NCAA's Broken Dynasty Mode -- Another reason we need a revolution

[Wilson16NCSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by TarHeelPhenom

I'm referring to their basketball developers. They give the user the option to go in and edit rosters at any given moment. In their ratings system they give recruits and players a grade for "potential" so thta you will have an idea about how much they will progress over a career. They had a system in 2k5 I believe where recruits could actually get in touch with you, the coach by e-mail to try and get a visit. Recruits could come to your school on unofficial visits. You could go to a recruits high school game...and actually play the game as him if you wanted. The cool thing was they had it so perfect that if you were recruiting a 7'0, he was more than likely the tallest player on the floor and the center on the other team was 6'3 just like real life. They got so many things right with their dynasty modes man.

I agree, CHoops recruiting was awesome, 2k8 in general was awesome.

[NDAlum]

Quote: Originally Posted by georgiafan

After playing the game this past week I came into work today thinking this was the best game of all time. After reading all the progression threads Im not sure if life is worth living anymore lol

This might be the funniest post I've ever read!

[VanillaGorilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by claystone

Here is how EA should handle this. Allow us to edit ALL players attributes for every year. That way the one's who are fine with it is ok, and the one's who hate it can edit. Problem solved.

Yes, problem solved. I love the idea of manually editing hundreds of players myself, because EA screwed up something as basic as player progression.

[StormJH1]

Quote: Originally Posted by BROman

+1, i wasted many a hours playing offline dynasty back when it was addictive as hell on the ps1 and ps2. however, in it's current incarnation, dynasty mode is boooring! it's a feeling of a disconnect that comes from a few factors: recruiting has been refined for the worse and needs to be streamlined, aspects that were on the ps2-differing recruiting budgets, a spring game, med redshirts, player discipline, in-season progression, etc. have not been added to the current gen mode, and the lack of a coach mode (not like ingame coach mode, carousel style) gives no reason to play an offline dynasty longer that a year or 2. add to it the abomination that is the progression/recruit ratings issue, and the former bread and butter of ncaa is no longer playable.

Good points. I really liked the features that the PS2 version had by around 2005 or 2006. That said, I do like the new recruiting pitch engine quite a bit. I just wish this new interface had the same underlying recruit and progression logic underneath it. There's no "next-gen" reason to change it---all it is is numbers and algebra.

[fcboiler87]

Quote: Originally Posted by VanillaGorilla

Yes, problem solved. I love the idea of manually editing hundreds of players myself, because EA screwed up something as basic as player progression.

At first I read your post and thought you were going to agree with him and I was about to be sick until I realized you were being sarcastic. And I like it. You are dead right.

[GreenReign86]

There are both sides of an arguement. And I'm going to present two reasons which state that dynasty is not as broken as some may think it to be.

1. Parody:
   I for one, and I don't think I'm alone on this, love parody, the more the better. As a Syracuse fan and alum, it kind of makes me sit back and smile that teams like, Bama, and OSU, get what they deserve, and start to suck after a while. This may give the "St. Merry's School for the Blind"* schools a chance. Eastern Michigan for the championship?
   
2. Doesn't aply to all:
   I recently recruited a 4* WR, even though he only has 85 speed, he was rated a 76 OVR which is the equivalent of a gem for a 4* player, and has a great CIT rating, which makes him perfect for the slot. He was in my 2nd recruiting class. So far in year 3 week 4 of my dynasty, he has had Wes Welker type slot production, with 26 REC for 392 yards.

*My coach always referred to cupcakes as "St. Merry's School for the Blind"

[RaychelSnr]

Quote: Originally Posted by Krioniq

Not to be argumentative here (...but I am...), but what exactly gameplay-wise needs to be rebooted in Dynasty mode? The way I see it, the mode has at least linearly improved year-over-year, and online dynasty in particular is the main reason I even buy NCAA Football at all. On top of that, there's only so many ways that one can emulate building a college football program in video game form. While I acknowledge the merits of the historic program scenario proposal in your article, I'd posit that most people buying NCAA Football would rather play with their current-year teams. That the act of recruiting is actually a significant gameplay challenge this year ought to be a welcome enough change gameplay-wise to warrant some praise, IMO. Finally, while I do agree that there needs to be more emphasis on the head coach of each team in Dynasty mode, my ultimate point now is that what exists now is, IMO, more than fine, and there's no reason to just throw everything out and start over.

It's good you are satisfied with basically the same mode every year. But here's the crux of the problem:

NCAA 99: season - offseason/recruiting - pre season - next season

NCAA 11: pre-season - offseason/recruiting - pre season - next season

The basic formula hasn't changed in 13 years. You then have the problem that recruiting is the exact same thing for each player. And the difficulty increase is an aberration. It was basically, "recruiting seems to be too easy, what can we do to make it harder? Oh I know, let's take control AWAY from the players and let it be more of a game of luck."

Because we all know college coaches use a ouija board before entering a recruits house to decide what to pitch. I'm all for taking control out of the players hands if it's realistic and implemented right...but recruiting this year was the laziest possible option to make it harder. So yes, recruiting needs work.

Overall, the mode needs to be less predictable from year to year. It's very linear and each season is just like the previous. If gamers are willing to accept a mode which sucks today then I guess I'll just have to deal with it (or create my own game), but the dynasty in ch 2k8 was light years ahead of NCAA 11. I'm not accepting mediocrity.

[GreenReign86]

Saying that, they do need to patch progression. It seems to me that they forgot to tweak that to match lower rated recruits. Because, even I will admit it is kind of unrealistic to have not one true powerhouse, and like 30-35 teams in the preseason have a real chance at winning the championship. But as a guy who pays more attention to the NFL, I can live with the increased parody, even if that means, unrealistic championship results.

This is a bit off topic here but here goes. Spreaking of championships, I think it would be a killer idea for the folks at EA to provide us the option of turning off the lame BCS and instead incorporateing an exact replica of the FCS championship playoff system. And even let us choose how many At Large teams would be selected to compete. Other then a coaching carrassel, that imho might be the next great addition that they could add to dynasty. Along with letting us start year one of said dynasty, recruiting that years freshman class.

$.02