Posted by bofreedom on 4/28/2018 11:13:00 AM (view original):

Posted by shoe3 on 4/28/2018 9:29:00 AM (view original):

Posted by poncho0091 on 4/27/2018 11:50:00 PM (view original):
shoe thinks he is the marketplace. You have 20 people telling him he's wrong, but he'll tell you most of the coaches love it. Nevermind the fact that 30% of the user population left and will not be replaced.

It's great that DI is better than before, but you killed 2 other divisions to do it. Even worse, you killed off the 2 divisions that a new user needs to enjoy before ever getting to DI. Your thought process is completely backward, because you don't want to lose DI as it currently is.

Put caps on the division. It will have no effect on DI. If a DI team is worried about a lower division school stealing a player, then that DI team wasn't going to be that good anyways. Without caps, you have the same users camping out taking DI players and running off new users. Under 2.0, I made sweet 16 as a newbie within 4 seasons. It took me 2 seasons to get a strong grasp of recruiting. Under 3.0, assuming the populations were the same, I'd be lucky if make it out of the first round. In the current population scenario, a new user won't even know where to start with a seasoned vet. On my current DIII team I help new guys out and without that assistance I know they wouldn't have a clue how to be stay competitive for awhile.

Lol, poncho strikes again. You sure told me.

I don’t know how “most” users feel, and neither do you. Every lost user can be replaced, saying they won’t be replaced is dumb. Everyone knew there would be attrition. It will take some marketing and a few structural changes would help, but caps are not among them.

Make D3 free, and remove credit incentive to park. Parked vets like you are a much bigger impediment to new players being able to advance in a national tournament than the fact that they have the ability to nab higher projected players who have been passed over by higher level teams. It’s great that you help new players, keep doing that. The game has always been complex, and with a high learning curve. The game doesn’t need to be made dumber, but it would help if the learning curve didn’t require such a steep investment in both time and money.

Let paying users start at D2, and move up to low D1 after a season if they want. Forcing them to spend money and a dozen seasons with teams they have no reason to care about is easily the biggest reason the people who should like this game say “nah”. That’s the constant refrain with everyone I’ve tried to get to play the game.

Respectfully shoe3--I would wager a lot of money that more people agree with poncho0091 on this than with you. A lot more.

LOL, that really cracked me up. You must have a very low opinion of HD users.

Posted by mbriese on 4/28/2018 12:15:00 PM (view original):

Posted by plague on 4/28/2018 11:37:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 4/28/2018 11:31:00 AM (view original):

Posted by plague on 4/28/2018 11:20:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mbriese on 4/28/2018 9:22:00 AM (view original):
I understand the intent, but “promise start” is important for low D1 teams to have a shot at decent talent that B6 teams aren’t necessarily interested in playing right away.

If anything, I’d prefer they make it so a “promise start” lasted all 4 seasons rather than just the 1. If a guy doesn’t get started as a sophomore or junior there should be a chance he leaves. That might make people hesitate to use that option.

When everyone has to use the promise to compete for a prospect then its no longer a tool for recruiting.

For the top stars maybe.. but what about the rest?

You have a good point. I can't remember the last time I tried to recruit a 4 year player that wasn't 3 star or higher but I know many lower prestige teams do.

I couldn't believe this when I read it, and immediately spotted a Jr SG on your Cincinnati team that was ranked in the 130s for SGs, so...yeah.

Side note, I wish "position competition" was a preference. If I'm recruiting a SG and currently have none on the roster I think it'd be cool to get a slight edge over teams that have 3 elite SGs if that's one of the player preferences.

Position competition would be interesting. I'm not against it but often times the listed position is not the position I play the player at. If the program keyed on the original position generated, it would be wrong, especially in interchangeable sets like zone. If the program keyed on the user-selected position, it would be wrong (somebody would designate all of their players as SF just to "create" a need at other positions.) I don't see how HD could have that preference and it not be a hindrance or abused.

Posted by mullycj on 4/29/2018 6:34:00 PM (view original):
No, I'm much smarter and better looking than he is.

Very true.

