EHM The Blue Line

Good to see the server move has worked out mate.

I've used the Editor to compare the CA/PA and Reps of all my MK Lightning players and Select NY Rangers/Hartford players (as they are my NHL team and I'm in the best position to contrast with them as the NHL is the league the game seems to simulate most effectively).

Some interesting things popped up:

Jesper Fast 110 154 110 110 110
Stan Lasek 100 110 70 70 65
Janne Jokila 65 100 65 60 50
Blaz Emersic 65 75 65 60 45

Fast was drafted this year, has palyed a few games for Rangers as injury-cover but mostly played in AHL with Hartford where he's been fairly accomplished. First of all Stan's CA/PA stand out as being very close (considering he's in the EPIHL) to a token AHL player. He's undoubtably a very good player (the best at MK currently) but nowhere near an American league in my view (though that probably has more to do with his age than overall ability at this stage of his career). I'm going to experiment dropping this setting a bit to see how it affects his stats, certainly my last play-through he didn't seem to be playing above the level of the league though?

That is by-the-by though, my key thing to look at was the reps (though I know you said you'd use the CA as a basis for this, hence highlighting the above).

Name CA PA Home Current World Wage Re-sign?
Stan Lasek 100 110 70 70 65 £18,000.00 No
Janne Jokila 65 100 65 60 50 £17,000.00 No
Blaz Emersic 65 75 65 60 45 £15,000.00 No
Leigh Jamieson 33 -3 52 52 40 £7,000.00 No
Nick Poole 33 33 75 70 55 £14,500.00 No
Adam Carr 29 -4 52 47 32 £4,100.00 Yes
Tom Carlon 35 -3 35 30 15 £2,400.00 Yes
Grant McPherson 20 -4 30 25 10 £1,600.00 Yes
Ross Bowers 24 -4 34 29 14 £1,600.00 Yes
Connor Goode 22 -3 0 0 0 £1,600.00 Yes

The last column there after wages is 'will they re-sign?' (This is just on start-up, I'm currently simming to see if some are more willing to re-sign end-of-season, but I doubt it). The key seems to be that players seem willing to re-sign when the Current Rep falls below '50'?

I'll adjust Stan, Janne, Jaimo and Blaz's Current Rep and have a play-through to see if they are willing to re-sign end-of-season. If '50' is the magic number then I think it will hopefully only be a few current EPIHL-rostered players that need amending, for the Lightning it seems to be the guys who have come from European leagues, or dropped from the Elite League that are most affected. I'll also see if the reps change very much over the course of a season...though I doubt if from looking on the editor on my old save-game. The key thing (again if '50' is the borderline) will be if players are ever likely to exceed that rep in-game playing in the EPIHL?

After this I'll have a look at a random Elite League team and see if I can establish a key 'Rep' stat for that as well. I'm hoping it's just the 'Current Rep' that needs adjusting, as long as it works as per the system you posted above.

OK, scratch that, was too simple to actually work!

Dropping Current Rep to '49' for those 4 players hasn't changed a thing!

Must be some Combo of all 3 reps?

I tried simming through to early March 2014 using the v6.1 DB (I had edited the DB so that various players' contracts would expire on 30 April 2014). I edited the saved game so that Christie was 15/15/7.5. He said he was unwilling to discuss a new contract at the time, but he accepted my offer of £2,100 p/y (he was previously earning £1,500 p/y).

Emersic was another due to expire at the end of April 2014. He was 69/64/47 and was also unwilling to discuss an offer in early March. I offered him a 1 year extension at £16,000 p/y (he was previously earning £15,000 p/y). He rejected the offer. I dropped him down to 60/60/30 and offered him the same contract again - and then again to 50/50/25 and then to 40/40/20. Each time he rejected the offer. I then tried the most I could offer (£18,500 p/y) at 40/40/20 - and again he rejected. And then £18,500 p/y at 30/30/15 - and another rejection!

Finally, I tried £18,500 at 20/20/10. He didn't respond in time and his contract expired. I made an offer to him as a free agent (again £18,500 at 20/20/10) and he said he had absolutely no interest in joining MK.

Emersic is a weird case for me as well? Not willing to re-sign at all. And I think he's re-signed for next season for us too!

Janne will re-sign for me (consistently) on 20/49/50. With this the AI generates a wage of £10'500, which considering his season isn't too far wrong, He'll be earning more than that in real-life, but for EHM 2005-era money and the percieved status of the league (back then it had only just made it's 'step-up' to being second-tier in England hadn't it) thats a realistic wage I think? The way I rationalise it:

Home Rep; 20 - relates to the fact that he's playing in England and not Finland, Current Rep; 49 - (just under 50) he's fairly highly rated as an import for MK, World Rep; 50 - unchanged (maybe it should be, by my reckoning none of the EPIHL players are looking at international call-ups anytime soon, with the possible exception of a few of the Brits).

Briefly:

Leigh Jamieson wouldn't re-sign for me on start up at all, despite what Rep's I gave him the game always generated the same wage for him, £7000. Finally tried 33/33/25 (as if I was rating him for an N/Am league as you suggested above) and while he wouldn't discuss a contract on start-up, he was willing once I'd simmed through?

Nick Poole won't re-sign as a player but is happy to as a coach. Not sure why, though his age probably has a lot to do with that. He's usually rated as one of MK's 'stars' on start-up, but I rarely use him, only as injury cover as in real-life. He will extend his contract as a coach mind (which I will do, despite him not having the best stats for it). For my games I'll probably leave his stats and Reps as-is, give him a player-coach contract through 2015 and sign him as bench-boss after a year. Can't see him continuing to play much anyway. Intriguingly his CA halved over the course of my simmed season, guessing due to his age?

