Best way to start?

[smitsg]

I really like bygfoot, and im playing it almost daily since corona... My opponent teams kick my ass after 3 seasons, looks like they invest in team training and have better players.... But I run out of money, so what is a good way to save money? Maybe shut down the youth academy and fire my scout?
regards,
Giel

[will_the_canuck]

I really like bygfoot, and im playing it almost daily since corona... My opponent teams kick my ass after 3 seasons, looks like they invest in team training and have better players.... But I run out of money, so what is a good way to save money? Maybe shut down the youth academy and fire my scout?
regards,
Giel

Well hello there Giel. Good to hear that you like the game. Though hearing that you're running out of money after 3 seasons is bad to hear as it sounds like you're trying a strategy to win but it seems like it's the wrong one to take. So let's see if we can help you find a better strategy.

First off, which country and tier do you like to start off in? Any particular team and in any particular league?

Secondly, as the computer players have an unfair advantage when it comes to costs, getting or growing a better team does come with some cost management by the user. With this in mind, the youth academy and/or younger players can become a great resource in helping to curb costs, but you have to know how to handle it.

Thirdly, outside of the expenses of your players every week that they play, you have other expenses which vary and can affect your team in the short and long term. Such expenses include: your scout (and at which skill level they are at -- I recommend "best" level); your level of physio (again, I recommend the "best" level); your level of investment in the youth academy (again, I'd recommend the top level of 25 percent, although it takes some money management to keep it there); and the skill level of your youth coach (of which I also recommend having the "best" option selected). Now with the youth coach, it only costs you when you have one or more youths in the youth academy, so if you don't have any youths in the youth academy, the youth coach won't cost you anything.

One last important expense would be related to the stadium, and that is the expense to keep your stadium safety level at an acceptable level, of which I'd recommend keeping it at 100 percent to avoid "technical difficulties" which can decrease your stadium capacity unexpectedly. I usually let it get down to 97 or 96 percent before topping it up back to 100 percent.

Now before going into some "tips", I think I'll save that until you respond with some answers to the questions that are being asked here, so to get a better understanding of your style of play.

When you start off with a new game, you get 17 players on your team and either one or two players in your youth academy. The level of your stadium capacity is set at a rate that is meant to cover your players' wages per week, in addition to the sponsor's contract that you have. I should add that the rate likely includes the 5 percent youth academy investment, I believe, as that is the default rate that it starts at. As you have up to 22 spaces for players on your team, what do you normally do with your youth academy players?

In relation to the importance to you, how do you treat the following items:
a) the stadium capacity? Like to increase it to a high level?
b) the stadium safety percentage?
c) training your players?
d) integrating and playing your youth players on your team during regular matches?
e) when buying players on the trade waiver list, which types of players do you try to buy: better skilled players which cost more or players whose skills aren't good right now but who have a higher Etal (estimated talent) factor which may imply that they can be better in the long run?
f) when it comes to contract renegotiations, do you skip through the "Offer new contract" option a few times to try to find the best value for the wage to give to the player? And for how long do you normally like to lock up the player for?

I'm trying to think of all the questions I can ask before I spill the beans, but I think these are the ones that are most important. But when I think a little more, there are some more questions to ask in relation to the environment in which you play and how you might play the game. So, here are a few more questions which I feel are important to ask, but are different from the questions asked above...
g) When you play the game, do you like to let the computer play the game for you or do you like to use the "live game" option and control how your team plays during regular game play? This one is a very important question I'll say.
h) When you do play bygfoot, what environment you are playing the game in? Windows or Linux or something else?
i) After installing the game, did you download any updated definitions to play or are you playing the original definitions that came with the installed game?

So for now Giel, I'll let you think of those questions and respond accordingly before I give you the secrets to playing the game, as although the secrets are basically transferable to any definition you play and at any tier, it is interesting to see where you like to start off at and what goal you wish to achieve. Also, it is interesting to see or hear about the strategies you like to play.

