Headline: Chaos Reigns at BBM Online

[skydog617]

Clay, James, SOMEONE: (is there anybody out there?)
Look, on the whole, I think that you guys have an excellent product. I have spent far too many hours playing BBM online to say anything else. I have noticed, however, a few glitches that have been popping up recently. I know that some of them are addressed in other forums, but I thought that maybe it would be best to summarize everything that I have noticed in one place. Here goes:

1. The computer managed teams are erasing my bids on Free Agents. I bid on a player, waited for the Sim to advance, and then checked back on the player, and a different computer team (from the one I outbid) was listed as the highest bidder, despite having placed a LOWER bid than I did.

2. Computer teams signing players for ZERO points.

3. Every single player has a bid in the Free Agent signing period.

4. I was prepared to lose some GMs in the leagues that I play in, but I was not prepared to lose 95% of them. It feels like a ghost town out there.

5. The trading bug is still there. Seriously, every time I offer a trade, wait for it to get rejected, and then edit the trade, the counter offer does not go through, and the whole trade gets reset back to the beginning. This has a serious pita (pain in the ###) factor.

6. Okay, so now that I'm paying money to play BBM all of a sudden there are way more bugs, glitches, errors, etc., and all the human competition has disappeared. The product has regressed since the beta testing ended. Playing against humans, one of the most appealling aspects of the game, has become nothing but a distant memory. Would someone please remind me why I should pay to play something that is inferior to the free product?

I'm a bit steamed about all of this, but not beyond listening to reason, logic, and intelligent discourse. I know that you guys are taking a big step starting a subscription service for BBM, but I think you may have jumped the gun a little. Also, please remember that I would not be nearly so upset if the Beta testing had not been so excellent.

skydog617
wvfarnham@hotmail.com

[takaplan]

Join a private league. The other bugs should be dealt with, but if you are in a private league, the computer AI (or lack of one) is not very apparent. The public leagues are desolate, but that's just because the majority of active users are now in private leagues...there are some bugs that must be fixed, but it's still only been 5 days since it went live and I think we should give them a few weeks.

:-)

Tom

[BBM]

There is a league that is almost fill and it's starting on sunday. It's the MAL-Most Active League, the only teams that are left are
Detroit and
Milwaukee
If you are interested in any one of those 2 teams, plz contact me at abcboy70@hotmail.com, dont private message me, my pm box is full.

[Schaefling]

While I'm not upset about what's happening I have noticed some major league glitches myself.

1. The computer is definitely overriding bids on free agents by players. This is very frustrating. I have seen it happen and it's very strange to witness.

2. Trying to trade with computer players has become very glitchy. I wonder if it's tied into the free agency problems.

3. Computer teams are bidding on everybody. In my new public league Fastsim 75 I'm not sure I'm going to get five starters!

I understand problems will crop up from time to time as you try to improve the game. So I'm just going to hang in there knowing the people at Sports Mogul will eventually correct the problem. A progress report would be nice though if you have the time.

[Clay Dreslough]

Yep. The computer free agent bidding is my fault. I did some testing but apparently not enough. I'm sick so I can't fix this tonight but Ian should be able to put the last version of the code back up.

Clay (9:56 pm EST 10/26/01)

[Schaefling]

I posted earlier several glitchy things now going on in BBMO. I think I may have found another.

In the NPL league during free agent bidding, I think it's January 2002, I noticed that the stats on players I successfully bid for changed after they got to my team roster. I am first in scouting and second in farm systems. This has never happened to me before.

If you spend lots of money on scouting and farm systems and then your reports on players are not reliable then what's the point? This is a major problem and I hope someone at Sports Mogul can take a look at this.

Feedback from managers would also be much appreciated. Anyone else having this problem with scouting reports on players?

[takaplan]

Scouting changes. If you are the first ranked team, it will be more accurate, but remember...over time a player's marks change. This is not a bug...just realism. One scout might think a guy is a superstar and give him A-, but then see another game and change his mind to B.

Tom

[Schaefling]

Takaplan's argument makes a lot of sense except for one thing. How come scouting reports are all of a sudden so much more inaccurate? I agree over time player's rating change but not over five minutes.

Of course, maybe it's not a glitch but further randomization put in by the staff. That's fine by me I'd just like to know about it so I can plan accordingly.

[takaplan]

Ya...in your case, with scouting being at #1, then it is quite strange. But for me (I have my scouting at around #20-25, I am used to having a player drop from A+ contact to B- contact in one sim :rolleyes:

Clay? James? Is this randomness a bug, or just realism to show how different scouts are dumber than each other? ;)

Tom

[JAGuarinc]

The scouting rating also depends on how long a player has been in the league (more time to evaluate) and how close they are. By close I mean on your team versus someone in your division vs someone out of your division vs someone in the other league.

So the closer they are, the more accurate. "Geez, his arm looked like a cannon when playing for the CIN Reds but now that he's on our team (the OAK A's) it doesn't seem to be as good"

[Schaefling]

JAGuarinc has an interesting point.

I should also add that the league in question has just started up. Perhaps scouting reports are less certain at this point and will become more certain over the years as one continues to spend serious money on scouting.