What’s new

Decisions now come as a choice between A, B and C. Right after you answer, you see exactly what the choice changed and why, and some choices come back later as an echo that names the earlier decision. An unanswered decision is settled at its deadline with the middle course and listed as defaulted. Nothing in the match changes.

Small things now count in the match. The coaching and tactics ratings of your club manager, and your home crowd and arena, give your side a slight edge. Older stars lose their athleticism faster than ordinary players do, and a free agent nobody signs lowers the asking price the longer the wait. A club may not drop below ten players. Leagues with an odd number of clubs get a bye each round, and a new manager starts at 50 like the rest of the world. Players are a little more consistent or more erratic from game to game, and a player no longer comes straight back off the bench after a substitution.

Every academy now opens with three to five youngsters instead of standing empty until the end of the first season: more of them the stronger the academy. Promote the ones you want; the rest join the youth pool after two weeks, as every intake does. The academy page also says how many days remain until the next intake. Nothing changes in the match itself.

AI clubs trade with each other far more, and for the reasons real clubs do. A player who has been playing badly is cheaper every week his club keeps him on the bench, a club with an injured starter pays to cover the hole, and a club that has to move takes a gamble on a man it does not know where a comfortable one asks for proof. A club in trouble with its wages can swap a man for a cheaper one, the last days of the window are busier, and two AI clubs that are close to a deal can counter each other once. Nothing changes in the match itself.

Your manager no longer has an age: nobody learns more slowly for being older, and nothing declines. The seven attributes grow from what you did and from nothing else. You also tell us who you are once, when you first sign in, and joining a world asks you nothing; you can add your date of birth if you like, only for a birthday greeting and statistics nobody sees you in. Every world is now a card, and your record across every world has a page of its own.

You can save your lineups as named game plans, each with the tactics and minutes it was built for, switch between them in one tap on the lineup screen, and, if you want, set one to play every league match, cup match or friendly by itself. A club keeps up to six. Nothing is saved or set until you do it, and the match engine is unchanged.

Trade offers are answered faster and better. A club the game runs answers an offer that is far off, or clearly good, within the hour; one near its line still takes a while. A club that turns an offer down says how far apart it was, and a close offer from you is answered with what would close it: a pick, some cash or a player. "Improve offer" opens the builder with your last offer filled in, and picks and cash can now go in one trade.

Pay is now shown per season in real-looking dollars in every world, and the dressing room no longer flags a newcomer who starts every game as unhappy about playing time. The rest prepares the new North American world: trades that include draft picks, a live draft room, NBA contracts with Bird rights, exceptions and waivers, the All-Star weekend, Europe on the long calendar, and the NBA rules in the match engine.

The North American world gains its postseason and its cups. A play-in decides the last two places of each conference, the playoffs run in conference brackets with best-of-seven rounds and a conference final, and the clubs that miss out play the Vantago Cup. The Hardwood Cup is played in groups during the season with a final at a neutral site. After the Finals a lottery orders the top picks, and a two-round draft brings in rookies on a pay scale. New pages show the cups, the lottery, the draft and the cap card. These apply to the new North American world.

Money is now shown in US dollars, and club and player pages are public, so search engines can find them. Behind the scenes the game gains the groundwork for a new North American world: a league that plays most nights, a development league with its own affiliated clubs and two-way contracts, and pay quoted per season.

After a good run of play the game may ask you to rate it; a low rating asks what went wrong, a high one invites friends. The Competitions menu and the Your staff page have a new look, and the Club page flows into two balanced columns on a wide screen. Clubs short of players now wait longer in the queue for a good free agent, the stronger the player, and rival interest can raise a free agent's asking wage by up to 30 per cent.

The First Season and The Second Season are two stories of fifteen chapters in all, and each chapter you finish pays a bonus from the club, taken from the welcome sponsor's grant. Your contract now carries bonus clauses: the club pays you on the day an honour is decided, such as a title, a cup, a playoff place or a promotion, with a cap on how much one season can pay.

A club can now hire a PR manager, who lifts gate demand, merchandising and the weekly growth of popularity a little, and a sports psychologist, who softens the one-off blows to morale such as a refused request, a broken promise or a withdrawn armband. The game now names a Rookie of the Year and shows a rookie race, keeps a league records book, announces career milestones in the feed, and marks wonderkids with a tag.

Assistant coaches now have a specialism, and a good one trains that area faster. A club can hire a youth coach for its academy, and every club has a team doctor whose prognosis gives a return date within a band that narrows as the doctor improves. The game now names a Player of the Day, a Team of the Week, a Player of the Month and an MVP race, publishes weekly power rankings, and flags wonderkids. A national cup runs through the season with prizes for each round a club reaches.

A player can be listed without a price: leave the reserve blank and the clubs make offers. A club run by the game now offers what it thinks a listed man is worth, never less than the reserve, and improves its figure when other clubs are already on the table; it pays a counter up to its own limit, raises to it once, and says when it will go no higher. At most five such clubs offer on one man at a time.

Clubs can have a fitness coach: a seat that opens with the training ground (level 25, and a second at 75). The role clears players' tiredness faster overnight, makes a training knock or a match injury a little less likely, and makes physical attributes train faster, by how good the coach is. A club with no seat for the role is unchanged.

The season preview now calls a club a contender, in the hunt, in the fight or in need of a miracle by how often it won the title, reached the playoffs or finished bottom in the replays, and says which count it read.

There is a season preview that says where every club is expected to finish, and a prediction exchange where you can put some of your own wage on how the season ends, in the game only. The transfer deadline is now a day of its own: every clock in the market ends at the close, the AI is busier, buyers pay up, sellers come down, and a final round decides what is left.

You can say a word to the dressing room before a match, and the AI managers do too: a small lift for one night, a little of it staying. And morale now moves week to week with minutes, results, wages and leaders, settling back to normal.

Your assistant coach now says what kind of team you are, on the squad page and on the preview of a match, and how sharply it is read depends on how good the assistant is.