NCAA Football 13 Dynasty Wish List

[sportzbro]

Post the things you would like to see in Dynasty.

Just going to copy and paste what I wrote up earlier.

It's been almost a week after the much anticipated release of NCAA 12 and it seems to be (for the most part) a hit with the ever critical OS Community. Since getting my hands on the game I've been able to put a lot of time into the new, updated Dynasty mode. There are a lot of things to like this year with the big additions of Coaching Carousel, true Custom Conferences and BCS Tie-Ins, and those certainly have me busy working my way toward my dream job, moving them to an AQ conference. With all these great additions, however, there are still many features that have been left out, overlooked or need to be added. I'll be breaking those down in this write-up, and I'd like to hear your input.


Custom Conferences: I really like how we now have the ability to not only swap teams, but also add and subtract schools to our liking. I believe they should take this feature over-the-top for next year and the years down the road. Let's start by making it possible to have more than 120 schools in dynasty to account for those new schools joining the D-1A ranks (Texas St. UMass, UTSA, etc...Hopefully TeamBuilder will be significantly upgraded). This will allow users to make realistic WAC and Sun Belt conferences, and even add possible teams like Villanova to the Big East 4 or 5 years into dynasty.

Next would be to give users the ability to completely edit conference logos and to create/remove conferences for those seeking the 4 Super-Conference setup. How great would it be to make an elite Pac-16 by combining with the WAC and uploading your custom logo. Speaking of logos... the conference logos on all the uniforms and helmets need to change to reflect the moves, much like the field logos. It's minor, but seeing a huge WAC logo still on Utah State's jersey when I moved them to the MWC is annoying. Additionally, Dynamic Conference Prestige is a must. There is no sense in adding LSU to C-USA (outside of controlled chaos) if the prestige of C-USA doesn't increase and therefore effect recruiting.

Lastly, with all these changes and the ability to create huge, powerful conferences, why not bring back the option for a playoff at the end of the season? I don't know what type BCS blockades the NCAA team would face getting it in, but it would receive a loud applause if added. We would finally be able to determine our champ on the (cyper) field.


Neutral Site Games: How many times a year do you see two marquee teams match-up in a neutral site early in the year and duke it out? A few huge match-ups took place last year, yet we still can't do that in our little dynasty. Imagine pairing Notre Dame/FSU in the Georgia Dome. The bands, the build up and the special broadcast..and why stop there? How about Ohio St. meeting Texas in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN or recreating Boise/VT in FedEx Field in DC. This would not only be incredbly exciting, but it could directly impact your "National Exposure" rating for the better if you have the cojanes to challenge the big boys or accept other schools invites to play.

To make this a worthy addition, all stadiums must be available to play in, and the endzones should reflect the teams in the game why'll removing any bowl logo or school logos from the field. This should also apply to all conference championship sites. If I pick Lincoln Financial (Army-Navy currently) for the Big East Championship game, we shouldn't see all the Army/Navy logos, endzones, but rather it reflect the teams in the game. Hopefully we can finally get all the NFL stadiums in eventually to give us even more options.


Presentation: To me, there is almost nothing more important to dynasty than presentation. It's truly something that can keep me coming back like NCAA 06 did, or bore me to the point I shut off the game... much like previous installations on next gen. There are several things that were removed from the good ol' PS2 days that have yet to find their way back in. Hopefully they are on the way, but in case you forgot I have gone through and picked out the absolute best aspects of dynasty presentation and what would make this simply amazing.

Many would love to see the return of the magazine with players and coaches pictures along with short little captions at the center of the interface. It seriously made my season once my star QB made the cover or there was a page under stats about how dominant my defense was. I realize you can take a screen shot and it will show up in the interface, but why should I have to go through all the teams and take a pic when the PS2 generate cool little shots on its own? It doesn't have to be flashy, and obviously it would just need to switch from Athlon to ESPN. If there's one thing I want back in presentation wise, its this. Who else is tired of team logos? Get this back in!

