1. 1.16 (1.13 arguably better)
2. none
3. I changed Team Strategies according to these guidelines;
Strategy #1 - Mainly sticking to numbers from 7 to 13. Some exceptions were made for big teams who generally play offensive off the bat. I also set Compactness to the lower regions within the limits of the default strategy (Long Ball, Possession etc). Preferably 10 to 12.
Strategy #2 - Made these into either "park the bus" or "Deep lying Counter" strategies. A few exceptions were made for big clubs who I made a tad more possession based, but in all honesty it's the big club's weakness so I think I'll just make them counter as well. I also made all 4-3-3 formations into 4-5-1 variants, pulling the wider strikers down as SMF for more defensive duty. Preferably Compactness at 8 or 7.
Strategy #3 - Made sure all of these were offensive enough to pose a threat. SMF's pushed up as Wingers, more Pressing (15+), higher Compactness (13+) and so on. Too much emphasis on possession here will limit the team's effectiveness against human opponents as possession is generally a weakness due to the game's AI.
4. Global Player Edits;
ALL:
Wrong foot usage -2
Defensive Awareness +5
Ball Winning -5
Low Pass -5
Lofted Pass -5
GK:
Goalkeeping +5
Saving +5
SS/CF/WF/SMF/AMF:
Acrobatic Finishing (Just for some extra action and spice, and it works!) **Highly optional
Notes:
On a general level these modifications will make the AI teams act differently depending on the situations. If they score first it will become a massively different game than if you score first, for example. You also get the feeling that they attack with more men than usual once switching to the attacking strategy, since I've basically made sure they actually have more men forward in those cases.
I've also avoided formations with 3 defenders, particularly in Strategy #1, because they are extremely easy to exploit. I have made them into 5-3-2 formations with offensive backs instead, which isn't ideal but better than default. I've edited player positions when needed to make starting line-ups compatible. *As a result I no longer beat Juventus and Chile with two digits whenever I wish to, for example. I have kept 3-5-2 as Strategy #3 for those teams who play that formation in real life and it's harder to exploit, for some reason, towards the end of a match when the AI is chasing a goal. The passing nerf ensured that there's a big difference between the bigger teams than the medium and smaller. There are a lot more passing mistakes going on which makes tiki-taka pretty hard with weaker teams and long passes are often inaccurate. This severely reduced my scoring ration at least, and made the game much harder imo.
I have also made a lot of individual changes to players which are too many to mention here, but I've made sure that Zlatan, Messi, C.Ronaldo, Falcao and so on are leading the scoreboards across the world. The main changes consist of Form (7 or 8), More balance (+3 to 5+ where appropriate) and more Tenacity (80+). I've focused more on what works with the game than what looks "realistic" in relation to other players' abilities to be honest.
I've also boosted several of the players who had some kind of breakthrough in the WC, using PSD, FIFA, FM and my own assessment as guidelines.
PS. You should build the database according to what team you intend to play with. If you intend to play with Barcelona, you should make most teams much more strategically careful than if you plan to play with Everton, for example. Since I don't play with one particular team but generally play with "the second best" teams, I've built my database according to that. I never play with Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munchen.
