TCY 2 wishlist/suggestions

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Axxon
Do you have the link to this app handy??

http://fofutils.webstrikesolutions.com/tcyhelper/

[Axxon]

Originally posted by SkyDog
http://fofutils.webstrikesolutions.com/tcyhelper/

Thanks a bunch.

[dacman]

TCY Helper is an awsome utility -- having an "apply" button for the changes it suggested and actually having that adjust the time settings for my players as Skydog suggests would be simply MAH-valous.

Some suggestions of mine:

--Ability to select the permanent non-conference opponent when I first start the game with a new team (barring any massive scheduling changes).

--More logical home/away series; it's simply annoying to have to play my archrivals at their place 3 years in a row. (Yeah I know it balances out in the long run).

--It's already been mentioned, but I'll say it again, RECRUIT FILTERS! And also, dumber recruits in general (too many brainiacs, IMHO).

--Ability to select recruits on a region, not just a state. It's simply tedious to have to click through all the New England states when I'm looking for a recruit from any of them.

--Some sort of system that allows a few more invited walk-ons. Say maybe 20 players per year max with 16 max on scholie. In short, I think the hard 16 per year limit is a little bit too small as just 1-2 injuries or academic casulties in the same position group and suddenly I have a total scrub game-generated walk-on on the depth chart.

--Speaking of injuries and position groups, maybe a review of injuries? My DT's and DE's are notorious for getting injured -- my CB's almost never do.

[Solecismic]

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. A couple of them did make it into version 1.2, which is now available for download.

Version 1.2 is a free update for everyone who owns The College Years.

If you bought the game on CD, there's a download that includes an update utility you can use. It's about a 1.2M download.

If you bought the downloadable eLicensed version of the game, just download the executable (about 4.2M) from the site and run the full installation program. You shouldn't have to do anything with the license itself, as long as it's already licensed properly.

Please make sure you download the right version of the update. Smaller download for the CD version, larger one for the eLicensed version. They won't work with each other.

You can continue old careers after updating, though the scheduling might seem a bit odd given that South Florida and Utah State have changed conferences. Those two teams will continue to play as independents (but will play a schedule based on their new affiliations) until you begin a new career.
Once you've updated, you can't go back to an older version of the game without losing your saved careers.

[sabotai]

Well, I guess it's time I do what the FAQ does and send a letter to Jim to get my reg code. NCAA 2004 and TCY 1.2 in the same week. College football overdose...

[Noop]

Thanks Jim



noop

[tucker342]

Awesome!

Thanks Jim

[33sherman]

Woo-hoo!

Thanks Jim.

[Vince]

I'll chime in my thanks as well

[Leonidas]

I've been thinking more and more about this and it's become very obvious to me what all the Solecismic games really need. First, I am preaching to the choir, but they gotta get some online play. No more comment needed, it's been hammered time and again.

Next, and this is a must, have the ability to import dynasties from previous additions of the game. I'm going to hit the wall before too long on buying new games that don't support previous work. I have little incentive to buy a whole new game after working on a dynasty I am in love with and don't want to lose. I think Solecismic is really losing sales by not doing this. OOTP understands this and benefit greatly from it. When I first bought these games and got on this forum there were many, many members still using the older versions of FOF, and I bet many of them weren't buying the new games for this very reason.

I may get incentive to buy a new TCY if it has enough new features, but I think I am tapped out on any new FOF games without this ability.

[digamma]

The new time management screen is a welcome feature.

[Hijinx]

Originally posted by A-Husker-4-Life
This is already in the game... I just recruited a players son this last weekend, his name is Harvey Williams Jr... His dad was a HOF Linebacker for my husker dynasty... I found that you have to wait about 20 years after the player's been added to the HOF but it doesn't always happen...

Yea, I had never seen it before but I did notice your thread about the legacy recruit.

nifty, my bad.

[Runtheball]

It would be nice to see the average weight of OL come down a little. I haven't done any research on this, (and I'm sure Jim HAS) but I doubt that the average weight of OL in college is over 300 pounds. I suspect that the weight training setting simply has too much effect on player weight, and should be toned-down a little bit.

I thought the weights were too high, so I did a check of 3 teams at random and found weights that seemed to average about 315-320. Some (and I don't mean just one or two) of these bubbas were over 340 pounds!

Seems like something that could be fixed with a very minor adjustment.

[Swaggs]

A couple things that I would like to see:

• New D-I schools emerging as the game progresses. Teams like Marshall, UCF, and UConn are all relatively new to D-I, it would be neat to see new teams come into play at different points in time (like expansion teams did in set years in prior versions of FOF).
• I really want to see conference expansion/contraction and extinction. If I play 75 seasons, the landscape of the game will likely change. Adding the emerging teams and the conference changing would be great.
• Options to increase the amount of players per team. As SkyDog was saying, most of us have bigger computers now, so if it is possible to have 85 scholarship players and our computers can handle it, adding that option would be nice.

After playing NCAA '04, I really want to get immersed in a TCY universe.

[tucker342]

Swaggs, I agree with all three of those ideas. Especially number one and number two. I think that having new teams join div-1 would be great, but even more important would be teams switching conferences

[Upstate J]

I really think there should be at least coaching salaries added. On school with lower academics, prestige, etc. could offer you, other coaches a lot more money to come to their school.

The amount of money could be configured into the final score/coach (player) rating. Allowing you to score higher points for just improving a bad school that's paying you a ton to do so. Also, if you do poor at a higher paying school, you could get replaced easier.

Just some in-depth ideas.

[Runtheball]

Been playing another season, and some of the things that have always bothered me are coming to mind. Hopefully Jim is reading and will keep a list of things to address in the next version. If you're reading this Jim, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the game, but there is always room for improvement.

