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Hi guys!
A. BACKGROUND
My son (8 y/o) started playing this game in late June 2016 and my daughter (6 y/o) joined with a new account about two weeks after. Being of that nature, I (their father) have become completely hooked on the game (I am 35 y/o, god it's fun to be able to play games with my kids that I like). My kids are enthusiastic players and especially very good farmers, but I am mostly running the accounts on a day to day basis.
Why this guide?Top Eleven (TE) has been around forever. Like everyone that is visiting this place knows, its a football manager game. But unlike many other games, many aspects of the game is a bit mystified. How does the engine work? Does size matter? Does it matter which foot a player prefers? What is the best way to train your players? What is a Nordgen? In light of the game's long history, there is so much information on it out there. However, just recently a completely new version of the game was released with a new outlook. At this and other places there are a lot of extremely in-depth information made available by extremely experienced and knowledgeable players. But it is not entirely easy to join page "125" of a 5 years and counting thread by the experts with mixed screen dumps and terms from the old and the new version. Somethings has been changed along the way. For a new player, a lot of things can be confusing! To explain all the issues that a new player face I have started this guide. I will play the game at least 2-3 hours per day over the coming months.
This guide has been created as a work in progress. When I first started to create it, I didn't know much about the game. Now, there is a lot I do not know about the game, but I have definitely learned a grate deal since I started playing.
B. DISCLAIMER
Due to my lack of intelligence, some info I post, conclusions I make or advice I give -- will be wrong, misleading, harmful and false. Haha, just kidding, but please, if anyone sees something I got wrong or that you question, please correct me or raise the question!
INDEX
1. STYLE OF PLAY -- FARMING? POWER TRAINING? LURKING?
2. BUILDING A SQUAD
3. TACTICS
3.1 General
3.2 Formation and orders
4. ACQUIRING AND FINANCING PLAYERS
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Fast trainers
4.3 Scouts recommendations
4.4 Fill-outs/veterans
4.5 Funding
4.5.1 General
4.5.2 Raising capital
4.5.3 Raising Tokens
4.6 Bidding and timing
5. TRAINING
5.1 Team bonuses
5.2 Power-training
5.2.1 General
5.2.2 Niche or broader training
5.2.3 Are there any preferred abilities? What constitutes a good player in TE?
5.2.4 Quality of training sessions
5.2.5 Special abilities and modified positions
6. PLAYING GAMES
6.1 General
6.2 Bonuses
6.3 In-game changes to your formation
6.4 Free rest-pack if you make a substitution in the game
6.5 Conditioning, morale and win-bonus
6.6 Friends
6.6.1 General
6.6.2 "Server friends"
6.6.3 FB friends
7. ARENA etc
8. NEW VS OLD VERSION
Post 7 WEEKLY UPDATE 1
Post 14 WEEKLY UPDATE 2
Post 15 GUIDE LEVEL 2 -- "A NEW SEASON"
Post 21 WEEKLY UPDATE 3
Post 24 WEEKLY UPDATE 4 -- Edition: "THE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN AL FC AND HFF, THE STRIKER FROM SIBERIA, SIDING WITH MOURINHO, THE QUEST FOR 8 STARS AND MUCH MORE!!"
Post 27 WEEKLY UPDATE 5 -- Edition: "SPACE RACE 2.0, DEVELOPMENT, HAVE WE SEEN A REVERSED HOCKEY STICK GRAPH?, GLOBAL WARMING FOR THE SIBERIAN STRIKER?, THE NEW PLAYMAKER, AN AFTERTHOUGHT OR NECESSARY REJUVENATION?, IS IT HARRISBURG? CHERNOBYL? FUKUSHIMA? NO ITS NUNO CANDEAS, AMC FOR HFF!, AND MUCH MORE!
Post 35 WEEKLY UPDATE 6 -- SEASON FINALE: "I DREAM OF JEANNIE CUSAMANO"
Post 38 GUIDE LEVEL 3
Post 39 WEEKLY UPDATE 7 -- Edition:
-SIGNINGS
-OH NO, WHAT HAVE I DONE? THE SHOCK, THERAPY, PTSD, THE ROAD BACK TO A NORMAL LIFE
-THE LEGENDS OF THE FALL II?
