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(Online) Dynasty, Dynasty Wire, & Story Builder
Use this thread for wish list & feedback items relating to changes or improvements you would like to see in NCAA Football 14.
Be clear, but concise in making your wishes. Any off-topic posts will be deleted.
Let us add more teams over 123 (124 with the addition of Georgia State next year). We're not allowed to freaking kill the WAC (it's only a matter of time before it dies anyways), so let us add teambuilder teams (WITHOUT HAVING TO REMOVE ANOTHER TEAM), and bolster the WAC's numbers without sacrificing the real world imitation of other conferences in the dynasty years 2014, 2015 and beyond.
Where do we post if there's not a specific thread for it, such as coach philosophy?
I wish:
Recruiting had a JUCO search filter.
That scouting was an option you could toggle on/off. Half the fun of recruiting gems/busts is not knowing what you truly have until they arrive on campus. I like authenticity. Not this. I hate to say it too because it's a big new feature that took a lot of time and space.
I like that the new Scouting feature adds a dynamic to the recruit's ratings. I'm not going to say it moves too fast, because I wouldn't want to see it reveal the ratings any slower. However, after a rating is revealed as being UP or DOWN, there's nothing to remind you what the rating used to be. I'll probably get over this with practice, but if a rating that I was really interested in just went from a B to a 65, I'd like the game to remind me of that. Perhaps the GUI could be changed slightly to reflect this.
If it relates to Dynasty, put it here. I believe Coach Philosophy is only used in Dynasty, so this would be the place for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by TIMB0B
I agree with you in that I like the dynamic. I think I'm hung up on the OVR being revealed, though. Also, as has been mentioned on here before, it should let us choose what rating(s) we want to unlock.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffHCross
I think the EA devs need to try to think more like a coach when working on these features.
Question: under the playing style pitch, does "coverage" defender include the stat "passes defensed(deflected)" along with INTs? I know it doesn't say so, but if it really doesn't, then they should add it to help increase the odds of getting the coverage LBer playing style pitch up.
Also, I'd like for them to start keeping individual stats of QB hurries and knockdowns on defense. They do it while playing a game showing team stats, but that's it.
I'm okay with the OVR being revealed, namely because every player I've scouted so far, it's dropped like a rock :DQuote:
Originally Posted by TIMB0B
I would only agree that we should be able to pick our scouting choices if the amount of attributes we could reveal in a given week was SIGNIFICANTLY less. Otherwise it becomes too easy if I can pick which ones I learn. Every other game I can think of that has scouting forces you through a random reveal concept (and, at that, usually starts from ??? rather than knowing an attribute), so I'm okay with that decision.
I'd like for there to be an option of "in-depth recruiting." I say option because some people think there's too much already. So, this is how I'd break the recruiting modes down...
A) - The CPU recruits for you like old school College Football USA 96. At the end of the season, the CPU randomly selects commits based on how your team performed and their prestige in the given year.
B) - The standard user-controlled 5 week post-season recruiting only, which was introduced in NCAA Football 98 (I believe).
C) - The existing setup: In-season recruiting + 5 week post-season recruiting.
D) - In-season recruiting + 5 week post-season recruiting + off-season recruiting.
In real life, there are 4 types of recruiting periods set by the NCAA: Quiet, Evaluation, Contact, and Dead periods. For the purposes of this post, I'll only be using the Quiet and Evaluation periods as it pertains to off-season recruiting.
Quiet Period = Coaches are allowed to call recruits (and offer scholarships). Recruits can visit coaches, but can only do so at the coaches' respective colleges (i.e. unofficial visit).
Evaluation Period = Assistant Coaches are permitted to visit recruits off-campus (as well as make calls and scholarship offers).
The real off-season recruiting calendar set by the NCAA is as follows...
1st week of February (the day after Signing Day) - April 14th = Quiet Period
April 15th - May 31st = Evaluation Period
June 1st - July 31st = Quiet Period
Here's what I'm suggesting with the "D" mode (off-season) recruiting...
