Changes/Additions I would like to see in Career Mode

This is a list of things that EA should change/add to career mode to make it either more realistic or more enjoyable, in my opinion. I know this won’t be seen by EA, even if it is seen in the Career Mode Community, and even if it was seen by EA employees it wouldn’t change anything, but given they were bought by Saudi Arabia and their focus might shift from money to making an actual good game I decided that I will try to start this discussion. If you agree, disagree or have other changes you would make say them in the comments to make this a brainstorming post of career mode ideas.

 

Youth Academy

Training - Right now it is rare that players in the youth academy go to the main squad ready to have game time even if it's only a little. My idea would be adding training, old training system like, with caps in overall per age, so an 18yo could be trained up to 75, but a 17yo could only be trained up to a 72, for example. These caps should be only for training, so if you train a player up to 75 they should still be able to go up more naturally.

 

Make it dynamic - Make the user be able to send players up and down the youth academy if they are 19yo or younger, this would first help fix the problem of not being able to play youth tournaments because there's no keeper. It would also make it so you wouldn't have to loan every single player you are not gonna use even if they could be useful.

 

Make the youth academy upgradeable - This will be part of another point, but make the youth academy upgradeable from level 1 to 10, this could make a difference in how much the youth players evolve and how their potencial progresses over time, if you are at a club with a better youth academy then the players will tend to go to the upper end of their initial potential range. Also, assuming the training system is added, the max overall you can train a player up to could be changed based on how good the youth academy is. The starting level for the youth academy should be bigger in higher leagues and big for well renowned youth academies, like Benfica or Dortmund, starting from 8 and above for those clubs.

 

Make youth tournaments simable - I know they are supposed to grant a reward for more effort, but who actually plays them? Make them simable and then make the reward bigger for playing them instead of siming them.

 

Gameplay

Get rid of playstyles - They just make stats useless because EA just can't balanced them, and that is fine but just get rid of them then. This is also a complain from the UT community, don't think there is anybody liking them that much.

 

Increase the amount of sliders - This is especially for the taticts sliders thing. They really increase the enjoyability of gameplay if done right, so just add more. Sliders like, how much the cpu shoots from long range, how much they run down the wing, how much they play through the center, how many switches of play they make, how many hoof balls they make, if they focus they're long throws on being actually long (like PL clubs this season) or playing short, same with corners, there's probably more I can't remember. The gameplay is far away from good, but sliders actually make it the least bit enjoyable, so add more.

 

Main squad development

Playstyles - Assuming they are kept, just make us able to train them, even if they are capped. Also, fix the bug where if you send the youth academy players on loan they can't get a playstyle at 80 overall (if it isn't fixed already).

 

Skill Moves and Week Foot - As fun as it is having a team full of 5*5* players it's nowhere near realistic. Make training those an option and if you decide to train them make the stats go up slower. Could also be the case for training playstyles.

 

Personalized development - Just let us change the development to make it more personalized for each player if we wish. Don't get rid of pre-made training plans, it would be an awful experience doing every player from scratch, but make the players be able to take away the development on some stats and put it on other ones. Maybe use a maximum evolution points and then everything costs a bit (so maybe getting a new role costs 20, skill moves and week foot 20, individual stats 1 to 3 per arrow they get, depending on how important that stat is to their position). Make the points be higher or lower depending on how close the player is to their potential.

 

Training Center - Just like the youth academy have a training center with levels from 1 to 10, the higher the level the more training plan points you get until the player has reached their potential.

 

Better coaches - Instead of hiring individual coaches, which don't even cover how many stars you actually need most of the time, just make one coaching department from 1 to 10 for attackers, midfielders, defenders and keepers. This will be used to increase certain stats in game and increase the speed of development, like they already do.

 

CPU outside of games

Ratings and reputation - Add ratings and reputation to managers which increase or decrease over time based on how their teams place compared to what is expected or based on how much time they have in one job or how many times they are fired. This would make bigger clubs with higher reputations sign better managers, even if it isn't always (Chelsea just signed Rosenior). This could also apply to your manager like it did in old FIFAs.

 

Add cultures in CPU controled clubs - An easy fix for clubs like Bilbao signing players that aren't basque is adding restriction so they only sign basque players (like in FM). These could also be used in other clubs, Portuguese teams sign a lot more younger players then older ones, Italian teams are the other way around, etc. This could also mean teams have a prefered tactical style for coaches.

