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

 

[Black Panther]

 

[mickelboy182]

I'd love to see their gameplay footage, to observe their claims. Seems like some of us are playing 2 completely different games.

It is just the people who are fine with paying for an early access game advertised as a proper release... It is all just relative to how borked it was day 1, not actually discussing it on its own merit.

 

[Michaels]

It's not even close to a good standard, it's still very broken. Not sure where these observations of great gameplay are coming from. The only noticeably responsive and effective gameplay mechanic working well is the rucking, but even that is a bit broken, because the CPU don't really contest and there isn't a collision system. I also just checked into Michaels gameplay from a few hours ago, his session is even more glitchy than what I'm playing.

I mean this with respect but if you can't tell that game play has improved, outside of ruck contests, from my stream the last 2 nights you must be watching the wrong video.

By no stretch is it perfect but it's absolutely improved to a playable state over the last 2 patches.

Crashes aside, I enjoyed my games last night too with the passages of play I could create

**on PC

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I mean this with respect but if you can't tell that game play has improved, outside of ruck contests, from my stream the last 2 nights you must be watching the wrong video.

By no stretch is it perfect but it's absolutely improved to a playable state over the last 2 patches.

Crashes aside, I enjoyed my games last night too with the passages of play I could create

I saw people teleporting and glitching all over the ground in your stream. In my gameplay, the teleporting is gone, at least, but there's weird seizure movements happening, if you watch my gameplay footage, everything is very choppy, hard to move and not fluid at all. You have little control, players veer off in their own direction, and hand balling and kicking isn't in synch with the meter. I still have players running backwards, instead of instant turning, I'm constantly fighting the controls. I don't have any of these user controlled movement issues with those terrible WW footy games, which is just astounding that I am with 23.

 

[Lesnish]

I'd love to see their gameplay footage, to observe their claims. Seems like some of us are playing 2 completely different games.

Exactly.
I 100% think there are big improvements from day 1, no question.
I am also more than keen to have a positive attitude towards the improvement.

But I can not understand the logic of people lying to themselves by saying the game is almost perfect and what not.
There is still so much the game needs for it to be the AFL game we all wanted.

There is nothing to be gained by getting on here and saying it's perfect and bug free.

Michaels a perfect example of giving the pros and cons which is required.
I'm also loving your work uploading footage of the bugs and issues you find and make the suggestion of how it can be improved.

I don't find you to be negative at all and don't understand why some people seem the need to have a crack at your observations.
Keep it up man.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[OhDustinMartin]

streaming if you're bored

 

[simba_]

this will probably be an international meme later in the year when they talk about worse game release of 2023, and that's in a sea of bad rushed releases

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Exactly.
I 100% think there are big improvements from day 1, no question.
I am also more than keen to have a positive attitude towards the improvement.

But I can not understand the logic of people lying to themselves by saying the game is almost perfect and what not.
There is still so much the game needs for it to be the AFL game we all wanted.

There is nothing to be gained by getting on here and saying it's perfect and bug free.

Michaels a perfect example of giving the pros and cons which is required.
I'm also loving your work uploading footage of the bugs and issues you find and make the suggestion of how it can be improved.

I don't find you to be negative at all and don't understand why some people seem the need to have a crack at your observations.
Keep it up man.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

The point is to have the best AFL game possible, there's certainly signs of something competent around the horizon, but it's no secret, it's in the mainstream media, now, the game is riddled with bugs, broken mechanics/movement and glitches. You can observe it in the gameplay footage, it's very evident. No good making statements saying it's great gameplay, when the gameplay footage documents another story. I want Big Ant to keep at it, and not give up on it, because if the mechanics weren't so broken, it would be really fun to play.

 

[JR#8]

Sold my copy last night. Did not have fun with this game and it was really disappointing.

 

[BlackMamba]

The ‘Guide’ mentions a few things not yet in the game…
So clearly things that were meant to be in at launch, but are yet to be fixed up.

Things I noticed are:-

• player switching - ‘hold L1 and then use R stick’ (currently doesn’t seem to work)
• marking - ‘tapping triangle in the blue zone provides the best timing’ (currently there’s no blue zone)
• kicking set shots - ‘tap Circle when the meter is in the light blue zone for ideal timing’ (currently this doesn’t appear to matter as long as you don’t go past it)

 

[That_Guy_Odyssey]

Hey BigAntStudios JNT BA
Will Essendon and Collingwood's ANZAC day guernseys be added to the game in future patches as well as all team's indigenous guernseys once all are announced officially? Another question is: will you be adding the pre-game for ANZAC day (Australian and [maybe] New Zealand anthems, [maybe] last post]) and the Aus anthem before finals that aren't the Grand Final? One final question is: will you be adding the jostling and bumping feature into marking contests to add some actual controllability for the player so it isn't entirely based on stats and RNG but more so timing and skill of the user?
If BA or anyone who has information could answer some or all of these questions it would be greatly appreciated.
Please and thank you.

 

[Bakesy]

Before I boot it up this arvo , do management and or season mode games still crash

 

[trooroo4life]

Before I boot it up this arvo , do management and or season mode games still crash

Yes. I got the disappearing players in the first game, quit game got stuck on black screen and then after a minute just crashed…

 

[BlackMamba]

The ‘Guide’ mentions a few things not yet in the game…
So clearly things that were meant to be in at launch, but are yet to be fixed up.

