The Long and Winding Road

Following on from rampant speculation over the past few weeks it has been confirmed by the head honcho's at UFL that the Alpha test phase is yet to commence and that it is unlikely to begin at any point within the near future. This news will come as a big blow to the many fans who have been on tenterhooks with excitement over the past few months over the expectations that alpha would be beginning shortly.

The disappointing news was initially broken by Toffeejules, the main man behind UFL, whom said: "Alpha has not started yet. Again news will be forthcoming as soon as we can, but the main hold up on Alpha is the UI designs, the basic coding is there, but we need more UI's designed which is what we are currently working on, and which is why we are looking for a visual artist to join the team." In a later post nobular_bells highlights 3 main holds up. He states the "size of the current UFLive Dev Team..." as well as the voluntary nature of the work in addition to holding down regular jobs as key drivers behind what to many will be seen as a lack of progress.

Whilst this news will be seen as disappointing it is not unexpected. With Marc Duffy recently calling for patience in the development process from fans and developers alike it seems that UFL will be destined to get to the testing stage slightly later than initially thought.

e-Football-conomics

With the euro on the brink of collapse and the world economy in general not too far behind it economics has made a pretty bad name of itself over the past few months. As within the real world having a safe and secure economic system within UFL is absolutely essential if the game is going to be successful.

There are 6 main economic objectives that UFL is striving towards. These are:

1) More simplicity in the economy
2) More stability in the economy
3) More support to lower teams
4) Create more value for older players
5) Implement Economic Fail safes
6) Remove opportunities for exploitation and opportunism

Although at this stage and without any testing having taken place there is not a great deal that you can say about many of them. However, it is clear that UFL will attempt to have a greater micro control of the economy rather than a one size fits all approach. It has been confirmed that the ability to adjust the economy, through adding/removing cash, will be part of the economic model in a bid to curb excess inflation. Through greater statistical analysis of the economy the developers hope to be able to predict the change in the money supply over the course of a season. Given this information they will change the prize money accordingly. In addition monetary policy (the adjustment of the interest rate) is pencilled in to make an appearance although given a closed economy may not yield the expected results. In a closed economy raising interest rates is inflationary in the long run, although may encourage more saving. Whereas lower interest rates are deflationary but encourage more spending. Therefore there needs to be a lot of testing to see which wins out. The bank of UFL will also change tax rates to get the economy moving or to slow it down where necessary.

It will be interesting to see just how accurately they can measure the economy in testing and this is definitely something that this blog will be following in the future. A lot of care will need to be taken when making adjustments so as to not go over the top and cause wild swings in the economy. Having rolling adjustments may add stability but may make the economy more complex, a direct contradiction of objective 1 above.Whilst stability is important, confidence in the system and economic certainty must not be downplayed as they both affect the behaviour of the agents within the markets. Therefore if the bank of UFL starts getting it wrong then all of these changes could become self defeating. I for one can’t wait to see all of this in action in testing!

What we also know is where a team’s income will be derived from (alongside any profit made in the transfer market). There are 4 main areas that a team can earn money. These are prize money, stadium income, television money and commercial revenues. As you would expect being in higher divisions will mean you yield a higher value for all of these compared to a team lower down the pyramid. Therefore with all of these factors benefitting big teams it comes as no surprise that there a few elements of the game to help “bridge the gap” between top and bottom.

The main bridging feature in FML was higher wage demands from players at the teams with bigger reputations. This feature will be part of UFL as a way of capping the financial capability of the best teams. It is planned that prize money will fall away quite rapidly so bad seasons will impact on teams unlike in FML where many could just ride out a bad season on their revenues from the other areas. Given staff and of course the options for more infrastructure than just stadiums and youth academies there should be more areas for all teams to spend money, which may help smaller teams if the big teams are investing heavily to keep up with the Jones’. Most of these measures for “bridging the gap” appear to be anti top team rather than carrots for the smaller teams which come across in an unfortunate manner. The one carrot for new teams will be the introduction of a new manager payment scheme whereby managers who join after the 3^rd season will get an additional daily payment to help them be financially competitive. It would be nice to see the addition of interest free loans or partial discounting on basic stadium, youth academy and other infrastructure options as well to introduce a few more goodies into the mixer.

Overall there are a lot of financial aspects to be tested, especially if all of the 6 main objectives are to be reached. If objectives 2 (stability), 3 (helping new/lower teams) and 6 (reduce cheating/exploiting) can be achieved then there will be many happy users. If the rest can be achieved then anything is possible. Bring on the testing!

What we know so far... Part VI

As with many features in FML judging potential (JP) always tended to polarise opinion. On the one side you had people who worshipped it as a great tool to assist them in training up the next generation of stars. On the other you had people who believed that there is an art to talent spotting; that managers should have to decide themselves using their own skill (or luck) who was going to be a Messi and who wasn’t. Not to the chaos that judging potential ratings had on the transfer market.

Before jumping into judging player potential it is worth mentioning that UFL is adopting a system for player development that closely mimics that of Football Manager. The potential ability of 1 to 10 is present with 10 being players of world class status and those at 1 needing to retire as soon as possible. Player attributes are largely the same as in Football Manager and the full list can be found here.

In many ways it’s hardly surprising that judging potential as it used to be has gone. Previously this blog has discussed the use of staff instead of skills and scouting is just one part of this. In UFL four factors affect the ability of your staff to judge players. These are the number of players being scouted, the age of the players, time at the same club and how good your scouts are. As you would expect the more players you look at with the same scouts the more watered down the reports will become for each player. Age also plays an important role. Reports based on 14 to 16 year olds will have a greater degree of error than those based on a player in the 22 to 24 age range. Perhaps the most important variable will be the ability of your scout. Given the different specialisations the guide promises it should mean that to get the ideal report you’ll need to be using the right scout. So some scouts may be better at judging midfielders or players from a certain nation, meaning they would be better for some scenarios but unsuitable for others. This therefore ties nicely in with being able to hire staff from other teams simultaneously to build up a larger scouting network.

The guide hints at attribute masking (as it is known in the Football Manager series) for younger players that which is certainly an interesting thought. However, all attributes will be visible for senior players. In many ways I applaud the decision to introduce attribute masking as it will add depth to the transfer market as well as a far greater degree of realism. If, as the guide says, you can quickly build up a picture of the attributes of your own players then I think this can only be a good thing. Certainly the fog of war element will hopefully just muddle up the market sufficiently to make things slightly more fresh and interesting. That being said many managers will be used to seeing everything and may not get on this with feature.

So judging potential as it was in FML is gone and what has replaced it is a much more realistic interpretation. As with most features in UFL it seems to be well thought out and an entirely logical route to take. It should also give lesser certainty which in my opinion can only be a good thing.

Old Face New Times

It was interesting to see Marc Duffy from Sports Interactive give his view on UFL on the forums yesterday. For those who have not read his post he basicly has 2 peices of advice for both the community and the developers. The first quite obviously is that UFL should try not to make the same mistakes as FML. You have to wonder why he would post such a thing at this stage in development. If you take a step back and re-read it he may be implying that something with the Comprehensive Game Guide will take you down the same road that FML took. In all fairness I think he has a reasonable point here on two grounds.

The first reason where UFL may be making an error is that the features are being predominantly decided by what you can describe as the hardcore players. As Miles Jacobsen (also from SI) said in a recent interview for the Telegraph: "... We tried to reboot the project, and we went in a more hardcore direction than we ever envisaged the project being in, because that’s what the people playing wanted. But we just couldn’t turn it around...". This in many ways could be the same direction as UFL is heading. It is certainly a tricky issue trying to balance the needs of a casual user with those who are fortunate enough to play all day everyday. Now this should not be seen as an attack on the more active users or the people who tirelessly give their views on the forums each and every day, although I can understand why it could be perceived in that manner. But it does need to be kept in consideration that the casual players are the ones that keep the overall manager numbers up.

