FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[britrock88]

HR, not a priority, but the 15-team tourney option from the conference edit page snaps back to 14 when you exit the page for a given conference.

[Young Drachma]

Thanks britrock

[Comey]

Are there any historical setups out there, so that the 32-team NCAA has more drama to it? I would love to play with, say, a 1970 setup.

If not, perhaps I will attempt to make one this weekend.

[cadmus2166]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Okey doke. After a rigorous 1 season of play-testing, this set-up appears RTE-free. It's the confirmed 2014 alignment of teams, with updated team prestige calculated as described above (and conference prestige tweaks as I saw fit). Looks like Fordham and TCU are your best challenges.

Enjoy! Let me know if you run into stuff.

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing this. I look forward to testing this out!

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Comey

Are there any historical setups out there, so that the 32-team NCAA has more drama to it? I would love to play with, say, a 1970 setup.

If not, perhaps I will attempt to make one this weekend.

I think I have a 1938 at home... there's a 1990 savefile out there... maybe something in between. I'll get back to you tonight.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by britrock88

I think I have a 1938 at home... there's a 1990 savefile out there... maybe something in between. I'll get back to you tonight.

The guy who made that 1990 file doesn't have it anymore (me).

But I did do an updated D-II (2013-14 moves) file a few weeks ago. Testing has gone okay on it.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Comey

Are there any historical setups out there, so that the 32-team NCAA has more drama to it? I would love to play with, say, a 1970 setup.

If not, perhaps I will attempt to make one this weekend.

I'm pretty sure 1975 was the first 32 team tourney Comey.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

I'm pretty sure 1975 was the first 32 team tourney Comey.

It was. I wasn't being overly specific.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Comey

It was. I wasn't being overly specific.

Yeah, it's hard to make a file with the only options being 32 and 64 so I've often wondered how to make a file for the years between 79 and 85. Also I hate the large number of independents back then.

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Okey doke. After a rigorous [s]1 season[/s] 4 seasons of play-testing, this set-up appears RTE-free. It's the confirmed 2014 alignment of teams, with updated team prestige calculated as described above (and conference prestige tweaks as I saw fit). Looks like Fordham and TCU are your best challenges.

Enjoy! Let me know if you run into stuff.

Thanks for your work. sorry I dropped the ball on our previous conversation. the only thing I would argue with is having the BE, C7 and MWC as prestige 5 conferences, but that is easily editable by myself.

Also, why is the highest prestige team a 95 and not a 100? Again, I'm just nitpicking though.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Marmel

Thanks for your work. sorry I dropped the ball on our previous conversation. the only thing I would argue with is having the BE, C7 and MWC as prestige 5 conferences, but that is easily editable by myself.

Also, why is the highest prestige team a 95 and not a 100? Again, I'm just nitpicking though.

No worries on the harder Excel work. I left the BE at 5 because they're hanging on to a couple teams with good prestige like Cinci and UConn, adding Memphis, etc. Rating the Catholic 7 a 5 came down to looking at their numbers and seeing a strong conference, even without a dominant top team. The Mountain West is really strong - #3 this season according to KenPom - and has lots of prestige ratings in the 70s and 80s to match.

The highest team is a 95 because of the method I used -- the weighted average of Pythagorean records over the last 10 seasons. If somebody had been 1.000 all 10 seasons, look out!

[ValiantJoey]

Does anybody have a logo for the Incarnate Word Cardinals? Got the job offer, but the logo always helps my game experience play better. I was going to download one, but not sure how to get it in the proper format for the game.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by ValiantJoey

Does anybody have a logo for the Incarnate Word Cardinals? Got the job offer, but the logo always helps my game experience play better. I was going to download one, but not sure how to get it in the proper format for the game.

The game will take any size logo and adjust to the box. Just make sure you save it under the same name as someone has in the logo box in the teams.csv file

I usually check twitter out for schools that are hard to find.

UIW (uiwcardinals) on Twitter

[ValiantJoey]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

The game will take any size logo and adjust to the box. Just make sure you save it under the same name as someone has in the logo box in the teams.csv file

I usually check twitter out for schools that are hard to find.

