The second and much more complicated AI system I wanted to talk about is the defensive AI. I play and enjoy FIFA 07 a lot, however sometimes I felt helpless and let down by the defensive positioning. Compared to real defenders, they were lacking some essential skills. They were not able to judge threats properly, they stood too far away from their checks and when a teammate was caught out of position, the defenders had no concept of covering for him.

In FIFA 08, we gave the players an increased defensive awareness. Some of our Engineers started calling this “giving the defenders a brain”. As a result, you will notice that the positioning of the players is significantly improved. For example, when you run one of your defenders out of position in order to support an attack, you’ll see another player covering for him on defense until he is able to make his way back. Defenders also seem more alert and dynamic because now they stick their legs out when they are trying to block passes, and they attack the ball possessor more aggressively.

One problem with working on a system like positioning is that minor changes can have huge affects on other subsystems – things like passing, support runs or even the fatigue system.  So the positioning system needed to be constantly balanced against changes we would make in these other systems. This is pretty important because changes made in positioning probably have the biggest impact on the speed and flow of the game.

For example, this year we wanted to reduce the overall speed of the game to make it more realistic, and favor composed build-up. Our plan was to support this idea by delaying the speed in which players push up when you are attacking. Quick passes forward will allow you to go up the field quickly, but will leave your striker on his own upfront. This is because most of your players will not be able to follow you, which is more realistic, as the ball can travel faster then the players are able to run. Here’s the catch though. As a result of this change, people in play simulations complained about the lack of support when attacking. Rebalancing passing speed, running speed and of course positioning was needed to make the game play properly again.

What I wanted to show with this example were two things. One is that change in positioning can have a major impact on the whole game.  The second is that in order to achieve the desired effect, every change must be tested – sometimes for many hours before going in the game.  It’s not as simple as it may seem.

In the end, a lot of time was spent on positioning this year to reach the final level of quality. We wanted to make sure that our game was much more intelligent, so that you could see the difference between teams of different skill set, and that it varied appropriately with our different difficulty levels. Essentially, we made sure every player on the pitch was analyzing all the potential threats and opportunities, so that they positioned themselves in the best spot, whether they were near the ball, or on the other side of the pitch.

The end result is that it is much more challenging to get through the defense and get a scoring opportunity. Now the only challenge left is to get the ball past the keeper…but let’s talk about the GK improvements we made another time ;-).

--Marcel

Be sure to check the scheduled blog updates for more FIFA 08 info direct from the developer over the coming weeks!