Developer Chat

Welcome to the Hoops Dynasty chat about the upcoming release. For more details on what's included, read the forum announcement.

Lots of questions, so I'll start answering a little early. ( Moderator - 12:17 PM)

If there is more potential for improvement but your slowing the rate of improvement how does this help? or Will see dramatic improvement in the areas of concentration of the practice plan? (jbrewman1 - Hall of Famer - 12:21 PM)

One of the main failures in the original release of potential was that players were reaching their full potential way too early. We made a change about a year ago to improve that, but this release will go even a little further by slowing improvement rate and increasing potential a bit. The goal is to have players still improving as seniors and to regain some of the strategic decision making in the practice plan that was lost.

Will D-I freshmen become real impact players -- like Evans, Rose, Wall, Cousins, etc., in RW -- or will that likely never be a part of HD? (dknox - Hall of Famer - 12:22 PM)

This release is a step in that direction, but it remains to be seen if this change is enough to generate standout freshmen or if a few more tweaks are necessary down the road.

The description notes new player types, including perimeter big men and guards that live in the paint -- does this mean that low post will have actual relevance for guards now and no longer be a "throw away" stat category? (rednu - Hall of Famer - 12:26 PM)

Yes, Low Post will be important now for all players.

Can you break down the exact differences between PE and LP in the new engine? More specifically, certain guards with excellent BH but poor PE can score with some efficiency in the current engine with the dribble drive. Will guards now need LP to finish in the lane on a drive, or will LP only apply to post up's, tips, alley-oops, etc? (narcotico - Hall of Famer - 12:29 PM)

It's best to think of Perimeter as "outside scoring" and Low Post as "inside scoring". I know the term "Low Post" isn't the best descriptor for what that rating will mean. Scoring, both inside and outside, is impacted by Ball Handling, Speed, and Athleticism.

With this new release are you trying to get rid of 'bing ball', where just 1 or 2 players score all the points for a team? (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 12:31 PM)

I don't think that's a realistic strategy in most cases, so it probably won't be as successful in the new engine.

Seble, love the changes. Big problem/question is you said it will hurt guys to get an unrealistic amount of shots. One of the current problems in the game is that you can't have stars. Guys who score 20. Shouldn't the change go the other way so it's easier to have a standout "star"? (majresorter - Hall of Famer - 12:35 PM)

I'm definitely not looking to penalize high scorers in general. There will be a reduction in offensive efficiency for a player who has taken more than 50% of the shots of the players on the floor at that time. The idea is that the defense would begin to really focus on that player if it becomes obvious that he's going to chuck up the majority of the shots. If you think about it though, a player would probably have to be shooting 30-40 times a game for this to significantly impact them.

The Zone defense has always been described as being to hide a bad defender. How will this be impacted by the new "Matchup" part of the update? (swamphawk22 - Hall of Famer - 12:36 PM)

Matchups work differently against a zone, so it's still possible to hide a bad defender if the rest of your defense can pick up the slack.

Boxers or Briefs? (ermackey - Hall of Famer - 12:37 PM)

Boxers

In the change to offensive efficiency you note that a player's efficiency will decrease as his shot allocation increases. Will this be the same across offenses or greater in some (such as motion where it seems this phenomena already exists)? (roguedog - Hall of Famer - 12:38 PM)

It's the same for any offense.

could you tell us whether the RATE at which players imrove will be same or different? comments about reaching potential, etc leave open the question of the rate of change a. during the season b. in offseason thanks (mamxet - Hall of Famer - 12:38 PM)

Rate of improvement will in general be a little slower than before, but it really depends on a lot of factors related to the specific player.

with this major release it seems like player stats will look alot diffrent if so is there anything in the works for updating /weighting the record books (doublebonus - Hall of Famer - 12:40 PM)

I wouldn't expect major changes in player stats.

Will there be a change to the value of "favorite school" or "proximity" for recruits? If so, can you elaborate? (jetsons - Hall of Famer - 12:44 PM)

There should be a wider distribution of favorite schools across DI, which will make it more likely that a mid-level or low-level DI school will have some kids favoring their school. Proximity should be the same.