I think it'd be a cool feature if after the season ended, you would have to 'meet' with each player and discuss their role on the team for the following season. You would then need to make promises to your current players for playing time which would make it more difficult to offer promises to freshmen thus making them a more strategic choice in recruiting.

Your current players would react either positively or negatively depending on what you promise them. A soon to be senior who started his first 3 seasons would expect to start again but if you tell him that he'll be riding the pine in favor of a talented freshman then he'll look to transfer (or at least a big WE hit).

Something like that.

I like that, like an "Assign Roles" period to fill time between the end of the season and RS2.

I hate it but its not like anything is gonna happen either way.

Posted by Benis on 4/29/2018 8:11:00 PM (view original):
I think it'd be a cool feature if after the season ended, you would have to 'meet' with each player and discuss their role on the team for the following season. You would then need to make promises to your current players for playing time which would make it more difficult to offer promises to freshmen thus making them a more strategic choice in recruiting.

Your current players would react either positively or negatively depending on what you promise them. A soon to be senior who started his first 3 seasons would expect to start again but if you tell him that he'll be riding the pine in favor of a talented freshman then he'll look to transfer (or at least a big WE hit).

Something like that.

I actually like this idea for this reason. If player's roles had a strong enough effect, it would make it harder to just use promise start to every elite player you recruit as the guy who is going to be a solid sophomore or junior might not like the idea of being a backup to a freshman.

On a side note, this is one of the things i hate about 3.0. Recruiting a good player at every level almost requires max HV, CV, and start/minutes. Then it just becomes about AP. All the people who cried about spending all your cash in the previous version, how is this any different?

Posted by shoe3 on 4/28/2018 9:29:00 AM (view original):

Posted by poncho0091 on 4/27/2018 11:50:00 PM (view original):
shoe thinks he is the marketplace. You have 20 people telling him he's wrong, but he'll tell you most of the coaches love it. Nevermind the fact that 30% of the user population left and will not be replaced.

It's great that DI is better than before, but you killed 2 other divisions to do it. Even worse, you killed off the 2 divisions that a new user needs to enjoy before ever getting to DI. Your thought process is completely backward, because you don't want to lose DI as it currently is.

Put caps on the division. It will have no effect on DI. If a DI team is worried about a lower division school stealing a player, then that DI team wasn't going to be that good anyways. Without caps, you have the same users camping out taking DI players and running off new users. Under 2.0, I made sweet 16 as a newbie within 4 seasons. It took me 2 seasons to get a strong grasp of recruiting. Under 3.0, assuming the populations were the same, I'd be lucky if make it out of the first round. In the current population scenario, a new user won't even know where to start with a seasoned vet. On my current DIII team I help new guys out and without that assistance I know they wouldn't have a clue how to be stay competitive for awhile.

Lol, poncho strikes again. You sure told me.

I don’t know how “most” users feel, and neither do you. Every lost user can be replaced, saying they won’t be replaced is dumb. Everyone knew there would be attrition. It will take some marketing and a few structural changes would help, but caps are not among them.

Make D3 free, and remove credit incentive to park. Parked vets like you are a much bigger impediment to new players being able to advance in a national tournament than the fact that they have the ability to nab higher projected players who have been passed over by higher level teams. It’s great that you help new players, keep doing that. The game has always been complex, and with a high learning curve. The game doesn’t need to be made dumber, but it would help if the learning curve didn’t require such a steep investment in both time and money.

Let paying users start at D2, and move up to low D1 after a season if they want. Forcing them to spend money and a dozen seasons with teams they have no reason to care about is easily the biggest reason the people who should like this game say “nah”. That’s the constant refrain with everyone I’ve tried to get to play the game.

-Not sure where I claimed to know what most users feel or think. Just stated that more people are against your statement than with it from what we see on the forums. The best we can do in that case is extrapolate from the data we have to work with.

-Just because you don't like caps, does not mean it would not fix a significant issue. Opening divisions up to every level is one of the worst things I've seen in this game. It absolutely ensures a new guy has no chance at success. I'm not saying dropdowns and pulldowns were any better, but the talent level of a dropdown/pulldown was significantly less impactful than the effect of a DIII school pulling DI players and all you had to do was get rid of that from the game.

