For the seventh time, it's time to reveal a little tidbit of what we are working on in the coming update for ManagerLeague.
This is the seventh chapter in the Developer Diary, and you can find the previous chapters here:
Chapter 1 :: Chapter 2 :: Chapter 3 :: Chapter 4 :: Chapter 5 :: Chapter 6
If you have not read them yet, do so now.
Once again, we are at the end of a week, that has been productive according to plan, without any major surprises. We are a little bit behind when it comes to starting the testing-procedures, but we're going as fast as we can. This week has brought us some new stadium-upgrades, a much fresher looking Stadium-page, a sexy Team Details popup, and a fresh Player Details popup. We also finished something called "The player-card", and got some other tasks completed.
From what we can see now, the remaining items that stand between us and testing would be:
- The new match-report
- Ability to pick Sponsor (as it has been removed from the finances-page)
- The new preferences-section
Some things will NOT be ready when testing begins, and that would include:
- The forums (the old forum-pages will be there as you know them, until we are ready with the new forums)
- ML-Mail (This section will be the old normal black one during the first tests)
- Notes and Watches (Changes are coming here too, but they are not critical for testing at this stage)
There might be other elements missing when we start the testing, but we are quite comfortable with starting the testing even if not everything is 100% complete.
I will get back to more information about the testing when we are ready.
It seems I promised to reveal a bit more today, specifically the new Stadium Upgrades.
I will show you the new stadium-section right away, and then explain a few things under the picture (click on it for the full-size version):
As you can see, there are several changes to the Stadium-section when compared with todays design. First of all, the ticket-prices etc are now controlled from here. Second of all, you can now track your stadium attendance easier by looking at the lower right corner, that shows you a graph of spectators in your home-games. Pretty coo, huh? This means it's easier to make a change in your ticket-prices and track it with the attendance.
Ah, yes, upgrades...All in all, we are looking at 14 individual new upgrades. Of these 14, 9 of them belong to 3 new "branches", and the last 5 are added levels in existing branches.
The branches Lighting, Heating, Scoreboard, Parking and Advertising have all received a new level, but I have a feeling you are really only intrested in hearing about the new stuff :)
As you can see on the picture, the new branches are Medical-center (A physio can't do everything!), Legal-department (oh yes, it was about time the lawyers tried to take over ML as well) and Travel-accomodations.
The Medical Center branch, actually allows you to instantly restore fitness for injured players. At a cost, mind you...These doctors are not cheap!
The Legal Department branch allows you to file a complaint to the national football association in regards to a player-ban. Maybe the red card was given in error (ML has some strange referees some times!), who knows, or maybe it was well deserved, but regardless of the circumstances, a legal department might be able to help you and actually lift the ban.
Please note that I have not revealed anything about how often these two upgrades can be used, or how sucessfull they are, and that is simply because we will find out during testing.
The last new branch is Travel Accomodations which basically decides wether you team plays their away-games after riding a simple bus or a private jet...You can imagine the difference yourselves :) Please note that this upgrade will only help in away-games, and has no impact on home-games or the neutral games that are not affected by home-advantage (playoffs etc).
So there you have it!
Finally, allow me to show you the new Team Details popup, which is also worth a look. Click on it for the fullsized version.
Please note the "tabs" where the mouse-pointer is, which lets you switch between different views and information. And as you can see, allthough the actual trophies are just placeholder-graphics, we have cleaned up the display of trophies to avoid the endless repetition. (Yes yes, I know these are two different teams, who cares!)
The keen eye might also spot that we now track how many friendlies you have won, drawn or lost each season, as well as the value of your team. Such things are handy! I can also assure you that if you select the Fixtures-tab, it will not just show you the last 5 and the next 5, but all of them :)
Have a great weekend, and we will be back with more details in about a week. Feedback is welcome as always!
