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

[Arles]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

w00t! I still haven't found any receivers worth a damn to recruit, but now I see a safety who's interested in Kent State, and he seems to have over 8 million yards as a receiver in high school. That kind of talent ought to come in handy on offense, methinks.

Yeah, it's a known display issue and is on the 1.1 list.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

w00t! I still haven't found any receivers worth a damn to recruit, but now I see a safety who's interested in Kent State, and he seems to have over 8 million yards as a receiver in high school. That kind of talent ought to come in handy on offense, methinks.

Yeah, there are still a few of those guys around. Same problem as was originally in TCY. Odd.

[Poli]

No one wants a ball hog on their team. That's why colleges project them as safeties.

[jbmagic]

how are the other positions beside DT when recruting? any problems at other positions?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

how are the other positions beside DT when recruting? any problems at other positions?

No.

[MizzouRah]

The punters and kickers need fixed badly. My crappy kicker can kick 41-49 yarders with ease.. and punts feel way to easy to pin the defense <10 yard line.

Ben or anyone else, are you noticing kicker issues? if so, has it been noted for 1.1?

Thanks,

[Ben E Lou]

After further review, the problem appears to be that more 3-star and DT's are needed. I just checked some top-tier teams, and they're showing things like a DT ranked #26 for DT's, but #1777 nationally, and rated 48/50. Arlie says he's on it for the next patch. For now, those 4 and 5 star DT's are SUPER valuable.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

The punters and kickers need fixed badly. My crappy kicker can kick 41-49 yarders with ease.. and punts feel way to easy to pin the defense <10 yard line.

Ben or anyone else, are you noticing kicker issues? if so, has it been noted for 1.1?

Thanks,

FG% is high, which is something of which Arlie is aware. When he fixed the go-for-it-inside-the-10 issues, FG% shot up, of course. Overall, they're at around 76%, when they should be at around 68%.

I don't have coffin corner punt data, so I can't really comment on that. I'm not aware that anyone has mentioned that to Arlie. I don't read game logs any more, so I can't say whether or not it has been a problem for me.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

For now, those 4 and 5 star DT's are SUPER valuable.

...and completely out of my program's reach, rendering it nigh-impossible to recruit an actual starting lineup for my team.

[MizzouRah]

I hope some of these key fixes come out soon as I really don't want to get into recruiting yet.. although I guess I won't see the fixes until the next season.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

how are the other positions beside DT when recruting? any problems at other positions?

I'm not ready to declare "no problems" elsewhere quite yet. The DT has been most obvious to me, but just taking a quick look at my next recruiting class and the overall # ratings -- here's what sticks out at me as seeming non-random:

QB -- 17 guys between #1 and #150, then zero between #150 and #300
RB -- Lots of guys up to #184, then one guy at #31, next guy is #720
FB -- looks fairly normal
WR -- zero in top 40, plenty from 40-200, only five between 200-500, then normal
TE -- looks pretty normal
all OL - seems really dense in the 200-500 zone (where others are nearly voided) then pretty thing from about 700-1000
DE -- seems pretty normal
DT -- familiar pattern, normal up to 300s, then only a few between 300-1200, then normal again (still the most pronounced problem position I see)
both LB -- seems to be heavy in the 200-700 middle range, like OL
CB -- normal up to about 250, only four guys between 250-500, then pretty normal
both S - seem bowed in the middle also (e.g. 14 FS in the 400s, only 3 in the 600s)
K/P -- looks pretty normal


Certainly some of this can be random fluctuations in numbers, but some of this is just too pronounced and consistent to be random. There's something screwy in either the player generation or the player rankig scheme, causing odd clumping of players at several position groups.

It's a clear showstopper for positions like DT, but it also explains why my team -- year after year trying itse best to get guys in the 400-800 range, is always ending up with its best recruits being linebackers, since there are (by some game quirk) tons of those guys in that zone, and hardly any of several other positions. I'd love to land a RB from the high end of my progam's reach... but year after year, there doesn't exist a single RB rated #300-#500 or so, not in my region, not anywhere. So, we get one more linebacker instead, and settle for a walk-on caliber RB again.


