I'm really torn on this one...

Not because I don't have an opinion about downtime but because Mike is arguing one side and Spud is arguing the other. I'm forced to agree with one of them!

Having a life is irrelevant. Not sure why that's even being discussed as a reason for having more or less downtime.

I understand downtime can be an issue for new users. I can still remember being one. I am just stating the obvious. Current users like me would reduce teams or consider moving them to the same world. Any loss to worlds would have to be made up by New users if we extend the season. If they are confident that will be done go for it. If they aren't let's find other options like creating something else to draw them in or keep them involved. Something that keeps players not in tournaments or eliminated early involved until the end of the tournaments.

One thing I suggested was attach a tournament challenge to our postseason play. Something like ...

Once the National Tournament is set in your world players will get to participate in a Tournament Challenge. Either they fill out the entire bracket at the start or they use my preference which is a round by round selections. Winner gets a few dollars off their next season. It would help new users get familiar with other coaches and give them a chance for a discount. Also encourages them to look at various teams in the tournament. By doing this it gives them an idea of what it takes to win and helps them identify how they might build their own team.

I do think the second cycle needs extended by one day before signings start or we need to add more recruits to it. Rather than adding "newly discovered players" it should be existing players or entire categories of players that NATURALLY BECOME AVAILABLE OR DISCOVERED. These suggestions by users seemed reasonable and plausible.

1. Take the top (pick a number) of D2 Sop and Juniors and have them leave their D2 school to 'explore other options'. These players would be eligible to be recruited by everyone only in the second cycle. Team they leave gets a boost similar to an EE and resources. They declare at same time as EEs.

2. Overseas players and JUCOs with three years of eligibility remaining appear. You never know which players from overseas will want to come to the United States and unlike American players they commit much later in the process. Overseas recruits don't commit until senior or after senior year in high school. Some are recruited a season or two after they graduated their high school then play four years in college in the United States. Kids in the United States commit in the first three years of high school by comparison. JUCOs leaving their school early would also naturally be a group that comes in later than the average recruit.

I can hear the complaints now "This is a game it is not natural", "D2 is different than D1", blah blah blah, etc., etc., etc.

These are just ideas not a manifesto so relax everyone...

My alma mater is at D2 and I would be okay with a guy leaving to move up.

Posted by kobo on 8/31/2017 8:22:00 AM (view original):
One problem with HD right now is the timetable of the various components. You know when recruiting begins and rests then begins...when the draft occurs, etc. The problem is the game takes long pauses with nothing happening then gives players insufficient time to take care of certain elements of the game. For example the NBA draft/off-season changes ought to happen sooner...their is no reason to wait days after the NC game. Coaches can appraise their needs heading into the 2nd round of recruiting if they know what is happening with the draft and off season improvements. Scheduling should be opened up sooner...we have almost no time to schedule exhibition games. Allow rescinding of scholarships as soon as the season is over. There is no sense in compressing all of these jobs into short time frames open them sooner give us a chance to do these things during a time when nothing else is happening. The game right now has times (1st recruiting cycle for example) when coaches need to do several things at once then other times when day after day passes with nothing...balance it out.

Very well stated...I will bet you get great agreement.

Posted by dan2044 on 8/31/2017 11:08:00 AM (view original):
A little off topic, but I also have an issue with the new coach signups happening after the second phase of recruiting. That means you are asking a new coach to take on a team with no control over any players on that team, and a team that was sim recruited for at least 1 season. Makes coaches less likely to join more words because it's an extra season before you can impact the team.

You need to give Coaches who accept jobs the ability to REVOKE Sim recruits of the new program during Part 1 and STOP making them recruits from the New Coach and penalize them for cutting after the season. That is punishing Coaches twice for taking a new (usually higher level) job.

