Recruiting Frustration

[ZN30]

Top two RBs in my recruiting class - #1 overall and #4 overall.

I'm the only one recruiting them. Absolutely ridiculous. But looking forward to having 3000+ yards rushing next season.

[xToXiCxSAVAGEx]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

Top two RBs in my recruiting class - #1 overall and #4 overall.

I'm the only one recruiting them. Absolutely ridiculous. But looking forward to having 3000+ yards rushing next season.

Take all your points out of them for a while

[jgthedon]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

Top two RBs in my recruiting class - #1 overall and #4 overall.

I'm the only one recruiting them. Absolutely ridiculous. But looking forward to having 3000+ yards rushing next season.

Reset your recruiting skill tree

[sherrane]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

Reset your recruiting skill tree

I don't think that is the issue he's talking about. He is identifying the bug where some top prospects aren't recruiting by any computer teams during the season.



I had one dynasty year where the #3 prospect overall wasn't getting recruited. I began to recruit him after week 10 and he was an 81 Gem QB out of Oregon who was 6'7", 230 with 90+ speed, 90+ throw power and ~85 accuracy (Tyson Jackson?). He ended up winning back-to-back Heisman Trophies for me.



It was after that I began to read this forum for ideas. I think Silver Bullet talked about not recruiting players who don't have you listed in their school list. I changed that a bit and don't recruit them until week 12 as long as their team list wasn't full (10) and I had to make his list the next week to continue recruiting them. I've only had 3 or 4 who failed to list me after one week in three 30+ season dynasties.

[mcavner]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

I use House Rules in those situations. If you're getting a freebie high-end recruit just pretend they're an academic risk, injury risk, or a possible discipline issue. Or combine all of the above. But come to some reason why other teams are staying away. If you do decide to go after some talent with issues there are a few things you can do to make it interesting.

Use their Awareness to determine academic eligibility after you sign them and do it each offseason (or each week). For example, if their awareness is 45 as a freshmen - there's a 55% chance they don't meet their eligibility requirements. Use a simple random system to determine length of probation.

You can do the same each week with awareness to see if they don't break team rules, have some sort of NCAA violations, or even criminal violations. Create a simple random system to see if it is a situation where they just don't start, miss a few games, miss the season, or even have to be released outright and go JUCO (I sometimes will use editing to bring guys back as a JUCO transfer a season or two later - I just make sure the JUCO would be similarly recruited e.g. similar overall).

With injuries I'll knock a bunch off their injury rating, like 20 or so, then give them a knee brace, neck roll, arm protector or something for visuals - and then each week use the injury rating as a random roll to see if they stay healthy. Again, random system to see for how long. I also knock another 5 off their injury rating permanently each time they're hurt (I actually do this with all my guys - and use the equipment as a visual cue for guys who are often 'banged up' or dealing with a chronic issue).

I also have played around with the 'bad apple' idea where one guy can come in and mess with the team's chemistry. Use a random system to see if anyone else is being negatively impacted - if they are that player goes into the 'system' of rolls for team issues. I've also used the 'bad apple' idea after any violations and applied awareness penalties to whole units (e..g if it was a cornerback violating I would knock down the whole secondary) for the week to reflect the 'distraction.' I've found this system leads to getting deeper into your depth, situations where guys 'step up', and makes you appreciate your older players, your 'character players' with higher awareness a little more than some of those flashy freshmen.

[xToXiCxSAVAGEx]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

I use House Rules in those situations. If you're getting a freebie high-end recruit just pretend they're an academic risk, injury risk, or a possible discipline issue. Or combine all of the above. But come to some reason why other teams are staying away. If you do decide to go after some talent with issues there are a few things you can do to make it interesting.

Use their Awareness to determine academic eligibility after you sign them and do it each offseason (or each week). For example, if their awareness is 45 as a freshmen - there's a 55% chance they don't meet their eligibility requirements. Use a simple random system to determine length of probation.

You can do the same each week with awareness to see if they don't break team rules, have some sort of NCAA violations, or even criminal violations. Create a simple random system to see if it is a situation where they just don't start, miss a few games, miss the season, or even have to be released outright and go JUCO (I sometimes will use editing to bring guys back as a JUCO transfer a season or two later - I just make sure the JUCO would be similarly recruited e.g. similar overall).

With injuries I'll knock a bunch off their injury rating, like 20 or so, then give them a knee brace, neck roll, arm protector or something for visuals - and then each week use the injury rating as a random roll to see if they stay healthy. Again, random system to see for how long. I also knock another 5 off their injury rating permanently each time they're hurt (I actually do this with all my guys - and use the equipment as a visual cue for guys who are often 'banged up' or dealing with a chronic issue).

