Multiplat AFL 23 - Part 2 with added Pro Team

[FearTheBeard13]

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

So we can conclude Training mode, along with single player mode just never existed and they’ve taken us for a ride since day 1 I swear this mob never fails to deliver on failing to deliver.

 

[Treehill23]

I mean, if i'm honest, the gameplay is really getting somewhere. I just feel like it's still in an 'alpha', maybe pre-alpha stage. not quite polished enough, gameplay needs some genuine fine-tuning and testing. Kicking for goal on the run is an enigma. You can point the (R) stick almost anywhere in front of goals and it seems to be a random end result, point or goal, out on the full.

• Marking, i feel like i'm not controlling it, even though there is timing involved. It feels like it's fairly random.
• The goal umpire slides across the ground still, feels very unpolished. This is why i say pre-alpha.
• Tackles are too sensitive, get anywhere in the fiscinity of another player and it's an automatic lock on tackle.

It definitely needs some good time put into the gameplay and testing.

Tackles too sensitive you reckon ?
In my experience, players often stand there and let the opposition run away with the ball due to the unresponsiveness. I let go of sprint, hold it etc. doesn’t make a difference
Probably my biggest gripe with the gameplay atm

 

[Mootsy]

In my experience, players often stand there and let the opposition run away with the ball due to the unresponsiveness

Interesting.. and i play on easy-mode just because i find kicking for goal on the run is really difficult, and doesn't really follow the direction of the (R) stick..
Definitely the opposite on the ps4 slim for tackling, so maybe this is console specific. Tackles lock on quickly and super easily. Impossible to find much space or time.

 

[Xtreme]

Tackles too sensitive you reckon ?
In my experience, players often stand there and let the opposition run away with the ball due to the unresponsiveness. I let go of sprint, hold it etc. doesn’t make a difference
Probably my biggest gripe with the gameplay atm

Mine is a mixed bag, sometimes the tackles (on the AI side in particular) are too ferocious - contending with the teleporting/cheat tackles (where you're disposing of the ball and have "plenty of time" until the AI teleports right next to you and or gets the super human speed animation and tackles you when you SHOULD have kicked the ball if the glitch/bug/programming choice didn't happen).

Other times there is no interaction and the players just bump into each other like colliding brick walls.

Interesting.. and i play on easy-mode just because i find kicking for goal on the run is really difficult, and doesn't really follow the direction of the (R) stick..
Definitely the opposite on the ps4 slim for tackling, so maybe this is console specific. Tackles lock on quickly and super easily. Impossible to find much space or time.

I thought the on the run kicking had improved in the patch earlier in the week (re: since the March update the goals on the run became neigh on impossible for me, so I resorted to using the general kick button when I wanted to take a shot at goal in general play as opposed to hitting circle/b). But as of today I'm back to using the standard kick button to ensure my kicks are more accurate and don't just go out on the full.

I mean, if i'm honest, the gameplay is really getting somewhere. I just feel like it's still in an 'alpha', maybe pre-alpha stage of trial and error in the testing and development stage. not quite polished enough, gameplay needs some genuine fine-tuning and testing. Kicking for goal on the run is an enigma. You can point the (R) stick almost anywhere in front of goals and it seems to be a random end result, point or goal, out on the full.

• Marking, i feel like i'm not controlling it, even though there is timing involved. It feels like it's fairly random.
• The goal umpire slides across the ground still, feels very unpolished. This is why i say pre-alpha.
• Tackles are too sensitive, get anywhere in the fiscinity of another player and it's an automatic lock on tackle.

It definitely needs some good time put into the gameplay and testing.

They seem to do some good work in the patches, but then roll a lot of the changes back because of the game crashing :-/. I thought they got the re-balancing of marks back to something acceptable. But as of today it's back to the mid March standard of barely being able to clunk any marks at all (guess I better get good at reading the play lol).

Yeah the goal umpire sliding around is a bit silly, but it still happens in general play as well, occasionally you'll see players skate around the ground as opposed to the "legs animation" working as it should.

I still chuckle at the tackle animation where the legs of the player under the tackle spasm manically.

 

[BlackMamba]

i find kicking for goal on the run is really difficult, and doesn't really follow the direction of the (R) stick..

The Right Stick?!?!
I don’t think that’s how it works…

The on-the-run goal kick meter shows up by holding Circle, and you release it when the cursor lands in between the two goal post indicator lines.
Where your player is facing (with the Left Stick) (plus distance, pressure, skill attributes and game difficulty) determine how wide those goal post indicators are.

 

[Mootsy]

The Right Stick?!?!
I don’t think that’s how it works…

The on-the-run goal kick meter shows up by holding Circle, and you release it when the cursor lands in between the two goal post indicator lines.
Where your player is facing (with the Left Stick) (plus distance, pressure, skill attributes and game difficulty) determine how wide those goal post indicators are.