Adding more of a personal feel to my team was this 3 second clip of the Heisman Trophy ceremony. It was especially rewarding when it was actually my guy. After dominating for a whole year, this really made it worth playing all the games to win this. If some type of awards show short could be generated for the other awards that'd be icing, but I'm sure the majority would be ecstatic for this little nugget shown below.

There is nothing better than waking up Saturday morning to catch College Gameday for a complete overview of the on-slot of games that afternoon. Bringing back the trio and giving them a graphical update, along with Chris Fowler and Desmond Howard would put Dynasty over the top. It could be as simple as a little pre-game analysis in front of your stadium (if game of the week) with crazy fans holding signs... to an entire preview show (think 2K5) that takes place at the national game of the week location. Must have for future versions of NCAA!

Something that added a lot of immersion to the feel of a dynasty game was the live score ticker at the bottom of the screen. During time-outs, penalties, scores, or big plays this simple element popped up and let me see if my rival was loosing and how the top schools were fairing. This is just on of those small things that add a lot to the feel of the game.

A rather small addition that needs to make a return is the pre-game stats and info. I'm glad the random facts about the schools have been removed, but while waiting give us a screen with a condensed version of team stat leaders & injuries or, in case of a rival/huge game, recent results or a decription of the rivalry. Currently, it is quite boring looking at button tips waiting for the game to load. Again, just a small feature that goes a long way.

Finally, in regards to presentation, are stat overlays. There just doesn't seem to be enough of these after playing numerous games over the last week. In comparison to an ESPN broadcast, its a little weak when you see overlays almost every couple of plays. It would be terrific if they also season stats and comparative stats to both the team you are playing/players and the rest of the NCAA. It kept me wanting give the ball to "my guy" and boost him up through the ranks of the NCAA stat leaders.

Coaching Carousel: Everyone is really excited that this got in. It's fun to see your traditional Pro-Style offense switch it up to a spread or an Air-Raid offense go to option with just one offseason due to coaching changes. The interface is smooth and quick, and the rate at which coaches move around seems to be at a good rate. The only nuances I see are way too many A+ rated coaches when there are really only a handful of guys that can't be fired (Saban, Joe Pa, Stoops). Its pretty great still for its first year in the game, and only see it getting better.

Now being a coach is a little different. I'd like to see more options added for our appearance (its pretty limited currently) and complete control of your coordinators once you are the head coach. Also, being an OC or DC, its seems like we should only be controlling that side of the ball in all aspects of the game - recruiting, red-shirts, etc. Having coaching as the focal point of dynasty, our created gurus need to be in many more cutscenes (in the booth and sidelines, end of game) and on the magazine as previously noted.

Violations: Now the NCAA may nix this idea, but its been such a hot bottom issue of late it seems like a no-brainer addition that should be represented in NCAA 13. It could be simple, effecting scholarships and academic prestige depending on the suspensions or lack of action you decide to take. Honestly, if they just ported over what we had in PS2, this would be a hit. It would make recruiting those great athletes who have a bad "character grade" a real risk.

Commentary: Probably the most talked about aspect of the game, and not in a good way. Kirk and Brad, although solid, have become a little stale over the last decade. The simple remedy here would be to add lines, but why not give us another team or two? They could be used for less significant games while Brad & Kirk are reserved for the "Prime Time Game" on Saturday night. Not sure of the chances on this, although FIFA has something like this, but it would be much appreciated.



In conclusion, and after this long read, we are all a very passionate community of sports and sports video game fans. Dynasty is definitely headed in the right direction, and will provide everyone with a lot of fun this year. These are a few items that should push the mode over the top and make it even better than its last gen counterpart. Here's to the NCAA team listening to us and taking these additions into serious consideration. NCAA 13 and onward should be very exciting. Now let's try and get these in.

Also linked to my profile blog.

