FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[Balldog]

I was hoping to find a way to squeeze the min and max while keeping the average inline but so far no luck.

I love the flexibility and the ease of customization this game gives us.

I have a coaches file 99% done but I want to test it real quick.

Once complete I will upload that file along with the team, conferences, and preseason tournament files.

I wanted to do a real player file but I just can't dedicate the time to it. I have all the CSVs with rosters and stats but it's cumbersome to get them all combined into 1 file.

[dawgfan]

I should note that I'm going back through all the logos and doing a full update. Someone pointed out to me that I was saving my files at the wrong size (80x80 rather than 77x77) which is why some of them looked a little skewed. I'm also being more diligent about checking official school colors and adjusting those values in the league file .csv.

Once I'm done (it will probably take a few more weeks to get through all of them) I'll post them over on Brian's site, and if Groundhog is still hosting his page with mods and whatnot I'd be happy to send them over that way too.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I should note that I'm going back through all the logos and doing a full update. Someone pointed out to me that I was saving my files at the wrong size (80x80 rather than 77x77) which is why some of them looked a little skewed. I'm also being more diligent about checking official school colors and adjusting those values in the league file .csv.

Once I'm done (it will probably take a few more weeks to get through all of them) I'll post them over on Brian's site, and if Groundhog is still hosting his page with mods and whatnot I'd be happy to send them over that way too.

Knew there was a reason for Georgia Tech's magical run in NCAA53. Couldn't have been my soft schedule.

[Young Drachma]

Chris beard was coaching at a D2 last year today he out coached Matt Painter and got the W. There's good coaches at all levels

— clint parks (@Brotherhood05) March 17, 2016

I've been thinking about how FBCB can model coaches growth better than it does. I haven't figured out a better way yet, though. I just know the "level" system is a little flawed to me.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Chris beard was coaching at a D2 last year today he out coached Matt Painter and got the W. There's good coaches at all levels

— clint parks (@Brotherhood05) March 17, 2016

I've been thinking about how FBCB can model coaches growth better than it does. I haven't figured out a better way yet, though. I just know the "level" system is a little flawed to me.

This is something I've always wondered. If you look at a coach in the file he has more than the basic four ratings. Is this set up by your playing style or is it just random?

[Balldog]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

I've been thinking about how FBCB can model coaches growth better than it does. I haven't figured out a better way yet, though. I just know the "level" system is a little flawed to me.

I think it would be hard to account for all the factors in why a coach moves on, why he is overlooked, etc. I job shadowed Jim Larranaga (@ BG) when I was a junior in high school and he told me that coaching opportunities is all about who you know. He said so many guys never make it because they do not have the connections.

It would be so hard to duplicate the mid-major coaches that stay forever when they could have left for a power conference job many times ... like Mark Few...

Hopefully someday we get a new addition with some more ratings for coaches to provide greater diversity in ability and gameplanning.

[Groundhog]

Good topic this one.

I don't know if I have a better solution, but I think the way it usually works - which is to treat it like player progression, and have them improve year-by-year - is not realistic, no. Coaches seem to either have it or they don't, and while they do learn new tricks (so to speak), it can sometimes be that the longer you coach the worse you get if you aren't able to adapt your strategy to changes in the game.

One possible solution: 'scouted' ratings for coaches that are partially randomized and very general (A scale like Strong/Average/Poor, instead of a 1-100 rating, for example), with the actual ratings not revealed until after a semi-random number of years (and I'm thinking like a decade or so, if not more) - meaning you need to judge coaches on performance more than ratings (initially, at least).

Instead of improving each year it's either non-existent or slight, with a rating like 'adaptability' that would help prevent a loss in ratings the longer a guy coaches?

And to account for coaches that stick with mid majors, maybe a 'Career Aspirations' rating or something similar? Lower would mean more chance of a guy sticking with a mid-major rather than making the jump.

[Balldog]

I feel like coaches do improve over time though. There is a level of having "it" or not having "it". I would say the improvement is minor though.

