Not sure what the order of operations is for recruiting, but it could be as simple as a "do not recruit if OH commits" checkbox.

What do other folks think about Rob's idea?  If you don't understand it, that's fine just ask and maybe Rob can give us a little more detail.

I think I get the general concept of Rob's idea.  I view recruiting and the RP expenditures as a sort of real world concept where coaches spend time and effort recruiting players.  Our Saturday Steps 1-3 sort of represent that recruiting that took place (in theory) throughout the week and Saturday is the moment in time where we adjudicate it with RP deductions (for signing or interest/campus visits).  

At the same time we are essentially doing it in Step 3.  Teams have the ability to, if they sign a player in step 3 to drop the RP invested in signing other Step 3 players to 0 RPs.  

I'd estimate it as an 8-10 hour effort to update webpage(s), simulator, database, and to setup and complete testing. So I'd really want to see some momentum behind it like: "yeah, this makes a lot of sense to do and here's why".  Is it a tweak that is beneficial for recruiting?  What are the potential downsides of adding it?

I see the value in saving RP in steps 1 and 2. Could be up to 60-100 if you have 2 each in those steps and were all-in on getting a certain position.

At the same time, I think that is part of the recruiting game. How many lines do you cast out at once? And it all impacts other managers too. If you show as putting in for a player in the early steps, they could put their focus elsewhere if you have more RP so they couldn't win if they tried. Then you drop out without having to spend any RP. You lose nothing. They could lose out entirely (if dropping at step 2) or have to jump in at a high cost (if they skipped step 1).

I appreciate Rob's thought, and it does make sense. Because how we recruit impacts other manager's decisions though, I think it hurts the process for others. If I have the ability to stop recruiting based on step 3, shouldn't others?

Consider this scenario: Rob has more RP than me. We are both bidding for the same OH in steps 1 and 2, and he is also lined up for one in step 3. If Rob wins the recruit, he will stop recruiting in step 1 and 2, and saves his RP. But what about me? If I could know Rob was dropping out in step 2, and I was going  to be the high RP guy moving into step 3, shouldn't I be able to drop out of step 1 too and save my RP as well. And if I did that, would that have impacted other managers' choices about getting in on that step 1 player?

Or take the opposite. Rob loses step 3. He now is really going to want the guy from step 2, and I can't stop him because he has more RP. Can I drop out of step 2 based on his result, and focus on the step 1 guy? Because I have no chance of winning that player, and would like my 15-25 RP back please.

If we did recruiting over three days, so other managers could adjust too, the request makes great sense. I see it being fair only for the manager who wins a recruit otherwise, and the rich get richer. Everyone else has to adjust after the fact, and all our RP are still non-refundable.

This is why we have the discussion in a nice public forum. I did lose sight of the fact that this really is a representation of a week's long activity. And yes, a manager/team would be out there talking to multiple OH recruits throughout the week, waiting for that one kid who's ready to make his decision to decide he wants to be an Anglerfish. At that point, the team would send polite, "It's not you, it's us" messages to the other recruits and do no further recruiting there, but the RPs would have been spent. 

Remembering that, I think I'm okay with the setup how it is. 

What Kevin said was kinda what heppened to me: I saw that I could win this session's 5* OH if Schenectady won either of the players who had paid visits to the team. But if Sheboygan didn't win a recruit they could outbid me unless I withdrew one of my 4* visits.

So my conditionals would have been complicated:

if Shenectady wins nothing then don't pay 100 RP for 5* OH visit and keep 4* S visit along with 4* OH

if Schenectady do win and Sheboygan also win then keep 5* OH, 4* OH and 4* S visits

if Schenectady do win and Sheboygan don't then keep 5* OH and 4* OH

So I don't think anything should change.

Yeah, let's keep it as is. It ain't broke.