Q & A with Alastair - The Answer Thread

[bobbilycious]

It's not button mashing, it's pressing it to fill a bar
If you mash it, you run the risk over filling the bar and infringing at the ruck (or so I understand)

I got the impression it was button mashing somehow. Perhaps I spend too much time on the Sidhe forums
Thanks

 

[DorceOutSide]

Yup. You're penalized for playing your players out of position. This is by design.

will this make more of a difference if you swap a secound five with a prop or will it be the same bad handeling if you put a flanker to 8. thanks for answering the q's

 

[D-Dog]

can the AI attack? it was always frustrating in 08 even on hardest difficulty that the AI could rarely make much ground and (especially Eng with JW and NZ with DC) seemed to only kick drop goals whenever in range. more tries by the AI will make the games closer and more exciting.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

And how glorious that was compared to using the shoulder buttons. 08 was horrid with the PS2 setup.

Your completely right there Bullitt, what I wouldn't give for that as an option!

 

[Sam Hanning]

When ever I play against cater or wilkinson they always kick and kick perfectly making I really hard. Hope with the difficulty tweaks it won't do this all the time

 

[chluus1]

can the AI attack? it was always frustrating in 08 even on hardest difficulty that the AI could rarely make much ground and (especially Eng with JW and NZ with DC) seemed to only kick drop goals whenever in range. more tries by the AI will make the games closer and more exciting.

Yeah great question!!!!!

 

[Getofmeland]

Having played the game and seen the AI, they can attack and score...

 

[alex]

Having played the game and seen the AI, they can attack and score...

Sounds like you lost

 

[makes]

Thanks for all the Info.Two questions.Is Hot patato passes still in the game. Seems a bit unrealistic in 08.Does the tackle rule apply when making a tackle.Is there a button that you must press to release the tackled player after making the tackle.

 

[Scotsman]

Hi Getofmeland,

I have two questions - in rugby 06/08 the AI tended to always attack using set plays, making their attacks very predictable. In your opinion has this stayed the same or are their attacks more free form?

Finally when you looked at the game (and be honest here!) did it look like an update of rugby 2008 on next gen consoles? i.e did the gameplay/animations etc looks very similar

Cheers!

 

[HB_Glen]

With the button mashing style rucks will we be able to play for extended periods of time?
I worry that people's thumbs will die a painful death, first.

Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere.

Your thumbs should be fine. The battle is really short, I'm talking 2 to 3 seconds, and slamming the button does not necessarily guarantee you win the ruck.
Also if you have better quality rucking players entering the ruck the button then fewer button presses are required to increase your rucking intensity.

So for example if you are playing with Namibia you may have to press the X or A button a lot more to increase your intensity, but at the same time with weaker players in the ruck it may not be possible to fill that meter very much, particularly on the harder difficulties. Rucking ability of the 3 players entering the ruck is a big factor in this contest.

On the lower difficulties it will be easier to fill the meter. You can fill it and sometimes get away without a penalty but more often then not you will be penalized for filling it too much. So the contest is not intended to be a button bash fest as that can work against you.

As with the old mechanic from our previous games the ruck contest is completely optional. You can choose to do it to increase your chances of protecting the ball or creating a turnover, but just because one person fills that meter and the other person doesn't will not mean that a turnover is guaranteed. Also the other risk to continually competing in the ruck is that the players who enter the ruck take a stamina hit the more you try to fill that gauge.

Also i think in one thread someone commented on the meter and what the padlocks mean. The check mark means that team has secured possession essentially and from that point on you cannot turn the ball over in the ruck.

As Alastair has mentioned our ruck contest are very quick, over in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds.

 

[HB_Glen]

Not sure if this has already been asked, but when a ruck has formed and the scrum half is no where near the break down, does someone else fill in? Because in 08 nobody would act as a stand in scrum-half and it would take an age for the scrum half to reach the ruck and possession would often be turned over.

