Developer Chat

It's been awhile since I've been active in the forums discussing the upcoming changes, so I figured a chat would be a good thing. I want to focus mainly on the changes that are coming, so fire away questions.

So anxious for the update. Any idea how soon it will be going into testing? (chapelhillne - Hall of Famer - 11:03 AM)

I'm hoping to open up testing to you guys in a month or so. I still have some implementation and testing to do myself and then we'll do some internal testing.

Are you planning on making a new world anytime soon? Because I was not here early enough to experience one and that seems like the most exciting time in HD (MonsterTurtl - Hall of Famer - 11:04 AM)

We don't have any plans to open new worlds. At this point, our focus is improving the game and bringing in people to fill up the current worlds.

Where do we stand with the proposed updates? (dan2044 - Hall of Famer - 11:06 AM)

I have the basic structure of the new recruiting system in place. I still need to add a few secondary pieces to it and do some testing. I'm also still tuning the budget amounts and value of certain recruiting actions relative to factors like prestige.

1) Will there still be an indicator (WOTS or scholarship message) to let you know if you’re ahead/behind in a battle? (darnoc29099 - Hall of Famer - 11:09 AM)

Right now the plan is to display a recruit's interest level in each school (well, up to 10 schools). That will show Very High, High, Moderate, Low, or Very Low. However, that won't tell you exactly who's in the lead. But a key change in the new system is that the leading team won't sign the player 100% of the time. The top teams on the considering list will all have a chance, based on the total points they've accumulated through recruiting actions. The leading team will still have the highest odds of signing the player.

Do you have any plans for making your recruiting messages more appropriate to the history of a coach's recruiting efforts with the player? E.g. It makes no sense for a player who at one time sent an email stating "I can't wait to sign" to later send an email (after another team swoops in) and say "I don't really know much about your program." It can be highly annoying (think insult to injury) to receive an email from that same recruit sounding as if you were never even in consideration. (gberry - Hall of Famer - 11:11 AM)

At this point, I'm not sure how much messaging you'll get from the player. To me, managing messages was pretty overwhelming and annoying, so the new system will present as much info as possible through the recruiting pages, instead of burying things in messages.

You mention that your focus is bringing in people to fill up the current worlds. Can you talk a bit about the plans to do this? Any new marketing campaigns or advertisements? Perhaps a new promo discount? What are your previous methods of drawing new people in and what's been working? (Benis - Hall of Famer - 11:13 AM)

We always have some promotions around March Madness, which we'll do again this year. We'll also make a push after this update to bring back people that used to play HD but quit. Beyond that, we have some other ideas, but we're probably not going to be able to run major ad campaigns any time soon. We just don't have the budget.

Is there any chance of adjusting the amount of time we have for the first cycle? For example, is it possible that as soon as the draft occurs, we could go ahead and start recruiting, even though it would be a couple of days before the cycles start running. (chapelhillne - Hall of Famer - 11:16 AM)

In the new system, the recruiting/scouting schedule is much different. You'll be able to start scouting pretty much from the start of the season. Then the first recruiting period will begin mid-way through the season. The second recruiting period will be after the job period. It's also important to note that many actions will now be immediate. The only recruiting action that is still tied to a cycle is attention points (which replaces letters/calls). Those will accumulate each cycle. But visits, promises, etc. will process immediately.

How long do you predict it will be until all worlds are changed to new update? (whitey34 - Hall of Famer - 11:18 AM)

The plan is that once we're ready for release, we'll pause each world after the recruiting period. Once all worlds have been paused, we'll release the update and convert some data to the new structure. Then we'll restart worlds in the order of pausing to keep them spaced out.

How are recruit rankings determined? It can't be random, is there a formula? Is it based on current ratings or potential? (bjb2378 - Hall of Famer - 11:19 AM)

Recruits are ranked based on a combination of current ratings, GPA, FT shooting, and a few other things.

Is the basic framework of recruiting options (HV. CV, ST, promises, etc) going to remain the same? (Trentonjoe - Hall of Famer - 11:21 AM)

Yes, those options will still exist.

