Next afl 26 update suggestions

AFL 26
1

just wanna know about your afl 26 update suggestions

2

For Big Ant to release a standalone PC Academy

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3

WAFL and VFL theme songs Ive wanted forever. Games with those teams just feel quiet.

Also need a way to be able to not select a commentary name or be able to type a custom one.

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4

So minute but tier 3 led signage, crowd noises like “ball” when a player is tackled ECT. To bring the game abit more to life

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5

Ive definitley heard a ball noise before

6

Turn commentary off, listen to the game sounds. Choppy as

Will reiterate too. It’s a minute thing. Not a deal breaker. Would love to feel immersed when playing. And they are just small little things.

when players are on a run / won centre clearances ect. and you’re out for a goal the crowd should get louder like a build up lol

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7

mabye making the bug on the ps4 and ps5 workbc when u start a game on those consols and u expect to be able to run throught the bnner there is a bug making sure u can do that witch i tink is prity anouying

8

higher difficulty is a must

9
  1. higher difficulty
  2. More tactics and adaptive tactics throughout a game.
  3. With contest - take away the assists
  4. marking - I like the circle on the ground to show where the ball will land but we need to have manual control where we decide when a player jumps for the ball - this should open up marking frees like front on contact - unrealistic attempt - arm chops. Right now it is either you take the mark - get outmarked or the ball goes to ground - not a lot of variation in marking contest.
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10

They need to make editing roster more flexible so whether they add a free agent or delisting list so can move players making team to personnel liking

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11

Small thing but they should make the area on the scoreboard with the quarter and time be gold during finals

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12

For marking they need to consider full manual control for things such as positioning and when the player jumps for the ball, albeit with visual cues to indicate when best to jump similar to fielding in MLB25.

I feel like not being locked in and dragged into position would benefit the game.

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13

They need to drastically adjust the AI’s accuracy on the run. I’ve played with custom difficulty settings and everything and they still kick with almost perfect accuracy from any angle, any distance and tackling seems to do nothing. Makes it hard to stay engaged when my opponents are kicking 17.2 every game.

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14

The Stadium builder is killing me. We need some more customisation there for sure.
I’ve tried using the Stadium editor to recreate the Grand final venue for the Barossa Gawler Light Football Association this year - Kapunda.

There were a number of issues.

  • Firstly there is no crowd unless you put seats in - highly inaccurate for a country ground. Maybe it could be a stand type (Crowd Only) and have density options. Some slots for flags and or floggers would be good too.
  • no road/gravel around the outside of the oval. I’d like options here like grass/gravel/cement/asphalt
  • I’d love to have editable Scenery rings with JPG files able to be uploaded. (then I could put the ground among the vineyards)
  • no netball courts - C’mon most times it is Football/Netball Leagues.
  • Smallest Scoreboard is too digital
  • need smaller cars.
  • need some ground cover like bushes etc so as to make the background look more condensed..
  • Can we get a food van and and a BBQ?
  • Whilst I like having the option of sponsor boards, can we get maybe 8 slots instead of 4 to mix things up a bit.
  • Can we get plain goal post padding please.
  • It may seem stupid, but having an ability to put in a neighbouring stadium would be great as often these venues feature multiple fenced ovals.
  • being able to use to club logo as a prop would be great.
  • fencing to enclose the outside of the oval area.
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15

My no.1 request is to remain focussed on contested footy. You can add every bell and whistle in the world but if the core gameplay doesn’t evolve the franchise - or any that comes after - will never meet great heights.

Something I said at the start of the season is probably worth repeating - I was lucky enough to be in Brazil last Christmas and in a country where soccer is religion I had half a dozen gamers preferring to play 23 than FIFA. Not as some quirky ten minute distraction, but as the preferred game on two separate occasions for around two hours each time. Hand on heart, still can’t believe it.

With that amazing experience out of the way, the reality is that once you get the hang of marking in 23 & 26 (plus all the games before) it gets dangerously close to being just two buttons and flick of the right stick at ball ups. Pretty basic.

What’s the answer? I’m not sure. Whatever it is there will need to be a lot of play testing and refinement.

I think contested footy 2.0 needs to increase the feeling of:

  • the impact of bodies colliding
  • the skills of elite players being more obvious (acknowledge some progress being made)
  • a sense that outcomes are skill based
  • more natural mannerisms when players are caught in certain scenarios e.g. little things like players putting hands up in the air to show they are not giving away a 50, or running to congratulate a goal scorer.
  • coaches being more emotional in the cut scenes, especially if your team is getting smashed

I mean the list is endless really. And I trust that BA are on top of it because they watch the game.

