The Speculatron!

[sherlock140]

It's TIIIIME for everyone's favorite late-afternoon show! THE SPECULATE...tron....thing.

Bah, I gotta work on the title - And offer the most sincere apologies for the most corny intro ever!


I love to ponder on what might be the future for my favorite games. A favorite pass time of mine in fact!

So... I was thinking. If an update to Top Eleven was to come in the near future - What do you wager would be the new feature(s) that is/are to be introduced!

And I mean a major update not just a bug-fix patch.

So:
A new competition?
A new Transfer market feature?
New visuals?
A new re-mix of the music theme? Haha.
Other ideas?

To explain where I'm coming from with these questions - Since I play other stuff as well and have being doing so for... let's just say many years, I have noticed that the gaming communities revolving around their respective titles usually start to get an overall "feel" as to where things are going, so it's not always a big stretch as to what might hit the game in the next update.

Thoughts?

Major update huh......let's make it a majooooooor update..........how about making it a 3D open world Game.........

Like a game in which...the city which we use for stadium turns into a open world....and the manager gets to buy an apartment and a car...and he gets to drive through the city to the stadium every day from his apartment before the match begins...and he gets to drive to the training ground to train players....and he gets to go to the youth facility and choose the players he like and sign contract with them....ooohhh ohhhh and he gets to have a back story...like when he gets back from being a manager to his home...he can moonlight as a vigilante to stop crimes in the city.....and u know throw in some other things u like....he can get a gf....go to dates and marry her and start a family....and when his children grow up...get them to the training center and train them to become players........

THANK U

MIC DROP

[Cloverfield]

@lamaniaque

haha well the naming was wrong. champions league has the 4 better of the league. I want a tournament only for those who won trophies who will have the chance to win great prizes (a unicorn baby doll for example )

In this way a new tournament will be inteoduced and there will be more to gain with 1st position. Now you win just some money more.

[bizcliz]

id love to see a chat feature for friends. id really like to be able to talk to the people that i've been playing in the same league with for a while

[Paddyjack]

2 things I would like to see.

1) A set of pre-ordained strategies such as: "If I'm losing after one half, change low tackle for high" or "go to hard attacking"... etc. Useful if we can 't see the game

2) The possibility of rewatching the game we missed, available only for one day!

[motrin]

I'd like the youth academy reworked some how do that they are actually worth using

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[pcmacdaniel]

I'd love to see rewards for winning in association being weighted. What I mean by this is that 6* associations get better rewards than 5* ones, 7* > 6*'s and so on. My reasoning for this is that its more difficult to be successful the higher ones average association quality is, so I think there should be incentives to encourage managers to boost the quality of there association instead of decrease it. As an alternative, instead of basing rewards upon an associations average quality, it could be based upon the # of group training sessions conducted by the opposing association.

I'd also love to see the introduction of the Europa League. It'll greatly help out several teams in producing revenue too.

[Jeeves]

Wow wow wow. o.O

I didn't expect this kind of response. Hah, the thread was about speculation but you guys basically went on and directly suggested your top desired changes/implementations/features.

This is even better really!

I've got a TON of feedback from all of you this way. I've taken notes, compiled everything AND off to the devs!

Please DO feel more than welcome to continue.


NOTE: Btw I will move the thread to the Suggestions forum because now it is essentially that - A suggestion thread. I do really hope no one forgets about this thread though.
I think that this is a very nice and convenient format for suggestion-proposing and gathering.

I will edit my OP about this.

[Al Svanberg]

Jeeves- I have a few wishes/suggestions!

I love this game, and I think the new training system has been simply awesome! And I definitely think that is the direction you should keep going in. Like, you don't have to spend a ton of time on it, but you have the option to put in some time on training and get rewarded with better results.

Long term, I would definitely love to see similar improvements made to (1) the financial and organizational side of the game, and (2) scouting and transfer side of the game. I also think (3) there is room to make the game-play a bit, but still significantly, more transparent and "analyzable". And (4) I have some suggestions for minor improvements that I think can be done.

With all this said, I just want to add that I do think that one of the best things with TE is the combination the game has of being plain BUT still so challenging and rewarding. There is no point in adding -- any -- feature to just make things more complex and time consuming. The key from my POV is to -- just like with the new training function -- find that perfect balance between offering a game that is, in lack of better words, (1) plain, and not necessarily tremendously time consuming, (2) challenging without being too complex, (3) and that enables a large number of players to compete with each other notwithstanding if they put 30 minutes or 3 hours into the game per day. But I do think there is potential to make the game more rewarding and exciting by giving us players more options and more function to enjoy. I do realize that many of the improvements I suggest are tremendously difficult to create and implement while keeping the mentioned balance. But here they come!

1. Club administration/organizational/financial functions
As it is now you kind of just floats around here and it doesn't really have much impacts on your club if you are active or not in these areas. Its an extreme example, but I came across this player that got to level 40, without doing anything with the arena (still only having 200 seats):


Naturally, the challenge in this area from my POV is to find features that is not only a burden for players, but still fun to work with and rewarding, without tilting the competitive balance between very active and somewhat less active players too much. Sure you can easily just complicate things, make negotiations more complex and more like in the real world, transfer-fees that are paid out over several years, contract negotiations with players that are more complex, individual bonuses etc. Adding negotiations with sponsors and what not. But what is fun to work with for us players? What would be rewarding? And what would just be complicated and burdensome? These are of course the key issues.

But I definitely think there is a lot of improvement potential in this area. Maybe adding a real youth academy at some point (from a certain level) is a good option? Build a little on the current financial system, make it a little more complex, while maybe especially making the impact it has a lot bigger. As it is now, basically you get most money from training and selling players, and some from competition rewards. The other sources are more or less irrelevant. After only a few seasons, money is not an issue anymore it seems.

So what can be done? Just thinking out loud so to speak these thoughts have come across my mind:

-Adding a building called Front-Office, or Headquarter or whatever, with different levels were like a sales-department at different steps can improve the number of tickets you sell and the income you get from sponsors etc.

-Making the youth academy much more complex. Why not have kids in it that maybe starts at 14-15 years of age and that is developed. The youth academy can cost a lot more to run, but also give a bigger gain.

-Maybe especially adjust the impact of the financial and arena system so that it matters a lot more. It seems like many pretty fast reach a point where they have money on the bank to buy 3-4 completely new teams. That is never the case for real teams. IMO money should be a factor always, as it is in real soccer. Nobody is so rich that they always can afford any player they want. Selling out your arena should be a challenge and the number of fans you draw can be impacted to a bigger extent and by many many more factors. If you can sell out your arena it, the money you get should always give you a real competitive edge. Just sharpen the financial challenge in the game a lot more. This will make it more rewarding for us players to work with it, which will increase the overall stimulation we get from the game. On par with how the training function was developed and made more complex.

-Scouting department. Below I touch upon how the transfer and scouting aspects of the game can be improved. With reference to that, why not also let players build and develop a scouting department in the arena section? Maybe change name of the arena section to become more of a organizational section?

-Analytic department. Below I touch upon how the game-play might be improved. Why not make it possible to build up and improve an analytic department of your team? See more below of what that would do.

2. The transfer market and scouting

I think the current transfer market in TE is functional, rewarding and fun. But it is still pretty rural. Like the old training function. Just as that was improved and made more complex and rewarding, I think many improvements can be made to the transfer-market and scouting functions of the game.

So what can be done? I think a lot can be done. As it is now, a lot is about getting up early in the morning and getting your hands on the fast trainers early in the season while you after that have a few weeks to fill out your roster and the last two weeks of the season you don't spend much if any time building a squad. The scouts recommendations fills a purpose, but its not much you work with as a player. This can just be done a bit more complex but also more living and challenging.

Just thinking out loud again, if you add more of a scouting function that you control, IE llike adding a function where you hire scouts or develop a scouting department in the arena function, and then set your scouts to search for players that you then can sign. Should all abilities of young players be visible when you sign them? Should it depend on how good your scout is? Youth players can be added to the equation. Where you like can focus on getting young players that you develop yourself, or more established players that are finished products. As it is now, so much is about getting your hands on the right kids and working them hard. That can maybe be balanced out a bit, by making more established players more valuable by them potentially having a bigger impact.

3. Making game play more transparent and analytic-able

The biggest advantage with TE is IMO how adjustable and challenging the game engine is. Hands down. There is no crazy beat em all "3-1-5" with long passing formation you can make up that will win you anything. Many factors matters, but none takes over. To get results, you need to work on all fronts, and still -- just like in the real world -- the ball is round and what not and anything can happen.

OTOH, even if you know that actions you make impacts things, what impact an action in the game has can not only be cloudy, in can in many instances be more or less impossible to see. I think this takes away some excitement from players, and it also confuses other players a lot because since its so abstract they start to think that nothing matters etc.

Like in so many other team sports, in Soccer the "analytic" side of the game. Everyone want to be that computer nerd in Money Ball right, and it also does have a real positive impact on how well managers can do their job. I definitely think there is a lot of potential to make the game play more transparent and hence more rewarding for players -- while still keeping the mystery/abstract part of it that makes the game so great.

-Add more stats, and make them more living. As it is now, passes completed, shots and fouls say very little about what is actually going on on the field. These stats can be developed a lot to more reflect how numbers look from a real game and they can especially more be broken down on a player level. IE so that you can see how an individual player passes the ball and so forth.

-I think the individual impact of each player and their skills can be made more transparent.

-The impact of special abilities is very cloudy.

Now we get a lot of info from the Assistent Manager, I think it would be possible and more rewarding, if this info could come from stats and not from the AM and that we could get more info of what is going on on the field.

4. Minor improvements

Just a thought I have. I think that the people who love TE and other games like it, loves to mixture with things and see the result of it. We love the reward we get from being patient, putting in the work, and then to see it pay-off. On both sides of this spectra, I think the following improvements could be made:

1. Adding a special ability is very exciting. We play in a dream world, and are lured by this option. Why not make it possible to add up to three special abilities per player? It would enable us to dream even more! And to take it even further, why not add more special abilities? I am sure many can think of good options. Target player is one (stronger and better at heading). Box-to-box player (conditioning, speed and positioning maybe. Or why not like "two" arrows, both offensive and defensive?!!). And so forth.

Imagine how much we could dream about getting these optimal players? An striker (/aml) that is like a dribbler, target player and one on one finnisher! And so forth. Would add a lot of excitement to the game!

2. On other side of the spectrum, I would suggest that more "rewards" are added. In short, this game is about putting in work, and the following the process to be rewarded. Always thrive forward. Every little award -- that can give you an edge -- matters. Everyone turns into perfectionists. In this context, I think there are four "competitions" in TE that only are paper product.

Firstly, you have the achievement sections. Add small rewards to them, and it brings more excitement to the game!

The other three "competitions" in the game that are paper tigers are the three Top players categories, Ie. Top scorer, Best Grade and Most assists in the League. I can only speak for my self, but if my player got a trophy, like the "Golden ball" for top scorer, AND I got say 5 rest-packs if my player wins it, you know, I would work a lot on getting my player to win it. I would check this page daily. Am I winning?? Do the same for most assists and best grade. A trophy for those two awards too, add a page to the players bio where you can see trophies won, and give an award. Why not 5 skill-point for best grade and 5 moral packs for most assists and so forth. And why not do the same for top scorers in the Cup and Champions League!? I think this would make the game more exciting and rewarding to play.

Also, when talking about the skill-point, I also want to add that for me as a new player this is a bit of an odd bird in the game. It is hard to understand, 4% for a player? Why? What is it? When you learn the background, you understand it. Ie you train, get skill-points (the reward from training), and can assign it. Right? But as a new player, I don't understand it. Hence I would suggest that maybe its given a new name, why not "Personal Training Session" or something like that? That would make sense to me. I received a Personal Training Session as a gift from a friend, this resulted in that one of my players got 4% more. I like the reward in itself a lot! And with a better name, I think it could be used more! But I would like to also suggest that they can be stored and then assigned to players at the managers choosing. If this option existed, the "Personal Training Sessions" could be seen as a very very exclusive Resource, that would be very useful to save up during a season and use for New Positions or Special Abilities for new players.

[Jeeves]

-snip-

Thank you so much for this post!

It shows how much thought you put in to it's creation, believe me - Read through the whole thing hehe.

Naturally I will be showing this to the developers but I would like to leave a comment on each point you make.

I truly agree with the fact that Top Eleven is a game rich in it's underlying complexity but at the same time controlling each aspect of the game is streamlined and straight forward. You have a lot of things to keep in mind but you are not hampered by the mechanics or the ways in which you have to execute you decisions as a manager of your Club.
It is a very appealing side of the game. One that trapped me years ago in to playing it haha.

I would like to particularly touch up on some of your suggestions:

1. Club administration/organizational/financial functions
-New Ground menu building - As I understand it, it's basically going to have the function of a marketing department for your club, right? Promoting the team so you attract more fans, who will come watch more of your home games which will buy more merchandise from the Utilities building. With an added benefit of some sort for the Sponsorship contracts, maybe?

-Youth Academy - So before the youth players popup in your Squad, you propose that instead, we can actually have a roster of kids (or just the two that eventually will join up the team), that we can choose certain direction for their training so that when they grow 18, they will come to the team with specific Stats/Roles/Abilities right from the get-go.

2. The transfer market and scouting
-Basically you propose that the Scouts who seek talent for the club become an actual feature in the game that you can actually improve upon. What players you find in the transfers (or maybe only in the Scout tab) will depend on how good the actual Scout is.

3. Making game play more transparent and analytic-able
Would I be correct if reiterate on what you wrote here and say that, the game basically feels like it doesn't provide the player with enough proper and DIRECT feedback about his/her decisions? Not always but, at least from my POV there are certain times that you are left with some questions. Which obviously sends some players in to a blame-frenzy.

I would definitely agree that, in all games, there are many types of players but mostly they fall in to two categories when it comes to how informed the player feels - One side wan't to play the math game and have everything upfront and min-max their results while the other type understands the existence of RNG and certain amounts of unpredictability and actually enjoy it - it brings "mystery" in the game as you put it.

So - Make the game more transparent when providing the player with specific data and numbers. Make that which the numbers represent completely understandable for the player so the player can use the data from the game in order to make better decisions and choices.

4. Minor improvements
-As a whole, introduce more rewards that players can obtain simply by playing. Be it achievements or even by winning the Competitions, as well as the League's Top Player rank-list.

-In general maybe we should make the whole "training your players" thing more understandable for newcomers. Ye doing the math you can get how the percentages are calculated and how much 1 point of quality requires and what not but this isn't always readily-obvious.
-And bring something among the lines of how skill points could be distributed manually in the old version of Top 11.


In general your motivation for all of these suggestions is to expand on the game but retain it's relative simplicity. And also stream-line some aspects and make them more out-in-the-open.


If I misunderstood any of these, do correct me Al.

[Al Svanberg]

Jeeves- You got me right on all accounts! Thanks!