Thought I'd post this as I've not seen anyone mention but this is out on the app store in UK. Seems really good so far. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/new-star-soccer-manager/id1360417684?mt=8 New Star Manager Five Aces Publishing Ltd. Welcome to New Star Manager: The critically acclaimed game from Simon Read, creator of the BAFTA Award-winning New Star … Free Buy Now Watch Media DetailsWelcome to New Star Manager: The critically acclaimed game from Simon Read, creator of the BAFTA Award-winning New Star Soccer series. Take control of New Star FC – a beleaguered soccer club which needs your management skills and instincts to unlock the team's potential and make it to the top of the game. ⋆⋆⋆The No.1 iPhone and iPad game of 2018 - AppSpy.com⋆⋆⋆ This is soccer management like you've never experienced it - Be more than just a player, be the head, the heart, and backbone of New Star FC. Be the Manager. “New Star Manager takes the frame of the original game, and builds something utterly wonderful on top of it” 10/10 - Pocket Gamer “If you love football…you’d be mad not to download it” The Guardian TOTAL CLUB CONTROL Take ownership of every aspect of New Star FC, from constructing vital club facilities and managing the players' training regimes to choosing the perfect sponsor and hiring or firing the backroom staff! FULL SQUAD GAMEPLAY Use every member of your team to set up and score pivotal goals with on-pitch gameplay, using innovative controls designed specifically for phones and tablets! REAL SOCCER TACTICS Build your dream squad, choose your winning formation, make tactical substitutions, and even step into the locker room for some half-time motivation! OFF-PITCH DRAMA Handle volatile players and get their mind back in the game by monitoring their concerns, outbursts, and quirks. Keep the board off your back, navigate the hostile waters of the sporting press, and make sure the fans keep believing... while keeping a careful eye on the club's finances! GLOBAL FOOTBALL Dive into realistic simulations of the world’s biggest leagues and cup competitions! THE NEW STAR SOCCER EVOLUTION Experience the newest instalment of the New Star series, whose pick-up-and-play sports titles have already been enjoyed by over 30 million players! Information Seller:Five Aces Publishing Ltd. Genre:Simulation, Sports Release:Jul 09, 2018 Updated:Sep 06, 2022 Version:1.7.3 Size:172.0 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating:Unrated Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal djstout Well-Known Member Jul 21, 2011 2,672 97 48 Sportscaster & football (soccer) coach Taiwan & Japan #2 djstout, Jul 9, 2018 Premium iap? allsopj84 Active Member Jun 13, 2018 40 5 8 Male #3 allsopj84, Jul 10, 2018 I have noticed that this game seems to have more IAP than the original New Star Soccer so was wondering if it backs up progress to the cloud? The original New Star Soccer did not have any form of cloud saving which was really frustrating as you couldn’t transfer progress to other devices. Bloodangel Well-Known Member Jan 19, 2011 1,823 45 48 Retail England #4 Bloodangel, Jul 10, 2018 I’ve had this about a week, got it off the Australian store as it was in soft launch there. I’m loving it!!! Not had to buy any iap yet. Loving the style and how this game plays. Is it out of soft launch now then, if it’s in the U.K. store? I will delete Australian one I’ve got and get the UK one Bloodangel Well-Known Member Jan 19, 2011 1,823 45 48 Retail England #5 Bloodangel, Jul 10, 2018 Yep it’s been officially released in the U.K. today Nachtfischer Well-Known Member Feb 7, 2013 230 8 18 Game Designer Germany https://ludokultur.de/ #6 Nachtfischer, Jul 10, 2018 Seems to be out in the US now too. Not in Germany though. FRS Well-Known Member Oct 11, 2011 144 0 16 #7 FRS, Jul 12, 2018 Last edited: Jul 12, 2018 The team you start with is seriously undermanned and feels like an instant money grab to try to get you to buy a pack of players. If instead you opt to buy a bunch of terrible scrubs you’re in for an epic grind. Therefore the progression seems slow without IAP which is where my gripes begin. By the time you realize that you can’t just sell and buy players one for one your season will be a mess. Conveniently, you can always salvage it with IAP. Do you need to? No, but you’ll likely want to after several hours sunk into a season. I feel like the entire game is engineered to extract money out of the player which is unfortunate... as you’d like to think that a premium IAP to remove ads would obviate the money grubbing feel to the game but those mechanics persist and don’t really reward the purchase, as the ads aren’t that intrusive. It’s a shame because the mechanics are great and the management is just deep enough to be engaging but mixed with a good tactical game that