Coaches and coordinators in FOF9
 

I’ve simmed to 2060 and have taken a look through the almanac to see how the past few decades have played out. On top of the already mentioned mass releasing of AI players issue, I’ve noticed some weird stuff with the coaches and coordinators.

Through 2060, not a single coach or coordinator has been employed by more than one club. Not one. Every single coach and coordinator that has been hired is a first time hire with no previous experience. They’ll coach anywhere from say 3 to 15 seasons, but regardless of how long they remain with their club, when they’re done..they’re done. They never get re-hired by another club. Not one single instance of it in nearly 40 years of simming.

Have you guys noticed the same thing?

I have, it's probably my only real gripe with the game right now. Coaching as a whole feels like it could go deeper as a feature, but it's especially immersion killing for coaching changes to mean someone never coaches again, particularly with the new profile page with coaches. It's also a little silly how teams basically never swap coordinators, no matter how bad of a season they had or if the team is changing head coaches. I mentioned that in a bug report, and they said they're trying to identify the right values for weight between achievement/bars when the AI hires coaches, so it sounds like it's on the radar.

I’ve noticed this and brought it up before. I feel like coach movement was much more organic/realistic in version 8. I’m hopeful something can be done to improve it.

Coaching Staff Hiring Stage doesn't make a lot of sense to me, although I haven't really dug into the mechanics of it.

When coaching hires comes around, when I need new coaches, I am given a list to pick from (~30-50 coaches to choose from it seems) and I get to pick the one(s) I like best. I don't believe I'm competing against other teams for the rights to these coaches, I'm not negotiating salaries, I'm just picking them in a vacuum and poof, I get the guy(s) I wanted.
If the overall depth of this activity is simply to get me some coaches that I want, then I suppose it's doing that well enough.

I wish honestly you can fire them mid season. Like if my coach is going 1-9 it's time to go. Would be cool to promote the oc or defensive coordinator.


Plus as GM I can't get fired? I am confused by that

A few things I would love on the coaching front.

1) When creating a new universe the coaches are part of the franchise draft, i.e. you draft your players why not be able to draft the staff you want for the systems you want instead of having to go through the season before you can change them. The preference draft could have this added on the same page. Otherwise there could be a 4-5 round draft cycle to alow you to make offers and compete for those you want.

2) Head coaches that are on contract are untouchable. They only become available if they are released.

3) Compensation. During the off season another team can hire a coordinator but only if they are promoted to assistant or head coach. I f they are you are entitled to say a 5th round pick.

4) Coaching trees. It would be interesting to see a head coaches legacy that includes staff that have moved on to become assistant or head coaches for both those that succeed and those that fail.




All nice to have, yeah, and very unlikely as it doesn't fit the path Jim has set but hey one can dream.

Dutch, re-read the documentation and pay close attention when you get to the hiring stages. Manual says something along the lines of “some other teams may get to sign staff members before you do based on their finances.” Paying attention in the stage, you’ll notice a pause before the button goes active that allows you to sign someone…and it’s a longer pause if your finances suck. Based on the documentation and that pause, it seems fairly obvious that it’s just the staff draft running in the background without the visible “draft” aspect. When that button goes active, it’s your pick.

Ahhh, that explains it. And the docs back you up (almost verbatim, actually).


Welp. Now I believe.

I'm like 4 seasons in and already my OC was hired to be the head coach of another team. Maybe that's changed with a patch since your post, though. I've also had two assistants promoted to OC at different teams. I've had another OC become an assistant coach somewhere else, but that doesn't count since I fired him.