BuzzerBeater Forums

First of all, there was a lot of questions! Thank you all for your input and while I'd prefer to answer each and every one specifically, we've had to make a selection that will, hopefully, address all your inquiries. So, some questions have been edited for legibility while some have been combined as they address the same thing. Here goes:

Is there any improvements or updates for outside scoring teams in Buzzerbeater? Because inside scoring teams dominate the whole game with players with high OD.
Yes, an improved GE that addresses this issue is being tested in scrimmages during the better part of this season and its showing a lot of promise. We will implement it for all match types at the beginning of season 52.

Is there any opening or contemplation towards increasing training speed by a small percentage? Faster training would allow new users to grow faster. Also. Better trained players would push prices lower.
Training has always been "slow", but that is part of the game design. While we've made it a bit faster over the years, it is very important not to overdo it and make all the past effort managers put in training their current players invaluable. For now, there are no plans of making it any faster than it is.

Why is there no change of the defender when you attack? PG always defends PG and so on...
This is more of a suggestion than a question, I suppose. Yeah, it would make sense to take defending rotations into better consideration when calculating shots, but for now it will remain as it is.

What are the career averages of Buzz R. Beater?
Just zeroes all the way...

Does it matter or increase the chances of finding players with higher potential (Hall of famer and All-Time Great) when there is a higher average investment in the draft in that specific league?
No, no effect. But I consider it a suggestion that needs more discussion.

Why do staff salaries rise over time? I just like the idea of a coach who can stay longer.
The staff is implemented this way since this is a simplification of the general processes that go on in any franchise, which amounts to changing staff every so often.

Does player loyalty matter? Eg. if player x stays in same team for y seasons, is there a slight boost compared to other teams who keep buying and selling season after season?
There is only a boost in merchandise sales, but not in player performance. Form regulates that and buying and selling often will affect overall form as an average, affecting performance over time.

When will scouting really matter? The draft is very random and even with points you don't always get a good potential player.
Just like real life, a team can spend millions on scouting and trade draft picks to get that projected no.1 pick and still get an average performer. On the other hand, there are lottery picks that can turn out to be beasts (think Antetokoumpo, etc...). It's just luck, in the end, and we tried to mirror that in BB too. All you get for spending more money is - a better chance!

Updates on the app? How far away are we from a BuzzerBeater App? Is there potential of seeing one in 2020, or is 2021 more realistic?
The app is still far from done. We've focused our efforts on making sure we have a fully functioning replacement for the flash match viewer before the end of the year, one that will be implemented as part of the app once it is released. So, the app is planned for 2021.

When will we be allowed to pick between scouting or youth club team?
The youth team is not planned as an option in the foreseeable future. Sorry.

Could you add more match statistics?
A better "total efficiency" number was planned but was stopped due to some basic stats missing, like block attempts. Once we update the GE to have those, we'll add both to the stats.


Last edited by BB-Marin at 12/19/2020 13:51:10

Do you think you will add more end of season awards?
Not at this time, no, but we're open to suggestions.

Flash player is expiring in a few months, how will we watch games? Do you have a flash player replacement in mind yet for when flash player no longer works?
Yes, a replacement is in the works and it is planned to be released on time to replace the flash viewer. Also, it is being developed in a way that should enable us to build the BB app around it.

What is going on with the server?
Since the server migration we've had lot's of issues with unpredictable database locks and performance drops. Our database is enourmous and growing each season. We're doing what we can to catch up and the new technologies available on the new server are helping, but at the moment we're still slowly building up towards better site stability.

Is a UI graphical update in the works or even a thought? Have you thought about updating the website design? It is the year 2020 but the website looks like a site from 2010.
The GUI will be updated as part of the new app, which will have a HTML5 version, so it will be accessible via all browsers. So, yes and no, since the current site will remain as it is.

Have you considered adding people to your team to help you manage the game? Why dont you ask for help from the community to help you handle things? The community wants the website to stay up for as long as possible too.
Yes! We are always in the process of recruiting but we rarely advertise it on the site. Over the years we've had quite a turnaround of developers working for BB but the community is mostly unaware of most of them. We're only introducing new devs when we're sure the person will stay long term, but experience says most people move on after a while. Also, there are things that prevent us from opening up to too many people, like the very real threat of losing intellectual property...

Is open sourcing BB an option?
Probably not, due to various reasons, BUT parts of BB? Yes. We still need to figure out a way of generating revenue after we'd go open source, so once and if we do (again, partially), we'll do it.

Do players actually have "hidden" skills (like aggressiveness), if so could you elaborate about them? If not - any chance to see this in the future?
Yes, they have and I can only say what most already know: some of the hidden stats determine how prone to fouling players are. Others are better left a mystery ;)

Have you thought about a Game Engine change?
Yeah, we've constantly planning on changes and bug fixes. One such evolution is being tested in scrimmages and Private Leagues right now, but it will always be one step at a time, an evolution rather than revolution.

Which criteria regulates the choice of host of World and Continental Cups?
The host of the World Championship is chosen manually, usually by comitee decided from a list of countries that have not hosted it before, with nations with more active users having the highest chance of getting it. Continental cup hosts are chosen random automatically.

Will we see a change to the competitions to U21 and National teams? Adding an extra tournament besides the national cup and the B3 tourney for teams to participate in?
No change is planned at this time. No additional cups will be added in the foreseeable future.

