Multiplat AFL 23: Launch Thread (Xbox release date TBC)

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STATE OF PLAY:
  • The game is out for Steam and PlayStation. There have been issues with Xbox release and it is unclear when the game will be available.
  • Big Ant are aware that there are playability issues & bugs at present.
  • Content has been temporarily removed from the game to identify where the issues lie.
  • This content will be re-introduced via patches in the coming days.
  • Big Ant have released a summary of what is to be reintroduced, which can be seen below.




Issues & constructive criticism are best communicated to: support.bigant.com

Michaels Twitch video with QA from Ross(BigAntStudios) from 31:40

 
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Ive been playing on and off for awhile now ill list some of the things i think need tweaking:

  • AI needs to be able to spoil and outmark the user when in a 2on1 or 3on2
  • User movement needs to be tuned sometimes it feels like the player is a truck and struggles to turn around or just move in general
  • Handballing needs a little bit more work
  • User tackling needs a lot more work still, still feels like i cant tackle

Modes or features that need to be added:
  • Online leaderboards or some sort of stat tracking (maybe a reset of games played to date currently
  • Online Private or Custom Match option
  • Stats screens at breaks (QT, HT, 3QTT, FT)
  • Tactics, probably the one that needs to be added in ASAP

Overall its got a good base to work off, just some things need tweaking to iron the bugs out
 
In one match I kicked 5 straight goals with Eric Hipwood - totally unrealistic....
But its you , not eric himself…..
I reckon that’s down to ratings, teams are all rated the same 87-90 so I’m assuming all players have roughly the same stats

It’s a lot harder kicking goals in play when pressing X rather than the goal shot button
this is why i was hoping for a Right Analog Flick instead of just clicking shoot at a target.
Way too easy.
It should have been just like the golf games when driving the ball or putting. Up and down in a straight line.
Down for power, up for accuracy.
With the margin of error being harder depending on difficulty…..
This shoot at a target crap is easier then a goal kicking game on the iphone.
 

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A couple of games played on the patched version. There is a fair bit of good stuff here but a few things just kill the game for me.

  • The AI decision making on the higher difficulties is just strange, they love 30m handballs and continually pass to players in worse positions.
  • They also stand 10m off their opponents when defending, even when the ball is coming in slow, it's way too easy to hit up forwards.
  • There is also general lack of responsiveness when taking control of a player, especially after receiving a handball, which kills the fluidity of fast play.
  • You can literally outmark the AI with any player, regardless of height/stats, they don't spoil.

I do think a lot of this stuff can be patched (AI behaviour, ect.) and if they are, we will be left with a pretty decent game. Mechanically, the game is actually solid from the user perspective, the biggest thing at the moment is it needs to be a challenge. I played on both hard and hardest difficulties and was winning by 60+ without even learning all the controls. As a primarily offline player, this will be what makes or breaks the game.
 
Jason Bennett commentary on the women’s games are a lot better. Would rather him be in the men’s
Ripper bloke too, was doing the scoreboard for Coburg last week and was in the same room as the commentators for 7, he introduced himself to me and shook my hand, and then when he had to leave at 3QT to go down to the AFL game he remembered my name and said bye to me. Also offered me to borrow his headset to watch the feature segment on the club because he noticed I was watching. It’s a shame I plan on mainly playing mens because it means I have the commentary muted by default so I haven’t had a chance to hear him in the game.
 
Just played my first 2 games after the PS patch.

Played Hawthorn vs Sydney in both AFL and AFLW at Tio Traeger Park on medium difficulty with 3.5 minute quarters.

  • Cameras are also on opposite side of stadium,
  • handballs are better but not amazing. Had a few good strings of Sicily to Jiath to Hardwick to Jiath and then…
  • Players just get stuck and don’t move, or are locked onto a straight line
  • Getting run down a lot which is good but frustrating when in a pack
  • Still no luck with winning a ruck contest or tackle unless the player stops moving (I’m pressing triangle , is that wrong)
  • every single ruck goes to them, to the same player
  • When playing on from a mark sometimes, players run backwards with the ball and don’t pass it
  • Few other bugs
  • Missing a heap of features but we know that

Yesterday I was belting everyone on all difficulties. Today on medium I lost the men’s match 6.2.38 to 4.0.24 and the women’s match I won 3.1.19 to 2.0.12. The bones are evident - this does have potential as they were both fun, anxiety driven matches. Fingers crossed Big Ant don’t give up on it as cricket rolls around and we get the game we all wanted
 
Picked it up y'day morning on PS5, installed the updates after work and gave it a crack in the evening. Went straight for the list manager/career mode option, and christ. I can't see a world in which anyone actually playtested this? So many user-unfriendly features that seem so obvious/easy to implement.

Couldn't get past half time in a game, so ended up just simulating through a season mainly and getting a feel for the features/functionality of the trade/draft. Here's all of the things that bothered me in that 90 minute experience.

