Hey guys,
For those who will be joining us on this journey through EA1 throw all your feedback here. Be as detailed as you can be. What do you not like with what is currently in the game? Of course with each stage we will be adding more and more but any specific feedback is welcomed.
Please stick to the rules, don’t antagonise and respect the opinion of others. Ideally just be civil.
Im a console user so cannot say how it plays but just from viewing a stream of the game some of the animations and placements are off (which to be fair you did mention they are experimental atm).
Players all catch the ball statically from rucks/sometimes in open play and do not run onto passes. This could probably benifit from the ‘flat pass’ function used in RLL4, where you hold a pass button double tap a face button to make a flat pass that the catcher runs on to.
Firstly thanks for the game. And I know it is early access, but the controls seem very unresponsive. I am still trying to learn them, but even when I click the buttons according to the controls, it feels as if they are not doing anything. Especially at the rucks. I will provide better footage of this later on, then secondly there is a constant glitch in every match so far, where when a player get the ball, he can run right through without anyone tackling. It mainly happens with AI players, but I had one instance where I could just run through as well. Then is there any alternative controls maybe for tackling, I really do not like the right analog stick for this.
Yeah would love to see a video of what you are getting. Anything like that I can send along is amazing!
Is there a possibility to add an auto-select to the player closer to the ball? It is kind of frustrating trying to ruck or tackle but you have a player selected in the other side and you have to press “A” to try to select the player you want.
By the way, love to see so many tier 2 nations, specially Spain, Chile and Uruguay. Cannot wait to play as Os Lobos soon!
Sorry for my bad english.
Hey Big Ant and JNT,
I have only played 2 matches so far.
I had an issue where sometimes no scrum half will come to the ruck or a player will stand behind the ruck and do nothing. This leads to a scrum. It has happened multiple times in a match. Mostly with my team and once across two games with the CPU.
I find the sensitivity for aiming a place kick is too high, I barely move the joystick and the aim jumps across the screen.
Joining the ruck when I tackle the CPU is a bit slow for both teams.
It would be nice to have a “Free play” or tutorial level to practice running around, place kicking, scrums and lineouts. Mainly scrums, because for the life of me I don’t understand the button sequence.
I do like the cut out pass option design. The game is a bit rough to play right now, but nothing a few updates can’t fix. Trust the process.
Players feel as if they are operating entirely independently of the game and those around them - when you make a tackle, if the ai gets there first, then you just ping past and onto the floor.
Would also say the stepping and fending etc needs to be more impactful, at the moment it just feels unfluid and clunky.
Ruck is also weird - players just standing there watching and it’s not clear what is actually going on.
Needs a flat pass option too.
Final thought for now is that momentum doesn’t really feel like it exists (this was a problem in RLL too IMO). Every phase doesn’t feel impacted by the last one, and that going forward builds a platform
Big thing around the tackle/ruck is that the tackling player(s) is back to his feet far too quickly. There’s only certain players that can bounce back to their feet that quickly to compete for the ball (I’ve not seen a competing/jackling animation yet). Tackle situations usually involve at least a couple of players staying on the ground and a ruck forming on top of them. Just looks unrealistic and doesn’t allow for the attacking team to then use the overlap allowed by players being stuck in the ruck or maul
Great feedback - thanks - and also to all of those above.
Momentum across phases will certainly be implemented.
Things like the pace of the game, speed of the ball when passed etc. will be tuned a lot over the EA.
Has anyone else got their A and B button swapped around and same with X and Y or is that just a me thing 
The holding in the button to power up the passing does not work in Rugby 22, you just had to guess which player it was going to, so i definitely would not like to see that in this game
For starters, the game looks great. Brilliant work on the kits, stadium, refs and players. As an early access there are understandably a lot of improvements which I hope can be made. For me the most apparent are:
Player positioning - at the moment it plays a lot like rugby league with a single string of runners and the occasional deep line. There really needs to be some sort of pod system implemented with different play styles putting the pod in different places across the pitch (I.e. off 9, off 10). This is something Rugby 22 did really well. Within this, having the 10 sit out the back of the pods off 9 with the option to pull back is critical to creating a game which represents the game we watch on TV and in stadiums today
Tackling animations - The tackling animation is very rugby league like at the moment, too upright and slow with the tackler immediately getting to his feet. There are so many types of tackle in rugby Union - chop tackles, dump tackles, choke tackles. To get the best out of the game these should be included!
Tactics and set plays - I’m sure you’ve already got plans to include this in the final game as they exist in RLL4. Simple moves like dummy switch pops and loops are a great way to make the game feel more realistic, as well as blocker plays. An area Rugby 22 did brilliantly was being able to manipulate the depth and width of the line in both attack and defence at any time. This customisation made you feel far more in control of your teams tactics - I’d love to see it in this game
Rucking and jackalling - The rucking I’d rather slow and cumbersome and there is no option to jackal yet that I can find? This is an enormous part of the game that really should be included. Games like Rugby Challenge 4 and Rugby 22 did this quite well.
