Change Log

All of these announcements can be found on the Blackout Games discord channel, so for up-to-date information check there.

26/08/21

Match Engine Fix

• The offside rule has now been correctly implemented for Up & Under kicks.

23/08/21

Season 2021.10 Features

• Mobile wider testing, finally! — Some issues are ongoing but we've reached a point where it's better to get more people playing on mobile and letting us know of any issues they find. We're aiming to start this before the end of this week, however it may be next.
• Prize giving — Trophy winners at the end of each league season will be treated to a visual "prizing giving" on the league screen.
• YouTube tutorial series — We'll begin releasing these videos with the wider mobile test group

In the Works:

• Football engine dev, and game-plan design
• Next/On hold while we push mobile out: Cup Competition

16/08/21

v.0.378.11

• Fixed Feedback submit button being hidden by info box

02/08/21

Match Engine Tweaks

• Re balance of P&G and Drive attacks based on defence tactic
• Reduced maximum distance a player can be driven forward or backwards in a tackle
• The probability of keeping possession at a breakdown is now partly influenced by the type of attack move that led to the breakdown (greatest for p&g, lowest for creative)
• Slightly increased the time it takes for players to exit a breakdown
• Fixed cases of players running excessively horizontal lines in expansive moves

27/07/21

Match Engine Tweaks- Defence Changes

• Defensive positioning, angle, and speed that defenders approach attackers, based on the defence tactic, has been tweaked
• Positioning skill checks added for defenders against attackers during expansive and creative moves, to encourage more line breaks. These are also influenced by the defence tactic.

27/07/21

Season 2021.9 Features

• Prize giving — Trophy winners at the end of each league season will be treated to a visual "prizing giving" visual on the league screen.

In the Works:

• Mobile versions (finishing last few minor features, then big focus on QA with more testers)
• YouTube tutorial series (~95% complete, just waiting on potential branding refresh)
• Football early design and engine dev
• Next to start: Cup Competition (On hold for a while as we focus on mobile and monetisation tracking/statistics ahead of mobile launch)

12/07/21

v.378.9-10

• Fixed Album resetting it's panel on each load
• Fixed contract negotiation screens panel not being visible on first load
• Fixed not being able to sign-up to the game with Facebook
• API updates for subscription management in the storefront.

06/07/21

Match Engine Tweak

• Creative Attack: New  moves for Creative attack have been added, such as chip kicks and scissor moves. The pass back inside move is now part of expansive

05/07/21

v.0.378.7-8

• Fixed Steam error message showing when there was no error
• Fixed lineup details not being editable
• Other minor fixes

30/06/21

v.0.378.6

• Fixed stuck scrollbar when creating a planned friendly challenge
• Descriptions of psychology deck options no longer overlap with buttons
• Fixed bug preventing tokens from being used on club shields, colour palettes, etc.
• Increased size of scrollbar during deck collection

29/06/21

Season 2021.8 Features

• Match clip sharing — Some new social sharing options are already available, however we're still polishing the ability to share match video clips
• Prize giving — Trophy winners at the end of each league season will be treated to a visual "prizing giving" visual on the league screen.
• Larger mobile test group — We're still battling build issues as mobile providers continually update their tools, and our cloud build provider struggles to keep up. However we will soon expand the test-group to all active users.

In the Works:

• Mobile versions (finishing last few minor features, then big focus on QA with more testers)
• YouTube tutorial series (~95% complete, just waiting on potential branding refresh)
• Next to start: Cup Competition (On hold for a while as we focus on mobile and monetisation tracking/statistics ahead of mobile launch)

16/06/21

Match Engine Tweak

• The “Go for bonus point at all costs” game-plan setting has been improved so that if it's too late in the match to realistically achieve the bonus point, your team will no longer hold possession at all costs. This alleviates the situation when you're only winning by a little bit at the end of the match and your team would normally hold possession instead of kicking, even in dangerous positions near your own try line.

04/06/21

v.0337.9

• Fixed bug where first and second semi-final fixtures had swapped places
• Translated text will no longer replace user-entered text (e.g. "league position 1" instead of club name in finals)
• Fixed league's loading spinner staying visible after loading

02/06/21

Match Engine Tweaks -

Changes To Acceleration and Agility

• Agility: now plays a much larger role in determining a player’s ability to change direction while running.
• Acceleration: has been tweaked quite heavily, as now acceleration speeds are more realistic, and differences between low and high agility will be more visible in the ME.

Expansive Play Tweak

• Players less likely to pass the ball early.

