Football, Tactics & Glory News

Manager's Journey huge expansion is out on November 11th.

Join the live stream to learn about the new mechanics, watch the gameplay, and ask questions to the developer.

In reaction to our previous posts about the new features of Manager's Journey, we realized that the coach abilities can be perceived as some kind of super-powers. In addition, questions have been raised about how the abilities will be used. Therefore, I decided to tell a little more about this huge set of mechanics.


In previous versions of the game, you managed only one club. You couldn't be fired, so most of your decisions were long-term. Development of youth, learning skills, improving staff, etc.

But now, you have short-term goals. You are joining a club whose footballers can be pretty weak. Management may challenge you to reach the cup final or promote to the next league. In one season, you must somehow put the team in order and fulfil the set goal.

Previously, you could use a failed season as an opportunity to give young footballers a chance to develop. And now, no matter how you develop the youth, if you fail the season, you will be fired. Therefore, as a coach, you need strategic tools that provide an opportunity to improve the situation here and now.




When developing the abilities, we used the following rules:

• the abilities should reflect the actions that managers do in real life;
  
• every time a player thinks about using an ability, it shouldn't be an unambiguously easy decision;
  
• some abilities should have an immediate positive effect, and some should provide a longer-term effect;
  
• the abilities shouldn't give an absolute advantage. The players should use them competently or at least there should be some disadvantages that should be taken to account.
  

Glory is a measure of your authority and influence. The better your team plays, the more you are respected. Previously, you used Glory on four occasions:

1. To persuade more experienced coaches to join your club;
   
2. To persuade the club to sell the footballer, as well as to persuade the footballer to join your club (the cost in Glory on transfers replaced the negotiation process);
   
3. To motivate a footballer to learn a skill in training;
   
4. To persuade a footballer who decided to end his career to stay with the club for a few more seasons.
   

Despite the fact that there were several options for spending Glory, players mainly saved this resource for hiring coaches.

But how the upgraded def coach will help you if you stay at the club for only one season? He is useless. Upgrading the coaches is an investment in the future; it does not yield short-term results.

Now, Glory will also be spent on the abilities that can help you in difficult situations.

This way, you won't use your abilities every time you feel like it. You will think twice if it is really worth spending the Glory.


[h3]Motivating the footballers[/h3]
The game will have several different abilities related to motivating footballers before the match. For example, you can yell at your team. As a result, they will come out to the match motivated, however, they will lose a certain amount of energy.



You can also use this ability before the start of the second half, which gives you some flexibility. For example, if you play an away match, and you want your chances of scoring to be increased in the first turn after kick-off, you will yell at the footballers just before the second half.

This skill does not give you a 100% chance of scoring a goal. But it increases your chances. You yourself should decide whether you need this chance now or not.

During testing, there were situations when I was upset when the motivation of the footballer did not work, and Glory was wasted. On the other hand, the feeling of yelling at the team that lead to scoring a goal right after kick-off is very pleasant. You planned, took a chance, spent Glory, and it paid off.

And when you are faced with the task of winning the cup, you need to win almost every match. Therefore, a slight increase in the chance of winning can be very beneficial.

[h3]Individual training[/h3]
Previously, it was possible to fully learn a skill with Glory. Overall, it was a good opportunity, but it does not fit well with the new gameplay. Instead, there will be several new training opportunities:

1. You will be able to speed up the training of skills for a short time with a chance of injury;
   
2. You will be able to carry out a recovery training, helping the football player to regain some energy;
   
3. You can prepare a footballer for the next match, as a result of which he will receive more specialization points for performing actions (but there is a chance of getting injured in training).
   

Additionally, some of your skills are influenced by the level of staff. Here's a screenshot of speeding up a skill:



As you can see, the probability of injury could be 25%, but thanks to the upgraded medical staff, this probability is reduced. If you have a lot of Glory and don't want to risk the footballer, you can put more effort into training (pay Glory) to further reduce this chance.

Training is not available at all times. First, you must have at least Level 1 training fields. Secondly, you need to learn the ability to conduct training in general. Further, by improving this skill and hiring more coaches, you will be able to do more training.

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I really hope I managed to allay some concerns about coach abilities. But if you have questions or thoughts about this, write in the comments.

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[h2]Add the game to the Wishlist so you will not miss the launch![/h2]

The release is planned on November 11:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

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In the next expansion, even the most disastrous season will make you stronger as a coach. After all, now you will earn experience in matches. As you level up, you will unlock abilities that will give you new opportunities.


After each match, you will receive experience, which depends on whether you win, draw or lose.

In addition, the amount of experience depends on the tournament in which the match was played. The Prestige Cup gives you more experience than the Amateur League.



