I made a post earlier about the game not being beginner-friendly. Div2 is where the game really starts. Beginners are heavily penalized in recruiting. Not only do they have less vision so they see less players, but the players they do see mostly have sims on them. Yet the teams with better vision see more players and those players are undecided?? It really should be opposite. Higher vision teams can see more players but those top players are harder to get because they have 3 sims on them.

That is a great point but I don't believe adjusting vision is the solution to the problem. The problem is it is too hard to knock off SIM AI's and their recruiting efforts put into recruits should be at least halved. The solution shouldn't be it's too hard for beginners so give them access to the undecided pool where other coaches are battling for recruits, it should be how do we make the current SIM AI recruit pool more accessible to beginners.

An idea that I've floated around in my head is about I'd like to see the job change period be more interesting. How about if simai ran teams recruited current human coaches? They could send out a letter to a coach stating their interest in having him come to coach at their school. They could also give him some incentive to come to their school. Maybe the new coach could make a couple of extra cuts to the roster. Maybe they could RS an extra incoming recruit. Maybe even WIS could make it an incentive and the recruiting school could offer a free season or reduced cost by taking over this long run down school.

Also along those lines it might be time to put some coaching term limits into the game. It seems like 40-45 seasons is long enough to coach one team. We're seeing guys at the same school for 100 seasons and more. Really? I know this isn't real life but this seems silly when you stop to look at it.

While we're on the topic of free seasons we can switch to reward points. Getting 50-60 reward points for a PO appearance is actually ridiculous. It's like .50 when you go to buy seasons. Either increase rewards for success or drop them all together.

Along the lines of taking on a sim team, since the school earns bowl money, why not have the sim team retain the bowl $$$ that was earned the previous season. Your already behind the 8 ball when picking up a sim team. They practice so many formations it takes forever to get the QB with FIQ good enough to do anything. Plus the sim team is generally fairly bad so it makes turning recruits green harder. So go ahead and let the sim team retain the bowl $$$ the conference earned to help some.
Before I left for over a year I think it was being discussed to possibly leave the previous coach's practice plan in place so the players would continue to progress. Then as soon as the team was claimed the practice plan would disappear and the new coach could do whatever.

Posted by ranger1951 on 2/23/2025 11:27:00 AM (view original):
papachooby, I read your response and note there are always two sides to the vision issue and you have made a reasonable argument for vision. I do not agree with your assessment but it is something that should be considered. I think people can pick up on how to approach recruiting fairly quickly which they have to do anyway. And yes getting 10 - 12 wins does get you to a point where you can make the team better. I think it might be a stretch that someone going through recruiting would only be able to get 5 quality players and have to accept 45 sims. I did find one statement you made which I completely agree with 100%. "The proven coaches will make do and still be fine." So let them compete on a level playing field.

Its not really a stretch because i base that on what ive seen happen. Like anything in life there is no doubt room for compromise here, but there should be a reward for success in recruiting and a penalty for failure. Just like the real world. I don’t know what the solution is, but until someone comes up with something better than how this mechanic works i don’t see any reason to change it. We do all start from the same spot, a level playing field.

You have a choice when picking up a team. Do i go for a team with better vision or am i looking for a rebuild? If you’re looking for a rebuild, expecting to recruit whomever you want is expecting too much. If you take over a cellar dweller it takes time in real life, why shouldn’t it in the sim? 2 good seasons and your vision is completely turned around.

I say leave vision alone. Make promises count more. Turn injuries back on. The players know how many you have at a position when you try to position swap them, why couldn’t they during recruiting? If you have 4 lbs maybe your money should count a little more than someone who has 8.

Posted by jibe717 on 2/23/2025 3:49:00 PM (view original):
An idea that I've floated around in my head is about I'd like to see the job change period be more interesting. How about if simai ran teams recruited current human coaches? They could send out a letter to a coach stating their interest in having him come to coach at their school. They could also give him some incentive to come to their school. Maybe the new coach could make a couple of extra cuts to the roster. Maybe they could RS an extra incoming recruit. Maybe even WIS could make it an incentive and the recruiting school could offer a free season or reduced cost by taking over this long run down school.

