#1 has to be to have EEs declare at 1am the day recruiting starts, right?

Such an easy change I haven't heard anyone challenge.

I have quite a few ideas.... not sure how realistic they are, but it would change up the game quite a bit.

1. JUCO players don't show up until RS2. JUCO2 players show up with scouting level 3 and JUCO3 players show up with scouting level 2 automatically since JUCO players have more exposure with scouting tapes and such that coaches don't need to do as much scouting on them.
2. After the 1st or 2nd day of recruiting, a certain % of recruits show up in all levels as completely scouted on a random basis. So Player A who is completely scouted for my school may not show up as scouted for another school. And not every player is scouted fully. It can be randomly level 2, 3 or 4 and every school gets the same % of each level of scouting, but some schools may get random luck and get some better players, but those same players might be scouted by other schools so you still aren't guaranteed to land them. This would help recruiting nationally a bit, but schools would still have higher visiting costs so it still is a challenge, but opens up for national recruiting.
3. Have better AI in substituting patterns. Instead of leaving my backup PG at the SG slot and then the next substitution, my backup SG comes in the game but he's put at PG. So now I have 2 players out of position. AI should be able to determine the best player at each position when they are both playing multiple positions on the depth chart. (not sure if that makes sense to everyone else)
4. Greater impact on prestige with win total. Players with 20 wins but miss the tournament should still get rewarded for a good season, even if it's not the same level of prestige boost as someone who makes the post season.
5. Give an additional preference of players who want schools with higher SOS. Teams that schedule tough, should get rewarded since tougher schedules means more losses, but it would also give more media exposure to schools who play tougher teams, so reward teams with a slight recruiting boost.
6. Limit the amount of recruiting budget that can be spent in RS1. For example, only 75% of recruiting budget and 80% of scouting budget can be used in RS1 and the rest would be saved for RS2. Or maybe give additional scouting money in RS2 (maybe 20% of their original scouting budget added in addition) so that players who strike out early, can look for a few more unrecruited players, they're less likely to find good players but they will keep rosters more balanced.

I have other ideas but I think these are things that would bring more competitive balance and also a little more realism at the same time.

Posted by cubcub113 on 12/3/2020 10:44:00 PM (view original):
#1 has to be to have EEs declare at 1am the day recruiting starts, right?

Such an easy change I haven't heard anyone challenge.

8.5.5

If it was actually easy, it would have been done. At one point, I think seble intended to do it, but always needed to figure out 1) how to make it happen without factoring in awards and NT runs, and 2) doing it in a way that kept the competitive range about the same. If the net effect was just to go back to the previous version where EEs are straightforward and generally easy for high prestige teams to replace, I’m not sure these last few years have been worth it.

Allow for budget transfers of unspent scouting money to recruiting on the second day of RS2. Put some limits on it to somewhat discourage hoarding of scouting budget. Either a transfer tax (Hardball Dynasty imposes a 50% tax on budget transfers), or a hard limit ($3k?, or tier it by division), or some combination of both.

Nothing sucks worse than running out of recruiting budget in RS2 while trying to make a final push on a recruit, while staring at a couple of thousand dollars of unspent but unhelpful scouting money.

Some quality of life fixes:

• Fix the archaic payment system.
• Allow me to edit a quoted comment on the forms.
• Upgrade the conference chats. Maybe allow gifs, images, etc. more in line with modern chat programs. Anything to help community engagement makes the game more inclusive.
• Make sure when I select "view all chat" on someone else's conference, that it doesn't default back to my own conference. This causes so many wrong conference posts every season.

Some game things:

• Would be cool to allow users to create small invitationals for non conference play.
• Agree with npb regarding leveling baseline prestige at the conference level.
• Agree with shoe regarding job overhaul.
• Agree with everyone that RS2 needs a lot of work.

Posted by tdiddy3 on 12/3/2020 11:38:00 PM (view original):
I have quite a few ideas.... not sure how realistic they are, but it would change up the game quite a bit.

