Dev Diary 60: Gameplay Reform – it is happening!

Let me start by sharing a few personal thoughts with you. There are news that you write because you have to, and there are also news when you enjoy typing every single letter, the announcement of which is the culmination of many months of hard work. The announced effect is the beginning of something long-awaited, and the changes introduced are not only technical maintenance of the game but its significant development. Therefore, with great satisfaction, on behalf of the entire Sokker Team, I announce that the start of the new season will be preceded by the long-awaited reform of the tournament structure! ~Raul

THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANGES:

- Extending the composition of each league - from the current 8 to 12 teams.
- Changing the calendar of competitions. The season will be reduced to 13 weeks in which matches will be played according to the scheme: league matches on Wednesdays and Sundays, cup / friendly matches on Fridays. Each team will play 22 league matches in a season instead of 14.
- Change of promotion rules. Most importantly, from the next season, league winners will always be promoted directly. On the other hand, teams in 2nd place will have their chance in play-offs. Places 3-6 will be safe, teams ranked 10-12 will demote directly, and those ranked 7-9 will have to defend their league presence in play-offs. We hope that this will affect the fierceness and attractiveness of the competition and each team will be committed to fighting for its goal throughout the season. Link to the new tournament calendar

NECESSARY ADJUSTMENTS:

- The new system assumptions are that each lower league level has 3 times more teams than the preceding higher one, and therefore: 1 x 1st league, 3 x 2nd leagues, 9 x 3rd leagues, 27 x 4th leagues, etc. This change makes the possible introduction of new promotion and relegation system, but also makes each level more exclusive and prestigious.
- The effect of the reform will be a change in the total number of teams at each league level. While the I and II levels of the game will increase their numbers, starting from the third league number of teams will be reduced. This is exactly illustrated by this table.
- The above changes require new assignments to individual leagues. At the beginning of next season, old leagues will be reset and ALL teams will be assigned to the new leagues based on their performance this season, creating a completely new composition of each league. We describe the rules of attribution in detail below.


RULES OF ASSIGNMENT TO NEW LEAGUES:

1. We play play-offs, promotions, and relegations, as usual, at the end of the season.
2. We keep the score (points, goals) with which a given team was relegated or promoted.
3. We delete teams without players (e.g. in PL there are nearly 400 teams).
4. We sort the teams according to the collective tables of a given level of the game, assuming that:
- First, we sort the teams that fell from a higher league level (direct relegations from higher leagues, and play-off losers from higher leagues)
- Then the teams that stayed at the given level (play-off losers from the league level in question, and safe places 2-4)
- At the end, we sort the teams that have advanced to a given level (direct promotions from lower leagues, and play-off winners from lower leagues)
5. We remove all bot teams from the rankings. We adopt one rule: no login in the last 50 days. These teams will not be completely removed and if the owner returns someday, he will be able to resume the game with his own team, with his own resources, but from the lowest league level.
6. The tables created in this way will be the basis for assignment to new leagues.

NECESSARY BUT UNPOPULAR EFFECTS:

- As described above, the number of middle and lower levels of the game will decrease.
- The consequences of the change in the number of teams at a certain level will be situations in which:
a) teams that, according to the old system, would be promoted to a higher level, will remain at the current level.
b) teams that, according to the old system, would remain at the current level, will be assigned to a lower league.
- It is math, and a necessary, one-time adjustment.
- We hope that the increased possibility of promotion from next season and the greater attractiveness of the tournament will be compensation for the owners of these teams.
- Despite many hours devoted to searching for solutions, in order to introduce changes, it was not possible to find a better solution. It is a necessary, but probably unpopular, effect.

THE EFFECT OF CHANGE ON TRAINING:

- Awaited by you, training reform will not start until the next season, so the next season will be a transitional period. New rules of the game, but still the old rules of training.
- Consequently, thanks to 3 "training" matches every week, it will be possible to train more players: e.g. 3 players with GK, 9 ATT, 15 MID or DEF, and as many as 33 players training pace.
- It is also a small gift for you for your patience - use it for the season, in the next season there will be new rules.
- Shortening the season will reduce the number of training from 16 to 13 possible so far. Remember this when planning the careers of your pupils.

In final words, we hope the competition next season will be as fierce as the discussion under this post! Good luck to all of you! ~Raul

Published on February 14, 2022

Dev Diary 61: Gameplay Reform – supplement

Since the publication of the previous Dev Diary, there have been a lot of questions and requests for clarification of provided information. Moreover, dedicated topic was created on the international forum where anyone could ask for additional details on the reform.
I will try to answer the first set of these questions in today's edition of DD. I hope it will help you to prepare properly for the upcoming season.

GAMEPLAY CALENDAR

I think the figure below will provide answers to most of your questions:


NEW LEAGUES ASSIGNMENT - clarification

With the end of the current season, the teams without owners will be withdrawn from the game so in the new league system, they could be replaced by new, active users. These bot-teams won't be completely removed from the game. If any of their previous owners decide to join our community again, he or she will be able to reclaim his or her team and start again from the lowest division in his or her country.
The teams which were assigned to a league as new users in recent weeks will be reassigned as all other teams in the new league system. There will be no new rules for treating them in any special way and we acknowledge the fact that some of them will be given single league promotion "for free".

JUNIOR LEAGUES

The structure of the junior leagues will not be changed but the number of matches played in the junior league will be decreased and adapted to the new length of the season which is 13 rounds.

