Gameplay - Written by BluChampBlogger on Sunday, November 23, 2008 7:09 | 6,137 Views | 17 Comments | Add Comment
FIFA 09 Revolution Update
Having tweaked the custom tactics and adjusted the speed and acceleration attributes, I thought I had hit the sweet spot with FIFA 09. But then I could feel that something wasn’t right. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. So I put FIFA 08 (not 09) on my XBOX 360 just to remind myself of how it played. Having finished one game in FIFA 08, I realised what had to happen in 09.
FIFA 08 is being seen as a more tactical game ONLY because it was slower. In all other respects, FIFA 09 is far superior. We have already reduced the speed and acceleration attributes by 15 points. So what had happened is, the players have become slower and very reasonable in their ability to move. It does give a lot of opportunities for tactical gameplay but for one little thing. While the players have slowed down, their passing has not. So what happens is, players move slowly but when they decide to pass, the pass goes lightning quick which makes the game look very ping-pong. Also if the passes are so quick, you don’t get to see players moving as the ball is still transiting. It is important because even before you receive the ball, you should have multiple options to proceed.
So, I decided to reduce the short passing attribute by 15 points. That should now sync well with the reduction of player speeds. It works perfectly. When you make a 20-yard pass, it should go at a certain speed. And that passing speed is very important for the dynamics of the attacking game. With slower passing speed, my ability to receive passes successfully has also improved. The ball receiver now gets a fraction more time to react. With reduced passing speed, I’ve even started using the first touch skill with the right analog stick. More than my convenience, I find the game incredibly realistic now. For whatever reason, I think EA has deliberately boosted the speed, acceleration and short passing which makes the game very arcadish.
I know there has been a lot of efforts to have the player edits done. I wish I had realised this point on short passing much before so that when you guys were editing the player attributes you had also take care of short passing values. But I had to test this myself to confirm if it has an impact and more importantly a positive impact on the gameplay. I could only confirm it now. As of now, I don’t know if I’m done with the tweaks. As I learn the game and nuances, ideas keep coming so it’s always possible that there is another discovery from me or anyone else.
Now onto the super players. I see that people complain about Messi not being Messi and Xavi not being Xavi. I have observed that this is primarily to do with three key attributes that separate star players and normal players. They are consistency, aggression and strength. Consistency refers to how often the player plays true to his rest of the attributes. If the finishing is 92 and consistency is 100, he always plays with a 92 finishing ability. When the consistency is say 65 and the finishing is 92, he could make some amazing finishes every now and then but could be on and off in terms of form. Aggression refers to the determination of the players. It shows how the players want to keep the ball or win the ball. Players with high aggression are difficult to be shoved away. If you notice, EA have rated a lot of star players very low on aggression. If aggression is a mental attribute, strength is the equivalent physical attribute. Even if your aggression is 100, if your strength is 60, your player might want to keep the ball at any cost but his physical strength won’t help him.
What I have done is, picked out those real star players and improved their stats on consistency, aggression and strength. If you ask me if I have increased them by 10 or 15, I’d say I inceased the stats on a case to case basis. It’s purely my opinion and belief based on which I propped up the stars. For instance, I’ve put a 90 for Messi when it comes to consistency. For players like Iniesta and Xavi, I’ve put the aggression in 90s and strength in 80s. For someone like Essien, both those attributes would in 90s. I’d put Adriano high on strength and low on aggression; Fabregas, low on strength and high on aggression. So I suggest you to identify the star players who want to improve and adjust these attributes as per your judgement.
In the tweaked custom tactics, make sure that teams do not have more than a value of 50 in shooting. If you set it beyond 50, the AI keeps shooting from unreasonable positions and very stupidly at times which results in numerous shots most of which wouldn’t have troubled you.
Finally, I can cross now! Crossing in this game has been such a let down for me. Practically, my inability to cross in this game has changed the way I play this game. Because I couldn’t cross, I have always been looking for passing the ball even from fantastic crossing positions. I think I have the definitive solution to crossing - set crossing to SEMI. Yes, it doesn’t work well in manual or assisted. In SEMI, my crossing is back to its best. Now my custom tactics for crossing does have a meaning. I tried setting the crossing my custom tactics to 80 so that I have people in crossing positions and also have people crowding in the box to receive the crosses. It was fantastic. Now crossing is one of my potent weapons. I’m gonna make AI taste a dose of its own medicine!
