Game Rules
1. Introduction
FootStar (Planetarium Football Star) is an online game where you are in control of a football player and try to become the best player the planet has ever seen.
Your basic task is to train your player the best you can. This will enable you to get to play in the best teams and therefore have a good contract that will allow you to afford a better lifestyle. But don't forget to have good relations with your manager so because he is the one who selects starting eleven and fighting him most likely will end up in less playing time.
You wil also interact with your teammates and live the team chemistry and excitement of competing for the league, cup and International competitions along with them. The more you play the more experience you’ll get and that will mean you’ll play even better. Become one of the best on your country and play for your national team, so you can have the chance to take your country to the world cup and win it.
2. FootStar requirements
To be able to fully experience FootStar, your device should have:
- An internet connection;
- An internet browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera were the browsers where we've tested the game);
- Adobe Flash player & Adobe Shockwave. Please go to www.adobe.com and install the latest Flash Player available;
- Javascript must be enabled (usually it's enabled by default in most modern browsers).
There's also a mobile version of FootStar - m.footstar.org. It doesn't need Adobe Flash player
3. Registration, activation and character selection
3.1 Registration
Your first step in FootStar will be creating your account. To do that you should follow the “sign up for FREE” link at the left of the main page. You can also sign up with Facebook by following the “Sign un with Facebook” link. Make sure you fully read our Terms of Service before proceeding to the registration page as you must accept them to register in the game.
In the registration page make sure you respect the following items: insert full and valid data on the required fields.. You should also only register on the country you currently live in. If you are living in France but register in Portugal, we’ll reject your registration.
After the registration you’ll be prompted with the player creation page. There you’ll see a player profile. If you don’t like the player name go to the “Player” tab at the top-right of the page and choose “Player creation”. That will give you another player profile. Repeat that until you find a player name that you like. After that you can start creating the player you want, by choosing a face that pleases you and select some preferences like position, side, favourite foot, residence city and personality.
Your player’s position and side can be change later by gaining experience playing in a specific position or training. For the player’s favourite foot, you can basically select left or right. As in real life, players often have a preferred foot to play; in FootStar is basically the same. We consider this choice as very important because you won’t be able to change it later in the game. However, you should know that, for example, if you select Left Foot, you’ll be able to play as a right midfielder without any problem, but you’ll be more prone to play on the left/center. You can check the Training section for further explanations on this if you are having problems in deciding what foot you’ll be selecting. The residence city is the city where your player was born (please refer to the Cities section of this manual). You can select the city you were born or the city that you like the most. Pretty simple. For you player’s personality you can choose a friendly or arrogant personality. This will have influence on your relation with other players (check the Player’s Relationships section). However you’ll be able to change it whenever you desire in your advanced options.
Also after the registration you’ll be put on the validation queue. This means that your registration must be approved by our staff. This usually takes 1 to 3 days. In either case (rejected or approved) you’ll receive an email warning about the status of your registration.
After the completion of the player/character selection, you’ll be put on the free transfer page and all your skills will be reset to 0. You’ll be able to start looking for a team and/or also to receive offers from human-controlled teams. You’ll find more details about this under Chapter #6. Also, all new players will start their careers at the age of 17.
When you finish creating your character/player you can finally start playing the game. But it won’t be possible to start playing games unless you have a team to play in.
3.2 Help and brief information
Another important first-thing-to-do is to take a look on the Help forums so you can learn from experienced users some other things that might be not covered on this manual. We recommend you to do a basic read up of all the threads on your country’s help forum.
It’s of course important to fully read this manual at least one time and consult it whenever you have any doubts about the game. Consider printing it for reference!
A good and very important advice is NOT to spend your money without first knowing what all options are used for.
Finally do not forget to set your individual training scheme after getting a team. But only do it after reading Chapter #6 and #8
4. User interface
The website navigation is divided in 3 sections. The top menu is the most use full panel, with links to many different main areas of the game. The right information panel shows you links and info from the page you currently are, and the Player Bar at the top has the info about the server you are playing on (time, date, visitors) and links to your players and the FS coin page. You also have a Direct Link Bar at the bottom of the page that you can customize and hide.
The first page after your login is the FS Wall Page. We call it the default page. You can move to this page either by using the top menu (clicking the house icon) or by clicking on the game´s logo at the top left of any page. In this page you´ll find lots of useful information: On the left side you’ll find information boxes with your player recent events, next events and game events, recently updated blogs and news. On the center you have the FS wall. There you can publish your recent events or any comment you want, and you can see what you friends have publish. You can also publish comments on other players and team walls. You can change your wall picture and other options on the “option” link at the top of the FS Wall.
On the right information panel you´ll often have the specific options of the page you´re visiting (always on top of other info boxes), your player information and your FS Wall friends (these friends are different that the interactions friends. Read the section “Players Relationships and Interactions” section): To add a player to your FS Wall friends list, just go to the player page and click the “add as friend” link.
The Direct Link Bar shows you links to important pages of the game. To customize the Direct Link Bar click the gear wheel icon and then “customization”.
The most important navigation area is of course the top menu. The top menu will be divided into main areas as: Player, Character, Team, Competitions, Community and Shop (You will see also Manager and Youth Team as option if you are managing a team).
The Player menu contains all the options you need to control your player´s life in FootStar. From the training options (set your training, follow your training evolution) to the Relationships page (check your interaction information and Team Spirit), along with: the contract page (to review the current terms of your contract, but also to negotiate a new contract with your manager), match orders (player´s individual orders, match options), location (check the City Details and Personal Trips), and finally the belongings page where you can check your stash (Match Items for the games) and your Items/goods (control the level of your lifestyle. Please refer to chapter 9 for more details on this).
The next menu is the Character menu. The menu is divided in Player Control (here you can see your players, choose which one to control and buy a slot for a new player), Team Control (if you´re managing a team, here you can see your Teams (main and B, if u have it) and choose which one to control), Manager Job Center (if you are a FS Fan and you don’t control a team, you can search for a team to control here), Manager Ranking (shows you the ranking of the best managers in the country) and Company (where you can create and manage your own company). The Manager Job Center, Manager Ranking and Company will only be visible if you’re a FS Fan (package that allows you to control a team among other features). In this menu, when you will have 32 yo (or more), you will see "retire player" option, in order to retire from football.
The Team menu has different options regarding your current team. The menu has Fixtures (contains your team fixtures for this season), Standings (your team division standings), Manager (shows the private chat between the team manager and the players), Team Facilities, Teammates, Team Forum (leads you to the Team Forum) and Hall of Fame (shows the retired players that have being inducted into the team Hall of Fame).
The Manager and Youth Team menus will only be visible if you´re a FS Fan and if you happen to be in control of a team or a national team. This 2 menus will have Fixtures, Players (info about your squad, contracts, team talks, etc), Transfers (sell and buy players, transfer list, bids page, transfer history, etc), Training (set your team training scheme, reports about the evolution of your players, take a look on your player´s training schemes), Team Facilities (start funding and manage B team and Gym) Hall of Fame, National Team (if you are the manager or assistant of a National Team), My tournament (in the Youth Team takes you to your team Youth league page) and Youth Team Options (takes you to a page where you can change several options for your Youth Team).
The Competitions menu contains links to the competitions your team and your player could play. From League, Playoffs (at the end of the season between the fifth and sixth teams from top division and the second places teams from lower division to determine which one will play in the top division next season), Cup, ITC (shows the different International Teams Competitions), National Teams and City Teams and, as last, PvP (For a better understanding of the PvP games, please read chapter 21).
The Community menu is a very important one. Our website is supposed to be like (or it was developed to be like) a community website involving a game. On this menu you can find the Hall of Fame link (players exalted to Hall of Fames from all over the world), your National Federation link (shows important information from your National Federation. Refer to the “National Team and National Federations” section of the manual), the search link (contains links to pages you can use to search for divisions, players, teams, users, games and clans), FS Toplist (application for making different kind of top lists of players and teams with different search filters), Clans (groups of FS fan users with their own private forum), Press (shows the different newspapers in FS. Read the “Player Relationships and Interactions” and “Companies and Agencies” sections) and last but not least the Forums link. On the Forums you can make contact with all the other users around the planet. You can seek for help or discuss your ideas about the game, make your suggestions to the administration team, and, of course, also discuss real life things or have a bit of fun on our Off-Topic forums
The last menu, Shop, contains links to pages where you can buy different FootStar products. The FS Fan link leads you to the page where you can buy one of the different kinds of FS fan available. Also shows the FS Coins and Free Offers links. The FS Coins allows you to not only buy FS Fan but also buy some other features like a second player and the Match Package (Match Viewer and Analyzer). The Free Offers link shows a page where you can complete multiple tasks and be rewarded FS Fan Days or Coins for free.
The last part of this Top Menu are the 4 icons on the right. The "House" (or Home Page) icon takes you to the FS wall or default page, the "Interactive news" icon shows you the people who have interacted you recently and the news from your wall and your friends´ walls. The "Gear Wheel" (or Options) Icon will lead you to a page with several links that you can use to change see and change your preferences, customize the page, check stats, mailbox, friends list, and also where you can contact us, check the Administration staff and see the Development Blog and News, among other things.
5. Players
There are basically two kinds of players in FootStar: human-controlled players and Bot-players. Bot players have very low skills and their only functions are to fill up bot teams and human teams (only if there are less than 11 players in team) and to become "hosts" of human players, sooner or later. They don´t train, their fitness is always 100% and their morale/confidence is useless in matches.
Inside the game we can distinguish human players from bot players by having the human-controlled player names in bold letters.
All human controlled players will have a birthday date. This date uses the same format as the FootStar Date. You can find the birthday FS date of each player at his details page (just after his age info. Ex: 23 years (1/10)).
One thing you should really know is that your player will need a home to live in. By default, all players will start with one home in their local city (parents home). But in case you move to some other city (temporarily or not) you´ll need a place to stay during the night. Every day at 5:00 server-time the game engine will check if the player has a place to stay in the city they´re at. In case they haven´t, the player will pay a 20€ cost in order to rent a place to stay. If the player does not have the money to pay this expense, he´ll have to sleep in the streets and his morale will be affected. As this is a daily check, you should be extra careful with this or all your money and moral will be drained as time goes by. There is a way to avoid paying this cost in case you don´t have a house on a city: to have a clause in your contract that will force the team to pay the expenses for you. This is only valid for human controlled teams and in the city where the team is based. For example, lets assume you have this clause on your contract and you´re Italian, from Rome. Your team is based in Madrid and as you are Italian you would have to pay a cost to stay in Madrid every day. But in your contract it states that your team should pay this value for you, so you won´t be paying anything. However if you temporarily travel to Lisbon, while you´re in Lisbon and if you don´t own a house there you´ll have to rent a place to stay and therefore pay 20€ per day.
The only exception to this rule happens when you travel with the team for a match. While this happens the game engine will assume that the team is paying all team players these expenses so that they can play the match!
Second, Third and Fourth Slot/players
FootStar gives you the ability to control more than one player. This can be done using the FS Fan Coins and FS Fan users have the possibility to buy extra slots for a discounted price! Clearly the third slot/player costs more than the second slot/player and fourth costs more than third.
Each slot/player is valid for 365 days starting from purchasing date. This means the second/third slot must be renewed annually or made "definitive" paying an "one time" fee. If the slot(s) will not be renewed, at the expiry of 365 days the second/third/fourth slot/player will be deleted and all data will be irretrievably lost!
The rules for controlling more than one player are quite simple:
- Secondary characters have the same nationality of the main character; no other characteristics are inherited.
- Secondary characters can play in whatever team they wish, even in different teams playing the same competition. There aren´t special rules here, but imagine this case: promotions / relegations where teams are put in the same competition. To prevent spying, managers can control which players can access the team forum using the Manager >> Players menu >> Team Forum Access.
- Secondary/tertiary characters can play in National Teams. They cannot, however, be called up to a national team if another character of the same user was already called-up to the same squad (in the same National Team, for example, Portugal), the Main, U21 and U18 squads are considered different squads for this rule).
- Secondary/tertiary characters can be team managers but users with 2 ore 3 players cannot manage 2 teams at the same time. Of course any one of their characters can manage a team and they can hand management between their own characters without having to wait for the one month restriction.
- In order to know if a certain user has secondary characters, just go to the user details page (can be accessed via the player’s info page). In that page, you can find a link to all the characters that user controls.
- (Paid) Second/third/fourth characters cannot have sons.
There is a special page to allow you to switch between the characters you control. Just hover the mouse over the "User" icon at the top right of the screen and select the "Player Control" option. Alternatively, at the top of each page, you have direct links to each your players. Clicking on the name of the player you want..you will control it. It´s very fast!
Of course you can play with different characters in Foobbuteo. But you won’t have the chance to win prizes with two different characters (in the same competition: imagine you have #1 and #2 in the daily ranking, only #1 will win the prize).
Player's son
Son is a special player which is awarded for users who managed to keep their main player till 30 years of age. Think of a son as a reward for staying with a game for multiple years. Son is not any special as an additional player (except that it's free), however it is different in one way - son has no continuity. Son cannot be reset and if a son is retired, a user does not a get a replacement player in the same slot. Technically this makes son a one-time reward.
Creating a son:
- a user can have a son with his main player only and only when that main player is 30 years or older.
- there are 2 ways to have a son
>> adopting a son - can be done without any additional requirements. Adopted son inherits father's surname, but his first name is random. Adopted son also inherits one of father's double nationalities if a father has any.
>> have a son with a wife - a player must have a wife for this to be possible. Such sons inherit player's surname and user is allowed to choose his first name. This son can inherit mother's nationality as his double nationality and also inherit some adaptability to that country, depending on mother's intelligence.
Additional info:
- son and father can transfer money between them freely.
- technically it's possible to have multiple sons at the same time - first son with your first main player, second son with a second main player (the one you get as a replacement for retiring first main player), third son with third main player (the one you get after retiring second main player), but age gaps between multiple sons will be huge and basically only one of the sons will be 'good player' at a time.
Player retirement
Each player can only retire once he reaches the age of 32 years old (or older). This can be done at Character >> Retire Player. Of course a retired player cannot train, interact or play any longer for any other club or national team. However the player can still be used to control a team (as the main manager), in case the user account still has FS Fan.
Once a player retires, pretty much all the career information and stats are kept . In fact, a special page will be presented for retired players where you can find a detailed text information about the player career, called "Player Biography". Here you can see the player skills at the retirement, player achievements and some other infos.
There is also a reward for retiring a player. You must pick only one of the following:
- 6 months of FS Fan at your selection: either Silver, Gold or Bronze. However, if you already have FS Fan you must pick the same FS Fan type.
- If you have a paid second slot/player, you can renew it one year for free.
- 3300 FS Fan Coins.
There also are several "Hall of Fame" for retired players. These are the available types:
- Clubs’ Hall of Fame (managed by the club’s manager)
- National Teams’ Hall of Fame (managed by the Federation President)
- Footstar Hall of Fame (managed by the system)
Clearly there are some requirements to enter in Clubs/National Teams/Footstar Hall of Fame. Let us explain you now how it works:
- To enter in Clubs Hall of Fame you need at least 50 senior appearances or 50 goals for the main club. This means that a player can be eligible for more than one club’s Hall of Fame.
- To enter in National Teams Hall of Fame you need either 30 senior caps or 50 goals (U21 and U18 caps/goals are excluded).
- To enter in FootStar Hall of Fame, let us explain you how it’s calculated. Once a player retires a career score will be calculated. This depends mostly on the number of titles won by the player until the age of 38 years old. The title reputation is also very important as a World Cup title is more valuable than a first division title. Also, a first division title in a higher ranked league is more valuable than a title in a "smaller" league (leagues are ranked using the ITC country ranking). The first 20 players with the most score are placed in the FS Hall of Fame.
Final notes:
- Even if a player retires at another club, he and still be eligible for your club hall of fame if he meets the proper requirements.
- Once you retire a player you will get another one as a replacement. The new player will be a completely reset player. Sons don´t get a new player as a replacement.
- Player retirement must be done by the user himself. There are no automatic retirements.
Player reset
Any user will be able to start with a new player if their current player is a "free player". When you reset your player, you´ll lose all technical skills, mental skills, all your funds, all "new nationalities" and all player´s stats. Of course, if you´re coaching a team you don´t need to become free player. This exceptions works only for managers!
Each player can be reset once every 60 days.
6. First steps, team selection and contract
After the completion of your character/player creation you finally can start playing the game. But it won´t be possible to start playing the game unless you have a team to play in. But we´ll explain this to you a little better on the next section.
Another important first-thing-to-do is to take a look on the Help forums so you can learn from experienced users some other things that might be not covered on this manual. We recommend you to do a basic read up of all the threads on your country´s help forum.
It´s of course important to fully read this manual at least one time and consult it whenever you have any doubts about the game. Consider printing it for reference!
A good and very important advice is NOT to spend your money without first knowing what all options are used for.
Finally do not forget to set your individual training scheme after getting a team. But only do it after reading the next section and also the Training section.
Team selection and contract details
Basically when you are looking for a team, you have two options: selecting a human-controlled team or a server-controlled team (also known as “bot team”). To join a team, either click on the Team information box link on the right and select one from there (either human or bot) or go directly to a team’s details page and select the “Join the team” option on the right information box. To search for specific teams you can go to Community >> Search page and then in the right information box select either “Team” or “Division” to start looking for teams on a series of your preference.
Alternatively you can opt to join the Amateur League. This isn’t exactly like joining a proper club; instead it’s just a way for you to get some money (standard 500€ wage) and be able to follow a training regime although you won’t get any feedback on your performances on the field. This is a good option in case there aren’t any available positions in your local bot teams because, this way, you won’t lose any training. To join an Amateur league just click on the Team information box link at the right and then select “Suscribe now!” on the Amateur League section at the bottom of the page.
Now, as we told before, there are human-controlled teams and bot teams (server-controlled teams). You can easily identify a bot team: just go to the team’s details page and look for the manager info (Positions section). If it says “Unknown” then you’re looking at a bot team. If not, you’ll see the current manager’s nickname: you’re looking at a human-controlled team and you can know more about the manager by following the link on the nickname.
Differences between Bot teams and Human teams.
There are many differences between a bot and a human team, here are the most important ones:
- In a human team you’ll have the additional challenge to face a real manager instead of working with a non-communicative one.
-By choosing a bot team you won’t be able to discuss the terms of your contract and you must accept the default terms offered by the server (on a bot team all players receive a 500€ wage by default). In a human team you’ll have to negotiate your contract with the manager.
- In a human team you’ll have not only your individual training but also your team’s training (more details on the next section: “Training”), in a bot team you’ll only have your individual training.
- In a human team you might be required to train fitness by your manager and therefore waste valuable opportunities to train your skills, in a bot team, you don’t have to train fitness if you don’t want to (although you’ll perform badly with low fitness).
- As you start with low skills you might be put on the bench in a human team until you have reasonable skills to play. In a bot team you’ll always be selected to play (if there are less than 11 human players on the team). Bots will set their starting eleven twice a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays around 5am (server time). Skills/quality of players won’t be the main decision factor of their selections as bot teams will try to ensure a rotativity for all the human players, so don’t expect a major AI (Artificial Intelligence) in bots regarding starting elevens.
- You can leave a bot team whenever you want (but you’ll have a 5% morale penalization every time you leave a bot team). To leave a human team you’ll have to wait until your contract runs out, you get bought by or loaned to another team, or your manager sets you free.
You should also know that you can receive offers from human teams if you’re in free transfer or in a bot team. In this case you’ll be informed by FS Mail if you receive any offer. You should then discuss the terms of the deal with the manager.
A strategy could be to, at the beginning, opt to develop your skills and experience in a bot team and only then move to a human team, when you feel more confident. But you can also opt on training a little more by playing less at the beginning on a human team (and possibly having a higher wage).
A final note about foreign bot teams: you cannot join/play in bot teams of foreign countries. For example, if you’re a Portuguese player you won’t be able to join a Spanish bot team. The only exception is when the manager of a foreign human team is fired from the team. In that case, and if you have the option to remain on the team, you’ll stay at the bot team. You can however move to foreign human team.
Rules in Bot Teams
To be able to play in a bot team you must follow a set of rules. First of all, each bot team will have a maximum number of 30 players in their squads, regardless of position or any other player attribute. In bot teams with over 20 players, on a daily basis, the team will fire 5 bot players in order to hold more space for human-controlled players. Another key rule in bot teams is that players inactive for more than 14 days will be fired from the team in case the team has more than 20 players (they will be treated as if they were bot players). These fired players will be able to rejoin the bot teams though (the 3 month rule is not applicable in these cases). The other key rule you should know is that, if you miss more than 2 games of your bot team (failing to be in the same city of the team when a match is played) you’ll be automatically fired from the team. This counter will only be incremented in case you were selected in the starting eleven for that match though.
Bot teams and friendly games
Yes, it’s possible. The only way for this to happen is when a human-controlled team is not able to schedule a friendly game before Tuesday. Human teams can schedule friendly games with bot teams of the same city between Tuesdays (00:00 server time) and the exact time their matches start on their local countries.
Contract details
When you sign for a team you’ll have to have a contract. A contract consists of wage, duration, team role and match prizes (per match, goal, assists, clean sheet - GK’s only); these prizes will be paid on every kind of matches, friendly included. If you’re playing on a bot team you’ll only have a wage (€500). On the other side, if you play on a human team you’ll have the possibility to discuss all the terms with the manager.
In a bot team you can leave whenever you want. In a human team you must respect your contract duration unless you’re fired or sold/loaned by your manager. If not renewed, when you contract expires, you’ll be put on the transfer list again.
If one of the parts wants to end the contract before time, it must discuss it with the other part. Example: if you want to end your contract before time, you should contact your manager and discuss some kind of compensation fee for the team. On the other side, if the manager wants to end your contract before time he has two choices: either offers you a friendly contract termination or he breaks your contract by paying you a compensation. The monetary compensation depends on the last time you have signed a contract with the club:
- a contract signed 27 days ago or less - 5% of season wage*
- a contract signed 28-55 days ago - 25% of season wage*
- a contract signed 56-84 days ago - 50% of season wage*
- a contract signed 85-111 days ago - 75% of season wage*
- a contract signed 112 days ago or more - full season wage*
* season wage > Example: you earn 5000€/week >> Season wage = 5000€ x 16 weeks = 80000€).
By going to Player >> Contract (top menu), players will have the possibility to request their managers to leave through a friendly contract termination. In case their managers accept the request they’ll be put on the free transfer list. The deadline for managers to answer these requests is 30 days (21 days for unprotected teams). These waiting periods can be reduced in 15 days depending on the inactivity level of the team manager: it means that for regular teams, in case of inactive managers, players can wait only 15 days to leave. For unprotected teams it can go down to 7 days. A manager is immediately considered inactive in case he does not log in the game for 15 days. If the manager is on vacations these periods are doubled. Managers can extend this deadline by going on vacations: when this happens, the deadline is extended in one month. Managers can only go on vacations once per season.
In case they leave the proposal unanswered for right amount of 30 days, players will be free to leave without any kind of compensation.
If the team fails to pay you more than 2 wages, you’ll have the possibility to leave the club without having to pay any compensation fee. This will only happen in human teams, since bot teams never fail to pay their wages.
At a human team you might also have the possibility to win Result Prizes. Your human manager might set prizes for wins and draws (home/away) that every human player will earn in case the results are obtained. These prizes will only be paid in official matches though (friendly matches are excluded). Only those players that participated in the match (1 minute will be enough) will earn prizes. Cup matches decided by penalties will be considered draws.
There are some restrictions concerning player contracts in human controlled teams. This is done to prevent unrealistic sudden changes in player’s wages. Consider this as a set of “board rules” in which your club’s directing board won’t allow you to run the club’s finances on a crazy manner. The complete list of restrictions follows:
- The highest allowed wage will be 1000% of the lowest player wage on the club. Example: if your lowest-paid player receives 500€ per week, you will only be allowed to pay a newly signed player 5000€. The lowest wage on your club will be the lowest wage your manager pays to a human-controlled player; bot players will not be taken into account (as their wages are locked).
- Same rule as before applies to all renewals, except if a player already receives more than the 1000% cap. If he does, he’ll be allowed to renew for his current wage but no more than that. Example: if a player receives 10000€ per week and the 1000% cap sets the maximum at 5000€, the maximum wage you can offer the player will be 10000€.
- The maximum allowed wage increase will be set at 100% of the player’s current wage. Example: if a player has a 500€ wage, on renewal managers will only be allowed to pay him 1000€ tops (double his current wage).
- The maximum allowed wage decrease will be set at 50% of the player’s current wage. Example: if a player gets 1500€ per week, the maximum decrease will be 750€ (half his current wage).
- Managers will only be allowed to offer a game bonus of a total of 50% the maximum allowed wage (Example: maximum wage 1000€, game bonus 500€).
- Managers will only be allowed to offer bonuses (except the game bonus, described above) of a total of 25% of the maximum allowed wage (Example: maximum wage is 1000€, managers will be able to offer a maximum goal bonus of 250€, assist bonus 250€, etc., not cumulative).
- A player’s contract can only be renewed once in every 2 weeks.
Contracts might also have clauses. There are four (4) possible contract clauses:
- Minimum release fee (a fee so that all offers above that fee for a player are automatically accepted)
- Team pays house expenses (the team is obligated to pay the daily house expenses - 20€ - if the player does not have a house on the team’s home city)
- Manager release clause (the player is allowed to buy FS Fan Gold and start controlling a team any time he wants)
- Inactivity clause (players might be fired without any monetary compensation if they fail to login for the agreed number of days).
Only players playing in human teams are allowed to have such clauses.
A final note about the team role:
When you sign a contract you’ll be given the chance to choose a team role. You can opt for “Important first team player”, “Squad rotation player”, “Good prospect for the future” and “Not needed in the club”. This part of your contract might have a good or bad effect on your player’s morale so be careful when selecting this option. You should check the Player Psychology section of this manual for more help on this. Also, you can’t have the “Good prospect for the future” status if you’re over 20 years old. In case you are under the previous situation your player morale will start to suffer so keep your eyes on that. You should forget the team role (and the effects it has on your morale) if you’re playing in a bot team.
7. Skills
The player skills are virtually a measure of how good your player is when trying to do certain moves on the field. You can view your skills under the “Player” page in the top menu, in the “Skills” tab. Each of your skills have a numerical value between 0 and 100, 0 being the worst and 100 the best. There are cases in which you can pass the level of 100 (up to 125) which are explained below, but you can only train your skills to a maximum skill cap of 100. Player skills are being made of 4 categories: technical skills, physical skills, goalkeeping skills and mental skills (we'll talk about them in chapter 9).
7.1. Technical skills
Technical skills are the skills only used by outfield players, and they virtually represent the ability of an outfield player to control the ball, position himself on the pitch or recover the ball from the opposite side. There are 15 technical skills explained below:
Crosses: The ability of the player to make a “cross pass”. It virtually controls how close a player can cross to it’s intended target, affecting the cross direction. Crossing the ball is also affected by the technique of the player.
Dribbling: The ability of the player to dribble past a nearby opposing player. The higher the dribbling skill, the higher the chance of the player getting past his opponent. Dribbling a player is also affected by the technique skill.
Finishing: The ability of the player to make powerful shots at the opposing goal from short range. The higher the skill is, the more powerful your short range shots will be. While shooting, the technique skill will set the accuracy of the shot.
Game Vision: The ability of the player to judge and evaluate the flow of the game and act accordingly. The higher this skill is, the better he can decide where and when to pass or run, the better he can evaluate his or the other players’ position on the field and the farther he can see the pitch to act accordingly.
Heading: The ability of the player to head the ball. The higher this skill is, the higher the chance of winning aerial duels, how high he can receive the ball and how well he can control it and how well he passes or tries to score with his head.
Long Passes: The ability of the player to pass to a player further than roughly ? of the lenght of the pitch from him. It controls how close the player can pass to its intended target, affecting the pass direction. Long passes are also affected by the technique skill.
Long Shots: The ability of the player to make more powerful and accurate shots at the goal from long range. The higher the long shots skill is, the more powerful and more accurate the player’s long range shots will be. Shooting from long range also is affected by the technique of the player.
Positioning: The ability of the player to position himself on the field. The higher the positioning skill, the better and faster the player can position himself on the field, the higher the chance of intercepting the ball and the higher the chance of the player winning a duel with an opposite player in the same area of the pitch.
Short Passes: The ability of the player to pass to a player nearer than roughly ? of the lenght of the pitch from him. It controls how close the player can pass to its intended target, affecting the pass direction. Technique affects the height of a short pass.
Tackling: The ability of the player to tackle and regain possession from an opposite player with the ball. The higher the tackling skill, the higher the chance to tackle the ball successfully and the higher the chance to win a duel with an opposite player in the same area of the pitch.
Technique: The ability of the player to control the ball. The higher the technique skill is, the better is the direction of his shots, the lower the passes he is able to make, the better he controls the ball while dribbling, the better and faster he controls the ball when receiving or recuperating it and the better the chance of him winning a duel with an opposite player.
First Touch The ability of the player to make first-touch movements. The higher the First Touch skill is, less is the time to takes full control of the ball. Controls how much skills a player loses when he attempts a first time action. Players with high first touch will not have considerable noise in these actions.
Jumping: The ability of the player to "jump" > How high a player can jump. Increases the height of the player, which has a direct influence on how high a player can reach the ball
Marking: The ability of the player to marking opponent players. As lower this skill is as higher the possibility to "forget" to mark a player is.
Set Pieces: The ability of the player to take free-kicks, corners and penalties. Controls the ball height and direction in free-kicks, corners and penalties.
Although all technical skills are good for your players, some are more important than others regarding specific positions on the field. For example, finishing is a very important skill for players playing as forward, but when playing as a defender you might prefer other skills that will help you more while defending.
7.2. Physical skills
There are 3 physical skills in the game and they represent the physical ability of the player to rise to the challenge of a football match. They are described below:
Speed: How fast a player can move or sprint while in the possession of the ball or while chasing the ball. A player with high speed skill reaches higher speeds than a player with low speed skill, when trying to reach a ball, run with it, or chasing an opponent. It also influences the top speed a player can reach before he is considered “sprinting” and therefore losing more stamina and fitness then he normally would.
Stamina: How long the player can run before he gets tired, losing more fitness than he normally would. The higher the stamina is, the longer the player can sustain his top speed, the longer he can sprint and the better he plays while dealing with fitness losses. During half-time and full-time a higher stamina value will cause the player to recover more fitness.
Acceleration: How much time player takes to get to full speed. Players with good acceleration will make a faster use of their speed skill.
7.3. Goalkeeping skills
Goalkeeping skills are the skills used only by players playing in the goalkeeper position. There are 6 of them and they are described below:
Agility (GK): This skill resembles how agile a keeper is when saving the ball. The higher this skill is, the better the reach of the keeper when saving the ball and the higher the speed with which he can save the ball.
Handling (GK): The ability of the goalkeeper to control the ball. The higher the handling, the better the player is at controlling the ball during a save and the less likely the player is to drop the ball or punching it.
Out of Area (GK): The top speed of a goalkeeper when not saving the ball. The higher the out of area skill, the faster the keeper can move on the field. It virtually replaced the “speed” skill regarding goalkeepers.
Reflexes (GK): The ability of a goalkeeper to react when trying to save the ball. The higher the reflexes, the faster the player reacts to an incoming shot and the faster the player recovers after an already made save.
Throwing (GK): The ability of a goalkeeper to pass the ball. The higher this skill is, the more accurate a keeper passes the ball. It virtually replaces “short passes” and “long passes” skills regarding goalkeepers.
Command of Area (GK): How wide the keeper range is. Command of Area directly affects the keeper´s control zone. A keeper with low Command of Area will not be able to get as far to a ball as a keeper with high Command of Area.
8. Training
Training is a really important part of FootStar. The first thing you need to know is that you should set your training schedule as fast as you can. You cannot forget to set your training or you will lose "time...and skills".
Training is done in "sessions". There are 3 training sessions every day which start at 00:00, 8:00 and 16:00 FS time. The training session usually take around half of hour although the exact time depends on server load. During that time a player is not allowed to change his training.
Training in Human Teams
In FS there are two types of training: Individual Training (IT) and Team Training (TT).
Every player is able to set his own training on a training page, however every manager of a human team is able to set a team training. During the training session it is checked if a player is training the same skill as a team and if he does, a player trains at full potential, but if the player training is different from training the manager has set, the player gets 75% of training + xx% as bonus. This bonus-% depends by team's training facilities (more info in the next lines)
Let's explain with 2 examples:
- At a training session player has chosen to train Positioning, but his manager at the same session has set team training to Technique. The player will get 75% of maximum finishing training (the exact value also depends on player fitness and training facilities) and will not get any technique training
- At a training session player has chosen to train technique - the same skill his manager has set on team training - the player will get full technique training (the value can be decreased by low fitness of a player).
As we said, if a player trains different skill than a team he uses the so called "Individual training" usually referred to as IT, and if a player trains the same skill as a team he uses the team training, usually referred to as TT. One important thing is that in order to train the same skill as a team the player has to be in the same location (city) as the team. If a player travels to a different city (to play in NT for example) using team training is impossible and the player gets individual training even if he sets his personal training to the same as his team training is.
There's another difference between IT and TT: a player looses -1 fitness per session with IT and -2 fitness per session with TT. This difference is a very important thing in fitness managing for fitness calculation.
The penalties on training are only applied for technical and physical skill training, it is not applied to other training (fitness, side, position, having fun). However, a manager does not have a possibility to set team training to fitness, side, position or having so this rule is rather irrelevant.
Training facilities
You can find it going to: Manager > Club > Training Ground. As we said in the previous lines, this is a very important feature for players' training. Better structures will give bigger bonuses to players who don't follow the team training. This structure has 2 upgradable characteristic: Quality and Size. Let us explain.
We have 5 quality-levels. Each levels give a progressive bonus on IT training:
- Level 1 costs 7.500 €/week (price increase 20% last level)
- Level 2 costs 9.000 €/week
- Level 3 costs 10.800 €/week
- Level 4 costs 12.960 €/week
- Level 5 costs 15.552 € /week
There are also 2 "size levels":
- Level 1 (30 players)
- Level 2 (60 players) - it costs 8000€/week
So, the weekly cost (paid at the economic updates) for training grounds will go from 7500€ for the first level to 15552€ for the last level, with a 20% rise between each level. In order to raise a level you’ll have to pay a set-up fee that is equal to the weekly fee of the level you’re building. If you want to increase your training ground in order to hold 60 players, there will be an extra cost of 8000€ per week/economic update.
Size level will affect the number of players that can use the TFs (2 levels). 30 players is the max. size for the fist level. If a team (including youth teams) has more than 30 players then the bonus will be reduced in order to fit all players.
Training IT without any TF is equal to 75% of TT.
Training with TF(lv 5) is about 84,5% of TT.
Training in a bot team or regional league
Bot teams don't have a manager and thus players in those teams do not get team training, however the penalty for using IT in bot teams is reduced and players get 85% of maximum training if they train field player skill and get 80% of maximum training for goalkeeper skills. The fitness loss in bot teams is always -2 per session and it does not depend on the skill a player trains. If a player does not have a team he does not train at all, but free players have the possibility to join the regional league where they get the same training as in a bot team.
Penalties and bonuses
Bonuses
There are two types of possible bonuses: bonus for training same skill in a row and training facility bonus (as we said).
- Bonus for training same skill in a row: A player gets this bonus if he trains the same skill two or three sessions in a row. The bonus for three sessions in a row is higher than the bonus for two session in a row. The important thing is that a player gets these bonuses only if trains the same skill in a row on the same day, it means that the bonus for two sessions in a row is not applied if a player trains a skill on the last session of one day and on the first session of the next day. These bonuses are not applied to side or position training and to having fun training. The bonuses for fitness training are seen immediately - 2nd session in a row gives +2 and 3rd session in a row gives +4 (+6 in total if a player does 3 fitness training sessions in a row). However the bonuses for skill training were never revealed or confirmed by the admins - there are some theories and calculations done by users of FS and this information is presented in common knowledge about training. This bonus is applied to both - TT and IT.
- Training facility bonus: it's applied only if a player is using an individual training. The default penalty for using individual training and not following team training is -25%, however this penalty can be reduced with training facility bonus. There are 5 levels of training facilities and each level give a higher bonus than the previous one. Exact values of bonuses were never revealed or confirmed by admins, but there are some theories. Training facility is built and maintained by a team. The players have no direct influence over this issue. Bot teams do not have a manager and that's why training facility cannot be used in a bot team. The training facility has no other effect on player training - it does not increase fitness losses.
Penalties
There are 4 types of penalties on training: the first is a penalty when a player individually trains a different skill than his team (this has already been described in this article in a section Team training and Individual training. The other 3 types of penalties are aged based training penalty, low fitness penalty and "above 75 skill points penalty".
- Age based training penalty: as a player ages his training slows down. This penalty is not applied to 17-20 year old players, but players from 21 year old always get this penalty. The penalty is always the same: the maximum possible training is reduced by 25% every year. The 25% are calculated of the maximum value of the previous year, not of the maximum possible value overall and that means that maximum training value never reaches 0. There's no way to avoid this penalty or reduce it.
- Low fitness penalty: if a player wants to get a maximum possible training using team training is not enough. The player also has to train with fitness at 90% or higher. If a player trains with lower fitness he gets a penalty on training. This penalty depends on two variables: fitness level (the lower the fitness the higher the penalty) and skill level (the higher the skill the higher the penalty).
- "Above 75 skill points" penalty: Once any of player's skills get to 75..this skill will start to increase at a smaller pace and it will be increasingly harder as you scale up to 100. Each time your skill increase (above 75 of course) it will be harder to get to the next skill. Up until 75, there is no penalty.
Checking training progress
On a training page there's a progress-bar who inform you about your progression for next pop. That bar is updated after each training session. On this page you can also see the exact day of a skill-pop.
There is also a "Player log", a special page accessible from a right side menu. On this page all events of a player life are recorded and it also contains information about training. Player log will not show what skill was trained, but it shows the exact time of skill change whenever it happens.
9. Mental skills and talents
Unlike other player skills, mental skills are not gained through training. Instead a percentage of a skill is given to each player each day. Staying alone in training on that day will give you a higher percentage. When you reach 100% you will get a skill point, which you can use to allocate in any of the given mental skills. There are 9 mental skills in total described below:
Anticipation: The ability of the player to change his current action and to realise that his current action is not the optimal one. The higher the anticipation skill, the faster the player will realise if his current action is not the optimal one and the faster he’ll change his current action.
Composure: The ability of the player to recover from a previous action. The higher this skill is, the faster the player will recover from an action he just completed and the less time he gets “locked” into position doing nothing.
Concentration: The ability of the player to asses the situation in the field and act accordingly. The higher his concentration, the faster the player can read other players’ positions on the field and act accordingly.
Consistency: The ability of the player to perform consistently with his ability. The higher this skill is, the lower the chance of the player to perform below his current skill abilities. When underperforming players will get a penalty to all their skills during a match, the more consistent players having a lower chance of that happening.
Decisions: The ability of the player to decide what the best course of action is. The higher this skill is, the higher the chance of the player realising and making the best course of action available to him.
Flair: The ability of the player to make unexpected moves. The higher this skill is, the higher the chance that the player will get a boost on all his skills during the next minute. This check is made every minute and the boost the player gets is a fixed percentage to his current skills.
Bravery, Creativity, Influence: These mental skills do not have any practical use during the match, but they are used as prerequisites to learning different talents.
9.1 Talents
Talents are special moves your player can learn that allows you to be better in some areas of the game at the expense of being worse in others. There are 51 talents in the game and you can view all of them in the “Mental Skills” page on the right hand menu of the “Player / Training” page. Each one of the talents has an appropriate skill point cost attached to it and some skill prerequisites you must fulfill in order to be able to unlock it (for example, you cannot take the “Inspired” talent unless you already have 90 Decisions and 90 Concentration and 15 skill points to pay the cost of the talent).
You can take how many talents you want, but you will only be able to use a maximum of two during any game. You can activate them by going to the “Match Orders” page under “Player” in the top menu and selecting “Talents” in the right hand menu. You cannot activate two talents of the same type (i.e. two talents that have the same beneficial effect) during the same game (for example, you cannot activate “Powerful Free-Kicks” and “Super Powerful Free-Kicks” at the same time).
Also, you need to know that talents have 5 levels. The higher their level, the more often they will be used during a match. To increase the level of a talent you must activate it for your matches. Each match you play with the talent active will give you one level of talent. Each match you play without the talent active will decrease it’s level by one.
There are two types of talents: general talents and positional talents, described below.
9.1 General Talents
These talents can be taken and used by everyone. There are 37 general talents described below. You should know that the second, stronger type of talent always has a bigger advantage and disadvantage and also bigger prerequisite requirements (for example “Crowd Pleaser II” gives more morale at the expense of more composure, concentration and flair than “Crowd Pleaser I”; it also has more requirements).
Crowd Pleaser I and II: These talents give morale to the player’s teammates (all of them, but not himself) at the expense of some of his Composure, Concentration and Flair. They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Winds Up Opponents I and II: Winding up opponents means that you will increase your opponent’s chance of committing a foul against you, but you will also increase your chance of getting a yellow card when you commit a foul. They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Diver I and II: Diving will also increase your opponent’s chance of committing a foul against you, but you will also increase your chance of committing a foul while you’re dribbling (diving is penalised after all). They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Stops Play I and II: When stopping the play, the player will gain Game Vision, Concentration and Decisions at the expense of his Speed, Positioning and Composure. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Powerful and Super Powerful Free-Kicks: Taking powerful free-kicks means that the player gains a bonus on Finishing and Long Shots when taking free-kicks, while at the same time taking a penalty on Technique on his free-kicks. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Technical Free-Kicks I and II: Technical free-kicks are the opposite of powerful ones. The player gains a bonus in Technique when taking free-kicks, while his Finishing and Long Shots are reduced at the same time. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Outside Foot Crosser: Outside foot crossing means that when a player crosses he does it with his outside foot (that being the one farthest from the center of the pitch, meaning when crossing from the right side he will use his right foot). This will improve the direction of the player’s crosses, but will reduce the ball speed when crossing. It costs 5 skill points.
Substitute Hero: This talent gives a player a bonus to all his skills only when he enters the field after the 60th minute. It has no penalty other than the fact he must always be playing less time in order for this to work. Substitute Hero costs 15 skill points.
Equalizer: Equalizer gives the player an even bigger bonus to all his skill, but only if he enters the field after the 80th minute and his team is down by 1 goal. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Lightning Speed: Lightning Speed is calculated by the minute, giving it a random boost on the player’s speed and positioning, but when it activates it also incurs a penalty in game vision as well as extra fitness losses. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Aggressive I and II: Aggression of a player means that he is going to get a boost to his stamina and a boost to his tackling and heading while confronting the opposite players, but will take a penalty on speed, game vision and positioning while playing. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Dribbler I and II: Taking the dribbler talent will give you a boost on your dribbling and technique while taking a penalty on your speed, concentration and decisions. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Every man for himself: This talent will make your player play better when your team is winning. He gets a boost to all his skills if your team is leading and will take a penalty to all his skills while your team is down. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Sore loser: This is the opposite of every man for himself, meaning that the player gets a bonus to all his skills when his team is down, while getting a penalty to his skills when his team is leading. It costs 15 skill points.
Inspired: Inspired makes your player get a bonus to all his skills while playing with a rating of 6 and higher while getting the same penalty while playing with a 5 or lower rating. Inspired costs 15 skill points.
Auto-motivator: Auto-motivating players get a bonus to all their skills while playing with a 5 or lower rating, but take the same penalty when playing with a 6 or higher rating. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Utility-Player I and II: This talent reduces the penalties you normally take while playing in a different side or position from your player’s, but you also take a penalty on your concentration and speed. These cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Terrace Hero: This talent will get you a bonus to your team’s home attendance while taking a penalty to all your skills during the match. The maximum attendance boost in a single match can be achieved with 5 “terrace heroes” anything more than that won’t give you any more bonus. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Second Wind: Second wind players get a bonus to all their skills in the last 15 minutes of each half and a penalty to all their skills in the first 30 minutes of each half. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Initial pressure: This talent gives the player a bonus to all his skills on the first 15 minutes of each half, but it also incurs a penalty to all the player’s skills on the last 30 minutes of each half. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Slider tackles: Sliding tackles means that your player will get a bonus to his tackling skill while tackling. This talent also increases the chance of your player to give away fouls and to get booked. This talent costs 5 skill points.
Technical Finisher: This talent increases your player’s technique at the expense of his finishing skill. It costs 15 skill points.
Powerful Finisher: This talent increases your player’s finishing skill at the expense of his technique. It costs 15 skill points.
Motivator: This talent increases your team-mates’ confidence. When they become overconfident, they receive a decrease in confidence instead. This check is made every minute and it incurs a penalty on your player’s composure, concentration and flair. The talent costs 15 skill points.
Efficient and Superb Long Shooter: These talents increase the player’s long shots skill at the expense of his technique. They cost 15 and 25 skill points respectively.
Technical and Super Technical Long Shooter: These talents increase your player’s technique skill at the expense of his long shots. They cost 15 and 25 skill points respectively.
9.2. Positional Talents
These talents are specific for a certain position on the field and have an effect only if the player is playing on that position. For example, if you have the “Sticky gloves” talent, you will only get it’s effect if you play as a goalkeeper. If you play as a defender you will no longer get it’s bonus (note that your current favourite position does not count, meaning that if you are a goalkeeper and you play as a defender you still won’t get the talent’s effects). There are 18 positional talents, described below:
9.2.1. Goalkeeper talents
Eccentric: Being eccentric means that you get a bonus on your out of area and agility skills, but you incur a penalty on your throwing and handling skills. This talent costs 5 skill points.
Sticky gloves: Sticky gloves gives you a bonus of handling and out of area and a penalty on your reflexes and agility. It costs 25 skill points.
Area boss: This talent gives a bonus on the positioning, game vision and concentration of all your team’s defenders at the expense of your concentration, anticipation and out of area skills. It costs 5 skill points.
Penalty stopper: This talent gives you a bonus to all your skills while defending a penalty kick and incurs a penalty to all your skills the rest of the game. Penalty stopper costs 5 skill points.
Set pieces expert: This talent gives the player a bonus to all his skills during set piece situations and incurs a penalty to all his skills in the rest of the match. This talent costs 5 skill points.
9.2.2. Defender talents
Sticky marker: This talent gives the player a bonus on his positioning in marking situations and incurs a penalty on the player’s speed. It costs 5 skill points.
Defender boss: The defender boss gives every other defender in the team a bonus on their positioning, game vision and concentration and incurs the same positioning, game vision and concentration penalty on himself. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Area defender: This talent improves the player’s tackling and heading when he is positioned inside the area and incurs a penalty on his tackling and heading while outside the 16m area. It costs 15 skill points.