I'm fairly certain that someone gets in there pretty quickly now. Don't forget that there is the addition of a 3rd man run in the game now so if they don't you can choose to run the ball from the ruck with the 3rd man. In the past the rucks generally just allowed forwards to pile in, now any player can potentially enter a ruck. I'm sure AJ touched on it but we have 3 ruck support strategies.

Balanced - This is the default, we favour Forwards going into the ruck battle in this instance but it's possible that a back goes in too.

Forwards - When using this strategy a pod of forwards will generally follow the ball carrier into the tackle, so throwing it wide while using this strategy is generally not wise but useful when keeping things tight.

Nearest Man - The nearest 3 players to the breakdown enter the ruck. Can work to your advantage if you throw it wide as the backs can quickly pile in without waiting for the forwards to arrive but they generally have weaker rucking abilities and that can work against you.

It's a neat feature and an added layer of depth that you can work with in the game. Most people may stick with the default balanced and never use these strategies, but they can make all the difference, particularly on harder difficulties.

 

[HB_Glen]

Having played the game and seen the AI, they can attack and score...

Having played the game on Hard frequently I can find myself losing playing as South Africa against England 30 something to nil. That is how difficult it can be at times. So don't worry they know how to score. You really need to concentrate to do well on Hard.

 

[j-dawg]

Having played the game on Hard frequently I can find myself losing playing as South Africa against England 30 something to nil. That is how difficult it can be at times. So don't worry they know how to score. You really need to concentrate to do well on Hard.

Maybe your just a terrible player...and person

 

[HB_Glen]

Maybe your just a terrible player...and person

Well, the cats out of the bag now

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I can find myself losing playing as South Africa against England 30 something to nil.

Well at least the game has the right idea about how these things are supposed to play out

 

[bullman]

Hi Glen, could you please explain how the warm up tour mode works?

 

[Glenfillan]

Glen. How wil the ratings work for the different country's.
Will the NZ & AUS teams have their current world ranking or not.
I am asking this because SA are currently 3rd(only since end of year'10).
In rugby'08 SA was ranked according to our world ranking during the November'06 European tour(4th).I am assuming since that was SA's default squad in the game.
We were 4th for only one/two months during'06 though.But had to play with that ranking for 4years.
My point is that on the current world ranking we are 1.01 points behind AUS.
Which means if we beat them in the very next game we are 2nd.
Also if you look at the stats over the last 42 months(3 1/2 years) SA have been no.1 for 28% of the time, 2nd 48% and 3rd 24%.
I just think that when ranking SA you should take this into consideration.
Im sorry if this sounds picky. It is just so frustrating playing a game with a team that is under rated.
Thank you very much.
Roll on August

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Having played the game on Hard frequently I can find myself losing playing as South Africa against England 30 something to nil. That is how difficult it can be at times. So don't worry they know how to score. You really need to concentrate to do well on Hard.

You wouldn't say that it's been made so hard that some of the achievements and trophies might be a little too hard on the top difficulty level?

On that subject, do you know of or have any favourite trophies/achievements that have gone in? Or any fan suggested ones?

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Glen. How wil the ratings work for the different country's.
Will the NZ & AUS teams have their current world ranking or not.
I am asking this because SA are currently 3rd(only since end of year'10).
In rugby'08 SA was ranked according to our world ranking during the November'06 European tour(4th).I am assuming since that was SA's default squad in the game.
We were 4th for only one/two months during'06 though.But had to play with that ranking for 4years.
My point is that on the current world ranking we are 1.01 points behind AUS.
Which means if we beat them in the very next game we are 2nd.
Also if you look at the stats over the last 42 months(3 1/2 years) SA have been no.1 for 28% of the time, 2nd 48% and 3rd 24%.
I just think that when ranking SA you should take this into consideration.
Im sorry if this sounds picky. It is just so frustrating playing a game with a team that is under rated.
Thank you very much.
Roll on August

I believe it's been confirmed that default Australia and New Zealand do have the 2nd and 1st rankings respectively. It seems from what has been said that it could well be that all of the rankings follow IRB World Rankings as near as possible.