Class of 2015: 500+ Real Recruits (NCAA14/Xbox360/EA DB Editor)

[mattrd39]

I have been working on editing recruiting classes and think I've gotten it to work on my 360. You will need to have a little bit of knowledge on using the EA DB Editor.

What I have done:
- Edited approximately the top 500 recruits names, height, weight, face, hometown, top 10 schools, pitch importance, and ratings. I have been doing this over the past few months all on my own, so the rating order may not be perfect still but it is pretty close (for example, DE Josh Sweat had been #1 most of the year and dropped after getting injured... I still have him at #1). I used 247Sports composite rating (link: http://247sports.com/Season/2015-Foo...oup=HighSchool).
- Edited the rest of the players for more unique names, match face/name/position (fewer white RB/WR/CB, fewer black K/P), and ratings. I also tried to match up these players a little better for size/play style. For example, I tried making the smaller HBs more speed/elusive and the bigger guys more break tackle/trucking.
- Created more athletes that can possibly play a wider variety of positions. There are close to 200 "athletes" in this class, compared to just 75 or so in a typical NCAA14 season.
- Even some players listed at certain positions could possibly play another spot, if necessary.
- Fewer JUCOs, but they should come in rated slightly higher to reflect the one or two seasons of development lost.
- The pre-scout OVRs that show up are now more linear, for example five star players show as 78-84, four stars as 69-77, etc.
- More gems and busts and can be a wider gap in the pre-scout and post-scouting overall rating.
- Generally lowered ratings across the board in order to make it harder to just stock up on extremely talented players and make depth more of an issue. Roughly 40% of players will be rated 60 or less. This should also make it more difficult to rebuild smaller schools.
- Made Proximity to Home, Program Tradition, Conference Prestige, and Championship Contender the most common pitches for many players to reflect more realistic recruiting... more players want to play near home for a big school.

What I have not done:
- Body edits. If someone who is familiar with doing these downloads this class and wants to help, please let me know.
- Equipment edits. Same as above.
- Studied every single recruit to get their rating 100% accurate. There are lots of busts in every real class (go back and look at the top 50 recruits from 5-10 years ago, there are probably several players you may barely recognize). I'm sorry if a recruit heading to your favorite school is a "bust" in this version. I didn't do it because I hate your school, I promise. Plus, you can just edit them yourself, if you like.

How to use:
- Create your dynasty on your Xbox 360. Be sure to change conference alignment and automatic BCS tie-ins, if you so choose. Advance to the pre-season menu.
- While still in the pre-season, click on Recruiting Board (do not create/add any of your own recruits) so the recruiting class is created. Do not add any players to your board or anything else, simply create the class. Do not advance to the season.
- Save your dynasty file to USB, extract the file to your computer, and open it in the EA DB Editor (link: http://www.operationsports.com/forum...er-editor.html).
- Download and extract the zip folder containing three .csv files. I do not recommend opening them in Excel or anywhere else before importing them.
- Go to "Recruit Data" tab.
- It should automatically be on the "Recruit Stats" tab, select I/O -> Import -> Overwrite existing and import the Excel spreadsheet named "2015class-recruit-stats" and save the file.
- Move over to the "Recruit Info" tab, select I/O -> Import -> Overwrite existing and import the Excel spreadsheet named "2015class-recruit-info" and save the file.
- Move over to the "Recruit Pitch Responses" tab, select I/O -> Import -> Overwrite existing and import the Excel spreadsheet named "2015class-recruit-pitches" and save the file.
- Save the new file over the previous one in Modio or whatever application you use and move it back to your console.
- Go back into the recruiting board and check it out.
- If you wish to edit the recruits further, I highly recommend doing it in the EA DB Editor and not in Excel. It is usually easier to find an error (or avoid errors) in the program rather than in Excel.

I am open to feedback. I have only done this on my dynasty and it has worked playing through at least two seasons. I cannot verify if it will cause any crashes or any other errors further down the road, but hopefully not.

Once the Buffeye 2014 roster is complete, I may tinker with the ratings in it as well in order to have it line up with this lowered overall recruiting class.

Enjoy!

[jackster802]

I usually do equipment edits for my classes. Its pretty simple. Here's what I do (the values are in parenthesis):

Give all players a Revo Speed Helmet (5)

QB/RB/WR facemask Robot 2 (17)
FB/TE facemask 3 bar RB (21)
LT/LG/C/RG/RT facemask full cage (34)
DE facemask 3 bar LB (20)
DT facemask full cage (34)
ROLB/MLB/LOLB facemask 3 bar RB (21)
CB/FS/SS facemask robot 2 (17)
K/P facemask 3 bar (2)

All QB's given flak jacket
All RB/WR/TE/DE/DT/LB's/CB/S's given back plates
All offensive linemen given knee braces on both knees

All players given sleeves tight for jersey sleeves

[omega412930]

Awesome man thankx soo much

[Arrowhead29]

This is really great. The only problem I see with this is that by lowering the ratings across the board for this class, it will make it a very "weak" class compared to the 2016 class that is generated by the game. Most of these 2015 recruits will be passed instantly by the 2016 recruits.

[Art01]

I applaud the efforts made by the OP in this thread. I am using the Editor and Excel to totally edit the ratings in a couple of Rosters. One of the reasons I have not considered applying these edits to a Dynasty is because my edit scheme also results in a considerably-lowered overall rating approach, much at variance with what the game does to set up ratings for players to be drafted.

For everyone who would like to apply edited ratings to Dynasty files, I would recommend the following "simplified" approach:

1. Understand which ratings are critical to each position and develop a strategy for setting and applying those ratings.

2. Develop a quick means to apply lower ratings in a "mass-editing" approach to non-critical ratings in order to alter the overall ratings structure.

Be prepared to apply your approach to the Dynasty files at the beginning of each season to keep the file consistent year over year.

An alternate approach might be to work out an editing process for the Single Season option, then play multiple Single Seasons, rather than a Dynasty.

[mattrd39]

Thanks to those of you who downloaded the file and provided feedback.

Art01: Part of this project was about ratings, part of it was to fix some of the things that annoy me about recruiting classes - the majority of the top 50 are skill positions/athletes, the lack of Polynesian/unique names/Jr.'s or III, faces/races not matching their name/position, and how it seems like many of the players have no rhyme or reason to the schools in their top 3-5-10. Obviously these kinds of things can't really be automated.

I did use some formulas to edit ratings... I started by exporting files to Excel to average out each rating at each position in a default recruiting class as well as the full roster. I also tried to pair off position groups that should be similar in ratings, like OL/DL, RB/LB, WR/CB for vitals like speed, acceleration, strength (basically looking at the averages and +/- mass editing each player at that position so they match up better).

Then I did mass edits based on recruiting rank/position to try to create a bigger gap between great/average/poor players. For a quick example at CB of some of the main changes:
Ranked 1-50 at position: -2 ACC, -2 PRC, -10 TAK, +5 AWR, +2 MCV, +1 ZCV
Ranked 51-100: -4 ACC, -6 PRC, -12 TKL, -2 MCV, -1 ZCV, -2 AWR
Ranked 100+: -7 ACC, -8 PRC, -15 TKL, -5 MCV, -3 ZCV, -5 AWR
I also randomly picked about 10-20 players at each position and raised or lowered some attributes further, trying to create more gems and busts.

I have used the Tdawg/Khaliib's spreadsheets to edit rosters and maybe I could go about creating my own but instead of applying it to the entire roster/recruiting class, maybe could use one for each position group to make the rating process simpler.

Arrowhead29: Yeah, you're right about them being passed over in future CPU-generated classes, unless I do something to automate the ratings. Fair and valid point. I may attempt to create some more recruiting classes in the future to play with, although we all obviously play seasons/games at different speeds. I also might just sort of reverse the ratings changes I did and release a more default rated class.

omega412930: No problem, hope it helps make the game a little more fun for you.

Jackster802: Thank you for that information, I will try to add some of those equipment edits in a future release, if there is interest.

[big09]

Mattrd39- I think they are a great! I love having real guys to recruit, and like the lower ratings. I agree this will cause more work on future recruiting classes but well worth it.

[mattrd39]

Thanks big09! Glad you like the class.