Fast Break Pro Basketball 2013 Released!

[mgsports]

Know if we do it in Microsoft Excel it could be done outside of the Game meaning like creating a Overseas/DL or so on league from a past years League along with the NBA League from that year

Another idea would like to see more Blockbuster/ 3 Team/ at Draft Trades by the Computer control Teams,Eliminate DL Drafts by changing contracts to be more then one year,E. League Option and have Rookie/Free Agent Camps/Hiring Staff/Personal go on at the same time Free Agent Period is happening.

[dawgfan]

Getting an Error 9 (Subscript out of range) in procedure Form_Load of Form frmRookieDraft.

Playing a Historical DB game and had just taken the job at St. Louis after Baltimore folded, and had completed the dispersal draft.

[devon506]

Loving this game but struggling with strategy. In 2 careers now I have been able to build a roster which seems as good as any in the league going by the colour coded potential and current ratings yet I consistently have losing seasons. I have a 'great' cohesion and talent and 'OK' depth and have just completed a 30-52 season.
I have tried using the CPU to gameplan and then re-run the same season using various different strategies when I have taken charge of gameplanning and cant seem to even break .500.
Anyone got any basic tips, I particularly struggle with defense even though I have been adding players to my roster based on defensive ratings and have tried a variety of different defensive schemes.
Any help gratefully received?

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by devon506

Loving this game but struggling with strategy. In 2 careers now I have been able to build a roster which seems as good as any in the league going by the colour coded potential and current ratings yet I consistently have losing seasons. I have a 'great' cohesion and talent and 'OK' depth and have just completed a 30-52 season.
I have tried using the CPU to gameplan and then re-run the same season using various different strategies when I have taken charge of gameplanning and cant seem to even break .500.
Anyone got any basic tips, I particularly struggle with defense even though I have been adding players to my roster based on defensive ratings and have tried a variety of different defensive schemes.
Any help gratefully received?

I've built a team that had similar performance issues. I don't really have an answer for you but I would take a look at the team summary screen and see what areas your were good in and what areas you were below league averages and see if you can improve in those areas for the next season. I never figured out how to win with that one core group I had so I tore the team apart and rebuilt.

You can also blame it on your coach and fire him!

[korme]

Can we get a career games played list on the team records page?

[Native Son]

HR - can we get an option to turn off zone defense within a particular league? Or better yet, have a slider similar to the injury frequency that would regulate how often zone defense is used? We know that the NBA didn't use true zone defense until 2001, and even now most teams still play man-to-man by far for the majority of the game.

[korme]

Originally Posted by devon506

Loving this game but struggling with strategy. In 2 careers now I have been able to build a roster which seems as good as any in the league going by the colour coded potential and current ratings yet I consistently have losing seasons. I have a 'great' cohesion and talent and 'OK' depth and have just completed a 30-52 season.
I have tried using the CPU to gameplan and then re-run the same season using various different strategies when I have taken charge of gameplanning and cant seem to even break .500.
Anyone got any basic tips, I particularly struggle with defense even though I have been adding players to my roster based on defensive ratings and have tried a variety of different defensive schemes.
Any help gratefully received?

Just as an FYI, depth either says "fix" or "ok", meaning you're ready to play. It is not an indicator of how deep your team is.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Getting an Error 9 (Subscript out of range) in procedure Form_Load of Form frmRookieDraft.

Playing a Historical DB game and had just taken the job at St. Louis after Baltimore folded, and had completed the dispersal draft.

If you have it please send me the save when you get a chance.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I've built a team that had similar performance issues. I don't really have an answer for you but I would take a look at the team summary screen and see what areas your were good in and what areas you were below league averages and see if you can improve in those areas for the next season. I never figured out how to win with that one core group I had so I tore the team apart and rebuilt.

You can also blame it on your coach and fire him!

This is good advice for this situation. It is possible to have a bunch of talented players that don't really complement each other. You can still have major weaknesses in certain areas.

