Early Access 4 (EA4) launch

Rugby 25
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Yeah, this is true. As mentioned in the EA video, we discussed how the back-end systems were expanded. Unfortunately, sometimes we need a foundation to build upon. Most of the month was building out many parts of the game so we could continue bringing new things. The disappointment is understandable, adding to the lack of interim updates it may have appeared that it would be a massive update. While we can’t go over exactly what will come during the month we’ll always do our best to say what we can or show what we can with significant front-end changes, which we didn’t do much this month, going “10,000 lines of code added” doesn’t mean anything if you don’t see the fruit from those changes. I can see it cause of course I have a completely unlocked version and see all the tools and reports about each time a play happens on my screen. Much like the things that were in one of the Dev diaries when you can see some overlays on how some plays happen.

As well as really addressing lots of stability issues. Not everyone will appreciate “stability” I personally would take a much more stable build than a massive update that’s even more unstable any day. But that’s just me, dropping out during a great play just ruins my fun when I get really into a long session.

Is there more to come? Of course.

Clearly, some rules are not implemented, yep we know and that is one of the next steps is to get more of those sorted.

Not everyone will appreciate how development works and that’s ok. The game has come far for many of the systems that we worked on this month but unfortunately, those are not public-facing, you won’t see thousands of lines of code changes behind what could be considered a “small” graphics update and that can be a downer, it can look like we did nothing. People mentioned “Why would you even add a logo creator? Focus on gameplay!!” All I can say to that is… they’re not the same team, they also have been working on it for some time which I think is a good example of foundation, with the last EA the logo creator skeleton was there it just needed more work, it wasn’t completed like the next day it took quite some time to finish off by the UI team, again nothing to do with gameplay programmers. The team that does gameplay doesn’t do UI stuff like that. Someone working on gameplay works on that, gameplay. But they also need tools and a foundation to help work on gameplay.

Lots of skeleton was added to this update to assist going forward. There are things that get worked on that you may not even think about that can take time such as reporting and logging systems that help us diagnose gameplay issues, they have to be built and implemented as well.

Sure from the end user perspective, it may not look great and I get it. I read all these and the discords and the Reddits, the Twitter stuff, and Youtube comments in which we should check notes focus on updating TDU, you know, that game we don’t make but someone else does. Just because the changes that you would like to see don’t happen straight away doesn’t mean we don’t listen or they aren’t being worked on.

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i think the general view is that the developers need to concentrate on gameplay now as a matter of urgency. Adding photo realistic faces etc is adding bells and whistles on what should be a foundation of core rugby gameplay, which it just does not have.

Adding line depth, width, set plays, pods on the fly (with the use of the D-pad) needs to be urgently implented as the basic gameplay is too simplistic with very little tactical nous.

Rucks need to be reformatted as well and i keep saying the player needs to hold the ball in two hands whilst sprinting.

it would be nice if the developers could at least explain whether they intend to add these features or not.

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I feel like I need to post this as a pinned comment across this forum, I’ve lost track of how many times we have had to say this.

The Art team does not program gameplay and the gameplay team does not make art. They are not even in the same area, they don’t interact and don’t share work.

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I think biggest thing probably was the lack of communication we had this whole month about the game, I understand we won’t always get these interm patches but it made us feel more involved in helping the game, I know you guys can’t always tell us everything, but would be nice to give feedback or atleast letting us know certain things we give feedback on is getting heard. And I think the smaller updates gave us that feeling because we knew we are testing something out to give feedback on. ATM no one likes the Rucks but each update there is not even a hint if rucks are getting reworked as almost everyone we want that reworked and it feels intern patches are good for us to test things out like that for you guys and help get in the right direction.

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Thanks @JNT_BA for the explanation again. I know you and Matt have already stated it in previous posts. And I am sure the end result will be a great Rugby game.

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I completely understand that, unfortunately, I do lots of the communicating with you guys, and I was on the other side of the world well I guess in most cases on your side of the world, the UK and Ireland trip was WILD. While others could come on, it means time will be taken away from development. That’s the lucky thing with my job is I could post memes all day the games keep progressing, but all my stuff falls behind but that doesn’t stop anything to do with the game. Even from the updates I got, I can’t hype code changes, we added a new tactics readout, and I can be like we did one thousand new lines and 400 updates today. Again that doesn’t mean much. I guess I could have been like I had 5 coffees and I miss coffee from even a service station in Australia cause it wasn’t nice anywhere I went. But apparently, I’m a Coffee snob, cause yeah I am.

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Keep it on topic, I don’t want your social commentary.

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Haha, Ok goodbye to you saying that when like 90% of this thread is criticism.

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You just said it, EA has 30+ years of development, they have succeeded in their field beyond expectations, but a lot of people have been waiting for a decent rugby game for a very long time now and nothing seems to change. Again im not saying EA needs to take over but the gameplay is still not where it should be and EA could be the assistance required to improve it. In saying that, I dont know much about developing games but surely you would try using other recourses to get the game to where it needs to be.

