I have a ps5 and update seems to have had no effect on AI gameplay, did any of the other platforms see any change from this today
Firstly, thank you to the Big Ant Team for coming out with a new Rugby Union game – I have waited since 2008 for one to be truly excited about, and so for the first time ever I bought a PS4 game on pre-release. I have no idea how much effort it takes to make a video game so have a lot of respect for you all in your endeavours and understand that you are a smaller studio, making me respect you all even more. Thank you.
Whilst the below list looks rather large, these are my polite suggestions as to how the different elements could be made much better for the user experience – definitely not priority compared to some elements highlighted (game crashing, passing into touch, poor ref decisions (aren’t they always) etc. already mentioned in this Mega Thread). All relevant to my experience on the PS4. I have tried to keep it productive as best I can.
To start on some positives – The extent of the licencing is AMAZING. I love the likeness of players and the volume of players, clubs, competitions and stadiums available. The branding is on point and seriously got me super excited for playing. The prebuilt videos show great player detail, which has potential to be carried over into the gameplay, a few cut scenes are buggy but not too much of a concern.
Overall gameplay – quite arcade-y, players run in an unnatural way (changing direction too easily and changing speed immediately rather than gradually). Make it a curve of speeding up and the player movement being less able to change so easily? I’ve seen Locks out pacing and out manoeuvring Centres – not super logical – so further employment of player stats would improve this. AI 1-up runners, not a lot variation at all, could do with updating to make more interesting, but this will naturally come over the next few weeks and months. Voice overs being wrong (kicks to touch) and becoming a little repetitive with not a huge amount of lines being used. Only 1 design of head for the ref and linesmen, could add more for greater variety and interest.
Rucks – contest bar addition? Make the rucks an optional kind of minigame – so much detail in the players faces and kits why not exploit that? Camera zooms in briefly and presents multiple clearout positions (low, side, straight, doubled up for extra power if opponent is already in position) which are available to be selected using buttons and a modifier (L1/LT) for extra choice up to 8 different entry types? Mechanics seem to be well founded as is, but difficult to employ – defensive turn overs are rare and with the AI not kicking or knock-ons rare it makes games V defensive – not super engaging, I played a game last night with 109 defensive rucks, 7 offensive rucks. Press and hold “X / a” to “slow the ball down”? This is a very sneaky thing done in professional rugby, giving more time for the defence to set. Rolling / not rolling is also a big part of rucks – if the player holds R1 / RB after completing the tackle it would make the tackler slowly roll away, again giving time for the defence to set – hold too long and possible penalty against defensive team? Own players slow to a ruck whereas AI opposition join virtually instantly, turnovers are frequent in the Ais favour because of this. Forwards should be first to bind, but back in extremis when isolated and they’re the closest player.
Passing – slow down time and potentially zoom in when holding L2 / LT, could make it go to a players view? This would give time to make the best choice, link to a player stat so the higher their “handling” or “perception”, for example, the more the player is able to slow down time and then make a decision. Might be difficult to employ the change view point when playing 2 player, but would equally allow defending team to make a more accurate defending decision and rush the line with a set player. It’s hard to get passes away to the second player, could make it possible for the player to pass again before the ball arrives with that player – such that the player will instantly catch and pass after a step – top level backs are able to do this, could make the delay longer for forwards / those with a lower passing stat.
Tackling – Slow time, zoom in and be able to choose the type of tackle? Stomach hit / choke / chop / high(?) / double. Different options and height of tackle determined by the speed entering the tackle? I do really like the different triangle / circle tackle options and the ability to follow the attacker with L2, and the different types of tackle variation / actions already built in is good. Not sure on how the logic for which is employed, but it works. High tackles seem random, but I will hopefully work out how that is avoided as I continue playing.
Defensive shape – I always find 4 – 5 players clustered around the back of the ruck, not contributing to the defensive shape and just setting up to join the ruck which has already been lost, meaning I wouldn’t get them to join. Set at least 3 places / markers either side of the ruck (guard and body guard / pillar and post), one behind the ruck (usually the 9) with those defenders having set attackers to target (could be evolved with a pregame strategy), these could then move into the ruck as required with pressing circle, pulling the whole shape closer in, making gaps or space out wide. This shape could then be alterable for a tight or wider defence. Settings for a rush or drift defence pre and in game? All players need to stay connected in the shape, flat line defence, but if a players defensive stat is lower then they would employ worse spatial awareness and be more likely to be out of shape quicker. The defence is just 1-up rush defence at the moment, which gets a bit samey.