Until next time,

will_the_canuck

[smitsg]

Hello will_the_canuck,

Wow! I didn't expect such an elaborate answer! Thanks for that! It made me realise I was playing bygfoot without thinking it through enough ....
First some information about my situation:
I play bygfoot 2.3.2 on my favorite linux distro 'Elementary OS'
I play with the original definitions (didn't download updated definitions, I didn't know there were.....)
I use the 'live game option' so I can replace players and adjust playing style and boost.
I play with my favorite team P.Eindhoven in de dutch Eredivisie (the Netherlands).
I didn't pay much attention to my stadium....
I left the skills of my youth coach, scout and physio on average.
My investment in youth academy is still standard: 5%
I didn't send the team on training camp because of the financial problems....

I think the worst mistake I make is that I can't stand loosing a game (have to work on that....) so I play way to much with boost ON when I'm behind in a game. This strategy made me a two times champion of the league, but now I'm in trouble. Because of the excessive Boost abuse my players are injured a lot so I need a lot of players (I have 22....).

I'm going to start a new game with the suggestions you gave in mind! Thanks for your help!

I'll let you know!

Regards,

Giel

[billys_boots]

Hello smitsg. Glad you are enjoying Bygfoot. I can't add to anything will_the_canuck posted in regards to playing the game. If you want updated definitions, The Netherlands is available, then visit the Definition section, go to the Netherlands 2019/20 thread and you can download updated Netherlands definitions for the 2019/20 season. This will give you actual Dutch team names, but not other European team names and any comments are welcome.

[will_the_canuck]

Hello will_the_canuck,

Wow! I didn't expect such an elaborate answer! Thanks for that! It made me realise I was playing bygfoot without thinking it through enough ....

Ahahaha. Well, one thing Giel about bygfoot is that to play it, it kind of is like an install it and play it type game where you don't have to fiddle with any or many settings to actually start playing the game, but if you want to have greater control over it, it then requires the looking through the options and all to fine tune the game to you liking. And you're welcome for the elaborate answer though those were just the questions. The answers are still to come.

First some information about my situation:
I play bygfoot 2.3.2 on my favorite linux distro 'Elementary OS'
I play with the original definitions (didn't download updated definitions, I didn't know there were.....)
I use the 'live game option' so I can replace players and adjust playing style and boost.
I play with my favorite team P.Eindhoven in de dutch Eredivisie (the Netherlands).

Ok. The above information is important for a few things. I can see how you play, who you like to play, and in what environment you like to play bygfoot on/in. So as for playing the game in a linux distro and with the original definitions, I can surmise that potentially like my system as I am using lubuntu linux myself, you likely have the game installed in a root directory but also have some definitions and such installed in your home user directory too. As for that root directory, on my system, it is installed in /usr/share/game/bygfoot, of which you'll need root access to change anything in that directory, but it does contain everything to play the game, like definitions also. In your home directory, likely under the .bygfoot-2.3.2 directory, you'll also have a copy of those definitions and your saved games and such, and any changes you make in your home directory's definitions directory will override the ones in your root directory but they are only temporary as if you were to delete them, they would be repopulated with what's in your root directory's definitions directories. If that makes sense?

Well, knowing that you were using the original definitions, I surmised that your season lasted 50 weeks. I was wrong. I honestly do not recall playing the Netherlands definitions before and was surprised that it went past the 50 week period which is typical for the original European definitions that come installed with bygfoot. And as you like to play P. Eindhoven from tier one, I decided to give it a try too. I ended up originally playing for 2 seasons and let the computer play the game. As for playing the live game option, that is good since unless you have a better team, the computer can use the boost option and change players to their advantage to win the game, or at least tie, and deny you the points you would rightfully have earned otherwise. And if you let the computer play your game for you, you can't change anything, not even who may get substituted when substitutions are required. So there's that.

I didn't pay much attention to my stadium....
I left the skills of my youth coach, scout and physio on average.
My investment in youth academy is still standard: 5%
I didn't send the team on training camp because of the financial problems....

Ah. The stadium is VERY important as it is one of your two methods of income. And as for the skills of your youth coach, scout, and physio, well, although they may cost more money if you have them on the best settings, they do have some benefits to being on those best settings. And as for the youth academy, that too is very important I'd say for the long term playability of the game, so having it at the highest level (25 percent) will benefit you in the long run. And really, training camp is also very important too since it can either help heal your team by giving them a rest or by helping to increase their current skill levels by training them.

I think the worst mistake I make is that I can't stand loosing a game (have to work on that....) so I play way to much with boost ON when I'm behind in a game. This strategy made me a two times champion of the league, but now I'm in trouble. Because of the excessive Boost abuse my players are injured a lot so I need a lot of players (I have 22....).

Ahahaha. I gotcha. Playing with the boost on isn't a bad thing, but you have to make sure you have the money for it and that you give your players some rest so that their level of fitness can recover. So yes, you'll likely want to rotate your players at times and give others a chance to play, not just the higher skilled ones.

I'm going to start a new game with the suggestions you gave in mind! Thanks for your help!

I'll let you know!
Regards,
Giel

Ok Giel. I'm curious how you make out this time, although as I said, what I mentioned before was just the questions. The tips are still to come. But I'm going to try to put them all down in a workable order. So to begin, let me start from the beginning.

After you start bygfoot and have a team selected, you're presented with your team and it is week one, round one, of season one. The first thing you should do is:
1) Go to the "Preferences" menu which can be found in the "Options" menu listing.
2) When that "Options" window opens and it is on the "Global" tab, there are a few settings you'll want to change or make sure are not selected.
3) There is a selectable box for the option of "Skip weeks without user matches"... make sure that one is deselected. This will allow time for training or buying or selling players on the trade market when you don't have any game play to worry about. This will also allow you proper time to think of your youth players (if they are still in your youth academy) and player contracts that are coming up for renewal.
3a) There is also a selectable box for the "Autosave" feature. I have mine deselected and choose to save my games periodically throughout the game anyways, but when I do, I just rewrite the same game over and over again, whereas the autosave feature will create a new file to save the game to, each time. It depends on your preference here and there is a slight bug in the autosave feature too, if your username has two or more words in it or you're playing a country that has two or more names as part of it.
3b) Two other options under the "Global" tab that are of interest are the "Player attribute precision" and the "Player list refresh rate". I have my settings for the "Player attribute precision" set to 2 and the "Player list refresh rate" set to 1. Basically, the "Player attribute precision" option allows you to see to how many decimal places their values really are. So for things like their skill level, fitness level, and age and etal (estimated talent) levels, you can see better precision values for them. As well, when it comes time for it, you can see their time left on their contracts, which can be VERY helpful/useful to the user. I guess by knowing the more precise information on the player, it gives you more information when it comes to deciding things on that player. And as for the "Player list refresh rate", I do believe it basically relates to the number of minutes in a live game match that the player's stats will be updated, so that in a live game match, you can see how their fitness levels progress in "real time" kind of instead of waiting for a long time to pass before they update. It can be useful if a player gets weakened through game play and their level of health is a concern. You can substitute them with a fresher player before that player may get injured.

4) For the tab of "Gameplay", there are two options I'd recommend: making sure that the selectable box for "Show all leagues in the fixture view" is selected, and for the "Show warning if a player contract get below *** months" option, I usually select 3 months because really, if you're giving the player a raise, you'll want to save money and wait as long as you can before giving him more money. I would say no less than 3 months because sometimes on the trade list, it may take time for a player to sell anyways, or get the right value that you want for them.

5) As for the tab of "Live game", there are a few options that are worthy. If you are going to play the live game, then definitely select the "Show live game" option, but also make sure the "Automatic substitutions" options is deselected. The two options of "Live game speed factor" and "Live game verbosity" are important if you want to know the details. I have "Live game verbosity" set to 7 and that allows me to see the game, minute by minute. Also, it allows me to see what the opponent is doing, like switching players or turning on their boost, so that if I need to react, I'm fully aware of any changes made and not finding out after a goal is scored on me. Additionally, the "Live game speed factor" I have set at 20 and although it will make the scrolling a little slower, it allows me time to actually follow along and react to changes quickly, if needed. The higher the number for the speed factor, the quicker the scrolling will be, but potentially the less time you'll have to react to changes in the game, unless the game is paused. So set yours accordingly.

So, that's just from the "Preferences" menu. Enough already? Well, there's still more and we haven't even started yet. As I mentioned before, under the "Team" menu option, I like to set the scout, physio, and youth coach to the "best" setting, and under the youth academy, I like to set investment to 25 percent. I also then go the "Show youth academy" option and transfer any youth players to my main team, since keeping youth players in the youth academy doesn't really do them any good and just ends up costing you more money in comparison to having those same youth players on your main team. I will mention it here but one time I read that it takes up to 20 weeks for the level of investment in the youth academy to reflect that amount that you choose. So as you start off at 5 percent investment, it will take up to 20 weeks after that to be getting the full amount of your investment level. But once there, then it stays at that level until you change it. I think basically they average out the level of investment over a 20 week period. Seems fair.

