Development Report May 2026

To kick things off on Labour Day, we’ve started by sorting out the European Championship and World Cup entries. Is there any data missing for Italy, for example? Er, no. The display in the country information section now works correctly and has also been enlarged.

In addition, the WAF24 guide has been updated and is now available in its final version 2.21. This has also been published and includes, amongst other things, new chapters for translators and on the topic of “promises at the start of the season”.

As our main topic we turned our attention at the start of the month to the finer details of the negotiations. Initially, the focus was exclusively on the players.

As the previous system is being removed, there are naturally opportunities to incorporate a few extra bonuses and similar features.

Behind the scenes, preparations continued in early May for the integration of match scenes that had already been completed, bringing the total number of variations to over 1,000. We also worked on a list of additional adjustable parameters to ensure they fit the tactics even better. These will then need to be set retrospectively for all match scenes. Incidentally, there were a few more striker goals after the update. But we’re keeping an eye on this issue; after all, the final fine-tuning won’t begin until absolutely all planned scenes are finished and integrated.

Furthermore, the new Tactics tab has been completed. In terms of design, we prepared something for a possible version next year: the feature “Watch matches when you’re not playing yourself” has been finalised and is now essentially ready for future implementation. You’ll then be able to set, for example, that you definitely want to watch the cup final and the World Cup final live.

During the negotiations, we then agreed on the criteria players use to assess clubs when considering a move. Naturally, this varies with age. We also agreed that, from now on, clubs must contact the current owner of the player in advance if they wish to speak to a player. Only once an agreement has been reached with the player will the actual transfer fee negotiations take place. Well, not all clubs tend to do this. The first transfer under our new system took place on 11 May.

The new live ticker was completed in the game interface in the middle of the month. The design for cancelling a fixed transfer fee has been created; you can then buy it back from a player.

When setting up the new negotiations, the focus was on the “Evaluation of offers” section. These are now analysed across five categories: league, club, finances, contract length and true love. In addition, there is a brief comment from the player regarding each offer. So, for example, when extending a contract, you can see at a glance that the attraction of the Spanish league actually favours Sevilla (the weather is better too, says the player), but the move to Saudi Arabia is simply unbeatable financially. And as a club, you might score points yourself by pointing out that the player came through your own youth system and owes a lot to the club. That leads to two hearts under “True love”. You can probably already guess what’s going to happen. You should have extended his contract sooner. The agent looks on with pity.

In the middle of the month the new scenes mentioned earlier were also integrated. Furthermore, planning for the tactical changes is now in place.

A new tab has been added under ‘Team’. It summarises the players’ characters, their current influence, their hobbies and the ‘Personal observations’. There is also now a sponsor pyramid.

On the 19th, we finally designed a feature that many of you had been asking for: an overview of players’ expectations regarding their playing time. Sometimes you put things like this off for ages because you’re not sure how to do it – and then it’s like opening a bottle of ketchup: within a few hours, everything becomes crystal clear. That’s exactly how it was that day.

More demanding players now have higher expectations, younger players are more modest, and so on. There have also been some developments in identifying regular players (things are really picking up, especially at the start of the season). And finally, there are now players whose expectations have been exceeded and who are therefore particularly happy. All of this is summarised in a comprehensive overview, so you can see at a glance what’s going on. That’s the plan! We’ll let you know as soon as it’s implemented!

Work has also continued on Creative Mode since the 20th, and negotiations are being worked on daily anyway.

Fabian is still hard at work on the gameplay. The new version offers:

• In addition to standard tackles, more tactical fouls (pulling or pushing)

• More free kicks (direct and indirect, as there are now many one-on-one situations)

• Revised long-range shots, so that they bounce back into play more often (off the post and from the goalkeeper). Sometimes to a teammate, sometimes to an opponent, who then scores from the rebound. This adds a whole lot more realism!

• Focus on tiki-taka sequences (after all, we want to see beautiful football)

On the 27th, we finally saw the first penalty in Creative Mode following three corners. You can now also choose to disable 50+1 in Germany at will or leave it enabled permanently. This marked the completion of the fourth of five steps in Creative Mode.

The final major feature of the month was the addition of the “Fans” tab to the club info. It’s certainly turned out to be a very nice screen.

Finally, initial minor work was carried out on the new guide. Here, the appendices were first removed and integrated into the main body of the text.