In support of the above in terms of actual gameplay changes I would look at:-

  • getting as close to rag doll physics as humanly possible. Some great progress being made with canned animations after a contest but it would be great if more happened on the fly based on the actual physics engine.
  • in terms of skill separation and making plays more dynamic, I would lean harder into the player roles that BA has already defined and have something like a ‘special acts’ meter. Bronze players maybe get one a game and elite players maybe have half a dozen. The role would determine what the special act is - one out forwards could buff their marking for a contest, key defenders could use theirs to cancel the buff or if there is none then to guarantee they will spill the next ball. Explosive mids could cash in a successful don’t argue, smooth movers a dodge, hardball mids can handball normally when tackled during their buff and so on. Linking utilities could maybe refill their fatigue meter once a game.

Then you could add some sort of global rule to prevent the spamming of special acts and introduce this element where players are choosing to use an offensive buff of their own (e.g. guaranteed successful tap to own midfielder (ruckman buff)) or fire off a negating one when you see the oppo use theirs (e.g. a star fullback cancels a star forward’s buff).

And then you just keep going. Maybe the captain has an inspiration buff that allows for multiple other player buffs inside of a minute, or there’s a rule that a player returning from injury has 50% fewer special acts and so on. The best part if you don’t need to create the buffs out of thin air, they can be modelled on what the player does in real life.

Two things are critical for such a system:-

  • there has to be clear visual communication of what each player is doing
  • the other player has to be given the opportunity to use their own neg buff to cancel a move or they roll the dice, let the successful play happen and keep their own in the bank for later use.

If it works, hopefully there is a sense that it is a little bit like rock-paper-scissors with players actively choosing between a negating style or something a little more high scoring and aggressive.

Bit of a ramble, an attempt to introduce a bit of strategy that hopefully makes sense. I’ll review that idea 2m with fresh eyes.

EDIT (comments the next day)- : my goodness I think the special acts / buff concept makes a sense. I guess the only thing I would add is that the idea doesn’t come from other sports games, but rather from ARPGs and RPGs where the class you choose (in this case player type) allows you to do some really cool thing at critical moments. This would also pave the way for adding depth to career mode. If a player levels up do they choose a new special act or do they get an extra cool down instead? Which could build on the idea of there being proficient generalists and one trick ponies. For the system to work though it would need to be real time and very simple to understand - that would take a bit of effort.

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16

once they allow unassisted contested movement that might be possible. Everything right now seems to still have that magnet teleporation feel to it - where a player gets dragged into position and a certain animation plays. Marking system really kills it for me - I know it hards to take the training wheels off as a lot more animations will have to be baked into the game but yeah the magnetism is horrible.

Additionally, Big Ant would also need to put in a lot of new animations for ‘rag doll’ physics which looks good. if there is another release in the future you would hope they improve that part of it. I play a little of RL26 and it seems like it does have potential to go downthat path.

The bigger issue is that FOR ALL Big Ant games magnetism and teleportation into a animation has always and continues to be a problem. example

  • Tiebreak - players are dragged into a shot
  • Cricket 24 - for fielding you get so many instances of fielders teleporting to catch the ball
  • AFL26 - Any contest
  • Rl26 - less compared to other games but i dont play it enough to really tell you
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17

Interesting.

It’s definitely not their favourite topic, we know that much. There is progress but only by doing better versions of the old approach. At some point they will need to have a serious crack at unassisted contested game play - I think you’ve nailed it with that term.

Wouldn’t it be funny if you could try and take a speccy at ridiculous moments and the commentators responded in kind. ‘He’s lost his marbles!’. Or just blatantly push a player in the back when taking a mark. It would be glorious. And where’s our button to try and grab the ball from a pack? So many little things that could be added.

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18

They’ve handcuffed themselves by trying to have a ‘Polished’ pre-scripted animation route when i reckon they need to give players back more control and chaos and allow it to be a bit ‘messy’. and beautiful when players pull it off.

Where is the player getting pinged for unrealistic attempt?..well, you won’t find it in AFL 26 - the systems they have won’t allow it EVER.

ive never given a push in the back in a marking contest - i’ve had it when trying to tackle and being tackled - and honestly I dont even know sometimes what i did wrong to trigger a push in the back…

I would love a button to manual go and grab the ball - imagine being too far away means the player dives for the ball - gets tackled right away - HOLDING THE BALL paid.

I want to also jostle and put body contact or push off when i choose to - and get pinged when i get it wrong - not wait for the damn blue circle to appear

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19

Mikayla Hyde in long sleeves

20

Surely now the Rugby League game has the ability to edit leagues and change teams in career mode we get the same for the AFL game?

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