Asunto: Suggestions

I started 6 months after Leggmann and it will take me 20+ seasons to catch him. New guys starting now will take closer to 25 seasons because Leggmann will be making max cash their whole careers. That's over 8 years. Thank god we didn't get a team like that in soccer. I'm not sure if I could play if both sports were pointless.

We had a similar team in HA USA, Humpolec. He won everything for at least 25 seasons, maybe 30. I'm not sure if the other teams caught him or if he just lost interest. At the end of his reign, he was purposely tanking seasons so he could qualify for lesser tourneys just to get those trophys. That's what I think it will take for me to catch Leggmann. Maybe Blackkat or one of the other guys who started day 1 can do it sooner. But hockey is pretty much dead for me.

I know there are many people who feel the same way you do, and that saddens me, as it shows that there is a massive flaw in the current game.

did it ever occur to you that the reason why Leggman is so far ahead is because he is a great manager? How do you know he wouldn't have dominated if he started at the same time as you did? I am sure you could find examples of people who managed to make it to the top league even with the handicap of starting later.

I doubt there would be all that many. Do PPM keep any stats of that kind of thing, as would sure be keen to hear what they are.

no, we don't

There's no doubt that Leggmann is a great manager. He beat the crap out of the other guys who started in I.1 from day 1. That's not even up for debate. He's done an amazing job.

That doesn't change the situation for the rest of us. Honestly, I don't even have any suggestions to help because I don't think you can fix it. The only thing I've ever come up with is removing the OTR gained from Intl Cups for the first several (5?) seasons. Because you don't really earn it early on.

But I don't even know if that's the reason why he got so far ahead of everyone else. How much OTR did he gain from the ChL in seasons 2-5? Even if it's just 100otr, if you take that away then maybe he's not so far ahead of everyone. Or maybe he is. I don't know.

I'd love to know what the other teams in US I.1 think. When do they think they'll be able to catch up?

The biggest problem is, people like Leggmann have high OTR, which helps them get far better sponsor offers. Those higher sponsor offers allow them to upgrade their facilities faster, so they train faster, get more money from ticket sales, and build a better team. Because of that, they win more games, which increases their OTR even more. A season later they get even better sponsor offers, which means they once again upgrade faster, win more, higher OTR... you get the point.

I've been watching the OTR from season 1 and it's happened in almost every league. Teams that did well in seasons 1 - 3 are now way too far ahead of anybody else.

Not to mention, by winning they get the perk of tournaments like the Champions League. Entry into those increase sponsor offers once again, AND they get more OTR.

It's a win-win situation for the big teams and a lose-lose for the weaker ones.

Exactly. That's why I've suggested removing the OTR bonus for Intl Cups in the first few seasons of each sport. But maybe that isn't enough. Maybe we could even lower the OTR gained from regular league victories for the first 3-5 seasons. Only give out 1-2 OTR points per win for 3 seasons (or however many). Let the game develop a bit. Then put OTR gains back to normal. That would keep everything tighter.

Although teams who start 10 seasons down the road would end up in the same situation. Maybe lower OTR gains for league victories permanently. I don't know. But there's definitely a problem if it takes new teams 7 real years to get near the top.

Yes, but teams that start later should not be near the big teams. But there IS a ceiling for those big teams. Player CL drops and max facilities will create a limit on how good a player can be, so weaker teams today will catch those teams eventually.

Catching them has never been up for dispute, the time to do so is the issue imo.

Yep - its the time issue thats the problem.

New players shouldnt be able to complete with the top teams in their first season. However, it shouldnt take 10 seasons either. 10 seasons is 3 years. I doubt most people would play that long.

They should be able to compete in the league they enter in though. So if they are entering in div 4 - their team should be good enough to give them a chance of winning some games against real players.

Just like teams that move from div2 to div1 should be able to compete with the top teams in div1. Unfortunately that doesnt happen. Im not saying they should have a 50% chance of winning against them. But it shouldnt be so bad that they want to relegate to improve their team.

If the only way people can compete is to wait for everyone to have maxed facilities then i ask my question again:

What is the point of the facilities except to disadvantage new people?

Just realised that my assumption may be wrong - maybe the game isnt meant to be balanced - maybe the bottom teams are not meant to have a chance against the top ones?

last sentence: bottom teams in a league that is...

I did some research before the beginning of the season and found 3 teams that had previously been promoted to US I.1 while starting in season 2 or later. All 3 of those teams have since quit the game. However, 3 more teams (including mine) advanced to US I.1 this season while starting in season 2 or later.

While I probably won't be beating Leggman anytime soon, I'm ok with that. There are 394 US hockey teams right now (according to the "info about the sport" link), and Leggman is only one of them. I'm currently a top-20 team in the US by OTR and OTS, so there's around 374 teams that I'm doing better than. That's not bad. My advice to other US teams (and probably PPM managers in general) is to worry more about the overall picture than about how you compare to one team, you'll have more fun.

Amen to that!

That's good advice Obryantj! If everyone simply based their success and fun based on how they match up with the top team there'd only be a handful of users in the US.

All I hear is people whining that they aren't the best in the game.

I've never been in I.1 yet I still enjoy playing this game.
Suck it up and stop being such babies.

Face it, someone is better than you.