Just creating a little walk down memory lane for anyone who wants to post. It's basically a 20th season dynasty thread for the Hippos, similar to the old HT dynasty threads from back in the day. Sure, I'll be posting about the Hippos and their journey through this season, but also throw out some stuff about how the game is today, things that have changes, etc.

I'd like to try and make it a "class reunion" for the old hattrick community. I'd love for anyone and everyone who was in hattie for FOFC to stop by, post some stories about their former or curent team, reminisce, argue whether defense or offense is better, etc

I've added the link in my sig and here it is now:
[Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=70515)

I've also cross-posted this in the soccer forum in the event that some people only check there and not in OT, but I figured this is where most people are now.

Post here if you're interested (keeps the thread bumped), or, heck, start posting in that thread.

FOFC Hattrick Cup Get Together
When: Wednesday May 13th
Where: #FOFC on undernet
Who: All past and former hattrick players welcome to chat!
List of participating teams: sterlingice, Masked
Guests: terpkristin

SI

Word.

Holluh. Can't believe I still login from time to time enough to not become botted. (Also can't believe I still check this forum often enough to find this post, despite not having made a reply in over 2 years). Wheeeeeee.

Welcome, BillyNYC.
You last visited: 04-18-2007 at 03:04 AM

(Billy of the cobwebbed Shaolin Landfills)

That's just weird that you still have a login and I don't.

*blink*

Holy fuck, it's a DK sighting.

Who's that DK guy?

Who's that DK guy?

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

And whatever happened to that ArdentEnthusiast jerk, anyway? :D

I think he went to sea.

Wow, this thread is bringing out the folks who served as my introduction to FOFC. :)

My team botted over, I actually got an "email" from my old captain a few weeks back, asking me to come back and check out how much things have changed and improved.

I left so disgusted with the game that it's hard to think of going back, but if work weren't so ridiculous right now, I might actually consider it..

/tk

You got one of those, too? :)

Yeah, when I got that email I had to look into it...almost created a new team, but decided against it...to much going on.

Fixed the dynasty thread- time to break it again :)

SI

also got one of those emails, but mine was from God, Michael God that is. :)

And yep, I almost created a team, but thought better of it. Ahh the hours spent on that game. Never missing a Wednesday nor a Sunday game, setting that little software to yell "GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!!" that I would hear accross the house if I had something else to attend to...

FM

ah- the good ole days, I wonder what the Louisiana Cyclones could've been.... Don't remember when I let the team go, or why... but I still think back on the good ole days

Fixture 1 from this past Sunday is posted :)

SI

I got an e-mail from Maximilian Karasev recently too! And I almost made another team. If I could continue with my same team, I probably would've jumped back in. I saw the familiar star from the homepage on someone's screen at work, so I asked them about it, and they've apparently been playing for a few years. Did a search for my old team, and they seem to be a bot team.

FYI: Doing some more updates over the past couple of days. First fixture of the season and a pretty lengthy writeup on the Hall of Fame :)

SI

Changed team 4 years ago but never stopped playing even if i'm not really into it since last year anymore.

Ok, the big, hairy (re:long, but hopefully insightful) "Meet the Team" posts are done. It'll give you a good idea what kind of skills the Hippos are playing with in III in this day and age. :)

SI

Good job SI. I'm still playing, but like others I've lost a lot of interest. I'm stuck in IV for now, but don't mind it though I'd like to make the jump to III in a few seasons.

I'd like to make the jump to II, but I know I can't possibly hack it there without having to completely screw over my long term finances. I could live in III nearly indefinitely at this rate- well, not indefinitely, but with good luck and good management- probably for quite a while.

I worry that if I jump up to II, my next steps would all be down. If I fell too far or screwed my finances too badly, I'd probably try to empty cupboard. Problem is I wouldn't have the patience to build back up. I would like to continue with the flag chasing (for those who haven't seen my logo, it's pretty impressive) but that's a very frustrating pursuit at times so I'm not sure how long I'd want to keep that up.

SI

I really enjoyed the email from my old team captain. I think that was a good attempt at roping people back in on their part.

Good to see that some of you are still playing.

Another shameless bump for some views and to get some hattie chatter done. Still alive in the cup and in first place in III.3 (ok, if you've been reading you know those both will probably change next week, but still...)

SI

The season has taken an interesting turn...

SI

:(

SI

yeah.. gotta love the rain.. at least it wasn't a home date, SI.

Yeah, that was more in response to the cup game last night which I haven't written about yet.

I'm going to try and get the thread updated today or tomorrow with that. Currently I'm working on a feature, tho.

SI

New feature is up- there's lots of pictures so you don't have to read much ;)

SI

There are 4 weeks left in the season. Added a long post about flag chasing and should have a couple of match updates in the next day or two.

SI

Putting some finishing touches on the writeup of Wednesday's friendly with finketr but otherwise the thread is up to date.

Anyone interested in a little friendly cup the week inbetween seasons? Everyone still playing can pair up and we would mostly even be playing starters since it's between weeks.

