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.
Just a quick thought - if players are generally only willing to go higher up the leagues, it will become increasingly difficult for lower-league teams to acquire good quality players. To compensate for this, perhaps every player should have some kind of sell-on fee or percentage attached to their transfer price, so that the club that trained them as a youth player has the opportunity to earn some money even once the player has left the club for a 'better' team. Maybe 10% of the transfer fee could go to the original club.
ReplyDeleteI could probably add Sell On clauses of some kind but Players will always want to play at the highest level possible, just like in real life. Although perhaps they would drop down as and when they get bored of warming the bench. I probably need to have a vague skillset for each division and players can aim around that?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good to me, although the skill sets will have to be fairly vague. I wouldn't buy anyone under 80-85 ratings, but there is a team in my league looking for 65+ rated players on the Players Wanted page (incidentally, they are in the European Cup semi-finals!). The main argument of course is that player don't want a huge wage cut when dropping down the leagues. I would definitely like to see morale play a more prominent role in player performances and training speed, as there are some quality players warming benches around the leagues that should be wanting to leave the clubs because they're not playing or improving.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a great fan of wage-bill limits, but if contract and wage negotiations are part of the new system then I think it would be necessary, otherwise new managers might just offer something stupid for my best player which might then adversely affect his morale, etc. (This could also be an underhand tactic when playing league/cup rivals? - Offer stupid money for a player, quickly rescind the offer and watch the player's head get turned...) It would jolt the loan market a bit too, at the moment they're mostly all at 100% salary, so if both teams had to juggle their wage bills to get a player some games and morale boost, it would encourage salary % negotiations. Anyway, I'll think about it a bit more. Hope you had a great Christmas, and many thanks again for the super game.
Anything that reduces cheating and frees up the transfer system is good with me.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I am not clear on is how the transfers would work. Is it that I pay a transfer fee the club wants then offer the player wages? Also if a player is near then end of their contract does that make the transfer fee cheaper because an out of contract player simply allows us all to offer a wage to that player to play for us? Sorry just not 100% sure I understand how it would work.
I would agree an 85+ rated 25 year old needs to be playing in the top leagues, but a 85+ 35 year old may want to challenge himself with getting a side promoted like Teddy Sheringham with West Ham or Kevin Keegan with Newcastle. A while back myself and a few others used to try and find cheap, but still half decent old players to help us get up through the leagues.
Not a fan of salary caps as such, but presume you can do that on the clubs finances, so there is only a limit on the wages they can offer else they will go bust, which is probably the skillset limit required as lower level teams can't afford the better players wages.
I also agree that the loan system being shaken up a little would not hurt.
Also I can only echo Jonathan's comments on the efforts that you put in and wish you a Happy New Year Wayne.
My thinking is that a transfer fee would have to be agreed and then a contract can be offered. That is unless a player is out of contract, in which case only his current club can offer one. Players near the end of the contract are another matter. I think I will start it off with them not being able to be approached by other clubs. This means the club will then have to sell him of risk losing him for free. If this doesn't work like I expect then I will change it at a later date.
ReplyDeleteOlder players will be happier dropping down the leagues - as with the match engine it will involve plenty of tweaking as I go along.