Multiplat AFL 26 - Releasing May 8th

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

A reminder before this game's alleged release.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING
​

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In the wise, wise words of Jasper Beardsley:

 

[FearTheBeard13]

Would be curious to know what 1 improvement would prioritise?
Personally for me it would have to be fatigue, honestly makes management mode unplayable.

Mine would be get the licence off Big Ant ASAP!

 

[BlackMamba]

I get some of the user errors but the teleporting as a bug? He’s even had the players dissapear into the crowd?

Each to their own but I would find that game play mind numbing boring and so bland. Saw zero pack marks and contests it’s just the same one on one style again.

He streamed it live today so not on day 1 or anything.

His gameplay is definitely mind numbing in this video. He came up against a good opponent, and wasn’t creative, mainly bombing it to contests.
He maybe hasn’t figured out pack marks, and out-numbering around and outside the contest… and doesn’t kick to space a lot, and doesn’t pick and choose when to hold it in versus dispose of it.

And yeah, he found a few bugs… like I said, the game isn’t without its faults…
But he also screamed at things because he was being out-played at times.

I’m not at all the best player of this game… but I can see lots of things I would’ve done differently in the scenarios he was in.

 

[Archer_11]

His gameplay is definitely mind numbing in this video. He came up against a good opponent, and wasn’t creative, mainly bombing it to contests.
He maybe hasn’t figured out pack marks, and out-numbering around and outside the contest… and doesn’t kick to space a lot, and doesn’t pick and choose when to hold it in versus dispose of it.

And yeah, he found a few bugs… like I said, the game isn’t without its faults…
But he also screamed at things because he was being out-played at times.

I’m not at all the best player of this game… but I can see lots of things I would’ve done differently in the scenarios he was in.

Do you know what I think a big problem is for any AFL game that gets made?

No matter how effective tactics are and how incredible the gameplay is, as long as you can take a successful contested mark by pressing a button at the right split second, the best player - the 7337est of them all - will be near undefeatable by knowing when to tap a single button repeatedly. No joystick control required, no tactics or strategy, it's all irrelevant. Flick, handball, kick, mark. Rinse and repeat. It's the only game I can think of where you don't have to move the player around.

There is a fix but it feels like it's years away - an addictive mini game every time there's a pack where you have to outsmart your opponent with a sequence of jostling and maneuvers with maybe the initial position controlling the difficulty. But how you make it enjoyable, addictive and grounded in footy plus zoom in and zoom out without disrupting the flow of play is going to be really tough.

Happy to hear other ideas but I feel like that's the only direction it can head to get away from simple QTEs.

 

[BlackMamba]

Do you know what I think a big problem is for any AFL game that gets made?

No matter how effective tactics are and how incredible the gameplay is, as long as you can take a successful contested mark by pressing a button at the right split second, the best player - the 7337est of them all - will be near undefeatable by knowing when to tap a single button repeatedly. No joystick control required, no tactics or strategy, it's all irrelevant. Flick, handball, kick, mark. Rinse and repeat. It's the only game I can think of where you don't have to move the player around.

There is a fix but it feels like it's years away - an addictive mini game every time there's a pack where you have to outsmart your opponent with a sequence of jostling and maneuvers with maybe the initial position controlling the difficulty. But how you make it enjoyable, addictive and grounded in footy plus zoom in and zoom out without disrupting the flow of play is going to be really tough.

Happy to hear other ideas but I feel like that's the only direction it can head to get away from simple QTEs.

So, while there is room for more… this game actually has a lot of that ‘out-think’ your opponent in the marking contests.
Part of it is where the ball is kicked to… but then there’s skill attributes, jostle timing, mark timing, mark vs spoil decision, if spoil - in which direction for roving players (hot tip - hit the boundary!), speccy / no speccy, front position / coming over the top, etc

And when most of those factors weigh up to about the same for those in the contest, there is no winner and we see fumbles/spills… I remember GoldbergsGold mentioning he missed that from AFL 23….
But now we have it, and we get people that don’t understand it just cracking it that they can’t win every single time.
Imagine how easy the game would be if you could!

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Mine would be get the licence off Big Ant ASAP!

