A friend of mine turned me onto this new, and pretty deep online soccer manager. For now it is free. I have been playing it for a couple of days and I must say that the depth of it is impressive. It certainly has a feel much more like that of FM than anything else that I have played online. It is in it's first full season since coming out of beta. It can be found here:

http://www.itsagoal.com/

Unfortunately. you don't get to pick your division, and all the teams are pretty much even, no matter what level you are at. So this is a groundfloor opportunity. Enjoy.

What team are you PM ?

I've been playing for about a month.Tornado div2...team name the Fog

Neon League, D8. Standard name for me, Calibiri. :)

I am in Trapdoor, DII, Fargo 1871. I won my second game last night. Woohoo!

My plate's full, fellas. I'm not sure you'll see the Puke Green Socks there.

Going to give this a try.

Wow. This game does look very deep.

Definately going to have to read the rules.:p

Cannon League - Div 3 - Royal Knights FC

I have tried a few other, sokker being the most recent, but never stuck anywhere, in fact I usually rarely log in a second time after getting a team. I must admit that I'm intrigued by this one and with the long holiday break, I might be tempted to learn how to play it. Signed up as Cerio Dragons FC in the Anubis league, Division 2.

FM

dola, just realized that the team plays its first league match in about 90 minutes :)

I like how you can set up your time zone in your preference, so now I don't always have to adjust for the swedish time...

FM

I'm Kingsville AC in Aristotle League D VII.
Currently 1W-0L-1D.

OK I'm in. No idea if I'll stick with it though.

Shaolin Landfills, cyclone league, D6

Looks like my leadest scorer's contract expires in 5 days and my starting keeper in 2 days. Good time for me to take over?

Got a nice 3-2 victory on the road in my first match.

We fell in our game last night 2-0. Our first loss.

hrm, our first was eerily similar to some FM games of the past. Dominated with 68% possession yet was unable to score and drew 0-0... lotsa learning to do I guess...

FM

Warpigs FC are in the Discus League Championship (though not for long probably).

Two players have expiring contracts. 25 year old DM Neci Puskas and 34 year old DM Douglas Munro. I have requested a negotiation with Puskas but I will let Munro walk. Munro is the current starter but Puskas is cheaper and has more potential so he will be taking over the position.

How is the economy in this game?

How is the economy in this game?

I only signed up today so I cant really comment, maybe one of the "veterans" can comment.

How is the economy in this game?

I have no clue and I'm not sure the kind of information you are looking for (like "is it as bad as HT?") can be found with the game being so young, like it's anybody's guess how any team will be able to survive financially in the long run. One thing I know is that I increased my ticket price from 12 to 13 before yesterday's game and still had a sell out of 5000 for the game. Decided to hike the price one more, we'll see how that goes. :)

FM

One part of the economy i don't like is that player "negotiation" is not really negotiation......i have not been able to move off of what a player requests and still sign the player.

One part of the economy i don't like is that player "negotiation" is not really negotiation......i have not been able to move off of what a player requests and still sign the player.

sounds disappointingly familiar to some other great game I have.

Crazydoods are in the Eros league in the Championship division.

Hmm, the new Slithy Toves are surfing the basement, division 7 of the Axe league.

One thing I know is that I increased my ticket price from 12 to 13 before yesterday's game and still had a sell out of 5000 for the game. Decided to hike the price one more, we'll see how that goes. :)

FM

This was one of the first things that I did as well.

Where the heck are the freaking rules? All I found was some scattershot FAQs...

So, uhh, can anybody come up with a reason as to why I am banned from making transfer until January 15?

So, uhh, can anybody come up with a reason as to why I am banned from making transfer until January 15?

I think everyone is.:rolleyes:

Mine is only until the 14th. I guess they don't want anyone to make a tranfer a manager is in a certain time in the game.

I was able to get a player to go below his asking contract only on percentage increase and appearance fee, but I offered a slightly bigger signing bonus.

So, uhh, can anybody come up with a reason as to why I am banned from making transfer until January 15?

because they want you to wait at least two weeks before you can jack your roster to your usual 50 ;)

FM

I think the idea is that you get the feel for the rest of your roster before you screw with it beyond repair. Similar to what FM said.

Well, I just signed up.

Flying Froggies FC in Fortress league, div 4.

I must admit I have no idea what I should be doing... :)

This is what I've gleaned so far:

Money is very short to start with. Try increasing your ticket prices a dollar (euro?) at a time to keep revenues increasing while keeping crowd growth up.

I'm finding it unlikely that I can keep my whole team at the current economy level. Most players are looking for substantial increases in salary that I can't afford right now. Unfortunately, it would be even harder to resign them later. I've resigned myself to writing off a bunch of my current players when their contracts expire. [Apparently, resigning all of your contracts on day one before they started training was a good idea. It's too late for that for me.]

Find the players with "match highest wage" contracts. Renegotiate them, they'll kill you.

I don't know whether this is because my team had a prior owner or not, but I started with a youth coach and scout, so I'm looking for new youth players now. Hopefully, even with a hefty charge for signing youth players, I can lock them up in cheap 5 season contracts and build from there.

Match orders seem pretty self explanatory. Dunno what affects what though.

