Interviewer: Bogdan, can you tell me everything there is to know about Authentic gameplay?
Bogdan: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've chatted about Authentic gameplay many times over the past few years. Yeah, like honestly, you will see obviously more in the career mode deep dive where we cover Authentic gameplay. We actually call it 2.0 this year. Um it took me a while to say yes, I'm ready to say 2.0. But I think now I can confidently say you and you know, our Authentic gameplay players and demo players will will feel the same. I would say the biggest change, if I have to pick one, would be this more realistic and a grounded feel when you actually move your player, right? So, when you turn, whether it's with the ball or off the ball, that was something that was important for me to have that distinction with Competitive.
Competitive obviously is very important in terms of responsiveness. Uh in Authentic, I I want to ensure it's still responsive, but like I want to do ensure that the weight is there, right? Like you actually feel when you're turning, you have to take that into account, right? Especially now that we added so much more physicality into the game, which I guess is my point number two. Yeah. So, yeah, one of the new sliders we're introducing is physicality impact, which basically creates those situations where, you know, every challenge, whether it's a shoulder challenge, missed tackle, or like aerial battle when you're fighting, you know, in a I don't know, crossing during crossing or corner kick situations, you will see players impacting with each other more. And that can lead to, I would say, emergent situations.
Some of them could be fouls, some of them could be just like maybe he's just a little bit stronger. It's not a foul. But yeah, a lot of times what players would do, they would like stand up complain about it. So, we actually added, you know, a lot of emotion animations as well. Players may be upset with the opponent or even with their teammates. So, I would say yeah, I would probably start with those three things when comes to just purely Authentic gameplay. So, new grounded feel, new physicality impact slider, new emotion animation reactions to what's happening on the pitch.
Interviewer: It's great to hear you say that you've reached the point of being 2.0. We were in Bucharest a few months ago with Bogdan and the team over there that have created the career mode side of the the game. And Bogdan wasn't quite at the level of feeling like he was comfortable enough to call it 2.0. And Bogdan is a very high standards man. So, the fact that he's now reached 2.0 is is to me I'm satisfied without even having hundreds of hours of gameplay. If Bogdan's happy, we can be happy as as players as well.
So, what I have played so far since we've been here in Vancouver, I have immediately noticed that physicality, the way that players impact, you feel that - in Competitive you say it's more responsiveness. You just want the player to turn. Whereas in Authentic, it's how the player turns that's the important thing. You want that that placement of the foot. You want it to look right the way that the weight shifts.
Bogdan: And the inertia right, the physicality and the...
Interviewer: That's instantly noticeable when you when you play this even comparing Authentic to Authentic 1.0. Regardless of Competitive entirely. There are also a few extra animations that are now involved with the weather system. Have you implemented those yet further with with the wet weather and the snow system?
Bogdan: That was that was probably my fourth point. I do have a fifth one. Yeah weather effects. So in obviously 2016 we already had some right. We actually have to balance that throughout the game as well. As for example if you remember when you were sprint dribbling the touches were very far and it was very inconsistent. So we also I would say doubled down on the weather effects. So now you have things like and you probably already remember it from our play test in Bucharest in April but what we call slip turns. You can see more of those animations in the career mode deep dive as well but basically yeah in the wet conditions whether it's rain or snow when you're trying like a sharp turn players will might might just slip right.
And yes it creates some you know emergent situations but I think you know it happens in real football. In fact it can also happen in dry weather as well. Very rarely but can happen right. Players maybe especially if they have maybe some lower attributes they might lose their balance and and just fall. Obviously they'll try to get up as soon as they can but but yeah we we that that's one of my favorite features because you have situations where it's like you know you're in the penalty box and maybe there was a very fast transition on the attack. You want to turn your player he's actually slipping. So then it's your decision. Do I stick with my player or do I actually switch quickly with someone else because they notice, right? My teammate can't can't get up. That's the real learning.