I think this is a larger problem.

[digamma]

I'll be damned if I can figure out what happened here. It looks like it's a case of plays being dropped from the pbp summary. Unfortunately, it's a crucial sequence, and I'm not sure how Arizona gets the ball back (I don't think it's a missed field goal because they take over at the 19). Could it be developer's alma mater bias?

Arizona ball, Q4, 2-8-ARZ6 (03:32) 15-13 Offense: Medium Pass, Set: Quads, Play: Q-SE-up-WR3-out Defense: Normal, Set: 4-3, Play: 43-norm-MZ-B5,6 D. Soliday has his 22 yard pass intercepted by K. Lewis at the ARZ 28. He returns it 0 yards to the Arizona 28.

Georgia Tech ball, Q4, 1-10-ARZ28 (03:00) 13-15 Offense: Outside Run, Set: SingleBack, Play: SB-WR-slotrun-RE Defense: Stop Pass, Set: 3-3-5, Play: 335-pass-TMan WR P. Peterson runs right end for 5 yards (SS R. Vigorito, OLB H. Luce).

Arizona ball, Q4, 1-10-ARZ19 (01:29) 15-13 Offense: Outside Run, Set: SingleBack, Play: SB-HB-power-RE Defense: Stop Pass, Set: 4-3, Play: 43-pass-DZ RB B. Fadule runs right tackle for 2 yards (ILB D. Popson, OLB J. Arnold).

Arizona ball, Q4, 1-10-ARZ19 (01:29) 15-13 Offense: Outside Run, Set: SingleBack, Play: SB-HB-power-RE Defense: Stop Pass, Set: 4-3, Play: 43-pass-DZ WR Robert Dutton (ARZ) was injured on the play (Wrist). It doesn't look too serious and he should return.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

(snip lot of stuff...)

All this springs from what I judge to be an over-dependence on the prestige rating as a shortcut for "how good is this team?" Instead, I think a slowly-moving prestige rating is a good idea for "how good is this program?" but there needs to be a more complex and current way of taking the temperature at a given school. In my Kent State example, marginal players ought to be pretty excited to come to my school right now, since we are indeed winning games and doing well... but we also shouldn't have anywhere near the overall prestige of an Ohio State or another far more established program. However, after finishing last year at #9, I think our school probably deserves to get some serious credit in the preseason rankings for next year, despite the long term prestige... I don't know if we deserve to be #15 or #40, but being relegated to the bottom third in the country after three straight strong seasons shows a serious disconnect in the game's logic to me.

Not to harp on this, bnut there's another place this shows up - in player's "Disposition" evaluations. My team, after great on-field success, is completely chock full of players who are all piss off at how poorly the team is doing. I see time after time the phrase "____ is not thrilled abotu the team's play, but he thinks we will pull out of this rut soon."

I have to assume that once again, the game is incorrectly using the prestige score as the be-all, end-all of team evaluation. it's just not fair to have a team that has been on a massive roll be full of guys dejected or angry about our performance. If it starts to lead to players leaving the team or declining in their performance... that's a really serious problem.

[Dekanth]

Am I the only one who gets this sinking feeling about this game? It looked great out of the box, especially after the first quick patches, but the more I (we) dig into the guts of it, the more there seems to be some pretty big problems going on. Along with a couple RTE's I've run into, I am just having trouble getting enthusiastic about starting up another dynasty.

[Cuckoo]

Originally Posted by Dekanth

Am I the only one who gets this sinking feeling about this game? It looked great out of the box, especially after the first quick patches, but the more I (we) dig into the guts of it, the more there seems to be some pretty big problems going on. Along with a couple RTE's I've run into, I am just having trouble getting enthusiastic about starting up another dynasty.

I understand people are finding issues with the game, and I hope Arlie fixes them. But I'm still having a great time playing it.

