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

 

[BigAntStudios]

mayday mayday
players can run and recieve a handball at the same time

Nice goal!

 

[tigerairau]

The SCG is actually pretty close to the MCG dimensions since redevelopments, or at least not as small as people still seem to think.

From the SCG to Kardinia Park — do ground sizes contribute to the end result in AFL games?

From big to small and everything in between, the size of an AFL ground impacts the way the game is played and how teams win — right? Well, it's not that simple, writes Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson.

www.abc.net.au

Well Norwood Oval is definitely not the correct dimensions

 

[Pickitt]

Another thing with the missed tackles, if your player shrugs it off you can get a nice clearance from the centre

So major ball winners is another stat?

Yep.
Only way to do it it to focus on one player(s) and count their disposals count change after the round

Considering in real life, a team will have a good win one week and get flogged the next - eg; Carlton - they win by 108 and then loose the next week?

I agree somewhat, but quite hard to do on a dev side of things I imagine

 

[ItsJonesy777]

BigAntStudios

players can run and recieve a handball at the same time

It’s a bloody Christmas miracle……in May!

 

[stewi09]

Who needs sleep anyways……..lucky to be wfh tomorrow too, so no one will notice how dead I’ll be……

Wonder if my work will let me work from home tomorrow

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

mayday mayday
players can run and recieve a handball at the same time

This looks a lot better.

Won't be 100% convinced though until GoldbergsGold gives handpassing and tackling his seal of approval (with videos!)

 

[Johnno2000]

holy shit I just finished my first game since the new patch and actually had FUN

Feels a lot more fluid, players still a bit sticky upon receiving the ball. Teleportation tackles seemingly a thing of the past. AI still annoyingly can score unstoppable goals as mentioned above, started getting a bit frustrated for a second when the same play seemed to happen before my eyes twice. Straight tap to their player one kick and then a goal, but hey. Definite improvement overall. Was playing on easy, difficulty definitely fluctuates a bit (although that could just be playing against Geelong)

Also the full Optus Stadium crowd looks great!

 

[Murraj1966]

Was getting some run and gun going to a big pack flying with Max King

12

Max King

Age

24

Ht

202cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

7.3

2star

K

4.7

2star

HB

2.6

2star

M

2.7

3star

T

0.7

3star

G

1.4

5star

D

7.3

2star

K

4.7

2star

HB

2.6

2star

M

2.7

3star

T

0.7

1star

G

1.4

5star

D

8.0

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

2.8

3star

M

2.8

3star

T

0.6

3star

G

1.4

5star

about to pluck one and boom crash to desktop

Still though this feels like a big patch in terms of improvement. Looking forward to the handballing getting better and seeing Ross the Boss instead of Zak Jones

3

Zak Jones

Age

29

Ht

182cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.8

4star

K

10.0

4star

HB

7.8

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

3.0

5star

CL

1.7

4star

D

19.1

4star

K

10.6

4star

HB

8.6

4star

M

3.4

3star

T

3.1

4star

CL

4.9

5star

D

7.0

2star

K

2.8

1star

HB

4.2

4star

M

1.0

1star

T

1.6

4star

CL

1.0

3star

as coach.

 

[CultOfClose]

This definitely looking like an improvement based off Michaels stream

 

[KangaFan35]

New update looks really good, just praying my PlayStation can handle the game now as I’m genuinely starting to enjoy playing it

 

[carn tigez]

Well, that was fun! Notes and stats below;

• 3.5m quarters on hard difficulty

Pros;

• Player movement fixed and AI tackling fixed. Seeing missed tackles is actually really cool and opens play up.
• First game I've had more kicks than handballs since before the first patch. Also first game I've competed with total disposals, been losing by 2* opposition to date.
• Disposals still nicely spread between positions
• Link up play feels really good and fluent.
• Defensive marking contests (ie when out of position) feel good. Outmarked at the right times and get the spoil or mark at the right times. Forward 50 marking contests different story which I'll get to below.
• Intercepts of handballs and kicks seemed to be turned down. Or maybe I just got lucky, but rarely did either team just cut off a disposal and gain possession.
• Overall just a fun game to play, could play more of this and enjoy it once bugs are ironed out.

Cons;

• Scoring way too high which really is because goal kicking is way too easy for both AI and user. If this can be brought down to about 50% then the scoring rate will match the disposals rate to be realistic, give or take.
• Still couldn't win a hitout, 24-2, despite trying lots of different timing.
• Despite losing hitouts I split clearances which hadn't been happening before today's patch. Ball would go to my players often enough.
• AI is really dumb in defence. Soo many open players inside 50 for both sides. Not the end of the world because that can happen in modern footy, and pressure is on to get the turnover in the front half, but there needs to be a way to make getting the turnover skill based, not hoping the AI stuffs up.
• On point above, if we are more regularly able to change control from the player manning the mark that would really aid this. Allows you to plug holes in defence. Assume tactics will help this area too.
• Marking in forward 50 was too easy. AI seemed to attempt spoils at times but never succeeded, I regularly had 2v2 type packs and just took the mark, rarely dropped a mark or was spoiled. Really should reward position in the contest a lot more, eg if you're in front and the kick is long the defender should nearly always mark, and vice versa. Seems to not really matter.
• AI when tackled gets the disposal out to weird places. They'll kick it behind them to a free player, etc. When tackled the disposal should really just spill out unless arms are free above the head, which is how it seems to go for the user.