gives you those Football Manager moments on mobile. It’s really a mixed bag for me, with a coercive payment model on an otherwise great game. Sad really. Bloodangel Well-Known Member Jan 19, 2011 1,823 45 48 Retail England #8 Bloodangel, Jul 12, 2018 I like grinding though, and having to earn players.... slowly build up the earnings, and buy players I need, slowly building a bigger and better team. Wouldn’t be right if in lower leagues, you got premier class players and shot through the leagues. Think it’s meant to be a slow progress and build, and maybe a better team along the way may want to offer you a job at their club FRS Well-Known Member Oct 11, 2011 144 0 16 #9 FRS, Jul 12, 2018 The thing is there’s no progression like this. You’ll only ever be at the one club. My biggest gripe is starting you out with a team that’s too small to provide cover and not giving you the information or tools you need to know about player progression and keeping them happy until it’s only fixable with an IAP. The entire game feels engineered towards backing you into a corner to make an IAP (even though I’ve avoided it other than the ad removal through one season). But I shouldn’t be surprised since other New Star games did the same, I just feel sad because the “premium” game on desktop was so much more enjoyable... I just feel like others should know before buying the ad remove like I did that it’s probably not worth it and the game suffers from this constant, grimy, predatory engineering. Auhron Well-Known Member Jan 4, 2009 60 1 6 Editor Berlin #10 Auhron, Jul 13, 2018 Well, I enjoyed the first full season with the game, but the second season just feels wrong and like you need to invest money or just quit. I'm fine with a slower progression and stuff, but that doesn't seem to be the real problem with New Star Soccer Manager. You are used to play with 60% work rate most of the time and you are usually doing fine in your games and advance the the next higher division this way in your first full year. Then the real problems started, I only won one match so far, all other were losses and I'm not just talking about minor things like (1-2 goal differences). Of course the next higher league should be difficult, but I bought some new players (free) and I'm still loosing usually by 4-5 goals which is just stupid and also not really realistic...it just seems to force you to invest real money. You tend to loose, players will drop their stats, they make mistake after mistake, won't play well together and you can't really seem to change that (at least not for free) and it's just annoying that way. I really loved the original version of New Star Soccer, until they made the game f2p and changed a bunch of stuff, after that it was just not fun anymore and it seems you can't really enjoy/play New Star Soccer Manager without investing money on a regular base. I'm fine with investing 5-15 Euros in total for a nice game on iPhone/iPad, but I'm not going to invest 10 Euros every couple of minutes/hours for weeks/month. There a bunch of people you do that out there and it works for the developers, otherwise the business model and game design would change, but it's just not how I want to play/enjoy games. FRS likes this. PapaT Well-Known Member Nov 22, 2011 98 5 8 UK #11 PapaT, Jul 14, 2018 My experience is exactly the same as Auhron. Won the National League on the last day of the season, played a few friendlies at the start of season 2 but lost them all with my season 1 squad - even lost to a National League team that I had beaten easily in season 1. When the transfer window opened bought a few better players but it's hopeless. Because you lose all your games player happiness plummets, their performance is poor and of course you lose. Perhaps the answer is to stay in the National League for a couple of seasons and try to build a squad that will cope in League 2. Does anyone know if season 2 in the National League has the same issues? It's a real shame because after season 1 I thought this was a real gem. However, season 2 is providing a very frustrating and unenjoyable experience. FRS Well-Known Member Oct 11, 2011 144 0 16 #12 FRS, Jul 14, 2018 Yup, this is exactly the mechanic I was describing here. But the problem is you can’t even do what you describe by progressing more slowly because if you build a full squad of bronze star players their happiness is almost always bottom of the barrel because they aren’t playing every game or you aren’t training every player each week, etc., etc. Of course, you could pay yet more real money to upgrade all your facilities and buy packs of management cards right? The balance is really towards forcing the player into IAPs and I feel it’s exploitative. GiHubb Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Apr 27, 2010 1,049 39 48 CEO #13 GiHubb, Jul 14, 2018 I