UIW (uiwcardinals) on Twitter

Thanks for the heads up on logos. Will be adding a few more with it being that easy.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Okey doke. After a rigorous [s]1 season[/s] 4 seasons of play-testing, this set-up appears RTE-free. It's the confirmed 2014 alignment of teams, with updated team prestige calculated as described above (and conference prestige tweaks as I saw fit). Looks like Fordham and TCU are your best challenges.

Enjoy! Let me know if you run into stuff.

Re-posted for the new page.

[Groundhog]

Brit do you mind if I host up on my site? Would be nice to keep files like this in one location. The season file I have on my site gets a few downloads each month even now.

[britrock88]

Comey, all -- here is a 1974-75 setup.

There are 83 independent schools; in this setup, they're all in one conference. The GUI cuts off after 20(?) teams, so you may want to break the indies up alphabetically, by region, or by prestige. (Doing it by prestige would be smart, come to think of it -- helps the strong and the weak independent schools remain as such.)

[britrock88]

Groundhog, feel free. You may as well PM me your email address and I can send over all that I've aggregated. (38, 74, 2010-14, D2, D3)

[britrock88]

Heh. Noticing my idiosyncratic abbreviations. And my skewed prestige system (UCLA tops at a 93, UNC next at 63, and down the line). Makes me wonder what the underlying calculations were, having handily thrown those out.

[Young Drachma]

My D3 mod should be in my signature and those FBCB Coach Calculator I made too. Add them to your site if you want.

[Balldog]

My D2 mod is posted earlier in this thread with logos. I'm not sure how much different it is from bitrock's, but it was pretty accurate at the time I posted it.

[Groundhog]

Thanks guys, I'll work on getting these all added over the next couple of days.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Comey, all -- here is a 1974-75 setup.

There are 83 independent schools; in this setup, they're all in one conference. The GUI cuts off after 20(?) teams, so you may want to break the indies up alphabetically, by region, or by prestige. (Doing it by prestige would be smart, come to think of it -- helps the strong and the weak independent schools remain as such.)

You are missing the Gauchos. California-Santa Barbara Gauchos were IND that year also (no great loss).

[murrayyyyy]

Just a question before I get too deep into it. Has anyone attempted bizarre world where all 475 schools who have played at the "major" level (according to BBref) with all conferences stay alive? I started it last night and didn't think about asking if anyone has attempted it yet. I did about 14 conferences last night

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

Just a question before I get too deep into it. Has anyone attempted bizarre world where all 475 schools who have played at the "major" level (according to BBref) with all conferences stay alive? I started it last night and didn't think about asking if anyone has attempted it yet. I did about 14 conferences last night

Pretty sure no one has ever shared that idea.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Balldog

My D2 mod is posted earlier in this thread with logos. I'm not sure how much different it is from bitrock's, but it was pretty accurate at the time I posted it.

Not very -- I would have DLed yours... I think I added Simon Fraser for some interesting Canadian play, but that's all. Of course, there's realignment to incorporate since the time you released this.

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

You are missing the Gauchos. California-Santa Barbara Gauchos were IND that year also (no great loss).

I went by basketball-reference, which, while trustworthy, is not 100% accurate. I'll look into this later; thanks for pointing it out.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by britrock88

I went by basketball-reference, which, while trustworthy, is not 100% accurate. I'll look into this later; thanks for pointing it out.

Yeah, that's where I went. Just checked, according to PSAA on wikipedia: UC Santa Barbara was an independent from 1974–1976.

California-Santa Barbara Gauchos Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

[britrock88]

Well, derp. I'll fix that sometime soon!

[yeah826]

I think what would be cool for the new version of the college game if he ever decide to make it would be if he were to create a historical modifier in terms of conference movement and things of that nature. D2 League would be nice also

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

From the department of ridiculous ideas comes this simple spreadsheet mod that might help make head coaching decisions if you're a God-mode player like me or even if you're just trying to evaluate a mid-major job with a major conference gig a la real life.

There's incentives for post-season appearances, boosts for better leagues to offer bigger contracts that include guarantees that I modeled after real-life contracts and even small boosts for your contract having more players who are good students.

It's a completely academic and dorky exercise, but it might be fun for someone somewhere (like that guy who a few months ago wanted HR to add coach salaries to the game, lol) so I decided to share it.

It's attached and you can open it in Google Docs, Excel or Open Office Calc.

I edited the original file with one that I made with newer tweaks that make salaries more realistic. Also added a mechanism for figuring out where a career assistant coach ought to go, if you're like me (no one is, I know) and play in God mode controlling things like that sometimes.

