Early Access 4 (EA4) launch

[jsquared]

Have to commend the improvements from EA1 to EA4. I can see the potential in the game and like the progress. Although I feel this should have been the EA2 state. Hopefully there is several more EA releases.

I can confirm majority of the bugs mentioned in this thread so not wanting to rehash and focus on the items I saw during my play and some other notes.

Playing France vs Croatia at Stade de France.

• Line out jumping animation is unnatural
• Opponents did not release the ball from a maul. I pushed the opponents from the halfway line back over the dead ball line. I would expect some release or collapse. But hey I dont mind the occasional 50 metre maul to score a try.
• Still no idea how to win a scrum. Need better tutorials.
• Not sure if this is a real bug but keeping the ball in play I extended the first half to around 80 minutes.
• Support runners too deep not running with the attacking player.
• Receiving player running along a track and doesn’t respond to directional change.
• Bomb kicks target moving randomly. Would prefer more of a slow motion during the kick in open play.
• Non responsive/delayed reactions from actions e.g pass, tackle etc.
• Scrumhalf makes unnatural shuffles to rucks, causing the ref to call the ‘use it’ rule
• A note for the player creator. If the position are assigned as pedantic as left or right wing and not wing then we should have four positions and one backup. example Kolbe… Left Wing, Right Wing, Fullback, Flyhalf and backup as a Scrumhalf. Many players like that. So unless you can set a General Wing or outside back position, we need more available positions. A minimum of three + one backup
• in the player creator. Does not zoom into face fir every single facial manipulation option.
• Still no offline mode for single play / steamdeck.

Copying this from another thread I pasted it into.

@JNT_BA A note for the developers as a low priority at the end of the cycle when the game is polished. What about options to replicate the amateur or pre pro era. For example settings to limit to 22 or 16 players like in the ‘old’ days or reducing the scoring to the 0 or 4 or 3 for a try era.

[MaD_Dragon_Rugby]

Couple of other things noticed today.

If you tackle an opponent over their own try line with the ball in hand. The referee awards you a penalty. (think its my first penalty in the game) but it should only be a scrum awarded for taking the ball over their own try line.

Subsiquently, on a penalty, a completely different player will take the kick instead of your normal kick taker. And the stats that will appear on screen will name another completely different player again, that is neither the kick taker, or your normal kick taker.
Ive noticed that stats pop up bit, have the wrong name in tries and conversions aswell.

Box kicks going backwards have also returned. Seems to be exclusive to holding down Y before the scrum half gets to the ruck, and it cant be cancelled once it starts.

Also, issues with being tackled over the try line doesnt count as a try, and you place the ball back for another ruck.

[Paradox]

I would like to talk about goal kicking, which is a fun mechanic but not challenging enough. It is not difficult to deduce the trajectory, and there is no difference between the kickers of each team.

Here’s my proposal: Between FIFA 20 and 22, the mechanic in penalties and free kicks consisted in directing a circle in the place where you want to connect the shot. The trick is that the circle always returns to the center if you don’t keep it in place manually.
In Rugby 25, if the lateral trajectory of the ball tends to stay in the center, it will require more practice at long distances or tight angles, and the sensitivity of the movement will depend on the stats of the designated player.

[FSRU95]

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well and that development on the game is progressing smoothly! I wanted to point out something small that I noticed regarding the South African logo in the game. It seems a bit off compared to the other team logos, which look more like clean PNGs without backgrounds. The Springbok logo currently has a green border around it, and I was wondering if there are any plans to update it to match the others, without the background? I know it’s not a major issue, but it might be worth tweaking at some point in the future.

On a positive note, I also wanted to mention how much I’m enjoying the game’s soundtrack! It’s got a great vibe that really brings back memories of the old-school FIFA games.

I’ll attach some images for reference.

Thanks for all the hard work, and I’m excited to see how the game continues to evolve!

Current logo:

Suggested update for the logo:

[JNT_BA]

When it comes to art work and really anything to do with teams it’s very much a partner effort. We work closely with each licensed team for kit or player updates to make sure they’re as close as possible.

As we mentioned in the EA video some teams will still use their 23/24 kit while we work with our partners to bring in the new ones.

