When Union?
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Absolut ! The 2 players that are placing themself behind the ruck( if you choose a 3man ruck) should take a centre (12 or 13 ) and create a pod for a crash/ out of back ball or just to make themself available for 10 ( left /right options) !
Yes is looks miles away since player possitionig is not fixed and most of the time i find my 10 working as wing !
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To each their own. This is why options are nice.
Maybe an option for 3 or 5. Or a rugby sevens were they really only use up to 3.
I agree that positioning of the players is not great
But that there is the problem, not the “ability” to put up to 5 in the ruck. What’s the old sports saying “if it’s in the game, it’s in the game”. If you remove this it’s a cop out in my opinion. For me part of the strategy is deciding when and how many to add to the ruck. Rucks in real rugby do control the tempo of the game, and they should not dumb down the rucks just so the positioning of the players are better, they should keep working on the player scripts so that the positioning of players is better ,that is were the problem is. As an example the newly released JL game, added 5 back in the rucks,(had 3 before) and it plays much better than its Rugby challenge 4 predecessor. Again, even though I only add 4 or 5 in a ruck maybe 20 to 30 percent of the time.
It’s also extremely important to have and use pod formations, fb positioning, and set plays to put the players in the right position , we should be able to control all this manually, in Rugby 25 you can do this a little bit with the forward positioning strategy, but not like RC4. The formation is much different when trying to go out wide then when your trying to pound it up the middle. And we should be able to control this.
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That would be fine, if adding 5 vs adding 3 actually made any difference at all. In its current form it does nothing, you can run through an entire game on hardest only adding max 3 to a ruck and still pop that 40 to 60 - nil win.
At the moment the only thing it does is take your players away. But if the placebo is working for some then I guess that is good 
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Not so sure it’s a complete placebo, because plenty of time, it was taking a while for Ai to pull te ball out of the ruck, and I decided to slam the ruck with more players and created a push over.
Also, do this test, hold on to ball at the ruck longer without playing the ball with 2-3 players in the ruck see what happens, if you take to long the Ai will add 4-5 and turn the ball over by pushover or steal, pushover makes more sense but the end result is the same. I think player positioning and ruck animations are more important to fix then going back to 3 in the ruck.
Bro ! The pods math is simple and thats why 5 man ruck is useless ! You have 8 forwards ,devide with 3 is 2 pods of 3 and another 2 players that can form a pod with a back ! (One pod is active for the next phase ,one pod threating a certain place on the field and the other pod is backing up from the previous ruck ! You never see the same pod taking contact over and over again ,is a 1/3 ratio in general if the split is not 4-4 ! Please give me a stucture example on how it supposed to work with 5 man in a ruck plus the tackled? Show me,please, screenshots from real games where you most of the time see 5 man in support at the ruck!
This actual structure is like you are 2 man down and try to play “conserve the ball” where your team is bunched in 25-30m !
I dont want every ruck to play and feel like a maul or scrum (case of Rugby Challenge series you mentioned) !
In almost 20 years of amateur, semi-pro and pro rugby(being blessed to work temporary with Cherster Williams(RIP) and Steve McDowall)ive never heard and train the 5man ruck concept because you dont need it (except caterpillar form for box kick or when 2 players pre-bind together for a pick a go)!
From the moment a player is tackled ,both attacking team and defence know their chances for a steal/retain possesion based on support players !
As 1 first step ,if a player is tackled and nobody is in support or contesting ,i would like to have an option to offload with the player from the ground and gain momentum rather that waiting 2,3 seconds until 3-5 player develop the animation to bind!
ps: if a ruck is sevens is secured by 2 ,why should it not be secured by 2-3 in union?
Is basically the pod ( ball carrier with 2 support players ,one to clean the area and second to bind on tackled player at the ground) !
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Sorry, don’t agree, when we say 4- 5, can be 4 in the ruck not always 5. Watch any game of Rugby on any side of the hemisphere. There are plenty of 4-5 going into a ruck moment, it is part of the game. The problem is not with how many go into the ruck, because you control the amount that goes in. 1 tap one goes in, 2 taps two go in , 3 taps three go in, up to 5, You control this. Limiting the amount of players in the ruck may help some in player positioning, but what needs work is player scripts and positioning. This is where the problem is. Lets just agree to disagree. I will alway push to have ability to add 5 five in the ruck , until in real rugby it is ruled illegal. And if that ever happens , it will change the dynamics of rugby. Agree with more quick ball mechanics should be added, and the ability to offload from the ground. That would be a great addition, and it is like the ability to send 4-5 into the ruck in real rugby. “If its in the game, it should be in the game” .
