[Hattrick] Hattrick FAQ

[sterlingice]

I. Introduction

I've been wanting to do this for a while and now I have a bit of a chance to at least start on it. UPDATE: It's now something like 2 years in the making but at least now there's some progress and some useful stuff here now- lots of good reading and links (see below).

This, however, is the thread where I beg for some help from you guys. I'm looking for question submissions and ideas on how to put this together. I appologize in advance- I'm sure I won't take every suggestion and question but I will definately try to get the most frequent and ones that I see as most necessary.

Remember- this is a FAQ! If people want to look up stuff like "How many teams are in USA", they could easily do that. It needs to be long enough to contain the info necessary but short enough to keep people's attention so they can get all the way through it.

I haven't yet decided how to organize this but I think I'm going to split it into 2 parts.
1) The Quick Start Guide - everyone's seen the "I'm a hattrick newbie, what do I do now" thread. I'm really hoping to remedy that. Basically whenever someone asks that, I want them to be able to point at the FAQ and say "read this before asking a question". But it needs to be approachable and easy to manage for someone who isn't an expert yet. The hattrick rules are a nice reference, but it took reading through DK's old dynasty from last year (especially the great quick-start guide there) to really get into things.
2) The FAQ - basically, all the stuff that people who actually have a grasp on the game still ask (I have a lot of those listed below).

Here's some preliminary stuff I've been drawing up but this thread is here to get input from all of you to make this really useful to newbie and veteran alike.

The FAQ isn't very viewable in Spud or Sideline skins and impossible to read in Rage. So I'd recommend against these three skins if you're reading.

II. Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. Table of Contents
III. The Big Links
IV. Quick Start Guide
V. Training
VI. Players/Coach
VII. Game Day
VIII. Economics
IX. FOFC Mythology and Lore
X. Links to Other FOFC Hattrick Threads
XI. Links to Hattrick Dynasty Reports
XII. Links Outside of FOFC

Appendices
A. Helpful Charts and Graphs
B. Hattrick Treatises


III. The Big Links

Officialish FOFC Hattrick Team List v3.0 and signup- Mr Wednesday maintains team lists for all of FOFC at hattrick. Come, see how you are a small significant speck, one of the many. That, and if you're on there, you get included in the weekly FOFC rankings maintained by Mr W and Frogman (Excel genius extraordinaire)
Official Transfer Wire - To keep this board from becoming cluttered by everyone posting "bUy mY f0rW4rd", every transfer post goes into this thread. Any hattricker worth their salt has auto notify on so we know when new players get added to the list.
Formidable and Up Transfer Wire - Same as above, except for players with formidable or higher in their primary skill.


IV. Quick Start Guide

Q: I just got a team, now what?
A:

Q: What is a friendly? Why should I schedule one?
A:

Q: How do I know if my players are good or not?
A: For a team just starting out, if their primary skill is solid then you're in pretty good shape. What do I mean by primary skill? Well, if they're a goaltender, then "keeper" is the skill that determines how good they are. For defender, it's defense; for midfielder, it's playmaking, etc.

Q: Train? What should I train?
A:

Q: What is a youth pull and should I do it?
A:

Q: Should I upgrade my stadium?
A: Initially, if you land in a weak series where you think you can win a majority of your games early then you might want to increase your size. However, if you're just an average team or in danger of relegation, then the money is better spent improving your team and trainees. Check the economy and stadium section for more help on building your stadium.

What are the best hattrick sites?
HAM, mybestteam, ABC of Tactics, hattrix, HatStats

How does the season go?
Cup/Friendly -> League

How do you keep track of stats?
HAM or Spreadsheets

What are some common formations?
3-5-2, 4-5-1, 5-4-1, 3-4-3

What is this term asymmetric (for formations)?

When (and what is) PIC vs MoTS?
Team spirit and Clown

Team Leader vs Team Captain

Intl vs Domestic Friendly

Buying and Selling Hints?
When to buy? When to sell?
Where to buy? How to see those other countries?

Coach- what is most important in a coach?
- coaching skill, all out/defensive, team spirit

V. Training

VI. Players/Coach

VII. Game Day

VIII. Economics
Q: When should I upgrade my stadium?
A: I know this kindof sounds dumb, but when you start filling up your old stadium and when you have cash to do it. It takes a good chunk of change to do it but if you're filling up your old stadium then you're cutting off your money flow by turning away fans at your entrance. See the quick start guide question about stadiums to see if you should do it initially when you get your team.

Q: To what size?
A: There are two sets of data to keep in mind when building your stadium. The first is how many seats you want total and the second is what distribution.

As to how many seats you want, this is largely dependant on how tough a series you are in and how many supporters you have. The rule of thumb is 20-30x your number of supporters. If you're struggling through a season but still selling out then look at just 20x your supporters. If you're in the middle of the pack with no danger of auto-demotion but not a great outlook then go for 25x. If you're burning up your series, then just go for it with 30x your total number of supporters. So, to recap:
Bad Outlook: 20x Supporters
Average Outlook: 25x Supporters
Good Outlook: 30x Supporters

The second consideration is seat distribution. There are four types of seats (terraces, basic seating, seats under roof, seats in VIP boxes) that can be built in a stadium. Terraces cost the least and bring in the least money but most people sit there whereas VIP boxes cost the most, cost a lot of upkeep, but bring in the most money from your fat cat fans. It used to be thought that the best distribution was 63-25-10-2. But now the more widely regarded formula is:
62.5% Terraces
25% Basic Seating
10% Seats Under Roof
2.5% Seats in VIP Boxes

Q: What is debt in hattrick? Can I use it to my advantage?
A: Early on, you only get $300K to play with so you have to spend that money wisely. If you decide you need to exceed that (and you probably shouldn't except for stadium expansion) then you can go up to $200K in debt. However, you have to pay 5% interest per week on your debt which will make it even tougher to balance your budget. If you are over $200K in debt, you cannot bid on anyone on the transfer wire until you drop back under that amount. Also, if you are over $200K in debt, you might want to hire an economist to help get your money in order.

