Coaching abilities need a lot of help for next year, imo. First, they need to add a feature that scales your coach progression based on the number of seasons you expect to play. For an offline dynasty, you can play through 10+ seasons super quick because you're the only one playing. For a 10 user online dynasty that advances twice a week, progression is significantly slower, and you don't even get to experience most of the coaching tree until very late in the cycle. Obviously I understand that you can speed up coach XP (we have ours one tick above normal), but even that feels too slow. I haven't tried the "fastest" setting, but it just feels like they could tailor it much better based on information you input at the beginning about what your dynasty is going to look like. What's the point of having coaching abilities like "CEO" if unlocking them is basically impossible or doesn't happen until the new game is coming out? Second, they've gotta stop patching coaching abilities throughout the game cycle. Come up with a system that works from the beginning, test it, ensure it's solid, and then roll with it for the entire cycle. We are now late into season 2, and everyone has picked a path for their coach. It's [uck fay]ing ridiculous for them to be nerfing and buffing coaching abilities at this point in the game when everyone is already locked in. It trivializes the strategy around the initial decisions and makes the entire thing a basically a crapshoot.
I finally picked it up last week. I’ve just been playing a bunch of exhibition games. Gameplay seems pretty good to me. It does something wonky every now and then but nothing that’s really been rage inducing.
Just to recap one of EA's biggest "feature" upgrades for Dynasty this year - manual player progression: At launch, in-season XP was completely broken. If you had ANY penalty higher than 0% for manual progression, 99% of players would not receive ANY XP whatsoever during the season. So off rip, a brand new feature was just completely broken. They fixed that, so now the penalties are actually accurate, and you can now gain XP in-season, which is great. You can still cheese the penalty by turning "auto progression" on while you play your game, then switching back to "manual progression" after the game. It allows you to get 100% of XP with no penalty while still manually progressing your players. Now recently, people have noticed that off-season XP gains have been nerfed. Players are not getting nearly as many skill points in the offseason to improve. This means that certain coach abilities are no longer as effective as they were previously. Why does that matter? Well, if you're in year 2 or 3 of a Dynasty, you are just reaching the point of unlocking the 2nd level coaching abilities you've been aiming for since you started playing. As an example, if I decided I wanted to go with Strategist, I would just now (multiple months into the game cycle) be reaching the point of unlocking Strategist and beginning to utilize it. And now they've nerfed some of the abilities in these 2nd level coaching ability tiers. So you've spent all this time building your coach toward something that may not be as good or useful as it was when you chose that path at the beginning. Which sort of begs the question - what is even the [uck fay]ing point of building your coach? If they can just change the abilities on a whim, why even bother?
That's what people are saying. Not sure if anyone ever pinpointed it to anything specific, but it would be something from the Motivator tree or the Program Builder tree. It's probably hard to test because you can't really run a parallel study with the "pre-patch" setup.
Turned this on to play a game with my son yesterday. He had about a 40 yard TD pass called back due to PI on the center. We turned it off. It’s impressive that EA is so bad at making games.
I haven’t really had anything like this happen. I’ve had one snap get to my QB and then teleport to the ground near a defender who ran it back for a TD but that’s the only real WTF thing I’ve had
On one of the old versions of NCAA I had a RB that was waste deep in the ground for an entire game. He hilariously ran slow as hell as moving through solid Earth isn't easy. But he was tackled the second a defender touched his head. Took me a while to get him hotswapped out of all the formations. The next game he was back enjoying life on top of the ground.
