Early Access 2 (EA2) Launch

Does 2 player work?

I have tried with 2 remotes but it didn’t want to work.

Also tried using Parsec so that a friend could join me but also did not work.

I see that I’m the only one who talk about the competitiveness and the fun around small mini games during the play no one is agreeing with me? I feel like everything is automatic i don’t feel I’m in control of my play, when I’m playing rugby challenge or rugby 22 i take pleasure because the ruck and lineout and scrum are competitive so i can secure the ball or loose it the only fundamental part of the game that i like in this game is the scrum cause it’s funny to play and not scripted like every other part ? And like everyone yes the poorly offense position kill the game and i feel that i can’t build any momentum and control the flow of the game and please work on your sliders the players should be able to break tackles without doing a move that’s part the balance that make every rugby game fun and please let this tackler on the ground I’m done with 15 players in defense against outnumbered offense and we need way more animation in offense and defense

The rll4 engine needs to go its not good for rugby games. Didnt work for rll4 and it clearly doesnt work now

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It’s a 50 50 on the mini games, you don’t want too much mini games as that takes away from the play time (in game time). Rucks need to be quick , get to breakdown get the ball out try to get a try.

They can perhaps add something to the goal kicking to make that more difficult.

What are the areas you are expecting the mini games? and how would you want that to be?

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I dislike mini games a lot. Mostly because a game can often end up just feeling like a repetitive string of mini timing games rather than an actual game of rugby with flow.

I agree with you completely that they are important parts of the game and they need to be fun, but constant mini games that disrupt gameplay are worse than a more simplistic feel that just lets you play rugby in my opinion.

Mini games also give the chance of possession switching at almost every ruck or lineout which, more often than not is not how it goes in a real rugby match as the team with possession always has a slight advantage. Teams build phases and pressure.

If there were to be mini games I hope they are not overly complex and time consuming or end up in possession ping pong.

Lineout feedback - The default lineout option if you do not select X for Maul or A for pass from the lineout is currently a maul. I feel like the default should be the pass option? (Unless mauls become faster and have the ability to pass out of them immediately rather than add players).

Taking the ball into a maul from the lineout is more often a tactical choice, usually the ball is just cleared to the back line to set up the next phase.

Small detail, but the touchies arm on this side of the field is the wrong way .Though not the touchies on the other side of the field (Who probably doesn’t need to be doing that :joy:).

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Any mini games need to take into account the attributes of the players involved too, I would expect scrummaging to be easier with the likes of South Africa

I don’t love the idea of mini game, but do think line outs need to be expanded. Utilising the analogue stick to control the power and direction of the throw would add depth and skill to loneouts

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Well I am not having an argument. You asked peoples opinion on mini games, I gave mine. My arguments don’t have to make sense to you, if you were only looking for opinions that support yours, maybe you should have said that?

Some people like mini games, some don’t … it is one of those things where they will never please everyone.

No wasn’t looking for any support haha and don’t miss my point i just wanted to know how people think about the fundamental right now but I’m not judging you i just find that strange cause when your playing with how things are right now i don’t feel any pressure or excitement in rugby challenge even rugby 22 i was feeling all this cause you have to fight to keep your ball and try to build phases to score you feel the presure you have to think what to do to keep your ball here if you playing against someone you can basically keep the ball for 10 straight phases and same for the Lineout you can’t never have your ball stolen so opposition mean nothing but rugby it’s an opposition sport so you have to feel that pressure and even for your friend it’s not gonna be enjoyable without competitiveness and just watching you keep the ball for 10 min. but if it’s not how you feel i respect that .

I don’t understand how people can use rugby challenge as an example of well implemented mini games in a rugby game. But there we are

Horses for courses

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Not telling you that rugby challenge had a great game around the ruck I’m more of a rugby 22 fan the game was more realistic but you can’t deny that that was a competitive game when you playing against your friend so it was fun cause you have to work to keep your ball like in real life the wrong part of rugby challenge it was that the ruck wasn’t balanced so you could end up with 10 turnovers in the game but besides that playing with someone else was sure a lot of fun ain’t no way you telling me that you’ll take more pleasure playing with someone on rugby 25 right now than rugby challenge it was a nervous and responsive game. But maybe it’s just me who’s explaining myself badly but I’m joining you when you said that the game need to bring mechanisms for lineout and rucks that’s what i meant by minigames it’s just to have the sensation that not everything is automatize

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Obviously I’m not suggesting r25 is a better game, it’s pretty much unplayable.