  • I couldn't 're-sign' rookie contracts. Every time I would, they'd reject it, saying 'I can't accept, max 3 years on rookie list' - and no mechanism to upgrade them. Ended up signing everyone else and delegating to 'assistant' which somehow carried them over.
  • The team selection page is just very odd. There's an option to save/name a pre-set that I couldn't access.
  • The interchange bench blending in with the wider squad depth list in one column with no delineation between the two was very odd. And there didn't seem to be a mechanism to designate the 'S' sub symbol, I think just moving someone into the 5th slot worked, but the S didn't follow them there and couldn't be added. This made moving injured players off field and replacing them far clunkier/time consuming than it ought to be.
  • I'd try to move kickout/backup ruck designation off players and it didn't let me.
  • There doesn't seem to be any training option? Couldn't train players in new positions or find any way to edit their preferred role (i.e. Rachele forward pocket and Dawson wing when I wanted to work on them as an onballer)
  • Player potential is a semi-hidden feature, but over the course of the start of year 1 to the start of year 2, I didn't notice any young player growing at all or any old player declining. Just the same as they were the year before.
  • Mid season draft is a thing, but couldn't figure out how to create a pick for myself in it (if I was even able to)
  • I get that there's a contract/trade difficulty slider and fiddled with that, but even with that, trade logic is completely busted like it is in most AFL games historically.
  • Oppo clubs don't seem to interact with you in the trade period. And no real way to see if there's anyone on a trade block from them. You just have to actively search for a player in the full player list that's hard to filter in any easy/meaningful way, add them to your shortlist, and then from there, offer them a contract directly, if they agree, you can then pursue a trade with their club. I don't mind that last bit, but it's very clunky to go about finding these players.
  • By the time the season finished and it moved into player transaction period, other teams had actively made their delistings which were displayed in the portal and there didn't seem to be any mechanism for me to delist players, they just fell off the list when the drafts arrived if not contracted.
  • Free agency exists, but there was no way to find out who was a free agent/out of contract other than manually search and check every individual player. And by the time it rolled around, it seemed like 4-5 free agents had already moved elsewhere.
  • The national draft is completely busted. There is a pool of 'good talent' to select from which seems reasonable and balanced (A positive!), but the top 5-6 kids there all slipped through to my picks as the oppo clubs used their first and second round picks on recycled/delisted players from other clubs.
  • Doesn't appear to be any scouting/ability to research draft talent in any sort of depth.

And this was in just 90 minutes. No doubt a lot more.

In general, it just appeared rushed, not well planned or thought through, not tested (at least by anyone who likes football or career modes) and full of bugs or uncomfortable user experience things. Any degree of team selection or list management you want to do is, by poor UI design among other things, 3-4x clunkier and harder than it needs to be. And so many logical features are just absent.

Gameplay no doubt is a concern, but I can see the upside in it and how it could with some quick mods become the best AFL game 'play-wise' we've had. But that the gameplay is janky in conjunction with even the career mode being significantly worse structurally than bloody footy fanatic or AFL Live 2003, my optimism for this project is fast waning. Love what Big Ant do in a tough market, and love the earnestness and effort Ross seems to put in with the community. So I don't doubt them. But I'm just a bit concerned with this now.
 

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So where's the gameplay trailer?
That will come after the play session we were promised. Which may come before or after the roadmap we were promised.
 
That will come after the play session we were promised. Which may come before or after the roadmap we were promised.
Are you talking about the roadmap to build the game after it has launched?

$100 to be a beta tester, interesting concept, wonder how it works out.
 
That will come after the play session we were promised. Which may come before or after the roadmap we were promised.

Mate, be patient. It's not like the game is out or anything and everyone went in blind. They wouldn't do that. Right? Not after making this statement ON OCCAISIONS TOO NUMEROUS TO COUNT:

As mentioned on occasions to numerous to count, no one will be in the dark about the contents of this game prior to purchase - and that is all that should matter.
 
But its you , not eric himself…..

this is why i was hoping for a Right Analog Flick instead of just clicking shoot at a target.
Way too easy.
It should have been just like the golf games when driving the ball or putting. Up and down in a straight line.
Down for power, up for accuracy.
With the margin of error being harder depending on difficulty…..
This shoot at a target crap is easier then a goal kicking game on the iphone.
For goal-kicking I had hoped they bring over 2 things from their cricket games, the pro mode controls (using both joysticks) and the confidence and stamina bars. I reckon that would add an additional layer of complexity to the gameplay.

The pro mode would remove the aiming marker and rely on the player's ability to use the joystick to kick straight. The confidence meter can be built using champion data and the players stats would affect the margin of error available when goal kicking. They already have a similar system for their cricket games and don’t see why it can’t be brought over to afl 23.

would be good if in the future they can incorporate the following:

left joystick used to aim the player (accommodate for wind and how they use the right stick)- push forward to start run-up.

right joystick the player can choose when to start the power meter by pulling it back. and a push forward to take the kick.

Depending on how straight your push forward, it will determine how straight your kick is. If you push forward and end at 11 o clock the kick will veer left for example.

by having the player choose when to engage the right joystick allows players with lower set shot power to get as close to the man on the mark before kicking (that extra meter or so can be the difference - and if you leave it too late you have a chance of kicking it to the man on the mark.)
 
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