I also have played around with the 'bad apple' idea where one guy can come in and mess with the team's chemistry. Use a random system to see if anyone else is being negatively impacted - if they are that player goes into the 'system' of rolls for team issues. I've also used the 'bad apple' idea after any violations and applied awareness penalties to whole units (e..g if it was a cornerback violating I would knock down the whole secondary) for the week to reflect the 'distraction.' I've found this system leads to getting deeper into your depth, situations where guys 'step up', and makes you appreciate your older players, your 'character players' with higher awareness a little more than some of those flashy freshmen.

This is good as well. The only way to really create a challenge with recruiting is to abide by your own rules in my opinion. It's too easy to overrecruit.

[Kodos]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

I'm thinking of running a solo dynasty with imaginary teambuilder teams where I control all of the teams in a given conference (in addition to my team). That way, I could do good things like:

1. Have other teams in my conference recruit overlooked studs like the RBs in the original post.
2. Control their playbooks and style of play (conservative, aggressive, etc.).

[SilverBullet19]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

I don't think that is the issue he's talking about. He is identifying the bug where some top prospects aren't recruiting by any computer teams during the season.



I had one dynasty year where the #3 prospect overall wasn't getting recruited. I began to recruit him after week 10 and he was an 81 Gem QB out of Oregon who was 6'7", 230 with 90+ speed, 90+ throw power and ~85 accuracy (Tyson Jackson?). He ended up winning back-to-back Heisman Trophies for me.



It was after that I began to read this forum for ideas. I think Silver Bullet talked about not recruiting players who don't have you listed in their school list. I changed that a bit and don't recruit them until week 12 as long as their team list wasn't full (10) and I had to make his list the next week to continue recruiting them. I've only had 3 or 4 who failed to list me after one week in three 30+ season dynasties.

That's correct, I won't recruit people who don't have me top 10. Honestly, I usually don't go for guys if I'm outside the top 5 unless I'm short and need bodies at that position.

I also limit my 4 and 5 star talent, it stops me from having a juggernaut roster.

[itsbigmike]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

I track the top 30 recruits in the country plus any top recruits at positions that don't fall in the top 30 overall recruits and any of the guys i notice that don't get recruited during the year, I will scout fully and take note of their attributes. If they don't sign somewhere in the off season I'll just recreate them as a JuCo Sophmore in the following season.

[MJDrocks]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

Recruiting on this game is laughably easy. You have to set house rules if you don't want to lose immersion.

[tessl]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...ncaa-14-a.html

These are great recruiting restrictions. I highly recommend them.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...ncaa-14-a.html

So, I came up with 4 basic rules plus some thoughts on coach skills.

Rule 1: May only recruit players who have you in their list of top schools based on the following:

1 Star: (Home State: Top 3) (Pipeline: Top 3) (Any: 1st)
2 Star: (Home State: Top 5) (Pipeline: Top 3) (Any: 1st)
3 Star: (Home State: Top 10) (Pipeline: Top 5) (Any: Top 3)
4 Star: (Home State: Any) (Pipeline: Top 10) (Any: Top 5)
5 Star: (Home State: Any) (Pipeline: Any) (Any: Top 10)
6 Star: Any player you want to pursue

The idea is this...1 star schools pick up the leftovers or guys that just want to go to your school; with little cache to talk a guy into going there. Two star schools are better known/respected within the local area. Three star schols are either high mid-major or decent major programs with who are solid in their pipeline and have some national clout. It goes up from there to the 6 star programs that can go after just about anyone they want. As your school prestige increases, the wider array of options you have.

Rule 2: Must add 35 players in preseason before scouting. If there are not enough players available to fill the 35 spots due to requirements of rule 1, then add all players you can to your list.
This puts an onus on you to not just sift through and scout 200 players to find gems. You get your "short list" in preseason and start going after the guys.
Of course, I screwed myself with this rule and my decision to use 1 star Idaho. I only had a total of 25 recruits who fit the Rule 1 criteria and some of them are crap and I have 19 slots to fill. But I started thinking about it....a school like Idaho is going to get transfers, walk-ons, etc. I'm going to have gaps on my roster...but you know....isn't that as it should be?

Rule 3: May not remove player from your list of 35 until he commits to another school. Any new player added must meet the 'Rule 1' requirements.
Really a corollary to Rule 2....it is to keep one from recycling those slots and adding the random unrecruited 4-star athlete at the last minute.

Rule 4: May only offer as many scholarships as players leaving (exception: if you have a draft eligible underclassman with an overall over 90, you may offer an extra scholarship for that player)
Common rule here....no over-recruiting.

[ZN30]

Re: Recruiting Frustration

Recruiting on this game is laughably easy. You have to set house rules if you don't want to lose immersion.

I'm losing immersion no matter what, though. House rules just limit the players I can go after and get. I rarely, if ever am in recruiting battles, even for the best players.

I want to get great players and go up against greater players.

And frankly, I'm not able to limit myself consistently. Maybe I can do house rules for a short burst, but it's not in my personality to limit myself.