- Why is it that even though I set my starting QB playing time at 2, and we are winning by 31 points, the starting QB takes every snap until the last minute of the 4th quarter? According to the help file, a playtime setting of 1 means the player will sub out "as much as 1/2 of the time". This doesn't seem to be working as intended.

- It would be very cool to be able to make adjustments at half-time. At a minimum, a few roster adjustments and a change of defensive alignments should be allowed.

- The overall number of penalties seems way too high. My team has averaged about 10 penalties per game every season for the last 20 seasons. Many games we have over 13 penalties! Seems too high.

- Overall, it takes too many "clicks" to navigate around the interface. I admit this is a minor problem, but it would be nice if there could be some type of consolidation of some of the game screens, larger windows with more info per window, or heavier reliance on pull-down menus. It'd be nice if we didn't have to close one window before opening another (for example, if we didn't have to close the box scores window before opening the depth chart window).

[Dutch]

Hmmmm.....that reminds me. How about when you're team is winning by 25+ points, an option to pull some of your starters for the younger guys to get experience?

[Runtheball]

A few more things to be addressed in TCY2:

How is it that a RB that has 5 rushes for 28 yards, no TD, no returns and no receptions, gets 3 stokes? How is it that during the same game a guard that has 8 key run blocks, a fumble recovery, and no sacks allowed gets 0 stokes? The logic for awarding stokes seems to need a revision.

Also, if the penalty logic is in any way tied to the player that commits the penalty, then it would be nice to see that player's name & number called out along with the penalty. That way we can do something about the number of penalties that are generated.

All TE have an Avoid Fumbles rating of 0. Doesn't seem to matter, as my TEs don't fumble much.

[rjolley]

The penalties are probably not attached to a player because that's the way the NCAA does it. Stupid rule to me, but what can ya do?

[MylesKnight]

Revamped Tournament/Playoff Brackets

I'd like to see things not pre-determined in terms of which teams get Byes in the 1st Round of the Tournament. The way it is now, the Conference Champions of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, C-USA, MWC, Pac-10, and SEC get byes each and every year, regardless of their ranking.

The problem is, at least in my Dynasty, the Champions of the Mid-American, WAC, Sun Belt, Solecismic 8, and the Independents have at many times been ranked well ahead of the winner of one of the 8 Conferences listed above that receive 1st Round Byes. For instance, year in and year out, SMU or Rice has won the WAC and finished the Regular Season ranked in the Top 10 of the BCS Standings, while the winner of the Mountain West in any given year has been ranked somewhere in the area of 25-30 or so the majority of the time (although not in the example bracket I have listed below). Why should the MWC Team get the Bye?

I'd like to see the format changed to instead have the seedings go strictly by final Regular Season BCS Rankings (More on this later..)

Here's an example of a typical NCAA Tournament in my Dynasty..

24 Teams that Qualified for Tournament:  

  -  14 Conference Champions  (Including MAC West Champ/MAC Title Game Loser Toledo...
          ...Only 13 Conferences in Game.  See **** Below for explanation)
  -  10 At-Large Bids, Chosen by Ranking in Final BCS Regular Season Poll

#    Team

1.   Florida       (SEC Champion)
2.   Michigan      (Big Ten Champion) 
3.   Stanford      (At-Large)
4.   Miami         (Big East Champion)
5.   Georgia Tech  (ACC Champion)
6.   Oklahoma      (Big 12 Champion)
7.   Iowa State    (At-Large)
8.   Rice          (At-Large)
9.   Tulane	   (At-Large)
10.  Air Force     (MWC Champion)
11.  SMU           (WAC Champion)
12.  Northwestern  (At-Large)
13.  La.-Lafayette (Sun Belt Champion)
14.  Southern Cal  (At-Large)
15.  Notre Dame    (Independents Champion)
16.  Penn State    (At-Large)
17.  UCLA          (Pac-10 Champion)
18.  East Carolina (At-Large)
19.  Navy          (At-Large)
20.  Pittsburgh    (At-Large)
22.  Miami of Ohio (MAC Eastern Division & Overall Champion)
31.  Toledo        (MAC Western Division Champion & Title Game Loser)
49.  Memphis       (C-USA Champion)
60.  Alaska Tech   (Last Frontier Champion)

(Note: The At-Large Selections are chosen by using the Final Regular Season BCS Rankings. Pittsburgh, at #20, was the last to get into the field.)


A couple of other issues while I'm at it..

****In regards to the Conferences that have Divisional Play and have a Championship Game, the Big 12, MAC and SEC, it seems to me that for some reason the MAC Divisional Champion that loses the Conference Title Game (in this case #31 Toledo) still receives a Bid to the Tournament for some reason. This isn't the case in the SEC where Alabama (#27 in the BCS Rankings) Won the SEC West but lost the SEC Championship Game to #1 Florida, or in the Big 12 where North Division Champion Missouri (#28 in the BCS Rankings) lost to South Champion Oklahoma in the Title Game. Both of those schools ('Bama and Mizzou) did not receive Tournament Bids while Toledo did.)

...This is obviously some sort of glitch.


Now, as for the Rankings listed above, I could see two scenarios that would work and would be okay with me as far as putting the brackets together using those (BCS) Rankings..

First one, take the Top 8 Ranked Teams in the Final Regular Season BCS Poll and give them Byes into the 2nd Round/Sweet 16 of the Tournament. Slot all of the remaining teams the same way, using their Final BCS Ranking.

or....

If you want to reward Conference Champions with a 1st Round Bye, give the Top 8 Ranked Conference Champions the Byes in Round #1 and then seed all of the remaining teams in order of their Final Regular Season BCS Ranking, regardless of whether they are a Conference Champion or At-Large Bid.

One other thing I've noticed is that it seems as if the Brackets are re-done after each Round of the Tournament for the most part. This doesn't bother me but I would like to see it stay consistent in regards to Final Regular Season BCS Rankings used in order to Re-Seed Teams after each round.


