Ways To Improve Fantasy Premier League

Paully D

It's a great game as it is, which is evidenced by the fact that all of us on this forum spend way too much time thinking about and playing it :pac: but everything can be improved.

With that in mind, I'm just wondering what changes you would make (if you had the opportunity) that you feel would improve the game?

Scorpion Sting

1. Remove the vice captain.
2. Award points to midfielders for tackles (1 point for every 3 successful tackles or something like that.)
3. Allow 1 week where you can save 2 free transfers thereby having 3 free transfers for just the 1 gameweek per season.
4. And offer better prizes FFS!!!

Skippy44

Good topic Paully!

I would like to see the effect of jammy or random vice captains somewhat negated, a vice captain coming into play should only score 1.5 x his matchday score (rounded up or down as fpl hierarchy see fit) instead of the current scenario.

For example, someone who captained Gylfi today and vc'd Charlie Austin will benefit as if Austin was their original choice when they made a conscious decision to make him second choice to Siggy. That should be reflected and not rewarded 100% in their scores imo. Instead of Austin's 34 they should be given (and be happy with) 17 x 1.5 equalling 25 or 26.

Disclaimer. I haven't checked my leagues so this is not a biased rant :pac:

Gits_bone

Yeah there deffo needs to be more points for DMs. No incentive to pick a DM at all.

wonski

1. Give extra points for hattricks

2.Give extra points to the players I own:D

Seriously - the rules are the rules and the game is as fair as it can be.

More rules = more rules. I hate rules:D

wonski

Gits_bone wrote: »

Yeah there deffo needs to be more points for DMs. No incentive to pick a DM at all.

You get an extra point every time you score? Incentive? Most play 3-4-3 anyway

ArmaniJeanss

2x for captain is probably the least logical aspect of the scoring system - hard to change now though because its become an accepted part of the game. But it adds too much of a random luck aspect I think, 1.5x would be far better.

If we are mirroring the actual reallife game then it should be remembered that captain has never been critically important in football anyway.

manual_man

if i could make ONE change it would probably to increase squad size (and budget, accordingly) from 15 to 18 players, ie. the same squad size clubs actually have on match day

Scorpion Sting

manual_man wrote: »

if i could make ONE change it would probably to increase squad size (and budget, accordingly) from 15 to 18 players, ie. the same squad size clubs actually have on match day

Wouldn't that just add more hassle to team selection though?

manual_man

jebforever wrote: »

Wouldn't that just add more hassle to team selection though?

a little more thought would be required alright...

but that for me is a good thing, a little more differentiation is needed i.m.o., without throwing out the whole structure

Smartguy

Don't like the bonus points system. It does not reflect the reality of who played well in games.

Macker1

Allowing a 2-5-3 formation.

So many good options in the middle.

kevinroche3333

The flag system is flawed in my opinion.

For example, Austin got suspended for one match = red flag. Standard.
However, on change of his red flag directly to green flag his price is 'frozen', his price cannot change regardless of transfers in/out for (I think) 8 days following this flag change.
He is now being transferred in by the truckload after his hat-trick but his price will not change until the time period following red flag is up.
This unfairly manipulates his price - instead of being minimum 6.2 during early days of this gameweek and nearly doubling ownership, his price will still be 6.0.

Di Maria was injured for a few weeks = red flag. Standard.
His red flag got changed recently to yellow before going green yesterday so any transfers in/out count straight away! If he had also scored heavily yesterday then his price would be going up in the same period as Austins price is 'frozen'.

Also, a flagged player could have enough transfers out to be more than half way to a price drop.
If this player then goes from red to yellow flagged, the transfers out requirement changes enough for him to be due a price drop on the night of the flag change - example Courtois last week, Silva the week before etc.
But if a players red or yellow flag goes to green then his transfers out amount is reset to nought with no pricedrop. eg Pelle yesterday.

The flag system is necessary, but as it works currently it unfairly manipulates a players price in certain scenarios and it should be improved.

G1032

Remove vice captain option.
Remove January WC option.
1.5x for captain.
Give players exact information on when price rises / drops are going to happen.