It looks like that would be Wednesday May 13th at the usual friendly time 7pm ET/4pm PT and we can even open up ye olde #FOFC chat channel on undernet for current and former players. Yes, you people who used to play are required to be there if we get some interest ;)

So, anyone interested?

SI

Putting some finishing touches on the writeup of Wednesday's friendly with finketr but otherwise the thread is up to date.

Anyone interested in a little friendly cup the week inbetween seasons? Everyone still playing can pair up and we would mostly even be playing starters since it's between weeks.

It looks like that would be Wednesday May 13th at the usual friendly time 7pm ET/4pm PT and we can even open up ye olde #FOFC chat channel on undernet for current and former players. Yes, you people who used to play are required to be there if we get some interest ;)

So, anyone interested?

SI

I'm interested and would provide a good chance for anyone else to set a team record for goals scored.

I've added a note in the first post. I'll keep track of teams that sign up- we'll arrange some games as we get closer to that point, likely the week before. And, again, everyone who has played is heartily invited to chat :D

SI

I'd come chat. I have so far managed to resist the urge to re-join Hattie though.

/tk

Thread is up to date with this past week's friendly as well as a few more little thread elements.

Still looking for teams and chatters interested in a little online hattie get together in a couple of weeks (5/13) :)

SI

Caught up to the present. Next week is week 14 and it will be one heck of a week for all 3 major teams still going in FOFC who have posted (finketr, Masked, myself).

Anyways, thinking about a preliminary chat on Sunday at game time. I'll post here if something comes of it.

SI

Anyone interested, I started up an FOFC channel on efnet (irc.efnet.info) since undernet seems gone or having problems. I have a chance to win Div III as does finkert. :)

SI

I tried to join in but efnet isn't liking my Ident response.

/tk

Hm.. not sure what's up with that. I didn't have any problems but I haven't done a lot in IRC in a while

SI

Season finale is up. Took a while to write about it and there's a lot there. Link's where it's always been- top of the page

SI

The last feature is up- about the youth academy and training nowadays.

Ok, so only Masked and I arranged games for today as there are a lot of other cups going on this week. However, I'll still be on IRC as planned at channel #fofc. Probably will be on efnet since undernet seems to be gone- I'll post this afternoon when I have the location figured out.

Time will be 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT

SI

I've created #fofc on efnet.info- I'm open to other server suggestions but they seemed to have survived.

I'll be there all 2 hours, even if I'm staring at a blank screen ;)

SI

I updated the post for our "FOFC Cup" game with a complete history of the FOFC Cup. I had to spread it across the following 2 posts since it was causing vBulletin to lose information if I tried to stuff it all into one:

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=2014966&postcount=95)
Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=2018546&postcount=99)

It chronicles the two biggest FOFC Cup dynasties with the Gargs and Bees. And there's some quality slander towards CW, too. Wait? If it's on the internet, is it slander or libel? Oh, and some shameless pugging for the Hippos but if you've been reading the thread, you know that's nothing new.

One more post to come and then the dynasty will be over.

SI

So now you got me wondering, how much has hattrick changed? Is it fun, could the Louisiana Cyclones make a comeback? Can I possibly find that Logo?

Well, the underlying economic mechanics haven't changed much nor has the game engine. There's still the issue that the only way you get better and move up is by extreme patience and attrition.

But a lot of the stuff around the game is more fun. You can create crazy jerseys, put players in the Hall of Fame, work on achievements, chase flags, etc. The youth academy is like having another half a team to manage so that's quite fun. However, you do have to spend the ~$40 a year on supporter to get the most out of your team.

SI

Yeah, I'll give it a try again- to bad my team is long gone- and all my stadium and money are gone. I'll have to start over from scratch, but I'll give it a go- see how it is.

Will be training defense again...

Is it still basically a battle for midfield, and the only way to win is the 3-5-2?

I think you can get exotic and make it work some other way. I ran a 3-4-3 for quite a while when training strikers in III but, for the most part, 3-5-2 is still your best bet. Looking at MLS last season- about half ran 3-5-2 and the other half ran 3-4-3. For our series, almost everyone ran a 3-5-2.

I think at upper levels, defending training is the way to go- it's what I do. And I think it works fine at the start, too. I still think everyone needs to go through the midfield training at one point, tho. Here was the training primer I did in the dynasty report:

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=2018537&postcount=97)

SI

Let me know if anyone is thinking about joining - I can invite you to my series (new feature). My series is currently all bots so it will be pretty easy to place in the top 3.

Ooops forgot about that thread.

Finished 2nd in my series and got promoted to Spanish Div 6 (started in Div 11, 2 years ago).

Now I'm going to get crushed this season...

So the top 2 teams can promote in lower divisions?

SI

Depends on the level, that's the first time I have the top 2 promoting, in D.11, D.10, D.9 and D.8 only the champion got promoted.

Completed post 100- it's at the bottom of the second page. This wraps up the formal part of the dynasty. Again, thanks all for reading.

SI

I posted an update as season 39 just came to a close. It was a very fun season :)

[Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread - Page 3 - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=2106606#post2106606)

SI

A little bit of an update which might be of interest to terpkristin and FrogMan, in particular.

SI