Now, here is how the Brackets actually looked for this particular season's Tournament...

1.  Florida  (SEC Champion)             Florida
      Bye                                            Florida
                                               
13. La.-Lafayette  (Sun Belt Champion)  ULL        
19. Navy  (At-Large)
                                          
----------------------------------------                         UCLA          

14. Southern Cal  (At-Large)            USC
31. Toledo  (MAC West Champion??)                   
                                                     UCLA
17. UCLA  (Pac-10 Champion)             UCLA 
      Bye

----------------------------------------                                    Michigan

2.  Michigan  (Big Ten Champion)        Michigan
      Bye                                            Michigan

15. Notre Dame  (Independents Champion) ECU
18. East Carolina  (At-Large)

----------------------------------------                         Michigan

11. SMU  (WAC Champion)                 SMU               
20. Pittsburgh  (At-Large)                           
                                                     Air Force
10. Air Force  (MWC Champion)           Air Force
      Bye



----------------------------------------                                         MICHIGAN



4.  Miami  (Big East Champion)          Miami
      Bye                                            Miami                  

7.  Iowa State  (At-Large)              Rice
8.  Rice  (At-Large)

----------------------------------------                         Oklahoma

16. Penn State  (At-Large)              Penn State
22. Miami of Ohio  (MAC Champion)                
                                                     Oklahoma               
6.  Oklahoma                            Oklahoma
      Bye                

----------------------------------------                                    Oklahoma

5.  Georgia Tech  (ACC Champion)        Ga. Tech
      Bye                                            Ga. Tech

12. Northwestern  (At-Large)            N'western
60. Alaska Tech (Last Frontier Champ)   

----------------------------------------                         Stanford

3.  Stanford  (At-Large)                Stanford
9.  Tulane  (At-Large)          

49. Memphis  (C-USA Champion)                       Stanford 
      Bye                               Memphis

Now, here are the 6 Champions (including MAC West Champion Toledo, which I explained that glitch earlier) and the 10 At-Large Teams..

3.   Stanford      (At-Large)
7.   Iowa State    (At-Large)
8.   Rice          (At-Large)
9.   Tulane	   (At-Large)
12.  Northwestern  (At-Large)
14.  Southern Cal  (At-Large)
16.  Penn State    (At-Large)
18.  East Carolina (At-Large)
19.  Navy          (At-Large)
20.  Pittsburgh    (At-Large)

11.  SMU           (WAC Champion)
13.  La.-Lafayette (Sun Belt Champion)
15.  Notre Dame    (Independents Champion)
22.  Miami of Ohio (MAC Overall Champion)
31.  Toledo        (MAC West Champion)
60.  Alaska Tech   (Last Frontier Champion)

What seems to end up happening is the Top 4 Rated At-Large Teams at Seeded 1-4 and then Matched Up against one another in Round #1...

3.   Stanford      (At-Large)
7.   Iowa State    (At-Large)
8.   Rice          (At-Large)
9.   Tulane	   (At-Large)

(1. Stanford  vs.  4.  Tulane,   2. Iowa State  vs.  3. Rice)

Then... the 6 remaining At-Large Teams are Rated 1-6 based on their BCS Ranking and Matched Up individually with the 6 Conference Champions (including MAC West Champ Toledo) which are also Rated the same way..

12.  Northwestern  (At-Large)
14.  Southern Cal  (At-Large)
16.  Penn State    (At-Large)
18.  East Carolina (At-Large)
19.  Navy          (At-Large)
20.  Pittsburgh    (At-Large)

11.  SMU           (WAC Champion)
13.  La.-Lafayette (Sun Belt Champion)
15.  Notre Dame    (Independents Champion)
22.  Miami of Ohio (MAC Overall Champion)
31.  Toledo        (MAC West Champion)
60.  Alaska Tech   (Last Frontier Champion)

What ends up happening is the #1 Seeded At-Large Team plays the #6 Seeded Conference Champ, ie, #1 At-Large Northwestern vs. #6 Conference Champ Alaska Tech, the #2 Seeded At-Large plays the #5 Conference Champ, ie, Southern Cal vs. Toledo, and so on and so forth..


As for the 2nd Round on, this is where I need to do a bit more research..


Is anyone still with me? Any thoughts..... Helluva long post.

[Ben E Lou]

A little thing that could speed up time management for those of us who like to use the auto-set, but then check it. How 'bout putting the pertinent info on the player's Time Management screen, and have a NEXT PLAYER bar on that screen? As it is now, you have to click out to the main screen, click next player, look at three screens, then click Time Management, check the settings....etc.etc.etc. This process could be sped up a TON by having the NEXT button on that screen, and by having the following data on that screen as well:

Aspiration, Intelligence, GPA, Current Estimate/Future Estimate, Girlfriend?, Happiness, Class

None of these need bars, or details, just the basic data, so it shouldn't take up that much room on the screen. The "Extra Time" section is a lot bigger than it needs to be, so I'd imagine the room can be found to add the extra data there. The titles could be abbreviated so that the data could look like this:

Asp: 78 Int: 90 GPA: 3.23 Cur/Fut: 34/76 Girl: No Hap: 65 Cl: So*

That one simple line of data (or two lines stack if that works better), and if possible a NEXT PLAYER button, would make a HUGE difference in time management.

[WSUCougar]

A few thoughts to add:

> At the end of the recruiting process, I'd like the ability to select which walk-ons I get. As it stands now, I believe it goes down the list by position (QB, RB, FB, etc.) and selects the first guys who were consdering but not offered scholarships. I'd like to have the group in front of me so I can pick and choose.

> I believe someone else mentioned this in another thread, but I'd like a better idea of where my school stands in a recruit's eyes, relative to otehr schools. I'm thinking of the recruiting websites that state a level of interest for each school being considered.

> A more detailed means of splitting playing time would be great, so I can get my players some PT without getting killed.

[dawgfan]

I'm firing up a new dynasty using the 1.2 patch tonight, so maybe a few of these things have been addressed (can't wait to see the new time-management screen); until then, here are the issues I can think of that I'd like to see addressed:

FG/Punt/4th down: The logic currently in place when a team faces 4th down between the opponent’s 25-40 yard line or so is still poor. Too many times the AI decides to go for it on 4th down and long when it should really try a FG or go for a coffin-corner punt.

Punting average: Punting averages are too low in general. Even the top-rated punters barely or rarely crack 40 yards in gross average in TCY.

Stadium renovation: The issue where stadium renovations can lead to a smaller stadium has been fixed, but the logic behind when a stadium renovation will occur is still a little odd. If you sell out your current stadium many years running that should be enough to get a renovation to occur.

Scouts/Assistant coaches: I’d like to see the current system of scouts and coordinators be modified somewhat. Currently the system has an offensive and defensive coordinator who are rated for things like gameplanning, injury avoidance and recovery, congeniality, as well as player development in certain position categories; scouts are rated for their ability in evaluating recruits at certain position categories, and are limited to 1 geographic region. Your own players ratings are filtered through the view of the scout for your geographic region.

What I’d like to see instead is keep the coordinators, remove the position development categories but add scouting for their relevant player positions (i.e. offensive or defensive). The scouts would be replaced by position coaches: QB, RB/FB, WR/TE, OL, K/P, DE/DT, ILB/OLB, CB/S. Each position coach would have a development rating for their position group, a congeniality rating and scouting ratings for all position groups. The position coaches could be assigned to any geographic region prior to the start of the season. Scouting and recruiting (i.e. congeniality) of particular players would be filtered through a combination of the position coach scouting that region and your coordinator. Development of particular position groups would be governed by the position coaches.

Position changing: At the very least, I’d like for there to be a way of previewing a position switch by having your assistants give you an educated guess of how successful the player would be in the suggested new position. As it is right now, it’s a complete crapshoot. The preview can be filtered through a position coach and coordinator’s scouting ability to make the accuracy somewhat fuzzy.

Taking this idea further, add this ability during recruiting as well – for each recruit, carry additional position information that could be previewed during recruiting, so you could get an idea if that good RB might also make a good CB or LB, or whether that big OG might actually work out as a DT.

Recruiting enhancements/changes: In general I think the recruiting engine works quite well in TCY. With that said, there are a few adjustments that could be made to improve the system. A couple of relatively simple things would go a long way toward making this process more streamlined:

1) Allow the user to flag recruits they’re interested in. Currently I have to track this myself using an Excel sheet – I could save a lot of time and grief if I could compile my target list within the game (the ability to print this flagged list would be very handy as well).
2) More sophisticated searches/filtering of the recruiting screens where I can use criteria that currently exists on different screens, like GPA, overall rating, preferences, etc.

One additional idea might be to add a rating for conference prestige and have that be an additional factor for recruits to favor. For example, maybe a kid in Dos Palos, CA is closest geographically to Fresno State, but he’d really prefer to play in the Pac-10 if he could so a team like Washington State or Oregon State might get a boost over the local team in landing him due to conference prestige.

Idolized schools: This needs a little bit of adjustment IMO. I think we’ve all seen the UCLA phenomenon, where the Bruins dominate the state of California and UCLA is almost guaranteed a top-10 recruiting class every season.

Hiring/firing criteria: Here’s where TCY could borrow from NCAA 2004. Give us a general mood bar rating how satisfied the school is with our performance. Maybe do it in the form of e-mail memos. Spell out certain goals the school has for our performance. Have contract lengths, and offer extensions when we meet or exceed goals.

Also, the logic by which other schools offer you a job should be revised – I still think there aren’t enough offers made to the user. If I’ve won 3 of the last 4 championships with Nebraska while boosting their academic ratings to the top-10 in the country, I should have 90% of the rest of the NCAA willing to offer me a job. Perhaps a feature could be added that allowed the user to designate their “dream job”, and the school in question might be more inclined to offer them a position should the need arise.

AI coach hiring/firing logic: In an ideal world the coaching pool wouldn’t be static and AI coaches would have ages and retire eventually, or if really successful leave for the NFL, and bad coaches wouldn’t be rehired. I see too many coaches with lousy records get hired at plum jobs. Better yet, if there were some way to convert good coordinators into head coaches, and position coaches into coordinators, although that may be too ambitious. It’d be nice to see though.

Scholarship limits: The bug regarding scholarship limits and redshirted players should be fixed so that the AI and human-controlled teams are on the same footing (i.e. the computer no longer is limited to 65 while the user can have as many as 72 on scholarship).

Time management: The way that the TCY Helper allows you to set parameters to get time management recommendations for your players is very helpful – if this type of module could be added to TCY and a button to apply those recommendations included, much time could be saved in playing the game that is currently considered a real drag by most. I haven’t started playing the new 1.2 patch yet so if this (or something similar) has been added already please disregard.

Recruiting timeframe: The debate for when recruiting should occur – during the season or after as a separate section – is a hotly contested one. I could go either way on this, although I give a slight preference to the current setup as it much more closely mirrors reality.

JC transfers: It would be a nice touch to add JC transfers to the recruiting pool, giving the user the opportunity between choosing to invest in a more advanced prospect at the cost of only getting them for 2 seasons.

Hiring assistants: The user should be allowed to hire assistants at the start of the game rather than having to go through their whole first season with random choices made by the computer.

