BuzzerBeater Forums

So far in BB, the success of a tactic has depended more on the salary formula than the match engine.
When the formula wasn't well known yet, the players that got built were mostly standard big men and standard guards. In this situation, the guards will typically be stronger per $ of salary than the big men.
Thus, R&G was the most popular tactic of that time.

Then salary calculators became widely used and people started to realize that going for cheap driving and inside focused guards is the most efficient way to build a team.
The discoveries of elastic training and the might of the SF/PF1v1 training further encouraged people to build a type of player who is cheap, yet very good with inside tactics.
Thus, look inside became the most successful tactic.

The ways to change that that I see are:

1) Change the salary formula: That one is limited to smaller changes and is being tried now, but will probably not be enough. For me, one of the biggest problem in the game is a salary formula issue: SFs that make 70k but are as important for their team as 300k bigmen. Unfortunately, since this would cause a huge shock to the economy, it can probably not be fixed (although it might be possible with a corresponding increase in average income).

2) Better adaptation of the match engine to the salary formula: Reduce the effectiveness of player builds that are cheap yet very strong in a match, e.g. guards with high defense and inside shot but low range/passing -> make them easier to defend for an opponent, due to their one-dimensional skillset.

3) Make certain defenses better counters against certain offenses: A 2-3 zone is employed against driving in real life, it shouldn't allow so many easy driving shots in the match engine. The problem with that is that it could lead to too much rock-paper-scissors, which doesn't sound good for BB.

But maybe they found another way, we'll see in the news post. Which I have, btw, hoped to come earlier, since I bought a new team during the off-season and planned training for a draftee. That might all turn out to be less-than-ideal depending on the news to come.

IIRC, which is very possible to be wrong, they upped the affect of OD in season 8 or so, and by season 12 or 13 some teams had started building in tons of OD and were dominating outside teams. The signs were there awhile ago. My buddy who started in season 1 quit not too much later cause his outside team was suddenly neutralized.

which to answer the other questions is traditionally posted after all offseason computations are ready. The idea there is, whenever you see the news item you'll know offseason processing is finished.

I think the vast majority (I'd guess as close to unanimous as you'll get on this game) would rather get the news item earlier, and either find out the offseason processing is finished through an announcement/the forums/not at all. Please release it earlier if this is the only/main reason for holding onto the beginning of season news items.

And as another customer

You are either a volontary worker or an employee (you get supporter for free as far as I know) - the "GM"-prefix puts you in another category. You are definitely no "pure" customer

If you want to be picky. Being Supporter is not being a customer either, so don't use the customer card and stop being supporter if that's so bad. You can also send the link of me saying this to a BB if you wish. See, I'm not a spokeperson either.

I never pulled the supporter card - non-paying users are customers as well, as you profit from the ad revenue AND want to sell them supporter packages. GMs releasing news, moderating the forums and holding some kind of gatekeeper position are personell of whatever kind you would like to label them - spokesperson might not be the most accurate description but it covers some of your tasks I guess.

I never complained about the supporter package and I am not announcing that I might or might not buy the package, so don't put me in that corner please. The fact that I am paying for this game should stand for itself and tell you something about my intentions for this game.

If you're talking about balance, a rock-paper-sciccors system is a great way to achieve it. Each tactic should have one or more strenghts and weaknesses. That way, if one of the tactics seems to be stronger in a vacuum and is being used more, the most simple counter is to employ the tactic that exploits the weakness of the other.

The problem with LI is that besides it being cheap for guards to be strong in it, is that has no weakness, whereas outside tactics do have a weakness. I think the premise that 2-3 zone gives up easier passing should be reconstructed, as defenders in a 2-3 zone will sag off from the perimeter to play the passing lanes and double team bigs quicker, so they should make inside passes harder while making perimter passes easier (which is not helpful for LI teams). Furthermore, bigs should have a higher turnover rate against 2-3 zone as they have less space to operate and are double teamed quicker. That way bigs in LI are required to be trained in HA and DR a lot more than usually. Also the driving skill should be less effective against 2-3 zone because of the crowded paint.

But, this probably has been suggested before, though they seem like sensible adjustments to me. I don't know how the GE is constructed, but it shouldn't be too difficult to adjust it incrementally to achieve a bit more balanced playfield.

which to answer the other questions is traditionally posted after all offseason computations are ready. The idea there is, whenever you see the news item you'll know offseason processing is finished.

I think the vast majority (I'd guess as close to unanimous as you'll get on this game) would rather get the news item earlier, and either find out the offseason processing is finished through an announcement/the forums/not at all. Please release it earlier if this is the only/main reason for holding onto the beginning of season news items.

I agree. Another argument to second this: a lot of countries need to translate news. And it's very unfortunate to release a seasons news after the first game(s) has/have been played! I'd really prefer to have the news announcement at the start of offseason processing! And I guess I'm not the only one.

I like the sledgehammer approach to LI-only teams. As long as that boost is strong enough.

I must compliment the BBs on the changes. They have addressed most of the immediate complaints and I'm looking forward to how the guessing system on tactics will work. Now if only they address the micronation issue.

The face/head editor for a team's draft picks is pretty cool.

Several good things in the news update. Good job BB