ESMS+ Help - How to Read a Roster and Make a Teamsheet

There are no doubt some managers who are trying out an ESMS+ game for the first time and as such, I am providing as much information as possible to help ease the learning curve for you.

The complete help file is available at http://dreamers.com/junta13/esmshelp.txt but since it is a very extensive document, I will endeavour to find all of the most important points and stick them here. I will also change things mentioned in the help file, in order for it not only to be relevant to our league, but also to explain things a bit better.

If there's anything you don't understand, please ask me for clarification.

1.1 WHAT IS ESMS ?

The ESMS program is a soccer management simulator for play-by-email games. A play-by-email (PBEM) soccer game usually consists of an administrator, who runs the league, and managers, each managing one or more teams in the league.

It is important to note that whoever uses this program, must understand the rules of soccer and know how it is played.

It is also important to note that ESMS+ is freeware and as such, can be downloaded for your own use. I can send you the ESMS+ engine myself, or you can download it at http://www.iffonline.net/zips/ESMS%20Beginner%20Pack.zip


2.0 HOW IS A GAME PLAYED ?

2.0.1 A team in ESMS is represented by a "roster". A roster is a text file in a special format, which includes all the players of the team and their attributes.

2.0.2 A "team sheet" in ESMS is a text file which includes orders for the game for each team. These orders include the list of 11 starting players, 5 subs and various commands for the program. The teamsheet is basically the instructions each manager gives to his team before the game.

2.0.3 To play a match, each manager has to send the league administrator a teamsheet with instructions for the match. The administrator must have the rosters of the participating teams. It is very important to note here that the game is not run in "real-time", but all at once, meaning that a manager can't interfere on a specific minute and tell the administrator to substitute a player or change tactic. The manager's work is concluded by sending a teamsheet with instructions to the admin.

All these instructions are included in the team sheet sentby the managers in the correct format, the program reads these insctuctions and implements them during the game. After the game is finished, the program generates commentary file for the game and the admin sends it to the managers of the playing teams.

Then, the admin uses the various supplementary tools of ESMS to update the rosters and the league table.


2.1 ROSTERS & PLAYERS

If you look at a valid roster of ESMS, you will see a header line and a list of players with a lot of numbers near them. This section will explain exactly what each number means.

Lets take an example line from a roster file:

Name Age Nat St Tk Ps Sh Ag KAb TAb PAb SAb Gam Sav Ktk Kps Sht Gls Ass DP Inj Sus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N_Amoruso 22 ita 2 4 6 10 26 300 420 550 690 5 0 2 4 12 4 0 8 0 0


2.1.1 Name: The name of the player.

2.1.2 Age: Player's age.

2.1.3 Nat: Player's nationality, abbreviated in 3 characters.

Now we'll move to the next attributes:

Name Age Nat St Tk Ps Sh Ag KAb TAb PAb SAb Gam Sav Ktk Kps Sht Gls Ass DP Inj Sus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N_Amoruso 22 ita 2 4 6 10 26 300 420 550 690 5 0 2 4 12 4 0 8 0 0

2.1.4 St: Is the player's shot-stopping skill. In other words, his goalkeeping skill.

2.1.5 Tk: Is the player's tackling skill. Mostly used by players playing in the defense.

2.1.6 Ps: Is the player's passing skill. Mostly used by players in the midfield for creating opportunities and assisting goals.

2.1.7 Sh: Is the player's shooting skill. It defines the player's shooting accuracy.

2.1.8 Ag: Is the player's aggression. Higher aggression could lead to more cards.

2.1.9 KAb, TAb, PAb, SAb: Player ability for each skill. A number ranging from 0 to 999 and can affect the player's skills. Ability point rewards vary from game to game depending on the player's performance. When a player's ability points for a skill go beyond 999, they receive a skill increase. When a player's ability points go below 0, they receive a skill decrease.

2.1.10 Gam: Simply the amount of games the player played.

2.1.11 Sub: Shows the amount of games the player played as a used substitute.

2.1.12 Mins: Shows the amount of minutes played over the season.

2.1.11 Sav: The total amount of saves the player made. Only the player played as a goalkeeper can make saves.

2.1.12 Ktk: The total amount of key tackles the player made to stop scoring opportunities.

2.1.13 Kps: The total amount of key passes made by the player to create goalscoring opportunities.

2.1.14 Sht: The total amount of shots to goal taken by the player.

2.1.15 Gls: The total amount of goals scored by the player.

2.1.16 Ass: The total amount of assists made by the player.

2.1.17 Dp: The total amount of disciplinary points accumulated by the player. Disciplinary Points (DP) are "accumulated" when a player gets yellow/red cards.

2.1.18 Inj: If a player isn't currently injured, Inj is 0. If a player is injured, it indicates the amount of games he can't play.

2.1.19 Sus: If a player isn't currently suspended, Sus is 0. If a player is suspended, it indicates the amount of games he can't play.

2.2 PLAYER POSITIONS

As was stated earlier, a player in ESMS doesn't have a pre-defined position. The manager will have to decide where to play a player in a game.

The ESMS system has 6 possible positions for players:

GK: Goalkeepers - only one GK is allowed to play at the same time
DF: Defender
DM: Defensive Midfielder
MF: Midfielder
AM: Attacking Midfielder
FW: Forward

Each league must decide for itself the restrictions on the maximum and/or minimal number of DF's, DM's, MF's, AM's and FW's which can play at the same time.

