EA Sports has released a new Pitch Notes with all the innovations introduced in the Volta Football. Below we report it.
For FIFA 22, we’ve made VOLTA FOOTBALL all about getting together with friends, and having a great time together. We’ve changed our core gameplay to be more rewarding when playing with flair by introducing new skills and an all new Skill Meter system, provided variety and big match moments with Signature Abilities, and created new, limited time Party Game Tournaments with VOLTA ARCADE. On top of all this, we’re going to bring you new content
throughout the year with VOLTA SEASONS. Here we go!
Gameplay
New Skill Meter
We want to make VOLTA FOOTBALL feel and play differently to any of the other modes in FIFA. For FIFA 22, we prioritized playing with flair and rewarding players for taking each other on with Skill Moves, fancy passes, and wall passes. We wanted to make sure that playing with flair isn’t just possible, but that it is the main way to play VOLTA FOOTBALL. This led to the creation of the new Skill Meter system.
Building up the Skill Meter with your team can make your next goal worth more.
You and your team can fill up the Skill Meter via the following actions:
- Making a fancy pass fills up the bar by 100
- A successful wall pass awards 200
- Beating an opponent using a Skill Move is 300
- Nutmeg an opponent for 800
- Dispossessing the other team awards 100.
The Skill Meter is broken down into 3 sections, and each section takes 1,000 Points to fill.
It’s important to note that at the time of this article being published, the points are not necessarily final and may change before or after FIFA 22 launches.
- When the first section is filled the goal multiplier is x2, this means the next goal will count as 2 goals instead of 1.
- For those that have played some of the House Rules games in Kick Off, this should be familiar to you.
- The second section is x3.
- The third section is x4.
The addition of high value goals is intended to bring additional excitement to every match. You can be down by three goals in the last seconds of the game and still come back to win with a last second goal you’ve built up by skilling around your opponents.
Signature Abilities
Potrebbero Interessarti
The Skill Meter isn’t all that’s new and exciting for VOLTA FOOTBALL gameplay. We’re delivering a new mechanic, Signature Abilities, that has two main purposes: to ratchet up the excitement and tension of gameplay, and to give you more agency and control over how you influence the game.
Signature Abilities are brand new, easy-to-use, game-changing abilities for you to trigger during a match. Whether you want to slam home thundering shots from anywhere on the pitch, blow past opponents with lightning pace, or rattle bones with crunching tackles, Signature Abilities are there to help.
How they work:
- When you create your Avatar, you’ll get to select one of three unique Signature Abilities.
- You can also change your Signature Ability at any time from the Player Role screen.
- At the beginning of a match, your Signature Ability will start on cooldown.
- Over time, you’ll see your Signature Ability Meter, located at the bottom of the screen, fill up slowly, with each ability having a different cooldown timer.
- When your Signature Ability Meter is full, it will glow and pulse and you’ll see a prompt on screen to tap RB / R1 to activate your chosen Signature Ability.
- Once pressed, your Signature Ability will be active for a short duration. Make the most of it while you can!
- After a short period, your Signature Ability will end and go back into cooldown and you’ll have to wait for the Signature Ability Meter to fill up again before you can re-use it.
Our three Signature Abilities are:
Power Strike
Let thundering shots fly! When activated, your Shot Power Attribute gains a 50% boost and can exceed the usual 99 Attribute cap. These shots are so strong, they’ll knock over and stumble defenders and GKs standing in their way, giving you and your teammates an opportunity to follow up with an open shot at goal if you don’t score on that first try. This ability has a 30 second duration and an 80 second cooldown.
Pure Pace
Move like the wind! When activated, your max Speed and Acceleration Attributes gain huge boosts and can exceed the usual 99 Attribute cap. As a great all-around ability, you can use Pure Pace to blow past opponents on counter attacks, to hustle back on defense to stop a fast break, and more. This ability has a 15 second duration and a 70 second cooldown.