I updated my FBCB Coach Mod a while back, but had only done so on Google Docs. I've updated the link here with a newer version. It makes some of the fields simpler, improves the calculation and I believe has some randomization. Works better than the original.

[Capital]

I was thinking about purchasing this game recently and was curious about how it stands up. It appears that the game was released in 2010 but has been updated a fair amount over the last couple of years. Still worth the purchase? March Madness is right around the corner.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Capital

I was thinking about purchasing this game recently and was curious about how it stands up. It appears that the game was released in 2010 but has been updated a fair amount over the last couple of years. Still worth the purchase? March Madness is right around the corner.

Absolutely. It is still far and away the best college basketball sim available and has a solid loyal following.

I run one of the multiplayer leagues (see FBCB Multiplayer League Recruiting - Front Office Football Central if you're interested). We've been running smoothly for almost a decade now on the game in general and switched over to the 2010 version shortly after it came out. The support and attention HR gives this game as its been requested over the years is amazing.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Radii

Absolutely. It is still far and away the best college basketball sim available and has a solid loyal following.

I run one of the multiplayer leagues (see FBCB Multiplayer League Recruiting - Front Office Football Central if you're interested). We've been running smoothly for almost a decade now on the game in general and switched over to the 2010 version shortly after it came out. The support and attention HR gives this game as its been requested over the years is amazing.

What he said.

I play in his league and the other multiplayer league, help out with the continual alignment moves, and create/collect some alternate league setups (search the thread for Groundhog's site). The customization that's possible with this game is great -- from historical setups to lower-division setups to entirely fictional setups, they're all possible to create and run. Plus, nothing beats the fun of building up a team from nothing!

[Young Drachma]

What everyone else said. The game rocks, far and away. And HR is the best in the business.

[Young Drachma]

Dola: Did you all see this 667 coaches mod some guy at FBCB made?

[Young Drachma]

Ridiculous FBCB mod of the day, NJ High School Basketball mod. We'll see if it happens or not, but...I'm working on it in theory.

[murrayyyyy]

Well if we need a crazy file of the day here is the 475 team file. Max conference size is 10 which lead to 54 conferences with each getting an automatic bid. Also added more preseason tournaments for a total of 39. Haven't had any problems in testing so far. Still needs to have teams logo names added but I figure I can work on logos at a later date.

I've haven't seen a small school win the tourney yet. One won the CBIT in 15 years of testing.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

Well if we need a crazy file of the day here is the 475 team file. Max conference size is 10 which lead to 54 conferences with each getting an automatic bid. Also added more preseason tournaments for a total of 39. Haven't had any problems in testing so far. Still needs to have teams logo names added but I figure I can work on logos at a later date.

I've haven't seen a small school win the tourney yet. One won the CBIT in 15 years of testing.

Is this some kind of merger of D1/2/3?? What 475 schools are in it, because that's not clear.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Ridiculous FBCB mod of the day, NJ High School Basketball mod. We'll see if it happens or not, but...I'm working on it in theory.

I've been discussing this sort of thing with someone else as well. The theory is we could replace the states file with counties in the state. We could even go as far as replacing the current high school file with one for middle schools. I can make it so if you place these files and the folder for the league file, the game will transfer them to your save folder whenever you start a new game and will use them instead of the default ones. This is how the FBCB.ini and Height.ini files already work. You could basically set up each classification as a level of conference prestige. Then we'd just need to work out a way for separate state tourneys at the end.

[yeah826]

That would be epic

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I've been discussing this sort of thing with someone else as well. The theory is we could replace the states file with counties in the state. We could even go as far as replacing the current high school file with one for middle schools. I can make it so if you place these files and the folder for the league file, the game will transfer them to your save folder whenever you start a new game and will use them instead of the default ones. This is how the FBCB.ini and Height.ini files already work. You could basically set up each classification as a level of conference prestige. Then we'd just need to work out a way for separate state tourneys at the end.

That indeed would be epic. I'm almost finished with this bare bones Jersey HS file right now. Well I'll need to edit and make sure I didn't screw something up.

I don't think we'd need middle schools since there's no HS recruiting (unless it's private schools) or scholarships, really? Just ways to make sure the kids could be fed into their hometown school district? Just seems like one less thing to have to worry about.