May have missed a couple but that's the summary. Definitely a fun experience for the most part and didn't feel cheated much, other than how bad the AI was in defence leaving players free everywhere. IMO "spread" should mean free players in the bak half and overlap run, but then outnumber in forward half (when defence has time to setup). Seems to be more free players in random places forward of the ball and then open inside 50, which isn't realistic except on fast counters at times.

 

[Fitzey]

I’m really starting to enjoy this game, still a fair bit to be worked on that has all been covered on here but this game is starting to play fairly well. Having a thread with BigAntStudios frequently reading and fixing issues that people are point out is great.

The team copped a lot of flack on release, and I’m sure they hated the way the game came out but it’s a credit to them how far this game has come since then. I’m looking forward to what it looks like in a week or so! Well done so far BigAntStudios.

 

[tigerairau]

holy s**t I just finished my first game since the new patch and actually had FUN

Feels a lot more fluid, players still a bit sticky upon receiving the ball. Teleportation tackles seemingly a thing of the past. AI still annoyingly can score unstoppable goals as mentioned above, started getting a bit frustrated for a second when the same play seemed to happen before my eyes twice. Straight tap to their player one kick and then a goal, but hey. Definite improvement overall. Was playing on easy, difficulty definitely fluctuates a bit (although that could just be playing against Geelong)

Also the full Optus Stadium crowd looks great!

View attachment 1683224

Nice comeback my man

 

[mikeyyy35]

Please tell me online is working normally ross


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

With gameplay pretty solid here are some more feature based items AFL 23 needs in a hurry:

• Automated interchange and players moving to different positions during the game naturally
• backup ruck setting doesn’t work
• tactics still not present. Would make every team a new challenge
• on the fly tactics from AI teams to adapt to the way you’re playing
• archetypes seem to not matter a bunch
• custom teams in season mode is a must. No reason to make the 2013 dockers if I can’t run it back and rewrite history

Gameplay changes have allowed so much overlap run - I was done in pretty convincingly by the AI a few times on the break through handball overlap. Well done BigAntStudios JNT BA

 

[doctor_evil]

This game compares favourably to EA titles so I don't know what you're complaining about? Maybe get good?

Oh well if you say it compares favourably then i must be some nuffie.

I am good. The game is ****ing shit.

 

[Pickitt]

Had a really nice run on goal

 

[BigAntStudios]

Difficulty will be the big change for tomorrow's patch, so people can really select a level that suits their standard, along with more AI balancing.

 

[Etto]

Difficulty will be the big change for tomorrow, so people can really select a level that suits their standard, along with more AI balancing.

Any focus on online gameplay?

 

[tigerairau]

Difficulty will be the big change for tomorrow, so people can really select a level that suits their standard, along with more AI balancing.

Great news

Playing on hardest right now and I'm 7 goals up for some reason, does anyone know which one is actually the hardest?

 

[Johnno2000]

To whoever made Subiaco Oval, if you're in here...

I could kiss you, it's beautiful

 

[carn tigez]

Great news

Playing on hardest right now and I'm 7 goals up for some reason, does anyone know which one is actually the hardest?

I think it's just gotten easy with the changes this patch.

 

[stewi09]

To whoever made Subiaco Oval, if you're in here...

I could kiss you, it's beautiful

Any chance you could throw in some screenshots in for us? I would love to see it. Miss going to Subi oval

 

[BigAntStudios]

Any focus on online gameplay?

Not all things we look at are in the patch notes, just what I consider to be major, online gets a lot of the offline changes.

 

[ptrg]

Just watched Michael play 3 quarters on his twitch, and while tackling and initial pause on possession have slightly been improved, the rest is still garbage.

He played 3 quarters (5mins each?) and in that entire time, there were only 2 ball-ups (not including ones after goal) and a single throw in.
There was also ZERO free kicks.
Worse, the AI is ridiculous. Every single player runs around at warp speed, regardless of what's going on. We all complained about too many one on ones in Evo2, but this is far far worse. It's just a random player in random spot generator, with absolutely no respect for either the game state or defense/attack.
Far too many times the AI won the ball and kicked forward to 3 or 4 loose players in their forward 50. Nothing you can do about it as a human player. And bar a single miss, the AI slotted everything both set shots and casually on the warp drive run.

And the speed. It's utterly insane.
Everyone and everything thing happens at a speed that is just so unnatural. Every player is moving at what I'd say is double a realistic speed, and also they are doing it the entire time.
Like ants on a board, they just run randomly everywhere. There's no clever or tactical AI coding here, it's just told to move randomly everywhere and respond if ball lands happens to land in its area.

And of course, it couldn't be AFL23 without a crash, which happened after another 3 v 0 AI goal.

Still unplayable to anyone with any sort of desire to play an AFL game

Edit: thought I'd add, it was missing the "essence" of footy. No stoppages, no chain of handball in tight spaces, no multiple tackles, no "baaaallllllll" moments, no having to pick your way through a defence, or being cautious and finding a target inside 50.
This was just end to end nonsense with 36 cocaine fuelled ants in continual random motion.
Simply, whoever gets the ball in the middle gets a shot at scoring.
Perhaps it would be an acceptable basketball game, but what I just watched was nothing like actual footy, and BA have a loooong way to go before it does..