Rugby challenge was a fully released game

R25 is a messy early access.

R25 being a mess atm doesn’t make rugby challenge or rugby 22 great games. And certainly should not make them the finished project that big ant are aiming for.

Aim higher.

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Agreed, please , no dumb down rugby. Rucks are huge part of Rugby, automation is horrible. Part of the the fun is determine when to send everyone into the ruck for a turnover or when to hold the line. I am normally fairly positive person , post go as far back as Rugby Challenge , and through the game developments Rugby Challenge Series and Rugby 2000 Rugby 2022 always kept it positive. At this point with these updates, it seems like we are getting trolled. Not good. it seems like 2 steps forward but then 2.5 steps back. The offloads or lack there off is shocking. I gave this game a thumbs up and positive review on steam. Because I have enjoyed Big Ants league games and thought this could head in the right direction. It has not. Not losing complete hope, but it really does seem like we are getting trolled at this point. The game is awful at this point. Hopefully they can pull a rabbit out of there hat .

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that is hard for boths games of course rugby 22 and rugby challenge weren’t top tiers game but they were decent and fun it wasn’t garbage and i hope for rugby 25 to be way better than them but both of these game had great ideas. Rugby challenge was a fast pace rugby champagne game where there’s always something happening like breaking tackle when you didn’t expect , so many tackling and breaking tackles animations and so much liberty in the movement and rugby 22 for his side was more of a tactical game you can set your offensive and defensive line like you wished and you have to adapt what you were gonna do, the ruck was fun and well balanced with some pressure and that’s the only game who did really well in every fundamental of rugby, ruck, maul scrum, lineout it’s the only game where you can make fake jump the facr that you have to be precise to throwing straight and that you have to compete for the ball with the timing when the 2 players jumped on the same zone was peak. They may not be great games but they were good games and i think rugby 25 should be inspired by some of the mechanisms both games had. Because for now i don’t feel any pleasure and pressure and excitement when I’m playing this game while on the other hands both of the game where fun and enjoyable cause you actually play a game not just pressing a button to chose where you want to jump and just to bind people into the ruck like i told since the beginning the best area of the game so far it’s the scrum cause it’s fun and competitive but like you said i agree too that the game is just in early stage

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Feel a bit like Valhalla with the big novels of feedback here! Having to live vicariously through gameplay footage as usual (had a watch of Mad Dragon’s very thorough test of EA2 this morning), all of the gameplay points you guys are mentioning are VERY valid, and definitely need some polish - but as a Gallagher Premiership viewer week in, week out, there are some aesthetic things I feel duty bound to pass on to the art/UI teams.

  • Northampton/Bath: are the studio allowed to call Northampton’s stadium Franklin’s Gardens in-game?, and I properly feel for BA as the club launched a new logo just shy of three weeks ago! As for the stadium model - the big screen shown in the EA2 trailer is on the opposite end of the stand compared to where it is IRL. Player likenesses for the two Premiership clubs is good, with the relevant league branding where it should be, just need to make the player names a smidge bigger.

  • Side/broadcast cameras: a BIG bugbear of mine when it comes to authenticity as it stands. Not sure on the other grounds in EA as it stands but at Stade de France, Northampton (and most clubs), the TV cameras are located in the areas ABOVE THE TUNNEL. At the IRL grounds, the side with LED advertising boards is the side facing TV cameras. For example, if the Salford Community Stadium is featured (home of Sale Sharks), then the East stand will be the side featured most prominently.

  • Pitch/grass textures: some users have pointed this out in EA1, but with Saints widely regarded as having the best real grass surface in the league, this is the blueprint for what it should look like (a side by side image of how it is during a televised match vs in-game is attached). The way Northampton do it, is how most teams in the Prem, URC and Top 14 mark their pitches.

