It would be very handy to be able to sort the idols by Friendship and Influence.

Maybe this is just me but I think it might be nice to have a few random happy events amongst all the chaotic cults, sweaty handshakes, misprinted CD's and everything else that goes down lol. 

Like "An elementary schooler recognized (idol) in the street and gave her her favorite teddy bear, (idol's) training is multiplied by 1.5 for 1 week" or something. I love the drama but a little wholesomeness might be nice too ;) 

I just bought the game and already had my first misstep, when the audition finished I didn't select any idols there should probably be a warning popup if you didn't  select anyone or closing the window shouldn't be possible until you revealed all/one of the idols.

Personally, I would like a way to lock the scrollbar at the side. Pretty much every time I move my mouse to the bottom to click one of the buttons down there, I accidentally scroll down on the building. It would be nice to have a way to lock the scrollbar so that it would just stay centered on the building where I have my rooms built instead of having to adjust it constantly.

A few suggestions and some feedback: 

- I think it would be interesting if idols came directly to you more often if they felt unhappy or bothered. Maybe they want less work, maybe they want a raise, maybe they don't feel like practicing anymore, or maybe they don't like one of the group's policies. It'd be a good way to know what your idols are thinking. I just had an idol graduate less than a year after joining the group, at the age of 18, and maybe things could've gone differently if she had told me she was unhappy about her salary.

- 'Unfair' difficulty didn't seem to do anything. I actually had an even easier time making money this time, and didn't even have to get a loan from Fujimoto. Within the 1st in-game year, I was already sitting on tons of millions of yen (thanks to photoshoots and negotiations at first, then a few successful singles). Didn't even need to build a cafe to thrive.  Other than saying "Nerf everything, make us suffer, we like pain, misery and bankruptcy", I'd suggest specifically slowing down the rate at which your staff levels up their skills (in order to force players to spend more money hiring new staff members if they wanna grow faster), or maybe even cap their skill development. For example: if the player hires a 'Beginner' manager with 2* contract skills, that manager can only develop their contract skills up to 5*. The player will, then, be forced to hire a better manager if they wanna get better contracts, and will either have to fire the 'Beginner' level manager, or keep paying her salary. And, speaking of staff salaries, they should be higher in the 'Unfair' difficulty, since they're not dynamic like the idols'. Just to make things more fun :)

The newest update sounds positively bonkers and is probably the biggest package of changes/additions you've made in an update, I'm beyond impressed just reading about it..... Huge kudos for all the work that surely went into it. Starting it rn!

Hm, after a couple of hours of play, here are some small changes I could see:

On the sister groups screen where you can allocate the formation points (cute, cool, sexy, etc.) it'd be helpful if there was a way to undo an addition: I didnt know what was happening at first and accidentally sorted one of my points, and there's no way to undo it. A "cancel" option so you can leave that screen without saving if you make a mistake would be nice.

More designation between groups would be a godsend:

1) In the production/released tabs: I was working on two groups' singles simultaneously and they look identical, perhaps you could chose a color when you make the group too, and all their associated "tabs" retain that color for distinction's sake?

2) On the girls' job sections, maybe it could take a page from Stage48 and list singles like this:

Akizaka46

Give Me Six

Sounds Great

Tartan Plaid

Sakazaka46

White Goat

instead of just having all the titles one after one another chronologically?  (As in, Give Me Six releases on July 2018, Sounds Good on Aug 2018, but the idol participated in the sister groups' White Goat on Sept 2018, and then the full group's Tartan Plaid again on October 2018. Instead of WG following Sounds Good, it's separated to indicate which group the song came from.)

3) Following that, the tooltip for formations on the released single tab already looked a little cramped with how it tried to represent positions with written names, but now that there are sister groups I think it would be helpful if it showed maybe a list, rather than a comma-separated paragraph, split by group, and then displayed the formation when you clicked on the single's "card". The different groups' singles being tabbed separately instead of all being listed chronologically would also help!

Finally this is kind of a bug, but during the single formation screen, it will wipe your formation if you switch the group tab. The main group tab also retains all your hires across all groups, not sure if that's on purpose.

Thanks for reading! Still got lots to play, lol

OK so a bigger change suggestion I have regarding sister groups is that stamina-draining marketing choices like handshakes, 2 shot etc shouldn't affect girls outside of that group when it comes to their single release. I think a potential advantage of the sister groups is that you can rotate through their releases while another group rests up but with all their marketing tied together it kind of neutralizes this positive.

