***I edited the original post I seriously mean no offense MB - your points are absolutely spot on and I can't agree more. I just do not want them lost within the translation of wall texts. I can imagine you wrote this all down with eyes closed dreaming of a better FIFA experience, like all of us*****
quoted by misterbroom12
As most of us who frequent this part of OS know, a lot of people are a bit disappointed in FIFA11 for various reasons. I wanted to start a thread with ideas from all of us who play the game that would make the game a lot better next year.
1) Gameplay: A lot of us have had numerous problems with the gameplay in FIFA11 as it is at times very frustrating. A few minor things I think could make gameplay a lot more realistic (and more under user control) without changing too much to the FIFA11 engine.
The first of these would be a sort of universal speed control. There are many times when I use a button to control the ball with a player (hold LB to face goal and stand still, hold LT to use close control, hold RT to shield) and when I decide to opt out any of these controls, my player doesn't always follow.
There should be a speed that players move at when LT is held, a speed when nothing is being held and a speed when RT is being held.
- If I am holding LT down and let go, the player should immediately begin to move at normal pace, and not need me to rapidly pull each trigger until he realizes I do not want him using the pace control anymore. This would help with being able to control touches with a bit more precision for the user.
The second of these would be for tackling to be made more realistic, with the "Standing Tackle" control acting more closely to the "Sliding Tackle" control. What I mean by this is that ...
- when A is pressed for a standing tackle, the player should dive in with a standing tackle immediately.
Obviously, the success would depend on a players "Standing Tackle" rating, but more importantly would now rely more on the users timing. So if I am playing someone and receive the ball with a player on my back, if the other user is too impatient to wait for me to try and turn and leave the ball off of my foot, his tackle would go straight at the ball and through my player resulting in a foul. (Again, if a player is good enough there could be some success with the player tackling between another players legs and knocking the ball loose.)
This change would immediately open up the game and the time users would have on the ball because mistimed tackles would result in more fouls for players, as well as defenders leaving acres of space behind them because of diving in. The jockey button would also become more involved and be used as a device for aiding in tackling the ball.
"Cancelling" your players next intended command should also be moved from LT+RT to clicking in R3.
Too many times have I been defending a through ball and using RT to sprint to the ball and then trying to use LT to jockey and keep a quicker player from reaching the ball first, only to have the players intentions of tracking the loose ball cancelled and him stopping to watch me get scored on.
Shielding the ball should also be improved. As it is now, players are very incapable of holding defenders off the ball, even when you aren't asking him to move anywhere.
- An additional skill rating should be added for shielding that the player uses naturally within gameplay without the user having to press a button initiating it.
We see pros do it all the time where they are running with a defender on their shoulder and use their bodies at high speeds to just keep tackles from reaching the ball. Players in FIFA are too unaware of protecting the ball naturally.
AI player awareness on the user team needs to be tweaked a little in my opinion as well.
When a ball is poked loose or is up for either team to go and gain possession, the user should not have to switch to the player nearest the ball in order for that person to have a desire to gain possession.
Lastly, I feel there needs to be a change in how skill moves are performed.
The best players in the world can perform stepovers, chops and other skills of the sort at top speeds and as we all know that's what separates the elite from the great.
The system as it is doesn't allow users to hold RT to sprint and then LT to perform skill moves without the player slowing down into "Pace Control" or the Skill Dribble.
That being said, I haven't thought of a better alternative to the current method.
2)Career Mode: This is where I spend most of my FIFA time and while FIFA11 Career Mode was a step forward (in most aspects) in my opinion, it is still very far off from being great.
My idea to help improve the career mode is focused on the Manager only Career Mode, but obviously would carry over into the other 2 styles. It also is one addition that is aimed to improve many different aspects of Career Mode.
I feel it would be great to incorporate individual player morale into Career Mode.
- This addition could help improve player progression, player form, and even the transfer market. Players could be given a morale rating (from 0-100) that expresses their happiness, content or even disgust with where they are in a squad.
As a real life example, you have
Roque Santa Cruz as a very talented player who is at 29 years of age and not seeing much of the field at City and rightfully wants out so he can play more.
A morale rating would allow things of this nature to happen in FIFA where players could request transfers from your team or have dips in form that render them almost useless playing in your squad unless you make it a point to boost their morale, which may come at the expense of other players morale.
