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

 

[palmomagpie]

A big complaint from a few streamers is player switching. I reckon polishing that up will make a hell of a difference.

The other I’ve banged on about is goalkicking. Set shots are too easy, goal kicking on the run also. Needs adjustment. In the video above Twistie was having trouble with goal kicking.

Tactics is another big one.

I switched on manual switching and it's made it much better for me. Takes a bit to get used to but makes it a lot easier to pick a player and go for the ball

 

[Gibbsy]

I always figured that the small difference in overall ratings between senior AFL teams will be to create a reasonable difference between them and the reserves teams, state league teams, under 18 teams etc. when they are eventually included in the game.

 

[palmomagpie]

Up to date with patches on PS5, just played management mode. Played GWS for Gather Round, won it 9.6.60 to 9.4.58. I know there's a lot knocking the game out there, but this was truly the best experience I've had in an AFL game of 5 minute quarters ever . Was a full see-saw where the highest margin all day was 7 points and the glitches/annoying bugs were at a minimum.

• Have finally got the hang of defensive spoiling and marking. Had James Blanck at CHB, just as the vibration kicks in, spoil or press mark and it works most of the time. Ended up having him take about 15 defensive marks on Jesse Hogan
  23

  Jesse Hogan

  Age

  29

  Ht

  196cm

  Wt

  100kg

  Pos.

  Fwd

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  15.0

  4star

  K

  9.3

  4star

  HB

  5.7

  4star

  M

  6.4

  5star

  T

  1.4

  3star

  G

  1.9

  5star

  D

  10.3

  3star

  K

  6.0

  2star

  HB

  4.3

  3star

  M

  5.3

  5star

  T

  0.0

  1star

  G

  0.0

  1star

  D

  13.0

  4star

  K

  9.0

  4star

  HB

  4.0

  3star

  M

  6.4

  5star

  T

  1.4

  4star

  G

  1.8

  5star

  , and CJ had about 14 roaming spoils, including a last gasp one 10 metres out from the Giants goal with 4 seconds left (revenge for Himmelberg in real life)
• Still a bit gammy when receiving a handball - players just stop sometimes and it's easier to just whack a handball to nowhere than wait for them to move
• Sub still only works if it's made on the first time time you open team management screen
• Actually took me two goes to finish the match - had the "fade away to pocket and stop responding" glitch after quarter time of match 1 - have reported this and received a response from BA already (they've been able to replicate it and it's being investigated)
• Outside of the match in management mode, it was great going through the "scouting" menu and seeing all the state league players and Under 18's with faces / models, finally adds a bit more depth. Hopefully the option to edit kit numbers is brought in for when we draft them ( I haven't made it that far yet). BigAntStudios when state leagues are properly introduced with player names etc. will that override the models I currently have in my management mode? Or will I need to start a new one to pick up the up to date names?

 

[palmomagpie]

I always figured that the small difference in overall ratings between senior AFL teams will be to create a reasonable difference between them and the reserves teams, state league teams, under 18 teams etc. when they are eventually included in the game.

Noticed in the scouting menu a lot of the under 18s are rated in the 20's/30's. Haven't got far enough into management mode to know if they progress or not though

 

[Aus12]

I'm gonna ask support if it's possible to add this in from their League Live 4 game, this would make things so much more better for precision kicks.

Point them in the direction of RLL3 kicking, far more user friendly in my opinion.

 

[JoeDanihersMoustache]

Does anyone know if they’ll be removing the soccer mini game from online at any point?

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

this was truly the best experience I've had in an AFL game of 5 minute quarters ever

• Actually took me two goes to finish the match - had the "fade away to pocket and stop responding" glitch after quarter time of match 1

Every time someone posts a positive experience there is always a rather large condition attached

4-6 weeks (minimum) to go until the Xbox launch and the game leaves Early Access

 

[FearTheBeard13]

I always figured that the small difference in overall ratings between senior AFL teams will be to create a reasonable difference between them and the reserves teams, state league teams, under 18 teams etc. when they are eventually included in the game.

Thats fair but I think there still needs to be way more discrepancy between top and bottom teams. Bottom 4 teams shouldnt be higher than 82-83 OVR & Top 4 teams should really be the only ones around 88-90. VFL/State teams I’d have high 70’s and again the top teams around 78-80. Just me though.

