How do you propose to bridge that 7 million gap in an economy where it would normally take you 6 seasons or 2 years to complete the arena?
You compete at the level you're at, and build and move up, compete at that level, build and move up. At some point you either run out of places to move up to or run out of skill to compete at that level, and adjust accordingly.
No solution is perfect. Do you think it's fair that managers in this deflated economy have to pay relatively more than managers who have been around for 25 seasons and could build the arena much faster back in their days? I've read of people selling players for 10 million and salaries way over 400k in the old economy. Shall we check how that compares to today? All the managers who have joined after the changes to the economy have already been penalised, haven't they?
A new manager today is not competing with a team that's in the B3, though. You compete against your leaguemates, and in the Cup against your countrymen and women (and distinguished others). During that, over the course of time, you rise or fall to the level of your ability to compete, or you cower in the corners trying to build up a large cash account to try to compete above your level.
I don't honestly care about the situation in Utopia. If you want to increase the new user retention it doesn't sound smart that new managers need at least 2 actual years of tanking before starting to play the game competitively. What I'm saying is that it is pointless to spend money to promote the game or build an app, if 80% of the new managers leave within weeks as soon as they realise how long it will take them to be competitive.
I apologize, then, and retract all zero of my comments about Utopia.
Incidentally, I think you're committing a fallacy that a lot of people make - equating things that you personally don't like and assuming that it's the reason for something else you don't like. Assuming your 80% figure isn't fabricated from rectal exhaust, it doesn't mean at all that "the need for tanking" is the reason they leave, any more than "game shape training" or "blank lineups" or "LI dominance". or "daytrading" or any of the other BB complaints that, while all have some validity, are elevated to the pure root of all evil by well-meaning users in the course of their arguments.
Of course, with that aside, nobody said you have to tank two years to be competitive and build an arena. You can build and compete, especially when you're in lower leagues. I mean, I have a pretty nice arena, though I won't really add to it unless I promote again. I started out in V, have never hoarded, never made much on the TL, never finished below fifth, and rarely have had long cup runs compared to my level. Perhaps it's just that my definition of competing includes the crazy notion of being able to have good records and even sometimes win leagues without massively outspending the rest of my league (though, funny enough, I think I do have the highest salary in my league at this point in this season).
More should be done to improve new user retention and I believe the cost of building the arena is one of the key issues in this respect. As I said, you can leave the Utopia prices as they are, or even increase them if you wish. Utopia has nothing to do with this.
It's game design - you can't have it all. You can train young players, but that may affect your performance in matches. You can buy players, but that may affect your ability to build the arena. You can have a shallow roster, but that may effect your results if you have an injury or a foul out. Arena pricing does not seem out of whack to me personally, and I've gone through it without the ridiculous transfer market advantage that you're fixated on. But it was a priority for me, also.
Last edited by GM-hrudey at 11/3/2014 11:50:41 AM