Age rated decline and are we better of now?

Hmmmm. well here is my thruppence worth. Having started VM around 4 years ago I had just made it to the top 10 of the game after 3 years, with a first 11 nicely in their black 90 ratings, when the change kicked in and so the 33 and 34 year olds' ratings rapidly headed south. I did enjoy about 5 weeks of top action and a couple of failed Super Cups, all good fun. I am now bringing in and developing younger players so that I'll be able to assemble a squad of 29-31 year olds with ratings of 78-85. That is the best practically achievable to all intents and purposes now, i.e. a lot less than before but for the same player effort.

So, the main change for me is that having a team rating 90+ is now effectively impossible (because whereas a relatively large amount of players could previously hit and stay in the 90s for ages 31-36, this is not possible anymore as players would peak >90 for a much narrower age range so there are fewer of them so they are more expensive to buy and hard also to develop etc etc). Before the change, having a squad of 90+ rating players could effectively be accomplished by sheer patience, and a lot of time investment, as I showed, but now it is inconceivable as that type of talent is just way too expensive for all but about 15-18 active players (as looking through the divisions appears to show).

[I appreciate that another bunch of players are actively building squads of quality younger players that will peak in about 3-5 months time from now, but I have no idea how many there are and IF their eventual 29-30 year olds will peak at 99, 94, 91 or 89 etc.]

Anyway, am pretty sure that when the VM team initiated these changes their aim was not to have 15-18 players cream the game and everyone else just playing for crumbs....but that's effectively what these changes seem to have done IMHO. It has just become next to impossible for the majority of "ordinary" players to build a top level squad now.

I would love to share some ideas about how the game could be improved, but when I have done so in the past I have largely been ignored by the Danish folks who sadly (in my experience anyway) do not appear that interested to listen to what players have to say. Rolf.

Game was more fun when I started (Around 2 years ago) because of the active user base.

Transfer Market is a big component of this game, and something which I enjoyed trading in.

I haven't checked on any numbers but feels like the user base has declined dramatically in the last few weeks, as the Market seems to be barely alive. Game has lost a lot of big clubs.

Making credits now is definitely harder. Games are fun for me when progressing at a faster pace. I started in August '15, and enjoyed the game enough to subscribe to a years premium in October which I renewed. If I started today, I'm not sure I would have activated premium.

If I decided to try the pensioner route now, I would not have the same success. Pensioners were an easy way to compete at the top with the rich clubs. I even managed to get #1

I had hoped for so much from this update, but if the market is anything to go by, then this game is done for me. I only have ~28 days. 4 weeks left of below average training and above average red cards/injuries then I'm free

I never REALLY participated in the market since I came back to the game ~a year ago. Yet I seem to make more money than ever off of honestly terrible players that I just buy to keep afloat in the leagues and then sell them 1-2 weeks later when they've gained a few stats. Meanwhile I try to make decent money off of youths so I can upgrade my facilities, but I agree that it takes a long time to get actual money without being active on the market. But that seems to be what a lot of people are doing, which pushes the prices beyond what I'm willing to pay to actually make profit off of them.

There has been a steady decline in the quality of the players I've bought as of late, not sure if that's because more players are interested in those specific roles or some other reasons.

As for the game being better or worse.. I'm not sure.. I liked it a lot .. 10~ish years ago, when all my friends were playing, currently just playing solo, so not much incentive to actually do anything in the game, other than train and watch the slow progress. Game is alright tho, always room for improvement.

If the amount of players (humans) in the game is a problem, why not try to enter the app-market, I'm sure there are a lot of people who would consider playing from that platform, although it would likely require some changes to the game/monetization to make it viable for the mobile market.

Newcastle U FC wrote:

Hmmmm. well here is my thruppence worth. Having started VM around 4 years ago I had just made it to the top 10 of the game after 3 years, with a first 11 nicely in their black 90 ratings, when the change kicked in and so the 33 and 34 year olds' ratings rapidly headed south. I did enjoy about 5 weeks of top action and a couple of failed Super Cups, all good fun. I am now bringing in and developing younger players so that I'll be able to assemble a squad of 29-31 year olds with ratings of 78-85. That is the best practically achievable to all intents and purposes now, i.e. a lot less than before but for the same player effort.

