Want changes for FIFA2003 not 2004, many people have great ideas and make sum excellent patches, EA should they find it not cost-effective to do themselves, should commision these patchers to assist, or alllow them to make tools like the CC with EA's help, review those patch makers material, modifiy it as they see it appropriate then release it, b/c we all know EA can't be bothered (not good business sense it's thought) to make modifications to already released games, so use the effort that enthusiastic forum members make (e.g. Chau li's FED and others like FCD
then all the EA FIFA series team need do is modify it accordingly.
Creation Centre is a great idea, it MUST not be scrapped in the next FIFA game [i as well as others find it extremely ANNOYING when a good thing is in one FIFA game, then is left out of the next - like the multi-user teams in Tournaments like season and custom cups, and gameplay aspects like curving the ball, IN in one edition, out in the next...its got to stop. Bad porgramming, or lack of though may flaw the idea or not make it work as well as is conceivable or plausible for use by customers, but instead of remove it in the next edition, correct the bugs and improve it (another e.g. was the setpiece movements in FIFA2k/2k1 and the in-game strategy), the Creation Centre must be improved not removed
Take on-board the suggestions people make and modify the Creation Centre, don't scrap it, its good work,or the idea of it is good, as it frees up space for more features to be included in-game as well.
Create a SEASON EDITOR, - now i spent a few hours outlining the format of a possible season editor which could be on the menu of the Creation CEntre and/or take the form of a MICROSOFT setup WIZARD. - The season editor would allow users to construct season games with relatviely limitless flexibility, so they could create any combination of cups and leagues, and play them on their own or with friends with any number of user teams. (the limit set as usual..i.e. by the porduct's stated minimum PC requirements i.e. the minimum is a 350MHz processor, i.e. it is conceivable that having 100 user teams and 1000leagues would not be feasible for such a machine with only 64MB or RAM to run on as the loading and showing results would simply take to long.)
Constructing your own season could highly enhance longevity of the game and sustain interest for longer periods of time as playing for purpose, long ones at that is quite addictive with all the elements already in the game, with this it could even almost rivals championship manager for addictivenes. In my outline, i suggest some of the things you would be able to create would allow you to play the games using teams in several leagues, like the English, German and Italian leagues or any user-created competition combo (leagues, cups, tournaments), as well as compete in shared competitions like the users own version of the Champions League or say, their created British cup.
Let me explain by giving this EXAMPLE: in my created season, i can have user teams such as Arsenal, Deportivol la coruna and AC Milan, the leagues in my season would or could be the English premiership, Italian Seria A and Spanish La Liga, in addition, i could have user created leagues like the League of Wales, Ireland and use the in-game league of Scotland. as cups, i would have the English FA Cup, the Italian and Spanish league cups, and a custom created British cup, Champions League and UEFA cup as well as a created Worthington Cup which i could associate only with the English League, but associate my British cup with the League of Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland. In this season editor I would even be able to assign the winner of the British club a place in the Champions League if I want, or decide it only goes to winners of the leagues of the three user teams, or/and winner of other leagues not directly involved (like the bundesliga and french league as Arsenal,Dep and Milan my user teams aren't in those leagues ) would be in this case. So the users of the three teams above, would play in their leagues and the assocaited competition cups I asssociate that league or team to. i.e. the user of Arsenal will play the English league, teh FA Cup, my created Worthington Cup, my created British Cup, my created champions league and /or UEFA cup, in the editor, i would be able to set the criteria for entry into any of these competitions. Also you could arrange your fixture list or have the editor do it based on certain availble criteria it would provide.
Of course selecting the user team is one of the last things to be done, and can take place in-game rather than CC level, as which teams i choose as usesr would depend on whether that team is represented in one of the compeititons(leagues,cups or tournaments) used in the season's construction.
It sounds easy on first thought, a little more thought might show it too complex, but detailed thought will show that such a thing is quite easily achievable and shouldn't take more than a day in feasibility assement, layout planning, and initial design. The detailed design, implementation, testing and distribution is what would porbably take a little while a month at most. I will post the layout i thought out, and a quick examination of it will show the possibilities of such a tool. In effect you could have say up to an 8-year long season campaign, with up to "X" number of user teams playing in "Y" number of competitions (such as leagues, cups and tournaments) The fixture list could be very lengthy if the numbers are large but a limit should off course be set for playablitiy by a user with the lowest specification PC , but it will certainly keep users playing or trying to complete their SEASON competitions for a while, up to a year at least, by which time off course FIFA 2004 would be out, providing newer possiblities and challenges as well as new graphics, better gameplay (with the good things of 2003 kept, the bad ones lost and new ones included hopefully).
ONe last thing, FIFA always has a lot more possiblities than the manual suggest, the game could sell more and be more enjoyable if it was made clear some of the things you could do.
And can u not do what i call quick substitiution during a match, using one of the "F" keys to make the substition (F2 for e.g.), but rather than the menu coming up, user need only type in the shirt number of the player they want off the field, followed by the shirt number of the player they want on.
[this idea obviously forces users to be more aware of the team they are using if they want to use this function effectively, and this would get them more involved in the game, making it more addictive,b/c already this would be a new challenge, one further strengthening their enjoyability because when in real life they watch a game, they would be able to recognise players by thier numbers, it will simply draw them more in football media and more into the game.