[heybrad]

Is Cohesion based on how long the guys on a team have played together or is it actually evaluating skills of players to see if they complement each other?

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by yeah826

So i encountered a bug so I ran a league using the 2012 historical file and i ran a creation draft through it. After the draft I set my line up and start the season. Well after the preseason and the first game the game will not simulate past october 30 and the game just freezes up and will not continue.

It wont let me save it will let me look at other rosters and click on the help file and all the tabs on the right which let me save by hitting exit.

When I try to load up this league I get an error code 7 out of memory.

I'll see if I can recreate the issue.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

If you have it please send me the save when you get a chance.

I'll send it off when I get home tonight.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by heybrad

Is Cohesion based on how long the guys on a team have played together or is it actually evaluating skills of players to see if they complement each other?

Time together.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Native Son

HR - can we get an option to turn off zone defense within a particular league? Or better yet, have a slider similar to the injury frequency that would regulate how often zone defense is used? We know that the NBA didn't use true zone defense until 2001, and even now most teams still play man-to-man by far for the majority of the game.

I'll add it to the list. Would most likely just be a setting for allowing zone defenses but it won't be a right away sort of thing.

[korme]

Question - do draft booms/busts happen? I play historical so I know it's almost impossible to implement on the user end, but I was curious if in fic. generated leagues you get those Sam Bowie or Johnny Flynn type high draft busts.

Also agree that as players age, quickness should drop - but as they say some guys at 45 can still hit that 3 ball

[yeah826]

Ive seen number 1 overall players turn into bust and ive seen undrafted players turn into all stars it all depends on the team that drafts them how much they play and how they are used.

Also one problem im seeing im looking at the 1996 historical db and I see team play a sf at C i know this may be due to the fact the team has a bad C but in most cases I would presume that teams would at least start a good post defender at C instead of a SF who is not even a good rebounder.

Also I think non PG players who get a lot of assist may need a bump in ratings to get those type of players to simulate their numbers since they dont get the ball as much as a PG.

For some reason its hard to get Lebron to simulate his numbers at least scoring wise I think its because he is so good at everything he cant only focus on one side of the game.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

If you have it please send me the save when you get a chance.

Do you need everything in the appropriate leaguedata folder, or just the league.dat or saveinfo.dat?

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Do you need everything in the appropriate leaguedata folder, or just the league.dat or saveinfo.dat?

league.dat is usually enough.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by yeah826

So i encountered a bug so I ran a league using the 2012 historical file and i ran a creation draft through it. After the draft I set my line up and start the season. Well after the preseason and the first game the game will not simulate past october 30 and the game just freezes up and will not continue.

It wont let me save it will let me look at other rosters and click on the help file and all the tabs on the right which let me save by hitting exit.

When I try to load up this league I get an error code 7 out of memory.

Ok, I found this one. Fixed for 3.0.13.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

league.dat is usually enough.

Just sent it - thanks Brian.

[dawgfan]

I have a few general observations. I've been playing with the historic league setup, but without the historical database of players (i.e. I'm using strictly AI generated players to populate my game universe). It's set with full finances.

Background: I started the game in 1946, created my coach/GM, fast-simmed a year and there was an opening for Baltimore which I took. I've currently played through the 1954 season where Baltimore folds.

- There seems to be too much talent overall in the league. I think a major part of that is the rapid expansion that happened early in the league history followed by rapid contraction:

1946: 11 teams in the BAA
1947: 8 teams in the BAA
1948: 12 teams in the BAA

The BAA then merges with the NBL to form the NBA:

1949: 17 teams in the NBA
1950: 11 teams in the NBA
1951: 10 teams in the NBA
1952: 10 teams in the NBA
1953: 9 teams in the NBA
1954: 9 teams in the NBA
1955: 8 teams in the NBA

I think what's happening is that the draft pool expands to match the size of the league, and the expansions in '48 & '49 add a lot of talent, and then suddenly the league contracts significantly, so each team has access to more talented players.

