Rugby 25 Megathread

[Jack-A17B]

A few thoughts on the update after playing 2 games (PS5) on hardest.

Leicester 29-24 Bath (Golden point), 7min halves. Bath kicked a pen for offside, but did also take a very strange tap and go instead of 3pts early in the match. I scored a drop goal for only the 2nd time as I’d run out of attacking momentum.

Leicester 14-3 Bath, 5min halves. It was 0-0 just before half time and bath scored a drop goal, first I’ve seen from the AI.

Box kicking: brilliant change, much better graphic and implementation. Please keep as it is.

AI kicking: great improvement, the AI nailed several 50:22s against me, arguably too easily, but it did mean that I needed to be more carefully about retaining possession by committing more numbers to rucks which made my attacking options harder.

Now that the AI has this way of gaining territory (rather than constantly breaking tackles) I think the handoff succeed should be reduced.
The AI has started box kicking more too, which has added more realism to the flow of the game.

AI passing: much more passing in open play which is good, although some offloads are unbelievable.

Fatigue: this is quite good now, my and AI players need to and are being replaced towards the end of matches due to stamina. For some reason props seem to have the most stamina remaining though, and wingers and fly halves always run out, perhaps due to being in possession and sprinting more.

Offsite penalties: on a couple of occasions I’ve been penalised for offside when intercepting an offload even through the ruck hadn’t formed.

Scrums: not sure what’s going on here, I always concede a penalty.

Goal kicking: I’m not experiencing any issues, goal kicking is very easy.

Knock-ons: same feedback as everyone else, referee calling it but not stopping play.

Glitch: once before a line out the ball was flashing invisible and I had some haptic feedback.

Australia women’s team causing game to crash still happening. Wales women logo still wrong.

Great work overall and looking forward to more progress. Thanks for setting out the direction.

[ATM-Gamer]

I’ve just had a game, a good one bear in mind, but I had a scenario whereby the referee blew his whistle for a “knock on no advantage”. However, the game didn’t stop for a scrum and instead carried on as though nothing happened.

There is something clearly wrong with the infringement/penalty system which the devs need to look at.

This is on PS5, not sure how other platforms are encountering this issue.

I thought I’d let you guys know

[Rugbygamer40]

She’ll be right mate. It’s part of the normal process while the game is installing. Once it’s fully installed you will get to the main menus and be able to look everything up for the game. It’s just a compulsory introduction match. You just have to wait till the game is fully installed even if you finish the match.

[Decklan]

thank you - How can I check and verify this

[ATM-Gamer]

No need for me to add anymore, you have said what I’m thinking.

Hopefully the devs will take a look at these issues and suggestions.

I’m sure they will, and I appreciate it will take time.

[TheJackSmit]

Just go to your downloads queue whether it’s on Steam or console - while the game is installing you can only play France v Australia. Reboot it once it’s 100% downloaded, once you see the proper main menu (play now, 6 Nations, online etc) you’re good to go.

[T19JWS]

Playing on Xbox Series X. Having bought this game for my son he soon lost interest due to the constant glitches and issues. I’ve decided to stick with it in the hope that Big Ant turn it around. I have to say, I’m starting to see some glimpses of a decent rugby game! Yes, there are still a lot of issues that need to be ironed out but slowly but surely I feel like real progress is being made.

One thing I am really keen to do is have help creating a kit. Some of the ones I’ve seen created are excellent, I clearly don’t have the talent to do it though. Unless there’s something I’m doing wrong?! Anyone able to help?

[Lionmaul]

Yes, lets make scrums and mauls fun again. The mechanics for the scrum are good the implementation is not. There is no good reward other than possession of the ball, if you outplay your opponent or AI by a lot, they should get penalized in the scrum or they should loose significant ground, don’t be afraid to have them last a little longer, (more simulation) maybe two versions (arcade and simulation). For mauls something similar to scrums(mini game) just the ability to add players. Again, with the reward if you play them to perfection, the other team gets penalized.

Rucks, the isolated tackle, stand, and jackle, that was supposed to be in the game from the beginning never worked. This is simple have it work how it works in Rugby Challenge series, the advantage Rugby 25 rucks has over Rugby Challenge series is the push over animations, implement these at the correct time, (not 1 player plowing down 3) but 1 vs 1 , 2vs1, 2vs2, 3vs2, and this should be implemented with a seperate button then the x steal, maybe (y) to plow over once the ruck forms, if the offense takes to long to pull the ball out. If you attempt a steal after the ruck forms , chance to get penalized (hands in ruck) or chance you may get away with it. Risk vs Reward
Have the offensive skill moves have there strengths depending on the situation, the fend is way to powerful now. No reason to do other offensive moves.
Higher tackles should have better chance of preventing offloads and knocking the ball loose, but more chance of high tackle penalty, and more chance of being stepped, have the low and high tackle have equal different advantages, depending on what the offensive player does. This would make defensive more fun to play, when you can choose to tackle high or low, and both have different advantages.
More penalties in the rucks, if you overdo it trying to do the push over, get penalized for coming in from the side or alligator roll. Again risk vs reward.
The game is improving little by little, and I think it could eventually “challenge” for best Rugby game but there is quite a way to go. The animations and mechanics are mostly there just got to get them to gel together. But much respect for adding the 5 in the Ruck, and ability to remove players from the ruck. Just got to get the correct animations working at the right time. And get that isolated tackle, stand, and jackle working. If the AI does not release, then get called for not releasing.

