They should add in the Pac Champs Competition and the PM XIII. They’ve already done Ashes, why not Pac Champs and PM XIII? Also, how do you check what the newest update was for? Is there a website or something?
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I always go to BigAnt’s Twitter / ‘X’ site.
I google it, open the link, and have bookmarked it to quickly refer back to it. This forum won’t let me paste the link for you, unfortunately.
I’m not on Twitter / X / whatever, but I check this out every time there’s a new update. More often than not there’s some info about what was included. Not this most recent one, mind you..!
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Thanks so much!!! I’ll do it right now
At the very least I’d like an Attacking speed slider and a Defensive line speed slider.
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The most recent patch did something to the game to undo the good changes which made Amateur a little easier. It really seemed extra noticeable on Custom Comp mode when I was playing that with some other friends with 4 human and 2 AI teams. It was ridiculously hard and low scoring for all against the AI!
I’m not sure exactly what all the changes are but defensive line speed from the AI is ridiculous now. I’m passing the ball out the line to players who have defenders sprinting up at them and there’s no time to run anywhere to avoid them. This line speed is so fast that I can’t even get a drop goal away anymore on the last!
Also Fend no longer seems to work as well quite often. I do a hit up and with R3 and bust a tackle, but what was the point when within 0.2s another couple of defenders are on me???
Really needs some urgent attention. I had told my mates that we’ll have some good games because the AI has been made a little easier on Amateur to have some games against. Instead there were 3 games that went to golden point at 0-0 !!! Felt bad that I had told them that it had been patched and was going to be fun!
This used to be the good game and Rugby 25 was terrible. Now that one’s getting better and this one is having this kind of rubbish happening. Sad to say but it is quite frustrating.
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Defensive line speed has been the problem right from the start.
It’s way too fast.
If they could change the defense speeds to match attack speeds the game will open up more.
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Yeah unplayable right now, the defence is so quick that 15-20 metre sets are common, that’s if you can even hold onto the ball with the over the top big hits that knock the ball loose.
Big Ant, please fix this immediately.
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It really is that bad that it feels like I want to stop playing all together until it changes. It’s just not worth it. I don’t play games to feel constant frustration.
We all like a challenge and can take a loss etc, but it just feels like you’re going nowhere 98% of the time!
I loved the patch which made Amateur a bit easier. I could actually fend properly and sidestep was back to working most of the time. It was great, I felt like I could attack better. My forwards could wreck the defensive line a bit! My backs were a little more elusive.
Sure support was still a constant joke, with no hope of anyone running off my players shoulder and if I wanted to pass to anyone once I made a break it would be intercepted (EVERY TIME)! Overall though, things were a bit better.
Somehow this recent (un-noted) patch has taken away the attacking power that had just been introduced! Along with that it seems to have ramped up the defensive line speed!
By the way! I ask anyone from Big Ant. Do you really believe that in ANY real rugby league that once a break through the line is made by an attacking team, do the defensive team REALLY just instantly and I mean INSTANTLY turn 180 degrees and are at FULL SPEED towards the attacking player, catching them within 1-2s max?
Seriously!!! I can understand them turning at normal speed, having to re-accelerate back up to full speed and then chasing like their lives depend on it to run down the attacking player, I’d understand that!
But for real you’ve made supposed human beings have a more rapid regathering of 100% of their speed after a 180 degree turn than any car in the world can do! Please, please rethink this!!!
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I have an idea that could be done that would give the player full control of the defensive line and make defending more immersive and actually take skill to use and be fully manual.
Controls:
L2 = Select nearest defender to ball carrier
L2 = Hold to Compress Defensive Line
L2 + Left Stick Down = Advance and Compress Defensive Line Towards Attack. The further you press the right stick the faster the D line advances.
L2 + Left Stick Left = Slide defense Left on screen. The further the stick is pressed the faster the slide.
L2 + Left Stick Right = Slide Defense Right on Screen. The further you press the faster the slide.
L2 + Left Stick Up = Retreat Defensive Line. This Enables the player to retreat the 10. The further the stick is pressed the faster the speed of retreat. Maybe a red line marking the 10 turns green when onside.
Another option that could be added is controlled player marking.
Dpad Left = Toggle Nearest Player Marking. While controlling the D Line tapping dpad left would make players shift position to mark their direct nearest player regardless of how much the line has shifted. This can create holes in the line depending on how close each player is to their direct nearest opposite player.
Dpad Right = Toggle Mark Opposite Number. While controlling the D Line tapping dpad right would toggle on mark opposite number. This would make your players on defense whilst in control no matter the line position shift and spread to mark their opposite number thus creating scramble and creating gaps in the line.
So yeah just a little idea I just thought up that has potential to give the player full defensive line control at varying speeds depending on how slow or fast you want to play.
If you play defense too fast for too long fatigue could be a problem and players individually would slow creating holes and easier line break chances.
The other cool thing is tackling would require timing as there would be no automatic tackles. Maybe once a tackle is made holding the button could bring in more tacklers.
I’m not saying to get rid of assisted defense altogether there is a place for it for those who prefer it but this idea just gives more gameplay options for those who might prefer to have full control.
Maybe the retreat 10 could be toggled to user or assisted or have a list of various control options to choose from like other sports games.
Seeing controlled movement and how you could build off its base sparked this idea for how it could be expanded.
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The Team Lists have just been released for the Pacific Champions, they should add it into the game now!!!
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I like the idea and generally I think the game would benefit from more “team” gameplay.
I have not played in a while now because the updates frequently change the game so much that it feels good one week and crap the next. This sounds terrible and I can’t bring myself to boot this game up anymore. It sounds like anything good that was done has been removed. This will be my final purchase from Bigant, if the game remains in the state it’s in.
Number 1 is the competitive balancing of the game should be totally separate from the single player balance. Number 2 is the AI defensive play is to homing missile like and the attack to stuck in the mud. So both attack and defense sucks, so the game sucks. Player controlled players are slow, passing is unrealistically slow compared to ai defensive reads.
FIX YOUR PRODUCT BIG ANT
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I could not agree more! Playing local 2 player competitive is TERRIBLE! All the issues with trying to get through a VERY aggressive AI defence, with a human also acting independently around it!!! Add on top of that the fact that using a skill move on a human controlled player in local is nearly impossible requiring insane timing if it even works at all!
Nearly all games are ridiculously low scoring due to this.
“Homing missile like”, absolutely brilliant description! I’ve been looking for a term that describes it as well as this. Yes, attack is weak and defence is crazily strong!
3rd quote and once again summing it up perfect. It’s absolutely brilliant to pass out wide to players with opposition players immediately and I mean immediately on them!
Please patch these things as soon as possible. It’s seeming pretty unanimous and I also can’t help but wonder if there’s a correlation between the drop off in people bothering to post here and the drop off in people bothering to play the game!
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Anyone know how to change the jersey numbers apparently you can just dont know how
Was there an update today? Has it fixed anything? Haven’t played for a few days now.
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I haven’t checked the game, but there isn’t anything new on their X feed. Apart from retweeting some aussie rules womens team something.
To be honest mate I can’t be stuffed giving it a go. Oddone on youtube usually does a vid at some point going over the updates. At this point the game seems to be in a bad state and looks to be not enjoyable.
My honest opinion is that the more these games focused on set plays the less fun they became. It’s why players either overrun or are stuck in the mud. The game is not organic, players are not in motion in any realist manner.
A lot of my problems are due to this the game is just made to be on rails, right down to the grubber or chip, for it to work you need to aim at a running line or no player is activated by it. A pass to a player without a running line, just doesn’t move. Support play is sXXt because there are no running lines so it strays away from how the game is coded. The ai defense is obviously only coded to the ball not the player with the ball. Also the canned tackle animations are all over the place so pass timing is unpredictable, pass speed is very important as is the velocity of the ball and this game has both completely wrong. The result is it nigh on impossible to get someone into a hole, then the ai defense swarms and your support is no where to be seen, winger standing 30 m behind because he never activated passed his running line. Its bs really and honestly don’t see it improving.
I ask myself how the heck could a game as old as Jonah Lomu Rugby or even PS2 Rugby 2000 have a better running and passing game to a current gen game. The answer is simply those games where designed to be fun, not casino ridden cash grabs or reskins of a last gen game, We got played and I should have known better because I got the Big Ant Rugby game. I have bought every League game Big ant has made and even the original game which was a bare bones ugly hog of a ps3 game was better because it was actually fun. RLL2 was way better than this because it was not completely dependent on the set play style, the creation tools and player stats were more in depth. Big Ant in my opinion have taken the easy way on all fronts, attack is purely based on running lines or nothing happens (easy to code canned play), the AI defense just follows the ball (canned defense), player stats are grouped ( easy to just quickly modify). Ruck speed use to be a thing you could effect in a meaningful way but it is also now a canned thing and due to this only the AI has the ability, god the more I write the more depressed I get even the damn markers when you control them are canned animations now as they don’t run the direction you want and dawdle into place and their ain’t a thing you can do about it.
Hopefully Big Ant can dig their way out but it ain’t looking good and I doubt it’s even possible. I even had a bit of fun with this around the time they first introduced the new step animation but it quickly became unplayable again within a week and I am not going to go through each team to change stats just to try and get something out of this putrid wreck.
Honestly I hope they can patch it out eventually but something tells me you would need a whole new engine to do it. What also makes me angry is like RLL4 which this game is really, is the game actually works against you to make it more difficult. In defense your own players will not even start an tackle animation at some points for no reason, like you never pressed the button, pass timing changes, changing a player will swap to people you don’t want or need to make a defensive play. It’s because there is nothing behind the code, there is no ai with any of the play, it’s all canned and that’s the only way I can describe it. Nothing can happen outside the way Big Ant has structured everything. Try running past a player to drop him under and watch the ball be thrown in some odd way, either up into the air in bullet time mode or be passed to some guy back at the ruck 20 odd meters away in some time distorting physics braking way. The game is purely coded to be on railes with canned animations all over the place and no body with a footy mind outside of a line set out before them. It’s pure garbage, even the offload has to be done on particular canned animations. There is no free running champagne rugby league going on here.
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Beautifully worded. That’s where I’m at with this game right now, I just can’t be bothered anymore.
Everything is railed, as you said. Everything you do in this game is determined by an RNG, and the dice are weighted against you. Your runners have zero momentum or mass if they don’t have the ball. I’m sick to death of players like Payne Haas being driven back or absolutely crunched because he crashed on a ball. Why does he weigh nothing unless he’s held onto the ball for three seconds? It’s maddening.
The engine used for this game and previous games simply isn’t good enough. The lack of physics means you’ll always be stuck with the same animations, no matter the context of the player, speed, collision angle, etc. It’s terrible.
You know what would help? If Big Ant actually released patch notes. The last two patches they’ve released, they’ve not said what they’ve changed or what they’ve fixed. Nothing. The lack of communication reads they they don’t care.
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Seems to me that they don’t really know what they’re fixing anymore. Are they even fixing anything? They seem to create more problems than fixes of late. eg the multitude & magnitude of big hits. Not sure what they were trying to achieve with that. Do they even play the game before releasing an “update”?
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Amature= fun but to easy
Pro= not fun / creativity is limited / can only use 1 skill move per phase per player, AI creativity is lacking.
What is frustrating that there is such a huge difference in play between amateur and pro. Amateur you can break 4-5 tackles in a row, pro you are limited to one, surely an in between balance should be accesible. The Ai has got to get more creative, Rugby league 4 AI’s offensive attack was much more creative and varied, why can’t BA use the same code from Rugby league 4 to run the offensive attacks?
Worst case do Ai offense setting on legend
And defense on Amature or tune pro to allow more then 1 skilled move on occasion per phase.
It seemed the game was playing better in previous patches, but I do like the ability for longer grubbers.
To edit above I did exactly that an the game plays better, when I have the ball I set it to amature when AI takes possession on offense I switch difficulty to legend🙂and although this not ideal it plays better. But BA should really balance out Amature setting and Pro , there should be levels in between.
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