[Young Drachma]

I don't imagine this will have a ton (any?) appeal, but...here it goes.

This is a high school mod for New Jersey High Schools. It's 20 conferences (state sectional) each with an automatic bid to the NJSIAA consolidated state tournament. (Which isn't a real thing) and you can control the bids to the tourney based on what you think. Lots of interesting named schools in this one, if nothing else.

Some caveats:

- It excludes most charters or "new" schools I didn't recognize.
- All of the schools are in New Jersey, but not in their correct long./latitude. I didn't figure anyone would care. But feel free to fix your specific town if you want.
- Mascots are excluded except for the ones I knew off-hand.
- Because putting teams in conferences would mean that they wouldn't end up feeding to the right state sectional tournaments, I've just created the state sectional groupings as conferences instead. Feel free to create a pre-season tournament that includes your favorite NJSIAA conference if you want to simulate a county or conference tournament. (That's my plan)
- I created a Central Jersey Non-Public A section comprised of schools playing Real Life South Jersey Non-Public B & schools some elite preps that don't play NJSIAA sanctioned ball at all.

I've included a fbcb.ini file with diminished recruits to simulate HS basketball, I imagine tinkering you might find raising the level of play would be better but I intentionally wanted to see if mucking it up like this would be interesting or not.

I fast-simmed a year to make sure there were no crashes. Turn off transfers and all secondary tournaments and it should be good to go.

I set it to a 32-team tournament with each of the 20 state sectional champions being eligible and then enabling another 12 at-large bids, but with over 340 schools you could justify more probably.

My goal was mostly to down and dirty throw it together to 1) see if I could before getting bored and 2) see if it'd work once I did. I might go back someday and improve it.

File can be accessed here in zip format. Extract them into a default leagues folder called NJSIAA or whatever and I was able to start a new league.

[Balldog]

Glad to know I'm not the only one obsessed enough to think of HS mods

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Is this some kind of merger of D1/2/3?? What 475 schools are in it, because that's not clear.

It's every school that was classified as a major school (i.e., Division I or equivalent) for at least one season in the history of college basketball.

School Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Then I did the same with almost every conference. I tried to assign teams with seniority to their conferences.

Conference Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Just wanted to see if if I could make a file with real teams that would make it hard to win in the end.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by Balldog

Glad to know I'm not the only one obsessed enough to think of HS mods

I'm making a PIAA mod sometime in the near future, for a giant dynasty I'm creating.

[HornsWin]

Hi all...just getting into this game (into year 4) and had a couple of questions I couldn't find the answers to....

1.) Do coaches (head and assistants) see improvements in their ratings over time or are they locked in at the beginning of the game?

2.) Do players only see improvements in ratings during training camp or will you see increases during the year as well? Also, does playing time help a player's ratings improve or are improvements strictly limited to what happens in training camp?

Love this game so far! Thanks for the help in advance!

[nol]

Coaches do improve in their ratings over time, but I couldn't tell you what exactly has to happen in order to increase a level. I'm not sure if players improve throughout the year, but players with more playing time do improve more during training camp (relative to their potential, head/assistant coach ratings, and training facilities).

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by HornsWin

Hi all...just getting into this game (into year 4) and had a couple of questions I couldn't find the answers to....

1.) Do coaches (head and assistants) see improvements in their ratings over time or are they locked in at the beginning of the game?

2.) Do players only see improvements in ratings during training camp or will you see increases during the year as well? Also, does playing time help a player's ratings improve or are improvements strictly limited to what happens in training camp?

Love this game so far! Thanks for the help in advance!

Short answers:
Coaches' skills do increase, irregularly. And players only improve during training camp.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Short answers:
Coaches' skills do increase, irregularly. And players only improve during training camp.

As someone who only plays with promotion on, I can tell you that assistant skills increase when you are promoted, and your skills do then as well, but at other times also. Facilities and budgets are also increased with promotion, and at other, random times, too.

Assistants will ask for more money when their skills increase. That's the reminder it has happened.

[Capital]

You guys are right...it's a fun game...just spent a bunch of time with the demo.

Due to the sheer number of guys to recruit in college games, I oftentimes felt these portions a bit cumbersome. That's not the case here and you don't have to spend a ridiculous amount of time combing though a bunch of players.

Do you know how many licenses come with the game - 2?