Suggestions Thread for Next Year's Version

[The Engineers Room]

Ok here goes. Apart from fixing the offside by indicating offside players somehow, I think that there is a way to make this game better.

In real life how many players play out the entire season? Not more than 50% I wouldn't think. So I propose a system that would force the computer teams and the human controller teams to have to shuffle their line ups.

Each time a player plays his "fatigue level and Injury level" go up, from 1% to 100%. The amount is judged by the closeness of the result, the players own attributes (fatigue and a new attribute "injury resist") and the amount of time played in the game. When a player is placed in the substitutes they recover back towards 0% on both. The two factors would affect the game by reducing the players attributes by the level of the fatigue and make the player more and more likely to be injured in the game. The third level is the players form level, this is judged by the amount of mistakes (knock ons, forward passes, head highs, offsides etc) that they make as opposed to the amount of positives they do, try assists (last player to pass the ball before a try, this would have to be created as a stat), tries, points scored, 40/20 kicks, tackles/attempts is high etc. The effect of this should not be as great as the other two levels but should give the players who are playing really well a temporary high and the mistake ridden players a slump.

To go along with this the attributes should be out of 100 not 10. Surely by chnaging this and having the code just divide by 10 the effect to the game engine will not be much, but the gameplay will be better.

 

[The Engineers Room]

Also with kicking system, you need to have the tacklers slowed more and attempting charge downs, with the play kicker much further back, maybe even have a control config that has the pass button and another button pressed that throws it back to the kicker for the downtown punt.

 

[The Engineers Room]

Ok here goes. Apart from fixing the offside by indicating offside players somehow, I think that there is a way to make this game better.

In real life how many players play out the entire season? Not more than 50% I wouldn't think. So I propose a system that would force the computer teams and the human controller teams to have to shuffle their line ups.

Each time a player plays his "fatigue level and Injury level" go up, from 1% to 100%. The amount is judged by the closeness of the result, the players own attributes (fatigue and a new attribute "injury resist") and the amount of time played in the game. When a player is placed in the substitutes they recover back towards 0% on both. The two factors would affect the game by reducing the players attributes by the level of the fatigue and make the player more and more likely to be injured in the game. The third level is the players form level, this is judged by the amount of mistakes (knock ons, forward passes, head highs, offsides etc) that they make as opposed to the amount of positives they do, try assists (last player to pass the ball before a try, this would have to be created as a stat), tries, points scored, 40/20 kicks, tackles/attempts is high etc. The effect of this should not be as great as the other two levels but should give the players who are playing really well a temporary high and the mistake ridden players a slump.

To go along with this the attributes should be out of 100 not 10. Surely by chnaging this and having the code just divide by 10 the effect to the game engine will not be much, but the gameplay will be better.

Sorry for quoting myself but I just wanted to add something else. At the conclusion of each game, when it goes back to the main comp window, a semi-transparent window should pop-up showing the users team in order in a table that would have the following columns: Name/Fatigue Level/Injury Level/Form Level. An appropriate colur scheme would be nice and then the user can exit the window and change the team as they wish. An alternative would be to have in the change line up screen next to the players names three coloured bars, with the levels on them, Green for Fatigue that turns yellow, Blue for injury the turns red and grey for form that turns either white or black dependant on their form direction.

 

[NPK]

I'd like to see a new player attribute: strength.
This would have an effect on hitups - not necessarily breaking tackles, but making ground with tacklers hanging off you, just like forwards to in real life. It will also play a role in defense, with stronger defenders not letting ball carriers make as much ground in the tackle.

 

[NPK]

Double Post

 

[The Engineers Room]

I'd like to see a new player attribute: strength.
This would have an effect on hitups - not necessarily breaking tackles, but making ground with tacklers hanging off you, just like forwards to in real life. It will also play a role in defense, with stronger defenders not letting ball carriers make as much ground in the tackle.

Yes and just to add to this, this would also determine whether or not a player is held up or can force their way over for the try. It would depend on the amount of players infront and their strengths aswell.

 

[Mystery Man]

I'd like to see a controller system similar to that used in NBA live 2004. In that game, the left analogue controller is used to move the player, with the control pad used to select different plays. I think something like the following could be implemented in the NRL game.

The following commands would need to be selected before the ball is passed from the dummy half

Up arrow - sets up play for a kick: this would result in one of the team's designated kickers receiving the ball flat-footed, with plenty of time to kick the ball. When this option is NOT selected, all passes would be thrown fairly flat.

Left arrow - sets up play for a hit up: a forward would receive the ball off a short pass, enabling maximum yardage.

