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!


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.

• Add ATH recruits

• 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

• 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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This update is all about adding weather as a new gameplay mechanic. Every game played now has a weather forecast going into the game, which is randomly generated and is based on real-world data from where the game is played and what month we're in. For example, Florida will be hot and humid with higher rain chance in August, and Boston in the winter might have some snow. This is a big win for immersion, and I've even added some nice weather effects to really spice it up.

Here we see some heavy rain during our Florida-Miami rivalry game:

And here we see some moderate snowfall in Boston in the winter:

These visual effects can be disabled in the "Game Settings" page in the 'Preferences' section at the bottom of the page, but I think they're quite fun.


Your player performance will be affected by the weather that the game is played in, across a wide variety of factors. High heat and humidity will make your players tire quicker in the game. High wind will make throwing and kicking more inaccurate. Heavy rain will make the ball more slippery and your players less evasive on the field. Of course, if the game is played in very mild weather with no wind/rain then weather will have no effects on the outcome.

All active weather effects can be viewed in the 'Summary' tab when playing games, outlining exactly how the weather might change your strategy.

Coaches will automatically adjust their playcalling based on the weather; this includes their pass/rush balance and when they decide to kick a FG or punt. In heavy winds, coaches will rarely attempt 50+ yard field goals. In wind & rain, they'll end up running the ball far more often too. Make sure to take your upcoming game's weather forecast when setting your practice focuses and gameplan strategies!


Of course, not all games are played outside, particularly when the postseason rolls around. There are now new options to configure whether conference championships, bowl games, and playoff games are played indoors (in a domed stadium) or outdoors. If the game is played indoors, naturally weather will have no effect, and the stadium icon is used instead of the normal cloud conditions.

These new options can also be configured in league universes so that they are preserved when importing. You can read more about how this is done via the "Learn more" button during League Universe Setup when starting a new game.

There are a few other minor improvements and bug fixes included in this update as well. View all the changes below.

• Weather is now randomly generated for every game based on the location and time of year, with logic to have similar weather for games close to each other.
  
• Weather will affect player performance and coach decision making; for example, heavy rain will make the ball more slippery, make FGs much harder, and coaches will call more running plays.
  
• Each game has a weather 'forecast' which will determine the actual weather at game-time. You may have a game with 50% rain chance and not know if it rains until you actually start playing.
  
• Rain and snow effects will be overlayed on the field when playing games, with more effects for heavy rain vs light rain. This can be disabled in the "Game Settings" page.
  
• Postseason games can now be configured to be played indoors (dome) vs outdoors. This can be done in the 'Change postseason locations' option in "Game Settings" page, and can also be setup in league universes on import.
  
• Weather impact can be increased or disabled altogether in the "Weather" section of league settings, which can be changed during the 'Advance Year' stage.

• Practice no longer consumes stamina, now your starters will play every snap when practicing plays
  
• Adjust QB stamina thresholds so that they stay in the game longer and aren't unexpectedly subbed out
  
• Improve UI for stats and rankings when games haven't been played yet
  
• Can now call timeout in overtime to cancel a playcall

• Fix issue where 'Q1 15:00' would be shown even after game is played
  
• Fix issue where fumble could be recovered on 0 yard line
  
• Fix issue with certain league universe configurations so that FCS teams are always generated for use
  
• Coach contract renegotiation will always at least match the existing salary
  
• Fix revoke offer integrity cost text to be accurate on hard/legend
  
• Remove ability to click 'Subs' tab when doing a game coin toss

Thanks for playing!

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