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

 

[Xtreme]

My game time is now down to 3 hours a fortnight lol. Will be lower by next weekend after the previous fortnight period game time counter gets erased (thus I haven't had the game on for the same amount of time that I did for the prelim and grand final match simulations).

I "played" it for less than 10 minutes a few nights ago wanting to test a theory about the missing team flags in the crowd that was mentioned recently (and no it wasn't because I thought the crowd setting in the graphics options was turned down).

 

[Mootsy]

If i was Big-Ant i'd just focus on fine-tuning the gameplay until it feels right, surely they would be aware of the little niggles throughout just from game-testing alone. You'd be sure that most of the crew would have a copy and be playing it as well. I doubt any of the criticisms about the game would come as a big surprise.

I think they're basically caught in a bind of having multiple games being developed in the same time-frame, that they've sort of bitten off more than they can chew in this 1-2 year development cycle. Maybe they can't mention it because of licensing agreements etc, so because they aren't just focussing on one game like AFL23 in this cycle, it means you will get more silence and more waiting etc..

Had they only had one game to focus on you'd probably have had Ross in here and the team and more updates and so on, as it's more of a focussed project.

I do want them to succeed here, i hope they can catch a break at some point and get on top of all their games over time. I kind of do see AFL23 this year as more of a metaphorical beta - early release version for the fans, and think the next incarnation will be the more fleshed out release. This wasn't communicated as such though, and i think that was the issue with some buyers, that they thought it would play like a finished product, whilst i do get it from the perspective of Big Ant, that this game may have been a passion project that they invested more into to get off the ground and so "Just be patient, it wouldn't exist if we didn't fund it", not every buyer will see it like that, especially at 100 dollars price point.

So anyway, i hope they can find a better balance on the next version of the game and i wish them good luck.

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Ross advertised this game as having 5 times the budget of any Australian made sports video game in history. Looks like the money was spent on employees working over time on patches.

 

[OhDustinMartin]

The thing that makes me sad about this whole affair is the basic failures, and that these elements were in previous games.

For eg:
Marking is no fun because there isn't any jostling or bumping. AFL EVO 1 and 2 had these features.
Handballing step down from EVO.
Kicking power/directional control step down from EVO.
Basic player movement step down from EVO.
Tackling as a whole step down from EVO.
Basic interchange enormous step down from EVO.
Number changes (how they ballsed this up I have no clue) not present, where it was in EVO.
UI and search tools step down from EVO.
Menus a step down from EVO.
No three-team trades, which was present in EVO.
Any semblance of controlled management mode - which was bare bones, but present, in EVO.

Incredibly, BA got the hard stuff (player appearances, player style, venues (which look amazing), uniforms (which look AMAZING), academy, vague tactics and ground set-up, state-league players, mid-season drafting, rookie and national drafts, complex player progression/regression, set shot mini-games, contract back/front ending, presence of free agency complexity, archetypes - despite underutilization) mostly right.

There are areas to build upon from the hard stuff that they got right - for me, draft classes, making free agency actually work, making archetypes matter and more effectively displaying this stuff in menus - but this on its own, with good gameplay (or even EVO-level gameplay) is a rolled-gold AFL game.

The actual gameplay is so, so broken, and absolutely zero fun beyond initial novelty, so none of this really difficult stuff they got spot-on matters.

Makes me think there was a clear dev issue between the base-design (apathetic menus and poor UI), AFL-based design (incredible venues, uniforms, player appearances, realistic contracts, state league players and overall depth) and again to the gameplay (disjointed, glitchy, given a good core but no depth to iron out issues).

I hope they get another crack, but geez.

 

[LennyHayes77]

I reckon the player ratings/editing of players/numbers etc being gatekeeped behind Champion Data/AFLPA really made it hard for people get a personalised experience out of the game, which is massive for sports game. That and a lack of sliders and we all just had to sit there and deal with what they put out, rather than letting users improve things to their own liking.

Also an average management mode was a killer blow. We all love that shit!

 

[GoldbergsGold]

If i was Big-Ant i'd just focus on fine-tuning the gameplay until it feels right, surely they would be aware of the little niggles throughout just from game-testing alone. You'd be sure that most of the crew would have a copy and be playing it as well. I doubt any of the criticisms about the game would come as a big surprise.

But how haven't they gotten movement down properly after 5 months? Something very off with their development, I'd love to hear from their programmers someday on what went down.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Looks like the money was spent on employees working over time on patches.

Wasted on photogrammetry and trips taking photos of stadiums to make the game look like it came out in 2016. Not sure why they thought graphics should be top priority, everyone ripped on the graphics on Facebook anyway, even Sportsbet.

 

[Magpiesfooty98]

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

I reckon the player ratings/editing of players/numbers etc being gatekeeped behind Champion Data/AFLPA really made it hard for people get a personalised experience out of the game, which is massive for sports game. That and a lack of sliders and we all just had to sit there and deal with what they put out, rather than letting users improve things to their own liking.

Also an average management mode was a killer blow. We all love that s**t!

Still waiting to be able to edit player numbers!

 

[RPCB]

Trade it in at JB, it's on the list for their trade in 2 games to get new games free.

That’s actually a pretty good deal. Can get a new release game like Spider-Man 2 for free by trading in AFL 23 (which you’d think not many copies are being sold at this point) and another selected title.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

How do you kick a set shot. I think I know what I'm meant to do, but it doesn't seem right? First one is power, second is accuracy? Aim for dark blue?

 

[Treehill23]

How do you kick a set shot. I think I know what I'm meant to do, but it doesn't seem right? First one is power, second is accuracy? Aim for dark blue?

Yep, aim for dark blue and move the cursor slightly to the side of the preferred foot depending how far away you are. So from 50m for example, you’d aim closer to the shorter post to allow for swing

 

[olliestrolleyfan]

Three big things that bug me about this game is the player select, ai team mates behaviours, and human controlled players not having same capabilities as ai opposition due to the cumbersome kick and handball system. All these things can be countered, but turns it into a very boring style of bomb kick mark game.
On the first issue, when i try to switch player when defending it will often swith to a player far away from contest, even though i had one or two players right near the ball. I would have thought that if you player change with L1 it would figure you wanted to switch to the player closest to the ball, but this doesnt happen often enough.
second issue, even tho tactics are set to man up focus, my ai players run off their players toward my defence or random circles when opposition has the ball leaving unmanned players everywhere allowing computer to chip around easily. Also my defenders upfield will leave their player to attend the contest leaving the forwards un manned for easy marks.
Thirdlythe computer ai opposition can recieve the ball and do any kick or handball almost in an instant. When human gets the ball need so mich room and time to get an effective kick or handpass you want due to the meter needing to be charged or whatever unless doing a kick or hanpass quickly with very little control.. also the computer ai get a full second before being called holding the ball when tackled. They even drop the ball many times in tackles with no penalty. I have many plays where they drop it multiple times in a row, then get tackled a full second after taking poasession and just ball up. When oir human player take possession we have a millisecond to get rid of the ball or its holding the ball, or if ball dropped nearly always incorrect disposal. Also teleport tackles still are common, and stuck in the mud can still be a thing, although it has improved. So many more things but these are my 3 (or 4) most annoying at this stage. Pretty bad that these still exist by this stage of the release

 

[gunbarrelstraight91]

My game time is now down to 3 hours a fortnight lol. Will be lower by next weekend after the previous fortnight period game time counter gets erased (thus I haven't had the game on for the same amount of time that I did for the prelim and grand final match simulations).

I "played" it for less than 10 minutes a few nights ago wanting to test a theory about the missing team flags in the crowd that was mentioned recently (and no it wasn't because I thought the crowd setting in the graphics options was turned down).

I was the one that spoke about the missing flags. I think this may be a PS4 issue, happy to be corrected though. What platform are you on?

 

[Xtreme]

I was the one that spoke about the missing flags. I think this may be a PS4 issue, happy to be corrected though. What platform are you on?

PC
The flags appear for me, the only time they don't is when I disable the crowd entirely.

 

[gunbarrelstraight91]

PC
The flags appear for me, the only time they don't is when I disable the crowd entirely.

I’ve checked on the ps4 and can’t see crowd options anywhere. Only a small detail thing but would be nice

 

[melbournemartin]

I reckon the player ratings/editing of players/numbers etc being gatekeeped behind Champion Data/AFLPA really made it hard for people get a personalised experience out of the game, which is massive for sports game. That and a lack of sliders and we all just had to sit there and deal with what they put out, rather than letting users improve things to their own liking.

Also an average management mode was a killer blow. We all love that s**t!

I think the whole "we can't do this because of Champion Data" is a load of shit. Do any of the US sports games suffer from these issues?

And even if this were still an issue, that is completely independent of the fact that you can barely do basic football functions like kick, handball and mark...

 

[BlackMamba]

I’ve checked on the ps4 and can’t see crowd options anywhere. Only a small detail thing but would be nice

Sounds like it might have been done as a performance consideration. Consoles have less options for performance/graphics switches... So the PS4 (being less powered than a PS5 or high-end PC) might have crowd flags off (and possibly other performance tricks applied).

 

[BlackMamba]

On the first issue, when i try to switch player when defending it will often swith to a player far away from contest, even though i had one or two players right near the ball. I would have thought that if you player change with L1 it would figure you wanted to switch to the player closest to the ball, but this doesnt happen often enough.

This is my main frustration at the moment. Seems like it was better in an earlier patch, where the 'next player' selector icon would actually be the next player... but it doesn't seem that way at the moment.
Unfortunately it's too difficult to do the Radial Select quickly in play.... which does seem to work correctly, but I think is better suited to when there's an opposition mark or free kick.

 

[kingcobey78]

Also an average management mode was a killer blow. We all love that s**t!

I said from the get go when Rossco stated player career was no longer in the game that the game will become stale and boring if the Management Mode wasn't deep.

The bigger insult is Rossco explained that Player career was removed to allow extra work and effort to go into Proteam. How's that worked out so far?

I think the whole "we can't do this because of Champion Data" is a load of s**t

Nothing better than having your player line up for goal and the year stats that come up state Mitch Lewis has kicked 104 goals for the season and it's round 4. Good work! The realism of this game astounds me.

Any news on Hamish yet?

 

[Bianconeri]

Wait career mode was pulled? Wtf!

 

[kingcobey78]

Wait career mode was pulled? Wtf!

Yep even though Big Rossco stated at the release that single player career would be in there he later advised that it was removed to allow them to concentrate on a mode that has yet to proven ever will exist.

 

[Bianconeri]

Yep even though Big Rossco stated at the release that single player career would be in there he later advised that it was removed to allow them to concentrate on a mode that has yet to proven ever will exist.

I know their career mode has no depth and was full of bugs but why remove what was already there?

They’re removing it to essentially tell people they’re not going to work on it anymore for this release?

 

[Quivorir]

Its more likely it never existed to begin with.

 

[BlackMamba]

I know their career mode has no depth and was full of bugs but why remove what was already there?

They’re removing it to essentially tell people they’re not going to work on it anymore for this release?

Nah, he’s talking about Individual Player Career.
You’re thinking about Management Mode, which is still there.