House Rules Hub

[DynastyDaddy]

I thought it would be great if we had a list of house rules that people use in their dynasties for realism, immersion, challenge, longevity, etc.

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s ideas!

[JoshuaN125]

One thing I've experimented with is different levels of scouting based on my pipelines. I can only scout twice if it's a full level pipeline, every other pipeline I can only scout the player once, and if I don't have the pipeline at all for that player I can't scout at all. Then, during the offseason, when I get to change positions, I find out just how good my recruits are, once they're "on campus".

[DynastyDaddy]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshuaN125

One thing I've experimented with is different levels of scouting based on my pipelines. I can only scout twice if it's a full level pipeline, every other pipeline I can only scout the player once, and if I don't have the pipeline at all for that player I can't scout at all. Then, during the offseason, when I get to change positions, I find out just how good my recruits are, once they're "on campus".

I have thought about doing this as well. What I like about it is it forces you to use the yellow bars/ranges rather than a clear cut number. I also like that you will have more points to use to “soft” scout and recruit.

[JoshuaN125]

Exactly. One thing I got wrong, is that I let myself scout in state players fully, kind of like if they had come to a camp on campus. Then the other max pipelines twice, the lesser ones once, and no scouting for no pipeline players. But, you're very right in that with a qb, for instance, you might see speed and mid accuracy, but only know that his throwing power looks to be in the 90 range, and awareness in the 70 range. I've also thought about then not following up and scouting in full until the players visit week. You have to scout before the visit most of the time, because if they commit, you can't retroactively scout. A rule I have with that is that even though you could still cancel the visit, by removing them from your list and pulling the scholly, I just take what I get with the player, instead of "not letting him visit once he's arrived in town". It's similar to my old game rule where I couldn't scout in full until a player commited.

[Renard]

Here is ours for our 10-man dynasty.

Always open to suggestions and add-ons if needed:

Coaching:
1. Adaptive AI - Aggressive

Recruiting:
1. Players must be in from your pipelines
a. EXCEPTION - If a player's preseason top-10 teams has your school in it, you may recruit that player regardless.

2. You may recruit only 2 stars above your school's star level
a. 1 ★ can recruit 3 ★s and under
b. 2★ can recruit 4 ★s and under
c. 3-5★ can recruit 5 ★s and under
d. EXCEPTION - If a player's preseason top-10 teams has your school in it, you may recruit that player regardless. You MUST show a screenshot to the commishes before he is added to your board

Gameplay:
1. One hot route per play allowed
a. Pass protect doesn't count as one

2. You must stream all your games and have archives of your streams available for others to see
a. Instructions to do so can be found at ⁠#set-up-streaming

3. There will be play cooldowns (5) and limits (5). These are done automatically in game.

4. Chew clock only in final 2 minutes of 2nd Quarter and last 5 min of 4th Quarter

[thedudedominick]

If I'm using a 3* or less school my initial recruiting board has to include every player from the state I'm located in. I can only remove them when they commit elsewhere.

When adding players after that initial board, I can only add players that fit exactly what I want for their player type. (if I'm running an air raid or passing offense, the QB has to be field general. If I'm running a 4-3, 4-2-5, or 3-3-5, I can only recruit pass coverage or field general linebackers. I play a lot of zone defense so only can target Zone or Hybrid specialty defensive backs)

Only exception is players that want to go to my school can be any type of player and any level but I can't go after guys that don't "fit" my program if they aren't initially interested.

Once I get to 4* and above then I still have to recruit in state players but don't have to target the ones lower than 3 stars. I can also now recruit nationally when it comes to finding program fits, and also recruit anyone that has an initial interest in my school.

As far as gameplay goes, call the game like a real coach would. Get multiple players involved. I have my auto subs set really high so I can see a rotation. (I really hope they add formation subs) If I have to change 5 things before the play I am not really running my playbook so I limit myself to at most 3 pre play adjustments (this includes any offensive line slide, DB shading, hot routes, flipping run plays, shifting or slanting my D line.) Don't abuse broken plays.

