FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

I'm interested in playing in the league. I usually get my ass kicked by "random" results in these kind of leagues.

Currently suffering through a major beatdown in the FOFC BBCF where the higher my prestige goes, the less talent I get.

I expect nothing less here. No idea where the link is though for the league

Forums where the pilgrimage is taking place: NCAA53

html example (doesn't have anyone jumping in today yet) www.nabf.us/html

[Groundhog]

I know most people turn off early declarations, but in my 'coach every game' FBCB save I've really enjoyed the added challenge. As a prestige 100 school that makes the Elite 8+ nearly every year, the last 4 seasons since the FBCB2 upgrade have really started to get challenging - yeah, it takes me awhile to coach each game, hence why so few seasons since this version...

I lost my best player (PF, Jnr) and my starting SG (Fr, #1 recruit in country)as well as some key seniors last season and a great combo guard freshman who decided to try his luck in the 2nd round of the draft, and as a result my roster is reallllly light - not helped by my top-50 freshman PF being ruled illegible to start the year.

Despite this we started the current season 12-0 and ranked #1, then had our first big game vs #2 Kentucky, 12-1. We scrapped home with a win to go 13-0, and I'm thinking I'm the best coach in the country to do so much with so little.

Then SEC play really begins. I go 3-3 in our first 6 games, losing to two 50-60 range prestige teams that had no business beating me. We can't put the ball in the basket as all of our guards are spot up players (low INS, high 3PT) who aren't getting good looks with no great playmakers, and our top scorer is an inconsistent sophomore PF who can't hit FTs.

I honestly have no idea how we'll end up doing this year, but it's a ton of fun. I was on the verge of retiring my current coach and taking up a new challenge, but instead I'm going to chase Coach K's 1000 wins. Got nearly 600 now in a little over 20 seasons. I think I'm going to chase a guy in the 100-250 range each season, to try give myself some guys that should stick around all 4 years.

Interesting that the same thing happened to Kentucky in my save... They lost to us, and then went 1-4 over their next 5 games to tumble out of the polls. Top schools are currently a mix of the usual high prestige teams, plus some 'Wichita State' type schools with a lot of 3rd and 4th year guys.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

Forums where the pilgrimage is taking place: NCAA53

html example (doesn't have anyone jumping in today yet) www.nabf.us/html

Are those rosters?

How does prestige work?

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Are those rosters?

How does prestige work?

Yep those are the rosters (assuming my fix to the Villanova bug or Brian's fix works).

prestige... It's sort of like a informal ranking that game uses for scheduling, recruiting, picking your rosters talent initially, etc... I took the entire 1950's and ranked the teams based off final rankings to give us starting numbers to get things started like it should have been in the 50's. I then tried to level them off just like the initial league file so there were X% of teams between 100-90 and Y between 90-80 and so on.

Wins and losses determine if your prestige goes up or down. So in theory, you take Kentucky and lose with them 3 straight seasons their number drops like a rock. But it doesn't drop so hard that a school like Brooklyn starting at 10 can dominate them. The more you win, the easier recruiting is...just like life.

I'm sure someone can give a better answer but that's the quick version from work.

Another league I'm in started with USC around 60 and I now have them at 100 but they've made 4 out of 6 final fours. I took a team that's starting out and 0 and they are now in the mid 30's and that took 9 season.

[dawgfan]

I'm still locked out from posting - no response yet from Mike.

Maybe I should just register again using a different e-mail.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I'm still locked out from posting - no response yet from Mike.

Maybe I should just register again using a different e-mail.

Can't hurt to try to use another email but it seems to be working as I've seen a massive amount of FOFC people signing up in the league with their 1st/2nd posts.

[korme]

Went ahead and grabbed Cincy

[muns]

The only thing I would add to Murrayyy's explanation of Prestige would be this

Prestige is based on a 10 year scale of performance. So for example you just had a decent season and are expecting your prestige to be bumped up because you won. If for some reason your Prestige did not go up it would be because any gains for the season were likely lost by the game removing a previously good season from consideration. That make sense?

The deeper tourney runs you can have and be consistent with runs, the more your prestige will get bumped in a bigger way.

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

Yep those are the rosters (assuming my fix to the Villanova bug or Brian's fix works).

prestige... It's sort of like a informal ranking that game uses for scheduling, recruiting, picking your rosters talent initially, etc... I took the entire 1950's and ranked the teams based off final rankings to give us starting numbers to get things started like it should have been in the 50's. I then tried to level them off just like the initial league file so there were X% of teams between 100-90 and Y between 90-80 and so on.