Tugboats

18 man squad and no weekly transfers allowed except when the window is open in Aug and Jan.

DVDM93

Only something small but what about a POTM system by where if you have had a player for the full month in which he wins POTM, he would start with maybe 5 points in the first game of the following month?

For example, Sakho won the October player of the month. If I had him in my team for ALL of October then I would be awarded maybe 5 points along with his match score in his first game in November.

Markx

Don't penalise players for own goals, but do penalise players for conceding penalties.

The thinking is that own goals are more often that not a result of bad luck rather than bad play and vice-versa for giving away penalties.

kevinroche3333

Tugboats wrote: »

18 man squad and no weekly transfers allowed except when the window is open in Aug and Jan.

.
From a more serious players point of view less transfers has its appeal but it is not realistic.
The game works so well because it is appealing to so many more casual fans who can make a transfer or more every week.
I think the idea of the Ultimate version of the game was to cater for more serious players with bigger squads planning etc.

jimmii

Tugboats wrote: »

18 man squad and no weekly transfers allowed except when the window is open in Aug and Jan.

That's basically ufpl

jimmii

No captains and no wildcards. Make it about picking the best team and not getting lucky or just being good at copying someone else's team!

Necronomicon

It's worth noting that some of the things nominated for the chopping board so far are things that have been introduced to 'improve' the game over the last couple of years:

- Vice captain
- January wildcard
- Statistics-based bonus points

I agree with the first two, particularly the VC - I really dislike it and the jammy luck it brings people (see Aguero VCs versus Spurs earlier in the season when Costa didn't make the Chelsea game). I've come around to the new BPs system - when it was first introduced it was terrible, but it has improved. I like being able to track the points during a game, it adds transparency.

Tugboats

jimmii wrote: »

That's basically ufpl

Had to look that up. Didn't even know it existed. Cheers

DVDM93

What about a money for points rule? Say on a given week I wanted to bring in a player but I was 0.1m short for making that transfer. I could then sacrifice 8 or 10 points from my match week score to get that extra 0.1m for that week and transfer alone. Similar to a points it which is -4 but it would have to cost you to get the extra bit of cash too. I wonder would people do it if they wanted a player bad enough.

kevinroche3333

Bonus points will never be universally agreeable but the way it is now is at least reasonably transparent and removes any perceived bias towards players. It does benefit some players more than others but thats the nature of it.

alchemist33

Captaincy is fine as it is. Its one of the most rewarding and/or frustrating parts of the game.

I'd be for no Jan WC but you can accumulate transfers as much as you want.

jimmii

Tugboats wrote: »

Had to look that up. Didn't even know it existed. Cheers

They pushed it a good bit at the start of the season and there's a decent thread about it going on here. Much more enjoyable game imo.

CSF

kevinroche3333 wrote: »

The flag system is flawed in my opinion.

For example, Austin got suspended for one match = red flag. Standard.
However, on change of his red flag directly to green flag his price is 'frozen', his price cannot change regardless of transfers in/out for (I think) 8 days following this flag change.
He is now being transferred in by the truckload after his hat-trick but his price will not change until the time period following red flag is up.
This unfairly manipulates his price - instead of being minimum 6.2 during early days of this gameweek and nearly doubling ownership, his price will still be 6.0.

Di Maria was injured for a few weeks = red flag. Standard.
His red flag got changed recently to yellow before going green yesterday so any transfers in/out count straight away! If he had also scored heavily yesterday then his price would be going up in the same period as Austins price is 'frozen'.

Also, a flagged player could have enough transfers out to be more than half way to a price drop.
If this player then goes from red to yellow flagged, the transfers out requirement changes enough for him to be due a price drop on the night of the flag change - example Courtois last week, Silva the week before etc.
But if a players red or yellow flag goes to green then his transfers out amount is reset to nought with no pricedrop. eg Pelle yesterday.

The flag system is necessary, but as it works currently it unfairly manipulates a players price in certain scenarios and it should be improved.