Original Thread

[gopher_guy]

Well, I posted this in another thread, but I figured I would put it in the stickied thread, as well.

Another thing I think would be cool: Is if they added a sibling angle to Dynasty.

I was thinking about this the other day, there's a few things you could do with it.

• One of your player's brother is a highly touted recruit. Maybe you get a major leg up in recruiting him because he wants to play with his brother, or maybe he has no interest in coming to your school because he doesn't want to follow in his brother's footsteps
• Maybe you are trying to land a 5* recruit, but in doing so, you have to take on his 2* brother, because they want to go to the same school.

It happens enough in real life, I think it would be a cool wrinkle in the dynasty mode.

[Harrison_UNC_Barnes*]

**Bring back Team Discipline!!! I was playing NCAA 09 ps2 and through dynasty player where getting in trouble and suspended bring this back add realism to the game!

**More emphasis on Special Teams!!!
Add the Rugby punt to the special teams playbooks...
If the KR or PR is have a good year let him be the "Key Factor" in the games..

**Sidelines need to be MUCH MORE INTO THE GAME!!!! they look like there losing by 40pts even though winner just put more effort into them this year...

**Of Course All-Star games...Madden has the pro bowl..NCAA should have the Senior Bowl & UA All-American game!!!

**Nike Sparq recruiting!!! The combine plus the Nike Sparq 7on7 no pads just
Shorts & Hypercool shirts

**Been hearing alot about the sound being low..
Crowd is a big part in College sports..
Some freshman should go through a slump in accuracy on the road imo...
Enough with the crazy Heisman winners!!!

**Maybe add College Football Live for a weekly review..
During the season they talk about what going on around the Country in CFB
During the off-season they talk about who's got the best incoming recruiting Class? who's tranfering? who's going pro? Which School joining & leaving conferences? etc...

**Off-seasons...
From the time Bowl Season ends till the season opener there should be practice and recruiting just like 15 plays every day after that goto recruiting or you can simulate the practice or visa versa...

**Bring the Black Universities BACK!!!!!!!!
The whole Swac conference needs to be in the GAME!!!!!

**Have the fan rush onto the field after a rivalry win...

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

Streamline the team select interface. I think I saw 10 threads go up on how to have a multiplayer in house dynasty. Something like selecting the number of user controlled teams before going to team select.

It would run through player 1's create a coach and team selection, then prompt the option for player 2 to create a coach or use existing coach, and then go to team select.

- Depth Chart logic please. In general, If a player is a WR he should be placed higher than any TE or CB or HB on the WR slot in depth chart regardless of overall rating. If the player was supposed to be a WR the AI should have moved him to WR. This seems really easy to fix but would require some testing to see how it affects other aspects of the game.

- Recruiting logic...again. In year three of my sim dynasty I noticed teams with only four WRs on their roster. Really? This spot should have atleast 7 guys and atleast 6 active.This might be tied to the above issue.

- Progression tweaks. 60+ players should not be a 90+. Im sorry, but 97 is about where Stanford QB should be. Having so many players above a 90 makes having a true stand out player immpossible unless you are in a bad conference. Find a happy medium between last year and this year please!

- Better presentation for smaller bowls. Create like 4-5 different intros and tag these intros to specific bowls. While this may get boring if you stick to one team or conference for a long time it will make playing in the C-USA #5 bowl feel different from the Pac-12 #5 bowl game.

- Discipline. At this point, a rating that is visible while recruiting would suffice. AI gives out the punishment arbitrarily. So an minor offense gets 1 week suspension. Major infraction gets 5 weeks suspension. I can't really think of a fair, and fun way to put in sanctions yet so I can live w/o it for now.

- 132 team slots in Dynasty. This would allow us to put our 12 TB teams into dynasty without removing other teams.

- If the above happens, a non-playable conference. This would be teams that can be scheduled, but act as the generic FCS teams.

- 13th game for teams @ Hawaii for the first year schedules. If possible the following years as well.

