Den som spelat online har garanterat vid något tillfälle upplevt "input delay" i större eller mindre grad. Inför lanseringen av FC 26 ville utvecklarna på EA Sports lära sig mer kring detta problem för att kunna bjuda på en så bra online-upplevelse som möjligt.
Sam Rivera, producent på studion, berättar i en intervju med IGN; "We really needed to understand the root of the problem. We worked with pro players, we gathered data from players all around the world to try to understand the issues, but we didn't want to only listen to the feedback. We wanted to experience input delay ourselves. So we also traveled to Europe to meet with pro players at their eSports studios. We actually met with content creators at their homes, and we learned a lot."
Studion åkte alltså hem till spelarna för att se vad som var orsaken till frustration gällande dålig uppkoppling. De lärde sig att problemen fanns i bägge ändar - både hos spelarna och hos studion själva. Att många fortfarande kör online-matcher via wifi var en sak som man pekade på som ett av problemen.
"If you play on Wi-Fi, you can have jitter and packet loss, which can create a very delayed experience. We know that more than 50% of FC players are playing on Wi-Fi, so we recommend that connecting via ethernet if possible. And then things like TV settings. If you're playing outside of game mode on a normal TV, you can get anywhere between 20 to over 100 milliseconds delaying your experience, regardless of your connection, regardless of the game, just because of the TV. So there are a lot of things that go into the equation, but what are the causes of delay when you are playing in a high-quality or good connection, or when you're playing offline?", utvecklade Rivera.
Man kikade givetvis även på hur själva spelet presterade för att se vad man kunde göra som utvecklare.
"First is limited animation coverage. Sometimes we request actions in the game that are very difficult to perform. So if there's a very fast incoming ball and I want to go for a long pass backwards, that is very difficult, and sometimes there are no animations for that. So it is like in real life, very difficult to perform. It's difficult for us to capture those animations. However, this year we're adding many new animations as well to make sure we have more coverage in general."
Riveria fortsatte; "The next one is the animation system box. Our animation system is perhaps one of the most complicated systems in the game, and it has to solve every request, every shot, every pass, considering what animations are available, where the opponents are, how the ball is moving, and all of that. And sometimes there can be a bug. So, for example, you may want to take a shot immediately, but then the system may decide to delay the shot slightly, to prefer to use the strong foot instead of taking it earlier but with the weaker foot. So things like that happen often, not very often. But when you play 20 matches on your weekend, you will experience it a few times. So this year, we're fixing dozens of those problems in the game."
EA Sports verkar alltså göra det mesta som står i deras makt för att eliminera problem som kan uppstå online. Gällande ifall det verkligen går att göra det helt problemfri så svarar Riveria; "Well, it depends. There are many factors that go into input delay. There are factors that are sometimes internal, sometimes external. Then there's not a simple fix other than providing more information to the community, trying to help with their setups as well, making sure everyone has the right setup. But at least we think that there's a big opportunity. There's a big opportunity there. We have done a very good step in FC 26 to create a more responsive game."
EA Sports FC 26 släpps till PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch samt Nintendo Switch 2 - den 25:e september. Ultimate edition-omslaget kommer prydas av ingen mindre än Zlatan Ibrahimović
Zlatan pryder omslaget.