TBCB 2.5 released

[BYU 14]

While not quite the role playing version many had hoped for, this version still has a slew of really cool features. It is a lot more than just a minor upgrade. Check it out.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=160847

OOTP Developments proudly presents the new version of Title Bout Championship Boxing, TB 2.5! Discount offer for owners of TB1 and TB2!

TB 2.5 is a milestone on the way to the role playing version of the game and will replace TB2. It includes a lot of new, powerful features, a completely redesigned database and a new graphics engine.

TB 2.5 comes with more than 6600 updated fighter records and is linked to our new online fighter database, which is constantly being updated by a team of dedicated volunteers. This way you'll receive changes and additions on your computer as soon as they have been added to the online database!

We at OOTP Developments are very happy about all the help which we received when working on TB 2.5. We have a very motivated beta testers team who not only found a lot of new and old bugs but also made a lot of great suggestions which made it into the game. More suggestions and feedback came from the boxing community on our forums.
The database revisors did a great job on the fighter database - more than 6600 accurate records with tested ratings and biographies, that's really a monumental task!
The text team worked on the fight commentary database and added hundreds of new lines of text. The flags have been replaced with a new and much nicer set. Nations, venues, corner men, judges, referees and announcers have been updated. New graphics for the interface have been created.

We're sure you'll like the resulting product. It's the best Title Bout Championship Boxing ever. Download here - if you own TB1 or TB2 please be sure to read the discount offer below!

OOTP Developments thanks the beta testers and the whole community for the ongoing help and support. It's much appreciated! Special thanks go to Christopher Mund aka CONN CHRIS who made service far beyond of duty, especially on the fighter database!

NEW FEATURES

• Direct access to our new online fighter database from inside the game. Just click on "update" and download the latest changes and additions made to fighter data, ratings or biography to your "data pool". If you want to add them to any of your boxing universes you can do that with a single mouse click. But it's optional! The changes will be merged into your boxing universe without overwriting stats and record. And the good thing is: this is an ongoing process, and it's for free! You can check the current status of the fighter database and a complete changelist and history on our web site anytime at http://tbdata.ootpdevelopments.com/changelist.php
• Our database revisors team did a great job with updating, correcting and completing the fighters database, the venues database and also the corner men, judges, referees and announcers! With TB 2.5, you'll get the best database which TB ever provided!
• The new fighter filter dialog lets you select which division, gender and era you want to see in your boxing universe. This way you'll get smaller game files which load faster
• Rating records are being used more consistently in TB 2.5. Whenever you change the career stage for a fighter TB will create a new rating record for that career stage, based on the fighter's Prime rating. If a rating record for the career stage exists it will be used automatically. So you can always see which ratings are being used - no "hidden" ratings anymore
• Use the new random fighter generator to generate fictional fighters! You can determine the number of men or women, the division, overall rating, career stage, career start year and nationality of the new fighters and assign them to groups all in a single step
• You can now assign fighters to as many groups as you want. It's no longer limited to two groups!
• We completely revamped the title/organization data: organization names may be max. 25 characters long now and an unlimited number of titles is allowed in a fight
• The auto scheduler has a new filter feature "at least x days inactive" to select only fighters who didn't fight at least x days
• TB 2.5 let's you be a judge! Enter a judge record and tick the "That's me" checkbox. After each round you'll be asked for your judgment!
• The new mass edit dialog makes it easy to manage boxing universes. Select the fighters which you want to edit, open the dialog and define your changes. This way you can set fighters to active or retired, add to groups, remove from groups, set auto aging, link to data pool, set trainers or cut men, change career stage and more for selected fighters with a few mouse clicks
• We've implemented a new overall rating value "0" to split the "1" rating into "0" and "1"
• The folder structure has completely changed now. Firstly it's Vista-compatible now, all your data is now saved in "My Documents", so you'll not get in trouble with permissions on your computer. Secondly we have a "data pool" now where new universes pull all the data from. Everything is saved as editable XML files, one file per record. So you can create your own venues, corner men or whatever, export it into the data pool and share them with others!
• The database tables are saved in a different way now to prevent issues with incomplete or broken corrupted files. TB 2.5 also makes backups whenever you save the database. The last 10 versions of each database will be saved automatically
• Using the new command line parameters "ContinueUniverse=" and "ContinueCurrentUniverse" you can set up shortcuts to directly open each of your universes
• In TB2, the performance points have been used for the new ranking method. Sometimes the fighters got negative performance points. That's gone now. Performance points and ratings are now separate issues. So we use the perfect ranking and the perfect performance points method in TB 2.5

Some of the many minor changes:

• Added "user notes" to fighter biography page. You can save any notes for each fighter without editing the biography
• Career stage of fighters with multiple rating records is highlighted in fighter list
• New sortable column "Date of last fight" (Last F.) in fighter list
• List of relevant titles of a fight is being displayed on history record screen
• Added second weight field for fighters to enter the weight range
• Split options screen into two screens "Game Options" and "Database Options"
• We've completely replaced the DirectX-based graphics functions with own code. That fixed a lot of problems like the "black screen bug" and others.

ONLINE MANUAL

We're currently creating an online manual for TB 2.5. There are already some very helpful articles about some of the new features, including a lot of screenshots, can be found here.

DISCOUNT OFFER

Everybody who owns TB1 or TB2 will get a discount on the purchase of TB 2.5!
Owners of TB1 will get a discount of 30% and owners of TB2 will get a discount of 60%!
You will need your TB1 or TB2 order ID and use it as coupon code when you buy TB 2.5 in our web store. You can only get the discount when you buy TB 2.5 in our web store.

Your order ID has been sent to you in an email when you bought your game. It's a code starting with "VT-". You'll also find the order ID in the file receipt.txt which is in the Title Bout program directory.
If you don't find the order ID at all please send us an email and provide as much information about the purchase as possible like your name, address and email address. We'll need a few days but we'll find the order ID in our customer database.

Please note that we cannot give any money back if you mistakenly purchased Title Bout 2.5 without using the coupon code!

When the role playing version TB3 will be available all owners of TB 2.5 will get a $15 discount on the purchase, so on the way from TB2 to TB3 there are no extra costs when you purchase TB 2.5!

DOWNLOAD

http://www.ootpdevfiles.com/tb/tb2.5setup.exe

SPECIAL THANKS

All of this work would not have been possible without the great help of the beta team! You'll find the names of the team members on the credits screen but I want to list the forum names here because otherwise nobody knows who was who (in alphabetical order).

Database team:
a87star, bdennis2, CONN CHRIS, David Myers, IceTea, mh2365, Rocco Del Sesto, tmax11, Tosti, Vistaman44

Venues and officials:
Thunder

Text database:
Lee

Flags and proof reading:
Eumel

Beta testing:
a87star, bear, bigMatt, btown32, Claybor, CONN CHRIS, endgame, Erik W., Eumel, Fallschirmjager, gocubsgo, Gunsmoke, hamed, Ian Lord, IceTea, javier_83, Jim_Kidd, jofre, Lee, LeeSkye, maxx, mh2365, rastak, Ric915, Rocco Del Sesto, Romdawg88, Romultiltus, sabotai, SAL, Scoman, shane6969, Thunder, Tiger Fan, tmax11, Tosti, vistaman44

[PilotMan]

So if I have both 1 and 2, I get a 90% discount right?

[PilotMan]

dola

seriously, both you and sab did some work on this, what do you guys think about it?

There isn't any kind of aging built into it is there? Is it any easier to keep track of instead of keeping a spreadsheet? Any thought to cubedrums aging system.

Guess I should pop over there, but I haven't been following the development.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

dola

seriously, both you and sab did some work on this, what do you guys think about it?

There isn't any kind of aging built into it is there? Is it any easier to keep track of instead of keeping a spreadsheet? Any thought to cubedrums aging system.

Guess I should pop over there, but I haven't been following the development.

Yeah, I know. I hate to slam this game since it is obvious people making it have worked really hard but come on? After what 6-7 years of development and they can put a simple career mode onto this game? Text sims are either career sims or a season replay I don't know here this one fulls in. I bought TBCB 1 and couldn't get around the UI and without a basic career mode I never felt the desire to sped more time with it.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

seriously, both you and sab did some work on this, what do you guys think about it?

There isn't any kind of aging built into it is there? Is it any easier to keep track of instead of keeping a spreadsheet? Any thought to cubedrums aging system.

There's an aging system in the game (there has been since one of the patches for TB2 I think). You can set how many fights a fighter has before he goes up in age (a low and high number). For example, you can set it so a fighter goes from Beginner to Pre-Prime after having 5 to 7 fights (or 3 to 10, or 2 to 40, etc. Whatever you set the low and high to). Not as complex as cubedrum's aging system, but it works pretty well.

The random fighter creator is a big addition. One of the reasons I stopped my previous dynasty was because it was a pain to have to keep resupplying the "tomato can" talent every year. And it was pretty unrealistic to have a new Mexican boxer fight people from Uganda, Uniter Kingdom, Japan...now if I bring in a new Mexican fighter, I can quickly generate a few dozen Mexican tomato cans for him to fight until he gets to Prime (or whenever) and then move him to the normal groups.

So now, instead of having fictional fighters that others created that are from every nation out there, I can populate my universe with fighters from just the nations of the real fighters in the database so that UK fighters just fight UK fighters, US and Canada fight US and Canada, etc. It's a big addition for historical realism.

The autoscheduler now lets you specify the minimum number of days since a fighters last fight, so now I don't have to shuffle fighters between groups to make sure they don't fight too oftan.

If you like 2, then 2.5 is a major step forward. If you're waiting for the role-play...well, you're probably used to waiting by now. (Since SI-OOTP split, TB has become Andreas' part-time, weekend project since he has to focus a lot more on OOTP. Sucks, but that's life).

[Calis]

I recently got back into TBCB and picked this up yesterday. It's actually a huge step forward imo. Making a "universe" now is very simple and can be done in a matter of minutes rather than hours like it took in past version. The Mass Edit feature is a HUGE addition.

I also find the option to play one of the judges to be pretty fun also. It helps you follow some of the fights a little closer.

It's definitely a big step towards the actual Role-Playing sim, you can see where a lot of these options are building up to that.

It's a very big upgrade overall imo, well worth it for anyone who enjoyed the previous games at all.

[BYU 14]

I would piggy back on what Sab said, this is a huge upgrade and a lot of the new features are there because they will factor into the RP version. I have always loved the game, but setting up a universe was slow and often painful. I can now be done in minutes, the variables available in the aging system mean you can now have guys that flame out and are "shot" after 35 fights, of may fight at a prime level for 60-70 fights and end up retiring after over 90 fights. (Yes they retire automatically)

The days since last fight option in the autoscheduler is huge too for quickly building a realistic history.

Some of the things you can do with the mass edit feature is assign fighters to multiple groups, assign trainers and cutmen to multiple fighters, set career stage, set all fighters to active/retired, etc, a huge time saver!!

The fight graphics are still the same for this version, but the skin has been upgraded and looks much sharper...a small thing, but a nice change. The RFG and new Database have been talked about at length and are both great. The guys involved in the online database did a great job. There are also 1200 lines of additional text and a lot of the existing text has been cleaned up. (This is not completely done as I got busy, but will be for the first patch) There are also the thousands of user created Fighters still not in the official Database....I have over 15,000 in my universe with the fictional tomato cans I generated. This allows enough resources to replay the entire history of boxing with plenty of Fighters to cover 100 plus years.

On top of this a lot of little enhancements, like flags, the ability to judge a fight yourself, etc that really add to the immersion factor. Additions to the fighter list like titles held and multiple weight class ratings under the same fighter record are cool too. I know I am biased but the new game to me is a big step towards full RP. Check out the trial version and share your thoughts.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by sabotai

The random fighter creator is a big addition...If you like 2, then 2.5 is a major step forward.

I never purchased the previous versions of Title Bout because they lacked that easy career feeling. It seemed, to me, that you had to do quite a bit of spreadsheet work outside the game if you wanted to do a career. And, I am not a big enough boxing fan to want to do that extra work.

I have purchased this version, because of the "in game" random fighter creator. I also agree it is a big addition, since I prefer fictional universes in every text sim I play. I think quite a bit of the career sim is now in the game. And, I definitly like the direction that Title Bout is heading towards with TB3.

[cubboyroy1826]

I will agree 2.5 is a huge step forward. I am one of those that would spend hours pouring over 5 different spreadsheets to schedule my fights and flipping back and forth to see who could and couldn't fight this month. That along with trying to create new fighters and moving guy one at a time to different groups was a pain. I started a sample new uni last night and had it setup in about the time it used to take me to schedule fights for one of my regions.

My favorite feature is the previously mentioned random fighter generator that will save hours spent making fighter for regions that were barren. My second favorite feature is the fact that fighters can be associated with more than just the two groups as before so now my fighter from South Africa can be in the South African, African, and any other larger organizations. Back to playing now.

[BYU 14]

I am finding myself in a dilemma, I have invested a lot of time into my current universe, but really want to start a new one to take full advantage of the added features

[cubboyroy1826]

BYU i am having the same issue. Hate to put the old one on hold but i really would like to start a new uni.

[twothree]

Since I am new to TBCB with this version, at least I only sort of have that problem. I know I will probably start a new universe when the first patch comes out, but in the meanwhile, I have been playing a fictional universe and have now gotten attached to some of the fighters. I am currently almost finished with my 5th year and have had over 3,000 fights among almost 600 fighters.

I started my universe by generating 12,000 random fighters all at prime over 10 weight division and 100 years. 6,000 fighters rated 0-3, 3,000 fighters rated 4-7, 2,000 fighters rated 8-11, and 1,000 fighters rated 12-15. I then used the mass edit to retire all the fighters. I then took the approximate 120 fighters whose careers started in my first year, and made them active and set their career to beginner using the mass edit function. And, every year after I do the same for the next batch.

So far, I have mostly used the auto-scheduler to generate bouts to build up the universe. Basically, scheduling about 20 bouts each month in the first year, 40 in the second year, etc., so that with 120 fighters introduced each year they all average about 4 bouts a year. My auto-schedule is a lot more complex then that but that's the basics.

I like the ability to auto-schedule by the previous number of bouts that a fighter has fought. I use this to vary the number of rounds assigned to a fight each month and have a rotation for the entire year. For example, in one month I have the fighters with 0-4 previous bouts fight each other over 4 rounds, fighters with 5-9 previous bouts fight each other over 6 rounds, fighters with 10-14 previous bouts fight each other over 8 rounds, and fighters with 15+ previous bouts fight each other over 10 rounds. Then the next month I do the same except I combine fighters with 5-14 previous bouts and they fight over 8 rounds. The following month, I have fighters with 0-9 previous bouts fight each other over 6 rounds, and fighters with 10+ previous bouts fight each other over 10 rounds. And, it is easy to do with the auto-scheduler. I just have to change a few numbers and push a few buttons.

I actually spend the most time going over the bout logs and just browsing the fighters’ records instead of actually advancing the universe. I am starting to reach the point where I am building a connection with their history and don't want to get any more attached, because I also would really like to start over when the first patch comes out. I know it is easy to reset the fighter records and history, so I could basically restart with the same group of fighters, but I also read that there might be more random names added to the name files which I would definitely like to use since I generated 12,000 fighters and a little more name variety would be good.

I also like the fact that you can go to the history screen and then over in the side menu change that one column to show record, performance point change, or ranking change for each fight, and then if you go back to the fighter screen and click on a fighter's history what ever you selected to show in the selectable column on the history screen will also be displayed there. And while I haven’t used it since I read that it is not working correctly, the ability to go to the fighter screen and then over in the side menu edit the fighter’s rank should be useful.

Definitely looking forward to the first patch.

[twothree]

I don't know if I will be able to give up my current universe when the patch comes out. I have had some really interesting "stories" develop.

Will Seymour is a 22 year old, left handed flyweight who has dominated his division and held the flyweight title. He had a record of 26 wins and no losses with 13 knockouts heading into a defense of his title against the #4 ranked opponent, Nicholas Scott 13-2-1 (7). He had beaten the #2 and #3 ranked opponents at least twice each and so I put him up against the #4 ranked opponent for an easy title defense. Seymour was way ahead on points on all three judges cards entering the 9th round when the following happened over the next 4 rounds.

Round 9

0:00 Shouts of encouragement for both fighters can be heard as the bell rings for Round 9.
0:26 Seymour lands a hard hook!
0:26 Scott looks shaken!
0:40 Nicholas Scott tries to double up on the jab but neither hit the mark.
0:46 Scott takes a hard combination from Seymour
0:46 Scott is suddenly in trouble
01:00 Nicholas Scott telegraphed that shot and Seymour ducks under it easily.
01:12 Scott has Seymour trapped in the left neutral corner...
01:16 It's a sweet uppercut by Scott! He snapped Seymour's head straight back with that punch!
01:16 That was a beautiful shot, Seymour's eyes actually rolled back in his head! It's amazing that he's still upright!
01:26 Scott pins Seymour in the corner!
01:31 Jay Referson yells at the fighters to separate but Scott and Seymour are a tangle of arms.
01:40 The Referee breaks it up...
01:49 Scott throws a flurry of punches but Seymour either blocks or slips them.
02:00 * A beautiful hook to the chin knocks Scott to the canvas!
02:03 Jay Referson motions Seymour to a neutral corner and starts the count.
02:03 1...
02:04 2...
02:05 3...
02:06 4...
02:07 5...
02:07 * Scott is back on his feet! He now has to take the mandatory 8.
02:08 6...
02:09 7...
02:10 8...
02:10 Jay Referson wipes off Scott's gloves and waves the fighters together.
02:10 Scott suddenly looks very vulnerable. Seymour can stop him if he lets it all hang out.
02:28 There's a hard shot off the top of Scott's head!
02:28 Scott is dazed and he is in trouble!!
02:41 Seymour misses wildly with the Hook.
02:52 Seymour lets his hands go inside, but Scott protects his body well.
03:00 Seymour misses with the jab. He lets go with a left and that fails to find its mark, too.
03:00 Seymour appears to have a pretty good lead at this point.
03:00 Fans appreciate a fine display of boxing but as that last round proved nothing gets them going like a knockdown.

Round 10

0:00 Both fighters look ready to go as Round 10 begins.
0:14 Scott just comes up short with the jab.
0:16 There's some nice hand speed. Will Seymour fired off a volley of shots, several of which scored.
0:26 Nicholas Scott has Seymour blocked in!
0:26 Nicholas Scott connects with a left-right combo.
0:39 Scott misses badly. It looked like he changed his mind half way through the punch.
0:42 * Jay Referson motions to Seymour to keep his punches up.
0:42 * Jay Referson is stopping the action and is going to take a point away from Seymour!
0:58 Seymour misses with the right and then fails to connect with the left as well.
01:06 Scott slides into the corner...
01:10 Seymour bounces Scott back as he drives his shoulder into him. That's probably not legal but, hey, if you can get away with it!
01:14 Seymour hitches up his trunks. He'd better be careful. He may get nailed while his hands are down.
01:22 Both fighters are flailing away but Seymour is definitely landing the better punches.
01:26 Last round's knockdown doesn't appear to have had any carry over here in Round 10.
01:31 Both fighters are pawing with the jab, trying to find an opening. Scott digs a quick hook into the exposed side of Seymour.
01:43 Seymour seems really focused on what he's doing this round.
01:51 Seymour throws a straight right that glances off the shoulder of Scott but it's enough to keep him off-balance.
01:59 * Seymour is being warned for a low blow. Jay Referson is letting the judges know.
02:22 Scott leaves the jab just short.
02:35 Scott fires a lead right that Seymour manages to avoid.
02:46 * Scott absorbs a wicked uppercut to the head. He's staggering backwards and now he goes down in a heap.
02:49 Jay Referson starts the count...
02:49 1...
02:50 2...
02:51 Scott is in bad shape as he tries to regain his feet.
02:52 4...
02:53 5...
02:53 * Scott appears to be ok as he regains his feet as the referee gives him the mandatory standing 8 count.
02:54 6...
02:55 7...
02:56 8...
02:56 Scott begs Jay Referson allow him to continue and it appears to have worked as the referee signals for the fight to resume. After that pitch Scott may have a future as an actor.
03:00 Seymour appears to have this fight under control.
03:00 The bell rings and the crowd is on fire, that knockdown was definitely worth the price of admission

Round 11

0:00 The seconds hurry out of Scott's corner as the bell sounds for Round 11.
0:18 Seymour lands a crushing hook!
0:18 Scott is suddenly in trouble!
0:36 Seymour fires a wild overhand left and misses everything.
0:44 Scott retreats into the near corner.
0:44 Seymour gets a jab in but it was more of a push than a punch.
0:55 Upstairs and downstairs! Seymour lands two quick blows and then moves away from Scott's counters.
01:06 Seymour has Scott cornered!
01:06 Seymour leans on Scott and fires a weak hook to the ribs.
01:26 Scott landed a sharp combination that rocked Seymour back on his heels!
01:26 Seymour is trying to regain his senses after those punches!
01:43 Scott wraps up Seymour... Neither fighter will break...
01:47 Referee Jay Referson separates the two...
01:47 Sometimes a knockdown will wake a fighter up. We'll see if that holds true in Scott's case
01:55 Seymour lands the uppercut but there wasn't much on it.
02:04 Will Seymour has Scott pinned!
02:09 Scott does a great job smothering Seymour's punches, he had him locked up like he stole dinner right there.
02:16 Seymour lands a short hook to the body.
02:30 Scott will tie a guy up if he has to.
02:35 Scott finally lets go of Seymour.
02:42 Scott slides into a neutral corner...
02:47 Seymour cranks up the hook and connects to Scott's jaw, that one had bad intent behind it!
02:47 Scott looks stunned!
03:00 Scott picks off the uppercut by Seymour.
03:00 Seymour seems to have done enough to win this fight.
03:00 The seconds jump into action in Scott's corner as the bell sounds ending Round 11.

Round 12

0:00 The crowd would like to see a knockout as the bell sounds for Round 12, the final round of the fight.
0:11 Seymour slides into the corner...
0:15 Scott ties up Seymour.
0:20 Jay Referson has to break the clinch.
0:24 Both men look to measure one another.
0:28 Seymour retreats into a neutral corner.
0:32 That was a violent straight right by Scott!
0:32 Seymour is favoring his ribs, he's hurt!!
0:42 Seymour lands a nice jab. He tries to follow it up with a cross but it misses.
0:56 Seymour scores with a tremendous left just above the waistline!
0:56 Scott is clutching his side!
01:05 Seymour slips in a jab to the body
01:14 Will Seymour gets in a several shots utilizing his hand speed.
01:27 Scott moves into a neutral corner.
01:31 Seymour grabs Scott again. If this were football, there'd be a penalty flag for holding.
01:40 Seymour shoves Nicholas Scott away.
01:45 * Jay Referson steps in and admonishes Seymour for hitting below the belt.
01:50 * Jay Referson is disqualifying Will Seymour for a blatant foul! Scott is going to get the win via DQ!!

[PilotMan]

Oh, you gotta hate fights that end like that. Somewhere Andrew Golatta is smiling.