Forum topic: Mass Staff Pinching - Getting Silly Now! STAFF CAP NEEDED?

Ok - whats the deal here?

I am seeing certain teams and managers 'poaching' staff and drivers for roles they already have filled for many seasons ahead. Repeatedly. And not just any teams, upper tiers doing it to teams in the soon-to-be-promoted category.

Is this a technique whereby managers are signing all they can in order to dilute the market for their rivals with staff they don't actually need?

ie - Pastok Motors who already have a 19th rank mechanic until season 6 have decided to open negociations with my mechanic.

WHY on earth would they attempt to sign my unranked worse mechanic from season 4 when they already have one?

They did it on my main driver too. And other examples with other teams.

Not having a general whine (as I usually do ) but something seems a little strange.

I think we may need to impose a set staff number cap - or impose a way that you can only sign up X amount of rank 100 staff / or only 2 or 3 staff for each available role.

I know I've made the mistake negociating with many and ending up with a few that I didn't need, but this is intentional - this mechanic has only just been available to negociate.

I think there is a bit of cunning play going on here!

I mean, just how many of each staff type does a team need?

Anyone else have any input?

Dan, if I was looking for a better staff member, say mechanic, and I noticed that you seemed to have one that did amazing pitstops, and said mechanic became available, then I'd be tempted to put in an offer on them. regardless of what my own mechanic was ranked (I don't care about the rankings as they don't mean a lot really, it only means that they were with a successful team, not that they are infact any better than any other person in the database).

If someone is trying to poach top staff en mass, then they are going to go bankrupt soon. Take Borge for example, he's ranked 4th best driver I think (or was last I looked), and he's gotten REALLY greedy. To sign him will cost a lot, and I think it's the same for other staff members too.

I understand your frustration too, as I just lost my best youth driver to poaching.

Weldon is getting greed to since he will make a million per week next season when he signed with me!!

Seriously? you are actually paying that sum per week? I could pay all my drivers with that almost for the whole season

I agree - 2 staff for contracted role then its breach of contract for any other staff - it is a bit silly to have loads of designers or mechanics or drivers for that matter unless they are signed as youths or test driver. !st or second driver and they are contracted to race so not racing is a breach of contract.

That's what I mean Daniel, I am all for the fun of staff hunting etc but when a team already has certain staff signed, there should perhaps be a cap whereby you can only hire 2 for each main role at any given time.

1 for the current role
1 as the reserve to either swap/compare/replace.

Whilst rank may not mean anything, it must mean something for it to exist!

I'm just thinking if every team in Div 1 and half of Div 2 did this and hired 3 staff per role, the staff pool would be massively diluted with arguably some of the better staff deep in contract but not actually used.

It goes back to the debate of whether unused staff should be free to leave if not put in the role they were signed for; or a hefty financial fine imposed as it is a breach of contract!

Sure teams are still paying their wages, but maybe it should be 50k per head fine per week on top of wages if not used in the role signed to them? That will make teams think twice of hoarding, or pay the price for the privilege.

Will Frank's changes (i.e. introducing a minimum number of races) not go some way to resolving this?

Oh I didn't know of that change!

How will it be implemented to staff already contracted until say Season 6 or 7? Will it be affected when all current contracts cease?

From what I understand of the coming change, all staff will have 'missed races' clauses. All old contracts will have the clause added (with a high number of allowed missed races, suggestions at 8or 9). If a staff/driver misses that many races then they will be released. It'll stop hoarding and also free up staff and drivers from inactive teams faster.