-AL FC, AKA THE LOOSER?
Post 42 WEEKLY UPDATE 8 AND 9 -- "We choose to go to the moon" -JFK
1. STYLE OF PLAY -- FARMING? POWER TRAINING? LURKING?
So what type of game is Top Eleven? Do you have to play 3 hours per day? Can you survive playing 5 minutes a day? 15 minutes a week?
For me there is only one way to play these games, and that is to go all in and to play a lot more than I am sometimes willing to admit lol. So, what is the "best" way to play this game if you want to become as good as possible?
From level 1, my understanding is that the best option to become as good as possible as fast as possible is to:
(i) buy around five to seven 18 y/o promising players (more about these kids, Nordgens etc, below),
(ii) farm up to 25-35 (max) rest packs per day by watching videos on a phone or tablet,
(iii) train the promising players as hard as possible.
I have a hard time seeing that there is any viable alternative to this strategy if you want to become as good as possible in this game, but if anyone have any suggestions please let us know!
But, if you do not want to play that much, I definitely think you can be very competitive playing just 5-15 minutes a day. The key is to be active, a lot of features in the game rewards players that just shows up and log-in regularly. You do not need to train your players for 20 minuts a day, 1 minute is basically enough.
2. BUILDING A SQUAD
There are 18 traditional positions in the game (DL, DC, MC, AMC and so forth). Most players only perform well in one or two positions. My experience is that playing a player long-term out of position pretty much is a no-go, they just suck in general if used out of position.
Early in the game you will not have a strong bench or an abundance of good players, hence it is important to establish some sort of fundamental tactical formation early on and get players with preferred positions for that formation. I.E. do not go hard after a great ML if you want to have an AML. A MC will not function well as a DMC/AMC and so forth.
My experience is definitely however that you can survive season 1 and compete in the league, Cup and associations with only eleven players if you farm rest packs. One or two subs that are good won't hurt, but I've gotten by basically with only 11 guys. I have however filled out my roster with the cheapest scrubs I could get to help get full bonuses when the schedule was tight. A topic I touch on in the section designated for Lvl 2 (see separate post, "New Season"), the quality of your top 14 players matters for the Cup draw. I don't advice anyone to dump all their players, but if you will not use a veteran player in an upcoming season, I would advice you to sell him late in the season. If your scrubs used to get training bonuses (see below) is 1-2 stars, it will also help your draw a little bit.
When you get beyond season 1, I think it is advisable to get your hand on a few more bench players. Have patient and scan the market for veteran players with 95+% ability, a good special ability and that can cover 2-3 positions in your formation.
3. TACTICS
3.1 General
There is a lot of information on tactics out there so I will not get into the nitty gritty X and Os too much in this guide. That is a topic that is more than enough for a guide in itself. In this section I will focus more of how to approach this part of the game in general.
I do however want to point out that the engine in the game is very adjustable. I have seen someone very knowledgeable at this place claim that its possible to win the treble with any of at least the top 30 most common formations. I think there is a lot of truth to that. So doesn't it at all matter what strategy, formation and so forth you have? No, it certainly matters a great deal. But there is a lot of room to fine tune a formation and find a strategy and group of players that will function well in it.
You also must make a decision in game whether to try to adjust to the opponent or believe in "your" formation. My take on this question is the following. Both sides have 11 players. If one team has an advantage in terms of more AMCs, the same team will of course have a disadvantage somewhere else on the field. I have learned that many players counters the opponent to a pretty large extent. IE, if the opponent has an AMC they will put a DMC on the field to counter him. And so forth. I think this basically is the "Million Dollar Question" in TE, in game-play, when do you bet on the strength you have the field and when do you weaken that strength to match an advantage the opponent have?
3.2 Formation and orders
These are some thought I have and advice I want to give that I think its important to know when starting to play TE:
-The TE game engine is like I said in a sense very forgiving, in lack of better words, since the formation used really does not solely impact the result of a game. It is not digital, either 1 or 0. There is no formation that "works", in like giving you a distinctive edge, against all other or even most of the other formations. Even a flawed team competes. A safe formation like 4-5-1 (v) can be exploited, and so forth.
-It is however important to not loose the central midfield battle. If you play like a game with only 1 MC and no DMC/AMC, and face a team with 3+ AMC/MC/DM's, you will not have much possession in the game. I think this is an important lesson to learn, I think many managers has a preference of how soccer should be played when they start playing TE, and then take that preference into the game. If you really like wingers and very offensive teams, in this game that will make you weak at center field and the way the engine works that will give you much less possession. From my POV, there is nothing easier than playing a team with only like a AMC and CM at center field. And I don't dislike that with the engine either, because in modern football we are seeing more and more teams overload at center field. That is where the main battle is fought, in short.
-Offensive formations is definitely not always better or even more productive offensively than defensive formations. Its perfectly possible to be very dangerous with a defensive team that counter-attacks or just sits back with low pressuring and a normal style. I definitely think that it is a safe approach to start a game with a normal mindset.
-A lot of goals can be scored late in games if your condition can outlast the opponent and you can bring it hard the last 10-15 minutes. I've several times faced much better players in cups/association games that I've been able to score 3-4 goals on in the last 30 minutes after being pushed back the first 2/3 of the game with my 5-4-1 team. A strong advice I have is to be -- poised -- in games. I don't know how many times I have faced an opponent that has been better and played better than me, but then I was lucky to take the lead and the rest of the game became a walk in the park because my opponent tilted and went with hard attacking and 3 strikers and what not. I have -- never -- had success with going with hard attacking late in a game while down a goal, for me it has been more effective to play a normal style.
-Wingers or MLs/MRs score a lot of goals.
-Sometimes its hard to get the striker involved. Hence, its definitely not essential to grab a top striker the first thing you do. If you have that choice, and resources to get a great player, make it a winger or AMC instead of a striker.
-It can be very valuable to be pro-active and exploit weaknesses of the team you face. You are bound to face some crazy set-ups, and at least my standard formations have not been able to handle them all.
-Set pieces are very important. You should definitely look for at least one corner specialist and one free-kick specialist (preferably your striker, or AMC).
4. ACQUIRING AND FINANCING PLAYERS
4.1 Introduction
As I have mentioned above, buying promising young players, farming rest packs and training the kids hard is the best way as far as I know to improve rapidly in this game. In order to accomplish this your "business plan" needs financing. In this section I will focus on which players to acquire and how to finance your business plan.
4.2 Fast trainers
A poster, living legend, guru -- in short a man of many names -- called Nikolgiorgos has created a great guide for how to find fast trainers:
http://forum.topeleven.com/tutorials...-chris-18.html
As an introduction, the idea is to find an 18 y/o kid that is new in the game that has a very high ration between value/wage. In other, you want to find a player with high value and low salary. If the kid is a 5 star, he will be very expensive but he will also reach a great status really fast (7 stars is doable) besides gaining a lot of value. If the player starts at 3-4 stars, he will also become better and gain a lot of value fast, but it will naturally take a longer time to get this player to 6-7 stars.
These are some math examples that illustrate how I have understood Nikolgiorgos' guide applied on the first level conditions (IE where the target ratio is >200):
-FAST TRAINER 1. 5 stars. Value=2.5m. Wage=10k. Ratio=2.5m/10k=250. This player should be a very fast trainer that you should be able to push to 7 stars your first season. Remember that all these numbers should be based on the data a player has when he is created. If someone have picked up a kid like this and trained and played him hard for a while, the math will be off. Hence, look for players that seems to come from computer generated teams and that has not played any games.
-FAST TRAINER 2. 3 stars. Value=900k, Wage=2.5k. Ratio=900k/2.5k=360. This player should also be a very fast trainer, but it will probably take a season or a good part of a season just to get him to a strong 5 star level.
These players usually becomes available very early in the morning, and especially on the first day of the season.
This is how it can look in the game (lvl 2):
First of all, Luca Hauser does not seem to come from a Nordgen generated team, while Rui Rego does. Both player is basically at the same level, but still Hauser costs 1.4m and Rego 4.3m. The salary, which is tied to the ability, is more or less the same. The factor calculated for Rego is not out of this world, but for a 99% player in the 2nd lvl its basically as good as it is going to get. Its probably possible to find a bit faster trainers that are 3-4 stars, but then you got a whole lot of of catching up to do before you get that player too the top level.
4.3 Scouts recommendations
About once every 8th day your scout will recommend three players for you that you can buy for Tokens only (the transfer fee is said to be paid by sponsors). Since its perfectly possible to farm enough Tokens to afford these players, I recommend that you get the best of them. My impression is that you will get a lot of strikers recommended. Hence maybe its a good idea to not put a lot of resources into getting a fast trainer as a striker.
I've seen some speculate on that you get players recommended for a position that is a weakness on your squad. If you for example only have 1 GK, you will always get GKs recommended for you. I've tried to off-set this by acquire a few of the cheapest strikes since I am already is loaded at that position, I will let you know if it works. Update: It didn't work too well for the Al FC account, that has 6 attackers on the roster and still got 3 new striker recommendations...
This post clarifying the issue was made on the main board, it seems to be a wide spread problem to only get recommended one type of player:
4.4 Fill-outs/veteransOriginally Posted by Buffs Mad;415284 [Set in italics by me
]GK is the default recomendation if nothing is needed.
ST seems next in line.
If you want a striker recommendation then have 2 GKs in your team, only 2 strikers in squad and put both in formation overnight (for my time). As long as you have a sub covering each other area then you should get 3 strikers popping.
You can change this to suit other positions.
The only recommendation that seems problemmatic for me is DMC - but thats my squad issue.Because I dont habe DML or DMR I only get offered 1 DMC and the other 2 those wingbacks.
Thats how to do it - whether its wise to do it is another matter. Personally I wouldn't 'recommend' them unless you have zero access to packs.
PS. It would ofc be nice if we could set some areas we want recommendations for.
PPS. low * players are not helpful for blocking certain types of recommendation - a 6* 1st team GK and 1* GK will not block the recommendation.
PPPS. Ofc if you ask support how it works they'll give you a long story about the assistant out searching for players and being limited by the players released by other teams - I even got a quote that players are not generated from thin air. >.<
Since you only start with something like 5m and a crappy roster, and right now only can farm around 25 rest packs per day, my impression is that you only can afford to foster around 5-7 fast trainers at the same time from the get go. To fill out the roster, I've found it to be the best approach to acquire veterans for 300-600k that are close to 6 stars when you get them. I also always try to look for vets that also have a useful special ability. These players are often around 24-32 y/o.
This was my squad as per 16 July 2016, ie its about 2 weeks fresh:
The players Vazquez, Sova and Bonovski are my veteran fill-out players. Hissey, Sail, Rutten and Candeias are my fast trainers. Kovari and Ihle aren't really fast trainers but the best I've been able to find. d'Hooghe is a player my scout recommended for me.
4.5 Funding
4.5.1 General
TE offers a lot of third party farming offers that you can fulfill by watching videos, downloading apps or signing up or buying stuff. These are far from reliable, often you will not get what you should get. But, its still the only farming option in the game and all are not scams. The bottom line is that you get good result from farming if you put some effort into it.
Please be aware that offers differs between different platforms. In other words, it is possible to find more offers if you play the game on two or more platforms. I currently use iPhone, iPad and PC. It would probably be pretty valuable to also have an Android...
Furthermore, when you do bigger Token offers, my advice is to do them on your PC and record your performance with a screen-recorder. Then set-up a youtube account. When you get a mail from the ads-providers asking for proof that you have fullfilled an offer, instead of trying to patch together a ton of screen-dumps not showing exactly what they want (because that info was never available), it is extremely satisfying to just be able to send a link to a complete video.
4.5.2 Raising capital
It is possible to get capital from watching videos. But my impression is that its more effective to get rest packs instead and then use them to train young players so that their value improves.
As a level 1 player, I would recommend that you raise capital by getting maybe 1-2 high caliber fast trainers first that you plan to keep long term and then 3-4 cheaper fast trainers that you can train hard early and then sell, this can also successfully be done with the kids you have on the club you start with. Otherwise you can get like a 800k 18-19 y/o with a salary of 2-3k that you ca train hard and play in games. After just a few weeks that player can be sold for at least 1.5m.
Since the young players are sold on the market and some people are stubborn/crazy, you will also hit jack-pot sooner or later if you sell a lot of players. My best transaction was selling a low 5 star 22 y/o CM with the free-kick special ability that I started with that in the game was listed at 400k for 2.2m.
A very effective way to raise capital is to buy players recommended by your scouts (3 players turn up for 24h about every 8 days).
4.5.3 Raising Tokens
Doing surveys has worked great for me (Speak-up especially). But I recon this differs a lot from county to country. But just go at it, download apps etc. I try to get at least 3 tokens every day and do a few 8-12 token survey's per week to afford the scouts recommendations when I can.
As a new player, the offers from the betting sites is definitely the best bang for the buck if you want to invest money in your team (and don't already have an account with all of the betting sites). I made around 450 tokens by only making a deposit of around EUR 5.5 at Ladbokers.
I definitely want to emphasize the importance to farm tokens. My impression is that many active players do not farm tokens which holds them back a lot. Its understandable, farming tokens is cumbersome and dirty lol. But, just getting 3-4 tokens per day -- which definitely is doable if you farm them for 10-15 minutes per day on avg -- gives you a huge advantage in the long run. A very good way to raise capital is to buy scout recommendation players and sell them for example.
4.6 Bidding and timing
Bidding can be tricky, but I just go at it. I usually do not give up in a bidding war, but nothing has really gone out of hand yet for me. I would probably not hesitate to make offers for up to 15-20 offers for a player I really want.
The best time of the day to get players are morning time in Europe. There does however seem to be a big difference between when during the week and season you look for players. I found a lot of really good fast trainers during a few days like a week ago, but before and after that I've not seen a 18 y/o listed at 2.7m or more at level 1. I will try to keep an eye on this and see if its possible to track it better. Maybe someone out there got some input? In another thread in this section I've found info that the first day of the season is the best to find fast trainers. Besides that day, there is speculation that the day when a scout recommends new players is an extra good day to find good players.
Check out this thread:
http://forum.topeleven.com/tutorials...tml#post415214
Now I will touch on a subject I for once is not a beginner in , negotiations. Bidding in this game does not differ from biddings in the real world. A few sticking points I would like to point out:
-Making the first offer is the best in negotiations as a rule. The higher the ask is/the lower the bid is, the more favorable the end result is as a rule. So, in TE when you sell a player, always set the asking price as high as possible. This should get you a better result. Low prices to lure people into bidding wards does not really work more favorable as a rule.
-Be straight. Make your presence felt. Do not try to piss people off. For some odd reason, so many players wait to the last second to make a bid every round. Why?
I work like this and have yet to loose a bidding war. When there is 5 minutes left I make a bid. I will be present going into the auction, anyone luring for the player knows this is a player I want and that I am online (ie it will cost more than 1 token to get this player). I then for 10-15 rounds instantly make a bid the first seconds of a new round. This shows that I am very determined, I am not cheap trying to save max 1 token on stealing someone late with a last second bid. I was there first and I don't for a second let anyone believe that I am giving up.
However, around round 10-15, I make one last second bid. This has worked 2 times in like 20 attempts, so its not that successful but it can save you some tokens once in a while. In other words what I do is to make a bid the first seconds of a new round as usual. Then my bid is countered by the other bidder in the same round. This make the other bidder the leader. If I do not make another bid, he/she will get the player. But for the first time in 10-15 rounds I do not counter this bid instantly early in the following round. If you are lucky, the other bidder will think that you have given up and not make another bid in the following round. If you then make a last second bid in that round the other bidder will not have made a bid in the round and you will win the auction. Any experienced player will however make a bid just to be on the safe side in all rounds just to not be baited like this.
-People have won a Nobel price for proofing that it is better to over-pay for something you really need instead of looking for bargings and ending up risking getting something that isn't perfect. So I never enter a bidding war without 20-30 tokens at least and a good marginal of cash. In short, if you really are looking for a certain type of kid and this kid shows up on the transfer market -- make sure you get him.
I have won some costly bidding wars in which I have used 20-30 tokens. It sucks, many hours of farming tokens for a kid you could have had for 2-3 tokens if it wasn't for that other stupid stubborn bidder that pushed you. However, remember that it sucks a heck of a lot more to use those 20-30 tokens and -- not -- getting the kid you want. I cannot say as a rule that you never should give up, there are examples of bidding wars that have gone to round 100+. But be prepared to go really long, way too long. Don't set a price that is "reasonable", like 10 tokens for a player. Think of it like this, 10 tokens might be reasonable for one player, and if you bid for 5 players it could cost you 50 tokens. You would however get 3-4 of them for like 10-15 tokens, and then you can spend 35-40 of them on the 1-2 kid that can't be had without winning a bidding war.
5. Training
5.1 Team bonuses
I first take care of my team bonuses by picking all players but my attackers and using this training session with the 2x multiplier. I have used a session like this at times, but I mix it up some:
By taking this session twice I get 2 percent more in defense, condition and possession and half of the attacking bonus. I then run a separate practice for my attacker. I definitely think all bonuses should be maxed at all times. There is no need to let any of them ever go below 10%.
I am sure this can be fine tuned, but it work decent for me so far. Even if it is not optimal, the practices used gives a pretty valuable platform for all players used.
Please note, the new training system has not been around that long. There is a notion out there that it is unnecessary to carry full bonuses, the impact from 2-4 % is said to not be that big anyway. I have come across a lot of very good players that has bonuses avg. 6-8% over a longer period of time. However, I want to remind everyone that sustaining a bonus of 6-8% takes exactly the same effort as sustaining a 10% bonus. In principle, it only makes sense to either have zero percent bonuses or full 10 % bonuses. To say that "6%" is enough for me is shortsighted, since going from 6 to 10% really is a one off cost so to speak. After that sustaining a 10% bonus is as expensive as sustaining a 6% bonus. With that said, I do not recommend anyone to waste rest packs to get non fast trainers conditioned to raise a bonus. But you do not need to do this to just sustain a bonus. If you have an early game or something, just let the bonus stay at 8% if necessary for that game. But over the course of a day you can definitely get your bonuses up 2% each per category not wasting rest packs on vets.
5.2 Power-training
5.2.1 General
I then power-train my fast trainers. I definitely do not recommend anyone to use rest packs on any player that isn't a fast trainer, rather use them tired in games if you have a busy schedule.
I basically practice my fast trainers by running their condition to below 30%, restoring their condition with rest-packs, and then doing it all over again.
These things are central when training your players:
1. There are many rules for how much bonus you get from a session in form of penalties for using too similar practices, to use several identical practices after each other, to using a hard or very hard practice first or last, and so forth. So if you are looking to max your bonuses, see what your AM tells you and obey these rules.
2. Each player has highlighted abilities and grey abilities depending on which position(-s) they play. The highlighted non-grey abilities are according to Nordeus easier to train. Hence you will develop a player better in terms of gain/conditioning loss if you focus on practicing like defensive and physical abilities with a DC.
5.2.2 Niché or broader training, what works better on the field?
This is a question I and many others have. I think it is so unclear how this works that I will not speculate on it in this thread. What we know is that how your team perform depends on how good it is in a certain area (defense/offense and so forth). In this context, defense matters more on defensive players than on attacking players, and vice versa with offense.
I've seen old info from TE that any player cannot have a difference of more than 20 skill points between physical/Mental, attacking or defense. While this is not an issue for beginners when the players have a total skillpoint of around 20-30 in the first levels, I can confirm that this is not the case. I have had a ML, Cukon, who at one point had a difference between defense and attacking and physical that was much greater than 20.
5.2.4 Quality of training sessions
A well balanced training session -- light (warm-up) / medium - hard / light (stretch) -- will give you higher bonus. But does the quality of a training session impact how much an individual player gains in value? No it does not. A player will gain abilities at the same rate if you run 6 identical practices as if you create a "perfect" session.
5.2.5 Special abilities and modified positions
General
It is possible to give a player a new position and to give a player a so called Special Ability (SA). First of all, at least at the first levels I really question if it is worth it to do this. When you choose to give a player a new position or SA all other training progress for that player is paused. But to get an optimal team down the road, after a few seasons, you should start adding SAs to your fast-trainers.
I have created a separate guide on how it is done:
http://forum.topeleven.com/tutorials...-position.html
The Special Abilities
For a new player, its not always that easy to understand what a SA actually does. There is very little info on it in the game, and while its possible to click on each specific sign of players you own, this cannot be done on the transfer-market and you need to go outside the game to understand what a ball with a flame means etc. It took me a little while to figure out what all symbols ment, but the best way to access the information is to open the bar Add a special ability on your own player and see which abilities you can choose from. There are different abilities available for STs, MFs, Ds and GKs.
So what does a special ability do? After reading a good amount of guides and threads on this topic it is still not entirely clear to me... First of all, there seem to be two categories of special abilities. Firstly, there is one category of special abilities that only actives in certain situations being corners, free-kicks and penalty shots. If you watch a game, you can see a sign of this ability over a player in this situation during the game. Secondly, there is another category of special abilities that are active in all relevant game situations. IE the dribbler, playmaker, shadow striker, one-on-one scorer, defensive wall and aerial defender. Some people claim that a special ability just add like a star (5 %) to the relevant abilties of the player. Ie a dribbler would surely get 5% on dribbling and maybe also speed? But I am not entirely sure that this is the entire truth. I have a free-kick specialist that really can curve the ball when he takes free kicks (Candeias for the HFF team) and that scores a lot of goals on free-kicks. On the Al FC team my non-free-kick-expert striker Ivkovic takes the free-kicks. His shooting ability is a 20% higher than Candeias', but he don't curve the ball nearly as much nor is he even remotely as successful on FKs. Ivkovic maybe has 1-2 FK goals this year and Candeais have like 10-12 in 20-25 games.In an old info article from TE it is said that a special ability adds 30-50 skill points to the players. This would mean that a special ability has a tremendous impact at early levels when its activated, since a player's ability only is 25 at 100%. This could still be the case and would explain why like a FK specialist seem to fire the ball like Roberto Carolos on FKs while my striker shooting at 150% never get any curve on it.
I do not have experience of all SAs yet. I will expand this section when I get that. But so far I have never noticed that my MC (Semeky), that is a dribbler, has made use of his ability. He does not dribble more nor more successfully than any other player I have. Its really hard to tell if my MC that is a play-maker makes more or better opening passes than the other MCs I have, maybe. Maybe it just improves his passing a bit? The set-pieces specialist offensively is definitely better at what they do. It definitely seem like it can be a killer to have like a top ST that shoots the ball really well and is a FK specialist.
6. Playing games
6.1 General
When you have set you formation, built a squad of players, signed sponsor contracts and paid the bills and what not, it is time to play games.
To explain how this part of the game function, I want to start of by looking at what Nordeus want to achieve and how Nordeus want us to act and "feel" when playing the game and games in the game. From my point of view, it seems fairly obvious that Nordeus want us to be rewarded for being active in the games. In short, if a player shows up, gives it his all, and win -- she/he will become a very happy player. Right? Happy players will keep playing.
To a large extent, this reasoning also gives us an indication of how your actions during a game will help you to win. To some extent, the saying that it is the thought that matters will apply! Show up, try to do the right thing, and odds are that you are rewarded.
I will expand on some of the aspects of game-play that I think are interesting.
6.2 Bonuses
Bonuses improves your team's play in a the area the bonus cover. There are many theories on how to use your bonuses. I think the best advice is to use conditioning as much as possible, hence end games with more well rested players, and then be able to train them harder.
In games against much better opponents getting a huge possession has worked very well for me, in these games I often use the possession bonus.
The attack bonus is the most fun...
6.3 In-game changes to your formation
6.3.1 General
I have made successful and unsuccessful changes mid-game. I've seen some people recommend that you make changes in game, and some say that its not worth it since you team needs time to learn a formation/style. I just don't know and this is a topic I will try to learn more about. Like the other day I played a team with only 1 CB and moved up a MC to ST to expose him. I had like 10 off-sides during the first 45 minutes. Was this just a result of my and the other team's ability or was it a result from it being the first time my team played with two STs? I have no clue...
In the end I would bet on that Nordeus want us to have fun when playing the game, and that they assume that it is more fun for us to be rewarded for at least fine-tuning our strategy and making changes to our formation.
And it is definitely possible to analyze a game when watching it. Like in the real world, sometimes a player is just left open and can have a field day against certain teams. A good way to monitor this besides watching the animations is to monitor the grades of the opposing team. If a player get a grade up towards 8-10 you should try to cover that player harder. Change arrows or even positions of your players.
6.3.2 Comments from the Assistent Manager
When I first started playing the game, I felt that the comments from the assistent manager was pretty odd. You could dominate games and have 80/20 possession and the AM could tell you that you needed to keep possession of the ball longer.
After having played the game for a while, I am starting to look more and more into what the AM has to say. Some advice can be crucial and really change the out-come of the game. For now, I will only advice you to follow and experiment on how your team reacts to changes made after being recommended by the AM. I will however start the work to map this better and broaden this section.
6.4 Free rest-pack if you make a substitution in the game
You will get rewarded one free rest-pack if you make at least one substitution in the game. Always make this substitution! If you are an active player, at least for the firsts months when playing the game you will go far in the Cup and CL. This means that you have 28 days on a season with in principle 2 games per day (league, Cup and CL) means that you can get 56 rest-packs from just making one substitution per game. 56 rest packs is 1/3 to 1/2 a star for your star fast trainer, that half star is very valuable.
6.5 Conditioning, morale and win-bonus
There are three other aspects of your team that affects how it performs in games, its conditioning, its morale and if your players get win bonuses. I cannot, and nobody can, tell you exactly how big of an impact they have. All I can say is that none are crucial, I have won with tired players, bad morale and no win-bonuses.
But if you have a big game coming up, it is advisable to max these three conditions.
6.6 TE friends and bonuses
6.6.1 General
You can get 5% possession bonus if you have a full house at home, and 8 percent if you watch the game. Hence if both managers watch a game, the home team has a 5% possession bonus advantage.
However, if one of your TE friends watch a game you get another 2% possession bonus. The impact of having many friends can be seen on this picture, where the away player has 15% possession bonus:
So how do you get friends in TE?
6.6.2 "Server friends"
You can ask if other players on the same TE server as you want to become your friend in the game. Just click on the manager and add friend.
All players in the same league, Cup and CL as you will be in your server. So my advice is definitely that you look for active players when you play, and add them add them as friends.
You can find out which server you are on by going to the Dos-promt in windows (type CMD in the search section) and write "netstat" and hit enter in the black window that opens. I am on server 34, which is the number that will be seen before :8081. See picture below:
6.6.3 FB friends
You will automatically become friends in TE with any FB friend of yours that play TE. A good way to get new friends in TE is to look at who are active and following your friends, then search for them on FB and ask if they want to become friends of yours. Many players have special TE FB accounts and likes to collect as many friends as possible in the game more or less.
7. ARENA ETC
My impressions:
-Do not rush your arena.
-First do stands, then youth academy and then in turn all necessary developments to develop your youth academy.
-Even if some functions, like training facility or ambulance etc, seems to have a very little effect, it should still not be underrated either. This is a game that is ment to play for a while, Like 3 rest packs a week is 150 rest packs in a year, 150 rest packs on a young trainer makes a big difference in the end.
-From your youth academy you will get two kids, one for free (2 stars it seems) and one for around 20 tokens. This kid is a very good deal to get money.
With the Al FC account, I used all tokens I got from the Ladbokers offer (450 tokens) on my stadium. And with the HFF account, that was started a couple of weeks after the Al FC account, I have not finished any buildings early. This is the result of these two strategies so far:
In other words, it is extremely ineffective to spend tokens on your arena...
8. OLD VS. NEW VERSION
There are differences between the old and new version.
The old version can be accessed at:
https://apps.facebook.com/topeleven/...c_location=ufi
So far I have probably not had the time to understand all advantages of going back to the old version. I've only noticed a few minor details:
-In the old version you can see how many fans your team have.
-In the old version you can see the total gain of each of your players.
-When being in a bidding war, the old version lets you see more info of the other managers involved in the auction.
COMMENTS
I will update this guide regularly as I have more time and come to more conclusions. I am grateful for every comment or input anyone might have. I hope this will be to some help for new players!
Once I reach a new level I plan to make a new post in this thread about specific challenges at that level, at least in the beginning. I will post the result of my teams as a diary in new posts regularly.
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