The other piece of advice that Marc gives is one of patience. It comes as no surprise that everybody is really desperate for alpha to commence so that the end goal of a fully finished product becomes available as soon as possible. Whilst there is no evidence of direct rumblings on the forums there does appear to have been a lack of interest or posts on the forums more recently. Keeping the momentum up whilst also ensuring that everything is done properly and to a standard that the developers are happy with is going to be difficult. In fairness the official UFL backstage blog has been open as to why this has been and its good to see the loose ends are being tied up before testing begins. But the long term goal has to take priority and it's good to see the developers are not in the business of being rushed.

Marc deserves great credit to take the time to give his view to the general forum. But the important thing is to take any advice that he is willing to give on board. From the warm reaction he has received (on the whole) this looks likely to have been the case.

What we know so far... Part V

For many users a good transfer market is essential to their style of play. The trading aspect of FML was to some a major source of enjoyment, with many getting a real buzz from buying low and selling high. But for others it was a complete nightmare and appeared to be no more than a giant stock market in which one wrong buy meant millions of hard earned cash down the drain. Throw into the mixer more than a few shady deals as well and that more or less summarises what the transfer market was about in FML. So how does UFL intend to deal with this massive part of any football based game?

The biggest change that former-FML players will notice is the shift from private transfers to transfer auctions. UFL will introduce a rule whereby private transfers can only be accepted if they fall within the 50% to 150% range of market value. Any bids accepted over 150% of market value will then a trigger an auction in which any user within the GW can bid in. Any opening bids of over 200% MV will trigger a precautionary moderator investigation. It will be interesting to see how this change shakes out. On the one hand it will level the playing field as it opens transfer deals up to everyone regardless of when they are online or friends with. But will the lack of certainty over the price that will be received lead to some managers trying to hold on to assets and thus bogging down the transfer market. Depending on the flow of cash into the game it might make the market cyclical with managers only selling when they know the most people will have cash in the bank to spend. The other big question is will it really cut down the number of murky deals that take place. Only time will tell.

The other change that will be noticed is the addition of prospective transfers which is added to the standard options of loans and trials. Prospective deals are designed to give an option for a deal to be concluded at an agreed point in the future. There are both buyer and seller prospective options. The buyer prospective option favours the buyer and allows them more time to find more funds (or try to find an alternative player to sign instead at a better price with the money they have given that any buyer prospective deal gets cancelled at the deadline should the buyer not have sufficient funds). The seller prospective option is the opposite and gives the seller the chance to get a better deal from a rival manager. There is also the possibility of a prospective loan deal whereby you can agree a price prior to loaning a player. Given that players are entered into auction at over 150% market value anyway it may mean that this feature is not used to the extent that it should be. However, as we yet do not know what the plans for the economy are, and especially price control, it is a possibility that deals over 150% are indeed a rarity meaning this type of contract can come into its own. Furthermore prospective deals could become more of a long term option for managers with the maximum prospective time period yet to be confirmed at this stage. In many ways this feature could become like a first option that existed in the CM’s and FM’s of several years back. If there is an initial fee option as well then it could really spice things up, as it would open the door properly for feeder teams. At the very least it is a good idea but one which will need to be married up with the economy to give maximum benefit.

The other two options that are worthy of a mention here are pay to play deals and being able to sell players back to the game. Pay to play deals are only available for signing older players of 30 years or more who have been languishing on the free agents list for a while. Each day you play a player on this sort of deal you have to pay them a wage as well as 5% of their MV (in lieu of a transfer fee). However, it is only available in the pre-season part of the season so will probably be used by smaller teams to add back up to the squad. Without a set limit at this point in time on the number of players you can have on pay to play deals you have to wonder whether some managers will just hoover up as many as possible if they don’t have to pay for them as an insurance policy. However, this option it should be a good way of getting the under-utilised older players back into the game. Finally, there is also the option to sell any player you’ve had on contract for a season or longer back to the game for 50% of their MV. This feature should help ease the problems that many managers had in FML where they simply could not shift their low quality squad players on.

