Questions for Q&A with Alastair - Closes 16/08/11 12.00 (BST)

[Getofmeland]

The Rugby Forum is pleased to announce another Q&A with Alastair from HB Studios. The question thread will open at 12 Midday (BST) today (15/08/11) and will close tomorrow (16/08/11) at 12 Midday (BST).

This is likely to be the last Q&A before the game is launched, so ensure you get your questions in, to find out as much as possible out about the game from the General Manager of HB Studios.

The Answers will then be posted up later this week.

Please check the relevant threads to ensure your question hasn't been asked and answered already.

Rugby World Cup 2011 Explained

Again this thread will be opened at 12 Midday BST today! (15/08/11)

 

[Getofmeland]

Question thread now open for 24 hours!

 

[jh95leinster]

Is there any chance of any more licences, eg Samoa, Fiji and Tonga

 

[TVH11]

Firstly thank u for taking the time out to answer questions, and also making a highly enjoyable demo (despite what some say).

Q1. Do u have any plans in place to update your "shipped squads" to final 30 man squads? (have a feeling this has already been answered)

Q2. How did you an your team decide which player likenesses were more important to "get right".

Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Maybe a three question limit per person? Gives Alastair a chance to identify a good question or two in a bunch and also stops people asking a lot of questions in one post.

1) Is it even remotely possible that if the game does well enough, that there may be follow-up support such as patch style updates? Sometimes problems or small improvements that could be of great benefit are identified by consumers in lower-mid range budget ***les and it seems a larger number of developers are addressing these than ever before.

2) I'm sure you guys were aware of quite a demand, but has the level of demand for customisable features been a surprise to HB? If so, will this impact on any future decisions should there be follow-up ***les?

3) Is there any chance of a custom tournament creator or anything like it possible as an update or paid DLC?

 

[raziel_eire]

Cheers for taking the time to do another Q&A guys... here's my few:

1. How many copies do you feel need to sell to deem the game a success and greenlight a sequel?

2. Are 505 partnered with you for any potential follow-up rugby ***les or do you need to re-seek a publisher for that game
in its own right?

3. Have EA left the door open to re-publish your rugby games in the near future or have they left the party for an
extended/undefined period?

4. What follow-up support can we expect after the games release? Will bug fixes, rule amendments, gameplay improvments be
made available as updates?

5. Following on from the bug-fixes & improvements idea - Is there any chance of making the "run" penalty option start 2-3m
back from the place it is awarded? The justification for this is, when the tap animation begins the player moves 2-3m
forwards for the duration of the animation before they can be tackled. This is most prevalent when choosing to "run" a
penalty awarded inside the opposition's 5m line, where you end up with a very, very high chance of scoring due to the fact
you are only 2-3m from the try line when the tap animation has ended and interactable play has resumed.
By moving the player back those 2-3m, this would make the run option actually start 5m out, giving the defence a greater
chance to defend, as occurs in real life. This would only need to occur for penalties awarded inside the 5m line when the
player chooses the "run" menu option and not for the "X" on-field prompt for a quick tap penalty.

6. For potential future rugby ***les - in the absence of obtaining all the licenses that you might be after, what interest
does HB Studios have in going down the path of still providing the same amount of content you'd planned for but in the
absense to the licenses, including comprehensive editors to allow these teams/players/competitions to be realistically
created by the user base?
Pro Evolution Soccer has proved that licenses are not the be-all-and-end-all when wanting to include a wide variety of teams
and competitions and still have the game perform well in the market place, as long as good gameplay is in place.
Another benefit to this is that the user community actively engages with the game providing the how to on re-creating
content desireable to the userbase whilst helping extend a games lifespan and sales into the future.
What are HB Studios thoughts on this?

Just a few queries mostly regarding the future - thanks.

 

[hobsonm]

Cheers for taking the time to do this Alastair.

1. How long can we set the length of halves to?
2. Have you tweaked anything since the demo? If so, what
3. From what I understand, the official kits will be released as DLC. How long after the release of the game will this occur?

 

[David Smith]

Do the players support you when you make a break or just slow down like in the demo?

and

Can you play as more than 1 team in the RWC 11 mode?. Like if I wanted to played with my friends!!!

 

[CeeJay]

Do the players support you when you make a break or just slow down like in the demo?

I second this. In the demo so far, the support play has been shocking. It was pretty good in 06 and 08 allowing for some
sweet draw and pass tries. Now it seems as you accelerate, they actually slow down......on purpose.

