Rugby 2012 - World League Improvement Suggestions

[ranger]

Right, World League is pretty much the "flagship" game mode in the Rugby series. Its the one people sink the most time into and i think i speak for everyone when i say it is the most enjoyable mode. That being said, there is always room for improvement, and i think if there are any tweaks to the game that would improve on Rugby 08, continuing to develop World League would be at the top of the list.

That being said, here is an idea to re-vamp the World League mode;

*You begin World League by being able to choose to manage any club team in the game (If you are a diehard Crusaders fan, you shouldn't have to wait around on the off chance the Crusaders ask you to manage them, just let the gamer choose where to go)

*The game begins with a newspaper headline saying "Outgoing (insert chosen club here) Manager Admits To Cheating the Salary Cap" Your "manager hub" then gets an email from the World League C.E.O explaining that the last manager had been breaking World League rules and as a result your team faces the following consquences:
-They have to sell all "Star players" before the start of the season
-They are dropped down to the lowest league
-They have to pay fines untill your finances are at 0
-They have their salary cap halved,( or possibly a third or quarter taken away) for the duration of the first season.
(This way no matter what team you choose, you will be the worst team in the game and will have to fight up from the bottom)

*Your first job is then to cut all the players that you deem to be too expensive to keep. This depends on an individuals preference and philosophy on the game, some would say that no matter the cost they have to keep Richard Kahui to marshal the backline. Others would say the had to keep their tighthead prop to ensure they win the set peice. Players would be able to construct the team around the way they want to play the game and the tactics they want to use from the outset

*Next, you would be taken to the player transfer screen.
-Every player in the game would be available to transfer at all times. This includes the Japanese national players and Samoans and Fijians etc that were in rugby 08 but unable to be used in world league. This also means there is no waiting around for the next "transfer window" on the offchance the player you want/need is there. If you need a goal kicker, you dont have to just hope one pops up you can search for one.
-If you want to buy a player that is not contracted to any other world league team (Such as the Japanese national players) then you just have to negotiate a price with the player. If you want to buy a player that is on contract with another team, you have to pay that players club a sum of money to buy out their contract, and then negotiate a price with the individual player.
-Your team for the first season therefore would be largely made up of Romanians, Georgians, Namibians etc and the "worst" players from other world league teams that they were willing to part with cheaply. In amongst the those players you could splash out on one or two classy yet relatively cheap players (such as Isa Nacewa or Morgan Turinui) if you have the cap room after signing 25 or so other players.
-The idea is that you would use the little cap room you have to emphasize the strengths of the tactics you intend to use, if you intend to play largely 10 man rugby you would recruit stong bullocking forwards, an expensive flyhalf and average backs. If you intend to throw the ball around you would invest in exciting backs, and a mobile forward pack. You wouldnt have the money or cap room for everything

I'll think of more later..

What do you guys think should be done to improve the mode?

 

[best_fullback]

Some good points there. Like the idea of your team being demoted and having to ship off expensive earners - reminds me of Master League in PES when you started with absolutely awful players but there was an option to add other players. Gives the game that bit more depth as you can choose to rebuild the team around a player or aspect of your game.

I like it in the new Fifa games where you have a large control over club management. There were many good aspects to this:

- Firstly a sponsor. Before a season you select a sponsor for that year from a possible 3 who give you a starting sum (e.g. £1m) and a win bonus (e.g. £100k). These 3 sponsors differ dramatically. One may give you a large sum at the start so you can add quite a few players, but hardly anything if you win games. Another may give not a lot to start with but a good wage for winning games.

- Improving club facilities. There are several criteria you can choose to improve in Fifa such as Attack deveopment, Defence development, Fitness, Negotiator, Scouting, Stadium manager etc. They all rank from a scale of 1-10 and cost around £100k to get the first level, but slowly increment and each level costs higher than the last. For instance to upgrade lv9 to Lv10 for fitness costs around £2m. Choosing your sponsor at the start of the season well you can improve your club management throughout the season if winning games. By improving Fitness your players don't tire as quickly in games and recover quicker. Development means the higher the level the more the players will develop when playing. Upgrading the scouting will mean your scouts will more often find better players than a lower ranked one. Improving negotiator will make players more likely to come to your team over others. Stadium manager lets you expand the stadium to fit more spectators in and therefore more ticket revenue which leads me onto...

- Ticket prices. You can chose to charge either low, medium or high ticket prices. When you start at the bottom league charging the highest prices will turn spectators away. Selecting a good price for your team's position will be integral to gaining revenue from the tickets and getting support behind your team. Want a stadium full of support for your team? Lower the ticket prices. Want to get some revenue in a big cup final? Raise the ticket prices.

