Alright boyz, it's the BBCF First Impressions thread.

[duckman]

Originally Posted by Arles

No, doing that will remove 80% of the files you need to run. The reason there are multiple versions in your add/remove is that each update adds new files.

Cool, I was just making sure that one of them was a phantom and was taking up another 268 megs of hard drive space.

[Eaglesfan27]

Been playing this for the last 5 hours, and having so much fun. Now that injuries are much more reasonably handled, this is just a blast to play. I'm watching every game, and there are still some things that need to be fixed in the PbP, but they don't significantly hamper my enjoyment of the game.

My only gripe is that USC's starting roster in each of my careers (I've started one after each of the patches) has been relatively weak

However, this time, I do have a very good (although not a stud) RB.

[Johnny93g]

i just want to say im really enjoying this game. Arlie, you did a great job. I'm in my 3rd season with Notre Dame....currently 4-1....my 1st 2 recruiting classes were ranked 8th, and 29th....it's definatly a challenge.....MY top recruit this year, a CB ranked 29th in the nation, has already become a superstar...8 interceptions in 5 games!!!!!....nice way to start a career.

A quick question......I've had 5 players transfer away so far....Each player was a freshman who redshirted, with skills ranging around 50 current, and 75 potential....These are all players i pegged as future stars, who were behind pretty talented vetarns. Im now afraid to redshirt any freshman with a nice potential for fear of a transfer. Meanwhile, Miami is recruiting QB's like crazy. They have last years #1 QB, and this year's number 2, and number 3. Last year's #1 redshirted, and was a 76/85......seems like he would be more likely to transfer. Are other people having this problem....I actually wouldnt call it a problem, more of an annoyance.

Im also having a difficult time getting anyone to transfer here....I have a huge recruiting budget, so i offer a few transfer's each year.....noone has any interest in coming to Notre Dame. Maybe that needs to be adjusted. My prestige is 74, so id assume thats pretty high. Great game

[CamEdwards]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

i just want to say im really enjoying this game. Arlie, you did a great job. I'm in my 3rd season with Notre Dame....currently 4-1....my 1st 2 recruiting classes were ranked 8th, and 29th....it's definatly a challenge.....MY top recruit this year, a CB ranked 29th in the nation, has already become a superstar...8 interceptions in 5 games!!!!!....nice way to start a career.

A quick question......I've had 5 players transfer away so far....All players who were freshman, with skills ranging around 50 current, and 75 potential....These are all players i pegged as future stars, who were behind pretty talented vetarns. Im now afraid to redshirt any skilled freshman for fear of a transfer. Meanwhile, Miami is recruiting QB's like crazy. They have last years #1 QB, and this year's number 2, and number 3. Last year's #1 redshirted, and was a 76/85......seems like he would be more likely to transfer. Are other people having this problem....I actually wouldnt call it a problem, more of an annoyance.

Im also having a difficult time getting anyone to transfer here....I have a huge recruiting budget, so i offer a few transfer's each year.....noone has any interest in coming to Notre Dame. Maybe that needs to be adjusted. My prestige is 74, so id assume thats pretty high. Great game

I've always had at least one player transfer, but no more than two per year. Check the player's morale during the course of the season. If you don't want to lose them, you might have to play them. Taking off the redshirt and having them sit on the bench won't really help their morale, however.

I was also playing as Notre Dame in my last dynasty and never had anybody want to transfer. I just assumed it was because ND is evil.

[Honolulu Blue]

Bugs, features and such I've seen:

* I haven't seen a junior college player in several years, since the 1.02 patch. What happened to them?
* It's irritating to only be able to cut players during one specific point during the offseason, and not at all during the season.
* Equally irritating is the very limited availability of position changes.
* The "I want to go to Troy" guy is nothing but a hook and snare. He always teases me with his ability, then whether I pursue him or not, he loses interest around week 12. I never, ever get those guys and have given up trying.
* Slightly more realistic is the fact that no one wants to transfer to Troy (nothing but "Low" interest). The good news is that no one has ever transferred out.
* Kickers are listed under punting stats when they have no punts.
* I had one super stud named Jose Brinson. He was an OLB that was rated as the #1816 player in the land in his year. He wasn't on my list of recruits that year; must've walked on and we gave him a scholarship. Good move. He graded out at 5/9 (out of 10) his freshman year, made the NATIONAL third team, the Sun Belt 1st team, and took Sun Belt FOTY honors for good measure. My coaches couldn't screw him up and he grew to a 6/9 his sophomore year. He had 111 tackles, 15(!) sacks, 14 stuffs, and 2 picks. He made the Sun Belt 1st team, of course, was named Sun Belt Defensive POTY, and made the national 1st team. Alas, this was before the last patch, and you know what happened - he declared for the draft. We've had good players after that, but nothing like good old Jose.

[MizzouRah]

Go Troy!

[digamma]

It looks like kick offs out of bounds are being spotted at the 40 yard line instead of the 35:

Mark Hamilton kicks the ball out of bounds! Penalty against Florida State, the ball will be spotted at the 40 yardline. Georgia Tech ball, Q3, 1-10-GT40 (10:06) 17-31

They are still spotted at the 35, right?

[John Galt]

More 4th Down Wackiness:

Notre Dame ball, Q4, 4-2-MIST2 (02:52) 24-24
Offense: Inside Run, Set: Pro Set, Play: PS-HB-power-LG
Defense: Stop Run, Set: Goal Line, Play: GL-run-SZ-R
RB R. Fauria runs left guard for 0 yards (DT J. Walker).

With a tie game, you don't kick the FG?!?! And I have go for it on 4th down set at 30. I guess I'll have to even go lower.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Been playing this for the last 5 hours, and having so much fun. Now that injuries are much more reasonably handled, this is just a blast to play. I'm watching every game, and there are still some things that need to be fixed in the PbP, but they don't significantly hamper my enjoyment of the game.

BTW, I echo this. I'm having a blast with the game.

My main frustration is the two minute logic on trying field goals with ample time to take a shot at the end zone. Other than that (and the minor nits I've pointed out throughout the thread), I'm having a blast.

[Anguscl]

Quick question, are only tailbacks eligible for the Doak Walker award in the game, I have a fullback that is in the top 15 in rushing, and he doesn't appear on the award watch for the award and thier are players with less stats on that award watch page?

[bhlloy]

I had a nice little game going with San Diego state, 3-0 with a win over a ranked Utah team, and then week 6 comes along - starting QB and RB suspended. Neither were on the "danger" list last time so I didn't have the option to give them any hours. In fact, the "danger" list in week 3 only contained three players, and only a backup FB was suspended which had led me to hope that academics had been toned down. I love the game but I hate the way academics were designed. It just seems so arbitrary. For a text sim I have to say TCY got way it handled academic suspensions right on, even if it wasn't as realistic.

I don't want to take academics off because it seems like a "cheat" (allows me to spend more cash on other areas of my budget - I presume?) but I think I may have to for my next game.

On a positive note, injuries seem much better. Only three players injured, all for less than 7 weeks and two "doubtful" and one "probable" which he has been playing through and hasn't reinjured.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I had a nice little game going with San Diego state, 3-0 with a win over a ranked Utah team, and then week 6 comes along - starting QB and RB suspended. Neither were on the "danger" list last time so I didn't have the option to give them any hours. In fact, the "danger" list in week 3 only contained three players, and only a backup FB was suspended which had led me to hope that academics had been toned down. I love the game but I hate the way academics were designed. It just seems so arbitrary. For a text sim I have to say TCY got way it handled academic suspensions right on, even if it wasn't as realistic.

I don't want to take academics off because it seems like a "cheat" (allows me to spend more cash on other areas of my budget - I presume?) but I think I may have to for my next game.

On a positive note, injuries seem much better. Only three players injured, all for less than 7 weeks and two "doubtful" and one "probable" which he has been playing through and hasn't reinjured.

I won't turn off academics, but I agree that the ability to add hours to guys needs to be expanded in that I should be able to offer guys hours who are anywhere within the realm of being suspended within the next 3 weeks. I just had my starting FS and SS suspended when they weren't even on the list the last period. I like most aspects of academics, and it definitely influences who I recruit to an extent, but that aspect needs to be finetuned imho.