Also along those lines it might be time to put some coaching term limits into the game. It seems like 40-45 seasons is long enough to coach one team. We're seeing guys at the same school for 100 seasons and more. Really? I know this isn't real life but this seems silly when you stop to look at it.

While we're on the topic of free seasons we can switch to reward points. Getting 50-60 reward points for a PO appearance is actually ridiculous. It's like .50 when you go to buy seasons. Either increase rewards for success or drop them all together.

That is a great idea for those sim schools ADs to reach out to winning coaches at lower levels. And, give some sort of reward for taking those teams over.

I don’t like term limits, but for goodness sake we can fire people who aren’t winning at d1 at least. The old system wasn’t perfect but it was a good start. Turning that off was a mistake.

Elites should have expectations of their coaches. All schools at that level should, and elite jobs should be a little harder to hold on to. Mid-majors should be more forgiving at first. But, if someone is able to satisfy their AD for 100 seasons i say they have earned that.

Posted by zewskiz on 2/23/2025 3:30:00 PM (view original):
That is a great point but I don't believe adjusting vision is the solution to the problem. The problem is it is too hard to knock off SIM AI's and their recruiting efforts put into recruits should be at least halved. The solution shouldn't be it's too hard for beginners so give them access to the undecided pool where other coaches are battling for recruits, it should be how do we make the current SIM AI recruit pool more accessible to beginners.

That is a well thought out alternative. When you are building a program from nothing to NC contender, the first three or so seasons are pretty tough. In Y1, you inherit an OOC schedule and at best will max out at 10 or so wins. Y2, you should absolutely break the 12 wins level and then you are off to the races. After that you must win the CC to make the 15 level and once at the 15 wins level you have plenty of vision to compete with everyone. I think the wait is more than some are willing to endure which I understand as it is frustrating, but dynasties are not built in one season. Or they shouldn’t be from my perspective.

Posted by papachooby on 2/24/2025 3:52:00 PM (view original):

Posted by jibe717 on 2/23/2025 3:49:00 PM (view original):
An idea that I've floated around in my head is about I'd like to see the job change period be more interesting. How about if simai ran teams recruited current human coaches? They could send out a letter to a coach stating their interest in having him come to coach at their school. They could also give him some incentive to come to their school. Maybe the new coach could make a couple of extra cuts to the roster. Maybe they could RS an extra incoming recruit. Maybe even WIS could make it an incentive and the recruiting school could offer a free season or reduced cost by taking over this long run down school.

Also along those lines it might be time to put some coaching term limits into the game. It seems like 40-45 seasons is long enough to coach one team. We're seeing guys at the same school for 100 seasons and more. Really? I know this isn't real life but this seems silly when you stop to look at it.

While we're on the topic of free seasons we can switch to reward points. Getting 50-60 reward points for a PO appearance is actually ridiculous. It's like .50 when you go to buy seasons. Either increase rewards for success or drop them all together.

That is a great idea for those sim schools ADs to reach out to winning coaches at lower levels. And, give some sort of reward for taking those teams over.

I don’t like term limits, but for goodness sake we can fire people who aren’t winning at d1 at least. The old system wasn’t perfect but it was a good start. Turning that off was a mistake.

Elites should have expectations of their coaches. All schools at that level should, and elite jobs should be a little harder to hold on to. Mid-majors should be more forgiving at first. But, if someone is able to satisfy their AD for 100 seasons i say they have earned that.

Yeah I see elites that miss the PO's a couple of seasons in a row. Others with 10 seasons of first round PO exits. This shouldn't keep an elite job. No way. They need to be fired or on the carpet. They need a PO run of getting into the quarters anyway. I know some elites are hard but 10 year runs w/o a CC title should also not be acceptable. I once got fired at Georgia. Some measure needs to be had at these schools too. Maybe at least a PO appearance once every 3 or 4 seasons once you've compiled your own players. Mid-majors? Should be pretty hard place to get fired from. It would almost have to be reigny like. A couple 2-11 type seasons or more and not signing real recruits. Otherwise if the coach is even winning 4-5 games a year and paying for that should be enough. But firings should be put back on. Seems a very poor decision to begin with imo.