FIFA 18 - sponsored by capitalising the thread title

[Dark Soldier]

I'll be sticking on Professional and below as its unbelievably jarring how much bullshit occurs beyond those levels. I'm sure those who've played every iteration and know how to counter such are fine with it, but coming as a fresh pair of eyes who'd barely touched the series for many, many years, the fact your AI controlled team mates are literal fucking imbeciles whilst the AI controlled opposition steamrolls your players like a tank unit is, essentially, fuck that noise. The amount of goal mouth scrambles I have where my players just stand there, or run the fuck away is insane, and that's at both ends of the pitch. Whack it on World Class and their 50 STR winger is bullying my 79 STR FB like he's a small child. Defending better now, definitely, but relying on any player you don't control is an absolute crapshoot, and I'm finding the right stick switching to be fairly hopeless.

Pro is my level for a challenge, Semi-Pro if I want an end to end game. Very happy sticking there, and won't be heading online.

There's the starting line-up:



Selling all my dross on the list and made 120k so far selling around 75 players (still got 500+ at the club). Inaki Williams is a beast.

[Yevrah]

Inaki Williams is an absolute don.

One thing that hadn't fully dawned on me until I played a game on beginner earlier (to get the bierfest kit via 10 goals with players from the Bundesliga) is that the CPU (as well as indulging in thuggery with complete impunity) actively makes your players worse the higher the difficulty level is.

[SincereTheRebel]

You packed an untradeable Griezmann? Man, that sucks.

Yeah i jswapped 11 gold players for a pack and got him. I have no interest in creating a la liga or french team at the moment so he is just going to sit with the other 200+ players i have that are shelved.

[Dark Soldier]

One thing that hadn't fully dawned on me until I played a game on beginner earlier (to get the bierfest kit via 10 goals with players from the Bundesliga) is that the CPU (as well as indulging in thuggery with complete impunity) actively makes your players worse the higher the difficulty level is.

Yup, above Pro it feels my players suddenly loose accuracy, control and all round ability whilst lower gold AI players touch Messi levels at points. Its a false difficulty, really, and pretty much the one thing I hate most in videogames. I mean, I'm shit, not saying I should be battering the opposition at those levels, but when its so clearly obvious it jars. See super keeper and 7 shots hitting the woodwork as you score none in FM.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Happens in all sports games and it's easily the most annoying thing about them.

[Yevrah]

Corners, what are people doing with them?

I must have had hundreds and I've scored from about two.

[SincereTheRebel]

I like to press L1 until it manual selects the tallest player to control. Put him near the penalty spot and deliver. Lots of chances are created like that.

[Yevrah]

Cheers Sincere, I'll give that a whirl.

Played two of the last 4 squad battles I have and hit the 40,000 points mark. Still only have a 2,500 cushion in Elite 3 though, so guess I'd better play the rest.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I put mine (Lukaku) halfway between the penalty spot and the corner of the six yard box.

Keeper wont come and it usually ends up in a good chance.

Lol at this:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I love the new crossing so much.

It's going to royally suck when they patch it to fuck.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, fair play to them, crossing is much better/more effective than 17.

Finished the final two games with wins to end on 42,326, firmly in Elite 3, but at least 7,000 away from Elite 2.

That'll be

1 Rare Gold Pack
1 Premium Gold Players Pack
1 Jumbo Premium Gold Pack
20,800 coins
Some wank kit.

Chuck in the 2 Jumbo Premium Gold's I'll get tomorrow from the Icon edition as well and it'd be nice to get something decent. Which reminds me, my TOTW loans have been so so bad thus far. Not even worth bringing off the bench levels of shit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've had David Silva and Brahimi.

Silva was pretty good but I prefer Eriksen.

[Yevrah]

Simen Soraunet Wangberg and Patrick Mullins.

I mean, come on.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Genuinely never even heard of them.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just pulled OTW Sanchez from a pack.

[Yevrah]

Nice.

Just won Division 8 Ultimate League offline and the bronze pack reward had a couple of players in it that look like they go for 10k combined. Nice surprise.

[Yevrah]

Did the Delle Alli SB and having won the game kicked me out before I got back to the points screen, so no points for that one.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Brozovic as my loan TOTW today.

Which no name player did you get, Yev?

[SincereTheRebel]

I now have four TOTW players and not one of them is worth over 20k. Disappointed.