[ThunderingHERD]

I wish someone would sim the same season a dozen times or more and study how the results. I have a little trouble trusting the results the game generates. Several times I've had to resim seasons due to crashes, and the results have seemed dramatically different at times. Last season, the first time through I finished 8-4 and could easily have lost a few more. Resimming I went 11-1, with convincing wins over #1 FSU and #4 Notre Dame. Just from casually watching as the game sims I saw alot of teams that were +/- 3 or 4 wins from the prior sim.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Dekanth

Am I the only one who gets this sinking feeling about this game? It looked great out of the box, especially after the first quick patches, but the more I (we) dig into the guts of it, the more there seems to be some pretty big problems going on. Along with a couple RTE's I've run into, I am just having trouble getting enthusiastic about starting up another dynasty.

I'm enjoying the game, although some of the issues do seem pretty big. There is a lot to like though and I have no reason to think Arlie won't fix these issues in a patch or two. I honestly haven't seen anything really big yet.. but I'm only in week 10 in my first season.

I just hope a patch to fix some of the bigger issues comes out realativly quick. Maybe Arlie will come out with a patch to fix the gameplay issues and can wait on the additions like html, editor, etc..??

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Dekanth

Am I the only one who gets this sinking feeling about this game?

Nope, but I've got plenty of patience. What I am worried about is the FOFC MP league starting prematurely.

[larrymcg421]

Here is an example of what I was talking about in the other thread:

20	P	Tim Thielemann	5-11	165	Jr	3.82	27	82	OK	Stone (Wiggins, MS)	58	91
01	P	Merrill Gregory (S)	6-3	200	Sr	3.54	54	84	OK	St. Andrew's - Sewanee School (TN)	69	69

In this case, I cannot redshirt Thielmann because that puts me under the roster limit. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to redshirt this guy and have a walk-on to fill his place. I don't care how bad he is. Pull someone out of Biology class. Whatever it takes.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

In this case, I cannot redshirt Thielmann because that puts me under the roster limit. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to redshirt this guy and have a walk-on to fill his place. I don't care how bad he is. Pull someone out of Biology class. Whatever it takes.

Then take another player elsewhere - doesn't matter the position - and change his position to QB. Then you'll have an extra player at QB so you can redshirt your real nice Junior QB...and then watch him transfer

[kingfc22]

I wish there was a way to save your strategies just like you can save your game plans. Would make it much easier from season to season.

[kingfc22]

And I'm not sure if this has been answered, but what exactly does "adaptability" help develop during training?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

And I'm not sure if this has been answered, but what exactly does "adaptability" help develop during training?

ASked the question in the chat. (superfluous stuff edited out...)

1. Does adaptability impact anything besides ability to change positions?
to SD - It also impacts playing someone out of position
ie, an OLB at ILB
or FB at TE
gotcha

[Ben E Lou]

Good word from Arlie in the chat:

OK, I will try and do this
let me get as much as I can done this weekend
see where I am
and if I can release a 1.04 that hits some of these bigger issues (polls, player talent levels, walkons)
I will do it
but I want to make sure people understand that HTML and the editor is something I am working on
and this isn't going to get pushed back

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Here is an example of what I was talking about in the other thread:


In this case, I cannot redshirt Thielmann because that puts me under the roster limit. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to redshirt this guy and have a walk-on to fill his place. I don't care how bad he is. Pull someone out of Biology class. Whatever it takes.

Shoot, wish I would have seen this before that chat. Post this over at the GDS forums.

[rjolley]

If a player doesn't play a snap the whole season, but isn't redshirted at the beginning of the year, is it still considered a redshirt year in the NCAA? I know some games will automatically give the player a redshirt year, but is that the way the rule works?

Edit: Did a little web surfing and found this http://www.gamecockcentral.com/cgi-b...edshirting&c=3 Not sure how accurate it is, but it looks like you don't HAVE to specifiy a player as a "redshirt" at the beginning of the year, you just have to not allow the player into a game.

Arlie, are you going to add medical hardship waivers at some time?

