The FSB Official FIFA 12 Improvements List

[Nanny]

I was going to call this the complaints list, but thats too negative, FIFA 11 is a very good game but there are some aspects that need to be improved. Most of us have given the game a good ol belting by now so if you could use this template

Area: (Gameplay / Menu / Clubs / Career Mode etc.)
Issue: (Tackling / AI / Lag)
Details: (Details of what is wrong and what needs to be done to improve it)

I will start compiling a list on this post and then we can shoot it off to EA.

* This is basically a wish list for everything you want in FIFA 12, things that cant just be patched in FIFA 11.

[jubalc]

If I can add to this and say players faces. Fifa have a handful of teams with the correct players faces. they need to do a lot more than that. I hate seeing generic faces..

Stamp out CM bugs and improve on the mode with more options as per Dave's article last week.

No custom formations for online.

Nanny's edit:
Area: Graphics
Issue: Player Faces
Details: More player faces

[nakamura]

Gameplay.

The ability to allow the ball to run across your body without using the dummy. Just like the older PES games.

[Nanny]

Try and use the template i set out boys, makes it a big easier for me to compile a list, cheers.

Also Naka can you give us a youtube link of what you are talking about?

[nani17]

Since this "pro passing" was implemented I've noticed players sometimes cant pass a ball to a player 2 inches away from them.

[danshankill09]

Since this "pro passing" was implemented I've noticed players sometimes cant pass a ball to a player 2 inches away from them.

Template !!

[Nanny]

Since this "pro passing" was implemented I've noticed players sometimes cant pass a ball to a player 2 inches away from them.

Ive never had this issue? Assisted or semi ?

[Jimmyboy36]

Area Game-play
Issue's AI
Detail : Don't attack with enough Variety, Artificial layer in Legendary, instead of being more skilful we have same scripted over powering tackles rubbish, Skill levels unbalanced

Game-play
Passing
Detail : Pro passing doesn't offer too much freedom, on full power the ball travel is too short, players are too close together and claustrophobic that it don't feel like your playing on a pitch, still too guided and too smooth

Game-Play
CM Mode
Detail - Lack of detail, Squad bugs, too shallow, teams really all play the same, if your going to implement this, make sure you have seem team AI linked to 1st Issue

Graphics
Stadiums
Detail - They really need to get pitch dimensions right, its licensed after all, feeling that you are playing in different grounds, very wired shallow feel to them, lack of authenticity, stadium specific ad-boards?

Animations
All
Details - Fantastic animations but can we have an alternative to the arms flapping and finger pointing when making a run,

Finally don't know how to put this, but for god sake EA get someone to play test the game, play-test some more, sack the current QA testers, get a FA coach on-board with a pro and show you that not all football is played like the prem league we need variety, we need to feel we are playing in Madrid not Middlesbrough on a cold November saturday, poor stuff EA again, sorry, after 2 half weeks now all in all no longevity as a single game minimal improvements over 10. Its shame.

[Gran Tortuga]

I would like to see a analog touch with r3, like they did with the sprint button.

[Nanny]

Area: Gameplay
Issue: Skating when dribbling
Details: When dribbling their is no weight transfer when changing directions, players feet dont look planted on the ground, look they like they are hovering sometimes.

Area: Gameplay
Issue: Tackling / Fouling / Physicality
Details: Holding down a button to "press" would be better if it was replaced with a conventional "tackle" button. Going hand in hand many times players are fouled, more often than not by the AI and it is not called. The NHL style body check where the player with the ball goes flying and no foul is called is the biggest example. Physicality needs to be toned down, engaging in "360-fight for possession" and "pressing" from behind or for too long should also result in a foul.

[El_indian]

Area: Online

Issue: Online Custom Tactics/Pressure abuse

Details: Regarding custom tactics online, I think we should only be allowed to lower the custom tactic sliders from their default values, e.g. If Real Madrid's defensive pressure is set to 50 (by default), we should only be allowed to decrease this value, less than or equal to 50.

This should completely remove tactic abusers online (of which there are many), which at the moment is completely ruining the online experience. The skill required for the game is completely removed when tactics are abused; basically the AI does all the defending and forward running for you, no thinking from youself is required at all.

It has the potential to be a very good (& realistic) game without these tactics - playing with mates who don't take advantage of the filters provides an awesome experience.