NATIONAL TEAMS

Matches of National Teams, both junior and senior ones, will be played on Saturdays.
World Cup preliminaries will feature groups of up to 6 teams. This will let their duration be reduced to 10 weeks. The detailed rules of awarding promotions to the World Cup finals will be presented in the next announcement.
Works on the mechanism to share skills of NT players with NT coaches will be conducted during the season. The exact date for the release of this functionality is unknown.

TRAINING

Please take note that there might be a case where a player plays club match on Friday and national team match on Saturday, and according to the rules, in such case he will receive training based on the order which was set for the national team match. Potential use of the player in the Sunday or Wednesday match will let you reconfigure his order to the formation which was ultimately selected in the club match.
Another problem might occur when a player receives a red card during the Sunday match which will exclude him from the Wednesday match, and thus he will only receive training appropriate to the part of the match he played before getting the red card.
In case of appearing with several different orders during the week, only the last match will be taken into account, exclusively.
- Example One: a player who played in three different matches with formations MID-DEF-MID respectively, will be trained as if he had played only the last match with a MID formation order.
- Example Two: a player who played in three different matches with formations MID-DEF-DEF respectively, will be trained as DEF according to the same rules as currently with two matches played in the trained formation.
We are aware of the issues mentioned above, but they won't be resolved during the transitional season. The increased number of players who might be trained is itself enough to compensate for that inconvenience.

INJURIES

Due to the increased intensity of matches calendar, the following changes will be introduced:
- injury proneness of players will be reduced,
- average duration of injuries will also be reduced.
An additional change in the matter of National Team games is also being considered. More details soon.

SERVER PERFORMANCE

Along with gameplay reform, the game will be moved to the new server. This should cause:
- daily updates to be much faster and more stable,
- lack or at least significant reduction in delays of league matches.

ATTENTION! Works on the server environment will take place between the 18th and 20th of March. We do not plan to disable the website but there might be availability problems so it is advised to avoid putting players on the transfer list so they won't have transfer deadlines during these days.

Published on March 11, 2022

Dev. Diary 62: Explanations and Q&A about game reform


I hope we have all cooled down after the league reform and allocation of new leagues.
First official matches today, I hope there will be no less excitement than in the last two weeks :)

Meanwhile, the Developers are not idle. New themes have been taken on board, here are a few words about them:

TRAINING:

The training reform remains a priority for this season. An internal meeting has been held to define the goals, and the developers are getting to work. The plan is to accomplish it during the current season and implement the new rules from next season.
You are probably curious about the details, and there are quite a few questions about this on the forums. I will answer them during the season, systematically expanding your knowledge. For a good start:
Q: Will the "warm up" matches this week count for training like official matches as it was announced?
A: Yes, this change has been made and matches between seasons will affect training like official matches.

Q: What about pace training? If max 10 players can be trained, will it remain the slowest skill to raise or will it be improved?
A: Speed will remain the slowest trained skill. The reform should reduce the situation where all players in the stronger leagues have a speed close to the maximum. In our opinion, this will make the games more attractive and increase the asset of speed itself.

Q: Will you give a compensation by changing the skilldown age or intensity? to give players a lifespan like before?.
A: This is not planned at this time.

INJURIES:

Exact injury information has never been directly provided by the game developers. It will remain that way as well. The only official information is the one about the reduction of the average duration and the frequency of injuries. The "by how much" information will not be publicly stated, although in time you will probably be able to estimate it. Observations gathered during the current season can be used to further calibrate these factors, but it is to be expected that the new league system will not be kind to teams with only 11 players.


NATIONAL TEAMS.

Q: Which week world cup for NT will start in place next season?.
A: The start is scheduled for week 5.

Q: When NT managers will be able to see players skills?
A: We don't know yet - it is a work in progress. Possibly as early as the current season, but the priority is training reform.

Q: Will nt matches be treated as an arcade match?.
A: There is no final decision yet.

Q: Do you plan to enter the European Championship calendar for both A team and youth national teams?.
A: There is no more room in the current international championship calendar for additional continental competitions.

In addition, I would like to point out that with 17 qualification groups for the World Championships, the rule that 2 teams from each group will advance to the finals will not be kept. I will publish the exact rules soon.

COMMUNICATION / PRESSROOM

We see the need to further improve our communication and for this purpose, the PressRoom tab will be developed during the season. In addition to "front page" information, it will also present smaller announcements and advice for beginners. It should also be convenient to introduce an icon with the number of new messages/informations - as it is in the Summary tab.
For the moment I can present one of the projects showing the direction of changes: https://i.ibb.co/gJnTkVk/pr.png.


SOME RESPONSES TO OTHER QUESTIONS:

Q: Will the delay of matches be solved in the coming season break?
A: Once the new server environment is optimized, the problem should be solved or strongly minimized.

Q: How many weeks does the Cup last in Poland?.
A: There will be 2048 teams competing in the Poland Cup which will translate into 11 rounds.

Q: Tutorial or documentation of the game - Do you plan to improve?.
A: Yes, but only after further changes have been made to the main areas of the game.

Q: How can i change my region?
A: Currently you can ask the game administrator. In the future, you will be able to do this yourself.

Q: What about grass regeneration?
A: Currently no changes are planned, although we will observe the turf situation in the current season and then draw conclusions.

Q: Will the positions in the substitutions increase?
A: Such changes are being looked at as possibly being carried out in the future, along with changes within the conditional commands.