Posted by pkoopman on 8/31/2017 11:51:00 AM (view original):
If decreasing "downtime" is really a priority, you could start job applications the morning after the NC game. You can keep the renewal deadline where it is, as long as acceptances don't happen until the next day. Then cut a day of job change, too. Could just be a two day process, start acceptances on the 5AM EST cycle, and run 5 cycles of acceptances, and done. Start recruiting the next morning, and consider this also the new coach signup period, which shouldn't need its own stand-alone day after recruiting. All this cuts 3 days out of the process.

The potential drawbacks include: making it more dangerous to miss the renewal deadline, if acceptances start immediately, and people have had a chance to apply for your job; making it more likely a team that loses a coach is stuck with sim, as the tightened schedule reduces the cycles for another coach to step in after a coaching change; a tighter schedule amplifies the consequences for missing days for whatever reason, which can be off-putting to the people who "have a life".

I'm on the fence, not sold that it's a priority, or even a very good idea to try to reduce down time. It will definitely have consequences that should be thought out.

Another way to decrease downtime is to allow IN SEASON job applications in the same manner as GD.

Posted by shoe3 on 8/31/2017 3:58:00 PM (view original):
If it's about new players, the big factor here isn't downtime. It's whether or not the scouting/recruiting process hooks them. It's probably not reasonable to have an expectation of jumping into a college basketball simulation and get to recruit players for use in your first season. That expectation was established by the way the previous version was set up, but it isn't intuitive. New players can start scouting basically day 2 (considering that new player sign up day is specifically for them) for next year's recruits. They're going to make a determination on whether or not to re-up based on 1) is this process fun? and 2) do I feel like I can be competitive at the level I'm interested in playing in a reasonable amount of time?

Exhibition scheduling during the tourneys may help some guys with a boredom factor, but I don't know that too many in their first season are going to decide based on being able to play a couple extra meaningless games with their terrible first team. Other than that, while you could probably compress the jobs change portion a little, and meld the new player sign-ups into RS2, as I laid out on the first page, every compression is going to increase someone's stress or risk of losing progress.

The hardest thing about MY initial HD Season was jumping directly into recruiting. I would have dropped out before that first year ended if not for a long time HD Coach who "directly" ask me if I had ANY questions at all, to ask them. Today some of you might call that collusion. In the old days those guys called themselves Mentors. With his help I struggled to a six or seven win season, but I built a Friendship with my Conference mates, had a mentor, and most of all had fun (down time and a losing season). I am not meaning to bash anyone, but if you expect to be an INSTANT winning Coach, stud recruiter, and have zero down time, then this is not the hobby for you.

I don't think anyone would call that collusion today. Its exactly the kind of behavior that should be encouraged. I've done it many times but 50% of the time I get crickets in response.. guess they know me or something

Posted by ftbeaglesfan on 8/31/2017 7:02:00 PM (view original):
I use the downtime to put more time into my other teams or prepare for recruiting.

If there was less downtime I would reduce my number of teams or at least reduce the number of worlds I am in. Right now I have one team in each of 5 different worlds.

Since I budgeted for 5 teams a month I could decide to keep that money there and still run 5 teams. If I kept going with five teams and downtime was reduced I would seriously consider having them all in one or two worlds.

Having multiple teams in one world is not my preference but would be a necessary move with reduced downtime.

I pointed this out to Mike in a previous thread. He told me why would I want a second team of a game I do not enjoy. I think that is the motivator, and whether it applies to Mike, or any first time Coach, they will not hang around if they do not enjoy the game. As I said, your first experience is what you make of it, and in many cases what your conference mates help you make of it.

"1. Take the top (pick a number) of D2 Sop and Juniors and have them leave their D2 school to 'explore other options'. These players would be eligible to be recruited by everyone only in the second cycle. Team they leave gets a boost similar to an EE and resources. They declare at same time as EEs. "

I think this is an interesting concept and a good idea.

If you're not playing, or have no reason to check in, there's nothing to enjoy.

I like steak. But, if I was told I could have steak 4 1/2 days a week and nothing 2 1/2 days of the week or I could have anything I wanted except steak whenever I wanted, I'd stop eating steak.