31/05/21

Season 2021.7 Features

• Social sharing — The ability to share various events, e.g. match results, and match snippets as a short video
• In-game help — Snippets from the wiki, these will spring up over time starting very soon!
• Small psychology decks for club cash — These will be available from any of the mental attribute panels on the Player screen, e.g. after you click on Form. This is the first of a few tweaks to the game to provide more cash sinks, and to give more incentive to sell players on the TM.
• Larger mobile test group — We will soon expand the test-group to all active users. An email will be sent out in the next couple of weeks with invite links for Android and iOS

Important Changes:

• A club's star player cap will now only apply to home-grown players from the academy —  This is another move to encourage more TM activity as it will incentivise selling your home-grown players and buying other people's star players.
• All star players will require contract negotiations — In relation to the above change to star player caps: to regulate the number of star players in a given squad, ALL stars will require paid salaries even if they are not in your top 10 players.
• No more midday match tactics cards — For example when you create your first ladder challenge each day, you would normally get more cards based on the number of match card-slots you have. This is being removed and only your initial daily cards will remain.

26/05/21

v.0.337.8

• Fixed bug where training "select all" option affected players in other regimes
• Prevented various uncommon errors

24/05/21

v.0.337.7

• Chat system released: start conversations with one or more users
• Updated login/signup interface
• Player history now shows stat changes
• Fixed bug causing music volume setting to be ignored
• Fixed missing stadium crowds when watching live matches
• Fixed performance when game minimised on Mac

03/05/21

Season 2021.6 Features

• Chat — will be released either just before the new season, or very soon after season start
• Social sharing — Ability to share various events, e.g. match results, and match snippets as a short video

03/05/21

v.0.282.6-0.282.15

• These updates are primarily focused on fixing an issue where the login screen was displaying over the game, even when you are logged in.

19/04/21

v.0.285.5

• Fixed Market Watchlist briefly showing random extra players when loading sometimes
• Fixed and Improved Store card filtering

13/04/21

Match Engine Tweaks

• Box Kicks: Box Kicking by the scrum-half have been introduced. Every Up&Under now has a 50% chance to be kicked by the scrum-half.
• Scrum: When a club has won the ball in a scrum but is pushed backwards, the number 8 is now used to try and control the ball. If they do so successfully, then the ball will not be turned over, even if the scrum is pushed back large distances.
• Scrum: When a scrum is pushed back there is a chance the retreating scrum will give away a penalty  for collapsing or popping up in the front row. The chance is based upon the distance the scrum retreats and the relevant skills and attributes of the two front rows.
• Scrum: Distances a scrum can be pushed back have been slightly reduced.

12/04/21

v.0.282.4

• Fixed lots of behind the scenes errors. This should improve stability
• Removed history tab in player info screen from visiting mode
• Fixed some lineup text issues
• Fixed next deck countdown not showing
• Made some minor optimization tweaks
• Updated automated error reporting

06/04/21

Broadcast Building Changes

• We've been pleasantly surprised by the number of people willing to sink a lot of time into watching ads, which is great! However, the broadcast building was designed to support a certain type of user, and we expected most users to ignore it. At this stage we are still gathering data, however we want to let you know it is highly likely that in the future we will tweak this building and curb the tech outputs slightly.

05/04/21

Season 2021.5

• Chat — will make an appearance sometime next season
• Special Offers — e.g. "Hey Premium is ~% off for the next 48 hours!" will be made live soon
• Reduction in extra daily cards — Currently, buildings are generating too many extra daily cards beyond the guaranteed energy-based amount. We always want there to be a little more energy in the deck to create an extra card or two for user-choice, however, currently this is too generous and will be nerfed a little.

In the works:

• Mobile versions
• YouTube tutorial series (~50% complete)
• Social sharing — Ability to share various events, e.g. match results, and match snippets as a short video
• In-game help (snippets from the wiki, ~50% complete)
• Next: Cup Competition

30/03/21

v.0.282.2

• Fixed training buttons becoming un-selectable
• Fixed broadcast building always displaying an 'upgrade not possible' message
• Text sizing changes
• More tutorial fixes

28/03/21

v.0.282.1

• Increased size of text in top bar resource trackers
• Fixed broadcast building not display max level explanation
• Fixed issue with tutorial

25/03/21

v.0.282.0

• This is a relatively major update that releases the broadcast building, friends list, and some other features as well as a stack of fixes

11/03/21

Match Engine Tweaks

Kicking Changes:

• Decreased chance of finding touch from inside own 22
• Increased chance of finding touch from outside own 22
• Decreased time kickoffs and dropouts spend in the air

10/03/21

Season 2021.4 Features

• The broadcast building is just around the corner, sorry we haven't been able to release it earlier.
• Friends list is coming to the game next season, then in-game chat the season after.

01/03/21

Match Engine Tweaks

• Players who catch a kick now have a chance of kicking the ball themselves rather than only running it back. The chance is based upon the Kicking tactical options you have chosen for the zone where the catch is made.
• Improved Kick chase behaviour of offside players
• Fixed bug where defenders could run into touch when the ball carrier ran at them.
• Improved positioning of fullback on defence during open play.