Defending air stopper: This talent gives the player a bonus on his heading skill and incurs a penalty on the player’s tackling and composure. It costs 15 skill points.
Marauding Wingback: Being a marauding wingback means that you take a bonus in your dribbling, technique and crossing skills and a penalty in your tackling, heading and positioning. This talent costs 5 skill points.
9.2.3. Midfielder talents
Distributor: The distributor takes a bonus in his short passes and long passes skills and a penalty in his positioning and speed. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Midfield organizer: The midfield organizer is the player that gives a positioning, game vision and concentration skill bonus to every other midfielder in your team and takes the same skill penalty for himself. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Air stopper: This talent gives your player a bonus in heading and a penalty in your player’s game vision, short passes and long passes. It costs 15 skill points.
9.2.4. Forward talents
Super Technical Finisher: Technical finishers prefer placing shots instead of powering them in. This talent gives a bonus on your technique while incurring a penalty on your finishing skill. It costs 25 skill points.
Super Powerful Finisher: Powerful finishers tend to blast the ball behind the net. This talent gives a bonus on your finishing skill while incurring a penalty on your technique. It costs 25 skill points.
Tower and Target Player: These talents give you a bonus on your heading skill, while incurring a penalty on your speed and finishing skills. They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Influential Striker: The influential striker is the player that coordinates the team’s attacking players. This talent gives all the other forwards a bonus on their positioning, game vision and concentration skills and incurs the same penalty on the player. It costs 25 skill points.
9.3 The psychologist
The psychologist is the part of FootStar that allows you to unlearn talents and mental skills. You can find it under the “Psychologist” page in the right hand menu of the “Player / Training” page. There you can set a daily investment of interaction points and a mental skill or talent you can choose to unlearn. The more interaction points you invest into the psychologist the faster you will unlearn a skill/talent. You can see your current progress on the Unlearning Progress bar. When the bar reaches 100% you will have been successful in unlearning the mental skill/talent and you will get the respective skill points back. After that you can reallocate those skill points wherever you want.
10. Morale, adaptability and experience
PLAYER MORALE
First, let´s talk about morale. The player morale is really important as it will directly affect his performance on matches. So you have to make sure you keep your player morale at highest standards.
And what can you do to ensure that?
One method to improve morale is your Team Role, set by your team. In case you have a contract with a "low" team role, if you play regularly your morale will be likely to increase. However, for example, you play a lot of matches in a row and you have any other status rather than "Important first team player" your player morale will start to drop. On the other hand (if you have a "high" team role and you´re not playing often) your morale will decrease. Also some team roles will give you a small and daily morale bonus. So all this means that you should be careful when you´re selecting your team role. Use your common sense when selecting a team role. Also when your manager changes your team role to a higher level, you´ll receive a bonus. The opposite will lower the morale.
Match performances and team results also affect your morale (only at league and cup matches though). If you play well on a match (a rating over 5) you´ll receive a bonus. This bonus will be as high as the better you perform. Of course, if you get ratings below 5 you´ll get penalties on your morale. Also if your team loses a match your morale will drop; but if it wins a bonus will be given to your morale. The match results bonuses/penalties will depend on the ranking difference between the teams. If you´re playing on a bot team, your player morale will also be affected by match performance and team results. The only difference is that these penalizations will be smaller.
Player Relationships are a really important aspect of the game. More information about this you can read in chapter 11. We´ll give you some more detailed information about this particular part of the game on the next section but you should know in advance that your morale will be affected (positively or negatively) depending on the relation you have with your teammates.
Team Spirit can also decrease or increase your morale - it will lower your player morale on a daily basis in case it has a low value, but it will also increase it, if your team´s team's spirit is high (>= 95%) and your morale is low (< 85%)
Finally a mention about training effects on morale (already mentioned on the training section). Every day you will get a small morale boost but if you don´t "train" Having Fun at least once in 7 days, this boost will start to slowly drop after the eighth day (including) and this drop will be as high as longer is the period you pass without this kind of training.
ADAPTABILITY
As in real-life, players often find themselves troubled when they first move to a foreign country. In FootStar you will also find a simulation of this real-life fact. When you move to a new country you´ll have to adapt yourself to your new countries´ way of life. You´ll be able to become fully adapted to it eventually, but the time it will take will also depend on you. Of course, the passing of time itself plays an important role on this: each day that goes by you become a little more adapted. In FootStar, each day (at the 0:00 daily training) you´ll get some adaptability points. The amount of points you´ll get each day depend on your player´s morale level: the higher your morale is the more adaptability points you´ll get.
Your teammates will also be able to interact with you and talk about their home country or countries they´re adapted to in order for you to adapt faster to a country; and obviously you can also interact with your unadapted friends if that´s the case. All players can use the adaptability interaction of a country if they´re more than 75% adapted to a country. The interaction will be more effective if the country you´re talking about is the country you´re currently located in. You should also know other two things: the higher the adaptability level to a country of the player you´re interacting with, the lower the effect your adaptability interaction will have on him; and it´s impossible to get to 100% adaptability using only interactions. Being in the country you´re trying to become adapted to is essential in order to get to 100%.
Another way to gather adaptability points is to set your training to "Having Fun" in your training scheme (as explained before in the Trainings Section). This will give you some adaptability points per training, although not as many as the ones you get each day.
Adaptability has an important role on matches. It will directly affect your individual skills (by reducing them if you have a value under 100%) so you should optimize it as much as you can in order to play at your full potential.
You should know four more things about adaptability:
The first is that you´ll always be 100% adapted to your native country. When you start with your player, you´ll be given the full adaptability. The second is that you´ll get a small adaptability bonus if you´re playing in a club of your home town. This is not valid if you´re playing in a bot team though.
The third thing is that you can find all the info about your adaptability to the country you´re playing on the right information panel, just below the fitness and moral info. Also, if you click on the adaptability info, you are redirected to a page where you can find your adaptability data about all countries your adaptability is higher than 0%.
Finally, the fourth and last thing is that you´ll never lose your adaptability to a country (except you reset player). For example, let´s say that you´re Portuguese and you move to the Spanish league; then, after you become fully adapted to Spain, you move again to Portugal. Finally, after a couple of seasons you decide to accept a new challenge on the Spanish league again… this time you won´t have to worry about your adaptability: you´ve become fully adapted to Spain in the past so you won´t have to go through the whole process again.
You should know that (this is very important!) your adaptability will raise only for the country you are at once the update is made (Every day at 0:00). For example: you´re Swedish and play for a Portuguese team. This means that you´ll be in Portugal most of the time so the adaptability will raise for Portugal if you´re in Portugal at the time of the update. Now let´s imagine that you travel to Spain to play a match. While you´re staying in Spain your adaptability will raise for Spain and not for Portugal. However, once you head back to Portugal you´ll start regaining adaptability points for Portugal.
EXPERIENCE
Types of matches
There are 2 types of matches:
- Those all players can play: League, Cup, Friendlies, Youths, Play-offs. Let’s call them "Matches A".
- Those not all players can play: ITC, NT’s (official games + friendlies), City teams. Let’s call them "Matches B"
"Matches A" give a constant amount of experience - it doesn´t matter what your current experience is or what opponent you play against, all that matters is the amount of minutes you play. Other penalties, described in section "Penalties" also apply.
In "Matches B" an experience is divided into 2 parts:
1) Constant part - it´s a part (half or one third) of experience a player COULD get in a match and this part is always given to a player
2) Variable part - it´s the remaining part of experience (another half, or the remaining two thirds) and this part is reduced according to the average experience of all human players in match - if the average experience is "World Class" a player receives all experience available in "Variable part", if the average experience is "Good" (lvl 6), a player receives only 60% of "Variable part", if it´s "Bad" (lvl 3) - 30% and so on.
It´s important to understand that "Constant part" and "Variable part" are always calculated from the experience that a player COULD get in a match and this is not the same for all matches, let´s call this value "Full experience".
For ITC and City team matches "Full experience" is a constant value much like in "Matches A". This means that the "Constant part" is the same in all matches of the same competition (for example - all matches of main City teams give the same "Constant part" if a player does not get additional penalties for playing time). "Variable part" depends on average experience of all human players in a match - this effectively means that total experience gained in match depends solely on players participating in that match - if there are a lot of young players with low experience, the experience gained by player will not be high, and if there are a lot of players with high experience, the experience gained by player will probably be close to "Full experience" value.
For National team matches "Full experience" is not constant - it depends on the experience a player already has. Each NT match can give only a certain percentage of player´s current experience. To prevent unlimited growth of experience, the experience gains in NTs have a cap - a "Full experience" can never be higher than a preset value (different for each level of NTs). Now, since the "Full experience" is not a constant value, it means that experience gains get quite complicated in NTs. It works like this:
1) A maximum possible experience for a player is calculated. As it was explained before - it´s a percentage of player´s current experience capped at a certain level. This value becomes "Full experience" for that certain player
2) Half of this "Full experience" becomes a "Constant part" (it´s a half because "Constant part" and "Variable part" are split 50%-50% in NTs)
3) Another half of this "Full experience" is a "Variable part" and it is reduced according to average experience in a match - if the average experience is "World class", a player gets full "Variable part", if average experience is "passable" (lvl 5), player gets only half of "Variable part"
Clarifications
Average experience in match is calculated by using human controlled players only - this means that if human team 1 plays against a bot team 2 for example, only 11 human player from team 1 will be included in calculation and it will be the average experience of those 11 human players.
Penalties
There are some additional penalties on experience.
- Playing with match order "Avoid Getting Tired (AGT)" – YES, will only give 25% of the experience a player would get by set “No” or “Always play your best”.
- Goalkeepers playing as field players and regular players playing at the goal will only earn 25% of the full experience they would get in the match. This is valid for all kind of games but only in human controlled teams;
- The experience gained in a match is directly proportional to the number of minutes played in the match. Playing more than or exactly 60 minutes will give 100% experience; this means that playing from 60 to 90/120 minutes is the exactly the same regarding experience gains. Playing less than 60 minutes will cause experience penalties - the less you play, the less experience you´ll gain. This is valid in all kind of matches.
All these penalties are always applied after calculating what experience a player could get in match.
Experience calculation
Experience calculation rules:
![]()
http://www.footstar.org/img/manual1.png
Explanation of denominations
MT - Match Type - either A or B as explained previously
FE - Full Experience - defines whether full possible experience in a match is constant (CONST) or percentage of player´s current exp (%)
CP - Constant Part - defines how much of full experience is ´constant´
VP - Variable Part - defines how much of full experience is ´variable'
FRND - club friendly matches
YT - club youth team matches
LG - club league matches
CUP - club national cup matches
PO - club play-off matches
ITC - international club competition matches
CT U18 - city team U18 matches
CT U21 - city team U21 matches
CT - main city team matches
NT U18 - national team U18 matches
NT U21 - national team U21 matches
NT - main national team matches
The experience is calculated in this order:
1) FE (Full experience) is calculated first according to the rules described in the table above
2) If it´s "B" type match, the experience is further calculated like this: FE*CP + FE*VP*AE (AE stands for "Average experience" modifier for a match)
3) Additional penalties (AGT, playing out of position, playing less than 60 minutes) are applied if necessary
Examples
First of all - let´s set some values for an example. Please note, that all these values are here for explanation purposes only and it does not mean they are the ones used by the game.
Let´s say the full experience (FE) value a league game gives is 1 point
Let´s say the full experience (FE) value an ITC gives is 3 points
Let´s say the NT U21 match give 5% of player´s current experience when calculating the FE value and that the exp cap for NT U21 is 4 points
Match 1
Player 1 has 50 points of experience
Player 1 plays 90 minutes in league match in his position and with match order "avoid getting tired" set to "no"
He gets 1 point and has 51 points of experience after that
Match 2
Player 1 has 50 points of experience
Player 1 plays 45 minutes in ITC in his position and with match order "avoid getting tired" set to "no". Average experience in a match is "formidable"
It´s a B type match, so we have to calculate the experience like this FE*CP + FE*VP*AE.
FE (full experience) is 3 as we defined before
CP is 33.33%
VP is 66.67%
AE is 90% (Average experience is formidable - lvl 9, that means a player gets 90% of variable part)
3*0.3333 + 3*0.6667*0.9 = 2.8 points
Player has played only 45 minutes, so his experience is reduced further - 2.8 * 45 / 60 = 2.1 points <- this is the final number
Match 3
Player 1 has 50 points of experience
Player 2 has 100 points of experience
Both play 90 minutes in U21 in their position and with match order "avoid getting tired" set to "no". Average experience in a match is ´low´
First we have to calculate the "Full experience" value for both players.
For player 1 it´s 5% of 50 which is 2.5 points
For player 2 it´s 5% of 100 which is 5 points. It´s higher than the experience cap we have defined for U21 matches and that´s why this value is reduced to the cap - 4
It´s a B type match, so we have to calculate the experience like this FE*CP + FE*VP*AE.
FE (full experience) - we´ve just calculated this value for both players and it´s different for each of them
CP is 50%
VP is 50%
AE is 40% (Average experience is low - lvl 4, that means a player gets 40% of variable part)
Player 1 gets 2.5*0.5 + 2.5*0.5*0.4 = 1.75 points
Player 2 gets 4*0.5 + 4*0.5*0.4 = 2.8 points
Neither of them get additional penalties
Experience in different competitions
This is ranking of maximum possible experience in every kind of matches starting from the lower XP bonus to the highest. Of course, due to "Constant experience + variable experience" calculations, the real values can be quite different
- Friendlies | Playoffs | Youth | League | Cup
- Cities U18
- Cities U21
- Cities Main | U18 National Teams (equal)
- ITC
- U21 National Teams
- Main National Teams
11. Player relationship
As in real life, a player´s relationships are a vital part of any football team, mainly those between teammates. In Footstar we´ve developed a model that pretends to simulate these so important relationships. This aspect of the game is divided in two different parts: the direct interactions and the press interactions (or indirect interactions, as you wish). Inside the direct interactions we have interactions between friends and players in same location.
Press Interactions
These types of interactions can´t be made directly. To issue an interview to the press about a player you should go to his details page and select the "Give an Interview" option on the right information box. You´ll be taken to a page where you can select one of several available pre-defined statements. As you can see on that page the statements are shown in different colours: red indicates negative statements (critics), green are positive statements (praises). Each one of these statements, depending on their category, have relationship points associated: the negative will affect negatively your relationship with the player while the positive will improve positively your relationship. You might be asking: isn´t this a direct interaction? The answer is no. Why? Because when you issue a statement the relationships points won´t be affected at that exact moment. All statements will be saved until the newspapers are generated on Fridays morning. At that time, the most important ones will be chosen to be printed and only these will affect the relationships. This also means that some statements might not be published. Just imagine it as if you talked to a reporter but on the following day he threw your interview to the garbage, because he found a more relevant story to follow.
To ensure we have a lot of statements published, there are several newspapers available: you have a global newspaper where the most important statements/news will be published; on a second level of importance there are the country newspapers and finally on the bottom level, the city newspapers. News published on a higher level cannot be published in lower levels. This means that if, for example, a story is published on the global newspaper, it won´t be published also on a country or city newspaper. However you can have a different statement published in two newspapers of the same level; the example is simple: player 1 is playing in Portugal and issues a statement about a player playing in Spain. If the statement is not important enough to be released in the global newspaper but important enough to be released in a country newspaper, it will be published both in Portuguese and Spanish newspapers. And by the rules of newspapers it won´t then be published on a city newspaper.
Another doubt you might have by now is how we define the level of importance a statements has. Basically each player has a global reputation inside the game: the level of importance is defined by the average value of the reputation of the two players involved.
A final comment to mention that you cannot issue more than 3 statements or more than one statement about a certain player per week. Also, as you already have the chance to interact a lot more with for your teammates directly (as you´ll understand below) press statements about your teammates will only have 50% of the effect on the relationship the interaction would have if we´re talking about two players from different teams.
Newspapers can be found at Community >> Press at the top menu.
Direct Interactions
Direct Interactions can be made by any human controlled player to another human controlled player. To do it, just go to the player´s details page and select the "Interact with Player" option on the right information box. After that you´ll be taken to a page where you can select one amongst several interactions. Also in this page you can check your level of friendship/enmity with that player.
Just as Press Interactions, these direct interactions will also have positive or negative impacts on the players´ relationship. Colours will also be used to make a distinction between effects. Some interactions won´t be visible until you have certain levels of friendship or enmity. This means that you should invest in your relationships so that you can take them to higher levels of interaction.
Another (really) interesting part of relationships is when you try to interact with players playing in cities other than yours. To communicate directly with them, you have to be friends.
Each direct interaction has a different effect on the relationship; each one gives it a different value of relationship points. However you might not get the max. value for an interaction, if some requirements are not met. Let´s explain; imagine one case: player 1 is Chinese and he´s playing in Portugal with player 2. Player 2 is Spanish. Both players have a low adaptability value to Portugal. Player 1 has small knowledge of life in Spain, and player 2 has also little knowledge about China. This means that the interactions between these two players will have a small impact, as they can´t understand each other or communicate very well. However, with time, both players will become more and more adapted to the Portuguese lifestyle and then their future interactions will become more and more effective.
So when you´re interacting with a player you should get informed about:
- The adaptability level to the country you´re both playing (if you´re playing in the same country. If not, you should ignore this part);
- Your adaptability to his native country;
- His adaptability to your native country.
The higher all these values are, the more effective the interaction will be.
Teammate´s interactions are the only interactions where you can get the full relationship points. If you´re interacting with players that are not your teammates, even if you get 100% of the previous "formula", you´ll be only be given 75% of the max. value. An example: a particular interaction is worth 1 relationship point. If you´re interacting with someone that is not your teammate the value will be reduced to 0,75. And then the last formula will be applied over this value. This is only valid for positive interactions.
All direct interactions are deleted daily at 0:00 (server time). But only the interactions get deleted, not their effect. This is done so that you can only make one of each kind of interactions daily (from 0.00 to 0.00 of next day).
A final mention on players´ personalities. There are two types: You can either be a "Nice guy" or an "Arrogant" person. This will have a small influence in direct interactions. If you´re interacting with a "Nice guy" player, your positive interactions will get a small bonus. However if you´re interacting with an arrogant player, positive interactions will be a little less effective and negative interactions will also be a little more negative.
Interactions with Teammates
This is a key feature of the game. If you don´t relate positively with your teammates your morale is likely to decrease over time. Everyday at 0:00 (server time) your average level of relationship with your teammates is checked in order to update your player morale accordingly. You can know this value by visiting the Player >> Relationships option available on the top menu. The lower the value, the more your morale is likely to drop. And, on the other hand, if the value is high enough, you´ll get a morale bonus instead.
Interactions with friends over time
As time goes by, player´s relationships tend to disappear if there are no interactions between them. For a relationship to remain steady, it´s required that both players invest on the relationship. If only one player tries to keep the relationship it´s likely that, sooner or later, it will eventually disappear. These updates are made daily so you if you want to keep your relationships alive you should have the responsibility to maintain it as active as possible. This is even more valid for friendship relationships, as enmity relationships decrease a little slower. On player->relationships page you need to set some percent to your friends to keep relationships with them high as possible. Higher level of relationship made your interactions more efficient.
Adaptability Interactions/Talk about a country
Please read section “Player Psychology” for more details about this particular feature.
Girls
Players also have the possibility to meet and interact with (girl) friends and later develop relationships with them.
Family
Player´s families play an important role in the game. Players should ensure they keep a good relationship with their family or they risk suffering major morale drops. The negative impact will be bigger as lower the relationship with your family becomes. Good option is rise relationship with family to 100% and then set automatic relations at 1%
Daily Interaction Limit
All players have a limited number of interactions they´ll be able to do each day. This will be controlled by "interaction points". By default all players will start with 150 points every day: then, during the day, they´ll be able to spend these points between their family, girls and friends (including teammates). Everyday you socialize on training (at 0:00) you will get another 150 points. All automatic interactions are made during daily update (before training at 8:00)
12. Match day
The FootStar gaming experience is based on a football simulation program named Match Engine (or simply ME). The ME takes into account all the information relevant about a player (including skills, talents, equipment, fitness, moral, confidence and adaptability) and uses it to simulate a real football match.
A match game is played in 90 minutes, and the FS ME simulates this entire period, which means that a FS game lasts for 90 real-life minutes and can be watched as a real-time experience. However, one does not need to accompany the game minute by minute, as a report is generated after the match is over and can be accessed at any time. It is, however, more excited to watch the game as it is played and cheer for that win with your fellow mates! A list containing the dates and hours of all game categories is available here Match Schedules to know when a game is scheduled to begin. You should also notice a warning on the home page, telling you when will be your next match.
You can also access your teams schedule and see when and where your games will be played. This is an important tool to keep track of all the game related events, which includes travelling and training. It may happen that a match is scheduled to be played at another city. A description on the travelling system can be read on Chapter 13.
Fitness, Moral and Confidence
Each player´s performance is highly dependent on the conditions in which he presents himself for the match. Fitness, Moral and Confidence, are the 3 most easily controlled variables and can set the different on the field. Both Fitness and Moral vary from 0 to 100%. They affect all the skills proportionally, which means that any value below 100% will result in skill penalties. Confidence, however, has discrete levels, with "High" and "Very High" representing the desired confidence. Unlike the other 2, Fitness varies during the match, depending on the player Stamina and match occurrences. Therefore, even if a player starts with 100% Fitness, it will drop during the game. Moral and Confidence, on the other hand, are only affected after the match is concluded. Better performances can increase these two variables, while team defeats or bad performances may decrease their values.
Position / Side Experience
Each time a player plays on a certain position (goalkeeper, defender, midfield, forward) or side (left, right, center) he´ll gain experience for that position and/or side. A player position will be set as the one with the most experience. It is possible to have 100% at different sides, thus being proficient in more than one side at the same time. However, this does not apply to positions. Playing at a different side or position than your original ones, you are playing repositioned. This means that you´ll suffer penalties on your individual match skills. We also differ side and position repositioning. When you play on a "wrong" side the ME takes 20% out of your short passes, long passes and technique skills and also 50% of your crosses ability. If you´re put on a "wrong" position, the ME takes 20% out of your short passes and long passes ability, 40% of your game vision ability and 50% of your positioning ability.
Individual Orders
The Individual Orders (IOs, also known as Match Orders - MOs) are a set of guidelines for your player on how to behave on the field. These must be pre-set before a match and will determine most of the actions your player performs. However, experience plays a part in this, as less experienced players will not always follow the IOs. Here follows a description of the current IOs:
1 - Shoot from distance - whether a player shoots more frequently from long range or not.
2 - Run with Ball Direction - once you´re with the ball, it decides to where you run (middle or sides).
3 - Hold up ball - How frequently a player will try to hold up the ball and, therefore, lose time or wait for better passing opportunities.
4 - Passing type/Distribution (GKs) - Whether the player will opt for short, long or mixed passes.
5 - Dribbling/tricks - Whether the player will frequently try to dribble other players or avoid such confrontations.
6 - Avoid getting tired - Whether the player will play on the maximum of his efforts or avoid getting tired, taking all the consequences from it (experience hits, etc).
7 - Defensive corner position - Where the player will position himself during a corner kick situation against his team.
8 - Offensive corner position - Where the player will position himself during a corner kick situation favouring his team.
9 - Free kick action - Whether the player will pass or shoot the goal more frequently from a free kick situation.
10 - Penalty kick side - To what side of the goal the player will take his penalty shots.
11 - Close Marking/Pressing - Whether the player will try to press his opponents tightly or not.
12 - Pass side preference - Whether the player will try to pass to player in the flanks, to players in the center, or mixed.
13 - Cross from - Whether the player will try to cross from the end line or from 3/4 of the pitch.
14 - Cross type - Whether players will cross the ball near the ground or try high balls (that is, an option to favor attackers´ heading/finishing skills).
15 - Movements - A very important order: whether the player will run up or down the field in attacking or defensive situations.
16 - Passes to open spaces - Whether players will try to pass to the front of players in good attacking positions or to their feet.
17 - Try to run from marker - Whether players will try to find open spaces away from their opponents or stay in position.
18 - Run to the area during crosses - Whether players will try to run to the heart of the area in good cross situations or not.
19 - Type of commemoration after goal - How the player will commemorate when he scores a goal, from a set of possible options.
20 - Try curve balls - Whether the player will try curve balls when shooting or crossing.
21 - Tackling Intensity - Easy, hard or normal tackling. The type of tackling will influence the probability of winning a tackle but also increase or decrease the probability of committing fouls (and, in the future, injuries).
22 - Pass to the front - Whether a player will try more frequently to pass to players in more offensive situations than him on the pitch or not.
23 - Position on crosses (GK) - A GK only option: if the keeper will stay on the line or move upwards.
24 - Clear ball - Whether players will try more frequently to clear the ball when they have no passing or dribbling options, instead of holding up the ball.
25 - First Touch Plays - Whether the player will try to play at first touch or try and control the ball first.
Tactics and Match Events
A manager can pre-set tactics and events for any match. Alongside with the starting 11, a manager has the option to select Team Orders. These include:
1 - Vertical spread - Whether the team will spread more or less vertically in the field. This will be a "slider"-type option.
2 - Horizontal spread - Whether the team will spread more or less horizontally in the field. This will also be a "slider"-type option.
3 - Corner kick taker - Which player is the team´s corner kick taker. 2 options, one for each side of the field.
4 - Free kick taker - Which player is the team´s free kick taker. 2 options, one for each side of the field. Only for attacking situations.
5 - Penalty kick taker - Which player is the team´s penalty kick taker. 5 options, one for each penalty "slot" during a penalty shoot-out. First one will take penalties during normal gameplay.
6 - Playmaker - Which player is the team´s preferred playmaker. A playmaker will see other players passing more frequently to him (as he will have a bit more weight when other players consider their passing options). This option should be used wisely.
7 - Hold up ball - How frequently the team will try to hold up the ball, in different game situations (always, never, only when winning).
If options 3 to 5 are not set, the player closest to the ball will be chosen instead. If option 6 is not set, the team won´t have a preferred playmaker. For close range free kicks, finishing and technique will be the most important. For long rage free kicks, player will need good values for long shots and technique. Penalties will require finishing and technique. Free kicks in crossing zones / corners will obviously require the crossing skill (only).
The manager can also pre-set events that can be used to reposition or substitute players during the match. A maximum of 3 substitutions is allowed for any official game, while friendlies (both in teams and national teams) allow for 11 subs to be made. There is no limit to the number of reposition events that can be made. It´s also possible to set any event to happen in specific conditions, such as minute, score or after disciplinary actions/injuries.
Walk-Overs
A walk-over (WO) happens when a team fails to select 11 players to the match, thus resulting in a 3-0 victory to the other team. If both teams fail to present 11 players on the field, both will be awarded with a defeat. If this happens in an elimination round though (as a cup match) where one of the teams has to go through to the next round, one of the teams will be selected randomly to go through and will "virtually" win 1-0, although it will still count as a defeat in what the team´s stats are concerned.
Match Report
After each game you´ll be able to view a match report, containing vital information about your player´s (or team´s) efforts. The match report is the place to look if you want to know how well your player did for himself. The match report contains a lot of information. It is divided in 5 parts that you can check selecting on the right information panel:
1 - The starting eleven and ratings part (the default view)
2 - The match comments part, where you can see the most important plays of the match
3 - The statistics part with info about shots, ball possession, amongst others
4 - The player statistics part with all the stats concerning individual players
5 - The Match Analyzer, useful tool in order to see lot of data, player by player..like passes direction, shots, zones with and without ball.
6 - The 2D view of the match (only for FS Fans though) where you can watch the full outcome of the match. The viewer is similar to the Football Manager® series viewer.
National Team 2D matches are visible to all users.
Each player performance is rated in a scale of 0-10, starting at 5. This rate is visible only after the match has ended and is thus the result of all the player actions during the match. At the end of the match the player with the higher rating will win the Man of the Match award. This rating might also have an influence on your morale. Good matches will raise your morale but bad performances will ruin it.
Cards
As far as types of suspensions are concerned, these are be grouped as follows: national competitions (league and cup matches), youth competitions (youth matches, regardless of whether the tournament is international or not), international club competitions (future international club competitions yet to be released) and international competitions (national team matches). This means that if a player is sent off during a youth match, he’ll be suspended for youth competitions only; he’ll still be able to play in national team matches or league matches for his club, for example.
A player that sees a straight red card will be suspended for 2 matches (note straight red cards do not happen yet, but this will be the rule once they’re implemented), a player that is sent off after two yellow cards is suspended for 1 match, and a player that collects 3 yellow cards during a competition is suspended for 1 match; afterwards the counter is reset and, after 3 more yellow cards, he’ll be suspended for another match, and so on. If a player is sent off after picking two yellow cards, those yellow cards do not count towards the 3-yellow-card suspension rule; he’ll only be suspended for the red card he picked.
Injuries
Players will injury themselves during matches only. Fitness plays an important role: the lower the fitness level of a player is, the likelier it is that he might get injured. Injuries may only happen when players perform actions during a match, such as tackling an opponent (or be tackled), take a shot at goal, make a pass or make a save (keepers). Players will not get injured just by running around doing nothing. Obviously it is far, far more likely to get injured by being tackled than by making a simple pass!, and fitness really plays a very important role on the chance of getting injured.
13. Cities and Trips
Every country in FS, by default, has 3 different cities. On each city page you can see the weather forecast for next 3 days. There is also information about the Cities reputation, Teams from that City, players that are born there, players currently in the city and houses built in that city. Each city also has locations you can visit:
- City Hotel is the place where players are located after team trips for matches
- Transport Terminal – this is where you can buy tickets for personal trips i.e. trips without the rest of the team
- Beauty Salon – You can alter your facial appearance here (you can make your new look permanent using FS Coins)
- Shopping Mall –This is where you can buy a house, a car, a boat or even a plane as well as various other items
- Shops – This will give you a list of shops that you can buy match items in
- Player’s Agency – List of agencies in the City. You can use these agents to help you find a Club or help your Club find a player (agents fees may be involved)
Traveling within cities is automatic. Every time you open a locale page that locale becomes automatically your new location.
There is also a chance to create new cities in each Country! Every player can submit his application and try to collect "subscriptions" and funds in order to create it.
Each application has a fixed fee (25.000€) and after the application has been made, the federation president will review it and then accept or reject it.
If the application has been accepted, the application will then become public to everyone.
For a city to be created the following requisites must be accomplished:
- there must be at least 30 player requests to change their home city to the new one (only players from the same country than the city can make the request)
- players will have to donate a certain amount of money for the city to be created, the amount necessary is calculated by the formula: 2.500.000 + 500.000 * (nº of cities -3)
After the requisites have been fulfilled, the city will then be automatically created!
Players can only request a home city change once, after that they will become bound to that city. The home city change request will be available in the city page.
Trips
Not all teams are located in the same city, so if your team is playing a team from another city it is necessary to take trips to this City. Your team will automatically travel to these cities for the matches but you can also buy a plane ticket to fly by yourself.
Automatic travel is scheduled for all league, friendly and domestic cup matches and is scheduled the day before the match at 13.00h. Flights for NT matches are scheduled at 03.00h on Monday. For ITC matches it is 01.00h on Friday. Every flight takes place 1 hour after it is scheduled. Fitness loss incurred for automatic travel depends on if team has a bus or a plane and also if it the trip is within the same country or if the trip is to another country.
If you want to minimize or not have any fitness for travel then you should fly alone. You have to go to transport terminal in your current city and buy a plane ticket. You need to choose your destination, level of plane (which determines whether you lose fitness or not), date of the flight and time of flight and then click “buy ticket”. Every return trip is automatically booked with your team and won’t cause a fitness loss so there is no need to buy a return ticket unless you are travelling to a city for non match related purposes
14. Companies and Agencies
On Footstar you can create companies in order to increase incomes for your player(s). The creation of the company is the first step and the next move is the "field-selection"..the type of business. You have 3 choices: Shop, Newspaper and Sports Agencies.
Companies can only be created by Gold and Silver Fans and creating a company doesn’t have any direct associated cost. Each company can own a maximum of one shop, one newspaper and one Sports Agency. Transferring money from your player’s account to the company’s account has no restrictions but when you withdraw money from the company account, FS Bank will apply a 40% tax. Let´s see in detail this 3 types of business:
Shops
There are three kinds of shops (soccer shirts, soccer boots and goalkeeper gloves). Each shop can only sell one kind of item at a time and you cannot buy at your own shop. Of course each store can produce match-items with different skills. Let´s see in detail:
Shirts: Positioning, Stamina, Speed, Acceleration, Marking, Jumping, Reflexes (GK), Agility (GK), Out of Area (GK)
Shoes: Tackling, Short Passes, Technique, Finishing, Throwing (GK), Long Passes, Crosses, Long Shots, Dribbling, Set Pieces, First Touch
GK Gloves: Handling, Throwing, Command of Area
Each shop has three levels that you need to manage:
Quality (1-5): Defines the global quality of the items that you can produce (+2 skills-bonus per quality level);
Durability (1-5): Defines the maximum durability (time that an item lasts until his quality drops) of the items that you can produce;
Warehouse (1-5): Defines the number of items that you can store in your shop.
When you open a shop you’ll have 3 employees (bots) to manage each one of those three levels (it’s the minimum number of employees that you can have). In order to improve those shop levels you can either hire more employees or train the current ones (employees with better skills will make the shop levels to increase). Their wages depend on their level and the reputation of the city. This means that shops at richer cities will have bigger maintenance costs. You can have a maximum of 30 employees working at the shop quality and a maximum of 10 working at the shop durability level and warehouse level. If you miss two weeks of their wages they’ll start leaving your shop until you reach the minimum number of employees (3).
By default a shop can only sell in the city where it was built. However, you can define if you want to make your shop available for other countries. The cost of such kind of service depends on the number of countries and vary from country to country (depending on the financial situation of cities). To balance those costs you’re able to define a "shipping cost" for each item that you sell "online". You can only change this service and tax once a week.
The process of designing and producing your products consists of two steps:
Designing the model: At the "Model Design" box you’re able to choose the model name, quality, durability, bonus type (maximum of 2) and the base sale price. You’re not able to design models with the same characteristics and there’s also some price limitations. We would like to have a free market regarding this question but unfortunately that’s not possible.
Producing the model: At the "Produce Model" box you’re able to choose the model, colour and number of items that you want to produce. Here you pay the production cost of items (production cost of the model x quantity). During this producing process you’re able to define if you want your products to be automatically available for sale at the shop. In that case they are available at your shop with the price defined at the "Design Model" box, the base price of the model.
There’s an important detail about the items prices that you need to know. Every time you change the price of a specific item that change will only occur at Fridays during the economic update. This means that when you produce an item, its price is automatically blocked (with the base price of the model) until the next economic update.
For each item that you sell, 30% of the profit is taxed by the city. When that sale is "online", 22,5% of the profit is taxed by the city shop and the others 7,5% by the city of the buyer.
When you decide to close and demolish your shop, you’ll loose all your items stored there and you’ll only be able to open a new one 30 days later.
Newspapers
Your newspaper can either be local or international. The cost to create a local newspaper is 2500€ , while an international newspaper costs 10000€.
Once you’ve created your newspaper, you can employ other users to work for you. The wage of your employees can be as much as 10% of the profit you’ve made from the sales of your last edition. Note that users that have their own companies can’t work in other users’ newspapers. The newspaper is edition-based, and you can release a maximum of an edition per day. A new edition has a cost of 100€ (if it´s a national edition) or 500€ (in case it´s an international edition).
When the edition is created you can create your newspaper pages. You have different page types/structures to choose from. You are able to build pages containing text,images or videos.
After the newspaper edition is ready, you just need to publish it. Your newspaper will now be available for other users to purchase their copy. If you chose to set a price for the edition, users will spend a but of their money purchasing it, and the money will revert back to your company.
Sports Agencies
As the agency owner you´re able to hire up to 10 agents (either Fan or non-Fan) who will work for your agency. These agents are able to manage the career of a maximum of 10 players at each time. Clubs are able to hire agents’ services to work as scouts and search around the world for players who suit their needs. Let´s see some details regarding this feature:
Agents contracts with Agencies:
- Duration : between 30 and 112 days;
- Commission: between 0% and 100%
- The fees paid by teams & players are always paid directly to agencies. Agencies will then share this fee with the agent, using the commission agreed on the contract.
Players contracts with Agents:
- Duration : between 30 and 112 days;
- Commission: between 0% and 100% of his wage
- Commission: between 0% and 100% of a transfer value
- Both (transfers & wage)
Clubs contracts with Agencies:
- Duration : between 5 and 112 days;
- Fee: between 0€ and 50000€
- Agent: agent responsible to search for the players.
* If during the time of the contract the club hires a player recommend by the agent it will pay the contract fee to the agency.
Taxes:
- Taxes are applied to all commissions agencies get (30%) and to all compensations they give to their agents (30% as well). These taxes are given to the city where the agency is based. Here is a practical example: Let’s say your agency gets 20000€ from a club. The agency will then split this amount with the agent (according to their contract) and then each part will pay its tax to the city.
15. Teams
15.1 - MAIN TEAMS
As players, teams can also be controlled by humans or by the server (Bot-teams). In human-controlled teams, human players have an additional challenge as they´ll have to deal with a real manager. There are 2 kinds of human-controlled teams: protected and unprotected teams. Here are the main features and differences between these teams.
Bot teams:
- They aren´t controlled by a human player, they are controlled by the computer
- They can be recognized by having a blue flag next to their name
- They don´t have team training, though you´ll lose 2% fitness in your individual training
- Their individual training is slightly better than the individual training in a human controlled team but not better than the team training in human controlled teams
- They can be taken over by a human player at any time
- Human players can´t control if they are going to play the games. Still, BOT teams usually choose their human controlled players first when setting up the team for a match, playing them to their best of their ability in the position the player plays best
- In BOT teams, the wage is fixed to 300€ for every player
Human managed protected teams:
-They are controlled by a human player with a FS fan gold
- They can be recognized by having their name written in a bold letter
- The human manager can choose a team training, which is better than an individual training
- Though their individual training is slightly worse than in a BOT team, the manager can improve the training grounds which improves the individual training.
- They can´t be taken over by any player
- The manager can virtually control every part of the team management
- In human protected teams the manager can set the player wages
Human managed unprotected teams:
- They are controlled by a human player without a FS fan gold
- They can be recognized by having a red flag next to their name
- The human manager can´t set freely the team training. It can only be changed once a week and there will be a list of 10 team trainings that will cover all the possibilities considered important for this teams. Despite this, the team training is better than individual training
- Though their individual training is slightly worse than in a BOT team, the manager can improve the training grounds which improves the individual training
- They can be taken over or handed to a human player with a FS fan gold
- There are some restrictions for the team management that are listed in chapter 19 (Team Management). This restrictions were created because the FS fan gold users are very important for the game and in this way, there will still be an advantage in having the FS fan gold
- In human unprotected teams the players have a fixed wage depending on the team´s division
Supporters
Each team has its own number of supporters. The number of supporters a team has will directly influence match attendances. The only way to increase your number of supporters is to win matches and/or trophies, as much in a row as you can.
Here are some more details about supporters:
Every division has a default average number of supporters (30000 for the first division and 5000 less for each division below). This number affects the amount of supporters you win on a weekly basis. This average number will also vary depending on standings. The top positions will give you an higher average and lower positions will give you a smaller average. Simple as that.
When a team is promoted it has a gain of 1000 supporters for the promotion alone. There´s also a bonus equal to 75% of the difference between the average number of supporters of the new division and the current number of supporters the team has. This last calculation is made after the promotion bonus is awarded.
When a team is relegated there´s a supporter penalization as follow: 75% of the difference between the current number of supporters the team has and the average for the new division.
There will be supporters bonus for the ITC Competition (3000), for the National Champion (2500), for the Cup Winner (2000) and for the Cup runner-up (500).
Here’s the average number of supporters for each division:
First: 30000;
Second: 25000;
Third: 20000;
Fourth: 15000;
Fifth (and below): 10000
15.2 - B TEAMS
B Teams, as name said, are connected to "Main Team" and, playing in lower division of the National League system, represent an additional step in the formation of young player as they leave U19 teams still not ready to play in the main teams. There is a cost to create a B Team (5 millions €) and this cost can be shared by the team and their players (at least 20 different players are required to complete the funding process). Creation process can be started going on Manager menu > Team Facilities.
Here are all the remaining details of this feature:
- B Teams will be named " B". This might differ from language to language, depending on what is most used in your country/language.
- B teams are not available for countries with only one division. The system will not check if there are available bot teams / unprotected teams in the league system. Once your funding process is completed, you’ll have to check for available teams. This will work in a first come, first serve, meaning that the first teams to complete funding can grab any of the existing teams.
- B Teams can never play in the same division of the main team. If, due to promotion/relegation, teams are put in the same division, the B Team will be relegated to the immediate lower division. If there are no divisions available, the B Team will be disbanded and all players placed in the main team.
- B Teams can take part in the cup but cannot advance to the next round if they win a match. Unless they face a Bot Team or another B Team, which in that case the B Team that wins the match will advance.
- B Teams can have youth teams but cannot have their own B Teams.
- B Teams have their own finances, stadium, transfers, player contracts, etc.
- The B Team manager can be same manager of the main team (there is a "Team Control" page at the Character menu) but the main team manager can nominate a player from the B Team to take control of the team or a retired manager that is not managing a club.
- Managing B Teams does NOT require FS Fan.
- The Main Team manager cannot control the B team if it’s assigned to any other player but he can fire/appoint himself or any other player at any time he wants.
- Players can be freely moved between the B Team and the main Team but there are two rules: you can only move once every 7 days and the manager of the B Team cannot be moved out of the squad. Players can be moved from the squads ONLY by the main team manager.
- B Teams can only be created in the same league system / country of the main team.
- B Teams need to respect foreign manager rules. If you have a foreign team and the number of foreign teams is already exceeded, then you cannot create more additional teams, therefore you cannot create a B Team in the country.
- Main Team and B Team can see their respective Team Forums and can read/write on them without restriction.
In what concerns everything else, B Teams are just like regular teams.
15.3 - YOUTH TEAMS
Youth Teams (YTs from now on) focus one age range: U19 players. This means that players with 17, 18 and 19 years old are eligible to play youth matches. At the moment a player "celebrates" his 20th anniversary, loses the possibility to play youth matches.
All Teams can create its Youth Team and it´s quite easy. The manager of the main team (MT from now on) has an option in the information page of his team to create the YT. The manager then needs to set 3 simple options to create the team: YT Stadium Name (a new stadium will be created for the youth matches to be played in, with 1000 seats as default), YT Manager and the number of bot players to fill the team with. This last option allow you to start immediately participating in youth leagues if you don´t have enough U19 players in your current squad. Then, later, once you put some real human players in the YT, these bot players will disappear from the team automatically.
YTs cannot have customized names. Their name consist of the (short) name of the MT along with the age range description. Example: The YT of the "Beat Farms FC" team would be known as "Beat Farms FC U19".
The main team manager can be the YT manager at the same time. However, if the main team manager wants to appoint another manager to the YT, the potential manager needs to be a player of the team and at least be a FS Fan Silver (Gold is eligible as well, naturally). The YT manager doesn´t need to be a player of the youth team to play the manager role.
The MT manager still has access to all the managerial options in the YT, even if the YT has a different manager.
There is a full separation between the main and the youth team regarding players. The only exception is the team forum, that´s shared by all players of both teams.
YTs work as a "dependency" of the main Team, this means sharing the same finances but generating its own income, such as gate receipts and competitions prizes.
YTs are not mandatory. It’s up to the MT manager to decide whether he wants to create a YT or not. Bot teams don´t have YTs as well.
A YT can be terminated at any time by the main manager, this unless the YT is travelling at that time. Once a YT is terminated it cannot be re-created again in the next 30 days. A terminated YT is marked as inactive. You cannot terminate your Youth Team if you are the middle of a tournament.
Inactive youth teams that are in the middle of tournaments are automatically added 11 bot players (300€ wage for these players) in order to avoid unnecessary walkovers. Once the tournament is over bot players are automatically removed from inactive Youth Teams.
YTs play on their own Youth Stadium, they have their own match kit and match prizes.
The Youth Manager can promote/demote players from/to the YT and can manage all the Youth matches related stuff. The YT manager won’t be able to buy/sell any players though. Players cannot be promoted/demoted while one of the teams is traveling. Once a player is demoted/promoted he cannot change squads again in the next 7 days. Of course u19 player(s) who play friendly/cup matches with main team can be sent immediately to youth squads once the match is completed without having to wait 7 days
Match ticket prices and attendances
The ticket price is 6€ per attendee, however, there’s a "catch": attendances might be reduced to as up as 50% if your team doesn’t field 11 human players. This means that fielding 11 bot players will cause your youth team’s home matches attendance to drop to 50% of what they might have reached, and fielding half-team composed of bots causes the attendances to drop to around 75%. This is a measure to promote those teams that really invest in their youth teams for real.
Training in Youth Teams
YTs have their own team training for their players. This training has exactly the same effect as the main team training.
To prevent abuse, youth teams that didn’t play a single match in the previous 21 days won’t have team training (this also means that once you create a team you have 21 days to start playing matches). Also to prevent abuse, once you re-start a YT, it doesn’t have team training before you start playing matches again. This last rule is not enforced if you are starting a completely new team though. To protect players in YTs from inactive managers, players are able to move to the main squad by themselves in case the youth team is out of team training (by selecting an existing option at the training page).
Youth Team Competition Details
There are 2 kind of "YT Tournaments": YT tournaments created by "normal" users and YT tournaments created by President of National Federation. Let us explain, step by step:
YT tournaments created by normal users have a lot of options:
- Two different formats: Knock-out (up to 4,8,16,32 teams) or League (4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18 teams)
- Set the max. number of allowed substitutions in the tournament games (from 3 to 11)
- Allow the tournament to re-start automatically once it ends. These tournaments will have their own "seasons".
- In League tournaments, the founder can set how many times teams can face each other (called rounds). 1 to 4 rounds can be selected.
- Tournaments can be public or private. Private tournaments require a password for the application.
- A subscription fee can be set for all the participating teams. The value will later be split at the end of the tournament by the top four teams. 60% for the winner, 25% for the runner-up, 10% for the third and 5% to the fourth placed team.
There are some special rules in order to avoid having teams locked playing inactive tournaments. For example, during a tournament, teams can vote in order to end it immediately. If more than 50% of the teams vote yes, the tournament is stopped right away. Teams that leave are not refunded of their subscription fee. On the other hand, teams that stay and see a tournament being stopped unexpectedly have the full subscription fee refunded. Inactive/bot youth teams always count as if they would have voted yes (leave the tournament) but a tournament will never be cancelled if there isn’t, at least, one "yes vote" from an active/human YT.
In tournaments that are set to re-start at the end, teams have an option to leave at the end of the current "season". Once the tournament season ends, these teams will automatically leave and the tournament will be put on hold until possible replacements arrive. In case the founder is set to leave, the tournament will end automatically at the end of the season.
