Indy, have you noticed any problems with edge rushers sprinting in a super wide curve basically running around the tackle to get to the QB? I hopped back on for the first time in a while over the weekend to play RTG with my son and it was happening constantly and I’d never seen it before. The edge rusher would run so wide that the tackle would never engage, he’d just stay in the blocking stance and turn to face the rusher until he got to the QB. We couldn’t step up and run in the gap the rusher left on his around the world trip to the QB because the tackle was still in the area he would be in if he was blocking so there wasn’t really a hole. It seems like every time I play again, it’s something new that seems screwed up.
Nope, haven't really seen that one. Kind of sounds to me like the defense was running some form of QB contain and it was just [uck fay]ing with the OT's blocking logic. I have seen stuff where guys who are supposed to blitz off the edge end up running to like, the opposite B gap, which delays the shit out of the blitz and makes it worthless. But that's more of a detriment to the defense, where yours sounds like a benefit to the defense.
Here's a moral question for the group: When running a "Manual" player progression league, is it cheese to "hold" points and not upgrade your players? Example: Say I have 2 solid, 90+ rated, senior HB's. My 3rd HB is 85 rated and a RS Sophomore. If I fully upgrade him with his existing points, he will probably be 90+ as well and have a strong chance of going pro at the end of the season, leaving me with no HB's next season. If I hold his points, he doesn't increase in OVR, and I get to use him next season (after another round of upgrades). Is that cheese?
I vote no. I’ve never done it before but I am now with a couple guys. Another couple I probably should have but couldn’t resist building up abilities.
I think most people are doing it in some form or fashion at this point. I think it points to an underlying issue with the game, when we feel like we have to do stuff like this just to keep guys on our rosters.
Yep. When you lose a guy to the draft who’s an 87 and who’s never played but is in line to start and will be 91-92 minimum as a senior you hardly have a choice.
I've had some especially weird ones, too, where a RS SO or RS JR will leave as an 87-89 OVR projected to go in the 4th-7th round, and the persuasion chance will be "none." Why would an 87 OVR guy projected to go in the 7th round not be open to coming back another year to possibly become a 1st-3rd round pick?
A growing frustration for me is how the game handles coaches. It's about as minimalistic as humanly possible, which isn't surprising. Some recent annoyances: I'm in the final year of my contract now and did not get offered an extension going into this season. 3 Big 10 titles in 3 years. 2 National Titles. But Washington didn't feel the need to lock me in long term? The [uck fay]? How is there no option for me to send my agent to ask for a long term extension? You either get the offer or you don't, and it feels 100% random. This hurts my coach stability rating, which is now something like a D. I should be the most stable coach in the country, but instead, I'm the opposite. Coordinators It's beyond [pretty gosh danged dumb] that you can only fire them during Conference Championship week. Missed that deadline? Enjoy your guys for another season. It's beyond [pretty gosh danged dumb] that they can leave for the NFL or another job in the middle of bowl season without you being able to interact with the process in any way shape or form. I can't offer him more money? Extend the term of his contract? NOTHING to try to keep him? He's just gone? Coordinators leaving can completely kill the "strategy" of your coach build because everything is tied together My OC was my "Talent Developer." his abilities were going to give me 30ish upgrade points on every position group with players drafted I had my QB, HB, multiple WR's, multiple OL, a DE, multiple LB's, and multiple DB's drafted. The dude was literally on my staff SPECIFICALLY to give me those draft boosts in the offseason, but he takes the Utah HC job, and it [uck fay]s me. I also planned to use the CEO ability to decrease the cost of abilities that your coordinators have by 2 points per coach, which would have made all of those Talent Developer abilities cheaper for me to acquire on my HC. Can't do it anymore. When you go to hire new coordinators, it only lets you pick from a select few. So there could be a guy available that you want, but if he doesn't show up on your list of 5-6 options, you have no opportunity to get him. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb. Easy changes: Let me fire a coach whenever the [uck fay] I want Let me negotiate with coaches who are trying to leave. I should have an option to make a guy the highest paid OC of all time to have a chance at keeping him. Let me request an extension for my HC in an obvious situation where one isn't being offered Add some sort of financial element to the coaching section of the game. Coach pay is a HUGE part of real life college football. For it to just not even be a part of this game is so [uck fay]ing bizarre Include position coaches. Having everything tied to just HC's and OC/DC's makes no sense. Adding the financial element would also lead easily into NIL $$$, stadium expansion opportunities, and other pieces where money impacts the game. It almost has to be a part of the game going forward if they want to claim any element of "realism."