[KWhit]

About how many guys should I expect to be suspended in a given year? It's only half way through the season and I've already had 5 guys declared academically ineligible. Is this normal???

FYI: I have my staff handling academics.

[Icy]

I have been programming today as somebody requested this in the past. It's an online tool to get a random team for those who want an extra challenge not choosing themselves the team they want to manage.


Random team selector for BBCF

There you can get a fully random team or a random one in a selected conference or/and with a selected prestige. Also added some extra info like the the conference average prestige.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I won't turn off academics, but I agree that the ability to add hours to guys needs to be expanded in that I should be able to offer guys hours who are anywhere within the realm of being suspended within the next 3 weeks. I just had my starting FS and SS suspended when they weren't even on the list the last period. I like most aspects of academics, and it definitely influences who I recruit to an extent, but that aspect needs to be finetuned imho.

Yeah, I agree I don't want to turn it off, definitely needs toning down though. I mean IRL you just don't see 8-10 players suspended in a season, and especially not in 3 week "chunks". God knows a lot of football players aren't smart, but generally teams do a good job of keeping them eligible. In BBCF it seems like over half my team could potentially be under the line at one point in the season.

Case in point - this years USC team lost Manny and Eric Wright before the season started because of academic problems last year, and a couple of incoming freshmen never qualified, but to the best of my knowledge not a single player has been suspended for grades during the season. And USC is barely above the new NCAA graduation guideline, so they are nothing special. I don't know for a fact, but I'd guess most of the worst academic schools don't have more than 5 guys a year suspended. In BBCF, that seems to be a pretty good year if you spend the max on academic tutors.

[GabeRivers]

I hate to turn off academics, because picking recruits who are not stupid adds more strategy to the game. But I'm bothered with the way the game handles academics, because it is unrealistic. In real college football, guys don't get hit for 3-week, mid-term suspensions.

Being academically ineligible in real life is a semester to semester issue, so if a guy is eligible at the beginning of the fall semester, he'll be eligible for the whole season (and vice versa). Conversely, in real life some guys end up academically ineligible for the spring semester and therefore miss their bowl games. BBCF sort of handles all of this backwards.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by KWhit

About how many guys should I expect to be suspended in a given year? It's only half way through the season and I've already had 5 guys declared academically ineligible. Is this normal???

FYI: I have my staff handling academics.

I had 3 guys (Starting FB and 2 backups) suspended the first period, and 2 (both starting safeties) more the second. At the 2nd period, I only had 4 guys on the danger list and spent plenty of hours on them, so I'm interested to see what happens when I hit the 3rd suspension period.


I forget who said they aren't seeing Junior College players anymore, but I'm seeing them fine. Actually 2 of the top 3 recruits on my list in-season list are JC players.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

No guys were suspended in week 9, much to my surprise. If the system can just be changed to allow us to give hours to anyone who might even be close to being suspended, I think I'll be reasonably happy with the academic system.

[WSUCougar]

Little niggle on the AI penalty logic: early in the game, the AI declined a 15-yard crack-back penalty (which would have made it 1st and 25) for a 1-yard loss (2nd and 11).

Also, I had a PBP call that was an INT that read something like:

FALSE19 yard return.

[Tim Tellean]

WSUCougar could you post the full PbP to the int. play. Arlie can find the error that way.

[TazFTW]

I had a crash during the offseasone training part of the game when I was looking at a player's card and the close button for the card was missing. I couldn't click anywhere else to get out of that screen so I had to ctrl-atl-del to shut down BBCF.

It was then that I realized that the last time I saved was in the last week of the postseason. I guess the good thing that came out of it was that Hawaii gave me an even bigger budget (original increase was $90000, redo was $150000).

[Tim Tellean]

Academics need $$ spent on academic tutors and hours devoted to the player. A player around a 1.7 gpa with a good WE and INT (>70) probably needs 10-15 hours.
Note also that players listed in week1,4 and 7 nee to be dealt with before weeks 3,6 and 9.

[Tim Tellean]

TAz do you have mods installed? If so which ones?

