Alright Boyz, Here we Go! The DDS: College Basketball First Impressions Thread

[Carman Bulldog]

To update, this game has been confirmed (I believe the last thread was regarding a vote on this game v. pro wrestling). Personally, I really enjoyed TCB and am looking forward to DDS:CB.

There is an excellent developer's journal entry here (http://www.dignews.com/feature.php?story_id=25620) that talks about the updates to the recruiting model this time around. Some of the stuff sounds excellent and is unprecedented in sports games.

As well, a list of the announced features can be found below:

* NEW Totally revamped recruiting interface. Information on recruits is now streamlined for easy access and visibility
* NEW Deeper interaction with recruits. As head coach you'll have the ability not only to do the previous recruiting abilities but also the ability to phone recruits yourself to find out specific information you'll need to know in recruiting them. This feature gives you the ability to spark some interest in a recruit that may not show interest in your school and even gives you the chance to engage in some illegal recruiting techniques - of course with the risk that your dealings will be discovered and punished.
* NEW Get to know your players! New scouting report options, player relationship displays and player interactions through in-game email bring the players to life like never before
* NEW Optional game features to customize your game world even more. Want to force all players to stay in college for four years? Do it! Want to up the challenge by not seeing player ratings in the game? The choice is yours!
* NEW Expanded almanac to track even more historical information about the schools and their players.
* NEW Enhanced ability to interact with Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball making the moving of players from the college ranks to the pro ranks easier than before.
* NEW Draw up your own plays and see how your players execute them in the big game
* NEW Increased control in scheduling. Make a phone call to your athletic director to let him know what kind of schedule you want for the season.
* NEW Non-conference rivals allow you to schedule a specific school to a rivalry game each season
* NEW Coach philosophies allow you to tailor the type of game your team plays even more in addition to the twenty different offensive and defensive sets your team can run.
* Enhanced 2D game play allows you to watch every second of the game unfold or even take some time out to rewatch one of the games of the season.
* Customize your coach to give you the challenge YOU want for your career and choose from 337 schools to coach at
* Realistic recruiting schedule allows you to recruit players all season long
* Customize it all! Customize school names, logos, player and coach photos, home courts, team specific chants and fight songs - make it however you like it!
* Full HTML and Multiplayer league support with added functionality and HTML options

[Galaril]

Thanks for this info I am really looking forward to this one. I loved TCB except for the slightly obtuse recruiting and roster management stuff.

[Icy]

Looking forward for it too.

[Galaril]

Looking forward for it too.

I love the whole coach interactions with the recruits and the abilities to bribe them with various things and the possibility of getting caught even years later after you have move dto a new school. That borders on Football Manager 07 ish.

[Neon_Chaos]

If the interface is anything like DDS:PB, it's going to be a bit of a stretch for me.

[hoosierdude]

How so NC? What was PB's problems that made you shy from it?

[Galaril]

If the interface is anything like DDS:PB, it's going to be a bit of a stretch for me.

I would give that link above to the developer dairy a read. I too had aproblem witht eh clicking through 6 screens to do something simple as well. However, it sounds like Gary is trying to get most info one or two screens eliminating multiple clickin back and forth.

[DaddyTorgo]

yes. Sounds like gary very much recognized that the UI could be improved

[Neon_Chaos]

How so NC? What was PB's problems that made you shy from it?

#1 - The Team/League schedule page's potential is wasted because it lacks functionality. You can be on that page, sim 5 days, and not have updated score. You have to click out of the page, and click back in to have it refreshed.

#2 - The Newspaper page is also buggy. You can sim a week or month in advance, and the < > arrows do not update. You have click out of the page, and click back in to refresh.

#3 - Bidding for coaches during the coach-hiring stage is flawed. There is no display to view how much a coach might want for his contract. The onyl way to see this is after the coach-hiring stage, which is pretty much pointless.

#4 - Standings Page is static. I would want to be able to arrange the views from total wins / total losses, Conference standings, league standings, playoff race view.

As of right now, it's just two drop-down boxes with League/Developmental and East/West. Takes too many clicks to get to where you want to go.

#5 - The game in itself is still quite buggy. I get RTE errors every two game sessions. Not what I want from a sim. Definitely one of the most disappointing purchases I've made. I know Gary and his staff are very active at replying to bug reports and such. But with no further patches on the horizon, I just wish the game was reasonably more stable than it is right now.

[Gary Gorski]

#1 - The Team/League schedule page's potential is wasted because it lacks functionality. You can be on that page, sim 5 days, and not have updated score. You have to click out of the page, and click back in to have it refreshed.

#2 - The Newspaper page is also buggy. You can sim a week or month in advance, and the < > arrows do not update. You have click out of the page, and click back in to refresh.


These both are going to be fixed in a DDSPB patch but for DDSCB we've done away with the ability to sim from the main toolbar - it will function like TCB where you have to go to the league daily schedule page to sim. Not only does it clean up this problem with it not refreshing but it fixes some other issues from being able to run the sim while doing other things. The newspaper will be sort of similar but again you won't have the refresh problem simply because the simming will be done from one particular page so you will just go back to see the news when you're done simming.

#3 - Bidding for coaches during the coach-hiring stage is flawed. There is no display to view how much a coach might want for his contract. The onyl way to see this is after the coach-hiring stage, which is pretty much pointless.

#4 - Standings Page is static. I would want to be able to arrange the views from total wins / total losses, Conference standings, league standings, playoff race view.

As of right now, it's just two drop-down boxes with League/Developmental and East/West. Takes too many clicks to get to where you want to go.

As for #3 that perhaps was a poor design issue - I will try to make sure the asst. coach hiring in DDSCB runs smoother and I will see what I can do with DDSCB regarding the standings but its already of course broken down into conferences so most of that stuff is pro applicable only as well.

#5 - The game in itself is still quite buggy. I get RTE errors every two game sessions. Not what I want from a sim. Definitely one of the most disappointing purchases I've made. I know Gary and his staff are very active at replying to bug reports and such. But with no further patches on the horizon, I just wish the game was reasonably more stable than it is right now.

Have you updated to the latest patch (1.4.2)? I'm going to release 1.4.3 in a couple of days which will address a couple of issues including draft pick valuation and screen refreshes (like in #1 and #2 above). It seems most of the bug reports we see are from user created roster sets but if you're getting RTEs just email me and I will make sure they get patched as soon as I can. I don't not patch the game because I'm waiting for a certain time to do so. There also will be an update to the pro game to make it work with DDS:CB (and work better than TCB does in terms of functionality)

[Gary Gorski]

I would give that link above to the developer dairy a read. I too had aproblem witht eh clicking through 6 screens to do something simple as well. However, it sounds like Gary is trying to get most info one or two screens eliminating multiple clickin back and forth.

Yeah, to be honest I fell in love with the idea of a large map on the recruiting screen for whatever reason. This time around the large map is there (even larger) but its a popup you access if you want the map. Otherwise you get a full screen of recruit data. I've also done alot to try and give you not only as much data in one place as possible but to streamline things like using hotkeys to do simple items like adding people to your call list so you don't even need to open up specific recruit cards to do that - now in one keystroke of the letter "c" on the main recruiting screen you can do what it took you 4 clicks of the mouse to do in TCB (open card, click actions tab, click add to call list button, close card).

There are screens on our site plus the ones in the diary there that give a good idea of what the new interface for recruiting will look like. Personally, I think it is a HUGE improvement in the useability of the screens and will save you thousands of mouse clicks that you probably hated having to make before in TCB.

[DaddyTorgo]

gary - loved TCB, but like however many others was quite frustrated, particularly by all the clicking involved in recruiting. I think the addition of hotkeys was a great idea, should go a long way towards making the game more fun to play and less work!

kudos!

[MrBug708]

As long as there isn't a couple day wait period to fix the nasty bug that prevent you for going onto Season 2, DDSPB wasn't too shabby. Only thing I hated was that for the first 5 years or so, none of the new talent ever made an all star team

[MrBug708]

Yeah, to be honest I fell in love with the idea of a large map on the recruiting screen for whatever reason. This time around the large map is there (even larger) but its a popup you access if you want the map. Otherwise you get a full screen of recruit data. I've also done alot to try and give you not only as much data in one place as possible but to streamline things like using hotkeys to do simple items like adding people to your call list so you don't even need to open up specific recruit cards to do that - now in one keystroke of the letter "c" on the main recruiting screen you can do what it took you 4 clicks of the mouse to do in TCB (open card, click actions tab, click add to call list button, close card).

There are screens on our site plus the ones in the diary there that give a good idea of what the new interface for recruiting will look like. Personally, I think it is a HUGE improvement in the useability of the screens and will save you thousands of mouse clicks that you probably hated having to make before in TCB.

Will there be any sort of method for where the kids are coming from? Like an Oak Ridge school that has multiple prospects?

[Gary Gorski]

Will there be any sort of method for where the kids are coming from? Like an Oak Ridge school that has multiple prospects?

I assume you're talking about Oak Hill Academy? If someone or a group of people got together to provide data on who the real powerhouses in the nation are I could have the schools the recruits are coming from reflect that somewhat. Otherwise it will be random as it is now in TCB.

[Neon_Chaos]

...

I do have update 1.4.2

I'm meatloafster over in the Wolverine forums.

Thanks for the reply Gary. The game is ambitious, and despite several pitfalls, it does actually deliver a solid game overall (except for the bugs. :) )

[Gary Gorski]

ok, I'll search your posts on our forums and see what you've had to say and see what bugs you're experiencing and then get to work on getting rid of them.

[Neon_Chaos]

ok, I'll search your posts on our forums and see what you've had to say and see what bugs you're experiencing and then get to work on getting rid of them.

I actually haven't reported anything else other than the interface issues.

The RTEs I get, I haven't reported yet. I'm trying to replicate the errors, but most of the time, I cant.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Please Please Please, include scouting reports and a pre game positional match up and team ranking summary before each game ala CoachingADynasty. I like to macro manage and I do not like to manually scout each opponent.

[Gary Gorski]

ok - we planned to beef up the scouting reports you got in email in TCB a bit so I'll find a good way of including that kind of info

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

It would be cool if the accuracy of these reports could be correlated to your scouts rating

[Gary Gorski]

well they are already - you don't see ratings for players on teams in TCB until you scout them at which point the ratings you get are based on the coach assigned to scouting's ratings. Its just that this information is presented on their team roster as opposed to the actual scouting report email which just has a button that sends you to the roster. The info is there - its just a matter of presenting it differently.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

--Oh ok, well my main concern was being presented how my team stacks up to the next opponent. I loved how CAD had an advantage arrow for each positional match up and other team factors. With this info I could easily make a few simple changes to the lineup and sim the game.

--Also for recruiting could you include the occurrence when your chances of recruiting a top recruit are somewhat increased by recruiting that players high school teammate (Greg Oden/Mike Conley situation).

[Gary Gorski]

Just a quick bump for those interested - I'm continuing the developer diary over at DEN and they've posted the second installment which deals with player interactions in the game. Here's the link

http://www.dignews.com/feature.php?story_id=26072

And if you missed the first one that talked about the new recruiting stuff it can be found at

http://www.dignews.com/feature.php?story_id=25620

[DaddyTorgo]

sweet gary. Will check it out!

[Neon_Chaos]

Gary, this being a recruiting-heavy game, how many clicks would it take to get from let's say the main screen to player screen, and what's the lag in between screens?

[Icy]

Awesome stuff Gary, i have been begging every text sim developer for players relationships (including you in WS forums) as I think it's one of the things that can really immerse you in the game, feeling like you are dealing with humans and not just with stats.

I'm really happy that you worked on it, improving the ones already present in TCB. I like a lot how you have set it up on the paper, let's see how well does it translate to the game. I'm really looking forward for this game!

[Galaril]

Wow, this sounds really great with the player-player and coach-player interpersonal relationship stuff being modeled in the game. This could be, if it works as advertised, a big step forward in text sim games even past FM's model of immersion;)

[Gary Gorski]

Gary, this being a recruiting-heavy game, how many clicks would it take to get from let's say the main screen to player screen, and what's the lag in between screens?

