If they encourage the posting of rosters and updates, then why do they make it so hard with such a cumbersome editor, and no ability to create new players?
EA.... Add a create player option!!! (You've had it on your NHL and NBA games for years!)
... or better yet... Make and official out of game editor like FEd.


Also, once you start a season, it is impossible to edit...


[This message has been edited by jsbach (edited 11-06-1999).]

As time increases the quality of the fifa series decreses. I'am not trying to be mean but why not have fifa 2k on 2cds. Like have seasin mode and customizing on one cd and the rest on the other. Also we don't want no MLS crap. That is girlish soccer. They even play on a football field. MLS sucks. And instead of mls you could o included stadium selection and actuall make the game be a game. Right no is looks like crap. Real slow. Rosters?????????? Indoor Stadium??
We want an improved version of fifa 98. not a new crappy game like fifa2k. Hopefully fifa01 will not be the same.

Hi everyone,

This is the answer directly from EASPORTS (Jana Stewart - The Producer of FIFA 2000)!

THIS IS TRUE!

READ THIS
==========

Thursday, November 04, 1999To :Marc Auganel - Senior Producer
Gaivan Chang - Senior Development DirectorChris Taylor - Audio Director
Michael Gordon - AI Lead/Audio AI)Neil Biggin - Commentary Editor
Support Division HeadFIFA 2000 - EASPORTSElectronic Arts
RE : Questions and request for FIFA 2000.

Dear EASPORTS,

I have played FIFA 2000 recently, and then I have got
several questions about many aspects from the gameitself. The questions are :
I. Audio aspect :Speech :a. Why while I was playing Fifa 2000 , the game speech
from J. Motson and Lineker is so quiet? Compare to
your Fifa 96 (which I think it's the best and far from"silent" ) and Fifa 99.

b. In Fifa 2000 a lot of action commentary are missing
from FIFA 2000 like : "freekick will be taken
by...(players name) " ; " A long range shot!" , " Foul
by ...(players name)" , " That's a three goal and that's
a hattrick!" ,"Substitution: ....(players name) will be
replaced by..... (players name) , " Good save by .... !(Goalkeepers name)" ect
The questions are : Where are those sounds? Why can't
you just include them in FIFA 2000, b'cause on my
opinion it is just exchanging those files in previous
version (Fifa '96,'97,rtwc'98, wc'98, '99 and FAPL)
and its very simple! (If they are in the same format
definetely!) Or probably you've been limited by the
size of the file itself? (e.g speech file limited upto 300 Mb).

ANSWER: I THINK YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. EVERY YEAR WE WANT TOADD
MORE TO THE GAME BUT HAVE LIMITED RESOURCES ON THE CD-ROM. THE CDDOESN'T
GET BIGGER SO WE ARE FORCED TO DECIDE WHETHER TO ADD MORE LEAGUES, MORE
MUSIC, MORE SPEECH ETC... WE TRY AND FIND THE BEST COMPRIMISE TO THISAS WECAN.

c. A lot of players name are missing/not mentioned in
FIFA 2000, why? Do I have to say that probably in the
FIFA 2001, EASPORTS will eliminate all players
commentary? I must say I really dissapointed about
this matter. In FIFA 99 the players speech file size
is +/- 18 MB, but in FIFA 2000 you only included +/-
11 MB that mean you really did not concern about thismatter.
While I was playing Man Utd for instance, almost every
player in the team are not mentioned by Motson, e.g:1. Beckham2. Keane3. Irwin
4. EctAnd only Yorke, and Stam that are mentioned by Motson,
what a terrible game I must say! Again I've played
Real Madrid (60% not mentioned), Inter (90% not
menntioned), Juventus (20% not mentioned), Barcelona
(75% not mentioned) and a lot more! In '96 (100%
mentioned), '97 (100% mentioned), '98 rtwc&wc (94%
mentioned), '99 (80% mentioned). Would you please
explain why this is happened?, problem in quality
control, checking or limited by file size, maybe?
d. Possibilty to exchanging speech files (players
speech) by extracting . STR files. If you
do not mind, can you tell me how to extract the
STR files so I could exchanging files
from previous version to FIFA 2000, for the sake
of hearing my own favorite players
name? ( I hope I could use FIFA 99 and FAPL
speech file (players speech) because I
believe they are in the same format . BNK.
Please tell me how? ( I need to know a suitable Extractor for STR files)