Later on, as you are getting in $200K or more per home game, the debt becomes an advantage you can play around with. It gives you an extra $200K you can use to buy players and you'll have them paid off by the next home game.

{add Section on being more than $500K in debt}


Q: Speaking of economists, who should I have on staff?
A: Early on, you only get $300K to play with so you have to spend that

IX. FOFC Mythology and Lore

Glossary
Bett(i)s, Jerome- (by AE) Jerome was one of my the first purchases of the North County Raiders. When HFP and I played our first match, Jerome had two goals. HFP then declared it wasn't fair he lost, I had a NFL ringer on my team. I thought that was intended for Chet Tomlinson, another player of my team. He then told me it wasn't fair I had Jerome Bettis on the team! It then struck me how similar the two names were. HFP simply added an "i" to the name. Since then, I never refer to him as Betts. It's either Jerome or Bettis. In fact, I've changed his name in HAM to read "Bettis". Jerome's ability to score goals was uncanny early on in his career, so most of FOFC got to know the name very well.

Dynasty Report Stealing - an art form

Excel - Frogman

Five Most Comfortable Seats - (I need to write) Illinifan

FOFC Cup - "Annual"

FOFC Group I - First group who joined in ____ and started writing dynasties; this includes:

FOFC Group II - Second group who joined in ____ and started writing dynasties; this includes
"I Hate You" Award - YP

NSI - Nevstar

Puke Green Socks- (by AE)


(Date: 9/16/2002 at 01.00MatchID: 3329655)
Puke Green Socks originate from FOFC member HornedFrogPurple, who had a Hattrick team by the name of Cedar Pond Horned Toads. In mid September of 2002, I talked Mr. HFP into getting HT Supporter. He chose lime as his socks. It honestly didn't look right to me. I made numerous entries in his guestbook that I couldn't see anything because of his socks, they were blinding, disgusting. They made me want to puke. He needed to change those socks! He never did. In fact, I believe he started the quote, "Puke green socks equal shutouts". HFP eventually left Hattrick, and I donned the Puke Green Socks in honor of him.

Run and Shoot - Fighting for truth, justice, and offensive soccer and defending the hattrick world from *spit* 4-5-1'ers. In the beginning there were two primary camps of hattrick training theology on FOFC. The first were the holy and righteous Run-And-Shooters, who brought light to the darkness and offense to hattrick. They specialized in training forwards or middies and setting as many of their players to offensive as possible. The Run-And-Shooters were led by ArdentEnthusiast and his disciple CoffeeWarlord. They fought against the evil terror that was the Defensive Trainers who tried to bring hattrick to a screeching halt by playing formations such as the *spit* 4-5-1 and 5-4-1. These legions of pain and perversity who sought to impugn the scoring ways were led by Dataking and HornedFrogPurple.

Transfer Market Addiction - (I need to write) Havok

FOFC Cup History

X. Links to Other FOFC Hattrick Threads
XI. Links to Hattrick Dynasty Reports
XII. Links Outside of FOFC



Appendix A: Helpful Charts and Graphs

Appendix B: Hattrick Treatises

Training Profits by Havoc99
(Editors Note: Keep in mind 2 things: One, this study is a little old and two, there are some flaws in the methodology as admitted below. But what I think it does a good job of conveying is that the major types of training all have similar profit margins except keeper training)

Ok, I'm doing this very basic modelling using prices from HAM's Transfer Price Evaluation & training speeds from Hattrix.

I'm looking at each of the main skill training types assuming a program where you begin to train Solids & sell at World Class. This model doesn't account for secondary skills & assumes a player is lowest level solid when you begin training. Prices in USD.

---

Keepers
Cost: 2 Solids = $482K
Training Time = 30 weeks (6 levels * 5 weeks/level)
Sales: 2 WC = $13.1 million
Profit: $12.6 million
Weekly Profit: $420K

---

Defenders
Cost: 10 Solids = $2.36 million (ed. note = ???)
Training Time = 48 weeks (8 weeks/level)
Sales: 10 WC = $42.2 million
Profit: $39.6 million
Weekly Profit: $826K

---

Wingers
Cost: 8 Solids = $1.36 million
Training Time = 30 weeks (5 weeks/level)
Sales: 4 WC = $17.4 million 4 Outstanding = $7 million
Profit: $23.1 million
Weekly Profit: $771K

---

Playmaking
Cost: 10 Solids = $2.19 million
Training Time = 42 weeks (7 weeks/level)
Sales: 6 WC = $27.6 million 4 Outstanding = $7 million
Profit: $32.4 million
Weekly Profit: $772K

---

Scoring
Cost: 6 Solids = $1.38 million
Training Time = 39 weeks (6.5 weeks/level)
Sales: 6 WC = $33.42 million
Profit: $32 million
Weekly Profit: $822K

---

Conclusions: For the love of all that's holy, dont train keepers. Everything else looks fairly competitive, but scoring seems best.

