Rematch gameplay design & mechanics feedback: A somewhat in-depth post

[sacred stag]

Intro

I will preface this by saying I love this godforsaken game, and I really want it to succeed.

I reached elite playing solo, I have hundreds of hours played, and I played football from the ages of 6 to 16. I am not bragging, I just know what I'm on about. I know ball.

Before you respond with your take, keep in mind that this post isn't about network or matchmaking issues. It is about Rematch's gameplay design & mechanics from the perspective of a high ranked player who has experienced elo hell & heaven. You may share some of these frustrations too, or you may not. Same way you may attribute your frustrations to different causes. That's because the game plays & flows vastly different between skill levels. Regardless, I will express my opinion on what I think the fundamental problems with this game are, their causes, and their respective potential fixes.

Rematch has fundamental flaws which go against football logic and physics in general. They shape the meta and are partial culprits contributing to the general frustration with the game.

1. Stamina Consumption
Stamina consumption is way too punishing and anti-fun.

If my character is an athlete, why does he become exhausted after two dribble moves and a 15 meter sprint? Contrast that with the fact that defending costs basically no stamina (jockeying), and the fact that your character becomes MUCH slower at low stamina - this makes individual plays borderline impossible at times. What is the point of dribbling past someone and actually tricking them, if they can immediately catch up to you with extra effort?

If the argument is "stamina exists to force you to pass and be a teamplayer" - okay. Guess what, passing will be the best option 80% of the times regardless of whether the game allows individual play or not - that's just how football works. But for the 20% of times where an individual play is the optimal/only play available, the game actively punishes you if you go for it.

-- Continued

2. Ground Play, Dribbling & Defending
At higher levels, defending versus ground dribbling is too easy (except versus exploits, more on this below). This is due to:

-how much stamina it costs to dribble and push the ball;
-how rather slow and predictable intended dribbling is;
-how little ground you cover while dribbling;
-how easy it is for defenders to cover ground whilst jockeying and dashing;
-how stamina barely moves whilst defending;
-how fast defenders can jock (also no inertia + dash)
-how powerful standing tackles are as a whole;
-how fast defenders recover from failed tackles (cooldown).

3. Juggling, Air Play & Priority
On the contrary, juggling is too easy to pull off, and too difficult to defend against. It is actually astonishing how inconsistently you can disarm players juggling or lifting the ball up in any way.

Defenders need a better way to deal with aerial balls. Flopping my body at the ball in hopes to disarm an aerial ball or a player juggling is silly and inconsistent. I have suggested previously that the jump flop move should allow defenders to head the ball as an extra input.

In regards to priority, in no universe should an attacker be able to receive an aerial pass with his head and both feet on the ground VS a defender jumping to head that same ball, and MUCH LESS versus a keeper jumping to touch the ball with his hands. Positioning should NOT matter as long as the defenders are marking correctly. Same thing with extra effort and timing the inputs. In real life, air duels ALWAYS advantage the defender, and it should be the same in Rematch. It's nonsensical how strong aerial play is for attackers, and how repetitive it makes the game.

4. Acceleration & Momentum

There is basically no such thing in Rematch. Acceleration is almost instant. You can be standing still, start sprinting in one direction and in less than a second you are at max speed and that's it! Top speed is too low in this game, and there is no momentum. There is no way to out-play with movement, outside of dashing. In higher levels where people mark man-to-man and actually understand defensive positioning this results in you not being able to make runs to free yourself, which results in the only viable play being max power shot to a teammate and pray that air priority blesses you in the 50/50. At times, the game feels more like basketball or even volleyball than football. A player who is already on the move at full speed should have an advantage over a player who is standing still and reacting.

5. Animation Cancelling, Instant direction changes, and Phasing

Ground dribbling is more viable when you abuse exploits and general glitchyness/jankyness of the game. While it's good to have more options as an attacker, this is not the way the game should be played. If you've ever played against 1k hour demons who know movement mechanics like the back of their hand, you know how frustrating it is to play against it. What these players do looks more like exploit abusing than dribbling. I'm talking instant direction changes, invincibility frames and phasing through bodies, complete disregard of stamina penalties, ball dragging and magnetism, etc (I don't know what most of them are called but I know what they are).

6. Sluggish Animations

Some animations for receiving the ball are so slow and predictable that executing them will 9/10 times get you tackled. There are multiple, some aerial, some on the ground, some of them will result in you touching the ball too hard and far away from you, others will slow you down to a crawl for no good reason.

