Developer Chat

This update includes improvements to prestige, NBA draft, redshirting and more. More details can be found in the forums. Feel free to ask about anything in the update or anything about the game in general. Thanks.

How big of a change to prestige are we talking about? Is it going to be a huge change the first season? Will a school's baseline prestige still play a role in the current prestige? (sully712 - Hall of Famer - 2:07 PM)

The baseline prestige component ended up not being nearly as strong as I expected it to be before I began digging into it. There is a very minimal change there. On the other hand, the conference strength factor was pretty significant. In the current logic, the difference between the weakest and strongest conference can mean about a full letter grade of prestige at DI. After the release, that will be reduced to about a third of a letter grade or slightly more.

Can you expand on how prestige has been changed? How much did baseline / conference prestige factor into team prestige before and after the change? Did anything change for prestige calculations for D2 and D3 teams? (reinsel - Hall of Famer - 2:09 PM)

Probably should clarify that the changes to prestige only apply to DI. There will be no change at this point to how DII/DIII prestige is calculated. I would still like to review that at some point though.

Would you consider capping the amount of "A+" and/or "A" schools in D-I as in real life, there aren't close to as many as in whatif or do you expect the recent changes you made to take care of that? Thanks for your time an effort! (umpikes - Hall of Famer - 2:10 PM)

We don't want to artificially cap the number of schools that reach a certain prestige level. I would expect that to work itself out. As some schools rise, others should naturally drop.

CS, I have some concerns about rule change #1. Making some changes to the baseline of schools was a good move and long overdue. However, a teams record can be reflective of the competition one faces; especially if a team is in one of these 'super' conferences. Thus, all win/loss records are not the same across conferences. Can you shed some light on how this will work? (george633 - Hall of Famer - 2:12 PM)

Keep in mind that the way we measure success already accounts for strength of schedule. So the extra component for conference strength was in a way double counting for that.

There has been talk on the forums about eliminating baseline prestige. Is this something to look forward to in a future update? I think it could increase the number of upsets in the first round of the NT which would make it a lot more interesting for the mid-major coaches. (yoijames - Hall of Famer - 2:14 PM)

I don't anticipate eliminating the baseline prestige, but I don't want to say never. It's a tough call because some people want to maintain some semblance of realism related to conference strength, and some people would rather it be much more fluid. So it's a tough balance for us, and impossible to make everyone completely happy.

Will certain schools (i.e. UNC, Duke, etc...) still have a minimum on where the prestige can fall to? Meaning, will Elite's pretty much always be an Elite? (sully712 - Hall of Famer - 2:15 PM)

There is still a minimum for how low a school's prestige can drop, however I am lowering that a bit for DI. So even an elite school may be able to drop lower than previously.

To clarify, that minimum is based on the school's baseline prestige. ( Moderator - 2:16 PM)

Thanks for changing prestige a little. Do you think it will make it possible to develop a real life mid-major into a real life Georgetown, or would we need a floating baseline for that? (mykids_31206 - Hall of Famer - 2:21 PM)

It will certainly make that task easier. I think it's already possible, but it takes a very good coach and the right circumstances.

Does a teams History within a given world affect the teams baseline prestige? i.e. doesn't it make sense to have the history we have built become at least part of the formula? (zhawks - Hall of Famer - 2:22 PM)

No, baseline prestige never changes. The team's prestige changes from season to season based on results, but baseline stays the same for all worlds. I'm not necessarily against what you're suggesting, but that would be a significant change to the system.

Nice update! Could you tell us more about how the redshirt response will judge whether a player is among the worst on the team? Core ratings for his position? if so, his labelled position or his depth chart position? Does whether a player gets minutes in an exhibition factor at all in his decision to accept or reject a redshirt before regular season play begins? thanks (fd343ny - Hall of Famer - 2:25 PM)

Each player will be evaluated by a position-specific formula that weights each rating relative to how important it is for that position. Then the player being redshirted will be ranked within the entire team roster, and his response will factor in that placement. Depth chart is not used for this, just listed position. Minutes in exhibition have no effect.

Are there any changes to a player's willingness to accept a redshirt during the actual recruiting process before signing begins? (Weena - Hall of Famer - 2:28 PM)

The only real change there is that I've removed any reference to "pride" and "envy", the two personality traits that were being used there. After the release it will just look at interest level, position ranking, eligible years, and how the recruit compares to the prestige of the school that's recruiting.