[TurnerONU22]

I've been working on a Division 3 Mod for the game, and I have it set up for the most part, I'm able to create the league, but I'm coming upon a couple RTE's. I get a RTE 93 when I go to set up the schedule for the upcoming season and when I try to change the states on the view recruits screen. I also get a RTE 5 when I go to view the polls. I'm doing this on the 1.02 demo version, so I was wondering if these were fixed for 1.03 or if its something wrong with the pstats.dat file. I have a post about this on the GDS board:

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ead.php?t=9445

If you go there, it has the pstats file. If anyone would take a few minutes to download it and try to see if they can recreate the RTE's in 1.03 or other suggestions for the pstats file, I would greatly appreciate it.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

What are these kids thinking??? I won the WAC for the first time last season and finished 12th in the polls. I won WAC coach of the year as well. I spanked my rival San Jose State by a score of 41-3 and in week 13 of my recruiting phase I see this:

Players recruited that committed to other schools
CB Kurt Garner - San Jose State
OT Jamir Poole - San Jose State
TE Bibbles McKeller - San Jose State (I REALLY wanted this guy)
DE Emmett Biakabutuka - San Jose State

Of course I go and lose to SJS this season in OT.
Luckily these players didn't do anything in the game or else I really would have been mad.

[Poli]

Biakabutuka. Another rarish NFL name. I'd rather he pull last names out of a phone directory.

[21C]

Can't you adjust the names file yourself? I thought it could be done by editing a text file.

[Poli]

I don't know. If/when I buy it (and I don't plan on it till Quiksand is happy), that'll probably be one of the first things I do if I can.

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Biakabutuka. Another rarish NFL name.

Tell that to my starting DT Danny Biakabutuka.

[ThunderingHERD]

RTE 55 again while simming a bowl week.

[Eaglesfan27]

I seem to have hit a bug. My starting SS was just suspended for academic reasons, but when I went to the screen to add tutor hours to my guys, he isn't even listed. My other guys suspended at the same time are available to add hours, but my SS is not.

[ThunderingHERD]

One more thing--a non-conference game popped up that I didn't schedule: Temple on week 12. ????

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

One more thing--a non-conference game popped up that I didn't schedule: Temple on week 12. ????

Who, btw, were 1-9 and completely killed my SOS.

[TazFTW]

Does that game give Temple an 11 game schedule?

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by TazFTW

Does that game give Temple an 11 game schedule?

Yeh, it does actually. 12 for me.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Biakabutuka. Another rarish NFL name. I'd rather he pull last names out of a phone directory.

Yeah, that's a gripe for me, too -- but one not limited to this game. I'm pretty sick of seeing three guys named Randle-El and Davids-Garrido in FOF, too. In my BBCF game, there were two different guys named Houshmandzadeh in the national first team.

It does make me wonder if there is just one big "sports centered" name list that floats around and gets used by multiple developers... or if they all develop these from scratch and just happen to have a lot of the same inputs.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by 21C

Can't you adjust the names file yourself? I thought it could be done by editing a text file.

Yeah. I did that quite some time ago. The frequencies range from 1 to 117 for last names in the original version of pstats.dat, meaning that "Johnson" was 117 times more likely to appear than "Uwaezuoke." However, there are a total of 3,525 last names in the data table, 2,485 of which were given a "1" for frequency. It didn't take but a second to intuit that is a big problem. Adding the frequencies together in that original table, you get 7,465 possible occurrences, meaning a nearly 1 in 3 chance that one of the "1" frequency last names is going to show up. My attempt solving it was a simple INT((x^2)/2) equation, but it put the frequencies too high for the game's algorithms, and caused an error. Not feeling like testing it all that much, I just increased the frequencies of the top 100 names in the table, leaving Johnson at 117, but removing the gaps. Originally, Johnson was at 117, Smith at 112, Williams at 103, Brown at 80, Jones at 78, Davis at 59. In my file, they are bunched much more close together: 117, 115, 112, 110, 108, 105. No, this wasn't a scientific/realistic way to solve the problem, but doing the same thing for the FirstName and LastName tables has significantly increased the frequency of guys with normal names in my universe, while still leaving the possibility for unique ones. Here's a roster in my universe: http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/bbcf/team41r.htm

[Ben E Lou]

Chat log is up:

Arlie Rahn- I will be glad to answer any questions you guys may have and go through some of the items in update 1.1

Q: Have the "late" issues such as jucos disappearing and weak DT recruiting classes been fixed?
Arlie Rahn- It's on the list, but I haven't fixed either yet. Jucos may be a result of academics.

