prospects in the state and a majority of those come from the Portland metro area. In FBCB, it is just as likely that these guys will come from real small schools in eastern Oregon, which is not totally unheard of, just rare.

That is a minor quibble, though. Great game all around.

http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/

[HeavyReign]

Brian, I hope these suggestions are not discouraging in any way. I think for a first version, you did superb and the tweakings suggested here show that.

Not discouraging at all. I feel good about the suggestions and they would form a good base for what I could do for a new version.

[muns]

HR, I must have been asleep at the wheel and missed your posts. Glad to see you around a little bit more. Hope things are going good with ya.

[Balldog]

How about a CSV import function to edit team names and such, I've always had the desire to create a Div II league but it just takes forever. :)

[Buccaneer]

Seems like sports games are on everyone's minds. Don't want this to get lost in the shuffle.

[speculation] Do you think we might see a new version this fall?

[Buccaneer]

Does anything think we might see a FBCB 2.0 this year?

[SirFozzie]

I severely doubt it, HR's been pretty quiet.

[Galaril]

This is a dead product for all-purposes move on to Total College Basketball.

[SirFozzie]

Well, if HR announced a 2.0, I would definitely buy it.

[Buccaneer]

This is a dead product for all-purposes move on to Total College Basketball.

I don't think you could possibly be more wrong. The game is just as relevant and nearly perfectly playable as it had been since it first came out. In fact, all of those kitchen-sink text sims should take lessons from this game in its simple-yet-deep gameplay that flows through a just-one-more-turn feel better than any other game (with possible exception being FM).

[heybrad]

This is a dead product for all-purposes move on to Total College Basketball.
FBCB is still the most played game on my laptop.

[SirFozzie]

hey, brad.

[Groundhog]

FBCB is still the most played game on my laptop.

Ditto. I still play FBCB more than any other game on my computer, let alone text sim.

[muns]

This is a dead product for all-purposes move on to Total College Basketball.

Bucc, said it better than I could. Its not a dead product. I think most people would be amazed at how many people still buy FBB let alone FBCB.
The game on first build was close to top notch and he continued to add things that just made it 10 times better. TCB has the eye candy which is nice but FBCB has the " Ill just play one more turn, next thing you know its 2 hours later" feel to it.

I highly doubt we will see a 2.0 this year tho, and I believe if he starts back up FBB would be the game he continues first.

MUNS

[kingnebwsu]

FBCB and TCY were IMO fantastic first-gen college sports titles and I'd love to see a second version of either one of them.

[Peregrine]

Have to chime in here, I continue to love and play FBCB, while I'd love to see a new version of it it's near-perfect as it is.

[Buccaneer]

Thanks guys for the support. If you read back in the thread where we began submitting ideas to Brian, I think there were some enthusiasm for tweaks. But I believe most would be content as it is - esp. for me since I got my 1.12a upgrade which put all of the teams back to their original conferences but keeping the teams' current prestige and histories.

[muns]

Buc

Most of the things i read werent tweaks and were new features or things that would take a lot of work to either re do or add. Did you have something else specific in mind? Just curious as you have plenty of ideas and I didnt want to miss something.

MUNS

[Buccaneer]

It is my perception that all of the parts are there, just some of them have been suggested to redo (which technically, may or may not be a tweak). I'm thinking specifically of the Asst Coaching Stage as an example. That stage is fine where it is and the end result is acceptable, it's just the mechanics of getting there. I think most of the suggestions fall into that category (without re-reading everything).

[Icy]

I would just add transfers, that way you can't redshirt all the freshmen every year that is unrealistic in college basketball.

[HeavyReign]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.

[Ben E Lou]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.Welcome back, Brian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[st.cronin]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.

Fantastic news!

[Groundhog]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.

I really can't stress exactly how much I've looked forward to this post.

Excellent news!!!

[TargetPractice6]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.Great news!

I've never played another text sim as much as I have played FBCB.

[Buccaneer]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.

Brian, you have made an old curmudgeon cry...literally. I truly wish for your continued professional and personal success and if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. It doesn't matter how long it takes because now - for the first time this year - I actually have a game I can look forward to.

[rjolley]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.

Nice to hear, Brian. Glad things are getting better for you.

[Balldog]

I would just add transfers, that way you can't redshirt all the freshmen every year that is unrealistic in college basketball.

Freshman should be better.

[Groundhog]

Freshman should be better.

I'd say there should be a chance that a Carmello Anthony comes along every once in awhile. Not every season of course, but every couple of seasons.

[cubboyroy1826]

Great news Heavy welcome back.

[21C]

Glad to hear that, Brian. I'm really looking forward to your future games.

[Icy]

Awesome news HR, good to have you back!

Freshman should be better.

Thx for the correction, i thought that the plural of Freshman was Freshmen.

[Emiliano]

Ok, here's the deal. I've made a change in my life that is going to give me the time that is required to start working on the games again. The current plan is to finish up a new version of FBB and then I'll hit FBCB. I don't have a specific timetable for how this will work out so there will be more details when things are more concrete.

