ATH recruits:
This is probably the penultimate big update to the game, adding long awaited ATH recruits! Now, ATH recruits will be generated alongside other recruits at the start of each season. These recruits have attributes that may be a good fit for several different positions, and it's up to you to decide where they fit best on your team. When recruiting these players, you'll need to set an 'Assigned position', telling the player how they'll play next year on your roster. This determines their playing time and scheme fit ratings, and if you change their position away from this next year, a coach integrity penalty is applied. There are 5 new archetypes for these ATH recruits, including "Big body", "Hybrid defender", "Gadget player" and more. Superstars can also be ATH recruits now, which should create some pretty unique players.
As seen above, ATH recruits have attributes that can be a good match for several different positions. Make sure you're taking into account other recruits and your current roster to determine where they fit best.
In the "Recruit priorities" tab, there is a button to change their assigned position. Each player has different compatible positions based on their attributes, and you can easily see the scheme fit and playing time ratings for each. Once a player reaches the "Establishing favorites" stage of recruiting, you won't be able to change this assigned position, so choose wisely!
New position changes UI:
As part of the addition of ATH recruits, I've updated the "Position Changes" page. Now, you can much more easily see the top 3 positions for each player, so you can make decisions about changing positions quicker. All incoming ATH recruits are included at the top of the page for easy access, already using their 'assigned position' from recruiting. If you change away from this position, you will incur a coach integrity penalty. Players don't like a coach flip-flopping like that!
The other improvements are seen below, including some weather changes, changing sacks to be tracked as rush yards instead, and allowing RBs to be used as return specialists.
Features:
- Add ATH recruits
Minor improvements:
- Revamp 'Position Changes' UI to more easily tell what other position OVRs would be, and include ATH recruits at the top for easy access
- Allow RBs to be used as return specialists
- Made sacks count against rushing yards, not passing (in line with IRL NCAA rules)
- Tune down rain/snow/wind chance slightly, and add new league setting option to further modify inclement weather frequency
- Make sure filter and sort options are saved in offseason gains, preseason training, and transfer portal pages so that going back and forth saves your place
- Add QB of the Year and other league awards in "National award winners" list in award ceremonies dialog
Bug fixes:
- Remove a few non-city zipcodes
- Gracefully handle personnel package errors to prevent game crashes when edge cases are hit
Thanks for playing! As mentioned above, this is likely the second-to-last big update for the game. The next and final big update will be adding a coordinator mode to the game, but beyond that, I plan to move onto my next project: a pro football dynasty sim in the same vein as Football Coach: College Dynasty. I'm excited to wrap this game up; it's been an incredible journey and I deeply appreciate the support from the community on Steam, Reddit, and Discord. I hope many of you will be just as excited for the next game as I am!
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