FBCB2 discussion: Full version now available

[HeavyReign]

Must download for anyone using 2.2.6:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v227.exe

Fixes error 9 on the first day of a preseason tourney if you entered the manual game scheduling screen after tourneys were scheduled.

[britrock88]

Pardon my youth, but why 1990 in particular? I have been working on a default file for the year in the mid-80s (pardon me for forgetting at the moment) when the tourney expanded to 64.

As a super wish, any hints on how to best measure prestige when building historical datasets?

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Pardon my youth, but why 1990 in particular? I have been working on a default file for the year in the mid-80s (pardon me for forgetting at the moment) when the tourney expanded to 64.

As a super wish, any hints on how to best measure prestige when building historical datasets?

Well I completed my test file and took 1990 for the reason that it is the last season before the super conferences began. The next season Arkansas and South Carolina moved to the SEC to make the first 12 team conference. Shortly after the bricks sarted falling left and right. The Southwest and Metro conference disappeared just to name a few. In the mid 80's I think 30+ schools were still independent which bugged me. I wanted the number to get as small as I could.

Also I think it was a year that had a lot of legendary coaches getting ready to leave the game and some new blood coaches who are great today starting out their careers.

What I did for the purposes of my file (Since I couldn't find the ages of every coach) was I made them all in their thirties. That way I could sim out history and they would still be around. I wondered how many teams would keep their coaches as long starting fresh. Also I took that teams average scores for the year and set that as the teams pace (Loyola Marymount, UNLV, Ark and Southern are 10's I think while Air Force and Princeton are 0's)

What I did for prestige was used the SRS (simple rating system) from basketball refference for every team which ended up being 31.1 for UNLV and -29.6 for Northern Illinois. Then I set up ratios for everything in between (UNLV ended up being 100, Northern Illinois 0 and Robert Morris a 50 (SRS=0))

I'm sure the test file can still use some editing on it but it's worked okay so far. The file is [url="http://iaa-fbcb.us/1990 ncaa.zip"]and the thread I'm using to sim out history is 1990: Before the changes......

[Balldog]

Pretty much done with a 1978 startup, hope to post it tonight

[Illini Boy]

I was editing all of the pre-season tournaments for my league I'm making. I noticed that when editing the tournaments that the host teams wouldn't save. I would edit them in the excel sheet and they wouldn't save when I started the game. I tried to edit the host info in the game and it wouldn't save either. I'm not sure if this is a known bug or I am just doing something completely wrong (I doubt it, but it is possible). Any idea's?

Thanks,
Illini

[HeavyReign]

This should fix the hosts issue:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v228.exe

[Illini Boy]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

This should fix the hosts issue:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v228.exe

It is fixed! Thanks so much for such a quick fix! Much appreciated!

Thanks,
Illini

[dawgfan]

I continue to be impressed by the challenge of this game.

In my latest career, I opted to start off with Bryant in the Northeastern Conference. They were a 4 in prestige, lowest in that conference. I figured it would be a challenge, but in my last career I'd started off with North Dakota in the Great West Conference and they had dropped to a 0 in prestige when I was hired, and I had been able to turn things around pretty quickly to where I was winning the conference by year 3.

What I hadn't figured on though was the spread in prestige within the conference as a factor - whereas in my last career the highest prestige in my conference was a 20 or so, in this one the highest prestige teams were in the high 30's.

So far I've done OK with Bryant - 10-8, 9-9, 9-9, 10-8 & 9-9 in conference, and I've raised the prestige to 11 and gotten two (minor) facilities boosts. But I'm also treading water as you can see by the conference records - while I've definitely raised the talent level at Bryant, the rest of the conference has also improved in that regard*. The roster I took over featured scholarship guys worse than the walk-ons you get at major conference teams - all red/red except for one orange/green and two red/orange guys. Now, most of my roster is green in potential with a nice mix of orange and yellow and one or two greens in current.

And while I feel like I've developed a pretty good grasp of recruiting strategy in this game, I can still get humbled - I whiffed completely two seasons ago when I had 3 openings, chasing some pretty good foreign players that lasted to the last couple of months in the season with no other offers but refusing to commit to me and then ditching me for high-level teams at the last minute.

I do think I'm close to breaking through and winning the conference and/or conference tournament (which would bring an auto-bid to the NCAA), and close to at least garnering a CBI or CIT tourney invite, but it hasn't happened as quickly as I thought.

I continue to be impressed at how this game can challenge you - every time I think I've had an "a-ha!" moment and figured out the keys to success, I keep finding out I still have more to learn. Kudos Brian - great game and great support to your customers!