Published on March 25, 2022

Dev. Diary 63: Introduction to new training rules


We are still working intensively on the training reform. It is not yet visible to you, so in the coming weeks, struś will systematically provide you with more information, including progress.
However, he will start with a comprehensive presentation of the basic principles of the reform and the mechanics of the new training. Although for some, who read the forum closely, a lot will already be known, for some of you this will probably be new information.

I'll start by showing you the new training selection window - the screen is at the link below:
https://i.ibb.co/bHrbyNz/tren.png

*MAIN CHANGES:
- we see quite a few new elements, some of them are used to set up our training, and some of them are auxiliary and informative.
- first of all, we have three new sections, which are, together with the new rules, described below.

* TRAINING PLANNING:
- the first of these is used for assigning the type of training for a particular formation.
- you can assign one type of training to each formation: GK, DEF, MID, ATT.
- it is possible to assign the same type of training to several formations.
- this allows us to train between 1 and 4 different skills each week, depending on the choices made in this menu.

* ADVANCED TRAINING:
- we have 10 slots available where we can assign players to complete advanced training.
- this training will be the most similar in effect to the current training, however, you will gain more flexibility and have more influence on raising the effectiveness of the training.
- each player selected in this section has to be assigned to a formation with which he will train during the week. Based on this assignment, the player will receive a training type that is the same as the one you assigned in the planning window.
- the more games and minutes a player plays in a week with the given formation (GK, DEF, MID, ATT), the more effective the training will be.
- the order in which games are played with different orders does not matter, all minutes from the indicated formation will count.
- it is also possible to select a player who has not played in a week, but his training efficiency will be significantly lower.
- the effectiveness can be additionally increased by playing in a national team match or if your team played against better opponents.
- to make things easier, one of the columns will show the approximate efficiency - this will help you manage the progress of your players.

* GENERAL TRAINING:
- in this section, we see players who have not been selected for advanced training.
- the general training rules will be very similar to the current rules for players who did not fit into the training schedule that week.
- as with advanced training, we can influence the effectiveness of general training by assigning players to a formation.
- the more matches and minutes a player plays in a given formation, the more effective the overall training will be.
- players who have not played in any matches during the week will not receive any general training.
- as in the previous section, you get columns with information about minutes played and approximate efficiency.

OTHER INFORMATION
- it is not planned to change the day on which the training will take place.
- the implementation date of the changes stays the same and is expected to be at the beginning of next season.

Published on April 25, 2022

Dev Diary 64: The final touches to the training reform


Work on the training reform is slowly coming to an end.
The main programming changes have been completed and are currently being tested on the test server.



Before the changes can be implemented on the main server, the interface to the new training needs to be tweaked and the long-term development of the players tested. We need to make sure that the changes do not cause anomalies in the game and do not upset its balance.
This work will take a few more weeks, which means that the changes will come into effect during the season, we estimate it will be the third or fourth week.
We have decided that it is better to do more work before the changes are implemented in order to minimize the number of adjustments on the main server once they are available, which could affect the stability of the game.
The changes will be preceded by an announcement and will take place after a full training cycle, after one of Thursday's updates.

After that, we will work on adapting the training reports to the new rules. This may take another couple of weeks but will not cause any further delay.

Regarding the questions asked during the season. The rules described in Dev Diary #63 will still apply, but after listening to your feedback and reconsidering, we have removed the training bonus for playing against a stronger opponent.

Published on June 17, 2022

Dev Diary 65: Training reform - we're taking off!

With great joy and satisfaction,
I am pleased to announce that
the programming work and tests
for the implementation of the new training rules
have been completed !!!!




Next to last season's competition reform, this is certainly the biggest change and the biggest challenge our team has had to face. It is safe to say that with these changes in place, we will finally welcome the new Sokker that the development team has been talking about since the beginning of the work.
This does not mean that we will stop there, but the most important milestones have been reached!

CALENDAR OF TRAINING RULE CHANGES:

- [14.07.2022] this was the second-to-last training under the old rules.
- [15.07.2022 - 21.07.2022] the whole week from tomorrow until next Thursday is the last week in which the old training rules apply, remember to position your players accordingly.
- [21.07.2022] on this day will be the last training under the old rules
- [22.07.2022] on this date the new rules will take effect, this will also be the first match day to count towards the new training algorithm.
- [22.07.2022] the old training settings page will be replaced by a new one with the interface shown below.
- [28.07.2022] on this day your players will train under the new rules for the first time.

WHAT IT WILL LOOK LIKE:

At this link, you can get a little familiar with the look and mechanics of the settings. The link is already working, you will see your players there, but until 22.07.2022 the settings made there will not have any influence on the game. This is just an exercise.

https://sokker.org/pl/app/training/training-setup/

RULES OF THE NEW TRAINING:

We wrote in detail about the rules in Dev Diary #63 - it was a while ago, you might want to remind yourself before the changes take effect.

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We have done our best to render the best possible version for you. Remember, however, that training is always the essence of our game and, as well as being attractive, it is also very complicated and difficult for developers.
We have to reckon with the fact that with such a major change interfering so deeply with the structures of the game, bugs may appear and there is no other way than to correct them during the current season.
Let's hope there are a few of them as possible!

Published on July 15, 2022

Dev Diary 66: Training - principles and guidance

A new training mechanism is launched today.

