Launch (EA1) Patch 1 Notes

[Bevan13]

DIFFERENT COMPETITIONS / GAME MODES: (SUGGESTIONS)

NORMAL COMPETITION:
Note: this means choosing a competition like the URC or Super Rugby and playing a normal season.

1. In Game Team Stats: At Half Time provide the teams with Possession, Territory, Penalties Conceded, amount of tries and scored by who as well as conversations, penalties to goal and drop goals. The same can be applied at the full-time whistle.
2. Allow Injuries to carry weight in the Season – Such as after a match wherein in which a player got injured you will receive a medical report stating your player has been injured and for example tore his hamstring and will be unavailable for 4 weeks.
3. In tournament info:
   a) Give Fixtures when will you be playing who as well include the result of all the games of the previous weeks.
   b) Give a Competition log indicating Wins, Loses, Draws, Points Difference, Bonus Points and lastly Total Points of all the teams in the competition.
   c) Give in Tournament Player Info – Top 10 Try Scorers, Point Scorers, Running Meters, Defenders Beaten, Successful Penalties/Goal Kicking, Tackles
   d) End Tournament Awards/Summary – At the end of the competition provide the players with Tournament summary that indicate the above stats. Include Player Awards such as the Top Try Scorer of the Tournament, Best Tackler as well as Player of the Tournament etc.
   e) Provide End Game Man of the Match medals could be a nice animation but even an inclusion at the Full Time Game stats screen will be very nice. This could be decided on the Player who had the best stats in a game for example tries scored, running meters, defenders beaten, line breaks, tackles made as well as Penalties awarded for stealing/Jackling the ball.

MANAGER CAREER MODE:

Starting Team:
a) Start your career at small club/ university level this does not have to be a licensed league or team. For Example, in South Africa we have the Varsity Cup (University Competition) it is a short competition only 9 matches including semi-finals and the final.
b) Then allow other competition clubs to draft you as the Head Coach.

Financial Management of Club:
a) Provide Budget when starting at a club.
b) Drafting Players who become available due to their current contracts ending this season. Allow you to determine how much you are willing to pay for a player to sign for a certain number of seasons. (Rugby Challenge had such a system for reference)
c) The option is to add Coaching Staff that effect your club stats such as Attacking, Defense, Scrums, Kicking as well as Medical Staff. This can also be worked on a Season basis and signing for example 3 years.
d) Stadium Investments: Allow Managers to invest in their stadiums of the clubs for example upgrade your seating capacity, security, Food & Drink Stands, Music and Atmosphere. Stadium Generate additional income with every Home Match. Crowd attendances are influenced by the above as well as your team’s performance such as if you win 3 matches in a row you will see an increase but if you lose a match, you will see a decrease. Bonus factors such as a loss at home decrease more attendance for your next game.
e) Stadium investments are specific to that club, if you decide to move to other clubs, you lose your coaching staff as well as your stadium investments as start with that new club even if their budget is more than the previous competition/tournament.
f) Allow player/Manager to be able to be drafted to international level but must be hard earned not something your get after winning one season or 2 at a lower competition level. Same Rules apply players must be drafted, for your (manager) international team.
g) Include if Licensed Lions Tour Coaching opportunities or even Barbarians.
h) When Drafted to International Teams same principles apply regarding coaching staff they must be drafted and paid for to increase your team stats.
i) International Season should include Test Series, Summer & Winter Test Matches, Rugby Championship and Six Nations. What I mean with this is your international season if you are For Example France should be the Six Nations then Test Games against Southern Hemisphere Teams and allow one or two Second division matches. This all builds up towards your World Cup Campaign after which your coaching contract will be renewed or bids from other countries come into play.
j) International coaching does not have salary budgets, but more focus on Coaching Staff budgets and income are generated by Wins Home/Away but bonus income for Wins at home. Due to more support based there.

TROPHY ROOM FEATURE:
Allow for the option to view your own personal Trophy Cabinet with all the different competition you have one with their corresponding seasons.
Awards can also be given at the end of each year for best International Coach, Best Coach at Club Tournaments as well as best upcoming coaching awards.

BE A PRO MODE / SINGLE PLAYER CAREER

(Note this means your own player that you have created that starts as 20-year-old, you can only control this one player in the team)
Starting Club – Should be small unknown clubs with a small season.
Drafting Works on a Contract Bases such if the Crusaders drafted you for 3 Seasons you must play 3 seasons before your next contract arrives at the end of the season.
Players Earn Money for their contracts that can be used to improve their skills and attributes.

Player Financing:
a) Contracts give them a set amount for each season for example $100 000.
b) Money can be used to improve attributes such as speed, strength and so on at in game Gyms/Training Sessions.
c) Money can be used to improve players recovery to avoid injuries by going to the Medical Staff for treatment.
d) Players can earn additional income through Man of the Match Bonuses.