- Dynamic Conference prestige. I think an average of the Program Prestige of each school is fair enough for now. If possible I think National titles and BCS winng % over the within the last ten years shoud be a factor (starting after yr 10 of course).

- I am not sure when the new teams in the WAC will start but can they be added. Kinda like how the Texans appeared in year 2 of Madden 2002(?).

- Two tiers of Coach Prestige. Coordinator and HC. The only way to change prestige is to coach at that level. So and A+ coordinator will be a D HC untill he gets a Head coach job and a Head Coach who is an A+ but never been a coordinator will be a D coordinator. Also the Coordinator tier should be divided between Offense and Defense. So an A+ Defensive coordinator may be a D Offensive Coordinator.

(I know this isn't perfect but I do not see a true Madden like rating system in the future. The NCAA team seems locked on this Prestige thingy.)

- Slower coach progression. There is no reason that one good season make a coach go from Nobody McNobody to Nick Saban. Here me out here. Most coaches that have that "out of nowhere" season, generally have had middle of the line success before. I hate seeing D coordinator go to be A+ head coaches in one year. Make time, and strength of schedule factor in. Alabama should not be hireing MTSU's 32-7 HC, especially when he never once beat a top 25 team and has a 0-5 bowl win percentage.

- Better polling logic. Ok nobody really know how the polling logic really works, because, lets face it, the polls make no sense sometimes. What we do know is that no non-BCS team will make a national title run, without being ranked high in the Pre-Season polls. To do this, they would need to have multiple one loss or undefeated seasons in a row, like Bosie St. I know this may not please the casuals but there is no way even in the virtual world that UCF gets to the National title this year. (I will eat my shorts if it does).

- Accurate representation of the the Commander in Chief Trophy. This should not be hard to do. It is like a mini-conference. The team that goes 2-0 win outright. If 2 teams go 1-1 then they tie.

- Neutral site games.

- Senior Bowl. I know somebody will rip me for this, and I was against it too, but I'm starting to like the idea. It is like a Pro-Bowl for Seniors. It would be kinda fun to play as your Senior QB for one last time. Might also be cool because it could be like an auto bid for the draft.

- A Graduation/Draft status for seniors in the players leaving screen. This would go hand in hand with dynamic Pro-potential as well as be a nice touch for us NCAA to Madden players. It would make finding our guys a lot easier. I hate not seeing my star players like the 90 ovr RB at WKU not even try to go pro despite being in the top 20 RBs in the nation.

- Dynamic Commentary. Commentary that is aware of what is on the line in a game. Say Michigan vs OSU are undeafeated going into the their last game, and for this arguements sake lets say I am using the old Big 10. The commentary at the start of the game should be aware that this is essentially a title game.

- Allow us to edit coach records. I hate having 360 rookie coaches. I do not care if they ship that way but let me edit them.

- Editable coach prestige. More customization is always a good thing. Lets us manually fix your mistakes. Its ok we all make them, dont feel bad, just give us some more tools.

- Medical Redshirts. No justification needed. Just add it.

- Dynamic rivalries. I'm still working this one out myself, but I'll get back to you on this one.

- Coach Carousel stage of offseason should be more like FA in Madden. It is annyoing that I have no idea who is offering me a job.

I'm done. Have at it boys.

[speedy43]

- Medical Redshirts

- Stadium upgrades

- Dynamic rivalries

- Schedule neutral site games

- AD mode where you hire/fire coaches and coordinators. (Similar to Madden's dynasty mode)

[Joshua1207]

I want to see coaches have ratings like in College Hoops.

[Marcus34]

Replays that work
A game that doesn't freeze
Fix coach progression

[fcboiler87]

Coaching Carousel Wishlist

My focus here will be on the Coaching Carousel. This has the potential to be the greatest feature ever, but as it stands, it needs some serious improvements. I will break down the areas that need improvement in the following categories; Coach Ratings, Coach Contracts & Goals, Coach Progression, and Coach Hiring Logic.