The next benefit to you would be to check out and become familiar with the "FinStad" menu option, and in particular, the "Show finances" option. Here, you can see a report on your finances and the state of your stadium, like how many seats you have available and the state of your stadium safety. As I mentioned earlier, it is best to keep your level of stadium safety at 100 percent, but if you let it drop to 97 or 96 percent before topping it back up to 100, that is fine since that is what I do. The whole point of that is to reduce the occurrences of "technical difficulties" in your stadium, which will usually cost you in reducing your seating capacity. Seating capacity is important because that is one source of income and you need income to survive and build a good and strong team. Another good thing to notice on the finances page is the "Drawing credit" number. Basically, this is a number below zero that if you exceed it, you'll have 6 weeks to get back under it, or else you'll be fired. So if the "Drawing credit" number is $2,000,000 and your available "Money" is $-1,500,000, you haven't crossed the credit threshold and you're still fine. Only if you go below negative $2,000,000 for available money would it become an issue, in this example. So knowing this value can be of interest, as long as you know you'll be getting income soon to help you recover.

Now we've done all of the above in week one, round one, and haven't hit the bus yet to progress to the "next" week or round. If you did not deselect the option of "Skip weeks without user matches", when you hit the bus to progress, you would be transported to your next match, whenever that would occur. You would then miss out on the opportunity to train your players or check out the trade list or whatever else you might wanted to have done. So this is why it is best to deselect that option. But before you do hit the bus (or press the space bar) to progress to the next week/round, you'll want to hit the house icon, to go back to the main menu. From there, it will update your information and you may notice that the "Av. skills" values may change, since you would have added one or two youth players with much lower skills, thus reducing your team's overall skill ratings. This is a good thing, so don't worry.

So now that you've selected options that will cost you more money, go back to the "FinStad" menu option and select the "Show stadium" option, of which a new window will pop up called "Your stadium". The costs for your stadium increase the higher your average skills rating are for your team, so that if your average skills rating for your team are low, your stadium costs to add seats are low. If your average skills rating for your team are higher, the costs to add seats or increase your stadium safety percentage will be higher also. So since your average skill rating for your team will be lower at this point, top up the stadium safety percentage to equal 100 percent and basing how much money you have left, add seats to your stadium to a reasonable level, considering how much money you have and what your drawing credit limit is accordingly, but not overspending as you'll need money for training too. With reference to your game Giel, the first tier of the Netherlands definition has an average talent rating for the league of 7600. At that level, you as a user can likely max out at 40,000 to 45,000 stadium attendance, so building up to that level would be something for you to achieve I would say, but you could work your way up there slowly also. You can always start at plateaus and when your attendance hits that wall, you can add more after that to increase it as you go.

So, once that is all done, hit up that house icon again to go back to the main menu and then hit the bus to progress to the next week/round. I'll say that I started a new game to follow along here Giel and again, I picked P. Eindhoven in the top tier and for the second time, my team's average skill rating was the lowest in the top tier and already a few teams from the second tier were higher than my team's average skill rating too. Oh well.

So, if you deselected the "Skip weeks without user matches", then you would have progressed to either week 2, round 1, or to week 1, round 2, depending on which definitions you're playing. But assuming you're in week 2, then the training part can take place. By selecting your scout to be at the "best" option, you may notice that your players' "Etal" (estimated talent) values may have changed to be a more accurate figure than before. This is useful because when you go the "Player list 2" tab, you should see their contract information, as in their length of contract still available and at what wage per week they are getting paid at. You can look at their current "value" and the wage you are paying them, as well as their age and skill level, in addition to their etal value. These are all important values since it will help you decide how to handle the players.

Now before you actually do a training session with the players, it is best to look at the players that are younger, say around 23 and below, and their skill level in comparison to their etal value. Players that are younger and have a big difference between their skill level and their etal value can be trained to increase their skill levels, which in turn will increase their value. But if you can lock in those younger players at a reasonable wage before they get higher skilled and higher valued, you can benefit from that in savings from not having to pay them higher wages when their skill and value increase. So this is why it is important to look at the length of contract. Also, if you set the "Player attribute precision" to 2 like I have mine set to, way back when, then you'll see a more lengthier number for the contract length, as well as the other values, which will be of benefit to you.

