Thats a really good point about the isolated players. Again, Rugby 2011 had such a good system for it with the X button QTE. That basically acted as a jackal for an immediate turnover if a player didnt have support players to ruck.
So if a player made a line break they would make huge meters, they would gain a large chuck of momentum on the momentum bar. But if you can make the tackle, you were able to punish the great attack with great defence and ripping a turnover.
Everything was very balanced, for player vs player games.
Didnt always work with AI on hardest difficulty, they could take the ball even when you had players waiting to get in the ruck. And against the AI you could cheese it a bit if you were good enough in defence by letting them run through and getting the tackle with your fullback knowing you would get the QTE.
But obviously the gameâs over 10 years old now, jm sure a similar but modernised system would have less exploits.
Agree with the momentum bar! I know Rugby 06 had the same (maybe 08 aswell?) and it would also be boosted by home advantage etc.
It would be good for it to adjust based on win percentage throughout a season (ie: it starts higher if youâre on a winning streak) or start lower if your team has multiple injuries/captain is injured during the game.
There are lots of fun variables that could be included. Having a little notification before jumping into a match showing what âmomentum boostsâ or âmomentum lossesâ your team is experiencing would be great. A better team could accumulate momentum more easily, but an average team, or team with multiple injuries could fluctuate more too.
Agreed, I think a momentum bar is vital for the game and for online play especially, currently the games will be a ruckfest online and will hardly be playable but with momentum introduced it could add a new dynamic altogether.
That camera thing is a problem on MOST stadia - have mentioned this a lot over this EA period. Been collating a list of what needs to be moved where as I see each stadium land in-game, but from a pure Prem standpoint this is where âcamera 1â is positioned.
Main Camera ABOVE the Tunnel/Dugout, facing Stands
Saracens (StoneX Stadium/technically Barnet Copthall Stadium without sponsorship)
Sale (Salford Stadium)
Gloucester (Kingsholm)
Exeter (Sandy Park)
Northampton (Franklinsâ Gardens)
Bristol (Ashton Gate)
Leicester (Welford Road)
Harlequins (The Stoop and Twickenham Stadium when added)
Bath (The Rec)
Main Camera in Stand, Facing Tunnel/Dugout
Newcastle (Kingston Park)
Also, a minor quibble on the âteams outâ cutscene, traditionally the away team come onto the field first, then the home team - in-game at the minute itâs the other way round (home first then away).
Game passing seems to be improved, still canât get through a game without crashing, seems to crash more often when pressing macros. Have the developers explained the rucking system? Rucking just seems all over the place and very random, what is the rucking mechanism? Without a good rucking mechanism it feels like a Rugby League game, the heart of a good rugby game is a good rucking system, knowing when to commit to the ruck , knowing when to jackle, knowing when to risk holding on to the ball to give your rucking team mates to support in the ruck. Come on guys, have faith in Big Ant because I have enjoyed their rugby games tremendously, and Ross is pretty good about implementing features we really like. A good rucking system and ability to have control of manually sending 1- 5 players into a ruck manually creates a lot of strategy in the game. Everything else in the game needs some tunning but the rucking system must be improved (overhauled), to establish a good Rugby Union game.
This patch definitely has brought in a lot of random crashes.
Crashes occur randomly on the field doing various things with or without having ball possession.
Itâs almost impossible to complete a full game.
I also had a game crash by simply pressing the highlights button at halftime or full time.
I have stopped trying to play any matches for the last few days due to this.
Passing and offloading has improved.
Offside penalties also seem to be more NRL or League focused by the referee if a player is not in the defence line quickly and not involved in the actual ruck area. I even had offside penalties against me because the Ai offloaded or passed a distance backwards and I had players still running forward back to the defensive line.
Thanks for every update the game is getting better inch by inch.
Some updates i would like to see that will make the game better and more smooth:
Tackle animations: This is an area that has been improved in earlier updates but i still feel that there is only a few tackle animations and most of them is animations that makes you loose ground when you attack. This kills your momentum when attacking (i would like to see more variations of animations that allows you to gain more momentum and ground in attacking)
Ruck animations: The ruck animation needs a rework. It feels like a mini scrum forming. In a real rugby game you can gain little ground at the ruck. With players rucking over the ball or clearing defending players it moves the actual ruck forwards witch helps you gain momentum.
Support playes: This has been improved but when passing to players they loose momentum when slowing down to catch the ball. Playes should run at the same speed or slightly slower than the ball carrier to stay within the range of a supporting line if needed and need to catch the ball with momentum. Sometimes it feels like if the supporting players starts to follow the ball carrier a bit to late.
Player positioning: this area has not been drastically improved but i think you are waiting for the actual update that will introduce set plays and then this will be improved. But here is an option to help with this update. Apart from set playe options at the moment the game is developed to pass to the closest player from the ruck. But what if there is always a option to pass to a âpodâ system or to the back line. So, there should always be forward players availible close to the ruck to pass to and then the fly half on one side with the backline following. So when you play a game and you press RB or LB to pass it will always pass to the closest player which is a forward but at the side where the flyhalf is involved on one side when you pass towards the side where the flyhalf is lined up the forwads automatically runs forward and the ball is passed behind their back to the flyhalf with the backline following. But you will always have a option to pass to whom you want by holding down RB and choose to the player you want to pass.
Think its a broader problem with playing on the Stadium.
Just tested it, and crashes for me too. It also crashes if you put the 2 teams against each other as just AI.
It also happens at all times of day, not just dusk.
It also happens when playing as any other team as long as both sides are the 2 same teams.
So tested with 2 random teams and crashes again.
Only similarity in all the tests is the Montevideo Stadium, so stadium myst just be broken.
@JNT_BA@MattW
Just wondering, is there a reason, why the away team doesnât have the player names on the screen?
If I play a game as the home team the game always shows my player names which is really useful. But the AI side is always abscent.
I thought it may have been because the AI maybe never technically select a single player and so the game wouldnt know who to display. But The screenshot above is from a match of AI vs AI and it does show the home sideâs player names correctly, so must be able to work with an AI team.
Then the screenshot below, is from me playing as the away side vs AI, and if im the away team I have the player names correctly shown, and so do the AI still as the home team.
Not sure if its just something missed in the EA process, but think it would be a great HUD feature to have both teams players shown no matter which side you are playing as. And can be useful from a gameplay perspective to know who your player is running against, when you cant see shirt numbers, such as a winger going up against a prop, you know its worth trying to run around the outside to outpace. Whereas if its winger vs winger it might be better to kick over the top.
Steam Deck brings in its own issues and nuances. While we do try to make sure it is running in a decent state at this moment device compatibility isnât exactly something we focus on really intently. When it comes to how settings are stored that device is very different and doesnât have full support for settings as its going to need an overhaul. Unfortunately there is no ETA on those changes for Steam Deck while we work on the game overall.
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I understand that it is not a focus for you at this point, I am happy that it runs well on deck apart from that minor error.
Very much been enjoying the game in itâs latest rendition. Some feedback Iâve compiled about some ideas Iâve had for the game and a bug or 2 Iâve noticed.
BUGS
Donât let me select players who are busy getting up until theyâre basically up. I noticed when cycling through players in open play whilst playing defense. It lets me cycle through players who have just made a tackle and are in the process of getting up or have just been bumped-off. Feels slightly redundant since they canât move till theyâre back up and their animation has finished. Certainly not helpful when Iâm trying to manouver other players into scraambling back to cover a break from the AI having just palmed me off!
Iâve also noticed the referee getting in the way a little. Some might consider this a legitimate strategy (similar to real-life). Others could find it annoying. I feel like having collision-detection on the ref could be a relatively simple gameplay setting that could be switched off. If youâre using ECS, I imagine their is a collision property.
IDEAS
Maybe you have something in the works already but I have some ideas for some mechanics.
PRESSURE: Iâd love a pressure mechanic which basically provideds extra opportunity for defending players to make mistakes (high/missed tackle, overcommitting in the ruck, etc.) when defending on their 5 metre line. This could increase to a certain amount, the longer time is spent in this area.
MOMENTUM: Players receive a temporary performance boost from scoring/making a good tackle.This could stack/be extended depending on good things happening in a row. At the same time, I think it should be brittle. The opposition should be able to build their own momentum.
For both of the above ideas, I like the idea of using commentary as an organic way of letting the player know when momentum or pressure is on their side, or vice-versa. rather than some distracting hud element. Little things like "it seems like momentum has swung the other way! " or âlooks like the pressure is beginning to buildâ.
I wonât mention the game crashes, I think theyâve been well documented so will leave it there.
Not sure if some stuff has been updated in the last 48 hours, but I cannot get passed the 10 minute marker in any match anymore without it crashing, no obvious single thing, crashes happening in rucks, when passing, when kicking, when intercepting. All different teams and stadiums.
Did spot a new bug in 1 game though, player missed the pass and threw the ball in to touch, but I was able to run in to touch and collect the ball and continue to play, but could only run forwards so kicked the ball to the other side of the field, and lineout got awarded after the kick not from the pass.
Also something ive not noticed before. AI missed a conversion, and the following cinematic shows the referee doing an âoffside penaltyâ animation. Would be nice if rather than focussing on the ref it could focus on the touch judges waving for a missed kick with their flags behind the posts or something, as they are typically the main signal for a successful kick or not, and the referee simply blowing the whistle whistle in the background.
