FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by dave731

you're the best around nothing is gonna ever keep you down!

What he said.

[dawgfan]

Thanks for the update Brian.

Just got a Run Time Error '53' File not found: GDS\Fast Break College Basketball 2010\images\menu\awards3.jpg

Happened when I advanced to the NCAA Tournament Selection screen.

Using the new update 2.3.1

[dawgfan]

Re-simmed to the same point - NCAA Tournament Selection screen and got a similar error, this time looking for "playerstats2.jpg" in the same location as the other error listed above.

[dawgfan]

OK, clearly there's some kind of menu this new build wants to create around the tournament selection that's looking for menu images that don't exist. Same error, looking for an image in the same directory - this time "teamstats2.jpg"

[dawgfan]

...and "injuries4.jpg", "propospects4.jpg", "seasonhistory4.jpg"...

I'm giving up on this build for the night.

[HeavyReign]

This would be the new menu that includes the bubble watch at tourney time. I just verified that the patch file includes the proper files. Did you extract the entire patch including folders to the game directory?

[Marmel]

Amazing. HR, you continue to go way above and beyond what anyone else in the bisiness would do. I only wish you put out a few more games over the years that I could buy from you!

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

This would be the new menu that includes the bubble watch at tourney time. I just verified that the patch file includes the proper files. Did you extract the entire patch including folders to the game directory?

Hmm, maybe that's what I missed. What I do with the updates is run the self-extractor as Administrator, and then for whatever reason it puts the files in my Program Files directory rather than Program Files (x86) and I have to copy the .exe over.

Sounds like I also need to copy over all the folders as well, or I guess I can change the directory the extractor points to.

[HeavyReign]

With 64 bit Windows you have to add the (x86) when you extract. I'll have to look into finding an extraction program that will be able to locate where the actual install is located to avoid the confusion at some point.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

With 64 bit Windows you have to add the (x86) when you extract. I'll have to look into finding an extraction program that will be able to locate where the actual install is located to avoid the confusion at some point.

Thanks Brian. I'd gotten into a bad habit of just copying over the .exe without realizing some of the other files might also be updated. I'll just remember to point the extraction destination to the (x86) install location from now on.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by amazedbygrace86

Strategy Questions

I've appreciated the help in the past, so I decided to come back for some more insight. Here's two things I'm pondering:

1) Let's say I really want to emphasize Conditioning and Defense with my players. Does it do any good to give my players 10's in training those areas if they've already reached their maximum level (and let's say it's not a very high max level)?

2) What do you use the Strength rating to determine for players?

As others have said, progress is slow after the maximum is reached.

However, I find it hard to 'see' the maximums on the graph, so I will go for more. The only way to tell for certain is to get no improvement. If a player did not improve the prior year, I take that as a really good sign he's not moving up.

An example would be rebounding where a guy is low on OR and high on DR with room to improve. If as a Soph his OR doesn't improve but he's still got room to improve at DR, I still would put points into rebounding but not expect any OR increase.

I also emphasize defense plus stamina so I put 10 into conditioning until a player reaches the 90's in stamina. If a player still has a low stamina by his senior year, I don't bother with any more conditioning and go with limited minutes for him.

On strength, I agree its inside banging. Bigs with strength tend to get more boards and go to the line a bit more than I expect based on ratings. They do need inside shooting to get to the line, though.

Now that HR has made it easier to check, I sort by free throw attempts for Bigs to scout. Then if they show up with strength (and a bit of quickness, too, although I'm not certain about this despite looking for effects) I'm pretty certain that they will go to the line with an inside-focused offense.

[dave731]

Anybody have a website that lists the basketball commits for each school to this point for the 2012-13 season?

[chadritt]

Having played OOTP recently makes me wonder: Any mac users who can recommend a good way to play this? Note: I would prefer not to have to actually buy windows to make it work.

[sjshaw]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Having played OOTP recently makes me wonder: Any mac users who can recommend a good way to play this? Note: I would prefer not to have to actually buy windows to make it work.

Parallels or VMWare works for me, but you'd have to buy a copy of Windows. I use it with Win2000 with no issues, so you could get that cheap. I know the previous version had a few issues with WINE, but I haven't tried the new version.

