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steelerfan
07-16-2010, 07:42 AM
I have always played the game on AA with Slider adjustments as needed to get as realistic statistics as possible. This year, before I got the game, I figured I'd probably have the Recruiting Difficulty set to AA as well. So to test things out, I've started a Dynasty in which I'm simming all the games and just doing recruiting and the like by hand.

I decided to start by testing things out with Penn State to see how difficult it would be to recruit with a team that is highly a rated program but isn't consistently in the National Championship picture. I've been shocked at the results so far and I will continue to update my results here. I'm hoping that some of you guys will add some input from your experiences so that we can get a good idea of how the different settings play out for Dynasty purposes.

steelerfan
07-16-2010, 07:55 AM
I'll get things started by giving the results of the teams I play/sim with here.

Penn State
2010: Record 8-5 , 4-4 (won Gator Bowl), Class Rank 27 (didn't note specifics)
2011: Record 11-2, 7-1 (won Fiesta Bowl), Class Rank 87 (2 5*, 7 3*)
2012: Record 11-2, 6-2 (won Rose Bowl), Class Rank 36 (4 4*, 14 3*)

Rudy
07-16-2010, 07:58 AM
I'm not going to start a dynasty until I get about 10-12 games in. I want to have a good feel for the game and the sliders I want to use first. But I'd love to hear how your recruiting is going with PSU. Do you think AA is hard enough? Anyone out there try Heisman difficulty yet? I have a feeling that the difference between Heisman and AA won't be as big for a big school as it will be for the smaller schools. On Heisman you can only change the topic a recruit brings up once. That's a much bigger penalty for a crappy school with limited positive things compared to a big program.

jaymo76
07-16-2010, 11:59 AM
AA difficulty: Right now with Arizona St I am 9-1 and ranked #7 (bcs and coaches) and #8 by the media. I started at 56th!!! My first player I recruited (3 star) signed by the end of my first session and I thought this would be too easy. The next week I also had a four star sign so I was amazed how easy recruiting was. Well to make a long story short, since I have signed ONE other player and have a soft commit for a two star punter. I am currently ranked for 108th in recruiting. Bottom line, for ASU recruiting is EXTREMELY difficult. I have a ton of seniors this year and thay are not being replaced so next year I expect to see my team skill drop significantly.

The recruit against feature is great..... unless of course you are going up against BCS talent in which case your school will be weaker and you will not be able to recruit against. Right now I am only recruiting PIPLENE PLAYERS because of the bonus you get. Also, I am constantly clearing my board because I am down 1-2 thousand points after a few weeks if I don't recruit them for six topics.

I will say it though... I love recruiting this year as it's actually fun, but boy it sure takes a LONG time to do it properly each week. Now playing one game and recruiting will take me almost TWO hours... needless to say my wife is NOT impressed :)

steelerfan
07-16-2010, 05:38 PM
Yeah, so far I'm finding AA recruiting to be very difficult. I'm seeing that if you lose out on a guy at midseason you'll be so far behind that it's next to impossible to rebound and put an equal caliber player back on your board. At the end of season 2, I only had two 3* players signed and was #117! I've made some headway in the offseason, but this is looking to be a painfully craptastic class for PSU. I was shocked enough to be #27 in season 1.

The main thing I'm noticing is that you have to know when to "cut-bait". When a recruit says he's narrowed it to 3, 5 or 8 schools he means it! You can talk till you're blue in the face but you won't weasel your way onto his short list.

My best advice so far is to forget what you know about recruiting. Gone are the days of hopping on top talent late in the year. If a player says "Top 3" and you're #4, move on.

steelerfan
07-16-2010, 06:36 PM
Yeah, umm...wow! #87 in year 2. I have a lotta work to do to figure out the new brand of recruiting.

Rudy
07-16-2010, 09:58 PM
Wow. That's great news about how hard recruiting is. I love the fact you really have to maximize your efforts and focus on players you can get which means more 3* players, even for top notch programs.

jaymo76
07-17-2010, 10:32 AM
Finished my first season... MY RECRUITING RANK WAS #86. I had zero fives and only three fours and a handful of twos. Plus, I only had one out of pipeline player. Toughest recruiting year ever!

steelerfan
07-18-2010, 12:29 PM
I'm thinking that most people will want to use a lower difficulty than AA in single player Dynasties. After 3 years, PSU's roster has been decimated. For those who haven't done a "dry run" with recruiting, I'd suggest you do so. It's an eye opener!

jaymo76
07-18-2010, 06:48 PM
I have changed my philosophy. 12 PLAYERS MAX on my board... most pipeline and 3 or 4 stars. I am also looking for insatant commits. If they have you at #1 preseason they are pretty much an instant commit if you offer a scholy.

steelerfan
07-19-2010, 12:50 AM
I haven't had a lot of luck with instant commits. About 15% (without knowing the actual numbers) seems to be what I get. I'm filling my board with guys who have me high on their list, not just on it.

jaymo76
07-20-2010, 03:04 AM
So in year two my SunDevils are ranked #1 after 7 games yet I am ranked 118 in recruiting... maybe AA is too tough???

Rudy
07-20-2010, 04:58 AM
So in year two my SunDevils are ranked #1 after 7 games yet I am ranked 118 in recruiting... maybe AA is too tough???

Maybe your kung fu is weak.
:P

jaymo76
07-20-2010, 12:13 PM
Maybe your kung fu is weak.
:P

Maybe lol

morsdraconis
07-20-2010, 12:59 PM
Screw Heisman recruiting.

With WVU, I'm absolutely KILLING recruiting each week (getting 350+ points per week) have them come to a rivalry game and get an A- visit and STILL I'm 4th on his list and lost ground on the three schools in front of me. That's just retarded...

AustinWolv
07-20-2010, 01:25 PM
Not if you don't have the items he is looking for, perhaps.

morsdraconis
07-20-2010, 03:16 PM
Not if you don't have the items he is looking for, perhaps.

