First Steps
In essence, there are two components that
represent the action guidelines at Table Tennis Manager: The finances
and the athletic development of your team. In the beginning, you will
receive a starting capital of 10,000 € in addition to five adult
and three youth players. While it might seem that you can do a lot
with this kind of money, you should really think about your
investments carefully, as you will only earn a fraction of that
amount on a normal day - especially at the beginning.
In order to give away as little revenue as
possible at first, the following procedure is recommended:
1.
Set up a team (via player/ line-up)
The
team line-up is extremely important. After all, you will lose your
next game without a fight if you forget about the line-up. The
players that are available to you at the beginning have relatively
similar values, wherefore you do not have to think about the player
ranking for long. The line-up can be adjusted at any time.
2.
Training settings (via training/ training)
These
training settings are free and should be adjusted at the beginning.
You should focus on one player type, e.g. an attack, defensive
player, or an all-rounder, while being careful not to neglect the
other values either.
3. Choosing the sponsors (via office/ sponsors)
-
Day Sponsor: The day sponsor is only valid for one day. In this case, it is necessary to make a decision between the guaranteed amount and the possible amount ("amount" + "victory bonus") in the event of a victory.
-
Season Sponsor: The season sponsor works according to the same principle, but for the whole season. The amount of the sponsors' offering is random within a certain corridor and changes several times a day. In this case, it can be useful (if your time and tactics allow you do to so) to check whether you can score a better offer several times a day.
-
Table Position Sponsor: In this case, you should not get irritated if you are starting at the beginning of a season. The table position sponsor can only be selected from the 5th game day onward. In this case, it is clear which contract is the most advantageous. However, you cannot just make your selection starting on the 5th game day, but can only select according to your own table position. If your team is ranked fourth, you can take the sponsorship contract which requires you to be in fifth place. If, however, you are expecting a table position improvement and an advancement to third place, you can wait a day before you enter into a table position sponsorship agreement, since you will get the sponsor for third place on the 6th game day (if the prediction occurs). In each case, it is only the table position that matters at the conclusion of the contract. Even if you lose a few ranks thereafter, you will receive the full fixed amount on a daily basis.
4.
Hire staff (via office/ staff)
At
the beginning, you can only hire one member of staff. As a result,
different managers tend to disagree as to how you should get started.
That is why you should consult the Staff Planning Guide. However, you
are advised to take advantage of your one staff spot in any case. Always have a look at your daily costs, a staff costs salaries on a daily basis like the players.
Now for the athletic considerations:
If
you do not have the time to start thinking about the game and develop
a long-term strategy at the beginning, you should at least define the
line-up(s), the tactics, and the training:
Line-Up:
Here,
you can line up the players according to their abilities (the players
that you are provided with in the beginning hardly differ at first,
which is why it is important to just line up anybody). Without a
line-up, you would automatically lose each game 0:6.
The three youth players can also be used for the league games of the adults, if one would like. However, a youth release must be acquired for each youth player. This requires a one-time fee of only €200 per player (from the age of 16, a young person is automatically allowed to play for the adults, regardless of whether he had a youth release or not). The youth release can be acquired under "Player," "Player Pool," followed by a click on the red flag behind the respective player.
It is also important that there are different line-ups. In addition to the most important line-up for the point games of the adults ("league"), there is a line-up for friendlies of the adults and the youth (for the latter, one needs at least four youth players, however; a fourth youth placer can either be acquired via the player pool or via a youth scout).
The "championship" and "youth championship" line-ups are only available for changes right before the start of the tournament. After the login, you can see whether a championship or a trophy tournament is currently taking place (red field) in the overview (also under "office," "overview") or if you can sign up your team for the respective tournament (green field).
Tactics:
Here,
you can adjust how much effort each player should be putting into the
game. More effort leads to higher chances of success, but also
requires more stamina, which is why it is useful to choose the
"passive" setting for most games from the start. Since one
should not underestimate the challenges of stamina management (if a
player drops below 0 stamina points, he cannot be used anymore),
there is a separate guide for this: Stamina Management Guide.
Training:
This
daily training is a free way to improve your own players. Here, the
training can be adjusted for all players at once or individually for
each player.
Special training and training camps are also fee-based options for improving a player. At the beginning, this is not recommended or at most for individual special players, since you will not be able to finance these expenses otherwise. In addition, the increase in the market value through these training options is lower than the costs.
As for the "setting of the
overall agenda," which should be well thought out:
In case of a sale, both the trainer and the players will only yield 60% of the value that they had when you hired them. This means that you should be sure to plan accordingly.
On the question of staff planning (when which trainer should be hired), there is a separate guide: Staff Planning Guide.
A similar squad-planning guide is in the making. Basically, the more players you have, the better you are able to adjust to possible setbacks (i.e.: random events) and rotate players in order to preserve their stamina.
The player salaries are directly linked to a player's abilities. So if you get a strong player, this player has a high salary. Through the successes in the training, the players improve. Their salary also slowly increases during the season.
Since the hall is always sold out (105
spectators) at the beginning, an expansion is recommended (via
"office," "hall") as far as your finances allow
you to do so. If the hall is not sold out, you can increase the
attractiveness of the hall by expanding or improving your facilities
(via "office," "facilities"). Just as with the
hall (depending on the number of seats), the furnishings are also
associated with a maintenance fee (however, in this case you can
determine the right time for the "renewal" yourself). The
effect on the number of viewers is always a profitable one, however.
If the hall is not sold out (any longer), because you have already
expanded it quite a bit, you can adjust the entrance fees from "high"
to "normal" in order to attract more spectators and
possibly generate higher revenues.
What
you should not
do
at first:
Buy rackets. Rackets make a player more successful, but they are expensive to buy and get used up over time. In the lower game classes, they thus make little sense.
Staff settings for espionage/ the security service/ motivational trainer. Here, too, the cost-benefit ratio is poor. On some cases, there is no benefit at all (if you only play against computer opponents, nobody will spy on you).
Make your staff attend seminars. The seminars are expensive and are also associated with a poor cost-benefit ratio. In this case, looking for bargains in the pool or on the black market is recommended.
Have a look at our video tutorial with first steps also: https://youtu.be/eAVSPhjhbeA
We owe this guide to badminton. For suggestions or additions, simply post here and I will update the guide.
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