FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

[Dogslax41]

With what sounds like more and more people undertaking DB editing I thought it might be a good idea for us to have a thread where we could list our tested settings and results so we can save some time and get into our CMs faster by not experimenting with something someone else may have tried. I know we all play differently and are looking for different experiences so I'll try to be as descriptive as possible but at the same time leave a section at the bottom just to give a quick reference place for those not interested in reading the details. I've started some testing based on suggestions from Yeats and Matt10 as they are much more familiar with the impact of changes than I.

Base Settings
World Class
15 minutes
Orion's Sliders
Newcastle v PSV
Moddingway Mod Improved Databse

1st Test
From the base DB I first tried setting Standing Tackle and Balance to 1 for all players and no other edits. This slightly increased fouls, but not really any mentionable amount. It did however make crunching collisions more realistic. Now there were some moments players looked like Di Maria flopping around after slight touches, but I would say that my fear of balance at 1 creating major issues was unfounded.


2nd Test
For a second test to try and ramp up fouls I used the changes noted above and increased aggression for all players to 99 and dropped Speed, Agility, Acceleration and Strength for all players by 5. This was a much more promising change. Fouls ended at 4 a side with the CPU drawing 1 yellow. Their only goal was actually a free kick just outside the box. There were a large number of advantages played that were never stopped so I am going to try and keep track of these in the future. I would like to see 6-7 fouls per team so I'm getting close but not there yet.

What really felt good about these changes was that the aggression setting really did a lot for the game play. CPU defenders were no longer sitting back waiting for me to bring the ball to them only to make the perfect tackle as soon as I tried to get by them. I could actually use my right stick to make a move and gain some space because they were coming in hard. This opened the game up by causing the CPU to lose its shape in the defensive third, but not overly so, they were still able to recover and shut me down plenty.

The other thing I noticed about defenders on this aggression was that anytime I tried to shield the ball away from them they came in for the attack. Since I play mostly premier league I liked seeing this as shielding possession is usually ferociously challenged in the EPL. Using this more as the human could result in a sizable bump in fouls.

I don't know if this was a coincidence or not but goalies also seemed to benefit from aggression at 99. When the keepers came out they came out hard and not with that hunched over animation where they come waddling out. These guys came out with bad intentions and shut plays down. There were a couple times I couldn't help but let out an audible oh shhh because the keeper surprised me.

I also noticed that team Defensive Aggression might be a key component to getting my fouls up a bit as PSV definitely got more desperate and started coming in harder as the second half ticked on and I held a 1-0 lead.

So for those that want to skip the explanation

Summary
Test 1
Standing Tackle 1
Balance 1

Results
Slight increase to fouls, not enough

Test 2
Standing Tackle 1
Balance 1
Aggression 99
Speed, Agility, Acceleration and Strength reduced by 5

Results
4 fouls per team, one yellow, multiple advantages played
aggressive defenders lunging in not waiting for you to bring the ball to them
Opens space and disrupts CPU back line
Eliminated the infuriating CPU standing waiting on you to bring the ball only to make some miraculous standing tackle where it looks like they just snatch the ball off your boot.
CPU players attacking shielding players
Goalies attacking the ball (really want to test if aggression was responsible for this)
Looks like team Defensive Aggression setting needs to be bumped up a bit

[Yeats]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Test 2
Standing Tackle 1
Balance 1
Aggression 99
Speed, Agility, Acceleration and Strength reduced by 5

Results
4 fouls per team, one yellow, multiple advantages played

It's probably not a popular idea, but for me the key to both enjoying FIFA and creating more fouls (the two go hand-in-hand) has been lowering speed, accel and agility ratings by up to 90%. It seems the CPU never has the opportunity to foul you unless it can catch you and physically interact with your players. And with the default speed settings, it isn't able to do that; that's my observation anyway.

As well, the game by default, even on the slow speed setting, is too fast for my tastes. And, the only way to get fouls up to an acceptable level is to play on legendary. That's the way it is with all EA's games: the higher the difficulty level, the more fouls/penalties. Fouls in FIFA drop off by 50-70% once you drop down from legendary to world class.

Lowering speed, accel and agility accomplishes several things: it slows the gameplay down to a beautiful tempo, it helps create CPU fouls and cards, and it allows you to comfortably play on legendary as it counteracts the CPU's superhuman legendary stat boosts.

