New locale.ini for FIFA 17

[Hels The Ronin]

Heya there folks. Those of here that you know me, will surely know my pursue for simulation. This has been a constant for me since I've returned to football videogames in 2018. PES 2018 and later iteration 2019 on that year, felt for me too rushed and that real build-up was not present in this games. And while PES 2020 improved some things like right stick mechanics, it stil had a lot of the same problems that previous iterations had, so at the end, after not being able to neither find a mod or create it myself ( Community's dt18 and Ultimate Football Simulator mods) I decided started modding FIFA 22 and later 23, due to the tools and ammount of things I could change. And while doing some advancements, the game was to arcadey to properly mod it, there was too much to work in, and eventually, my files corrupted and abandoned the game. This is how I ended up fed with modern footy games and decided to look to the past.

I ended up looking for FIFA 16, then discarding it for the CB Jockey problem (essentially, for those you don't know the bug, players, specially center backs, not tracking players into the are at full sprint and jockeying instead), which was a problem also present in FIFA 23. After trying FIFA 17 in a friends house in a PS3, several months later after uninstalling FIFA 16, thought it would be better, had good animations and CB Jockey seemed not to be there. However, when slowing down gameplay to play up to 90 min as I always try, it ended up appearing again, yet less prominent than in FIFA 16.

Long story short, I've been almost for a whole year, navigating through various football games, trying to find the best one to play up to 90 minutes, and always facing the sad reality. Each one had it's flaws but none provided a experience close enough to simulation as to had me satisfied. During months modding and testing FIFA 17, I've been trying to sort somehow through locale.ini using Doctor Fidel's as a base, and the use of other mods, this CB Jockey problem, and I thought it was impossible to sort out. Until yesterday.

Some days ago, @amartingil made a mod for FC 25 with the use of the AI, and for my surprise, even when not being what I was looking for, it helped a lot to solve some of FC 25 problems. I recommend you to try it here.

So I decided to modify that mod by trying it to fusion it with Paulv mod, and for it I decided to get help for the AI aswell. If it improved once, maybe could improve the game twice. But due to the fact that I needed premium to upload EBX, and doing it through transcribing manually or through pictures the EBX to ChatGPT being really tedious, I had the great idea to ask him instead try to solve CB Jockey problem, as well as pasive defensive line that doesn't try to make offside and instead it drops back.

And for my surprise, I think I had stomped onto something with the help of the AI. At the beginning I thought I would need to try unpack gameplayattribdb.BIG file to actually get to something, but when AI mentioned LocoWarp values in [Avoidance] block of the locale.ini, a bulb went on. Asked to try to give me another hand with the matter and apparently, the behaviour of both individual defenders and defending line have gone way better.

It might be placebo, it might be real, but I have the feeling that marks respond much better now.

I leave my locale.ini here, just unpack it and copy it to your FIFA 17 Data folder, overwriting the existing one (make a backup just in case). It is a mix of Doctor Fidel's one as a base alongside with invented code lanes by me, others by the AI, others taken from cl.ini, rna.ini and product.ini that I had in a mod I used for FIFA 16, as well as bits of other locale.ini that I don't know it's procedence as I found them in a random forum.

To improve the feeling even further, I recommend using Papinho's 19in mod (brings several files like gameplayattribdb.BIG and others from FIFA19 to FIFA 17) that you can find in this post. Or alternatively the one that does the same with FIFA 16 that you can find in this other post.To use it you'll need last version of Frosty mod manager that you can find here or directly in their github.


Alongside with it, some tweakings inside the game settings and in the sliders are needed. First of all, slow speed and World Class difficulty. Then get yourself manual passing and shooting with assist only to make automatic shoots, clearances, class passes etc when needed, but no pass assistance in terms of power or direction at all, same for shooting.

Finally, go to sliders and set like this.

Speed to 52
acceleration to 49
Shoot error to 56
pass error to 55
Shoot speed 48
pass speed 45
Injury frecuency and severity to your likings but I have frecuency to 35 and severity between 30 and 35
Keepers skill to 55
Mark positioning somewhere between 30 and 35 depending on your likings, but I usually go 32-33
Running frequency somewhere between 1 and 5, but I've got it set to 3
Line height 50
Distance between lanes 40
Defensive positions (aka how much your Fullbacks go forward) 100
First touch error 80.

