BuzzerBeater Forums

Hey guys,
I thought I'd give it a go at making an FAQ. If any of the answers are wrong please let me know and I will change it straight away. Also if you have any additional questions or details you would like to add please let me know.
Hope you like it and hope it helps,
Virus

Please note that in many cases there isn't just one right answer, and that there are many ways to manage a successful team.

Arena
1. How to make money from my Arena?
Your arena is going to be your biggest source of income in Buzzer Beater. There are 2 ways to make money from your arena and that is by changing your ticket prices and by expanding your arena. Expanding your arena can be a very good way to get income, and is especially important as you promote to higher leagues. But if you do not have enough money to expand, raising ticket prices can be a way to increase income as well.

2. How to set the best prices?
Setting the best prices can seem difficult, but you will get the hang of it soon enough. The best way to determine the “right” price is by having a look at the other teams’ arenas in your division. Have a look at how many seats the other teams have and what prices they set and how many seats they sell at this price. You can then get an idea of how many of each seat you ought to sell at certain prices. The “best” ticket price is the one that allows you to sell about 90% or more of that seat type without constantly selling out. If you are constantly selling out that means you can either increase the ticket price or you can expand your arena (which is essential if you plan to promote). Beware of increasing your ticket prices too much at once because if fans think your prices are too expensive then you won’t sell as many tickets.

3. When to expand?
Expanding costs money but it also brings in a lot of money and is essential in higher divisions so it might be a good idea to try and start expanding as soon as you can afford to. If you are constantly selling between 90% and 100% of a particular type of seat then it is probably time to expand. If you can increase ticket prices without hurting income then do that, but if there is a long time until you can change your ticket prices then expansion may be the answer. When expanding, don’t expand too little or too much in one go. If you expand only a small amount at a time, then you will find it can take a long time to build. What I mean by this is if you build 100 bleachers 10 times, this could take you over 2 months to do, however, if you build 1000 bleachers all at once then it will only take around 10 days to complete (note that this is only an estimate).

Alternatively, do not expand too much at one time because it will take a long time to build and you will miss out on extra income in the mean time. For example, if you want to build 2000 bleachers, 1000 lower tier, 200 courtside seats and 10 luxury boxes this is going to take a long time to build, and you will not receive any income for these extra seats in the mean time. If you build half of that in one go, then it will be built sooner, you will receive extra income sooner, and you can always build the other half once it is finished. Note that the type of seats that cost more (Luxury Boxes and Courtside Seats) will take longer to build than the cheaper seats (Bleachers and Lower Tier) but the more expensive seats will sell more consistently.

4. “The arena page says it has had 1 day left until completion for 3 days now. Is this a bug?”
This is not a bug. When you expand your arena, it gives you an estimated time (for example 8 days). This does not mean that exactly 8 days later your arena will be built. It is an estimate, so it could be built after 6 days, or it could get built after 8 days exactly, or maybe the workers are a bit lazy and it takes 11 days to build. Generally, the estimate tends to be on the optimistic side, so if it says 6 days to complete, it will probably take longer than

Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/12/2010 12:02:42

5. How many times can I change ticket prices and when can I change them?
Ticket prices can be changed 3 times during the season. The first time is before the first game of the regular season. The second time is before the 8th game of the regular season (which is at the beginning of inter-conference play). The third time is before the 16th game of the regular season (at the end of inter-conference play). The ticket price changes will take effect between midnight the morning of the game and game time. You can set the ticket prices at any time by going to the arena page where you can select the prices for the next price update. Note that you can set the prices as many times as you want, but the only prices that will be used are the ones that are set at the time of the price update.

6. Why did I have a lower attendance for my last home game?
There are a number of reasons why attendance can increase or decrease through the season. For example, perhaps you recently changed your ticket prices too high and so you have a lower attendance. A more common reason is that you lost your last match and so your fans aren’t happy with you so they didn’t attend this match.

Fans will also be more likely to attend your game if you are playing a higher ranked team. This means that you will get more fans attending your match if you are playing the number 1 or number 2 ranked team in your league rather than if you are playing the number 7 or number 8 ranked team in your league.

You can check your Fan Survey the day after each match for an indication of how your fans are feeling. The higher your ratings the higher your attendance will be.

7. Do more people attend during Playoff and Relegation games?
Playoff games and relegation games do get a boost in attendance. However, the team that is playing at home only gets 2/3 of the ticket sales. The team that is away for that match gets 1/3 of the ticket sales.