Q: Most, if not all, LG's are unhappy, will this issue be fixed in 1.1?
Arlie Rahn- Yeah, that should be fixed in the first beta.

Q: Do you intend on adding any more plays to what is currently offered?
Arlie Rahn- Not in this version.

Q: Any plans to round out the PBP?
Arlie Rahn- yeah, I don't know if it will make 1.1 - because of all the other priorities, but I am going to try some things out for the PBP.

Arlie Rahn- Some other items of the update include:

• Remove recruits that don't get an offer from going to schools without a scholarship
• instead, those slots will be filled by real walkons
• Tweak the player creation logic (lower prestige teams)
• Adjust grades on report card
• fix position strength for recruits (DT)
• Look at jucos
• Change the expectations comments
• implement a new poll system
• Add in the playoff bracket
• Player editor
• HTML reports
• Fix PBP bugs and other reported bugs
• Tone down scouting error

Arlie Rahn- That's the main list right now. I'd say I am about 50% done. I would also ask that if you guys run across any issue or bug, please post it in tech support in the GDS forum. I've been using that forum as a checklist for bug fixes and I may miss them if they are posted on other forums or in the main BBCF one.

Q: What about FG kickers being too good? Also some issues with punters and returns?
Arlie Rahn- Yeah, I will look into this. It's on the list

Q: Passing Yardage in general is a bit too high as well, with the update in DT's that could change.
Arlie Rahn- I think it's also a product of too many good QBs on bad teams.

Q: Can we expect something like a single game records page for each team in a future patch? (or is there already one and I'm just too stupid to find it?)
Arlie Rahn- I will add a records page to the HTML reports.

Q: Do you indicate if a fair catch is used on punt returns?
Arlie Rahn- Yeah, it's a stat called "FC". It should state either a downed punt or a 0-yard return in the PBP.

Q: Anyone seen a blocked punt yet?
Arlie Rahn- I'll check into the blocks, they can happen

Q: Any plans to implement in-game audio (similar to TPF)?
Arlie Rahn- Not for this version

Q: Is it possible to just sim everything for a few seasons before taking over a team?
Arlie Rahn- Sure, just click sim multiple seasons, choose a number, and it will end in camp after those seasons are completed. You have to choose a team first, but you don't get graded on those seasons. It's under the options tab.

Q: Will we ever be able to edit the play by play? or is that asking too much?
Arlie Rahn- I'm not promising anything yet, but I would like to setup a system like that once I get through these main issues. I'll see what's involved.

Q: So whats the status of the pro football sim?
Arlie Rahn- Once I get through these update with BBCF, I will start looking at a pro football sim.

Q: The two strategy options I would most like to see added Arlie, are: It seems the offensive AI over matches the DEf AI, meaning on 3rd and 6, an offense will consistently get 7 yards, on the defensive side, too often I will be in a Dime Deep Zone, and a simple curl or screen will pick up 40 yards, yes it happens but i feel too much, I would also like an option to double a reciver or key a back
Arlie Rahn- There's a lot of factors in play results. Tackling plays a big part - especially for lower teams.

Q: I would assumw that you will use the same engine for your pro game arlie?
Arlie Rahn- There will be some changes to the engine, but the ratings system will be the same

Q: Will we get more stats at some point? situational stats, for example?
Arlie Rahn- Not in this version, I think we track even more than available real life college football data.

Q: What language are you using for BB?
Arlie Rahn- VB, mostly Win32s though. So, it should mimic C++ pretty close from an overall performance standpoint.