[dave731]

I'm getting a "RunTime Error 383 Text Property is Read Only" when trying to edit a previously created player in my player file.

[HeavyReign]

Will you send me your player file so I can figure out which field is causing the error? [email protected]

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by dave731

Anybody have a website that lists the basketball commits for each school to this point for the 2012-13 season?

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/

[dave731]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

Will you send me your player file so I can figure out which field is causing the error? [email protected]

Done...be on the lookout for it. If I just work on the file in Excel, will it still allow me to go back in and "find ratings" from within the game based on the stats I key?

[HeavyReign]

Yes, you will be able to enter the stats using Excel then go into the game and use find ratings. Here is the fixed patch:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v232.exe

Version 2.3.2 (04/17/12)
************************************************************
Fixes:
*Assistant coach displayed job should update when changed using team exports
*Fixed error 76 that could occur when opening the game on a fresh install.
*Fixed error 383 when editing a player file
*Fixed error 13 when editing a player file
*Teams assigned to a preseason tourney using the Tourney Seeds option should not be able to schedule games on tourney days.

[dave731]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

Yes, you will be able to enter the stats using Excel then go into the game and use find ratings. Here is the fixed patch:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v232.exe

Version 2.3.2 (04/17/12)
************************************************************
Fixes:
*Assistant coach displayed job should update when changed using team exports
*Fixed error 76 that could occur when opening the game on a fresh install.
*Fixed error 383 when editing a player file
*Fixed error 13 when editing a player file
*Teams assigned to a preseason tourney using the Tourney Seeds option should not be able to schedule games on tourney days.

Muchos Gracias!! What I have done is basically take a league, exported the player file to csv and begun editing players that way. I can control the random players the game creates that way to fill out a 15 player roster. I'm also working on updating the coach's file although the player's file is of more importance to me right now.

[dawgfan]

Hey Brian, super low priority, but I've noticed a minor bug regarding the "past assistants" list; after several years into a career, some guys start populating that list that have never been a part of my staff. I haven't yet detected a common thread to these guys other than they are usually young coaches with pretty low ratings.

[HeavyReign]

I really thought I fixed that back in 2.2.32. I'll run some tests to see if I can find any other causes. If it is an older career it might be still there from before. The fix only prevented it from happening again.

[HeavyReign]

I was able to find it in the current version. Fix will be included in the next patch.

[dave731]

I'm going to keep a running list of teams completed here in this thread for the 2012-13 roster file. This includes the head coaches as well. I scrapped the inputting of stats idea as it became way too tedious. So what the file amounts to is real names, hometowns, vitals, and positions (for the most part). I am even using statsheet to determine who the better players are so they get the higher ratings for their position. Is it perfect? No. Will it be serviceable as a real player roster file? Yes. For the coaches, I am using their team rankings to determine some of their tendencies so Pitino's and Donovan's team will shoot more 3's and Boeheim will trap like crazy inside in their 2-3 zone etc. etc.

Update: For teams that aren't listed on Rivals for recruiting, I am leaving fictional FR players on their teams to fill roster spots. These are usually lower rated players but some have the potential to start some games. It should be relatively easy to go back and edit some of these into real players once rosters are released.

Completed teams as of 4/28/12:

Air Force
Akron
Alabama
Alabama A & M
Alabama St.
Albany
Alcorn St.
American

Plugging away...

[Scoobz0202]

I remember hearing pains about E-License. Are they shit or is this something Brian can do?

Installed the game on my main pc and its saying I dont have an avail license. It's only on my laptop right now. Maybe a couple years ago I put it on my old desktop? Not sure.

[Young Drachma]

For the "future suggestions" list for a new version, I wonder if it'd be possible to get that "find ratings" button that we have in the player editor for the future recruits section? It'd be so much easier/nicer to just be able to input some stats and get ratings for potential recruits...

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

I remember hearing pains about E-License. Are they shit or is this something Brian can do?

Installed the game on my main pc and its saying I dont have an avail license. It's only on my laptop right now. Maybe a couple years ago I put it on my old desktop? Not sure.

Send me a PM and I'll forward the information to someone who can get it reset.

