BuzzerBeater Forums

Hi Marin, I'm quite new here, but I've played many online text based/ simulation games and I have some questions for you.

1. I'm really wondering why friendly games do not produce any income. It's irritating and actually quite absurd, because when being a small team, then money is practically the nr. 1 most important thing because I need to build a solid team and pay my taxes. And when getting knocked out of the Cup I have only home league games that brings income, besides selling players, but that isn't an option for most small teams as they don't have good players. But when friendly games could produce money it would be a way of BIG income over the period of one season which helps teams a lot and maybe make the game more attractive for beginners as they would have more choices and opportunities what to do, who to buy with the money.

2. My second question is have you planned bringing some sponsors that players can choose from. If so, I recommend to look in (removed link) as they have really made the game interesting with those details.

3. My third question is about the in-game motor. I've had games, even just recently, where my player gets hot and then he is subbed out. Could it be fixed because that's just dumb in my opinion :D
Also there are some other clitches in the game but surely you know them by now from other users.

4. Last but not least, it really bugs me that when I'm away for 20 min or so and I come back, I have to re-log in. I think I understand why it is that way.S o that the game site wouldn't be slow? Anyways I was hoping maybe it can be held to a longer time, the auto log out?

Thanks for listening me and I really hope that You will answer me :)
Best wishes
MrPaapz

EDIT: Link to other online game removed.

Last edited by BB-Marin at 5/6/2015 8:24:40 PM

1- The MVP prize now seems useless. It can be changed in a future to make the prize something to gain experience or a little money prize for it? And what's parameters are used to calculate the MVP prize of a season?

2- Cup: It's possible to in future seasons to win box-office instead of a 50k prize?

1. I wouldn't say it's useless. The honor itself is enough in my book.
2. No, definitely not.

Hello I was just wondering would you ever let the managers coach the teams?

If you mean something like live substitutions and tactic changes, then no.

Could you take a look at the two boxes please? (As soon as you have time) I send you my impression on this topic and we took a look at the other games with the boxes and it was everytime the same. If I'm right, the manual is wrong.

Boxes = boxscores? If so, I can only do it in a couple of days, send me a bb-mail.

Is this going to be reversed if it becomes evident that the effect is larger than expected? And what would constitute too large? 10%, 15%, 20%? Looking at my league statistics from my 2 leagues it looks like around 10%, maybe more, increase in 3pt FG%, but of course we need more data.

I sure hope that my mediocre JS / average JR centre keeps shooting 75% from 3 but I guess that would be a bit extreme.

You know that I cannot disclose everything, especially not such specific things as percentages. I'll give you a hint though, it's much less.
Looking at only 2 leagues cannot give you a good picture. Looking at just one player, even less so.

1. What - if any - changes are you planning on making to increase the effectiveness of a 3pt shot? When could we expect such changes?

2. What besides having a good amount of JS and JR on a player can you do to increase his percentage?

3. Will having two or three good shooters help increase their respective individual 3pt%?

1. We are working on slowly increasing it, and it's a very long term thing. I cannot disclose much more at this point, sorry.
2. and 3. Can't/won't say. Figure it out!

1) I'd also like to know what kind of minor adjustment have been made (in short - scaling OD down or upping JR) if you'd be willing to comment on that; also in relation to outside shooting, this time taking open shots and flow into account, is it true that open shots thus far have been "guarded" in such a way that team rating in OD has been applied to them? If so, I don't think this makes much sense. Would you consider slashing that effect in half (since it completely defeats the purpose of having good flow and getting open looks, which by their very nature are not contested) if you didn't do that already (and of course if you want to explicitly comment on what I said re open outside shots)?

2) Training. I think the changes so far with new training options are good. However, would you consider even further changes along the following lines: I don't think it makes sense to penalize training for e.g. inside defense for PFs. I'd suggest full training in accord with the inside/outside skill division (meaning - inside defense is as important, and logically trainable to the full extent, for both centers and power forwards). I don't think it would make training too easy at all. Granted, this is just a rough sketch of an idea, but I'm interested in whether you'd be inclined favorably to such an idea.