Additional changes I’d make (one small, one huge): Give us a coordinator “happiness” and “motivation” meters. Something that tells me whether my coordinator is happy, and something that tells me his motivations. Anything that gives me a heads up that “hey, this guy is SUPER interested in becoming a HC,” so it’s not completely out of left field when he leaves would be great. I’d honestly drop the gimmicky coaching tree/abilities entirely and go in with a new system where you hire ALL coaches (including position coaches, recruiting coordinator, strength coach, etc.). Let your recruiting/development be based on the coaches you hire. Some are better at recruiting. Some are better at strategy. Some are better at developing. Give them letter grades in multiple categories and let that dictate how your team progresses. Let the money for paying them be pulled from the same pot where NIL/facility improvements come from. The more you win, the more money comes in, the better everything you can afford. Would be much more realistic than the current system.
@VB - Hypothetically, if we were to have a spot open up for Season 5, would you be interested? Non-hypothetically, we have one of the weirdest people I've ever met (no, it's not me) in this Online Dynasty. @HCKevinSteele can attest. The guy just does not seem to understand how time works, and in a group of 8 working adults, with a mixture of advanced careers, children, etc., he seems convinced that he is the most busy person in the group, and that everyone else is way too obsessed with the video game... all because we are able to schedule in a timely fashion and show up at the scheduled times. It's bizarre but sort of like watching a massive car crash pile up. Can't look away, sort of thing.
Too behind the 8 ball to matter now. CPU teams plummet quickly. Also, having second kid in two months so not the time to join another league. Thanks for the invite though.
Obviously, if the 2nd kid thing is the main driver, then I've got no pushback. But from a team/behind the 8 ball perspective, we would probably let you take one of the elite teams (OSU, UGA, Bama, who are all still low to mid 90's rated), or one of the user teams being vacated (possibly LSU or ND), all of which are on the same level as the rest of the league roster wise. Let me know if that changes anything!
We are 2 years into this game series, and they still haven't figured out the position change skill cap cheese. Apparently, position changes don't negatively impact skill caps nearly as much as they used to at the beginning of the game. So now people are moving players to different positions, dependent upon which positions they have coach abilities unlocked for. So, for example, say you have Talent Developer skills unlocked on your coach, as well as your two assistants, but only for a specific position group (such as LB). You can move all your freshmen DB's, TE's, and DL to Linebacker. They get all the bonus XP points, since you have the coaching abilities unlocked for LB's on all 3 coaches, but they don't take the skill cap hit. So when they are high enough OVR's to start playing, you just move them back to their normal positions, and they're good to go. It's the definition of cheese, super hard to track/prove, and hilarious that it's still part of the game. I really don't think I'll buy 27 unless I see significant changes to either recruiting or gameplay. There's just no point. It's gonna be the same damn game.
https://x.com/jontweetssports/status/2014833941010587652?s=46&t=-g4-4SHxx6dZ80rS7hnjTA If next year’s game allows me to tamper and select recruiting options like “call him during his 8 am class,” I’ll pre order the deluxe edition, no questions asked.
We implemented a change this season that I've called "speed running." During weeks where there are no user games, we advance every 24 hours. If you are unable to play your CPU game, we simulate a win for you (nobody loses to CPU teams anyway, even after we moved to Heisman difficulty). The expectation is that everyone has remote play, so there's no excuse not to get your recruiting done within the 24 hours. We give more time for weeks with user games, and I tried to line up the schedules to have "user game weeks," where multiple user games would be played in the same week (to maximize the number of weeks with just CPU games). And if the user games get played immediately after the advance, then we advance again on the normal 24 hour timeline. I feel like it's been wildly successful. We've gotten through Season 5 so damn quickly, and it's been pretty funny to watch how the people who would take 2-3 days to play a CPU game before suddenly manage to knock out their CPU games in 24 hours every single week now. The goal was to get more seasons in post-stock rosters, as well as further exploration of the coaching trees. Feels like we will probably keep it this way going forward. It's simultaneously faster and less of a time commitment, if you want it to be, because if you don't want to play ANY of your CPU games, you don't have to. You can just recruit each week, play your user games when they pop up, and save yourself a ton of time.