Thoughts? Comments?

(I realize many of the weaknesses of my study methodology but I'm too lazy to list errors in my own assumptions)

How to Daytrade by Havoc99

This article was written for one of my federations in response to a member question.

***Day Trading Disclaimer: I know some people think DT is fine & dandy & some people think that traders are swine. For those those KU members who elect to try trading, at least we can help them do well***

One of our members HT-mailed me asking for advice on DT-ing. I don't do it much anymore because of the TS hit for moving players through your roster, but whe I first started HT 3 seasons ago I was able to make $40-100K/week in about 2 hours of work. Now that I have more money to play with I'm sure I could make more. Here are some thoughts:

General Thoughts
DT is a double edged sword: the money is very nice, but you're team spirit will get killed. Of course, TS doesn't matter for the next 3 weeks (at the end of the season TS will be reset), but the markets are depressed at the end of the season making DT harder.

During the season I would only DT if your team is so much better than the rest of your series that you can win with a low TS or if you're in a situation where demotion is unlikely or impossible.

Why should you DT? The obvious answer is money, but trading is one of the only ways to close the gap between newer teams and more established teams. Assuming you're in a good series everyone else will have a good training program establish and will be decent game coaches (HT is a simple tactical game). Youth pulls are completely random, so you can't count on winning the lottery.

Other than optimizing your training, game play, player acquisitions & getting an excellent youth program- which everyone should be doing- trading gives you the ability to advance your team through hard work and exploiting transfer market inefficiences. My personal opinion is that, unless a team profits through trading, it will be almost impossible for a team starting now to advance to the top levels in a developed HT nation- unless you're young & simply outlast all the players ahead of you

In practical terms trading comes down to a few simple steps:
1. Knowing the Market (and the going rates for different players)
2. Picking a Trading Style
3. Finding Undervalued Players
4. Optimizing Your Transfer Listings

1. Knowing the Market
If you're just starting out in trading, spend a lot of time on the transfer lists determining the going prices, both in your home country and in the largest markets.

You need to learn how much different types of players go for- look at a player's age, primary skill & secondaries. Determine the average sales price for the kinds of players you want to trade as well as the typical range they sell for.

If you're new to HT or to trading it can make sense to pick one type of player to specialize in- perhaps Inadaquate-to-Solid keepers (keepers are easiest because they only have 1 skill). Spend several days tracking the final prices for these kinds of guys. If you're in this fed you have supporter, so use your bookmarks and a notepad.

If a few players sell for substantially more that you'd expect, try to determine why? Usually it's because they're close to jumping up a level (determined by their value or * rating). Be careful about trading these kinds of players as they're harder to move for a profit.

Once you've determined the kinds of players you want to trade (position & skill level) & figured out the going range for those players, it's time to move on to the next step.

2. Picking a Trading Style
Basically there are 2 trading philosophies: Quality or Volume

Quality: The sniper approach, this strategy consists of finding & executing only the best deals with the highest profitability. You're looking to find the most undervalued players possible and reselling them for a large profit, but you don't make many trades.

Example: About a season ago I found a 4* IM with Solid PM & Solid Passing (to get 4* he had to be fairly high in both areas) & bought him for ~$300K. I was able to resell later in the week for a little over $500K making a quick $150K profit (when selling you have to account for the listing fee(s), the 10% sales fee & any extra salaries on your roster during the weekly economic update when determing profitability).

The advantage of this strategy is that the TS hit is minimized because you make few deals, but this is the much harder strategy because it takes a lot of time, effort & luck to find the right players to trade. This is my preferred method during the season when I care about my TS- often I'll not be planning on trading but I'll come across a great deal on the markets.

Volume: You buy a lot of moderately-to-slightly undervalued players and trade them. You wont make a profit on every player, but you'll make a small profit on most players and the occasional bidding war makes this style very profitable. The downside is that all the turnover will absolutely kill your TS.

Example: When I first started HT & had very limited funds I used to search for players valued over $50K but priced under $15K. I'd wind up buying about 5-10 decent passable players per week and reselling them for a $30-$40K weekly profit (this went up as I was able to afford better players).

This style is very easy to do and can make consistent profits. Spend an hour going through all the mid-sized markets and you can find several player that can be daytraded. The downside, however, is that your TS will sink faster than the Titanic.


3. Finding Players
There are two basic ways of finding undervalued players:
1. Look in small-to-midsized markets that don't have as much competition (i.e. Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Poland, Thailand, Finland, Hungary, Oceania, etc..).
2. Look in major markets during off hours (~1:00-5:00 HT)

Pretty simple- if you've done your market research, finding the bargains using either of the above methods should be fairly straight forward.

Also track the # of players online during different days & times of the week. Plan on buying your inventory when HT usership is low.

If you can buy someone so that you can resell them at the going rate & still make a profit (after listing fee, 10% fee & paying salary (if applicable), go for it.

4. Optimizing Your Transfer Listings
It's important to list your guys on the right days, times & with the proper prices.

1. Times: Only list your players during HT's peak hours (~17:00-22:00 HT). If you can list your guys to come due during a large country's matches or friendlies, all the better.

