Fast Break College Basketball
Fast Break College Basketball is a text-based basketball
simulation modeled after the world of collegiate basketball. It allows you to
take control of a college basketball team as that school’s coach. This guide
will take you through the basic information necessary to use the game.
Table of Contents
Allow
human coaches to be fired:
Use
play-in game in championship tournament:
Use
team conference promotions and demotions:
Conference
prestige updates due to team performance:
Allow
players to be suspended due to academics:
Schedule
Non-Conference Games:
Improve
the training facilities:
Save Name: The name the game will be saved under. The save folder for the league will be have
this name and will be found under the leaguedata folder where you have the game
installed.
Starting Season: The year you want
the league use its first season.
Using a coach file: Select from the list of
available files. This allows you to set the default coaches for the teams
rather than using the random coaches. There is more information about this in
the section on creating coach files.
Using a player file: Select from the list of
available files. This allows you to set the default players for the teams
rather than using the random players. There is more information about this in
the section on creating player files.
Attribute style: This sets the display style
for the player and coach attributes. Player potentials will always be displayed
using the A-F option.
Allow human coaches to be fired: This determines whether it is
possible for human coaches to get fired due to poor coaching performance.
Save game logs for all teams: This will override the
individual team settings and is only recommended if you have a lot of free disk
space. The logs for a full season can take up close to 1GB of space on the hard
drive. When enabled, it will make it possible to view the pbp for every game
played during the season.
Randomize team prestige: This will make the team prestige
for each team random when you start the game rather than using the prestige
values stored in the default league.
Use play-in game in championship tournament: When this is enabled, the
championship tournament will feature 65 teams instead of 64. The two lowest
rated teams in the tournament will play an extra game to determine who gets to
be in the official field of 64.
Use team conference promotions and demotions: This option makes it possible for
teams to move to a better conference if they finish first in their conference.
The conferences are broke into 5 levels. The first place teams from one level
can be swapped with last place teams in the level above them. If the number of
conferences is unbalanced, the most deserving of the conference winners will be
moved up.
Conference prestige updates due to team performance:
This option
causes the prestige level for each conference to change over time based on the
performance of the teams in the conference. This would allow one of the the
lesser conferences of today to become more powerful in the future. This option
cannot be used when conference promotions and demotions is enabled.
Allow players to be suspended due to academics: When this is enabled, it will
be possible for players to be suspended each month during the season due to
poor academics. The suspension lasts for 30 days. The odds of a player getting
suspended are determined by his intelligence and by how much extra training
time he spends on academics.
These
options aren’t set when you start a new game but can be changed using the
league options choice under the tools menu.
College Association Name: This is the name of the college league. It
is also used to determine the name of the championship tournament. The default
value is FBCA.
Secondary Tourney Name: This is the name of the secondary
tournament for teams who do not receive a bid to the championship tournament.
The default value is FBIT.
Commish Password: If you set a commish password, you will be
require to enter the password when simulating games or making other changes to
the league. This is highly recommended for online leagues.
Auto-save: Determines how often the game will auto-save your league.
Enable 3p shot: Determines whether or not the
3p shot is used in the game engine. This may be useful for recreating older
seasons when the 3p shot wasn’t used.
Enable Injuries: Determines whether or not it
is possible for players to get injured during games.
Injury Frequency: Determines the likelihood of
player injuries. A higher value will result in more injuries.
Output Draft Files:
Determines whether or not the game will output a draft file for your league
each year when you run end season. Draft files are stored in the draftfiles
folder inside the folder for your league.
A season in Fast Break College Basketball is continuous, but may
be thought of as several separate periods.
During the offseason coaches may receive job offers from other
schools, be fired, retire, hire assistant coaches, begin recruiting for the
next season, schedule games, make requests of the Athletic Director, accept or
decline invitations to preseason tournaments, and train players. It is also during this time that the league
generates new recruits (high school seniors, JC, and foreign players).
Head Coach Round: During
the Head Coach Round you may receive offers to coach for another school. Go to “Humans” on the top tool bar, and
select “Job Offers” to check to see if you have been offered a new job. It is also possible for your assistant
coaches to receive and accept offers. If
so, you will be notified by email in the “Messages” section on your Team Info
page.
Assistant Coach Round: If an
assistant coach has left your school for the opportunity to coach elsewhere,
you will have to hire a new staff member to replace him. It is during this round that you do this by
going to your Team Info page and selecting the “coaching staff” page. On that page click the “Hire Staff” button to
look through possible replacements. You cannot progress past this period until
you have hired a full staff of assistants.
Schedule Tourneys: You may receive an offer to participate in a
preseason tournament. If you wish to
accept the offer click on the “accept offer” button found in the message. After this stage is completed, the schedule
will be generated, leaving open some dates for non-conference games.
Schedule Non-Conference Games: You may schedule non-conference games by
going to your team schedule screen and double-clicking on an open date. The
number of games you have available will be displayed above the list of dates.
If anyone has offered you a game, that spot in your schedule is saved until you
have either accepted or rejected the offer. If you do not wish to play that
opponent, you must reject the offer before you will be allowed to schedule
another game in its place. You may attempt to schedule games anytime between
May and the beginning of training camps in early November.
Recruiting: Now it
is time to recruit. Go to your Team Info page and select recruiting. Search out, call, evaluate, visit and offer
scholarships to players that you wish to join your team. When you have spent your money, or recruited
all the players you wish to pursue, click “sim month” to continue. After you click “sim month” return to the
recruiting page and check out your progress.
There are several turns (months) of recruiting to do before you get to
training camp. Recruiting does not stop
when training camp begins, so be sure to continue recruiting throughout the
season. The
recruiting period runs from July until April.
Training: During training, players
experience growth in their attributes. At the conclusion of training camps, all
players in the league are reevaluated by the league scouts. Computer and human
coaches have the option to red shirt some players at this time. At the end of
the training period you may get a notice if an underclassman decides to forego
their remaining year(s) of eligibility in order to enter the draft. You have the option
to set specific training options for each player by going to the “Training”
option on the team screen.
The regular season begins in mid-October and ends in mid-April.
During this time, each team will play non-conference and conference games. Teams
may also participate in one of the preseason tournaments (such as the Maui
Invitational) if they are invited.
Generally, a team schedule is dominated by non-conference play in the
early months (October, November, and December) before beginning conference play
in January, February and March.
The Conference Tournament: Following
the regular season most conferences have a conference tournament in order to determine
the conference champion. The conference
champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. For those conferences that do not have a
tournament, they give the automatic bid to the regular season conference
champion.
The Tournaments: Each
of the Conference Champions plus 34 at-large teams are invited to participate
in the NCAA Tournament. The championship
tournament begins with a “play-in” game (if that option is selected when
creating a new league) and culminates in the Final Four and National
Championship. Teams that are not invited
to the NCAA Tournament may be invited to the NIT tourney. If they are not a participant in either
tournament, their season is over.
End Season: The End Season process
prepares the league for the offseason. All players are aged one year. Some
players will graduate at this time and incoming recruits will be added to your
roster.
At this point the offseason starts again.
The
coaching staff consists of the head coach and three assistant coaches. The
assistants fill the roles of recruiting coordinator, lead scout, and coaching
assistant. Your team’s performance in each of these areas is a combination of
the head coach’s skills and the assistants’ skills. The skills of the head
coach and the assistants are weighted equally. Each assistant only affects the
area that their role is responsible (the recruiting coordinator doesn’t have an
impact on scouting).
In Fast Break College Basketball, each team is allowed to carry up
to 15 players on their roster. A maximum of 13 players may be on scholarship at
one time. During training camp you may cut or red-shirt some of these players.
Red-Shirt: Designating
a player as a red-shirt will make him ineligible to play in any game. The benefit is that it retains the year of
eligibility. You may wish to do this
when a player has little chance of contributing in a season, but has the
potential to grow into a contributor in future seasons. Players that have been red-shirted are
designated with an asterisk next to their class/grade designation. The red-shirt designation of the player can be
changed in the training section of the team roster screen.
Cut: You may decide that it is better to cut a
player than have him eat up roster space on your team. During the preseason you are free to cut
those undesirable players. It is only possible to cut players who are not on
scholarship.
Legal Positions: This gives you the
option to set what positions it is ok to use the player at during the game. The
computer coach will only use someone who isn’t listed as a legal player at the
position if all of the legal players are unavailable.
Depth Setting: The depth setting determines where the player is in the playing rotation. The top 5 players listed are the starters. The remaining players should be placed in the order that you would like them used. If a starter is tired, the coach will put in the first rested player it can find on the bench that is eligible to play at the desired position. Players who are red-shirting will not appear on the depth chart.
PT: The PT option is used to determine playing
time. A lower setting will lead to less playing time. This is most important
for the starters. If the starter has a high playing time setting, it won’t
leave much time for the backups. If you want the starter and the backup at a
position to share the playing time, you should set the starter with a low
playing time value and the backup with a high playing time value.
