My UNrequested, UNfair, UNorthodox, UNbalanced opinion (Talpa's Delirium)

I am awfully sorry for writing in English, but even if I’m living in Germany for many years, now, I still have some troubles with the language, especially when it comes to writing…
Moreover, as time is always missing, English comes to me much faster and allows me to be more precise and specific.

FOREWORD:
First of all, I am most sincere when I tell you that I am really happy to have been a part of this community (and of BU’s before this) and to have had the chance to “meet” you all. I think you are an amazing group of people. Since BU, I admired and enjoyed the passion you put in the things you do, your humour, your dedication and care, your kindness, your creativity and, last but your least, your competing attitude. I am really sorry to have “lost” some of the “old” group and that I wasn’t able to be present on Skype…
I really would like to thank Andi and Florian, in particular, because you always worked hard to make me feel (and be) a part of the group. You immediately made me feel more “home” and less “foreigner”, and this means a lot to me. Thank you, from the deepest of my heart, really.
Secondly, what will follow doesn’t want to be a criticism that comes out of mere frustration, but it’s my way to pay my respects to David’s great effort (you did an amazing job, really) and to your dedicated work, giving my contribution with the hope to help to improve this nice game even further.
I am really thankful for the work and the commitment David put in this project and I was (I am) really grateful to have been give the chance to be a part of it.
So, please, always keep this in mind when you’ll read what follows.

That said, I will add, for those who know me less, a note about myself (so that you can better understand from where my point of view comes from)
Games have always been an important part of my life. They have been both fun and work, so I look at them as the same time as a "professional" and as a enthusiast "user/consumer".
I’ve played (and loved) strategic games since I was a boy… and that is now a LONG time ago. So “strategy” (and people!) is my main point of interest, in a game.
Playing has many human aspects and is something I take very seriously, as it is (for me) one of the activities that is most revealing of the human nature: watching people play can tell you a lot about who they really are.
Boardgames are also the reason that created my first link to Germany.

I will divide my intervention in two parts.
The first one will be a brief Talpe Indomabili’s story of this 3 Seasons (the last one in particular) so that you’ll see yourself why the (bad) “luck factor” has started to spoil the fun…
The second one (more useful, I hope) will be about aspects of the game that have frustrated me so far and that in my opinion are a “bottleneck” for what could otherwise become a very good game.

Even if honesty have never brought much good in my life and in my relationships , I will express my honest opinion, because I believe that honesty will serve you better, if I truly wish to help you improve the game… but, even if I won’t repeat it every two lines, it’s just that: an opinion. My very personal one.
I mean no disrespect, in any case.
The fact that I spent hours of my time writing these words, is, in my world, the best sign of how much I loved and respected your work.
If I didn’t care, I could have just walked away.

PART ONE: An history of "bad luck"

Apart from the games themselves, there are two main aspects of the game where luck plays a huge role:

- Youth scouting and development
- Staff training

Unlike the luck you can have (or not) during a game, the effects of luck here are PERMANENT... and they can possibly add up.
This means that a serious and prolonged amount of bad luck can put you out of the game no matter what you do… and that can be a huge fun spoiler and something that can really affect somebody’s interest into the game. That is most unfortunate.

Then, a minor role (that, in some circumstances can become “not so minor”) is also played by injuries.

Let’s see how these assumptions actually translated into facts in, as I called it, my “History of bad luck”:

Youth needs no big explanation: just compare the number of my Team players with a Star (2) with, let’s say, David’s (6). If this wasn’t enough, then compare the AVG of those players.
A huge difference… and based not on Manager ability but just pure plain luck.
An if luck doesn’t balance itself... there is absolutely no way that you can fill this gap. Ever.

Also because… the other aspect that could help you to at least contain the gap it’s also ruled by luck: Staff training.