Regarding the new SimEngine: "The Durability rating will be the driving force for both ODDS of injury and recovery rate." Is the odds portion of this statement new, or does durability already impact the odds of injury under the current game engine? Trying to determine if I need to rethink subtracting durability ratings when evaluating recruits. (rednu - Hall of Famer - 12:48 PM)

Durability has always factored into odds of an injury and in recovery, but there was still quite a bit of random chance involved. The new engine will make the correlation stronger between Durability and injury odds. Recovery rate will depend on a combination of Durability and Work Ethic. If you recruit a player with low durability there's a pretty good chance he'll get hurt at some point in his career. I'm still making some final tweaks to this area, because the last thing I want to do is add more frustration to the game. But I would emphasize Durability more when recruiting.

How will the substution logic change? (steginman - Hall of Famer - 12:51 PM)

This is an important question. The new substitution logic will follow your depth chart much more strictly. If a player is not listed in the depth chart he won't play unless it's an emergency. If a player is set to Mopup, he won't play until the game is a blowout. So please make sure once your world begins using the new engine, that you pay close attention to your depth chart and make sure you have enough slots filled out to handle fatigue.

Will the "stricter subsitution logic" have a setting that allows you to have or keep your starters on the court in a close,late game situation,regardless of foul trouble? (tnto - Hall of Famer - 12:53 PM)

Foul trouble is ignored in the final 3 minutes of a game, so starter even with 4 fouls should not be out of the game for that reason.

In the upcoming Release post, you said there would also be "* many other tweaks". What specific tweaks are these "* many other tweaks"? (ermackey - Hall of Famer - 12:55 PM)

The entire engine was rewritten, so during that process I evaluated pretty much every factor or adjustment made during a game. Some of those stayed the same and some were changed. This will be a learning experience even for the vets.

How will current players be affected by the changes? Will their improvement rates be affected like the newly generated recruits? Will low post ratings for guards acquire significance they currently lack? (xulapaul - Hall of Famer - 12:58 PM)

Once your world starts using the new engine, all players will use the new practice/improvement logic. That means existing players will also start improving a bit slower. The same applies to the engine, so guards with good or bad LP will behave the same way whether they were created before this release or after. There will obviously be a little bit of a transition period while the new players filter into each world, but it shouldn't be a major shift.

I hear on the forum that there will be NO position penalty after the changes - is this true? (metsmax - Hall of Famer - 12:59 PM)

There is currently no position penalty, so a player's performance depends solely on his ratings. If that causes any problems I reserve the right to reinstate that penalty, but I'd rather not have to do that.

Does the new release address end-of-game logic issues to give coaches more control of game play (for example, the ability to implement a spread offense prior to the one minute mark, the ability to assign a "go to" scorer in the clutch, among other issues)? After all, these are the situations where a real life coach would have the most control over how a game plays out. If not addressed in the May release, is this an item we will see addressed in the very near future? (muredskin00 - Hall of Famer - 1:01 PM)

There won't be any changes to coaching settings for this release. I have improved the logic to adjust defensive positioning at halftime, but that's about it.

Currently, off-season improvement is heavily influenced by a players WE (the higher the WE, the better the offseason improvement). How WE affect offseason improvement in this new engine's new "slower development" model? (ermackey - Hall of Famer - 1:03 PM)

Off-season changes are done differently that in-season changes. The off-season logic has not been changed for this release.

I think the NCAA passed the 68 team championship tournament. Any chance we can get that set up in Hoops Dynasty too? (clarebear - Hall of Famer - 1:05 PM)

I'm not sure about this one. It seems like the NCAA is really leaning toward going to 96 teams soon, so it would be tough to devote a bunch of time to 68 if it's going to change to 96 soon. If it ever went to 96 we'd probably make that change, but either way we'll probably wait a while to see how it shakes out.

