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

 

[hooked on fishing]

User Error - thinking I had the space and it would bend in - failed attempt at goal

Spoiler

Have you tried using the snap kick modifier? The AI used it for the first time since launch yesterday and it actually looks cool when it comes off

The most obvious push in the back you'll ever see

Spoiler

Hey at least the animation was smooth the whole way through! That looked good, when it happens to me on ps4 the player like freezes then falls over so stupid it’s just like a glitch then it pauses for a few seconds and you wonder what’s happened, then it finally says push in the back.

All these different free kicks are so rare, I barely ever see push in the back or high. I get about 10 holding the ball frees against me everyday and barely any the other way

 

[Xtreme]

1) I need to use the kick modifiers more often. I barely have throughout the games release. Its more that tgr animations happen so damn fast that I don't have the reaction time to alter my hand position on the controller to do them effectively.

Especially from that close to the goal and defender closing in at teleport speed. I'm not thinking of the shoulder button + X or whatever it is lol.


2) my push in the back video + comment was more pointing out that watching it live, I could tell that the push in the back was going to be the end result. A lot of the push in the back calls I've gotten occur in that area of the ground almost exclusively.

 

[kingcobey78]

So the player on the mark just stands there after you've clearly played on

This has never been introduced in the game yet? It is something that annoyed me as well. Surely if the player moves off the line you should be able to rush the kicker?

Can't believe the teleporting is still in the game! Surely they must admit at some point "we screwed up!" It's just arrogance that they won't admit anything.

 

[BlackMamba]

The most obvious push in the back you'll ever see

Spoiler

Nice little animation to jump over the player on the ground there! Haven't seen that before.

 

[ptrg]

Hit the 150 hours played milestone just before, hip hip hooray

Player goes to handpass the ball, intended receiver fumbles the pick up, original player gathers his own fumbled handball.

Spoiler

The match itself was pretty good, Richmond kept getting and building a lead. Hawthorn would catch up every time. Richmond had momentum in the final quarter and had a 23 point lead with 11 minutes to go. But Hawthorn clawed their way back (4 goals in 3 minutes) to take the lead, and would gradually build a 24 point lead of their own. Richmond fought back again, but eventually went down by 16 points.

Hawks bombed that to a 4 person pack, and of course only two guys contested. The third close guy was so “not allowed to compete” that they ghosted straight through him even after the marking contest.

Absolute garbage

 

[MadMundy]

I'm honestly just enjoying roosting them from outside 50 and seeing what I can pull off.

 

[GetAroundHim99]

Ok, Yeah... I can officially say that I would have preferred that WW continued. Didn't believe I'd be saying that but it's true at this point.

They at least tested their games and made sure they were at least ready to go despite how underwhelming they are.

Frankly, At this point. I'm just back in the position wishing for someone else to take over that I was in previously. Big Ant clearly don't have the leadership to pull off a great game. The devs might have the talent but as long as leadership is too busy taking trips around the world, mandating the use of an in-house engine that's not up to task and dropping all of these ideas on the team out of nowhere with no proper planning, They will never make a good, stable or even fun but clunky AFL game again.

Honestly, I'm hoping that the AFL are currently looking for an out clause with them right now. The money they're being paid for this s**t is not worth the damage to the brand in the Video Game landscape. The AFL need to end this licensing deal and take their sweet time finding another partner and making sure they're actually up to the task next time. They don't even have to be a big studio. Someone who can create a fun game that has customization options and a working management mode would be an improvement.

They wonder why their games struggle, This is why. They don't put in the investment, They don't put in the time to find the right people and then they're left scratching their heads as to why more people play stuff like FIFA or NBA 2K.

 

[Nicho50]

Ok, Yeah... I can officially say that I would have preferred that WW continued. Didn't believe I'd be saying that but it's true at this point.

They at least tested their games and made sure they were at least ready to go despite how underwhelming they are.

Frankly, At this point. I'm just back in the position wishing for someone else to take over that I was in previously. Big Ant clearly don't have the leadership to pull off a great game. The devs might have the talent but as long as leadership is too busy taking trips around the world, mandating the use of an in-house engine that's not up to task and dropping all of these ideas on the team out of nowhere with no proper planning, They will never make a good, stable or even fun but clunky AFL game again.