Much like we do with our Cricket title to keep it updated as best as possible with the new designs.

I’ll make sure to pass this one on to the licensing team to look into it, if they aren’t already.

[JNT_BA]

@MaD_Dragon_Rugby

Music, once again song choice of new songs coming in is great, thouroughly enjoying all of the songs in the main menu, got it on in the background now while typing this, another big tick to the audio team. (just a quick note, newer songs have odd titles like “FrontEndMusic_song name”, which is fine for now, but will want to be sorted before release, im guessing the game is just registering the name of the music files as the song name"

Yeppers those will be updated to be correct. Good catch.

@MaD_Dragon_Rugby

Competitions working smoothly, no crashes, still an issue with the Simulate button not working though

I see this has been updated on our end as I kept hitting that as well when trying to work on the videos. Will test this one myself to be 100% sure cause it certainly is annoying.

[Rugbygamer40]

Hi team,

Just in relation to offiside penalties. This 2nd screenshot is an example when referee decided to issue a penalty.

I find at times if my players running back to defensive line they sometimes get issued a penalty when they are far from the ruck. In this instance I do have 1 player (Number 4 Lock) that was running through the ruck to get back onside after making a tackle. So I not sure what exactly the penalty was issued for but I thought I share these screenshots to help. Perhaps my player should try to move back on side to the side of the ruck after making a tackle. This can be a common issue sometimes. But either way I see penalties issued for both these things regularly.

[edsup]

I think more effort need to be put when the players are kicking the ball close to the defence.he is stoping himself on last second, It’s just feel very unnatural,Whereas the defence should be able to counter the ball with their arms or have the ball bounce off them. It would be cool to have these two options depending on the situation. unnatural

[tigersmad]

Just watched you Video MD Hardest level looks the way to go and the Penalty lol great work

[edsup]

Also the TMO need to be use when the try really seems to not be obvious. Most of the time it’s really not necessary.

[Callum_4]

First of all, game is feeling much more playable. Many things feel much improved and seems like the game is going in the right direction.

Tackling:

• Tackling is much better, with being able to tap tackle to slow them down and the normal tackle animations I love. However, all tackles seem to be slow which is unrealistic, some tackles need to be big hits and smash the oppo straight to the floor.
• Some tackles seem to still teleport, so if you aren’t close to a defender they seem to be able to tackle you.
• Other than that, tackling as a whole feels good

Rucking:

• Still the biggest issue with the game, slows the game down all the time, allows the defence to set and cant go quick
• Both teams dont always need 3 people in, and if a team has more in the ruck they should be able to push the opposition off the ball
• If none of the attacking team secure the ball and the defence gets there quicker you should be able to steal the ball but that doesnt seem to happen
• The animation of the ruck is very unrealistic, its not going to be the same everytime and players will get push off and about
• Its great how the 9 is now playing from the ruck more, however they seems to get there very slow and they should follow the breakdown more, additionally should always be the 9 going for the ball if they are too far. (has caused a scrum turnover, because 9 has taken to long to get there)

Pentalies:

• Never get any pentalies for being ‘off-feet’ , ‘Forward passes/knock-ons’ , ‘crossing/obstruction’ , ‘offside’ or ‘high tackles’ as a real life game would. There would be pentalies now and again for mistakes players make, where here it seems all the players are perfect.
• Recieving many high takcles and never get a penalty for it
• There are NO offsides at the kicks in open play, which feels like hacking as I can kick to an teammate stood 50m infront and score easy with no defence

Positioning:

• Players in the attacking line stand anywhere, I would like to see more of the ‘10’ in a typical 10 position as first receiver and wingers on the wings and forwards such as Props being there aswell as another option for a first receiver to give a big carry with the pods
• Defensive line players sometimes stand offside or just in random places or just standing in the ruck inside of players who have joined the ruck.
• When players break a tackle it takes them time to start running again or don’t run at all
• Defence seem to run away from the players and give easy line breaks
• Defence come up to quickly

Lineouts:

• Lineouts are basic, its good for now, but i would love to see variation with fake jumps
• Mauls dont work at lineouts, you have to stop press LT for the 9 to get the ball out (for AI team)
• No option to through to the prop at the front and run along the blind side. Maybe another option to do that using ‘B’
• Players stand in the lineout after the ball has left for a few seconds