And now, personally my biggest discovery wrto visuals: DYNAMIC camera. Yup. I’m generally a fan of wide and far camera angles. I always used to play in WIDE camera or TELE camera (co-op in Euro 2008) because I want to see the spaces in the pitch to exploit. I never thought dynamic camera can be useful. The advantages of a wide camera is the ability to see spaces. If you don’t exploit those spaces, there is no point in playing a wide angle because the dynamic angle provides a lot more in terms of playability. In DYNAMIC camera angle, I’ve set the height to maximum and zoom to zero (no zoom at all). With this, my game has vastly improved, especially my possession football. The camera angle being so close, it certainly gives that extra fraction of a time which is more than enough or the human brain to react and make the best use of it. Believe it or not, my quality of passing/shots has highly improved in dynamic camera. Please try this yourself and enjoy. Again, don’t write this off without actually testing it.
To remind you, I play in SLOW gamespeed, use assisted controls (semi crossing), use dynamic cam, play in world class difficulty and player select set to automatic, two points from the left. I no longer play online and in offline I play only exhibition matches, single player and also co-op with my mates. My style of play is possession football.
To summarise:
1. I take it that you’ve already tweaked the custom tactics and the speed/acceleration attributes
2. Now reduce the short passing attribute by 15 points for all players in the teams you play or play against
3. For star players, improve these attributes - consistency, aggression and strength
4. In custom tactics for all teams, ensure that the shooting value is not beyond 50
5. Set the crossing to SEMI
6. Use DYNAMIC cam - maximum height & zero zoom
All the above in totality is what I’ve named as ‘FIFA Revolution update’. If you apply this FIFA Revolution update, I can bet that this game becomes ‘unputdownable’. As always, try these and let me know how these work! Your comments are most welcome.
17 Comments
1. Fabien
2. BallackFan
BC!!!
I’ve made the recommended changes and love it so far. I cannot wait to make these further adjustments.
If you notice, when you’re backing down the speed/acceleration values, you accumulate the points you remove. For the better players, particularly Essien, Ballack, Lampard & Deco, I have applied the surplus points to other areas. For instance, Ballack - strength & heading. It’s worked well.
3. BlueChampions - FIFA 09 Blog - A brother blog of BlueChampions!
[...] FIFA 09 Revolution Update (2) [...]
4. TN
Plays really well. What I like is the fact that the player speed is like on ‘Professional’ yet you can no longer steal the ball away easily from them anymore. There is still a lot of space in midfield, though. That needs some tweaking in the tactics section.
I would suggest to downgrade the keepers as well. I am currently experimenting with the stats because I think they are way too good, especially against close shots. A reflex stat of 90 (for Bayerns Rensing) is ridiculous. On the other hand their downfielders tend to go just to the middle line so I would increase that significantly.
5. Azman
Discovering your blog to me Blu, was the most significant thing that happened to me, as far as my foray into the world of soccer online matches!!!
Somehow Google put your blog for my reading. I was like glued to your articles and read them all. Next was the experimenting part and to a larger extent, I believe that it’s made me a decent soccer online player.
My sincere thanks and kudos for your blogging on this aspect of the game and also it’s potential impact to the gameplay which has made me a fan of FIFA (since 08 and not reverted to WE or PES which was my benchmark before). FYI, I just entered an online league which gave me a random team and no prizes for guessing who I got…….Chelsea.
Anyway, my comments as follows…..
1. I tweaked mainly the core defensive line i.e. Terry, Carvalho, Bosingwa, A. Cole & Alex by reducing their short passing by 15 BUT not touching their speed and acceleration (I figured I needed them to have these attributes intact, when I let them manage the defense on autopilot) and reallocating them to beef up their other attributes like defending, power, mentality, etc. After that, I adjusted the custom tactics sliders as per your advice and also edited Terry’s base positioning and role to SW. I left the main formation still at 4-5-1.
The results are interesting.
2. Sometimes the autopilot works i.e. Terry will be aggressive and win the ball against the flying wing attacks and sometimes down the middle. However on other occasions, he and his comrades are left simply floundering in the grass, as speedy attackers like Ronaldo, Henry, Eto, etc, etc blaze past them and get that 1-on-1 goal against the keeper (in this department Cech’s reflexes are good but he will like the other keepers, remain stuck on his goal line).
