FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[Oilers9911]

100 point baskets, 50 point free throws. You know, maximum customization.

Seriously though, good to see you back at work on this.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

There may be something that can be done in terms of the states the recruits are generated in. It would be harder get more specific though in terms of focusing on certain cities for instance. I don't know that you could say it never happens to have elite talent in weird places but it should certainly be more rare.

HR - would this be something that community involvement help with? i.e. if somebody (I'd be happy to volunteer ) went through and figured out a strat figure for where NCAA D1 players actually came from by city (could even go down to HS) would that be enough to factor into the game w/ some randomization or is it more complicated than that? It's been a while since I played FBCB and I can't remember exactly how recruiting distance/regions worked...

Even if it was purely cosmetic, would add a level of immersion to the game IMO to be an SoCal school and be getting a ton of guys from one of the powerhouse LA high schools like Fairfax. And if it could be more than that (distance from home/building up pipelines with certain HS etc...) then that's even more awesome, although it sounds like that might be out of scope for the next version.

[HeavyReign]

I suppose if I actually had the data it could be done. If you had a group of core schools per state then you could force a certain percentage of recruits depending on the state to come from those schools while leaving the rest up to the normal distribution. Even a breakdown of schools by class could possibly be useful here.

I've been doing some testing on the steals issue. With the tweaks I had made previously to the new code, the top stealing FOFC-FBCB team from this year Georgia Tech averaged 12.7 steals per game over the rest of their season after averaging over 18 steals up to the point of the current save. That's a good start. Once I'm sure the overall numbers are in check I'll take a look at making sure the risk/reward of pressing and trapping looks good and that the effects on stamina are also appropriate.

If anyone wants a sort of band-aid fix using the old version, open up the FBCB.ini file and look for this line:

StealRate=102

Change the number to something more like 60-70.

[Balldog]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

If anyone wants a sort of band-aid fix using the old version, open up the FBCB.ini file and look for this line:

StealRate=102

Change the number to something more like 60-70.

You da man!

[rowech]

I downloaded the demo to this and enjoyed it. How long are we talking before a new version? I hate to fork over $30 and then three months later see a new version.

[bhlloy]

Also I can't remember exactly how FBCB handles foreign players, but in general IMO they should be much more underdeveloped than US born players, and should more than likely come through one of the big prep schools rather than be recruited out of Africa/Europe. Yes it does happen but these days prep schools are far more common if I'm understanding correctly.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by rowech

I downloaded the demo to this and enjoyed it. How long are we talking before a new version? I hate to fork over $30 and then three months later see a new version.

I'd suggest waiting then. I've got someone helping me with the images used in the game and I don't know how fast they are going to get stuff to me. I'd start with a timeline of this basketball season and we'll go from there. I'll likely offer the old version at a reduced price as well fairly soon.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I'd suggest waiting then. I've got someone helping me with the images used in the game and I don't know how fast they are going to get stuff to me. I'd start with a timeline of this basketball season and we'll go from there. I'll likely offer the old version at a reduced price as well fairly soon.

Great news.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I'd suggest waiting then. I've got someone helping me with the images used in the game and I don't know how fast they are going to get stuff to me. I'd start with a timeline of this basketball season and we'll go from there. I'll likely offer the old version at a reduced price as well fairly soon.

Thanks for being honest with me. I'll be watching the development of what's to come.

[HeavyReign]

For recruiting, there have been comments that it is hard to figure out which players are likely to be good defenders as blocks and steals don't really correlate much to PSD and PRD. My thought here was to include a dFG% stat on the recruit stats or some sort of defensive reputation grade. While it wouldn't be super accurate it would give you a hint of whether the player is capable of playing defense or not before scouting. Thoughts?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

For recruiting, there have been comments that it is hard to figure out which players are likely to be good defenders as blocks and steals don't really correlate much to PSD and PRD. My thought here was to include a dFG% stat on the recruit stats or some sort of defensive reputation grade. While it wouldn't be super accurate it would give you a hint of whether the player is capable of playing defense or not before scouting. Thoughts?

I'd like to see a defensive reputation grade or some sort of indicator. Maybe an on the ball defense skill? I love stats, but I'd rather see a rating of some sort for defensive ability than the dFG% stat.

[rjolley]

Yeah, I like the on ball defense skill approach. That would give us an idea of how much pressure the player will put on the ball and work with PSD, PRD, STL, and BLK to give a better idea of how well the player plays defense.

[timmynausea]

I'll throw in another vote for the on the ball defense rating.

[dunkem]

While I think the defense fg% stat would be great in determining a recruit's defensive ability, I'm not sure if it's realistic since it's not really a readily available player stat out there. Team stat, yeah, but individual stat, I don't know. I think it's actually part of the "feeling out" process to not have the stat available until actually scouting the recruit out to get a sense of defensive ability. With this stats available, the scouting coach is really going to be useless.