Off-season Tasks
Day after National Signing Day
- Spring Position Changes (including early enrollees)
- Next season's Top 100 Recruits 'Watch' List released
- Recruiting: Notification of any prospects that will attend your school's Junior Day Event
- Recruiting: Select Prospects for Recruit Board
(Advance to next period)
February - April 14th (Quiet Period)
- Spring Depth Chart (Divvy up reps to each position group by percentage points totaling 100%)
- Recruiting: Notification of any prospects that will attend your school's Spring Game
- Recruiting: Calls / Scholarship Offers permitted
- Spring Game (option to play or sim)
(Advance to next period)
April 15th - May 31st (Evaluation Period)
- Training Results (including early enrollees)
- Recruiting: Notification of any prospects that will attend your school's Summer Football Camp
- Recruiting: Calls / Scholarship Offers; Scouting permitted (this period only)
(Advance to next period)
June 1st - July 31st (Quiet Period)
- Summer Position Changes (including non-early enrollees who have now arrived on campus as well as walk-ons)
- Official Top 100 Recruits List released
- Recruiting: Notification of any prospects that will attend your school's Pre-Season Scrimmage
- Recruiting: Calls / Scholarship Offers
(Advance to next period)
Custom Conferences
(Advance to next period)
August (Pre-season Tasks)
- Pre-season Depth Chart
- Pre-season Scrimmage (option to play or sim)
- Redshirts
- Cut Players
- Recruiting: Calls / Scholarship Offers; Official Visits and weekly Scouting now permitted (beginning of Contact Period)
- Schedule Changes
- Begin Season
(Advance to regular season)
NOTES:
Junior Day, Spring Game, Summer Camp, and Pre-Season Scrimmages are all unofficial visits i.e. prospects randomly attend based on interest level and/or location. To make these incentive-based, I'd say any recruit that unofficially visits through one or all of the four aforementioned events, you get "x2" bonus points if you call them during said periods.
The spring game DOES NOT determine off-season training. Practice does. And practice is simulated by setting the rep percentage of your players in spring depth chart. Each specific position group in your offense/defense scheme (based on playbooks) has a cumulative total of 100% reps. Example of a pro-form offense's position groups: QB, RB, FB, TE, SE, FL, LT, LG, C, RG, RT. Each one of those groups totals to 100% reps.
Then, you divvy up that 100% within each position group. Say you have 3 QBs. You give your starter 50% reps, back-up 30%, and 3rd string 20%.
1 - QB = 50%
2 - QB = 30%
3 - QB = 20%
And you do this for each position...
1 - RB = 40%
2 - RB = 30%
3 - RB = 20%
4 - RB = 10%
The amount of reps, coupled with a player's potential (which is hidden), determines the offseason training results. It's also a risk/reward scenario. You could give one player all 100% of the reps at his position, leaving the others with 0%, where your reward is maximum progression for that player depending on his potential rating, however you risk injury.
Conversely, if a player gets a small percentage of reps, you risk that player transferring or minimal training results. Even further, with 0% reps, the players will regress in training results. They will see drops in some of their ratings because they haven't been practicing. This means if you have a senior starter, you still have to give him some reps in order to maintain his OVR.
The Spring Depth Chart would also play a huge role for CPU A.I. when they oversign too many players at one position, like having 5 QBs on a roster. The 4th and/or 5th string QBs would be getting screwed in the rep department and may transfer.
The game should have a default percentage already set up, then you could manipulate it from there.
This would give you some control over the development of your players. But just as coaching in real life, there are risk/rewards to these decisions. Hidden potential ratings, though, are the key in keeping offseason progression from being cheesed as well as regressive ratings if they don't give a minimum of reps.
The current off-season tasks as of NCAA 2013 features 6 advancements (Signing Day / Position Changes / Training Results / Cut Players / Custom Conferences / Pre-season Tasks). The example I have given of an in-depth off-season recruiting has 7 advancements. However, there are now 4 additional recruiting opportunities, a Spring Game, Pre-Season Scrimmage, and 2 opportunities for Position Changes (Spring and Summer).
Agree to disagree here. The scouting is unrealistic because it reveals an OVR before they arrive on campus. No one knows a bust or gem until they get to college and then either tear it up or stink. It's been said in the recruiting world thousands of times: "recruiting is an inexact science." The bust rate for 5-stars is close to 50% I believe, but as this game would suggest, just scout them to find out their real overall and we'll know their correct star caliber.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffHCross
My guess is this is why scouting was put in the game in the first place, because you had people just putting every "top" rated interested prospect on their board and not doing their due diligence to check the prospects' grades. The result: upset gamers calling for a scouting feature because they continually recruited 4 and 5-star busts.
And as far as choosing what to scout, a coach is going to be looking at particular skills of a player, not whatever the player randomly decides to show him. Or else he won't get a scholarship.
dbl post
True, but that's really no different than what they've done in previous years. You didn't know exact OVRs, but it could be reasonably figured out. My guess is they added the OVR reveal after seeing the popularity of apps like Pocket Scout.Quote:
Originally Posted by TIMB0B
I also wasn't aware, with certainty, that the OVR was exactly what the player ended up with after being recruited. I was hoping (though assuming otherwise) that it was just a "grade", like ESPN assigns to recruits.
Agree to disagree. There are no busts in NCAA. If you added a 5-star QB, you could be 90% sure that his OVR would be higher than any 4-star QB. The "bust" aspect of scouting is brand new.Quote:
Originally Posted by TIMB0B
When you put on game film, you may have a goal of figuring out how good the WR prospect is at catching balls, but you may learn other things as well. That's my view of it at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by TIMB0B
But, again, as I said earlier, I'm not looking at it for "realism". I'm looking it as a gameplay mechanic that is similar to what other sports games have, and is similar in execution to how those other games have done it.
