The Youth Academy Info Thread

[socralynnek]

BCLG, I was able to set the lineup using the thing looking like three dots or so, which is to the very right.

[socralynnek]

BCLG, I was able to set the lineup using the thing looking like three dots or so, which is to the very right.

[socralynnek]

@Aggie:

I think both don't point to being at their max.

The 2nd one points definitely only to the thing that he has his most potential in PM. My goalkeeper had this comment with set pieces but still profited from Goalie training.

The 1st one, I think, only tells you that his star rating was kind of high, compared to his current skills. Some of my players had this comment and still profited from training.

[Aggie]

Thanks ynnek. I promoted the first one a couple of days ago, but then he wouldn't probably do much more anyway. I surely will keep Jaron Hunsel on defense.

What irritates me the most about this YA is that everything has to move aside for the one great defender-prospect in my team. I have a bunch of talents for midfield, scoring and GK but they don't get a chance to improve at all...I guess I am lucky in a sense that I can train 5 players per week. It would be worse if my star youngster would be winger or GK.

[Aggie]

New editorial:

quote:This is the first in a series of three editorials that present upcoming features in Hattrick. We start with the Youth Academy, since in this area we see the need for immediate fixes. In the coming weeks, we will move on to the other changes we have planned for next season: Arena planning, Crowd formulas, and the role of Set Pieces in the game.

The new Youth Academy has now been running for more than two seasons. It has proven very popular, but also quite difficult to make sense of and to make the most of. In terms of what kind of players the YA produces, it has been a let-down for many managers - and we can only confirm their suspicion that it has been too hard to create decent players in the Academy. This is mainly due to two factors: The starting values of players born in the Academy system, and the tools that the managers have at their disposal to train and analyse their youth squad.

Youth academy players are born with a current skill (much like a senior squad player) and a potential, which is the maximum value he can achieve within the youth squad. This design would ensure us that the quality of players produced in the YA would not exceed the old system too much. In theory, YA players can get better than the players in the "old system", but not by much, and it takes a lot of work to get it right. Too much, as it turns out. With our two-step fix for the YA, we think we will land a lot closer to what we originally wanted the Youth Academies to be. Youth players will be quite a lot better, on average, than they are today - they will be more "promotable" into the senior squad. Finding candidates that could become stars will be easier, but that also makes the choices tougher because you can't give all your players the optimal training.

This is the first step of our fix:

* All existing youth academy players will immediately receive boosted skills and potential to better reflect what our intentions were for Youth Academy players. Future players will start at these new levels.

* Training speed for Youth Academy players will increase compared to the current training speed. Youth Academy players will train faster than players in the regular team, even if their age and skill levels are the same. The Individual training type has been made much more efficient.

* Youth players are born with a Character attribute. This is hidden today and will also influence training speed a little. In the future, it will be possible to reveal this attribute as well.

* Stamina training will be removed from Youth Academy. All players will be fixed at the same level, and youth players born in the "old system" will also start at this level.

* Form will be removed as a factor for Youth Academy players. Youth player performance will however continue to vary from week to week, between their current skill and their potential skill. This is a random factor, showing you the range your player can perform within. Players will perform close to their current skill much more often than they will perform close to their potential.

* The removal of form and stamina as "blind factors" will make it easier to judge what the true potential of each player is, and to focus more on the right kind of training.

* You will never lose your current skill when you promote a player into the regular squad. This “penalty” existed before as a way to discourage users to promote youth players as soon as they turned 17. Since training is now always faster in the Academy, there is a better incentive to keep players in the Academy until they have been fully trained.

As from next season, we will improve a few other things in the Youth Academies:

* Scout reports about potential youth players will contain more useful and precise information

* The training reports will also be changed to give more useful information about the players on your team. We are also looking at ways to give the manager better control over what information is revealed about young players, and new ways to keep track of what you already know about players.

If you feel you would like to get more details about the immediate updates and next season's improvements for the Youth Academies, there will be some additional info on Friday. That info will be more on a nice to know level than on a need to know level though.

One a final note, we have also fixed a bug that did not retire youth players when they reached their 19th birthday. This will now be in effect. However, retirement only happens on a birthday, which means players that have already turned 19 may stay on until they turn 20. If you have a player that you like, and that soon turns 19 (or 20), you should consider promoting him to your senior team right away. We are however considering a "softer" system for retiring 19 year olds, so we may make a tweak to his system in the near future.

Not sure if I'm too happy with this. Contrary to others I believe that the old system was already profitable. I now fear too many great players coming from the YA, resulting in a new inflation.

I AM happy with the fact that the progress of the youth can be managed easier though (no stamina and form blurring the capacity of mainly the mids.

[akots]

IMO, it all makes sense. Otherwise, there was no point in doing anything with YA. Of course, you can always make some intelligent guesses and sometimes can get it right and may be break even with your investment returning back to you. But it were too "blind" system and you can never actually know what is going on until you promote a player to regular squad. Then, and only then, the truth will be revealed. Before that, whatever you do, including training and playing, did not mean much.

[sz_matyas]

It made sense that something had to change, but I feel that they are overreacting like they constantly do with the market. Maybe ease in 1 or 2 of these changes at a time and see what happens. As it is I was ~-$500K in investing in the YA with no real hope (my top prospect hit his potential wasting a number of weeks of training) and was getting ready to drop it. Now there is reason to at least stick it out.

[Robboo]

I was getting ready to drop it also. Now i will stick it out for a little while longer

[BCLG100]

I wouldnt have dropped it but it was becoming less fun as it seemed totally random so this should hopefully be a good thing.

[Aggie]

Was I lucky then or doing it really well (which I can't believe)? I had a top prospect which I trained first and have two others now. Also I have a number of acceptable players.