Update 13 Review/Impressions

I think this is the best update and brings Idol Manager a huge step closer to feeling like a fully-fleshed/realized game! I'll talk about why I like it, where I could see the elements in it going and where I think the rest of Idol Manager could be filled in.

Scandals

I like the utility of scandal points now, as they kinda just sat there before. There's reasons to want to get rid of them before your next single, now. I got a real shock when I tried to fire a staff worth 3 points and got an event!

Sister Groups

I like so many parts: how they interact with the clique/relationship system, how you decide which group they appeal to and how the formation stats per single factor into how well they appeal, etc. Regarding  the appeal, I like how it diversifies the types of idols you have due to the fanbases supporting idols of different groups: For example, I've never had an idol with a majority casual fans until I started a sister group targeting casuals, leading to an interesting scenario where despite one idol of that sister group having the most fans of any idol in all groups, she placed 6th in the election because the single was bought mostly by hardcore fans.

I feel like it's improved the longevity of a playthrough, as when you run out of things to do with your main group, you can just start a sister group and try building them up. But it's not exactly the same playthrough as you've got to juggle twice the amount of activities, leading to more engagement.

Where Sister Groups Could Go

I like the changes done to the game to integrate them (Like sales being affected by fans of idols in the single), and even wish some of them applied to the main group (Like being able to "upgrade" your appeal based off the stats of the songs, which would give leveling up stats a bit more importance.). I think some additions/tweak could be:

1) Aesthetic Differentiation

Like I've said above, aesthetic/UI-wise, some things look too similar when you want to focus on one sister group. I think something simple like picking a color for your new sister group, and then EVERY piece of info having to do with them carrying on that aesthetic would be very helpful.  Their singles' tabs, member profiles/portraits, etc.

UI-wise, things like organizing their singles on separate pages from every other group, their singles separately from the main group's in the jobs section, the compact view still respecting sister group division, etc...

2) Tools catered to their addition

Things like being able to audition idols directly into a sister group instead of having to bring them from the main group after hiring them, being able to assign workers/coaches/stylists to auto-train within/find contracts for a specific group instead of the whole franchise...

3) Separate concerts/media

Being able to create sister group-specific shows (this mostly pertains to the "random" and full-group cast options) instead of drawing from the whole franchise, and more importantly,  separate concerts where sister groups can have their own concert with a setlist drawn from their singles.

Possible Additions/Changes for the Whole Game

What I think the sister groups do well is that they add additional "cogs" to your idol machine and keep you on your toes trying to manage them. I think features that add these types of moving parts would help increase the longevity of a playthrough. Going from small-ish/subtler ideas to big ones:

Measures of success

Just some fun stats, perhaps some screen showing the fandom growth+sales growth of each group over time, showing the fan growth of individual girls over time, etc. The latter might be especially useful for deciding which girls you want to pay attention to, especially when you might miss the fan growth of girls who are doing dramas/shows but aren't in singles if you aren't checking on them.

Bigger formations/double center recognition

Now that sister groups are a thing, I'd love to be able to bring different demographics from different groups to the main singles, but 15 is a little small for this purpose. Hoping to see this number increase in the future!

More genres/subgenees, ability to tell what's trending

Already know I mentioned this, but I think diversifying some of the appeal combos would be interesting and helpful in single creation.

Idol personalities

Maybe idols can have likes and dislikes? They naturally like certain genres/dance styles/lyrics and will get a boost if they're on a song within that genre, or a hit if it's a style they don't like. Maybe some like being toward the front and others get anxiety being in the spotlight. Maybe an idol doesn't like doing cute/sexy jobs and will ask you to not give her those types of deals.

Achievements

Just some completionist goals, like "Release 48 singles", "sell 1 million copies", "have 100 idols at once", "create 10 groups",  "unlock every genre", etc, and lots of them!

Deepening mechanics

Perhaps this would be something only in Normal/Unfair difficulty, but I could see certain mechanics expanded on to provide some challenge: I read up some of the earlier promotion for the game, and I thought one of the interesting concepts was that your group would have relationships with specific business that give out contracts. This could be interesting in where business might return to offer better offers to you upon completion of a successful contract, or might blacklist you/a specific idol for sometime if you break a contract/get in a scandal. Maybe the fame system, which kind of comes off as defunct since buzz is gone and also lacked a function, could be tied into this, where when idols exceed a certain tier of fame, they gain access to a new, higher-quality tier of sponsors/businesses? 