Well the button to access the recruiting screen is always available in the top menu area so one for that. From the main recruiting screen you setup whatever filters you want to search for players and then you can actually perform some of the actions right from that screen simply by highlighting the player and pressing the corresponding key on your keyboard. For example if you highlight a player and press 'w' he's added to your watch list. If you double click on a player it opens his recruit card and that screen shows you EVERYTHING at once including all the rest of the actions you can take. From there you can close the card, go back to the recruit screen and repeat or just cycle through the recruit card screens which will be in the order of the list of players on the original screen. If you played TCB you will see that recruiting takes FAR, FAR fewer clicks now than it did then.

[the_meanstrosity]

Looks really good Gary. Thanks for the updates. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out as college basketball (and college sports in general) is in need of a quality sim.

[jbergey22]

Id love to give this game a try but I am not so sure I will. This thread got me interested in playing DDS:PB again so I updated it with the latest patch, made 4 trades with the Knicks to cut cap, am sitting watching the draft not clicking a thing and RTE 91 pops up and I lost all the work I had done before even starting the season. Very frustrating game to say the least.

[Gary Gorski]

Id love to give this game a try but I am not so sure I will. This thread got me interested in playing DDS:PB again so I updated it with the latest patch, made 4 trades with the Knicks to cut cap, am sitting watching the draft not clicking a thing and RTE 91 pops up and I lost all the work I had done before even starting the season. Very frustrating game to say the least.

You say you're using the Knicks - I'm assuming that you're running a modded file then. Can you tell me what mod file it was and can you send me the league files so I can see what exactly caused the error?

[jbergey22]

You say you're using the Knicks - I'm assuming that you're running a modded file then. Can you tell me what mod file it was and can you send me the league files so I can see what exactly caused the error?

Thanks for the response Gary.

I am not using any modded file. I am using the default data that was just updated. The only adjustments I made was changing the team names to their correct "real life" name. I dont think I can send you the league file as I wasnt even past the initial draft so I hadnt saved anything at that point.

[Gary Gorski]

For anyone interested in reading a dynasty being done during our testing another installment is available at http://www.totalsportsworld.net/ddscb.php

[Icy]

I don't know if i want to read it, the wait is killing me and reading about others playing the game doesn't help at all :)

I'm on the fence right now, i want to play a college basketball game, so i'm tempted to start a new TCB dynasty, but... with the amount of hours i put into a new team, planning ahead, recruiting, etc, i don't want to start to play TCB again is DDSCB is really closed to be released.

Ufff the tought decissions in this life... :D

[Carman Bulldog]

Hey Icy, not to put any pressure on you, but what are the possibilities for a mod this time around? I believe it was your mod that made TCB so great.

[Icy]

Hey Icy, not to put any pressure on you, but what are the possibilities for a mod this time around? I believe it was your mod that made TCB so great.

Thanks for your comments.

I would like to work on something once the game is out and I can see what is editable etc.

[Gary Gorski]

We began the open beta testing tonight and I had to share this comment from one of the people who pre-ordered the game and is taking part in the open beta. This really showcases some of the new player interactions of the game.

So I finish recruiting as I'm just going through to see if I get any bugs or crashes and the regular season comes around. I chose South Alabama because I like starting out as a lowly coach and working my way up plus its just beta so what the heck I'm not going to finish this anyway.

I look over my team and kinda familiarize myself with them. I told myself not to try and get attached to them again because I probably wouldn't even finish this dynasty. Right off the bat I have problem out of my center Byren Millard. I made several phone calls to no avail so finally it came down to a suspension. This was before the season I gave him a one week suspension. After the suspension not much problems out of him for a few weeks. He was back and in the starting lineup before the home opener against a more athleticially talented Ohio State team.

Game time, first game ever. South Alabama vs. Ohio State. The game started out back and forth as we managed to hang around down 27-24 with 5 mins or so left in the first half before Ohio State broke loose and led 37-29 at the half. Early in the 2nd half Ohio State opens up a 10 point lead with 15 mins to play and then it happens. Shots start to fall we get some turnovers and slowly but surely we managed to shut down their main threat that had killed us in the first half and closed the gap. We take our first lead at 47-46 and went back and forth for the remainder of the game. 18 seconds left up 64-62 Byren Millard steps in front of a errant pass and gets the assist and the decisive score as South Alabama scores a mild upset 66-65 over Ohio State.

Oh btw, Byren Millard received player of the game honors. 17pts, 10rebs, 3stls, 1blk, 1ast and I'm hooked already.

He had a problem with Millard, was able to use some of the options available to him including suspending him for a week to straighten him out and the guy shapes up and is the star of an upset for his school. Hope you don't mind me sharing this post with you guys but this was exactly the kind of stuff I imagined while implementing the new coach/player relationships and I'm really excited that it paid off like it did.

[rjolley]

Sounds great, Gary. Sounds like a game I could enjoy.

[Groundhog]

For anyone interested in reading a dynasty being done during our testing another installment is available at http://www.totalsportsworld.net/ddscb.php

My interest level has risen dramatically after reading that dynasty and the recruiting.

[Icy]

Downloading the beta now, will give it some time today.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Just out of curiosity, were you able to improve the scouting reports at all? Or improve the ease of identifying team ratings nationally and conference wise in defense, points per game, etc...

[Gary Gorski]

We've left the old scouting ratings in at the present time but they're being removed. You will get email scouting reports which will let you see much more of a "matchup" type thing (eg your PG vs their PG).

As for the others maybe I missed that suggestion before. Can you be a little more clear on what you're looking for there. We only started with the public beta testing so there's time to work suggestions in still.

[cubboyroy1826]

Probably a dumb question but if someone preorders now do they still get to try the beta?

[Gary Gorski]

Yes anyone who pre-orders can get in on the beta whenever they feel like it. We're going to shut the pre-orders down at some point but probably not for another week so you can pre-order now and wait a week or two to start with later betas if you don't have time right now but once you pre-order you get your license and as long as you have your license you can use the betas.

[Gary Gorski]

dola

One thing I did with the open beta was make all of the forums visible (for the time being at least). Since most of them are in relation to bugs or errors or suggestions I made one purposely for people to talk about what they liked in the game so far so anyone who is looking for additional views on how the game is shaping up is welcomed to take a look.

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=64

[cubboyroy1826]

Cool thanks Gary.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

If I remember correctly in the last version there was no simple way to sort the team ratings, to easily determine my opponent's number ranking and my team ranking within the conference and nationally. I want to easily identify things like my team is the number one ranked defense in the big ten and number 10 ranked defense nationally, or my opponent this week is the highest scoring team in the nation.


---also, do the improvements made to recruiting render it more time consuming, or just a deeper experience?

[Brian Swartz]

You could list the leading programs by PPG allowed etc. by entire association or by conference, so that kind of thing was easy to find in TCB. Finding out where a particular school ranked might have been a little more time-consuming ... if that's what you are talking about, how exactly would you suggest it should be done?

As to recruiting, there have been a lot of changes made to make it less time-consuming, and the initial reaction has been extremely positive so far. But that's something that really is up to each individual -- best way to find out is to try it for yourself.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

I would suggest some type of team rankings screen. You can pull up any team and see where they are ranked nationally and conference wise in team statistics. Or find some way to add the number ratings to an existing screen.

[Gary Gorski]

ok good suggestion - we'll see if we can work that in somehow.

As for the improvements so far everything we've heard has been that the game is far deeper in recruiting yet surprisingly not time consuming and definitely less tedious than TCB. I think we really did a good job adding value and at the same time took away the things that really made recruiting a chore sometimes. Our beta forums are open to the public so you might want to read some of the reactions posted in there and if you want to be able to test drive it yourself without putting the money down now definitely just keep tabs on it and wait for the official demo which will be available around release time.

[Icy]

I have created a real NCAA mod already with real team and conference names, two styles of team logos and conference logos. I'll keep updating it with my own and other mod makers tuff.

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3614

[Emiliano]

I have created a real NCAA mod already with real team and conference names, two styles of team logos and conference logos. I'll keep updating it with my own and other mod makers tuff.

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3614

Awesome man! Thanks.

[Gary Gorski]

We're happy to announce that we're about ready to wrap up our open beta testing period and officially release version 1.0 - this is scheduled for Tuesday, December 18th. In the meantime if you are on the fence here's a couple of videos to keep you entertained and looking forward to our game.

Also I've left the pre-order price in the webstore. Once we put up v1.0 it will change back and I was going to actually cut off the pre-orders now but there's been many people here who have shown their support for my work and games over the years so until 1.0 is actually live and on the site I'll leave it in the store with the 15% discount for you guys :)

Coach Lineage
http://www.wolverinestudios.com/downloads/DDSCB/videos/lineage/llineage.html
Track the entire coaching “family tree” of every coach in the history of your league. See which coaches have been the most successful in teaching their assistants what it takes to make it on their own.

Player Recruiting
http://www.wolverinestudios.com/downloads/DDSCB/videos/recruiting/recruiting%20vid.html
Our already deep recruiting system just got better! Check out the new pitch and focus areas, the ability to call up recruits and converse with them and gather the info you need to determine if he’s the right fit for your school. Check out the massive amount of detail on each recruit – even down to info on his parents who could play a role in his decision making.

Almanac
http://www.wolverinestudios.com/downloads/DDSCB/videos/almanac/almanac.html
Check out the detail of the history stored for your league. Go back and look up past award winners, pre and post season tournament winners, team, coach and player records and historical standings for each and every season you’ve played!

In Game Experience
http://www.wolverinestudios.com/downloads/DDSCB/videos/ingame/ingame.html
We’ve redesigned our gameplay screen to provide you with much more on court 2D action and our new player icons make it even easier to determine on court matchups and visualize the game. Take a look at the wide array of coaching options you have at your fingertips including the ability to choose different motivation tactics to try and fire up a listless team or heap praise on your boys for a job well done.

[Galaril]

I must say that having pre-ordered and been a fairly active and critical beta tester this is a good game. I f anyone is a basketball fan they definitely should pick it up. I really can't say enough about how open to suggestions gary has been during the beat process and it is obvious he has tried to accomodate even suggestions from individuals alone if they were worthy suggestions that is.
The game is very solid and the "too much clicking or having to go four screens down and back to do one thing has been greatly eliminated and the UI is much more streamlined. Also, I would say that this is the only sports text sim other than SI's Football Manager and the now defunct hockey game they had that really get's immersive and caring about things. That is at least compared to the greater body of sports text sims.

[Icy]

Totally agree with Galaril, i'm really impressed both with the game quallity and with Gary's openness regarding new features and suggestions. I think this open beta idea has worked really well, the game is really polished and shouldn't be any important bug in the final release. I love how he has implemented players personalities, still not at the level of FM but getting pretty close, that is something really new for a college sim and that makes you really feel like a college coach. This is going to be one of the games of the year imho as FBCB was in the past.

[Ragone]

So umm, i'm kinda curious.. is there a bubble watch and a tourney selection show? :)

[markprior22]

So umm, i'm kinda curious.. is there a bubble watch and a tourney selection show? :)

yes to both

[Icy]

Bump, the game will be released today evening EST time. I have released already an All-in-One NCAA installer with logos, courts, real teams nicknames, conferences etc etc.

[WSUCougar]

Icy, you da man!

[Icy]

Game is out!

You can now head over to our webstore (https://www.elicense.com/wolverine/store/index.asp) and pick up your copy of Draft Day Sports: College Basketball! If you want to get a jump on downloading the game it is available here (http://www.wolverinestudios.com/downloads/DDSCB/DDSCBInstall.EXE).

A few immediate notes on the game. For anyone interested we'll be making a demo and it should be available by this weekend. I'm also going to take the approach to patching/updating the game as I did in beta. I will be releasing "beta updates" as I finish them so shortly after 1.0 there will be 1.01, 1.02 and so on until all the fixes and additions are verified correct and then it will officially be 1.1. We have a number of additions and updates that will be making their way into the game from the great suggestions given to us by those who participated in the open beta for the game so be sure to check these forums frequently for the latest updates.

The game also will be compatible with DDS: Pro Basketball. However, in order to do that an update needs to happen on the Pro side. I will be working to finish that update as soon as possible so that you can get the dual functionality going between the games.