Lukas Zatopek, like Emersic, won't re-sign for me no matter what I do to his stats. But seeing as he's left in real-life this adds to the realism of the mod if anything! I'll keep track of him over a few games and see where he moves to, we're not sure if he might got to Manchester in real-life or whether he'll retire.

Stan Laseck is a pain. Similar to Janne I reduced his Reps 20/50/30 and he'd re-sign on start-up (with a generated wage of £11,500. Really he should be our highest-paid import I think). The next start-up he wouldn't. Then the next he wouldn't, or at the end of my simmed season! There is some seemingly-random element at play here I think? I might experiment with his CA as I'm pretty sure we shouldn't have EPIHL guys on 100, imports or not. I don't want to nerf his stats but I'll see if it affects his willingness to re-sign?

Looking at my simmed seasons there are some interesting effects on the reps, all the imports 'World' reps dropped significantly to being around 19 for Janne, Stan and Blaz (A reflection on the league they're playing in)? Stan's 'Home' rep went up by 5 points (so maybe I nerfed his reps with my initial meddling)?

This is infernally difficult! And I can't see any formula emerging that we can apply to the database yet?

"If at first you don't succeed...try at least two more times so that your failure is statistically significant!"

Strong suspicion it might have to do with CA/PA as well?

Dropped Janne to 45 CA 45/45/40 and he's willing to re-sign on start up. Going to sim through to see about the rest?

Dropped Stanno to 50 CA, and Blaz to 45. Hasn't had an appreciable effect on their attributes, will do a sim-through to see how they play and whether they will re-sign.

A quick search on CA shows 19 players above the maximun '50' that you refer to above. I'll shortlist them and see what happens to them end-of-season.

Once I've done that I'll have a play with the rep's again, to see if it makes any difference now the CA's have been adjusted? (Should I change the PA's too)?

marksbros6 wrote:Strong suspicion it might have to do with CA/PA as well?

Hmmm that's an interesting point. I'll look into this too. At a guess, I'd be doubtful if PA would be relevant. That is more a measure of what the player will become rather than what he is now (also it would mean that a high PA junior player wouldn't want to sign with any junior teams).

I think the EPL League Rep is already high enough, but I wonder whether increasing the team's Team Rep will improve things. I'll try and take a look at this too either today/tomorrow.

Emersic and Stanno are the confusing ones?

Anyone on here remember when we used to play the game for fun? Lol

I'd not considered team reps. Looking at it from a 2005 perspective teams like MK would have never been attracting players the caliber of Stanno and Janne then? Obviously things have moved on where we can attract players from the Finnish, Czech and Slovakian leagues.

Not had a chance to experiment with any Team Reps yet. Quick Search through the database though show TPS Turkku (Janne's old team) and Neuilly sur Marne (Stanno's) to both be Professional teams of 6000 and 2500 rep respectively.

Incidentally: Neuilly sur Marne are now "Bison de Neuilly sur Marne"...are the French Leagues playable? Much like Braehead Clan I'd be a fan of theirs just for the awesome name!

Most of the guys I shortlisted in my last play-through (Kamil Jarina, Tomas Karpov, Robin Kovar, Marek Miksuvic etc) all over the '50 CA' cap you mentioned for the EPIHL have all signed with Czech, Slovakian and Danish teams after the 13/14 season.

I'll have a play about with the Team Reps for MK and the rest of the teams in the league?

Comparing team reps from different leagues is difficult. A 4500 value in one league would not be considered 4500 in another due to that league having higher rep.
I do not know if there is a way to calculate the values so they would get comparable.

League rep comes first, then team rep

Cheers Manimal. It's frustrating is what it is! Lol

Though maybe the team rep's could go up a bit then, I was worried about the upper EPIHL teams being on the same level as the lower Elite ones, but if the different league rep is what counts then I guess they wouldn't be?

From what I've seen playing around, changing the team Rep means everyone on the team earns more money as standard! Though some players seem to always earn the same? Blaz Emersic and Leigh Jamieson are always earning £15k and £7k no matter what adjustments I make to team/player reps?

I have been experimenting with Team Rep too. It looks like it has quite an instrumental effect.

I edited the TBL v6.1 Rosters by setting the contract expiry of every player at Basingstoke, Guildford, Manchester and Milton Keynes to 30 April 2014. I also changed the CA of each of those players as follows:

20% @ 60 CA
20% @ 50 CA
20% @ 40 CA
20% @ 30 CA
20% @ 20 CA

So on each roster, approx 20% of players had a 60 CA, approx 20% had 50 CA, etc. I set their PA, Current and Home Reps to the same value as their CA. I set their World Rep to approx 33% of their CA. Typically the range of CAs in the EPL should be approx 20 - 50 (so I went 10 higher to 60). By way of comparison the EIHL is roughly 20 - 90.

Then I adjusted the Team Reps of those four teams as per the table below. I have also included in the table below details of the maximum annual salary I could offer in-game to a player who has a Key Player status:

[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Max Salary (p/a)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£22,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£43,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£114,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£346,000[/td][/tr][/table]

The Team Rep did have an effect on the average salary generated at game start up, but it didn't have any effect on the range (for each team, the salaries ranged from £2,100 - £22,500). The average salary is definitely higher with a higher Team Rep, but annoyingly I didn't check the actual average on the Finance screen before I simmed through to the end of the season. Regardless of the players' CAs, the imports always get the higher salaries. A small number of the top Brits also get high salaries (e.g. David Longstaff was on £20,500 at Guildford). Interestingly, many of the high CA Brits (e.g. Stephen Fone had a 60 CA) had very low salaries - but they did typically want more when renewing.

It was certainly the case that the higher the rep, the easier it was to re-sign players (I added human GMs to each of the four teams so I could see what would happen). Even the top players were willing to sign to the top rep teams. It was still hard to re-sign players to Basingstoke's roster but it was certainly a much better and more realistic situation for Guildford, MK and Manchester.