Playing time: Currently the playing time settings don’t really work as expected. A setting of ‘9’ should = play virtually the entire game regardless of the situation or score; ‘5’ should = play the average amount as expected per your position; ‘1’ should = split playing time equally with your backup, and give the 3rd stringer some time as well. The way the game currently works it’s impossible to platoon QB’s unless you switch starters every game.

Depth chart/playcalling preferences: It would be very handy to allow the user to save multiple depth chart preferences and playcalling preferences; that way when injuries occur and then players heal up the user can easily restore depth charts to their preferences rather than only having the scout recommendations, and the user can switch between multiple playcalling settings easily without having to re-enter a bunch of numbers.

Walk-ons: It’d be nice if every once in a while a walk-on joined your team that turned out to have very high potential ratings and actually ended-up being a very good player.

Academic importance: This is a core design of Jim’s to play-up the role of academics in TCY. Many of us disagree with this emphasis as it sharply deviates from reality, but Jim seems pretty firm on designing the game with his vision leading the way, which is understandable. So the following suggestions are made with the foreknowledge that this may be an area where Jim won’t budge.

Reduce the importance of the academic portion of the game, or at least refine it. Most college prospects aren’t as brainy as those in TCY are, at least not the upper-level prospects. The role of academic reputation isn’t as large in most recruit’s decisions as it is in TCY either. Instead of worrying whether that low GPA/low test score guy will bring down my school’s reputation, instead perhaps there’s a risk he won’t qualify for your school and you lose him as a recruit to grades and you only sign 15 guys instead of 16.

Solecismic 8: I think this should maybe go away. I see too many instances where teams in this conference turn into top-10 programs. I understand these teams are needed to fill out schedules, but perhaps they should be reduced to the TCY equivalent of NPC’s – they exist in the game for scheduling purposes and rosters are updated every season, but the user can’t coach them, they don’t recruit off the regular pool (and thus don’t bloat a selected state’s pool of prospects) and their reputations remain static – i.e. they become basically 1-AA schools that exist exclusively as schedule-filler.

If I want a challenge as a coach I can just as easily fulfill that desire with real schools in the game – take your pick of Sun Belt schools for example.

Bowl matchups: I know Jim can’t have the actual bowl names in the game as shipped, but it sure would be nice if the affiliations were the same, especially if the BCS championship bowl could be rotated among the top-4 bowls annually. Someone else mentioned a bowl matchup editor – this would be a good option as well.

Scheduling: I understand the headache that must be programming the scheduling logic. If it could be made more dynamic and flexible that would be outstanding. At the very least, is there any way that future schedules could be available for viewing? I hate scheduling home/away series with opponents to find that the following season I have 6 away games because one of a quirk in my conference schedule. I’d love to see a fix for the inconsistent home/away logic for conference opponents.

[Dutch]

Wow, dawgfan, that was an incredible diagnosis for making TCY a great product.

I'm sure you have discovered now that the Time Allocation menu is a lot easier in 1.2. I like it anyway.

Also, I would suggest that for TCY to go from 1.2 to 2.0 that instead of Solecismic 8, I was thinking more conferences be added. But I agree, the biggest headache will most likely be the scheduling of games. But, TCY2 will probably require more conferences to be more than an update.

What I’d like to see instead is keep the coordinators, remove the position development categories but add scouting for their relevant player positions (i.e. offensive or defensive). The scouts would be replaced by position coaches: QB, RB/FB, WR/TE, OL, K/P, DE/DT, ILB/OLB, CB/S.

Agree 100%, what a great idea!

1) Allow the user to flag recruits they’re interested in. Currently I have to track this myself using an Excel sheet – I could save a lot of time and grief if I could compile my target list within the game (the ability to print this flagged list would be very handy as well).
2) More sophisticated searches/filtering of the recruiting screens where I can use criteria that currently exists on different screens, like GPA, overall rating, preferences, etc.

One additional idea might be to add a rating for conference prestige and have that be an additional factor for recruits to favor.

All of these are again, much needed or just good ideas that can or should be easily implemented.

Recruiting timeframe: The debate for when recruiting should occur – during the season or after as a separate section – is a hotly contested one. I could go either way on this, although I give a slight preference to the current setup as it much more closely mirrors reality.

I'm in favor of having the user decide. Afterall, it should be up to the user to have the most fun they can. The code could be made seperately from the time of year and then incorporated as either a pre-season phase or chosen to be done "real time" through-out the season based on user preference.

Playing time: Currently the playing time settings don’t really work as expected. A setting of ‘9’ should = play virtually the entire game regardless of the situation or score; ‘5’ should = play the average amount as expected per your position; ‘1’ should = split playing time equally with your backup, and give the 3rd stringer some time as well. The way the game currently works it’s impossible to platoon QB’s unless you switch starters every game.

I always assumed this was the intended effect of the 1-9. Perhaps limitations in the game engine effected it's effectiveness.

Depth chart/playcalling preferences: It would be very handy to allow the user to save multiple depth chart preferences and playcalling preferences; that way when injuries occur and then players heal up the user can easily restore depth charts to their preferences rather than only having the scout recommendations, and the user can switch between multiple playcalling settings easily without having to re-enter a bunch of numbers.

Without any real way to guage the effectiveness of my offensive lineman, or my defensive lineman against the run (for instance) I like the idea of having the scout recommendations do the dirty work for me. With one big exception. Sometimes there are certain players I want to force to play.....freshman who are needing playing experience for instance. Sometimes I want to be able to lock players into certain positions and then allow the scout to recommend around those locked positions. That would be a wonderful addition.

Say I have a top prospect at RB I want to start but the scout recommendation insists at not playing him (perhaps to help him get his redshirt). Instead of having to go in every week and move the blue chip from the 4th RB to #1, move the #1 down to #2 and the #2 down to #3...I want to "lock" my guy at #1 (or wherever) and then hit the scout recommendation. A simply checkbox should accomplish this.

