Tuesday 8 November 2011

Player contracts

OK, this could be a biggie.

I am still working on the game engine and I do see one or two complaints about not enough shots going in or too many cards, for example. However, you won't see the changes to things like this dramatically as it would be unfair to make the changes too drastic but be assured, they parameters the game uses are being altered and monitored so that eventually it will get there.

However, whilst monitoring them I am trying to bring in the other features I feel are required. the biggest one being Player Contracts.

The end game is to remove player valuations from the game as I actually want a free market where people negotiate properly with no limits (barring perhaps an upper limit to stop stupidity). The reason valuations are there are to try and discourage cheating but contracts should stop all that - if I can get it right.

So, I'm starting to think about how to implement this. I have lots of ideas in my head but am looking for as much input as possible. I need it so that players won't be signing for clubs they don't want to play for as a definite requirement. By this, I mean top players won't play in the bottom leagues and poorer players won't always sign for clubs to never play (although there will be some players happy to pick up a pay cheque and do naff all else).

It also goes hand in hand with clubs finances and I perhaps need to have a wage bill limit per club that matches their division. This is possibly the only thing I am pretty sure of at the moment.

So before I go into depth about things I have considered already (as I don't want to sway thoughts a certain way), please let me have any thoughts you have about what you'd like to see with player contracts. Should players be allowed to sign a contract with a club within the last 30 weeks of their current one? How would you like negotiations to take place? Should players always sign for the biggest offer? Do I need to include signing on fees?

Any thoughts are welcome before I get started on this big change.