samba23
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Posts posted by samba23
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Yes. That should be correct.
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Also fixed is the U19 competition.
Competition now runs from September to December (mirrors real life College Football season). Groups remain the same but teams now play 14 fixtures (1 round, home or away). Matches are all played on Friday at 8:30. Each team now has 1 bye week. Also fixed is the propensity for teams to arrange friendlies, teams now only arrange friendlies before the season, none during the season and none after the season ends in December.
Players who have played 15 matches for the first team are still ineligible for the Varsity Team. In reality this has little effect due to the short Varsity season.
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NCAA.CollegeFootball.v1.1 is out now. Check the link on the opening post for the download.
New Features;
U19 "Junior Varsity" teams added for all teams
U19 league added
Awards added - includes team of the year, player of the year and coach of the year for all conferences, NCAA Tournament and College World Series
Training grounds created for all teams, used as home venue for varsity teams
Squad registration and squad numbers for all conferences - teams can have maximum of 85 players
Fixes/Improvements
Seeding for National Invitation Tournament fixed
Fixed draws improved for NIT and College Invitation Tournament
Kick-off times and TV fixtures for some competitions corrected
Youth intake now comes as "youth candidates" managers can choose to sign or release youth intake players
Hashtags added for all teams - many featuring a famous team slogan/fight song/alternate nickname etc
Reputations altered for invitational competitions - highest now 120, lowest now 90
History added for Coach of the Year
Expansion capacities removed for most stadiums - this was not working and was stopping teams from building new stadiums
Recently announced sponsorship deals added - e.g. Washington to Addidas
Some sponsorship deals changed to future dates - e.g USC stadium sponsor to come into effect in 2019
New California Director of Football added
Various name changes - e.g. American Athletic Conference short name now AAC (previously American Athletic)
Bob Stoops and Les Miles changed from out of contract managers (would never get jobs) to retired
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Junior Varsity Teams
By popular demand all 120 teams now feature a reserve team in the form of an U19's. Teams are known as [full team name] Junior Varsity Team, shortened down to [short team name] JV. These teams are for U19 players only and are designed primarily to reduce the squad numbers for the first team. It is for U19's to try and mimic real-life where Freshmen often do not play at all in their first year of college.
The 120 teams are split into 8 groups of 15 teams by region. Each team plays every in-state opposing team and teams from nearby states. The groups are;
Group 1 - Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota & Idaho
Group 2 - California, Hawaii, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico
Group 3 - Texas, Oklahoma
Group 4 - Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Wyoming
Group 5 - Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Wisconsin
Group 6 - Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina
Group 7 - Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana
Group 8 - Florida, Georgia, North Carolina
Teams play each team in their group twice and no teams from other groups (28 in total). I would have preferred for teams to play opponents only once and to play some matches against teams from other groups. Sadly, there is less flexibility in rules when making reserve competitions so this was not possible.
Also, if there was no U19 competition then teams would hardly arrange any friendlies but when a 1-round competition (14 matches) was added teams would arrange friendlies all the time. This means that the Varsity teams could play 40+ games per year, whereas the first team might play only 27 competitive matches. Obviously this was far from ideal, therefore all teams now play 2 rounds for each competition (so that teams at least play more local games). There is nothing in the editor to control the number of friendlies arranged so teams can often play several friendlies before and after the U19 competition matches. There is a setting in game to set how frequently reserve matches can be arranged so I would recommend using this option to limit the number of friendlies played by your team.
In real-life Freshmen are allowed to not play in their first year, without losing a year of eligibility to play (standard eligibility is 4 years). This is known as being "redshirted" and is very common for all but the best Freshmen, who are ready to play right away. A freshman can be unofficially red-shirted at the start of their first year and this redshirt can be "burned" if the player is needed for the first team due to injuries or because they have performed well in practice. If a player's redshirt is burned then they lose their extra year of eligibility. To try and mimic this in-game all U19 players are eligible to play for the Varsity Team at the start of each season but once they have played more than 15 games (the smallest number allowed by the editor) for the first-team then they are no longer eligible for the Varsity team for that season.
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Update is very nearly ready. But in the meantime here's something that I've wanted to add for ages but hadn't been able to get working until now.
Awards
There are many awards in College Football. The most prestigious is the Heisman Trophy, given to the best player in College Football. There are also awards given for the best player in every position, named after great former-players. The team of the year is also chosen, known as the "All-America Team". There are also several different awards for coach of the year. Each conference also picks its own best player, team of the year, coach of the year and some conferences also award best players in each position.