Superb work, dawgfan! YOU DA DAWG!

[Fido]

What a great thread this has turned out to be. Providing lots of ideas for what I can in the helper...

Start shameless self-promoting

Originally posted by illinifan999
-How about a High-School All-American page

TCY Helper 3.1 does this and all-state (though TCY does All Country itself in 1.2. ONe thing that is weird though is that, whic the all-country list is complete, many of the all-state lists are not.

Originally posted by Noop
Scouting reports - I'd like to know everything about the player I'm trying to sign. Example: Joe Blow runs a 4.4 according to his highschool coach we clocked at times of 4.38, 4.43, 4.44 . Coach Noop I believe Joe can be a very good player on the defensive side of the ball. But I feel he a player who needs the ball in his hands in order to make things happen. Also he made sure to tell me he's a huge Florida State fan

Planning on adding this feature in once I figure out the rest of the recruit data. Won't be as detailed as you want (I don't have a way to get the 40 speeds), but I will be providing buch more than biggest strength and biggest weakness.

Originally posted by Karim
1) There really needs to be an elaborate recruit filter. I spent way too much time with pencil and paper. If I want to list all LBs over 6'0, with a 1000+ SAT, a 75+ athletic prep, a 50+ academic prep, a 3.30 GPA+, with at least 30 tackles in their last year in high school, who live in the northwest, I should be able to do this.

Available (to some extent) in version 3.1. It will be expanded upon greatly in 3.2 to allow for much more filtering, but you can already do height, weight, position, SAT, GPA, State, State and city, and region filtering.

Originally posted by rexallllsc
make the pbp scroll (ootp) or progress (cm) to build tension

Thinking about adding this to my viewer utility, but the big problem is that it can be tedious if there isn't enough variety in what the announcers say.

Originally posted by TUpei
I have to use notepad to keep track of my recuiting and staff records. It would be nice to have a place in the game to make notes on players, recruits, staff, etc.

On the list of things to do for recruiting purposes.

Originally posted by dacman
--Ability to select recruits on a region, not just a state. It's simply tedious to have to click through all the New England states when I'm looking for a recruit from any of them.

Currently handled.

Originally posted by Dawgfan
Recruiting enhancements/changes: In general I think the recruiting engine works quite well in TCY. With that said, there are a few adjustments that could be made to improve the system. A couple of relatively simple things would go a long way toward making this process more streamlined:

1) Allow the user to flag recruits they’re interested in. Currently I have to track this myself using an Excel sheet – I could save a lot of time and grief if I could compile my target list within the game (the ability to print this flagged list would be very handy as well).

Coming in 3.2

[Alf]

Sorry for the threadjack

Fido - Do you a date for 3.2. I resumed playing TCY VC Indiana and the recruiting phase is the one that takes me the more time. Your latest recruit wise option look tremendous.

[Alf]

dola

Some print functions would be greatly appreciated too (actually you can only do it for one screen, can't remember which one though)

[Fido]

Originally posted by Alf
Sorry for the threadjack

Fido - Do you a date for 3.2. I resumed playing TCY VC Indiana and the recruiting phase is the one that takes me the more time. Your latest recruit wise option look tremendous.

When its ready is all I can say. I really want to get the individual attributes (or at least the overall impressions) sorted out before I release it. I got the Selection Criteria in last night, and hopefully will be able to make headway on the attributes tonight.

Originally posted by Alf
Some print functions would be greatly appreciated too (actually you can only do it for one screen, can't remember which one though)

I already have the print functionality in place in the development version (as well as the ability to completely customize what fields are included in the recruit report). Not enough new features to merit a new version yet, but PM me your e-mail and I can send it to you.

[dawgfan]

Great stuff Fido - you've done an incredible job of enhancing TCY with the Helper. I use it a lot already, and it sounds like with 3.2 a lot more of the stuff I track manually currently will be added, making TCY even more enjoyable. Much thanks...

[Alf]

I will wait for 3.2. Seems you are on fast track mode now

[Fido]

Originally posted by Alf
I will wait for 3.2. Seems you are on fast track mode now

Yeah I go through spurts. Might be time to take some time off though and actually play TCY some now though.

There is a new version available (http://fidosutils.shorturl.com/) that adds in a bunch of what I and other people wanted:

• Ability to mark recruits. (double click on an entry in the recruits report)
• Ability to Add notes for recruits. (double click on an entry in the recruits report)
• More filter options (overall rating, contacted, visited, watch-listed, with/without notes)
• Display of actual, in-game oevrall rating, as well as Primary and Secondary Selection criteria. Now displays 30 data fields.
• Made the recruits view persistant and customizeable. Select the fields to be included in Edit...Configure Recruits View, or drag and drop columns to reorder them.
• Added new recruiting class report which shows recruits committed to the selected school.

[dawgfan]

Outstanding stuff Fido - I'll download the latest version tonight and try it out. You've already gone a long way towards making a good game much more enjoyable.

One additional thing I'd like to suggest to Jim: in addition to refining the playing time settings to behave more as expected, how about an additional setting regarding QB's. Have a field similar to tendency to go for it on 4th down, this one for tendency to yank a struggling QB. A setting of 1 and the QB is pulled immediately when he screws up; a setting of 99 and he stays in all game regardless of how bad he plays.