One of the HUGE fears that I have is that recruits will not be "seen" by coaches at all points during recruiting. Even if a recruit were not "scouted" I believe that all coaches should be aware of his existence and be able to take a scouting action on any existing recruit during recruiting. Can you comment on whether this will be the case or will it be more like International Free Agents in HBD? (rogelio - Hall of Famer - 11:21 AM)

The top 100 ranked recruits will be visible and recruitable by all coaches. Beyond that, a coach will only be able to recruit the guys that have been scouted through the various scouting options. To unlock all recruits would defeat the purpose of the new scouting system.

I've been on here for many many seasons. I've really gotten to a point that the SIM's should have the same geographic restrictions that human coaches do. I know you'll say it keeps more of a competitive balance allowing SIMS to treat all recruits as though they are 250 miles away or less. The ONLY time a SIM ever beats me is if they are absolutely loaded with upper classmen. (timbo71 - Hall of Famer - 11:23 AM)

In the new system, SimAI teams will recruit much like humans do. The scouting will be a little different, but still limited by budget, and they will scout recruits within a certain distance for the most part. So I think you'll see AI teams be much more realistic geographically.

How do you sign up for the testing of the new update? (obituaryconc - Hall of Famer - 11:25 AM)

At some point, we'll post in the HD forum to ask for testing volunteers. From there we'll pick as many as we can.

Would you agree that several previous updates have resulted in the net loss of coaches? Are you concerned this new update will do the same? (joeykw18 - Hall of Famer - 11:26 AM)

For the most part, I don't think it has been updates that have caused people to leave. We took a major hit during the recession and haven't fully recovered. On top of that, we haven't had as many resources to work on the games as we'd like, so that has caused some people to give up on the game.

What changes, if any, will there be to recruit generation? (therewas47 - Hall of Famer - 11:27 AM)

The only changes to recruit generation will be adding some deeper preferences that will come into play based on the school's pursuing him.

How big of a learning curve are you expecting, there are still a lot of things people don't know about the current system, it seems like it could take months maybe even years to get a strong knowledge. Is someone good at recruiting going to be well prepared, or are we going to see bad recruiters magically good because they don't know what they are doing and it somehow works? (the0nlyis - Hall of Famer - 11:30 AM)

If anything, I think this system is more straightforward in a lot of ways. The whole messaging aspect of the current system causes a lot of confusion. There was also some overly complex logic in place that sometimes caused weird things to happen. I'm focusing on making the new system user-friendly and hopefully fun.

Since most of the issues related to this game are related to DI, is it possible we can change the game play of DI, and leave DII and DIII basically the way they are? (dan2044 - Hall of Famer - 11:31 AM)

The recruiting changes will affect all divisions. This update isn't just to fix issues, it's also meant to improve gameplay.

Is the length of the season going to change at all? (Trentonjoe - Hall of Famer - 11:32 AM)

Yeah, the season will end up being a little longer due to the second recruiting period, but not by a whole lot.

would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck? (dacj501 - Hall of Famer - 11:32 AM)

1 horse-sized duck.

How are the camps going to work exactly? Like holding camps at my D3 school. Will only D3 talent come? Will some D2 talent come that is your traditional "pulldown" options? Or will there be such thing as a pulldown? As in, anybody is recruitable, it is up to the coach to decide if they have a shot at that talent? (jaymc2007 - Hall of Famer - 11:34 AM)

There will be a handful of public camps scattered throughout the country that any team can attend. In addition, each school can hold one private camp. The recruits attending each are randomly chosen and will include all talent levels.

"But a key change in the new system is that the leading team won't sign the player 100% of the time." This statement is somewhat concerning. It almost sounds like it's going to be a lottery when it gets down to the final few teams. Are you able to speak more about this? (joeykw18 - Hall of Famer - 11:35 AM)

I didn't like how in the current system, if Team A had 1000 points and Team B had 999, Team A would sign that player every time. In the new system, Team B would have a decent shot of signing him.

