Hattrick

[mundial]

Starting the thread up again, to pick other expert's brains!

Cheers,

Nick
Mundial F.C.
IV.62

[mundial]

I am just about at that plateau ($500,000) recommended to go after a solid coach. I've been saving up for a while. Of course, I'm undefeated for four games now, my team spirit is composed, and my confidence is wonderful. My coach now is passable with passable leadership. Should I reconsider going after that solid one, and stick with my gaffer? Wait until season's end?

Thanks.

Nick

[mundial]

How often do people out there interrupt normal training to train form? My average form is between inadequate and passable right now.

Thanks,

Nick

[Lone Star]

Normally I only train form before REALLY important matches and then a week or so at the end of the season. I usually train stamina at the end of the season, and since it damages form I add that training to the mix.

Panther City FC
III.1

[mundial]

I guess that makes sense, since you'd only be playing one game a week (friendly), and fewer players can benefit from training defending, playmaking, scoring, etc.

On a related note that ties my two questions together, will my team's form be better with a solid coach rather than a passable one? From my understanding, it would.

Thanks,

Nick

[Uniteds]

Any advice for someone just starting out? My team is currently 8th in V.101 of the USA. I picked up a couple of transfers (one from Sweden, hope that 20% doesn't kill me).

I hired an assistant coach and put an investment in my youth team. I've got 280000 right now.

[mundial]

I took a look around the rules and found no evidence that there are adverse psychologcal effects on the players when you fire a coach who's doing well. Rather, that the drawback is losing some fans for the next few games. I am feeling lucky and able to pin down a solid coach. And I figure the sooner I get that done, the better job I'll do training. But can anyone verify that it won't mess with my teams' performance as well? I may have to play a qualification match, depending on how these next three games go. I am tied for fourth with three games to go. But I want my young team to get better for next year too, and a run at promotion! Any tips?

Thanks,

Nick

[BrianCappellieri]

My team has just been activated and I'm just checking out everything now.

I would appreciate any suggestions on how I can get started.

Thanks!

Brian Cappellieri
New England Revolution FC
V. 38

[Elwood]

Some starting advice:

1. Don't spend big on one player early on.

2. Stadium expansion should be a priority. Typical recommendations are 20-25 times the size of your supporter club. You may not be able to go this large early, can't remember how much cash you start with.

3. Your coach's skill is important in training (the "A passable (solid/inadequate/weak/wretched/etc) coach..." part. Solid is the highest. Anything is fine until you start training heavily, though. Some teams have spent near (or over?) a million US trying to get a solid coach (it's 10k a pop and the new coach has random skills). Only go for a coach when you've established your club and squad and stadium, and built up a bit of cash.

4. Look your team over and determine if you have good training candidates. You can only train 1 skill at a time, and it takes 7-10 weeks to improve a player's skill in whatever you train, depending on coach skill and # of assistants, plus the age of the player. The BEST trainees are 17 and excellent in whatever their skill is. But those are EXPENSIVE. As an example, the first week of the current season, I bought a 17 yr old solid scorer for $510,000. 17 yr old excellents were going for over a million. 17-18 yr old inadequates are good to start with.

A player needs to play once a week to get full training, and in a proper position. For example, if you train defense, a player needs to play his last match of the week as a defender or wing back. Winger - wing back or winger. Scoring - forward. Playmaking - inner midfield, or winger for ~ 1/2 full training. Keeper - keeper, of course. Passing - no one's really sure :P

But a player does NOT get double training if he plays twice, so getting 2 'sets' of trainees is recommened, and stick with whatever training you choose for a LONG time (2 seasons or so, at least). Then start improving your other positions, gradually upgrading. Later on, as your trainees improve, sell them off when they hit a level you can turn a profit, and use that cash to get a new trainee and an upgrade somewhere else.

The match engine favors midfield. That's why, if you look at established teams, they use 3-5-2 so often. Midfield rating (for the team) is determined mainly by the playmaking skill of your inners (3 of them in the 3-5-2), but also by the PM skill of wingers, and if you play a center defender offensive (don't recommend it), or a forward defensive (or this), the PM skills of those players. Possession is based on your midfield rating vs the opponent, and, for the most part, the team with the highest possesion gets more chances for goals.

