Career mode thoughts
Short career mode short issues list from just turning the game on
-Time lag between menus makes cycling through development / youth training options very very tedious and completely boring - i thought this was a beta issue this is really really painful... can we focus on this?? It’s undermining all this hard work you guys did.
-Customizing player development - the custom development should be reconfigured so that there are a set number of “points” you can allocate to each trait (i.e. pace, aggression, interceptions) vs. the current system. The new way, while i appreciate the thought behind it, does not make sense. Right now a CB can’t practice tackling, interceptions, and def awareness simultaneously except for “Balanced” - that’s weird.
I appreciate the attempt on CM this year. But strategic direction still seems a little confusing.
Here is feedback for the future.
Fifa needs to understand better why people think Career Mode is interesting - here are my views
-Strategy - How to optimize team quality (youth and mature) with a given budget / make a team future proof
-Trade offs - in general trade offs are what make franchise modes interesting - having to spend here and forego there - complex decision making and strategy
-Cost benefit between allocating budget / resources
-Developing players
-Attempts at realism / replicating real life team improvement scenarios
What is not interesting
-Player drills
-Press conferences
-Players not knowing when they need a rest vs. should be starting
-The emails “hey coach can i play” - if the AI isn’t good, don’t have it, it’s just annoying and a reminder that certain things aren’t developed well
-The redundant news clippings etc. - they serve no purpose - make them meaningful
-Anything that is redundant / purely cosmetic
What is missing:
-A feedback loop - post-game analysis and player updates
—Who picked up small injuries, who will be ready for the next fixture.
—There should be WAY more small injuries to the squad every week.
—There should also be feedback if the coach set the team up in the wrong system (i.e. played a possession 4-3-3 but should’ve played a counterattacking 4-5-1 or something. Also there’s never been any clarity from EA on how they want you to set up teams in certain situations since the custom tactics were invented - CM is the perfect place to include a “strategy” section. It doesn’t have to be ahead of each game - it can be like a reference-able pregame “cheat sheet” wherein you see the % of times different teams play in certain systems and the good systems to counter that set up.
-More robust budget / P&L complexity (i.e. hiring coaches, hiring youth coaches, trainers that influence injury of team, training centers, stadium and upgrades) - all the things that happen in a “franchise”
-Ie we should be managing a proper club P&L wherein transfer budgets are only a part of the whole story - and we should have control over what to dedicate to transfer budgets vs. other things - and that should have consequences. It should be tricky / important to balance appropriately.
-Tactical analysis of opponents and preparation - things to look out for (i.e. players dropping deep so you know when to adjust your system to be more possession) - the pre-match preparation and analysis and feedback loop is totally missing. AGAIN - Feedback loop. Totally missing.
-SPECIFIC goals/objectives to improve player development - i.e. hitting a specified number of training sessions, loan matches/minutes played, 1st team minutes/matches played should improve a player’s POT (low / medium / high). The dev track should evolve YoY as the player ages - starting dev track should also be based on their contract/age/agreed dev track for anyone under “Important”). Should be agreed upon in contract when signed. Could have diff dev tiers. But in general young players should not expect to play premier league games at big clubs - so there has to be other targets.
-Loans should have a more positive influence on a young player’s career path - the way a player is developed should be structured (i.e. certain players should go off on loan, certain players should be in the first team younger) - these should be in youth player dev-types and if handled appropriately enhance that player’s development track
-long-term player morale targets that influence wanting to leave the club - i.e. players happy if they get 2 premier league title wins and start 60% of games over x period of time.
-More advanced commercial revenue targets (seats, jerseys) and things that can influence that - it HAS to be interesting not a “check the box” exercise.
-System boosts for certain players in certain lineups - i.e. when Liverpool plays Burnley - Liverpool should set up in a more attacking/possession based system whereas against City they should set up defensively. These should be strategized and reviewed ahead of the game and there should be ways of identifying in-game to make more realistic.
-Dedicating resources to analyze certain opponents vs. others during the season - this could have trade offs where you know one opponent better and not another.
-Player AI logic knowing they should rest/play during certain matches / based on their own fitness - i.e. rest during league cup games and play during EPL games.
-Mature players should have set downgrade timetables - and playtime should partially mitigate that. Certain players should have some sort of downgrade defense (i.e. Ronaldo or Sergio Ramos) where they decline more slowly than other players. It should be specified how quickly a player should downgrade.
-Potential should be more flexibly upward if players are developed appropriately (i.e. I should be able to get Harvey Elliot to be a 90 OVR if he scores 30 goals every season). Potential could be specified (as a range or color coded) and it should be clear where a player’s potential is trending (i.e. currently improving / worsening) based on play time / other factors discussed above.
-Developing specific players should come at trade off of others (i.e. in a youth team).
-Better recognition of achievements (lifetime, season, in-game) and stats recording
-Non-player team player potential reflecting player performance (i.e. if Lukaku wins golden boot in 2021 CM, his POT should go up even if he’s not on my team).
-Press conferences should have consequences - good or bad - either annoy the opposition coach
-Rivalries - where are they? Why isn’t Jose Mourinho talking ❤️❤️❤️❤️ about everyone?
In general - what makes career mode interesting is the strategy behind putting together a top team - the cosmetic stuff is temporary and EA should just stop dedicating resources to the cosmetic stuff - example is the press conferences - those were interesting for all of 3 seconds. They’re so stupid now.
-Time lag between menus makes cycling through development / youth training options very very tedious and completely boring - i thought this was a beta issue this is really really painful... can we focus on this?? It’s undermining all this hard work you guys did.