[SincereTheRebel]

Ive also decided, there isnt any benefit to hoard players. Ive got players who i have no interest using and could easily fetch over 100k. Sometimes i forgot, if i need them. I can but them back. Players dont really lose value. They only gain value depending on if they are needed for squad builder.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Which means there is benefit to hoarding them...

Or being able to predict the SBCs and buying shit for when they drop.

[SincereTheRebel]

Which means there is benefit to hoarding them...

Or being able to predict the SBCs and buying shit for when they drop.

Yeah, but its too much work. Yevrah, mentioned something like this too. Unless you tell me which players to keep, im selling them all once i go back home.

[Yevrah]

Brozovic as my loan TOTW today.

Which no name player did you get, Yev?

I can't even remember, but it was yet another 76ish rated pos that I hadn't heard of before.

Got two rubbish billboards as well, which got my hopes up for no reason. One La Liga keeper and Daniel Carvalho (who I think I'll rapidly grow to hate in this version).

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah, but its too much work. Yevrah, mentioned something like this too. Unless you tell me which players to keep, im selling them all once i go back home.

I've only sold SBC players, people over 84 and duplicates since I bought OTW Lukaku (I was selling everyone before to scrape together the coins).

I've stopped selling some 84+ guys now, only ones at the bigger clubs get sold.

[Yevrah]

Sebastian Andersson.

[SincereTheRebel]

Sebastian Andersson.

he is already OTW

[The Merse]

Ive also decided, there isnt any benefit to hoard players. Ive got players who i have no interest using and could easily fetch over 100k. Sometimes i forgot, if i need them. I can but them back. Players dont really lose value. They only gain value depending on if they are needed for squad builder.

They gain massively when needed for SBC’s though. Take Toulouse silvers - they sold for 15-20k for most of last year due to them being needed in the Lacazette SBC. Similarly, all 82+ players go up massively when required. I’ve just bought a shitload of Silvers from the top leagues and a large number of top league 81-85s to hoard. Either I’ll do the SBCs I’d otherwise not have afforded, or ill sell them off when the SBCs land that I’ve opted not to go for. That’s how I had two full squads of TOTS players by the end of last year.

Ventured online today as lag wasn’t bad. Qualified for the weekend league very easily at first attempt, which was nice and won D10.

[Trancemeister]

Got 2 packs from the squad battles and the best I got was Macherano.

[The Merse]

Right, squads I'm taking into the Weekend League:



G Asenjo LB Mendy RB Vidal CB Umtiti CB Natcho Fernandez LM Nkoudou RM Vela CM Kovacic CM Bakayoko ST Gameiro ST Bakambu



G Mignolet LB Shaw RB Clyne CB Zouma CB Keane LM Gnabry RM Zaha CM Goretzka CM Henderson ST Werner ST Wilson

Favourite goal of the week came in the final of the DKT:
http://tinypic.com/r/nmm5g2/9

[Dark Soldier]

Shexi bastard.

Gotta do that loyalty cheese now to finish an SBC, play ten games with some shite bronze players to finish the last puzzle needed

[Dark Soldier]

Just bought this bad boy to replace Paulinho:

http://www.futhead.com/18/players/48589/daniel-wass/

[The Merse]

Just bought this bad boy to replace Paulinho:

http://www.futhead.com/18/players/48589/daniel-wass/

Let me know how you get on - I liked the look of him but the M/M workrates put me off.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Shexi bastard.

Gotta do that loyalty cheese now to finish an SBC, play ten games with some shite bronze players to finish the last puzzle needed

You can just kick off, disconnect (on PS4 just go to network setting and untick then tick the connect to internet box) and repeat.

[Dark Soldier]

You can just kick off, disconnect (on PS4 just go to network setting and untick then tick the connect to internet box) and repeat.

Was gonna but realised I had three players from a pack that gelled exactly as needed so saved myself the bother. Got fuck all from the packs but ah well.
@The Merse - Will do, I don't know what that M/M stuff is because I'm shit though

[SincereTheRebel]

They gain massively when needed for SBC’s though. Take Toulouse silvers - they sold for 15-20k for most of last year due to them being needed in the Lacazette SBC. Similarly, all 82+ players go up massively when required. I’ve just bought a shitload of Silvers from the top leagues and a large number of top league 81-85s to hoard. Either I’ll do the SBCs I’d otherwise not have afforded, or ill sell them off when the SBCs land that I’ve opted not to go for. That’s how I had two full squads of TOTS players by the end of last year.