Im not taking anything away from Big Ant, I have no doubt that they are working extremely hard behind the scenes to make this game better, but I do get why people are upset and want a decent rugby game.

Would be nice to have player authentication as well as with stadiums, grass, weather conditions, fans cheering, etc.

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GoTBy

Thanks for the comments! @JNT_BA.
It’s just that we wanna know more ans a bit more often. We can just judge what we see and the progress on the update published.

I can’t wait to try the update now that return home!

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Thank you @JNT_BA for your response and your patience with criticism. I would like to personally apologize because last night I was too harsh with you. The anger is linked to the love I have for your studio and the many hours spent on your games (AFL, RLL). I understand that your job is not easy and that there is a lot of pressure all the same. I remain supportive of you but it is true that the community expected something else because we had illusions due to the lack of communication.

my apologies for my irritation.

good luck to you

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Hey Here’s my first impression feedback after a couple of games

I see there’s been a lot of negatives feedback so let’s start with the positives

Game feels a lot more sturdy now and the stability seem far better, seem a lot of the small annoying things with animation glitches and mad passes are gone for the most part. So great job done on that

It seems to me at least that it’s a bit easier to great holes in the defence now if you know how to which is great. Looking forward to see the implementation of tactics !

Premiership graphics and players look great. Assuming you spend a bit more time on the super stars, players like Marcus smith look amazing ! And loving the little alternate looking graphics for the premiership

Also loving the amount of stadiums that’s are already in the game

Logo maker is amazing and honestly might be the best and most detailed logo maker in any sports game on the market, need to play around with it more but looks super amazing ( going able to have my own local club in the game which is fantastic ! )

In terms of criticism relevant to this update

Some of the stadium surroundings look a bit off, especially bath atm

9 sometimes goes on a little wander before getting to the ruck, also rucks seem to have became a little slower again

Already plenty of people pointing this out but miss placed passes are happening a little too often atm , happy for passes to go wrong sometimes and allow for the defence to jump on the opportunity it’s just needs to be balanced a little better

And one bit of overall feedback is I still feel as if the ruck needs big changes not sure if there’s plans for that but I do think that’ll better the pace of the game because the ruck is still super static and sucks the life out of the momentum of attacks atm

Game is improving every update and I know it’s going in the right direction !

All the teams involved and doing a great job and really listening to us to make a great game we all want to play

Good luck to everyone on the next update and thanks to @JNT_BA for all his Hard work so far !

Looking forward to see what you have for us next !

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I´m trying to upload an image and it´s imposible.

What kind of images can we upload? Size?

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Keep releasing mechanics, art and functionality as and when they are ready, but we need interim updates and the next major update needs to be a big one across the board.

The roadmap had stadium creation on it for EA4, but it is not there. Hopefully it will be added soon as I will be spending a lot of time on there whilst waiting for the game itself to be fixed and polished. I also hope that you will include a wide variety of assets and not as limiting as in the cricket games.

Can you give us an indication of the leagues/competitions that will eventually be added to the game, because then I, and others, can start creating the players, teams and stadiums for the leagues that will not be licensed?

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I’ll be honest I’ve got mixed feelings on EA4 so far. Starting with the positive.

Having the Premiership is awesome, I’m here for this.
The game has been more stable. Have played two matches with no crashes - my laptop is way underpowered so this is amazing.
With the improved stability I was noticing the tackle animations are improved. Not sure if that was EA3 but I noticed it more.
Premiership stadiums and teams is awesome although Exeter chiefs are not the weakest team and it’s a shame they haven’t got the players names / faces like some of the other teams yet. The stadium was a good attempt at Sandy park though.

The negatives
Much of what has been said above I agree with. AI seems harder to me. Gameplay needs work as has been said already. Whilst it’s easy to dismiss the value of licenses / competitions etc I’m very excited to see these things coming through.

All in all a lot I here to appreciate in here. Not the step forward that EA3 felt from a user perspective but I hear what our Big Ant friends have said and if there is under the hood stuff in here that helps them makes the tweaks we all want I remain hopeful. Keep the faith :rugby_football:

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The lads have chimed in on the properly important gameplay stuff, as ever I’ve watched a decent amount of footage on YouTube now EA4 is here - here’s the things I have to pass on to the various teams at BA - very very happy now my team (Sale) and the first elements of the Premiership are in the game:

  • Salford Stadium: a VERY good recreation of the stadium, it’s missing the little screen hung in the top right of the West (main/corporate) stand, above the sticky out bit - gonna find a picture to help you guys along as it is a relatively new addition for Sale matches.
  • Player likenesses: a few major ones to note, Sam Dugdale doesn’t have a ponytail or hair that long IRL, Robert du Preez isn’t blonde (believe he got fined a few weeks before BA scanned the team, as did Luke Cowan Dickie when his scan is eventually added), Ernst Van Rhyn wears a white scrumcap, and there’s some more tweaks to be done on Nick Schonert, Gus Warr, Tom Roebuck and Arron Reed in terms of exact haircuts and colour.
  • Player positions: someone’s mentioned it here already but Bevan Rodd (with a black scrumcap) is a loose head prop, not a centre - hopefully one of the foundations behind the scenes in this update is the backend for squad management/subs.