This is the only one of the suggestions put forward so far that I agree with. I'm clearly a blatant FPL fanboy.

Paully D

I know that it's probably too subjective and more bother than it's worth to enforce, but I'd personally like them to look at the assist system and what constitutes an assist.

Currently you can have Player A pass the ball to someone in their own half, while Player B runs past 5 or 6 players before smashing the ball into the net with Player A receiving an assist. That's not as assist for me (well technically it is, but you know what I mean) but then you're left with the question of "what actually is an assist?".

As I said, too subjective and more bother than it's worth to enforce, but there's quite a few assists awarded that aren't actually assists IMO, but maybe that's just my opinion.

KevIRL

Its largely fine as is imo, over complicating things will mean the more casual player loses interest. Keeping it simple should be a priority

As mentioned already a lot of the things people are looking for here exist in Ultimate FPL. Large squad, no free transfers, no bonus points, points for things like blocks and clearances, no vice capt (it exists but rarely used). Ultimate needs some tweaks for sure but is a game with a lot more potential for the serious player.

Lemlin

I've always hated the January wildcard. One a season is enough IMO.

FHFC

alchemist33 wrote: »

Captaincy is fine as it is. Its one of the most rewarding and/or frustrating parts of the game.

I'd be for no Jan WC but you can accumulate transfers as much as you want.

The captaincy is actually the one thing I would change. There's too much value in picking the right captain and it's the element of your team choice for the gw that's most down to blind luck. If there are several evenly matched valid captain options as with this week its pure chance which one scores 17 and which scores 2.

But the reward/punishment for being on the right or wrong side of the 50/50 call is huge. I know it should even out over a season but it may not. No matter how much thought you put into having a strong 15, rotation, balance, form players etc if you get a run of bad luck in marginal captain calls you're goosed.

I'd possibly favour a format where you can change your captain during the gw to someone who hasn't played. Think you can do this in UFPL? Even if you could only do it a limited number of times, or for a points hits of some kind it would make it more interesting and less punitive if your close call is a bust. Would also favour dedicated players. ....so will never happen.

Agree about the no second wildcard but banking unlimited transfers though. That's a great idea, however the Jan WC I imagine is there to try and stop casuals giving up when they have a xmas disaster and again will not change.

iroced

Necronomicon wrote: »

It's worth noting that some of the things nominated for the chopping board so far are things that have been introduced to 'improve' the game over the last couple of years:

- Vice captain
- January wildcard
- Statistics-based bonus points

I agree with the first two, particularly the VC - I really dislike it and the jammy luck it brings people (see Aguero VCs versus Spurs earlier in the season when Costa didn't make the Chelsea game). I've come around to the new BPs system - when it was first introduced it was terrible, but it has improved. I like being able to track the points during a game, it adds transparency.

I'm not playing the game for long enough to have known it without these "improvements" (bar the last one). So it's very interesting to see dedicated players complaining about these improvements for the masses :P.

To be honest I struggle to have a definite opinion on the first 2 (since I discovered the game like that and globally find it fine as it is).

But I really don't understand how people can complain about the current bonus points system. It can't be more transparent. So since we know what are the criteria and after a couple of GWs which players are good for BPs, we just have to select our team accordingly.
The first year I played the game (started at GW11 of the 2010-11 season) I think there was a panel of pundits to assign the BPs to the players and e.g. Blackpool Charlie Adam was basically getting bonus points for being on the pitch. Even though I hugely benefitted from it, that was ridiculous. I don't see any pb with the current one bar a few minor adjustments.

I would also be an advocate of being able to bank as many transfers as you want (though I don't see it happening as some casuals would end up with 20 FT by the Jan WC :pac:).

P.Walnuts

Not sure about all the hate for the captain's double points, at times it is a necessary variable to keep things interesting, at the start of this season so many teams had the same front 8 that it was becoming quite stale, without the captain there would of been a lot of teams scoring near identical points

JokerD

First year playing the Sky Fantasy Football game and something I'd like to be able to do in this game from the Sky one is have the ability to hide your team. The intrigue of not knowing who your rival has is a good feature, it makes the wait for the results more exciting.

