Game Manual

Revised: 12/29/2018

Introduction

College Football Coach: Career Edition is a re-imagining and expansion of the popular Football Coach game. This game adds thousands of new lines of code and features and puts you in the role of a head coach of a college football dynasty.

Use your recruiting, game planning, and roster management skills to take your college to the top! But don't get fired!

Game Overview:

The basic premise of the game is similar to the real college football season. The following is the default game mode, however with many alternative season modes, you can modify the game engine and how the game progresses to your pleasing!

Your team will play 12 games in the regular season, which consist of playing all 9 of your conference opponents once and three out of conference games.
   
At the end of the regular season, the Conference Championship is played between the two teams with the best in-conference record.

If two teams have the same record, a head-to-head tiebreaker is used. If three or more teams have the same record, the one with the highest poll ranking is chosen.

After the Conference Championships, Bowl Games are played.

The top 40 teams get chosen for a bowl, with the most important being the National Semifinals between the #1 and #4 team, and the #2 and #3 team.

The winner of these two games advance to the National Championship where an undisputed champion is crowned.

After the season, your team will have gained or lost prestige based on their results versus their expectations, and you move onto recruiting.

Table of Contents:

Home Screen

Game Options

Season Goals

Main Game Screen

Game Menu

Player Positions Info

Player/Coach Progression

Offense/Defense Strategies

Recruiting

Game Editor

Home Screen:

The home screen is the first thing you will see as you get into the game. There will be several buttons that you can click to do various functions in setting up the game.

New Game: This button starts a new game using the default game database. Every team in the game is fictitious but may be based on a real-life team. Players and Coaches are generated using a database of 15000 names.

Custom Game: This button starts a custom game using external databases. These database are TXT or CSV files for Universe, Rosters, and Coaches. 

To create your own file, refer to the Custom Data Guide!

The step-by-step guide will walk you through downloading (video), installing, and selecting the correct files.

Example files that are ready for use can be found here:
https://github.com/antdroidx/CFB-Coach/tree/master/Universe


To download, be sure to use DESKTOP MODE when browing GitHub. Go to the Universe folder linked above, then click on each file. Near the top, there is a button called "RAW." Right-Click or Press and Hold (on touchscreen), and save the file to your device.


Alternatively, you can download my own rosters and universes here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hfB_lbTaMfhm4lXtMelvgWoZSshL12v0?usp=sharing

Step-by-Step Guide to Using Custom Data:

1. Click Custom Game

2. Press OK at the prompt

3. Choose Universe2018v2.txt

4. Choose any option (default)

5. Import choose Yes

6. Choose Import Roster

7. Select Roster2018-v4.txt

8. Choose Import More Data (yes)

9. Choose Import Coach File

10. Select Coach2018.txt

11. Click No to import more data

12. Choose game options and continue into game

Load Game: This button will load a saved game. There are 10 save slots available for use. The Load screen is also a good tool to see your coaching career at a glance and to compare to other saves on your device. Please note: Each loaded game will start at the beginning of the season the user left off on. There is no mid-season saves enabled, for now.

Delete Game: This button will bring up the same window as Load Game does, however it allows you to select saves to delete. Note, be careful which file you are clicking on! This is irrecoverable. 

Import Game: This is a new feature which lets users import Save Files that were exported using the in-game Export feature. This is handy when transferring saves between devices or if modding your save file using an external text editor.

Game Options

After you start a new game, there will be a series of prompts to hone in on your new universe. The first of which is the Game Prestige database:

Default:

Use the default database's prestige for each team, which is loosely based on reality.

Random:

Completely randomizes the team's starting prestige. Power conferences will still, in general, have higher prestige than lower conferences.

Equalize:

Makes every team's starting prestige the same. This makes every conference and every team the same to start out with. Things like TV contracts will still play out similarly with bias towards traditional power conferences.

The Game Options will appear during the initial game setup and will also be available during the game in the Settings Menu. Some options may or may not be available at certain times of the game.

Show Weekly Pop-Ups: 

This shows a pop-up text display when important game events occur such as the results of a simmed game.

Show Injury Report: 

This enables a pop-up window after each week that shows the team's injury/suspension report.

