Basketball Text Sims

[NYFAN]

Any basketball text/online sims that people think are really good?

[dubb93]

Any basketball text/online sims that people think are really good?

There are two that I know of that are both solid. Draft Day Sports and Fast Break. Both offer a pro and college product.

wolverinestudios.com
greydogsoftware.com

[APC]

I prefer Fast Break, but Draft Day is also an excellent game. Can't go wrong with either one.

If you like single-season replay games, Action PC Basketball is excellent.

[Izulde]

Draft Day Sports and Fast Break are both excellent basketball sims. Each of them has different strengths/emphases in gameplay, so it's a matter of personal preference which one to go with, and many people do end up getting both.

[Logan]

Anything for Android yet?

[NYFAN]

Draft Day Sports and Fast Break are both excellent basketball sims. Each of them has different strengths/emphases in gameplay, so it's a matter of personal preference which one to go with, and many people do end up getting both.

How would you describe their strengths/weaknesses? Thanks!

[JonInMiddleGA]

(I'll be interested to see how the descriptions of the strengths & weaknesses of the two games turns out ... my 16 y/o just asked me about this very topic a few days ago & I'm curious how my answers to me match up to more current info)

[NYFAN]

bump...

[Young Drachma]

FBCB doesn't crash much, HR is really super responsive having released a gazillion patches since release with improvements. The pro game integrates nicely, too. Draft Day has a snazzier interface and doesn't look as much like a spreadsheet, but I find FBCB and the pro version to be way more immersive and flexible and adaptable.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I also prefer fast break basketball and the college version.

The recruiting in the college version is fun and meaningful without becoming tedious. And seasons can be played rather quickly once you get in a good groove.

For both versions, the record keeping is phenomenal and the pro version offers flexibility for the financial rules and league setup (how many teams, how long is the season etc) which I find to be helpful.

Also, and this is a huge plus. All historical seasons come with the game!!! So you can do a career with Jordan, Wilt etc

The downside for these games is that I don't really like the gameplanning all that much. It is a bit too vague for me. You can only set (on a scale of 1-10) the pace, motion and how many threes are shot. There is no option of putting in specific types of offenses like the triangle. Same thing for defense, you can set up some vague parameters, but you can't key on an opposing player to try to take him out of the game.

The other major pro game out there is Draft Day Sports Basketball. Absolutely love the draft in this game. They actually discuss whether the guy you picked is a reach or not and trades are offered to you throughout the draft. It is a much more immersive experience than Fast Break Basketball.

Also the gameplanning is much better. You can pick actual offenses and defenses that affect how your team plays, plus the in game coaching is quite good too if you like to play one game at a time.

The downside of the game is the personality model which can be toggled off. If you have the personalities on , players are constantly getting into fights without a real reason given why and you don't have much recourse other than to release, trade or live with it.

Also the UI is a bit more cumbersome to me than Fast Break.

In the end I prefer Fast Break. It may seem a bit more vanilla, but in the end it gets the job done with free historical rosters and it is quick and easy to hammer out seasons.

Hopefully in the future Fast Break adds a bit more on the coaching side.

[Julio Riddols]

Fast break is a game that hooks you hard. The ease of navigation and the way the menus are laid out makes it so easy to say "Just one more" and I often find myself in a FBCB haze when March rolls around. I still do not know the intricacies of the game, but even without knowing that I feel like I am able to experience the appropriate amount of success depending on where I start.

I decided to start a career with North Dakota, and after 37 seasons I have yet to get beyond the elite 8. I think if there were more game planning options available I might be able to tweak things to do better, but I agree with the above that the coaching options are kind of vague and it is hard to really get your team to play a certain way or to know if your strategic moves are paying dividends or not. Often times I just let the CPU handle the strategy while I handle the lineups.. Which brings me to another thing I don't quite understand in FBCB, the substitution system. I don't know what 10 playing time really means for a guy on my bench, or how to effectively use a 6th man or make situational substitutions for specific game scenarios.

Overall, however, I find FBCB a lot easier to play and to get into due to its interface and ease of use. HeavyReign also does outstanding work with support on the game, which adds to my satisfaction with the overall product. I know a lot of care has been taken to make the game as good as it is, and it shows when you play it.

I don't have any experience with the pro games from either company, but as for college my choice is Fast Break.