[Dogslax41]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

It's probably not a popular idea, but for me the key to both enjoying FIFA and creating more fouls (the two go hand-in-hand) has been lowering speed, accel and agility ratings by up to 90%. It seems the CPU never has the opportunity to foul you unless it can catch you and physically interact with your players. And with the default speed settings, it isn't able to do that; that's my observation anyway.

As well, the game by default, even on the slow speed setting, is too fast for my tastes. And, the only way to get fouls up to an acceptable level is to play on legendary. That's the way it is with all EA's games: the higher the difficulty level, the more fouls/penalties. Fouls in FIFA drop off by 50-70% once you drop down from legendary to world class.

Lowering speed, accel and agility accomplishes several things: it slows the gameplay down to a beautiful tempo, it helps create CPU fouls and cards, and it allows you to comfortably play on legendary as it counteracts the CPU's superhuman legendary stat boosts.

So you drop speed,acc and agl by 90% for all players, so your speed ratings are in the single digits? Does that impact your originality by reducing the top level speed guys more? I was worried about taking Aggression to 99 across the board and making Rooney play like Torres.

[Yeats]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

So you drop speed,acc and agl by 90% for all players, so your speed ratings are in the single digits? Does that impact your originality by reducing the top level speed guys more? I was worried about taking Aggression to 99 across the board and making Rooney play like Torres.

I've experimented with different rating spreads. My current "real" db has the top 100 or so players in the 50-99 range for speed, and then speed ratings for the the other 16000 players are spread out evenly from 1-49. Accel I've kept between 39-79 for all players (something like that) spread evenly between all 16000 players. Agility ratings are similar to speed but the lowest player is rated 25.

These are all just preferences based on what I think good gameplay looks like versus my game and sliders settings. I play on slow and have accel sliders 7 points higher for both User and CPU for example.

The thing is, the db I use and that I enjoy the best has all players rated 1 speed, 65 accel and 25 agility. But I'm weird that way; I don't care about things like star players and elite teams. I'm only interested in creating an on-the-pitch experience that always provides an enjoyable game of football, every game.

[Matt10]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Yeats has let me try his DB in the past and it was indeed fantastic.

So, as we pmd last night, Dog - I experimented with the exact settings as you. The only change I had was Aggression at "zero" in the spreadsheet - which turned to "128" in-game.

Referee Strictness was also at 2.

What I might suggest doing instead of aggression @ 128/99; maybe change Defensive Style (0,1,2; I selected 2) and I noticed immediate aggression as well. That combined with Balance @ 1 and Standing Tackle @ 1 (and might even consider sliding tackle @ 1) I started to see more start and stop. The issue was the referee, despite being on 2 for strictness, played advantage so often.

My thinking is something with the sliders will be the "sweetspot".

[Dogslax41]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Yeah I am loading up his speed = 1 db now.

I agree on sliding tackle I think I am going to reduce that as well. They are far too effective. I hate seeing a guy hook slide in and pop up with the ball like its an everyday thing to yank possession away with a sliding tackle.

I'm also going to take his suggestion and move to a modified legendary. Base legendary was too much for me but a nerfed CPU on legendary would probably be ideal.

[Matt10]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Yeah I am loading up his speed = 1 db now.

I agree on sliding tackle I think I am going to reduce that as well. They are far too effective. I hate seeing a guy hook slide in and pop up with the ball like its an everyday thing to yank possession away with a sliding tackle.

I'm also going to take his suggestion and move to a modified legendary. Base legendary was too much for me but a nerfed CPU on legendary would probably be ideal.

Try messing with the Marking settings and first touch control. Pass speed also plays a role there.

this is fun

[Dogslax41]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Man I really wish he hadn't sent that radical db with speed set at 1 for everyone over to me. The game played beautifully. Fouls were actually a bit much, but I could easily see fixing that. I played Stade Rennais with Newcastle and they ended the game with 10 fouls, 5 yellows and 1 red. All it would take is making the refs a bit more hesitant to pull out the card and it would have been perfect.

But it wasn't just the fouls the whole game at that reduced speed and explosiveness was a dream. When I finally got a goal it just felt so right watching Cisse cut back inside the LB and rifle one in low and away.

And the extra settings were perfect. My lines were always where I thought they should be rather than wandering off into no mans land like they do with my settings.

I really wish I could just use it straight away in my CM but the massive reductions to ratings cause an issue with the transfer market since guys are valued so low. But that will definitely be the DB that I load when I just want to play an exhibition game of actual football.