Age would have a determining factor in this as well as you wouldn't see younger players expecting to see regular playing time as well as players a bit past their prime may not expect the same. Keeping all of your players happy would become necessary, as it is in real life, and player rotation would become more important and team variety would become more apparent. (In certain cup games you would see more of the big clubs allowing some normal subs, reserves and youth players see a bit more of the field rather than the same strong starting XI every fixture)
This morale again may also help fix the player growth problem we are all aware of in FIFA11.
Too often do players lose a whole point overall because they don't play enough when you have them on the substitutes bench for almost every game, and when you start them in cup fixtures.
For a lot of players, this sort of playing schedule is normal and their level of play doesn't drop so drastically. Ji Sung Park is a great example of this as he has one of the most inconsistent playing roles, yet every time he starts, he is at the same level of high play.
In FIFA11, anyone with his amount of playing time would see their overall rating drop. If a players morale is high enough to keep them happy with where they are, then their rating should not be affected negatively. Conversely, a very drastic drop in morale could see a players rating drop.
These in season rating changes could become form ratings,
- where over the course of the season players may see an overall rating increase or decrease by a point, but would happen infrequently and only last as long as the spike or drop in morale.
(This would also allow for even more infrequent but drastic form changes of + or - 3 or more if a player is really ignored from the squad and has his morale plunge, or a player is playing more than expected and on a great scoring run/defensive tear) In between seasons then a player can truly grow or diminish based on their seasonal performance as a whole, their age, potential and their room to grow.
Morale would affect the transfer market as well because it would provide users with the ability to find skilled players who fall out with their current clubs, it would encourage users to sell players whom they cannot keep happy in their squad preventing the ease in which super clubs can be created by users.
The buying part of the transfer market in FIFA11 is very good as it is and I will only offer a few more changes that can be done to the selling. Players on the users squad should be given a transfer market value by the user, not the game for one. For two, when a user lists players, they all should draw offers.
I do not mean this in the way that we saw in FIFA10 where every player could be sold at the market value just because you listed them, but FIFA11 did not get it right either
- because players such as Tomas Rosicky and Andrey Arshavin would not sit in the "Transfer Listed" pool for four straight transfer windows without any offers coming in.
There is always a team that will want a player, but how much they want the player should be reflected in their transfer offer. This again creates a little more decision making from the user about whether or not to let go of the player they listed for a fee that may be a lot lower than the value they gave to that player. (Allowing users to apply their own transfer value to players also would help rectify this problem because if I really wanted to offload a player like Arshavin and put a $9M price tag on him, I would get a lot more offers than I do when the game automatically values him at $22M)
Lastly with selling players,
- the CPU should be more active in pursuing players that a user does not list.
If I start a Career Mode with Bayern Munich and Thomas Muller scores 15+ goals in his first two years, I am going to be inclined to keep him as his ability is apparent and potential is still very high. CPU controlled teams should see this as well and become interested in buying him from me, even if I don't seem interested in selling. The money the CPU may offer for this Muller could provide me with enough funds to buy 2 players in positions I felt needed to be strengthened and would again provide a more realistic decision to be made.
With those points being made, one last change could be made to Career Mode to make it better and that would deal with the money. It is way too easy for clubs to accumulate massive amounts of wealth. After two years with Arsenal, around 10 player purchases and only about 5 player sales, I have grown my starting budget from around $60M to $115M. While gaining funds from winning competitions and pleasing the board is true to life, the lack of expenses throughout the year and lack of acknowledgement to player wage bonuses for goals and clean sheets makes it too easy to accumulate massive amounts of wealth. Proper budgeting and spending should become more of a focus for users as well.
Two last small points for customization I want to add are for stadiums and players. First, it's annoying for me to spend an hour when I first pop in my new FIFA and properly name all the grounds in England, only to have the first squad update delete all of my work. Second, within a Career Mode, I should be able to edit players and change the boots they are wearing, or other aesthetic things like that.
Hopefully we can get this thread going and to a point where the list hits key points that all of our FIFA users would like to see and ultimately into the hands of someone who can put those requests into motion and have them show up in FIFA12.
01-14-2011, 02:00 AM