I most certainly did. I had B+ or better on all of his high+ interests. The computer just straight cheated. There's no damn way that the CPU should be MORE ahead of me after an A- visit.

AustinWolv
07-20-2010, 03:37 PM
Did he visit the other schools? What if those schools had A or A+ visits and/or they had A and higher ratings in his very high interests?

steelerfan
07-20-2010, 03:47 PM
Did he visit the other schools? What if those schools had A or A+ visits and/or they had A and higher ratings in his very high interests?

I think mors specifically means he lost ground (the week of his visit) despite havind a great phone call and an A- visit.

morsdraconis
07-20-2010, 05:52 PM
I think mors specifically means he lost ground (the week of his visit) despite havind a great phone call and an A- visit.

Exactly. And it wasn't just ONE great phone call. I had been killing on the phone with the guy the whole time. Never below 300 and one of them was 600 something and then I had an A- visit at a rivalry game where WVU blew out Maryland and I was still 4th. I mean, jesus christ, what do you have to do!? I'm just supposed to give up on the guy? That's bullshit.

steelerfan
07-20-2010, 06:55 PM
I mean, jesus christ, what do you have to do!? I'm just supposed to give up on the guy? That's bullshit.

I think this sentiment will be echoed a lot once people get into their Dynastys. For some reason, it seems that I'm the only one simming to get a feel for recruiting. It's not that it's difficult, it's that it may be impossible. A lot of people may be in for a rude awakening where recruiting and their Dynastys are concerned.

AustinWolv
07-20-2010, 06:58 PM
I think mors specifically means he lost ground (the week of his visit) despite havind a great phone call and an A- visit.

Yeah, and who is to say the CPU didn't have great calls also? In topics that they are better at? What if they are dumping tons into that guy also?

morsdraconis
07-20-2010, 07:04 PM
Yeah, and who is to say the CPU didn't have great calls also? In topics that they are better at? What if they are dumping tons into that guy also?

They can't possibly put more than an hour into the call, unless that's how it makes it where they are more competitive by making it where you can't possibly ever catch them because they are getting more than an hours worth of points.

jaymo76
07-20-2010, 08:09 PM
All I know is that in year two of recruiting I am ranked #118 with 3 three stars signed and on my board over half of my players are soft commits to other schools and I just can't sway them. I better win the N.C. this year because next year my lineup will be decimated (no TE, QB, DT, FS, OLB... so far I have signed 1olb and a SS). AA is almost impossible... BUT... I enjoy the challenge.

steelerfan
07-20-2010, 08:16 PM
Yeah, and who is to say the CPU didn't have great calls also? In topics that they are better at? What if they are dumping tons into that guy also?

I understand precisely what you are saying.

However, look at what Jaymo said about his team being ranked #1 in the Polls and his recruiting class being #118. And that's on AA. The recruiting is more fun and it's difficult. Again, difficult is not a problem. Impossible is.

I haven't cracked the Top 25 in 3 seasons (see 2nd Post), but I'm not quite ready to say AA recruiting is impossible either. If you or someone else is having any level of success, I'd like to know how. So, please share.

Everyone is so wrapped up in playing their Dynastys that they haven't gotten far enough to see how the recruiting will play out. I'm not interested in starting a serious one until I figure out recruiting.

AustinWolv
07-21-2010, 12:11 AM
Look, I'm just sayin' to look for reasons instead of the 'CPU cheated'.
Find the reasons or patterns and perhaps the new tricks to recruiting in 11 get to be less of a mystery that everyone is struggling with. Seriously. As in I just lost out on the #5 MLB to Houston. And I'm Michigan in my single-player OD. But guess what his top interests were? Early playing time as Most, Proximity to home as Very High, and Houston had me beat in both of those as my team was a B+ for playing time and a C+ for proximity to home.

That would have never happened in past years.

Yes, you are right, I'm not simming through and just recruiting. Only recruit I've gotten so far is a 4 star tackle, who hard committed in week2 when a schollie was offered.
And just got a 3 star SS (#14 SS) who committed at schollie offer in week8.

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 12:47 AM
Oh, no doubt, Austin. Pipelines will be vital this year.

Also, I've begun putting guys on my board only if I am in their top 3. I mentioned that earlier in this thread. If you listen to the Solid Verbal podcast that cdj posted tonight, Russ said that (paraphasing) anything past top 5 is a big reach. In the past, I would fill my board with the highest caliber guys who showed interest (green dot icon) and filled a need. Using that method, it was no problem to rake in top notch classes year after year. Now, that won't work. Which is good.

What I'm trying to get out of this thread is a collaboration of strategies and experiences of as many of us as possible so that we can each decide what skill level gives us the best experience. What I see coming is everyone jumping off into Dynastys and having results similar to my sim classes and then screaming "it's broken" when they do.

I'm not pointing the finger at you or anyone specifically, I'm just trying to learn the new system so I don't have a Dynasty ruined by my own lack of planning.

morsdraconis
07-21-2010, 12:47 AM
Look, I'm just sayin' to look for reasons instead of the 'CPU cheated'.
Find the reasons or patterns and perhaps the new tricks to recruiting in 11 get to be less of a mystery that everyone is struggling with.

Believe me, there's no mystery to this recruiting update. Far from it. Hell, I'm already starting to see a pattern with the amount of points you get from talking about various topics based on what grade it is and how they like it (like a Very High to Most on an A+ is going to net you 85 to 95 points and an A+ on an Average nets you 45-50 and on an Above Average nets you 55-60). Like I said, far from being a mystery. It's just a numbers game but a bit more random than before (and not so easy to stack the deck in your favor).

The computer does one of two things to basically blow you away on Heisman difficulty:

1. Spends more than an hours worth of time on the recruits that both you and it are going after.
2. Constantly has X2 on the recruits that you and it are both going after.

