Season 9.5 Changes

satory

So they released the new mid season changes today, heres what they are:

Constructing Level 1 Training Facilities

It's that time again. Time for new goodies to be added to the game. There are some new premium features, as well as some improvements in response to feedback received so far in season 9. This is the first item on the list for the mid-season 9 changes: a change to the cost of constructing a level 1 training facility.

The construction price for level 1 training and level 1 youth training facilities will be increased from free to $5000. This fixes a possible loophole.

Contentment

Some might say your fans are now "as fickle as football fans". We're making some tweaks to reduce the large changes in contentment and fix some other issues too.

Everything in the documentation will still stand, it will simply be tweaked. For example, drops from WNWIM will be lower, drops when playing teams better than you will be much lower too.

We're also going to slightly reduce the effect of negative contentment on attendance.

Energy and Injuries

We're making some changes to energy and injuries to cater for a greater variety of users. Currently, the game can be unplayable for the casual manager. We want to make things easier, but still retain the need for squad depth.

1) All energy hits are going to be reduced by 10%. This will increase the average energy level slightly, and in effect reduce the frequency of injuries.

2) The length of injuries will be reduced. The current maximum injury length of 5 weeks will be reduced to 3 weeks, and all other lengths reduced by the same proportion.

3) The default lineup will remain unchanged when a player gets injured. Currently, when a player is injured, the game will replace that player in your default lineup. From season 9, week 8, the player will only be replaced in saved lineups, but not in your default. Any injured players in your default lineup will be replaced automatically by the match engine at kick-off time if needed. This change means that when a player comes back from injury, they'll automatically start playing again, providing the default lineup was unchanged.

Player Birthdays

Remember the problems at the start of the season? Well, much of that was related to the amount of time it took to age, fire, and replace your youth players. To resolve this, all players will now have birthdays.

Birthdays will be given to players at the start of round 8 this season, but they will not come into effect until season 10. To clarify, players will not age at the end of season 9. Players will not age again until their birthday next season. This means some players may not age again until the very last day in season 10.

All birthdays will be given to a player when they are scouted into the youth squad. The birthday will be completely random. This means a youth player newly scouted into your squad at 16, may age to 17 the very next day, though rarely. The decision to make birthdays completely random and not force a full season before aging again has been made as a result of a lot of discussion, and will not be changed.

Players who are 20 or under on the first day of the season, are eligible to for the U20 team in that season.

Premium Features

Check out the new premium features coming in season 9.5.

New energy indicator
Premium managers will be able to see a new energy indicator for their players which will show an energy value somewhere between 0-100%, instead of the normal levels 1-11. This may come as a bar, we're not sure yet.

Transfer Market Watchlist
This will replace the old bids section in the Club Office, and will appear on the transfer market page under it's own tab. Premium managers will be able to add any player who is for sale to their watch-list and track their progress. It will also show any of the manager's players who are for sale and their progress as well.

Youth Blurbs, Notes, Stars used when scouted
This is fairly self explanatory, except for the stars: While a player is in the youth squad, you will be able to see how many stars were used to scout that player. When the player is promoted, the stars information will be added to the player history.

Translation Tools

With the final announcement for season 9.5, we'd like to tell you about something we've been working on since late last year.

Some time in season 9, round 8, we'll open the translation tools to everyone. The translation tools are a web application we've named "Community Translator", or simply "Translator" for short which allow anyone to translate content in English to any other language. Once translated, the system automatically publishes the new content to a translated version of the site.

In the last couple of months, we've been testing the tools with a small group. Loads of new features have been added and many bugs have been fixed, and we're almost ready to release the tools to the community so that some serious translating can begin.

We predict that about 3 months from now, we'll start seeing the first fully translated versions of Blackout Rugby making it to public release.

Gelio

birthdays is the big one there . . . thats going to cause big changes on the international scene

johnnysmack

Ya the birthdays are really gonna mess up the UTP's for season 10 and 12.

There better not be too much regression in the energy too after buying loads of filler players when the first team are all knackered.

Its one thing to try and improve the game but i wish they'd stop moving the goalposts every season.

eoferrall

johnnysmack wrote: »

Its one thing to try and improve the game but i wish they'd stop moving the goalposts every season.

I agree, it takes time to adjust team and tactics and so on when they make these changes - but also they then row back changes mid way through muddying the water. can be frustrating.

These changes, I am not sure they will have much impact (10% energy, saves one or two players in total?) the Birthdays will have an impact for the planning that has gone on for the UTP.

JohnButler

Beginning to get more and more annoyed with the game the more i play it and the more changes they make. All this tinkering with the game and no consistency!

Its changing, the Gnomes are trying to change with it, but its bloody hard!

eoferrall

I'm hoping they wont have anything for season 10 other than the birthdays being implemented... the game needs time to bed down as people are getting fed up having to try to change every season. Makes planning in advance tough.

Oisinjm

Once they change the contentment and energy levels this time round, they should just leave them. I'm getting sick of having to adapt

FewFew

I just want my stadium to fill at least once this season... it was nearly filling at times back in Div IV, so why not now when I have such exciting and illustrious competitors such as Ajeffares?!

Birthdays could be quite cool. I always thought the whole one season yoke was a bit of a pain, it really meant that buying a 17year old near the end of the season was pointless. Adds another element to the transfer market.

