HB STUDIOS Q&A vol. 3

[Radman]

Rugby Challenge 06 should have been Jonah with better graphics but they dropped the ball big time on that one.

Sorry for straying.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Rugby Challenge 06 should have been Jonah with better graphics but they dropped the ball big time on that one.

Sorry for straying.

Well, all I know is that there have been many times throughout TRF's evolution that different developer's have told us "We'll take your feedback on board". When they did, it tended to work out very well, (the off-loads and unlockable teams/editing of in '06 being a minor example). When they ignored or couldn't incorporate the feedback, it tended to not work out so well.

In case of Rugby Challenge '06 from Codemasters, that game moved away from the "more like Lomu's please" feedback taken from World Class Rugby (or Zinzans) and went even further in the same direction that World Class Rugby had strayed away from Lomu's. Now the rules have changed too much to do a Lomu's style game anymore.

Rugby gaming is a real case study in development teams believing more in their programming and artistic teams (fair enough to an extent), than bothering to alpha or beta with some genuine game-play fanatics in the market. They probably don't want to hear things in the middle of the creative process that contradict "the vision" and say "please this part does not work well enough, take this more in this direction".

If they (all dev teams) are using genuine Rugby gamers for testing, I'd like to know who they are, as they are either useless at having a genuine understanding of what works well and what doesn't and they're more lucky than they deserve. Either that or they are involved too late in the process to be able change anything or not listened to. Just my 2c on that.

One day, someone will clue into this.

 

[giblett80]

Thats an excellent point and as well as having geniune rugby gamers testing why not get some input on their knowledge of clubs and the lesser players who can be otherwise underrated by game programmers.

 

[Saints1]

I did some testing on Rugby Challenge 2006.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Thats an excellent point and as well as having geniune rugby gamers testing why not get some input on their knowledge of clubs and the lesser players who can be otherwise underrated by game programmers.

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

I'm confident that with the right people involved over-powering players wouldn't happen.

 

[Duckdee]

I think assumptions can sometimes be made one way or the other too early by fans, based on too little information.

Too true. Having an early preference is one thing, but you can't say one game will be awesome, and the other will tank, because of the ONLY ONE announced feature.

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in
threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

Yes, please.

 

[giblett80]

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

I'm confident that with the right people involved over-powering players wouldn't happen.

That would be perfect for developing the specifics of the game as long as people were realistic on the abilities of there team and players. The other thing I was considering was some way of defining different teams style of play depending on their strengths and weaknesses, such as forward pack dominated style of play opposed to a strong set of running backs. Something lacking from older games.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

That would be perfect for developing the specifics of the game as long as people were realistic on the abilities of there team and players. The other thing I was considering was some way of defining different teams style of play depending on their strengths and weaknesses, such as forward pack dominated style of play opposed to a strong set of running backs. Something lacking from older games.

If doing that idea, ideally you'd have each team checked out afterwards for imbalances or inaccuracies by independent moderators or admins and then the number of points of all attributes tallied so that it didn't exceed a certain value.

 

[CCCakumbra]

Yea, I think that this would be a great idea and work really well, also would save HB a lot of time!

 

[Ryan Powell]

I have recently joined the rugby forum and i was just reading all this info.I am gutted that there will not be a manager mode.I think that this would have been a great touch.Fifa have had a manger mode for three seasons and it ssems that rugby is way behind.Some of the answers looked interesting but overall without a manager mode i think this game is going to be a big dissapointment.

 

[dannetts]

i just hope to god it is nothing like "rugby challenge 2006"
What a ridiculous game.
Although game play should be the main priority, to me licensing and real teams/players is secondly important and HB should be taking this a lot more seriously.
I doubt I am the only one who will be a bit cheesed of if only half the game is licensed. But yeah game play first. licensing second. Then any of competitions they wanted to add could just be made into a DlC?

 

[nicolau]

comme ils ont l exclusivite des jeux rugby ils peuvent se permettre de nous faire attendre trois ans puis de nous servir un jeu a la va vite car de toute maniere les passionnes vont l acheter

 

[dan the man]

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

I'm confident that with the right people involved over-powering players wouldn't happen.

Great Idea! Sign me up!

 

[OnTheBall]

The lack of manager mode doesn't bother me too much personally, as it's not a mode i'd play much in fifa. While I found the news about passing a little disappointing at first, they did say it would be "very similar", not the 'exact same'. In my opinion the passing system was far from the biggest thing wrong in rugby 08. While it could be quite one dimensional in 08, a few tweaks here and there could see it improved a fair bit (a power gauge maybe to decide how wide the pass goes and an inside pass?).
Still very excited.

 

[horchard]

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

I'm confident that with the right people involved over-powering players wouldn't happen.

Great Idea. Shot gun london wasps. I've been a season ticket holder there for 6 years now. We need HB studios to read this! Lets make this happen people! Lets make this rugby game for us! the beautiful fans of rugby!

 

[CCCakumbra]

Although we know that screenshots can't be released because of licensing issues, I would be more than happy with a screenshot similar to Rugby Challenge's with a few in game faces and even a stadium which is being worked on.
I think that would keep the majority of us happy for a month or so at least!

 

[Hamez]

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

I'm confident that with the right people involved over-powering players wouldn't happen.

Thats what many of us have been calling for since the information that the game was being done. It would make way more sense to use the community to create the stats and such for each player, because if you used the average of more peoples input the better balanced it would be. There would have to be set guidelines atc, but I think it would work great.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Thats what many of us have been calling for since the information that the game was being done. It would make way more sense to use the community to create the stats and such for each player, because if you used the average of more peoples input the better balanced it would be. There would have to be set guidelines atc, but I think it would work great.

I'm wanting to make sure I don't waste anyone's time first up as if the data isn't used (or can't be customised in later during play of the game as 'The TRF Squads' or something, then I'd feel like I'd wasted peoples time creating the detailed squads.

Believe me, coordinating something like that for you all to do would be something I'd of been onto for some time now if I'd had a green-light. Although I must say that I imagine the worst part of the waiting game is over, there is still a little time to go before things start getting busier info-wise.

 

[Chuck87]

If we had the go ahead to, a good idea would be appointing a team of 5 forum members per club to work on that club in threads that only focus on working out:

1. Who would be the 30 players for the club.
2. Which players would start, which would be substitutes in the 22, which would be reserve players.
3. Their skill levels rated out of 100 in the various skill categories.
4. Their primary position, secondary position and alternate position (if applicable).
5. Their specialist skills (goalkicker, passer, playmaker etc).

By now we could have had some really good draft squads to submit. If anyone from HB reads this and okay's it, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers. We'd just have to get that go ahead.

I'm confident that with the right people involved over-powering players wouldn't happen.

i totally i agree on this point. i would be more than happy to volunteer to represent the Pacific Island teams. as you all know Rugby 08 the Pacific Island teams roster and players were all wrong and missed up.

N.Little was N.Large
B.Lima was B.Laima

our input is important as we are the ones playing the video game and we want it to be right and perfect.

 

[ozmanoshe]

I really feel that it would have been helpful for HB to have released a Q and A like this many months back. The reason being that many posters on this forum have put together a lot of really great ideas which we can now see are far beyond the scope of the game that HB intended to release.
Since this forum is intended to provide constructive feedback for HB then it would have made much more sense for us to be aware of these boundaries and so we could provide more realistic suggestions which could have really helped HB.

As things stand I really hope it is not a simple clone of 2008 repackaged with slightly better graphics. 08 was average at best and a slightly better looking port won't do anything to grow the profile of rugby as a serious sports game. I hope that the bad news is out of the way and we can get some good news about there being at least rudimentary player and roster editing tools, AI improvements and some minor improvements in the physics area, as all these are directly related to gameplay which is after all their primary focus now.

One other question, some people are assuming online multiplayer is a given, but have HB confirmed it yet? If this feature is out it might be the straw that breaks the back of even the most die-hard rugby fans.