This update doesn't have a big killer feature (one week of vacation will do that), but does have a litany of minor additions and quality of life improvements, as well as a few bug fixes.
The first addition worth mentioning is that bowl games can now have conference tie-ins! This means bowl games can always choose the same conference to participate, like those that exist in real life. In the default universe, this has been set up for most of the tier 1 bowl games. Some bowl games can still have at-large bids, of course. These won't take effect unless you load up a new game, though.
For those with custom universe files, a new `tieIn` property on bowl games can be set. To help, I've added a button to download the default universe file as an example, which you can use to modify and see how it is constructed. Eventually, there will be better instructions and tooling around creating these files.
The next nice feature are drive recaps, which you can view in the "Log" tab when playing games. These give you a full rundown of each drive in the game, with a summary of total plays and time taken, and a way to expand and see all plays in order.
The last change worth calling out in detail is that I've changed how player progression works slightly, by weighing playing time more for their development. To be clear, this is still just one factor that affects development, along with potential, facilities, and coach training. Previously, playing 12 games a year instead of 0 would result in about a +3 higher overall by the time a player's career was over; this update roughly doubles that number. Now the decision to play your young guys and get them reps for the future, or your veterans that might give you a better chance to win now, is a bit tougher to make.
You can see the full list of changes below. I may tackle the next big thing on the roadmap for next update, so bear with me if it takes a bit longer to get out.
All changes
- Bowl games can now have conference tie-ins
- Drive summaries are now shown on the "Log" tab when playing games
- Playing time is now weighed higher for player development
- Coaching staff can now be selected when starting a new School Dynasty save
- Seniors can now be redshirted if they play <4 games
- Realignment can now be done each offseason if desired (even for saves with it off normally)
- Poll votes are now shown in league rankings tab, and have been normalized so bottom team has 0 votes
- Snap% is now shown for players during transfer/leave stage
- Player promises are now shown in more places, including the week dashboard and pre-season training
- Height and weight distributions have been altered slightly for WR, DL, and OL
- Play summaries now include drops and deflections if applicable
- The "Can attend camp" text is now clickable for easily sending a recruit to camp in preseason
- Fixed issue where team OC and DC weren't available to promote to HC
- Added a "Download example file" button for easier custom universe file creation
Thanks for playing!