Subject: Questions & Answers

Yeah I agree with the above. If you are hanging around in the game (which we would really like!) then go for the maxed-out stadium. You get really good cash for your home games but, more importantly, you get the big Media contracts at the end of the season.

Also, to speed up the building time of your stands, we suggest bribing the PPM game officials in Europe. It didn't work for us but you might have better success.

Ok so now that I have market access I've been buying up younger players with good AVQ and nothing less then 5/6CL. I've been thinking about how I would like to approach building up my roster and I kind of came to one conclusion, salaries are pretty high for almost every player I have bought or looked at buying and I'm thinking that I can add a few, but in order to add enough to 1. Replace the less skilled and lower AVQ players on my roster and 2. Be competitive for a playoff spot anytime soon, I think it would be really difficult for me to maintain the financial situation to have a good roster and build up my facilities. Am I better off to buy cheaper young players with good AVQ to train up and stay cheap for the time being, while being essentially a last place team for awhile in order to build up facilities and seating cap to gain more income? Last thing I want to do is go bankrupt. I would almost be willing to bet at least a couple of the players I purchased, I could easily flip for profit down the road if need be. I mean it'll suck to get stomped every time we take the ice for the next few seasons, but obviously I have some catching up to do. Thanks!

Very good interogations you have here. There are of course more than one strategy, but one thing that is underrated in this game, is that it is actually a (money) management game as much as it is a sports management game.

Your first priority should be to build up all your seatings to 250, as that is relatively cheap to do and will get you more money from ticket sales and, at the end of the season, better sponsorship offers.

Then, I would start building up the most important facilities (Training, Sports Academy, HR and economics). Upgrading the other ones when you can is still good.

Keep a tight control on your players' salaries, sending them off when they get too expensive. It is however good to be able to win some games in your league as that will get you better financial offers from sponsors at the end of the year.

There are a lot of good information available in these forums, the guide and other places. Keep reading and learning the game. It is a fun one, but one that requires time and patience.

If you can nab a goalie that stands above the rest of your line-up and one offensive powerhouse to put on your first line and PP, they'll steal you games even if the rest of your guys are far behind. (Plus, II.2 is now about 40% bot teams so you should be able to get within a playoff spot soon enough)

But yes, do avoid really old 0/6 CL guys otherwise, as their salary is super bloated from the higher Exp and they only get worse from there.

As you're building facilities you'll have a very frequent rotation of players. It's just how things go, haha. Don't get too attached to anyone!

Excellent advice from two of the top managerial performers!!
IMO, the priorities starting out should be Facilities (Human resource, Training, Sports academy) in that order, followed by arena, then only enough good players to keep you in the top eight.
Facilities and arena will be with you 'til the end, but players will come and go. Make the best economical decision for your team long term!!
Try to stay at level two until you can be relatively sure of maintaining a position in the top half of Division one!!

Thanks for all the advice guys. Plan for this offseason is to get myself as high in the standings as possible (I've got 5 straight wins and points in 7 of the last 10) to get the biggest prize money bonus that I can and then I might go shopping for a goaltender if I can make it work. But other then that I'll upgrade facilities and train guys that I'm projecting long term for. I'll just have to keep an eye on the budget and simply move guys if they get to be too much $$$. Really appreciate all the help to make learning the game easier for me. Hopefully I'll be at TFM's in my arena before I know it haha!

Will energy at seasons end effect whether or not a players CL drops or not?

No. It has an effect on performance during the season and a little bit on training output. However it resets at year's end and has no impact on CL.

CL is a score ranging from 699 to 0 that drops more or less 30-35 points a season. It is all hidden stats and it is impossible to know whether your 6/6 player started at 697 or 603. It will however have a huge impact on his future development curve. I have never seen a player last more than 4 seasons on a single step, so i imagine the drop is always at least 25 points. Between 3 to 4 seasons at each level is the norm. Less would be a disappointment.

Injuries also have an impact, but I am not sure how much exactly.

Anyone disagrees with my interpretation, feel free to correct me. I explain it the way i understand it, my numbers may be wrong or my comprehension of the system flawed.

All pretty accurate IMO, except for one little caveat about the 3-4 seasons per level: It's possible for a 6/6 15yo to drop to 5/6 16 or 17.

My understanding with injuries is that they knock off a few points from that longevity depending on how long they are, but whether that happens during the season (within the possible CL for the number of that season and affecting training immediately post-injury) or at the end in a cumulative way (meaning that it'll drop the CL significantly more if the player was on its last season at a particular "level" vs if it happened during the season where it would be capped), is unclear, and hard to verify due to the randomness of the training capacity in the early days of a player's career.

There is a way to have a good estimate of whether or not your 6/6 player will drop to 5/6 "early" (at 16 or 17) by observing their training averages closely, but I would only be able to give you examples based on maxed staff and facilities at this point, haha.

Energy management is mostly important in that you'll have to decide what you want to focus on early in the season - try to pull a few offsets during the season in order to finish as high as possible, knowing you'll tap out of the playoffs on the first round because everyone will be dog tired (something to do if you think you can finish top 8, but not necessarily beat any of the top 8 teams consistently). Or trying to manage tiredness efficiently and keep a lot in the tank to try to run a bit farther in the playoffs, but maybe in the 9-16th positions otherwise.

It's also something to consider once you have maxed facilities, since playing a 15yo the entire season where he finishes at 50 energy will likely stunt his growth a bit, since training is affected by remaining energy (and previous day's match tiredness too, I believe). So, while building up their experience early on is great, it also comes at the cost of a bit of OR as well.

Players have a minimum of 2 seasons and a max of 4 seasons at any CL length.

The only exceptions to this are 15 6/6 players can drop to 5/6 at 16, and if a player drops to 4/6 at 17 they are guaranteed 4 seasons at 4/6 and won't drop to 3/6 till 21.

As for injuries, I believe it just sometimes accelerates the CL drop. It doesn't have any negative training impact during the season the injury occured.

I didn't know I was getting promoted and now am going to finish near the bottom of the league -- should I be investing all my money in facilities, arena or other?

Kind of unsure what to do now since I was expecting to be at top of a lower league and had my sponsor setup to have alot of bonus money based on wins - now looks like im going to win like 6 games max

Your first priority should always be the big three facilities, Human Resources*****, Training*, and Sports Academy*. Arena additions are best left until you are consistently averaging almost 90% of present arena capacity to avoid arena costs for seats you are not using! It is pointless to build and pay for more seats you will not be filling!

From the guide:
"Contracts with performance bonuses can be renegotiated midway through the season. If you have the second type of contract and you are not doing as expected, you can switch to the first type midway through the season. Your weekly income will grow, but you will not get bonuses for wins any more. If you have the third type of contract, you can switch to the first type or change the target position midway through the season. If your team is moved to a different league in league regrouping and you signed a contract with bonuses, you can renegotiate this contract during the first two days of the season."

Hope this will be of some help.

Ah, I see, will definitely Be renegotiating!

So I should just pour all my money into facilities first and just take the Ls, haha. I have 15mil currently.

I tried to read back but for training, I am assiming i have to change practice daily or weekly? but I guess my current players probably won't be that useful in the future cause my team isn't really good

It is good to change the practice regularly in order to maintain a good balance of attributes for players. You are right however that your development will trail the top teams as long as your facilities are lower, so player development is not your priority. Still, it's always smart to take a little time to keep a balanced training. While those players are unlikely to become top players in the game, they may be mainstays on your team for years and be cheaper than UFAs because you don't need to purchase them and are gomegrown players.

I hope this helps a little!