Having invested to start with all of them at 25, in just three seasons I managed to lose 3 points in AVERAGE to David and Renate (46 vs.43). This means a rough total of 12 points less...
And the AVG points are just 3 because my Cheerleaders managed to have an excellent result for two consecutive seasons… otherwise it would be even more.
This also means that in key roles like the Trainer, there could actually be a difference of 5 or more points…: it’s like if I started one season later.

Consequence: less bonus during games but most of all less training, that makes it impossible to fill the gap created by the youth system and to the contrary will make it wider and wider (young players also train faster...).
And again, sadly there in nothing I could do to prevent this, as the coaches on the market are actually no option (a big weak spot, in my opinion).
And I am not talking just about the gap between me and, let’s say, David, but also that with the 1st division bot teams. They started much stronger (as we were all in 2nd div.) and they have now better Staff and Arenas than me… how I am supposed to ever reach them?

Injuries…
This season I had 5 injuries of 8 days or more in the first three weeks. 4 of them were to my 3 best players. 2 of them happened consecutively to my best player that practically didn’t play (and train) for 18 days at the beginning of the season that is so full of games and when my coach and then my physio were in training.
Result: I started with a 2-6 record and I had to reduce training to have fit players to put on the field every game.
After less than 3 weeks my season was already over…
This doesn’t want to be a complaint, but just an explanation of the reasons that can push a very committed player (like me) to lose interest in the game.

I am a strategist, but I had no options at my disposal to fight my bad lack. I managed to “contain” it while the gap goes on widening.

This means that no matter how much time/dedication/effort do I put in the game, my road will end when I meet David’s team: my Cup progression ends for sure there, my POs progression would (if I was ever able to reach them) end there too.
And in the very remote case in which I would win… it would have been just because of an incredible stroke of luck… and, in my world, luck is no fun. Besting someone because you did better, is.
So as you see… I am at a dead point.

PART TWO: Now… let’s try to be “constructive”…
I do say in advance that any of the following comments/suggestions DOESN’T take into account the programming difficulties… sorry about that.
Mine is just a “brainstorming”.

The weakest point of the game at the moment is, in my opinion, the “Arbeitsmarkt”.
After the first season, it became totally useless: not only the salaries are more or less the double of those of my current Staff members, but also the max skill level is so low, that, even if I would want to replace those who had very poor training results, I should still pray for a great training outcome… that in my condition makes no sense at all.
I think here something should really be changed.
My suggestion is to leave the salaries high (so that who invested in training is still rewarded) but give a chance to the player to “correct” the effects of bad luck for a price, when needed.
This would also give the chance to those who start the game later to be more competitive faster and avoid seeing their gap with the best teams become wider every season.

Another thing that I find really not convincing is that Bot teams get the all Staff trained at once at the beginning of the season.
I understand that this way it’s simpler, but this makes (in the 1st div.) the beginning of the Season almost impossible to get through.
Not only they get stronger faster and without any penalty, but in the first two weeks I also have the disadvantage to have my Coach in training…
This way a bad start is guaranteed and this way if you have the bad luck to meet the strongest bots soon, even if later you manage to play a wonderful season you won’t have the chance to recover late, if not partially.
So basically, forget winning the league. And as the Cup and the POs will go to David and the Summer League it’s just a matter of luck… forget winning anything.
So what’s the fuss all about?
Interest stays high if you have at least one chance to win something… You don’t’ HAVE TO, but you have to fell you have a chance.
If the game is somehow “rigged”, why bother?
Moreover, this system also reduces the chances that I could ever decide (for any reason) to train my coach later and change the order of my trainings, as I could not afford to keep such a big gap for too much time.
So: less options => less variety => less fun.

To somehow make life easier after the introduction of Friendlies and given the impact of injuries, expanding the max number of players (to 19 or 20) could give more "manouvering room".