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So I have to sit and hold the ball in the ruck in order to see any effect 5 man would have? But then that effect is just the same as if we only had a 3 man ruck but I only added 1 but they add 3.
Everything should be in the game sure, but it isn’t. Not even close. I would rather have pods than a 5 man ruck. But that’s just me.
Of course … ideally we would get both but this game is just so so bad, it is hard to even imagine it getting any better.
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https:// youtu.be/zkPvqWexL38?si=vePmshxisLXq1Iki have a look at what they train ,especially when he says about the 2 support left/right players (4:15)
Yes, that to , but the game must have the art of counter rucking which many times involves 4-5 players, check this out and see how many players are involved in most of the highlights. This action this moment in rugby is a great moment, counter rucking in rugby , depending on when it happens in the game can be as satisfying as scoring a try.
Well, at least for me.
Cheers
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I feel the same
From the defensive perspective ,in some certain situations ,yes ,you add extra players when you feel the attacking is low on support at the ruck,but its very rare ! Is an 80min full intensity game and you dont want to lose energy hoping for make impossible steals!
I hope Rugby25 will nail this topic !
Cheers!
Yes it is rare, I have seen it in Rugby 25, but the rare time it does happen, it should be more of a pushover animation rather then the RC4 passive automatic possession , but yes agree it has to happen about as often as tries, has to be the right time and right moment. I think there should be a separate function/button for stealing the ball and counter rucking. Choosing when to do each would either lead to Successful turnover or foul, or failed attempt. Big Ant if X is for stealing Y could be for counter rucking. And there should be better mechanics for quick balls, like offloading from the ground. And a better system for pick and go’s, this would balance out the rare moments 4-5 are used in the ruck. I think this game has a potential to do it they just have to figure out the mechanism for it. Ruck infractions are a must as well. Here is hoping they can continue to improve.
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One reason why union is so hard to replicate in gaming!
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This game doesn’t even have knock ons or attacking structure. Probably getting a bit ahead of ourselves dreaming of ruck intricacies 
This game had the highest potential ceiling of any recent union game with Big Ant making it … how they made it flop so bad I will never understand
I can’t even bring myself to load this game up anymore just the worst.
#whengamechangingpatch #hasonlybeenyearsimsureitwillbesoon #neverseensomuchnonsensesquishedintoonegame #lovemeahashtag
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Too many projects at the same time I guess. Unlucky for us that R25 was the worst of them. Still hoping that JNT brings some magic
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yellow cards, wind and the ability to make changes quietly at half-time online for 30 seconds for example
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Personally I think the pods and lines etc will have the biggest impact on the game outside the set piece. If those lines work, the weighting is right, the pods work. Then all you really would need to add is making the lineout contestable in a fun way, making steal button work again in rucks, and give clearer feedback in the ruck and scrums as to what status the ruck is at i.e Ability to steal, who is winning it, maybe warnings for attempting to steal when rucked formed if not first man in and clearer feedback on scrums to show what is happening etc. Add in contestable kicks in more scenarios and then pile the correct laws and knock ons etc on top of that. Then would be good.
So … just add rugby really
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Bro this is legit the case, one dont even load the game up anymore, such a waste. No life in this game, no enjoyment, how Big Ant got this so wrong boggles my mind, they shouldve never made a rugby union game. I played Rugby 22 last night, I enjoy that far more, especially with the goal kicking. Not even excited for the patch update on Rugby25 this week to be honest. They literally sold us a pants of a game
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Yeah, this is not even a game really. It is a thrown together shell of another game with a half attempt to make it seem like rugby instead. Even all the licenses they promised only have half teams scanned and even missed entire leagues. Said ages ago there is nothing worse than a partially licensed game.
I am still legitimately surprised. AFL game looks great, own TieBreak … great game, own League 26 … great game … own Cricket … great game. Rugby … sell out pants of an excuse for rugby union. Said this before too … I got it free and still feel ripped off
I still have hope for patches, because it is Big Ant and they make much better games than what this is. But I don’t EXPECT it to turn out well anymore after all this, if it does, will just be a nice surprise and a little bit of a miracle.
#jntthemiraclemaker
Edit: Maybe next time they should just forget about all the licenses and facescans. Instead add a PNG importer in creation and make the face tool in game more prominent and do it that way. The communities really could make anything they could pay for anyway if they empowered them to do it. OR just don’t put in partial licensed leagues. If you say it is licensed, make it so. 0 or 100.
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Hoping they can execute it properly, its been my biggest want for the game since day 1.
If they can then improve rucjs we might have a decent base
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