Thank you as always for your support. I'm looking forward to the responses from you guys (and to sitting down and starting my own dynasty too). College Hoops is my favorite sport and I think it really shows in the depth and fun of the game. Enjoy DDS:CB!

[/URL]

Here is the info about the all in one NCAA installer:
[URL]http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3614 (https://www.elicense.com/wolverine/store/index.asp)

[DaddyTorgo]

Icy rocks. And I need to try the demo for this game.

[Gary Gorski]

Going to try and have the demo out this weekend for anyone interested

[King of New York]

Congrats, Gary.

Seeing as how I might be the biggest TCB Homer on this board, I went ahead and pre-ordered a few days ago. I probably won't get a chance to play until after Xmas, but I am looking forward to taking it for a spin.

Thanks, Icy, for the mod--seriously, you should get a medal or something.

[Carman Bulldog]

Does an admin want to change this to the "Alright Boyz, here we go! DDSCB First Impressions Thread"?

I would but I don't believe I can edit my own thread titles.

As it is, don't wait for the demo. I barely follow any basketball and really only watch the college game during March Madness, but have played many college hoops sims and must say that this is one of the best sports sim games period.

[mauchow]

Me has been having fun since two weeks ago when I pre ordered and helped out(not really) with the Beta Testing.

[Emiliano]

Congrats on the release Gary!

[miami_fan]

Congrats Gary. Been looking for this for a while.

[Gary Gorski]

Also for anyone who didn't read my thread at Wolverine about the game I've decided I really like the open beta approach and am taking the same kind of approach to the game post-release. Rather than fixing/adding things, internally testing and then releasing large updates I'm just going to put out mini-updates as I complete them as beta updates. So shortly there will be a 1.01, 1.02 etc until those new fixes or additions have been tested and we officially call it 1.1

Additional features from our suggestions forums during beta testing have been compiled and are in the plans to be added in as we go to make the game even deeper than it is now as well.

[rjolley]

For the FBCB fans out there, is this the game to take it's place? I liked TCB, but always found myself going back to FBCB. It was just a better game for me.

Edit: Gary, has the special ended, both the discount on this game and the package with this and the pro game? Also, is there a discount for owners of TPB to move up to DDS: Pro?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Does an admin want to change this to the "Alright Boyz, here we go! DDSCB First Impressions Thread"?

I would but I don't believe I can edit my own thread titles.
If I remember correctly, try double-clicking on your thread instead of single-clicking it to open it up. Double-clicking the thread title should allow you to change it.

[Gary Gorski]

For the FBCB fans out there, is this the game to take it's place? I liked TCB, but always found myself going back to FBCB. It was just a better game for me.

Edit: Gary, has the special ended, both the discount on this game and the package with this and the pro game? Also, is there a discount for owners of TPB to move up to DDS: Pro?

Of course I'm going to be biased here but I think this game really takes what was good in TCB and brings it to the next level. I added a lot to the recruiting aspect of the game while not increasing the "work" to recruit and while reducing the number of clicks it took to do it. There's all kinds of media info - headlines, magazine stories and I really tried to move it in that FM/CM direction by adding the ability to interact with your players and have the players interact with each other as well making you manage personalities rather than just numbers on a screen. Plus the enhanced features like the full coach lineage feature that tracks coaching trees from every coach, the ability to look up any player that ever played for any team, the full screen 2D with icons of different sizes to show height/weight matchups and all of the historical tracking info that just lets you get lost in the game. As good as I felt TCB was - this is just a whole new level.

The pre-order deal has ended now that we released the game but we still have the bundle on the pro and college game in our webstore.

[rjolley]

Ok, thanks Gary. I'm definitely going to pick this up, and the pro game as well.

[DaddyTorgo]

The pre-order deal has ended now that we released the game but we still have the bundle on the pro and college game in our webstore.


I hate you and your bundled goodness!!!*







*sarcasm*

[Gary Gorski]

btw if anyone is looking for a run down on some new things to the game go here

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/

we've got a special DDS:CB intro page there with all kinds of screens and the videos to check out

[rjolley]

If I can figure out how to get Paypal to pay without a CC assigned (have some money in the account), I'll buy this today. If I could've figured it out last week, I would've bought it then.

[astrosfan64]

I'm looking forward to trying the demo. Is it a demo where i can play 1 season, or the type that is only active for 3 real life days?

I noticed that the price is up to $40.00 for this game. That makes it the highest priced text based simmulation in the business.

WWSM, OOTP 8, WMMA, FOF 2k7 and even your pro game is cheaper.

Any reason this one costs more?

[Gary Gorski]

The demo is going to be limited to a partial season but will not expire. We had some issues with the 3 day full trial that we didn't expect and/or like so we're just going back to the old method of creating a separate demo that you can upgrade from by downloading another update.

The price is $39.95 now (and that's one reason we did the month and a half long pre-order with 15% off so it would work out to be even cheaper than it used to be at release) and really the reason it is priced at that point is because I think the game is worth it. My titles typically have new versions every two years and I continue to update them over that time as well. For instance right before the start of the NBA season I did a pro update with new rosters and a couple new items - the game was released last season so I tried to make it fresh again for the new NBA season. On top of that it's a hell of a game - the best I've done I feel. I think anyone who really gives it a shot and gets into it and pokes around at all the detail will be totally immersed and you will definitely get your money's worth out of the game. But don't take my word for it - we'll get the demo up ASAP to try out for yourself and we should have reviews coming in the not too distant future as well.

[astrosfan64]

The demo is going to be limited to a partial season but will not expire. We had some issues with the 3 day full trial that we didn't expect and/or like so we're just going back to the old method of creating a separate demo that you can upgrade from by downloading another update.

The price is $39.95 now (and that's one reason we did the month and a half long pre-order with 15% off so it would work out to be even cheaper than it used to be at release) and really the reason it is priced at that point is because I think the game is worth it. My titles typically have new versions every two years and I continue to update them over that time as well. For instance right before the start of the NBA season I did a pro update with new rosters and a couple new items - the game was released last season so I tried to make it fresh again for the new NBA season. On top of that it's a hell of a game - the best I've done I feel. I think anyone who really gives it a shot and gets into it and pokes around at all the detail will be totally immersed and you will definitely get your money's worth out of the game. But don't take my word for it - we'll get the demo up ASAP to try out for yourself and we should have reviews coming in the not too distant future as well.

fair enough

[cubboyroy1826]

Gary where can i find the Pro/College bundle option?

[Tim Tellean]

When you go into the webstore and order it will be the second screen that will give you the bundle buy or not option.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Here is the info about the all in one NCAA installer:
http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3614

Although I'm not in the market for the game at the moment, I just wanted to say that I think it's beyond cool that you do this installer.

[MizzouRah]

Will pick this one up sometime in the near future, congratulations Gary!!

Nice work as usual Icy!

[Gary Gorski]

I just wanted to say that I think it's beyond cool that you do this installer.

I just want to second this - I know some people like playing in a totally fictious universe but lots of people want the real schools and courts and logos and all that and being able to get all of this by downloading one thing has to have a positive impact on the sales of the game and I can't express enough how much I appreciate that. These games are nothing without the support of the community - I only hope that one day I have the following that guys like Markus and Jim have and things like Icy's installer definitely play a role in getting there because when one or two people get involved from the community it tends to make others want to get involved as well.

[Galaril]

I have become atotal homer on this game thru the beta process and can't say enough of how fun it is. I took an Air Force team all the way to the finals riding a wave of upsets thanks to some really great three point shooting. It really reminded me of the George Mason team a few years ago or the Jim V Nc ST. that upset the Houston Cougars back in 84 in real life. This game has really got animmersive feel and I have found myself saying up way to late. On egreat thing I have got where I can go thru a pretty complete and throrough recruiting preseason with camps and practice and even sim about a dozen games all afew afew hours. So it is much quicker than it use to be to go through recruiting now.

[Icy]

I just want to second this - I know some people like playing in a totally fictious universe but lots of people want the real schools and courts and logos and all that and being able to get all of this by downloading one thing has to have a positive impact on the sales of the game and I can't express enough how much I appreciate that. These games are nothing without the support of the community - I only hope that one day I have the following that guys like Markus and Jim have and things like Icy's installer definitely play a role in getting there because when one or two people get involved from the community it tends to make others want to get involved as well.

Thanks Gary, I really appreciate your comments.

[cubboyroy1826]

Gary or someone else is there some special price in buying the College game and the Pro game together? Gary had mentioned a bundle and i wasn't sure if that meant that if you buy both then you get a special price.

[Gary Gorski]

Yeah if you go to the webstore and pick one to buy you are then prompted with an option to buy the 2nd one for the bundled price

[cubboyroy1826]

Ah perfect. Thanks Gary. You might want to put that somewhere easier to find on the site. It might prompt those people who have been looking at the pro game to move forward if they know that there is a bundled package.

[Mota]

This one was a no brainer for me... I have bought pretty much everything that Gary puts out, since it is all very high quality stuff.

I did a bonehead thing with regards to Vista ... played the game for the past two days, saving it a couple of times. I think I had played about 3 hours, got through the early recruiting and maybe 5-10 games into the season. Then I reboot my computer and go to reload, and nothing. My saves never took place. I checked and I wasn't running the game as an administrator, therefore it wasn't allowing me to save into the Program Files directory. So I had to start my league over again. No problems after making this change. A lot of the latest text games have been putting the save directories in the My Documents folders to prevent this from being a problem, but it is an easy fix to avoid it either way.

I also find that the first bit of the league is a bit of a drag, as there's several rounds of recruiting before any of the games start. I personally would like to get to the action and get to know my players a bit before getting into the hardcore recruiting, but again, that's maybe an hour of the game experience before everything gets rolling so it's not a big deal.

Overall, I love the game so far from my beta experience. I like that I saw my SF with 6 rebounds, 4 offensive rebounds within the first 10 minutes of the game, and looking at the court, he is matched up against a 5'5" player so the guy just can't compete in the air. Being able to SEE this is amazing. Text sims always have a lot of strategy in them, but sometimes it is too abstract. When you can actually see mismatches and can formulate your strategies accordingly, that makes a recipe for a great game.

[Brian Swartz]

I also find that the first bit of the league is a bit of a drag, as there's several rounds of recruiting before any of the games start. I personally would like to get to the action and get to know my players a bit before getting into the hardcore recruiting, but again, that's maybe an hour of the game experience before everything gets rolling so it's not a big deal.

One alternative here would be to turn it over to the AI(recruiting that is), and start when practice does, if you can stomach that.

Thanks for your kind comments about the game.

[MizzouRah]

C'mon FOFC, more impressions!!!

[jbergey22]

C'mon FOFC, more impressions!!!

Seems like a huge upgrade from TCB. I havent played as much as Id like because I am waiting on the first patch to fix things like too many tall players and other things that I wont want in my "serious" career. I can tell you that this game came out less buggy than the pro basketball game still is.

[miami_fan]

C'mon FOFC, more impressions!!!

If they are anything like me, they are trying to digest it all. Certainly not a bad thing though. I am just getting started on my coaching career. I really like the new player cards. All the information is right in front of you as opposed to having to make multiple clicks on one card. Recruiting is much more in depth. I like the head coaching call option. I will post more as I go along.

[DaddyTorgo]

gonna hafta pick this one up for sure

[MizzouRah]

Me too DT and keep those impressions coming!!!

Too busy right now to get into it, but as college football comes to a close, I'm starting to itch for some college basketball.

[MrBug708]

*sigh* I go to play my first game when it says that I have an invalid roster setting and my sub matrix is missing a player. But yet every player is there. I have it set so the staff fixes everything but I can't sim a game.

nvm - Figured it out.

[MrBug708]

Meh. Just hit a run time error when I went to visit the conference preview. And no saving either.

[DaddyTorgo]

i'm just waiting for the demo to give that a quick spin before I pull the trigger on purchasing.

[MrBug708]

Meh. And now I go to do a new game and it crashes on the create the coach part :(

[Eaglesfan27]

Meh. Just hit a run time error when I went to visit the conference preview. And no saving either.

