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.
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.
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.
Not sure if its been mentioned, but id like the try scoring variation from the league live games.
Tap of the button for a simple put the ball down. Obviously you have to be over the line increasing the chances of being tackled before you are over or being held up.
Double tap for a diving try, however this has a slight increase in the ball being knocked on. But allows you dive from slight distance.
Also, the acrobatic try scoring animation should be locked for agile players, like wingers, or should only be used when scoring in the corners. This just helps imersion in my opinion.
Big Ant CEO Ross Symons added: “Every part of Rugby League 26 is driven by authenticity and depth. From the expanded Career Mode to the Pro Team feature and advanced customisation tools, this game marks a new standard for Rugby League in interactive entertainment.”
Good to see they have no advertising in stadiums either though Do we believe the hype? #whenrugbyleague26forum?
P.S @rugbycasperflip No mate, their isn’t. Not sure if it is planned at any point. JNT said all that team editing (So I assume competition editing stuff too) is complex and some ways off yet.
Allright , Allright, Allright, much props to the development team for the last patch overall, game is starting to get fairly fun to play. Having said that.
Here is the good, the bad, the ugly below in each area of the game.
The AI
The Good
The AI is finally fun to play against, they are starting to play variation rugby, kicking, and running and just using more skill moves. The game is starting to flow well on both side of the ball.
The bad
50/20 ratio for the AI is ridiculous, they are way too good at it, (tried even on medium), its like a cheat for the AI.(need to tone down the AI perfect 50/20 kicks. Terrified to kick away to them for them to turn around and hit a 50/20 90% of the time.
Kicking
The good
Up and Unders are now working, the trajectory is high enough to retrieve the ball.
Grubbers feel fairly good
You can get kicks of sooner without getting tackled
The Ugly:
Something that was working fairly well before, user punts are now terrible, no power or distance on the punts with a player that is skilled at infield kicking, please, please, please increase the distance again when timed correctly, if not there is no point in implementing any kind of kicking game or using the new quick kick release. The new kicking system where you can over kick and shank it, is good, but if you time it correctly you should get about 30-40% more distance, (these are pros kicking not 7-year-olds:).
Rucks
The GOOD: They are getting better little by little (there is definitely a great system there if implemented correctly. (There should be a different button for the steal, and different button for pushover attempt.) If not, explain what function triggers each at what point) Can you still do a pushover without pressing steal? does the Y serve any function now? We need more structure to the control of the rucks. What does what? All the animations are there.
The BAD: Still the random 1 player pushing over 3 players, the steal should happen but should be more passive without pushing over 3, (this has gotten better, but needs more work) .
The UGLY: The isolate, tackle, stand and steal is completely out of the game, when it was an intended function in the beginning. This needs to make it into the game, it’s such a big part of rugby, along with the AI getting called for holding on, if you isolate them and they do not let go, the sensation of achieving this on defense, is almost as exciting as scoring a try on offense. If you have ever played rugby and got a penalty called against the opposing team for holding on when you beat them to the breakdown, you know what I mean. (This must be in the game!)
Passing and offloads
The Good: The flow with passing and offloads starting to get better and better, (seems you have to time offloads better now, which is a good thing) there is some really good running rugby at times, were you are really searching were to pass next, some nice gaps do open up. The intercepts seem to happen at the correct time.
The bad: Not finding to many bad things to say about passing and offloads, this does seem much improved and not perfect but at least getting better each update, (maybe player positioning at times, but I am sure this will get better with time)
Tackling:
The Good: The higher tackles seem to be working better, seem to prevent offloads better, and cause more loose balls (hoping this is a fact and not my imagination), but overall tackling seems better, but can still get even better, with both high tackles and low tackles having different advantages. Risk vs reward.
Offensive skill moves:
The Good: It seems the shoulder barge is now being effective, starting to mix up the different offensive moves, not just the fend.
The Bad: The fend still seems a little to powerful, a little more tuning. (Have not tried the sidestep much this last patch, (so can’t comment) the fend and barge were working good so no need to sidestep, but will continue to practice sidestep because it should have its function and advantages.
Scrums:
The Good : Its a good system
The BAD: The system is Not implemented well, no reward for playing them to perfection( have the AI get pushed back far, or have the AI collapse the Scrum, make the Scrums more rewarding, If I focus to just get possession, I would win 90% of the scrum against the AI, AI needs to be more challenging, the mini game is good, but to easy to time the lines , to win possession 90% of the time. At the same time the AI should be penalized every now and then in the scrums. There are no penalties against the AI in the scrums.
The UGLY: The scrums in the current state are just not fun. (good system but needs more tuning) and better implementation with more possibility of getting a penalty on both sides.
Mauls
The good: It seem the last patch, if you play them well, the AI does get penalized for not moving the ball,(and you get rewarded with a scrum feed) this was added this patch it seems, good addition, please continue to expand on that, I believe we need a deeper mini system. But at least they were made more fun the last patch.
The bad/Ugly: Did not check for the one player to stop five AI rolling maul players, (so cannot comment if this is gone from the game. But if it is still there, that is not good. The AI is not good at mauls on either side of the ball.
Other things that need work
It seems the ball is held up most of the time over the try line, there should be more variations with this, with scoring tries, or more struggles to put the ball down, maybe a timed mini game every now and then.