Presidents of the National Federations have the possibility of creating an official U19 league structure for their country. Here are the full details of these leagues:
- Only domestic youth teams can participate in the U19 national league.
- The President can set the number of divisions the league will have. These leagues will have the same league structure as the normal club leagues have at the moment: 8 teams per series. The only exception is that there won’t be playoffs. This means that on each series 2 teams will be promoted and 4 will be relegated.
- Two additional options can be set by Presidents as well: number of replacements each match can have and an entry fee for each division in the league (just like in regular tournaments). The entry fees are to be divided in the same way they are divided in tournaments. In divisions with more than one series, the award is split between all series.
- The U19 leagues can never have more divisions than the regular club leagues.
- Once the President creates the U19 league system, youth team managers can immediately apply to the league. This can always be done during the season as the President will have the possibility of replacing teams. The only exception is if a team is playing a youth tournament: in this scenario it cannot apply to the official youth league tournament.
- As said Presidents can freely populate their league system with all the teams that have applied. The slots left empty will be filled with bot teams.
- There are some rules regarding the way teams are populated in the series. In order to add teams to a lower division, the President must always fill the previous division at half of its capacity.
- If once the matches are being generated, a division only contains bot teams, it’s automatically stopped. The only exceptions are for the first two divisions. Also if there are not enough bot teams in the country to fill the empty slots of one of its series, the creation of that division is stopped.
- Matches are automatically generated at the 11st day of each season. This means that the President has only until the 10th day of the season to create/make changes on the structure of the league.
- After the 11th day of the season the President will only have permission to change bot teams with human U19 teams. Until that day (starting on the 1st day) all types of swaps can be made.
- At the end of each season all promotions/relegations are made automatically. But due to the powers entitled to the Presidents they can eventually swap teams once the season starts. It will be up to the rules each President will set for their leagues.
- There are achievements for players and cups for teams for all series winners.
Other minor features:
- YTs will be awarded with a trophy for their trophy case if they win a tournament.
- Founders can invite teams using a special tournaments’ feature.
- There will info about the top scorer, top assist and best average rating for each tournament.
- There will be a daily update for tournaments that will handle all updates related to them. Tournaments are always generated on this update, that will run around 6:00 AM (server time). For example, if the tournament owner sets the beginning of the tournament today, Monday, you will only see its fixtures on Tuesday, after 6:30 AM (roughly).
Ranking System for Youth Teams
In order to introduce an additional challenge, there is a Ranking for Youth Teams. Here’s how it works:
- Ranking points have a normal and a variable part. Normal part: 3 points for a win (2 if on penalties), 1.5 for a draw and 0 for a defeat. Variable part: a win against an higher rated team can provide up to 1.5 extra win points, depending on the difference of the ranking points of both teams.
- At the end of each regular season, ranking points will be reset for the current season. But ranking points of the previous 2 seasons will still be kept. And the sum of the current season plus the ranking points of the previous 2 seasons will be used as the full ranking points of the team and will set its final ranking. This is exactly like in National Teams!
Other Details
- YT matches are always played on weekends, at the same time of league matches for that country. For example, if a Venezuelan team plays home with an English team, the game will be played at the Venezuelan match time (this means, at 1 AM server-time).
- All U19 games (user-made tournaments and Federal tournaments) will give full exp only if a player will play at least for 60 minutes.
- YT matches provide higher experience than normal friendlies, but naturally less than senior league/cup matches.
- Fitness losses are similar as in any other FS matches.
- Youth players lose the same amount of fitness in travels as any other player would.
- Youth players travel to away games on Fridays at 7 AM (server time).
- YTs will be able to use existing MT transportation means regarding trips. This means that, if the MT has a plane, that very same plane will be used by the YT.
16. Team management
Basically all users will have the possibility to control teams in Footstar. In fact we have 3 types of Clubs in FootStar:
- Teams controlled by humans with FS Fan Gold
- Unprotected teams controlled by humans without FS Fan Gold
- Bot Teams
However managers of unprotected teams have a totally different status/restrictions regarding Gold FS Fan users/managers. These are the main differences:
- Unprotected teams are subject to be immediately taken over by users with FS Fan Gold. B Teams are an exception: they can be managed by users without fs fan but they CAN´T be taken over by users with fs fan because they´re connected with protected Main Team
- FS Fan Gold users will have their teams protected and restrictions free.
Let us explain, starting from Teams controlled by humans with FS Fan Gold.
By subscribing to the gold FS Fan package, you´ll be able to manage a team but you won´t get an automatic team. You should know that you can manage teams from all countries (according to Federation Rules > more informations below) and there might be the possibility that you can´t take control of teams on specific divisions, depending on the "acceptance %" of each division (more informations below). Of course, this only applies when you first take control of the team; you can then promote to higher divisions without any problems.
Be informed that you have the possibility to leave/resign the team if you wish so. (Team >> Resign). But you won´t be able to manage another team in the next 1 month.
Also, to be able to take control of a team, you must be a free player or you need to have the "Manager clause" in your contract . You cannot manage 2 teams in the same time (with first and second player for example..or with father and son). Only ONE team for each user.
When you take control of a team you become the player-manager of the team. Your contract´s wage will be preset following this formula: the average wage of the 11 most well-paid players of the team + 3% of the sponsors weekly income. The value of the wage will be updated weekly at the economic updates. The contract will have duration of 1 season and it will be automatically renewed each season. It also won´t have any signing fees nor match prizes, and you won´t be able to offer yourself a new contract.
If you happen to resign from the team, your player will remain in it or leave, depending on your game option (Manager >> Preferences) regarding this event of the game.
Well, after knowing these informations and having subscribed to the FS FAN Gold package, when you want to start managing a team, you should go to its details page and select the "Control this team" option on the right info panel. It might be wise to first check about player´s info, standings, fixtures, etc. You should know that after you start to control a team some players might leave the team at that exact moment. Those who´ll stay will probably ask some brand new contracts as their bot contracts will be really low, so be ready for that. These are probably the first steps to make when you start with a new team: get to know your players, analyze your squad, make a quick check about your player´s contracts and define the strategy to the club; the team´s training scheme is also very important. You´ll start with €500.000 (0.5M euro or the equivalent on your currency), so you can also take a quick look on the transfer list and free transfers page (All in menu Team >> Transfers). That´s right, when you´re controlling a team you´ll have access to a new main menu option (Team).
Now, let us explain Unprotected teams controlled by humans without FS Fan Gold:
As we said few "lines ago" all users have the possibility to control teams in Footstar..even if they haven´t Gold FS Fan, but with some restrictions. Now let us present you the list of restrictions.
Managers of unprotected teams have the following limitations:
- They can’t release player
- They can’t add players to the shortlist
- They can’t save match-specific events
- They can only set the lineup for their next match, using default orders.
- They can’t hire staff members
- They can’t buy transportation items
- They can’t play MvM
- They can’t loan in or loan out players
- They can’t vote in federation referendums that are manager specific.
- If a team owned by a managers with FS Fan Gold invites one of these teams for a friendly match, the invitation is accepted automatically
- Wages are set automatically for players playing in these teams:
>> 1st Division: 3400€
>> 2nd Division: 2600€
>> 3rd Division: 1800€
>> 4th Division or below: 1250€
- They can’t also set match prizes and contract duration in contracts. The same applies when a player asks to join the team. They receive a message saying that the team is unprotected and therefore can’t offer more than the pre-defined wages, etc.
- Stadium capacities are updated automatically for these teams:
>> 1st Division: 25000 seats
>> 2nd Division: 20000 seats
>> 3rd Division: 15000 seats
>> 4th Division or below: 10000 seats
- They can’t use the "Vacations" feature.
- They can’t leave the club during the season. They can however hand the team to another user. If they decide to do so an "auction" will be set for 7 days. The final winner takes the team. If nobody applies the same manager will continue with the job. The window will re-open with the beginning of the season and closes again in the 12nd day of the season.
- If they are 15 days without visiting the website their teams will be put on auction for 7 days.
- Users without FS Fan Gold cannot apply to bot teams in all periods of the season. They will need permission from the other managers of the same series. There are however periods in which this restriction does not apply:
>> From day 1 to day 12
>> From day 57 to day 61
>> From day 106 to day 112
So that they can enter on bot teams off these periods, there must be the following acceptance %:
>> 1st Division: 50% of the managers
>> 2nd Division: 35% of the managers
>> 3rd Division: 25% of the managers
>> 4th Division or below: 15% of the managers
Votes from bot teams and managers without FS Fan Gold are always counted in favor for new managers.
- Restrictions on the budget for unprotected teams when buying players, depending on their available money
- Team training can’t be set freely and can only be changed once a week. There will be a list of 10 team trainings that will cover all the possibilities we consider important for the purpose of this feature.
- They can pick teams in another countries but they must follow the federation rules and there’s always a limitation regarding the number of teams foreign managers can pick.
Unprotected managers with FS Fan Silver have additional perks over non FS Fan managers. They can:
- Change the team logo
- Change the team kit
- Change the team name
- Change stadium name
- Change club homepage
- Release press conferences
- Have a guestbook and the "last visitors" feature on their clubhouse.
Some other general - but important - details:
- For unprotected teams Manager’s wage is equal to the player’s wage rule.
- The current player contract clause (Manager Clause) keeps the same purpose. If you’re currently playing in an human club, you can only apply to a bot team if you have a manager clause.
- Unprotected managers can hand the management to someone inside the team; but only to users that have FS Fan Gold.
- Unprotected teams can have youth teams.
- Once a Gold FS Fan takes over an unprotected team it will have the possibility to reset the team’s finances.
- Users with less than one month in the game cannot apply to bot teams (unless they have FS Fan Gold of course)
- The restriction to take over bot-teams in the top leagues is over with this new feature.
How will the managers be picked to these bot teams?
As there will probably be a lot of users trying to control teams, there will be an auction in order to decide who controls a team. For example, you decide to control team B and you have permission to do so. An auction will be created for team B (for 7 days). Then user A also applies during this time. At the end of these 7 days the board of the club would decide to whom the club would be assigned. In order to decide the auction winner, a new concept will be created: manager’s reputation. Here is how you can improve your manager’s reputation:
- By simply coaching a club. Every day you coach a club your reputation will increase. You can only benefit from this method during a whole year (365 days), consecutive or not.
- By affording a "Manager Certificate". This will cost both money and interaction points. There will be 2 levels for this Certificate. The last level is only available for FS Fans. This certificate will provide a bonus in the manager’s reputation.
- At the end of the season by winning titles. A bonus will be conceded for each title won (important titles will provide bigger bonuses).
Additional informations related to Team management
Control a team in another country
This is something that can be controlled by the National Federation’s President though. The President is able to set up the voting with the following options:
- Allow Foreign Managers in country;
- Set the "maximum foreign-controlled teams in country", with options 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. This means that half of the teams in a country are always reserved to local users while the rest might be reserved or not, depending on the community wishes.
- All users in the country can vote. You can be able to hand it to a foreign ONLY in case the federation rules allow it. By default all countries don´t allow Foreign Managers.
Matches management
As a manager you´ll have the responsibility to set your team´s starting eleven, choose its formation and possibly schedule some match events, choose the Individual Match orders for all your players, etc.. The purpose of FootStar is not to be an online football manager simulator so we don´t want you to waste too much time with it.
To select your starting eleven you need to go to Team >> Fixtures >> Starting Eleven on the right info panel. The page consists on a formation + starting eleven selector + team orders selector (in Flash, please refer to the FootStar Computer Requirements above in this manual). Everything should be pretty straight-forward. On top, you´ll find the selector menu in which you can switch between any of these three options. To select the players into the formation (you can change the formation by moving the circles representing the players) just drag and drop them at the formation circles. You should also know that you won´t be able to select invalid formations; a formation has to have at least 3 defenders, 2 midfielders and one forward. You need to click on the SAVE button in order to keep all the changes you make.
You can also set Match Orders for the match. At the top of the page you´ll find a select box with the "Default Orders" text on it. Well this means that you´re editing the default orders of your team. These orders will be used in any match where match orders weren´t set. If you go to that box and select any other game, you´ll be editing the specific orders for that match. These kind of pre-defined orders (called Match Orders) will be used over default orders so be careful when you set them for a specific match.
The other important feature for matches is the possibility to schedule the substitution/other events of your players. Going to Team >> Fixtures >> Match Events you´ll find an interface to schedule your subs and other events. You can also program some specific conditions for the sub to happen such as minute and match result.
Team Talks
Being a manager, you have an important task: the communication with the players. We provide you an interface so that you can easily do that without having to use internal messages. Going to Team >> Players >> Team talks, you´ll find an option to leave a message to a specific player or to leave a message to all of your players. Your players will probably answer back, and you´ll see a small warning box in the office page if that happens. Bear in mind that if some of your players are foreign, they´ll probably not be able to understand your native language.
Result Prizes
These prizes are given when your team achieves a draw or a win (home/away). You can set a value of a maximum of 1% of your available amount of money for each prize. This prize will be paid to all players that participate in the match, providing it is an official (league/cup/itc) match. You can change the value of the prizes in your advanced options at any time you want.
Assistant Managers
By going to Manager >> Club >> Staff, you can appoint players to help you managing your team. Only FS Fan players/users are eligible to have and maintain these functions though. You should be wise when you appoint Assistant Managers for your team: they´ll have some really important powers that might affect the success of your team as a whole.
So only appoint users in which you have full trust! We can´t really held responsibility if one of your Assistants ruins a match or some other aspect of your team management. In fact, so that we realize how much we care about this, we won´t be giving the chance of Assistants to sell or/and release players from the team.
Here are the complete list of available Assistant Managers´ powers:
- Manage player´s contracts
- Manage starting eleven and match events/orders
- Manage main team´s trainings
- Manage team talks
- Schedule friendly matches
- Team Forum moderation
- Trips
- Buy players (manager can set some restrictions on budget and contract-clauses)
- Manage youth team (manager can set some restrictions on budget and contract-clauses)
Vacations & Contract Terminations
Players can offer you friendly contract terminations. In case you don´t answer (positively or negatively) these requests in 30 days (21 days for unprotected teams) they´ll be free to leave the club without any kind of compensation.
These waiting periods can be reduced in 15 days depending on the inactivity level of the manager. Meaning that for regular team, in case of inactive manager, players can wait only 15 days to leave. For unprotected teams it can go down to 7 days. A manager is immediately considered inactive in case he does not log in the game for 15 days. If the manager is on Vacations (Manager > Club > Vacations) these periods are doubled. You can only go on vacations once in a season.
Team´s Items/Goods
Such as players, teams can also buy their own items. However, as of today, teams can only buy planes and/or buses in order to use them to travel when they play away matches. A team can in fact own a plane and a bus but there isn´t any special use in having both as only the best (plane) will be used in travels. These items have a fixed monthly cost and cannot be improved. You should know three very important things: first is that when you play away your team needs to travel and players lose fitness when they travel. The second is that better transportation items will reduce the impact trips have on players´ fitness levels. Finally, another important thing you should know is that if you´re going to play away from your city and you don´t have any transportation item, your team will automatically rent a bus and the team will have to pay a fee for this: the full maintenance fee (of a bus) in case the trip is outside the country or half the maintenance fee in case the trip is to another city inside the country. These costs include going and returning from the city where the match takes place.
Team Spirit
Team Spirit is a variable visible on player relationships page. If it's low team players' morale will decrease on a daily basis. If it's high (>= 95%) it can give boost to morale for teams' players with low morale (< 85%).
Team Spirit is increasing or decreasing each day and the change is decided by how many of that team's players are using 'socialize' or 'stay alone' on that day (main team and youth team players are included here). 'Stay alone' has more weight in calculations so if the same number players are using each of these options, team spirit will decrease.
Team Harmony
Team Harmony is a variable visible in club pages. It’s the average level of happiness of all the players in the club. Players have an interface at their profile page to change their current happiness at the club. This variable has no effect on ME and any other part of the game. It’s just a way for other players to know how the mood is on your team’s locker rooms.
Players Discipline
Every player will receive his wage, every week...but all teams have the possibility to give "fines" for their players. These fines consist to not pay player´s wage for 1 week if he commit some "errors":
- Player is in a different city when team training is ongoing
- Player is in a different city when team is playing a match
Managers can give these fines going to "discipline page", here: Manager > Players > Discipline
Stadium
Your stadium´s capacity is another of Footstar´s decisive factors. This because the higher you stadium´s capacity is, the higher the ticket´s income will be. Provided of course that your team is able to attract the necessary number of supporters to fill the stadium!
The downside of having a big stadium is that you’ll have to pay maintenance costs, so be careful with unnecessary seats. As we said the stadium may not always fill, so empty seats are a synonym of loss. But if you have your stadium full on every match, it means that you are losing money, because you are not taking full advantage of the fact that with a bigger stadium, you’d have more attendance and money.
The stadium is divided into 8 stands, and you can build as much places as you want. The construction isn’t immediate and it can last several months, depending of course on the dimension of the new capacity. Remember that a Footstar month is equal to a real-life week (more information on the section “Footstar Week” of this Manual). Stadium updates are made on Fridays during the economic updates. An estimate about the construction time for the stadium will be presented to you at the stadium´s details page.
You also have the possibility to reduce the stadium´s capacity. For that, just change the option “Type of construction” to “Demolish”. As in the construction type, you will have to pay a fee for each demolished chair. The chair’s destruction is immediate. The price for each seat is 20€. The cost for a demolition is 5€ per seat.
You can’t set the ticket’s price for your stadium. The price is constant (6€) and unless it’s really necessary we won’t be changing it at all.
Gym
Gym is a team facility who represent an additional options-set that can help players improving Skills, Fitness, Morale and Confidence. There is a cost to create a Gym (2,5 millions €) and this cost can be shared by the team and their players (at least 20 different players are required to complete the funding process). B-Teams can also have gyms and these are shared with the main teams (funding as well). Creation process can be started going on Manager menu > Team Facilities.
Gyms provide 4 kinds of bonuses:
- Skill: +0,1 - 1.500€ for each session and 2 days as cooldown period
- Fitness: +8% - 1.000€ for each session and 7 days as cooldown period
- Morale: +5% - 750€ for each session and 2 days as cooldown period
- Confidence: +1 level up - 3.500 € for each session and 7 days as cooldown period
A city gym is also available and it provides the same bonuses, however the the price of bonuses is doubled. The city gym is available at the city page you’re in. You can find it at Player >> Location.
Additional info
- Skill bonus provided by gyms is always the same +0.1. Player age, skill level, fitness level, GK skill - none of these have any influence on skill bonus.
- Buying skill bonus for skills below 1 and above 100 will actually adds +20% to progression bar. That happens because real skills values are rounded in FS and when you buy skill bonus for skill which is already 100, it means you are buying +0.1 to skill above 99.5 and that 0.1 equals 20% of half skill you still have to train.
- Skill and fitness buying does not count as an additional training and do not break or start "training in a row" bonuses.
Economy
Each week on Fridays (10:00 server-time) the financial updates take place. It´s at this moment that your wages are paid and your monthly costs are deducted from your bank account.
For teams, they´ll have to pay wages and stadium maintenance but they´ll also receive their sponsor´s money income and local city´s football association´s money income.
Human-controlled teams should be careful so that they have the necessary money to pay their players´ wages. If they fail to pay their players, wages will be left behind and with a delay of 2 wages, human players will be free to leave without any compensation fee.
17. Transfers
The transfer system in FootStar is divided in 4 parts: Free transfers, Regular transfers (by auction), Loan transfers and Trial contracts.
We´ll start with free transfers.
Whenever a human-controlled player is out of contract, he´s available for any team to sign for free; this means he´s on free transfer. The only step he has to take in order to move to a new team is only to discuss the contract
The second part of the transfer system is the Regular Transfers.
There are several steps one has to go through to complete a regular transfer. First, the human manager of the team must put for sale the human-controlled player. This can be done with the player´s agreement or against the player´s will: it´s really up to the manager to decide. After the player is put on the transfer list, a deadline will be set for offers to arrive. This deadline is exactly 3 days after he is put on the list. During this time, other human managers from other teams have the possibility of making offers respecting a minimum bid price set by the player´s manager. All bids values will remain hidden in the process: this is called by as a closed auction. After the deadline expires, no more bids can be made. At that time it´s up to the player to decide if he accepts any of the bids; full contract details will be shown to the player regarding all accepted bids and he has the possibility to make the choice: either he decides to accept one offer or he might even reject all bids and remain at the club.
The third part of the transfer system is the Loan Transfers.
Human teams are able to loan players to other human teams. The concept is very simple and similar to what happens in real life. Let´s explain it:
- Players can be loaned for 4, 8, 12 or 16 weeks.
- The wage can be shared between teams. There is a "% box" in order to set this value
- A "call back" option might be set. Still, it’s only valid for loans over 4 weeks and a player must always remain at least 50% of the time of the loan before being able to be called back.
- Match prizes can be offered, as well as the possibility to pay House expenses. Players will have their prizes and all contract details restored once they return to their original club.
- A loan fee can be offered by the team that makes the offer. This fee cannot be higher than 20x the wage of the player (example, wage of 500€, max. fee would be 10000€). This value is capped at 100000€ in case the wage multiplier is bigger than this.
The fourth and last part of the transfer system is the Trial Contracts.
All Clubs have the option to automatically receive new players with trial contracts. Managers can find this option under Manager > Transfers. Here, managers can set how many players they accept (those players are included in the 50 players limit), their contract duration (7 to 30 days), wages, prizes, access to forum, etc. During the trial contract, the player can’t be approached by other teams but his manager can offer him a professional contract. If at the end of the trial contract the player hasn’t accepted any professional contract with his current club he will be a free player again.
Only free 17 years old players can accept trial contracts. Every new player on FS will be automatically approached by teams that accept players on trial.
Other features/details:
- Managers can mark players for loan or not. Offers to players unavailable for loan will be rejected automatically but the player’s manager will be informed of this fact.
- Managers can offer human players for loan to other human teams and player(s) will be informed.
- Teams can make direct loan offers for players. These offers will need to be accepted or rejected. Once a loan offer is accepted by a team, it’s up to the player to make the final decision.
- Loaned players are totally cannot receive new contract offers, cannot be sold, released or even approached by other teams.
Loans are included in the Federation Rules. This means that is up to the Federation of each country to decide the following options:
- Allow loans or not. In case loans are allowed, set the max. number of players allowed to be loaned in per team (from 1 to 10).
- Allow (or not) foreign players to be loaned in.
Only managers can vote on this election. Remember that you can only vote on elections of your national federation, even if you manage a team in another country.
Some other Informations related to Transfers
Overpriced transfers in the Transfer Market
All bids should be in relevance to what could be considered reasonable for the player in question. Overpriced transfers can ruin the good atmosphere of the game between users so our staff members will have the possibility to adjust and/or cancel transfers if they believe the good spirit of the game is at risk.
Signing restrictions
Players won´t be able to sign for the same club and/or manager for a period of at least 3 months. This includes bot clubs from the date when the changes take effect on. Examples:
- a player leaves a bot and immediately tries to sign for it again: he won´t be allowed to do that;
- a player plays for a club managed by manager X. Manager X in the meanwhile is fired (for some reason) and takes control of another club in the following weeks. The player won´t be able to sign for his old manager´s club for 3 months after the manager first left. Of course bot players cannot be transferred in any way (free transfer, loans or regular transfers).
Transfers and trips
You should know that once you set a transfer deal with a team that´s not in your current location, you´re automatically set to travel to the location of your new team.
Direct transfer offers
Players playing in human-controlled teams can be approached directly by other human-controlled teams. Then it will be up to the manager to decide whether to accept the offer or not. In case the offer is accepted the player will automatically be put on the transfer list with the minimum fee being the previously received offer. Until the end of the auction, other teams will be able to make offers (similar or higher) but the ultimate decision will obviously be from the player.
The only way to activate a minimum clause release fee is to make a direct offer to the player. Unanswered offers are deleted after 7 days of when they were created. Players will not be informed about the fees of direct offers (unless of course they´re told by their managers) but they´ll be informed once the team receives an offer and/or also when the manager rejects an offer.
18. Competitions for clubs
There are three competitions for Clubs: National Championship, National Cup and International Competitions (divided in Champions League, Cup Winners League and Continental League). There´s also a possibility to play friendly matches when a team is not participating in the national cup.
Let´s start with NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP:
The number of divisions might differ from country to country. However each series has always the same number of teams, 8. The basic structure of the division system is the same for each country. Basically it´s a pyramidal format. The bigger the division is the more series it will have. The format is the following:
First Division - 1 series
Second Division - 2 series (B-1, B-2)
Third Division - 4 series (C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4)
Fourth Division - 8 series (D-1, D-2, D-3, ... D-8)
etc.
With this format, we´ll have on each series 2 teams being relegated directly to the division below (if not in the bottom division) and 1 being promoted to the division immediately above (if not in the top division already). 2 more promotions and relegations are regulated by play-off/out matches (more info in the next lines)
Each league round will be played on weekends, with friendly and cup matches on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Along with a 2 week off-season, this makes a season to last around 16 weeks.
Team positions within a series are ordered by (order of importance) points, goal average, scored goals and number of victories. If teams stay even after comparing all these items, a random factor will be applied.
When you´re promoted to a higher division you´ll gain a division bonus (for finishing 1st). Here you have the bonus list by division:
First division (National Champion):
1st place: €250000 ; 2nd place: €125000 ; 3rd place: €62500
Second division:
1st place: €200000 ; 2nd place: €100000 ; 3rd place: €50000
Third division:
1st place: €150000 ; 2nd place: €75000 ; 3rd place: €37500
Fourth division:
1st place: €100000 ; 2nd place: €50000 ; 3rd place: €25000
Fifth division:
1st place: €50000 ; 2nd place: €25000 ; 3rd place: €15000
There are also prizes for the following awards:
Top Scorer
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Top Assists
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Best Average-Rating
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
Most MoM awards
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
These individual prizes are split 50%/50% between the player and the team (even if any of them is bot).
B-Teams
B Teams can NEVER play in the same division of the Main Team. If, due to promotion/relegation, teams are put in the same division, the B Team will be relegated to the immediate lower division. If there are no divisions available, the B Team will be disbanded and all players placed in the main team.
Play off/out
These are the rules:
- The fifth placed teams in the top division are ordered by the standings’ rules in a specific ranking (ranking A);
- To this very same ranking, the sixth placed teams in the top division are added to the bottom of the ranking and ordered by the standings’ rules (ranking A);
- The second placed teams of the lower division are ordered in their own ranking (ranking B);
Playoff matches result from matching the best teams in Ranking A with the worst teams in Ranking B. From now on, you will find a link at the standing’s page to a page in which you will find specific playoff information for the division you have selected. These matches have similar attendances to league games. The income from this attendance will be split (50% for each team).
Playoffs are played in the weekend after the last league games.
NATIONAL CUP
Each country will have its own National Cup competition. Of course that the number of rounds the cup will have will depend on the number of teams a country has.
Another important thing to be mentioned is concerning cup gate receipts. 60% of the gate receipts of cup matches will be give to the home team and 40% to the away team. If we´re talking about the final, the receipts will be shared (50%/ 50%).
Cup matches are special matches. If the game is not settled after 90´ it will go on to extra-time. Then, if after the 120´ there is still a draw, a penalty shoot-out will take place to decide the winner. The winning team will move to the next round but there is a special rule about B Teams: they can take part in the national cup but cannot advance to the next round if they win a match, unless they face a bot or another B Team. In this case the B Team that wins the match will advance to next round.
As told before, cup matches are played mid-week on Wednesdays or Thursdays (depending on your country´s match schedule). A team cannot play a friendly and a cup match on the same week.
Cup matches are kinda looked like league matches in what concerns to experience and morale (regarding players). Players will get the same experience and morale bonus (or penalties in case of morale) as in league games. Match prizes are also given on cup matches.
The cup winner will be given a monetary prize of €400000. The runner-up will earn €200000.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS
There are three competitions per continent
(ITC from now on): the Champions League, the Cup Winners League and the Continental League.
ITC’s matches are normal matches with slight variations in experience gains and attendances. Players lose fitness and need to travel to the city where the match takes place. Experience gains will be somewhere in the middle between what league and national team matches award (more than league and less than national team matches). Attendances will be just a little higher than in league matches and therefore they’ll generate more income for the participants (only for the home team during the group stage, and split 50% in the knock-out stages). International competitions will take place on Fridays at 12:00 server time.
There is a ranking similar to the national teams ranking, called International club ranking. The position of a country in this ranking will define the number of teams from that country that qualify to the Continental League. Points are earned to this ranking through the results in the matches the team plays. If a team from China wins a ITC match the points generated by this victory will be awarded to China in the ranking. This ranking will also be used to seed teams in groups (teams from countries with better ranking will be placed higher in the group seeds).
Here are Infos of each competition:
Champions League
All the top league champions from all FS countries in the continent qualify to play in this competition.
The competition will have a group stage and a final knock-out stage. Teams will be split in groups of 6 teams, according to the ITC country rankings. There will be home and away matches during the group phase. The top eight teams from the group phase qualify to the quarter-finals (the first placed teams, plus the necessary best second placed in order to fill the number of teams necessary). The knock-out stage is played in one leg only and the draw is completely random. The prize for the winning team in this competition will be 500.000, and 250.000 for the runner-up.
Cup Winners League
Same rules as in the Champions League, except the teams taking place in this one will be the cup winners from all countries instead. In case the cup winner also won the top league, it will take part in the Champions League, and the other cup finalist will be qualified to the CWL instead. Prizes for the finalists will be: 200.000 for the winner and 100.000 for the runner-up.
Continental League
The rules for these competitions are a little different. Depending on the ITC ranking, each country can qualify up to 3 teams to this competition:
- The countries in higher third of the table qualify 3 teams;
- Those in the second third, qualify 2 teams.
- And finally, countries in the last third qualify 1 team only.
In the first phase, teams will be placed in groups of 6 teams (one round only). Then, 3 teams are qualified from each group to the following phase. In the second phase a similar group stage will be formed (with the teams that qualified from the first stage). Again, groups of 6, one round only. From this stage, eight teams will qualify to the quarter finals (the first placed teams plus the necessary best second placed to fill the number of teams). The knock-out stage is played in one leg only and the draw is random. The prize for the winning team will be 350.000, and 175.000 for the runner-up.
Schedule
These competitions will last for 13 weeks (10 weeks for the group stages and 3 more for the quarter finals). The finals will be played on the "playoff" week, meaning that ITCs only start on the third week of the season (just before the 3rd national league round). Matches will be played on Fridays at 12:00 (server time).
Intercontinental Competitions
There is a Intercontinental title to be disputed between the three continental winners of the Champions League of the previous season. This will be a simple competition, in which the two teams from the continents with lowest (combined) ranking will play a semi-final in order to qualify to the final, where they will meet the team from the continent with the highest ranking. The winner will get no monetary prize, but instead fame & glory!
This competition will be played in the second week of the pre-season, on Wednesday (semi-finals) & Thursday (final).
FRIENDLY MATCHES
Your team can play a friendly match once a week if it´s not set to play on the national cup. This kind of matches must be scheduled by a human manager though. So if you are playing on a bot, you can forget about playing any friendly matches.
B Teams can organize friendly matches vs Main Team or another B Team.
Friendly matches´ gate receipts will be shared between both clubs (50%/ 50%).
In these kind of matches, up to 11 (eleven) substitutions are allowed.
Also, in friendly matches you earn SAME experience as national championship´s matches and, more importantly, you don´t receive any morale penalties regarding your team role and performance during the match. However, you´ll receive match prizes.
19. International competitions for NTs and CTs
Not only club competition we have in FS. There are also NATIONAL TEAMS (U18, U21 and main NT)
The reason for the U18 team (and not some other version) is simple: we want newbies to be brought into the NT experience early in the game, as to motivate them a little more in the first few seasons: those who train best will certainly be the ones selected for this "launcher" team. Every NT/CT has his own manager who is nominated by president of national federation.
They are at the presidents' mercy for all that matters: if the president wishes, he can fire the manager at the moment. Obviously this can be seen as a bad move by the community - and do I hear the mob calling for a revolution?
To become a NT manager you simply have to
a) be a FS Fan
b) be invited by the president of a federation
c) accept the invitation.
You will then have access to these options:
- You can obviously select the national squad (call up players to the squad, remove players from the squad, etc.);
- Set an Assistant Manager (working exactly like a club assistant) - they'll have to be FS Fans;
- Resign from the position - in which case the president will have to nominate someone else.
A national manager can call himself up to his own national team, if he gathers the conditions to do so (nationality, age, etc.).
If a NT manager loses its FS Fan status, he's automatically removed from the position. Players can be called up for national teams if they fill a set of requirements:
- They have to be holding the nationality of the country they are being called up for;
- They have to be declared available to play for that country - all players will be able to choose if they are available to play for a national team or not;
- They have to fit in the right age group (of course).
In case a player has gained a Main Team cap for a certain country, he won't ever again be allowed to play for any other country than that particular one. This does not apply to U18 or U21 caps (in which case the player will be still eligible to play for any other country). For CT, is enough to gain a cap for U18, U21 or NT to be "locked" in that city.
The main benefit of playing in a national team or city team is the experience it awards to the player. In all cases the experience awarded is a percentage of the experience the player already has gained in his club and international career. This percentage though is capped at set values (as so to not make experience increase exponentially for international players), but these set values are though higher than league matches - and bigger depending on the NT type, U18, U21 or main team, the main team awarding the highest possible experience. This means NTs/CTs is an important way of gathering experience, although it all still depend on the experience you gained in the rest of the player's footballing career.
In international matches the experience a player has is also more important and affects skills and judgment a lot more than in normal club matches (except in U18 games, where the effect is equal to a normal league match). So, the lower the experience, the more the skills are affected by it (roughly the double of league matches in U21 and main teams alike) and the less likely a player will be to follow individual orders - much more than in league matches in U21 matches and even more in main team matches, where experience matters really a lot.
Fitness losses in international matches are exactly the same as in any other match. And remember there's probably also trips involved, so beware the experience gained comes at the cost of losing some fitness.
Eligibility for U21 National Teams
Players above the age of 21 cannot be called up and/or play for the U21 NT. All those with 21 or less can be called up.
However, the U21 WC final call up must respect another extra rule. Here's a practical example to explain it: the first U21 WC was played at season 6 (despite starting on season 5). This means that all players born onwards 1/1 (FS week/season) was able to play it. The second U21 WC started on season 6 and end on season 7. So, all players born onwards 1/2 was allowed to be called in.
Eligibility for U18 National Teams
Players aged 17 or 18 can be called up and play for the U18 NT. All those aged 19 or more can never be called up/play.
Again, the U18 WC final call up must respect the extra rule. Another practical example to explain it: the first U18 WC was played at season 6 (despite starting on season 5). This means that all players born onwards 1/4 (FS week/season) was able to play it.
These eligibility rules were made so that we could offer all players the possibility to play in a U21/U18 National Team considering the fact that players that started on earlier weeks had an advantage. At the same time we don't want those who start on the first weeks to have a disadvantage for aging sooner than all the others.
We hope that, with these rules, everything is more balanced. Unfortunately there would never be a perfect solution for this.
World Cup and International Matches
This sub-section deals with the match days and the international competitions themselves: including the much waited World Cup!
Actually, there are 3 World Cups, not only one. U18 and U21 World Cups are played every season, while the main teams' World Cup are played every 3 seasons. For CTs is almost the same but NTs will play a WC every season!
World Cup: U18 and U21 Teams
The U18 and U21 Teams play each a qualifying tournament every season to decide which teams advance to the World Cups. The qualifications are hold in the following format:
- Teams are placed in 14 groups of 6 teams each (using a seeding system related to a NT ranking) and play against each other twice. The first-placed teams of each group (totaling 14) and the best 2 second-placed teams advance to the U18 and U21 World Cup competitions, respectively. These final 16 play against each other in a direct elimination style tournament and the winner will be decided in the final match. There's no 3rd place match, so there's just winner and runner-up in this competition.
There is time for 3 friendly matches each season to be scheduled by the national managers, before the qualifying tournament starts.
U18 matches are played on Mondays at 17:00 FS-time, while U21 matches are played on the same day but at 18:30 FS-time. The World Cups will have matches played on different days.
World Cup: Main National Teams
The main National Teams have the chance to take part on a World Cup only every 3 seasons. Why? Well, because we feel the WC should be a special event. Unlike the U21 and U18 WCs, this one will be sometimes a one-off chance for a player to really show himself up to the whole FS world.
Qualifying
Unlike U18 and U21 qualifying, the qualifying for the main World Cup (Football Star World Cup, FSWC for short) is also different. Along with being played over the course of 3 seasons, it is also be divided by continents - each team compete against others from the same continent, with the exception of Asia, Africa and Oceania which, due to the small amount of nations, are grouped together. The number of teams qualifying from each continent is decided using a NT ranking system based on NT performances over the past few seasons.
Qualifying groups is divided like this:
- European countries in 8 groups of 6 teams each;
- American countries in 2 groups of 6 teams each;
- Asian, African and Oceanian countries in 4 groups of 6 teams each.
As said, each continent have a variable number of teams qualifying to the FSWC, but the total will sum up to 32 teams.
Countries in each group play each other 4 times, 2 times at home and 2 away. This brings the total amount of games played during the qualifying tournament to 20 games for each team. Games are played roughly bi-weekly, with friendly matches scheduled by the managers filling the gaps in weeks when no official matches are played.
Football Star World Cup
The FS-WC is played at the end of the 3rd qualifying season, and 32 teams will take part on it.
The first phase of the FSWC is a group round, with teams being placed using a seeding system in groups of 4 teams. There are 8 groups in total. Three games are played to decide who advances to the second and final phase. The first and second-placed teams of each group advance to the next phase.
The second and final phase of the FSWC is played with teams facing each other in direct elimination matches. 16 teams, then 8, then 4, then the 2 finalists will play each other to decide the Football Star World Champion title. There's no 3rd place match.
Main national team matches are played on Mondays at 20:30 FS-time, except during the World Cup final phase, which is explained in the next sub-section of this section.
CITY TEAMS
Not only countries have representation in FS world. Also every city have own representation from players born in certain city.
City teams are very similar to national teams. There are same age category for every city like in NT so every city have 3 different representation squad (U18, U21 and NT) Eligibility rules for U18 and U21 are exactly same as NT U18 and U21.
Also other rules are very similar to NT:
- The manager for each team is nominated by the federation president
- The city stadium is designated by the federation president as well as the team kit.
- The manager is responsible for the team management (call ups, squad, tactics)
- City teams can only play with players born on the city. There are no "double nationality" features for cities, meaning that you can only play for your native city, no matter what.
- A player cannot play or be call up for the national team and for the city team at same time. However, they can play both on different weeks.
- A player, after playing one match for a city team, will be bound to that city team and cannot play for another city team ever.
- All players are given the chance to change to another team one time only, provided that they haven’t played for any city team. To do that, you just have to go to the city details’ page and click the appropriate option.
- You don’t have to be FS Fan to become a City Manager. However, you can’t be nominated if you are already a City/NT manager or president/vice-president.
- There are maximum 3 substitutions in city teams matches (for all types of games).
- A player can only change to another city once. Also the change to another city is automatically locked once a player makes a game for a city team.
- You can only change to cities of your own country.
- You can play for your city even if you have player for another country in a NT.
- You can play with several players you own in different city teams.
- There is forums for city teams (like in NTs).
- There are suspensions for city teams, just like in NTs (same model)
- Players can refuse playing for their city NT.
- You can play for both NT and CT, as long as it’s not in the same match day.
- No double NTs in cities or something similar.
- Confidence and moral loss is exactly like the NTs.
- If the system finds a city team with an appointed match but without a squad, it will call bot players to fill up the squad. There might be city teams that won’t have enough players due to small countries but they president will either have to try to increase the user base or just don’t play friendly games or play them with bots.
- Each season, a World Cup country will be picked amongst the Federation Presidents to host all 3 world cups of the same season. For example, if Iceland is picked, both the AA, U21 and U18 city WC’s will be played in Iceland.
There are also competitions of city teams (including World Cup in every age category). The competition is exactly the same as the World Cup of U21/U18 National Teams. The difference is that not all teams can play the qualifying stage. Matches are on same day as NT (Monday) but on different time:
- U18: 13:30
- U21: 14:00
- Main team: 14:30
There are much more cities than countries so there has to be pre-qualification stage every season for every age category. Pre-qualification and qualifications stage are played in same time. In qualification there are only 96 teams (48 are top3 from every group in season before qualification + top48 from ranking of prequalification season before). All other teams will play only prequalification for next season qualification.
The global ranking gets reset at the end of every season. If a team does not play a friendly match in a certain week it looses 2% of its ranking (until the cap of 1500 points). All teams start with 1500 points. The formula for awarding and removing points is based on the well known Elo rating system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system).
Calendar and Dates - Match Days, Trips, Squad Announcements
The NT managers have the chance to release the squad announcement 5 days before each match. If they fail to do so, the system will release it on Sunday morning whatever squad they selected until that point as the official squad for the next NT match. Whichever players are called are the only ones available to play in the upcoming match - managers cannot call up any more players (or remove someone from the squad) if the squad has already been announced.
Players called up to the national squad will go on trip to the site of the next NT match every Monday at 4:00 FS-time. All trips are made by plane. Fitness losses in these trips are as follow: 2% for trips between different countries and 1% if the trip is to another city in the same country. After the match takes place, players will return to their clubs' location. This obviously applies only during the qualifying/friendly phase, before the World Cup takes place.
The final phase of the U18 and U21 World Cups occurs during a full week, as well as the second phase of the FSWC. This means that players called up for the WCs will have to travel to the country where it takes place and stay there for the whole week, being effectively away from their clubs. On the first phase of the FSWC (the group phase) this does not apply though: players will play the group match and return to their clubs after the match is over.
Also, a "national team season" only changes after the WCs take place; so, effectively, they only change after week 1 (1 week later than the normal season change). This is important for rankings, as you can read below.
National Team's Ranking
The ranking will work as follows:
>> Points for result:
- Win (no penalty shootout) 3
- Draw 1
- Loss (no penalty shootout) 0
- Win (penalty shootout) 2
- Loss (penalty shootout) 1
>> The value will then be multiplied as follows:
- Game type: Friendly match: x1 | WC Qualifier: x2 | WC Stage: x4
- Opponent's position ranking with the following formula, where:
X = Number of Countries in FS | Y = Opponent's Ranking Position
Multiplier = (X - (Y - 1)) / (X / 2) (This multiplier cannot be lower than 0.5)
So, the amount of ranking points if you play and win a NT Friendly against the first on the ranking:
>> 3 (winning points) x 1 (game type mult.) x 2 (ranking mult.) = 6 points In a World Cup final stage >> 3 x 4 (game type mult.) x 2 = 24 points
This version is actually very similar the formula used by FIFA. We have removed some parts in order to add simplicity.
The season ranking is reset once the World Cup finishes (remember that NTs' seasons are only increased once a WC is completed). However the points are saved until 3 seasons in the past and used to define the final ranking position. An example:
- The main English NT wins 40 points in season 1, 30 points in season 2 and 50 in season 3. Their ranking points are the sum of these 3 seasons (120). Then, on season 4 they get 80 points. Season 1 points are dropped and the ranking points are updated to 30+50+80=160.
Another important reminder is that the WC Qualifiers draw will always take place before the first friendly matches.
Misc Rules
- In friendlies, National Teams manager is able to make 11 substitutions. But only 3 in official games.
- There are no morale losses in NT friendlies, but there are morale drops in official NT games, just like in official club games.
- There is special forum for National Team managers only.
- NT Managers can call up from 16 to 22 players.
- Experience gains are calculated as in normal club games (dependable on the number of minutes you play, avoid getting tired effect) (but the gains are not obviously the same: as said previously on this section).
20. Player Awards
Football is team game but of course every player train to be as good as possible individual. There are several awards player can get:
In every match played there is possibility to win Man of the Match award. All players start with 5 points (in a 0-10 scale) and this rating will raise or drop depending on your performance during the match. At the end if the match the player with the higher rating will win the Man of the Match award. This rating might also have an influence on your morale. Good matches will raise your morale but bad performances will ruin it, so be careful, especially with your fitness level.
At the end of season there are also other possible awards:
Top Scorer
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Top Assists
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Best Average-Rating
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
Most MoM awards
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
These individual prizes are split 50%/50% between the player and the team (even if any of them is bot).
But it is not end of possible award. Every season there is contest for Player of the Year. There are couple category of this award:
- best u-21 player of the year in FS
- best u-21 goalkeeper in FS
- best u-21 defender in FS
- best u-21 midfielder in FS
- best u-21 forward in FS
- best u-21 player of the year in his country
- best u-21 goalkeeper in his country
- best u-21 defender in his country
- best u-21 midfielder in his country
- best u-21 forward in his country
- best player of the year in FS
- best goalkeeper in FS
- best defender in FS
- best midfielder in FS
- best forward in FS
- best player of the year in his country
- best goalkeeper in his country
- best defender in his country
- best midfielder in his country
- best forward in his country
21. National Federations
There is a national federation for each country and each federation have a president that is to be elected by the national users.
The election of the president works like this:
- You can vote only concerning the federation of your country;
- You can only vote if your account is at least 1 season (112 days) old;
- You can vote in any national user that has come forward as a candidate, regardless of their FS Fan status;
- You cannot vote for yourself;
- Normal user votes will amount to one "election point", Silver user votes are worth 2 election points, and Gold 3 election points.
This difference in "election points" has some background reasons, of course. Gold users are normally the managers and they'll be the ones releasing their players to the national teams; they deserve to have more weight on the election. Silver users are normally the assistants and we believe the same advantage should be give to them. Besides, there's the fact that everyone who supports the game should have a stronger voice on the direction it takes, especially since national federations do really give any in-game advantage (other than a whole lot of extra work) - and users aren't able to vote for themselves.
Users, after the election starts, will need to officially state they're candidates so users can vote for them. The candidate with more points after the period of 7 days of election will win. If two users get the same amount of points, the older user wins.
The president of the National Federation is responsible for nominating all three National Team managers (main NT, U21 & U18) and all CTs' managers (NT, U21 and U18 of each city). He can name whoever he wants, of any nationality. For national teams there's additional requirement that a manager has to have a silver or gold FS Fan. President cannot nominate himself though and a user cannot be a president and a manager/assistant of any national or city team at the same time. The nominated user will still need to accept the proposal, of course. The president can also fire NT or CT managers at anytime he wishes.