After having an experiment with re-signing some of the top players and the imports at the end of Feb 2014, I vacation simmed through to 1 May 2014. I set my assistant at each team to renew contracts via the Vacation Settings but I found that virtually no players had re-signed come 1 May. I don't know whether this is a separate issue or whether I'd just left it too late for my assistants to renew the contracts. So I'm going to try another sim but this time without controlling any of the teams. I'm also going to set some Team Reps for the other EPL teams and I'll make all players' contracts expire on 30 April 2014. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, here are some screenshots showing how the average salary seems to be higher with the higher rep teams:

Following on from my earlier post, I have tried simming with a further modified version of the v6.1 DB. The Basingstoke, Guildford, Milton Keynes and Manchester rosters are the same as before (i.e. 20% of each roster has players with 20 CA, 20% with 30 CA, etc) but the other EPL rosters are the same as the v6.1 DB. All players have contract expiry dates set to 30 April 2014 and I've amended each team's rep as per the tables below.

In case it's of any use, I have uploaded a copy of the DB here (it also includes a spreadsheet showing the amended CAs, PAs and Reps for the four teams): http://1drv.ms/1i8Oc3E

Annoyingly, the mass exodus of players still occurs at the end of the season. Seeing as players are more willing to re-sign with the increased Team Reps, it seems as though the GM/Head Coaches are simply not interested in re-signing the players. Things do seem to improve at the end of season 2 with teams retaining more players and releasing fewer, but they're still releasing far too many players. During season 1 (01/08/13 - 01/05/14), the teams on average signed approx 4 players and released 15 (approx 4 minus 15 = a net change of approx -12 on average). In season 2, these averages changed to signing 5 and releasing 10 (5 minus 10 = -5 net change).

It's interesting to see that teams with high budgets and Reps of at least 4000 would offer huge contracts to players. Due to the size of the contracts they offered, they could only sign a couple of players. E.g. Manchester had only about 5 players with the average salary being £95k!!!. Guildford and Slough were the other two $240k+ teams with a Rep of greater than 4000 and they also had small, overpaid rosters. Basingstoke, on the other hand, had a $225k budget but only a 2500 rep. Their roster retention was much better than the other three. It's also worth noting that the top three big spenders were signing fairly big imports - e.g. players from Euro elite leagues and the KHL.

From the tables below, it looks like a max Team Rep of somewhere between 4000 and 4499 would be ideal. At least with a 6 League Rep anyhow. I'm going to try dropping the League Rep down to 4 to see what effect this has.

I have posted below some tables which show how things panned out in the first two seasons in game.


SEASON 1

Team overview
This table shows the salary details of the teams at game start-up. I took the Wage Budget details from the DB which is stored in US Dollars - hence why they're in USD rather than £ in the table. Clearly budget and Team Rep play a big role in determining the salaries generated at start-up (in addition, of course, to League Rep). The wages below are shown on a per annum basis.

[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Average Wage[/th][th]Lowest Wage[/th][th]Highest Wage[/th][th]Total Wages[/th][th]Wage Budget (DB)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£9,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£150,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£127,000[/td][td]USD 190,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£95,000[/td][td]USD 140,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£165,000[/td][td]USD 145,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£160,000[/td][td]USD 245,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]£8,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£24,000[/td][td]£155,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£102,000[/td][td]USD 185,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£26,000[/td][td]£116,000[/td][td]USD 160,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£88,000[/td][td]USD 165,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£115,000[/td][td]USD 225,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£3,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£10,000[/td][td]£61,500[/td][td]USD 100,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]£2,500[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£56,000[/td][td]USD 95,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]£5,625[/td][td]£1,917[/td][td]£18,667[/td][td]£115,875[/td][td]USD 177,500[/td][/tr][/table]

Roster movement as of 1 May 2014
This table shows the roster sizes of each team as of 1 May 2014. It also shows how many players they signed (IN) and released (OUT) during the season (i.e. 1 August 2013 - 1 May 2014). The Net Change shows the IN less the OUT. I.e. a negative net change shows that the roster shrunk over the season whereas a positive number shows a net increase. Post season transactions aren't included and in any event the game started after this date (i.e. 2 May 2013 - 31 July 2013).

[table][tr][th]1 May 2014[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Roster Size[/th][th]Net Change[/th][th]IN[/th][th]OUT[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]-16[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]5[/td][td]-13[/td][td]0[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]14[/td][td]-4[/td][td]8[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]10[/td][td]-27[/td][td]0[/td][td]27[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]3[/td][td]-16[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]2[/td][td]-18[/td][td]1[/td][td]19[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]12[/td][td]-7[/td][td]0[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]15[/td][td]-4[/td][td]7[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]10[/td][td]-7[/td][td]5[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]8[/td][td]-10[/td][td]4[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]12[/td][td]-6[/td][td]12[/td][td]18[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]10[/td][td]-10[/td][td]10[/td][td]20[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]8[/td][td]-12[/td][td]4[/td][td]15[/td][/tr][/table]

Player signings as of 1 May 2014
This table breaks down the IN figure from the Roster Movement table above. It shows during which point of the season players were signed.

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS IN[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/13 - 31/12/13[/th][th]01/01/14 - 01/05/14[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]7[/td][td]1[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]1[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]4[/td][td]3[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]4[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]2[/td][td]2[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]11[/td][td]1[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]10[/td][td]0[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]3[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][/tr][/table]

Player releases as of 1 May 2014
This table breaks down the OUT figure from the Roster Movement table above. It shows during which point of the season players were released / traded away. Virtually all of the players released during the 01/01/14 - 01/05/14 period were as a result of contract expiries on 30/04/14.