The following settings are used to determine your team's style of
play:
Pace: Pace
is the overall speed at which your team plays the game. Teams running a faster
pace will be more likely to take the first good shot that they can find. Teams
with a slow pace will be more patient and will spend more time looking for a
good shot.
Motion: A
higher motion setting will make the team play a more structured game. It would
take away some from the individual freedom to score but it will create more
opportunities for less talented scorers. A team with many players who lack the
ability to create shots would benefit from using more motion.
3P Usage: This
determines how often your team will look to take a three-point attempt. The higher the setting the greater amount of
three-pointers your team will take.
Offense
Focus: Players
will be more likely to attempt shots in the area you set for the offensive
focus. A balanced focus will not give special attention to any locations.
Key Players: Your
team will give extra effort to get the ball into the hands of your key players.
These players are more likely to handle the ball when your team is on offense.
It is usually best to set either your better ball handlers or better scorers as
key players. You may list up to three separate key players.
Defense Usage: You
may decide to use a number of different defenses. Those
available are: Man, 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 zone, 2-1-2 zone, matchup zone, and 3-2
zone. The ability score
indicates how well your team runs that defense.
The more you use a defense the better your team becomes when using
it.
Man defense: Each player guards one man and does his best to stay with him.
2-3 Zone: The 2-3 zone has the advantage of protecting the inside and keeps
your post players inside. It is weak
against good outside shooting, The vulnerable areas are on the wings, point and
high post.
3-2 Zone: The 3-2 zone is more effective against a good outside shooting
team. It is less effective defending the inside because there are only 2
defenders inside.
1-3-1 Zone: The 1-3-1 zone has the advantage of being able to apply pressure
on the outside and high post. It is weak when the offense attacks from the
corners and into the low post.
2-1-2 Zone: The 2-1-2 Zone is strong in the middle of the court. It is
similar to the 2-3 defense except the center defender steps out toward the free
throw line. This gives it stronger defense against the high post and drives in
the middle.
Matchup Zone: The matchup zone is a mix of a zone and man-to-man defenses. The players
will occupy space like they would in a zone, but when opposing players fill
those spaces, the defenders come up and guard the opposition like they would in
a man-to-man defense. When the players leave that space, the defenders do not
follow them but instead stay in their zones.
Press
Frequency: This is
how often your team will apply extra defensive pressure in backcourt. The
benefit is that you will be more likely to get steals. However, it also will
cause your players to become tired faster and can also lead to increased fouls.
The stealing ability of your perimeter players will help determine the success
of the press.
Trap
Frequency: This is how often your team
will apply extra defensive pressure in a half-court setting. The benefit is
that you will be more likely to get steals. However, it also will cause your
players to become tired faster and can also lead to increased fouls.
Double
Inside: Doubling a player usually
result in someone else being left open. The player who is doubled will get
extra defensive attention but if they find the open player, they will generally
get a wide open shot.
Double
Outside: Doubling a player usually
result in someone else being left open. The player who is doubled will get
extra defensive attention but if they find the open player, they will generally
get a wide open shot.
Training
camp settings for each player can be changed under the training option on the
team roster screen. You have a total of 30 training points that can be spent on
each player. The following training options are available:
INS: Inside play has the player work on his
scoring moves and his rebounding positioning. Players with higher inside
scoring ability are better at creating shots.
SHT: Shooting has the
player work on his shooting technique. This will benefit the player’s jump
shot, free throw shooting, and three-point shooting.
HND: Handling training
has the player work on his ball handling skills. This will benefit the player’s
handling and passing skills. Players with high handling are less likely to turn
the ball over. Players with high passing can create better scoring
opportunities for their teammates.
PSD: Post defense
training will have the player work on his defensive skills near the basket.
This will benefit his post defense as well as his shot blocking ability.
PRD: Perimeter defense
training will have the player work on his defensive skills away from the
basket. This will benefit his perimeter defense skill and his stealing ability.
CND: Conditioning
training improves the physical condition of the player. This is crucial for
improving stamina. The player may also see increases in strength, quickness,
and jumping.
ACD: Academic training
decreases the likelihood that a player will be suspended for academics during
the season. This may not be necessary at all for smarter players.
The
following options all contribute to the amount of growth the player experiences
during training camps: player potential, head coach offensive and defensive
coaching skill, coaching assistant offensive and defensive coaching skill, the
quality of the team’s training facilities, and the quality of opponents the
team played the previous season.
The
training screen also gives you the option to change each player’s position and
whether or not the player will be red-shirting during the current season.
