Hello EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile fans,

EA SPORTS FC Mobile is getting some amazing new features when it launches on September 26th and we can't wait to show you what we've been working on.

In this Deep Dive we will be focusing on the next level gameplay that FC Mobile has to offer.

We aim to achieve a more realistic experience, while also emphasizing on a more tangible attribute effect and rewarding user skill.

True Player Personality

True Player Personality is at the very core of our EAS FC Mobile gameplay, now and going forward, as we aim to have more distinct Player strengths and weaknesses, creating more diversity in gameplay and team building.

We spent a lot of time and effort to overhaul our attributes, recalibrating, re-tuning and balancing. True Player Personality reflects authentic player characteristics, with tangible attribute impact and animation diversity.

Increased Attribute Impact

Here are some examples of the more impactful attributes:

• Dribble, Agility & Player Height: Players with high dribble and agility attributes while also being short will have faster dribble turning speed compared to taller Players with similar attributes.
• Standing Tackle: Players with high Standing Tackle attribute, like center backs, can perform faster and more effective tackles to win the ball back.
• Long Pass Accuracy: Players with high Long Pass accuracy can perform more accurate long lob through passes.
• Shooting Attributes: (Details can be found in Elite Shooting System)
• Stamina: Stamina will have a more noticeable influence on player movement. Players with low stamina remaining will have a slower acceleration and top speed. Monitor the stamina bar and plan for substitutions when it gets low.
• GK Attributes: GK attributes will have a crucial impact on the goalkeeper's saving ability. 
• Weak Foot Ability: Players with poor weak foot ability will experience a decrease in accuracy and ball speed when shooting with weak foot.
• Crossing: Attempting difficult crosses, such as being pressured by defenders or while being in a full sprint, will be less accurate. 
• Acceleration & Sprint Speed: Determines players their speed and acceleration, more details can be found in the Dynamic Game Speed section.

Star Player Run Styles

For the first time, we are bringing player run styles onto the mobile platform. We have recreated body movements for certain star players to add more personality and authenticity to the FC Mobile gameplay experience.

Dynamic Game Speed

The Dynamic Game Speed manifests itself into a composed, mobile-friendly gameplay, providing you with more time on the ball to make decisions and diversifies your build-up play style. 

You'll notice a more natural ebb and flow of the game that is defined in two major areas: Pace and Dribbling.

Pace 

For Pace, you will now notice a much more tangible attribute effect for Acceleration and Sprint Speed. The new acceleration rate adds a more significant difference between players with different levels of Acceleration attributes. 

In the video above, you can clearly see the difference between the old and new acceleration rates. Acceleration gives you a sense of explosiveness on a first touch while dribbling, or chasing down an attacker during a counter-attack.

Dribbling

For dribbling, we applied a few important changes:

• Jog Dribble speed has been reduced, allowing for a more explosive first Sprint Touch
•  Dribble Turn Speed now also factors in player Height and Agility attribute
  •  Smaller Players will feel more nimble, as they can turn faster than very tall players

As shown in the video, the turning speed difference is very clear between a shorter player and a taller player. Overall, this will create a more authentic dribbling experience with noticeable difference in-game player movements.

Dribble VS Defender Balance

Gameplay Balance remains our top priority, and we're dedicated to get the balance between defenders and Players dribbling right. 

When a player is dribbling, he decelerates appropriately between each touch, allowing the defender to catch up and stay within Tackling distance. 

In the video recording, the defender (red player) has a slightly lower attribute of acceleration, but he can still catch up to the dribbler from behind.

Elite Shooting System

For EAS FC Mobile, we've diversified our shooting system to create a more realistic experience that rewards skill more than ever before!

We want to ensure that each shot type has their own character and purpose. For example, we want to make sure a Finesse Shot feels unique and is used in the right context. It trades power for accuracy and is ideally used in a mid-range position to surgically place the ball across the goal line.

Elite shooting breaks down into 3 main areas, which will determine your success:

Our goal here is to encourage and reward putting your players into a great position to score with good manual aim while feeling a more noticeable impact on Shooting related A

1. Aim: Having a good manual aim at the goal.
2. Shot Context: Player’s position towards the goal, pressure from surrounding defenders, shooting from a dribble or a volley, etc.
3. Attributes: Embodied by our True Player Personality, we ensure that all the key shooting attributes are more noticeable and are more impactful for the final shot trajectory, accuracy and speed.

Our goal here is to encourage and reward putting your players into a great position to score with good manual aim while feeling a more noticeable impact on Shooting related Attributes.