That's great news! Good luck with everything in your life Brian.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Groundhog I would argue Carmello Anthony types will be more prevalent now that the NBA has changed its age limit. Now even the superstar high school seniors will be going to college atleast for a year.

[muns]

Guys, can you re post your suggestions/tweaks/ features over at the FBB boards under suggestions forum (I have it stickied at the top) so that we can keep them in one place. It becomes a pain to go back and forth between sites.

Thanks in advance
MUNS

[kingnebwsu]

Wow Brian...you=the man! I'm sure the whole community will help in whatever way we can so that a new FBCB sees the light of day at some point in the future.

SkyDog, should this new info be put somewhere in the sticky thread at the top of the page?

Good luck HR! :D

[cartman]

Thx for the correction, i thought that the plural of Freshman was Freshmen.

You are correct, the plural of freshman is freshmen.

[Balldog]

I was in a hurry and didnt have a chance to care about my grammar.

[Buccaneer]

Wow Brian...you=the man! I'm sure the whole community will help in whatever way we can so that a new FBCB sees the light of day at some point in the future.

SkyDog, should this new info be put somewhere in the sticky thread at the top of the page?

Good luck HR! :D

I just asked again to include this thread in the Strategy Index post. Hopefully it'll stick this time.

Can someone provide me a link to HR's FBB/FCBC forum?

Also, can someone tell me who muns is?

I am open to ideas how we can better promote this. I know this thread has both 1.1.2/1.1.2a stuff plus 2.0 ideas. I can work on separating them out so we can have a FOFC version of this while making sure that all of the info is posted at the FBB/FBCB forum.

[Groundhog]

I just asked again to include this thread in the Strategy Index post. Hopefully it'll stick this time.

Can someone provide me a link to HR's FBB/FCBC forum?

Also, can someone tell me who muns is?

I am open to ideas how we can better promote this. I know this thread has both 1.1.2/1.1.2a stuff plus 2.0 ideas. I can work on separating them out so we can have a FOFC version of this while making sure that all of the info is posted at the FBB/FBCB forum.

hxxp://www.fbbgames.com/forum/

I've put some of my own up there.

Muns is from here, but he's also the mod over at fbbgames.

[muns]

Thanks Groundhog and Bucc for the suggestions and the willingness to help. Ya Ive been coming here since the old board days (I just lurk a lot), and lost I lost my passwords for my name a few times, so thats why my date of joining is much later than the rest of the good ole "grizzled vets".

MUNS

[RealDeal]

HR,

Big fan of your game. I have done a couple of long in depth dynasties and have played literally hundreds of seasons over many careers.

The game is great, and the engine itself is a great mix of simple and complex. No game has ever grown on me the way FBCB has. If you are planning to do a brand new version, I'm sure there are lots of good suggestions you can get from everyone on ways to improve the game.

However, to me, the most important changes would be basic technical stuff. The coach phase is probably the weakest part of the whole game. Painful in single player in an irritating sort of way, and plain old excruciating in MP. A super easy fix is to make assistant coach contracts for three years. It is not fun to replace an entire set of coaches every year.

Another technical issue is recruiting foreigners. In MP, it works fine, but in SP it's a boderline exploit. I was able to take a level 1 team with 1 prestige (Birmingham Southern), and in a dynasty with no conference movement, I won a NCAA championship in 17 seasons. I did this largely by recruiting foreigners. The AI teams undervalue them, probably because of the expense of recruiting them. But when no teams offer them, then crappy teams like BSO are able to offer them even while spending no money on them, and often get a commitment.

Other issues:
1. The redshirting issue is not realistic, but it doesn't bother me much. There is some downside, since the top tier recruits often go pro early, and by redshirting you lose a year they could be playing.

2. Development. I think the game would be a lot more interesting if players developed more by getting playing time. Right now the only development is during TC. There is no downside to redshirting a guy, putting him at the end of your bench for three years, and then starting him his 5th year. He's just as good as he would have been if he had played his first three years.

3. Recruiting(2)- the one issue that borders on a bug: if you have three schollies and get three committments before TC, then all recruits will list you at "none" interest from that point on, and no amount of subsequent recruiting will raise that up. The problem comes when, after TC, a player declares for the draft. Currently, since all recruits will have "none" interest, you can't fill the new schollie.

4. Game crashes- Almost all game crashes seem to come when a AI team doesn't have enough players to play due to injuries or foul trouble or if depth charts are screwed up really bad.

Interesting story, once in single player, I was pbping a game, and got into huge foul trouble and was down to four players. A guy named "Stephen Jones" magically appeared to play, he was a completely minned out guy. No problem with that, that's a good fix. However, when I clicked on Steven Jones' player record, the game locked up.

[TroyF]

Woo hoo.

Count me in as purchasing both titles. Good to see you back.

