2.3. Players' "ACTUAL" skills during the game
As you saw in section 2.1, each player in @esms has 4 different skills + aggression. These are his "raw skills", and he won't always play with the same skill in a game. An "actual skill", is the player's raw skill after some mathematical operations, which depend on tactics and player's fatigue during the game (more on fatigue in paragraph 4.2.1).
If 2 different players has different raw skills, and they both play under the same conditions in the game (position and the tactic of the team), then the player with the higher raw skill will have a higher actual skill. Aggression of the player stays, of course, the same, disregarding any conditions in the game. The "Shot Stopping" (St) ability doesn't change either (affected only by fatigue). How do actual skills depend on player's position? A player which plays as defender will never use his full shooting potential, as being a defender, he will get almost no chances to score. It also depends on the tactic of the team, but it can be generally said that the full raw skill of the player will be preserved only if the player plays on a suitable position. For example if a player with Tk2, Ps4 and Sh10 playing in the defence will have a defensive skill of 2 (it also depends on the tactic, of course), but his actual Ps and Sh will be less than the raw values. Therefore, a player with skills Tk4 Ps3 Sh3 will be more efficient as a defender, despite being a generally worse player than the first one. Players with more than one high skill will be extremely useful as they will be able to perform well on several positions.

2.4. Team Tactics
Each manager may choose a tactic for his team for a game. The tactic can be changed during the game by suitable instructions in the team sheets.
This is the listing of possible tactics in @esms:
 

Note: Each tactic has some bonuses against some other tactics, which makes the decisions more complicated and challenging.

2.5. Team Formations
The @esms has no pre defined formations for teams. The formation is simply the number of DF's, DM's, MF's AM's and FW's, so it is clear that a team with 3 defenders, 4 midfielders and 3 forwards plays a 3-4-3 formation. Each manager decides on his favourite formation either by his players' skills, if for example his team hasn't almost any good forwards, he will prefer formations with fewer players in the attack. Or, if a manager feels that a specific formation + tactic just "works well" for his team and sticks to it. Tactics and formation are very much linked, not by the program, which doesn't mind which tactic/formation you play, but by the manager himself. It would be, of course, bizarre to play 3-3-4 Defensive, as the formation and the tactic contradict each other. The most common tactic is the traditional 4-4-2, as it fits in well with almost every tactic, except of Long Ball maybe. As the explanation on the Long Ball tactic says, it is best to be played with as less midfielders as possible, because the midfielders don't do much in Long Ball.

3.0. Team sheets & orders
As was stated before, each manager has to send a "team sheet" for each game. The team sheet includes the list of players and subs for the game, and different "orders" to the program, explaining how to manage the team in different situations. This section describes in detail how to compose a team sheet and understand its possibilities. A small program will be available which builds the teamsheet for you based on your selections. So you can either build your teamsheet by hand or use the program.

3.1. Which "ORDERS" can a manager include in a sheet ?
As well as the list of players, the manager includes different orders in the team sheet, which are actually the instructions for the game. If a manager learns to use these orders correctly and understands them, they can be an important step in guaranteeing his team's success. These are the different orders a manager can give, with explanations:

3.1.1. Tactic for the game:
The manager gives the program the starting tactic his team will play. See above for a detailed explanation about tactics.

3.1.2 Penalty kick taker:
The manager names the primary penalty kick taker for the game. If the player will be unavailable when a penalty occurs (being suspended or injured before that minute) the program will assign a penalty kick taker by itself.

3.1.3 Conditionals:
The conditionals are orders to the program, telling it what to do in different cases of the game. The conditionals depend on the minute and/or the score of the game. The conditional orders are as follows: Change the tactic, substitute one player for another and change the position of a specific player. The conditional orders are given by a set of key words, which will be discussed in detail in the next paragraph of this section. NOTE that the < or > signs can ONLY be used when the condition involves BOTH MIN AND SCORE in it. Now, the technical aspect of a team sheet will be discussed, exactly how to write it, following examples.