1. JUCO players don't show up until RS2. JUCO2 players show up with scouting level 3 and JUCO3 players show up with scouting level 2 automatically since JUCO players have more exposure with scouting tapes and such that coaches don't need to do as much scouting on them.
2. After the 1st or 2nd day of recruiting, a certain % of recruits show up in all levels as completely scouted on a random basis. So Player A who is completely scouted for my school may not show up as scouted for another school. And not every player is scouted fully. It can be randomly level 2, 3 or 4 and every school gets the same % of each level of scouting, but some schools may get random luck and get some better players, but those same players might be scouted by other schools so you still aren't guaranteed to land them. This would help recruiting nationally a bit, but schools would still have higher visiting costs so it still is a challenge, but opens up for national recruiting.
3. Have better AI in substituting patterns. Instead of leaving my backup PG at the SG slot and then the next substitution, my backup SG comes in the game but he's put at PG. So now I have 2 players out of position. AI should be able to determine the best player at each position when they are both playing multiple positions on the depth chart. (not sure if that makes sense to everyone else)
4. Greater impact on prestige with win total. Players with 20 wins but miss the tournament should still get rewarded for a good season, even if it's not the same level of prestige boost as someone who makes the post season.
5. Give an additional preference of players who want schools with higher SOS. Teams that schedule tough, should get rewarded since tougher schedules means more losses, but it would also give more media exposure to schools who play tougher teams, so reward teams with a slight recruiting boost.
6. Limit the amount of recruiting budget that can be spent in RS1. For example, only 75% of recruiting budget and 80% of scouting budget can be used in RS1 and the rest would be saved for RS2. Or maybe give additional scouting money in RS2 (maybe 20% of their original scouting budget added in addition) so that players who strike out early, can look for a few more unrecruited players, they're less likely to find good players but they will keep rosters more balanced.

I have other ideas but I think these are things that would bring more competitive balance and also a little more realism at the same time.

#3 - mostly you can make this happen yourself if you understand the way that the depth chart works (minimum sum of positions, tie breaker left to right).

however it is impossible to do everything with 4 freaking lines. i'd *love* to see a 5th and would use a 6th. i think i asked for a 5th line 10 years ago and was told they see no point. and nobody else seems to care, but its actually extremely high on my wish list and has been for a decade. but i just want to point out: 1) this is already possible, 2) most of the forum-going coaches should already be doing it, and 3) get on with it already so y'all can join me in calling for a 5th depth chart line :)

Posted by craigaltonw on 12/3/2020 2:46:00 PM (view original):
Game Pace & IQ.

I think the offense/defense sets in combination with game tempo are highly unrealistic in this game sim. Show me a team in real life that executes pushing the game tempo, running, drawing fouls, tiring the opponent and then the very next game excels in passing the ball around for 20 seconds each possession before the team star takes a shot at the basket.

The preparation for these playing styles is vastly different. In real life, that shows in the NT. Big 10 defensive slow games... ACC fast pace offenses.

The fullcourt press at D2 and D3 is also ridiculously overweighted in HD.

i have always been on the FCP bandwagon but i actually don't really agree there is an imbalance anymore. about 10 years ago potential came out, and about 6-12 months after that seble nerfed the **** out of fcp. so bad it was unplayable, and he half undid it, but i think the final product is pretty balanced. quality press players play 20m, its a big disadvantage, and the foul trouble is pretty much bigger of a concern. m2m is dominant in d1 these days now with 3.0 EE situation, i'd hate to make press un-usable. i do see press seems kinda strong in d2/d3 but i also kinda think the community needs to work on their anti-press. as best i can tell, a quality m2m team is competitive with a quality press team in any division. for the first time ever (except those few months of chaos where press was so bad it was baffling), if i approached d1 with a 'i want to win as much as possible' type approach, i would not even hesitate, it would be man.

Posted by cubcub113 on 12/3/2020 10:44:00 PM (view original):
#1 has to be to have EEs declare at 1am the day recruiting starts, right?

Such an easy change I haven't heard anyone challenge.