That's the only explanation because there is no other way that I would spend an hour on a recruit, get a ~350 or so on that call, and get an A- on a blow out victory of a rival on their visit and lose ground on him. There's just no other way.

I don't care what they offered is better than my offers or not, even the BEST call you can POSSIBLY get will yield you no more than 700 points and that's offering a scholarship, having A+s on his Most, and 3 Very Highs (if he's even one of the 15 or 20% of recruits that have 3 Very Highs) (and pitching them instead of uncovering his feelings about them) along with promising him you'll win your conference championship his first year on campus (always gives the most bonus points out of the first 4 or 5 that are available to you) along with him being in your pipeline and you have a X2 bonus on him. ALL of that has to happen to even have a prayer of touching the 650+ point area on a single call. And, even still, it shouldn't be MORE than an A- victory visit and ~350 points myself.

I'm sorry, but, just like Heisman difficulty in gameplay, Heisman difficulty in recruiting is a bunch of cheezy cheating bullshit.

JeffHCross
07-21-2010, 01:28 AM
Not to minimize the frustration that mors is feeling, but I never imagined we'd be saying recruiting is too hard.

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 01:37 AM
Not to minimize the frustration that mors is feeling, but I never imagined we'd be saying recruiting is too hard.

Yeah, I'm not sure I did either.

The first thing I thought when I heard there'd be a recruiting difficulty setting was, "COOL!" Followed by, "Dang it, now I'm going to have to figure out Sliders and recruiting difficulty before I start a Dynasty." Lol.

JeffHCross
07-21-2010, 01:41 AM
:D

First thing I thought was "well, now I have to eat my words", because about a month beforehand I had basically criticized the concept of a recruiting slider. My argument was that we needed a strong base AI in recruiting in order to have different difficulty levels ... otherwise you're ramping up or scaling down a bad system to begin with. Looks like they figured out the backend AI (at least to the extent of improvement) and then went from there. Though, based on mors's experience, I think my theory about scaling up the system may still be holding true.

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 02:03 AM
The system is scaled, based on my experience with AA and Varsity. I just want to find a way to streamline my strategy enough that I can get (for the most part) the types of classes my program warrants. I've yet to achieve that.

JeffHCross
07-21-2010, 02:08 AM
Oh, it's definitely scaled, there's no doubt about that.

The problem lies in what is being scaled. When an AI is bad, and then the difficulty is scaled, the problems are more pronounced as the difficulty is changed. Either it gets too difficult at the top end, or ridiculously easy at the bottom. When an AI is good, there can be scaling but it can still be reasonable.

Without having played it for myself yet, I think the recruiting difficulty is somewhere in the middle right now. It's not bad, but it's not as quality as I would like it to be.

SmoothPancakes
07-21-2010, 02:09 AM
Well, I'll be taking notes during my Navy dynasty, since the first 10 years at least will be on Heisman difficulty. :D

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 02:47 AM
Well, I'll be taking notes during my Navy dynasty, since the first 10 years at least will be on Heisman difficulty. :D

I wanted to quote this so you can't edit your words later, lol.

SmoothPancakes
07-21-2010, 02:50 AM
I wanted to quote this so you can't edit your words later, lol.

Check out my Navy dynasty I just posted. You don't have to worry, those words won't be getting changed. :D

Rudy
07-21-2010, 05:17 AM
I finally got around to setting up my Michigan dynasty last night so these are my thoughts on recruiting so far. I'll be on AA recruiting and after hearing how much tougher it is (not Heisman since Mors is going nuts lol). I went pretty conservative across the board in targeting recruits. I pretty much stuck to kids where I was in the Top 3 and I wasn't greedy at all. I targeted a ton of 3* recruits and a bunch of 4* recruits. I may have only one or two 5* recruits on the entire board as I'm not going to waste time going after guys I don't think I can get. In the first week I got three hard commits although I think all three were 3* kids (one may have been a 4*).

The actual recruiting is a big improvement imo. It's a lot of fun. Even though you still only have 10 hours, you can do so much more in 10 hours now. You set how much time you want to spend with a kid before you even call him and then it's 10 minutes per topic. No more pitching a kid and watch him waste over an hour of your precious recruiting time while the clock runs down on you. It's simply pick a topic and it costs you 10 minutes, which includes offering a scholarship. Furthermore, the idea that the recruit picks topics is great. It keeps it a lot more interesting. If you don't like the topic then use that 10 minutes to offer a scholarship or change the topic. On AA I only get two change topic items so I use the scholly offer to do the same thing. It's a lot more fun this year. I'm curious to see what kind of class I will pull in.

SirHellraiser
07-21-2010, 12:07 PM
My Dynasty is Texas I landed a ton of players Got a 5 star recruit QB. I will post everything I have tommrow for everyone to view I am ranked 3 or 4 in the polls and i am about done with the regular season

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 02:00 PM
My Dynasty is Texas I landed a ton of players Got a 5 star recruit QB. I will post everything I have tommrow for everyone to view I am ranked 3 or 4 in the polls and i am about done with the regular season

Cool, what difficulty are you using?

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 02:06 PM
Screw Heisman recruiting.

With WVU, I'm absolutely KILLING recruiting each week (getting 350+ points per week) have them come to a rivalry game and get an A- visit and STILL I'm 4th on his list and lost ground on the three schools in front of me. That's just retarded...

I've thought about this some more and I wanted to ask you a question. Is this recruit's interest level Top 3? I ask because I haven't had any success moving on to a recruit's interest level once he's narrowed it to 3, 5 or 8. That may be what's happening in your case. He's down to 3 schools and you're not one of them so it doesn't matter what you do or say.

morsdraconis
07-21-2010, 02:45 PM
I've thought about this some more and I wanted to ask you a question. Is this recruit's interest level Top 3? I ask because I haven't had any success moving on to a recruit's interest level once he's narrowed it to 3, 5 or 8. That may be what's happening in your case. He's down to 3 schools and you're not one of them so it doesn't matter what you do or say.