Honestly, I'm hoping that the AFL are currently looking for an out clause with them right now. The money they're being paid for this s**t is not worth the damage to the brand in the Video Game landscape. The AFL need to end this licensing deal and take their sweet time finding another partner and making sure they're actually up to the task next time. They don't even have to be a big studio. Someone who can create a fun game that has customization options and a working management mode would be an improvement.

They wonder why their games struggle, This is why. They don't put in the investment, They don't put in the time to find the right people and then they're left scratching their heads as to why more people play stuff like FIFA or NBA 2K.

The AFL wouldn’t give a s**t to be honest that’s clear from the lack of marketing.

 

[Nicho50]

How could you be excited to get this game and release on Xbox. It’s been so long since the launch night and then actual release.

Seems like a life time ago they announced some legends for pro team. It’s a very tough period releasing a sports game coming up. Madden , NBA and “FIFA” all out within the next two months.

 

[HBK619]

So the player on the mark just stands there after you've clearly played on, coming off your line. Also not one opposition coming off the side to put any pressure on.
I thought these guys were passionate about the sport, surely they would know about small details like this.
This game looks so average

This has never been introduced in the game yet? It is something that annoyed me as well. Surely if the player moves off the line you should be able to rush the kicker?

I get there's a certain rhetoric that you're going for when making these statements but to think these things weren't taken into consideration during development is actually a bit laughable. Of course these sorts of things are looked at, but you make a concerted decision when doing so to make allowances to ensure a better playing experience for the user. In order to have smoother goal kicking animations, not placing the player backwards of the line of the mark (because then you have to take into consideration more aspects, such as field position and angles and view lines), the decision was made to have the player "move off the mark" on snaps and bananas.

In terms of the goal mechanic in the game, it actually doesn't effect anything, in that you gain no advantage from the player moving.

What you have to take into account if you were to allow something like that "surely you have to be able to rush them" is what is the way to avoid this when the user chooses to do a snap or banana? If I, as the opponent can just 'rush' the kicker and effect the kick then why would I ever choose a snap or a banana? It literally defeats the purpose of having it available. Then, as the user kicking how would I avoid said rush? Does the mechanic then have to change to account for this? Do I need to add more buttons while kicking just to avoid a rush?

Concessions are made in order to allow for balanced systems and consistency in order to avoid other situations that will unbalance the game. If this effects your game experience in any truly meaningful way I'd love to actually hear how you would go about avoiding any issues and keeping the system balanced while also creating consistency in mechanics.

 

[Freo16]

I get there's a certain rhetoric that you're going for when making these statements but to think these things weren't taken into consideration during development is actually a bit laughable. Of course these sorts of things are looked at, but you make a concerted decision when doing so to make allowances to ensure a better playing experience for the user. In order to have smoother goal kicking animations, not placing the player backwards of the line of the mark (because then you have to take into consideration more aspects, such as field position and angles and view lines), the decision was made to have the player "move off the mark" on snaps and bananas.

In terms of the goal mechanic in the game, it actually doesn't effect anything, in that you gain no advantage from the player moving.

What you have to take into account if you were to allow something like that "surely you have to be able to rush them" is what is the way to avoid this when the user chooses to do a snap or banana? If I, as the opponent can just 'rush' the kicker and effect the kick then why would I ever choose a snap or a banana? It literally defeats the purpose of having it available. Then, as the user kicking how would I avoid said rush? Does the mechanic then have to change to account for this? Do I need to add more buttons while kicking just to avoid a rush?

Concessions are made in order to allow for balanced systems and consistency in order to avoid other situations that will unbalance the game. If this effects your game experience in any truly meaningful way I'd love to actually hear how you would go about avoiding any issues and keeping the system balanced while also creating consistency in mechanics.

This is a great post

The kind of logic that a lot of people don’t use on here and on the flip side, the kind of thing I’d love to see more from those in the know at Big Ant

 

[Xtreme]

Might have been asleep at the wheel but I don't recall any chat yesterday (guess I should scroll through the past 49230483940 pages) but there was another update yesterday morning that there are no patch notes for ?

