Transfer & Loan Offers

I'm contemplating setting up a system that automatically rejects offers after a certain period of time if they haven't been actioned.

Is this something that you would want?

Should it perhaps be a setting for each manager to choose whether they want them automatically rejected or not after a certain period?

Any thoughts?

and finally....... the Spanish team changes

Let me know of any thoughts

Alavés	Deportivo Alavés
Albacete Balompié	Albacete Balompié
Almería	Almería
Athletic Club de Bilbao	Athletic Bilbao
Atlético de Madrid	Atlético Madrid
Badajoz	Granada C.F.
Barcelona	F.C. Barcelona
Club Atlético Osasuna	Club Atlético Osasuna
Compostela	F.C. Cartagena
Córdoba	Córdoba
Deportivo de La Coruña	Deportivo de La Coruña
Éibar	AD Alcorcón
Elche	Elche
Espanyol	Espanyol de Barcelona
Extremadura	Gimnàstic Tarragona
Getafe	Getafe
Hércules	Hércules
Leganés	S.D. Ponferradina
Levante	Levante Unión Deportiva
Lleida	U.E. Lleida
Logroñés	C.D. Logroñés
Málaga	Málaga
Mallorca	Mallorca
Mérida	Cádiz
Numancia	Numancia
Ourense	Club Deportivo Castellón
Racing Club de Santander	Real Racing Club de Santander
Racing de Ferrol	Real Unión Club
Rayo Vallecano de Madrid	Rayo Vallecano de Madrid
Real Betis Balompié	Real Betis Balompié
Real Club Celta de Vigo	Real Club Celta de Vigo
Real Jaén	Sociedad Deportiva Huesca
Real Madrid	Real Madrid
Real Murcia	Real Murcia
Real Oviedo	Real Oviedo
Real Sociedad	Real Sociedad
Real Sporting de Gijón	Real Sporting de Gijón
Real Valladolid	Real Valladolid
Real Zaragoza	Real Zaragoza
Recreativo de Huelva	Recreativo de Huelva
Salamanca	Salamanca
Sevilla	Sevilla
Tenerife	Tenerife
Toledo	Girona Fútbol Club
Universidad de Las Palmas	Universidad de Las Palmas
Valencia	Valencia
Villarreal	Villarreal
Xerez	Xerez

Portuguese team names

The same applies for the Portuguese team names as per the German ones in the previous post.....

Associação Académica de Coimbra	Associação Académica de Coimbra
Associação Naval 1º de Maio	Associação Naval 1º de Maio
Boavista Futebol Clube	Sport Clube Freamunde
Clube Desportivo das Aves	Clube Desportivo das Aves
Clube Desportivo Santa Clara	Clube Desportivo Santa Clara
Clube Futebol Estrela da Amadora	Sporting Clube da Covilhã
Clube Futebol Os Belenenses	Clube Futebol Os Belenenses
Clube Futebol União de Lamas	Leixões Sport Clube
Clube Sport Marítimo	Clube Sport Marítimo
Futebol Clube da Maia	Clube Desportivo Nacional
Futebol Clube de Alverca	Sporting Clube Olhanense
Futebol Clube de Penafiel	Futebol Clube de Penafiel
Futebol Clube do Porto	Futebol Clube do Porto
Futebol Clube Felgueiras	União Desportiva Oliveirense
Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira	Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira
Gil Vicente Futebol Clube	Gil Vicente Futebol Clube
Grupo Desportivo de Chaves	Grupo Desportivo de Chaves
Leça Futebol Clube	Associação Desportiva do Carregado
Moreirense Futebol Clube	Clube Desportivo Feirense
Rio Ave Futebol Clube	Rio Ave Futebol Clube
Sport Clube Beira-Mar	Sport Clube Beira-Mar
Sport Comércio e Salgueiros	Portimonense Sporting Clube
Sport Lisboa e Benfica	Sport Lisboa e Benfica
Sporting Clube Campomaiorense	Estoril Praia Futebol
Sporting Clube de Braga	Sporting Clube de Braga
Sporting Clube de Espinho	Clube Desportivo Trofense
Sporting Clube De Portugal	Sporting Clube de Portugal
Sporting Clube Farense	Centro Desportivo de Fátima
União Desportiva de Leiria	União Desportiva de Leiria
Varzim Sport Clube	Varzim Sport Clube
Vitória Futebol Clube	Vitória Futebol Clube
Vitória Sport Club	Vitória Sport Club

German team names

German team names are due to be changed in the next few days. As usual, any comments or thoughts, please let me know.

