somehow, someway, there has to be a way to make a little more casual version of HD to draw in users. recruiting outside of high d1, and probably even in high d1, requires a large number of hours to be spent to really optimize - and a lot of those in a few number of hours/days. really at any level, i think there is fairly clear and significant value to spending extra / a lot of time, whether its something like taking the extra couple hours to really carefully evaluate the recruit pool up front, or paying attention in depth each cycle - watching a meaningfully wide set of recruits for a deeper understanding of the field, your backup options, the going-ons of other teams you might bump into, and all that stuff. its also just way too hard at any level to do anything about lost dice rolls, at least without a lot of effort. at least IMO!
back in the day, there was meaningfully less recruiting competition in d2 and d3, compared to today, even with double the population and more. also, there was less watching cycle over cycle to see who was going to fall which way, where that meticulous paying attention cycle over cycle for an extended period paid real dividends. the main thing was prep work finding targets before recruiting opened, but then everyone at all levels basically jumped at the starting gun. even in d2/d3, most of your class could be more or less locked up by roughly a day in, and then not much later, signings hit, and the whole thing was quite often over. as a side note, this also helped keep the between-seasons period from getting TOO boring, although it still was for NT/jobs, because at least you had all of recruiting in there.
as a result, d2/d3 served as a refuge of sorts, for folks who just didn't want to fight for every inch, while d1 you had the more vigorous recruiting competition - so folks had a choice. also high d1 without the coin flips and all, it was probably a lot easier to coast there, so probably easier at all levels really to invest moderate time. and i'm not saying the changes are bad - because having all of recruiting end so quick for so many folks obviously had its downsides. but i do think its a lot harder to coast in recruiting today, and if you need to be checking every cycle for days, it really seems like in today's world, that should roughly be smart phone workable - and checking recruit progress for 25-50 guys every 6 hours for 4 days on a phone definitely isn't that. not necessarily everywhere - but at least somewhere in HD!
anyway, my point is this - this game takes quite a bit of effort - between recruiting, scheduling, practice planning... stuff that is both a lot for new coaches, and for a lot of reasonably tenured folks. i think there needs to be a version that is more accessible and casual, and not just for rookies. i think a full-effort version that is basically today's d1 makes sense, but i also think there fundamentally has to be a HD-lite somewhere in HD that is fun and compelling, but requires less effort, or at least penalizes less harshly for less effort. seble was aiming in that direction to some extent, but i think we actually went the other way - again, not complaining.
but really what i was aiming at, is i think RS2 needs to be a real session, to help with that in between period. maybe even have new recruits that nobody is already on, that come out after the first NT weekend or something, so folks have something to do. its bad enough the NT and jobs takes forever, but then it is bookended with a RS2 that is a significantly sub-par session for a lot of d1 teams, many of whom try their best to do the absolute minimum in RS2, and its awful for everyone in their 1st season everywhere. having most of the d2/d3 community waiting till RS2 to actually start signing players makes no sense to me either, that is just way too much time to spend preparing, and too little time spent signing. if d2 is that way, fine, but its TERRIBLE preparation for how d1 works, and its so inaccessible, so hard for new coaches to walk in and do well without investing a ton of effort.
but i'm fuzzy on a bunch of this, because i think there has to be a rethink somewhere. for example, i don't know that having 1 recruit pool and style for d1 and d2/d3 makes any sense, and frankly, i think its substantially the opposite. maybe have 1 division like d2 work like d2/d3, but have d3 actually distinct, with a much higher ratio of recruits to humans, so it is a lot less competition. d3 folks should only recruit from an exclusive d3 pool (no dipping down either), one which generates quality recruits in part in proportion with the human coaches instead of just total openings like now, and one which features an ample selection of solid, good, and very good players that are easy to pick up late in recruiting. but whatever the case - i think both RS2 needs a rethink, because it just sucks, but also just something needs to be done to make recruiting more casual for some segments of HD at least. that doesn't necessarily mean dumbing it down, but making it a little less brutal - a rough RS1 is just like, brutal for a newer d1 coach. RS2 should offer some path to redemption. so anyway, i kinda think the two issues are linked, the RS2 issues and the challenges with recruiting for both more casual and newer coaches.
lastly, i think the jobs change was the right spirit but not exactly ideal - i would have went for something more like, anyone - even someone with 0 experience in a world - can take any job up to d+ d1 or so. then any experience in the world unlocks higher levels of team, but making sure that decent low d1 success gives low d1 coaches a better shot than d2/d3 coaches with significantly more success on an objective basis. this way folks who slog through low d1 up to a b-/b don't get super frustrated by getting jumped over. and also nobody is forced into today's d2/d3, which some folks really like, but which is an absolute nightmare (bc of recruiting format) to many others. which division to play in should be a choice. i actually think a lot of new coaches would pick up d1 recruiting more easily, because d2/d3 now is so dependent on understanding who is likely to fall through, which you really have to watch carefully for a long time to start getting a hang of. sure, low d1 has this too, but at least you can start fighting from the gate and start getting feedback, none of this sitting around watching for all of RS1 and maybe some of RS2 trying to get a feel for what the heck is happening before even starting to bring in any players.
3/22/2021 11:44 PM (edited)