Soccer Cards
By Michael Douglas
You will always find the latest version of this game here: http://www.manwithnomouth.nildram.co.uk
Contents:
1. Running The
Game
2. Game Options
3. Team Select
4. Playing A
Match
5. Career Mode
6. Mike's Tips
7. Skins
8. The Editor
9. Bugs
10. Finally
11. Version History
1. Running The
Game
Well you've clearly mastered the art of zip programs if you're reading
this file so congratulations for that. If this game fails to run, asks for a
DLL or something like that then download the Visual Basic 6 runtime files.
You’ll usually find a link to them on my website http://www.manwithnomouth.nildram.co.uk.
If not, go to www.google.com and search
“Visual Basic 6 Runtime Files”.
2. Game Options
You'll be greeted with several options upon loading including a neat
little colour changing soccercards title - isn't that cool (No? Well I tried).
Anyway, you can play a career, a friendly, or try the editor if you're unhappy
with the skill settings / colours I've set for each team (thanks to
championship manager for some of the colours!). It's your choice, but my
defaults do balance the gameplay so it’s your funeral if you fudge it up. To
hear more about the editor go to the editor section of this readme
– if you don’t read it properly before editing you’ll mess things up.
The career mode is the meat of the game. You have 2 options – the first
is the soccer cards challenge placing you in charge of a random team in the
English football triangle (that’s Unibond, Ryman and Dr Martens
leagues below the conference, the lowest of the leagues) with a minimal manager
reputation.
Alternatively you can choose a career with club selection which will let
you pick any club, and give you a manager reputation based on the club you
pick. So choosing Manchester United will give you a hefty head start. The
gameplay that follows is no different from the challenge mode.
Less daunting is tournament mode where you can choose from many
competitions including the World Cup and Champions League to play outside of a
career.
Still too daunting? Just play a friendly between any 2 teams.
3. Team Select
Okay, click the right/left arrow by the country name (default
Each team is rated between 10 and 100 for skill. 100 would be the best
team in the world, 10 would be equivalent to a team like Colwyn Bay - i.e. crap
and few know who they are (although you can play as them, and maybe take them
to the premier league if you're immensely lucky/skilled). These ratings effect
how well you keep possession and how easily you score from chances.
4. Playing A Match
Ok, the complicated bit! This is gonna take some explaining.
The idea is simple; when it's your turn (your 'possession') you can
click on a card. This reveals a match situation such as a goal, a tackle, an
injury, etc. Each has a different impact. On most cards there is a calculation
by the game using each team’s skill level to determine the result of your
action. You will find the following card types:
·
GOAL - Will score a
goal for you no matter how unskilled your team is if you select it. Possession
goes to the other team after selection.
·
CHANCE – Will give you a
chance at scoring a goal depending on the type of chance and how skilled your
team is. There are 2 types of chance. Excellent chances and small chances
(colour coded light blue and darker blue respectively). If you have a high team
skill compared to your opponents the more likely you are to score from it. But
you can affect these odds if you are the underdog, more on that later.
Possession goes to the other team after selection.
·
PASS – You will keep
possession for another turn. However, sometimes (especially if your opponents
are much more skilled) your pass will be intercepted or will fail. There are
also two types of pass cards, good and dodgy passes. A good pass will make it
very likely your turn continues, a bad pass gives you
less chance of maintaining possession.
·
TACKLE – You lose
possession. However depending on your team skill you may be likely to ride the
tackle or get fouled, allowing you to keep possession.
·
OFFSIDE – You lose
possession, it’s that simple! However if a team chooses the break offside trap
strategy and clicks an offside card, this card turns into a goal card! More on
that later.
·
INJURY - You lose 1
substitute option and 2-5 skill points. More on skill points later. You keep
possession if you pick this card.
·
RED CARD - You lose 4-8 skill
points and a substitution! Not good. Possession goes to your opponents too!
·
PENALTY - Brings up the
penalty screen so you can play the penalty game. A goal is displayed with many
green and red targets. Each target will light up one by one in order at a fast
pace. If you are the team kicking the penalty, you must click the ‘kick’ button
when a target WITHIN the frame of the goal is showing, i.e. your penalty is on
target for the goal. If you are saving the penalty, one target will remain
highlighted indicating the place the penalty kicker hit their penalty. You must
stop the moving targets on the same place as the stationary target by pressing
‘save’ at the right time. I.e. your goalie is attempting a save in the same
position as the penalty was kicked. This process can be confusing at first, if
all else fails shut your eyes and press the button! You might get lucky.