Coach Ratings

"Coach Prestige" is a nice start, but what factors into a coach being a good coach is far more in depth than prestige. We need specific ratings for coaches in varying categories just as players do. I will break down an example as follow. Also, let's do away with the letter grade and use a numerical scale like we do with the players for more variance in the coaches.

Prestige: There is nothing wrong with giving a coach a prestige rating. Alabama's Nick Saban is going to obviously have more prestige than Arkansas State's Hugh Freeze. Saban could start the game with a 97 rating, while freeze might only be a 60. And though I will go more in depth in the progression category, Freeze should only progress a handful of points per year, regardless of his success because coaches don't just become one of the most prestigious overnight.

Offense: This category speaks for itself. What is the coach's background in offense? Has he had a lot of success? Gus Malzhan's overall as an offensive coordinator would likely be in the 90s due to his innovation and success. If he is a defensive coach, he likely won't have a high rating in it, and that's okay.

Defense: Again, this can speak for itself. How good of a defensive coach is the guy? Bud Foster from Va Tech would have rating in the 90s.

Special Teams: Another fundamental category here. How good is the coach at special teams. I'll get to the influences of the last three at the end.

Recruiting: How good of a recruiter is this coach? If he constantly lands 4 and 5 star guys, his rating would be pretty good.

Teaching: How good can this coach get his players to learn all that he knows? This is crucial to being a good coach.

Overall: These specific categories should add up to an overall rating, just as it does for players.

EFFECTS
Now, these ratings per specific categories should just be numbers that determine where and how coaches move around. They need to have a profound effect on the team they are coaching. If and offensive coordinator has a poor offense rating and a poor teaching rating, then that offense shouldn't be worth much, regardless of the talent they have. A good recruiting rating should allow teams to pull in some better recruits. Hopefully you get the point.

How this should be implemented for the user
At the beginning of the dynasty, we should be able to set our rating. Now, to make it realistic, we should only have so much space to work. Let us choose which categories we will be good in and which ones we will not be as good in. Then, as the dynasty progresses, we can improve based upon meeting our goals.

Coach Contracts & Goals

Contracts that coaches are given greatly need improvement. There are constantly 1 year contracts handed out. This makes no sense. No one does that. It's like saying "hey if you don't get it right this year then you might not be back." Especially if you walk into a mess of a situation, you get an opportunity to get your system in place and get things turned around. No contract should really ever be less than three years. Now, if we are talking extensions of contracts, 1 or 2 years makes sense. The school wants to continue to see progress and if it's not met then you're done. But 1 year from the get go is unrealistic.

Goals are an excellent idea for progression and firing logic. Even they could use improvement. It seems as though with weaker teams, your goals are very attainable. It would be nice to see a little bit tougher goals. On the other hand, goals at large schools or even small schools that win some can be -- dare I say it -- too tough?? I just saw in one carousel Chip Kelly from Oregon get fired for going 12-2 and had had equal success in earlier years. I saw a guy who was the HC at Wyoming get fired after going 8-4. I'm sorry but if you go 8-4 at Wyoming, you will be hailed as a god and they will build a statue in your name. You will definitely not get fired. There are almost no programs that will fire you if you win 10 games every year.

Goals are excellent, but I can assure you there is one cure all for missing out on some goals written down on paper; WINNING. If you win ball games, especially dependent on the school, your job is safe.

Coaching Progression

If there is a consensus to the new coaching carousel, it comes with coaching progression. It above all things severely needs work. As it has been said, coaches progress WAY to quickly. This leads there to being an abundance of "good" coaches. This clearly affects the carousel because you see an A rated guy who just won 4 games get a head coaching job at a big BCS school.

Coaches don't become all stars over night. Okay, yes, Urban Meyer's rise was rather meteoric, but that's only in reflection. Nobody knew the guy when he was winning games at Bowling Green State. Regardless, progression should be toned down greatly. Perhaps a max of 5 points overall per year? That's just a suggestion and even that might be too great.

