Rugby 25 Megathread

Aight, talk to me about your experience with fend-offs, AI and player-controlled ones.

Not side steps… that’s a whole other thing. Just fend-offs. Please don’t just say “doesn’t work” lol.

Ideally in the current state of the game.

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They are far too easy to do and far too numerous. Both user and AI.

Neither the user or the AI should be able to automatically fend off the first defender essentially making them redundant.

The other skill moves should be balanced to be higher and give more variety in evasion choices and the fends to have a much much lowered success rate so it is not the auto go to for users or AI. That would vary the use and give more variety in gameplay experiences too in my opinion.

Maybe if the fend was more likely to work when attempted against defenders approaching from the side? Whereas the bump off was more likely to work with defenders approaching from the front. All evasion skills having less likelihood of working against a defender approaching from behind.

In short - please nerf drastically for both.

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Well that’s already done in my version, and I can’t just hold down and have it work every time without question.

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Can you do it in my version then please? Because I can fend then offload all my way down the pitch almost.

hmmm, I will go install and try it again just to make sure no jiggery pokery has occurred and that has changed.

I had to wait 10 seconds to post this comment. So just entertaining myself while I wait writing this. Probably been more than ten seconds now though. Yay.

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Gladly, when I get this closer to where I want it haha.

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This will be enough for me then at the basic level. At a deeper level though having the probability of success tied to the approach angle of the defender would give it the most authentic feel.

Only the strongest runners can regularly fend an approaching 100 to 120kg defender head on. Same as it is more difficult to fend someone approaching you from behind. The strongest and easiest fends to do are generally from a 35 to 135 angle (on either side of the ball carrier running straight) in my experience.

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What’s happening to the Rugby Championship mate?

Every second year it will be shortened as NZ and SA have decided to go back to doing full tours with 3 tests and mid week games biannually. Will stay normal on every alternate year.

AUS are looking at possibilities during those years of a tour agreement as well. Possibly with Argentina.

So it may either just stay like that or the 4 countries will decide it isn’t really worth it anymore and do something else.

I sort of hope it dies off so we can then see a true pacific championship with NZ, AUS, FIJ, SAM and TON but that is a pipe dream lol.

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Cheers mate, that’s a shame though. Maybe Australia & Argentina could play a home-and-away mini series instead.

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Yeah I think that is what will happen tbf ARG v AUS. It was mentioned as one of the first things they were looking at. Aussie will definitely do something though regardless.

Might open up the access to those RC sides to more teams maybe.

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No loss really we know Australia can’t play rugby and we definitely know they prefer league.

I’m fishing who is biting :wink:

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Yes, Australia need to stay competitive, it’s a shame to see how they’ve fallen away in recent years, though they still showed their mettle in the 3rd Lions test.

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Rebuilding they will be back. Think they will give us (South Africa) a good go this weekend.

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They also did well on their northern tour. I don’t think there is any worries about them anymore. They will go good this RC.

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Oops! As an Englishman, I’ll remain strictly neutral here! :joy:

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Fends at first tackles are cheat codes - for lack of a better expression. Guaranteed to work whether you are in control or facing the AI.

I’m not sure if that goes hand in hand with the fact no matter what the AI always seem to not go down at first tackle.

As much as I’m saying fends are cheat codes, I would like to see a point in the game where you can combine multiple fends or other right stick movements - similar to what we see in RL26. This would need to be balanced of course but it’s certainly something you see happening in the real world where guys will break multiple tackles with moves.

Whilst not in the original question @JNT_BA - are there plans to sort the sidestep out? I find my success with said move to be really low in comparison to AI but perhaps (and more likely) its user error so if you could even shed a light on when I should be doing it, that would be appreciated

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Hey @JNT_BA appreciate you asking our opinion of this. To me there is a better balance on the human side to do all the different manoeuvres. On the AI side however it feels like I’m playing against 30 players as they are invincible, able to break the first tackle 95% of the time no matter what I do and then offload from the most unlikely situations. Seeing a prop throw a back of the hand offload perfectly is so unrealistic.

I ultimately believe the whole contact area needs a re-work. Rugby is all about getting up the field and over the gain-line. On the attacking side I feel like it is better now with the intro of the drive tackle and for exploiting gaps however there is still a real lack of momentum carrying drives and riding the tackle to make ground. Forwards look to use their strength and a low body position to drive through a tackle while backs look to get on the outside shoulder of a defender and go through space. Think there needs to be better logic to the contact area. Basically all players should look to make ground with their basic size, strength, speed and agility skills to either ride a tackle or get through space. Then the break tackle skill should influence whether they get out of a tackle. Finally evasion (side step) and fending should play a role in giving only highly skilled players the chance to use them as weapons to break/avoid tackles. Not every player should be able to fend and side step especially if you are playing against a high rated/stronger opposition.

On the defensive side needs to be more 2-3 man tackles that stop the fend and offloads from happening. Hate to say it but RL26 has this right. You can tackle with multiple players and depending on the outcome either the attacker uses momentum to drive forward a bit or the defenders drive the ball carrier back

Finally I’d love to see a Rugby Union style big hit with the R stick like in RL26. Would be great to get a big bone crunching tackle. Get it right and you hit the ball carrier with a low wrapped tackle that stops them in their tracks or get the timing wrong and it’s high or illegal

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Jy praat mos nou biltong man. Aussies kan julle wen. But needless to say the pressure is all on the bokke as its a home game and aus last beat them there in 1964. So ja go Wallabies

Daarsy , nou kom die waarheid !! anyway whats news on the game , all i see on messages above is broken , broken , broken !!! well this is how the Wannabies i mean Wallabies will feel tomorrow after the REAL RUGBY GAME !!! after that we can go play outside with a REAL RUGBY BALL and do some BETTER PASSES because we cant play RUGBY 25.

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Hi @JNT_BA … Played yesterday a few rugby 25 games and to be honest I can see the game is getting there it needs work yeah but its getting there..I like the offloads and the players being atleast wide enough now and so even the kicking feels better … I would just like some more skills like side steps never works and then fends always works first time and so. And then the AI always breaks threw the first tackle beating like 2 players and offloading is hectic. Also the AI kicking the ball out at the end of the match but they can still win the match ? … And then o man o man the frustrating moment is the “Held up” TMO I mean I scored like 8 Tries that was a try but the referee said Held up no try but clearly it must be a try sooo The TMO is broken and also the replay does not even show the try its just a goal line drop out everytime so please just take a look at this. Thanks @JNT_BA

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