REDSHIRTING: can you explain how the "always the same" outcome rule will interface with the increased probablility of redshirting after an injury based on games missed? If you tried to redshirt pre-injury, are you SOL or will there be some resetting due to the injury? (lakevin - Hall of Famer - 2:36 PM)

A normal redshirt no longer applies if they've played in a regular season game, so the odds of that situation seem small. Medical redshirts are a totally different process, and that seems likely if a player is going to miss significant time.

If a player rejects a redshirt before exhibition games, will he still reject it after not seeing any playing time in those games? (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 2:37 PM)

Yes, the first response will always hold for that season.

If I don't inform of redshirting during recruiting, will the recruit still take the redshirt? In all my seasons, I have never once informed of a redshirt, all but one guy has taken the redshirt. Is the update going to have any effect on this or will it still be easy to redshirt without informing? (yoijames - Hall of Famer - 2:39 PM)

He may still accept it. It depends on his class and how he ranks on the team, along with his position rank during recruiting. I wouldn't say it will be easy, but still very possible.

I have redshirted 3 players in 3 seasons. 1 an incoming freshman who would have never tasken it if I would have attempted during recruiting. The other 2 both So, who were in the lower half of our rated players. They both took it on the second try. As I understand the changes, none of these would have accepted under the new system. Is this correct? (coachvegas44 - Hall of Famer - 2:42 PM)

No, that's not true. There may be some confusion based on what I've posted. The only way that a player would absolutely not accept on a first try is if you informed him of redshirt during recruiting, and then withdrew that. It's not always obvious, but when you do that, it means that you're saying "I won't redshirt you". If you never inform him either way, then his decision will be based on the factors listed earlier.

Is there still some random factor associated with the decision to accept a redshirt, or is it now a foregone conclusion at the end of recruiting? And does the probability evolve over the course of the season? IE might there be a loophole where if you tried to RS a guy pre-season he would reject it, but if you hold him out of the lineup and offer it 12-15 games in he might be more likely to accept as a result of progressing more slowly than players receiving playing time? (dahsdebater - Hall of Famer - 2:43 PM)

That's the very reason that the odds don't change based on how far into the season it is. It would open a major loophole where a coach could hold a player out of the lineup until late in the season in order to improve the odds of acceptance, even though he never intended to play the guy.

Highly approve of the early entry fixes, but do you imagine there will be significantly more EE than before? (stinenavy - Hall of Famer - 2:44 PM)

I don't expect the overall number of early entries to change much.

To clarify exactly when this will go into effect. If a world is currently in season and then gets to the draft at the end of the season, will there be more guards drafted in that draft as the changes were explained? Or not til the following season? (knappj - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

Processes that run at a certain time of the season (e.g. draft, prestige change) will take effect the next time that point of the season hits for each world. The only exception will be the rule related to early entry team caps (changing the max per team to 6 and excluding senior transfers). Worlds will use the old rule for the season in progress and then switch over the season after that.

Is the baseline prestige published anywhere or is this a hidden rating (School and Conference)? (owenj24 - Hall of Famer - 2:49 PM)

It's hidden, but I believe there is a very accurate list in the forums.

Is there going to be any changes to the recruit generation? That seems like the easiest fix and most important fix in the game. (tanzetti - Hall of Famer - 2:49 PM)

There won't be any changes at this time.

Hey Seble, I've noticed that some Coaches have been playing players out of position and having really good success doing so (Like playing PF at PG or SG, SF at PG or C or like C at SF..you get my point). I was wondering if anything was in the works to address these quirks? (r7gordon - Hall of Famer - 2:50 PM)

There are currently no out-of-position penalties in the game. I'd prefer to keep it that way, but if there is a major trend that leads to some unrealistic results, then I'd consider something.

Are there still plans to allow coaches to specify the analysis for scouting trips? (ryanderson - Hall of Famer - 2:51 PM)

The next big target for improvement is recruiting. We're still determining what direction to go, but it could end up being minor tweaks or it could end up being a major overhaul.

In regards to EEs, have you balanced out the guards versus big man problem? Also, you stated that you "removed the strong random factor". Does this mean the scouting reports will be more accurate as to their likelihood of leaving leaving? (lmschwarz - Hall of Famer - 2:53 PM)

Yes, there will be a much better balance between the positions. The current logic incorporates the player's "greed", which is what I was referring to as the major random factor. If that value was low, then he would stay in school regardless, even if projected highly. It's removed in the new logic.