Would be amazing to eventually hear chants/crowd noise unique to each stadium a bit further down the road, and one thing I must mention for the Premiership grounds: none of them sound hooters/horns for the end of each half. Closest thing to this is at Saracens, where the chime of Big Ben is played.

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Exeter was on the trip I was just on, so many nice players. They will certainly be added once the art team has gone through the process. Lots of team updates from the ART team will come in the future to already in game teams as well as new ones as they are completed and approved.

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EA4 is a very special update for me, as a Newcastle Falcons fan this is probably the only way I’ll see them win a game in the Gallagher Premiership so having them in the competition is a huge bonus. Although please fix Callum Chick’s appearance!

The game has progressed and seems like I am having different luck to others as mine has been smoother for support runners and counter rucking. However still haven’t won a scrum in 20h of gameplay so definitely think tutorials would help.

Have given comments below, apologies if any duplication of other people.

Feedback

  • defence of maul: forwards bunch by the maul and backs fan out wide. Leaves a massive gap that AI runs through every time
  • defence off scrum: flankers slow to react near try line and exit the scrum, AI players run past with ease
  • adding on to both of the above, player positioning off set piece and in defensive situations is quite awkward and not very proactive to defend
  • very hard to tackle AI players after a kick chase, tacklers do not lock on and often fly through them
  • selecting nearest players in defence often means they stop running and you then lose opportunity to tackle, resulting in tries
  • AI bouncing off tackles very frequently and I want that ability
  • quicker action of ruckers and scrum half at ruck time highly needed
  • non throwing hooker or 9 is always first to latch on to opposition maul at lineout, should be the opposite player in line out

Bugs / Imperfections

  • players not catching the ball from kicks, particularly if near to sideline
  • AI and own players not picking up loose ball and standing around it
  • mauls do not end unless you stop pushing, not much competition
  • I press B for maul at line out and they pass it every time so far
  • when kicking conversions, the wrong players stats can come up
  • similar at try time, name doesn’t match up with the stats and position
  • lighting and skin fluorescence on my PC version…during night games, there is only one floodlight shadow which I think contributes
  • players in the start up menu look like they’re standing in very bad lighting / the dark. I turned off shadows and this has fixed the problem, but would prefer shadows in gameplay
  • scrum half being fixed at 9 sometimes leads to a no fault free kick being awarded, and 9 occasionally is at the wrong end of the pitch and gets timed out because no pass can be played
  • once my lineout players were frozen in place until next phase
  • AI held up over the line, when I selected where to do the drop out, it was immediately given as offside to penalty to AI

Nice to see

  • laws and penalties, knock ons, forward passes, general errors to break up possession
  • ability to play dangerously e.g. hold onto the ball at a ruck when isolated, collapse a maul, contest for a ball at ruck time
  • quicker ruck times
  • crowds wearing the relevant jerseys
  • cut scenes before restarts, set pieces, eg lineouts, players discussing the moves. It is currently very instantaneous and removes momentum and build up
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Hello to the whole team, and @JNT_BA and @MattW I hope you are well.

Here is some feedback from the last update:

  • minor glagher championship bug: when you score a try with a player the display shows the name of the same player throughout the match.

  • number 9 behind the rucks but it may slow down while waiting for the 9 and he is often in the ruck

  • passes are improving well done

  • ball exit bug when the opponent performs a maul after a touch (as long as we push into the maul the opponent does not release the ball; I have happened to move the maul from my 22 meters to the opponent’s 22 meters )

  • line out too random for the moment.

  • The rucks are random too. It often happens that my players wait for the opposing players instead of going straight for the ball.

  • Tackler too slow to get up when he could steal the ball (the X key to steal has disappeared?)

  • Placement of my defense on mauls after very poorly placed Line out (10 meters from the maul so the opponent just has to take the ball to score)

  • When the ball is on the ground we cannot choose another player to recover the ball which is frustrating.

  • We don’t know if in a ruck you should spam the B or Y key or just press it.

  • Conversions are too easy, you can hit from 50 meters (few players succeed)

  • The wind during conversions has no influence on the trajectory of the ball.

  • When my player beats a defender he often finds himself alone behind the line (at least 1 or 2 players would be needed for support)

  • New bug the players and the ball dispear some times…

  • Idea : Juste press LB+RB in ruck to code the 10 or 15 move in the rucks axis to kick the ball ( code the player for not run just kick and
    improve kick responsiveness)

Thank you if you read my feedback, I wish you good luck for the rest of the development!

Best Regards

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Do you know whether bath will get their stadium put in the game? Their in game one looks like a grassroots club

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