The Ladder: NCAA 13 Conversion

[gstelmack]

As we get ready to jump forward to NCAA 13, I thought a separate thread to make sure everything was clear would be a good idea.

From my reading, it looks like 13 plays reasonably well on Heisman with default sliders? I'd love to stick with as few slider tweaks as possible, because I firmly believe you need to rebalance sliders with every tuning file update. If we stick with defaults, the tuning file should be fixing bugs, not introducing new ones. Is there any reason to use custom sliders?

[Kodos]

Probably not. I'm getting my ass kicked using custom sliders in my solo dynasty. Had better luck on default Heisman when the game came out.

[MacroGuru]

I am fine with whatever, I just need to win with UB so I can boost my recruiting...

[Kodos]

Okay, I am prepping for creating my team in Teambuilder. I've already stumbled across one problem. Not everyone my roster showed up when I used the export roster option. So far, I've noticed a missing FB and TE compared to my roster after I finished cuts last night. There are probably more, but those are the two I noticed without comparing with the game open. So don't trust that the export from the website will contain all of your players.






Edit: I also appear to be missing both of my left tackles.

[Kodos]

Okay, it appears that all members of the incoming recruiting class are missing. Maybe they will show up when we advance to the next stage.

[Kodos]

Note: This guide is a Work in Progress

Read through this whole thread before you start, as problems have cropped up for other guys.

Here is how I am creating my clone team in Teambuilder for 2013. Let me point out upfront that it WILL be a major pain in the ass for you, because we are dealing with EA Sports here.

1. Download roster into Excel from website


2. Check roster against in-game roster for missing players. If you do this before we move past player cuts, none of your incoming recruits will appear.

3. Sort by position column/rating, so that the players appear in the same order they do on the site. Makes it easier to enter info quickly.

4. Add in Height and Weight columns - I mostly care about height and weight for skill position players. I don't want to see teams with all 6'7" receivers.



5. If you're anal like me, add in numbers to help you sort by position in a logical order

6. You will want to rearrange the columns in your spreadsheet in the same order that they fields appear in Teambuilder. Otherwise, it will be even more of a pain to enter the hundreds of individual attributes for your players. For the correct order, see the screenshot below.



But wait! There is more inconvenience! Run Block Strength, Run Block Footwork, Pass Block Strength, Pass Block Footwork do not exist in NCAA 2013. They have been replaced by one new attribute, Impact Blocking. I have decided that Run Block Strength corresponds most closely to Impact Blocking, so for the sake of simplicity, we will use each player's rating in that attribute for his new Impact Blocking rating. Just rename Run Block Strength to Impact Blocking in your spreadsheet, then delete the other three columns.

Also, NCAA 2012 had no Kick Return rating. 2013 does. We will need to figure out a workaround for that.

[gstelmack]

Yeah, it waits on adding Freshmen, with any luck they'll be there when cuts are finished.

[gstelmack]

For Kick Return Rating, maybe average elusiveness and awareness? Include speed or agility?

[gstelmack]

Also I have a 6'7" and a 6'8" TE, you can double-check now so you don't get mad later

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

For Kick Return Rating, maybe average elusiveness and awareness? Include speed or agility?

I'd like to keep it simple ... sometjing like your first suggestion could work.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Also I have a 6'7" and a 6'8" TE, you can double-check now so you don't get mad later

Cheeter!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I'd like to keep it simple ... sometjing like your first suggestion could work.

After looking over my roster last night, if we don't care so much about defensive players being kick returners, I'd say average catch-in-traffic with awareness. This gives some TEs a boost to kick return, but I figure they can't be successful without speed and agility as well, and this combo seems like it most captures "ability to field a kick". It does favor offensive players a bit, but I think that's okay, a DB with high speed, agility, and elusiveness can probably overcome a lower "kick return" rating.

[gstelmack]

It does not look like we can add or remove players, or change positions, is that correct, or is the functionality buried somewhere?

[Kodos]

That is correct, I believe.

[gstelmack]

Okay. I went with a cupcake roster as the starting point, so any leftovers will suck.

[Kodos]

Okay. That may give you weird pipeline states. I figure the guys who don't fit will be marginal players. If they are Lbs, maybe put them slightly out of position (OLB instead of ILB for instance).

[gstelmack]

Ah, I didn't think of pipeline states.

The main concern I had was guys on the template roster that I don't have an equivalent position for. In my case, I have 5 CBs on my roster, but the template has 6. I can't delete the sixth, so I went with cupcake to make sure the extra CB is crap.

[gstelmack]

South Florida is done. I had to leave off some of my large stable of HBs (I'm just broken up about leaving 3 60-rated HBs off I tell you, although I converted one to a 40-rated FS because he had SOME coverage skills), and I think have a triple of "Generated Players" (my name choice) that were leftovers from the cupcake roster. I made them all seniors so that they will either be gone after this year, or if they end up with RedShirt tag they'll be easy to cut next year.

[chesapeake]

I am way behind on this and I am going to blame the storm. I'll do my best to catch up over the next few days.

[Kodos]

Don't worry. I'm behind due to the storm as well. Still don't have power at home.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

South Florida is done. I had to leave off some of my large stable of HBs (I'm just broken up about leaving 3 60-rated HBs off I tell you, although I converted one to a 40-rated FS because he had SOME coverage skills), and I think have a triple of "Generated Players" (my name choice) that were leftovers from the cupcake roster. I made them all seniors so that they will either be gone after this year, or if they end up with RedShirt tag they'll be easy to cut next year.