23/02/21

v0.230.18

• Added confirmation to kicking a union member
• Fixed grounds camera saving state when zoomed into a building
• Fixed Academy bugs:   + Incorrect tab showing on load   + "Softcap applies" text not displaying when switching tabs   + Being able to exceed total points when assigning attributes   + Stopped refresh happening when dragging attribute slider causing jumpy behavior

16/02/21

v.0.230.17

• Fixed Incorrect limit on the number of Training Regimes

14/02/21

Premium Subscription

• The amount of tokens Premium subscription provides per month has now been raised to 100 tokens! The cost of subscription has remained the same.

13/02/21

Endurance and Injuries Tweak

• Endurance does not impact chance of injuries. This will allow us to introduce some form of 'Tough' player special ability when special abilities come in.

12/02/21

Season 2021.3 Match Engine Update

• Impact of fatigue during a match has been tweaked upwards slightly.
• BMI is now used to determine increases or decreases to Strength, Power, Endurance, Agility, Acceleration, and Speed, rather than weight and height separately (see wiki for more details on BMI: https://blackout-rugby.fandom.com/wiki/Attributes#BMI)

12/02/21

• Our latest Blog post is up, all about our Business Model: Pay For Variety. Read it here - https://blackout.games/what-is-pay-for-variety/

10/02/21

• Union Challenges — Requirements Decreased

• Union challenges will now be based on half the number of clubs in the union (rounded up) instead of all clubs. This helps to account for some clubs not being as active as others, and keeps things moving with more challenges being completed faster.

09/02/21

0.230.16

• Fixed Archived players breaking old match views (postmatch, live match)
• Minor Game Alert adjustments

09/02/21

Season 2021.3

• Broadcast building will be available sometime during the season — This building is different from other buildings. It is specifically for users who are not be able to purchase tokens using real money, instead allowing them to watch ads to earn rewards instead. Even the construction of each level is completed by watching a number of video ads, and so it does not block other buildings from constructing at the same time.

In the works:

• Mobile versions
• Mobile tutorial
• YouTube tutorial series
• Social sharing
• Friends list
• Chat
• In-game help (snippets from the wiki)
• Various game alerts, e.g. "Hey you should set a username!", or "Hey Premium is ~% off for the next 48 hours!"

28/01/21

0.230.15

• Fixed squad drawer hiding when changing clubs on lineups screen
• Fixed not being able to have the same named lineups as your other clubs

22/01/21

0.230.14

• Fixed in game clock saying "season" instead of "day"  
• layer position now visible in Squad Drawer when sorting by stat

20/01/21

• Form cards now reset when form will be tested for change, so no more playing a form card and then finding your player's form has reset soon after.
• Vatican has been added to the list of small nations your club can be added to.

20/01/21

0.230.13

• Enabled "join a Union" button on league signup screen
• Implemented new way to calculate season date strings that will have less chance of breaking
• Fixed dataUpdates refreshing standings regardless of current league
• Fix for Fog Of Score notifications that slip through

13/01/21

Match Engine Changes

• Scrumhalf will now move towards back of lineout on long throws
• Slow-mo in midfield drive attacks has been fixed
• Impact of Coordination on Kicking has been improved.

13/01/21

• Fixed no connection modal
• Added form to psychology editing modal

23/12/20

• hot fix for bug when being invited to multiple invite-only unions wasn't allowing to join

22/12/20

• Fixed token management on subscription management page

• Fixed not being able to change union shields
• Fixed (regression) bug where users couldn't join an invite-only union
• Extended max character count for union names to 35 characters

20/12/20

Unions:

• fixed bug where claiming completed challenges wasn't showing after completion
• added renaming union to settings

19/12/20

Unions:

• fixed not being able to edit your own role as an admin
• fixed bug where changing union settings was asking you to leave union

18/12/20

Unions:

• Fixed invitee not being able to accept invite for invite only unions
• Fixed union challenge slots being available to unlock to early
• Fixed members panel in unions being a jerky when scrolling

Finances:

• Fixed finances category sorting order

18/12/20

Unions are LIVE - Our take on Clans, check them out! https://blackout.games/unions/

15/12/20

Match Engine Tweak

• Players are now more reactive - if a player receives the ball and he is highly threatened (defenders are closing in quickly) then they will try to release the ball quicker. The ball still moves with the same speed.

15/12/20

Season 2021.1 - Coming Features

• Psychology Building – A new building allowing daily chance-based decks for various mental attribute cards.
• Unions (First pass) – Our take on clans/guilds. You will be able to create or join a union, take in your Union dues, chat with other members, and start working on Union challenges to level-up the union. Many features such as competitions, are still to come.
• Player History – Player history log. History data has been tracked for a long time; we're just now displaying it in-game.