One other thing that could be improved is the coaching exodus after success. While there is always a chance that assistants will leave for bigger, better opportunities, I think having everyone leave after success is kind of too much. I think once all the coaching movement is limited, multiplayer assistant rounds won't be as terrible.

[GobBluth]

First off, it's GREAT to see this thread. I've probably put in over 200 seasons with this game and always get pulled back in every March.

As far as suggestions for FBCB2, the biggies (steals exploit, assistant coach movement, etc.) have all been mentioned. Other things I would like to see are more to improve immersion than the actual game play. Things like:

- I'd like to get an email that lets me know when any player is about to break an NCAA record or when one of my players is about to break a school record (or move into the top 5 or whatever).

- Similarly for coaches and schools, it would be cool if, at the end of the year, it's noted that I set a new win record for my school, or that we won our 3rd straight conference championship, or that I just had my 8th player picked in the 1st round of the NBA draft, etc.

- More stats and record keeping in general. For instance - pace independent stats for teams, expand the record books beyond the top ten, etc.

That's all I have off the top of my head. Really looking forward to seeing how FBCB2 turns out.

[endemicFOF]

HR,

Glad to see you are considering making a new version of the FBCB game(although the first one was as close to perfect as a text-sim has ever been, it's tough to follow greatness...no pressure man! I hope you're considering an update to FBB as well, as I purchased a new CPU and can't find my old liscense for the game). As others have stated, advanced notice on potential record breakers around the league, updated pre-season/in-season/post-season tournaments(3 of them now, right?) and a tad bit more detail/in-depth ratings will make an already great game, pretty damn close to perfect. Take all the time you need, I'll buy the game regardless of when it comes out.

[Glengoyne]

This thread got me to go out and try to reactivate my old license. I'm still trying to make headway with elicense. To think that a new version might not be all that far off has got me excited about this product again.

[HeavyReign]

For any issues with finding your license with FBB and FBCB you can send me a pm. Just let me know what name it was purchased under and I should be able to get it sorted out.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

This thread got me to go out and try to reactivate my old license. I'm still trying to make headway with elicense. To think that a new version might not be all that far off has got me excited about this product again.

I just installed FBCB this week on a new computer and had no problem getting the license from Elicense. Just give them as much info as you can-email address you might have used at the time, your name, etc. Check out their FAQ for the types of info that will be helpful.

[RealDeal]

Steals are a big issue. Basically, the right solution would be to balance steals with greater stamina loss and good handlers breaking the press for layups more frequently (as opposed to simply dialing down total steals, which is less elegant).

To the extent other "systems" such as a three point team or a slow-pace Princeton style were viable, this would also be a nice way of balancing steals.

Player development should be based at least somewhat on playing time. I have won championships with fourth and fifth year seniors who barely played a minute in their previous career.

Transfers do not excite me much. Please don't over-do this or have an off switch.

The different types of defense seem to make no material difference.

Scheduling gets painful over time, but as you are aware, coach hiring is soulcrushing in both single and multi player.

There is a bug in the current game where if you run out of players, a minned out guy named Stephen Jones will suddenly join your roster. After the game if you click on Stephen Jones in the boxscore, it crashes the game.

[RealDeal]

Originally Posted by sjshaw

Just look at any team Al has put on the floor in FOFCFBCB. I'm sure he would tell you which year was his best team and radii probably has an archived file from that season.

I don't know if it was quite my best stealing team, but it was a extremely good stealing team that was my best overall team, but a good team to look at was the year that we had Craig Williams at PG as a 5th year senior and Hellmer as a 3rd year Soph at SG.

Williams is a great example of some of the engine problems as he happened to have pathetic PRD, but I didn't appear to suffer for it.

A recent team to look at was just two years ago, with Lowell Rucker at PG, Chris Owens at SG and McKinley Spriggs at SF. That may have been my best pure steals team.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

[quote=RealDeal;2178732]
Williams is a great example of some of the engine problems as he happened to have pathetic PRD, but I didn't appear to suffer for it.

QUOTE]

Absolutely love this game and have used the steals strategy as well. However, when given the choice of say a 10 PRD 3 STL and a 3 PRD 10 STL, I would always choose the guy with the higher perimeter defense, but what you are saying is always go steals no matter what?

[RealDeal]

[quote=LastWhiteSoxFanStanding;2178754]

Originally Posted by RealDeal

Absolutely love this game and have used the steals strategy as well. However, when given the choice of say a 10 PRD 3 STL and a 3 PRD 10 STL, I would always choose the guy with the higher perimeter defense, but what you are saying is always go steals no matter what?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: one good perimeter defender is practically useless in this game. One good steals guy is moderately useful. Three good perimeter defenders at PG/SG/SF is good in this game, but three steals guys at those positions is much better.

