( End of VManinfo: )

Useful Blogs:

2021:
16 March(1046): Player sales/trades/auctions improvements
22 January(1044): Review of 2020 & Intentions for 2021

2020:
29 August (1038): U23 VIFA rank & World Cup + *** Tactics Adjustment (Subs etc) explanation ***
July (1032): (+1034) (+1036) Youth Leagues; U34 SuperCup; end of Beta etc
19 June (1030): Separate training for youth squads + page navigation changes
May (1026): Player statistics shown by squad; Mood (+1028) ; Standardization of youth players to 23 years
& Youth squads increased to 20 players
March onwards (1004): (+1018) Players now get mood points in friendlies (+1020) (+1022) (+1024) More on Youth Squads
14 February (1014): (+1016) Youth squads beta; VM Pro and ad-free subscription proposal & site finances
10 February (1012): FC Sunnyvale acquires VM

2019:
25 October (1004): Weekly Season Update & "503 Error" etc
August (995): (+997) (+999) Server move + Federations discontinued
January onwards (987): (+993) Youth Squads

2018:
4 December (981): Longer initial contracts for untrained players
6 July (969): New "expiring contract" auction rule
17 May (965): GDPR and Youth Squads
15 March (961): Spring cleaning, planning, and Youth Teams

2017:
15 August (945): Energy Burst - Explanation
27 June (941): (+943) Next Project (B Teams) & Subscription Increase
20 June(939): Perseverance gets a new role in the match simulation; Larger broadcasting rights payments;
Age & mood in tactics editor; Short List increased to 100; You can no longer T/L players with less than 5 trainings
January onwards (917) (+919) (+921) (+927) (+929) (+931) (+933) Project Rebalance
6 January (915): Virtual Manager in 2017
4 January (913): Updates on new Scout & server move

2016:
21 December (911): Help us translate Virtual Manager
September onwards (891) (+895) (+903) Project Rebalance
21 September (911): Join a league instantly
12 September (893): Facebook and Google login
11 August (674): Fixes and cleanup after the server move
12 July (883): Cheaper players from free transfer
4 May (861): New country difficulty calculation
27 April (859): Training results: % renamed to XP
15 April (857): Visible mood effect and more stable updates at night + Automatic contract extensions changed to those who have less than 30 hours left of their contract, as opposed to 25 hours before
January onwards (835) (+837) (+839) (+843) (+845) (+847) (+849) (+851) (+853): The new Scout

2015:
June onwards (805) (+813) (+815) (+831) (+833): The new Scout
March (779) (+781) (+783) (+785): The new training exercises
13 February (775): A new player value calculator on the way
6 February (773): Added The Netherlands as a playable country
23 January (767): New training groups on the way + New touchscreen friendly design
12 January (765): Virtual Manager in 2015

2014:
14 November (749): Randomness in the match simulator
21 October (741) (+743): New ability conversion algorithm is now active
17 October (739): Adjustment of ability conversion and training
10 October (737): Even more detailed training result
26 September (735): How do player abilities work?
18 September (733): Keep better tabs on player development
1 August (725): Sportsmanship and the 1,000 matches simulation
16 July (721): Added Brazil as playable country
14 July (715): New crew tools
27 June (713): Players from Northern Ireland
20 June (711): Stadium prices up for review
13 June (709): World Cup betting game + energy boost display
6tJune (707): 25 players in squad - for Premium managers only.
4t April (691): April fools streaker & Subs bug fixed
13 January (678) Talent Development = Training/Scouts/Youth academy + timescale
Comments inc. Youth leagues / valid team line-ups / separate ticket prices for different games? / “sale” of Credits?
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 13 January 2014, 13:14
"Youth academy: This is still only on the brainstorming stage, but our current thinking is that you'd buy facilities that will give you extra slots specifically for youth players. Players in these slots would no longer need to play matches in order to raise their mood, as long as the club is active in the leagues. I doubt that we'll have entire full-featured youth leagues, but some form of youth matches might be possible. I'll add it to the ideas pile.
The facilities will probably require some upkeep, but you'd be able to either close them down or downgrade, in case you're strapped for credits.
The scout and youth academy stuff will probably only be available to premium players".
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 13 January 2014, 13:32
"Player stats: - they were fundamentally flawed. The major issue with the old stats was that they were made up almost 10 years ago, for the text-based match engine, when the game was just Rasmus' spare-time project alongside his school work.
There were a number of the stats that weren't used in the match engine at all - they were just distributed evenly over the actual useful stats. Having unused stats like that is quite obviously a problem.
The new stats have been specifically tailored such that each and every one has a specific purpose in the new match engine."
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 13 January 2014, 14:42
"Line ups: The system is meant to do everything it can in order to set a valid tactic for you, as long as you have at least 8 non-injured and non-suspended players in your club. Right now, the system isn't good enough at compensating for a faulty line-up, but this is a known problem, that we're working on right now."
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 13 January 2014, 15:14
"Ticket prices: Setting ticket prices for individual matches is a pretty neat idea. I'll add it to our pile, but I can't promise anything."
6th January (676): : Improvements to Tactics Editor = Subs/Adjustments / return of Individual instructions? / New player stats. / level bars for stats?
Comment inc.s “Match information” via magnifying glass:
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 6 January 2014, 15:18
"Magnifying glass: "Coming matches" page: Next to each match, there's a drop-down menu where you can select which tactic to use and it even has a new feature if you click on the magnifying glass. From that page, you have the option of setting up a custom made, one-off tactic for just that specific match.
In order to see how many times you've played your opponent, click the magnifying glass next to a match on your Coming Matches page.
The magnifying glass brings you to a page with a wealth of information about the match and your opponent. It's actually a shame that that page is hidden behind a tiny little icon, because it's incredibly useful. I think we need to figure out a way to make it a lot more prominent."

