Hey FIFA Fans,

As we roll into the new year we wanted to share some of the changes contained in the FIFA 19 Title Update #7, available now for PC and planned for release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the near future.

Before we dive into all of the details with examples, here are a few of the key highlights you can expect to see with this patch:

• We've addressed and tuned numerous areas of Timed Shooting and Finesse Shots
• Tuned Goalkeeper movement
• Fixed an issue in Career Mode where players were unable to grow their overall rating and instead saw a -1 overall in multiple screens. 

GAMEPLAY

Since we last addressed gameplay before the holidays, we've been looking at player feedback closely to determine changes that would bring more impact to areas we hear about often. There were concerns over Goalkeeper movement and Timed Finesse accuracy, specifically from outside of the box, and we're hoping changes covered within today's update bring a welcomed improvement in these areas. As always, we'll continue to monitor feedback from our community.

SHOOTING

TIMED FINESSE

Addressed the following issues:

• An issue where a timed finesse shot would always have less error than a non-timed finesse shot, even in situations where the timed finesse shot was red or yellow.
  • The level of error reduction for a timed finesse shot is now in line with the level of error reduction for other timed shots.

Below you can see an example of 100 before and after Green Timed Finesse Shots as taken by Kevin De Bruyne on the following circumstances (blue lines represent shots on target, but not specifically resulting in a goal): 

The accuracy of a yellow or red timed finesse shot was found to be too high and has been reduced. This change will impact the likelihood of these shots resulting in goals scored.

Below you can see an example of 100 before and after Yellow Timed Finesse Shots as taken by Kevin De Bruyne on the following circumstances (blue lines represent shots on target, but not specifically resulting in a goal):

Below you can see an example of 100 before and after Red Timed Finesse Shots as taken by Kevin De Bruyne on the following circumstances (blue lines represent shots on target, but not specifically resulting in a goal): 

The ball speed of a yellow or red timed finesse shot was found to be too high and has been reduced. This change will impact the likelihood of these shots resulting in goals scored.

Timed Finishing Window

Maximum size of the Timed Finishing window for a green timed shot is now reduced.

The hope for these changes is that it will directly address situations where players were finding it too easy to achieve green timed shots that were coming from a long pass, a cross or when queuing up a shot after a knock on during a run.

The impact of this change will scale with a higher impact on shots where the time between the initial button press to take the shot and the button press to perform Timed Finishing is longer.

• For example, a first time finesse shot where the ball is coming from a long distance away, or when queuing up a shot after a long knock on during a dribble.

Below you can see the before and after example of the green timing for such situations:

Yellow Timed Shots Effectiveness

Yellow timed shots effectiveness were reduced for this new update.

We received feedback that yellow-timed shots were too often resulting in a goal and adjustments were made to reflect a more consistent outcome where these types of shots are now more likely to be impacted by error resulting in potentially less accuracy, ball speed and ball spin.

Below you can see the before and after example of 100 yellow timed (non-finesse) shots as taken by Kevin De Bruyne (blue lines represent shots on target, but not specifically resulting in a goal):

Powered Finesse shots

Reduced the effectiveness of higher powered finesse shots, both timed and non-timed shots.
We received feedback that powered finesse shots (both timed and non-timed) were too often resulting in a goal and adjustments were made to reflect a more consistent outcome where these types of shots are now more likely to be impacted by error resulting in potentially less accuracy, ball speed and ball spin.

Below you can see an example of 100 before and after shots as taken by Kevin De Bruyne on the following circumstances (blue lines represent shots on target, but not specifically resulting in a goal):

Green timing:

No timing:

In-box near post shots

Further reduced the likelihood that a shot which was correctly aimed into the net, and that was targeting a location near to the post, would miss the net in a shooting situation where the attacking player is under no defensive pressure and is not off balance.

This change builds further on the change that was made in Title Update 3.
Below you can see an example of 100 before and after shots as taken by Neymar on the following circumstances (blue lines represent shots on target, but not specifically resulting in a goal):

From left to right: before Patch #3, after Patch #3 and after Patch #7

Goalkeeper movement

Goalkeeper movement speed when being controlled by manual movement was reduced in this patch. The impact of this will be higher when using manual movement during open play and lower when in set pieces situations (corners and free kicks).

Goalkeepers will now maintain a ready posture when being controlled by manual movement through the right stick controls.

Here's a before and after example of the Goalkeeper moving on a 8-like figure:

Here's a before and after example of the Goalkeeper moving side to side:

Here's a before and after example of the Goalkeeper moving forward and backwards:

Career Mode:

After the last patch an issue with both Manager and Player Careers occurred where players were unable to grow their overall rating and instead was showing as -1 overall in multiple screens. This issue has been resolved with today's changes.

We also addressed the following issues:

• In Player Career, finishing in first place in your league at the end of the season was not properly awarding the Win The League accomplishment.
• The Emirates FA Cup Final match being scheduled the day before the final match of the Premier League season.
  • This fix will not impact existing Career Mode save files, only new Career Mode save files.

Pro Clubs:

Made the following changes:

• The fatigue reduction that is applied to a Pro Clubs player when it was being controlled by someone locked to a position has now also been applied to the players when they are being controlled by someone playing on 'Any'.

Addressed the following issues:

• In Pro Clubs, the Club Squad screen was not displaying the stats for each member of the club on the panel on the left side of the screen.
• Sometimes a Pro Clubs Virtual Pro's overall rating was incorrect when displayed in the Pro Clubs hub screens.
  • The overall rating that was being shown in a match, including the end of match flow, was correct.
  • The overall rating that was being used during gameplay was also correct, so this was a visual issue only.
  • For players that were impacted by this issue, you could see the overall rating of your Virtual Pro, when displayed in the Pro Clubs hub, be lower than it was prior to the title update.
    • The overall rating used in gameplay and shown during a match should remain the same.

Thank you to everyone in the FIFA community for your continued FIFA 19 feedback. Continue the discussion around these changes, and the others in Title update #7 on our forums.

Joel Doonan, Thomas Caleffi, Corey Andress, Gabriel Zaro and the FIFA Team

For more deep dives on FIFA 19 from members of the game team, check out the Pitch Notes Page.

Please Note: This article is describing in general terms what updates are implemented in Patch #7 in FIFA 19 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. We are constantly looking to improve the gameplay experience for everyone, so this article may become outdated as we make adjustments to keep our game fun for everyone.

FIFA 19 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. 

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