Right arrow - sets up play for an attacking move: one of the team's playmakers would receive the ball enabling attacking backline play to occur.

Down arrow - sets up play for a dummy half run: I currently find it very difficult to run from the dummy because the player takes too long to react. If this was an option, the player could be made to be free to run the ball immediately.

I feel that if a controller system such as this was implemented, the player would have far greater control over their style of play, and it would make the game a more realistic simulation.

 

[NPK]

That sounds very interesting.

 

[NPK]

That sounds very interesting.

 

[MrCharisma]

The only real complaint I have is when scoring a try it's far to easy to dive over the dead-ball line. Make a button so you can just put the ball on the ground as well as diving

 

[Blunty]

One thing I would love to see in the next version is Premier League and maybe Queensland Cup. In a franchise mode, you could have the choice of playing with both your NRL side and your Premier League(2nd Grade)side, which if players perform well they can be moved up or moved down if they aren't performing well enough. It would add heaps more players to the game, but I think it would be awsomein Franchise mode, of course you could sim the games if you wanted to.

 

[NPK]

In my opinion there are too many knock-ons in wet weather games. I'd suggest reducing these, and to keep the game more realistic, it would be cool to add some animations of players slipping over on the wet grass (in offense and defense).

 

[Razor]

* Franchise mode
* Internet play (server & direct IP)
* Jumping
* Diving
* On random weather, don't make rain/shine a 50/50 decision. It's really only a 10/90 decision.
* Holding players down
* Have the defence move up as soon as the ball hits the ground, like the rule book says, not when the dummy-half picks it up.
* A referee strictness. Can make him very strict catching everything, or letting some things go.
* More international teams
* More club comps - ie. RRL AMNRL, Bartercard Cup, etc.
* Customisation - Like the EA Sports games - have defaults for each level, but can turn on/off rules/fatigue, change the speed of the game, etc.
* Ability to save mid-match
* Replay viewable at any time, plus saveable.
* Importable faces like the NHL series.

 

[ghoti]

Got a suggestion that could be pretty awesome.

My mates and I were having a huge multiplayer sesh, and came up with an idea which could be pretty cool on the multiplayer side of things.

Leading on from the whole profile idea, at the end of each match, there should be a screen which give you human player by player stats...so for example:

Max01 scored 2 tries, made 6 tackles, 3 line breaks, etc, etc...and have these stats for everybody. You could also add send-offs injuries caused, errors and the like which could be pretty good for a bit of a ribbin.

These stats would be tracked and saved in a profile section where you can view them whenever. Also, players could get awards (much like Timesplitters or Perfect Dark) like Ball hog, Dummy, Try Scoring Freak, Workhorse, etc after each game.

 

[NPK]

As is it, I have never seen a player drop a bomb - they are quite hard to catch in real life but in the game they always catch them. I suggest players sometimes drop bombs. This would of course only really work if the advantage rule was implemented so that the player could pick up the dropped ball and score.

 

[ghoti]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned...hell, I probably already mentioned it myself, but I think the next version of the game should have complete tv-style presentation.

So, for example, a friday night match will start off with the friday night intro screen and then cut to shots from outside the stadium and shots of the crowd (maybe as an FMV, because the crowd currently is terrible.) During the shots, the commentators should talk about the game, just simple stuff like "welcome to Friday night football, where the Cronulla Sharks clash with St George Illawarra, etc, etc..) Then the team line-ups, shots of the players RUNNING out onto the field, with boos accompanying the away team. The commentators will go through the line-ups, which will be done just like they are on TV...this all depends on licenses with channel nine though.

Maybe the same could be done with the Super League, but with their TV format and commentators.

You should also have the option of scoreboards you would like on-screen. So you could have the channel nine scoreboard, the 'Rugby League' scoreboard (which is basically the Foxtel scoreboard) or Sky Sports UK in exhibition modes. In franchise mode however, it would depend on what team you are controlling and what competition that team is in.

I think this would be a minor addition which will add tremendously to the game.