7. Passing & Play-building VS The Rocket-Volley Meta

Every point I just mentioned largely contributes towards the staleness & repetitive borefest that is the meta, which has been a thing for months now, and will likely only be made worse by the next patch with the field dive nerf (but that's a topic for another post).

It all makes sense: Why build a play with short passes and risk losing the ball in transition when you can smash the ball across the field and play volleyball VS the enemy GK? Why go for a dribble when the defender can literally hold L2 and react to what you do with his preserved stamina and agile movement? Why go for a dribble when you can rainbow flick and spin the roulette on who will even get to see the diamond pop-up on their screen? Why go for a ground shot and probably get tackled before you even get the shot off when you can instead lift the ball up and do some confusing shit to trick the keeper and volley to the back of the net? Why go for the ball on the corner of the field when you can play chicken with the defender and see who tackles who? Why receive a pass with a push forward when the animation will slow me down and lock my movement, when I can instead gamble with some bullshit tech?

**>> My take on solutions for these issues:**

1. Decrease stamina costs significantly across the board, and specifically for the ball holder. Stamina management should still be a thing, but it shouldn't be as much of a factor as it is now.

**2. **Decrease jockeying speed. Increase failed tackle cooldown. Increase sprint speed with ball. Generally speaking, nerf ground defending, buff legitimate ground dribbling

3. Buff defending versus aerials & juggling. Rework field dive to allow an extra pass input mid-air to head the ball. 50/50s in the air should result in a loose ball WAY more often - I mean, shit, why not just make both players fall too? Give GKs significantly more control over aerial challenge priority. Philosophically, players should be more discouraged to lift the ball up VS keeping it on the floor. Grounded football, tiki-taka, play-building and creativity >>> aerial play.

4. Increase top speed and make acceleration a thing. Sprinting in a general direction for more than 3 or 4 seconds should give the player momentum and higher top speed at the cost of stamina drain.

5. Same treatment as the ippy slide and the other one that got fixed i guess? At the same time, buffing intended ground dribbling would help.

6. Smooth out and speed up sluggish animations in a way that doesn't put you at an automatic disadvantage for executing them.

7. Ground pass sensitivity actually plays a somewhat big part in this too. A lot of times a pass will go too long with the slightest tap. I often feel incentivised to shoot instead of passing, which isn't good.

[sacred stag]

bump

[sacred stag]

bump!

[boreal steppe]

" Why go for a dribble when the defender can literally hold L2 and react to what you do with his preserved stamina and agile movement? "
IDK this never works in my case, players just chip the ball over my head. I think defensive stance isn't as broken as many think it is

[sacred stag]

if this never works in your case then you might be approaching it wrong. the way to use defensive stance is to keep distance from the attacker, like a limit of being close enough to act but not too close that you can't react to what they do, all the while benefiting from a more agile stance in regards to quick direction change. if someone chips the ball over your head and you're doing this correctly you have multiple options, like: flick the ball mid-air (R1+X); dash toward the direction of the ball; pass or even shoot the ball mid-air; and belly flop up to block (though not as easy).

[boreal steppe]

When you say "keep distance from the attacker", how much distance am I supposed to measure?

Cuz it gets really hard to measure that in a splitsecond before they just pass it to someone else

[sacred stag]

i would say about the distance between the ball and the edge of your tackle hitbox where you currently are. you might wanna be closer if you know they have no stamina, and further if you are the one low. it's nuanced and there are a lot of mind games too

[boreal steppe]

How do you know if they don't have stamina?

[sacred stag]

by being aware. if you see someone sprinting for 5 seconds straight they’re gonna be out of stamina

[boreal steppe]

Yeah that doesn't happen much
I've seen players sprint from their end to the box to the goal and shoot with no problems whatsoever

"Being aware" is basically having a sixth sense

[sacred stag]

i was giving an obvious example for the sake of explaining. being aware is kinda like having a sixth sense in a way. for me personally it's natural. i know where everyone is on the field at almost any given time.

[terse tundra]

If they can just chip it over your head your way to close

[boreal steppe]

So stay farther away than a ball chip range?

