People should be rotating, making runs and using space where it develops. Designated positions encourages people to play more rigid. Especially if their player didn't have the right "stats" for a different part of the pitch. The only one I'd let people choose to prefer is GK, and 5 stack teams to choose their starting location at kick off, but all players should be equal with user skill the only factor involved
#Positions
analog drift
silent wing
I like your idea, but I think Roles are a more apt name for this post, and that it should be it's own separate game mode.
There are games that have role queues as a separate queue/ranking/mode, so it'd be cool to see this version you're suggesting experimented with in an arcade/casual mode first.
I think roles with an added bonus sound cool, and building on your idea, I'd suggest something like fifa's volta skill tree where you could allocate points and choose where to be stronger and where to compromise.
That could either a unique skill tree for each individual role, or a shared skill tree for all roles.
For example, you could have a striker who is physical and good in the air, but slower/less stamina (relies more on positioning or poaching the ball), vs a striker who is more pacey but not so physical (so they have to rely more on picking their runs/through balls vs head to heads).
Defenders who could be pacey and have more stamina but with worse tackling and jumping/heading vs defenders who are physical and better in the air but not as quick.
Similar things for a sweeper keeper vs a traditional goalie or a CAM vs a CDM.
Just as an idea! 🙂
silent wing
So I don't make a duplicate post with the same title, regarding positions rather than roles, I half agree with @analog drift :
I think for the current game modes on offer fluidity/adaptability is key.
That being said maybe someone just isn't a good striker (myself for example) but is good or great at other positions (i.e passing/defending/goalkeeping or any combination of these).
My suggestion is that you should be able to choose a *preference for (a minimum of two positions) * default starting positions for when the game is loading/at each kick-off.
I'm only going to talk about 5v5s as that's the ranked format:
The game currently loads with this formation:
GK, DEF, 2x MID (presented as wingers) and ST.
My suggestion is that you should be able to choose a minimum of two of these, just for where your starting position could possibly be, (and this could either be kept for the entire game or shuffled around). Once the kick-off takes place, you can swap around freely and move about as needed, as is the case right now.
As an example, if I choose GK, DEF, MID/WING, I'd be equally likely to spawn into one of these, and not be considered for the ST position if another player has set it as one of their preferences... BUT if you've been matched into a team where no one has chosen a a preference for one particular role (e.g. No one has chosen to be a GK) , it'll be randomly assigned to someone and/or swapped around.
This would just make it easier for people to spawn into a position they prefer and avoid those awkward positional swaps that might leave your team vulnerable at the start of any kick-off.
analog drift
My suggestion would be to track your heat map every match, and cumulatively across all of your matches (or just the last 50 if it would be too much data, should just be a small file though I imagine). Have the matchmaking try to put together a team where all areas of the pitch are covered. Would be a cool icon to display under each player in the pre-match screen too. This way you could get some structure with everyone filling the areas they naturally like to anyway, and you could get a quick idea of your teammates playing style as the match loads.