2. Days: If you're carrying a bunch of extra players, you dont want to have to pay their salaries during the weekly economic update. I always try to list my players during the peak hours the day after my weekly econ update (in the USA the updates are on Saturday so I usually list on Sunday) so that I can list a player a second time before the next update if I have to- thus giving me 2 chances to sell someone before having to pay salary.

3. Opening Price: I usually list my guys at or just above the market rate for the type of player I'm selling- I almost always get a bid this way. If I have to relist someone, I usually cut the price to market rate or just below. You should always know how much you need to sell someone for in order to breakeven after expenses.

Sometimes you simply wont get bids, but if you were accurate with your market assessment keep re-listing the player. It's never taken me more than 3 listings to sell someone for a profit (even if it was a very minor profit).

On maybe 5% of the players I've purchased I have misjudged the going rate and either had to resell for breakeven or a small loss. If this happening to you once in a while, don't worry about it- it's simply part of the cost of doing business. If you're messing up a lot, you need to re-assess the market rate for the players you're trading & adjust accordingly.


Ok, I hope this helps any members interested in trying out daytrading. Good luck & happy trading.

Any feedback or construtive criticism is appreciated.

Raven Hawk's Offseason Training Guide by RavenHawk (duh)

I noticed a couple of questions about this, so I decided to put together a little bit of an offseason training guide for newer players. The reason this is a draft is that I want some feedback on some of my recommendations. As a forward trainer, I know well what I need to do in the offseason, but I want some feedback from other trainers. My goal is to post this to the FAQ so that it can be used by all our HT younglings. Thanks for your help!


Raven Hawk's Offseason Training Guide

This subject tends to come up every season and there are always questions on it. Heck, I even question what I'm doing some of the time. However, I thought that I would take a moment to teach based off of my learnings.

The Golden Rule - If you played a qualifier and can benefit from getting 1 extra week of training for all of your trainees. Take it and don't look back. This is one of the decided advantages of playing the qualifier, even if you lose.

With the golden rule stated, you now need to base your training off of how many single-game weeks you are training. If you played a qualifier, you have only 1 single-game week to worry about. If you did not play a qualifier, you have 2 single-game weeks to worry about.

1 - One(1) Single-Game Week Training Programs

This first section will illuminate what training is available. Please read the descriptions to figure out which strategy best describes your team's goals/situation. There is no 'right' answer, but you can have your own preferences. Most importantly, try not to veer to far away from these recommendations. When push comes to shove, your primary training program (Playmaking, Keeper, Defender, Winger, Forward) should be your first concern.

For Playmaking Trainers
Option 1 - Stamina. This is pretty much the best option for you. Since midfield rating is so dependent on stamina, you need to get your trainees' stamina up to excellent.
Option 2 - Playmaking. Since the second single week puts your training into the new season, you may want to train PM. Why? Because that 17 y/o that you just bought this week has a chance at making the U20 team. Get him all the training you possibly can. Or you can train this if your trainees are all already at excellent stamina.
Option 3 - Set Pieces. Only for those teams that are not training a Nats player and has all of their PM trainees at excellent stamina. Not very common.
Option 4 - Passing. Only to be used if one of the above options does not work for you. Passing doesn't train as fast as set pieces, so if you train this every offseason, you may feel like your pounding sand. If you do train this, don't forget to use the 2-5-3 (not 3-5-2) with 3 IM's and 3 Forwards to maximize the number of players you are training.
Option 5 - Winger. I would advise against it, but some people want their wingers to get a little training. I would call this a waste of training, but you may want to do it if you think that you have a winger who's winger skill is about to pop.

For Keeper Trainers
Option 1 - Keeper. Since this skill trains faster than any of the other primary skills, it is good to keep training this, even if it is just one player.
Option 2 - Set Pieces. This skill is the only secondary that might boost the value of your keeper when you sell him. It trains extremely quickly and it trains everybody on your team.
Option 3 - Passing. Only to be used if one of the above options does not work for you. Passing doesn't train as fast as set pieces, so if you train this every offseason, you may feel like your pounding sand. If you do train this, don't forget to use the 2-5-3 (not 3-5-2) with 3 IM's and 3 Forwards to maximize the number of players you are training.
Option 4 - Stamina. Only if your IM's and wingers REALLY need it. You should be buying your IM's and wingers with solid or excellent stamina, so you shouldn't have to train this.

For Defense Trainers
Option 1 - Defense. Since defense trains more slowly than the other primaries, and since you can train 5 in 1 week, this becomes a good option. Run your 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 and get your 5 best/youngest trainees an extra week of training. Note that this week is a cup week, so don't use this method if you think it will cost you your cup match.
Option 2 - Set Pieces. As stated previous, this skill trains very fast and it trains everybody on your team. If you have a couple of players that you want to have better set pieces, go with it.
Option 3 - Passing. If your team can win its cup match playing the 2-5-3 with some defenders playing out of position to get the passing training, this might be an option. This is especially true if you are a counter attacking team that uses defenders with passing. Since defenders don't get passing training, any player you want to get training must play at Forward, IM or Winger.
Option 4 - Stamina. Only if your IM's and wingers REALLY need it. You should be buying your IM's and wingers with solid or excellent stamina, so you shouldn't have to train this.