[sjshaw]

I would like to see Team Prestige be lessened as a factor in recruiting.

Currently, if a higher-prestige team "takes the lead" in recruiting a player, they get the player 100% of the time. I'd love to see factors such as distance from home and early playing time opportunity be more of a factor. No need to go crazy with it, but some variation and fine-tuning would be nice.

[Emmett13]

I'd just like to say that the original FBCB is the greatest text sim I've ever played.

I do know one fix: low-major teams (mainly teams under 10 prestige) would often just have 3 or 4 scholarships taken which always bothered me.

[Emmett13]

Also a name file with more...ethnic names. More Laquavious and things like that. Also there weren't any African players but there would be some from China and places like that.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Emmett13

I'd just like to say that the original FBCB is the greatest text sim I've ever played.

I do know one fix: low-major teams (mainly teams under 10 prestige) would often just have 3 or 4 scholarships taken which always bothered me.

what do you mean by that ? Not enough scholarship players on those schools ? Not an expert, but isn´t like that IRL ? I distinctly remember that when Bucknell made their "run" a couple years back (05 or 06 ?) they had only 5 players on scholarship.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by whomario

what do you mean by that ? Not enough scholarship players on those schools ? Not an expert, but isn´t like that IRL ? I distinctly remember that when Bucknell made their "run" a couple years back (05 or 06 ?) they had only 5 players on scholarship.

The Patriot League only allowed basketball scholarships until recently, and not all of the schools adopted the practice at the same time. I believe that Bucknell was transitioning to a full scholarship program at that time.

So, Bucknell's case was certainly not the norm.

[HeavyReign]

I've done a bunch of work on the cpu recruiting code and I'm going to do more. The scholarship issue was already addressed. I'm going to make it so there is more of a variety of approaches that cpu coaches take to recruiting. For instance, there will be some that focus on steals using the strategy the Radii detailed. Does anyone else have any team building strategies they would like to share?

[Emmett13]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I've done a bunch of work on the cpu recruiting code and I'm going to do more. The scholarship issue was already addressed. I'm going to make it so there is more of a variety of approaches that cpu coaches take to recruiting. For instance, there will be some that focus on steals using the strategy the Radii detailed. Does anyone else have any team building strategies they would like to share?

I guess some simple ones would be:

When I'm playing a smaller school and other teams in my conference don't have many good post players I often play a 4 guard lineup with the guard who has the best PSD playing the Power Forward position. But I'm never sure if that means my shooting guard playing power forward is forced to "play" power forward on offense. i.e. back to the basket, etc...

I guess what I mean is I'd like to see the addition of a 4 out, 1 in offensive system.

Then there are: 40 minutes of hell, pressing all game. Coaches would go after shooters and athletes, I suppose.

Teams like Pittsburgh: Heavy on defense and strength.

A few teams that run the Princeton type offense: So passing and shooting.

I may be generalizing on some of these attributes, but just throwing some stuff out there.

[Emmett13]

Bump because I'm so goldurn excited.

[HeavyReign]

I'm still motivated so I'd say things are going well.

[Cringer]

How about a Linux version? Yeah I know, not happening. I will cross my fingers it works through Wine.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I'm still motivated so I'd say things are going well.

Good to hear, seriously can't wait for this!

BTW, what are the odds of being able to transfer our FBCB1 saves to FBCB2? I'm guessing the odds are roughly "zero", but a boy can dream...

[k0ruptr]

let us know when we can do beta testing, omg I would do anything you asked HR. anything no but seriously if there are any beta testing needed I have an open schedule and I also highly highly suggest groundhog. some of the stuff he did and came up with for the first one was awesome. He needs to be a beta tester.

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

BTW, what are the odds of being able to transfer our FBCB1 saves to FBCB2? I'm guessing the odds are roughly "zero", but a boy can dream...

100%

[Eaglesfan27]

That is great news.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

let us know when we can do beta testing, omg I would do anything you asked HR. anything no but seriously if there are any beta testing needed I have an open schedule and I also highly highly suggest groundhog. some of the stuff he did and came up with for the first one was awesome. He needs to be a beta tester.

k0ruptr is wise beyond his years.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

100%

Wow, that's unexpected yet completely outstanding. A few times I've tried to start a new game, yet I keep going back to the same save I've been playing since 2003 because I want to see how my recruits progress! 6 years, jeez, I haven't even been a relationship with another human that long, let alone a text sim.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Emmett13

Also a name file with more...ethnic names. More Laquavious and things like that. Also there weren't any African players but there would be some from China and places like that.

