Yesterday I threw together a dynasty to do some recruiting. It seemed like you had to scout the players before you could recruit them. Is this accurate? It seems like a realistic idea, but based on the setup of the recruiting screen it seemed like I was missing something.
Hez did you try it yet?
I messed around with Dynasty -- Heisman difficulty for Gameplay and Recruiting -- a little bit last night when I got home from work. My initial impression is that Recruiting is much different this year -- in terms of strategy -- than it has been in recent years. Here's why:
- As in NCAA '12, you start the season by placing up to 35 prospects on your recruiting board. What's different, though, is that there are not nearly as many prospects initially interested in your program as last year.
In '12, you could have up to 100+ prospects interested in your school, and those would be the only ones you could recruit as it was impossible to break into a prospect's already-set Top 10.
In '13, there are only 30-50 prospects initially interested in your program, but you are not limited to only these recruits. Recruits no longer have a preset Top 10. Some may have a Top 5, Top 3, or only interest in one school in the preseason. If that's the case, then there are open spots in that recruit's Top 10 that allows schools to jump into the race for that recruit, even if the prospect wasn't initially interested in the school.
-Then, there's Scouting, which adds a whole new dimension to recruiting, but sucks up more of your time. As I've mentioned in previous posts, there is now a Gem/Bust component of recruiting. When are searching for prospects to place on your board, in addition to the player's star rating and position ranking, it informs you what his OVR rating would be as a freshman if his initial measurables were correct.
However, those measurables are generally incorrect. Hence, Scouting. In the preseason, you are allotted 20 hours for Scouting. The more minutes you use to scout an individual prospect, the better idea you have whether this player is better or worse than initially thought. Once you have scouted a prospect 100%, you will know what his OVR rating will be when he enrolls as a freshman. If the OVR rating is +/- 6 points from his original rating once completely scouted, then he is labeled a Gem or a Bust.
For example, last night I was recruiting the No. 1 tackle with an initial 85 OVR. After scouting him 100%, he dropped 12 points to a 73 OVR, labeling him as a bust. Also, I was recruiting one of the top CBs who had a initial 76 OVR. After scouting him 50%, he had jumped four points to an 80 OVR. Since I hadn't fully scouted him yet, he could still drop a bunch of points, but I believe he was better than originally anticipated.
-Once you get into the season, you will be allotted 10 hours for recruiting and three separate hours for scouting each week. Recruiting is similar to last year's game but there are a few changes:
-There are now dynamic pitches -- Playing Style, Championship Contender, etc. -- that can change weekly and yearly. For example, Michigan's grade for Pro Potential is only a C+ this year because we haven't put many players in the draft in recent years. However, if you perform well on the field, more players will get drafted each year and, in turn, your Pro Potential grade will improve.
-There is no longer the "slot machine" version of selecting pitches. You get to choose your pitches, or even let the prospect choose a pitch for you.
-The amount points you can gain with an individual recruit each week have changed. It seems more varied this year. I think you can get 100-150 points on a single pitch if the it's the recruit's "Most" important, while only garnering 5-10 points if it's his "Least". Therefore, you better make sure you using pitches the recruits want to hear.
-You no longer have to wait until Week 3 or 4 for recruits to be ready to take a visit. Some recruits may be ready to visit in Week 1.
-There are no more recruits that magically appear after the season, so who you see in the beginning is what you get.
I think I have covered most of recruiting. To answer your question, Ziff, while you don't have to use Scouting, you probably should. If you don't, you may think you're recruiting players in the mid- to high-70s who actually may be busts and only in the mid-60s. Also, the scouting feature may help you find 3*s who have ratings in the high-70s, which will be huge for our programs with 3/4* prestige level.
This may not be the most clear explanation available, but as you can tell, there's a lot more to recruiting this year than before. You can no longer just hope there's a 4/5* interested in you and then recruit the hell out of him. Oh, no. Now, you have to make sure he's still actually worthy of that rating and make sure you have a backup plan if he isn't.
It'll be a lot of fun -- and time-consuming -- for our dynasty. I struggled with it a bit last night, so I'm hoping to figure out a successful strategy as I play it in the coming days.
If you have any other questions, let me know.