 

[Lazza2023]

The lack of user and CPU teammate total control puts the game down. I wish players could make leads and I can precision kick to a specific spot for them to run into, similar to their Rugby League Live games they have that. On the flip side, I wish the opposition CPU could counteract with trying to block space, but it'd only be fun if I had total control over my players and can precision dispose and move.

I have found that player movement and control has improved with the weekend patches (I am on PS4), and I'm sure will continue to get better. In terms of the kicking, I believe this is one aspect which has been implemented very well, I have had no trouble accurately kicking where I want to.

 

[Lazza2023]

The teleporting of the ball.
The teleporting of the players.
The speed of the players when they game decides the outcome.
The player switching
Handballs are all janky still


This is just obvious s**t I can see whilst watching streams but all are pretty important to having a fun game.

If I may ask, have you actually played the game as of yet/waiting on X-Box release, or are you judging it just based on the streams you have watched?
I believe once you play it, you can get a better feel and judge for yourself. If you have played it then fair enough, but just based on your comment, it seems like you have just watched the streams. The game is definitely getting better and I believe the recent patches have seen the biggest improvement yet with general gameplay. Still has some way to go, but it is definitely on the right track in my opinion.

I have been playing regularly with each new patch, and my experience below:
-Teleporting issues have improved, still some improvement needed but it's getting better
-The speed of the players when they game decides the outcome. What do you mean by this?
-Player switching has improved but it still has some way to go, I am confident it will get there
-Handballs have definitely improved, there has been less instances of players just standing there after a handball. Sometimes the direction I am pointing doesnt seem to be where the handball goes, but overall handballs have improved a lot over the last week.

 

[mickelboy182]

I always figured that the small difference in overall ratings between senior AFL teams will be to create a reasonable difference between them and the reserves teams, state league teams, under 18 teams etc. when they are eventually included in the game.

Even still, surely you can have SOME greater level of variance for the AFL clubs. Range 70-90? Lower leagues 50-70?

Having a wooden spooner 2 points below a premier is ridiculous.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Up to date with patches on PS5, just played management mode. Played GWS for Gather Round, won it 9.6.60 to 9.4.58. I know there's a lot knocking the game out there, but this was truly the best experience I've had in an AFL game of 5 minute quarters ever . Was a full see-saw where the highest margin all day was 7 points and the glitches/annoying bugs were at a minimum.

• Have finally got the hang of defensive spoiling and marking. Had James Blanck at CHB, just as the vibration kicks in, spoil or press mark and it works most of the time. Ended up having him take about 15 defensive marks on Jesse Hogan, and CJ had about 14 roaming spoils, including a last gasp one 10 metres out from the Giants goal with 4 seconds left (revenge for Himmelberg in real life)
• Still a bit gammy when receiving a handball - players just stop sometimes and it's easier to just whack a handball to nowhere than wait for them to move
• Sub still only works if it's made on the first time time you open team management screen
• Actually took me two goes to finish the match - had the "fade away to pocket and stop responding" glitch after quarter time of match 1 - have reported this and received a response from BA already (they've been able to replicate it and it's being investigated)
• Outside of the match in management mode, it was great going through the "scouting" menu and seeing all the state league players and Under 18's with faces / models, finally adds a bit more depth. Hopefully the option to edit kit numbers is brought in for when we draft them ( I haven't made it that far yet). BigAntStudios when state leagues are properly introduced with player names etc. will that override the models I currently have in my management mode? Or will I need to start a new one to pick up the up to date names?

I will get info asap and edit this reply.

Edit: up to date names/likeness/etc. will automatically come across after the update.

 

[hooked on fishing]

I don’t understand the leap from difficulty to difficulty. Doing a management season on medium, little bit of a challenge/not really. Got the timing of hit outs, marks etc. was winning every game and started to get bored so I went up to hard. Now I can’t mark, can’t win tap outs can’t score and now I can’t win. Like how is the difference between medium and hard such a massive jump. It’s doing my head in

 

[crazyeight]

Hey BigAntStudios Will the game clock be changed in future patches? eg count up or count down. Sorry if it's been mentioned previously

 

[Demonic Ascent]

I think a big part of the problem is that no one actually knows how the game is meant to be played.

I'd love to see a video of the best two Big Ant players breaking down a match they've had. Going through things like Hands Up and specific timings etc.

It's the blind leading the blind in here.

