While the changes are welcomed by many there are concerns about the scope and extend of the changes and their overall effect, especially on the number skill 6s there will be and dealing. Well, never let it be said that Einnek Football is a dictatorship. I have listen to all your comments and have made some alterations to the published changes based on the very constructive feedback I have received.

The changes are now as follows:

1. Players DO have to play for their clubs in order to be eligible for international selection. Any player who is suspended or injured and therefore unable to play a club fixture will be allowed to play in an international if their suspension or injury issues are cleared after the club fixtures are played.

2. All players (any skill) will now receive a maximum of 20 WACS when they change skill level. The Player of the Week, ‘A’ International Man of the Matches and Team of the Year players will be awarded 25 WACS. ‘B’ International Man of the Matches will get 20 WACS.

3. Players will be awarded a skill increase every 10 International Points, starting at 20 IPs – there will be no skill increase for players reaching 10 IPs. The retiral limit will stay at 50IPs where a player will receive 2 skill points. All skill increases due to caps will be at 20 WACS maximum.

4. By popular demand. From today any new player introduced to a side’s youth ranks will enter the game at a random age between 16y0m and 19y11m. This is a drop of one year on both the minimum and maximum ages.

Also, the 2 changes announced right at the start of the season will still take effect. Morale meaning more and IR being related to actually playing rather than just performances.

I apologise for the what must seem like constant changes, but feedback from the managers in the game have led me to make these alterations.

The online rule book will be update over the next 3-4 days and will be 100% up to date by Monday lunchtime.

Good luck with season 6

As mentioned in the turn last week (what do you mean you do not read it?!) there are a number of changes which will be introduced at the end of the season. All the changes are linked together and together they will address many concerns managers have contacted me about during the last few months. The changes are designed to prevent issues which have always occurred throughout the history of the game and to re-invigorate this for those of you who find certain things very stale.

The changes are as follows:
1. Players no longer have to play for their clubs in order to be eligible for international selection. As long as any suspension or injury issues are cleared after the club fixtures are played then they will be able to play at international level.

2. All high skill players (6 or above) will now receive a maximum of 15 WACS when they change skill level. Skill 5 players will continue to receive 25 WACS. The Player of the Week, ‘A’ International Man of the Matches and Team of the Year players will be awarded 25 WACS. ‘B’ International Man of the Matches will get 15 WACS.

3. Players will be awarded a skill increase every 10 International Points. The retiral limit will stay at 50IPs where a player will receive 2 skill points. All skill increases due to caps will be at 15 WACS maximum.

Also, the 2 changes announced right at the start of the season will take effect. Morale meaning more and IR being related to actually playing rather than just performances.
These changes are being introduced for various reasons;
 - To make international selection more competitive. Right now we have the same hard core of players who get selected game in game out. These players are finding it very easy to retain skill points and in fact they will just end up as retired internationals on skill 8 or more with no effort and regardless of how well they actually play long term.

 - To develop some stars in the game which we are currently missing. The 25 WACS players will now stand out. Agent players and successful youth players will also have the chance to shine as they are now more playable.

 - To promote dealing. More players will be worth buying now as internationals are more attractive.

Due to the nature of these changes, I will not be accepting any transfer deals this week. Traditionally we only get half a dozen deals in the final week of a season so I hope that will not inconvenience anyone too much.

Those I have spoken to already are very enthusiastic about the changes and I hope you all will be too.

The upper limit for morale will be increased to 30, this gives a new range of 1 (lowest) to 30 (highest). There will be more variation of morale based on things that effect your club – results, transfers, performances, wages, etc. The in-game code will take morale into account a lot more, so having a better morale than your opponents will give a lot more of an advantage than it does currently.

Managers will need to consider morale as an integral part of the game rather than the cosmetic thing it is now.

The “loophole” of giving player pay-rises will be removed. This will take effect this week.

A summary of events that will have a positive effect on morale:

• Winning league games
  • Any victory +2 morale.
  • Beating a side above you in the league would be worth an extra 1 or 2 morale depending on the difference in relative positions.
• Winning cup games and friendly challenges
  • Any cup victory +2 morale.
  • Any friendly challenge victory +1 morale.
• Drawing with teams above you in the league.
  • A draw against a side higher in the league would be worth 2 morale points.
  • A draw against a side lower in the league would be worth 1 morale point.
• Not losing away games.
  • Staying unbeaten in an away fixture increases morale by 1 point.
• Players performing well.
  • Each player getting a 9 rating increases morale by 1 point.
  • Getting Player of the Week is worth 2 morale points.

While events that will have a negative effect on morale are:

• Changing Captain
  • Loss of 5 morale points.
  • Captain not selected (for whatever reason) equals a temporary loss of 5 morale for that fixture.
• Losing league games
  • A loss to a team higher in the league results in a 1 morale point drop.
  • A loss to a team lower in the league sees a 2 point deduction.
• Losing cup games or friendly challenges
  • Being knocked out of the EFA Cup sees a 2 morale point drop.
  • Losing in a friendly challenge match will result in the loss of 1 morale point.
• Not winning at home.
  • Drawing at home loses 1 morale point.
  • Losing at home will see a 2 point morale drop.
• Numerous team or squad changes.
  • Making 6 or more changes to your starting 11 reduces morale by 1 point.
• Players performing badly.
  • Each player getting a 5 rating sees morale decrease by 2 points.
• Cautions/Players Sent-off
  • Any player sent off reduces morale by 2 points.
  • Four or more yellow cards in a game reduces morale by 1 point.
• Injuries
  • High skill player injured below 5 fitness reduces morale by 1 point.