Below is a description of the assumptions and a short guide, worth reading to avoid surprises next Thursday :)
In the following days, the below texts will be additionally inserted into the rules of the game and into the hints on the training page.
This process will take a while, translations into further languages and proper attribution of the content are necessary.




PRINCIPLES

TRAINING:
To develop the skills of your players, you can take advantage of the several training options available. The optimal choice of training settings and the correct assignment of players to the right rosters will be key to achieving success and training your own star players.
Remember that the ultimate success is greatly influenced by a player's talent, which is an individual and secret skill. Its value can only be estimated by observing training progress.

ADVANCED TRAINING:
The most effective training to rapidly develop selected skills for selected players.
- Available for up to 10 players in a given week.
- Requires assigning a player to the advanced training list and selecting the formation with which he will train.
- The player will intensively train the skill indicated for the selected formation in the "PLAN YOUR PLAYERS' TRAINING" table. Other skills will be developed only slightly.
- The effectiveness depends on the number of minutes played in the week before training (the preceding Friday to Wednesday) in official, friendly and national team matches.
- If there are no minutes played in the selected position, the player will receive advanced training at 50%.
- The real increase in a player's skills depends on the coaching staff, with the value of the coached skill with the head coach having the greatest influence, followed by the sum of the overall level of the assistant coaches.
* additional information under the "?" sign next to the list of advanced training players

FORMATION TRAINING:
In order to ensure the development of players who did not catch the advanced training, formation training is available, which is much less effective, but still allows some progress to be made and, very important for older players, prevents a decline of skills.
- Training is available to all players who have not been selected for advanced training and who have played at least one match in the week prior to training (any range of minutes).
- Requires the player to be assigned a formation to train with.
- The player will moderately train the skill indicated for the selected formation in the "PLAN YOUR PLAYERS' TRAINING" table. Other skills will be developed to a minor effect.
- The effectiveness depends on the number of minutes played in the week before training (the preceding Friday to Wednesday) in official, friendly and national team matches.
- In case of a shortage of minutes in the selected position, the player will not train.
* additional information under the "?" sign next to the list of formation training players

TYPE OF TRAINING VERSUS FORMATIONS:
Player skills are divided into two categories, positional and complementary.
Positional skills can only be trained for the formations corresponding to them, namely:
- Keeper - GK (goalkeeper)
- Defending - DEF (defender)
- Playmaking - MID (midfielder)
- Striker - ATT (striker)
what to keep in mind when setting up the "PLAN YOUR PLAYERS' TRAINING" table.
Complementary skills, i.e. Stamina, Pace, Technique, Passing, can be assigned to any formation and will be trained with the same effect for each formation.*
* additional information under the "?" sign next to the "plan training" table

EFFECTIVENESS:
In order to manage the training of your players more easily, you can use the information about the projected training effectiveness.
For this purpose, there are two additional columns in the training menu:
- Games (matches)-which indicates how many minutes on the formation selected for training and in which type of matches the player has played since the previous training. The higher the total minutes, the higher the training efficiency will be.
- Eff. (Efficiency) - indicates the projected training efficiency with the chosen formation. The higher the value, the higher the skill gain.
If the Eff. column shows "!", try to better adjust the position assignment or field the player in an extra match.
Remember that ultimately the speed of player development is also determined by talent and the quality of the coaching staff.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GUIDE
The following information will be in the relevant sections of the training settings page - they will provide a quick hint.


Plan the training of your formations
- Indicate the skill to be trained for each formation.
- Skill types can be repeated for different formations.
- The skill selected for a formation will be trained more effectively for players with assigned training for that formation.
- Remember, however, that player skills are divided into two categories, positional and complementary.
Positional skills can only be trained for the formations corresponding to them, namely:
- Keeper - GK (goalkeeper)
- Defending - DEF (defender)
- Playmaking - MID (midfielder)
- Striker - ATT (striker)

The complementary skills i.e. Stamina, Pace, Technique, Passing, can be assigned for any formation and will be trained for each formation with the same effect.

Formation training
- For each player in this list, specify the formation with which he will train.
- The player will receive an average effectiveness training of the skill assigned to this formation in the training plan and a slight training of the other skills.
- The condition to receive training is to play any number of minutes in the week before the training. However, the more minutes, the more effective the training.
- If there is an exclamation mark in the Eff. (Effectiveness) Showing an exclamation mark "!" means that the player in question will not be trained. Try changing his formation or fielding him in an extra match to reduce the risk of his skills dropping.
- The + button on this list, takes the player to the list of advanced training players

Advanced Training
- You can add players to the advanced training list from the formation training list by pressing "+".
- You can add a maximum of 10 players
- For each player on this list, specify the formation with which he will train.
- The player will receive intensive training of the skill assigned to this formation in the training plan and a slight training of the other skills.
- The efficiency is related to the number of minutes played in the assigned formation in all matches in the week before the training. Keep this in mind!


Important note: We do not intend to give all the information directly. As with the old mechanism, you will have to discover and estimate some of it yourself. Therefore, do not ask for exact calculations on efficiency, the impact of trainers, etc. We will not answer these questions.


Published on July 24, 2022

Dev Diary #67 - Significant and minor fixes.

The intensive work on the two big reforms, which were undoubtedly the reform of the league system and the reform of training, resulted in a lack of time for minor adjustments and generated additional errors and problems.
Now is the time in which we focus on detecting and correcting them.





