Player Career - 5 Issues to investigate

Hello,

I finally left FIFA 20 to play EA SPORTS FC 25 on EA App (PC), but I believe players on other platforms might encounter those issues on Player Career mode. I will list them, explain and attempt to explore ways to fix each of them.

Issue #1 - Age Cap & Forced Retirement

Q: What's wrong?

> Not only the game restricts player's age between age 17 and 50, but it also triggers announcement of the player's retirement during the season without user's consent. And I will not even talk about the 15 seasons cap because I am aware that it is a more complex technical issue. 

Q: Why is it wrong?

• This was Martin Odegaard, playing professionally at age 15.
• This is McKenna "Mak" Whitham, playing professionally at age 13.
• This is Kazuyoshi Miura, playing professionally at age 57.
• This is Carol Askew, playing at age 75.

> Player Career mode should allow users to play at younger and older age (with 0 skill points) and never force them to retire. It only takes a few variables to edit for a better experience across all platorms.

Q: What to do about it?

• Edit the mininum birth date value.
• Edit the maximum birth date value.
• Edit the maximum player age before retirement value and/or disable whatever forces retirement upon player.

Issue #2 - Objectives & Stats Record

Q: What's wrong?

• Performance during matches is not properly tracked and recorded.
• Players may start the game as substitutes with a match rating of 4.8 (when playing as a goalkeeper especially) and no information at all about the team's tactic.
• Match rating will keep decreasing for no reason regardless of the player's position/role (even when holding auto-position command.)

> I believe the Successful Pass and Goes contract objective is already being investigated, but it is unfortunately not the only misfunction in contract objectives. And I don't even need to explain why this is wrong. Some stats are either not being recorded at all or are simply assigned to the wrong object/ID.

> Most match objectives are impossible to complete when the player enters as a substitute at 88' (especially for a GK, and what kind of manager substitutes their clean-sheet performing goalkeeper at 88' anyway?)

Q: What to do about it?

• Check if the stats tracking system is properly working.
  • If yes, then make sure they are matching with the correct object ID (player) and properly recorded to be read for any contract objective.
  • If not, good luck.
• If player's manager rating is within the Substitute range:
  • Find all available (not injured or loaned out) team players at the same position/role as user's player and sort them by overall rating and squad role.
  • If player is a goalkeeper
    
    • Only allow substitution during game if the starter goalkeeper gets a red card or injury.
    • Allow player to start every game where opposite team's attack rating < player's team defense rating.
  • Else
    
    • Default substitution system.

Issue #3 - Manager Rating & Silent Departures

Q: What's wrong?

> Long periods without fixtures may lower Manager Rating regardless of the player's overall rating and squad role.

> Teammates get transfered without the player ever being noticed. (At least, when the club signs a new player, a notification is triggered with an event allowing users to welcome them.)

Q: Why is it wrong?

> Users shouldn't constantly have to check the Squad Hub menu during transfer window to check who left the team.

> Transfers should have more impact on Manager Rating than long periods without fixtures. How can teammates with lower overall rating and squad role still be prefered at the user's position despite the departure of a crucial rival teammate? Even FIFA 10 had a displayed rank system.

Q: What to do about it?

• Add a new notification from the Manager for each departure of a teammate.
• Find all available (not injured or loaned out) team players at the same position/role as user's player and sort them by overall rating and squad role.
• If player is a goalkeeper
  • If player's rank < 2, generate loan contracts from lower teams for the next transfer window.
• Else
  • If player's rank < half the total count of available players at the same position/role, generate loan contracts from lower teams for the next transfer window.

Issue #4 - Social Media

Q: What's wrong?

> Mismatched variables are being displayed in the News Feed.

Q: What to do?

> Assign correct variables to each case where a News Feed displays wrong variables.

Issue #5 - Missing Settings

Q: What's wrong?

> Upon player career's retirement, the most important manager career settings remain stuck to their default values.

Q: What to do?

> Either trigger Manager Career setup screen after Player Career's retirement.

> Either display Manager Career settings in new tabs in the Player Career setup screen.

There are many other issues like the menu and commentary languages that breaks the entire game experience for many users across the world, and not only for Career Mode. But, specifically for users switching from French, German, or Spanish leagues in Career mode, it just feels terrible to be stuck with only one language. The good old way of releasing DLC language packs shouldn't be so hard in late 2024.

Anyway, thanks for reading.