Training is a long term team development strategy that requires skill, determination and time. It can be done by everyone, even by managers which can log in only a couple of times per week. Trading is requires almost no skill and needs much less time and determination. Managers which have lots of time to scour the transfer list and bid a lot definitely have the advantage here. There needs to be a balance between these manager types, with the advantage of one type being met with the payback for long term persistence of the other. This is the main reason why training should be more important than trading. Otherwise most casual players would find themselves swallowed up, hence losing interest.
So, do we like high TL prices? Yes, they directly motivate training.
I admit now that the newspost is partly misleading and should have been written better. It was a mistake on my part and I stand by it, because I'm only human and not being a native speaker definitely didn't help. The accusations that this was intentional and part of some deception and a conspiracy don't even garner a response from me. I should have mentioned that the free agent numbers will dwindle across the board with the exception of very young ones, which are making their debuts. The responsibility for the misunderstanding is mine alone.
Let's move on from the semantics now and talk about constructive improvements. Is this the final version of the FA formula? Probably not. We will reassess the effect it had and check if it was positive or negative (for the game, not the managers and their wishes), and maybe change it as soon as next season. A change is not guaranteed, and even if it is made, there's no guarantee you will like it.
I'll try to give a couple of resposes to specific questions/opinions here, but bear with me because there's a LOT of them and my time is limited.
It seems to me that young players need very high potential and decent skills to finish up as a free agent, and older guys (23-28) have to be multiskilled to have a try at a free agency.
So going with this theory, 24y MVP center with 120k salary will retire beucase his guard skills are at a very low level and he doesn't match the multiskill criteria to become a free agent.
Yes, this is true. We have no intention to save every valuable player. It has been explained why in my previous posts. Also, using TSP instead of salary shift favours multiskilled and/or outside players at the expense of inside players. This is intentional and is something we are aware of and is not a bad thing, in my view, especially considering the current situation with the inside dominance. The inside dominance was definitely brought on largely by the low prices and high availability of inside players, so it makes sense to do changes which offset that. However, since the overall impact of free agency is limited, and within it, this shift toward multiskilled players has an even smaller impact, the change will need some time to become palpable.
I think the problem many users have with this is that it creates inflation. Based on your post, you seem to want this as it will encourage more managers to train.
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If every user focused on training, there would be such an abundant supply of players that most would be practically worthless. Only very salary efficient, highly skilled players would be of any significant worth.
Training should be encouraged, as I've explained why above. Thinking that everyone will focus on training because of a FA rule change is extreme exaggeration. We are not dealing in absolutes here, but in factors that shift the balance one way or another.
Continues in the next post...
Last edited by BB-Marin at 6/4/2015 7:51:05 AM