Other aspects. HB should take a leaf out of PES's book and most recently Fifa on how they have been doing the same mode.

- Player Development. Really, really should be concentrated on. Its really satisfying to buy a young 10 and nurture him in cup games and with substitute appearances until making them until the best in the league. Also it should be converse where if you buy a 30 year old 2nd row to add experience to your team they should slowly depreciate in skill and ability. PES has done this well for almost a decade and Fifa has finally found its feet with it. From both games it can be shown that they both favour an automatic increase and decrease stats dependant on performance and amount of games played by the player. I would agree with this.

- Injuries. Really would like to see some realistic injuries. For instance in Fifa you don't get any. I have never had a player out for longer than a week. Just not very realistic and it never forces you to really reconsider your squad. When there are several minor injuries at once or one serious injury to a player it can really force you as the manager to think about how you form your squad and your tactics going into the game. If you have to play a relatively inexperienced and young winger in place of your best winger you're probably not gonna want to keep the same tactics. Similarly if your best prop is out for months it may be worth finding a replacement (which leads into Ranger's idea of having a transfer window constantly open). Im not saying I want broken bones every game, but they do happen rarely. But not rare are injuries such as hamstring, shoulder, ankle etc which may keep a player out for up to 4 weeks depending on the severity, and similarly injuries which will only keep a player out for a week maximum. I would just like to see a little more realism in this area and it would add that extra aspect to the team management and squad selection.

- The Board. I know in Rugby the board may not play as big a role as they do in football for some teams but it is an interesting element. Things such as season targets are great and if you satisfy them or even go beyond them you can get financial bonuses to improve the team next season. I know there is something similar to this on Rugby 08 but for the life of me I can't remember.

On Fifa 10 I pretty much either play multiplayer with my mates or Manager mode all the time. It is so much fun. I started a file with Swindon Town (for people who don't know they are English League 1 - 2 leagues below the Premiership) and in 4 years have managed to get them to the Premiership. When I started I had to completely rethink the team as I had some really high earners who were really not that good. I ended up building from the back, bought in a CB and a Defensive MF to shore up the defence. The 1st season was tricky but I managed to scrape the play-off and get to the Championship and because I outperformed my target of finishing mid-table my board gave me £2m to spend on transfer (a lot!). I them went up to the Premiership again that season and really really struggled. I had essentially a League 1 team against Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea and I literally got battered. I survived the season one place above the relegation area and had to rethink my team. I bought in a new striker with pace and a young CB I scouted from Brazil. I bought a new DMF to partner my other one and very good, young CM. Now my second season in the Prem is going well, mid-table with 10 games played.

What I loved about this was I had to constantly think about my team, how much they were earning, do I really need that player?, what is the best formation against this team for how they play?, What will the board think? etc. To put it in contrast I started another file with Man City (the new 'rich' team for anyone who doesn't know) who had high targets which I was close to fulfilling but I got knocked out of one of the cup competitions. They then sacked me straight away even though I was on course for all the others. Even though I was annoyed I loved the realism of how it can be cut-throat with the top teams with no mercy when you fail to meet conditions, and other lower league teams being quite lenient on how you perform.

If HB really want to see how to do a manager mode well (minus some bugs that are in it!) please have a look at Fifa 10 and see how the management and playing are neatly set up and done with enough balance that neither becomes boring.

Just my thoughts!

 

[Joni89]

Introduce World Rankings

As a replacement of World Cup League Mode I think it would be great if there were 'The World Rankings Challenge' where the player picks a Team from the main rugby teams in the World (New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France, Ireland, Argentina, England, Wales, Scotland) :

The Aim would be to use a rankings system similar to the IRB World Rankings to get the team of your choice to the Top of the Table (or if its New Zealand to stay at the top)

Play a Season with that Team and Win all ***les (Four Nations/Six Nations, Autumn Internationals (trophy), Rugby World Cup)

Some Classic Matches would be featured during the Season with various Objectives.

Once its completed in Easy, Medium or Hard then 3 Legends from that country will be Unlocked.

What do you think?

 

[best_fullback]

Introduce World Rankings

As a replacement of World Cup League Mode I think it would be great if there were 'The World Rankings Challenge' where the player picks a Team from the main rugby teams in the World (New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France, Ireland, Argentina, England, Wales, Scotland) :

The Aim would be to use a rankings system similar to the IRB World Rankings to get the team of your choice to the Top of the Table (or if its New Zealand to stay at the top)

Play a Season with that Team and Win all ***les (Four Nations/Six Nations, Autumn Internationals (trophy), Rugby World Cup)

Some Classic Matches would be featured during the Season with various Objectives.

