TOS-MS coming soon

Currently, I'm actively developing TOS-MS, which means "Tao of Soccer - Management Simulator".

The original TOS is developed at a tactical level, which is: a single player controlled by point&click human interface or by AI in a multi player environment. It's designed to be played by soccer fans, to be used as an multiplayer AI testbed for researchers, and an educational tool.

It achieved some success as an AI testbed and an educational tool. But unfortunately, it failed as a fun game. I just don't see people play it as a game! And I understand why. At current level, TOS simply can't compete with EA's FIFA soccer.

Frankly speaking, i myself don't feel excited controlling a single player. I would rather watch my whole AI team clashing with another AI team. I'm more comfortable playing at a higher strategic level. I never really liked EA's FIFA soccer game either. Can't imagine they can sell that thing year after year and make good money on it. In fact, i'm also tired of most of these first person shooting games on the market. I enjoy strategic war game a lot better.

In the past 4 or 5 years, I've got several requests on using TOS in an on-line soccer management game. I didn't have any idea about soccer management games at that time. So I wasn't really qualified to do the work. Recently, I became more and more interested in this concept. This is my type of soccer game, playing at a higher level. And it's good for AI research as well.

So I did some research on this topic. This idea was first developed in 1970s as a play by mail game called United Electro Football League (UEFL), then it became Experimental Electronic Football League (EEFL) in 1990s. In the end, the most popular one seems to be Electronic Soccer Management Simulator(ESMS). It's open source as well.

All these games use a very simple match simulator. Here is where TOS can be used to improve the match effects. Currently, I'm modifying TOS to accept ESMS style rosters and team sheets to output a match.

I'm also beautifying 3D a bit. In the end, you will have a ESMS style on-line soccer management game with TOS engine, graphics and AI.

Let me know if you have any good ideas, advices. I expect this will be an easy job. I plan to finish this in one to two months.

I'll keep you updated.

Yu