That's all I know for now, and it's quite possibly all completely wrong :D

One more thing - if you go to the Manager button at the top, it gives you a To Do list of things that the system thinks you need to address. It may not start working til day 2 though.

In the interest of broadening the knowledge base, even if it makes me look like an idiot. :eek:

I thought there was no way I could resign my boys, especially given the trend mentioned in the thread. Instead, I may have locked myself into mediocrity for the next five years. That said, this may help some folks out. Here's a list of the renegotiations with all my players.

Legend:

(nn) is player Loyalty.
Len = length of contract in seasons
Sal = Salary in K
Mat = Match bonus in K
Inc = Seasonal raise
Bon = Bonus in K
Rem = days remaining in contract (first line). Other lines, ' = signed, * = refused.



Salary negotiations Len Sal Mat Inc Bon Rem
Sytik (88) - 4 2.0 1.0 8 28 4
5 1.5 1.0 4 10 *
5 1.7 1.0 5 25 '
Tarkki (68) - 3 2.9 1.5 10 47 4
5 1.8 1.0 4 20 *
5 2.3 1.5 5 45 '
Higginbotham (89) - 4 1.1 0.5 0 15 24
5 0.9 0.5 5 10 '
Ramsay (30) - 3 1.1 0.6 0 20 43
5 0.9 0.5 5 15 '
Tylinski (28) - 3 2.4 1.4 0 42 98
5 2.0 1.0 5 35 '
Smethurst (98) - 4 2.3 1.1 0 28 91
5 2.0 1.0 5 25 '

Carr (64) - 3 2.7 1.3 9 45 44
5 2.2 1.0 5 30 '
Slade (78) - 4 0.8 0.4 7 14 127
5 0.7 0.5 5 12 '
Terasniska (62) - 3 2.3 1.3 11 37 177
5 2.0 1.0 5 30 '
Boyle (33) - 3 1.7 0.8 11 32 95
4 1.2 0.5 5 25 *
Daehlie (35) - 3 2.2 1.1 11 41 94
5 1.7 0.8 5 35 '
Furtado (18) - 3 2.4 1.3 14 43 55
5 1.9 1.0 5 35 '
Verret (38) - 3 1.2 0.7 13 19 150
5 1.0 0.5 5 15 '
Ryman (70) - 3 2.0 1.1 10 31 78
5 1.6 1.0 5 25 '
Atherton (3) - 2 1.6 0.9 15 31 4
3 0.5 0.3 0 0 *






(for reference, I'm lowballing Atherton because I don't really want to keep him, and it's an interesting experiment.)

because they want you to wait at least two weeks before you can jack your roster to your usual 50 ;)

FMShhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So far they haven't mentioned a max roster limit like Hattie yet!!! :D

Actually, your Board (Home -> Club -> Board) sets your roster limitations. I think everyone's at the same right now, min 18, max 26.

Edit: I spoke to soon. For reasons I don't comprehend (Idjits need to write down the freaking rules), the board has raised my max players to 27.

well the Klein Bottles are in the Atlas Premeirship right now.

More tidbits gleaned...

There seems to be two daily updates, evening and morning (pacific time). The morning update seems to be the econ update, while the evening update is league matches+training. Player contract negotiations update at both, so you can get two offers in per day. Staff contracts only update in the evening.

Reserve matches are scheduled through "Competitions" in the top menu bar, then "Reserve Matches" in the middle, then "Schedule Reserve Match". It'll give you a drop down for open dates, home/away, and a dialog box for the team name. Got to put that in manually, it seems. You also have to set up a new lineup for the reserve (you want your backups anyway), as well as tactics. Remember to set aggression to 1 for a reserve match. No sense courting injuries.

Hiring staff is a little weird. Go to "Club", "Staff", "Staff Vacancies", then "Post New Vacancy". You pay an 'advertising' fee that's based on how long the post remains open. I think that you don't get any resumes until the vacancy period closes. Either that or I just blew 15k out the window. More later, heh.

As noted above, the board's (dis)pleasure with you seems to have an immediate impact on the size of staff and team you can carry. As a consequence of hitting one of my milestones (min victories 14), the board's rating went up from 50 to 52. This meant that I can now have 10 staff (was 9) and 27 players (was 26). This might be a pretty broken game mechanic if it means that a team that hits a rough patch has to liquidate players and staff, losing money in the process, making the team worse, etc, etc... death spiral.

I set my ticket prices at $15.00 Still sold out and had extra people watch for free (i think). Well, there is a colum right after attendance that had about 1,500.
I also just ordered start of an expansion for the NorthWest bleachers since that was all I could afford. Stadium expansions are brutal price wise.

Whenever you sell out by a good margin (as you did), bump the ticket prices by one. There are people who started earlier who are at 23 or 24 dollers/ticket who are selling out (5000) by now.

Even at $20 a ticket, with 19 home games you'd need to sell the expansion out for 4.5 seasons before you show a profit. Lot less if you can string a good cup run though. Here's hoping? :)

Whenever you sell out by a good margin (as you did), bump the ticket prices by one. There are people who started earlier who are at 23 or 24 dollers/ticket who are selling out (5000) by now.

