Subject: NEWS Sokker- big changes are coming!

Normally when you implement a formula including multiple factors, you assign it a limit.
So for example if the team balance should take 40% of the result, then it should never go over the 40%.
But what they implemented is addition of factors that are based on multiplication, no limits, therefore the team balance can take 99% of the result, so no matter what are the other factors, balance will always make your fans want you to win Championship.

They just have no idea what they are doing.

Apart from that, the mood of my fans was down the drain before, so the expectations wont affect anything.


@Geston: What did you find in your review? :-)

"All that changed is that money is no longer #1 factor that overshadowed other factors when big enough, but it's still very important, so teams with big budget will still be "punished" by expectations. That was in fact one of the reasons they introduced it IMO."

Absolutely this. I was really worried I would be fighting for top six last season because the promoting teams had tons of money (old teams). There were probably 3 teams that could've spent their way into the top tier but fortunately for me, none did.

There's a team that came from the 2nd division, he has more time in SK than me, he has more rating, more fan clubs, and his expectations are lower, he was in 1st division, went down to 2nd and now came back to 1st.

How do you know this is the only reason?
The impact of money has been significantly reduced.

I checked the expectations for our top league and found championship expectations for a team that:

- won 26 points last season and has never been champion
- 9th in the Ranking
- 12th in total value
- Worst or one of the worst ratings

I don't know if and how significantly it has been reduced, but obviously it still doesn't work logically in any way

+1

managment

based on the intended direction of the game, I'm really not sure this is ever going to change that much.

Teams with money should be competing. Even if they are rebuilding. You can always just set yourself up in second place every season and then tank the promotion match if it's logical.

That's the problem when expectations work that way. If you have a lot of money and finish second in lower division, you get "below expectations", which isn't so bad.

If you promote, you have championship expectations again but when you finish 4-5th you get "total failure". And as a bonus to the bad mood now you have a higher chance of coaches retiring.

Therefore, teams with money are forced to stay in the lower divisions and the game becomes even less competitive.

The big question is how much do the owners want the balance to have influence. If it was 90% and they changed it to 85% then it's a change. But a change in this magnitude is pointless imo.

Normally, common sence says expectations look to following points in this order of importance:

1) Result of previous year (30 points)

2) Ranking (20 points)

3) Squad strength (20 points)

4) Account balance (20 points)

5) expectations of the previous season (10 points)

So first of all, they should take into account how your team did vs the expectations of the fans
Was it a total failure, below expectations, succes, above expectations or a great succes?
So if your team achieved above expectations, meaning 4 out of 5 levels, then 4/5th of 30, meaning 24 points should go into the expectations poule.

2) Ranking... Have all teams of your league ranked within the official ranking and have it divided by 4. Lowest 3 teams within the ranking only get 5 points, the next 3 10 points, the next 3 15 points and the first 3 20 points.

3) Squad strength. I mean...you have stats of last season A team squad strength. Make it work the same as ranking, but this time for the A-team squad list.. divide by 4... last gets 5, first gets 20

4) Balance... Again...divide by 4, 3 last get 5 points... 3 first get 20 points

5) expectations of previous season: Make sure that teams with low expectations on previous seasons won't expect too much from their team.
So...teams with expectation to relegate last seasons should only get 1 point
Teams with expectation to fight to avoid direct relegation, 2 points
Teams with expectation to fight against relegation after play offs, 3 points
Teams with expectation for top half, 5 points
Top 3: 8 points
Champions 10 points

With this system, the max amount of points you can get is 100 and the least is 22
But the addon system works imo the fairest and will make each factor having a ceiling, as bluezero already said.
But the money factor being the overruling factor isn't the right call to work out in a game. I understand there needs to be balance, but let the game sort it out on a fair level, not a restrictive one. If all you get is punishment for getting success within your team on financial level, then why playing for prices?

I'm not saying this system shoud be exactly as I say in this example, but I do feel that all factors should have a balanced approach within the game. And a fair and logical one.

You're right.

I mentioned this somewhere during the offseason. Although at least in my league, this season's expectations seem toned down compared to the previous season.

The inherent problem for me with the system is there's not enough room to make your fans actually 100% happy if you're a top half team. Never mind if you are a top 3 team.

The system is clearly built to stop teams slumming it in the lower leagues, which is logical and a good idea. The problem is the rest of the game isn't built for that. Once again we're back to the Training Vs Competition problem. Sort that out and this problem goes away.

well, in my view it does the punishment side fine, but it doesn't do the positive results with existing positive expectations well. If the game thinks you should be finishing top 2, then most likely (as I understand) finishing even first will just make your fans satisfied, maybe delighted. They should be madly. Las Vegas and Atlantic in my league should have top 3 expectations. However, when they achieve this, their fans should be very happy.

That's not how it works, and the temp workaround (which I am glad to see happening!) is to just universally lower expectations.
(edited)

Thats how i would imagine it.

The system is clearly built to stop teams slumming it in the lower leagues, which is logical and a good idea. The problem is the rest of the game isn't built for that. Once again we're back to the Training Vs Competition problem. Sort that out and this problem goes away.

Even if that would be the goal, they missed it. The mood of my supporters was low before, so basically the same as now.

It definitely still needs some balancing regardless but you're right, they've sorted the punishment for slumming it but haven't sorted the problem that caused people to stay in the lower leagues in the first place. Right now it's a trap. Stay low and be punished, go up and be punished.

Mine was good and dropped to terrible, between 0-30.

Unfortunately the end result wasn't forcing me to play for result because it's impossible to play competitively and train.

So the end result was me cutting all investments into 1st team and dropping to lower league to try and counter the low mood impact. Before I was somewhere between low 3rd and hit 4th league, now I'm in 5th.

Opposite of what they wanted to achieve :-)