Is this the last major planned update or is there more a-commin'? If more, what can we expect? (ermackey - Hall of Famer - 1:09 PM)

There will plenty more coming, but probably in smaller chunks. This release has set the foundation for future changes to be made more quickly. There are a couple of things on the agenda for the near future. For one, I'd like to take a look at how loyalty affects the job process. I think it's too restrictive as it is. I'd also like to tackle the tournament seeding logic, which was originally going to be a part of this release. There is a very long list in addition to that, so there's plenty to keep me busy indefinitely.

when does this happen for the teams already in their season? (raiders91sc - Hall of Famer - 1:11 PM)

The new engine, including player improvements and rankings, will kick in when a particular world rolls over to a new season on or after May 12th. The new recruit logic will be used for any worlds that generate new recruits after May 12th, even if that world is not yet using the new engine.

Do you believe it's realistic that a 6'2", 99 rated defender can handle a 7' post player in the paint? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 1:19 PM)

No I don't. That's why we're discussing a way to account for that in the test world.

Are there any plans to display that a player has reached his potential in a category? I know you get an email from your assistant coach, but it would be a huge help if when you looked at the practice plan you could see that certain skills were maxed out. (trink119 - Hall of Famer - 1:20 PM)

I would like to change how a coach gets that information. I don't like that it's only available in a once-per-season email. I'm not sure yet what the optimal solution is.

In Hardball you can see the potential your player has and what he is capable of reaching over time. Is there any chance we could see that after scouting a kid where he would be in his senior year? The phrase High Potential could mean High High, high, or low high. I'd like to know about where he is expected to be.. (dustintwise - Hall of Famer - 1:22 PM)

I'm not sure we would ever go to something like that, because what makes that work in Hardball is that each team has a scouting budget that determines what they see for projected ratings.

I understand that the new recruits are meant to allow coaches some flexibility in building their team and developing them. (Something we've been screaming for... to be more like it was pre-potential). Have you thought about the effect of having too many players that are designed in a specific manner? Would it be in the best interest of the game to have MORE recruits available, for those coaches that don't want a specific type of player? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 1:24 PM)

I don't think it's necessary to generate more total recruits. We don't want to make it too easy to get the players you want. If you target a specific type of player you might have an easier or a harder time depending on what other teams are targeting. So that will be part of the strategy of recruiting.

Most in the HD community agree that this is going to be boom or bust. Do you feel that the testing process was enough to make this a success? Also, what is going to be done to help get the veteran coaches back to 5+ teams, as opposed to just 1/2? Many of us have peaked over 8 teams and we've been waiting months with just 1/2 to see how this is going to play out. (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 1:28 PM)

I don't think any release is boom or bust. This is an important one, no doubt about that, but the people that truly enjoy the game will be patient enough not to overreact and quit playing if there are some hiccups. This is probably the longest and most thorough testing process that HD has ever had for a release. It certainly wasn't perfect, and I take responsibility for that, but I can't overemphasize how important all the feedback has been. As for number of teams, the recent change to the rewards system should get some veterans involved in the lower divisions again. Beyond that all I can do is make the game as fun as possible and try to come up with solutions to the most pressing issues are with the game.

Please tell me that we will no longer see a top #25 team that doesn't make the National Tournament. I have seen this occur many times and it has made the rankings worthless. (knappj - Hall of Famer - 1:32 PM)

While I can't guarantee that won't happen, I think the new rankings system will do a better job of rewarding the truly good teams. The most important change to me is that you won't be held back by not being ranked preseason. In the old system it was difficult to move up if you started off very low. The downside to that is that there will be quite a bit of movement in the top 25, especially early in the season. Sometimes you'll even see teams dropping a bit after a win. But I think the ultimate goal should be that the rankings show the best teams at that point of the season, and this new system does that.

