Multiplat AFL 23: Launch Thread (Xbox release date TBC)

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

STATE OF PLAY:

• The game is out for Steam and PlayStation. There have been issues with Xbox release and it is unclear when the game will be available.
• Big Ant are aware that there are playability issues & bugs at present.
• Content has been temporarily removed from the game to identify where the issues lie.
• This content will be re-introduced via patches in the coming days.
• Big Ant have released a summary of what is to be reintroduced, which can be seen below.

Spoiler: Features to be added

Spoiler: MOST RECENT PATCH NOTES

Issues & constructive criticism are best communicated to: support.bigant.com

Michaels Twitch video with QA from Ross(BigAntStudios) from 31:40

 

[hawk699]

Digital bro

Just bought the ps5 aswell for this game and the cricket gaming coming out soon

 

[Nacho4EVA]

I feel like we can knock on the head the idea that there was some game breaking day 0 patch. Seems more likely that an old build was pushed or a patch failed, but it's pretty clear now that it wasn't like there was a ready version waiting to go and the wrong button was pushed or some game breaking bug was introduced and needed to be reverted back. Clearly there's no 'clean build' and we are just beta testers, which sucks.

it's hard to cop some of the gloating around sales numbers when the game is so clearly broken and not just due to some dodgy patch release.

Agree completely. The amount big ant has deceived the consumer over the past month is frankly disgusting and to see developers gloat or respond to people in this thread with some borderline snarky comments is disappointing

We all want the best for the game and we understand the almighty task that a small dev team faces when trying to release a product on this scale, but I’ll not accept a faulty, unplayable, broken product being pushed out with no warning and a high school level excuse like “I sent u the wrong version” regardless of its a AAA studio or an indie

As far as I’m aware we haven’t even gotten an apology, just a “thanks for your patience”

 

[jon0011]

Will this be a feature that we can use in AFL23? I can see the option to toggle when searching for creations but can't search for any players made with a 'playface' so far.

Will I need to have a friend on PC who can upload the playface for me to download and use on PS5? OR will they need to create the entire player for me to download? If the latter, surely a standalone creator on PC would be good to have so console users aren't restricted with what we can create

 

[Michaels]

I feel like we can knock on the head the idea that there was some game breaking day 0 patch. Seems more likely that an old build was pushed or a patch failed, but it's pretty clear now that it wasn't like there was a ready version waiting to go and the wrong button was pushed or some game breaking bug was introduced and needed to be reverted back. Clearly there's no 'clean build' and we are just beta testers, which sucks.

I won't refund because I know I'd eventually buy it anyway and I won't be able to resist checking in with new patches to see how it's going, but it's hard to cop some of the gloating around sales numbers when the game is so clearly broken and not just due to some dodgy patch release.

I get how on the surface that is how it might come across.

But the reason I'm inclined to believe the patch crash and that there was a better build of the game that was meant to launch, is the 2 x we played the game at BA that version was much better than what came out at launch. This can also be seen on the footage Twistie and Caden took as well.

Which was a submission build. Not saying that build was perfect by any stretch, as it was only submission stage, but it was well ahead of what got released, by a long way.

So at a minimum if what you were saying was true, they would have put out something closer to the submission build, not something far worse and further back as there were already 1-2 more stable / competent builds past what was released.

I'm not making excuses by the way, just adding some context as the build we got given really wasn't a deliberate release by any stretch.

 

[CultOfClose]

I feel like we can knock on the head the idea that there was some game breaking day 0 patch. Seems more likely that an old build was pushed or a patch failed, but it's pretty clear now that it wasn't like there was a ready version waiting to go and the wrong button was pushed or some game breaking bug was introduced and needed to be reverted back. Clearly there's no 'clean build' and we are just beta testers, which sucks.

I won't refund because I know I'd eventually buy it anyway and I won't be able to resist checking in with new patches to see how it's going, but it's hard to cop some of the gloating around sales numbers when the game is so clearly broken and not just due to some dodgy patch release.

Not so sure that is correct, if they did in fact have a stuff up and then rolled a day 0 patch onto an unexpected version it would absolutely have these affects. And the size of the patches fits with what they have said of breaking down the large day 0 patch to bring it over bit by bit. You can't just apply patches to different builds with the same results which is what appears to have happened. and on the consoles at least you can't just roll back and send out a new version with ease so its completely feasible that the route they have taken is what they judged was the best/fastest route to getting the game back on track once they discovered the issue.