In this database I have end of year awards given for best player (Heisman), top goalscorer (Maxwell), coach of the year and awards for every position (GK, RB, LB, CB, DM, LM, RM, CM, AMC, ST). I have tried to match awards as best I can e.g. defensive awards in real life are given to defensive players in game. Also, there are teams of the year for each division. 1st XI for DI-A, 2nd XI for DI-AA, 3rd XI for DII. These are chosen from players across all conferences in each division.
Each conference also gives out player of the year, coach of the year and All-Conference team of the year. These awards are given out at the end of conference play. The NCAA Tournament also selects All-Tournament teams at the end of each regional bracket and after the Final Four. Finally, I have All-Tournament team and Most Outstanding Player for the College World Series.
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Theoretically yes. But it would require 16 separate regional tournaments of 4 teams to get it exactly right, so wouldn't be very user friendly having to scroll through 16 different competitions.
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Varsity teams update;
All reserve teams are now created, with first-team training grounds created and used as home-venues for reserve teams. Teams now add more U19 players at the start of the first season to help fill out the reserve teams. This means that each team will have more than the 16-18 players previously at the start of the fist season, making the game more playable from the start of the first season.
I can create a reserve league structure that copies the conference structure. This would mean that the varsity teams would play 16 "competitive" matches per season, during the regular conference season of Oct-Feb.
That's easy to do. However, I want to try and create a regional reserve structure. This would mean that the divisions do not copy the main conferences. I.e. no promotion and relegation and the divisions would always stay the same. I feel like this would be more realistic, e.g. Texas teams would play all other Texas teams plus Oklahoma teams but no "competitive" games against teams from other states. I feel like this would be more realistic as a varsity competition as teams would only play local games and the travel would be far less.
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Yes. In real-life the College World Series is the final 8 teams of the larger 64-team NCAA baseball tournament.
I already have a 68-team NCAA tournament (March Madness) and the calendar is already full so it's better just to have an 8-team tournament but it's just frustrating that I couldn't figure out a way to make a 64-team double elimination tournament that would work properly.
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Not yet. Update likely tomorrow.
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As for allowing transfers of players;
I would like to be able to have a limited number of transfers per year, maybe 2-3. This would allow for some transfers between NCAA teams (which does happen occasionally in real life) or to sign non-US players (i.e. offer scholarships to foreign players).
However, there's no way that I know of to limit the number of transfers a team can make so allowing transfers would likely hugely affect the competitive balance of the teams, i.e. the super rich teams could buy all the best DII players. Therefore, I have decided just to keep the hard-ban on transfers.
The good news is that teams can get non-US players through their youth intake. I would assume this depends on scouting range, but setting up a foreign affiliate should also help this.
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Competition reputations;
175 - College Football Playoff
165 - DI-A conferences, NY6 Bowl Games, NCAA tournament Final Four
150 - DI-AA conferences, NCAA tournament regional brackets, College World Series
140 - NIT
135 - DII conferences
120 - CIT, non-conference schedule, early season games
90 - Invitational competitions
So the playoff is the most important, Bowl Games are same importance as top conferences. NCAA tournament less important than Playoff but still important.
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1 hour ago, Timetxu said:
I really, really love what you've done with this. This is something I'd been hoping for for a long time, but unfortunately I suck balls at using the editor.
Can you give some insight in the value certain tournaments have to the board? Generally it looks like your conference and the Bowl game that goes with it is the most important. The College Football Playoff Bowl Games/Invitationals is the continuation of it, in which you play competitive games against teams from other conferences at the same level. The NCAA Tournament/March Madness feels a bit like a cup tournament, because it has teams from lower conferences involved as well. The College World Series is just kind of a celebratory tournament for conference winners.
Btw, I noticed an error in the College World Series with teams being able to be eliminated while only losing 1 game.
This is an example of a simulation I ran. You see that New Mexico and Florida State get eliminated after losing only one game. It feels like in the lower (losers') bracket, Kentucky and Kansas State should have played a game first with the winner advancing to play the loser of a Florida State - New Mexico matchup. The winner of Florida State - New Mexico would eventually play the winner of that game in the final.
Thanks for the reply. I was already aware of this and it is a problem that cannot be fixed. It is double elimination up until the semi-final but in real-life if the team that loses in the semi-final has not already lost a game then the teams play a 2nd game to determine the finalist. In game, however, there is no way that I know of to tell the game force a replay but only under those conditions so therefore the semi-final stage is just a straight knock-out.
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Update news:
U19 "Junior Varsity" teams included for all 120 teams. There is no U19 league but teams will be able to arrange as many friendlies vs other U19 teams as they choose.
Varsity teams to be managed by Head of Youth Recruitment. No new staff created for U19 teams.
Training grounds created for all teams i.e. "University of Texas Practice Fields". Will also be used as U19 team stadiums.