Scrums:

• Scrums work weird, you have to wait until the teams have finished pushing to be able to pass away
• Cant pick and go with the 8

Kicking:

• Don’t get way the kicks for goal are curved, would be nice to angle the ball to get different curves and lengths and heights
• Wind is good but doesnt play into effect much, with converstions it only shakes your aim about, where i think it shouldnt and you have to calculate how much the ball will move from there you have aimed
• Dont get time to kick in open play, defence come up to quickly or kicks dont charge up quick enough
• No option to charge down kicks at conversions

Passing:

• Some passes still go to ground on the rare occasion
• Some fired passes at times
• As a whole passing is better, but still cant pop pass to players close to you and instead chucks it into touch or further away

Scoring:

• Never seem to hold people up on trys
• Some try animations still seem no very smooth
• You can dive through players while going for the line
• When diving for the corner is doesnt dive for the corner very well and if you dive 5m inwards it will dive like they are diving for corner

Academy:

• Kit creations is lovely, but more variation would be great especially with the more unique patterns
• Logo creator is very hard to use, not very user friendly at all
• Previous colours dont save
• Importing pictures isnt easy
• expanding and chaing shapes isnt easy
• Community works great
• When managing logos and duplicating them you have to go off then back on to see other one

Prem:

• Some of the players are in wrong positions like at Saracens with McFarland at 10 but im guessing thats because the photogrammetry isnt there for Fergus Burke
• Players dont look like how they actually are, one that I’ve seen is Callum Chick… i dont know who that is but its not callum chick
• Wrong players doing things, for example saw Sale hooker take penalty kick instead of the fly half (George Ford)

Graphics

• They are lovely but sometimes get mixed up when scoring trys and taking conversions
• Would be nice to have Career, Season and Match trys
• Stats arent shown correctly in game

[MaD_Dragon_Rugby]

Just had my first ever HIGH TACKLE PENALTY!
Didn’t even know it was in the game.

however, after the tackle, the ref gave the penalty, and the player just took off, became impossible to tackle, and also wasnt able to put the ball down for a try and ran it dead!

[AndyPelser]

@JNT_BA @MattW not something major but just want to know is there a possibility to get rid off the hug/bro type tackle animations for tackling is a lot better but the hug tackle just break the emersion of the game or is that not possible

[initroot]

I’ve run into a couple of issues hoping this can be fixed soon:

• Tackle teleportation is back since the latest “passing” update. This usually happens when the AI attacks and offloads, my players teleport into the tackle.
• The time the kicker has in pocket is not great, needs improvements.
• Box kicks from the rucks, doesn’t always work. It gets stuck on the kicking, this is since EA4. The player will then just pickup and run. Can we not have the box kicks changed from rucks and mauls. Need to add depth into this, so you can have time in the air with the ball.
• Since the new update, sometimes when I offload, I don’t control the receiving player. I can’t and the AI just runs with him gets tackled.
• Penalty kicks, I have not my actual kicker taking these had a lock take them once.
• I’ve had several matches with no scrums at all. There has to be improvement in this area.
• The fend off, bump off button doesn’t work always. Also when switching to side-play camera, it seems the button orientation is switched, not sure if I was imagining this. Left should be left sidestep, not right and vice versa. So far only pressing downwards, and pressing the special button to bump off does nothing.

Can we please have some control added over depth of players etc. At this point the game is somewhat playable, but after 2-3 matches, its boring. on the hardest if opposition has the ball, you’ll almost never get it back in your own 22. and you end up tackling them back to theirs until they kick. rinse and repeat.

[Rugbygamer40]

Have Face Scans been done for MLR ? Just need to point out there is a lot of Bald players without hair in MLR?

Not sure if this is meant to be ?

Played with or against Seawolves , Free Jacks, Utah. A lot of bald players , perhaps the hair didn’t get added for many and it’s a Bug ? Not sure.

I got no video footage as my Steam Recorder just won’t work at the moment.

Here are some screenshots

[ChrisZA]

Thanks for the hard work, it isn’t lost on all of us.