- This in turn also impacts free agency and the salary cap. While I was careful about managing my cap and usually had a small amount of money available under the cap each year, most years my team was the only one that did. So there would be a wealth of talented players sitting there in free agency with no offers that I could sign with a Min offer, and I could keep signing them year after year so my cohesion kept building. I was basically able to build super-talented rosters on the cheap with almost no hit to cohesion, and won 3 straight titles before Baltimore folded and 4 total.

- In comparing the talent in this league vs. a test level I have going that uses the historical database, there's a dramatic difference - in the historical database, there are no players with a potential higher than yellow. Now, in that test league (I'm using it to test player photos) I don't have a human controlled coach/GM and am not in charge of any of the teams, so I'm not sure if that impacts my scouting perception of the actual talent, but on the surface there is a huge difference in talent available within the leagues.

What I'm interested in creating is a fictional, parallel basketball universe. I'd like to start off in 1946 with the same 11 franchises as in reality, but with fully fictional players and with expansion/contraction/franchise moves based off the game universe realities (market size, arena size, profit/loss, owner values).

I get that normally you'd want the amateur draft pool to scale relative to the league size, but I'm wondering if there's also an option to have it scale based on real historical trends. So when a league starts in 1946, there is a limited amount of talent available, there are no blue potential players, a very few green (your equivalents to Joe Fulks, Max Zaslofsky, Bob Feerick). And then the pool grows moderately each year as basketball gets more popular, and you start to get a few more green potential guys and maybe a blue potential (a George Mikan equivalent). Then, when the color barrier is broken, the pool grows quite a bit and your average player is no longer an orange or yellow, but a mix of yellow, green and a few blue guys (your Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit type guys).

The league could expand or contract as per market conditions, but the pool would be based on historical trends, and when extremely talented newcomers like Wilt Chamberlain or Oscar Robertson enter the league, they really stand out.

On a related question, if I wanted a historical league that wasn't bound to actual historical expansion/contraction/relocation, I'm guessing I could create a league and turn on franchise movement options? Would I have to manually point those teams to particular logo files? Would I be able to also cause an ABA rival league to come into existence in 1967 in that same universe, and an NBADL in 2001?

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I think what's happening is that the draft pool expands to match the size of the league, and the expansions in '48 & '49 add a lot of talent, and then suddenly the league contracts significantly, so each team has access to more talented players.

What I'm interested in creating is a fictional, parallel basketball universe. I'd like to start off in 1946 with the same 11 franchises as in reality, but with fully fictional players and with expansion/contraction/franchise moves based off the game universe realities (market size, arena size, profit/loss, owner values).

I get that normally you'd want the amateur draft pool to scale relative to the league size, but I'm wondering if there's also an option to have it scale based on real historical trends. So when a league starts in 1946, there is a limited amount of talent available, there are no blue potential players, a very few green (your equivalents to Joe Fulks, Max Zaslofsky, Bob Feerick). And then the pool grows moderately each year as basketball gets more popular, and you start to get a few more green potential guys and maybe a blue potential (a George Mikan equivalent). Then, when the color barrier is broken, the pool grows quite a bit and your average player is no longer an orange or yellow, but a mix of yellow, green and a few blue guys (your Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit type guys).

The league could expand or contract as per market conditions, but the pool would be based on historical trends, and when extremely talented newcomers like Wilt Chamberlain or Oscar Robertson enter the league, they really stand out.

On a related question, if I wanted a historical league that wasn't bound to actual historical expansion/contraction/relocation, I'm guessing I could create a league and turn on franchise movement options? Would I have to manually point those teams to particular logo files? Would I be able to also cause an ABA rival league to come into existence in 1967 in that same universe, and an NBADL in 2001?

There does need to be some adjustment of both fictional players and FBCB imports during the early years. Both are balanced based on 1980+. It makes sense that using either would result in a league that is far too talented.

