I think increasing the shotblocking is a good move in the current game.
But the game-shape hit to new players I am not so sure. Have you taken into accounts how this can affect other areas of the game where new players are needed other than renting for cup matches? (as division change or rebuilding situation)
Yes, we have take into account the side effects and will keep evaluating these based on the response we get now by announcing it one season early. So thanks a lot for the feedback so far.
As stated in the news item, game shape hits will be higher for high game shape players than low game shape players. Since newly promoted teams buy mostly before or in the week after the game shape reset, it is unlikely that this change will have a large effect on their performance since even if they buy after the game shape hit the change in game shape will not be large. Most of you all know that you rarely get players in 9 game shape after the first week of training (wait for the 'hey my game shape is wrong' comments that are standard every 1st training after the reset ;)).
Regarding NT players, if a player gets sold often then apparently that players isn't worth his price for the team. The players skill sets are probably inefficient for players that get sold 4-5 times in a season. The game shape change will thus also promote the creation of more salary efficient players, which will on its turn decrease the amount of high salary powerhouses which I believe is a good thing as well. For U21 draftees, there are just few teams who buy a draftee for a direct performance increase. For most teams the 18 or 19yo draft talents are not direct starters, but rather long term investments, which makes the game shape quite irrelevant.
From a realism point I also believe the proposed change will be great for BB. More often than not, players will take time to integrate into their new teams, cities, environment etc before they can perform optimally. For this reasons you also can't expect a player that moves 5 times per season to perform at his best at national teams. One 'real life' example is the Dutch National Football team, where the National Coach refused to select big players like Sneijder, Van der Vaart and Van Persie shortly after they got transfered since he believed they 'required time to get use to their new situation'. I'm not saying this always is the case, I'm sure you can find some examples where a player actually benefits from a transfer but overall this would be covered by the player being already in horrible shape at his current team, and thus the hit will be non-existent or minimal.
Regarding the comments about team chemistry on enthusiasm. If you buy players but don't field them, your old teammates will still know where and when to pass exactly like before. The arrival has no influence at all unless he plays. And if he plays, his influence is mostly on every action where he is involved, and just for a small part in the actions where he is not involved. I believe having a hit on Game Shape much better reflects the 'team chemistry' part than a hit on enthusiasm, especially when you consider what areas of BB are affected the most by the enthusiasm.
Last edited by BB-Patrick at 3/13/2013 11:37:46 AM