For Winger Trainers
Option 1 - Stamina. Just like IM's, wingers need their stamina trained to maximize the midfield effectiveness. Unless your entire midfield is at excellent stamina, you should probably train this.
Option 2 - Winger. Did you get that 17 y/o stud? Train him.
Option 3 - Playmaking. A needed secondary for your wingers, this training will pay off in the end.
Option 4 - Passing. If your team can win its cup match playing the 2-5-3 with some wingers playing out of position to get the passing training, this might be an option, since passing is a valuable skill for wingers.
Option 5 - Set Pieces. It trains everybody and trains them fast. However, wingers need so many secondaries to be good, I would advise training a different secondary.

For Forward Trainers
Option 1 - Set Pieces. With new rules in 6.6 that incorporates scoring into a players set piece ability, forwards with high set pieces will be valuable, especially if they have technical specialties.
Option 2 - Scoring. Did you get that 17 y/o stud? Train him.
Option 3 - Passing. Forward trainers are well poised to train passing since they can win in the 2-5-3 formation, just like the PM trainers. Passing also the best secondary skill for forward trainers to have. The bad news is it takes forever to train.
Option 4 - Shooting. A hybrid of Set Pieces and Scoring. This may not be a bad alternative for a team that wants to train both, but only has one week to do it (i.e. played a qualifier). However, if you played a qualifier, you already trained scoring last week, may as well train Set Pieces this week.
Option 5 - Stamina. Only if your IM's and wingers REALLY need it. You should be buying your IM's and wingers with solid or excellent stamina, so you shouldn't have to train this.
2 Single-Game Week Training Programs

In this section, please note that these are the recommendations. See the above section to determine whether or not you want to train something.

For Playmaking Trainers
Stamina/Stamina - If you trainees need it, train it. Be careful of form drops.
Stamina/Playmaking - Train stamina first to give your team a week to recover form before the season starts.
Playmaking/Playmaking - Get those studs a couple extra weeks.

For Keeper Trainers
Keeper/Keeper - Get the extra training in while you can.
Keeper/Set Pieces - If you want to train SP, train Keeper first while your keeper is a younger age to maximize your keeper training. Reverse this if you are planning on buying a stud or two in the first week of the new season.
Stamina/Keeper - ONLY IF YOUR IM'S & WINGERS NEED IT. Stamina gets trained first to get an extra week of form recovery prior to the new season.

For Defender Trainers
Defense/Defense - Use the 5 defender formations to get a couple of extra weeks of training for your players.
Defense/Set Pieces - If you want to train SP, train Defense first while your defender is a younger age to maximize your defense training. Reverse this if you are planning on buying a stud or two in the first week of the new season.
Passing/Defense - If you're trying to get counter attack players. Train the passing first, since it will be hard for you to field an effective 2-5-3 team.

For Winger Trainers
Stamina/Stamina - If your trainees need it, train it. Be careful of form drops.
Stamina/Winger - Train stamina first to give your team a week to recover form before the season starts.
Winger/Winger - Get those studs a couple extra weeks.
Playmaking/Winger - Throw in a PM week to try to get a player to pop at PM.

For Forward Trainers
Set Pieces/Scoring - Boost your SP quickly and get a little extra cash for your players.
Scoring/Scoring - Get those studs a couple extra weeks.
Shooting/Scoring - Sacrifice a little scoring training to spread it across the whole team, gain some SP as well.
Passing/Scoring - Run a 2-5-3 in your friendly to prevent first round mishaps in the cup.

Tactics by fullmonty
(Editors Note: This was posted in the Kraftworks Fed and has been copied here with permission)

Ok – so everyone keeps saying “as long as you figure out the new tactics quicker than your opponents, you’ll do fine.” I think I have a basic grasp on the new, but I’d like to do a review, with your feedback…

Pressing:
What it does: Tries to prevent your opponent from getting any attack chances. The better all your player’s defense and stamina is, the more effective it is. Having “Powerful” players helps too.
Best formation: ??? 3-5-2? 4-5-1? Something defensive?
When you would use it: If you want to try to smother your opponent, and you think you can out-stamina him. In situations where you think you will lose, and want to keep it close, hoping for a tie, or a freak goal in your favour.
How to beat it: Get a ton of possession, and score on the few attack chances you get. Out-stamina your opponent. Play a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 (3 IM) and try to score 2 or 3 goals, which should be enough.

Counter Attack:
What it does: By sacrificing some midfield (7%), you gain the ability for a chance at a counter attack after a missed scoring chance by your opponent. This tactic factors the defending and passing (times 2) skills of your defenders to determine if you get a scoring chance on counter attack or not.
Best formation: 5-4-1, 5-3-2, 4-4-2? I’ve played a 5-3-2 counter with 2 wingers offensive (ie – one middie only!) and it worked nicely [matchid=9687893]
When you would use it: ONLY if you’re sure to have a possession disadvantage. It’s best to stack your defense, and try to generate a bit of offense, leaving the midfield at a disadvantage. Hence the 5-3-2 dual winger “intentional midfield sabotage” tactic used in combination with CA.
How to beat it: Score on your chances, thus eliminating the possibility of counter attacks by your opponent. I would say use a 3-5-2 (2-5-3?)or other “offensive” formation, with offensive orders on middies/wingers and just hope the extra 10% possession translates into 2 or 3 goals, which is likely all you’ll need to win. Avoid the temptation to intentionally sabotage your own midfield in preparation for a CA – take all the possession you can get!