HR, I can help with this if you'd like. Because I'm a sad loser with nothing better to do I actually generate my own foreign recruits through a spreadsheet I created with lists of countries, cities, names, etc, weighted towards countries that have the most players playing Division 1 NCAA basketball in real life, and then manually edit every foreign recruit each season.

I know, I have serious issues.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

100%

That is fantastic news. I have a very long career that I've been on since 2003/4 and I am quite fond of it (and its history).

[markprior22]

Really, really anticipating this game. So glad you're back into it Brian.

[21C]

Why do I get the most excited when I see a new post in this thread?

[HeavyReign]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

HR, I can help with this if you'd like. Because I'm a sad loser with nothing better to do I actually generate my own foreign recruits through a spreadsheet I created with lists of countries, cities, names, etc, weighted towards countries that have the most players playing Division 1 NCAA basketball in real life, and then manually edit every foreign recruit each season.

I know, I have serious issues.

I'd certainly accept any information you've got to make this more realistic.

[Balldog]

A couple things I've thought of recently, that only I probably would like anyway....

1) When you import a player in FBCB the player in that file are imported significantly better than the rest of the universe. Resulting in inflated stats and usually if you have a team that you imported versus a team that was game created you will almost always win. Also, free throw shooting for imported teams is way to good.

For example, I just imported this year's Ohio State team with last year's stats.

Dallas Lauderdale shot 47% from the free throw line last year, he imported at a 53 for FT.

We received all 72 first place votes in the preseason poll.

They went 40-0 and it wasn't close.

 Ohio State Buckeyes 2009 Season Info

 Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Team Prestige: 90                      Record Vs 1-50: 15-0
 Season Record: 40-0                    Record Vs 51-100: 8-0
 Conference Record: 18-0                Record Vs 101-200: 11-0
 Home Record: 15-0                      Record Vs 200+: 6-0
 Current Poll Rank: 1                   Current RPI Rank: 1

 Stat Rankings:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Points:          81.6         National Rank: 1      Conference Rank: 1   
 Points Allowed:  57.2         National Rank: 110    Conference Rank: 2   
 Rebounds:        36.5         National Rank: 9      Conference Rank: 1   
 Assists:         18.8         National Rank: 1      Conference Rank: 1   
 Steals:          4.8          National Rank: 70     Conference Rank: 7   
 Blocks:          3.5          National Rank: 7      Conference Rank: 1   
 Turnovers:       10.4         National Rank: 1      Conference Rank: 1   
 Fouls:           18.4         National Rank: 71     Conference Rank: 4   
 FG%:            .469          National Rank: 1      Conference Rank: 1   
 FT%:            .865          National Rank: 1      Conference Rank: 1   
 3P%:            .381          National Rank: 3      Conference Rank: 1   

I'm not sure what can be done here, anyway its small in regards to the big picture. I just remember spending a weekend creating some players then importing them and being disappointed how it turned out.

2) If possible, I think it would great if we could have some control over the parameters in which recruits are created. A modifier or something would be nice, ie - if I wanted to shrink the height delta overall. I'd really like to create a D2 or D3 mod and not get the D1 size.

This is a wishlist I suppose

[Balldog]

I edited my post with some more details about the importing problem.

[SunDevil]

I have never played the first game, but just from the way the developer interacts with the community I will be purchasing the upcoming game.

[HeavyReign]

I made a note to take a look at that and see if I can't make some tweaks. Player importing is tough just because of the wide range of competition levels and its very tough to come up with any reliable way of telling if a player is a good defender or not. Other things like FTs should be easy to check though. Was Ohio State the only imported team with everyone else being a randomly generated team in the first year of the league?

[Balldog]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I made a note to take a look at that and see if I can't make some tweaks. Player importing is tough just because of the wide range of competition levels and its very tough to come up with any reliable way of telling if a player is a good defender or not. Other things like FTs should be easy to check though. Was Ohio State the only imported team with everyone else being a randomly generated team in the first year of the league?

Yes, they were the only team that was imported. I did notice that the game did not appear to take into account team's prestige when players are generated for the remaining teams. There were a bunch of low prestige teams in the Top 25, including #2 was Delaware. I have them at a 25 prestige in my default file.

If you can make some tweaks that would be great. If not, its not a big deal. I'm probably one of the only ones who used the feature. I agree, its impossible to get a super accurate import based on stats.

I think it would be cool to be able to export a roster file into CSV too, then you can manually adjust heights, ratings, etc. and import the CSV.

[Bigsmooth]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

I have never played the first game, but just from the way the developer interacts with the community I will be purchasing the upcoming game.

Same here. Plus, you are in my hometown so you can definitely count on a purchase from this guy.