8. Do some seats sell more consistently than other seats?
The answer to this is yes. The more expensive seats (Luxury Boxes and Courtside Seats) will sell consistently regardless of whether you are winning or losing. The numbers of these types of seats that are sold are determined mostly on ticket prices rather than performance. However, the cheaper seats (Bleachers and Lower Tier) will fluctuate a lot depending on performance. You might sell out your bleachers while on a winning streak, but lose a few games in a row and you will notice a significant drop in attendance for those seats. Even 1 loss can result in a large drop in Bleachers ticket sales.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:17:49

Cup and Scrimmages
1. “I played at home in my cup match but I didn’t receive any ticket sales. Why?”
There is no arena attendance for playing in the cup. If you lose your cup match then you don’t get any income and you will be out of the cup. If you win your cup match then you will get a certain amount of money (the amount depends on how far in to the cup you are) and you will remain in the cup.

2. How much do I get for winning a match in the cup?
The prize scale for winning a round is as follows:
Final Game: $ 300 000
Semi-Final: $ 135 000
Quarter-Final: $ 100 000
16-team round: $ 80 000
32-team round: $ 70 000
64-team round: $ 60 000
All lower rounds: $ 50 000

3. “My scrimmage match was at home but I didn’t get any ticket sales. Why?”
There is no arena income for scrimmage matches. Scrimmages are still important though, they allow you to give your players extra minutes to help manage game shape, and they allow you more training minutes.

4. What is the best way to schedule a scrimmage?
You can only schedule scrimmages once you are out of the national cup (which is held at the beginning of each season). You can only schedule scrimmages with teams that haven’t already got a scrimmage, and with teams that aren’t still in the cup. The best way to schedule a scrimmage is to go to the ‘Manage My Team’ page. In the bottom right hand corner there will be a box that lists teams that are still looking for a scrimmage. Click on the teams name and it will take you to their team page. At the bottom there is an option to challenge them to a scrimmage. You can also select to play at home or away.

Scrimmages take place on Thursdays, at the normal game time of the home team. You can challenge someone to a scrimmage from his or her team page. Simply select whether you wish to be the home team or the away team from the drop-down menu, and click "Challenge!" You cannot challenge users to scrimmages between 12:00 Wednesday and 22:00 Friday server time.

5. What happens if I win or lose a scrimmage?
You don’t get anything for winning a scrimmage. This means that you don’t get any income, and you don’t get more fans, and you don’t go up in the rankings. Similarly, you don’t get anything for losing a scrimmage. You won’t lose any income, your fans will still like you the same, and you won’t go down in the rankings. It also won’t affect your next home match attendance. Scrimmages are purely for training and game shape purposes. Scrimmages can also be used to try out different tactics and lineups.

Note that playing in a scrimmage will not affect your enthusiasm level. Scrimmages are considered to be played at Normal, and so any drop you see after a scrimmage is just due to enthusiasm level decreasing back to 5 and has nothing to do with the scrimmage.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 10:18:44

Private Leagues
1. Do you get anything for winning a Private League?
You do not get anything for winning a private league besides pride and glory for beating the other teams. They are a good opportunity to try out different tactics and lineups without worrying about consequence. They are also a good opportunity to play teams you normally wouldn’t play in a competitive setting and to make new friends in the community.

2. What is affected by Private Leagues?
Everything from outside the private league affects the league, but nothing from inside the private league affects the outside. What this means is that enthusiasm levels, injuries and game shape will be considered when playing your private league match. However, nothing that happens in the private league match will be used for your team. So enthusiasm won’t be affected, your players can’t be injured, you don’t get any income for winning or playing at home, your country and world ranking isn’t affected and it will not count towards minutes played for the week. This means that it doesn’t affect game shape and minutes played do not count towards training.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:20:21

Training
1. When does training take place?
Training takes place sometime on Friday (the particular time depends on where you live). Training can be changed as many times during the week as you like, but he training that is actually used will be the one that you have selected at the time of the update. To find out what time updates happen for you visit: http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/rules.aspx?nav=Week...

2. What is the difference between one-position training and two-position training?
1 position training allows you to only give 3 players full training each week. 2 position training allows you to give 6 players full training each week. The difference between 1 position training and 2 position training (besides the number of players that can be trained) is that players that receive 1 position training will improve slightly more than players that receive 2 position training. Some say that 2 position training gives each player about 70% of the training of 1 position training, but you get more players training so it may be worth it for your team.