Even at $20 a ticket, with 19 home games you'd need to sell the expansion out for 4.5 seasons before you show a profit. Lot less if you can string a good cup run though. Here's hoping? :)

Yea, a bunch of people on the forum are saying they have ticket prices around 22-24. I was planning on increasing ticket prices by $2 per game. However, if you go to Club->Stadium->Stadium Attendences, then you can see how many people that can't attend the game. For me that number is rising about 700 peaple per game so maybe a bigger hike from 13 to 17 may be in order for today's match. I mean if I have 3000+ people that can't get in, then I'm sure they will pay whatvever I ask, right?

Florida Blazers
D3
Cyclone League

Looks interesting, will have to dig deeper to find more info on what to do.

I bumped my ducats up by 2 bucks and still had 4000 peeps that could'nt get in.Bumped it another 2 bucks so we'll see what that does.

Ok. My first youth scouting expedition of England finished today.

My scout found 1 player. A 15 yo, left-footed winger with a rating of 50.:eek: I'm not sure if this is a true rating or if it is seen through the "eyes" of one of my coaches or scouts.

It gave me two options: 1) Give him a 70 day contract (approx $80k) or 2) decline to promote him to the youth academy.


Also, I posted a job opening for a scout for 5 days and I got 4 applications. These guys are rated 21, 18, 18 and 15.

I signed the 21 rated one. He had 2 bars for player potential and overall rating.

I had a player injured in training today :eek: :rolleyes: :mad: :mad: :mad: One of my best defenders too, and just training on the medium setting. 'Grade 2' injury, whatever that means.

WTF is this, realism?

My scout found 1 player. A 15 yo, left-footed winger with a rating of 50.:eek: I'm not sure if this is a true rating or if it is seen through the "eyes" of one of my coaches or scouts.Heh. My scout turned up an 11 year old goalkeeper. Frightening. :)

Yes, I promoted him. :D

Heh. My scout turned up an 11 year old goalkeeper.

I'm going to call Dateline on your scout.

Why'd you just search England? They know nothing about football...

:D

...

Oh, and daed, aren't they unable to be promoted to the senior squad until they're 16 or something? Are you going to have to fork over 80k a year for the next 5 years?

I bumped my ducats up by 2 bucks and still had 4000 peeps that could'nt get in.Bumped it another 2 bucks so we'll see what that does.

Sold out again with another 4000 fans not getting in.....bumped prices to $18 for my next match.

I bumped my ducats up by 2 bucks and still had 4000 peeps that could'nt get in.Bumped it another 2 bucks so we'll see what that does.

I would love to see a game that factored this in to crown happiness. Imagine how pissed your fans would be if you really upped the prices every match?

If your ticket prices were half those of the rest of the league - maybe not so much? From what I've seen, your attendences do take a hit every time you raise the ticket price, it's just that some folks are so oversubscribed that it doesn't matter. I can't decide whether it's a huge strength or weakness, but your team doesn't get reset when you sign up, so you inherit all the existing good and bad things that have been going on all season...

anybody still fooling around with this?

I've started paying attention to it more and more the last few days, 5-10 minutes here and there and I'm getting to like it. We're on to day 2 of the second season and they paid out the prize money for season 1 a couple days ago. I got a hefty sum so much so that I now have 2.7M or so in the bank. Still can't do transfer until the 15th, but has been resigning a couple player...

First league game of season two is in 10 hours or so.

FM

dola, and as a I post here, I see that it's going to be updating in less than 3 minutes, so don't worry if you can't get on...

FM

I have been paying quite a bit of attention to this game...I have quite a few thoughts as well. First on ticket prices...I have raised mine to 20 and that is where I am keeping them unless I see that it doesnt work at all, so far it has been great and I am pulling in over 100k a game...two, are all players bad? I have a roster that allows me to start eleven guys with ratings above twenty out of one hundred. I almost one my league last season with those players...is every team that bad? Third, this game is waaaay better than HT...

I started out in a bit of a hole. My best striker's contract was expiring 5 days after I took over. After reading about how you can't really negotiate, I paid up (3k)...and found out that 4 scrubs on my team had the "equal maximum salary" clause. So that hurts my finances until the scrubs expire.

Took over 3 games before the end of the season; went 1-2, and ended up 16th. My board's goals are modest (compared to others).

And yeah, my players blow too. All 20s and a few low 30s. Signed a 14-year old keeper with a 49(?!) rating. Not sure if that's legit, or some weird scouting number or what. Regardless, can't use him for a few seasons.

It's all interesting so far. Not sure how long it will hold my interest.

Youth player ratings are "potential" at best - all youths get set down to roughly 10 ratings when they get promoted to the senior squad.

The reason why all players blow is that they all started at about 10 at the beginning of season 1, so after a season's worth of training, the best are mid to low 30's. I figure in season 2, more of the worse players will hit their training caps and we'll see some real differentiation.

Btw, you can renegotiate the scrubs, just open talks with them, they'll probably ask for a lot less than 3k, just make sure the new contract doesn't match highest salary, heh.

I think I'll train a little set piece.

Attacking SP for fwds and mids.
Defensive SP for def and gk.

I notice the skill training selection is exactly like FM.
Am I right or wrong?