Truthfully, I'm not sure (and I didn't keep the experiment dynasty) but it was definitely at least a Top 5 though it could have very well been a Top 3.

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 03:02 PM
Truthfully, I'm not sure (and I didn't keep the experiment dynasty) but it was definitely at least a Top 5 though it could have very well been a Top 3.

Well FWIW, in my experience, once a recruit has left you out of his Top 3, 5 or 8 list the possibility of moving back in is not worth wasting time on. These guys get removed from my list. I have gotten 1 Soft Commit to change his mind and sign with me but I don't think those are worth wasting time on either.

Rudy
07-21-2010, 03:46 PM
Here's a really nice write-up on recruiting at OS: http://www.osatwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2041351169&postcount=1

AustinWolv
07-21-2010, 04:17 PM
Good find, thanks for the link.

Recruiting is much more interesting this year.

steelerfan
07-21-2010, 04:38 PM
Here's a really nice write-up on recruiting at OS: http://www.osatwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2041351169&postcount=1

Thanks for linking that, Rudy. That's the best recruiting write-up I've seen. Some of that is common sense and some of it is speculation but it's all very good information. Some of it took me a couple seasons of recruiting to get a grasp on.

Again, thanks.

jaymo76
07-22-2010, 12:26 AM
AA RECRUITING: I just finished season two and I won the N.C. with my Sun Devils. After offseason recruiting I ONLY SIGNED 9 PLAYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was ranked #98 in the country and had the fewest recruits of any school, with the next closest being Akron at 16 recruits. My roster now sits at 57 players only and 18 are seniors. Potentially I could have under 50 players next season if my recruiting doesn't improve. I will give it one or two more seasons and then I may need to do a season of varsity to replenesh the roster.

Note: onver two years I have not signed one five star and only seven four stars. The rest are 1-3 stars.

steelerfan
07-22-2010, 12:34 AM
Jaymo, read the write-up from OS that Rudy linked above. It may help you. There were a few tidbits in there that had not sunk in with me and a few that I knew were there but I'd forgotten their importance since they were brought in in 08 and haven't really mattered till now since recruiting was so easy before.

hillbill
07-22-2010, 08:00 AM
AA RECRUITING: I just finished season two and I won the N.C. with my Sun Devils. After offseason recruiting I ONLY SIGNED 9 PLAYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was ranked #98 in the country and had the fewest recruits of any school, with the next closest being Akron at 16 recruits. My roster now sits at 57 players only and 18 are seniors. Potentially I could have under 50 players next season if my recruiting doesn't improve. I will give it one or two more seasons and then I may need to do a season of varsity to replenesh the roster.

Note: onver two years I have not signed one five star and only seven four stars. The rest are 1-3 stars.

Dear God, you guys are scaring me to death! Haven't started a dynasty yet. Gonna keep an eye on this thread though.

steelerfan
07-22-2010, 09:11 AM
Dear God, you guys are scaring me to death! Haven't started a dynasty yet. Gonna keep an eye on this thread though.

My best advice is to carefully read the write-up from OS that Rudy linked yesterday and to start a sim Dynasty and just recruit for a few seasons before you start. It really is different from what we're used to.

jaymo76
07-22-2010, 12:35 PM
Dear God, you guys are scaring me to death! Haven't started a dynasty yet. Gonna keep an eye on this thread though.

Let's just say that gone are the days of choosing 5 stars and having them commit. Now you need to work for every single player and continually check how you are doing in relation to other schools. Pipeline states are HUGE in this game. Interesting enough, even though I am really struggling with recruiting I have expanded my pipline states to now include Texas and Colorado. Haivng Texas as a Pipleine should really help as they have such a large pool of players.

AustinWolv
07-22-2010, 12:45 PM
Here's a really nice write-up on recruiting at OS: http://www.osatwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2041351169&postcount=1

Can someone clue me in on what the writer means by Recruiting Reports?

morsdraconis
07-22-2010, 03:01 PM
Can someone clue me in on what the writer means by Recruiting Reports?

If you have the dynasty Time Savers on, when you go into recruiting, on the lower right hand corner, it has Recruiting Reports. It allows you to see what recruits EVERY team in the game is spending their time on and how much time they're spending.

PigSooie
07-22-2010, 03:01 PM
Here's a really nice write-up on recruiting at OS: http://www.osatwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2041351169&postcount=1

Thanks for posting the link, Rudy! That helped out a ton!

AustinWolv
07-22-2010, 03:04 PM
If you have the dynasty Time Savers on, when you go into recruiting, on the lower right hand corner, it has Recruiting Reports. It allows you to see what recruits EVERY team in the game is spending their time on and how much time they're spending.

Ah, half-figured it had to do with that, as I haven't turned those on.

iBrandon
07-22-2010, 03:10 PM
Recruiting is such a blast this year… I messed around with Bama in a dynasty just recruiting and it was so much fun. Even with Bama, I wasn’t getting a ton of 5* guys like I would in pass versions of NCAA. Same can be said for using a team like Baylor. In the past I could snag quite a few 4*, maybe a 5* if lucky… nto this year, class was mostly 3* and 2* with one 4*. This is on AA recruiting. Great stuff!

jaymo76
07-22-2010, 08:10 PM
If you have the dynasty Time Savers on, when you go into recruiting, on the lower right hand corner, it has Recruiting Reports. It allows you to see what recruits EVERY team in the game is spending their time on and how much time they're spending.

Anyone else find it ironic that it's called "time-savers" recruiting reports, yet because it's not streamlined in any way and has zero customization that it actually makes recruiting a heck of a lot longer???