Same settings for User and CPU though you can vary all this depending on your likings. Alongside with it, I have power bar set for user to 42 to have more control of the pass speed and power and being able to do small passes, but that's also completely up to your likings.


And this is all. Hop in a match and decide yourself how much realistic is it. For me is the most simulative experience I had playing a game. You have to move the ball around in the build-up, teams will move one side to the other trying to pursue the ball and stop your advancement mixed with some healthy pressure... In general terms I really liked the overall feeling of the game.

I will be waiting for you to hear your opinions, and your experiences testing this game, to see if actually CB jockey is gone (or at least less prominent) or is just placebo on my side.

So long I made a couple of testings and in certain situations where it would appear, now players seem to follow marks in the area, but it might be also coincidence as I haven't extensively tested it.

I will be awaiting on your feedback and hope together we can get a better FIFA 17 game

 

[final lap]

Had a great game yesterday with your locale.ini. The only thing is that half length seems to be very long. I forgot to make a backup of the original locale.ini so I'm not sure if this is something to do with your file or not. I hadn't played in a very long time so not sure.

 

[Hels The Ronin]

Had a great game yesterday with your locale.ini. The only thing is that half length seems to be very long. I forgot to make a backup of the original locale.ini so I'm not sure if this is something to do with your file or not. I hadn't played in a very long time so not sure.

Got it set to 45 minutes length each half, this is, real time. So congrats, you played a real time football match.

If you want to set less minutes half, just edit locale.ini with your notepad++ or even windows notepad, and we're it says HALF_LENGTH and AI_HALF_LENGTH, put the amount of minutes you want EACH HALF to last. Not the whole match, but each half. So if you put 30, it'll be 30 minutes each half, for a total of 60 minutes match. If you put 0 or comment the lines with a double slash (//), it will be deactivated and you'll be able to select the half length with the in-game selector.

Really happy you enjoyed the game, I have been evolving the locale.ini for a bit, thanks to new values taken from a locale.ini that @TomGibbons26 was so kind as to share it with me (thanks, pal), and should be even better now, got also a new set of sliders, that should give a much realistic approach, with more compact teams and improved AI behaviour (as much as one can improve it without having access to code or EBX) and in general better match flow.

Still got to take a look to several values, I guess that the game can be improved much further.

If any of you has any idea on how to do so, I'll be willing to hear about it as every feedback can be really helpful to make a better experience overall.

Just have in count something. I strive for 45 minutes halves, this is 90 min marches, trying to get the most realistic tempo possible, so when you ask for any change or make it yourself, remember always to take in consideration if that makes the game more arcade or more realistic, so that each person can adjust it to their likings.

That's all for today, any news I'll be posting them here. Take care, folks!!

 

[EauRouge]

i highly recommend you add that string "ENABLE_PS3_MOVE=1". players dribbling like in fifa 16

almost all strings in your locale.ini change nothing. only strings that allowed to be changed as 1 or 0 affect gameplay (except referee strings and some graphical strings)

strings that affect on gameplay are:
CHOREO strings
CONTINUOUS_GAMEPLAY strings
rule parameter strings (these are related to momentum)
some db and dribbling related strings

if you want to make some differences in gameplay, you have to edit gameplayattribdb files

 

[dontellmama]

i highly recommend you add that string "ENABLE_PS3_MOVE=1". players dribbling like in fifa 16

almost all strings in your locale.ini change nothing. only strings that allowed to be changed as 1 or 0 affect gameplay (except referee strings and some graphical strings)

strings that affect on gameplay are:
CHOREO strings
CONTINUOUS_GAMEPLAY strings
rule parameter strings (these are related to momentum)
some db and dribbling related strings

if you want to make some differences in gameplay, you have to edit gameplayattribdb files

The shielding mechanic (holding the RT/R2 button) in FIFA 17 becomes overwhelmingly overpowered during dribbling. Any suggestions?

 

[Hels The Ronin]

i highly recommend you add that string "ENABLE_PS3_MOVE=1". players dribbling like in fifa 16

almost all strings in your locale.ini change nothing. only strings that allowed to be changed as 1 or 0 affect gameplay (except referee strings and some graphical strings)

strings that affect on gameplay are:
CHOREO strings
CONTINUOUS_GAMEPLAY strings
rule parameter strings (these are related to momentum)
some db and dribbling related strings

if you want to make some differences in gameplay, you have to edit gameplayattribdb files

That's not true. I suggest you don't make such broad sentences because what you show is a completely ignorance of how the game works.