[Buccaneer]

I really do believe that the next game will be TCY2 - there is no other college football text sim on the market. But despite the assertion of a few others, I don't think we have fully fleshed out input, even from this thread. Without a dialog, how can the developer really know what each of these ideas mean? But knowing reality, I'll offer (or re-offer, I think) two of the most important updates for me:

1. Change the algorithm for Visit Costs from regional-based to location-based. Each X,Y coordinate of HS/city is known and the Visit Costs should solely reflect the cost of traveling from X0,Y0 to X1,Y1. This, by itself, will add to the "inner game" of recruiting where we can now better plan our visits more geographically - just like in real life. This solves the absurdity of traveling from Tallahassee to Mobile (in real life, a handful of miles) but costing the same as if we were to go from Tallahassee to El Paso. Perhaps the total amount given each week to Visit Costs would need to be tweaked to assure that we can do about the same amount of visits (which seems right) but with the new distance cost algorithm.

A corrollary to this would be tie more closely the cost of visits for away games - just like in real life. In others words, have the option(?) of using the city of the away game as the origin and base all visit costs from that point (i.e., visit costs in the city of the away game would be close to 0).

For some (like myself), TCY is 95% recruiting and I'm looking ways to enhance this part of the game.

2. For those do not want to micromanage, it has always been suggested that we let the Assistants do the tasks on our behalf and/or hit the Recommend button. However, those do not work too well, thus forcing some gamers to spend more time in areas that are not fun (or give up). Two areas of note. If a gamer wants to take a break from recruiting for a length of time (usually to get to the end of the season), we should feel confident when we let the Assistants take over. But as tests shown, the AI does a horrid job in choosing and offering scholarships to potential recruits. For example, if your team has 4-5 returning QBs (all rated 40 or above), there is no way that the AI should then go out and offer a scholarship to a 30- QB as it did in one of my seasons. I personally have no confidence in the AI to handle recruiting properly but it should not be the case.

The other area is on gameplans and depth charts. I did not look closely (I was afraid to), but I would hope that the AI-set gameplans matches my team's strengths and weaknesses closely. I really doubt it but it should. Same thing for depth chart. Is there still any reason why a 35-41 Sr. should start over a 32-69 So.?

In my view, the AI (Assistants and Recommend) should perform adequately to give the gamer confidence in letting go of certain tasks. With 1.2, it does not. Without that level of confidence, the game could become more work than fun.

[Dutch]

I think one way to help the AI recommend would be to allow us the ability to rate what we think is important.

I could then rate my defensive backs like this

1. Overall Potential
2. Man-2-Man
3. Interceptions
4. Endurance

Just an aid to the AI in the end. The idea of travel costs being set up by total mileage would be interesting to me if Jim could code it. But I think it would be less advantageous if he had to spend too much time retooling visit costs and things like that. The current system isn't so bad to me.

Maybe an easier way would be to add an option to recruit within a specific range of a city.

[Buccaneer]

Good suggestion, Dutch, I think anything we can add as priorities can produce a better AI.

I think the travel cost algorithm can be fairly easy because I have done this at work (simple pythagorating). One of the good things is that all of the variables in the game are there - we already know the distance of any HS/city to every college. He obviously does some recalcs for each visit we make (region-based) so it would be a matter of using the same block of code but substituting in a different equation. I believe.

[primelord]

Originally posted by Buccaneer
I think the travel cost algorithm can be fairly easy because I have done this at work (simple pythagorating). One of the good things is that all of the variables in the game are there - we already know the distance of any HS/city to every college. He obviously does some recalcs for each visit we make (region-based) so it would be a matter of using the same block of code but substituting in a different equation. I believe.

However just the fact that you have programming experience should tell you it is never that easy.

[Ben E Lou]

Bump....just in case...

[WSUCougar]

Is frothing at the mouth in anticipation considered inappropriate conduct?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Is frothing at the mouth in anticipation considered inappropriate conduct?

Well, I wouldn't start frothing yet. I don't know what Jim's next game is going to be. I bumped this thread because I'm guessing that there'll be no more than one more FOF2K4 patch, and then he'll start working on the next game in the next few weeks or so. *IF* it is TCY2, I thought it would be good for the FOFC community to review this thread now and post any further ideas, so that Jim would have good ideas from the get-go. I've noticed in some of the patch issue threads about FOF2K4, that people continue to insist on posting stuff that obviously would be in a new version, not a patch. It would seem that before-the-fact is the better time to throw out those kinds of ideas--the kind that probably require large-scale code reworking or brand new code.

[Gallifrey]

One can only hope that it is TCY2. Now that would be a good day.

[CraigSca]

/looks frantically for a pre-order button/

[bigdawg2003]

We know that if you cut a popular player, overall team happiness declines. But if you cut an unpopular player, shouldn't overall team happiness improve?

[druez]

I hope this is this next game. So my number 1 suggestion is make this game next. TCY is my favorite product that Jim makes.

One neat feature I would like is the ability to assign a scout to go watch one of my recruits highschool games then come back to me with a scouting report based on what he saw.

I would like the PBP to become more radio style so the play develops instead of us just getting the results shown to us. "I want FOF to do that also"

[Wolfpack]

I'll throw in a couple of thoughts.

1) This sort of thing is true of most college games, but especially here. Another revenue stream for the smaller colleges is to get paid chunks of money to play at big-time schools and get pummeled for it. Many times I see big-name schools playing on the road at a smaller one and typically it doesn't happen in real life (Miami offering to come play me at Montana State without a return game, for example). I think there needs to be some kind of money tied to non-conference game scheduling so that the smaller schools have more of an incentive to play road games at the bigger ones (perhaps include a two-for-one option since that seems to be a recent scheduling innovation).

2) Eliminate the permanent non-conference rival except for the nationally recognized ones. I get annoyed at having NC State play Indiana every year when the two game set they played in 2000 and 2001 was about the only time they ever played one another. Very few non-conference games are ever a permanent arrangement. Notre Dame has a half-dozen (Michigan, MSU, USC, BC, Navy, Purdue), but other fixed rivalry games are typically conference affairs. FSU-Florida, UGa-GT, and SC-Clemson are a few others, but I'm hard-pressed to think of that many more non-conference games that are fixed annual rivalries. FSU-Miami and VT-UVa are going to be conference tilts starting in 2004, so there goes two more of them.

