Archived [10/08/07] Battrick

[Adamc]

Use the edit button, no one would have noticed otherwise.

 

[Dead Badger]

Cheers for that, Mr Inho; very interesting. Yeah, I'd written out a TIE/GFI plan - my schedule actually works out really nicely, with my matches against the two really crap teams in my league falling mostly after matches I'd like to GFI, meaning I can usually recover without penalty. My tiny cup run just gave me a bit more fitness than I was expecting, and I was wondering whether to modify the plan. I think based on what you say I'll just stick with it.

There's a school of thought (in HT) that suggests that, if you can't beat teams in your division on MOTS (=GFI), you'll only get mashed in the division above.

Heh, this is still my first full season, so no danger of that coming into play just yet . I'm aiming at third, but I'm at least a season or two off promotion. I did get rather lucky with my div V; it's a lot easier than some of the monsters out there (V.10 in particular, I think). But yeah, that sounds like a good rule of thumb.

This is one of the things pointed out in the sledging boards I agree with; there's a very strong disincentive for promoting, because your team is almost never going to be competitive if you promote at the very first opportunity, and the lost revenue from being dicked on in a higher league means your team would be much better off if you throw your first playoff and spend at least a season caning a division you're too good for. I liked the idea of modifying the attendance rates so that even crap teams in good leagues generally get better attendances than great teams in crap leagues. Promoting ought to be a financial boost, not the opposite.

 

[Dead Badger]

Use the edit button, no one would have noticed otherwise.

Ironically, I saw the sentence you deleted.

 

[mikeW]

Will Herbert - 18 yo, BT Rating=26,876
LH Batsman, RFM Bowler, superb batting form, superb bowling form, low
An attacking player with woeful leadership skills and worthless experience.
Stamina: superb Wicket Keeping: worthless
Batting: superb Concentration: woeful
Bowling: strong Consistency: competent
Fielding: abysmal


Stuart Hogg - 19 yo, BT Rating=10,955
RH Batsman, RM Bowler, superb batting form, superb bowling form, invigorated
An attacking player with competent leadership skills and abysmal experience.
Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: worthless
Batting: worthless Concentration: worthless
Bowling: superb Consistency: feeble
Fielding: worthless


Herbert's secondaries on the improve.

 

[Mahindinho]

Promoting ought to be a financial boost, not the opposite.

True. But then, I would say that

Playing devil's advocate, the problem with that is that the game is then more likely to stagnate - just like in real life, you want the best two or three teams in a given league to be better than the bottom two or three in the division above. If you increase revenues too much as you go up the leagues, it becomes easier to just sit on your laurels once you promote, rather than striving to finish 2nd or 3rd - if you allow your team to stagnate, you stand a pretty good chance of losing a relegation play-off to a richer team from the division below.

Also, without that much financial benefit, you get different challenges as you improve - the problem then isn't so much having the best players, but more having a balanced bunch of players who won't make you bankrupt!

Well, that's what happened to me in HT, anyway - went straight from V to IV to III (having NEVER thrown a play-off), and am now having to completely re-jig my team as I can't afford to simply buy in better players - I'm pretty close to bankrupt right now. In BT, my wage bill is over £80k already, and should top £100k next season.

One big benefit in getting higher up the ladder is the cup (in its current format) - for each division you go up, you should manage at least one, if not two, extra rounds in the cup. That's better financially, and should allow better TFL management.

I've not looked, but I'd hope that the average 4th-placed team gets more cash over the course of the season than the average 1st-placed team in the division below.

 

[andyc]

Training time, Terry on the improve:

Charlie Terry - 18 yo, BT Rating=11,893
RH Batsman, LH Spin Bowler, superb batting form, superb bowling form, energetic
A defensive player with feeble leadership skills and abysmal experience.
Stamina: respectable Wicket Keeping: proficient
Batting: respectable Concentration: mediocre
Bowling: woeful Consistency: woeful
Fielding: abysmal

 

[NZTailender]

Neale Gleeson - 17 yo, BT Rating=5,540
RH Batsman, RH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, fair
A destructive player with respectable leadership skills and abysmal experience.
Stamina: mediocre Wicket Keeping: worthless
Batting: worthless Concentration: worthless
Bowling: respectable Consistency: competent
Fielding: worthless

He's getting fairly gun already, is Gleeso.



I've got 4 bot teams in the next 4 league matches. Going to TIE for a while now
Hopefully it doesn't back fire and see us get beaten, which could quite possibly happen.

 

[NZTailender]

Anyone up for a friendly? Challenge Tawonga Tigers.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

4. Jonathon Jephcott (512663)
RH Batsman, RM Bowler, superb batting form, superb bowling form, energetic
A defensive player with strong leadership skills and woeful experience.