Another thing I think, you know, I would mention with the weather effects is especially with with this kind of more physical and grounded feel of gameplay, we also introduce some additional error to to other certain player behaviors. For example, when you try to trap the ball, you know, first touch in weather in wet conditions, yeah, you you might see especially if you try to turn at the same time, you might see more error, right? So the ball might actually go away a little bit more. So it's also important for you to know that. Of course, if you have maybe a better player, he can do it better as well, but if you want to turn in rain while the ball is very high and you would try to trap it, there's a big chance you might lose that position in the game.
Which is again adding to not just feels like it adds to the storyline of a career as well, cos you're obviously having fluctuating dynamic overalls with players and you want to make sure that the player that you're playing is high on form and in their most boosted situation because if you let them get out of form, they're going to make more mistakes which is going to cause you to have more goals conceded which is going to get you sacked and getting sacked is not necessarily what we want when we're playing Career Mode. So it's it's great that we've got all of these extra additions.
Interviewer: There are some more sliders in the game this year.
Bogdan: Yeah, I can share that. And you know, it's been one of the top community requests. So I can confirm that on the Authentic gameplay side, we added 25 new sliders. And again, you will see more in the Deep Dive, but you think of stuff like different types of shots. So we have new sliders for like low driven shots or for finesse shots, whether it's the speed or the error. Same with passing. The the new physicality impact slider as well.
On the CPU side, we also have the 10 new sliders, so CPU sliders. My favorite one is sliding tackle frequency. This one obviously you have to be careful like if you go to extreme values, you're going to see a lot of sliding tackles flying around. Also when you play on the Tactical preset, one of the things I remember we even talked about in April was team variety. Uh so it's very important for me that yeah, when you play I don't know whether it's League One, Championship, or maybe play in La Liga versus maybe Copa Libertadores, the team variety feels you can feel it there, right? And those sliders also were tuned. Uh so like on Tactical for example and on Dynamic, so they create different team personalities as well. Um whether we achieve what, you know, the community expects, uh time will tell, but I think we're in a really good spot with it.
Interviewer: If you're happy enough to call it 2.0, then I think it's a great piece of work. So there's obviously a lot of things coming with alterations to the gameplay this year on the offensive side. Add those into the the different changes that are coming with the Career Mode that we covered with the interview with Pete as well. It feels like it's going to be a genuine step up this year.
We have been a little bit stagnant for a while on the Career Mode side. The gameplay has obviously taken a step with 1.0 and now it feels more of a larger evolution of what we had previously. The fact that we're now pushing it into 2.0.
Bogdan: Yeah, I think so too. And you mentioned like the dynamic OVR, I think it's a great system that you know, career mode team is driving. I'm actually working very closely with that team as you know. Right, you you've been there in in Bucharest in April. So we give each other feedback, right? Um you know, I when dynamic OVR was in development, I had a lot of meetings with them like what can it mean for gameplay, right? How can we support each other? But also you know, when they have a chance to play, just you know, gameplay, they share videos with me as well. They're very passionate, you know, football fans. And you know, they support different clubs in different countries as well. So, it's very important for me to get that feedback even before we release.
Of course, after release, you know, I talk to to you, to the rest of the design council. I watch community feedback, but I think that the steam variety is something that I I think can unlock this additional you know, fun when it comes to when it comes to to playing the game in Career Mode.
Interviewer: And having the the fact that the gameplay team and the Career Mode team working collaboratively really helps drive in the same direction rather than the Career Mode team designing something and then you kind of having to shoehorn that in somehow. The fact that we're all kind of driving in the same direction, so ultimately the product is just going to benefit from that long term.
Bogdan: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's the same with our gameplay, let's say fundamentals team working closely with Ultimate Team. On the Authentic side, very important for me to stay close to what the Career Mode team is doing. So, we have regular sayings, you know, one-on-ones, etc. So, yeah, just like you said, we need to work closely together so the final product actually meets the expectations.
Which is why it was so important a couple of years ago we split to have online and offline. It's been one of the biggest features for Career Mode to come in in recent times and that's only going to get better and more influential as time goes on.
Even though it generally leads to disappointment! I say bring back custom chants and music from whatever Fifa used to have that!