It would be possible to have the other leagues enter in the appropriate year but it sounds like based on Groundhog's testing there does need to be some tweaks to the chances of expansion early on as well. The logo names for random expansion all default to the name of the city so the game will use one if it finds it in the logo folder.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

There does need to be some adjustment of both fictional players and FBCB imports during the early years. Both are balanced based on 1980+. It makes sense that using either would result in a league that is far too talented.

It would be possible to have the other leagues enter in the appropriate year but it sounds like based on Groundhog's testing there does need to be some tweaks to the chances of expansion early on as well. The logo names for random expansion all default to the name of the city so the game will use one if it finds it in the logo folder.

Cool, thanks for the info. Out of curiosity, if I use the historical database to generate players, there is an option to randomize their progression once they've been generated? Or does it randomize by default?

I'm less interested in specifically re-creating history as much as creating my own version. I'd be worried in using the real players that I'd have the advantage of hindsight in knowing which players would become stars and which would flame out and when.

[IlliniCub]

when i start a 2012 league with fictional players, and random historical debut draft, it locks up at the end of simming preaseason....Anyone else having this issue?

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Cool, thanks for the info. Out of curiosity, if I use the historical database to generate players, there is an option to randomize their progression once they've been generated? Or does it randomize by default?

I'm less interested in specifically re-creating history as much as creating my own version. I'd be worried in using the real players that I'd have the advantage of hindsight in knowing which players would become stars and which would flame out and when.

In my Hawks league from the beginning of time the all-time leading scores list had 3 guys I had never heard of in the top 5. I assume Yao Ming never had his injury because he finished in the top ten scoring all time also but I know there were times when Moncrief would get injured and I would think to myself, big shock...

Also lots of guys you think had big history might not because there are better players then his RL career or less talent then he really played with.

[rjolley]

murray, who were the guys you didn't know?

[korme]

Will it be possible to ever start a league in '79, '92, '12 or whatever and whenever you begin you get full Past Champs, team records, player records, etc all filed in?

[HeavyReign]

******************************************************************************************************************
Version 3.0.13: http://www.fbbgames.com/FBPB3Update3013.exe
******************************************************************************************************************
Fixes:
*Should be possible to click back to "Alignment" on league file editor.
*Only needed playoff rounds should be enabled during setup.
*FBB2001 Import: Player career highs for assists, steals, and blocks should import correctly.
*FBB2001 Import: All-Star and Rookie Game MVPs should show the correct season.
*FBB2001 Import: Championships won under player achievements should import correctly.
*FBB2001 Import: Added code to find team records for past standings when the team location has changed if the team name hasn't changed.
*Should be possible to Resign/Retire human coaches when all teams are full.
*Added code to ensure arena details fall within legal bounds when importing a league file.
*Fixed sorting for turnovers per game on team leaders html.
*Fixed a bug that caused playing time to not get redistributed based on the new depth chart when using team imports.
*Fixed hangup that could occur at start of regular season after using creation draft due to DLG players having contracts.
*Fixed error 9 that could occur during the draft when draft picks belong to contracted teams.
*Draft picks belonging to contracted teams will automatically be placed at the end of the round.
*Recommend button on staff screen should be enabled during the season.
*Fixed a bug that only imported one coaches when setting team staff roles using team files.

Changes:
*Increased the effect of loyalty by players when deciding between similar FA offers.
*Playoff rounds are labled as Round One, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals during setup.
*Increased decline of physical skills as players get older.
*Added player photos (if present) to player profile html files.
*Added draft picks owned by the team to the team roster html.
*FBB2001 Import: Added importing for single team game records and single team player game records

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Cool, thanks for the info. Out of curiosity, if I use the historical database to generate players, there is an option to randomize their progression once they've been generated? Or does it randomize by default?

I'm less interested in specifically re-creating history as much as creating my own version. I'd be worried in using the real players that I'd have the advantage of hindsight in knowing which players would become stars and which would flame out and when.

The import randomization option randomizes them a bit when they are created. Even with no randomization on there is still the normal randomization used by the game during development so it is still possible for players to bust/boom a bit. I'm also looking at including an option to use development based on the historical numbers each season as well.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

when i start a 2012 league with fictional players, and random historical debut draft, it locks up at the end of simming preaseason....Anyone else having this issue?

Issue is related to using DLG with a creation draft. Should be fixed in 3.0.13.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by korme

Will it be possible to ever start a league in '79, '92, '12 or whatever and whenever you begin you get full Past Champs, team records, player records, etc all filed in?

It is an option for later but I need to work through some of my list before I'd look at it.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by rjolley

murray, who were the guys you didn't know?

I knew someone would ask after I deleted the file. He went to Southern Miss (I know that for sure) and last name something like Carbajal. He played in the ABA and the NBA and I think his career lasted 25 years. He had a lot of 20-18 ppg seasons. I think Tim Duncan ended up #2 all-time in scoring. #3 was some guy who's name I didn't know also.

[IlliniCub]

Thanks for the fix...working perfectly HR!

[yeah826]

one moment checking something

[yeah826]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

I knew someone would ask after I deleted the file. He went to Southern Miss (I know that for sure) and last name something like Carbajal. He played in the ABA and the NBA and I think his career lasted 25 years. He had a lot of 20-18 ppg seasons. I think Tim Duncan ended up #2 all-time in scoring. #3 was some guy who's name I didn't know also.

Did you make sure you set the ABA to historical roster and draft historical with the database inside the ABA

Also its nice to see players staying with their teams longer

Also Im still seeing a lot of late 60's 70's era players with A handles that are big men

The ABA projected draft screen is blank

Dr.J/ Julius Erving is a SF

Also ABA for some reason is not holding their draft which may explain why the project draft screen is blank.(Looked it up for some reason rookie draft is set to no cant seem to change it)

[murrayyyyy]

To be honest, I think I had all active. Guys who started out in the ABA (Dr J for one) ended up being in both leagues. Who knows though, this was from my first dry run and we know I had problems with the historical file with all the updates.

Been working on adjusting numbers to have the hard cap work like I want for an online league and think I have it finally. Did 20 years of testing and most teams stayed close to my "cap" figure. One season (year 19) 5 teams were over but 2 barely went over. The following season only one was over and it was by a few hundred k.

[scoman]

When playing with financials off in historical leagues,there is no dispersal draft when teams go defunct,they just go into free agency and are free for the picking,is this by design?

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by scoman

When playing with financials off in historical leagues,there is no dispersal draft when teams go defunct,they just go into free agency and are free for the picking,is this by design?

Nah that would be a bug.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by yeah826

Also Im still seeing a lot of late 60's 70's era players with A handles that are big men

Haven't had a chance to go back and check on that yet.

Originally Posted by yeah826

The ABA projected draft screen is blank

This is likely happening because the draft is disabled.

Originally Posted by yeah826

Also ABA for some reason is not holding their draft which may explain why the project draft screen is blank.(Looked it up for some reason rookie draft is set to no cant seem to change it)

Tried to explain this last time you mentioned it. The hosted file still has rookie draft set to 0 when it needs to be 1 for each season in the USA3.csv file. Was my mistake originally. You can only change settings like the draft during the actual period immediately after hitting end season.

[IlliniCub]

A nice small touch might be showing teams current Win-Loss record in trade screen. Would help with deciding how valuable a draft pick could be

[Native Son]

Question about the name files for HR or anyone in the know: If I wanted to change the frequency of a name appearing in the file, do I have to add it several times? ... Or does its position in the list matter? ... Or both? Lastly, up to what number limit of names in the text file will the game read and use?

Thanks.

[yeah826]

If i remember correctly from the college game its the order from most popular to least popular i dont think there is a limit HR would have to give his input on that.

[yeah826]

So I fast simmed a league and while going through some history I was wondering about the trade logic of this game because I see a player who was drafted number 1 overall having a rookie of the year type season yet was traded during the middle of his first year.