When it comes to contracts, you can renew a contract for 1, 2, 3, or 4 years at a time, but only if the player has less than 2 years left on the contract. So whenever the player's contract has 2 years less a week left on the contract, you can choose to renew the contract for up to 4 additional years, if you want. This is very useful because if you find a nice young player who isn't from your youth academy, and they have a current low skill level but a very high etal level and you feel they will get very skilled after a lot of training, you can book them for up to 6 years and when they are valued over $2,000,000, you still get to pay them at their original value, which could be $5,000 to $8,000 a week, for example. So what you'll want to do is go through your list of players and see if there are any players that can benefit you by locking them into longer contract periods, before you start the training process. Usually, if a player has less than 2 years on their contract left, they won't squawk as much if you renew them for an additional year at the same wage, but you'll have to find the right renew option where the value to renew them at is below their current wage, for a one year period. And don't forget that if they squawk at being renewed and won't renegotiate with you, you'll have to sell them in time or else they'll walk on you and you won't get any return for them. So sometimes it is best to do it when the trade window is open, and enough time would be available for them to be sold, if you mess up. So, just don't mess up.

Now, here's the kicker. With all the options you would have selected, it will cost you more money to implement them and so realistically, you may have to sell some of your players to keep your cash flow running. So this is why this strategy is best done when the user starts in the lower tiers, so that there will be no worries about being relegated and all. And this strategy takes perhaps 2 or 3 seasons to get where the user will be a powerful force, although it also depends on how good the user is and how good the players are that the user can get, either through the youth academy or via trade. Now I do say "may have to sell" because it may depend on the level of your average talent value and at what tier you're in and what costs you may have. But having to sell at least the number of players that you had in your youth academy to begin with would be of a benefit because by having the youth academy set to 25 percent of your investment, you could reasonably expect to get up to 5 new youth recruits a season, in a 50 to 53 week season. For myself, I'll end up selling usually the top 2 or 3 players that have the highest wages, among the defence and midfielders. Depending on the forwards, I don't usually sell a forward right away but if I will have at least 3 forwards left, I may consider it. Afterall, the goal for the first 2 seasons is really to get the level of wages down to a respectable level where the income you're bringing in will cover the wages and everything else you need to pay for (i.e. make a profit). And I'll add that the money I get from selling those players will usually go into building more stadium capacity. Although there are times throughout the season that I might use the more skilled players as bankrolls to buy younger and cheaper players from the trade list, where I sell those more skilled players to get the new ones, usually at a lower cost.

So after the realization that you'll be parting with some of your players, let's get to the training part. Within a given season, you can train up to 12 times a year. So if you space things out properly, you can train effectively 12 times a year during a 50 to 53 week season. But you can only train twice in one week, or maybe that is one round. I'm not sure but I only train once in a week and give about 3 weeks between trainings at a minimum. So under the "Team" menu option, there is the "Training camp" option, which opens up a separate window. Here you will find 3 different options with different price points. They are the: Good hotel, First-class hotel; and the Premium hotel. I should add that I recommend selecting the "Premium hotel" option as it gives the better results, although yes, it costs more. You can then select either "Recreation", "Training", or "Camp Points", on a scale from 0 to 10. By putting all 10 points on the "Recreation" option, you will give you players a chance to heal their fitness levels. By putting all 10 points on the "Training" option, you will train your players with the highest level of training which will give them the best effect, although it will tire your players also. As for the "Camp points" option, I honestly have no clue what that does as I've never used it. When I train, I have the "Training" points to 10 and always use the "Premium hotel". If my players need rest, I sit them until they are back up to or near 100 percent fitness level before playing them.