Thanks, this wasn’t obvious to me, but will try this out next time! I’m so daft.

 

[Freo16]

So JNT mentioned that sliders are coming to the game over on the big ant forum.

While that’s great news, big ant seriously have the worst communication ever

 

[GoldbergsGold]

It definitely needs some good time put into the gameplay and testing.

It's obviously broken, it probably had very little play testing. The speed of the players is really off, most of the time the players run around weightless like they're carrying only a 2 kilo body, but when they turn with the ball they succumb to gravity and their 70-110 kilo weight. Not sure why that was never fixed, Live 2011 had players weighted at all times from day 1. I wonder if Tru Blu's involvement benefited in the past, compared to Nacom's seemingly hands off approach with BA. Tru Blu's AFL games being mostly crummy at least had player movement and controls right from day 1 releases.

 

[BlackMamba]

So JNT mentioned that sliders are coming to the game over on the big ant forum.

While that’s great news, big ant seriously have the worst communication ever

Pretty sure sliders were mentioned a while ago… but just not recently in that 4-phase update list thingy.
Hopefully they’re in one of those though.

 

[Grechy]

Pretty sure sliders were mentioned a while ago… but just not recently in that 4-phase update list thingy.
Hopefully they’re in one of those though.

Not sure why people get so excited over sliders. Never seen a game fixed with sliders ever. What ends up happening is a never ending adjustment that people think gives them the perfect experience only to realise that it isn’t and the cycle continues.

 

[game_chromosome]

I feel like the game needs a pivot button.

I'll explain, when you have possession and you want to hand ball or kick a different direction to the one you're running you have to turn and run in that direction to kick or hand ball that way. This sometimes runs you into the arms of the opposition.

Using L1 on PS or LT on Xbox because this switches player and you don't need to do that if you have possession.

So you have the ball running in whichever direction, you press L1 or LT, this keeps your direction from changing and then you aim in the direction you want to hand ball or kick press the corresponding button and whalla. This would probably work better if receiving the ball flat foot in which case L1 or LT would prevent you from running and you can hand ball or kick in any direction without running into trouble.

This could even create the chance to do 1-2 hand balls and make it easier to hand ball around and out of packs.

It's something I'm adding to my game and early tests are decent. Works best when flat foot. While running still need work

 

[BlackMamba]

when you have possession and you want to hand ball or kick a different direction to the one you're running you have to turn and run in that direction to kick or hand ball that way

I like your suggestion (especially for the standing still, 1-2 handball), but for the current game I think you maintain your direction while powering up your kick/handball, Then the direction is what you have pointed to when you release the button…

I think? (I’ll need to test it out tonight to be sure).

 

[carn tigez]

I like your suggestion (especially for the standing still, 1-2 handball), but for the current game I think you maintain your direction while powering up your kick/handball, Then the direction is what you have pointed to when you release the button…

I think? (I’ll need to test it out tonight to be sure).

I thought it was more you can steer while powering up, but then at last second can change direction before release to aim the kick or handball. But that last second bit could be what he means, maybe it makes you turn around at the last second (can't remember)

 

[game_chromosome]

I like your suggestion (especially for the standing still, 1-2 handball), but for the current game I think you maintain your direction while powering up your kick/handball, Then the direction is what you have pointed to when you release the button…

I think? (I’ll need to test it out tonight to be sure).

Yes you are right about the on the run kicking. I find sometimes it's difficult to get a kick off in the exact direction I want to kick in, especially when running near the boundary and wanting to kick in board while avoiding/keeping distance from opposition. Maybe I just need to get better lol

 

[carn tigez]

Just played my first game since the fix. Wary of over-reacting to one game but my thoughts were;

