We’re introducing a big change in the way teams are controlled in Footstar. Until today we only had:
- Teams controlled by humans
- Bot Teams

Starting next season a new type of teams will be introduced in Footstar: unprotected teams.
Basically what will happen is that all users will have the possibility to control teams in Footstar. However managers of unprotected teams will have a totally different status/restrictions regarding Gold FS Fan users/managers.

So, what are the big differences?
- Unprotected teams will be subject to be immediately taken over by users with FS Fan Gold.
- FS Fan Gold users will have their teams protected and restrictions free. Nothing changes for these managers.

Now let us present you the list of restrictions. Later we’ll explain to you what do we intend to achieve with this feature.

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 put their stadium in the city
- 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
>> 2nd Division: 20000
>> 3rd Division: 15000
>> 4th Division or below: 10000

- 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. Nothing changes here.

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.
- Nothing will change for managers that own FS Fan Gold.
- 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).

What’s the goal of this feature
Not only we want more active teams and a bigger demand for players/users but also more competitiveness in all leagues of Footstar especially in lower divisions. At the same time we acknowledge the huge importance that users with FS Fan Gold have for this game and we’ve tried to create a respectable number of restrictions for non-protected managers so that there’s still an advantage in having Gold.
No doubt it’s a change that involves some risk and we are perfectly aware of that. However we really feel this might be a great step in the right direction. A step that could allow us to greatly increase the number of active users and at the same time keep a solid base of FS Fan Gold users to keep helping us maintaining the game.

We are aware that some criticism has been pointed in our direction due to lack of feedback regarding our development plans. We understand why you say this and humbly accept your critics. Apart from some minor visual enhancements, most of our latest developments (including today’s’ announcements) have been focused on increasing the number of active users. We have also invested in new servers a couple of months ago (and soon we’ll be doing the same) hoping that once all of these features are online we’ll have an increase in the number of users playing the game.

However, now that these features are released we’ll be focusing initially on some pending features such as the Psychologists and adding more payment options to the FS Fan Coins system. Once these are completed we are going to update the Development Diary.

And that’s all for now. As usual we’ll be looking to see your feedback about all this on the forums.

At the beginning of the following season, presidents of the National Federations will have the possibility of creating an official U19 league structure for their country. This new system will replace the "Federation Youth Tournaments" feature.

Here are the full details of these leagues:
- This system will replace the current system for Official U19 Federation Leagues. The historical data of the current system will be kept.
- Only domestic youth teams can participate in the U19 national league. We understand that there a few countries that have foreign teams in their current systems but this will have to end with the new system.
- 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.
- All U19 games (including tournaments) will now have the 60 minute rule for full XP.
- Yes, youth tournaments will still be kept. Youth teams can still participate in tournaments if that’s the will of their managers.
- 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 will be achievements for players and cups for teams for all series winners.

We really wanted to introduce this feature a long time ago but we never could, mainly due to server restrictions. We also feel the current system is not properly organized (a lot of federations simply don’t use it).

We now hope a new era begins regarding youth team leagues!

Also, starting next season we’re changing the FS skill scale to 0-100. This change is just representational as nothing else is changed (match engine, trainings, etc). The idea behind this change is mostly to allow players to get a more detailed view on the way their players gain and lose skills. Hopefully this will also make new players more interested in the game as they’ll gain new skills faster so they’ll have a better impression regarding their development.

What are the implications of this feature:
- All skills (including mental skills) are automatically converted to the new scale. A simple multiplication by 5.
- Talents requirements and bonuses are multiplied by 5.
- Items bonuses are also multiplied by 5.
- Automatic emails regarding skill pops are only sent whenever your player reaches a multiple of 5 (5,10,15,20, etc).

As said nothing else changes. Training progressions will be exactly the same. A player will take the same time to go from 0-20 as they will take to go from 0 to 100. The only difference is that they’ll have a lot more skill "pops" (5x more) and that you will be able to see the sub-levels of skills with much more accuracy.

At the player’s page you can now see the "Player Preview" feature by clicking on the small magnifying glass. The skills are already in the 0-100 skill so that you can have a picture on how they’ll be in a couple of days. This feature is also created so you can have an initial impression on how player’s skills are distributed. It’s not specifically related with this feature but we’re presenting it here nevertheless

In a few hours we will release another announcement regarding a new feature for next season. We’ll also make some short regards about our future development plans and communication policies.

We’d also like to thank all the users that keep suggesting features in the forums on a daily basis. This feature comes straight from the forums. Unfortunately not all can be brought into the game but for sure we really look into them all of them with care.

It’s with extreme satisfaction that today we release a new version of our forum system (please press Ctrl+F5 to clear your browser’s cache and solve any problems you may experience derived from that). Aside a new and improved design and some added features, this version should also be a lot faster than the old one. Please use the Bugs forum to report any problems you may find, and the Suggestions forum if you have any idea on how to improve the new forum system any further. We’ll be keeping a close eye on both! During the next few days we’ll also be correcting all the links connecting you to the old forum system.

Enjoy!