For the min/max MF count, DM's and AM's count towards it as well, even if DM's and AM's have their own min/max position count of their own.


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 players's raw skill after some mathematical operations, which depend on tactics and player's fatigue during the game.

As a general rule, players generally finish at about 60% fitness, meaning they will finish the games with 60% of their maximum skills.


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 teamsheets.

This is the listing of possible tactics in ESMS:

2.4.1 N: Normal. No specific style of play, trying to use all parts of the team in the most suitable way. It doesn't favour one area of the field and generally does not provide much weight towards secondary skills in any position except, the customary DM's and AM's.

2.4.2 D: Defensive. Focusing more on the defense. D is hard to score against, but won't create many opportunities either, it is the most defensive tactic. Midfielders and even forwards will pay more attention to the defense.

2.4.3 A: Attacking. The most offensive tactic. The players try to score as much as possible but only DFs and DMs can provide any tackling skills at all, so the extra shooting for all players comes with a risk.

2.4.4 P: Passing. More offensive tactic than N and relies heavily on not only midfielders having good passing, but having good passers in other positions make this tactic very dangerous.

2.4.5 C: Counter attack. More of a defensive variant of P, with a little less passing afforded by DFs and FWs. Less likely to score than P, as well.

2.4.6 L: Long Ball. Defenders get higher tackling and forwards get higher shooting, but nobody really gets much passing. Passing takes a back seat as teams to try to bypass the midfield.

2.4.7 E: European. MFs receive the highest passing of any position in any tactic. DMs and AMs get very high tackling and shooting respectively while maintaining their raw passing stats. However, defenders and forwards struggle more in this formation. You may have to rely on a lot of chances to score a goal or two, while hoping you can keep a clean sheet at the other end.


Note: Each tactic has some bonuses against some other tactics, which makes the decisions more complicated and challenging. The bonuses table is below. It also includes the 'Bonus type', which tells the nature of the bonus.

Tactic Against Bonus type
----------------------------------------------------------
Normal (N) E & A Midfield & Attack
Defensive (D) L & P Defence
Attacking (A) D & E Attack
Cnt. Attack (C) P & A Attack & Midfield
Long Ball (L) N & C Defense & Attack
Passing (P) L & N Defense
European (E) C & D Midfield & Attack

TEAMSHEETS

As was stated before, a manager has to send a "teamsheet" for each game. The team sheet includes a list of players and subs for the game, and various "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 presents all the various options a manager has in composing it.


3.1 WHICH "ORDERS" CAN A MANAGER INCLUDE IN THE TEAM SHEET ?

Except of the list of players, the manager includes various 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 to guarantee 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 a starting tactic his team will play.

3.1.2 Penatly 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 situations which may arise
in 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
* Change the position of a specific player.

The conditional orders are given by a set of key words which will be shown in the example.

The next section will explain exactly how to write a teamsheet.


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 you count players in a teamsheet 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.

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 swith 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 substituter on 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. A common mistake is forgetting the [position] argument of this order. You must specify the position, ESMS won't choose it for you.


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 56th minute.

3.3.5 IF SCORE = [Score]: The [Score] argument is a SINGLE NUMBER which stands for the differense in score between your team and the opponent. 2 is leading by 2 goals, -6 is losing by 6 goals ets.
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 exaction 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 45th 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 20th minute and your team leads by one or more goals.


Example
```````````````````````````````````````
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 (formation: 4-4-2)

GK Vitor_Baia /* These are the 5 subs for the game
MF F_Abelardo
DF A_Celades
DF W_Bogarde
FW Giovanni

PK: S_Anderson /* S_Anderson is the primary penalty taker

TACTIC A IF MIN = 55 SCORE =< -1 /* If we're losing on min 55, play attacking
SUB 11 16 FW IF MIN = 60 /* Sub player 11 for player 16 on min 60
CHANGEPOS 8 DF IF SCORE = 1 /* If we lead by a goal, player 8 will play DF
TACTIC D IF SCORE = 2 /* If we lead by 2 goals, play defensive

4.1 PLAYER'S SKILLS AND ABILITY POINTS

4.1.1 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 re-starts at 0.

4.1.2 If a player's ability reaches 0, he will have a skill decrease. The ability points will then reset at 999.

4.1.3 There are many opportunities for an ability being increased or decreased during the game. The number of points added or deducted for each event can be defined by each league for itself. Below is the list of "events" for which ability is changed:

4.1.4 Goal: A player will get an ability increase for each scored goal.

4.1.5 Assist: A player will get an ability increase for each goal he assisted.

4.1.6 Ktk, Kps, Sht_On, Sht_Off: A player will get an ability increase for each key tackle, key pass, or shot (on or off target) to goal he will take. These bonuses are usually much lower than the bonuses for goal and assist.

4.1.7 Save: The goalkeeper will receive ability points for each save he makes in the game.

4.1.8 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.

4.1.9 Victory: If a team wins the game, two of its players will be given an ability increase. The two players are chosen randomly.

4.1.10 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.


4.10 HOME BONUS

4.10.1 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. Hence there is an indepentent home bonus in ESMS, which can be defined by each league for itself. It means that if there are two absolutely even teams, with the same skill players,
same formations and tactics, the home team has a little more chance to win the game.

5.0 COMMENTARY FILE NAME

5.0.1 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 for the updating program.


5.1 WHAT DOES A COMMENTARY FILE INCLUDE ?

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

5.1.2 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.

5.1.3 Commentaries are custom: there is a special data file containing all commentary lines in ESMS.