Multiplat AFL 23 - Part 2: Pro Team, more like No Team

[Kidneykid95]

Seems like patch notes are out already .. not sure how to feel about it.. thoughts??

ITS GONE LIVE ALSO! Just got it on PS5 = 1.7GB

 

[Nicho50]

Depending on the nation, the more affluent, the more Console is the gaming platform of choice, Sports games are skewed even further to Console.

The market for Sports games on Steam in Australia is insignificant, to the point of not really being commercial, if it were not for the Academy, we would not make a Steam version of AFL.

India on the other hand has a massive PC and only a few hundred thousand PS5's for example.

Publicly available Steam stats are always to be taken with a grain, perhaps bag, of salt as they only work for those applications that use the Steam API's, we use PlayFab for our online, not Steam.

Yeah I would have thought in Aus most that would play AFL would be in the console market.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Awesome!

2 quarters further in and the main issues/bugs I've come across are;

• Hitouts as touched on, impossible to win as inferior ruckman and nearly always go to advantage
• Change player - I'm not sure what exactly I want here, but something about the behaviour needs to change. I'm often holding sprint in one direction assuming I will change to X player, but then it takes me to Y player and I sprint nowhere and the player takes sooo long to recover even after I change player again
• Ground balls. As others have said, these feel so scripted at times. I'll run straight over the ball for no reason and then a player behind me will pick it up.
• Still getting the handball direction/power glitch. And player stuck in mud when receiving handball for no apparent reason.
• Lastly, tackling. Easy enough to lay tackles but the AI gets such clean kicks and handballs out of tackles. Kick it 45m to a pinpoint target or nail a handball backwards to a teammate every time.
• Kind of related to above point, I think the logical best way to defend in contest in this game would be to use the FIFA style "call defender button". It's way too chaotic and unpredictable with change player to be able to steer your players in the contest to tackle efficiently. I would much rather control a player slightly off the ball to either guard space, OR create an option when it looks like I'll win the clearance. This is how I play Fifa and I assume many others do, as a lot of the art of defending is positioning rather than the coralling/tackling. Also given there really is no 'on-the-ball pressure' in this game there is little to gain by trying to defend the ball carrier, I'd still love to see a coralling option where a player being effectively corraled has hugely reduced kick accuracy, and is forced to kick high over the corral. But obviously not expecting this in AFL 23. Would love to see the 'Call Defender' type button though, it kind of exists anyway if you just change player away from the contest but sometimes would be nice to be able to call the closest player in toward the ball carrier.

Great idea, will workshop it with the team on Tuesday to see if we can implement something. There is AI to leave a man but this would make it absolute.

More people are adopting PC gaming due to cost of consoles continually to rise that you might as well build a PC. Steam sales are amazingly cheap.

If the stats are to be believed Steam has more monthly active than both consoles.

The problem with sport games is games like PC version of NBA2K are still “last gen” versions that are largely roster updates and put no anti cheat online. Of course the playerbase will never be serious there.

It annoys me.

As in my previous post, publicly available Steam stats are not at all reliable as there are so many third party servers and API's in use that circumvent the analytics collection.

Steam/PC is pretty hard to support because of the many combinations of hardware at play, the OS/GPU is also software based and has it's own issues, let alone the networking code. Consoles have at a standard, known, set of hardware/OS combination and so is easier to support.

 

[Nicho50]

Haven’t seen many bugs this morning and we’ve had some awesome games on multiplayer.

Granted haven’t been able to play against AI with latest patches but playing against a real person offline is a heap of fun.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Haven’t seen many bugs this morning and we’ve had some awesome games on multiplayer.

Granted haven’t been able to play against AI with latest patches but playing against a real person offline is a heap of fun.

The most fun the team have in the office is 2 v 2.

 

[richmond_88]

So when do we think next ps4 patch will be ?

 

[andy_c91]

Change player - I'm not sure what exactly I want here, but something about the behaviour needs to change. I'm often holding sprint in one direction assuming I will change to X player, but then it takes me to Y player and I sprint nowhere and the player takes sooo long to recover even after I change player again

With the changing of the players, I submitted a feature request to support with the following idea, hopefully which in some ways gets added:

Right now l1 (press) switches to closes player and L1 (hold) + right joystick does a manual selected change of player. So my suggestion to big ant was for l1(hold)+ joystick to be Instead of selecting a individual player it sets the direction or area of the ground you want to change player to. instead of one player you have the option to pick from a group of players whom has a button assigned to them, think of how offensive is played in nfl games.