Do you have any concerns that lessening the impact of conference prestige combined with lowering the floor of how far a team's prestige can fall, will result in situations where a BCS team's prestige falls so far in relation to the rest of the teams in the conference that it will be nearly impossible to ressurect that program, and be unattractive for a human coach to take over? (professor17 - Hall of Famer - 2:56 PM)

The lowering of the minimum was a fairly minor change. We'll have to take a wait and see approach to your question though. To me there is still some issue with how much of a recruiting advantage the elite schools have. So there may be changes coming to balance that out a little bit too, making it less daunting to rebuild a low prestige school in an elite conference.

Why was the booster gift option eliminated and can u bring it back? (addyyy - Hall of Famer - 2:59 PM)

It was eliminated because it's rarely used and it carries a very high risk to it. The damage from being busted is pretty severe, and can handicap a school and a coach for a number of seasons. That in turn may encourage that coach to quit playing, which obviously isn't good. If we revamped the feature to make it more useful, that would then undermine the whole recruiting budget system.

I had a freshman who was the only player in that classification to finish in the top 25 in scoring. Please explain why he did not win freshman of the year. It seems to me that if a player is on a winning team he will win the conference award instead of a better player on a losing team. (starfleet3 - Hall of Famer - 2:59 PM)

Scoring is only one aspect of a player's value. Awards are based on the entire stat line as well as team success.

Will any of these changes affect the recruiting budget a school from a smaller conference can earn? (inbayside - Hall of Famer - 3:00 PM)

There aren't any changes yet to recruiting money, but I would still like to review the amount of postseason money that is given out.

Other than REB, ATH and IQ, what goes into the equation of who gets a REBOUND? (Trentonjoe - Hall of Famer - 3:01 PM)

That's essentially it, other than things like fatigue and health.

A timing question - Tark and then Naismith are the guinea pigs for the prestige changes, right? (cornfused - Hall of Famer - 3:03 PM)

I haven't looked at the schedule, but I will likely release this late morning on Tuesday, so whichever worlds finish up after that point.

Will the new formulas for Player Roles allow ranking of GPA and FT%? These are factors I consider regularly. (Weena - Hall of Famer - 3:04 PM)

Currently no, but that might be an addition made later on.

how does the player role system work? (patsrule755 - Hall of Famer - 3:05 PM)

This boils down to a page where you can define any number of custom formulas that produce an overall rating from 0-100. These formulas can then be used on the recruit search page to order players based more on what you as a coach value instead of the standard overall rating.

There have been some recent changes/reductions to the recruiting methods available. There have been requests to modify the information that is returned from scouting evaluations. ie.. can a coach specify which categories are reported on. Any thoughts on adding an additional recruiting tool such as a "complete" scouting option that returns all categories? Maybe the cost is equal to 4-5 scouting trips or even a Campus Visit (Iguana1 - Hall of Famer - 3:06 PM)

There are a lot of people asking for more control over scouting reports and I totally agree. That will be addressed when we tackle the recruiting system.

Can you put preseason tournaments in? (phillyboy107 - Hall of Famer - 3:07 PM)

While that would be a cool feature, it's down the list a ways behind some more important updates.

Will we still be able to use the Player Comparison tool if we use the Player Role formula? In other words, if I build a formula for outside shooting big men, will the Player Comparison tool reflect ratings I use in the formula or will it revert to the standard overall rankings? (Weena - Hall of Famer - 3:08 PM)

Currently that page still uses the standard overall rating, but that's a good place to add player roles. I'll put that on the list.

In previous dev chats, you've mentioned the possibility of changing the way press defenses work. Do you have any updates on this? (wsut - Hall of Famer - 3:09 PM)

That's still on my wish list, but any changes to game planning will probably come after we address recruiting.

With the baseline prestige change, is there a cap for the lower prestige teams? I have a baseline prestige "C" school that has done well but can't ever get to "A" even with multiple first round picks. Will this change make it easier or will it not really have an affect on this sort of thing? (drsnell - Hall of Famer - 3:10 PM)

This change should help mid-level teams climb in prestige.

I'm thrilled that we'll be able to see previous seasons' tournament brackets, but I have to ask: will we ever be able to see previous season player stats? Player ratings? Box scores? (jetwildcat - Hall of Famer - 3:12 PM)

I sure hope so. The past tournament info was already available, so that was a relatively easy change. However, we currently don't save all the player and game information due to the large amount of data that would be. I plan on making it happen at some point though.

Guys, thanks for all the great questions. Apologies for any that went unanswered. ( Moderator - 3:14 PM)

Thanks for joining the Dev Chat.