8.5.5

1) I think have EEs declare at 1am the day recruiting starts a no-brainer.
2) increase the transfers x50 especially for top 100 recruits who get under 15 min of playing time - yes it will suck for some but make recruiting so much more interesting.
3) Increase JUCO's x10

Posted by Basketts on 12/4/2020 10:40:00 AM (view original):
Some quality of life fixes:

• Fix the archaic payment system.
• Allow me to edit a quoted comment on the forms.
• Upgrade the conference chats. Maybe allow gifs, images, etc. more in line with modern chat programs. Anything to help community engagement makes the game more inclusive.
• Make sure when I select "view all chat" on someone else's conference, that it doesn't default back to my own conference. This causes so many wrong conference posts every season.

Some game things:

• Would be cool to allow users to create small invitationals for non conference play.
• Agree with npb regarding leveling baseline prestige at the conference level.
• Agree with shoe regarding job overhaul.
• Agree with everyone that RS2 needs a lot of work.

i love the idea of invitationals. In phelan, i used to set up 4 team charity tournaments. Got to be time consuming for me, but it was a fun when it worked.

There's a lot of good stuff in here. I'll try to grab the main ones and add a poll.

Posted by gillispie1 on 12/4/2020 11:06:00 AM (view original):

Posted by tdiddy3 on 12/3/2020 11:38:00 PM (view original):
I have quite a few ideas.... not sure how realistic they are, but it would change up the game quite a bit.

1. JUCO players don't show up until RS2. JUCO2 players show up with scouting level 3 and JUCO3 players show up with scouting level 2 automatically since JUCO players have more exposure with scouting tapes and such that coaches don't need to do as much scouting on them.
2. After the 1st or 2nd day of recruiting, a certain % of recruits show up in all levels as completely scouted on a random basis. So Player A who is completely scouted for my school may not show up as scouted for another school. And not every player is scouted fully. It can be randomly level 2, 3 or 4 and every school gets the same % of each level of scouting, but some schools may get random luck and get some better players, but those same players might be scouted by other schools so you still aren't guaranteed to land them. This would help recruiting nationally a bit, but schools would still have higher visiting costs so it still is a challenge, but opens up for national recruiting.
3. Have better AI in substituting patterns. Instead of leaving my backup PG at the SG slot and then the next substitution, my backup SG comes in the game but he's put at PG. So now I have 2 players out of position. AI should be able to determine the best player at each position when they are both playing multiple positions on the depth chart. (not sure if that makes sense to everyone else)
4. Greater impact on prestige with win total. Players with 20 wins but miss the tournament should still get rewarded for a good season, even if it's not the same level of prestige boost as someone who makes the post season.
5. Give an additional preference of players who want schools with higher SOS. Teams that schedule tough, should get rewarded since tougher schedules means more losses, but it would also give more media exposure to schools who play tougher teams, so reward teams with a slight recruiting boost.
6. Limit the amount of recruiting budget that can be spent in RS1. For example, only 75% of recruiting budget and 80% of scouting budget can be used in RS1 and the rest would be saved for RS2. Or maybe give additional scouting money in RS2 (maybe 20% of their original scouting budget added in addition) so that players who strike out early, can look for a few more unrecruited players, they're less likely to find good players but they will keep rosters more balanced.

I have other ideas but I think these are things that would bring more competitive balance and also a little more realism at the same time.

#3 - mostly you can make this happen yourself if you understand the way that the depth chart works (minimum sum of positions, tie breaker left to right).

however it is impossible to do everything with 4 freaking lines. i'd *love* to see a 5th and would use a 6th. i think i asked for a 5th line 10 years ago and was told they see no point. and nobody else seems to care, but its actually extremely high on my wish list and has been for a decade. but i just want to point out: 1) this is already possible, 2) most of the forum-going coaches should already be doing it, and 3) get on with it already so y'all can join me in calling for a 5th depth chart line :)

Yeah we 100% need a 5th depth chart line.

One of the reasons slowdown is so OP at D1 is because I can actually put together a depth chart that works well with only 4 lines. This really shouldn't be a major consideration for tempo, should it?

Here's an idea to make the transfer rate go up and also create a more competitive balance with recruiting and such. Many people have suggested that making recruiting promises binding for all 4 seasons. I don't see that as necessarily realistic, but I have an alternative plan that would increase transfers substantially and make recruiting promises more of a long term deal. Right now there's an expectation of a certain amount of minutes by players based on their class. Freshmen won't complain about not playing, sophomores expect a few minutes and juniors and seniors expect to play. I say keep that in play, and players who aren't getting the minutes they expect based on their class could possibly transfer, not just for failing to uphold promises. But then you also add into the mix players who have their playing time significantly decreased or lose a starting job become likely to transfer.