When scouting on the Dynasty Wire, the time remaining does not update at the end of the scouting session. If you have 1:00 remaining before a final 60 min scouting session, it will still read 1:00 remaining. It doesn't update until you start a new scouting session. The console properly reflects that all time has been spent.
Okay, I'll concede the whole OVR being visible since they'll probably never change that aspect, but here's what I think they could do with scouting.
1) Show the following combine results in recruit searches, which are already unlocked for scouting (i.e. don't need to scout):
COMBINE RESULTS* Discipline rating determines the penalty propensity of a player
NAME POSITION 40 Yard Dash (Speed w/ Acc) 20 Yard Shuttle (Acceleration) 3 Cone Drill (Agility) Vertical (Jump) Broad Jump (Explosiveness) Bench Press (Strength) Squat Press (Leg Drive) 60 Yard Shuttle (Stamina) GPA (Discipline*) Aptitude Test (X's and O's**) Attribute Ballcarrying " " Spin, Juke Hurdle Truck, Dive Stiff Arm Break Tackle " " " " Receiving " " Route Running Leaping Catch Diving Catch Release " " " " Blocking " " Blocking Footwork Impact Block Pass Block Strength Run Block Strength " " " " Defense " " Finesse Move, Strafe, Backpedal Leaping Swat Hit Power, Diving Tackle Block Shedding, Power Move Press Cover, Bullrush " " "
** X's and O's rating determines how much of the playbook they know
2) The player has a projected OVR based upon his combine results. Then, depending on the player's position, you scout them unlocking their position-specific attributes, and their OVR fluctuates up or down.
Very similar to what exists, except the combine numbers are already revealed. However, the combine numbers (like the game used to do) could fluctuate over the season as the prospects will attend summer camps, retake tests, make better grades, etc.
Look at it this way: the skills in the chart above are scouted for you through a combine. The position-specific skills would be you (as coach) "watching" game film or what have you.
While I loved that in NFL Head Coach, I don't think we'll ever see "Learn Your Playbook" in a mainstream EA football game.Quote:
Originally Posted by TIMB0B
My thinking is that the test score would determine the degree of "awareness" boost to a player from their first to second year on campus, and also the degree of awareness drop when changing positions (Ex. a perfect score = awareness doesn't drop).Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffHCross
Since an aptitude test, like the wonderlic, tests how quickly one processes information, this would best represent that. How quickly one learns the "playbook" i.e. awareness from first year to second and/or changing different positions. This could also play a factor if a new coach was hired.
Ah, I misunderstood you. NFL Head Coach had players graded on their "progress" through the playbook. Players that hadn't learned the plays would occasionally make mistakes with the play as-called. That's what I was talking about. Obviously, changing the playbook (as OD members are wont to do) would have a drastic impact on this feature.
Bug: On Dynasty Wire, on the "Teams" page (http://www.easports.com/dynasty/teams), when the teams are sorted by rank it sorts it in text ascension order, not numerical order.
I.e.:
#1
#10
#11
#12
#2
#20
#3
#5
#6
#9
The change to include all 123 teams in the Toughest Places to Play is pretty awesome, especially if you're a Teambuidler dynasty -- now you can see yourself move up/down the list. Additionally, the linkage between the Toughest Places to Play and the new Stadium Atmosphere grade -- damn cool.
That said, the Stadium Atmosphere grade is not spread out enough -- particularly because of its weight on below average grades -- and should be a little more top heavy than it is. Maybe making it a normal distribution (instead of the very low-weighted distribution it seems to follow) would be enough. But I'm struggling enough to believe that Kyle Field (A&M) is the #22 toughest place to play in the nation. I'm really struggling to believe that translates to a C+ "Stadium Atmosphere" grade. Kyle Field is one of the best atmospheres, though I recognize that doesn't make it necessarily tough. The Top 30 should not be the distribution for A+ to C+, that should be a lot more spread.
I'd like for them to bring back the camera shake.
We've discussed in other threads how a manually editable (or at least dynamic) Top 25 would bring more immersion to the beginning of dynasty. Particularly with Teambuilder and how it can effect the Top 25.
Similar to that, Custom Conferences plays absolute havoc with the Preseason All-Americans, or at least Preseason All-Conference, in Year 1. Powerhouse did a healthy amount of realignment this season, and I'm seeing All-Americans who aren't All-Conference, 78 OVR players on the 1st team with 92 OVRs on the 2nd, etc. Since no teams were removed, the All-Americans seem to be fine (and predetermined). But the All-Conference selections clearly weren't dynamic.