Rudy
07-23-2010, 05:29 AM
I think recruiting is a lot of fun this year. Has a new feel and a lot more options. It does take longer because you can do more with 10 hours. No more waiting on that stupid clock counting down.

SmoothPancakes
07-23-2010, 05:51 AM
I think recruiting is a lot of fun this year. Has a new feel and a lot more options. It does take longer because you can do more with 10 hours. No more waiting on that stupid clock counting down.

Yeah, I could die happy if they stay with this recruiting system in NCAA and never change it. This is the best one they have had. I also love that the time is now streamlined. You know exactly what you are going to spend on a recruit. On the old system, I would end up with a bunch of recruits that I would never get to spend time on thanks to some of my early recruits chewing up anywhere from an hour or an hour and a half just trying to get something out of them. On this system, I can gameplan ahead of time. In my dynasty, I have 20 recruits on my board. I have so many with me listed 1st, so many as 2nd, etc. So I can spend a full 60 minutes on say the first 3 to 5, 30 minutes on the next however many, then 20 minutes on the rest. Everyone gets a phone call, everyone gets time, everyone gets attention. I love it!

JeffHCross
07-23-2010, 08:17 AM
On the old system, I would end up with a bunch of recruits that I would never get to spend time on thanks to some of my early recruits chewing up anywhere from an hour or an hour and a half just trying to get something out of them. On this system, I can gameplan ahead of time.That's your own fault ;) As guys in the Powerhouse OD can attest, I had every recruit gameplanned on NCAA 10. I knew exactly how many minutes I would spend on every guy, and I would, at most, go only 5 over, 'cause I was watching that clock like a hawk.

:cool:

Cipher 8
07-24-2010, 03:49 AM
I'm fine with Varsity Recruiting. I tried A.A and it's not broken like Heisman but it is a bit tougher and I find if you try to switch the topic it will come back to that topic more often on AA then Varsity, so it's not random it trys to fuck you over more. Plus you get 3 switches instead of 2 which really helps when using a middle team.

BTW the only two teams with all A or A+'s are Ohio State and Penn State. Just a tidbit I thought I'de throw out there.

Cipher 8
07-24-2010, 03:59 AM
BTW I think it's best to schedule early visits, before it was better to get them late, but now I have had so many fricken recruits soft commit and then hard commit before week 11 that it's almost useless to schedule a visit that late. I'de much rather do it week 4-7 and get a big boost that week and try to get the early lead and be the first to full bar to get the soft commit.

JeffHCross
07-24-2010, 10:05 AM
Cipher, I'll disagree slightly that it was ever better to schedule late visits. In my last 3 years of Online Dynasty, I scheduled every player I could for early visits. If you had a close battle with multiple teams, then it could be adventageous to be the last of the group. But if you could get Week 4 when everyone else was scheduling for Weeks 8+, you had a huge advantage.

jaymo76
07-24-2010, 11:33 AM
Cipher, I'll disagree slightly that it was ever better to schedule late visits. In my last 3 years of Online Dynasty, I scheduled every player I could for early visits. If you had a close battle with multiple teams, then it could be adventageous to be the last of the group. But if you could get Week 4 when everyone else was scheduling for Weeks 8+, you had a huge advantage.

Yeah, I schedule as soon as they're ready. If you wait too long they will sign with someone else before they visit your school.

steelerfan
07-24-2010, 12:53 PM
I schedule high caliber guys early and low priority guys late. This way I don't have to pour alot of time in any week to a low priority guy to unlock enough about him to have a good visit.

JeffHCross
07-24-2010, 04:02 PM
Yeah, that too. If I'm not in a battle for a player, I'll delay the visit as long as reasonable.

ebin
07-24-2010, 04:03 PM
I schedule high caliber guys early and low priority guys late. This way I don't have to pour alot of time in any week to a low priority guy to unlock enough about him to have a good visit.

That's pretty much always been my strategy as well. Always worked n the past, and it seems to be even more important this year.

steelerfan
07-24-2010, 05:15 PM
That's pretty much always been my strategy as well. Always worked n the past, and it seems to be even more important this year.

Yeah. And alot of guys got upset when EA said that you wouldn't be able to reschedule visits. I thought it was a great idea because if you schedule too early you may end up with a bad visit (since you haven't unlocked enough) and if you wait too long you may lose out to a team that got him in earlier.

To me, it adds another element of strategy and gives the CPU another opportunity to hurt the user which is a good thing.

Also, late in the season, I've seen guys with well over 20 scholarship offers. That is so awesome. In the past, if you saw a guy with 5 it was a big deal.

Rudy
07-25-2010, 06:43 AM
I schedule high caliber guys early and low priority guys late. This way I don't have to pour alot of time in any week to a low priority guy to unlock enough about him to have a good visit.

Totally agree. And I also agree that I like the fact you can't reschedule guys anymore. I hope they don't change that.

And on AA I've only seen it once or twice now that when I change the topic the kid brings it back up later in the phone call. I think it's realistic anyways. Sometimes a kid really wants to talk about an issue. After my next game it will be after 5 weeks and I want to see where I rank compared to everyone. I think I'm doing pretty good.

Roy38
07-25-2010, 01:09 PM
Am I correct in thinking that "Time Savers" are the Dynasty Accelerators? I am the commissioner of an online dynasty and I couldn't find in any of the tabs where to turn these off. I assumed EA took this setting out so more people would have an interest in purchasing their tools, but after reading this post, I think it's undergone a name change.

JeffHCross
07-25-2010, 01:45 PM
Am I correct in thinking that "Time Savers" are the Dynasty Accelerators?Yes. That's all they are. I believe Time Savers are also a little bit more than just the Accelerators (I haven't looked at the list lately), but last year's Accelerators are definitely in the "Time Savers" group this year.

Of course, the name change could also just be because every other game (especially EA titles) have "Time Savers" now. It's almost become a branding of its own.

