Sorry for not checking in sooner guys (decided to spend 2 days with my family just so they remembered who I am). The Vista thing is driving me nuts and its not the only text sim that does not place nice with Vista apparently. If any of you are TEW fans there's a monster of a thread over at Grey Dog with these kinds of problems with TEW and Vista - M$ apparently decided to not make VB6 apps that friendly with Vista maybe in an effort to make developers no longer program in VB6 - I don't know. I'm learning VB9 now for future games but that doesn't really help this one.

The one thing I have noticed is that I haven't noticed some of these kind of complaints with Vista and my other games. DDS:CB stores far more data than they do and I wonder if that has something to do with it. I'm going to look and see if there's some other place I can store some data - in the meantime I can only suggest saving frequently and not running anything if possible alongside the game. I know someone mentioned FOF and FM working ok with Vista - I know FM is not programmed in VB6 and I don't know about FOF.

As for the RTEs those will definitely be priority one to fix - as for the music on startup if you're annoyed by it you can always take another mp3 file (or just make a blank mp3 file) and replace the theme file in the audio folder.

Is there still a discount if you purchase both DDS games?

yes there is.

Do I have to do something special or will the discount be applied automatically if I buy both games?

Once you select one of them, you'll be prompted to choose whether you want to add the other on the next screen.

I'm running Bowl Bound, FOF, FM and WMMA in Vista and so far so good.

I believe FOF and FM are programmed in C++ or C. So that isn't a good comparison.

But, I frequently run WMMA and Bowl Bound for hours on end and I don't have any crashes. I've never really tried TEW, so I can't comment on that.

Some newbie questions:

When recruiting does it matter if I visit more than once? How about if I scout more than once? If I've scouted on tape and then scout live do I still get the bonus + impression on the player?

There's a recruiting guide stickied on the WS forums here:

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/foru...ead.php?t=4257

I'd start there.

Yeah those questions were based after having read that :)

Each visit/scouting elicits more information.
Live and on-tape willalso both give you more information.

There is no bonus(no matter when you do it), but you still get the interest impression.


The more often you visit the more interested you can make the player(or uninterested, if he doesn't like you/your school)


Gives you more info, and the ratings may change slightly, but will not necessarily be more accurate.

Thanks.

1.02 has been posted.

Crashes
---------
RTE 13 - viewing transfer preview after transfer session ends
RTE 91 - viewing news while unemployed
RTE 380 - creating additional MP coaches
RTE 340 - using search feature

Bug Fixes
-----------
- sort working on available coach popup
- new email button should properly highlight if sound is turned off
- offensive freedom slider should function properly in game
- teams should use full allotment of practice minutes now
- career records should be properly tracked and displayed (going forward - it will not make them appear from seasons already simmed)
- non-conference rival scheduling bug fixed*
- seasons stuck on Apr 5th can go back to the coach office and continue to awards
- human coaches are forced to sub out players after fifth foul
- making the tourney/signing recruits no longer goals for teams on probation
- transfer screen has proper heading
- html banner should be fixed on HTML pages
- users can no longer attempt to load the "working.cbb" file

Tweaks
---------
- Second in game endurance tweak to lessen the effect of the first one
- Teams on probation are now displayed as such on Team Info screen
1.02 has been posted.

New Features
--------------
- hotkeys added to recruit calling to allow you to change between subjects with keys rather than selecting from the drop down
- "delete" key can now be used to delete individual emails

I'm excited that we can use the delete key to delete emails. Yeah for that new feature!

Nice! Btw, a FOFC league could be really fun as the FOFC-FBCB one commished by Radii is right now, i wonder if it would be enough interest.

I like FBCB because it lets me, a committed fast simmer, play through more quickly. However, I absolutely adore the additions they've made in terms of personality & find recruiting to be fun (though I'm pretty sure I've come close to cracking it, with only the roll of the dice standing in between me and the players I covet).

I was actually coming in to post about that. It was annoying as hell having to delete mail after mail that I didn't care about. (ex: the transfer emails when I wasn't in for any players, the scouting report for Duke when I'm playing at Colorado St, etc.)

I'm having fun with the game. I have Vista on all of the computers I run it on so i'm getting random crashes. Learning to save more often. I set my league up to not allow players to leave early and I think far to many players are transfering. (one guy who was a top 10 prospect signed with Syracuse, went to UCLA as a SO, played a year and then transfered back to Syracuse.

