Early Access 5 (EA5)

I seem to remember that in the team creator there are also names of teams from Super Rugby Americas and the Portuguese league.
In addition, Ross Symons said months ago that Japan League One will not be added.
And let’s not forget that there will also be women’s teams, and they will probably have some leagues and tournaments as well.

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Where would I find the new road map as I am having trouble finding it.

The major stuff always goes on the Steam page for the game.

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100% RUCKS dictates the flow of Rugby if rucks are not good everything else will suffer. For me 3 in a ruck every time is arcadey and dumb down rugby. All other aspects of the game seem to be advancing and on the right path. Would be nice if this aspect of the game could be worked on as well, rucks are the heart of rugby. Even a Rugby 22 system with polishing and added penalties/infractions would be good. In the current state the rucks are like 10 steps behind Rugby 22 rucks. But if good rucks can be implemented then this games other aspects can surpass Rugby 22.

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Hope this will be fixed. Simulating match results not realistic scores. Upsets should be possible, but performance of clubs should be close to actual results in most recent season and scores. All scores also very low. 7-0, 10-3, 7-7…

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In my opinion, Rugby World Cup 2011 has the best rucking system, which was focused on the intensity exerted. If you apply too much intensity (press the button excessively) you may commit a penalty.

Instead of waiting for a bar to reach one of its ends, there should be a dispute of no more than 1 second where the teams try to get the bar to be more inclined on their side without reaching its limit.

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Just some further feedback

SOUND

I have seen some great improvements with crowd noise, cheering. The noise of the crowd elevates and lifts when a player makes considerable running metres or a line break ,scoring a try or a decision by referee. it’s enjoyable for Atmosphere and exciting. Played some games at Pretoria and Swansea , it was noisy and loud. Great job by the sound engineers.

PLAYER CREATOR

Weight and height. When I been creating any players male or particularly female players lately the weight increase is limited based on height. So for me , trying to create some Female Props or Flankers/N8 between 175cm -180cm about 100kg -115 kg is not achievable unless I increase the height to around 190cm or a bit less. This is not a huge issue but I thought I just point it out as females are generally shorter in height but getting weight correct is not easy. It’s something to consider but I don’t have an issue if you can’t improve this in the future. I work around this by having some incorrect weights and heights.

  • Making players look older or near retirement is a bit challenging, I don’t believe the crows feet feature is working at the moment for players.

FEMALE TEAMS - Play Now Function

Will there be a play now function to allow custom female teams to play on the field ? Currently you can only play with Male custom teams.

Roadmap -

Roadmap looks good. Hopefully with tactics coming soon, we see a bench or full squad management possibly in December.

I had one high tackle occur in a game I played. It was exciting and cool just to see an incident randomly occur. Hopefully though a bit more random foul play. I played a few games since then and no foul play incidents. Also , Foul play committed by my own players randomly too. This might not occur till we have stamina and bench management? I understand there must be conditions or reasons for foul play ? Button tackle choice or stamina ?

Thanks Team

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Hi BA,

Something I noticed when playing. I scored a 100+ but the score seemed to cut off the end numerical character as if there wasn’t another space, showing “10” instead. Looks to be just a cosmetic issue though. I’ve also inserted a graphic below showing what it looks like as part of the finals tree. Looks like it overhangs on the other score. Might be worth checking how it’s presented as an away score as well.

Thanks!

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I said this weeks ago… RWC2011 has the best rucking system.

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Just wanted to add my feedback on match difficulty experiences after spending more time playing matches.

Basically at the moment it’s unfortunately too easy to win games even on hardest difficulty.

I have been winning by 40 points or more in URC matches with 5 min halves.

Hopefully the Ai behaviour can be improved to attack with more realisim and put more defensive pressure on in various ways ?

Seems to be a lack of penalties or incidents to offer changes of possession.
Some suggestions:

Lineout - Throw not straight
Random Knocks ons
Big Hits on my players who might drop the ball
Foul play incidents
Ruck infringements

Basically it would also be good to put on big defensive hits when controlling your players to force a knock on hitting the Ai player hard with a big hit.

Other things I notice , the Lineout jumping does not seem to work for my own players. Mauls done by Ai or my players continue to make no ground , if lucky maybe 1 metre in advancement over the grass with territory.

Sideline crash bugs. Johannesburg stadium. I updated a ticket this morning with a video.

Thanks team

4 Likes

Thanks guys for the work done, It is really looking promising now !
What can be improved in my opinion :

  • Rucks (We should be able to steal the ball on a players who is Isolated from his support). Add penalties on the ruck based on a discipline stat of the players ?
  • More penalties, forward passes…And ball drops on massive hits ! … It would create turnovers and opportunities. But I’m sure this is planned.
  • Global improvement of scrums, lineouts
  • Still need more difference between players (skills and sizes)
  • Long kick should include slow motion, penalties should be more difficult.
  • Some animations (running, fending…), are lacking of fluidity.
  • Some sounds (players voices, impacts…) would really improve the intensity of a game !
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I just want to ask are big ant gonna look further at the player creations especially when using the photo feature mad dragon used it and it was a bit bad

Andis there gonna be like branded rugby boots or is everybody gonna use the same generic boot

Is there also a possibilty of a bit pushing and shoving animations when the game is tight? Like in rugby 08 the cutscenes just for a bit of more realism does anybody know whne the next update is coming

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Been playing since EA4.

Majority of the gameplay issues have been mentioned by others (offsides, backline running away at lineouts, etc). In terms of gameplay feel, I still feel passing needs improvement and ruck speed (half getting to the ruck, needs to follow the ball like real life). While the fend is over powered and stepping doesn’t work effectively. Also since EA5 lineouts are broken and there I have noticed a different between the quick match lineout gameplay (maul and pass option being available) compare to competition gameplay (options not available majority of the time).

