Upcoming changes?

[Kemal]

From the HT main page:

quote:
18-10-2006 The new deal
In a press conference yesterday the Hattrick Football Association (HFA) announced some economic changes for next season.

First, they have agreed terms with a computer manufacturing company which will invest in the HFA, with the money going straight into the pockets of all Hattrick teams.

HFA has also signed a new contract with the Global Agent Organisation (GAO), a contract containing lower transfer agent fees.

The HFA has also decided to lower the interest on money in the bank.

A spokesperson for the HFA stated "We are very pleased to announce this new deal for next season, even though we will have to get back to you with more exact details later on. Hattrick's background economy is healthy, the amount of money per team is increasing and this new sponsorship deal will further improve the situation. We also hope the transfer market will get a positive injection from lower agent fees and lower interests."


So what does it mean?

I suppose sponsor money will be increased throughout all divisions, and reduced agent fees will see less people willing to sell at the end of this season.

Lowering interest is not really a surprise considering the current market, though it is bad news for rich teams.

In the end, it looks like they decided to cut from interest and divide the money gained by this over all teams in HT, whether they have a lot of cash or not.

Whether this will increase prices remains to be seen, the market continues to be flooded with average players after all. Still, it will help some carry the burden of their increasing salary.

Also, daytrading seems to be up again, with lowered agent fees...

[Shabbaman]

Argh, I hate daytrading! These changes look terrible: it's clear they want to encourage people to spend their money, which in turn would increase prices. This is only a temporary effect, so it only benefits those teams that can make a lucky sale, or the teams that spend all their money now and make lucky purchases/

[Dell19]

It seems they have caved into the people who constantly complained about deflation rather than adapting their plans. I don't like the decision on lowering interest as it is already pretty low.

[Kingreno]

I am clueless as to why they want to increase Daytrading, as a part of game-improvement.

[Shabbaman]

quote:Originally posted by Kingreno

I am clueless as to why they want to increase Daytrading, as a part of game-improvement.


Because they are stupid morons who're killing the game? [xx(]

[Kemal]

The interest rate low? It has been this way for ages, while the total amount of revenue made by the average ht team has only been decreasing for seasons, making the interest rate worth a lot more than originally intended.

As for the daytrading bit... it might be that the agent fees from week 0-2 will not change of course, and only if you keep players for longer periods that you will see less money flowing away to agents. In that case, daytrading will still be as it is today.

Skilltraders though, will profit anyhow, it seems to me.

[Dell19]

quote:Originally posted by Kingreno

I am clueless as to why they want to increase Daytrading, as a part of game-improvement.


I assume they are hoping that daytrading will not increase and that they are simply giving teams more cash from player sales.

[arne1]

quote:Originally posted by Shabbaman

This is only a temporary effect, so it only benefits those teams that can make a lucky sale, or the teams that spend all their money now and make lucky purchases/

And guess who spend all his money just last week? Finally my psychic is paying off.

[Shabbaman]

But it's no real solution. They have two options:

1. lowering the interest cap from 100k to for instance 50k
2. lowering the interest rate

The first makes money available, because people don't need to keep so much money in the bank. The second makes people want more money in the bank, which would be an adverse effect. A third option, the combination of both, changes nothing (or not much). Halving the interest cap and the interest rate makes that you want exactly the same amount of money in the bank :)

Giving teams more money from transfers leads the game to something I'm not interested in: trading. The stamina change discourages training (not as much as the bad market though), combined with this change it looks as if they want to encourage skilltrading.

[ProPain]

In my opinion the only real solution is making it more difficult to train. Currently you can easily train for yourself and sell your excess trainees. This will lead to a continuous inflation untill all teams have the players they can afford salary wise. Only then the inflation will stop and settle on replacement prices which are not profitable by nature as you'll always train your own positions, sell your excess trainees and need to spend all that money to replace players on positions you don't train. So changing nothing on training will lead to deflation untill training will be a 'budget neutral' activity. Changing interest rates and decreasing agent fees will only temporarily disrupt this effect and maybe have the economy settle out on higher replacement prices as average salaries that can be carried will be higher as well.

Also rich teams won't really be affected by the current measures they'll just hire more economists to get to the 100K cap again.

[Energy]

What about decreasing the salaries of the players? Currently, you see all of the best players (TSI>100.000) get dumped on the TM, because they are to expensive. This does not make it worthwhile to keep on training players and forces people to sell before players become any good. Consequence is a TM flooded with with average players (TSI 5.000 to 20.000). Decreasing salaries will not only lead to higher market price for very good players, but also reduce the TM prices for the current mediocre players. And the last will stimulate people to keep on training players longer. I don't think it will result in low division teams being able to buy a lot of vey good players, simply because they can't afford the TM price anymore. Longer training means, less sells on the TM, means less income if you start out with very crappy players.

