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!