On top of that they can't just take bits out of the original patch and assume it will work on this version out of the box as all their original patch work would have been done on their intended release version not the one we got. So when you take that into account the fact that they have had to rip the original planned patch apart bit by bit and then apply it to the retail version we got, then test and adjust before submitting to the relevant publishers. The amount of changes that has occurred in the last 6 days can;t have just been done since release, it makes much more sense that something along the lines of what they said happened has in fact happened and it will likely be weeks before they get it back to that.

Having said that its clear they need to spend a bit more money on a PR/Communications section because its been nothing short of astounding how poorly all this has been communicated.

 

[Xtreme]

End to end goals feel fluid and realistic

My favourite is the break away goal. When you're feeling glum because you can't penetrate through the defence, only to then get a lucky clearance, a quick running burst. Followed up by a running kick that turns into a goalllll.

 

[CultOfClose]

Digital bro

Damn sucks man, so inconsistent

 

[hawk699]

Damn sucks man, so inconsistent

Yeah definitely and I appreciate you guys talking about it but I just want play the game and have fun really haha

 

[carn tigez]

I get how on the surface that is how it might come across.

But the reason I'm inclined to believe the patch crash and that there was a better build of the game that was meant to launch, is the 2 x we played the game at BA that version was much better than what came out at launch. This can also be seen on the footage Twistie and Caden took as well.

Which was a submission build. Not saying that build was perfect by any stretch, as it was only submission stage, but it was well ahead of what got released, by a long way.

So at a minimum if what you were saying was true, they would have put out something closer to the submission build, not something far worse and further back as there were already 1-2 more stable / competent builds past what was released.

I'm not making excuses by the way, just adding some context as the build we got given really wasn't a deliberate release by any stretch.

Yeah I watched those streams and enjoyed them, and I agree that something went wrong at release which caused problems. However, if the build you guys played was so clearly better that what we are currently playing, why wouldn't they have just reverted to that version when all the bugs got introduced on launch and then slowly work forward from there? Why spend a week with such a buggy, imbalanced and unstable product in front of consumers with no clear end in sight? Is the version you played still better than the current game we are playing, or was it just better than the game was at day 1?

It also sounds like a lot of the changes being made currently are via devs spending the day coding fixes and then releasing them. It sounds like there's more going on than just 'version control'.

 

[tastiger]

Has BA announced what's planned for the next patch?

Hopefully all gameplay fixes, I'd love to know % wise how close we are.

On VOG-L09 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[palmomagpie]

Ahh I guess that's why Microsoft released Redfall its own 1st party game last Tuesday with just as many issues ..

haha careful - you'll get panned for that. I commented on a facebook post of someone harping on about BigAnt being the only company releasing broken games and how daily patches weren't good enough (he wanted a refund but to be able to keep the game) - I commented on the post and reminded them of Redfall & Star Wars and how they were broken and their patches are nowhere near as consistent - I was removed from the group and blocked. I get it, people want to whinge and they deserve to. But unfortunately, that's the state of gaming these days - you're probably more likely to get a broken game on release than a fully working one. At least they're doing something about it

 

[Quivorir]

Ahh I guess that's why Microsoft released Redfall its own 1st party game last Tuesday with just as many issues ..

Is redfall buggy though? I don't recall reading about too many bugs, more that the game is just shit.

Edit: Just took a look. Nope turns out its buggy af too.

 

[Chuckinho]

Hopefully there will be some fixes for the guernsey and logo makers out there

 

[CultOfClose]

Yeah I watched those streams and enjoyed them, and I agree that something went wrong at release which caused problems. However, if the build you guys played was so clearly better that what we are currently playing, why wouldn't they have just reverted to that version when all the bugs got introduced on launch and then slowly work forward from there? Why spend a week with such a buggy, imbalanced and unstable product in front of consumers with no clear end in sight? Is the version you played still better than the current game we are playing, or was it just better than the game was at day 1?

It also sounds like a lot of the changes being made currently are via devs spending the day coding fixes and then releasing them. It sounds like there's more going on than just 'version control'.

As I said in my reply its not as simple as just rolling back on consoles and replacing versions, once its in production there is a whole heap of hoops to jump through which could take weeks to fix up so they likely chose the route of ripping the working patch apart and applying it bit by bit while testing the effects as they go.

 

[Michaels]

Yeah I watched those streams and enjoyed them, and I agree that something went wrong at release which caused problems. However, if the build you guys played was so clearly better that what we are currently playing, why wouldn't they have just reverted to that version when all the bugs got introduced on launch and then slowly work forward from there? Why spend a week with such a buggy, imbalanced and unstable product in front of consumers with no clear end in sight? Is the version you played still better than the current game we are playing, or was it just better than the game was at day 1?