• My first game where I genuinely just enjoyed it, and wanted to keep playing. I've played and seen positives other times, but it hasn't made me want to play more. This time it did.
• Hardest difficulty now working in management so maybe that's why, but contested marking was much harder. I won 29-22 and that was largely due to Balta clunking everything. I was playing against the Eagles and won 63-28 (10.3 to 4.4) so that could be why I won contested marks.
• Really love the defending now - choosing to smother when it pays off is super satisfying, when it doesn't they can run right past you and punish. Lots of random spills from smothers - one that was super satisfying I won hitout in forward 50, couple of scrappy handballs, then Mansell handball smothered by Gaff, but spilled straight back to him and he kicked the goal. Felt like a proper forward 50 stoppage goal.
• Also loved the marking - previously I would just go for the mark every time and usually win. Now I have to spoil, simple thing but adds much needed depth.
• Though in saying that, it seemed too binary at times. Eg Balta won every single contest, a poor defender should still be able to spoil some of the time. If you win every 1-1 it's just too OP to bomb it in long.
• I dominated hitouts and clearances again. Albeit vs Eagles so might be fair enough, but Samson Ryan was again my ruck most of the game and he shouldn't be dominating anyone.
• Clearances all go to the same player. Was Prestia for me, he received 90% of tap downs and had 10 clearances, next highest was 3. Would like to see this spread more or the same position ends up with huge disposals numbers every game.
• On the run goal kicking was better, but maybe too easy now. In real footy they try to find a set shot most of the time because the probability is higher, I'd prefer incentive to do the same with the risk/reward there for on the run.
• I overall just found it super satisfying, the ball movement, defending mechanics and trying to break the lines with drawing players, overlap handball, hitting up targets. The flow is genuinely AFL now.
• Oh one other thing that annoys me - happens fairly frequently that I'll power up a general play kick fully, and it will instead spear a 20m kick to a lead. AFL Live did this really well - you had to power the kick properly. If you load it up you can kick to space out the back, if you don't you kick to space in front. The 'lock on' mechanic shits me, I feel like I don't have any control. Make it so the power meter controls the distance in in-play kicking please.

Otherwise - fix up management mode mechanics and the few tweaks mentioned above and I'll be smashing this game. Lot of fun.

 

[Xtreme]

Difficulty spikes are wild, I was disgusted when I played the game on Friday (after I saw the 16mb patch) as it seemed the previous update was reverted and we were back to the mess of the mid March one.

Play a game this morning and I was playing reasonable free flowing football, still not clunking marks... but gathering the smothered ball and going on with it. Scored a bit in the first quarter, but the second quarter the difficulty ramped up.... seemed like I couldn't do anything right.... until late in the second quarter where I just went bang bang bang bang goal after goal after goal.

Similar process in the third - raining goals for the entire quarter.

But then the difficulty ramped up again in the final quarter, couldn't score until the half way point...... then it rained goals again.

Held Sydney scoreless
Ginnivan kicked 11 - a few loose ball snags, but most were marked just outside 50 and bombed home!

 

[carn tigez]

Difficulty spikes are wild, I was disgusted when I played the game on Friday (after I saw the 16mb patch) as it seemed the previous update was reverted and we were back to the mess of the mid March one.

Play a game this morning and I was playing reasonable free flowing football, still not clunking marks... but gathering the smothered ball and going on with it. Scored a bit in the first quarter, but the second quarter the difficulty ramped up.... seemed like I couldn't do anything right.... until late in the second quarter where I just went bang bang bang bang goal after goal after goal.

Sydney scored 0 lol how hard could it have been

 

[Xtreme]

Sydney scored 0 lol how hard could it have been

There was a lot of forward pressing by them that I only stopped with a lucky timed mark on the goal line!
This occurred for most of the second and fourth quarters.

Also a lot of the goals I kicked from 55-60m could and should have been marked by the AI, but there were either no players hovering around the goal square, or the one's that were present just let the ball bounce once then hop over the line for the goal.

 

[carn tigez]

There was a lot of forward pressing by them that I only stopped with a lucky timed mark on the goal line!
This occurred for most of the second and fourth quarters.

Also a lot of the goals I kicked from 55-60m could and should have been marked by the AI, but there were either no players hovering around the goal square, or the one's that were present just let the ball bounce once then hop over the line for the goal.

I'm guessing the AI on medium does these things as a hack to make the game easier. On hardest I can't say I've ever seen the AI just leave a gettable ball.

 

[Xtreme]

I'm guessing the AI on medium does these things as a hack to make the game easier. On hardest I can't say I've ever seen the AI just leave a gettable ball.

I was playing on hardest though!

My point (which I forgot to write) was that the spikes of difficulty I had in the 2nd and 4th quarters is what the whole game should have been like - but wasn't. My last run of games on Friday (also on hardest) had the AI kicking the ball out on the full in general play in addition to the usual missing of set shots.

This ruck contest also happened earlier

 

[carn tigez]

I was playing on hardest though!

My point (which I forgot to write) was that the spikes of difficulty I had in the 2nd and 4th quarters is what the whole game should have been like - but wasn't. My last run of games on Friday (also on hardest) had the AI kicking the ball out on the full in general play in addition to the usual missing of set shots.

This ruck contest also happened earlier

I wonder if it's glitching between difficulties. I rate myself as a competent enough gamer particularly sport games, and keeping the opposition to 0 hasn't been anywhere near an option for me on hardest. Might be because I try to play fairly realistically, overlap handball etc when kicking long has probably been a better strategy with easy contested marking. But even without that, there have been goals I've basically been powerless to stop when the AI has hit uncontested targets all the way up field (I play a zone) or straight out of the centre.