Things like prestige should be there for coaches...at some point Coach K maxed out as a recruiter (like 20 yrs ago) but his prestige gives him instant clout with recruits.

[Balldog]

Here is my final update with the INI file. I'm quite pleased with where these are at. If I could find a way to FG% and FGA up slightly without messing things up too much I would be happier but this is pretty good, I think.

[Groundhog]

Looking at the comparisons, that's some great stuff Balldog - thanks! I have a house rule not to set my own pace or 3pt usage to anything above or below 8 and 2 respectively, and I think it's those extreme 1 and 10 type settings that really impact the bottom and top end of the ranges.

[Young Drachma]

I had a whole thing written out and lost it.

But basically: Coaching Talent/Ambition/Player Development/Recruiting could be four categories I'd have.

[Groundhog]

When I typed my post above I sat there for 5 minutes trying to think of 'that A-word that means motivated to get to the top'.... before giving up and going with 'Aspiration'... Ambition was the word. Thanks... lol.... It's been a very long day.

[Balldog]

Attached are the team, conference, and tournament CSV files that I use.

For prestige I used a weighted average of the last 5 years Kenpom ratings. Then I gave a +1 boost for a Final Four and a +3 boost for a National Championship.

[Balldog]

I just finished my 4th season at Bryant. My first recruit that signed just graduated with an impressive career, he was never an elite scorer but what an all-around player that I'm going to have a hard time replacing.

Add in 2 conference championships and 1 NCAA Tournament victory to his accomplishments.

 PLAYER DETAILS

 #25 PG Mervin Klein - Bryant University - Senior
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Height:       6-2
 Weight:       201
 High School:  Elkland High School
 Hometown:     Elkland, PA
 
 Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Type       INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK QKN STR JMP STA    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Current:     2   5   9   8   6  10   6   5   5   4   6   4   8   4   9  10    
    2018:     2   5   9   7   6   9   6   5   5   4   6   3   8   4   9  10    
    2017:     2   5   8   7   6   8   5   5   5   4   5   3   8   4   8  10    
    2016:     1   4   8   6   6   8   5   5   4   4   4   3   8   4   8   9    
    2015:     1   4   8   6   6   8   5   4   4   3   4   3   8   3   8   7    
 Potential:   F   C   B   B   D   A   B   C   C   C   C   D                

 Health:      Good                                           
 Scholarship: Yes
 Status:      Active Roster                                  
 Academics:   5
 
 Stat Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   G  GS  MIN  PTS  ORE  REB  AST   TO   A/T  STL  BLK   PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2016  32   0 19.6  6.1  1.2  3.0  2.9  1.5  1.96  0.6  0.0  1.8
   2017  33  33 33.1 10.1  1.5  5.4  5.5  2.9  1.91  1.0  0.1  3.1
   2018  30  30 28.6  8.0  1.8  5.2  6.6  2.3  2.84  1.0  0.2  2.6
   2019  34  34 32.3 10.1  1.8  6.1  7.3  2.6  2.85  1.2  0.1  2.9
 Career 129  97 28.5  8.6  1.6  5.0  5.6  2.3  2.85  0.9  0.1  2.6

 Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season  FGM  FGA   FG%  FTM  FTA   FT%  3PM  3PA   3P%  PPS   +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2016  1.6  4.4  .371  2.0  2.5  .813  0.8  3.1  .265 1.39 -0.44
   2017  3.4  7.4  .459  1.8  2.2  .819  1.5  4.3  .350 1.36  4.30
   2018  2.6  5.8  .443  1.8  2.0  .869  1.1  2.9  .375 1.38  0.93
   2019  3.1  7.1  .442  1.9  2.1  .900  2.0  4.7  .422 1.43  5.56
 Career  2.7  6.2  .435  1.9  2.2  .848  1.4  3.8  .361 1.39  2.67
 
