Genuine Thai Tom Yum and shrimp cake can really send me up to culinary heaven. Unfortunately Aro King’s sms brought me down to earth in a resounding thud (!)… simple read “you lost 0-2…” Remind me to bar his calls and sms whilst overseas… okok, thanks for the update bro. Like a good neighbour, Lam knew that I was on business trip and was merely keeping me updated (and ruining a perfect meal at the same time!)

The lost to Scorton Rovers was not unexpected. In a world of equals, his team was simply more equal than mine on each seven areas of ratings. Added to this was the fact that my first choice striker and set piece taker was in HT hospital and my magical playmaker was suspended from the game after accumulating 3 yellow cards, which meant that he was literally on “sale” as the game was on. Why? Well, that’s what today’s diary is going to be about.

Tālivaldis Kaktnieks was purchased at the end of last season as part of my preparation for my new series. I failed to realize however that he was close to celebrating his birthday and that his previous owner had still been training him - hence his salary increased by almost RM 200,000/week. This meant that I had surpassed my salary cap by some measure. Even more worryinng was the fact that my see-saw performance and need to periodically PIC hurt my gate receipts, compounding my financial management. Once I realized that I would be KOed from the competition, the decision to sell was easy…

You see, I am a firm believer of wage optimization. If you take the trouble to use alltid (www.alltid.org), under the “main page for” your series, on the left hand menu under sub-section “teams”, you will find an item called “Per rating”. Click on it! You will find a salary per hatstats ratings table that measures your wage efficiency. This shows how much you are paying to acquire your current ratings and needless to say, the lower your salary per rating, the better - as the table suggests.

Of course there are other important factors like the relative strength of the teams in your series and national team interests, but generally speaking, the lower your salary per rating, the better your financial growth (OK, I concede that demotion does little for growth… that’s why it’s called the economics of HT)

I am a firm supporter of wage efficiency and despite the level of competition in my series, I am committed to making this work. So in a way, getting KOed by Scorton Rovers (the rogue!) may be a good thing as I find myself back on track to grow and hopefully not get demoted!

I posted it in the conference too but maybe this is a better forum to discuss. 

One of the effects of the new rules on fans is this:

“If you have a lot of money in your cash reserve, your fans will be a bit harder to please as they feel you have money to invest to reach success. Rich teams’ fans react stronger to losses and weaker to wins than fans of a poorer clubs. The more money your team holds, the higher significance these feelings have.” - quoted from the rules.

Looking at the cash hordes some teams have built up, Hye Kyo for example, I wonder whether this is just to fund a winning cup run (or two) or perhaps some personal satisfaction at having accumulated such wealth - albeit virtual wealth.

However I see 2 downsides to perhaps challenge this way of playing from the perspective of:
a) team utility - more cash = fans harder to please. Makes it moot whether or not the team will maximize it’s “earning power” under such circumstances.
b) national agenda - perhaps the funds should be used to secure local talents for the NT and even to have a Malaysian team go all the way in the Hattrick Masters!

No offence to the rich clubs. In the end it’s your choice, but I wonder…

The Hattrick economy is on a bull run of late and transfer fees have been magma hot. I’ve tried drawing some comparisons with the real world i.e. rising crude oil prices for example, to explain this, frankly, ridiculous situation. That aside, I am also looking at the possible impact of recent training and future gameplay changes on this same transfer market.

(more…)

I’m sure many have never even thought of Playing It Cool (PIC) for their first cup game, little do they realize that this is a very helpful way in helping the team’s progress for both league and cup games.

See, the advantage of PIC is the Team Spirit. And how does Team Spirit help your game? Higher Team Spirit boosts your midfield! Righto!

So why should you use it for a Cup game? I know you might be thinking that it’s your first cup game and you should win as best as you can, fair enough but let’s look at it this way - whether you win or lose the game, PIC is surely boosting your Team Spirit and bring you benefit to your first League game.

Of course I’m not saying everyone should do it. Do note that the game you PIC will result in your team performing with lesser midfield rating, thus reducing your possession. So if PICing is going to sacrifice your win on the cup game then it’s obvious that you shouldn’t be doing it.

I’ve been PICing on my first cup game for many years now, I do recall times that I didn’t PIC on the first cup game so that I could get even more goals. Again it’s entirely up to you, perhaps on my next article I will elaborate on Team Spirit management.

In the mean time, learn to take advantage of the first cup game. If it’s a sure win situation, PIC it! If it’s a sure lose situation, PIC it too! If it’s uncertain, please play NORMAL.