A few more useful tidbits - you can mouse-over the little green and red arrows that show stat changes to get details of the change. This can give you a good idea of how well training is going.

Also, you should go check the contracts page for each of your players - this appears to be the only place where you can see whether your player is planning to retire at the end of the season (there'll be a banner to that effect across the top of the player page when you're looking at the contract, and that page only, it seems.)

Oh, and daed, aren't they unable to be promoted to the senior squad until they're 16 or something? Are you going to have to fork over 80k a year for the next 5 years?I figure that since patience has never been one of my virtues (I don't have many) in real life, I'd practice it in a game. :D

I'm going to call Dateline on your scout.It's purely football. Football, I tells you.

I'm off to a 2-0-0 start thus far Season Two and have a 1st round bye in a cup. Then again, my Board expects me to finish 1st.

0-1-1 so far this season. Gave up an extra time goal to blow a lead, and then blew a lead to the 25th ranked club in the game (club rankings based on player strength I'm guessing? This guy has a few guys in the 40s).

Tonight, I get a break. Cup match at the team ranked 3900/3900. Their best player has a 10 rating. Yippee!

We are 1-1-0 so far this year with the tie coming on the road to a team that beat us last season. We have hired a couple of coaches and physio's, although I am thinking that we should have waited to hire until later in the year when we would have better applicants.

One of our best ideas was to hire a scout to check out our next opponents. It is very beneficial to see the tactics that your opponent has been using.

We skated by tonight with a 2-1 win on the road against a team that could have beaten us. Down 0-1 in the 76th minute and my top scorer nails one, and another at 77. Nice.

My tactics seem to be helpful, and our midfield is really strong, as we are usually able to snag possession. The firepower upfront is a little lacking.

I'm enjoying this game more and more....it fills the void left when WES folded.

I have a couple of nil-nil ties in the league so far. Almost seems like real soccer. I got a nice 2-0 win in my first cup match though.

due to my own stupidity (and a little bit of bad design on the site's part) we are now out of the League Cup. Bleh. I had booked a reserve match with daedalus for the 10th (today) and it showed in the schedule as our very next game after our second league game. I set my lineup for it, making sure to rest players and give playing time to players with low match fitness. Thing is, I never saw that there was a second game scheduled for the 10th, a League Cup one. It was on the very next line, but since the game allowed me to book a reserve match, I didn't think it was on the 10th, assumed it would be tomorrow or something. Even worse, not only it was one the 10th, but it was scheduled for kickoff at 3am IAG-time while the reserve match is for 17h00 IAG-time. Yet, even though the league cup match is happening BEFORE the reserve match, it was listed AFTER it. Stupid design, stupid user, all around stupidity.

This means I had no lineup set for the league cup game. We ended up playing a ugly 5-2-3 lineup and lost it 2-3 after 125 minutes, bleh.

FM

Sorry 'bout that, Frogger. :(

Hmm, that's odd. Regardless of schedule, my matches always appear:

League
Cup
Reserve

*shrug*

Things have been going sideways for me too - lost to the best team in the division, so I'm still winless after three, and tomorrow's match isn't looking too promising either. At least I'm at home so I should make some money. The random cup draw did me a favor (?) and served up one of the worst teams for my next round, so that looks promising at least. And I got my first two youths into the academy, a 64 rated midfielder and a 71 rated keeper.

here's what my fixtures list looks like...

