Definitely cool to see how people work with the current system to keep it engaging. Thanks for all the posts! I definitely noticed the fatigue more when I started to increase teams. Keeping it to a couple teams will probably help me too.

Personally I definitely find scouting to be a chore and not fun whatsoever. Which is why I'm so opposed to ideas like removing divisions and making one giant pool. This will just lead to more tedious work that will add very little value to the game.

I also believe that "good" scouting methods being a significant advantage is an illusion outside of D3. At d1 and d2, the budgets are big enough that you can find enough players that are good enough to put together a successful team. The problem is that most people have no idea how to evaluate the players or how to construct a winning team. You could give most folks unlimited scouting budget and they'd still recruit the same mediocre players and completely ignore the gems.

My advice to anyone struggling- forget spending your time figuring out which buttons to click and in which order. Understand what type of players you should be recruiting in the first place and you will find them easily enough.

Posted by Benis on 4/6/2022 2:28:00 PM (view original):
Personally I definitely find scouting to be a chore and not fun whatsoever. Which is why I'm so opposed to ideas like removing divisions and making one giant pool. This will just lead to more tedious work that will add very little value to the game.

I also believe that "good" scouting methods being a significant advantage is an illusion outside of D3. At d1 and d2, the budgets are big enough that you can find enough players that are good enough to put together a successful team. The problem is that most people have no idea how to evaluate the players or how to construct a winning team. You could give most folks unlimited scouting budget and they'd still recruit the same mediocre players and completely ignore the gems.

Scouting and evaluation go hand in hand. And evaluating skills require a learning curve. But Benis is right!

I spend A LOT of time comparing recruits against each other before I make a long list of my top targets. Watching your top guys targeted by higher prestige or division is far less painful when you have a long list of targets for backup.

My biggest suggestion would actually be not to spend all your scouting $ right away getting a huge pool to L4. Lurk on guys you have to L2, then when you feel the coast is clear and you come close to signing, you can scout them up with individual scouting.

Some will argue this risks wasting AP… and yeah, that’s a risk. On the flip side, you’re wasting $ resources on guys you won’t have a chance to sign.

I disagree that scouting strategy can’t be a significant advantage at all levels.

Agreed. Scouting and finding recruits used to be my favorite part of the game and now it’s exhausting. So. Many. Clicks.

Here's what I do:

1) Schedule a private camp on day 1. Let it run. Then, sometime over the next three weeks, . . .
2) FSS for my state and surrounding states to get more potential recruits.
3) Assistant search (further scout discovered players) up to level 4, starting local (100 miles) and radiating outward until I'm down to $4k-$5k scouting cash remaining, which I want to save for RS2.
4) Cut and paste all the level 4 guys into an Excel spreadsheet. I've found that when you cut and paste from Google Chrome, it will also bring in the colors of each rating. (Firefox doesn't do that).
5) I have all sorts of formulas in my spreadsheet that project current ratings out based on colors, along with other formulas for rating recruits by position (similar to player roles), and other calculations I just added recently for additional insight for certain things. My spreadsheet also color codes each recruit (blue, green, amber, red) based on projected position ratings. The top guys are blue. Red guys are garbage. Depending on whether I'm D1, D2, or D3 will determine whether or not green and/or amber guys might be in play for recruiting.

Steps 2-5 take less than an hour. Now I (almost) have everything in one place.

6) Another column in the spreadsheet is where I keep track of preferences. I have to manually calculate those, but it comes out to a "+" number (good preferences) or a "-" number (bad preferences), along with signing preference (early, late, etc). This tells me who the easier targets are, and when to go after them. I'll usually do this on a Saturday or Sunday morning, when I'm the only one up in my house.

I actually find scouting to be fun, not stressful at all.

Posted by Basketts on 4/6/2022 2:08:00 AM (view original):
There was a time I'd scout as soon as the database updated. These days I'm lucky if I remember to do it the night before recruiting starts. How many people find this a chore? I've heard HD is better than some of the other WIS games, but I just don't find it fun. I'm still enjoying most aspects of this game, but I hate the thought of having "busy" work for a game I'm supposed to be having fun with.

I don't know how to make it better. Maybe it doesn't need to be better. I just don't enjoy it as my seasons in this game add up.

I have it down to about 20 minutes per world, which isn't bad at all. Just Camp, FSS, and spam assistant search

I think it is more the clicking through 200 recruits. It's where a spreadsheet would probably alleviate some of my issues, I just haven't done that work yet.