[boreal steppe]

Congrats on being a Metavision user, wish I had some of that myself

Point is, tackling is a nightmare

[sacred stag]

maybe in silver yea

[lost sierra]

Don't listen to these people, 99% of people here don't understand what you're talking about and what's more, they don't care, they're all happy with the current meta, in the next patch they're going to cut head hitboxes

[lost sierra]

To make this meta even stronger, this is not the idea of the developers, but of the "pro" players who do not want to leave their comfort zone just by throwing the ball into the penalty area

[lost sierra]

And yes, I'm also a super cool solo player who easily got elite this season + I'm in the champion team of the last major tournament in this game, I mean I care about this game

[lost sierra]

You're thinking in the right direction, but there are many more problems than you can imagine, and I also have a lot of cool ideas in terms of team groundplay.

[lost sierra]

Write me a DM if you're interested in finding out what other problems the game has.

[sacred stag]

share them here i want a discussion

[lost sierra]

The biggest problem now is that the developers listen to pro players, in our case this is very bad, because 99% of them simply do not want to leave their comfort zone, they have been playing like this for more than six months, they do not want more for the games and now we see that they are adjusting the hitbox jumps on 20% after 1.5 months of waiting for real changes

[lost sierra]

because their usual tactics from one end of the field to the other almost don't work, everyone has simply learned to defend it

[lost sierra]

They have excuses like: this is an arcade game about football, It has to be like this, there is no other way. it doesn't work, but that doesn't stop the game from being super diverse and interesting, arcade ≠ boring and monotonous

A super ultra-large pile of text about game changes and problems, I'll write later, now I need to sleep😴

And yes, I don't want to rush the developers at all, just small steps in the right direction

[terse tundra]

you have to be close enough to be able to reach them with either an extra effort tap or a well timed sprint but not so far they have no pressure and can pass freely

so if they this rainbow flick you would be at or slightly past the apex of the ball

which in low elo is good bc everyone rainbow flciks for literally no reason so if they do and you are at that distance

you literally have to do nothing but just catch the rainbow flick by moving slightly back

and if they just spam dribble then you just wait for a well timed standing tackle or you just watch them run out of stamina

doing nothing and just being at a good distance to pressure is much better than spamming standing tackle

by nothing i mean hold defense stance

[strong socket]

This is very worrying if true. No game survives off of their pro scene, they come after the game has built up a fountain.

You're right, a complete meta change would mean all these "pros" wasted countless hours practicing playing American Football. (Missile meta is the same as a QB throwing a ball to a receiver that takes a predetermined run, change my mind).

There'll be no pro scene if there's no scene at all, and MM is choking what little life remains.

[lost sierra]

I can tell you this: it's very difficult to convince them otherwise. They're targeting newbies who'll play the game once, watch how cool they are at doing somersaults and hitting the ball, and then forget about the game

[lost sierra]

We've been waiting for almost two months for really needed changes, and as a result, we're getting a nerf to defensive jump so the current meta can continue to thrive

[lost sierra]

They could just make a weak magnet for players without the ball, this change alone will fix a lot of stupid situations where you're dribbling and the ball is taken away from you by a magnet from a player who was just standing AFK 1.5 meters away, or it would also help to do low passes through opponents, because now it’s impossible because the ball is magnetized to the opponent

[lost sierra]

also need to fix the defensive stance, it shouldn't block balls just because you hold down one button and stand AFK

In short, the developers need more ambition and not settle for the current boring gameplay

[daring dagger]

*"1. Decrease stamina costs significantly across the board, and specifically for the ball holder. Stamina management should still be a thing, but it shouldn't be as much of a factor as it is now.

2. Decrease jockeying speed. Increase failed tackle cooldown. Increase sprint speed with ball. Generally speaking, nerf ground defending, buff legitimate ground dribbling"*

Sorry but these suggestions are horrible.

You will do nothing but pander to the solo ego's and kill the game. No one, as in NO ONE, is interested in watching other people dribble all day. It's a mindless borefest and it goes against the vision of the devs. Stop trying to push it.

[lost sierra]

But it's probably very interesting to see the same attack across the entire field every 10 seconds at the game's main tournaments. )

[lost sierra]

We need a balance so that we can play both in the air and on the ground, and we also need a bit of skill dependence.

[daring dagger]

Comp is just one of the aspects of the game. You have to remember that if you want a game to thrive

[lost sierra]

You have no idea how much I do to make the game better.

You just don't need to get stuck in this monotonous, unskilled meta where anyone can be taught everything in 50 hours, where you just have to stand in the penalty area and wait for the ball to be thrown to you.

And prick on 1 2 3

I know what I'm talking about, I'm in the top 1 team at the moment, but I don't support my teammates' opinions about the changes in the game.

I know for sure that this game can be really, really cool, just super cool.

I'm not saying to do everything in 1 week.

