NCAA Next 23 V12.3 Release

Happy Holidays! A few fixes and feature upgrades to the mod. 2022 has been a very fruitful year in NCAA Football modding for this team. We started this project with just a couple people, even before I fully committed to the team, building on work that several of us had worked on for years, but in a more cohesive and one-goal minded cooperation. We went from just a textures only mod, with dynasty save mods, to blowing the game wide open with all the features we've added to the game -- both graphically, database, and game algorithm wise to give this old game a fresh modern look and feel. We're very happy where this has gone and where it's heading!

This Update addresses and adds the following:

Coaching Updates (antdroid)

First off, RIP Mike Leach, one of the great offensive innovators of the game and the best pirate to ever coach the game.
We've updated the coaching database with the final coaching carousel moves this off-season. We also updated the coaching budgets, reducing discipline ratio down, and fixed some skin colors.

Transfers Update (jdhalfrack/antdroid)

If you have not heard already, the previous patch included a major overhaul to the transfer portal, allowing hundreds of transfers to occur each off-season. This is a small update to open up some of the criteria even more, but it's impact is a minimal step from the prior patch.

Conference Championships for EVERY Conference with and without Divisions! (jdhalfrack/antdroid)

When the NCAA announced earlier in 2022 that divisions were no longer required for conferences of 12 or more, but still retain conference championship games, and the PAC-12 adopted this rule, along with the ACC, we knew it was time to start digging. After months of trying to piece this one together, we are bringing this new mod to play. Unlike previous mods where we modified existing data and "hex mips code", this specific mod was created by ADDING new lines of code in unused space within the game image. This is breaking new territory of what is possible for this game, and we're excited to bring this one out for all to try!

With that said, this adds conference championship games to EVERY conference in the game for new dynasties as of V12.3. For existing dynasties, users can follow the guide at the end of this post to see how to modify their own dynasties to add more conference champ games. This code change allows for championship games for both conferences with and without divisions. For no divisions, the top 2 teams will meet during Championship week!

In-Game Scheduling Updates/Fixes

Fix Timeout Playclock length Issue (jdhalfrack)
We fixed the issue where if a timeout is called the 90 second timeout length does not fast forward after the play calls are made, making CPU take a very long time to snap the ball. Playclock is set to 40 seconds.

Fixed 14-Team and 12-Team Conference Scheduling Error (antdroid)
We had previously used a schedule template based on EA's NCAA 14 schedules. After some tests for our 12-game scheduling system, we discovered that the 14-team schedules have errors in them that cause some teams to have more than 1 game in the same week! To fix this, we created custom 14 and 12 team schedules (just to be safe) that are fully balanced, and should not contain any scheduling errors like this. It also makes our next feature work!

12-Game Scheduling (jdhalfrack & antdroid)
Back in 2005, when NCAA 06 was released, having 11 games was the default, and anymore games was actually illegal. It was not until 2006 that the NCAA changed the rules and allowed teams to have a 12 game schedule. Because of this, we had to find a way to allow the game to schedule 12-games automatically, while also keeping the conference rotation working, and not causing database errors or memory issues in the save files. This new system makes about 90% (or more) of the teams have 12 games scheduled by default. Only the worst teams each year may only have 11 games.

Week Zero Schedule (jdhalfrack)
I personally still don't understand why Week 0 is called Week 0, but that's what it is, and so we made a Week 0 in the game.

Recruiting Updates

Major Recruits Database Updates (jd637, jdhalfrack, antdroid)
The recruits database has seen some changes over the course of the last few updates. We started by changing the 3D models of the recruits to make them more life-like and varied. Then we changed all their starting gears to match more realistic gear choices. Then we updated the skin-tones to give a more realistic representation of the diversity ratios of each position. In this update, we took a lot of the player attributes including height, weight, and various skill attributes, and randomized them by a +/- tolerance to give the entire database more variety and choices. This helps remove the 200 of the same halfbacks for example!
Added Punters and Kickers to in-season recruiting (jdhalfrack)
Pretty self-explanatory. This was not possible before for some reason...
NIL Recruiting Pitches (antdroid & jdhalfrack)
We changed the "Playing Time" recruiting pitch to "NIL Assistance" and with it a whole set of new dialogs and captions related to Name, Image, and Likeness.

Interface Updates

Displaying 120 Teams (jdhalfrack)
The original 06 game had a league size of 119 teams in dynasty mode. We expanded it to 120 in this mod, but some of the displays and rankings only showed the first 119 teams. With this fix, we can now display 120 teams correctly.

Updated Player Awards (antdroid)
Modified the player awards to reflect their actual names.

Miscellaneous UIS_ALL.DAT Patches (jdhalfrack & antdroid)
Changed some various UI texts that are hidden in compressed databases within the game files. These include things like DIV 1A/1AA to FBS/FCS, and Media Poll to AP Poll, ncaanext in place of easports, and a few other small things.

Stadium Updates

B1G Ten Championship Game moved to Lucas Oil Stadium (talon42, antdroid, jdhalfrack)
Since the B1G Champ game is now in the Next mod, we are putting it at Lucas Oil where it is in real-life. We cloned and modified Reliant Stadium to make it work.
Big XII Championship Game moved to AT&T Stadium (talon42)
Renamed and Retextured Big XII Championship game

Uniforms Updates

Kentucky Alts by cramp! and robotdebris
Wisconsin Alt Pants by okand1?
Fixed Iowa State Away Numbers
Changed Tennessee name plate color to orange from black
USC Helmet fix by cramp!
Ohio State, Miami, Navy and Fresno State updates by antdroid
Washington Royalty in-game Alts by antdroid
Hawaii Rainbow Alts by robotdebris

Removed Pride Stickers (antdroid & jdhalfrack)

Many teams have discontinued the use of pride stickers over the years. We disabled the pride stickers using a special in-house tool for the following teams: