Hi Team, novel incoming.
*My feedback. I have just put both positives and negatives directly under the noted improvements.
Added Mauls
The initial maul mechanic has been added to the game, future updates will improve several of the animations around mauls to make them more visually fluid.
*Really like how you must shift the ball to the back of your ruck. Authentic, a nice feature.
*Without visual indicators it is quite tough to figure out what is happening momentum wise. The drive does not actually move the maul.
*It seems you cannot retrieve the ball from a maul unless you commit every player to it first. You should be able to have your halfback pull the ball from the maul at any given time (Unless maybe they are tied up by a defender getting a grip on the ball)
Improved Tackles
A significant number of new tackle animations have been integrated, as well as adjustments to the underlying calculations for selecting which tackles to play. The Dive Tackle control has been shifted to the Y button.
*The new animations look great; many more realistic union tackles are now happening. You can almost feel some of the hits.
*The tackle animations are happening from too far away; however, this gives the feeling of having no time to pass, kick or use a skill move to avoid a tackle.
*With the dive tackle now switched to the Y button pressing it makes your highlighted player dive around the pitch while you are trying to win a ruck. To avoid this, you could disable the dive tackle from Y until the ruck is complete.
*Attempting box kicks now often results in your halfback being tackled. There needs to be a forward or two as a gatekeeper guarding access to the kicker possibly.
Added Club Teams
Several Gallagher Premiership and URC teams featuring initial photogrammetry-based player visuals have been added. Over 100 players from the Ospreys, Dragons, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Connacht, Bath and Northampton Saints are now playable.
*The teams look good, is great having more licensed players to see in the game. Estonia was missing from this update though. Sad face.
Added Stadiums
The officially licensed Allianz Stadium in Sydney has been added to the list of available stadiums, in addition to stadiums for Northampton, Parma, and Toulon.
*Stadiums look great, will be good once advertising is added.
Improved Passing
The targeting of passes has been improved, with adjustments to the calculation for target selection and pass quality.
*Passing directly to the other team has returned. My first receiver often passes to the opposite team’s centre. This had not happened to me after the 3rd interim patch.
*LB or RB untargeted passes seem less responsive or omitted. Most occasions I tap the pass as before, but the player no longer attempts any pass. It makes any free and open running rugby impossible.
*Draw and pass are currently very difficult with how far away from the player the tackle animation starts.
Rebalanced rucks
The ruck system has been adjusted, improving the speeds of rucks and making them more of a contest, along with an alert for when a steal is available.
*Great to see more clear-outs in 2- and 3-man situations as well as more CPU counter rucks. The chaos that ensues from counter ruck ball on the ground is very good.
*Counter rucking is too easy, and the opposition is turned over far too regularly. I see it being impossible for them to build any phases and in turn attacking opportunities if it was to remain this regular. Many rugby games suffer from poor turnover mechanics, having the ball change possession every 2 or 3 rucks just is not authentic.
*Rucks are taking a very long time to form again with many more occasions of hung games as neither team will engage in the ruck.
*Adding gatekeepers on the fringes of the ruck to guard the halfback and block pressure from defence around the ruck could be implemented to stop the first receiver getting tackled almost immediately when near the ruck.
Tuned Player Movement
Initial work on balancing player run and sprint speeds has been done, the attributes and build of the player will have more impact on the speed they can run and the amount of boost that using the sprint button makes
*Fantastic to see the Half back being pulled into the ruck issue solved. This adds so many more attacking opportunities. They do only have a very restricted angle that stays close to the ruck to be able to run it seems, unless running at right angles or backward from the base.
*The fact wingers are quicker than props etc is very noticeable and allows for some realistic exploits in 1v1 situations, great improvement.
*With the change to tackling and passing player positioning needs a lot of focus, both kicking and passing suffer due to players not being in realistic positions or from those players then running against the flow of the play or in relation to the ball carrier.
*General directional player movement feels much better and more responsive, less of that “On skates” feeling. Awesome to see one of the best improvements in the patch!
