FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[Young Drachma]

It's been a while since we had a conference realignment file. I made the 2025-26 realignment with all of the moves announced up to now, as well as adding the new D1 schools to the mix. Rather than delete Hartford, I just recreated the Independents and put them with Chicago State and you can use them for when you can't get anyone else to play you. So this includes the UCLA/USC to the Big Ten, Texas/OU to SEC, the B12 moves and all of the varied schools moving up to D1 so far announced, as well as the smaller league moves.

Link to the 2025-26 file

I didn't change the tournaments file at all, just moved the schools to their new leagues. I'll let someone forage the appropriately sized gif logos of all of the new D1 schools, because sizing and cropping is a pain.

[Klinglerware]

Thanks for this! I always look forward to your updates and appreciate the work you put into them. Definitely keeps the game fun to play for me.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Izulde

So it's not working for me. I Run as Administrator and have tried literally every compatibility mode, and it refuses to run. Crashes every single time

One thing to check is if you made an edit to the default files, I tried that thinking it'd be handy to change them and when you do that it breaks the game so it can't load. Restoring the defaults allowed me to reopen the game. Just save your preferred changes in a separate folder somewhere and load them when the game starts instead.

[Leglaen]

Since it's March, it's the annual reunion with FBCB (just right for my tastes, compared to the newer sims of DDS.)



I'm looking for the most recent patch, which I believe is 2.4.11. ( I have 2.4.7 installed.) Unfortunately, the link on Grey Dog's site does not work.


Might anyone here know of a proper link, and if the patch changes are substantial?



Thanks!

[cartman]

I had to right click the download button for 2.4.11 then select Copy Link. I then pasted the link into a new tab and it downloaded for me. Also had to run the .exe as Administrator.

[Leglaen]

Originally Posted by cartman

I had to right click the download button for 2.4.11 then select Copy Link. I then pasted the link into a new tab and it downloaded for me. Also had to run the .exe as Administrator.

Thanks, that worked!

[Young Drachma]

Got the bright idea last night to keep trying to induce transfers, but it seems that there's no good way to do it non-manually with a lot of clicking and intervention. My current theory is that even though some star players will willingly take a redshirt year, forcing them to take another (by removing it) might induce them to leave, but then you have to wait 2 years before you can see if that works.

I've been able to at least get the game to generate better stats for bench guys so they leave with some semblance of having played in some cases, but it's still very hard to induce anybody worthwhile to transfer. I've done a bunch of other stuff that's at least generated increased talent, but there's no easy way to get the game to do anything organically it's all pretty random besides hoping to redshirt guys in the hopes of making them angry enough to transfer.

[21C]

Just noticed that the fbbgames.com site is showing an "Account Suspended" message. I hope it's only temporary.

[Young Drachma]

Still playing this because I like simming seasons and I find that modern conferences are not really great for this game because the optimal conference size is around 12-16 teams, otherwise you end up getting situations where programs languish for too long.

I realize now that because I play with conference prestige changes, it means major conferences drop in prestige and mid-majors improve, I might try playing for a few decades where I fix the major conferences prestige to be high, scale it downward and see how programs operate in that new universe.

Initially, I broke up those leagues because the calculus was that it was better to go be in a 1-2 bid league of middling mid-majors versus getting pummeled by the big boys even for a bigger budget. I might also opt for more hyper-regional conferences, to contrast against the current state of affairs since my current universe has over 400 schools.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Still playing this because I like simming seasons and I find that modern conferences are not really great for this game because the optimal conference size is around 12-16 teams...

To this point, always a little sad when a current wave of realignment pulls reality a little farther out of the reach of this game's capabilities in managing conferences. Time marches on, alas.

[Young Drachma]

I updated a new conference realignment file that creates the revamped Pac-10, Mountain West and the few new schools currently moving up from D2, as well as the smaller changes not in my current file.

This is a revamp of 2025-26, that eliminates the Independents since Chicago State is in the NEC, eliminates the Pac-12 since OSU and Wazzu are WCC affiliates for 2 years.

[Young Drachma]

I want to induce more transfers in this game, so that talented mid-majors hit the market a bit more portal like, but it seems the only real way to do it is to make players unhappy sometime on their current team, usually by not playing them at all and/or redshirting them when they don't wanna be. I think i finally figured out what I'm going to do to test this out.

I'm going to ID some potential players I want to have hit the portal, give them an extra year beyond the redshirt, manually take over their team to ensure they don't play and are unhappy so they then transfer after the year is over. For a while, i thought taking away a schollie would be enough to send them into the portal looking for one, but that's not how the logic seems to work for players who have gotten any real run in the past season.

Now I know how it induce it -- probably -- it means I can start to simulate better players switching teams mid-career, but I need to run a few tests to see if it works and it'll be a lot more cumbersome because I have to manually take over programs to do it, but...I'd love to get some mid-major players out of their programs and onto other programs.

[Young Drachma]

Dola

Since that doesn't really work -- it's very slow and unpredictable -- the alternative is simply to increase the incoming player talent (something I already do) even more than I currently do, so that the average player is a lot better ratings wise and it creates more randomness than what's currently happening.

The other thing might be letting players leave early, I'm playing a womens sim right now and I don't allow it, but it might be another way to make sure there's not a glut of talent that never leaves for four years.

[Marmel]

I love when this post gets bumped.

YD, remind me where i put the files that you have uploaded on your website? I am interested in trying the 26-27 set up you have there, but I haven't messed with the files in a number of years now and don't remember exactly what to do.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I love when this post gets bumped.

YD, remind me where i put the files that you have uploaded on your website? I am interested in trying the 26-27 set up you have there, but I haven't messed with the files in a number of years now and don't remember exactly what to do.

Put them in the defaultleagues folder in a folder called 26-27 and then deposit all the files from the zip and you can fire them up when starting a new game

[FBPro]

I just downloaded the game again for the first time in years but don't have my license number anymore, any clue how i can get it restored? TIA

[Lathum]

"[email protected]"

[Carman Bulldog]

Arles, any chance we get a sale this year?

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

I updated a new conference realignment file that creates the revamped Pac-10, Mountain West and the few new schools currently moving up from D2, as well as the smaller changes not in my current file.

This is a revamp of 2025-26, that eliminates the Independents since Chicago State is in the NEC, eliminates the Pac-12 since OSU and Wazzu are WCC affiliates for 2 years.

Appreciate you (not so much for my own sake these days) helping the FBCB community!