Introduction

In the new World Championship DLC, we have significantly improved the game world simulation: from the AI of non-player clubs to match simulation and the game world economy. But before discussing these changes, it is worth looking back at how the world simulation functioned in previous versions of the game.

If you want to find out about the simulation in the new DLC, skip straight to the final section.

However, the full article reveals interesting details about the world simulation that you might not have known before.

0. Early Access – Primitive Simulation

When the game launched in Early Access in 2015, we focused on two things:

1. engaging match mechanics;
2. a satisfying sense of progression from the Amateur League to the Premier League.

Everything else was smoke and mirrors.

This is how the core simulation elements worked:

• Matches between AI clubs – only clubs in the player’s country play against each other. In other countries, club standings at the end of the season are generated by an algorithm.
• Match algorithm for AI clubs – we use a fast-simulation algorithm that calculates the match score based on formations and footballer Attributes. Notably, a weaker team could often beat a stronger one if they had the right Skills and a good formation.
• Formations and AI club squads – teams select footballers for matches in a fairly primitive way. Formations are chosen from pre-made templates.
• Transfers – AI teams do not participate in transfers. When the player sells footballers, they vanish. Footballers on the transfer lists are generated out of thin air.
• Economy – non-existent. The entire game balance is built solely around the player’s team.
• AI club development – non-existent. They serve merely as decoration.

Since the game world wasn’t “alive”, we could easily control team squads to keep them looking realistic and ensure teams always had the necessary footballers.

 

 

1. Official Release – World Simulation 1.0

In 2018, we released the first version of a fully-fledged simulation. This was the foundation upon which all future world development was built.

Previously, the game focused on your journey to the top of football with everything else as a mere backdrop; now, the world around you evolves alongside you:

• Matches between AI clubs – clubs in the Premier Leagues of other countries on the player’s continent now also play against each other. Furthermore, basic statistics for footballers and final league positions are collected.
• Match algorithm for AI clubs – no changes.
• Formations and AI club squads – teams are now better at selecting footballers for matches. However, the formation selection algorithm remains the same.
• Transfers – clubs in the player’s country buy and sell footballers on the market. Clubs in other countries have their own transfers, hidden from the player.
• Economy – clubs in the player’s country and in the Premier Leagues of other countries on the continent earn money from matches and spend it on transfers and contract renewals.
• AI club development –
  • all AI footballers gain experience in matches and learn Skills during training. Experience gain varies depending on the club’s infrastructure.
  • AI clubs in Premier Leagues could receive stronger footballers than their Youth Academy level would normally allow, as clubs otherwise couldn’t remain competitive over 10-15 seasons.

For the first time, the game world felt alive. However, club development over 15 or more seasons became a major issue for the simulation. The game attempted to simulate development processes relatively honestly while keeping calculations as fast as possible.

This meant that all clubs competed for footballers on the transfer market, yet no one wanted to sell their best assets. Consequently, after a while, some clubs lacked enough footballers (due to a lack of funds or failing to buy suitable replacements in time), while others accumulated multiple top-tier footballers of the same class (unable to sell older ones while buying younger replacements), and some saw their average player level drop.

This simulation had other interesting consequences. For instance, if some mediocre or weak clubs got lucky with their starting squad and managed to sell deadwood while buying the right footballers, they could eventually earn enough money to become global powerhouses. Some players loved this as it made the game world more dynamic. Others felt it was unrealistic to see Madrid, Barcelona, Torino and Munich in the middle of the table, while the European Cup was won by mid-table teams from minor footballing nations.

These issues, in one form or another, persisted until the World Championship DLC.

 

2. Football Stars DLC – Statistics, Evolutionary Changes and Significant Local AI Improvements

The game now tracks a vast amount of statistics. Footballers gained a “Giftedness” attribute. New transfer mechanics were added.