Things I noticed are:-

• player switching - ‘hold L1 and then use R stick’ (currently doesn’t seem to work)
• marking - ‘tapping triangle in the blue zone provides the best timing’ (currently there’s no blue zone)
• kicking set shots - ‘tap Circle when the meter is in the light blue zone for ideal timing’ (currently this doesn’t appear to matter as long as you don’t go past it)

Thanks to JNT BA for preparing the Guide and the explanations. I’m particularly interested about the Tackle - Tap (as opposed to Hold) benefits.
Seems likes it’s more intended to ‘strip’ the ball from the player… plus get your player moving to the next contest quicker.

 

[center half_bench]

Hey BigAntStudios JNT BA any chance with future patches, along with the twitter post with the patches notes, we can get a full patch notes with everything included in the patch

 

[That_Guy_Odyssey]

Before I boot it up this arvo , do management and or season mode games still crash

Definitely not as much. You can actually complete a game just make sure you don't skip any cutscenes as it will seem to crash post-game if you do and not save the progress.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

The fact we're still getting so many crashes is really disappointing.

"It's so much better than launch blah blah blah I played three games and they all crashed"

 

[SledgeMania]

• marking - ‘tapping triangle in the blue zone provides the best timing’ (currently there’s no blue zone)

It shows up for me on steam. It's underneath the player and looks like the timing bar from the set shots. It is very small though admittedly.

I did prefer how the marking worked in the Evo games though. Made it much easier to time it

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I

It's not even close to a good standard, it's still very broken. Not sure where these observations of great gameplay are coming from. The only noticeably responsive and effective gameplay mechanic working well is the rucking, but even that is a bit broken, because the CPU don't really contest and there isn't a collision system. I also just checked into Michaels gameplay from a few hours ago, his session is even more glitchy than what I'm playing.

I think it’s just a matter of individual opinion.
Im quite enjoying it at the moment, you don’t think it’s great. We’re all allowed to have our thoughts, we don’t need to be shot down because we have differing opinions.

Don’t get me wrong I know there’s a lot of work to be done yet and that’ll only make it better.
But for where it’s at I’m having enough fun

 

[Quivorir]

• marking - ‘tapping triangle in the blue zone provides the best timing’ (currently there’s no blue zone)

Watching Michaels stream there seems to be a blue bar under the marking player similar to the goal kicking meter. Seems very hard to see and it would make more sense to just make the actual ball marker be the zone, just like in Evo 2.

 

[Tbonefreo]

Geez the video game industry is a broken mess

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I

I think it’s just a matter of individual opinion.
Im quite enjoying it at the moment, you don’t think it’s great. We’re all allowed to have our thoughts, we don’t need to be shot down because we have differing opinions.

Don’t get me wrong I know there’s a lot of work to be done yet and that’ll only make it better.
But for where it’s at I’m having enough fun

It's more the claims of the gameplay being great, when I'm showing evidence showing it's broken. Big Ant could get the wrong idea that things are going swimmingly, when I've gone into detail about it's problems, which no one has yet to counter. Enjoy any game you please, but it's bizarre people are cross I dare bring up in detail its obvious problems with video evidence and written detail.

 

[Michaels]

I saw people teleporting and glitching all over the ground in your stream. In my gameplay, the teleporting is gone, at least, but there's weird seizure movements happening, if you watch my gameplay footage, everything is very choppy, hard to move and not fluid at all. You have little control, players veer off in their own direction, and hand balling and kicking isn't in synch with the meter. I still have players running backwards, instead of instant turning, I'm constantly fighting the controls. I don't have any of these user controlled movement issues with those terrible WW footy games, which is just astounding that I am with 23.

I don't disagree with any of those glitches mentioned, but doesn't change that the gameplay has still improved and is playable is all I'm saying.

**on pc

 

[andy_c91]

I've noticed a few additional aspects that could be improved after today's patch:

Currently manually bouncing (Animation is a little off when sprinting - looks fine when not sprinting) when sprinting slows down the player a bit much, which can be quite annoying. It would be great if this aspect could be reevaluated in future updates. One possible solution could be to introduce a more seamless transition between sprinting and bouncing, allowing players to maintain their speed and momentum without unnecessary interruptions.

Improve the charging mechanic for kicks: When charging up a kick, the player's movement speed decreases a little too much, making it easier for the opposing player to anticipate and counter the move. This often results in the opposing player gaining an advantage and affecting the success of the kick. It would be ideal if the charging mechanic could be adjusted in future patches to minimize the impact on player movement.

hopefully, these suggestions can address the frustrations associated with slowed movement during crucial actions. This, in turn, would lead to a more fluid and immersive gameplay experience for all players.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I don't disagree with any of those glitches mentioned, but doesn't change that the gameplay has still improved and is playable is all I'm saying.

I had more excitement at what potentially is around the corner. I'd rather wait around for them to fix this, because it's very evident if the gameplay was properly fixed, which isn't going to be in 1 week, it would be very fun and satisfying to play.