Progression should be tied to success and success, while determined by goals, should also have winning factored in. If a coach has a successful season (meets all goals, wins 8 games at say... Tulane) then he should improve more than a well rated coach (didn't meet all goals, won only 4 games at Ole Miss). Again, I'll go back to the fact that winning equals a lot, even if you only ran for 950 yards on the year when your goal said 1000.

Coach Hiring and Firing Logic

Although you've seen the most debate about coaching progression, I'll end with hiring and firing logic because it is my biggest concern.

As it stands, if you aren't a coordinator, you're not going to get a head coaching job. This isn't always the case, but I've simmed through years and years and the majority of the time, coordinators are the ones becoming head coach. This would be one thing if the hirings made sense, but often, they leave you scratching your head. Now, I know, there are hirings in real life that make you go "huh??" but not most of the time.

Case examples: I've seen Army's offensive coordinator land a head coaching job often. I'm sorry but the only place their OC is actually going is Army. He certainly isn't going to move up in the world by getting a head coaching job. He could land an OC job at a bigger school. That would make sense. But he is not yet qualified to land a head coach job. It just wouldn't happen. And this stuff happens all the time. A BCS level school hires a coordinator from a small conference. That would never ever happen. To make matters worse, these coordinators often come from schools with LOSING records. Once again, I'll go back to the fact that WINNING equals everything. I don't care if you're an A rated coach, if your team wins 3 games, nobody wants anything to do with you. That's a FACT.

What we need to see...
...In BCS level conferences
We need to see the rise of coaches emulated like we do in real life. Who gets BCS head coaching jobs? Very often, they are head coaches from smaller schools, with the MAC being a hot bed for them. If a BCS school does not hire a head coach from a small school, they will likely hire a coordinator from a very successful BCS school. That's just how it goes. On occasion, teams will hire from within, but not nearly as often as '12 seems to make happen. The only other thing that might happen is they get somebody from the NFL (i.e. Colorado). This could be emulated by having a pool of generic, CPU created coaches.

...In smaller conferences
Smaller schools might have a little more flexibility with hiring coaches, but their favorite place to go is back to the BCS conferences with hiring not only coordinators, but position coaches (but that's another story for another thread). Here, it would make sense to see hirings from within - i.e. promotion from coordinator to head coach. One thing that is great is that former head coaches often land coordinator positions at these smaller schools. That really does happen and I like to see it in the game as it is. We could definitely also see those former coaches take head coaching gigs at smaller schools, which is realistic.

Hiring and Firing
In real life, if a head coach is fired, the coordinators that coached under him are basically fired too. A new head coach will bring in his own guys to run his system. It's a fact of life. Almost never will a coordinator hang around. This is not emulated in the game. The CPU head coaches need the ability to hire an OC and DC that fit the styles they want (that are listed on their coach profile). A head coach really shouldn't hire someone that doesn't fit with their styles of play because they probably wouldn't mesh well.

A user that becomes a head coach should absolutely be able to hire the OC and DC he wants. Again, it's just realistic. And if you go back to coach ratings, having his own OC and DC would mean he controls how his team is affected. We could even go a step further and say in the middle of a game, instead of the option to choose "coach call" plays or you pick by formation, you have no option to choose and your OC or DC says what he wants to run. Some people might not like the loss of "control" but it would certainly add to the realism and it could be added as an option.

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In all of this, I am not clamoring for additional coaches. I like the HC, OC, and DC set up. It keeps things simple at a point where I don't mind it being as such. I'm all about depth, hopefully as evidenced by above. But let's get the above accomplished and we can begin adding other coaches.

As stated earlier, I love the addition of the Coaching Carousel. It is the only reason I bought the game. While I am disappointed with some aspects, it still keeps me playing the game.

Let me know your thoughts. Our constructive criticism is how this game gets better.