Show Full Game Play-by-Play: 

The game captures a log of every game played during the course of a season, including all user vs CPU as well as CPU vs CPU games. By default, the log only shows scoring plays and important moments of the game. If this option is enabled, every play is logged and saved for viewing later. This does slow down simming time, and may greatly impact older devices.

Show Potential Rating: 

By default, this is off, meaning that potential ratings for every player is hidden to make the game less predictable. If the option is enabled, the player profile will display two Overall ratings. The first one is the current Overall rating, and the second one is his potential overall rating in the future. This future rating is highly dependent on many factors including ample playing time, lack of injuries, and consistent above-average play.

Career Mode: 

Enabling this will make the User be able to be fired from their job, just like in real life. If you have several poor season, you may get fired before your contract is up, or you will not be renewed when it is up. If this option is not checked, firing of USER coaches is disabled. CPU coaches will continue to be fired and hired.

Fountain of Youth Mode: 

By default, once you reach 70 years old, you will be prompted to retire, reincarnate as a new person within the same universe, or continue to play with aging effects enabled. If you enable Fountain of Youth mode, you will never be prompted to retire and will not have any aging effects after 70.

Enable Conference Realignment:

Enabling this allows conferences to swap teams every few years if several criteria are met between the two conferences and the respective teams. This doesn't happen often, but it can happen, just like in real life.

Enable Advanced Realignment:

This is a crazy version of the previous option. Both options must be enabled for this to work. This allows conferences to poach teams from one another, take on Independents, and a slew of other possibilities.

Enable Promotion/Relegation:

This works like it does in the world of soccer.

If this is enabled at the start of a new game, the entire game universe is flipped upside down and every team is re-ranked and grouped into 10 tiers of Football. The goal is to be at the highest tier and remain there. At the end of each season, the top 2 teams move up and the bottom 2 teams move down. Teams at higher tiers also get more poll points.

If this is enabled after the start of a new game, it still works similarly, but conference structure does not change. Instead, partner conferences will swap the Top 2/Bottom 2 every off-season.

Expanded Playoffs:

This is the alternate universe where bowl games do not exist and a 16 team/4 week playoff system does. The Conference Champion of each of the 10 Conferences get automatic bids, while the 6 remaining at-large bids are made up of the top seeded teams that did not win their conference.

Enable TV Contracts:

This option enables a bit of the business world into the game. Network TV will make deals with conferences every year and give the schools within the conferences boosts in prestige every season. This may help recruiting in the off-season and provide better media coverage that could affect polls.

After choosing your team, and naming your coach, you will be prompted to pick a coaching style. This will give your coach ratings that are slightly shifted towards Defense, Offense, or make them equal to each other. Every play-through will have a different set of starting ratings for the user coach. This is because the game will calculate the average ratings for the entire league and make your user coach average overall, with again a slight tilt towards offense, defense, or balanced depending on your desired abilities.

Season Goals

At the start of each season, you will be prompted with your goals for the season. Pay particular attention to the Predicted RANKING. The ranking will determine the most when calculating your overall season score and prestige change. The W-L record only matters slightly because Strength of Wins is a bigger determiner in your overall season score.

This prompt will also allow you the option to save your game. Every save will start at the beginning of the season. 

Main Screen

The main screen in the game has various buttons along the top and bottom of the screen and the content displayed in the middle. From top to bottom:

The top of the page will show a conference and team drop down menu. Use this to select and view other teams in the league. The Home button on the top right will bring you back to your user team.

The next row will show the currently selected Team name, their ranking, and record.

The third row down will have a series of buttons that display different pages. Each button will be described below:

News: 
The news page is updated every week with new information.

Stories from the season, upcoming matches, suspensions, injuries, bowl watch, ranking informations, upsets of the week, and player spotlights are just some of the news stories you may find in this area.

During pre-season, the news page will show season predictions, off-season issues, and recruiting class rankings.

During the off-season, the news page will show hirings, firings, transfers, graduations, realignments, network contract updates, and more!

Stats:
The Stats page will show a general breakdown of how the selected team is performing over the season versus the rest of the league.

Roster:
This page will display your team's roster. Clicking any specific player will show the player's attributes and statistics as well as their career stats.

Schedule:
This page shows the team's schedule.

Clicking the center box prior to a played game will display the match-up preview for that game. Users can also adjust game strategies in this box.