Incorrect assignment to new leagues.
The biggest and most impactful problem for users was the incorrectly working algorithm for assigning new leagues for direct relegation and promotion.
It turned out that when assigning teams to new leagues, the system incorrectly ranked the teams - instead of creating an aggregate ranking table from the whole season and assigning teams to the respective leagues according to this, the system ranked the teams by ID ignoring the actual results.
The error has been located, the algorithm corrected, and, most importantly, it will be applied back, which will mean a reshuffling of the league line-ups for the directly promoted and relegated teams. The error did not affect teams playing in the playoffs.

Minor, recently resolved issues:

- corrected training reports (previously displayed incorrect information)
- corrected Thursday form update - for some time all changes were limited to +/-1
- added the possibility to open a player's profile from the training settings view
- added the ability to delete coaches in the new transfers view (previously only players could be deleted)

Translations:

The fast pace of the reforms did not allow the content to be made available immediately in local languages. These backlogs are being made up and languages that our Linguists have already developed are being introduced. If there are gaps or inaccuracies, please contact the Linguists appropriate for your language directly.

Warm-up matches:

We have come to the conclusion that with the changes to the league structure and training, there is no need to artificially maintain another type of match which were warm-up matches during the inter-season break.
The current season was the last one in which warm-up matches played on a play-off Sunday gave the effectiveness of training as official matches. With the current possibility of playing three matches a week, the opportunity to optimize training is so great that it no longer requires such strengthening.


That's it for today, and we're back from working on further fixes and improvements.

Published on September 14, 2022

Dev Diary #68 - Training speed adjustment

Training speed

In the last few weeks, a lot of users reported that in the new training system there is a problem with training speed.
As we announced with the training reform, we wanted to slow down the training of top-level skills, but probably we made it too harsh.
We analyzed training data - the differences between the new system and the old one weren't too strong, but of course, it was.

Training reform is a huge change in Sokker, and we believe we all need to learn it, so after hearing your feedback we decided to move back with training speed modifications.
From upcoming training (27.10) all training updates will have the same speed as it was with the old system.

At the same time, we decided to boost a bit of general training speed (around +50%) and also formations training (+40%). So overall, training will be even a bit more effective than in the past.

Our long-term goal is to promote more diverse player profiles in the game, so multi-divine players should be really rare or even impossible to train.
But we will try to avoid training speed modifications, instead of it - we plan to add an extra training level (galactic one) that will extend our scale from 0 to 19 (we will also change counting from 1 to 20, to make it easier to understand for new users). But - that change will take some time, and all details will be announced with dedicated news.

Injuries at NT games

We also decided, to remove injuries from FRIENDLY NT games. It will work as an arcade game - players can get injured while playing, but it will not last after the game.
It means, that we will also remove the training bonus from it - if there is a potential loss, there should be also no gains from it.
For official NT games, we decided to extend the reward - players will get so much training as from club-friendly games (so around 86% of possible training efficiency).

Published on October 26, 2022

CHANGES AND RECENT IMPROVEMENTS:

Declines in the skills of senior players.
For a number of seasons, you have raised objections to Sunday skill adjustments for senior players, arguing that it was impossible to react and possibly replace a player in such a short period. With this in mind, we have moved the skills review to Thursday, so that all skills changes (both drops and increases) occur on the same day. There has been a bit of concern as to for sure the drops are now not happening twice a week. Let me clarify, not only do they not, but the last Sunday before the change was free of drops. With this change, the skill reports and charts should work better.

Injuries.
Finally, the player injury issues were resolved. As we know, there was a point during the implementation of the changes where players, despite being injured during a match, were not excluded from further games - as in arcade matches. We guess that this was the bug you were most pleased about, but it had to be removed. Injuries now work as planned, which means:

Injuries will remain active if players have suffered them in:
- League games,
- National cups,
- Friendly club matches,
- Champions League matches,
- National Teams' official games.

Injury-free matches:.
- National Teams friendly games,
- Arcade matches.

Please note that appearances in injury-free games do not affect the training efficiency calculation.


Minor fixes:.

- If we're already talking about arcade matches - we've also removed the other effects of these games. They no longer affect either the club ranking or the tactical discipline of the players,
- We have improved the player stats accounting - until now if a player came in from the bench and had no contact with the ball, the match was not counted for his stats,
- We have fixed a bug that did not allow us to put some results (ex. 0-0) in the game studio Prediction(s) and comments,
- In the line-up selection menu, we have improved the functionality of the "view" button, which did not work if two tactics were set up,
- In the squad table view, we added the possibility to expand "tactical discipline" into "teamwork" and "experience".

NEW LOOK OF CLUB HOME SITE:
We are still working on the new design of the club website. It's not 100% ready yet and we're still giving ourselves some time to tweak it, but you can take a look here already:
https://sokker.org/pl/app/my-club/.

A QUICK SHOT ABOUT THE PLANS:

Financial reform.
It is easy to see that shortening the season while accumulating matches has significantly affected the economics of the game. Instead of 7 "home" games in 16 weeks, we have 11 such games in 13 weeks. In addition, pre-season bonuses fall more often. So far, we have not interfered in any way and are observing the effects. After this period of observation, we are now sure that a reaction is necessary and are considering various scenarios. The most likely ones are:
- an adjustment in the number of fans willing to come to the stadium,
- increasing the weekly salaries of top players (we note that teams in the higher leagues have benefited the most, so the adjustment should remove this advantage),
- an increase in certain fees and/or taxes.