I personally am pretty decent but it seems playing against most guys who top their country leaderboards is impossible. Just the other day I played the guy on of the NZ leaderboard which was very hard with the way he had set his tactics up. It was almost impossible to break him down in the final third due to double pressure and everytime he had the ball his whole team I swear were rushing forward (probably had speed set to 100). It was tough to handle - he won 2-1, my goal was very scrappy.

He actually sent me a message after the game saying I played boring because I use the jockeying button alot . I was thinking WTF, that's how your supposed to defend, not have the AI do all the shit for you.....anyway It clearly shows the mindset of these 'top players', they're actually shit without tactics.

sorry about the long description

[endisforever]

Area: career mode
Issue: Same teams in cups every season
Details: getting the same teams in cups in every season you play

Area: career mode
Issue: lack of end of season detials
Details: like saying who won the league top goalscorer etc, this should show on the news at lease when a seson is over

Area: ai
Issue: team verity
Details: every single match feels the same, need teams to play diffrently to suit there style

[Nanny]

Finally worked out what is wrong with the AI

Area: AI
Issue: Reactive and not Active
Details: What i mean by this is the AI will respond to what you do, depending on how you defend is how they will attack and because there isnt too much variety in these things it leads to a lack of depth. This is very obvious when you use your Virtual Pro in CM. You're team mates are so rubbish its a joke, simply because they dont have enough to react to because you are only one player.

Area: CM - Virtual Pro
Issues: Many (List)
Detials: Im going to list things that need to be improved in VP aspect of CM
- Transfer System: You should get offers through the 2 transfer windows, not just options at the end of each season
- Ask for a rest: When you become a key player or above you get played even when you have no legs left, would be nice to be rested for the lesser games
- Should be more reward for completing accomplishments on higher difficulty levels, ive only been playing against world class and have played nearly 2 seasons with my VP at 82, where my mate has played not long at all and his is 84 because he has been playing against rubbish AI.
- AI: None of the above will matter if the AI is not fixed, i can understand that the AI is not up to the level where it can play all that well when you only have control of 1 player, but i dont understand why players simply do nothing or are awful, im playing with bayern munich this season and Ribery has 1 assist half way through the season. Not to mention i have had Klose miss from 3ft out at least 10 times this season and Robben has missed 2 open nets?
- Ability to be Substituted or come on as a Sub

Area: Stadiums
Issue: Not enough of them
Details: We really need more stadiums, i know the DEV team have said it takes a lot of time but it really adds a lot to CM, makes it last longer instead of playing at the same stadiums over and over again.

Area: Boots
Issue: Nike
Details: I know there must be some kind of Nike deal with EA but only have one colorway for each pair of boots is another thing that annoys me. Would be really nice to have more colorways on the Nike boots, Konami seem to have gotten around this with Nike, so hopefully EA can too.

[dave797]

Gulp...... here goes

Gameplay:

Tackling - Auto tackle must be removed from secondary press, EA have taken the stance that pressure must result in tackles when that isn't the case. Pressure can be effective without ever tackling by closing down passing lanes, mentally pressuring and unbalancing opponents.

Tackling (ii) - Simply put its too easy, my "The Art of Defending" article goes in to extreme detail. http://fifasoccerblog.com/blog/the-art-of-defending/

Aerial Challenges - Need to be contested more physically through close jostling, players tend to jump for balls individually rather than interacting together. Or they clash together harshly. Positioning yourself well under the ball carries little value and that must change.

Passing - There is a growing idea in the community (not my own) that the driven pass modifier we have for lobbed passing should be transferred to ground passes instead. The current passing has a very similar minimum and maximum power creating a samey feel. EA have stated their reluctance to widen this due to the casual audience in the past. Having the driven pass modify from standard pass (X+R1) would allow that driven top end to come in to play.

Passing (ii) - Long passing also needs more power at the top end. Scholes, Gerrard and Co can hit rasping 60 yard balls when the occasion calls for it but we can barely clear the half way line from the 18 yard box.

Trapping - In certain situations its simply not good enough, particularly when chest trapping. The ball always goes a few yards away allowing a defender to step in. If that does happen then your player should react by trying to position their body to shield the poor trap. Currently they simply roll over.

Trapping (ii) - The trapping direction modifier (analogue stick) can be very clumsy either knocking the ball way too far or miss trapping and sticking under your feet. This either needs to be fixed or the controls re-worked.