So, there you have it. Most of the tips and all to get you started and how to play the game to succeed. But one last thing is that it is best to get an idea of when you'll be playing or who you might be playing to implement the training sessions, and by that, you can look in two places: look at your scheduled games under the "Figures" menu and the "Season results" option. It will show you your scheduled games for the season, but also show you your results from the current season for most (if not all) games from the current season, when they become known and available. This allows you to potentially look ahead at any off-weeks that you may have which will allow you to train, since you won't have any games scheduled. And under the "User" menu option, there is an option for "Show coming matches", which will show you your next four matches that you'll be playing and who they'll be against, and when, if they are known. You will be able to see your opponents' current rankings in the league, which can be of benefit too. As at times there may be a team in your definition that may have a cup match scheduled the same week as a league match, or have two league matches scheduled in the same week. When this happens, an additional round(s) within that week will be used and the team(s) that will play in those additional cup or league matches will play in those schedule matches. If you are not scheduled to play in any of those additional rounds during that particular week, it may be a good time to train your team, if you are able and it is convenient. By looking at the "Fixtures (week)" option under the "FIgures" menu, you can skim through the weeks and rounds of who would be playing a match, as long as you selected the box for "Show all leagues in the fixture view", under the options area that I mentioned so long ago. These things are all interconnected.

So I guess that would be everything to think about and consider when playing as although all of these things are selectable, they will help your gameplay in the long run and yes, some may cost you but others are just options which can benefit you. And as the goal is to be profitable, remember that your team players are your greatest asset and they all have value, if you have to sell any of them to keep from going bankrupt or you just need money for something. So, going back to when you said you were going bankrupt after 3 seasons, did you ever consider selling any of your players in the trade window to reduce your wages spent and get more funds? Just wondering.

Now as I said I never really played the Netherlands definitions before, I tried it out myself and started with your team, P. Eindhoven, to see what it would be like. Well, as I said, my average talent rating for the team in comparison to the other teams in the league was the lowest. I feel I was destined to be relegated from the start, which I ended up doing, but that was ok. As I made some notes, here they are:

Season 1:
To begin with, I started off with an average skills rating of 59.6 in tier 1. It was the lowest average skill rating in the league with the second lowest team having an average skills rating of 64.5. So as you can see, there was a wee bit of difference in the skill levels of myself and the other teams in the top tier.

At week 52 of season 1, which is the last week of the year before the season flips to week 1 of season 2, my end average skills rating is 61.1, for 21 players. I ended up in last place and will get relegated to the second tier. Of note, all other teams in tier one have an average skill rating higher than me, of which the closest is again, 64.5. Of further note, 13 of the current 20 teams in the second tier have an average skill rating equal to or higher than my current rating at 61.1. I truly got a bad team to begin with.

Season 2:
At the end of the season in week 52, my average skill rating for the team is now 62.6, although I do have two players injured. I also have 22 players on my team, of which 6 are youths aged 18.00 and younger. An additional two players are former youth players who are currently between the ages of 18.00 and 19.00. I did qualify for the playoffs to be promoted but lost. My sponsorship contract renewal came up and my sponsor was satisfied it said but the level of sponsorship went down from 69,000 to about 55,500 per week.

So as I continued playing the game until season 4, here are the updates for seasons 3 and 4:
Season 3:
At the end of season 3, my average skill rating for the team is now 66.6. I finished the second tier in first place and will be promoted to the top tier next season.

Season 4:
At the end of season 4, my average skill rating for the team is 65.7. Yes, it is slightly lower than what it was at the beginning of the season but one thing to keep in mind is that when you add youth recruits to your team, they start off at much lower skill levels so that helps bring down your overall team average. It isn't a bad thing. I should add that in the top tier, I finished in fifth place and will likely be able to participate in the UEFA Cup for the following season. Woohoo.

Now with relation to the stadium, as it had a hand in how my finances turned out and also played a part in how skilled my youth recruits were when they started off, here's the information on that. But before I begin, when looking at the average talent rating for tier one, which was 7600 for the league, when I recall back to playing similar country files and leagues with that level of an average talent rating, I feel that realistically, the level of attendance can get up to perhaps 40,000 to 45,000.

Season 1:
When I started the game, the available seating capacity for my stadium was 19,100 seats. By the end of the first season, I have a seating capacity of 40,000 seats for my stadium and had an average attendance of 26,666 people per game, in the top tier. I increased my stadium capacity by selling some of the more expensive players and also from income throughout the season.

Season 2:
For the second season, as my seating capacity was 40,000 seats for most of the season, my average attendance total was 36,586 people per game, in tier two. Near the end, I added 5,000 more seats to bring my capacity up to 45,000 seats.