[Izulde]

Others have touched on a lot of the main points, but from my own perspective:

Fast Break Strengths
-The customization for both the college and pro game is powerful and flexible, while also being very user friendly and easy to utilize without being tedious (something OOTP could learn from in baseball, IMO)
-The depth and breadth of the stat/record keeping is still better, though DDS has made *major* strides in this area the last couple of versions, so the gap isn't nearly what it used to be
-It really lends itself to the fast-paced quicksim style of play
-Excellent at giving you a sense of the league as a whole, particularly the college game, which is probably still the single-best overall text sim ever created in my book in terms of matching its sport while still being fun (Sorry FM fans)
-The pro game comes with the historical data and players already included
-Ease of exporting data

Fast Break Drawbacks
-The gameplanning is very shallow. So much so that it honestly feels like a web browser game in terms of its presentation and implementation. Note: The actual sim engine itself, just like DDS, is strong, or I wouldn't be even recommending the series as an option, but it's something to take note of.
-There's absolutely no personality or attachment to the players. They very much feel like a flat set of names and numbers. For the college game, this doesn't much matter - they're only there 4/5 years and then it's on to the pros anyway. But it's a serious issue in the pro game for me. Like I said, FBB's strength is in giving you the sense of a league and the universe as a whole, which is perfect for the college game.

DDS Strengths
-Much, much deeper and more complex gameplanning and simulation. In fact, the conversations you see here about FOF? We've had a lot of those in DDS leagues about the pro version. And the college version is the same way - both games very much have a learning curve associated with them, as opposed to the pick up and play nature of Fast Break.
-The players feel like actual players. The personality bit in my opinion is a good thing, and while the fights may seem random, they make a lot of sense. Most of the time it's going to be guys below 50 personality, but even the ones where a high Personality player is involved, sometimes you're just going to have that situation where two people hate each other, even though there's no logical reason to on the surface, so I find it reflects real life.
-The pro version allows you to gradually change/adjust a player's shot type and, in 3, also their driving vs. shooting tendencies. Part of basketball is players changing the way and type they shoot, and adapting their game. From what I remember, this isn't is in Fast Break, and again, depth of simulation/gameplanning.
-There's a lot more attachment to your players as a result of the personality, and the DDS games really make you focus on the players and your team as a whole. Of course, this also means that the playstyle is going to be much slower than the fastpaced quality of Fast Break, but again, that's down to play style.
-Greater control over when your players are on the court/what lineups are used in simming due to the sub matrix option in both games, which allows you to set the floor lineup in 2 minute shifts.

DDS Weak Points
-Very limited customization. The pro and college game both have only certain league configurations they'll allow.
-The interface is much prettier but comparing the interfaces side by side, Fast Break's is easier to use. For me personally, this isn't a dealbreaker, though.
-Only a couple of historical season rosters for the pro game, and they're pay add-ons as opposed to Fast Break, where all the historical rosters come included.

So really it comes down to ease of play/customization/historical seasons/larger universe immersion vs. deeper simulation/more and better gameplanning options/much stronger team and player immersion

Personally, I prefer Fast Break for the college game and DDS for the pro game, and it comes down to what I prefer at each particular level of the sport. But like I said, you can't go wrong with either version, no matter what the level. It all comes down to what your own personal tastes are.

Oh and if you're interested in MP leagues, I know there's an FBCB MP league with a lot of FOFCers. Not sure about FBB Pro Basketball leagues. Don't recall any DDS: College Basketball MP leagues, but there's quite a few DDS: Pro Basketball MP leagues out there.

[dubb93]

I have both, Izulde is pretty close on alot of his strengths and weaknesses. For historical play I go with Fast Break. I think it does historical pretty well and the lightweight nature of the game means you can power out seasons in pretty quick order.

If I am playing modern day and into the future, I'm using DDS. The detail you get on the new characters, the immersion of the draft, and the ability to actually mold your new players means that any league that either uses or will eventually use players generated by the game push DDS over Fast Break for me in this sense.

Like him I also prefer FBCB for college and DDS for the pro version, but I haven't picked up DDS's college version in quite some time. I don't think I have played the most current release of their college sim.

[murrayyyyy]

Fast Break easily for me in college and pro. I know of both pro leagues and college leagues out there (but I won't plug them here).

The problem I had with DDPSB is that you can't add owners to custom leagues for online play and the game crashes... way to often.

[NYFAN]

thanks for the input. i'm looking primarily at just the professional version, and my biggest concern is a) ease of play, and b) realistic trade / FA / drafting. I actually have FBB and I am not a huge fan of the trade AI. Maybe I was just too picky, not sure.

[murrayyyyy]

thanks for the input. i'm looking primarily at just the professional version, and my biggest concern is a) ease of play, and b) realistic trade / FA / drafting. I actually have FBB and I am not a huge fan of the trade AI. Maybe I was just too picky, not sure.

Have you tried adjusting the trade setting under league settings?

[NYFAN]

I played around with them a lot, but couldn't find a setting I thought hit it right, especially with picks and top tier players. But, maybe it was more my perception than the game.