3.2 A Team Sheet Template
Below is the template for a team sheet in the APL:

[Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] /* [Order] and [Arguments] is
[Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] /* exactly what do.
[Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] /* [Condition] is the condition
[Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] /* for the order execution.
... /* More info below.
`````````````````````````````````

3.3 Orders and conditions
Important Note: In the orders, the players are referred not by their names, but by their numbers. The number of the player is simply his position if start counting from top to bottom. Thus, the GK is number 1, the last player in the opening squad is number 11, the first listed sub is number 12, the last listed sub is number 16 and so on. We start with the orders and their arguments. There are 3 different orders available:

3.3.1 TACTIC
Argument - [NewTactic] in a single character, is the order to change the tactic of the team to a given tactic. For example: TACTIC L Switches to long ball when the condition comes true. A manager can include up to 15 conditions on tactic change.

3.3.2 CHANGEPOS
Arguments - [PlayerNumber] [NewPosition]. Tells the program to switch the position of some player to a new position. Place the player number and the new position after the order. For example: CHANGEPOS 11 DF tells the program to switch the player number 11 to defender when the condition comes true. A manager can include up to 15 conditions on position change.

3.3.3 SUB
Arguments - [Pl.OutNumber] [Pl.InNumber] [Position] Tells the program to substitute some player for another, and play the substitute in a given position. The players are again referred by numbers, It is important to put the numbers in the correct order. For example: SUB 10 14 FW will substitute the player number 10 to player number 14 and the sub (n.14) will play forward, when the condition comes true. As the rules of soccer state, only 3 substitutions are allowed per team per game. Now the conditions will be explained. The condition comes right after the order in the same line.

3.3.4 IF MIN = [Minute]
Pretty simple here. If the game reached the stated minute, the order will be executed. For example: CHANGEPOS 2 MF IF MIN = 56 will change the position of player number 2 to midfielder on the 56'th minute.

3.3.5 IF SCORE = [Score]
The [Score] argument is a SINGLE NUMBER which stands for the difference in score between your team and the opponent. 2 is leading by 2 goals, -6 is losing by 6 goals etc. For example: TACTIC A IF SCORE = -1 means that the team will switch to attacking tactic if is loses by one goal.

3.3.6 IF MIN [Sign] [Minute] SCORE [Sign] [Score]
The most complicated and powerful condition in the game. The order execution can depend both on the score and the minute of the game. The [Sign] argument can be either = , >= or =< which gives this conditional an enormous flexibility. A few examples: TACTIC A IF MIN >= 45 SCORE =< -1 tells the program to change tactic to attacking if it is later than the 45'th minute and your team is losing by one or more goals. CHANGEPOS 2 MF IF MIN =< 20 SCORE >= 1 tells the program to switch player number 2 to midfielder if it is earlier than the 20'th minute and your team leads by one or more goals. We hope you now fully understood the rules of writing the team sheet for your team. Anyway, it is recommended to read the following paragraph of this section.

3.4 Examples of Team Sheets
In this section we bring you two fully constructed team sheets with full explanation.
Example 1
```````````````````````````````````````
bar /* Team name. The roster is therefore bar.txt
N /* Starting the game with a N (Normal) tactic
GK R_Hesp /* The first player is always a GK
DF J_Guardiola
DF F_De_Boer
DF M_Nadal
DF B_Sergi
MF L_Figo
MF Rivaldo
MF L_Enrique
MF R_De_Boer
FW S_Anderson
FW P_Kluivert /* The 10 field players were listed