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS OUT[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/13 - 31/12/13[/th][th]01/01/14 - 01/05/14[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]1[/td][td]12[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]11[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]10[/td][td]17[/td][td]27[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]1[/td][td]15[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]1[/td][td]18[/td][td]19[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]0[/td][td]11[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]0[/td][td]12[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]3[/td][td]11[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]5[/td][td]13[/td][td]18[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]8[/td][td]12[/td][td]20[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]3[/td][td]13[/td][td]15[/td][/tr][/table]


SEASON 2

Team overview
[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Average Wage[/th][th]Lowest Wage[/th][th]Highest Wage[/th][th]Total Wages[/th][th]Wage Budget (DB)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£95,000[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£150,000[/td][td]£481,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£14,000[/td][td]£88,500[/td][td]USD 190,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£133,000[/td][td]USD 140,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£109,000[/td][td]USD 145,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£2,500[/td][td]£70,000[/td][td]£167,000[/td][td]USD 245,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£35,000[/td][td]£50,000[/td][td]£164,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£105,000[/td][td]USD 185,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]£4,500[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£112,000[/td][td]USD 160,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£26,000[/td][td]£104,000[/td][td]USD 165,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£4,500[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£14,000[/td][td]£82,000[/td][td]USD 225,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£3,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£71,000[/td][td]USD 100,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]£3,000[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£62,000[/td][td]USD 95,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]£14,583[/td][td]£4,875[/td][td]£35,667[/td][td]£139,875[/td][td]USD 177,500[/td][/tr][/table]

Highest paid players as of 5 September 2014
This table shows in which league each of the top paid players were playing in during the previous season. For example, Manchester's highest paid player on their roster (as at 5 September 2014) played in the Swedish Hockey League (the former Elitserien) in-game last season - as did their second highest paid player. The reason for showing these stats as of 5 September is because many teams had lots of players on try out contracts which all expired on 4 September.

[table][tr][th]Top Players[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Highest Paid[/th][th]2nd Highest Paid[/th][th]3rd Highest Paid[/th][th]4th Highest Paid[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]Swe SHL[/td][td]Swe SHL[/td][td]Rus RSL/KHL[/td][td]Ger DEL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Swe-2[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]ECHL->AHL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Ita Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]ECHL[/td][td]Ger-3[/td][td]EIHL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]Rus-2[/td][td]Ger DEL[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Nor Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Dutch Elite[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]Fra Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Aut-2[/td][td]Swe-2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]Fra Elite[/td][td]Ger DEL-2[/td][td]Nor Elite[/td][td]ECHL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]MOL Liga[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Cze-2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]Svk-3[/td][td]Fra-3[/td][td]Fin Liiga[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]SNL->EIHL->EPL[/td][/tr][/table]

Roster movement as of 1 May 2015
[table][tr][th]1 May 2015[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Roster Size[/th][th]Net Change[/th][th]IN[/th][th]OUT[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]1[/td][td]-4[/td][td]3[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]11[/td][td]1[/td][td]10[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]13[/td][td]-8[/td][td]3[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]14[/td][td]-3[/td][td]6[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]5[/td][td]-4[/td][td]8[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]4[/td][td]-5[/td][td]2[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]17[/td][td]-3[/td][td]5[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]13[/td][td]-13[/td][td]3[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]15[/td][td]-5[/td][td]2[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]14[/td][td]-3[/td][td]5[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]17[/td][td]-4[/td][td]10[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]17[/td][td]-6[/td][td]7[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]12[/td][td]-5[/td][td]5[/td][td]10[/td][/tr][/table]

Player signings as of 1 May 2015
[table][tr][th]PLAYERS IN[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/14 - 31/12/14[/th][th]01/01/15 - 01/05/15[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]9[/td][td]1[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]3[/td][td]0[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]2[/td][td]4[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]8[/td][td]0[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]2[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]2[/td][td]3[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]2[/td][td]3[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]6[/td][td]4[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]6[/td][td]1[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]4[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][/tr][/table]

Player releases as of 1 May 2015
[table][tr][th]PLAYERS OUT[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/14 - 31/12/14[/th][th]01/01/15 - 01/05/15[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]7[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]2[/td][td]7[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]2[/td][td]9[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]1[/td][td]8[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]12[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]0[/td][td]7[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]1[/td][td]7[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]6[/td][td]10[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]1[/td][td]7[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]7[/td][td]7[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]2[/td][td]11[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]2[/td][td]8[/td][td]10[/td][/tr][/table]

Wow; see my earlier comment about playing the game for fun!

Cheers for the db link, I'll have a play with it next week sometime, won't have time tonight, got work tomorrow and need to wash some clothes, or I'll be turning up at the office tomorrow in boxer-shorts and my Rangers Jersey...

One thing I did find out is that the AI when I was on holiday, even when I set it to renew 'All Expiring' contracts, rarely re-signed players, it may be a generic problem with AI in the game? I'd surmise that the game being 'NHL-centric' this might be an issue in general, certainly in the American leagues, with the free-agency market being what it is you will have a lot of players leaving at the end of their contracts (maybe you or I will go that extra mile wage-wise/bonus-wise to retain a player, whereas the AI does the sums and just comes up with a 'no').

To be honest we could debate about how 'realistic' it is in the UK as well. Don't know about Guildford but only 8 players are currently signed up at MK for next season after all? Of course more will (I hope, don't think any of those 8 are netminders!) but it could have been an attempt with the game to mimic the season-to-season fluctuations in a teams roster at this level of the game. Though I think it is compounded by certain player having been moved to the league who exceed the 'CA cap' for the EPIHL/Elite league. Where did you get your figures from regarding the average and max CA's for the leagues btw?

marksbros6 wrote:Wow; see my earlier comment about playing the game for fun!?