Roy38
07-25-2010, 07:50 PM
Since I have "Time Savers" enabled in my online dynasty, I took some time today to look at the available Recruiting Reports. I wanted to see how useful this tool actually is to determine if I needed to switch if off. As I was looking through my recruits after week #1, I saw I had moved up on several players recruiting boards. I decided to check how I was stacking up against the CPU and what they were doing to recruit players I was after. I found the CPU to be recruiting anywhere from 12-17 recruits, which I felt was a little low, but they were using loads of time on those recruits. However, the most interesting thing I found was the CPU was able to offer a scholarship to a player, but not use any recruiting time in the process! This occurred with two players I'm recruiting (3* FB and TE). I am currently leading on these prospects and had offered a scholarship to both players (10 minutes each) week #1 since I was 1st on their board. In both instances, the CPU had offered a scholarship to both prospects, but the time as indicated by the Recruiting Reports was 0 minutes recruiting time spent on both prospects! By the way, I'm using Varsity Recruiting Sliders, so the idea that the CPU gets extra time to recruit seems to hold true even on Varsity level.

JeffHCross
07-25-2010, 07:58 PM
In both instances, the CPU had offered a scholarship to both prospects, but the time as indicated by the Recruiting Reports was 0 minutes recruiting time spent on both prospects! By the way, I'm using Varsity Recruiting Sliders, so the idea that the CPU gets extra time to recruit seems to hold true even on Varsity level.This may or may not indicate the CPU is getting more time. It could be that the Recruiting Reports are interpreting actual time recruiting, which a scholarship offer wouldn't particularly count. Nor would scheduling a visit, at least in my eyes.

Now, if the Report also indicated there was a player that had 60 minutes spent and a scholarship offer, that would provide the evidence, when you combine the two.

steelerfan
07-25-2010, 08:06 PM
You'd have to total the CPU recruiting time to see if it still adds up to 10 hours.

PigSooie
07-25-2010, 08:07 PM
I'm really torn on what recruiting level setting to choose for my online dynasty. I want the recruiting to be a level playing field (or as close to level as possible for HUM and CPU) and not weighted on purpose ... what are the real differences between the two levels? Aside from the two change topics compared to three?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

JeffHCross
07-25-2010, 09:07 PM
what are the real differences between the two levels? Aside from the two change topics compared to three?Well, there's actually 4 levels ... Freshman through Heisman, just like gameplay.

The real difference is in the challenge. Nobody knows what the backend code is doing, but practically everyone has said that recruiting is very difficult on All-American in a single-team dynasty, even with a major school (like Miami). As you get up to Heisman ... to be honest, everyone I've seen post a 'strategy' on Heisman is essentially gaming the system. But I guess that's nothing new.

To me, the real question is about who you're planning to run with. All-American is very tough recruiting, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you 1) really want a challenge; or 2) you're going to play as a top-tier (recruiting wise) team. I'm doing Varsity level recruiting with a 1-star prestige school, and it definitely feels balanced, just to give you an idea.

PigSooie
07-25-2010, 09:14 PM
Well, there's actually 4 levels ... Freshman through Heisman, just like gameplay.

Knew that. I just edited myself out of making sense (sorry) ... I wasn't considering freshman (too easy) and I've heard that Heisman was way out of kilter for balance. Just Varsity and A-A.

But thanks a ton ... we're doing a three-star or lower dynasty, so it looks like Varsity recruiting is the way to go.

ebin
07-25-2010, 10:00 PM
practically everyone has said that recruiting is very difficult on All-American in a single-team dynasty, even with a major school (like Miami).

You definitely have to be more strategic about who you target on All-American, and know when to give up on a recruit. I simmed through a season with Oregon, just doing the recruiting, and I ended up with the 85th ranked class. I was losing 21 seniors and I signed 16 players: one 4*, eleven 3*, and four 2*. I never did sign a fullback, even though the only one on the team was a senior. I enjoyed the challenge, but I couldn't imagine recruiting on AA with a team like SJSU.

JeffHCross
07-25-2010, 10:58 PM
You definitely have to be more strategic about who you target on All-American, and know when to give up on a recruit.I believe I've been one of the better guys at doing this over the years, especially on NCAA 10. But man is All-American throwing me for a loop. Not only do you have to be strategic about giving up, you have to be strategic on targeting to begin with. I keep worrying that I'm wasting time talking to recruits that I shouldn't be, even though I 'need' them.

I have 15 scholarships available, and I have 16 targets. And even that feels like stretched too thin. But I can't fathom the guys that think you can just target 10 guys and rotate them ... by the time you get to your 16th guy, it'll be near the end of the season and you haven't talked to him at all.

jaymo76
07-26-2010, 12:01 AM
I believe I've been one of the better guys at doing this over the years, especially on NCAA 10. But man is All-American throwing me for a loop. Not only do you have to be strategic about giving up, you have to be strategic on targeting to begin with. I keep worrying that I'm wasting time talking to recruits that I shouldn't be, even though I 'need' them.

I have 15 scholarships available, and I have 16 targets. And even that feels like stretched too thin. But I can't fathom the guys that think you can just target 10 guys and rotate them ... by the time you get to your 16th guy, it'll be near the end of the season and you haven't talked to him at all.

Now in year three it is getting easier BECAUSE when you win your prestige goes up and you have a lot more A+ and A's. However, for the first time ever I am really only going after 3 stars and a few 4 stars. My focus is no longer to get five star starting talent but now rather to get lower talent and develop it with time (and formation subs!).

