FIFA 14 Trailer - E3 2013: Xbox One & PS4, Fact Sheet Included

[infemous]

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeats

Create a high defense formation with 7 backs and 3 dmfs. Set team custom tactics defense pressure to 1. Set user line height slider to 100 and line length to 0. Use the d-pad in-game to select ultra defensive tactics. Presto!

This is great for career modes but just isn't accessible for quick play..

I personally, if I can, try and play with my DLine being very deep to open up the counter attack, and then do the opposite and set a very attacking formation to transition into when I'm in possession... Its just very hard to get the defence to play the way you hope. The line is always pushing upfield and getting caught out of position, defenders never seem to fight for a header at the near post, etc. etc.

There are always additions to attacking skills but very few additions to defensive abilities that enable you to play football however you wish.

As I said above, I love 'parking the bus' in front of goal, using physical defences to stifle creative midfielders and not get caught out by speed, and then counter attacking or transitioning into attack.

Defence is the first port of call and way to approach the game for me and it is not easy, nor is it an effective strategy to do so in FIFA.

[Yeats]

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

This is great for career modes but just isn't accessible for quick play.

Don't know what you mean here. I have a number of saved formations and settings I switch to mid-game, depending on the score and situation. Just pause the game when the ball goes out of play, then switch formations, sliders and custom tactics. What I outlined works with career mode, quick games, tournaments, whatever.

[Yeats]

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

As I said above, I love 'parking the bus' in front of goal

BTW, this isn't about switching all defensive settings to maximum. You can choose a more offensive formation if you prefer, raise/lower tactics pressure, raise/lower the line height and line length sliders, etc. You can customize your team's defensive style of play by degrees and to any level you wish. I was simply showing what's possible and which game settings affect User defensive play.

[Yeats]

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

The line is always pushing upfield and getting caught out of position

Couple more things: You can edit your team's formation and assign high defensive tactics and direction arrows to individual players. This will help keep defenders from moving forward. Also, check each player's individual attack/defend work rates. Players with high attack will move forward, whereas players with a low attack will stay back more. And it works the same in reverse. Players with high defend will run back into their end to defend. And players with low defend will jog back like they're taking a Sunday stroll -- funny to watch albiet totally ridiculous in terms of realism.

[infemous]

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeats

Don't know what you mean here. I have a number of saved formations and settings I switch to mid-game, depending on the score and situation. Just pause the game when the ball goes out of play, then switch formations, sliders and custom tactics. What I outlined works with career mode, quick games, tournaments, whatever.

Sorry what I meant is that if at a friends' there is seldom the time to do that, and it is a long and time consuming process. When playing online you also can't pause the game for any long period of time except to make substitutions.

What I meant was that these features needed to be more accessible and simple. I find that I get confused when entering the deep tactics because I am not sure what each thing necessarily does.

Your advice is very helpful though.

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeats

BTW, this isn't about switching all defensive settings to maximum. You can choose a more offensive formation if you prefer, raise/lower tactics pressure, raise/lower the line height and line length sliders, etc. You can customize your team's defensive style of play by degrees and to any level you wish. I was simply showing what's possible and which game settings affect User defensive play.

when you say sliders do you mean within the team management screen or the overall game sliders?

Apologies for misunderstanding, I thought that was the way with which you'd achieve an all out defensive approach. I am assuming there are more ways though right? All with their own pros and cons?

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeats

Couple more things: You can edit your team's formation and assign high defensive tactics and direction arrows to individual players. This will help keep defenders from moving forward. Also, check each player's individual attack/defend work rates. Players with high attack will move forward, whereas players with a low attack will stay back more. And it works the same in reverse. Players with high defend will run back into their end to defend. And players with low defend will jog back like they're taking a Sunday stroll -- funny to watch albiet totally ridiculous in terms of realism.

I see, I've never understood those arrows, I always thought it'd dictate what sort of routes they'd attack from.

