I seriously doubt “80-90%” of the player base was struggling with defending that much, but that’s besides the point.
I can understand why players would be asking for defending and dribbling to be more balanced; that’s a valid ask. But, the issue is now EA has seriously over corrected, completely tanking dribbling and attacking in favour of massive boosts to defending (both manual and ai).
Every rivals game I play now is just a park the bus simulator, with everyone playing with 2 holding DM’s and a full back line. Sure, this means that I (and other players) have to be much more precise in the attack, and I don’t necessarily have an issue with that. However, the fact that so many players now just sit back and wait for a counter makes playing rivals or champs so boring.
I know some people say “this is football, you have to adapt to your opponents tactics”, sure, but when it’s 9/10 players it’s a bit ridiculous.
In the end, games just turn into back and fourth 1-0 or 2-1. If I wanted to play a “realistic” match, I’d go to manager career.
The whole issue is the lack of balance between defending and attacking. It’s the over correction from EA, the complete nerf of dribbling in favour or massive boosts to jockeying, that has made this game, at times, unbearable.
I never said that 80-90% of the playerbase were struggling with defending, I was pointing out that casuals and average skilled players make up that number and that those are the gamers that EA need to keep on the game.
The patch is a success in real terms as the active player count is up across all platforms since the patch, because the majority actually want a football game with realistic scorelines and the absolute last thing EA want is those players going to career mode, they of course want them to remain on UT.
I get what you're saying. But I feel like this patch has been a bit of a knee-**bleep** reaction. Catering towards casual players is fine, but when it's at the expense of others who play more, it just doesn't make sense. EA could cater to casual players in a number of other ways that don't remove or dramatically lessen the skill gap. Gauntlet 3 is a prime example of that, as it allowed skilled players to complete more difficult objectives and unlock Benzema faster, while also allowing more casual players to get him by simply playing the game.
I know some people weren't particularly happy with that, but it shows how EA can balance aspects of UT to include both the casual and competitive player bases. I just don't understand why the same logic can't be applied to gameplay. I really struggle to see how readjusting R1 dribbling to accommodate the more skilled crowd while keeping the changes to defence (or even slightly reversing them) will lead to a max exodus of the casual player base.
The fact of the matter is, the 'casual' player base will simply complain about everything; R1 dribbling is to OP, gets nerfed; everyone's parking the bus now and games are boring, attack ai and defending adjustments; games are like basketball matches now, defending gets boosted. I understand that developers can't always get it right, but it seems to me that far too often patches revolve around trying to make it easier for 'casual' and average-skilled players, instead of them just learning real simple game mechanics.
Because casual and average skilled gamers either don't have the time to have to learn a game day after day or just want to play football.
Myself is a prime example, I'm an older gamer than most on here I'd wager and after dealing with my now older kids, 1 grandchild and all the other normal life, day to day stuff I just want to sit down, chill and play football. That shouldn't also feel like going back to stressful, learning. Just want to chill and play football.
The real simple game mechanics to some might not be as simple to learn for others.
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