With the Champions League final now being set, I figured we might have some people itching to play a little EA Sports FC 24. If you’re in that boat, I would point you towards the great EA Sports FC 24 OS Community Sliders headed up by Matt10 and the rest of the posse.
We are now on Version 9 of the sliders, and that version has been running strong since the end of March. EA is obviously releasing fewer updates to its game at this point, and you can only tweak things so much on the sliders side before you’re just spinning your wheels. As always, these sliders won’t “fix” the game if you just don’t like it, but they do a good job of giving a new look to it at the very least.
With that said, I’ll kick it over to Matt10 to explain what’s in Version 9, and I will also post the sliders below.
The main focus was getting some of the resistance back. The main issue seen was the CPU started to be able to pass into stride again, and basically be completely in-sync with their teammates. The hesitation was gone, and midfield battles just didn’t happen as often. While there was welcomed improvement to the CPU’s attacking behavior on the wings, such as not always performing a cut-back on Legendary, it was replaced with this perfect motion of “pass-and-move” that left an already passive central midfield well behind the pace.
We dropped the Run Frequency down to 20 form 35 to allow those runs off the ball be a bit more controlled so the CDMs are able to keep the ball in front, rather than be dragged out of position with the slightest of secondary runs. What results is a bit more attention to timing of the runs, but also how the CPU responds to having some resistance and being forced to be more mindful with the ball.
We’ve paired the run frequency adjustment with lowering pass speed and raising FT Control error just slightly to give some priority towards the ball physics where the ball velocity isn’t so powerful on basic ground passes, and ensuring not every touch pops the ball up.
The main line adjustments are to Length and Width. We’ve increased the length to 35 from 32 to allow the strikers be pushed into the opposing defensive line, usually middle-third of the pitch, a bit sooner in transition. Since there was the positive update of less cut-back passes, the central midfielders can be pushed up just slightly, but not so much (above 35) that they do not drop into the box to defend.
The adjustment to lowering width to 48 from 52 was one of the more significant values as we had start to see too often the defensive line be spread wide and outside-backs losing their goal-side position. Having a more narrow defensive base set up through the pitch allows more attacking variety to bring the User and CPU to less mindless play.
One of the more “controversial” adjustments is Marking, which in the set is increased from 50 to 51. Marking is a very sensitive value, and with all the variations of tactics available to each team, it’s increase has positives and negatives. I stated in our Discord that it’s a “pick your poison” type of situation. For me, it’s about covering space that I know the passive CDMs of modern day FIFA (FC) has not been able to do since FIFA 20. It should not take a individual instruction for the CDMs to cut off passing lanes or not, or chase down runners into the box if there is no defensive-line support. Some of the negatives of increasing marking can result in players being followed and dragged out of position, or at times some defensive indecision because they are being pulled towards another runner.
Other adjustments include lowering pass error for the Legendary CPU to reduce their tendency of making poor contact on reverse passes. This comes with raising the User’s pass error just a bit so there is a tad bit of hesitation on the type of passes every player on the pitch can make.
Shot speed was raised to 50 and I’d say this is one that can go back and forth on. Higher shot speed obviously will create more dynamic play and introduce more chances for goals, but it also comes with some strange keeper animations. If you’re having issues with it, revert back to 49 shot speed and assess.
The last adjustment is to even out the slow pace Sprint speed for Legendary to 50/50. There’s just not point in being below 50 as there’s no visual difference, and we know we need to keep the CPU engaged longer, so it makes sense to raise this.
Overall, FIFA…FC…it is what we choose to play. It comes with updates that can significantly alter the game, or not at all. Over the last couple months we have been quite happy with Version 8. Version 9 had enough momentum to modify some values, so here we are. I hope everyone enjoys it, and keep the feedback coming. Take care.
