Big Wishes For Next Edition

Do you have an idea or improvement for TB? Or you can see what others are sugesting.

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mjhbuckeye
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Joined: Thu 01 Aug, 2013 1:24 am

Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by mjhbuckeye »

Got a few things on my wish list for the next edition of TBCB (once I get this year's edition to run consistently without blacklisting my license), some of which have been mentioned by my colleagues here. So here goes:

(1) Title Bout has always been a great game going all the way back to the Trunzos' card version for Status Pro and Avalon Hill/Sports Illustrated. However, the one thing missing since the game was distributed for the computer (and yes, I had that first computer edition marketed by SSI and formatted on one side of a 5 1/4 floppy for the Apple II and on the other for the Commodore 64, both at a whopping 48K) is head-to-head play. Head-to-head play in real time via a TCI/IP protocol over an internet connection is very doable, and would be greatly desirable for TBCB. Lots of game companies are implementing it, and have been for some time. Dave Koch Sports which markets Action!PC games for Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, American Football and Golf (the last being a totally player v. the PC game, for now) uses this protocol and literally dozens of leagues, involving hundreds of gamers from all over the world have sprung up around each title. TCI/IP is also used for h2h play amongst war gamers in games distributed by John Tiller Studios and HPS Sims. For years, wargamers used play-by-email (PBEM), now they can move and fight their units in real time. This just seems natural for TBCB which originated as a human v. human game and probably should be played that way, or be allowed the option to play it that way. Naturally, if h2h is implemented it would great to have a "fight club" or, "boxing gym" feature which would allow groups of gamers, each representative of a club or gym, to form, or "draft" a club roster of fighters from each weight class (of at least the original great eight) to fight entire cards one against another. I think this would really grow the game and add the one big factor: removing play from the AI and handing it back to a human player, always a gamer's biggest and best challenge.

(2) The rest of my wishes are sartorial in nature. Agree all around that one should have the correct race and gender representing the "real" fighters. I would go a couple of steps further along the visual lines to make the game better, or at least give the gamer more options. The current ring is a blue padded monstrosity bearing the game seal center ring with multi-colored ropes and accessories. All of that is great except that it only became a later 20th century trend for that kind of appearance. Can we please have back the scuffed off-white canvas which was the ring surface in almost every fight before 1970, along with the plain black ropes and turnbuckles as an option from the modern ring? And along the same line, there was a time before colors of all sorts took off in boxing that (a) gloves were brown and (b) shoes were black. Another thing which would be nice would be if we, the gamer, could choose what color trunks to put on our fighters, maybe a do-it-yourself trunk maker, or custom trunks for historic fighters: Ali and Robinson in standard white Everlast with black waist and side stripes (except for Ali the red-with-white worn for Bonavena and Frazier I. Ever superstitious, Ali went back to white-with-black); Joe Louis in regal purple with dark violet trim, maybe even Frazier in the green brocade numbers made from a set of curtains for the Fight of the Century with Ali. Just seems like a whole lot more can be done graphically to add immersive experience and historical verisimilitude for the gamer.
mjhbuckeye
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 01 Aug, 2013 1:24 am

Re: Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by mjhbuckeye »

There is more (of course):

(3) In tournament format, it should be set up on a bracketed tourney tree (like the brackets we in the States fill out for the college basketball tournament) instead of the list format the game now employs. With such a huge fighter database the tourney limit should be increased to at least 64 and, maybe, 128. Should allow for fighters to be seeded, and thus bracketed automatically. Should also have the option to reseed after every round so the highest seeded fighter is always matched against the lowest seed.
mjhbuckeye
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Re: Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by mjhbuckeye »

No love for my wish list items? Oh well...
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Paul Norman
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Re: Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by Paul Norman »

I love the idea of h2h play... I added h2h play into CM3 (Championship Manager) which allowed to managers to tie up over a dialup modem. So building this feature is technically easy for me, its the time to do and test that holds me back. However this is most defiantly on my list... Coz I want to play it!! ;) The biggest issue would be that you wont have matching saved games (universes) so this would have to be completely stand alone. You select a player and "fight online"... hmmm... I am already designing this in my head!