Once its completed in Easy, Medium or Hard then 3 Legends from that country will be Unlocked.

What do you think?

Whats that got to do with the World League mode? The World League is the club rugby area of the game. Though I like your idea its probably more relevant for the main suggestions thread.

 

[Joni89]

Whats that got to do with the World League mode? The World League is the club rugby area of the game. Though I like your idea its probably more relevant for the main suggestions thread.

Some aspects of a revamp could be replicated at BOTH International and Club Level:

Playing a Season and Win the Magners League and Heineken Cup or Super 15 etc
Some Classic Heineken Cup Matches and Objectives e.g. Wasps v Toulouse H Cup Final (Rob Howley Try), Cardiff Blues v Leicester Penalty Shootout etc
Unlock Club Legends e.g. Rob Howley etc

 

[Duckdee]

*You begin World League by being able to choose to manage any club team in the game (If you are a diehard Crusaders fan, you shouldn't have to wait around on the off chance the Crusaders ask you to manage them, just let the gamer choose where to go)

[...]

*Your first job is then to cut all the players that you deem to be too expensive to keep. This depends on an individuals preference and philosophy on the game, some would say that no matter the cost they have to keep Richard Kahui to marshal the backline. Others would say the had to keep their tighthead prop to ensure they win the set peice. Players would be able to construct the team around the way they want to play the game and the tactics they want to use from the outset

Or go the Melbourne Rebels route, and start out has a new team and build a squad from scratch? Create-a-team mode with a few jersey designs (plain, hoops, quaters, etc, all colours editable), with some generic team nicknames or ones already in the commentary banks to choose from. Amognst the team selections could be created players, who would only be avalible to you, but they would still be valued at whatever their skills deserve.

I'm not 100% on the created players bit, but I would really like to build my own team.

 

[Joni89]

I'm not 100% on the created players bit, but I would really like to build my own team.

If you create your own players/team I think there should be some sort of 'fair distribution' of stat points because anyone could just create a team with every player having rated at a 100 which would be too easy.

 

[Duckdee]

If you create your own players/team I think there should be some sort of 'fair distribution' of stat points because anyone could just create a team with every player having rated at a 100 which would be too easy.

You missed the bit where I said they'd still cost money.

 

[ranger]

Or go the Melbourne Rebels route, and start out has a new team and build a squad from scratch? Create-a-team mode with a few jersey designs (plain, hoops, quaters, etc, all colours editable), with some generic team nicknames or ones already in the commentary banks to choose from. Amognst the team selections could be created players, who would only be avalible to you, but they would still be valued at whatever their skills deserve.

I'm not 100% on the created players bit, but I would really like to build my own team.

Yeah i think thats a great idea, not sure about created players though thats a bit of a murky area.
But say you start as a completely new side and you get to try and poach players of other teams before the season starts to fill your rosters, i like that.

 

[ranger]

Some good points there. Like the idea of your team being demoted and having to ship off expensive earners - reminds me of Master League in PES when you started with absolutely awful players but there was an option to add other players. Gives the game that bit more depth as you can choose to rebuild the team around a player or aspect of your game.

I like it in the new Fifa games where you have a large control over club management. There were many good aspects to this:

- Firstly a sponsor. Before a season you select a sponsor for that year from a possible 3 who give you a starting sum (e.g. £1m) and a win bonus (e.g. £100k). These 3 sponsors differ dramatically. One may give you a large sum at the start so you can add quite a few players, but hardly anything if you win games. Another may give not a lot to start with but a good wage for winning games.

- Improving club facilities. There are several criteria you can choose to improve in Fifa such as Attack deveopment, Defence development, Fitness, Negotiator, Scouting, Stadium manager etc. They all rank from a scale of 1-10 and cost around £100k to get the first level, but slowly increment and each level costs higher than the last. For instance to upgrade lv9 to Lv10 for fitness costs around £2m. Choosing your sponsor at the start of the season well you can improve your club management throughout the season if winning games. By improving Fitness your players don't tire as quickly in games and recover quicker. Development means the higher the level the more the players will develop when playing. Upgrading the scouting will mean your scouts will more often find better players than a lower ranked one. Improving negotiator will make players more likely to come to your team over others. Stadium manager lets you expand the stadium to fit more spectators in and therefore more ticket revenue which leads me onto...