Overall, there are a lot of new options here to be used by managers. Whether or not they will solve the stock market approach issues that FML had are another question, although you could argue that was down to poor economic controls rather than the transfer market itself. Auctions should bring more equality to the table, whilst prospective transfers could really bring a whole new dimension to the party.

What we know so far... Part IV

This next blog, in this long running saga of posts following the Comprehensive Gameplay Guide, covers the alternative currency in UFL. In a break from the previous 3 blogs this post will deal with only the first half of the 4th chapter as opposed to discussing the entire chapter

The consensus from FML on alternative currencies (reward points as they were known) was that they were a complete and utter waste of time, so it is interesting that they are pencilled in to return in UFL albeit under a different guise. Ultimate Football Tokens or UFT's are the new face of reward points and for the large part are intended to be spent on the same types of items as reward points were, such as emoticons and kit designs. They are attained through predominantly the same methods as before. So winning friendly competitions or scoring the best goal will likely see swimming in them.

However, there is still hope. The previous blog mentioned that the bidding for international teams was done via an alternative currency which does give UFT's some form of credibility and additional purpose. Advertising space will also cost UFT's as well although hopefully the cost will be greater than in FML to help further the alternative currencies value. The guide also mentions that UFT's will be used for other rental aspects but fails to elaborate on exactly what, which is understandable given alpha testing is yet to fully begin. Whether the bidding for international teams and advertising space will be sufficient to make managers feel they are a worthwhile and credible addition is something that will need to be closely monitored within the testing phase.

As you have probably establised by now alternative currencies are not a feature that I'm overly enamoured with. However, it is a feature that needs to be given the benefit of the doubt and thoroughly tested in alpha and beta, but at this point on paper does look similiar to what was a dreadful system in FML. Getting the right amount of UFT's into the game and having the right prices will go along way to giving them some real purpose. 

To conclude, UFT's need to be seen as a credible and useful method of payment in their own right to be successful, and until they are seen in this light many will simply ask to use cash instead.

What we know so far... Part III

The next part of the Comprehensive General Guide covers the competitions and league structures that your team will play in. This is, of course, the main part of any football game as it shapes what you can do in the rest of the game. But whilst it is the core area there really is a limited amount that can be said on it given the information stated in the guide.

As you would expect each gameworld has a variety of different FA's covering different styles of playing the game (such as activity level and time zones) as well as competitions that welcome teams from the entire gameworld. The FA's will have both leagues (of between 18-24 teams) and cups for the members to partake in with seasons lasting 28 days. The 28 days consists of 2 periods of 11 day halves of the season (separated by a 1 day "winter break") and a 5 day off season. As for promotions and relegations it is expected that 3 teams will be promoted (2 automatic and 1 play off) with 3 teams also being relegated. Managers can expect a Champions League equivalent to be present should they be winning the highest division in their FA. Other than this there really is very little else to say, at this point.

One feature that should excite many users is the plans for an inbuilt international team feature. It is a feature that never made it fully into FML sadly, only existing through the hard work of many organisers and moderators using their initiative to get around the games limitations. In UFL managers will have to bid using special credits (which will be highlighted in the next blog post) to bid for the nation they wish to manage in the World Cup tournament. Making things even more interesting is that you can only make one bid for one nation and you cannot see what your fellow managers have bid. Should your one bid fail you get entered into a completely random draw for a nation that has not been bid for. Although there is a possibility that you can miss out altogether which may well irk some managers (but with a finite numbers of nations it is a feature that cannot possibly be available to all managers at the same time). The one bid only mechanism might be unpopular with some but gets around the problem of users winning numerous nations, although the next higher bidder without a winning bid could be used instead as a potential solution.

