All valid points raised by both of you. While I understand that the game engine doesn't really handle minutes very well, I guess it isn't really supposed to. This game is meant to be challenging and make you think and find solutions to handling your minutes better, not just implement a magic feature that will allow you to limit the minutes per player/position. If those above mentioned solutions are logical and make sense, then we're doing our job right, if not, then... you get the picture.
The stamina effect is a perfect example; high stamina players accumulate more minutes per week and it hurts their game shape. That doesn't make sense and we addressed that last season by introducing the stamina factor in the game shape training. Has it helped? I think it has, subjectively. My high stamina players have kept their game shape up most of the time.
On the other hand, I'm not rejecting the possibility of implementing some new things for minute management if they make sense and don't make that aspect of the game too easy. Another example, substitutions after injuries; they can hurt your rotation badly. This needs to be fixed, I agree, but isn't it better to fix it by just making the code put that guard in the game instead of the center rather than adding an option that would do that indirectly?
While making a completely new substitution system would be great, it's unnecessary (this one works fine in most cases, therefore I prefer fixing the cases in which it doesn't) and unrealistic (given the coding resources atm, which are basically - yours truly
).
The training system is another thing. I must say I don't see it as unrealistic or "crappy" as Trainerman does. This is a game and it can't fully simulate real life, but that might be beside your point. Would like to hear how you'd improve it though.
Now, I'd like to address some of the concerns pointed out in the "Testing the empty lineup prevention code" thread, specifically the three posts starting here
(259887.136) (if you don't mind
me hijacking
this thread now
). So, the following mainly goes to Yuck and Hoosier.
1. Fixing the economy
Easier said than done. I am aware of it's imbalances. Your trainees reaching enormous prices and old, very much useful players, going for peanuts. The cause for them? Well, a combination of things, of course. Young players are attractive, have low salaries and have that "I made that guy" appeal. And they pay off over the seasons by actually playing for the team, while still keeping the bulk of their value. That means that they *do* payoff in the long run. They can improve during a season while their salary remains the same, while the same thing applies to the old guys but the other way around. Also, no one likes to see those red arrows week in and week out. Another thing, old high salary players have been flooding the market for quite some time now. Since we're bleeding users, the number of teams being able to buy them is also shrinking.
I hate to see that too, but what can we do? The obvious solutions have long term ramifications that might throw the game even more off balance. Just like your "more high talent draftees" suggestion. What happens in a couple of seasons? Or in ten seasons? Fifteen? All of those players will eventually grow old and (probably) make the old player problem even worse. You see, it's not that simple.
2. PL forums
Would a link to the dedicated PL thread on the PL page satisfy you? Or even something like we have on normal league pages?
3. Simple search
Simple? Yes. Fixable? In a word: no. There are limits to our hardware and databases of which I don't want to go into. Frustrating? Yes.