How to improve Head Soccer

Head Soccer has changed
It is no secret to all of those who played since the early updates, that D&D went out of their way with their game. Head Soccer used to be balanced and straight forward in terms of gameplay. Once there were Characters that have interesting powershots that are very practical in certain scenario's, but they also had their weaknesses. Powershots that challenge you as a player, but you were able to prevent it by practicing and/or upgrading your statistics. Furthermore we had many characters that represent their countries(along with a couple of non-countries) accurately and not only by their looks but also their powershots. but at some point the game went to a whole other direction that change the entire game.

Lets dive in once again how Head Soccer changed and figure out how we can improve the game as it is now. For more information about the updates and the problemanalysis check the original page:

Head Soccer Analysing the Problem

Version 1.0 - 2.0(Pioneer Fase)
Some may think that Head Soccer already went downhill after the 2.0 patch, as I call in my Analysis the 'Pioneer Fase'.

In this fase:

- We had only Arcade, Tournament, Survival and Multiplayer as accessible gamemodes.

- We had only 30 characters to choose from including 6 non-countries.

- All characters(along with a few exceptions) have only one unique powershot of their own. They had no seperate ground/airshot, nor do they have an identical counter exept for Creece.

All in all this version where the golden days of Head Soccer, mostly because of its inviting gameplay for new players. The changes where higher of winning, not only because the powershots where a lot more simplyfied, but also because the we had to face more time characters that are below 5 stars because of RNG.

But there is another big improvement this version had over all versions: 'We were depending more on our technique', which explains one of the definitions of what makes a game a good one. Because the gameplay was more about how you play, rather than using just any overpowered country only to win by its unstoppable powershots. This is why it had good gameplay, because it separates a good player from a bad one, that is why this version nailed it.

But the gameplay had also some problems. There where not a lot of characters to unlock and there was simply not a lot to do. We only have 3 gamemode(multiplayer is just bassically like arcade only playing against a human opponent), in which Tournament was the most rewarding of all. And that is just not a lot to go around. Upgrading our stats took ages and when we finally managed to upgrade everything to the max(let alone 2 entire stats) there is just no practical use to any of it anymore, because at that point most of us would've already unlocked most of the characters. As a result the further process we made in this stage of the game just did not feel rewarding and that is the point where a game starts to become repetitive. But that repetitively this version ended in version 2.0 - 3.1.

Version 2.0 - 3.1(Climax Fase)
This is the fase where D&D released another 17 characters and 2 entire gamemodes: Headcup and Leagues. This version should be the definitive version of Headsoccer, after this version the game went to a whole other direction. In this fase:

- We had Arcade, Tournament, Survival, Multiplayer along with Leagues and Headcup.

- We had 47 characters including 8 non-countries.

- The new added characters had this time different powershots and they have their own unique counter starting with Israel(so in total 15 have a unique counter including Creece).

In terms of gameplay this fase adds a varity of options to the player. You can now choose how you want to proceed. Are you going to start by trying to unlocking practicle characters that will increase your chances in winning games or will you try to win one of the game modes to upgrade your stats and make process this way. All in all the addition of the 2 gamemodes where a great success, because they are rewarding and it did not take a huge amount of time. They are fun and challenging to do and that degresses the repetitively the game had in its early stages.

But the question stands. Is this fase better than the 'Pioneer Fase', Yes. However, all the 17 added characters are 5 star characters and changing the powershots adds complexity in the 1v1 gameplay. It makes it harder for new players to estimate all the characters and while every added character is in the 5 star catagory makes it harder to process when you are completely new to this game. But a good player can still be separated from a bad one. Because the powershots where not that overpowered to completely rely on it, except for Luxembourg. All in all, yes it is a step backwards when you are completely new to the game. The gameplay is slightly in this fase and it might frustrate some, but if you were halfway and unlocked some characters and managed to upgrade some stats, then all is well. It increases your changes in winning matches and also the new competitions.

Version 3.1+(Radical Change)
Something strange happened after update 3.0. Because here is the fase where the gameplay changed over the updates and it is not the end of it. In this fase:

- We have now the gamemodes Arcade, Tournament, Survival, Multiplayer, Leagues and Headcup along with Deathmode and Fightclub

- Every new added character(again they are all 5 star characters) had not only different air/groundshots and counters, but they have also a powereffect that has great influence on the gameplay(It already started with Belgium and Pluto in update 3.0, but since those powereffects does not do anything significant other than knock of costumes from opponents it is considerate as minor effects).

- The game went to a new direction due to the added gamemodes as well as the new added characters the release in this fase.

This is the part where Head Soccer demolished their own gameplay.

1 - Due to the many overpowered(and they are overpowered because no matter what you do you are just not able to stop them in certain scenario's) powershots and powereffects of the new added characters it becomes almost impossible for new players to make any process in the game. Therefore a good player can't be separated from a bad player. Because it is too depended in how good your chosen character's powershot/effect is.

2 - The new added Gamemodes are too out of place, too selective, too difficult/time consuming. As you may have noticed the terms: 'Death'mode and 'Fight'mode do not refer to any kind of competition soccer/football. Therefore they are out of place just looking at the name of these gamemodes alone. Death mode could have been really interesting, since you have to play against environmental circumstances, which makes it challenging. But 120 matches takes so long that it is for a very selective group of hard core players and that barely ends well for a game, because for new players it is not even worth considering this game mode. The rewards are also not worth it. 100k is just too little for 120 matches. Deathmode either should reduce the matches or increase the price(probably both). Fight mode is not even about soccer, it is about defeating your opponent untill their HP reaches zero. You can either do that by kicking or powershot or you score(which makes physically no sense). A good thing is that the overpowered characters in this fase are finally getting some possitive context in the game(even though it has nothing to do about soccer), however this also means the majority of characters are completely useless in this mode, because their powershots do too little damage to the opponent. You are just too related to the damage what the powershot does of certain character rather than you are related to your own skill and upgrades in the game.

