Once I get to L2 and can see preferences, I weed some out pretty quickly.

Posted by MikeT23 on 12/28/2016 10:14:00 AM (view original):
Once I get to L2 and can see preferences, I weed some out pretty quickly.

I start weeding people out when I can see the color of their development. Weeding people out on preferences is done when I do my more detailed pass through the guys I have deemed recruitable.

This might be a learning moment for me.

If I have more Very Bad/Bad than Very Good/Good, I stop there. That's the 31 of 58 who aren't tagged. I then check to see who runs my O or D. I figure they'll start at C- as opposed to D-. That's the 27 who are tagged. Of those 27, 10 ran either my O or D and had more G/VG. Of those 10, 4 fit my needs best. And that's my primary targets.

I also figure, if any of those 31 have no interest from other schools, I can jump in on them if I can't get two of my 27.

I wouldn't weed people out just because their preferences didn't match, if they end up with nobody or just SIMs recruiting against, it can be overcome, and in some instances quite easily (albeit, I haven't played at d3 so maybe take with some grain of salt). If they really are your top target and you wait, it's possible someone else is waiting and when you jump in you will be in a battle. I'd rather stake out my ground aggressively the first few cycles then adjust accordingly. When I go to make my final list, potential and player comes first. If all is the same miles next and finally preferences. The only preference I really pay attention to when setting AP for the first go around is signing. If they are an early or period 1 signee and a top target I'll weight my AP more towards them. Once I get them to VH and open up actions I shift my AP to late signees / second choices.

However this is where some of the 'extra' time comes in that some may be discussing, I do try to check in every cycle when possible, look at where I am at with my guys and adjust accordingly. I'd say usually this takes 5 mins a few times a day and two of them can be done at the same time as checking my games score so it's already time I had set aside for HD.

Posted by MikeT23 on 12/28/2016 10:14:00 AM (view original):
Once I get to L2 and can see preferences, I weed some out pretty quickly.

That makes some sense. Preferences can be pretty powerful, and it can be expensive to overcome bad preferences ... and riskier than necessary.

Posted by CoachSpud on 12/28/2016 12:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 12/28/2016 10:14:00 AM (view original):
Once I get to L2 and can see preferences, I weed some out pretty quickly.

That makes some sense. Preferences can be pretty powerful, and it can be expensive to overcome bad preferences ... and riskier than necessary.

But preferences don't come in until you know who you're battling against.

Not so. Preferences determine in part how easily the player will sign with you from the start ... and therefore how expensive or inexpensive he will be (even if another team never competes for him). If you don't take that into account from the moment you see them and recruit a guy with bad preferences, you are in for some battles with odds against you, or you may have to drop your efforts on the guy part way into recruiting. It's part of the overall consideration from the start. Recruiting resources need to be spent wisely.

Posted by CoachSpud on 12/28/2016 12:32:00 PM (view original):
Not so. Preferences determine in part how easily the player will sign with you from the start ... and therefore how expensive or inexpensive he will be (even if another team never competes for him). If you don't take that into account from the moment you see them and recruit a guy with bad preferences, you are in for some battles with odds against you, or you may have to drop your efforts on the guy part way into recruiting. It's part of the overall consideration from the start. Recruiting resources need to be spent wisely.

Battles with who? You don't have a battle until someone else shows up.

Well, duh, do you wait to prepare until after they show up?

Posted by CoachSpud on 12/28/2016 5:02:00 PM (view original):
Well, duh, do you wait to prepare until after they show up?

I've been going with the "peer pressure" recruiting strategy. I wait and see what the other kids are doing, then I prepare to do the same thing.

Posted by zhawks on 12/28/2016 11:44:00 AM (view original):
I wouldn't weed people out just because their preferences didn't match, if they end up with nobody or just SIMs recruiting against, it can be overcome, and in some instances quite easily (albeit, I haven't played at d3 so maybe take with some grain of salt). If they really are your top target and you wait, it's possible someone else is waiting and when you jump in you will be in a battle. I'd rather stake out my ground aggressively the first few cycles then adjust accordingly. When I go to make my final list, potential and player comes first. If all is the same miles next and finally preferences. The only preference I really pay attention to when setting AP for the first go around is signing. If they are an early or period 1 signee and a top target I'll weight my AP more towards them. Once I get them to VH and open up actions I shift my AP to late signees / second choices.

However this is where some of the 'extra' time comes in that some may be discussing, I do try to check in every cycle when possible, look at where I am at with my guys and adjust accordingly. I'd say usually this takes 5 mins a few times a day and two of them can be done at the same time as checking my games score so it's already time I had set aside for HD.

This is very similar to what I do.

Posted by CoachSpud on 12/28/2016 12:32:00 PM (view original):
Not so. Preferences determine in part how easily the player will sign with you from the start ... and therefore how expensive or inexpensive he will be (even if another team never competes for him). If you don't take that into account from the moment you see them and recruit a guy with bad preferences, you are in for some battles with odds against you, or you may have to drop your efforts on the guy part way into recruiting. It's part of the overall consideration from the start. Recruiting resources need to be spent wisely.

In terms of battles Spud, this system isn't any different than the previous in that early presence will scare off most late comers. Unless the late comer is a higher division, I will have a guy fairly locked up if no one shows up by the time I have him at Moderate-High regardless of the preferences. Most don't waste the time and resources trying to catch up, which is why the previous system was actually better at promoting battles since someone could over come that in 1-2 cycles with enough effort. If I'm putting most of my points into a guy, I don't care what your preferences are, because you're likely not catching up before I sign him. AP ensures that it is difficult for you to catch up quickly.

Now once you unlock recruiting actions, maybe you have a chance, but if you're just now on the guy after I've been on him for 4-5 cycles, who knows. You don't even know the rate of unlocking actions which may end up as a waste of a lot of AP for you just to find out he is going to take a few cycles just to unlock actions, and that you could be recruiting someone you have a better shot at.

"Most don't waste the time and resources trying to catch up..."

To the extent that this is true - and I suspect you are vastly overstating the case here - it's a product of the "most" still learning how to play the new version. I agree with you and zhawks, there is no need to disregard players you like based on preferences, especially if they are local and you are willing and able to go all-in with recruiting effort. Likewise, there is no need for a team to disregard a player 4 or 5 or 10 cycles in because someone else has him "locked up". If that other team has a big enough prestige/distance/preference advantage, obviously you have to exercise some discernment. But there is no reason to be so timid as to not even try to get a player you like.

The previous version of this game incentivized timidness and risk aversion, because if you figured or guessed wrong and came up on the 49 side of a 51-49 battle, you had 0 chance of getting the player. Now you don't have to "beat" your rival in effort to have a chance. The final effort tally isn't the end of the game. So to say outright that "the previous system was actually better at promoting battles" is simply ludicrous.

OK, let's not pretend each player is unique. If one believe a point or two in ATH or DEF turns a player from legit recruit to crap, I think one needs to re-evaluate their parameters. This has been a HBD argument since it's inception.

So, assuming no one is saying "I like that guy a little but he'd be a tremendously different player if his ATH was 51 instead of 48", the reason I disregard players with more red preferences than green is simple. They're similar and, if I have to battle for one, I'd rather fight for the one whose preferences are aligned with my team.

It's not like, if I lose my guy, I can't go back to players.

That said, maybe this is why I don't find scouting all that time-consuming. I'm not scouting 103 players to L3 or L4. Of course, I still have plenty of scouting money so maybe I will when all is said and done. But I don't think it's necessary in session one.