11v11 Virtual Football
As has already been mentioned, FIFA 11 will feature 11v11 online and this of course will also be an option in Clubs. We’re really excited to finally be offering the chance to play a match as a full team and hope to see some goalkeepers making a name for themselves in the online world. As with last year we’ll be featuring a Pro Leaderboard that displays the top players in each position based on online performance, which will now also include goalkeeper ratings. Of course if nobody fancies going between the sticks an AI player will do the job for you and I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear we won’t be lending you 5’2 goalies this year.
A new player is welcomed to Pro Clubs and given the different options for finding a Club to join.
Club Creation and Customisation
First on our list of community requests was the ability to have more customisation when creating a Club. I’m actually going to start with some bad news, but really hope the news that follows will outweigh it. So, at the beginning of the year it was very much our intention to allow Clubs to use the Creation Centre feature to create kits and crests for online Clubs, unfortunately we found this to be a lot more problematic than we had hoped and this won’t be available when the game is released. We are looking into the possibility of adding this later in the year but at the very least it will certainly be included for FIFA 12. So with that out of the way on to some good news….
This year when creating Clubs, managers can select a ‘Commentary Name’ from a database of around 500 names, with the Commentator calling out this name instead of the team chosen when the club was created or edited. The names available include various cities from the around the World and common Club names such as United, City, Rovers and so on. We’ve also added a few names from the top Clubs in FIFA 10 to thank them for the continued involvement in the feature and this is something I hope we can expand on in the coming years as more Clubs rise to the fore. Another new customisation feature is the ability to be able to choose your Home Stadium. However, when it comes to stadiums, new Clubs will all be given the same stadium (a 10,000-seater), with new stadiums unlocked as your Club becomes more successful. You will also be able to see a Club’s stadium capacity when viewing their home page to get an idea of the level of the Club and of course this is something you’ll also notice when you play at their home ground.
The new Club ‘HUB’ offers an overview of who’s online, results and the time left in the Season.
As with last year when creating a Club you can choose which Regional League you would like to participate in, but another change we made this year was to create a generic player pool for each Region, so player names and appearance for any positions not filled by Virtual Pro’s will be based on your League selection. And because it’s something I know a lot of people have been concerned about, you should also know that we’ve made the generic players far more suitable for their positions, so you won’t be let down by having a player at centre back who’s not suited to playing that role efficiently.
The League and Cup
So when it comes to the competitive matches a Club can play in FIFA 11 we have continued the monthly Seasonal feature from FIFA 10 as well as having added a Cup competition, with both match types available to select from in the new Match Lobby. The Cup can be entered at any time and requires a Club to win 4 consecutive games to win the trophy, which sounds a lot easier than it really is as by the time you reach the later stages you’ll be facing other Clubs that have also progressed to that stage, so the matches will get harder as you go on. The number of Cup wins is displayed on your Club home page and on the overall World Leaderboard, which I’ll get to shortly. We hope the addition of the Cup adds a nice option for Clubs that maybe don’t play regularly enough to challenge for League honours as well as an alternative for those that will be.
With the League, as was the case last year, each Season will run for a month, with the team that finishes 1st awarded the League title. The number of League titles won is also displayed on your Club’s home page. We’ve also added a new screen which displays each Leagues History; a list of the previous Seasons’ League champs. To keep track of who the top Clubs are across all leagues we also have the Club World Rankings, which show all time results & rank the top 100,000 Clubs.
Practice Match and Friendlies
One of my favourite new features this year is the Practice Match. This option, available in the new Match Lobby, allows a Club to improve their teamwork or try out new members in an Unranked Match against the CPU, who play as the World XI set to Legendary difficulty. From our experience this is a really hard match, but the way we figured it, the best way to learn is to play the best. The World XI squad also changes each time you play them, so you get to test yourself against a lot of different stars from the game. We found the Practice match to be particularly useful when trying out different people in goal, as that`s the last thing you want to do in an official League or Cup Match. I won`t lie, we still haven`t beaten the World XI (although I did keep a Clean Sheet once...) but I am pretty sure a lot of Clubs will and it`s probably going to be a pretty good insight into how good of a team you really are.
Last year`s Clubs included the ability to challenge other Clubs to a match. This year we decided to make these games Unranked, as unfortunately some Clubs were using it to boost their ranking by playing another Club they had also created together. For me making this option Unranked was important, as we`re trying to do what we can to minimize cheating in Clubs, so it`s now officially a Friendly Match. I still think it`s a great option for Clubs to be able to play other teams they have got to know. It’s also another way to try out players without the pressure of league points or cup progress at stake. We`ll also be using it to play some of the Community`s most active Clubs as we did last year and hopefully this time round we`ll be able to beat some of you!
Finding a Club and Recruiting Players
One area which was somewhat based on community feedback, but more so a desire to try and get more people playing the mode, was to try and improve the ease of joining a Club and recruiting players. Whilst I still feel there is more we can do here, I think we’ve made some good improvements in this area. Firstly, when not in a Club you’ll get much simpler access to a list of Clubs your Friends are already a part of as well as an improved search feature which will tell you if Club members are online, what positions they currently have as well as a selection of result stats. You’ll also only be shown ‘active’ Clubs, those that have played recently, so you won’t be asking to join a Club that is no longer playing.
Other improvements in this area include increasing the size of the Free Agents Leaderboard, so Club managers can approach people who have played online but aren’t currently in a Club. But my personal favourite is that now, when playing a Pro Ranked Match you are able to see other users Virtual Pro’s preferred Positions, Overall Ratings & average ratings when selecting a side, as well as whether or not they currently belong to a Club. This will allow Club Managers to consider who to look out for before a game starts and then approach them to sign for the Club at the end of the match if they are impressed with their performance.
Hitting the Pitch
Another area we received a lot of feedback on was the amount of time it takes getting into a game and this is something I think we’ve addressed this year with our new Match Lobby. The Match Lobby allows a team to select their formation and positions before searching for matches. You’ll also be able to see what everyone’s Virtual Pro’s preferred position and rating are to help you decide who’s going to play where. It’s from this screen that you’ll also choose your match type (League, Cup and Practice) as well as be able to search for Club to challenge to a Friendly. Other new features include being able to instantly switch Captain (which we know was annoying last year…) and apply filters to match searches including specifying which league, and the minimum number of opponent club players.
Selecting Formation and Positions in the Match Lobby now makes getting into games faster.
When it comes to “on the pitch” gameplay, Clubs will obviously benefit from all the improvements made in this area, but we’ve also worked on various team play specific issues and known exploits such as the back post corner, surrounding the goalkeeper and multiple users telling the AI players to press, just to mention a few. We also made sure any custom camera changes you made are saved as again we know this was a community gripe from FIFA 10. And one of our favourite new additions is the ability to view and save highlights at the end of the match, so you can relive those great individual or team moments.
Well, I probably haven’t covered everything but think I’ve revealed more than enough about what’s changed with Clubs this year and hope that those who played the mode last year are looking forward to what’s coming in FIFA 11. Fingers crossed this will encourage more of you to join the world of online Clubs as for me and many others it’s the most fun way to play FIFA, and we see it as the future of football gaming online.