 

Add more detail in the database - For the last option to work more information on the players is needed, like if the player has basque ascendency, add those details, even if they are hidden.

 

Pregens and Regens - Limit the maximum overall they can appear at, limit the maximum potential they can have (to like 95) and make the chance of them appearing in free agents smaller. Also, for regens, if the original player has a contract expiring at the end of the season make the chance their regen appears in their league rather then Free Agents like 75/25.

 

Dynamic Potential - Not actual dynamic potential, but potential ranges (like FM), this shouldn't even be hard to code into the game. Instead of players having fixed potential for every career mode, make their potential vary according to a set range, even if it doesn't change after the career starts. More unkown player should have bigger ranges, there might be some sweedish kid that has 75 potential right now, but with ranges could go anywhere from 65 to 90. Obviously, these ranges would need ponderation, it should be more probable a player ending up in the middle of the range then on the extremes.

 

User controlled club

Reputation (Again) – Make the club’s reputation increase as you go through the leagues or you get achievements in your career. This could also apply to the CPU controlled clubs, i fone há a great achievement their reputation should increase, giving them the ability to sign better players.

 

Transfer Budget – Just get the old transfer budget back. I know it isn’t as realistic, but videogame wise it is way easier to manage and understand.

 

Transfer Budget Requests – Bring them back.

 

Finances – Make finances more detailed, more like FM, just not as realistic. In EAFC Career Mode we don’t need to know the debt the club has like in FM, but we could also have access to the money the club has, aswell as a more detailed view of the revenue, right now we have it, but it doesn’t feel like it matters. My suggestion is make the club receive money for their league placement, TV Revenue (which should change through out the career mode), Sponsor Money, Transfers In, Transfers Out, money spent improving facilities, on salaries, on mantaining the stadium, aswell as the revenue the stadium generates, etc.. All of that stuff would make the game feel more realistic and more rewarding for actually managing finances well. As seen in FM, this is also pretty balanced for the players that prefer doing career modes simulating, so it doesn’t become annoying.

 

Facilities – The ones I already said in this post would be nice, but there are more, like the stadium, which would increase the revenue it gives, and so give you better financial stability and better transfer budgets in the future for a loto f money spent in the present. Other things, like worldwide stores which would also increase the revenue, but also the reputation. These should all be from 1 to 10 and be more or less developed according to how good or big your club is.

 

Sponsors – There are already a few brands that appear in news articles, why not take the next step and add sponsors to career mode like there were before. Even if they can’t appear on the clubs kit for rights reasons, they could still appear in the add boards while in the game.

 

Others/Improvements outside of career mode

Options, options, options – As someone who hasn’t played career mode for a while until this year, what I can say is what made me get into career mode is the amount of options we have to personalize our experience on the game. Being able to not have to scout players if I wish to or being able to choose how fast players grow, etc. is great, so here are a few more options that should be added. Toggle on or off the player match sharpness and the morale (or atleast the stats boosts the morale gives), using dynamic potential or not, using coaches or not. If using some of the additions I said in this post there would also be a few, like being able to choose at which level each facility starts at, choosing to have sponsors, choosing to have detailed finances, choosing to have the transfer budget appear like the old one or the new one, having reputation increase or decrease, having training for the youth academy on or off. Every player in career modes likes to play the game differently, so the most important thing in career mode is the amount of ways the use is allowed to play.

 

Editing clubs outside of career mode – Like we can edit players we should be able to edit clubs. Their reputation, their budget, their starting youth academy level, etc.

 

Editing and creating players outside of career mode – I know we can already to this, but why can’t we edit Composure, Defensive Awareness, Skill Moves and Potential? Also editing their height, their weight, the way they run, their face on generic players, theis celebration, style of penalty and free kick, their age, etc. These could also be added in career mode with the options to be turned on or off.

 

Downloads – Like PES used to have, it would be amazing to have a way to download kits and badges for the clubs that don’t have them, like Atalanta and the Milan sides. This is for console, I know it is done easily on PC.

 

Creating clubs and leagues – Imagine we could just create the Brazilian League or download a profile with the Brazilian League created and then download the kits and badges for it. FM has it, it is a way to get away from licensing in the leagues they can’t get.