Career Mode Improvements

November 27, 2018

It’s not unfair to say that in the last few years, EA has really neglected career mode players. There have been very few career mode improvements, most of those are purely aesthetics. Before you say “Ultimate Team makes a lot of money for EA”, career mode players have still paid £50+ each year. What does this get you? Updated squads and a new colour palette.

If it wasn’t for the licensing deals they have, EA would have lost significantly more players to PES years ago. But, they can still turn it around. This post details a number of career mode improvements we’d like to see. It’s unrealistic to think that they would all be made, let alone in one go. But if they started to listen to their players and implement these ideas slowly, they would have a much happier fanbase.

Let me know your thoughts (or any ideas you’d like to see) in the comments below.

FIFA

Rolling updates – waiting a year for minor updates is painful, and wholly unnecessary in this day and age. Look at what Epic Games are doing with Fortnite as a good example.
Subscription – change how you deliver updates and a subscription model is an option. Having to pay upwards of £50 in one go is difficult for many players. A monthly subscription for a few pounds would be better, and won’t create such a backlash – career mode players are tired of paying £50 and seeing no career mode improvements.

Career Mode

Challenges/Scenarios – Not everyone wants to begin an actual career. A new scenario based challenge each week would keep players active all year round, and would justify a subscription model. Survive a tough run of fixtures with an injury crisis or help your new club to avoid relegation. Until this happens, we are forced to create our own challenges.
More Save Slots – Only having four in FIFA 19 was apparently a bug, but still ridiculous.
Fixture Scheduling – How has this not been fixed? Yes it’s more common if you’re competing in four competitions, but that can still be planned for. Two games in two days should never happen. Two games in three days can happen in real life, but shouldn’t be happening if there’s a big fixture gap either side. The scheduling AI should be given greater flexibility.

Club

Commercial – Not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those that want it adding the ability to improve the club’s commercial revenues would make the game more realistic.
Stadium & Facilities – This really causes a problem with road to glory saves. Why would a team still be playing in a <5,000 seater stadium in the Premier League or Champions League? Maybe stadiums that can be upgraded would offer more realism in this regard?
Staff – The game already allows you to buy better quality scouts, why not physios or coaches? The former could help manage fitness and reduce injury times, the latter could give better chances of player growth.
Feeder Club – This would be a great way of getting promising youth players out on loan.
Youth League – More realistic and would keep your youth players happy, rather than just pretending they only train until they’re good enough to play matches.
Kit Editor – Dynamic league badges are a good start, but seeing the same kits every year for a 15 year career is tiring.

Managers

Create a Manager – Why can’t we fully edit a manager’s appearance? Instead we have to choose from a boring (and frankly, not very diverse) list of pre-made faces.
Fill in their History – At the start of every career mode you’re a complete unknown, with no history, potentially walking straight into one of the biggest clubs in the world. This is annoyingly unrealistic.
More Visibility – You’re forced to choose a face for your manager, but it will barely be seen. Instead most news items have a stock photo behind them.
Switch Jobs – As it stands, you’re the only manager who ever changes jobs in the game. Why wouldn’t managers get sacked for a string of bad results or poached by a larger club?
Holiday Mode or International only – A holiday mode would allow you to take an extended break if there were no available jobs you were interested in. Also what if you only want to manage at international level? Why are you forced to manage a club side?
Turn Off International Offers – International management can be fun but the ability to switch off international job offers is one of the most requested career mode improvements.
More Realistic International Offers – If you would rather have them left on, at least keep them realistic. A good run of games in League One shouldn’t be enough to draw job offers from national sides all over the world.
Press Conferences with Cut Scenes – Again, what’s the point of having a manager avatar? Use a conversation cut scene system like the one utilised in transfer negotiations.
Play as a Real Manager – Why can’t you step into the shoes of a real manager? If I choose to manage Manchester City, I have to take over as a complete rookie. Not only that, but Pep Guardiola simply disappears from the world of football.
Managerial Style – Give managers an individual style. What formation and tactics do they tend to use? Do they only sign big players or prefer to develop youngsters?

Performance

Stat Tracking – Also one of the most frequently requested career mode improvements.

Players

Face Scans – More players please.
Haircuts – Either do face scans more frequently, or give us the ability to change a player’s hairstyle.
Regens – As discussed in our guide on regens and pregens, new players are needed to balance the game. Why can’t they be more random though? By all means make it more likely that certain countries are more likely to produce better talent, but why should Argentina and Portugal be guaranteed to have the worlds best players again in a few years?
Attribute Profiles – Mix these up more when generating new players. Why don’t we ever see Centre Backs with great free kick accuracy or strikers with exceptional passing?

Transfers

Selling Top Players – Why are clubs so content to constantly sell their best players?
Replacing Top Players – As a follow up, if they do sell their best players – why do they not replace them adequately?
Squad Balance – Why do some teams sign five strikers but no goalkeepers? They should understand how many players they need in each position.

Tactics/Gameplay

Team Selections – Why do AI managers consistently fail to pick their best players when you come up against them?