Every update is just good changes, small but good

But we're waiting 2 months to get a fix for defensive jump that won't change anything, I'll still be able to block almost everything.

It's not even entirely the developer's fault, it's just that pros don't want to leave their comfort zone.

And I don't completely support this post

[daring dagger]

I don't mean this in an aggressive or toxic way, but I do not care about what you do and don't do. Where you play or don't play. That's not the topic at hand and doesn't make you an authority with an opinion more important than others.

The devs have stated their vision. It's not going to be solo ego's zipping back and forth, while the rest of the team watches.
It's already bad enough and you want to increase that. People will leave in droves.

[lost sierra]

I completely understand you, but you almost didn't understand what I'm suggesting. My suggestions, on the contrary, will increase interaction with the team

More passes, more tactics, more beautiful teamplay

But to do this, we need to fix some strange things.

Just imagine if a quick strike could be twisted.

If you've watched tournaments, you know what I'm talking about when I complain about monotony.

The game also has broken slide tackles and dives with EE.

Which also has a very negative impact on gameplay.

They can be pressed twice in a short period of time.

And there is no point in passing the ball into your own half of the field when you can simply kick the ball across the entire field.

[daring dagger]

I am very much a proponent of great team passing plays. It's what makes the game fun.

What I am never gonna support is the idea that the game becomes more interesting to watch and play when you put all the focus on dribbling.

You are just gonna complain about that when everyone does the same shit. But at that point there will be no one left but a few comp players, all wanting to be the center of attention, dribbling for an empty audience.

Should you be able to pass one guy who makes a mistake? Sure. I use tech as well when the situation allows it. Should you be able to chain 10-20 dribbles together? Never.

[lost sierra]

I'll just write this here: we're preparing a platform for a 1v1 mode so people can find strong opponents and take some places and win prizes.

[lost sierra]

No, no, I'm also against super-strong dribbling where you don't have to play with the team, I don't suggest it and I don't support it.

[daring dagger]

Great, give them infinite stamina in 1v1 and nerf dribbles in 5v5

[lost sierra]

Mistakes should simply be punished, both in defense and in attack.

Now you are punished if you want to play beautiful passing at a high level.

Only missiles work

[daring dagger]

Well, so we both agree that stuff like infinite vexis dash chains without running out of stamina have no place in the game?

[lost sierra]

Yes

Dribbling should require smart decisions, not endless spam of broken animations.

We just need good changes, step by step.

The bad thing is that we have to wait 2 months for the defensive jump to weaken.

Just because that's what the pro players said.

[lost sierra]

I also understand to some extent why the developer is going in the direction of the current meta.

They have responsibilities, they have sponsors, they need to make a finished game now.

I know a lot of things that I'm not allowed to tell.

It would just be good to stop listening to those who propose such stupid changes

[daring dagger]

It's a sports team game, ofc. The priority is going to be team play. That's the only way it should be. It's the only reason me and a whole lotta other people are playing.

They are not making it team oriented because of outside pressure.

If it was a "I want to be the center of attention simulator" no one would be playing and that's something a lot of these "buff dribbles" people need to take to heart.

[boreal steppe]

Holding the defense stance is not enough

[strong socket]

I think the volley shots are the problem. It has been so gameified that it is just one trigger press / mouse click.

Irl they are incredibly rare moments. In Rematch, its the standard. The barrier between the two to initiate the move is on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

Trying to raise to difficulty (button combos/moves, whatever really) of volley shots to match irl would just make it needlessy complex and very annoying to play with. Players would still learn how to do it reliably, and we would go back to where we are here.

**So instead, volley shots should be interupptable. **
This could be implemented with the defenders dive. Diving into an attacker who is mid volley could knock them out of the air, causing them to miss completely and maybe even leave them staggered like with tackles.

With something like this, no one would try volley shots if they are being defended. The risk would be too big. And this would still allow volley shots to have its place. If an attacker manages to break away from defenders in the box, that would be a prime volley shot target. Or if its a 2v1, one attacker will be free to volley.

This change would completely change the dynamic of the game. It would reward actual team play, actual tactics, good defending and teams that are able to pass and co-ordinate an attack well.
Not just calling "post", "back post" or "edge" and waiting for the ball to fly across half the pitch.

All other changes to the game will not change much. As long as volleys are the strongest shots in the game, they will be abused. It needs a direct counter, a way to reliably shut it down.

[daring dagger]

Interesting suggestion

[somber zephyr]

nice