08/12/20

Match Engine (Stats)

• Turnovers won from lineouts and scrums now count towards overall Turnovers Won

07/12/20

0.202.7

• Changes to In game console:

- Now has a "Close" button - Will not persist between game sessions unless you have the "Show Console" option selected in the Settings

07/12/20

Match Engine

• Fixed bug with number 10/12 getting tackled during expansive players before making a pass
• Added feature so players will attempt to react based on how highly they're threatened during expansive plays

01/12/20

0.202.6

• Fixed Academy stat labels sometimes not displaying
• Fixed running training not refreshing topbar task count
• Fixed layout issue with Trophy panel topbar
• Fixed match score banners showing for too long and other improvements
• Fixed kicking panel showing score before kick was made

27/11/20

0.202.5

• Updated player stat/skill bars to have a max value of 99 (previously 77)
• Fixed Campaign and Trophy panel slow scrolling

26/11/20

Try Assists Player Stats

This has been fixed, as it was not working at all. We are using a simple method for now: The last player to pass to the try scorer in a line-break should be awarded with a try assist.

25/11/20

Number 8 PL Tweak

• A small tweak has been made to the positional level calculations for the number 8 - height has been added to category 3.

25/11/20

0.202.3

• Fixed Squad Table view player focus colour
• API HTTP call fixes
• Club history UI tweaks
• Fixed Match Halftime countdown

24/11/20

0.202.2 This update includes the features listed above(Except iOS, but this will be coming this season)

• Changes to how the client communicates with the server

• A host of other bug fixes as well as general polish

17/11/20

Season 13 New Features:

• Hall of Fame – Nominate your own players to be memorialised for as long as you want to keep them in the HoF. You can manually create snapshots while the player is still in your club, and they will be automatically snapshotted again when they are sold/retired.
• Top 20 – Top players in your club across various stats.
• Club History – A log of significant club events.
• Trophy Cabinet – View all your trophies! You can also highlight up to 5 trophies which will appear on your Club screen, and Club details panel for other people to see.
• iOS Closed Testing - Will begin!

15/11/20

• Fixed critical bug when leaving Grounds scene with deck modal open
• Removed padding from HUD clock to centre season/date text
• Stadum era upgrade panel now appears more promptly
• Watch Match Live label should now be hidden when no match is live
• Adjusted layout of Ladder rank entry's live indicator

14/11/20

• Ladder matches now must find a winner and cannot end in a draw, so will go to extra time / kicking competition if needed. We are still making some improvements with the experience if this happens. There's currently a lack of time-breaks and communication when it switches to extra-time, between extra-time halves for example.

12/11/20

• Ladder Chnage - If you have a club in one of the top three positions in the ladder, you can now challenge any other club in the top 10 of the ladder, excluding any other clubs you own. If you win the challenge you do not swap positions.

09/11/20

• Added a popup to inform you when you are having connectivity issues
• Enabled "visible in background" when in full screen mode
• Minor fixes

05/11/20

• Fixed comparison stats sometimes showing green when they should be red
• Fixed in slot cards showing in daily decks

04/11/20

• Fixed treatment modal width issues
• Fixed Squad table view level header sort toggle not working
• Fixed Club info modal inline message issues

01/11/20

0.181.8 -

• Ladder defence matches will now display your card use properly

• Disabled manual card play on Ladder defence

• Fixed inconsistency in screen swiping while for Comps scene

• Fixed Ladder challenge modal button staying disabled after cancelling medpack card

• Won/Lost text should now be hidden correctly when it doesn't apply

30/10/20

• Added "Lost Forwards" and "Lost Backwards" match event text instead of just "Lost Ball"

28/10/20

• Updated how campaign deck rewards are show
• Fixed bug causing assets to sometimes not load (especially when viewing matches)

24/10/20

• Disabled league standings fog and playoff anonymity
• Ladder ranks will again let you see club details

21/10/20

• Fixed incorrect tab labels in Treatment Rooms
• Refined layout of Ladder challenge items

20/10/20

• Fixed not being able to sort or filter when Visiting other teams Squad
• Ladder: Past defences screen now shows latest matches

18/10/20

• Prevented visiting league of clubs that aren't in a league
• Added workaround to allow viewing ladder matches from challenge entries

17/10/20

• Restored editing buttons to Club scene (name, avatar, location, etc.)
• Fixed conflict between league signup overlay and visiting mode
• Enabled league signup buttons for Ladder and Campaigns
• Fixed Training detailed report layout issue

16/10/20

• Ladder competition released
• Achievement Campaigns released
• Fog of Score released

12/10/20

• New Building Levels - You can now begin construction of building levels 16-20

06/10/20

• Fixed loading screen getting stuck when switching from the match screen to the grounds scene

30/09/20

• Match Engine Updates:

- Decreased ruck times

- Increased rate of turnovers and penalties awarded during rucks

- Improved backs joining the ruck when they are near the breakdown

- Change ball carrier in pick and go corner attacks to be a more suitable player, instead of usually the 9

- Increased drop goal frequencies

- Decrease distance to defenders before drawing and passing

- Balance changes for ground gained in pick and go and drive attacks

29/09/20

• Fixed season day not being adjusted to club time zone
• Fixed cannot outbid self message showing incorrectly
• Fixed bidding buttons flashing
• Fixed club compare being broken in Match view

24/09/20

• Gameplan:
• Fixed lower case attack plays bug
• Added better inline error solution to attack play name
• Now allows duplicate attack plays when in ordered mode

23/09/20

• Fixed modals sometimes not closing
• Added a new console command for forcing modals to close: 'modal close'

21/09/20

Season 11 Features / Changes:

• Ladder Competition – We're hoping to release this at the start of the season but it may be a bit later. Ladder is a global leaderboard (also filterable by country, division, or country+division) in which you may challenge any club in the bottom half of the ladder above you. If you win, you will jump to their position while they and everyone in between move down by one.
• Campaigns – Similar to ladder, this may not release right at the start of the season. Campaigns are essentially groups of achievements each with some sort of theme, including getting to know the game. Each achievement comes with a small reward, and each campaign comes with a trophy and bigger reward on completion. We will continue to add to the list of campaigns over time.
• Fog of Score – This feature will prevent scores from being spoiled until you want them to be. You may opt-out of this feature at any time.
• Physical attribute growth based on age – We've identified a disproportionate gap in physical attributes between young/old players in established clubs meaning it can be a long time before young players, even star players, can make the first XV squad. To mitigate this, physical attributes will now grow faster when the player is younger, and slow down as the player gets older (> 28yo). This applied to birthday pops, as well as physical attribute average training.
• Higher base market price – To give more importance to contract cards, we are increasing player market base value by 1.5x. This will affect starting auction price, as well as player salaries as they are derived from base price. This will not increase the price when selling to the player agency however.

17/09/20

• Added screen navigation button to building modals
• Added buy more cards card to Album
• Chat button now confirms whether you want to go to Discord or not
• Music track changes
• Star player image added to market bidding modal and player list item

24/08/20

Season 10 Wow, we're coming up to the 10th season already! You may have noticed our game updates are coming out less frequently, and that's so that we can achieve higher stability in our main public version of the game. With that said, the next update will be coming out around the start of season 10 (if not before), and has a few new features:

- Squad table view

- Card stacking (this will stack duplicate cards of the same level and focus)

- Many minor bug fixes and performance improvements

Coming early season 10

- Mobile closed testing (still working out a lot of kinks!). We will ask people to put themselves forwards as testers soon. We want a good mix of iOS and android users. Keep an eye on this channel.

Teaser for season 11

- Ladder

A note on Unions We can see most of you are voting for Unions with Ladder only 4th in the list above. However, we had already started work on it, so... it's coming first  . However, unions development has begun!

We should confess that the first release is not going to include competitions (either internal or inter-union) due to complexity, however there will still be plenty to do as a Union to band together, level up and unlock more goodies! You can always run unofficial comps until then.

14/08/20

• Added console command to allow friendly challenges by club ID
• Added console command to copy club ID to clipboard

27/07/20

Season 9 Features:

• Squad table-view will be ready!
• Campaigns still coming, hoping to have the first 4 campaigns available mid-season
• Mobile versions will enter closed testing!

17/07/20

• Fixed card disappearing in fixture modal
• Potential fix for purchased players wearing wrong jersey
• Fixed player comparison stat tab being all funky

14/07/20

• Player comparison loading fixes
• Tutorial updates & fixes
• Fixed players sold to game still appearing in squad
• Market fixes and updates
• Fixed physical training auto-repeat not saving
• Updated Star player filter in Squad and Market
• Fixed incorrect time in preMatch screen

07/07/20

• Fixed settings panel only being openable once per session
• Players faking their injuries will now be kicked out of the treatment rooms
• Visiting another club now shows details for that club instead of your own
• Player portraits have been strictly limited to a maximum of one face per player
• Fixed missing weather screen during matches including a bot-managed club
• An assortment of other, less interesting, bug fixes

29/06/20

• Season 8 Features:

While we're unlikely to have any features ready for season 8, we plan to release these during the season:

• Squad table view
• Campaigns – Achievements grouped into what we call "Campaigns", with rewards for each achievement, and a trophy at the end

24/06/20

• Streamlined validation for instant friendlies, relaxed rules for fixture conflicts from 20 minutes to 15 minutes
• Minor tutorial changes and fixes

20/06/20

• Card slots will now display their contents without first matching the slot contents to your club's list of owned cards

