Johan wrote a post in the Global English forum late last night, providing more information about Hattrick Open which I think you’ll find very interesting as well even though I’ve . Here it is (with a few minor edits). /Tjecken
Hattrick Open can be described as very open-ended tournament system for Hattrick. You can create your own cups and leagues, play with your own Hattrick team or teams created in other ways, play at any time you wish and how often you wish. It is an independent system (in the sense that matches take place on another site and on another server) but one can say it is really up to you if you play it as an extension of Hattrick or as a game in itself. Where Hattrick is very structured and scheduled and all rules apply the same way to all users, in Open you have the option to be more flexible. This is possible because what happens in Open will never affect your team in regular Hattrick.
At the same time, Open is built to provide more flexibility for the core game as well. There are two main things we have worked on in this project. The first is the tournament system itself, how to create leagues and Cups on the fly, and how to manage such competitions. This is something that we will have great use for in the core game as well. the second is the live match experience. It goes without saying that in a game scenario that means that more matches are played, and more frequently, and more often with all competing teams around at the same time, it is a good idea to make it more interesting to follow games live. Improvements in this area can and will be applied in the core game as well.
The idea for Open is a long way coming. Already in the first spec for Hattrick in 1999 we included some rudimentary ideas for separate league systems, with the idea for some kind of private leagues in the future. Cup organizers have been a part of CHPP for a long time, but the limitation for these have always been that there are so few games in the week – and that some of the friends in your group may still be in the Cup. It is not easy to put together a tournament to play with your friends just for the fun of it.
There has always been good ideas to improve other competition types as well, but many times the fact that it all has to co-inhabit the same world, with hundreds of different dependencies, makes it very difficult to create smooth new ways to compete inside Hattrick that does not have some kind of drawbacks elsewhere. Take National teams for example. They are a great part of the “metagame”, and a natural part of the community. But they also cause problems for the regular game that we could do without: Farm teams, various kinds of sabotage attempts on NT players, election cheaters – and so on. It would not necessarily be a bad idea to let NTs run separately from the rest of the game, but that is not an option we have today.
The way we see it, Open is a sandbox for both users and developers. The flexibility extends also to how tournaments are paid for.
We have stated from the outset that Open is a pay-per-play game. Since Hattrick is slow and very structured, we know exactly what kind of server load we have to budget and prepare for. With Open, this is not the case. We want users to decide themselves how Open should be used. Our aim to make the cost of a tournament very reasonable, the cost per participant will be comparable to the cost of getting SMS notifications for one game to your mobile. Since one users can, in theory, play 1000 tournaments a month, or none, we think pay-per-play is the right basis for Hattrick Open. But this does not mean that it will be the only way to play Open, and it does particularly not mean that you will have to pay to even try the game out.
Before the beta rolls out next week, all users will get the chance to join up as beta testers. We will keep one queue for Supporters and one for non-Supporters, with the ultimate goal of giving everyone the chance to play the game, even though Supporters will on average get their chance earlier. As with any major launch, we want to make sure we scale correctly. The pay options will be disabled when the beta opens.
Going forward, paying means you can play as much as you want and with any options you like. But this will still not be the only way to play. We are just as happy to use Open to create new features in Hattrick. One such idea, that would have been impossible in the old structure, and which encouraged us to get going with the Open project, is a free worldwide Cup for all Supporters.
Let me also add a few words about the dev team. We are 22 people on the team today,13 of which are developers, and 3 of these have been working full time on Hattrick Open since September. During a two-week period in March the whole team worked on Open, to help finish some loose ends, and also to get a chance to know the system better. Some code, like the live series tables, have already worked its way into Hattrick. Other things will follow. The main focus of our team is the core game of Hattrick and we would not have given Open the green light if we were not convinced it would help us drive Hattrick forward as well.
We know we have annoyed many of you with the launch campaign and the new background, promoting something that is “not Hattrick”. We apologize for this, and you now have the option to remove the Open background using the Preferences page. Open is something new, and it looks quite different from the regular game. We wanted give it a separate identity in order to have the freedom to rethink the user experience of Hattrick. But over time, we hope it will become clear to everyone that there is a lot of Hattrick DNA in Open, and that the two will benefit from each other.
You see the disappointment in the community, since everyone expected innovation, and not another game with many solutions to the original?
It seems provocative.
Just one day after unveiling the Hattrick open project, Httrick is again offline.
