45/90 minute goals (yeah, coincidence, every other game...)
I haven't conceded a last minute goal for ages now, possibly because I've just moved onto a Brighton CM, but I did also bump the difficulty up to legendary.
Basically the AI increases its attack levels and the virtual CPU 'player' holding the pad is told to be more urgent, in the way a real FIFA player would step it up for the last 5 minutes. I know this cos I talked to Gary Paterson about it a while back. It's not scripting in the way that people mean the term, which is manufacturing an end result by fixing how individual moments in the game play out (for example the winner of an aerial battle being decided before the animations play out); it is scripting in a sense, just not the way people mean it when they use the term - which is why I hate the overuse of the word scripting. It means different things to people like you and people like Gary P.
I don't disagree that it's over the top at times, but the solution is to fix things such as the defensive AI and the balance between human defender and CPU dribbler. There's no stat boosting going on with the players on the pitch, or deliberate buggering of your defenders to allow the CPU through - it's just the CPUs decision making and its eagerness to score that goes up, which means it's naturally more likely that the defensive flaws present THROUGHOUT the match will be shown up. Especially given the fatigue levels that reduce mobility of generally already slow defenders.
CPU moving your defenders
The CPU moves your defenders ALL GAME. Usually all of them, sometimes all but one of them. They aren't being moved to script a goal for the opposition though.
I'll talk about this more later, since it's exactly the same point.
Carlisle playing like Milan
It's the same CPU 'player' that you play against game in game out. There isn't enough team individuality, and I still don't think there's enough player individuality in terms of decision making or composure. There's Vision, which clearly does impact what the CPU player on the ball does, but no equivalent for teamwork or the various player cards PES has. There are certain traits in FIFA that should relate to this, but they're very subtle.
So Carlisle play like Milan (exaggeration but w/e) because there isn't enough nuance to the AI yet. It's not scripting, and I'm baffled that it'd seem like such.
Stat boosts everywhere for the CPU
Where? Is this the whole CPU vs human control of momentum business?
Whatever you are seeing is being perceived as stat boosting, but isn't. Fact is the CPU has a different view of how the game works to us; we're trying to reconcile the onscreen action with what we know from real life, and we're trying to do so from a distance and with less of a clear understanding of what a certain power bar value will do compared to others. We are less capable of reacting to a loose ball, or determining exactly how to use our bodies to protect the ball, or exactly what animation will be carried out if we shoot/pass/turn at a particular moment.
(This is something PES has often excelled at by comparison, incidentally - while it is more on-rails and far less free than FIFA, it doesn't give you less control; it just focusses your control more on the technique, more on how you actually strike the ball and how you play on momentum vs the opposition. FIFA does actually have a lot of the calculations and animations in the game to do the same sort of job, but the gameplay is not based around it in the same way, with footedness for example.)
The CPU doesn't have these problems at all, because it isn't trying to convert what it sees into something it understands - it's all wired to go straight into its brain. It also has overly good reaction times, occasionally reacting in the exact same frame that our player reacts to our button press/direction change. In some cases these reaction times make sense, representing some sort of pre-emption or prediction, but it's not a true substitute.
Your own team mates acting dumber and dumber, moving away from the ball carrier (FIFA 12 has the worst defensive AI on record)
It's not scripting then, is it? It's bad defensive AI. Or more specifically, passive defensive AI that assumes its job is to back off unless specifically controlled by the user. I and other GCs have already written this in our feedback. We also appreciate that it's got nothing to do with rigging the game to give goals to the opposition. Again, this is what I'm talking about. It's using scripting to describe problems in the way some people use 'god' to explain things they didn't understand either.
Team mates suddenly mis-placing easy five yard passes
You're playing on manual, with ridiculously fast passing, and you're blaming this on scripting? Pffft.
'Events' occurring like the 'engineered corner', to which they then score a scripted header
I have no idea how to react to this beyond shrugging my shoulders. Knowing that they don't script headers, and not having seen any of these 'happen' in my CM campaigns, it's hard to see how 'events' like these 'engineered corners' are anything other than 'bullshit'.
A week ago I played one of these such games using Placebo's manual settings, battered Man City, truly. Their keeper Hart, was performing miracles left right and centre, combined with me hitting the post three times! (yes, this 'bug' lol)
Then with virtually the last kick of the game they hit a long ball from nowhere, my defender Agger starts playing some kind of weird offside, before playing Tevez back onside, then with the ball travelling safely to the keeper, the referee pulls my CPU controlled defender up for an inside the box infringement....errr, penalty to Man City in the.....yes, 90th minute.
LOL, you couldn't make this shit up honestly!
Exactly. Making this shit up would be scripting.
Hart is performing miracles because you're using 60 for GK sliders. I use 47, with 50 for shot speed, and it felt great with both Man Utd and Brighton because it encouraged you to ensure your player would get a proper connection, and good shots would be genuinely dangerous. If anything I might bring the keepers down another notch or two.
Meanwhile Agger is screwing up because the defensive AI is dodgy, reactive rather than pre-emptive. You have to fight this all game - certainly I do, my full-backs are still terrible for it even when set to offside trap.
I'd much prefer the game to say before I played it, in big red Arial font over the top of the slick presentation screen, 'EA WILL FK YOU OVER THIS GAME', I'd shake them by the hand for the fore-warning!
This isn't me on a rant...this is me playing in depth, both games, since release, and exploring almost every avenue there is to explore, from difficulty levels, to sliders etc etc.
The only shining light PES has in reality is the variation of gameplay, instead of the CPU glitching you one on one constantly ala FIFA.
So no....the word scripting shouldn't be banned, in fact it should be said more! SCRIPTING, SCRIPTING, SCRIPTING.....there I said it...again.
Again, shouting SCRIPTING at the top of your lungs/caps helps nobody. The EA devs are coming to the point where they practically ignore posts about scripting, because they know that it doesn't happen. They made the thing, they've done audits to double check that no scripting has made it in, they specifically promoted Gary Paterson because he wrote a white paper explaining exactly why FIFA's PS3/360 engine should be designed to be completely unscripted, a move away from the PS2/Xbox design mantra. It doesn't matter how good you are at the game or how much you play it, or PES. It's about insight, and not clouding your judgement by accepting the easy answer. It's only when you stop shouting SCRIPTING that you'll make any progress in seeing why these things
actually happen. Nullifying all your first-hand experience and research by not doing so is a real waste.