17/06/20

• Fixed Squad Drawer Age sorting inaccuracies
• Fixed Health recovery days left calculation
• Fixed Age showing twice when sorting by age in Market

13/06/20

• Visiting Mode released: inspect your fellow teams in more detail from the Club Info modal
• Fixed bug when processing updates to game data

10/06/20

• Fixed graphics API issues for mac
• Fix slider initialisation in game-plan
• Fixed changing club image not updating instantly
• Improved subscription Storefront item updates
• Added Weight and Height to preMatch lineup screen

09/06/20

• fixed half time getting stuck for live matches
• fixed match event banners showing "{player}"
• fixed Club scene breaking if you click a notification that sends you there
• fixed match time format in scrubber
• improved loading screen from Splash to Grounds scene
• updated match shirt models to cover up neck hole
• Academy task now appears in top section of daily task list

08/06/20

• Fixed match replays ending prematurely after pausing match
• Fixed lineups not showing in menu
• Fixed finance screen currency display issues
• Fixes to visiting Clubs
• Fixed colours to daily tasks
• Added i18n to match event banners
• Added Game Alert slide in from side tween
• Removed mention of "scouting" as early name for visiting mode
• Removed plus avg from technical training

06/06/20

Season 7 Announcement Additions

Updated CPL calculation

– As of Club Level 21, CPL will grow +1 level per every +1 Club Level. This results in CL20 = CPL50, and CL30 = CPL60. See the CPL wiki page for more info. https://blackout-rugby.fandom.com/wiki/Club_Player_Level

CPL Calculation Bug Fix –

While making the above change, we noticed a bug with the current CPL calculation which is currently giving clubs a higher CPL than what they should have. As of Season 7, this fix will kick-in.

06/06/20

• Fixed regimes showing empty player list on first load
• Load More Fixtures buttons hidden when there are no more to be loaded
• Fixed bug when closing peek modal for contract cards
• Improved detection of clicks on cards in slots

05/06/20

• fixed a bug with match replay scrubber not working properly when there is extra time
• fixed regression of dropdown blocker from 0.81.6
• added deactivating training regimes
• improved camera movement in match view

03/06/20

Season 7 Changes

Training card reductions – Training card effects will be reduced slightly, and stacked training cards (cards with the same focus on one session) will have diminished returns, each card after the first will have it's effect halved, including synergy bonus.

Skills may be trained above the skill max – You will now be able to train skills higher than their cap, however the returns will be diminished by half with each level above max, e.g. if a skill has a max level of L45, then on the way to L46, training will be 50% normal speed. On the way to L47, it will be 25%, and so on.

More impactful injuries – Niggles will decrease player health to 80%, minor injuries to 60%, moderate injuries to 40%, and severe injuries all the way to 5%. Recovery rates will be slowed to 3% per day normally, and 5% only with the physio amenity. Health card effects will be reduced to 5% per level as opposed to the 10% we have now. e.g. L1 Card recovers 5%, L2 10% and so on.

New daily tasks for Contract cards – If you have any open contract negotiations you will be required to play cards on them before you can claim your daily reward. Academy card-play will be displayed as an optional task.

Ability to deactivate training regimes – You will be able to deactivate training regimes at any time. This change may come a little later than the start of season 7.

28/05/20

• - fixed issue with Kicking Level Sider in Zoned Game Plan. Thanks for video @Slothrop
• fixed adding training regime issue reported by @Huffer
• Added new filtering to Card Album and Store Cards

21/05/20

• Contracts for ten highest PL players in squad - Contracts will now need to be negotiated for the ten highest PL players in your squad, rather than the previous system where negotiations were needed for the ten highest with a PL above your club’s CPL.

08/05/20

Season 6 Updates

- Customisable club shields – The shield which surrounds your club logo will be able to be changed. We're adding 6 standard shields which may be purchased from the store, along with a premium shield for premium users only, and an exclusive Classic Alumni shield which will be given to all classic users who have linked their account with the new game.

- Reduction in player agency sale price – Due to community feedback, we are reducing the amount of money gained when selling players to the game.

- Removal of buy-now option – Due to community feedback, we are removing the option to buy a market player instantly, forcing all club sales to go to auction which should increase the number of auctions, as well as giving the seller the best possible sale price.

23/04/20

• New Tech-Tree Branches in Club Office:

- Max Star Players - Due to the lack of clarity when providing this as a passive reward from building upgrades, this is now a tech-tree branch. All clubs who had already received increases to their max star players have received the equivalent upgrades in the tech tree.

- Max Squad Size - Clubs may now increase their maximum squad size through this new branch in Club Office.
- Club Office tech points increase - The Club Office now provides 2 points at each level starting at level 5 instead of level 7 as before. All applicable clubs have received the extra point(s). In most cases, these extra points have been automatically spent on the max star players branch, to match the cap your club already had.

