Problems/Improvement Areas for Coach Mode and Simulation
- Dynasty Statistics: The longterm history of a program is what makes a dynasty game. without the history, it cannot be a Dynasty mode. The historical statistics from year to year and the statistics of what past individual players did is key. For example, the top 20 or so leading rushers from a given school matters just as much, if not more than the record holder. Team statistics from year to year matter. Most importantly year to year Wins and losses is shockingly missing from dynasty mode. How can it be a dynasty game if something as basic as the year to year Win loss record of a school is not available?
- QB play has improved from CFB 25. However, QBs still occasionally (too often) hold on to the ball for an unlimited time without trying to scramble or pass or throw ball away. I do not mean a low ability QB taking sacks. I am referring to a QB just holding the ball without moving feet or throwing for until tackled.
- Slow Sim Play is 100% Better and more realistic: However, the coach (me) is just a fan watching the game in slow sim. There is no ability to pick the plays, no ability to challenge or call time out.... Slow sim produces better outcomes that playing the moments/offense/defense but all the duties of an in game coach are eliminating which eliminates the coach mode. The QB play is much better in Slow Sim. In slow sim, the QB scrambles and will throw the ball away and never freeze for unlimited amount of time. If a user could call the plays with a slow sim, a true coach mode would exist. There is no need or desire to every control the QB in coach mode. That is logically ridiculous.
- More on Slow Sim Results: The AI in "slow sim" seems to do well with following the gameplan set up in custom playbooks. The AI playcalling is surprisingly accurate in following the gameplan that the user establishes in a custom playbook. This is great. However, slow sim seems to be the only simulation speed that produces results that are inline with the team talent/playbook etc. Fast sim is far more random and does not seem to produce the realism of slow sim. This makes me wonder if the "gameplan" has any impact on the AI in "fast" sim. The least accurate/realistic sim method seems to be to "advance ahead" in the dashboard. I can only conclude that the gameplan does not have an impact on the AI except in slow sim. Slow sim in a full season without the true coach mode features mentioned in 1. and 2. is a bummer that should be called "fan mode" instead of "coach mode."
- What are some features/options a true "Coach Mode" include?
- No ability to take control of a player during the game play. being able to control a player during coach mode is no coach mode at all.
- User calls play and observe and have the QB AI perform as if in slow sim mentioned above. This includes the ability to call time out.
- The User should not have to "snap the ball" in coach mode. Just call the player and let the AI QB determine when the ball is snapped (as in slow sim)
- Coach mode should be hands free and limited to how a coach actually functions during gameplay. This includes having control over when to go for it on 4th down/punt and challenge plays (items slow sim is missing).
- Redundant: Coach mode is calling plays and managing the game from the "sideline" and having the players execute according to their abilities and ratings, win or lose.
- Other issues when Simming- in coach mode, the user can see how many times that the user has called a play and the avg yards per attempt (although this does not seem to track accurately all the time). When a game is simmed the number of times a play is called, or yards gained is not tracked/made available to the user. (this is information tracked by every coach in football from high school to pros). If the teams are truly unique with unique players, the ability to see the detailed simulated play calling results is important. This data applies to several areas of a coaches planning and decision making including; what plays/sets/formations should be included in the playbook, the gameplan, personel decisions, and whether a coordinator is a good fit or should be fire.
- Coordinators: In every head coach hiring, at every level of American Football, the head coach has decision making authority on what scheme his coordinators specialize/prefer. The fact that coordinators that match the head coaches scheme preferences would not be available for hire is ridiculous. In real life, when head coaches are being interviewed for head coaching positions, they have to be able to articulate who are prospective assistant coaches. A head coach that can bring in staff of "their guys" is key to getting the head coaching position. A head coach candidate who could not bring in coordinators that fit the head coaches system would not be hired as a head coach at any school. A head coach is never expected to hire coordinators that prefer different schemes than the headaches schemes. One of the head coaches most important roles is choosing assistants and coordinators that fit the head coaches schemes. Never would a college head coach be faced with not being able to find a coordinator that will have the same scheme as the head coach. It should be noted that a "Coaching tree" is actually a reference to the history of what assistants previously coached for a particular head coach. For example, Nick Saban's coaching tree would list Lane Kiffin, Billy Napier, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, Steve Sarkisian and many others that were influenced and learned from coaching with Nick Sabin.
- School's Schemes: Most schools do not have schemes that are particular to the school except for traditional powers. (for example. Iowa is less likely to hire an air raid head coach than a mountain west school that has not had success). Most athletic departments do not get into schemes and schools do not have a great preference in schemes except in very limited circumstances like the military academies and extreme differences. Additionally, a school that has not had success is likely looking for a coach to effectuate change. .
- Playbooks. While there are something like 2,800 plays in CFB 26, there is less actual diversity betwee each schools playbook to playbook. There's formation and set crossover that really does not exist in reality. While the playbooks are described as a key feature to the game, the playbooks result in much less variation between schools than what is inferred. The leading passers in the nation can come from just about any scheme. The same can be said for leading rushers... There are some very limited exceptions, of course. For example, an air raid school is going to tend to have some identifiable statistical characteristics, year to year. There will be a significant relationship between the playbook/scheme and the player statistics. In CFB 26, the players statistics seem to be exclusively related to a player's talent and ability rather than scheme. However, a school dedicated to rushing is going to have running backs closer to the top of the rushing leaders than the bottom even though they may not be as talented as the running backs at the top passing schools. This is much less apparent in CFB 26 than reality which indicates to me that there is a lot a of parity intentionally built into the playbooks.
- Custom Playbooks. Custom Playbooks cannot be selected as the head coaches playbook within dynasty. For example, the formation subs requires a cumbersome work around. This indicates to me that when a game is simulated, the custom playbooks are not utilized (except in slow jump forward mode).
- Recruiting. Players that do not sign with any school... do they just quit and go home? Walk ons are key part of college football. Any player offered a scholarship is going to accept the offer except in the rarest of situations. Schools do not have trouble giving away scholarships
- Job Offers and staff hiring. limited weeks, cannot apply for open positions... I suppose its designed this way for a reason but its extremely silly that if a fired coach does not accept on of the offered positions during the two weeks, he just gets involuntary placed at a school or gets stuck with a coordinator he had no say in hiring.