Attack in the Middle (AIM):
What it does: Funnels more of your normal scoring chances into your central attack. The higher your team’s passing, the greater percentage of attacks are shifted to the wing (between a minimum of 20% and a max. of 40%). Contrary to certain beliefs, it does not increase the number of attack chances you get or increase your central attack rating. There is an associated decrease in wing defense ratings when using AIM.
Best formation: 3-4-3 or possibly 3-5-2 (both with 2 wb’s) with TM wingers and offensive IM’s
When you would use it: When you know you’re going to have a stronger central attack and you want the ball to head there! Also, if you’re confident that your opponent won’t play AOW and expose your weak wing defense.
How to beat it: If you know your opponent is going with a 3-4-3 AIM, you’d better stack your central defense, and do as much as you can to win the possession battle. If you think you can stay even or win possession, an AOW might be effective, but only in a 4-5-1 to offset the lowered central defense (see AOW, below)

Attack on the Wings (AOW):
What it does: The opposite of AIM – funnels your chances to the wings and away from the central attack. The higher your team’s passing, the greater percentage of attacks are shifted to the wing (between a minimum of 20% and a max. of 40%). Again, it does not increase the number of scoring chances or boost your wing attack ratings. A decrease in central defense is associated with playing AOW.
Best formation: 4-5-1 is my formation of choice. 5 in the middle for possession, and 2 central defenders to offset the middle defense penalty. 3-5-2 works as well, but since you’re intentionally channeling your attacks to the wing, the second forward is better used as a 2nd Central defender. Of interest - I’ve scored plenty using a 5-5-0 before [matchid= 9789823], but the formation confusion may not be worth it in a league match.
When you would use it: If you have 2 great wingers, and your side attacks are always better than your central! Also, if your opponent leaves a wing or wingback empty when repositioning, AOW is a great way to expose this tendency.
How to beat it: There is no beating it!! WINGER TRAINERS REJOICE!!!! Uhhh, nevermind that… get possession, guard your wing defenses and stack your central attack where your high-flying opponent will be weakest!

So there you have it. Sorry if any of this is horribly redundant, I just wanted to get it all down for discussion! I have the most experience with AOW, so hopefully some of you who have tried the others have some insight.

Lonestar's Injury Study by Lonestar

Ok, so a friend/coworker (who I finally got addicted to Hattrick) and I have wondered for some time if the match report statement of an injury to a player has any correlation to the severity of said injury. You have guys leaving from rough play, getting kicked, or even being carted off on stretchers, but are the statements telling you how long to expect your guy to be out or are they just random? We wondered.......

I took it upon myself yesterday to look at Wednesday's cup matches played in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Sweden (boy did that take some time), and Chile. Throw in a few friendlies for good measure, and I found 9 injury statements and 124 injuries. One guy in Sweden actually had 3 players injured in a cup loss, boy that's gotta hurt.

Here's what I've found so far, in order of average injury length (best to worst):

limped off the field and was replaced
Average injury length for this statement is 1.22 weeks. However, this only accounts for 7.26% of the injuries. No injuries over 2 weeks yet.

had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury
Average injury length for this statement is 1.46 weeks. By far the most common injury, with 28.23% of the 124 surveyed. Only 3 injuries were over 2 weeks in duration, with the max injury being only 3 weeks. Vast majority of injuries were listed as 1, but the players were already bruised and playing/training.

left the field because of a nasty blow to the shin
Average injury length for this statemtent is 1.71 weeks. 11.29% of the injuries used this statement. Majority of injuries were only 2 weeks, with just one lasting 3 weeks.

These first 3 statements accounted for almost half of all the injuries found.

couldn´t continue playing due to the rough treatment
Things start picking up as this statement averages 2.05 weeks. 16.13% of the injuries used this statement. 3 of the injuries were as high as 4 weeks, but several were 1 week in duration. Kind of a mixed pot.

had to be helped off the pitch, unable to finish the game
9.68% of the injuries used this statement, and last an average of 2.5 weeks. Several 1 weekers are in here, but so are 4-5-6 weekers. This is the first statement yet that involves injuries over 4 weeks.

the unlucky victim, couldn´t continue the game
Seems we're kicking it into high gear now, as this statement averages 3.27 weeks. A couple of one weekers in here, but more and more the injuries are 4 weeks or higher. 6 weeks is the highest.

had to be carried off on a stretcher in agony
This is the one I assumed would be the worst, but I was wrong. This statement is very rare, though, with only 4.03% of the 124 injuries using it. Average injury is 3.40 weeks. However, if this hits you, don't expect a walk in the park. None of the injuries have been less then 3 weeks in duration. None have been more then 4 weeks, either.

will have to do without…..for a time due to a bad foot injury
We're really getting to the statements that will make hopes for the season drop in your gut like a lead weight. While only 6.45% of the injuries, they average 3.88 weeks in duration. The range is 3-6 weeks.

being carried off the pitch and replaced
And here's the worst statement. 4.40 weeks injured on average, with the only 7 weeker in the survey. Again, no injury less then 3 weeks with half being 5 weeks or more. Fortunately this one is rare as well, with only 8.06% of the injuries coming in at this level.