3. Should I do team training?
Generally speaking, do not train game shape (unless you have a good reason to do so). It is recommended to train free throws and stamina in weeks with only 2 games because stamina and free throw training will give the whole team full training in a week where you can’t give all of your normal trainees training because of 1 less game that week. Note that when training free throws and stamina, trainer level is not taken in to consideration. This means that stamina and free throws will train the same with a level 1 trainer as with a level 7 trainer.

The other type of team training is to give team training for particular skills. This is generally not recommended as it takes a long time to train anything for a pop up. 1 position or 2 position training is far more common. 3 position training is not common either as it takes too long to train skills even though it allows you to train more players.

4. How do I know if training has taken place?
When you sign in, on the first page that comes up with the news and headlines, there will be a notice there in the headlines section that shows up once training has been completed that week.

Message will appear something like this:
[Trainer name] reports that this week's training, which focused on [Training type], is complete.

5. “None of my players popped up this week. Is this a bug?”
It is not a bug. Training takes time and players do not get a pop up every week. Training consists of sublevels, so even though you do not see a pop, the sublevel has increased and gotten closer to a pop up. Just make sure you get full training and you know your player is improving.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:22:07

6. What affects training and how do I get full training?
Training is affected by numerous things such as trainer level, height of player, number of positions being trained, level of the skill being trained, how close the levels of the main skills are and the number of minutes played that week in the training position. Age is also a key factor.

The higher the trainer level, the better the training, but the generally accepted rule is that advanced trainers (level 4) are the best trainers in terms of value for money. They can be bought cheap and for cheap salary (around 10k - 15k).

The height of the player affects training speed for different skills. Skills such as rebounding and other inside skills will train faster the taller the player is. The shorter the player the faster he will train in outside skills such as outside defence, handling and driving. Try and get a player with appropriate height for the position you want to train him for (i.e. tall for a center and short for a point guard). For a Center the ideal height is 6'9" and higher. For a power forward the ideal height is 6'7" to 6'11". For an inside oriented small forward the ideal height is 6'6" to 6'8". For an outside oriented small forward the ideal height is 6'3" to 6'6". For a shooting guard the ideal is height is 6'3" and shorter. For a point guard the ideal height is 6'3" and shorter.

1 position training is more effective per player than 2 position training, but 2 position training allows you to train more players and so is generally recommended for new teams as a way to quickly increase the skill of most of their players.

Skills train quicker if they are balanced (the main skills need to be balanced). The main skills for a center are inside shot, inside defence and rebounding. So if inside shot is on prolific, and inside defence and rebounding is on average then training is going to be affected. In this case, inside defence and rebounding will get a slight boost in training speed because they are lower. Also, in this case, training inside shot will be slightly slower because it is so far ahead of the other main skills.

The biggest factor in training is the number of minutes played in the position being trained. A player needs to play 48 minutes in the position, or positions being trained each week to get full training. Playing more than 48 minutes will not give extra training. Playing less than 48 minutes means you won’t get full training for that player. But training is not linear, this means that if you train 24 minutes it doesn’t mean you get half training. If you play 47 minutes instead of 48 minutes then you might get a 5-10% drop in training (actual number is not known).

The minutes need to be played in the positions trained. The position listed for the player on the player page is only a suggested position and has no effect on training what so ever. When you go to the training page, let’s pretend that you selected to train Inside Shot for C/PF. This means that a player needs to play 48 minutes in either center or power forward position for full training (you can play in both positions as well). Playing 40 minutes in center and 8 minutes as a power forward will still give the player full training.

On the ‘Manage my Team’ page there is a training section that shows what is being trained and which players have received training for that week. If a players minutes shows as 48+ then this means he receives full training, if not then he is still receiving training but just not full training. If the minutes next to the player say 48 then that means the player has played over 47 minutes but not quite 48 minutes and so is not full training.

Age is another key factor in training. The younger a player is, the faster he will train. Training is best when a player is 18 – 21 years old. Training players that are 26 and older can take a very long time and is considered by most not to be worth it.



Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 13:15:54

7. What does each training type train and how long does it take to get a pop up?
When you select a type of training (for example Inside Shot) it gives the most training to that particular skill. However, it also trains a number of other skills but at a much smaller level. The skills that are trained by each type of training and the number of weeks required for a pop up can be found here: http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/forum/read.aspx?thr...