Once a game has been played, users can click on the game box, and the game summary and detailed box score and play-by-play log information will be displayed.

Scores:
This shows the scoreboard across the league.

Standings:
This page shows the current standings across the league.

Rankings:
This page displays the current league rankings.


Across the bottom of the Main Screen are three buttons.

Redshirt Button - This button is displayed in the pre-season. Users can select up to 7 players to redshirt. Each redshirt may require a walk-on player to fill a roster position. Walk-ons do count towards the team's roster. Each roster is limited to 70 players.

Depth Chart Button - Once the season begins, the Redshirt button will become the Deptch Chart button. This area allows users to set starters for each position. Remember to click SAVE after each position is set.

Playbook Button - This button displays the game strategies available for the team.

SIM button - This button advances the game to the following week, simulating all of the week's activities.

Game Menu

The in-game menu can be accessed on the top-right corner of the game screen. This drop down menu has a series of items ranging from settings to statistics to historical data. The following are a quick run-down of each of the Menu titles:

Settings/Editors: This section lets  you update game settings and modifications to the universe. The In-Game Editor is also available in this section. The editor allows users to modify team names, conference names, coach names, and more. Some settings may only be available during specific periods of the season.

League History/Records: As titled, this opens up a window where users can review previous league summaries, league records, historical stats, and the Hall of Fame.

Poll History: This menu shows every previous season's Top 25 rankings.

Team History: This menu item opens up the current selected team's history, stats, hall of fame, etc.

Coach Database: This menu item opens up a database of every coach that has been present in the game save. Users can view rankings and click on each coach to open up their profiles.

Team Stats: This shows the current season's Team statistical rankings

Individual Stats: This shows the current season's individual player and coaching stats and rankings.

Post-Season Watch: This menu item shows the projected post-season match-ups based on the current week's standings.

Post-Season Awards: This item shows the leading favorites for post-season awards during the season, and will show the award winners after they are announced. Awards are announced after the Conference Championship week.

Save League: This allows users to save their game data if they did not during the pre-season. Please note that save files only save data from the pre-season and do not save progress during the season.

Export League:  This option will export a save to the device storage located at /storage/android/data/antdroid.cfbcoach/data/documents/ . This save file can then be transferred to another device and used with the Import function on the home screen.

Player Positions Info

When you first inherit a team, you will have a total up to 70 players on your roster. You can view all of these players in the "ROSTER" tab.

General Attributes

Each player has general attributes that are common to every position. In addition, the player profile also lists the player's home state and Star Rating for when he was recruited. Walk-On players will be designed with a "WO."

Potential: The player potential rating is hidden. This rating is important for the development of the player, but it's not the be all-end all for player growth.

Personality: This rating shows how well the player behaves on-the-field and off-the-field. A player with lower personality rating will be more likely to get in trouble and suspended or even dismissed from the program.

Football IQ: The IQ rating is how well the player understands the game of football and his ability to lead the team during the game. It also helps players make wise decisions during the game.

Durability: The durability rating is the player's susceptibility to injury. A low rating is likely to see the player get injured over the course of his career. Each time the player gets injured, his durability rating may drop more.


TEAM CHEMISTRY:

Team Chemistry is not a player attribute, but it's an overall team attribute and affects things such as on-field simulation and disciplinary issues. Team Chemistry is a combined score of Personality and Football IQ. Higher ratings will result in better Chemistry and lower will result in more dysfunctional locker rooms.

Head Coach

The head coach is the leader of the team. That's you! They are in charge of setting the roster and depth charts, picking the right strategies, and recruiting the team.

Offensive Ability: This is the coach's rating on his ability to call offensive plays and develop his offense. This directly impacts both in-game play calling and player development.

Defensive Ability: This is the coach's rating on his ability to call defensive plays and develop his offense. This directly impacts both in-game play calling and player development.

Talent Progression: This is the coach's rating on his ability to develop players on the roster and find talent through recruiting. Bonuses are provided in recruiting for higher talent ratings.

Discipline Command: This is the coach's ability to handle team members who have poor personalities. The higher the discipline rating, the less likely the team will have suspended players and sanctions. It is still wise to recruit players with better personalities.

QB (1 starter):

The Quarterback is the leader of the offense. His intelligence is key for making smart decisions for the team. He is also responsible for making passes to his teammates and scrambling out of situations and occasionally for a short gain.