• Matches between AI clubs – as before, clubs from the player’s country and continental Premier Leagues play each other, but now with extensive statistical tracking.
• Match algorithm for AI clubs – unchanged, but now accounts for Giftedness.
• Formations and AI club squads – massive improvements made:
  • A new “Smart Coach” AI profile was created:
    • They can create a variety of intelligent formations;
    • They can identify threats from the opponent and select a formation that nullifies them, based on the players available in the squad;
    • They can make substitutions during the match, accounting for injuries, fatigue, and cards;
    • They search the transfer market for players who allow them to execute all possible attacking and defensive manoeuvres.
  • The concept of “Top Clubs” was introduced:
    • The game now distinguishes between top-tier clubs and everyone else. Top clubs are the best in their country. Winners of various tournaments can temporarily become top clubs.
    • As long as a club is considered a top club, it employs a “Smart Coach”.
    • Other clubs are also now better at choosing formations and footballers for matches.
• Transfers – major improvements:
  • Clubs in the player’s country and all Premier League clubs on that continent can now buy footballers from one another;
  • Like the player, AI clubs can scout footballers at other clubs and buy them directly, outside of the transfer list.
• Economy – everything remains as it was, but with new additions:
  • contract costs are now influenced by the number of Skills and Giftedness. This placed an additional financial burden on lower-league clubs;
  • Giftedness became a significant factor in a footballer’s market value;
  • the value of footballers for both the player and AI clubs now depends on the country’s rating. The lower a country’s rank, the cheaper its footballers are, all else being equal. We wanted top clubs to easily buy the best footballers from weaker countries, while preventing weak countries from affording stars from top nations.
• AI club development –
  • AI clubs learned to factor Giftedness into their calculations.
  • A vital addition was making Youth Academies dependent on country ratings. This meant the highest probability of producing gifted footballers was in top nations. For countries at the bottom of the table, 5-star footballers appeared much less frequently. Furthermore, higher-rated clubs tried to buy such footballers as quickly as possible.

Overall, the game world became much richer and more engaging. However, the old problem remained: AI clubs could not properly develop after 15-20 seasons. Even the “Smart Coaches”, who performed much better than standard ones, struggled to manage large squads and dynamic transfers effectively.

The mechanic where low-rated countries couldn’t afford footballers from prestigious nations worked, but with some caveats. Clubs began hoarding large sums over several seasons and then spending it all at once on expensive players. It wasn’t very realistic to see a mid-table or First Division club suddenly buying a footballer for 20m.

 

3. Manager’s Journey DLC – The World Gets Truly Massive

The scale of the game world increased exponentially. Now, every single league on your continent, including Amateur ones, is simulated. On other continents, Premier Leagues and continental tournaments are simulated.

• Matches between AI clubs – on your continent, clubs from all leagues, including Amateur, can play against each other. On other continents, Premier League matches take place. Africa was added.
• Match algorithm for AI clubs – no changes.
• Formations and AI club squads – minor evolutionary AI improvements.
• Transfers – the scale of calculations grew. Now all clubs scan every transfer list in the world and can buy footballers directly from any club on the planet.
• Economy – as before, but now every club in the world participates in the global economy. Additionally, footballer values are now influenced by Continent Strength.
• AI club development –
  • The “Continent Strength” concept was introduced. It affects the starting strength of teams, the quality of Youth Academies, and footballer values on that continent.
  • Young footballers from strong continents no longer want to be sold to weaker ones. However, veteran players are happy to move to weaker continents to see out their careers.
  • The internal structure of clubs was redesigned so that a player-manager could manage them. Consequently, AI clubs now have fans, their infrastructure and coaches are generated with variety at the start, and boards have different levels of ambition.

Imagine – every team in the world is thinking about how to improve their squad, scouring the transfer market, trying to sell players, and preparing for their next opponent. The computational demands skyrocketed. Despite significant optimization, simulation times increased drastically.

Because of this, and because the option to select specific countries for simulation was not obvious to most players, the expansion received a large number of negative reviews.

Later, we released an update that significantly speeds up the simulation and makes the country selection screen mandatory when creating a new campaign. Some players updated their reviews, but many did not. This can give the impression that the DLC is poor.

Please check if you have written a review for Manager’s Journey or if you might want to update it following the simulation speed improvements.

Despite some AI improvements, after 15-20 seasons, some clubs still experience squad issues. This is a difficult problem to solve without risking even longer simulation times.

