Announcements

So, we did it, it's "Week 1, Day 7", which means we managed one full week of the new shakuras adventure. And it went pretty well, mostly. A few crucial bugs were found and fixed, a bunch of small features and UI uppgrades were made. But in the end, the game seems to be working more or less as intended, and is getting more complete and robust as we go along. Join Discord to see more detailed changelogs in the "Official" channel. It has been a magical week, discovering that unique feeling that a Shakuras match day brings with it- as well the anticipation of seeing those overnight training results pop up. And the best of all has been the community over on Discord. The transfer market has been heating up, and after a bit of a false-start, we got the scouts working today as well. For my part, thank you to everyone who has joined up and is playing with us. We've only got 3 bot teams left in 2.2, which is awesome! Once those fill up, the next league won't be created instantly- rather it will wait until roughly half of the needed managers have joined the pre-season camp ( or waitlist ) before a league is created. I'll monitor this of course, and step in manually if it becomes necessary. A league that is created mid-season will take part in promotion / relegation IF it ran for at least half the season. A new league also wont be created if there is not enough time for at least one full round of play at the end of the season. It will hopefully sort itself out. The next few weeks I will hopefully have to step in less with direct updates / fixes. But I just wanted to commemorate this first week with a post. Muchos gracias, <3 Joni / VaultDweller

Hey, After bunch of last minute work, I have officially pressed the button. The leagues are drawn, every club has its seat, and season 1's full fixture list is public. The world starts playing on Monday, August 3rd, first league matchday at noon New York time. Nothing moves until then: no training, no aging, no matches. Use the weekend to set your lineups and pick a sponsor. The pyramid opened with a fully populated Proleague & 1.1, and an almost fully human 1.2. There are two "buffer leagues" in the division below, so 2.1 and 2.2 are filled bot teams. They will be taken over by humans eventually. I wanted a healthy buffer in case there is an influx of players in the first season- since seasons last around 3 months. Little information about some of the changes that went in today, all serving the same idea: the bots are filler, and the game belongs to the people playing it. Bot clubs no longer enter the Starleague — every one of your players still enters and qualifies through the preliminaries as always. With so many bot teams, the starleague had a real risk of being overrun by their players. Bots already never promote; now they're also first out the door and relegated with priority, giving up their place before a manager-run club does even when they finish above it (a bot that actually wins its division is safe — that would just look broken. So managers, please beat the bots, it would be embarassing if we didn't.). This means that over time the bottom divisions will be where the bots live while humans tend to surface upward. And if a crowd of new managers ever arrives at once with no seats left, six or more waiting clubs now get a division of their own on the next Sunday rather than waiting for the off-season. Some cosmetic changes have gone in too on the UI side. For example, the condition will now show a color coded description when a player wears down. Truthfully, condition won't be too big of a factor in the first season besides the KOF league phase and late-season starleague runs. Condition is being reworked, and I will post more about it when I commit that change. If it doesnt make it live before Monday, the change will wait until season 2. The rework targets older players specifically, so this won't affect much of season 1 anyway. That's it. As always, this thing is AI-built and it shows, so if something looks wrong it probably is — tell me and I'll look into it. Hopefully this is the last announcement that I email out to all of you in a while. Keep checking the front page & discord for the most up to date news. So, good luck, have fun. Or as the pros put it, glhf. -Joni / VaultDweller

Hey, We have 29 registered teams as of me writing this announcement. That is enough to start playing, sooner than I originally intended. I'm also testing an email feature with this announcement, to make sure everyone is in the know. I promise I won't spam your emails too much. Only the most important announcements, and notifications about your club going idle or being under threat of deletion, will arrive via email. The rest you can read on the front page and discuss on Discord. So. The date is set. If nothing goes wrong, on Thursday, July 30, I will schedule the game's start: the leagues are created, and season 1 is drawn on the spot — every fixture and its announced maps, public from that moment. The world itself opens on Monday, August 3, when the first matches of week 1 play, and training begins to take effect. Clubs are seated by registration order — the earliest founders land in the Proleague, the rest fill the leagues below. I've decided to also add a few extra leagues to make sure that any new players during the first season can join and play right away. With potentially many bot teams filling the blanks, I've tried to make it so that bot clubs never promote. Every promotion spot goes to the highest-placed manager-run club. This might lead to weirdness and bugs, so we have to be vigilant. Hopefully this wont be an issue and we have a healthy playerbase. Players who join after the leagues have created will take over bot clubs- and if they join after Day 1, they will create a fresh team and the old bot team goes to free agency. This ensures everyone starts fresh, since bot teams will train on their own. It should also create some much needed early action on the transfer market. From August 3, the world starts to tick on its regular schedule: league matches at noon (New York time) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the junior leagues Tuesday and Thursday, the Starleague every Saturday. First champions will be crowned in week 12. That probably covers it. Fingers crossed I've smashed the worst of bugs. Best Regards from your reluctact sys admin / Claude's errand boy. -Joni / VaultDweller

Good news everyone! Shakuras is reborn. Or so I hope. My name is Joni, or as you might remember me: VaultDweller, VD for short. I have been tinkering up this relaunch for a short while now. In 2013, the original shakuras.me went down for good, and ever since then there have been a few hopeful attempts at a relaunch. At some point in time, we got parts of the original code and database from the original admin, TO92- but none of us had the programming know-how to get it up and running. Enter 2026. It's the era of vibe-coding with AI. I found the old code in my drive, and decided to give it the ol' college try. With the help of Claude. And here we are, I think. I've learned how to host a php server and some other things along the way. But I must say this first and foremost, the code and most of the actual text on this site is AI-generated, and it shows. Going forward, all these announcements will be handwritten- and if time permits, I will try to rewrite some sections to be less obviously AI. But the most important thing: It works. The base game is the same, but a lot of things have also changed. There is a manual that goes better in-depth, so please read that. But here are some keynotes: Game balance has been redone, and testing seems to indicate that things actually work like they are meant to. Strategy is no longer OP, and its possible to build different types of players that can succeed. Even I dont know what makes a perfect player, since the game engine is AI-improved over the original code. Experience now caps at 15, but otherwise works much like before. Turns out, it was uncapped before. The dreaded "motivation" mechanic that broke the original game is gone. Condition got some slight rework, but is still very similar. There is now an age based retirement roll once a player reaches 28 years old. But I am getting ahead of myself, as many things will likely need to be polished and changed over the course of what I hope to be many upcoming seasons. Based on player feedback, of course. But I buried the lede! You may now register your teams for the new game. At first, the teams will generate but no daily progress will take place as we wait for players to join the game. After a few weeks, or after sufficient sign-ups, I will schedule the game to begin on the next monday- which is when teams will be placed to the league pyramid and any missing teams will be filled with bot teams. First 12 registered teams make it to the very first proleague, so consider that an early bird special! I hope we can get at least 10-20 players, at first. Spread the word to any old shakuras players ( or potential new ones? ) that you still have contacts to. For now, register your teams, read through everything, and get ready for a new Shakuras experience! Feel also free to browse the "Archive" - the old database from shakuras.me is saved in the state that we left it. Lets see how this goes. -VaultDweller