Managing players from abandoned teams.
To date, there are no clear and standardized rules relating to the players remaining in the squads of teams whose owners have been removed from the game. The practice is to put players who are members of national teams on the transfer list in such a situation. This is possible after reporting to the administrator and his ad hoc action. This is not an optimal model - first of all, because it is not equal for everyone. It happens at various points during the season, with the result that sometimes a strong team without an owner beats some of its opponents and is sold out before meeting the next ones, We want to avoid such situations, so in the perspective of a few seasons, rules will be developed to introduce automatic player listing, eliminating any participation of administrators and arbitrary decisions, And there will also be specific 'transfer window' periods during the season when such listings will take place.
We hope that, in addition to standardizing the rules, the introduction of "transfer windows" can be an interesting add-on for many users during (for example) the mid-season break.

Published on January 21, 2021

Today, a brief update on the changes related to the national teams.
One relates to the functionality already added, and the other is developmental, depending on your feedback.



MAKING PLAYERS' SKILLS AVAILABLE TO NATIONAL TEAM COACHES

We have introduced the possibility for national team coaches to see the skills of their country's players.
We are aware that not all managers wish to reveal the skills of their players, which is why we have introduced the option of setting the visibility for each player separately.
In the player view, there is an additional icon to turn visibility on/off and information about the current visibility status, respectively:
- Sharing skills with the NT coach is enabled. - indicates the visibility of the player to the national team coach and provides an icon to disable it "disallow for this player"
- Sharing skills with NT coach is disabled. - means no visibility and provides an icon to enable it "allow for this player".
We hope this solution will satisfy both groups of users - supporters and opponents of the accessibility of national team coaches to the players' skills.

!!!ATTENTION - we have set all players to visible by default!!!
National Team coaches will not be able to see the skills of the players (even enabled) until next week.


ONE MORE TIME ABOUT INJURIES IN NATIONAL TEAM

As the recent change regarding injuries suffered by players in national team matches was met with a mixed reception, we decided to ask you about your most preferred solution.
This is only a poll at the moment, but we will take a close look at the results and not rule out further modifications if one of the options gains a significant majority.

We propose three solutions:.
1. Leaving the current compromise (friendly matches of the national team on an arcade basis, with no injuries but also no training efficiency benefits).
2. Remove injuries from the national teams completely, but also no training bonuses (i.e. all national team matches on an arcade basis).
3. Restoring injuries to all national team matches, but increasing the benefits of a player playing for the national team (e.g. more fans coming to club matches, financial compensation if a player is injured, shortening of injuries, refund of the player's salary, etc.).

The poll is available at THIS LINK and is open to all users.
We encourage you to express your opinion.

Published on January 25, 2021

Dev. Diary #71 - Finance reform - the first step

At that time we were already seeing a noticeable process of steady wealth increase for clubs at every league level.
To a large extent, this is the result of a lack of cost balancing for significantly increased ticket revenues. We announced at the time that we were considering various scenarios but we want to make a final decision after a thorough analysis of the financial data - to ensure that no group of users is either harmed or privileged.

What did the analysis of club finances reveal?

- After the competition reform, at each league level average revenues significantly exceeded average costs.
- Before the competition reform, the average weekly "financial result" was better in the higher leagues - but this was a minor difference.
- After the competition reform, the gap increased significantly, which meant that clubs in the high leagues made very high profits, while those in the lower leagues also gained, but not as spectacularly.

That's why our efforts are focused on rebuilding the correct balance on two levels:

- On a club scale - to balance costs and revenues.
- On a global scale - to eliminate significant differences in profits between teams playing at different league levels.

It is easy to conclude from this that the reform will affect strong teams to a greater degree.

As you are probably used to prosperity and have forgotten that you need to keep an eye on costs, making all the changes suddenly could be painful for some of you, so we decided to divide it into two parts.

Part one, introduced with the upcoming season will be about COSTS.

Increase in salaries of all field players:.
- We have made a simple assumption that fits in with the results of our analysis, which pointed to the need to increase the running costs of all teams, but to the greatest extent of the top ones.
- Therefore, all field players, with the age update, will have their salaries increased, but the better the player, the higher the increase will be.

Decrease in goalkeeper salaries:.
- The salaries of these players have always been ruled by slightly different rules and this will remain the case. Goalkeepers' salaries will still be relatively high but will be slightly reduced.
- After the changes, the best field players will be able to earn more than the top goalkeepers.

Below, to better illustrate the effect of the above changes, is the result of a simulation of the changes in player salaries for Poland after this season:



You may notice that the increase in players' salaries, depending on the league level, is in the range of 15% to 33% which should translate into an increase in overall running costs of a few to a dozen percent.

Change in player sales tax:.
- The existing player sales tax will increase from a marginal 5% to a more reasonable 10%.
- The tax on listing a player remains unchanged.

Part two, scheduled for further season will refer to REVENUE.

Over the coming season, we will evaluate the effects of the implemented cost changes and only after a thorough analysis will we introduce a second adjustment - relating to revenue.
At this point, we anticipate that the increase in costs related to players' salaries will still not offset the increase in revenue after the competition reform.
Therefore, the most likely scenario will be a reduction in match revenues.
We plan to change the behavior of fans, who will, as a result, become more responsive to ticket prices.
Therefore, in order to maintain the current attendance, price reductions will be necessary.
How much? This we will know after the upcoming season.