<TABLE class=list cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=listHeader align=right width="1%">Day</TD><TD class=listHeader>Date</TD><TD class=listHeader>Time</TD><TD class=listHeader>Comp</TD><TD class=listHeader align=middle width="1%">Mat</TD><TD class=listHeader>Opposition</TD><TD class=listHeader align=middle>Result</TD><TD class=listHeader title="Finished at" align=middle>FA</TD><TD class=listHeader title=Venue align=middle>Ven</TD><TD class=listHeader title=Attendance align=middle>Att</TD><TD class=listHeader title="Match report" align=middle>Report</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">1</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Sat 06 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>17:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>Reserve</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">-</TD><TD class=listItem>Kingsville AC (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=FF46F86D4E02642D430CA0BFB384C040');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>2-2</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle>FT</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>A</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>31</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>http://www.itsagoal.com/skins/default/images/buttons/btn_s_match_report.gif (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/results/matchreport.php?fid=334B0E4D852E1B3EC9C20DBE7BED5D45&t=5&did=0&hc=FF46F86D4E02642D430CA0BFB384C040', null, 700, 550, 0, 0, 1);)</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">3</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Mon 08 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>League</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">1</TD><TD class=listItem>Brodvejus (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=9313459B486E65FCE59EE0FA33C960D9');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>2-0</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle>FT</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>H</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>2,819</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>http://www.itsagoal.com/skins/default/images/buttons/btn_s_match_report.gif (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/results/matchreport.php?fid=2B0E99F57A27BBD7552E786B52B26B48&t=1&did=144&hc=525619418C4A70EC031708C441067EA6', null, 700, 550, 0, 0, 1);)</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">4</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Tue 09 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>League</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">2</TD><TD class=listItem>Gohei Team (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=6F7A0F72DD1ECE0A796210F1831CACB6');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>1-0</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle>FT</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>A</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>5,000</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>http://www.itsagoal.com/skins/default/images/buttons/btn_s_match_report.gif (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/results/matchreport.php?fid=E1930FF21EF202DE2A08F83E709077DC&t=1&did=144&hc=6F7A0F72DD1ECE0A796210F1831CACB6', null, 700, 550, 0, 0, 1);)</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">5</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Wed 10 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>17:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>Reserve</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">-</TD><TD class=listItem>Calibiri (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=E8181868129732A9FDCB07B47FD0A98E');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>3-2</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle>FT</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>H</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>54</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>http://www.itsagoal.com/skins/default/images/buttons/btn_s_match_report.gif (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/results/matchreport.php?fid=99D15FEC456029F6D0311E1B377B0D3C&t=5&did=0&hc=525619418C4A70EC031708C441067EA6', null, 700, 550, 0, 0, 1);)</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">5</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Wed 10 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>League Cup</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">-</TD><TD class=listItem>Shamrock Celtic FC (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=AAC82554EDE4A3415EDA98B6559AA4C6');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>3-2</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at extra-time" align=middle>ET</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>A</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>5,000</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>http://www.itsagoal.com/skins/default/images/buttons/btn_s_match_report.gif (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/results/matchreport.php?fid=BF06E76A0E3D9A842687B515280CBFE5&t=2&did=0&hc=AAC82554EDE4A3415EDA98B6559AA4C6', null, 700, 550, 0, 0, 1);)</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">6</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Thu 11 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>League</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">3</TD><TD class=listItem>Real Cov Academy (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=A20825412E8CAE7B96213A184C7790F6');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>0-1</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle>FT</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>A</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>5,000</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>http://www.itsagoal.com/skins/default/images/buttons/btn_s_match_report.gif (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/results/matchreport.php?fid=23A0B09F20983452518CC8DA03C5BD12&t=1&did=144&hc=A20825412E8CAE7B96213A184C7790F6', null, 700, 550, 0, 0, 1);)</TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItemHighlight align=right width="1%">7</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight noWrap>Fri 12 Jan</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight>League</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight align=middle width="1%">4</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight>Wembely FC (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=543A6EBBC4124FFF1AD722F2AFC750C4');) </TD><TD class=listItemHighlight align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle></TD><TD class=listItemHighlight align=middle>H</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItemHighlight align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">10</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Mon 15 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>League</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">5</TD><TD class=listItem>Vladsmadhearts (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=26AAE5EC57E3BB10D72358EBEF274EF3');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle></TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>A</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">11</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Tue 16 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>03:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>League</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">6</TD><TD class=listItem>Smiffy Superstars (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=C58C630B804F69336F020D65F4592CF5');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle></TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>H</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD class=listItem align=right width="1%">12</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>Wed 17 Jan</TD><TD class=listItem noWrap>17:00 GMT</TD><TD class=listItem>Reserve</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle width="1%">-</TD><TD class=listItem>Fargo 1871 (http://javascript<b></b>: openWindow('/profiles/club/index.php?id=BFF9843DF1065B647DFA107F09D2435D');) </TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItem title="Game finished at full-time" align=middle></TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>H</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle>-</TD><TD class=listItem align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

see the two games on day 5...

FM

Yeah, it inverts the order on my fixtures list too... But I never use that list for anything ;) I set my orders from the Match Day page.

My board resigned a player for me because they were worried about roster size. He is a 34 yr old forward and I didn't want him back.

ugh

Huh. Didn't know that, but after thinking about it, it seems like a reasonable move to me. How low would your squad have been if he'd left?

Huh. Didn't know that, but after thinking about it, it seems like a reasonable move to me. How low would your squad have been if he'd left?

17 players if he left.

Well, the board minimum is 18, isn't it? What did you think was going to happen? :)

It could have been worse - they could have fired you instead...

We have been struggling as of late. Back to back losses in our league has dropped us down to 15th. However, we knocked off a team that is ranked around 600 last night in the Cup. The match was even steven, until my top striker put one in around the 60th. Looking back at the tactics and stats, the game really came down to a coin flip.

Training has been going well, a couple of players have really blossmed, and a couple that I have resigned have done nothing at all.

Talking about squad size. I realized that if I stopped signing guys my squad would be so low that I would be pressed to field a descent team. So I have been overpaying for some less then quality players. But I figure that is much cheaper than buying guys on the transfer market.

One upside is that I have been able to win midfield in almost every game that I have played. Scoring has been the major issue for us.

The game is filling a nice little hole that hattrick just doesn't seem to get to.

Got knocked out of the cup yesterday in the 2nd round. Strangely, by the team I'd played a couple of days before in my league game. In fact, my 1st round cup opponent was also a team I'd played in a league game just before. Wonder if it's a coincidence or not?

In the league, we're not doing too bad, ranked 7th with 2W, 1L, 1T.

The game's fairly addictive, simple yet deep; I just don't if I'll have time to keep up with the schedule. It doesn't require much time, but having to log in daily will probably be a pain...

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, hanging on to marginal talent until the youth academy gets in full swing. Just re-signed my last two holdouts for a lot more than I wanted to pay, but that's life. Three weeks to be unable to use the transfer list is too long, though. I might buy someone if I can unload some of the dross to some *cough*sucker*cough* buyer first.

As for the cup draw, I think that was just an odd coincidence, FFF, neither of my first two cup opponents were even in the same division.

And as far as logging in every day... I don't think you have to if you don't want to. I've seen teams where the owner hasn't logged in in over a week, and it's not doing too poorly. Now if you want to get the best out of your team every day, then you have to log in, but the AI seems to be pretty capable of running things if you take a few days off.

I have to Grade 3 injuries to my starting middies. Both are out for 3 weeks.

Not good especially considering I can't use the TL until Monday.

Ouch - were they fatigued?

I ask because now that I'm in a full season, I find that keeping fatigue down is a big deal for me. I think I'm losing more than a third of my training slots to "Resting." I may have to try turning training intensity down from medium, see if that helps, because right now, the boys are getting beat up.

Ouch - were they fatigued?

I ask because now that I'm in a full season, I find that keeping fatigue down is a big deal for me. I think I'm losing more than a third of my training slots to "Resting." I may have to try turning training intensity down from medium, see if that helps, because right now, the boys are getting beat up.

I know one was not, but he was hurt in training. The other got hurt in a game while I was on vacation and I can only assume he was somewhat fatigued because half my roster was very tired when I went in and adjusted their training last night.

Got knocked out of the Cup by ways of penalty.

Our team is getting insanely thin via free agency departures. I'm going to have to resign a defender to a significantly overpriced contract because we're already down to 5 even with him -- which has been causing me to play a 3-4-3 . . . with 3 fullbacks -- and I'm not sure I even can because he wants that "match highest wage" clause and I'm against it. Our strength is our strikers with a solid hole player and a 20 year old striker being our highest rated player. I have a 17 year old who is rated well in the academy so, hopefully, he's ready to go soon because we will need the body.

So, I am playing the last place team in my division. They have a good midfield but that is about it. We have a pretty offensive minded plan in effect. Unfortunately for me, we get a middie send off in the 7th minute. Still, we manage to sneak a goal late in injury time to tie it.

Then, I just missed today's game. We lost that one too. We are stuck in a big rut.

dola

Our run in the League Cup continues with a win over the #256 team. We went up 2-0 in the second, and held on 2-1 for the win. I wish that we could do better in our division, but some success is better than none.

I played to a 1-1 draw with bbor(Soundbreakers) today.

I have another reserve match with FM(Cerio Dragons FC) next Weds.

I played to a 1-1 draw with bbor(Soundbreakers) today.

I have another reserve match with FM(Cerio Dragons FC) next Weds.

Go again after you're done with FM?

Go again after you're done with FM?

Why not.

Send the challenge.

bbor(Soundbreakers)I think you have been playing against a fake bbor. The real bbor is windbreaker. :D

My squad has been coming along nicely, pretty soon to break into the top 1000 clubs (3 digits, woot). After a desperate scramble for finances last season, things are pretty stable for now - bolstered by a six game win streak, the fans are clamoring for tickets.

That said, my squad is still very thin, I need more depth to cope with injuries and some inevitable retirements. I also want to move a few slackers out, but I need bodies, damn it! The transfer list seems thin and overpriced. The youth academy is a ghost town (last round, one of my scouts brought back 3 youths, all rated 5. F'in clown.)

Finally, I'm still alive in the league cup, but have a serious challenge to go any further, I'm up against AFC Reading, who won my division last season, and is currently rated 428th. I need a brilliant tactic. Anyone got one? :)

I think you have been playing against a fake bbor. The real bbor is windbreaker. :D

I heart Deadalus :D

Well, believe it or not, I am still in the League Cup. It is now down to the final 16. I played my first home game in the Cup and grabbed a 2-0 win over a team ranked in the 600's. This is my 3rd win against a top 1000 team in the Cup. Needless to say the board is ecstatic, and so am I.

Yep, I beat #428 in extra time to move to the sweet sixteen as well. Buuuut, I lost another defender to injury, which leaves me with just three on the roster. Gah.

I got booted from the cup in round 4. Board expectation was Round 3 (which I won on penalties). Not bad for a D VII team.
So far, I sit in 7th place with 15 pts. 4W-3D-1L. Not sure if I will make the board expectation of 1st.

IAG fall down go boom?

IAG fall down go boom?

Big Boom ?

And it's back, though I almost wish it weren't. Up against #155 in the League Cup, on the road... Blech.

Another loss in the league, and now we havn't won in 9 straight matches. How the hell do we make it to the 5th round in the Cup, but we can't win in the league? We should have won today. We had 60+% possession, had more shots, and had 40 tackles. Statistically, we killed. We just can't score. 0-1. Damn.

Now, if I could only break out the big speech for the next match, and fire the crew up.

What's your aggression level and or current formation?

Things are like that sometimes - I just lost my latest league match... 9 shots on goal vs his (31) keeper = no goals. 3 shots for him vs my (39) keeper = one goal.

I'm okay with the occasional bad result as long as I also pull the occasional upset. Like my next cup match ;)

Now I have 3 players hurt. Starting to run out of healthy bodies.

Sigh, my scouts found a really talented 17 year old kid. And I can't do a damn thing since I found out too late about the 8 player limit in the academy. Meh.

Sigh, my scouts found a really talented 17 year old kid. And I can't do a damn thing since I found out too late about the 8 player limit in the academy. Meh.

Ehhhh..... I didn't know about this. doh!

Woohoo! Still alive in the league cup! Beat one of the top teams, on the road to boot!

In somewhat prophetic fashion, I'll note that I won this game almost exactly like I lost my league match yesterday. Today my opponent had 67% possession, and 9 shots on goal to my 3. I still won 2-1. Next up, quarterfinals!

Well guys, my League Cup run continues. We played a team that is ranked 440 and much more powerful. Their rating was something like 10 points higher than mine. My tactics, and homefield seemed to be playing to my benefit. The game went to extra time as we were tied 0-0. We did our best in PK's and won 4-3.

Back to the tactics. I went with an aggressive (7) and very defensive minded 442 narrow, with my midfield pulled back. I would attack with long passes, and try and counterattack, at the same time trying to hold the ball and be patient. My plan was to slow their attack and superiority with ball control and an attack that would push them back, but not leave my defense vulnerable. They were in a 451 wide in their attacking posture. Thier mid was pushed up and thier passes were quick.

We actually and more and better shots, and won midfield with 51%. We completed a higher percentage of passes (78% v. 74%).

Again, considering all the problems that I have had in the league, it is crazy that I am in the final 8 for the league cup.

The teams that remain are #164, #252, #2047(me!), #177, #183, #1, #117, and #776. It reminds me of that old Sesame Street song, "Which one of these things is not like the other?"

Congrats PM, you're beating them with tactics. I think I'm just beating them with luck.

Axe League has a more mixed bag:
#173, #149, #1100(me), #86, #1381, #267, #1091, #533

I'll probably draw one of the four digit teams... and lose, heh.

Must...think...positively...

Edit: Looking at the match report, something interesting. I was desperate for a fourth defender, so I played Kevin Slade (18), just off injury, so his Match Fitness was zero. (I was pretty sure I was going to lose). Instead, he has a great game, two assists, match rating of 9 and MoM. Now his form was 10, though. It's only one data point, but it may be that form >>> match fitness for performance. Just a tidbit.

I hope the fix the negotiation thing. And soon. Why bother to have negotiation when there is none?

I hope the fix the negotiation thing. And soon. Why bother to have negotiation when there is none?

How is it broken?

every player whose contract comes up wants a raise from 800 to 4000 and you just can't offer anything lower than that, or at least not that I've seen...

I wish I could ask for my wage to be multiplied by 5 like that :)

FM

How is it broken?What Frogger said.

And, really, there isn't much in the way of negotiation. You either sign them to what they want or, well, you sign them to what they want once your roster gets down to 18.

The ONLY thing I've managed to "negotiate" has been the yearly rise which I've managed to go from 9% to 7%. Whee!

Meh. This is why I posted that one of the first things I did was to renegotiate all my players - a player's salary demands are proportional to their skill. So, yeah, if you're redoing a contract now, they're going to want a lot more. (Unless they're one of the non-improvers).

As for players not moving off their demands, I don't know why this is happening to you. For my part, I don't have any problems getting players to accept lesser contracts. If you want to them to accept a big change though, you have to be willing to give them something in return.

In other news, I won my league cup semi last night on PKs - but lost my best midfielder. The Final is looking dicey.

Good luck with the final! :)

Nice Brillig. Good luck in the Final.
I've been battling some injuries to my midfielders.
Too bad I can't call on one of the middies my scout found.
A 15 yo rated 78!!
2nd scout found a 17 yo defender rated 76.

17 YO's are a crapshoot, btw, they auto-promote when they hit 18, which could be a day after you sign them to the youth team. Since even after a full season it's not a sure thing that a youth will accept promotion to the senior squad, it's definitely a gamble. That said, in your shoes I'd roll the dice - after all, I just did the same with a 17 YO midfielder (74).

I'm in..

Laffayette Pornstar

Based on the help, I was under the impression that you would be able to eventually promote your own youthie but I haven't been able to so far. I have to wait until they auto-promote?

You can promote after they've been in the youth academy for at least 21 days. They have to be at least 16.

Well at least the ratings for each of my youth academy players went up by 1.

Welp, couldn't quite pull out the final, lost 3-2 in extra time. Eh, against a better team on the road it was a long shot anyway. Now, what to do with my ill-gotten gains :)

I guess the Super Cup starts next week, good luck everyone!

Reminder: The first Super Cup match is Tuesday night! Don't forget to set a lineup!

Apparently there was a bug in the draw, which matched teams against teams of roughly equal strength. So everyone should face a tough but winnable match. After tomorrow, though, it's back to random.

Also, they fixed a bug with regard to staff limits. Previously you could exceed the board's staff limit with impunity - no longer. Now you'll have to fire your way down under the limit if you want to take on another staff member.

Now that you guys have played it for some time, what are your impressions of it? Is it better than Hattrick? What are some of the major problems?

The economy is still soft. It is nearly impossible to sell a player that is valued over $1M because nobody has that kind of money.

Yeah, this blows HT away... if you have the time to put into it. It's got a lot more going on than HT does, plus matches almost every day, so you really need to stay on top of things.