-Customizing player development - the custom development should be reconfigured so that there are a set number of “points” you can allocate to each trait (i.e. pace, aggression, interceptions) vs. the current system. The new way, while i appreciate the thought behind it, does not make sense. Right now a CB can’t practice tackling, interceptions, and def awareness simultaneously except for “Balanced” - that’s weird.
I appreciate the attempt on CM this year. But strategic direction still seems a little confusing.
Here is feedback for the future.
Fifa needs to understand better why people think Career Mode is interesting - here are my views
-Strategy - How to optimize team quality (youth and mature) with a given budget / make a team future proof
-Trade offs - in general trade offs are what make franchise modes interesting - having to spend here and forego there - complex decision making and strategy
-Cost benefit between allocating budget / resources
-Developing players
-Attempts at realism / replicating real life team improvement scenarios
What is not interesting
-Player drills
-Press conferences
-Players not knowing when they need a rest vs. should be starting
-The emails “hey coach can i play” - if the AI isn’t good, don’t have it, it’s just annoying and a reminder that certain things aren’t developed well
-The redundant news clippings etc. - they serve no purpose - make them meaningful
-Anything that is redundant / purely cosmetic
What is missing:
-A feedback loop - post-game analysis and player updates
—Who picked up small injuries, who will be ready for the next fixture.
—There should be WAY more small injuries to the squad every week.
—There should also be feedback if the coach set the team up in the wrong system (i.e. played a possession 4-3-3 but should’ve played a counterattacking 4-5-1 or something. Also there’s never been any clarity from EA on how they want you to set up teams in certain situations since the custom tactics were invented - CM is the perfect place to include a “strategy” section. It doesn’t have to be ahead of each game - it can be like a reference-able pregame “cheat sheet” wherein you see the % of times different teams play in certain systems and the good systems to counter that set up.
-More robust budget / P&L complexity (i.e. hiring coaches, hiring youth coaches, trainers that influence injury of team, training centers, stadium and upgrades) - all the things that happen in a “franchise”
-Ie we should be managing a proper club P&L wherein transfer budgets are only a part of the whole story - and we should have control over what to dedicate to transfer budgets vs. other things - and that should have consequences. It should be tricky / important to balance appropriately.
-Tactical analysis of opponents and preparation - things to look out for (i.e. players dropping deep so you know when to adjust your system to be more possession) - the pre-match preparation and analysis and feedback loop is totally missing. AGAIN - Feedback loop. Totally missing.
-SPECIFIC goals/objectives to improve player development - i.e. hitting a specified number of training sessions, loan matches/minutes played, 1st team minutes/matches played should improve a player’s POT (low / medium / high). The dev track should evolve YoY as the player ages - starting dev track should also be based on their contract/age/agreed dev track for anyone under “Important”). Should be agreed upon in contract when signed. Could have diff dev tiers. But in general young players should not expect to play premier league games at big clubs - so there has to be other targets.
-Loans should have a more positive influence on a young player’s career path - the way a player is developed should be structured (i.e. certain players should go off on loan, certain players should be in the first team younger) - these should be in youth player dev-types and if handled appropriately enhance that player’s development track
-long-term player morale targets that influence wanting to leave the club - i.e. players happy if they get 2 premier league title wins and start 60% of games over x period of time.
-More advanced commercial revenue targets (seats, jerseys) and things that can influence that - it HAS to be interesting not a “check the box” exercise.
-System boosts for certain players in certain lineups - i.e. when Liverpool plays Burnley - Liverpool should set up in a more attacking/possession based system whereas against City they should set up defensively. These should be strategized and reviewed ahead of the game and there should be ways of identifying in-game to make more realistic.
-Dedicating resources to analyze certain opponents vs. others during the season - this could have trade offs where you know one opponent better and not another.
-Player AI logic knowing they should rest/play during certain matches / based on their own fitness - i.e. rest during league cup games and play during EPL games.
-Mature players should have set downgrade timetables - and playtime should partially mitigate that. Certain players should have some sort of downgrade defense (i.e. Ronaldo or Sergio Ramos) where they decline more slowly than other players. It should be specified how quickly a player should downgrade.
-Potential should be more flexibly upward if players are developed appropriately (i.e. I should be able to get Harvey Elliot to be a 90 OVR if he scores 30 goals every season). Potential could be specified (as a range or color coded) and it should be clear where a player’s potential is trending (i.e. currently improving / worsening) based on play time / other factors discussed above.
-Developing specific players should come at trade off of others (i.e. in a youth team).
-Better recognition of achievements (lifetime, season, in-game) and stats recording
-Non-player team player potential reflecting player performance (i.e. if Lukaku wins golden boot in 2021 CM, his POT should go up even if he’s not on my team).
-Press conferences should have consequences - good or bad - either annoy the opposition coach
-Rivalries - where are they? Why isn’t Jose Mourinho talking ❤️❤️❤️❤️ about everyone?
In general - what makes career mode interesting is the strategy behind putting together a top team - the cosmetic stuff is temporary and EA should just stop dedicating resources to the cosmetic stuff - example is the press conferences - those were interesting for all of 3 seconds. They’re so stupid now.
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Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
Youth player dev - you could set it up as a decision making matrix
Stay: dont play gain 0-3 pot points
Stay: play targets gain 3-7 pot points
Loan: play gain 3-5 pot points
See that way its a set framework and there is transparency behind how things work. Data is the water that flows through strategic decision making!
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.