After playing a few games post update, I am happy to see the player movement on to the ball be fixed. However, other than the obvious bug fixing and continued improvements that will be added to passing and movements, there are 3 main areas that need to be worked on to improve the realism of the game:
- Positioning
- Defence
- Rucks
How to fix:
Positioning:
Please see images.
Image 1 (positioning off rucks coming in from a wide channel)
Image 2 (positioning in the middle of the field)
Defence:
All good sports games reward players for good decision making/timing and punish players for bad decision making/timing. This principle needs to be used in defence and rucks. Starting with defence, in this game you can defend without pressing any button - the AI will tackle for me, and then I can spam compete at rucks until I randomly get a steal. This isnât how it should be; I should have to actively defend and earn myself a steal. By making AI tackles more passive (conceding metres in the tackle), and only allowing the user to Jakal at rucks where he actively makes the tackle, you encourage the user to defend more actively.
Furthermore, when I decide to make tackles myself, I donât have to time my tackle, I can just hold B and run up to the attacker. The user should be more likely to miss tackles when pressing B too early or too late, when he is not close enough to the tackler. The ratings of the players in this interaction is also factored in - if I am tackling with an elite defender, my window of opportunity to time a tackle is larger, however if I am defending with a player that has a poor tackle rating or I am tackling an elite attacker, my window of opportunity to make the tackle is smaller. The difficulty the game is set to should also dictate this.
Rucks:
Applying the same principle of rewarding or punishing the users good or bad decision making and timing to rucks will massively improve this area of the game as well. In the games current state, I spam B at every ruck and keep the ball until at one ruck the game randomly decides I should lose the ball. I am not being punished or rewarded for my decision making and timing. Hereâs how I think it should be:
In an actual rugby game, there are two ways to get a turnover from a ruck: either be the first man to the ruck and âjakalâ (or steal) the ball, or commit numbers to the ruck to âcounter-ruckâ over the ball. This game should be no different.
To begin with, at the start of every ruck, the attacking team must choose the number of players he is committing to the rucks. This is done by the amount of times the user presses B. E.G: pressing B twice puts 2 players into the ruck, with a maximum of 4 players entering a ruck.
âJakalâ/steal mechanic explained:
To Jakal for the ball, the user must first be the tackler. Once he has completed a tackle, he can chose to Jakal by pressing X. This creates a situation where the attacking team must clear the jakaler away from the ball/ruck.
If the opposition defence has a jakaler in place:
After choosing the numbers to the ruck, the attacker must flick the right stick up in time with the initial contact between the first player to the ruck and the jakaler. If the user is the jakaler, he must also do this in time. To gauge the success of this timing, use a traffic light system - poor timing is red, okay timing is amber, good timing is green. Green timing results in clearing out the jakaler, amber timing leaves the attacking team exposed to a turnover, red timing results in a penalty conceded (depending on the oppositions timing as well)
Once again, this is where player rating and difficulty factors in: amber timing with a player that has good ruck ratings means he can often clearout the player. However, if the player has poor ruck ratings, or the opposition player has elite ratings, the clearout/Jakal must be timed perfectly. The harder the difficulty, the smaller the window of opportunity to green time clearout and Jakals become, and the better the oppositions timing at rucks.
Counter ruck mechanic explained:
The user can counter ruck at any ruck - whether he makes the tackle or not - simply by pressing B the amount of times for the amount of players he wants in the ruck. Counter rucks are more effective against rucks with less players committed to it - especially rucks that are taking longer to be played. This means that the defensive team piling in 4 defenders into a ruck with only 2 attackers that is taking ages to be played will often result in a successful counter ruck. However, making the wrong decision and committing too many players without successfully counter rucking leaves you exposed, with less players in the defensive line - especially around the fringes of the ruck.
Factor in difficulty and player rating. No matter what, committing in 4 players should secure the attacking team the ball. If the attacking team only commit 1â3 players and time the clearout well, they should maintain the ball only if the play away quickly. If not, they are susceptible to counter rucks.
Thank you for reading. I think these features would massively add to the realism and enjoyment of the game. Sidenote: I think successfully timing a clearout in the game is something that could be extremely satisfying in this game.