Well, there you have it. I can't account for the age of these guys, the form, or the amount of physios on staff, but still.......I see a trend. At the very least I have an idea of injury severity when a guy goes down during a match. I hate waiting for the bad news.

Thoughts? I've never seen this subject broached in HT land before, so I'm curious.........

Appendix C: Credits
This wouldn't have been possible without all the great participation by the FOFC Hattrick community. Special thanks goes out to the following who directly contributed to the FAQ:
Ardent Enthusiast wrote anything marked as (AE)
Raven Hawk wrote the offseason training treatise
Havoc (not Havok) wrote a pair of treatises

[Airhog]

heh, I actually started this a few hours ago, but scrapped it..

[sterlingice]

bump- is there any interest in getting questions in the FAQ?

SI

[DataKing]

A couple of things immediate jump to mind, for addition to the list.

1. The "magic formula" for stadium seating (62.5%/25%/10%/2.5%)

2. Training (how it works, what to train, stamina & general, etc.)

3. Be sure to include a section on debt.

[moriarty]

Don't forget the 20-25X supporters when selecting stadium size.

[Doug5984]

Another part of the FAQ could be Left & Right on the formation....this is kinda confusing...Also, maybe include the basics from the hattrick rules (like the number values of all the ratings...) and what rating helps what position....stuff like does stamina help a keeper....Something to address the age issue (I found when I started I would pay more for a player that was 18 when I could have gotten someone with the same skills for much cheaper if he was 25...and it makes no difference if your not training his skills....) I'm sure I will think of some more but I am leaving to go out of town for a long weekend...I will check back on this thread when I get back in town sunday.

[sterlingice]

Cool- keep the ideas coming. I knew you guys had lots to say. I just posted at a somewhat inconvenient time.

SI

[dacman]

The stuff in this thread

[daedalus]

The whole "magic formula" (3*experience + 2*leadership) for team captaincy thing I just read in conference would be useful. I never knew it before.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by daedalus
The whole "magic formula" (3*experience + 2*leadership) for team captaincy thing I just read in conference would be useful. I never knew it before.

Heck, i didn't even know about that. i'll have to add it.

SI

[daedalus]

Oh, yeah . . . the stuff from the 2-5-3 thread in the USA conference would be helpful, too. I know that was brought up a bit ago.

The short version seems to be: you will get plenty of confusion on the field but you will get training for the week. On the other hand, overloading a certain area of the field like 4 central defenders or 4 inner midfielders will cause you to lose training for the week.

[That happened to me at the end of last season. Oops.]

[Nyarlahotep]

One thing to note is that both "magic formulas" listed here are just theories. You wouldn't have to go far to find a different "magic formula" for the same things.

[TargetPractice6]

the experience formation is justa guess as far as I can tell, and probably vastly over simplified.

However, the arena theory does have asome backing to it. A group of people who had huge arenas and never filled them kept track of how many people filled each type of seat each week. And it is my understanding that the "magic formula" is roughly what it came out to be.

[daedalus]

Ahhhhh, makes sense. How much validity do y'all put to that formula? Is it worth 1) having in the FAQ SI is working on and 2) trying out? And, more importantly, what are your thoughts on captaincy ratings?

[Nyarlahotep]

Originally posted by TargetPractice6
the experience formation is justa guess as far as I can tell, and probably vastly over simplified.

However, the arena theory does have asome backing to it. A group of people who had huge arenas and never filled them kept track of how many people filled each type of seat each week. And it is my understanding that the "magic formula" is roughly what it came out to be.

That was exactly my point. There are several different formulas floating around all fairly close to each other. I assume they are based on different studies with similar results, but I don't think any are set in stone.

As far as choosing team captain, many methods have been suggested. I use the one daedalus posted, but have also seen exp + lead, exp * lead, straight exp with leadership settling ties, etc. The thing is that the rules are very vague on how the captain's bonus to squad experience is figured:

The Team Captain
You can appoint a team captain for each match. When the teams total routine is calculated, all the individual players levels of experience are added. After this, a figure representing the team captains level of experience and leadership abilities are added.. This is the team captain´s only function, although it´s quite an important one, should he prevent your team from getting confused due to a strange choice of tactics, or getting the heebiejeebies at the end of cup matches or qualifiers!

The team captain has to start off amongst the eleven players on the pitch. If you haven´t appointed a team captain the players will do so through the drawing of lots, just before the game.


So, other than knowing that the captain has to start out on the field and that some combination of his experience and leadership are added as a bonus, we really can do nothing more than speculate on the best method. I do think that the 3*exp + 2*lead formula will carry more weight once experience plays a bigger factor in the match engine.

[Havok]

could someone post the different levels of Team spirit and Team Confidence??

i always forget them

[Nyarlahotep]

Team spirit Paradise on Earth
delirious
satisfied
content
calm
composed
irritated
furious
murderous
like the cold War

Team self confidence wonderful
strong
decent
poor
wretched
disastrous

[Havok]

Could someone explain the advantages and disadvantages for the different skills???

Technical
Head
Quick
Powerful
Unpredictable

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by Havok
Could someone explain the advantages and disadvantages for the different skills???

Technical
Head
Quick
Powerful
Unpredictable

Why tell you when I can show you

Specialized Skills page from Hattrix

Anyways, I'll be getting to work on this while watching hockey tonight as soon as my team report from yesterday is written up.