SmoothPancakes
07-26-2010, 01:01 PM
I don't know, I've been rocking in season 1 of my Navy dynasty on Heisman recruiting. Currently in week 4, out of 20 targets, I've had 3 hard commit to me, and the other 17 all have me in 1st place, and by a good distance over the other teams. Granted, I'm going after nothing but 1 *s due to self imposed recruiting restrictions, so I'm sure if I target 3 and 4 *s in the future (when my restriction rules allow me to) it will get harder then. But at least when targeting players on the low end of the scale, it's been very easy so far.

steelerfan
07-26-2010, 02:01 PM
I don't know, I've been rocking in season 1 of my Navy dynasty on Heisman recruiting. Currently in week 4, out of 20 targets, I've had 3 hard commit to me, and the other 17 all have me in 1st place, and by a good distance over the other teams. Granted, I'm going after nothing but 1 *s due to self imposed recruiting restrictions, so I'm sure if I target 3 and 4 *s in the future (when my restriction rules allow me to) it will get harder then. But at least when targeting players on the low end of the scale, it's been very easy so far.


Dude, you're offering Early Playing Time to 1* players.

Of course it's easy. :P

SmoothPancakes
07-26-2010, 02:29 PM
Dude, you're offering Early Playing Time to 1* players.

Of course it's easy. :P

If you're talking about making the actual early playing time promise to the players, I actually have not made a single promise to any of my players. All I have done is offer scholarships, push hard on recruiting topics, and when I actually have an advantage on a topic, recruit against the team directly behind me on the list. Unfortunately, that has been a rare occurrence as a lot of the teams I am recruiting against are the likes of Maryland, Wake Forest, Pitt, Michigan State for one player, etc.

As for maybe the recruit having the logic to compare the chance for early playing time with my edited, ungodly horrible Navy team as opposed to Maryland or something, then sure, I do have an unofficial advantage there. :)

steelerfan
07-26-2010, 02:47 PM
I wasn't talking about promises. Early Playing Time is a pitch too.

I'm sure the allure of seeing the field as a Freshman is a factor. Where else can a 1* get that opportunity? Certainly not Maryland etc. I think the recruits do a better job of creating their initial lists of teams and sticking to what's "important" to them this year.

morsdraconis
07-26-2010, 02:50 PM
You're absolutely correct Steelerfan. A big part of getting people is they take into account your roster and compare it to their overall. If they're overall blows away anything you have on the roster (which even 1* will because you have nothing but 40 overall players), then they are going to be incredibly interested in coming to your school if they even halfway care about playing time.

SmoothPancakes
07-26-2010, 03:01 PM
I wasn't talking about promises. Early Playing Time is a pitch too.

I'm sure the allure of seeing the field as a Freshman is a factor. Where else can a 1* get that opportunity? Certainly not Maryland etc. I think the recruits do a better job of creating their initial lists of teams and sticking to what's "important" to them this year.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that pitch. :D That one actually hasn't worked too well in my favor. While the team over all sucks, Navy has most it's positions in good shape in terms of numbers. The only needs Navy has for the season is Kicker, Punter, Strong Safety, and Middle Linebacker. So even with my extremely horrible roster in terms of rating, for most of my recruits, Navy is only ranking B or C for playing time. Otherwise, Navy only has Program Tradition, Academic Prestige, Fan Base, and Campus Lifestyle as A or B rankings. All the other ratings are C's or D's, resulting in, for most recruits, only maybe 2 pitches actually being in my favor, 3 if I'm lucky.

Rudy
07-26-2010, 04:10 PM
At Michigan I don't promise much. About the only thing I promise is not to redshirt and that's only for 4* players. I'd never promise that to a 3* kid.

Rudy
07-26-2010, 06:16 PM
I just checked my dynasty settings and my time savers were enabled. I got a couple of those X 2 topics with prospects. Is that a cheat that was enabled when time savers were on? If so I feel dirty. I've got it turned off now but I was sure I had that turned off when I started.

steelerfan
07-26-2010, 06:39 PM
I don't think that's part of the time savers, Rudy. I believe that's just part of recruiting.

Also, I will promise 3* recruits "Winning record against rivals" just because it's easy to achieve at Notre Dame (where I am doing a single player offline Dynasty). Hell, everyone on their schedule is a rival, lol.

AustinWolv
07-26-2010, 07:12 PM
x2 is part of the standard recruiting.

Rudy
07-26-2010, 07:32 PM
Well that makes me feel better. I thought I might have been cheating. I got 800 points one time. Is there a way to see if a guy will be a 2X guy before hand? Everytime I've seen that I never noticed anything until I started the phone call. Of course one guy I only spent 20 minutes on so I robbed myself. A bunch of my low guys must have had them because I always talk to my Top 10 and usually a few others. I still have over 30 guys on my board if I think I have a shot still.

steelerfan
07-26-2010, 07:36 PM
x2 is random and you can't tell it's gonna happen until you're in the call.

morsdraconis
07-26-2010, 07:56 PM
x2 is random and you can't tell it's gonna happen until you're in the call.

And you do still get the x2 even if you are just doing the quick call stuff (which I normally do for guys that no one else is targeting but me and I've seen it pop up a couple of times and definitely is noticeable in that my point totals will be significantly higher because of it).

ebin
07-27-2010, 01:00 AM
I believe I've been one of the better guys at doing this over the years, especially on NCAA 10. But man is All-American throwing me for a loop. Not only do you have to be strategic about giving up, you have to be strategic on targeting to begin with. I keep worrying that I'm wasting time talking to recruits that I shouldn't be, even though I 'need' them.

I have 15 scholarships available, and I have 16 targets. And even that feels like stretched too thin. But I can't fathom the guys that think you can just target 10 guys and rotate them ... by the time you get to your 16th guy, it'll be near the end of the season and you haven't talked to him at all.

I feel exactly the same way, and I'm loving every minute of it. Every week, I'm wondering if I should have spent an extra 10-20 minutes on certain players. I've having better luck with 16-18 guys on my board than I was with 25-30, that's for sure. It doesn't seem realistic to target only 10 guys, but it seems to be an effective strategy. It's not for me though.