* I think that might be a minor flaw with the game - it would appear that the initial rosters of the very low prestige teams are not sustainable. There's enough talent in the recruiting pool every year that even the worst teams will see a modest improvement in roster talent

[Balldog]

I'm unable to view this complete article but it would be interesting if this could be used to create a real coaches file:

NCB: The coaching preferences of Kentucky's John Calipari, UConn's Jim Calhoun - ESPN

[inranger]

I recently installed FBB on a new laptop, but can't figure out how to keep the desktop and laptop in sync. I copied the saved file from my desktop to a flash drive, but can't seem to figure out where to copy it on the laptop so that FBB there finds it. The laptop is running windows 7. Can anyone walk me through the process of copying files to keep the two computers in sync?

[HeavyReign]

First off make sure you are running the game as an administrator. For FBB you just need to copy the \leaguedata\ folder from the old install to the new installation folder.

For FBCB, go to tools and choose edit default league then choose open folder. Copy the entire contents of this folder to your flash drive. Then run the game on your new computer and do the same to open the data folder. Then past the data from the flash drive to this folder. This should perfectly sync up the data on both computers.

[inranger]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

First off make sure you are running the game as an administrator. For FBB you just need to copy the \leaguedata\ folder from the old install to the new installation folder.

For FBCB, go to tools and choose edit default league then choose open folder. Copy the entire contents of this folder to your flash drive. Then run the game on your new computer and do the same to open the data folder. Then past the data from the flash drive to this folder. This should perfectly sync up the data on both computers.

Thanks HR, I appreciate your help.

[OldGiants]

The pre-season tournies aren't happening. It happened before the 2.2.8 patch becasue it did not work the previous season at all. By that I mean the games did not get played.

the 2012 season worked as expected. In 2013, none of the games were played, however, I did not notice because I was not in one.

In 2014, I got an invite to the GDS tourney, accepted and the days between 11/11 and 11/23 (roughly) were marked as taken up with the tournament so that I could not schedule. I played the first round game, then it simulated to 11/23, skipping the tournament second round. I did win the first round. the tourney history has no results listed for 2013 or 2014, but does have the invited teams for 2014.

[HeavyReign]

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v229.exe

Looks like when I was trying to make it so the messed up tourneys would play without missing a year I put in some debugging code and forgot to take it out. As long as the tourney is scheduled correctly and hasn't been started yet it should work now.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v229.exe

Looks like when I was trying to make it so the messed up tourneys would play without missing a year I put in some debugging code and forgot to take it out. As long as the tourney is scheduled correctly and hasn't been started yet it should work now.

Many thanks. I'll try to find some time today to move forward a season and let you know how it goes.

[youcancallmeal]

Maybe this has been asked, if not answered, but what are the criteria for NCAA selection and seeding?

RPI seems to play a big role, and winning % (or maybe just total games won). But I still see a lot of situations that aren't explained by those two. What about top-50 wins, for example?

[HeavyReign]

W/L matters and there are significant adjustments based on who the team beat and who their losses where against. Obviously beating better teams matters while losing to those teams doesn't hurt you as much. Losing to sub 200 RPI teams is bad for your rating. If you see weird things happen feel free to let me know and I can take a look at a save once the bracket is set but no games are played.

[youcancallmeal]

Cool, thanks. Something did come up in the online league just now. Several of the teams assigned to the 12-seed play-in games were conference tournament champions. Meanwhile, some of the 13 seeds were at-large selections.

[Klinglerware]

I am 15-20 years into a solo career at Monmouth. I have built the program into a perennial regular season champion/20 game winner (albeit one that consistently chokes in the conference tourney). My hot seat rating is "ice cold".

Interestingly enough, I have not received a single head coach offer during this entire span. Was this something that might have been tweaked?

[HeavyReign]

Conference champs were getting moved because of the code to reseed teams due to conference conflicts. I made some more tweaks to the code so it should only bump at large teams into the play-in games. I can rerun the seeding on the league save with the new code if you guys would like.

Klinglerware, I'd be happy to look at your save if you want to send it to [email protected]. That's the only way I can get you an accurate answer for why you aren't getting offers.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Klinglerware

I am 15-20 years into a solo career at Monmouth. I have built the program into a perennial regular season champion/20 game winner (albeit one that consistently chokes in the conference tourney). My hot seat rating is "ice cold".

Interestingly enough, I have not received a single head coach offer during this entire span. Was this something that might have been tweaked?

