Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

[dghustla]

Based on some articles posted earlier about EA meeting with WVU to discuss recruiting. We can assume that Recruiting and Dynasty are at least getting a mini-overhaul. What changes are you hoping to see NCAA14 in regard to recruiting and dynasty?

[Hooe]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

My thoughts which I cross-posted elsewhere previously:

For more major changes: I'd open up recruiting more. Too often, I can look at a recruit and immediately say to myself "I have zero chance of getting this player", regardless what school I choose to play as. I would keep the schools more even for longer periods of time during the process; it could still be the case that I have no chance of getting a particular player, but it shouldn't be so immediately obvious that I shouldn't even try. Perhaps eliminate the interest meters entirely, and have the only indicator of where a recruit is in his individual recruiting process be the stage indicator: "Top 10", "Top 5", "Top 3", and whatnot. Make it a less sure thing.

I would also eliminate the idea of a hard commit before National Signing Day, since a recruit cannot sign a letter of intent before that point. To compensate for this, I'd make a verbal soft commitment more meaningful and harder to break. Further, I would put a large chunk of resources into some sort of presentation package for National Signing Day - kids putting on hats, kids switching commitments at the last second, and so on.

I would add recruiting news stories to the Dynasty Wire beyond "Player X has committed to school Y". There should be storylines in the recruiting process; a kid who verbals to one school but then gets home-sick and reneges his verbal, a kid being heavily influenced by his parents to go to a particular school, a kid who doesn't have good grades and must go to prep school, a kid who gets injured in high school and loses a star off his rating, and so on. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from the draft class storylines feature in Madden NFL 13 here, admittedly.

I think these changes would inject some life into the recruiting process and make the non-football portion of the game more lively and less old-hat than it has become to us over the past few years.

[dghustla]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

I agree with you point about Verbal Soft Commit. Maybe they can make where the school the player is committed too get another multiplier to fend off the competing schools. I like the idea of storylines but I dont want any recruiting classes to be pre-scripted it takes away the surprise of the class and with draft guides becomes stale. I love how in ncaa a RB can randomly be 5'9 with 90 str. Where as with prescripted drafts all 5'9 HBs will be speed backs and all 6'0 220 backs will be powerbacks.

Would love to see some type of signing day presentation also. Even it's it just a ticker and maybe the top recruit at all positions.

I think they do need to add either known or unknown variables like this recruit is waiting until signing day no matter what, or like you said. Players Parents like school X.

[cuttingteeth]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

True - I rethought the hard commits before signing day, too. What I decided is that because the AI doesn't really act like several guys on my staff legitimately working that recruit (that it really is just me making the difference in efforts to get kids), then that's why I can accept solid commitments when we get them. Otherwise, the game doesn't allow for any kind of contingency plans - there's not enough "call time" to keep working the process for backup recruits, should I need them. So, yeah, I'd like to see:

More targets/time/hours allowed to be able to recruit (or a much, much better SIM option of slider/selected variables for the CPU AI to do it).

National Signing Day presentations and/or seeing commits put those hats on "after" you get to either coach/play/see them play in the Under Armour game and/or Army All-American game.

That'd be the shiz.

[BA2929]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

I would also eliminate the idea of a hard commit before National Signing Day, since a recruit cannot sign a letter of intent before that point. To compensate for this, I'd make a verbal soft commitment more meaningful and harder to break. Further, I would put a large chunk of resources into some sort of presentation package for National Signing Day - kids putting on hats, kids switching commitments at the last second, and so on.

I like this idea, however I'd add in a 'Verbal Hard' 'and a 'Verbal Soft' commitment.

The soft is easier to break, obviously. But the Hard would be much, much tougher. Basically a team wanting to make a run at it would have to promise the world to the recruit. Then it wouldn't even be guaranteed to work. It'd basically be a hard commit, but there would be an element of doubt if another powerhouse was trying it's hardest to steal him from you.

I'd love the idea of a National Signing day show as well. That would make those top 10-15 guys really special to sign. I'd also take away the instant commit, or at least make it incredibly rare. Too many times I'll have 5 guys instant sign in the first week of recruiting. Really takes the enjoyment out of recruiting for the remainder of the regular season.

[TomSellecksMustache]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

dynamic recruit rankings would be cool. say the #1 player is listed at 82, but after scouting he turns out to be a "bust" at 74. goes from a 5 * #1 position to 4* #20 position

[DorianDonP]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

I'd have soft and hard commits.

Hard commits=prospects that have shut down their recruiting. They aren't accepting phone calls or setting up any visits except to the school they committed to. In video game terms, you don't have to spend recruiting points on them anymor.

Soft commits=prospects that are still flirting with other teams, and you still have to actively recruit them.

But I'd make it where there are far more instant hard commits out there, especially from lower rated guys, so you could theoretically have your entire class filled during the season if you wanted to. But there needs to be an accept commit screen just like in 2K's free agency where you have to "press x" to accept the signing.

I think the strategy involved with this process would make recruiting incredibly realistic and fun every cycle. ESPECIALLY if recruiting classes were editable and sharable. Sigh.

[gharp14]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

I just want to see a lot more teams offer players and actually have recruiting battles between 4 and 5 teams especially for the top end players. Also commitments would be a good idea and they would have a higher chance of decomiting with decrease in job security, other teams having good years , or a coaching change at his committed school or elsewhere

[EAGLESFAN10]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

I want them to make Recruiting/Dynasty more of a story

I remember NCAA 11 when they made RTG like a story with highlights etc..

