What We Can Expect From FIFA 20 Gameplay

A glimpse into FIFA 20.

In a recent post, EA Sports revealed their next steps for improving the gameplay in the upcoming FIFA edition. Their announcement feature insights on how they will enhance the A.I defending, improve the passing system and how they will address the player switching issue.

Here’s a rundown on what will we see in the FIFA 20 gameplay:

A.I. Defending

• Renewed Defending System the defending systems are being renewed, with revised positioning and adjustment to the cadence and flow on the pitch. Manual defending will be emphasized and result in more rewarding results for those who do so.
• Planned Tackling is a new system that favors manual tackling by making sure that the defender that tries the tackle does so in a favorable context to your team (like recovering the ball or kicking the ball to a nearby teammate when tackling, for example).
• Contain and Secondary Contain Effectiveness will be reduced, keeping the positioning of players/AI Teammates at a further distance and having a slower reaction to directional changes from the dribbler, rarely resulting in an auto-tackle or an auto-block. This will make manual defending not only more effective, but also more rewarding.
• Improved Jockey System will be implemented with more agility and precision, rewarding players that decide to take control of their defenders.

1v1 shooting Consistency

• 1v1 Shooting Accuracy will be improved, resulting in more shots on target and better consistency in easy situations inside the box.
• Open Goal Situations will also be addressed, and will see players being rewarded for 1v1 situations and creating greater chances of scoring “easy goals” – as pointed out in many community examples.
• Goalkeeper Reactions will also be tuned – specifically against 1v1 situations – resulting in less ‘superhuman’ reactions, which will humanize the goalkeepers movements and result in better scoring opportunities for the attacker.
• Outside of the Foot Shot situations will be improved and should only happen for players with the Outside of the Foot trait.
• Shot Elevation/Power Tuning will allow for low powered shots to result in shots similar to Driven Shots, creating more consistency, and resulting in better scoring opportunities.

Timed Finishing

• Green Timing Window for timed shots will be reduced (from 2-4 frames to 2 frames for all shots), which will make it harder and require more skill to perform.
• Timed Shot Accuracy will be tuned to result in slightly less precise shots, although Green Timed Shots will still be more accurate than ‘non-timed shots’.
• Difficult 180° shots will be tuned to result in less powerful shots, even when timed perfectly.

Volley Crossing and shooting

• Increased Difficulty and Error – Crosses coming from lob balls/volleys will have less accuracy and more variable results.
• 2-Player Headers will have more variety as players jumping/colliding for the ball mid-air will make it more difficult for the attacker to score in such situations.
• Decreased Volley Shot Accuracy – Shots originating from a volley shot will have less accuracy and more variable results.

Chained skill moves

For those who like to skill their way into the opponent’s goal by using multiple skill moves, EA Sports will make it a bit more difficult for your players to control the ball during a skill by adding error to consecutive skill moves, increasing the likelihood of the player losing control of the ball. Error is increased exponentially when chaining more than 2 skill-moves, making each subsequent skill move more error prone than the last.

Complex skill moves, like El Tornado or flick-ups for example, will be more error-prone in general, increasing the chances for the player to lose control of the ball during the skill move.

Set-Piece positioning

There had been a few issues with set-pieces this year as shorter defenders would usually mark taller attackers or that a dangerous attacker is not present in the box. Well, the FIFA dev team is working on improving the intelligence behind these situations, which should result in more realistic marking/positioning when defending or attacking set-pieces in the future.

Manual Goalkeeper movement

The effectiveness of manual GK movement will be heavily reduced in the future, with a slower and more realistic move speed. Players controlling the goalkeeper using right-stick manual movement will now have to commit to a direction, enhancing the risk/reward element.

Passing

• Increased Error on Difficult Position Passing – 180 degrees, first-time, and pressured passes situations will now result in slower/weaker balls, making them less effective and easier to get intercepted by the opposing team.
• Increased Accuracy for passes in very easy situations; non-pressured, body-positioned, and no obstacle passes will result in an increased accuracy pass for these types of situations.
• User Controlled ‘Dinked’ Passes will be a new option for ground and through passes. ‘Dinked’ passes are slightly elevated passes used to avoid a defender’s leg. These types of passes will no longer be contextual and will only happen if executed manually through this new mechanic.
• Driven Pass-and-Go mechanic will be enabled as another passing option, resulting in a stronger pass-and-go and more mobility/positioning while attacking. As a result of this change, the “manual passing” mechanic that was available through this button-combo (L1/LB+R1/RB+Pass) will no longer be available in the future.

Player Switching

This year we all experienced the player switching issues when a player would be locked to a loose ball and weren’t able to switch players whenever this would take place or when the switching didn’t always select the correct player.

These situations will be addressed by adding clarity to the assisted switching mechanism, that will show an option for automatic switching on Air Balls + Loose Balls situations. Also, there will be improvements on the accuracy of switching in numerous situations, including air balls, deflections, and crosses. Moreover, the right stick switching will be as consistent and reactive as possible, as well as improving the intelligence between automatic switching of players closest to the ball.

All of these improvements are based on the community feedback and reports proving that EA Sports are really listening this year to the fans thanks to community managers like @EACoreySA and @EA_GZaro.

The same sources point out that major innovations in areas such as Career Mode and Pro Clubs will happen in the next FIFA title, something that hardcore FIFA players have been waiting for years. All of this will be revealed more than likely on June 8th at EA Play in Los Angeles, so write down that date on your calendar!

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