3 - The unlock requirements for a dosen characters are undoable, which was always a huge part of the satisfying gameplay Head Soccer used to had: The rewarding system in achieving characters rather than buying them. This one is important. Because being good at the game or not can be explained how many characters you unlocked without the need to buy them. But since some unlock requirements are too rediculous now by the changes D&D made, that part simply become irrelavant. Because trying not to get hurt is simply undoable, because there are a lot of characters in this fase that will instantly hurt you even before they use a powershot, which are difficult enough to prevent damage. Trying to get Creece without losing more than 5 goals is a huge waste, because the new added overpowerd characters simply won't allow you to keep the zero.

How to improve
In order to improve the game you have to know: What was it? What is het now?

- Head Soccer used to be a balanced game with gamemodes that actually relates to the reallife sport itself. It has characters that represent their country by looks and/or powershot. The characters have strengths and weaknesses. HS used to have good gameplay: A good player can be seperated with a bad one. It was not repetitive certainly not in the Climax Fase. The game challange you to process, but was not practically undoable.

- Now Head Soccer suffers from imbalance. The added gamemodes are out of place compared to the old gamemodes. The added characters are too overpowered and many do not represent their country. As a result of the many overpowered characters the game became impossible if you want to make process if you are a newcomer. The gameplay also suffers from unpossible unlock requirements.

List of improvements
It is very difficult at this point to undo the changes D&D made in the game. That'll mean that a lot of content has to be removed in order to bring back the old gameplay, but there still are improvements D&D CAN do that'll actually improve the gameplay without deleting content:

1 Add a difficulty option.
This option seperates players that played the game for a while and newcomers. What this option does is that you are able to earn more points in certain gamemodes(Tournament, League, Survival, Fightmode and Headcup) by set the difficulty on either 'Normal', 'Heroic' and 'Legendary'.

On Normal, you'll face only the countries from South Korea to Creece. On Heroic will increase the chance you'll have to face another country than the selective group of 'Normal' by 75%, meaning that there is a 25% change you face someone between South Korea to Creece. However you also gain additional points of 50% of the usual winnings on Normal including the end reward. On Legendary the number outside the selective group on normal will increase to 95%(this will also increase the chances you have to face non-countries). Now, on Legendary you have 100% additional points, but this time not only will all your opponents wear costumes, but they will have pets as well defending the goal. This option will improve the gameplay:

- Firstly: It prevents that some unlock requirements become impossible like Creece, Fiji and Norway.

- Secondly: It will be a lot more easier for new players to start making process this way.

- Thirdly: For seasoned players that are playing for the points this option will actually help them upgrading stats or buying stuff.

- Fourth: You don't have to delete any content from the game. This way every update in the game will endure.

2 Add difficulty for Deathmode
Looking at this gamemode objectively it simply is not worth playing. 1: The reward is not worth it. 2: 120 matches just takes too much time. This improvement is similar to the first one, but for Deathmode this does not select a group of characters one must face, but simply how many matches one must win, because the attempts one shall get will be the same. how more matches the less matchen one can affort to lose. This will not effect the keysystem or unlock requirements of the characters, this is simply by making Deathmode more intruiging when it comes to gameplay in order to satisfy the player. We have got again an option wether we want to choose between 'Normal', 'Heroic' or 'Legendary'.

'Normal': A total of 60 matches(1 match each stage till stage 10, 2 matches each stage till stage 20 and 3 matches each stage till stage 30) and a reward of 150k when completing.

'Heroic': A total of 90 matches(2 match each stage till stage 10, 3 matches each stage till stage 20 and 4 matches each stage till stage 30) and a reward of 400k when completing.

'Legendary': A total of 120 matches(3 match each stage till stage 10, 4 matches each stage till stage 20 and 5 matches each stage till stage 30) and a reward of 800k when completing(the same amount of matches, but now 8x the usual reward).

Again this will have pretty much the same possitive improvements on gameplay:

- Firstly: It prevents that some unlock requirements becomes too unreasonable.

- Secondly: It will be a lot more easier for new players to start making process.

- Thirdly: For seasoned players this option will actually help them make them more points.

- Fourth: You don't have to delete any content from the game.

3 Bug fixing
This is probably a bigger issue than one assumes. There are a plenty of bugs present that are very long in this game all the way from the older versions of Head Soccer. In every a new update, new additional content comes, but almost no bugs are being fixed. Those bugs should be fixed a long time ago. They are annoying and this can easily be done to improve the game.

4 Change the unlock system of the Costumes
The very reason why I mention this is that I tried many times to actually unlock a SS costume myself, but I end up frustrating that I only get F costumes, meanwhile I am over stage 70. This must be changed. This should've been changed. It is fine if you can not buy the costumes to actually unlock them. This way you are forced to play the game, but at least give a fair change you actually deserve a SS costume, when you are in that stage and don't bring up lower costumes, because you already finished those levels. Right now we not only get costumes that are lower than SS meanwhile we are in the SS stage rank, but we also get double costumes, meaning that even if we are able to unlock high tier costumes, it is still possible that a cyborg wears the exact same costume as the unlocked ones, which is very frustating and awfully time consuming. Just make sure you get the price you deserve. Secondly make sure you don't get double costumes, resulting that you just wasted another 10 matches for nothing. This will improve the gameplay:

- Firstly: It prevents that some unlock requirements becomes too unreasonable.

- Secondly: It will be a lot more easier for new players to start making process.

- Thirdly: It prevents that players will smash their phone out of rage.