Seasons 3 + 4:
As I had a seating capacity of 45,000 seats since the end of season two, I didn't increase it any further. For season 3, my average attendance in the second tier was 35,132. In season 4, my average attendance in the first tier was 40,252.

So from the above example Giel, you can see the potential affect that the stadium itself can have for your team. By having sufficient attendance, your income will increase to a point where it will help with being able to afford those stronger players, but also potentially lead to providing better youth recruits too. But it all does depend on proper stadium management, as well as the tier you're in as even if you have a large capacity stadium, it does not always ensure that you will get a large capacity crowd each and every time as it does relate to the tier you're in and the average attendance of that tier/league too. So if the average attendance of the league/tier is low, your attendance may be higher than the average, but not by much. And at times it takes sacrifice to build your stadium attendance higher, like selling off a good or expensive player to help pay for that expansion. But then, that's what the manager's job is all about, right?

Now getting back to the point where you mentioned going bankrupt. As I have played up to the end of season 4 in this example, my money totals for the last week in seasons two to four are as follows: $9,253,625 in season 2; $18,119,417 in season 3; and $36,318,028 in season 4. So, nowhere near bankrupt.

So as you can see, my strategy does work in helping to create a stronger team and a cheaper team, so that your profits will increase to the point where you can then go out and spend the big money if you want or reward your players and renew them for big money. Now to clarify, my strategy is about building up your stadium to a point where it provides a good source of income to you, to complement your sponsor's contract that you have. Additionally, by using, and integrating, youth recruits instead of going out and buying new players, you can save money through lesser wages that are paid to the youth recruits and with proper training, they will eventually get to a point where they are either as good or better than the players you had before. But also proper training is key to this too as the youth recruits, when they start out, may have good etal values and may eventually get up to a good skill level, but without training or being played, they won't get there for a long, long time. And as you get to pay them at their wage rate for a period of 4 years AFTER they turn 18, you can reap the benefits of their skill level, as long as they get to the level that you want.

My strategy also comes with some sacrifice as you may not be able to win every game or you have to at first at least sell off some of your better players to help pay for the advancements that you need (stadium), but once it gets started and you have the plan in motion, you can hopefully survive and rise in the tiers until you get to the top and then succeed. So it may not be easy but it is the long term game that is more important here. Might you agree?

Now, before I go, I was thinking I was done but there are a few more things I forgot to mention. Originally, you talked about being a two times champion of the league and then your opponents were much better and beat you more easily, right? Well, there's a few things to explain that. First off, there is a "luck factor" programmed in and it changes on how successful you get. So if you are quite successful, as you were, the luck factor would go against you, to make it harder for you to win. Additionally, if you keep winning at the highest tier, some of the computer teams near the top will also get "better" the following season, to provide you with a better challenge, thus making it a little harder. The better you do, the better some of the top teams also do. It is programmed in. Yes, it may suck but it is also a challenge for sure.

And two other things I forgot to mention were to keep track of or an eye on the length of the trade window, as it may vary from definition to definition, but it is also valuable since if you need to sell off or buy a player near the end of the season, you'll know how much time you have left. The last thing I forgot to mention was about youth recruits in general. As they play an important part of my strategy, there comes a time when you have to play them, and here's the downside to that. Youth recruits in general will decrease their fitness levels at about double the rate of normal players, during normal game play. Additionally, it will take about double the time for the youth players to recover their fitness levels, when compared to normal players. And this can be expected until the player turns 18 years old but I believe that sometimes you may want to keep an eye on their fitness levels anyways, when they are between the ages of 18 and 19, just in case. So a slight negative but a very good positive, when you think of it. It just means that you should rotate the youth players a little more often is all.

So now, I think I've covered everything. Whew. So, if you have any more questions Giel, feel free to ask. I think I need a break from all of this writing.

will_the_canuck

[smitsg]

Hey Will_the_canuck,
I am humbled by your true masterclass!!!! This helps me a lot! I'm really pleased I found this game in the repo's, and your reply is so good I think it should be included in the help section of the game. This info is precious!

Now I understand the basics of the game, because of your explanation, I see the beauty of the game even more.

B.t.w: your tip about "Skip weeks without user matches" makes it easier to train at the right moment. This helped me a to improve the players!

Remaining question: Anyone know what the "Camp points" option does in the traning camp?

