1st Dynasty Mode - NCAA Football 14

Dynasty Mode is still my favorite game mode in NCAA Football 14. You get to take on the coaching responsibilities of any team, recruit players, and most importantly create and execute your game plan on game day. I have spent hours in this game mode already and I will probably start another offline and online dynasty now that I am more aware of some minor mistakes Ive made. I am going to go over my first season journey with the Oregon Ducks.

First are the coach skills. The different coach skills can have impacts on how your season turns out through recruiting and player performance on the field. Starting from the bottom, I decided to focus many of my earned XP on recruiting and it certainly helped. I had minimal trouble earning enough XP per game to gain the coach skills I wanted faster. Paying attention to the coach XP goals is important to gaining your coach skills. Whatever skills you end up choosing should fit whatever play-style you decided to run. Oregon is a pretty great program already and my coach skill decisions for OC/DC became vital assets in the bigger ranked games. Checking out future opponents and planned recruiting moves really helped me when I became a bit indecisive.

Next is recruiting. Recruiting is the most addictive part of Dynasty Mode and really takes some planning (Check out my previous post on Power Recruiting basics). By seasons end I was able to land two 5-star recruits, a 4 star and handful of 3s, 2s, and 1s. I was overwhelmed by the CPU moves by seasons end. No matter how hard I tried I ended up wasting resources because some programs were able to allocate more points than I could offer and maxed out the bonuses (this is why the coach skills are important). For some reason many recruits did not want to play too far from home (bout 80%) and eventually was the critical deal breaker in recruiting battles. I ended up having to scramble at the end of the season to meet the teams needs as I horribly lost many recruiting battles after it seemed like other schools were getting significant bonuses I couldn’t match (I honestly thought that schools were secretly offering cars or something). I made attempts to gameplan for the recruit visit bonuses but some games were unpredictable thus I lost out on those points. I had a Top CB visit when my secondary a decent game but had he visited a week early when they pulled off 4 INTs, he probably would have committed to Oregon.  I will say that handing out scholarships early, targeting recruits near you state (pipeline states), and the bonuses off visits (significant if you plan well) help. It is tough to gain ground on recruits that seem disinterested from week 1, but allocating enough points, bonuses from recruit priorities will help but realize when you maybe wasting time.

I managed to go undefeated and win the BCS championship barely escaping Ohio State. I don’t think I would’ve been in the title game had I not made my schedule tougher and had some luck with Alabama choking against Georgia. My players won many awards but no Heisman and I sent 5+ guys to the NFL.

I would have liked better luck at recruiting than I did (wasnt terrible but I had Oregon, don’t need many guys) as it seemed like the CPU cheeses with getting some players. Damage control and proper planning allowed me to keep minor missteps from becoming negative impacts to my squad. Hopefully this post aids you in your dynasty. I might decide to upload a journey through dynasty mode via YouTube in the future so you can actually see these things.

NCAA Football 14 – Power Recruiting Tips

NCAA Football 14 has brought a new Power Recruiting system to Dynasty Mode. This uses a point system for week to week to gain a recruits interest in your school. You can check your recruiting board to allocate points to each recruit per week. You start out with 5,000 points as a base with a 500 point player cap per week (10,000 points are given in the off season without a player cap). Other things like scouting and offering scholarships also use points so managing them is important. Checking the feedback on each recruit will help you decide how to allocate your resources and plan for things like visits.

This may seem like recruiting will be easy but it isn’t. It can be difficult to keep track of the progress or lack of progress you are making on your recruits. Here are some tips I found that might be helpful:

Coach Skills – Recruiting coach skills may help you gain more points to allocate each week. Games can also help you gain bonus points based on player performances so adjusting your game plan may be key.

Point Allocation – Focusing more attention on big recruits early may help you sign them or keep you in the running. Allocate points to top recruits (one in which your school isn’t on their radar) early and often may help you gain ground in signing them. Offer scholarships to your top 10 or so recruits early.

Bonuses – Bonus points make a difference.  Current player performances (ex. WR catches), same play-style, and visits all can gain you point points for your recruits be mindful of these.

Deal Breakers – Be aware of deal breakers that may cause a recruit to lose interest in your school quickly. Dump guys you are not gaining ground on unless you want to waste resources to make up drastic differences, you may miss out on other recruits though.

Visits – These are important. Recruits only visit 5 schools. Bonus points can be earned through complementary visits (ex. QB & T vising on the same day rather than a QB & QB as this will lose you points) and great current-player performances on that gameday. Plan out when guys will visit and game plan for bonus points.

Think like the CPU – It will seem like the CPU is cheesing by maxing out the number of points they can on top recruits per week or through bonuses. You can do the same.

Hopefully these things will help you recruit players that you need for team in NCAA Football 14. It does take a bit of planning and time but have fun with it. For some more in-depth information on this game mode check out:  http://www.easports.com/ncaa-football/news-updates-gameplay