Multiplat AFL 23 - Part 2 (23/04/24 PATCH: Sliders are here)

[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]

Chip handballs are useless lmao.
By the time your player receives the ball, they’re tackled because the ball takes too long to get there and also players from 2 meters away can teleport and tackle you

This isn’t an issue if you handball out in front of the player, I’ve noticed the handballing is incredibly sensitive to direction so if you want to handball and keep the momentum going, you’ve gotta handball out in front of the receiver.

 

[Monfries7]

This isn’t an issue if you handball out in front of the player, I’ve noticed the handballing is incredibly sensitive to direction so if you want to handball and keep the momentum going, you’ve gotta handball out in front of the receiver.

Handballing should be a core feature that doesn’t require delicate directional control and multiple buttons clicked. It’s a fast paced game. The handballing in Evo 2 was fantastic. The handballing in AFL23 is horrific.

 

[Xtreme]

I can see what they were trying to do, there are times where the handballing is sublime and a thing of beauty when it chains together correctly. However due to the programming of the game engine, the good moments are few and far between - too much can go wrong that then impacts on passages of play.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Handballing should be a core feature that doesn’t require delicate directional control and multiple buttons clicked. It’s a fast paced game. The handballing in Evo 2 was fantastic. The handballing in AFL23 is horrific.

Evo 2 with the sliders had the perfect kicking/hand ball quick power up meter. Should be the standard.

 

[Freo16]

Handballing should be a core feature that doesn’t require delicate directional control and multiple buttons clicked. It’s a fast paced game. The handballing in Evo 2 was fantastic. The handballing in AFL23 is horrific.

I agree that the handballing could use some sort of aim assist or something because you need to be extremely precise.

I don’t mind the button combos being used, especially on the harder difficulties, because that’s realistic, sometimes you have to handball up and over an opponent.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

I agree that the handballing could use some sort of aim assist or something because you need to be extremely precise.

I don’t mind the button combos being used, especially on the harder difficulties, because that’s realistic, sometimes you have to handball up and over an opponent.

It should also be functional I’m convinced most diagonal-aimed handballs never work or are completely overpowered. They stuffed up the game engine and continued building on it, hopefully the patch fixes it.

 

[BlackMamba]

I agree that the handballing could use some sort of aim assist or something because you need to be extremely precise.

I don’t mind the button combos being used, especially on the harder difficulties, because that’s realistic, sometimes you have to handball up and over an opponent.

I wonder then if the game becomes too easy to play if you pretty much get perfect handballs every time you try one…
Like, there has to be something to make sure it’s not super easy getting the ball out every single time and running the length of the field each time.

GoldbergsGold How do you find Evo 2 counters this, with the sliders you have to make it better?
What would make it enough skill-based, and not super easy to dominate, without having you feel like you lose proper control of the player?

 

[GoldbergsGold]

GoldbergsGold How do you find Evo 2 counters this, with the sliders you have to make it better?
What would make it enough skill-based, and not super easy to dominate, without having you feel like you lose proper control of the player?

The ball doesn't always connect and there's smothering.

 

[Freo16]

I wonder then if the game becomes too easy to play if you pretty much get perfect handballs every time you try one…
Like, there has to be something to make sure it’s not super easy getting the ball out every single time and running the length of the field each time.

GoldbergsGold How do you find Evo 2 counters this, with the sliders you have to make it better?
What would make it enough skill-based, and not super easy to dominate, without having you feel like you lose proper control of the player?

That’s my concern, if you took away the clunky stuff the game would be easy 100 point wins every game.
I’ve only really started using the advanced controls to add an extra layer of challenge, stuff like the player movement momentum system actually is a good idea if they can get it working correctly.

Also, has anyone actually seen the ai use evade/fend moves ?
Seems like this would be an obvious way to make the game a bit more challenging.

 

[Treehill23]

I wonder then if the game becomes too easy to play if you pretty much get perfect handballs every time you try one…
Like, there has to be something to make sure it’s not super easy getting the ball out every single time and running the length of the field each time.

GoldbergsGold How do you find Evo 2 counters this, with the sliders you have to make it better?
What would make it enough skill-based, and not super easy to dominate, without having you feel like you lose proper control of the player?

I don’t think it would be super easy if the AI actually acted like AFL players.
In the modern game, there’s usually 30 players around the ball at any one time and this can make it tough to move.
Evo 2 did this well because whilst the players running patterns didn’t necessarily always makes sense, it was still always congested and chaotic which meant that you had to make decisions extremely quickly.
I found it way harder to score in Evo 2 than I do AFL 23

Ross banged on about getting these coaches in to assist with AI movement and positioning but what he didn’t tell us was that these coaches were from 1980

 

[Treehill23]

That’s my concern, if you took away the clunky stuff the game would be easy 100 point wins every game.
I’ve only really started using the advanced controls to add an extra layer of challenge, stuff like the player movement momentum system actually is a good idea if they can get it working correctly.

Also, has anyone actually seen the ai use evade/fend moves ?
Seems like this would be an obvious way to make the game a bit more challenging.

The AI is useless. This would actually make sense and make it more challenging but alas, it doesn’t even do these basic things.
But again to my point above, add this in with the fact that players actually position themselves like how they would in the modern game and you’ve got yourself a challenge

 

[Xtreme]

It's now 30% off on Steam - $69.96

BUY IT NOW

 

[GoldbergsGold]

That’s my concern, if you took away the clunky stuff the game would be easy 100 point wins every game.

