By now we’ve probably all had a chance to look at the new features for FIFA 14. One of the things I’m most interested in – and I’m sure you are too – is the new revamped scouting system, and that’s what this post is going to be about. I want to lay out how I feel it will affect the game and this site in particular, and what to expect from FIFA Scouting Tips once FIFA 14 comes out.
The biggest change to the scouting system is the new “global scouting network”. No long will you just be looking for young, unsigned talents, but you will be able to scout real players as well. You will tell your scout that you’re looking for a pacey winger or a prolific goalscorer, and he’ll come back with a report featuring real players who match these criteria. I don’t think you will look players up in the transfer screen as you do in FIFA 13, but you’ll rely on your scouts to inform your purchasing choices.
Because this is such a massive change to FIFA 13, I expect I’ll write up a guide for the “global scouting network” as well as one for the traditional youth scouting system. I haven’t actually heard anything on the latter option because I imagine EA want the global scouting network to hog the limelight, but I can’t imagine it’s been removed – that would be a massive step backwards. So rest assured, if youth scouting is in the game, I’ll be writing a guide for it.
One thing that does concern me, in a way, is this line from EA – “This innovative way of playing Career Mode also moves away from the concept of player overall rating as an on-demand metric of a player’s abilities.”
Of course, relying on player types rather than a simple OVR stat will make the game much more natural and closer to real life management. Real managers can’t find readily-available stats that say a player’s acceleration is 85 and his dribbling is 79. They look for traits and player types, and this change will surely enhance the game.
But I’ve been thinking about how this will affect this website, and especially the “So You Want A…” and “Lower League Gems” series of guides. Right now, I rely on being able to see a player’s exact stats because it helps me choose recommendations. I like to be able to give a variety of player types in my choices, and seeing that one CAM is good at passing whereas another is quick and good at dribbling, and seeing exactly how good they are at each of these things, is very useful. I imagine the new system of player traits will still allow me to do this to a degree, but it won’t be as exact, and will therefore be less straightforward to make these guides. So just be aware that there may be some changes to how things work on this site.
I rely on websites like FIFA Fanatic and SoFIFA to show me player potentials and OVRs. I use this to build my articles. Because they mine their data directly from the game code, I imagine they will still be able to publish player stats and potentials – even though things like OVR may be hidden from view in FIFA 14, they will almost certainly still exist in the code because things like potential ratings define how players on computer teams grow.
If that’s not the case, however, there may be an issue. I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see really.
I’ve also been thinking about player costs – if things like individual stats and OVRs may be hidden, will player costs and even wages disappear from view as well? If the feel of career mode is shifting away from minute analysis and more towards vaguer notions like traits and player types, will we have to start relying on enquiries and reasonable offers to find out how much a player is worth, rather than being able to see it at a glance? If so, this could affect the Lower League Gems articles. Right now, I use a site like FIFA Fanatic to find all the players with potential over, say 76. I then load up the game and go through each of these players individually, finding the ones who cost £1m or less. If we aren’t able to see player costs, this could become difficult.
But it may turn out that my thoughts are totally unfounded and nothing has to change. It could be that, even if things like this do happen, it’s still pretty easy to find out things like player costs. It could be that the changes are manageable and it’ll still be pretty straightforward to make the articles. That’s what I’m hoping for, and it’s what I’m anticipating, so I don’t expect there should be any great cause for concern.
One final thing – in September I will be starting a postgrad course, which I imagine will take up a lot of my time. I will do my absolute best to get to grips with the new career mode setup and get articles published, but I apologise in advance if things turn out a little slower than expected. But hopefully this won’t be an issue 🙂
I am genuinely looking forward to FIFA 14 career mode and think the changes look fantastic. They’re going to really change the feel of career mode – in a good way. It will be interesting to see how this site is affected, but it shouldn’t be too drastic. I hope you’ll stick around and find out, so we can keep discovering hidden talents as we have for the past couple of years 🙂
Thanks again for all your support.
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