Will you still have ridiculous situations where recruits seem to think "this school gave me 100 home visits, but this one gave me 150, so I like them more"? (jetwildcat - Hall of Famer - 11:37 AM)

Campus visits will be limited to one per team/recruit. There is no strict limit on home visits for a team/recruit, but the budget will limit that.

If we can't pull down recruits any more, why have players you can't recruit come to your camp? (hughesjr - Hall of Famer - 11:38 AM)

As of now, theoretically, a school can sign any recruit in the new system. So there's no need for the pull-down or drop-down process.

Do you think recruiting will involve more randomness or more skill after the update? (therewas47 - Hall of Famer - 11:39 AM)

It will be mostly skill, but there will be a bit of luck involved.

If a player comes to your school's private camp, does that mean he is recruitable by your school? (obituaryconc - Hall of Famer - 11:39 AM)

Yes, all recruits attending a camp that your team attends or hosts become recruitable.

Under the new recruiting system - Will the top prestige teams automatically show up on a number of the top 100 recruits interest list because they are the top programs? How much will playing time factor into top 100 recruits decision process? (gvsujulius - Hall of Famer - 11:40 AM)

Teams must actively recruit a player to appear on his list.

how will promised playing time and guaranteed starts be evaluated by the recruits in the new engine? (victorzhao - Hall of Famer - 11:40 AM)

They'll still be very important. I'm still tuning those kind of things.

Is there going to be a certain point where Team A is going to get the recruit 100% like if team A is 1000 points and team B is 100 points or even 200 points? (the0nlyis - Hall of Famer - 11:41 AM)

Only teams at Moderate or higher interest level can sign a player, so in your example, Team A would probably get him due to Team B being lower interest level.

when you say the leading team wont always sign the recruit it seems as if that may be very disastrous to teams that focus soley on their needs in recruting, say a team aonly has 2 openings and recruits 2 players they could spend their whole budget and lead but still not end up signing anyone. do you fore see this as an issue? (all2matt - Hall of Famer - 11:43 AM)

I don't think it will be an issue. Will you have some bad luck at times? Sure, but you'll also have good luck. We'll see how it plays out during testing.

With the private camps and discovering talent... Will it be 100% random? Or will I bring in like 50 recruits who are my prestige level and 50 random recruits (good or bad)? (jaymc2007 - Hall of Famer - 11:44 AM)

It's random based on geography. For public camps, you'll see an overall grade to give you an idea of the talent level.

Will there be any changes to recruiting in terms of users poaching? An example being, coach A has a C+ prestige and has been the only team the player is considering; the cycle prior to signing coach B with an A+ prestige begins to recruit said player and the A+ prestige wins out the majority of the time. I think this might be a sample reason why new users don't stay on. Obviously its not either owners fault, it just seems like a flaw in how a recruit reacts to certain prestige levels. (beachhouse - Hall of Famer - 11:47 AM)

Not all recruits will sign at the same time, so I don't think this kind of thing is a problem. In the current system, a recruit will make a decision based on point differential between the leading team and the rest. In the new system, each recruit has a pre-determined signing tendency that will determine when he makes his decision. Some will sign right away, while others will wait.

You said your team can host one private camp and there will be "a handful" of public camps any team can attend, and those players will be available to recruit. Are there other ways to make players available to recruit by your team? Can you please list all the ways to make that happen? Thanks. (bistiza - Hall of Famer - 11:49 AM)

The scouting options are: Public camps, Private camps, Scouting Service, and Assistant Coach Trip. The scouting service will work somewhat like the FSS system does now, where you purchase by state. The assistant trip will allow you to set some basic parameters and have your coach go find X number of recruits.

what is your guess as to the time required to be a diligent recruiter as a participant in the game after the changes you plan - about the same as now? less? more? twice are much total hours? just a guess. (metsmax - Hall of Famer - 11:50 AM)

I think it will take about the same time or less really. The nice thing is that most of the new system can be done on your schedule, so there's less of a requirement to check back every 3 hours.

