Coaches are the drivers for your Team's success.

Here in RedZoneAction.org we have a Head coach (HC), and several Assistant coaches (AC). Assistant coaches are dedicated to a position group like Quarterback or Offensive Linemen, while the HC takes care of the whole Coaching business.

What happens if I refuse to use these Coaches?

Your team will perform worse during games, compared to a team that has Coaches. Yes, you might save some money. But you will also miss training progress both for the regular training and the extra training in the Youth Academy. On Youth Pulls you will miss the better selection made by the ACs.

How do I get Coaches?

There is a Coaches market in the Team menu. Just click on the name of the Coach you would like to have in your staff team, and place a bid. Before you can hire ACs, you have to hire an HC first. Be careful, you can never hire ACs better than your HC - the quality of Coaches is measured in Coaching points (CP). You can't hire a coach directly, but rather you have to place a bid on the coach you would like to have on your team. The highest bid after 3 days wins the auction; the coach is transferred overnight to the highest bidding team. The rules for bidding on a coach are similar to bidding on a player, with some exceptions:

1.) You can't bid on ACs without having a HC!
2.) You can't bid on ACs having more CP than your HC!
3.) You can't bid on an AC for a position, if you currently have a bid on another coach for the same position!
4.) You can't bid on ACs if the sum of all ACs already hired and those you bid on is higher than all available CPs (the HC's CPs do not count into this sum)!

Coaching points (CP)

A Coach can have from 51 up to 100 Coaching points. The more CP a coach has, the better he is. Be careful: more CP means higher weekly wages for your coach. A team can hire ACs for a maximum of 550 CP. This means, you can't have CP 100 coaches for each position. Much more you have to choose a path for your team, and you have to hire the coaches that will bring your team forward to win the trophy. For every AC hired, the remaining CPs are split equally to all positions without an AC.

Coaches' consistency

Each coach has consistency. Consistency is measured from one half to 5 in half star steps, where 1 half star means really inconsistent, and 5 means he is really consistent in making decisions. A coach with a half star of consistency can perform up to 10% worse or better than what his CP is. So consistency is like daily form of your coach.

Coaches' experience

Each coach has Experience, and experience grows (very slowly) when playing regular games with your coach. In this context: each game that provides ticket income is considered to be a regular game. The more important a game is, the more the experience gain will be. The gain for Friendly games is near null, while a Bowl game adds more experience. Experience is one factor to determine the weekly wages of your coach.

Coaches' age

A Coach will enter the game between the ages of 35 and 50, and he will think about retiring when he is 60 or older. He celebrates his birthday on the season rollover.

Coaches' wages

Wages are calculated based on the coach's experience and on CP. While CP is fixed, experience may grow. On each season rollover the wages are recalculated. An HC will have wages double than a similar AC.

The AC base wages starts from 25,000 and could climb up to around 550,000 (per week), depending on the influencing skills. The factor from one CP level to the next is around 1.065.

The math behind the wages

Experiencefactor=1+((EXP-25)/100)

Another factor is position depending (Positionfactor):

QB 1.2
RB 1.1
FB 1.0
TE 1.0
WR 1.1
OL 0.9
DL 0.9
LB 1.1
CB 1.0
SF 1.0
ST 1.1

The wages are:

Wages-Base*Experiencefactor*Positionfactor

You have to add some small randomness to this calculation.

Coaches affect the Training Points in the Youth academy

Your HC gives you a bonus on the Training points you could spread among your youngsters.

trainingpoints=( ( youthacademy level + 1 ) * 5 ) + (HC CP / 2)

No HC translates as HC CP = 0!

For each AC you hire the training points will be raised by 10 percent and the result will be rounded up/down to the next even number. Then the next AC adds 10% to that result and so on.

Coaches affect the training

Each AC affects the training of those players he is responsible for coaching (defined by the players' position!). Of course this only valid for skills the player is using on his position. You do not need to know exactly how the training is calculated, but in case you are curious, the formula is as follows:

There is an AC coach:
This means that CP > 50 and the value used for AC-CP-Formula = CP - 40
Example: AC has 70 CP. For the training calculation, 30 CP will be used in the calculations.