UI: The option to disable UI elements would be great as not a massive fan of the offside. Also with passing buttons that appear the positioning of them changes which slows the passing down, could have the UI buttons on constant in the circle below the players or have them constant on the same order away from player & ruck. (not much of an issue the more you play but a small one)

A scenario/challenges mode would be great as they are always fun in old school sports games, especially if the community could somehow create them.

Im sure the creator (player and team) are still early development and will be improved so a few notes:
Player Creator: I say the biggest disappointment at the moment is the depth of the player creator, compared to other Big Ant games (RLL4, AO Tennis 2). Mainly noticed it with the nose options, you are unable to change the depth of the nose tip, bridge, etc. Also not nose break option. Prefer the shapes in the different head options be attributes you change and the shapes be presets you can edit from. Also whats the PlayFace option?

Team Creator: More sponsor/logo layers for kits. In RL4 I used logos to get kit patterns that werent available and having a lot of logo options was great. Also custom logos being added or marked to used as Team emblems is needed. Team Colours dont have much of an affect at the moment.

Goal Kicking: Love to see different kicking tees, sure Big Ant could approach Rugby Bricks to get some of their different tees (sure they have 3d models), even if they are unlockable. Additionally improvement in the goal kicking mechanics (changes to the setup, different runup options, tees with different attribute bonuses (range, accuracy, etc)) as its too easy at the moment.

Would like the cutscene skipping be a hold button than a click similar to EA games, especially if BigAnt add midgame player focus cut scenes with stats similar to the try scoring. I personally like more presentation scenes in sport games, while giving other players options to skip them.

As this is too far in development this point is more of a gripe, I’m not a massive fan of the defence tackling, I prefer Maddens (only play Madden 19) defence radar which requires players to be angled correctly and within range of attacking players for a simple or heavy/dive tackle)

Other than that the game is fun and improving can wait to see super rugby, NPC and hopefully shute shield and Queensland Premier Rugby added. Also if you could add simple commentary names like Jack, Harry, Adam, Andrew that be great couldn’t double check as game kept crashing when trying to change the commentary name.

Think rugby fans will love this once its complete and polished and these forums and early access is a great initiative so cheers to the BigAnt Team.

6 Likes

The crash bug relating to commentary name has been reported and noted by BA, hopefully it is fixed with the next patch and hopefully the next patch is withing the next 7 days. The socks option with player creation has also just disappeared, so you can’t edit player socks. Hopefully they bring it back with next patch.

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One small thing I’ve noticed design wise is the supports don’t always seem to be wearing their team colours, not every supporter will but would be good to see some of them in their team kits and considering you’ve designed multiple years of team kits would be good to see a mix of the old and new kits on the fans, would add that slight be of realism.

Keep up the good work guys ! :slight_smile:

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Just a thought on the future addition of career mode.

I assume you still have the RWC 23 licence, perhaps this would be a good starting point in career mode if selecting a national and club side to manage like Rugby Challenge 4.

Ive found in other rugby games, when a new RWC comes around, each game is in random stadiums all over the world, depending on who is playing which is a bit strange.

As there will be a huge number of stadiums (wooop!) in the game, perhaps career mode can randomly select a region/country every 4yrs as a ‘host’ of the new world cup (assuming these would be generic world cups after 2023) , so all games are in different stadiums in that country/region for a touch more realism. Itd be a great way to showcase stadiums that players might not have explored etc

On penalties, I was playing RWC2011 for the first time recently and a few things stood out; contesting rucks, and being able to deliberately collapse scrums etc felt the best in any rugby game to date IMO. This meant the penalty counts felt very realistic. Contesting the ball in rucks would often lead to penalties against both sides for sealing off the ball, holding on to the ball in the ruck, not releasing the ball carrier in the tackle etc.

So excited for this game, looking better and better with each update now!

2 Likes

Momentum swings and penalties for holding on -

There needs to be some kind of reward system/momentum shift in this game.

When im defending in my own half/22 the AI just gets unlimited phases to attempt to score. The most common way i take back possession is by a interception or they just eventually score.

I think the player needs to be rewarded for good defending such as winning a pentalty for opposition holding on.

If my opposition is attacking inside my 22 and If i defended my line for 20+ phases and then won a penalty it would feel like a genuine achievement.

Could you implement momentum swings in the game such as your teams stats could be increased temporarily whilst your opponents gets lowered and/or they have a higher chance of committing unforced errors such as knock ons?

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Played the game last night and though there are some notable changes these are not enough to make the game feel like you are playing or watching rugby.

Still no structure with just passing left and right, with passing still being pretty unresponsive. This means that gaps and overlaps can’t be exploited, my tires came from offloads rather than line manipulation.

My 10 just got hit constantly with no way to really play off him. Forwards are almost as fast as backs and everyone has the same strength so there was no real gain line success from my big forwards against wingers and no interplay with forwards or backs. We need some structure, with forward pods and the ability to pass out the back to manipulate defence.

Again defence is pretty pointless. There is no sucking in defenders to create space out wide. Opposition players can shoot out of line with no consequences or way to exploit it. And when I defended I felt like I didn’t need to do anything. And with no way to steal the ball I just waited for the the opposition to kick the ball back. No pens on either side as well.

Stadiums also don’t look like their stadiums. For example, Ravenhill for Ulster is pretty much a generic stadium.

Still has a lot of work to do.

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@JNT_BA @MattW are we seeing an update today or should we not get our hopes up?

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The feedback is killing me the feedback we getting from big ant these days is very little but hopefully they are pushing a big update through and suprise us all

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