They've needed to revamp the whole recruiting system for a while, sounds like they may have got it right (or at least better than it was).
Nice, well done then sir. I will continue following this to hear what you guys end up doing on the coach progression. Like many, I am curious what speed will represent the best balance for ODs. One question though, is the lack of insta commits without having the coach skill part of what makes recruiting so tough? I know I used that feature a lot in my recruiting strategy in the past (not offering a guy until he had my school at #1).
It definitely plays a significant part. An insta-commit saves you a ton of points over the course of the season.
Let's also talk about visits for a second: -Scheduling visits later in the season gives you 100-300 point bonus on average. - There are several dynamics that come into play when scheduling visits aside from what order they are from the recruits perspective. Competitive and complimentary visits discount and add bonus points based on who is visiting that week. This complicates things as you will have to not only schedule around a recruit's unbooked weeks, but also the weeks where you don't have guys coming in that would qualify you for the competitive visit penalty. - There is a coach skill that improves your bonus points on a visit. Pretty powerful as it can allow you to make up critical ground on a guy with a good visit. Likewise, it can also help you lock other teams out (and thus stand a good chance of landing a commitment).
So, if I understand it, you get a visit penalty if you have multiple guys at the same position visiting in the same week?
Sounds like I'll be filling yet another notebook with recruiting notes. I'm trying to figure if it would be prudent to break your recruiting class into 2 or 3 groups. Making each group is just complimentary players and then invite group A in week 8, group B week 9, group C week 11 or something.
It prompts you if you are about to schedule either one. So not really a big deal. Just have to pay attention when you set the visits. A recruit can only take 5 visits, so you are very limited to what you can deal with (much like in real life, you have to cater to the prospect's timeline).
All relative to the recruit. For a guy on a shorter timeline (will reach lock out point in weeks 8-10), getting a visit in at week 8, 9 or 10 may be ideal. For other recruits with a longer timeline, weeks 12, 13, 14 and 15 have a lot of value if you have a game. But even a bye week may be a good option if you are getting enough of a bonus.
What about losing a bunch of players to the draft? like you have 2 spots left from regular recruiting then lose 5+ to transfers/draft? can you recruit 7+ guys in the offseason?
Just to confirm that as a HC you have access to your own offensive and defensive trees in addition to game management and recruiting trees
If I understand things correctly, you lock out other teams by building a big lead. If this is correct, would it be a good strategy to have guys in early for visits, ignoring the "late visit bonus" so that you can lock out other teams (who I'm assuming wouldn't be able to have him in for a visit at all)?
If it's possibly, yes. Whenever you can lock someone out, you want to do it. They can get back into it if they have the locksmith coaching skill, but it still bodes well for you. The lock point is a % deviation from the total points a recruit needs to commit. So it's different for every player. After the lock point you are in a 'battle' with other school and it's just an all out bidding war as you try to build a big enough lead to have them fall beyond the lock point. If that never happens then the battle moves into the offseason.