[Scoobz0202]

Nice timing. Getting ready to head to bed. PM sent

[Young Drachma]

One of the things I enjoy doing sometimes is taking scrubs that I'm not going to recruit and making them good and then watching the AI scramble over them. It's a nice way to give rise to some mid-majors because the talent usually falls to them and it makes things even more competitive when you've found yourself being successful after a while or when stuff gets too predictable.

[Radii]

After implementing all kinds of conference movement, adding a new conference, adding a few new teams and changing the conference/tournament structure of a few conferences, HTML generation hangs on "outputting awards".

EDIT: this is using version 2.3.2

[HeavyReign]

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v233.exe

Version 2.3.3 (04/25/12)
************************************************************
Fixes:
*Past Mentors/Assistants should be properly deleted when a coach retires.
*Fixed error that caused HTML output to end while generating the Awards page.

[Radii]

Amazing support HR, thanks!!

[ValiantJoey]

Does the game force you to retire at some point? I am currently 81 years old, been with Houston Baptist my entire career taking them from 3 prestige to 100, 1,335 career wins, and 4 national championships.

But please don't tell me when if I will be forced to retire, just wondering if, as I am kind of currently just playing to retirement, not much more I can accomplish as a coach.

[HeavyReign]

The game won't force you to retire. I decided to leave it up to the player what is a reasonable age for retirement.

[ValiantJoey]

HR, thanks for the answer, and quick response. Your support of FBCB2 is incredible.

Good to know about retirement, now I just have to decide when I am too old to be out recruiting.

[Young Drachma]

So I have a question about the player file editor. What's it really for? Creating new player files? Editing your existing league and importing it back in? I guess I don't get it...and I'm trying to figure out whether I can import a file back into my existing game that I've made alterations to.

[dave731]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

So I have a question about the player file editor. What's it really for? Creating new player files? Editing your existing league and importing it back in? I guess I don't get it...and I'm trying to figure out whether I can import a file back into my existing game that I've made alterations to.

You can do all of the above with it...Well, I don't think you can edit the existing league and import it back into the current league. The game saves it as a start up file you can import upon starting a new league. I have gone back and forth using the CSV and the in game editor and I have found I like the in game better.

I believe the true intent of the PFE is to allow for modded roster files.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by dave731

You can do all of the above with it...Well, I don't think you can edit the existing league and import it back into the current league. The game saves it as a start up file you can import upon starting a new league. I have gone back and forth using the CSV and the in game editor and I have found I like the in game better.

I believe the true intent of the PFE is to allow for modded roster files.

Ok, cool. I just wanted to understand the true intent, etc., from someone who's actually used it as I was never really clear to me. That makes sense. Thanks!

[Illini Boy]

FBCB3 Request: Have recruits be created as freshman instead of seniors to allow four years of recruiting! (much like College Hoops 2k8) It would be fantastic to see recruits develop over four years and get to see what school they choose. I just hate having an extra scholarship and not knowing if I should use it on a crappy 3* or keep it for a loaded class next year!

Thanks,
Illini

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by Illini Boy

FBCB3 Request: Have recruits be created as freshman instead of seniors to allow four years of recruiting! (much like College Hoops 2k8) It would be fantastic to see recruits develop over four years and get to see what school they choose. I just hate having an extra scholarship and not knowing if I should use it on a crappy 3* or keep it for a loaded class next year!

Thanks,
Illini

That is a really good idea. I could see where you would invest part of your current year's budget into recruiting guys that are a couple of classes out in the hopes that recruiting them early will give you an edge when they are seniors. You would have to balance your budget between current seniors and future guys. The future guys would have to have some volatility built into their ratings though.

This would give the big schools a bigger advantage in recruiting with their huge budgets, which is really how it should be if you want the game to mirror real life.

The more I think about this, the more I think it is a tremendous idea for a future version!

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Marmel

That is a really good idea. I could see where you would invest part of your current year's budget into recruiting guys that are a couple of classes out in the hopes that recruiting them early will give you an edge when they are seniors. You would have to balance your budget between current seniors and future guys. The future guys would have to have some volatility built into their ratings though.