I was about to post an almost identical question. I'm in year 13 of a career at Bryant, and while I haven't been quite as successful as you're describing, my hot seat rating has been "cool" since year 3 and I've raised the prestige from 4 to 27, been to 2 NIT tournaments and won the conference tournament once for an NCAA tournament appearance.

Not one head coaching offer, whereas my previous experience with the game would have suggested I'd have started getting offers starting somewhere between year 5 and 7.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by Klinglerware

I am 15-20 years into a solo career at Monmouth. I have built the program into a perennial regular season champion/20 game winner (albeit one that consistently chokes in the conference tourney). My hot seat rating is "ice cold".

Interestingly enough, I have not received a single head coach offer during this entire span. Was this something that might have been tweaked?

I'm head coach of Detroit and not gotten any offers through four seasons, including one as National coach of the year. Another was Horizon COY. So I looked at the new coaches after season 4 and discovered everyone (and I mean everyone) hired had been an assistant at a big name, high reputation school. No one had moved up from a head coach job at a lower prestige school.

[HeavyReign]

OK, I found the head coach issue. I'll post a fix once I confirm that it is working. It will take a few seasons to work itself out because the head coach performance rating wasn't getting saved so its like all head coaches are starting from scratch right now.

[HeavyReign]

This includes the updated tourney selection code and the head coach fix:

http://www.fbbgames.com/FBCB2010v2210.exe

[dawgfan]

Thanks Brian. I also remembered that in my current career, not only have I not gotten any job offers, I haven't gotten any level increases either. So while my assistants have improved, I haven't gotten any bonus points to spend on coaching ability.

Sounds like this was related and is fixed with the new build?

I should have figured out there was an issue a few weeks ago - when I started this career, I was attempting to do what I had in my previous one - sim a season without a job and then see what offers came my way in season 2. I did this, didn't get any offers, simmed to seasons 3 and 4 and still no offers. Started over just to double-check that I had coaching offers turned on, simmed to season 2 and still no offers. Finally gave up and chose a job manually, but this should have been a clue to me that maybe something wasn't working right.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

OK, I found the head coach issue. I'll post a fix once I confirm that it is working. It will take a few seasons to work itself out because the head coach performance rating wasn't getting saved so its like all head coaches are starting from scratch right now.

Thanks for the great support, Brian!

Dawgfan - In my current career, I have received a level increase about 3 times in 15 years.

[bryce]

Glad to hear the HC issue was fixed. I was getting frustrated with that as well. 6 years with Alabama A&M and the last two have included 20+ wins and NCAA appearances, but nary a bite on jobs.

[OldGiants]

Pre-season tournies worked fine again. I haven't gotten to a new HC offer segment yet.

[OldGiants]

The POG seems to go for the high scorer on the winning team too often. Example is my last game. PF had 18 points, 8 rebounds, no blocks or steals. He is POG. Center had 14 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks and one steal. They each had 2 assists. I would have gone with the C as POG.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

The POG seems to go for the high scorer on the winning team too often. Example is my last game. PF had 18 points, 8 rebounds, no blocks or steals. He is POG. Center had 14 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks and one steal. They each had 2 assists. I would have gone with the C as POG.

The POG algorithm seems to also pay attention to shooting percentage and assist:turnover ratio, too. See if that changes how you feel about the selection.

[HeavyReign]

POG is determined using Hollinger's game score formula:

(Points x 1.0) + (FGM x 0.4) + (FGA x -0.7) + ((FTA-FTM) x -0.4) + (OREB x 0.7) + (DREB x 0.3) + (STL x 1.0) + (AST x 0.7) + (BLK x 0.7) + (PF x -0.4) + (TO x -1.0)

[rjolley]

Is the POG coded to always be from the winning team? If a player on the losing team has a monster game, but no one else plays well, and the loss is close, shouldn't he still be the POG?

[HeavyReign]

Game scores from the losing team are multiplied by .7

[rjolley]

Ah, good to know.

[dawgfan]

Hey Brian, out of curiosity - have you considered creating iPad versions of your games? Not sure if they are capable of running them, nor do I know how much work it would be on your end to port them if so, but a really good sports sim like your basketball games might be the killer apps that finally get me to cave and buy an iPad...

[rjolley]

I'd vote for an Android version, if I had a vote.

[HeavyReign]

It's something I've been thinking about looking into once I finish the new pro version. Unfortunately, work has been slow for the past month or so. I think if I wanted to find an actual programming job then that would be a great skill to have. There's not much out there for someone who has focused on VB6 programming forever.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

POG is determined using Hollinger's game score formula:

(Points x 1.0) + (FGM x 0.4) + (FGA x -0.7) + ((FTA-FTM) x -0.4) + (OREB x 0.7) + (DREB x 0.3) + (STL x 1.0) + (AST x 0.7) + (BLK x 0.7) + (PF x -0.4) + (TO x -1.0)

Good to know the formula. I did notice that FG pct might have entered into it.

