Recruiting in Year 3...
So many changes, I know I'll forget some. Most notably, you are not allowed to grab players from up a division until the second recruiting window -- you can still actively recruit them, they just won't sign with you until the second recruiting period. In the case of a D3 team trying to catch a D1 recruit, make that the final 24 hours. This is being done to plug some of the cracks that ultimately, for anyone without spud in their name, would have harmed the game at the D2/D3 level by creating a taffy pull effect from the great coaches to the divisional baseline.
HV's have been capped at 20...pretty sure that's hardly an issue for me since I haven't sent out 20 HV's total in 2 combined beta seasons of recruiting. For the boys up at D1 who have the bankrolls to battle, well, there you go. Let us little guys know how that's working out for you, please.
The Sims of the world are actively scouting in the first cycle this time, so we should get some better information for how this whole thing works that was lacking in Season 2. Like I said, I'm sure there are other changes, but these are the "BIG" ones in my opinion that will impact the overall feel of recruiting this time around vs. Seasons 1/2.
So...I have 4 scholarship openings, 100 AP's, and need 2 bigs and 2 smalls for my roster. I'd also like to test out how interacting vs. sims goes. Since I know I can't sign any of the D1 folks that I have, I split the AP's 50/50 and go after my top D2 big and my top D2 small, which conveniently have 2 Sim teams each on them. Assuming I win both players, this should insulate me for my later "swing big" efforts at trying to snag D1 players in the second window. If not, I'll have data on how Sim operates under the current system.
Neither unlocks after the first cycle, but thanks to the lovely % unlocked slider bars, I can do simple algebra and calculate how many additional AP's I need to hand out the second round to unlock the scholarships. I give each the bare minimum and slide the rest over to a strong D1 guard that has just Sim D+ prestige Stetson on it at "Very Low" consideration level...another perfect laboratory.
Third cycle...both D2's unlock, get scholarship offers and get CV's. The D1 has me as a very low interest as well....I keep 1 AP on the D2 guys, throw 98 AP's into the D1 and go to sleep. Next cycle...I'm Very High on both D2's with the 2 sims on each at Very Low. Interested to see if they keep investing or respect my position as top dog. The D1 went to very high on Stetson and pushed me down to Very Low...so much for that experiment...I go down my list of D1 folks to try and find one that isn't the target of a human being. Settle on a guy that I have listed as a swiss army knife...he's now getting my 98 AP. Nobody is on him...hopefully I can drive him up to Moderate, unlock the CV option to take one of his 5 CV's away from any opponents who materialize. Stay tuned for updates :)