Very symbolic, isn’t it?
it looks ok , how about free for supporters though
Good luck with your new game as well with Popmundo! 😉
Now, please, Hattrick has a lot of work for you. I think it is one of the slowest of the top online games, overall. Way too many server’s problems, crushes, bugs. If FB would have been as slow as HT, Zuckerberg would have been a great anonymous.
HT is very annoying nowadays. Far from perfect to start another option/game related to HT. Moreover, a brand new game will slowly kill HT.
PLEASE, be focused on HATTRICK!
Many thanks for all of your great work! I’m looking forward to join this new game based on the fantastic Hattrick game!
That’s great to hear!
Will the graphics and layout used in Hattrick Open be used in the regular Hattrick as well? It looks much better!
Nice to hear you like the graphics. 🙂
As I’ve replied to other comments, we’ve designed Hattrick Open in the fashion that things also can be introduced in Hattrick if we want them to. Doing a complety new layout for Hattrick is a big project though and I’m not sure I like to jump on that train right now – but we can certainly pick the goodies and use them on Hattrick to start with.
The order of what you said does not sound reversed?
One can only feed hopes for a better development of our beloved Hattrick.
Why not throw Hattrick Closed as a tool to play, as it launches a new game, and how he introduced were the mistakes of the team.
Why O why do we get another “new” game promoted on hattrick, when what we need is for you guys at Hattrick to focus more on improving the Hattrick game to make it more like real life as a football manager…….How about adding the option for a manager of a Hattrick team to be able to buy a player from the selling club directly, instead of having to outbid other managers on the outdated transfers page for a player that we have to pay far more for than his age/expereince warrants?….In real life when a professional club for example Manchester City want to purchase a new player….they will make an offer for a player through his agent, to the players current club, if this club accept the transfer fee, then the buying club…(Man City) are then allowed to discuss terms with the players agent etc …this is real life and if anyone has ever played the Sony Playstation Game LMA Manager this is just one of the many “real life” options in a football game. Come on Hattrick….get your act together and give us the Managers something more to make the Hattrick game more realistic……….
Owen…(polomint)
We had such kind of bidding system back in 97-98, but we had to remove it because it was heavily used to cheat. That’s what’s so great with the transfer, it makes it harder to cheat and when you attempt to – it gets noticed by others.
Who said anything about cheating????? Why do i detect that Hattrick thinks everyone wants to cheat???….You very quickly went on the defensive when i mentioned an idea for having something added to make the normal hattrick even better.
Defensive? I just mentioned that there are severe drawbacks with the feature (buying players directly from the selling club). There is good stuff as well, but you can’t just ignore such severe drawbacks when designing a new feature for Hattrick. It’s not that everyone cheats or wants to cheat – but some wiill use it to cheat which in the end negativelyy affects the game play and game experience for all of us.
It’s quite disappointing. The apparition of a non-hattrick ad and banner in my classical hattrick, first. And now I can not open my Hattrick and check my league match! So you use the money of all the supporter player in Hattrick, not to improve this game, but to develope a new one! My supporter will end in 2 hours, and I’m quite sure I won’t be able to log-in!
Hattrick was down because of a DDoS attack, I guess you know that by now. Sorry, but such kind of sabotage is close to impossible to protect yourself against. Sorry that you don’t seem to like Hattrick Open, but perhaps you should give it a try first?
I am not sure about the Hattrick Open. I have signed up for the Beta test and i will see whats going on…. but my first impression is, it looks like that the Hattrick Team need some cash…. as i said… it is my impression.
I would like to see the Hattrick developer focus on Hattrick and continue the good work, and if money needed, decrease the amount of Supporter fee, so more people can pay (support)…..
I am using my voucher and I’d like to ask:
a) where is this “Forum”?
b) where is that little server date/time?
c) what if some team do not set orders to a game?
a) There is a Hattrick Open forum on Hattrick. On Hattrick Open there is no forum, but a chat.
b) You mean what the clock is? The clock/ticker in the bottom is there to inform you about how long it’s to the next round and so on.
c) They get a default order (which is not fantastic).
Thanks for answers!
About this “clock” I mean that server time we can see in original HT.
A new observation: what about a message to users (HT mail, email, …) saying that a tournament is about to begin. So user could set orders.
i received an email here on hattrick, that i have received a voucher… but where is the voucher?????
The voucher is in Hattrick Open.
but where, have not found now is expired…. 🙁
I think questions like this are better to take on the Hattrick Open forum, as you will get help much quicker. Please apply for a new voucher, as I think we’ve found the reason for why you didn’t find yourself.