END OF SEASON EVENTS

• Divisional Champions = +5 morale
• Promotion = +3 morale
• Relegation = -3 morale

The whole premise behind this change is to make morale mean something more than it does currently. There is scope with this system to add or remove factors which effect morale if and when required.

All sides will see their morale adjusted at the end of the season to a range between 8 and 15 based on a sliding scale of their morale at season’s end.

Currently morale has only a minor effect on game calculations and with most teams sat happily on 15-20 morale it makes is almost pointless. Only when a side has changed their captain does it really have any effect.

Now, I propose the following changes, to take effect from the start of next season:

1. Possible morale maximum to be increased to 30. Giving a new range of 1 (lowest) to 30 (highest).

2. More variation of morale based on things that effect your club – results, transfers, performances, wages, etc.

3. The in-game code will take morale into account a lot more, so having a good morale level in comparison to your opponent will give more of an advantage than currently.

Also, with the larger range, the potential for more advantages and disadvantages is greater. Managers will need to consider morale as an integral part of the game rather than the cosmetic thing it is now.

The “loophole” of giving player pay-rises will remain, but their will be potential penalties imposed on those managers who give frequent and/or excessive pay rises to lesser players just to try and increase morale.

• Winning league games
  • Any victory +2 morale.
  • Beating a side above you in the league would be worth an extra 2 morale.
• Winning cup games
  • Any cup victory +2 morale.
• Drawing with teams above you in the league.
  • A draw against a side higher in the league would be worth 2 morale points.
  • A draw against a side lower in the league would be worth 1 morale point.v
• Not losing away games.
  • Staying unbeaten in an away fixture increases morale by 1 point.
• Players performing well.
  • Each player getting a 9 rating increases morale by 1 point.
  • Getting Player of the Week is worth 2 morale points.
• Giving Players Pay Rises
  • Potential 1 morale point increase per game week.

EVENTS THAT WOULD HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON MORALE:

• Changing Captain
  • Loss of 5 morale points.
• Losing league games
  • A loss to a team higher in the league results in a 1 morale point drop.
  • A loss to a team lower in the league sees a 2 point deduction.
• Losing cup games
  • Being knocked out of the EFA Cup sees a 2 morale point drop.
• Not winning at home.
  • Drawing at home loses 1 morale point.
  • Losing at home will see a 2 point morale drop.
• Numerous team or squad changes.
  • Making 6 or more changes to your starting 11 reduces morale by 1 point.
• Players performing badly.
  • Each player getting a 5 rating sees morale decrease by 1 point.
• Cautions/Players Sent-off
  • Any player sent off reduces morale by 1 point.
  • Four or more yellow cards in a game reduces morale by 1 point.
• Injuries
  • High skill player injured below 5 fitness reduces morale by 1 point.
• Giving Players Pay Rises
  • Potential 1 morale point decrease as players become disgruntled with other being paid high wages relating to their comparative worth to the team.

END OF SEASON EVENTS

• Divisional Champions = +5 morale
• Promotion = +3 morale
• Relegation = -3 morale

At the moment, morale has a minimal effect on game play. This is mainly because the vast majority of managers  see 18 as a low morale and therefore in a game the effects of morale become negligible. Morale is a range from 1 to 20, not 16 or 17 to 20 and any changes will need to get things back on an even keel in order to be effective.

Rather than suggest some changes, I would like to take the next couple of weeks to throw around some options here and on the Forum to see what people would like to see. Personally I would love to see morale mean much more and also for the higher morale levels to be something teams aspire to rather than a minimum level.

Things that I think could have a positive effect on morale are:

• Winning games.
• Drawing with teams above you in the league.
• Not losing away games.
• Buying good players.
• Players performing well.

While negatives could possibly be:

• Losing games.
• Not winning at home.
• Numerous team or squad changes.
• Selling good players.
• Players performing badly.
• Sendings-off.

The lists are a quick set of thoughts and their relative impacts need to be expanded, but I would be interested on your thoughts.

The original limit was introduced when the 2 deals per week limit and the maximum number of players allowed to be involved in a deal were removed.  There were worries that sides would go mad changing virtually their entire squad every week and a limit of 50 was seen as the best number for a season.

General consensus is that the limit needs to be changed. My initial thoughts were to raise the limit by 50% to 75 but I think many of the posts on the forum have been persuasive that this is not really going to have any real effect overall. A larger limit of 100 seemed to be the next best option, but again it is an artificial limit that means work for me and will not affect the vast majority of teams.

The introduction of penalties for sides who excessively change the players selected to play each week is a better control of unrealistic squad management and as such I think the dealing limit can be lifted with immediate effect.

The morale penalties for changes to your starting eleven players in a first team game will be severe as you make a large number of changes – I will post the exact numbers in a couple of days once I have the best ratio worked out and tested.