 

[MadMundy]

Set shots are still a little broken, you have guys like Cameron and Curnow still barely making the distance from inside 50.

 

[Mootsy]

Ok, Yeah... I can officially say that I would have preferred that WW continued. Didn't believe I'd be saying that but it's true at this point.

I get it! I think it's that they had 2 thorough goes of developing and updating the game and after the initial release was really buggy, they came out with a scroll of new features which made a lot of people happier. The issue was the graphics was a bit rough, but they gave it their all for that game and there does seem to be more variations of gameplay realism in Evolution, as far as pack tackles, variety of player movements etc.

In defence of Big Ant, WW was able to devote a lot of their time into that one big game, where as BA have a few big games cooking away at once and AFL23 is them going back to the first version of a game. Big Ant did a better job at the graphics, the design, kicking for goal, precision kicking and the hand balling has finally gotten really good! I think what it lacks is a few modes, variety of marking animations, pack tackles, a bit more randomness around the play that isn't necessarily a bug, but gives more realism. At the same time, I can see that they are going for a Fifa style incarnation/presentation of AFL, which i am a fan of.

The debate of using Unreal engine vs. their own engine is an interesting one, and i don't have much of an opinion on it because i've never made a game before, so but it is interesting. I'm sure BA are proud of their own etc..but no doubt Unreal is a good choice too.

The launch issues for AFL23 is still something i didn't expect nor do i understand, even now that there wasn't a mad scramble to fix the bugs and improve gameplay really quickly, considering, the amount of people involved, not just the developers and the publisher and consumers, but the players having their scans, players and coaches who assisted them etc. I just don't get how they could let it launch the way it did. No doubt they patched it up after a few weeks. But it must have been something really unlucky.

I do hope they keep improving it, and that there is AFL24/25 etc..

 

[BlackMamba]

I get there's a certain rhetoric that you're going for when making these statements but to think these things weren't taken into consideration during development is actually a bit laughable. Of course these sorts of things are looked at, but you make a concerted decision when doing so to make allowances to ensure a better playing experience for the user. In order to have smoother goal kicking animations, not placing the player backwards of the line of the mark (because then you have to take into consideration more aspects, such as field position and angles and view lines), the decision was made to have the player "move off the mark" on snaps and bananas.

In terms of the goal mechanic in the game, it actually doesn't effect anything, in that you gain no advantage from the player moving.

What you have to take into account if you were to allow something like that "surely you have to be able to rush them" is what is the way to avoid this when the user chooses to do a snap or banana? If I, as the opponent can just 'rush' the kicker and effect the kick then why would I ever choose a snap or a banana? It literally defeats the purpose of having it available. Then, as the user kicking how would I avoid said rush? Does the mechanic then have to change to account for this? Do I need to add more buttons while kicking just to avoid a rush?

Concessions are made in order to allow for balanced systems and consistency in order to avoid other situations that will unbalance the game. If this effects your game experience in any truly meaningful way I'd love to actually hear how you would go about avoiding any issues and keeping the system balanced while also creating consistency in mechanics.

I love the explanation, HBK619 I’d just hope this is still considered in future games… so that more complex and advanced gameplay can be achieved.
I.e maybe there is an advanced button that could be added to rush the kicker… but even more intricate timing to prevent the kicker being caught out…. Or sidestep options… All too much for this game, but could be in AFL24/25.

Plus the suggestions for goal kicking, like man on the mark spoils/pressure, rumble effects/screen shake, ‘precision kick’ with the right analog stick etc…
Like from here

Set Shot questions and ideas

Thought I’d create a topic on set shots… with both how they are now, and possibilities for future improvements. Currently we have two bars…a power meter and an accuracy meter. It’s been stated that going into the Red on power, doesn’t mean a bad shot… just will make the accuracy meter more...

board.bigant.com

 

[Quivorir]

Classic. Another "we couldn't figure out how to fix it so we went around it".

 

[HBK619]

I love the explanation, HBK619 I’d just hope this is still considered in future games… so that more complex and advanced gameplay can be achieved.
I.e maybe there is an advanced button that could be added to rush the kicker… but even more intricate timing to prevent the kicker being caught out…. Or sidestep options… All too much for this game, but could be in AFL24/25.

