The newest patch for Australian Football Coach 2023 has just been released and while it's really one for the modders, the game adds functionality in the direction of the overall franchise road map. One of AFC2023's core features is its customisability. For those users wanting more than a custom league, all of the database files are simple tab-separated text files and almost all of the image files are editable, and several users have already created some amazing mods as a result.
While this was expected to be a 2024 feature, this patch will let users create scenarios and then define future events, such as league expansion, adding or removing drafts, or even merging teams, as the league plays out. There's even a new dynamic merge feature which will merge the two worst-performing teams!
There's also updates for player skill generation. Users can now define the maximum upper and lower skill limits for generated players each league in a mod.
While the vast majority of coaches won't notice much (unless a crash was introduced and missed, which is always sadly possible), this is a big patch for moving the game along its development track. Look for future improvements such as adding back in more historical rules, including some from the original Australian Football Coach such as the veteran's rule, to provide more realism to historical simulations.
Apologies to those waiting on a more robust online multiplayer module - it's still coming, it's just a slog to make work correctly. Hopefully the basics will be available in the next update, including setting user passwords!
Full change log:
- Fixed: Game would sometimes crash when writing career end news stories
- Improved: Scouting reports on players on human controlled teams will always be generated when that player is recruited (via signing a contract) for the first time
- Improved: changed player peak age weights
- Improved: Added parameters for player skill generation in the scenario Settings.csv file
- Improved: Re-created veterans rule variable, though it doesn't do anything noticeable yet
+ Added: Zoned players can now be added just like draft picks
+ Added: Game now recognises Events.csv in a scenario file, allowing you to program automated league changes over time