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

[SirFozzie]

Won't be able to install it till I get home from work (and they're letting folks go home early, but it's just about white out conditions here).. but wanted to get the First Impressions thread.

[Toddzilla]

Is there a link to real team/conference/bowl names yet?

[miked]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Is there a link to real team/conference/bowl names yet?

I think Icy posted a database in the GFS Mods section that has real team, bowl, etc...but said he'd update it when the game was released because Arlies was changing things with each beta.

[SirFozzie]

This is what I've found so far:

Icy's Real College Name/Conference Name/Bowl Name Upgrade:

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ead.php?t=7989

The Helmet Thread

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ead.php?t=8210

[cody8200]

Icy is on a trip and is away but he said he had all the bowl logos done for the game. So when he comes back he'll probably release them soon afterwards.

[Karlifornia]

I am severely dissapointed in this thread title. Where are the exclamation points? This thread has no passion, no vigor. It's just kind of.....blah

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by RadioFriendlyUnitShifter

I am severely dissapointed in this thread title. Where are the exclamation points? This thread has no passion, no vigor. It's just kind of.....blah

And why no rallying cry, such as "here we go" Probably the dissappointing experience I have ever had with a first impressions thread....

[timmynausea]

Plus it doesn't have any first impressions so far.

[cthomer5000]

my impression of this impression thread is not a good one.

[ice4277]

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

[Kodos]

While you guys were standing around bitching, I took action!

[timmynausea]

I had worked on an impression of BBCF as part of my FOFC comedy routine, but it revolved around the 9 point touchdown thing, so it is kind of outdated. From now on I'm only doing new material. Fresh material.
You guys been keeping up with this OJ thing?

[Flasch186]

so I can only get some of the helmets and logos to show up now that he released the actual game. anyone else having that issue...since its the biggest deal of them all!!

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by RadioFriendlyUnitShifter

I am severely dissapointed in this thread title. Where are the exclamation points? This thread has no passion, no vigor. It's just kind of.....blah

SirFozzie saves his passion and vigor for hot, erotic literature.

[Flasch186]

what does it mean if a recruit has an (A) next to their position?

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

what does it mean if a recruit has an (A) next to their position?

Athlete, homey.

[MrBug708]

Athlete

[Flasch186]

and that is a good thing? I assume it means he is more athletic then a guy who is missing this badge. hmmmmm

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

and that is a good thing? I assume it means he is more athletic then a guy who is missing this badge. hmmmmm

I don't have the game, but from what I've read it means you can change their position more easily, or something along those lines.

[Joe]

doesn't using alternate logos and team names violate the EULA?

[Flasch186]

what if the recruit has an asterisk by their name?

[Raiders Army]

I haven't played yet, but I did download and buy. My first impression upon installing and beginning a game: too hard for me after a few beers to understand what's going on.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

I haven't played yet, but I did download and buy. My first impression upon installing and beginning a game: too hard for me after a few beers to understand what's going on.

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

what if the recruit has an asterisk by their name?

I don't have the game open, but iirc that indicates a jc player.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

This is what I've found so far:

Icy's Real College Name/Conference Name/Bowl Name Upgrade:

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ead.php?t=7989

The Helmet Thread

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ead.php?t=8210

So if I install these old ones, will it ruin the game, or will it just be messed up here and there?

[Flasch186]

from what Ive seen most of the names are accurate, some awards and trophies are not. yes yes?

[sooner333]

On create a league, there is your team, your coach name...but under that it is jumbled and there is another drop down box as well, can't read it...ends in "ation"

[Flasch186]

oh...

yeah...

That word begins with "Masturb"

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

doesn't using alternate logos and team names violate the EULA?

shhh.... you'll get us all banninated.

[Senator]

I am doing a little mod attempt and I am getting an error everytime I try to start the league I am creating. Would anyone who knows where I might have made the error look at my file and see where the mistake is? So far, all I have changed is the conferences and team names.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

So if I install these old ones, will it ruin the game, or will it just be messed up here and there?

yeah this is what i'm wondering. I want to wait to buy & install the game until the real college names/logos/bowl names/award names are all modded. just because i know I won't play a serious career until then, but i'm too busy/unskilled to do it myself.

can someone just post in here when this stuff all has good mods for it?