You can probably edit the extras down to bantha fodder. That was my plan for any extras.

[cartman]

The NCAA is launching an investigation into Rice, as miraculously over the summer all of their players developed to full 99 ratings in every category. When reached, Coach Diggler shrugged and said, maybe the ratings input guy got lazy and just kept putting in 99 for each rating.

[cartman]

Dola,

It is sad that my highest rated player is the punter.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Okay. That may give you weird pipeline states.

Yeah, I may have to redo this starting from the USF roster. I downloaded the roster to check it out, and everyone is from OH, MI, PA, and that area. Sigh.

[Kodos]

A big thanks to EA!

[gstelmack]

South Florida is once again done, and I believe ready for import.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm having issues... how do you delete a player or change their position? I have 4 QB's on the Team Builder Roster, but only 3 on my current team...

This is a rough process. Only through a few players after an hour of working. Also, it doesn't want to save right now.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ahhh, just read earlier in the thread. I'll delete a few of my extra lowest rated HB's and made the extra QB a scrub.

[Eaglesfan27]

Sigh... it won't save. Then, I noticed that it had logged me out of the team builder site.

[gstelmack]

You can take one of the dumpy HBs and make him your 4th QB. He'll suck but it's better than nothing. I moved one HB to FS, a FB to TE, a WR to TE, and another WR to CB. They all suck, but it's better than the existing players hanging around. I think I ended up renaming 2 DTs, an LT, and an RT that I had no one even reasonably close to convert to to Generated Player, made them seniors, and scrubbed out their key skills, and had to drop 2 HBs, a P, a K, and I think 1 QB completely.

One thing that helped me here was arranging my windows so that I had Excel with only a few lines at the bottom of my screen, and the browser window with TeamBuilder on top. At 1920x1200, I can fit all the player attributes across the bottom, and there is just enough room to fit the TeamBuilder stats above it. I can then glance back-and-forth as I enter them all. Now that I have a system, it's maybe 2 hours to enter a team total.

And of course save every 4-5 players...

[Eaglesfan27]

Thanks Greg. I'll try that later today. Taking a break for a bit now as I am frustrated at having to start over.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

Got through about 3/4 of my roster. I'll finish up Saturday evening if not sooner.

[Kodos]

No rush. I'm still without power, so I will be bringing up the rear.

[Eaglesfan27]

Woo hoo! I'm done my roster!

A quick question and a few observations:

Does anyone object to me moving one of my spare C's to T? I kept all of his ratings the same. If there are objections, I will just create a scrub T and give up one of my C's.

The observations:

Most of the Overalls stayed the same, but I noticed that WR's seemed to go up a bit. Maybe speed is move valued in 2013?

Almost all of my linemen's overalls went down. I think the lack of expanded ratings may have something to do with that.

I had no idea I had a 99 speed WR! Glad to have found him when doing the rosters. I'll have to get him the ball more this year, although his hands are poor.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the fruit of our labors in the upcoming weeks/months

[cartman]

I'm still working on mine as well. I'm driving to Vegas tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to get to finish it until Sunday evening.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Does anyone object to me moving one of my spare C's to T? I kept all of his ratings the same. If there are objections, I will just create a scrub T and give up one of my C's.

I have no objections to moving guys around. I moved one HB to FS, where he's now 40 overall. I won't get to even try to move him back to HB until next offseason, but regardless ratings don't change when you do it, so it's not like your team gets better because of it. I view it as you could have changed him 2 stages ago if you had peeked ahead at the roster, so I don't see it as an issue.

And yes, impact blocking seems to have an effect on the linemen, not a lot but definitely some. I didn't notice much with my WRs.

[Kodos]

I have no objections either.

[Kodos]

It's weird. I've had a couple guys go up 5 or 6 points. Double-checked ratings, they seem to be right. One is a TE who was 76, now is 82, and an FB who went 72 to 76.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kodos

It's weird. I've had a couple guys go up 5 or 6 points. Double-checked ratings, they seem to be right. One is a TE who was 76, now is 82, and an FB who went 72 to 76.

Forgot about that. I had a TE go up 5 or 6 points too. He is a good blocker and I think they factored that in more in 2013.

[chesapeake]

My TEs did improve, unlike my O linemen, who all seemed to get worse.

I need to double-check my pitches this weekend. After that I should be good to go.

[MacroGuru]

I am down to my modified spreadsheet. I will be importing into the site tonight and will let you know when I am complete.

[Kodos]

We finally have our power back, so that's a plus. It may be a couple days before I have a chance to get mine finished.

[chesapeake]

Duke is done. Am I correct in believing that there is no way to designate a player as having used their redshirt year already?

[Kodos]

That is correct.

[Kodos]

I'm about 3/4ths through my roster. Hoping to get things up and running in NCAA 13 this weekend. Is everyone else done with their teams?

[MacroGuru]

I hate not having dual screens at home. I am slowly working on it. I hope to have it done this weekend.

If I have my kids it will be complete by Saturday Night...if not, Sunday night.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

I hate not having dual screens at home.

See the note I left above. If you have a 1920x1080 monitor, you should be able to shrink Excel on the bottom to showing just the spreadsheet header row and the player you are working on, while having just enough room above to show the teambuilder site if you scroll it down to the attribute entry. It's tight, but you can have everything nicely lined up for entering a player in one shot.

[Kodos]

That's how I've been doing it too.

[cartman]

I wasn't able to get this finished last week. I'm going to work on it tomorrow and get it done.

[MacroGuru]

Been working on this. I will probably have my file done tomorrow. when we are complete, is there anything special we need to do?