-You keep talking about parked teams. Last time I checked the game was called HOOPS DYNASTY I'm pretty sure it's impossible to build a dynasty without camping out somewhere for some time. By your logic, I guess those guys camping out at the big 6 schools should just go ahead move onto another program every couple seasons.

-Parked vets are an impediment to the NT for new players? Parked vets at the lower levels keep the game from looking like a ghost town for new players. If the game was nearly as empty as it is now when i first started, I would not have stayed. Parked vets like myself help new players work towards becoming competent coaches. The point of the game is not to hand out free championships against sims at DIII. It's to learn to play the game, build a DYNASTY and become a competitive player.

-Not everyone is driven to be at DI. If that was/is your goal as well as others, that's great. Who says we don't care about our lower division programs. My lower division program is the only thing that kept me playing the game 5-6 years ago when i got a little bored. I enjoyed the conference i was in and the DYNASTY team i had built up myself. Why should everyone else be forced to DI, because that's where you want to play? In all seriousness, I could care less what the teams are, I just want to recruit and gameplan. Give me fake team names and I'd be just fine.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 4/30/2018 8:08:00 PM (view original):
I hate it but its not like anything is gonna happen either way.

My canned response for posts like this - let people enjoy things!

Posted by mbriese on 5/1/2018 10:03:00 AM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 4/30/2018 8:08:00 PM (view original):
I hate it but its not like anything is gonna happen either way.

My canned response for posts like this - let people enjoy things!

My canned response for your canned response. OK.

Posted by poncho0091 on 5/1/2018 1:15:00 AM (view original):

Posted by shoe3 on 4/28/2018 9:29:00 AM (view original):

Posted by poncho0091 on 4/27/2018 11:50:00 PM (view original):
shoe thinks he is the marketplace. You have 20 people telling him he's wrong, but he'll tell you most of the coaches love it. Nevermind the fact that 30% of the user population left and will not be replaced.

It's great that DI is better than before, but you killed 2 other divisions to do it. Even worse, you killed off the 2 divisions that a new user needs to enjoy before ever getting to DI. Your thought process is completely backward, because you don't want to lose DI as it currently is.

Put caps on the division. It will have no effect on DI. If a DI team is worried about a lower division school stealing a player, then that DI team wasn't going to be that good anyways. Without caps, you have the same users camping out taking DI players and running off new users. Under 2.0, I made sweet 16 as a newbie within 4 seasons. It took me 2 seasons to get a strong grasp of recruiting. Under 3.0, assuming the populations were the same, I'd be lucky if make it out of the first round. In the current population scenario, a new user won't even know where to start with a seasoned vet. On my current DIII team I help new guys out and without that assistance I know they wouldn't have a clue how to be stay competitive for awhile.

Lol, poncho strikes again. You sure told me.

I don’t know how “most” users feel, and neither do you. Every lost user can be replaced, saying they won’t be replaced is dumb. Everyone knew there would be attrition. It will take some marketing and a few structural changes would help, but caps are not among them.

Make D3 free, and remove credit incentive to park. Parked vets like you are a much bigger impediment to new players being able to advance in a national tournament than the fact that they have the ability to nab higher projected players who have been passed over by higher level teams. It’s great that you help new players, keep doing that. The game has always been complex, and with a high learning curve. The game doesn’t need to be made dumber, but it would help if the learning curve didn’t require such a steep investment in both time and money.

Let paying users start at D2, and move up to low D1 after a season if they want. Forcing them to spend money and a dozen seasons with teams they have no reason to care about is easily the biggest reason the people who should like this game say “nah”. That’s the constant refrain with everyone I’ve tried to get to play the game.

-Not sure where I claimed to know what most users feel or think. Just stated that more people are against your statement than with it from what we see on the forums. The best we can do in that case is extrapolate from the data we have to work with.

-Just because you don't like caps, does not mean it would not fix a significant issue. Opening divisions up to every level is one of the worst things I've seen in this game. It absolutely ensures a new guy has no chance at success. I'm not saying dropdowns and pulldowns were any better, but the talent level of a dropdown/pulldown was significantly less impactful than the effect of a DIII school pulling DI players and all you had to do was get rid of that from the game.

