The Importance Of Facilities

Building a strong team in the Powerplay Manager game is a process of balance. You need to put together a team of the right players, train them to the best of their abilities and position and build an infrastructure around your team to support their growth now and into the future. Too often I hear about people who have create a winning team in their first season, only to have to fall apart around their knees in seasons following. Generally, upon taking a better look at their team the eason for this "internal destruction" is not because of their team, but the managers lack of solid arena and facility infrastructure.

You might be wondering what exactly "is" infrastructure. It's the foundations that holds your team together. Sure, you could go on the market and build a team of 200+ OR players. You could probably fill your staff positions with 40+ OR staff, but will that team win this season? Next season? How about the season after? You will find that in the seasons to come, the top managers wont be those who are putting up big numbers right now, but the managers who take the time to build the foundations of their team; their arena and their facilities.

You have 7 facilities within your arena:

• Training Facility
• Regeneration Facility
• Human Resources and Economic Department
• Maintenance Center
• Education Center
• Sports Academy
• Medical Center

I am going to break each of these down, in the order of importance according to my style of game play. I should point out that what i consider to be the order of priority for these facilities may not be the same as others, however I will explain my reasoning as we move forward.

Training Facility

This is possibly the most important of your facilities and one that you should endeavour to build as high as you can. Your training facility is the basis of your player training. It is where the guys on your team learn how to become better players, and train each of their attributes. Without a solid training facility your team will come to a standstill and end up being left behind in the game. The higher your training facility, the better quality training your players receive. The training facility however does have its limitations, primarily that of energy loss. Your players are only able to train as well as their energy levels permit, and playing games costs your players use of energy. It is for this reason that coming in at close 2nd on the list of priorities is the facility that helps manage your guys energy.

Regeneration Facility

Regeneration simply refers to your players ability to regenerate after playing a game. When they play their energy levels deplete which affects their training. The regen facility minimizes this energy loss and therefore better enhances your players ability to train. For this reason, when I strongly suggest you always upgrade your training and regeneration facilities to be at equal levels. ie. If you have a level 8 training facility, ensure you build your regen to level 8 also before upgrading the training further.

Sports Academy

Coming in at a close #3 on the list is your Sports Academy. To some, this is actually at the top of the list as it's the heart and soul of your future. The SA is where your prospects come from every 2 weeks, so you want to build it as high as you can to give your team a high chance of drafting a high quality, high OR prospect. The SA also serves another purpose, that of running your training camps.

Human Resources and Economic Department

I know many of you may be a little confused as to why I would put this facility above the medical and/or maintenance facilities. There are 2 KEY reasons why i rate this one so high, possibly even up at #3 depending on your team. The HR dept has 2 primary functions. First, it is used to scout your players, so a higher level HR department allows you to scout your players at a much faster rate. The second function is that of sponsorship negotiations, and while you may only use this particular function once a season, an upgraded HR department can get your a MUCH better quality sponsorship deal, and therefore a higher weekly income for your team.

Medical Center

If you're like me, you've often experienced times when your players get injured. The folks at PPM are borderline laughable at some of the injuries they come up with, such as hyperthermia and angina. The fact is, injuries happen, and there is nothing worse than losing your key players for prolonged periods of time. The medical center gives your 2 functions; the treatment of injuries when they happen, and more importantly, the prevention of injuries from occurring. While this could easily be ranked above the HR department in terms of importance, I personally put it on par with HR.

Maintenance Center

Your maintenance center, as with the others serves 2 roles. The first is basic maintenance operations; the running of the day-to-day business at the arena. Cleaning, painting, repairs etc. The second purpose is security; stopping people from causing damage to your arena. The higher the level of your MC, the better quality maintenance and better security your arena has, and the lower the costs of repairs.

Education Center

I rate this one as the lowest priority, however as you will discover, it's as important as any of those listed above because this is where your staff themselves train. Your education center is responsible for the further training of your facility staff members, to help them gain OR, and therefore do better at their jobs. Better quality staff = better quality facilities. Think of it this way, you could have a level 20 medical center, but without a good quality doctor working there, your players will never get the benefits of the facility you built. You want to train your staff members strategically, working on their highest quality attributes and training so that you have a defined head and assistant staff member.

In Summary

This brings me to the key message here... your facilities are the core of your team. They are in many ways more important than your team, or your players or your superstar scoring winger. A solid foundation of facilities will enable your team to not only build on its strengths, but be in a much stronger position in seasons to come.

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