Find the flaw in my reasoning...

[Carligula]

OK, I've read as much advice here and elsewhere as I can and I understand the standard training/building strategy: train young 'uns to Formidable or a little better, sell them, use the money to 1) buy new (better) trainees and 2) upgrade at a few positions, and repeat.

Here's my question. Why not circumnavigate the field with your training and keep your favorite trainees, while selling only the surplus you don't need for a starting XI? As I see it the timing would work out like so, assuming training 17-year-old Passables with a Passable coach (the training times are a bit conservative):

2 years to train 1 keeper
3 years to train 3 defenders
2.5 years to train 3 middies
2 years to train 2 wingers
2 years to train 2 forwards

That's 11.5 years to train an entire team to Outstanding-ish. Isn't that where I would aim to be at that point, anyway? An entire team of Outstanding players?

The only objection I can think of is that the first trainees would be too old by the time you were done. That's why I put keeper first, as I understand they lose their value more slowly. But there must be other reasons... what's wrong with this picture? Or has somebody done it?

[KevinNU7]

if in 11.5 season all you have is an entire team of outstandings then you shoudl hang yourself

[KevinNU7]

Dola,

Ok, that posted look rude. My bad

[NAIWF]

If after 11-12 seasons of HT, all you have are aging outstanding players, you've been doing a terrible job building your team. Training one spot consistently allows you to be very strong at whatever that position may be all the time. Selling off trainees gives you the money to go buy relatively young talents at positions you won't be training.

The method you described means your defense will be old and in need of replacement well before you get into the last 2 training areas. You also won't ever really have many parts to sell because you'd be shorting yourself out of money by switching programs with guys that are a couple of weeks shy of the next level. There's a HUGE difference in sale value between a formidable +8 defender, and an outstanding +0 one. On the field they play almost the same, but you could be talking about anywhere from 500K to 1M in what someone would pay for that same player. Basically, you'd end up losing the value of training as time goes by, whereas sticking with one program allows you to keep gaining value with additional training since you want your guys constantly improving to the point where you can part with them.

I'm too tired to see if that makes sense, but I hope you get the general point.

[Vikas]

Yeah a team of outstandings after 11 seasons is piss poor :)

on the other hand, it is what my plan is, in a small sorta way.

Right now im training Playmaking, with my 3 main guys being 2 20yo World class and a 19yo brilliant.

The plan is to train them to magical-magical-ExtraT and then switch to scoring training :)

Training 5 positions though...thats probably not gonna work heh

[sterlingice]

Basically, if you take those 3 outstandings, and train them another two season up to world class, you can sell those three and then buy 8 outstandings to go with your 3 world classes that you trained.

SI

[YoSoySean]

I'm doing SOMEWHAT the same thing...

So far I have trained keeper my whole life (7 seasons or so). My plan just started this season so I haven't really been able to judge how well it works...

After all that keeper training, I kept a supernatural keeper. Now I switched to scoring training. I'm gonna train it for 5 seasons or so and keep two really high level guys. Then I'll switch to either winger or playmaking... I haven't decided yet.

[Havok]

Yeah a team of outstandings after 11 seasons is piss poor :)

on the other hand, it is what my plan is, in a small sorta way.

Right now im training Playmaking, with my 3 main guys being 2 20yo World class and a 19yo brilliant.

The plan is to train them to magical-magical-ExtraT and then switch to scoring training :)

Training 5 positions though...thats probably not gonna work heh


Magical-Magical-ET????

Do you realize what you'll be paying for them each week??? probally 350-400k just for your middies. I'd rethink that plan if i were you :)

I plan on doing something very similar to you, in 4 seasons from right now i should have a Mythical/ET/Titanic midfield or something very close. Then i'll switch to scoring training myself.

[YoSoySean]

And you're not gonna be paying a lot? :P

[Carligula]

OK, my bad. I had no idea what it takes to compete above say D.V. I'll gladly learn from those who have gotten past that point :). Thanks for your answers and for not making me sound (too much) like an idiot. ;)

[Havok]

And you're not gonna be paying a lot? :P

hehe good point sean :)

My Mythical guy with have as little secondaries as possible and he'll hopfully be an american. So he should be around 100k a week, im hoping they'll cost around 250k a week for all 3. Which isn't TO bad i guess :p

But thats still 64 weeks away for me so who knows what will happen!

