Re: FIFA 09 - Discussion Thread
Hey guys, I've got an idea for a feature in FIFA that I'd like some feedback on.
It's basically a restructuring of the "Balance" stat.
It would be renamed into "Balance/Composure", and an additional stat called "Balance/Composure Regain" would be added.
Also, the "Balance/Composure" system would get a Gauge or meter, which would constantly monitor the balance/composure level of a player at any given point.
The "Composure/Balance stat" describes the maximum amount of the Balance/Composure Gauge the player can have filled.
The "Composure/Balance regain" stat describes how fast the player regains (or fills back up) his "Composure/Balance Gauge" when having performed an action that caused him to loose his composure and deplete his "Composure/Balance gauge".
Some definitions before we start:
Balance (how well the player can avoid falling down in a collision or
interaction with other players, or specifically how well he can
absorb collision energy without falling down).
Strength (how much weight the player has behind his body and how well he outmuscles competition, or more correctly
how much energy he can transfer to other players in a collision
Composure (Basically another word for Balance, how well balanced and in control of his body a player is when performing actions, and how quickly and effectively he can perform several actions after one another without loosing the ball or making a mistake.
This System would have nothing to do with the "Strength" stat above, so this wouldn't make the player more massive or such when tackling other players.
Basically, the Strength stat describes how much mass the player has, and the composure and Balance describes how well he is able to control all that mass through various actions and interactions with other players.
Also, it is completely separated from the "Strength" stat, and they share no interactions.
The Strength stat is more of a pure physics stat just so that the game knows what the mass relationship is between two players when they collide. The Strength stat just shows how much energy a player can transfer in a collision, while the Composure system shows partly how well a player can absorb the energy an opponent transfers in a collision, while not falling down, and also partly how the player can keep his composure when doing any other action.
So the "Strength/Mass" stat is in effect only in collisions, while the Composure stat is in effect all the time.
Just so we're clear.
I think this would be a really good addition to FIFA, since currently it looks like the player either has total control and can do any action perfectly, or he looses balance completely and stumbles or is tripped. This would work a bit like a balance/composure stat gauge that keeps track of how balanced and in control of his own body the player is at any given time.
- A "fullest" "Composure Gauge" would be when standing still on the ground, with knees slightly bent.
- Running would be very good composure/balance.
- Sprinting still good composure/balance.
- performing action while standing still = minimal impact on composure/balance.
- performing action while running = moderate impact on composure/balance
- performing action while sprinting = big impact on composure/balance
The above is when comparing comparable/similar moves in different speeds or moving.
Some situations and examples of the Gauge in effect:
1. The more twisting or turning in a certain action, the less composure he will retain (a Marseille roulette would _usually_ put a big dent in the composure gauge).
When I say usually, this is what I mean:
The Composure/Balance gauge works on top of all stats.
So for a Marseille Roulette, the stat "Technique" would also be in effect.
So if a player with low technique and composure tries the Marseille Roulette, a couple of things can be observed:
1. The Marseille Roulette would be slow and "untechnical" in itself because of the poor Technique stat.
2. Since the player also has poor composure, not only would the Roulette be poor in speed, but it woould not only carry with it a bigger chance of injury while the player does the trick, but it would also carry with it a much bigger effect once the player comes out of the Trick, and he would have a much harder time to directly make a good pass or execute another trick like a Elastico or such.
Essentially, the "Composure stat" adds a way to not only define individual skills through stats, but also it helps define how well a player can for example perform several skills or actions after one another.
Also, it is very important to note that while the "Composure/Regain" stat would describe how quickly the player is able to regain composure after performing a hard trick or such, if the player also has a big "Technique" stat, that stat will diminish the debilitating influence of the "Composure/Balance" Gauge after a Trick or such.
But is that same player also has a mediocre shooting stat, bad composure will
So the "Composure/Balance" Gauge will affect different aspects of a players game differently based on his stats. Good stats will lead to a slightly lesser loss of composure when dealing with moves and actions that require that particular stat. Again important to remember that the Gauge carries from move to move, so a player with a good trap stat will also have an easier time instantly performing a pass after the trap than a player with bad trap stat.
So if 2 players, 1 with 89 trap stat and 56 pass stat, and 1 with 67 trap stat and 56 pass stat, try to trap a pass and then pass it themselves right after, the player with better trap stat will be more successful with his pass. His naturally better trapping ability helps him keep balance through that movement and he has a better Composure going into the pass movement.
2. The farther away the players legs are from his center of gravity, the less composure he would have (for example if the player is stretching to reach a ball, he is really uncomposed and has little strength to brace for impacts and also to control the ball with trapping etc.
3. Actions which performance is influenced by composure stat and gauge
- General movement/dribbling and ability to turn and move with the ball. Basically, if the player is busy trying to keep on his feet, he can't really be expected to dribble well. Bad composure here would lead to for example inaccurate knockaheads of unpredictable lenght, Trampling on the ball on occassion, Even loosing the ball and running past it due to stumbling too much, but generally just more unpredictable, uncontrolled touch on the ball where the player won't be able to keep it as close to him and would be more vulnerable to a defender swooping in and stealing it.
- Passing (unpredictability of accuracy, power) on top of pass stats
- Shooting (unpredictability of accuracy, power) on top of shooting stats
- Longpassing (unpredictability of accuracy, power) on top of longpass/cross stats
- Skills (Bad composure going in to the skill leads to slower less effective skill move, failure rate higher, loose the ball more often, risk of "dribbling himself" and loosing control of the ball, etc).
