Duckfan, are you out there?

[VTHokie32]

For anybody who doesn't know, there is a guy out there somewhere who calls himself Duckfan, and he has forgotten more about Dynasty mode than most of us will ever know. I'm calling him out for some tips and insight on '07, because I know he's probably in about year 30 of a dynasty by now!

[BigBlue22]

I was wondering the same thing, Duckfan is usually all over the opening week of NCAA. Might have to file a missing persons report

[kevin21boston]

he was lurking around the forums about a week or two ago.

lol, i made a thread about it.

[RyanZ923]

he said he was really busy with work and stuff, but i believe he will be back in time

and with a follow up to last years Temple Dynasty

[DuckFan]

For anybody who doesn't know, there is a guy out there somewhere who calls himself Duckfan, and he has forgotten more about Dynasty mode than most of us will ever know. I'm calling him out for some tips and insight on '07, because I know he's probably in about year 30 of a dynasty by now!

I am indeed "out there".... lol

I put in 87 hours at work two weeks ago, and then another 74 last week. Paychecks are great (since I do get paid overtime) but it has limited my ability to get in some NCAA time...

I did the exact same thing with this year's game that I have done with the previous releases. First thing I did was read the manual. Yes, that's right. I actually read the manual. Now to be fair, I read all of it while waiting at stoplights on the way home from Target...

Second thing I do every year is "Play Now" the Civil War. No prep, no practice, just fire it up... Actually that isn't true. Just before that I set my preferences. 6 min AA, with the same adjusted sliders I used last year, and fatigue settings at 80 and 85...

Civil War went as expected, although it took me until midway through the 2nd quarter to figure out why colored helmets kept hitting each other in the upper left corner of the screen. And since I had absolutely no idea about the new kicking deal I think my first kickoff went out of bounds around midfield.

Final score: Ducks 42, Beavers 10.

Third thing I do every year is cycle through the first season of a Dynasty I don't care about. So I pulled up Arkansas, set the Coaching strategies to run the ball and stop the pass, and simmed all the games. The only input I had was the in-season recruiting each week and program standards. The Razorbacks finished 4-8, and signed two 4-stars. Yeah, that system is still broken.

Then I sat down with the roster for the Ducks, and started naming players. I got 43 names without having to look them up. Then wasted about 30 minutes trying to figure out who the rest of them were. I figured they wouldn't have the latest updates on the outgoing transfers, and I was right. But trying to figure out some of the backups was tough. EA only put 7 freshman on the Ducks roster and guessing who was who was a challenge.

Then.... and only then... did I start my first "real" Dynasty...

[DuckFan]

Oh yeah... on that Arkansas dynasty...

I assigned the budget at 40-40-20. Obviously I had 2 4-stars from in-season. To those, I added two more 4-stars and 18 3-stars. Class was ranked around 35th-40th or so... for a team that finished around 80th...

[DuckFan]

As for my Ducks dynasty... I just finished my first season. Played every game except the Portland State game. Didn't have a single multi-game injury in any game I played. But the one game I simmed, Dennis Dixon went out for 9 weeks and the starting LT went out for 7 weeks...

That system is STILL stupid. There is no reason whatsoever why injuries would be more common in games that are simmed versus games that are actually played by the user.

And the penalties are still woefully absent. I have my sliders set to 99% across the board, and I didn't have a single game all year where I got more than one non-celebration penalty. The idea that a college football "simulation" averages 1 penaly per team per game is just plain dumb. And while I understand that many players don't want to see many penalties in the games they play while drinking beer with their friends, that's what the damn sliders are for! If I set them to maximum, I should be getting MORE penalties than you see in a real game. Then I can adjust for my own "realism"....

[DuckFan]

Two odd things about my Arkansas dynasty:

Washington lost only two games and finished in the top 10. If that happens in real life this year, I will eat my cell phone...

Navy went unbeaten. And Army only lost 2 games...

[DuckFan]

And for those that are curious...

My Ducks went 11-1. Losing 28-21 to Oklahoma. We had the ball on the 11-yard line with 8 seconds to go and no timeouts left. Finley caught an out route at the two but was tackled in bounds and time expired. I scored at least 40 points in all the remaining games, and gave up less than 14 in all but the USC game (which was 42-21).

Virtually every game all year I put in the 2nd team at the beginning of the 4th quarter and handed the controller back to the CPU. It got some extra stats for guys that I don't focus on, and kept some guys from wanting to transfer...

[guitarchtitect]

Welcome back Duckfan. I enjoy your threads, and hope you enjoy mine with "My recruiting philosophy". I think we both have great ideas that could help a lot of people out here to bring the realism into the football game. Please jump in mine as i will jump in yours to throw out any opinions that may enhance the game experience.