Alright Boyzzzz Here We Go!: DDS Basketball Edition

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I felt pretty damn cool pulling the trigger on a draft day trade last night.

Ben Gordon and the 1(2) for Emeka Okafor and the 1(5). Added fun for us, Brandon Roy was available still at the #5, and lo and behold, there's a good sized SG for Da Bulls.

How'd you get that 1(2)?

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

How'd you get that 1(2)?

Rigged it. Just went into Commish mode and forced the Knicks to give me their pick, since it was rightfully ours.

[Ramzavail]

LOL

[DaddyTorgo]

my rebuilding of the celts is going according to plan. scored adam morrison in the first draft @ #7 (it was 7 right?). then hit the lottery right with my 3% chance and got the #1 pick the next year and picked up a dynamite german pg. year 3 I picked up a couple more decent bigmen in the draft. no fa's or trades yet. details when I get home.

anyone want a very-used raef la frentz? lol

[RedKingGold]

So wait...you can start before the draft?

[Brian Swartz]

Default starting point is at the beginning of the offseason, so yes.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Default starting point is at the beginning of the offseason, so yes.

Wow, I wish more sports games did that. I'm going to purchase, but I have a rule that except for any game put out by Jim, I usually wait til the first patch.

[SirFozzie]

I had about six crashes (Mostly RTE's, but one "has caused an error and will be closed" message) last night in my quick run through at Various points, but I didn't write em down. A bit (ok a LOT) discouraging, but I'll try to see if any of em happen tonight

[Mountain]

Where do you find the subsitution matrix and setting the depth chart for when you play a game. I am currently in the summer league

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Mountain

Where do you find the subsitution matrix and setting the depth chart for when you play a game. I am currently in the summer league

left hand side of the roster screen. Look at the tabs above the team logo and there should be one that says Depth Chart. Click on it.

[JPhillips]

I just got a RTE 91 after the lottery selections.

[DaddyTorgo]

ok...i'll just put this out there:

rookie options confuse me. and sometimes i pick them up at the wrong time and end up with gaps in guys contract years and then they become FA's.

is there a better way, a way to make this "idiot proof" easily Gary?

[Groundhog]

I played around with the demo last night for a few hours, and overall I'm impressed and had a lot of fun. The offseason is greatly improved.

Things I like:
* The draft. Even though the comments got a little stale after a few drafts, it is fun and is easily the best draft yet in a text sim IMO.
* Summer leagues. I love being able to assign rookies and FAs.
* DLeague. Another great feature. I'm a little puzzled as to why you can't assign players during the "dleague assign" portion of the offseason however, and it appears that the CPU can, because some dleague teams had players prior to the dleague draft.
* Trading. Seemed pretty decent to me. I made a few trades and wasn't able to rip the AI off noticeably.

Things I don't like:
* I got a RTE immediately after exiting the draft. I reloaded and re-ran and didn't get it again, so no idea what triggered it.
* If you go in to the trade screen during the draft, then click on the background behind the trade screen it sends the trade screen to the background and you can't select it or bring it back again by clicking trade.

I'll be playing around with it some more tonight.

[DaddyTorgo]

the only problem is i'm really bad at this game.

[Sublime 2]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

the only problem is i'm really bad at this game.

C'mon, you haven't got the C's to Banner 17 yet?

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

the only problem is i'm really bad at this game.

That's okay. Neither is Danny Ainge.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Sublime 2

C'mon, you haven't got the C's to Banner 17 yet?

actually i screwed up that save with the rookie options thing and lost a couple players i wanted to keep so i started a new save. and in 08 I have gotten them to 2nd place in the division at the all star break with just the addition of adam morrison (again). so i guess that's good. i just can never seem to get over the hump with it.

[JPhillips]

Damn, another RTE this time trying to click out of FA.

Anyone playing this should save very often.

[Tim Tellean]

It looks like alot of these errors may be coming from the 32 team league setup. Let us know.

[JPhillips]

For me the first was with a 32 team league. The second was with a thirty team league.

btw- The second RTE was I believe 13? It said something about "mismatch".

[SirFozzie]

Another RTE with the 30 Team League. RTE 91

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

This is far too buggy. I'll not be playing until at least 1 patch is released. Really wish I had saved the $35 for when the game actually works. Don't care if you're an indy developer or not, a bug in the set-up screens that happens every time is inexcusable upon release of the game.

I'm always surprised when I see posts like this. I'm far more shocked when I buy a game on release day and it doesn't crash me to desktop at least three times within the first hour or so. Indie games are probably more prone due to far smaller testing teams, but it's hardly much better with the bigger gaming companies. I mean, Madden was released with fatigue not working... you would imagine that SOMEONE on their presumably quite large testing team would pick that up, considering the gamers noticed it on day 1.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

This is far too buggy. I'll not be playing until at least 1 patch is released. Really wish I had saved the $35 for when the game actually works. Don't care if you're an indy developer or not, a bug in the set-up screens that happens every time is inexcusable upon release of the game.

seriously. relax and know that Gary is quite good about quickly and effectively patching his games and it will be fixed.

you ought to have expected the game to crash on you at least a little though. it happens. If it gets you that up-in-arms then you probably shouldn't buy any games until they've been out at least a month.

[SirFozzie]

a little? Way too much.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I'm always surprised when I see posts like this. I'm far more shocked when I buy a game on release day and it doesn't crash me to desktop at least three times within the first hour or so. Indie games are probably more prone due to far smaller testing teams, but it's hardly much better with the bigger gaming companies. I mean, Madden was released with fatigue not working... you would imagine that SOMEONE on their presumably quite large testing team would pick that up, considering the gamers noticed it on day 1.

But that's two different things. As a developer, I manage two lists upon release: known problems that will be fixed after release and unknown problems that come up after user installations. I suspect with games, most fall into the former category (unless you run into PC configuration issues like different flavors of directx or drivers). Sometimes, though, I have little difficulty in believing that CTD from normal control functions would have been listed as known problems since testers would certainly have seen the same thing, assuming proper installation and registering.

[DaddyTorgo]

*cough*

Fantasy Draft: 62-60

Course that might have to do with my starting lineup: Ridnour, LeBron, Redd, Adam Morrison, Jeff Foster

[SirFozzie]

Three more crashes at various points.

This one's going back on the shelf till patches come out.

[Brian Swartz]

rookie options confuse me. and sometimes i pick them up at the wrong time and end up with gaps in guys contract years and then they become FA's.

I haven't seen the gap in contract years -- any idea when you are using the option to make this happen?

As to the other errors a number of them have been fixed already since release and we will have a first patch out as soon as possible. In the meantime the more specific reports we get on what is causing them, the faster the fixes will be.

[SirFozzie]

Brian: I think it means it's not really intuitive on how Rookie Option Years work.

Maybe it would be easier to, sometime in the week before the deadline to use the Rookie Option, they got an email that stated "The following players will be in the final year of their contract unless you use the "Rookie Option" on them now:" and listed the players.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Brian: I think it means it's not really intuitive on how Rookie Option Years work.

Maybe it would be easier to, sometime in the week before the deadline to use the Rookie Option, they got an email that stated "The following players will be in the final year of their contract unless you use the "Rookie Option" on them now:" and listed the players.

that would be easier foz, yeah

brian: i'm not sure. i'd hafta go back and try to figure out exactly how i do that, but i definately had it happen multiple times.

[JPhillips]

So this is weird.

I am playing the opening draft and trying to trade down. When I go to the trade screen I have available the 2006 second round pick and first and second round picks for 2007 and 2008. No 2006 first round pick anywhere to be seen.

CPU teams, though, have first and second round picks for 2007, 2008 and 2009. No picks listed for 2006 at all.

On a side note. Can there be a better way to see draft order on draft day? The logos are very small and on the trade screen number of pick isn't listed. It's very frustrating to have to wait until the bottom cycles back through the list.

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

On a side note. Can there be a better way to see draft order on draft day? The logos are very small and on the trade screen number of pick isn't listed. It's very frustrating to have to wait until the bottom cycles back through the list.

I strongly agree with this.

I played the demo last night. I didn't have any crashes which was good. However, things were a little "slow" and "sticky" going between certain menus (ie loading the team roster screen).

One thing that I didn't like was the decision to have a ratings scroll bar, but to include the "name" field in the scroll. Now, to look at the ratings at the end of the scroll, I have to scroll all the way to the right, but then go back to the left to see what the player is with that rating. This is especially a problem when signing free agents because you may sort by a rating and then spend your whole time going back and forth along the scroll bar to see that name of each player.

[Bee]

I thought about downloading the demo, but with just a 3 day trial I'm going to wait until the game is patched and demo updated before jumping in. I am going to be reading along though because I think this game looks like it could be pretty solid (and if I were a bigger NBA fan I'd probably just jump in right now, bugs and all).

[joyosects]

Can I play this game in a window? I'm looking for something I can play during class.

[JPhillips]

Dammit this game is frustrating. I just got a Sorry Must Close message when I tried to click on home while the future screen was up.

I think I'm giving up until a patch. I can't get through a season without a crash.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

On a side note. Can there be a better way to see draft order on draft day? The logos are very small and on the trade screen number of pick isn't listed. It's very frustrating to have to wait until the bottom cycles back through the list.

Please add to this the ability to sort by position in the War Room (unless I'm blind and missed the option to do that).

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Please add to this the ability to sort by position in the War Room (unless I'm blind and missed the option to do that).

"

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

ok...i'll just put this out there:

rookie options confuse me. and sometimes i pick them up at the wrong time and end up with gaps in guys contract years and then they become FA's.

is there a better way, a way to make this "idiot proof" easily Gary?

I think that its not a case of picking them up at the wrong time but perhaps the initial database having some wrong information in it. Can you tell me what team you are using and who you are trying to pickup the options on. One issue is that some of the guys are initially marked as being able to have options picked up when they shouldn't be. If you can give me some specific info I can look to see if that is the case or its something else.

And I agree with the people in the thread that some of these errors seem like they should have easily been caught. Unforunately with a small beta team sometimes you get tunnel vision and focus on certain things and just assume someone else has tested it. I'm not going to blame the testers though - I'm in charge and should have paid closer attention to more specific detail. Of course some of the crashes are things we just never saw happen but some should have been caught very easily and I apologize for the frustration of getting in there and having such silly crashes. I also will reevaluate how we run our beta process and make sure to improve it for the future.

The good news is that most of them are easily fixable (especially if people send me the league files and such when they get a crash) and the game will be patched promptly as it always has been with my games. In fact there is a thread at http://www.wolverinestudios.com/foru...ead.php?t=1881 that lists instructions for sending me files plus the things that have been fixed already.

If you want to hold off on the demo since its a timed demo or purchase until the first patch or so I think that's a fine idea. We should at least have a beta of the first patch out this weekend and there are close to a dozen or so fixes already. And as always if there are suggestions on improving features or adding things I'm open to those as well. Patches often (well at least after the first patch anyways) contain updates people ask for so if there are things I can do to improve on the game itself by all means let me know.

[JPhillips]

Seeing this from Bryan is really nice. I think you guys are much better at customer support than most text sim developers.

Thanks for your thoughts, truly. The biggest compliment you can give us is to care enough about the game to put in your input, positive or negative.

[Comey]

This is odd.

I am using the trial. I simmed out the first day of the season, in which my Celtics (with a stacked lineup) were playing the Knicks. Doc Rivers figured out a way to mismanage LeBron in the 4th quarter, and had to sit him for most of the final five minutes. As a result, we blew a ten-point lead and lost 105-100.

However, when I go back and look at the news articles, it says we won 119-115. I watched the game. We definitely lost (and earned it). But the stats and the boxscore says otherwise.

Now, when I tried to go watch it again, the game crashed, and I hadn't saved. So...I'm kind of screwed. But I will retest for this and see if this is happening elsewhere in my leagues.

-John

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Please add to this the ability to sort by position in the War Room (unless I'm blind and missed the option to do that).

When I click on the position header it sorts for me. I also can view only the positions I want by unchecking those that I don't. These features are not working properly for you?

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Comey

This is odd.

I am using the trial. I simmed out the first day of the season, in which my Celtics (with a stacked lineup) were playing the Knicks. Doc Rivers figured out a way to mismanage LeBron in the 4th quarter, and had to sit him for most of the final five minutes. As a result, we blew a ten-point lead and lost 105-100.

However, when I go back and look at the news articles, it says we won 119-115. I watched the game. We definitely lost (and earned it). But the stats and the boxscore says otherwise.

Now, when I tried to go watch it again, the game crashed, and I hadn't saved. So...I'm kind of screwed. But I will retest for this and see if this is happening elsewhere in my leagues.

-John

We've had some odd occurances with the news articles apparently. It was very difficult and awkward to write them in the code and there are alot of variables that it uses so its very possible that its pulling the wrong variable for the score. As long as the box score and stats agree to what you saw I'm willing to bet that its just a wrong variable being pulled

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

When I click on the position header it sorts for me. I also can view only the positions I want by unchecking those that I don't. These features are not working properly for you?

Pardon. Not the war room. The workout screen, pre-draft. That was the one that I believe didn't have the checkboxes.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Pardon. Not the war room. The workout screen, pre-draft. That was the one that I believe didn't have the checkboxes.

Workout screen sorts ok by position for me as well

[JPhillips]

I don't know what's happening, but when I tried to click on free agents during the season to see the player card it's not responding. I can see the player card during the free agency period, but not during the season.

[Coffee Warlord]

Dammit, there's one that didn't have it.

I'll look again tonight and try and figure out wtf I'm talking about.

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

Workout screen sorts ok by position for me as well

I'm going to have to check on this tonight because I remember not being able to sort by position on a screen I wanted to. If Coffee Warlord doesn't know, I'll try to post about it tonight.