Meh. And now I go to do a new game and it crashes on the create the coach part :(

That is why I'm holding off on purchasing. I usually like Gary's games once they are cleaned up, but it seems like there usually are quite a few CTD's at release and that sometimes turns me off to a game that I would enjoy once it is stable.

[Brian Swartz]

The first one has a hotfix up, it appears that for some people the resource file for that magazine isn't installing properly for some reason.

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4347

Please post details of the other at the WS forums in Tech Support -- this is the first I've heard of any problems with coach creation.

[MrBug708]

I think it might have had to do with the crash. I opened the game back up and tried to start a new game and it crashed on the coaches creation aspect. I restarted the game and didnt have a problem with creating a coach.

I'll look into the hotfix

[DaddyTorgo]

can't wait to get my hands on that demo...wonder if gary's in-thread to say something bout that...

[Gary Gorski]

Yeah, the crash on the conference preview page was because I somehow missed it in the main installer. The people who had the beta copies had it which is why it was not reported by any of them. I plan on putting a the 1.01 build up tomorrow or Monday but if anyone needs that file in the meantime just email Bryan, Tim and myself (or anyone with the game) and you just need the file emailed to you to place in the graphics/resource folder.

The create coach problem is a new one but sounds like it worked itself out - nonetheless we'll try to recreate it.

[Gary Gorski]

can't wait to get my hands on that demo...wonder if gary's in-thread to say something bout that...

Believe me - I want to get it out too and will be working late into the night on it. Spent some time today doing all the stuff I neglected in working to get the game out for Christmas (getting the tree, buying gifts for my wife, spending time with my family). My goal is have the demo out by Christmas day and sooner if possible.

[DaddyTorgo]

Believe me - I want to get it out too and will be working late into the night on it. Spent some time today doing all the stuff I neglected in working to get the game out for Christmas (getting the tree, buying gifts for my wife, spending time with my family). My goal is have the demo out by Christmas day and sooner if possible.

lol...don't mind me or the others gary. Enjoy your holiday and your family please.

[Gary Gorski]

Version 1.01 can be downloaded in our DDS:CB tech support forum. You should install this if you were in the open beta, bought 1.0 at release or shortly thereafter or are looking to upgrade from the demo to the full version.

First a note on the update process. As I mentioned before my goal is going to be to get updates out as they're coded in and as quickly as possible. Therefore any 1.0x update should be considered a beta patch/update. Any fixes and tweaks have only been confirmed by a quick test on my end. Here is the list of items 1.01 covers

Crashes
---------
RTE 9 - search results that return thousands of entries
RTE 3265 - trying to export data from the commissioner office
RTE 3078 - generating player pages from the HTML in the commissioner office
RTE 3018 - being unemployed
RTE 9 - calling play in game
RTE 53 - looking at conf preview

Bug Fixes
-----------
-stats for recruited players should show up in future years of the conf/season preview
- can now change your non conference rival in the Team Info screen
- can now move players into the sub matrix from all Roster screen views
- transfer preview magazine no longer shows placeholder info in first season

Tweaks
---------
- Adjusted PF/C heights
- Altered logic for teams moving conferences to find ones with multiple teams from their region
- Players should lose EN in game much more realistically now

New Feature
--------------
Coach Notes - Near the top of the screen where the Coach Lineage icon is you will see a pencil icon. If you click this you will be presented with a popup notepad that you can type whatever notes you want on and as long as you save your game your notes will be saved as well.


edit: P.S. The demo is available too - its in the DDS:CB General Discussion forum

[DaddyTorgo]

Version 1.01 can be downloaded in our DDS:CB tech support forum. You should install this if you were in the open beta, bought 1.0 at release or shortly thereafter or are looking to upgrade from the demo to the full version.

First a note on the update process. As I mentioned before my goal is going to be to get updates out as they're coded in and as quickly as possible. Therefore any 1.0x update should be considered a beta patch/update. Any fixes and tweaks have only been confirmed by a quick test on my end. Here is the list of items 1.01 covers

Crashes
---------
RTE 9 - search results that return thousands of entries
RTE 3265 - trying to export data from the commissioner office
RTE 3078 - generating player pages from the HTML in the commissioner office
RTE 3018 - being unemployed
RTE 9 - calling play in game
RTE 53 - looking at conf preview

Bug Fixes
-----------
-stats for recruited players should show up in future years of the conf/season preview
- can now change your non conference rival in the Team Info screen
- can now move players into the sub matrix from all Roster screen views
- transfer preview magazine no longer shows placeholder info in first season

Tweaks
---------
- Adjusted PF/C heights
- Altered logic for teams moving conferences to find ones with multiple teams from their region
- Players should lose EN in game much more realistically now

New Feature
--------------
Coach Notes - Near the top of the screen where the Coach Lineage icon is you will see a pencil icon. If you click this you will be presented with a popup notepad that you can type whatever notes you want on and as long as you save your game your notes will be saved as well.


edit: P.S. The demo is available too - its in the DDS:CB General Discussion forum

would you go enjoy the holidays please sir?? :D

[Gary Gorski]

hey, just trying to give you guys something to do today and tomorrow :)

[MizzouRah]

This game will be my first purchase come the 26th. :)

[MrBug708]

Thanks for all the work Gary. I just need to remind myself to save it more often then not.

One thing that might help the interface would be when you click the red x on the phone call screen, that it ends the call automatically

[path12]

I went ahead and just bought both the college & pro package. Won't have time to get into it for a day or so, but made sure and got the latest logo packages etc so I'll be ready to start.

[st.cronin]

How many college basketball text sims are there, anyway? I know about this one, and FBCB, and I remember trying another demo for a college bball text sim about a year ago. This seems like the most flooded sub-genre of the market.

[John Galt]

I've been playing the demo and have a few issues.

First, how do I change my team's offensive and defensive strategy if I don't play out the games? I've changed my assignments to emphasize Princeton offense and a 2-3 Zone defense. However, I can't seem to make my team play those sets. I must be missing something, but I couldn't find it in the manual. Edit: I found this one although it is not in the most obvious place. I am afraid to change, though, since my team is 4-0.

Second, as with Gary's Pro game, the music at the beginning annoys me to no end. I turn it off every time I start, but it is really a major annoyance to me (since I always have volume on). Is there still no way to have it default with the sound off?

Third, there are some oddities translated from the Pro game. The big one here is the coaching emphasis on Veterans vs. Youth. Does this mean underclassmen vs. upperclassmen in terms of playing time?

Fourth, I've been really focusing on 1 recruit (I only have 1 scholarship open coaching Dartmouth). He has listed Dartmouth as his top choice for a while, but sends me emails after my visits that he really doesn't want to play for me. He also doesn't want to talk to me on the phone. I'm not sure what to make of this. The game crashed during the season before he committed, so I'm not sure how it will turn out.

Fifth, I'm not sure I like the new telephone system. I know it is the new "thing" with the game, but it kind of undoes all the elimination of clicks in recruiting. Recruiting, absent telephone calls, requires a lot less clicking than the last version. However, with the telephone calls, I would say there is 2x to 4x as much clicking as in the prior version. I would love if the telephone system were optional and all of the preference information was gathered over time.

The game, like all of Gary's games, has some growing pains but also has a lot of potential. I'm still on the fence about buying it, but it provides a nice distraction on X-mas Eve.

[John Galt]

I went ahead and bought the game. It seems like it will be fun. Unfortunately, after playing out the rest of the season, I can't find the "View Awards" button. It isn't in the email and I just can't find it anywhere else. Does anyone know where it is?

[st.cronin]

First impressions of the demo:

I have had a couple of rtes. I got one when I clicked on the telephone after hanging up with somebody and before the program had reset, and another happened when clicking on a recruit's name.

I like the recruiting, and I like the phone calls. I imagine it might get tedious for some players, but I can also see that you can make it an easy process, and it seems like its well-designed for somebody like me. The game engine looks fine, too, although I haven't looked closely at all.

One question: In the email announcing that recruiting is starting, it says that you can access a recruiting calendar somewhere, but I couldn't find it. How do you see that?

[DaddyTorgo]

First impressions of the demo:

I have had a couple of rtes. I got one when I clicked on the telephone after hanging up with somebody and before the program had reset, and another happened when clicking on a recruit's name.

I like the recruiting, and I like the phone calls. I imagine it might get tedious for some players, but I can also see that you can make it an easy process, and it seems like its well-designed for somebody like me. The game engine looks fine, too, although I haven't looked closely at all.

One question: In the email announcing that recruiting is starting, it says that you can access a recruiting calendar somewhere, but I couldn't find it. How do you see that?

I know one way at least: if you're on the recruiting stage, right next to the colored text stating what "stage" of recruiting it is there's a lil box. Click that and a lil calendar-window pops up.

dunno of any other way

[st.cronin]

For the FBCB fans out there, is this the game to take it's place? I liked TCB, but always found myself going back to FBCB. It was just a better game for me.

Jury is still out, in my mind.

[MrBug708]

I went ahead and bought the game. It seems like it will be fun. Unfortunately, after playing out the rest of the season, I can't find the "View Awards" button. It isn't in the email and I just can't find it anywhere else. Does anyone know where it is?

Should be at the top right next to where the sim button is. You cant view the awards til after the tournament is over. It's a button that shows up once you get to that stage.

I cannot find the coaching lineage myself

[John Galt]

Should be at the top right next to where the sim button is. You cant view the awards til after the tournament is over. It's a button that shows up once you get to that stage.

I cannot find the coaching lineage myself

Thanks for the help, but I still can't find it. Top right of which screen? I'm not sure where the "sim button" is. I've definitely finished the tourney and can't advance another day.

I have no idea where the lineage stuff is. Sorry.

[st.cronin]

One other complaint: When I view available assistant coaches, there doesn't seem to be any way to sort them, either by something like reputation, or name, or whatever. And the scroll buttons on the individual coach pages don't seem to do anything.

[Zippo]

Should be at the top right next to where the sim button is. You cant view the awards til after the tournament is over. It's a button that shows up once you get to that stage.

I cannot find the coaching lineage myself
lineage button is the "person" icon at the top of the screen by the drop down box that has your name in it.

[MrBug708]

Got it; Thanks

[st.cronin]

Run Time Error 380 when I click on a recruit's name, I think its the second time I've got that.

[st.cronin]

Also some of the telephone dialogues, the text is too long to fit in the box, and appears its just cut off in mid-sentence.

To sum up: The demo has a number of issues. I admire the vision, but this demo needs to be patched, because I can't get into kind of a game flow as it is.

[Brian Swartz]

@ John Galt:

Second: That's correct.

Third: Yes, that's exactly what it means: playing younger or older players.

Fourth: More details on the exact situation would be useful, but it sounds to like you're the best choice among those pursuing him, but he has designs on a better school and will go there if they come calling, and probably has not been impressed with you/your school during the visits.

Fifth: You are probably over-using it. There's no need to call a ton of recruits every week, and you do get preference info over time from your assistants if the player is on your call list. For this and other related questions we have a recruiting guide up here: http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4257

@ st.cronin: if you have a save where this can repeated, we'd like to see your files as this has not been reported by anybody else. If so see this thread for reference: http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4250

[Carman Bulldog]

Yeah, the calling of the recruits isn't mandatory to gather info. You can pretty much ignore the feature until the end of August/start of September when you have your guys pinpointed that you are going to go visit. You will then want to call them to fill in any blanks that your assistant hasn't gathered to that point.

What I like to use the phone option for is getting my foot in the door with higher rated recruits that would normally ignore me. Calling them up and requesting "five minutes of their time" can sometimes eventually lead to your school landing some recruits who normally wouldn't give you a second look.

[John Galt]

Thanks for the help, but I still can't find it. Top right of which screen? I'm not sure where the "sim button" is. I've definitely finished the tourney and can't advance another day.

I have no idea where the lineage stuff is. Sorry.

I found the "Team Awards" button when I started a new league. It is right where I expected it to be. However, I still can't get it to work in the game I was continuing from the Demo. I wonder if there is a bug that prevents Demo-games from working right in the full version. Has anyone been able to continue a game they started with the Demo? I'd really like to continue that game, but I just can't get to the Team Awards screen in order to continue.

