Love Concept, But have Issues

[Trebor1503]

Ok... first let me say I want this game to work so bad I can taste it. But for that toi happen I need a few things. Also I have read the other Posts on this board adn realize that some of the things I mention below are mentioned elsewhere, please read the posting fully to understand why I put it all together instead of spreading it out between the different areas.

1. The balance between injuries and training to recover you rlost points is all out of whack. I have had several injuries where I have lost over 20% of my stats. By my calc it would cost $200 X 20 to get back the 10 points lost in each Category of a 50 point person.$4000 is excessive when you can only have 3 people in your stable. You are almost forcing us to cut players.
Solution (?) - Perhaps a 5th icon [rest] which would bring a player back up to his former numbers over time and then auto go off when resting will no longer do him any good.

2. Fatigue - I think this has no place in the game for the following reason. In the seasons I have played the top person has hade over 25 points each time. If you rest your people one out of four events you have to win 20 out of 30 events to stand a good chance of making the playoffs: that is 66%. my manager is always around 55-60%. I have never made the playoffs. But here is the real problem. I do not see the computer players resting, because they are not part of a stable.
Solution (?) - assign the computer opponents to managers, make them sit out when injured, randomly for rest. Level the playing field.

3. By everyone's own words, gambling is a break-even component to the game. If it is such then it is unneccessary because you can get the exact same effect out of the game by not gambling.
Solution (?) - Make the gambling odds based and weigh it on the win / loss record of the people fighting.

4. Telling your fighter what stance to use (defensive / normal / aggressive) To me these mean nothing because I have nothing to relate them to. I also can't see what the outcome would have been if I had selected differently.
Solution (?) - Give a detailed page on each fighter... you can use words that discribe in general terms what his stats are. You could use words like cautious or manic to indicate what fighting style fits them best. Words like large potential and medium upside can help us know how much we can expect out of them in training. In real life a good manager knows his players, you much give us a tool so that we can know our players.

5. Training is to costly and slow. This links back to the injury problem. If I am going to try and win I need my guys fight ready, I can not be spending a half season building them up after each injury. And the costs are high.

6. For consistancy sake, If my guy has 23 WP left adn goes down with a ankle sprain, put in the wording that he went down, and that it is a -23. That way I can see my fighter go to 0.

7. For consistency sake, I recommend a better way for doing kills. If a fighter gets to 0 (using reg and #6) he is out of action... but if he gets to -10 by way of a powerful Last blow then he dies. This would add a level of understanding by the players that does not right now exist. At least we would know why our guy died.

I know this is a lot... and that you might feel I am harping but I really like the game! I just am finding it to be very frustrating to play and fear this will drive me and others away from it over time.

Other things to think about adding:
Suggested recovery time to an injury report. If my guy breaks his leg tell me that it will take 10-12 days for him to get healthy again. At least I have something to go by instead of shooting in the dark.

A full listing of the scores for the season, instead of just the top 8. I found it hard to keep track of where my 3 guys ranked halfway through the 3rd or forth season and had some injuries. It showed me who my highest ranked was but I couldn't remember how many points the other tho guys had.

More stats. If this is a game of stats then give us reports. Show us head to heads for each person. Show us The amount of time since the Last injury for each. The popularity of each fighter so I can help gage my crowds verses what the computer is drawing to his bouts. etc

One additional roster space for a guy. Call it injured reserve. All a guy in this spot can do is rest. But it allows you much more flexibility in your managing of the team.

Manager the computer like a human. Create 8 computer teams. Give them money. Give them the ability to buy enchantments, training, potions (and the ability to get caught), and get their players suspended. Leave out computer gambling if you think it would be to hard to code.

What computer managers open up for you:
Ability to "trade" fighters between teams.
Ability to do hotseat multiplayer by subbing in a real person for a computer at the beginning of a season.
Ability to have the game feel more ballanced.
Ability to have other teams bid on your players when they are auctioned.
Ability to bid on computer players auctioned guys.


I hope you take these Items and run with them. A few changes to the world you have created would make it so much less frustrating to me and would decrease the learning curve for many I am sure. The curve is not in how to play but how to understand what affects what and how it affects it. Game On!