I made some notes of the video we watched shortly after the webcast. Not sure if there's anything new in there - FSB were pretty thorough.
I don't really want to be subjective about what we've seen yet (though I think I said a couple of things looked useful or cool, which tbf they did), but I do feel quite positive about these changes at this stage, and I think/hope there will be a significant impact on tactical variety as a result. The AI changes alone seem like they will remove a lot of the tactical inertia that makes teams play almost identically at the moment.
I am a bit annoyed that sites like Eurogamer have talked about these changes as being conservative - on paper, to football fans, these changes seem at least as big as adding impact engines etc.
FIFA 13 Community Webcast
Nick Channon - Producer
Aaron McHardy – Lead Gameplay Producer
Attacking AI
• In FIFA 12, players would make odd runs. Stop-start runs, or strikers running out wide. This is because of how the game analysed potential runs. The game would just look at the end point of a run, and not really think about how useful the run would be at various stages through the course of the run. So if a defender moves so that the end point isn’t as useful, the player would look for another destination. Would become jittery, or the run would end up being something silly.
• In FIFA 13, players analyse the usefulness of the entire run. Much more stable and assertive. Shows a striker making an effective near post run from the far edge of the D.
• Added the ability for strikers to curve their run and slow down, keeping their hips forward and maintaining most of their momentum until the pass is made. Shows Van Persie v Chelsea as real world example.
• Show Van Persie v Sunderland, stopping a forward run and cutting inside, losing his defender to create space for a shot.
• Show a FIFA 13 testbed example of a striker curving away from his marker to create some space and open a channel for the passer. So forwards don’t just run along with their marker in tow – they look to lose their marker and create passing space.
• Show Park Ji Sung’s goal in preseason where Giggs plays a nice first time pass into space. Park curves his run around a defender – in FIFA 12 a straight line would have stopped him making that run. They show a similar curved run in FIFA 13.
• Another curved run shown – striker inside centre circle on the break, can run either side of a defender running straight at him. Curves run to dodge defender and carry on towards goal; player can now pass to him in a threatening position, rather than him running off to the side of the pitch a la FIFA 12.
• Overall intention is to make more sophisticated, fluid attacking play, whereas FIFA 12 was quite rigid and lifeless. Tactical defending created a lot of space on the pitch, but the AI didn’t use it. Now they do.
• AI now makes runs thinking 2 moves ahead. Shows players passing around the back – the LB has the ball, facing the LCB. The LCB is seen as the likely ‘1st move’, as he would be in FIFA 12. But the RCB is also thinking about where he should be once the LCB receives the ball. The RCB is seen as the 2nd move. So both players are thinking about how to contribute to play. The RCB sidesteps away into space. And as the LCB receives the ball, the next 2nd move is determined (in this case the RB). So the RB starts moving up the pitch into space as the LCB gets the ball. So in FIFA 12 these players would stay in position and not really contribute until asked. Now they do.
• Show another example – LCM receives the ball, the RCM makes a move forward, and the RM runs down the flank losing his marker. The LCM passes to the RCM, he then turns and releases the RM who is now through on goal.
• Third example. ACM has the ball at tip of diamond. RS is most likely passing option, LS is 2nd move. RS makes a move slightly wide and towards the box which his marker tracks; the LS is also curving a run off the shoulder to lose his marker, receives the through ball across the edge of the box from the RS, and shoots (and misses).
• Defending has not yet been changed really – Def AI was designed to be separate from Attack, so they could replace Attack system and the Def would adapt to face what’s put in front of it. So a lot of work still to be done in terms of balancing and tuning to deal with the new Attack, but Aaron says because of the way def was designed, it is already holding up ok. Balance is important to them so they won’t be releasing a game that is a goalfest.
Complete Dribbling
• Considered as big a change to dribbling in football games as 360 movement.
• ‘360 degree mobility’. Direction of movement and direction you’re facing can be separated. Show Nasri’s goal vs Fulham for Arsenal as an example.
NASRI GOAL
• Shows Ronaldo moving towards a full-back, facing the defender and moving to his 2 o’clock, able to then cut back outside quickly and wrongfoot the fullback because the direction he’s facing leaves that option open to him.
• Can use Messi-style ‘facing up’ at jog speed, basically running sideways to face the defender, before then sprinting the same direction of movement. Looks like typical Messi.
• New version of precision dribbling allows you to shield the ball while on the move (facing away, rather than facing up). Uses L1(?)+LS. Again, looks nice, organic, and useful to boot. Esp compared to FIFA 12's precision dribbling, which I thought was a bit pap.
• FIFA version of the Street Control (keeping the ball in one close area, with your foot on the ball to move it around). Shows Ronaldo shifting the ball from one foot to the other. Looks like the L2+RS-back trick in FIFA 12. Shows Walcott shifting the ball right and then left, sending the defender the wrong way and buying him space infield for a pass. Like a much more sophisticated version of the L2 dragback that can go in several directions. Controlled with the Left Stick.