[Bee]

The game freezes up on me every once in while when I switch to a different application. Anyone else seeing that?

[Galaril]

I am rather surprised that people are having lock,and crashing problems since for one of Gary's game's early released builds it has been very stable for me. I think that often this comes down to people running various exotic apps in the background.

[Bee]

Well can't speak for others, but I don't have anything "exotic" running in the background. I don't use any unusual programs. My system is probably as vanilla as you're going to get.

[John Galt]

Well can't speak for others, but I don't have anything "exotic" running in the background. I don't use any unusual programs. My system is probably as vanilla as you're going to get.

I've been having all sorts of freezes and crashes, but I just assumed everyone was having them so I haven't focused on reporting them. And like Bee, I'm not running anything "exotic" in the background unless you consider Firefox to be exotic. I haven't had Bee's switchover scenario problem. Most often my crashes and freezes occur when I select an option in the game. I am running Vista Home Premium on this computer and using Icy's mod pack. The thing that I have observed about my CTD's is that once the game crashes, I can't reload it (it just locks up when I start the game). I have to reboot to be able to play the game again.

[nfg22]

John,
The awards button oes not always pop up at the end of the season. You should notice it is on April 5th but it should be April 4th. Sometimes it sims to the 5th and the only way to get the awards button back is to reload and resim.

Overall this game has a ton of potential but I find that I cant get through a whole season without a crash. On top of this I usually have to reboot to get the game to work. It makes this game frustrating. I dont know if vista makes it crash more, but I do have vista. FOF2007 and FM2008 never crash though...so I dont know. Basically if the crashes get fixed, this game becomes awesome.

[John Galt]

John,
The awards button oes not always pop up at the end of the season. You should notice it is on April 5th but it should be April 4th. Sometimes it sims to the 5th and the only way to get the awards button back is to reload and resim.


Thanks. That's a pretty annoying bug. In this case I saved my game on April 5 with no "View Awards" button so I can't go back. Oh well.

[John Galt]

Thanks. That's a pretty annoying bug. In this case I saved my game on April 5 with no "View Awards" button so I can't go back. Oh well.

It happened again. I was in season 3 of a new league and the game simmed all the way to April 5 and now I can't get to the next season. I guess I'll have to play the whole season again.

[Brian Swartz]

The awards button oes not always pop up at the end of the season. You should notice it is on April 5th but it should be April 4th. Sometimes it sims to the 5th and the only way to get the awards button back is to reload and resim.

For those of you getting this, we need as much detail as possible as this has not yet been reported on the WS forums(including during the entire open beta process). What sim options did you have selected, etc., the more info the better. If you send your game files in to Gary(via the instructions in the link I posted earlier in this thread), he should be able to fix those files for you if you have an assocation you want to save.

@nfg22: We would need a lot more info on what crashes you are getting, but there is some strangeness that is affecting a minority of Vista users. We've been unable to nail it down so far since other than Vista there doesn't appear to be anything common between the people who are getting it, and many Vista users are having no issues at all.

[John Galt]

For those of you getting this, we need as much detail as possible as this has not yet been reported on the WS forums(including during the entire open beta process). What sim options did you have selected, etc., the more info the better. If you send your game files in to Gary(via the instructions in the link I posted earlier in this thread), he should be able to fix those files for you if you have an assocation you want to save.

@nfg22: We would need a lot more info on what crashes you are getting, but there is some strangeness that is affecting a minority of Vista users. We've been unable to nail it down so far since other than Vista there doesn't appear to be anything common between the people who are getting it, and many Vista users are having no issues at all.

Since I was paying attention the last time it happened, I can tell you how I got there. My team lost in the first round of the NCAA tourney, so I simmed "entire season." The game stopped simming on April 5. I received the Awards email, but the View Awards button wasn't highlighted.

I reloaded my game right after my team lost (because of my prior experience, I knew to save then), repeated the process, and the game functioned properly that time.

I'll see if I can send Gary my old league file which is saved without being able to press the "View Awards" button (if my email can send out files that big).


Edit: FWIW, I just had a freeze while simulating on Jan. 14. The game just freezes and won't respond and I had to force Windows to shut it down. With the freeze, I could restart the game without rebooting (which again makes it clear to me that I really need an option to turn off that loud music on the intro).

[SirFozzie]

Gary: I used the beta on my old machine. I forgot to unlicense it before the computer got blown away. Do we get a 2nd free license, or am I going to have to battle Elicense on this?

[Tim Tellean]

Send an email to me [email protected] and I can reset your license.

[SirFozzie]

Done, Tim. Thanks.

[John Galt]

I just had a CTD (and I'm pretty sure I have had this message before). I pressed my coach's office button and I got a run time error. This is the text:

Run-time Error '372':

Failed to load control 'vbalGrid' from 'vbalSGrid6.ocx.' Your version of vbalSGrid6.ocx may be outdated. Make sure you are using the version of the control that was provided with your application.

It's so annoying that you can't cut and paste those error messages.

On another note, I notice that the New Email button doesn't light up with any consistent pattern. I regularly have new email and it doesn't light up. Then I have to go to my office to access my email.

[Brian Swartz]

That's the one that seems to hit random Vista users. We're still looking for a solution. The cut-and-paste thing is a VB issue.

The New Email lighting up also appears to be related to Vista in some way.

[John Galt]

The cut-and-paste thing is a VB issue.

I didn't think that was your doing - it's just generally annoying with various games when you report errors. Thanks for the help! Hopefully these Vista issues get sorted out.

[astrosfan64]

The game sounds pretty buggy. :(

John:

Were you getting RTE's in the demo or just the full game? I'm running vista 64 bit. I guess I'll try it out tonight.

[Brian Swartz]

The demo and the full game are both the same version(1.01), so there shouldn't be a difference.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Judging from the initial impressions of this game, it appears that I've got one more good reason never to bother upgrading to the cesspool otherwise known as Vista.

[markprior22]

That's the one that seems to hit random Vista users. We're still looking for a solution. The cut-and-paste thing is a VB issue.

The New Email lighting up also appears to be related to Vista in some way.

I run XP Home and haven't had any crashes with 1.01. I play out each game though so I'm only 10 games into the first season.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I have the email issue also (with XP). Every now and then it lights up...usually it doesn't.

[MizzouRah]

Judging from the initial impressions of this game, it appears that I've got one more good reason never to bother upgrading to the cesspool otherwise known as Vista.

At least not for a LONG time.

[astrosfan64]

If you have good hardware and alot of ram, Vista is better then XP IMO. It is very stable and I haven't had to reboot my system in months.

If a game locks up, you can end the process/task and you don't have to reboot. New software runs fine and I've only had a few problems with older titles.

I actually highly recommend it and since Direct X 10 games are coming, in the long run it will be well worth it.

[Gary Gorski]

Sorry for not checking in sooner guys (decided to spend 2 days with my family just so they remembered who I am). The Vista thing is driving me nuts and its not the only text sim that does not place nice with Vista apparently. If any of you are TEW fans there's a monster of a thread over at Grey Dog with these kinds of problems with TEW and Vista - M$ apparently decided to not make VB6 apps that friendly with Vista maybe in an effort to make developers no longer program in VB6 - I don't know. I'm learning VB9 now for future games but that doesn't really help this one.

The one thing I have noticed is that I haven't noticed some of these kind of complaints with Vista and my other games. DDS:CB stores far more data than they do and I wonder if that has something to do with it. I'm going to look and see if there's some other place I can store some data - in the meantime I can only suggest saving frequently and not running anything if possible alongside the game. I know someone mentioned FOF and FM working ok with Vista - I know FM is not programmed in VB6 and I don't know about FOF.

As for the RTEs those will definitely be priority one to fix - as for the music on startup if you're annoyed by it you can always take another mp3 file (or just make a blank mp3 file) and replace the theme file in the audio folder.

[Barkeep49]

Is there still a discount if you purchase both DDS games?

[Brian Swartz]

yes there is.

[Barkeep49]

yes there is.
Do I have to do something special or will the discount be applied automatically if I buy both games?

[Brian Swartz]

Once you select one of them, you'll be prompted to choose whether you want to add the other on the next screen.

[astrosfan64]

Sorry for not checking in sooner guys (decided to spend 2 days with my family just so they remembered who I am). The Vista thing is driving me nuts and its not the only text sim that does not place nice with Vista apparently. If any of you are TEW fans there's a monster of a thread over at Grey Dog with these kinds of problems with TEW and Vista - M$ apparently decided to not make VB6 apps that friendly with Vista maybe in an effort to make developers no longer program in VB6 - I don't know. I'm learning VB9 now for future games but that doesn't really help this one.

The one thing I have noticed is that I haven't noticed some of these kind of complaints with Vista and my other games. DDS:CB stores far more data than they do and I wonder if that has something to do with it. I'm going to look and see if there's some other place I can store some data - in the meantime I can only suggest saving frequently and not running anything if possible alongside the game. I know someone mentioned FOF and FM working ok with Vista - I know FM is not programmed in VB6 and I don't know about FOF.

As for the RTEs those will definitely be priority one to fix - as for the music on startup if you're annoyed by it you can always take another mp3 file (or just make a blank mp3 file) and replace the theme file in the audio folder.

I'm running Bowl Bound, FOF, FM and WMMA in Vista and so far so good.

I believe FOF and FM are programmed in C++ or C. So that isn't a good comparison.

But, I frequently run WMMA and Bowl Bound for hours on end and I don't have any crashes. I've never really tried TEW, so I can't comment on that.

[Barkeep49]

Some newbie questions:

When recruiting does it matter if I visit more than once? How about if I scout more than once? If I've scouted on tape and then scout live do I still get the bonus + impression on the player?

[Brian Swartz]

There's a recruiting guide stickied on the WS forums here:

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4257

I'd start there.

[Barkeep49]

There's a recruiting guide stickied on the WS forums here:

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4257

I'd start there.
Yeah those questions were based after having read that :)

[Tim Tellean]

Each visit/scouting elicits more information.
Live and on-tape willalso both give you more information.

[Brian Swartz]

If I've scouted on tape and then scout live do I still get the bonus + impression on the player?

There is no bonus(no matter when you do it), but you still get the interest impression.

does it matter if I visit more than once?

The more often you visit the more interested you can make the player(or uninterested, if he doesn't like you/your school)

How about if I scout more than once?

Gives you more info, and the ratings may change slightly, but will not necessarily be more accurate.

[Barkeep49]

Thanks.

[Tim Tellean]

1.02 has been posted.

Crashes
---------
RTE 13 - viewing transfer preview after transfer session ends
RTE 91 - viewing news while unemployed
RTE 380 - creating additional MP coaches
RTE 340 - using search feature

Bug Fixes
-----------
- sort working on available coach popup
- new email button should properly highlight if sound is turned off
- offensive freedom slider should function properly in game
- teams should use full allotment of practice minutes now
- career records should be properly tracked and displayed (going forward - it will not make them appear from seasons already simmed)
- non-conference rival scheduling bug fixed*
- seasons stuck on Apr 5th can go back to the coach office and continue to awards
- human coaches are forced to sub out players after fifth foul
- making the tourney/signing recruits no longer goals for teams on probation
- transfer screen has proper heading
- html banner should be fixed on HTML pages
- users can no longer attempt to load the "working.cbb" file

Tweaks
---------
- Second in game endurance tweak to lessen the effect of the first one
- Teams on probation are now displayed as such on Team Info screen
1.02 has been posted.

New Features
--------------
- hotkeys added to recruit calling to allow you to change between subjects with keys rather than selecting from the drop down
- "delete" key can now be used to delete individual emails<!-- / message -->

[Barkeep49]

I'm excited that we can use the delete key to delete emails. Yeah for that new feature!

[Icy]

Nice! Btw, a FOFC league could be really fun as the FOFC-FBCB one commished by Radii is right now, i wonder if it would be enough interest.

[Barkeep49]

I like FBCB because it lets me, a committed fast simmer, play through more quickly. However, I absolutely adore the additions they've made in terms of personality & find recruiting to be fun (though I'm pretty sure I've come close to cracking it, with only the roll of the dice standing in between me and the players I covet).