Haha welcome to the wonderful world of modding! I spend far, far more time tweaking and testing than playing. I'm lucky to get more than two seasons played per year.

marksbros6 wrote:got work tomorrow and need to wash some clothes, or I'll be turning up at the office tomorrow in boxer-shorts and my Rangers Jersey... ?

Me too! Only two weeks until the next bank holiday!

marksbros6 wrote:One thing I did find out is that the AI when I was on holiday, even when I set it to renew 'All Expiring' contracts, rarely re-signed players, it may be a generic problem with AI in the game? I'd surmise that the game being 'NHL-centric' this might be an issue in general, certainly in the American leagues, with the free-agency market being what it is you will have a lot of players leaving at the end of their contracts (maybe you or I will go that extra mile wage-wise/bonus-wise to retain a player, whereas the AI does the sums and just comes up with a 'no').

Yes, the AI management does seem to be at the heart of the issue. It seems to me that the AI doesn't value its players. Upping the Team Rep does seem to solve the unwillingness of players wanting to re-sign. It's now just a case of seeing if we can encourage the AI to value its roster at game start. Seeing as player retention is about 50% better at the end of season 2 (where the roster consists of players chosen/signed by the AI at the beginning of season 2) than season 1, perhaps we can improve things at least a little further. I'll be interested to see how using higher and lower League Reps affects things. Hence I plan trying a sim with a Rep of 4 and a Rep of 8.

marksbros6 wrote:To be honest we could debate about how 'realistic' it is in the UK as well. Don't know about Guildford but only 8 players are currently signed up at MK for next season after all? Of course more will (I hope, don't think any of those 8 are netminders!) but it could have been an attempt with the game to mimic the season-to-season fluctuations in a teams roster at this level of the game.

It's because it's so early in the off-season. Contracts tend to be renewed throughout the off-season right up until the beginning of the season. Rosters don't tend to change all that much year on year for most teams. It's only teams in rebuild mode or financial difficulties where there is a lot of turnover.

marksbros6 wrote:Though I think it is compounded by certain player having been moved to the league who exceed the 'CA cap' for the EPIHL/Elite league. Where did you get your figures from regarding the average and max CA's for the leagues btw?

There's no cap per se. It's just that when the game was developed, the devs gave the roster researchers guidelines on how to rate the players in each league. The guidelines aim to ensure that players are consistently rated and to try and avoid players being over or under-rated. There are a fair few users here who helped research and/or beta test the game - so we've used that knowledge to carry on the roster updates. In actual fact, the range we use for the EPL now is slightly lower than that used in the original DB because I felt the top end players were a bit too strong in relation to the EIHL and ECHL.

Yeah, don't see much 'turnover' from clubs and MK have kept a core group for the last 3 years.

I'll have a look at the reps, set them to what you suggest and play-through a bit myself to observe what comes up. At least you seem to have solved the issue of the player not being able to re-sign players (which was a major gripe for me). And the way you've done it might bode well for the Elite league in TBL and Superleague in the 98/99 mod too. Agree that we don't want EPIHL teams poaching players from the KHL though!

Just a thought but most of the UK sides don't have GM's on start up. Might this be an issue in 'retaining' players over the first season. I know various FM games have 'Generating Manager shortlists' as a function when a new game is being created, might it be that the GM's signed at the start of the game do a 're-build' job and that is why the initial rosters aren't valued?

Saw in the other thread you are working on a seperate .exe file for the mod. Looks like a decent way to run things, hope it works out.

In other news: Seen any of Team GB this tournament so far? I watched against Romania earlier. Think they need to up the percentage of their 'Powerplay' in the practice menu!

marksbros6 wrote:Yeah, don't see much 'turnover' from clubs and MK have kept a core group for the last 3 years.

I see MK have re-signed Lascek and Emersic already. Good news for your team! Guildford haven't signed anyone yet, but we have lost Ricky Skene (retired) and Dean Holland (moved back to Whitley - a shame as he's a cracking 3rd line player). I expect Guildford will have a fair bit of turnover this summer - and no doubt Telford will too. It's going to be a really interesting season next season. We basically 5 teams all in contention for the top spots.

marksbros6 wrote:Just a thought but most of the UK sides don't have GM's on start up. Might this be an issue in 'retaining' players over the first season. I know various FM games have 'Generating Manager shortlists' as a function when a new game is being created, might it be that the GM's signed at the start of the game do a 're-build' job and that is why the initial rosters aren't valued?

That's a good point. I haven't been checking to see if/when teams sign GM/Head Coaches. Something else I think worth checking is where all of the released players end up the following season. It certainly seems from dropping the League Rep to 4 that the released EPL players are signing with other EPL teams - but I didn't check whether this was the case with the League Rep at 6.

marksbros6 wrote:Saw in the other thread you are working on a seperate .exe file for the mod. Looks like a decent way to run things, hope it works out.

That's right. The rule works fine. I just haven't looked to see what teams do in light of the rule (it won't really be possible to see until we get the players properly rated). I think the ISL will work well because in real life the teams really did go over the top with import signings. In the 1998/99 season there were only 13 Brits in the league (and in the final season, there were only 3).

marksbros6 wrote:In other news: Seen any of Team GB this tournament so far? I watched against Romania earlier. Think they need to up the percentage of their 'Powerplay' in the practice menu!

No, I haven't (although I did read Myers went off with an injury and Phil Hill lost a tooth). I'm guessing it's only Premier Sports? I've been a bit wary of Premier Sports' online service seeing as it isn't HD and it's a new service. However, my brother has been a subscriber for most of last season and has said good things about it (other than the commentary of course). I'll probably subscribe next season as it'd be nice to be able to watch the EIHL and Team GB games on the TV.

Below are the stats from using a League Rep of 4. Things seem remarkably similar (the net change for each season is exactly the same as with my League Rep 6 test). I'm going to give a League Rep of 8 a try next time.