Other presidential tasks include:
- He can create a national referendum for all managers in order to set a limit for foreign players in all teams of the country. If more than 50% of the managers vote yes on the proposal, the limitation will be imposed. If there aren't any human teams in the country, this referendum can't be created;
- He can set the number of years (seasons) a player needs to be playing in the country to get a double nationality (with a minimum limit of 2 seasons) and - he can allow (or not) the National Team to use players that were not born in the country (with double nationalities). This is subject to a national referendum concerning all users of a country. Both options are decided in the same referendum;
- He can allow loans or not. In case loans are allowed, set the max. number of players allowed to be loaned in per team (from 1 to 10). This is subject to a national referendum concerning all users of a country. Both options are decided in the same referendum;
- Allow (or not) foreign players to be loaned in. There are no restrictions for the number of players that can be loaned out. Only managers can vote on this election;
- He'll be able to choose the stadium used for NT/CT games: the national stadium;
- He can change the name of the first division of the country by creating a national referendum in which all users from the country can vote;
- He can change the name of the national federation, also subject to national referendum.
- He can set the national team kits.
- He can set the national URL, the federation logo and a lot of other minor options.
- He can send national announcements to the community.
- He can review application for new cities-creation and then accept or reject them;
- He can change cities' pictures for the newly created cities. This can be set at the page where team kits are set;
- He can nominate vice-presidents: these have all the options the president has except the ones requiring referendums, firing/nominating National Managers and voting for the World Cup site;
- National Presidents can assign cities to a Vice-President. This will give them all the same powers Presidents have when they are controlling cities’ options: appoint/fire managers, change team kits and city team stadium. This option can be set at the same page where city managers are appointed;
- He can manage Official U19 League Tournaments (more info in the next lines);
- He can make changes to the league structures (more info in the next lines);
- He can nominate up to four players as Journalists (more info in the next lines).
All presidents will decide, amongst them, who will host the World Cups (using an internal voting system);
National referendums are open for 7 days and can only be made once a month (for each type of referendum).
A president is elected permanently. There's only two ways to get him off the position. One is simple: if he quits. The other is through a "revolution".
A revolution works like this:
In every election, the president is elected with a certain number of votes. After he's elected, people can choose either to support the president or to support a revolution (on the federation page). If the number of "points" of users supporting a revolution is above the number of election points with which the current president was elected, a revolution takes place and a new election will be started. Revolution points are exactly the same as election points: normal users are worth 1 point, Silver 2 and finally Gold are worth 3 points.
During an election a president cannot use any of his powers. If the election was started because he resigned, nobody will be able to vote for him (he won't be able to set himself up as a candidate). In case of a revolution, he can take part as a candidate if he wishes to do so.
Official U19 League Tournaments
Presidents of the National Federations have the possibility of create an official U19 league structure for their country:
- Only domestic youth teams can participate in the U19 national league.
- The President can set the number of divisions the league will have. These leagues will have the same league structure as the normal club leagues have at the moment (8 teams per series). The only exception is that there won’t be playoffs. This means that on each series 2 teams will be promoted and 4 will be relegated.
- Two additional options can be set by Presidents as well: number of replacements each match can have and an entry fee for each division in the league (just like in regular tournaments). The entry fees are to be divided in the same way they are divided in tournaments. In divisions with more than one series, the award is split between all series.
- Once the President creates the U19 league system, youth team managers can immediately apply to the league. This can always be done during the season as the President will have the possibility of replacing teams. The only exception is if a team is playing a youth tournament: in this scenario it cannot apply to the official youth league tournament.
- As said Presidents can freely populate their league system with all the teams that have applied. The slots left empty will be filled with bot teams.
- There are some rules regarding the way teams are populated in the series. In order to add teams to a lower division, the President must always fill the previous division at half of its capacity.
- If once the matches are being generated, a division only contains bot teams, it’s automatically stopped. The only exceptions are for the first two divisions. Also if there are not enough bot teams in the country to fill the empty slots of one of its series, the creation of that division is stopped.
- Matches are automatically generated at the 11st day of each season. This means that the President has only until the 10th day of the season to create/make changes on the structure of the league.
- After the 11th day of the season the President will only have permission to change bot teams with human U19 teams. Until that day (starting on the 1st day) all types of swaps can be made.
- At the end of each season all promotions/relegations are made automatically. But due to the powers entitled to the Presidents they can eventually swap teams once the season starts. It will be up to the rules each President will set for their leagues.
- All U19 games (including tournaments) have the 60 minute rule for full exp.
- During the time the official youth leagues are stopped, the team training check for Youth Teams will be increased from 14 days to 21 days.
- There are achievements for players and cups for teams for all series winners.
- The President will be able to set the number of series for the last division of the structure. For example: If 3 divisions are selected, the President has the possibility to select if the last division (3rd) will have 1, 2, 3 or 4 series
Federation Journalists
Federation Presidents can nominate up to four players as Journalists for their own countries. This role give to those players the power to release community announcements that can cover all the events that happen during the week on their country or FS world (league matches, national team matches, etc). This can also be used to interview players, managers, etc. It’s now up to each journalist´s creativity and talent. Presidents can also fire them and nominate new ones if they feel that the current ones aren’t up to the expectations.
Presidents can nominate Journalists under Federation Page > Options. On the other side, journalists have a new option at the Federation Page where they’ll be able to release those announcements. They will be visible in the front page to all players that have the country subscribed. As we said in our previous announcement you can now comment and like/dislike those Journalist Announcements.
Changes to the League Structures
Federation Presidents can make changes to the league structures. All the changes they make will only take effect at the next season transition, if the rules of the system are respected at the time of the season change.
There are related info:
- Federation Presidents (FPs) are able to add & remove more divisions to the national league structure
- This can only be done/set before the new season starts and all the changes will be applied during the season change procedures.
- FPs can only remove an entire division. Due to the complexity of the current FS league structure (don´t forget playoffs) it´s not possible to allow a greater deal of flexibility.
- The only condition FPs have to remove a division is that the number of human teams in the division they want to remove must be available in the division immediately above. Example: if your D division has 5 human teams, there must be 5 bot teams in C. When we say bot, we say without a manager. Unprotected teams are not bot teams.
- In order to add a new division, the FP must have a 75% or more occupation rate in the country. This means that if a country has one division only, 6 or more human teams must exist. This means 18 human teams to create a C division, etc.
- All human teams in removed divisions will be automatically placed in available top divisions.
Federation Presidents can make the changes at the National Competitions federation option.
22. Foobbuteo PvP
Foobbuteo PvP is an additional game to FootStar. Although most of your player skills come from your FootStar player’s skills, this game has no influence whatsoever on the normal game of FootStar. You can find Foobbuteo PvP by clicking on the “PvP / Match Center” page on the top menu then going to “Foobbuteo - PvP / Match Center” on the left menu of this page.
How to start playing?
Once you find yourself on the Match Center page of the PvP area you will see that this page has three parts.
The first part is a table in which the currently played PvP matches are being shown. It shows the match ID, the current result, the current status of the match (if it’s recently finished, ongoing or is about to start), the start date and hour, the type of match (PvP, TvT or MvM), current number of players, the number of turns and two buttons: an information button (that shows the teams’ captains) and a join game button on each match on the list. In order to start playing on a premade match it’s as simple as clicking the respective “Join Game” button on the match you wish to join.
The second part of the page is the current daily PvP ranking.
The third part is only available if you have a FS fan bronze or higher and it’s the “Create Game” interface. From here, you can create a new PvP, MvM (if you are a team manager in FootStar) and TvT (if you are a manager of a TvT team in Foobbuteo) match, set the home and away team colors, set the start time (in the next up to 15 minutes in PvP and on a specific date and hour in TvT), set your own player’s position in the home team and the number of turns the game will take place (between 30 and 90). Click on the “Create” button once you have specified all these parameters in order to create a new match.
How the game works
Foobbuteo PvP is a turn based team-play game. The number of turns is determined by the match creator and each turn means 1 minute of playtime.
The turns are separated into 2 stages. The first stage takes 35 seconds and allows you to set the actions you want to make with your player(s) and it’s indicated by the upper time bar, when the bar is green. The second stage takes 25 seconds and it’s the stage when the actions made in the first stage are being saved and executed. This stage is indicated when the upper time bar is red. The yellow time bar means that the game is in the first stage but it’s still waiting to load up all the actions of the second stage.
The game ends when the last turn has finished being played. There are circumstances however in which the game gets locked. During these times you will not be able to perform any kind of action in the game.
A Foobbuteo PvP or TvT game needs at least 3 players in each team so it can start. If at any point during the game one of the teams drops below 3 players, the game will get locked and will not allow any actions to be performed until both teams have at least 3 players in their midst. Turns, however, will pass normally, even while the game is locked.
The first player that enters each team is considered the team captain. Team captains can make actions on not only their own players, but the bot players in their team too. Team captains are recognized by having a star above their player icon.
The Pitch
The action pitch is divided in 25 zones, numbered from the upside left to the downside right. These zones represent areas in which the calculations are made regarding player and ball positioning and short or long passing confrontations.
Available Actions and Player Modes
In the top right of the window you will be able to see 4 buttons, representing the available actions your player can take and 2 buttons (if you are a field player) and 3 buttons (if you are a goalkeeper) below them that represent the available player modes. Each player starts every turn with 100 Action Points, which they can use to perform one of the available actions. The available actions are move/run, low pass, high pass/cross and shoot. As long as you have enough Action Points, you can instruct your player to make multiple, different types of actions in the same turn.
The Move/Run Action
Clicking the move/run action button while having your player selected will show a circle surrounding your player on the pitch. That circle represents the area in which your player is able to move. Double clicking inside the move area will instruct your player to move to the new location. This action will cost a certain number of Action Points, depending on how far away from your current position you instruct your player to move, up to 100 Action Points if you instruct your player to move to the very edge of the move area. You will be able to make multiple moves during the same turn, as long as you have enough Action Points, your move area adjusting itself each time to the new number of Action Points.
The difference between a move and a run action is the possession of the ball. If you do not have possession of the ball you will make a move action; if you do have possession of the ball you will make a run action.
Making a run action in Foobbuteo PvP will have certain implications. For example, each time you finish with a run action during a turn, you will have to win a confrontation between yourself and up to 3 opposing players that are near your new position in order to stay in control of the ball. If you lose the confrontation you will lose the possession of the ball to the nearest of the opposing players. If no opposing players are found near your new position after a run the confrontation will not take place and you will remain in possession of the ball. If more than 3 opposing players are near your new position, only the biggest 3 confrontation players will take place in the confrontation, but if you lose the ball you will still lose it to the closest opposing player, even if he took part in the confrontation or not. This type of confrontation is called a dribble and your teammates will not be able to support you in keeping control of the ball.
Goalkeepers cannot move or run past midline.
The Low Pass Action
Clicking the low pass action button while having your player selected will show a circle surrounding your player on the pitch. That circle represents the area in which your player is able to pass. Double clicking inside the low pass area will instruct your player to pass in that location. This will also cost a certain number of points, depending on how far you wish to make your low pass.
You can combine a low pass action with one or several run actions, provided you have enough action points and the low pass being your last action (you cannot issue a run command after making a low pass in the same turn because you will no longer be in the possession of the ball).
Low passes can be intercepted, meaning that if you pass to an area and the ball encounters one or more opposing players, they have a chance of taking the ball before it reaches the intended zone.
At the arrival zone of the low pass a confrontation will take place between up to the top 3 confrontation players of each team that are present in that zone. Possession will be won by the closest player to the ball of the team that won the confrontation, even if he played part of the confrontation or not. The passing player’s team also gets a confrontation bonus depending on how high his low pass skill is, because the short range at which the low pass is performed provides the player with a bigger ability to direct his pass properly.
If the player who wins the ball is in an offside position, then the possession will be given to the last positioned player of the opposing player.
The High Pass/Cross Action
Clicking the high pass/cross action button while having your player selected will show two circles surrounding your player on the pitch. The first circle represents the minimum distance at which your player can perform his high pass/cross action and the second circle represents the maximum distance at which he is able to high pass/cross. This action also costs a certain number of action points, depending on how far you want to make the high pass/cross and it can also be done after one or several move actions, provided you have enough action points to do it. At the arrival zone of the high pass/cross a confrontation will take place between up to the top 3 confrontation players of each team that are present in that zone. Possession will be won by the closest player to the ball of the team that won the confrontation, even if he played part of the confrontation or not. The passing player’s team also gets a confrontation penalty, because long range passes are not so accurate and defenders usually have a better confrontational positioning than attackers.
The cross action can be performed when your player is close to the byline (or endline) of the pitch. Crosses are a little more precise, meaning that you will get a lower minimum distance to cross to, depending on your crossing skill. Also, the penalty you get in confrontation depends on your crossing skill instead of your high pass skill.
If the player who wins the ball is in an offside position, then the possession will be given to the last positioned player of the opposing player.
The Shoot Action
Clicking the shoot action button while having your player selected and double clicking near the goal will show a target circle showing where your player will attempt to make his shot. This action requires a number of action points, depending on how high your shoot action is. You can also combine a shoot action with one or several move actions, provided you finish your round with the shoot action.
Shooting actions cannot be blocked or intercepted by other players except the keeper.
Depending on his shooting skill, your player will attempt to shoot as close to his target circle as possible. Depending on the keeper’s saves skill he will attempt to save the ball or deflect it in the zone in front of the goal, provided the ball passes fairly close to him.
If the ball gets deflected a confrontation will take place between up to the best 3 confrontation players in each team in the zone in front of the goal, possession being won by the closest player to the ball of the team that won the confrontation, even if he played part of the confrontation or not.
You cannot perform a shoot action from your own half. You must first pass the midline in order to do so.
Player Modes
Under the action buttons you will see some buttons for player modes. These modes are: Confrontation and Intercept Passes (if you are a field player), and Saves, Out of Area and Field Player (if you are a goalkeeper).
The Confrontation mode is the normal mode of your player and it neither gives you a bonus or a penalty.
The Intercept Passes mode allows your player to attempt to intercept low passes made by your opponent, but you also take a penalty 50% to your confrontation. The Saves mode gives a bonus to the saves skill of your goalkeeper while inside the goalkeeper area (6m area).
The Out of Area mode gives a bonus to the out of area skill of your goalkeeper while outside of the goalkeeper area (outside the 6m area).
The Field Player mode allows your goalkeeper to use your throwing ability when making a low or high pass instead of your short pass or long pass skills.
The mode buttons are used as toggles, meaning that when the execution phase starts, the last button selected is chosen as your mode for that turn.
Player Skills
Foobbuteo/PvP skills have a direct correlation with your FootStar player’s skills. In order to raise your Foobbuteo/PvP skills you will need to raise your player’s skills. The PvP skills are composed of two parts, up to 25% of the skill being from the level of your Foobbuteo player and up to 75% being from the relevant FS skills that count towards that position.
There are 7 field player skills and 6 goalkeeper skills in Foobbuteo and each one depends on the following FootStar skills. Field player skills:
Speed: Stamina, Speed, Positioning, Game Vision
Confrontation: Stamina, Tackling, Dribbling, Positioning
Low Pass: Stamina, Short Passes, Technique
High Pass: Stamina, Long Passes, Technique
Crosses: Stamina, Crosses, Technique
Shoot: Stamina, Finishing, Technique
Long Shots: Stamina, Long Shots, Technique
Goalkeeper skills:
Speed: Stamina, Speed, Positioning, Game Vision
Confrontation: Agility, Out of Area
Low Pass: Stamina, Short Passes, Technique
High Pass: Stamina, Long Passes, Technique
Saves: Handling, Reflexes
Out of Area: Out of Area
If you want to have a skill of 100% in any of these skills then you will need to be level 50 (25%) and have 100 in each corresponding FS skill (75%).
Depending on how high the skill is, it will influence your action point cost and precision of your actions. For example, a higher move skill will allow you to move the same distance while spending fewer action points and a higher shooting skill, besides allowing you to shoot for fewer action points, also will allow you to be more precise in your shots.
Experience Gain
You gain experience by playing games.
Acronyms
In the game of Foobbuteo PvP chatting with your team is the key to victory. Therefore, since it’s a timed turn based game, many players are using different abbreviations so that they communicate as much and as thorough as they can in the 1 minute it takes to make a turn.
Here are some of the most usual abbreviations used:
3-23 line - the line is called when the offside trap is being played outside of the last 2 zones
bl - ball line. It means that the offside trap needs to be played in the same vertical line as the current ball position.
gl - good luck. Someone is nice enough to wish you good luck in you next move
lp - means that the player with the ball will make a long pass. It is usually accompanied by a number that designated the zone he will pass into.
m x - means that the player will move in zone x.
m+s - means that the player will perform a move and shoot action.
midline - another offside trap play calling the offside line to be outside of your own half.
number line or num line - it is another offside trap call that is played in the same vertical line of the numbers of the zones 2 through 22 or 4 through 24 (depending on which side your team plays).
sp - means that the player with the ball will make a short pass. It is usually accompanied by a number that designated the zone he will pass into.
sp x c y - means that the player with the ball will make a short pass in zone x in the exact position in the corner near zone y.
sp x n y - means that the player with the ball will make a short pass in zone x in the exact position near zone y.
23. Instant Matches and Campaigns
The goals of Instant Matches and Campaigns:
- Add more diversity to the game (you can virtually play with anyone or against anyone).
- Allowing more players to feel the real FS experience (the viewer is free for this feature)
- Improve the day-to-day activity on the website.
Instant Matches
To create a instant match (IM) game you just need to go to the match center page and, on the game creation form, select the time slot you want the game to happen (only for private team/matches), the color of the team shirt and press create.
After you have created the team, you will be redirected to the join team page where you can sign up your player in the team.
On the other hand, to join an instant match you have to go to the match center page and there choose the team you wish to play and press join.
You will be redirected to the starting eleven page where you can choose the position. Note that the team captain may change the position you will play when he defines the team formation.
Regarding Team captain, you need to know he´s the first player to sign up on each of the teams. The captain is responsible to set up the team formation.
As captain, you can change the formation how many times you want until the game starts, you can access the formation editor by clicking the symbol in front of your player name in the starting eleven list.
Let´s explain the features of this gaming option:
- FS Fans can play up to 5 matches per day (35 matches per week). No-FS Fans can play 5 matches per week.
- Team names will be created with the names of both team captains. The team captain is the first player to sign up on each of the teams
- There is ranking that will split all players between leagues (World class, Professional, Semi-professional, Amateur and Not Ranked). More info further
- There are 98 achievements to collect during your instant matches. When you gain them you will also give you achievement points that will later allow you to unlock certain campaigns. More info further
- Tactic selector equal to the one FS managers use, with team orders included.
- During the creation of the match you will be able to restrict the match regarding player’s ages and rankings. The existing options are: 17-20, 21-24, 25-28, 29+ or free for all (everyone can join whatever their age is) and World class, Professional, Semi-professional, Amateur, Not Ranked or free for all
- You can create game only in your age category or without age category
- You can choose bots´ skills level (from 10% to 100%). When picking the 100% option this doesn’t mean super-bots. It means that bots have their skills set according to the average of all the other human player’s skills. If you pick 10%, they have only 10% of this average value.
- There are limits to the number of matches than can be created on each "category"(same ranking-restrictions, same age-restrictions, etc). The max. number of matches per category is 2. Once the match is generated, players will receive a notification at the Match Center and the live match starts immediately and he can join/create another team
- A match can only start if there are 2 complete teams (11+11 players) with same "restrictions". If a team doesn’t have enough players will be delayed 3 times until it’s finally deleted.
- Private matches: you can create games only to be played with your mates / teammates. However these games will not be counted to ranking purposes.
Ranking:
As said, the ranking is divided in 4 leagues:
- World Class league
- Professional league
- Semi-professional league
- Amateur League
Each league may have many series based on the number of players participating in the Instant Matches. The exception is the World class league that only has 1 series, which means that only the best players will be on the world class league. Each series have 22 players and the ranking is updated every Monday. Obviously you’re able to navigate through all the league tables / series.
During the weekly update of the ranking (Monday 6.30 server time), the following tasks will be done:
- The top eleven players of the Professional League will be promoted to the World class league;
- The worst eleven players of the World class league will be relegated to the Professional league;
- The promotions and relegations of the remaining leagues will be dynamic, depending on the number of ranked players;
The percentage of players in each league are:
- World Class: 22 players
- Professional League: 15% of all ranked players
- Semi-Professional League: 35% of all ranked players
- Amateur League: 50% of all ranked players
Players get ranking points when they win and draw. They lose points if they lose games. The base is 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, -3 for a loss. There might be bonuses depending on the fact that you’re playing against teams/players with higher rankings.
IM´s Achievements (98)
General Achievements
Amateur: Achieved after reaching the Amateur League
Semi-Professional: Achieved after reaching the Semi-Professional League
Professional: Achieved after reaching the Professional League
World Class: Achieved after reaching the World Class League
The Traveler: Achieved when your covered distance is above 100km
The Arena Captain 20: Achieved when after being Team Captain in 20 matches
Perfect Match: Achieved after receiving a rating of 10 in a Match
Shame: Achieved when you lose a game for more than 9 goals
Humiliation: Achieved when you win a game for more than 9 goals
First Glory: Achieved with your first Victory
Winning Streak 3: Achieved after 3 straight Wins
Winning Streak 5: Achieved after 5 straight Wins
Winning Streak 10: Achieved after 10 straight Wins
Winning Streak 20: Achieved after 20 straight Wins
Winning Streak 50: Achieved after 50 straight Wins
The road to Victory 10: Achieved after winning 10 Games
The road to Victory 100: Achieved after winning 100 Games
The road to Victory 250: Achieved after winning 250 Games
The road to Victory 500: Achieved after winning 500 Games
The road to Victory 1000: Achieved after winning 1000 Games
The Artist 10: Achieved after 10 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 100: Achieved after 100 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 250: Achieved after 250 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 500: Achieved after 500 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 1000: Achieved after 1000 successfull Dribbles
The Failed Artist: Achieved when the efficiency of the dribbles per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Artist: Achieved when the efficiency of the dribbles per match ratio is above 70% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Arena Master 10: Participate in 10 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 100: Participate in 100 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 250: Participate in 250 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 500: Participate in 500 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 1000: Participate in 1000 Instant Matches
The MoM 10: Get nominated Man of the Match 10 times
The MoM 50: Get nominated Man of the Match 50 times
The MoM 100: Get nominated Man of the Match 100 times
The MoM 250: Get nominated Man of the Match 250 times
The MoM 500: Get nominated Man of the Match 500 times
The Ultimate Player: Achieved when you have played 2500 matches, got mom 500 times, have won 1500 matches and achieve the overall rating of 6 or above
Goalkeepers´ Achievements
Steady Team 1: Achieved after getting 1 game with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 10: Achieved after getting 10 games with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 100: Achieved after getting 100 games with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 250: Achieved after getting 250 games with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 500: Achieved after getting 500 games with a Clean Sheet
The Brick Wall 50: Achieved after completing 50 saves
The Brick Wall 250: Achieved after completing 250 saves
The Brick Wall 500: Achieved after completing 500 saves
The Brick Wall 1000: Achieved after completing 1000 saves
The Fumbler: Achieved when you have conceded more than 2 goals-per-match in the last 10 consecutive matches
The Elite Wall: Achieved when no goals have been suffered in the last 10 consecutive matches
Defenders´ Achievements
The Defender 10: Achieved after 10 successfull Tackles
The Defender 100: Achieved after 100 successfull Tackles
The Defender 250: Achieved after 250 successfull Tackles
The Defender 500: Achieved after 500 successfull Tackles
The Defender 1000: Achieved after 1000 successfull Tackles
The Gentleman: Achieved when no fouls are commited in the last consecutive 20 matches
The Aggressor: Achieved when at least 1 foul per match in the last consecutive 10 matches is made
The Failed Defender: Achieved when the efficiency of the tackles per match ratio is bellow 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Defender: Achieved when the efficiency of the tackles per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
Midfields´ Achievements
The Long Ranger 50: Achieved after completing 50 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 100: Achieved after completing 100 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 250: Achieved after completing 250 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 500: Achieved after completing 500 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 1000: Achieved after completing 1000 successful Long Passes
The Passing Master 100: Achieved after completing 100 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 500: Achieved after completing 500 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 1000: Achieved after completing 1000 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 2500: Achieved after completing 2500 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 5000: Achieved after completing 5000 successful Short Passes
The Wingman 10: Achieved after 10 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 100: Achieved after 100 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 250: Achieved after 250 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 500: Achieved after 500 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 1000: Achieved after 1000 successfull Crosses
The Silver Service 10: Make a total of 10 Assists
The Silver Service 100: Make a total of 100 Assists
The Silver Service 250: Make a total of 250 Assists
The Silver Service 500: Make a total of 500 Assists
The Silver Service 1000: Make a total of 1000 Assists
The Elite Winger: Achieved when the efficiency of the crosses per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Failed Winger: Achieved when the efficiency of the crosses per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Passing Master: Achieved when the efficiency of the short passes per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Failed Passing Master: Achieved when the efficiency of the short passes per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Long Ranger: Achieved when the efficiency of the long passes per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Failed Long Ranger: Achieved when the efficiency of the long passes per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
Forwards´ Achievements
Hat-trick Hunter 1: Achieved after scoring 1 hat-trick
Hat-trick Hunter 3: Achieved after scoring 3 hat-tricks
Hat-trick Hunter 10: Achieved after scoring 10 hat-tricks
Hat-trick Hunter 20: Achieved after scoring 20 hat-tricks
Hat-trick Hunter 50: Achieved after scoring 50 hat-tricks
The Striker 10: Score a total of 10 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 100: Score a total of 100 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 250: Score a total of 250 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 500: Score a total of 500 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 1000: Score a total of 1000 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Linesman´s Best Friend: Achieved when reaches the total of 50 offsides.
The Elite Striker: Achieved when at least 2 goals per match in the last consecutive 10 matches are made
The Blind: Achieved when the efficiency of the shots-in-goal per match ratio is below 40% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Sniper: Achieved when the efficiency of the shots-in-goal per match ratio is above 70% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
Campaigns
By going to the FS Arena (main menu > PvP >> Match Center) you find "Campaigns".
Following the link you´re presented with the Match Center for Campaign games. You can open the Campaign Map on the side menu where you’ll find all the available campaigns for you to play.
Now, all the necessary details for Campaign Matches:
- When opening the Campaign details page you’re presented with all the teams that you have to beat to finish the Campaign. You have to start from the bottom ’till the top, unlocking teams step-by-step (win by win).
- There are always two public open slots for each opponent. Once these are complete a new one will be created automatically.
- Once a slot is complete (11 players) the team captain can "lock" the slot and start the match. The match will then start at the next available match time (at each quarter of an hour, just like Instant Matches). If the captain doesn´t lock a team with 11 players after 30 minutes of the creation of the game, the game is created automatically.
- The team captain can set the match as private. If a match is private, all the players need the password to get in. In private matches the team captain can kick players out of the team.
- Campaigns and Instant Matches share the same limits on what concerns to the number of matches that can be played on each time slot.
- Campaigns and Instant Matches also share the number of games you can play per day.
- You don´t get ranking points for the Instant Matches ranking.
- Managers of the bot teams (at the time they were created) have access to the formation / line-up page of the team in order to change it accordingly. This is done to give managers the possibility to set-up their best team in case they haven’t used their best team in the final round of the previous season. Please note that the formation / line-up can only be changed one time. After this it´s locked for good and the access is revoked. This option is shown at the Campaigns menu, where you can find the name of the team you have access to.
- Campaigns have precedences. Meaning that you cannot compete in a Gold campaign if you haven’t completed Silver (and Bronze).
- Players can leave a team after one hour waiting for a match to start unless the team has already 11 players. Team captains cannot leave a team.
For these kind of matches you can use "special" Match Items. Here’s the full details of this feature:
- These items can only be used for Instant Games / Campaigns.
- In order to get these items you need to play Campaign matches. At the end of each match, in case you win the match, there’s a possibility to get match items. This possibility depends essentially on the difficulty level of the campaign and also on the level of your opponent within the campaign. The "drop chance" is calculated for all players withing the winning team which means that some players might get the match items while others don’t. For each match you find a "Match Rewards" link on the side link’s bar (only visible at the end of the live match).
- There are items for Goalkeepers (gloves) and field players (shirts and boots). There’s also a small possibility that a GK can get a field player item at the end of the match.
- These items are only valid for one match. After they are used in a match they disappear from your stash. Each item only provide bonuses for one skill.
- Matches from harder campaigns provide better items. However the drop rate for these campaigns is smaller. The exact opposite happens in easier campaigns: worst items but higher drop rates.
- There’s an indicator of the difficulty level at the Campaign’s details page
Campaigns´ Achievements (14)
European Campaign - Bronze: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all low-ranked national leagues in Europe.
European Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national leagues in Europe.
European Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national leagues in Europe.
AAO Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
AAO Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
American Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national leagues in America.
American Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national leagues in America.
U19 European Campaign - Bronze: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all low-ranked national U19 leagues in Europe.
U19 European Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked U19 national leagues in Europe.
U19 European Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked U19 national leagues in Europe.
U19 AAO Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked U19 national leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
U19 AAO Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national U19 leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
U19 American Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national U19 leagues in America.
U19 American Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national U19 leagues in America.
24. Community
Our aim is to have a big, active and interesting community. You can count on us to provide you the tools to improve and expand the community but it´s really up to you to make it happen. You have our word that we´ll be actively present on the game forums, reading all the important stuff you write to us. Although, please do not expect us to answer everything you write us, it´s really impossible due to time issues, though we´d love to do it.
We haveDevelopment Blog, Development News page, FS Administration Wall page for Official Comunication and of course Internal Forums where you can communicate with all the other users. The forums work by subscription mode: for you to have access to a forum, you must subscribe it. The first page after you click on Community >> Forums is the configuration page. You can take a look on your pre-defined forums and subscribe to as many more as you wish.
You should however remember that we have some rules you must respect if you want to take part of our user community. We´ll talk about them at the further sections of this manual.
25. Administration and Denominations
FootStar administration is divided into a couple groups.
DEV - Developers - They try to make this game better and better
CM - Community Manager - He is responsible for contact between developers and normal users.
GSM - Global Super Moderators - Group of most experienced moderators who coordinate work of all moderators.
SM - Super Moderators - Same as GSM but with smaller area to work.
MOD - Moderators - They keep an eye for users who not obey rules, moderate forum.
LA - Language Administrator - They translate for you rules, announcements and all the rest so you can read it in language you want.
RUL - Rules Updaters - They update rules when developers made some new features.
Denominations
Experience
Terrible
Very Bad
Bad
Low
Passable
Good
Very Good
Excellent
Formidable
World Class
Reputation
None
Local
Regional
National
Continental
World Class
Life Style
Non-Existent!
Miserable
Bad
Passable
Good
Very Good
Excellent
Confidence
Very Low
Low
Below Average
Average
High
Very High
Exaggerated
Fame
Not known, except where he lives
Fairly known
Well known
Very well known
Famous
World Star
Financial Status
Terrible
Insecure
Passable
Secure
Good
Excellent
Rich
26. Behaviour
Besides very general terms of service there are some other rules which define user behaviour in the game. These rules are split into 3 different areas - user rules, communication rules and fair-play rules.
1. USER RULES
This section of rules defines what is allowed or not when it concerns account creation and control.
1.1. Any person can control only one user in game (no multiaccounting)
- A person can create only one account for himself. This means that a person cannot create multiple accounts for use in game; it also means that user is not allowed to create another accounts "for his brother" / "for his friend" / etc.
- A person cannot take control of other account for any time. This means that any form of account sitting is not allowed - not even a short term "account caretakers", not to mention taking over accounts of user who quit the game. This rule also means that users are not allowed to share their login information with other users
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who attempt to create a second account are usually punished with a monetary fine first. Any further attempts will lead to a ban from a game
- Users who control multiple accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- Sometimes users make mistakes while playing the game, for example they forget to train or sign very long contracts for teams they don’t like. Users have to solve such problems using in-game functions like reset or transfer or contract termination - it is not allowed to fix these mistakes by creating another account without letting your first account become inactive first (accounts become inactive after 2 months of not logging into the game).
- As stated before - no form of “account sitting” is allowed. It doesn’t matter that you want to make only some very small adjustments to your friend’s training or to interact with his teammates before an important match - it is not allowed.
- We cannot disclose how we decide that 2 users are controlled by the same person, but we want to make a clarification about IP - it’s only a PART of the data we check. Usually same IP of 2 users is more suspicious than different IPs, but IP is never the only criterion used to decide whether it is a case of multiaccounting or not.
1.2. It is not allowed to take over other accounts
- Users are not allowed to use other user’s login information and start using other user’s account even if they decide to abandon their own account
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who take over other accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- This rules is basically covered by the rule 1.1. already, however it is here to prevent users from asking / demanding login information of other users with a pretext of exchanging the current account for another one.
1.3. A user account has to be of a country a user lives in (at the time of account creation)
- A user is only allowed to create accounts with the nationality of the country where the user lives. A country is defined by IP of a user.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- This rule is mostly checked at the time an account is created and accounts which belong to wrong countries are simply not validated.
- In some cases concerning small FS countries where a specific nationality gives an in-game advantage, users who managed to get that nationality unfairly, will be asked to change nationality to the country they actually live in.
Clarification
- As mentioned above - a country of a user is defined by an IP. There are cases when a person spends a lot of time in a couple or more countries - lives in Belgium, but studies in Netherlands for example (going on vacation to San Marino does not qualify as spending a lot of time there) - in these cases it’s basically up to a user to decide which country he wants to belong to in FS and that decision has to be made by creating an account while staying in that specific country. Be warned though that it is pretty difficult to change in-game nationality and this choice is permanent.
- A rather easy way to get a different nationality is to use proxy servers. However we check whether new accounts use proxies and such check is especially thorough if it’s a new account in a small FS country. Proxies are not forbidden in FS, but in these cases hiding behind a proxy leads to rejection of a new account.
2. COMMUNICATION RULES
This section of rules covers all types of communication in the game. It’s mostly targeted at game forums, but also covers all other means of communication like blogs, FS wall, newspapers, personal messages, etc.
2.1. Language and grammar
- The main language of the game is English. This does not mean that other languages are forbidden, however there are some areas where English is the only language allowed - this mostly includes global forums (main global forums, suggestions forums, bugs forum, global help and off-topic forums).
- Other languages are allowed in the game but they are normally used in the forums / other means of communication of specific countries (e.g. Norwegian language is used in Norwegian forums and newspapers). The most common scenario is that national forums allow local language and English, but it’s up to a local forum moderator to decide whether some language is acceptable because a use of foreign language might be seen as a provocation in some scenarios. Please check local forum rules before posting messages on national forums.
- Regarding the grammar and spelling, we ask to the community to make an effort to collaborate in a good/correct writing; on the other hand we ask you to be wise regarding the way you criticize other user's writing. In case of total misunderstanding of the user's message content, please report the message to a moderator and he will take care of the situation.
- We ask you to avoid slang. Profanities and obscenities are strictly prohibited.
- Please avoid excessive use of CAPITALS. The use of capital letters is considered screaming, so this way of interacting is not wanted. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
2.2. General Conduct
- Respect the all the members of this community. Keep in mind that there are members of different ages and gaming experience. Therefore we ask you to be patient with the various questions and ideas, especially on forums. Any type of insults or threats to other members are not allowed. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- While communicating you should have a correct manner, attitude and behaviour (traditions, customs, manners, and net-etiquette ) where all of your actions are subject to moderation by the staff (moderators and Super Moderators) .
- Our team can not be responsible for any lack of compliance of these rules, when the content is not hosted in our servers.
- Users are not allowed to pretend to be FS Staff members. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- The publishing of information (on forums or via other means of communication) of some users that already got banned by the moderation team is not allowed. Restriction of possibility to communicate is a part of a punishment to a banned user and it is not allowed to circumvent that punishment by using a proxy spokesperson. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- Members are also strictly forbidden to provoke or insult the FootStar Team. Information published in order to create a personal conflict between users and the FS Team (Moderators, Super Moderators, Administration) will be deleted and the author(s) will be severely punished.
2.3. Content of public messages / posts / blogs / etc.
Rules in this section are applied to information that is published in publicly accessible areas - this means public forums (posts, signatures and avatars), blogs (blog content and comments on blogs). FS wall, chat, newspapers, community announcements, club guestbooks, team press conferences, etc. Some of the rules can be applied to team / stadium names or even team kits. A couple of rules are only relevant in specific areas - those exceptions are mentioned explicitly.
- Adult content (pornography, explicit violence) is not allowed. This includes links to external sites with adult content - such links are not allowed.
- Calling for help and / or inciting the use of illegal software is not allowed.
- Promoting the use of illegal substances or criminal activities is not allowed,
- Advertising things or services you want to buy / sell in real life is not allowed.
-- There is an exception to this rule - if player has an expiring slot and would like to get FS Coins for slot expansion as part of a transfer deal, player is allowed to create an ad about this - see section 3.3 for more details.
- Attacks on religion / nation / race / gender / sexual orientation are not allowed.
- Discussing politics and religion is not allowed.
- Cheating accusations (use the proper cheat report form or the e-mails on the contacts page) are not allowed.
- Discussing decisions taken by members of the Administration of the game is not allowed.
- Deliberately offensive messages or messages with an intent to provoke hostile reactions (trolling and flaming) are not allowed.
- Personal attacks are not allowed (this is mostly covered by section 2.2. already).
- Swearing is not allowed.
- Excessive use of CAPITAL LETTERS is considered shouting and is not allowed.
- Spam (multiple messages with the same content, or messages totally off-topic) is not allowed.
2.3.1. Additional rules for forums - On the global forum it is not allowed to post ads / suggestions / ask for help / report bugs / talk about non-FS related stuff - there´s a specific forum for these things and users should create relevant threads there. Local MODs are allowed to make exceptions regarding ads / help / non-FS related topics on national forums however - check local forum rules before posting something like this.
- Excessive off-topic messages are not allowed in a thread.
- Hijacking threads is not allowed.
- Bumping threads is not allowed (especially on bugs forum).
- Messages intending to destabilize a systematic discussion, provoke and enrage the people involved in them (trolling) are not allowed.
- Red flag abuse - reporting same user / same message multiple times in a short period - may result in a punishment.
Other guidelines of behaviour on forums:
- Multiquoting should be avoided, excessive multiquoting can lead to punishments.
- Posts with no additional information (for example "+1", "I agree", "Good idea") are not wanted and are usually considered spam. Use "Like/dislike" feature to express your opinion about the message.
- Criticism of game features is allowed and welcome but please, be constructive - do not post "hate" messages with almost no content, like "match engine is terrible, it should be changed" - try to say what you specifically don´t like and suggest a solution if you can.
2.4. Messages trying to influence community related matters
- Users are not allowed to send multiple messages trying to influence the results of some community related matters like election of the president, referendums, voting for WC host, starting a revolution. If you want to state your opinion on one of these issues, use a forum to open a dedicated topic and start a discussion. Such PMs usually provide only one side of the problem and are considered a simple spam. If the case of mass PMs actually appears and administration finds out that such messages really influenced the result, the result might be altered if that is possible (the presidential candidate might be removed for example) or the spammer might be punished.
Punishments for breaking communication rules (all chapter 2.)
- Although this is technically not a punishment, the content violating the rules is normally deleted / edited.
- Punishments depend on the severity of “crime” and on the history of a user breaking the rule - repeated offences mean bigger fines / longer bans. Keep in mind that MODs are encouraged to double the fine with each repeated offence.
- Most common punishment is a forum ban with ban length varying from 0 days (warning) to permanent ban. However if a situation requires a ban longer than 1 month it’s very likely that user will get additional penalties instead, like monetary fines or even a total closure of an account.
- Monetary fines are possible but not common.
- If a content breaking the rules is published in a newspaper, it might lead to a closure of a newspaper.
- Extreme case might lead to permanent closure of the account.
3. FAIR PLAY RULES
This section of rules covers the user behaviour within the game itself. These rules are here to ensure no one gets an unfair advantage in game.
3.1. It is not allowed to gain additional in-game money or reduce expenditure unfairly
3.1.1. No money funnelling between the clubs
- Selling players for prices way over the market value is not allowed.
- Using feeder clubs to transfer large amounts of money to/from the parent club by selling players is not allowed, even if each of those players is sold for a sum which is not way above market value.
3.1.2. No transfers via third club
- If a manager of club A wants an expensive player (playing in a club B), he cannot ask manager of club C (a friend / manager of a club which will be closed soon / manager of a feeder club etc.) to buy that player and release it immediately (or sell for a much lower price) to join the club A.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Punishments usually consist of three parts - a) money gained unfairly is removed / returned to the payer by adjusting transfer value for example; b) teams are fined with fines equal to the amount which they tried to move / save unfairly; c) managers are given monetary fines
- Repeated offences will lead to higher punishment with a possible closure of an account
3.2. Match fixing is not allowed
- Fielding a weakened (or in some extreme cases - highly strengthened) side in a match to give advantage to some team in a competition is not allowed.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- The least possible fine are huge monetary fines to clubs involved in match fixing (we’re talking millions of euro here), but this fine would only be applied if match fixing wasn’t intended to alter standings in the competitions and was done for something trivial like beating the goals scored record. Teams participating in a match fixing with an intention to actually change final standings in a competition or change the winners of ITC spots, get much harsher additional fines - removal from ITC and point deductions are almost guaranteed, relegations are also possible.
Clarification
- There are many ways to fix match results - it might be a case of using weaker players / strange tactics or it might be a use of strange IOs / sliders. Weakening of a whole team by selling / loaning out top players before a specific match has also been a case. It’s also possible to fix a match by strengthening a team significantly against one specific opponent or by simply giving your team’s tactics to the opponent so he could exploit your weaknesses. However, the main sign of a fixed match is whether the result is intended to give an unfair advantage to some specific team.
- If a match or matches had been fixed it is not allowed to fix other matches trying to make the whole situation “correct”. This will only mean that there are 2 cases of match fixing instead of one.
- Sometimes teams decide to save their players’ morale / confidence and do not play matches against specific (strong) opponent - this is allowed as long as the team ensures that this weakening of side will not influence the final standing in the competition (this can be done be fielding equally weak side against other competitors for the league title for example).
- Each case of match fixing is investigated separately and discussed by all SM team - this means it usually takes quite long to take a decision and give out fines if necessary.
3.3. Signing players for FS Fan / FS Coins is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a player as part of signing-on bonus is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a manager as part of player transfer fee is not allowed
Exception
- If paid player´s slot is expiring and there less than 1 season left until expiration and player has expressed a desire to talk about transfer if his expiring slot will be extended (either publicly in ads forum or privately as part of negotiations) buying FS Coins for that slot´s extension is allowed as part of a deal
Punishments for braking this rule
- The least possible punishment is monetary fine. However for that to be applied, the signed players would have to be of such level which does not really strengthen the team. If players signed for FS Fan / FS Coins significantly change the balance of the competition, point deductions / relegation / removal from ITC are possible fines next to monetary ones.
Clarification
- Offering any amount of coins or length of FS Fan as signing-on bonus or as a part of transfer fee is not allowed (except the aforementioned exception). This includes offering FS Fan or FS Coins to player which is being signed or to a manager of team the player has a contract with at the moment.
- Extending player contract is the same as signing completely new player in the context of this rule. This means offering FS Fan or FS Coins for extending the contract falls under same set of rules.
- "Delayed" FS Fan / FS Coins rewards are the same as immediate ones. That is explanation "player was signed normally and then received a "loyalty bonus" half a season later" will not be accepted as a valid one
- An exception is made for expiring slots because users usually spend a lot of time (and possibly RL money) to create a player and if the only way to keep that slot is to get funding from "third party", then we consider it a worthy reason to allow such transaction. However we don´t want this to become a new strategy on how to sign players so the initiative for such deal has to come from the player. This basically means that players are allowed to advertise that they are looking for managers who could pay for slot extension, but managers cannot advertise that they are looking for such players specifically and can pay for them.
- Agreements between users which include buying completely new slot, creating new player and signing him for the team are allowed. This can be done for various reasons like filling in missing positions in some project, getting user as an assistant or getting 26 year old player for first team. However such excuse cannot be used to veil the reward of FS Coins / FS Fan for transferring another player (the real target of transfer) of the same user.
3.4. Additional fair-play rules
- Transferring of players who know they’ll quit immediately after transfer is not allowed and might be punished (depends on the transfer value and the damage done to the club which bought the player)
- Trying to force the transfer of a player by threatening the manager (for example saying that his team confidence will be sabotaged) or offering some extra benefits to the owner of the player (like losing a match on purpose or buying an FS-Fan) is considered an action against the spirit of the game and will lead to punishments
- Changing the stadium location less than a few days before a game trying to sabotage the trips is not allowed.
4. GENERAL RULES - SPIRIT OF THE GAME
We understand that this set of rules might have left some loopholes and exploits. However there are a couple of more general rules which can be defined as “spirit of the game”
4.1. Getting an unfair advantage is not allowed
- It doesn’t matter what way was used to get an unfair advantage - it might be some game bug or external tool or some new way to cheat - each case will be investigated and users who gained an unfair advantage will be punished.
- A special notice about game bugs - FS, as any other software, has some bugs. If a bug gives some unintentional benefit to the user, the user is not allowed to exploit it. Bug exploits are considered cheating and might lead to various punishments depending on the benefit gained. Please report the bugs in the bugs forum.
4.2. Users are not allowed to “destroy” the game for other users
- This is a rather generic rule which is here to protect the game against users whose only purpose is to make game unplayable for others. It usually includes cases when an angry user decides to rage-quit the game and cause as much damage as possible in doing so. This might mean taking over a team and destroying training / morale of players or have the team lose / fix important matches. Other possible examples are extremely bad behaviour on forums / blogs / newspapers with insults, accusation, uncovering of some secret information; sabotaging national teams by selecting bots for important matches; fixing results of referendums / elections by mass multiaccounting etc.
Punishments for breaking these rules
- All types of punishment are possible here.
Clarification
- Although a rule says that users are not allowed to "destroy" the game for other users, it isn't a rule which can be used as an excuse to fix everything you don't like. For example if you've signed a long contract with a team and do not get enough playing time or the promised training, that does not fall under this rule, because you have actually agreed to the contract yourself and now you either have to fulfil it or look for some of the in-game ways to terminate it (by friendly termination or transfer or by simply talking to a manager and asking to improve the conditions you get). For rule 4.2. to be applied there has to be an element of intended "mischief" from a user and usually on a rather big scale. Rule 4.2. is not applied in cases where one user was too gullible to believe empty promises or simply made a mistake with his in-game choices
5. DISCLAIMER
Breaking any kind of rules can lead to ban or removal of the game. Administration will have the final decision, even if something is not on the list. By playing the game, you agree with the above. Ban or removal from the game will not lead to any monetary refund.
FootStar (Planetarium Football Star) is an online game where you are in control of a football player and try to become the best player the planet has ever seen.
Your basic task is to train your player the best you can. This will enable you to get to play in the best teams and therefore have a good contract that will allow you to afford a better lifestyle. But don't forget to have good relations with your manager so because he is the one who selects starting eleven and fighting him most likely will end up in less playing time.
You wil also interact with your teammates and live the team chemistry and excitement of competing for the league, cup and International competitions along with them. The more you play the more experience you’ll get and that will mean you’ll play even better. Become one of the best on your country and play for your national team, so you can have the chance to take your country to the world cup and win it.
