We thank the community for their patience while we worked through gameplay issues identified since the last major update, we were hoping to get an update to everyone sooner, but wanted to ensure that we were making a clear step forward with this new build.
Adjusted Passing
Work on passing in this updated included adjusting pass timing windows to improve the ability to pass when about to be tackled, as well as continuing to work on pass trajectories and animations. Additionally, resolved some cases of the player target indicators not being visible.
All elements of passing remain an area of focus with future updates, this is a core part of the game and we will continue to work on it to get the balance and feel right.
Added Maul Control Prompts
More feedback during mauls for inputs has been added to assist in learning the maul controls.
Improved Cameras
A few issues with certain stadiums having camera clips during lineouts and other set pieces have been addressed.
Improved Stability
Several issues with set pieces resulting in non-progression in the game have been identified and resolved.
@MattW thanks for the update, cant wait to test it out. Just a quick question, will this be the only update for this week, or can we still expect a second patch later this week?
There is a bug where sometimes the button indicator when holding in for the pass e.g. player X, A, B, Y goes to the wrong player. I’ve tried several times for the pass to land on player X, then it’ll go to another player. In general terms, it would be easier to just have A, player right next to you, B the next etc… THe indicator for passing ot players when holding in sometimes also doesn’t show up still.
Please watch here there is several bugs, in most these instances, the ball I said pass to XYZ player, it goes to another player randomly. The lineouts also seem to never work for the opposition. It results in free kick or tap, which then results in the game hanging or exiting. How can I upload a video?
Can we please look into off loads because I feel if I get tackled and you can see the player hands are free option to offload should be there as it feels like when you hit a gap and get tacked most of the time I feel I should been able to get that offload to send my guy to try line, felt like since the last 2 updates almost if offloads have disappeared,
Also tackiling still needs adjusting it’s better but not there yet as there was few times I’m hitting the gap than get tackled due to teleportation or delay in animation.
Rain animation seems very weird on Allianz stadium looks like weird and makes you think your monitor is slowly giving up
Played a bit the new patch definitely some improvement, but i feel like we still missing the fast paste action.
Passing a fraction of a second before the tackling is ESSENTIAL to the game of rugby to resolve a 2v1 3v2 situation. Right know the buggy tackle animation does not permit it.
*Although sometimes i’ve seen some passing animation after contact, was good and helped very much in that particular action.
When the tackle animation begin every action that the attacking player gets blocked, such as kicking and passing. Is an ok idea, but i prefer the action could go on anyway, with some Malus maybe.
*tackle animation top notch! Would like to have some control on them, maybe B for light tackle and stick for the hardest one
Lots of bug, i did get stuck couple of times in a unplayable Ruck so i had to end the game.
Couple of crashes after i kick the ball on the open play.
First off it’s great to be able to play a game again so that’s a big plus. So far I have played 4 games and here’s my early feedback.
I haven’t noticed the passing buttons appear that more frequently as mentioned in the notes. I have also noticed that more often than not when the pass buttons do appear it doesn’t pass to the button I have selected. I means easily 50% of the time which was not something I noticed before the patch.
Offloads are next to none existent. 4 games and not one offload. The rare game it happens and your player makes a break it feels great and rewarding but I don’t know if that’s because I made a line break or just because I achieved the offload itself. Hopefully this is something that can be implemented soon as it will add so much fluidity to the game which it badly needs.
Game crashed once when punt kicking from the 22. I was having multiple crashes playing games during the last patch so this is a big plus for me.
The attacking line always starts running forward when the scrum half is passing from the ruck. Can this become an option for the player to choose, for example: holding up on the left stick makes the attacking line take the ball at pace and not moving the left stick means the back line takes the ball static giving more time and space to the player. Which also gives more time to select a pass option for a play or kick.
Speaking of kicking can you at least add a drop back option for the kicker so we can direct the kick and slow down the defense reaching them.
General play is still very stagnant with no fluidity to it. As mentioned above I think Offloads and deeper static back lines to set up plays could helps to adding to the flow of the game.
I’m unsure of the advantages of having pods of forwards as I don’t see the impact on the ruck with how it is currently. In Rugby 22 the pods worked great due to how quick they entered the ruck and the advantage it gave with the ruck mechanic in that game. This may be controversial here but I much preferred that system as at least I knew what was going on and often understood why I lost a ruck and also could predict when I would lose one due to a player being isolated.
Line outs are what they are in this game. I would prefer a more in depth system but don’t mind it being kept simple and improve upon in the next game.No need to focus on to many things. The mauls are just like all the old games in the sense that they are useless. Gain a few meters and then pass out the backline. Once again I wouldn’t waste to much time and effort on this with this game. It’s one of those parts of rugby which is next to impossible to replicate past what we have already seen in games without making it in to a bunch of mini games or it ends up being OP. Exciting passing rugby has always been the best part of Rugby games anyway.
There is much more that could be said but I would just be repeating what numerous others already have in previous threads, So I know you guys are already aware.