If I find a shooting guard with high potential in Rebounding, how likely is it that I'm going to struggle to maximize that player in other areas, if I'd like to risk focusing on his rebounding? Is the disparity in how much potential a player has, the area he has great potential in and his work ethic, enough so that players might not actually cap out by their senior season? Do you have a % estimate of how many players might not reach their max potential? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 1:35 PM)

There will definitely be players who don't cap out in certain areas. A lot of that depends on Work Ethic and how many practice/game minutes they get. So yes, you would risk other areas suffering some if you focus a lot on rebounding. That's exactly the kind of decision that I'm trying to give back to the coaches. As it is now, you can still pretty much just cap out a rating and then shift minutes to something else, and have that player fully capped out in everything by senior year.

Regarding showing potential throughout the season, the solution was brought up when Potential was introduced. Simply color code the team rating page to show the players potential in real time. (as of the end of each practice session) Then there is no question of where they stand. (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 1:37 PM)

That's a possibility, but there's a fine line between making it easier and making to too easy. I don't want to give every detail out about potential. There should still be some uncertainty involved.

Will scouting visits be changing at all? It seems to me that you should always learn the offense and defense a player plays when you scout him. And, shouldn't that be part of FSS too? (trink119 - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

No changes in that area for this release, but possibly in the future.

Is work ethic effecting the recovery rate from injuries a new thing? (arssanguinus - Hall of Famer - 1:56 PM)

Work Ethic has always had an impact on recovery.

I believe I saw in the test world that HCA has been changed. How will this affect the outcome of games? (sully712 - Hall of Famer - 1:58 PM)

I'm tweaking home court advantage now so there shouldn't be much difference in that area by the time of the release.

Is recruit feedback going to get any more in depth when in a recruit battle? i.e. many times we hear "I'm sold" but he still doesn't sign for a few cycles. (dustintwise - Hall of Famer - 2:00 PM)

That aspect of recruiting is not changing, but there is room for improvement there for the future.

Given equal Ath/Spd/IQ, should we finally expect to see 99 Rated defenders that can lockdown offensive players, from a man to man defense? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:02 PM)

Depends on the talent of the offensive player. An average or worse offensive player should struggle against him, but a talented offensive player would still be able to produce some in that matchup.

With player development slowing a bit does this mean that IQ will slow as well or is it just for the ratings? (jbrewman1 - Hall of Famer - 2:04 PM)

IQ will improve at the same rate that it does now.

What do you think about the idea of splitting defense into Low Post and Perimeter? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:05 PM)

That's not a bad idea, but it would be a pretty major shift and would require some pretty widespread changes.

I find the slowdown to be the most frustrating part of this game. Will the update implement some way to avoid all of these games ending with scores ranging from the high-20's to the low-40's? (blaank182 - Hall of Famer - 2:07 PM)

The possession times based on tempo have changed in the new engine. I haven't done any checking to see how many low-scoring games there are compared to the current engine.

Will teh release make any tweaks to the way FSS works? Currently you have to do too much budgeting at D3 because you don't have a lot of money and you have to pay to scout a ton of players that are out of your vision? (edw1225 - Hall of Famer - 2:08 PM)

This release will not impact FSS, but there may be changes on the horizon to that feature of the game.

From what I understand, strength is part of athleticism. I think strength is a big part of the game. Any chance strength could be separated into a new category? It would only increase during the offseason just like real college basketball, and would affect shot blocking, defense, rebounding, ability to drive, etc. (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 2:09 PM)

That's a suggestion that's come up before. I could go either way on that issue, but any adding or removing of a player rating would require significant changes across the entire game.

Will there be any update on walk-on generation? I know some coaches were hoping that all unsigned players would be sorted out, some would go JUCO, some would not play, and the rest would walk-on. Seems more realistic. thanks (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 2:10 PM)

No changes to walk-ons at this point, but possibly down the road.

Will this update do anything about the HUGE number of games won at buzzer? (inbayside - Hall of Famer - 2:11 PM)

I didn't realize that a huge number of games are won at the buzzer. There is no specific code that would lead to that happening or not happening.