[johnd2442]

nice to see a thread dedicated to FBCB and FBB/STB. also great to see heavyreign back.

i'm in a pro basketball league that uses STB called Season Ticket Basketball and the name of the league is Sim League One X. Sim League One is a community that runs a pro basketball league, college basketball league and pro baseball sim league. Here is the link to the league, called Sim League One X (SLOX) (http://www.simleagueone.com/www/slox.htm).[/URL]

Also, there seem to be a TON of FBCB enthusiasts which just shows how great HeavyReign developed this game. The same community, Sim League One, also runs a full college league as well as I mentioned above. [url=http://www.simleagueone.com/www/sloc/html/index.htm]Here is the link to that league, called Sim League One College (SLOC) (http://www.simleagueone.com/www/slox.htm).

Maybe some people here will be interested in one of these two leagues. If so, please feel free to post in the SLO community forums in the Available Teams section. Here is the SLO community forums link (http://simleagueone.proboards47.com/index.cgi).

[Groundhog]

Someone on Brian's board posted regarding a rumour of Brian joining the GDS team to take over their basketball line after Gary left to form Wolverine Studios. At first I dismissed it because I remember this rumour coming up years ago when GDS was .400 and Arlie went with the JSB team (and then Gary when the JSB guys couldn't come up with the goods), but now that I think about it some more, this makes more sense this time around.

Arlie posted a thread a few days ago on the GDS boards to "keep tabs at Grey Dog Software for more information on our new basketball line", and this comes a few days after the (amazingly spectacular) news that Brian is back and ready to release games again.

If this is true, then I consider it pretty exciting. I think GDS did a great job with BBCF and I'm having a lot of fun with it, and I'd be very interested to see what a Brian+GDS team could produce.

Pure speculation of course, but something to keep my mind busy while waiting for Brian's next game. :)

[Barkeep49]

I actually would be sad to hear that this is true. I have never found the interface of any GDS, or it's predecessors, games particularly appealing, while I found the utter simplicity of FBCB to be one of its strengths. Making it all flashy would not make me a very happy, quite frankly.

[Radii]

I actually would be sad to hear that this is true. I have never found the interface of any GDS, or it's predecessors, games particularly appealing, while I found the utter simplicity of FBCB to be one of its strengths. Making it all flashy would not make me a very happy, quite frankly.

I agree completely.

[Groundhog]

I completely agree with you guys, though I feel BBCF is much better than the other titles, and I had zero problems figuring everything out and progressing in the game from the first time I booted it up, which was a first with their titles.

However Brian himself has said previously that he likes his simple interfaces. I don't think that aspect of his game will change. What I'd most like to see is an updated look for backgrounds and buttons, the addition of player portraits, courts, and fluff stuff like that just to improve immersion.

The ease of use and manuverability would stay as it is, I'd hope.

[Groundhog]

dola

I should add, that I don't feel FBCB particularily needs these things, as it works fantastic how it is, though it could add a bit to the game if done properly.

It would likely also help sales by making it look prettier, as lots of people prefer that. Maybe not people like the majority of this board, but the more casual gamer.

[rjolley]

I'll chime in as one who hopes Brian keeps the simple feel of the game. It's one of the things I enjoy about text sims. a very simple interface and a lot of info.

Now, if Brian can add some of the fluff without changing the interface too much, that would be the best of both worlds.

Main thing, don't embellish the interface so much that it takes away from the feel and flow of the game. Text sims are about imagination. While it's nice to see the guys move on the court or the ball fly to the outfield, it's also nice to imagine that you're watching a game based on the realistic output from the game.

[WSUCougar]

Can someone give me a fair comparison of FBCB vs. TCB? I've played both, but it's been a long time since FBCB and I'd like to get a more informed opinion. Clearly, there's a lot of advocates of what FBCB has to offer but I can't honestly say what it has that TCB does not.

[John Galt]

Can someone give me a fair comparison of FBCB vs. TCB? I've played both, but it's been a long time since FBCB and I'd like to get a more informed opinion. Clearly, there's a lot of advocates of what FBCB has to offer but I can't honestly say what it has that TCB does not.

It's been a while since I've played either game, but I'll give my rundown based on memory. The biggest advantage FBCB has over TCB is its streamlined interface and engine. Everything is easy to do and it takes no time to go through a game or season. TCB, like most every other sports text sim, has an interface that often makes doing some basic things a bit time consuming. FBCB was a brilliant game because everything ran so smoothly and could be done quickly.

FBCB also had a pretty tight AI. The only major flaws I remember were: assistant coach hiring was pretty screwed up (you have constant turnover and the coaches are a little too important) and attracting quality foreign players at bad schools was too easy. The 2nd problem was addresed in a patch, but not to my satisfaction. It isn't a big deal, though, because a simple house rule (either don't recruit foreign players or put limits on your efforts there) solves the problem. The game was challenging and victory was not guaranteed. But you could definitely win.

I think the biggest appeal of FBCB was for players that like to play MANY seasons (ie the anti-FM crowd) and not those that like to get absorbed into a smaller time frame. But I think a fair amount of people who really focus on single seasons enjoyed the game as well.

That's how I remember it anyway.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

The recruiting in TCB was awesome in my opinion and I think it was a better game for someone liek me that doesnt really get into the depths of coaching or anything. With that being said both games would have been perfect if they would have implemented a detailed scouting report feature like the one in coaching a dynasty or whatever that game was called for the macromanagers out there that dont want to manually scout each oponent.