The game will eventually need set plays, and more formations controls of players and pods to be able to contend with other Rugby games.
Having said all that, I do think this game has tremendous potential, and although progressing slowly, it is progressing, hopefully it will not stop progressing because of the upcoming release of Rugby League 26. Please continue to update this game, and although we are not completely happy with the game, at least I respect that they are trying new things to improve the game. Like 5 in the ruck, thanks again for this, it was a great addition. Even though I may only send 4-5 into a ruck only a few times in one game. It’s made a big difference. Thanks again for all the hard work Big Ant team! Looking forward to what the next patch will bring. Please fix the user punt distance , this is an easy fix and will make alot of us happy.
I really don’t understand the scrums, even with perfect timing I’ve always conceded a penalty, not once when I’ve won the scrum have i been able to play the ball. The AI on kick off always seem to kick to the same spot (straight down the middle) which doesn’t seem realistic. User AI on defence still seems to step to the side to create a gap, 50/22s are ridiculous as others have said but seems to only be awarded something like 20% of the time. AI teleport kicking after being tackled is quite frustrating. Can see it’s getting better and more enjoyable but the above things are ruining the experience for me. On PS5
The update has broken the game again in a new way this time. Substitutions. Tried to make a bunch of subs at half-time and it crashed my game. I then tried to make a few subs in a different game to take place after a converted try. This time the subs came on, but instead of the opposition doing a kick restart after the conversion, it went straight to a scrum on the halfway line instead.
Box-kicks are improved somewhat on control, but you still can’t kick it right out of play if you want due to a very reduced range, and you can’t change it to a pass if you desire, which means you have to kick it to an opposition player and give them free rein.
Passes to the last man out wide still go out of play more often than not.
Ref calls for held up even when the ball is not in the try area.
Update: game has now crashed in the 80th minute as I’m about to kick out. This is refund worthy. Every game I’ve attempted to play today (hadn’t played since the patch) has crashed at some point or the other. Makes me very worried for the RL game, especially as there’s a lack of information on that and it’s expected to be released next month.
I just kicked the ball downfield, the AI fullback returned the kick, an AI team mate that had never retreated caught the kick on the full and then ran with the invincibility bug all the way to then score a try
How has this been a full release game for almost 6 months now
This is crazy! I was playing a match against AI opponents…wife called me away from my console…I didn’t bother to press the pause game button and left the game playing…I returned to find that my team had scored a converted try (yay) but the AI team had kicked a penalty goal (boo) while I was absent!!!
It seems that the AI dont kick for touch anymore when doing a box kick, especially when they should kick for touch when in defense. Also, whem they do kick for touch or for space, they should kick the ball far/deep, and when kicking a box for their teammates to try and get onto the ball, it should be closer/shallow and higher, so they can contest for the ball. Currently they dont do either and just kick it a sensless distance.
Also, with regards to kicking
AI still cannot clear from their own tryline.
When you put the kicker in the pocket, he still runs onto the ball when receiving, which means he gives up all the space he had by the time he kicks. When standing in the pocket, he should stand still to receive the ball. Also, the AI never uses the pocket, which relates to point 1 above
There are now too many 50/22’s, because 1) the kickers are way too accurate, 2) the defense is never correcr, where your 2 wingers would stay someway back, and the fullback all the way back, to defend against such kicks, 3) the ball always bounces straight on. Not sure if you know, but a rugby ball can bounce in any direction, due to its shape
Box kicks are now nice, but as said the AI dont use it right. They also dont use chip kicks and grubbers yet, which would be a great addition. When they kick for touch on a penalty, they kick quite poorly and dont gain enough distance as you might see IRL, depending on the angle they have to touch.
The open field kicks have too low a trajectory and should be much higher, unless kicking for touch or doing a cross kick, where the trajectory tends to be lower. The penalty kicks for touch on the other hand, are far too high and should have a much lower trajectory. Also kicks for touch, whether off a penalty or from your own 22, should go directly into touch, making sure to get touch, without bouncing in field first, unless the kick is mishit. AI are struggling with that.
AI kick the ball too perfectly in general
Sometimes the AI make a break and have an open try line ahead, but then opt to kick for a 50/22 instead, when they should just run for the try
Current weekly updates seem too unstructured. Focus on one area of improvement, like kicking stuff mentioned above, get it done and tested before patching, then move onto the next area of improvement, like rules, penalties and knock ons, then positioning and dynamic running, then the next. This way the game would have been done already
Edit - Most of the open field or defensive kicks are also made by forwards, most of the time, rather than a backline player, particularly the 10 or 15. Please change this. If a forward receives the ball in defense, he needs to crash the ball up to try and make space for his 10 to kick the ball away, not kick it himself. Also then fix that the 10 is in the pocket, standing still, ready to receive the ball to clear the line. In addition, the forwards kick the ball way too good, when really most of them cant kick a ball more than 20 meters, and it comes out off the side of the boot, etc. Change the kick effectiveness to reflect the player’s kicking stats.
Most of my feedback relates to AI gameplay, but naturally some of it can apply to any user controlled player as well.
(Has happened both times I tried a quick throw now)
Do we believe the hype? 
but i hope is something in their plans!
much props to the development team for the last patch overall, game is starting to get fairly fun to play. Having said that.
