What’s new

Player wages in European leagues rise to what real clubs pay. A new contract now asks a quarter more than it did, so an average squad costs about half of what its club expects to earn instead of four tenths, the share real national-league clubs spend on their players once their full cost is counted and coaches are left out. Computer-run clubs in those leagues set aside the same larger share for wages, more under an ambitious manager and less under a careful one. The change is there because the leagues as a whole were keeping about a tenth of their income every season, which no real league does; they should now keep only a little. Contracts already signed keep their wages, and the other running costs are unchanged. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Matches in European leagues now lose the ball as often as real ones do. Under the FIBA rules teams turn the ball over about one possession in six, as in the EuroLeague and EuroCup, where before it was one in eight; scores come down by about three points a team, to where real European leagues score, while shooting is unchanged, so a team that looks after the ball gains more from it than before. NBA-rules leagues are unchanged. Computer-run clubs also choose their tactics more carefully: a manager who likes to attack now plays a little faster and a defensive one a little slower, where before both often picked the same plan.

Players now grow older and retire. At the end of every season each player is a year older, and from 30 a player may retire: the older he is, the more likely, and a weaker player, one who spent the season without a club, or one carrying serious injuries stops sooner, while a contract for next season keeps him playing longer. Everyone retires by 42. A retiring player leaves his club at no cost, and his record stays in the history books. Before the ages move, young players pick up a little of the professionalism of the best professionals in their squad, and every player's form starts the new season at zero. After the academies have produced their prospects, new free agents join the market each season, enough to replace the players who retired and to keep at least three free agents for every club. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

The family name of a new player now matches his face. When a player is created, his surname comes from the name list that matches his portrait, so a French player drawn with a West African face can carry a Nigerian family name; his first name still comes from his own country. Faces from East Africa, East Asia and the Nordic countries have no name list of their own yet, and those players keep a surname from their own country. Players who already exist keep their names, and their ratings are unchanged. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Running a club now costs what it costs real European clubs. Two new expenses appear on your finances page: match operations, the organisation and travel each league or cup game costs both teams, and administration, the office staff and overheads paid every week. Player wages are lower to match: a new contract now asks about three fifths of what it did, so an average squad costs about four tenths of what the club expects to earn. Computer-run clubs now decide how much of their income to spend on players, more under an ambitious manager and less under a careful one, and they let a player go or pass on a signing when the wage would take them past it. Computer-run clubs also spend less on their academies, a share of their own income instead of the same large sum for everyone. Contracts already signed keep their wages. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Every club now runs a youth academy. Its strength, from 0 to 100, rises with the money you put in each week and slips a little every week; you set the weekly investment on the new Academy page. Each offseason the academy produces between one and four prospects, more and better the stronger it is. Promoting one to the first team spends some of that strength and signs him on the minimum wage; a prospect nobody promotes within two weeks joins the youth pool, where any other club may sign him by paying his academy a development fee. Computer-run clubs set their own investment each week, more of it the keener the club is on young players and less when it is deep in debt. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Every league plays its national cup inside the season. The top four after the first half of the league meet in a Final Four: the semifinals on game day 9 and the final on day 10, each after the league round of that day, and none of it counts in the league table. The winner lifts a trophy that goes on the honours of the club and in the league news, and the four clubs share prize money. This begins with the next season of a league. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Achievements are awarded. Fifteen badges for what happens in a match, from a first league win to a triple-double and a rivalry with another manager, go to the manager who holds the bench, and everything already played counts, dated when it happened. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

A player can ask his club to let him go. It stays between him and the club; you can sell him, promise him minutes, or leave him be. A request made before the transfer deadline ends with the season; one made after it lasts into the next season, when he can be sold. Minutes can be promised only when the club has a game to give them in. A new world now opens every club with a wage bill under its salary cap; existing worlds keep theirs. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

The league feed calls a career high news when it is the best line of the match, and a first title in years only after a real drought. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

The league feed now notices the stories a season writes: a comeback from twenty points down, a career high, a big debut, a club unbeaten at home, and a first title in years. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

The computer clubs' weekly decisions are now taken in smaller batches, so a busy day never leaves the world waiting on one long piece of work. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

New worlds can hold leagues of any size. Clubs in a larger league are spread between the same biggest and smallest club, and every new club starts with three quarters of the money its own league lets it expect to earn in a season. A new world also starts with more free agents when it has more clubs. Existing worlds keep their clubs and their money. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Preparation for worlds with several leagues. Each part of the daily schedule and of the break between seasons is now marked as work done once for the whole world or once for each league, so a world of many leagues pays, trains and closes each club once. A world with one league runs exactly as before. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Club money now follows real European leagues. Prize money and playoff bonuses are much smaller, as they are in real national leagues, where they are a small part of a club's income. The league's weekly payment, arena upkeep and the support staff bill are set to the shares real clubs publish. Computer-run clubs now renew their players' contracts as a season ends, instead of letting them all leave. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Every match now carries a chance of winning. Before tip-off your dashboard and the match page show yours, worked out from the two squads, their form, where the game is played, how the starting fives fit and how fresh the players are, with every part of the figure one tap away. A win the figure rated at three in ten or less is called an upset in the league feed. A team that can no longer keep enough players on the court loses by default: the score stands if the other team is ahead, and otherwise the game goes down as 2-0. The chance of winning itself changes nothing about how a match is played.

Scouting reaches further. Your department can now watch a whole league, one country's players without a club and its academy graduates, or one position across a league, each at its own weekly price, and the players it finds that you were not following go on your shortlist. The most you can set as a weekly scouting budget rises with it. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Housekeeping only. Old personal data is now cleared on a schedule: the address you signed up from after 90 days, the coded forms of your addresses and device after 180 days, and the text of private messages after 12 months. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

A manager who stops playing now gives the club back. After two to six weeks with no activity, depending on the division and how much you have handed to your staff, the club returns to the game, with a warning in your inbox a week before. Nothing about how a match is played changes.

Housekeeping only. Administrators can now see a list of registered accounts, and every look at it is recorded. Nothing about how a match is played changes.