CPU Assistance?

[Steeler99]

Quote: Originally Posted by ehh

Ditto, it's complete overkill, IMO. I don't have the time in my life at this point to spend so much effort on recruiting. Plus when you add in the horribly slow interface and menus it's just not worth it. I skip recruiting altogether.

I'm only in the early stages of recruiting, but I do work the phone calls for my top 5-10 recruits. The rest I'll leave to the cpu as I agree that it's WAY too tedious this year! I would have no problem with EA switching back to the old recruiting system ... although make it a little harder for weak schools to draw in big-time recruits.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steeler99

I'm only in the early stages of recruiting, but I do work the phone calls for my top 5-10 recruits. The rest I'll leave to the cpu as I agree that it's WAY too tedious this year! I would have no problem with EA switching back to the old recruiting system ... although make it a little harder for weak schools to draw in big-time recruits.

Yup. I would love it if EA could somehow offer two options for recruiting - the old, simple and classic way or the new tedious way for those that love the depth that provides.

[Steelerfan2k1]

I don't find recruiting all that tedious because I think I understand it now.

I used to think that you were supposed to recruit all 35 of the guys on your list every week. This used to take forever to do, especially week after week after week....

But - after reading the thread on here that has the recruiting tips from the producer, you are actually supposed to contact somewhere between the top 5-15 recruits that you have.

When you only contact 5-15 a week, this means you go through the really interesting process of discovering which pitches most interest them. Then, if you find that you match up with the recruit on 2 or 3 of his most or very high pitches, you can hard sell the recruit on these every week. In the early weeks, you easily use most of your time finding the pitches for your top 5-15 recruits.

Then, once you know where you recruits stand on these pitches, you go through the interesting process of hard selling the pitches your recruit prefers each week. The key is to finish your pitches. I always try to finish two high, very high or most pitches to each recruit every week, and I usually go for a third pitch (especially if I can complete the first two quickly). As the producer explains, every time you complete a pitch, the recruit's interest level increases. If you can get 2 or 3 completed pitches per week, you really start to make progress with a recruit from week to week, which is particularly important when you are a smaller school going up against national powerhouses for a 4 or 5 star guy.

By taking this approach, you can only recruit 7-12 guys per week. In fact, every week, I find myself looking at the clock and making a bunch of critical decisions. There is nothing worse than when you struggle to complete 1 or 2 pitches with your top 2 or 3 recruits, and then you look up and only have 6 minutes left on the clock. I literally start to get angry and have to readjust my expectations, thinking "OK - 6 minutes left and there are still 9 guys who have me rated high. Maybe I will just go for one completed pitch per guy." Then, if I get a quick completed pitch, I might roll the dice and go for a second one, which sometimes backfires and takes a precious 45 seconds or more off of the clock or the guy gets pissed and hangs up before I complete my pitch (i.e. a complete waste of these precious seconds).

And - I still use the rest of my target list. I try to find guys who do not have a lot of interest, and just keep them on the list for later and move them up and down on my list. Sometimes, their interest will start to rise, and then I get to make the decision to either add the player to my top 10-12 who I contact and pitch every week (which then places greater demand on my recruiting time) or to drop one of my top 10-12 who just hasn't been responding or is showing a lot of interest in another school.

When you approach recruiting this way, it becomes an exciting mini-game to pitch the 7-12 guys you really want. I will never go back to trying to talk to all 35 guys every week. It's just not productive, and it honestly doesn't work, because you very rarely complete a pitch to guy when you are only spending a few seconds with him and just trying to hit every guy on your list of 35.

[Steeler99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steelerfan2k1

When you approach recruiting this way, it becomes an exciting mini-game to pitch the 7-12 guys you really want. I will never go back to trying to talk to all 35 guys every week. It's just not productive, and it honestly doesn't work, because you very rarely complete a pitch to guy when you are only spending a few seconds with him and just trying to hit every guy on your list of 35.

Just to verify I'm doing this correctly, how do I know when the pitch has been completed?

[Steelerfan2k1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steeler99

Just to verify I'm doing this correctly, how do I know when the pitch has been completed?

Basically - when you hit "hard sell pitch" - the clock starts and you have to wait until the words "pitch complete" appear on the screen and the clock stops.

As you know, sometimes this happens in a very short period of time - almost instantly. Other times, the pitch goes on for nearly a minute of clock time, and the football guy can go from completely happy to smiling to the flat pursed lips to angry frown, which often leads him to hang up before the pitch completes.

It is interesting when the pitch goes bad. You can just cut your losses and hang up, which then gets you nothing and you lose the seconds. Or, you can try to wait it out - and sometimes you will get "pitch complete" right before he is about to hang up on you (i.e. you get the complete and you at least get something in return for the seconds you used).

[Steeler99]

Seems like when the guys face goes sour I usually get hung up on .... damn egotistical athletes!

[Mizzou23]

I leave recruiting assistance at "off" for everything. I guess I'm just a control freak. I definitely don't want the CPU targeting anyone (like 5 QB's when I don't want any), offering scholarships takes almost no time at all, and I've gotten used to the call system, so I don't mind doing that myself either.

If I really want a guy, I will offer him immediately. So basically the top 15 on my board get an offer right away. I've only had 1 immediate commit in 3 seasons. Do you have to be the recruit's #1 option for this to happen?

I will hard sell at least one pitch to the guys in my top 15 each week. However, if I run into a situation where one particular pitch takes too long, I will cancel it and try another. If I don't get the "pitch complete" message right away, I just cancel and hang up. I don't want to waste too much time on any one recruit, unless I am desperate or really want the guy.

Ideally, I will get 2 hard sells to the guys I really want each week. Again, it's kind of a roll of the dice because sometimes a hard sell takes 5 minutes off the clock, other times it takes 45 minutes off the clock. I just keep going down my list until I run out of time. Pretty simple I guess.

[Steeler99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mizzou23

I leave recruiting assistance at "off" for everything. I guess I'm just a control freak. I definitely don't want the CPU targeting anyone (like 5 QB's when I don't want any), offering scholarships takes almost no time at all, and I've gotten used to the call system, so I don't mind doing that myself either. I will hard sell at least one pitch to the guys in my top 15 each week. However, if I run into a situation where one particular pitch takes too long, I will cancel it and try another. If I don't get the "pitch complete" message right away, I just cancel and hang up. I don't want to waste too much time on any one recruit, unless I am desperate or really want the guy.

By turning "call assistance" on, YOU still choose which players you target, cpu just helps with phone calls if you have leftover minutes. I personnally call my top recruits and let cpu (assistants) handle the bottom guys. More realistic imo as it simulates letting the assistant coaches handle some recruiting.

You might want to re-think the hang-up method. Per the producers post that's the worst thing you can do. ALWAYS try to complete your pitches according to his post? I'm only three weeks into it so I can't verify this myself?