The problem with contracts and rocket high wages I have just realised is not the game. It is us. The players.
If none of us offered silly salaries on a whim without thinking of the consequences, staff and drivers would not get greedy.
The power position would drop, and we would not have to fight to get them. They would sign with us because they wanted a job, not just a big wage.
Look at how intense the sponsor and early driver system was. Look how hard it was to sign a good deal. Everyone signed everything no matter the money, and now you have teams going bankrupt because of bonuses and whatnot.
This is a long term game. Too many people are trying to buy short term success, throwing money they don't have towards drivers and staff they cant afford. Unless they win immediately and have a superb car from the go. They won't. And they can't.
I couldn't get a decent Section 5 deal for a while. This year? I signed one of the biggest deals for £3.9million. Why? Everyone else had deals signed up too soon. The power position was bad, and this S5 deal was practically begging for me to approach.
Why? Simple. Playing long term, being patient, and not rushing to get the best designer, drivers, mechanics/sponsors all at once.
I put all my eggs on the best commercial, and then worked on the designer. Securing the income is better than having no money and the best driver. Or the best driver and no car to drive them.
With good income comes good development. With good development comes drivers that will want to sign, as your team reputation is superb.
Start with superb drivers and staff, produce a mediocre car and get relegated. Nobody will sponsor you, so you can't even afford them and find yourself going backwards.
Play the game with three season outlooks and aim to work up. Sounds too obvious, but 90% of the payers here think of walking their first season and winning everything.
The second we all stop panicking and buying to win right away is the day all this wage worry will go away.
Drakkensport is a fantastic example of a team that doesn't offer silly wages. If they are too high, they aren't driving. Simple. And you know what, he isn't doing too badly with that attitude!
I want everything at once! and i will go out of my may to get it as long as i can afford it. But you need a combination - I am lacking top quality drivers this season and it is hurting me alot. But i agree with everything above but i also don't think it will change we will always get new players who join and sign loads of staff for silly money only to realise their 10m don't go too far and then quit.
I agree Dan it is much more of a long term game now. I think there might be a couple of small tweaks mostly around moral but other than that I think it will be a good change over time.
It's nice to see someone else has also realised the problem we are all currently facing.
The thing I've noticed too, outside of the wages, is that there is still plenty of decent to great talent out there in the staff and driver pools, so just because you don't get the Driver ranked #1 in the game, it doesn't matter. Already this season I've found a new driver that was unknown but has shown he has race winning talent (if only I could supply him with the car to show it off).
I've said before, It's going to take a few seasons I think to settle down, once everyone realises they can't buy success right away, and they can't survive paying huge wages, then the demands will drop and everyone will be better for it.
Some people will always pay the high wages, some can afford to. The power position will only drop if the person is soon to be, or is, out of contract, not on how much they earn.
I've stated a few things in the div 1 chat lately about the wages and income. Before it was too easy to sign people for next to nothing (and wrong in my opinion). Frank made it so yo now need to pay more for top drivers and it seems to me that some of the figures match up to those of top F1 drivers. However, we don't get enough income from sponsors/fans to match that of top F1 teams. From some of the figures I have heard lately, I have one of the best incomes in the game but I only have a midfield to lower midfield F1 income. I think to a degree, the wages have gone too far the other way and we either need more income to compensate or for drivers to have a lower base.
@Adam: I disagree fully as I know what I have for staff and I have been able to re-sign all my staff at lower wages or better terms.
I have more then enough income to pay a few million per week for my staff but it will hurt my development.
Now you need to decide if the staff is worth what they ask and pay at the reduced development or sign someone cheaper so that you can develop faster. (Yes, Research has slowed this)
If it is based on what other drivers are earning then this is wrong as there will always be some chump (new player or not) who will offer loads which would affect the rest of us. - This is a game not real life and some things will not be able to be modeled on the same principles. Wages is one of those.
Power position needs to take into consideration divisions as well which it does not. A championship winning div 3 team driver should not be demanding the same wages as div 1 when they are about to be promoted and be in a relegation battle the following season
Daniel are you sure that they drivers don't take in consideration a championship winning div 3 team?
I am hearing some real high numbers being discussed by drivers and staff in the chat & forums but I have only seen a handful of them when negotiating myself and these are top staff members in say the top 50 in the game.
Yes, I am a division 2 team and I would think they would look at my team but when looking at sponsorship they don't like division 2 or 3 teams unless they are low end sponsors say 3 star or lower so what makes the drivers & staff different?
Example is: Miguel Jesús Sánchez Rodríguez He is asking for more then $1 million per week but is the 7th best scout in the game currently. Even though his stats are not all Superb.
This doesn't mean he doesn't want to sign with my team but prefers at least 12 other team before my team so I might have to pay more for him then say a division 1 team. Only way to know for sure is to work with another manager and compare offers; with them in division 1 & me in division 2 to see if this is the case.
