Injuries only occur during a match - there are no "training" or "driving a golf cart into traffic on a motorway" type injuries. This is a design decision. While injuries through the journey to the final is part of the story told following a campaign, the likelihood that a player will see the mode through following an injury to a key player and not just play the match again or restart the campaign is low. Deemed frustrating and therefore not included. A possible inclusion for a longer game mode in the future.
Animation for injured players on the ground has been included this year.
No. No carry over.
Understood and mostly agree (at least for the mass market/pickup and play users) - this sort of injury mechanic/gameplay would be more suited to a club league competition where a player is likely to be able to feature again in a season even if they do receive a serious injury. For a 6-week comp like the RWC I can see how this would put some non-hardcore players off playing if their favourite player was bombed out with a torn hamstring.
Injuries are integral to rugby however, and it is a squad game as they say - is there any incentive or reason to use your extended squad in the game? i.e. is stamina/tiredness/form/morale an attribute that can go up/down depending on a players performance in one game that might encourage you to keeping them in your XV for the next game, or conversely drop them if they have a stinker and bring in a reserve who has better stamina/form/morale?
Light injuries can occur in game that do not necessitate a substitution. More severe injuries require taking the player off before proceeding.
We'd have prioritized a player creator above a Create-a-tournament feature. This game as the Official Video Game of Rugby World Cup 2011 focuses on the world of the tournament.
Understood - you had strict priorities and the main license to think of. It may be an option to consider however to add longevity to the games lifespan after the RWC has ended and before your next rugby ***le. For instance, how about a DLC release in advance of the 6 Nations that would tap into players need/want to replicate that competition at that time of year?
Nice idea, not this time. We had our hands full on the licensing front without tracking down the rights to representative teams.
You could always throw a few in there as unlicensed teams, similar to how you've done the baa-baas and Islanders in the past
Yes.
You can review the score and the tournament wide stats. We do not expose match reports for all of the CPU vs. CPU fixtures.
How do you determine who scores what points for the AI only games - what simulation method/mechanic is in place... for instance, if I'm playing as Ireland in the RWC, will the game be likely to show Chris Ashton as having scored the majority of tries for England in their games, or will it randomly balance them out across the entire England side etc.
Basically what I'm after here is whether the game can simulate not just realistic scorelines in AI matches, but realistic scorers and how the points are accumulated (trys, convs, pens etc)
There is a post match screen showing the recent results.
Up to 20.
Is it possible to select no player controlled teams and just simulate the RWC? Or if you do pick one team to play as, can you simulate some of their games during the competition?
(I know, why would I want to simulate as opposed to play myself right? Well if I am going to be adjusting player stats etc I want to be able to determine whether the game itself sees the adjustments as having an effect on a team without a player using it... if I create Dan Carter for example and make him an awesome fly-half, through simulating NZ games in the RWC mode, will I be able to determine that he is likely to score a bucket load of points/pens/convs without me having to play as him?)
We've been talking about DLC for this game as recently as last year. Over the course of development, our plan for DLC changed. Our focus now that we are nearing the completion of the development work on RWC2011 will not be on DLC that would be released into the RWC 2011 game.
So do you mean that you have no focus on DLC at this time due to working hard on completing dev work on RWC2011 or is that a definitive, never to DLC?
(see one of my points above on a good idea and time for a minor DLC release)
Aye, but in reality you very rarely see the out half get tackled by Superman either
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!!
I understand that TRF is looking at ways to ensure good TRF Leagues. With any luck that'll include leagues or divisions that will include promotion/relegation.
That's a small indicator how seriously we'll be trying to help out with some good competitions here. Maybe not quite the same as full online ranking and leaderboards, but it should still be some pretty serious and fair competition.
I understand that TRF is looking at ways to ensure good TRF Leagues. With any luck that'll include leagues or divisions that will include promotion/relegation.
That's a small indicator how seriously we'll be trying to help out with some good competitions here. Maybe not quite the same as full online ranking and leaderboards, but it should still be some pretty serious and fair competition.
