Ideas for the 2017/18 Season

If you have an idea for a change, please put it on here, with a heading saying what aspect of the game it relates to, and then in detail what the idea is.

I'll kick off quickly. 

Foreign & Domestic Bidding
I believe that the Foreign and Domestic bidding done via PM has been a success and will look to write it into the rules on the homepage. Unless anyone else has another opinion on this?

Attributes
The attributes for teams, I think is a good idea, but has fallen by the way side a little. Admittedly some of my fault for being a little busy, however would be happy to run with it again and put a more emphasis on it for the next season. And perhaps discuss how we could vary it a little?

I had an idea which I voiced a few seasons ago about squad rotation.

no-one pays too much attention to squad rotation and generally everyone plays their best team week in week out (barring injuries, internationals). I was thinking something along the lines of a player cant play more than 4 games in a row, or rather needed a week off every 5 weeks, whether it be starting on the bench or out the match day squad completely. just think it may help to shake up teams and make things a little more unpredictable.

I remember a season or two ago, I mentioned in tactics how Pete had not rotated his front row and I got a draw I probably wouldn't have otherwise. I think it should definitely be a factor. I'm not sure if rules like that are neccesarily the way. Guys like Mako who aren't known for stamina shouldn't be the same as iron men who get through tons of work

I think fatigue idea is good

I also think tactics need to be simplified. How much do people actually read tactics through in detail? If someone has game specific points at the top I read those, but I don't really bother with things like

"flood the breakdown"
"look to win turnovers if they undercommit"
"use the boot to get us into the right areas"

I'm definitely including my tactics in this, as I just copy and paste the general points every week then add a couple of game specific, I just don't think they're necessary at this point but don't know how to simplify it

Cutting tactics down to game specific points would be much more likely to be a point of difference and can win games

Hi

My two pennies worth...

Whilst I can see the validity of the proposed 'fatigue' rule etc I do think that generally speaking we should be looking to simplify the game rather than make it more complicated.

Tactics, for me, have become far too detailed and almost comes down to how long a manager can be bothered to spend on writing these up. Any team can beat any other on their day and so I realise tactics can provide the differential but writing up pages of detailed tactics to grab a win seems a bit extreme to me. You can see from the league table who the ones are that put in the effort with tactics, which whilst admirable, can polarise other managers a bit. I think there should be a character limit and set aspects/attributes e.g. set piece, attack, defence, breakdown, other with everyone having to stick to these.

At the end of the day, it is a game that is meant to be fun rather than a chore. We all (I assume) have full time jobs and I for one absolutely cannot dedicate the time to write up these tactics! We're two managers short at the moment (maybe 1 with Oz) so we need to make it more appealing to potential managers.

Reducing the burden on team sheets / tactics would also hopefully free up time for general chat and deals, which certainly for me I struggle with sometimes.

Thoughts?

I feel we need to add a random element. Far too many of the results are too predictable. Maybe a number of points added to or taken away from predicted scores in a random fashion some how. 

I don't really know how that could be done, but I feel this could freshen it up a little bit.

Agreeing with most points here. Tweaking is good as its running well. Few ideas....not necessarily what I want.

1. Random player/s removal and a draft, bottom up

2. You have a sort of bonus a few times a season you can use...only one side can use it at one time. It adds say 3,4,5pts to a scoreline. So I play say Newcastlle, its going to be tight so I use my bonus of 5 pts. Only a try end of the day.

3. Abilty to buy bonuses? 20m maybe?

4. Limit on summer foreigns, stop the buying up of all young talent. Say 2? Or have a few more windows?

5. Reset the league.......would get new blood in.

Morning gents, will have a look through these and discuss the points. I'm not looking to shut down opinions, however just test every option we have and get a fair look at things.

TACTICS 
When I have the time to predict I would read them in full and look to predict around them as some others do. Would be against doing away with them and just using bullet points. Tactics was what set this game apart from the others when first starting up.

I'd like to see the tactics written around the attributes. At the moment most of us have do it all game plans. Should be some lines on attack and defence mostly about how the attributes apply which you would use game to game. It's not that hard to put a decent individual base together and use week to week.And then 2-3 bullet points for very specific stuff. All under the word count of 300 or so that is there already.

As Bam says would cut all the superfluous stuff.
'We will counter ruck if under committed'
'use the boot'
'4/5 jumping options'
'strong scummagers to milk penalties'

Would only refer to the set piece if there is a genuine advantage and you are targeting as key for your game plan.  i.e. strong lineout options and opposition lacking jumpers/leader.

ROTATION
Like Nicks rotation point. Genuinely very little rotation from most sides in the game. Only changes are call up/injury related. Would bring a bit of variety week to week. Someone would have to volunteer to act as monitor though as unfair on Flux to have to track on top of all the other weekly jobs he's already doing.

TRANSFERS
Blind bidding works well Flux. Has stopped people jumping in on bids and has probably brought player costs down.

Agree with Pooly foreigns should be limited. At the moment we all stockpile the academies which leads to fewer break out players available every window. I'd look to 2 signings for 1st-5th and 3 for every one else. Do weekly windows i.e. everyone makes 1 signing before 2nd round can begin. Then do 1 signing in season.

Would cut national league bids as well. 2 for EQ, 2 for released players. U20s squad is genuinely 28-34 players across a season whereas at the moment we have 60 bids available altogether. Will get to the stage we are signing any u16 who goes viral on youtube.

BUDGETS/BONUSES
If we cut foreigns/nationals down then there would be a surplus of cash in the league. Could maybe introduce the option to clear injuries for cash. Give everyone the chance to clear one injury per batch for cash? If rotation comes in in some form being able to clear an injury could be crucial particularly during internationals.

RANDOMNESS
Personally opposed to random elements added to scoring. Would be furious if I led on all predictions but lost out due to some add on. We don't give wide margins in predictions so random elements would disproportional affect results.

Wouldn't be impressed with a random player taken either. We all have a player or two if we lost them it completely changes our squad and how we have planned out going forward #coughItojecough Game needs to be leveled up a bit but not at the expense of years building squads up.

stnick88 wrote:I had an idea which I voiced a few seasons ago about squad rotation.

no-one pays too much attention to squad rotation and generally everyone plays their best team week in week out (barring injuries, internationals). I was thinking something along the lines of a player cant play more than 4 games in a row, or rather needed a week off every 5 weeks, whether it be starting on the bench or out the match day squad completely. just think it may help to shake up teams and make things a little more unpredictable.

Not going to turn down the point mate, but it is a good one to make. I have endeavoured where possible to make fatigue a point when predicting, however as we can all imagine it is quite difficult to keep track of this and for it to make an impact and be noticed by only one set of results. 

Need more of an opinion on this one really. I don't want to impose limits on players, as it isn't exactly realistic. A quick idea, if a player was to be named in 4 consecutive games, they could then become at risk to an injury. Therefore Player x could then face a random draw of the numbers 0,1,2,3,4 - each representing a potential week of injuries if drawn. This could be a method to develop with staged injuries, but what is everyone else's thoughts?

I must admit, I'm kind of with Pull on the keeping the game simple. A lot of people don't get get a lot of time (not so much a problem myself finishing work at 2pm), so I don't think making it more complicated is a good idea.

I don't think the attributes idea worked. I followed it for a few weeks and then ignored it pretty much.

I would read tactics more if they were bullet points as opposed to a paragraph.