Filling the “knowledge gap”.
Apart for the reasons mentioned before, seeing that, David apart, we are all seriously struggling means only one thing to me: we are not getting it.
Too many informations are missing and we are just moving blind folded.
Maybe much is said per Skype and I missed those bits of informations... my bad.
I experimented a lot but I didn’t see any serious change in the pattern, nor I got the answers that I was looking for.
At the moment it seems to me that High players (> 215cm) tend to score from everywhere regardless of their abilities.
My best 3pts shooters can’t match the shooting % of their mates who have much worse stats but are much taller… this is the only pattern that I saw repeat itself. Weird.
Another absolute Puzzle are Fastbreaks… they give the name to the game but they represent a real mistery: are they influenced by something, or totally random?
Where's the point in having an option that is practically a "wild card"? It would be nice to know more!

As some infos are just “not disclosed” there should be a chance to slowly discover those infos yourself.
Knowing it all is boring but playing without knowing what you’re doing is even worse and it’s really no fun (for me).
And, at the moment, in my opinion the match doesn’t provide enough informations to have something sorted out. I recently even stopped watching the games as I was getting no new infos.
My games were following two or three fixed patterns, apparently regardless of formations. At half time I could easily forecast winner, pts difference and time/way in which the gap would have been created.
I never understood if some really weird episodes in the 4th quarter were influenced by players experience, luck, trainer… or something else. Still no idea.
What I really miss are the tables at the end of the game where you could see which attacking/defensive tactics had been chosen by the coach and how successful they were.
This way it would be possible to understand much more about the game and determine if success/failure came from tactics, player abilities or just chance and would encourage us to work more on tactics, training, player market (looking for specific attributes).
A more frequent and "verbose" changelog could be also more revealing…

Stopping the Engine from messing it all up
It would be lovely to be able to have an option like "use the BF and BG" only if someone is fouled out or is... dead".
In the most important game of my season during the 4th quarter with the game on the line (I was -4) I had to watch my absolute best player sittting on the bench for last 7 minutes.
He was perfectly fit, no injuries... it wasn't funny.
Of course It would be also lovely to be able to influence playing time: if Lebron James or Kevin Durrant can play for 35-40 mins... we should have a chance too!

Filling the “Luck Gap”
As I tried to show, the way the game it is at the moment, once a big gap is created it become almost impossible to fill it… at least through strategy and ability.
This means that playing the game is like playing at the lottery… and things based mainly on chance, reduce the “human factor” and with it the fun/interest (at least for me).

At the moment I feel there are too few options available to the managers to prevent luck having a dominant role.
I totally miss the feeling of really “controlling” my team.
I can’t influence the number and quality of the youngsters I will get, I can’t influence the Staff training and therefore I cannot influence the impact that my staff will have on the Team, I can’t prevent the beginning of the seasons from being a nightmare…
So what can I actually do?

I can work a bit on tactics (but for the reasons explained before, I don’t have many infos to work on) replace injured players and make a work plan for the Arena (that, in my opinion, is one of the most successful parts of the game) but not much more.

My suggestion would be to introduce more “variables” that are not based on luck but on manager choices.
Some examples:
1) Some sorts of limited bonuses (1-2 per season) to be used at manager’s will, that could affect various aspects of the game: a special bonus to be used for the key game of the season:
- it could be a one time % bonus or allowing the team to play one (or two) time above 100% effort (and then pay the price for it in terms of energy spent…)
- Or having a one-time per season chance to significantly reduce an injury
- Or a single bonus for a staff training
- Or having one-time per season chance to send a PLAYER to a special training course who will improve him greately.

All these features would create more variety and give the managers the chance to plan their season/development or counter a particularly nasty stroke of bad luck.

2) Upgradable Facilities could be introduced to expand manager options and try to differentiate or maybe counter the effect of luck. Training fields for the main team, an academy improving youngsters quality, a physio room to improve injuries recovery, a bank for loans or investments, a PR center to improve affluence, an agency to get discounts on the transfer market and/or an extra bonus when selling a player…
And using a scheme in which you can upgrade, let’s say, only ONE of them 3 times, one of them 2 times and the others inly one time, you could really have an environment in which every manager would have to make the choice on what direction you want to give to your club,
And this decision wouldn’t be affected by luck or money (that is also influenced by luck) giving the game a totally different kind of depth.


