We’re barely a month removed from the fifth FIFA 17 title update, which perhaps most notably removed some identifiable information from the FUT Champions matchup screen, but another update from the EA SPORTS studio crew is upon us.
Available now on PC — and if history is any barometer, coming to consoles in a matter of days — the patch doesn’t appear at face value to impact gameplay in any meaningful way, but does offer some additional behind the scenes tweaks and enhancements.
YouTubers and FIFA hardcores alike took to Twitter with mock outrage after the last title update successfully removed the club, badge, club established date, and squad names from the FUT Champions matchup screen but failed to hide the information if you advanced just two more screens. This and a much requested tweak to how you sort players in your club highlight what could be one of the more interesting FUT focused updates in recent memory.
Here’s the main changes to be aware of in the sixth FIFA 17 title update:
1. Added an option to reverse sort players from your Club
ooooooooo EA have listened to us
— Bateson87 (@bateson87) February 21, 2017
On PC there is the ability to search "Quicksell Value" in your club so you can find the untradeables fast pic.twitter.com/pwsCPyQkRU
If you’re a big proprietor of the various gold upgrade, guaranteed league untradeable Squad Building Challenges, you’ve undoubtedly run into the road block of not trivially being able to find some of those untradeable cards when completing a newer SBC. Sometimes you might even forget you have certain players that could make getting yet another pack or OP player that much easier.
No more.
With the new sort by ‘Quick Sell Value’, option, especially if you’re a hardcore collector, finding your untradeable cards first (which have a Quick Sell Value of 0) has never been easier.
2. Added further anonymity to the FUT Champions intro flow
GG @EASPORTSFIFA pic.twitter.com/RUYiueehbq
— Bateson87 (@bateson87) February 21, 2017
This seemed like an obvious tweak/enhancement but in fairness to the FIFA development team, if you haven’t worked in their code base, it’s not exactly fair to speculate how trivial or easy something truly is. What may seem like a subtle tweak may actually be disproportionately tricky or in doing so may culminate in an unintended side effect elsewhere.
Given the levels of QA and infrastructure in place to make sure even the smallest of enhancements don’t result in unintentional issues elsewhere, it’s critical for the dev team to not rush nice-to-have polish and improvements. And as a reward for our patience, this solid one is finally coming to FUT Champions.
For those that still wish even kits were made anonymous during matchups, it’s a decent enough idea — and would certainly making using those rewards kits possible and not result in an automatic match back out. The primary issue being with some folks suffering from color vision deficiency (aka color blindness) and the difficulty in the existing game in predetermining avoiding contrasting colors (think about the keeper kits and the officials), automatically preventing like color kit matchups anonymously doesn’t seem realistic at the moment.
3. Updated over 1200 2D Player images
@Marshall89HD cool we get to filter untradeables and new pics! :D pic.twitter.com/0D4QVndFas
— sup (@Tmayorga_) February 21, 2017
Players’ looks and features change, often during the season. While FIFA 15 was the first such FUT to update player card photos in-game, those kind of tweaks historically have been primarily reserved for PC. EA’s apparently tapped into a solve for console, taking advantage of their photo licenses to give us a visual refresh, albeit a subtle one.
4. Updated boots for certain Players.
The new boots thing is only small, but something I've wanted for years on FUT. Updated weekly on H2H alongside kit style, keeps it fresh
— GCIIMessi (@GCIIMessi) February 21, 2017
Whether this change was endorsement/licensing driven or simply an aesthetic one, it’s tough to say for certain whether you’ll even notice new cleats in-game or which players those might impact. If nothing else, it’s hard to fault anyone for such attention to detail oriented improvements.
Here’s the complete FIFA 17 title update 6 release notes:
The sixth title update for FIFA 17 is now available.
This update includes the following changes:
Addressed the following in FIFA Ultimate Team:
-Added an option to reverse sort players from your Club for a better experience in Squad Building Challenges.-Added further anonymity to the FUT Champions intro flow.
Visual/Presentation changes:
-Updated over 1200 2D Player images.
-Updated boots for certain Players.Thanks to those who’ve provided feedback. Throughout the course of the FIFA 17 season we’ll provide you with more information and updates if and when they become available.