Sure, there are a lot of lanes that are highly experimental, but some others work. I can't tell you exactly which ones do and which ones do not cause it would take huge ammounts of testing, but I've been testing as I added blocks of code, and I can assure you that there are many more parameters that do affect gameplay that does that you say.

To start with, all the parameters you say are mostly related to HOW THE PLAYERS MOVE. In case you don't know, there's more to football than just player movement.

What I've been extensively working is tactical behaviour. I've solved the fact that CB didn't sprint back following marks and stayed jockeing, a common problem in vanilla FIFA 17. Now, with this locale.ini, players track back marks when they have to. I also have worked upon off-side rule, to make it work better and have IA being automatically more proactive to do the off-side, and also forwards more careful with falling into them. While I can grant you that the first of this I am completely sure it has worked, and CB and even midfielders, now track back, I am not THAT SURE about off-side behaviour. I think I've made advancements and actually the defensive lane is a bit more proactive now, but is still quite uncommon to see off-sides and also I couldn't avoid that sometimes CB's fall back beforehand.

As you see, I am honest with what I say. I do admit that there are values that are probably placebo, maybe even 80% of the lanes are placebo. They are there just for the sake of, because there's no way of knowing which ones are placebo and which not other than extensive testing, and to be fair, being there does not harm or damage. But the blocks DO MAKE AN IMPACT.

Based on questions that I made to ChatGPT, I know some of the lanes that are actually placebo and some others than not, in some of the blocks, but I started asking which of the lanes that it generated were "false", or "experimental" or "not tested" or simply made up, and which not, in later blocks, not in the first that I added, so I don't have all the documentation available. I could actually ask block by block, but it would be time consuming and wouldn't solve anything other than making locale.ini more compact and have less lines. Still though, those made up lanes could be touching some variables on the exe that we don't know they exist (since we don't have the code) so better to have them stay, rather than just take them out just because of your whinnigs.

And no, if you want to make differences in gameplay you don't have to necesarily edit gameplay attribdb files. Sure, they have a lot of potential, but back in FIFA17 they were not decrypted and we didn't have access to them. Been modding FIFA since FIFA 22, and afaik, it wasn't until FIFA 20/21 that we had access to EBX.

Unless someone has decrypted .big, .bin, and .vlt files and has made a tool to change those values like it was done later in time, which I don't have the record, those values can't be edited without extensively reverse engeneering through Ghidra, x64dbg or any other tool that digs in hexadecimal code.

Also, "ENABLE_PS3_MOVE=1" doesn't make them move like FIFA 16, it makes them move like PS3 FIFA 16, or this is, like FIFA 14, something that btw, I don't want to. Afaik, FIFA 16 on PC is what was next gen back in the days. I know, cause I played it, and I played FIFA 14 aswell, and players move completely different. Even while not being frostbite, FIFA 16 was the first or the second game to include next-gen, more controlled movement.

So, summing up, all your statements have proven that you have frankly a quite limited knowledge over FIFA modding and how game modding works in general.

You can't expect a mod not being overspeculative when you don't have the code of the game or at least know syntaxis. I bet that there's a lot of people out there more talented than me, like for example @Paul-v , that actually know how to reverse engineer some of the game files, and extract certain values from there.

I ain't that talented, I am just a guy modifying locale.ini with the help of the AI, and I am aware that most of the values are speculative, and are probably placebo and made up by the AI, but I've tested my own game mod and noticed real diferences other than placebo, that's why I upload it here. And I mantain those speculative lanes, again, just in case that they are touching something, cause they don't crash the game, it only makes locale.ini file be a lot longer, but since they are organized in blocks, you can just take the notepad++ and minimize those blocks so that you can edit easily the whole file without having to see all those lanes.

Next time that you decide to put this kind of a post, at least, try the mod yourself before saying anything stupid.