[Havok]

Like everyone's said already.... get a good training program going first, figure out what you wanna train and get some good trainee's. Thats the most important thing by FAR!!!

Look at some of the newer FOFC new guys like Tim.... he did it and he's had very quick success.

[Mr. Wednesday]

OK, my bad. I had no idea what it takes to compete above say D.V. I'll gladly learn from those who have gotten past that point :). Thanks for your answers and for not making me sound (too much) like an idiot. ;)A team of all outstandings will whip up on most series in Division V. The thing is, though, by then, surely you'll be aiming higher? Trying to win a series in IV maybe? Even III? You'll have to go better than all outstanding at that point.

[Carligula]

Like everyone's said already.... get a good training program going first, figure out what you wanna train and get some good trainee's. Thats the most important thing by FAR!!!

Look at some of the newer FOFC new guys like Tim.... he did it and he's had very quick success.

I've done that, there should be $3 million or so worth of winger on the market at the beginning of the season after next :) I just like looking for oddball strategies in sports sims. Guess this one's a little too oddball though. :)

[OldGiants]

I've done that, there should be $3 million or so worth of winger on the market at the beginning of the season after next :) I just like looking for oddball strategies in sports sims. Guess this one's a little too oddball though. :)

Yes, you and I both. that's one of many reasons I'm pleased to see you in Hattrick.

Winger training is the oddball strategy right now. Few do it because it looks hard, that is, you have to train winger, stamina and PM at times.

I'm doing keeper because I think its the cheapest way to get started and still get a reasonable payoff. I should have two Outstanding keepers to sell off next season, and that looks like about $2.7 million each, give or take. And I paid a grand total of $40,000 to acquire them, so a nice ROI.

What looks to be key to any training program is the best 'price points' to have your training program span. I don't know a thing about Wingers, but for keepers the sweet spot right now is buying 18 year old Excellents and taking 10 weeks to train them to Outstanding. They cost you about $600,000 and sell for $2.7 million. With two trainees nicely spaced, you net a little over $2 million every five weeks, a nice sum to start out with. How high that profit takes you (DIV, DIII?) I'll learn.

You need to find the Winger sweet spot and stick to it for a few seasons, at least 5, I would guess.

Then I think we all need to change our programs because the game will get too boring doing the same stuff over and over. I'm thinking Forwards will be my next program, but it will be a few seasons in coming.

[Vikas]

Magical-Magical-ET????

Do you realize what you'll be paying for them each week??? probally 350-400k just for your middies. I'd rethink that plan if i were you :)

I plan on doing something very similar to you, in 4 seasons from right now i should have a Mythical/ET/Titanic midfield or something very close. Then i'll switch to scoring training myself.
Hey, i've planned it all out pretty carefully ;)

My 3 middies are all Dutch boys, so no 20% on top. Other than that, magical is pretty much still affordable, above that wages start to raise way quicker...like 100k for magical and 300 and above for divine or something (not exactly sure on these numbers right now :) )

It's gonna be tough to afford maybe...but hey, what do you think the top teams in every country are paying? Teams just get better, everyone is gonna need to pay for it.

[finkenst]

Like everyone's said already.... get a good training program going first, figure out what you wanna train and get some good trainee's. Thats the most important thing by FAR!!!

Look at some of the newer FOFC new guys like Tim.... he did it and he's had very quick success.
Ahh. A fan.
:)

I'd like to thank my supporters: The_herd, OldGiants and MilburnII...

I got pretty lucky to be a relatively inactive div VI for the first half of last season so I was getting weak-inad midfield over their poors or worse. And in the bottom division, midfield is usually the most important thing.

This year, i've gotten some lucky results and sit in 3rd in the #143 V series....

It's a lot of fun seeing that first formidable anything show up on your player screen..

Pick your training program and get it going... I spent about 60k on the first three trainees and they are worth around 3-3.5 million now. :eek: The other two guys, i bought for 15k are now worth around 500k and will be in the millions next season.

--tim

[daedalus]

OG and Carligula . . . it's us invading L8 all over again! :D

Now where's ez?

[OldGiants]

OG and Carligula . . . it's us invading L8 all over again! :D

Now where's ez?

LOL. that was a great time. Too bad that game hit entropy so hard.

I miss ez and his analytic mind. FOF2004 could use his touch, to say nothing of Hattrick.