TACTIC C IF SCORE = 1 /* As you can see these 3 orders are for the
CHANGEPOS 8 DF IF SCORE = 1 /* same condition and tell the program to
CHANGEPOS 9 MF IF SCORE = 1 /* switch to 5-3-2 counter attack if leading by one goal.
```````````````````````````````````````

4.0 Other Game Components
This section is to complete the full picture of @esms, discussion on all other aspects and components of the game, and detailed explanation on some important terms.

4.1 Player's Ability
Apart from the 4 skills each player has (St, Tk, Ps and Sh), he also has an ability value for each skill. Ability is basically a number between 0 and 1000 which is measuring the performance of the players in the recent time. If the ability of a player reaches 1000, he has a skill increase. When a player has a skill increase, his ability drops to 300, unless the increase came about from the weekly run re-rater software. In this case the ability starts again at 0.

If a player's ability reaches 0, he will have a skill decrease. The ability will then be set to 300, unless it came about from the weekly run re-rater. In this case the ability starts again at 999.

There are many terms for an ability being increased or decreased during the game. Below is the list of "events" for which ability is changed.

Goal: A player will get an ability increase for each scored goal.
Assist: A player will get an ability increase for each goal he assisted.
Ktk, Kps, Sht: A player will get an ability increase for each key tackle, key pass, or shot to goal he will make. These bonuses are usually much lower than the bonuses for goal and assist.
Save: The goalkeeper will receive ability points for each save he makes in the game.
Clean sheet: If a team doesn't concede a goal during the game, the goalkeeper and one of the defenders will receive an ability increase. If the goalkeeper was substituted during the game, the goalkeeper who played more will get the ability increase. The defender will be chosen in random.
Victory: If a team wins the game, two of its players will be given an ability increase. The two players are chosen randomly.
Defeat: It is the only case when ability points are decreased. If a team loses a game, two of its players lose ability points. These players are chosen randomly. The ability points awarded have been modified several times in attempt to achieve the best balance. To find out what the current ability point ratings are please email the League Commissioner.

4.2 Player's Fatigue
It is natural that the soccer players are getting tired during the game. All players are getting tired, some less, some more. This fatigue always affects a player's way of playing. Close to the end of the game, a player will have much less ability for long runs than in the beginning. The feature of fatigue is also included in @esms. Each minute, the program multiplies each player's actual skills by some coefficient, which is very small. However, until the end of the game, fatigue is accumulated and the player plays at approximately 70 - 75 percent of his starting skill. This is why it is highly recommended to substitute players during the game, to bring some "fresh legs" to your team.

4.3 Player Aggression and Team Aggression
As you already know from paragraph 2.1.8, each player in the European Soccer Nights has an aggression level. The aggression is a number which ranges from 1 to 100 and it is not changed during the player's career. The more aggressive player will make more fouls, which might lead to bookings or even suspensions.

During the game, the program calculates the total aggression of a team each minute. The total aggression has two sides: On one hand, it adds the team some aspect of "more will to play" and the more aggressive team plays better than the less aggressive team (however the difference is very small). On the other hand, the more aggressive team will make more fouls which may result in penalties and bookings for its players. Note: Generally, the aggression is a "negative" skill of the player and a team. The less aggressive player is better. However all this is much less significant than the 4 skills of the player.

4.4 Fouls, Bookings, And DP'S
During the game, each team usually makes a lot of fouls, most of them are insignificant, just to stop the attack of the opponent. Fouls is an important feature included in the European Soccer Nights and they might lead to many possible consequences. The program takes care only of the "serious" fouls, which deserve a warning or a card shown to the player.
For some of the fouls the players will receive yellow cards.
Two yellow cards in the same game or a red card shown to the player cause his sending off the pitch, and will leave his team with one player less. If a goalkeeper gets a red card, the program will automatically replace him with the most suitable player, which will cause a player less in other part of the field.

4.4.1 Disciplinary points
DP's are included in the European Soccer League as well. A player receives a certain amount of DP for a yellow cards and another for red cards. The number of DP's for each card can be defined by each league for itself. These DP's, when accumulate can cause to a player's suspension. The exact numbers for that can be set by each league for its best use.