3) Recruiting is fine as scheduled (on-going during the season), but to make it even more interesting, have a signing day after the regular season when all the recruits officially sign (typically this is early February). Include some percentage that a recruit may switch his commit to some other school at the last minute. Perhaps this will mean a level of strength a recruit has to his commitment (Strong/Solid/Wavering), so a coach, even after getting the verbal, may have to expend resources to keep the verbal as signing day approaches. As it is, once you've got the commit, you never pay attention to the guy again until he shows up in camp next summer, which is slightly unrealistic. Granted, recruits switching commits is not a frequent occurance, so perhaps restrict any changes to a percentage of those with "Wavering" commits on signing day.

4) As has been noted by others, fully-editable bowl schedule. Perhaps go further and be able to add or subtract bowls since the really bottom-tier bowls are usually unstable financially, but typically, if one folds, another replaces it.

5) Realistic locations for conference title games for the Big XII and SEC. SEC will likely only ever hold the game in Atlanta or perhaps New Orleans, while the Big XII has shown it'll play in KC, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc. Also, now that the ACC is going to 12, they'll likely play in Jax, Orlando, Tampa, or Charlotte (maybe DC or Baltimore, but I've not heard that they're likely to play there). It seems kind of goofy to play the title game in Corpus Christi, Texas or someplace like that. Perhaps that could be a user controlled option (user selects versus random choice).

[Plundun]

I'd like to see recruits that haven't found a position yet but are termed as athletes. Lots of HS players play on both sides of the ball, why not incorporate this. You would still have fixed-position players but around 40% would be termed athletes, even though they would show HS stats from a position. You would then have the physical measures to try and help you find the best position for the recruit or your coordinators(or if this was added your position coaches) would give suggestions as to where they felt the recruit would be best suited.
If an athlete signed with you his position would be assigned before the season starts the same time when you assign the studying time.
These guys would then show up for training camp locked in their given position where they typically would start with lesser current ability than the guys you recruited that already had a position. They would have just as much potential ability, but would need a red-shirt year more than a fixed-position guy.

You could also add it as a recruiting parameter. When visiting you would get the message X really wants to play QB, even though your coordinators feel that WR is where he would excel. You would either oblige him meaning a bigger chance of him joining you but making the player a fixed-position QB when he shows up, or you could decline meaning less chance of you getting him, but you being free to assign him as a WR.

[yabanci]

I played TCY and liked it, but I was mainly interested in it to feed players into the FOF amateur draft. I think there are probably many others who are the same way. Therefore, I would wish for an upgrade in the draft export feature. The last TCY update helped in this regard, but I think it still could be greatly improved.

[Ben E Lou]

Two little things (ideas from FBCB):

1. Limited conference movement is very cool. If you could take an SC8 team up to the next level, it would add another type of challenge/goal to things.

2. Allow "undos" of recruiting actions before the week is over. It speeds things up to be able to put an action on the first X good players you come across, knowing you can go back and undo those actions if you run across another player or two who you want to call or visit. As it stands now, the player has to do all the math before making any decisions.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Hmmmm... how about some kind of "general instructions" that might mesh with handing over these responsibilities to the coaching staff?

Something like "radio buttons" (perish the thought that I suggest sliders) for things like "Extra classroom time for students with poor grades" and "Extra free time for players with girlfriends" and that sort of thing - let me set some sort of overall strategy, and then let me hand over the responsibility to my coaches (with some confidence that they will do okay with it). I guess the list would need to be subtle to make it work - there should be some thought that goes into deciding what to use. Maybe including offsetting options like "Extra strength training" versus "Extra film study" as global options, in this same vein.

Then, perhaps, alow me to go back and edit one player at a time, after my coachign staff has done the general legwork.

I'm thinking this would also be a good idea for FOF as an optional generalized gameplanning screen, don't you think?

As far as TCY2, here was the idea that I emailed Jim a while ago

> 1. Change the algorithm for Visit Costs from regional-based to
> location-based. Each X,Y coordinate of HS/city is known and the Visit
Costs
> should solely reflect the cost of traveling from X0,Y0 to X1,Y1. This, by
> itself, will add to the "inner game" of recruiting where we can now better
> plan our visits more geographically - just like in real life. This solves
> the absurdity of traveling from Tallahassee to Mobile (in real life, a
> handful of miles) but costing the same as if we were to go from
Tallahassee
> to El Paso. Perhaps the total amount given each week to Visit Costs would
> need to be tweaked to assure that we can do about the same amount of
visits
> (which seems right) but with the new distance cost algorithm.
>
> A corrollary to this would be tie more closely the cost of visits for away
> games - just like in real life. In others words, have the option(?) of
using
> the city of the away game as the origin and base all visit costs from that
> point (i.e., visit costs in the city of the away game would be close to
0).
>
> For some (like myself), TCY is 95% recruiting and I'm looking ways to
> enhance this part of the game.

His basic reply was "TCY has been out there for two years. People are used to the region-based recruiting - while it certainly doesn't map perfectly to travel costs (especially in cases where two neighboring states are in different regions), it's a system people can grasp."

I disagree that we can't learn a new system, esp one that makes more sense. He always talks about the time it takes to do new ideas but time has to be spent anyways and I think the area of recruiting is great place to spend time on.

[DukeRulesMAB]

I know this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I echo a request I saw earlier in the thread and would like to see recruiting divorced from the "playing" season. TCY was, for me, more fun than FOF has ever been, but because of the disjointed nature of playing the game (adjust, sim, recruit, adjust, sim, recruit, etc.), I never got more than 6 or 7 years into a career.

It's just hard for me to get immersed in a season when after every game you have to take an extensive break to go recruit.