The individual handshake, while super helpful for increasing sales, is too overpowered right now imo. The more idols you have, the crazier its bonus gets (I have 3 groups and get a 1000%+ bonus now that i've upgraded it a few times, so it does result in a runaway effect the longer you play.) Maybe a way it can be balanced is by tying it to fame and having some additional depth to it? For example, right now essentially each idol adds the same flat percentage, they contribute the same amount of fan sales. Instead maybe it could be based off the handshake slot system? Each girl is assigned a number of spots, and when they're sold, more can't be bought. If they don't sell out, it's not counted as a sale. This sort of scenario:

Individual Handshake has +10% hardcore appeal per idol (in a best case scenario)

You have five idols, resulting in a best case of 50%. Each idol gets 2 slots consisting of 5%, and they're evenly split between them all by default. You go with the default, but due to a couple of your idols being new/unpopular, you only get a ~30% boost rather than a full 50% (Because realistically no one's gonna go for a handshake with someone unknown, right?) But perhaps your most popular idol has more fans/demand than 2 slots would allow: you can take slots from the girls who won't fill up all their slots and give them to her, boosting you to 50 anyways, at the cost of her stamina being drained more.  Inversely, maybe your most popular girl is working on a lot of contracts right now and you want her to conserve her stamina, so you have her sit out the handshake by distributing her slots to other girls who can take them on. The girls spend a bit more stamina, but gain more fans than they might have before, you sell the same amount of handshakes, and your original idol isn't in danger of injury. This is just an idea I had that hits on the management aspect of the game (And I've always wanted an option to allow idols to opt-out of handshakes).

Music videos+albums

Like I wrote in a previous post, I think this is a natural inclusion for the game someday down the line, where the PVs might have their own genres that benefit the song they're associated with, and where you can work on multiple songs at once and tie them together to a single/EP/album that's more effective (but more expensive) than a single song. These would also give you a way to include all your idols and have them gain fans, even if they aren't quite ready to be on an A-side. These b-sides could also be used for concerts and help fulfill those center wishes.

More special events

Kind of anti-climactic for a final idea, but I'd love to see a Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament event be included in the game! Just gimmicky and fun, maybe with you being able to watch the randomized matches in real-time. 

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This really does feel like the strongest update so far, I'm definitely going to be playing it for a while. Thank you for taking everyone's suggestions and feedback into consideration, because you can really feel the game getting stronger with each update!

here's some ideas i have! also, i already am in love with the game.

- can we have a survival show? where instead of auditions, we can have a reality show where we look for a new trainee or trainees (new generation?) and fans can vote for their favorite trainee (and eliminate their least favorites). we can also rig the shows by purposely editing a trainee terribly or changing the winner / lineup overall. rigging is also a bit scandalous, because the company can be exposed for this.

survival shows can help the group grow in popularity. some trainees that can join the survival shows can be popular ex members of a group, actresses, models, social media inferencer, or even an average person.  

- reunion concerts. i honestly want to do more with the graduated idols. maybe we can do a once a year concert with former members.

this can make old fans who left the group after said idol graduated return to the group.

- music videos. that's it.

- siblings in the group.

- male idols / groups!

- scandals in shows

- more idols walking to you with problems. 

- employees being abusive with power storyline!

Hello

Could you add new random names from the Sakamichi series also？

And is there a tag for all the result of past elections in the game？I love data！

I'll admit, I am a complete noob when it comes to the world of j-pop and k-pop, and, while I may be a newcomer, there's a rather basic aspect of the whole talent agency culture they have that isn't fully portrayed in Idol Manager, though it'd probably be relatively easy to implement. We can name our character, group and sister groups, come up with songs and shows with unique titles, and even give our idols and employees nicknames. So much naming left and right... but how come we can't give our own agency a name? I personally feel like that would add, even if superficially, a new layer of personalization and identity creation to the game. Hell, if you let us name our company and give us some 5 preset logos to choose from, we'll loudly and proudly call that agency our own. Of course that could be expanded upon with more dialogues and events focused on agencies, in addition to the ones focused on groups and idols, but just being able to give our own company a name would already be something meaningful.

I think it'd be cool to add heights to each girl. Either just having one height a girl is during her whole time as an idol or maybe over time some girls could get taller if they were added when they were younger. 

Male idols!!!!