Another thing I was alluding to but not necessarily expressing very well was how each team does not seem to have a unique strategic approach.

Managers or team identity doesn't seem to exist, hence why its problematic if you select a typically one dimensional team that plays park the bus football, only for them to be attacking in mindset by default and having to make all these adjustments.

Likewise, if I select a typically defensive formation, you'd assume that with it would be a defensive attitude? I think that it still maintains all the tactical stuff from whichever formation was used before, so maybe thats why I get caught with my defence at the half way line even though I'm playing a formation with a sweeper?

Thanks for all your help, its appreciated.

[Yeats]

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

What I meant was that these features needed to be more accessible and simple.

I agree, but quick tactics just aren't effective enough. Pausing and switching formations, sliders, etc. is really the only way to go. I definitely would like EA to add the option of switching formations using quick tactics instead of having to pause the game, that would be ideal. I think PES has or had that feature at one time.

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

when you say sliders do you mean within the team management screen or the overall game sliders?

I mean User sliders in the Settings section (pause in-game). User sliders greatly affect CPU attack, defend and positioning logic. I'm posting two screens to demonstrate this. My team is attacking in red jerseys. The two screens were taken moments apart after pausing and switching line sliders. Screen #1 is 0 height and 100 length (max attack). Screen #2 is 100 Height and 0 Length (max defend). You can see in Screen #1 how my players move up to attack, which in turn causes the CPU to move its players back into the box to defend. Once I switch to my max defend slider setup, my players move back towards my goal, which causes the CPU to move its players further up the pitch.

In other words, you can to a degree dictate CPU behaviour and gameplay by pausing the game and adjusting your line sliders. IMO that's an important and useful strategic game feature and tool.

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

Apologies for misunderstanding, I thought that was the way with which you'd achieve an all out defensive approach. I am assuming there are more ways though right? All with their own pros and cons?

I was showing you my max defend setup, yes. I then tried to explain that you can choose any level of defensive setup you want. I created 28 custom formations for my team for example, from high-attack to high-defend. I can then further customize how my players play in each formation by adjusting my User line sliders and team tactic defense settings.

The pros and cons with any setup are many and that's a whole other conversation. I'm still in the experimental stage as far as discovering the answer to that. What I can say is that the CPU appears to be programmed to read and exploit whatever setup you have going. It's actually a bit cheesy and overdone IMO, but oh well. So knowing the CPU has a cheat-advantage there, I generally play it safe by choosing high-defend formations and line slider settings. I only switch to high-attack settings if I need to score, and even then I wait until it's getting late in the game.

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

I've never understood those arrows, I always thought it'd dictate what sort of routes they'd attack from.

It could be those arrows don't affect attack mentality at all. I just set them that way in case they do. FIFA needs all the help it can get as far as slowing down the CPU's relentless attack tendency.

Quote: Originally Posted by infemous

Likewise, if I select a typically defensive formation, you'd assume that with it would be a defensive attitude? Thanks for all your help, its appreciated.

I hear you as far as defensive attitude goes, that's definitely missing in this game. The real problem is the core gameplay is designed for the offense-oriented online User vs User crowd. It's obviously an EA gameplay design decision, and unfortunately I don't think that's going to change any time soon.

And you're welcome!

[infemous]

