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

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Yeah it's the dissonance within the same sentence that is hard to grasp. 'Had an awesome string of play apart from the AI standing around doing nothing'

One of my pet peeves is the player getting a hand ball receive and then just stands still or rushes into the oppositions arms. I also hope Big Ant add in some sort of momentum control or some sort of mechanic where a player right next to the boundary line holds the ball in play with one hand. Just some sort of way to keep the ball alive when you're rushing towards the boundary line or the goal lines. Like this.

 

[T2B_]

Well I must admit (latest patch, PS4) that is a huge improvement. Handballing to a free running player so they can kick a goal is at least feasible now. The goal kicking button itself seems a bit bipolar as to when it wants to respond sometimes, but when it does, things play out as expected. Maybe a bit too easy to kick goals in general though, even on the run.

I also managed to play 2 of the men's games without crashing this morning. I've no doubt there will still be some if I play long enough, but compared to yesterday, at least I could finish a match.

The ping-ponging around by the opposition still happens when it feels like it. If I don't win the tap and land it in the lap of a teammate, it feels like I lose complete control of the situation as the opposition can just ping pong it down forward quite often.

That said I do enjoy that someone like Patrick Cripps

9

Patrick Cripps

Age

29

Ht

195cm

Wt

93kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

25.9

5star

K

9.8

4star

HB

16.1

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

5.8

5star

CL

7.4

5star

D

21.0

5star

K

10.1

4star

HB

10.9

5star

M

2.5

3star

T

3.8

4star

CL

6.3

5star

D

12.6

4star

K

4.8

2star

HB

7.8

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.2

5star

CL

1.4

4star

can play as I would expect in the clinches. The ability to handball while being tackled or smash it onto the boot, especially with a big unit like him, feels very realistic. In Evo you have a 195cm midfielder in the centre and you just feel a bit disadvantaged, bit too slow off the mark to always contest properly and not enough contested functionality in that game to let a clearance beast shine consistently.

I'm definitely struggling with contested marking now the opposition can spoil etc, but that's probably more skill issue.

There's definitely a lot of potential here, just a bunch of annoying glitches and stability stuff to fix, which I'm sure BA are well aware of by now as we keep throwing it at them.

 

[Ozzie02]

Kicked this nice goal this morning. Good link up play followed by Pendles winding back the clock and kicking a snag. Loving that the player movement and handballs is so much smoother, and the manual bounce is

 

[DasItMayne]

One of my pet peeves is the player getting a hand ball receive and then just stands still or rushes into the oppositions arms. I also hope Big Ant add in some sort of momentum control or some sort of mechanic where a player right next to the boundary line holds the ball in play with one hand. Just some sort of way to keep the ball alive when you're rushing towards the boundary line or the goal lines. Like this.
View attachment 1683418

Been wanting this for years in a footy game. Seems quite difficult to implement.

 

[KingNothing]

Game has crashed to dashboard first three attempts to play a match after the latest PS5 patch.

I can't remember the last time I had a game dashboard on me. AFL 23 has dashboarded on me a minimum of 20 times in the almost week I've had it.

 

[BlackMamba]

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

I take this back... I can see it now... so THAT'S the blue zone and marking hud.... not at the contest with the shrinking circle, but instead under the player in/running to the contest.

Thanks to Quivorir and SledgeMania for pointing this out.

My thoughts on this are:-
- very tiny...and often hard to see with the circle around the selected player
- I probably missed this actually moving along, because I use Manual player switch...and maybe I switch after the line has passed the blue section anyway.
- It often stays visible...well after the contest.... even to the next centre bounce sometimes.... which made me think it was a bugged HUD (maybe also happens more because of my Manual switching).

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Kicked this nice goal this morning. Good link up play followed by Pendles winding back the clock and kicking a snag. Loving that the player movement and handballs is so much smoother, and the manual bounce is

For positives and a bright future, check out there you see a teammate running for a hand pass, that there is excellent game design, that should be the standard.

 

[BlackMamba]

I finally also saw the wind indicator when kicking for goal!
Very faint, and only obvious where the ground was darkened by stadium shadows.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I finally also saw the wind indicator when kicking for goal!
Very faint, and only obvious where the ground was darkened by stadium shadows.

It comes and goes, it's been doing that in previous versions of the game, too.

 

[KAYNE]

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

ON PS5 I can't get past round 3. Always crashes towards the end of the game, commentary stops in the 3rd quarter then it crashes. No doubt its improved but still a long way off. Players just run away from the play and opponents. Buttons still unresponsive and don't understand the goal kicking mechanic. First action works but then the second time to press O just doesn't work and most of the time you still get the goal anyway.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Big Ant should bring in a wind direction hud for the entire game just like the one in AFL Live 2004, even for coin tosses.

 

[hirdylloydy1]

Redman decided he had had enough ( Number 27 )

Does feel better with latest patch, still needs work on player control and teammate ai deciding to all leave their men in the backline.
Turning circle still way to slow, Ai seem to have superhuman speed at times.
Really wish we could have a quick kick/handball as ai still have to big a zone to tackle

 

[Bardo State]

Downloaded the PS4 patch and now the game crashes on play now whenever I try to cycle to a clash jumper. Has even crashed a couple times just going through team selection. Haven't been able to play on the new patch yet.

 

[RU_]

Haven’t had a single crash on PS5.

Thoroughly enjoying it now, only real issues I’ve got are:

• players get tackled and if I’m holding any other triggers/buttons I can’t kick/hand pass to get rid of possession.
• AI is still brutally accurate.

 

[ptrg]

Kicked this nice goal this morning. Good link up play followed by Pendles winding back the clock and kicking a snag. Loving that the player movement and handballs is so much smoother, and the manual bounce is

urrghhh, that’s probably because two Adelaide AI players started to chase you and then…. Just ran away.

