Timeouts and clock management:
The big change here is adding timeouts, and along with that comes a change in how the play clock works during the game. Now, in between plays the clock can either be running or stopped. If it's running, more time will come off the clock before the next snap. The amount of time changes based on the offense pace, and if a 1st down was granted (clock stops as the chains move).
At any time when the clock is running, you can now call timeout to stop it. For now timeouts are only used for this purpose. There is also an "Auto-manage clock" checkbox, which allows the game to take care of calling timeouts and changing offense pace for you.
There have been tons of changes in late-game decision making for AI teams, including when they change their offense pace or call timeout. Now these late game or late half scenarios have more strategy as you aim to save, or bleed, the clock.
Field goal balance:
The other more noticeable change is that I've changed how field goals work; now it should be much harder to hit 50+ yarders which matches more what we see in college. Kick power now also directly affects a kicker's range, so for example, 75 kick power will just barely reach 50 yards.
More playoff formats:
Two new 12-team formats have been added: a 4 conf champ + 8 at-large format and a 5 conf champ + 7 at-large format. This allows more customization and matches what the real 2024 CFB season is aiming to do.
You can see the full list of changes below.
Features:
- Add timeouts to games, change how clock works, change late game decision making for AI teams
Minor improvements:
- Players will now try to run out of bounds to stop the clock in late game scenarios, QBs will target sidelines slightly more
- Change play selection logic so that CPUs won't change plays when switching pages
- Revamped FG logic, now should be harder to hit 50+ yarders, kick power directly affects FG range
- Add 5+7 and 4+8 playoff formats
- Highlight available recruit action that gives most points
- Add keyboard shortcuts for some confirmation dialogs
- Minor UI changes to make certain things more clear
Bug fixes:
- Make punts on the 0yd line change to touchbacks
- Fix FB usage in the Shotgun Split Slot formation
- Fix League Universe validation schema to require prestigeLevel on conferences
Thanks for playing!
Changed files in this update