Ideas & Suggested Improvements: Draft Ideas for Gold Membership

August 1st, 2007 by SM Dev (Ste)

We are currently considering making more options available to the Gold Membership (GM) package. Some of the suggestions below are SM’s, whilst others are from members of the forum:

•  Club Transfer Page - Page for GM’s to transfer their current clubs to their new GM account to stop managers potentially losing any of their clubs.
•  Next Match - A Small ‘warning sign’ is shown next to your club on the home page, to warn you that a game is going to be played in the next 5 hours so that they can do last minute tactics etc.
•  ‘Assistant manager’ (AM) - This will be a new page where you can scout a player (for either 1, 3 or 5 games) and the AM will show you how the scouted player is performing recently eg goals, assists, rating, cards, morale. Also the AM will tell you how your finances are looking for the season and if you stay as you are, you will become bankrupt or make major profits. The AM can also ‘suggest’ players for you to buy. This will be based on squad average rating, if a goalkeeper/defender/midfielder/striker is below squad average rating then the AM will notify you that you need to sign a player in position X.
•  Stadium Building - End of the season (depending on situation) the Chairman asks manager if he would like stadium increasing by x capacity (based on promotion, average attendance etc). Do not want to get into situation were all clubs eventually have 60,000+ stadiums, so increase would be 5,000 for £10m etc. Should limit this to Custom/Gold Setups only.
•  Log-in - GM’s have a longer time in days to sign in before clubs are lost.
•  Club Waiting list - Waiting list for team x when next setup is created.
• Advanced Tactics - More options like man marking etc for Custom/Gold Setups.
• More Sub Options - Winning/losing/drawing on 45/60/75 mins is not enough. Needs to have more scenario specific eg player rated less than x% condition come off after x mins, and if ‘not winning’ or ‘not losing’ options. Extra sub options can be part of Advanced Tactics.
• Cross-setup Friendlies - Friendlies hugely under used. At the moment you can only play teams you would normally play. A manager should be able to play the best side from one setup against an ‘all-conquering’ side in another setup etc.
• Reserve Squads - Similar to Youth Squads, but players have to be below squad average or injured to be included in the squad.
• GM Chat rooms - Normal chat room available to everyone, and also separate chat room exclusively for GM’s.
• Player Shirt Sales - Player over squad average help shirt sales, which in turn increase funds.
• National team - Ability to control a  national team. You are offered the chance (if you have been a manager within the setup longer than x weeks) to manager a national team. This should be for Gold Setups, and have international competitions , friendlies etc, to enable the Gold Setups to  be flag ship for SM.
• Training - Training on days off to improve condition.

• Custom Setups - More options on creation and control after creation.
• Advance Notice - Given advanced notice of when a new setup is due for creation, and when new players are added to the DB (like up-and-coming free agents etc).
• Setup Newspaper - All GM’s have the ability to contribute to the setup newspaper they are in, in relation to match previews/reviews, transfer gossip, manger interviews etc.
• Rate My Squad - Only GM’s have access to this new feature.
• Player Tips - Each GM is emailed one or two player tips each week (so they can potentially sign them prior to going on the Player Tips section on the Blog).
• SM Stats Centre - Massive database (DB) covering the majority of the worlds leagues, showing club data (in relation to fixtures, results, stadiums etc), player data (in relation to personal information, playing history, stats for current season etc), latest transfers etc.
• Trophy Cabinet - Every GM has his own personal trophy cabinet. This will show any trophy he has won from any setup he has been in (past/present). It can also show any promotions he has gained via the Play Offs.
• Gold Setups - Make them the flagship setup for SM:
  • Replace relegated clubs if unmanaged.
  • Gold Cup - Winners of our Champions League/UEFA Cup style tournaments play each other prior to start of new season (similar to Super Cup).
  • X Shield (X = League Name) - Winners of the League play winners of the predominant Cup (similar in style to Italian Super Cup, English Charity Shield etc).
  • Play Offs for clubs finishing third to sixth in league.
  • Greater prize money for Champions League/UEFA Cup style tournaments.
  • Stadium Building (see above).
  • Prizes given to League/Cup winners.
  • GM’s liaise with Dev’s via forum for new clubs and league structures for up-coming Gold Setup.
  • Cup Finals two-legged (home/away with aggregate taken into play, followed by away goals).

• Holiday Button - Linked in to the Assistant Manager (AM) mentioned earlier. If a manager is going away, he can ask his AM to manage his tactics (replacing injured/suspended players etc), and also manage transfers (eg accept any bids for transfer listed players, reject all bids etc).
• GM Calculator - To be used in conjunction with notepad. Will help managers work out transfer bids etc.
• GM Assistant - New addition to notepad. Will inform you when a player becomes available (coming off turns), informs you when manager x is online or was last online etc.
• Team Swap Page - GM’s can put their team(s) up for swap, and then manager x could offer a potential swap conducted in safe environment.
• Message Pop-up - If you are logged online and a new message is received, a pop-up appears informing you that you have new message (either private or setup).
• Real Life Squads - Ability for GM’s to view SM ratings as well.
• Quick Search - Facility to quick search on any page within the site.
• GM Email - Personal email address for GM’s eg GMsuppor@soccermanager.com or similar.
• GM Tactics - Youth players not displayed on tactics page.

Please note that the above ideas are not set in stone, and are only initial suggestions to possibly improve the experience of GM. This is a first draft, and any of the ideas can be deleted, revised, or introduced. Feel free to discuss this post on the forum.

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