Wins and losses determine if your prestige goes up or down. So in theory, you take Kentucky and lose with them 3 straight seasons their number drops like a rock. But it doesn't drop so hard that a school like Brooklyn starting at 10 can dominate them. The more you win, the easier recruiting is...just like life.

I'm sure someone can give a better answer but that's the quick version from work.

Another league I'm in started with USC around 60 and I now have them at 100 but they've made 4 out of 6 final fours. I took a team that's starting out and 0 and they are now in the mid 30's and that took 9 season.

[muns]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I'm still locked out from posting - no response yet from Mike.

Maybe I should just register again using a different e-mail.

For some reason you and OldGiants are having that same issue.

[OldGiants]

I just got home from work and emailed.

Is there anything else I can/should do right now?

[OldGiants]

Good, I'm in now.

[dawgfan]

I still haven't heard back from Mike. I guess I'll re-register with my gmail account and see if I get the confirmation email this time...

[OldGiants]

I'm getting the '383' error message for Rutgers. I didn't look like I could pick it from Independent2, either.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

I'm getting the '383' error message for Rutgers. I didn't look like I could pick it from Independent2, either.

Just about finishing up with the updated file. I made a stupid mistake when I copy and pasted to create multiple INDY conferences because if I left everyone in one conference, you would only see 22 teams in the standings.

Sleep helps...

[murrayyyyy]

The good file is up now. Sorry about my lazy copy and paste mistake guys. OldGiant, I'll need your coaches attributes to get him signed in.

I had never really heard about the Queensmen until doing research for the league to be honest and I'm trying to make it as realistic as I can (excluding shot clock but I think everyone can live with it).

[korme]

Where is the file?

[Vince, Pt. II]

In this thread or you can get it directly from this link.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

The good file is up now. Sorry about my lazy copy and paste mistake guys. OldGiant, I'll need your coaches attributes to get him signed in.

I had never really heard about the Queensmen until doing research for the league to be honest and I'm trying to make it as realistic as I can (excluding shot clock but I think everyone can live with it).

As you keep updating the league file with new owners, will exports from old files work?

[korme]

Sorry, these are n00b questions. I just offered some coaches. How do I export?

Nevermind, figured it out. Under 'Setup'

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

As you keep updating the league file with new owners, will exports from old files work?

It should as you'd only be exporting your team

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

It should as you'd only be exporting your team

Mmm, not when the league files start progressing in time, though.

[Groundhog]

If you have Python installed on your PC (it's free) and want a quick short-cut to download/unzip the league file, copy the below into a file on your PC, update the 9th line to point to the save folder on your PC (use double back-slashes instead of single - ie C:\\my_dir\\ rather than c:\my_dir - then save the file as 'any_name_you_like.py' and run it from either the command line or clicking the file, it should download the league file and uncompress it for you:

Spoiler

from __future__ import print_function
import urllib
import zipfile
import os

#Update the following to point to your FBCB2 save folder - you can find
#this directory by clicking the 'open folder' button from the Save/Load
#screen.
fbcb_save_path = "C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\GDS\\Fast Break College Basketball 2010\\leaguedata\"

if os.path.exists(fbcb_save_path):
    #No need to change the following unless the URL or league file name changes.
    fbcb_save_file_name = "NCAA53.zip"
    fbcb_file_location = "http://www.nabf.us//"
    fbcb_save_file_link = fbcb_file_location + fbcb_save_file_name
    fbcb_save_file_destination = fbcb_save_path + fbcb_save_file_name

    #Download the file...
    print("Downloading file...")
    download_file = urllib.URLopener()
    download_file.retrieve(fbcb_save_file_link, fbcb_save_file_destination)
    print("Download complete.")

    #Uncompress...
    print("Uncompressing file...")
    with zipfile.ZipFile(fbcb_save_file_destination, "r") as z:
        z.extractall(fbcb_save_path)
    print("Files uncompressed.\nGet hoopin'!")
else:
    print("Error: Can not find save path.")

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

The good file is up now. Sorry about my lazy copy and paste mistake guys. OldGiant, I'll need your coaches attributes to get him signed in.

I had never really heard about the Queensmen until doing research for the league to be honest and I'm trying to make it as realistic as I can (excluding shot clock but I think everyone can live with it).

Posted my attributes and they're in; thanks.