1.FC Köln	1.FC Köln
1.FC Nürnberg	1.FC Nürnberg
1.FC Saarbrücken	TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
Arminia Bielefeld	DSC Arminia Bielefeld
Bayer 04 Leverkusen	Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Bayern München	FC Bayern München
Borussia Dortmund	Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Borussia Mönchengladbach
Chemnitzer FC	FSV Frankfurt
Dynamo Dresden	SG Dynamo Dresden
Eintracht Braunschweig	Braunschweiger TSV Eintracht
Eintracht Frankfurt	Eintracht Frankfurt
FC Carl Zeiss Jena	FC Carl Zeiss Jena
FC Energie Cottbus	FC Energie Cottbus
FC Hansa Rostock	FC Hansa Rostock
FC Schalke 04	FC Schalke 04
FC St. Pauli	FC St. Pauli
Fortuna Düsseldorf	Fortuna Düsseldorf
Fortuna Köln	TuS Koblenz
FSV Mainz 05	1.FSV Mainz 05
Hamburger SV	Hamburger SV
Hannover 96	Hannover 96
Hertha BSC Berlin	Hertha BSC Berlin
Karlsruher SC	Karlsruher SC
KFC Uerdingen 05	FC Augsburg
Kickers Offenbach	Offenbacher FC Kickers
MSV Duisburg	MSV Duisburg
Rot-Weiss Oberhausen	Rot-Weiß Oberhausen
SC Freiburg	SC Freiburg
SC Preußen Münster	1.FC Union Berlin
SG Wattenscheid 09	Rot Weiss Ahlen
SpVgg Greuther Fürth	SpVgg Greuther Fürth
SpVgg Unterhaching	SpVgg Unterhaching
SSV Reutlingen 05	SC Paderborn 07
SSV Ulm 1846	FC Ingolstadt 04
Stuttgarter Kickers	SV Stuttgarter Kickers
SV Darmstadt 98	FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt
SV Waldhof Mannheim	Wuppertaler SV Borussia
Tennis Borussia Berlin	KSV Holstein Kiel
TSV Alemannia Aachen	TSV Alemannia Aachen
TSV München 1860	TSV 1860 München
VfB Leipzig	FC Erzgebirge Aue
VfB Stuttgart	VfB Stuttgart
VfL Bochum	VfL Bochum
VfL Osnabrück	VfL Osnabrück
VfL Wolfsburg	VfL Wolfsburg
Werder Bremen	Werder Bremen

Italian team changes

Here we go with the Italian teams - Same story as with the French ones, take a look and feel free to make any suggestions this week. Current names on the left and new names on the right.

AC Milan	A.C. Milan
Albino Leffe	Albino Leffe
Alzano 1909 Virescit	Ancona
AS Roma	AS Roma
Ascoli	Ascoli
Atalanta	Atalanta
Avellino	Frosinone
Bari	Bari
Benevento	Benevento
Bologna	Bologna
Borgosesia	Triestina
Brescia	Brescia
Cagliari	Cagliari
Carrarese	Pergocrema
Casarano	Mantova
Cesena	Cesena
Chievo Verona	Chievo Verona
Cittadella	Cittadella
Como	Como
Cosenza	Cosenza 1914
Cremonese	Cremonese
Empoli	Empoli
Fermana	Crotone
Fidelis Andria	AS Andria BAT
Fiorentina	Fiorentina
Foggia	Foggia
Genoa	Genoa
Giulianova	Giulianova
Gualdo	Gallipoli
Hellas Verona	Hellas Verona
Internazionale	F.C. Internazionale
Juventus	Juventus
Lazio	S.S. Lazio
Lecce	Lecce
Livorno	Livorno
Lodigiani	Grosseto
Lucchese-Libertas	Siena
Modena	Modena
Monza	Monza
Napoli	Napoli
Padova	Padova
Palermo	Città di Palermo
Parma	Parma
Perugia	Perugia
Pescara	Pescara
Piacenza	Piacenza
Pisa	Sassuolo
Pistoiese	Catania
Pro Vercelli	Pro Vercelli
Ravenna	Ravenna
Reggiana	Reggiana
Reggina	Reggina
Salernitana	Salernitana
Sampdoria	Sampdoria
Sandonà	Aurora Pro Patria
Savoia 1908	Arezzo
Tempio	Novara
Ternana	Ternana
Torino	Torino
Treviso 1993	Taranto
Udinese	Udinese
Venezia	Rimini
Vicenza	Vicenza
Viterbese	Varese