2013:
9 December (664): Request for bug reports on new match sim
Comment inc.s 6.5% of managers use Individual Instructions / NO! to Mobile Phone app!
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 10 December 2013, 11:25
"Only 6.5% of all players currently in a tactic have individual instructions:
I KNOW that for you personally, as well as other individual users, the lack of individual instructions is a big deal. You use individual instructions and you will miss them terribly when they're gone... I get that, I really do.
BUT, the point is, that I can't just tailor the game to suit you, personally, because the people actually using individual instructions are a tiny minority.
You wouldn't know that by looking at the comments in here, but I've got the raw data back it up. Right now, only around 6.5% of all players currently in a tactic have individual instructions.
Obviously, the users who actually use individual instructions will set them on several players - not just one - which means that waaaay less than 6.5% of our total users are affected.
What this means, is that individual instructions are not a must-have feature for the initial release... they can wait, until we have the time to implement them properly."
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 10 December 2013, 11:44
Mobile phone app – NO!:
"A mobile phone app isn't going to happen. The scope of this game is too huge to fit the entire thing into a mobile app... if you thought the new match simulator has take a long time, imagine reimplementing the entirety of Virtualmanager in a mobile app.
And even if we were to make an app with just a select few pieces of functionality from the game, we'll never be able to make every feature that everyone thinks is important to them in a mobile app.
Instead, we will be focusing on making sure the site works well on mobile as is, so that a mobile app isn't needed."
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 9 December 2013, 16:07
Addition of new countries: "We will soon add more countries to play in, so we do not have so many clubs, fumbling around down at 7-8. division."
9th Dedember (663): (Danish): Release date of the new combat simulator
comments include: intention to add more countries soon - & ?”poll possible"?
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 9 December 2013, 16:07
Addition of new countries: "We will soon add more countries to play in, so we do not have so many clubs, fumbling around down at 7-8. division."
Bubbles, FC Sunnyvale 9 December 2013, 16:30
(FC BarceIona B wrote: Brilliant! Want to maybe introduce the Faroe Islands?
- anything is possible. Is there a good time in leagues in the Faroe Islands? It could be we should put a poll out about what new countries people want most."
2 December: (660): :"Christmas theme” (snow effect)
18 November (654): Proposal to “save favourite match?”
17 September (645): “Styles of play” in new sim
18 Novermber (632): “Cleanup” of User Forums
23 April (620): !“Conversion” of players stats. Explained
18 April (618): Statement of intent re new match sim. – ie “Simplification of the game”!:

2012:
30 December (584): 2012 review & 2013 intentions Inc. removal of assistant manager
20 December (582): Vision for new match sim – Important links re their “goals (aims)” etc
22 October (564): +(563): New player abilities & link to “Irrelevant attributes!”
comment inc.s possibility of introducing players abilities “aging” in future:
Ronn Rasmus Nielsen, The Dudes 22 October 2012 14:25
Tommerup BK wrote: "Super good initiative. But it might be an idea to consider the Stat reduction for older players, if you installed anyway considering to embark on such a project in the future."
“We take one thing at a time , but we have stat reduction of older players in mind all the time.”
- & from 563: Direct quote: Ronn Rasmus Nielsen, The Dudes 26 October 2012 11:24: “if something can not be implemented (or can only be implemented on a bad / boring way), then it is almost tempted to say that it is not viable to have the property with even though it makes sense in reality. The same argument is to blame for the "Creativity" hardly comes with the new properties. It is extremely difficult if not impossible to implement - and therefore have not the power which the manager expects - and then it's all been equally. Moreover, ***THE MENTAL PROPERTIES NEVER HAD A "DIRECT" EFFECT (ON) THE GAME!*** They have influenced the game features more indirect and not as one who consumes'd expect.”
11 September (553): Hotel/Motel = on permanent hold
2 July (530): Euro (2012) Bet game
13 June (522): Aims for new match sim
11 June (520) (+518) (+516): Euro starter offer (discontinued)
22 May (510): Proposals: Mobile app / Stadium editor2 / Youth academy - “Winner” is: New Match Sim
21 March (503): “Bad Gateway” - Explanation
9 March (499): Prize to the first winner of "The Quadruple"
7 March (497): End of Stadium Credits - following new stadium implementation.
16h February (486): Clubs inactive for 3yrs de-activated & club name released to be re-used
23 January (480): Assistant manager removed