I don't know, I've been rocking in season 1 of my Navy dynasty on Heisman recruiting. Currently in week 4, out of 20 targets, I've had 3 hard commit to me, and the other 17 all have me in 1st place, and by a good distance over the other teams. Granted, I'm going after nothing but 1 *s due to self imposed recruiting restrictions, so I'm sure if I target 3 and 4 *s in the future (when my restriction rules allow me to) it will get harder then. But at least when targeting players on the low end of the scale, it's been very easy so far.

You're probably (one of) the only teams in the game targeting 1* guys in Week 4, so that might have something to do with it.


If they're overall blows away anything you have on the roster (which even 1* will because you have nothing but 40 overall players), then they are going to be incredibly interested in coming to your school if they even halfway care about playing time.

I don't know; they may have an OVR better than 40, but probably not by much. 1* guys seem even less serviceable than in years past.

steelerfan
07-27-2010, 02:59 AM
I finally finished my first Dynasty season where I actually played the games. I went 11-2 and was ranked #10 with Notre Dame. I'm definitely glad I took the time to fool with recruiting before I started. I played and recruited on AA. My class rank was #10 (easily the best I've had) but that was by sheer volume. I landed 24 recruits with 22 being 3* (one each of 5* and 4*). I had to cut 11 players so about 8 out of my class were cut, but it was good to see that I can land alot of recruits. Now, I just have to get better at getting better recruits.

Rudy
07-27-2010, 05:25 AM
I just landed 3 recruits after smoking MSU 38-7. It actually earned me a trophy (great weekend or something like that). I think I have 6 or 7 hard commits (two 4* kids and the rest 3*) right now with two soft. I've got #3 ranked Iowa next and I'm 6-0 and ranked in the Top 20 right now with Michigan. My recruiting class is ranked #9 right now.

I'm going after a 4* OT but I think I might be wasting my time. I didn't go after him that hard early on but when I saw I had a chance I figured I'd make a good run. He's not a pipeline guy as I think he's from Arizona and Arizona St. is in the lead. I'm down around 400 points but I just offered him a scholly (was hoping to save it a little longer) and if I ever his a 2X with him I think I'll get him.

Rudy
07-28-2010, 05:57 AM
After beating Iowa 28-21 I'm now 7-0 and the recruits are loving me. I now have seven 4* kids (two of them are RBs) and four 3* kids. My class is ranked #5 in the country. I'm leading a lot of boards for the players still in my Top 10. I think I have one more 4* kid I'm likely to get and I'm closing on the 4* OT from Arizona. He's soft committed to Arizona St but I'm only 80 points back now (still in 3rd now). I'm going to spend 60 minutes every week until he's gone. I have to try. I've got a bunch of 3* OTs that I will get this year but this kid would be a real steal.

Rudy
08-07-2010, 07:52 AM
Well I was stupid. I offered too many kids during the season and only had one scholly left for off season recruiting. Quite a few great players came out of nowhere. I won't talk about how realistic that is but it is fun to have some good players to fight over in the offseason. Teams go after those scraps HARD! I lost out quickly to some guys but it pissed me off because I could have had 1-2 more 4* recruits but lost out due to my over recruiting. A 4* DE with the size I like for my 3-4 soft committed without a sholly offer but I was holding out for a MLB or FS who both bailed on me and I lost him. Ended up signing a 4* C that had me #1 on his list but I will limit my in season recruiting to 20 players max now.

I still had the #3 class in the country with 0 5*, 11 4* and 14 3*. I'm not sure how hard I'm going to go after the 3* kids anymore. Some are decent but a lot come in around 65. I'm greedy.

steelerfan
08-07-2010, 09:13 AM
In my 2nd class, I got 8 4* recruits and 17 3* recruits. I was #4 overall in recruiting after finishing #6 in the final polls. I'm going to keep pushing to get more 4s and a few 5s.

JeffHCross
08-07-2010, 10:43 AM
Good to hear that there are decent offseason guys this year. I don't particularly like the feature, but it does add a little bit of drama to recruiting. I certainly need a couple pickups this offseason, and thankfully have conserved enough scholarships that I can go really, really hard at enough guys to make sure I get one or two.

morsdraconis
08-07-2010, 11:05 AM
Good to hear that there are decent offseason guys this year. I don't particularly like the feature, but it does add a little bit of drama to recruiting. I certainly need a couple pickups this offseason, and thankfully have conserved enough scholarships that I can go really, really hard at enough guys to make sure I get one or two.

It's certainly not like '10 when there were NUMEROUS 5* guys showing up out of no where. For the most part, it's usually 4-5 5* guys and about as many 4* guys and, usually, they aren't like the #1 guy in the class or anything like that.

JeffHCross
08-07-2010, 11:07 AM
Yeah, pretty much what I was expecting. Good that they toned down the 5*s.

jaymo76
08-08-2010, 05:01 PM
After my first few years really struggling with recruiting on AA... I can now say near the end of year four that it is much, much, much easier. I have landed 4 FIVE STARS thus far, including the #1 DE and #1 QB and currently my class is ranked third. Apparently winning the N.C. and staying ranked for two years changes everything. Most of my areas are now A or A+. I highly recommend that you add 1-2 piplines though as you get a lot more attention from players. I went after some scrubs in Colorado and Texas in year one and now I get the BEST players from Colorado and some good/decent pick-ups from Texas.

Rudy
09-03-2010, 08:59 AM
Well I have the #18 recruiting class with one 5* and two 3* players after 5 weeks. Texas is #1 with eight 4* kids and zero 5* but I know they will be getting some of those soon. I just had a 5* CB commit and I think I'll get one more top tackle but I've had to drop two top OLBs, and some other top players from my board. I've wasted too much time this season on kids that won't be coming to Michigan. I hope to be able to change my strategy and still get some good 3* kids yet.