Aggressive Tackle
Unleash devastating shoulder barges and slide tackles! When activated, you can knock your opponents to the ground with huge shoulder charges and slick slide tackles – all without getting called for the foul. Triggerable in attack and defence, you can use your Aggressive Tackle to take out defenders and create space for your teammates on the attack, or to take out opposing attackers and win back possession on defense. This ability has a 45 second duration and a 90
second cooldown.
Fundamental Improvements
We knew there was no point in incentivizing taking people on if we didn’t improve your chances of it being successful so we made improvements to the defender avoidance logic. This allows you to perform Skill Moves without running into or being slowed down by the defender. We also know wall passing had huge potential, but the walls were too punishing to use consistently. This year, our team made the walls more forgiving, giving you another way to get the pass through the opposition. Wall pass scorpion kick, oh my!
Flair and Playfulness
Are you a seasoned FIFA skiller? If so, I am super impressed and I’m probably already following you on Twitter/Insta, and there’s still amazing ways for you to show off in VOLTA FOOTBALL. But the rest of us want to look cool too!
The simple Skill Moves mechanic, which allows players to perform context appropriate Skill Moves, by holding L1 or LB, has been improved to now evaluate all Skill Moves at the next ball touch to pick a Skill Move closest to the LS direction. This increases the variety of the Skill Moves available to the simple Skill Moves mechanic as well as increase its effectiveness at beating defenders.
We also added several Skill Moves from standing as well, including the Podium Ball Stand, Fake Shoe Tie and Crazy Ball Rolls. Simply press LB or L1 to look and feel good. New flicks were added from standing which you can do by pressing in the Right Stick + a direction while standing still.
Two Player Celebrations
What’s more fun than celebrating? Celebrating with a friend!
Last year, we saw players run towards each other to celebrate after they scored, but instead of doing something together they just awkwardly circled around each other until the celebration timer expired. So, we took that behaviour and built a feature around it. Now after scoring you can celebrate with your teammates simply by running toward them, and depending on the angle, you’ll trigger a bunch of two player celebrations including hugs, hi-fives, leap frogs, and more.
Avatar Stats
We wanted to make sure when you come to VOLTA FOOTBALL, it’s fun right away. So one of the first things you’ll notice is that your avatar starts at 82 OVR and has 5* Skill Moves and 5* Weak Foot, so there’s no ramp up time to feeling great on the pitch. You can still get your avatar to 96 OVR by using Skill Points you earn for every match you play. We limited player growth to 96 rather than 99 to ensure no single player can be great at everything, we want you to rely on your teammates. While feeling sharp on the ball and having 5* Skill Moves is mandatory for all roles to
have fun in VOLTA FOOTBALL. We wanted to make sure each player could feel the difference between each build path (Shooting, Playmaking and Physical Play).
Skill Tree
While we haven’t made any fundamental changes to the VOLTA FOOTBALL Skill Tree system, we have re-tuned the Skill Tree itself to give you more meaningful choices about what role you want to play on the pitch. Additionally, we’ve cleaned it up, reduced redundancies, and made sure every single upgrade on the Skill Tree feels impactful. Gone are the insignificant Attribute gains and the confusing titles. Instead, every upgrade will give you a noticeable +5 to +12
Attribute boost.
There are three branches to choose from:
● The attacking tree will make you an ace at putting the ball in the back of the net, but you’ll be a bit more reliant on your friends to win the ball back and make a play.
● The middle branch is for moving the ball around and making plays with dribbling and passing Attribute boosts.
● The final branch is all about physical and defensive play; laugh as people try to push you off the ball and use your muscle to win it back for your team.
And as before, it’s quick and painless to reset your Skill Tree and redistribute your Skill Points if you want to change roles.
We’ve also increased the starting and max number of Skill Points. You’ll start with 25 Skill Points and earn one new skill point for every VOLTA SQUADS or VOLTA BATTLES match you play up to a cap of 120. This gives you enough Skill Points in total to completely max out one of the three branches and leave a bit of extra room to dabble in the other branches as well.