[TroyF]

I'm excited that we can use the delete key to delete emails. Yeah for that new feature!

I was actually coming in to post about that. It was annoying as hell having to delete mail after mail that I didn't care about. (ex: the transfer emails when I wasn't in for any players, the scouting report for Duke when I'm playing at Colorado St, etc.)

I'm having fun with the game. I have Vista on all of the computers I run it on so i'm getting random crashes. Learning to save more often. I set my league up to not allow players to leave early and I think far to many players are transfering. (one guy who was a top 10 prospect signed with Syracuse, went to UCLA as a SO, played a year and then transfered back to Syracuse.

Other than that, I'm very impressed with this one. Just so people have a comparison:

I was someone who was very dissapointed in the pro version of the game. So many little things in that game were off and they annoyed me. An example: I'm the Nuggets. The default owner rating for the Nuggets owner are low for patience, willingness to spend and wanting to win. (all are wrong for Stan Kroenke, a guy who spends well into the luxury tax every year and has overpaid for many players) I get told that I need to be under the cap by the owner in the game. Ummm, I have Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and Nene. How the hell am I supposed to accomplish that feat pinhead? I finally gave up with it and moved on.

This? This makes me excited for the next revamp of the pro version. It's in my game rotation and will stay there long term. I'm not a college game player at all either. So that says a little something.

[path12]

I bought both the college and pro when this one was released. I haven't played the pro, and have not been able to quite get into the college one yet for some reason. Maybe I need football to be over first.

[George]

Just another "thumbs up" on DDS:CB. If you're a fan of Gary's Total College Basketball, I think you'll really like this game.

[RedKingGold]

Nice! Btw, a FOFC league could be really fun as the FOFC-FBCB one commished by Radii is right now, i wonder if it would be enough interest.

I was hoping someone might be interested in starting this.

[Gary Gorski]

I was actually coming in to post about that. It was annoying as hell having to delete mail after mail that I didn't care about. (ex: the transfer emails when I wasn't in for any players, the scouting report for Duke when I'm playing at Colorado St, etc.)

I'm having fun with the game. I have Vista on all of the computers I run it on so i'm getting random crashes. Learning to save more often. I set my league up to not allow players to leave early and I think far to many players are transfering. (one guy who was a top 10 prospect signed with Syracuse, went to UCLA as a SO, played a year and then transfered back to Syracuse.

Other than that, I'm very impressed with this one. Just so people have a comparison:

I was someone who was very dissapointed in the pro version of the game. So many little things in that game were off and they annoyed me. An example: I'm the Nuggets. The default owner rating for the Nuggets owner are low for patience, willingness to spend and wanting to win. (all are wrong for Stan Kroenke, a guy who spends well into the luxury tax every year and has overpaid for many players) I get told that I need to be under the cap by the owner in the game. Ummm, I have Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and Nene. How the hell am I supposed to accomplish that feat pinhead? I finally gave up with it and moved on.

This? This makes me excited for the next revamp of the pro version. It's in my game rotation and will stay there long term. I'm not a college game player at all either. So that says a little something.


First off, thanks for giving it a shot. I appreciate the support and I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I think it is by far my best one and I think I learn from every new one I put out. If there is one thing I do know is that its never perfect. One or two other people have mentioned about too many transfers - that's probably from the brand new coach/team relationships in the game. Probably needs some tweaking and I will be more than happy to do it.

I know the Vista thing is a pain - I'm learning VB 2008 now in hopes of avoiding that problem down the line. It means pretty much most everything needs to be recoded from scratch for future versions. In the meantime we're trying different things to see if we can work around it - unless Microsoft is kind enough to release a patch but I'm not holding my breath.

[Atocep]

I know the Vista thing is a pain - I'm learning VB 2008 now in hopes of avoiding that problem down the line. It means pretty much most everything needs to be recoded from scratch for future versions. In the meantime we're trying different things to see if we can work around it - unless Microsoft is kind enough to release a patch but I'm not holding my breath.

You're the first VB6 developer I've seen say this and its refreshing to hear. For whatever reason (money) Microsoft isn't going to support VB6 with Vista so I wouldn't expect anything in the upcoming service patch.

I'm sure it will be a pain, but getting a head start will probably end up giving you an advantage down the line. Eventually people will be moving over to Vista, especially since the DX10-only games start rolling out this year.

I bought the game during the open beta phase and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I've been busy over the holidays and haven't had a chance to play the game at all since the official release. I'm looking forward to getting some time with it.

[Capital]

I'm in the same boat, bought the game during open beta but haven't played yet due to the holidays. With college football ending in real life, this is the perfect time for a college basketball game.

Glad to hear that you can now see if a team is on probation before you select them. Although, I'm probably going to turn off illegal recruiting, so I guess this new feature won't really affect me.

[Barkeep49]

I bought both the college and pro when this one was released. I haven't played the pro, and have not been able to quite get into the college one yet for some reason. Maybe I need football to be over first.
I have to say I really forced myself to play this. If I hadn't been on Winter Break with lots of time I wouldn't have made the effort. In the end I'm glad I did though, either way I was happy to support the product because it's including features I care about (meaningful personality interactions) in a sport I know something about (rather than soccer).

[Gary Gorski]

You're the first VB6 developer I've seen say this and its refreshing to hear. For whatever reason (money) Microsoft isn't going to support VB6 with Vista so I wouldn't expect anything in the upcoming service patch.

I'm sure it will be a pain, but getting a head start will probably end up giving you an advantage down the line. Eventually people will be moving over to Vista, especially since the DX10-only games start rolling out this year.

I bought the game during the open beta phase and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I've been busy over the holidays and haven't had a chance to play the game at all since the official release. I'm looking forward to getting some time with it.

Ye$, that'$ u$ually the rea$on with Micro$oft - I don't expect anything either which is why I've basically just tried to be honest about the problem, tell people to save often and that I'll tinker around with things to see if we can cut it down or avoid the problem but in the end the only real solution is to start coding everything with their latest software. It sucks that Microsoft's goal is seemingly to release a new OS to make their old software obsolete so you have to buy all new stuff but in the end it works.

It will be a pain to make the switch - the terminology has changed and basically the code is as it stands is pretty useless other than being a blueprint on how to redo it. There is a code "converter" which simply brings in your code, changes some of the commands, highlights everything that is no longer a valid command in the new software and spits out an error list. Importing even a very small project produced over 100 "non-conforming" lines of code - importing something like DDS:CB would generate thousands and thousands. It will be a process but hopefully it will pay off later with future releases.

[Neon_Chaos]

Hmmm... I am seriously thinking about forking out the $$$ to buy the game.

But $40 might be a bit too steep.

I already have DDS:PB, and would love to have the college one as well...


ARGH!!!

Decisions. Decisions.

[jbergey22]

Hmmm... I am seriously thinking about forking out the $$$ to buy the game.

But $40 might be a bit too steep.

I already have DDS:PB, and would love to have the college one as well...


ARGH!!!

Decisions. Decisions.

When I am forced with a decision like this I just buy the thing because I know I will at some point anyway. Plus I think by the time this game is fully patched up you will hear in talked about in the same way FOF, BBCF and FM are talked about.

[Coder]

It will be a pain to make the switch - the terminology has changed and basically the code is as it stands is pretty useless other than being a blueprint on how to redo it. There is a code "converter" which simply brings in your code, changes some of the commands, highlights everything that is no longer a valid command in the new software and spits out an error list. Importing even a very small project produced over 100 "non-conforming" lines of code - importing something like DDS:CB would generate thousands and thousands. It will be a process but hopefully it will pay off later with future releases.

I never managed to wrap my head around VB.net simply because I got stuck in the VB-way of thinking. Instead I took the move to C# and I haven't looked back. While it's frustrating sometimes struggling with things you know are so simple in VB6 but you just can't figure it out in C#, in the end you'll be grateful.

C# is also great fun, and I've picked up a lot of new stuff that I never could do in VB6, so it's well worth the switch.

[path12]

I have to say I really forced myself to play this. If I hadn't been on Winter Break with lots of time I wouldn't have made the effort. In the end I'm glad I did though, either way I was happy to support the product because it's including features I care about (meaningful personality interactions) in a sport I know something about (rather than soccer).

I appreciate that. I almost dove in last night but wasn't in the frame of mind to learn a new interface. It took me a few months to get into FM in earnest so I'll stay optimistic for now.

I think part of the problem is that I don't know the ins and outs of basketball as much as I do football or baseball, so need to really think about what kind of skills I want my team to have, and what kind of personnel/schemes I need to achieve that style of play.

[Icy]

I never managed to wrap my head around VB.net simply because I got stuck in the VB-way of thinking. Instead I took the move to C# and I haven't looked back. While it's frustrating sometimes struggling with things you know are so simple in VB6 but you just can't figure it out in C#, in the end you'll be grateful.

C# is also great fun, and I've picked up a lot of new stuff that I never could do in VB6, so it's well worth the switch.

I was going to post about C# too. For what i have read, M$ wants all the Vista programmers doing it in C# and in fact, VB2008 is just a way of using C# with the old VB syntax over it, so if you are going to need to relearn almost from zero, i suggest to do it in C#.

In my desire to program a game one day, I started past year to learn C# with some books and it looks a nice language for desktop applications (i have a background in Java and PHP programming and the syntax is close, all them comming from C). I had to stop with my new baby birth, but i plan on going back to learning C# in the close future as i have a good idea i want to convert in a game some day, or in php+mysql as a web game (that would be easier for me as it's with what i work daily) or as a desktop game in C# (or maybe both).

[Coder]

I was going to post about C# too. For what i have read, M$ wants all the Vista programmers doing it in C# and in fact, VB2008 is just a way of using C# with the old VB syntax over it, so if you are going to need to relearn almost from zero, i suggest to do it in C#.

In my desire to program a game one day, I started past year to learn C# with some books and it looks a nice language for desktop applications (i have a background in Java and PHP programming and the syntax is close, all them comming from C). I had to stop with my new baby birth, but i plan on going back to learning C# in the close future as i have a good idea i want to convert in a game some day, or in php+mysql as a web game (that would be easier for me as it's with what i work daily) or as a desktop game in C# (or maybe both).

If you know C#, you'll be home safe with ASP.net as well, using C#, so it's a Win-Win situation. Sure, you'll be getting harassed by all M$-haters, but who cares :)

[MrBug708]

I set my league up to not allow players to leave early and I think far to many players are transfering. (one guy who was a top 10 prospect signed with Syracuse, went to UCLA as a SO, played a year and then transfered back to Syracuse.


I had a similiar experience. I had a guy transfer in, play two year, and transfer out. First that's unrealistic and second he wouldn't be eligible to play either

[GabeRivers]

I bought this game before Christmas, but so far I've been unable to play it. In my first attempt, after making several game decisions, I attempted to save the game and immediately got a RTE '53'. I've upgraded to the 1.02 patch, but still cannot save the game without the same crash. The message on the crash dialog box says it can't find the saved game (which I can easily find in the proper directory).

Anyone have any advice or suggestions on how I get this working? I'm on XP, not Vista.

[Brian Swartz]

I would recomend reinstalling, repatching, and rebooting, in that order. Most likely a game file got moved/deleted somehow.

[Brian Swartz]

I would recomend reinstalling, repatching, and rebooting, in that order. Most likely a game file got moved/deleted somehow.

[MizzouRah]

Getting this one VERY soon... just need some time to sit down with it.

[Neon_Chaos]

I feel so empty. I broke down and bought the game. Oh, the pitfalls of text sims.

[Tim Tellean]

1.03 has been posted.
Here is the list of items 1.03 covers - again remember at this point its a beta patch.

Crashes
--------
RTE 91 - viewing player cards as commissioner
RTE 380 - using hotkeys on recruit call with an uninterested recruit
RTE 91 - creating MP leagues with unemployed coaches
RTE 91 - scrolling the day select box while simming

Bugs
-----
Can no longer suspend academically ineligible, transfer or seriously injured players to work around the time they will miss
Can no longer use hotkeys on recruit calling after the recruit has hung up
Stats on sub screen will update properly now in all cases

Tweaks
-------
Tweaked end half logic with having "look for 3s" setting on to be more absolute
Tweaked out of state recruiting for lower prestige programs. Now you should see recruits denying your request for them to come visit your school.

