Dynasty Bugs/Glitches/Feedback

Glitch: Performed Conference realignment regionally. I am not getting all 10 conference games. Getting 9 for a few teams across multiple conferences. Settings took. I used 10 b/c I was trying to avoid this instead of a 13 team conference 12 game season. Conference games should override any fixed opponents otherwise this is meaningless. IDK think game handles massive movements of teams well; it appears there are hard coded games that are not overridden based on conference team movement. Ideally, I'd like to do 12 conference games so teams only play their conference members, but IDK if game can handle that properly.

QOL: Rivals - please show these to us somewhere; ideally make these dynamic in some manner in CFB26. Add a "rival" option when filtering teams in custom schedules.

QOL: Ability/impact icons. Please add a number or star to these. Its hard to tell level color wise based on screen.

Ideally; give us a toggle to make these either stat based (current system) or inherent (not tied to stats, but to star/gem level). It makes no sense to have them stat tied. High Man. Coverage = Unlock Man. Coverage skill. Aren't these basically doing same thing? It seems like this should be an ability distinguishing 2 different DBs who both have 92 man. coverage. One has Man. Coverage ability; other doesn't so he is better. Right now; they are exactly the same in Man. coverage minus their speed (awareness?) stat. That seems silly to me.

As noted below; balancing of coach skills would lead to adding Talent Developer coach skills that would grant ability to upgrade/add 1 level to a player in offseason. If inherent base; 0% chance for each player to upgrade an ability 1 level in offseason. 25% chance per level (100% @ max) to upgrade 1 ability 1 level or add a skill if missing some. This is true talent development skill unlike what is in that skill tree right now.

Glitch/Bug: 4-2-5 formation uses rush d-lineman and Sub-LBs (Coverage LBs) in base 4-2-5 formations. Depth chart meaningless outside rush categories.

Idk why its not base LBs (MLB, ROLB), DLs like NCAA 2014. Also, as far as I can tell; it also requires a min. # of LOLB recruits. This should be 0 for LOLB in same way FB does not require any but depth charts fills w/ best available if base scheme doesn't use them. Ideally, in CFB 26; depth chart options better match scheme.

In general; the sub system is poorly thought out. I'd prefer if it was down and distance based not formation based. Give us a toggle in settings to do formation or down and distance for rush/coverage LBs. for CFB 26; I'd also love a sub SS category for same reason to use a run/support SS if I'm running a 4-2-5 who then subs to a coverage DB in passing situations.

QOL: Need a pipeline screen for schools. Need ability to go over 5# cap with coach skills and coaches pipelines (based on my testing, it doesn't go over max so coach pipelines are wasted at big schools.) I believe this is part of issue making recruiting easier for small schools than it should be. This also hampers their recruiting. If I stack a single pipeline, I should be able to get fixed school plus bonuses. This needs made dynamic. You have the data; make it a a rolling 10 year system based on recruits on roster w/ total number and max level based on program prestige. For example; 5 star programs are only ones that get max pipeline bonus both pipeline school located in and highest recruit pipeline (that not home base).

Also; make these easier to read the #. I have trouble with the colors/reading the number to see what level is. And I forget what they colors are but the #s are hard to read. Should be easy to see at glance.

QOL: In recruiting search screen; change States filter to recruiting regions. I don't want the entirety of TX or FL. I want to search by the recruiting region b/c my pipeline bonus isn't for entire state. I like to do search by pipeline so I can use the sorts after, but b/c of the limited sorts/filters; it makes narrowing it down a pain of scrolling for the mutli-region states.

Bug: Dynamic my school grades are bugged across a number of categories. Brand, school proximity, coach prestige I know for sure mess up, don't calculate correctly. Additionally, Conference prestige does not match new grades upon realignment. New Big 12 is B- per screen on right side, but shows as C+.

QoL/Bug: Make playstyle have 3+ stats not a single one. You coded others to be dynamic based on multiple factors. Example: QB - field general: Pass yards (very high), Pass TDs (high), YPA (med). QB- Scrambling: Pass Yards (high), Rush Yards (Med); Sacks (low). +playbook scheme would be cool, but IDK if game could have 10000k unique grades. Ideally, it would be cool to see DB-Zone all have slightly different grades b/c their playbook desire differs.

Right now it yo-yos too much.

Ideally; more of our grades should be on a rolling 3 year basis not only in-season a single year. There is way to much fluctuation in-season for what should be more slow moving dynamic grades like championship contender. A single good year or bad year shouldn't send me to A+ or D-. Especially, going from a D to A+ in one year. That's not realistic. This is especially silly at an LSU or big time school that had one minor bad year.

All this massive fluctuation is contributing to making recruiting too easy for human players to game/stay away from bad My School Grades b/c they can't easily control them.