 Stat Totals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   G  GS  MIN  PTS OREB  REB  AST   TO  STL  BLK   PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2016  32   0  626  195   38   97   92   47   20    1   58
   2017  33  33 1093  333   51  178  183   96   33    3  101
   2018  30  30  859  240   53  157  199   70   29    7   79
   2019  34  34 1098  345   62  207  248   87   40    4   99
 Career 129  97 3676 1113  204  639  722  300  122   15  337

 Shooting Totals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season  FGM  FGA  FTM  FTA  3PM  3PA  +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2016   52  140   65   80   26   98  -14
   2017  112  244   59   72   50  143  142
   2018   77  174   53   61   33   88   28
   2019  107  242   63   70   68  161  189
 Career  348  800  240  283  177  490  345
 
 Career Highs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Type      Pts OReb  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk   TO  FGM  FGA  FTM  FTA  3PM  3PA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season     26    5   14   17    3    1    7    9   15    6    9    6    9
 Career     26    5   14   17    4    2    9    9   15    8    9    6   10
 
 Awards & Acheivements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 All      Player of the Game: 9
 2015     High School: Rated ** and #762 overall by the FBCB scouting service.
 2016     Freshman All-Conference (Northeast Conference)
 2017     1st Team All-Conference (Northeast Conference)
 2018     2nd Team All-Conference (Northeast Conference)
 2019     1st Team All-Conference (Northeast Conference)
 2019     Conference Player of the Year (Northeast Conference)

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Balldog

Attached are the team, conference, and tournament CSV files that I use.

For prestige I used a weighted average of the last 5 years Kenpom ratings. Then I gave a +1 boost for a Final Four and a +3 boost for a National Championship.

Thanks!

[murrayyyyy]

Time for my bi-monthly pitch of the online league so here it is.

NCAA53 is a concept league that follows the history of the NCAA with regards to conferences as close as we can. We are in 1959 right now and the PCC just broke up after the Washington Huskies won the title (so blame Dawgfan). We are entering our 7th season (knock out a season in 8 weeks) and still have plenty of teams opens as we kicked Muns out (no, he is really finishing up grad school and will be back this summer).

website: http://nabf.us/html/ (black teams are open, blue taken)

forums: http://www.simnation.net/forums/foru...php?809-NCAA53

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

We are in 1959 right now and the PCC just broke up after the Washington Huskies won the title (so blame Dawgfan).

It's kind of funny (but maybe not for Idaho fans) how all of those teams (Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State) got invited back...except for Idaho.

"Washington State? Hmm, well I suppose there's some nice symmetry there with the two big state schools."
"Oregon? OK, I suppose you can come back"
"Oregon State? Well, OK - gotta have that in-state rival for the Ducks."
"Idaho...whoa, hold on there - not so fast Vandals. We already have a school in the middle of the Palouse."

[Radii]

Perhaps in this universe Idaho can get revenge on everyone by dominating everyone on the West coast for kicking them out... in 20 or 30 years, maybe... hell, probably not. Poor Idaho fans

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Radii

Perhaps in this universe Idaho can get revenge on everyone by dominating everyone on the West coast for kicking them out... in 20 or 30 years, maybe... hell, probably not. Poor Idaho fans

You'll be back in a conference (Big Sky) before Oregon State gets back in a conference. 365 days of INDY hell for the Beavers

[Young Drachma]

Kicking around doing a roster set. We'll see if I manage it. No way it'd be all of the teams. I'd probably start with the Top 25 or whatever and work from there.

I found some NCAA ratings not entire ratings set, but at least an overall rating benchmark to start with. I've got about 9 guys in so far, but the process is kind of tedious to put it mildly. I've found doing the game-generated stats to ratings conversion at least cuts down on some of the guesswork even as it underrates guys so I have to offset to get them closer to their projected rating based on the spreadsheet I'm using.

It'd just be fun probably because it's NCAA time to look at what things would be with real-life players playing in the tournament (e.g. what would Ben Simmons do, etc.) we'll see if I can power through the tedium enough.

This is where being a perfectionist is problematic.