Pass Strength: how far the QB can throw. Higher strength means catches go for more yards.

Accuracy: how accurate the QB is. Higher accuracy means a greater chance that the throw will be caught, as well as a lower interception chance.

Evasion: how evasive the QB is. Higher evasion means less sacks.

Speed: mobile quarterbacks are capable of scrambling out of plays and rushing in option offenses.

RB (2 starters):

The running back's role is to carry the ball for yardage on the ground. He may occasionally go out for a short pass in certain situations.

Rush Power: how strong the RB is. Higher power means he is less likely to be stopped at the line of scrimmage.

Rush Speed: how quick the RB is. Higher speed means runs go for more yards.

Evasion: how agile the RB is. Higher evasion means a higher chance of breaking free for bigger runs.

Catching: how good RB is at catching the ball. Used on screen-passes.

WR (3 starters):

The Wide Receiver's main job is to run routes and make catches in the field of play.

Catching: how good the WR is at catching the ball. Higher catching means higher chance of completion and less drops.

Speed: how quick the WR is. Higher speed means his catches go for more yards.

Evasion: how agile and crafty the WR is. Higher evasion means higher chance to break free for big gains and long touchdowns.

Jumping: how high/quick a WR can jump to make a play on the ball.

TE (1 starter):

The Tight End is responsible for blocking during the running plays and a 4th option for receiving

Catching: how good the TE is at catching the ball. Higher catching means higher chance of completion and less drops.

Speed: how quick the TE is. Higher speed means his catches go for more yards.

Evasion: how agile and crafty the TE is. Higher evasion means higher chance to break free for big gains and long touchdowns.

Run Block: how good the TE is at blocking for rushing plays.

OL (5 starters):

The Offensive Line is responsible for protecting the QB and blocking for the RBs when they run.

Strength: most important rating, how strong the OL is.

Run Block: how good the OL is at blocking for rushing plays.

Pass Block: how good the OL is at blocking for pass plays.

Awareness: awareness of surroundings affects how well the OL cooperate together.

K (1 starter):

The kicker is responsible for kicking extra points and field goals.

Kick Strength: how strong the kicker's leg is. Higher strength means longer field goals.

Kick Accuracy: how accurate the kicker is, higher means kicks are more likely to be good.

Clumsiness: how clumsy the kicker is, higher means more chance of success at onside kicks.

Pressure: how well the kicker handles pressure under situations such as 2 min warning and OT.

DL (4 starters):

The defensive line is responsible for putting pressure on the opposing QB and tackling RBs.

Strength: most important rating, how strong the DL is against opposing OLs.

Run Stop: how good the DL is at tackling opposing RBs without allowing many yards.

Pass Pressure: how much pressure they put on the opposing QB, higher pressure means the QB will have a harder time throwing accurate passes.

Tackling: how good the DL is at tackling RBs and QBs for sacks.

LB (3 starters):

The linebackers are one of the leaders on defense. They are also supposed to make tackles on both receivers and rushers and cover the ground between the line of scrimmage and the secondary. On passing plays, one or two may cover the Tight End if they run passing routes.

Coverage: how good the LB is at covering receivers. Higher means less likely that the TE will complete the catch.

Run Stop: how good the LB is at tackling opposing RBs without allowing many yards.

Tackling: how good the LB is at tackling RBs and QBs for sacks, and TEs in pass coverage

Speed: how quick the LB is, affects how he can keep up with TEs.

CB (3 starters):

The Cornerbacks cover wide receivers on passing plays. The best CB will always be lined up with the best receiver.

Coverage: how good the cornerback is at covering receivers. Higher means less likely that the WR will complete the catch.

Speed: how quick the CB is, affects how he can keep up with WRs.

Tackling: how good the CB is at tackling, higher means he is more likely to tackle WRs before they get away.

Jumping: how high and quick the CB can jump and attack the ball against the WR.

S (2 starters):

The safeties are the other leaders on defense. Their job is to make sure nothing gets past them on defense. They will cover players on passing plays, and make big stops on the rushers. Occasionally, they may blitz the QB.

Coverage: how good the safety is at covering the pass and how good he is at catching interceptions.

Speed: how quick the safety is, affects how he can keep up with WRs.

