As promised, a full February update of AFC!
There are now two versions - the "current" version and the "new" version. The "current" version is the one you're playing now, and is no longer being developed except for bug fixes – if you run across any, please post in the boards and those will be added to the patch notes.
Most of the work on the "new" version of late – let's assume it'll be released this year and call it AFC 2019 – hasn't been all that interesting. Probably the majority of the work goes into making sure information displays properly and that buttons work when clicked.
That being said, one of the most important parts of the game is up and running - personalities! The "current" version uses an awkward 100-point system for tracking homesickness, leadership, egos, et cetera, and doesn't get presented to the user in any sort of meaningful way. Plus, what's the difference between 86 homesickness and 87 homesickness?
AFC 2019 has redefined the system to be almost completely categorical. Players' homesickness is now a categorical range from will play anywhere, any time to will only sign contracts in their home state and suffers a slight decline in performance in out-of-state games! Greed is slightly more scalar, but is now a nine-point scale from "money is not a motivator" to "money is everything." There's a couple other categories that are still being finalised such as leadership
Player roles and player morale are the other new feature. Players will fall into one of nine different categories from superstar to colt, and will have different expectations about playing time, development, and even whether they'll retire. Fail to meet those expectations and their morale will go down. It's not in the game yet, but things are being set up so an aging superstar on a rebuilding team who has never won a grand final may try to get traded or sign a one-year contract somewhere that will give them one final shot at glory.
A rework of the coaching and list management module is next. The AI in the current version could be improved, in part because it doesn't really know an average player offered the exact same contract by Collingwood or Gold Coast will likely pick Collingwood. Giving coaches and AI list managers better preferences and personalities should make the simulation more interesting generally.
The development goal at the moment is to create a fully functioning simulator without any human interactivity and then "drop in" human managers to interact with the previously existing the game world. This is still on track. The hope is the March development blog will be able to walk you through a player's career in screenshots.
Something not planned at the moment: conferences. In the game, the women's league currently plays a full round robin with a four-team final.
Things we need
If you're a photographer or graphic designer, the "new" version needs a professional, footy-related, high resolution background image much better than the one currently being used. If this interests you, please reach out to discuss options and pricing.