A live economy with numerous teams across different continents, combined with high payouts for continental tournament winners, led to some teams on weaker continents becoming exceptionally powerful.

The fast-simulation algorithm for AI matches had remained unchanged since the very first version. Because of this, continental champions in the game world were often clubs that started the campaign as mediocre or unknown teams.

 

4. World Championship DLC – World Simulation 2.0

Since we originally planned to make a new game (rather than a DLC), we decided to rework the game world simulation. We liked the dynamism, but the persistent issues dragging from one DLC to the next were spoiling the experience.

• Matches between AI clubs – “Minimum Presence” countries have been introduced:

  • As before, all clubs in the countries you choose to simulate play fully-fledged matches;

  • National team matches have been added;

  • However, if you want a broad game world with dynamic international tournaments without detailed simulation for every country, you can choose a new simulation type – countries with minimum presence:

    • In these countries, matches are not simulated, there is no economy, no statistics are gathered, and clubs do not buy or sell footballers.

    • However, they still feature top-division clubs that participate in continental tournaments, and footballers develop, age, and are replaced by youth in a simplified manner.

    • These countries also have national teams that call up footballers from the existing clubs.

    • Clubs and footballers in these countries cannot be viewed or interacted with, except during continental or national team matches.

    • This option allows for a large number of national teams in the game world and fills continental tournaments with teams, without impacting the simulation speed.

• Match algorithm for AI clubs – major changes:

  • The match calculation algorithm for AI clubs now better accounts for squad composition. Previously, the use of Skills by footballers significantly outweighed Attributes like Defence, Passing, Accuracy, and Control. This often allowed weaker teams with a good selection of Skills to beat stronger opponents. The usage of footballer characteristics is now more balanced.

  • Now, 4.5 and 5-star clubs are more motivated to win and prepare better for matches against other AI clubs. Consequently, they will generally win more often than before.

  • As a result, the champions in each country will be the teams we expect to see as champions. Real top-tier teams will win continental tournaments. The game world will feel more like the real one. That said, weaker teams still have a chance to rise to the top if they manage to assemble a great squad.

• Formations and AI club squads – no changes. However, we have optimized the match preparation algorithm. This has reduced simulation time by 20-40% depending on the PC and the number of teams in the world.

• Transfers – we have completely overhauled the AI for club squad evaluation and player scouting:

  • Clubs are now much better at evaluating their own squads, identifying who is missing and who is redundant.

  • Clubs also scout transfer-listed footballers in more detail and are better at negotiating with other AI clubs to buy the right players at an increased price.

  • The downside of the new AI is a noticeable pause at the start of the season while all clubs analyse their squads and create new development plans. Additionally, during an open transfer window, clicking “Next” may take slightly longer as clubs search for suitable footballers. However, the quality of the game world has improved significantly.

• Economy – we have made several refinements based on the existing economy:

  • Top clubs in the strongest countries on the strongest continent will always be the wealthiest. These AI clubs receive the highest payouts (matching the player’s balance).

  • However, even if a player earns a lot, a large portion of those earnings is drained through infrastructure upgrades. It stands to reason that AI clubs should have a similar money-drain mechanism.

  • Now, at the start of every season, “excess” money is drained from AI clubs. You could say this represents the effect of a weak national economy, corruption risks, management issues, or low public interest in football. As a country’s rating and continent strength decrease, AI clubs are allowed to keep less money.

  • This means you will no longer see a club from a small, non-footballing nation buying a top-tier striker for 30m. That club will simply never have that much money.

• AI club development – it is worth noting the result of the squad evaluation AI overhaul: we no longer allow AI club Youth Academies to generate high-level young footballers. AI clubs now develop in the same way as the player.

What is the end result?

Results from several long-term internal test campaigns, along with dozens of synthetic simulations spanning 20-30 seasons, show that clubs are now much better at managing their squads.

I also like that the game world now feels more realistic, with continental cups being won mostly by teams from the top 5 European nations. At the same time, the world remains dynamic, and it will evolve uniquely in every single campaign.

The game launches in just 2 weeks, so add it to your wishlist to be among the first to know when it’s out:

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