I wish they can make it something like that for Recruiting/Dynasty it would make Dynasty and Recruiting so much better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ3W0p-160c

I liked the Updates from different games from the studio , I just wish they could incorporate highlights to go along with games and scores

Also when I land the number 1 recruit in the nation or play against a top recruit(s) its like they don't exist

Let the commentary reflect recruiting

I remember watching Jadeveon Clowney and De'Anthony Thomas first games and the Commentators couldn't stop talking about the 2

[UNCHeelsftball2011]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

I think teams recruiting players from their own state should get a bit of a boost in attempting to sign them or something to that effect (since schools put a high priority on recruiting vs instate rivals). I also think the conference a school is in should have some impact of where certain types of players go....ie the SEC being known for faster players and the big10 being known for the stronger/power players. and i too like the idea of soft verbals and such....since recruits decommitt from schools all the time. And i think coaching changes should have an impact on recruiting.


One area i think needs a look are the transfers. I dont think ive ever picked up a player tramsfer to my school...even if im a big school or a school that cam give immediate playing time....etc.

[davo1021]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

Here's a quote from the article about EA working with WVU on recruiting: "Expect recruiting to be more realistic. That was the only goal Hammond and Dorchester had. They found it odd a player never de-committed. They noticed variables like academics, coaching changes and the success of a season weren't factored into the process. They didn't think junior college recruits were represented in ways that explain their value."

So 1) de-commits 2) current season affects recruit's interest more 3) JUCO's represented differently



I would love to have some of the things mentioned in this thread like dynamic recruit rankings, National Signing Day announcements, or recruiting storylines but I'm not optimistic about any of those.

[ACardAttack]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

So 1) de-commits 2) current season affects recruit's interest more 3) JUCO's represented differently

I pray and hope that EA doesnt over do de-commits. I like hard verbals, but perhaps increase the number of soft commits and decrease hard commits...but also if you have a soft commit, that team gets a bonus, say 30-50% off of recruiting "costs" for that recruit. Yes recruiting should be tough, it is in real life, but you have assistants that do a lot of that and have more hours available than what the game gives you

Sort of like when EA had discipline in the game, great feature, poor usage; why did I have a limited amount of discipline issues? I should be able to suspend players for as often as need be and I could run a tight ship or run loose/choose not to sit my star player if its a big game

[gharp14]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

That's my biggest concern too with them adding things like Decommits and the having the season play a role in a recruits decision. I feel like they would not find the happy medium of either and have too many decommits for no realistic reasons and have a team like Ball St or someone go undefeated and automatically be able to pull in 5 stars. If they had something that was in college hoops where they didn't mind playing for a small school or cared about playing for either the school or coach it would add a nice dimension and realism.

[spanky911]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

My ideas kind of incorporate some of the things mentioned so far, but they also hinge on Dynasty being revamped to be more like Fifa Career mode:

- Fifa has articles/e-mails to read during the season that seem easy to add that are meaty enough to keep the player immersed in the simulation. As far as recruiting, these articles could be "recruit interviews" used to keep you informed on where each recruit is in terms of their list and what they are looking for in a school. Maybe a recruit could even call/e-mail to set up an official/unofficial visit to make it less mundane to do so.

-Expanding on that, I would have an entire menu section in Dynasty designed to look like a recruiting website where the player could get all their recruiting options and keep up with the recruits in a more national news setting instead of solely in terms of your school. I think this would make it far more interesting. You could see rankings rise and fall after the recruits attend camps/ showcase games. Also, the big time commits would get a lot of articles and attention, making them really special.

-More specific recruiting pitches that you can't use for every recruit. Include "family ties", maybe a parent/uncle/sibling attended the school that could be a bonus pitch a select few. Possibly have highschool teammates (or maybe just recruits from the same town, to keep it simpler) give you a recruiting bonus for a recruit if his friend has committed to you, as if he's in his ear constantly to commit to you.

-Get rid of ratings for recruits, make it solely based on scouting and rankings. The scouting aspect would be much more verbal: you send a scout out to look at a player and he might come back and say "[recruit X] has much better arm strength than we thought", or "the sky is the limit for this kid's potential". The current scouting aspect got boring quick. it was somewhat fun to find a gem, but no one will never really know if a player is a gem or a bust until he gets to the school and thats when a gem really becomes fun to get, and conversely you really lament spending so much time recruiting a bust.

-Include a Preferred Walk-on offer for low level recruits. This will allow smaller schools to battle big school for some players (the big school offers this preferred walk-on spot, but a small school offers a full-scholarship). Obviously include an option in Dynasty to reward walk-on players with scholarships that are already on your team. IRL its uncommon to give scholarships to kickers, punters or fullbacks, at least not right away.

-Recruits that commit but DNQ academically should become JUCO prospects for the following year, with an advantage to the team they committed to the year before, but still technically "open".

-They will probably make de-committing a thing this year based on info already out, but they should also let you still recruit kids with hard commits to schools (because it happens all the time).

This is much more of a wish-list (except the last one maybe)

[Colorado Cooler]

Re: Revamped Recruiting/Dynasty in NCAA14

With due respect to everyone who has posted on this subject, until EA captures the competitive spirit that exists in real-world recruiting, most of the things mentioned here won't improve the process much. In the real world, most 3-star and above recruits have offers before the season starts, (many powerhouse programs have near-full commitment lists in September) and unlike this game, top-flight recruits don't last half-way into the season without an offer. EA needs to find a way to incorporate the same competitive intensity between the CPU and players in recruiting that it has built on the field of play.