Returning to the game (new username, no longer had the email address I previously used) after a few years out.

With regards to preferences, how difficult is it to overcome a bad/very bad preference in a recruit? Say, for example, a recruit is "very bad" on distance but nothing else, what does it take to overcome that, or is it even possible unless you find yourself basically alone on him?

Do I understand correctly that a negative preference not only makes it harder to unlock actions, but also could/will play against you in the final decision process?

I have more questions but I'll save those for later so as not to bog down the initial post.

absolutely preferences work against you when it comes to the decision process. the way to think of recruiting is that you have an amount of points into that recruit, and it accumulates along the way. maybe an AP is 1 point, and a HV is 50, and so forth. well, when you do those actions, the action effort is multiplied by all the multipliers, which is basically prestige and preferences. when you do that action, and the cycle rolls, you get the points. the points are everything, basically - when decision time comes, its all about the points.

if 2+ schools have 'a lot of points' (relative to the leader), then there's a dice roll between the schools. but the preferences don't really act on the dice roll, they act earlier, on the points. so there isn't like, an additional penalty at decision time. its just baked in the entire way, like prestige is.

preferences range from not very important to pretty darn important, distance is probably #1, the success/rebuild is probably next. what matters is not just your preferences but your opponent or potential opponents. how hard to overcome... i don't know, moderately? a big effort disparity can definitely trump a big prestige and/or preference disparity, but preferences and prestige are both pretty important. something like 3 grades of d1 prestige, you don't want to try to overcome something like that. most prefs are ok to try to overcome, if you are far and its a close to home, then that is where i think its a huge deal, because your costs are so high (distance) and your preferences are so bad. if you are close to a guy, with a far from home preference, and hes really good - then someone might be willing to come battle for him really hard, with tons of money (its very expensive to max a far guy). but the mid tier recruits, usually your advantage on money, is more relevant than some random dude's advantage from a FFH pref. he has to REALLY want the guy, basically. but people also will over-adjust for the preference and go for far from home guys when its dumb, so that can be a drag. anyway, it varies but mostly that FFH is a big deterrent if the recruit is special, but if they are ordinary, its not (because most potential opponents for that recruit are also close by with a bad preference).

Thanks, gil, especially for the strategy piece on the distance preference. Very helpful.

Where would you rank playing time among the importance of preferences?

well, these recruiting 3.0 mechanics questions are perhaps my least knowledgeable area in the whole game, so i'm sort of reluctant to say much more about preference values, because i just don't know. i think playing time is pretty important... really its probably up there with those other 2, to form 'the big 3'. generally speaking, if i was going to recruit a player with a playing time preference, and i thought other guys might be interested him, too (usually the case in d1, i'm not as sure about d2/d3) - then i would be expecting to promise at least 15m, to bring that promise preference up to a very good.

i do suspect 20/25m gives an advantage over the 15m, that the very high you get is a little better than the 15m very high, but i don't imagine it is that impactful. i still usually do 20 or 25m on those players myself, but i don't feel like i have to because of the preference (the value of each additional 5m is meaningful, but not huge, independent of the preference). also, starts do not impact the playing time preference, and so 15m promise with no start is really pretty easy to do. you need to do the 15m promise before all the other effort, for the other effort to get the benefit of the higher preference (you can do the 15m promise in the same cycle as other stuff and it will go into effect first).

not really an answer as much as, i think its fairly easy for us as coaches to ensure the playing time preference isn't working against us very hard, and so i generally assume my potential opponents are doing the same. certainly though, there are a good number of people out there not doing 15m promises on all their preference recruits. so i figure occasionally i get a benefit there, but that i can't count on it and most likely won't get it in my big battles with big schools, who almost certainly know better.

wow, is that really correct? Starts don't affect the pt preference????

And I had always wondered about this: "you can do the 15m promise in the same cycle as other stuff and it will go into effect first." We have confirmation of this. I often have waited a cycle after giving pt before unloading on the hv just to make sure.

Posted by cal_bears on 1/12/2022 8:29:00 PM (view original):
wow, is that really correct? Starts don't affect the pt preference????

This is correct. Only the minutes promise. If you offer a start, and no minutes at all, you still would have a neutral for wants to play preference.

You still get the one time effort boost for offering the start (same as it works for HVs). But you don't get the extra very good preference, which would help boost your AP/overall effort score on a cycle by cycle basis.

Posted by cal_bears on 1/12/2022 8:31:00 PM (view original):
And I had always wondered about this: "you can do the 15m promise in the same cycle as other stuff and it will go into effect first." We have confirmation of this. I often have waited a cycle after giving pt before unloading on the hv just to make sure.

Yes, confirmed by many. And also in Adam's most recent discord post that I am aware of. (A couple of weeks ago)

Thanks topdogg!

Posted by topdogggbm on 1/13/2022 4:25:00 AM (view original):

Posted by cal_bears on 1/12/2022 8:31:00 PM (view original):
And I had always wondered about this: "you can do the 15m promise in the same cycle as other stuff and it will go into effect first." We have confirmation of this. I often have waited a cycle after giving pt before unloading on the hv just to make sure.

Yes, confirmed by many. And also in Adam's most recent discord post that I am aware of. (A couple of weeks ago)

what? adam's two tweeks or so ago discord post? does he just drop in from time to time

Posted by gillispie on 1/13/2022 10:53:00 AM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 1/13/2022 4:25:00 AM (view original):

Posted by cal_bears on 1/12/2022 8:31:00 PM (view original):
And I had always wondered about this: "you can do the 15m promise in the same cycle as other stuff and it will go into effect first." We have confirmation of this. I often have waited a cycle after giving pt before unloading on the hv just to make sure.

Yes, confirmed by many. And also in Adam's most recent discord post that I am aware of. (A couple of weeks ago)

what? adam's two tweeks or so ago discord post? does he just drop in from time to time

I think topdog just lost track of time. Adam has been gone for a few months now, correct?

i seriously doubt that, adam has been gone for ages and dogg is very active over there on discord

How does signing preference (early, end of RS1, etc.) play into teams recruiting up levels? I feel like I read a little bit about that on another post but can't find it now.

What happens if you up your promised minutes from 15 to 25 in the calculator of points? Does it change your "points" under 15? Does it just leave them the same, and then you start accruing under the 25 min calculator?

Does changing your promised minutes from 15 to 20 in any way negate the multiplied points you had accrued under 15? Does the new promise recuperate them?

And one other question, do hv add to the multiplier effect so that if you know you are going to make promises you would benefit much more by doing them as soon as possible after promises?