There is a downside to training (especially in the upper leagues), but I think that it is good. Think about it. If there was a way to train effectivly and win in the higher division (like micronations can), play the cup with full strenght and the league with full strenght with no downsides. It would be a pointless game. The game is about choise. What will you focus on and what are you willing to sacrifice to get what you want.
I think that is an excellent point, the current system does balance things a bit.
I still think there is a place for a D-League but it should have a large nuber of restrictions.
Age: Max 25. (We aren't developing 33 year olds)
Salary: Max $10,000. (Developing players not fine tuning stars)
Potential: Max All-star. (LeBron or Dwight or Kobe aren't going to the D-League)
Time: Half a season. You can buy or sell players at any time but moving them from your team to the D-League team should only happen twice a season during the offseason and during the all star break.
Trainer: Max one less than the real team. If your real team has a level 6 trainer the D-League can't have greater than level 5.
Costs: Income = 0, outgoings are normal with a salary floor. (No gate reciepts, TV money or Merchandising for D-League but you still have to pay your players and trainer.) The salary floor should be set so teams would be silly to not have a roster of ten guys on salaries of $4,000 each as well as a star or two so $50,000 seems a nice round figure.
So if you want a D-League team you can but it will cost you about $60,000 or more a week. Obviously even division V teams can still run it at a profit by selling some of the players they train but it would still require quite a bit of management and investment up front.
Reading all of this it sounds beautiful and elegant but would probably be another complication for a new player. I can't remember how they run the development teams in other games. I think in Hattrick you can just call up a random player once a week from your development squad but they were always useless.
Last edited by yodabig at 12/22/2011 5:26:31 PM