Due to this midfield thing, a lot of teams train playmaking. The other 3 big ones are scoring, defense and keeping. Don't know of many that train winger, and I don't know of ANYONE that trains passing. Oh, the stamina of any player using PM in a match is important. Stamina goes up fast, at the expense of form (around 1 level a week, exellent basically the highest), and form is increase by general training.

Pick a formation that compliments your skill choice for training. 3-4-3 is good for scoring, 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 for defending, 3-5-2 for playmaking. Keeping, probably best to use 3-5-2, but doesn't matter. This way you can train the max amount of youth each week.

I don't know how quickly the supporters increase at lower fan club sizes, but I know mine increases by about 18 a week. I've been playing for a year, though, and my fanclub is around 2150, and I'm undefeated in my series. Once you get a good idea, if expanding, build a little larger to take into account expected increase. I just expanded to 60,000 seats, even though I likely won't fill it til I have 2400 fanclub members. But I should hit that sometime next season.

Um..what else? Invest 20k in your youth squad each week, once you can afford it (I'd recommend starting now, if possible). Highest level is excellent, but the better your squad, the better chance you have of promoting a good one. And promote one every week. It doesn't help to hold off. It's random each time.

Oh, ignore the game-generated values. To check out market prices, browse the Swedish transfer list some. That'll give you a good idea of what players are worth in 'real money'. One really good player isn't going to make your team a world beater, so don't splurge on a single guy.

Through my first 2 1/2 seasons, I was continually at the 200k debt marker. Only now am I regularly on the plus side. So don't be afraid of debt, but don't go much further than 200k.

Hrm. That's about all I can think of now ;-)

I'll try to check back here more often, or you can HT-mail me. My team is Indy Racing Athletic, and I'm in III.16, but should promote to II for next season. Just clinched the series, and a win in either of the last 2 weeks clinches automatic promotion. User name is indyracing.

Good luck and have fun!

[BrianCappellieri]

Thanks! That's great information exactly what I was looking for.

A few questions:

1. I just started today and haven't played game (that I know of) but I have 3 points. Why?
2. Does Hattrick run on your own time or is there a set schedule?
3. When does the new season begin where I can start of fresh?
4. I have $300,000. How much should I spend on improving the stadium?
5. Can I edit my uniforms?
6. When putting players on the transfer market who bids on them? Other people playing the game or is it like a computer management game?
7. How do I sign other players? Not sure on where to click.

Thanks again.

[Steve_R]

Originally posted by BrianCappellieri
Thanks! That's great information exactly what I was looking for.

A few questions:

1. I just started today and haven't played game (that I know of) but I have 3 points. Why?
2. Does Hattrick run on your own time or is there a set schedule?
3. When does the new season begin where I can start of fresh?
4. I have $300,000. How much should I spend on improving the stadium?
5. Can I edit my uniforms?
6. When putting players on the transfer market who bids on them? Other people playing the game or is it like a computer management game?
7. How do I sign other players? Not sure on where to click.

Thanks again.

Brian, for starters, AYSA Express(who just happens to be one of my divisional rivals), put together a very good website called Hattrick Gameday. http://hattrickgameday.tripod.com/hattrick/id8.html
http://hattrickgameday.tripod.com/hattrick/id22.html <<< This page briefly outlines what Elwood just typed up(yes he's good at that stuff, being our J20 coach).

And another thing, make sure you read through the rules...they outline very important concepts of the game.

As for your questions...
1. When you got a team you essentially took the place of another team which is either a computer or a human, which looks to be the case with you. The human player was either inactive or cheating. And since he had 3 points right before he made his departure, you inherit those and go from there. Computer teams have names that are not very creative and you can generally pick them out easily since they are not limited to being used in just one division.

2. A little of both. The little clock and user count box that you see in the bottom right corner runs on Swedish time, so subtract six hours from that to get east coast time. Under the rules there is a list of the times where all the events in the hattrick week happen(ie training updates very early friday morning, economy updates sat., matches sun., etc.). All of those events run in sync with that little clock.

