Yeah that was a favourite tactic at HB for a while. It's pretty much been shut down on harder difficulty levels. Though it was a tactic favoured by Matt Lane, our game designer so we'll see if he's left the window slightly ajar to preserve his edge against Glen.
I was undefeated at HB in multiplayer games for the 6 years I had been working here until we started making this game (though Alastair would argue otherwise). I have a post-it note on my desk that shows me with a Win/Loss/Draw record of 7-4-3 over Matt. So I am beatable now, and I put that down to a few things.
- We have removed a lot of exploits that people have used in the past such as toning down the zig-zagging exploit a fair amount, though players with high agility will still be fairly good at it.
- Guard Control is a great defensive tool for minimizing points and tightening up your defense.
- The Ruck battles are quicker, so you don't have that ability to turn the ball over long after you realistically should have been able to.
- When playing online you can't see kick arrows or any indication that a player is doing a set play. When playing offline you could (and still can) see exactly where the kick was going to go. This now makes it difficult to predict your opponents behaviour. Also when you do attempt to trigger a set play in general in our game the camera zooms out a bit so you can see your passing line better so you can see the icons above the player heads when the set play plays out. In Online the remote player doesn't see this zoom so they still have no idea that you are trying to run a set play.
- Different ruck support strategies. If you want to play close to the ruck we would switch to the forward tactic so you keep your best rucking players close to the ruck. The addition of the 3rd man run from the back of a ruck is another positive addition. It keeps you guessing when you can employ a tactic like this with a player that may be better suited to taking a tackle and retaining possession like a forward then say the scrum half would.
- Quick pick-ups can really change momentum. You could be pressing towards the opponents tryline then have an opportunity for a quick pick-up if the tackled player is isolated. You have to be quick but its the sort of behavior that can lead to breakaways and even length of the field tries, particularly if you aren't expecting it.
In my opinion this is the most fun and competitive Rugby game we have ever made. We have built on what has made our game good in the past whilst adapting our game play to match a more fluid and fast pace that has made Rugby so much fun to watch over the past few years.
Oh... and go the Reds!!