1) It's hard for me to get into such specifics without revealing too much, as much of this game depends on users figuring things out for themselves. This applies to game engine changes too. Sorry.
2) I guess I wouldn't. Having these extra options already made training much easier, and if we revome even these small penalties, it would stop being a challenge at all. We need it to be challenging. We need you to think and weigh your options - do you play your best players at their best positions or do you go for maximum training effect? This is something we don't want to lose.

Are you happy with Shooting Block influence now ?

I would say that I'm happier than I was. We can't risk making it even stronger as it may become another case of overcompensation. We might consider lowering its salary impact in the future though.

Will anything be done to combat tanking more severely?

This is a long running issue we are constantly discussing. We've had lots of suggestions, some are usable but overly complicated, others simple but probably wouldn't work in all cases. So far no ideas have emerged that is both simple enough to be explained in layman terms and good enough not to punish teams that aren't tanking yet have an unusual amount of bad luck and intentionally dropped matches due to minute management or similar. We're open to suggestions, of course (in the suggestions forum, not here).

Have you and your BB team consider to change the match view in the near/far future? I know that in some online sports managers you get only a final result which is quite primitive comparing to our Buzzer Beater. I know it will take a looooot of work... I was thinking about something like this: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgZGrgk6FFo)

I'm afraid not. We have other priorities and these kind of things are very very hard to code. Sorry.

'd just like to know how do you set a the pool of draftees ... do you make a certain number of (let's say) 18yo hall of famers with a high salary and then spread them around the leagues in the country?

The short answer is no. I don't want to reveal too much, so the long answer is not possible.

@DYD as a reply to your message number 48: I can barely understand what you are talking about yet I'm trying to give you the best answers I can. Seems like that is not enough for you so I will stop trying. Don't take this personally, there a lot of other questions while my time is limited, and I want to answer them all, rather than get pulled in a long discussion with just one manager.

why do you call a BB day when there is no BBs in the game for a long time?

if the real owners has no interest in make changes and you has no power/no knowledge/no courage (choose what you want) to manage the GE, what is the future of the game in that way?

Am I not a BB? Would you like to talk to someone else? Should I be offended? Are these rhetorical questions? Am I asking rhetorical questions now? This is getting confusing...
Kidding aside, the owners of the game pay me to make the changes and manage the game as much as possible. Once in a while I ask for their help, and they do, but they have other things to do and non-BB related lives that take up most of their time. This is what they pay me for. Most of their influence is behind the scenes in form of discussions, advice and guidance.

Is Driving only useful at offensive end? Does Driving help to get offensive rebounds?
Please give overview or more hints how tactics prediction works?
How and when players benefit the most from good/better than opponent's stamina?
Is there programmed some lucky/unlucky day chances for players?

Driving is only used offensively and does not affect rebounding, as far as I understood it. The GDP is a wide topic, I'll need you to ask a more specific question. Stamina works just like in real life. In matches where long minutes are played, the difference is highest.

1) I wanna have an homegrown team but with this draft it's impossible; I'd like to have the possibility to spend tons of money but at the same time having the 99% to have a decent drafted player, I don't talk only about skills, I'm referring above all to his potential. Do you think one day the draft will be revised or random will continue to win?

2) there are some tactics that are completely useless. Probably it's also our fault, we didn't understand how to build the roster to play with pressure for example, but if no one understood maybe you should give us an advice in order to use all the tactics we've at the moment

1) Who knows what the future will bring? We're not planning to change it in the short term, though.
2) I cannot teach you to play the game, these things need to figured out on your own. Maybe some tactics really don't work properly, I can admit that as a possibility. We're not perfect, there are definitely ones that function better than others. Maybe we should try to revise that. We'll see, in time, maybe we will.

Is there such a thing,like referees are more willing to give fouls if you play away game,like its somewhere in real life? Home team gets advantage when there is 50/50 balls and less fouls maby,than it would be in away game?

No, I can proudly say that our referees are completely impartial and unbribable.