Scheduling
is handled via the “Season Schedule” option on the team roster screen. At the
start of the schedule period, you will receive an email stating how many
non-conference games you are allowed to schedule for the current year along
with the maximum number of home non-conference games. Including conference
games, a total of 28 games may be on your schedule. When you propose a game, you will receive a
response to the proposal the following month. For each game you propose, you
have the option of choosing whether or not the game will be at home or on the
road and whether or not you would like a home-and-home series. If it is a
home-and-home series, the home team this season will play the other team on the
road the following season. If your
schedule is not full be the start of training camps, the game will attempt to
fill the schedule for you.
The
recruiting period runs from July to the middle of April. Players are first
eligible to commit to a school in November. All recruiting actions take place
on the individual recruit screen. The first recruiting action to take is to set
your call list. A total of 20 recruits may be on your call list at one time.
The call list is the list of players who you are showing interest. Once you
have set your call list, you may want to decide which players to evaluate. Like
all recruiting actions other than calling the player, the cost of the
evaluation is based on how far away the player lives from your school. Foreign
players always cost the most to recruit. Starting in August, you will have the
option to schedule assistant visits, head coach visits, and campus visits for
the player. A player will only visit your campus if he currently has you in his
list of top 5 schools.
There are three different requests that you can make to your athletic director:
More time to reach the goal: This is a last ditch attempt to save your job. If the board warns you that you are close to being fired, this may get you one more season to accomplish the goal they have set for you.
Increase the budget for this season: This will give you
a one time increase to the size of the team budget. Extra budget money may be
useful for hiring assistant coaches or recruiting.
Improve the training facilities: Better training facilities will increase the success of your training camps. The board will sometimes decided to upgrade the facilities on their own without your request.
There
is a small chance that your request may anger your athletic director. If this
happens, it will decrease the school’s opinion of you slightly.
The following
options can be set for each individual team in the team setup section on the
roster screen:
Coach All Team Games: This determines whether or not you will coach your
team when it plays a game. This should be enabled if you only want to watch the
game as well.
Save PBP: Whether or not to save the pbps for this team only.
CPU Scheduling: Whether or not to let the computer handle scheduling
for you.
CPU Recruiting: Whether or not to let the computer handle recruiting
for you.
CPU Training: Whether or not to let the computer handle training
decisions for you.
CPU Strategy: Whether or not to let the computer adjust your game
strategy
Stop for injuries: Whether or not the game should post a warning while
simming when one of the players for this team gets injured or suspended for
academics.
Team Password: If you enter a password, you will be required to enter
it before making changes to the team. This is highly recommended for league
play.
These options may
be used to set settings for league play or exhibition games.
Export team settings to file: Export your current team settings to a file. This file
is then usually sent to a league commissioner.
Import team settings to file: Import the settings for the team from a file.
Export team for use in
exhibition games: Creates a file in
the exhibitions folder with all of the data for the current team. The file can
be used to allow the team to play exhibition games against teams from other
save files.
Exhibition games
can be played either with teams saved to exhibition files or with team in the
currently loaded league. Teams from the current league are listed under the
“Current League Team” box. Saved teams are listed under the “Saved Team” box.
Once both teams are loaded, you have the option to change the team settings for
each team and then you can either sim a game or coach a game.
The
option to edit the default league is found under the tools menu. This will give
you the chance to change the characteristics of the teams, conferences, and
preseason tourneys that are used by the game whenever you start a new game.
Player
files have the extension *.fpf. They are stored in the datafiles folder inside
the main folder where the game is installed. There are two ways of creating a
new player file:
Starting from scratch: To start a new
player file from scratch, go to the player file editor option under the tools
menu and select the new file option. Once the file is created, you may make any
changes you want in the normal player file editor screen.
Importing from a text file: To import a player
file from a text file, you to the player file editor option under the tools menu
and then select import. You will be taken to a screen where you can select to
import any file from the datafiles folder with either a .txt extension or a
.csv extension. Select the file you wish to import and click import. There is a
sample text import file available here:
http://www.fbbgames.com/fbcb/files/PlayerFile.csv
You
must enter the player name, height, weight, age, position, and stats. For the
position the possible options are C, PF, F, SF, SG, G, PG. For the best
results, be as specific as possible with the position. The other options can be
set to random by using a value of “-1”.
Once
the file has been imported, you may make any desired changes using the normal
player file editor.
Coach
files have the extension *.fpf. They are also stored in the datafiles folder
inside the main folder where the game is installed. Coach files can currently
only be created from scratch using the coach file editor under the tools menu.