SI

[Havok]

Technical players will perform below their normal standards in rain (affects scoring and playmaking skills) , and above it in sunshine.

good.... i have alot of Technical players and i play in Florida. Its always sunny here

[TargetPractice6]

Hattrick weather doesn't reflect real life weather.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by TargetPractice6
Hattrick weather doesn't reflect real life weather.

And I'm darn lucky it doesn't or else I would have been playing on a snowy field for the last 6 months or so

FrogMan

[daedalus]

Hattricks' take on how player ratings effects the team might be an interesting addition as well. Re-reading it again, it's pretty informative [for me, at least].

[vex]

This isn't exact, but to figure out how much money a full capacity crowd will get you, multiply the crowd by 5.26


This is assuming you used the Hattrick Arena Builder.

[sterlingice]

Argh! I hate IE. I just had a nice little outline all typed up and ready for perusal when I lost my connect and it went to the "cannot find server" screen. Then, of course, since it's stupid IE, you can't go back and see what you actually filled in and just repost it. Because that would make too much damn sense. Netscape has had this feature since day 1- why can't M$ pull their head out of their ass and put it in.

Damn school computer. I'm going back home to the warm sweet embrace of Netscape and Opera.

SI

[TonyR]

Does anyonw know how long it takes for a youth squad to improve? Just curious. Mine is at Weak for the 2nd week after going up from wretched to weak in 2 weeks.

[NAIWF]

You should move to inadequate next week (I did). I've already done 2 weeks at that level and looking forward to passable

[TonyR]

Thanks for the info.

I heard it takes an entire season to get to solid from passable...that right?

[Havok]

it takes about 2 full seasons to go from wretched to Excellent.

1 season to go from Wretched to Solid

1 season to go from Solid to Excellent

I think

[dacman]

Investing the maximum I spent:
1 week at wretched
1 week at poor
2 weeks at weak
2 weeks at indequate
4 weeks at passable
Now at solid (5 weeks and counting)

[DataKing]

It should take approximately one season (perhaps a little less) to go from solid to excellent.

[sachmo71]

Is this game fun?

[TonyR]

It is and it is addictive as well!

Another small Q about youth squads...
Does one has to continue investing 20K/week to keep it at excellent after a team reaches that point?

[dacman]

TonyR: Yes or it will drop.

[daedalus]

I don't know what the levels are, but my guess would be that past passable, you will need US$20 000 to maintain. I know someone who got up to solid, dropped to US$10 000 and got dropped back to passable.

[Airhog]

Since this is stickied, I thought I would add this file again so it doesnt fall off the earth

Note- This is an excel workbook

If you wanna know when a player should bump, you can use this guide...

[Alf]

Training Progression page web link : click here for TargetPractice6 page

[TargetPractice6]

And here is a screenshot of my personal one. If you deceide to make one, it should look similar to this (although you can add anything you want).

[Raven]

how about links to the arena sizer and that "my best team" thingy

[Alf]

Hattricks link : very useful Hattricks web site

Direct link to arena sizer OR More precise link with current stadium

[TonyR]

I haven't made head or tails of the "training sheets", so does anyone have a list of values that players must be at when they are close to popping in a particular skill?

I've figured out that for a keeper it is around 150K ish with good enough form.

[daedalus]

I remember TP once posting the general number of weeks of training needed for each skills but I can't find it anymore. Anybody know where I can look that up?

[TargetPractice6]

http://home.alltel.net/res18238/training_outline.htm

It's a bit dated, but I can verify that it is accurate for playmaking and defense.

[sterlingice]

Speak of the Devil, I actually took out the FAQ and started working on it again tonight. Hopefully I'll have something of merit in the next day or so.

SI

[daedalus]

Thanks, TP.

[lytic]

I have an updated one like TPs... I'll post it someday.

[apoc]

Sure Target post my excel file outline and get credit for it lol

[TargetPractice6]

I gave you credit at one time or another... probably. :b

[lytic]

3-5-2
4-4-2
5-4-1
3-4-3
5-3-2
4-5-1

are the formations you can run *legally* and learn formation experience from as long as you don't have more than 3 in one central position, I.E. 4 Inner Middies or 4 Central Defenders.

2-5-3
5-5-0
5-2-3

are the *legal* formations that you use without losing training, but you will not learn formation experience from. You must follow the rules about... no more than 3 in one central position!

You will lose a week of training if you put 4 OR MORE in one central located position!!! In one of my games when I was a newbie, I put 4 IMs in a game. It was a friendly, but my ENTIRE team lost training. I'd get the match ID later if someone really wants to see it. It's probably be deleted by hattrick by now to save space since it was summer last year.

This week, the South Korean U20 team will run a 3-5-2 with 4 IMs. Why? Because we don't lose training when we stupid things like that and we need the extra midfield; hence the ever so popular 0-8-2 formation that had a big underdog pulling a divine mid to beat the other team despite no defenders other than the keeper. They had amazing possesion... like 85% or something like that. Their keeper was good enough to only allow 1 goal. He posted passable defences all the way around if I remember correctly.

Don't get confused about where to pull the players from, it's all about not having too many in the middle... I hope that clears up some of the confusion about formations.

[TonyR]

If a player is bought from a team training whatever (mid week pretraining) and played that game, but is bought by another team training a different skill, what training does that player get?
Player only played a game with the old team, not new team.

Will he get training for the first or 2nd team's training?