So I'm kinda new to D3... haven't played it in a long time. Throughout period 1, I'm moderate on a D1 recruit with lots of sim D1 teams on the list (all very low as I offered the scholarship first). On the last cycle of period, one of the sim D1 teams got to "low". How bad is that? Do I still have a chance if I throw a bunch of visits and promises at this guy? I currently haven't offered anything besides AP and scholarship.

I've played 10 seasons in D3 now at 3.0, so while my knowledge isn't as extensive as others, I'll give you what I know. The D1 sims will back off only if they feel that it will take more than a couple of cycles to take the lead for the recruit. I think if you drop a few visits and maybe a small minutes promise and can knock them back to very low, they will likely leave the recruit alone for the remainder of period 2.

Posted by mlitney on 10/26/2020 5:05:00 PM (view original):
So I'm kinda new to D3... haven't played it in a long time. Throughout period 1, I'm moderate on a D1 recruit with lots of sim D1 teams on the list (all very low as I offered the scholarship first). On the last cycle of period, one of the sim D1 teams got to "low". How bad is that? Do I still have a chance if I throw a bunch of visits and promises at this guy? I currently haven't offered anything besides AP and scholarship.

Are you sure you have your scholarship offer in? If you were moderate with an offer in, while at the same time all sims were very low, I've not seen the sim move up to "low" one single time in my career.

something doesn't sound normal with your description.

Posted by topdogggbm on 10/27/2020 3:47:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mlitney on 10/26/2020 5:05:00 PM (view original):
So I'm kinda new to D3... haven't played it in a long time. Throughout period 1, I'm moderate on a D1 recruit with lots of sim D1 teams on the list (all very low as I offered the scholarship first). On the last cycle of period, one of the sim D1 teams got to "low". How bad is that? Do I still have a chance if I throw a bunch of visits and promises at this guy? I currently haven't offered anything besides AP and scholarship.

Are you sure you have your scholarship offer in? If you were moderate with an offer in, while at the same time all sims were very low, I've not seen the sim move up to "low" one single time in my career.

something doesn't sound normal with your description.

It can definitely happen. To the OP, it’s not hard to stave off the sim. A couple HVs, a CV, or a few promised minutes should get them back to “very low.” Sims don’t put up much of a fight.

In my experience, you *have* to knock them to Very Low to get them to back off.
If you let them sit at Low or Moderate, they can pop back up to High or VH.

Recommendation: Do as darnoc says and drop a few visits immediately to knock them back to VL. Then, they'll usually stay there.

I'm just now checking these responses so thanks for everyone's input. Yeah topdog, I have never experienced that either, but I thought maybe it was a D3 thing.

Posted by darnoc29099 on 10/27/2020 12:54:00 PM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 10/27/2020 3:47:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mlitney on 10/26/2020 5:05:00 PM (view original):
So I'm kinda new to D3... haven't played it in a long time. Throughout period 1, I'm moderate on a D1 recruit with lots of sim D1 teams on the list (all very low as I offered the scholarship first). On the last cycle of period, one of the sim D1 teams got to "low". How bad is that? Do I still have a chance if I throw a bunch of visits and promises at this guy? I currently haven't offered anything besides AP and scholarship.

Are you sure you have your scholarship offer in? If you were moderate with an offer in, while at the same time all sims were very low, I've not seen the sim move up to "low" one single time in my career.

something doesn't sound normal with your description.

It can definitely happen. To the OP, it’s not hard to stave off the sim. A couple HVs, a CV, or a few promised minutes should get them back to “very low.” Sims don’t put up much of a fight.

I'm not trying to be a butthead. But I just don't believe it. There HAS to be something else involved. Maybe sim was at low to begin with, and not very low. Maybe the offer wasn't processed when the D3 was at moderate, and it was just "submitted" (and then when it processed, that same cycle, sim moved up from very low, to a higher interest level).

I just don't see a logical reason why 99.9999% of the time it doesn't happen. But then it decides to happen just one random time. I'm as experienced as anyone when it comes to dealing with sims, pushing them down, etc. I do a lot of unorthodox things at times, to test what happens with sims when you "fill in the blank". This one just doesn't make sense to me.

Was the one sim team at "low" the entire time AFTER you offered your ship?

At D3, this can look a lot different than it looks at D2.

I suspect what you’re seeing here is that a stronger team jumped in a little later. Sim teams recruit using a sort of “throw **** against the wall and see what sticks” approach.” They’re looking for a weak spot. If they don’t see a path to get into the lead within a few cycles, they move on. But if they do, they will press forward.

Unless OP was paying close attention to exactly when the C team entered, and how long it took to move up, we may not know for sure exactly how it played, but when I’ve seen this happen they usually start right off at low. I think it’s possible that sim started at VL though. That first cycle of attention, they’re spending like 20-27 AP. At D3, 50 AP from a C prestige D1 rival might be enough to get them to low against your stockpile of AP+scholarship after 15-20 or whatever cycles, whereas at D2, sims are always just going to move on after that first cycle, it will always look hopeless. So the first cycle may have had them at VL, but because it’s D3 and not D2, they may have still seen an opening.

In other words, none of their **** sticks at D2, but at D3, some of it does.

Just to follow-up, it happened to 2 more of my targets. I was the only team on both recruits until the 2nd day of the 2nd period (with scholarship offered on both). Some sim teams showed up and were immediately at low. So apparently that's a thing, and it wasn't just some random incident.

I believe recruiting has changed to have Sim AI teams more aggressive in recruiting to avoid so many bad Sim AI teams. I've never had so many of my recruits have Sim AI jump in. I've got 38 Sim AI controlled teams that have popped up on one of my recruits over the past 5 or 6 cycles. They're all at Very Low and I am not worried about losing my guy, but still I've never seen this happen before.

Posted by mlitney on 11/3/2020 10:17:00 AM (view original):
Just to follow-up, it happened to 2 more of my targets. I was the only team on both recruits until the 2nd day of the 2nd period (with scholarship offered on both). Some sim teams showed up and were immediately at low. So apparently that's a thing, and it wasn't just some random incident.

Scholarship + how many total APs when sims first appeared?
ETA probably obvious, but don’t respond with any specifics until you’re done recruiting.

And now we have that seemingly endless wait for D1 recruits to start signing with D3 schools.

Sorry Shoe, just saw your question. I was able to sign one of the recruits. It looks like I had around 200 AP on him when the sims showed up. For the other 2 players that I didn't sign, I would estimate around 150-200 AP.

In the future, I think I'm going to just give a HV to each one at the start of period 2. That should help until I can get a higher prestige.