Longer Term Ideas
One thing BA need to be aware of, especially when tactics and other clubs/stadia are implemented, is the size of the pitch itself. From a pure Premiership standpoint, again as it’s the league I’m most familiar with - Exeter’s dead ball area is significantly larger than others, Leicester’s are amongst the smallest/narrowest, with others varying. It’s not one size fits all, club grounds are significantly smaller than a Test venue for example. And crucially, we’ve all said this ad nauseum: get Rugby 25 in the hands of those who play the game for real during this Early Access window.

Keep the faith everyone, it took six major EA updates for Tiebreak to go from its initial build to full retail release.

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Please change the texture/ colour of the grass it makes the game look like a mobile game

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Hello all,

Firstly. the game is looking great, considering this is early access I might echo much of what has been said so far but want to share with you my 2 cents and help where possible! I would consider rugby games my favorite with 17 years playing them, rugby 08 being my first video game.

  • Tackling
  • The new animations are looking great, they still need slightly fine tuning… as a few have said, when you’re attacking the defence almost teleport to you to make a tackle. For me it’s restricted any chance to offload, side step, hand off, dummy pass

  • This has also really restricted any possability of kicking the ball or passing the ball down the line to find space to attack. If there was time to kick the ball into space and chase it, it would make for more exciting gameplay.

  • Rucks
  • I’ve notice sometimes if you dont commint players to a ruck when defending then the opposition don’t play the ball… subsequently resulting in a scrum to the attacking team.
    Not commiting players to a ruck is obviously legal (as we saw with italy in the six nations in 2017) but this would mean that the team not commiting players can roam the pitch freely and look for an interception. If you can find a way to implement this rule it could be quite funny but understand something like that isn’t straight forward

  • The new option to try and cause a turnover at a ruck is very much welcomed but this mostly creates free ball to pick up for either team rather than a direct turnover. It would be good to still create occasional free ball from a ‘messy’ turnover but i think the turnovers should be more succesful to the counter-rucking team.

  • Last one with rucks, occasionally the game won’t commit any players to the rucks and the referee won’t signal for a penalty.

*Offloading

  • I don’t seem to be able to do it still

*Box kicking

  • there’s no option to kick the ball directly out (for situtions like full time) if you could sharpen the angle to almost 90 degrees when trying to kick from the back of a ruck/scrum i think that would help a lot.

*half time/ full time sirens

  • I dont mean to sound pedantic but maybe remove them for the northern hemisphere stadiums?

*Bonus content which coud be nice to implement

  • Pitch wear through the game and dirty clothes
  • Sponsorship for the stadiums (real or fake to create some authenticity)
  • Fine tuning of camera angles (I personally like being able to see more of the pitch so i lower the camera angle on sports games)
  • Larger crash pads on the posts for authenticity (at least this is mostly the case in the northern hemisphere?)

All in all, as i said the game is looking great and giving us as fans a chance to offer our support shows a lot which we all thank you for!

I continue to play the game as regardless it’s still fun and a refreshing installment to the sport.

Keep up the good work :smile:

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rugby 22 realistic? its awful. set your standards for games higher lol and we might get a good one. and incase jnt deletes this for off topic ill say that steps shouldnt be based on an animation but on timing like in rugby champions or the older maddens

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Hi and what is this with defender rolling away all the time after making a tackle. Doesn’t look right. In actual fact Im wrong. In real rugby the tackler does role away. It all depends on how fast the offense can form a ruck over the ball carrier. The quicker the offense can form a ruck over the ball carrier the more the possibility arise where the offense can trap the tackler and prevent him from rolling away. In turn this will create a penalty. I see where you guys are going with this. Now you just need to speed up ruck formation.

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Use rugby 22 as starting point you had a very good game there. Just improve graphics, animations, game modes and it will be gold.

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  1. The next update needs Pod options, the reason for that is that the players are not in the right positions, The attack does not flow.

  2. Needs set plays, for example, dummy pass, cross kick, put fly half in the pocket, etc.

  3. For Defense options, for example, press down for deep defense. Up for blits. left and right to spread the defense.

  4. Goal kicking must be harder like Rugby 08 which was the best Goal kicking.

controls Xbox

RB - Pass right to Backline
LB - Pass left to backline
LT - pass left to the Pod
RT - Pass right to Pod

A - Kick
Y- grubber
B - Dropkick
X - Up and ander if hold and Tap for a chip

Needs more animations to build up the game. Ex. Players warm up animations and after that show the lineup with players’ faces and fans singing.

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