Moreover, the higher you climb in the cup tournament, the more experience you earn.


When the progress bar is filled fully, you receive a reward.

For reaching each even level, you can choose one of three new abilities:



In the screenshot above, I've selected the "Most Important Match of the Season" ability. This will allow me once a season to strongly motivate the footballers before the match, thus increasing my chances of winning.


See the stars on the ability icons? They show how many times each ability can be upgraded.

When you get the ability, the first star lights up. If you get it again, the number of stars will increase. And the ability itself will get a stronger effect.

In the screenshot above, the leftmost ability has not been learned. If I choose it, the first star will light up. The ability in the middle is already at the 2nd level, and if I choose it, the level will increase to 3rd. The ability in the right is at the first level.


Levelling gives other bonuses as well. Upon reaching each uneven level, you will be able to choose one-time money or glory payout.



Considering that each season you have to complete certain president tasks, additional money, or even more importantly - glory, will definitely not be superfluous :)


At any time, you can see which skills are already unlocked, what their level is, and what effect you will get when using them:




When we add new mechanics, we always think about giving players the opportunity to use those mechanics in their own way.

Some players may want to start playing in the Premier League right away as an experienced coach. Some players want to experiment with abilities. Someone may come up with a fictional scenario for themselves and want to play a certain role in it.

Therefore, before the start of the campaign, you can specify what level you will have and immediately choose which skills will be available to you in the game:



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If you have any thoughts, feedback on the topic of levelling, we will be glad to find out about it in the comments.

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[h2]Add the game to the Wishlist so you will not miss the launch![/h2]

The release is planned on November 11:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

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[h2]Follow our news[/h2]
Forum - the main hub for the discussions
Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - great place to discuss the game
Email subscription - I will send all the news to your email

In the next expansion, all leagues will be simulated in all countries of the continent - from Amateur to Premier (previously only the highest league was simulated in other countries).

Combined with the possibility to move to other clubs, there is a chance for the emergence of more interesting personal stories that only happen to you.

Today I want to tell you about one of the interesting stories that happened in my last test campaign.


[h3]Part 1 - Meet the Outsider[/h3]
As the coach of Brighton, I led the club to the Premier League, and after the next season, I was even able to qualify for the European Cup.

Looking through the results of the qualifying matches, I saw that unknown to me Sogndal knocked Barcelona out of the tournament.



I was surprised and decided to see what kind of club it was.

It turned out that the result was not accidental. Sogndal began to actively develop and from an outsider turned into one of the top clubs in the Norwegian Premier League:



[h3]Part 2 - I felt the power of Sogndal on my own skin[/h3]
I really enjoyed my 4 years in Brighton. The management never put pressure on me. It was enough for them that I did not get kicked out of the Premier League. Instead, I took third place twice and even won the European Cup.

Naturally, I was noticed by more famous clubs. I received an invitation to lead Barcelona. The club's management was very ambitious. They wanted me to win European Cup as they saw I already have won it with another club.

Despite the fact that most AI clubs are not very well managed, to my surprise Barcelona was staffed with great footballers. I immediately started winning all the matches of the Spanish Premier League. To understand the strength of my club, here are the league standings, in which I was 7 points ahead of Madrid before the end of the first round (Madrid, btw, was very powerful as well):



The irony of fate was that in the same season in the European Cup group stage, one of the rivals was Sogndal. It is a significantly weaker club than most Spanish clubs. Not even compared to me. Therefore, I didn't have a doubt that I will play better than AI in the previous season.

Now imagine my surprise when Sogndal won Barcelona again :D



Their goalkeeper became the player of the match, making 3 great saves.

[h3]Part 3 - Sweet Revenge[/h3]

Naturally, I decided that I would not let some upstart stand in my way.

To be frank, I also recalled how in 1997 the real Barcelona wanted to take revenge on Dynamo Kyiv in a similar way for the defeat in a home match. But they did not succeed, Dynamo won the second match with an even more devastating score. These were the times when the star of Andriy Shevchenko shone on the football horizon.

But Sogndal did not have such a star footballer. Therefore, I was able to please my fans with a scoring extravaganza:




Sogndal finished second in the group that season. This was the last time a Norwegian club had such success in continental tournaments:

Well, here's a graph showing the history of my coaching career:



I started the game in Ukraine. After a successful career in the lower leagues, I was invited to a good Italian club, Cremona. There we played quite well in the First League for several seasons. I have earned enough reputation to be invited by a club from England.

Despite the fact that Brighton was quite strong, the management just wanted me to play well in the First League. But my ambitions were much higher, and I brought the club up. And after the victory in the European Cup, I've got an invitation from Barcelona.

In my first season in Barcelona, ​​I failed the task: I could not win the European Cup. But since the season as a whole was not a failure (victory in the league and second place in the cup), I managed to persuade the management to give me another chance. We signed a 3-year contract whereby I have to win any 2 trophies every year.

It's a coincidence, but I spent 4 seasons in each club.




I sometimes write notes from my stories on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/HkT8FC7sr4

Also, in the channel #🏗 Beta 👔 Manager's Journey Stories one of the players who've got access to the beta version of the game, writes his own coach story. It might be interesting to read because he describes the game from the player's perspective: how it's played, what is the interface etc. So it's worth checking out.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

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Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - good place to discuss the game
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When we started developing the Manager's Journey DLC, we thought that if we introduce the ability to move from club to club, then it would be quite logical to also combine this mechanic with the ability to become a coach of the national team.

But in the course of development, the more we tested new mechanics, the more we realized that if we go along the intended path, the potential of the mechanic of moving to other clubs will not unlock its potential.

Previously, the game was based on long-term planning. You could be losing, relegating to a lower league to gain strength, etc. Now you will need to complete short-term president's goals. This is a very interesting feature, and while we are testing it, we have great pleasure in seeing how the game has changed. But fulfilling short-term goals requires adding additional mechanics to the game that we did not plan before. Without these mechanics, there is a feeling that something is missing.

For example, the management of a club that occupies a middle position in the league gives you the task to advance to the next league. You win some matches but it is hard to perform the task with the team you have. You don't have time to put together a great team because great teams can't be built in one season.

If there were additional opportunities, you could motivate the footballers before a difficult match so that they play a little beyond their capabilities. Or you could ask the president of the club for money to buy an expensive footballer. Or you could cheer on an injured footballer who is very important to the team. As a result, he would be able to return to the team more quickly.

And so, we stopped at a crossroads.

1) If we follow the intended path, the expansion will include moving the coach to other clubs and national teams. However, until the moment a player can become a coach of the national team, he will have many seasons to build his career, and he will lack the strategic opportunities to influence the success of his club. And when managing the national team, there will be even fewer opportunities, since there is no development of the club.

Additionally, the implementation of national teams will take longer as we will have to implement more changes to the game engine. So the expansion would come out 2-3 months later than planned (will be moved to 2022).

2) Or we will follow the path of replacing national teams with other mechanics that will make the experience of a coach's life more interesting and the game even more replayable. The game would really feel like a coach's journey.


This decision was difficult.

We understand that from the side of the players it seems that the national teams themselves will add the game more fun.

But seeing the game from the inside, playing the already made mechanics, we went the same way as we used to go before: if there is a choice between a) what will make the game more interesting and b) what sounds good on paper, but in practice does not make the game so interesting (as we accustomed by our standards), we choose the path of a more interesting game.

It was the same as the last time when we changed our plans during the development of the Football Stars expansion. We implemented the Giftedness mechanic then, even though we did not initially plan to do so. It resulted in an interesting expansion that adds a lot of depth to the game.

We really hope that our reputation of developers who put gameplay and fun at the forefront will lead you to believe that changing plans is for the better.


As previously promised, you will be able to move from club to club. Each club now sets goals for you for one or more seasons. Successful completion of the task increases your reputation, as a result of which more and more prestigious clubs begin to take interest in you.

Instead of national teams, we will introduce coach levelling mechanics and a large number of new mechanics (coach abilities).

You will gain experience after each match. The amount of experience will depend on whether you win, lose or draw. Also, the amount of experience will be affected by the tournament in which you play.

When you gain enough experience, you will level up. You will be able to choose from several random coaching abilities. But it will also be possible to get money or glory (sometimes, these resources might be very useful in the short term).

Examples of coaching skills:

• Possibility to motivate footballers before the match or before the second half.
  
• Ability to mark the next match as the most important match of the season (which will motivate the footballers even more).
  
• Possibility to receive young footballers of the required class from the Youth Academy.
  
• Ability to cheer up injured players.
  
• Ability to speed up skill training by a certain number of days or conduct special training, after which the footballer will earn more specialization points in the next match.
  
• Possibility to ask the president for money.
  
• And other mechanics...
  

While we expect to receive negativity from players waiting for national teams, we still want to understand the overall mood of our players. Therefore, please write in the comments what you think about the changes.

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[h2]Add the game to the Wishlist so you will not miss the launch![/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

= = = = = = = = = = = =
[h2]Follow our news[/h2]
Forum - the main hub for the discussions
Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - good place to discuss the game
Email subscription - I will send all the news to your email