Running list of suggestions the sequel

[eel1987]

Starting a thread for myself here since the first access forum is locked after release.

1. More in-game messages would probably help with information and immersion. A message when a player gets injured or recovers for injury, maybe a weekly injury report telling me who is out, who could play but probably shouldn't, who is good to play now, etc.

2. This could also be added to recruiting. Right now the recruiting "pitch" is just six points split between six different areas, and it's automatic right now which is kinda boring. I think this is an area that has a lot of potential to continue improving the recruiting system, maybe with an on-going effort to learn which approaches will work with which recruits. Could also maybe add in a style of recruiting--some recruits probably like super enthusiastic coaches, some prefer more laid back, some prefer aggressive, etc. This is just me spitballing, but back when I played BBCF a big part of recruiting there is figuring out which pitch to use on a recruit.

[eel1987]

3. On the sign staff screen, none of the staff after the first page have a star rating.

4. Would be nice to have a roster filter for redshirt eligible players.

[eel1987]

5. Clearer feedback on performance. I just got what I thought was a great recruit class considering I'm a low prestige team, and I get a message saying the athletic department is "not at all happy with this result." I have no idea why.

[eel1987]

6. More feedback in general, really. Tracking team/player morale (OOTP is really good at this), tracking who my potential transfer losses might be, more info to help me figure out what's going right/wrong in games if I sim them. Just more feedback on player activities would make the game more immersive.

[servo75]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but the progression is very hard to keep track of. In the emails it just says player and skill but not how much. No way to cumulatively keep track. And in the player profile page, muddling through those line graphs, I mean it's nice to see graphically but it would be nice to have a nice clean tabular format showing player, skill, week, and amount of upgrade. I like to be able to get (or easily generate) a list of who's upgrading the fastest, at what skill and see the progress through the season. For past seasons, I think one node per season is fine too. But make that exportable to CSV if nothing else?

And on custom playbooks, if we were able to sort and filter the playbook by play type, run/pass, avg gain, formation instead of just having all pass on top and all run on bottom it would be much easier to keep tabs on if I have the right plays in, if I'm overusing some formations and under-using others, and a whole lot more types of analysis. Again here, exporting the playbook to CSV would be uber-helpful by itself.

The scheduling really needs work. Now the example I'm about to give is from the 2023 version but I'm seeing stuff like this in 24 as well. I'm in a sim league and my team's conference schedule from 2026 to 2027 is practically identical. We have a 2 division conference so it should be all teams in division plus a few from the other division. From one year to the next, 6 of the 8 games are identical in team and home/away. One new opponent. One game got switched home to away. The schedule gave us all 8 conference games back to back, four road followed by four home. We're having in-division teams not played for 2 years in a row and out of division teams played 3 years in a row. I know scheduling is a challenge but this is really a mess.

[drummerJ99]

For me, it's the skin. IMHO the game really need some form of a light skin option. Basketball isn't bad as a dark UI but I'm looking at 20 players box score. In football I'm looking at team stats, scoring summary, 50+ player box score it all just gives me a headache with the dark skin.

The player photos also need a update. There's too much wasted space to the left and right. If keeping same layout just show the players shoulders like in the basketball game.

The customization needs work to be able to be done in game like OOTP. From league setup to team relocation to conference movement instead of having to edit the xml file.

[bigpoppa85]

The recruiting and development aspect has to be redone. Seems like the model is based on the NFL game. College football is drastically different.

The recruits shouldn’t be coming in at 90+ overall. Freshmen never come in and are the top players on the team. They are 18 year olds that need to mature.

The jumps in development need to be bigger. There is a reason a team full of seniors will likely beat a younger team…even if they are more “talented” in speed, agility, etc.

The jumps in certain categories need to be higher/lower. For example, speed and agility don’t change much over 4 years. But strength and intelligence should see vast increases. A freshman should have low intelligence…and as he gains experience, his game IQ should go up considerably.

The developmental aspect of the game is way off.

[eel1987]

Another immersion suggestion: Instead of seeing recruit scounting info like Physique/Athleticism/etc, show us the player's high school stats up to that point. Then show the base scouting info after a bit of time has been spent scouting them. Then the more detailed ratings after more time. It would also help in evaluating recruits to see how they actually perform at the high school level, especially if we have a way to know the caliber of opposition they've faced (AAAA high school or A high school and so on).

Edit: Post above this one also makes a lot of sense. It seems odd to bring in a recruit class of 9/10 overall freshmen who end up either starting and pissing off the upperclassmen, or waiting and possibly transferring themselves. And I think it's been said before, but it seems like there's too much parity between top vs bottom teams in terms of player attributes.