Should I Buy Fast Break Basketball?
 

With football season winding down, I'm thinking of looking into a basketball text sim. I'm leaning towards FBB, but I would appreciate a quick summary of pros and cons of this game (and any others like it) from anyone here who has it.

What do you like about it? What annoys you about it? How does the general functionality of the game compare to FOF? What would you change about it? Do you need to be a basketball expert to really enjoy it and be any good at it? Does it have a high degree of replayability? Would you buy it again?

Thanks!

Pros:

-Simple, user-friendly interface
-AI better than any game other than CM
-Good sim speed
-Rock-solid sim engine

Cons:

-Some might call interface "boring" (I'm not one of them)
-Can't change League Structure
-No player personalities or conflicts

As you can see from the list, the only negative things about it, IMO, are "features" that it doesn't have. Everything that is in the game works well, and if there ever is a problem, you can count on it being fixed very quickly.

Some people complain about the interface... for a comparison, it's very FOF2-esque. My advice is to try the demo. I think you'll like what you see, but that's your choice to make.

I haven't played FBB in a while, but as I remember it, the financial model wasn't too great. Basically, you could almost always get under the cap and sign the top free agents and ride that team to first every year. Then, when the players got older, you could trade them for picks and repeat the process. Cap space didn't seem to be viewed as a commodity like it is in the NBA. Of course, I don't know if I played with the last patch. And I did have a lot of fun with it before I realized the AI holes. I love FBCB and will probably buy FBB when the new version comes out (does anyone know when that is?).

Sometime in Spring, is what I've heard, Galt.

FWIW, my comments are based on my play AFTER I instituted some restrictive house rules. The nice part about them, though, is that they still allow me to use all parts of the game (free agency, drafting, trading, etc.). They are also very easy to follow and play within.

If you're looking at the pro version and want more depth from the financial side, I'd give FBBSE a try. It is a fully patched version of Season Ticket Basketball. There is a 3-day trial on it as well:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBBSE.exe

Of course, if you're just looking at basketball in general. I highly recommend the college game. It is more advanced than the pro game at this point.


Nothing definate on that. I'll have a better idea of when it might be ready when it time for beta testing.

What's the difference between FBBSE and FBB2001?

I like the idea of the college game, but I also prefer keeping a core team together for more than 4 seasons (that's why I can only stand TCY in small doses).

I have the same problem with TCY, but I think with a smaller lineup and more games in a season, the turnover factor is less severe in FBCB. You can know everyone on your roster pretty well and recruiting in FBCB is challenging without being tedious. I don't think anyone in this forum who has played FBCB has had a bad experience with it - I think it is easily my game of the year.

The main things different about FBBSE would be a more advanced financial component, coaching staffs, and a newspaper feature.

Is it considered a different game for FBB owners or is it considered a patch?

Just in case it helps, I found Season Ticket Basketball 2003 at EB Games for $3.99.

I've been having so much fun with the college game that I haven't even loaded the pro game, but it might be something you can find easily for under $10 if you hunt around.

FBBSE is basically STB so it won't work as a patch for FBB.

You can find old copies of STB around in some cases. If you got the CD version and the latest patch it would be pretty much the same as FBBSE. There is another download version out there of STB. Stay away from it because there is no way of patching it. I know the EB at the mall here usually has a copy available in the discount areas.

Which versions do FBCB draft files import into?

You should be able to use the draft files with any of them as long as you have the latest patch.

HR, I just completed my trial of FBCB and it was good. I think I may buy it soon. I downloaded the above file to give the pro game a try, but it won't give me a trial period. Is it because I've already used the trial on FBCB?

If you grab the download above again, the trial should work. I missed the check box in the elicense setup that makes the trial button visible.

You know, your excellent customer service may just bring me to buy these two, even though I'm not a huge basketball fan. Well that and their good gameplay. Again, I thank you greatly for your, as usual, quick response and FIX.

I bought FBCB today and couldn't be happier with it. Having HR so accessible in the forums here is a great bonus, he's really on the ball and open to putting in fixes/improvements.

Excellent customer service? :confused: It took Brian nearly an hour after you posted your problem to fix it. :rolleyes: What kind of service is that?

Just in case anyone thinks otherwise, I'm joking, and FBCB at least (haven't tried FBB/STB) is my GOTY - and that's just from the 3-day trial. :eek: As soon as I get my checks back from school I'm buying it.

As far as FBCB I had to take a pass on this game as there is absolutely NO help file what so ever. There is also NO strategy guide. Not to mention that the abreviations are explained NO where.

The 8-page manual that comes with the game will get you started but is missing the other 75 pages that it would take to explain this game.

For a game that looks very deep; I spent most of my time just trying to tread water and understand the terminology. I will wait till a help system is installed or at least a glossary of some kind is included with this game. Who knows someone may even write a strategy guide for this game that takes me by the hand and explains each screen and all the Abbr.

Taur, are you very familiar with basketball in general? I could imagine if you aren't, it might seem that way. Anyhow, I'm sure you could find many volunteers around these parts that could pretty much help you with any questions you've got (myself included).

Which abbreviations gave you trouble?

I have taken the game off my computer so I could only find this screen about player ratings.

So, you are telling me that the average basketball fan would no what:

Abbr. - My best guess.
Psd? - Pass D?
Prd? - Pressure D?
Qkn? - Quickness?
Str? - Stretch?

QU: If I was going to run a high pressure D with lots of fast breaks and 3pt shotting I would not care if my players had a low Ins rating?

All I am saying is a simple glossary would of been a nice start. But, not including any kind of help system what so ever is almost unforgivable.

I agree about the glossary Taur. At first I wasn't sure if DRB was supposed to be Dribbling or Defensive Rebounding (I think it's the latter, the former is covered under Hands (HND)) but I found that reading FBCB dynasties here on FOFC helped me get a better understanding of what the abbreviations mean.

PSD = Post defense, to counter opponents inside (INS) game

PRD = Perimeter defense, to counter good shooting opponents on the outside

Quickness and Strength as well as stamina are basic attributes as opposed to skills.


Someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

Peregine is correct with his transaltions.

As for your Q regarding strategy, if you were going to run a team like that, I'd say a high Ins scoring may or may not be important. I assume that it would make your guys less likely to miss the breakaway baskets. It will also cause your players to attack the basket a little more and draw fouls, but this doesn't sound like your itent with that offense.

I think most of the strategy option in FBCB tend to operate how I'd expect them to in real life. I wanted to run a half-court styled team that looked to attack the basket, while taking minimal amount of threes. So, I have my pace on 3, my 3pt shooting on 3, and my Offense Focus set to Inside. My team plays exactly how I had hoped.

Alternately, I had a team styled like yours previously. A Colgate team equiped with lots of athleticism and outside shooters, but a lousy offensive team outside of that. So I gave them a high pace (9), high 3pt shooting rate (8) and press and trapped my way through my seasons. We managed to put points on the board because we stuck to our strengths, which was getting the ball up the court and either taking it to the hoop or shooting the three.

I have a question. On one of the ratings screens, there was an FL rating. I figured out all the other ratings, but couldn't come up with ANYTHING for this.

Here's a breakdown of all the ratings above, just to make sure you've got them all down:

# - Jersey Number
Name - Player Name
Ps - Position played
Ht - Height
Wt - Weight
Ins - Inside scoring
Jps - Jumpshot
Fts - Free throw shooting
3ps - 3 point shooting
Hnd - hands
Pas - passing
Orb - offensive rebounds
Drb - defensive rebounds
Psd - post defense
Prd - perimeter defense
Stl - stealing ability
Blk - shot blocking
Qkn - quickness
Jmp - jumping ablity
Str - strength
Sta - stamina

FL is the Foul rating. The lower the rating, the more likely the player is to get in to foul trouble.

I thought there was another rating that had to do with fouls, like Pen or something like that. My trial has ended and I haven't bought the game yet, so I can't go back and look.

PF is the foul rating.

Do you know what screen the FL rating was on, Tasan?

It was in both the roster screen and the depth chart, on either the defensive ratings tab or the physical skills tab.

Dola

and not to offend or anything like that, but I think I spoke too soo as to the quality for FBBSE. I was assuming, I guess incorrectly, that the quality level would be at least as high as FBCB. I was wrong. FBCB is much more polished in its presentation. Am I correct in thinking that FBBSE is a newer design than FBCB? I was hoping for at least the same "feel" between the two games, but FBBSE just isn't there yet. I also have a question in FBBSE about finances. I thought in the NBA, you could spend as much as you wanted to on your own guys that are free agents, as long as they had been on your team for more than a year? I am not finding this to be the case, and I'm having a hard time keeping my Mavs together with Nash coming up for contract after the first season.

FBBSE is based on Season Ticket Basketball which was released before the college game. I'd agree that it isn't as polished. I'm going to be working on a new version of the pro game that should be more on the level of the college game.

There are some limits to how much you can spend, even on your own free agents. In FBBSE the owner has an overall team budget that you must abide by as well. The other requirement is that the player should have 3 bird years(3 years without changing teams via free agency). I suspect that you are running into the budget issue though.

Yeah I think it is a budget issue. Is there any way to edit the owners? Team salary structure was put in place by a free spending owner, but my owner in the game is fairly tight fisted. I think I only have $100,000 to spend on a head coach even.

On certain screens, the foul rating is PF, and on other screens it is FLS. They are the same thing.

I wonder if making them the same would help prevent confusion?

Nod. That was stupid on my part. I already went back and changed it this morning.

Anyway to purchase FBBSE? I downloaded it and when I try to purchase it from Viatech, I get an error - which is probably because it's outdated and only lets credit card years go back to 2010?