really wish they would just have a balanced premium version and unbalanced freemium version living side by side. It's been done before. While at it, I could dream they would do the same for the original NSS. It was one of my favorite games ever, which I bought most of the cosmetic IAP for, then to see it transform into a freemium economy and become rubbish. I think 2 versions would have been best. FRS likes this. GiHubb Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Apr 27, 2010 1,049 39 48 CEO #14 GiHubb, Jul 15, 2018 I am still plowing through my first full season in the Spanish league (I'm a big fan of Atletico Madrid so had to go with Spain) and looking at the upper divisions, the teams there actually don't seem overpowered compared to my current team, so maybe the game is fair (even if it does shove those player packs in your face). I'll keep playing and once I go up the division, I'll have a better judgement. However I agree that having a freemium pay model + what happened with the original NSS - is concerning. I hope the IAPs are treated as glorified "cheats". AzriaXX Member Jul 16, 2018 20 19 3 Male #15 AzriaXX, Jul 16, 2018 I absolutely love this game, but I really dislike the ad-system. I've paid for the 'Remove all Ads' option (€ 5,49), but I still get requests for ads before matches, get popups during matches telling me to 'buy extra retries' and more. I want to feel like I'm playing a premium game when I pay for a remove all ads option, and I still feel like I'm playing a F2P game. Ofcourse the IAP are optional and I don't need them, but the constant reminders is something I don't understand when I've paid to remove this. colmulhall77, FRS and djstout like this. djstout Well-Known Member Jul 21, 2011 2,672 97 48 Sportscaster & football (soccer) coach Taiwan & Japan #16 djstout, Jul 16, 2018 I totally agree, it’s also very hard to get extra contracts Buss1985 Well-Known Member Feb 20, 2013 48 0 6 #17 Buss1985, Jul 16, 2018 Having exactly the same experience which is a shame as I've really been enjoying it. Won the National League in the first season by about 10 points. Now I'm getting hammered in pretty much every game in League 2. I've played 8 games, winning 1 and losing 7 and have a goal difference of -18. It's so unbalanced to the point I think I'm going to have to give it up. I would happily put some money into the game but as you say, I don't want to have to spend money on it constantly. colmulhall77 Member Jul 7, 2012 11 0 1 The App Store http://colm.io #18 colmulhall77, Jul 16, 2018 Most people here seem to be having the same experience as me. Thank God because I just assumed I was terrible at the game! The game play is really good, much better than NSS, and lets you really create great moves and goals. I'm enjoying building the club (slowly) and seeing better players getting scouted. It is however very hard to make progress after the first season. Expect regular losses, unhappy players and an imbalanced squad. At one point I had 4 defenders and a squad full of midfielders. When a defender would get injured I would have to change formation and instantly lose the game. I'm going to persevere and see can I make progress without any IAPs, mainly because NSS is one of the few games that you could make progress whether or not you were prepared to depart with your hard earned moola. moms pubis Member Jan 4, 2012 14 1 3 #19 moms pubis, Jul 17, 2018 Last edited: Jul 17, 2018 I really think the game does itself a disservice by pushing card packs so hard, because they’re really not necessary to succeed. I’ve put almost twenty hours into the game without spending a dime on card packs and I’m still doing well. You just have to be smart with how you use your money; don’t hire players whose salaries you’ll have trouble paying when their contract renewals come around, occasionally pass on staff rewards in order to rest players between matches to keep their energy up, and have enough guys in your reserve squad that you’re not asking too much of your first team and tiring them out. You really only need to spend money if you’re impatient or made a series of colossal mistakes. josumart Member Apr 9, 2011 18 1 3 #20 josumart, Jul 17, 2018 Another small tip... look for cheap but old players in the market... i managed to end up in the 10 position on my second year using them. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Page 1 of 2 1 2 Next > Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now. Yes, my password is: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
I have noticed that this game seems to have more IAP than the original New Star Soccer so was wondering if it backs up progress to the cloud? The original New Star Soccer did not have any form of cloud saving which was really frustrating as you couldn’t transfer progress to other devices.