Other than that, I'm very impressed with this one. Just so people have a comparison:

I was someone who was very dissapointed in the pro version of the game. So many little things in that game were off and they annoyed me. An example: I'm the Nuggets. The default owner rating for the Nuggets owner are low for patience, willingness to spend and wanting to win. (all are wrong for Stan Kroenke, a guy who spends well into the luxury tax every year and has overpaid for many players) I get told that I need to be under the cap by the owner in the game. Ummm, I have Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and Nene. How the hell am I supposed to accomplish that feat pinhead? I finally gave up with it and moved on.

This? This makes me excited for the next revamp of the pro version. It's in my game rotation and will stay there long term. I'm not a college game player at all either. So that says a little something.

I bought both the college and pro when this one was released. I haven't played the pro, and have not been able to quite get into the college one yet for some reason. Maybe I need football to be over first.

Just another "thumbs up" on DDS:CB. If you're a fan of Gary's Total College Basketball, I think you'll really like this game.

I was hoping someone might be interested in starting this.

First off, thanks for giving it a shot. I appreciate the support and I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I think it is by far my best one and I think I learn from every new one I put out. If there is one thing I do know is that its never perfect. One or two other people have mentioned about too many transfers - that's probably from the brand new coach/team relationships in the game. Probably needs some tweaking and I will be more than happy to do it.

I know the Vista thing is a pain - I'm learning VB 2008 now in hopes of avoiding that problem down the line. It means pretty much most everything needs to be recoded from scratch for future versions. In the meantime we're trying different things to see if we can work around it - unless Microsoft is kind enough to release a patch but I'm not holding my breath.

You're the first VB6 developer I've seen say this and its refreshing to hear. For whatever reason (money) Microsoft isn't going to support VB6 with Vista so I wouldn't expect anything in the upcoming service patch.

I'm sure it will be a pain, but getting a head start will probably end up giving you an advantage down the line. Eventually people will be moving over to Vista, especially since the DX10-only games start rolling out this year.

I bought the game during the open beta phase and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I've been busy over the holidays and haven't had a chance to play the game at all since the official release. I'm looking forward to getting some time with it.

I'm in the same boat, bought the game during open beta but haven't played yet due to the holidays. With college football ending in real life, this is the perfect time for a college basketball game.

Glad to hear that you can now see if a team is on probation before you select them. Although, I'm probably going to turn off illegal recruiting, so I guess this new feature won't really affect me.

I have to say I really forced myself to play this. If I hadn't been on Winter Break with lots of time I wouldn't have made the effort. In the end I'm glad I did though, either way I was happy to support the product because it's including features I care about (meaningful personality interactions) in a sport I know something about (rather than soccer).

Ye$, that'$ u$ually the rea$on with Micro$oft - I don't expect anything either which is why I've basically just tried to be honest about the problem, tell people to save often and that I'll tinker around with things to see if we can cut it down or avoid the problem but in the end the only real solution is to start coding everything with their latest software. It sucks that Microsoft's goal is seemingly to release a new OS to make their old software obsolete so you have to buy all new stuff but in the end it works.

It will be a pain to make the switch - the terminology has changed and basically the code is as it stands is pretty useless other than being a blueprint on how to redo it. There is a code "converter" which simply brings in your code, changes some of the commands, highlights everything that is no longer a valid command in the new software and spits out an error list. Importing even a very small project produced over 100 "non-conforming" lines of code - importing something like DDS:CB would generate thousands and thousands. It will be a process but hopefully it will pay off later with future releases.

Hmmm... I am seriously thinking about forking out the $$$ to buy the game.

But $40 might be a bit too steep.

I already have DDS:PB, and would love to have the college one as well...


ARGH!!!

Decisions. Decisions.

When I am forced with a decision like this I just buy the thing because I know I will at some point anyway. Plus I think by the time this game is fully patched up you will hear in talked about in the same way FOF, BBCF and FM are talked about.

I never managed to wrap my head around VB.net simply because I got stuck in the VB-way of thinking. Instead I took the move to C# and I haven't looked back. While it's frustrating sometimes struggling with things you know are so simple in VB6 but you just can't figure it out in C#, in the end you'll be grateful.

C# is also great fun, and I've picked up a lot of new stuff that I never could do in VB6, so it's well worth the switch.

I appreciate that. I almost dove in last night but wasn't in the frame of mind to learn a new interface. It took me a few months to get into FM in earnest so I'll stay optimistic for now.

I think part of the problem is that I don't know the ins and outs of basketball as much as I do football or baseball, so need to really think about what kind of skills I want my team to have, and what kind of personnel/schemes I need to achieve that style of play.

I was going to post about C# too. For what i have read, M$ wants all the Vista programmers doing it in C# and in fact, VB2008 is just a way of using C# with the old VB syntax over it, so if you are going to need to relearn almost from zero, i suggest to do it in C#.