CSF

JokerD wrote: »

First year playing the Sky Fantasy Football game and something I'd like to be able to do in this game from the Sky one is have the ability to hide your team. The intrigue of not knowing who your rival has is a good feature, it makes the wait for the results more exciting.

No, god no.

JokerD

CSF wrote: »

No, god no.

Ha, obviously not a fan. It's a lot easier to hang onto a lead in this game. If you're ahead you can a start mimicking your opponents teams to an extent to neutralise them. In the Sky game it's harder to figure out their team. I like that.

skippy15

Section of the main site for price rises etc:- big part of the game should be done by FPL not other websites
A better official App for the market- android and apple
better prizes- that I can somehow win ha

Scorpion Sting

JokerD wrote: »

First year playing the Sky Fantasy Football game and something I'd like to be able to do in this game from the Sky one is have the ability to hide your team. The intrigue of not knowing who your rival has is a good feature, it makes the wait for the results more exciting.

That would be the feature I least like about the Sky game. Had a look at the leaderboard there the last day and I'd say about 85% of them were hidden. That takes the fun away from seeing the various teams that are doing well imo.

8-10

skippy15 wrote: »

Section of the main site for price rises etc:- big part of the game should be done by FPL not other websites
A better official App for the market- android and apple
better prizes- that I can somehow win ha

No to price rises but a big yes to better app and better prizes!

Would also like more options for mini leagues. Running a draft game maybe a keeper league would be good like other fantasy games. Wouldn't happen but could be interesting.

On price rises I would like it to be made more secret so that other websites couldn't figure it out. Surely it would just mean hiding NTI information?

CSF

JokerD wrote: »

Ha, obviously not a fan. It's a lot easier to hang onto a lead in this game. If you're ahead you can a start mimicking your opponents teams to an extent to neutralise them. In the Sky game it's harder to figure out their team. I like that.

Being able to look at everyone's team and compare what I need from my team is a large part of the excitement of the game for me

thunderdog

How would 1.5 x for captain work if your captain scored an uneven amount of points? Would lead to half points

8-10

I wouldn't tamper with captain points. The overall formula FPL has is simple, effective, and is the reason for it being the best and most popular game out there

So I'm against these sort of fundamental changes. If they want to improve I would be keeping the same game fundamentally, but improving the options for how people access and play it; better apps, prizes, and mini league options. But the overall league and scoring should remain the same. Even the free transfer should remain the same, would be interesting to tweak it a little but overall there's no need. Game is getting bigger every year so focus should be on making it easier to access and play. And by God the official App sucks so that's the first thing I'd change

G1032

thunderdog wrote: »

How would 1.5 x for captain work if your captain scored an uneven amount of points? Would lead to half points

There's no particular problem with that. It'd be sh!tty to lose your PL by half a point though!!

FHFC

8-10 wrote: »

I wouldn't tamper with captain points. The overall formula FPL has is simple, effective, and is the reason for it being the best and most popular game out there

So I'm against these sort of fundamental changes. If they want to improve I would be keeping the same game fundamentally, but improving the options for how people access and play it; better apps, prizes, and mini league options. But the overall league and scoring should remain the same. Even the free transfer should remain the same, would be interesting to tweak it a little but overall there's no need. Game is getting bigger every year so focus should be on making it easier to access and play. And by God the official App sucks so that's the first thing I'd change

I've no problem with the double points. That's an integral part of the game. I just think there's too much chance/luck about it and such severe consequences of coming the wrong side of what is a coin toss some weeks.

A more flexible way of deciding your captain as in UFPL may be better, but it may not. If you had a limited number of in Game week capt changes maybe. Overall I don't think there's much else wrong with the format, as a relative newcomer to it.

Don't think any of really expect any of these things to happen.

Shedite27

I'm not for one minute promoting this, but as someone in the ecommerce industry, I'm surprised they haven't started chagin for things yet. Imagine if you could "buy" a second FT for €2/€5 or whatever, or maybe even buy value. It'd be a goldmine!