ANSWER: I DON'T THINK YOU CAN TAKE LAST YEAR'S DATA AND MAKE IT WORKIN
THIS YEARS GAME (THEN AGAIN I AM A PRODUCER AND NOT AN ENGINEER).
II. AI - Artificial IntelligenceMoves, various fakes, freekick
a. Again almost all fakes, dribbling fakes, dummy
movement won't work. Why? I still keep in mind that
you'd already give a promise for this area! Why?
b. I think it is very easy to do direct freekick by
pressing D- control in FIFA 99 rather than in FIFA
2000. I know there is a new feature for setpiece. But
can't you just combine it from FIFA '99?

ANSWER: WE WEREN'T HAPPY WITH HOW THE OFFENSIVE VERSUS DEFENSIVETUNING
WORKED IN FIFA 99. WE HAD TOO MANY OFFENSIVE MOVES WITHOUT A GOODBALANCE
ON THE DEFENSIVE SIDE. WE HAVE REMOVED SOME OF THE DEKES BUT HAVEIMPROVED
TREMENDOUSLY HOW THEY CAN BE USED AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS.
WE HAVE MADE THE GAME MORE TACTICAL AS IN FIFA 99 A LOT OF THESE DEKESHAD
NO BENEFIT. WE REMOVED THE ONES THAT HAD NO EFFECT.

III. Rosters
A lot of player missinga. Players like Juninho only appear in Brazil Int'l
not in Middlesbrough, Zambrotta, J Bachini, Tudor,
Fonseca, and Kovacevic are missing from Juventus, Guly
and Serginho are missing from AC Milan, Ze Roberto is
missing from B Leverkusen, and a lot more! Can you
tell me why they are missing ? Again in this session,
are you try to limit the size of your .db files? I
have to tell you that we still got a lot of space for
our hard drive! Please do as you've had done before in'99 or previous version.
b. If there is a license problem for those players,why so many?

ANSWER: WE DO AN EXAUSTIVE AMOUNT OF RESEARCH FOR THE LEAGUES BUT HAVETO
CUT THE ROSTERS DOWN TO SIZE. WE KNOW WE CAN'T GET TO 100% ACCURACYFOR ALL
6000+ PLAYERS AND ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO POST ROSTERS WITH UPDATES,CORRECTIONS
OR CHANGES.III. Graphics Animation and Stadium Selection
a. Out of play animation in FIFA 2000 is great, but so
little, compare to FIFA '99. Why? Can I again
exchanging animation file (formatted in .sci ) from
previous game to FIFA 2000. Can you tell me how?

ANSWER: NO YOU CAN'T CHANGE ANIMATION FILES AS THEY ARE IN A DIFFERENT
FORMAT FROM FIFA 99.

b. In FIFA 2000 there is no stadium selection, why?

ANSWER: WE WANTED TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF SCREENS YOU HAVE TO PICK TOGO
INTO THE GAME.

First of all I would like to thank to EASPORST,
management and all staff of FIFA 2000 for listening
my questions. I know I've been asking to much for
this perhaps, but I am your big fans of all EASPORTS
and EA product (NASCAR, SUPERBIKE, KNOCKOUT KINGS,
TRIPLE PLAY SERIES, NHL SERIES, NBA SERIES, FIFA
MANAGER SERIES, JANE'S SERIES, SIMS SERIES), everthing
from EASPORTS or EA products Please help me andlisten to my voice.

ANSWER: WE APPRECIATE YOUR QUESTIONS AND CARE A LOT ABOUT THE PEOPLEWHO
PLAY OUR GAMES. IN AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE THE GAME WE HAVE TO MAKECHANGES.
THIS MEANS THAT WE HAVE TO MAKE SACRIFICES AND HARD CHOICES. WE FEELTHAT
WE HAVE BUILT A MUCH STRONGER PRODUCT - IN FACT WE THINK WE HAVE BUILTTHE
BEST VERSION EVER. THIS OF COURSE WILL BE UP TO ALL OF YOU TO DECIDEAS WE
TRY AND MAKE THE NEXT VERSION THAT MUCH BETTER.

Thank you for your attention.
Regards,Icabola,
Icabola@yahoo.com
Chicago, Illinois

Very Interesting.
But the CD only used 3/5ths of it's resources.
And couldn't they use multiple CD's?
Todays PCs have large capacity to cater for a larger initial installation of files.
It's only a matter of time before DVD becomes mainstream and it will appear for game titles - then there will be no excuse for the lack of space.
Well done Icabola for the letter.
I hope EA listen to the people for a patch
and include a Republic of Ireland team!!!
;-)
Until then, good luck to all those great people on-line who make patches/utilities/graphics for these games - hope to see them on-line soon

Very Interesting.
But the CD only used 3/5ths of it's resources.
And couldn't they use multiple CD's?
Todays PCs have large capacity to cater for a larger initial installation of files.
It's only a matter of time before DVD becomes mainstream and it will appear for game titles - then there will be no excuse for the lack of space.
Well done Icabola for the letter.
I hope EA listen to the people for a patch
and include a Republic of Ireland team!!!
;-)
Until then, good luck to all those great people on-line who make patches/utilities/graphics for these games - hope to see them on-line soon

Well to me these answers sound like bull crap, exactly what I expected.
1. as mentione earlier they don't even use a full cd, in the Playstation version there is even a 2 minute movie about the making of the game! now tell me how much space that took up on cd vs. things that would have been beneficial to the game. And we have many games coming out with multiple cd's now mostly because of cinematics and such. A cd costs about 5 cents to make I think. You have games for playstation like final fantasy on multiple cd's and for computer like Baldurs Gate on I believe 5 cds! and these games cost no more than any other single cd game.

What is he talking about speech data not being compatible? Motson recorded all the names like 5 thousand of them on tape they use them year after year so Motson doesnt have to do the job from the scratch but just add the new incoming players. So all they had to do is tranfer the master tapes to whatever type file the were using in this game. This answer was really bad.

What he meant to say is people complained that defenses were too tough in 99, so they made the defense much more lax in how fast they close on a player and tackle the ball away. So now we get like a break-away opportunity once a minute, break-away opportunities even when the given team is up by a goal and thoeretically should be defending tightly. I think they went too far in favor of offense!

Why did they have to cut rosters to size? no reason given, what people were complaining of too many players to choose from? And about patches what the heck are the people who have the Playstation version supposed to do?

Reduce number of screens? what a blatant bogus lie, he meant to say we were rushing the product and had no time for programmer to write the option in, same goes for all the other options left out like ability to control more than one team in the league play. And where are the realistic fixture lists like we got in 98 and 99? no time for that either...

[This message has been edited by PolishPower (edited 11-07-1999).]