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeats

I agree, but quick tactics just aren't effective enough. Pausing and switching formations, sliders, etc. is really the only way to go. I definitely would like EA to add the option of switching formations using quick tactics instead of having to pause the game, that would be ideal. I think PES has or had that feature at one time. Yes PES did have that feature on PS2. It was invaluable to adjusting tactics in the game, especially as all formations came with a base ideology. I could trust that a 5 man defensive line with a sweeper would not be caught at the half way line. If a team was attacking relentlessly, I could change to that formation on the fly and try and repel that. That this isn't in FIFA is beyond confusing as it is a tactic that is used incredibly often in football. I mean User sliders in the Settings section (pause in-game). User sliders greatly affect CPU attack, defend and positioning logic. I'm posting two screens to demonstrate this. My team is attacking in red jerseys. The two screens were taken moments apart after pausing and switching line sliders. Screen #1 is 0 height and 100 length (max attack). Screen #2 is 100 Height and 0 Length (max defend). You can see in Screen #1 how my players move up to attack, which in turn causes the CPU to move its players back into the box to defend. Once I switch to my max defend slider setup, my players move back towards my goal, which causes the CPU to move its players further up the pitch. In other words, you can to a degree dictate CPU behaviour and gameplay by pausing the game and adjusting your line sliders. IMO that's an important and useful strategic game feature and tool. Wow that is, apologies here, but that is awful. How can it allow you to affect gameplay sliders within the game? That is a complete joke, especially with how much of an overt affect it has on gameplay instantly. The fact that you must go to that length to achieve a somewhat believable result is horrendous. I was showing you my max defend setup, yes. I then tried to explain that you can choose any level of defensive setup you want. I created 28 custom formations for my team for example, from high-attack to high-defend. I can then further customize how my players play in each formation by adjusting my User line sliders and team tactic defense settings. The pros and cons with any setup are many and that's a whole other conversation. I'm still in the experimental stage as far as discovering the answer to that. What I can say is that the CPU appears to be programmed to read and exploit whatever setup you have going. It's actually a bit cheesy and overdone IMO, but oh well. So knowing the CPU has a cheat-advantage there, I generally play it safe by choosing high-defend formations and line slider settings. I only switch to high-attack settings if I need to score, and even then I wait until it's getting late in the game. I have always felt this with regards to how the CPU counters you, so I fell into the trap of just buying as many super skillful players as possible and trying to win the small 'one on one' matchups with the CPU instead of engaging in a tactical manner... I do not have the patience to go to the lengths you do to achieve a realistic result, I expect it to come out of the box like it did on PES on PS2. It could be those arrows don't affect attack mentality at all. I just set them that way in case they do. FIFA needs all the help it can get as far as slowing down the CPU's relentless attack tendency. I hear you as far as defensive attitude goes, that's definitely missing in this game. The real problem is the core gameplay is designed for the offense-oriented online User vs User crowd. It's obviously an EA gameplay design decision, and unfortunately I don't think that's going to change any time soon. And you're welcome!

I would say that I am in general one of those online players. I like playing attacking football, but I believe that to play attacking football you must have a defensive foundation. I couldn't play with 3 strikers if I didn't have a holding defensive midfielder etc. etc.

I don't like playing the CPU for the reasons you stated... They do not represent the teams that they are. Too many results feel pre-determined.

What I like is playing another human who tries to play legit. What FIFA needs to allow me is the ability to engage a likeminded player with a tactical approach.
I should be able to set a formation that keeps my defenders deep, meaning that I do not catch people offside and can invite pressure, but I will not have the issue of having to rely on my goalkeeper to make saves on 1 on 1s all the time.

I am going to tinker with my FIFA (11 lmao) and see what I can do to set up tactics and see how they are implemented, because as we seem to agree unanimously, out the box, the game does not utilise them.

The gameplay is at a stage now that it is very good, so tactics MUST play a larger role in the game. The fact they haven't even attempted to dumb it down for online players is surprising... Too few people seem to take them to task.

If I were to mention these sorts of issues on the Madden board, I know that it would not be a convo with just one other person...

[infemous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaiXRuhlu4k

Btw this is a little video of PES 4 gameplay on PS2. You can clearly tell which foot is a player's preferred foot because their first touch is typically done with that foot. The shift their body to open up passes onto their preferred foot and everything.

Look at 4:50 for an instance of a player doing this.
Compare that to the next gen footage that clearly shows Iniesta kicking the ball with the outside of his left boot incredibly accurately...

EA NEED to put this into FIFA. Its unbelievable that it isn't.