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.