I promise I'm not exaggerating when I say I experienced the most nonsensical CPU game I’ve played in this iteration of the game last night. Possibly the most ridiculous game I’ve ever played. Some highlights include: 4 INT’s (I had 8 through 11 games going into the game). Not one was legitimate. We’re talking receiver goes up, high points, 2 hands on the ball, gets hit, drops it into a DB’s hands, type of shit. It was the 3rd straight game where I had an INT that came as the result of my QB throwing it right at a defender as I’m getting hit. We’re talking like, once in a decade type stuff, and it’s been 3 games in a row. Ball could have gone ANYWHERE on the field, and it hits a defender in the chest... 3 weeks in a row... Had a blocked XP that would have pushed it to an 8 point game at one point. Had a TD get called incomplete. His foot comes down, clearly about to land inbounds, and then it just stops, hovers above the grass, and then moves to land 2 yards out of bounds. One INT - my WR absolutely torches press coverage. I throw it up immediately. We are talking possibly less than a 3 step drop. Green timed, easy TD…. But it’s underthrown, INT. No idea why. Replay shows a DT splits a double team (second guy engages, but just… doesn’t) to hit me almost immediately after the snap, causing the bad throw. Numerous examples of WR’s and OL failing to block people directly in front of them for no reason. WR screen with 2 WR's to block 2 DB's? Multiple times of one of them just running past his guy 5 OL, 5 defenders in the box? Multiple examples of one guy running right past his man, and a few of TWO different OL running right past their guys Had to have been 10+ times in a single game, and multiple on key 3rd/4th downs. Multiple examples of defenders just standing still for an entire play. Literally just not moving. Multiple examples of defenders not reacting to a ball thrown near them. I had one that was legitimately incredible. Like, the ball literally flies directly across his face, within 2 inches of his facemask, and he does not react. Multiple examples of the CPU flipping/changing the formation and my defense just failing to re-align in a way that made even a lick of sense. I have one picture where I have FOUR [uck fay]ing people lined up OUTSIDE of a single TE. The TE is the ONLY eligible receiver to that side (even the HB is on the opposite side), and I have a DE and 3 DB's lined up outside of him. It was so absurd looking that I paused the game to take a photo. At one point, I was outgaining my opponent 527 yards to 181 yards, and it was only a 7 point game. And before anyone says "sour grapes because you lost," I dropped 35 on the cheating [uck fay]s in the 4th quarter alone and won by 40.
Three straight weeks of this nonsense: https://www.xbox.com/play/media/XmMgY7x34K https://www.xbox.com/play/media/5rbj6GaCNK https://www.xbox.com/play/media/wVWnkJDVbK
I have an 86 OVR redshirt Freshman Safety that is planning to transfer because I'm not meeting his Dealbreaker requirements. As you all probably know by now, Dealbreaker requirements increase as the player's OVR increases. So, for example, if you have a 78 rated player and a 93 rated player who both have "Championship Contender" as their Dealbreaker, the 78 OVR player may require a C+, while the 93 OVR player requires an A-. And that sort of makes sense, right? The better you are, the more important contending for championships becomes. What doesn't make sense is my Freshman Safety's Dealbreaker of "Proximity to Home" increasing as his OVR increases. He required a C going into offseason training, and after his OVR went up during training results, the requirement rose to a B+ (I have a B). Why on earth would a player care more about being closer to home as his OVR increases? Basically the definition of [pretty gosh danged dumb].
Had to sit down with the kid and explain to him that Washington is the exact same distance from his home as it was when he signed.
And I think the most annoying part is that this sort of thing COULD be used in a way that makes sense and is even cool. Kid comes in stating that Proximity to Home is his dealbreaker, but you are close enough when he signs, so it's good. Maybe he gets homesick after a year, and you have to try to convince him to stay. That's realistic and makes sense. It would force you to think about it before recruiting a kid like that, who might get homesick. It's nuance. Him wanting to be closer to home as his OVR increases makes 0 sense.
