Hello, this is Team Samoyed! Teamfight Manager 2 will be consistently sharing its development process through development logs every 2–3 weeks. We truly appreciate your interest.
In this edition, we will be discussing recruitment, training, and balance patches.
Development Direction
Before diving into the details, we'd like to first talk about the current development status and direction of Teamfight Manager 2. Teamfight Manager 2 features quite complex and diverse simulation elements, and fine-tuning these components to create depth is a truly challenging task.
Therefore, even if it means lacking some depth and content scale initially, our plan for Teamfight Manager 2 is to first complete the overall system and then refine the game together with our users through the Early Access process, enhancing its completeness.
To achieve this, Teamfight Manager 2 development is planned to proceed through the following major steps:
- Implement match simulation to a playable level (Completed)
- Implement foundational team management systems outside of matches, such as recruitment, training, financial management, staff, etc. (In Progress)
- Improve and experiment with match simulation, rules, etc., implement champions (Planned)
- Implement and stabilize game features like tutorials, multiplayer, Workshop support, etc. (Planned)
- Diversify overall game content, including team management, and add more depth (Planned)
- Start Early Access once the minimum game depth and content volume for EA are ready
We are currently in the phase of sequentially implementing the foundational systems, corresponding to step 2 in the overall process goals. Since this is the stage of creating the overall flow of how features work before filling in internal content, you might notice a lack of overall depth and quality, or gaps in various parts of the system. Content refinement work to add depth to the game is planned after the overall game framework is established, so please keep this development flow in mind when reading the dev logs.
Recruitment
The player recruitment and transfer system in Teamfight Manager 2 is being implemented to follow a more realistic contract process. However, given the game's nature—set in a fictional sports league rather than a real-world sport—we are aiming for a system that is intuitive and easy to understand, yet offers sufficiently diverse choices, rather than directly replicating complex real-world contract methods.
The recruitment process has been implemented as follows: Negotiate the transfer fee with the team -> Discuss detailed contract terms with the player after the transfer negotiation is complete -> Finalize the player signing once contract conditions are agreed upon.
This is the player transfer fee negotiation screen. While we are considering adding various options related to the transfer fee later, only the function to negotiate the fee amount is currently implemented. The Head Coach Analysis in the top right will also be added after the coaching staff-related features are implemented.
During the transfer fee negotiation process, negotiations might break down entirely if the opposing team doesn't want to sell the player, or if the proposed terms are unreasonable. Alternatively, the opposing team might counter-propose different conditions.
Once negotiations regarding the transfer fee are completed, you can discuss direct contract conditions with the player.
Currently, only conditions regarding salary and contract duration can be negotiated and offered, but the feature to add various option clauses on the right is also planned.
There is a lot of room for improvement in the transfer simulation aspect. We believe the process of recruiting players becomes more interesting as diverse scenarios emerge based on various factors, such as differences in the transfer process depending on the relationship between the player and the team, emotions running high during negotiations, teams' operational plans for the season, players' goals, etc. For now, only the most basic transfer and recruitment logic and conditions are implemented. Many improvements to the transfer and recruitment process are planned after implementing various foundational systems like coaching staff and scouting.
Training
For training, you can set the team's basic training plan through 10 program settings. The team training plan is a common training schedule that all teams will use by default. If you want to assign different training for specific players, it is also possible to adjust their training individually.
In the individual training plan, you can change some training programs based on the common program like this.
Currently, training is implemented only as a structure where player stats grow appropriately based on the assigned program and the player's potential value. Training is also scheduled for content improvements after various other systems are implemented.
Balance Patch
The balance patch system in Teamfight Manager 2 is broadly divided into three stages:
- Minor Patch: Patches occurring at short intervals during the regular season. Only low-intensity balance adjustments affecting a small number of champions are made.
- Major Patch: Patches occurring about 3-4 times a year, implementing higher-intensity balance patches and simultaneously adding one new champion.
- Season Patch: A patch occurring once a year, featuring the largest-scale balance patch along with the addition of new champions. Season patches include not only champion balance adjustments but also changes to overall game rules, such as tower damage, attack speed, jungle monster experience amounts, etc.
In this way, we aim to provide patch notes that feel closer to how actual game patches occur. Additionally, through season patches, we intend to allow fundamental game rules to change annually, continuously providing a slightly fresh feel.
At the same time, as shown in the image, we have widened the scope of changes resulting from patches by allowing adjustments to many more elements than in the previous game. In Teamfight Manager 2, balance patches can affect almost all numerical values that determine a skill's basic operation, such as basic range, area of effect, how each skill scales with stats (coefficients), action duration (cast time), etc.
Patch Algorithm
Determining which target and which element the automatic patch will adjust is also a very important factor. If already strong champions are continuously buffed, or already weak champions are continuously nerfed, it's difficult to bring meaningful changes to gameplay, no matter how many different elements are changed.
The goal of the patch algorithm in Teamfight Manager 2 is fundamentally to continuously bring about changes in the utilized champion pool. We aim to prevent situations where certain champions maintain high pick rates for several seasons, or where specific champions are consistently almost never selected. As the patch algorithm is something that needs continuous observation, we will cover the detailed content in a future development log.
That concludes this development log! Thank you for reading this lengthy post. We look forward to seeing you in the next update!