Ventured online today as lag wasn’t bad. Qualified for the weekend league very easily at first attempt, which was nice and won D10.

Good knowledge. Becuase of this statmement, im also going to buy silvers from the main leagues and hope they can be turned over for profit.

[The Merse]

Good knowledge. Becuase of this statmement, im also going to buy silvers from the main leagues and hope they can be turned over for profit.

Just be aware it's a waiting game and not everyone pays off. As long as you're buying cheaply, the worst that can happen is you makes some small losses and the odd big gain. I intend to focus on the La Liga and Bundesliga players as EA appear to continuing last year's trend of releasing the full league SBC's for the top scorers in the league that are still playing there. Last year it was Suarez and Lewandowski for those leagues, this year it'll be Aubameyang and Messi. Which would be fucking ridiculous as they're also upgraded. So, I'll likely not s

The value is found in teams where Silvers are unavoidable - Toulouse needed 5 or 6 of the fuckers, hence they were valuable. So many Gold packs are opened that whilst their value goes up a little, it's not enough, and Bronze pack method is a big thing, so again there are more Bronzes on the market. I'd suggest the likes of Augsburg who will need multiple silvers will be a good investment. Even more so in positions where there aren't many options (like if they have only 2 strikers in their players pool, or only 1 winger on the left or right).

[Yevrah]

Merse has nailed that. Brighton are another example of one to look at I'd suggest.

In other matters, looks like the squad battles points requirements this week are going to be vastly increased.

[The Merse]

Bakambu (HWK) is absolutely deadly. Gameiro feels a lot like last years Aguero, save for a wee bit of the 'jinking' quality of the latter. His movement is great and his acceleration pulls him right away from defenders with ease. Would also recommend Werner highly and Wilson might be about as good a <2k striker as it's possible to buy.

Of the defenders I've been using, Clyne and Umtiti stand out as players I'll likely keep in the team longer-term.

Would love a TOTW Goretzka tomorrow.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Could see IFs for Walker and Salah tomorrow

[SincereTheRebel]

Merse has nailed that. Brighton are another example of one to look at I'd suggest.

In other matters, looks like the squad battles points requirements this week are going to be vastly increased.

Went on a mad one last night. Spent around 30k on silver rated stars. Playing close attention to the teams in the top flight of divisions who only have silver players in one position.

[John]

OTW Sigurdsson has more than doubled in price. My decision to buy two of them the other night looks like it might pay off.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Got DC'd during a 5-0+ win

[The Merse]

Went on a mad one last night. Spent around 30k on silver rated stars. Playing close attention to the teams in the top flight of divisions who only have silver players in one position.

Should work out well if you picked up em dead cheap. Look out for POTM and Marquee Matchups needing them, along with the league SBCs.

Hopefully FUTBin get their import club thing from last year going again soon. It had a handy view where you could check the lowest bins for all the players in your club to identify who had value, even showed the SBC they were relevant to.

Edit - packed a silver America player in a bronze pack (the Mexican club that is) - went for 3.5k almost instantly as lowest BIN

[SincereTheRebel]

These acroynyms are killing me

SBC - Squad Builder Challenge
TOTW - Team Of The Week
POTM - Player Of The Week
DC'd - Disconnected?
HWK - ?
TOTS - Team Of The Season?
OTW - ?
IF - In Form
STR - ?
BIN - Buy It Now

[John]

HWK is an abbreviation, not an acronym. It refers to the Hawk chemistry style card.

OTW is One To Watch, the dynamic cards which update to match the latest version of that player.

[AyDee]

Is the general opinion that FIFA 18 is better than previous editions/worth buying? Didn't buy FIFA last year but have had a few matches on the FIFA 18 demo and it seems pretty sick. Won 3-2 on world-class and all the goals felt largely attributable to my own [in]competence, rather than a spazzy AI, which is promising.

[SincereTheRebel]

Given how tim cahil has just sent austrlia to the world cup with two goals. Should I buy him?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

No.

Tuesday games don't count towards TOTW considerations.

[John]

The only way he'd have been of use last year would be if they released an SBC, but this year they seem to use those 'locked slots' for player specific challenges and even if they release one which needs him the reward card won't be popular enough to boost the price much.

[SincereTheRebel]

No.

Tuesday games don't count towards TOTW considerations.

International games on Tuesday dont count or all games on Tuesdays dont count?