3. One thing I found that beats the autopilot mode almost consistently (maybe FIFA 09’s algorithm hasn’t included it) was the ease at which the goals were made through crosses and corners.
4. On the flip side, Drogba and Ballack has the strength to persevere (I did not alter their acceleration and speed in case I can’t outrun the defence or run back quick enough - not really sure about this though i.e. will it affect their speed IF I were to reduce them as you suggested)…..sometimes. IF, I was not fast enough then ultimately I will get a fullback, etc doing a hard standing or sliding tackle to ROB me of a sure 1-on-1 goal. ONLY once was I awarded a penalty kick in the over 100 matches online I’ve played, after the seemingly late tackles! No clue here as to how I can avoid being tackled without holding the RT or R2 button to be a step ahead. So far, all I could do was to take the shot quickly, which ended up over the bar or saved or smothered by the keeper.
5. A final comment is that playing an online league states that it will use DEFAULT squads. Thus this mean that the tweaked players stats or attributes rendered useless? I know that the custom tactics are fine i.e. will not go to default formation. Does the Adidas LIVE season also affect the players stats? I will try and save your tactics soon for experimenting 
I hope and look forward to hear your views Blu and for your info, my age is 47 years. Last but not least, kudos to your efforts, R & D and personal time to document your findings and share them with the rest of the World. I truly appreciate it.
6. Edward Sineteertoope
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
P.S. I like your writing style.
7. DamoAuz
Wonderful post; I’ve purchased Every fifa game since 02, evolving with my platform. (currently up to 08 with 360).
I’d not thought of changing the passing speed, good thinking.
I’m not as happy with 08 as with previous years. 2 main complaints - player select seems to be unreliable in critical situations. e.g. I’m trying to get the last defender to counter a fast break but the only players I can select are in terrible positions! - “closer” to the attacking ball carrier but we behind the play! No chance of getting there. I find I conceed goals mainly when I can select the player I would want to.
I’m a little frustrated in the same manner at the other end; playing a few short passes around the edge of the box and a player makes a sublime run; using “intelligent” pass to try and find the most obvious open player and game logic picks someone way out of screen or plays a ball direct to keeper.
I love my fifa gaming; and dont expect perfection, but just enjoying this less than previous games.
*Why post here*?? want to know if others had the same gripe and if you think 09 will allevaite some of my pain!
cheers
DD
8. DamoAuz
for those picking up my typo “*I find I conceed goals mainly when I CANT select the player I would want to. *
9. fifa 2010 needs to be similar to 09!! - Electronic Arts UK Community
[...] Ultimate Guide To Realistic Football in FIFA 09 and for short passing by -15 as well: FIFA 09 - BluChampBlogger - FIFA 09 Revolution Update Because slow at the moment is still too fast. Those tweaks, especially when combined with Manual, [...]
10. Adam
Has anybody tried it on manager mode
11. Salah
What camera do you play on??? And can I be your friend.
12. Salah
I did, this is so great, The Big 4 leagues like Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, are very fun. At the moment I play with Chelsea, I’m trailing Behind Arsenal and Manchester United around the 60’s. This adds a lot of competion, and for some reason AI learn your tactic after the 65:00 minute mark during a MM game.
TRY IT!!
13. Alex
Hi BlueChamp….where are you????
14. ber
Or in short, play the game with lower rated sides.
I do hope EA strive for realism with FIFA ‘10. I have this nagging felling though that they’ll gear more towards the assist and through ball wh0res who only play the game with Barca and Man United. I think preferably they want both sets of fans catered for, but i’m just not convinced that’s possible.
15. Chris
Great work.
These work amazingly well!
16. Big Fan
can you put up some gameplay of you playing with all your updates so that i can see the comparison.
17. Ht Ice Fishing Gear
Hi, I truly enjoyed reading your article. I found your site from Bing. Will bookmark to return later. Thanks!
I have spent a lot of time reading your suggestions but still haven’t find the time to apply them. I’m a beginner at FIFA (but quite good at PES) and I can’t wait to see the results.
My only concern (so far) is that you say that you play with “player select set to automatic, two points from the left”. I found that this setting let the cpu switch automatically between your players when in defense. This is something I really dislike as I want to have control on when and how change the controlled player. So I let only 1 point from the left (so the cpu only switches between my players on high balls). Why do you prefer this setting?
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