[Young Drachma]

I have 10 players so far. We'll see how much further I can get. Sort of fascinated by this idea now. I'm probably going to do the Top 100 if I can manage it and then if I ever do anyone else, it'd just be names only, not ratings because it's tedious AF.

[Young Drachma]

Rather than skipping around and editing the elite players first, my current tactic is to just edit the rosters of programs (elite first) by conference and see how far I can get with that. I won't edit the player ratings of anybody initially, editing names is a lot easier.

Weights don't have any in-game impact so I'm not modifying that. Same with hometowns.

Just working right now on names, position & heights.

From there, I'll release a beta when it's in a decent condition. Then I can go back and start modifying the top players after that. Maybe from there, low majors names.

But really, my main priority at the moment is names first.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Rather than skipping around and editing the elite players first, my current tactic is to just edit the rosters of programs (elite first) by conference and see how far I can get with that. I won't edit the player ratings of anybody initially, editing names is a lot easier.

Weights don't have any in-game impact so I'm not modifying that. Same with hometowns.

Just working right now on names, position & heights.

From there, I'll release a beta when it's in a decent condition. Then I can go back and start modifying the top players after that. Maybe from there, low majors names.

But really, my main priority at the moment is names first.

Would there be a way to share the load on something like this? If a few people did teams they might know a lot about or conferences? This would be an impossible task for a person to do all 351 teams but if 30 people did around 12 teams much more manageable.

[Young Drachma]

I might have spent a good hour or so looking for usable raw data. The easiest way to do this would've been a spreadsheet essentially in spreadsheet form, otherwise my original way was pretty much manual from ESPN.

I didn't feel like writing something to scrap data, it's not that damn serious.

Anyway, I managed to find a spreadsheet from some gambling site that accelerated this process exponentially. I converted the file's raw class and position information to numerical format for the game's purposes.

Provided this file works, the heights will all still be inaccurate, because that data wasn't included in the source file, but...names would be accurate, as would attributes (using the stats to ratings conversion the game does...)

But we'll see.

[Young Drachma]

After all of that insanity, there's no mass "find ratings" button. You have to do it individually.

[Balldog]

I have been working on a 15-16 roster file but I've kind of stalled out on it at the moment.

Did you manually input the stats or use CSV to import? One thing that keeps me from pushing through the final phases is I have always gotten wacky stats with the real life player files...too much scoring

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Balldog

I have been working on a 15-16 roster file but I've kind of stalled out on it at the moment.

Did you manually input the stats or use CSV to import? One thing that keeps me from pushing through the final phases is I have always gotten wacky stats with the real life player files...too much scoring

Everything was manual, pulled from another CSV or generated. If I can just get it to work, I wouldn't care at all about the stats. The insane tedium of accurate names and everything is way more than enough work that I would be delighted if my only problem was statistical output.

LOL.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

I haven't gotten this to work yet. Crashes when I try to use it. I'll come back to it later, but figure someone else could/should take a stab.

I'd start with the obvious answer on why it might crash. Are the active teams in the players file equal to the teams in the teams file (like you have players for Northern Kentucky but you don't have Northern Kentucky set up in the game as a team)

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

I'd start with the obvious answer on why it might crash. Are the active teams in the players file equal to the teams in the teams file (like you have players for Northern Kentucky but you don't have Northern Kentucky set up in the game as a team)

Yeah...I did check that first. Tried different file to load the game too. I've rebuilt the file I uploaded last night in case I missed anything else. I'll keep tinkering.

Since I wasted all of that time when there was already a file available for last year's guys, I'm just going to add this year's freshman to the file as redshirts essentially since we know where they are playing and still give you access to last year's dudes, too.

[Young Drachma]

There were a few mismatches with school names corresponding though. I just went through fixed those and had them correspond and still no dice.

[Young Drachma]

Okay, so what I managed to do was essentially have the game generate a league, I exported its default players and then pasted my guys on top of ones it generated and then filled out the 1000 or so guys who I didn't create (the game makes even teams) to make sure they had names and then loaded it and that worked.