Note: The default in the European Soccer Nights is 2 DP for a yellow card and 10 DP for a red card. When a player reaches a total of 10 DP he will suspended for one game, when he reaches 20 DP, for two games and so on.

4.5 Suspension
As was said in the previous section, accumulation of disciplinary points can lead to a suspension of the player for the certain amount of games. If you look at the "Sus" column in the team roster you will see there for how many games the player is currently suspended. The manager will always see how many games can't the player play after each update.

4.6 Penalties
Some of the fouls may cause a penalty kick for the opposite team. The penalty kick will be taken by the named primary PK taker in the team sheet. If the player is unavailable in that moment, being substituted or suspended before, the program will assign another player to take the spot kick.

4.7 Injury
During the game, there is always a chance that a player will get injured. If a player in the APL gets injured, the program will substitute him for another player on his position from the bench. If there will be no player on his position on the bench, the program will find any other substitute for the player. If by the time the injury occurred the team already had 3 substitutions, the player will leave the field and the team will remain with one player less.

4.7.1 Injury technical
A player gets injured for a certain amount of weeks. This is not defined by the game running program itself, but by the updating program the league administrator will use to update the rosters. After the update, in the "Inj" column of the player will appear the number of WEEKS the player can't play. After the update the manager will see for how many more weeks can't his player play.

4.8 Keeping a large squad
It is highly recommended for each manager to keep a large squad of players. As you saw in the last sections, a player can get injured or suspended for several games or weeks, players also get tired during the game and need to be substituted. These are the problems the manager of real soccer team has to handle every day. Keeping a small squad can cause you a lot of trouble in running your team. However, it is also important to remember your wages bill.

4.9 Players Ages
Each player in the European Soccer Nights has an age. As mentioned previously as players age their abilities drop and development will be less than that of a much younger player.

4.10 Home bonus
When a team plays at its home ground, it has an advantage over the opponent. The players know their ground better and the crowd is supporting. Therefore there is an independent home bonus this means that if two absolutely even teams, with the same skill players, same formations and tactics, the home team has more chances to win the game. (The addition is relatively small, though)

5.0 Commentary file
For the comfort of the league administrator and the manager, the commentary file game consists of the names of the playing teams. For example if juv and bar played the game, the commentary file will be called juv_bar.txt Another file will be created from that game, which is needed only to the updating program.

A commentary file mostly includes commentaries for the game. If you open a comm. file, you will see the minute on the left side and the event on the right side. The comm. file includes lots of different phrases for different events, just like in Championship Manager. Therefore it is very interesting to be read line by line, not knowing what is written on the next line and feel the "tension" of a real game.

In the end of the commentary file, you will see the game statistical summaries for each team. How many minutes each player played, how many goals scored, assisted etc. You will also find there the change of ability points as a result of the game.

5.1 How do I get my match commentary?
The game commentary for a particular game will be posted on the website alongside the game score on the scores page, as a manager you will also recieve a copy with all your match reports and squad roster in an email after the round of matches.

1.0 Player Transfers
A list of transfers will be published each weekend.

Teams can transfer players between each other in order to improve themselves as best possible. A transfer can be swapping players, or straight cash purchases of players or a mixture of both.

1.0.1 Only TWO teams can be involved in a transfer.
Multiple team deals involving 3 or more teams are not allowed.

1.1 Confirming a Transfer
When a deal is agreed it must be confirmed by BOTH managers by emailing the League F.A. The email must have a subject consisting of the words European Soccer Nights Transfer and the name of the two clubs involved and NOTHING ELSE.
The body of the message should contain the transfer details e.g.:

Academies
Every team starts of with a 0 rated youth academy and can increase its rating at any time during the season at £500k per star rating. So for a 10 star academy you would have to pay £5m. Higher rated academies have a better chance of generating good quality players, but there are no guarantees. You may only increase your academy by a maximum of 10 stars per season. During the close season your academy will produce 6 players, of which you may select up to 3 to promote to your squad. During the regular season your academy will produce another 3 players, of which you may select 1 to promote to your squad.