90 Minute Fever News

Hi everyone

We’re doing a mid-month update this month as we’ve got a number of fixes/improvements that are ready to deploy now that improve the gameplay experience, and we’ve decided to get these in asap rather than waiting until the end of the month. We are also trying to get the game to a state where we can actively try and push for more users asap.

There’s a series of improvements to the brand new Assistant Manager feature. The changes are in response to feedback received from the userbase, as well as taking into account the data for how the feature is being used.

Having more direct pvp competition for player signings as well as more choice of players to sign is something that many people have asked for so we’ve made some changes to push the game more in that direction. In particular, only being able to sell players for 50% of transfer value when no transfer bid has been received for them was particularly punishing for those who aren’t particularly good (or interested) in squad management. Increasing this to 75% is hopefully a better overall balance for not punishing these managers, whilst at the same time still giving meaningful benefits to those who are active in the squad management side of the game.

The couple of match engine player behaviour improvements help a lot with the overall flow of matches.

There’s also quite a few bug fixes that we wanted to get into the game asap.


Note: items below labelled with a “^” means this change will take effect starting at midnight UTC tonight.

• Assistant Manager no longer prevents you from playing other match types when you have overdue matches, unless it is the final day of the league period
  
• Assistant Manager can now start playing matches for any clubs whose manager hasn’t logged in for 10 consecutive days, starting from the very beginning of each league period
  
• Better balanced league period distribution of Assistant Manager match requesting (far less back end heavy)

• Players can now be sold for 75% of value when no transfer bid has been received for them that day
  
• Balancing changes to player valuations ^
  
• Balancing changes to starting bid for Player Auctions (all bids made today before the update have been removed)
  
• Increased amount of players that are part of the Player Auctions each day ^
  
• The players that are part of the Player Auctions each day now shuffle around more to create more variation in players on the list on a day to day basis ^
  
• Min(imum bid) column added to the Player Auctions page

• Balancing changes to dribbling behaviour (defensive role players now attempt dribbles less)
  
• Balancing changes to passing behaviour (less long range passes end up going out of play)
  
• Fixed bug that caused substitution icons not appearing correctly in some situations

• Balancing changes to Financial Stability club ranking metric ^
  
• League Results widget for the weekly league tables now only show results that pertain to clubs involved in that weekly league rather than for all clubs in the division
  
• The Overall Standings screen now includes a Results tab that shows results from all leagues in a tier
  
• Squad Layout now has improved sorting order logic for Positions (sorts by rank/side rather than alphabetically)
  
• Order of position icons for players now shows in order from left to right of most defensive to most attacking and left then centre then right
  
• Fixed club logos not displaying correctly on custom sorted league tables
  
• Updated design of match notification window (that appears bottom right)
  
• Fixed club logos not displaying correctly on the match notification window
  
• The League Fixtures widget on the home layout now always shows days and hours remaining in the league period window (rather than only showing hours in the final days)
  
• Fixed Club Rankings text not appearing correctly on first load sometimes
  
• Fixed club logos not displaying correctly on match welcome panel on the left side of the screen
  
• Fixed rare bug that caused the match fixtures/results widget not displaying WDL icons for matches that have been played
  
• Updates to Portuguese translations

Hi everyone

This month we’ve focussed on responding to feedback about the league/fixture system and making some changes to the way the league system works. As part of this we have added a new Assistant Manager feature to help managers get their matches played. Details on these below.

There’s also some changes to the transfer system to make it more competitive and provide more choice in players, things which many of you have asked for.

We have also started adding in some ‘world building’ content in the form of a variety of Club Ranking metrics. This is something we will continue to flesh out over time.

The game is also now fully localized/translated into both Portuguese and Greek languages.





All teams in the game will now have an Assistant Manager that will request and play fixtures on their behalf should they fall behind on playing them themselves. The Assistant Manager will let you know of any games that will try to play in the near future by marking the fixture result square on the home screen with an ! icon. If you see this icon and you want to play the match instead of your assistant manager, then it’s best to play it ASAP.