Two more nicknames that should be 1953'd:

William & Mary were still the "Indians" back then. I saw a reference to 'Iron Indians" for 1953, but that was likely football, only. Changed in the late 1970's

Colgate was known as the "Red Raiders" Not sure when that changed.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

Two more nicknames that should be 1953'd:

William & Mary were still the "Indians" back then. I saw a reference to 'Iron Indians" for 1953, but that was likely football, only. Changed in the late 1970's

Colgate was known as the "Red Raiders" Not sure when that changed.

Well at least I know it was just execution on my part. I had both those notes in my checklist as well as forgetting to change the name of Loyola Marymount (found late in the process).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=939809422

Should be updated when the next coaches file goes up later tonight.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Pop quiz, hot shots:

You're running a team with 42 prestige, which is tied with two others as the low team on the totem pole for the conference (couple of low 60's, a few mid-50's). You're losing all three centers on your team to graduation, and every forward on your team is a giant pile of crap when it comes to playing basketball. You have good, young guards. You've got three scholarships to give out while recruiting, and you have a handle on two of them: two centers, one of whom looks tailor made to play the 4. Which leaves you one scholarship offer...and you can't decide between these two players:

SF, graded Red/Yellow, scout loves him and his high school stats were great. After one month of recruiting, you're #1 on his list ahead of only one other school...which happens to be the highest prestige school in your own conference (your 42 vs their 65). Neither team has offered him, and he lives much closer to your school than the other school.

PG, graded Orange/Green, scout loves him even more than the SF. You are the #2 school on his list, but he's got a few local schools on the list as well -- including the #1 school, which has you beat in prestige 47-42. None of the five schools has offered a scholarship, only one has a significant lead in the prestige game at 51 and that school is several hundred miles away from this kid.

Who do you go after? The PG seems like a much better player, but it looks like more competition for him and at a position that you really don't need much help at: Green/Blue Junior and Orange/Blue Sophomore on the roster already at PG as opposed to the Red/Orange and Red/Yellow Freshman you have at SF.

[Groundhog]

With lower prestige schools I always go talent over need - start 3 PGs and 2 walk on forwards if need be.

If the #1 school on the PG's list offers a scholy you may be out of luck, but if you hit the scholy+campus visit+head coach visit combo (might be tough depending on recruiting budget) you just might jump to #1.

After the first sim if you are still #2 and the other school has offered a scholy, I'd abandon ship. It is possible to overtake the #1 school - I've won a recruit where on the final sim before signings I was still #2 - but it's harder to do with small school and less money to go around.

[nol]

It would depend on the particulars because of how off the scouting report can be.

Things that would make me go with the SF:

His interest is very high and the point guard's is average. At the mid-major level especially, I find consistently picking up solid players to be huge (especially if the current AD expectations are reasonable) because even the top schools in your conference can and will botch a year of recruiting.

He's a much better 3-point shooter than the other recruit and your current PGs. Extra bonus points if the potential for both 3s and inside is B or higher.

If the PG's highest ratings are in free throws, passing, and handling. Those guys' color ratings always seem better than their on-court performance. Also I'm very skeptical of anyone getting an A or B potential in perimeter defense whose current rating is less than 5/10.

Also, what will likely happen this season is that one of the PGs will be listed as an SG if you start both players. This will make the position look even thinner to recruits, which may make it possible to grab an even better PG next year.

[britrock88]

Yeah, never fear manipulating your depth chart to accommodate 3 guards to maximize your usage of the team's talent. But I can attest to the fact that a 4-guard lineup doesn't work.

[Vince, Pt. II]

More information:

This is an MP league, and 3-pointers are off.

Current roster:

SF Red/Red Junior (he's earned every bit of that Red/Red rating)
SF Red/Yellow Sophomore (meh)
SF Red/Orange Freshman (extra meh)
SG Yellow/Green Junior
SG Red/Yellow Sophomore
SG Red/Red Freshman (actually looks pretty great offensively, just no defense at all)
PG Green/Blue Junior
PG Orange/Blue Sophomore

All of my talent is in the backcourt on this team. I don't know that the recruit would play for a year or two anyway if I went with the PG.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

More information:

This is an MP league, and 3-pointers are off.

Current roster:

SF Red/Red Junior (he's earned every bit of that Red/Red rating)
SF Red/Yellow Sophomore (meh)
SF Red/Orange Freshman (extra meh)
SG Yellow/Green Junior
SG Red/Yellow Sophomore
SG Red/Red Freshman (actually looks pretty great offensively, just no defense at all)
PG Green/Blue Junior
PG Orange/Blue Sophomore

All of my talent is in the backcourt on this team. I don't know that the recruit would play for a year or two anyway if I went with the PG.

