How Do You Play?

[blazertaz13]

Something that I was wondering, is how do others play the game?

Do you play a journey man type of game? Do you stick with one school and see where you can take them? Or a combination of both?

How do you recruit? Do you recruit for need or by position?

Do you play out games or sim out as many seasons as you can?

Lastly, do you plan on carrying on with your association when the new game comes out or start over?

I hope to hear how others play, as I am hoping to help others and keep discussion going as I am excited for the new version after watching the stream this week.

Merry Christmas to all.

Taz

[jlemmen43]

Have a Merry Christmas, and don't play computer games all day! hehe jk.

I like to be commissioner of my own fictional college universe. I've redesigned all the teams and conferences. Then i'll keep an eye on the whole league, making changes to lineups as I see fit. Then I'll watch the games, with the ability to restart the game if I don't like the direction its going in. Most of the time I just let it go, but occasionally I try to make sure that players or teams that I've come to like end up with a favorable result. With the new 2D Version, it'll be so much more exciting to watch.

I let the CPU do recruiting and coach hiring. I plan to promote a few teams between certain levels of conferences each 5 years. I haven't got that far for seasons, because I keep restarting my leagues...but I think with 2023 I'm ready to stick with it and let the seasons pile up. I like seeing where players end up and when I play the Pro game, I act as GM for all 30 teams and try to assemble each team to how I'd like it. It's easier to assign a story or personality in my head to 30 teams than 360 teams. So I'll just kinda build a story out of that. For my own enjoyment, although one day I should start sharing on the Dynasties forum.

[NCAAhoops]

I usually have two associations going at one time. But only control one team and in the second I don't control any even though I'm a coach there.
I usually pick a mid major school in the Southern Conference (used to use the American Athletic Conference)
Once I pick a school, which right now is East Tennessee State I play out all m games in 2d so that one goes pretty slow. I make a copy of that association and rename it at start up and set my coach to have the CPU do everything and I sim that association usually a year or two ahead of where I am in the other copy just to compare how I do versus the CPU coaching the exact same team, same players, against the same teams. I like looking year to year at recruiting comparisons and how the conference standings ended for my team.

Of course my goal is to make ETSU the power of the conference and be able to find a more prestigious job. Have been able to move on before and have been fired due to poor recruiting and performance too. I usually don't get to Play my slow one more than 2-3 years before I seem to start over with some other idea's to try. I can usually run my sim 10 years plus.

[jlemmen43]

I make a copy of that association and rename it at start up and set my coach to have the CPU do everything and I sim that association usually a year or two ahead of where I am in the other copy just to compare how I do versus the CPU coaching the exact same team, same players, against the same teams.

Wow that's a really neat concept!

[PointGuard]

I do various things. My primary method is to use the standard associaiton creation, create a coach with rather low ratings, and have him hired at a pretty low prestige school that has a pretty pitiful basketball program, then see how that program develops...but when it gets going pretty well, take on a job at a new college with another poor performing basketball program. For these type of associations I do everything (recruiting, playing out games in 2D, handling the transfer portal, etc.

I also have found I like having multiple coaches using the Universal Mode withing DDSCB. For these I mostly sim recruiting and game play.

Then I like to run some Tournament Maker tourneys as well...again usually simming the game play.

Normally I prefer using Brutal recruiting level since you can still recruit better than the AI even at that level. I also like to set the Injury level very high (200% typically, but sometimes 150-170) since even at 200 there are fewer injuries than in real life. I like job pressure to be set to high...even then it's been a long time since my coach was fired, but prefer there be that possibility. But a long time ago I got fired by Arizona State...and will never coach there again and if any of my relatives or friends were interested in attending that school, I'd probably try to dissuade them...and certainly I don't want them to finish first (for real) in the Pac-12 (or whatever number that conference will soon be) in football, basketball or tiddlywinks.. F the Sun Devils.

[blazertaz13]

Loving the responses. Thanks for sharing.

One thing I forgot to add, had you continued a save from one version to the next? This is not something I have done in the past but may this year (at least one of them).

[ECHood]

I start at a low prestige program at a small school conference and gradually try to work my way up through the ranks over several decades, often finishing at a Kentucky/Kansas/North Carolina where I enjoy getting the top recruits and playing for titles for a few years and then retiring and starting over with a new me (my "son", Jr., at a small school again).

I play on Easy Recruiting and self police - usually only contacting/scouting players from my school's state or direct surrounding states. I recruit based on need for the most part. I like to find players who can play multiple positions so I have depth chart flexibility. I don't love spending a ton of time grinding out recruiting, so I run through it pretty quick and don't worry about using all of my scholarships now that the transfer portal offers instant gratification.

I set the depth chart for every game but I don't play out the games, I quick sim all.

I love tournament time as I really get in the weeds of the NET rankings and create NCAA, NIT, CBI and CIT brackets myself in a spreadsheet and sim them all out in Tournament Maker.

When the new game comes out I probably won't carry 2022 leagues over. I'll start that one out of the box and take in the new experience.

[PointGuard]

blazertaz13: Yes, I've impthe past few versions of DDSCBorted saved associations to the new DDSCB version...easy and works good.

ECHood: Your development of the 4 post-season tourneys in Tournament Maker is interesting...cool.

[Billdozer]

I like to start with a standard association on Hard recruiting. For my coach I start with Rookie and use Custom in order to set my potential ratings at 90 across the board. I set the declare for draft early on high. I turn illegal recruiting off. For everything else I just use the defaults.

For my team selection I have started my career at UMASS, Eastern Washington, Northern Illinois, Houston Baptist, Seattle U, Pepperdine, Little Rock, and Santa Clara.

After a while I move on to schools like Virginia Tech, Kansas State, Boston College, Ohio, Washington State, Colorado, Utah and Iowa State. I try to win at these mid-tier schools. I have been fired from Kansas State, Satna Clara, and Boston College.

Sometimes I upgrade to a 3rd school such as Purdue, Iowa, Gonzaga, or Virginia while chasing a championship.

It usually takes somewhere between 12-20 years for me to win a championship. After I win, I start a new association.

[ECHood]

ECHood: Your development of the 4 post-season tourneys in Tournament Maker is interesting...cool.

A while back I added to your suggestion list the implementation of real-life templates for the four postseason tournaments in both the game and Tournament Maker (so like, the NIT games are all hosted by the higher seed until the semis like in real life). I'm hoping Gary has made those tweaks - or better yet, allows us to use our own Tournament Maker brackets in the real game. That's the dream! Or at least my dream.