[IanOM]

It would be great to see some real movement in the mauls (rolling mauls, even?), at the moment, it’s like a reverse tug-of-war, lots of effort for just a few inches’ gain. Sadly, mauls are something that most if not all rugby games seem to have trouble simulating.

[nikeboy]

BUG!!! Ob the latest patch PS4. Kick in to touch on the full crashes the game. Very repeatable.

[Lionmaul]

No problem from the user side, if you time the adding players you can do a 10-15 meter rolling maul to score a try on the AI, The key is the timing of the adding of the players. Don’t add all at once.
On the flipside with one player, you can stop the AI 5 player rolling maul on hard setting. So definitely needs some more tuning and a better mini game. Maul penalties would be very welcome. Let’s make mauls fun again🙂

Cheers

[Peseras]

Exactly, I suggested this way of balancing tackles and fend offs. Two different tackles, low and high, with its advantages and disadvantages. Low tackles, effective against bump offs, but not so much against hand offs; and higher ones, more effective and also with higher risk of high tackle/yellow card.
Player kicking needs sorting asap, as we are now in a big disadvantage against AI, where their kicks go way further.
Happy to read the new (hopefully) upgrades on certains aspects from @JNT_BA .
But the above points and also the adding of set plays should be a priority. I have noticed the AI doing some sort of dummy runners, passes behind the back or even loops. Adding these plus cross kicks (we love to see these on TV, let alone being able to reproduce it in the game!!) would make a huge difference.

Keep calm and carry on! Feeling very optimistic for rugby 27 and not too bad about rugby 25.

[ATM-Gamer]

I’ve mentioned this one before. It is very annoying especially when you have had such a good as I did earlier.

In my case, the team with the ball required a try to get themselves a losing bonus point. So, what did they do?

Yep you guessed it, they kicked the ball into touch!!

After such a good game for it to end this way was really frustrating.

[IanOM]

Wow, didn’t realise that was possible in Rugby 25! I’ll bear your tip in mind next time, thanks!

[Gillymore]

After reading all this positivity in recent posts, I might have to re download the game and try it out.

[rugbycasperflip]

disc in my xbox, 20GB update but im not mad about that by the sounds of how the game came upon release. Is there any way I can blame Big Ant on my 7Mbps wifi speed?

[Gillymore]

It’s gonna take a while to re install game…BUT! The France v Australia 10 min game that I played whilst game downloading was the best experience that I’ve had with it. Game ended 14-10. Can I presume that the recent update/gameplay improvements are available when playing the France/Aussie demo game?

AI (Aus) nailed around 5 of those 50/20 kicks. Play around the ruck seems slicker (but no steal ball option working). I quickly sussed that AI played a big offload style game…so I didn’t commit to first tackle and tried to keep one of my players nearby the AI offloading player then tackle the AI player who received the offload!

Kicking was good (better than I recall). Still can’t win a scrum! I’m waiting for full download so I can get stuck into the gameplay.

[Lionmaul]

Yea, it’s almost like a cheat, if you kick for the corner on a penalty, you can do a rolling mall if you add your players at timed intervals, just make sure you do not push the left analog button because if you do you will play the ball, just the add player button and the drive shoulder button, the AI on hard cannot stop it if you add your players at the correct moment, if you miss time it though, you can get penalized for not moving the ball. But once you got it down it’s a rolling mall score from 10 to 12 meters out. Should be fixed. No fun when you know you can cheat against the AI, in the meantime you only need to add 1 player to their 5 to stop the AI’s rolling maul.

[Rugbygamer40]

Hi Team,

Feedback on Yellow, Red Cards , Player Discipline. PS5, Steam Deck.,

I have been setting some lower Discipline ratings on some custom players across various competitions. Usually lower than 70 and not lower than 35 in most cases. I have not seen any High Tackles in matches even with these players having these adjusted ratings.

Yesterday I did a Women’s game on steam deck. Custom player Alev Kelter along with an handful of other players in that game put with lower discipline stats of around 5 - 45. Not a single high tackle or foul play occurred incident in that game.

It appears to me the current patches at the moment set Rugby 25 with a programmed coding or “slider” to not have any foul play or high tackles occurring in matches. This is my theory. I don’t know why ?

I just think this needs to be looked at because it occurs in “real life” games often. Currently matches have no foul play incidents on both sides Ai and controlled players. And from what I have seen , if a high tackle does occur , no yellow card is issued just a penalty. Red card if it’s 3 high tackles in one match as I have rarely seen.

Red and Yellow cards should be issued on the basis of how high the tackle is or please just make it random referee decision /interpretation for a punishment against the offending team.

The matches lack any challenge or excitement with no foul play. Previous rugby titles coded these incidents randomly to happen sometimes 2-3 incidents a game and it did make games more challenging if you had your players temporarily sin binned or the Ai had players sin binned. We also had sliders to set foul play in some titles.

Coach career team management rarely has players needing to front the judiciary for any foul play with high tackles in matches. It simply makes coach career easier and predictable. No challenge to manage players because they always available for selection.

Thanks for considering my feedback.

[JB198]

This is a great message to keep us updated, thank you

Do you mind if I ask, are there plans to re look at the positioning of players when you have the ball, and their support lines?