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

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

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.

Spoiler: Features to be added

Spoiler: MOST RECENT PATCH NOTES

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

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

 

[Treehill23]

AFL98 had fights right?


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Yeah but back then, players were also allowed to tackle

I’d imagine 20 years from now, we’ll be sitting here talking about how tackling is a thing of the past in AFL23… Well kind of.
Maybe BigAnt are just getting in on the trend first

 

[T2B_]

I think it was 99 but can never have that again. Too much of a "bad look".

Unfortunate. I'd love to put Shai Bolton in a head lock.

 

[Wormkilla]

If I recall, AFL '99 on PC had fights. AFL 99 on PS1 was basically a copy of AFL 98 from PC, which didn't have fights.

No not at all. AFL 98 was very different to AFL 99. Definitely didn’t have fights. Did have great off the ball movement. And you could change the sizes of all the players. So literally you could have players the size of ants running down massive giants.

F*** it was great. Had Shane Crawford on the cover.

 

[jc12]

I have explained this like 5 times already, but here we go again.

firstly none of us are affiliated with BigAnt, so drop that viewpoint as it way off the mark and ignorant. I did next to zero editing on anything I posted. You saw it raw as It was played.


Can I just say up front, despite what some of you may think I'm equally as shitty at how this launch went, maybe even more so than all of you because I put myself on the line at midnight with a live stream of the game and got absolutley bombarded with a range of things from 500+ people on a game that no one was expecting. So if you think I'm all cheery with how that launch went you are heavily mistaken.


The game we have now at launch was NOT what we played at their office. What came out at launch is behind that.

All of the things everyone is screaming for stats, state leagues, better online, better AI, all the face scans etc etc, everything, was in the version of the game to go live.

played, tested etc.

Code doesn't always play nice though and something bugged and stripped all the things they added and the end result was the game we saw at launch.

Is it acceptable? no
Is it frustrating? absolutely
do people have a right to be annoyed? for sure.

But if anyone honestly thinks that BigAnt and the AFL would knowingly put out the game we saw at launch intentionally you have rocks in your head as it is so glaringly buggy and stripped back it's not funny.

All the things people are screaming for, that I mentioned above, are being re added as quick as possible and within 2 weeks the game we see now will be a distant memory.


I fully understand that 3/4 of you will laugh and wont believe the above, and thats ok.

I'm extremely comfortable with my stance on the above with what I know and it being fixed which will play out in the near future IMO.


I wont be posting on the subject matter in here anymore as I've given context on this more than once.

Thanks for your reply, don't know why my post was deleted though, it's actually a legitimate question. Any outsider would have every reason to believe the YouTube guys affiliated especially as they went to their office and BAs communication has been shit house

 

[Treehill23]

Has anyone had or given away any free kicks? High tackle, PITB etc?

Holding the ball and incorrect disposal only
Can’t expect every single free kick in the game at launch mate
That’ll come in the 2024 update for $30

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Yeah but back then, players were also allowed to tackle

I’d imagine 20 years from now, we’ll be sitting here talking about how tackling is a thing of the past in AFL23… Well kind of.
Maybe BigAnt are just getting in on the trend first

Keen to watch Quiv and Ross punch on in 20 years time.

 

[extractasam]

Does the AI draft de-listed players in the first round because their rating is higher than the 18y/o's too? Can't stand seeing some 30-year-old I cut go at pick 1 every draft.

I simulated multiple seasons for a laugh and drafted multiple 18 year olds with 65-98 sort of potential and so many of them end up being like 20 overall rating within 2 seasons? It’s strange.
Also seems to be no player rating progression either. Simmed 3 years and the most any player went up was maybe 1 or 2 ovr

 

[ThePuma #9]

I have been following this game for about a month, watching the occasional video on youtube. When i first heard Big Ant Studios had returned and Wicked Witch were out i can't deny i was excited. I was ready to buy yesterday but thought i'd wait to read some reviews and then i remembered back in the day i Big Ant used to post on Bigfooty so i thought i'd go looking for a thread.

Geez, yesterday was a hard read. I don't know what went wrong with the patch on release and i feel for all those who bought it and worked on it but like so many others i put my wallet back in my pocket and will now sit back to see if they can fix this. I still have faith that two months down the road it will be a decent game but that doesn't help Big Ant Studios or AFL video games in general.

