Dev Log: World Rankings & 5-Aside Balance Patch
Rather than randomly deciding on the team strengths, they now mirror the FIFA World Rankings, so in theory, the pub from Argentina should have the strongest squad. Though not correlated this against the country with the best pub.
🛡️ The 5-Aside Player Count Fix
We noticed that some AI managers were sneaking an extra regular onto the field! A bug in the match preparation config was letting the away team play with all 6 of their squad members on the pitch, while the home team played with the correct 5 starters. Both teams have now been strictly capped to exactly 5 players on the pitch. Sunday league rules are rules, even after a few pints. I must have tested the game over 100 times before I noticed this!
📈 FIFA World Rankings Integration
Previously, player attributes for all AI teams were generated identically, depending solely on the tournament's difficulty setting. We have now integrated a 48-team world ranking map based on real-world rankings to weight starting statistics. Argentina (#1) will now field world-class pub goers closer to a 10/10/10 average, while lower-tier pubs like New Zealand (#48) will have a much tougher uphill battle. The global difficulty modifier applies on top of this!