Player Progression/Testing Info/Bug?: Please write a blog on how this is supposed to work so we can test it. I believe there are numerous bugs and glitches here, but its unclear since its not explained. Based on my testing; Star Level & Gems right now have no tie to either Dev. trait or skill cap based on my testing. Off-season growth also does not appear tied to dev. trait. The only thing that appears to matter to growth is a players skill cap whether they are 2/3 stars or 5 stars.

Example: I had 3 73-75 WRs all 4 stars both gems/busts and their is no correlation to skill caps or dev. trait to either stars or gem status. Player 1: 4 star gems with room for 4+ growth at impact. I have 4 star normal with star dev with 6 growth. I have had 4 star bust gem impact and 16 skill growth slots.

I have no idea what is going on for in-season progress. No idea what the in-season goals are to achieve them. I have only ever seen this pop-up when using my RB. Related the coach skills working or not is hard to test when its not really explained what kind of bonuses they are giving. 

I'd like to see:  Boost to offseason training: Players will get an additional +1 to a skill cap each offseason. Or Boost to offseason training: Player get +25% roll max skill cap growth. (Define what base rolls are somewhere in game).

Testing Info: Coach skills need % details/more detailed explanation on what they do. I believe several are bugged, but its hard to test as nothing is explained in detail to test these. Its also unclear how some would stack. For example; allowing "hot status" to progress over TOs, etc. First, I don't think this works at all, but unclear how stacking this would be of benefit. If there is no benefit; we need ability to reset skill tress for both us and coordinators. Limited respec to reflect coaches focus changing over time is really needed (4 unlocks per off-season, full respec per LVL at 50) Also; please add a settings toggle or tune OC and DCs to only buy their side of ball/special teams/general skills.

Ideally, similar to say Diablo 4 is getting an entire patch dedicated to balance/overhaul of skills; coach skills need to be treated this way for a live service game. There are several that poorly thought out. The cost/benefit ratio is poor on numerous skills especially CEO and program builder ones. The unlocks are also ridiculous elite version/program builder/CEO.

I'd suggest making program builder/CEO unlock if you are HC, you achieve X, Y, Z but those are more reasonable.

Program builder: As HC, achieve 2 10-win seasons.

CEO: As HC, win 2 conference champions and/or 2 CFP games.

These should be limited to coaches who have done HC role; its more thematically, still limits who can get them, yet makes them available for smaller school coaches who are great coaches.

Urban Meyer was a great program builder/CEO at all his small schools before he got to Florida or Ohio State. That's why he got Florida job. Nick Saban moved from position/defense recruiting focus role to CEO/program builder as his career moved. Limited respec and sensible unlocks would reflect this better.

Recruiting QOL/Clarity of Info/Possible glitch or bugged?: Its hard to tell, but IMO recruit progress bars do not accurately reflect growths. The Solid versus transparent bars both appear to reflect past not Past+Current selection which is what I would expect. Is this bugged or intended?

Further, The green arrows need to accurately reflect gains. Matching influence and sales arrows do not generate same growth. Player would expect matches arrows to offer same benefit.

Based on my testing; its better to use 2X green 1X red soft pitch + 3 green hard pitches; if you only have 50, the 10 influence (DM type one + hard sell will do very little extra (if anything at all).

Please make the green arrows reflect actual gains. Is it actually better to use 40 influence (all 3 options except send the house) vs 50 send the house? The arrows would say it does, but based on bars, I think they are about same. Arrows would say 40 influence should be way better than 50 send the house. Again, what's the point of the green arrows if they don't reflect reality? Its misleading and confusing to users.

Finally; tweak colors for some teams bars. Example Ole Miss. Its hard to see solid bar versus semi-transparent section. Assuming this gets fixed to show actual + this week's expected growth, it would be nice to know if what their expected/shaded section actually is.

Miscellaneous 

Is AI offering scholarships to # of needs from Day 1? It seems like its NCAA 14 model of only offering the Max it can do at time (5-10ish) at a time. It would make more sense that they always have an offer to all needs, then max out to top recruits. This would reduce the # of players w/ no offers.

Transfer Day/Cutting screen needs tweaked a part of live service fixes. Add transfer/cut logic on Day 1 transfer portal opens. All teams not in CFPs would do initial transfer cuts to get to 85 based on roster + signed. Player could do same. That way I'm not cutting 10-15 kids in August. Also, fall portal transfer section should work on same model. Be 3-4 weeks post/cut day; where we get to 85, maybe sign 2-3, then 2-3 more are cut. You've coded it all; it just needs better organized and tied together.

I think of Joe Burrow coming to LSU post off-season in the August transfer period.