[MizzouRah]

We are all waiting on Icy to get back and update his psstats file and some logos and such.

[DaddyTorgo]

right. unless someone else does it first.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

right. unless someone else does it first.

by all means...

[Ben E Lou]

Seeing some very cool things in recruiting. I'm playing with a tiny-prestige school (Click [HERE] for details.) In the early going of recruiting, mainly only in-state 1-star players have 7-10 interest in coming to my school. However, late in the process, as those 1-star guys (and a few 2-stars) from all over the USA realize that they may not be playing football at any D1 school if they remain so picky, I'm seeing their interest rising. One fault of the game is that I can't see who else has made an offer to a player, but I'd be willing to bet that the answer for these guys would be "no one." This is very true to what I've seen in real life. Nice!

[Flasch186]

Recruiting, IMO, while having great depth, seems a little jumbled, no? There just seems to be alot of stuff all over the place instead of being succinctly and strategically placed for my enjoyment. no?

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Recruiting, IMO, while having great depth, seems a little jumbled, no? There just seems to be alot of stuff all over the place instead of being succinctly and strategically placed for my enjoyment. no?

mos def

It's one of the messiest things I've ever seen.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Recruiting, IMO, while having great depth, seems a little jumbled, no? There just seems to be alot of stuff all over the place instead of being succinctly and strategically placed for my enjoyment. no?

It felt that way at first, until I got the hang of the interface. Now, I really only have to look at one screen for the most part: "recruit players," and sometimes I have to look at player cards. The filters on that screen give me everything I need. The only other place I end up going is right before advancing to the next week, when I use the "player visits" screen. That's pretty reasonable to me. The one biggie I wish is that somewhere on the recruit card that there would be an asterisk next to the schools of interest that have offered him a scholly. If I had that, I would even have to use the e-mails. Here's my weekly recruiting process right now.

1. View e-mail and note commitments and players with multiple offers. (I only need to do the latter if I'm playing at a Very Low prestige school and am offering "over my head.")
2. Go to "recruit players" screen. Sort recruits by watch list and position, selecting the "recruiting" view instead of "personal.' (because recruiting view has the player's level of interest on it.
3. Go through each position and see where I stand with the player(s) targeted.
4. If I need to pursue others at a position, change filter from watch list to "all" or "high school" and change region to home region (if a small school).
5. Rinse and repeat steps three and four for each position.
6. Once done with all positions, go to "player visits" and sort by "effort."
7. Accept visits for the top 5 efforts.

Obviously, all of this is after week 8. During week 8, depending on how much money I have to spend, I either look at stats and/or scout every player with interest above 5ish and whatever level of stars I'm looking at during that wee (but still from the "recruit players" screen). During weeks 9 and 10, I also go back and forth to player cards a good bit from the "recruit players" screen, because I'm deciding who to offer schollies (based on scouting reports) and what pitches to give them.

I've found that once I got the hang of it, it became a pretty smooth process, and if I can convince Arlie to add those asterisks in a patch, it will become *VERY* smooth sailing.

[TroyF]

Some quick questions:

1) The color coding. Blue is the best, right? What do the rest mean? I need a make a card and put it next to the computer so I can figure this one out.

2) Playoffs. How do you know what the playoff matchups are? I don't see a bracket anywhere and the bowls have their real names. How are the teams selected?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Some quick questions:

1) The color coding. Blue is the best, right? What do the rest mean? I need a make a card and put it next to the computer so I can figure this one out.

2) Playoffs. How do you know what the playoff matchups are? I don't see a bracket anywhere and the bowls have their real names. How are the teams selected?