When a player hits the hard ceiling for a skill, will any practice minutes need to be spent in order to maintain that level? (jetsons - Hall of Famer - 2:12 PM)

There is a minimum number of minutes to maintain each rating even after capping out. That number is 7 minutes for everything but Perimeter and Low Post which are 3 minutes each.

Will recruits generated before the new release still have older engine characteristics? (jetsons - Hall of Famer - 2:13 PM)

The engine only sees ratings and IQ, so from that perspective there is no difference between recruits generated using the new logic or the old logic.

One thing missing from the game is a pro-level. Are there any plans of adding a pro-level or associating these leagues with a pro simulation where our players could "live on" in a professional season? A real annual draft with 30 or so "Pro owners" would be a cool addition, IMO. (ermackey - Hall of Famer - 2:13 PM)

That's a cool idea that's been around for a long time. No immediate plans for that, but never say never.

In regards to a teams record book it would be nice to add a season record page as well. is that in any of the future plans? (uwrjl93 - Hall of Famer - 2:14 PM)

There are some things like this that would be cool to add, but first we have to start storing stats by season instead of just career totals for players who graduate.

Any plan to update logic for Coaching changes at the D1 level? Seems to me that it should be a bit easier to advance from the lowest level D1 to a Mid-Major. (r7gordon - Hall of Famer - 2:16 PM)

I mentioned earlier that I'd like to make some changes to loyalty and how it impacts the job process. Beyond that, there may be some more tweaks further off.

could you explain how low post will affect guard scoring? what can one say about what sorts of plays it will affect? will other variables matter less? which variables? (metsmax - Hall of Famer - 2:17 PM)

Basically, a shot from the perimeter will be mostly impacted by the player's Perimeter rating and a shot from the paint area will be impacted by the Low Post rating. Midrange shots will be a combination of the two. And of course other ratings (ATH, BH, SPD, IQ) also factor in.

The Release Highlights mostly all look great. Is the core of the actual engine still the same when it comes to what categories are valued/impactful, or has the changed as well? (dalter - All-Star - 2:19 PM)

Mostly the same, but some tweaks here and there.

what effect will the new player types, if any, have on the offensive sets? (daspider - Hall of Famer - 2:21 PM)

The new player types will give coaches more freedom to construct different types of teams. For example, maybe you want a perimeter shooting team to include your big guys being able to step out and shoot.

Since the recruits for Allen are already visible are they affected by the changes in recruit generation (steginman - Hall of Famer - 2:21 PM)

Recruits that are generated prior to May 12th were created using the old logic.

It appeared in the beta that the rate of fatigue was much lower. Is the expectation that teams will now be able to run 8 man and 9 man rotations, unless they are running a press defense? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:23 PM)

We're still fine-tuning fatigue, but I did set out to make fatigue a little less severe than the old engine. It's pretty common in real life for starters to play 30+ minutes per game. That is difficult to do in the current engine without pretty severe fatigue. At the same time I don't want to eliminate the need for depth.

Any chance to implement logic so 1.) coaches could schedule "home and home " non-conf games? 2.) A few coaches also like the idea of a being able to schedule a non-conf tournament. (jaisonline - Hall of Famer - 2:24 PM)

Those are great ideas, but they're a ways down the priority list right now.

Have adjustments been made to produce more assists? (Or any other specific stat to mirror real life?) (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:28 PM)

Assists per made shot are actually higher in HD that in real life over the past decade. The new engine should be in the same ballpark as the old one in assists. I have made some adjustments though. Blocks have been lowered a bit as they were higher than real life. Turnovers have been reduced a bit. Number of 3-point shots raised a bit.

A lot of people are concerned that no position penalty will be a problem. Would you say playing a "center" who has 50 spd 90 rebounding 50 bh 50 p at point guard be move of a waste of his 90 rebounding then an advantage of having such a strong rebounder at PG? Along with the fact you'll have a very slow and poor bh/p PG. (tannermcc - Hall of Famer - 2:30 PM)

Playing that player at PG would waste some of his rebounding ability in addition to not being a very good PG. Assuming that's a DI player, he would probably have a lot of turnovers.