Fluidity and momentum - As others have mentioned, including Ross, there needs to be a bit more fluidity and ability to build momentum. Short runners hitting lines, quick ball to find the outside of the defence. All things which will make the game more enjoyable
And that’s about it, hopefully that’s constructive and not too critical. I see massive potential for this game, thank you for taking on such a tough challenge!
I will say on a positive note that from what I’ve seen the commentary seems to work very well, its fluid and doesnt seem as janky as rugby 22, change of tone at the right moments and inflections etc
Hey guys,
First of all, thank you BA and Ross for the game. I know that you had a lot to do with Tie Break, Cricket, AFL and now Rugby.
I know that at the end the game might be really good.
What pisses a bit me off is that I feel I’ve been a bit lied too again by the duo Nacon/BA, saying that the delay and renaming from R24 to R25 is only because of the signature of the 150 deals and the scanning of players etc…
In the communication from yesterday, indeed they indicate that the AI is still experimental and that anomalies could occur. But come on, they announced that the extra time allowed them to improve the gameplay. I’ve the feeling they only have started the dev in September 2023, maybe later, probably because to much workload on other games.
We need to gave them some feedbacks, but at this stage, this is difficult, there are indeedmany anomalies, please find below a first feedback, might be wrong at some points and people might disagree.
Gameplay looks sometimes more like league than union (rucking, tackles, contacts etc)
The players seem to have random places (my fullback Ramos not covering the background, but Taofifenua does, Mauvaka is playing as winger (n°11). Don’t have the feeling that it is yet possible to do some combination, have some pods of player etc…
When rucking, opponents sometimes seem to look at themselves and do nothing, weird animations
Kicking goal seems ok for me
The ref never whistle for offsides or knock on.
The buttons seems not to always work / respond correctly.
The player seem to almost all have the same shape and height ?
Photogrammetry is sick, thank you (maybe some glitches around the eyes of some players)
Animation of tackles doesn’t look realistically yet, and would be cool to have a capacity to break the tackles
Stadiums are pretty, but colors/shadows could be improved, and the ambiance sound could be improved aswell
Cheers
One question . Can the socks be lowered ?
GotBy
Seems that sometimes the CPU takes control of your players… i scored two tries without touching anything on the controller.
Longtime lurker of these forums (waiting for the Xbox One/console release as I don’t have hardware capable of running the PC version), just a small detail from a nerdy broadcast authenticity standpoint, based on what I’ve seen on YouTube - the side camera at Stade de France is not accurate. It’s actually above the tunnel/subs benches, not where it is in the game. It’s a strong start but as BA/Ross have mentioned, there is more to come over the next few months. Everyone else seems to hit the main points about gameplay on the head, this is a marathon not a sprint, so take the time to get it right (and keep telling them what’s working and what’s not, folks).
I’d also STRONGLY advise BA to reach out directly to the unions/leagues too, to get actual player feedback on the game now it is out in the open- while customer feedback is insightful, sometimes sport-specific feedback can shape a release like this. I know within the Gallagher Premiership, Bristol’s Ellis Genge, Sale’s Luke Cowan-Dickie and Gloucester’s Jamal Ford-Robinson are big gamers, and getting insight from those who play the sport for real will aid the dev team immensely.
Best of luck with the rest of EA1, will be watching it all unfold with a keen eye on how my Sale lads look when the Premiership is added.
This game really makes me wonder if you guys actually played this before releasing the BETA , this isn’t rugby union , the passing slips 5players , the ruck is awful and needs to be more realistic a chance to compete.
Delays upon delays no idea what gameplay had been done.
Please actually watch a game of rugby union , the tackles look like rugby league NOT union ,
A choice of tackle would be a nice option , being able to call set plays from a set piece also.
Being able to call a substitution if you need to at any point in the game.
The controls are lacking response and very clunky.
We just want a fluid free flowing rugby game the kits , graphics, and licensing is great but the base of an incredible game is the actual gameplay. After being let down from the World Cup to the six nations and to get this awful gameplay is a real serious let down massive improvements needed.
Firstly congratulations to you guys for getting the game out there and starting the EA journey to a finished game. Must be a good feeling to have that first major step done.
I have only played a few games so I will just try and be specific about single points I notice.
The glaring place for improvement for me is around the tackle area. I find when your player gets close to a ball carrier there is not enough control to adjust your path into a tackle. It is like it is determined from far too out whether or not you will successfully initiate contact with the carrier or whether you will fly by him. If this is done by some sort of aggro area? (sorry for the poor terminology) then the radius needs to be smaller so you have more time to adjust the path into the tackle initiation.
Which brings me to the second area, if a player is committed and it is determined the defender will miss the player, the diving action is too over exaggerated, taking your player almost entirely out of the next phase. Maybe some animations whereby the tackler goes to ground but stays in a closer radius to the attempted contact area would be a good start?
Apologies for the novel and terminology 
Some great promise in this game and looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Stay tuned for my next novel.