NCAA Football 11: Dynasty Team Research

[Oneback]

With the tuning sets coming out yesterday and me having the day off today (good timing EA) I figured I would do a little research. So I simmed 10 seasons letting the CPU handle everything and recorded the OVR rating for a 6-star programs starters. Then in season 10 I recorded how many players the team had at each position and the OVR for each of the top 5 players at the position.

First up is the yearly breakdown for each of the 10 years:



The biggest thing you will see here is that the starters overall rating ends up roughly the same from year one to year ten and the average for all years is only slightly lower than where they started.

The biggest thing I noticed is that right after the defualt roster players leave the roster (year 5) there is a big drop off in overall starting talent. Now the team I recorded these results for has a really young roster so that may play a big role in why years four and five have a big drop off in talent at several positions. However while my next graph will show the CPU does a decent job of filling out the roster this graph shows that they don't do a good job of planning ahead as there doesn't seem to be a good player ready to ready to step in and fill the shoes of the out going player as there is typically a 10+ point drop off when a player decides to leave/graduate.

Next is a breakdown of each position in year 10:



As I said above the CPU did a solid job of filling out the roster, however there is not a lot of depth along the offensive line or at tight end. There are still too many quarterbacks, halfbacks and defensive tackles on the roster that without those extra players I am sure there would be more depth along the offensive line.

Overall I think EA did a fine job of making changes for the better, I'd still like to see a few tweaks...especially in those years they just did not recruit a tight end or fullback.

[JPBD]

Nice post.

[AustinWolv]

I'm good with having a lot of DT, depending on the D used, as you are playing multiple DTs at a time. But OL is light and should dial back QB and CB by one each.

That being said, there might be something buried in the numbers due to injuries....how often do you see OL, TE, DT, or LBs get injured? Seems I always see CB, WR, RB, and sometimes QBs getting injured.

[Kingpin32]

Thats some good looking research Oneback. Did this six star team win any championships within the 10 year span? And I forget, how many seasons can the dynasty mode go for?

[Oneback]

You can view the page at http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/for...-Team-Research

[swanny]

Good stuff. What team did you use in your testing?

[JPBD]

Also, did the team have FB/TE recruits on their board, attempt to call them, and just fail to sign the prospect?

[Oneback]

I'm good with having a lot of DT, depending on the D used, as you are playing multiple DTs at a time. But OL is light and should dial back QB and CB by one each.

That being said, there might be something buried in the numbers due to injuries....how often do you see OL, TE, DT, or LBs get injured? Seems I always see CB, WR, RB, and sometimes QBs getting injured.

I agree on the DT front as they are a 4-3 team. Injuries aside, there is no way you can have a consistantly good team if you are replacing outgoince 90+ OVR seniors with true freshman. You've got to gorw players within your system.

[Oneback]

Thats some good looking research Oneback. Did this six star team win any championships within the 10 year span? And I forget, how many seasons can the dynasty mode go for?

They did not win any championships. As a matter-a-fact I ended up getting fired from that job.

[Oneback]

Good stuff. What team did you use in your testing?

Michigan

[Oneback]

Also, did the team have FB/TE recruits on their board, attempt to call them, and just fail to sign the prospect?

Not sure, I wasn't interested in the how but only in the end result as we don't have any control over the CPU's recruiting process. During the years where the FB/TE OVR were low they were all walk-ons however. So I am going to assume they either did not attempt to recruit those two positions or would not settle for a lesser recruit to fill the need.

That being said I am unsure on what happened in year 8 and 9 when they started recruiting the position again. My guess is that since I was fired in year 2 or 3 (can't recall) is that at some point they switched from a spread offense to more of a pro-style offense.

[JBHuskers]

VERY good stuff bro.

[morsdraconis]

VERY good stuff bro.

+1

VERY good stuff.

I was going to go about it like that as well, but just haven't felt like putting in the work. Good job on doing this man. GREATLY appreciate the effort.

[CLW]

Good stuff. Year 5 concerns me a bit but it may have just been "issues" at Michigan more than a game-wide issue.

[AustinWolv]

I agree on the DT front as they are a 4-3 team. Injuries aside, there is no way you can have a consistantly good team if you are replacing outgoince 90+ OVR seniors with true freshman. You've got to gorw players within your system.

Oh, I agree. I just wonder if the CPU recruits that way because somehow buried in the code that their recruiting is tied to the frequency of injuries to certain position types. Honestly haven't looked at CPU teams to see what positions they routinely have injuries at, but I know in the games I play against CPU teams, it is the same position groups getting injured that I notice.

[psusnoop]

Very nice Oneback.

I'd like to see 1 less QB, RB, and CB.

[ebin]

Nice work. Obviously the sample size is small, but it does look like there may be an interesting pattern developing there. It would be interesting to see what class the starters are each year. In years 4 and 5, most of the starters are recruits, but are they recruits from the first couple years that haven't progressed much, or are they starting lots of freshmen and sophomores?

This relates to your point about the CPU not planning ahead. The examples with FB and TE in year 5 make it pretty clear that the CPU is only recruiting to replace outgoing seniors (and not particularly well, in this example), and not recruiting for depth or to develop a player to start in a year or two.

That's unfortunate, and something that needs to be addressed for dynasty to really shine, IMO.

[psusnoop]

If they address that I feel this will surely take the dynasty to a whole nother level.

[JeffHCross]

Great research Oneback.