I think that would reduce changing to a unintended player and give more precision to player changing avoiding frustration. Furthermore holding down l1 without using the joystick should just give multiple player change options too, could work in a way that it generates a invisible circle around whomever is the ball carrier and assigns a button to each player if they are within that invisible circle.

 

[Archer_11]

Just thought I would muddy the waters a little.

Had a couple of games on Steam last night, same game, same patch as Friday, no sprint bug and few if any frozen players.

Obviously the issue is still there so this makes no sense whatsoever. Perhaps the issue is connected to something not readily evident like stadium, 'momentum state' or team played - just something completely nuts like that. Hand on heart, I've had the laggy player problem transition into a game after half time, had the behaviour from the start, and now last night apparently, hardly had it at all.

Using a high end PC (32gb ram, RTX 3090) operating from a clean boot 99% of the time.

 

[illnino]

The most fun the team have in the office is 2 v 2.

How much to see some captured footage and commentary to go with it? Jokes aside, I'm looking forward to tutorials... I sense there's certain mechanics many people here including myself don't fully understand yet.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

How much to see some captured footage and commentary to go with it? Jokes aside, I'm looking forward to tutorials... I sense there's certain mechanics many people here including myself don't fully understand yet.

This x 100. I’d be keen to see how different the game plays with the Devs behind the controls and perhaps showcasing things we havent discovered on our end yet. BigAntStudios JNT BA any chance please?

 

[Xtreme]

Aside from getting stuck in the mud and some players stutter running. I've only seen a few other new quirks in the last 48 hours.

Some players spasm on the spot instead of taking their position on the mark.

There's a lot more stationary ice skating movement instead of seeing the legs of players "animate" and run.

The player radar still doesn't disappear 100% of the time when selected to do so in the game options menu.

The set shot meter still stays on the screen a lot of the time after a set shot has taken place. And it will flicker occasionally as well.

How much to see some captured footage and commentary to go with it? Jokes aside, I'm looking forward to tutorials... I sense there's certain mechanics many people here including myself don't fully understand yet.

I rarely use more than the basics
Last night I started messing with the chip/stab passes to cut through the opposition. Had barely touched that feature since release.

I haven't done the dribble kick or the on the run variant of the snap shot in ages as they don't suit my method of play. The closest I've come to doing so is (for example) just pressing the kick button after marking in the goal square - saves time watching the setting up of the set shot animations.

This x 100. I’d be keen to see how different the game plays with the Devs behind the controls and perhaps showcasing things we havent discovered on our end yet. BigAntStudios JNT BA any chance please?

Even watching AI vs AI games you can see patterns of play that look awesome (yet almost impossible to pull off as a user). Been watching a few matches while tinkering with the camera settings trying to find a better view that suits my game style.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

I rarely use more than the basics
Last night I started messing with the chip/stab passes to cut through the opposition. Had barely touched that feature since release.

Same, well from the last few times I played it that is. I’d especially like to see the Devs use the modifiers like precision or bouncing handballs. Never once seen this used effectively from any game footage and would be good to be shown how its meant to be implemented.

 

[UAWM]

Has anyone here mastered goal kicking? I am seriously struggling, from far out, close, angles etc. It feels like a fluke when I kick a goal. Anyone have any tips or tricks towards this?

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Has anyone here mastered goal kicking? I am seriously struggling, from far out, close, angles etc. It feels like a fluke when I kick a goal. Anyone have any tips or tricks towards this?

On the run I’m pretty good probably about 70%.
Set shots though are probably around 50%.

 

[MarcLocksCrustySock]

You don't see it in Evolution 1 o 2 arguably "worse" games than AFL '23. As things stand right now '23 has a long way to to be better than those games, let alone Aussie Rules Footy on the NES.

Are you on crack? AFL Evo 1 was an abomination. I am a complete tragic for AFL games and I couldn't even go past 2h of gameplay it was so awful. You are talking rubbish.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Are you on crack? AFL Evo 1 was an abomination. I am a complete tragic for AFL games and I couldn't even go past 2h of gameplay it was so awful. You are talking rubbish.

Wholeheartedly agree with this.

 

[MarcLocksCrustySock]

Wholeheartedly agree with this.

This has the best game mechanics I have seen in an AFL game and people are ignoring that because of the bugs/issues. It is 100% the funnest and most realistic gameplay experience I have had in an AFL game. It feels like it was built with an understanding of footy. WW never achieved that.

That being said there are tonnes of bugs/issues/fixes needed but on PS5 it is in a state where I am enjoying it a lot so I will wait for all that to come.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

This has the best game mechanics I have seen in an AFL game and people are ignoring that because of the bugs/issues. It is 100% the funnest and most realistic gameplay experience I have had in an AFL game. It feels like it was built with an understanding of footy. WW never achieved that.

That being said there are tonnes of bugs/issues/fixes needed but on PS5 it is in a state where I am enjoying it a lot so I will wait for all that to come.

Absolutely there’s still a lot required for this game to hit the level it’s meant to.
But I’ve had way more fun on this than any other title, by a long way.

 

[richmond_88]

Dose anyone know how get rid of shadows on ground

 

[hawk699]

Different definitions obviously.
Don’t get me wrong it’s far from perfect.
Just shows how bad Evo was.

Evo one was bad 100% but evo 2 is still more fun as it has more details I still think this will be the best footy game in a few months but to say it’s good now I don’t think so

 

[Nicho50]

Just had an epic game cousin was the pies and I was tigers.

Checkers was on fire couldn’t stop him he slotted 5. Some good animations with goal kicking. I missed a lot kicked 9 behinds. Wind played a big part.

With 9 seconds left I was down by 3, took an intercept with Rioli at half back straight into the centre Lynch mark quick hands to Bolton kicked to Dusty who was at the top the square on his own, siren just went before the mark! Spewing.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Evo one was bad 100% but evo 2 is still more fun as it has more details I still think this will be the best footy game in a few months but to say it’s good now I don’t think so

I’m loving the aesthetics and game play in AFL 23. Hopefully the features coming will take this past what Evo 2 had. I’ll give you that at this stage it’s more bare.

 

[Nickers]

BigAntStudios when can consumers expect basic match statistics to be accurately recorded & presented in the game? It’s so disheartening that something as bare bones as this is still an issue, more than a month since being released.

I just started a new career in Management mode as Essendon (PS5, 5 min quarters on Medium difficulty). I simmed all the other round one games before ours, then had a look at the overall stat leaders before playing my first game.

As you can see, Gaff apparently had 40 disposals in one game, which is not what the individual match stats show - it’s the same issue for every other player in the comp.

Also what the heck is with the stats layout you see in ‘Match Stats’? Was this designed by someone who’s actually watched a game before? Or even just bothered to open the official AFL app and take note of how match stats are usually presented & viewed by the average fan?

Seeing ‘Fifty Metre Penalties’ (and why not write it as ‘50’ like fans are used to seeing?) as the 4th listed stat is bizarre.

How many team disposals? Not telling. We’ll give you Contested Possessions but not Uncontested Possessions. Kicks & handballs are down the bottom of the list somewhere, go figure it out yourselves.

How many team marks? It’s a mystery. Add up contested marks (8th in the order) with uncontested marks (2nd last). Frees For aren’t listed alongside Frees Against, etc etc etc.

For some bizarre reason, ‘Goals scored’ & ‘Behinds scored’ are unnecessarily listed in the same table (and why write it that way anyway?). It’s a mess.

To have such poorly presented & recorded stats - in a modern sports game of all things - is ridiculous, tbh.

It also makes Management mode unplayable, which is a huge disappointment given I purchased the game on day one of release and have been bloody patient with all these patches.

Is this something that will be fixed in the upcoming patch, or is this likely another month or so away? Thank you.

 

[Saintsation]

Anyone else finding the game really stoppage tap out get tackled straight away over and over. Hard to score or just me


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Anyone else finding the game really stoppage tap out get tackled straight away over and over. Hard to score or just me


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

At times I’ve found this but other times I clear it quite well.

 

[Nicho50]

Interchange and sub is completely messed up on the ps5 version

We’ve had games where Pendlebury and Prestia were both subbed out in first quarter but in the 3rd they were back on the field and Bobby Hill and Ryan Mansell were subbed out.

Graphically the stadiums , kits and all the little things like the Gold Coast sound after a goal , didgeridoo after a goal when using the indigenous kits etc is really good and on point detail wise.