Vince ill chime in even though we are in the same conf I'm not sure what the recruits height, weight, or athletic skills are, but some PG's and SG's can play the SF beyond fine due to their own personal skill set. Make sure you are looking at that on your own roster to see who might be able to convert for next year. The same applies to recruits because that stuff also helps decide what you can or want to do.

[Radii]

Without seeing full stat/scouting information, I'm going to make the general point that with your roster, where either guy is going to play (by my standards at least, I have occasionally ended up with 0 SF on my team and a glut of PG/SG, I have never considered this a problem at all), I want to make my team better. If I reach even a little for the better player, and it doesn't work out, and the lost time causes me to lose the SF as well, and now that Red/Red guy might get minutes, that's my disaster scenario.

If I'm going to be really good either way and a reach might get me a final four, ok, sure. But if I'm filling gaping holes in my roster, I'm going to tend towards taking less risks.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Radii

If I'm going to be really good either way and a reach might get me a final four, ok, sure. But if I'm filling gaping holes in my roster, I'm going to tend towards taking less risks.

I think this is likely the better takeaway. I feel like recruiting for Stanford is going to be much more difficult than for Dartmouth...which seems weird.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by muns

Vince ill chime in even though we are in the same conf

I was wondering what the big secret was here. I will say this about Stanford. I love recruiting with California schools in game because I always feel it is a hot bed for talent. Cal, UCLA and Wash are the only schools that much higher compared to the rest of us.

Personally I'm trying to take whatever talent will talk to Oregon State. This roster won't be fixed in just one recruiting year so I'd rather get the most talent as soon as possible and plug holes later.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Less a secret and more I didn't think people would be familiar with 1953 prestige levels/conference names

[Vince, Pt. II]

So I just finished my first season in a single player universe (level 7 coach, what the game suggests as Average) with UC Santa Barbara. We had a charmed season, landing a top 50 recruiting class and upsetting our way to the Sweet 16 as a 14 seed.

I'm immediately offered a coaching job at Wisconsin in the offseason. Wisconsin, who landed the #1 recruiting class in the nation and made it to the Elite 8. That seems...odd? Small sample size, obviously, but why in the world would the team that just landed the #1 recruiting class in the nation be looking for a new head coach?

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I'm immediately offered a coaching job at Wisconsin in the offseason. Wisconsin, who landed the #1 recruiting class in the nation and made it to the Elite 8. That seems...odd? Small sample size, obviously, but why in the world would the team that just landed the #1 recruiting class in the nation be looking for a new head coach?

The prior coach either retired, or took a job with a higher prestige school that had an opening.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Ah, didn't even think about that possibility.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Ah, didn't even think about that possibility.

You can actually check on which happened if you want Vince. Go to the Wisconsin hot seat menu on the left of the screen.

Click on the history menu on the left. Then the drop down menu under the team name which should have coaching staff listed.

Click on the last head coach. If it comes up you will see his coach profile and where he is now coaching, and if he doesn't come up, he retired.

[dawgfan]

The AI behind coaching movement isn't the most sophisticated - a coach of a 90 prestige team that's got a loaded roster will pretty much always take a job at a 95 prestige team.

It's set up in a way to make it pretty friendly to a human coach in terms of new coaching opportunities.

Congrats BTW on getting a new job offer after just one season - that's highly unusual. Usually it takes three seasons of doing well, maybe two if you've really excelled.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by muns

You can actually check on which happened if you want Vince. Go to the Wisconsin hot seat menu on the left of the screen.

Click on the history menu on the left. Then the drop down menu under the team name which should have coaching staff listed.

Click on the last head coach. If it comes up you will see his coach profile and where he is now coaching, and if he doesn't come up, he retired.

There's also a section under History called Coach Movement (I think, I'm at work and don't have the game here). As long as you haven't advanced more than a season, you should be able to see all the coaching movement from the prior off-season there.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Yup, he retired. Cool to watch - Davidson's coach took over at Wisconsin and brought nearly his entire staff with him.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

The AI behind coaching movement isn't the most sophisticated - a coach of a 90 prestige team that's got a loaded roster will pretty much always take a job at a 95 prestige team.

It's set up in a way to make it pretty friendly to a human coach in terms of new coaching opportunities.

Congrats BTW on getting a new job offer after just one season - that's highly unusual. Usually it takes three seasons of doing well, maybe two if you've really excelled.