 

[TomGibbons26]

i highly recommend you add that string "ENABLE_PS3_MOVE=1". players dribbling like in fifa 16

almost all strings in your locale.ini change nothing. only strings that allowed to be changed as 1 or 0 affect gameplay (except referee strings and some graphical strings)

strings that affect on gameplay are:
CHOREO strings
CONTINUOUS_GAMEPLAY strings
rule parameter strings (these are related to momentum)
some db and dribbling related strings

if you want to make some differences in gameplay, you have to edit gameplayattribdb files

ENABLE_PS3_MOVE doesn't seem to exist in the fifa strings - are you sure this is real

also could you be more specific on
CHOREO strings
CONTINUOUS_GAMEPLAY strings
rule parameter strings (these are related to momentum)
some db and dribbling related strings

or share your locale.ini so we can have a look and test?

Group of us are trying to revive fifa 17 and your input would be valuable

even better if you have Paulv2k4's locale.ini from fifa 17 that would be amazing

 

[Hels The Ronin]

The shielding mechanic (holding the RT/R2 button) in FIFA 17 becomes overwhelmingly overpowered during dribbling. Any suggestions?

Shielding mechanic is LT (L2 in PS) and I don't find it that overpowered, at least not more than it should be irl, even more having in count that this is made for 90 minute matches.

A ball can be taken out of a defender that is using LT. I admit is a bit difficult and have to time it properly, aswell as I admit that sometimes the AI is a bit stupid and you can force a lot of fouls with this method, but man, nothing is perfect and to be honest, while it is SLIGHTLY overpowered is not like it is unbeatable, sooner or later a second defender will come for you and take the ball out of you, or you will simply retain the ball but won't be able to advance.

Also, in this old locale.ini that is uploaded, AI is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen. In the new one I am preparing, while not Einstein, they are a bit less dumb when it comes to tackling from behind.

I still have to test hella lot of values, but for the moment I've been working on making AI a bit less aggressive over tackling and in general, pressuring the ball, so instead of pressing like a madman trying to take the ball at any cost, they try much more to do a soft-press that tries to stop passing lanes or press the receiver, rather than pressing the ball holder once that has controlled the ball.

This doesn't mean it is infalible and works perfectly but I am doing certain progress, making shielding the ball less useful in general by the mere fact that you'll have less need of using it, and much more need of having your player face towards where you want to pass.

 

[Hels The Ronin]

ENABLE_PS3_MOVE doesn't seem to exist in the fifa strings - are you sure this is real

also could you be more specific on
CHOREO strings
CONTINUOUS_GAMEPLAY strings
rule parameter strings (these are related to momentum)
some db and dribbling related strings

or share your locale.ini so we can have a look and test?

Group of us are trying to revive fifa 17 and your input would be valuable

even better if you have Paulv2k4's locale.ini from fifa 17 that would be amazing

Nah, ENABLE_PS3_MOVE sounds like a plausible lane (yet I am neither sure about it or that it is real, but could be) but it wouldn't be that beneficial anyways. If it does what he says, it would make movement way more stiff like it was in FIFA14, and we don't want that since it would probably make the gameplay much more frantic instead making running and sprinting much more controlable so anyways, is not like it is of any use to us.

This is what I meant when I said to be sensible with feedback. It's not like "you should do this because of that" is understanding what are the aims of this mod, and clearly, it's not to go back to stiff movement from PS3. Sure the movement was much more realistic, but because they lacked many more animations and contexts, and gameplay was way less gradual than later entries.

When you make a game more gradual, you have many more variables and things to set up, and that's why, for example (between other things) newer FIFA/FC games are worse than 16/17 era, and are worse each day. On one side, they have more things to control to make it realistic, which means more work. On the other hand, making it realistic, makes less people like it and the game selling worse in the online because "it is too difficult".

Nowadays games are made for new generation kids with ADHD that see football through tik-tok. I do have diagnosed ADHD, btw, the difference is that I canalize it into sensitive, intense interaction with anything that I touch, and only that way I can have the enough amount of serotonine and dopamine that my brain needs, while nowadays kids have gotten used to have a ton of stimulous instead of having one single, very important one to focus on.

I choose hyperfocus (one ability that ADHD people is said to have) and quality over quantity, nowadays ADHD focus on quantity, less intense interactions, over quality ones.

You could say I am a romantic. I seek for an intense, COMPLEX experience, that forces me to give my best not only in terms of skill but also in terms of brains, while new generations focus more on doing the same thing, repeatedly, like robots, without needing to think at all, and achieve victory through repetition and being over-specialised in one single, easy to do thing. For me, that's boring, for them, it's the way to go, and then, go play another different game.