Posted by tecwrg on 4/6/2022 7:25:00 PM (view original):
Here's what I do:

1) Schedule a private camp on day 1. Let it run. Then, sometime over the next three weeks, . . .
2) FSS for my state and surrounding states to get more potential recruits.
3) Assistant search (further scout discovered players) up to level 4, starting local (100 miles) and radiating outward until I'm down to $4k-$5k scouting cash remaining, which I want to save for RS2.
4) Cut and paste all the level 4 guys into an Excel spreadsheet. I've found that when you cut and paste from Google Chrome, it will also bring in the colors of each rating. (Firefox doesn't do that).
5) I have all sorts of formulas in my spreadsheet that project current ratings out based on colors, along with other formulas for rating recruits by position (similar to player roles), and other calculations I just added recently for additional insight for certain things. My spreadsheet also color codes each recruit (blue, green, amber, red) based on projected position ratings. The top guys are blue. Red guys are garbage. Depending on whether I'm D1, D2, or D3 will determine whether or not green and/or amber guys might be in play for recruiting.

Steps 2-5 take less than an hour. Now I (almost) have everything in one place.

6) Another column in the spreadsheet is where I keep track of preferences. I have to manually calculate those, but it comes out to a "+" number (good preferences) or a "-" number (bad preferences), along with signing preference (early, late, etc). This tells me who the easier targets are, and when to go after them. I'll usually do this on a Saturday or Sunday morning, when I'm the only one up in my house.

I actually find scouting to be fun, not stressful at all.

As far as scouting being fun, I think this may be the biggest change in my game status. It just depends on what amount of time you can invest to the game. When HD was top of the line for me, I would invest lots of time in scouting AND I enjoyed it as well. Now, I don't scout until the day of recruiting, because I don't even realize recruiting has already crept up on me. So I just wing it. Usually trying to get all my AP spread accordingly with 10 minutes to spare before the first cycle processes. That isn't fun at all.

Other than scouting, another one I noticed that gets me sometimes, is scheduling. I used to dig thru sim teams, even human teams, and try to project how good opponents would be. I'd make a kick *** schedule that would get me 7-10 wins with a solid SOS and because of that effort, proper seeding for where my team deserved to be...... loved it! Great fun! But now I've noticed during the CT I'll get a game request from someone, and realize I have 10 games to schedule still with one day to do it. So I just slap it together. Not so fun

Posted by Basketts on 4/7/2022 1:53:00 AM (view original):
I think it is more the clicking through 200 recruits. It's where a spreadsheet would probably alleviate some of my issues, I just haven't done that work yet.

I don’t know. If it’s me, spreadsheets - even just looking at them - are work, and more work is not the answer to something that looks like burnout. But I realize that for some, the organized appearance of it may help, so if that’s all it is, then maybe.

How about a more intuitive UI for scouting? I would kill to just be able to hit the arrow button to move to the next recruit within the same window. Then a shortcut on your keyboard to scout to the next level. Too much clicking and closing/opening windows now.

I don't particularly like scouting. It only takes me an hour, though. And I love the moment right after when the board is set, and then I love seeing things play out in recruiting. If it's getting too time-consuming and tedious then adjust your strategy. All I do now is host camp (200 players), and then scout the states within my 500 mile reach. From there I'll scout intriguing players to level 4. Usually I have a ton of money left over and will work my way to level 2 players or will look internationally.

Posted by cubcub113 on 4/6/2022 9:23:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Basketts on 4/6/2022 2:08:00 AM (view original):
There was a time I'd scout as soon as the database updated. These days I'm lucky if I remember to do it the night before recruiting starts. How many people find this a chore? I've heard HD is better than some of the other WIS games, but I just don't find it fun. I'm still enjoying most aspects of this game, but I hate the thought of having "busy" work for a game I'm supposed to be having fun with.

I don't know how to make it better. Maybe it doesn't need to be better. I just don't enjoy it as my seasons in this game add up.

I have it down to about 20 minutes per world, which isn't bad at all. Just Camp, FSS, and spam assistant search

Yep. Exactly what I do. Takes no effort or thinking which is perfect for me.

One change that I'd like is for the assistant search to also include a state-by-state option. I wouldn't eliminate the mile radius option, but there does need to be the option to just search specific states.

Posted by Benis on 4/7/2022 2:26:00 PM (view original):

Posted by cubcub113 on 4/6/2022 9:23:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Basketts on 4/6/2022 2:08:00 AM (view original):
There was a time I'd scout as soon as the database updated. These days I'm lucky if I remember to do it the night before recruiting starts. How many people find this a chore? I've heard HD is better than some of the other WIS games, but I just don't find it fun. I'm still enjoying most aspects of this game, but I hate the thought of having "busy" work for a game I'm supposed to be having fun with.

I don't know how to make it better. Maybe it doesn't need to be better. I just don't enjoy it as my seasons in this game add up.

I have it down to about 20 minutes per world, which isn't bad at all. Just Camp, FSS, and spam assistant search

Yep. Exactly what I do. Takes no effort or thinking which is perfect for me.

You guys are talking about a private camp, right? Haven’t explored that enough yet.