Youth intake will now go into "Youth Candidates" squad, with players set as "on trial". Therefore, managers can choose to sign as many of the intake as they choose, enabling greater control on squad size.
Player registration now added for season. First prompt is 1st day of new season, managers have one month to register players.
Squad numbers can be added any time from 1st day of new season up until 1st competitive match that un-numbered player appears in.
All competitions now fall under NCAA disciplinary rules. I.e. bookings will be accumulated across all competitions and bans can be served across all competitions.
TV dates and kick off times fixed for Early Season Games.
National Invitation Tournament - Team seedings fixed. Now highest placed league teams will play lowest placed league teams in 1st round, was previously seeded wrong. 1st and 2nd round fixed draw is perfect. Still some issues with quarter finals not always drawing correct seeds, and attempting to fix this. Higher seeded teams play at home.
College Invitation Tournament - Fixed draw now perfected for all rounds. Seedings now not used for semi-finals (re-bracketed for this stage in real life). Semi finals now played at real-life bowl game venues - Toyota Stadium and FAU Stadium. Higher seeded teams play at home (not including semi-final).
College World Series - Bracketing still not working as intended. I believe this is because teams are given byes (which seems to corrupt the seedings). Therefore, 1-2 rounds each year are usually drawn incorrectly. I am testing "draw using local regions" in conjunction with seedings which may help force correct draws. If not, this will have to be released unfinished.
Invitational tournaments - Three-letter names altered for all comps.
Expected release date - This Thursday
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July 1st every year. I would recommend holidaying through at least the first year. Second season you get a full-youth intake, several of whom are usually first-team ready straight away.
Squad registration is now added for all divisions, July 25th deadline. There is an dropdown menu on the squad page for player registrations and squad numbers. You get a news item to remind you to register the players before the deadline. Squad numbers can be added any time before the first match. Any players not assigned numbers will prompt a message asking to assign squad numbers.
I can add reserve teams. I am thinking - make them U19 (i.e. Freshman and Sophmore team) and will all be named "[Team name] Junior Varsity". This will enable managers to place all youngsters not ready for the first-team into it but all senior players will stay with the first team unless sold or released.
No idea about the seasonal best XI unfortunately, I think it's something out of the data editors control.
Any more bugs noticed; let me know and I will do my best to fix. I've already changed KO times and TV coverage that was missing for some comps and I'm certain there's other stuff I'm missing.
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21 hours ago, ifogey said:
My only very slight issue is due too having no reserve team options you can often be left with a very cluttered squad page sometimes filled with a ton of bad players you dont need too see but thats only a very small issue but i think the DB is great too play thus far, hope too have a few seasons done through tonight and tomorrow
Edit: This is even a lesser issue than 1st thought as you can just terminate there contract early and the cost isnt pretty insignificant especially considering the transfer budget cannot really be used anyway so the not having a youth/reserve team too store below average players isnt an issue at all
Glad you're finding it ok. The large squads is actually deliberate on my part as College Football teams have 85 scholarship players (and plus walk-ons regularly exceeds 100 player rosters) so I have my chairman and DoF's tendencies to "have large squad = 20" though I'm not exactly sure how much impact this actually has in practice.
I think it's particularly overwhelming when you first start because you don't know any of the names but it gets easier as you get more familiar with the squad and who your good players are.
I can look into adding a reserve team to all clubs as a "practice squad/scout team" but I have no plans to add a reserve league as real-life College Football does not have a reserve league, so the reserve team would just be a dumping ground for the worst players.
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Good news. I think I may have a fix for my College World Series bracketing issue. It's not to hard of a fix but I think the NIT and CIT would need the same fix too and the NIT will be a right pain to get seeded right.
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I was actually considering adding Wichita State and Gonzaga but went for North Dakota and Eastern Washington (sorry) because they actually have college football teams, stadiums and coaches.
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Some interesting results here. UCF beating Alabama (national champions
), Georgia beating Memphis 8-0, Eastern Washington beating Colorado 6-2 and a 7-6 result (the highest scoring game I've ever seen)
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I've also only got competition trophies for the College Football Playoff and NCAA Tournament. I would have liked to have got some for all of the conferences and bowl games but most were impossible to make properly transparent logos so I decided not to include any of them.
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2 minutes ago, kandersson said:
Everything seems to work fine and those logos are fantastic! Thanks for this, as a college basketball fan I absolutely love this DB
Glad you like it. Most of the logos were easy to do once I learnt how to. Some like Temple and Texas A&M went through several different versions before I settled on the current ones.