·
END OF HALF - Ends the
current half. This card can be picked at any time, so you have no idea how many
cards are going to be picked in each half. E.g. it could even be chosen as the
1st card and make nothing happen in that half. There is only one end of half
card in each half of the match. Note that in the event of extra time the whole
of extra time counts as 1 half.
IMPORTANT: The amount of
each 'type' of card is displayed at the top. So you have some idea what the state of play is, so how many goals are likely
etc. Use this information to decide upon your strategy, that is where the skill
is in this game of chance. You should be constantly analysing what cards are
around and adjusting your strategy around it. There are tips later in the readme to help you with this
Right so those are the cards, what can we do to affect the game
ourselves to stop this being a game of complete card selecting luck? I'll tell
you.
Each team gets a MENTALITY
button - attacking or defensive. If you highlight ‘attacking’ before clicking a
card, you are more likely to score if you click on a chance card. Conversely,
you are more likely to lose possession and if you do, your opponents will get a
better attack because you are not defending. The reverse holds true too. If you
highlight ‘defending’ before clicking a card, you are less likely to score if
you click a chance card, however you are more likely
to keep possession. Then if you do lose possession, your opponent will attack
you while you are in defensive mode and your opponents will be less likely to
score from their chances. So in summary - attacking mode means a better chance
to score, more chance to lose the ball and more chance for your opponents to
score. Defensive mode means you are less likely to score, more likely to keep
the ball and less chance for your opponent to score. Note that your mentality
gets reset to defensive when you score or at the start of a new half.
Related to this is the SUBSTITUTION
button (or rather, up to 4 of them) denoted by the picture of a man holding up
a substitution board. Depending on your team's relative skill you will be
awarded between 1 and 4 substitutions to last the whole game when you begin.
Clicking on them will SWAP a 'hidden' card (one that’s not been selected yet)
for a new card.
Now this bit is IMPORTANT!
Whether you are on attacking/defensive mode decides the type of substitution
you are making!! If you are on attacking mode and you click one of the
substitution buttons, it will swap a pass or tackle card for a goal or chance
card, increasing the chance of another goal (aiding your attack). If you are on
defensive mode and you click the substitution button, it will swap a goal or
chance card for a pass or tackle card, meaning less chance of a goal. It is
also important to note, only 1 sub can be used per turn and using your sub does
not lose you possession.
Another of your options is ALL
OUT ATTACK denoted by the arrows and attacking player symbol. You get 1 of
these each match - use it wisely! This strategy lasts only for the next card
you pick after you choose it. When you click this strategy you will have a
hugely increased chance of scoring – IF you pick a chance card. Therefore it
makes sense to use this strategy when there are a lot of chance cards around,
to maximise the chances of scoring. Always ensure there are chance cards around
before using it, if not, you can always use a sub to create one.
Similar to the all out attack is KEEP
POSSESSION denoted by the foot on ball symbol. Selecting this means that no
matter what the next card is, you will keep possession for another turn. This
card only lasts for picking one card, just like all out attack does. So when
should you use it? That’s up to you, but combining it with another strategy is
often quite powerful.
A slightly different strategy is BREAK
THE OFFSIDE TRAP denoted by a linesman with a flag and a cross. Using this
lasts for only the next card chosen by your team. Should you select a chance
card you will have a slightly increased chance of scoring. As an added bonus,
if you select an offside card it will turn into a goal card! You have little
way of knowing how many offside cards there are as they are mixed in to the
‘Other cards’ column in the display.
Your final option is PLAY FOR
TIME, denoted by the button with a stopwatch on it. You get 1 of these for
each match, and timing is essential (excuse the pun). Clicking play for time
will swap a random HIDDEN card for an END OF HALF card. This means the half is
twice as likely to end. Remember the end of half card will stop the game so it
is only wise to use this option if you want the half to finish in a hurry.
At the bottom of the screen below the strategy buttons, a bar will
appear for each ‘pass’ you string together (i.e. you chose a card and kept
possession, not necessarily chosen a pass card). Each bar gives you a slight
boost to your chances of scoring. The maximum amount
of bars you can get are 8, which would significantly affect your scoring
chances. Note, that if a team loses possession while in ‘attacking’ mode, your
opponents will get possession with 2 bars intact to represent their
counter-attack. This is an added danger to using the attacking strategy.
Keyboard Shortcuts:
P: Pick a random card
A: Attacking mode
D: Defensive mode
1: All Out Attack
2: Maintain possession
3: Break the offside trap
4: Substitute
5: Play for time
5. Career Mode
There are 2 ways to start a career in soccer cards:
Soccer Cards Career
Challenge:
This will give you a random team from the Ryman, Dr Martens or Unibond
league and an unknown manager reputation. You have no control over the team you
are given. You must achieve success with them and further your career.
Career mode with club
selection:
Career mode with club selection lets you choose any English team from 8
English leagues. You will also be given a manager reputation correlating with
the team you chose. I.e. if you choose Manchester United your reputation will
be quite high already despite your inexperience.
Note, that the gameplay after team selection
on each career mode is no different, it merely changes
your starting point.
There are many cup competitions in career mode. If you’re not up on your
football rules, here’s a quick explanation about which teams are in which
competition and who gets entered into each.
Champions Cup: This is the
premier European club competition, the winners being crowned champions of
UEFA Cup: This is the
secondary European club competition. The 5th premier league finisher qualifies
by default. The remaining 2 english
entries are chosen from the following: FA Cup winner/League Cup Winner/FA Cup
Runner up/League Cup Runner Up/6th Place/7th place (prioritised in
that order, therefore if the League cup winner is already qualified into
Intertoto Cup: The 2 highest placed premier league teams who
are not in the Champions League or UEFA Cup qualify. The intertoto
cup is a qualification event into the UEFA Cup. 3 teams at the end of the
competition are entered into round 1 of the UEFA Cup. The lower placed team of
the 2 qualifiers of this competition enters the competition in round 2 and the
higher placed finisher enters the competition in round 3.
FA Cup: Every English
team starts this event. Non-league teams must play in the qualifying rounds, Premier League and Division 1 teams enter the
competition in round 3.
League Cup: Every English team in division 3 and upwards enters the
competition. Premier League teams and some Division 1 teams enter the
competition in the 2nd round.
Vans Trophy: English teams from Division 2
and 3 plus the top 16 conference teams enter this event
FA Trophy: English
Conference teams and those below enter this competition
IMPORTANT: The Intertoto Cup and Champions League qualifying games take
place in the first 11 games of the season. You will most likely not be playing
in these games, so just continue the season until they are done. Your team is
in the game, it’s just the proper English league season does not start until
later. Be patient!
There is a lot more to think about in career mode that you might find
confusing. There are basically 3 main parts.
1) Each season you have an objective set to you by the board. The board
will tell you which league position they expect you to finish in. You also have
a manager reputation which dictates which clubs are willing to offer you
jobs. If you finish above your
objective, your reputation grows. If you finish below, your reputation will
shrink and you may even get sacked. But don’t worry,
the lowest level clubs are always willing to give you another chance if the
worst happens. The clubs offering you jobs will increase in stature as your
reputation increases
2) To help you achieve your goals you have ‘Manager Points’. After each
match your result will be judged. If you get a better result than ‘expected’
you will gain manager points (the more wildly you defy expectation the more
points you get. E.g. you beat Arsenal playing as
Your team’s manager points will decrease throughout the season each
match you play as ‘wages’. The higher your league and higher your team skill,
the more you will pay in wages. This means to counter the wage bill you have to
perform well and supplement your manager points with a decent cup run. The best
teams in the country will have to pay a much larger wage amount than the small
teams. Therefore qualification for
3) You use these manager points to ‘buy’ skill points for your team
(note the difference between manager points and skill points. Skill points
refer to the skill of the team you are managing). Go to the transfer cards
screen. You will see 21 cards. Buying a card costs a certain price depending on
your league (higher price in the higher leagues, but you earn more points in
those leagues). Click buy, then click a card. You will reveal a card giving you
0, 1, 2 or 3 skill points. These are added to your team’s skill points total
increasing your chances of winning games.