This would eliminate the recruiting loophole of having players promised starts only for their first season and then moved to the bench for their sophomore year. So while it wouldn't exactly make the promises binding, it would give the same effect and it would also have the same effect on other players who weren't given promises and then later benched because of promise to a recruit. So you wouldn't want to offer 5 starting jobs if you have 5 returning starters, because you might lose some or all of those returning starts..

Another potential idea is for upperclassmen who have freshmen and sophomores with more playing time than them to possibly transfer because "they want to play." It could be coded to have juniors and seniors in a certain talent percentile and aren't getting playing time because they were passed over by an underclassman that they have X% chance of transferring. I don't know what the % would be. Maybe 20% or 25% chance. Keep some randomness involved, but use it to open up more transfers.

And if WIS wanted to really overhaul and put a shock factor into the game, they could have some players decide they want to transfer so they can move up a division if their talent level warrants it. This would really shake up the lower levels but sometimes players transfer because they have improved so much that they want to play at a higher level. They could then code those players to only sign with a school at a higher level. That would give the D2 and D3 schools the equivalent of an EE.

Posted by tdiddy3 on 12/4/2020 12:30:00 PM (view original):
Here's an idea to make the transfer rate go up and also create a more competitive balance with recruiting and such. Many people have suggested that making recruiting promises binding for all 4 seasons. I don't see that as necessarily realistic, but I have an alternative plan that would increase transfers substantially and make recruiting promises more of a long term deal. Right now there's an expectation of a certain amount of minutes by players based on their class. Freshmen won't complain about not playing, sophomores expect a few minutes and juniors and seniors expect to play. I say keep that in play, and players who aren't getting the minutes they expect based on their class could possibly transfer, not just for failing to uphold promises. But then you also add into the mix players who have their playing time significantly decreased or lose a starting job become likely to transfer.

This would eliminate the recruiting loophole of having players promised starts only for their first season and then moved to the bench for their sophomore year. So while it wouldn't exactly make the promises binding, it would give the same effect and it would also have the same effect on other players who weren't given promises and then later benched because of promise to a recruit. So you wouldn't want to offer 5 starting jobs if you have 5 returning starters, because you might lose some or all of those returning starts..

Another potential idea is for upperclassmen who have freshmen and sophomores with more playing time than them to possibly transfer because "they want to play." It could be coded to have juniors and seniors in a certain talent percentile and aren't getting playing time because they were passed over by an underclassman that they have X% chance of transferring. I don't know what the % would be. Maybe 20% or 25% chance. Keep some randomness involved, but use it to open up more transfers.

And if WIS wanted to really overhaul and put a shock factor into the game, they could have some players decide they want to transfer so they can move up a division if their talent level warrants it. This would really shake up the lower levels but sometimes players transfer because they have improved so much that they want to play at a higher level. They could then code those players to only sign with a school at a higher level. That would give the D2 and D3 schools the equivalent of an EE.

Yeah, those are some really great ideas, although I would start with a lower % and then just adjust up if needed.

tdiddy - although I don't hate your ideas, you are adding elements that will increase overall user frustration.

I think there are enough players out there that the coaches actually want to transfer but the game code keeps them on the roster. Shouldn't be hard to recode to let those players leave. Plus you don't alienate current users so much.
(ie - my junior who plays 3 mins /game but stays on the roster for another season. He should be gone)

#1 please no EEs from D2 or D3 or Low D1 or something. People play D2 and D3 because they don't want EEs....

Agree with mully here. There *could* be something where a guy lets a coach know they'd *like* to transfer because they don't get enough PT. Then the coach can cut them and get resources in RS2. But the coach can also keep them (I had a JR averaging 6 mpg or something JR year at Illinois who was the 2nd best player on a SR title team--I'm sure in real life I could have kept him, so I wouldn't want him to just transfer without asking me, that's stupid)