Forum topic: Fans

Nope. Just a one off when they join.

You were right Robert. How it works now is how I've understood it to work for a long time now.

@Daniel: No. It's 1 off payment to stop people getting fans on the cheap and then charge lots the following season to get lots of money.

Why not scrap the actual revenue element until a decent system is understood or fully working?

Well, Normal I would agree but it better to have the basics of the script written if you are going to expand on it further in the future.

Franks idea for this was to give teams a commercial aspect of the game that we could control a bit with random factor of the fans. As mentioned it was suppose to be merchandising for the team. This needs reworked so Frank will most likely remove it until he can get the merchandising working closer to what he wants.

Which I suggest should be a simple few items sold based on a few different factors like results, division & drivers ranking.
So having hats, shirts, flags, Jackets, shoe, belts, Bags, Decast, Key chains & Helmets as some of the things that we could sell.

But I will also say this I would like my Commercial head to focus on this aspect so that I can focus on the running of the team!!

Edit* Thought about this a bit more and this should be removed in the sense that commercial head should control all the aspects of merchandising meaning we shouldn't have a say by setting a price but rather simple be told how much we are making based on the merchandise being sold.

Teams that win that championship would be given a huge merchandise boost to simulate real F1, while teams that win races or have good stead results would also benefit from this.

agreed - i would like to see a merchandising element -makes a bit more sence than the fans option

I can only speak from the perspective of another game that I play (Hattrick). In that game fans are charged on an annual basis, but the fees that they pay aren't set by the team owner but by the game itself ($60 Canadian or 30 Euros). These fees are constant regardless of division and the number of fans at each divisional level has a cap that is unknown to the managers. In addition, sponsorship payments are largely tied to the number of fans that the team generates.

One thing about an annual payment - regardless of the game - is that it does reflect the notion that there is new merchandise to buy every season. A "true fan" of a team would buy new merchandise every season - lord knows I see that every year with my favourite Canadian Football League team - so I think there needs to be a way to reflect this without the sort of windfall profiteering that the current system would give rise to if the manager set fan fees were to continue and be paid on an annual basis.

@Brent: I think you didn't read Franks comments as he confirmed that the fans do not pay annual but simple to join your teams fan bases.

Meaning if you set the fee to high then you are reducing the amount of fans that may join your team per weekly bases thus reducing your weekly subscription fees.

I fully realise that what Frank has opted to do is have fans pay one time upon becoming a fan of the team but I think you misunderstood my point.

Annual payment of fees represents the fact that the business offices of sporting organizations are always releasing new merchandise and therefore there will be a steady stream of income from fans who have already bought merchandise will still pay for the new merchandise. In other words, fans who have already declared their allegiance to you will continue to be a source of income although probably at a lower level than when they first become fans. That's reflected in the way that Hattrick handles fans. This is a game experience rather than the real world, and Frank can structure that however he wishes.

Just to clear something up:

"This needs reworked so Frank will most likely remove it until he can get the merchandising working closer to what he wants."
> Not at all. I never said this. It will be changed in the future, but nowhere did I say that I will remove it until I improve it.

I feel that there are more important things to be addressed first. And once I've addressed those I will look into what I feel is necessary to be changed. One of those things is definitely the fans system. It will include some form of merchandising without it becoming too micro managementish. But it will be linked to other parts of the game, so it will take a while to develop.

"I'm actually considering to remove it, or to at least re work it in another form. Initially it was meant to be merchandising (hence the one off payment), but time constraints meant we had to go for this solution."

Taken from James post from the Chat box a few days ago!!

Stated pretty clearly that you are considering removing it or working it in another form!!