The weekly leagues (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer) now contain 12 clubs each rather than all clubs in the whole tier/division being ranked in a single table (but will still play against all teams within their tier throughout the season). Bot clubs are no longer part of the Overall league rankings. The Overall league is otherwise functionally the same. i.e. The Overall league still ranks all all clubs in the whole tier/division against each other and is used to drive promotion/relegation as it did previously.





Highest bidder now pays an amount equal to their bid (rather than paying an amount equal to the 2nd highest bidder).

You are now also able to make a transfer bid for any player in your Scouting Pool for an amount between 50% and 90% of the price you can buy them for (you can still instantly buy any player from your Scouting Pool for their full buy price).

All players in all Scouting Pools for all managers in the game who receive such transfer bids, will be in the Player Auctions list the next day. Other managers will be able to make a Player Auction bid for these players, but the minimum bid for anyone else is equal to 150% of the Transfer Bid amount made by the manager whose Scouting Pool the player was in.

Transfer Bids can be withdrawn before the player is in the Player Auctions list (i.e. the same UTC calendar day they are made). Once the player is in the Player Auctions list the initial transfer bid cannot be withdrawn or changed, nor can the manager make a regular Player Auction bid on any players they made a Transfer Bid for previously.

A variety of some of the best available players in the Scouting Pool will still be identified as ‘Marquee Players’ and they will be in the Player Auctions list in addition to the players who received Transfer Bids in Scouting Pools (although they will no longer be marked as being ‘Marquee’ players, they will simply be extra players in the player auctions list).

From the perspective of managers who did not make a transfer bid for a player in their scouting pool the Player Auctions list is functionally identical to what it was previously (except that it will be a much larger list).

From the perspective of any manager who makes a transfer bid for a player in their Scouting Pool they will sign the player for their transfer bid amount if no other club bids for that player. If any other club bids for that player then the club who bid the most will sign the player.






There is now a leaderboard with the top 5 ranked clubs in the game in each of the 8 ranking metrics. Additionally, if you have an active Supporter Club Membership you’ll be able to see details about how your own club ranks in these metrics, allowing you to get a better idea of your strengths and areas for improvement.








Assistant Manager - New Feature

• All clubs in the game will now have an Assistant Manager
  
• Any club managed by a user that does not log in for an entire season (entire calendar month) or does not have an active Supporter Club Membership can be removed from the game during season finishing due to inactivity
  
• The Assistant Manager will request and play matches on behalf of managers automatically if that manager is behind on playing their matches for the weekly league period
  
• The Assistant Manager will let you know of any games that will try to play in the near future by marking the fixture result square on the home screen with an ! icon
  
• If you have any league fixtures with an ! icon. Then you cannot play friendly matches until you have played those league matches
  
• If you disconnect from a match then the Assistant Manager will take over managing the club for the remainder of that match (i.e. they can make substitutions)

League System Changes

• The weekly leagues (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer) now contain 12 clubs each rather than all clubs in the whole tier/division being ranked in a single table
  
• Bot clubs are no longer part of the Overall league rankings
  
• Last Season Winners widget on Overall league, now shows 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the overall league (no longer shows Winners of weekly leagues from previous season)
  
• Bot clubs have been renamed and given more variety of club colours to improve immersion
  
• Division 5 has been removed from the game (all clubs that would have otherwise been in Division 5 are now in Division 4)
  
• You cannot be relegated below Division 4

Transfer System Changes

• You are now able to make transfer bids for players in your scouting pool. See above for more information
  
• Highest bidder now pays an amount equal to their bid rather than paying an amount equal to the 2nd highest bidder (or minimum bid in the case of no other bidder)
  
• Marquee Players renamed as Player Auctions, and these are no longer tier bound (i.e. all tiers/divisions in the game see and bid on the same list of players)
  
• Scouting Pool players are no longer tier bound (i.e. all Scouting Pool players shuffle between all clubs in all tiers/divisions)
  
• In order to make a Transfer Bid for a player you must be able to afford that bid inclusive of the Transfer Fee, Signing Fee and player wages for one month, for both that player as well as all other players in your Scouting Pool you have Transfer Bids made for
  