Q: Will the next version have some sort of 2D view similar to TCB?
Arlie Rahn- There's too many other high priority items right now, but it's not a bad idea.

Q: Can you tell us more about the editor? Is it fairly standard? Is it something to get excited about?
Arlie Rahn- As to the editor, you will be able to edit personal info for each college player. And edit each player's actual and potential values for each skill and their athletic attributes.

Q: Is there a way to get 1.04 with fixes and save 1.1 for the additions.. ie - editor and such?
Arlie Rahn- I need to get them in. I've been putting off the editor and reports for a while.

Q: What about coach editing so I can choose my own age?
Arlie Rahn- It's just a college player editor for now.

Q: Arlie, anyway to have the recruit watch list during the season being able to right click on a player and have them put on a short list or your own watch list? I would like to see maybe 20-30 players from week to week stat wise and my own list made up of players would be nice to look at from week to week, instead of sorting them all the time.
Arlie Rahn- It's not a bad idea, but let me get through this current list and I will see what I can do. Maybe for a future update.

Q: Will we be able at some point to further define our fourth down playcalling? Right now, it seems we have little input.
Arlie Rahn- It would be very tough to change that at this point.

Q: Are tweaks still being made to 4th down logic?
Arlie Rahn- I will continue to tweak the 4th down logic.

Q: Does adaptability impact anything besides ability to change positions?
Arlie Rahn- It also impacts playing someone out of position,ie, an OLB at ILB, or FB at TE. If he has high adaptability and good size/run stuffing it might be a decent idea.

Q: What would it take to move an entire state to a different region for recruiting? (Specifically, I'm getting an error when trying to move all of the HS's in NC into the Southeast)
Arlie Rahn- That would be tough. The HS states are setup in the game to be based out of a certain region. I don't think you can change that, ie, functions in code classifying NC as Atlantic East.

Q: Will you be cleaning up some of the PBP discrepencies?
Arlie Rahn- Yeah, I will try and get as many cleaned up as I can verify.

Q: I see a lot of inside runs that are described as going for a couple of yards and then getting no gain
Arlie Rahn- Yeah, that's because 0-2 yards are all grouped in for the same PBP phrases. Perhaps a 0 yard category when the time permits to add it in.

Q: Are you a Packers fan, arlie? (i thought you admitted that somewhere before)
Arlie Rahn- Unfortunately, a packer fan .

Arlie Rahn- Thanks again to everyone for showing up

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Yeah. I did that quite some time ago. The frequencies range from 1 to 117 for last names in the original version of pstats.dat, meaning that "Johnson" was 117 times more likely to appear than "Uwaezuoke." However, there are a total of 3,525 last names in the data table, 2,485 of which were given a "1" for frequency. It didn't take but a second to intuit that is a big problem. Adding the frequencies together in that original table, you get 7,465 possible occurrences, meaning a nearly 1 in 3 chance that one of the "1" frequency last names is going to show up. My attempt solving it was a simple INT((x^2)/2) equation, but it put the frequencies too high for the game's algorithms, and caused an error. Not feeling like testing it all that much, I just increased the frequencies of the top 100 names in the table, leaving Johnson at 117, but removing the gaps. Originally, Johnson was at 117, Smith at 112, Williams at 103, Brown at 80, Jones at 78, Davis at 59. In my file, they are bunched much more close together: 117, 115, 112, 110, 108, 105. No, this wasn't a scientific/realistic way to solve the problem, but doing the same thing for the FirstName and LastName tables has significantly increased the frequency of guys with normal names in my universe, while still leaving the possibility for unique ones. Here's a roster in my universe: http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/bbcf/team41r.htm

Not really specific to this game... but while the concept seems right to me there, a more reasonable implementation is probably to have a weighting of nearly 1,000 for names like Johnson or Smith, compared to a 1 for the various riffraff names. But that turns this into a much more extensive project, and with a pretty narrow list of names to begin with (3,500 really isn't a long list, in practical terms) this could become a soak of real time, I suspect.

