FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[Emmett13]

Originally Posted by Emmett13

PAGE 5! I'M OBSESSED, I KNOW.

AH SHIT! PAGE 5. STILL OBSESSED.

[TargetPractice6]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

Never read the first post, eh?

I did, but that was four months ago. Nevertheless, good to see that area has been/will be addressed.

[Terps]

Never played the first iteration of this game, or a college basketball text sim since TCB, but I'll be picking this up for sure. I know everyone here loves the first one.

[Emmett13]

[HeavyReign]

I've posted a one-season beta demo for anyone who wants to try out the new game and help catch any remaining issues before release.

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010DemoSetup.exe

Notes:

*Fast sim is disabled in this demo. You will be able to sim until after the championship game.

*FBCB 2003 saves can be used but make sure to check the league options screen after you load to make sure your settings haven't changed.

*The game uses the public common documents folder to store saved game and the default league files. If you want to use an old saved game you can locate the save folder by going to the load screen and using the open folder button.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Atocep]

Nice!

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Beat you Emmett13

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I am just starting, but I love the new look!

[Atocep]

The new look is fantastic. The colored boxes that allow you to quickly get an idea of a player's talent/potential are amazing.

One tiny thing I've noticed is I set ratings to 1-20 and on the roster page academics do show up 1-20, but on the player cards they're 1-100.

[Emmett13]

Originally Posted by LastWhiteSoxFanStanding

Beat you Emmett13

What a rip!

Great news though!

[Emmett13]

Didn't even realize you were working with Grey Dog.

Unless I'm missing it, you can no longer sort recruits by scholarship offer. I liked that in the old one, makes it quicker to find your main targets.

Looks awesome this far.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I got two of my three recruits! Starting as Northwestern, focusing on the midwest area.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I have one good player. A sg. I have set up the whole offense around him. scores 45 the first game.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Also the new season info screen is DYNAMITE!!!!!! Everyone should check it out. Simply amazing work.

[whomario]

so, you collaborating with Grey Dog afterall ? Hope they had to pay up for the privilege Game looks awesome The opening screen might be the most kick-ass opening screen ever You should make t-shirts with that logo and sell them

Little tidbit : The "admission requirement" , does that mean what i think it means ?

They are all on "average" as of now and i have no clue how to set them, but maybe someone else will fill them out if they indeed have an effect ? How about an aditional one, "low" ?

the menu is great, all of it. Quick and responsive, lean, easy to navigate and it also looks great.
I 2nd the liking of the coloured display/summary of a players ability and potential.

There´s no "save as" option to create a backup every once in a while from the main menu, is there ?

small thing and might be a random thing : It seems as if regional aspects are less of a factor now in recruiting ? Seems like if you are a great program basically every 5 star player has you on "very high". Just wondering if that´s by design ?

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

The team stat leader and individual stat leader pages are now easily sortable, very cool!

[Emmett13]

Removing a recruit that commits to another school from your call list is freaking genius.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Originally Posted by Emmett13

Didn't even realize you were working with Grey Dog.

Unless I'm missing it, you can no longer sort recruits by scholarship offer. I liked that in the old one, makes it quicker to find your main targets.

Looks awesome this far.

I couldnt find that either.

[Ben E Lou]

File with correct team nicknames attached. Drop it in the Program Files folder to replace the one that's there.

[whomario]

so, who else has immediately send at least a couple emails and/or posted in other places about the fact that there´s a demo out ?

The recruits stats have gotten a significant boost (a ton of 30+ scorers, 14+ rebounders or 9+ assist guys), although i can´t comment if those are now more or less realistic.

Little thing i´m missing : When the starting lineups are displayed, it doesn´t show the height/weight of the starters anymore which i though was a nice touch. Could we have that back if that´s easy to do maybe ?

taunting and technicals still seem to be too much. Oh, and a question : Would it be in any way possible to link the likelihood of those things to the academics rating ? I realize that´s not really accurate it would work well in the game setting.

Players seem to tire a lot faster.

[HeavyReign]

Little tidbit : The "admission requirement" , does that mean what i think it means ?

Its a placeholder for the moment but the option is there.

There´s no "save as" option to create a backup every once in a while from the main menu, is there ?

