Launch (EA1) Feedback

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.

2 Likes

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.

5 Likes

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.

3 Likes

Yeah would love to see a video of what you are getting. Anything like that I can send along is amazing!

1 Like

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.

2 Likes

Hello guys hope your well. I’m sorry i might sound rash on this one but this is really bad. First of all you literally just copy paste rugby league live and we can see it the tackler never goes on the ground and replace himself 5m back like in rugby league the ruck is really bad and it’s not fluid. So first of all don’t inspire you from rugby league live cause it’s literally not the same sport. You have to fixe the ruck it has to be morr animated. After that pls add some real tackling animations 90% of the time when we tackled someone in rugby union we go on the ground with him. Stop putting the defensive line 5m away when a tackle is done and a ruck is set the offside line is behind the ruck. Don’t neglect the position too it’s not like league every position have specific work to do. The offensive line is a disaster everyone is on the same line that’s not how it work usually forwarda working in pods of 3 and the back formed a second line behind the forwards.

6 Likes

If you want to have a good look of what a good position of a offensive line look like just watch rugby 22 gameplay this is at least the onlu good think this game had. We should have the option to hit the forwards with the number 9 or the number 10 or if we simply decided to just work with the backs. In term of animation we need a handoff, a bump, a step this is the most current move in rugby, we need some animation when the ball carrier is trying to gain the line against the defense, we need one on one tackle and two on one tackle, we need to add a jackal and an option to counter ruck

4 Likes

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.

8 Likes

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

7 Likes

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

7 Likes

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.

15 Likes

Well. To be positive is craazy difficult here.

As a fan, how can you even begin to have a glimpse of hope that this magnitude of comical errors that this early access has, can even be close to rectified?

Let’s be real here, no person who has any idea about the game of rugby union, would release that and say it’s a decent rugby sim. I could grab 30 people who have never seen rugby or played sport in their life, throw them on a rugby field and say play, with no referee or coach, and they would still look more authentic to rugby union than this does.

As hopeful as we all are, if this is the start state… it ain’t getting much better no matter how much input we give.

Flaws:

Passing (passing needs to be power based like FC24, the longer you hold the pass the furyhur it goes. Should probably be directional with analog stick as well), tackling animations are horrid, ruck animations (seen better on JL Rugby), ruck support play (do players pause in real rugby?), defensive line, support lines (what support lines), AI tactics, attacking shape (non existent).

Pros: Licensing, Graphics.

I guess I’ll come back for rugby 28.

2 Likes

Has anyone else got their A and B button swapped around and same with X and Y or is that just a me thing :joy::joy:

1 Like

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:

  1. 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

  2. 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!

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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!

9 Likes

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

4 Likes

One question . Can the socks be lowered ?

2 Likes

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.

3 Likes