This is the biggest update to the game in quite some time, I hope you all will enjoy! I've added to basically every part of the game, from new offensive plays, changes to recruiting, coin flips to games, better optimization, and lots more. Read on to learn more.
New offensive playbooks and plays:
Three new offensive playbooks have been added: Air Raid, Pistol, and Option. Since playbook is different from playcall style, the game will force you to choose a Pass Heavy style for Air Raid and a Run Heavy style for Option, but otherwise they act the same as other playbooks. 10+ new formations and 50+ new plays have been added to the game to facilitate these new playbooks, including several new Pistol and Shotgun formations. Coaches will select these new playbooks as well, although they will be more rare than the standard Balanced / Spread / Pro Style ones. Also, coaches will now occasionally choose the Run Heavy and Pass Heavy styles. All this contributes to a much more varied league in terms of offensive playstyles.
Scheme fit priority in recruiting:
Because some of these new playbooks are vastly different, a new dimension had to be added to recruiting: this is done via the new "Scheme fit" priority. This basically allows recruits to say how important scheme fit is to them when joining a new team, and affects their interest score for schools. Scheme fit has been added for all positions, though some will care about it more than others (QBs will care more than Kickers, for example). The player archetype determines which schemes they view as more or less favorable to them; Athlete QBs will like Option playbooks, but Field Generals won't. Receiving RBs will like passing offenses more than Power backs. Man to Man CBs will prefer a more man-focused defensive scheme, and so on. This should help each team mold their roster more to what scheme they are running.
Optimizations and faster simulations:
As part of this update, I did a lot of work under the hood to optimize the game by adding more concurrency when simulating games. This required a substantial refactor, but is very worth it! By default, the game will now use 2 threads to simulate games, but this can be changed in the "Game Settings" page under Preferences. You can speed up the week simulation by increasing the count, but the game will take more resources. As an example, I tested that going from one to four threads will save about 6 seconds per week on larger saves.
Coin toss before games and overtimes:
A new fun feature is that coin tosses have been added before games, which adds some personality. Now, the away team will make a call (heads or tails), then the coin is flipped, and the winner decides to defer or receive the ball. A similar ceremony happens prior to overtime. This can be skipped if desired, while still allowing you to click which side you prefer if you win the toss.
Coaching Staffs page:
I've added new "Coaching Staffs" league page to view all coaching staffs in the league, as well as the scheme they are running, on offense and defense. This is helpful to see which schemes are and aren't being run by the top teams, without having to click into each one.
Viewing play formations:
A small feature, but one that can help visualize plays better, is that you can now see the exact formation and placement of each position for all offensive and defensive plays. If you aren't sure where that TE or FB is, just click the info icon next to the formation in play cards. Then you can see more details, and view which playbooks have access to this formation.
More UI updates:
I've done a lot more small updates to the UI, including a reworked "School Updates" page which shows a nice summary at the top, auto-suggesting plays during games, a Continue button on the main menu, more banners for conference and league champions, a way to re-open the weekly summary dialog, and more. Below is the new school updates page.
You can read the full list of changes below.
Features:
- Add new playbooks on offense: Pistol, Air Raid, and Option
- Add 10+ new formations and 50+ new offensive plays
- Add new "Scheme fit" priority in recruiting
- Optimize game, support better concurrency when simulating plays (see new option in Game Settings page -> Preferences section)
Minor improvements:
- Can now view formation details, with grid of where each position is, by clicking info button in play cards
- Coaches and players generated on league start will more closely match schemes
- User now sets 'preliminary' game plan at the end of the coaching carousel, to tell transfers what their scheme fit will be for next year
- When playing game, auto-select each play which can be changed afterwards
- Add new "Coaching Staffs" league page to view all coaching staffs in the league, as well as the scheme they are running
- User schemes from past years are now tracked, and will be correct in Coaching Staffs and coaches tab for previous user teams
- Add continue button to main menu
- Improve school updates page UI, show summary at the top of all changes
- Add coin flips at the start of game and in OT
- Can now re-open the week summary dialog by clicking button in page header
- Add conference and league champion banners in a few more pages
- Can now change teams in School Dynasty saves if God Mode is on (in confirmation modal after Year Summary stage)
- Can now sort recruits by 40-yard dash, 3-cone drill, and bench reps
- Added Athlete QB archetype
- Lots of minor UI updates
Bug fixes:
- Fix issue where recruits from same zipcode as school wouldn't have correct Proximity to Home priority grade
- Remove a few bad zipcodes from selection
- Fix issue where total earnings wouldn't account for booster game gift condition success
- Fix issue where turnovers and sacks would be flipped in single season team records
- Fix issue where RB tags wouldn't be used correctly if there were multiple on one player
- Better late game playcalling on offense and defense to prevent silly decisions
As usual, this update WILL work on previous saves. However, you may want to create a new save to get a fresh batch of coaches who will choose these new schemes. Thanks for playing!