Something a training environment in the game would help fix

 

[BigAntStudios]

Hey BigAntStudios Will the game clock be changed in future patches? eg count up or count down. Sorry if it's been mentioned previously

It is on our list of feature requests.

 

[BigAntStudios]

I don’t understand the leap from difficulty to difficulty. Doing a management season on medium, little bit of a challenge/not really. Got the timing of hit outs, marks etc. was winning every game and started to get bored so I went up to hard. Now I can’t mark, can’t win tap outs can’t score and now I can’t win. Like how is the difference between medium and hard such a massive jump. It’s doing my head in

In simple terms, the difficulty goes up linerally over the dificulty levels. Easiest is 20% as hard as Hardest, the next level is 40% of the hardest, and so on.

We will tune the difficulty to not be as linear as analytics come in about win/loss ratios from public games played.

 

[cottoneyeYeo]

for some reason most of the draftees on management mode have tats not sure how many 17-18 year olds have tats, better than all being bald i guess

 

[Fizzler]

for some reason most of the draftees on management mode have tats not sure how many 17-18 year olds have tats, better than all being bald i guess

Yeah tats should definitely be toned down in terms of the random generations. Haven’t had a chance to play the new patch but how are other aspects of the draft pool looking?

 

[illnino]

Other than a brief period of soccer (couldn't pick the ball up bug which fixed itself at half time), I just had the best online match against a mate. Ended in a draw. Credit where credit is due, that's the closest thing to AFL in a video game that I've experienced. Kudos.

 

[cottoneyeYeo]

Yeah tats should definitely be toned down in terms of the random generations. Haven’t had a chance to play the new patch but how are other aspects of the draft pool looking?

i do like it a lot, the fact the names are somewhat realistic and you feel like ur drafting an actual player, just wish you could filter players from your watchlist when ur selecting your players on draft night

 

[stkilda7894]

State leagues when? An ETA would be nice. The one week "roadmap" is now approaching the end of week 2 and still many features aren't included. An ETA at minimum would be nice, that way we'd have an actual roadmap for features and not simply a list

 

[Quivorir]

If I may ask, have you actually played the game as of yet/waiting on X-Box release, or are you judging it just based on the streams you have watched?
I believe once you play it, you can get a better feel and judge for yourself. If you have played it then fair enough, but just based on your comment, it seems like you have just watched the streams. The game is definitely getting better and I believe the recent patches have seen the biggest improvement yet with general gameplay. Still has some way to go, but it is definitely on the right track in my opinion.

I have been playing regularly with each new patch, and my experience below:
-Teleporting issues have improved, still some improvement needed but it's getting better
-The speed of the players when they game decides the outcome. What do you mean by this?
-Player switching has improved but it still has some way to go, I am confident it will get there
-Handballs have definitely improved, there has been less instances of players just standing there after a handball. Sometimes the direction I am pointing doesnt seem to be where the handball goes, but overall handballs have improved a lot over the last week.

I haven't played it yet, no. But as mentioned they are just the obvious issues from watching. I imagine they feel even worse playing and there is probably more i'd notice too.

For the teleporting/speed up thing maybe they could be classed as the same problem. By speeding up I mean when we see players magically run from 10m behind the opponent to be first to the ball. As in the game has seemed to decide that player is winning the contest so they quickly rush through the animations to get him there. That v players/the ball literally leaving one spot and appearing in another.

I'm not saying that they're not heading in the right direction (though Ross comment last week that they're on the home stretch is laughable) but they seem to be taking the scenic route to get there.

 

[AnAussieWancker]

does anyone else have problems with player movement like at points in the game you don't feel in control to an extent

 

[Quivorir]

State leagues when? An ETA would be nice. The one week "roadmap" is now approaching the end of week 2 and still many features aren't included. An ETA at minimum would be nice, that way we'd have an actual roadmap for features and not simply a list

On Sunday Ross said at least one would be in the game "in the next few days".

As we didn't have data that was meant to be provided from the States, originally we decided it would have been implemented in a pretty random way until they did.

Given the delayed launch, we later decided to wait until the States supplied official data before adding them in. They've only just got that to us over the last week or so (as of today, not all have actually supplied). We have now decided to implement the States as they provide the data, one by one, there will be at least one in the next few days.

States are to supply us real names, positions, etc. likeness will be very general, they did not get photogrammetry.