Not at the moment. If people feel its necessary then it can obviously come back.

small thing and might be a random thing : It seems as if regional aspects are less of a factor now in recruiting ? Seems like if you are a great program basically every 5 star player has you on "very high". Just wondering if that´s by design ?

I'm working on tweaking the importance of distance to recruits as there definitely are issues with this in the current build that was used for the demo.

[Emmett13]

Curious about how transfers stats will shape up. As far as separating the stats on the player card.

I don't see anywhere on a player's card saying what school he's on, short of the team logo. However, it is hard to distinguish what team that guy's on when the logo is just a W. So maybe putting what school that player plays for on the player card in print.

Credit Card is ready to go.

[HeavyReign]

Little thing i´m missing : When the starting lineups are displayed, it doesn´t show the height/weight of the starters anymore which i though was a nice touch. Could we have that back if that´s easy to do maybe ?

Do you mean on the pbp when coaching/watching a game?

taunting and technicals still seem to be too much. Oh, and a question : Would it be in any way possible to link the likelihood of those things to the academics rating ?

This has actually always been based on the academics rating. I haven't tweaked it yet though so it is still happening with the same frequency as before.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

Do you mean on the pbp when coaching/watching a game?



This has actually always been based on the academics rating. I haven't tweaked it yet though so it is still happening with the same frequency as before.

1) Yes, exactly there. Was just kind of neat to see.

2) Damn, i assumed so but thought it was me imagining it more than anything else

Just want to make sure to state that nothing i´ll say here will be meant as criticizing, i just long figured that i´d rather say sth about what i find missing and then just shrug it off if it doesn´t make it in than not saying anything at all and being pissed at myself for not mentioning it

[HeavyReign]

Took under 2 hours for the website to be not responding. Shouldn't everyone be in bed still? Guess I'll check that out after I get some sleep.

[Emmett13]

FT % seems really high. I got 69 guys shooting 90%+ from the line.

Some of that might be just from the generated player file. It seemed like in the last FBCB, the default player file from a new league always had some super players. But after a few years of getting new recruits in it would even out nicely.

[Icy]

Run time error '9' Subscript out of range.

I start a new game, all default, create my coach, take a job at any team, go to COACHES, click on HIRE STAFF and get that error and crash to desktop.

My OS is Windows 7 64 bit, maybe related?

[whomario]

the sorting option for academics is reversed, "show all" shows only the qualified ones and vice versa.

i have to say again that the new menu is highly appreciated, was one of the few gripes i had with the olde one.

the depth chart is kind of a pain to navigate through.

[SunDevil]

Not at the moment. If people feel its necessary then it can obviously come back.

I think the save as option is very necessary.

[Lathum]

Is there any way to resize the window in Windows 7?

The bottom menu of the game where you access mail, team summary, etc... falls below the taskbar and I can't access the buttons. When I try to move the window above it the window automatically drops below the taskbar again.

[Lathum]

Is there going to be an email sent each stage telling you what to do for that stage. I know because I played FBCB, but I can see where someone new to the game would be confused

[Lathum]

Some other thoughts, apologies if some of these are mentioned, I am typing in this window as I play

Is there an email following scheduling that tells you if your schedule is full or not?

Is there an option to sort recruiting by scholarship offered?

When simming a game but watching- Coach game, sim game- I tried to click on a players name to open their player card and it opens for a second but goes right back to the game sim instead of keeping the player card open and running the game in the background.

When simming a game there are no asterisks next to a starters name, not sure if this was intentional or not.

And the game just crashed on me, run time error 91 right after I finished simming the game and looked at the player card that was still open.

Overall the game looks and feels great, can't wait until it comes out.

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is there any way to resize the window in Windows 7?

The bottom menu of the game where you access mail, team summary, etc... falls below the taskbar and I can't access the buttons. When I try to move the window above it the window automatically drops below the taskbar again.

+1

[whomario]

maybe i´m blind or it just isn´t in yet, but where is that "watch list" you can put recruits (and also other players) on ? Would be neat to have for recruiting as well as to keep tabs on players around the NCAA (i like to keep tabs on recruits i just missed out, self-punishment ftw)

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is there an email following scheduling that tells you if your schedule is full or not?

Is there an option to sort recruiting by scholarship offered?

When simming a game there are no asterisks next to a starters name, not sure if this was intentional or not.