I’m running this on a very underpowered laptop so can’t comment too much on stability. Firstly though thanks to the dev team for taking some time with this update. The game crashed out but the passing has definitely improved and I was able to progress up the pitch again. Some of tackle and ruck animations have improved a lot.
I think everyone else’s comment all sound sensible in terms of more to do on passing. The game crashed at the end of the first half so didn’t get to mail, lineout or scrum and still struggling to get a box kick away but I’d stayed away after my first match of EA2 as I couldn’t go forwards.
I have faith the team working on this are heading in the right direction and sometimes with software you have to take a few steps backwards to go forwards. Please don’t rush this as we all want a good rugby game and I believe there is a good game in the making here. Just still very early days. Looking forward to further updates and seeing what EA3 and later will bring.
Will there be an updated roadmap with info on EA4?
Very minor thing that for some reason really bothers me… any chance we can get the teams in selection menu in alphabetical (or any sort of structured) order? Alternatives being rating highest to lowest.
Hey guys, glad to have the interim patch out, game is back to being playable, and have been able to finish matches again. Reducing the tackle radius has allowed me to experience a lot more stuff that the major update probably brought but was locked behind a brutal defence. Able to experience the different speed stats more or players. Post TMO decision animation awarding the try is nice (havent had one yet disallowing a try to see if that is also in the game or not). Liking the extra animations to do with conversions. And also seen more try celebrations than in earlier pataches.
Will try and keep feedback to the patch notes themselves trying to avoid straying into the wider game thats not mentioned in the notes. Understand this is an interim update to fix problems as opposed to a flat out game update accross the board adding new things.
Passing
Timeing windows have been improved, have been able to get a number of passes away more than in major update
still experienceing players teleporting to tackle, and players not being tackled but randomly stopping running and falling to the ground after making a break. Meaning you cant pass the ball
still havnt performed and animation I would class as clearly being an “offload”, more like a late pass.
kicking - not technically passing, but in open play I still cant get any kicks away, the player will do the animation and sometimes the ball will even get kicked away, then teleport back to the players hand. Stopping the ability to use the kicks to pass the ball around.
still experiencing the markers above the players head not being shows for large portions of the game
markers above players head arent corralating to buttons, sometimes you just pass to a completely random person
more often than not the player with the “A” marker from rucks is just stood behind the ruck, they arent deep enough to be in the pocket to get a kick away, and end up just being stationary and losing meters. They need to be deeper, or be stopped from just being behind the ruck and become and attacking option.
still had a good number of floaty passes that just get intercepted, and also bullet passes to no one and bounce in to touch.
Mauling
prompts appearing on screen is useful, however prompts only seem to pop up and be executable when all of your forwards are in the maul. prompts should be executable with any number of players in the maul. biggest issue is if a player glitches out and doesnt join the maul, you cant play the ball, and get penalised.
players still run away from the maul, leaving a huge amount of room to run through on the next phase (i know patch notes didnt mention properly fixing the mauls, but think its important to look at.)
controls for maul say both “LT + RT” and “X” are both for driving the maul, yet the prompt in game only suggests “RT”. Im still not sure which of the 3 is correct.
Camera work
didnt notice any issues with the cameras at the set piece area.
camera still got stuck behind the rafters when kicking the ball in the Northampton stadium.
still have the issue when doing a conversion from the halfway line that the referee will be directly infront of the camera shot stopping you from seeing the posts.
after scoring a try had the replay camera showing the try, and went inside a crowd members head showing his open mouth and teeth. (enjoy the detail, but not sure people want the sniper elite x-ray kill cam on try replays😂 )
Stability
since filming the video today ive had 3 crashes, all seem to be linked to the lineout, for some reason on an opposition lineout, they wont throw the ball in and you will be awarded the penalty, but after pressing an option to take the option the game just crashes.
New Glitches
Quick Throw - Tackling an opposition player in to touch using B, option popped up to take a quick throw, but opponent still had the ball. Pressed quick throw, and the oppenent walked back on to the pitch and stood idle , and game was no longer playable.
Cant switch players - after a kick, you can no longer manually swap players until somebody picks up the ball.
Disapearing ball, at the set piece animation, i have had a number of animations where the ball isnt viewable when using the “big ant ball” but players will still pass the invisible ball from hand to hand.
had random players just stop and become idle after the opponent kicks the ball, and wont go live again until the ball has gone dead.
if a game goes in to extra time and you get past minute 100, the clock and scoreboard disapear off the screen.
Further Issues (which would like to see focussed for next mainline patch)
Still not able to do any of the side steps or bump offs, the tackle radius seems to be greater than the allowance for a successful sidestep and bump off and so they are basically still not in the game
players still getting tackled when attempting to do box kicks, looks bizarre to have offside players stop the kick. But broader its a really deflating feeling as a player to not get the kick away. Maybe a switch could be made that during a box kick, the tackle button no longer makes a player tackle, but instead makes them go for a charge down in their hands in the air, and that applied to the AI would look more realistic.
Broader box kick arc area - feels like you can only perform a box kick in a 30 degree arc. would be nice to extend it to the full 180 degrees ahead of the ruck, so you could attempt to do a cross field kick to a winger on a box kick if they were open. While also allowing more tactical kicking around a defence.
Not in an attempt to do some shameless plug . But I dont know if you guys also use youtube videos to take on board feedback about the updates. Fully understand it will take a lot of your day job to flick through every video out there. But accross the updates, I have been trying to create chapters in the videos identifying key areas of the game I want to draw attention to, whether its something good, a small glitch, or just a huge problem. Along with a whole section at the end for direct feedback and thoughts. This isnt just a way to present the video, but I was really hoping adding all the chapters could be useful if anyone on the dev team had limited time, they could skim through specific areas they want feedback on.
Rather than sending through 20 small clips as tickets for the team to look at. The videos can give much wider context and may help to understand issues from a visual perspective rather than our walls of text on the FAQ page.
But if you have a couple of minutes even just to listen to the feedback section at the end, and then skim to the chapters highlighted in the timeline you want to look at closely, it may be useful as each update is released.
Looking foward to see what the next mainline patch will bring. Nice to know interim patches to fix issues will be a thing on top of the minor updates. Helps keep people interested in the game. And glad QA delayed the update after finding issues. Plenty of people will complain about delays, but better to have complaints about delays, than about bad gameplay from a worse update.
Can you guys please have forwards in different pod shapes we can choose from? Also we should be able to adjust depth , width of attach and defence like rugby22 , attacking shapes should be adjustable . Set plays, allow full back in attacking plays too, props running low as well etc
Crashes happens way to much now with all other updates barely had crashes however with this update played more than 10games and non of them made it to half time has it will crash.
I’m randomly getting the odd ‘controller disconnection’ alerts with this patch but am still able to use my controller to navigate out of that screen? +1 with random crashes as well.
Following this new Interim Update, I have three additional comments. Previous ones are in the blockquote before these bullets:
Please implement system pass as on the previous opus (Rugby 22) : with RB/LB, and the pass length + power shall be determined by the duration of press on one of these buttons.
Give a shorter reaction time in order to perform offloads : in 95 percent of situations (including when playing in Easy or even Easiest difficulties levels), it is almost impossible to do them because the defence is already on the passer, so he prefers to keep the ball rather transmitting it!
It shall be offered to prepare the kicker, for a clearance kick, a drop-goal attempt, … with the Y button, for example.
I find the turnover mechanic quite weird at the moment. The entire ruck falls over in unison (really weird animation), and then you need to run to the ball which is now just a loose ball on the floor. Surely just have the ball come out the other side of the ruck? RC4 got the rucking mechanic pretty well imo, albeit not perfect, and I’d prefer something similar to that
Also, incredibly frustrating to see a player get tackled low, his hands be free, yet be unable to throw an offload. In a situation like that, you should be able to throw it every time, with varying degrees of success of course
Wanted to jump in with some things that have crept in with more time in the game.
Had a lot more issues in the last 24 hours, including a number of crashes for all manner of things, most of which seem to be passing out of a ruck.
The AI mauls now always get stopped and scrum awarded, they never pass the ball out.
I drove a defensive maul back from the opponenets 22 well over the try line and went over the dead ball line, ref never said to use it. The clock and scoreboard also disapeard off the screen, for some reason they are pressent when I screen capped the game, but on my monitor they were not visible.
Especially when youve got Marcos Kremer staring you down point blank, cant believe none of them put their hands up to stop the kick after the kicker took his 1st step forward
you are on the right path now, we can feel the progress on this new patch. the game is playable again. We now have to work on the kicking game in all its forms; it is not usable at the moment. Also review the tackle radius to add fluidity to the moving game. The animations and graphics are excellent. Passing is improved but you have to press the controller a lot. They are not very responsive like a lot of movements on the controller. Keep it up, I think that within 2 months, we will have in our hands the best rugby game ever released
Just played my first game since the update then, was a lot more fun than previous incarnations. Can really see solid steps forward with every update
Defence still feels a bit quick and field positioning for players is still seemingly random, not that any of these have been said they’ve been fixed tho
I feel like the devs could benefit from playing a little bit of rugby 22 just to compare and get some inspirations, I feel that game did a lot of things quite well, its a nice pick up and play rugby game
. But I dont know if you guys also use youtube videos to take on board feedback about the updates. Fully understand it will take a lot of your day job to flick through every video out there. But accross the updates, I have been trying to create chapters in the videos identifying key areas of the game I want to draw attention to, whether its something good, a small glitch, or just a huge problem. Along with a whole section at the end for direct feedback and thoughts. This isnt just a way to present the video, but I was really hoping adding all the chapters could be useful if anyone on the dev team had limited time, they could skim through specific areas they want feedback on.