2. FootStar requirements
To be able to fully experience FootStar, your device should have:
- An internet connection;
- An internet browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera were the browsers where we've tested the game);
- Adobe Flash player & Adobe Shockwave. Please go to www.adobe.com and install the latest Flash Player available;
- Javascript must be enabled (usually it's enabled by default in most modern browsers).
There's also a mobile version of FootStar - m.footstar.org. It doesn't need Adobe Flash player
3. Registration, activation and character selection
3.1 Registration
Your first step in FootStar will be creating your account. To do that you should follow the “sign up for FREE” link at the left of the main page. You can also sign up with Facebook by following the “Sign un with Facebook” link. Make sure you fully read our Terms of Service before proceeding to the registration page as you must accept them to register in the game.
In the registration page make sure you respect the following items: insert full and valid data on the required fields.. You should also only register on the country you currently live in. If you are living in France but register in Portugal, we’ll reject your registration.
After the registration you’ll be prompted with the player creation page. There you’ll see a player profile. If you don’t like the player name go to the “Player” tab at the top-right of the page and choose “Player creation”. That will give you another player profile. Repeat that until you find a player name that you like. After that you can start creating the player you want, by choosing a face that pleases you and select some preferences like position, side, favourite foot, residence city and personality.
Your player’s position and side can be change later by gaining experience playing in a specific position or training. For the player’s favourite foot, you can basically select left or right. As in real life, players often have a preferred foot to play; in FootStar is basically the same. We consider this choice as very important because you won’t be able to change it later in the game. However, you should know that, for example, if you select Left Foot, you’ll be able to play as a right midfielder without any problem, but you’ll be more prone to play on the left/center. You can check the Training section for further explanations on this if you are having problems in deciding what foot you’ll be selecting. The residence city is the city where your player was born (please refer to the Cities section of this manual). You can select the city you were born or the city that you like the most. Pretty simple. For you player’s personality you can choose a friendly or arrogant personality. This will have influence on your relation with other players (check the Player’s Relationships section). However you’ll be able to change it whenever you desire in your advanced options.
Also after the registration you’ll be put on the validation queue. This means that your registration must be approved by our staff. This usually takes 1 to 3 days. In either case (rejected or approved) you’ll receive an email warning about the status of your registration.
After the completion of the player/character selection, you’ll be put on the free transfer page and all your skills will be reset to 0. You’ll be able to start looking for a team and/or also to receive offers from human-controlled teams. You’ll find more details about this under Chapter #6. Also, all new players will start their careers at the age of 17.
When you finish creating your character/player you can finally start playing the game. But it won’t be possible to start playing games unless you have a team to play in.
3.2 Help and brief information
Another important first-thing-to-do is to take a look on the Help forums so you can learn from experienced users some other things that might be not covered on this manual. We recommend you to do a basic read up of all the threads on your country’s help forum.
It’s of course important to fully read this manual at least one time and consult it whenever you have any doubts about the game. Consider printing it for reference!
A good and very important advice is NOT to spend your money without first knowing what all options are used for.
Finally do not forget to set your individual training scheme after getting a team. But only do it after reading Chapter #6 and #8
4. User interface
The website navigation is divided in 3 sections. The top menu is the most use full panel, with links to many different main areas of the game. The right information panel shows you links and info from the page you currently are, and the Player Bar at the top has the info about the server you are playing on (time, date, visitors) and links to your players and the FS coin page. You also have a Direct Link Bar at the bottom of the page that you can customize and hide.
The first page after your login is the FS Wall Page. We call it the default page. You can move to this page either by using the top menu (clicking the house icon) or by clicking on the game´s logo at the top left of any page. In this page you´ll find lots of useful information: On the left side you’ll find information boxes with your player recent events, next events and game events, recently updated blogs and news. On the center you have the FS wall. There you can publish your recent events or any comment you want, and you can see what you friends have publish. You can also publish comments on other players and team walls. You can change your wall picture and other options on the “option” link at the top of the FS Wall.
On the right information panel you´ll often have the specific options of the page you´re visiting (always on top of other info boxes), your player information and your FS Wall friends (these friends are different that the interactions friends. Read the section “Players Relationships and Interactions” section): To add a player to your FS Wall friends list, just go to the player page and click the “add as friend” link.
The Direct Link Bar shows you links to important pages of the game. To customize the Direct Link Bar click the gear wheel icon and then “customization”.
The most important navigation area is of course the top menu. The top menu will be divided into main areas as: Player, Character, Team, Competitions, Community and Shop (You will see also Manager and Youth Team as option if you are managing a team).
The Player menu contains all the options you need to control your player´s life in FootStar. From the training options (set your training, follow your training evolution) to the Relationships page (check your interaction information and Team Spirit), along with: the contract page (to review the current terms of your contract, but also to negotiate a new contract with your manager), match orders (player´s individual orders, match options), location (check the City Details and Personal Trips), and finally the belongings page where you can check your stash (Match Items for the games) and your Items/goods (control the level of your lifestyle. Please refer to chapter 9 for more details on this).
The next menu is the Character menu. The menu is divided in Player Control (here you can see your players, choose which one to control and buy a slot for a new player), Team Control (if you´re managing a team, here you can see your Teams (main and B, if u have it) and choose which one to control), Manager Job Center (if you are a FS Fan and you don’t control a team, you can search for a team to control here), Manager Ranking (shows you the ranking of the best managers in the country) and Company (where you can create and manage your own company). The Manager Job Center, Manager Ranking and Company will only be visible if you’re a FS Fan (package that allows you to control a team among other features). In this menu, when you will have 32 yo (or more), you will see "retire player" option, in order to retire from football.
The Team menu has different options regarding your current team. The menu has Fixtures (contains your team fixtures for this season), Standings (your team division standings), Manager (shows the private chat between the team manager and the players), Team Facilities, Teammates, Team Forum (leads you to the Team Forum) and Hall of Fame (shows the retired players that have being inducted into the team Hall of Fame).
The Manager and Youth Team menus will only be visible if you´re a FS Fan and if you happen to be in control of a team or a national team. This 2 menus will have Fixtures, Players (info about your squad, contracts, team talks, etc), Transfers (sell and buy players, transfer list, bids page, transfer history, etc), Training (set your team training scheme, reports about the evolution of your players, take a look on your player´s training schemes), Team Facilities (start funding and manage B team and Gym) Hall of Fame, National Team (if you are the manager or assistant of a National Team), My tournament (in the Youth Team takes you to your team Youth league page) and Youth Team Options (takes you to a page where you can change several options for your Youth Team).
The Competitions menu contains links to the competitions your team and your player could play. From League, Playoffs (at the end of the season between the fifth and sixth teams from top division and the second places teams from lower division to determine which one will play in the top division next season), Cup, ITC (shows the different International Teams Competitions), National Teams and City Teams and, as last, PvP (For a better understanding of the PvP games, please read chapter 21).
The Community menu is a very important one. Our website is supposed to be like (or it was developed to be like) a community website involving a game. On this menu you can find the Hall of Fame link (players exalted to Hall of Fames from all over the world), your National Federation link (shows important information from your National Federation. Refer to the “National Team and National Federations” section of the manual), the search link (contains links to pages you can use to search for divisions, players, teams, users, games and clans), FS Toplist (application for making different kind of top lists of players and teams with different search filters), Clans (groups of FS fan users with their own private forum), Press (shows the different newspapers in FS. Read the “Player Relationships and Interactions” and “Companies and Agencies” sections) and last but not least the Forums link. On the Forums you can make contact with all the other users around the planet. You can seek for help or discuss your ideas about the game, make your suggestions to the administration team, and, of course, also discuss real life things or have a bit of fun on our Off-Topic forums
The last menu, Shop, contains links to pages where you can buy different FootStar products. The FS Fan link leads you to the page where you can buy one of the different kinds of FS fan available. Also shows the FS Coins and Free Offers links. The FS Coins allows you to not only buy FS Fan but also buy some other features like a second player and the Match Package (Match Viewer and Analyzer). The Free Offers link shows a page where you can complete multiple tasks and be rewarded FS Fan Days or Coins for free.
The last part of this Top Menu are the 4 icons on the right. The "House" (or Home Page) icon takes you to the FS wall or default page, the "Interactive news" icon shows you the people who have interacted you recently and the news from your wall and your friends´ walls. The "Gear Wheel" (or Options) Icon will lead you to a page with several links that you can use to change see and change your preferences, customize the page, check stats, mailbox, friends list, and also where you can contact us, check the Administration staff and see the Development Blog and News, among other things.
5. Players
There are basically two kinds of players in FootStar: human-controlled players and Bot-players. Bot players have very low skills and their only functions are to fill up bot teams and human teams (only if there are less than 11 players in team) and to become "hosts" of human players, sooner or later. They don´t train, their fitness is always 100% and their morale/confidence is useless in matches.
Inside the game we can distinguish human players from bot players by having the human-controlled player names in bold letters.
All human controlled players will have a birthday date. This date uses the same format as the FootStar Date. You can find the birthday FS date of each player at his details page (just after his age info. Ex: 23 years (1/10)).
One thing you should really know is that your player will need a home to live in. By default, all players will start with one home in their local city (parents home). But in case you move to some other city (temporarily or not) you´ll need a place to stay during the night. Every day at 5:00 server-time the game engine will check if the player has a place to stay in the city they´re at. In case they haven´t, the player will pay a 20€ cost in order to rent a place to stay. If the player does not have the money to pay this expense, he´ll have to sleep in the streets and his morale will be affected. As this is a daily check, you should be extra careful with this or all your money and moral will be drained as time goes by. There is a way to avoid paying this cost in case you don´t have a house on a city: to have a clause in your contract that will force the team to pay the expenses for you. This is only valid for human controlled teams and in the city where the team is based. For example, lets assume you have this clause on your contract and you´re Italian, from Rome. Your team is based in Madrid and as you are Italian you would have to pay a cost to stay in Madrid every day. But in your contract it states that your team should pay this value for you, so you won´t be paying anything. However if you temporarily travel to Lisbon, while you´re in Lisbon and if you don´t own a house there you´ll have to rent a place to stay and therefore pay 20€ per day.
The only exception to this rule happens when you travel with the team for a match. While this happens the game engine will assume that the team is paying all team players these expenses so that they can play the match!
Second, Third and Fourth Slot/players
FootStar gives you the ability to control more than one player. This can be done using the FS Fan Coins and FS Fan users have the possibility to buy extra slots for a discounted price! Clearly the third slot/player costs more than the second slot/player and fourth costs more than third.
Each slot/player is valid for 365 days starting from purchasing date. This means the second/third slot must be renewed annually or made "definitive" paying an "one time" fee. If the slot(s) will not be renewed, at the expiry of 365 days the second/third/fourth slot/player will be deleted and all data will be irretrievably lost!
The rules for controlling more than one player are quite simple:
- Secondary characters have the same nationality of the main character; no other characteristics are inherited.
- Secondary characters can play in whatever team they wish, even in different teams playing the same competition. There aren´t special rules here, but imagine this case: promotions / relegations where teams are put in the same competition. To prevent spying, managers can control which players can access the team forum using the Manager >> Players menu >> Team Forum Access.
- Secondary/tertiary characters can play in National Teams. They cannot, however, be called up to a national team if another character of the same user was already called-up to the same squad (in the same National Team, for example, Portugal), the Main, U21 and U18 squads are considered different squads for this rule).
- Secondary/tertiary characters can be team managers but users with 2 ore 3 players cannot manage 2 teams at the same time. Of course any one of their characters can manage a team and they can hand management between their own characters without having to wait for the one month restriction.
- In order to know if a certain user has secondary characters, just go to the user details page (can be accessed via the player’s info page). In that page, you can find a link to all the characters that user controls.
- (Paid) Second/third/fourth characters cannot have sons.
There is a special page to allow you to switch between the characters you control. Just hover the mouse over the "User" icon at the top right of the screen and select the "Player Control" option. Alternatively, at the top of each page, you have direct links to each your players. Clicking on the name of the player you want..you will control it. It´s very fast!
Of course you can play with different characters in Foobbuteo. But you won’t have the chance to win prizes with two different characters (in the same competition: imagine you have #1 and #2 in the daily ranking, only #1 will win the prize).
Player's son
Son is a special player which is awarded for users who managed to keep their main player till 30 years of age. Think of a son as a reward for staying with a game for multiple years. Son is not any special as an additional player (except that it's free), however it is different in one way - son has no continuity. Son cannot be reset and if a son is retired, a user does not a get a replacement player in the same slot. Technically this makes son a one-time reward.
Creating a son:
- a user can have a son with his main player only and only when that main player is 30 years or older.
- there are 2 ways to have a son
>> adopting a son - can be done without any additional requirements. Adopted son inherits father's surname, but his first name is random. Adopted son also inherits one of father's double nationalities if a father has any.
>> have a son with a wife - a player must have a wife for this to be possible. Such sons inherit player's surname and user is allowed to choose his first name. This son can inherit mother's nationality as his double nationality and also inherit some adaptability to that country, depending on mother's intelligence.
Additional info:
- son and father can transfer money between them freely.
- technically it's possible to have multiple sons at the same time - first son with your first main player, second son with a second main player (the one you get as a replacement for retiring first main player), third son with third main player (the one you get after retiring second main player), but age gaps between multiple sons will be huge and basically only one of the sons will be 'good player' at a time.
Player retirement
Each player can only retire once he reaches the age of 32 years old (or older). This can be done at Character >> Retire Player. Of course a retired player cannot train, interact or play any longer for any other club or national team. However the player can still be used to control a team (as the main manager), in case the user account still has FS Fan.
Once a player retires, pretty much all the career information and stats are kept . In fact, a special page will be presented for retired players where you can find a detailed text information about the player career, called "Player Biography". Here you can see the player skills at the retirement, player achievements and some other infos.
There is also a reward for retiring a player. You must pick only one of the following:
- 6 months of FS Fan at your selection: either Silver, Gold or Bronze. However, if you already have FS Fan you must pick the same FS Fan type.
- If you have a paid second slot/player, you can renew it one year for free.
- 3300 FS Fan Coins.
There also are several "Hall of Fame" for retired players. These are the available types:
- Clubs’ Hall of Fame (managed by the club’s manager)
- National Teams’ Hall of Fame (managed by the Federation President)
- Footstar Hall of Fame (managed by the system)
Clearly there are some requirements to enter in Clubs/National Teams/Footstar Hall of Fame. Let us explain you now how it works:
- To enter in Clubs Hall of Fame you need at least 50 senior appearances or 50 goals for the main club. This means that a player can be eligible for more than one club’s Hall of Fame.
- To enter in National Teams Hall of Fame you need either 30 senior caps or 50 goals (U21 and U18 caps/goals are excluded).
- To enter in FootStar Hall of Fame, let us explain you how it’s calculated. Once a player retires a career score will be calculated. This depends mostly on the number of titles won by the player until the age of 38 years old. The title reputation is also very important as a World Cup title is more valuable than a first division title. Also, a first division title in a higher ranked league is more valuable than a title in a "smaller" league (leagues are ranked using the ITC country ranking). The first 20 players with the most score are placed in the FS Hall of Fame.
Final notes:
- Even if a player retires at another club, he and still be eligible for your club hall of fame if he meets the proper requirements.
- Once you retire a player you will get another one as a replacement. The new player will be a completely reset player. Sons don´t get a new player as a replacement.
- Player retirement must be done by the user himself. There are no automatic retirements.
Player reset
Any user will be able to start with a new player if their current player is a "free player". When you reset your player, you´ll lose all technical skills, mental skills, all your funds, all "new nationalities" and all player´s stats. Of course, if you´re coaching a team you don´t need to become free player. This exceptions works only for managers!
Each player can be reset once every 60 days.
6. First steps, team selection and contract
After the completion of your character/player creation you finally can start playing the game. But it won´t be possible to start playing the game unless you have a team to play in. But we´ll explain this to you a little better on the next section.
Another important first-thing-to-do is to take a look on the Help forums so you can learn from experienced users some other things that might be not covered on this manual. We recommend you to do a basic read up of all the threads on your country´s help forum.
It´s of course important to fully read this manual at least one time and consult it whenever you have any doubts about the game. Consider printing it for reference!
A good and very important advice is NOT to spend your money without first knowing what all options are used for.
Finally do not forget to set your individual training scheme after getting a team. But only do it after reading the next section and also the Training section.
Team selection and contract details
Basically when you are looking for a team, you have two options: selecting a human-controlled team or a server-controlled team (also known as “bot team”). To join a team, either click on the Team information box link on the right and select one from there (either human or bot) or go directly to a team’s details page and select the “Join the team” option on the right information box. To search for specific teams you can go to Community >> Search page and then in the right information box select either “Team” or “Division” to start looking for teams on a series of your preference.
Alternatively you can opt to join the Amateur League. This isn’t exactly like joining a proper club; instead it’s just a way for you to get some money (standard 500€ wage) and be able to follow a training regime although you won’t get any feedback on your performances on the field. This is a good option in case there aren’t any available positions in your local bot teams because, this way, you won’t lose any training. To join an Amateur league just click on the Team information box link at the right and then select “Suscribe now!” on the Amateur League section at the bottom of the page.
Now, as we told before, there are human-controlled teams and bot teams (server-controlled teams). You can easily identify a bot team: just go to the team’s details page and look for the manager info (Positions section). If it says “Unknown” then you’re looking at a bot team. If not, you’ll see the current manager’s nickname: you’re looking at a human-controlled team and you can know more about the manager by following the link on the nickname.
Differences between Bot teams and Human teams.
There are many differences between a bot and a human team, here are the most important ones:
- In a human team you’ll have the additional challenge to face a real manager instead of working with a non-communicative one.
-By choosing a bot team you won’t be able to discuss the terms of your contract and you must accept the default terms offered by the server (on a bot team all players receive a 500€ wage by default). In a human team you’ll have to negotiate your contract with the manager.
- In a human team you’ll have not only your individual training but also your team’s training (more details on the next section: “Training”), in a bot team you’ll only have your individual training.
- In a human team you might be required to train fitness by your manager and therefore waste valuable opportunities to train your skills, in a bot team, you don’t have to train fitness if you don’t want to (although you’ll perform badly with low fitness).
- As you start with low skills you might be put on the bench in a human team until you have reasonable skills to play. In a bot team you’ll always be selected to play (if there are less than 11 human players on the team). Bots will set their starting eleven twice a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays around 5am (server time). Skills/quality of players won’t be the main decision factor of their selections as bot teams will try to ensure a rotativity for all the human players, so don’t expect a major AI (Artificial Intelligence) in bots regarding starting elevens.
- You can leave a bot team whenever you want (but you’ll have a 5% morale penalization every time you leave a bot team). To leave a human team you’ll have to wait until your contract runs out, you get bought by or loaned to another team, or your manager sets you free.
You should also know that you can receive offers from human teams if you’re in free transfer or in a bot team. In this case you’ll be informed by FS Mail if you receive any offer. You should then discuss the terms of the deal with the manager.
A strategy could be to, at the beginning, opt to develop your skills and experience in a bot team and only then move to a human team, when you feel more confident. But you can also opt on training a little more by playing less at the beginning on a human team (and possibly having a higher wage).
A final note about foreign bot teams: you cannot join/play in bot teams of foreign countries. For example, if you’re a Portuguese player you won’t be able to join a Spanish bot team. The only exception is when the manager of a foreign human team is fired from the team. In that case, and if you have the option to remain on the team, you’ll stay at the bot team. You can however move to foreign human team.
Rules in Bot Teams
To be able to play in a bot team you must follow a set of rules. First of all, each bot team will have a maximum number of 30 players in their squads, regardless of position or any other player attribute. In bot teams with over 20 players, on a daily basis, the team will fire 5 bot players in order to hold more space for human-controlled players. Another key rule in bot teams is that players inactive for more than 14 days will be fired from the team in case the team has more than 20 players (they will be treated as if they were bot players). These fired players will be able to rejoin the bot teams though (the 3 month rule is not applicable in these cases). The other key rule you should know is that, if you miss more than 2 games of your bot team (failing to be in the same city of the team when a match is played) you’ll be automatically fired from the team. This counter will only be incremented in case you were selected in the starting eleven for that match though.
Bot teams and friendly games
Yes, it’s possible. The only way for this to happen is when a human-controlled team is not able to schedule a friendly game before Tuesday. Human teams can schedule friendly games with bot teams of the same city between Tuesdays (00:00 server time) and the exact time their matches start on their local countries.
Contract details
When you sign for a team you’ll have to have a contract. A contract consists of wage, duration, team role and match prizes (per match, goal, assists, clean sheet - GK’s only); these prizes will be paid on every kind of matches, friendly included. If you’re playing on a bot team you’ll only have a wage (€500). On the other side, if you play on a human team you’ll have the possibility to discuss all the terms with the manager.
In a bot team you can leave whenever you want. In a human team you must respect your contract duration unless you’re fired or sold/loaned by your manager. If not renewed, when you contract expires, you’ll be put on the transfer list again.
If one of the parts wants to end the contract before time, it must discuss it with the other part. Example: if you want to end your contract before time, you should contact your manager and discuss some kind of compensation fee for the team. On the other side, if the manager wants to end your contract before time he has two choices: either offers you a friendly contract termination or he breaks your contract by paying you a compensation. The monetary compensation depends on the last time you have signed a contract with the club:
- a contract signed 27 days ago or less - 5% of season wage*
- a contract signed 28-55 days ago - 25% of season wage*
- a contract signed 56-84 days ago - 50% of season wage*
- a contract signed 85-111 days ago - 75% of season wage*
- a contract signed 112 days ago or more - full season wage*
* season wage > Example: you earn 5000€/week >> Season wage = 5000€ x 16 weeks = 80000€).
By going to Player >> Contract (top menu), players will have the possibility to request their managers to leave through a friendly contract termination. In case their managers accept the request they’ll be put on the free transfer list. The deadline for managers to answer these requests is 30 days (21 days for unprotected teams). These waiting periods can be reduced in 15 days depending on the inactivity level of the team manager: it means that for regular teams, in case of inactive managers, players can wait only 15 days to leave. For unprotected teams it can go down to 7 days. A manager is immediately considered inactive in case he does not log in the game for 15 days. If the manager is on vacations these periods are doubled. Managers can extend this deadline by going on vacations: when this happens, the deadline is extended in one month. Managers can only go on vacations once per season.
In case they leave the proposal unanswered for right amount of 30 days, players will be free to leave without any kind of compensation.
If the team fails to pay you more than 2 wages, you’ll have the possibility to leave the club without having to pay any compensation fee. This will only happen in human teams, since bot teams never fail to pay their wages.
At a human team you might also have the possibility to win Result Prizes. Your human manager might set prizes for wins and draws (home/away) that every human player will earn in case the results are obtained. These prizes will only be paid in official matches though (friendly matches are excluded). Only those players that participated in the match (1 minute will be enough) will earn prizes. Cup matches decided by penalties will be considered draws.
There are some restrictions concerning player contracts in human controlled teams. This is done to prevent unrealistic sudden changes in player’s wages. Consider this as a set of “board rules” in which your club’s directing board won’t allow you to run the club’s finances on a crazy manner. The complete list of restrictions follows:
- The highest allowed wage will be 1000% of the lowest player wage on the club. Example: if your lowest-paid player receives 500€ per week, you will only be allowed to pay a newly signed player 5000€. The lowest wage on your club will be the lowest wage your manager pays to a human-controlled player; bot players will not be taken into account (as their wages are locked).
- Same rule as before applies to all renewals, except if a player already receives more than the 1000% cap. If he does, he’ll be allowed to renew for his current wage but no more than that. Example: if a player receives 10000€ per week and the 1000% cap sets the maximum at 5000€, the maximum wage you can offer the player will be 10000€.
- The maximum allowed wage increase will be set at 100% of the player’s current wage. Example: if a player has a 500€ wage, on renewal managers will only be allowed to pay him 1000€ tops (double his current wage).
- The maximum allowed wage decrease will be set at 50% of the player’s current wage. Example: if a player gets 1500€ per week, the maximum decrease will be 750€ (half his current wage).
- Managers will only be allowed to offer a game bonus of a total of 50% the maximum allowed wage (Example: maximum wage 1000€, game bonus 500€).
- Managers will only be allowed to offer bonuses (except the game bonus, described above) of a total of 25% of the maximum allowed wage (Example: maximum wage is 1000€, managers will be able to offer a maximum goal bonus of 250€, assist bonus 250€, etc., not cumulative).
- A player’s contract can only be renewed once in every 2 weeks.
Contracts might also have clauses. There are four (4) possible contract clauses:
- Minimum release fee (a fee so that all offers above that fee for a player are automatically accepted)
- Team pays house expenses (the team is obligated to pay the daily house expenses - 20€ - if the player does not have a house on the team’s home city)
- Manager release clause (the player is allowed to buy FS Fan Gold and start controlling a team any time he wants)
- Inactivity clause (players might be fired without any monetary compensation if they fail to login for the agreed number of days).
Only players playing in human teams are allowed to have such clauses.
A final note about the team role:
When you sign a contract you’ll be given the chance to choose a team role. You can opt for “Important first team player”, “Squad rotation player”, “Good prospect for the future” and “Not needed in the club”. This part of your contract might have a good or bad effect on your player’s morale so be careful when selecting this option. You should check the Player Psychology section of this manual for more help on this. Also, you can’t have the “Good prospect for the future” status if you’re over 20 years old. In case you are under the previous situation your player morale will start to suffer so keep your eyes on that. You should forget the team role (and the effects it has on your morale) if you’re playing in a bot team.
7. Skills
The player skills are virtually a measure of how good your player is when trying to do certain moves on the field. You can view your skills under the “Player” page in the top menu, in the “Skills” tab. Each of your skills have a numerical value between 0 and 100, 0 being the worst and 100 the best. There are cases in which you can pass the level of 100 (up to 125) which are explained below, but you can only train your skills to a maximum skill cap of 100. Player skills are being made of 4 categories: technical skills, physical skills, goalkeeping skills and mental skills (we'll talk about them in chapter 9).
7.1. Technical skills
Technical skills are the skills only used by outfield players, and they virtually represent the ability of an outfield player to control the ball, position himself on the pitch or recover the ball from the opposite side. There are 15 technical skills explained below:
Crosses: The ability of the player to make a “cross pass”. It virtually controls how close a player can cross to it’s intended target, affecting the cross direction. Crossing the ball is also affected by the technique of the player.
Dribbling: The ability of the player to dribble past a nearby opposing player. The higher the dribbling skill, the higher the chance of the player getting past his opponent. Dribbling a player is also affected by the technique skill.
Finishing: The ability of the player to make powerful shots at the opposing goal from short range. The higher the skill is, the more powerful your short range shots will be. While shooting, the technique skill will set the accuracy of the shot.
Game Vision: The ability of the player to judge and evaluate the flow of the game and act accordingly. The higher this skill is, the better he can decide where and when to pass or run, the better he can evaluate his or the other players’ position on the field and the farther he can see the pitch to act accordingly.
Heading: The ability of the player to head the ball. The higher this skill is, the higher the chance of winning aerial duels, how high he can receive the ball and how well he can control it and how well he passes or tries to score with his head.
Long Passes: The ability of the player to pass to a player further than roughly ? of the lenght of the pitch from him. It controls how close the player can pass to its intended target, affecting the pass direction. Long passes are also affected by the technique skill.
Long Shots: The ability of the player to make more powerful and accurate shots at the goal from long range. The higher the long shots skill is, the more powerful and more accurate the player’s long range shots will be. Shooting from long range also is affected by the technique of the player.
Positioning: The ability of the player to position himself on the field. The higher the positioning skill, the better and faster the player can position himself on the field, the higher the chance of intercepting the ball and the higher the chance of the player winning a duel with an opposite player in the same area of the pitch.
Short Passes: The ability of the player to pass to a player nearer than roughly ? of the lenght of the pitch from him. It controls how close the player can pass to its intended target, affecting the pass direction. Technique affects the height of a short pass.
Tackling: The ability of the player to tackle and regain possession from an opposite player with the ball. The higher the tackling skill, the higher the chance to tackle the ball successfully and the higher the chance to win a duel with an opposite player in the same area of the pitch.
Technique: The ability of the player to control the ball. The higher the technique skill is, the better is the direction of his shots, the lower the passes he is able to make, the better he controls the ball while dribbling, the better and faster he controls the ball when receiving or recuperating it and the better the chance of him winning a duel with an opposite player.
First Touch The ability of the player to make first-touch movements. The higher the First Touch skill is, less is the time to takes full control of the ball. Controls how much skills a player loses when he attempts a first time action. Players with high first touch will not have considerable noise in these actions.
Jumping: The ability of the player to "jump" > How high a player can jump. Increases the height of the player, which has a direct influence on how high a player can reach the ball
Marking: The ability of the player to marking opponent players. As lower this skill is as higher the possibility to "forget" to mark a player is.
Set Pieces: The ability of the player to take free-kicks, corners and penalties. Controls the ball height and direction in free-kicks, corners and penalties.
Although all technical skills are good for your players, some are more important than others regarding specific positions on the field. For example, finishing is a very important skill for players playing as forward, but when playing as a defender you might prefer other skills that will help you more while defending.
7.2. Physical skills
There are 3 physical skills in the game and they represent the physical ability of the player to rise to the challenge of a football match. They are described below:
Speed: How fast a player can move or sprint while in the possession of the ball or while chasing the ball. A player with high speed skill reaches higher speeds than a player with low speed skill, when trying to reach a ball, run with it, or chasing an opponent. It also influences the top speed a player can reach before he is considered “sprinting” and therefore losing more stamina and fitness then he normally would.
Stamina: How long the player can run before he gets tired, losing more fitness than he normally would. The higher the stamina is, the longer the player can sustain his top speed, the longer he can sprint and the better he plays while dealing with fitness losses. During half-time and full-time a higher stamina value will cause the player to recover more fitness.
Acceleration: How much time player takes to get to full speed. Players with good acceleration will make a faster use of their speed skill.
7.3. Goalkeeping skills
Goalkeeping skills are the skills used only by players playing in the goalkeeper position. There are 6 of them and they are described below:
Agility (GK): This skill resembles how agile a keeper is when saving the ball. The higher this skill is, the better the reach of the keeper when saving the ball and the higher the speed with which he can save the ball.
Handling (GK): The ability of the goalkeeper to control the ball. The higher the handling, the better the player is at controlling the ball during a save and the less likely the player is to drop the ball or punching it.
Out of Area (GK): The top speed of a goalkeeper when not saving the ball. The higher the out of area skill, the faster the keeper can move on the field. It virtually replaced the “speed” skill regarding goalkeepers.
Reflexes (GK): The ability of a goalkeeper to react when trying to save the ball. The higher the reflexes, the faster the player reacts to an incoming shot and the faster the player recovers after an already made save.
Throwing (GK): The ability of a goalkeeper to pass the ball. The higher this skill is, the more accurate a keeper passes the ball. It virtually replaces “short passes” and “long passes” skills regarding goalkeepers.
Command of Area (GK): How wide the keeper range is. Command of Area directly affects the keeper´s control zone. A keeper with low Command of Area will not be able to get as far to a ball as a keeper with high Command of Area.
8. Training
Training is a really important part of FootStar. The first thing you need to know is that you should set your training schedule as fast as you can. You cannot forget to set your training or you will lose "time...and skills".
Training is done in "sessions". There are 3 training sessions every day which start at 00:00, 8:00 and 16:00 FS time. The training session usually take around half of hour although the exact time depends on server load. During that time a player is not allowed to change his training.
Training in Human Teams
In FS there are two types of training: Individual Training (IT) and Team Training (TT).
Every player is able to set his own training on a training page, however every manager of a human team is able to set a team training. During the training session it is checked if a player is training the same skill as a team and if he does, a player trains at full potential, but if the player training is different from training the manager has set, the player gets 75% of training + xx% as bonus. This bonus-% depends by team's training facilities (more info in the next lines)
Let's explain with 2 examples:
- At a training session player has chosen to train Positioning, but his manager at the same session has set team training to Technique. The player will get 75% of maximum finishing training (the exact value also depends on player fitness and training facilities) and will not get any technique training
- At a training session player has chosen to train technique - the same skill his manager has set on team training - the player will get full technique training (the value can be decreased by low fitness of a player).
As we said, if a player trains different skill than a team he uses the so called "Individual training" usually referred to as IT, and if a player trains the same skill as a team he uses the team training, usually referred to as TT. One important thing is that in order to train the same skill as a team the player has to be in the same location (city) as the team. If a player travels to a different city (to play in NT for example) using team training is impossible and the player gets individual training even if he sets his personal training to the same as his team training is.
There's another difference between IT and TT: a player looses -1 fitness per session with IT and -2 fitness per session with TT. This difference is a very important thing in fitness managing for fitness calculation.
The penalties on training are only applied for technical and physical skill training, it is not applied to other training (fitness, side, position, having fun). However, a manager does not have a possibility to set team training to fitness, side, position or having so this rule is rather irrelevant.
Training facilities
You can find it going to: Manager > Club > Training Ground. As we said in the previous lines, this is a very important feature for players' training. Better structures will give bigger bonuses to players who don't follow the team training. This structure has 2 upgradable characteristic: Quality and Size. Let us explain.
We have 5 quality-levels. Each levels give a progressive bonus on IT training:
- Level 1 costs 7.500 €/week (price increase 20% last level)
- Level 2 costs 9.000 €/week
- Level 3 costs 10.800 €/week
- Level 4 costs 12.960 €/week
- Level 5 costs 15.552 € /week
There are also 2 "size levels":
- Level 1 (30 players)
- Level 2 (60 players) - it costs 8000€/week
So, the weekly cost (paid at the economic updates) for training grounds will go from 7500€ for the first level to 15552€ for the last level, with a 20% rise between each level. In order to raise a level you’ll have to pay a set-up fee that is equal to the weekly fee of the level you’re building. If you want to increase your training ground in order to hold 60 players, there will be an extra cost of 8000€ per week/economic update.
Size level will affect the number of players that can use the TFs (2 levels). 30 players is the max. size for the fist level. If a team (including youth teams) has more than 30 players then the bonus will be reduced in order to fit all players.
Training IT without any TF is equal to 75% of TT.
Training with TF(lv 5) is about 84,5% of TT.
Training in a bot team or regional league
Bot teams don't have a manager and thus players in those teams do not get team training, however the penalty for using IT in bot teams is reduced and players get 85% of maximum training if they train field player skill and get 80% of maximum training for goalkeeper skills. The fitness loss in bot teams is always -2 per session and it does not depend on the skill a player trains. If a player does not have a team he does not train at all, but free players have the possibility to join the regional league where they get the same training as in a bot team.
Penalties and bonuses
Bonuses
There are two types of possible bonuses: bonus for training same skill in a row and training facility bonus (as we said).
- Bonus for training same skill in a row: A player gets this bonus if he trains the same skill two or three sessions in a row. The bonus for three sessions in a row is higher than the bonus for two session in a row. The important thing is that a player gets these bonuses only if trains the same skill in a row on the same day, it means that the bonus for two sessions in a row is not applied if a player trains a skill on the last session of one day and on the first session of the next day. These bonuses are not applied to side or position training and to having fun training. The bonuses for fitness training are seen immediately - 2nd session in a row gives +2 and 3rd session in a row gives +4 (+6 in total if a player does 3 fitness training sessions in a row). However the bonuses for skill training were never revealed or confirmed by the admins - there are some theories and calculations done by users of FS and this information is presented in common knowledge about training. This bonus is applied to both - TT and IT.
- Training facility bonus: it's applied only if a player is using an individual training. The default penalty for using individual training and not following team training is -25%, however this penalty can be reduced with training facility bonus. There are 5 levels of training facilities and each level give a higher bonus than the previous one. Exact values of bonuses were never revealed or confirmed by admins, but there are some theories. Training facility is built and maintained by a team. The players have no direct influence over this issue. Bot teams do not have a manager and that's why training facility cannot be used in a bot team. The training facility has no other effect on player training - it does not increase fitness losses.
Penalties
There are 4 types of penalties on training: the first is a penalty when a player individually trains a different skill than his team (this has already been described in this article in a section Team training and Individual training. The other 3 types of penalties are aged based training penalty, low fitness penalty and "above 75 skill points penalty".
- Age based training penalty: as a player ages his training slows down. This penalty is not applied to 17-20 year old players, but players from 21 year old always get this penalty. The penalty is always the same: the maximum possible training is reduced by 25% every year. The 25% are calculated of the maximum value of the previous year, not of the maximum possible value overall and that means that maximum training value never reaches 0. There's no way to avoid this penalty or reduce it.
- Low fitness penalty: if a player wants to get a maximum possible training using team training is not enough. The player also has to train with fitness at 90% or higher. If a player trains with lower fitness he gets a penalty on training. This penalty depends on two variables: fitness level (the lower the fitness the higher the penalty) and skill level (the higher the skill the higher the penalty).
- "Above 75 skill points" penalty: Once any of player's skills get to 75..this skill will start to increase at a smaller pace and it will be increasingly harder as you scale up to 100. Each time your skill increase (above 75 of course) it will be harder to get to the next skill. Up until 75, there is no penalty.
Checking training progress
On a training page there's a progress-bar who inform you about your progression for next pop. That bar is updated after each training session. On this page you can also see the exact day of a skill-pop.
There is also a "Player log", a special page accessible from a right side menu. On this page all events of a player life are recorded and it also contains information about training. Player log will not show what skill was trained, but it shows the exact time of skill change whenever it happens.
9. Mental skills and talents
Unlike other player skills, mental skills are not gained through training. Instead a percentage of a skill is given to each player each day. Staying alone in training on that day will give you a higher percentage. When you reach 100% you will get a skill point, which you can use to allocate in any of the given mental skills. There are 9 mental skills in total described below:
Anticipation: The ability of the player to change his current action and to realise that his current action is not the optimal one. The higher the anticipation skill, the faster the player will realise if his current action is not the optimal one and the faster he’ll change his current action.
Composure: The ability of the player to recover from a previous action. The higher this skill is, the faster the player will recover from an action he just completed and the less time he gets “locked” into position doing nothing.
Concentration: The ability of the player to asses the situation in the field and act accordingly. The higher his concentration, the faster the player can read other players’ positions on the field and act accordingly.
Consistency: The ability of the player to perform consistently with his ability. The higher this skill is, the lower the chance of the player to perform below his current skill abilities. When underperforming players will get a penalty to all their skills during a match, the more consistent players having a lower chance of that happening.
Decisions: The ability of the player to decide what the best course of action is. The higher this skill is, the higher the chance of the player realising and making the best course of action available to him.
Flair: The ability of the player to make unexpected moves. The higher this skill is, the higher the chance that the player will get a boost on all his skills during the next minute. This check is made every minute and the boost the player gets is a fixed percentage to his current skills.
Bravery, Creativity, Influence: These mental skills do not have any practical use during the match, but they are used as prerequisites to learning different talents.
9.1 Talents
Talents are special moves your player can learn that allows you to be better in some areas of the game at the expense of being worse in others. There are 51 talents in the game and you can view all of them in the “Mental Skills” page on the right hand menu of the “Player / Training” page. Each one of the talents has an appropriate skill point cost attached to it and some skill prerequisites you must fulfill in order to be able to unlock it (for example, you cannot take the “Inspired” talent unless you already have 90 Decisions and 90 Concentration and 15 skill points to pay the cost of the talent).
You can take how many talents you want, but you will only be able to use a maximum of two during any game. You can activate them by going to the “Match Orders” page under “Player” in the top menu and selecting “Talents” in the right hand menu. You cannot activate two talents of the same type (i.e. two talents that have the same beneficial effect) during the same game (for example, you cannot activate “Powerful Free-Kicks” and “Super Powerful Free-Kicks” at the same time).
Also, you need to know that talents have 5 levels. The higher their level, the more often they will be used during a match. To increase the level of a talent you must activate it for your matches. Each match you play with the talent active will give you one level of talent. Each match you play without the talent active will decrease it’s level by one.
There are two types of talents: general talents and positional talents, described below.
9.1 General Talents
These talents can be taken and used by everyone. There are 37 general talents described below. You should know that the second, stronger type of talent always has a bigger advantage and disadvantage and also bigger prerequisite requirements (for example “Crowd Pleaser II” gives more morale at the expense of more composure, concentration and flair than “Crowd Pleaser I”; it also has more requirements).
Crowd Pleaser I and II: These talents give morale to the player’s teammates (all of them, but not himself) at the expense of some of his Composure, Concentration and Flair. They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Winds Up Opponents I and II: Winding up opponents means that you will increase your opponent’s chance of committing a foul against you, but you will also increase your chance of getting a yellow card when you commit a foul. They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Diver I and II: Diving will also increase your opponent’s chance of committing a foul against you, but you will also increase your chance of committing a foul while you’re dribbling (diving is penalised after all). They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Stops Play I and II: When stopping the play, the player will gain Game Vision, Concentration and Decisions at the expense of his Speed, Positioning and Composure. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Powerful and Super Powerful Free-Kicks: Taking powerful free-kicks means that the player gains a bonus on Finishing and Long Shots when taking free-kicks, while at the same time taking a penalty on Technique on his free-kicks. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Technical Free-Kicks I and II: Technical free-kicks are the opposite of powerful ones. The player gains a bonus in Technique when taking free-kicks, while his Finishing and Long Shots are reduced at the same time. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Outside Foot Crosser: Outside foot crossing means that when a player crosses he does it with his outside foot (that being the one farthest from the center of the pitch, meaning when crossing from the right side he will use his right foot). This will improve the direction of the player’s crosses, but will reduce the ball speed when crossing. It costs 5 skill points.
Substitute Hero: This talent gives a player a bonus to all his skills only when he enters the field after the 60th minute. It has no penalty other than the fact he must always be playing less time in order for this to work. Substitute Hero costs 15 skill points.
Equalizer: Equalizer gives the player an even bigger bonus to all his skill, but only if he enters the field after the 80th minute and his team is down by 1 goal. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Lightning Speed: Lightning Speed is calculated by the minute, giving it a random boost on the player’s speed and positioning, but when it activates it also incurs a penalty in game vision as well as extra fitness losses. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Aggressive I and II: Aggression of a player means that he is going to get a boost to his stamina and a boost to his tackling and heading while confronting the opposite players, but will take a penalty on speed, game vision and positioning while playing. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Dribbler I and II: Taking the dribbler talent will give you a boost on your dribbling and technique while taking a penalty on your speed, concentration and decisions. These talents cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Every man for himself: This talent will make your player play better when your team is winning. He gets a boost to all his skills if your team is leading and will take a penalty to all his skills while your team is down. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Sore loser: This is the opposite of every man for himself, meaning that the player gets a bonus to all his skills when his team is down, while getting a penalty to his skills when his team is leading. It costs 15 skill points.
Inspired: Inspired makes your player get a bonus to all his skills while playing with a rating of 6 and higher while getting the same penalty while playing with a 5 or lower rating. Inspired costs 15 skill points.
Auto-motivator: Auto-motivating players get a bonus to all their skills while playing with a 5 or lower rating, but take the same penalty when playing with a 6 or higher rating. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Utility-Player I and II: This talent reduces the penalties you normally take while playing in a different side or position from your player’s, but you also take a penalty on your concentration and speed. These cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Terrace Hero: This talent will get you a bonus to your team’s home attendance while taking a penalty to all your skills during the match. The maximum attendance boost in a single match can be achieved with 5 “terrace heroes” anything more than that won’t give you any more bonus. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Second Wind: Second wind players get a bonus to all their skills in the last 15 minutes of each half and a penalty to all their skills in the first 30 minutes of each half. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Initial pressure: This talent gives the player a bonus to all his skills on the first 15 minutes of each half, but it also incurs a penalty to all the player’s skills on the last 30 minutes of each half. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Slider tackles: Sliding tackles means that your player will get a bonus to his tackling skill while tackling. This talent also increases the chance of your player to give away fouls and to get booked. This talent costs 5 skill points.
Technical Finisher: This talent increases your player’s technique at the expense of his finishing skill. It costs 15 skill points.
Powerful Finisher: This talent increases your player’s finishing skill at the expense of his technique. It costs 15 skill points.
Motivator: This talent increases your team-mates’ confidence. When they become overconfident, they receive a decrease in confidence instead. This check is made every minute and it incurs a penalty on your player’s composure, concentration and flair. The talent costs 15 skill points.
Efficient and Superb Long Shooter: These talents increase the player’s long shots skill at the expense of his technique. They cost 15 and 25 skill points respectively.
Technical and Super Technical Long Shooter: These talents increase your player’s technique skill at the expense of his long shots. They cost 15 and 25 skill points respectively.
9.2. Positional Talents
These talents are specific for a certain position on the field and have an effect only if the player is playing on that position. For example, if you have the “Sticky gloves” talent, you will only get it’s effect if you play as a goalkeeper. If you play as a defender you will no longer get it’s bonus (note that your current favourite position does not count, meaning that if you are a goalkeeper and you play as a defender you still won’t get the talent’s effects). There are 18 positional talents, described below:
9.2.1. Goalkeeper talents
Eccentric: Being eccentric means that you get a bonus on your out of area and agility skills, but you incur a penalty on your throwing and handling skills. This talent costs 5 skill points.
Sticky gloves: Sticky gloves gives you a bonus of handling and out of area and a penalty on your reflexes and agility. It costs 25 skill points.
Area boss: This talent gives a bonus on the positioning, game vision and concentration of all your team’s defenders at the expense of your concentration, anticipation and out of area skills. It costs 5 skill points.
Penalty stopper: This talent gives you a bonus to all your skills while defending a penalty kick and incurs a penalty to all your skills the rest of the game. Penalty stopper costs 5 skill points.
Set pieces expert: This talent gives the player a bonus to all his skills during set piece situations and incurs a penalty to all his skills in the rest of the match. This talent costs 5 skill points.
9.2.2. Defender talents
Sticky marker: This talent gives the player a bonus on his positioning in marking situations and incurs a penalty on the player’s speed. It costs 5 skill points.
Defender boss: The defender boss gives every other defender in the team a bonus on their positioning, game vision and concentration and incurs the same positioning, game vision and concentration penalty on himself. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Area defender: This talent improves the player’s tackling and heading when he is positioned inside the area and incurs a penalty on his tackling and heading while outside the 16m area. It costs 15 skill points.
Defending air stopper: This talent gives the player a bonus on his heading skill and incurs a penalty on the player’s tackling and composure. It costs 15 skill points.
Marauding Wingback: Being a marauding wingback means that you take a bonus in your dribbling, technique and crossing skills and a penalty in your tackling, heading and positioning. This talent costs 5 skill points.
9.2.3. Midfielder talents
Distributor: The distributor takes a bonus in his short passes and long passes skills and a penalty in his positioning and speed. This talent costs 15 skill points.
Midfield organizer: The midfield organizer is the player that gives a positioning, game vision and concentration skill bonus to every other midfielder in your team and takes the same skill penalty for himself. This talent costs 25 skill points.
Air stopper: This talent gives your player a bonus in heading and a penalty in your player’s game vision, short passes and long passes. It costs 15 skill points.
9.2.4. Forward talents
Super Technical Finisher: Technical finishers prefer placing shots instead of powering them in. This talent gives a bonus on your technique while incurring a penalty on your finishing skill. It costs 25 skill points.
Super Powerful Finisher: Powerful finishers tend to blast the ball behind the net. This talent gives a bonus on your finishing skill while incurring a penalty on your technique. It costs 25 skill points.
Tower and Target Player: These talents give you a bonus on your heading skill, while incurring a penalty on your speed and finishing skills. They cost 5 and 15 skill points respectively.
Influential Striker: The influential striker is the player that coordinates the team’s attacking players. This talent gives all the other forwards a bonus on their positioning, game vision and concentration skills and incurs the same penalty on the player. It costs 25 skill points.
9.3 The psychologist
The psychologist is the part of FootStar that allows you to unlearn talents and mental skills. You can find it under the “Psychologist” page in the right hand menu of the “Player / Training” page. There you can set a daily investment of interaction points and a mental skill or talent you can choose to unlearn. The more interaction points you invest into the psychologist the faster you will unlearn a skill/talent. You can see your current progress on the Unlearning Progress bar. When the bar reaches 100% you will have been successful in unlearning the mental skill/talent and you will get the respective skill points back. After that you can reallocate those skill points wherever you want.
10. Morale, adaptability and experience
PLAYER MORALE
First, let´s talk about morale. The player morale is really important as it will directly affect his performance on matches. So you have to make sure you keep your player morale at highest standards.
And what can you do to ensure that?
One method to improve morale is your Team Role, set by your team. In case you have a contract with a "low" team role, if you play regularly your morale will be likely to increase. However, for example, you play a lot of matches in a row and you have any other status rather than "Important first team player" your player morale will start to drop. On the other hand (if you have a "high" team role and you´re not playing often) your morale will decrease. Also some team roles will give you a small and daily morale bonus. So all this means that you should be careful when you´re selecting your team role. Use your common sense when selecting a team role. Also when your manager changes your team role to a higher level, you´ll receive a bonus. The opposite will lower the morale.
Match performances and team results also affect your morale (only at league and cup matches though). If you play well on a match (a rating over 5) you´ll receive a bonus. This bonus will be as high as the better you perform. Of course, if you get ratings below 5 you´ll get penalties on your morale. Also if your team loses a match your morale will drop; but if it wins a bonus will be given to your morale. The match results bonuses/penalties will depend on the ranking difference between the teams. If you´re playing on a bot team, your player morale will also be affected by match performance and team results. The only difference is that these penalizations will be smaller.
Player Relationships are a really important aspect of the game. More information about this you can read in chapter 11. We´ll give you some more detailed information about this particular part of the game on the next section but you should know in advance that your morale will be affected (positively or negatively) depending on the relation you have with your teammates.
Team Spirit can also decrease or increase your morale - it will lower your player morale on a daily basis in case it has a low value, but it will also increase it, if your team´s team's spirit is high (>= 95%) and your morale is low (< 85%)
Finally a mention about training effects on morale (already mentioned on the training section). Every day you will get a small morale boost but if you don´t "train" Having Fun at least once in 7 days, this boost will start to slowly drop after the eighth day (including) and this drop will be as high as longer is the period you pass without this kind of training.
ADAPTABILITY
As in real-life, players often find themselves troubled when they first move to a foreign country. In FootStar you will also find a simulation of this real-life fact. When you move to a new country you´ll have to adapt yourself to your new countries´ way of life. You´ll be able to become fully adapted to it eventually, but the time it will take will also depend on you. Of course, the passing of time itself plays an important role on this: each day that goes by you become a little more adapted. In FootStar, each day (at the 0:00 daily training) you´ll get some adaptability points. The amount of points you´ll get each day depend on your player´s morale level: the higher your morale is the more adaptability points you´ll get.
Your teammates will also be able to interact with you and talk about their home country or countries they´re adapted to in order for you to adapt faster to a country; and obviously you can also interact with your unadapted friends if that´s the case. All players can use the adaptability interaction of a country if they´re more than 75% adapted to a country. The interaction will be more effective if the country you´re talking about is the country you´re currently located in. You should also know other two things: the higher the adaptability level to a country of the player you´re interacting with, the lower the effect your adaptability interaction will have on him; and it´s impossible to get to 100% adaptability using only interactions. Being in the country you´re trying to become adapted to is essential in order to get to 100%.
Another way to gather adaptability points is to set your training to "Having Fun" in your training scheme (as explained before in the Trainings Section). This will give you some adaptability points per training, although not as many as the ones you get each day.
Adaptability has an important role on matches. It will directly affect your individual skills (by reducing them if you have a value under 100%) so you should optimize it as much as you can in order to play at your full potential.
You should know four more things about adaptability:
The first is that you´ll always be 100% adapted to your native country. When you start with your player, you´ll be given the full adaptability. The second is that you´ll get a small adaptability bonus if you´re playing in a club of your home town. This is not valid if you´re playing in a bot team though.
The third thing is that you can find all the info about your adaptability to the country you´re playing on the right information panel, just below the fitness and moral info. Also, if you click on the adaptability info, you are redirected to a page where you can find your adaptability data about all countries your adaptability is higher than 0%.
Finally, the fourth and last thing is that you´ll never lose your adaptability to a country (except you reset player). For example, let´s say that you´re Portuguese and you move to the Spanish league; then, after you become fully adapted to Spain, you move again to Portugal. Finally, after a couple of seasons you decide to accept a new challenge on the Spanish league again… this time you won´t have to worry about your adaptability: you´ve become fully adapted to Spain in the past so you won´t have to go through the whole process again.
You should know that (this is very important!) your adaptability will raise only for the country you are at once the update is made (Every day at 0:00). For example: you´re Swedish and play for a Portuguese team. This means that you´ll be in Portugal most of the time so the adaptability will raise for Portugal if you´re in Portugal at the time of the update. Now let´s imagine that you travel to Spain to play a match. While you´re staying in Spain your adaptability will raise for Spain and not for Portugal. However, once you head back to Portugal you´ll start regaining adaptability points for Portugal.
EXPERIENCE
Types of matches
There are 2 types of matches:
- Those all players can play: League, Cup, Friendlies, Youths, Play-offs. Let’s call them "Matches A".
- Those not all players can play: ITC, NT’s (official games + friendlies), City teams. Let’s call them "Matches B"
"Matches A" give a constant amount of experience - it doesn´t matter what your current experience is or what opponent you play against, all that matters is the amount of minutes you play. Other penalties, described in section "Penalties" also apply.
In "Matches B" an experience is divided into 2 parts:
1) Constant part - it´s a part (half or one third) of experience a player COULD get in a match and this part is always given to a player
2) Variable part - it´s the remaining part of experience (another half, or the remaining two thirds) and this part is reduced according to the average experience of all human players in match - if the average experience is "World Class" a player receives all experience available in "Variable part", if the average experience is "Good" (lvl 6), a player receives only 60% of "Variable part", if it´s "Bad" (lvl 3) - 30% and so on.
It´s important to understand that "Constant part" and "Variable part" are always calculated from the experience that a player COULD get in a match and this is not the same for all matches, let´s call this value "Full experience".
For ITC and City team matches "Full experience" is a constant value much like in "Matches A". This means that the "Constant part" is the same in all matches of the same competition (for example - all matches of main City teams give the same "Constant part" if a player does not get additional penalties for playing time). "Variable part" depends on average experience of all human players in a match - this effectively means that total experience gained in match depends solely on players participating in that match - if there are a lot of young players with low experience, the experience gained by player will not be high, and if there are a lot of players with high experience, the experience gained by player will probably be close to "Full experience" value.
For National team matches "Full experience" is not constant - it depends on the experience a player already has. Each NT match can give only a certain percentage of player´s current experience. To prevent unlimited growth of experience, the experience gains in NTs have a cap - a "Full experience" can never be higher than a preset value (different for each level of NTs). Now, since the "Full experience" is not a constant value, it means that experience gains get quite complicated in NTs. It works like this:
1) A maximum possible experience for a player is calculated. As it was explained before - it´s a percentage of player´s current experience capped at a certain level. This value becomes "Full experience" for that certain player
2) Half of this "Full experience" becomes a "Constant part" (it´s a half because "Constant part" and "Variable part" are split 50%-50% in NTs)
3) Another half of this "Full experience" is a "Variable part" and it is reduced according to average experience in a match - if the average experience is "World class", a player gets full "Variable part", if average experience is "passable" (lvl 5), player gets only half of "Variable part"
Clarifications
Average experience in match is calculated by using human controlled players only - this means that if human team 1 plays against a bot team 2 for example, only 11 human player from team 1 will be included in calculation and it will be the average experience of those 11 human players.
Penalties
There are some additional penalties on experience.
- Playing with match order "Avoid Getting Tired (AGT)" – YES, will only give 25% of the experience a player would get by set “No” or “Always play your best”.
- Goalkeepers playing as field players and regular players playing at the goal will only earn 25% of the full experience they would get in the match. This is valid for all kind of games but only in human controlled teams;
- The experience gained in a match is directly proportional to the number of minutes played in the match. Playing more than or exactly 60 minutes will give 100% experience; this means that playing from 60 to 90/120 minutes is the exactly the same regarding experience gains. Playing less than 60 minutes will cause experience penalties - the less you play, the less experience you´ll gain. This is valid in all kind of matches.
All these penalties are always applied after calculating what experience a player could get in match.
Experience calculation
Experience calculation rules:
Explanation of denominations
MT - Match Type - either A or B as explained previously
FE - Full Experience - defines whether full possible experience in a match is constant (CONST) or percentage of player´s current exp (%)
CP - Constant Part - defines how much of full experience is ´constant´
VP - Variable Part - defines how much of full experience is ´variable'
FRND - club friendly matches
YT - club youth team matches
LG - club league matches
CUP - club national cup matches
PO - club play-off matches
ITC - international club competition matches
CT U18 - city team U18 matches
CT U21 - city team U21 matches
CT - main city team matches
NT U18 - national team U18 matches
NT U21 - national team U21 matches
NT - main national team matches
The experience is calculated in this order:
1) FE (Full experience) is calculated first according to the rules described in the table above
2) If it´s "B" type match, the experience is further calculated like this: FE*CP + FE*VP*AE (AE stands for "Average experience" modifier for a match)
3) Additional penalties (AGT, playing out of position, playing less than 60 minutes) are applied if necessary
Examples
First of all - let´s set some values for an example. Please note, that all these values are here for explanation purposes only and it does not mean they are the ones used by the game.
Let´s say the full experience (FE) value a league game gives is 1 point
Let´s say the full experience (FE) value an ITC gives is 3 points
Let´s say the NT U21 match give 5% of player´s current experience when calculating the FE value and that the exp cap for NT U21 is 4 points
Match 1
Player 1 has 50 points of experience
Player 1 plays 90 minutes in league match in his position and with match order "avoid getting tired" set to "no"
He gets 1 point and has 51 points of experience after that
Match 2
Player 1 has 50 points of experience
Player 1 plays 45 minutes in ITC in his position and with match order "avoid getting tired" set to "no". Average experience in a match is "formidable"
It´s a B type match, so we have to calculate the experience like this FE*CP + FE*VP*AE.
FE (full experience) is 3 as we defined before
CP is 33.33%
VP is 66.67%
AE is 90% (Average experience is formidable - lvl 9, that means a player gets 90% of variable part)
3*0.3333 + 3*0.6667*0.9 = 2.8 points
Player has played only 45 minutes, so his experience is reduced further - 2.8 * 45 / 60 = 2.1 points <- this is the final number
Match 3
Player 1 has 50 points of experience
Player 2 has 100 points of experience
Both play 90 minutes in U21 in their position and with match order "avoid getting tired" set to "no". Average experience in a match is ´low´
First we have to calculate the "Full experience" value for both players.
For player 1 it´s 5% of 50 which is 2.5 points
For player 2 it´s 5% of 100 which is 5 points. It´s higher than the experience cap we have defined for U21 matches and that´s why this value is reduced to the cap - 4
It´s a B type match, so we have to calculate the experience like this FE*CP + FE*VP*AE.
FE (full experience) - we´ve just calculated this value for both players and it´s different for each of them
CP is 50%
VP is 50%
AE is 40% (Average experience is low - lvl 4, that means a player gets 40% of variable part)
Player 1 gets 2.5*0.5 + 2.5*0.5*0.4 = 1.75 points
Player 2 gets 4*0.5 + 4*0.5*0.4 = 2.8 points
Neither of them get additional penalties
Experience in different competitions
This is ranking of maximum possible experience in every kind of matches starting from the lower XP bonus to the highest. Of course, due to "Constant experience + variable experience" calculations, the real values can be quite different
- Friendlies | Playoffs | Youth | League | Cup
- Cities U18
- Cities U21
- Cities Main | U18 National Teams (equal)
- ITC
- U21 National Teams
- Main National Teams
11. Player relationship
As in real life, a player´s relationships are a vital part of any football team, mainly those between teammates. In Footstar we´ve developed a model that pretends to simulate these so important relationships. This aspect of the game is divided in two different parts: the direct interactions and the press interactions (or indirect interactions, as you wish). Inside the direct interactions we have interactions between friends and players in same location.
Press Interactions
These types of interactions can´t be made directly. To issue an interview to the press about a player you should go to his details page and select the "Give an Interview" option on the right information box. You´ll be taken to a page where you can select one of several available pre-defined statements. As you can see on that page the statements are shown in different colours: red indicates negative statements (critics), green are positive statements (praises). Each one of these statements, depending on their category, have relationship points associated: the negative will affect negatively your relationship with the player while the positive will improve positively your relationship. You might be asking: isn´t this a direct interaction? The answer is no. Why? Because when you issue a statement the relationships points won´t be affected at that exact moment. All statements will be saved until the newspapers are generated on Fridays morning. At that time, the most important ones will be chosen to be printed and only these will affect the relationships. This also means that some statements might not be published. Just imagine it as if you talked to a reporter but on the following day he threw your interview to the garbage, because he found a more relevant story to follow.
To ensure we have a lot of statements published, there are several newspapers available: you have a global newspaper where the most important statements/news will be published; on a second level of importance there are the country newspapers and finally on the bottom level, the city newspapers. News published on a higher level cannot be published in lower levels. This means that if, for example, a story is published on the global newspaper, it won´t be published also on a country or city newspaper. However you can have a different statement published in two newspapers of the same level; the example is simple: player 1 is playing in Portugal and issues a statement about a player playing in Spain. If the statement is not important enough to be released in the global newspaper but important enough to be released in a country newspaper, it will be published both in Portuguese and Spanish newspapers. And by the rules of newspapers it won´t then be published on a city newspaper.
Another doubt you might have by now is how we define the level of importance a statements has. Basically each player has a global reputation inside the game: the level of importance is defined by the average value of the reputation of the two players involved.
A final comment to mention that you cannot issue more than 3 statements or more than one statement about a certain player per week. Also, as you already have the chance to interact a lot more with for your teammates directly (as you´ll understand below) press statements about your teammates will only have 50% of the effect on the relationship the interaction would have if we´re talking about two players from different teams.
Newspapers can be found at Community >> Press at the top menu.
Direct Interactions
Direct Interactions can be made by any human controlled player to another human controlled player. To do it, just go to the player´s details page and select the "Interact with Player" option on the right information box. After that you´ll be taken to a page where you can select one amongst several interactions. Also in this page you can check your level of friendship/enmity with that player.
Just as Press Interactions, these direct interactions will also have positive or negative impacts on the players´ relationship. Colours will also be used to make a distinction between effects. Some interactions won´t be visible until you have certain levels of friendship or enmity. This means that you should invest in your relationships so that you can take them to higher levels of interaction.
Another (really) interesting part of relationships is when you try to interact with players playing in cities other than yours. To communicate directly with them, you have to be friends.
Each direct interaction has a different effect on the relationship; each one gives it a different value of relationship points. However you might not get the max. value for an interaction, if some requirements are not met. Let´s explain; imagine one case: player 1 is Chinese and he´s playing in Portugal with player 2. Player 2 is Spanish. Both players have a low adaptability value to Portugal. Player 1 has small knowledge of life in Spain, and player 2 has also little knowledge about China. This means that the interactions between these two players will have a small impact, as they can´t understand each other or communicate very well. However, with time, both players will become more and more adapted to the Portuguese lifestyle and then their future interactions will become more and more effective.
So when you´re interacting with a player you should get informed about:
- The adaptability level to the country you´re both playing (if you´re playing in the same country. If not, you should ignore this part);
- Your adaptability to his native country;
- His adaptability to your native country.
The higher all these values are, the more effective the interaction will be.
Teammate´s interactions are the only interactions where you can get the full relationship points. If you´re interacting with players that are not your teammates, even if you get 100% of the previous "formula", you´ll be only be given 75% of the max. value. An example: a particular interaction is worth 1 relationship point. If you´re interacting with someone that is not your teammate the value will be reduced to 0,75. And then the last formula will be applied over this value. This is only valid for positive interactions.
All direct interactions are deleted daily at 0:00 (server time). But only the interactions get deleted, not their effect. This is done so that you can only make one of each kind of interactions daily (from 0.00 to 0.00 of next day).
A final mention on players´ personalities. There are two types: You can either be a "Nice guy" or an "Arrogant" person. This will have a small influence in direct interactions. If you´re interacting with a "Nice guy" player, your positive interactions will get a small bonus. However if you´re interacting with an arrogant player, positive interactions will be a little less effective and negative interactions will also be a little more negative.
Interactions with Teammates
This is a key feature of the game. If you don´t relate positively with your teammates your morale is likely to decrease over time. Everyday at 0:00 (server time) your average level of relationship with your teammates is checked in order to update your player morale accordingly. You can know this value by visiting the Player >> Relationships option available on the top menu. The lower the value, the more your morale is likely to drop. And, on the other hand, if the value is high enough, you´ll get a morale bonus instead.
Interactions with friends over time
As time goes by, player´s relationships tend to disappear if there are no interactions between them. For a relationship to remain steady, it´s required that both players invest on the relationship. If only one player tries to keep the relationship it´s likely that, sooner or later, it will eventually disappear. These updates are made daily so you if you want to keep your relationships alive you should have the responsibility to maintain it as active as possible. This is even more valid for friendship relationships, as enmity relationships decrease a little slower. On player->relationships page you need to set some percent to your friends to keep relationships with them high as possible. Higher level of relationship made your interactions more efficient.
Adaptability Interactions/Talk about a country
Please read section “Player Psychology” for more details about this particular feature.
Girls
Players also have the possibility to meet and interact with (girl) friends and later develop relationships with them.
Family
Player´s families play an important role in the game. Players should ensure they keep a good relationship with their family or they risk suffering major morale drops. The negative impact will be bigger as lower the relationship with your family becomes. Good option is rise relationship with family to 100% and then set automatic relations at 1%
Daily Interaction Limit
All players have a limited number of interactions they´ll be able to do each day. This will be controlled by "interaction points". By default all players will start with 150 points every day: then, during the day, they´ll be able to spend these points between their family, girls and friends (including teammates). Everyday you socialize on training (at 0:00) you will get another 150 points. All automatic interactions are made during daily update (before training at 8:00)
12. Match day
The FootStar gaming experience is based on a football simulation program named Match Engine (or simply ME). The ME takes into account all the information relevant about a player (including skills, talents, equipment, fitness, moral, confidence and adaptability) and uses it to simulate a real football match.
A match game is played in 90 minutes, and the FS ME simulates this entire period, which means that a FS game lasts for 90 real-life minutes and can be watched as a real-time experience. However, one does not need to accompany the game minute by minute, as a report is generated after the match is over and can be accessed at any time. It is, however, more excited to watch the game as it is played and cheer for that win with your fellow mates! A list containing the dates and hours of all game categories is available here Match Schedules to know when a game is scheduled to begin. You should also notice a warning on the home page, telling you when will be your next match.
You can also access your teams schedule and see when and where your games will be played. This is an important tool to keep track of all the game related events, which includes travelling and training. It may happen that a match is scheduled to be played at another city. A description on the travelling system can be read on Chapter 13.
Fitness, Moral and Confidence
Each player´s performance is highly dependent on the conditions in which he presents himself for the match. Fitness, Moral and Confidence, are the 3 most easily controlled variables and can set the different on the field. Both Fitness and Moral vary from 0 to 100%. They affect all the skills proportionally, which means that any value below 100% will result in skill penalties. Confidence, however, has discrete levels, with "High" and "Very High" representing the desired confidence. Unlike the other 2, Fitness varies during the match, depending on the player Stamina and match occurrences. Therefore, even if a player starts with 100% Fitness, it will drop during the game. Moral and Confidence, on the other hand, are only affected after the match is concluded. Better performances can increase these two variables, while team defeats or bad performances may decrease their values.
Position / Side Experience
Each time a player plays on a certain position (goalkeeper, defender, midfield, forward) or side (left, right, center) he´ll gain experience for that position and/or side. A player position will be set as the one with the most experience. It is possible to have 100% at different sides, thus being proficient in more than one side at the same time. However, this does not apply to positions. Playing at a different side or position than your original ones, you are playing repositioned. This means that you´ll suffer penalties on your individual match skills. We also differ side and position repositioning. When you play on a "wrong" side the ME takes 20% out of your short passes, long passes and technique skills and also 50% of your crosses ability. If you´re put on a "wrong" position, the ME takes 20% out of your short passes and long passes ability, 40% of your game vision ability and 50% of your positioning ability.
Individual Orders
The Individual Orders (IOs, also known as Match Orders - MOs) are a set of guidelines for your player on how to behave on the field. These must be pre-set before a match and will determine most of the actions your player performs. However, experience plays a part in this, as less experienced players will not always follow the IOs. Here follows a description of the current IOs:
1 - Shoot from distance - whether a player shoots more frequently from long range or not.
2 - Run with Ball Direction - once you´re with the ball, it decides to where you run (middle or sides).
3 - Hold up ball - How frequently a player will try to hold up the ball and, therefore, lose time or wait for better passing opportunities.
4 - Passing type/Distribution (GKs) - Whether the player will opt for short, long or mixed passes.
5 - Dribbling/tricks - Whether the player will frequently try to dribble other players or avoid such confrontations.
6 - Avoid getting tired - Whether the player will play on the maximum of his efforts or avoid getting tired, taking all the consequences from it (experience hits, etc).
7 - Defensive corner position - Where the player will position himself during a corner kick situation against his team.
8 - Offensive corner position - Where the player will position himself during a corner kick situation favouring his team.
9 - Free kick action - Whether the player will pass or shoot the goal more frequently from a free kick situation.
10 - Penalty kick side - To what side of the goal the player will take his penalty shots.
11 - Close Marking/Pressing - Whether the player will try to press his opponents tightly or not.
12 - Pass side preference - Whether the player will try to pass to player in the flanks, to players in the center, or mixed.
13 - Cross from - Whether the player will try to cross from the end line or from 3/4 of the pitch.
14 - Cross type - Whether players will cross the ball near the ground or try high balls (that is, an option to favor attackers´ heading/finishing skills).
15 - Movements - A very important order: whether the player will run up or down the field in attacking or defensive situations.
16 - Passes to open spaces - Whether players will try to pass to the front of players in good attacking positions or to their feet.
17 - Try to run from marker - Whether players will try to find open spaces away from their opponents or stay in position.
18 - Run to the area during crosses - Whether players will try to run to the heart of the area in good cross situations or not.
19 - Type of commemoration after goal - How the player will commemorate when he scores a goal, from a set of possible options.
20 - Try curve balls - Whether the player will try curve balls when shooting or crossing.
21 - Tackling Intensity - Easy, hard or normal tackling. The type of tackling will influence the probability of winning a tackle but also increase or decrease the probability of committing fouls (and, in the future, injuries).
22 - Pass to the front - Whether a player will try more frequently to pass to players in more offensive situations than him on the pitch or not.
23 - Position on crosses (GK) - A GK only option: if the keeper will stay on the line or move upwards.
24 - Clear ball - Whether players will try more frequently to clear the ball when they have no passing or dribbling options, instead of holding up the ball.
25 - First Touch Plays - Whether the player will try to play at first touch or try and control the ball first.
Tactics and Match Events
A manager can pre-set tactics and events for any match. Alongside with the starting 11, a manager has the option to select Team Orders. These include:
1 - Vertical spread - Whether the team will spread more or less vertically in the field. This will be a "slider"-type option.
2 - Horizontal spread - Whether the team will spread more or less horizontally in the field. This will also be a "slider"-type option.
3 - Corner kick taker - Which player is the team´s corner kick taker. 2 options, one for each side of the field.
4 - Free kick taker - Which player is the team´s free kick taker. 2 options, one for each side of the field. Only for attacking situations.
5 - Penalty kick taker - Which player is the team´s penalty kick taker. 5 options, one for each penalty "slot" during a penalty shoot-out. First one will take penalties during normal gameplay.
6 - Playmaker - Which player is the team´s preferred playmaker. A playmaker will see other players passing more frequently to him (as he will have a bit more weight when other players consider their passing options). This option should be used wisely.
7 - Hold up ball - How frequently the team will try to hold up the ball, in different game situations (always, never, only when winning).
If options 3 to 5 are not set, the player closest to the ball will be chosen instead. If option 6 is not set, the team won´t have a preferred playmaker. For close range free kicks, finishing and technique will be the most important. For long rage free kicks, player will need good values for long shots and technique. Penalties will require finishing and technique. Free kicks in crossing zones / corners will obviously require the crossing skill (only).
The manager can also pre-set events that can be used to reposition or substitute players during the match. A maximum of 3 substitutions is allowed for any official game, while friendlies (both in teams and national teams) allow for 11 subs to be made. There is no limit to the number of reposition events that can be made. It´s also possible to set any event to happen in specific conditions, such as minute, score or after disciplinary actions/injuries.
Walk-Overs
A walk-over (WO) happens when a team fails to select 11 players to the match, thus resulting in a 3-0 victory to the other team. If both teams fail to present 11 players on the field, both will be awarded with a defeat. If this happens in an elimination round though (as a cup match) where one of the teams has to go through to the next round, one of the teams will be selected randomly to go through and will "virtually" win 1-0, although it will still count as a defeat in what the team´s stats are concerned.
Match Report
After each game you´ll be able to view a match report, containing vital information about your player´s (or team´s) efforts. The match report is the place to look if you want to know how well your player did for himself. The match report contains a lot of information. It is divided in 5 parts that you can check selecting on the right information panel:
1 - The starting eleven and ratings part (the default view)
2 - The match comments part, where you can see the most important plays of the match
3 - The statistics part with info about shots, ball possession, amongst others
4 - The player statistics part with all the stats concerning individual players
5 - The Match Analyzer, useful tool in order to see lot of data, player by player..like passes direction, shots, zones with and without ball.
6 - The 2D view of the match (only for FS Fans though) where you can watch the full outcome of the match. The viewer is similar to the Football Manager® series viewer.
National Team 2D matches are visible to all users.
Each player performance is rated in a scale of 0-10, starting at 5. This rate is visible only after the match has ended and is thus the result of all the player actions during the match. At the end of the match the player with the higher rating will win the Man of the Match award. This rating might also have an influence on your morale. Good matches will raise your morale but bad performances will ruin it.
Cards
As far as types of suspensions are concerned, these are be grouped as follows: national competitions (league and cup matches), youth competitions (youth matches, regardless of whether the tournament is international or not), international club competitions (future international club competitions yet to be released) and international competitions (national team matches). This means that if a player is sent off during a youth match, he’ll be suspended for youth competitions only; he’ll still be able to play in national team matches or league matches for his club, for example.
A player that sees a straight red card will be suspended for 2 matches (note straight red cards do not happen yet, but this will be the rule once they’re implemented), a player that is sent off after two yellow cards is suspended for 1 match, and a player that collects 3 yellow cards during a competition is suspended for 1 match; afterwards the counter is reset and, after 3 more yellow cards, he’ll be suspended for another match, and so on. If a player is sent off after picking two yellow cards, those yellow cards do not count towards the 3-yellow-card suspension rule; he’ll only be suspended for the red card he picked.
Injuries
Players will injury themselves during matches only. Fitness plays an important role: the lower the fitness level of a player is, the likelier it is that he might get injured. Injuries may only happen when players perform actions during a match, such as tackling an opponent (or be tackled), take a shot at goal, make a pass or make a save (keepers). Players will not get injured just by running around doing nothing. Obviously it is far, far more likely to get injured by being tackled than by making a simple pass!, and fitness really plays a very important role on the chance of getting injured.
13. Cities and Trips
Every country in FS, by default, has 3 different cities. On each city page you can see the weather forecast for next 3 days. There is also information about the Cities reputation, Teams from that City, players that are born there, players currently in the city and houses built in that city. Each city also has locations you can visit:
- City Hotel is the place where players are located after team trips for matches
- Transport Terminal – this is where you can buy tickets for personal trips i.e. trips without the rest of the team
- Beauty Salon – You can alter your facial appearance here (you can make your new look permanent using FS Coins)
- Shopping Mall –This is where you can buy a house, a car, a boat or even a plane as well as various other items
- Shops – This will give you a list of shops that you can buy match items in
- Player’s Agency – List of agencies in the City. You can use these agents to help you find a Club or help your Club find a player (agents fees may be involved)
Traveling within cities is automatic. Every time you open a locale page that locale becomes automatically your new location.
There is also a chance to create new cities in each Country! Every player can submit his application and try to collect "subscriptions" and funds in order to create it.
Each application has a fixed fee (25.000€) and after the application has been made, the federation president will review it and then accept or reject it.
If the application has been accepted, the application will then become public to everyone.
For a city to be created the following requisites must be accomplished:
- there must be at least 30 player requests to change their home city to the new one (only players from the same country than the city can make the request)
- players will have to donate a certain amount of money for the city to be created, the amount necessary is calculated by the formula: 2.500.000 + 500.000 * (nº of cities -3)
After the requisites have been fulfilled, the city will then be automatically created!
Players can only request a home city change once, after that they will become bound to that city. The home city change request will be available in the city page.
Trips
Not all teams are located in the same city, so if your team is playing a team from another city it is necessary to take trips to this City. Your team will automatically travel to these cities for the matches but you can also buy a plane ticket to fly by yourself.
Automatic travel is scheduled for all league, friendly and domestic cup matches and is scheduled the day before the match at 13.00h. Flights for NT matches are scheduled at 03.00h on Monday. For ITC matches it is 01.00h on Friday. Every flight takes place 1 hour after it is scheduled. Fitness loss incurred for automatic travel depends on if team has a bus or a plane and also if it the trip is within the same country or if the trip is to another country.
If you want to minimize or not have any fitness for travel then you should fly alone. You have to go to transport terminal in your current city and buy a plane ticket. You need to choose your destination, level of plane (which determines whether you lose fitness or not), date of the flight and time of flight and then click “buy ticket”. Every return trip is automatically booked with your team and won’t cause a fitness loss so there is no need to buy a return ticket unless you are travelling to a city for non match related purposes
14. Companies and Agencies
On Footstar you can create companies in order to increase incomes for your player(s). The creation of the company is the first step and the next move is the "field-selection"..the type of business. You have 3 choices: Shop, Newspaper and Sports Agencies.
Companies can only be created by Gold and Silver Fans and creating a company doesn’t have any direct associated cost. Each company can own a maximum of one shop, one newspaper and one Sports Agency. Transferring money from your player’s account to the company’s account has no restrictions but when you withdraw money from the company account, FS Bank will apply a 40% tax. Let´s see in detail this 3 types of business:
Shops
There are three kinds of shops (soccer shirts, soccer boots and goalkeeper gloves). Each shop can only sell one kind of item at a time and you cannot buy at your own shop. Of course each store can produce match-items with different skills. Let´s see in detail:
Shirts: Positioning, Stamina, Speed, Acceleration, Marking, Jumping, Reflexes (GK), Agility (GK), Out of Area (GK)
Shoes: Tackling, Short Passes, Technique, Finishing, Throwing (GK), Long Passes, Crosses, Long Shots, Dribbling, Set Pieces, First Touch
GK Gloves: Handling, Throwing, Command of Area
Each shop has three levels that you need to manage:
Quality (1-5): Defines the global quality of the items that you can produce (+2 skills-bonus per quality level);
Durability (1-5): Defines the maximum durability (time that an item lasts until his quality drops) of the items that you can produce;
Warehouse (1-5): Defines the number of items that you can store in your shop.
When you open a shop you’ll have 3 employees (bots) to manage each one of those three levels (it’s the minimum number of employees that you can have). In order to improve those shop levels you can either hire more employees or train the current ones (employees with better skills will make the shop levels to increase). Their wages depend on their level and the reputation of the city. This means that shops at richer cities will have bigger maintenance costs. You can have a maximum of 30 employees working at the shop quality and a maximum of 10 working at the shop durability level and warehouse level. If you miss two weeks of their wages they’ll start leaving your shop until you reach the minimum number of employees (3).
By default a shop can only sell in the city where it was built. However, you can define if you want to make your shop available for other countries. The cost of such kind of service depends on the number of countries and vary from country to country (depending on the financial situation of cities). To balance those costs you’re able to define a "shipping cost" for each item that you sell "online". You can only change this service and tax once a week.
The process of designing and producing your products consists of two steps:
Designing the model: At the "Model Design" box you’re able to choose the model name, quality, durability, bonus type (maximum of 2) and the base sale price. You’re not able to design models with the same characteristics and there’s also some price limitations. We would like to have a free market regarding this question but unfortunately that’s not possible.
Producing the model: At the "Produce Model" box you’re able to choose the model, colour and number of items that you want to produce. Here you pay the production cost of items (production cost of the model x quantity). During this producing process you’re able to define if you want your products to be automatically available for sale at the shop. In that case they are available at your shop with the price defined at the "Design Model" box, the base price of the model.
There’s an important detail about the items prices that you need to know. Every time you change the price of a specific item that change will only occur at Fridays during the economic update. This means that when you produce an item, its price is automatically blocked (with the base price of the model) until the next economic update.
For each item that you sell, 30% of the profit is taxed by the city. When that sale is "online", 22,5% of the profit is taxed by the city shop and the others 7,5% by the city of the buyer.
When you decide to close and demolish your shop, you’ll loose all your items stored there and you’ll only be able to open a new one 30 days later.
Newspapers
Your newspaper can either be local or international. The cost to create a local newspaper is 2500€ , while an international newspaper costs 10000€.
Once you’ve created your newspaper, you can employ other users to work for you. The wage of your employees can be as much as 10% of the profit you’ve made from the sales of your last edition. Note that users that have their own companies can’t work in other users’ newspapers. The newspaper is edition-based, and you can release a maximum of an edition per day. A new edition has a cost of 100€ (if it´s a national edition) or 500€ (in case it´s an international edition).
When the edition is created you can create your newspaper pages. You have different page types/structures to choose from. You are able to build pages containing text,images or videos.
After the newspaper edition is ready, you just need to publish it. Your newspaper will now be available for other users to purchase their copy. If you chose to set a price for the edition, users will spend a but of their money purchasing it, and the money will revert back to your company.
Sports Agencies
As the agency owner you´re able to hire up to 10 agents (either Fan or non-Fan) who will work for your agency. These agents are able to manage the career of a maximum of 10 players at each time. Clubs are able to hire agents’ services to work as scouts and search around the world for players who suit their needs. Let´s see some details regarding this feature:
Agents contracts with Agencies:
- Duration : between 30 and 112 days;
- Commission: between 0% and 100%
- The fees paid by teams & players are always paid directly to agencies. Agencies will then share this fee with the agent, using the commission agreed on the contract.
Players contracts with Agents:
- Duration : between 30 and 112 days;
- Commission: between 0% and 100% of his wage
- Commission: between 0% and 100% of a transfer value
- Both (transfers & wage)
Clubs contracts with Agencies:
- Duration : between 5 and 112 days;
- Fee: between 0€ and 50000€
- Agent: agent responsible to search for the players.
* If during the time of the contract the club hires a player recommend by the agent it will pay the contract fee to the agency.
Taxes:
- Taxes are applied to all commissions agencies get (30%) and to all compensations they give to their agents (30% as well). These taxes are given to the city where the agency is based. Here is a practical example: Let’s say your agency gets 20000€ from a club. The agency will then split this amount with the agent (according to their contract) and then each part will pay its tax to the city.
15. Teams
15.1 - MAIN TEAMS
As players, teams can also be controlled by humans or by the server (Bot-teams). In human-controlled teams, human players have an additional challenge as they´ll have to deal with a real manager. There are 2 kinds of human-controlled teams: protected and unprotected teams. Here are the main features and differences between these teams.
Bot teams:
- They aren´t controlled by a human player, they are controlled by the computer
- They can be recognized by having a blue flag next to their name
- They don´t have team training, though you´ll lose 2% fitness in your individual training
- Their individual training is slightly better than the individual training in a human controlled team but not better than the team training in human controlled teams
- They can be taken over by a human player at any time
- Human players can´t control if they are going to play the games. Still, BOT teams usually choose their human controlled players first when setting up the team for a match, playing them to their best of their ability in the position the player plays best
- In BOT teams, the wage is fixed to 300€ for every player
Human managed protected teams:
-They are controlled by a human player with a FS fan gold
- They can be recognized by having their name written in a bold letter
- The human manager can choose a team training, which is better than an individual training
- Though their individual training is slightly worse than in a BOT team, the manager can improve the training grounds which improves the individual training.
- They can´t be taken over by any player
- The manager can virtually control every part of the team management
- In human protected teams the manager can set the player wages
Human managed unprotected teams:
- They are controlled by a human player without a FS fan gold
- They can be recognized by having a red flag next to their name
- The human manager can´t set freely the team training. It can only be changed once a week and there will be a list of 10 team trainings that will cover all the possibilities considered important for this teams. Despite this, the team training is better than individual training
- Though their individual training is slightly worse than in a BOT team, the manager can improve the training grounds which improves the individual training
- They can be taken over or handed to a human player with a FS fan gold
- There are some restrictions for the team management that are listed in chapter 19 (Team Management). This restrictions were created because the FS fan gold users are very important for the game and in this way, there will still be an advantage in having the FS fan gold
- In human unprotected teams the players have a fixed wage depending on the team´s division
Supporters
Each team has its own number of supporters. The number of supporters a team has will directly influence match attendances. The only way to increase your number of supporters is to win matches and/or trophies, as much in a row as you can.
Here are some more details about supporters:
Every division has a default average number of supporters (30000 for the first division and 5000 less for each division below). This number affects the amount of supporters you win on a weekly basis. This average number will also vary depending on standings. The top positions will give you an higher average and lower positions will give you a smaller average. Simple as that.
When a team is promoted it has a gain of 1000 supporters for the promotion alone. There´s also a bonus equal to 75% of the difference between the average number of supporters of the new division and the current number of supporters the team has. This last calculation is made after the promotion bonus is awarded.
When a team is relegated there´s a supporter penalization as follow: 75% of the difference between the current number of supporters the team has and the average for the new division.
There will be supporters bonus for the ITC Competition (3000), for the National Champion (2500), for the Cup Winner (2000) and for the Cup runner-up (500).
Here’s the average number of supporters for each division:
First: 30000;
Second: 25000;
Third: 20000;
Fourth: 15000;
Fifth (and below): 10000
15.2 - B TEAMS
B Teams, as name said, are connected to "Main Team" and, playing in lower division of the National League system, represent an additional step in the formation of young player as they leave U19 teams still not ready to play in the main teams. There is a cost to create a B Team (5 millions €) and this cost can be shared by the team and their players (at least 20 different players are required to complete the funding process). Creation process can be started going on Manager menu > Team Facilities.
Here are all the remaining details of this feature:
- B Teams will be named "
- B teams are not available for countries with only one division. The system will not check if there are available bot teams / unprotected teams in the league system. Once your funding process is completed, you’ll have to check for available teams. This will work in a first come, first serve, meaning that the first teams to complete funding can grab any of the existing teams.
- B Teams can never play in the same division of the main team. If, due to promotion/relegation, teams are put in the same division, the B Team will be relegated to the immediate lower division. If there are no divisions available, the B Team will be disbanded and all players placed in the main team.
- B Teams can take part in the cup but cannot advance to the next round if they win a match. Unless they face a Bot Team or another B Team, which in that case the B Team that wins the match will advance.
- B Teams can have youth teams but cannot have their own B Teams.
- B Teams have their own finances, stadium, transfers, player contracts, etc.
- The B Team manager can be same manager of the main team (there is a "Team Control" page at the Character menu) but the main team manager can nominate a player from the B Team to take control of the team or a retired manager that is not managing a club.
- Managing B Teams does NOT require FS Fan.
- The Main Team manager cannot control the B team if it’s assigned to any other player but he can fire/appoint himself or any other player at any time he wants.
- Players can be freely moved between the B Team and the main Team but there are two rules: you can only move once every 7 days and the manager of the B Team cannot be moved out of the squad. Players can be moved from the squads ONLY by the main team manager.
- B Teams can only be created in the same league system / country of the main team.
- B Teams need to respect foreign manager rules. If you have a foreign team and the number of foreign teams is already exceeded, then you cannot create more additional teams, therefore you cannot create a B Team in the country.
- Main Team and B Team can see their respective Team Forums and can read/write on them without restriction.
In what concerns everything else, B Teams are just like regular teams.
15.3 - YOUTH TEAMS
Youth Teams (YTs from now on) focus one age range: U19 players. This means that players with 17, 18 and 19 years old are eligible to play youth matches. At the moment a player "celebrates" his 20th anniversary, loses the possibility to play youth matches.
All Teams can create its Youth Team and it´s quite easy. The manager of the main team (MT from now on) has an option in the information page of his team to create the YT. The manager then needs to set 3 simple options to create the team: YT Stadium Name (a new stadium will be created for the youth matches to be played in, with 1000 seats as default), YT Manager and the number of bot players to fill the team with. This last option allow you to start immediately participating in youth leagues if you don´t have enough U19 players in your current squad. Then, later, once you put some real human players in the YT, these bot players will disappear from the team automatically.
YTs cannot have customized names. Their name consist of the (short) name of the MT along with the age range description. Example: The YT of the "Beat Farms FC" team would be known as "Beat Farms FC U19".
The main team manager can be the YT manager at the same time. However, if the main team manager wants to appoint another manager to the YT, the potential manager needs to be a player of the team and at least be a FS Fan Silver (Gold is eligible as well, naturally). The YT manager doesn´t need to be a player of the youth team to play the manager role.
The MT manager still has access to all the managerial options in the YT, even if the YT has a different manager.
There is a full separation between the main and the youth team regarding players. The only exception is the team forum, that´s shared by all players of both teams.
YTs work as a "dependency" of the main Team, this means sharing the same finances but generating its own income, such as gate receipts and competitions prizes.
YTs are not mandatory. It’s up to the MT manager to decide whether he wants to create a YT or not. Bot teams don´t have YTs as well.
A YT can be terminated at any time by the main manager, this unless the YT is travelling at that time. Once a YT is terminated it cannot be re-created again in the next 30 days. A terminated YT is marked as inactive. You cannot terminate your Youth Team if you are the middle of a tournament.
Inactive youth teams that are in the middle of tournaments are automatically added 11 bot players (300€ wage for these players) in order to avoid unnecessary walkovers. Once the tournament is over bot players are automatically removed from inactive Youth Teams.
YTs play on their own Youth Stadium, they have their own match kit and match prizes.
The Youth Manager can promote/demote players from/to the YT and can manage all the Youth matches related stuff. The YT manager won’t be able to buy/sell any players though. Players cannot be promoted/demoted while one of the teams is traveling. Once a player is demoted/promoted he cannot change squads again in the next 7 days. Of course u19 player(s) who play friendly/cup matches with main team can be sent immediately to youth squads once the match is completed without having to wait 7 days
Match ticket prices and attendances
The ticket price is 6€ per attendee, however, there’s a "catch": attendances might be reduced to as up as 50% if your team doesn’t field 11 human players. This means that fielding 11 bot players will cause your youth team’s home matches attendance to drop to 50% of what they might have reached, and fielding half-team composed of bots causes the attendances to drop to around 75%. This is a measure to promote those teams that really invest in their youth teams for real.
Training in Youth Teams
YTs have their own team training for their players. This training has exactly the same effect as the main team training.
To prevent abuse, youth teams that didn’t play a single match in the previous 21 days won’t have team training (this also means that once you create a team you have 21 days to start playing matches). Also to prevent abuse, once you re-start a YT, it doesn’t have team training before you start playing matches again. This last rule is not enforced if you are starting a completely new team though. To protect players in YTs from inactive managers, players are able to move to the main squad by themselves in case the youth team is out of team training (by selecting an existing option at the training page).
Youth Team Competition Details
There are 2 kind of "YT Tournaments": YT tournaments created by "normal" users and YT tournaments created by President of National Federation. Let us explain, step by step:
YT tournaments created by normal users have a lot of options:
- Two different formats: Knock-out (up to 4,8,16,32 teams) or League (4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18 teams)
- Set the max. number of allowed substitutions in the tournament games (from 3 to 11)
- Allow the tournament to re-start automatically once it ends. These tournaments will have their own "seasons".
- In League tournaments, the founder can set how many times teams can face each other (called rounds). 1 to 4 rounds can be selected.
- Tournaments can be public or private. Private tournaments require a password for the application.
- A subscription fee can be set for all the participating teams. The value will later be split at the end of the tournament by the top four teams. 60% for the winner, 25% for the runner-up, 10% for the third and 5% to the fourth placed team.
There are some special rules in order to avoid having teams locked playing inactive tournaments. For example, during a tournament, teams can vote in order to end it immediately. If more than 50% of the teams vote yes, the tournament is stopped right away. Teams that leave are not refunded of their subscription fee. On the other hand, teams that stay and see a tournament being stopped unexpectedly have the full subscription fee refunded. Inactive/bot youth teams always count as if they would have voted yes (leave the tournament) but a tournament will never be cancelled if there isn’t, at least, one "yes vote" from an active/human YT.
In tournaments that are set to re-start at the end, teams have an option to leave at the end of the current "season". Once the tournament season ends, these teams will automatically leave and the tournament will be put on hold until possible replacements arrive. In case the founder is set to leave, the tournament will end automatically at the end of the season.
Presidents of the National Federations have the possibility of creating an official U19 league structure for their country. Here are the full details of these leagues:
- Only domestic youth teams can participate in the U19 national league.
- The President can set the number of divisions the league will have. These leagues will have the same league structure as the normal club leagues have at the moment: 8 teams per series. The only exception is that there won’t be playoffs. This means that on each series 2 teams will be promoted and 4 will be relegated.
- Two additional options can be set by Presidents as well: number of replacements each match can have and an entry fee for each division in the league (just like in regular tournaments). The entry fees are to be divided in the same way they are divided in tournaments. In divisions with more than one series, the award is split between all series.
- The U19 leagues can never have more divisions than the regular club leagues.
- Once the President creates the U19 league system, youth team managers can immediately apply to the league. This can always be done during the season as the President will have the possibility of replacing teams. The only exception is if a team is playing a youth tournament: in this scenario it cannot apply to the official youth league tournament.
- As said Presidents can freely populate their league system with all the teams that have applied. The slots left empty will be filled with bot teams.
- There are some rules regarding the way teams are populated in the series. In order to add teams to a lower division, the President must always fill the previous division at half of its capacity.
- If once the matches are being generated, a division only contains bot teams, it’s automatically stopped. The only exceptions are for the first two divisions. Also if there are not enough bot teams in the country to fill the empty slots of one of its series, the creation of that division is stopped.
- Matches are automatically generated at the 11st day of each season. This means that the President has only until the 10th day of the season to create/make changes on the structure of the league.
- After the 11th day of the season the President will only have permission to change bot teams with human U19 teams. Until that day (starting on the 1st day) all types of swaps can be made.
- At the end of each season all promotions/relegations are made automatically. But due to the powers entitled to the Presidents they can eventually swap teams once the season starts. It will be up to the rules each President will set for their leagues.
- There are achievements for players and cups for teams for all series winners.
Other minor features:
- YTs will be awarded with a trophy for their trophy case if they win a tournament.
- Founders can invite teams using a special tournaments’ feature.
- There will info about the top scorer, top assist and best average rating for each tournament.
- There will be a daily update for tournaments that will handle all updates related to them. Tournaments are always generated on this update, that will run around 6:00 AM (server time). For example, if the tournament owner sets the beginning of the tournament today, Monday, you will only see its fixtures on Tuesday, after 6:30 AM (roughly).
Ranking System for Youth Teams
In order to introduce an additional challenge, there is a Ranking for Youth Teams. Here’s how it works:
- Ranking points have a normal and a variable part. Normal part: 3 points for a win (2 if on penalties), 1.5 for a draw and 0 for a defeat. Variable part: a win against an higher rated team can provide up to 1.5 extra win points, depending on the difference of the ranking points of both teams.
- At the end of each regular season, ranking points will be reset for the current season. But ranking points of the previous 2 seasons will still be kept. And the sum of the current season plus the ranking points of the previous 2 seasons will be used as the full ranking points of the team and will set its final ranking. This is exactly like in National Teams!
Other Details
- YT matches are always played on weekends, at the same time of league matches for that country. For example, if a Venezuelan team plays home with an English team, the game will be played at the Venezuelan match time (this means, at 1 AM server-time).
- All U19 games (user-made tournaments and Federal tournaments) will give full exp only if a player will play at least for 60 minutes.
- YT matches provide higher experience than normal friendlies, but naturally less than senior league/cup matches.
- Fitness losses are similar as in any other FS matches.
- Youth players lose the same amount of fitness in travels as any other player would.
- Youth players travel to away games on Fridays at 7 AM (server time).
- YTs will be able to use existing MT transportation means regarding trips. This means that, if the MT has a plane, that very same plane will be used by the YT.
16. Team management
Basically all users will have the possibility to control teams in Footstar. In fact we have 3 types of Clubs in FootStar:
- Teams controlled by humans with FS Fan Gold
- Unprotected teams controlled by humans without FS Fan Gold
- Bot Teams
However managers of unprotected teams have a totally different status/restrictions regarding Gold FS Fan users/managers. These are the main differences:
- Unprotected teams are subject to be immediately taken over by users with FS Fan Gold. B Teams are an exception: they can be managed by users without fs fan but they CAN´T be taken over by users with fs fan because they´re connected with protected Main Team
- FS Fan Gold users will have their teams protected and restrictions free.
Let us explain, starting from Teams controlled by humans with FS Fan Gold.
By subscribing to the gold FS Fan package, you´ll be able to manage a team but you won´t get an automatic team. You should know that you can manage teams from all countries (according to Federation Rules > more informations below) and there might be the possibility that you can´t take control of teams on specific divisions, depending on the "acceptance %" of each division (more informations below). Of course, this only applies when you first take control of the team; you can then promote to higher divisions without any problems.
Be informed that you have the possibility to leave/resign the team if you wish so. (Team >> Resign). But you won´t be able to manage another team in the next 1 month.
Also, to be able to take control of a team, you must be a free player or you need to have the "Manager clause" in your contract . You cannot manage 2 teams in the same time (with first and second player for example..or with father and son). Only ONE team for each user.
When you take control of a team you become the player-manager of the team. Your contract´s wage will be preset following this formula: the average wage of the 11 most well-paid players of the team + 3% of the sponsors weekly income. The value of the wage will be updated weekly at the economic updates. The contract will have duration of 1 season and it will be automatically renewed each season. It also won´t have any signing fees nor match prizes, and you won´t be able to offer yourself a new contract.
If you happen to resign from the team, your player will remain in it or leave, depending on your game option (Manager >> Preferences) regarding this event of the game.
Well, after knowing these informations and having subscribed to the FS FAN Gold package, when you want to start managing a team, you should go to its details page and select the "Control this team" option on the right info panel. It might be wise to first check about player´s info, standings, fixtures, etc. You should know that after you start to control a team some players might leave the team at that exact moment. Those who´ll stay will probably ask some brand new contracts as their bot contracts will be really low, so be ready for that. These are probably the first steps to make when you start with a new team: get to know your players, analyze your squad, make a quick check about your player´s contracts and define the strategy to the club; the team´s training scheme is also very important. You´ll start with €500.000 (0.5M euro or the equivalent on your currency), so you can also take a quick look on the transfer list and free transfers page (All in menu Team >> Transfers). That´s right, when you´re controlling a team you´ll have access to a new main menu option (Team).
Now, let us explain Unprotected teams controlled by humans without FS Fan Gold:
As we said few "lines ago" all users have the possibility to control teams in Footstar..even if they haven´t Gold FS Fan, but with some restrictions. Now let us present you the list of restrictions.
Managers of unprotected teams have the following limitations:
- They can’t release player
- They can’t add players to the shortlist
- They can’t save match-specific events
- They can only set the lineup for their next match, using default orders.
- They can’t hire staff members
- They can’t buy transportation items
- They can’t play MvM
- They can’t loan in or loan out players
- They can’t vote in federation referendums that are manager specific.
- If a team owned by a managers with FS Fan Gold invites one of these teams for a friendly match, the invitation is accepted automatically
- Wages are set automatically for players playing in these teams:
>> 1st Division: 3400€
>> 2nd Division: 2600€
>> 3rd Division: 1800€
>> 4th Division or below: 1250€
- They can’t also set match prizes and contract duration in contracts. The same applies when a player asks to join the team. They receive a message saying that the team is unprotected and therefore can’t offer more than the pre-defined wages, etc.
- Stadium capacities are updated automatically for these teams:
>> 1st Division: 25000 seats
>> 2nd Division: 20000 seats
>> 3rd Division: 15000 seats
>> 4th Division or below: 10000 seats
- They can’t use the "Vacations" feature.
- They can’t leave the club during the season. They can however hand the team to another user. If they decide to do so an "auction" will be set for 7 days. The final winner takes the team. If nobody applies the same manager will continue with the job. The window will re-open with the beginning of the season and closes again in the 12nd day of the season.
- If they are 15 days without visiting the website their teams will be put on auction for 7 days.
- Users without FS Fan Gold cannot apply to bot teams in all periods of the season. They will need permission from the other managers of the same series. There are however periods in which this restriction does not apply:
>> From day 1 to day 12
>> From day 57 to day 61
>> From day 106 to day 112
So that they can enter on bot teams off these periods, there must be the following acceptance %:
>> 1st Division: 50% of the managers
>> 2nd Division: 35% of the managers
>> 3rd Division: 25% of the managers
>> 4th Division or below: 15% of the managers
Votes from bot teams and managers without FS Fan Gold are always counted in favor for new managers.
- Restrictions on the budget for unprotected teams when buying players, depending on their available money
- Team training can’t be set freely and can only be changed once a week. There will be a list of 10 team trainings that will cover all the possibilities we consider important for the purpose of this feature.
- They can pick teams in another countries but they must follow the federation rules and there’s always a limitation regarding the number of teams foreign managers can pick.
Unprotected managers with FS Fan Silver have additional perks over non FS Fan managers. They can:
- Change the team logo
- Change the team kit
- Change the team name
- Change stadium name
- Change club homepage
- Release press conferences
- Have a guestbook and the "last visitors" feature on their clubhouse.
Some other general - but important - details:
- For unprotected teams Manager’s wage is equal to the player’s wage rule.
- The current player contract clause (Manager Clause) keeps the same purpose. If you’re currently playing in an human club, you can only apply to a bot team if you have a manager clause.
- Unprotected managers can hand the management to someone inside the team; but only to users that have FS Fan Gold.
- Unprotected teams can have youth teams.
- Once a Gold FS Fan takes over an unprotected team it will have the possibility to reset the team’s finances.
- Users with less than one month in the game cannot apply to bot teams (unless they have FS Fan Gold of course)
- The restriction to take over bot-teams in the top leagues is over with this new feature.
How will the managers be picked to these bot teams?
As there will probably be a lot of users trying to control teams, there will be an auction in order to decide who controls a team. For example, you decide to control team B and you have permission to do so. An auction will be created for team B (for 7 days). Then user A also applies during this time. At the end of these 7 days the board of the club would decide to whom the club would be assigned. In order to decide the auction winner, a new concept will be created: manager’s reputation. Here is how you can improve your manager’s reputation:
- By simply coaching a club. Every day you coach a club your reputation will increase. You can only benefit from this method during a whole year (365 days), consecutive or not.
- By affording a "Manager Certificate". This will cost both money and interaction points. There will be 2 levels for this Certificate. The last level is only available for FS Fans. This certificate will provide a bonus in the manager’s reputation.
- At the end of the season by winning titles. A bonus will be conceded for each title won (important titles will provide bigger bonuses).
Additional informations related to Team management
Control a team in another country
This is something that can be controlled by the National Federation’s President though. The President is able to set up the voting with the following options:
- Allow Foreign Managers in country;
- Set the "maximum foreign-controlled teams in country", with options 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. This means that half of the teams in a country are always reserved to local users while the rest might be reserved or not, depending on the community wishes.
- All users in the country can vote. You can be able to hand it to a foreign ONLY in case the federation rules allow it. By default all countries don´t allow Foreign Managers.
Matches management
As a manager you´ll have the responsibility to set your team´s starting eleven, choose its formation and possibly schedule some match events, choose the Individual Match orders for all your players, etc.. The purpose of FootStar is not to be an online football manager simulator so we don´t want you to waste too much time with it.
To select your starting eleven you need to go to Team >> Fixtures >> Starting Eleven on the right info panel. The page consists on a formation + starting eleven selector + team orders selector (in Flash, please refer to the FootStar Computer Requirements above in this manual). Everything should be pretty straight-forward. On top, you´ll find the selector menu in which you can switch between any of these three options. To select the players into the formation (you can change the formation by moving the circles representing the players) just drag and drop them at the formation circles. You should also know that you won´t be able to select invalid formations; a formation has to have at least 3 defenders, 2 midfielders and one forward. You need to click on the SAVE button in order to keep all the changes you make.
You can also set Match Orders for the match. At the top of the page you´ll find a select box with the "Default Orders" text on it. Well this means that you´re editing the default orders of your team. These orders will be used in any match where match orders weren´t set. If you go to that box and select any other game, you´ll be editing the specific orders for that match. These kind of pre-defined orders (called Match Orders) will be used over default orders so be careful when you set them for a specific match.
The other important feature for matches is the possibility to schedule the substitution/other events of your players. Going to Team >> Fixtures >> Match Events you´ll find an interface to schedule your subs and other events. You can also program some specific conditions for the sub to happen such as minute and match result.
Team Talks
Being a manager, you have an important task: the communication with the players. We provide you an interface so that you can easily do that without having to use internal messages. Going to Team >> Players >> Team talks, you´ll find an option to leave a message to a specific player or to leave a message to all of your players. Your players will probably answer back, and you´ll see a small warning box in the office page if that happens. Bear in mind that if some of your players are foreign, they´ll probably not be able to understand your native language.
Result Prizes
These prizes are given when your team achieves a draw or a win (home/away). You can set a value of a maximum of 1% of your available amount of money for each prize. This prize will be paid to all players that participate in the match, providing it is an official (league/cup/itc) match. You can change the value of the prizes in your advanced options at any time you want.
Assistant Managers
By going to Manager >> Club >> Staff, you can appoint players to help you managing your team. Only FS Fan players/users are eligible to have and maintain these functions though. You should be wise when you appoint Assistant Managers for your team: they´ll have some really important powers that might affect the success of your team as a whole.
So only appoint users in which you have full trust! We can´t really held responsibility if one of your Assistants ruins a match or some other aspect of your team management. In fact, so that we realize how much we care about this, we won´t be giving the chance of Assistants to sell or/and release players from the team.
Here are the complete list of available Assistant Managers´ powers:
- Manage player´s contracts
- Manage starting eleven and match events/orders
- Manage main team´s trainings
- Manage team talks
- Schedule friendly matches
- Team Forum moderation
- Trips
- Buy players (manager can set some restrictions on budget and contract-clauses)
- Manage youth team (manager can set some restrictions on budget and contract-clauses)
Vacations & Contract Terminations
Players can offer you friendly contract terminations. In case you don´t answer (positively or negatively) these requests in 30 days (21 days for unprotected teams) they´ll be free to leave the club without any kind of compensation.
These waiting periods can be reduced in 15 days depending on the inactivity level of the manager. Meaning that for regular team, in case of inactive manager, players can wait only 15 days to leave. For unprotected teams it can go down to 7 days. A manager is immediately considered inactive in case he does not log in the game for 15 days. If the manager is on Vacations (Manager > Club > Vacations) these periods are doubled. You can only go on vacations once in a season.
Team´s Items/Goods
Such as players, teams can also buy their own items. However, as of today, teams can only buy planes and/or buses in order to use them to travel when they play away matches. A team can in fact own a plane and a bus but there isn´t any special use in having both as only the best (plane) will be used in travels. These items have a fixed monthly cost and cannot be improved. You should know three very important things: first is that when you play away your team needs to travel and players lose fitness when they travel. The second is that better transportation items will reduce the impact trips have on players´ fitness levels. Finally, another important thing you should know is that if you´re going to play away from your city and you don´t have any transportation item, your team will automatically rent a bus and the team will have to pay a fee for this: the full maintenance fee (of a bus) in case the trip is outside the country or half the maintenance fee in case the trip is to another city inside the country. These costs include going and returning from the city where the match takes place.
Team Spirit
Team Spirit is a variable visible on player relationships page. If it's low team players' morale will decrease on a daily basis. If it's high (>= 95%) it can give boost to morale for teams' players with low morale (< 85%).
Team Spirit is increasing or decreasing each day and the change is decided by how many of that team's players are using 'socialize' or 'stay alone' on that day (main team and youth team players are included here). 'Stay alone' has more weight in calculations so if the same number players are using each of these options, team spirit will decrease.
Team Harmony
Team Harmony is a variable visible in club pages. It’s the average level of happiness of all the players in the club. Players have an interface at their profile page to change their current happiness at the club. This variable has no effect on ME and any other part of the game. It’s just a way for other players to know how the mood is on your team’s locker rooms.
Players Discipline
Every player will receive his wage, every week...but all teams have the possibility to give "fines" for their players. These fines consist to not pay player´s wage for 1 week if he commit some "errors":
- Player is in a different city when team training is ongoing
- Player is in a different city when team is playing a match
Managers can give these fines going to "discipline page", here: Manager > Players > Discipline
Stadium
Your stadium´s capacity is another of Footstar´s decisive factors. This because the higher you stadium´s capacity is, the higher the ticket´s income will be. Provided of course that your team is able to attract the necessary number of supporters to fill the stadium!
The downside of having a big stadium is that you’ll have to pay maintenance costs, so be careful with unnecessary seats. As we said the stadium may not always fill, so empty seats are a synonym of loss. But if you have your stadium full on every match, it means that you are losing money, because you are not taking full advantage of the fact that with a bigger stadium, you’d have more attendance and money.
The stadium is divided into 8 stands, and you can build as much places as you want. The construction isn’t immediate and it can last several months, depending of course on the dimension of the new capacity. Remember that a Footstar month is equal to a real-life week (more information on the section “Footstar Week” of this Manual). Stadium updates are made on Fridays during the economic updates. An estimate about the construction time for the stadium will be presented to you at the stadium´s details page.
You also have the possibility to reduce the stadium´s capacity. For that, just change the option “Type of construction” to “Demolish”. As in the construction type, you will have to pay a fee for each demolished chair. The chair’s destruction is immediate. The price for each seat is 20€. The cost for a demolition is 5€ per seat.
You can’t set the ticket’s price for your stadium. The price is constant (6€) and unless it’s really necessary we won’t be changing it at all.
Gym
Gym is a team facility who represent an additional options-set that can help players improving Skills, Fitness, Morale and Confidence. There is a cost to create a Gym (2,5 millions €) and this cost can be shared by the team and their players (at least 20 different players are required to complete the funding process). B-Teams can also have gyms and these are shared with the main teams (funding as well). Creation process can be started going on Manager menu > Team Facilities.
Gyms provide 4 kinds of bonuses:
- Skill: +0,1 - 1.500€ for each session and 2 days as cooldown period
- Fitness: +8% - 1.000€ for each session and 7 days as cooldown period
- Morale: +5% - 750€ for each session and 2 days as cooldown period
- Confidence: +1 level up - 3.500 € for each session and 7 days as cooldown period
A city gym is also available and it provides the same bonuses, however the the price of bonuses is doubled. The city gym is available at the city page you’re in. You can find it at Player >> Location.
Additional info
- Skill bonus provided by gyms is always the same +0.1. Player age, skill level, fitness level, GK skill - none of these have any influence on skill bonus.
- Buying skill bonus for skills below 1 and above 100 will actually adds +20% to progression bar. That happens because real skills values are rounded in FS and when you buy skill bonus for skill which is already 100, it means you are buying +0.1 to skill above 99.5 and that 0.1 equals 20% of half skill you still have to train.
- Skill and fitness buying does not count as an additional training and do not break or start "training in a row" bonuses.
Economy
Each week on Fridays (10:00 server-time) the financial updates take place. It´s at this moment that your wages are paid and your monthly costs are deducted from your bank account.
For teams, they´ll have to pay wages and stadium maintenance but they´ll also receive their sponsor´s money income and local city´s football association´s money income.
Human-controlled teams should be careful so that they have the necessary money to pay their players´ wages. If they fail to pay their players, wages will be left behind and with a delay of 2 wages, human players will be free to leave without any compensation fee.
17. Transfers
The transfer system in FootStar is divided in 4 parts: Free transfers, Regular transfers (by auction), Loan transfers and Trial contracts.
We´ll start with free transfers.
Whenever a human-controlled player is out of contract, he´s available for any team to sign for free; this means he´s on free transfer. The only step he has to take in order to move to a new team is only to discuss the contract
The second part of the transfer system is the Regular Transfers.
There are several steps one has to go through to complete a regular transfer. First, the human manager of the team must put for sale the human-controlled player. This can be done with the player´s agreement or against the player´s will: it´s really up to the manager to decide. After the player is put on the transfer list, a deadline will be set for offers to arrive. This deadline is exactly 3 days after he is put on the list. During this time, other human managers from other teams have the possibility of making offers respecting a minimum bid price set by the player´s manager. All bids values will remain hidden in the process: this is called by as a closed auction. After the deadline expires, no more bids can be made. At that time it´s up to the player to decide if he accepts any of the bids; full contract details will be shown to the player regarding all accepted bids and he has the possibility to make the choice: either he decides to accept one offer or he might even reject all bids and remain at the club.
The third part of the transfer system is the Loan Transfers.
Human teams are able to loan players to other human teams. The concept is very simple and similar to what happens in real life. Let´s explain it:
- Players can be loaned for 4, 8, 12 or 16 weeks.
- The wage can be shared between teams. There is a "% box" in order to set this value
- A "call back" option might be set. Still, it’s only valid for loans over 4 weeks and a player must always remain at least 50% of the time of the loan before being able to be called back.
- Match prizes can be offered, as well as the possibility to pay House expenses. Players will have their prizes and all contract details restored once they return to their original club.
- A loan fee can be offered by the team that makes the offer. This fee cannot be higher than 20x the wage of the player (example, wage of 500€, max. fee would be 10000€). This value is capped at 100000€ in case the wage multiplier is bigger than this.
The fourth and last part of the transfer system is the Trial Contracts.
All Clubs have the option to automatically receive new players with trial contracts. Managers can find this option under Manager > Transfers. Here, managers can set how many players they accept (those players are included in the 50 players limit), their contract duration (7 to 30 days), wages, prizes, access to forum, etc. During the trial contract, the player can’t be approached by other teams but his manager can offer him a professional contract. If at the end of the trial contract the player hasn’t accepted any professional contract with his current club he will be a free player again.
Only free 17 years old players can accept trial contracts. Every new player on FS will be automatically approached by teams that accept players on trial.
Other features/details:
- Managers can mark players for loan or not. Offers to players unavailable for loan will be rejected automatically but the player’s manager will be informed of this fact.
- Managers can offer human players for loan to other human teams and player(s) will be informed.
- Teams can make direct loan offers for players. These offers will need to be accepted or rejected. Once a loan offer is accepted by a team, it’s up to the player to make the final decision.
- Loaned players are totally cannot receive new contract offers, cannot be sold, released or even approached by other teams.
Loans are included in the Federation Rules. This means that is up to the Federation of each country to decide the following options:
- Allow loans or not. In case loans are allowed, set the max. number of players allowed to be loaned in per team (from 1 to 10).
- Allow (or not) foreign players to be loaned in.
Only managers can vote on this election. Remember that you can only vote on elections of your national federation, even if you manage a team in another country.
Some other Informations related to Transfers
Overpriced transfers in the Transfer Market
All bids should be in relevance to what could be considered reasonable for the player in question. Overpriced transfers can ruin the good atmosphere of the game between users so our staff members will have the possibility to adjust and/or cancel transfers if they believe the good spirit of the game is at risk.
Signing restrictions
Players won´t be able to sign for the same club and/or manager for a period of at least 3 months. This includes bot clubs from the date when the changes take effect on. Examples:
- a player leaves a bot and immediately tries to sign for it again: he won´t be allowed to do that;
- a player plays for a club managed by manager X. Manager X in the meanwhile is fired (for some reason) and takes control of another club in the following weeks. The player won´t be able to sign for his old manager´s club for 3 months after the manager first left. Of course bot players cannot be transferred in any way (free transfer, loans or regular transfers).
Transfers and trips
You should know that once you set a transfer deal with a team that´s not in your current location, you´re automatically set to travel to the location of your new team.
Direct transfer offers
Players playing in human-controlled teams can be approached directly by other human-controlled teams. Then it will be up to the manager to decide whether to accept the offer or not. In case the offer is accepted the player will automatically be put on the transfer list with the minimum fee being the previously received offer. Until the end of the auction, other teams will be able to make offers (similar or higher) but the ultimate decision will obviously be from the player.
The only way to activate a minimum clause release fee is to make a direct offer to the player. Unanswered offers are deleted after 7 days of when they were created. Players will not be informed about the fees of direct offers (unless of course they´re told by their managers) but they´ll be informed once the team receives an offer and/or also when the manager rejects an offer.
18. Competitions for clubs
There are three competitions for Clubs: National Championship, National Cup and International Competitions (divided in Champions League, Cup Winners League and Continental League). There´s also a possibility to play friendly matches when a team is not participating in the national cup.
Let´s start with NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP:
The number of divisions might differ from country to country. However each series has always the same number of teams, 8. The basic structure of the division system is the same for each country. Basically it´s a pyramidal format. The bigger the division is the more series it will have. The format is the following:
First Division - 1 series
Second Division - 2 series (B-1, B-2)
Third Division - 4 series (C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4)
Fourth Division - 8 series (D-1, D-2, D-3, ... D-8)
etc.
With this format, we´ll have on each series 2 teams being relegated directly to the division below (if not in the bottom division) and 1 being promoted to the division immediately above (if not in the top division already). 2 more promotions and relegations are regulated by play-off/out matches (more info in the next lines)
Each league round will be played on weekends, with friendly and cup matches on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Along with a 2 week off-season, this makes a season to last around 16 weeks.
Team positions within a series are ordered by (order of importance) points, goal average, scored goals and number of victories. If teams stay even after comparing all these items, a random factor will be applied.
When you´re promoted to a higher division you´ll gain a division bonus (for finishing 1st). Here you have the bonus list by division:
First division (National Champion):
1st place: €250000 ; 2nd place: €125000 ; 3rd place: €62500
Second division:
1st place: €200000 ; 2nd place: €100000 ; 3rd place: €50000
Third division:
1st place: €150000 ; 2nd place: €75000 ; 3rd place: €37500
Fourth division:
1st place: €100000 ; 2nd place: €50000 ; 3rd place: €25000
Fifth division:
1st place: €50000 ; 2nd place: €25000 ; 3rd place: €15000
There are also prizes for the following awards:
Top Scorer
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Top Assists
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Best Average-Rating
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
Most MoM awards
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
These individual prizes are split 50%/50% between the player and the team (even if any of them is bot).
B-Teams
B Teams can NEVER play in the same division of the Main Team. If, due to promotion/relegation, teams are put in the same division, the B Team will be relegated to the immediate lower division. If there are no divisions available, the B Team will be disbanded and all players placed in the main team.
Play off/out
These are the rules:
- The fifth placed teams in the top division are ordered by the standings’ rules in a specific ranking (ranking A);
- To this very same ranking, the sixth placed teams in the top division are added to the bottom of the ranking and ordered by the standings’ rules (ranking A);
- The second placed teams of the lower division are ordered in their own ranking (ranking B);
Playoff matches result from matching the best teams in Ranking A with the worst teams in Ranking B. From now on, you will find a link at the standing’s page to a page in which you will find specific playoff information for the division you have selected. These matches have similar attendances to league games. The income from this attendance will be split (50% for each team).
Playoffs are played in the weekend after the last league games.
NATIONAL CUP
Each country will have its own National Cup competition. Of course that the number of rounds the cup will have will depend on the number of teams a country has.
Another important thing to be mentioned is concerning cup gate receipts. 60% of the gate receipts of cup matches will be give to the home team and 40% to the away team. If we´re talking about the final, the receipts will be shared (50%/ 50%).
Cup matches are special matches. If the game is not settled after 90´ it will go on to extra-time. Then, if after the 120´ there is still a draw, a penalty shoot-out will take place to decide the winner. The winning team will move to the next round but there is a special rule about B Teams: they can take part in the national cup but cannot advance to the next round if they win a match, unless they face a bot or another B Team. In this case the B Team that wins the match will advance to next round.
As told before, cup matches are played mid-week on Wednesdays or Thursdays (depending on your country´s match schedule). A team cannot play a friendly and a cup match on the same week.
Cup matches are kinda looked like league matches in what concerns to experience and morale (regarding players). Players will get the same experience and morale bonus (or penalties in case of morale) as in league games. Match prizes are also given on cup matches.
The cup winner will be given a monetary prize of €400000. The runner-up will earn €200000.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS
There are three competitions per continent
(ITC from now on): the Champions League, the Cup Winners League and the Continental League.
ITC’s matches are normal matches with slight variations in experience gains and attendances. Players lose fitness and need to travel to the city where the match takes place. Experience gains will be somewhere in the middle between what league and national team matches award (more than league and less than national team matches). Attendances will be just a little higher than in league matches and therefore they’ll generate more income for the participants (only for the home team during the group stage, and split 50% in the knock-out stages). International competitions will take place on Fridays at 12:00 server time.
There is a ranking similar to the national teams ranking, called International club ranking. The position of a country in this ranking will define the number of teams from that country that qualify to the Continental League. Points are earned to this ranking through the results in the matches the team plays. If a team from China wins a ITC match the points generated by this victory will be awarded to China in the ranking. This ranking will also be used to seed teams in groups (teams from countries with better ranking will be placed higher in the group seeds).
Here are Infos of each competition:
Champions League
All the top league champions from all FS countries in the continent qualify to play in this competition.
The competition will have a group stage and a final knock-out stage. Teams will be split in groups of 6 teams, according to the ITC country rankings. There will be home and away matches during the group phase. The top eight teams from the group phase qualify to the quarter-finals (the first placed teams, plus the necessary best second placed in order to fill the number of teams necessary). The knock-out stage is played in one leg only and the draw is completely random. The prize for the winning team in this competition will be 500.000, and 250.000 for the runner-up.
Cup Winners League
Same rules as in the Champions League, except the teams taking place in this one will be the cup winners from all countries instead. In case the cup winner also won the top league, it will take part in the Champions League, and the other cup finalist will be qualified to the CWL instead. Prizes for the finalists will be: 200.000 for the winner and 100.000 for the runner-up.
Continental League
The rules for these competitions are a little different. Depending on the ITC ranking, each country can qualify up to 3 teams to this competition:
- The countries in higher third of the table qualify 3 teams;
- Those in the second third, qualify 2 teams.
- And finally, countries in the last third qualify 1 team only.
In the first phase, teams will be placed in groups of 6 teams (one round only). Then, 3 teams are qualified from each group to the following phase. In the second phase a similar group stage will be formed (with the teams that qualified from the first stage). Again, groups of 6, one round only. From this stage, eight teams will qualify to the quarter finals (the first placed teams plus the necessary best second placed to fill the number of teams). The knock-out stage is played in one leg only and the draw is random. The prize for the winning team will be 350.000, and 175.000 for the runner-up.
Schedule
These competitions will last for 13 weeks (10 weeks for the group stages and 3 more for the quarter finals). The finals will be played on the "playoff" week, meaning that ITCs only start on the third week of the season (just before the 3rd national league round). Matches will be played on Fridays at 12:00 (server time).
Intercontinental Competitions
There is a Intercontinental title to be disputed between the three continental winners of the Champions League of the previous season. This will be a simple competition, in which the two teams from the continents with lowest (combined) ranking will play a semi-final in order to qualify to the final, where they will meet the team from the continent with the highest ranking. The winner will get no monetary prize, but instead fame & glory!
This competition will be played in the second week of the pre-season, on Wednesday (semi-finals) & Thursday (final).
FRIENDLY MATCHES
Your team can play a friendly match once a week if it´s not set to play on the national cup. This kind of matches must be scheduled by a human manager though. So if you are playing on a bot, you can forget about playing any friendly matches.
B Teams can organize friendly matches vs Main Team or another B Team.
Friendly matches´ gate receipts will be shared between both clubs (50%/ 50%).
In these kind of matches, up to 11 (eleven) substitutions are allowed.
Also, in friendly matches you earn SAME experience as national championship´s matches and, more importantly, you don´t receive any morale penalties regarding your team role and performance during the match. However, you´ll receive match prizes.
19. International competitions for NTs and CTs
Not only club competition we have in FS. There are also NATIONAL TEAMS (U18, U21 and main NT)
The reason for the U18 team (and not some other version) is simple: we want newbies to be brought into the NT experience early in the game, as to motivate them a little more in the first few seasons: those who train best will certainly be the ones selected for this "launcher" team. Every NT/CT has his own manager who is nominated by president of national federation.
They are at the presidents' mercy for all that matters: if the president wishes, he can fire the manager at the moment. Obviously this can be seen as a bad move by the community - and do I hear the mob calling for a revolution?
To become a NT manager you simply have to
a) be a FS Fan
b) be invited by the president of a federation
c) accept the invitation.
You will then have access to these options:
- You can obviously select the national squad (call up players to the squad, remove players from the squad, etc.);
- Set an Assistant Manager (working exactly like a club assistant) - they'll have to be FS Fans;
- Resign from the position - in which case the president will have to nominate someone else.
A national manager can call himself up to his own national team, if he gathers the conditions to do so (nationality, age, etc.).
If a NT manager loses its FS Fan status, he's automatically removed from the position. Players can be called up for national teams if they fill a set of requirements:
- They have to be holding the nationality of the country they are being called up for;
- They have to be declared available to play for that country - all players will be able to choose if they are available to play for a national team or not;
- They have to fit in the right age group (of course).
In case a player has gained a Main Team cap for a certain country, he won't ever again be allowed to play for any other country than that particular one. This does not apply to U18 or U21 caps (in which case the player will be still eligible to play for any other country). For CT, is enough to gain a cap for U18, U21 or NT to be "locked" in that city.
The main benefit of playing in a national team or city team is the experience it awards to the player. In all cases the experience awarded is a percentage of the experience the player already has gained in his club and international career. This percentage though is capped at set values (as so to not make experience increase exponentially for international players), but these set values are though higher than league matches - and bigger depending on the NT type, U18, U21 or main team, the main team awarding the highest possible experience. This means NTs/CTs is an important way of gathering experience, although it all still depend on the experience you gained in the rest of the player's footballing career.
In international matches the experience a player has is also more important and affects skills and judgment a lot more than in normal club matches (except in U18 games, where the effect is equal to a normal league match). So, the lower the experience, the more the skills are affected by it (roughly the double of league matches in U21 and main teams alike) and the less likely a player will be to follow individual orders - much more than in league matches in U21 matches and even more in main team matches, where experience matters really a lot.
Fitness losses in international matches are exactly the same as in any other match. And remember there's probably also trips involved, so beware the experience gained comes at the cost of losing some fitness.
Eligibility for U21 National Teams
Players above the age of 21 cannot be called up and/or play for the U21 NT. All those with 21 or less can be called up.
However, the U21 WC final call up must respect another extra rule. Here's a practical example to explain it: the first U21 WC was played at season 6 (despite starting on season 5). This means that all players born onwards 1/1 (FS week/season) was able to play it. The second U21 WC started on season 6 and end on season 7. So, all players born onwards 1/2 was allowed to be called in.
Eligibility for U18 National Teams
Players aged 17 or 18 can be called up and play for the U18 NT. All those aged 19 or more can never be called up/play.
Again, the U18 WC final call up must respect the extra rule. Another practical example to explain it: the first U18 WC was played at season 6 (despite starting on season 5). This means that all players born onwards 1/4 (FS week/season) was able to play it.
These eligibility rules were made so that we could offer all players the possibility to play in a U21/U18 National Team considering the fact that players that started on earlier weeks had an advantage. At the same time we don't want those who start on the first weeks to have a disadvantage for aging sooner than all the others.
We hope that, with these rules, everything is more balanced. Unfortunately there would never be a perfect solution for this.
World Cup and International Matches
This sub-section deals with the match days and the international competitions themselves: including the much waited World Cup!
Actually, there are 3 World Cups, not only one. U18 and U21 World Cups are played every season, while the main teams' World Cup are played every 3 seasons. For CTs is almost the same but NTs will play a WC every season!
World Cup: U18 and U21 Teams
The U18 and U21 Teams play each a qualifying tournament every season to decide which teams advance to the World Cups. The qualifications are hold in the following format:
- Teams are placed in 14 groups of 6 teams each (using a seeding system related to a NT ranking) and play against each other twice. The first-placed teams of each group (totaling 14) and the best 2 second-placed teams advance to the U18 and U21 World Cup competitions, respectively. These final 16 play against each other in a direct elimination style tournament and the winner will be decided in the final match. There's no 3rd place match, so there's just winner and runner-up in this competition.
There is time for 3 friendly matches each season to be scheduled by the national managers, before the qualifying tournament starts.
U18 matches are played on Mondays at 17:00 FS-time, while U21 matches are played on the same day but at 18:30 FS-time. The World Cups will have matches played on different days.
World Cup: Main National Teams
The main National Teams have the chance to take part on a World Cup only every 3 seasons. Why? Well, because we feel the WC should be a special event. Unlike the U21 and U18 WCs, this one will be sometimes a one-off chance for a player to really show himself up to the whole FS world.
Qualifying
Unlike U18 and U21 qualifying, the qualifying for the main World Cup (Football Star World Cup, FSWC for short) is also different. Along with being played over the course of 3 seasons, it is also be divided by continents - each team compete against others from the same continent, with the exception of Asia, Africa and Oceania which, due to the small amount of nations, are grouped together. The number of teams qualifying from each continent is decided using a NT ranking system based on NT performances over the past few seasons.
Qualifying groups is divided like this:
- European countries in 8 groups of 6 teams each;
- American countries in 2 groups of 6 teams each;
- Asian, African and Oceanian countries in 4 groups of 6 teams each.
As said, each continent have a variable number of teams qualifying to the FSWC, but the total will sum up to 32 teams.
Countries in each group play each other 4 times, 2 times at home and 2 away. This brings the total amount of games played during the qualifying tournament to 20 games for each team. Games are played roughly bi-weekly, with friendly matches scheduled by the managers filling the gaps in weeks when no official matches are played.
Football Star World Cup
The FS-WC is played at the end of the 3rd qualifying season, and 32 teams will take part on it.
The first phase of the FSWC is a group round, with teams being placed using a seeding system in groups of 4 teams. There are 8 groups in total. Three games are played to decide who advances to the second and final phase. The first and second-placed teams of each group advance to the next phase.
The second and final phase of the FSWC is played with teams facing each other in direct elimination matches. 16 teams, then 8, then 4, then the 2 finalists will play each other to decide the Football Star World Champion title. There's no 3rd place match.
Main national team matches are played on Mondays at 20:30 FS-time, except during the World Cup final phase, which is explained in the next sub-section of this section.
CITY TEAMS
Not only countries have representation in FS world. Also every city have own representation from players born in certain city.
City teams are very similar to national teams. There are same age category for every city like in NT so every city have 3 different representation squad (U18, U21 and NT) Eligibility rules for U18 and U21 are exactly same as NT U18 and U21.
Also other rules are very similar to NT:
- The manager for each team is nominated by the federation president
- The city stadium is designated by the federation president as well as the team kit.
- The manager is responsible for the team management (call ups, squad, tactics)
- City teams can only play with players born on the city. There are no "double nationality" features for cities, meaning that you can only play for your native city, no matter what.
- A player cannot play or be call up for the national team and for the city team at same time. However, they can play both on different weeks.
- A player, after playing one match for a city team, will be bound to that city team and cannot play for another city team ever.
- All players are given the chance to change to another team one time only, provided that they haven’t played for any city team. To do that, you just have to go to the city details’ page and click the appropriate option.
- You don’t have to be FS Fan to become a City Manager. However, you can’t be nominated if you are already a City/NT manager or president/vice-president.
- There are maximum 3 substitutions in city teams matches (for all types of games).
- A player can only change to another city once. Also the change to another city is automatically locked once a player makes a game for a city team.
- You can only change to cities of your own country.
- You can play for your city even if you have player for another country in a NT.
- You can play with several players you own in different city teams.
- There is forums for city teams (like in NTs).
- There are suspensions for city teams, just like in NTs (same model)
- Players can refuse playing for their city NT.
- You can play for both NT and CT, as long as it’s not in the same match day.
- No double NTs in cities or something similar.
- Confidence and moral loss is exactly like the NTs.
- If the system finds a city team with an appointed match but without a squad, it will call bot players to fill up the squad. There might be city teams that won’t have enough players due to small countries but they president will either have to try to increase the user base or just don’t play friendly games or play them with bots.
- Each season, a World Cup country will be picked amongst the Federation Presidents to host all 3 world cups of the same season. For example, if Iceland is picked, both the AA, U21 and U18 city WC’s will be played in Iceland.
There are also competitions of city teams (including World Cup in every age category). The competition is exactly the same as the World Cup of U21/U18 National Teams. The difference is that not all teams can play the qualifying stage. Matches are on same day as NT (Monday) but on different time:
- U18: 13:30
- U21: 14:00
- Main team: 14:30
There are much more cities than countries so there has to be pre-qualification stage every season for every age category. Pre-qualification and qualifications stage are played in same time. In qualification there are only 96 teams (48 are top3 from every group in season before qualification + top48 from ranking of prequalification season before). All other teams will play only prequalification for next season qualification.
The global ranking gets reset at the end of every season. If a team does not play a friendly match in a certain week it looses 2% of its ranking (until the cap of 1500 points). All teams start with 1500 points. The formula for awarding and removing points is based on the well known Elo rating system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system).
Calendar and Dates - Match Days, Trips, Squad Announcements
The NT managers have the chance to release the squad announcement 5 days before each match. If they fail to do so, the system will release it on Sunday morning whatever squad they selected until that point as the official squad for the next NT match. Whichever players are called are the only ones available to play in the upcoming match - managers cannot call up any more players (or remove someone from the squad) if the squad has already been announced.
Players called up to the national squad will go on trip to the site of the next NT match every Monday at 4:00 FS-time. All trips are made by plane. Fitness losses in these trips are as follow: 2% for trips between different countries and 1% if the trip is to another city in the same country. After the match takes place, players will return to their clubs' location. This obviously applies only during the qualifying/friendly phase, before the World Cup takes place.
The final phase of the U18 and U21 World Cups occurs during a full week, as well as the second phase of the FSWC. This means that players called up for the WCs will have to travel to the country where it takes place and stay there for the whole week, being effectively away from their clubs. On the first phase of the FSWC (the group phase) this does not apply though: players will play the group match and return to their clubs after the match is over.
Also, a "national team season" only changes after the WCs take place; so, effectively, they only change after week 1 (1 week later than the normal season change). This is important for rankings, as you can read below.
National Team's Ranking
The ranking will work as follows:
>> Points for result:
- Win (no penalty shootout) 3
- Draw 1
- Loss (no penalty shootout) 0
- Win (penalty shootout) 2
- Loss (penalty shootout) 1
>> The value will then be multiplied as follows:
- Game type: Friendly match: x1 | WC Qualifier: x2 | WC Stage: x4
- Opponent's position ranking with the following formula, where:
X = Number of Countries in FS | Y = Opponent's Ranking Position
Multiplier = (X - (Y - 1)) / (X / 2) (This multiplier cannot be lower than 0.5)
So, the amount of ranking points if you play and win a NT Friendly against the first on the ranking:
>> 3 (winning points) x 1 (game type mult.) x 2 (ranking mult.) = 6 points In a World Cup final stage >> 3 x 4 (game type mult.) x 2 = 24 points
This version is actually very similar the formula used by FIFA. We have removed some parts in order to add simplicity.
The season ranking is reset once the World Cup finishes (remember that NTs' seasons are only increased once a WC is completed). However the points are saved until 3 seasons in the past and used to define the final ranking position. An example:
- The main English NT wins 40 points in season 1, 30 points in season 2 and 50 in season 3. Their ranking points are the sum of these 3 seasons (120). Then, on season 4 they get 80 points. Season 1 points are dropped and the ranking points are updated to 30+50+80=160.
Another important reminder is that the WC Qualifiers draw will always take place before the first friendly matches.
Misc Rules
- In friendlies, National Teams manager is able to make 11 substitutions. But only 3 in official games.
- There are no morale losses in NT friendlies, but there are morale drops in official NT games, just like in official club games.
- There is special forum for National Team managers only.
- NT Managers can call up from 16 to 22 players.
- Experience gains are calculated as in normal club games (dependable on the number of minutes you play, avoid getting tired effect) (but the gains are not obviously the same: as said previously on this section).
20. Player Awards
Football is team game but of course every player train to be as good as possible individual. There are several awards player can get:
In every match played there is possibility to win Man of the Match award. All players start with 5 points (in a 0-10 scale) and this rating will raise or drop depending on your performance during the match. At the end if the match the player with the higher rating will win the Man of the Match award. This rating might also have an influence on your morale. Good matches will raise your morale but bad performances will ruin it, so be careful, especially with your fitness level.
At the end of season there are also other possible awards:
Top Scorer
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Top Assists
First Division: €25000; Second Division: €20000; Third Division: €15000; Fourth Division: €10000; Fifth Division: €5000;
Best Average-Rating
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
Most MoM awards
First Division: €12500; Second Division: €10000; Third Division: €7500; Fourth Division: €5000; Fifth Division: €2500;
These individual prizes are split 50%/50% between the player and the team (even if any of them is bot).
But it is not end of possible award. Every season there is contest for Player of the Year. There are couple category of this award:
- best u-21 player of the year in FS
- best u-21 goalkeeper in FS
- best u-21 defender in FS
- best u-21 midfielder in FS
- best u-21 forward in FS
- best u-21 player of the year in his country
- best u-21 goalkeeper in his country
- best u-21 defender in his country
- best u-21 midfielder in his country
- best u-21 forward in his country
- best player of the year in FS
- best goalkeeper in FS
- best defender in FS
- best midfielder in FS
- best forward in FS
- best player of the year in his country
- best goalkeeper in his country
- best defender in his country
- best midfielder in his country
- best forward in his country
21. National Federations
There is a national federation for each country and each federation have a president that is to be elected by the national users.
The election of the president works like this:
- You can vote only concerning the federation of your country;
- You can only vote if your account is at least 1 season (112 days) old;
- You can vote in any national user that has come forward as a candidate, regardless of their FS Fan status;
- You cannot vote for yourself;
- Normal user votes will amount to one "election point", Silver user votes are worth 2 election points, and Gold 3 election points.
This difference in "election points" has some background reasons, of course. Gold users are normally the managers and they'll be the ones releasing their players to the national teams; they deserve to have more weight on the election. Silver users are normally the assistants and we believe the same advantage should be give to them. Besides, there's the fact that everyone who supports the game should have a stronger voice on the direction it takes, especially since national federations do really give any in-game advantage (other than a whole lot of extra work) - and users aren't able to vote for themselves.
Users, after the election starts, will need to officially state they're candidates so users can vote for them. The candidate with more points after the period of 7 days of election will win. If two users get the same amount of points, the older user wins.
The president of the National Federation is responsible for nominating all three National Team managers (main NT, U21 & U18) and all CTs' managers (NT, U21 and U18 of each city). He can name whoever he wants, of any nationality. For national teams there's additional requirement that a manager has to have a silver or gold FS Fan. President cannot nominate himself though and a user cannot be a president and a manager/assistant of any national or city team at the same time. The nominated user will still need to accept the proposal, of course. The president can also fire NT or CT managers at anytime he wishes.
Other presidential tasks include:
- He can create a national referendum for all managers in order to set a limit for foreign players in all teams of the country. If more than 50% of the managers vote yes on the proposal, the limitation will be imposed. If there aren't any human teams in the country, this referendum can't be created;
- He can set the number of years (seasons) a player needs to be playing in the country to get a double nationality (with a minimum limit of 2 seasons) and - he can allow (or not) the National Team to use players that were not born in the country (with double nationalities). This is subject to a national referendum concerning all users of a country. Both options are decided in the same referendum;
- He can allow loans or not. In case loans are allowed, set the max. number of players allowed to be loaned in per team (from 1 to 10). This is subject to a national referendum concerning all users of a country. Both options are decided in the same referendum;
- Allow (or not) foreign players to be loaned in. There are no restrictions for the number of players that can be loaned out. Only managers can vote on this election;
- He'll be able to choose the stadium used for NT/CT games: the national stadium;
- He can change the name of the first division of the country by creating a national referendum in which all users from the country can vote;
- He can change the name of the national federation, also subject to national referendum.
- He can set the national team kits.
- He can set the national URL, the federation logo and a lot of other minor options.
- He can send national announcements to the community.
- He can review application for new cities-creation and then accept or reject them;
- He can change cities' pictures for the newly created cities. This can be set at the page where team kits are set;
- He can nominate vice-presidents: these have all the options the president has except the ones requiring referendums, firing/nominating National Managers and voting for the World Cup site;
- National Presidents can assign cities to a Vice-President. This will give them all the same powers Presidents have when they are controlling cities’ options: appoint/fire managers, change team kits and city team stadium. This option can be set at the same page where city managers are appointed;
- He can manage Official U19 League Tournaments (more info in the next lines);
- He can make changes to the league structures (more info in the next lines);
- He can nominate up to four players as Journalists (more info in the next lines).
All presidents will decide, amongst them, who will host the World Cups (using an internal voting system);
National referendums are open for 7 days and can only be made once a month (for each type of referendum).
A president is elected permanently. There's only two ways to get him off the position. One is simple: if he quits. The other is through a "revolution".
A revolution works like this:
In every election, the president is elected with a certain number of votes. After he's elected, people can choose either to support the president or to support a revolution (on the federation page). If the number of "points" of users supporting a revolution is above the number of election points with which the current president was elected, a revolution takes place and a new election will be started. Revolution points are exactly the same as election points: normal users are worth 1 point, Silver 2 and finally Gold are worth 3 points.
During an election a president cannot use any of his powers. If the election was started because he resigned, nobody will be able to vote for him (he won't be able to set himself up as a candidate). In case of a revolution, he can take part as a candidate if he wishes to do so.
Official U19 League Tournaments
Presidents of the National Federations have the possibility of create an official U19 league structure for their country:
- Only domestic youth teams can participate in the U19 national league.
- The President can set the number of divisions the league will have. These leagues will have the same league structure as the normal club leagues have at the moment (8 teams per series). The only exception is that there won’t be playoffs. This means that on each series 2 teams will be promoted and 4 will be relegated.
- Two additional options can be set by Presidents as well: number of replacements each match can have and an entry fee for each division in the league (just like in regular tournaments). The entry fees are to be divided in the same way they are divided in tournaments. In divisions with more than one series, the award is split between all series.
- Once the President creates the U19 league system, youth team managers can immediately apply to the league. This can always be done during the season as the President will have the possibility of replacing teams. The only exception is if a team is playing a youth tournament: in this scenario it cannot apply to the official youth league tournament.
- As said Presidents can freely populate their league system with all the teams that have applied. The slots left empty will be filled with bot teams.
- There are some rules regarding the way teams are populated in the series. In order to add teams to a lower division, the President must always fill the previous division at half of its capacity.
- If once the matches are being generated, a division only contains bot teams, it’s automatically stopped. The only exceptions are for the first two divisions. Also if there are not enough bot teams in the country to fill the empty slots of one of its series, the creation of that division is stopped.
- Matches are automatically generated at the 11st day of each season. This means that the President has only until the 10th day of the season to create/make changes on the structure of the league.
- After the 11th day of the season the President will only have permission to change bot teams with human U19 teams. Until that day (starting on the 1st day) all types of swaps can be made.
- At the end of each season all promotions/relegations are made automatically. But due to the powers entitled to the Presidents they can eventually swap teams once the season starts. It will be up to the rules each President will set for their leagues.
- All U19 games (including tournaments) have the 60 minute rule for full exp.
- During the time the official youth leagues are stopped, the team training check for Youth Teams will be increased from 14 days to 21 days.
- There are achievements for players and cups for teams for all series winners.
- The President will be able to set the number of series for the last division of the structure. For example: If 3 divisions are selected, the President has the possibility to select if the last division (3rd) will have 1, 2, 3 or 4 series
Federation Journalists
Federation Presidents can nominate up to four players as Journalists for their own countries. This role give to those players the power to release community announcements that can cover all the events that happen during the week on their country or FS world (league matches, national team matches, etc). This can also be used to interview players, managers, etc. It’s now up to each journalist´s creativity and talent. Presidents can also fire them and nominate new ones if they feel that the current ones aren’t up to the expectations.
Presidents can nominate Journalists under Federation Page > Options. On the other side, journalists have a new option at the Federation Page where they’ll be able to release those announcements. They will be visible in the front page to all players that have the country subscribed. As we said in our previous announcement you can now comment and like/dislike those Journalist Announcements.
Changes to the League Structures
Federation Presidents can make changes to the league structures. All the changes they make will only take effect at the next season transition, if the rules of the system are respected at the time of the season change.
There are related info:
- Federation Presidents (FPs) are able to add & remove more divisions to the national league structure
- This can only be done/set before the new season starts and all the changes will be applied during the season change procedures.
- FPs can only remove an entire division. Due to the complexity of the current FS league structure (don´t forget playoffs) it´s not possible to allow a greater deal of flexibility.
- The only condition FPs have to remove a division is that the number of human teams in the division they want to remove must be available in the division immediately above. Example: if your D division has 5 human teams, there must be 5 bot teams in C. When we say bot, we say without a manager. Unprotected teams are not bot teams.
- In order to add a new division, the FP must have a 75% or more occupation rate in the country. This means that if a country has one division only, 6 or more human teams must exist. This means 18 human teams to create a C division, etc.
- All human teams in removed divisions will be automatically placed in available top divisions.
Federation Presidents can make the changes at the National Competitions federation option.
22. Foobbuteo PvP
Foobbuteo PvP is an additional game to FootStar. Although most of your player skills come from your FootStar player’s skills, this game has no influence whatsoever on the normal game of FootStar. You can find Foobbuteo PvP by clicking on the “PvP / Match Center” page on the top menu then going to “Foobbuteo - PvP / Match Center” on the left menu of this page.
How to start playing?
Once you find yourself on the Match Center page of the PvP area you will see that this page has three parts.
The first part is a table in which the currently played PvP matches are being shown. It shows the match ID, the current result, the current status of the match (if it’s recently finished, ongoing or is about to start), the start date and hour, the type of match (PvP, TvT or MvM), current number of players, the number of turns and two buttons: an information button (that shows the teams’ captains) and a join game button on each match on the list. In order to start playing on a premade match it’s as simple as clicking the respective “Join Game” button on the match you wish to join.
The second part of the page is the current daily PvP ranking.
The third part is only available if you have a FS fan bronze or higher and it’s the “Create Game” interface. From here, you can create a new PvP, MvM (if you are a team manager in FootStar) and TvT (if you are a manager of a TvT team in Foobbuteo) match, set the home and away team colors, set the start time (in the next up to 15 minutes in PvP and on a specific date and hour in TvT), set your own player’s position in the home team and the number of turns the game will take place (between 30 and 90). Click on the “Create” button once you have specified all these parameters in order to create a new match.
How the game works
Foobbuteo PvP is a turn based team-play game. The number of turns is determined by the match creator and each turn means 1 minute of playtime.
The turns are separated into 2 stages. The first stage takes 35 seconds and allows you to set the actions you want to make with your player(s) and it’s indicated by the upper time bar, when the bar is green. The second stage takes 25 seconds and it’s the stage when the actions made in the first stage are being saved and executed. This stage is indicated when the upper time bar is red. The yellow time bar means that the game is in the first stage but it’s still waiting to load up all the actions of the second stage.
The game ends when the last turn has finished being played. There are circumstances however in which the game gets locked. During these times you will not be able to perform any kind of action in the game.
A Foobbuteo PvP or TvT game needs at least 3 players in each team so it can start. If at any point during the game one of the teams drops below 3 players, the game will get locked and will not allow any actions to be performed until both teams have at least 3 players in their midst. Turns, however, will pass normally, even while the game is locked.
The first player that enters each team is considered the team captain. Team captains can make actions on not only their own players, but the bot players in their team too. Team captains are recognized by having a star above their player icon.
The Pitch
The action pitch is divided in 25 zones, numbered from the upside left to the downside right. These zones represent areas in which the calculations are made regarding player and ball positioning and short or long passing confrontations.
Available Actions and Player Modes
In the top right of the window you will be able to see 4 buttons, representing the available actions your player can take and 2 buttons (if you are a field player) and 3 buttons (if you are a goalkeeper) below them that represent the available player modes. Each player starts every turn with 100 Action Points, which they can use to perform one of the available actions. The available actions are move/run, low pass, high pass/cross and shoot. As long as you have enough Action Points, you can instruct your player to make multiple, different types of actions in the same turn.
The Move/Run Action
Clicking the move/run action button while having your player selected will show a circle surrounding your player on the pitch. That circle represents the area in which your player is able to move. Double clicking inside the move area will instruct your player to move to the new location. This action will cost a certain number of Action Points, depending on how far away from your current position you instruct your player to move, up to 100 Action Points if you instruct your player to move to the very edge of the move area. You will be able to make multiple moves during the same turn, as long as you have enough Action Points, your move area adjusting itself each time to the new number of Action Points.
The difference between a move and a run action is the possession of the ball. If you do not have possession of the ball you will make a move action; if you do have possession of the ball you will make a run action.
Making a run action in Foobbuteo PvP will have certain implications. For example, each time you finish with a run action during a turn, you will have to win a confrontation between yourself and up to 3 opposing players that are near your new position in order to stay in control of the ball. If you lose the confrontation you will lose the possession of the ball to the nearest of the opposing players. If no opposing players are found near your new position after a run the confrontation will not take place and you will remain in possession of the ball. If more than 3 opposing players are near your new position, only the biggest 3 confrontation players will take place in the confrontation, but if you lose the ball you will still lose it to the closest opposing player, even if he took part in the confrontation or not. This type of confrontation is called a dribble and your teammates will not be able to support you in keeping control of the ball.
Goalkeepers cannot move or run past midline.
The Low Pass Action
Clicking the low pass action button while having your player selected will show a circle surrounding your player on the pitch. That circle represents the area in which your player is able to pass. Double clicking inside the low pass area will instruct your player to pass in that location. This will also cost a certain number of points, depending on how far you wish to make your low pass.
You can combine a low pass action with one or several run actions, provided you have enough action points and the low pass being your last action (you cannot issue a run command after making a low pass in the same turn because you will no longer be in the possession of the ball).
Low passes can be intercepted, meaning that if you pass to an area and the ball encounters one or more opposing players, they have a chance of taking the ball before it reaches the intended zone.
At the arrival zone of the low pass a confrontation will take place between up to the top 3 confrontation players of each team that are present in that zone. Possession will be won by the closest player to the ball of the team that won the confrontation, even if he played part of the confrontation or not. The passing player’s team also gets a confrontation bonus depending on how high his low pass skill is, because the short range at which the low pass is performed provides the player with a bigger ability to direct his pass properly.
If the player who wins the ball is in an offside position, then the possession will be given to the last positioned player of the opposing player.
The High Pass/Cross Action
Clicking the high pass/cross action button while having your player selected will show two circles surrounding your player on the pitch. The first circle represents the minimum distance at which your player can perform his high pass/cross action and the second circle represents the maximum distance at which he is able to high pass/cross. This action also costs a certain number of action points, depending on how far you want to make the high pass/cross and it can also be done after one or several move actions, provided you have enough action points to do it. At the arrival zone of the high pass/cross a confrontation will take place between up to the top 3 confrontation players of each team that are present in that zone. Possession will be won by the closest player to the ball of the team that won the confrontation, even if he played part of the confrontation or not. The passing player’s team also gets a confrontation penalty, because long range passes are not so accurate and defenders usually have a better confrontational positioning than attackers.
The cross action can be performed when your player is close to the byline (or endline) of the pitch. Crosses are a little more precise, meaning that you will get a lower minimum distance to cross to, depending on your crossing skill. Also, the penalty you get in confrontation depends on your crossing skill instead of your high pass skill.
If the player who wins the ball is in an offside position, then the possession will be given to the last positioned player of the opposing player.
The Shoot Action
Clicking the shoot action button while having your player selected and double clicking near the goal will show a target circle showing where your player will attempt to make his shot. This action requires a number of action points, depending on how high your shoot action is. You can also combine a shoot action with one or several move actions, provided you finish your round with the shoot action.
Shooting actions cannot be blocked or intercepted by other players except the keeper.
Depending on his shooting skill, your player will attempt to shoot as close to his target circle as possible. Depending on the keeper’s saves skill he will attempt to save the ball or deflect it in the zone in front of the goal, provided the ball passes fairly close to him.
If the ball gets deflected a confrontation will take place between up to the best 3 confrontation players in each team in the zone in front of the goal, possession being won by the closest player to the ball of the team that won the confrontation, even if he played part of the confrontation or not.
You cannot perform a shoot action from your own half. You must first pass the midline in order to do so.
Player Modes
Under the action buttons you will see some buttons for player modes. These modes are: Confrontation and Intercept Passes (if you are a field player), and Saves, Out of Area and Field Player (if you are a goalkeeper).
The Confrontation mode is the normal mode of your player and it neither gives you a bonus or a penalty.
The Intercept Passes mode allows your player to attempt to intercept low passes made by your opponent, but you also take a penalty 50% to your confrontation. The Saves mode gives a bonus to the saves skill of your goalkeeper while inside the goalkeeper area (6m area).
The Out of Area mode gives a bonus to the out of area skill of your goalkeeper while outside of the goalkeeper area (outside the 6m area).
The Field Player mode allows your goalkeeper to use your throwing ability when making a low or high pass instead of your short pass or long pass skills.
The mode buttons are used as toggles, meaning that when the execution phase starts, the last button selected is chosen as your mode for that turn.
Player Skills
Foobbuteo/PvP skills have a direct correlation with your FootStar player’s skills. In order to raise your Foobbuteo/PvP skills you will need to raise your player’s skills. The PvP skills are composed of two parts, up to 25% of the skill being from the level of your Foobbuteo player and up to 75% being from the relevant FS skills that count towards that position.
There are 7 field player skills and 6 goalkeeper skills in Foobbuteo and each one depends on the following FootStar skills. Field player skills:
Speed: Stamina, Speed, Positioning, Game Vision
Confrontation: Stamina, Tackling, Dribbling, Positioning
Low Pass: Stamina, Short Passes, Technique
High Pass: Stamina, Long Passes, Technique
Crosses: Stamina, Crosses, Technique
Shoot: Stamina, Finishing, Technique
Long Shots: Stamina, Long Shots, Technique
Goalkeeper skills:
Speed: Stamina, Speed, Positioning, Game Vision
Confrontation: Agility, Out of Area
Low Pass: Stamina, Short Passes, Technique
High Pass: Stamina, Long Passes, Technique
Saves: Handling, Reflexes
Out of Area: Out of Area
If you want to have a skill of 100% in any of these skills then you will need to be level 50 (25%) and have 100 in each corresponding FS skill (75%).
Depending on how high the skill is, it will influence your action point cost and precision of your actions. For example, a higher move skill will allow you to move the same distance while spending fewer action points and a higher shooting skill, besides allowing you to shoot for fewer action points, also will allow you to be more precise in your shots.
Experience Gain
You gain experience by playing games.
Acronyms
In the game of Foobbuteo PvP chatting with your team is the key to victory. Therefore, since it’s a timed turn based game, many players are using different abbreviations so that they communicate as much and as thorough as they can in the 1 minute it takes to make a turn.
Here are some of the most usual abbreviations used:
3-23 line - the line is called when the offside trap is being played outside of the last 2 zones
bl - ball line. It means that the offside trap needs to be played in the same vertical line as the current ball position.
gl - good luck. Someone is nice enough to wish you good luck in you next move
lp - means that the player with the ball will make a long pass. It is usually accompanied by a number that designated the zone he will pass into.
m x - means that the player will move in zone x.
m+s - means that the player will perform a move and shoot action.
midline - another offside trap play calling the offside line to be outside of your own half.
number line or num line - it is another offside trap call that is played in the same vertical line of the numbers of the zones 2 through 22 or 4 through 24 (depending on which side your team plays).
sp - means that the player with the ball will make a short pass. It is usually accompanied by a number that designated the zone he will pass into.
sp x c y - means that the player with the ball will make a short pass in zone x in the exact position in the corner near zone y.
sp x n y - means that the player with the ball will make a short pass in zone x in the exact position near zone y.
23. Instant Matches and Campaigns
The goals of Instant Matches and Campaigns:
- Add more diversity to the game (you can virtually play with anyone or against anyone).
- Allowing more players to feel the real FS experience (the viewer is free for this feature)
- Improve the day-to-day activity on the website.
Instant Matches
To create a instant match (IM) game you just need to go to the match center page and, on the game creation form, select the time slot you want the game to happen (only for private team/matches), the color of the team shirt and press create.
After you have created the team, you will be redirected to the join team page where you can sign up your player in the team.
On the other hand, to join an instant match you have to go to the match center page and there choose the team you wish to play and press join.
You will be redirected to the starting eleven page where you can choose the position. Note that the team captain may change the position you will play when he defines the team formation.
Regarding Team captain, you need to know he´s the first player to sign up on each of the teams. The captain is responsible to set up the team formation.
As captain, you can change the formation how many times you want until the game starts, you can access the formation editor by clicking the symbol in front of your player name in the starting eleven list.
Let´s explain the features of this gaming option:
- FS Fans can play up to 5 matches per day (35 matches per week). No-FS Fans can play 5 matches per week.
- Team names will be created with the names of both team captains. The team captain is the first player to sign up on each of the teams
- There is ranking that will split all players between leagues (World class, Professional, Semi-professional, Amateur and Not Ranked). More info further
- There are 98 achievements to collect during your instant matches. When you gain them you will also give you achievement points that will later allow you to unlock certain campaigns. More info further
- Tactic selector equal to the one FS managers use, with team orders included.
- During the creation of the match you will be able to restrict the match regarding player’s ages and rankings. The existing options are: 17-20, 21-24, 25-28, 29+ or free for all (everyone can join whatever their age is) and World class, Professional, Semi-professional, Amateur, Not Ranked or free for all
- You can create game only in your age category or without age category
- You can choose bots´ skills level (from 10% to 100%). When picking the 100% option this doesn’t mean super-bots. It means that bots have their skills set according to the average of all the other human player’s skills. If you pick 10%, they have only 10% of this average value.
- There are limits to the number of matches than can be created on each "category"(same ranking-restrictions, same age-restrictions, etc). The max. number of matches per category is 2. Once the match is generated, players will receive a notification at the Match Center and the live match starts immediately and he can join/create another team
- A match can only start if there are 2 complete teams (11+11 players) with same "restrictions". If a team doesn’t have enough players will be delayed 3 times until it’s finally deleted.
- Private matches: you can create games only to be played with your mates / teammates. However these games will not be counted to ranking purposes.
Ranking:
As said, the ranking is divided in 4 leagues:
- World Class league
- Professional league
- Semi-professional league
- Amateur League
Each league may have many series based on the number of players participating in the Instant Matches. The exception is the World class league that only has 1 series, which means that only the best players will be on the world class league. Each series have 22 players and the ranking is updated every Monday. Obviously you’re able to navigate through all the league tables / series.
During the weekly update of the ranking (Monday 6.30 server time), the following tasks will be done:
- The top eleven players of the Professional League will be promoted to the World class league;
- The worst eleven players of the World class league will be relegated to the Professional league;
- The promotions and relegations of the remaining leagues will be dynamic, depending on the number of ranked players;
The percentage of players in each league are:
- World Class: 22 players
- Professional League: 15% of all ranked players
- Semi-Professional League: 35% of all ranked players
- Amateur League: 50% of all ranked players
Players get ranking points when they win and draw. They lose points if they lose games. The base is 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, -3 for a loss. There might be bonuses depending on the fact that you’re playing against teams/players with higher rankings.
IM´s Achievements (98)
General Achievements
Amateur: Achieved after reaching the Amateur League
Semi-Professional: Achieved after reaching the Semi-Professional League
Professional: Achieved after reaching the Professional League
World Class: Achieved after reaching the World Class League
The Traveler: Achieved when your covered distance is above 100km
The Arena Captain 20: Achieved when after being Team Captain in 20 matches
Perfect Match: Achieved after receiving a rating of 10 in a Match
Shame: Achieved when you lose a game for more than 9 goals
Humiliation: Achieved when you win a game for more than 9 goals
First Glory: Achieved with your first Victory
Winning Streak 3: Achieved after 3 straight Wins
Winning Streak 5: Achieved after 5 straight Wins
Winning Streak 10: Achieved after 10 straight Wins
Winning Streak 20: Achieved after 20 straight Wins
Winning Streak 50: Achieved after 50 straight Wins
The road to Victory 10: Achieved after winning 10 Games
The road to Victory 100: Achieved after winning 100 Games
The road to Victory 250: Achieved after winning 250 Games
The road to Victory 500: Achieved after winning 500 Games
The road to Victory 1000: Achieved after winning 1000 Games
The Artist 10: Achieved after 10 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 100: Achieved after 100 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 250: Achieved after 250 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 500: Achieved after 500 successfull Dribbles
The Artist 1000: Achieved after 1000 successfull Dribbles
The Failed Artist: Achieved when the efficiency of the dribbles per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Artist: Achieved when the efficiency of the dribbles per match ratio is above 70% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Arena Master 10: Participate in 10 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 100: Participate in 100 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 250: Participate in 250 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 500: Participate in 500 Instant Matches
The Arena Master 1000: Participate in 1000 Instant Matches
The MoM 10: Get nominated Man of the Match 10 times
The MoM 50: Get nominated Man of the Match 50 times
The MoM 100: Get nominated Man of the Match 100 times
The MoM 250: Get nominated Man of the Match 250 times
The MoM 500: Get nominated Man of the Match 500 times
The Ultimate Player: Achieved when you have played 2500 matches, got mom 500 times, have won 1500 matches and achieve the overall rating of 6 or above
Goalkeepers´ Achievements
Steady Team 1: Achieved after getting 1 game with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 10: Achieved after getting 10 games with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 100: Achieved after getting 100 games with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 250: Achieved after getting 250 games with a Clean Sheet
Steady Team 500: Achieved after getting 500 games with a Clean Sheet
The Brick Wall 50: Achieved after completing 50 saves
The Brick Wall 250: Achieved after completing 250 saves
The Brick Wall 500: Achieved after completing 500 saves
The Brick Wall 1000: Achieved after completing 1000 saves
The Fumbler: Achieved when you have conceded more than 2 goals-per-match in the last 10 consecutive matches
The Elite Wall: Achieved when no goals have been suffered in the last 10 consecutive matches
Defenders´ Achievements
The Defender 10: Achieved after 10 successfull Tackles
The Defender 100: Achieved after 100 successfull Tackles
The Defender 250: Achieved after 250 successfull Tackles
The Defender 500: Achieved after 500 successfull Tackles
The Defender 1000: Achieved after 1000 successfull Tackles
The Gentleman: Achieved when no fouls are commited in the last consecutive 20 matches
The Aggressor: Achieved when at least 1 foul per match in the last consecutive 10 matches is made
The Failed Defender: Achieved when the efficiency of the tackles per match ratio is bellow 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Defender: Achieved when the efficiency of the tackles per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
Midfields´ Achievements
The Long Ranger 50: Achieved after completing 50 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 100: Achieved after completing 100 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 250: Achieved after completing 250 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 500: Achieved after completing 500 successful Long Passes
The Long Ranger 1000: Achieved after completing 1000 successful Long Passes
The Passing Master 100: Achieved after completing 100 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 500: Achieved after completing 500 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 1000: Achieved after completing 1000 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 2500: Achieved after completing 2500 successful Short Passes
The Passing Master 5000: Achieved after completing 5000 successful Short Passes
The Wingman 10: Achieved after 10 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 100: Achieved after 100 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 250: Achieved after 250 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 500: Achieved after 500 successfull Crosses
The Wingman 1000: Achieved after 1000 successfull Crosses
The Silver Service 10: Make a total of 10 Assists
The Silver Service 100: Make a total of 100 Assists
The Silver Service 250: Make a total of 250 Assists
The Silver Service 500: Make a total of 500 Assists
The Silver Service 1000: Make a total of 1000 Assists
The Elite Winger: Achieved when the efficiency of the crosses per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Failed Winger: Achieved when the efficiency of the crosses per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Passing Master: Achieved when the efficiency of the short passes per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Failed Passing Master: Achieved when the efficiency of the short passes per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Elite Long Ranger: Achieved when the efficiency of the long passes per match ratio is above 80% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Failed Long Ranger: Achieved when the efficiency of the long passes per match ratio is below 50% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
Forwards´ Achievements
Hat-trick Hunter 1: Achieved after scoring 1 hat-trick
Hat-trick Hunter 3: Achieved after scoring 3 hat-tricks
Hat-trick Hunter 10: Achieved after scoring 10 hat-tricks
Hat-trick Hunter 20: Achieved after scoring 20 hat-tricks
Hat-trick Hunter 50: Achieved after scoring 50 hat-tricks
The Striker 10: Score a total of 10 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 100: Score a total of 100 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 250: Score a total of 250 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 500: Score a total of 500 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Striker 1000: Score a total of 1000 Goals in the Instant Matches
The Linesman´s Best Friend: Achieved when reaches the total of 50 offsides.
The Elite Striker: Achieved when at least 2 goals per match in the last consecutive 10 matches are made
The Blind: Achieved when the efficiency of the shots-in-goal per match ratio is below 40% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
The Sniper: Achieved when the efficiency of the shots-in-goal per match ratio is above 70% in the last 20 consecutive matches.
Campaigns
By going to the FS Arena (main menu > PvP >> Match Center) you find "Campaigns".
Following the link you´re presented with the Match Center for Campaign games. You can open the Campaign Map on the side menu where you’ll find all the available campaigns for you to play.
Now, all the necessary details for Campaign Matches:
- When opening the Campaign details page you’re presented with all the teams that you have to beat to finish the Campaign. You have to start from the bottom ’till the top, unlocking teams step-by-step (win by win).
- There are always two public open slots for each opponent. Once these are complete a new one will be created automatically.
- Once a slot is complete (11 players) the team captain can "lock" the slot and start the match. The match will then start at the next available match time (at each quarter of an hour, just like Instant Matches). If the captain doesn´t lock a team with 11 players after 30 minutes of the creation of the game, the game is created automatically.
- The team captain can set the match as private. If a match is private, all the players need the password to get in. In private matches the team captain can kick players out of the team.
- Campaigns and Instant Matches share the same limits on what concerns to the number of matches that can be played on each time slot.
- Campaigns and Instant Matches also share the number of games you can play per day.
- You don´t get ranking points for the Instant Matches ranking.
- Managers of the bot teams (at the time they were created) have access to the formation / line-up page of the team in order to change it accordingly. This is done to give managers the possibility to set-up their best team in case they haven’t used their best team in the final round of the previous season. Please note that the formation / line-up can only be changed one time. After this it´s locked for good and the access is revoked. This option is shown at the Campaigns menu, where you can find the name of the team you have access to.
- Campaigns have precedences. Meaning that you cannot compete in a Gold campaign if you haven’t completed Silver (and Bronze).
- Players can leave a team after one hour waiting for a match to start unless the team has already 11 players. Team captains cannot leave a team.
For these kind of matches you can use "special" Match Items. Here’s the full details of this feature:
- These items can only be used for Instant Games / Campaigns.
- In order to get these items you need to play Campaign matches. At the end of each match, in case you win the match, there’s a possibility to get match items. This possibility depends essentially on the difficulty level of the campaign and also on the level of your opponent within the campaign. The "drop chance" is calculated for all players withing the winning team which means that some players might get the match items while others don’t. For each match you find a "Match Rewards" link on the side link’s bar (only visible at the end of the live match).
- There are items for Goalkeepers (gloves) and field players (shirts and boots). There’s also a small possibility that a GK can get a field player item at the end of the match.
- These items are only valid for one match. After they are used in a match they disappear from your stash. Each item only provide bonuses for one skill.
- Matches from harder campaigns provide better items. However the drop rate for these campaigns is smaller. The exact opposite happens in easier campaigns: worst items but higher drop rates.
- There’s an indicator of the difficulty level at the Campaign’s details page
Campaigns´ Achievements (14)
European Campaign - Bronze: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all low-ranked national leagues in Europe.
European Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national leagues in Europe.
European Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national leagues in Europe.
AAO Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
AAO Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
American Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national leagues in America.
American Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national leagues in America.
U19 European Campaign - Bronze: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all low-ranked national U19 leagues in Europe.
U19 European Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked U19 national leagues in Europe.
U19 European Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked U19 national leagues in Europe.
U19 AAO Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked U19 national leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
U19 AAO Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national U19 leagues in Africa/Asia/Oceania.
U19 American Campaign - Silver: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all intermediate-ranked national U19 leagues in America.
U19 American Campaign - Gold: This campaign consists in defeating the champions of all top-ranked national U19 leagues in America.
24. Community
Our aim is to have a big, active and interesting community. You can count on us to provide you the tools to improve and expand the community but it´s really up to you to make it happen. You have our word that we´ll be actively present on the game forums, reading all the important stuff you write to us. Although, please do not expect us to answer everything you write us, it´s really impossible due to time issues, though we´d love to do it.
We have
You should however remember that we have some rules you must respect if you want to take part of our user community. We´ll talk about them at the further sections of this manual.
25. Administration and Denominations
FootStar administration is divided into a couple groups.
DEV - Developers - They try to make this game better and better
CM - Community Manager - He is responsible for contact between developers and normal users.
GSM - Global Super Moderators - Group of most experienced moderators who coordinate work of all moderators.
SM - Super Moderators - Same as GSM but with smaller area to work.
MOD - Moderators - They keep an eye for users who not obey rules, moderate forum.
LA - Language Administrator - They translate for you rules, announcements and all the rest so you can read it in language you want.
RUL - Rules Updaters - They update rules when developers made some new features.
Denominations
Experience
Terrible
Very Bad
Bad
Low
Passable
Good
Very Good
Excellent
Formidable
World Class
Reputation
None
Local
Regional
National
Continental
World Class
Life Style
Non-Existent!
Miserable
Bad
Passable
Good
Very Good
Excellent
Confidence
Very Low
Low
Below Average
Average
High
Very High
Exaggerated
Fame
Not known, except where he lives
Fairly known
Well known
Very well known
Famous
World Star
Financial Status
Terrible
Insecure
Passable
Secure
Good
Excellent
Rich
26. Behaviour
Besides very general terms of service there are some other rules which define user behaviour in the game. These rules are split into 3 different areas - user rules, communication rules and fair-play rules.
1. USER RULES
This section of rules defines what is allowed or not when it concerns account creation and control.
1.1. Any person can control only one user in game (no multiaccounting)
- A person can create only one account for himself. This means that a person cannot create multiple accounts for use in game; it also means that user is not allowed to create another accounts "for his brother" / "for his friend" / etc.
- A person cannot take control of other account for any time. This means that any form of account sitting is not allowed - not even a short term "account caretakers", not to mention taking over accounts of user who quit the game. This rule also means that users are not allowed to share their login information with other users
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who attempt to create a second account are usually punished with a monetary fine first. Any further attempts will lead to a ban from a game
- Users who control multiple accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- Sometimes users make mistakes while playing the game, for example they forget to train or sign very long contracts for teams they don’t like. Users have to solve such problems using in-game functions like reset or transfer or contract termination - it is not allowed to fix these mistakes by creating another account without letting your first account become inactive first (accounts become inactive after 2 months of not logging into the game).
- As stated before - no form of “account sitting” is allowed. It doesn’t matter that you want to make only some very small adjustments to your friend’s training or to interact with his teammates before an important match - it is not allowed.
- We cannot disclose how we decide that 2 users are controlled by the same person, but we want to make a clarification about IP - it’s only a PART of the data we check. Usually same IP of 2 users is more suspicious than different IPs, but IP is never the only criterion used to decide whether it is a case of multiaccounting or not.
1.2. It is not allowed to take over other accounts
- Users are not allowed to use other user’s login information and start using other user’s account even if they decide to abandon their own account
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who take over other accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- This rules is basically covered by the rule 1.1. already, however it is here to prevent users from asking / demanding login information of other users with a pretext of exchanging the current account for another one.
1.3. A user account has to be of a country a user lives in (at the time of account creation)
- A user is only allowed to create accounts with the nationality of the country where the user lives. A country is defined by IP of a user.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- This rule is mostly checked at the time an account is created and accounts which belong to wrong countries are simply not validated.
- In some cases concerning small FS countries where a specific nationality gives an in-game advantage, users who managed to get that nationality unfairly, will be asked to change nationality to the country they actually live in.
Clarification
- As mentioned above - a country of a user is defined by an IP. There are cases when a person spends a lot of time in a couple or more countries - lives in Belgium, but studies in Netherlands for example (going on vacation to San Marino does not qualify as spending a lot of time there) - in these cases it’s basically up to a user to decide which country he wants to belong to in FS and that decision has to be made by creating an account while staying in that specific country. Be warned though that it is pretty difficult to change in-game nationality and this choice is permanent.
- A rather easy way to get a different nationality is to use proxy servers. However we check whether new accounts use proxies and such check is especially thorough if it’s a new account in a small FS country. Proxies are not forbidden in FS, but in these cases hiding behind a proxy leads to rejection of a new account.
2. COMMUNICATION RULES
This section of rules covers all types of communication in the game. It’s mostly targeted at game forums, but also covers all other means of communication like blogs, FS wall, newspapers, personal messages, etc.
2.1. Language and grammar
- The main language of the game is English. This does not mean that other languages are forbidden, however there are some areas where English is the only language allowed - this mostly includes global forums (main global forums, suggestions forums, bugs forum, global help and off-topic forums).
- Other languages are allowed in the game but they are normally used in the forums / other means of communication of specific countries (e.g. Norwegian language is used in Norwegian forums and newspapers). The most common scenario is that national forums allow local language and English, but it’s up to a local forum moderator to decide whether some language is acceptable because a use of foreign language might be seen as a provocation in some scenarios. Please check local forum rules before posting messages on national forums.
- Regarding the grammar and spelling, we ask to the community to make an effort to collaborate in a good/correct writing; on the other hand we ask you to be wise regarding the way you criticize other user's writing. In case of total misunderstanding of the user's message content, please report the message to a moderator and he will take care of the situation.
- We ask you to avoid slang. Profanities and obscenities are strictly prohibited.
- Please avoid excessive use of CAPITALS. The use of capital letters is considered screaming, so this way of interacting is not wanted. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
2.2. General Conduct
- Respect the all the members of this community. Keep in mind that there are members of different ages and gaming experience. Therefore we ask you to be patient with the various questions and ideas, especially on forums. Any type of insults or threats to other members are not allowed. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- While communicating you should have a correct manner, attitude and behaviour (traditions, customs, manners, and net-etiquette ) where all of your actions are subject to moderation by the staff (moderators and Super Moderators) .
- Our team can not be responsible for any lack of compliance of these rules, when the content is not hosted in our servers.
- Users are not allowed to pretend to be FS Staff members. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- The publishing of information (on forums or via other means of communication) of some users that already got banned by the moderation team is not allowed. Restriction of possibility to communicate is a part of a punishment to a banned user and it is not allowed to circumvent that punishment by using a proxy spokesperson. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- Members are also strictly forbidden to provoke or insult the FootStar Team. Information published in order to create a personal conflict between users and the FS Team (Moderators, Super Moderators, Administration) will be deleted and the author(s) will be severely punished.
2.3. Content of public messages / posts / blogs / etc.
Rules in this section are applied to information that is published in publicly accessible areas - this means public forums (posts, signatures and avatars), blogs (blog content and comments on blogs). FS wall, chat, newspapers, community announcements, club guestbooks, team press conferences, etc. Some of the rules can be applied to team / stadium names or even team kits. A couple of rules are only relevant in specific areas - those exceptions are mentioned explicitly.
- Adult content (pornography, explicit violence) is not allowed. This includes links to external sites with adult content - such links are not allowed.
- Calling for help and / or inciting the use of illegal software is not allowed.
- Promoting the use of illegal substances or criminal activities is not allowed,
- Advertising things or services you want to buy / sell in real life is not allowed.
-- There is an exception to this rule - if player has an expiring slot and would like to get FS Coins for slot expansion as part of a transfer deal, player is allowed to create an ad about this - see section 3.3 for more details.
- Attacks on religion / nation / race / gender / sexual orientation are not allowed.
- Discussing politics and religion is not allowed.
- Cheating accusations (use the proper cheat report form or the e-mails on the contacts page) are not allowed.
- Discussing decisions taken by members of the Administration of the game is not allowed.
- Deliberately offensive messages or messages with an intent to provoke hostile reactions (trolling and flaming) are not allowed.
- Personal attacks are not allowed (this is mostly covered by section 2.2. already).
- Swearing is not allowed.
- Excessive use of CAPITAL LETTERS is considered shouting and is not allowed.
- Spam (multiple messages with the same content, or messages totally off-topic) is not allowed.
2.3.1. Additional rules for forums - On the global forum it is not allowed to post ads / suggestions / ask for help / report bugs / talk about non-FS related stuff - there´s a specific forum for these things and users should create relevant threads there. Local MODs are allowed to make exceptions regarding ads / help / non-FS related topics on national forums however - check local forum rules before posting something like this.
- Excessive off-topic messages are not allowed in a thread.
- Hijacking threads is not allowed.
- Bumping threads is not allowed (especially on bugs forum).
- Messages intending to destabilize a systematic discussion, provoke and enrage the people involved in them (trolling) are not allowed.
- Red flag abuse - reporting same user / same message multiple times in a short period - may result in a punishment.
Other guidelines of behaviour on forums:
- Multiquoting should be avoided, excessive multiquoting can lead to punishments.
- Posts with no additional information (for example "+1", "I agree", "Good idea") are not wanted and are usually considered spam. Use "Like/dislike" feature to express your opinion about the message.
- Criticism of game features is allowed and welcome but please, be constructive - do not post "hate" messages with almost no content, like "match engine is terrible, it should be changed" - try to say what you specifically don´t like and suggest a solution if you can.
2.4. Messages trying to influence community related matters
- Users are not allowed to send multiple messages trying to influence the results of some community related matters like election of the president, referendums, voting for WC host, starting a revolution. If you want to state your opinion on one of these issues, use a forum to open a dedicated topic and start a discussion. Such PMs usually provide only one side of the problem and are considered a simple spam. If the case of mass PMs actually appears and administration finds out that such messages really influenced the result, the result might be altered if that is possible (the presidential candidate might be removed for example) or the spammer might be punished.
Punishments for breaking communication rules (all chapter 2.)
- Although this is technically not a punishment, the content violating the rules is normally deleted / edited.
- Punishments depend on the severity of “crime” and on the history of a user breaking the rule - repeated offences mean bigger fines / longer bans. Keep in mind that MODs are encouraged to double the fine with each repeated offence.
- Most common punishment is a forum ban with ban length varying from 0 days (warning) to permanent ban. However if a situation requires a ban longer than 1 month it’s very likely that user will get additional penalties instead, like monetary fines or even a total closure of an account.
- Monetary fines are possible but not common.
- If a content breaking the rules is published in a newspaper, it might lead to a closure of a newspaper.
- Extreme case might lead to permanent closure of the account.
3. FAIR PLAY RULES
This section of rules covers the user behaviour within the game itself. These rules are here to ensure no one gets an unfair advantage in game.
3.1. It is not allowed to gain additional in-game money or reduce expenditure unfairly
3.1.1. No money funnelling between the clubs
- Selling players for prices way over the market value is not allowed.
- Using feeder clubs to transfer large amounts of money to/from the parent club by selling players is not allowed, even if each of those players is sold for a sum which is not way above market value.
3.1.2. No transfers via third club
- If a manager of club A wants an expensive player (playing in a club B), he cannot ask manager of club C (a friend / manager of a club which will be closed soon / manager of a feeder club etc.) to buy that player and release it immediately (or sell for a much lower price) to join the club A.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Punishments usually consist of three parts - a) money gained unfairly is removed / returned to the payer by adjusting transfer value for example; b) teams are fined with fines equal to the amount which they tried to move / save unfairly; c) managers are given monetary fines
- Repeated offences will lead to higher punishment with a possible closure of an account
3.2. Match fixing is not allowed
- Fielding a weakened (or in some extreme cases - highly strengthened) side in a match to give advantage to some team in a competition is not allowed.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- The least possible fine are huge monetary fines to clubs involved in match fixing (we’re talking millions of euro here), but this fine would only be applied if match fixing wasn’t intended to alter standings in the competitions and was done for something trivial like beating the goals scored record. Teams participating in a match fixing with an intention to actually change final standings in a competition or change the winners of ITC spots, get much harsher additional fines - removal from ITC and point deductions are almost guaranteed, relegations are also possible.
Clarification
- There are many ways to fix match results - it might be a case of using weaker players / strange tactics or it might be a use of strange IOs / sliders. Weakening of a whole team by selling / loaning out top players before a specific match has also been a case. It’s also possible to fix a match by strengthening a team significantly against one specific opponent or by simply giving your team’s tactics to the opponent so he could exploit your weaknesses. However, the main sign of a fixed match is whether the result is intended to give an unfair advantage to some specific team.
- If a match or matches had been fixed it is not allowed to fix other matches trying to make the whole situation “correct”. This will only mean that there are 2 cases of match fixing instead of one.
- Sometimes teams decide to save their players’ morale / confidence and do not play matches against specific (strong) opponent - this is allowed as long as the team ensures that this weakening of side will not influence the final standing in the competition (this can be done be fielding equally weak side against other competitors for the league title for example).
- Each case of match fixing is investigated separately and discussed by all SM team - this means it usually takes quite long to take a decision and give out fines if necessary.
3.3. Signing players for FS Fan / FS Coins is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a player as part of signing-on bonus is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a manager as part of player transfer fee is not allowed
Exception
- If paid player´s slot is expiring and there less than 1 season left until expiration and player has expressed a desire to talk about transfer if his expiring slot will be extended (either publicly in ads forum or privately as part of negotiations) buying FS Coins for that slot´s extension is allowed as part of a deal
Punishments for braking this rule
- The least possible punishment is monetary fine. However for that to be applied, the signed players would have to be of such level which does not really strengthen the team. If players signed for FS Fan / FS Coins significantly change the balance of the competition, point deductions / relegation / removal from ITC are possible fines next to monetary ones.
Clarification
- Offering any amount of coins or length of FS Fan as signing-on bonus or as a part of transfer fee is not allowed (except the aforementioned exception). This includes offering FS Fan or FS Coins to player which is being signed or to a manager of team the player has a contract with at the moment.
- Extending player contract is the same as signing completely new player in the context of this rule. This means offering FS Fan or FS Coins for extending the contract falls under same set of rules.
- "Delayed" FS Fan / FS Coins rewards are the same as immediate ones. That is explanation "player was signed normally and then received a "loyalty bonus" half a season later" will not be accepted as a valid one
- An exception is made for expiring slots because users usually spend a lot of time (and possibly RL money) to create a player and if the only way to keep that slot is to get funding from "third party", then we consider it a worthy reason to allow such transaction. However we don´t want this to become a new strategy on how to sign players so the initiative for such deal has to come from the player. This basically means that players are allowed to advertise that they are looking for managers who could pay for slot extension, but managers cannot advertise that they are looking for such players specifically and can pay for them.
- Agreements between users which include buying completely new slot, creating new player and signing him for the team are allowed. This can be done for various reasons like filling in missing positions in some project, getting user as an assistant or getting 26 year old player for first team. However such excuse cannot be used to veil the reward of FS Coins / FS Fan for transferring another player (the real target of transfer) of the same user.
3.4. Additional fair-play rules
- Transferring of players who know they’ll quit immediately after transfer is not allowed and might be punished (depends on the transfer value and the damage done to the club which bought the player)
- Trying to force the transfer of a player by threatening the manager (for example saying that his team confidence will be sabotaged) or offering some extra benefits to the owner of the player (like losing a match on purpose or buying an FS-Fan) is considered an action against the spirit of the game and will lead to punishments
- Changing the stadium location less than a few days before a game trying to sabotage the trips is not allowed.
4. GENERAL RULES - SPIRIT OF THE GAME
We understand that this set of rules might have left some loopholes and exploits. However there are a couple of more general rules which can be defined as “spirit of the game”
4.1. Getting an unfair advantage is not allowed
- It doesn’t matter what way was used to get an unfair advantage - it might be some game bug or external tool or some new way to cheat - each case will be investigated and users who gained an unfair advantage will be punished.
- A special notice about game bugs - FS, as any other software, has some bugs. If a bug gives some unintentional benefit to the user, the user is not allowed to exploit it. Bug exploits are considered cheating and might lead to various punishments depending on the benefit gained. Please report the bugs in the bugs forum.
4.2. Users are not allowed to “destroy” the game for other users
- This is a rather generic rule which is here to protect the game against users whose only purpose is to make game unplayable for others. It usually includes cases when an angry user decides to rage-quit the game and cause as much damage as possible in doing so. This might mean taking over a team and destroying training / morale of players or have the team lose / fix important matches. Other possible examples are extremely bad behaviour on forums / blogs / newspapers with insults, accusation, uncovering of some secret information; sabotaging national teams by selecting bots for important matches; fixing results of referendums / elections by mass multiaccounting etc.
Punishments for breaking these rules
- All types of punishment are possible here.
Clarification
- Although a rule says that users are not allowed to "destroy" the game for other users, it isn't a rule which can be used as an excuse to fix everything you don't like. For example if you've signed a long contract with a team and do not get enough playing time or the promised training, that does not fall under this rule, because you have actually agreed to the contract yourself and now you either have to fulfil it or look for some of the in-game ways to terminate it (by friendly termination or transfer or by simply talking to a manager and asking to improve the conditions you get). For rule 4.2. to be applied there has to be an element of intended "mischief" from a user and usually on a rather big scale. Rule 4.2. is not applied in cases where one user was too gullible to believe empty promises or simply made a mistake with his in-game choices
5. DISCLAIMER
Breaking any kind of rules can lead to ban or removal of the game. Administration will have the final decision, even if something is not on the list. By playing the game, you agree with the above. Ban or removal from the game will not lead to any monetary refund.
Options
- 1. Introduction
- 2. FootStar requirements
- 3. Registration, activation and character selection
- 4. User interface
- 5. Players
- 6. First steps, team selection and contract
- 7. Skills
- 8. Training
- 9. Mental skills and talents
- 10. Morale, adaptability and experience
- 11. Player relationship
- 12. Match day
- 13. Cities and Trips
- 14. Companies and Agencies
- 15. Teams
- 16. Team management
- 17. Transfers
- 18. Competitions for clubs
- 19. International competitions for NTs and CTs
- 20. Player Awards
- 21. National Federations
- 22. Foobbuteo PvP
- 23. Instant Matches and Campaigns
- 24. Community
- 25. Administration and Denominations
- 26. Behaviour