Improved UI
Several UI screens have been given visual polish, notably the pre-match settings. A few in game elements, such as the player markers have also been polished.
*Bonus points are active in custom leagues now which is great. It did however incorrectly award a bonus point to every team regardless of result.
*Nice new format for the lineout options but changing the lineout throw button order is not intuitive. Y is at the top of the controller, X middle and A bottom. It is also the order on screen as you look at the lineout so the button order on screen should relate to this.
*UI design is improved; I like the larger power arrow for in play kicking power. The power bar as it fills or arrow as it moves could be improved by making either of these green.
*Rain fall physics are off when it comes to the drops hitting the upper tiers of a stadium. This is most noticeable at night in lineouts at Allianz stadium, rather than the drops looking as though they are falling in front of the camera they hit and splash on the stands looking dramatically oversized.
Improved Stability
A number of reported stability issues have been resolved, with work continuing to ensure all of those reported are found. Please continue to send them through.
*Experienced very few stability issues prior and so far, have seen no change to this. 1 Crash occurred after the box kicker getting tackled and the following maul having the ref call use it. Immediately after he called the game crashed during the R25 the transition screen.
Edit: My game is regularly crashing now. Doesn’t seem to be at specific events.
BUGS:
*When attempting a box kick, if the kicker gets tackled mid kick (Which is very often) and a new ruck forms on them the referee will then call use it and a scrum will be awarded to the opposition. If attempting a new box kick in that newly formed ruck, it will bring up the target circle, but the ball will not be kicked and unable to be used also.
*The tackled opposition player will often rise through the formed ruck and start running toward the try line. The referee will in the meantime be asking the opposition to use it, blow his whistle and award a scrum to the player.
*Players not engaging in rucks causing the game to hang are prevalent.
*Kicks made from in your end goal into touch are incorrectly treated as being taken dead in goal.
Points I would love to see focused on in upcoming patches: that would have large positive impacts on gameplay.
*Player positioning at each breakdown - Must be the foundation, as without players in the right places … the context of what is happening in the rest of the areas is hard to determine whether is working or not such as passing. i.e. First receiver is always a playmaker and there are always forward options off every ruck. A kicking option and/or secondary playmaker should also be positioned. These if there is only to be one offensive line setting should be “Deep”.
*Kicking improvements for punts, Up and under and grubbers - Punts are fine but need more time to complete in general play, implementing the above would solve this. Up and Under kicks need much more hang time and a contested catch at the end on most occasions (Though not looking for the game to get loaded with mini games, don’t like those). Grubbers need better chasers as putting one in behind the line works but the chasers do not and less of an impact from being taken off the ball after kicking a grubber as regathering is almost impossible if other chasers are not in play. Box kicks feel good, and the targeting is more accurate.
*Mitigation of the “Sucked in” to tackles or defenders teleporting to make tackles - It is hard to choose a running path or have realistic attacks if every large gap in the defence gets magically filled with a defender from 10 metres away. If there is a range for when these interactions occur, it needs to be reduced.
*More effective opposition AI from set piece – Currently from any set piece the opposition offence will only run from halfback rather than passing to the backline. Not sure if this is because they will eventually always run set plays from these which are not yet implemented, but if so, just giving the behaviour from a ruck in that scenario would work. The opponents do nothing of note from any set piece right now which limits their attacking opportunities.
OVERALL: The contact area is starting to look good. The addition of all the new tackle animations makes the game look a lot more like the real deal at the breakdown. The passing trajectory and speed along with player movement is improving in leaps and bounds as well, although some work needs to be done around how that affects the time on the ball the player has to make decisions or carry out tactical choices and skill moves.
The major patch also seems to have impacted ruck speed negatively, seemingly due to the AI trying to decide what to do at each tackle situation. The non targeted LB and RB passing not working affects play greatly also. The new initial photogrammetry, stadiums and UI all look very good though and I cannot wait to see more content added along the way.
Thanks for taking the time to read my feedback, I really like the direction this game is heading in and am looking forward to seeing what else is coming.
P.S A hotfix for the LB, RB passing issue and the new bugs would be sweet ha ha.