Running speed – slow the whole game down by 5 – 10%, the player movement seems very erratic as mentioned in Overall Gameplay. Also again, acceleration seems to happen way too quickly. The running stats seem to be off against the reality of players – Harry Randal is quick, but quicker than Cayden Murley? This is definitely semantics though and will always be difficult to be accurate when you’re using real players.
Mauls – they don’t happen all that much in the real game, aside off of line outs. Could again add a power bar to see if need to commit players, also making the shove directional, to wheel the maul – could be interesting. Ability to collapse the maul, when its not going in your favour, equally drawing a penalty in 80% of cases. If the “Choke tackle” is employed then this could result in a maul, with a 50% success rate of getting the ball to the back for the scrum half to play – or based on the player being tackled and his strength and handling compared to the tackler.
Lineouts – ability to steal / effectively compete / disrupt would be nice, based on a timing marker like employed in the scrums and related to an animation, the thrower drawing his hands back? Not a guarantee as most lineouts (80%) are regathered by the team throwing them in. Just seems a bit of an incontestable restart at the moment – the opposite of the scrum.
Scrums – like the engaging, hooking and driving button pressing against timing, a great mini game within the game. Could make the green areas change depending on the total strength of packs against one another and which team has the digger advantage, or just a bigger and stronger pack makes hitting the green easier. Also the team putting in should always get an advantage for it being their possession. Make the gauge slightly bigger when the camera zooms out – super hard to see it at this point. Read about the scrum collapsing bit, I have experienced it once after I had secured the ball at the back – this would normally be a penalty to the team in possession, a reset scrum, or the scrumhalf being told to play the ball away, not a penalty to the defending team.
Place kicks – power bar is difficult to see as the grass is getting in the way. Like the visual of seeing where the ball will travel, does it make it a little too easy? Better kicker means a thinner (more assured) or easier to see line, opposite for a low stat kicker? Regularly it’s not the assigned kicker, although it is funny to see Jack Morgan or Andrew Porter stepping up and slotting one against Scotland.
Kicks out of hand – again, slow time option to make the kick more accurate? Also a marker on the ground for where the kick is going to land would be good, even if it was just a rough location for when the AI has kicked the ball?
Team selection – The team selection menus are quite harsh on the eye. Creating something akin to football (soccer) games, where player positions are mapped graphically, not just letters next to a name, would drastically improve the feel of this element of the game.
Menu’s / stats – make the menu columns sortable – 6 Nations stats done by team normally, difficult to see which player has scored the most tries or tackled the most. In career mode be good to sort so that I can see all props / wingers in one block for easy comparison, or see who are my lowest rank players for transfer, or most expensive, the list of benefits goes on.
Career mode – haven’t explored too much so nothing to comment on at this stage.
Training – Really useful for a beginner and to practice skills, bit hidden in the main menu though, make it easier to find? Couple of bugs when I played after the day-1 patch, haven’t tried since so nothing to add at this time.
Player stats employment – strength determines efficiency at rucks, scrums and mauls. Handling determines pass distance, catching ability and passing accuracy. Kicking determines length and accuracy. I’m confident this has been employed / considered, but doesn’t seem to be all that well employed at this moment in time.
And to finish on a positive – there is a lot of potential and the game certainly has a strong base to be something astronomically good, whilst my feedback is pretty extensive it is mainly a few ways to tweak to give the elements a better feel. The whole international rugby union community are grateful for you putting effort into making this game, we believe in you all and we will continue to support where we can (although in feedback, not the coding side unfortunately).
More than happy to expand on the points listed, in writing or verbally if required. Thanks and keep at it, really excited to see how it develops – I will NOT be asking for a refund as game development is complicated, takes time and I have faith it will continue to get better with your hard work and dedication.
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Some great stuff here man, thanks for posting. Agree on the game speed, feel like slowing down overall might feel a bit less chaotic, although appreciate some people might already like it, so with that in mind - slider?
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Has the miracle patch released yet?
A slider could work, or 3 options of speed? Relate it to the difficulty rating? “Easiest” = 50%, “Medium” = 75%, “Hardest” = 100%, as an example.
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I reckon they should do it where you can choose any team but then other teams offer u jobs if their coach isn’t doing good.
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Yeah for sure. I would like an option to choose who I start with. Then as the career went on get the chance to move clubs as you say.
I would also like it how Fifa did it where when you start you get a choice of like maybe 3 to 5 random generated clubs, as if it is the job market at the moment and you choose from one of them. Again with the option to move clubs later when other jobs come availble.
I would play both ways often tbf.
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GotBy
I think a choiche here is always better.
Before carrer having a choiche whether you can choose a Team you like or do a realistic approach.
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I know a lot of people look for different things in a career mode. Understand its nice to do a season with your favourite team and picking them straight off the bat.
But as the Career in game its based around you as the coach I think more emphasis needs to be in place around acheiveing development, I think the idea of a career mode should pick/limit you to low rated teams, and its your job to work your way up, getting better jobs and signing players to strengthen your team to climb the ladder.
Ive never understood career modes where you can just pick the best team in a league, take control, dominate the league, and then get better players to become even better. Ive never got a sense of reward in that.
I certainly think an option should be available when starting a career to pick from a specific team (if you just want to jump to end game), be assigned a random low rated team, or have a brand new created team of generic players who start in low level tournament and your job is to progress upwards, and that is the “career” side to it.
To me, if you want to play as Leinster for a season in the URC, you can just do the URC tournament. I know I personally wouldnt want to do a full career mode as the top rated team for multiple seasons just getting stronger and stronger and winning every game.
I have played 2 seasons with the Blues just to test the career mode, won 95% of the games,my team is loaded with top international players, and ive been offered the coaching job at the springboks internationally. The game litterally wouldnt stop trying to accellerate my progression, I played 2 games with Saudi Arabia, before moving to Georgia for 1 game, then declined like 10 offers in the next week and boom, on to the Springboks.
Took me about 6 hours of play time, and ive acheived everything, and not felt like any part of it was fullfilling from a career standpoint.
I did like what Rugby 22 had starting you with low rated players and you have to play matches to recruit better players to make your team stroner, but that also suffered with the flaw you could just buy New Zealand packs, and stick a bunch of New Zealand international players in your team, and steamroll these poor 50 rated teams on your way to the top.
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I’d like to pick my team. Some people like to be coach of the team they support too. Also people might have a specific team they want to rebuild like Newcastle or Exeter
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Not gonna lie, I kind off hope ps will be pulling this game from their store. And give everyone a full refund.
I have been hopeful, but yet another very underwhelming patch.
I STILL CANT PLAY ONLINE.
I can add players to my roster.
These are basic things.
How can you release such a broken game?
It’s not even close to half way being completed.
Most of the face scans aren’t even in. I am actually fed up.
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Why is this being argued as if its either/or.
Just allow both.
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So just played my first game with the new patch update
- Passing seems abit better but still some crazy array passes from the scrum half
- Finding the fly half more and making some better kicks
- Mauls from lineouts seem to be working now
- Still havnt stolen a line out
- Goal kicking sometimes goes about 2 yards when you’ve full powered it
- Rucks feeling more fluid and more turnovers
- Game crashes 79 minutes in
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What is the new version no? Haven’t seen any update on Steam yet
The commentary puts me to sleep, the gameplay is still very rugby leaguey, crowd noise feels like no atmosphere, still needs plenty of work
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What platfrom are you playing on? Thank you for the feedback.
Just played a quick game on PS5 after the latest patch (v1.0.2494 for all the numbers heads out there). Leinster V Munster, medium difficulty. I found it to be much better and actually had a competitive game. Here’s what I observed.
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Won a decent amount of rucks but just hammering the circle button until I got a push over. No skill to this but it’s better than what it was. I’ve noted that at rucks, you’re still in control of the tackler even when the ruck has been formed. I feel like this shouldn’t be the case, and control should shift from the tackler to the rucking players (think of it as controlling the team) and the tackler’s AI should roll away as per the the laws of the game and rejoin the defensive line. Not sure how this would affect jackling though.
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Passing was still pretty unreliable, I feel like I need to spend more time with it though.
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Zero knock ons or offsides for either side in the game. Nothing erroneous but also pretty lifeless if you consider a real game of rugby. I got pinged for 3 high tackles, not sure what determines a tackle as being high?
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Opposition AI threw in a few box kicks which is more variety from simply pass to first receiver in attack. I’ve mentioned before, but it would be really beneficial to have a graphical cue as to where the ball is likely to land for opposition kicks.
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How big was the patch? Appreciate your feedback! Lots of people ate trying to figure out what has been improved.
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Don’t seem to be able to find that out on my system now it’s installed, sorry there fella.
Just spent an hour playing after latest patch
Penalty kicker is now the correct player
Maul from lineout kind of works
Wingers still being outrun by a prop 
Kick to touch not worth it most kicks are charged down
Scrum …useless always ends in a penalty
Limeouts cannot be won by defending team
So after 5 days little improvement
I wonder if they actually play the game before they send it out.