 

[mickelboy182]

urrghhh, that’s probably because two Adelaide AI players started to chase you and then…. Just ran away.

Yeah literally the point we were both just making. Even the highlights are filled with lowlights.

 

[Bakesy]

Kicked this nice goal this morning. Good link up play followed by Pendles winding back the clock and kicking a snag. Loving that the player movement and handballs is so much smoother, and the manual bounce is

Quite easy to do when no one is putting any pressure on

 

[CultOfClose]

Thoughts on the new patch (v1.00007) for me on PS5

• I still can't win or get close on any difficulty
• Player movement has improved massively, but still room for more tweaks like after spoiling there is always a stumble and its annoying as hell
• Teammate AI seems to run offensively but not defensively, most of the goals kicked against me are kicked by players roving a ball spoiled by me and it could have been raffled between 2 or 3 opponent AI with none of my team mates in the vicinity. Same with my goals most have been kicked on the run with a handball out from a mark two or 3 players to choose from, or two or 3 open players in 50 to kick to for an easy mark
• Haven't seen the wind indicator since day 1, and while goal kicking is way too easy the meter seems to be broken for certain players (noticably seems to be power forwards and left footers)
• Marking meter is too small, and I rarely see the timing line move for it so marking contests are a bit of a roulette.
• Breaking tackles is too strong, happens far to often BUT it balances out a small lag to get rid of the ball after shrugging a tackle so when it is fixed or tweaked I hope both are done at the same time. You can't shrug and then queue up a kick or handball mid animation for example and there is a delay after the animation finishes before you can dispose of the ball.
• I like the balance of a bounce button, players shouldn't be able to bounce running full tilt, like in real life where the chances of it spilling loose etc if a player is going flat out. I do think it could be sped up a tiny bit however I don't want to see no change in speed for a bouce while sprinting, same for kicking.
• Ruck is harder than the last patch but I at least felt like it was contestable, but the AI seems to get close to perfect timing every contest if this fluctuated it would make it a bit more realistic and fun. I probably won about 25% of hitouts and those were the ones I knew I nailed the timing, anything slightly off was a straight lose. It should at least occasional still be a win I feel.
• Clearly the AI is able to queue up disposals which results in the pinging around of the ball, for the most part this can be realistic until the kick it 50m behind themselves, would like to see it tweaked a bit as others have said it gets to the point you feel there is nothing you can do and the game is taking over. Conversly I would like to be able to queue up disposals as the player, if I know I am getting the handball I want to be able to quickfire off a handball as soon as I get it, this would open up alot more of those running plays that do feel really rewarding in this game.

Overall I played 3 games, Play Now on PS5, 1 on Easy (Geel (me) 6.4.40 vs Rich 8.3.51), Med (Rich (me) 7.4.46 vs Geel 12.5.77) and Hard (Geel (me) 5.2.32 vs Coll 9.1.55) All 3.5 min quarters. Overall now I feel as though losing is more of a skill issue rather than bugs preventing the play I am trying to make, however there are periods where I do feel like the AI just takes over and there is nothing I can do about it.

No crashes either but it was only 3 play now games.

 

[MarcLocksCrustySock]

Can you do a quick kick at goal yet?

And more importantly, does Matt Rowell

18

Matt Rowell

Age

23

Ht

180cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.4

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

0.8

1star

T

5.2

5star

CL

3.8

5star

D

17.4

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

0.8

1star

T

5.2

5star

CL

3.8

5star

D

17.4

5star

K

7.6

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

0.8

1star

T

5.2

5star

CL

3.8

5star

still have brown hair?

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Quite easy to do when no one is putting any pressure on

Yeah, at the start the Adelaide player refused to even attempt to tackle, then later on only one Adelaide player kinda sorta half arse chases, does a bit of a jerky dance, then gives up and runs the opposite direction to nowhere for some reason.

If he was chasing hard all the way, and/or a player came off his man to run at the ball carrier (leaving it open to a chip over the top, but that happens all the ****ing time against the Eagles haha) then it would have looked much better. That kinda happened right at the end, but way too late.

AI is completely broken.

 

[ptrg]

Yeah, at the start the Adelaide player refused to even attempt to tackle, then later on only one Adelaide player kinda sorta half arse chases, does a bit of a jerky dance, then gives up and runs the opposite direction to nowhere for some reason.

If he was chasing hard all the way, and/or a player came off his man to run at the ball carrier (leaving it open to a chip over the top, but that happens all the ******* time against the Eagles haha) then it would have looked much better. That kinda happened right at the end, but way too late.

AI is completely broken.

As I said, random direction generator. Throw in a bit of man on man rubber banding and you get what we are seeing in all these streams and videos.

Just absolute crap shoot as to what each individual AI player does.

Game remains looking good, but the depth appears very shallow.

 

[RU_]

What difficulty is the above gameplay conversation referring to though? If it’s the easiest, the AI has to play stupid at times to make it easier.

 

[Epictetus]

These videos are brutal. Anyone with any sort of AFL knowledge working at whoever made the game didn't raise in a meeting - even once - that the bloke with the ball is going to get pressured from the front all game. No player runs away from the ball carrier if they're within 20 metres. Ever. At all.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

What difficulty is the above gameplay conversation referring to though? If it’s the easiest, the AI has to play stupid at times to make it easier.

From what I've seen difficulty settings are broken and make no difference.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

These videos are brutal. Anyone with any sort of AFL knowledge working at whoever made the game didn't raise in a meeting - even once - that the bloke with the ball is going to get pressured from the front all game. No player runs away from the ball carrier if they're within 20 metres. Ever. At all.

I would hope this is patched, and there's some quick select tactics implemented at some point, on top of all the very important and critical gameplay fixes.