[TazFTW]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

Yeh, it does actually. 12 for me.

I mentioned that because I figured that at the end of the scheduling period, Temple was left with a 10 game schedule and the computer needed to give it an eleventh game.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Not really specific to this game... but while the concept seems right to me there, a more reasonable implementation is probably to have a weighting of nearly 1,000 for names like Johnson or Smith, compared to a 1 for the various riffraff names. But that turns this into a much more extensive project, and with a pretty narrow list of names to begin with (3,500 really isn't a long list, in practical terms) this could become a soak of real time, I suspect.

Yeah. I don't know what the upper limit of trials in the database that would cause a crash, but obviously there is one, and I wasn't too interested in finding it by trial and error.

[bhlloy]

Arlie - a cosmetic thing but are you going to do anything about jersey numbers in the game? Every year I seem to have a couple of recievers with non-eligible numbers in the 70's.

IMO, there needs to be either a "change number" button as in TCY (I would love to see that), or the logic needs to be tweaked so that if a position specific number isn't available, they get a single digit number.

If the second implementation is used, it would also be nice to see the single digit numbers allocated more often, as they are often the most "prestigous" jerseys in college football for skill position players.

[MizzouRah]

Two things TCY did so well.

1. When having my coaches handle gameplanning, they subbed players in and out extremely well. In BBCF, you have to set your key players to 100%, or you'll see you #1 QB coming in and out every other play.

2. Depth Chart was handled very well. My staff tells me not to play my starting QB, I click on "suggest" and there he is in the #3 slot when I have a #3 QB. Is it telling me, hey you should play your hurt QB over your 3rd string QB? I just don't get some of the depth chart goofyness. I have bad coaches, but if they are telling me I have 2 QB's, one is 5/7 the other is 4/6 - why wouldn't the 5/7 QB be listed as starter on the depth chart screen when I hit suggest?

..and on Defensive and Offensive strategies screen, I hit suggest and it changes every time? Why is that?

Edit: I think I know what's happening in #1. My #1 QB is a 10 in endurance, using the 1-20 scale, that's 50%. The AI sees that as he should take 6-10 snaps (the AI suggests 60% playing time) instead of sub out when he's at say 40% endurance. Make sense?

Not sure if Arlie can change that logic as he has it setup the way it is now, but I sure hope so. Your starters should only come out when they are injured or endurance falls to a set %.

[bullman]

The Government Census provides a list of the most frequently occuring names and their frequencies here:

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last

It should be a relatively simple task in Access to import this file and populate the last names table using only the most frequently occuring names.

There is a list of first names as well.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Edit: I think I know what's happening in #1. My #1 QB is a 10 in endurance, using the 1-20 scale, that's 50%. The AI sees that as he should take 6-10 snaps (the AI suggests 60% playing time) instead of sub out when he's at say 40% endurance. Make sense?

Not sure if Arlie can change that logic as he has it setup the way it is now, but I sure hope so. Your starters should only come out when they are injured or endurance falls to a set %.

I certainly agree with this at QB, but at other positions, I want some subbing. For example, I want my #2 RB to get about 1/3 of the carries. I don't mind shuttling in lineman every now and then. But, you are exactly right at QB. I hate opening up my box score to see that I had 3 QB's split throws in the game. Part of this is the % setting on the game plan screen. Part of it is the existence of a "Short yardage QB" position on the depth chart. And I think part of it is still due to the high likelihood of a QB who is injured at all getting re-injured during the game.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by bullman

The Government Census provides a list of the most frequently occuring names and their frequencies here:

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last

It should be a relatively simple task in Access to import this file and populate the last names table using only the most frequently occuring names.

There is a list of first names as well.

I'll work on somethign with this. The problem, though, may be the unknown upper limit of frequency. I'll try a few things and see what happens.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I'll work on somethign with this. The problem, though, may be the unknown upper limit of frequency. I'll try a few things and see what happens.

First annoying issue: the names are allcaps in the government table. Is there an easy way to convert "SMITH" to "Smith" in Excel?