SEASON 1

[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Average Wage[/th][th]Lowest Wage[/th][th]Highest Wage[/th][th]Total Wages[/th][th]Wage Budget (DB)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£9,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£154,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£127,000[/td][td]USD 190,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£94,000[/td][td]USD 140,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£164,000[/td][td]USD 145,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£159,000[/td][td]USD 245,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]£8,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£28,000[/td][td]£158,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£102,000[/td][td]USD 185,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£110,000[/td][td]USD 160,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£90,500[/td][td]USD 165,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£117,000[/td][td]USD 225,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£64,500[/td][td]USD 100,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]£2,500[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£56,000[/td][td]USD 95,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]£5,583[/td][td]£1,917[/td][td]£18,333[/td][td]£116,333[/td][td]USD 177,500[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]1 May 2014[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Roster Size[/th][th]Net Change[/th][th]IN[/th][th]OUT[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]-16[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]3[/td][td]-15[/td][td]0[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]9[/td][td]-9[/td][td]2[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]14[/td][td]-23[/td][td]0[/td][td]23[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]2[/td][td]-17[/td][td]0[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]1[/td][td]-19[/td][td]0[/td][td]19[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]14[/td][td]-5[/td][td]9[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]12[/td][td]-7[/td][td]7[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]10[/td][td]-7[/td][td]3[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]7[/td][td]-12[/td][td]5[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]10[/td][td]-7[/td][td]10[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]15[/td][td]-5[/td][td]9[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]8[/td][td]-12[/td][td]4[/td][td]16[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS IN[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/13 - 31/12/13[/th][th]01/01/14 - 01/05/14[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]7[/td][td]2[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]3[/td][td]0[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]3[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]8[/td][td]2[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]8[/td][td]1[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]3[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS OUT[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/13 - 31/12/13[/th][th]01/01/14 - 01/05/14[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]2[/td][td]13[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]10[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]7[/td][td]16[/td][td]23[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]3[/td][td]14[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]1[/td][td]18[/td][td]19[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]5[/td][td]9[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]0[/td][td]14[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]0[/td][td]10[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]3[/td][td]14[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]3[/td][td]11[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]2[/td][td]13[/td][td]16[/td][/tr][/table]


SEASON 2

[table][tr][th]Top Players[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Highest Paid[/th][th]2nd Highest Paid[/th][th]3rd Highest Paid[/th][th]4th Highest Paid[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]Fin Liiga[/td][td]Swe-2[/td][td]Ger DEL[/td][td]Ger DEL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Fin Liiga[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Swe-2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]Nor Elite[/td][td]EIHL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]Ger DEL[/td][td]Rus-2[/td][td]Ger-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]NHL (1 GP)[/td][td]CHL[/td][td]DEL[/td][td]Pol Elite[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]ECHL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]Fra Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]Ita Elite[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPHL/Ger-3[/td][td]Fra Elite[/td][td]Swe-2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EIHL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Ger DEL-2[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Swi-3[/td][td]Cze-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Average Wage[/th][th]Lowest Wage[/th][th]Highest Wage[/th][th]Total Wages[/th][th]Wage Budget (DB)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£55,000[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£120,000[/td][td]£327,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£87,500[/td][td]USD 190,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£30,000[/td][td]£112,000[/td][td]USD 140,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£131,000[/td][td]USD 145,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£45,000[/td][td]£143,000[/td][td]USD 245,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£60,000[/td][td]£200,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£24,000[/td][td]£102,000[/td][td]USD 185,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£92,500[/td][td]USD 160,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]£3,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£10,000[/td][td]£81,000[/td][td]USD 165,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£10,000[/td][td]£70,000[/td][td]USD 225,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£14,000[/td][td]£77,000[/td][td]USD 100,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]£3,000[/td][td]£15,000[/td][td]£10,000[/td][td]£58,000[/td][td]USD 95,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]£11,125[/td][td]£3,458[/td][td]£31,417[/td][td]£123,417[/td][td]USD 177,500[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]1 May 2015[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Roster Size[/th][th]Net Change[/th][th]IN[/th][th]OUT[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]1[/td][td]-5[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]9[/td][td]-4[/td][td]5[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]12[/td][td]-8[/td][td]1[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]14[/td][td]-11[/td][td]3[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]-9[/td][td]0[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]3[/td][td]-3[/td][td]5[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]17[/td][td]-2[/td][td]6[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]20[/td][td]-5[/td][td]2[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]15[/td][td]-4[/td][td]9[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]18[/td][td]0[/td][td]8[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]13[/td][td]-6[/td][td]2[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]16[/td][td]-5[/td][td]6[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]12[/td][td]-5[/td][td]4[/td][td]9[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS IN[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/14 - 31/12/14[/th][th]01/01/15 - 01/05/15[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]5[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]5[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]2[/td][td]4[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]8[/td][td]1[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]4[/td][td]4[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]2[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]5[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]3[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS OUT[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/14 - 31/12/14[/th][th]01/01/15 - 01/05/15[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]6[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]1[/td][td]8[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]8[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]3[/td][td]11[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]9[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]0[/td][td]8[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]2[/td][td]6[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]4[/td][td]3[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]2[/td][td]11[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]1[/td][td]7[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]0[/td][td]8[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]0[/td][td]11[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]1[/td][td]8[/td][td]9[/td][/tr][/table]

Interesting stuff. I'm running a Sim at the sec, rated the EPIHL teams between 2300 and 3000, going to see how it affects re-signing players for the User and the player turn-over in summer.

If I get time 2mo I'll assign some GM's to the UK sides as well and see if that affects things, I'll probably use your database though so we can compare?

Stanno was a top player for us towards the end of this season, everyone was looking tired (no home-ice apparently put a severe dent in their training and match-fitness) and it showed during the last few games. He just seemed to stand out more and more as the team looked more and more leggy though. Class player. Definitly 100 CA in the database!