2011:
14 December (472): Cheating - Explanation of the penalties etc
25 November(455): New Stadium Capacity & Economy
30 September(431): Proposals page

(- checked, inc.additional Dev replies, back to blog 400)

Dev feedback to FAQ's July 2015:

Q. Could users be given voting rights back for ideas/projects for the devs to explore (like the old proposals system)? Why is this system no longer used?
Why were pause/rewind features not incorporated into new match viewer?
A. We decided to remove the proposal system, since it gave people the wrong impression of how we select things to work on. Virtual Manager has many different stakeholders (old clubs, new clubs, people who have not yet signed up, rich clubs, poor clubs, our parent company, our finance department etc.) and as developers our job is to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. With limited development resources we need to prioritise the jobs that give us the most bang for the buck. So we'd prefer to implement a less popular idea that only takes 1 month, rather than a super popular idea that would take 2 years.
We also have a lot of (boring) administrative jobs that absolutely must be done, which aren't directly visible to users. Unfortunately, when we used the voting system, many people thought that the results should be an unbreakable contract, and didn't understand our need to prioritise and juggle our limited resources. What we do instead today, is rely much more on our volunteer crew. The crew are all passionate Virtual Manager players with a lot of insight, and they keep their ear to the ground and act as our main link to the community.
We'd like to implement pause/rewind features in the new match viewer, but it's not on the table right now. We used some fairly complicated means to compress the match data, which means that rewinding is not an easy fix.

Q. Is it possible for someone to feedback on ideas/development forum? Even if it just a standardized copy/paste comment to say "This has been noted by the devs" or "this is not possible to implement" without going into details?
A. Our Ideas/development forum serves a purpose. It gives our users the possibility to present their thoughts and ideas – and get feedback from other users. Unfortunately we just don’t have the resources for our developers to frequently visit I/D. But, as mentioned earlier, our volunteer crew bring the best ideas to us and alert us to critical issues, on our internal forum and during our (almost) annual crew day.

Q. Does discipline and motivation stats for trainers have any influence on training? Are some 20/20 (youth/outfield or youth/keeper) trainers better than others with the same stats? If not, then why are the wages and signing fees so different?
A. Discipline and motivation stats for coaches do not have any influence on training.
If a coach has 20/20 he can’t get any better. Training may still vary, but this is a result of other elements.
Wages and signing fees vary based on your team VIFA rank. Players and employees also have a hidden, individual “greediness factor”, that may change over time.

Q. How is team rating calculated?
A. There are two different calculations. The team rating shown on the Team overview is calculated as the average of the best players like this:
Your best Goalkeeper
Your best 5 Defenders
Your best 5 Midfielders
Your best 3 Forwarders
The starting-11 (on your match preview) is calculated as the sum of the following positions:
The starting 11 players
1 substitute defender
2 substitute midfielders
1 substitute forward

Q. Are there any plans, or is it possible to introduce paying for premium via phone/iDeal/alternative methods to card payments?
A. We've been trying for a few months to get iDEAL payments for The Netherlands, but it's been quite an ordeal (pun intended). With ING Bank and Kamer van Koophandel giving us conflicting information and taking several weeks to reply to emails (or not at all) it has been a frustrating process. We still don't have a solution.
PayPal is the alternative we introduced to make sure that our International users have alternatives to credit card payments. PayPal is very rarely used in Denmark, but is more commonly used Internationally.
We would very much like to implement more payment options, and are looking into a few different options for the future – Google Wallet, for instance and a variety of mobile payment systems. Phone payments tend to be massively expensive, with the payment providers often taking nearly half of the amount paid, so we'll need to be picky when selecting a provider. Currently, Danish users pay around twice for premium paid by mobile, because of the fees, and we'd really like to offer better value for money than that.

Q. Are there any plans to expand the tactics system to include things like the ability to add individual player instructions, change formation/tactic during the game (Eg change from formation A to formation B when losing)?
A. We'd like to implement a limited number of individual tactics instructions where we think it makes sense. But when we created the new match simulator, we took at deep look into the database to see how users where actually using the old system, and it turned out that less than 1% of users actually ever set individual player instructions. For that reason, it's not a huge priority right now. Reworking the current UI design to support changing formations during the match would be quite complicated and time consuming, though. We're no longer satisfied with implementing “advanced” features and then hiding them away from new clubs to avoid scaring them away. Hidden features that are used by almost no one, are a waste of development resources.
The new training instructions system is an example of what we'd like to do instead: put advanced features front-and-center in a way that encourages everyone to use them. That sort of thing takes a long time to implement, though, and the training instructions went through many many design iterations before we were happy with it.