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And to think it was really just 18 months ago that the economy was a disaster because players were worthless and training was worthless and the only sensible thing to do was to tank and build up money, and that it was time to kill FA entirely.

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Fun times indeed.

The thing here is that we're in a supply and demand environment where the demand can spike or plummet heavily based on the number of users, while the supply will take roughly a year or so to adjust. When the user base constricts by over 50%, and when the voices on the forum during that time keep hammering the message that training is worthless, especially if it's anything below the ultra-high-end potential players, it's no wonder that when the number of teams increases that all the lower to middle range guys that they'd really want to buy are very scarce. I'm not even sure FA would make a big dent in that, either, since it can only add players back to the pool that are actually being created or purchased, and as long as the market has been averse to making that type of player, it's not likely to help a lot.

The thing that I always am amused by is that no matter what the economic condition, it's always to the advantage of the big teams and the disadvantage of the little guys. Prices at rock bottom? Then it's only cup/arena revenue that matters, and only the top teams will have that, and therefore they can carry more wages and the little guy will never catch up. Prices too high? The little guy will never be able to upgrade their teams based on their lower income.

I suppose one could spend his or her time worrying about how they're getting screwed in the current economic climate, or instead take the view that no matter what the state of the market is, any player you train you should be able to use or transfer and replace with an equivalent talent.

I'm not even sure FA would make a big dent in that, either, since it can only add players back to the pool that are actually being created or purchased

Yeah it does help. U21 players (or potentially so) would not go to waste when teams are banned and decent/good low to mid level players are also present in teams who go bot naturally.

It would therefore normally apply only to players waived, but, as Trainerman example clearly showed, people now also cut players in order to avoid the transaction tax.

I suppose one could spend his or her time worrying about how they're getting screwed in the current economic climate, or instead take the view that no matter what the state of the market is, any player you train you should be able to use or transfer and replace with an equivalent talent.

This is true, but those who have assets (players) are not losing as much as those who have cash instead

The thing that I always am amused by ...

Go ahead, laugh. That'll encourage people to stick around.

I hope the BB's are able to set aside their amusement and look at this serious matter for what it is.

I'm not even sure FA would make a big dent in that, either, since it can only add players back to the pool that are actually being created or purchased

Yeah it does help. U21 players (or potentially so) would not go to waste when teams are banned and decent/good low to mid level players are also present in teams who go bot naturally.

Well, if you're referring to U21 in terms of the U21 national team and not just as a general age range, that's a narrow example (and of course, there's every possibility that the player wouldn't be trained in the seven weeks it takes to go bot). But I sincerely doubt that enough decent low to mid level players are out there to move the needle in a big picture sense. It might free up more guys who are in their low to mid 20s with high potential that got barely any training or just got stuck on JS for their entire career, though, but a lot of the players that could have been the 15-20k salary guards of today were fired as the "only 2k star potential" wasted draft pick five seasons ago.

I suppose one could spend his or her time worrying about how they're getting screwed in the current economic climate, or instead take the view that no matter what the state of the market is, any player you train you should be able to use or transfer and replace with an equivalent talent.

This is true, but those who have assets (players) are not losing as much as those who have cash instead

Before those who focused on cash instead of players profited, and of course that was pretty unpopular on the forums as well. I guess the economy is just too important to leave to the market. ;)

The thing that I always am amused by ...

Go ahead, laugh. That'll encourage people to stick around.

I hope the BB's are able to set aside their amusement and look at this serious matter for what it is.

Ironically, encouraging people to stick around would only aggravate inflation. Of course, I think people staying is much more important.

It's a serious matter when prices rise. It's a serious matter when prices fall. It's presumably a serious matter if the economy stays flat, since prices will be either too high or too low, and even if they're somehow just right, that doesn't mean everyone will see it that way.

I think that the slope of the price curve at any given time is not something that can be effectively managed, since if BB announced today that JR is going to be only 10% of the salary that it was, and that it was 200% more effective in outside offenses, it would still take a year for outside guards to be trained in quantities to meet the demand for them. What absolutely has to be bullet proof is that the fixed costs and revenues are balanced properly, and then as long as those are in balance, prices will adjust based on that supply and demand principle.

But the economy breaks down pretty simple - a 24 year old player with X skills will always have an intrinsic value based on his skills. Whether that breaks down to one game's arena revenue or fifteen just depends on the users in the game - when people train a lot of players, the cash value drops, and when people avoid training, it rises. To the extent that you choose to deal in dollars rather than players, you're ceding control to the other 20000+ users in the game - if they're all either training the next MVP/HOF guy to high salary levels or training GS every week because it's a waste of money to have a trainer, that'll certainly have an impact on your future purchasing ability.

there's every possibility that the player wouldn't be trained

There is also the certainty that the player will not make the team because it's going bot or has been banned and his GS is horrible. Which means you're not going to be able to save him. And I'm talking about 15k+ 21yo trainees at the begeinning of their 21st year.

Before those who focused on cash instead of players profited, and of course that was pretty unpopular on the forums as well. I guess the economy is just too important to leave to the market. ;)

Yes, but not recognising that the conditions changed and making no adjustment is shortsighted. You don't have to wait for the problem to reach epic proportions only to then scramble to fix a solution changing something else in the game.

When I mentioned cash vs asset I just pointed out the most evident trade-off. However assets vs assets (and let's include both the players owned and the arena built) is also a problem. Younger managers are penalised on a general basis because they have less assets, because they can support fewer or less valuable assets (they don't earn as much). Therefore inflation in this game is especially bad for newer teams and lower level teams.

It sounds like the idea behind Marin's words is that they would like to force lower level and new teams to focus on training lower potential trainees because they are priced out of better options, not fully realising how this creates a problem in progression opportunities for such teams. Bottom-up movement should be encouraged not made increasingly difficult in my opinion.

Last edited by Lemonshine at 3/21/2015 8:50:23 PM

But the economy breaks down pretty simple - a 24 year old player with X skills will always have an intrinsic value based on his skills. Whether that breaks down to one game's arena revenue or fifteen just depends on the users in the game - when people train a lot of players, the cash value drops, and when people avoid training, it rises. To the extent that you choose to deal in dollars rather than players, you're ceding control to the other 20000+ users in the game - if they're all either training the next MVP/HOF guy to high salary levels or training GS every week because it's a waste of money to have a trainer, that'll certainly have an impact on your future purchasing ability.

What you say, it sound a bit like this to me: "the BBs really wanted to push training for all managers and on all sorts of players, so we like inflation because it penalises banking and buying rather than buying trainees and training them". That's fine in principle, but has some side-effects which I outlined elsewhere in this thread. If they wanted to make training more profitable or more palatable to everyone, they sure are choosing a very convoluted and potentially dangerous way to do so.

You know, it's like boosting OD over the top and changing the GE so that OD stops every single outside skill to stop R&G and ending up making all outside based tactics broken. Now you say they announced changes (boosts) to JR? I wonder if this would have been needed if they found a better and more balanced/flexible solution compared to making OD so good in the past. And what next? Since there is no testing whatsoever in 10 seasons they will have to change something else because this boost to JR was too much and created another unbalance? It's the same for inflation, using a solution with side-effects is never a good idea, especially if it's not clear what or how large those side effects are.

Last edited by Lemonshine at 3/21/2015 9:06:56 PM