International Selection:
a) This should also be hard earned and not just a given after 2 Seasons.
b) Players get paid per match fee and not contract.

Career Stats:
a) Keep Track of the Player Stats in a Season to give a feeling of improvement.

Trophies & Awards:
a) Give the Player their Own Trophy room showcasing their different Trophies Won in Tournaments including Player of the Season Awards. Give additional Space for their Man of the Match Medals.
Injuries:
a) Make injuries carry weight on the player and must do the necessary recovery to keep in top form for selections and contract deals.
b) Give separate type of injuries such as Light and Heavy. Light injuries you can play but will be slightly affected in stats. Heavy injuries keep you out of playing matches and must recover.
Increase Skill & Attributes Training Cost:
a) As a player progresses in his stats it should become more difficult to move from 80 to 90 and become more expensive for such training.
Season Challenges:
a) Provide Player each season with 5 to 10 Seasonal Challenges that provide the player with more bonus cash money at the end of the season.

[Clark0517]

Had my first penalty kick in the game (albeit the ai), however I had the Hooker taking the kick.

Another thing I’ve noticed is particularly after a scrum or turning the ball over the first pass seems to go forwards every time. I’m not sure if it’s just happened to me or i’m just playing it wrong lol.

Playing through a few games I’ve discovered a few little details which I really enjoy, like the small celebration when you click down on the right stick or the crowd countdown to the kick-off at the start of the game. I believe I also heard the crowd chanting one of the French chants whilst playing as France in the Stade De France.
These small details are good little background things that can make games feel a lot more realistic.

Excited to see what’s next to come!!

[Bevan13]

SUGGESTION FOR DLC RELEASES

If there is a licensing issues for more rugby content for example the Lion Tour

Wouldn’t a possible solution be to release these type of gaming contents as DLC, that will still keep the game exciting after years.

Other ideas could be the Barbarians Squad as a small DLC. Or even the World XV.

Other DLC Content can be retro jerseys such as the Old 1995 World Cup jerseys for international teams.

As the years progress provide DLC updates with the new URC 25/26 season kits and additional players.

Other competitions can also be added on as DLC such as the Currie Cup in South Africa.

[Bkrugby]

100% for the ruck animation. I was going to bring that up later in development too, as it is necessary

[Chuckinho]

Not sure what I’m doing wrong, but it crashes in Play Now for me ;(

[Joranvp]

Still almost unplayable for me. Got this glitch when an opponent breaks through a tackle (mostly manual), they struggle for a bit, bet up and then they are impossible to tackle. Both manually or by my teammates (ai). Keep losing almost every game in this really frustrating way.

Passing has been changed, but now i’ve got the issue where the support player is too flat, making me pass forward or doong this really strange high slow pass, which will be intercepted.

Mentioned before, but the 9 not being at the ruck really slows down gameplay. Worked before, so should be an easy fix right?

So for me, game is not a really good experience.

Next to this (less priority), i’d like to see offloads and pick & go from the ruck.

Good luck!

[js_dev_uk]

Since the patch the issues im having with players from either team not joining rucks has gotten worse. Nobody joins and the game just hangs until i force quit. Havent completed a single game since late Tuesday evening.

[Callum_4]

Open Play:

• Players seem to just stand around and do nothing sometimes which just takes them out of the game.
• Passing from the ruck works well most of the time but when players sit very deep its impossible to break the gain line when the defence push up so quick and players seem to have no way through.
• Passing to a close player pops the ball up extremely high and gives the opposition an easy interception

Lineouts and Scrums:

• Scrums is one thing that seems to work really well, from hook the ball there is a challenge for it and having to drive all works very well
• Lineouts look nice and are set up well, recieving from the throw works well however contesting in a lineout seems pointless as it doesn’t seem you can steal the ball at all

Kicking:

• Kicking for the posts is lovely, really easy and comfortable to use. Would be nice if there was wind to give it a bit more of skill to kicking for posts
• From my experience boxkicking doesn’t seem to work well as all, gives me no option to box kick deep and insteads just boxkicks only just over the ruck

Rucking:

• Rucking is very confusing and is one of the main problems at the moment. Being able to steal/jackle the ball seems extremely random, even if the defending team is completely over the ball and attacking isn’t they don’t steal the ball and instead it waits for attacking team to secure their ruck.
• At rucks all players seem to be everywhere and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of defensive line at all
• One game, I experienced one of my players go in to steal the ball and then the whole game froze, time still went up however all players just stood around at the ruck.
• Tackler contest option doesn’t work as ‘Y’ is also the button to switch to the fullback so it’s pointless at rucks

Tackling:

• The only way to tackle is using ‘B’ which works well however is very basically and seems random on whos tackling and players seem to sort of teleport towards the ball carrier.
• Dive tackles hardly work, however once working for me while chasing an oppostion player after they broke the line, most of the time the dive jsut goes in a random place, would be nice to maybe lock onto ball carrier or something to be able to dive tackle a player

Main Menu:

• Main Menu with all the options with Competitions are all well displayed and are easy and simple to use
• Competitions work well, simple and fun layout, points system work well with a simulation option for games you may not want to play.