While Im at it, is there any chance you can fix the replays so that they show more than just the last second. About 1 in 20 tries does actually play
a decent sized replay for whatever reason, so the capabitliy is there. Can this be fixed?

 

[psychic duck]

what is the technology games makers use to get realistic player faces?

are the player names for unlicensed teams which neither the RWC game or Jonah Lomu challenge have such as Georgia, Samoa and Fiji real, half real (i.e. S.Masupua or R.Buacaucauni) or totally fictional?

 

[jh95leinster]

Thanks for doing this.If the team ratings are based on the world rankings, will their be updates changing the rankings?Ireland are playing England the day after the game is released and whoever wins will probably end up ranked higher. So, if Ireland were ranked 5th and therefore rated worse than England in the game when it's released but then beat England the next day moving them up to 4th would there be an update in the week that changed their respective ratings?

 

[Scotsman]

In a perfect world if HB take enough sales after RWC 2011 I'd be interested to know if there is likely to be a rugby game next year? Will this game be more like rugby 06 with more tournaments/licenses etc?

Do HB intent to do more motion capturing for the next game so it doesn't look so similar to its predecessors?

What would the priorities likely to be for the next game? i.e more teams, more tournaments/licenses, improved ruck play, new set plays etc

 

[Butterytingz]

1. I would just like to request a summary of any changes made to the game since the demo has been released (other then kits). Please and thank you.

2. In the demo, after a try the ball is set to take the conversion kick and there is no option to move to ball closer or further from the try line. Will we be able to move the ball in the full game? My main reason for asking this because the achievement "Kick with the Wind" is unlocked by "Score a penalty goal or conversion from 55+ metres" so I just thought it would be fun to score under the posts and attempt the conversion from 55m out.

THANKS

 

[Xander_Is_Over]

Hi Alastair,

How likely is this game to get a sequel and if it does will it be yearly/every two years or will it be tied into the next world cup in 2015?

Do the cutscenes in game show more of the players faces as all I've seen so far in the demo is the back of everyones head.

Thanks,
Xander.

p.s. enjoyed the demo and looking forward to the full game

 

[Eddie67]

Hi Alastair,

Is there any chance of bringing tournaments into the game as DLC ? Also will DLC include gameplay fixes ? Difficulty settings DLC ?

 

[joeyboy07]

Are the ball physics from the demo being tweaked?

Chance of anymore licences?

Can you confirm the 6 nations rumour?

 

[lionmaull]

Thanks for the demo also enjoying the demo. Would of been better though with end on view and at least medium difficulty.

For the rucking tactics, what is the difference between balanced and forward and first to ball, I know what they mean and seen the explanation on the other thread, But in what scenario is either forward rucking or first to ball rucking the better choice than balanced rucking. Wouldn't balance rucking tactic make the best choice for you, would seem kind of pointless to even use forward or first to ball rucking tactic, if it was that way. In other words what is the risk in using balance over the other two rucking tactics?

Have you given some thought to RAZIEL suggestion, of an additional rucking technique of "Hold back", "normal", or "all in rucking" for the next version of the game? I think this would really add to the rucks, the rucking is fun, but could even be better with variable amount of players in the ruck combined with the current rucking strategies, this is really is a big part of rugby and a new rugby strategy of how many players are sent into the ruck, could even be done with the current set up just assign "Hold back rucking", and "all in rucking" to some other button or button combo making balance rucking (3 men into ruck) the default, but with the same system you have in place.

Cheers and Salud

 

[Feicarsinn]

We've heard some rumours that you guys have secured the 6 Nations license, any chance of a bit of DLC heading our way in February?

 

[TVH11]

Sorry thought of another

Q3. What was the main reason you decided not to include defensive "set plays" in RWC 11. Always found that in 08 it would cur the so called "bunching", and helps player to tighten up holes in defense.

Many thanks

 

[lionmaull]

Sorry thought of another

Q3. What was the main reason you decided not to include defensive "set plays" in RWC 11. Always found that in 08 it would cur the so called "bunching", and helps player to tighten up holes in defense.

Many thanks

Hey man, what set plays? the wide, kick, and narrow? If it is those, they are in the game, same button as rucking tactics, just one is to the side while the other is up and down. Unless you are talking about somthing else, now I'm confused going to have start 08,
don't remember actual set plays for defense?
Cheers and Salud