It's been a while since my last update on the new simulator, so I figured it was about time to update you all.
It is important that you have read the previous entries before you read this, and you can find them here:
The first chapter
The second chapter
The third chapter
The fourth chapter
Since you have now read all of these, I'm moving on...
We have now had just over 50 people on the test-server for just over a week, and the testing is going very well indeed. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are very happy with the new simulator overall. The match-reports are much more lively, the commentary much more varied and the tactical options add a lot of gameplay, variation and control.
The new tactical options
As mentioned earlier, I have implemented Counter-attacking as a pressure-setting (and as a team-stat). But there is more. You may now also decide what to do when players in different positions are sent off in red card situations. For instance, you can specify that if a midfielder is sent off, you want to pull back one of your attackers, and maybe even substitute him (for a midfielder, of course). Likewise, you can chose what to do when a defender is sent off etc. Keep in mind, this is not an EVENT, this is part of your tactical setup (for reasons I won't go into here).
Events
There have been some changes made to the events as well. First of all, events may now be triggered not just at the 15-minute intervals. They may now also be triggered upon goals being scored. So if you have an event defined by "At any time", "If we are behind by 1 goal or more", that event will be triggered when your opponents score their first goal, whether that is in the 5th or 51st minute. The bench needs a little time to initiate changes though, so the actual changes are put into play when the ball is out of play after the kick-off following the goal.
Furthermore, there are some new options when it comes to substituting players. You can now chose to "Substitute the least fit defender", which means basically that you can take off the player who is more tired, and get in a fresh pair of legs where they are most needed. This can be very handy towards the end of a match, just take my word for it!
Special comments after goals
We had a fun weekend just now, the 3 of us in ML HQ, as we have just spent a weekend together, doing what can be loosely described as "team-building". We might have had a beer or two, and in a creative mood I decided to add some extra commentary after some goals, if the goal-scorer has scored more than 1 goal. I was alsmost surprised to see that we did NOT in fact mention the word "hattrick" in the match-report, and, well, now we do. And then some.
Teamstats go "public"
This item is sure to cause a little riot, and there is still a tiny chance we might take it out (but I doubt it), but we have added "team stat indicators" in the team-details. This means that your team-stats are now visible to all other teams!!! Ok, not as exact numbers, but as "stars", rated from 1 to 5 stars. (No half stars, just whole ones). This means that you can spot the difference between a team having 50 and a team having 70 in a stat, but you can not tell the difference between 51 and 69. As we have discovered on the test-server, this information can be used if read and understood correctly, to get the upper hand in a match. And this further adds to the tactical aspect and opportunities. Now, I know that some players will react strongly to this, as we've had a few cases on the test-server, as they feel team-stats are private and should remain as such. We have discussed it back and forth, and I think the current "vote" is about 48-2 in favor of showing them, in the rough way with stars. This is not meant to open up the discussion, just to inform you of a rather probable change. Yes, others can see indications of your stats, but you can also see theirs. Use of this knowledge may help you find weak spots, and to apply tactics to take advantage of it.
Let the ranting begin though :-P
Optimizations
I have been able to optimize some parts in the core of ManagerLeague, that will help us a lot during "peak load", and remove a lot of the delays that can happen when a lot of people log in at the same time. It is hard to measure the exact impact here, but I have a feeling it will help a lot!
Our first regional content-server
In our partnership with OIC in Vietnam, we have added support for regional content-servers to help players from far-away countries get the static content (images, leetcodes, stylesheets) much faster than today. This will be an interesting test for us, to see how much it will help, and then possibly consider for other regions where we have a lot of players. Regardless, this should be good news for our new players from Vietnam! (No, you don't have to do anything to enable this, it will be sorted out automatically).
Status
As I said, the testing is going very well. We are currently in our Fifth Season (pun intended) and have ironed out bugs where we have found them, and improved a number of imbalances. We have also taken the time to improve the wording of a lot of commentary, but of course our translators will have their hands full to try to create the same rich commentary as we will have in English.
Testing and improvement will continue this week, and we will probably be very close to finished when the weekend comes. This means I am now 99,7% sure that the upgrades will be with us in the live game as of next season. And I am really looking forward to show you this upgrade, as I know it will make the game much more entertaining.
Stay tuned, but I only expect one more blog-entry about the new simulator, and that will be published when we are DONE!
I would also like to say THANKS to the 50 volunteer testers we have, who give of their own free time to help us improve the game. This is very generous, and most of them are performing their duties beyond expectation. They write reports, create statistics and help us with creative feedback. Thank you.
Catch you later!
Christian "Spinner" Lassem
