How to play

Step 1: Select the teams and the parameters

Choose your red and blue team. You can also change the number of clicks a game takes---I would recommend numbers between 90 and 180, however.

Experienced players may adjust more parameters

Confirm your choices by clicking on the "new game" button.

All these parameters remain constant during the game.

Step 2: Choose the coaches and the strategies

For both the red and the blue team you may select a computer coach. If you choose to coach one of the teams, choose "no Help", if you play against another human, choose "no Help" for both teams. If you choose computer coaches for both teams, these is almost nothing you have to do during the game---it will play for you.

There are several computer coaches and several strategies available. ...... The depth indicates how direct the team is going to play, how many clicks you are willing to allow between ball possession and shoot of the corresponding team. If the depth is too low, players may shoot even when not positioned well, or even with low strength. If the depth is too high, the team may pass and pass and pass without coming to a shoot for a long time.

You can change the coach and the strategy anytime during the game, by selecting another one and clicking the "change blue coach" or "change red coach" buttons.

Step 3: Start the game by clicking the "Start Game" button

Step 4: Play

A red team (to the left) is playing against a blue team (right) on the field. Each time, either

What to do during red or blue phases

When a team, say the red one, gets ball possession from the other team, the first two clicks are for moving one player (running). You select the corresponding player by clicking on him or her. The player gets a yellow background. With the next click, you indicate where the player should move. Note that players cannot move to close to players of the opposite team, that players can not move to far away from the original position (indicated by a circle in the corresponding color), and also cannot move too far in one step.

After these two clicks, all remaining clicks are for passing or shooting. The player possesing the ball can either 

What to do during breaks

The game is interrupted after 45 minutes and after each goal, but you can interrupt the game at any time by clicking the "timeout" button.

If the game is interrupted, both players can exchange players (by clicking them off and on) or change the position of the players slightly (by dragging) around the corresponding circle, which indicates the natural position. The number of players you can exchange is fixed (5) and also the number of exchanges you can make during each break. If these numbers are exceeded, the exchange and moving will no longer work.

Player Strength

The strengths of each player is composed by the following::

The strength is the product of the second and the third number---the number shown. .

Whether or not an action like a pass or a shoot is successful or intercepted depends on

For the left team, you may decide to choose a computer trainer, either to suggest moves (if a human trains the team) or to decide what to do in each step if you are playing alone (training the team to the right). You may choose between 3 trainers and different depth levels. You may change this setting throughout the game---just click the "change Trainer" button.

By changing the number in the field left of the "GG" button, you can choose how many clicks a game has.

If a game is over but a draw and you need a decision, click on the "GG" (golden goal) button, that allows you to play on until the next goal.

Statistics

A statistic for all players is conducted, below the playing area. For each player 5 numbers are shown:

  1. The first column shows the number of passes,
  2. the second column shows the percentage of successful passes,
  3. the third column shows the number of attempted shots,
  4. the fourth column shows the percentage of successful shots. ...
  5. The fifth column shows the number of intercepts..

 


How it works under the surface
How the computer coaches work


Erich Prisner, October 2002