Will you be checking each stadium’s cameras? Sometimes at some venues there is clipping here or there. It happens pretty often, so I won’t list the specific angles and stadiums.

Additionally, I highly recommend that you do not zoom to the crowd at any point during or after the game. The crowd animations and quality do not match the visual quality elsewhere in the game…and that is fine…the crowd ought to be in the background. Maybe only use wide angles or keep them out of focus. Just a suggestion.

I don’t know if it has been mentioned elsewhere, but the grass does seem a bit jarring. Something about it just looks flat or unrealistic. On both max settings and lower settings this is apparent. Maybe imperfections from footsteps and scrums, mauls, tackles could help give a more realistic texture. I would guess that this is something on your list though.

Passing can feel a bit like molasses, feels like you have to decide to pass before even handling the ball as the pass takes quite a while to execute. I understand that a prop would be slow to pass, but backs with good passing stats should be a bit slicker.

Mauls, you’re probably on to it, but the backline are out of position and the ball is often stuck on the AI side.

Sometimes a single team can go through a crazy amount of phases. Maybe some handling errors could help this. Doesn’t need to be a knock on or a forward pass, maybe even dropping the ball backwards would increase realism. Additionally, the AI should attempt grubbers and chips a little more to increase variations in play.

The ball sometimes seems soft, and bounces in a predictable manner. Would be nice if it could be closer to how a rugby ball behaves in reality.

Lastly, I know the Career Mode has not been implemented yet. But was wondering if you would have stat bonuses/penalties for playing home/away and if there will be some natural random variation of stats from game to game, like in real life, sometimes a player won’t be on their A game. Additionally, if someone is nerdy enough to do it, perhaps incorporating travel fatigue for teams that have travelled a far distance in the previous 7 days could be interesting. Like stamina -7, strength -5 and reactions/reflexes etc., -5, or whatever you deem appropriate. Travelling from Ireland to SA to play the Lions is not an easy task, for example. Also, if a player returns from injury, maybe they can have a stamina and strength penalty for a game or 2, depending on the injury etc. If they are coming back from concussion, maybe handling is limited etc.

Thanks for your hard work again and keep it up. It has come a long way already!

[JNT_BA]

As soon as its ready. One thing I’ve been monitoring are more updates to the support. While we did introduce it in this EA there is still more work we want to do on these to make it a more fluid experience and not lose them in linebreaks so easily.

[Johnpbroom]

Had a bit of time this Sunday morning to let my 8 year old have a go. He hasn’t touched the game since EA2. He loved EA1 and was put off by EA2. Anyway for us having Premiership licenses is key so this is still very cool even though it’s not fully up to date / complete. Know it’s coming though so no complaints.

Anyway as a little one who plays a bit of rugby stepping up to U9’s and first taste of contact this season he was loving the game. Really enjoying the improvements to the computer ai and generally enjoying the game more than ever. Like all good games the chance for impossible / unlikely matchups is welcome as he took the mighty France to win at Exeter Stadium against the Exeter Chiefs.

We are Exeter fans and have been to Sandy park enough times for him to recognise the stadium and seeing logos / kits and the improvements in the gameplay were welcome. He is currently a big EAFC fan and it was really great to see him buzzing and enjoying the game. He noticed the improvements over time. Looking forward to the next update eagerly.

My laptop is so underpowered but still runs with the graphics dialled down and crowd turned off. Showed him one of Mad Dragons YouTube videos so he can see what the game should look like. He’s genuinely excited for the PS5 release.

[Tigersfan12]

Passing and player movement:

Player movement and passing still just looks incredibly unnatural and clunky. With all the great kits and player scans, movement and ball physics are so important to ensuring the game is a realistic immersive product all round. RLL4 the passing and movement looked far more fluid, albeit not perfect. The ability to delay passes was great in RLL4. Is it not possible to use those systems in this game (but hopefully slightly improved)? Cheers team

[ivor2de]

Rucking needs to take into account the following-

1. user skill and timing
2. player stats entering ruck
3. circumstances around ruck, for example close to supporting players, over the advantage line
4. realistic ruck speed and able to slow ball down but at risk of penalty.

R22 had this perfected, you have the built. Just tweak it slightly please.