I'm not going to spend anymore time on diagnosing this, instead, I'm just going to generate an amalgam "realesque" player file with some freshman from this year and anyone else that interests me and then call it a day.

All I wanted to do was play a bit of FBCB with a slight enhanced bit of realism, but once a year I get on these big Excel problem solving kicks and this was that...but I shouldn't spend anymore time on this besides a little playing.

New file forthcoming.

[Balldog]

Sweet! I didn't know you could do it that way...

[Vince, Pt. II]

Anyone know how to fix the resolution on the game? I'm borrowing a friend's laptop while away on a trip and it runs Windows 8. Despite the computer being in 1920 x 1080 resolution, the FBCB window ends up huge and dominating the entire screen. Worst of all, the entire bottom of the window ends up off the screen, so I can't check emails in-game. I found a workaround in the FAQ, but it involves changing text size using older versions of windows, and Windows 8 doesn't have the same settings available.

Any ideas?

[Young Drachma]

Okay as far as I can tell:

- If guys are listed in the wrong order by team, the game will not load the file.
- If you don't have the exact school name, the game will not load the file.
- There are 100 other conditions I've learned related to why the files will/won't work in the game.

My lesson? This is kind of an insane exercise that no one should attempt unless it becomes their job. The payoff doesn't equal the reward.

So what did I do? I created a "fantasy" player file where I essentially copied the components of my 2014/15 file into a "demo" file that the game generated.

What does that mean?

- Player height/weight/cosmetic stuff are all accurate including ratings.

BUT

They're not necessarily playing for the same programs because going through and putting them on the right program 1) is mind-numbingly laborious and 2) even if you do that, it's probably not going to work unless it's perfect.

So...

In this alternative universe, Karl-Anthony Towns gets to lead Oregon State to a potential national title. Frank Kaminsky plays for Cal State Bakersfield.

And so forth.

I imagine with a different source player file (say with a different default league) you'd be able to attempt my trick and get different results, because it was just a lot of manual work.

So with that, I'm just gonna go play now. I will probably do one more bit of editing and put this year's freshman into the default roster just to keep things interesting, but...that's it.

This file works with the recently released team file by Balldog in this thread.

If nothing else, it'd be funny to see what happens.

Godspeed.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Anyone know how to fix the resolution on the game? I'm borrowing a friend's laptop while away on a trip and it runs Windows 8. Despite the computer being in 1920 x 1080 resolution, the FBCB window ends up huge and dominating the entire screen. Worst of all, the entire bottom of the window ends up off the screen, so I can't check emails in-game. I found a workaround in the FAQ, but it involves changing text size using older versions of windows, and Windows 8 doesn't have the same settings available.

Any ideas?

Right click, properties, compatibility mode.

Run it as administrator. Otherwise, no idea. I've never seen this behavior before on a large resolution monitor. Could lower the resolution of windows and try that too. But no idea offhand.

[Young Drachma]

Hey nerds:

I created a rough NCAA player stats to ratings converter for FBCB. Creating players was is going to be tedious regardless, but at least having a tool where you can input stats and get a rough idea of rating numbers can make the process way easier.

(I don't have a separate potential/current breakdown. Maybe someday.)

I'll probably tweak over time, but for now this works pretty well. Some of the categories are just flat randomized and aren't based on stats at all, I might improve that sometime too.

Anyway, here it is. You can make a copy if you want it.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Anyone know how to fix the resolution on the game? I'm borrowing a friend's laptop while away on a trip and it runs Windows 8. Despite the computer being in 1920 x 1080 resolution, the FBCB window ends up huge and dominating the entire screen. Worst of all, the entire bottom of the window ends up off the screen, so I can't check emails in-game. I found a workaround in the FAQ, but it involves changing text size using older versions of windows, and Windows 8 doesn't have the same settings available.

Any ideas?

I turn my tool bar to auto hide and it takes care of the problem.