IMPORTANT:
Here’s the breakdown of what cards are typically available in the
transfer cards screen
+3 Skill points – 1 Cards
+2 Skill points – 4 Cards
+1 Skill Points – 6 Cards
+0 Skill Points – 10 Cards
So there is a decent chance your purchase will give you nothing! But
that’s the risk you must take.
Be warned, the amount of points scoring cards available varies with your
team size (team size is the value of how ‘big’ your club is regardless of
skill. I.e. Manchester United would still be a big club with a high team size
even if they got relegated) . So if your team size is
very small but you have a very skilled team, scoring transfer cards are even more rare. There is nothing you can do about this except to
maintain success with your current team which will increase your team size
periodically.
1 more thing. It’s possible for your manager points total to go below zero.
If this happens, your team will lose 1 skill point in exchange for 60% of the
value of that skill point. That is to say, if the price of a transfer card is
100 points, you’ll get 60 points for that 1 lost skill point.
To counteract this, you can sell skill points on the transfer cards
screen in exchange for the card price. So if you sell a point before you go
below zero manager points, you will gain more for it! Keep an eye on your
total, and sell a skill point if it drops too low.
6. Mike's Tips
This is a game of chance. However use of your strategy options can make
you a winner in the long run (it doesn’t mean you will win every game, but you
will win many more than if you didn’t use them at all). This is especially true
in the lower leagues where your opponents will not user their strategy options
like they do in the premier league.
My advice:
Don't use your options much in the 1st half unless there is ample reason
to, such as plentiful supply of chance cards to capitalise on. Getting an edge
in the 2nd half is much more important. If you have more substitutes than your
opponent and are winning keep using defensive substitutes
every turn you get, it'll piss your opponents off and they'll run out of
time to find the diminishing chance/goal cards.
Play for time only when you are SURE it's worth it. Playing for time
when you are 1-0 up and loads of chance cards are around against a decent
opponent may be worth doing but your opponent has plentiful opportunities to
score on this goal fest of a card layout. Play for time when there's few cards
left on a slim lead, or as early as possible with a decent lead would be
favourable. Playing for time in the 1st half is just dodgy (or in my opinion
downright stupid)
Work out how many chance cards there are compared to the amount of other
cards left. If it's a high percentage go for your all out attack to capitalise,
you will score more often than not. It's a very useful option if used correctly
- but if a better chance could arise later then best to hold onto it.
Especially if the match goes to a golden goal, nicking the match with an attack
like that is immensely satisfying and may lead to creaming of your keyboard.
However if you are behind in the 2nd half you will want to use this option as
early as possible to get back into the game just in case the half ends
suddenly.
With few cards left, combining an attacking sub and an all out attack
can give an almost certain goal. E.g. 5 cards left, 3 are chances. Do an
attacking sub and go all out attack and you have an 80% chance of hitting a
chance card. Conversely, if you see this situation as being a possibility for
your opponent, do a defensive substitute to reduce their chances.
If you are building up the amount of chance cards ready for an all out
attack bear in mind that your opponent may have the all out attack option too -
and will have a huge opportunity to score if you hit a dud card on yours.
Keep possession when your opponents really need it, or the current card
layout is very good. Sounds like obvious advice but keep it in mind. If you are
winning you will want to keep possession when there are lots of chance cards.
If you are losing you will want to keep possession to perhaps score 2 goals in
a row (very possible). But you can create your own strategy.
Breaking the offside trap is usually most worthwhile when there is a
high percentage of chance cards around combined with a lot of ‘Other’ cards
available (which can potentially be offside cards). This situation doesn’t
arise often so it’s best to use when there’s a decent amount of chance cards,
or as a last ditch effort when behind in a game regardless of the situation.
It’s a very good option to have though when there are no chance cards around at
all, to summon a goal from nothing.
When you are the favourite to win you want to push your advantage. That
is, ideally, you want lots of chance cards around so the outcome is determined
more by your team’s greater team skill. Use your substitutions to make this
true. E.g. 2 goal cards and 1 chance card, use a couple of attacking subs to
redress the balance otherwise it’ll come down to whoever hit the goal cards
first (50/50).
