Our new game is coming soon:- "Rugby Champions"

[JohnKA]

Definitely add Super Rugby and the Currie Cup.

I agree ! Super rugby would be awesome !!

 

[Frans.Hendrik]

Thanks Harry! Glad it's the first game in ages to give you that real rugby feeling, that's what we were going for!

With regard to more realistic results in the AI v AI games, I aim to have this fixed in a patch for this coming weekend.

Just a question, isn't the AI vs AI results due to the high stats for players and teams of lower class? I mean japan is rated 82. If so I can see if I can't modify with the sqlite editor and test.

 

[GPRed]

Just a question, isn't the AI vs AI results due to the high stats for players and teams of lower class? I mean japan is rated 82. If so I can see if I can't modify with the sqlite editor and test.

Yes, if you change the players of Japan for example to be worse then they will lose more AI v AI games. Note that if you do this in SQLite rather than the in game editor, you will need to open the edited roster in the in game customisation editor and then save it to force the team ovr calculation to update.

The AI v AI 3D sims are very accurate, and the game can even be watched. The default quick sims which can't be watched are less accurate and I will be releasing an update before the weekend which improves there accuracy.

 

[JohnKA]

Imagine we had a game that combined the UI of Rugby champions, the management part of national rugby manager , GRM and RUTM17 with international call ups and so forth ..

 

[JohnKA]

Please remember to put up reviews on steam ! We need to support the developers as much as we can to get more rugby games !

 

[Cain]

Hi - So I wrote a review on steam for this game (Maniac_ZA). The things I would prioritize if I were the developers would be the following.

1) Add a quickmatch option. It is a great way for new people to get into the game (without having to start a tournament) and it is usefull if you want to quickly check your difficulty level.
2) Add a create a tournament mode.
3) Add the ability to create new teams (would give the community the ability to create own teams / share rosters for provincial teams)

But I have to say that Rugby Champions have some if not the best AI I have seen in a rugby game. The AI has scored some awesome tries against me and I wish other rugby ***les would actually take a look at what you guys did. Awesome work.

 

[GPRed]

Please remember to put up reviews on steam ! We need to support the developers as much as we can to get more rugby games !

Thanks John, very true. Games live and breath by the steam reviews

 

[GPRed]

Hi - So I wrote a review on steam for this game (Maniac_ZA). The things I would prioritize if I were the developers would be the following.

1) Add a quickmatch option. It is a great way for new people to get into the game (without having to start a tournament) and it is usefull if you want to quickly check your difficulty level.
2) Add a create a tournament mode.
3) Add the ability to create new teams (would give the community the ability to create own teams / share rosters for provincial teams)

But I have to say that Rugby Champions have some if not the best AI I have seen in a rugby game. The AI has scored some awesome tries against me and I wish other rugby ***les would actually take a look at what you guys did. Awesome work.

Thanks Cain. I think quickmatches are something we could add soon. They should help reduce the chance that people will play the game for 0.1 hours on steam, take no time to learn the controls, and leave a bad review

Glad you are enjoying the quality of the tries the AI scores against you. This was one of our major motivations for developing a game like this. We love playing rugby games, but what we found is that while many of them were fun to begin with, once you mastered the controls the AI could no longer score against you. To counter this, rather than improve the AI it seems that many of them just relied on cheap tricks like making you knock the ball on all the time. Which usually resulted in the game disintegrating into a mess and not being fun anymore.

 

[JohnKA]

Not sure if someone have mentioned it but a mode like world league in rugby08 would be awesome, i know it is easier said than done but i am 100% that would be a massive win for this ***le.

Currently from what i have heard people say is that they want:

More tournaments
Be able to change the controls (One of my friends refunded the game over this)

But as I said a world league type of game mode would be freaking awesome !

 

[Cain]

Thanks Cain. I think quickmatches are something we could add soon. They should help reduce the chance that people will play the game for 0.1 hours on steam, take no time to learn the controls, and leave a bad review

Glad you are enjoying the quality of the tries the AI scores against you. This was one of our major motivations for developing a game like this. We love playing rugby games, but what we found is that while many of them were fun to begin with, once you mastered the controls the AI could no longer score against you. To counter this, rather than improve the AI it seems that many of them just relied on cheap tricks like making you knock the ball on all the time. Which usually resulted in the game disintegrating into a mess and not being fun anymore.

Spot on. That is exactly how I felt rugby games worked. The Devs would use cheap tricks to make the AI seem harder instead of actually coding intelligent AI.