The fight pics are very limited at present. As I have explained in previous threads, pre-rendered images take time when you consider all the positions. It is my plan to use in game 3D rendering which will open up all these kinds of customisation.

As for you blacklisting, delete tbcb32.exe as it seems to be the cause of a lot of blacklisting issues and is of little use these days. In fact I have removed it from the next release.
mjhbuckeye
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 01 Aug, 2013 1:24 am

Re: Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by mjhbuckeye »

Paul Norman wrote:I love the idea of h2h play... I added h2h play into CM3 (Championship Manager) which allowed to managers to tie up over a dialup modem. So building this feature is technically easy for me, its the time to do and test that holds me back. However this is most defiantly on my list... Coz I want to play it!! ;) The biggest issue would be that you wont have matching saved games (universes) so this would have to be completely stand alone. You select a player and "fight online"... hmmm... I am already designing this in my head!

The fight pics are very limited at present. As I have explained in previous threads, pre-rendered images take time when you consider all the positions. It is my plan to use in game 3D rendering which will open up all these kinds of customisation.

As for you blacklisting, delete tbcb32.exe as it seems to be the cause of a lot of blacklisting issues and is of little use these days. In fact I have removed it from the next release.



The way h2h is done in league type play in other sports is that one guy, the commissioner, issues a league file (in TBCB parlance, a universe) which is downloaded by the other guys in the league of universe. Contest results are zipped and emailed back to the commissioner who would import them into the league, or universe, file which again is distributed with updated stats. The way it works with TCI/IP (dialup is so slow and passé. Everybody has cable now, right?) connection is that both guys have identical game and "league files". The game actually plays out on the host's computer using his game and files (the guest sees what the host sees in real time and can interact, obviously, but he is connected to the host's game, not the other way around). The result would automatically save to his computer but would have to be exported for others to import the result to their files (universes). Not completely stand alone as it is dependent on file exchange and sharing. If 10 or 12 guys wanted to have an all-time great universe in the classic 8 weight classes, they could establish "clubs" or "gyms" and take turns drafting up one or two historic guys at each weight division. then have each gym go h2h against one another with a card from Fly to Heavy. At the end of a double or single round robin what gym was the best and which fighters in each class reigned supreme could be honored as champions. And then do it all again with whatever limitations in era, rules, geography or classes you wished. Replay would be endless, challenge would be ramped up, camaraderie would blossom and it would be an all-around real blast.

And thanks on the blacklisting problem. Release of license plus deletion of the 32-bit program did the trick.
Cap
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Joined: Sun 26 May, 2013 2:01 pm

Re: Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by Cap »

It always makes me smile when guys suggest ways of turning boxing, the ultimate individual sport, into a team sport with leagues, seasons and world series-like championships. :D :lol: :)
Cap
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Re: Big Wishes For Next Edition

Post by Cap »

mjhbuckeye wrote:
(2) The rest of my wishes are sartorial in nature. Agree all around that one should have the correct race and gender representing the "real" fighters. I would go a couple of steps further along the visual lines to make the game better, or at least give the gamer more options. The current ring is a blue padded monstrosity bearing the game seal center ring with multi-colored ropes and accessories. All of that is great except that it only became a later 20th century trend for that kind of appearance. Can we please have back the scuffed off-white canvas which was the ring surface in almost every fight before 1970, along with the plain black ropes and turnbuckles as an option from the modern ring? And along the same line, there was a time before colors of all sorts took off in boxing that (a) gloves were brown and (b) shoes were black. Another thing which would be nice would be if we, the gamer, could choose what color trunks to put on our fighters, maybe a do-it-yourself trunk maker.... Just seems like a whole lot more can be done graphically to add immersive experience and historical verisimilitude for the gamer.
I like these ideas.
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