Early Access 2 – Interim Update 1 - Feedback

Rugby 25
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Hi Everyone,

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.

Thanks again to everyone for your feedback!

11 Likes
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Hi thanks for the update. But what about player positioning when attacking? And also defending line speeds?

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@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?

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Hi BA, thanks for yet another patch, I must say even though not a whole bunch of new bells and whistles and this is still a big jump forward from the last patch. Game is very playable again.

***My feedback again I have just put under the relevant headings.

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.

***Passing trajectory seems better, less floating or rocket passes noticeable and offloads or passes in the tackle happen infrequently (see GIF with a nice offload from the deck lol)
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***Pass icons still absent some of the time, showing up more often possibly but the icon now also doesn’t always reflect the correct receiver when it does show up.

***Passing buttons generally more responsive, LB and RB passing is back, although at times it still decides not to let the pass go. Would be good to be improved upon further.

***Tackle radius from AI reduced means passing and kicking options have returned in some scenarios. You still need quite a lot of room however which the positioning does not always allow for.

***You can no longer switch controllable defenders after having made a kick until the opposition have taken possession. This inhibits a decent kick chase from happening as it is now just an auto chase. I feel we should be able to control the chaser through the whole process.

***I like the addition of the ruck breaking down sooner if you have not chosen to do anything with the ball, adds urgency and pressure to the attack. Sometimes this does seem a little over powered though which can lead to back and forward turnovers.

Added Maul Control Prompts

More feedback during mauls for inputs has been added to assist in learning the maul controls.

***The prompts do appear which is great, will be able to learn off those. I do find they show up a little too late to be useful at the time, however. Only memorising them helps (Which is still a bonus from before)

***Having LS as the button to move the direction of the maul as well as the button to run from the base of the ruck, means you almost always end up doing so as there is no break between the two. I feel like you need to have time to switch from changing between directing the maul and directing the HB. Or just change the HB run button.

***CPU mauls end up in giving away scrums after not using it when directed by the referee. This does happen in games of course but seems far too regular at the moment.

Improved Cameras

A few issues with certain stadiums having camera clips during lineouts and other set pieces have been addressed.

***The issue of the camera being cut-off in lineouts at Madrid stadium is resolved.

Improved Stability

Several issues with set pieces resulting in non-progression in the game have been identified and resolved.

***I have had two games where I have not been able to progress as mentioned. These have both happened when the player gets up from the ruck and then others join spread across different areas of the pitch like below
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Overall stability issues remain with crashes. Have had several game crashes after a ruck was formed. Last moment was as below, Player seemed to try to bind to the halfback who teleported to the side like it was a scrum situation? Also experience crashes regularly when there is a maul.

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New additions

***Chile and Argentina face scan and player name inclusions are great, nice to have additional real players to play with. Good to see Donaldson at 10 … though it means Nick White is now an openside flanker ha ha.

New Bugs/issues

***After a scrum win, your other backline players have a delay when you can actually pass to them if you run with the HB. Even with a targeted pass from a scrum it seems there is often a delay before being able to do another.

***There is an increase in the bug where your player looks to have gone past a defender, only to dive on the ground in a tackle situation well past the tackle animation. In between the initial tackle and player going to ground animations no other players will attempt to tackle. This often results in that player having no ruck formed around them, then them getting up and running again.
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***The idle player issue seems to have passed onto the AI team as seen below, seems to be again something at the breakdown. The idle player will often re-join if a later ruck happens within a certain range of them
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***UI bug whereby after going to replay mode then returning to general play all UI was completely absent. Names, scores, prompts everything. It corrected itself the next time I paused and resumed the game. This happens every time I do this.

***Not a bug as such, but AI defences use an aggressive high tackle animation far more than any other which doesn’t look right throughout a match.

***The opposition defensive structure seems to have been affected negatively. Not sure if this is as a result of trying to give the player more time to pass, but slowing them down seems to affect how quickly they can get back into their defensive structure as well. They sometimes do not react at all to a player running between them and are very slow to turn (Possibly an impossible balancing act between the two things).

***I have noticed the CPU do multiple offload pass attempts in a tackle but never get them away. I like how it seems there are multiple chances to do offloads during a tackle, but they do not seem to work at all yet for the AI.
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For me the 2 biggest fixes that would make marked improvement on this patch asap is the issue with incorrect button allocations above runners heads (Is a shock when it goes nowhere that you expected) and the ability to be able to control your kick chasers (Removing this has rendered much of the tactical kicking play redundant) .

Could we also add that with possession LT makes your player strafe or if held on its own keeps them standing still? I think this would help for in play kicking so your kicker doesn’t automatically run at the opposition line and close their space to kick. Say if you were passing out of the ruck but were holding the LT the pass receiver will just stay on the spot? can that be a thing?

I think that is it patch feedback specific. Huge jump forward, some really cool animations and details coming through. Signs of things that will set this game apart from all before it. Thank you BA team for all your hard work! We appreciate you!

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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?

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Thanks for the patch and I wish this game the best.

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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

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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.

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passing is still the same. you cant pass anywhere near a tackle and players will stop mid pass animation so that you cant pass. cant even offload it either. we are given a bit more time to pass but there is still no draw and pass

kicks are also the same, kicks are stopped mid animation, no chance of getting a pass or a kick off with defenders anywhere near you. ive also seen it where the ai get a kick away and then get tackled and the ball gets teleported back into there hands.

ive noticed that you get sucked into tackles still and defenders glide to make tackles if they are a few steps away from the ball carrier

ive played one game and it crashed 9 minutes in

gameplay is still very unplayable with these problems

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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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

Keep the updates coming and I’ll keep playing.

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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?

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So I’ve managed 2x games since the update. Both games ended with a crash. My thoughts.

tackle radius still far far too large

line speed needs to slow

I’ve managed several offload, but only by absolutely spamming the pass button, this often leads to extra passes that were not intended.

still no proper attacking play players don’t line up with any real depth, wingers are ahead of the ball far too often, and a random group of 3 or 4 players line up near the ruck.

trucks are still far too slow and random sometimes my players will fly into rucks, other times they’ll stand around like lemons

passing seems to be improved the only loopy pass I saw was from and ambitious offload

animations textures and lighting remain poor

Still loads of rules not implemented

The following needs to be rectified as quickly as possible.

  • tackle radius needs to be a lot lot smaller this will allow us to exploit gaps and actually play some rugby

  • attacking formations and the ability to adjust line depth need to be implemented. I’m fed up of players lining up at random with no semblance of realistic rugby union running lines. And players not supporting 2v1s linebreaks etc.

This patch feels like a small step in the right direction after 10 steps back in the last patch game remains pretty much unplayable for me. Frustratingly I can’t offer more feedback because I take no enjoyment from playing the game

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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.

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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 :joy: . 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.

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game is playable again, some good stuff but still miss a bit of smoothness here’s a global return from our french rugby discord :

  • game need to feel less robotic and more smooth
  • time windows is better but still need improvement to have space to do something
  • passing feel a bit better but still unable to choose where I’m passing and struggling with the time frame when I’m pressing the pass button , need more offload
    -need more room for the kicking we have no timing or time to place a kick, same for the drop can’t make a single one
    -Tackle radius feel a bit better but still need improvement so many teleportation on tackles
  • collision are really bad need to work on the physics of the game
  • obviously need some new fresh animation for defense and offense cause on 4 games it feel really repetitive
  • lineout and ruck same thing feel boring and unreal not smooth really robotic way really repetitive
    -hand off are really bad need to be rework
  • carrying the ball into a defender seems like a default animation just being tackle not winning the line or breaking tackle
  • we asked for reducing the defensive speed line not making them poorly placed.
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So yeah the game feel playable again so thanks for that this time we can feel a bit of amelioration on this patch but still a lot of work to do to feel enjoyable to play after 2 games i feel bored so it’s a bad indicator but it’s more the fact that we don’t have any offensive line to make something so can’t wait the next big uptade to see if we getting closer to play actual rugby union. Keep working

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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

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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.

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Hi BA,

Today have played 3 games. All 3 games have “Hung” unable to progress at a ruck when I am in possession and players teleport to join the ruck in strange positions as below. Not sure if the file change 8 hours ago had anything to do with it but I was not experiencing this yesterday.

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It seems the opposition counter ruck ability is excessive in their own 22 area also. I was counter rucked 5 times in a row each time just as my players had joined the ruck, had to pick the ball up, get tackled into another ruck and repeat process. Though this does not happen every time it happens very often. I don’t feel your team should be suddenly bad at retaining the ball simply because they have entered the opposition 22.

I’ve been enjoying the most recent patch, bugs aside and it’s great to have some of the core gameplay mechanics back in action. However, I’ve noticed that the defence has become significantly easier. It seems the adjustments were more about tweaking the defensive structure to allow extra time on the ball rather than modifying the tackle radius itself. While maintaining the defensive shape is important, the current implementation has made the defence a bit too passive.

One key issue is that defenders are too quick off the line, especially with the large tackle radius, which was a problem in EA2. A potential solution could be to limit the defenders’ acceleration during the initial phase of closing the gap—perhaps within the first 5 meters. This would prevent them from rushing out too quickly while still allowing them to maintain their shape. (Edit: Slowing their movement on the Y axis only, not the X, allowing them to still move into defensive positions)

Reducing the tackle radius is a good step, but once within that radius, the defence should engage more decisively. At the moment, defenders often seem to hesitate, allowing attackers to bypass them too easily.

Additionally, the attacking line’s positioning could benefit from being more consistent. Even if the formation is fixed in early access, it would be helpful for players to snap into formation quickly after each phase. This would make it easier to evaluate and provide feedback on other aspects, such as line speed, passing mechanics, and tackle radius.

Finally, a faster kicking animation would help establish the basics of play, allowing us to focus on refining the core elements. If you have a build with these adjustments, it would greatly improve our ability to provide more targeted and effective feedback going forward.

Thanks again

4 Likes
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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.

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Hello !

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.
1 Like