It also sounds like a lot of the changes being made currently are via devs spending the day coding fixes and then releasing them. It sounds like there's more going on than just 'version control'.

The code experts can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't think it's as simple as delete all and then upload something else that they had prepared earlier.

if it were that simple I'm tipping it would have been done.

As has been mentioned with what is being re introduced feature wise, they haven't just whipped that up in 5-6 days, they were all done for ages and just need reconnecting.

I agree that the stability and gameplay (movement) tweaks are probably things being found and worked on in real time, as is the case with most games.


while it sounds like everyone is having a different experience currently, from what I played last night with the movement patch updated, that game play feels better than the submission build in terms of having more control over where players run to etc.

Still lots of things missing that need to come back in to back it more complete though, wind, spoiling, removed tackle teleport etc.

 

[thedavemiester]

Well the game received "clanger of the week" on the mason cox

18

Mason Cox

Age

35

Ht

211cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.7

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

3.5

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.2

4star

D

6.0

1star

K

3.0

1star

HB

3.0

2star

M

2.3

2star

T

0.3

1star

G

1.0

4star

D

9.0

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.6

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.8

5star

podcast, so surely that means it has officially reached rock bottom

 

[Chuckinho]

You cannot import a file into a Console build, it's considered too high a risk vulnerability for jailbreak/hacking. You can create from scratch on Console, or download from someone that has uploaded from Steam.

Is there potential for a standalone Academy program like for Cricket so that console users could make stuff without buying the game again?
I've got the shoe on the other foot in that I am making stuff on PC and will buy the game on XBox again when it comes out there later.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Ahh I guess that's why Microsoft released Redfall its own 1st party game last Tuesday with just as many issues ..

Redfall is bad but at least we got this:

“There’s nothing that’s more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox Community,” [Xbox CEO Phil] Spencer said. “I am disappointed, I am upset with myself.” ... For Redfall’s unfortunate situation, however, he was sincerely apologetic: “I also need to have a great selection of games that continue to come, that surprise and delight our fans. and we underdelivered on that and for that, I apologize.”

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

It also sounds like a lot of the changes being made currently are via devs spending the day coding fixes and then releasing them. It sounds like there's more going on than just 'version control'.

From what has been said - it reads more to me like they are sequentially adding & testing bits and pieces as they go in order to figure out what caused the original issues. The problem with doing that is that everything is connected: one fix/feature is wrapped up in a tangled web of other fixes/features which can't be implemented right now - so they have to implement other changes to ensure the game is as balanced as possible while they're iteratively patching it.

 

[thedavemiester]

I find it bizzare that it's been almost a week since we were informed of a xbox delay by retailers and yet there's still no official word from BigAnt or anyone else to say what the plan is moving forward for xbox.

I understand that negotiations etc have to occur to ensure all parties are happy (and that's why bigant aren't responding to xbox specific q's), but surely they don't take a week to resolve? Is it possible that the game will never come to xbox?

 

[Rigourpipe]

Latest patch on PS5 is just as bad as the initial release, but a different kind of bad. Handballing feels worse than the patch before and my players no longer feel like handballing out of tackles and get pinged HTB 90% of the time. Half of the time on defense my players just stop moving and stand still as if the opposition has taken a mark.

 

[Fizzler]

Game has gotten more difficult in 1.0.6, I play 2.5 minute quarters and I got to a point where I was able to win 106-0 but now on medium I’m really struggling. This is good for longevity I suppose, but it’s a real pain that I’m pressing handball immediately after getting the ball yet I’m stuck in a tackle animation so I can’t handball and the umpire pings me for holding the ball. In a video game it’s not a subjective thing regarding whether I had prior opportunity, I pressed the button as quickly as I could and the game decided not to let me handball. How is that my fault and why do I get penalised for holding the ball? Other than that I’m appreciative of the improvements to the game. The fact it’s a bit more congested is reminiscent of real life footy.

 

[REDSTONE MJJ]

Will this be a feature that we can use in AFL23? I can see the option to toggle when searching for creations but can't search for any players made with a 'playface' so far.

Will I need to have a friend on PC who can upload the playface for me to download and use on PS5? OR will they need to create the entire player for me to download? If the latter, surely a standalone creator on PC would be good to have so console users aren't restricted with what we can create

i think its supposed to be, no news on the PlayFace front tho.

 

[offtherails9]

I've found the amount of times I get chased down and tackled while I'm trying to kick (and have like 5m on my opponent) quite ridiculous, is anyone else having the same problem?

 

[MarcLocksCrustySock]

So... no updates today?