 

[carn tigez]

Played a 2nd game. Similar experience, heaps of fun, won by 2 points against the Dees in a cracking game, behind by 10 with 5 mins game time to go and kicked the last 2 which had felt no chance for a while.

Gawn won the hitouts which I think is why the game was close - definitely far too much correlation between winning hitout and winning clearance. I think they need to add more hitout variation - the problem before was that you'd win the hitout but the ball would go anywhere. What they should do is make it so it goes where you hit it, but it doesn't always go to the chest of the player. Sometimes it bounces past or just dribbles down and someone else can gain possession.

Also tackles stat is wrong. I think it only counts tackles that result in a ball-up. Hope the fix this because now that the defensive game is fun I want to see my tackle count. So my main gameplay gripes to be fixed are;

• Contested marking remains too 'binary'. If Balta wins the first he tends to win all day which is boring.
• Field play kicking power metres doesn't always work, sometimes it overrides and kicks short when you fully power it.
• Hitouts are always to advantage, need more variation.

Other than these points (and ofc management mode) I think the game's in a great state. And to be fair to BA, previous AFL games have all been littered with things like the above too. By fixing these they'd just go to clear number 1 status in AFL game historical hierarchy.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I feel like the game needs a pivot button.

I'll explain, when you have possession and you want to hand ball or kick a different direction to the one you're running you have to turn and run in that direction to kick or hand ball that way. This sometimes runs you into the arms of the opposition.

Using L1 on PS or LT on Xbox because this switches player and you don't need to do that if you have possession.

So you have the ball running in whichever direction, you press L1 or LT, this keeps your direction from changing and then you aim in the direction you want to hand ball or kick press the corresponding button and whalla. This would probably work better if receiving the ball flat foot in which case L1 or LT would prevent you from running and you can hand ball or kick in any direction without running into trouble.

This could even create the chance to do 1-2 hand balls and make it easier to hand ball around and out of packs.

It's something I'm adding to my game and early tests are decent. Works best when flat foot. While running still need work

Didn't the other games have that? I remember in Evo 2 and I think Live 2011 as long you could point the analog stick the direction you wanted to hand ball or kick it would do that, it didn't matter which direction you were facing. But I think in 23 you're forced to dispose in front of where you're facing.

 

[BlackMamba]

Didn't the other games have that? I remember in Evo 2 and I think Live 2011 as long you could point the analog stick the direction you wanted to hand ball or kick it would do that, it didn't matter which direction you were facing. But I think in 23 you're forced to dispose in front of where you're facing.

I’m 90% sure it goes in the direction you are pointing the analog stick when you release powering up your disposal.

 

[carn tigez]

I’m 90% sure it goes in the direction you are pointing the analog stick when you release powering up your disposal.

I tracked it today in the 2 games I played. It's a bit of both - you have to time the release perfectly otherwise there's a late turn into traffic. If you couldn't change direction while powering up the game would be broken, so you can. But if you want to change your kick direction last minute you need to time it perfectly.

Tbh I don't mind this. In my mind it kind of replicates pressure - you're about to be tackled, so your kick can't go exactly where you want. I know it's not how AFL works in reality, but we're never gonna get that level of AI, so this as a stop gap solution works ok. The example for me that happened 3-4 times was streaming off half back, being chased, try to get my kick along boundary but due to pressure from behind I didn't nail the redirect and it went out on the full. I like that as a mechanic rather than always nailing the kick which makes gameplay repetitive.

 

[game_chromosome]

I tracked it today in the 2 games I played. It's a bit of both - you have to time the release perfectly otherwise there's a late turn into traffic. If you couldn't change direction while powering up the game would be broken, so you can. But if you want to change your kick direction last minute you need to time it perfectly.

Tbh I don't mind this. In my mind it kind of replicates pressure - you're about to be tackled, so your kick can't go exactly where you want. I know it's not how AFL works in reality, but we're never gonna get that level of AI, so this as a stop gap solution works ok. The example for me that happened 3-4 times was streaming off half back, being chased, try to get my kick along boundary but due to pressure from behind I didn't nail the redirect and it went out on the full. I like that as a mechanic rather than always nailing the kick which makes gameplay repetitive.

Your direction wouldn't be locked unless you choose it to be that way. If the option is there to lock direction and aim somewhere else great, if you choose not to use it, that's great to. But having the option there would be a bonus if not just to be able to do 1-2 handballs without moving.

How often during real footy do players run towards the boundary near the forward 50 while avoiding opposition and then kick to the hot spot at the top of the goal square? You can't replicate that as easily currently