Plays For:	Central Districts
Nationality:	England
Age: 		20 Years Old
Battrick Rating:	13,866 (+584)
Wages:		£1,505 p/w
Stamina: 	[B]competent[/B] 	Wicket Keeping: 	worthless
Batting: 	proficient 		Concentration: 	strong
Bowling: 	worthless 		Consistency: 	worthless
Fielding: 	mediocre

Good pop there. Scaly, can you tell how close he is to Strong bat-Superb Conc? He's probably very low, I'd just like a ballpark figure.

 

[Robertinho]

Ooh yeah, big pop for Mullers:

Rob Mulholland - 17 yo, BT Rating=6,915
LH Batsman, LM Bowler, respectable batting form, competent bowling form, moderate
A cautious player with superb leadership skills and abysmal experience.
Stamina: respectable Wicket Keeping: worthless
Batting: worthless Concentration: worthless
Bowling: proficient Consistency: mediocre
Fielding: worthless

He'll be so gun

And a cons pop for Gray.

 

[AussieDominance]

Won my Cup Game with decent ratings.

Pup Shenfield Swifts
Top Order: respectable respectable
Middle Order: competent feeble
Lower Order: worthless worthless
Seam Bowling: competent respectable
Spin Bowling: feeble proficient
Fielding: abysmal woeful
MOTM: Ellis

Playing a team in your division Mahindinhio absolutely no chance of winning .

Called Inter Yerma any plans

 

[Dead Badger]

Playing devil's advocate, the problem with that is that the game is then more likely to stagnate - just like in real life, you want the best two or three teams in a given league to be better than the bottom two or three in the division above.

Granted, but the situation you have at the moment is that the top two in many divisions are typically massively superior to the rest of their league (because they're camping), and the bottom couple in the ones above are there because they were either idealistic or too inept to throw their playoff. That said, of course, I don't think I could actually make myself throw a playoff (pride, y'know), but that's neither here nor there.

If you increase revenues too much as you go up the leagues, it becomes easier to just sit on your laurels once you promote, rather than striving to finish 2nd or 3rd

Definitely; there's a balance to be found, but I'd say that at the moment it's a near certainty that if you promote at the first opportunity, your team after the next season will be back in the same division you started in, and worse off than if you'd stayed down. There's a happy medium to be found, I think, that isn't nearly solved by the soft membership caps. Obviously you've had a different experience in Hattrick, but I think you might be the exception rather than the rule.

I've not looked, but I'd hope that the average 4th-placed team gets more cash over the course of the season than the average 1st-placed team in the division below.

Yeah, sounds about right. You don't really need to win *that* many matches to keep supporters coming. But for the bottom teams it's a bit of a struggle. I find it hard to believe that Watford, say, are pulling in many fewer supporters this season than last, despite having an awful time of it in the Premiership. In the same way that the morale calculations are a bit weird in that getting beaten by a massively superior opponent is just as demoralising as being beaten by a team of Jade Goodys wielding salad forks, I find it strange that attendance is based solely on the home team's recent record. I'm sure newly promoted teams get massive surges in attendance, particularly when the big teams visit.

 

[cricketboy29]

So could anyone please tell me if keeping ability does make a difference or not?

 

[Dead Badger]

So could anyone please tell me if keeping ability does make a difference or not?

I'm the only one online it seems, and unfortunately I can't since I've only ever had a respectable keeper. Sorry. Although I would say that Scaly's match above seems to indicate that an awesome keeper does indeed make a weeny bit of a difference. I know some people on the sledging boards (including several with extremely good teams) swear that a good keeper makes a large difference. Certainly having checked out their catch and stumping statistics, I'm inclined to believe them.

 

[cricketboy29]

Appreciate the answer Badger,

 

[Adamc]

It's impossible to say really, as the effectiveness of the 'keeper is going to be to a large extent determined by the quality of the bowling and the opposition's batting. The commentary doesn't at the moment give any hints as to whether chances are being taken or not, so I doubt anyone other than Allan can give you a useful answer.

 

[chaminda_00]

Ive gotta question, does keeping ability really count for all that much?. I mean I see Rob's and Scaly's keeper with their strong and superb's, which my respectable pales in comparison. But does it really have that much of a difference?

Yeah it does when my keeper was respectable he used to drop the odd catch. Now his superb he doesn't drop many and he takes double the amount of catches that he took when he was respectable. So i guess he gets to a lot of catches he usually wouldn't.

 

[chaminda_00]

It's impossible to say really, as the effectiveness of the 'keeper is going to be to a large extent determined by the quality of the bowling and the opposition's batting. The commentary doesn't at the moment give any hints as to whether chances are being taken or not, so I doubt anyone other than Allan can give you a useful answer.

I always used to noticed my keeper drop one catch a game through commentry back when he was repectable and below. He also used to let through a few byes. Maybe thats just me and no one else noticed that.

 

[Adamc]

The commentary is random, when it says dropped catch it doesn't actually mean that a chance was created, it's just a line picked at random from the database. There are supposed to be specific lines to indicate dropped chances but they haven't been implemented yet, if that makes sense.

 

[Johnners]

no pops today

surely next week i'll have at least 2.

btw anyone else need a friendly???

send a challenge to Clapo's XI