Plus the suggestions for goal kicking, like man on the mark spoils/pressure, rumble effects/screen shake, ‘precision kick’ with the right analog stick etc…
Like from here

Set Shot questions and ideas

Thought I’d create a topic on set shots… with both how they are now, and possibilities for future improvements. Currently we have two bars…a power meter and an accuracy meter. It’s been stated that going into the Red on power, doesn’t mean a bad shot… just will make the accuracy meter more...

board.bigant.com

There's always consideration to creating more depth and systems. A lot of what has been discussed around improving or altering things has been discussed internally as is (prior to those discussions coming up) - which is always cool to see. If your ideas align with the greater public, you tend to have something that should work in concept and theory.

I was literally discussing this very thing this week with the programmer that did the updated set shot system in terms of what sort of things can be done in the future, expanded upon, changed, etc. and really there's so much to work with. Which is awesome, if you're stuck with ideas or additions then you're stuck creatively, but overall there's a heap to go on with.

The main starting points for the design to it were to make it feel fresh, new, but also contain what has come before as well. So there's a sense of familiar, but also offering some new perspectives. And one of my big things was also to make sure that it looked like you're taking a proper set shots, no snapping into weird kick animations, no "on the run" animations, something that looks slick and clean and something that allows for the replication of players kicks like we see in the real world today.

Classic. Another "we couldn't figure out how to fix it so we went around it".

Oh to the contrary. One of the main parts to game design is to solve the most complex or annoying potential problems. The main key is what would doing it bring to the table? The answer really leans to "not much".

You can do a lot of things just for the sake of it in game design, but the main core principal when designing any system or mechanic is to make it fun and engaging first. The main point to what I was getting at was a) it was absolutely thought of, known and discussed. But also b) when you plan on or do introduce something then you have to take into consideration of everything around that system that could be exploited, is it actually fun and is it therefore worthwhile having it.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

HBK619 out of curiosity, how much longer is Big Ant planning on supporting the game? Is it Xbox, Pro Team, maybe 1 more patch and thats it for support? Also thanks for all your insight so far!

 

[hooked on fishing]

I'm honestly just enjoying roosting them from outside 50 and seeing what I can pull off.

Do you mean not by set shot? How the hell do you do it?? I’ve tried all sorts of button combinations and cannot figure it out!

 

[Mootsy]

I'm really enjoying the hand balling now, makes the game a lot more satisfying. The game is really getting there now.

The thing i would change is tackling, a little bit more leeway to throw a handball out, i noticed that tackles are locked in more easily now, but i think if you quick fire a handball then your player should be able to release the ball most of the time, would make it more intuitive.

What i'd improve for for updates and next version of game??

• Have more intuitive marking and animations to vary the marking style, maybe include a chest-mark animation too.
• Group tackles instead of just 1-on-1 included.
• More fluid/natural player movements and animations.
• More modes, Legends, Sliders etc..
• Re-marketing of the game, during AFL games, Ads, on Youtube, etc..

The only thing i would say is, to Big Ant, X-Box users probably deserve some news regarding the release, understandably this might be something that the Publisher does as well, but i'm sure x-box owners would love to hear something regarding an estimate timeline. Not saying you're not super busy with Cricket coming up and other games, but i think they'd like some news.

 

[thedavemiester]

Has Xbox been delayed again/cancelled or what? I've stayed away from this forum for my sanity, but there's very little mention of Xbox on the big ant support site

 

[Quivorir]

There never was an xbox version.

 

[Xtreme]

Had a match last night set to AI v AI while doing other things. Hawks v Demons one team builds a lead, the other catches up. This went on for a half, then it was relatively goal for goal until late in the 4th quarter Melbourne had an 11 point lead. I figured that now was the time to jump in.

Managed to peg 1 goal back, couldn't score another as time beat me (less than 2 minutes on the clock, was playing on 7.5 min quarters which probably meant 30-45 seconds of actual time - most of which was wasted by ping pong attacks, and wasted time running back on the mark).

 

[MadMundy]

Glad X Box don't get anything, play a real console.

 

[caloschwaby]

Omg the game still hasn't come out on Xbox?

Took a break from following since a month or so out of launch, any feisty comments from Ross since then?