Multiplat AFL 23 - Part 2 with added Pro 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

 

[Freo16]

Seems with each new patch people praise it, then after a while people pick up on its flaws. I'm not sure why they've gone with weightless super fast players, but then other times they have players not being able to move when they would be moving in real football. I don't think they spent much time at all on this update.

You’ve seriously gotta stop, BA have clearly put a lot of work into this and everyone who has played it has said it’s massively improved, of course there’s still work to be done and aspects to be tweaked but it’s pretty clear that those who have played the game are saying it’s fun and those who haven’t played it are the ones doing most of the complaining (and yes, there’s a difference between complaining and pointing out areas that need improvement).

 

[Treehill23]

I do get a chuckle out of the 'this patch changes everything' cycle before the inevitable realisation it's still a wonky product in most facets. The footage being shared here looks awful.

The issue is that the game as it currently stands, is what we should have had at launch. (Plus ProTeam) Which I would have been completely fine with as the game is now enjoyable imo. Granted it still has many, many flaws, but they’re much more tolerable and I no longer want to stick a fork in my eye when playing the game

Contested gameplay was clearly never a plan for this iteration which sucks but it’s now the expectation for AFL25 and beyond. Anything less and it’s a failure in my eyes. It’s quite bemusing that after all these years, we’re yet to experience an AFL game with gang tackling.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

The issue is that the game as it currently stands, is what we should have had at launch. (Plus ProTeam) Which I would have been completely fine with as the game is now enjoyable imo. Granted it still has many, many flaws, but they’re much more tolerable and I no longer want to stick a fork in my eye when playing the game

Contested gameplay was clearly never a plan for this iteration which sucks but it’s now the expectation for AFL25 and beyond. Anything less and it’s a failure in my eyes. It’s quite bemusing that after all these years, we’re yet to experience an AFL game with gang tackling.

In its current state with the limited stuff, I would have been happy if the players were much slower with weight, and marking contests were harder with no forced wrestling and more numbers around the marking contest. And would have liked the charging meter for hand passing and kicking to be quicker like Evo 2.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

You’ve seriously gotta stop, BA have clearly put a lot of work into this and everyone who has played it has said it’s massively improved, of course there’s still work to be done and aspects to be tweaked but it’s pretty clear that those who have played the game are saying it’s fun and those who haven’t played it are the ones doing most of the complaining (and yes, there’s a difference between complaining and pointing out areas that need improvement).

No need to take criticism of a video game so personally, it's just observations that I feel the game hasn't been worked on much for that 7 month break. It looks like they patched up the hand balling and turning more, like they had already been doing during their May-August patching, but it's not a significant update to where I feel the movement is as fine tuned as previous AFL games or other sport games.

 

[Freo16]

No need to take criticism of a video game so personally, it's just observations that I feel the game hasn't been worked on much for that 7 month break. It looks like they patched up the hand balling and turning more, like they had already been doing during their May-August patching, but it's not a significant update to where I feel the movement is as fine tuned as previous AFL games or other sport games.

The key words here “it looks like”, your opinion kinda loses most of its significance if you’re still just watching gameplay footage and not playing it yourself.

Others who have had the same criticisms as you over the last 12 months have talked about how much fun the game is now.

Seems like you just don’t want to give big ant any credit, just admit it, they’ve done well this time.

 

[Freo16]

Two things I’d like to see added:

- A missed tackle animation/ai players evading/fending (I don’t want to see tackling get easier for players, makes it way too easy to stop the ai from scoring)

- I feel spoiling is sometimes too easy and this also makes it easy to stop the ai from scoring, if you spoil and your timing is a little on the late side maybe there could be a free for chopping the arms, makes spoiling a bit more risk/reward with your timing.

 

[GetAroundHim99]

Another thing that does need to be kept in mind is that we are supposed to be getting another Gameplay Improvement patch on the 23rd of April according to Big Ant so things could be fine tuned even more but we will see what that patch brings then.

Hopefully some more improvements.

They legit did surprise me here even if there's still a fair bit of work to be done. Hopefully that continues but you can understand why I'm being a bit coy about things. I've been burned before by this game.

 

[Xtreme]

The teleport handballs are a thing.
Looks a bit odd, but at least the play flows

 

[CraigMc24]

The issue is that the game as it currently stands, is what we should have had at launch. (Plus ProTeam) Which I would have been completely fine with as the game is now enjoyable imo. Granted it still has many, many flaws, but they’re much more tolerable and I no longer want to stick a fork in my eye when playing the game

Contested gameplay was clearly never a plan for this iteration which sucks but it’s now the expectation for AFL25 and beyond. Anything less and it’s a failure in my eyes. It’s quite bemusing that after all these years, we’re yet to experience an AFL game with gang tackling.

