The Boss' AI Patch
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FishBowlMan
Club Cricketer
AI Patch: Boss CGPV6 Patch
Reviewer: John / FishBowlMan
Date: 030406
Review Category: Test match batting & Test match bowling
Rating: 8/10
Summary:
This is an excellent batting patch, allowing you to play shots all around the wicket. It is suitable for all levels of play, as there is a large difference in shot timing between the three difficulty modes. A well implemented risk / reward aspect means you need to concentrate if you are to post a decent total.
While bowling is good fun, the CPU bats as though it is playing a 20 over game. I would suggest autoplay if you want the CPU to post a decent total.
This patch contains an up to date roster with some player stats edited to reflect player abilities more accurately (although it appears that James Anderson has suddenly learnt how to bat
). (Note: only the international teams have been edited in this way). Also provided is a set of fields. These are by and large a good improvement on the default fields that come with the game.
With a few tweaks from the patch maker, this will be a brilliant all-round test match patch. As it stands, take a deep breath, turn off your phone and bat for your country. You?ll enjoy it!
Detailed Review:
Roster:
An updated roster has been provided with this patch. It seems a good representation of current international squads.
Stamina has been reduced to virtually nil, but only of the main bowlers. Fielder's throwing accuracy has also been reduced. Changes are only to international teams so take care if playing a tour as e.g. Essex is rated higher than Australia!
Boss has stated that part time bowlers will not bowl many overs. Unfortunately, Ponting was first change, bowling 8 overs of rubbish (including 4 wides that the batsman couldn't have reached with a clothes prop) before Warne came into the attack.
Bounce & Outfield settings:
The bounce on the pitches results in quite a realistic feel to the shot, although I managed a 2-bounce 4 with a back foot cover drive; the 1st bounce was right by my feet!
There is a good feel of the ball slowing up on the outfield on all the pitches meaning that not everything that pierces the infield goes for a boundary.
Autoplay:
I autoplayed 6 complete test matches using hard difficulty. The findings are very good. England vs. Australia on a hard wicket produced 2 very high scoring draws and an Australia win where England had a massive collapse. Scores ranged from 138 all out to 749 / 3 declared.
Eng vs. Aus on a green wicket yielded an Australian win before lunch on day 3. Scores averaged about 170, suggesting a large difference in the pitch types.
India vs. Pakistan on a dusty track was a draw. Scores were between 350 & 700 / 5 declared.
SA vs. USA on a normal pitch was a comprehensive SA win. 461 / 4 was replied with 121 all out and 159 all out with the follow on.
In all games, each side scored at between 2.5 and 3.3 runs per over, which is an excellent result for an autoplayed test match innings. There appears to be a weighting in favour of the higher ranked team. This is good. As shown, closely matched teams (statistically) generally had close games, whereas SA would expect to thump USA.
Field settings:
There are some nice fields in this package. The aggressive fields are excellent - a big improvement over the default ones. The fields for the spinners are also good. A square leg is missing from many fields, but as the leg glance is hard to time, this is not really a problem. A few fields have the wrong "type" of fielder set - slip fielders in the silly mid off position, and a couple of close fielders in the outfield (especially in the covers). The slip positions to a medium pace bowler may be slightly too deep as they are set as for a fast bowler.
Strokes:
The actual strokes are the same in all 3 difficulty levels. Mistiming each shot can get you in trouble. Really badly timed shots tend to loop in a wide range of directions. Play slightly early or slightly late and the ball will go pretty much where you expect, only in the air. I like the "risk / reward" feel to the shots.
All shots have good variation in their direction. Playing exactly the same stroke will result in a slightly different path on the spider.
The power of shots has been set reasonably low, but with a very large "random factor" set. This can lead to some slight oddities where a well timed shot will barely clear the infield, and is therefore not rewarded, whereas a mistimed shot can race to the boundary. You can certainly beat the infield without resorting to the 6-hit, which is nice, although some of the shots end up being incredibly powerful.
The properly timed 6-hit cover drive could maybe benefit from more consistent power. When it has decent power, it?s a lovely looking shot, but the large random effect means I've had the computer caught in the covers several times while hitting this.
The slog sweep and 6 hit drives are fairly easy to hit properly, and often result in the ball being blasted out of the ground. Similarly, advance shots are generally incredibly powerful.
Cuts, hooks and pulls are hard to time. The main factor is picking the correct length ball.
Some leading edges are perhaps a little too powerful as well.
I find myself needing to mention forward defensive shots here. I love the way that you actually have to time these properly or balls will pop out all over the place. Maybe the badly timed ones could have a little more variation in direction to make it worthwhile having a short leg to a fast bowler. There is also the possibility of a play and miss when your confidence is low.
My only problem with defending is this: There is an animation that is used for defending a ball that is about 6 inches outside off stump. Unfortunately this can get selected if you are defending a ball on middle and leg. Result: LBW, even if your timing is spot on. I have no problem in missing a straight one and being out LBW from time to time, but this just seems to be a little unfair.
Game play (User Batting):
Looking at the config files, the main differences between hard, normal and easy are the shot timing, and edge probabilities. There is a large difference between shot timing on these modes, which provides a good step between the levels. I will concentrate mainly on hard mode in this review.
Mistimed shots have a better chance of going to the boundary than those hit with correct timing. I think this is a little unrealistic.
The backfoot 6-hit straight drive can score a lot of runs. The ball will generally clear the mid on and mid off fielders, and give a comfortable single, two or four depending on the "random" power.
Even on a green pitch, it is quite easy to score quickly if you pick the right shot for each ball. I found minimal edges resulted from all except green wickets.
Timing on hard mode is very difficult, although I was able to score quite freely, even with a batsman that was new to the crease. If your timing is out though, you will give a lot of chances from all shots and post a low total, so you do have to concentrate.
The CPU tends to select "standard" fields for batsmen when their score is between about 30 and 70. The problem here is that virtually every straight and on drive will pierce the field and go to the boundary. None of the mistimed strokes will go close enough to the fielder to provide a catch, and because the power is generally high, it?s easy scoring for the next 40 runs or so.
A combination of reduced accuracy and a large cursor size means the CPU bowlers will bowl a varied length and line, allowing a full range of shots to be played all around the wicket. This may be a touch overdone though, as some bowlers will really spray the ball around.
Test Batting. