The expansion Manager's Journey for Football, Tactics & Glory will be available on November 11. In this post, I will write about all its changes, improvements and new mechanics.

We have added a whole layer of new mechanics to help you write your own story as a manager. Clubs from different countries will send you job offers and give you objectives depending on their ambitions and positions in tournaments, while you earn reputation for completing tasks and the club management reacts to your successes. You will look at the game from a completely different angle and every new campaign will create a unique story just for you.

This is another big set of mechanics to give you a sense of how your coaching experience grows.

You will earn experience depending on the tournament you are playing in and on the match result. Upon reaching each new even level, you can choose one of three random abilities. Once you reach an uneven level, you can choose Money or Glory.

The coach abilities can be improved, which will either enhance the effect of the ability or increase the number of uses of the ability in the season.

The abilities can be divided into the following groups (each group has several different abilities):

• Match Day Speech - an opportunity to influence the footballers before the match. Depending on what you tell them, they will either start the match motivated or be less effective but they will also spend less energy.
  
• Individual Training - abilities aimed at fast-tracking the learning of skills, gaining additional specialization points and recovering stamina.
  
• Youth Work - an opportunity to set the priorities of the Youth Academy. This will allow you to get the footballer of your desired class.
  
• Other - you can ask the management for money, give moral support to an injured footballer, increase the effectiveness of scouts, etc.

• Added continent Africa with 11 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Zambia, DR Congo, Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa).
  
• Added 6 new countries on other continents (Israel, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Malaysia, Iran, Bolivia).
  
• Previously, only your country was simulated on your continent. And in other countries, only the Premier League was simulated. Now all countries with all leagues will be simulated on your continent.
  
• Previously, countries on other continents were not simulated. Now the Premier leagues of countries on other continents will be simulated.
  
• The algorithm for the simulation of the game world has been significantly accelerated. This allowed the simulation to take a little longer than it used to, but it simulates many times more matches and interactions between teams around the world.
  
• Before starting the campaign, you can disable the countries from which you can receive job offers. This will disable the simulation of the lower leagues in those countries. This, in turn, will reduce the waiting time for the simulation.
  
• The concept 'The level of football on the continent' has been introduced. The higher the level of football on the continent, the more gifted footballers are received by clubs from youth academies. Also, the level of a football affects the strength of the clubs on the continent. Before starting the campaign, you can specify a different strength for each continent.
  
• You will be able to buy footballers from other continents, but for this, you will have to send scouts there. A footballer's value in Glory depends on whether his continent is stronger than yours or weaker. This reflects the difficulty of negotiations to relocate a footballer to a continent where football is less developed.
  
• At the bottom of the Tables screen, you can switch continents to see how matches are played in countries on other continents.
  
• On other continents, you can view the Premier League of each country, as well as the current draw of the continental tournaments on that continent.

• Once a year, the best clubs from every continent will fight among themselves for the right to be called the strongest club in the world.
  
• The participants are the winners of the main continental tournament on each continent.

• Now, by default, in all cup tournaments with home and away matches, if the score is equal, a penalty shootout will be triggered. Previously, the away goal rule was used.
  
• In the modifications, you can set which rule you want to use: penalty shootout or away goals rule.
  
• Previously, if several teams had the same number of points in the league, a small number of rules were used to determine the teams' places (goal difference, number of goals scored, etc). But in some rare cases, this was not enough. We have significantly expanded the number of rules used.
  
• Added a screen with information about the rules used in the league and cups to determine the winner in controversial cases. To get to this screen, go to the Tables screen, select the desired tournament, at the bottom of the screen use the arrows to switch to the desired screen.

• Added 10 new music tracks.
  
• Added 15 new hairstyles.
  
• Added 11 new types of facial hair (moustache, beard, sideburns). They also have 'unshaven' textures added.
  
• Added 7 new eyebrows.
  
• Added 11 new logo shields.
  
• Added 15 new pictures for logotypes (additionally added empty 'picture', which allows leaving the shield without a picture at all).

• Reworked starting the campaign with the Sandbox option. Now, at the very beginning of the campaign, the game gives you a choice: play in the sandbox or use the classic rules.
  
• When creating a campaign in the Sandbox, additional settings will be available that affect the balance, but allow you to better customize the game to suit your play style. Let me remind you that achievements are disabled in the Sandbox.
  
• When creating a classic campaign, all additional settings that affect the balance and disable achievements are hidden. Same for modifications - you won't see the modifications there that disable achievements.
  
• Interfaces for selecting modifications have been redesigned. Mods are now selected at the very beginning of campaign creation. It allows you to better customise your game world.

• Reduced the effect of Precision Shot by 5%.
  
• Now Precision Shot uses 1 more energy.
  
• All tabs related to club statistics have now been moved to one screen, from where it is convenient to launch the desired type of statistics.
  
• Added information about the coach from the last played campaign in the main menu.
  
• Added 20 achievements.
  
• Now, on the experience gaining screens, you can click anywhere to skip the animation of earning the experience.
  
• Now, inside one modification, you can rename tournaments in other countries. If this modification matches the coach's nationality, then the names of tournaments in other countries will be taken from it.
  
• Also, when renaming tournaments in a modification, you can switch continents to rename tournaments around the world.
  
• The screen for renaming tournaments before the start of the campaign has been slightly redesigned to make it clearer how the names of the tournaments will be changed.
  
• Added the item 'The highest number of points scored by the team that got promoted from the 3rd place' to the statistics of all the leagues (except Premier league).
  
• Added a column with points on the Achievements - Clubs league global statistics screen.
  
• Added the ability to enable or disable the away goal rule in the multiplayer and hot seat tournaments.
  
• The process of selecting modifications in hot seat tournaments has been reworked. They are now selected before you start choosing a team. This will reduce confusion.
  
• Added the ability to select a continent from which clubs are automatically selected in hot seat tournaments.
  
• Minor bugs, some crashes in hot seat tournaments and typos have been fixed.

Hi everyone!

The expansion Manager's Journey will be released very soon - on November 11.

Unfortunately, for some reason, we couldn't translate it into two languages: Czech and Korean.

As many of you know, the game is translated to other languages by other players. It allows us to be sure that you get a good translation (players know better different gaming and football terminology). Also, it helps us to save some money which we can spend on adding new features.

Therefore, I ask you for help.

Can any of you translate the texts of the DLC to these languages:
- Czech
- Korean

If so, write to me, please, on kos @ creoteam.com (delete spaces)

Those who translate the DLC will get:
- your name written in the game's credits
- a free DLC key (also, can provide the key for the original game and previous DLC if you need it).

There is no time to translate the texts by the official launch but we can update the game later when the translation is complete.

Thanks!
Andriy

Once you've won all the trophies on Normal difficulty, you can be considered a seasoned player. You already know how to build a team, how to use skills, classes, crosses, etc. If you start a new campaign on Normal difficulty, the game will be entertaining but will give you almost no challenge.

Hard mode is designed to challenge experienced players. In an effort to overcome this challenge, players learn even more about the game. They learn that many mechanics that previously seemed insignificant are actually very important. And when you overcome this challenge, you get significantly more pleasure than on Normal difficulty.

The hardest part in this mode is to move from the Amateur to the Third league. Some players have reported that they did it just for 3 seasons. But for most players, this is an almost unattainable result. My personal best is going up in five seasons. But when I first tested Hard Mode balance, it took me 8 seasons to advance to Third league:



Some players cannot leave the Amateur league at all. Therefore, from time to time they write messages that the information about the promotion in three seasons is a lie.

Well, one of the most experienced players in the FTG community (View Phenom) has proven that it is possible to promote to the Third League in just 2 seasons. He has recorded a series of videos in which he plays the Hard Mode campaign with the Iron Manager option enabled. He uses an understanding of the mechanics of the game at the highest level, which amazed even me, the author of these mechanics.

He plays the beta-version in Manager's Journey, but in the video, he does not actually use the mechanics of the new DLC.

Here is the first video of his walkthrough (the rest of the videos can be found on his channel):


The campaign is interesting in itself, especially the second season and its dramatic end. I highly recommend watching.

If you want to ask questions to the author of the video or participate in the discussion of his tactics, go to his channel on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/dEf7dYxmkG

Also on our server, you can read a playthrough of the beta version of Manager's Journey on Normal difficulty with screenshots and additional information about DLC by another of our experienced players (hoplite39).

If you've played on Hard Mode, please share your club history graph in the comments. It is interesting to compare.

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Let me remind you that the huge expansion Manager's Journey comes out on November 11th. Don't forget to add it to the Wishlist:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/Football_Tactics__Glory_Managers_Journey/

Join the live stream to learn about the new mechanics, watch the gameplay, and ask questions to the developer.

If you missed Friday's live stream, you can still watch the Manager's Journey gameplay and talk with the developer.

Join us on Sunday to watch how the developer plays the next huge expansion of Football, Tactics & Glory.

Manager's Journey huge expansion is out on November 11th.

Join the live stream to learn about the new mechanics, watch the gameplay, and ask questions to the developer.

In reaction to our previous posts about the new features of Manager's Journey, we realized that the coach abilities can be perceived as some kind of super-powers. In addition, questions have been raised about how the abilities will be used. Therefore, I decided to tell a little more about this huge set of mechanics.

In previous versions of the game, you managed only one club. You couldn't be fired, so most of your decisions were long-term. Development of youth, learning skills, improving staff, etc.

But now, you have short-term goals. You are joining a club whose footballers can be pretty weak. Management may challenge you to reach the cup final or promote to the next league. In one season, you must somehow put the team in order and fulfil the set goal.

Previously, you could use a failed season as an opportunity to give young footballers a chance to develop. And now, no matter how you develop the youth, if you fail the season, you will be fired. Therefore, as a coach, you need strategic tools that provide an opportunity to improve the situation here and now.



When developing the abilities, we used the following rules:

• the abilities should reflect the actions that managers do in real life;
  
• every time a player thinks about using an ability, it shouldn't be an unambiguously easy decision;
  
• some abilities should have an immediate positive effect, and some should provide a longer-term effect;
  
• the abilities shouldn't give an absolute advantage. The players should use them competently or at least there should be some disadvantages that should be taken to account.

Glory is a measure of your authority and influence. The better your team plays, the more you are respected. Previously, you used Glory on four occasions:

1. To persuade more experienced coaches to join your club;
   
2. To persuade the club to sell the footballer, as well as to persuade the footballer to join your club (the cost in Glory on transfers replaced the negotiation process);
   
3. To motivate a footballer to learn a skill in training;
   
4. To persuade a footballer who decided to end his career to stay with the club for a few more seasons.

Despite the fact that there were several options for spending Glory, players mainly saved this resource for hiring coaches.

But how the upgraded def coach will help you if you stay at the club for only one season? He is useless. Upgrading the coaches is an investment in the future; it does not yield short-term results.

Now, Glory will also be spent on the abilities that can help you in difficult situations.

This way, you won't use your abilities every time you feel like it. You will think twice if it is really worth spending the Glory.

The game will have several different abilities related to motivating footballers before the match. For example, you can yell at your team. As a result, they will come out to the match motivated, however, they will lose a certain amount of energy.



You can also use this ability before the start of the second half, which gives you some flexibility. For example, if you play an away match, and you want your chances of scoring to be increased in the first turn after kick-off, you will yell at the footballers just before the second half.

This skill does not give you a 100% chance of scoring a goal. But it increases your chances. You yourself should decide whether you need this chance now or not.

During testing, there were situations when I was upset when the motivation of the footballer did not work, and Glory was wasted. On the other hand, the feeling of yelling at the team that lead to scoring a goal right after kick-off is very pleasant. You planned, took a chance, spent Glory, and it paid off.

And when you are faced with the task of winning the cup, you need to win almost every match. Therefore, a slight increase in the chance of winning can be very beneficial.

Previously, it was possible to fully learn a skill with Glory. Overall, it was a good opportunity, but it does not fit well with the new gameplay. Instead, there will be several new training opportunities:

1. You will be able to speed up the training of skills for a short time with a chance of injury;
   
2. You will be able to carry out a recovery training, helping the football player to regain some energy;
   
3. You can prepare a footballer for the next match, as a result of which he will receive more specialization points for performing actions (but there is a chance of getting injured in training).

Additionally, some of your skills are influenced by the level of staff. Here's a screenshot of speeding up a skill:



As you can see, the probability of injury could be 25%, but thanks to the upgraded medical staff, this probability is reduced. If you have a lot of Glory and don't want to risk the footballer, you can put more effort into training (pay Glory) to further reduce this chance.

Training is not available at all times. First, you must have at least Level 1 training fields. Secondly, you need to learn the ability to conduct training in general. Further, by improving this skill and hiring more coaches, you will be able to do more training.

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I really hope I managed to allay some concerns about coach abilities. But if you have questions or thoughts about this, write in the comments.

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The release is planned on November 11:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

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Forum - the main hub for the discussions
Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - great place to discuss the game
Email subscription - I will send all the news to your email

In the next expansion, even the most disastrous season will make you stronger as a coach. After all, now you will earn experience in matches. As you level up, you will unlock abilities that will give you new opportunities.

After each match, you will receive experience, which depends on whether you win, draw or lose.

In addition, the amount of experience depends on the tournament in which the match was played. The Prestige Cup gives you more experience than the Amateur League.



Moreover, the higher you climb in the cup tournament, the more experience you earn.

When the progress bar is filled fully, you receive a reward.

For reaching each even level, you can choose one of three new abilities:



In the screenshot above, I've selected the "Most Important Match of the Season" ability. This will allow me once a season to strongly motivate the footballers before the match, thus increasing my chances of winning.

See the stars on the ability icons? They show how many times each ability can be upgraded.

When you get the ability, the first star lights up. If you get it again, the number of stars will increase. And the ability itself will get a stronger effect.

In the screenshot above, the leftmost ability has not been learned. If I choose it, the first star will light up. The ability in the middle is already at the 2nd level, and if I choose it, the level will increase to 3rd. The ability in the right is at the first level.

Levelling gives other bonuses as well. Upon reaching each uneven level, you will be able to choose one-time money or glory payout.



Considering that each season you have to complete certain president tasks, additional money, or even more importantly - glory, will definitely not be superfluous :)

At any time, you can see which skills are already unlocked, what their level is, and what effect you will get when using them:



When we add new mechanics, we always think about giving players the opportunity to use those mechanics in their own way.

Some players may want to start playing in the Premier League right away as an experienced coach. Some players want to experiment with abilities. Someone may come up with a fictional scenario for themselves and want to play a certain role in it.

Therefore, before the start of the campaign, you can specify what level you will have and immediately choose which skills will be available to you in the game:



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If you have any thoughts, feedback on the topic of levelling, we will be glad to find out about it in the comments.

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The release is planned on November 11:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

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Forum - the main hub for the discussions
Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - great place to discuss the game
Email subscription - I will send all the news to your email

In the next expansion, all leagues will be simulated in all countries of the continent - from Amateur to Premier (previously only the highest league was simulated in other countries).

Combined with the possibility to move to other clubs, there is a chance for the emergence of more interesting personal stories that only happen to you.

Today I want to tell you about one of the interesting stories that happened in my last test campaign.

As the coach of Brighton, I led the club to the Premier League, and after the next season, I was even able to qualify for the European Cup.

Looking through the results of the qualifying matches, I saw that unknown to me Sogndal knocked Barcelona out of the tournament.



I was surprised and decided to see what kind of club it was.

It turned out that the result was not accidental. Sogndal began to actively develop and from an outsider turned into one of the top clubs in the Norwegian Premier League:



I really enjoyed my 4 years in Brighton. The management never put pressure on me. It was enough for them that I did not get kicked out of the Premier League. Instead, I took third place twice and even won the European Cup.

Naturally, I was noticed by more famous clubs. I received an invitation to lead Barcelona. The club's management was very ambitious. They wanted me to win European Cup as they saw I already have won it with another club.

Despite the fact that most AI clubs are not very well managed, to my surprise Barcelona was staffed with great footballers. I immediately started winning all the matches of the Spanish Premier League. To understand the strength of my club, here are the league standings, in which I was 7 points ahead of Madrid before the end of the first round (Madrid, btw, was very powerful as well):



The irony of fate was that in the same season in the European Cup group stage, one of the rivals was Sogndal. It is a significantly weaker club than most Spanish clubs. Not even compared to me. Therefore, I didn't have a doubt that I will play better than AI in the previous season.

Now imagine my surprise when Sogndal won Barcelona again :D



Their goalkeeper became the player of the match, making 3 great saves.


Naturally, I decided that I would not let some upstart stand in my way.

To be frank, I also recalled how in 1997 the real Barcelona wanted to take revenge on Dynamo Kyiv in a similar way for the defeat in a home match. But they did not succeed, Dynamo won the second match with an even more devastating score. These were the times when the star of Andriy Shevchenko shone on the football horizon.

But Sogndal did not have such a star footballer. Therefore, I was able to please my fans with a scoring extravaganza:



Sogndal finished second in the group that season. This was the last time a Norwegian club had such success in continental tournaments:

Well, here's a graph showing the history of my coaching career:



I started the game in Ukraine. After a successful career in the lower leagues, I was invited to a good Italian club, Cremona. There we played quite well in the First League for several seasons. I have earned enough reputation to be invited by a club from England.

Despite the fact that Brighton was quite strong, the management just wanted me to play well in the First League. But my ambitions were much higher, and I brought the club up. And after the victory in the European Cup, I've got an invitation from Barcelona.

In my first season in Barcelona, ​​I failed the task: I could not win the European Cup. But since the season as a whole was not a failure (victory in the league and second place in the cup), I managed to persuade the management to give me another chance. We signed a 3-year contract whereby I have to win any 2 trophies every year.

It's a coincidence, but I spent 4 seasons in each club.



I sometimes write notes from my stories on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/HkT8FC7sr4

Also, in the channel #🏗 Beta 👔 Manager's Journey Stories one of the players who've got access to the beta version of the game, writes his own coach story. It might be interesting to read because he describes the game from the player's perspective: how it's played, what is the interface etc. So it's worth checking out.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

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Forum - the main hub for the discussions
Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - good place to discuss the game
Email subscription - I will send all the news to your email

When we started developing the Manager's Journey DLC, we thought that if we introduce the ability to move from club to club, then it would be quite logical to also combine this mechanic with the ability to become a coach of the national team.

But in the course of development, the more we tested new mechanics, the more we realized that if we go along the intended path, the potential of the mechanic of moving to other clubs will not unlock its potential.

Previously, the game was based on long-term planning. You could be losing, relegating to a lower league to gain strength, etc. Now you will need to complete short-term president's goals. This is a very interesting feature, and while we are testing it, we have great pleasure in seeing how the game has changed. But fulfilling short-term goals requires adding additional mechanics to the game that we did not plan before. Without these mechanics, there is a feeling that something is missing.

For example, the management of a club that occupies a middle position in the league gives you the task to advance to the next league. You win some matches but it is hard to perform the task with the team you have. You don't have time to put together a great team because great teams can't be built in one season.

If there were additional opportunities, you could motivate the footballers before a difficult match so that they play a little beyond their capabilities. Or you could ask the president of the club for money to buy an expensive footballer. Or you could cheer on an injured footballer who is very important to the team. As a result, he would be able to return to the team more quickly.

And so, we stopped at a crossroads.

1) If we follow the intended path, the expansion will include moving the coach to other clubs and national teams. However, until the moment a player can become a coach of the national team, he will have many seasons to build his career, and he will lack the strategic opportunities to influence the success of his club. And when managing the national team, there will be even fewer opportunities, since there is no development of the club.

Additionally, the implementation of national teams will take longer as we will have to implement more changes to the game engine. So the expansion would come out 2-3 months later than planned (will be moved to 2022).

2) Or we will follow the path of replacing national teams with other mechanics that will make the experience of a coach's life more interesting and the game even more replayable. The game would really feel like a coach's journey.

This decision was difficult.

We understand that from the side of the players it seems that the national teams themselves will add the game more fun.

But seeing the game from the inside, playing the already made mechanics, we went the same way as we used to go before: if there is a choice between a) what will make the game more interesting and b) what sounds good on paper, but in practice does not make the game so interesting (as we accustomed by our standards), we choose the path of a more interesting game.

It was the same as the last time when we changed our plans during the development of the Football Stars expansion. We implemented the Giftedness mechanic then, even though we did not initially plan to do so. It resulted in an interesting expansion that adds a lot of depth to the game.

We really hope that our reputation of developers who put gameplay and fun at the forefront will lead you to believe that changing plans is for the better.

As previously promised, you will be able to move from club to club. Each club now sets goals for you for one or more seasons. Successful completion of the task increases your reputation, as a result of which more and more prestigious clubs begin to take interest in you.

Instead of national teams, we will introduce coach levelling mechanics and a large number of new mechanics (coach abilities).

You will gain experience after each match. The amount of experience will depend on whether you win, lose or draw. Also, the amount of experience will be affected by the tournament in which you play.

When you gain enough experience, you will level up. You will be able to choose from several random coaching abilities. But it will also be possible to get money or glory (sometimes, these resources might be very useful in the short term).

Examples of coaching skills:

• Possibility to motivate footballers before the match or before the second half.
  
• Ability to mark the next match as the most important match of the season (which will motivate the footballers even more).
  
• Possibility to receive young footballers of the required class from the Youth Academy.
  
• Ability to cheer up injured players.
  
• Ability to speed up skill training by a certain number of days or conduct special training, after which the footballer will earn more specialization points in the next match.
  
• Possibility to ask the president for money.
  
• And other mechanics...

While we expect to receive negativity from players waiting for national teams, we still want to understand the overall mood of our players. Therefore, please write in the comments what you think about the changes.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650120/

= = = = = = = = = = = =
Forum - the main hub for the discussions
Creoteam's page in Steam - subscribe to get news about all FTG news directly in Steam
Discord - good place to discuss the game
Email subscription - I will send all the news to your email