I’ve had this about a week, got it off the Australian store as it was in soft launch there. I’m loving it!!! Not had to buy any iap yet. Loving the style and how this game plays. Is it out of soft launch now then, if it’s in the U.K. store? I will delete Australian one I’ve got and get the UK one
The team you start with is seriously undermanned and feels like an instant money grab to try to get you to buy a pack of players. If instead you opt to buy a bunch of terrible scrubs you’re in for an epic grind. Therefore the progression seems slow without IAP which is where my gripes begin. By the time you realize that you can’t just sell and buy players one for one your season will be a mess. Conveniently, you can always salvage it with IAP. Do you need to? No, but you’ll likely want to after several hours sunk into a season. I feel like the entire game is engineered to extract money out of the player which is unfortunate... as you’d like to think that a premium IAP to remove ads would obviate the money grubbing feel to the game but those mechanics persist and don’t really reward the purchase, as the ads aren’t that intrusive. It’s a shame because the mechanics are great and the management is just deep enough to be engaging but mixed with a good tactical game that gives you those Football Manager moments on mobile. It’s really a mixed bag for me, with a coercive payment model on an otherwise great game. Sad really.
I like grinding though, and having to earn players.... slowly build up the earnings, and buy players I need, slowly building a bigger and better team. Wouldn’t be right if in lower leagues, you got premier class players and shot through the leagues. Think it’s meant to be a slow progress and build, and maybe a better team along the way may want to offer you a job at their club
The thing is there’s no progression like this. You’ll only ever be at the one club. My biggest gripe is starting you out with a team that’s too small to provide cover and not giving you the information or tools you need to know about player progression and keeping them happy until it’s only fixable with an IAP. The entire game feels engineered towards backing you into a corner to make an IAP (even though I’ve avoided it other than the ad removal through one season). But I shouldn’t be surprised since other New Star games did the same, I just feel sad because the “premium” game on desktop was so much more enjoyable... I just feel like others should know before buying the ad remove like I did that it’s probably not worth it and the game suffers from this constant, grimy, predatory engineering.
Well, I enjoyed the first full season with the game, but the second season just feels wrong and like you need to invest money or just quit. I'm fine with a slower progression and stuff, but that doesn't seem to be the real problem with New Star Soccer Manager. You are used to play with 60% work rate most of the time and you are usually doing fine in your games and advance the the next higher division this way in your first full year. Then the real problems started, I only won one match so far, all other were losses and I'm not just talking about minor things like (1-2 goal differences). Of course the next higher league should be difficult, but I bought some new players (free) and I'm still loosing usually by 4-5 goals which is just stupid and also not really realistic...it just seems to force you to invest real money. You tend to loose, players will drop their stats, they make mistake after mistake, won't play well together and you can't really seem to change that (at least not for free) and it's just annoying that way. I really loved the original version of New Star Soccer, until they made the game f2p and changed a bunch of stuff, after that it was just not fun anymore and it seems you can't really enjoy/play New Star Soccer Manager without investing money on a regular base. I'm fine with investing 5-15 Euros in total for a nice game on iPhone/iPad, but I'm not going to invest 10 Euros every couple of minutes/hours for weeks/month. There a bunch of people you do that out there and it works for the developers, otherwise the business model and game design would change, but it's just not how I want to play/enjoy games.