Well… ‘nuff said for now…
These are the directions in which I would go… but this is YOUR game and I don’t know your intentions, the time that you have at your disposal, the technical limits/difficulties you encountered or you might encounter or about the reasons why you decided to realize it or the goals you are aiming to
So I’m sorry that I could not take those into account, as I said it was only (hopefully respectfully) explaining my point of view and… “brainstorming”.

And please don’t hate me for this, I am still a lovely guy
Please read it (as I do) as a show of love, commitment and passion for your work!

Zitat von Laaeris im Beitrag #4

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is it okay for you to answer / discuss in German so that all can follow in "full speed"?

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Zitat von Laaeris im Beitrag #4

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the game is improving step by step,

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Zitat von Laaeris im Beitrag #4

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but there are many good or excellent players on the transfer-market.

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Zitat von Laaeris im Beitrag #4

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I had more than once offered to leave the game,

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Ich nehme das angebot an und schreibe mal auf deutsch weiter. Geht bei mir einfach schneller.

@Talpa: Vielen Dank für den sehr langen Text und die verschiedenen Gedanken. Ein paar davon kann ich verstehen, andere Punkte sehe ich anders und eine finde ich total super.

Die Idee mit dem Personal diese zu Begrenzen und den Glücksfaktor zu entfernen finde ich super. Aus meiner Sicht könnte man hier einen neuen Bereich schaffen in dem sich jeder Manager taktisch entfalten kann.
Folgende Idee von mir:
Jeder Spieler kann einen sehr guten, zwei gute und einen normalen im Personal beschäfftigen. Z.B. mit den festen Skills 50, 40, 40 und 30.
Je nach Kader könnte man damit seinen Schwerpunkt in Richtung Training (junge Spieler), Fitness (ältere, besten Spieler) oder Geldeinnahmen pushen. Hierzu müsste man den Geldfaktor vielleicht etwas aufwerten, z.B. einen Stadionmanager statt Cheerleader einführen. Der Stadionmanager würde weiterhin den positiven Effekt der Cheerleader haben, aber zusätzlich würde er z.B. die Bauzeiten an der Halle reduzieren.
Damit würde es nicht mehr eine perfekte Taktik ("alles so hoch wie möglich") geben, sondern verschiedene optimale Taktiken. Der Wert von älteren Spielern mit hohen Skills würde dann für bestimmte Manager steigen.

Über das Thema mit Verletzungen habe ich mich auch schon geärgert, aber das gehört mit dazu und sollte so bleiben. Ich hatte es auch schon, das meine Gegner die besten Spieler nicht einsetzen konnte wegen Verletzung. Glück und Pech gleich sich hier mit der Zeit aus.

Das nicht alles bekannt ist oder wenig Wissen vorhanden ist, finde ich als wichtigen Teil des Spieles. Man muss sich selbst Theorien ausdenken und dann schauen wie man diese bestätigen oder widerlegen kann. Ab und an wären Statistiken hier hilfreich, aber was nicht ist kann ja noch werden.

Persönlich habe ich das Gefühl das der Heimvorteil etwas zu groß ist, ich habe dich befürchtung das bei riesigen Arenen nur noch die Heimmannschaft gewinnt. Aber das wird sich mit der Zeit zeigen.

Das Problem mit der Auswechselungen ist ärgerlich, aber es trifft die Gegner genauso wie uns. Nur ist es bitter wenn man im Liveticket sitzt und seine Stars spielen sehen will. Ich hatte glaube hier mal einen Vorschlag gebracht, dieses Verhalten zu verbessern, z.B. die eingestellte Starting Five beginnt nicht nur am Spielanfang sondern auch nach der Halbzeit (3.Viertel). Oder sogar zu jedem Viertelanfang.
Auch die Idee von Match of the Season könnte hier etwas bringen.

so, das zu meinen kurzen Gedanken.
Viel Spaß beim lesen. naja, wenn ihr das lest, dann habt ihr den Post ja geschafft :)