Is this new engine worth the loathing 13 bucks a season now? (riceformvp - All-Star - 2:31 PM)

I sure hope so.

How do you anticipate the next 4 years to play out in Smith and Allen with a mix of "old" players and "new" players? (cimmy426 - Hall of Famer - 2:32 PM)

Probably not as much of a noticeable shift as some people are expecting.

Will height and weight ever mean something? (cimmy426 - Hall of Famer - 2:32 PM)

Most likely yes.

How will the updated play-by-play look? (milfhunter - Rookie - 2:34 PM)

It'll be a bit wordier and has a lot more variety. I tried hard to maintain all the useful information that was in the old play-by-play. This new system will make it very easy to add or change phrases as opposed to the old system, which was pretty difficult to change.

Since there is no player position penalty, if a shooting gaurd is set to play the pf position will he still play out on the perimeter like a gaurd should or will he be placed in the post like a post player. (vamrbball - Hall of Famer - 2:35 PM)

Generally anyone playing that position would play inside. On defense he would certainly be inside more.

Will a 7'0" C with 70 LP have an easier time scoring than a 6'4" C with a 70 LP? "With all other ratings being equal" I was told before that height didn't have an effect it was just the ratings. (utvol4life - Hall of Famer - 2:37 PM)

I think the only adjustment that could be made is to account for extreme differences in height. In general, the rating accounts for their height. So you can look at your example like this: the 7'0" player may only be a 50 LP if he were 6'6" instead.

I have a player in DIII who with a work ethic of 70+ stopped improving after his freshman yr. I mean nada, the only thing that improves is his WE which only infuriates me. Will the new tweaks, improvements address this issue? I mean why give him the drive or potential to improve but then not allow him to actually improve? (greezyslick - Hall of Famer - 2:38 PM)

DIII players will definitely have more room to grow once the new recruits begin to filter in. And the slower rate of improvement will elongate that time period of improvement.

How large do you expect the difference to be between the four different offenses? Under the current engine, the difference between triangle, flex, and motion are subtle; how strong of a difference - and what kind of difference - have you put in between the offenses? Have you changed which ratings each offense favors (for instance, flex currently favors speed and perimeter, while triangle likes low post and passing)? (cornfused - Hall of Famer - 2:41 PM)

The idea is always to have each style have it's own strengths and weaknesses to avoid having one style be dominant. I haven't changed much in that aspect.

Has the timeout logic been addressed? At the end of 2 games recently, I've seen my teams call 30 second time outs when we had 4 FULL timeouts on the board...is this cosmetic? Shouldn't we expect more rest/preparation out of a full timeout than a 30 second one? (colonels19 - Hall of Famer - 2:42 PM)

Timeouts will be used a little differently in the new engine. But as the testing process has exposed, we have to be careful about how powerful we make timeouts or they will allow teams to circumvent the fatigue system.

To get this on the record: the actual recruiting process hasn't changed at all, and other than recruit generation being different, we can expect more of the same in that field, right? (cornfused - Hall of Famer - 2:42 PM)

Yes.

Following up on vamrbball's 2:35 question, a player will naturally take more threes as a SG than he would as a PF, right? If that's the case, wouldn't it still be hard to play a "4-out, 1-in" kind of lineup, as the fourth guard would simply try to play like a power forward? What happens to a center played at the 3 or the 4 - would he start trying to shoot the J? (cornfused - Hall of Famer - 2:43 PM)

The type of shots a player takes will depend on his ratings. A high perimeter player will look to shoot from that range, whether he's a SG or a C.

Regarding the number of blocks / assists in a game. It's been mentioned before that you can't tie to a specific end result (either individual or total team or total division), you have to try to factor it all in. Could the answer be that the stats are just more spread out? More guys averaging 1.5 APG, instead of less than 1.0, which would normally be dished by the PG? Or guys averaging .4 BPG, when they should be .1 and the stud C should be picking up the slack? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:45 PM)

Yes, that's an important distinction. When I talk about numbers like that, I'm talking about overall numbers, across all games. So I'm looking at the percentage of blocks per missed shot compared to real life. How those blocks or assists are distributed is a completely different problem. I've tried to address that side of things as well.

