I've got a target recruit who's "very tight" with a Sim AI, but I have a significant advantage in number of open slots and in prestige. Should the "very tight" deter me from recruiting him, or is it just going to take a lot more effort?

How far is the recruit from you? If he's within 360, go for it, if within 200, definitely go for it, if the guy is good. Prestige is somewhat irelevant in D2 battles, but the spots are important for money's sake obviously. You're probably going to have to put a good deal of cash in, but if you can afford it, you're close to the guy, and the guy is good enough, go get him.

Posted by bhansalid00 on 11/25/2013 11:46:00 AM (view original):
I've got a target recruit who's "very tight" with a Sim AI, but I have a significant advantage in number of open slots and in prestige. Should the "very tight" deter me from recruiting him, or is it just going to take a lot more effort?

A *lot* more effort, which means a lot less money available for your other open spots which you might need for battles or long distance recruiting. Once you get into that battle you may lose your mind and exceed your battle budget, leaving you bloodied, broke, and panicked. Good luck.

I never recruit the 'very tight' players.  Too expensive , and I can often find other players almost as good

I agree with alblack - it's usually not worth going after the "very tight" players. They cost a SIGNIFICANT amount more to pull from the sims than other players do. If there is another player who is even remotely similar in talent/potential, then why waste the cash on the guy the sim wants?

20-30 HV's get you "tight" .  

How many openings for the sim compared to how many guys are considering the recruit for the sim would be a good thing to know.

Posted by tacokisses on 11/25/2013 5:47:00 PM (view original):
How many openings for the sim compared to how many guys are considering the recruit for the sim would be a good thing to know.

3 openings for Sim, 6 for me. This is the only recruit considering either of us right now.

I think simmy spends roughly 30% of their cash on their primary recruit.

Is that a complete guess, or is there info i have never heard of (i admittedly know very little). However if that is their only recruit, why wouldn't most of their money be on him. I have battled SIMs before and when they have a number of guys considering way under their openings available and they are tight, it can be quite the mountain to climb. Always for me much more than I want to blow on a guy that is going to a SIM team.

It's not a complete guess, I have been trying to figure it out for awhile.  A Sim team will only recruit  enough players to get to 10 at first.   I am pretty sure there spending is something like 30%-20%-10% (and 10% if they need 4).   At d3, they never get "tight".  At d2, they occasional do.   If they have 5 open scholarships, that's 25k and 30% of that is 7.5k.  Throw in a couple post season dollars and that's enough to get to the high priority range.

It has to be more than 30 percent for a primary target. 

I recently had a player who was 30 miles from one of my DII teams who fit with what I needed perfectly, and I was not happy to see a sim on him when recruiting rolled around. He wouldn't take an HV so I figured he was "tight" and when WOTS hit I found out I was right. The sim team had four openings and I had four openings, but I got involved in a battle with a human coach too over another player. I didn't spend too much to beat the human coach (he only had one opening and I'm not sure why he battled me at all), but it was enough to keep me from success with the sim after wasting over $11,000 total between STs to get him to accept HVs and then HVs trying to pry my kid away.

So the SIM had 20kish to spend. and he was tight to start?

Maybe it's 40-20-10.   Forty  percent of 20k is 8k which is enough for 25ish HV's.   That's probably enough to  make tight.

My problem with this theory is that it breaks down at D1.   If it's 50% then SIMS would be spending 60k on some recruits  and I don't recall seeing evidence of that.   Admittedly, I don't have a ton of d1 experience but I think I would remember that.

It's either different at d1 or I am totally wrong in my assumptions.

Posted by bistiza on 11/26/2013 8:41:00 AM (view original):
It has to be more than 30 percent for a primary target. 

I recently had a player who was 30 miles from one of my DII teams who fit with what I needed perfectly, and I was not happy to see a sim on him when recruiting rolled around. He wouldn't take an HV so I figured he was "tight" and when WOTS hit I found out I was right. The sim team had four openings and I had four openings, but I got involved in a battle with a human coach too over another player. I didn't spend too much to beat the human coach (he only had one opening and I'm not sure why he battled me at all), but it was enough to keep me from success with the sim after wasting over $11,000 total between STs to get him to accept HVs and then HVs trying to pry my kid away.

So you were in D2 and the SIM was at a D1 school.  That's a big jump in $$$ available to the SIM team.  Plus, your evals just to get considered and to get him to accept HVs aren't typically included in the amount needed to overtake the SIM.  If you spent $4k in evals, then really you only had $7k into the kid for fighting purposes, which wasn't enough in this case to overtake the D1 SIM school.

jdno may be right. Perhaps it was ill-advised of me to try to beat a D-I school who is "tight" with a D-II budget (again, this is why I said I was will albback and think it's usually not worth going after "tight" players, but I was stubborn with this one).

Four openings means about $60K for the D-I school and I had about $25K to play with (postseason cash and leftover helped). If it's 30 percent for the sim's top target, that means it spent about $18K, and I should not be surprised at all to find that $11K wasn't enough to pry the kid away.

Good call, jdno. Unless there is something else, I think you solved that "mystery" for me and the 30 percent figure my in fact be correct.