My experience is exactly the same as Auhron. Won the National League on the last day of the season, played a few friendlies at the start of season 2 but lost them all with my season 1 squad - even lost to a National League team that I had beaten easily in season 1. When the transfer window opened bought a few better players but it's hopeless. Because you lose all your games player happiness plummets, their performance is poor and of course you lose. Perhaps the answer is to stay in the National League for a couple of seasons and try to build a squad that will cope in League 2. Does anyone know if season 2 in the National League has the same issues? It's a real shame because after season 1 I thought this was a real gem. However, season 2 is providing a very frustrating and unenjoyable experience.
Yup, this is exactly the mechanic I was describing here. But the problem is you can’t even do what you describe by progressing more slowly because if you build a full squad of bronze star players their happiness is almost always bottom of the barrel because they aren’t playing every game or you aren’t training every player each week, etc., etc. Of course, you could pay yet more real money to upgrade all your facilities and buy packs of management cards right? The balance is really towards forcing the player into IAPs and I feel it’s exploitative.
I really wish they would just have a balanced premium version and unbalanced freemium version living side by side. It's been done before. While at it, I could dream they would do the same for the original NSS. It was one of my favorite games ever, which I bought most of the cosmetic IAP for, then to see it transform into a freemium economy and become rubbish. I think 2 versions would have been best.
I am still plowing through my first full season in the Spanish league (I'm a big fan of Atletico Madrid so had to go with Spain) and looking at the upper divisions, the teams there actually don't seem overpowered compared to my current team, so maybe the game is fair (even if it does shove those player packs in your face). I'll keep playing and once I go up the division, I'll have a better judgement. However I agree that having a freemium pay model + what happened with the original NSS - is concerning. I hope the IAPs are treated as glorified "cheats".
I absolutely love this game, but I really dislike the ad-system. I've paid for the 'Remove all Ads' option (€ 5,49), but I still get requests for ads before matches, get popups during matches telling me to 'buy extra retries' and more. I want to feel like I'm playing a premium game when I pay for a remove all ads option, and I still feel like I'm playing a F2P game. Ofcourse the IAP are optional and I don't need them, but the constant reminders is something I don't understand when I've paid to remove this.
Having exactly the same experience which is a shame as I've really been enjoying it. Won the National League in the first season by about 10 points. Now I'm getting hammered in pretty much every game in League 2. I've played 8 games, winning 1 and losing 7 and have a goal difference of -18. It's so unbalanced to the point I think I'm going to have to give it up. I would happily put some money into the game but as you say, I don't want to have to spend money on it constantly.
Most people here seem to be having the same experience as me. Thank God because I just assumed I was terrible at the game! The game play is really good, much better than NSS, and lets you really create great moves and goals. I'm enjoying building the club (slowly) and seeing better players getting scouted. It is however very hard to make progress after the first season. Expect regular losses, unhappy players and an imbalanced squad. At one point I had 4 defenders and a squad full of midfielders. When a defender would get injured I would have to change formation and instantly lose the game. I'm going to persevere and see can I make progress without any IAPs, mainly because NSS is one of the few games that you could make progress whether or not you were prepared to depart with your hard earned moola.
I really think the game does itself a disservice by pushing card packs so hard, because they’re really not necessary to succeed. I’ve put almost twenty hours into the game without spending a dime on card packs and I’m still doing well. You just have to be smart with how you use your money; don’t hire players whose salaries you’ll have trouble paying when their contract renewals come around, occasionally pass on staff rewards in order to rest players between matches to keep their energy up, and have enough guys in your reserve squad that you’re not asking too much of your first team and tiring them out. You really only need to spend money if you’re impatient or made a series of colossal mistakes.
Another small tip... look for cheap but old players in the market... i managed to end up in the 10 position on my second year using them.