Conversely if you are the underdog, you want to maximise the number of
goal cards. Also you will want to gamble often with your strategies to make an
unlikely goal. When you are the underdog you cannot expect to win all of the
time, but some clever play will guarantee you better results in the long run so
your team won’t be the underdog in the future. Always do everything you can to
make your odds of winning a game closer to 50/50.
Stringing passes together increases your chances of scoring. Therefore
why not use your ‘keep possession’ strategy when you have are
on a strong sequence of passes (say, 4+). This way you are guaranteed 2 goes at
hitting a chance card with your amplified chances of scoring. You could even
combine it with another strategy (offside trap perhaps) to enhance your chance
of scoring further. Remember if you lose possession on attacking mode, your
opponent will get a head start of 2 passes for their next go.
7. Skins
Soccer Cards allows you to choose between different picture sets and cardsets. You can make your own backdrops and graphics in a
new folder in the Pictures\ directory and point to this folder by editing
Files\SkinBackdrop.txt to point to that folder
There is an in-game cardset selector which
allows you to pick from all available skins you have on your computer.
Installing a skin is simply making a new folder in the Cards\ directory
with all the required card pictures (in the correct picture format, view the
default cardsets for that). You can personalise your
skin by making a file called details.txt in that directory which should contain
skin name, author and description (but it isn’t compulsory). See the default
txt files provided to see the file format.
By choosing select skin from the main menu you can view all cards and
strategy buttons in each skin. If every card loads without a hitch that skin is
now selected for use in the game. If there is an error in the skin a message
will display at the bottom of the screen to let you know there are missing
pictures in the set.
8. The Editor
There are 3 sections to the editor – Team editing, schedule editing and
tournament editing. Other editing such as adding tournaments must be done
outside of the game by modifying the game’s .soc files but I won’t go into how
you do that here yet. E-mail me if you’re interested and I’ll give some more
details later, it’s complicated to explain. You might even be able to work it
out yourself!
Team editing has built in restrictions. You cannot give a team over 100
skill points, or below 10. Team names are restricted to a certain size. This
editing has been made easy for you. There is a swap function which when clicked
will swap the currently selected team with the team you select next. Beware -
swapping teams around can have adverse effects on the career mode. For example
swapping
Schedule editing is dangerous. There are conditions in the career mode
that are assumed to be met, such as certain competitions finishing before
others and no more/less matches being played than necessary. I recommend you
don’t make drastic changes and that you backup your schedule file before
experimenting with it. The layout is quite simple. The competitions are listed
along the top and the week number is on the left. A green square means that
competition will be played in that chosen week, a red square means that it will
not.
Tournament editing has no built in restrictions on what you can input so
it’s easy to crash this. Double click on a competition to load up its rounds,
or double click on a round to load up the properties of a tournament’s round.
The labels on display will show you the properties of each competition. You can
modify these but please ensure you don’t choose conflicting options. For
example making a game both a group game and a 2 leg game. Restrictions will be
placed on the editor to ensure you can’t muck things up at a later date, it’s
not a priority at the moment.
9. Bugs/Still To Do
10. Finally
The real world football rules aren't implemented 100% perfectly but it's
pretty close. There are no cup replays also for example. I know the rules but
I've had to compromise.