There is no AC coach:
CP <= 50 and this means the value for AC-CP-Formula = 1

Fitness points = Fitness training percentage out of ((random 25:40 + Teamwork + AC-CP-Formula)/2)

Skill points = The percentage out of (random 25:40 + Teamwork + AC-CP-Formula)/2

Keep in mind there are variations based on the Experience and Consistency of the coach!

Coaches affect the game play

In the Front office menu there is a new item "Coaches". There you see bars for each Coach slot. If you add an AC, all slots of not hired coaches get a minus - the maximum for all CP is 550 and can't go above that!

In the engine, a coach you hired makes your players do better, of course he affects only those positions he is in charge of.

A not hired coach slot makes your players perform worse.

This is active for all games your team plays, even if there is no ticket income from it.

Keep in mind the factors for Experience and Consistency of the coach! The overall bonus or minus from having an AC can't be more than around 10% of the previous player-skill-calculation.

Coaches affect the Youth pull

Each AC affects the skills of the Youngsters for the position he is in charge of. If there are players to s e l e c t from where you have ACs for, the skills will be slightly better.

What happens if I fire my HC?

If you fire your HC, all ACs will stay, but the bonus on those positions is not active until you hire a new HC. The minus as a result of not hired ACs is still active.

What happens if I fired my HC, and hire a new HC with less CP than the old one?

All ACs will become active again, but are limited to the CP level of the new HC! The minus as a result of not hired ACs is still at the level it was with the old HC.

Can I hire another AC for a position where I already have an AC?

Yes, this is possible; the Coach market restrictions apply. If you win the auction, your old Coach in that position gets fired to make room for the new one.

Can I fire Coaches?

Yes, of course. Replacing/Firing a coach results in 5 weekly wages penalty, too.


What happens if I replace Coaches?

Replacing Coaches lowers the morale and Team chemistry of the involved players.

Players having less than 40% Morale will get a 5% hit.
Players having less than 80% Morale but more than or equal to 40% Morale will get a 10% hit.
Players having more than or equal to 80% Morale will get a 20% hit.

Players having less than 40% TC will get a 5% hit.
Players having less than 80% TC but more than or equal to 40% TC will get a 10% hit.
Players having more than or equal to 80% TC will get a 20% hit.

How are the factors for Consistency and Experience calculated?

As mentioned earlier, the consistency and experience of the coaches play a role in the calculations. In general, the higher they are the better. You do not need to know exactly how the calculations work. However, if you are curious, the formula is as follows:
EXP = Coaches Experience (each full star represents 10 points here, 3 star Experience = EXP 30)
CON = Coaches Consistency (each full star represents 10 points here, 3 star Consistency = CON 30)
rand = Random Number Generator

Exp-Factor = 1 + ((EXP - 40 ) / 100 / 2)
rand_con=1 + (rand(0 - (55-CON),(55-CON)) / 100 / 5)
EXP-CON-factor=Exp-Factor * rand_con
Final-CP = CP * EXP-CON-factor

The calculation is done once per event. This means, if a coach gets a bonus based on consistency, the actual CP used will be the same for the complete training of all players, or for a complete game. There are no recalculations based on consistency during the same event.

How will that happen?


X (today):
Put the manual online

X+7 days (26th of December):
Enable the coaches market and bidding (restricted to HCs, keeping enabled the "old staff coaches"), HC wages are not booked

X+14 days (2nd of January):
I will switch on Assistant Coaches for bidding, AC wages are not booked

X+21 days (9th of January):
I will switch off the old coaches, there will be a payback of the initial hiring costs from them. At the same time the training is switched to the new coaches, and the booking of HC/AC wages will become active. Youth pulls will be better if ACs are existing for the position.

Seasons end:
We will add the imbalance based on ACs to the engine, if we manage to make it stable until that point. Could be very well, the ingame affects will be delayed for another season - hopefully not.

In the posts above you will find the manual and the timeline for the introduction of a new feature, so called Coaches.

Please have a read on the manual, and ask all the questions that come up. The manual should be clear enough, this is why I stay away from making further comments right now. Much more I would like to improve it by the questions you are asking.

The second post describes the timeline for the introduction, so please prepare yourself to be ready.