How much impact is distance going to have in this update, right now distance is 1a or 1b on the importance factor for recruiting. (the0nlyis - Hall of Famer - 11:51 AM)

I would say it'll be about the same or less important. Much of that depends on the cost of scouting/recruiting distance. Those numbers are still changing.

Under this new system can we expect promises to mean alot more? I find it difficult to believe that 4 or 5 star guys would turn down the chance to start for a good team to ride the bench for 2 years for a great team (jmfisc06 - Hall of Famer - 11:52 AM)

It'll depend somewhat on the recruit's preferences. Some will really want to play right away, while others may not care as much.

3) With each school now getting pre-determined numbers of HVs and CVs, is distance a factor anymore? In other words, if I coach in NY it doesn’t matter if I use my CV for a kid in NY or CA-the cost and effect are still the same? Same question for scouting kids and bringing them into camps. If it’s $25 or $50 to scout a kid and get information, is that the same price whether the kid is from the East or West coast? (darnoc29099 - Hall of Famer - 11:54 AM)

This questions highlights one thing that has changed since the earlier discussions. I've gone away from having a set number of visits for each school and moved to a budget model. There was no other way to account for distance. So each team will have a separate scouting budget and recruiting budget.

4) You said “Scouting actions won’t count at all toward recruiting a player like they do now. It’s purely to gather information and determine your targets.” But you also say players won’t accept HVs or CVs until they’ve garnered significant interest from your school-what tools are we using to get recruits interested in us? (darnoc29099 - Hall of Famer - 11:55 AM)

Attention points.

5) With a camp, we are going to uncover letter grades for players instead of starting ratings. Certain categories can be linear between D1 and D3; an elite shooter is an elite shooter. But I consider a mediocre D1 athletic guard to have ATH/SP ratings of, say, 70-75, or a C letter grade. If a D3 guard gets a C letter grade in ATH/SP, are his starting ratings also 70-75 or are they scaled back for D3, so maybe 45-50? (darnoc29099 - Hall of Famer - 11:55 AM)

Letter grades are on the same scale for all divisions, so a C for a DIII player is the same as a C for a DI player.

Is there a level of effort a team can reach in which the recruit pretty much says, "ok you've done enough, ill sign with you. Or does the team have to continue to put effort? (kevodaphenom - Hall of Famer - 11:57 AM)

As I mentioned, the recruit will sign based on a pre-determined tendency. I think you'll want to monitor the interest level that he has in your school vs. other schools, and there may be cases where you feel confident that you can shift your attention elsewhere without losing him.

Why do you feel scouting and recruiting budgets need to be split? One of my favorite things about the current model is the flexibility between the two. (therewas47 - Hall of Famer - 11:59 AM)

I like having them split to keep things on a more level ground. If they weren't split, a team could get lucky and find a target right away without spending much on scouting, then have a major advantage in recruiting. It also keeps new coaches from blowing the entire budget on scouting and leaving nothing for recruiting.

In the current system having back up recruiting options (i.e, having more players considering your team than having spots available) is currently viewed as a "weakness" and makes one more susceptible to "poaching" (whether or not that really exists). I am assuming this update will alter this and allow teams to truly recruit back up options in case their primary options don't pan out? (possumfiend - Hall of Famer - 12:00 PM)

Yeah, it'll be a good idea to have backup options in place.

Can you explain the changes to the schedule with respect to recruiting, jobs, and EEs? How do those all fit together now? (gillispie1 - Hall of Famer - 12:02 PM)

The first recruiting period runs from mid-season until the start of the postseason. There is a dead period then until the second period, which is after the job period. So coaches who change jobs may have an opportunity to do some recruiting for their new team. Also, coaches who lose players early to the draft will have a chance then to fill those openings.