Bravo Yeats, that test DB was exactly how these games should play. Is it too late for EA to bring you in to adjust the next gen version?

[macca2509]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Is there somewhere I can download Yeats DB with the speed settings at 1, thanks...

[Dogslax41]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Tried a couple different edits to create a sort of tempered Yeats radical database to try and minimize transfer price valuation but couldn't get anything on the pitch that I liked while maintaining transfer pricing. At a minimum it appears to get fouls anywhere close to where I want them standing/sliding tackle and balance need to be set to 1. This alone causes defenders to be drastically undervalued on the transfer market. But even those edits alone aren't creating enough fouls and as Yeats has mentioned a couple times the key seems to be lowering speed/acceleration/agility and the CPUs ability to keep pace and create the opportunity to foul you.

Not sure which is the lesser of the evils as I would like to be able to use the transfer market without having to completely police myself and am concerned that with the best defenders being valued below £1m even if I police myself the CPU will create transfer havoc with top teams having an all star defensive line for under £4m.

[Yeats]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Tried a couple different edits to create a sort of tempered Yeats radical database to try and minimize transfer price valuation but couldn't get anything on the pitch that I liked while maintaining transfer pricing. At a minimum it appears to get fouls anywhere close to where I want them standing/sliding tackle and balance need to be set to 1. This alone causes defenders to be drastically undervalued on the transfer market.

Not sure which is the lesser of the evils as I would like to be able to use the transfer market without having to completely police myself and am concerned that with the best defenders being valued below £1m even if I police myself the CPU will create transfer havoc with top teams having an all star defensive line for under £4m.

Hi guys, thanks for the supportive comments, I really appreciate it. Dogslax, one option for CM would be to edit team budgets and reduce them by 70-80% or what have you. You could test that by simming a couple years of CM to see what sort of budget reduction % works best. Also, there are generated player rating values in the db that can be reduced so that incoming players are rated along the same lines as the default edited players.

Fouls were actually a bit much, but I could easily see fixing that. I played Stade Rennais with Newcastle and they ended the game with 10 fouls, 5 yellows and 1 red. All it would take is making the refs a bit more hesitant to pull out the card and it would have been perfect.

A couple ways to fix that: In my db, referee fouls and cards are set to 2 (max strictness). You could leave fouls as is and set cards to 1. Also, as this is a kind of generic test db I use to establish baseline ratings, all ratings are the same for all teams and players. Example: All teams are set to 95 defensive aggression, and all players to 95 aggression. Using Excel, you could reinsert and start with the default values, and then scale them so that teams and players are rated between say 99 and 70 in those two catagories.

[Dogslax41]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

Hi guys, thanks for the supportive comments, I really appreciate it. Dogslax, one option for CM would be to edit team budgets and reduce them by 70-80% or what have you. You could test that by simming a couple years of CM to see what sort of budget reduction % works best. Also, there are generated player rating values in the db that can be reduced so that incoming players are rated along the same lines as the default edited players.

A couple ways to fix that: In my db, referee fouls and cards are set to 2 (max strictness). You could leave fouls as is and set cards to 1. Also, as this is a kind of generic test db I use to establish baseline ratings, all ratings are the same for all teams and players. Example: All teams are set to 95 defensive aggression, and all players to 95 aggression. Using Excel, you could reinsert and start with the default values, and then scale them so that teams and players are rated between say 99 and 70 in those two catagories.

Hadn't checked this before I sent you the PM. Great suggestion on the budget cut. I am going to run an unedited db tonight and see where the values fall and try to determine what size cut to make. The other consideration to this is that typically in the dbs that I have created the defensive players are hit much harder on the transfer market so I'll need to find a comfortable balance of edits that give me good gameplay and good balance across defensive and offensive player edits.

The ref settings is exactly what I did last night. I kept foul stricness at 2 and then ran the randombetween function in excel to randomly assign 0-2 ratings to ref card strictness. Haven't used that db again since I was testing some other things but there is no reason that would not have fixed the issue.

Love playing with the dbs to affect gameplay. Only problem is it takes me 10x longer than normal to input and test settings since I have a 9 week old in the house. At this rate I'll probably start my career a week before FIFA 15 is released.

[qweh]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

How do you edit databases?

[Yeats]

Re: FIFA 14 DB Editing Tracking Thread

How do you edit databases?

soccergaming.com for all your FIFA-editing needs!