VOLTA ARCADE
VOLTA ARCADE brings you a whole new way to play FIFA online with friends. It’s a weekendonly, free-for-all, lighthearted bash where you and up to three other players can compete across a series of all-new “Party Games”, including Foot Tennis, Dodgeball, and more. Here’s how it works:
- Party up with three additional players, including friends and/or other players from the VOLTA FOOTBALL Community.
- Play a tournament consisting of four randomly selected 2v2 and free-for-all Party Games.
- Earn points based on your performance in each Party Game.
- Score the most points across all four Party Games to win the tournament.
- Earn VOLTA COINS and VOLTA SEASON XP for participating.
There will be eight Party Games available at launch, with a bunch more to come post-launch.
The initial eight are:
Dodgeball
Pair up in teams of two and dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge your way to victory! Earn points for drilling your friends and foes with footballs. The first team to score 15 points wins.
Foot Tennis
Volley, lob, and smash the ball back and forth with style in this 2v2 game mode. Test your accuracy and trick your opponents with fancy lobs, or set your teammate up for a surprise header. Just don’t let the ball hit the ground twice or you’ll lose the point. The first team to score 10 points wins this Party Game.
Disco Lava
Dribble over white tiles on the floor to claim them and score points. Every player starts in the middle of a square pitch. White tiles will appear on the pitch. Players have to race to step on them and claim them as their own. Once all tiles are claimed, a new set of white tiles will appear. Whoever has claimed the most tiles when time expires wins.
Quick Strike
Score as quickly as you can on the highlighted goals. Every player starts in the middle of a ring of goals. After a few moments, one to four goals will light up. Score in one of these goals as quickly as you can to earn as many points as possible. The player with the most points at the end of eight rounds wins.
Wall Ball Elimination
Remember playing wall ball on the school playground? Welcome to Wall Ball Elimination! On your turn,indicated by a circular turn-timer appearing under your feet, kick the ball off of the wall as quickly as you can to stave off elimination. If your underfoot turn-timer expires, you’re out!
Points are scored based on the order of elimination. The player with the most points after three rounds wins.
Team Keepaway
Keep possession, beat your opponents with Skill Moves, and collect trophies to gain points for your team and take over the pitch in a game of 2v2 keepaway. Take over the entire pitch or the majority of the pitch when time expires to win each round. The best of three rounds wins.
Target Gallery
Hit as many moving targets as you can to earn points. There are three types of targets with three different values: rings (fewest points), large player cutouts, and golden single-player cutouts (most points). Score as many points as you can before time expires to win.
Corner Scramble
Fight for loose balls and deposit them into your corner goal to score points. Each “round”, one to four balls will spawn in the middle of the pitch. Race to collect those balls and score as many as you can in your assigned goal. The player who has collected the most balls when time expires wins.
VOLTA SQUADS
VOLTA SQUADS returns for FIFA 22 with a host of improvements and updates.
You will experience a new streamlined way to connect and play online with up to three friends, or simply have other VOLTA FOOTBALL players drop in to your lobby for 4v4 play. We did this to keep the focus of playing VOLTA FOOTBALL online, with and against other people.
Online Focused 4v4
Play 4v4 small-sided football with up to 3 friends, or drop in and join other members of the VOLTA FOOTBALL community.
We removed the In-game positions to enable more free-flowing football. We wanted players to be able to attack and defend when the situation calls for it instead of feeling forced into specific positions or roles for the duration of the match.
The stadium is now randomly selected from a pool of stadiums that will update each season.
Each stadium can have walls or no walls to create variety in gameplay.
New Lobby and Additional Squads Updates
The new lobby functions not just as a starting point for matchmaking, but also as a hangout spot for you and your friends. Invite your friends to your lobby, and watch them change their signature ability, or update their look in real-time as they browse the store for the latest outfits.
Here are the changes we’ve made to the lobby experience:
Friends Widget
● Quickly access your friends list to invite them to your lobby
● Played a match recently with a drop-in teammate you’re not yet friends with? Just tab over to “Recent Teammates” to send them a friend request
● Anyone in the party can invite a friend, so the host doesn’t need to have a full group to get started.