[DarthRambo]

Recruiting

After seeing how bad the AI is at recruiting and for some reason not offering scholarships; rules are definitely needed for me or I'll lose interest in this game quickly.

1.) Don't recruit past one star above your prestige. If I have a half star, I am allowed up to 5 recruits the star level above prestige.

2.) DO NOT add to board if they are do not have you listed on the top 10 from the get go. This makes recruiting so difficult when to begin the year as a small school, having less than 10 recruits have you listed inside top 10. This happened to me my first year (year three overall) as HC at Old Dominion. Finished 4-8.

3.) NO scouting at all. It doesn't make sense to know if a guy is a bust or not before he hits the field and plays. It's just so unrealistic to me so I don't do it. However, if you're going to let us see gems and busts, I do wish after you sign a guy it showed his attributes and gem or bust.

4.) Since the AI wants wait until mid-late season to offer scholarships for so many recruits. Do NOT offer a scholarship UNTIL you see at least one other team offer one first.

Force wins for better CFP results etc

Ranked- IF +3ovr (home) OR +4 (away)
Unranked- +4 (home) OR +5 (away)

I have a sheet with each team's overalls by conference so it is quick to do all of this now. I'll update overalls a couple times during the season if needed.

Relegation system

Power 4- ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC
Group of 4- SBC, AAC, Pac- 12, C-USA
Couple of 2- MAC, MWC
Independents- two teams

Doesn't matter the order of things:

1.) G4 conference champion moved up to P4 swapped with their last place team.

2.) C2 conferences, MWC and MAC conference title game teams (four) move up to a G4 conference.

3.) Very last place of both C2 conferfences combined will relegate as an independent. Swapped with current independent who finished with best record.

4.) Last place finishers of the G4 conferences; AAC, PAC-12, SBC, and C-USA move down into the C2 conferences.

5.) Rotating which conferences are swapping with which year to year. Keeping track but that's definitely unnecessary. Enjoying this very much as I'm about to enter year four of my coaching dynasty.

[jello1717]

RECRUITING:
No 5*s til my school is a 4*. I can try for 4 *s at smaller schools.

Cannot add any 4*s to my board after preseason. This is to prevent me adding recruits that are being ignored. Ignored 3*s are fine if my school is 2* or better.

At a 1 * school, I can’t add 3*s after preseason.

No scouting after preseason. I can scout to my heart’s content in preseason.

Can only recruit to fill out roster (I.e. no over recruiting) except for dire situations with a new team. I.e. when I joined Louisville, they had 7 QBs on the roster, including 3 true FR AND they signed 3 more QBs and I wasn’t dealing with 10 QBs on my roster.

FORCED WINS:
I only do it for teams in the top 25 during the current week.

If a team is within 5 OVR of the favorite, then I let the results stand. If not, then the favorite has a 10% chance per OVR difference to win +/- 5% for home or away. I.e. a 91 @ home vs a 84 has a 75% chance to win, while a 91 on the road vs a 84 has a 65% chance to win. No wins are guaranteed, so the maximum chance is 90%.

I also take rivalries into account and and kinda play it by ear, but in general I let them stand. I.e. if a 90 Michigan lost to an 83 MSU, I let it stand.

I save before every advance so that the games that don’t need to be forced can get normal sim results. Then I advance and check for bad losses, and use a 1-100 RNG to determine the winners. If any need to be forced, I revert to the previous save and force the needed wins.

If there’s stupid group of 5 stuff going on (I.e. a 73 OVR Charlotte ranked in the top 10) I reserve the right to force a loss on them.

CAROUSEL:
While a HC I need to stay at any job at least 2 years.

I can only accept a job that is no more than 1-1.5 *s better than my current job (I.e. 2 -> 3.5 is fine, but 2.5 -> 4 is not)