Gelio

i hadn't thought of that . . . what will happen to the transfer market? You could pull off selling a guy about to turn 18 at the start of the season

johnnysmack

eoferrall wrote: »

I'm hoping they wont have anything for season 10 other than the birthdays being implemented

Its a fairly clear pattern they have now. Mid-season announce changes they think will improve the game, start of new season new changes implemented for real.

I think they are always gonna be tinkering with it so theres gonna be changes every season. Why they cant leave the game play alone and focus on ME2, avatars and interface is beyond me though.

johnnysmack

Just thought of something regarding the contentment also, instead of giving us constant hits or gains with every match depending whether you win or lose, surely it would be more realistic if it was done over a few matches.

If you lost 3 or 4 games in a row then your members happiness would go down, same way if you won 3 or 4 in a row it would go up.

One loss doesnt make a team terrible nor does one win make them great.

FewFew

johnnysmack wrote: »

Just thought of something regarding the contentment also, instead of giving us constant hits or gains with every match depending whether you win or lose, surely it would be more realistic if it was done over a few matches.

If you lost 3 or 4 games in a row then your members happiness would go down, same way if you won 3 or 4 in a row it would go up.

One loss doesnt make a team terrible nor does one win make them great.

It would also be nice if it was based somewhat on league position etc rather than just ratings. My fans should be psyched that I'm mid-table, but instead they're all "you lost a match... GTFO." Bah!

daveharnett

johnnysmack wrote: »

One loss doesnt make a team terrible nor does one win make them great.

This is true, but in fairness the media won't reflect that in the week after an unexpected loss. If the team goes out next week and performs well, all is forgiven.

I like the current system, and I think it adds quite a lot of realism. I've attended quite a few magner's league games when Munster's first team is in the middle of HC preparation. I'd much rather see the peripheral/academy players give it a lash than watch a disinterested first team wrapped in cotton wool. What we're seeing with the dreaded 'dummy squads' is a pretty good analogue of this.

Gelio

daveharnett wrote: »

This is true, but in fairness the media won't reflect that in the week after an unexpected loss. If the team goes out next week and performs well, all is forgiven.

I like the current system, and I think it adds quite a lot of realism. I've attended quite a few magner's league games when Munster's first team is in the middle of HC preparation. I'd much rather see the peripheral/academy players give it a lash than watch a disinterested first team wrapped in cotton wool. What we're seeing with the dreaded 'dummy squads' is a pretty good analogue of this.

I actually enjoy watching second squads and love seeing the likes of conway getting a go for leinster

FewFew

daveharnett wrote: »

This is true, but in fairness the media won't reflect that in the week after an unexpected loss. If the team goes out next week and performs well, all is forgiven.

I like the current system, and I think it adds quite a lot of realism. I've attended quite a few magner's league games when Munster's first team is in the middle of HC preparation. I'd much rather see the peripheral/academy players give it a lash than watch a disinterested first team wrapped in cotton wool. What we're seeing with the dreaded 'dummy squads' is a pretty good analogue of this.

Ah yeah, I love throwing out the 2nds, in fact I think ever league match I've won this year has been with my 2nds, but I just don't like my fans hating me when I'm doing a good job... if only they'd attend I could get us out of the red, because they're really going to hate me when the club shuts down. I spent 200,000 on a poxy 18 year old back, just because he was the only player who wasn't either terrible or over the top costing millions. But 200,000... **** me, the market has gone crazy. Fingers crossed for my academy, otherwise my team will be gooooone.

satory

Yeah Im thinking of starting to lean away from the academy... since I've pumped 420,000 into advertising for new positions within the academy and also the main squad, thats looking all likely to be well on the way for the late on, this season.

Though currently sitting on -120,000 I really need to stay in the cup this week so I can have a good cup/league home matches week next week.

MarVeL

Think how much academy training a late birthday 16 year old will have this year. Might get a 30k pull if the birthdays fall right!

crisco10

New birthdays are up, anybody get done over/benefit hugely from them? I did alright, 1 prospect with an early birthday, 1 with a late birthday.

eoferrall

i have three recruits at the moment at more than 10stars... 2 of which age round one day 3 ah well so effectively as normal at the start of the season!!

MarVeL

Birthdays are spread out fine but the energy bar looks like it might just kill off brat for good .
Anyone a good set of rules worked out yet for rugby manager?

Gelio

I think my trainee is missing the world cup FFS:mad:

TheVoodoo

I got 4 10 star 16yo's who wont be affected untill last round of season 10.

Does that mean they wont age untill then? So they'll be 16 for well over another season??

daveharnett

TheVoodoo wrote: »

I got 4 10 star 16yo's who wont be affected untill last round of season 10.

Does that mean they wont age untill then? So they'll be 16 for well over another season??

Yep.

crisco10

TheVoodoo wrote: »

I got 4 10 star 16yo's who wont be affected untill last round of season 10.

Does that mean they wont age untill then? So they'll be 16 for well over another season??

lucky boy!

FewFew

Quite happy with many of mine, I think. I've a 20star gent who won't be getting older til round 16. Nice.

MarVeL

Just had a look at the youth academy and it looks like I'll only be promoting 6 guys next year. 7 of the current youth squad will be retiring so all told I'll have 13 16 year olds coming in.

Promoting in weeks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 & 7. Retiring in weeks 2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14 & 16. I assume there is a good chance some of the 16 year olds brought in will turn 17 in the same year so may have more promotions than that if they are any good.

Definitely makes tracking the YA more interesting