It is an excellent idea, what I can´t understand why should I decide which positions I will train and which I have to sacrifice (only limited training). That is bit far away from reality from my point of view. I know it is maybe too late to discuss the stuff, but why not to provide a certain wages cap for coaches and the managers could decide which way they will go themselves. In such case you could allow for example 75 or 80 across the board and who wants to invest more could have something extra and few losers. I was thinking about it the last 2-3 weeks already on test server, but was quite busy IRL to type it there.

First of all: for asking - you are the first

We are aiming for different things:

1.) We would like to differentiate more between the teams. If all teams would be allowed to have all ACs at 80, this wouldnt work. So we decides to have 50 as "average".

2.) You should think about having 10 out of 11 coaches at around 51-55 to max the income on training - especially on the youth academy.

3.) If you like to go for more power on a certain position in the game, you have to "let leave" (valid english??) another one. Hire coaches for the positions you like, but "forget" others.

We expect to see "farm teams" in the future, we expect a more vital market with more specialized players on it, and we expect some more "chess" for the gameplay, and the management part. As you can see coaches are quite expensive, and it is absolutely not wanted to have all coaches at max.

Since you mentioned you were following the development, you have seen the 20 pages long discussion about it. The now introduced coaches app is not the one I had in mind when I started writing it. But with some good input (cheers to you guys, you know who I mean) we made some changes on the concept, and - at least I believe so - created a function that is providing some fun, providing some management challenges, and adding "richness" to the game itself.

Does this answer your question?

Btw: in this game, it is never too late. Of course the Coaches thing will go online as it is described, but there is absolutely no limit on further changes. I am not god, and I can't know exactly, what will happen in the future. Much more it is part of my own fun to introduce such features, and to see how they work. And if I am doing bad, of course I will change the things - learning by doing.

I dont want to critize the idea - this will solve by selve

I want to clear critisize the time table!

It is really bad bring in this over Christmas and New Year where lot of us will have other things to do instead hang around here - but maybe only me is affected of this.

Thanks a lot for the answer. It is as I have expected, but somehow I didn´t take into the consideration the farming teams and possible strengthening the positions you don´t train. It brings additional dimension into planning and honestly I am not so much sure if the things are not turning into too much complicated stuff. Please consider a newcomer who join the game, he has to take care about all the skills, players, depth charts, playbooks and on top of that on coaches. Golden rules to keep the things easier could not harm IMHO. To hire the coaches on level 55 means they will train 15 points in comparison to todays 40 points. Somebody could go for 95 AC and train 55 points from coaches, plus 15. The players will lose 25 points each week. On the other hand the youth academy would be a great add-on, with more than 180 points to allocate each training cycle, that is increadible good.

As I said it will add to depth to the game, but personally I fear I will have not enough time to make the planning accordingly and I am not sure how is the situation for others. It would be very benefitial to hear the opinion of others.

Please be assured this is not a criticism of your awesome work and dedication to this wonderfull game. I admire highly your effort, but I am still thinking why we are not able to break the 300 active managers and I would like to open a discussion.

One thing i miss from now and would like to have:

AC

What is the name of each of the 11 that gives in the game

Each of them -> what influence on training skill they have, like

AC OLine -> effect Blocking, Footwork
AC Rushing -> effect Blocking, Carrying

I think because not so many time it is need to have this information so each manager who wants to invest time into this complex topic can make his idea how to target ACs with CPLevel

Thanks for clarification

Be sure I understand your fears, and I share them somehow. On the other hand, a newbee does not need to hire such coaches immediately, much more he will not be able to act riht after he joined, since he has not enough money to do so. But we could discuss an offset from his login, where he is not allowed to hire coaches.

A question about training...from your post above:

"Fitness points = Fitness training percentage out of ((random 25:40 + Teamwork + AC-CP-Formula)/2)

Skill points = The percentage out of (random 25:40 + Teamwork + AC-CP-Formula)/2 "

These look the same to me ((other than the extra () on the Fitness points))

I thought (and perhaps I was wrong ) that Fitness training is currently calculated at a faster rate than Skill training. If so, then the information I copied above looks wrong. However, if currently Fitness training is not faster than Skill training, then I just completely misunderstood something from an older post, and we can delete this comment entirely!!

Thanks!