[Dell19]

Decreasing wages seems like a silly idea to me as the problem would reoccur at a later date. I disagree that it would suddenly stimulate the average player market as the supply of these types of players would still be too high and more cash would be diverted towards the top end of the market.

[Energy]

quote:Originally posted by Dell19

I disagree that it would suddenly stimulate the average player market as the supply of these types of players would still be too high

But isn't the main reason why there are so many of those average players out there the high wages of the better players? You currently have to dump your player before he gets too expensive. There's no money to be made in good players.

[Kemal]

The good players you mean actually aren't good players, looking at their cost-efficiency. Decreasing salary would mean that perhaps mythical and/or magical players may become more useful than is now the case, but when that happens the border between good and not so good players just moves to the magical/utopian border, which is what Dell pointed out.

When assessing how good a player is salary costs plays just as big a part as his playing skills, imho.

[Shabbaman]

quote:Originally posted by Dell19

I disagree that it would suddenly stimulate the average player market as the supply of these types of players would still be too high and more cash would be diverted towards the top end of the market.


I don't know. I still believe the market will crash for the high level players once the lower division teams find out they can't afford 80k salary for a single player. Who needs titanic PM in the 7th? The upcoming change could mean that every team gets more money available, so they don't need to sell their most expensive players. The only effect would be that the market won't crash again (that is, if it stopped crashing at all...), but it won't improve the market. In the end it might stimulate the outstanding/brilliant range, because that's the level a lot of clubs should be buying their players in.

The more I'm thinking about it, changing interest is perhaps the dumbest thing they can do. It's depending on how it work out, but if they change the interest rate the effect for the rich teams is that they need more money (adverse effect), and if they change the interest cap this makes money available with the rich teams, who probably don't need to spend their money anyway.
What it discourages is saving money if you don't have any. But it still is a solid gameplan to live off of interest, because you can count on this income. If you're poor and they decrease the interest cap, you're rich enough sooner. If you're poor and they increase the interest rate, all it takes is another season (or two) to get to the interest cap. If a lot of teams do the last thing, less money is spend on players and the market keeps crashing.

[Dell19]

quote:Originally posted by Energy

quote:Originally posted by Dell19

I disagree that it would suddenly stimulate the average player market as the supply of these types of players would still be too high

But isn't the main reason why there are so many of those average players out there the high wages of the better players? You currently have to dump your player before he gets too expensive. There's no money to be made in good players.


I don't think so as trainees will generally be quite old when they start to hit high wages anyway so there is two reasons to stop training them. Agree with Kemal that there will always be a point where wages become an issue, unless you reduce wages to the point that they are totally insignificant.

@Shabba, I sort of feel that they have decided to lower interest rates because too many people have complained about hoarders. It does depend whether they are reducing the rate of interest or the maximum amount as to whether it is such a bad idea or not.

[Shabbaman]

I don't see what's wrong with hoarding money. I talked with Kemal about it some time ago, and it would be nice if they used the interest rate as a way to stimulate/slow the economy in the same way the National Banks are doing it IRL. But then you should be able to loan money as well.

[Kemal]

This was posted in the Hattrick Economist Federation just a few minutes ago... I can't verify these contents, but if true, I would be totally flabbergasted by the HTs:

quote:
Changes announced early in an editorial put online by mistake by a Spanish LA.

In short:
Agent fees: we will now get 2% more from each transfer: instead of a maximum 91% after 1 season, we'll get 93%.
Sponsorship: increased by 4%
Interest: now cut in half, season after the next cut again in half (also cap income from interest at 50k), subsequent seasons no interest at all.

Other changes: set pieces skill will drop with age, stamina will have a minimum level of wretched (low), changing the coach for NTs will have no more TS consequences.

Also, a new "manager ranking" system which rewards manager activity and new Supporter stats.

Last but not least, oldies' skills will drop faster.

What do you think? Another change in the supply part and a dramatic change (removal of interest) to increase velocity.

Totally removing interest from the game??? [eek]

Personally I think this must be a hoax, though it was posted by a senior member of the fed it seems.

[Kingreno]

I think they intend this so everyone will spend their money upping prices temporarily for a few seasons. It will help for now but after that salarycostst will have eaten the extra cash and then there will be a total market crash. Or no?

[Shabbaman]

Garee with stupid.

[socralynnek]

Let's wait with discussion until it's official. Maybe the spanish LA tried to be funny...I guess we'll only have to wait 2-3 more days til we know what is going on.

[yndy]

I'm sure it's going to be official soon. Probably even today after the last qualifiers end. I'm very dissapointed they are going to take out interest completely, it fucks up my salary budget for the future.

At the very least, I hope that more increases in sponsors money will each season as interest decreases.

[Kemal]

Well, changes are official now, and are correct as stated above. Sponsorship goes up with 4%, wich according to calculations in the HEF matches almost exactly with the decrease in money in HT due to loss of interest.

