Seeing that pretty much everything in the game eventually gets snapped up by the same few people gave me an idea.
To boost the in-game economy and also give everyone a chance to access consumables such as a Player Naming Item or a Player Side Training Item, why not introduce a simple pack system similar to EA FC?
For example, each manager could buy a consumable pack once a week (or maybe twice a month) for 50 gold. You wouldn't know what's inside the pack before opening it. Possible rewards could include:
- 100% Training Item
- 300% Training Item
- 500% Training Item
- 1000% Training Item
- Player Naming Item
- Player Side Training Item
- 20% discount on signing a youth player
- 40% discount on signing a youth player
- etc.
Naturally, each item would have its own drop rate. For example, a Player Side Training Item, which is now worth close to 1,000 gold on the market, could have a 1% drop rate, while a basic 100% Training Item might have a 15-20% chance.
I already hear your skepticism and I agree! The key point is that packs should never become the core of the game like in EA FC. They should be limited and time-gated, just enough to create another way for items to enter the economy and give all managers a chance to get something useful, even if they don't have huge amounts of gold.
Could this be worth considering?