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Suggestions/ideas for Rugby 2012

EDITING OPTIONS:
-edit the builds of players (body structure) both in creating and editing players
-not everybody runs the same
-stadium creator/editor
-real boots, scrumcaps, gumguards etc
-shoulder pads optional
-create a refferee
 
maybe a superstar mode would be cool were you create your own player and evolve him just like in fifa
 
Hey guys, new here, only registered this afternoon after searching for Rugby 2012 info. This is rather a long thread to trawl through so i'll just list some of the things i'd like to see in the new game. Soz if already said, I doubt very much i'm contributing anything new.

EA Rugby games were pretty damn sucky when they first came out. Delayed passing, teams being better than others just by being unbeatable at ruck time, individual players being crap because they played for crap teams etc. Even the classic Jonah Lomu Rugby was better than early EA Rugby games. Rugby 05 and 06 were miles better, the passing didn't have that delay, the players were more realistic in how they played and their skillset, the fend and sidestep functions and reaction times for them were much better and the offload addition was brilliant idea as was the star players feature. If I were to list things I would like or not like to see in the new game they would be...

Like to see:
1. No delay in the passing i.e. the player passes as soon as you press the pass button and doesn't 'wind it up' unless it's a big miss pass.
2. The offload feature
3. The fend and sidestep features
4. The star players feature where individuals like Carter, Shane Williams, McCaw, O'Driscoll etc can sidestep, fend, bump off a tackle or pull off a monster kick to win the game.
5. A simplified drop goal function. The old arrow function was difficult enough even when the posts were visible. The last way, with the sliding power and aim bars, worked better.
6. Dummy runners have become a massive part of the game, just look at Australia and England. Would be amazing if you could create your own back moves from set piece. Shouldn't be too difficult to create, could be part of the training page or an option when you start a tournament so that they're moves only YOU know. You place players where you want them to start, set their running times, speed, who the ball is going to and when it's passed, dummy runners etc. There are rugby coaching software packages that are fairly basic that allow this already. That would be a fantastic addition to the game, an option for the hardcore fan. You could create them in the "My Rugby" section and that way use your own moves whilst playing online. Legendary.
7. Keep the World League where you start with a crap team and have to grind out wins to reach the top league. But make it more difficult to buy players, maybe with a quota system for foreign players as well as the budget. In the end I couldn't lose, I had all the best players.
8. Be able to steal possession by putting hands on the ball before a ruck has formed, pressing R3 like you do when you try and steal illegally. Will mean having somebody rapid like habana could be a hindrance if they get tackled and isolated.

Would NOT like to see:
1. A 1 or 2 second delay when you press the pass button. It's difficult enough to play rugby without trying to allow for that as well. A second delay whilst a player 'winds up' his pass if it's a miss-3 or miss-4 is understandable. But for normal passes, please, no delay.


All I can think of now. Cheers :)
 
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Control Scheme (Running & Passing)

I have read some of these suggestions and the obvious ones should definitely be included in R2012 (online play and roster updates, all international and professional teams and leagues, tournament modes, etc.). Others I think would be a waste of resources in designing and writing a brand new game (not sure if HB is using or building a new engine tho); I know some will disagree but having a superstar and manager mode can be handled in the future, hopefully this game will be successful so that there will be enough reason in investing in these game modes in subsequent years (more ridiculous suggestions resemble the one including actual licensed boots in the game; I agree that would be cool, but the licensing costs for an addition like that have to be unjustifiable. HB probably does not have the money EA does off of games like FIFA & Madden; I know they developed the earlier Rugby 06, 07, 08 for EA but I am not sure of their financial backing/situation at this point).
Personally, having a broad and deep base of gameplay is the most important to replayability, and to a first edition in a (again, hopefully) new series of games, especially with a broad and deep game you find in real-live, actual rugby. Look at the ultra-successful sports games like Madden and FIFA, and even equally successful FPS games like Halo and COD: people play them constantly because one can have played one of those games for days/weeks/months and still see something happen in-game that they had never seen before. That's the reason people buy these games: replayability: to get their 60 bones (or quids or whatever) out of it. All the other stuff is accessory.
So, to me, gameplay will be the make or break. All that said, I'll go on to suggest a rough-draft running and passing control scheme for offense and get off my soapbox.

Left-stick: move player (no sprint button in this game; try to copy Madden in auto-sprint)
Right-stick: trick/juke-stick (I may have read someone's post today that said don't involve a right-stick in the controls; to that person I say: check yourself before you wreck yourself); I won't expand on the this here

Left-trigger: pass left
Right trigger: pass right
*Important: I feel HB can take some notes in FIFA in the passing system here. Use the pass gauge. There should not be two different sets of buttons for passing to forwards (or near the possessing player) or backs (or farther from the possessing player). Instead, using the pass power/strength/distance gauge will free up buttons (i.e. bumpers) for other possibilities. This will allow players a more intuitive feel in passing; ex. if a player is about to receive a long pass from his 10 with his 12, he/she should be able to receive that pass and hold the left-trigger just long enough to send the ball to his 12, and then be able to pop (tap right trigger) back to his 15 who had been trailing between the 10 and 12 (more on skipping a man in a pass in a second). What I think this does is allow for a more simulated feel of rugby in that a pop pass requires only a flick of the wrist or arm (and therefore much less effort and most importantly, time) whereas a long skip pass requires hand positioning on the ball, good form in-step, wind-up and release. A gauge could be developed to reflect the time/effort taken to hold down a trigger to coincide with the actual time/effort taken to pass a ball in a game of rugby. As for knowing who a pass will be directed to (for example) in a back line, that will be addressed by the addition of "mil-dots" to the passing gauge (mil-dots being borrowed from modern sniper tactics; very basically, marking one mil-dot to the left of the center reticle would represent a shooter/spotter making up for the distance a bullet is affected by wind traveling to the right; or just Google it). So for the purposes of this game, mil-dots would be placed on a passing gauge so that a player would know who the pass will be directed towards by how the gauge is filled compared to the locations of the mil-dots. Example is needed probably: let's say that 15 we talked about who received the pass back inside from his 12 breaks through the line; he now has a 12 and 14 to his outside; as a player pulls the left-trigger to pass to one of these two, a passing gauge appears at the bottom-left of the screen and two mil-dots appear underneath where the gauge will fill with a green-yellow-red cascading power bar (like FIFA); the first mil-dot that the power bar will go over is the mil-dot that represents the 12 (and let's say it will be in the green zone representing a pass that is short and doesn't require a large amount of time/power); when the power bar reaches the second mil-dot (let's say this is in the yellow section of the power bar), the player releases the trigger and the 15's pass is sent past the 12 and to the 14 sprinting up the touchline. The gauge would be intuitive in the fact that it would know how many players are to the side of the possessing player corresponding with the trigger that is pulled, and that number of players would be represented by the number of mil-dots underneath the power bar. This applies to right- and left-side passing in the whichever trigger you pull, the passing gauge will represent the players to that side of you with a corresponding number of mil-dots. The location of the mil-dots on the gauge would be relative to the location of the players on the pitch in relation to their distance from the possessing player; so if there is a cluster of three forwards to the right of a possessing player (let's say a 9), and past them is a weak-side wing (let's say an 11), and the player pulls the right-trigger, then on the passing gauge, below where the power bar fills there will be three mil-dots clumped together and past them is a lone mil-dot. The distance between the three mil-dot clump and the lone mil-dot would be relative to the distance of the virtual players on the pitch. This is also a simulation of rugby in that if a 9 in a real game threw a pass out to that cluster of three forwards, any of those three forwards may burst on the ball and catch it. Obviously, in a real game things like the speed/height/aim of the pass would factor into which forward may catch it, but that would be near-impossible to simulate in a video game at this point. (Clarifying note: the passing gauge and the power bar are part of the same thing on the bottom-left of the screen; the gauge being the framework and the bar filling that framework to indicate the strength of the pass). Alright, done with that thought.

I still like the idea of button-assigned passing in a set-piece, but the buttons should be assigned longer than one or two passes. Only when the line is broken by a back should the assigned buttons over players' heads should go away (can't remember if that is how it was designed or not).

So that idea may be small-scale in the grand scheme of the entire game, but I imagine these are the types of things game designers have to think about - details. Also, I suppose moving and passing will be the foundation of gameplay. Anyway, I can't imagine HB actually reads all this stuff but it was nice to gear up for some real work I have to get done today. Take er easy
 
A Lions mode is a must - I still play Rugby 06 just for it! The NZ publisher getting hold of the southern hemisphere licences does worry me slightly tho...
 
I'd like to see infringements be a little less hit and miss in the next game. The old one seemed to be 50/50 on whether the "ref" would spot the foul. Instead they should add a modelled referee to the game and introduce a line of sight element. For example, if you handle the ball in a ruck and the ref is still moving across from the last play then there is a greater chance that he wouldn't see the infringement than if he was a few feet away. It would also be nice to have linesmen, maybe they could spot foul play as well.
 
Bear with me here, but what about like freeze frames showing a player diving for the corner to score a try, and neither side know if the defense has made a last - ditch tackle or whether the offensive player has scored, then show it in slow mo like on TV, and then a shot of the big screens in most stadiums showing try/ no try. That surely wouldnt be too difficult! Also, offloading is crucial, and not just a laboured offload that takes an age while everyone just waits for the pass to be given like robots (which i know in essence they are), but what about offloads on the gainline that rip a team apart( Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams spring to mind). Also, what about chip kicks like Max Evans in the Six Nations, there wasnt an option for that on 08 as far as I can remember. Also, a simple one is just to sync the players foot hitting a ball for a drop kick, restart or kick at goal. It just looks awful when a players foot actually goes through and past the ball before the ball actually moves. New kicker styles, a defense that doesnt just mirror which way the offense run. Ill buy the game no matter what, but imagine the support rugby games would get if you added as many new features as possible ( It'd pay off for you, as you would sell way more games)
 
Hey I've read through most of these suggestions and all are awesome suggestions.
For me personally one of the best things about the original rugby 08 was world league. If you guys made a world league or manager mode, how about giving the options of upgrades as you move up through the divisions?
for example,