It's as if No Mans Sky and Cyberpunk had a child. A buggy, unplayable game that over promised and under delivered. Both those games were great once they sorted out their shit but the damage was already done to their brands. I hope everyone gives Big Ant a chance to sort this out and gives it a go when they are on top of all the gameplay issues and crashing.

BigAntStudios

I want to buy this game, i want to love this game. You gave us some amazing AFL games back in the day and i truly believe you are the right company to take this brand forward. I'm sorry i can't buy it in the state it's currently in but i promise if you sort through all the issues and get it to a point it's playable and reliable i will run out and buy it immediately. Good luck.

 

[stkilda7894]

Has anyone had or given away any free kicks? High tackle, PITB etc?

Nope. Fifty metre penalties and deliberate out of bounds don't even exist.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Unfortunate. I'd love to put Shai Bolton in a head lock.

Could create him on WWE 2K and wrap a chair around his head or spear him through a table?

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Nope. Fifty metre penalties and deliberate out of bounds don't even exist.

I gave away one deliberate but it was a glitch. Taranto handballed about 90 metres baackwards to the boundary!
It didn’t say deliberate but there was a free kick

 

[candymanwb]

High tackle, in the back and deliberate out of bounds don't appear to be in the game at all.

I was pinged for deliberate out of bounds before the handballing patch.
High tackle and PITB seem non existent at this stage!

 

[Treehill23]

Screen has been stuck on this for 5 mins to the point that the music has stopped playing
I guess it’s a sign

 

[Wormkilla]

Quite tragic how little we’ve come since this game

 

[jdoggdrool]

Thanks for your reply, don't know why my post was deleted though, it's actually a legitimate question. Any outsider would have every reason to believe the YouTube guys affiliated especially as they went to their office and BAs communication has been s**t house

I get what you're trying to say, but it's still not the greatest idea to call people's integrity into question based on zero fact or evidence.

 

[Van_Dyke]

Has anyone had or given away any free kicks? High tackle, PITB etc?

HTB, incorrect disposal the frequent ones, had one or two deliberate oob, and deliberate rushed behinds

 

[Millky95]

No patch on Steam atm but gonna play anyway see what I can find

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

Anything new today?

 

[mattyfatty2014]

new patch supposedly comes out this evening (tho it was gonna come out at 2pm???

 

[Archer_11]

If we ignore point 3 and other force majeure.

For point 1. Wouldn't version control be easiest for the initial launch where everything is as you submitted it, and there is no differences across platforms.
For point 2. Woudn't that still mean at least you're aware that something is wrong, rather than being surprised after its gone live?

I'm asking out of genuine curiosity. Software project management is something I know nothing about.

Appreciate the honesty.

I'm not a tecchy but I'm in the trenches, can only give my own spin.

1. It's complexity mainly. Packaging requires different teams to come into the fold which can increase risk immeasurably. It's possible that BA have to work closely with nacon for example to get this out the door - language barriers, shitty timezone, that type of thing. Or maybe just a single dev did a very bad thing right at the end and they are crying themselves to sleep at night. There are few controls that completely de-risk the final 'final' step.

2. Testing is a more interesting topic but there's a lot less mystery. At some point during a build you have to close the door. And sometimes when the door is closed you deploy just one last fix, because hey, it's just X and we only need to test Y. That's one scenario. The other is the more stressful variety where the build is a shitshow and the company runs out of time and money to do a proper QA. I'm less inclined to think it's the case here given the runway.

 

[Quivorir]

Is he not allowed to have a life outside work? Get a grip.

I never said he couldn't? Odd react.

 

[caloschwaby]

Carnnnnn now you have to show us

 

[jdoggdrool]

I never said he couldn't? Odd react.

Come on, be real. Your implication was 100% that he shouldn't be doing anything like going to the footy in this situation.

Don't play dumb when your persistent negativity gets called out.

 

[candymanwb]

A button to “corale” your opponent would be super handy, similar to what FIFA offers!

 

[dwwaino]

View attachment 1678963

UV maps of any 3D character's face are nightmare fuel.