Eh, I think it's mostly luck - we beat a much more talented #3 seed, then took down another more talented squad who was the #10 or #11 seed who had their best player hurt in the first round. We then faced Kentucky, who was only a #7 seed, but we couldn't get it done. I also found that the #107th recruit in the nation was being left alone after two months and that my #1 prospect dumped me simultaneously. Threw everything I had at him. So everything just sort of came together. This year will be much more difficult, as my entire frontcourt graduated and it looks like none of my backups had any sort of development at all.

Edit: Is there a way to see past seasons' tournament brackets? I can find the champs easy enough, but there doesn't seem to be a way to see how the bracket played out.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Edit: Is there a way to see past seasons' tournament brackets? I can find the champs easy enough, but there doesn't seem to be a way to see how the bracket played out.

Not that I'm aware of. There may be a way to export the tournament info while you're still in that season, but I don't believe that info is saved when you move to the next season. You'd have to go through individual team histories to see how far they advanced in the tournament, but even then you won't see who they beat or who they lost to.

I haven't tried it myself, but there may be a way to export that info - I'm guessing that the multi-player aspect of the game means that Brian built-in some ways to send that data in an HTML-friendly format.

[Vince, Pt. II]

That's kind of a bummer. I'd imagine that data would build up a lot over time, especially in long dynasties, but it's still kind of sad not to be able to look at past brackets. I'll have to look at the end of this next season to see if I can indeed export that data.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

That's kind of a bummer. I'd imagine that data would build up a lot over time, especially in long dynasties, but it's still kind of sad not to be able to look at past brackets. I'll have to look at the end of this next season to see if I can indeed export that data.

Pretty much why I created that extra forum in the NCAA53 league. It has to be possible since the game tracks every pre-tournament and the game keeps track of the final four in the history section.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

That's kind of a bummer. I'd imagine that data would build up a lot over time, especially in long dynasties, but it's still kind of sad not to be able to look at past brackets. I'll have to look at the end of this next season to see if I can indeed export that data.

No way to export it. But that'd be a nice feature if we could even print it or something to an image or whatever as one bracket before the post-season ends as a PDF or something.

[Comey]

With all of the data it does import, it would be great to see a third-party parsing program like High Heat used to have. That broke down boxscores and game-by-game results and dished out a ton of info. Something like that would be tremendously useful here.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Comey

With all of the data it does import, it would be great to see a third-party parsing program like High Heat used to have. That broke down boxscores and game-by-game results and dished out a ton of info. Something like that would be tremendously useful here.

Radii use to have something that was able to pick out the player with the highest player rating during a sim i think. About the onky one i know of.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

Radii use to have something that was able to pick out the player with the highest player rating during a sim i think. About the onky one i know of.

I don't think I have that anymore, though it woudl be fairly easy to re-create if i could find the formula I was using.

I've occasionally written a few things here and there that just iterate through the game's HTML and run some calculations. The one murrayyyy was talking about was to look through all the games played in a specific time frame and calculate some kind of score (something sort of similar to the old Bill James "game score" for pitchers) for the quality of the performance and would generate a list of the top 10 individual performances among all players and another list of the top 10 performances among teams run by human coaches (since it was an online league).


This kind of thing has the very early beginnings to have the potential to be turned into some kind of awesome history stored in a database similar to the awesome things they do over in the FOBL and FOFL for FOF/OOTP for an online league.


Another thing I fucked around with was some advanced metrics: Team Advanced Stats.

If only I weren't so lazy. I'm never particularly happy with my parsing code, and have never taken the time to automate things or enhance things, blah blah blah

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Radii

I don't think I have that anymore, though it woudl be fairly easy to re-create if i could find the formula I was using.

I've occasionally written a few things here and there that just iterate through the game's HTML and run some calculations. The one murrayyyy was talking about was to look through all the games played in a specific time frame and calculate some kind of score (something sort of similar to the old Bill James "game score" for pitchers) for the quality of the performance and would generate a list of the top 10 individual performances among all players and another list of the top 10 performances among teams run by human coaches (since it was an online league).


This kind of thing has the very early beginnings to have the potential to be turned into some kind of awesome history stored in a database similar to the awesome things they do over in the FOBL and FOFL for FOF/OOTP for an online league.


Another thing I fucked around with was some advanced metrics: Team Advanced Stats.

If only I weren't so lazy. I'm never particularly happy with my parsing code, and have never taken the time to automate things or enhance things, blah blah blah

Wild guess since it's been a long time is that it was Hollinger's formula:
PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV.