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

 

[ItsJonesy777]

How's everyone finding online tackling? Bit of a game breaker currently for me...

An absolute spam-fest of breaking every single tackle, it’s ridiculous.

 

[Nicho50]

Misinformed about the gameplay mate. In Evo 2 could you do interchanges at Will? Could you control player movement? Could you click the tackle button and get a response every time? Could you kick the ball as soon as your player received it and not wait a one to two second delay? The answers are yes! AFL23 will be better than Evo series eventually but to say it is now is delusional

I’m talking about when it’s all patched and on track it’s still got the traits of a typical AFL game that’s a 1v1 contest fest.

 

[T2B_]

The progress with the patches is very underwhelming

Are you serious, do you remember what it was on release? It's practically a different game!

 

[palmomagpie]

A comment from big ants twitter patch notes:
“Brooh Eagerly waiting for #C#Cricket24lease Release atleast a Trailor or Net session We r sed af”

Does anyone wanna tell him??

Wonder what impact this release has on the rest of their releases this year. Would have to be some significant pushback

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Are you serious, do you remember what it was on release? It's practically a different game!

Yes I am serious. Based on the road map and time frame given, it is underwhelming as it is a long way from being finished still

 

[Bianconeri]

Legit never expected someone like Charlie to cover it. Thought it would be way too niche.

He covered BT when he disrupted those gamers

 

[skill1414]

The general flow of the game currently is win clearance > bomb forward > mark > goal > repeat.

There are 2 main issues that need to be fixed the would make the game much more enjoyable in my opinion.

1. Make spoiling easier (both players and AI). In real life it is much easier to spoil than it is to mark. If no player has an obvious positional advantage in a marking contest then 95% of the time the ball should spill from the contest. This would make players think twice about blindly bombing the ball inside 50 to get an easy mark.

2. Shot difficulty (on the run and set shots). It is still too easy. You get used to the timing of the kicking bar very quickly and can convert goals almost all the time. It’s good that the ai is now missing shots but it needs to be fixed so that players also have a similar conversion rate.

 

[stewi09]

looks like Adam Simpsons hair transplant worked well after recent patch he's no longer Bald

 

[CrowsArmy]

Gameplay is very nice now on PS4 after the new patch. Still no crowd unfortunately, really kills the vibe playing a final or grand final in front of 15k at the G.

 

[new0066]

the main thing I’m confused is how different people seem to be playing the same game but having different outcomes.

Some people are experiencing multiple crashes while some are having none, some are getting smashed by the Ai in hardest or having close games while others are smashing the Ai by 80+ in the same difficulty

How are soo many people having vastly different experiences with the same game that’s updated with the same patch?

 

[haydo]

Are you serious, do you remember what it was on release? It's practically a different game!

Wouldn't take any notice on what he's saying mate, he's practically just complaining for the sake of complaining.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

The general flow of the game currently is win clearance > bomb forward > mark > goal > repeat.

There are 2 main issues that need to be fixed the would make the game much more enjoyable in my opinion.

1. Make spoiling easier (both players and AI). In real life it is much easier to spoil than it is to mark. If no player has an obvious positional advantage in a marking contest then 95% of the time the ball should spill from the contest. This would make players think twice about blindly bombing the ball inside 50 to get an easy mark.

2. Shot difficulty (on the run and set shots). It is still too easy. You get used to the timing of the kicking bar very quickly and can convert goals almost all the time. It’s good that the ai is now missing shots but it needs to be fixed so that players also have a similar conversion rate.

And the skating, it needs weight and gravity.

 

[lmaohelp]

Misinformed about the gameplay mate. In Evo 2 could you do interchanges at Will? Could you control player movement? Could you click the tackle button and get a response every time? Could you kick the ball as soon as your player received it and not wait a one to two second delay? Would the AI apply pressure to the kicker, successful or not? The answers are yes! AFL23 will be better than Evo series eventually but to say it is now is delusional

This is such a great post. Evo2 was very good. Afl23 is about 5 steps backwards

 

[Quivorir]

What exactly does the tag line "it's time to fly mean"? Even if speckies were in the game it's still an odd tag line for an afl game.

 

[stewi09]

Just had one of the most satisfying games down by 5 goals at HT took the lead in the last and game crashed with 30 seconds left

thats enough for me for now

 

[Aflsquads]

What exactly does the tag line "it's time to fly mean"? Even if speckies were in the game it's still an odd tag line for an afl game.

It’s the AFL’s slogan for the 2023 season.

 

[T2B_]

What exactly does the tag line "it's time to fly mean"? Even if speckies were in the game it's still an odd tag line for an afl game.

Well it sounds better than "it's time to get high"

 

[Lesnish]

Had a game this morning after not playing for a couple patches.

Much improved. When plays link up it looks as good as the real thing! Good work with that big ant team!

Couple of areas for improvement:

-player movement when taking off can still be very slow. I received a kick on the wing and the nearest defender was 20m away. By the time my player slowly turns around and skates around for a bit before actually taking off I have been run down by the defender.

-changing my controlled player is quite difficult, the AI pings it around so quickly (which actually looks bloody realistic) I can't even change my player to try and tackle before the AI has already made there next possession.

-my marking meter is definitely broken. I can see a tiny meter under my player with a blue section on it. However nothing moves on it when I press y to try and mark.

-goal kicking is still way too easy. I'm not sure what has changed because I remember before the release Twistie in his gameplay footage said the goal kicking was way too hard and was going to give Ba that feedback.

-in contested plays, I find I get a lot of phantom tackles. Where I have possession and I am trying to break a tackle from a player a few meters behind me not actually touching me.


The biggest positive for me is the kicking. I always thought live 1 had great kicking and afl 23 makes that look like rubbish.
It feels so smooth and accurate and there is a sense of depth perception never experienced in an AFL game before.

Keeping tuning BA, I don't feel we are far off!



On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[FearTheBeard13]

the main thing I’m confused is how different people seem to be playing the same game but having different outcomes.

Some people are experiencing multiple crashes while some are having none, some are getting smashed by the Ai in hardest or having close games while others are smashing the Ai by 80+ in the same difficulty

How are soo many people having vastly different experiences with the same game that’s updated with the same patch?

Yeah same. I’m starting to think the difficulties are actually all just one and its a random experience every time. Also with this many patches in, some have played through it and gotten better and others are casually playing. I’m not committing to Management mode until I know all the issues are gone. I win games against hardest AI by 6 goals then lose on easy by 8 lol it just doesn’t add up to me.

 

[Slimbeanie]

The general flow of the game currently is win clearance > bomb forward > mark > goal > repeat.

There are 2 main issues that need to be fixed the would make the game much more enjoyable in my opinion.

1. Make spoiling easier (both players and AI). In real life it is much easier to spoil than it is to mark. If no player has an obvious positional advantage in a marking contest then 95% of the time the ball should spill from the contest. This would make players think twice about blindly bombing the ball inside 50 to get an easy mark.

2. Shot difficulty (on the run and set shots). It is still too easy. You get used to the timing of the kicking bar very quickly and can convert goals almost all the time. It’s good that the ai is now missing shots but it needs to be fixed so that players also have a similar conversion rate.

your tripping if you think 95% of contests go to ground.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Demonic Ascent]

An absolute spam-fest of breaking every single tackle, it’s ridiculous.

What's worse is when you actually hit a tackle, drag the player to the ground then the tackle animation finishes so your player let's go and the guy with the ball who got tackled just gets up and runs off while the AI players just stand around doing nothing.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Are you serious, do you remember what it was on release? It's practically a different game!

Yes it is but that's not saying much. You can actually play it now and have an enjoyable game if you ignore the vast amount of bugs and glitches that still exist.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

The general flow of the game currently is win clearance > bomb forward > mark > goal > repeat.

There are 2 main issues that need to be fixed the would make the game much more enjoyable in my opinion.

1. Make spoiling easier (both players and AI). In real life it is much easier to spoil than it is to mark. If no player has an obvious positional advantage in a marking contest then 95% of the time the ball should spill from the contest. This would make players think twice about blindly bombing the ball inside 50 to get an easy mark.

2. Shot difficulty (on the run and set shots). It is still too easy. You get used to the timing of the kicking bar very quickly and can convert goals almost all the time. It’s good that the ai is now missing shots but it needs to be fixed so that players also have a similar conversion rate.

Spoiling seemed a lot better today for me, try using the right analog stick to spoil if square doesn't work.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Had a game this morning after not playing for a couple patches.

Much improved. When plays link up it looks as good as the real thing! Good work with that big ant team!

Couple of areas for improvement:

-player movement when taking off can still be very slow. I received a kick on the wing and the nearest defender was 20m away. By the time my player slowly turns around and skates around for a bit before actually taking off I have been run down by the defender.

-changing my controlled player is quite difficult, the AI pings it around so quickly (which actually looks bloody realistic) I can't even change my player to try and tackle before the AI has already made there next possession.

-my marking meter is definitely broken. I can see a tiny meter under my player with a blue section on it. However nothing moves on it when I press y to try and mark.

-goal kicking is still way too easy. I'm not sure what has changed because I remember before the release Twistie in his gameplay footage said the goal kicking was way too hard and was going to give Ba that feedback.

-in contested plays, I find I get a lot of phantom tackles. Where I have possession and I am trying to break a tackle from a player a few meters behind me not actually touching me.


The biggest positive for me is the kicking. I always thought live 1 had great kicking and afl 23 makes that look like rubbish.
It feels so smooth and accurate and there is a sense of depth perception never experienced in an AFL game before.

Keeping tuning BA, I don't feel we are far off!



On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

Basically, all you have to do to succeed atm is to just have your player where the ball is going to be, where a kicked ball drops, no matter the contest, and press Y as soon as the controller vibrates, and you mark the ball 98% of the time. Basically I'm just booting the ball to every player forward of the ball I can see, and having an easy time, there's no pressure, this is on hardest difficulty. If they were to make the CPU more hard, they'd have to give the user more control to make it entertaining, tolerable and rewarding.

 

[Chuckinho]

Not a week late… everything they said still applies now. Still not at an acceptable release day level, let alone 9 days later…

Big ant don’t seem to know how to release a finished product. There will come a point in time where Big Ant game sales on release will take a plummet. Their games are not reliable to serve the purpose.

The real alternative ofcourse is that you don't get an AFL game. neither 2K or EA are going to touch it with a barge pole. But then again, I love a good Negative Nellie