22/04/20

Leadership Gains Tweak

All players can now receive a gain to their leadership, even if they are not the captain, when they play a competitive match (league or cup match). The chance of receiving such a gain depends on the position they play the match in, and the gain will be at half the rate the captain receives it. For more information see the Mental Attribute Training in the wiki.

11/04/20

Beta Thank-You Tokens

We finally had time to investigate reports that the tokens we had intended to go out during the original reset on Dec 19 2019, were not received. It turns out that they were indeed lost on a subsequent reset on the same day. We have now sent these tokens out again for anyone who had signed on or before that date. You will have a notification if this includes you.

Classic Thank-You Tokens

For classic users only.

As we promised long ago, we're going to give you some goodies in the new game for all classic users who were around before the new game launched in Dec last year. Essentially this will be tokens based on your time as a member in classic, plus extra for premium users based on subscription time not yet used.

We will apply your new tokens at the end of Season 5 in the new game (Sunday May 10), based on the state of your classic account as it stood at launch on Dec 19 2019.

Instructions to link accounts

To ensure you are included, sometime before Sunday May 10 2020 you must link your classic account to your new account by grabbing your linker code from the account screen in classic, and entering it in the new account manager at https://account.blackoutrugby.com/. Check out this video for a demonstration: https://d.pr/v/j8KqAv.

All of the functionality to make this happen is temporary, and will be removed once applied. So if you miss the boat, there will be no second chances.

09/04/20

• Season 5 Features

- Financial Reports screen is coming to Clubs section

- Colour Customisation (Main Strip, Away Strip + Buildings) Some colours are free, while others will cost tokens. Or you can unlock entire palettes with a higher token cost.

27/03/20

• Academy + Assistant Manager Released. After a bit of a delay, Academy is finally here!

- Academy wiki: https://blackout-rugby.fandom.com/wiki/Academy - Assistant manager wiki is coming soon Also:

- Match engine score during live matches has been fixed

18/03/20

• Building Upgrade Text Bug - Fixed

There was a bug in the text that stated what Club Level (CL) you needed to have to upgrade a building. This has been fixed in build 0.20.1, which should be on steam now, or if not should be along soon. For convenience sake, here are the CL requirements for upgrading buildings: CL 1-6 = Upgrade Cap Level 8 CL 7-12 = Upgrade Cap Level 10 CL 13-18 = Upgrade Cap Level 12 CL 19-24 = Upgrade Cap Level 14 CL 25+ = Upgrade Cap Level 15

16/03/20

• Match Engine Improvements

- Fixed scoring drop-goals from unrealistic distances

- Fixed successful drop-goals being animated as misses

- Fixed kicks bouncing ~50m across the field - Improved success of kicks for touch

- Increased speed of mid-field drives

- Added blindside attacks

- Implemented attackers unsuccessfully stepping defenders

- Reduced missed tackles on attackers with no momentum (stops players bumping off like 3+ tackles in quick succession)

- Improvements to AI decision making during line-breaks

10/03/20

Season 4 (Or soon after) Features
- Academy! – Watch this space for a link to the wiki page (which will be added in the next couple of days) if you want to learn about this feature before release.

- Assistant Manager – This is a key part of the premium package which allows daily tasks to be delegated and completed instantly right from the dashboard. Non-premium users may take advantage of these features with a small token cost.

- Contract Card Energy Tech Change – Contract card energy tech upgrades 1-5 remain unchanged, however after the 6th upgrade (Tier 11+) the provision is changing away from just giving a chance of more cards, to a higher chance that one of the base cards is Epic.

12/02/20

Match Engine Improvements (Live now) - Stopped players passing when there's nobody in front of them

- Stopped wide players cutting back infield when there's nobody in front of them

- Fixed teams not kicking out to end the game when leading by 7 points

- Fixed teams deciding to kick for goal from penalties when the probability of missing is 100%

- Improved possession stats accuracy

19/01/20

• Starting with Season 2, the league season will now consist of 23 days of round-robin matches (previously 25 days). Each club will have 1 bye during the season. This allows a gap day in-between round-robin matches and semi-finals, as well as between semi-finals and the final.

16/01/20

• Physical Training. The amount of points that a physical training slot generates for increasing the physical attribute average per day is increasing (beginning season 2):

1 slot 6-9 points per day 2 Slots 8-11 points per day 3 Slots 10-13 points per day 4 Slots 12-15 points per day 5 Slots 14-17 points per day 6 slots 16-19 per day 7 slots 18-21 points per day

16/01/20

Season 2 Changes We will list season 2 changes here, and add to it if further significant changes make it in.

- The ability to speed up construction partially without completion is being removed (This was only available when there was more than 1 day remaining in a given construction)

- The prices for completing construction are changing to: Less than half hour: 2 tokens. Less than 1 hour: 3 tokens. Up to 36 hours: add 1 token per hour. Greater than 36 hours: add 0.5 tokens per hour.