Division 3: All your players are amateurs and play with generic boots, skins and body armour.
Division 2: You as a manager can afford better boots eg. (Nike Evols or F10's) and better skins and body armour.
Division 1: Your players can be customised in your in game squad management to wear better boots skins etc.

the better the boot the better the speed, not a massive improvement but it could go from say 83 to 86 etc.
the same would apply for skins and body armour.

thanks for your time :)
 
Hey I've read through most of these suggestions and all are awesome suggestions.
For me personally one of the best things about the original rugby 08 was world league. If you guys made a world league or manager mode, how about giving the options of upgrades as you move up through the divisions?
for example,

Division 3: All your players are amateurs and play with generic boots, skins and body armour.
Division 2: You as a manager can afford better boots eg. (Nike Evols or F10's) and better skins and body armour.
Division 1: Your players can be customised in your in game squad management to wear better boots skins etc.

the better the boot the better the speed, not a massive improvement but it could go from say 83 to 86 etc.
the same would apply for skins and body armour.


thanks for your time :)

I don't mean to attack your idea, cause i like the first part about unlocking items as you progress through the game.
But i don't agree with items affecting player stats... this is unrealistic and it sucks when you have to make a player wear some random green shoes, big body armor and skins just so they can perform at their best.
 
Maybe have the same locomotive system as Madden. I'm talking about the dual stick system. Where one stick controls the top half of the body and the other is the bottom. It may be hard to do with the fast pace of a game of rugby and also the broadcast camera.
 
I'm hoping we can create tournaments, I'd like to make a kind of mix between the tri nations and six nations, + Argentina.

Also, will it be made for Xbox 360?
 
I like the idea of dummy runners. I think I've mentioned this before.

I think having a 'off ball runner' option would be great. Imagine say the ball coming to the no.10 from a scrum, he's running so with the left joystick you could start the run of the no.12 outside him. I think when a player gets a ball a runner next to him should automatically light up, using the left joystick so effectively you're controlling the running of two players at the same time. It would totally revoloutionise the whole running game. It might be tought to get to grips with but having the ability to run angles would be a massive benefit.

A problem with all rugby games so far is they're over developed and a bit too perfect. all the players are always in the exact same positions from a set piece and the opposition are lined up in the same manner opposite them. It needs to be a little more disjointed as this is what opens gaps and pockets.
 
Make chip and chases an attacking option! So maybe you would have to hold L2 + R2 and hold triangle for power. The ball would have to bounce more unpredictably than previous EA rugby games. Also when a player is tripped in the previous EA rugby games, the opposition players unrealistically have to wait until the tripped players gets up before being able to tackle. Maybe also include the blood bin rule in the game?
 
I like the idea of dummy runners. I think I've mentioned this before.

I think having a 'off ball runner' option would be great. Imagine say the ball coming to the no.10 from a scrum, he's running so with the left joystick you could start the run of the no.12 outside him. I think when a player gets a ball a runner next to him should automatically light up, using the left joystick so effectively you're controlling the running of two players at the same time. It would totally revoloutionise the whole running game. It might be tought to get to grips with but having the ability to run angles would be a massive benefit.

A problem with all rugby games so far is they're over developed and a bit too perfect. all the players are always in the exact same positions from a set piece and the opposition are lined up in the same manner opposite them. It needs to be a little more disjointed as this is what opens gaps and pockets.

I agree with the dummy runners comment and it brings me back to my point about creating your own set moves. It wouldn't be too difficult to do and could be in the My Rugby or Training areas. Moves could be saved and you could select which 4 moves you're going to use in a game, meaning you could actually have a game plan.

Imagine having an ariel shot of the training field, players shown as discs with their number on. From a scrum or lineout you could show timing of the pass, direction of the pass, who it's going to, angle and speed of run of the dummy runners and the timing of their run. It wouldn't be difficult to create at all and would make the game that more realistic. Please HB Studios, I know you're phenominally busy and have a tight budget and thank you for even asking for our opinions in hte first place, but please could you at least have a look into the practicalities of this? :)

Thanks!!
 
A manager made is definitely essential. Some scenarios/challenges would be cool too. You should make certain players have specialities, such as in Fifa 11, like Speedster, Distance kicker, linebreaker, big tackler, expert scrummager, precision passer, playmaker etc. Also player ratings should accurate as well as the positions they play.
Thanks and good luck!
 
Realistic suggestions (commentary and game play)

I hope to offer some realistic suggestions in terms of commentary and game play:
I think it would be excellent to include commentators from nations other than just england; im talking about getting some southern hemisphere commentating teams in perhaps from FOX sports Australia. Whilst this would be excellent, it is important not to foget the northern hemisphere, the bbc team (im thinking of mainly Brian Moore and Jonathon Davies)

On another note it would be really good to see certain individual players (perhaps 1 per team nothing to hard) have a specific way of performing a generic skill. For instance players with a distinctive step performing that step. Quade cooper. Players that have specific offloading styles performing that offload. Sonny Bill Will. Perhaps some others members can offer there suggestions?

I hope these suggestions may seem reasonable and above all realistic as i know how unrealistic other comments on this thread have been.
 

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