Ways To Challenge Yourself in Dynasty

[T-Moar]

Use a service academy and play by their rules. That is: -No redshirting. If a player accidentally gets redshirted, cut him after his Redshirt Junior year. -Only recruit players that meet military physical standards. That means high stamina and speed, and if you're so inclined, you can set a standard for strength and/or academics, too. These restrictions basically ensure that you'll have a 1-star o-line throughout the whole life of the dynasty, and it will make playing the games much more difficult.

[LopaKa]

I think gameplay wise, the biggest thing is finding/creating a slider set that really challenges you game to game. I am using BuffEye's sliders and rosters, and i'm absolutely loving my dynasty with Hawai'i. I really have to be on the top of my game every week, and the cpu really punishes you for making mistakes. Also thanks for posting what you guys are doing recruiting wise to make it more difficult, I will definitely be implementing some of these ideas!

[sparkdawg777]

Quote: Originally Posted by LopaKa

I think gameplay wise, the biggest thing is finding/creating a slider set that really challenges you game to game. I am using BuffEye's sliders and rosters, and i'm absolutely loving my dynasty with Hawai'i. I really have to be on the top of my game every week, and the cpu really punishes you for making mistakes. Also thanks for posting what you guys are doing recruiting wise to make it more difficult, I will definitely be implementing some of these ideas!

Exactly what I was going to say. Each new season it seems I've added my own new rules to make it more challenging. I was a DC but since becoming a HC I made a rule that I can only choose 1 of the first 3 plays on ask a coach. I also never choose 4 streaks or make route audibles at the line of scrimmage unless I see no safety help so I might call a Fly pattern and take a chance.

On defense I pick the plays myself but without many blitzes and I try to focus on simple coverages but only control the DE. I also try not to use the bull rush too much.

[BROman]

In my last dynasty, I only recruited 2-star players and no jucos. I played with Idaho- moved them to the pac 10. It took me 6 years to get to the Rose Bowl, but it was very satisfying when I finally did. I won a few NCs later on too, and they did feel like big accomplishments as opposed to getting whomever I wanted as a 6-star school in previous dynasties.

[PocketScout]

RECRUITING RULES:
LIMITS
Leaving Seniors +2
I can only have two more players on my board at any time than I have leaving my program. If I have 15 seniors I can only have a 17 players on my board and I can only sign 17 that season as well. This will help to keep from stacking my roster to easily and flushing out the bad players. If the computer adds players to the class they will be deleted, only the players that I sign will be allowed on the team.
One Visit
I can only schedule one visit all year long. This will be a very tough decision on which recruit will be the only one who gets to visit my campus. This makes late season recruiting get very interesting when battling with a couple schools for a kid as they might jump +700 points in a single week and I do not have a good way to make up the difference.
No Scouting
I can not scout any of the prospects that are on my board. Recruiting is to easy for me because I can easily find the best of what I can get to sign with my program without any issue and get those guys on campus. To combat this I will not scout any prospects. Once a kid commits to my program I can then scout him to see what I've got, those Gems and Busts titles are now going to carry a lot more meaning and impact since I will be stuck with these kids. This does add a "kid at Christmas morning" feel to when I get the message that a kid has signed with my program because then I get to go and find out what I really just signed.

REGIONAL RESTRICTIONS
Pipelines
After playing 5 seasons I have noticed the new recruiting setup for NCAA 2014 gives you the ability to recruit Nationally very easy. In real life your pipelines and home state are very important to recruiting and few programs easily recruit nationally. To bring this game back better in line with real life I am implementing the following.
Note: Coastal/Border school defined as any school within 170 miles of the border or coast line.
Local (1*) I can only recruit my home state and pipelines.
Local (2*) I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a 90 mile radius of my campus. 150 miles if coastal\US border school.
Regional (3*) I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a 200 mile radius of my campus. 320 miles if coastal\US border school.
Regional (4*) I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a 375 mile radius of my campus. 525 miles if coastal\US border school.
National (5*) I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a 750 mile radius of my campus. 1000 miles if coastal\US border school.
National (6*) No distance limitations but all other interest restrictions and limits still apply.
Three Outsiders
I can recruit three guys who are outside of my regionally restricted area. This will allow me to try and build new pipelines but with it only being three players a year it will take multiple years to establish those pipelines.

INTEREST RESTRICTIONS
Ranked in Recruits Top 10
I must be in a recruits Top 10 to be able to recruit them. I look at this as these are players that my coaching staff has been recruiting since their sophomore and junior year in high school. We have already identified these kids as who we want in our program and now we are just narrowing down who we are going to bring on campus.
Three Outsiders
The three players who are considered my three outsiders do not have the "be in their Top 10 restriction", but I can only recruit players who are no more than 1* higher than my teams current prestige.
In State
I can recruit any players in my schools home state (there is no "be in their Top 10 restriction" and no star restrictions).

AWR RESTRICTIONS
Quarterback
At the start of the season I record my quarterbacks AWR rating and they can not progress more than 3 point through out the season. Once they reach that point I will edit them each week to not exceed tat number.

Tools for figuring out distances
School List
Radius Tool

SLIDERS:
Heisman Offense
Human/Computer
10/60 Quarterback
50/55 Pass Block
40/50 Catch
50/75 RB Ability
40/85 Run Block

Heisman Defense
Human/Computer
50/80 Pass Coverage
30/30 Interception
50/95 Rush Defense
45/40 Tackling

Adjustments
When I play against an opponent who is rated 95 or higher on offense I will add +5 to each of their offensive sliders, if I play against an opponent who is rated 95 or higher on defense I will add +5 to each of their defensive sliders.

GAMES:
Regular Season
I can only play three regular season games each year, I use a program to randomly pick the games for me to play. I will have no control over the selection of which games I will be playing.
Post Season
I can play in the conference championship game, bowl game or playoffs if my team qualifies for any of these.