• Complete dribble is context sensitive to an extent, so people of all abilities get to use aspects of it. Movement speed during these moments is identical whether complete dribbling or not; however you can use shoulder button modifiers to deliberately use complete dribble, and modify the speed.
First Touch
• Show the amazing ‘Dinho first touch – say FIFA 12 was too much like this, because no real first touch mechanic was in place.
• Show 50-rated ball control defender taking a very comfortable touch. No sense of stress or effort. Also show Walcott sprinting onto a hard pass and taking a good touch.
• Show examples of real players taking looser touches – the ball bouncing up, or pinging away, because the touch was hard. Also Drogba using a loose, heavy touch to wrongfoot a Wolves defender.
• New first touch system is not random – it’s based on pass weight, height, which foot is used (I think?), weather conditions, and amount of pressure. Can use all this to match quality of touch to quality of player.
• Shows Drogba chesting a long ball down. Ball pops off chest a yard or two, has to move to ball in order to carry it away.
• Shows a (West Brom?) player take a very loose touch –long ball dropping over his shoulder, takes touch 5 yards or so to his 4-5 o’clock, has to run back and gather the ball. Not sure if direction is due to error? Looks great though. Shows Blackburn defender collecting deep cross in the rain, ball pops right up to head height, has to wait for it to drop down before he can change direction. Shows David Luiz control a long ball with much more composure.
• Defender should pressure attacker at point of first touch to encourage loose control; defender should look to hoof the ball clear or pass it away if under pressure, rather than risk loose touch and attacker dispossessing. Should make you ‘think more like a defender’, like tactical defending. Show examples of defender being dispossessed due to loose touch rather than clearance, and example of Gervinho taking a long diagonal ball first time towards goal, the ball popping up, and the defender getting across by the time the ball drops. If Gervinho had slowed down at point of touch, ball would have stayed closer to him.
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How do you avoid lob through ball exploits? Say that, so far, the introduction of first touch actually reduces lob through ball effectiveness. Without first touch, easy to take difficult passes down and get ready for the shot. Now it’s much more awkward.
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Brian asks about Passing speed. Pass speed has been improved because of first touch control. In 11 and 12, passes could not really be overhit because a hard pass was just as easy to control as a soft one – so why play a soft pass? Now, you can hit passes harder because there is a side effect.
Impact Engine Improvements
• Lots of little improvements, just covering the key ones for now.
• Shows the Carroll Kiss. Zooms in, little heart outline at point of kiss…
• Did a bad job in FIFA 12 working out who was on top (NSFW etc).
• For 13, improved how entangled players get up – player on top uses roll away animation, player underneath waits before moving.
• Also show ‘broken arms’, hooked on the player behind. Looked at things like that, and players exploding away from each other. Worked out it was due to unrealistic strength values used in 12 to get better results in certain cases. They’ve now more or less sorted this.
• Stumble animation when being push-pulled. Can use it to put player off balance and take another touch (hopefully not as bad as recent PES’s!). Can also use push-pull to force striker off balance at time of shot.
• Game does better job knowing when to push and when to pull. In 12 defender behind striker might push, keeping the striker ahead of him, rather than pulling to bring him closer! Now sorted.
• Have coded refs to far better understand when push-pull is illegal – strikers can actually be pulled to the ground or pushed over.
• Can push-pull before a player gets the ball.
• Defenders can use their body to block off the attacker when he’s knocked the ball past – when you press the StandTackle/PushPull button and the ball is well beyond tackle reach, the defender will move in front of the attacker. Also have options to shepherd the ball out (using L2+R2?), or get in the way of the attacker and let a teammate pick up the loose ball.
Tactical Free Kicks
• 3rd kicker option. As 2nd and 3rd kickers make dummy runs, you can pass to them (or the guy waiting for indirect free kick). Left up to you for creativity.
• Wall can reform if they jump early, and get ready to jump .
• Can add players to wall. Can also edge forwards, but ref can book one of your wall .
• Player in the wall can charge forward – if faked, then can reform and then charge out again to block indirect kicker (for eg).
• No mention of improvement to free kick taking itself, re: trajectories or better use of the left stick.
Misc
• Refereeing decisions have been improved
• CPU AI much more human, more ‘inviting’ at lower difficulty levels.
• Fundamentals: Lateral contain movements – can move sideways, not just forward and back, to show player on weaker foot or block off the cross. Still looks too instant.
• New pass type – better players can lift ground passes over defender’s leg.
• Players can make headed goal-line clearances that go over for a corner.
• Apparently lateral contain makes a big difference – much more fidelity and tactical edge to defending now.
• EA have budgeted some free time into their dev cycle for adding cool little things that will add something to the game.
. Yet we know, it isn't.
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