French team names

I've modernised the Belgian & Romanian team names. The English ones don't require changing so that leaves me with 7 countries left. The first I am changing is The French teams.

My proposal is here...... if you have any comments then please reply within the next few days. I'll probably change them next weekend. The current team name is on the left and the new team name on the right.

AJ Auxerre	AJ Auxerre
Ajaccio AC	AC Ajaccio
Amiens SC	Amiens SC
AS Angoulême Charente	US Boulogne Côte d'Opale
AS Beauvais-Oise	AS Beauvais Oise
AS Cannes	AS Cannes
AS Monaco	AS Monaco
AS Nancy-Lorraine	AS Nancy Lorraine
AS Saint-Etienne	AS Saint-Etienne
AS Saint-Priest	Évian Thonon Gaillard FC
AS Troyes Aube Champagne	ES Troyes Aube Champagne
ASO Arménienne Valence	Stade Plabennécois
Berrichonne de Châteauroux	La Berrichonne de Châteauroux
Calais Racing UFC	Calais Racing UFC
Chamois Niortais	Chamois Niortais
Clermont Foot Auvergne	Clermont Foot Auvergne 63
CS Sedan-Ardennes	CS Sedan Ardennes
Dijon Football Côte d'Or	Dijon Football Côte d'Or
En Avant Guingamp	En Avant de Guingamp
ES Wasquehal	Gap Hautes Alpes Football Club
Etoile Sportive Fréjussienne	US Luzenac
FC Gueugnon	FC Gueugnon
FC Istres	FC Istres Ouest Provence
FC Lorient	FC Lorient
FC Martigues	FC Martigues
FC Metz	FC Metz
FC Mulhouse	SR Colmar
FC Nantes Atlantique	FC Nantes
FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard
Gazélec FCO Ajaccio	SO Cassis-Carnoux
Girondins de Bordeaux	FC Girondins de Bordeaux
Grenoble Foot 38	Grenoble Foot 38
Le Havre Athletic Club	Le Havre Athletic Club
Le Mans Union Club 72	Le Mans Union Club 72
Lille Olympique SC	LOSC Lille Métropole
Lusitanos de Saint-Maur	FC Rouen
Montpellier Hérault SC	Montpellier Hérault SC
Nîmes Olympique	Nîmes Olympique
OGC Nice	OGC Nice
Olympique Alès Cévennes	Vannes Olympique Club
Olympique Lyonnais	Olympique Lyonnais
Olympique Marseille	Olympique de Marseille
Olympique Noisy-le-Sec Banlieue	US Orléans Loiret
Pacy-Vallée d'Eure Football	Pacy-Vallée d'Eure Football
Paris FC	Paris FC
Paris-St.Germain	Paris Saint-Germain
Pau FC	Rodez AF
Racing Club de France 92	EFC Fréjus Saint-Raphaël
Racing Club Lens	Racing Club Lens
Racing Club Strasbourg	Racing Club Strasbourg
Red Star 93	Aviron Bayonnais
SAEMS Louhans-Cuiseaux 71	CS Louhans-Cuiseaux 71
SCO Angers	Angers SCO
Sporting Club Bastia	Sporting Club Bastia
Stade Brestois 29	Stade Brestois 29
Stade de Reims Champagne	Stade de Reims
Stade Lavallois	Stade Lavallois Mayenne FC
Stade Malherbe de Caen	Stade Malherbe Caen
Stade Rennais	Stade Rennais FC
Thouars Foot 79	Tours FC
Toulouse FC	Toulouse FC
US Créteil	US Créteil-Lusitanos
US Raon-l'Etape	AC Arles Avignon
Valenciennes FC	Valenciennes FC

Skill changes

Over the weekend I made a start towards implementing much needed notification of skill changes.

I am going to show these on player pages - probably the training page and the actual player page with green and red values. The player page is also going to get a 10 week history.

I have implemented the first stage of this to run with Friday's matches - that is for the database to record the actual changes separately, rather than just changing the main value. If this works then I am hoping to work on the displays over the weekend so by Sunday I am hopeful you can see your training results without having to work it out yourself.

If anybody has any input towards this then now is the time to state......

I've been very busy at work recently which is why I haven't done it sooner but I'm now hoping I can get back to continuing the work I was doing on improvements as there's still lots I want to be done.

Belgian team names (again)

I know I have altered the Belgian team names quite recently but when I recently updated the Romanian teams, I gave them short names as well as their full names.

When I did the Belgian team names, I never did.

When I have done all the teams I aim to change certain pages of the site to list the shorter name but I need to have been through all the countries first and this means re-doing the Belgian list.

this may mean further tweaks to team names in Belgium occur over the next few weeks (when I get chance to do it). I'm hoping it won't be as severe but I shall be populating an as yet hidden field with a short name at the same time.

Then I have to pick the next country to work on. I'll try let you know by this blog my thoughts before I go ahead and change future countries.

Transfer of retiring players

At the end of last season I spotted 1 team that seemed to be collecting retired players. Now as this is far from realistic I am planning on disabling the transfer of retired players, at least until I bring player contracts into the game.

My plan is to not allow bids once they have announced retirement but I am undecided on whether I automatically cancel bids that have already been submitted. I probably should I suppose. That way managers can't accept the deals that they were thinking about.

Further to this, do you think there should be a time when player transfer/loan bids should be automatically cancelled?

Manager mail

I've just seen that some managers are storing a lot of in game mail and I am going to have to do some automated cleaning up.

My solution for this is to delete mail that was sent from the system (i.e. not another manager) over 4 weeks old.

Any opinions, please feel free to comment.

New game engine details

I could post this on the official site as a news article but I figure it will probably end up being quite a lot of waffle and only fully understood by a few so I'll keep the official stuff to more factual information rather than the inner workings.

I thought I would share some information as to how the new game engine is going to be better than the current one so it may give some idea as to why I've been desperate to change it and hopefully make the doubters see the light, as it were.

I obviously won't be going into the finer details and giving tips away but I will try and list all the improvements (if I can remember them).

Firstly, the current system and how bad it is (and has been). It works on a kind of points system where your team selection gets you a certain number of points depending on varying factors (ratings, form, home advantage, tactics, captain etc). These points are then compared against the points the other team got and a result is generated. Red & Yellow cards and scorers have a lot of randomness about them (with some factors) and the red cards don't actually mean anything but a suspension - it doesn't consider playing with less than 11 men for part of the match. Following on from this, injuries are also based on random values and that's is why you get situations of players being injured the same week they are fit again! Now I know this is a brief explanation but there's not much else to say about it. Far too simplistic and far too rubbish to keep leagues interesting as the better teams will rarely have 'off days' or 'bogey teams'.

Now I wrote that in 1996/97 ish so it was the best I knew at the time. However I have spent a few years writing this new engine and it works completely differently. It will also probably be tweaked as the game grows as the calculations are far more complex.

For a start, injures will occur in games or in training separately now. Training injuries are more likely if they are training intensely and game injuries do depend a lot more on the opposition aggression, although not fully so don't expect to play 10 aggression and injure the other team too much as you are more likely to get red cards!

Red cards and injuries will also now take effect in the match when they happen so if you have a player sent off in the first 10 minutes you will be playing 80+ minutes with 10 men. Likewise, a player being injured will mean a substitute comes on and that is then the team for the rest of the game. Just by changing this aspect, you will hopefully find it improved!

The match engine will also now base it's calculations not only on your team and tactics, but to the oppositions team and tactics in comparison to yours. This means that just because you are on a winning streak, don't expect the next game to be any more difficult - they may just have the formation and tactics to beat you.

In terms of tactics, the full range of tactics listed on the site will now be in play rather than converted to the more basic tactics that Mystify to use. There will also be a whole range of positions coming into the game and players can play in positions other than their specialised one which will help in terms of cover.

There is also the individual skill element now that comes into play on your tactics and compared to the opposition players. Rather than a simple rating, there are more factors to compare a full back to a winger against. I can't really say too much on this but needless to say, it is a much better comparison than just comparing points against points.

All this will establish how much possession a team has and how many shots they have then going forward who has the shots and who scores. It's just more thought through than the simplistic points factor of the current engine.

To add to this there will also be own goals and penalties in games (which will be shown on the match report).

From the matches themselves, there will also be extra financial details with different ticket prices per divisions and catering income against the policing costs. when I set up local rivalries the policing costs will be tweaked even more but it will be quite basic to start with.

There are future improvements I can also now make in terms of you specifying when subs should be made and who the penalty taker is but I am trying not to implement too much art once - it's a big enough change as it is! There's also a scope for loads more stats and even more skills to be added, but I want to still keep it relatively simple to play.

Hopefully this hasn't given too much away but also shows why the upgrade is required. Feel free to comment below or mail me through the site.

Romanian team names

Very soon I shall be updating the Romanian team names within Mystify. Below is what they will be changing from and to. If you feel you can improve this list or have any issues then please comment below ASAP.

Dinamo Bucharest to FC Dinamo 1948 Bucharest
Gloria 1922 Bistrita to ACF Gloria 1922 Bistriţa
Unirea 2002 Focsani to FC Unirea 2006 Alba Iulia
International Pitesti to Internaţional Curtea de Argeş
Dacia Unirea Brãila to CS Pandurii Lignitul Târgu Jiu
National Bucharest to Sporting Club Vaslui
Altay Dobrogea to Astra Ploieşti (2009)
Politehnica Timisoara to FC Timişoara
Farul Constanta to FC Farul Constanţa
FCM Bacau to FC Municipal Bacău
Armãtura Zalãu to FC Botoşani
FCM Resita to FC Delta Tulcea
FCM Tîrgoviste to Tricolorul Breaza
Poli AEK Timisoara to FC Snagov
Laminorul Roman to FC Silvania Şimleu Silvaniei
Minerul Motru to Minerul Lupeni
Brasov to FC Braşov
Otelul Galati to FC Oţelul Galaţi
Politehnica Iasi to FC Politehnica Iaşi
CFR Ecomax Cluj to FC CFR 1907 Cluj
Sportul Studentesc Bucharest to FC Sportul Studenţesc Bucharest
Petrolul Moinesti to SC FC Petrolul Ploieşti
Juventus Bucharest to FC Gloria Buzău
Olimpia 1921 Satu-Mare to CSM Olimpia Râmnicu Sărat
Callatis Mangalia to FC Cetatea Suceava
Precizia Sãcele to Săgeata Stejaru
Midia Nãvodari to AS FC Municipal Târgu Mureş
Caracal to ACS Fortuna Covaci
CS Deva to CS Mureşul Deva (2006)
Dacia Mioveni to CS Dacia Mioveni
CFR Ecomax Cluj to CFM Universitatea Cluj-Napoca
UTA Arad to FCM UTA Arad
Arges Pitesti to FC Argeş Piteşti
Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt to FC Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ
Rapid Bucharest to AFC Rapid Bucharest
Steaua Bucharest to FC Steaua Bucharest
Universitatea Craiova to FC Universitatea Craiova
Gaz Metan Medias to CS Gaz Metan Mediaş
Unirea Valahorum Urziceni to FC Unirea Urziceni
Tricotaje Ineu to FCM Dunărea Galaţi
Corvinul Hunedoara to Concordia Chiajna
Rulmentul Alexandria to FC Victoria Brăneşti
Inter Gaz Bucharest to Gaz Metan CFR Craiova
Petrolul Ploiesti to CSM Râmnicu Vâlcea
Apulum Alba Iulia to FC Arieşul Turda
Oasul Negresti to CS Otopeni
Oradea to FC Bihor Oradea
Sibiu to FC Baia Mare
Jiul Petrosani to CS Jiul Petroşani

New training system

The new training system is now being worked on and here is a screen shot of what I think it will look like.

You may get an idea from the above that it is yet another area of the game being vastly overhauled. The current system of selecting two players to 'extra train' is nowhere near adequate for all the extra skills and it probably wasn't adequate anyway.

Players can still lose points through lack of match action but I am aiming for the balance to be better and more realistic.

You basically select a skill for the player to be trained on (including fitness) and an intensity for the training (low, medium or high). The higher the intensity the more likely the player is to improve but they are also more likely to get injured.

At the moment injuries seem to happen quite randomly for managers and it is confusing if the player didn't play during the week so the whole idea of this system is that players injured in training will be calculated differently to those injured in matches.

Alongside this I am hoping to bring in reasons as to exactly what the injury is. This bit won't actually affect the game but it will be more interesting for managers to know why their player is injured.

I'm still working on this aspect so there's not too much more I can say at the moment but hopefully you will find it vastly better.

National cup prize money

My current task is to implement individual round prize money rather than just prize money to the winners and runners-up.

When I first built the game I planned on the reward to be the extra gate money but in 'real life' there is also increased prize money the further you get in the tournament so I am going to replicate this idea.

At the moment there is £2,500,000 to the winners and £1,000,000 to the runners-up. This is going to be removed and replace with a value per round.

I'm not sure what I will do in terms of the European tournaments yet but for the National cup rounds I am going to deliver the following prize money.

For winning the final: £2,000,000
For winning the semi-final: £1,000,000
For winning the quarter final: £400,000

Then the lower rounds depend on how many rounds there are before the quarters but it will vary between £20,000 and £200,000. I shall display the values on the cup schedule page.

Obviously this means there is more money coming into the game but the new youth academy will need funding once I bring it in and I shall be re-evaluating other aspects when I get the chance also - I'm just trying to give you a bit more to think about!

Youth academy screen shot

Now that the youth academy has been finished I thought I'd let you have a quick view of what it looks like on the site and give you the chance to ask any questions about it.

It may be tweaked slightly from this should I find anything it needs but it's unlikely.

As you can see there are 3 players currently in the academy with one having been requested and awaiting approval - this one has a cancel option should the manager change their mind about the extra player BEFORE he is approved.

For the 3 players in the academy there are options to release or promote them once they have been in there at least 10 weeks. Their current position for training can also be changed.

Finally there are options to request another player (the name isn't mandatory) and to change the amount spent every week on their training.

I hope you can see that this is a vast improvement on the current 'youth' system and that there are many advantages.

Youth academy

I haven't given an update for a while so I figured it was about time I gave one. I haven't actually done much on the game behind the scenes for a few months due to other things taking priority however, this week, I have started to get back onto it.

I am currently working on the new youth academy idea that I want to bring into the game. Instead of having one list of players per country that managers sign one from every 10 weeks or so I am wanting to give clubs their own academy with up to 6 players in it.

How I see it working is that all teams start with an academy of 0 players. Players are added to the academy by making a request - this request can even include a player name although they will be rejected if silly or unrealistic. Once a request has been made it will then be up to me to manage these but when I accept or reject them (only if a suggested name is bad) the manager will be notified and the player will join the academy. Up until this point, the request can be cancelled by the manager.

Once in the academy a manager can pay a weekly fee of between £200 and £20,000 per player towards their training. The more paid, the better the players will become, although not all will become superstars. It is therefore up to each manager to work out how many players they want and how much to pay. Anything between 1 player at £200 per week up to 6 players at £120,000 per week. The financial status of your team will also dictate what you can do and the value will automatically be lowered if finances can't afford the current level.

The players will be 16 or 17 when they originally sign and can stay in the academy until they turn 20 at which point they will automatically leave. Players can be promoted to the first team squad any time once they have been in the academy for at least 10 weeks - this may increase in the future but I'll match the current situation to begin with.

While in the academy players can be trained to play in certain positions - this position can be changed whenever a manager wants until they player is promoted when a final position must be selected. Each week the player will be trained according to their selected position.

Players can also be kicked out of the academy as and when a manager requires to either save money or because they aren't improving as the manager hopes.

I think this covers it all but feel free to fire any questions at me.