[MizzouRah]

Finally purchased this game and so far I'm hooked!

[MizzouRah]

bumping this thread...

So far, color me VERY VERY impressed Gary!!! Wow, you did a TERRIFIC job with this game so far in my young career. :)

A few hours learning where everything is and I'm just really engrossed into my universe already.

I really hope you get a lot of sales!

[WSUCougar]

One thing that's really rubbing me is that the recruit names recycle (exactly), such that they're blurring from the previous season. Not sure what the deal with that is. :(

[MizzouRah]

One thing that's really rubbing me is that the recruit names recycle (exactly), such that they're blurring from the previous season. Not sure what the deal with that is. :(

That's been reported and hopefully Gary fixes that in his next patch.

[MizzouRah]

Just played my first game of the season and when I go into the html options, I check "generate human team box scores only" and "generate human team pages only". When I click "continue", all my team stuff is created EXCEPT for the box score of the game I just played.

It gives me an error, can't find game92html when trying to access it.

Help? http://www.wolverinestudios.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Tim Tellean]

1.04 has released. 2 version available.

Here is the list of items 1.04 covers - again remember at this point its a beta patch.

Crashes
--------
RTE 76 - logging in with coaches added after MP game started

Bugs
-----
MP coach add password box enabled
Drop down for points allocated updates properly in MP coach creation
New coach files should be placed in both the saves and league save folders


A few very important notes on this - first you should only try to grab this if you've had the random freezing problem. 1.04b is the same as 1.04 except for some changes with database stuff. Second, this install file is going to overwrite your default.dat file so if you have a custom one, move it somewhere safe. If this version proves to remove the freezing issue we'll come up with some way to mod your custom default.dat file to work with the new changes. Third, please create a new league to try it with. Your old leagues *might* work and if you want to back them up first and give them a shot go for it but you should really try with a new league.

Also please - when you click a button and it does nothing immediately just wait a second. Continuously clicking buttons will cause a crash and sometimes its just pulling alot of data. If you havent been experiencing the random freezes there's no reason to grab 1.04b - if you have please give it a shot and let us know if the problem goes away.

[theclassic]

If anybody is interested. My copy of DDS:CB is on the trade block. I'm not looking for a lot. Maybe a copy of FOF 2007, or a copy of GDS Bowl Bound. If interested please send me a PM.

Thank you.

[MizzouRah]

If anybody is interested. My copy of DDS:CB is on the trade block. I'm not looking for a lot. Maybe a copy of FOF 2007, or a copy of GDS Bowl Bound. If interested please send me a PM.

Thank you.

I'm curious, why?

[theclassic]

I just can't get into it. I don't like the pace of the game. To much micro management for me.

[MizzouRah]

I just can't get into it. I don't like the pace of the game. To much micro management for me.

You know you can have your coaches do as little/much as you want right?

[theclassic]

But is that really playing the game than?

I just don't like it. I can't get a refund, so I'm looking for a trade. No reason to have something just sit on my hard drive.

[MizzouRah]

But is that really playing the game than?

I just don't like it. I can't get a refund, so I'm looking for a trade. No reason to have something just sit on my hard drive.

Fair enough.

[gstelmack]

If you know C#, you'll be home safe with ASP.net as well, using C#, so it's a Win-Win situation. Sure, you'll be getting harassed by all M$-haters, but who cares :)

I'll back everything being said about C# and more. C# just fits the Windows object model really well, and is their primary target language. Plus it's just a very nice language to work in, and the API is rich. And the tie-in with ASP.NET is very nice and is what I've got much of the guts of the WOOF site working in now (if anyone needs a Membership/Role provider that interacts with vBulletin, let me know: I may do my first submission to CodeProject on it).

Learn C#, you won't regret it.

[Alan T]

Its been a few weeks since the last post, and over a month for many people with this game. I've read this thread and some of the posts on their boards, but I am interested in people's ongoing impressions with this game.

I'm looking for a new timewaster game to play while on business trips or traveling, and thinking about getting this game...It seems like there aren't that many people with crashes or such any longer, so A few questions I have:

- Does the game last for you? After several weeks of playing, is it still fun for you, or does it get old fast?
- Is it going to be a big deal for someone like myself who isn't a huge basketball fan to get into this game? Or will it be alot like my poor experiences with FM that I won't get into it too much?
- Are there any FOFC multiplayer leagues going using this game?

Normally I would just go ahead and buy the game to help support the sim community, but this game is a bit more expensive than most, so I am interested in people's thoughts.

[miami_fan]

Its been a few weeks since the last post, and over a month for many people with this game. I've read this thread and some of the posts on their boards, but I am interested in people's ongoing impressions with this game.

I'm looking for a new timewaster game to play while on business trips or traveling, and thinking about getting this game...It seems like there aren't that many people with crashes or such any longer, so A few questions I have:

- Does the game last for you? After several weeks of playing, is it still fun for you, or does it get old fast?
- Is it going to be a big deal for someone like myself who isn't a huge basketball fan to get into this game? Or will it be alot like my poor experiences with FM that I won't get into it too much?
- Are there any FOFC multiplayer leagues going using this game?

Normally I would just go ahead and buy the game to help support the sim community, but this game is a bit more expensive than most, so I am interested in people's thoughts.


I can only speak to the first question. I preordered but did not participate in the beta. I got the game the first day. I am on my third season, controlling every facet of the program. I am really have a good time with the game. I keep learning little tidbits. Never mind trying figure out how the fuck to deal with my pain in the ass small forward who I should kick of the team but I need a run in the conference tourney to make the NCAAs and he is my leading scorer and top defender! :mad:

[Icy]

1) Yes, this game can last for ages and it's so fun for me.
2) Umm could be a big deal for you if you don't really like basketball or specially college sports, as i would say that at least 50% of the game is about recruiting (like most of college sims). If you don't want to coach the games, you can fast sim them, as they key in college sports games is recruiting the best personal. I have fun both recruiting and then coaching the games, setting strategies etc.
3) Not any that i know.

[Carman Bulldog]

1. Does the game last for you? After several weeks of playing, is it still fun for you, or does it get old fast?

I haven't had the opportunity to play it as much as I would like, but I am now in my seventh season and you can read all about it here (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=62684). The game definitely does not get old fast and presents a number of different options and challenges. The difficulty level has definitely been increased from its predecessor (TCB) which is nice too. I know that I will continue on for a long time and will probably play until a new sim comes along to occupy my time (and I don't believe there is much in the works currently that would do so) or I just feel like some football.

2. Is it going to be a big deal for someone like myself who isn't a huge basketball fan to get into this game? Or will it be alot like my poor experiences with FM that I won't get into it too much?

I do not follow the NBA at all and only really pay attention to college basketball during March Madness. But for me (all the way back to Arlie's Coaching a Dynasty), college basketball sims have been amongst my favourites. I do not play out any of the games but rather just sim through the seasons at a decent pace. What the college basketball experience allows is the opportunity to do this while still allowing you to develop relationships with your players based on the small roster size. Because it is a college game, there is also plenty of turnover and you are constantly rebuilding, but like I mentioned, you still develop the relationships with players.

[Tim Tellean]

1.1 patch released.
Our beta patches have been stable so we're going to officially call this new update 1.1 - if you haven't downloaded any patches to this point this will get you totally up to speed.

1.1 includes two new fixes as well. A RTE 5 looking at assn leaders is fixed and I continued to tweak the tweak which has caused the most discussion - the "player not visiting" tweak. I made the requirements just a little less stringent for players visiting and also made it so that if he's got anything more than a passing interest in your school he will visit. Hopefully this will make more people happy because I definitely think there is merit in having recruits refuse to visit.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Whats the consensus on the personality/relationships portion of the game? Does it add to the immersion or does it get tedious?

[Neon_Chaos]

Whats the consensus on the personality/relationships portion of the game? Does it add to the immersion or does it get tedious?

I personally think that it's mostly flavor. The only time it actually is relevant for me when playing (as far as I can see) is when you aren't able to curb players with a disruptive personality, they basically will transfer out of the team.

Other than that, from a simmer's perspective, the relationships / personality portion of the game is not as fleshed out as other games (FM, notably)

[Neon_Chaos]

dola,

I also think that this being one of the first efforts by Gary to integrate relationships and personality into a game, it is pretty good.

It's got a long ways to go with respect to what gamers might want in that part of a text sim, but it is a good start.

[Gary Gorski]

Going to bump this - tomorrow I will be releasing version 1.1.2 which will fix an issue with the new auto save feature, one or two other small glitches and one community requested change - now when making calls to recruits hitting "end call" will close down the popup so you won't have to end the call and then scroll over to the X to close down the phone window anymore.

[Eaglesfan27]

Gary,

It would be nice if there was a way to view more details about a team's status in the job transfer window. I just found out that a school I went to was on probation after I took the job. That is a detail that I imagine could be easily listed on the job offer screen somewhere.

[Gary Gorski]

ok, this patch is in the books but I will keep that in mind for another update. In the meantime you can check out that ahead of time (I think its on the team roster or team info page) because you can go to the open jobs screen, see what teams are open and then go check out their rosters and stuff and come back.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ahh, that is good to know. I thought once you went to the jobs screen, you couldn't leave it.

[Capital]

Gary,

Enjoying the game quite a bit right now and it's a big upgrade IMO from the previous college game. I do have one more suggestion that could be used for both the pro and college game.

I like to micromanage the depth chart and sub-matrix. So, when a player gets injured, I then make the appropriate changes. It would be very nice if there was an original depth chart/submatrix save (lock a certain players) that I could revert back instead of needing to make all of the changes back to the way they were originally.

My 2 cents

[Gary Gorski]

That's a good idea that I will keep in mind for the next versions of the games

[Neon_Chaos]

Gary,

Enjoying the game quite a bit right now and it's a big upgrade IMO from the previous college game. I do have one more suggestion that could be used for both the pro and college game.

I like to micromanage the depth chart and sub-matrix. So, when a player gets injured, I then make the appropriate changes. It would be very nice if there was an original depth chart/submatrix save (lock a certain players) that I could revert back instead of needing to make all of the changes back to the way they were originally.

My 2 cents

Perhaps something like how FM does it, wherein you can save different kinds of lineups and settings, and just load them as you deem necessary.

[Gary Gorski]

Just a bump to say that beta patch 1.1.2 is now available on our forums. Fixes some issues with the new auto save feature introduced in beta 1.1.1, cuts down the loading times some people were experiencing on box scores and the phone call boxes go away either when you end the call or the recruit/player does without you having to click the X again.

[Radii]

man, I am an idiot sometimes.

Order Date: Saturday, November 03, 2007

Downloading now! I completely forgot I preordered this.

[Racer]

I had a few questions regarding this game.

1. How does the recruiting portion of this game compare to College Basketball 2K8?
2. How does the game compare to College Basketball 2K8 in regards to team management (such developing players for a specific type of offense)?
3. Is the game worth it if I already enjoy playing College Basketball 2K8?

[Passacaglia]

Just got this yesterday -- while I'm reading the thread, can anyone give me some tips on how to allocate my recruiting budget? I went through recruiting twice now, and left a lot of money unspent both times.

[Barkeep49]

Just got this yesterday -- while I'm reading the thread, can anyone give me some tips on how to allocate my recruiting budget? I went through recruiting twice now, and left a lot of money unspent both times.
Are you at a major program? I found at that level that I too would often have lots of unspent money at the end.

[Gary Gorski]

Well now that you've been through it twice you should have a feel for about what it takes you during the actual recruiting process. I would spend more on the reports and travel if you have alot left over. You can recruit without those things but they give you a little bit more accurate picture.

For example if you setup your watch list and then visit the summer camps you will get extra notes on the players on your list if they're attending that camp. You'll also find out an overall impression of how he looked at the camp.