Rugby Challenge series suffered from too much offloading and ridiculous passes on higher difficulty
Big Ben first gen Rugby games (Rugby 08,06,05) used the trick where the AI would win almost every ruck but they couldn't do anything with the possession due to dumb AI.
Eko Soft in Rugby 18 used the possession trick but once you figure out the timing it becomes way too easy.
Rugby 15 (Also Big Ben) was just a fail.

So I am honestly happy that someone actually "go it right" by coding smart AI. AI that passes when there is only a full back left to tackle them but they have guys in support.
AI that tries to hit gaps and not slam into the first defender they see.
Fullbacks and backline AI players that actually defend naturally and not just "chase" the ball carrier in a straight line.

I can go on and on and on but I think you know what my frustration is with rugby games in general.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

The AI is the best feature of the game so far. I love that the full back is in position until you enter about 30m out and he joins the line.
The controls are somewhat painful, something about holding A to sprint instead of using a trigger, and trying to sprint and tackle proves painful (probably just for me and my boxers hands).

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

The AI is the best feature of the game so far. I love that the full back is in position until you enter about 30m out and he joins the line.
The controls are somewhat painful, something about holding A to sprint instead of using a trigger, and trying to sprint and tackle proves painful (probably just for me and my boxers hands).

Yeah I agree. The controls need work, with improvement this could be an incredible game but at the moment it's very difficult to get used to and a little fiddly.
All a work in progress though!

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Yeah I agree. The controls need work, with improvement this could be an incredible game but at the moment it's very difficult to get used to and a little fiddly.
All a work in progress though!

If they were to expand the game ad a bit more depth (i.e merge their manager game and tournaments with this one) it would be the best rugby game out right now (if they fix the controls)

 

[GPRed]

Thanks for the feedback guys. We will be looking to add things like new competitions and controller configurations. Might take us a while as we have a small team.

The shoulder buttons were used for passing to replicate Jonah Lomu's rugby which had very slick passing for it's time.

We can look to implement alternative controller configurations, for example with sprint as one of the shoulder buttons.​

I often have the same feeling with any new sports game that the controls are not ideal, but I often find if I bite the bullet and give it a chance the controls become second nature (can be difficult transitioning between games though!).

I'm not suggesting that our controls are perfect, just that it can be a slippery slope, as everyone has their preferences (unsurprisingly I like the controls). One mans perfect controller configuration is another man's reason to rage quit ​

 

[Boomslangnz]

I would love to see local multiplayer and a side view while playing would be nice. It seems like it has that for replays only

I dunno if I'm a huge fan of the slow motion kicks personally either but maybe there is a way to kick without the slow motion?

Just a note on lineouts if you do add them. For simplicity jonah lomu had it pretty spot on but I used to love the way rugby 2004 had it. You could throw short, medium or long and jump early etc with dpad and even do dummy jumpers. You had to get timing right though

 

[GPRed]

I would love to see local multiplayer and a side view while playing would be nice. It seems like it has that for replays only

I dunno if I'm a huge fan of the slow motion kicks personally either but maybe there is a way to kick without the slow motion?

Just a note on lineouts if you do add them. For simplicity jonah lomu had it pretty spot on but I used to love the way rugby 2004 had it. You could throw short, medium or long and jump early etc with dpad and even do dummy jumpers. You had to get timing right though

Local multiplayer would be great. Used to love playing that in Rugby 06.

Sorry there is no way to play in side view at the moment. We did try kicks in real time in testing, but it made the game really hard. Open to revisiting this, but will probably stay as is for the time being.

Thanks, for the advice on lineouts. We are looking for the best ways to implement scrum and lineout mini games....might have to dust off rugby 04!

 

[GPRed]

Cornflake has made a 'Going in Blind' video of Rugby Champions. Like all of his videos it is a very entertaining watch. You can check it out here,

 

[Floody]

Simple Lineout mini game using playstation controller configuration.

Down on D Pad: Triggers front man turn around for a quick short lineout. X button to throw ball to him.

Left on D Pad: Triggers front pod to lift jumper. Square button to throw ball to him.

Up on D Pad: Triggers middle pod to lift jumper. Triangle button to throw ball to him.

Right on D pad: Triggers back pod to lift jumper. Circle button to throw ball to him.

 

[JohnKA]

I would like a option to maul from a line-out, just on a side note how much work would it be to improve the graphics ? Seem to be what most people complain about in some other threads I have seen.

 

[GPRed]

I would like a option to maul from a line-out, just on a side note how much work would it be to improve the graphics ? Seem to be what most people complain about in some other threads I have seen.

If we had say rugby challenge models and animations to drop in it wouldn't be much work. Making those models and animations is where the work is. It's certainly doable but will need a bit of budget to work with.