1. There's mouseover help on the colors, but they'll become intuitive quickly. In order from best to worst:

BLUE
GREEN
YELLOW
ORANGE
DEEP RED

2. I believe a playoff bracket will be added later. Right now playoffs are confusing.

[st.cronin]

Does the recruiting email now tell you which schools have offered scholarships? In the original demo, I don't think it did - there was a lot of guesswork involved.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

1. There's mouseover help on the colors, but they'll become intuitive quickly. In order from best to worst:

BLUE
GREEN
YELLOW
ORANGE
DEEP RED

2. I believe a playoff bracket will be added later. Right now playoffs are confusing.

Thanks, glad I'm not the only confused on the playoff matchups.

I know the purists out there will stray away from it, but I won't play an NCAA Football texed based sim without the playoff option.

[IMetTrentGreen]

is it me or are injuries way too high? it seems like every year is a race to win as many as i can before all my good players get hurt

[Rich1033]

I never got all the way through the last thread, but wasnt there some mention of an option to turn off academics? If so Im missing it. I did set it up with the AI handling the extra study time, but I still have my starting RB, DT and about 4 other decent players ineligible after week 2.

I have to say this is pretty much a game killer for me. However, besides that and a crash during my first career the game looks very good.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by IMetTrentGreen

is it me or are injuries way too high? it seems like every year is a race to win as many as i can before all my good players get hurt

How's your medical spending, and your usage? I'm finding that guys can't be set to 100% usage, or that's a recipe for disaster. For better or worse, this doesn't work like the FOF games: if you set 'em to 100%, they'll play MUCH more than an FOF/TCY player set to "9" playing time--as in they *might* come out when they're dog-tired.

I just played an entire season with a crappy team playing against better competition where my QB and RB never got hurt, and neither was a super-stud in terms of durability and endurance. I finished the season with what I would think are a reasonable amount of injuries: http://www.younglifenorthlake.com/bbcf/team17.htm (bottom left for injury report)

[Bee]

So far, what I'm seeing that really needs work IMO are:

Playcalling. This is just bad. Watch a few games and what you see going on doesn't make a lot of sense a good part of the time. The end results are usually reasonable, but the way it gets there doesn't make sense.

Injuries. Seem too high. I have 16 players out (mostly starters) going into my last game and I budgeted the highest amount to medical.
edit: As far as the playing%, I use what's recommended except for QB which I set at 100%. Most recommendations are between 50-80.

Academic Eligibility. Too many guys on probation. I also budgeted the most I could for academics and I've had 5-10 guys ineligible most of the season. At one point, my starting RB, starting FB, starting QB, starting SE, and starting TE were all ineligible.

There seem to be a few bugs here and there, but overall it's more game balance/design issues that bother me so far. My opinion may change as I continue to play the game, but if these things aren't addressed I doubt this game will last long on my harddrive.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Rich1033

I never got all the way through the last thread, but wasnt there some mention of an option to turn off academics? If so Im missing it. I did set it up with the AI handling the extra study time, but I still have my starting RB, DT and about 4 other decent players ineligible after week 2.

I have to say this is pretty much a game killer for me. However, besides that and a crash during my first career the game looks very good.

There's not an option to turn them off, but for the AI to handle it. I'd keep checking. Since academics got toned down after the second demo, I haven't seen anything nearly approaching that. The most guys I've seen out during any one grading period has been two, and it has usually been one or zero.

[st.cronin]

Why did Arles change his mind about making academics an option?

[Bee]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

There's not an option to turn them off, but for the AI to handle it. I'd keep checking. Since academics got toned down after the second demo, I haven't seen anything nearly approaching that. The most guys I've seen out during any one grading period has been two, and it has usually been one or zero.

Are you playing the same version as the released one? I'm just curious because the least I've had has been 5 players (Although I've only played through 2 seasons with 2 different teams).

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Bee

Academic Eligibility. Too many guys on probation. I also budgeted the most I could for academics and I've had 5-10 guys ineligible most of the season. At one point, my starting RB, starting FB, starting QB, starting SE, and starting TE were all ineligible.

Yowza. That's a ton! What school are you playing with? What are your players' intelligences? I'm trying to figure out what could be causing the wide difference here.