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Tim Tellean

WSUCougar could you post the full PbP to the int. play. Arlie can find the error that way.

That WAS the full PBP.

[Eaglesfan27]

In my game against Arizona, they just returned a kickoff for 95 yards and a TD. However, on the play, Arizona was called for illegal use of the hands. We accepted the penalty. However, the game had the TD count and then had Arizona kick an extra point from their own 5 yard line (at least it looked that way in the on-field representation. The XP was good, and the game incorrectly credited Arizona with a TD to make it 10-7 in the 1st quarter.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've had so much fun with this game the last 2 days. I'm now 10-1 and about to face my rival, the lowly Bruins. If we beat them, we should go to the National Championship game. I've become absorbed with my team watching the PbP slowly in each game over the past 10 hours (spread out over the past 2 days.) As previously mentioned, the diagram doesn't always seem to match up with the result of the play, but I'm finding it very engrossing to watch my coaches call plays and watch the results. I feel like I'm getting more attached to my team as a result as well (akin to how I do in FM.) Horace is a great all around back, William is a shifty back, and Andre runs over guys. I've watched my QB mature and just saw my first blowout as we threw for over 350 yards and ran for another 100 yards in the 1st half against an 8-2 Washington team and won 63-13.

I'm really enjoying myself. That being said, I think the blowout logic might need to be re-visited. My coaches kept my star RB, my star QB, and my star WR in the game all the way to about 1 minute left in the 4th quarter despite a 50 point lead.

[TazFTW]

Originally Posted by Tim Tellean

TAz do you have mods installed? If so which ones?

I use Icy's pstats 1.5, ixnay's bowl and team logos.

I think I know what the problem is though. During the recruiting period, I 'print' the recruiting service email and it opens it another window. If I click on the advance week button, the print out goes on top of BBCF while BBCF is still processing the week. If I click on the 'X' to close the print out, windows will show BBCF as not responding. I am still able to run BBCF but after a certain amount of time the game will do what I mentioned earlier.

I've been able to recreate it using those steps, so chalk that up to user error.

[DaddyTorgo]

so much fun post-patch here too. Year 1 with BC, letting the coaches handle everything (I find I don't want to get attached until at least year 3 or so and just want to handle recruiting until then, until i get a bunch of "my guys" in place)...so just simming completely and everything...finished the year 12-2, ACC champions, destroyed WVU in the Orange Bowl 48-15 and ended the season ranked #2 in both polls (was #3 before the Orange Bowl unfortunately ). #19 offense, #27 defense.

next year: we gun to stay in the top-5 and prove this wasn't a fluke

[DaddyTorgo]

dola

or do we?? Michigan offered me their head coaching gig...

[Eaglesfan27]

I lost to the $!%*&! Bruins as my QB chose this game to have his worst game of the season throwing 2 picks and completing under 45% of his passes. Hope I didn't wake Mrs. Eaglesfan upstairs as I was yelling at the stupid QB most of the game..

Their star RB was too tough to stop with my depleted linebacker corp (2 guys out with injuries.) We lost 23-17. Only if Karsten could have played like he did in the previous game, or even halfway decent

We still finished 3rd in the polls and 6th in the GDCS Standings as we were the top ranked 2 loss team. One 1 loss team, Boise State, finished lower than a bunch of 2 losses team with a final ranking of 12th place. An undefeated LSU team is facing a 1 loss Miami team in the National Championship game.

So much fun.

[MrBug708]

ABout freaking time

[Godzilla Blitz]

Humm. This is getting interesting. Couple of quick questions. I apologize if this has been asked before, but I'm interested in hearing people's impressions after this new patch...

Any comments on the game's difficulty? I'm reading about people having great seasons in their third year. Is it perhaps too easy? Are people feeling challenged?

With this new patch (1.03), is the game in a state now where you'd recommend getting it, or would it make sense to wait for some more fixes?

[MrBug708]

I've wondered how many really top notch talent transfers in real life? Im sure there are some, but how often does a potential talent as Brock BErlin, really transfer to a different school?

[astrosfan64]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

Humm. This is getting interesting. Couple of quick questions. I apologize if this has been asked before, but I'm interested in hearing people's impressions after this new patch...

