FM2K3 -- Questions & concerns

[skpogo]

Hi, I bought the game via the internet and am enjoying it much the same as BM2K3. However, I have a few concerns:

I am running a am using version FM2K3, 2.1.8.8 -- which I assume is the most current version?

1) Could you please open up a non-beta bug board?
2) I haven't seen these particular problems with BM2K3, but I am seeing them in FM2K3.

a) Scroll bars listing reserves, draft picks, free agents, etc, stop working. I have found that saving the game and restarting seems to correct the problem for some period of time. What happens is that rather than scrolling, the highlighted list item just gets overlaid with the new value.

b) Players stat windows sometimes do not "refresh" when moving forwards and backwards between players. Instead the new data just "overwrites" the existing -- this causes a miss-mash since the old values still exist. This seems to happen when background disappears and I see just a gray background color -- no labels or lines.

c) On my system when I am using the Trading Block activity I have noticed that the team screen that pops up when I select a player from the trading block window does not have that player highlighted in the team roster. This means I have to select the player in order to have the "Scouting" button active. What I am saying is the player (or first player is a set) is highlighted, but not selected so the "Scouting" button is not active. It would be helpful, to me, if the "Scouting" button was already active when I enter the window.

I am running a 1.8GHZ P4, using WinME, 256MB RAM, 40GB IDE, GeForce2 MX/MX400, a 18" LCD digital monitor, and what I believe are relatively stable and up-to-data graphic drivers, (BM2K3 seems fine, other current games seem to be working).

Thanks, Steve L.

[SkyDog]

Anyone else having problems installing the demo?

[iansmith]

Thanks for the bug report. I tried to duplicate the bugs
"a" and "b" but couldn't get any of our machines to
exhibit those symptoms.

Is there anything specific you have found that causes these
bugs? Like clicking "Next" on the scouting report 50 times,
or any other repeatable series of events?

I could duplicate bug "c" and that will be taken care of in
the next patch.

--
Ian Smith
Sports Mogul Inc.

[acidburnlk]

Bug's A, B, and C all happen on my game too. Just telling you so you know more then one person has this.

[James Grove]

Hi, Guys -

We hate it when bugs come up in release... But it always seems to happen because there are SO MANY different computer configurations out there.

The best we can do is try to find as many as possible during beta testing, then fix the new ones as quickly as possible.

That said, can you tell me more about these problems (particularly problems A & B)?

Does this happen from the moment you begin playing the game, or does it take a while to happen?

What is the date when the problems happen? Is it consistent?

What did you do just before you saw the problem happen?

What is your playing style? Do you skim through the game, looking at things that strike your fancy? Or do you analyze each week of play, looking at a lot of player scouting reports, etc.?

Also, acidburnlk, can you please tell us about your computer configuration? (What Operating System, processor, etc.)

Thanks,
James

[mooseman74]

Okay, this is somewhat related. I've noticed that when a player has been in the league long enough you start to lose sight of his early stats...they disappear at the bottom of the screen and you can't scroll down because there's no scroll bar...ever! So I can play with Brett Favre for 6 or 7 more years...but I'll never see his career totals. I'm talking about the Player Scouting window. I'm running an Athlon 900mhz, 256mb ram, WindowsXP Pro and the version of the game that came with the purchase (2.1.8 I think...something like that)

[acidburnlk]

I am running an Intel Celeron processor, Windows ME, 191 mb ram. Bug A happens more often then Bug B. Bug A happens at least every 10 minutes if I am looking and scrolling down a lot. Bug B only happens about once every hour or so. For Bug A I either exit the screen I am in or save the game and it helps the problem. For Bug B I have to save the game and exit it to solve the problem.

[nysteinbrenner]

Originally posted by mooseman74
Okay, this is somewhat related. I've noticed that when a player has been in the league long enough you start to lose sight of his early stats...they disappear at the bottom of the screen and you can't scroll down because there's no scroll bar...ever! So I can play with Brett Favre for 6 or 7 more years...but I'll never see his career totals. I'm talking about the Player Scouting window. I'm running an Athlon 900mhz, 256mb ram, WindowsXP Pro and the version of the game that came with the purchase (2.1.8 I think...something like that)

I have the same bug (along with a ton of others). In my case its on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/an Intel P4 @ 2.0GHz, 512MB RAM, Windows XP Pro and the most recent version (downloaded Tuesday; purchased yesterday).

[Josh K.]

I have been playing the demo, and I have experienced bug "A" as well. It happens after about 1/2 a season and seems to be a problem not w/ the scroll bars themselves but instead when you move the bars the screen does not refresh and the original names stay as they were, when I click on a name, the current name will then appear but nothing else refreshes. Hope that helps!

Josh

GO LIONS!!!!!! (AND TAKE THE TIGERS WITH YOU!) :-)

[skpogo]

Sorry, I didn't have time until today to do somemore checking. To try and eliminate other causes, I stopped all background processes (such as Norton AnitVirus, etc.) except the Zonealarm firewall.

After playing the game for about a 1/2 hour, I left the computer to watch the baseball game. About 2 hrs elapsed before I returned. Selecting the offensive roster and then selecting "Scouting" for one of the players again caused problem "B". I am enclosing "raider.jpg" that shows the condition.

I believe there may be a "memory" leak somewhere. I closed the program and restarted WinRAM Booster (which I had closed prior to running FM2K3) and found that almost all my RAM had been allocated. After restarting FM2K3 the problem had disappeared.

If I could, I would wish to point out some other questions:

1) After playing a game through 2-3 seasons, if I select the offensive/defensive/special teams screens and press the "autosort" button multiple times different personnel are placed in the starting lineup. What I mean is when I press the button the first time one player is slotted as the WR and if I press the button again another player replaces the prior player. Is that the way it should work? That isn' the behavior I have seen in BM2K3.

2) If during the drafting process the cap limit is less than the starting salary of the draft pick, what can I do? In my case I traded some players to provide cap room, but what if I just wanted to "skip" my pick? It appears there is no way to complete the draft unless I make all my picks. (I realize I probably should complete my picks)

3) When I use the trading block and I select "Get Counter Offer", the computer manager may say he/she can't make a counter offer, but new players will be added to my current offer list? If I then click the "Submit Offer" button the computer manager still refuses my offer. Should the computer manager add new players to my list and then still refuse the offer? This may also occur in BM2K3.

Finally, some suggestions:

1) it would be nice if the released version provided some additional tweaking of the team "style". In BM2K3 we can set the team offensive and defensive style, it would be nice if we could set such parameters as "blitizing", "going for it on 4th down", emphasize either running or passing or a middle ground, use of the "nickel,dime, etc. pass defenses", how often subsitutions should be used, etc.

2) I really would like an option, both in FM2K3 and BM2K3, to select a player or two that I could leave up for possible trade during the season. This would be kinda like a "favored" trade bait player. This would save me having to repeatedly bring up the trading block window just to see if anyone has some trade I might be interested in for a particular player.

3) A filter that could be applied that does much the same as bringing up the "find players" window but applies to results in the trading block, draft windows, and computer manager offers. I would like to set the minimum quality that I would accept to even consider a trade.

Have a good day!