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.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Timeline update


In case you didn't realise, I am currently working on improving the timeline for the match reports. It's not finished yet but I like to provide updates every now and again. 

The first thing I need to do is actually log the match details in the database.  Once I have done this I can add the data to the screen reports. I have provided an example of where I am at below and you will see it contains all shots, both on and off target, alongside the data that was previously there (goals and substitutions). The below is actually a genuine match that was played earlier this week and so you will be able to view this once I put it live.


My next challenge is to include yellow and red cards into this timeline - it should give managers a better idea of how their game went because at the moment they just know a red card occurred in a game with no idea if it was in the first ten minutes or at the end of the game. I need to store these times in the database first though so don't expect it too quickly. I may, however, put the current timeline live sometime before I add cards just to show improvements to those who don't read this blog.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Transfers by new managers

I notice recently that there has been a spate of sad people taking over teams, selling their best players and then quitting.

I've tried numerous things in the past to try and stop this happening but it's getting to the stage where I will have to make transfers occur by bid only, which would remove a lot of the freedom but also make it much much harder to cheat.

Before I do this though, I'd like to look for alternative suggestions.

One suggestion I have had put to me is to not let new managers make transfer for a certain period of time and I'd like to know what people's thoughts on this are. I know there is some debate on the message board at the moment but I only scan this and don't get involved. This blog post is therefore for a proper debate to be had, with me joining in. The more comments the merrier as I'd like to come up with a solution that suits as many people as possible.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Player wages

After some research I've come to the conclusion that the player wages are currently too low.

Therefore at the end of this season I will be implementing a new system to handle them. My long term aim is to have player contracts in the game but I need to get the figures right first before I can even contemplate this.

Therefore, below is what I am going to implement although any comments before the end of the season will be taken on board and it will possibly change because of this.

Firstly, I am going to stop correcting salaries on a weekly basis and they will just be calculated at the end of a season. This means that you can budget a bit better and promotions or relegations mean you have to offload or purchase players at once perhaps for the level you are at. this does sound more realistic even if not perfect.

The only variance here will be youth players who will be assigned a salary on promotion that will last until the season end.

At the end of a season the salaries are going to be based on all a players' skills as opposed to just their highest which is the case at the moment. they are also going to be generally higher overall and rounded up to values of £100. The maximum salary for a player will be £40,000. The current is £12,500. Players in their teens will be paid less than others and players between 20 and 23 will also be cut down but once reaching 24 they will be promoted to their maximum possible salary.

A player with skills of 60 for tackling, 69 for passing, 68 for heading, 60 for dribbling and 73 for shooting will currently earn around £9,000 just on the fact their shooting is 73 but this player should actually be paid more than somebody who has 75 for shooting and low values for the rest so in the new system will be paid around £25,000.

I appreciate this will cause more expense but then I have also remembered I lowered ticket prices because clubs were getting too much money. Once the salaries have been changed then I shall monitor again and ticket prices will probably also change. The end result will be a fairer balance.

Also, I'm contemplating giving clubs the offer to buy insurance for players, either individually or collectively. this would be in the format of paying a percentage of a players wage per week for insurance but then when they are injured (not suspended), the wage is not paid by you - although the insurance premium still will be. Any thoughts on this will be good.