Any comments on the game's difficulty? I'm reading about people having great seasons in their third year. Is it perhaps too easy? Are people feeling challenged?

With this new patch (1.03), is the game in a state now where you'd recommend getting it, or would it make sense to wait for some more fixes?

If you pick up a top prestige school 3 years sounds about right to have a real top tier team.

The difficulty is taking a mid to lower prestige team and building a program. As a lower prestige school it took me three recruiting years with steady progress, before I landed my first 4 star recruit. Overall, I find the games challenge perfect. I've played close to 40 to 50 seasons and I still find the game challenging and rewarding.

I want the play-by-play cleaned up a bit more and the academic module to be changed around. But, to me they are minor issues.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

Humm. This is getting interesting. Couple of quick questions. I apologize if this has been asked before, but I'm interested in hearing people's impressions after this new patch...

Any comments on the game's difficulty? I'm reading about people having great seasons in their third year. Is it perhaps too easy? Are people feeling challenged?

With this new patch (1.03), is the game in a state now where you'd recommend getting it, or would it make sense to wait for some more fixes?

Personally, I think this game is a definite buy if you are a college football fan.

I think many people who have mentioned great seasons have started out with very good teams. Certainly, once I realized the talent level expectations, I realized USC's team is very good (although they don't have a true stud RB in my league ala Reggie Bush, but they did have 2 very good RB's and a 3rd decent RB.)

Even with a very talented roster, I lost 2 games this year, and I certainly feel that I'm being challenged. Pre-patch, recruiting was VERY competitive with the AI making some really smart choices. I imagine that is the same post-patch, and I think it is going to be sufficiently challenging to keep me interested in this career for a good long time. Also, I tried a low prestige team and that was a GREAT challenge. I think Skydog had quite a tough challenge when he was playing with his created independent school as well..

As I previously said, I think this is a must-buy if you are a college football fan, but there are a few flaws still in the game that will annoy some. The PbP could use a bit of tightening, academics might be handled a bit better, kicking stats still seem a bit off, but none of those things are significantly hampering my enjoyment. I haven't wanted to stop playing the last 2 days since the patch came out, and this is beating out some heavy competition for my gaming time.

[dubb93]

Was up 14-13 untill I just got burnt on a 27 yard TD pass on a screen. I called 3-4 SZ B5, 6. For some reason my team ran Dime DZ.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Dola -

No guys were suspended in week 9, much to my surprise. If the system can just be changed to allow us to give hours to anyone who might even be close to being suspended, I think I'll be reasonably happy with the academic system.

Yeah. It needs to open a window with everyone who is, say, 2.25 or lower (or just open the whole roster and allow a sort on current GPA).

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Tim Tellean

Academics need $$ spent on academic tutors and hours devoted to the player. A player around a 1.7 gpa with a good WE and INT (>70) probably needs 10-15 hours.
Note also that players listed in week1,4 and 7 nee to be dealt with before weeks 3,6 and 9.

Tim - if this is really the case I think people playing smaller schools are going to find it very hard to keep players active. Especially as apparently you also need big $ $ to spend on keeping injuries at bay. A 50,000 a year budget on academic tutors is the absolute max I can spend as SD State and that only gives me something like 76 hours to spend all year and I'm seeing between 2-5 starters on the danger list most weeks.

I don't like the design decision, but as long as I'm given the option to tone it down it's an OK implementation. If Arlie can just put a slider in like he did with injuries, everyone is happy IMO.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Yeah. It needs to open a window with everyone who is, say, 2.25 or lower (or just open the whole roster and allow a sort on current GPA).

This would be a good start, but I don't see why we can't give hours to anybody we like.

For example, playing as a small school I might have a stud RB or QB that I wanted to make absolutely sure didn't get anywhere close to suspension, and I might want to spend a few hours on each period just to make sure his GPA stays up around 3.0.

I don't see what there is to gain by limiting us in this case?

