As has already been mentioned, FIFA 11 will feature 11v11 online and this of course will also be an option in Clubs. Weâre 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 weâll 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 Iâm sure youâll be pleased to hear we wonât be lending you 5â˛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. Iâm 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 wonât 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 newsâŚ.
This year when creating Clubs, managers can select a âCommentary Nameâ 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. Weâve 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 Clubâs stadium capacity when viewing their home page to get an idea of the level of the Club and of course this is something youâll also notice when you play at their home ground.
The new Club âHUBâ offers an overview of whoâs 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 Proâs will be based on your League selection. And because itâs something I know a lot of people have been concerned about, you should also know that weâve made the generic players far more suitable for their positions, so you wonât be let down by having a player at centre back whoâs 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 youâll 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 Iâll get to shortly. We hope the addition of the Cup adds a nice option for Clubs that maybe donât 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 Clubâs home page. Weâve also added a new screen which displays each Leagues History; a list of the previous Seasonsâ 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 thatâs the last thing you want to do in an official League or Cup Match. I wonât lie, we still havenât beaten the World XI (although I did keep a Clean Sheet onceâŚ) but I am pretty sure a lot of Clubs will and itâs probably going to be a pretty good insight into how good of a team you really are.
Last yearâs 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 weâre trying to do what we can to minimize cheating in Clubs, so itâs now officially a Friendly Match. I still think itâs a great option for Clubs to be able to play other teams they have got to know. Itâs also another way to try out players without the pressure of league points or cup progress at stake. Weâll also be using it to play some of the Communityâs most active Clubs as we did last year and hopefully this time round weâll 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 weâve made some good improvements in this area. Firstly, when not in a Club youâll 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. Youâll also only be shown âactiveâ Clubs, those that have played recently, so you wonât 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 arenât 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 Proâs 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 weâve addressed this year with our new Match Lobby. The Match Lobby allows a team to select their formation and positions before searching for matches. Youâll also be able to see what everyoneâs Virtual Proâs preferred position and rating are to help you decide whoâs going to play where. Itâs from this screen that youâll 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 yearâŚ) 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 âon the pitchâ gameplay, Clubs will obviously benefit from all the improvements made in this area, but weâve 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.
http://www.easportsfootball.co.uk/blogs/offthebench/post/slug/pro-clubs-in-fifa-11Sounds great, and I or JD or somebody will set this up straight away
I'm getting it on the night so would get it done ASAP
Firstly, who's up for this?
And what positions will your VP play etc.. we could practice different Goalkeepers out in the new practice mode available
There's a few things with getting in early, at one point it must be good to get in early and get used to it and develop as a team
However people's pros may not be great as of the lack of time to improve him
So we need to decide when really but as i previously said the club will be set up ASAP, it's then just a matter of when you want to play, or we could just practice for the first few weeks