3. The new season will begin in late August. There are still two league matches left to go for everyone. Then depending on where you finish you could have to play a promotion/demotion match the next week. But don't worry, in your case you can't go any lower. :) So there will be two week off for you. The second week is just a general break and various things on your team are adjusted, players gaining a year on their age being one thing. If I added correctly season 17 will begin on August 19th.

4. With 300,000 to spend you may want to add between 5,000-8,000 seats to you arena or patch any weak areas on your team. If you choose to add to your stadium the "golden ratio" as we call it can be found somewhere in the Hattrick Gameday site.

5. You can edit your uniforms, as well as a bunch of other really cool functions, if you join Hattrick supporter. You can pay for a year, month, half a year, whatever, there are a ton of options...click 'supporter' on the site to find out more about the features.

6. The transfer market is run by other managers(ie the human player) bidding money for the specific player/s they want. If another player thinks you put someone up for a good value, they'll bid and if you get lucky you might have a bidding war on a good player that would drive the $$$ in for you.

7. To look for other players you can go to any other countries transfer market and search for a player that you believe would help your team. The skill searches are very useful. Once you find a player you would like to bid on you can click his name then scroll down a little bit and on the right you should see the transfer info. If you have enough money click 'bid!' and the player will then be yours if no one else bids on him, but remember to check back around the deadline to make sure you still hold the highest bid on the player. Another note is that the value already entered in the bid box is the correctly raised 2% of the total value of the player, which is necessary to get your bid on for that player. Before you only had to raise by $1,000, but now that they 2% rule is in place, just click bid.

I hope this helps...oh and one more thing, stop by the conferences too, they have some very helpful info and don't be afraid to ask questions there too.

Lineboys United
II.3

[BrianCappellieri]

Thanks, this is great information. I think it should be stickied for others who are interested.

It looks like a fun game I just have to learn and get used to it.

More Questions
1. Can I delete my team if I made some sort of mistake? Or do I have to let them rot in the league? :)
2. Are more than one team allowed per user?
3. Is there a place where I can view all divisions in the USA so it's easier to look at standings?

Thanks for the link Steve. I'm downloading "HAM" now.

[Lone Star]

HAM is definately a must-have program....

As for your latest questions:

1. I think you pretty much have to either go down with the ship, or try to bail all the water out and sail away. I know I've been as much as 400k in debt before, eventually you can work your way back.

2. Do NOT get more then 1 club, that is THE cardinal sin of Hattrick. If found, the Hattrick police will pretty much toss you out, no questions asked....even if no harm was meant.

3. I don't think so. The best way I know is to click on 'Series' under the USA subheading, and query for different leagues. Of course with 64 D4 leagues and 256 D5 leagues, it's time consuming to say the least.

Panther City FC
III.1
http://www.geocities.com/gollum1197/LoneStarCup.html

[Elwood]

One thing you can do, with regards to finding the other leagues, is, if you have the supporter feature (like $20 a year), you get 50 bookmarks.

Since I'm in level III, and the series link only gives you ML and the II levels, I added the other 15 III series to my bookmark page, so I could check out the leaders quickly (that didn't show up on the promotion link).

Not really helpful if you don't have supporter, or want to bookmark more than 50, but helps out some.

[Elwood]

Well, after a very enlightening thread on the US Conference about the difference between the 'old' teams and 'new' teams (big difference is no star player and 500 supporters instead of 1500), I've got an idea on how I would go about setting up my team, if I started all over now.

I would do it with training.

This assumes you're in level V, since you can't demote, so it doesn't really matter if you win or lose matches. If you got a new team in level IV, it might be tougher, as the demotion costs you 10% of your fanclub. Harsh.

First I would expand to a reasonable stadium size. The 25x rule might be good, not 100% sure. 25 times 500 is 12,500, so maybe that, or possibly 15,000 seats would be a good starting spot?

For training, I'd start with goalkeepers. They train up the fastest, and you can only train 2, so it's cheaper to get a full compliment of trainees. First off, promote a keeper each week til the end of the season. I'd look for 17 yr olds, as they'll turn 18 at season's end. A friend of mine is training keepers, and I think he said that they go up like in 4-5 weeks with a solid coach and 10 assistants at 17 yrs old. That's FAST! Assuming you can get a 17 yr old inadequate keeper NOW, he'll be 18 and inadequate (possibly passable) at the start of next season, but lets assume inadequate, and at the lowest point of inad.

