FIFA 21 Update 4 patch notes: More Ultimate Team & gameplay changes

EA SPORTS have rolled out a brand new FIFA 21 Title Update 4 for PC platform, which will soon also come to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In a flurry of changes for Career Mode, Ultimate Team, Pro Clubs and gameplay, it looks like the Squad Battles glitch has finally been removed. 

Previously, some members of the community noted that in Ultimate Team’s Squad Battles games you could set the difficulty to the highest, and some dribbling sequences would actually stop them from chasing the ball down – making for easy wins.

That exploit, as well as a number of other bugs – such as players unintentionally controlling other pros in Pro Clubs – have been removed.

This comes just days after Title Update 3 finally landed on console, and included in that was a new buff for blocking and defensive AI. While the dust hasn’t settled, in terms of community reaction for this one, it will be interesting to see how this one affects gameplay.

Here’s the full patch notes, courtesy of the EA SPORTS FIFA blog. 

FIFA 21 Title Update 4 patch notes

Gameplay:

Made the following changes:

• Adjusted referee logic in potential yellow card scenarios, with the intent of reducing the likelihood of a yellow card being given.
• The Ball Roll to Scoop Turn combination now requires a five star Skill Move Rating to perform.
• Added the “Royal Wave” Celebration to the pool of Celebrations that can occur when requesting a Random Celebration.

Addressed the following issues:

• Sometimes, the referee would end the game during inappropriate situations during Stoppage Time.
• Sometimes, players could briefly float in the air following a physically contested header, a pass, or a shot.
• Following specific dribbling sequences, the CPU AI would stop approaching the ball carrier, on some Difficulty Levels.
• The Instant Hard Tackle would sometimes result in the player lunging further forward than intended due to an animation inconsistency.
• Users could trigger Directed Runs and Player Locks on other users that were locked to one player while using Auto Positioning.
• In rare instances in certain stadiums, the goalkeeper could get stuck when trying to retrieve the ball.
• Booking scenes did not appear in some instances following a player injury.
• In some instances, the Competitor Mode CPUI AI would frequently toggle between two tactics when losing a match by two or more goals.
• In some out of game scenes, player heads would shift erratically.
• When an outfield player collided with a goalkeeper, the outfield player’s animations could become visually corrupted before recovering.
• Following a shot that connected with the goal frame, the frame could shake erratically.
• In rare instances, a goal was counted as an own goal instead of being attributed to the correct player.
• When an advantage call occurred as the first half was ending, the on screen advantage icon would sometimes persist into the second half.
• Following a foul from a tackle in the box, the foul and penalty kick was sometimes not awarded.
• In some situations following a header pass, an unnecessary defensive auto switch could occur.
• Adjusted unintentional player placement found in Skill Games Practice Scenarios.
• The Trainer overlay would display incorrect button callouts in some situations when using mouse and keyboard controls.
• The Team Press Defensive D-Pad Tactic icon didn’t always display the correct status of the action until the Defensive D-Pad Tactics were requested again. This was a visual issue only.
• In some modes, the Player Lock setting would remain enabled even after being set to Off by the player.
  • This impacted FUT Champions, Online Draft and Friendlies Play A Friend.

FIFA Ultimate Team:

Made the following changes:

• Added new animations to the Transfer Market tab of the Squads screen for when an item you have bid on is either outbid by another player, or if you have won the item.
• When using the Radial Menu on the Transfer Market tab of the Squads screen, a new icon has been added to denote the current Bid Status of the selected Player Item.
• When selecting an Anthem, Crowd Chants, Goal Song, or Club Nickname Item on the Transfer Market, the audio can now be previewed from the Bidding Options screen.
• Updated some Co-Op messaging windows to be more specific.

Addressed the following issues:

• Match lobbies displayed a one-way numerical ping value instead of the round trip.
  • The value shown is now the round trip ping value, meaning that a higher value will be displayed.
  • This was a visual issue only.
• Club badges did not display on kits during matches in some FUT game modes.
• Squad Battles displayed two different Battle Points values upon match completion.
  • This was a visual issue only, the player was being given the correct amount of Battle Points.
• When using the Compare Price function, some of the on screen text was incorrectly colored, making it difficult to read.
• Updated the overlay color when adjusting a Bid in order to make the numbers more legible.
• When claiming a Player Item Reward from Season progress, while having other Player Items on the Transfer List, the corresponding animation would display the highest OVR Player Item from the Transfer List instead of the Player Item Reward.
• In some cases, Anthem previews did not play in My Stadium customization.
• In Squad Battles, the player’s rank was not visible on the Your Rank tab in some situations.
• The first goal scored in a match was not available to view in the post-match Highlights.
• Some Badge Items displayed a placeholder image.
• When searching Home and Away Kits in My Stadium, the filters are now available for use.
• Some UI elements did not display in the More Options menu.
• When browsing the Transfer Market, the Co-Op Friends List could sometimes create a button conflict.
• Addressed a potential stability issue that could occur in Squad Battles when the ball went out of play.
• An error would occur when trying to start a FUT Co-Op Squad Battles match where one or more of the Player Items on the Captain’s Squad matched the Player Items of the opponent’s Squad.
• When switching between Confetti and Fireworks Items in My Stadium, some visual corruption could occur in the middle of the stadium.
• Some My Stadium customization changes were not saving correctly if the player viewed the screen multiple times during the same session.
• Inactive button callouts would display if the player used a ‘Take Me There’ button and immediately after tried to navigate using the Left Stick.
• The camera during the substitution scene would be blocked when using a Quick Sub in a Co-Op Squad Battles match.
• Some TIFO Items were missing an image.
• Stability issue when using the View Player Info button following a Co-Op match.
• Scoring multiple own-goals was not resulting in the match being forfeit.
  • This was correctly working in other Online game modes.
• Multiple button callouts for the Left Stick were displayed on the Squad Battles Top 200 Leaderboard screen.
• Placeholder text was present on one of the Anthem Items.
• The Assisted Headers Controller Setting could have been enabled in online FUT modes.
• The Premier League logo was hard to see on the Draft summary screen.
• Stability issue could occur when entering FUT after playing a match in Kick-Off.
• Placeholder text was displayed during the Co-Op invite flow.

VOLTA FOOTBALL:

Made the following changes:

• Updated the UI in VOLTA Squads to allow players to see the following:
  • Active Event’s Division and Rank from the VOLTA Squads HUB.
  • Rewards that are available in the active event.
  • Placement Matches information until the player has completed the 5 matches.
• Added Stars to the one-time rewards for obtaining a new Division in VOLTA Squads.
  • There will be a Claim Rewards flow for players that have already earned their one-time reward for a Division.
• Reduced the impact of excessive flair actions such as Skill Moves on Match Rating calculation.
• Increased the impact of goals scored on Match Rating calculation.

Addressed the following issues:

• Your Avatar’s Match Rating was sometimes too low, despite a good performance, if a match ended very early, such as in a ‘First to 5 Goals’ match where the 5 goals were scored quickly.
• AI Teammate kick-ins would sometimes kick the ball towards an unintended target.
• Prevented Stamina and fatigue effects from unintentionally impacting players during matches.
• In VOLTA Squads, the VOLTA COINS and growth bonuses that you get when playing with Friends were not applied to every player when playing with invited teammates.
• A Directed Run indicator would not display if the opponent performed a Directed Run first.
• Recruitable Avatars would sometimes be wearing default clothes.
• In some instances, the name above the Player Indicator was not formatted correctly.
• Following a match with 3 or more user controlled players, on the Match Result screen, “My Stats” were not calculated correctly if another player left the match before kick off.
• The player Avatar’s 2D Portrait could display a placeholder image.
• The Inventory limit could have been exceeded.
• The “Claim Reward” text was difficult to read on the Objectives screen.
• Pre-match scenes could sometimes display the incorrect match type.
• In Featured Battles, after hitting a Milestone, the ‘Next Reward’ displayed was the reward you had just earned.
• The progress animation on the post match Event Progress screen did not display correctly.
• Avatar Face Morphing customizations were not always saved.
• The post match Recruitment screen could become visually corrupted if a player didn’t have a ‘Known As’ name defined
• Sometimes, VOLTA COINS and Skill Points did not immediately update on menu UI following match completion.
  • This was a visual issue only and players were getting the correct amount of VOLTA COINS and Skill Points.
• In certain languages, some of the Objective descriptions were being cut off.
• Updated some text in Featured Battles so that it doesn’t overlap with other UI elements.
• Corrected a text inconsistency where VOLTA Squads Recent Teammates were being called Recent Squadmates.
• Updated Ed Van Gils’ model during cutscenes.

Career Mode:

Made the following changes:

• Added the ability to select a player for a Training Drill when they were already selected for a Training Drill. Doing so will prompt a confirmation pop-up.
• Adjusted Training UI to emphasize potential Sharpness gains where appropriate.
• Made the Schedule Rules easier to view while on the Weekly Schedule screen for Training.
• Increased potential variety of Youth Player kit styles, boots, and accessories.

Addressed the following issues:

• An incorrect Press Conference question could sometimes be asked after the player won their respective league competition.
• When entering a match through the Interactive Match Sim, Player Lock would become unavailable.
• In a rare situation involving a small Squad, the player controlled team could be filled with goalkeepers when Simulating for an extended period of time.
• After creating a new Career Mode save and immediately setting up a Scouting Network, the Finances screen would not display correctly when entered.
• Center Forwards were taking an unintentionally long amount of time to be retrained as Strikers.
  • Some Center Forwards may still take a long time, though less than it did prior to the above change, to train as a Striker due to their Attributes.
• When entering a match after half of it has been Simulated, the in-game camera would be zoomed out unintentionally.
• Addressed some instances of News items not displaying correctly.
• Youth Scouts were sometimes finding similar numbers of highly rated and high potential players regardless of the country that they were scouting.
• Player Value could sometimes greatly exceed a player’s Release Clause.
• A News story was incorrectly stating that David Silva’s contract was 5 years long when it was actually 2.
• It was possible to view unscouted players OVRs through the Import Team Sheets screens.
• After recalling all Scouts on the GTN, a confirmation window could incorrectly appear.
• When exiting the Weekly Schedule screen, the player would be taken to an incorrect screen.
• Improved transitions between Training Drills.
• Changing Schedule Rules in the Calendar or Weekly Schedule did not always highlight the correct dates.
• On the Budget screen, Transfer sums did not count towards the Players Purchased number when the transfer was done outside of a Transfer Window.
• In some instances, the incorrect Board Objective was being set for the UEFA Champions League.
• When editing a player’s gloves, the change would not always save and apply.
• Players with a high OVR were sometimes retired earlier than intended.
• When playing in the Bundesliga in Player Career, some of the text on the My Career screens was hard to read.
• Club worth for some clubs was increasing faster than intended.
• Acquiring a player through a player swap transfer was not tracking against the appropriate Board Objectives.
• Post match screens would sometimes indicate that a team won a two-legged fixture via away goals when they actually won via penalties.
• An incorrect confirmation window could display when deleting a Team Sheet.
• Typo in the Accomplishments tutorial screen in Player Career.
• Adjusted several UI button callouts.
• Updated some outdated Club Bio information.
• The Reply option did not function during Player Conversations when using a mouse.
• Addressed some potential stability issues.

Pro Clubs:

Made the following change:

• Increased the window of time a celebration can be requested in.

Addressed the following issues:

• When changing the active Camera, the Radar would not shift immediately in some situations.
• The correct height and weight did not always apply to the Virtual Pro 3D preview in the My Pro tab.
• An incorrect OVR could display for Center Forward Virtual Pros in some circumstances, depending on the Virtual Pro’s height and weight.
• Addressed a rare instance in which a player could unintentionally gain control of a teammates’ Virtual Pro.
• Team Badges would display placeholder images in stadiums.
• Accessibility options did not always perform as expected.
• The scoreboard could display incorrect booking information in-game.
• When playing King of the Hill as a goalkeeper, the Radar would incorrectly display the Hill.
• Boot customizations for AI teammates were not being saved.
• In a specific instance, a confirmation window was not appearing when making Custom Tactics changes.
• UI elements could sometimes shift incorrectly when customizing hair color.
• UI elements could sometimes overlap when editing a Club’s Kit and Crest.
• Some on screen text would overlap when transitioning between matches directly.
• After winning the Mystery Ball Cup, the trophy would float during post-match celebrations.

General, Audio, and Visual:

Made the following changes:

• Added 2 Legacy Player Star Heads for Jack Rose and Adil Rami respectively.
  • These will only be available following a Server Release. Please follow the EA SPORTS FIFA Tracker for updates on when these will be live in-game.
• Updated some badges, kits, audio, ad boards, tifos, broadcast packages, stadiums, scenes, and banners.

Addressed the following issues:

• Players who are a part of Adidas All-Stars did not appear in the Club Transfers list for their normal club.
• Sometimes, the Co-Op Camera would shift focus unexpectedly during a Corner Kick.
• Addressed a specific Camera obstruction on the Signal Iduna Park stadium.
• Fireworks did not display in some stadiums during the UEFA Europa League Final.
• Parts of the Skill Games UI would become unresponsive when the Right Stick was remapped through the Accessibility settings.
• Custom Co-Op Camera settings could create visual issues on the Carrow Road stadium.
• Selecting to play with Ultimate difficulty in a CONMEBOL Libertadores Tournament would result in the Play Match screen showing the difficulty as Legendary.
  • This was a visual issue only, the correct difficulty was used during gameplay.
• Updated the highlight color used when swapping teams in the CONMEBOL Libertadores Tournament.
• Sometimes the ‘Handful For Defenders’ overlay would show a player’s conversion rate as 200% when playing in LaLiga.
• A button call out was incorrectly formatted on the Game Plans tutorial message.
• A broken animation would occur following a penalty kick being awarded for a handball in the box.
  • The penalty kick in this specific instance could only be given if the Handball setting was enabled.
• Audio was sometimes cutting out for brief periods while playing a match.
• Addressed several instances of incorrect commentary occurring while in a match.
• Addressed several potential stability issues.
• Addressed several minor audio issues.

Kick Off:

Addressed the following issues:

• If the Rewind functionality was used during the match, it would not end as a forfeit if a team ended up with 5 red cards.
• After Rewinding, incorrect commentary would sometimes play over match Highlights.
• After Rewinding, the Pause Menu countdown UI could remain on screen.
• When viewing a replay and transitioning between players, the Player Indicator would move faster than intended.
• A Team Select UI element would sometimes display incorrectly when hovered over by a mouse cursor.
• Stability issue when selecting to play a FUT Match during the FIFA 21 New User flow.
• In Mystery Ball, when playing VOLTA FOOTBALL, goal values were sometimes incorrectly tallied.
• Weather or Pitch Wear would carry over to a VOLTA FOOTBALL Kick Off match if a previous 11v11 Kick Off match had either setting defined through the Game Settings.