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Good luck. I should also mention that teams that in real life are reportedly planning to build new stadiums are set to do so in game. Therefore Pittsburgh will move into the 50,000 capacity Pitt Stadium in 2022.
Other teams with stadium moves are; South Florida, San Diego State, UNLV, Temple, UAB and possibly 1-2 others I've forgotten about. Louisville and Utah also have stadium expansions pre-set to happen in-game.
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Forgot to mention that in season 1 teams start with around 16 players so I would recommend holidaying 2-3 seasons before playing to help build up the squad numbers.
Hope you like it.
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All files should be available to download. See the top of the page for the download links.
I started the database on the basic database but it should work fine with the winter transfer update database. Certainly I've had no issues with either
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15 minutes ago, kandersson said:
It's looking more amazing every day, can't wait to start a game with BYU (Jimmer fan!)
What's the maximum number of games for a team in a season if you win every competition?
Hopefully you can find a way to make teams keep their best players as that would be a key in a youth only save. Tremendous job so far!
The problem for AI clubs is that the wages for their players is too low. I think the settings in the editor for player wages are broken because they don't appear to have any effect. For a player controlled club it should be easier to keep your best players, although if you are a small club with an exceptional player they "don't think the club can match their ambition". Not a lot you can do about that to be honest other than activate an auto-renew for 1 year clause on their contract.
16 conference games, 7+1 non-conference games, 1 NY6 bowl game, maximum of 6 NCAA Tournament games, maximum of 5 College World Series games, maximum of 5 College Football Playoff games (though in reality, only 4 if playing in CWS due to winning conference and receiving 1st round bye), maximum of 6 invitational games (assuming invited to two 8-team tournaments).
Therefore 46 games maximum, 24 minimum (assuming finishing bottom of DII conference and thus missing out on CIT and not playing in an invitational).
Calendar is as follows;
August - invitationals
Sept - Oct - Non-conference games
Oct - Feb - Conference games
Late Feb/Early March - Bowl Game
March - April - NCAA tournament, NIT, CIT
April - May - College Football Playoff
May - June - College World Series
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), Georgia beating Memphis 8-0, Eastern Washington beating Colorado 6-2 and a 7-6 result (the highest scoring game I've ever seen)
[FM18] NCAA College Football Database - USA - v2.1 Out Now
in Editors Hideaway Download Forum FM23 and Older
Posted
Thanks. I really appreciate that.
Anyone else still playing this? Any problems found at all? Through two seasons the only thing I have found is that the Non-conference schedule doesn't record team or player stats (it always says "this competition has not been played yet"). I think this may have something to do with the lack of ranking levels but haven't tested any fix yet.
I'm planning an update soon that will completely overhaul the post season competitions. Basically I have finally figured out how to get rankings working for multi-stage competitions. Therefore, the NCAA Tournament, NIT, CIT and College World Series are all bracketed properly to ensure that the fixtures for all rounds are drawn correctly and played in the correct stadiums. I have also expanded the CWS to 12 teams and matched the format to the SEC Baseball tournament. All 12 conference champions are now entered, the DI-A teams receive a 1st round bye and DI-AA and DII champions play a single elimination 1st round, with the remaining tournament unchanged from before (double elimination).
I have also condensed the NCAA Tournament, NIT and CIT into less time (2 ties per week rather than 1 previously for the NCAA Tournament). This aligns the schedule more closely to real life and ensures less of a wait until the College Football Playoff for teams that are knocked out early in the NCAA Tournament.
Finally, I have figured out how to add all of the remaining bowl games into a single competition (will actually be split into 3 competitions to make it more easy to navigate on screen). The New Years Six bowl games will remain but will no longer be "conference championship games" or added to the main conference page. Qualifying teams for each bowl game is also changed to be closer to real life (although 100% accuracy is impossible) e.g. the Rose Bowl will feature PAC-12 and Big Ten champions.
I also wanted to completely rewrite the qualification rules for the CFP. Ideally this would combine all 12 conferences into 1 table and include non-conference schedule and would pick all 24 qualified teams from this table. Each conference would be weighted in order of importance i.e. DI-A teams would take 100% of points, DI-AA would take 66% and DII would take 33% of points across to the combined league standings. This would mean that a DI-AA team could qualify for the CFP but that it would favour DI-A teams. I'm able to use "transfer standings" to take the weighted conference points across but using the method to take stage results into a new stage (i.e. the way the game works apertura and clausura leagues) does not work because I have to create 12 new stages to move the weighted points across before combining them into one table and the new stages that I have made do not actually have any results to process into the combined table (basically "transfer standings" allows leagues to set up "starting points totals" before a new round of fixtures is played. Sadly therefore, I am 99% certain that what I wanted to achieve is impossible to do in FM.