I never noticed this before.. This message is confusing new new owners.. If this is a rule 90% of teams are breaking it....

Transfers may only occur after arbitration hearings have concluded.
50% of your transferred amount is forfeited.
There must be a $2M surplus to transfer excess budget money from that department.

***You must maintain at least $6M in your prospect budget or sign 15 prospects from your amateur draft.***

You cannot transfer money to coaches after the coach hiring process.
The remaining minimum required to hire all of your coaches is included in the "used" column.
Please remember that player promotions, waiver acquisitions and trades can cost you in player salary, so don't wipe out your entire player payroll budget prematurely.
Money transferred into or out of the player payroll budget will impact player payroll for future seasons.

What part of that is confusing?

What part(s) are being broken by 90% of users?

It says that you must sign 15 picks or maintain $6m in prospect budget..

It's less about "owners breaking the rule" and more "the code in the game is not enforcing the rule".

I believe the budget transfer screen enforces that rule.  But other parts of the game do not.  For instance, you can blow your entire prospect budget on an IFA before the draft, leaving you with nothing to sign any draft picks.

The "fix" would be to not allow owners to go below a reserve of $6m in prospect budget on IFA's before the draft and until the above condition is met.

Here's the scenario I'm speaking on in particular. 
In one of my worlds we have a $25M prospect cap. My team in that world doesnt have a 1st or 2nd round pick and because of this I spent $25M on one IFA the 1st week of the regular season (it allowed me to spend all $25M It didnt force me to keep $6M).  

A new player to HBD read the message below and assumed that A) you have to sign 15 draft picks and B) that the max you could spend on an IFA must be $19M. I read the message below as being a site rule. Not a guideline..

My point is that it is misleading as it is currently written.. I dont remember ever seeing this message before.. Especially with the word 'must' which makes it seem like a rule that 'must' be followed. 

Looks like there could be many brand new players joining HDB and this is something that maybe should be addressed in private worlds that have prospect caps. A new player will probably read this message literally and be shocked when it isnt followed. 


Transfers may only occur after arbitration hearings have concluded. 
50% of your transferred amount is forfeited. 
There must be a $2M surplus to transfer excess budget money from that department. 
You must maintain at least $6M in your prospect budget or sign 15 prospects from your amateur draft.
You cannot transfer money to coaches after the coach hiring process. 
The remaining minimum required to hire all of your coaches is included in the "used" column. 
Please remember that player promotions, waiver acquisitions and trades can cost you in player salary, so don't wipe out your entire player payroll budget prematurely. 
Money transferred into or out of the player payroll budget will impact player payroll for future seasons.

If I'm following correctly will is right.  It looks like a guideline they want you to follow, but there's nothing in the actual gameplay that makes you stick to it... far as I know.

Then again, there are a number of baseline recommendations about how you're "supposed" to play this game that - once you learn how ineffective they are - could be interpreted as misleading.  Position recs, for one.  Coach hiring, for another.

Posted by tecwrg on 10/27/2015 6:44:00 AM (view original):
It's less about "owners breaking the rule" and more "the code in the game is not enforcing the rule".

I believe the budget transfer screen enforces that rule.  But other parts of the game do not.  For instance, you can blow your entire prospect budget on an IFA before the draft, leaving you with nothing to sign any draft picks.

The "fix" would be to not allow owners to go below a reserve of $6m in prospect budget on IFA's before the draft and until the above condition is met.

This.

It's a "rule" that's only enforced by the budget transfer page.  You can't transfer money out of prospect such that you go below $6m before the draft, or before you sign 15 draftees after the draft. 

But it's not enforced anywhere else.  So, as in will's example, you can spend your entire prospect budget on an IFA before the draft.

So in essence, it's not really a "rule" that owner are implicitly expected to adhere to.  It's a restriction on how the budget transfer page works.

In the handbook section it reads as a guidleline.. In the budget transfer screen it reads as if it is a rule that is to be followed. Perhaps I was able to get past the $6M lock because my rookie team was full? I didnt know there was supposed to $6M locked away for the amatuer draft.. 

Players Guide:


Budget Transfer Screen / Handbook Screen:
General Description - From this page you may allocate any excess funds over $2 million into one of three departments: players, prospects, or coaches. You may only transfer funds after the arbitration hearings have completed. All transferred amounts will be forfeited at a rate of 50 cents on the dollar. You must maintain at least $6 million dollars in your prospect budget in order to fill your rookie league roster unless that money has already been allocated in signing bonuses for international prospects or amateur draftees or until you've signed at least 15 players from the current season's draft. Once the coach hiring process has been completed you may not transfer funds to coaches. Finally, the remaining minimum amount to hire your coaches is factored into the used value until you have filled all of your openings.

To be honest, I've never really thought about it or read the rule that closely because I'm kind of used to seeing owners blow their entire prospect budget on IFAs before the draft. Kind of regular in my world.

Will, what part are you not understanding?  It's the "rule" under which the budget transfer page operates.  You cannot transfer out of prospect until those conditions are met.  But you can spend below $6m via IFA.

It's a loophole.  If WIS was interested in enforcing it uniformly, they would keep $6m in reserve in prospect and not allow it to be spent until after the draft and 15 draftees are signed.

I'm not confused at all but it is very misleading to somebody that is new to the game..  

I get that as written it is for transfer purposes only stating that you cannot transfer your budget down to zero until you have signed a certain number of prospects.. 

When I was brand new, I imagined it as being "literal," and that somehow a piano would fall on my if I went below 6M or failed to sign 15 prospects. It didn't hurt anything, as I didn't have enough money in prospects to blow on IFA, and didn't understand IFA at all yet, but I did find the language on that page kind of misleading. It probably ought to reflect what actually happens. In my case, I went to the forum, and read about it, and asked about it too (I think.), A simple tweak, just for clarity's sake, wouldn't hurt.

Posted by cardswin on 10/27/2015 11:26:00 AM (view original):
When I was brand new, I imagined it as being "literal," and that somehow a piano would fall on my if I went below 6M or failed to sign 15 prospects. It didn't hurt anything, as I didn't have enough money in prospects to blow on IFA, and didn't understand IFA at all yet, but I did find the language on that page kind of misleading. It probably ought to reflect what actually happens. In my case, I went to the forum, and read about it, and asked about it too (I think.), A simple tweak, just for clarity's sake, wouldn't hurt.

I agree with this, what confused me my first season is the available column making it appear to be a hard number that you couldn't screw up which I of course did. I get the argument that it's just concerning the transfer screen but new owners will use that screen to check their balance like I did and some clarity wouldn't hurt.

It's a recommendation. As are many other things in this game which experienced users eventually discard.

The only person it would hurt, if misunderstood, is a brand new owner who sees a huge IFA and immediately thinks he has to bid 25 million plus on it. Just how many new owners like that can there possibly be? How many brand new owners, sort of like cardswin suggested, join the game immediately understanding, budgeting, and intending that top level IFAs should be going for more than 25 million bonus? I sure as hell didn't.

True it's a recommendation but it's not clearly stated as such and in the transfer screen it's a hard number removed from the available screen which can lead a new player to believe it remains there after you start signing IFA's which it doesn't. I don't know about your world's but every world I'm in they pop out a good IFA just before the draft and it can confuse a new player about how much you have available to spend on them and the draft, why not clear up the possible confusion by eliminating the 6 mil deviation and just put statement you can't transfer money below 6 mil in prospects.