I think if a team is going to draft a player that high they will not trade them no matter what honestly at least not so early(maybe 2 years) or the player just is not working out for the team. What happened with Thomas Robinson in Sacremento I would consider to be an outlier.

Do teams trade to fullfill a vision that they want the team to be ran as because I watched the celtics trade Robert Parrish and Kevin Mchale for two hall of fame level guards.

Also do a team most likely trade a player if they do not believe he is going to resign back with with them. The reason why I am asking is because the Rockets traded Hakeem Olajuwan who was in his prime and the best player on their team for visually nothing( They may have gotten draft picks but I did not check). Though I did notice he was in his last year of his contract.

Also I saw a team cancel a players team option after the previous year he won MVP and it wasnt like he was in rapid decline because the season that his team option declined he was an ALL NBA 3rd team player. Do you think this may because of money or salary cap issues. Or were they trying to renogiate his contract.

Also do other skills other than physical regress?

In all honesty I am actually liking how players are developing and regressing now and I like that fact that players now stay with their teams longer. I just kinda want to know what goes into trade logic a little.

Also Bug Report
I found while under the Hall of Fame screen when I scrolled to the NBDL league the game got an error 9 i believe or subscript out of range and the game closed on me.

[Comey]

Something that just dawned on me, as OOTP has this, and it would make for a perfect addition to this game.

Can the starting five (and maybe the sixth man) for each season be listed in the history section? I did a fast sim last night, and while it's a lot of fun to go back and see what happened, it's also difficult to piece things together in some aspects. This is one of them.

For instance, Seattle won five titles in the mid-80s, thanks to Magic Johnson. I want to know who played with him in that span. The team leaders sheds some light on things, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

If this is possible, the immersion factor goes up tenfold. Hopefully, it can be done.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Comey

Something that just dawned on me, as OOTP has this, and it would make for a perfect addition to this game.

Can the starting five (and maybe the sixth man) for each season be listed in the history section? I did a fast sim last night, and while it's a lot of fun to go back and see what happened, it's also difficult to piece things together in some aspects. This is one of them.

For instance, Seattle won five titles in the mid-80s, thanks to Magic Johnson. I want to know who played with him in that span. The team leaders sheds some light on things, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

If this is possible, the immersion factor goes up tenfold. Hopefully, it can be done.

Agree. It's hard to go back and check on that championship you won a decade ago, remembering who was on the squad

[korme]

Thanks for the latest update, though, HR. Tremendous work.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by korme

Agree. It's hard to go back and check on that championship you won a decade ago, remembering who was on the squad

Complainabrag?

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Comey

Something that just dawned on me, as OOTP has this, and it would make for a perfect addition to this game.

Can the starting five (and maybe the sixth man) for each season be listed in the history section? I did a fast sim last night, and while it's a lot of fun to go back and see what happened, it's also difficult to piece things together in some aspects. This is one of them.

For instance, Seattle won five titles in the mid-80s, thanks to Magic Johnson. I want to know who played with him in that span. The team leaders sheds some light on things, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

If this is possible, the immersion factor goes up tenfold. Hopefully, it can be done.

Great idea. Would love to see it in at some time.

[Comey]

Okay, now I *really* want to see it.

Three year stretch in Detroit:

1964: 62-18
1965: 78-2
1966: 70-10

I really want to see who was on that '65 team. I also want to know who was on the 82 Knicks team that won 75; Seattle won 71 that year. The Knicks and Sonics had a great rivalry in those years...and the Knicks were in the finals four straight years. Would love to see who was on those teams.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Comey

Okay, now I *really* want to see it.

Three year stretch in Detroit:

1964: 62-18
1965: 78-2
1966: 70-10

I really want to see who was on that '65 team. I also want to know who was on the 82 Knicks team that won 75; Seattle won 71 that year. The Knicks and Sonics had a great rivalry in those years...and the Knicks were in the finals four straight years. Would love to see who was on those teams.

Write a dynasty and keep track.