[ThunderingHERD]

Just had the opponent twice go for it on 4th down in OT, the 2nd time on a 4th and goal at the 3. They were up first, btw. They missed the 2nd one. Then I got the ball, and despite only needing 3 to win, the computer decides to throw a pass that is picked off and returned for a TD.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've had so much fun with this game the last 2 days. I'm now 10-1 and about to face my rival, the lowly Bruins. If we beat them, we should go to the National Championship game. I've become absorbed with my team watching the PbP slowly in each game over the past 10 hours (spread out over the past 2 days.) As previously mentioned, the diagram doesn't always seem to match up with the result of the play, but I'm finding it very engrossing to watch my coaches call plays and watch the results. I feel like I'm getting more attached to my team as a result as well (akin to how I do in FM.) Horace is a great all around back, William is a shifty back, and Andre runs over guys. I've watched my QB mature and just saw my first blowout as we threw for over 350 yards and ran for another 100 yards in the 1st half against an 8-2 Washington team and won 63-13.

I'm really enjoying myself. That being said, I think the blowout logic might need to be re-visited. My coaches kept my star RB, my star QB, and my star WR in the game all the way to about 1 minute left in the 4th quarter despite a 50 point lead.

Played my first game and was up 29-10 late in the game and the AI brought in their 2nd string QB and RB. Weird.

[Flasch186]

i hate to be the first to broach the subject but I will...I havnt touched the game after hearing of the AI issues. The reason is definitely partially my own. I hate getting too deep into these career sims when something is amiss. I will continue to wait to make sure the OT and 4th qtr bugs are fixed ebfore diving in as I would like to be a part of it but cant right now...WWSM it is.

[WSUCougar]

Couple more blips on the radar, playing as New Mexico (UNM):

First, a strange PBP results, as follows

QB Walt price drops back to set-up the screen pass.
.Oh! he's hammered to the ground! OLB Lovett Brantley timed the snap perfectly and was in the backfield before the QB could react. He returns it 0 yards.

Result:
UNM Interception 0 yard return

We actually retained the ball on offense.

Second, the AI (on offense) declined a 5-yard defensive offside penalty and accepted a 5 yard rushing gain, thus taking a 2nd & 5 over a 1st & 5.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Yeah. It needs to open a window with everyone who is, say, 2.25 or lower (or just open the whole roster and allow a sort on current GPA).

I would like to see it 2.50 or lower, but I agree that would solve my main issue with academics. I really do like how the academics makes me pass up on some kids who are very talented, but are dumb as a brick. If there are two guys similar in talent level, I'm usually going to go with the guy with the better GPA and/or test scores. I love the calculated risk of going after a few extremely talented less intelligent guys as well.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Eaglesfan, Astrosfan: Thanks for the input! Much appreciated. I think I might wait a patch or two to see some of the remaining rough edges cleaned up, then pick this up.

I must say, though, that after having taken a look at the screen shots, this is a sharp-looking game.

[GrantDawg]

Already, I finally have the time and money to pick this up. Any recommendation on downloads I should get to soup it up before I get started?

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Already, I finally have the time and money to pick this up. Any recommendation on downloads I should get to soup it up before I get started?

I recommend picking up the Pstats 1.5 file that is being done by Icy. I'd also pick up the helmet pack done by him, although there are a few other helmet packs that might be as good. Also, I think it is ixnay that did the bowl logos which I'd recommend picking up. Finally, I forget who did it, but there is a endzone logo pack that is fun as well.

All of these can be found on Greydog's forum, but there is also a link to Icy's work somewhere in this thread.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I recommend picking up the Pstats 1.5 file that is being done by Icy. I'd also pick up the helmet pack done by him, although there are a few other helmet packs that might be as good. Also, I think it is ixnay that did the bowl logos which I'd recommend picking up. Finally, I forget who did it, but there is a endzone logo pack that is fun as well.

All of these can be found on Greydog's forum, but there is also a link to Icy's work somewhere in this thread.

Got 'em. Thanks.

[MizzouRah]

The guy who did the end zone logos, has some nice helmets on his site as well. You'll have a helmet in the top right of the screen and ixnay's logos on the bottom of the screen.

[Eaglesfan27]

After 3 weeks of bidding, I just convinced the best offensive coordinator in my game universe to leave West Virginia and come to USC!!! He is only 40, and he evens runs my preferred offense.

Just had to share.