This is a landmark release for our NCAA NEXT team. This release includes a lot of game changing mods that we've been working on for months and are very excited to share with everyone!
**The major new release highlights include:**
- College Football Playoffs
- Expanded Playbooks
- Accelerated Play Clock
- Updated Game Clock rules
- Modified league structure
- Updated Textures and Stadiums
- Game Fixes
- All-New Batch Mod Set-Up Helper File
Modified League Structure
This mod now has two league structures to play with. The image below shows the two choices.
NEXT 23 is the same league structure that has been in this mod since V11 and V12. This version will allow some compatibility with existing saves with a DB Editor modification shown later down in this document.
The NEXT 23.5 is a new league structure that completely removes two of the conferences from the game, and provides a realistic modern NCAA league format. Due to the team size limitations in the game, the CUSA and MAC conferences had to be combined and truncated to make this work. This league format will only work as-is. Users can not swap in FCS or created teams within the Dynasty mode start-up menu. If you want to use an FCS or Created-Team from within the game menu, use the Next 23 setup above.
Accelerated Play Clock/Game Clock Rule Change Tips
There is now an accelerated play clock option and game clock rule changes.
The game clock rule changes update the game to have current-day NCAA Football rules. In other words, the game clock continues to run when it is outside the final 2 minutes of each half. It will run on every completed pass or run, no matter if they player goes out of bounds. The clock only stops on change of possession, incomplete passes, or after special team plays. This speeds up the game quite a bit.
The play clock is now set at 40 seconds, instead of the old 25 second play clocks. In addition, if users enable EASY PLAY mode in the game settings menu, the user can go into EASY PLAY menu, and enable accelerated clock. There will be options to change the time when the play clock starts after selecting a play. For example, if the option is set to 20 seconds, the clock will automatically change to 20 seconds after a play is selected if it was above 20 seconds at the time it was chosen. The game clock will also wind down 20 seconds as well. This speeds up game time significantly.
In many user trials, it is recommended to double the Quarter Length to get the same amount of normal play time. This makes playing 12-15 minute quarters quite easy and quick, and it gets pretty realistic stats at 15 minute quarter game play.
Expanded Playbooks
Expanded playbooks is sort of a lie. This mod now allows users to replace the GOAL LINE formation with another other playbook formation the user desires for the USER playbook. A future update may increase more playbook capability.
College Football Playoff
The game now has a 4-team playoff at the end of the season. The semi-finals will occur after championship week, and before bowl games. The National Championship game will fall in the last week of the Bowl season.
For new saves, this works out of the box.
If you would like to convert a V12 (NEXT 23) save, please follow the guide below.
Save Conversion Process
First off, you will need to complete your current season in your save, including the national championship game, BUT DO NOT START THE OFFSEASON, prior to using the new V13 ISO Mod. If you do not, the game will probably crash or do weird things, as it has playoff logic in it and your save won't have the right configuration in it.
- Once you are past the NC game, but have not entered the off-season, SAVE your dynasty.
- Open your Dynasty save file in Madden Xtreme DB Editor.
- Open the BOWL database table in the Editor.
- Find the BOWL_DB.ZIP file that is in the V13 Download Page, and unzip the contents.
- Inside should be a BOWL.CSV file. Extract that to somewhere you can find quickly.
- In DB Editor, click CSV, Import, and choose the BOWL.CSV file.
- It should now import the new bowl config for the playoff.
- Save the dynasty save file and put the file back into your memory card if required.
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