Jordan Cownie really impressed me as well, seemed a really good skater first time I saw him. Generally my fave players are all netminders though, bravest men on the ice having pucks fired at them and a good performance in the cage can win a game on it's own. Poor old Wally had a mare over both legs against Basingstoke in the Cup final though!

Am a fan of Grant McPherson as well, purely because he was involved in the first 'Hockey Fight' I saw live! Not that he seems to win many!

No, I haven't (although I did read Myers went off with an injury and Phil Hill lost a tooth). I'm guessing it's only Premier Sports? I've been a bit wary of Premier Sports' online service seeing as it isn't HD and it's a new service. However, my brother has been a subscriber for most of last season and has said good things about it (other than the commentary of course). I'll probably subscribe next season as it'd be nice to be able to watch the EIHL and Team GB games on the TV.

Was a bit of a halting performance. Myers looked crocked when he went off, about 3 people helping him? I like Premier Sports coverage, not too bothered about it not being HD, have to have it to keep track of the Rangers anyway but their Elite League coverage isn't too bad. Though I do find the commentary funny! Ricochet off the post last night (open net) "GOOD G....olly MISS MOLLY!!!" (Cos it wouldn't be professional to say 'God' on a sportcast would it!).

Only thing they need to do is add the lower English leagues to the schedule. There'd be an audience for it I think, certainly Premier League and even ENL? Oxford/Basingstoke Buffalo was a fantastic game the other day, hockey is set up to tell a story and narrative (physical plays, Power-plays, Penalty Kills) and is fast-paced no matter what the level. Even a highlights show would be a step up because it's so hard to find out results sometimes.

Mind you, it's the sort of thing the Beeb and Grandstand should really be looking into really, all sorts of 'rubbish' sports get coverage, and they've lost a lot of the motorsports and exciting stuff they used to show.

I completely agree with you about the commentary. The clips I've seen from Premier Sports are horrendous. I have a couple of DVDs of EIHL games and they're the same commentators - I tend to watch them with the sound down. I don't know what they're thinking. I've never heard anything so full of cliches before - and the Canadians they have are no better either (and they don't seem to know the rules)!!

Yes, I definitely think it'll be quicker and easier to use the DB I uploaded. It'll save you having to adjust all of the player contracts manually on the original v6.1 DB.

I have finished simming using a League Rep of 8. I don't have time to post my thoughts right now. What I plan to do is narrow down the Team Reps to try and get them to a more realistic level (hopefully this weekend). I'll then post some more thoughts. I don't think the League Rep really needs much, if any, adjustment. I'm also going to try a few other things as well as a longer term sim. I suspect the turnover is going to be inevitable with the AI-controlled teams at the end of the first season, but I'm hopeful it'll calm down from season 2 onwards - and it looks like we've resolved the issue of players rejecting reasonable contract offers.

Let me know how your experiments go.

SEASON 1

[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Average Wage[/th][th]Lowest Wage[/th][th]Highest Wage[/th][th]Total Wages[/th][th]Wage Budget (DB)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£9,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£26,000[/td][td]£158,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£127,000[/td][td]USD 190,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£94,500[/td][td]USD 140,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£164,000[/td][td]USD 145,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£160,000[/td][td]USD 245,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]£8,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£26,000[/td][td]£158,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£99,000[/td][td]USD 185,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£16,000[/td][td]£105,000[/td][td]USD 160,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]£5,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£87,500[/td][td]USD 165,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£22,000[/td][td]£115,000[/td][td]USD 225,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£3,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£10,000[/td][td]£61,000[/td][td]USD 100,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]£2,500[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£55,500[/td][td]USD 95,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]£5,542[/td][td]£1,917[/td][td]£18,333[/td][td]£115,375[/td][td]USD 177,500[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]1 May 2014[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Roster Size[/th][th]Net Change[/th][th]IN[/th][th]OUT[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]-16[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]5[/td][td]-13[/td][td]0[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]18[/td][td]1[/td][td]8[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]13[/td][td]-22[/td][td]2[/td][td]24[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]2[/td][td]-17[/td][td]0[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]1[/td][td]-19[/td][td]0[/td][td]19[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]12[/td][td]-5[/td][td]6[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]9[/td][td]-10[/td][td]5[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]10[/td][td]-7[/td][td]4[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]10[/td][td]-9[/td][td]2[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]9[/td][td]-9[/td][td]7[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]14[/td][td]-8[/td][td]10[/td][td]18[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]9[/td][td]-11[/td][td]4[/td][td]15[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS IN[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/13 - 31/12/13[/th][th]01/01/14 - 01/05/14[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]7[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]2[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]5[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]5[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]4[/td][td]0[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]5[/td][td]2[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]8[/td][td]2[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]3[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS OUT[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/13 - 31/12/13[/th][th]01/01/14 - 01/05/14[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]16[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]1[/td][td]12[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]7[/td][td]17[/td][td]24[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]2[/td][td]17[/td][td]19[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]2[/td][td]9[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]0[/td][td]15[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]0[/td][td]11[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]0[/td][td]11[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]3[/td][td]13[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]6[/td][td]12[/td][td]18[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]2[/td][td]13[/td][td]15[/td][/tr][/table]


