I am thinking about getting back into HD after not playing for probably 10 years. I never played at a high level back then, had some solid D3 teams and a couple of low-level D2 teams. I know there have been some changes since then. Are there any good threads on how the game works today? How has recruiting changed??? etc... What do I need to know?

Yup. I’d say:

1. Read the threads here: https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=531148 - one of them was already posted by wesmike
2. Join the discord if possible: https://discord.gg/hrhRT78H - it’s really user friendly, live chatting, in my opinion, is better than forum questions
3. Find a mentor: if not on here (there’s a thread pinned for mentors), then on the discord too. Find someone who can help you!

Thank you for the resources. I've reserved a D3 and a D2 team in different worlds. I'll do some reading to try to get my head up to speed - looks like the recruiting has changed a bit, among other things....

ifg you have previous played a world reserving a team wouldnt be the ebest way to go as you dont get recruits your entire first season its basically a wasted season. if you have played that world before apply for a job in the jobs change so you can at least recruit in recruiting session 2

Posted by R0pey on 4/18/2023 7:36:00 AM (view original):
ifg you have previous played a world reserving a team wouldnt be the ebest way to go as you dont get recruits your entire first season its basically a wasted season. if you have played that world before apply for a job in the jobs change so you can at least recruit in recruiting session 2

I just picked up a 4th team - one that I applied for. The other 3 are reserved - and while I won't get the full benefit in that first season, I picked teams that looked solid, in locations/leagues I wanted to be in. Let's just look at this as a slow-roll...

I've been back about 1 year after being gone for about 10 years myself. I poured through the forums like I was a brand new player and that helped quite a bit. In a general sense, the day-to-day game play is roughly the same as I remember, so I more skimmed those topics and read more in depth on other things, especially scouting efficiently. The Discord has been helpful to keep up with more of a current pulse than the forums provide.

By far my favorite change is the every 3 hour recruiting cycles are gone! That's really what caused me to leave a decade ago. It's amazing how much more life flexibility is possible with 6 hour recruiting cycles.

I originally intended to camp out in D3 when I came back, but quickly learned that wasn't going to be my preferred way to play. Of course there are lots of ways to recruit at D3, but it seems that most of the best scout/recruit the D1 pool entirely, or almost entirely. Since the players in the D1 pool can't sign with D3 until the last 24 hours of RS2, that was a deal breaker for me. I have 3 kids, and there's a decent chance they distract me and I miss some recruiting cycles here and there and having to be focused so much on that very end and keep plugging away until the very end just didn't appeal to me. There's a chance I try D3 by only scouting/recruiting the D2 pool since that opens up signings at the very beginning of RS2, which is same for D2 teams scouting/recruiting D1 pool. Because of all that, I think as of now I'm a D2 player, but when I jumped back into the only world that I had previous experience all of the sudden my alma mater opened up so I'm giving high D1 a try even though I intended to go to D2 in that world also.

With all that being said, I'm happy to try to help if you'd like to send me a site mail. You're likely to find other more successful players that have been around more recently, but I'll share what I can.