Arguably the piece de resistance is going to be the cross gameworld competitions where the best teams from across the varying gameworlds get together to find out who really is the best of the best. Although these mathces will take place in an interim GW which may mean that the other general users cannot watch the matches which would be particularly disappointing. At this point it appears that there are only plans for inter GW competitions for the best teams which again may disappoint teams from further down the football league (like my team will be no doubt) but hopefully this can change as the game develops.

So this concludes the next chapter and this blog post. The league and FA structure is more or less the same as in FML and follows on closely from what we see in reality. The introduction of internationals and inter GW competitions should spice things up even more and certainly adds another few strings to the UFL bow that FML didn't have.

What we know so far... Part II

The second part of the Gameplay Guide continues talking about the general gameplay aspect and focuses upon skills and infrastructure.

This is where we see the first major change from FML. Skills as something that you learn by investing time are thankfully gone and in their place are staff. The skills system in FML never really seemed to work as intended, especially once everyone had been playing for a fair few months and had all the same skills as eachother. Even the specialisations didn't appear to make a tangible difference. That being said it is hard to say for certain that the introduction of staff will solve these problems without having seen them in action. What we know so far is that there are 6 areas of staff (Coaches, Scouts, Developers, Physios, Agents and Press Officers) which will provide you with benefits in different elements of the game ie agents will get you a reduced/increased transfer fee or wage. These categories follow broadly on from FML but cover all the core bases that you would expect. The number of staff you can have is rightly limited to the status of your club so that the smallest teams will have only a handful whereas the biggest teams will have substantially more. The ability to buy, sell and even loan (they can be simultaneously hired by numerous teams at the same time) staff should also add another element of strategy to the game. You can even pay to send your staff training courses to improve their abilities. The added dynamism means that if you play your cards right you can gain an advantage (for instance if you need a new stadium you may sell your scouting staff to purchase some developers and thus save on your stadium). All of this adds helps create a more rounded game with more to do than just playing matches.

Infrastructure was one of the first big modules for FML and hopefully it will be in UFL from the first day. The plan is to have 4 areas of infrastructure, twice as many as in FML. As you would expect stadiums is the first on the list. It's not rocket science to expect a bigger stadium to earn a higher income than a small one, although at this point we don't know if its only the corporate seats that matter. The previous blog mentioned youth academies so there is little need to go into much detail here. The 2 new areas of infrastructure are pencilled in as being training grounds and medical centres. Building or improving your training ground will give you 2 benefits. The first is a slight improvements in certain aspect of training. The second is the number of players you can train which is a substantial improvement upon the set in stone figure that existed in FML. Medical centres, on the otherhand, will improve the recovery rate for injured players although they do need to be matched up with the physio staff for ultimate effect. Apparently the benefit can be up to a 70% reduction in injury time so this may well be a popular area for investment amongst many players!

Overall these areas again look promising. The change to staff from skills is a particularly logical and well thought out change. The ability to improve, buy and sell adds a whole new dimension. The infrastructure module is more or less what you would expect. However, whilst all of this sounds good on paper I think it is important to stress that until we can get our grubby paws on the real thing it is hard to say whether they will work out as intended.

The Gameplay Guide- What we know so far...

The Comprehensive Gameplay Guide, as found upon the UFL forums, gives us the greatest incite into the core elements and features that are being brought to the table within the game. The gameplay guide has been broken down into 10 different areas, of which the first 7 have been published with the remaining 3 due sometime over the coming month. With the tactics, match engine and part 2 of the in game economy guides still to come this is the ideal point to discuss what we have seen so far and what has caught the eye.