Thought this was worth sharing because it demonstrates how broken this game can be. My team is one of a few 99 OVR teams in our league (because the game sucks and the transfer portal is broken). I've won multiple Big 10 titles, a National Title, and am in the playoff semi-finals of Season 3. I have a FS ranked 3rd/4th for "Best Defensive Player" this season, depending on which award you look at. He won the award for Best DB of the year, and I had a CB ranked 5th and a another Safety ranked 7th. This is the breakdown of my DB depth: CB: 90 OVR SR... will 100% get drafted 85 OVR SR... will graduate 84 OVR FR (RS)... Transferring because my Pro Potential is a B, and he needs a B+ 84 OVR FR (RS) ... Should be back next season 2 players <80 rated who shouldn't see playing time anytime soon on a team of this caliber. FS: 86 OVR SO (RS)... Should be back next season (plays nickel for me now) 86 OVR JR... Transferring because my Pro Potential is a B, and he needs a B+ 2 low 80's with skill capped coverage stats under 80 1 75 OVR FR... long term option but likely low 80's next season SS: 88 OVR SR... will 100% get drafted 87 OVR SR (RS)... might get drafted, but if not, graduates 86 OVR FR (RS)... transferring because my Proximity to Home is a B and he needs a B+ I've built a roster where, without [pretty gosh danged dumb] dealbreakers, I would have a very clear 5-man DB rotation next season made up of the guys in bold above. It's basically exactly what you'd expect of a 99 OVR team with multiple championships going into Season 4. My 2 CB's would be SO (RS) in the high 80's, low 90's. My nickel would be the same guy as this year. And my 2 starting Safeties would be a SR and SO (RS) who would both be in the high 80's, low 90's. I have built the team to have a phenomenal defensive backfield next season. 2 of the 3 guys are transferring because of Pro Potential. My B rating will ABSOLUTELY be higher than the B+ they require the very next advance after they transfer - to the point where I will be able to re-recruit those two guys in the Portal because their dealbreaker will not rule me out. It is incredibly dumb that players transferring because of Pro Potential don't factor the 2-3 players who will get drafted in THIS draft class. And then we have the Proximity to Home guy I mentioned in my previous few posts. No need to expand on how [pretty gosh danged dumb] that is. But even if they leave, it shouldn't be too bad, right? Persuade even 1 of the 3 to stay, then pull 1-2 DB's in the portal, and I'll be golden, right? Well, here's the problem with that - I can't even go after 70% of the guys in the portal because my playing style grade for DB's is an F. Why is it an F, you ask? Well, when I was busy going undefeated this season, I had a tendency to beat my opponents pretty badly. Those large deficits led to them abandoning the run early, which inevitably led to inflated passing yards every single game, even in blowouts. This is why I mentioned the awards earlier. I have 3 of the top 7 DB's in the country, apparently, at least according to the awards, but my "Playing Style" grade for DB's is somehow an F. That is extremely idiotic, and further demonstrates how these single variable dealbreakers make no [uck fay]ing sense. Imagine being a HS/Transfer DB, seeing a team with 3 of the top 7 DB's in the country on an awards list, and 2-3 DB's getting drafted, and saying "Nah, I'm not gonna go there because they give up X number of passing yards per game." It's just really really really stupid, and I might be completely cooked on Defense next season as a result.
https://x.com/FOXSportsKnox/status/1998036622860832925 Indy, hckevinsteele, and volball would each drop 50 burgers on his ass.
I was running some simulation stuff to see if I should be hiring a coach this week or waiting to see what comes up next week. Butch popped up a couple times. He’s a Motivator with a sprinkle of recruiting. It made me laugh, thinking about his style of motivating.
I'm relatively confident that I don't plan to buy CFB 27, but if I did plan to buy it, I think I'd have a non-negotiable rule that NIL had to be included or I would be out. It's just too important to how recruiting actually works IRL to not be included in the game, at this point. EDIT: They really need to just add a financial/budget aspect to the game in general. If I'm at a program like Washington, and I win 3 straight National Championships, I should have access to more funding to upgrade facilities, increase the capacity of my stadium, etc. I'd also like to see more coaches than just HC/OC/DC. Position coaches would be great, and the budget idea works directly with that.