1) I don´t think so, but on the "hot seat" menu there´s a checkbox, pretty certain it only gets checked when you have scheduled all available games.

2) Not 100% sure if that´s what you mean, but under "display" there is an option for recruiting actions and there you can also sort by scholarship offered.

3) Yeah, wanted to mention that as well.

I think the stamina really goes down pretty fast, with my basically-unchanged team from the old version (only 1 rotation player graduated) i have the minutes of the starters down a ton and i was allready running a deep rotation. A player with a 13 or 14 stamina rating can barely play 5 minutes before being tired.
Not running anything extreme either, both trapping and pressing at 4-5 and game tempo at 7.


I´m also getting a run-time error (91) when trying to sim games from the league schedule screen.

[Radii]

I see a CPU Assistant Hiring Option. <3

[Radii]

Assistant Hiring Question:

I offered 3 coaches jobs, I did the assistant first, then a recruiter, then a scout. In the original game I would select assistant for the first guy, then the other two would default to recruiter and scout. I would only be allowed to make these 3 offers.

Here I noticed that when I didn't change the job I was offering for, I ended up with 3 offers for assistant coach. Is this a bug or a new mechanic for assistant hiring where you can make multiple offers? If its a new mechanic, how's it work?




Savedata appears to be going to:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\GDS\Fast Break College Basketball 2010\leaguedata\LeagueName

I can't find a way to change that. I would *really* prefer the old save structure under program files. Can this location be made customizable?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Radii

Savedata appears to be going to:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\GDS\Fast Break College Basketball 2010\leaguedata\LeagueName

I can't find a way to change that. I would *really* prefer the old save structure under program files. Can this location be made customizable?

What is it with everyone around here wanting to punch holes in their system's security? I'm all for this stuff being customizable, but I'd also recommend folks get used to the idea of putting their data separate from their programs. Heck, that even makes things easier to back up.

[Radii]

suggestion:

filter by conference option on pro prospects page.




FTP Exporting and importing! God Bless You! (I tried the ftp export, that worked, haven't tried an import yet).

[Radii]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

What is it with everyone around here wanting to punch holes in their system's security? I'm all for this stuff being customizable, but I'd also recommend folks get used to the idea of putting their data separate from their programs. Heck, that even makes things easier to back up.

If I am going to customize it, I'm putting it on my D drive.

I don't know a lot about system security, why is a game save going under the program's install folder as opposed to documents and settings insecure?

[Galaril]

Looks good I got all the way through scheduling games, staff hiring and first mon th of recruiting in July and when I tried to exit the recruiting window to get to the menu it crashed with the "error 738 property value "something. I did not save so that two hours of work was lost. I guess i will wait till the pay version comes out or the demo gets past the beta.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Radii

If I am going to customize it, I'm putting it on my D drive.

I don't know a lot about system security, why is a game save going under the program's install folder as opposed to documents and settings insecure?

That location is the place where Microsoft is moving all developers to put their save files. If you have UAC turned on in Vista or Win 7, it will error out if you try to save to the install directory under Program Files. FOF moved as well to the new save location with the 6.3 patch.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Radii

I don't know a lot about system security, why is a game save going under the program's install folder as opposed to documents and settings insecure?

Because then you have to make that folder writable to non-admins, which means it is easier for the virus writers to overwrite your executables with malicious code. Microsoft wants Program Files reserved for stuff critical for the app to run, and you should only write to it when installing / uninstalling / patching, in which case you are explicitly giving permission (via UAC) for the writing to occur.

[Radii]

Ah ok, I gotcha, that makes sense.

[whomario]

Another thing that i find to be missing is the "strength of schedule" when showing the RPI.

and when you want to sim a month it goes to the game screen on every matchday, kind of defeats the prpose here .

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Icy

Run time error '9' Subscript out of range.

I start a new game, all default, create my coach, take a job at any team, go to COACHES, click on HIRE STAFF and get that error and crash to desktop.

My OS is Windows 7 64 bit, maybe related?

Possibly. I've run tests on Windows 7 64 with no trouble before but I'll have to grab a copy and run some more.

the sorting option for academics is reversed, "show all" shows only the qualified ones and vice versa.

Fixed.

the depth chart is kind of a pain to navigate through.