Best regards,

Giel

ps: I really like lubuntu too, it was my favorite distro before elementary!

[will_the_canuck]

Hey Will_the_canuck,
I am humbled by your true masterclass!!!! This helps me a lot! I'm really pleased I found this game in the repo's, and your reply is so good I think it should be included in the help section of the game. This info is precious!

Well Giel/smitsg, I thank you for the compliment. And as for finding this game in the repo's and even finding this forum around this time, this is maybe a good time for it as now, the forum has more life to it then at some times in the not too distant past. And with all of this activity on the forum, even in its limited capacity, some good changes may come about for the game as enough people are looking into the game, as well as playing it.

As there are two different components of the game that matter, the definitions and the code, each are being looked at and updates are being thought of. As for the code, I want to give a shout out to the administrator gunnar, who is working on updating the current code for bygfoot from what it is (gtk libraries (c/c++ coding I think)) to java code (for a future release). I also want to give a shout out to tstellar, as they have also done some improvements to the current code, which will hopefully allow better efficiencies in the speed that the code will be processed, especially for some of those very large and long definitions we like to make. They have also done some other things with the code, as in fixing a bug or two, but these are changes that won't appear until a future release of bygfoot comes out. But at least at the moment, this is a good progression.

As for the definitions side, I'll give a shout out to billys_boots, who worked on creating updated definitions for the European countries. As there are more than 50 playable countries, which basically are a big portion of the definitions within bygfoot, that is a large task to handle I'd say. And yes, there are other people who have contributed since I've been here, but the names mentioned were people that I think made a large contribution so far. I'm not wanting to discount the other people, but I'm just saying the names mentioned have provided or will provide a bigger impact, I think.

Now as for my reply being good enough that it should/could be included in the help section of the game, well, that's up to the one that works on that part, which might mostly be an administrator like gunnar again. Or pinning the post to the particular forum could always work, but again, it isn't my call.

Now I understand the basics of the game, because of your explanation, I see the beauty of the game even more.

Well, I'm glad to hear your words there. And when I think of it, by being able to see the beauty of the game, that being a football manager and not just a football player, it allows the person to see all the options that they have to deal with to make their team successful. I guess you can say it makes the person think more, which in turn will challenge them more, which is a good thing. It goes from being a simple game to a complicated game, but still being kind of simple in the options that they have available to them are not overwhelming.

B.t.w: your tip about "Skip weeks without user matches" makes it easier to train at the right moment. This helped me a to improve the players!

Good. Good.

Remaining question: Anyone know what the "Camp points" option does in the traning camp?

Well, as I have never tried it myself, you Giel could try it out and see what it does, if you wanted.

Best regards,

Giel

ps: I really like lubuntu too, it was my favorite distro before elementary!

Hmm. Ok. So going forward Giel, I have a question for you. With all that you've learned from my words, how have your games gone since? Have you again gone bankrupt after a few seasons or are you better off now? Are you willing to sell off a player or two to keep from going bankrupt now as you know if you continue on in the game, you will have a chance to recover and do better in the following seasons? Although I don't feel that your results will be exactly like my results, they should be good enough to give you a better footing than what you had before, I'm thinking.

Though before I go, I'll thank you again for your kind words and hope that I've been able to help you become a better player at this game, as well as to anyone else that reads this thread and gets some tips on how to be a better player too. So on that note, I hope you're enjoying the game more and to anyone else that reads this thread that they too are enjoying the game more after getting a better understanding of some of the available options to them.

Good bye for now,

Will aka will_the_canuck

[buffonishche]

Will's Master class! Yours comments really help to understand how game works.

[will_the_canuck]

Will's Master class! Yours comments really help to understand how game works.

Thank you and you're welcome. That's basically what I was going for...to help people understand some of the available options that can be used or selected, to offer a better experience playing this game, as I myself have learned from playing it too. The whole point of my words in this thread were to let people know that beyond the default settings, more could be had and it is up to the user to want to use them, if they so wish. Though the game itself is simple by design, there are plenty of options to make all the available decisions more complicated, but alas, those options are usually hidden or have to be accessed by the user, if they even know where to look or what they mean. As long as I am able to help people understand the game and options available to them, that's my goal. I'm glad to hear that my comments were able to help you.

Will aka will_the_canuck