As long as WW don’t get it

 

[Xtreme]

I know different games / different markets and all but..... according to Steamdb:
AAFL26

• 16 players right now
• 149 24-hour peak
• 250 all-time peak 5 days ago

Meanwhile the latest DooM release

28,061
players right now
29,046
24-hour peak
30,812
all-time peak yesterday


Meanwhile their sports game competition..

FC 25

• 77,577 players right now
• 87,236 24-hour peak
• 110,026 all-time peak 8 months ago

NBA 2K25

• 20,492 players right now
• 52,627 24-hour peak
• 52,868 all-time peak 6 days ago

Haven't played current 2K in ages, I do revisit 2K12 once a year or so!!

Madden 25

• 1,995 players right now
• 2,672 24-hour peak
• 5,917 all-time peak 4 months ago

I guess Madden is the only fair comparison (local sport with a global release). But AFL still lagging behind.

 

[Nicho50]

So, while there is room for more… this game actually has a lot of that ‘out-think’ your opponent in the marking contests.
Part of it is where the ball is kicked to… but then there’s skill attributes, jostle timing, mark timing, mark vs spoil decision, if spoil - in which direction for roving players (hot tip - hit the boundary!), speccy / no speccy, front position / coming over the top, etc

And when most of those factors weigh up to about the same for those in the contest, there is no winner and we see fumbles/spills… I remember GoldbergsGold mentioning he missed that from AFL 23….
But now we have it, and we get people that don’t understand it just cracking it that they can’t win every single time.
Imagine how easy the game would be if you could!

Plenty of times in the stream Sharpy spotted up short leads and the players would stop moving and someone would float out in front and mark.

The person he was playing against would just get the ball and bomb it long mark and bomb it again.

 

[carn tigez]

I know different games / different markets and all but..... according to Steamdb:
AAFL26

• 16 players right now
• 149 24-hour peak
• 250 all-time peak 5 days ago

Meanwhile the latest DooM release

28,061
players right now
29,046
24-hour peak
30,812
all-time peak yesterday


Meanwhile their sports game competition..

FC 25

• 77,577 players right now
• 87,236 24-hour peak
• 110,026 all-time peak 8 months ago

NBA 2K25

• 20,492 players right now
• 52,627 24-hour peak
• 52,868 all-time peak 6 days ago

Haven't played current 2K in ages, I do revisit 2K12 once a year or so!!

Madden 25

• 1,995 players right now
• 2,672 24-hour peak
• 5,917 all-time peak 4 months ago

I guess Madden is the only fair comparison (local sport with a global release). But AFL still lagging behind.

Pretty pointless comparison is it not? The markets are wayyyyy bigger even for NFL. Plenty of Aussies follow NFL, barely any Americans have even heard of AFL.

I'd also presume AFL gamers skew pretty heavily to casual gamers with consoles not PCs.

Not defending BA or the game but don't see the relevance of these comparisons at all

 

[Xtreme]

Not defending BA or the game but don't see the relevance of these comparisons at all

Big Ant themselves have said that they see 2K/EA as their competition- it's only fair to compare. Even if it's a david/goliath situation.

 

[BlackMamba]

Plenty of times in the stream Sharpy spotted up short leads and the players would stop moving and someone would float out in front and mark.

The person he was playing against would just get the ball and bomb it long mark and bomb it again.

Just watched a few minutes more, and he definitely has a lag spike moment where the player behind him gathered it nowhere near when he saw the ball.

Even so, like I said, the game isn’t perfect… but also… he throws down his controller because an Assisted kick turns it over by going to a contest that he loses.

He did have a few plays where he hit up leads… so he managed to get those working well. But then he’d bomb it long to his tiny FP, and get out marked by the FB.

I get the lag-spike moments, and I get that some things occur and need fixing… but the majority of what I’ve seen so far are things he’s doing wrong… likely because he’s cracking it and not thinking through the scenarios.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Big Ants opponent is its own control schemes.

 

[BlackMamba]

Watched through to the end of the first game.
He says ‘My players are cooked’ but then doesn’t interchange them.
Now, I dunno if he has Auto-Interchange on, but it’s known that’s not great at the moment… and I’m hoping adjustments to it get done soon.

But even so, his players don’t sprint to the contest because they’re cooked. They’re probably also not performing well with tackles and contests because of that.
He gets outmarked in contests by a third man up, and his assisted kicks get turned over.

So my advice to him is:-

• Switch to Manual with HUD kicking for much more control of the kicks
• spoil more, especially when you see your opponent chooses to bomb it and can often out mark you
• use the interchange system, both Mini menu and pause menu
• draw the opponent, take on some tackles and then handball out wide
• use icon switching (he never did) and get extra players to the contests around the ground

And again, there’s definitely bugs in the game that need fixing… but there’s so many things in there already that he didn’t do, and could’ve done to be more competitive.

 

[BlackMamba]

Big Ants opponent is its own control schemes.

I was thinking the other day, ‘what if there was just a pass button’ and it does a handball for tap, kick for anything longer?’
I don’t think any AFL game has ever done that.. and I dunno if it would work….

But it’d open up Square (to maybe to be chip, instead of L1+R1), and then mean more combinations of the shoulder buttons can do more with it?

 

[T2B_]

Pretty pointless comparison is it not? The markets are wayyyyy bigger even for NFL. Plenty of Aussies follow NFL, barely any Americans have even heard of AFL.

I'd also presume AFL gamers skew pretty heavily to casual gamers with consoles not PCs.

Not defending BA or the game but don't see the relevance of these comparisons at all

250 peak all time seems low even for a niche sport product though. Granted its Steam and there would be more console players of this game I imagine, but its not a great sign.

 

[Archer_11]

Part of it is where the ball is kicked to… but then there’s skill attributes, jostle timing, mark timing, mark vs spoil decision, if spoil - in which direction for roving players (hot tip - hit the boundary!), speccy / no speccy, front position / coming over the top, etc

And when most of those factors weigh up to about the same for those in the contest, there is no winner and we see fumbles/spills… I remember GoldbergsGold mentioning he missed that from AFL 23….
But now we have it, and we get people that don’t understand it just cracking it that they can’t win every single time.
Imagine how easy the game would be if you could!

One question to ask is how many times is there ample opportunity to position correctly. For long entries in to the forward line that's probably around 70% of the time. So positioning isn't much of a factor a lot of the time. It's also easy to play all your highest marking players down front. So a guy that can bump at exactly the right time and tap at the right time is going to score a lot. Tap-tap-mark-R2-goal.

Ideas to improve:-

• the player punching the ball recovers quicker (an older AFL game had this - right now it's still a risky option)
• you could nominate a back pocket player to drift to any long ball contest - still risky but more like real footy.

I agree there is more nuance to 26, but if AFL gaming turns semi pro in the long distant future I think it's possible competitors will be crying foul that player movement barely matters due to the number of players on the ground. Not an easy problem to fix until player level tactics and set plays are a thing.

I know different games / different markets and all but..... according to Steamdb:
AAFL26

• 16 players right now
• 149 24-hour peak
• 250 all-time peak 5 days ago

Meanwhile the latest DooM release

28,061
players right now
29,046
24-hour peak
30,812
all-time peak yesterday


Meanwhile their sports game competition..

FC 25

• 77,577 players right now
• 87,236 24-hour peak
• 110,026 all-time peak 8 months ago

NBA 2K25

• 20,492 players right now
• 52,627 24-hour peak
• 52,868 all-time peak 6 days ago

Haven't played current 2K in ages, I do revisit 2K12 once a year or so!!

Madden 25

• 1,995 players right now
• 2,672 24-hour peak
• 5,917 all-time peak 4 months ago

I guess Madden is the only fair comparison (local sport with a global release). But AFL still lagging behind.

The US has ten time more people - so 1600 vs 1995 ain't too bad.

Big Ant themselves have said that they see 2K/EA as their competition- it's only fair to compare. Even if it's a david/goliath situation.

I think it's good that BA are being ambitious. Also he's talking to the press trying to generate interest...I would never use the language myself but I don't view the comment as deluded arrogance. He's trying to put a stake in the ground for his company and good on him.

The fact that you would say this while underinvesting in QA though is probably doing more harm than good. The fact that it may have happened again for 26 is a real head scratcher. I say may because 23 took six months to get right, let's see how quickly 26 turns around.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

Watched through to the end of the first game.
He says ‘My players are cooked’ but then doesn’t interchange them.
Now, I dunno if he has Auto-Interchange on, but it’s known that’s not great at the moment… and I’m hoping adjustments to it get done soon.

But even so, his players don’t sprint to the contest because they’re cooked. They’re probably also not performing well with tackles and contests because of that.
He gets outmarked in contests by a third man up, and his assisted kicks get turned over.

So my advice to him is:-

• Switch to Manual with HUD kicking for much more control of the kicks
• spoil more, especially when you see your opponent chooses to bomb it and can often out mark you
• use the interchange system, both Mini menu and pause menu
• draw the opponent, take on some tackles and then handball out wide
• use icon switching (he never did) and get extra players to the contests around the ground

And again, there’s definitely bugs in the game that need fixing… but there’s so many things in there already that he didn’t do, and could’ve done to be more competitive.

I agree with most of this but I will say the AI in general still needs a lot of tuning/bug fixing. Its hard to build fundamental gameplans when things like lead/run patterns are off, positioning is off and the auto interchange (for now) is still fried. Teleport tackling inside the forward 50/wings is also way too cooked.

 

[BlackMamba]

I agree with most of this but I will say the AI in general still needs a lot of tuning/bug fixing. Its hard to build fundamental gameplans when things like lead/run patterns are off, positioning is off and the auto interchange (for now) is still fried. Teleport tackling inside the forward 50/wings is also way too cooked.

I’ve seen less of the teleport tackling, but more teleport marking…

Would love less of that.

For the AI, I find my players lead too early, when I’m not ready to kick to them… so often I wait a cycle for them to peel back again, but the opposition can usually cover by then.

 

[RPCB]

I know different games / different markets and all but..... according to Steamdb:
AAFL26

• 16 players right now
• 149 24-hour peak
• 250 all-time peak 5 days ago

Meanwhile the latest DooM release

28,061
players right now
29,046
24-hour peak
30,812
all-time peak yesterday


Meanwhile their sports game competition..

FC 25

• 77,577 players right now
• 87,236 24-hour peak
• 110,026 all-time peak 8 months ago

NBA 2K25

• 20,492 players right now
• 52,627 24-hour peak
• 52,868 all-time peak 6 days ago

Haven't played current 2K in ages, I do revisit 2K12 once a year or so!!

Madden 25

• 1,995 players right now
• 2,672 24-hour peak
• 5,917 all-time peak 4 months ago

I guess Madden is the only fair comparison (local sport with a global release). But AFL still lagging behind.

Tbf, none of those sports titles are competing with AFL because I highly doubt that the developers of those other sports titles would even know that an AFL game even exists, let alone their customer base.

 

[thedavemiester]

How many patches is the Xbox behind now?

 

[RG16]

Possibly bug I encountered.

In my Career mode, I deliberately dropped all of my created player’s traits and skills to the bare minimum (couldn't stomach getting drafted at pick 1 again). Simmed the entire U18s season, and somehow my player ended up at level 50 by the end.

Despite being rated 90 overall, I was drafted at pick 16. Either the game bugged out... or my simmed player had the performance of a lifetime and racked up an insane amount of XP behind the scenes.

I’m not complaining. Just hope Big Ant doesn’t “fix” this one — they might break something else in the process!

 

[ptrg]

I was thinking the other day, ‘what if there was just a pass button’ and it does a handball for tap, kick for anything longer?’
I don’t think any AFL game has ever done that.. and I dunno if it would work….

But it’d open up Square (to maybe to be chip, instead of L1+R1), and then mean more combinations of the shoulder buttons can do more with it?

Have been banging on about this for ages - much the way the new "which player to select" thing works, you'd have the ball, hold down a trigger, and it would give you the 4 button symbols over the 4 "best" options.

Then the skill of your player, the pressure from the opposition, and just random errors could be factored in to how effectively the ball gets to them (I reckon it should only be for handballs)

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

The BA forum has descended into chaos. The hypocrisy of it all

 

[Dez!]

Wait do you have to buy Pro Team Coins to buy players from the Auction House?

If that's the case then they have gone 2K level scum.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

The BA forum has descended into chaos. The hypocrisy of it all

What happened?

 

[RPCB]

What happened?