I wonder if they are concerned that gang tackling may bring about too much congestion around the ball when trying to keep a reasonable flow in the game. (Let’s try & make it easier to get the ball out to keep the flow going) Also having 2-3 players all at once we focused on the gang tackle maybe harder to code in the engine they they’re using.
They managed it in Rugby League Live 4 so maybe in AFL 25

 

[palmomagpie]

They offered it to me

Oooh interesting. Where do the trade offers display? I've played a stack of seasons in management mode in the past and never had any offers come through; didn't think they could because there's no inbox. Must be a new thing?

 

[Lesnish]

I do get a chuckle out of the 'this patch changes everything' cycle before the inevitable realisation it's still a wonky product in most facets. The footage being shared here looks awful.

For the last 600+ pages since the game has been released, I have been entirely on your side with how I felt about the game.

I gave up entirely on the game October last year.
But I can honestly say it is playable and enjoyable for the first time.
Is it perfect? No, but for the first time it feels to me the fixes required are minor. I honestly didn't think the game would ever get to the point where this patch has got it.

-Was it acceptable it took almost an entire year after spending $100 for it to finally become playable.... no
-Was the level of distane towards the community of his most loyal supporters by Ross acceptable... definitely not

However, I personally can get over it for the good of a good AFL game. Hopefully Ross can get off his high horse, realise his little forum he could control was ridiculous and come back to big footy and read the positive feedback (and realise he carried on like a child) and then take away what needs improving and implement it next patch.



On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[carn tigez]

I just don't personally understand how the s**t I am seeing is a $100 product that has been out for a year and is stiĺl so wonky...

If it was a $20 indie project I might be able to overlook some of the glaring deficiencies but alas...

Pretty common in the gaming industry these days unfortunately. No man's sky, cyberpunk, cities skylines 2, TW warhammer 3, company of heroes 3, bannerlord just some examples of $100 games in recent times that have taken a year or so to become playable

 

[Mootsy]

Game is a lot better, but 2 big issues I had:

1. Out of bounds on the full directly in front multiple times, doesn’t make a lot of sense, player can be a bad kick, but at least a point would make more sense.
2. Tackling still locks on a bit too easily, in my opinion. You should be given a chance to move a bit before they lay a tackle on you.

 

[carn tigez]

Goal kicking - he's gone on record a few times saying that he always wanted goal kicking to be easy. Can't say I agree with that but for anyone seeing this it's probably by design. I think personally we need a wider spectrum - easy goals stay easy but tricky ones are super hard to pull off. Maybe something devious like faster metre speed and changing the location of the sweet spot each time. Otherwise muscle memory is going to make scoring a bit of a joke longer term. We'll see I guess.

Spuds outmarking good players - Ross has said a couple times that he doesn't want stats being the most important thing. You can definitely see it in the build and I think it's a circular discussion. You want star players to do great things but inexplicably losing a 1v1 over and over is bloody frustrating. The answer is probably the sliders, Evo 2 had this as a weighting and BA needs to do the same. Personally from the Evo days I felt weighting the stats was better in theory than in practice.

So you're saying you want goal kicking to be harder but marking easier vs better opponents? Marking easier will end up with the exact same muscle memory problem. Once you work out the timing you'll mark literally everything. Position and stats MUST be bigger factors than timing or the entire game balance becomes redundant. Pick a team of fast smalls and mark everything.

Longer term, make the marking contest more skill based and deep, but in its current form if im Samson Ryan vs May I should have to spoil unless I'm in absolute supreme position. Which currently is the case, and I rate that. Spoiling needs to be more powerful for AI though, or they need to spoil more often. Just too easy to string marks together

 

[mickelboy182]

Pretty common in the gaming industry these days unfortunately. No man's sky, cyberpunk, cities skylines 2, TW warhammer 3, company of heroes 3, bannerlord just some examples of $100 games in recent times that have taken a year or so to become playable

Basically all of those listed are not even in the same stratosphere though... they've become actually quality products, not merely 'playable'.

 

[Xtreme]

I liked the mark spilling animation, looked decent. I know from playing it constantly last year, if I didn't clunk every mark, the ball would bounce off the player (from what I experienced).

Last night a few of the mark attempts (which weren't knocked away by the opposition), my player attempted the mark - but the ball popped out of the hands, or the hands would be out stretched and failed to complete the mark.

 

[carn tigez]

Basically all of those listed are not even in the same stratosphere though... they've become actually quality products, not merely 'playable'.

No arguments here but I think if afl 23 released like this last year from a core gameplay perspective we'd be happy with it - while acknowledging areas that need improving. So my point was more around the taking 12 months to reach release state than saying the quality is equal between them.

 

[BlackMamba]

In its current state with the limited stuff, I would have been happy if the players were much slower with weight, and marking contests were harder with no forced wrestling and more numbers around the marking contest. And would have liked the charging meter for hand passing and kicking to be quicker like Evo 2.

These would be great to tune ourselves with sliders.
From memory, parts of these were configurable with the sliders in Evo 2, and would be awesome to have now with the latest AFL23 update.

 

[Macka1203]

do you guys reckon i should wait to start a management career until next month with the other patch coming out? I don’t want it to get deleted or go all buggy.

 

[palmomagpie]

do you guys reckon i should wait to start a management career until next month with the other patch coming out? I don’t want it to get deleted or go all buggy.

I'd wait until next month until the full lists are available anyway.

 

[Archer_11]

Seems with each new patch people praise it, then after a while people pick up on its flaws. I'm not sure why they've gone with weightless super fast players, but then other times they have players not being able to move when they would be moving in real football. I don't think they spent much time at all on this update.

It's good to have naysayers but you're talking about an issue no footy game has come close to capturing. Evo 2 made an effort but it would be a brave person who suggests they cracked it. Remember the mack truck turning circles and how easy it was to kick a goal if you embraced the absurdity of the player movement? How quickly we forget.

Also agree with the comment that clearly BA left collisions and inertia in the too hard basket and based on what we've seen that was a smart decision. It will be a huge disappointment if contested footy isn't a top priority in AFL ~25 no doubt, but to expect it to be rock solid now for the first time ever is high fantasy imo.

So you're saying you want goal kicking to be harder but marking easier vs better opponents? Marking easier will end up with the exact same muscle memory problem. Once you work out the timing you'll mark literally everything. Position and stats MUST be bigger factors than timing or the entire game balance becomes redundant. Pick a team of fast smalls and mark everything.

Goal kicking harder for difficult shots - yes. Marking easier - perhaps I wasn't clear. I think it is the right decision that a bad player can mark against a good one, and BA need to include weighting in the sliders so players can see that for themselves. I did not say that marking should be easy, separate discussion. I think to an extent BA have already made gains on the 'killer strat' that is stacking your fwd line with speedsters but it will be an ongoing challenge. Generally a team that can clunk a long bomb will come out on top, it just needs to stay that way.

Longer term, make the marking contest more skill based and deep, but in its current form if im Samson Ryan vs May I should have to spoil unless I'm in absolute supreme position. Which currently is the case, and I rate that. Spoiling needs to be more powerful for AI though, or they need to spoil more often. Just too easy to string marks together

Agree. The game needs packs and crumbers but it will be something for the next one I guess. I think it ties into the challenge of needing a wide view for general play and close up for contested footy to be engaging, as Ron Swanson would say a tricky rind to chamfer.

 

[CraigMc24]

A question on tackling and gang tackling. The more tackles and gang tackling they introduce, how many stoppages do we think that will add to the game? Wouldn’t it just inevitably slow the game down too much and destroy the flow?
The one think disliked about the game pre patch was the quickness you could get tackled, then ball up or holding the ball. Do we really want to make it harder to release the ball or have more tackles occur which will probs create more stoppages & make the flow of the game much slower? Or is slower better/needed?

 

[Treehill23]

I wonder if they are concerned that gang tackling may bring about too much congestion around the ball when trying to keep a reasonable flow in the game. (Let’s try & make it easier to get the ball out to keep the flow going) Also having 2-3 players all at once we focused on the gang tackle maybe harder to code in the engine they they’re using.
They managed it in Rugby League Live 4 so maybe in AFL 25

Potentially. I’d imagine there being a lot of trial and error involved.
The way I imagine it working is with semi assisted handballing. Being able to get the quick 1-2 handballs off and even the clearance quick being able to open up the game a bit with the risk of kicking it straight down a defenders throat which can be costly on the turnover.
May be difficult but I think we’re now at the point where AFL games need to start evolving and replicating the real sport. Otherwise it’s gonna be the same constant shit show it has been for the last 20 years

 

[CraigMc24]

Potentially. I’d imagine there being a lot of trial and error involved.
The way I imagine it working is with semi assisted handballing. Being able to get the quick 1-2 handballs off and even the clearance quick being able to open up the game a bit with the risk of kicking it straight down a defenders throat which can be costly on the turnover.
May be difficult but I think we’re now at the point where AFL games need to start evolving and replicating the real sport. Otherwise it’s gonna be the same constant s**t show it has been for the last 20 years

Yeah I agree with that. How easy that will be todo in the short term will be interesting. Probably end up being something that won’t get done in the short term unfortunately.

 

[Treehill23]

A question on tackling and gang tackling. The more tackles and gang tackling they introduce, how many stoppages do we think that will add to the game? Wouldn’t it just inevitably slow the game down too much and destroy the flow?
The one think disliked about the game pre patch was the quickness you could get tackled, then ball up or holding the ball. Do we really want to make it harder to release the ball or have more tackles occur which will probs create more stoppages & make the flow of the game much slower? Or is slower better/needed?

Combination of slowing the game down slightly and allowing for semi assisted handballing when in congestion. I also think it should be easier to get a handball off as you’re getting tackled as players do quite often. Unless it’s a genuine run down tackle, or hospital handball etc
But they also need to perfect tackling. No teleporting like it currently does and the meters for kicking and handballing needs to be quicker