One change I'd like to see is to be able to sell a player without replacing him immediately. So say Aguero gets injured on a Saturday, you could sell him then for his current value, have a blank space in your squad for a few days, then buy someone the following Friday.

Agree with the Bonus Points. I'd like to see either
(a) The official man of the match automatically gets the 3BP
(b) Getting the man of the match gets an extra 10 BPS.

beauf

Shedite27 wrote: »

I'm not for one minute promoting this, but as someone in the ecommerce industry, I'm surprised they haven't started chagin for things yet. Imagine if you could "buy" a second FT for €2/€5 or whatever, or maybe even buy value. It'd be a goldmine!
.

It's also ruined so many games. Games designed by accountants. Groan.

CSF

Shedite27 wrote: »

I'm not for one minute promoting this, but as someone in the ecommerce industry, I'm surprised they haven't started chagin for things yet. Imagine if you could "buy" a second FT for €2/€5 or whatever, or maybe even buy value. It'd be a goldmine!

One change I'd like to see is to be able to sell a player without replacing him immediately. So say Aguero gets injured on a Saturday, you could sell him then for his current value, have a blank space in your squad for a few days, then buy someone the following Friday.

Agree with the Bonus Points. I'd like to see either
(a) The official man of the match automatically gets the 3BP
(b) Getting the man of the match gets an extra 10 BPS.

It wouldn't be a goldmine. People would just stop playing and go to another game that wasn't run so stupidly.

Could they get away with charging an entry fee to the game and still have a successful game? Yes, but they would lose alot of casuals in doing so.

Could they get away with charging money to give yourself an unfair advantage in the game? Not a hope. I would be surprised if anyone from this forum continued to play in those circumstances.

Liam O

Honestly the entire scoring system could do with an update. A goalkeeper lets in 1 goal 9 times out of 10 he's getting 2 or 3 points even if he's MotM. No points for interceptions for defense and midfield leaves it a bit unbalanced as well imo.

Iused2likebusts

Shedite27 wrote: »

I'm not for one minute promoting this, but as someone in the ecommerce industry, I'm surprised they haven't started chagin for things yet. Imagine if you could "buy" a second FT for €2/€5 or whatever, or maybe even buy value. It'd be a goldmine!

One change I'd like to see is to be able to sell a player without replacing him immediately. So say Aguero gets injured on a Saturday, you could sell him then for his current value, have a blank space in your squad for a few days, then buy someone the following Friday.

Agree with the Bonus Points. I'd like to see either
(a) The official man of the match automatically gets the 3BP
(b) Getting the man of the match gets an extra 10 BPS.

The problem with the official motm is that there is an inbuilt bias towards English players in that selection. I used to play the sun's ff game and always picked Lampard Gerrard and rooney for that reason.

iroced

8-10 wrote: »

On price rises I would like it to be made more secret so that other websites couldn't figure it out. Surely it would just mean hiding NTI information?

I really don't understand your point. How/why would it be better? I mean since price changes are part of the game I don't understand why FPL is not transparent about it. So having it secret, what for? If it's to be like that they'd better remove price changes completely. I really see no fun at all to discover each day players having "randomly" changed in price. We all spend ages building balanced teams, planning ahead our transfers over a couple to several GWs. This is for me the most interesting part of the game. Having zero info on price changes would just ruin it.

FastFullBack

Liam O wrote: »

Honestly the entire scoring system could do with an update. A goalkeeper lets in 1 goal 9 times out of 10 he's getting 2 or 3 points even if he's MotM. No points for interceptions for defense and midfield leaves it a bit unbalanced as well imo.

I'd agree here. Obviously goals rule but a goal that a defender or GK could do nothing about has a huge impact on his weekly score even if he played great.

GKs currently get a point for 3 saves. Why not change this to .25 points for a save.
For defender .25 for a tackle maybe.
Midfielder .1 for successful pass, .1 for a tackle.
No sure about forwards, could do .1 for shot on target.