[CHIPRUGBY]

We need to have the rugby 22 ruck system and pod system where the players in the pod follow into the ruck and there is no off ball movement yet

[ViCe_ZA]

I would really say that a combination of the EA Rugby games and the Rugby Challenge Series is the ideal of where you want to get, in terms of having a fun game with authenticity, then adding Big Ant’s graphics.

Although Rugby Challenge had its shortcomings, I thought it was a very underrated game, with decent graphics and rather good mechanics, good commentary and decent cut scenes. Also don’t forget the community creation function. The commentators even use a line from Jonah Lomu, regarding a certain ward 4

Lean on those two games/series for insights or ideas. Notably, camera angles and distances. I hate the more recent rugby games where the camera is really far away and you can’t see the players and the details of the ruck, etc. Would love a more zoomed in camera when the play is close, which dynamically zooms out when you spread the ball out or kick, as we saw in Rugby Challenge, but enhanced.

I don’t see myself enjoying this game until there are more penalties and knock-ons, with ball stealing, better passing and kicking, with offloads, quicker scrum halves, set plays and forward options to crash close to the ruck, with forward momentum following a tackle, rather than getting tackled back each time, other than with the occasional dominant tackle. Also looking very forward to new teams, stadiums and community creation.

That being said, very optimistic about the future of this game and hopefully all types of requests get worked into the game, with maximum customization as far as gameplay, creation and difficulty. (fingers crossed for lots of sliders)

Just my 2 cents thus far.

[Rugbygamer40]

Hi Guys ,

Just some example here of a tackle Bug with Ai

Ai will kind of teleport to tackle my player who made a line break and my player also stop still

Rugby 25 - Ai Tackle Bug (Bug Reporting) - Namibia vs Zimbabwe

Also an example of when I have a forward (Flanker) move to the Ruck at Scrumhalf position and distribute the rugby ball. Obviously his programmed passing skills are not good which is realistic for some forwards , but it should be that if the 9 Scrumhalf can’t distribute, another player with good passing ratings steps in to distribute the ball. Also maybe there is a bug issue with passing in general so this might happen to any players no matter what their skills are I am not sure.

Rugby 25 - Ruck Bug (Bug Reporting) - Flanker at Ruck in Scrumhalf role

[Rohan1]

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:

1. Positioning
2. Defence
3. 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 isn’t 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 don’t 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. Here’s 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 “jakal” (or steal) the ball, or commit numbers to the ruck to “counter-ruck” 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.

“Jakal”/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 1–3 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.

[Rohan1]

Forgot to mention also in the rucks, the defence team should be rewarded with a higher likelihood of receiving a turnover after making dominant tackles behind the gain-line.

[Rugbygamer40]

Really excellent points there with Rucks, Defence , Positioning. I hope your feedback could be implemented to change this game.
The game definitely needs a more user decision making control on what to do with the players. Right now it feels you have little control on what is happening.

[Boondiggaz]

Hey Ross, totally understand that player roles are more fluid than reality. I’ve noticed when watching a few games online, when the AI opposition set a 1 out runner off the ruck there are 2 supporting players who either over run the ball or fade out the back door rather than latch on and protect the ball carrier at the breakdown. Hopefully you already have this in the pipe line. On the flip side the defence around the ruck seems to be crowded there is a pillar or “A” defender then 2 others shuffling round that guy instead of maintains a “D” line. Will there be set plays in future patches?
Cheers

[ET_1980]

One thing for Crowd’s in Rugby 25 to have crowd sign’s like in cricket 24 (say when you hit a 6) they throw these sign’s up…When i was at Black ferns Vs Canada here in Christchurch kids had their sign’s they made, shirt machine’s firing stuff out, Flame’s going on loud as music getting the crowd going cannot beat a New Zealand atmosphere at a rugger game

[Bkrugby]

Ruck turnovers are pretty rare in real rugby though. It happens a handful of times per game, if that.

[ET_1980]

Also anyone had Maul’s working? or had one in the last heap of game’s i’ve had never really had a maul

[Kenoath]

Off topic from video game chat sorry admin but as a kiwi… your statement about kiwi rugby atmosphere is crazy. Game day experience hasn’t been good since the mid to late 2000s up the wahs

[Rugbygamer40]

No never seen a maul yet. Wouldn’t mind seeing a dangerous tackle or high tackle with the referee issuing a Red or Yellow Card. At the moment not much scenario for a penalty. Even off sides are not picked up on by the referee either. I understand that these might yet still need to be added to the game.