In my desire to program a game one day, I started past year to learn C# with some books and it looks a nice language for desktop applications (i have a background in Java and PHP programming and the syntax is close, all them comming from C). I had to stop with my new baby birth, but i plan on going back to learning C# in the close future as i have a good idea i want to convert in a game some day, or in php+mysql as a web game (that would be easier for me as it's with what i work daily) or as a desktop game in C# (or maybe both).

If you know C#, you'll be home safe with ASP.net as well, using C#, so it's a Win-Win situation. Sure, you'll be getting harassed by all M$-haters, but who cares :)

I had a similiar experience. I had a guy transfer in, play two year, and transfer out. First that's unrealistic and second he wouldn't be eligible to play either

I bought this game before Christmas, but so far I've been unable to play it. In my first attempt, after making several game decisions, I attempted to save the game and immediately got a RTE '53'. I've upgraded to the 1.02 patch, but still cannot save the game without the same crash. The message on the crash dialog box says it can't find the saved game (which I can easily find in the proper directory).

Anyone have any advice or suggestions on how I get this working? I'm on XP, not Vista.

I would recomend reinstalling, repatching, and rebooting, in that order. Most likely a game file got moved/deleted somehow.

I would recomend reinstalling, repatching, and rebooting, in that order. Most likely a game file got moved/deleted somehow.

Getting this one VERY soon... just need some time to sit down with it.

I feel so empty. I broke down and bought the game. Oh, the pitfalls of text sims.

1.03 has been posted.
Here is the list of items 1.03 covers - again remember at this point its a beta patch.

Crashes
--------
RTE 91 - viewing player cards as commissioner
RTE 380 - using hotkeys on recruit call with an uninterested recruit
RTE 91 - creating MP leagues with unemployed coaches
RTE 91 - scrolling the day select box while simming

Bugs
-----
Can no longer suspend academically ineligible, transfer or seriously injured players to work around the time they will miss
Can no longer use hotkeys on recruit calling after the recruit has hung up
Stats on sub screen will update properly now in all cases

Tweaks
-------
Tweaked end half logic with having "look for 3s" setting on to be more absolute
Tweaked out of state recruiting for lower prestige programs. Now you should see recruits denying your request for them to come visit your school.

Finally purchased this game and so far I'm hooked!

bumping this thread...

So far, color me VERY VERY impressed Gary!!! Wow, you did a TERRIFIC job with this game so far in my young career. :)

A few hours learning where everything is and I'm just really engrossed into my universe already.

I really hope you get a lot of sales!

One thing that's really rubbing me is that the recruit names recycle (exactly), such that they're blurring from the previous season. Not sure what the deal with that is. :(

That's been reported and hopefully Gary fixes that in his next patch.

Just played my first game of the season and when I go into the html options, I check "generate human team box scores only" and "generate human team pages only". When I click "continue", all my team stuff is created EXCEPT for the box score of the game I just played.

It gives me an error, can't find game92html when trying to access it.

Help?

1.04 has released. 2 version available.

Here is the list of items 1.04 covers - again remember at this point its a beta patch.

Crashes
--------
RTE 76 - logging in with coaches added after MP game started

Bugs
-----
MP coach add password box enabled
Drop down for points allocated updates properly in MP coach creation
New coach files should be placed in both the saves and league save folders


A few very important notes on this - first you should only try to grab this if you've had the random freezing problem. 1.04b is the same as 1.04 except for some changes with database stuff. Second, this install file is going to overwrite your default.dat file so if you have a custom one, move it somewhere safe. If this version proves to remove the freezing issue we'll come up with some way to mod your custom default.dat file to work with the new changes. Third, please create a new league to try it with. Your old leagues *might* work and if you want to back them up first and give them a shot go for it but you should really try with a new league.

Also please - when you click a button and it does nothing immediately just wait a second. Continuously clicking buttons will cause a crash and sometimes its just pulling alot of data. If you havent been experiencing the random freezes there's no reason to grab 1.04b - if you have please give it a shot and let us know if the problem goes away.

If anybody is interested. My copy of DDS:CB is on the trade block. I'm not looking for a lot. Maybe a copy of FOF 2007, or a copy of GDS Bowl Bound. If interested please send me a PM.

Thank you.

I'm curious, why?

I just can't get into it. I don't like the pace of the game. To much micro management for me.

You know you can have your coaches do as little/much as you want right?

But is that really playing the game than?

I just don't like it. I can't get a refund, so I'm looking for a trade. No reason to have something just sit on my hard drive.

Fair enough.