Changelog: 10/26 - Version 1.0
Version 1.0 high level overview:
While we will most likely continue fine-tuning, we thought it was time to provide the first set to the wider public. Feel free to ask any questions about any values.
This Version includes the Professional difficulty, which Anth James, incredible modder of the PC versions of FIFA/FC - and a member of the discord group, found that Professional difficulty does not have the rigid, flat and passive defensive lines like on World Class and above. This means that the FBs and CBs come off their defensive line and engage sooner. We have fed this back to EA as well.
Disclaimer: Feel free to adjust to what you see fit. By no means are we trying to control every single part of your gameplay experience.
Player Speed:
The goal was to slow the game down enough in the 1v1 matchups, but not to the point that players could not be explosive or that defensive players were just left helpless.
The reason we have Acceleration alternate is because there was a time where we had 50/50 acceleration that felt a bit fast, so there was an adjustment to include a lower value set in the spreadsheet. I would say use this option to make the gameplay a bit more difficult if you'd like.
Shooting:
One of the tricky values this year because it dictates the keeper's save deflections as much as it affects the free kicks and penalty kicks as well. We had this value low for a while, but discovered the issue with soft type of goals that just couldn't be ignored - so the values naturally had to be on the higher end for speed. As for error, I would say we are a lot lower in value that we have in the past. It's good to see that both the user and CPU can score all types of goals.
Passing:
The starting point with passing has to be error, then based on whatever error value, we then have to adjust pass speed. While 40 may be a bit slow for manual players, the value does allow for a bit more calm from both user and CPU. This allows the driven passes to become an option to do what they're designed to do, break lines or pass for distance based on pressure, etc. With the way the CPU pressures this year, it makes sense to have it set up this way. The good thing is the lower value still allows wayward passes and passes that can get intercepted versus just seeing perfect passes in-stride in every possession. The variety this year is further enhanced with the line settings and marking values, so the CPU and User can attack in multiple ways.
Injuries:
We started fairly high here in anticipation of the usual broken toes, but have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of off-the-ball injuries such as pulled hamstrings, etc. It makes squad management so important and deep to the point that even myself as someone who doesn't feel ready to get into a CM until the sliders are set, I had to start paying attention to my substitution policies.
Team Positioning:
Just a disclaimer here: We know that the current status of the game has issues with tactically higher lines (high 70-90), so the look may not be appealing - we just can't control this and have what we want though. The acceptance is that EA will address this higher height issue, and we can review the values after that.
The reason the Line Height is so high here is because it controls how far upfield the central midfielders position themselves. As someone who had to test a lot of deep defensive line teams, it was important to get a low-block that is resistant not only in the defensive third, but also in the attacking and middle thirds especially. The other part of that is the line length where at 25, the user's midfield actually drop into their own box (depending on roles of course) to help the defensive line. Furthermore, if a winger is set to balanced, they will remain in the defensive shape rather than position themselves well above the shape and not marking any kind of space. This is the difference from sitting in a 4-4-2 vs a 4-3-3 defensively.
The CPU length at 28 (paired with marking 75) is also important as it allows the central midfielders to stop man marking their opposing central midfielder to cover the flanks if necessary. From there, it was about finding a narrow enough width that allowed 3/5 ATB teams to have fullbacks be more tucked in.
Overall, the structure of the team positioning here allows for some fun gameplay that is filled with variety for both the User and CPU. Yes, you can send balls over the top, but the CPU is good enough to recover. Run Frequency is at a very high value of 99, and you wouldn't think that when playing, which is quite brilliant.
Ball Control:
The most stand-out value here is the dribbling values where we have Jog Dribbling quite low. The importance here is how the ball is received. On higher values, the players would stick out a leg and try a lot of sole-traps (like in Futsal), but well before the ball arrived. It made for some awkward animations and went against the fundamentals of receiving the ball to the back or front-foot. This lower value does allow for some close control, but the Sprint value is in a spot where the ball can still be pushed out away from the player's body enough that animations don't look too far off the mark. Controlled Sprint is a nice touch as it helps protect the ball in tight spaces, but it isn't an automatic escape by any means.
As for the error values, I'd say we're still exploring them, but not real issues at the values we have for them currently.
Defending:
The main thing here is a low tackle assistance - and I'll be honest, we're still learning this value from when it first appeared. Physicality is one that seems to be strong enough to encourage the physical play, and we'll allow tactics/CPU Sliders to dictate how often slide/standing tackles occur from there. The Jockey speed values were a change recently where there was more of a sense of control, or grounding, of defensive players - especially when having to micro-manage a defensive line or central midfielders. The CPU seems to respect this value as well considering they aren't always trying to exploit the User's defenders momentum against them.
CPU Sliders:
Most of us have tested on Tactical, Dynamic or Custom 50's. I'd say it's really up to you as the user and the experience you are after. They can be used as solutions or maybe they can be used as a means to get more variety. Sometimes the user just doesn't want to know what the values are, so they choose a preset in hopes they can try to figure it out as they play. In the end, we don't want to provide a house rule of sorts this early on - especially as there's hope an EA patch will be coming for gameplay at some point. This doesn't mean we aren't exploring as we go along though. There's also been talk of setting up these CPU Sliders to be specific to the leagues that some of us follow. The important part was establishing a base slider set that allows the User to experience the game how they want and use the tools given to us from EA.
Enjoy!