I'd love some constructive suggestions or comments. Particularly
features of the match engine like new card types or new buttons, or balance of
the game. My e-mail is soccercards@manwithnomouth.nildram.co.uk,
or you can check out the forum which you can find at my website http://www.manwithnomouth.nildram.co.uk
This game has come along way since I first thought of expanding the
original idea from the Amiga. It always annoyed me how there was no skill
involved and had a lack of options. I’m extremely pleased with the
transformation, I’ve finally made the game I always wanted someone to make and
I continue to play it myself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
11. Version History
v1.42 (Save games from 1.40 are compatible)
-
Golden goal penalties bug fixed
-
Schedule viewable from career
-
Back button on fixtures screen
-
Injury card now penalises 2-5 points instead of 1
-
Red cards penalise a team 4-8 points instead of 10
-
Can no longer cheat at penalties by pressing space bar
-
Team size increases/decreases more quickly
-
English team skills and sizes updated to reflect
current club situations and league tables
-
Top English clubs skills lowered slightly, computer
controlled teams reach 100 skill points less often
-
Readme updated, should
be less confusing for new players
-
Top English teams pay even higher fees for transfer
cards making it harder to maintain
-
Teams have to pay manager points each match as ‘wages’
in career mode
v1.41 (Save games from 1.40 are compatible)
-
UEFA cup holder does not play qualifying rounds
-
Manager points from 2 leg games corrected (slightly
off before)
-
Manager points goal bonuses corrected
-
European competitions are now seeded
-
Champions league group stage fixtures corrected
-
AI will try to defend a draw when they are
considerably less skilled
-
Computer will attack when losing on away goals and
vice versa
-
Big leads will mean it’s harder to score chances
(Fewer huge scorelines)
-
Final champions league group standings are now viewable
-
Team stats refined further
v1.40 (Save games are NOT compatible)
-
Season updated to 2003/2004 stats (obviously, most
ratings predicted)
-
European competitions now have more qualifying rounds
-
New cardset and cardset selection form
-
Readme links open in a
new window
-
Readme no longer tries
to access the web
-
Penalty shootouts stop early when the result is
decided
-
New minimum human team skill. Each league has a
minimum team skill for human players
-
Possible to see which strategies the computer player
has left
-
2 Teams in UEFA cup bug (hopefully) fixed
-
History not saving cup wins bug (hopefully) fixed
-
Stringing passes together adds to the possibility of a
chance being scored
-
Career screen tells the player what game is next
-
Option to skip the fixtures screen for games you
aren’t involved in
-
Penalty save speed increased (too easy before!)
-
Very slightly less goal cards around
-
Amplified the chances of big teams scoring against
smaller teams on chance cards
-
Computer now uses subs, all out attack, break offside trap
in 1st half (but not too often)
v1.31 (Save games since v1.2 are still compatible)
-
Out of memory (runtime error 7) bug finally fixed
-
Crash when pressing continue on fixtures is fixed
(occurred when you whizzed through the weeks too fast on slow comps)
-
Readme viewable in-game
-
Keyboard shortcuts (See readme)
-
Minor team rating changes
-
Cosmetic tournament mode fixes
v1.30 (Save games since v1.2 are compatible,
but history is incomplete)
-
Tournament mode added. Can play World Cup, European
championship, Champions League and others outside of career mode
-
New match strategy, breaking the offside trap. Details
on its use included in the readme
-
New history screen detailing your league record each
year and number of trophies/championships you have won
-
AI teams are a bit tougher, more dynamic at getting
back into matches
-
New strategy button graphics (again) which use your
team colours
-
Slightly more difficult to get sacked
-
-
Team values updated to final 2002/2003 standings
-
Top premier league teams tuned down slightly (anyone
other than Arsenal/Man U will struggle to do well in
-
Readme updated
(hopefully the career mode is explained much better now)
-
ToolTipTexts added to strategy
buttons
-
Game 72 career mode fixture clash (FA
Trophy/Conference) fixed
-
Golden goal rule enabled in Champions League, UEFA Cup
and Vans Trophy
-
Human/CPU icons added to match screen
-
Reputation limited somewhat by the league you are in
(e.g. can’t get world class from playing in the conference each season)
-
Computer controlled teams less likely to go straight
back down upon promotion and vice versa
-
Freak event of a Div 1 team winning the UEFA cup and
getting promoted no longer crashes the game
-
More job offers available, over a wider variety of
leagues
-
Another end of season crash fixed for players
relegated from the conference
-
Fixed blank board statement message (occurred when
relegated and board didn’t sack you)
-
May have fixed runtime error 7 (out of memory) error,
needs testing (I’ve never had the error)
v1.22 (Save games since v1.2 are compatible)
-
Board objective calculations are now fixed (dodgy