Shooting Context

As shown in the video above, you can no longer easily score goals in these difficult situations. You will need to find a proper shooting context via attacking build-ups, taking an extra touch or step and ensuring your player is in a good position will increase your chances of success.

Set Pieces

Elite Shooting also extends to Direct Free Kicks and Penalty Kicks:

• During Free Kicks, curl effect, shot speed and accuracy are now more impacted by the player's attributes.
  
• Penalty Kicks feel more tense than ever. Shooting into the corners will be less accurate and harder to achieve as you need to be more careful in terms of how fast you swipe

Goal Net Physics

Coupled with a large shot animation refresh and our improved goal net physics, which provide a deeper net impact and ripple effect, we aim to provide an unparalleled emotion of scoring goals.

Impact Controls

Power Shot

The Power Shot is the fastest shot type in the game, but comes with a risk vs reward mechanic. The animation length of a Power Shot is much longer than a regular shot and puts your player at risk to be tackled during the shot wind-up. Successfully unleashing a Power Shot not only looks great, but is immensely satisfying to score.

• Buttons: Swipe Right from the shoot Button.
• Gestures: Swipe back and forth towards the goal in one motion.

Power Shots will be fully assisted, however the user skill is manifested in two ways:

• Good Aim & Context: Follows the same principles of our Elite Shooting system.
  
• Power Up: It is much easier to overpower a Power Shot, so trying to keep it within 50% power up rate will ensure the highest success rate.
  • Players with high shooting attributes can keep the ball down more consistently.

Hard Tackle

In order to expand our defensive controls and provide a countermeasure to Power Shots, we are bringing the Hard Tackle to FC Mobile!

Hard Tackles are a powerful and far-lunging stand tackle, allowing you to crush attackers or make a last second shot block. Defenders can perform faster and more powerful tackles with Hard Tackle.

• Swipe Left from the Sprint & Tackle Button in defense state.

Knock On

We are very excited to finally bring this control mechanic to mobile. Combined with the Dynamic Game Speed, it really allows you to extract the full player’s speed while Dribbling.

Break away from defenders or create space to step into a shot. Knock On and also the newly added Hard Stop have been added to FC Mobile as Team Skill Moves, which allows you to customize the swipe direction control as desired.

• Assign Knock On in the Team Skill Moves menu, then swipe to the assigned direction from the Sprint & Tackle button in game.

Balancing & Bug Fixes

We want to thank our Community for the constant support and reporting of issues and gameplay imbalances. We have been listening and monitoring closely, and made many changes as listed below.

Skill Move Balancing

Skill moves are a fun mechanic, but it is important to balance this and also ensure it requires more skill. Consecutive skill moves have been balanced. Player movement speed will be slower and more touch error will be added when performing a 2nd, 3rd or more skill moves consecutively.  

Skill Moves are also impacted more by attributes. Players with higher Agility and Ball Control attributes will be able to perform faster Skill Moves with less error.

Cross & Header Balancing

Crossing and heading was another frequently used way to score in the previous season. We have decreased the effectiveness of them to match the more authentic gameplay experience we want to achieve in EAS FC Mobile. 

• Overall crossing error rate is increased and Attributes are more impactful.
• When applying pressure to the attacker during a 2 player battle, you can decrease the accuracy rate of the attacking player’s header.
  • Header error is increased and combined with the new Elite Shooting system, headers are no longer as easy. It will be more challenging to score from headers, but also super rewarding if you manage to score one. Just like in the real world.
• We improved an Issue where players were not jumping during a 2 player Header Battle.

Improved Goalkeeper AI

Goalkeeper AI has received a significant upgrade in EAS FC Mobile. Goalies can take more actions to make saves based on the current context. 

Here’s a breakdown of the goalkeeper AI improvements:

• In an air ball situation, such as crosses, the goalkeeper will rush to save the ball when he can reach the ball before the opponent. As a result, goalkeepers now can intercept more crosses and other lobbed through passes.
• With the update of the Elite Shooting System, GK has undergone a new balance adjustment.

Improved End Half Condition

When the referee blows the whistle at the end of the game, they will make a judgment based on the situation of the game and confirm that there is no threat of attack before the game ends.

Autoplay

Lowered the difficulty of the autoplay in H2H, decreasing its effectiveness.

Customization/Settings

• Option to set faster and normal button power-up rate for Passes and Shots
• Option to turn automatic face-up dribbling on/off
• Setting for enable/disable zooming effect during Power Shots
• Option to increase the spacing between buttons or use normal spacing
• Access to detailed control tutorials web page which shows all the basic and advanced controls in the game
• Optimize the size of large virtual stick