[Groundhog]

One thing that has always bugged me with FBCB stats is how many one dimensional rebounding/blocking bigs there are. Looking at the rebounding leaders in FBCB vs real life, 'Dennis Rodman' type guys are a lot rarer than they are in FBCB.

I bumped the usage rate of PFs and Cs up, but this only really impacts the guys with high INS ratings anyway. In my random FBCB season, of the top 22 rebounders averaging 10 or more boards, only 4 average 10 or more points. In real life, 22 players also averaged 10 or more rebounds this year, and only a single one (9.9PPG) scraped in under 10 PPG.

I believe rebounding ratings are too inflated for bigs, which means that guys who can do nothing else are on the court for too many minutes, and that INS needs a bump for generated bigs. Usage settings in the INI are not enough to correct this, and I've tried making a change to the 'Default Players' section of the INI file which made no noticable change to anything.

Anyone got any other ideas on how we might be able to tackle this?

[Young Drachma]

add this section to the FBCB.ini under foreign talent reduction and modify it to your liking. Should impact future recruit talent.

InsideScoring=1000
JumpShot=1000
FreeThrow=1000
ThreePoint=1000
Handling=1000
Passing=1000
Stealing=1000
Blocking=1000
PostDefense=1000
PerimeterDefense=1000
ORebounding=1000
DRebounding=1000

[Groundhog]

I bumped InsideScoring to 2000 and simmed 8 seasons. I saw no noticable change to player attributes or generated stats... I'm not sure what they modify TBH.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I bumped InsideScoring to 2000 and simmed 8 seasons. I saw no noticable change to player attributes or generated stats... I'm not sure what they modify TBH.

No no.

There is a 'default players' setting that will do nothing but affect the players the game generates initially.

You can replicate those same attributes UNDER the "Recruits" section of your fbcb.ini file and it should impact your future players, but you have to paste that text from my previous post below this section in your fbcb.ini file.

I increased the usage rate of centers too, rather than decreasing it, the notion being that perhaps they'll score more if they are the focal point of the offense more than just guards (or by default, SFs)

[Recruits]
ForeignPct=1
ForeignTalentReduction=20

[Groundhog]

Ahh... I get you. OK, I wonder what that's going to do to the guards as well though... I suspect the effects might balance out if wings are also having elevated inside ratings.

I tried leveling out the usage rate for all positions to 100, as well as putting Cs at 125 and everyone else at 100, but it really only seems to have a noticable impact on the top handful of Cs.

[LaStarza61]

Does anyone know where Heavyreign has gone? I've noticed that there are several questions over on the Grey Dog forum that have gone unanswered for quite some time. I don't mean this as a criticism, but it seems like there was another time when he just kind of disappeared for a very long time. I know this isn't the correct thread... but I was wondering if the pro game is going to continue to be supported. Anyone have any pertinent information?

Thanks

[Groundhog]

HR appears from time to time. He has posted (I can't recall which thread) about his struggles re: coding (and other things).

[21C]

You're more likely to see him posting at his old forum. I saw a couple of replies from him in the last couple of weeks.
Fast Break Basketball Forum • Index page

[LaStarza61]

Thanks for the replies guys. I didn't mean to come across as being critical of him. Besides my concern about the pro game, I was also kind of worried about his welfare because I know he's had serious personal issues in the past. I hope he's doing ok.

[Groundhog]

Increasing the InsideScoring leads to a drastic increase in league scoring... Shame we can't play around with the different positions.

[Balldog]

There is a rebound distribution setting in the ini file but I have never messed with it.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

I turn my tool bar to auto hide and it takes care of the problem.

Yeah, I tried that too and the window is just a little too big still. No biggie, I don't know that I'll ever be using that laptop again for the game.

[Young Drachma]

Just saw a 16-seed Stanford (underseeded for sure) end up in the Final Four. That was a first.

As I typed this, just had a 15-seed Wright State make the Final Four, so maybe it's just the way thing are now.