Making the most of Learning

The short version: If you plan to learn more than one skill in a category to level 5 you should take the learning skill for that category to level 5 first. Once you have allocated 1.68m skill points to a category you will have made up the skill points lost while studying the relevant learning skill. Any further skills invested in that category put you ahead of where you would be without the skill rate boost.

The long version:

The FML skill system provides booster skills that do not provide any direct benefit, but instead boost the rate at which you learn other skills. This post is my attempt to persuade you to invest in these skills, because looking around my own gameworld people are missing out on the benefits of these skills because there is a general belief that beyond the first few levels of each they are "not worth it".

An Example: I want to be a top coach in FML. To that end I plan to learn the following skills, which are probably the minimum before anyone would consider you a coach of any repute:

• Coaching level 5 (1'180'000 skill points)
• First Team Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)
• Youth Team Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)
• Mental Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)
• Technical Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)
• Physical Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)
• Set Piece Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)
• Goalkeeper Coaching level 4 (180'000 skill points)

That is a total investment of 2'440'000 skill points. The basic learning rate is 1500 points/hour, which means it will take me a minimum of 67 days, 18 hrs and 40 minutes to learn these skills assuming I never have any time without a skill in progress.

Now let's look at the Coaching Badge skill, at level 5 you will gain a 25% boost learning for all Coaching skills. If I were to learn Coaching Badge level 5 before I begun learning my core coaching skills the total time it would take me to achieve my goal (including the time it takes to learn the Coaching Badge skill would be 62 days, 19 hrs and 59 mins. I've gained a week's worth of additional skills by taking the Coaching Badge.

On to the important question; at what point does a learinng skill break even; ie. how long after completing Learning skill x will it take me to catch up to other managers that take a short term view of the game. Answer; not as long as you probably think.

The true cost of learning skills

All learning skills have the same direct cost to learn:

• Level 1 = 10'000 skill points (6 hours, 40 mins)
  
• Level 2 = 20'000 skill points (13 hrs 20 mins)
• Level 3 = 40'000 skill points (1 days 2 hrs 40 mins)
• Level 4 = 80'000 skill points (2 days 5 hrs 20 mins)
• Level 5 = 160'000 skill points (4 days 10 hrs 40 mins)
  

To work out when we break even we need to deduce how many points are lost during the time we study the learning skill, bear in mind that the rate at which you learn skill points goes up as each level of the learning skill is completed, making each subsequent level more "expensive". This is the true cost of studying a learning skill:

• Level 1 = 6 hours, 40 mins * 1500 skill points/hour = 10000 skill points "lost"
  
• Level 2 = 13 hrs 20 mins * 1575 skill points/hour = 21000 skill points "lost"
• Level 3 = 1 days 2 hrs 40 mins * 1650 skill points/hour = 44000 skill points "lost"
• Level 4 = 2 days 5 hrs 20 mins * 1725 skill points/hour = 69000 skill points "lost"
• Level 5 = 4 days 10 hrs 40 mins * 1800 skill points/hour = 192000 skill points "lost"

e.g. whilst you are studying your level 5 Coaching Badge at 1500 points per hour(pph) you could have earned 192'000 points on other Coaching skills, at a rate of 1800 pph; had you stopped at Level 4.

Skill point break even & profit

Now we know the cost of the learning badges let's look at how long it will take to recoup that cost and start making a skill point profit. Here I will focus on the example where the manager studies the learning skills in advance of learning the core skills in that area, because this is the only way a sensible manager would approach his skill learning. Adding up the skill point cost for each level gives us the total points cost to learn from nothing to that level of the skill; from which we can determine how long it will take to break even, and start to make a skill point profit.

• Level 1 = 10'000 skill points
  
• Level 2 = 31'000 skill points
• Level 3 = 75'000 skill points
• Level 4 = 144'000 skill points
• Level 5 = 336'000 skill points

So, the total true cost of learning Coaching Badge level 1 to 5 was 336'000 skill points. I now have a learning rate of 1875 points per hour which means that every hour I repay 375 points towards that cost.

In 37 days and 8 hours I have replayed that 336'000 skill points, having invested a total of 1'680'000 skill points in Coaching skills in the process. Any further learning of the Coaching skills can be considered profit on my initial investment of 336'000 skill points to achieve Coaching Badge level 5.

It will not always be justifiable to study a learning skill up to level 5. Here are the break even points for all levels.

• Level 1 = 210'000 skill points (6 days @ 1575/hour)
  
• Level 2 = 341'000 skill points (9 days @ 1650/hour)
  
• Level 3 = 575'000 skill points (14 days @ 1725/hour)
  
• Level 4 = 864'000 skill points (30 days @ 1800/hour)
  
• Level 5 = 1'680'000 skill points (38 days @ 1875/hour)
  

Using this table is it easy to see when you should and should not invest in the Learning skills.

Finally, an example of what not to do: You have studied Coaching Badge level 1,2,3 and 4 at the start of your careeer and then invest the 864'000 points (20 days) in Coaching skills to break even. If you then train up to Coaching Badge level 5, you will need to invest a further 4'800'000 skill points (approx 107 days worth) in new coaching skills to make up the 192'000 skill point loss before you will see any skill profit.

If you've read all that and stayed awake then you'll probably be interested in taking a peek at my Skill Planner, soon to be bolstered by the arrivial Stadium planning functions.

- Dave
Relegation Fodder, Clough
"What goes up must come down"