Dev. Diary #72: New Pressroom and Dev. update

Welcome to the verge of another season.
This is a good time to present some news, update on previously announced changes and highlight further development plans.

1. PRESSROOM

I am excited to announce that, in the coming days, the existing Pressroom/News tab will be replaced by a completely new view to keep us informed about events at the club.



Initially, automatic notifications will include:
- information on call-ups to national teams
- national team match reports
- information about an alumni player on the transfer list
- information about new members of the youth team

The list is not closed and we already have some ideas for further notifications, for example::
- club records (individual and team achievements, record transfers)
- information on fan expectations
- reports on the most interesting training effects

On the other hand, we are realizing that nobody knows better than you what other information should be there, so there will be a special forum topic where we will be waiting for YOUR IDEAS, and we will implement the best and most popular ones!

Some of you have asked about further plans for the CLUB NEWSPAPER. We want to revise this element as well, but for the moment, from a club website perspective, it remains the same. The only change is the view of the newspapers in the Word tab of the Pressroom view. Ultimately, we plan to integrate these functionalities more tightly.

If you want to see right now how the new view looks like, check it out at the link: https://sokker.org/en/app/pressroom/inbox/

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2. FINANCIAL REFORM

As we announced prior to last season, the financial reform is not yet complete. We are not backing down from these declarations and we see the need to fine-tune club income and costs, however, we have decided that one season of observation after the introduced salary changes is not enough and we are postponing further steps until at least the following season. Thus, with the new season, the announced new algorithm counting the number of fans in the stadiums and thus adjusting ticket revenues will not be introduced.

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3. FURTHER PLANS

Below, for the moment without details, are the topics we are currently working on. More detailed information will follow as the implementation deadline approaches.
- we will introduce fan expectations set at the beginning of the season and a new fan mood system based on them.
- we will replace sponsorship bonuses with rewards for relevant league places - this will allow the bonuses to be better aligned with attitude throughout the season and not just at the end of it.
- we will extend the substitutes' bench to 7 places.


I hope you are satisfied with the information provided.
In the coming season, I wish you good luck and satisfaction in the pursuit of your goals.

Published on June 19, 2023

Dear Users,
Traditionally, during the inter-season break I would like to summarise the previously announced changes and introduce some new ones.
Details below.



BONUSES, EXPECTATIONS, FINANCES

Seasonal bonuses

- This season, bonuses will be awarded under the old rules.
- From next season forward, the amount of the bonuses will be directly dependent on your place in the league at the end of the season.
- Approximate bonus amounts can be found in the league statistics under "bonuses".
- For example, for the Italian C.01 series https://sokker.org/league_stats/leagueID/1153/stat_type/bonus.
- Bonuses will be paid after the last round of the season.

Fans' expectations

- As announced, we are introducing seasonal fan expectations.
- Each user, via the press office, will receive information about what expectations their fans have for the upcoming season.
- You can also check the expectations for each team within a league, again using the list of statistics, this time under "expectations".
IMPORTANT: The expectations level for the first season will be for information purposes only.
- From the following season onwards, the level of fulfillment of expectations will be the most important factor influencing fan mood.
- We are currently considering how high an impact, success in cup matches will have on fulfilling expectations.

Financial reform

- Given these changes, we have not yet decided on a final adjustment of the finances by modifying the ticket income.
- We will continue to keep an eye on how the already implemented changes will affect the finances of the game and possible adjustments will not take place until after the next season.


ASSISTANT, PAYMENTS, BENEFITS

We are developing a new payment page with new features:
Here are the main ideas:

- A subscription option linked to the credit card connection will be introduced.
- The prices of the Assistant will be adjusted (they have remained the same for 15 years).
- The type of subscription purchased will affect the benefits received.
- Subscription via credit card will be the most beneficial payment method.
- The core features will remain the same, but you will receive additional benefits if you subscribe or purchase an annual membership.
• saving of training data even during a break in the use of the Assistant (during the break it will not be visible, but the full history will appear after renewal)
• saving the colour of the jerseys and emblems when the subscription expires (with other payment options, the emblems will not be visible when the subscription expires and the jerseys will revert to the default ones)
• the list of additional benefits can be further extended.


NATIONAL TEAMS

In one of the previous change packages, we introduced the possibility for the coaches of the national teams to preview the skills of the players of a given nationality (unless the owner objected). The feature has been on trial activated for all national team coaches, but from next season it will only be available to Assistant owners.


PRESSROOM

During the season, you have had the opportunity to discover how the new Pressroom works. I think this is enough time to evaluate its functionality, so I am launching an official thread where you will be able to submit your ideas on the news that appears in it. Feel free to do so in the international forum HERE.

Published on September 15, 2023

Dear users,

It's been a while since we last communicated with you, but we would like to let you know what was going on on our side - there have been fewer changes lately, but that doesn't change the fact that even if we lacked time for regular communication with you, we are still working to develop new functionalities.

There are a few areas that are currently being worked on:

Progressive tax issue, which as you know accidentally appeared in the game and was withdrawn. We are developing this idea, however, its final form and method of calculation will probably be modified - the tax will decrease much faster to lower values, but will be higher in the first weeks of possible sales. We aim for the player sale to be approximately as profitable as it is currently after about a season spent in the club, but additional rates would be added in the case of rapid trading. REFORM GOAL: to limit the profitability of DT-type trading without penalizing users transferring players once per season or less. This reform is not aimed at fighting inflation - such comments appear on the forum - the scale of taxes in Sokker vs the amount of money in circulation is marginal, and even doubling taxes would not have a significant impact on limiting inflation - it needs to be fought with other methods.