This is probably the hardest screen to come up with something that works well. Definitely open to suggestions.

Is there any way to resize the window in Windows 7?

There isn't a way to resize at the moment. Bumping your screen resolution up one notch higher would work but let me look around and see if I can find a setting that will allow you to move the game up a touch. Another option would be to temporarily drag your task bar to the side of the window if that still works in windows 7.

Is there going to be an email sent each stage telling you what to do for that stage.

I've been working on adding emails. Hopefully the to do list on the hot seat screen is a decent guide as well.

Is there an email following scheduling that tells you if your schedule is full or not?

The hot seat screen will tell you the schedule is full.

When simming a game but watching- Coach game, sim game- I tried to click on a players name to open their player card and it opens for a second but goes right back to the game sim instead of keeping the player card open and running the game in the background.

That should actually be disabled while the game is actively simming.

maybe i´m blind or it just isn´t in yet, but where is that "watch list" you can put recruits (and also other players) on ? Would be neat to have for recruiting as well as to keep tabs on players around the NCAA (i like to keep tabs on recruits i just missed out, self-punishment ftw)

You can add players to the list either from the player profile or the recruit profile screens. You can view the list from the coach profile screen. Its in the drop down list.

I think the stamina really goes down pretty fast, with my basically-unchanged team from the old version (only 1 rotation player graduated) i have the minutes of the starters down a ton and i was allready running a deep rotation. A player with a 13 or 14 stamina rating can barely play 5 minutes before being tired.
Not running anything extreme either, both trapping and pressing at 4-5 and game tempo at 7.

The overall playing time tends to work out better than before but this is something I may need to spend more time on.

I´m also getting a run-time error (91) when trying to sim games from the league schedule screen.

Just found this one over the weekend. I must've missed one of the options.

I see a CPU Assistant Hiring Option. <3

You've dealt with enough cruel and unusual punishment.

I offered 3 coaches jobs, I did the assistant first, then a recruiter, then a scout. In the original game I would select assistant for the first guy, then the other two would default to recruiter and scout. I would only be allowed to make these 3 offers. Here I noticed that when I didn't change the job I was offering for, I ended up with 3 offers for assistant coach. Is this a bug or a new mechanic for assistant hiring where you can make multiple offers? If its a new mechanic, how's it work?

You can make unlimited offers for each position.

I can't find a way to change that. I would *really* prefer the old save structure under program files. Can this location be made customizable?

If you copy everything in the:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\GDS\Fast Break College Basketball 2010\

folder back to the actual application directory and then delete or rename this folder it will run from there. The default setup has to be this way so it will work for the average user that doesn't know how to enable write access to the application folder.

FTP Exporting and importing!

Don't worry too much about testing this yet other than the upload and download. I still need to redo the exports themselves later today so they will include the new information.

when I tried to exit the recruiting window to get to the menu it crashed with the "error 738 property value "something.

I know this is a long shot but any idea what screen you were on prior to recruiting? I'll do some experimenting and see if I can't find it. I'll try and post new versions of the demo as things get fixed as well.

Another thing that i find to be missing is the "strength of schedule" when showing the RPI.

I'll get that added.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Emmett13

Didn't even realize you were working with Grey Dog.

Unless I'm missing it, you can no longer sort recruits by scholarship offer. I liked that in the old one, makes it quicker to find your main targets.

Looks awesome this far.

Go to Recruiting

Then on the top drop down menu box "display" change it to recruiting actions.

Then far right hand side at the top it says "offer" click on that and you should be good to go

[HeavyReign]

I also should really just add an offered filter to the players section on recruiting since multiple people have asked and the other way isn't obvious.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Emmett13

FT % seems really high. I got 69 guys shooting 90%+ from the line.

Some of that might be just from the generated player file. It seemed like in the last FBCB, the default player file from a new league always had some super players. But after a few years of getting new recruits in it would even out nicely.

Once your able to play out a a few seasons the engine is pretty accurate stat wise to the college basketball stats today.

[LloydLungs]

Actually, HR, one thing I've always thought would be a good addition to the standings screen is current RPI. I see there's another space available. I've had to do a lot of extra clicking over the years when going through conference standings to see who's in a decent position for an at-large and who's not. No biggie, but it would be a nice add.