I have seen players on the losing team get POG a reasonable amount of the time, too. Particularly after a monster game.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by rjolley

I'd vote for an Android version, if I had a vote.

I have finally talked my wife into seeing the need for me to have an Android phone.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

I have finally talked my wife into seeing the need for me to have an Android phone.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd think smartphone screens are too small to really support the FBB/FBCB interface adequately. But I certainly wouldn't complain if he gave it a shot...

[rjolley]

Was thinking more tablets.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Was thinking more tablets.

That's my thought. Maybe that's what OldGiants meant...

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

I haven't gotten to a new HC offer segment yet.

New HC offers are confirmed working (just in case anyone was curious).

I'm monitoring prestige rating changes - my initial impression is that it's harder to raise prestige in this build, but that may just be me.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

That's my thought. Maybe that's what OldGiants meant...

The Android OS. Droid screens are getting bigger with each iteration. Tablets would be good, but they are too new, other than Apple stuff.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

New HC offers are confirmed working (just in case anyone was curious).

I'm monitoring prestige rating changes - my initial impression is that it's harder to raise prestige in this build, but that may just be me.

Yes, I've gotten offers after my last season. Did not get any after my first, losing season in the Big Ten, but that is normal.

Prestige increases have been bigger for me as Detroit than as VCU before the last bunch of patches, 46 to start, then: 51, 56, 59, 65, 65 (after going 12-20 in first BigTen season). I'm 20-10 going into tourney time and expect an NCAA bid and another 3 point bump. Only one NCAA bid in this rise, too. The last pop from 59 to 65 was Elite 8. Had a 3rd rate tourney win before the Elite 8.

[britrock88]

Just something I've noticed from MP leagues, but deep in postseason tournaments, where talent is concentrated among the few remaining teams, game scores seem a bit high. Teams are average 85-90 points a game, it appears.

I've noticed that my more talented teams, by and large, are recommended to run their offenses at higher paces. So I think there might be some kind of concentration of high-paced offenses among the very best teams that leads to high-scoring NCAA games.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

The Android OS. Droid screens are getting bigger with each iteration. Tablets would be good, but they are too new, other than Apple stuff.

Yeah, probably better on a tablet. FWIW, I used to play the old FBCB (with logmein to a PC) on a device with a 4" touchscreen--but that device had a resistive screen and a stylus. I don't see it working out too well with a small capacitive screen...

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

Yes, I've gotten offers after my last season. Did not get any after my first, losing season in the Big Ten, but that is normal.

Prestige increases have been bigger for me as Detroit than as VCU before the last bunch of patches, 46 to start, then: 51, 56, 59, 65, 65 (after going 12-20 in first BigTen season). I'm 20-10 going into tourney time and expect an NCAA bid and another 3 point bump. Only one NCAA bid in this rise, too. The last pop from 59 to 65 was Elite 8. Had a 3rd rate tourney win before the Elite 8.

I took over UNLV two seasons ago. They had been to back-to-back Sweet Sixteens, yet had seen their prestige increase only 1 point each season (something like 70 to 72 - I'm working off of memory here since I'm at work).

My first job in this career was at Stephen F. Austin. When I took over, they were at 40, and despite consistent 20 win seasons and 10-12 conference wins plus a couple NIT invites and a CIT, my prestige dropped each season down to 33 before climbing back up to 35 in my last season before I got the UNLV offer.

Just seems a little more conservative that what I was used to.

[Sweet16]

I am running version 2.2.10 and the game no longer see's a save game to open. The folder is there when I look using Windows.

I was coaching a game and finished it. On arriving at the hot seat screen, the cursor remained as an hourglass. I clicked on SAVE and got the RTE '55' "File already open" message. On starting the game again and clicking LOAD, it shows no save games to load.

I've seen an increasing number of RTE crashes of various types over the last week. I patched it back to 2.2.2 but still no save games found.

Any ideas?

[HeavyReign]

Check the save folder for any files with .bak extension and then change them to .dat if that file is not present. Basically it sounds like one of the files for the save was corrupt so the game didn't finish loading but the save button wasn't disabled like it should be. If you are able to restore the save by finding .bak files and the game doesn't load let me know and I'll look at the files to see what's going on.

Also, I can't stress enough to everyone that if you get an error then let me know asap. Try to remember the last thing you did as well and what the error was. If you get an error then it will happen again.