New PLUS shop - although payments are certainly not the most exciting topic for you, this is a very big change that currently absorbs a huge amount of our time. Introducing new forms of payment (the option to link a card and charge for the PLUS package in the form of a monthly subscription) is very important for us, the current system, where you have to pay upfront for the entire package, may be a barrier for a significant portion of players. Technologically, this is a very difficult project that also requires work related to legal and tax issues, which consumes a significant portion of our resources. Answering probable questions - yes, the game's price list will also change, and the monthly subscription will be the most cost-effective way to buy the PLUS package - however, we have not yet set prices, when they are prepared, we will share them with you immediately.

Development of the PRESSROOM tab - we still see its huge potential and impact on the game. We are currently introducing several new pieces of news (reports after national team matches have appeared, and a jubilee news item is being prepared for the anniversary of founding your teams, with a large portion of statistics regarding your clubs) - but this is just the beginning of the possibilities of this tab. We want to open a separate thread on the forum to collect ideas related only to this tab - new notifications or messages that we can generate - for example, it may be worth considering the option of sending injured players for a fee for accelerated treatment by a specialist, etc - the pressroom tab provides such possibilities - not only allows us to generate news, but we can also add buttons and actions that can be taken.

New pages to prepare: we are starting work on two new views in Sokker - player profile (i.e., player page) and club history and statistics. In both cases, we are open to suggestions for new functionalities or information that we can add to make the game more interesting - for example, in the case of a player, we would like to introduce his match statistics broken down by individual seasons, not his entire career, and in the case of club history, there is room to introduce achievements or expand the records section. We will also start a separate thread for both of these new pages and ask you to share your ideas.

Finally, information about Sokker's promotion and advertising. We started test advertising the game in various countries in recent months - we see quite a good response and number of registrations - we will test several more countries, from large European countries to smaller countries around the world - based on the experiences gathered, we will try to significantly increase the number of users by the end of this year.

We're back with a comprehensive explanation of how the new fanclub moods work, as we see they raise many questions and uncertainties. We apologize for the delay in preparing this description – nevertheless, we wanted to verify all reports of potential issues/bugs and confirm various cases flagged on the game forum.

New moods are a system reset

The most important information that should be the starting point for understanding the new moods is as follows: the new fan club satisfaction level is NOT a continuation of the old system. In other words, this season operates on an entirely new system, and you shouldn't refer to the mood level before this update – these are completely different mood calculation systems, and you can't say, for example, that the mood "dropped" compared to the previous season. It has been calculated on new grounds. We believe most of the misunderstandings reported stem from this crucial information.

Maximum moods only for outstanding achievements

Next, what is crucial in the new system is the fact that we approach individual mood levels slightly more demanding. To achieve maximum mood, it's not enough to meet fans' expectations – the level of "fans love their club beyond life" is assigned for extraordinary achievements, exceeding expectations to the maximum – you can't achieve it simply by playing according to the club's capabilities. Consequently, the level of "fans believe in their club," which is 4/7, is considered an average level of satisfaction that the fans strive for when the club simply meets seasonal expectations. Any deviations from meeting expectations will affect whether the moods will rise or fall.

New moods are a component of meeting fans' expectations, but also of the old system

Importantly, we've retained the influence of the old system based on the results of recent matches. We deemed it a more realistic solution – so fans will refer to whether the club meets its expectations, but they will also remember the team's recent results – for example, if we're in a good league position as expected, but we lost the last few matches – it will affect their mood. The proportion of this influence is 60 to 40 in favor of the influence of seasonal expectations – however, they are ultimately more important.
To help you understand your fans' behavior, additional information regarding their behavior at the office will soon appear, such as:
Evaluation of the level of meeting last season's expectations: xx
Satisfaction level with the last matches: xx%
Satisfaction level with meeting expectations: xx%

Additional (important!) rules of the new system

1. Fans will remember last year's successes or failures. For each level above/below the expected goal of the previous season, the club will receive a modifier to the mood limit. So for example – for a club that completely exceeded fans' expectations, a +2 limit will be allocated to moods, meaning that in the new season, even if it is completely unsuccessful, moods will not drop below the level of 2/7. Similarly, if we don't meet expectations – for example, if we're one level below the seasonal goal, moods in the new season will not be able to rise above the level of 6/7.
2. The range of this modifier operates on parameters: +2, +1, -1, -2. Once again, we emphasize that this is about the limit, not a constant bonus – in other words, the modifier limits the scale in which fans' moods can move in the new season; it is not a constant bonus to the mood.
3. Fans' expectations currently only encompass league competitions. International matches or cup matches affect satisfaction with recent matches, not expectations. This is likely an element we'll expand upon in the future, and the club will receive goals for other competitions besides the league (presumably less significant in terms of impact).
4. The impact of meeting expectations depends on the moment of the season: fans will react much more gently to the first matches of the season, and much more strongly to the last ones – which determines the actual position at the end of the season.
5. The greater the disparity between fans' expectations and the current mood level (e.g., in the new season, the team significantly exceeds expectations, and it started with angry fans) – the faster their mood will change.
6. Moods are currently updated after the morning update.