Forum Discussion
Cross-gen at a minimum, but cross-console would be great as well.
I'm fine with the current lobby system. The previous version would be nice to have, but I hated the ability for them to easily be trolled. If I want to set up a private match, that's pretty easy to do already.
That's why I said "some form of" the old lobby system, in it's current form yes it could be trolled. I don't think it would take much to fix though, and it would be a nice addition along with the matchmaker.
Well if we go by EA trends, NHL basically copies FIFA on a lot of things.. so I assume NHL will get cross platform play at some point too (hopefully for NHL23).
I didn't hear anything on cross gen play for FIFA, maybe they feel the effort isn't worth it since next gen consoles have been out 2 years now? I think the latest estimate predicts the chip shortage to go into 2024 so I hope they reconsider.
- EA_Aljo3 years ago
Community Manager
Cross-play was added to FIFA 22 recently. It's a public test currently, but I don't have any other information on this for FIFA or NHL. We all want it to happen so hopefully, that's the case.
What kind of lobby system would you create that couldn't be trolled? I think I wouldn't mind password-protected lobbies, but that would be pretty similar to what we have now. Personally, I don't see the additional benefits of them, but I know quite a few people want them back. It would be good to have that option.
- de4c0nfr05t3 years agoNew Veteran
@EA_Aljo
Fingers crossed on NHL cross-play.
Password protected lobbies are nice of course, but if you want a full game you'd need 11 friends and have them all be online at the same time. That's why I liked the public lobbies, anyone could jump in.
So the old lobbies has a 12 player cap, that allowed 1 troll to sit in the middle if they wished to be a * and not ready-up. The game could still launch 6v5 but often it would kill the lobby. To get around this simply take away the room cap so more than 12 can enter, someone would take the open spot and the troll would still be in the center while the full game launches.
There may be some occasions where you really wanted to play forward but all the spots are taken so you're forced to go D or go look for another room. I play all positions so this never bothered me, some players thought different.
Sometimes though you jump in as a goalie, no other goalie comes on the other team so you quickly jump out of net and grab an open D or F spot to salvage the game. So there are pros and c0ns to both, but we should have them both, more options are always better.- EA_Aljo3 years ago
Community Manager
The current system has a lobby anyone can jump into. If you find people you'd like to keep playing with, you can obviously join up. Keeping track of good players may give you enough to run private matches. I just remember those lobbies being largely full of the same kind of people we see in drop-ins today.
I get what you're saying about positions, but you can also change your position in the lobby currently. I really didn't like the race to position that occurred with the old lobby system. It could sometimes take a while to get the position you want. Most people aren't comfortable playing any so you had multiple people competing for the same spot. Which, sometimes would lead to someone taking a D position and then playing as the 4th forward. Those were really frustrating games.
Both systems have their pros and cons. I'm not saying what we have now is the best it can ever be. I'm just not confident that the old lobby system is going to resolve issues with finding better teammates for drop-ins.