This would give the big schools a bigger advantage in recruiting with their huge budgets, which is really how it should be if you want the game to mirror real life.

The more I think about this, the more I think it is a tremendous idea for a future version!

I agree that it has the potential to be a great addition if well-implemented. One additional suggestion: give some better idea of how much recruiting other schools have done on recruits, to know whether it would be worthwhile to jump in or if other schools have already made such headway that you can't possibly catch up to the recruit if you jump in when he's a senior.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

One additional suggestion: give some better idea of how much recruiting other schools have done on recruits, to know whether it would be worthwhile to jump in or if other schools have already made such headway that you can't possibly catch up to the recruit if you jump in when he's a senior.

You kind of get that information now in terms of what the recruit's interest level is in your school, right? Not trying to dump on the idea, but I'd be cautious about exposing too much information explicitly.

I think what would be more important is providing a little more exposure to factors that influence a recruit's decision, i.e. some idea of how much they value staying close to home, how much do they value prestige, how much do they value projected playing time. These factors are already there, but we have to recruit them for multiple months before we can start to guess these things based off their responsiveness in terms of interest.

I'd also love to see the AD information exposed more, i.e. give a name and age and rough rating of their fund-raising ability. Again, you can kind of infer the latter based off the team budget as compared to their prestige, but you have no idea how long (or how short) they'll be in place.

[dunkem]

Good idea, but I'm not sure if HR will be willing to create a separate sim engine for the high school levels. If you create high school freshman, their ratings would need to change and their stats would need to change accordingly with age. Factor in the competition levels and lineups (including the non-recruitable scrubs and/or ghosts), I'd think it'd be difficult to execute properly over a four year span. It'd be a monstrous database too.

If anything, it'd have to be optional as well since some players don't want to micromanage their recruiting over four years. I personally wouldn't mind, but I know there are others who like the relatively quick and easy recruiting of FBCB.

oh... an one idea I'd throw in is leaving some decent recruits available towards the end of the season in March/April. Currently, they're all recruited by this time, but there should be at least a few top prospects in March/April like a Shabazz Muhammad to deal with some earl draft defections.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by dunkem

oh... an one idea I'd throw in is leaving some decent recruits available towards the end of the season in March/April. Currently, they're all recruited by this time, but there should be at least a few top prospects in March/April like a Shabazz Muhammad to deal with some earl draft defections.

I always edit for this purpose, because I like seeing kids fall to smaller programs as the big ones have already recruited everyone by then. But I also edit them after a few months in, because the good ones still manage to end up at the good schools anyway. But yeah, this would be a good thing.

[korme]

re: 4 year HS recruiting.

I already kind of loathe recruiting, so I would actually hate this

*devil's advocate

[LloydLungs]

Brian has a knack for making even the deep aspects of his games streamlined and fun, but I think that would be a hell of a task if you take recruiting to that depth.

I love OOTP, but there are some parts of that game that are so deep it feels like work. There are no parts of FBCB that feel like work. I don't hate recruiting now but it's hard to see how it wouldn't feel more like work than play if you make it that extensive.

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

Brian has a knack for making even the deep aspects of his games streamlined and fun, but I think that would be a hell of a task if you take recruiting to that depth.

I love OOTP, but there are some parts of that game that are so deep it feels like work. There are no parts of FBCB that feel like work. I don't hate recruiting now but it's hard to see how it wouldn't feel more like work than play if you make it that extensive.

Who knows if HR would even want to tackle this feature if there is ever a FBCB3, but it could probably come with an on/off toggle to show any high school recruit who is not a senior, which would disallow human or AI controlled teams from recruiting the younger guys.

[HeavyReign]

These days I try to do everything with customization in mind. If I were to add something like this, I'd likely make it possible to have 1,2,3 or 4 years of recruits visible. There will already have to some changes with recruiting in order to make sure that there are good players available in the spring.

Right now I'm hammering away at the pro game so keep up the discussion about any changes you might like to see so I'll have lots of notes when I start working on FBCB again.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Maybe we should start a separate pro game suggestion thread?

[korme]

Love that you're hammering away at the pro game! DDSPB2 was so buggy it's scared me away from PB3.