- Purchased decks will contain a range of card levels, unlimited by the current energy output of the related building as it worked previously.

- Purchased decks will contain a guaranteed number of epics, and now an epic chance for every other non-epic card

- Increased prices for bought decks

- Less tokens given at each price point for bought tokens

- Increased yields for physical attribute average gains when given more than 1 session

14/01/20

Player Contract Lengths Update Until now when players were created, it would give them a random contract length of either 1 season, 2 seasons, or 3 seasons. We've changed this to apply a random number of days rather than seasons.

We've also updated all current players in the game (excluding players who are already under negotiation or have signed a first contract). This change to current players will only increase the length of contracts, and cannot decrease them. For example, if the player had a contract length of 1 season previously (28 days), it is now a random number of days between 28 - 55.

06/01/20

• Minor Fix with Player XP/Level Calculation - A minor bug with the player XP/level calculation was causing XP to appear to fall from time to time after physical training. This has been fixed, and will likely cause most if not all of your players XP values to change slightly next time you view them.

19/12/19

Steam Early Access Release Today!

The game will be available on Steam Early Access before the end of the day.

08/12/19

• Fixed errors when attempting to sell players
• Stadium base no longer lingers after switching to grounds era club
• Significant changes to card dragging functionality
• Fixed bug in tween engine (causing incorrect highlighting on league rounds and inability to spend tokens on construction)
• Removed placeholder text in building modal
• Fixed dashboard showing incorrect match information
• Fixed match stats modal sizing issue when opened for second time
• Fixed logic error causing display bugs in dashboard matche score
• Fixes to match posession tracker and player event layout
• Filtered out world countries from player nationality search
• Fixes to min-max slider
• Aggression modal now refreshes after playing a card
• fixed issues with leaving live matches and coming back
• improvements to match view performance
• added "go to match" for live matches above stadium and in dashboard
• "VS" buttons in dashboard match panels now take you to post/pre match screens

29/11/20

• Disabled grounds era lights during stadium era
• Fixed gameplan toggles not starting selected
• Added flying icon animations when collecting rewards
• Fixes to weight modal flow (squad scrolls to player's new position when sorting by weight)
• Fixed errors when changing username
• Reworked handling of card slot icons
• Fixed player compare buttons failing to reset after scrolling drawer
• Fixed resuming live match in progress
• Fixed cards appearing to bypass album filter
• Fixed errors when closing peek modals for spent card slots (i.e. contracts, training)
• Updated training screen to better communicate why buttons are disabled
• Fixed MatchView clock not going past 60 minutes
• Optimisation of tweening and garbage collection

24/11/19

• Fixed incorrect stadium-era stands displayed in MatchView
• Fixed Post-Match graphs failing to start
• Fixed crowd density calculation
• Fixes to Market filtering
• Market PLIs display next bid cost instead of buy now cost, to match search filter values
• Improved refreshing of daily tasks
• Fixed card pickup animation expanding underneath side menu
• Added support for text input on many sliders
• Tweaked training session mouseover states
• Fixed spending cards in Pre-Match screen
• Card counters (album and topbar) no longer include cards that have been played into slot
• Fixed stadium base flickering when grounds data refreshes
• Fixed deck generation panel showing during grand opening
• Fixed bug in league standings club info modal when switching club
• Brought weight modal into line with current cards system
• Improved refreshing of card album

18/11/19

• Added extra indicator to Epic-quality cards
• Implemented preloading of card images
• Fixed placeholder card showing when album contains an odd number of cards
• Fixed deck collection modal reloading when scrollbar is displayed
• Fixed daily/collectable icon overlapping during card flip
• Replaced icon for contract duration
• Squad scene now uses one player drawer with list item reuse
• Updated the Player List Item to correctly display trainable area
• Fixed PLI badge losing colour when hovered over
• Fixed 24-hour time for menu clock
• Added display for CPL to club screen
• Fixed filtering market by player nationality

03/11/19

• Updated Amenity swap pricing to load from backend
• Fixed rain particles appearing in wrong position
• Added crowd density to match view
• Updated Depth Chart to display proper width, fixed reorderable list bugs
• Fixed player compare buttons not clearing when change screen
• Fixed donut issue in player compare modal, improved donut code
• Fixed uniform colour selection in match view
• Fixed tech tree upgrades reading incorrect data
• Match result notifications now navigate to  match modal when clicked
• Fixed cards showing in matchview where current club isn't playing, fixed loading timeout on comps scene
• Various tweaks and fixes to  Player screen
• Added injured label, fixed display of average/max level in training report
• Next wave of changes to cards, including ability to drag spent cards out of slots
• Added console command to log out of manager

29/10/19

Match engine update

- Driving and expansive plays are now available!