Foot Planting - This one is HUGELY important. Currently the transfer of weight in player movement simply doesn't exist, this makes it difficult to evade defenders as everyone is so mobile, regardless of body position. Proper physics and weight transfer need to be added to create some real variation in player movement and freedom.

Foot Preference - Again MASSIVE. Currently every player is essentially two footed, especially when dribbling. Players like Anderson are extremely one footed and the animations should take account for that with him almost solely using his left foot. It also creates a void in defensive tactics because players can go left or right with exactly the same ferocity regardless of which is their "stronger" side.

Jockeying - Its a little too easy for me to be able to position a jockey effectively and with auto tackling it becomes extremely over powered. The transition between a full sprint and jockey is also far too quick allowing defenders to jump in and out of jockey at will.

*****************************************************
That will do as a starting point I'll post other thoughts on AI, CM, etc in due course. There will be plenty of gameplay related articles in 2011 as well which will go in to detail on many of the above bullets.

[JohnnyFX]

Gulp...... here goes

Gameplay:

Tackling - Auto tackle must be removed from secondary press, EA have taken the stance that pressure must result in tackles when that isn't the case. Pressure can be effective without ever tackling by closing down passing lanes, mentally pressuring and unbalancing opponents.

Would love to see this happen more than any other gameplay change, however it would be a massive step for EA to take due to it being in football games for as long as i remember!

The other change i want to see happen is presentation.....having picked up PES 11 again the presentation that game has compared to Fifa is miles upon miles ahead and is the one area EA are playing catch up! Give us TV style replays and celebrations!! I watch replay after replay with PES but with Fifa i skip them immediately due to how poor they are!

[dave797]

Would love to see this happen more than any other gameplay change, however it would be a massive step for EA to take due to it being in football games for as long as i remember!

The other change i want to see happen is presentation.....having picked up PES 11 again the presentation that game has compared to Fifa is miles upon miles ahead and is the one area EA are playing catch up! Give us TV style replays and celebrations!! I watch replay after replay with PES but with Fifa i skip them immediately due to how poor they are!

EA did try secondary press without auto-tackle behind closed doors last year but the devs felt it was unnatural for a player to get so close and then not instigate some kind of tackle. I can see where they're coming from but there's nothing to stop you or I from actually pressing the tackle button should that situation arise.

When it just happens without you doing anything it feels cheap and unrewarding, you're almost embarrassed to be running away with the ball after putting zero input in to getting it back.

I really hope they go back and take a look at this again because its killing the defensive side of the game atm.

[El_indian]

Aerial Challenges - Need to be contested more physically through close jostling, players tend to jump for balls individually rather than interacting together. Or they clash together harshly. Positioning yourself well under the ball carries little value and that must change.

Wow, that's the first time I've heard of this particular idea, never thought of it; ariel jostling would be great. nice work

[MGMT]

And one more thing about aerial challenges! The keeper is never disturbed by the opponent when he goes up in a duel... Well, it's not much for a duel, but he always wins the ball! It's the same in every game! You should be able to disturb him, jump up and gamble, if you foul him, alright then, freekick, yellow card, but at least you tried to win the challenge! It should be the same as tackles, you can win, and you can foul the player! I remember fifa 99 and ISS 98! You could slide tackle the keeper from behind and get a red card! It may not be happening too often in football, but you should be ABLE to do it!

[dave797]

And one more thing about aerial challenges! The keeper is never disturbed by the opponent when he goes up in a duel... Well, it's not much for a duel, but he always wins the ball! It's the same in every game! You should be able to disturb him, jump up and gamble, if you foul him, alright then, freekick, yellow card, but at least you tried to win the challenge! It should be the same as tackles, you can win, and you can foul the player! I remember fifa 99 and ISS 98! You could slide tackle the keeper from behind and get a red card! It may not be happening too often in football, but you should be ABLE to do it!

Totally agree if the penalty area is congested then that should represent a real challenge for goalkeepers but at the moment they simply plough through and claim catches with ease. If a keeper is blocked off then holding triangle shouldn't do anything they should be stranded where they are unless a path to the ball clears.

Goalkeepers also seem to be able to imbalance forwards and knock them over but never the other way around. Even if its a foul most of the time I'd still like to see a balanced view between goalkeeper and attacker.

[Nanny]

Simming games on MM needs a massive overhaul, when a team goes down to 10 men they win every time?