- Ticket prices. You can chose to charge either low, medium or high ticket prices. When you start at the bottom league charging the highest prices will turn spectators away. Selecting a good price for your team's position will be integral to gaining revenue from the tickets and getting support behind your team. Want a stadium full of support for your team? Lower the ticket prices. Want to get some revenue in a big cup final? Raise the ticket prices.

Other aspects. HB should take a leaf out of PES's book and most recently Fifa on how they have been doing the same mode.

- Player Development. Really, really should be concentrated on. Its really satisfying to buy a young 10 and nurture him in cup games and with substitute appearances until making them until the best in the league. Also it should be converse where if you buy a 30 year old 2nd row to add experience to your team they should slowly depreciate in skill and ability. PES has done this well for almost a decade and Fifa has finally found its feet with it. From both games it can be shown that they both favour an automatic increase and decrease stats dependant on performance and amount of games played by the player. I would agree with this.

- Injuries. Really would like to see some realistic injuries. For instance in Fifa you don't get any. I have never had a player out for longer than a week. Just not very realistic and it never forces you to really reconsider your squad. When there are several minor injuries at once or one serious injury to a player it can really force you as the manager to think about how you form your squad and your tactics going into the game. If you have to play a relatively inexperienced and young winger in place of your best winger you're probably not gonna want to keep the same tactics. Similarly if your best prop is out for months it may be worth finding a replacement (which leads into Ranger's idea of having a transfer window constantly open). Im not saying I want broken bones every game, but they do happen rarely. But not rare are injuries such as hamstring, shoulder, ankle etc which may keep a player out for up to 4 weeks depending on the severity, and similarly injuries which will only keep a player out for a week maximum. I would just like to see a little more realism in this area and it would add that extra aspect to the team management and squad selection.

- The Board. I know in Rugby the board may not play as big a role as they do in football for some teams but it is an interesting element. Things such as season targets are great and if you satisfy them or even go beyond them you can get financial bonuses to improve the team next season. I know there is something similar to this on Rugby 08 but for the life of me I can't remember.

On Fifa 10 I pretty much either play multiplayer with my mates or Manager mode all the time. It is so much fun. I started a file with Swindon Town (for people who don't know they are English League 1 - 2 leagues below the Premiership) and in 4 years have managed to get them to the Premiership. When I started I had to completely rethink the team as I had some really high earners who were really not that good. I ended up building from the back, bought in a CB and a Defensive MF to shore up the defence. The 1st season was tricky but I managed to scrape the play-off and get to the Championship and because I outperformed my target of finishing mid-table my board gave me £2m to spend on transfer (a lot!). I them went up to the Premiership again that season and really really struggled. I had essentially a League 1 team against Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea and I literally got battered. I survived the season one place above the relegation area and had to rethink my team. I bought in a new striker with pace and a young CB I scouted from Brazil. I bought a new DMF to partner my other one and very good, young CM. Now my second season in the Prem is going well, mid-table with 10 games played.

What I loved about this was I had to constantly think about my team, how much they were earning, do I really need that player?, what is the best formation against this team for how they play?, What will the board think? etc. To put it in contrast I started another file with Man City (the new 'rich' team for anyone who doesn't know) who had high targets which I was close to fulfilling but I got knocked out of one of the cup competitions. They then sacked me straight away even though I was on course for all the others. Even though I was annoyed I loved the realism of how it can be cut-throat with the top teams with no mercy when you fail to meet conditions, and other lower league teams being quite lenient on how you perform.

If HB really want to see how to do a manager mode well (minus some bugs that are in it!) please have a look at Fifa 10 and see how the management and playing are neatly set up and done with enough balance that neither becomes boring.

Just my thoughts!

Im exactly the same! i have started with Shrewsbury or Luton and made it up to the Premiership in every game since about 05, i still find it fun.

I like the ideas on offer here, there would need to be a balance between finiances/time vs utility but there are definitely aspects that should be included.
Form and and team chemistry need to be more prominent in the next game aswell, i imagine it would be fairly simple to do aswell. If a team has good team chemistry the players get a stats boost, if they have bad team chemistry then their ratings drop. The same for form except for individuals. This would allow the transfer market to be permanently open as bringing in new players all the time would lower your team chemistry. If you just bring in some new flyhalf and boot the old one three-quarters through the season it will throw the team in disarray. But if theres and injury or you feel you reaallly need a new player then the option should be available to you

 

[Versus]

* If you have the money, you should be able to make an offer to someone, regardless of what league you / they are in.
* Teams should offer you a job offer, as like assistant coach, you just play but you don't have a large influence over player spending, selling players and such. If you do a good job, you become main coach?
* Keep World League as is, seriously, in terms of schedules, knockout cup, the 3 divisions one elite, maybe just make 1 or 2 more if you will make the top 14 in this game and NPC teams / magners league.
* Mid-week training, I mentioned this in another post.