things came up before for promoted teams)
-
4 English teams in UEFA cup if an English team wins it
and isn’t qualified for the champions league
-
International teams added, you can play friendlies with them
v1.21 (v1.2 save games compatible)
-
Graphics overhaul
-
New backdrop
-
New card back
-
Stripy backgrounds on the old school card set
-
Pressing the X in a match will take you back to the
title screen (saves me adding a quit button)
-
Coloured the card total boxes
-
Buttons have new images
-
New penalty backdrop
-
Penalty screen format changed
-
Fixtures screen format changed
-
Career screen format changed
-
Player 1 will not longer kick off each half due to
popular demand, instead away teams get 4 less skill points
-
Team which kicks off first is randomly assigned in
games where there is no extra time or no home team (otherwise home team starts)
-
Command button disappearance bug when 2 or more
players play, is fixed
-
Offside card added
-
Penalties & Red Cards slightly rarer
v1.2 (Old save games are incompatible)
-
Intertoto cup replaces the
conference cup
-
Home team will always kick off (bit more advantage for
the home team) unless played at a neutral venue
-
Skill values tweaked to be more diverse in the lower
divisions, fluctuations of skill in AI teams are more pronounced
-
Away goals fixed (surprised no one mentioned this
wasn’t working half the time)
-
Bug-fixes from last version including promotion team
skill bug, penalty save bug, etc
-
General game balancing, including a variable manager
points bonus upon promotion
-
Transfer cards become less lucrative the higher your
team skill gets (relative to your current league)
-
Fewer points scoring transfer cards available when
your team is much better than it should be (e.g small
teams in the premier league)
-
Fixed the playoff bug (another one)
-
Fixed occasional board statement error
-
Penalties sped up again (I found it too easy before)
-
Computer saves more penalties
-
More manager point balancing
v1.1 (Please delete any old versions, or use another directory, for this
version)
-
Leagues can be exported to text file
-
Bigger teams beat smaller teams more easily
-
Penalties are slower
-
Skill levels for some teams changed
-
Away goals work!
-
No longer receive manager points for 1st
leg games, only 2nd leg
-
Transfer card prices and manager points awarded are scaled
to the league you are in. E.g. 1000 points per card in the premier league, 50
points per card in the Unibond league
-
Bonus points for winning cup games (more points for
more prestigious cups and later rounds)
-
Promotion gives you points worth 6 transfer cards to
improve the team
-
Support for multiple skins, choose a button/backdrop
skin and cards skin
-
Colourful pixel stickmen card skin
-
League results should be more realistic
-
FA Cup winner and League Cup winner reach the UEFA cup
-
Champions cup winner and UEFA cup winner defend their
title in the next season
-
Top 16 conference teams enter the vans trophy
-
League cup round 1 and round 2 are now 1 leg ties
-
Match results between computer teams tweaked
-
Many un-noticed bugfixes
-
Readme updated for new
rules
v1.05 (Supports all save games since 1.02)
-
Multiplayer should work properly now
-
Can no longer save penalties in a miss slot
v1.04
-
More pictures, representing more of what’s going on
-
Fixed a bug where if you quit before leaving the
fixtures screen it wouldn’t advance the game week
-
Dead continue button in playoffs fixed (Nasty bug!
Sorry guys)
v1.03
-
Penalties are now more of a reflex challenge
-
Interface tidied up
-
Attacking/Defending effects tweaked
-
Passes more likely to be good and not dodgy, good passes
are successful more
-
Stricter sackings in the higher leagues (particularly
top end teams)
-
“Player 4” bug fixed
-
Teams now play tactically according to their skill
(e.g. Man U will use their strategies well, Colwyn Bay will ‘forget’ them)
-
2 team name corrections (added a united, and split Northend into 2 words)
-
Couple of very small cosmetic error fixes
-
Doubled the commentary lines
-
Transfer cards now randomised fully, ignore which line
the cards are on. There 21 of them with 20 points available
-
Good chances slightly more likely to score for better
teams, slightly less likely to go in for worse teams
v1.02
-
Spelling correction on substitution
-
New manager points calculator
-
Enhanced history screen with player history, points
scores, team skills and now playoff winners
-
Everton no longer in the champions league in season 1
(oops!)
-
Hyde United are back. Rejoice!
-
Penalties and red cards are now rarer, red cards do
more damage
-
No longer says you remain in charge after a sacking
-
About screen changed (I’ll change it to something more
interesting later)
v1.01
-
Fixed icon for save game form
-
Tweaked board expectation
-
Dagenham spelling corrected
-
Blyth spelling
corrected
-
Schedule editor crashed, this is fixed
-
Conference playoffs now keep the correct scores
-
Sackings now work properly
-
No longer says you’ve been promoted when you haven’t
-
2 more board statements
v1.0:
-
First release!
Soccer Cards 2003 © Mike Douglas. Game concept and images used in this
game are the property of Mike Douglas