Hi everyone,  welcome to blog number three about FIFA 10 Ultimate Team. As an introduction, I’m Adam Shaikh and I’m the Lead Designer on the game.  Hopefully you’ve all read the blog that John Shepherd wrote recently, which dealt with building your Ultimate Team.  If not, check it out as it’s got some pretty cool info. I’m here to fill you in on a few more details about the game we’ve been making and you’re all looking forward to. We’re now really close to finishing and the team have been frantically working at the game, poking and prodding at its innards to see if it does anything strange.  So far, it’s looking good. This blog is about maintaining your squad.  Well, since one of the big things we’re doing this year is allowing you to have multiple squads, it’s really about maintaining your squads.  Up to 15 squads, in fact. This is a big point, so I’ll jump into that first.  I know this has brought up a lot of questions, so I want to go into a little more detail about it. We know one thing that players really liked about FUT was building up squads with particular themes, whether it was an all Spanish squad, favourite players, tall players, players with great names, a silver squad etc.  Although this didn’t have a specific gameplay purpose, it was a fun thing to do. However, since you were limited in the number of players you could use at any one time, as soon as you wanted to build a new squad you had to get rid of your old players and all that hard work.  For this game we’ve not only allowed you to be more free and creative with squad selections, we’ve given you compelling reasons to have more than one squad. The way that multiple squads work is that each one is effectively a selection from the players you have available (any player in your Club is considered to be available, and that could be every player in the game). This means that you can select the same player in more than one squad. You don’t have to have one player for each squad selection (indeed, you CAN’T have more than one version of a player). This allows you to build a number of different squads – one to play the really tough games, a reserve selection to play easier games so you keep your contract upkeep lower, a couple of squads with different formations you like etc.  And, as you’ve probably read if you’ve kept up to date with all the blogs, we then have tournaments that require your squad to meet certain entry requirements in order to play. These aren’t amazingly specific, but include things like a two-star team limit, only bronze players or only a few players allowed from any one country.  I’ve been playing around with this a lot and it’s a game in itself.  As an example for you to try right now (it’s like homework!), think of your favourite team, and then think of your favourite team where every player has to be from a different country. Or club. For those of you wondering about other aspects of the Club, like kits, balls and stadiums, I can also confirm that you’ll be able to use any of these items that you have put into your Club, which is great when you have a number of kits you really like!

Touching on Chemistry

Whilst we’re discussing squads and squad selections, I’ll also touch on Chemistry in a bit more detail.  There’ll be another release of information specifically on Chemistry using examples and such, but I know that Chemistry was another thing that people loved last year, and were hoping for some tweaks. The Chemistry system for the game has been totally overhauled from last year, both in terms of how it’s calculated and how it’s used. There are three main areas that will impact you in terms of building Chemistry:

• Players have a graded system for how much they like their position and formation. Instead of CF players getting nothing for playing as an ST, they get an almost full bonus. Same with LWB and LB. In addition, players only get bonuses from formation based upon how much they like their position, so you can’t put 11 strikers on the pitch and get really good chemistry because they all like their formation. This gives you a lot more flexibility in squad building as you can use players that LIKE but not LOVE a particular position or formation, but also ensures that you build sensible squads.
• Instead of dividing the team into three sections of defence, midfield and attack, each formation has a Chemistry network. This links players to others nearby – the players that interact most during a match. For example, in a 4-4-2 formation the RB player has connections to the RM and one CB player, whilst the RM player links to an ST, a CM and the RB. This not only creates a more believable set of connections (when I play, the RM is more important to my RB than my LB for example), but also creates bigger differences between formations as the connection maps can be quite different. Some formations rely heavily on a single player, whilst others are much more evenly spread.
• Players form connections with other players based upon club, league or nationality instead of just nationality. Although this still means that you can build a nationality-based squad, or club-based squad it gives you more options to be a little more individual.

Oh, there’s one more thing. Rather than everyone on your team getting the same Chemistry ratings when they go into a match, players will perform differently based upon their individual Chemistry rating. Actually, it’s based upon a combination of their Chemistry and the Squad Chemistry. So if the players on the right of your team have high Chemistry, and the players on the left of your team have low Chemistry, you’ll feel the difference. The commentators will also notice the difference and might comment on players that link particularly well with others, or worry when a player isn’t happy with their formation or position. I know it sounds a little complicated, but I think you’ll love it when you start playing and it’s a lot more intuitive to use than it is to describe! As an aside, I’ve been building a squad and I’ve got a sidekick for one of my main players. He’s useless but his purpose in the team is to make the other player play better.  He gets the ball and gives it to the main man as he really can’t do much else. He’s one of those players that we all look at in the real world and wonder why on earth the manager is picking him…

Consumables

Right, so now you’ve built your squad, you want to know what you can do to maintain it. Maintaining your squad really consists of making sure they are eligible to play and that you are getting the most out of them. This involves contracts, fitness and morale, and training.

• As with last year’s game, you use contract items to allow players to take part in matches. However, when players get to 0 contracts, they are now just ineligible to play in any more games, as opposed to them leaving your club. Sounds small, but as a person who lost a few good players last time, it’s been a big relief!
• Fitness and morale can also be managed by using consumable items. There are items that can increase the fitness or morale of a single player, and also rarer items that can affect the entire squad. Healing items also exist which can reduce the length of an injury. One addition here is an item that can heal any injury type, not just a specific injury. It’s important not to underestimate the effect of morale and fitness. I’ve lost more than one game because my supposedly unstoppable squad is too tired to run. Or the players hate me because I never pick them…
• Training has also changed dramatically since last year. In a move that will have some of you cheering in support (yay!), and others looking a little disappointed (boo!), it is no longer possible to make a 99-rated player. Training is no longer permanent – it affects the player in the next game ONLY. In addition, only one training item can be used on a player at any one time, so you can’t stack them up to make a player incredibly powerful. These training items come in two forms – ones that affect a single attribute and ones that affect all attributes. This makes use of training a little more tactical and also preserves the value of players within the game.

At this point I can also mention that gameplay modifiers have been removed from the game. After listening to your comments about them in last year’s version, we have decided that the best move was to take them out. Judging from the feedback from last year, we feel that this is a move that the community will support!

Backroom Staff

The last part of squad maintenance that has changed significantly is the use of staff. This year, only the manager has a contract and can be added to the squad. All the other staff members just form part of your club (so you can employ 10 fitness coaches if you want). These staff members boost the power of a consumable based upon ALL of the relevant staff. So if you have a lot of Physios, healing items will heal more. If you have a lot of managers, Contracts will be more effective. This is done on a percentage basis, so staff members are equally useful on any item. Well, that’s some more information for you to digest. I’m sure it will bring up as many questions as answers. As developers you get to know the game so intimately it can be difficult to remember what it’s like for someone to find out about it for the first time. Still, it won’t be the last piece of information delivered before launch – there’s more blogs, articles and information to come. And then there’s the actual game of course. See you online! Adam

EA Sports: FIFA 10 Ultimate Team: My Team