I'm running a dynasty with Oakland University (small school from the Summit League) - because my assistants aren't great and neither are my ratings yet I don't get a very clear picture on guys. I only have enough in the budget to go to one camp so I always go to the local one (since I can only recruit locally with them) and one of the guys appeared to have very low ratings both from my coaches and even the overall ones yet my notes told me he was one of the better players at the camp. We ended up landing him and sure enough he turned out pretty decent but I wouldn't have pursued him the way I did had it not been for that info.

There also comes a point where there's just so much money available for the top programs that you can't possibly spend it all (unless you're going to go the illegal bribe route) but for anyone else there's ways of spending it all.

[Capital]

Gary,

I may be missing it, but is there a way to see the records by school. I can find the records by conference but can't seem to find it by school. I'm in my 6th season so records beginning to have some significance.

Message from a happy customer - either way I'm enjoying the game. Especially starting with a rookie coach at a rookie school. My coach is finally starting to have some average (or slightly below) stats.
Thanks

[Passacaglia]

I went through it once as St. Joseph's, and once as Michigan State, just to get the flavor of what it's like on different ends. I kinda sped through the process both time, so I'm not sure if I really learned much from it. How many weeks are there in the process? That might help me figure out how much I should be spending each week.

[Passacaglia]

Also, has anyone had any good experience with the play editor?

[Gary Gorski]

Yeah if you look in the navigation bar at the far right end there is a book icon. Click on that and you will get a page that shows you the following about each individual team

- record recap of every season
- school records held
- historical w/l record vs every school
- player history of every season of every player to ever play at the school

[Gary Gorski]

I went through it once as St. Joseph's, and once as Michigan State, just to get the flavor of what it's like on different ends. I kinda sped through the process both time, so I'm not sure if I really learned much from it. How many weeks are there in the process? That might help me figure out how much I should be spending each week.

Well the recruiting lasts all year long but the bulk (and sometimes all of it) is done during the summer. Once you hit mid september in the game the verbals start coming in by the bunch and often times you'll be able to wrap everything up by then. Sometimes though you might lose out on a recruit and have to start recruiting then for some of the leftovers to fill a spot on your team so you may want to hold back a little bit of money just in case. Again though it depends on your team. If you're Michigan State you're going to have a huge budget and can afford to go to all the events and buy the gold versions of the reports and go and visit kids all over the country and still have money left over. If you play as a mid-level or small school you can't do anywhere near that much and its more than possible to use the whole budget.

Like I said, I play with Oakland right now and I easily can spend my entire budget by buying the gold report for my region, going to the regional summer camp and recruiting a handful of players from Michigan and occassionaly a bordering state.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Like I said, I play with Oakland right now and I easily can spend my entire budget by buying the gold report for my region, going to the regional summer camp and recruiting a handful of players from Michigan and occassionaly a bordering state.

Regarding the Gold reports......

If you buy the national gold report, will that cover all of the regional gold reports as well or do you have to buy those separately in addition to the national report?

[BigDPW]

I have played with the demo a few weeks ago and enjoyed the experience of recruiting.

Couple of Questions:

Is there a way to start unemployed and take a job after some history has been created for the schools?

What strategies can you use to not get too bogged down in the recruiting process if you want to move faster through seasons but still be on top of the recruiting process?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Is there a way to start unemployed and take a job after some history has been created for the schools?

Might want to check this thread in regards to creating a history.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=63290

Make the starting year sometime in the past and then allow it to simulate up to a given year. That should give you a history.

[Gary Gorski]

Regarding the Gold reports......

If you buy the national gold report, will that cover all of the regional gold reports as well or do you have to buy those separately in addition to the national report?

No its different - the national will not cover all the players the regional one does but it will overlap the top recruits in the region.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

No its different - the national will not cover all the players the regional one does but it will overlap the top recruits in the region.

I thought that was the case. Thanks for the confirmation.

[Gary Gorski]

I have played with the demo a few weeks ago and enjoyed the experience of recruiting.

Couple of Questions:

Is there a way to start unemployed and take a job after some history has been created for the schools?

What strategies can you use to not get too bogged down in the recruiting process if you want to move faster through seasons but still be on top of the recruiting process?

Well you do have the option of turning on the AI recruiting but that means the AI will handle it for you. There's really no way of doing "some" recruiting - especially since its such a huge part of the game. That's not to say the AI will do a bad job for you - it's solid but it will replace you as responsible for recruiting so you won't experience that part of the game which may be a plus for someone who is just interested in the season part.

[darkenigma510]

So what are the major differences between TCB and this new game? is it worth upgrading?

[Tim Tellean]

I'm too lazy to not cut and paste but here are the major differences from TCB. :)

NEW Totally revamped recruiting interface. Information on recruits is now streamlined for easy access and visibility
NEW Deeper interaction with recruits. As head coach you'll have the ability not only to do the previous recruiting abilities but also the ability to phone recruits yourself to find out specific information you'll need to know in recruiting them. This feature gives you the ability to spark some interest in a recruit that may not show interest in your school and even gives you the chance to engage in some illegal recruiting techniques - of course with the risk that your dealings will be discovered and punished.
NEW Get to know your players! New scouting report options, player relationship displays and player interactions through in-game email bring the players to life like never before
NEW Optional game features to customize your game world even more. Want to force all players to stay in college for four years? Do it! Want to up the challenge by not seeing player ratings in the game? The choice is yours!
NEW Expanded almanac to track even more historical information about the schools and their players.
NEW Enhanced ability to interact with Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball making the moving of players from the college ranks to the pro ranks easier than before.
NEW Draw up your own plays and see how your players execute them in the big game
NEW Increased control in scheduling. Make a phone call to your athletic director to let him know what kind of schedule you want for the season.
NEW Non-conference rivals allow you to schedule a specific school to a rivalry game each season
NEW Coach philosophies allow you to tailor the type of game your team plays even more in addition to the twenty different offensive and defensive sets your team can run.
Enhanced 2D game play allows you to watch every second of the game unfold or even take some time out to rewatch one of the games of the season.
Customize your coach to give you the challenge YOU want for your career and choose from 341 schools to coach at
Realistic recruiting schedule allows you to recruit players all season long
Customize it all! Customize school names, logos, player and coach photos, home courts, team specific chants and fight songs - make it however you like it!
Full HTML and Multiplayer league support with added functionality and HTML options

[lungs]

I pulled this one out again for the first time in months. I can't remember why I never really got into it, but I patched it up and it seemed a lot more fun but I'm not sure why. I haven't paid attention to what's been fixed or changed since then but whatever it's been has worked.

[darkenigma510]

I'm too lazy to not cut and paste but here are the major differences from TCB. :)

NEW Totally revamped recruiting interface. Information on recruits is now streamlined for easy access and visibility
NEW Deeper interaction with recruits. As head coach you'll have the ability not only to do the previous recruiting abilities but also the ability to phone recruits yourself to find out specific information you'll need to know in recruiting them. This feature gives you the ability to spark some interest in a recruit that may not show interest in your school and even gives you the chance to engage in some illegal recruiting techniques - of course with the risk that your dealings will be discovered and punished.
NEW Get to know your players! New scouting report options, player relationship displays and player interactions through in-game email bring the players to life like never before
NEW Optional game features to customize your game world even more. Want to force all players to stay in college for four years? Do it! Want to up the challenge by not seeing player ratings in the game? The choice is yours!
NEW Expanded almanac to track even more historical information about the schools and their players.
NEW Enhanced ability to interact with Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball making the moving of players from the college ranks to the pro ranks easier than before.
NEW Draw up your own plays and see how your players execute them in the big game
NEW Increased control in scheduling. Make a phone call to your athletic director to let him know what kind of schedule you want for the season.
NEW Non-conference rivals allow you to schedule a specific school to a rivalry game each season
NEW Coach philosophies allow you to tailor the type of game your team plays even more in addition to the twenty different offensive and defensive sets your team can run.
Enhanced 2D game play allows you to watch every second of the game unfold or even take some time out to rewatch one of the games of the season.
Customize your coach to give you the challenge YOU want for your career and choose from 341 schools to coach at
Realistic recruiting schedule allows you to recruit players all season long
Customize it all! Customize school names, logos, player and coach photos, home courts, team specific chants and fight songs - make it however you like it!
Full HTML and Multiplayer league support with added functionality and HTML options

Thanks, I was too lazy to go to your website ;)

[lungs]

Is it necessary to do anything in recruiting after your scholarships are filled with guys that have LOI's?

I only had one scholarship open and filled it quickly. Is there anything I'm missing? I just kind of ignored recruiting after that.

[INDalltheway]

Is it necessary to do anything in recruiting after your scholarships are filled with guys that have LOI's?

I only had one scholarship open and filled it quickly. Is there anything I'm missing? I just kind of ignored recruiting after that.
If you have a guy you think might transfer or enter the draft early it would probably be smart to keep recruiting a few players. Those are the reasons I would continue recruiting.

[Gary Gorski]

Yeah, once you have the guy locked up with a LOI (not just a verbal but a LOI) there's really not anything you have to do. You could continue to watch game tape of the guy you signed or whatever to learn more about him but really that's about it.

[Passacaglia]

How big of a deal is it to revoke a guy's scholarship? If you want to offer one again, will he be pissed at you? What if he's already made a verbal?

[Gary Gorski]

If he's not committed to you it just means that he's going to lose interest with you (which is probably not a big deal since if you're taking it away you probably don't care). If he has committed to you already and then you pull it then you've got a big deal - your rep will take a hit and it will hurt you in recruiting.

[BigDPW]

Okay I am goofing with the demo trying to figure out if I am going to purchase and I am am running into a problem...

I am playing as NC State (my alma mater). The budget is 91,500 points. I am in a state that is sandwiched as a border school in the "atlantic region". I would like to be able to recruit as NC State really does across the atlantic, south, and midwest. Unfortunately I cannot afford to get the gold reports for all of these areas. I am not sure if getting the gold national report is wise either since I am not sure I can compete for all of those guys and would lack the local backups from NC, SC, TN, VA...

Any advice on how to go about picking reports as a "border school" from one of the regions without having an unlimited recruiting budget?

I tried out a game as Duke and their budget is ungodly - which is realistic - but it makes their decisions a little easier for what to buy...

[Passacaglia]

I'm wondering what you need to do to get momentum. My Harvard side is up over Cal State Fullerton 47-22 at the half, and we've barely had momentum at all -- I'd guess that they've had it more, actually. Just weird.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Is the demo equal to the latest version, or is the demo an earlier build?

[Gary Gorski]

Okay I am goofing with the demo trying to figure out if I am going to purchase and I am am running into a problem...

I am playing as NC State (my alma mater). The budget is 91,500 points. I am in a state that is sandwiched as a border school in the "atlantic region". I would like to be able to recruit as NC State really does across the atlantic, south, and midwest. Unfortunately I cannot afford to get the gold reports for all of these areas. I am not sure if getting the gold national report is wise either since I am not sure I can compete for all of those guys and would lack the local backups from NC, SC, TN, VA...

Any advice on how to go about picking reports as a "border school" from one of the regions without having an unlimited recruiting budget?

I tried out a game as Duke and their budget is ungodly - which is realistic - but it makes their decisions a little easier for what to buy...


I would say maybe ignore the midwest - the better prospects in the game come from places like Florida and New York on average.

[Gary Gorski]

I'm wondering what you need to do to get momentum. My Harvard side is up over Cal State Fullerton 47-22 at the half, and we've barely had momentum at all -- I'd guess that they've had it more, actually. Just weird.

It's based on a number of things - your facilities, the events that happen in the game (steals, blocks, threes, dunks count for more than just a jumper), timeouts (especially the media ones) drag it down (and Im working on tweaking that).

[Gary Gorski]

Is the demo equal to the latest version, or is the demo an earlier build?

No the demo is probably still at version 1.0 so that was many builds ago

[Passacaglia]

It's based on a number of things - your facilities, the events that happen in the game (steals, blocks, threes, dunks count for more than just a jumper), timeouts (especially the media ones) drag it down (and Im working on tweaking that).

Interesting. So the fact that I'm on the road would also have an effect?

[Brian Swartz]

Yes it would, a considerable one(there is a large home-court advantadge effect). Exactly how large depends on the team you are playing -- CSF's is not as big as, say, Duke's.