SEASON 2

[table][tr][th]Top Players[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Highest Paid[/th][th]2nd Highest Paid[/th][th]3rd Highest Paid[/th][th]4th Highest Paid[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]Rus KHL[/td][td]Swe SHL[/td][td]Swe SHL[/td][td]Ger DEL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]Aut Elite[/td][td]Aut Elite[/td][td]CHL[/td][td]Nor Elite[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]ECHL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]Swi NLA[/td][td]ECHL[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]Ita Elite[/td][td]Ger DEL-2[/td][td]Ger-3[/td][td]Fra Elite[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]Nor Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]Fra-2[/td][td]Fra Elite[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]Nor Elite[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Swe-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Fin Jrs[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]Aut Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]Ger-3[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]Slo Elite[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][td]EPL[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]Team[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Average Wage[/th][th]Lowest Wage[/th][th]Highest Wage[/th][th]Total Wages[/th][th]Wage Budget (DB)[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]£90,000[/td][td]£50,000[/td][td]£130,000[/td][td]£361,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]£10,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£50,000[/td][td]£175,000[/td][td]USD 190,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£131,000[/td][td]USD 140,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]£7,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£20,000[/td][td]£155,000[/td][td]USD 145,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]£24,000[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£60,000[/td][td]£162,000[/td][td]USD 245,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£3,500[/td][td]£55,000[/td][td]£137,000[/td][td]USD 240,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]£6,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£35,000[/td][td]£131,000[/td][td]USD 185,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]£4,500[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£14,000[/td][td]£95,000[/td][td]USD 160,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]£4,500[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£26,000[/td][td]£80,500[/td][td]USD 165,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£14,000[/td][td]£82,000[/td][td]USD 225,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]£4,000[/td][td]£2,000[/td][td]£18,000[/td][td]£87,500[/td][td]USD 100,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]£2,500[/td][td]£1,500[/td][td]£12,000[/td][td]£56,500[/td][td]USD 95,000[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]£14,542[/td][td]£6,208[/td][td]£37,667[/td][td]£137,792[/td][td]USD 177,500[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]1 May 2015[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]Roster Size[/th][th]Net Change[/th][th]IN[/th][th]OUT[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]4[/td][td]-2[/td][td]3[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]13[/td][td]-5[/td][td]3[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]14[/td][td]-10[/td][td]2[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]14[/td][td]-8[/td][td]2[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]4[/td][td]-3[/td][td]5[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]4[/td][td]-7[/td][td]2[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]13[/td][td]-10[/td][td]3[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]17[/td][td]-3[/td][td]4[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]6[/td][td]-12[/td][td]5[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]17[/td][td]-3[/td][td]3[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]11[/td][td]-7[/td][td]7[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]15[/td][td]-5[/td][td]6[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]11[/td][td]-6[/td][td]4[/td][td]10[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS IN[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/14 - 31/12/14[/th][th]01/01/15 - 01/05/15[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]2[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]5[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]2[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]2[/td][td]2[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]3[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]6[/td][td]1[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]5[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]3[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][/tr][/table]

[table][tr][th]PLAYERS OUT[/th][th]Reputation[/th][th]01/08/14 - 31/12/14[/th][th]01/01/15 - 01/05/15[/th][th]TOTAL[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Manchester[/td][td]9500[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Milton Keynes[/td][td]7500[/td][td]2[/td][td]6[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Telford[/td][td]6000[/td][td]6[/td][td]6[/td][td]12[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swindon[/td][td]5500[/td][td]2[/td][td]8[/td][td]10[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guildford[/td][td]5000[/td][td]0[/td][td]8[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Slough[/td][td]4500[/td][td]0[/td][td]9[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sheffield[/td][td]4000[/td][td]4[/td][td]9[/td][td]13[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peterborough[/td][td]3500[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][td]7[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bracknell[/td][td]3000[/td][td]0[/td][td]17[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Basingstoke[/td][td]2500[/td][td]0[/td][td]6[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Romford[/td][td]2500[/td][td]4[/td][td]10[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wightlink[/td][td]2000[/td][td]1[/td][td]10[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AVERAGE:[/td][td]4625[/td][td]2[/td][td]8[/td][td]10[/td][/tr][/table]

I think at the very least you could manage a good drinking game or 'Cliche bingo' out of the Elite League's commentary!

I think if you're using 4000-4499 as your 'upper range' then 3000 is going to have to be the lower range. I used 3000 as my max value and no-one wants to re-sign in my last experiment?

On the plus side Janne Jokila isn't re-signing in real-life...so it's no longer a 'bug' it's 'accuracy' Lol

I'll definitely run through a few scenarios using your database. Might have to wait till the weekend now but I'll run one with all the teams in the EPIHL under human management and see who I can get to re-sign and then I'll throw in some AI GM's and just sim it through and see what happens.

I'm trying to pin down these EPL Team Reps, but without much success thus far. I've tried using the default v6.1 League Rep and used Team Reps ranging from 2,500 - 4,000 (and 2,000 for the two NIHL teams in the EPL). Alas, virtually all of the top players at each team were unwilling to negotiate new contracts (I made the offers at the end of March 2014). I'll try upping the Team Reps a little...

Unhelpfully I saw one of those little advice boxes on the loading screen this weekend "You can still offer a contract to a player who says they arent interested in negociating, they may still accept reasonable offers"

Well THAT makes what we're trying to do an absolute bundle of fun...

Yeah that's right. To test whether players will re-sign, I have been offering whatever they ask for or, if they don't want to sign, the highest salary the board allows. Still many of the players won't sign (although Kristoffesson did).

I think the first thing to try and achieve is a realistic maximum salary for players in the EPL. It looks like a maximum 3,750 or 4,000 is about appropriate. Then it's worth getting the teams' budgets right. The problem is that we can't up the Team Reps too far otherwise the teams go mad and blow their budget on one or two players. I think that's all we can do... However, I do think it will be noticeably better than what we have in the TBL Rosters right now.

It might also be worth trying an increase in the League Rep once the above has been done to see whether this will improve things (and perhaps experimenting again with players' Reps). But I think the priority has to be getting the salary ranges and budgets sorted.

P.s. I have split this thread off from our retro Euro/British Thread because I think this thread is too useful to be lost within the other thread.