- Trapping (the more uncomposed, the more sloppy a trap will be, and the ball will risk bouncing off the boot or missing the boot entirely the more uncomposed the player is). "Perfect" trapping only really possible when standing still and well-composed, when moving at speed trapping becomes naturally unpredictable because of less composure when running). Obviously if player has great trapping skills composure will affect less and player would be capable of completing a trap in high speeds well in most cases.
- Collisions (bad composure = more likely to fall and also to injure himself).
- Top speed (bad composure means he isn't in full control of his body balance and legs, so less top speed until the composure gauge goes back up (player works himself back into balance)
- The faster a player moves or runs, the more inaccurate or failed an action is likely to be (working on top of the players baseline stat for that action obviously).
- The sooner after an action the player performs another action, the more likely that action has of being poor (shot, dribble, etc). The composure gauge will take some time to work back to maximum possible value after a move since it will take the player some time to regain full balance and control of himself.
- As the player stamina decreases, so does the maximum value for the gauge. So if a player has just finished a long sprint, he will be sloppier due to less balance/composure.
- Good Composure stat, possibly strength stat or such, makes players more likely to keep composure through complex moves or being pressured etc.
- Needs to be separate from Balance stat, since smaller players like Messi needs to have lots of composure, yet they can't outmuscle bigger players (basically avoid the PES balance stat issue it's had so far, where Maradona can not only hold his balance when pressured, but also use his balance stat to outpower bigger players, the balance stat works as a power stat aswell which it shouldn't).
- This composure stat would also be able to be used for determining the likeliness of a player injuries. Basically, the less composure a player has when he is tackled or tripped, the more risk of injury. So if a player is in the middle of a tricky move and is basically off balance, he has less control of his body
"Exponential" depletion
If a player starts loosing composure when doing, when looking at his stats/abilities, difficult moves, he is going to loose composure at a faster and faster rate if he doesn't stop what he is doing and allow himself to regain balance and composure.
So if a player does a move several times, and at the first repetition he looses 1X from the Composure gauge, doing that move again while the gauge is still depleated would make him loose 2X amount from the gauge.
Essentially, the higher the gauge is filled, the less easily a player will loose composure. But once is is unbalanced, he will quickly loose balance and such if he continues to perform difficult tricks, or if he is constantly pushed by a defender.
Visual aid
The gauge would be shown as an indication on screen somehow, since in real life you would be able to spot someone who is stumbling slightly or is struggling to keep balance. It might be good to know more instinctively when to go in for the attack on someone based on what their composure and state of balance is at the moment, since that is a vulnerability you would exploit in real life.
Effect of the Composure stat and Gauge:
- Players would realistically move from one action to another, and any unbalance will affect the following move.
- Only really good players would be able to do repeated tricks with the trick stick. A player with poor composure and technique would possibly loose the ball almost all the time if trying difficult ballfeints at high speeds. And doing for example first a soledrag followed by a Marseille Roulette attempt would be a surefire way to make any defender collapse in a heap as his Composure Gauge drops to 0.
- There would be alot more nuance in the game, and this Composure gauge would be an overlay that influences a players ability to basically perform any move. It would prevent mechanical repetition of tricks. Even if a player has a superb "Technique stat", the effects of a poor trap moments before the trick is performed will greatly affect his ability to execute the trick.
It would need alot of work, they would need a system that analyses how well composed a player is during certain points of animations, and it's really a Euphoria thing if you wanna do it full on.
BUT, the basic concept can be implemented with only basic methods for measuring composure.
Basically, all animations in the game are analysed and judged, with respect to eachother, so that certain moves carry with them a bigger depletion of the Composure Gauge. Basically, if the Gauge reaches 0, the player falls over due to lack of balance. This alone would mean that a player has to be careful when shooting right after a Skill trick, since he is temporarily slightly unbalanced. As it is in FIFA08 and such, they seem to be treated completely separate. The Player does one thing, and once he is finished with the animation, the game drops that completely and moves on to the shot that follows.
Also this puts even more emphasis on players, and their differences.
Poor players simply will not be able to play like they did in FIFA08, since for example their trapping performance would be completely scalable based on their speed when receiving the pass etc. And even if they are in a good position to trap well, their composure system will prevent them from stringing together a perfect trap with a perfect pass or perfect shot. Just having a poor player sprint would severely cripple his ability to do anything well, his accuracy during ballhits would be questionable etc.
Even if they just go the "easy route", and for example gradually reduce the players animation speed when the gauge drops towards 0 (so that when the gauge is very low the player might be operating on 75% of his usual ability when it comes to sprint speed/trickstick animation speed, etc), and the chance of the player stumbling on his own increases when the gauge nears 0), and also reduce the players shot and pass accuracy/consistency severely once they start becoming unbalanced and uncomposed, it would be a great addition.
Once the composure reaches 0, they could add all sorts of fun animations of the player tripping on his own foot and falling on his face, or just falling over like when a human looses balance, or more commonly stumbling and loosing the ball, that would be awesome, even if the animation technology prevents you from seeing the player becoming more and more unbalanced during until loosing balance.
:applaud:
With that said... I haven't played fifa09 myself and I sure want it to be more responsive than fifa08. I thought the responsiveness in euro2008 was quite good actually (read realistic) but that game had other issues...
my fave game of the last 4 years 
game of many emotions huh
It's just a case of making it look good, bullshit about hundreds of improvements and make a lot of money 
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