1. I'm really wondering why friendly games do not produce any income. It's irritating and actually quite absurd, because when being a small team, then money is practically the nr. 1 most important thing because I need to build a solid team and pay my taxes. And when getting knocked out of the Cup I have only home league games that brings income, besides selling players, but that isn't an option for most small teams as they don't have good players. But when friendly games could produce money it would be a way of BIG income over the period of one season which helps teams a lot and maybe make the game more attractive for beginners as they would have more choices and opportunities what to do, who to buy with the money.

2. My second question is have you planned bringing some sponsors that players can choose from. If so, I recommend to look in (removed link) as they have really made the game interesting with those details.

3. My third question is about the in-game motor. I've had games, even just recently, where my player gets hot and then he is subbed out. Could it be fixed because that's just dumb in my opinion
Also there are some other clitches in the game but surely you know them by now from other users.

4. Last but not least, it really bugs me that when I'm away for 20 min or so and I come back, I have to re-log in. I think I understand why it is that way.S o that the game site wouldn't be slow? Anyways I was hoping maybe it can be held to a longer time, the auto log out?

1. Would only home teams get the money or would teams split it? Would the income be a fixed amount or would higher division teams earn more, therefore increasing the income gap between divisions? These are the kind of questions we need to ask ourselves before even thinking about such ideas. It's never simple to add another revenue. It carries a lot of other consequences with it. So, atm, it's not something we're considering.
2. First of all, we kinda frown upon linking to other online games here. Second, thanks for the suggestion, we'll consider it.
3. Hot players need to rest too. They can't play whole matches, you wouldn't like that either, right? I know it's not realistic but if we changed it to keep hot guys in, the weekly minutes could really get problematic.
4. I've been working (unsuccessfully, I must admit) on this issue for a long time. It is a problem inherent in the programming system we're using, so not an easy fix.

Hey marin. Thanks for the bb day thread again

Earlier in the discussion you hinted us about the correlation between rookie free agents skill points and potential I believe

The other thing I would like to get clear is that is there a correlation between age and skill points (example, x age has to be at y skill points to be FA) or is there like a set minimum of points a player is needed after 18 years?

Last edited by tough at 5/6/2015 8:35:28 PM

A few different questions for a few different areas of the game.

1) What concerns do you have about the financial position of a new team now versus where it was a few seasons ago. The market takes swings obviously, and utopia has likely pushed more money onto the market than their used to be. This causes problems moreso now for new owners than before, because before for 300k i could get further as a new GM than i can now. It may take a new team longer to perform well if they start against better managers, and may make it difficult based on the pace of the game and pace of the team building for new owners to remain attached to buzzer beater. could get a moderately young (27-28 year old) Big for 400k that had 40k salary then, now it's probably 2.5 times that cost minimum (1mil) for a quality Big for a lower team to acquire that doesn't have some major deficiency (this is my opinion, and is crude, and some will be cheaper than this and some will be more expensive, but it's an example). Long story short, are you worried about the ability for a new owner to compete giving the finances they have coming in now with 300k in immediate funds and 200k over several weeks of new GM cash?

2) With regards to new owners again, I find that a common obstacle between a failing new owner and a good new owner is the understanding of the impacts of Gameshape and Enthusiasm. I attempt to occasionally contact a new owner and explain how they can better manage these aspects of the game to improve their ability to manage their team, but i feel we could be doing more to improve this area of the explanation of the game so that more may stick around. I don't have any ideas here other than perhaps a rewording of enthusiasm (gameshape is easier to learn by trial and error), but thought maybe passing along my thoughts to get discussion or thinking going on something that wouldn't take too long to fix.

3) Because of the US offsite chat, many times i can see the concerns of other teams, and one such concern was the Transfer List Estimate and the implication of fines being hit or miss. I feel the Transfer policing is inadequate given the current enforcement, and is only acted upon mostly if the users police it, leading to some cases being dealt with unfairly in comparison to the market conditions. Sometimes i feel the user in question has begged someone with money to save him financially and thats not within the spirit of the game, sometimes i feel there is some evidence of 'sour grapes' in the chatrooms and it leads to reports being filed for Transfers that aren't that far out of what i consider realistic. Without pointing out specifics, what do you feel about the TPE and the enforcement overall, and how necessary it remains.

Thanks for your time!