In other words, the increase in sponsorship is a means of redistributing the wealth in HT from "wealthy, older teams" to "all teams in general".

Thankfully, I'm not depending on financial income yet, so good chances both financially and game wise for me. :)

Not too happy about the new "achievements" system though, not sure why they want to promote more elitism, and drive managers away from actively pursuing succesful football achievements towards federation stuff etc. The game should in the end be about the matches, imho.

[Tubby Rower]

for those of you stocking up on money... I thought that you might want to read the following excerpt from the latest editorial
quote:After a meeting with the HCB we would also like to take this opportunity to announce some more economical changes for the seasons ahead:
For the season after this (starting in March): Lower the interest by half (again) and also lower the maximum income from interest by half.
2 seasons from now (starting in July): Remove interest on money in the bank completely.



Complete editorial

quote:11/27/2006

The new season is about to start and with it there are also some changes that are ready to be announced. Some of the changes are expected, as earlier this season the Hattrick Football Association announced some economical changes, while others are completely new. This release also includes some new Supporter statistics and a totally new feature: Achievements.

There is always a special tension at the start of the new season. Maybe you’ve promoted and are checking every team in your new series to see how you should make up your strategy, maybe you’re writing a conference post with an analysis of your series or perhaps you’re buying that star player which will make your team bloom this season. All this planning and thinking makes the start of the season so special - and of course there are usually also some new stuff to think about which makes the start of the season even more special! This season is no exception, there is a bunch of changes, some new statistics for Supporters and also a totally new feature.

Let us start with the economical changes that HFA announced earlier this season, as we’ve now received a letter from them with all the details of the new deal:
“As we informed you about some weeks ago there will be three economical changes next season. As you know we’ve written a new sponsorship deal with a computer manufacturer and the money would go directly to the Hattrick teams. In detail, this means that all teams will get a 4% increase of their sponsor income.

Secondly, the Global Agent Organization has agreed to lower their fees by 2%. You’ll still pay money to the mother club and last club, and the exact amount will still depend on how long the player has been with your club. However, you can now expect up to 95% of the transfer money instead of 93%.

The last change for this season is that we, in cooperation with the Hattrick Central Bank (HCB), will lower the interest on money in the bank by half.

After a meeting with the HCB we would also like to take this opportunity to announce some more economical changes for the seasons ahead:
For the season after this (starting in March): Lower the interest by half (again) and also lower the maximum income from interest by half.
2 seasons from now (starting in July): Remove interest on money in the bank completely.

The reason for these changes is that we and the HCB think money should work and not be collected on a pile.
Finally, we would like to make it clear that we, the HFA and the HCB, are constantly looking over the overall economy in Hattrick to make sure it’s healthy and slowly growing. It is important to understand that we don’t care that much about the prices on the transfer market: what we care about is the background economy and especially the amount of money per team. This new sponsor deal we will cover the loss of interest income on global basis, in fact it will do more than just cover that loss. All together these new deals will make sure that the background economy continues to grow.”

Apart from the changes announced by the HFA, we will also do some minor tweaks in the game engine next season:
- Set pieces skill will also start to decrease with age, just like any other skill.
- Players will lose skills with age a little bit faster than before.
- The lowest possible level for stamina skill will be (low) wretched.
- Change of coach in National teams will not affect the team spirit anymore.

Next season will also see the start of a totally new alternative career feature: Achievements.

Unfortunately, the bitter truth is that not everyone can win the cup or the top league in Hattrick, so we think it’s important that there is a possibility to focus on an alternative career. Alternative careers (the more, the merrier!) give the game depth and give everyone a better gaming experience. Some people focus on being the best forward trainer, some focus on collecting flags and other focus on being an active member of the community for example. Now we add yet another career possibility: achievements.

Shortly put, this feature means you’ll get points for different things you’ve achieved in the game. Winning your league or advancing some rounds in the cup, for example, will give you some points, as will receiving a certain amount of stars in a match. Moreover you will also receive points for other things in the game like founding a federation, buying/selling a player, writing a conference post, climbing up the rankings and becoming a National coach. Most achievements will be known, but there will also be some hidden achievements to seek for.

Your achievements will be visible from your menu and your user page. Both the points you’ve achieved and the maximum points you can achieve will be shown.

Last thing in this package is something for our Supporters and statistics lovers out there: Match statistics. You will now be able to see, season for season, how your team has scored its goals, in what way your players have been injured and stats about yellow and red cards.

To summarise, our main focus this time was on new career opportunities and the economy. We managed to squeeze in some really nice statistics and some minor tweaks, of which the slightly faster skill loss is the most important as we have still got an oversupply of players and the skill loss is taking too long time today. Moreover we’ve started working on the new youth squad system and we also found some time to move our servers as you know. :)

On behalf of the HT-team and the HFA I hope, and think, you’ll like these changes.