Is there any plan to let coaches change players' listed position like in HBD? (cornfused - Hall of Famer - 2:46 PM)

No, I don't think that will be necessary.

With this new release, will coaches have the ability to set up a specific defensive match-up in man-to-man? Such as I want my C guarding his PF or PG guarding SG, etc. (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

Not at this time, but there is definitely room for some more advanced matchup settings.

How has the change to an "in house" RNG changed/affected how the game operates, if at all? (colonels19 - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

You won't see any difference.

Why do you think the Zone defense is generally regarded as the weak link and do you believe it will continue? Did you find anything in the rebuild of the engine that enforced this concept? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:52 PM)

I'm not sure about that. Sometimes perception doesn't always match the truth though. It's possible that the zone's rep wasn't entirely accurate.

Will more countries be added to the international pool of players such as Germany, Australia, South America? (newmex - Hall of Famer - 2:52 PM)

Not right now, but maybe in the future.

Could you speak to the future of the fastbreak as an offense? (dknox - Hall of Famer - 2:56 PM)

In my mind, both fastbreak and fullcourt press should not be base sets. They should be add-ons to a more traditional offense or defense. The question has always been "What happens in the half-court situation?", and that's a valid question. So I think it would work better to have them be separate preference settings to complement a traditional offense and defense.

Are we likely to have fewer instances of teams going entire games without shooting a free throw? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 2:57 PM)

I'd say that will be rare, but crazy things can always happen with all the variables that go into a game.

Will the quality of walk-ons improve? Currently, D1 walk-ons usually have a lesser overall rating than most D3 recruits. (jaisonline - Hall of Famer - 2:58 PM)

Not at this time, possibly in the future.

When you say a shot from the paint will be mostly impacted by LP ratings, does this include a guard driving to the hoop? Basically, with this new engine should we look a lot harder at a guard's LP ratings when recruiting? (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 2:58 PM)

Yes, any shot in the paint. That includes a guard driving to the basket and a big man posting up on the block.

Will the new update include the potential for Carmeloesque players. Say 5 star recruits with the ability to single handedly take a team deep in a tourney? (deaconsport3 - Hall of Famer - 2:59 PM)

That's the idea, we'll see how it plays out.

Hi. I would like to know if you are going to do something about recruit's childhood "favorite" teams. As it is the feature is downright silly. More players in the state of Indiana were huge supporters of Texas A&M Corpus Cristi than the University of Indiana and zero recruits anywhere cheered for my team Indiana State. To me, this should either be fixed or dropped altogether. (kobo - Hall of Famer - 3:00 PM)

I mentioned earlier that there are some minor changes to it in this release. There may be more changes to it down the road.

Any thought toward incorporating in the game hiring assistant coaches that bring unique abilities in areas -- such as recruiting, offense or defense -- that would give you an edge in recruiting or an edge in IQ improvement? (dknox - Hall of Famer - 3:01 PM)

That's an idea that's been around since the game launched and was definitely in our plans at various points. It's still a possibility, but before taking on major new features I want to address any issues with the core of the game.

Thanks for your hard work and the recent changes that have been made. (Especially the rewards points!) Can you tell us anything about the NEXT BIG STEP for HD? (mlatsko1 - Hall of Famer - 3:04 PM)

Well, I think after this release you'll see a lot of little steps instead of big ones. This is such a great game with a tremendous community of coaches, so my choices will be driven by the feedback that you guys provide me. To that end, I'm planning on running a survey at some point after the release to get a more comprehensive idea of what people think is most important.

I'm going to wrap it up now. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for having the patience to wait for this release and a special thanks to everyone who participated in the testing process. ( Moderator - 3:06 PM)

Thanks for all the great questions and apologies to anyone that didn't get an answer.