We all heard this was going to happen a few days ago, but I am amazed, to put it politely, at their decision on how to fix this issue. I am posting their who article at the bottom of this post.
Like I told Schwank in another thread, not everything is always black and white - depending on your perspective, you can have shades of grey (I have not read the book so i dont know how many shades there are). This solution is acceptable. It still gives your enemies a crack at your condition, but at least they can only do it once a day if you only have one match. Not being able to do it if you have 2 matches is more than acceptable and 3 hours between matches is more than acceptable. Overall, a very good solution - but again, not perfect.
I like how they mention this: "Top Eleven schedules its main Competition matches based on real-world time".
The more they quote this, the more you can hold them to it. Putting 3 hours between matches is similar to 1 day between matches, but it is certainly better than 15 min, which would be RT hours between matches. I think this is the best fix out of the bunch.
the only issue I have with this solution is this: "We hope to roll out this update in one month.". you would think with all the time they have, all the money they have, and all the programming experience they can purchase, that this would be implemented within the week - They should have been working on this a few months ago! Really! But if that is all I have to complain about, I consider myself and everyone else lucky.
Thank you Nordeus. Thank you for actually doing something positive that helps everyone. I wait patiently for these implementations.
cheers!
Their post on the news section:
One of the most prominent type of complaints we’ve received have been about players abusing Friendly matches. It took some time for us to address this issue, but now we’re in the process of implementing a solution we hope will improve the Top Eleven experience.
First off, we need to explain what the intent of Friendlies was and how it affected our players. Since teams sometimes play only one or two matches per day, and Top Eleven schedules its main Competition matches based on real-world time, it sometimes felt like there wasn’t much to do after you’ve planned out your next big match. Friendlies existed as a way to let managers log into the game and play with friends whenever they wanted, or to duke it out if you and your friend weren’t in the same League.
Sadly, as Friendlies burned condition and also had a chance to cause injuries, some managers abused this and scheduled Friendlies right before their opponents’ major matches. This lead to managers not being able to react on time to decline the match, and having their standing in the League, Cup or Champions League suffer because their team wasn’t at their best.
The solution we’ll be implementing will be two-fold. First off, Competition matches will need to be at least 3 hours apart. That means that if you, for example, have a League match, your next Cup or Champions League match will be at least 3 hours after it, giving you enough time to recover and prepare. This restriction also applies to Friendlies, meaning your friends won’t be able to schedule a Friendly match if your next Competition match is within the next 3 hours.
Another restriction we’re setting is that if you’ve had too many matches in a day, all Friendly requests you receive are automatically declined. If you have two Competition matches scheduled for the day, no one will be able to challenge you to a Friendly. If you have only one Competition match, you can be challenged to two Friendlies, and if there are no Competition matches that day, you can be challenged to play up to four Friendlies. After you’ve reached your quota for the day, you won’t be able to receive requests for additional Friendly matches that day, but you’ll be able to send them (under the condition that the person you’re sending the request to also satisfies this criteria).
We want these changes to offer a better environment for our players and not only improve their personal experience, but the quality of all competitions. It’s most fun when all teams are at their best. We hope to roll out this update in one month.
None of these changes are final, and they’re subject to change, but we think this will give you a clear idea of what we’re aiming to achieve. Let us know what you think on our official forums.