Right now we're just starting season 3, and I think this is the season that's going to see significant changes in how the managers approach the game. At the beginning, every player was a no-skill scrub, so any kind of rational training at all was good for 15-20 ratings points a season. I think this is the season that *most* players are going to hit the wall, topping out in the 50's or maybe 60's. This is going to drive a sea-change in the market, because managers won't be able to just keep improving their teams just through training. They're going to need to either develop youths, which is a multi-layer crapshoot, or, spend real money on the transfer market. This is also the season where some managers are going to start having real money to spend, as well. They'll have completed the cheap stadium expansions, and be nowhere near adding a side to the stadium. They'll have pretty much either a) maxxed out the youth academy, or b) the squad size, so spending there should decrease as well. Unless you're doing something wrong, the clubs should be generating a significant profit. That money will go somewhere, and it's likely to be the transfer market. We'll have to see though.

The biggest problem I see with the game is that there's so much going on 'under-the-hood', that it's difficult to know if what you're doing is the right thing. This will probably frustrate a lot of users. It's also too complex to have the mass appeal that HT does, so I think this is doomed to be a relatively small game.

I agree with pretty much everything that Brillig has said here. Tactics do work, and good tactics from an inferior team can beat a superior team.

I just beat the #4 team in all of IAG, Loops United in a League Cup match. I thought that I was doomed for sure, especially since they are the top team in the whole Trapdoor League. I will take a 2-1 home win anyday.

The one main problem that I see is that the match reports aren't detailed enough, and that they game generally doesn't provide enough feedback, aside from the final result, as to whether your tactics were succesfull, and why or why they weren't successful.

I agree on the whole with tactics being able to outdo some better teams.

I am in the Semi-Finals of this years League Cup. One more W, and I am in the Championship. Don't know if I have a chance, but would be nice.

The club ratings/rankings are a bit curious. Of the four teams left in the Cup there are, a D1, D2, D3 and D6 team left in the Cup. My D6 team is currently rated/ranked higher than the D3 team despite being in D6. I still have not have a home cup game. If by some chance I win, I guess I will get it. The D1 & D2 teams are rated/ranked higher.

I just promoted to D6 and currently sit in 1st place (I know doesn't mean much since begining of season, but I am the highest rated/ranked team in D6).
I finished 1st in D7 last season to earn my promotion. (Again was highest rated/ranked team).

The money thing is a bit of a question mark, as I sold 2 players this season for combined 2.7 M and bought one for 900K. It all works itself out in the end, but during the season there is too much of an up and down with money depending on whether you have a home game or not.

But I do feel more immersed in IAG than HT.

Okay, so the last four kids I've promoted from my youth squad (so that I can dump the useless waste that started on the team) have 'declined' my promotion and left the club. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Anybody know what's going on and how I fix this bullshit? Having this happen (4 times!) when I have a squad of 17 and 3 broken players is . . . unthrilling.

I picked up this game about a month or so ago, and agree with all that it is better than HT. My squad is D C Untied, Div 3 in Neural.

I am 3 for 3 in promotions from my YS. Daedalus, have you been able to deduce any reasons why your guys might decline promotion? If I were writing the formula for determining whether a kid stays or goes, I would have the him compare his skill level with the division the team is in and the playing time he can expect to get at his preferred position.

In my own situation, the 3 guys I promoted were fast-tracked to the 1st team. I had some decent old guys I expected to let go when their contracts expired.

Is any of this relevant to your own situation?

It's hard to say what the promotion percentage is for youths who have been in the YS for one season or less. Judging from general reporting on the forums, it's less than 50%.

That said, I was 3 for 3 to start out too, just went to 3 for 4...

If you *really* need players, and it sounds like you do, YS is not the way to go. Look for cheap transfers of young players on the TL. I've picked up a good young GK that way (look for decent fixed attribs).

So having them on the youth squad for longer than a season would increase the odd of them staying on then?

Okay, so the last four kids I've promoted from my youth squad (so that I can dump the useless waste that started on the team) have 'declined' my promotion and left the club. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Anybody know what's going on and how I fix this bullshit? Having this happen (4 times!) when I have a squad of 17 and 3 broken players is . . . unthrilling.


You only have 17 players?

WHAT.THE.FUCK You usually have more players than on the transfer list:D

i'm broker than usual! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND transfer fuggers are more 'xpensive 'n usual!

i'm shocked, too. :D

Yea, I keep getting players that are 17 and when they are 18 they just decide to leave. So I tried to promote them before they hit 18 and they still refuse. I've had about 5-6 guys walk.

The game does say the longer they are in the YS, the better chance of accepting a promotion.
That said, my first promotee was a guy who turned 18yo DF in my YS. The 2nd was a 16yo middie who accepted after I think about 50ish days.
After that I had 5 players turn down promotion. (but most within about 20-40 days in YS). One turned 18 and declined because he had only been in the YS about 20 days.
Finally got my 3rd player to accept. A 17yo FW after 50 days in YS.
I'm waiting on a 17 YO DF I have that is rated 91 in my YS. I'm waiting on selecting him to try and increase his chance of accepting. (don't know if it'll work).