The first guide covers the start of the game when the manager/user signs in for the first time. This, as you would expect, is guided via an in game wizzard. All new managers also get a "mentor", or a member of the moderation team who will assist new managers through the first weeks of their career. Whilst there is also an optional gameplay tutorial to help those completely new to the concept. These steps should ensure new users don't get overwhelmed upon joining, although users familiar with this style of game may potentially find the mentor system frustrating. Following on from doing all the usually things such as team name and shirt colours you get to name your own player. Your player will be a 14 year old of random ability. This is a great feature, although you don't get the first option on signing yourself to your team and you get put in an auction. This is understandable given one persons pro might be a Messi whilst anothers might struggle to make the bench for Barrow FC. To sign your pro you then have to outbid your rivals to get him to sign on the dotted line, something that may be problematic for new managers joining after the first few seasons who are bidding against the established elite.

The first guide then takes an expected twist and starts talking about the youth set up. There are 3 ways in which youth players can be attained. They are Youth Academies, a draft system and of course the free agents list. If you decide to activate your one and only youth academy then you will receive between 16 and 20 youth players at the start of the season, a welcome change from the drip feed throughout the season. Whilst you can't state which nation you want to set up in you can add a preference nationality. The draft system is an entirely new feature with the draft occuring on day 1 of the off season, according to the guide. Depending on your scouting network and talent spotting which should bring another dimension to the game entirely. To win a player in the draft you have to bid the highest transfer fee and not wage, which is a clever solution to ridiculous youth wages that were seen in FML. Last and in this case probably least any youth players that slip through the net will go on the free agents list. All of this should certainly give the youth managers a fair bit to sink their teeth in to especially given the four tiers of youth competitions (school boy/U16/U18/U21) within a GW wide youth FA. It will certainly add another serious level of competition to the senior side of management by the sounds of things.

This brings us to the end of the first Comprehensive Guide post as well as this blog. None of these features are particularly groundbreaking. Although having your own player is a welcome addition and the new continental draft season also adds another strategic element to getting the best young players in. Other than that this is a solid start to what we can expect and look forward to in UFL.

Ultimate Football Live

Arising from the ashes of Football Manager Live (or FML as it was colloquially known), a massivley multiplayer online football management sim from the same creators as the highly acclaimed Football Manager series, is Ultimate Football Live (or UFL). However, whilst FML was created by Sports Interactive and published by Sega, UFL has much more humble beginnings. Netsports Software Ltd are an open conglomerate of former FML fans who are working together to attempt to recreate and improve upon a game genre that many feel Sports Interactive did not do justice to, following its conclusion in May this year.

From a quick browse of the UFL forums (https://uflive.com/forum/) it becomes apparent that Netsports are keen to learn from the mistakes of FML whilst also take advantage of the great enthusiasm that surrounded it. The concepts behind the core modules of the game inevitably follow closely on from what many fans of Football Management games are accustomed to. However, that is not to say that UFL is merely a carbon copy of a failed brand. The gameplay guides, as well as numerous other threads with contributions from Joe Bloggs, show that additional functionality is high on the cards to create a better gaming environment. This level of ambition to not only replicate a game that many loved but also develop further has led to many former FML fans jumping on the band wagon with great expectations for the future.

As it stands the game is still in its pre-alpha stage, despite alpha initially being pencilled in for the end of Q3 which has since passed. The underlying concepts look strong on paper but until we know for certain which features are coded and which are still waiting to be added. In addition, the lack of any sort of announcement regarding the match engine is somewhat alarming. The much maligned Football Manager Live match engine, or FM [insert year] developmental test engine as some referred to it, was substantially better than anything rival companies such as EA or BGS/Eidos have put together. So despite the underlying optimism that surrounds the project, especially amongst the games loyal forum members, there are enough hurdles to keep the hype from spiralling out of control.

The purpose of this blog is to discuss the various facets of the game as it develops over time. The frequency of posts will depend upon the feed of information coming from the Netsports website.