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:23:31

Game Shape
1. How do I maintain/improve game shape?
Game shape is determined by the number of minutes that a player has played during the week. There is a popular theory that also believes that it is not just this week’s minutes that matter, but also the previous week’s minutes. Aim to play each player between 48 – 72 minutes each week and you should see game shape staying on Strong or Proficient each week. There is a random factor involved in game shape though, and so you can play less than 48 minutes or more than 72 minutes and still get a pop up in game shape however it is much less likely. Similarly, you can play between 48 and 72 minutes and get a drop in game shape due to the random factor, but most weeks your game shape will be good. Managing your minutes properly will allow you to keep all game shapes on strong or proficient.

2. Should I train game shape?
Training game shape should not be done in most circumstances; however there are some circumstances where it might be beneficial. This would be at the beginning of the season, training game shape will give you a boost in game shape and so your players will play better and you will have a small advantage over other teams. Another situation might be just before playoffs or finals, if your players game shape is low then it might be beneficial to train them up. This training is only applied for that 1 week. Game shape cannot be trained above proficient.

Note that game shape is reset at the end of each offseason so it is not advised to train game shape for that week.

Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 13:11:43

Enthusiasm
1. How does enthusiasm work?
Each game (except scrimmages and private leagues which are set to normal by default) you may select an effort level in the lineup page. Next to this there will be a number telling you your enthusiasm level. The higher the enthusiasm level the better your players will play. Playing TIE will mean that your players won’t play as well, but your enthusiasm level will increase by 1/3. Playing Normal will mean that your enthusiasm level will not be affected. Playing CT will mean that your players will play better, but enthusiasm level will go down by 50%. However, for all levels of enthusiasm, it will automatically tend back to 5, and the further away from 5 the quicker it jumps back. The enthusiasm is updated at the daily update each day and after each match.

So consider an enthusiasm level of 5. Playing TIE will increase it to 6.66 which will show as 7 enthusiasm. If you play normal for the next few games you will see your enthusiasm level drop slightly each day until it gets back to 5. If you play CT with an enthusiasm level of 5 then it will drop to 2.5 which will show as enthusiasm 3. This will tend back to 5 each day as well. If you have an enthusiasm level of 15, then the next day it will drop a lot, for example it may drop to 12. Then the next day it might be 10. Then 8 the next day. Then maybe 7 the next day and over the next week or so it will continue to tend back down until it reaches 5. As you can see, the higher your enthusiasm level (or if it is really low) the quicker it jumps back to 5, but if the enthusiasm level is 6, then it takes a while to eventually get back to 5.

It is a generally accepted rule that playing TIE with an enthusiasm level of 8 is the same as playing Normal with an enthusiasm level of 5.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:24:47

Injuries
1. How do I prevent an injury?
Injuries occur randomly. However, when a player receives an injury the time that it takes to get back to full health is dependent on the doctor level that you have. The higher the doctor level the quicker the player will return back to normal. Some injuries can just be for that match, some might last a week and some might even last 5 weeks. Injuries are not the result of bad game shape or anything like that. However, the more minutes you play, the more time the player is on the court and hence the more likely he is to be injured.

2. “The injury said it was for 1 week but it has been more than 1 week. Why?”
This is because the time is an estimate. It is just like the arena construction estimates and can often be shorter or longer than first estimated. Another reason might be because 1 week can mean anything from 1 day to 13 days and so although it says 1 week, this is because it has been rounded to 1 week.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:25:25

Staff
1. What are the best staff levels to have?
For most managers, especially new ones, a trainer level of 4 (advanced) is the recommended trainer due to its cheap signing bonus and cheap salary. A level 5 trainer is thought to give an extra 2 weeks of training per season compared to a level 4 trainer.

The ideal PR manager depends on a lot of circumstances, but a PR manager of level 3 is generally good enough for most new managers.

The ideal doctor level is very much dependant on the level that you are playing at. A new manager could probably survive with a level 3 or less, however at higher levels where players are far better in terms of skills, and the competition is a lot closer, higher level doctors are required so that players are not being injured for 2 or 3 weeks.

2. What are the specialties and does level affect how good the specialty performs?
The different types of specialties can be found here: http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/rules.aspx?nav=Staf...

Note that the level of a staff member does not affect the effectiveness of the specialty. This means that a Level 2 PR manager with National Appeal specialty will affect your opponents home court advantage as much as a level 7 PR manager with National Appeal specialty.


Last edited by Naker Virus at 04/11/2010 09:26:18