Changing Game Modes
● Keep your lobby together as you easily switch modes between VOLTA SQUADS and VOLTA ARCADE, without the need to disband and resend invites
More Info On Player Card
● Player Cards now show each player’s equipped Signature Ability so the team can make tactical changes before the next game.
● Players Cards also show additional statuses in a lobby, like whether a player is customizing or shopping.
Objectives Tracker
● Take a quick glance at the objectives tracker to view your next Weekly Objectives before your next match
VOLTA SEASONS
VOLTA SEASONS is a new approach to releasing content throughout VOLTA FOOTBALL 22. Seasons will update on an approximately 6 week cadence and feature a wealth of new content including:
● Seasonal Gameplay Environments
● Seasonal Clothing Collections
● Seasonal Progression Unlocks
● Weekly Objectives
● VOLTA SEASONS Lobby Environment
Each season you will have the opportunity to unlock new content through regular play in VOLTA FOOTBALL. By playing matches and completing Weekly Objectives you will gain Seasonal XP that will allow you to level up in the season and unlock unique seasonal content that can only be earned through XP rewards.
A huge chunk of the VOLTA COINS you earn will be through the Seasonal XP unlocks, so make sure you finish your Objectives!
VOLTA FOOTBALL will feature brand new outfits for you to customize your Avatar with. Season 1 features content from Adidas, PSG x Jordan, Killa Villa as well as Future themed items designed by our internal creative teams.
VOLTA FOOTBALL brings you into the not-so-distant future with its City-X environment. City-X features a 5v5 pitch set against a futuristic cityscape. Plus the cameras are little flying drones!
Removed For VOLTA FOOTBALL 22
Part of game development is listening and learning, so to close out the Pitch Notes I’d like to give a little shout out and explanation to some of the things that you won’t see in VOLTA FOOTBALL anymore.
Recruiting Players
We really want to focus the experience this year on you and your avatar, as well as playing with your friends. We want the experience to be about self expression and bonding with other gamers through exciting gameplay. While recruiting players, icons, and celebrities provided some interest, we saw that the motivation was conflicting with the core experience we were creating. It took the focus away from developing and customizing your Avatar and playing with friends.
Chemistry
There are two main reasons we removed Chemistry from this year’s experience. First, as mentioned above, we want to focus more on you and your friends and less on individual squad-building. The Chemistry system was directly linked to this individual squadbuilding; it required you to recruit new players with the right home turfs, the right preferred formations, and the right positions and to arrange them appropriately on the pitch. With less of a focus on the squad and more of a focus on you, the Chemistry system no longer makes sense for VOLTA FOOTBALL. Plus, without being able to recruit, you don’t really have the tools necessary to optimize Chemistry in a way that will provide real benefit to you as a player.
Second, we realized that in online and cooperative play, positions and home fields and preferred formations just aren’t that interesting. One of the unique things about VOLTA FOOTBALL is how fluid and free-flowing gameplay is; you continuously shift between positions, and your team’s formation adapts and adjusts throughout the game. So, giving you advantages or disadvantages based on positions and preferred formations no longer made sense for our
experience.
Single Player Story Mode (The Debut)
With our focus on an online social-centric experience for you and your friends we made the choice to move away from a single player story. So if you’re looking for a fast-paced, exciting, online-focused gameplay experience to play with your friends, VOLTA FOOTBALL is the placefor you.
Solo Online Play
A common theme with this year’s experience is we’re focused on you playing with and against other humans. Be nice to each other, and make new friends online. Everyone in VOLTA FOOTBALL is there to have fun! We’re still early in the development of this new game mode, so we’re looking to build a positive, vibrant and diverse community. Treat people with respect, dignity and occasionally rip them apart with Skill Moves all in good fun. If you’re looking for a
space to play by yourself, we still have VOLTA BATTLES, a great place to practice your skills and play on your own terms while still earning XP and VOLTA COINS.
FIFA 22 is available from October 1st on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Steam and Nintendo Switch. Keep on following us also through our social Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for other news and information.