• A variety of some of the best available players in the Scouting Pool will also be added to the Player Auctions list each day
  
• Improvements/balancing changes to player valuation system
  
• Minimum Purchase price now £10k for all tiers

Match Engine Changes

• Throw-in taker will now wait for teammates to be up on their feet before taking the throwin
  
• Rushing Out attribute for goalkeepers improved. Higher Rushing Out attribute now sees them move further to get through balls
  
• Command of Area attribute for goalkeepers improved, they will now claim more corners/crosses

Club Ranking Metrics - New Feature

• A series of 8 club ranking metrics have been added to the game. There is a leaderboard that shows the top 5 ranked clubs in the game for each metric
  
• Supporter Club Membership feature that you can also see information about your own club ranking in each metric if you have a Supporter Club Membership, including daily and seasonal movements information
  
• Senior Performance ranking metric added : The performance of your senior team in competitive games
  
• Youth Performance ranking metric added : The performance of your youth team in competitive games
  
• Financial Stability ranking metric added : The stability of your club from a financial perspective, taking into account overall wealth, income and expenditure
  
• Graduate Development ranking metric added : The ability to choose and develop academy trial graduates
  
• Future Prospects ranking metric added : The prospective youth prospects at the club (including players acquired via the transfer market and academy)
  
• Squad Depth ranking metric added : The depth of player ability within the current squad
  
• Club Value ranking metric added : The net worth of the club, taking into account various factors including current bank balance and the value of players currently at the club
  
• Overall ranking metric added : The overall ranking of a club, taking into account all of the other metrics

Training Points/Ranking Changes

• Players are now ranked across tiers (Training Rank is no longer tier bound)
  
• Training Points are no longer capped by Determination/Natural Fitness Attributes
  
• Determination/Natural Fitness attributes now act as a multiplier
  
• Match result no longer impacts training points directly (but indirectly impacts points because promotion/relegation matters a lot due to the tier multiplier)
  
• Points calculation is match rating out of 10
• tier multiplier
• det/nf multiplier
  
• Higher training rank matters but there is a large ‘random’ element as well involved, so it’s possible players with lower training rank might get good training options and vice versa
  
• Training Manager skills rebalanced to take into account these changes (Points they offer increased by x100 fold)

Tutorial Changes

• New users now unlock parts of the game as they complete tasks
  
• At the moment those tasks are placeholder to just playing matches but the intention is to make it so that each step requires a different task to be completed related to the previously unlocked game functionality
  
• Players now get a popup notification whenever they receive a cash injection
  
• There is now a ‘Training League’ outside of the Divisional League system. New users during their first season are placed here once they complete the tutorial (for remainder of their first part season/month). They will be placed into Division 4 at the start of the next season (i.e. for their first full season/month in the game)

Player Metric Changes

• Ceiling value (value in hexagon next to the overall rating) has been refined. The system now takes into account the maximum possible achievable rating dynamically over time. So as a player ages the ceiling rating will typically go down as the player has 'less than perfect possible' training options each season
  
• Removed quality stars from the game

Localization Changes

• The game is now fully translated into Portuguese language
  
• The game is now fully translated into Greek language
  
• Various fixes/improvements to localization system in game
  
• Language has been reset to English for everyone who had other languages selected (you can go to settings to select the language again)
  
• If you’d like to help translate the game into your own language please check out the 90 Minute Fever Discord Server for more information

UI Changes

• Design changes to backgrounds
  
• Design changes to buttons
  
• Design changes to pop-ups
  
• Design changes to various other UI elements

Club Logo Changes

• Default logo design changed
  
• Uploaded logos now only visible if you have an active Supporter Club Membership

Hi everyone

This month we’ve focussed on a match engine update and also responding to user feedback to provide balancing and other changes to the gameplay. Details on these below.

The squad limits in particular we’ve had numerous pieces of feedback that the system wasn’t flexible enough so we’ve made changes to the system to make it much more flexible.

We have also progressed with work on localisation within the game client and we are now very close to the game being fully playable for non-English speakers in any languages we have translations for. Note: if you are multilingual and are able to help with translations, you can do so via the new official 90MF Discord server https://discord.gg/qFZZ3xn2Kf. Any help is very much appreciated.




The match engine update primarily focuses on player movement when not in possession of the ball, especially when defending. For example you may notice that defenders tend to work better as a unit pushing up in their defensive line, and also cover for each other much better regarding missed tackles.




The squad limits system has been 'upgraded' on dev to be more flexible. The maximum number of players is still 50 but the composition of those players can be pretty much anything you want, so long as you are able to field a youth team (i.e. you need 16 youth outfielders and 2 youth goalkeepers).

Technically speaking these are the new Max limits:

• max 50 players in total
  
• max 47 out of those 50 can be outfielders
  
• max 8 out of those 50 can be keepers

Or to put another way, you can now have between 3 and 8 keepers, and the number of outfielders you can have is equal to 50 minus the number of keepers you have.

The Min limits are unchanged:

• min 25 outfielders total (at least 16 of which must be youth players)
  
• min 3 keepers total (at least 2 of which must be youth players)

90 Minute Fever has now has an official Discord Server:
https://discord.gg/qFZZ3xn2Kf




Match Engine Changes:

• Significant improvements to defensive line handling
  
• Significant improvements to defensive positioning/coordination between players
  
• Minor improvements to attacking positioning, specifically that players should hopefully advance a little more aggressively when supporting an attack
  
• Some minor decision making improvements to passing (longer diagonal passes should go out of play a little less often in general)
  
• Fixed issue with GK not positioning correctly to defend corners

Other Changes:

• Added ‘Help’ ? feature/button (top right of screen)
  
• Squad limits system update (more flexible now)
  
• Added news item on home layout to let you know if you have any unregistered players
  
• The news widget on the home layout has been updated so we can communicate messages to individual users if needed (for example to provide responses to feedback submitted with a bug someone might be facing)
  
• Added tab on Marquee Player view to see the previous days Marquee Player Auction results
  
• Added auto-renew option for those paying with monthly Supporter Club Membership using legacy tokens
  
• Increased width of opponent pausing text field in matches (to hopefully make it a little more clear that the time remaining is your time not their time)
  
• Fixed player line separator not always appearing correctly on players list on left during matches
  
• 99% of all in-game text is now part of the localization system
  
• Various minor layout updates to help text localized into other languages fit a little better
  
• Updates to Greek translations
  
• Fixed rare bug that could allow a player to have more than 3 positions in total (only 2 players were impacted by this, and they’ve been regression fixed to have only the first 3 positions they acquired)
  
• Added ability to view other leagues via up/down arrows on competition pages (released 28th April)

Hi everyone

This month we’ve focussed on responding to user feedback to provide balancing and other changes to the gameplay. Details on these below. We’ve also focussed on reworking the monthly sub system as it’s clear that the calendar month-based approach wasn’t working and was confusing some people. We also continued to push towards our aesthetic-based monetisation approach by delivering the player customisation functionality we communicated last month was going to be coming as part of this update. Diversifying the monetisation has provided us with scope to lower the price point of the Supporter Club Membership.

We have also added a short tutorial to key areas of the game to help new users understand the mechanics a little better. 90MF is quite a bit more complex than many browser-based games that users may be used to, so hopefully this will reduce any confusion new users may face upon launch. If you want to read the tutorial text again in the future, you can reset the tutorial in the game settings so that it appears again.

• Supporter Club Membership via monthly subscription replaces calendar month-based Supporter Passes (i.e. they now last for a month from whenever you purchase the subscription)
  
• The price point has been reduced from £6.99 to £4.19 (EUR7.79 to EUR4.99)
  
• These Supporter Club Membership monthly subs are now fully integrated with the Steam platform and are now recurring subscriptions on Steam (this can be cancelled via the ‘Manage Subscriptions’ option in your Account Details under the top right menu on Steam)
  
• Supporter Club Memberships can also be purchased with Legacy Tokens (for those users that have them). Auto-renewing via the Legacy Tokens will be added as an option in the near future

Note: Everyone who purchased a supporter pass during March has had it converted to the new Supporter Club Membership and had it extended to be 30 days from the date of purchase (in the case of those who purchased on 1st March this had no impact, but to everyone who purchased after this has an increasing amount of impact the later in March you purchased it).

• Core player valuation system improved
  
• Scouting pool players now drop in value over time much slower (i.e. they tend to be more expensive now)
  
• Improved logic to determine which players are Marquee Players
  
• Minimum bid threshold for Marquee Players lowered (i.e. it’s possible to get them for cheaper now)
  
• Marquee Players list reduced from 10 players down to 5 players
  
• Receiving transfer bids is now a % based chance for each player rather than receiving a set number of them. The ‘Negotiation’ manager skill changed to allow users to increase this percent based chance.

The overall aim of the Transfer System changes is to make the Marquee List more integral to the core gameplay, more exciting and and more engaging. The changes should make these players much more desirable and to offer much better potential deals compared to what can be obtained via the Scouting Pools, while increasing competition for them. These changes also make the selling of players more balanced and less exploitative. The Negotiation Manager Skill changes were essential to ensure that it is not too overpowered.

• The squad limits system has changed from a max of 22 senior outfielders (min 16), 3 senior keepers (min 2), 22 youth outfielders (min 16) and 3 youth keepers (min 2). To now instead be a limit of 45 outfielders and 5 keepers (regardless of age). You need a minimum of 16 youth outfielders and 2 youth keepers (i.e. enough to field a youth team), the rest of your squad can be senior or youth or whatever combination you want. At a squad level you need a minimum of 25 outfielders and 3 keepers (but beyond the 18+2 youth needed for the youth squad, the rest of this minimum needed can also be any combination of senior or youth players).
  
• Note: Anyone who had 6 keepers will have the worst one of these added to their unregistered players list

The overall aim of the Squad Limits changes is to provide additional flexibility to managers when assembling and managing their squad. This will allow those who care more about youth development to be able to place more emphasis on this in their squad composition.

• There are no longer separate 'blue hold slots'. There are only 'green graduation slots'. This means that without the Graduation Manager Skill you can only keep/hold onto 3 players from one day to the next (i.e. this manager skill is now significantly better).
  
• Academy Trialists are no longer 'tier bound'. They cycle between tiers on a day to day basis
  
• The quality of your trialist pool is now determined by which division your youth team is in (instead of which division the senior team is in)
  
• All trailist players attributes are now guaranteed to be revealed by the 2nd last day of the month

The overall aim of the Academy Trials changes is to provide additional opportunities to find good youth players for those that invest their time in the system. We had numerous items of feedback of this blue+green slot system confusing people so we have removed this functionality from the game as it wasn't worth the complication. Only being able to hold 3 players on a day-to-day basis (without the Manager Skill to increase it) will mean that more good players will cycle each day. It also means that managers in more active tiers (such as Masters, Div 1) will receive trialists from less active tiers (such as Div 4, Div 5) and have a much better chance of receiving some better players towards the end of the month.

• Increased randomness element of training options. Note: having better ranking still generally results in better training options over time
  
• Balancing changes to attribute movements on training options across the board. Some slight increases for younger player boosts. Older players' attributes now decrease more aggressively, and this is reflected in boosts across the board.
  
• Extra positions are now part of the default A option instead of the B option (note: Contract Extensions are still part of the B option)

The overall aim of the Training changes is to provide better balance to the overall training system. In particular making players of more ages viable to use in your Senior Team if you’re looking to have a competitive squad at higher levels of competition.

• Added ‘Store’ page where you can buy player appearances with Fever Tokens. These can be assigned to any players in your squad via the ‘Customisation’ tab on the player profile page. They can be unassigned/assigned to different players as desired. (i.e. you keep them over time and you don’t lose them when you sell players or they retire)
  
• Added Tutorial text to various in-game pages
  
• Changed ‘playing out of position’ penalty from a flat reduction of -30 attribute points to -25% reduction in attribute points. Players now perform at a slightly better level than they were when playing out of position.
  
• Removed Supporter Rankings on World Layout (we are reworking this, they were effectively just emulating the same lists being shown on the Overall League tables)
  
• Improvements to how the promotion/relegation visual tracking bar is displayed. And fixed bug where the fill could be dragged by left click holding the left mouse button
  
• Fixed sharpness and improved appearance of various buttons and other UI elements
  
• New layout for the Season Report page
  
• Increase width of score field displayed top left in matches, to allow the correct display of double digit goal scores.
  
• Moved World Cup menu option from the Competitions menu to the World menu.
  
• Removed National Teams page. This area is not currently in use and we have had feedback that it is confusing for it to be there, so removed for now.
  
• Re-added season leaders tab to the Overall League pages.
  
• Feedback menu option removed from … Menu. ‘Report Bug’ and ‘Suggestions’ options added to … Menu

Hi everyone

The first month of the new fixture system from the Duel Update has worked really well. There has been around a 20x increase in the number of competitive PvP matches over any previous system we have utilised in the game. There’s also a very similar amount of matches with 1 user online compared to any of the previous systems used, meaning that we have seen a huge increase in online competitive match activity compared to any previous systems. All in all it has been extremely successful in generating PvP matches and going forwards it should be the case that the larger the userbase, the increasingly more official PvP matches the new matchmaking system will be able to provide.

There are some issues with the new system in the mid/lower divisions that don’t have many active teams. This is something that we’ll be keeping tabs on and should naturally sort itself out over time as more active users end up in these divisions.

We’re in the process of fleshing out other parts of the game to fit/work with the new fixture system. We have begun the process with the addition of some features/improvements in this update, and plan to add more in the next month.

A few things to be aware of:

• The Club Profile layout has been temporarily disabled in the game as we’re currently working on overhauling it
  
• We added a ‘Season Report’ page which has been written by Steve (who hosts the podcasts). If there is sufficient interest in this type of thing we’ll look to keep it in the game and flesh it out over time
  
• During March we will be applying an update that will allow you to spend Fever Tokens to customise the appearance of individual players
  
• The ability to customise/assign squad numbers has been added to the game as part of this update as a new Supporter Pass feature. This is a feature that we have often been asked for and have intended to add for some time, so we are very pleased to include it in the game!
  
• There are balancing changes to the transfer bid amounts to make it a lot more difficult to buy players and sell them for a big profit after a short amount of time
  
• There are significant balancing changes to Manager Skill points distribution. There are now a lot more points for clubs just starting up or at the bottom (who typically really need these points), and a lot less points at the the top (so that picking/choosing is a lot more important and makes decisions you have to make in this area more interesting). Note: you still receive more points the higher you are in the structure, but the difference has been narrowed. There are still many other significant advantages to being higher up the structure!
  
• There are a number of important changes to the new user experience to give users a lot more opportunity to progress their club forwards by actively playing matches and looking for players to improve their squad. This also makes the game a lot more forgiving for those who have never played the game before

Thanks, and good luck for the new season!




Update Changelog:

• Added new Supporter Pass feature to enable manual assigning of specific squad numbers to specific players
  
• Added new league progress widget to Overall League table layout
  
• Added previous season winners to Overall League table layout
  
• Added ‘Season Report’ layout under the ‘World’ menu
  
• The amount of points required to avoid relegation in the senior overall league has been increased from 75 to 80
  
• The amount of points required to avoid relegation in the youth overall league has been increased from 50 to 53
  
• Manager Skill Points are now received at a rate of 1,000 per senior league point in the previous season + 10,000 per division above the bottom division. With a minimum possible amount of 75,000 manager skill points total
  
• New users now start with a flat amount of £5m (rather than a variable amount between £6m and £10m that depended on their starting squad)
  
• New users now receive cash injections of £5m after playing their first 12/24/36/48 official senior matches (£20m in total)
  
• New users starting squad now start on minimum player wages
  
• New users now receive 75,000 manager skill points (was previously 30,000)
  
• Balancing changes to the value of transfer bids made for players
  
• Club profile layout temporarily removed whilst we overhaul it for the new league/game structure