Still a ton of questions, so I'll keep going for a little bit. ( Moderator - 12:03 PM)

Some coaches enjoy the game the way it is. Could you possibly accommodate them by leaving one or two worlds the way they are, with the game being played the same as it is now in those worlds? (bistiza - Hall of Famer - 12:03 PM)

Unfortunately, no. I hope those coaches will keep an open mind about the changes.

Is geography the most important thing when discovering recruits in this new system of provate camps? Because I feel like I am going to find better talent in NYC then if my college is located in Alaska.. (jaymc2007 - Hall of Famer - 12:05 PM)

You can look at it two ways. In NYC, you'll have more of a pool to draw from, but you probably won't be able to scout all the players in that region. In a sparser area, you should be able to scout most or all of the available talent.

If internationals don't come to camps and aren't in the scouting service, how will we "see" them? (CoachSpud - Hall of Famer - 12:06 PM)

I'm still trying to figure out how best to handle internationals. Maybe we'll add scouting service packages for those guys.

Sign right away? After signing starts tough, right? There will still be a signing day/time for both periods that signing actually begins. So guys don't sign 1 hour after the period for scouting opens up. (hughesjr - Hall of Famer - 12:07 PM)

Sorry, yes. The signing period starts about 3 days after the first recruiting period. Signings can then take place until the end of the second recruiting period.

What happens to the recruits that no coach "sees?" (CoachSpud - Hall of Famer - 12:09 PM)

There shouldn't be too many that go completely unseen, but at the end of recruiting, SimAI teams will scoop up the leftovers to fill any remaining openings.

To address all the non-recruiting questions: There won't be any real changes to the rest of the game (other than an updated UI). I'm aware of the other issues in the game, but they'll have to wait for a future update. ( Moderator - 12:10 PM)

Did anything on the proposed list get cut, or pushed out beyond the planned release? (guyo26 - Hall of Famer - 12:13 PM)

Nothing major has been cut at this point, but some things have changed, like the recruiting budget replacing set number of home/campus visits.

Will there be any tweaks to things like 'Word on the Street'?; perhaps more of a random timing for it. (beachhouse - Hall of Famer - 12:14 PM)

Currently I don't have any plans to include Word on the Street. You'll always be able to see interest levels of the considering list.

Earlier you mentioned that worlds will be paused so all receive the update at the same time - does this mean worlds will be delayed up to a month? (dal8847 - Hall of Famer - 12:15 PM)

Yes, there will be a delay involved. There's no other realistic way to do it.

Will we still get the same information regarding the potential of recruits in their rating categories? (therewas47 - Hall of Famer - 12:15 PM)

Yes, you can get to the same potential info that you get now.

If a coach has 2 openings but is high interest on 3 recruits, will the coach get to decide who his top options to sign are? And will everyone sign with teams at the same time? And finally, is a coach guaranteed to be able to sign the amount of recruits per scholarship available, or does that have some randomness also? (dan2044 - Hall of Famer - 12:17 PM)

The players can make a decision at any time in the signing period, so you may want to hold off offering scholarships to backup options.

"As of now, theoretically, a school can sign any recruit in the new system. So there's no need for the pull-down or drop-down process." "Yes, all recruits attending a camp that your team attends or hosts become recruitable." How are you going to explain to new coaches that "theoretically recruitable" in fact includes players that are actually out of their reach? (CoachSpud - Hall of Famer - 12:18 PM)

I don't think new coaches will have any concept of "their reach". That's really an HD concept, so that will be an adjustment for existing coaches.

What changes to bonus money were decided upon, for each division? (gillispie1 - Hall of Famer - 12:19 PM)

Undecided on bonus money.

Is there going to be a change in the way transfers work? You mentioned previously that it was being discussed that transfers will sit out a season just like in real life. I'd love for that to be implemented. (Benis - Hall of Famer - 12:20 PM)

As of now, the plan is for them to be recruitable in the second recruiting period.

Ok, I think I've hit on most of the recruiting topics. It won't be too much longer until we can start testing and you guys will get to experience it first-hand. Thanks again for the questions. ( Moderator - 12:21 PM)

Thanks for all the questions.