So, the main change for me is that having a team rating 90+ is now effectively impossible (because whereas a relatively large amount of players could previously hit and stay in the 90s for ages 31-36, this is not possible anymore as players would peak >90 for a much narrower age range so there are fewer of them so they are more expensive to buy and hard also to develop etc etc). Before the change, having a squad of 90+ rating players could effectively be accomplished by sheer patience, and a lot of time investment, as I showed, but now it is inconceivable as that type of talent is just way too expensive for all but about 15-18 active players (as looking through the divisions appears to show).

Interesting point there about the overall strength of your team, but it's like comparing apples and oranges. Put it this way:

If I have £90-100, and everyone else has around £90 I feel good
If I have £70-80 and everyone else has £90-100, I feel bad
If I have £70-80 and everyone else has £70-80, I feel good again

Remember everything is relative to others on this game - there's no point looking at your squad and saying "oh, my ratings have dropped so therefore my team is worse than last year", as in that time you could have come 4th with a 90 rated team yet now come 1st with a 75 average

The Wrecking Crew wrote:

maybe VM should start a tax on credits in one`s account, maybe to encourage managers to start spending some of that cash? (taking cover now)

Hair stylist... hat maker.. ah, hitman!

Yes, hello, I'd like to place an order.

In regards to the question at hand: I don't see how anybody can argue that the changes don't promote the "flipping / trading merry-go-round".

When high-rated oldies were common and close in rating to the very best of super-ts, poorer teams had an opportunity to win trophies. If you look at the top teams now, they have players who are completely out of the price ranges of teams who could have competed before.

To have a go at the top these days you'll need to spend a few years making money first.

That said... if you're fine trying to nick the occasional cup and responsibly run a mid-to-lower-table Prem team, the changes probably help.

The facts are proven. Less online, less forum posts. It's not rocket science. Clubs love the thrill of earning credits by flipping youths the same day or next day. Without a shadow of doubt, the game has gone downhill because of this reason, a huge fun part of the game taken away. It's tedious now. Nothing to do. Shame really.

Bayern Munich wrote:

In regards to the question at hand: I don't see how anybody can argue that the changes don't promote the "flipping / trading merry-go-round".

When high-rated oldies were common and close in rating to the very best of super-ts, poorer teams had an opportunity to win trophies. If you look at the top teams now, they have players who are completely out of the price ranges of teams who could have competed before.

To have a go at the top these days you'll need to spend a few years making money first.

That said... if you're fine trying to nick the occasional cup and responsibly run a mid-to-lower-table Prem team, the changes probably help.

I didn't intend to imply anything about whether the changes promoted that particular merry-go-round or not, only that, in my opinion, the changes offered opportunities to progress without having to get involved in intensive flipping / trading. I recognise that you can no longer buy success by gathering a team of very old, highly rated players, but I still think that the changes offer an opportunity to progress in a sustainable way. When I did reach a top division I found it was running to stand still, spending what I earned in order to replace retiring players. Because I'm not really into the flipping side of the game then, for me, the changes, coupled with an advance to WCTF, offer me more hope of reaching and sustaining a spot in the higher levels of the game.

Lowood Mohicans wrote:

I recognise that you can no longer buy success by gathering a team of very old, highly rated players, but I still think that the changes offer an opportunity to progress in a sustainable way.

My point is that (expensively) buying it is the ONLY path to success at the moment. Whereas before the update you might achieve some kind of success with a team bought for ~100m, it seems like you'd need ~200m+ now.

That's not making the game more accessible to new players, that's making it less. If you want to compete now, you need to pay more... and that either means YEARS of sustainable league play, or being pushed to trading.

Maybe we disagree about what progress means, but to me the point of progressing is to be able to compete for things.

Don't think I disagree with that idea of competing for things as progress, nor the idea that it might take time to reach a competitive level.