Icabola you did well and sent your letter to EA.I cannot say the same thing about EA however...The answers are childish and in some cases ridiculus...
But i have to say to you Icabola that you haven't writen the biggest problem of the game.I am talking about field size.In reality the circle in the middle of the game is about the same size as 11 players who lie down.In Fifa 2000(and all fifas) it is only 3(!!) players.That means that the gameplay turns too fast because the field is too small compared to the players.
I have to say also that this the last product of EA that i buy.I think we have been too much patient with EA sports.There are other games that have even more teams included and of course with better gameplay.In Fifa2000 i cannot make the 1-2 pass because the damn ball is glued to the player's foot!This is one of the most important features in reality.Strong and percistent defenses are often defeated only by the 1-2 pass OR with combinations that include 3 or even 4 players.These things are impossible in ALL fifa series.So where is the realism?They have tactics now?Bulls**t...
When you cannot enjoy the game like you enjoy it in reality then it is no good.Even Sensible world of soccer was more fun than this!If any of you think that EA will come up with a terrific fifa2001 or with some extraordinary patches that will make a job that could not be done in 1 year and fix the bugs then i'm afraid you are daydreaming folks...I can tolerate many things but not this...They promised they will make the game realistic and all i can see is 22 chickens running in the grass.In World class mode you can forget about combinations or even decent passes.The only way you can score is with shooting from long range or wait for the keeper to make a mistake.Also i have to say a thing...I am a BIG fan of AEK Athens but i have to admit something...I played in world class mode AEK 5-0 Barcelona...AEK is good in reality too but i do NOT think they can beat Barcelona with 5-0!!!Where is the realism here either?i can take Al Ahly(!!!!) and beat The big Brazil of the 70s with
6-1...And i ask you now...Is that what you want?If not then let's ALL email EA and DEMAND what we want.I pay i want.If you want to play a decent game then act and stop whining about EA and stuff.If you prefer to keep whining then go look for a decent soccer game in the stores and pray that you get lucky this time...that's all i had to say...

Demis...

I have sent a letter to EA yesterday. And I wrote about crappy gameplay, pointing to about 8 specific aspects that make it so crappy, and also to what I thought should be done in order to improve it. I think there is very little chance that they visit this forum and read our complaints... So, yes, LET'S ALL E-MAIL EASPORTS, AND DO THAT FREQUENTLY, SO THAT THEY FINALLY TAKE NOTICE. BUT:

TRY BEING AS SPECIFIC AS YOU CAN, don't just write "we want better AI", AND WITHOUT MUCH OFFENSE TO EA, since they just might as well tell us go and !@#$ ourselves.

This is the last reply from Eric -TECHSUPPORT from EASPORTS FIFA 2000

Hello Ica,
Thanks for contacting Electronic Arts technical support. We appreciateyour
comments and analysis of FIFA 2000. I have forwarded you email on tothe
production team for FIFA 2000. It's obvious that you are a fan of the
series and I wish that I could answer all of your questions, however Iam
not in a position to do so at this time. I would like to thank you for the
enthusiasm and interest you have expressed toward our products as well as
for the time you have taken to let us know the kind of software we canmake
for you. This input is valuable in helping us make better products, notto
mention that we simply enjoy hearing your views and suggestions.
All of us at Electronic Arts share your interest in making the finest
products that we can.


Thank you,


Eric H.EA Online

Please include all previous emails (AOL users will have to cut andpaste the
contents of this email into their reply.) and refer to:
http://www.ea.com/tech_support/ for more information. If you havefound a
solution other than what I have suggested, please reply
with that solution so we can better serve our customers.


PS from Icabola:
================
Sorry for not to put stadium size as one of a big problem too in FIFA 2000! I know the stadium is too small!


Regards,

Icabola

If FIFA 2K came on 2 cd's, how would they fit the exact same coding/data onto N64 or PSX? They couldn't. They'd have to come up with a PC only version - which would be nice, and I would have nothing against it. If you look at it from EA's point of view, they have to come out with a game that can be duplicated on several systems. Diablo II, which is on 4 CDs, does not have an N64 version or a PSX version.

Can you say RIP OFF?


David

Swarthy it doesn't exactly work like that there have been quite a niumber of games for playstation on multiple cd's. Plus there is already much space left over on the current game, there is even a few minute movie on the playstation disc about the making of the game.

Also Alexey I disagree with you that the best way to go is to send e-mails to EA, you know where those e-mails go straight to the trash, they don't even bother reading them...

I think the best chance for any changes to be made in future games is if fan groups, or web sites dedicated to FIFA speak in one voice about the game, and the things they would like to see implemented.

[This message has been edited by PolishPower (edited 11-07-1999).]