Because all you have to do is win an easy 1v1 marking contest, there's no large number marking contests that don't result in marks 90% of the time or even tactics to counter the opposition getting free space. They shouldn't have to break the controls and movement just because the marking in the game is easy and unrealistic.

Also, has anyone actually seen the ai use evade/fend moves ?
Seems like this would be an obvious way to make the game a bit more challenging.

They have to fix the user commands/movements to actually more the CPU more difficult, you're already being penalized for "position play" with the broken movements, thus, kicking the ball forward to an easy 1v1 marking contest is the only way possible to succeed in the game. Also, they should get rid of bouncing the ball slowing you down, players in real life can outrun opposition players while sprinting and bouncing. Evo 2 has the best mechanic for this with the stamina meter, which means you can out run your opponents, but you can't do it all the time or else you will run out of energy and stop sprinting.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Evo 2 did this well because whilst the players running patterns didn’t necessarily always makes sense, it was still always congested and chaotic which meant that you had to make decisions extremely quickly.
I found it way harder to score in Evo 2 than I do AFL 23

You can make scoring more difficult with sliders. I made contested marking very hard in Evo 2 when there's large numbers going for a mark. 23 really only has 1v1 forced wrestling marking attempts, which result in a mark 90% of the time. I have no idea why they force wrestling every single time and there's no large numbers around marking contests competing.

 

[Sinjin Smith]

Evo 2 with the sliders had the perfect kicking/hand ball quick power up meter. Should be the standard.

Are you able to share some good slider settings?

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Are you able to share some good slider settings?

On Page 355 I did.

 

[melbournemartin]

I was there for one of the early AFL Live playtests and even though Ross was full of himself, the game delivered and was well received. None of what you said answered my question. Reputation is everything in an industry like gaming. How stupid do you think Ross would look now having bagged out WW, its employees, us customers on social media and his newest game turns out being absolute trash that couldnt succeed his arrogance? Pretty dumb. If Cricket bombs out as a franchise they’re as good as gone.

I'm not quite sure what our argument is. I'm very disappointed in BA and Ross in recent years. Maybe the Nacon acquisition was the worst thing to happen.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I'm not quite sure what our argument is. I'm very disappointed in BA and Ross in recent years. Maybe the Nacon acquisition was the worst thing to happen.

The massive gameplay jump from AFL Premiership 2007/AFL Challenge to Live 2011 was something I was naively expecting from Evolution 2 to 23, but the early 2023 release did perplex me, it seemed like a rushed timeline, I was expecting a 2024 release from the early 2022 announcement.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

I'm not quite sure what our argument is. I'm very disappointed in BA and Ross in recent years. Maybe the Nacon acquisition was the worst thing to happen.

No argument. I think when you said you were genuinely sad that Big Ant’s rep is down the drain, I interpreted that as satire? Apologies if I misinterpreted. I’m bitterly disappointed in them also, especially since, like you, I was at those early play tests and its worlds away from Ross and Big Ant now. Lets see if this roadmap fixes or ruins their image further in regards to this game.

 

[A Tiger 4 lyf]

I'm kinda interested in people's opinions on this.

If this update fails which a lot of us are thinking it will it seems (Myself included), What do we think the future of AFL Gaming is?

Big Ant out of the picture? The AFL gives up on gaming entirely? Do both parties give each other one more chance to make it work?

What are we looking at in this case in your opinion?

Ditch these style of games and move into AFL Manager






Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[BlackMamba]

Most AFL games have been average at best and they keep making them.

As long as there’s a studio interested in making an AFL game, the AFL will give them the licence and if big ant continue to be interested then the AFL won’t pull the licence.

It’s also worth considering that the initial contract between big ant and the AFL is probably longer than one or two years.

I'll buy AFL games no matter what. Love the sport and enjoy playing the games, no matter what the frustrations are.

But I would like the license to stay with one studio over many iterations of it. Sure, people are upset at Big Ant now, but imagine the game we would have today if they kept the license from AFL Live in 2011... We'd probably have about 6 iterations of the game by now, surely improving a lot each time. It would dwarf the efforts of AFL Live 2, Evo and Evo2...

 

[RPCB]

It's now 30% off on Steam - $69.96

BUY IT NOW

I wouldn’t even buy the game if it was reduced to 96 cents.

 

[Xtreme]

I wouldn’t even buy the game if it was reduced to 96 cents.

I got my copy for free and I still feel like I was kicked in the balls!!

All it has done is made me more cautious in future. I'm not touching Cricket 24 (I suspect it'll pop up on Game Pass not long after Cricket 22 gets removed - as Cricket 19 followed the same path). Cricket 22 is cheap on PSN right now but I still won't bite.. yet.

 

[RPCB]

I got my copy for free and I still feel like I was kicked in the balls!!

All it has done is made me more cautious in future. I'm not touching Cricket 24 (I suspect it'll pop up on Game Pass not long after Cricket 22 gets removed - as Cricket 19 followed the same path). Cricket 22 is cheap on PSN right now but I still won't bite.. yet.

Solid expression.

 

[T2B_]

Just my luck, I sold this game along with my PS4 a little while ago. Then I get the bug to play an AFL game again so I go on Steam looking to buy Evo 2... And it's no longer on there the only AFL game on there is this one lol.