Will it be possible to find the news before season 46 if we don't make a backup?
That's easy, I've just upped it from 10 to 20 last posts. I did't enable seeing all of them to prevent cluttering the landing page and avoid causing performance issues.

Last edited by BB-Marin at 12/19/2020 13:51:56

What happened to BB-Simone? If he's gone for good, does he plan to get another helping hand for development from the userbase?
BB-Simone is still with us, in the role of an advisor. We'd love to have more people like him helping us out, but adding a team member is a process which we don't always advertise, for reasons already mentioned.

Why hasn't BuzzerBeater advertised more?
We have had mixed results with our advertising spendings and will increase it once we have a suitable person or company to handle it properly. We are currently in the process of making that happen.

Can you get a chat system working for games or the site? The current chat system does not work that well for games. Live Chat is something people want.
A better chat system that will be an integral part of the whole BB experience is planned as a part of the new app/site.

How is the league schedule set? Sometimes it feels unbalanced with how the games are scheduled for some teams. Back to back home games for example.
The schedule is set by forming a list of teams sorted randomly and then using the same pattern for everyone, arranged into matches for the season.

Have you ever thought about changing the weekly schedule for Buzzerbeater?
There have been discussion. The overall conclusion is that this is something we might want to do but can be very difficult to implement properly, hence it is not planned at the moment.

It would be helpful for new teams to have the option to get a loan to build up their arena faster. Thoughts on implementing something like this? Difficult for new teams to get revenue.
We already upped the initial arena numbers for new teams at one point. Implementing loans is not an option for BB, even if it is for a very specific use.

Is there a plan to add weekly maintenance costs to the economy page so that there is an accurate representation of how much revenue teams are making every week?
Yes. It is in the works.

Is there a plan to automate the MVP votes for a spesific time so we will not need to ask you to run it manualy every off season? And are there plans to move some more stuff like that to the end of the regular season?
Automation of that specific part is not implementable in a way that wouldn't cause processing delay - so, for now at least, it will still be run manually. Also, I love getting emails from you About the second question: no.

Is it true that nominally open outside shots have team rating OD applied to them and if yes, can we do something about it?
Every shot has a team OD rating applied to it, in various degrees. We are currently modifying that and other factors to make the GE more balanced. The new GE should reflect that.

Could we have a more realistic economic feature?
Yes! When? I don't know, really...

Why are there so many unnecessary bot teams in a lower leagues when there could be less leagues but with only human teams, which would be much more fun for everyone playing there?
It is a very long standing idea of making a different kind of promotion and demotion structure for all countries - something that would look more like a skyscraper rather than pyramid. We're still considering the best way to implement and have options open to expand back when/if users numbers grow. This might happen after the app is released so we'll first wait and see how that affects our user numbers.

Since the server migration i am unable to use players hyperlinks from my excel sheets as NT coach. (i guess it has to do something with http protocol). Is there anything i can do about it?
Access to player overview pages without logging into the game has been disabled as our ongoing fight with datamining. Just log in and then the issue is gone.

Is this site undergoing updates? Are there more changes in source code coming? Will you tell us when its ready?
Yes, yes and yes!

How would you attract more female managers to BB?
We'll this is something we should do market reseach on My first thought would be to have the option of controlling another team, this one being of female players, a WBB team, in most regards similar to Utopia teams. It's just an idea though...

Is it possible to enhance the bot teams level and skills?
Of course! We made them intentionally weak to help human teams promote faster but we can make them more challenging without much effort. But it is not planned at the moment.

Did you ever consider a decrease in stamina values. For example is it possible to make that a guy can play 48 minutes in a match only if he has legendary stamina level. If less, player has to be substituted with another player or lucky fan. Basically there should be meassures to prevent ~7 or less player teams in the game. I think stamina could be simple solution to that.
A good suggestion. We'll consider it and get back to you.

Can we get some of the criteria that counts for the MVP awards? Like, top point scorers will give the same mvp points as a top rebounders?
Nah, it's better to leave this a mystery, at least at this time.

What happens if Marin decides he's had enough of this? It's a pretty thankless task at times, get's a lot more abuse than thanks... The server move last offseason doesn't seem to have fixed the stability of anything this offseason. No or very slow development elsewhere, etc. Is there a backup plan or if Marin decides he's done or is BB done too?
Wow, what a question for the end of the Q&A! First of all, let me put your mind at ease - I will never abandon BB, so barring force majeure - I will work for BB forever. If something happens to me, there are other people that can take care of the site on their own and can take over at any point. I might get tired and overwhelmed at times, and while things seem to have been moving slowly lately, we have great plans for BB's future and I'm very excited to see them realized!


Last edited by BB-Marin at 12/19/2020 13:54:19

we have great plans for BB's future and I'm very excited to see them realized!

That's enough, thanks!

Thank you Marin ;-)

We've been waiting for your messages for so long!

Grateful for your replies and looking forward for BB future! You and the rest of the team are doing a good job. Keep it up and keep following the plan you have in mind

Interesting. Thank you. :)

I will never abandon BB, so barring force majeure - I will work for BB forever. If something happens to me, there are other people that can take care of the site on their own and can take over at any point. I might get tired and overwhelmed at times, and while things seem to have been moving slowly lately, we have great plans for BB's future and I'm very excited to see them realized!

Gave me goosebumps.

Also, can someone close the "Is BB slowly dying" forum topic, finally? Thanks! lol



Last edited by Hip Hop Car! at 12/19/2020 19:52:39