 

[LESStar58]

Maybe I'm just being a little too anal retentive in details here but when you are transferring somebodys first love to another medium it can be tricky. These are the things I'd like picked up and changed.

q To begin with, I liked the idea of being able to designate certain players as either goal-kickers or kickers in general play. However, why can you only allocate 2 players to be either a goal/play kicker? If a team has more than two specialist goal/play kickers, wouldn’t it work more to the team’s advantage if you could allocate them as kickers as well?
q The game appears to deviate from any sort of positional play. When allocating players as kickers, why not also allocate certain players as either first or second receiver? For example, on the occasions where I have played against Newcastle, I have noticed Andrew Johns sometimes playing out on the wing. What is he doing there? The real Andrew Johns plays in close to the action, does the organising and his teammates work off him. He shouldn’t be playing outside Timana Tahu! The same goes for tactical kicking, if your first choice kicker has been tackled on the last tackle, the second choice kicker should be in position to receive the ball. Maybe the user can have the option of allocating certain players to act as dummy-halves as well.
q It is good to see that the 12-man interchange rule has been embraced in the video game. However, it is not exactly standard practice in the NRL to wait for a stoppage in play (e.g. after a try is converted) for an interchange player to come onto the field. It would be ideal for players to be interchanged at any point during general play, with the substitution announced by a cut scene. On one occasion, a stoppage was called when a player was down in back play. That is fine…except I was on my way to the try-line! The substitution was made, the game restarted and the player on his way to the try-line was tackled. If a try is on, there is no need to stop the play unless it is in a potentially dangerous situation!
q Also with substituting, there should be an option of moving players into different positions. Example, Brett Finch may get injured, so the logical thing to do would move Craig Wing to halfback and bring Michael Crocker off the bench and slot him into hooker. In its current version, you can only substitute and switch player positions by using up your 12 interchanges.
q It isn’t exactly the done thing for a player to always be sin-binned for a high tackle, which I have experienced quite a lot of during the course of playing this game. It really has to be changed for the next incarnation of Rugby League.
q Depending on the severity of the offence committed, players should be placed on report. The referee can also send off or sin bin a player and at the end of the match, the computer can determine a suspension for a player if applicable. An example is in EA’s FIFA Series, where a player who is red carded automatically misses the next game. Just take it to the next level.
q Players who suffer injuries are automatically replaced and taken out of the game. If they can recover in time, they should be able to take further part in the match. Alternatively, some injuries can be more severe than others so why not have players ruled out for a certain length of time? Or go a step further and rule players out for the season. It adds to the realism of the game and tests the depth of your squad.
q Unfairly, rugby league is labelled by some people as being nothing more than a “bash and barge” game. As we all know, there is a great deal of skill and tactical thinking involved in the sport, so why not involve some kind of strategy into the video game version? EA Sports titles such as NBA Live have a quick plays option, where a numerical button is pressed to determine the play they want to run. The user determines these plays beforehand in a menu. If a player wants Shane Webcke to hit the line and get the extra meters, he has that option. If a player wants Matt Orford to orchestrate a sweeping back line move, that option needs to be made available as well. Or even if you want to set ‘Joey’ Johns for a field goal on the last tackle, make that an option too.
q The kick metre when converting tries is too inconsistent. There is literally a split second delay when you press a button to stop the metre moving and it ends up on the other side of the bar. In the demo version that was released in early 2003, this was not a problem and you could land kicks from anywhere. It particularly affects the placement of conversions from a greater angle
q Some of the rules need to be looked at and here are just a few things that I have noticed. When kicking on the last, there is a question over the keeping of a consistent ten metres, making it difficult to place grubbers and bombs in particular. Also a random player does not take tap restarts. The winger passes the ball to the hooker who then taps the ball and passes it to a running forward. Again, this is something that may come back to my earlier suggestion of putting some emphasis on strategy into the game.
q When creating custom players, allocate primary and secondary positions for a player with the option of a third position (e.g. halfback/hooker/five-eighth, lock/five-eighth/centre). For existing players, provide an actual profile outlining the positions they can play to make it easier when selecting your team, particularly the reserves bench.
q Provide a greater variety of camera angles. The screen shots on the box don’t seem to be available on the PC version.
q Design a variety of cut scenes to illustrate various stages of the game, in particular, half time and full-time and post try celebrations (which can be unique to each player).

 

[CJG 182]

B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!!!!!!!
right on the mark less star

 

[ghoti]

q When creating custom players, allocate primary and secondary positions for a player with the option of a third position (e.g. halfback/hooker/five-eighth, lock/five-eighth/centre). For existing players, provide an actual profile outlining the positions they can play to make it easier when selecting your team, particularly the reserves bench.

I think a player should be able to play anywhere still...but with what you've written above...I think it's a great idea. Extending on this, however, if you played, say, Simon Woolford at five-eighth, he should make a lot of mistakes positionally in defence and would be out of position in attack...also...if he looked confused..that would be lovely

 

[The Engineers Room]

And have the interchanges happen on you next possession/stoppage of play. As you get the ball the player runs to the side line and the new player runs on. And positions are important. Even better would be to be able to set defensive positions in the pause menu. If Preston Campbell misses a few tackles you might move him wider in defence and move someone in.