The AI list management update launched this weekend!
Many users have written in or discussed the game on Discord, with the biggest complaint being that the AI didn't do a good enough job with offseason management. Superstars were being picked in the national draft, players weren't re-signing enough, state teams weren't being active in free agency, and trading was a bit of a mess.
That's all been fixed in the last patch! After over 50 distinct iterative simulations, the AI list managers have been made a lot smarter. New code was written to help the AI estimate just how good a player will be over time, which also impacts the length of their contract offer. Additionally, a bug was fixed where basically any player who was even barely homesick would not re-sign with an interstate team. As a result, a couple superstars will make it to free agency every year, but this will happen rarely as clubs try to lock down players who will help make their list better for years to come.
State clubs now do a better job of asking for free agents, including amateur leagues - there was a bug where they wouldn't re-sign any players at all.
The one area which still needs some work is AI trades with other AI clubs - the AI wants to make trades, but doesn't do a good job valuing draft picks and tends to avoid making draft pick trades entirely. Even then, the AI will now trade a lot less. Also, the AI will still draft mature aged players in the national draft, though this has also been significantly reduced - instead of picking the best available player, which could have been a delisted player who wasn't quite good enough to make a free agency signing, the list managers now consider potential much more strongly. The code for youth players has also been tweaked so the game doesn't keep recycling the same skill 70-75 players over and over again in the draft.
All in all, the game world has become a lot more realistic in just one patch. If you see any discrepancies or oddities, please get in touch on the Steam forums, on Facebook, or on Discord.
Those who love tracking history will also be happy to know you can now see the result of any draft for any league over time in this patch.
A tease for the future as well: There's probably one major patch between now and the game achieving v1.0 status. Once the game hits v1.0, the game will be complete and will not receive any further updates with the exception of bug fixes. The final features planned for AFC2020: league expansion/contraction, improved AI in-game tactical adjustments, reworked AI trades, and adding seasons 2015-2018 to the list of playable seasons, along with a planned 17-game 2020 season mod. If there's anything else you'd like to see added to the game this year, now's the time to get in touch!
Hope you enjoy the upgrade and as always a big thank you for all your support of the Australian Football Coach series.