-You keep talking about parked teams. Last time I checked the game was called HOOPS DYNASTY I'm pretty sure it's impossible to build a dynasty without camping out somewhere for some time. By your logic, I guess those guys camping out at the big 6 schools should just go ahead move onto another program every couple seasons.

-Parked vets are an impediment to the NT for new players? Parked vets at the lower levels keep the game from looking like a ghost town for new players. If the game was nearly as empty as it is now when i first started, I would not have stayed. Parked vets like myself help new players work towards becoming competent coaches. The point of the game is not to hand out free championships against sims at DIII. It's to learn to play the game, build a DYNASTY and become a competitive player.

-Not everyone is driven to be at DI. If that was/is your goal as well as others, that's great. Who says we don't care about our lower division programs. My lower division program is the only thing that kept me playing the game 5-6 years ago when i got a little bored. I enjoyed the conference i was in and the DYNASTY team i had built up myself. Why should everyone else be forced to DI, because that's where you want to play? In all seriousness, I could care less what the teams are, I just want to recruit and gameplan. Give me fake team names and I'd be just fine.

1) No, you said “he’ll tell you most of the coaches love it.” I’ve never said anything like that. I’ll tell you a lot of coaches like it, which is the truth. I don’t know how “most of the coaches” feel about it, and neither do you. Extrapolating from a non-randomized pool (like a forum, where people are more likely to complain than to talk about what they like) is a good way to come to a poor statistical conclusion.

2) Caps don’t “fix” the problem of new players not being competitive against veteran controlled dynasties parked in their port of entry. They don’t increase the competitive possibilities of new players; quite the opposite, as they enhance the advantage a veteran D3 team has in landing the top players available to D3 teams. Again, the problem is not that D3 teams can sign D1 projected players that higher division teams don’t really want. The problem is that new players don’t know they can. If that’s the problem you want to fix, the solution is to present the information to them. A tutorial mode would be great, but just better language in the welcome email would also help.

3) I don’t care what you think the name of the game means.

4) You can’t have it both ways. Either new players have to be able to compete, or new players have to see lots of veteran dynasties parked in their division. Pick an argument. The first one is better, if we accept the premise that D3 has to be a part of a college basketball simulation (it’s a dumb premise, but for the sake of this discussion, it’s what we have).

5) Sure, a few people are “driven” to coach Carnegie Mellon or Augustana because that’s where they went to school and it’s a neat novelty that a college basketball simulation includes them. More are driven to play the game for free by racking up credits against new users. Neither preference needs to be catered to. D1 is the focus of the game. It’s what the vast majority of people who might want to play a fantasy-based college basketball simulation are going to have in mind when they sign up. It is easily the biggest reason people who otherwise might enjoy the game will not bother. Takes too long and too much money to get there.

3) it does matter what other users want out of the game... if the whole point is user retention and growth, it matters what everyone wants to spend their money on.
4) Isn't there middle ground? Can't new owners have a more enjoyable experience, and learn more quickly, with veteran owners around? I learned from vets, and was able to compete pretty quickly, and enjoyed it. Probably wouldn't have stayed long if I'd had empty conferences and nobody to bounce ideas off of, etc.
5a) I came in as a UNC grad and fan, thought the only thing I cared about was getting there and building a dynasty. Didn't turn out that way. I've played extensively at each division, with mixed success everywhere, and enjoyed it. Had fun trying with the worst rebuild I could find, or trying a PR or HI team for fun, or trying to win in the ACC (at NC State, of all places). Probably had more fun in full ACC and full D3 conferences than anywhere else... playing human teams, trying to compete against the best coaches in a division, always super fun.
5b) How many people are playing for free on credits? Have to make the Elite 8 to get a $10 credit, right? So, rounding up, 8 teams each season win at least one free season? Champ wins 2-3 seasons? Let's go crazy and say they're giving away 20 seasons per season-- still not that many people playing off credits on other teams.
5c) D1 is the focus of the game for you. And plenty of other users. But it's not the focus of the game.