Barring injury, he'll go up 2-3 times next season. That means a 17 yr old inadequate could easily be excellent by the end of next season. Of course your coach's skill and # of assistants plays a part (there are various theories on how much), but that's a reasonable goal. You could possibly have TWO of these guys by next season's end. For an example to illustrate the selling power, I purchased an excellent keeper before this current season started for $510,000. And I'm leading all of level III, currently, on points. Not sure if my team is the BEST, but I'm in the 2nd toughest III series, so it counts for something, right? But say you hold off and train both keepers for 2 seasons. You would then have possibly 2 19 yr olds at outstanding or possibly brilliant keeper skill. Those go for quite a bit more than excellents ;-)

Either way, you sell your backup, and train your starter for 2 full seasons. You know have your keeper position squared away for a very long time, and it took only 2 seasons. In the meantime, hopefully you're earning some cash and can upgrade your stadium to a good level. Remember, it's $30,000 extra just to start construction, so bigger expansions are much more cost-effective.

By the end of your 2nd season of training keeper, you should start looking at what position is next. I'd recommend scoring, as it's 2nd fastest to increase. It's also what I train, so I know a lot about it. A 17 yr old will go up in 7-8 weeks with 7 assistants and a solid coach. Actually, I had a 19 yr old go up in 8 weeks this season, so it's not set in stone. In your 2nd full season of keeper training you should promote outfield players, hoping for a 17 yr old with decent scoring and, as an extra, decent passing. Try to accumulate 6 17 yr old trainees by the end of that 2nd keeper season. Move to 3-4-3 and train scoring for 2 seasons. You should see 4 increases (if lucky) over that time. Inadequates should reach formidable, and you suddenly have 4 backups (if you move back to 3-5-2)!

Then I'd move to defending, and lastly playmaking. And I'd plan to stick with playmaking for a good long while.

Of course this plan is a 2 (real life) year plan to get to playmaking training, but, if followed, your team would likely be better than my team currently is in all areas except the midfield. And I've been playing for a year, and started with 3 times the supporters (which means 3 times the crowd, if seats are available).

There's really no 'easy' way to overcome the 1,000 fanclub membership difference from then to now, though. And it's a shame that teams starting the old way and teams starting the new way are sometimes put together. But that's how it is.

BTW, congrats on the series win, Lonestar! I hope you get to II just so the other long-time III.1 teams have a better chance of advancing. I know what it feels like, though not quite as bad as you, as I've been in III.16 since last September :)

[Footer Phooter]

When you say 10 assistants, do you mean 10 assistants, or 10 goalkeeper coaches.

[Elwood]

When I talk about assistants, I usually mean the appropriate ones.

For non-keeping training, assistant coaches. For keeping training, goalkeeper coaches.

I train scoring and have 8 assistants and 2 keeper coaches. The keeper coaches help a lot with a keeper's form.

[Lone Star]

Hey, just for fun post your record for this season. Since I'm addicted, I keep track of these things.....

W-D-L

League (2 matches remaining)
10-2-0

Cup
7-0-1

Friendlies (3 matches remaining)
4-1-0

Season Total
21-3-1

Not too shabby, especially considering my one loss was in pk's during the USA Cup.

I'm sure Northern Lazies will post soon, accusing me of bragging.....but that's not the case. Besides, I'm sure Indy has me beat hands down. :-)

Panther City FC
III.1
Working on my defense

[Elwood]

In the league I got ya beat, at least for now ;)

12-0-0 in league play (and if I win this Sunday, I should go 14-0-0).

I lost in round 5 of the Cup (straight loss, no PKs), but that's ok, I PIC'd them all and lost to the team with Jude Sutherland as keeper).

Friendlies...uh...my team doesn't EVER seem to take them seriously :P

Wow! I actually won 3 friendlies this season, losing only 5.

[BrianCappellieri2]

Your fellow Hattrick manager is in trouble. I have been banned from BigSoccer on false charges and my supporters and I are demanding the red card be removed.

If you would like me back please show your concern and ask for me to be freed in the S & A forum. There is already a thread set-up.

Thanks!