Asunto: Getting bored

In response to the original post:

1) The speed of the game is a definite problem. The schedule in basketball made an attempt to address this problem; perhaps future sports may do the same, though the new sports might not necessarily be popular sports.
2) It might be possible to upgrade a player mid-season and perform better in the second half. With that said, if another team has sufficiently better players, there's not much you can do to win in the short run. For closer teams, there is only the tactics wheel (breaking up of play<counterattacks<active forechecking<offense<defense<normal<breaking up of play); using a particular tactic more often now gives a bonus, complicating this a bit. In terms of strategy for games, PPM could use some improvement.
3) The lower level sports academies are admittedly not very good, and it is unlikely they will be able to help much until you build up your training/ regeneration facilities. Even a player with all-star qualities won't necessarily be very good at the lowest levels.
4) I started in season 5 in hockey and season 2 in football. I made I.1 in both sports using the development strategy, though it took ~10 season, and my teams are currently either a bad I.1 team or a good D2 team.
5) There is one advantage to division 3. Since there are few active teams, it is easy to have the best sports academy. This gives you the top pick in one of the drafts, lets you draft more players, and lets you scout more players. Since the total number of players seems to depend on the overall level of sports academies in the league, it is possible to be able to scout a large portion of the players, possibly all of the players if your sports academy is sufficiently better. This gives you the best opportunity to draft an A/A+ caliber player. In addition, most other teams in D3 probably won't be scouting.

Some things that can be interesting:
1) I liked developing my team over time and later on developing players.
2) Though it is very hard to catch up to the best teams, the competition in the lower leagues can be fun.
3) You could try buying and selling players on the market to make a profit if that interests you.
4) To some extent, you can try different strategies. The Blue Mountain Rebels and Mobile Rain in I.1 both found success by primarily buying and selling players. In basketball, I am trying a strategy where I heavily focus on developing prospects and giving my team the best chance to pull or draft the best prospects. To some extent, you can experiment with training ratios, especially in basketball or handball. In soccer, experimenting with formations/substitutions can help a bit.
5) I like that this game doesn't really require much time to be spent on the game on a daily basis to be successful, and the propack isn't necessary to be successful, though it makes some things more convenient (for instance allowing you to mostly ignore training once you set the auto training).
6) Watching the games play out can be interesting, though the schedule in hockey is not especially convenient for the United States.

6 seasons for me to max out the arena. I would recommend that you put all your money to HR11, maintenance 10 and save up for triple max not the double max. Get 2 managers and train up their marketing skill at a 6 to 1 ratio. Two janitors and train 1:1 Keep the players you got. End of this season see if you can dump 38 million on a triple. HR start it today and upgrade it every time you can. Next season dump 38 million every time you make it on a triple. Max out press, souvenir and sky box. Your ticket sales and souvenir sales will cover most of your expenses, saving the rest to upgrade

I don't really remember exactly how long it took me, but I also didn't really start working on my arena for the first few seasons.

I'm not going to spend too long on the subject, but it seems to be a running theme with everyone's perception of the game that the pace is too slow, and I wholeheartedly agree. If you're like me, and I assume most other people, your goal is probably to build a team that can compete in I.1. It's a long road, so you need to find smaller goals to keep you occupied in the meantime. Mine involved different stages of building the infrastructure for my team, as well as becoming the general manager of the US national team (which was a lot of work at the start, as the roster needed to be slightly overhauled).

If it will help, here's the method I've seen a lot of successful managers use who come in late to the game. It's the 3-step method I use myself, stuffed into a concise acronym, which I call FIR (not the conifer).

Step 1. Finances
The best way to get started here is to build your arena to an acceptable level (I think I maxed the small stand-ups and shortly after build max large stand-ups) and get your HR department to about level 10-11. You'll also want to purchase players that will make you good enough to dominate the league/division you're targeting without promoting. Building a team that dominates III is cheaper, but it also nets you less money. After you've done that, you'll want to alternate between improving your HR department, building max triples, and improving your Maintenance department that has otherwise been neglected. Maxing the HR department is fine in this step (but not necessary), while you may not want to improve Maintenance beyond 12.

Step 2. Infrastructure
While working on Step 1, you should work the rest of the Big 4 up a bit, but it likely won't be necessary to get them higher than 10 during Step 1. After finishing Step 1, you'll have a nice income to be able to finish the core of your team. It's good to max the big 4 in this step and maybe even the Medical Center. The Maintenance Center may not need to be maxed; I believe there was an article that showed it may not pay off to max it. Education Center depends on your personal preference. At the end of this step, the true core of your team will be in excellent shape. Players come and go, but your arena and facilities stay with you as long as you have your team. I am nearly finished with this step.

Step 3. Roster
At this point you'll have the facilities (and one would assume staff) to provide the best possible training to any players on your team. The world is your oyster. Do you want to train players from the tender age of 15 with the best possible facilities? Do you want to purchase 18-20 year olds for ~$100M who have huge ceilings and are sold for less than logical market value? Or do you want to go for the big fish and try to snag players from some of the top teams in the game?

Sorry about the long post. Hope some, or any, of that helped.

check out a hockey team called Rimouski Rainbowbird in hockey. he managed to bring a newly created div 4 team to the top league in 6(!) seasons. he knows how to play the market with minimal profit.

in addition, it is possible to purchase great, but not elite, prospects for 10M or under. given with abundance of lvl 15 sports academies in hockey, the greater supply of prospects have certainly lowered their market value

sorry about a confusion. "he knows how to play the market with minimal profit." should be read as "he knows how to play the market with minimal fund"

Most managers in D2 are active and thus not playing against bots.

And yes, moving to D2 means tougher matches. It wont be easy ones, so you will have to invest on very cheap veterans to make a competitive team. That is, you will actually have to play unlike in D3 where u face most bots.

Good info, thx!

I just hope you stick with it! Always nice to see new faces around here, but most quit for one reason or another.

If you have any questions about anything specific, feel free to PM any experienced manager(that's actually how I figured things out and didn't quit)!

how do you build your stadium

So what's the big 4 for facilities. Y'all meaning HR, Training facilities, educations, and maitencec

HR, Training, SA and Regen

98 users currently online. I dont think I've ever seen that number in double digits. I know the system just finished it's reset and it's night time in Europe... but still... wow.