 

[Versus]

By the way, STOP CALLING IT MANAGER MODE. You don't have managers in rugby, infact, in rugby the coach doesn't really ''buy'' players or deal with the contracts, other people do, people on the board, the rugby coach just makes suggestions on the players and who they would like, the board does the rest.

 

[best_fullback]

By the way, STOP CALLING IT MANAGER MODE. You don't have managers in rugby, infact, in rugby the coach doesn't really ''buy'' players or deal with the contracts, other people do, people on the board, the rugby coach just makes suggestions on the players and who they would like, the board does the rest.

What difference does it make? You know what we mean.

 

[tomwid_88]

* If you have the money, you should be able to make an offer to someone, regardless of what league you / they are in.
* Teams should offer you a job offer, as like assistant coach, you just play but you don't have a large influence over player spending, selling players and such. If you do a good job, you become main coach?
* Keep World League as is, seriously, in terms of schedules, knockout cup, the 3 divisions one elite, maybe just make 1 or 2 more if you will make the top 14 in this game and NPC teams / magners league.
* Mid-week training, I mentioned this in another post.

I actually really like this idea. It's like in real life sport - someone else makes the decisions and you have to deal with them. For example, if the main coach signs a risky player or makes a change to the team that you don't agree with, you would have to play on regardless. Adds a different dimension to the game

 

[Duckdee]

I can't help but think we're taking the inclusion of club teams for granted...

 

[Versus]

I can't help but think we're taking the inclusion of club teams for granted...

The latest rugby request was for unique kicking styles, so I think it is safe to assume we will have official players / teams.

 

[ranger]

* If you have the money, you should be able to make an offer to someone, regardless of what league you / they are in.
* Teams should offer you a job offer, as like assistant coach, you just play but you don't have a large influence over player spending, selling players and such. If you do a good job, you become main coach?
* Keep World League as is, seriously, in terms of schedules, knockout cup, the 3 divisions one elite, maybe just make 1 or 2 more if you will make the top 14 in this game and NPC teams / magners league.
* Mid-week training, I mentioned this in another post.

This should be balanced though, there should be a number of factors that influence weather a player wants to join you, these could include;
-How much money you offer them
-How good the other players in the team are (if you are are after a flyhalf, having a good halfback would positively influence them)
-How successful/prestigious the team has been since you have been MANAGING them
-What League you are in (say they include Welsh Prem teams, no matter how much money you offer Dan Carter, he wont go down to that level. Its just realistic)

On the "Manager" issue, the reason i have been calling it that is because i realize coaches have no real say over player movement and spending ect. I want to have full control over player movement and spending so the game mode therefore IS NOT ABOUT BEING A COACH and i never said it was. I realize there aren't any roles in which you have full control over everything, so i invented one called general manager. Maybe you could call it director of rugby.
Its roughly the same role you have in blackout rugby.. you're not a coach in that game

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

The latest rugby request was for unique kicking styles, so I think it is safe to assume we will have official players / teams.

Probably safe to assume that the kickers will have the same style as real life counter-parts. For example they might do a Quade Cooper goal-kicking style for Quentin Copper. If this ends up an editable game, this is still a possibility. We can't go assuming too much as yet.

Though it will be great to receive Teams/Competitions/Licenses information when it's available.

 

[Versus]

Call them the Lowlanders or the Hellington Tornados or whatever the hell you want, but at the moment we are making suggestions as to world league, I think this has p*** all to do with licenses.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Call them the Lowlanders or the Hellington Tornados or whatever the hell you want, but at the moment we are making suggestions as to world league, I think this has p*** all to do with licenses.

Listen, I agree with many things you have said in other threads, but I think your tone is pretty bad here. You went off-topic first, claiming that there would be official players/teams, based on a statement from HB Glen in the kicking thread. As a moderator it's my job to clear that up to stop un-established theories, slowly becoming accepted as "fact". That was the only reason I went off-topic.

As of late I'm copping a lot of bullish tone from members. From this point on I'll have to deal with it, with infractions, bans or possibly closing threads as I see fit.