Tackling: how good the safety is at tackling, higher means he is more likely to tackle WRs before they get away.

Run Stop: how well the safety reads running plays and closes down on the RB.

Player & Coach Progressions

There are a few progression points during the season.

Mid-Season Progression

The first major one occurs after Week 6. This is the mid-point of the season and players who have played games so far in the season will see some rating adjustments at this point based on their experience, talent potential, and a random factor. The Team page will show the Overall rating change displayed after Week 6.

Team Prestige Changes

The next progression point is immediately after the season is over. At this point, the team score is calculated for the season and Prestige is added or dropped depending on several factors including performance to plan, rankings, trophies won, discipline, and strength of wins.

If TV Contracts are enabled, networks will distribute prestige points if there is a network contract with the conference.

Coaching Progression

When coaching contracts expire there is another progression point specifically for Coaches. At this point, coaches will see contract changes, firings, retirements, hirings, and overall progression of each individual Coach. Their ratings change based on the team's performance for the season.

• The talent score changes based on team performance (prestige change-- not including discipline points).
• The discipline score changes based on disciplinary action through the season.
• The offense and defense rating changes based on the respective performance over the league average with a factor based on how talented the team is over the average. If you're team is very talented, you will be expected to perform better than average.
• 
  

End of Season Player Progression, Graduation, Transfers & Declaring for Pros

At graduation, players will graduate, transfer, get dismissed from their school and progress. Their rating changes are based on their potential talent rating, their game experience, and some random factors. Some players may degrade depending on injuries and other factors, but the majority will see rating gains.

Transfers will be based on playing time availability for each player on their team. Some players will want to start and will decide to transfer. Some transfers will be graduate students who will not have to sit out a year, but most are undergraduate transfers and will have to sit out a season with their new team.

Finally, another set of elite players will want to declare early for the Pro Football Draft. These players will leave as soon as their Redshirt Sophomore or Junior seasons. The Mock Draft can be reviewed in the final screen prior to Recruiting.

Offense & Defense Strategies

As a coach, you can pick what strategy your team employs on offense and defense as they play through their season. By default both strategies are set to balanced offenses and defenses,
meaning there are no bonuses or penalties either way. But you can change your strategy to any of the following:

Offensive Strategies

Pro-Style:
-Balanced offense
-50/50 play calling
-No Strengths or weaknesses

Smash Mouth:
-Run heavy offense
-60/40 rushing play calls
-Blocking bonuses, shorter gains, more time off the playclock

West Coast:
-Favor passing over rushing
-60/40 passing play calls
-Blocking bonuses, shorter gains, more time off the playclock

Spread:
-Pass heavy offense
-72 pct passing play calls
-Weaker blocking, bigger play potential

Read Option:
-Favors run over pass - requires mobile QB
-55 pct rushing play calls
-Weaker blocking, bigger play potential

Read Option Pass:
-Favors pass over run - requires mobile QB
-55 pct passing play calls
-Weaker blocking, bigger play potential

Defensive Strategies

4-3 Man:
- Balanced base man defense
- No bonuses or weaknesses

4-6 Bear:
- Defensive scheme with emphasis on limiting the run
- Gives up less rushing yards, however secondary is susceptible to giving up big plays

Cover 2:
- Zone coverage set up to stop passing games underneath
- Improves pass coverage, however may allow for bigger rushes

Cover 3:
- Zone coverage scheme set up to stop big passing plays
- Significantly improves passing coverage and stops long balls
- May allow big rushing gains

Recruiting

Recruiting is a key part of every college program. The recruiting feature in this game is very simple and quick, to keep the game, well, simple and quick.

A list of recruits provided to you by your scouting team is available. You have a monetary budget to spend to recruit players. Higher tier players will require more recruiting budget to sign on. Each player has various attributes with 1-5 Star scouting grades provided. Potential is hidden.

Each attribute is important to your overall team, as mentioned in previous sections. Please use your budget wisely and make sure to round out your depth chart with quality players, as substitutes and overall team chemistry matter!

Game Editor

The Game Editor is experimental. Changing things to it incorrectly may result in corrupt and crashing saves!

The editor allows users to change team names, abbreviations, prestige, as well as Conference and Division names. It does not allow you to move teams from one Conference or Division to another.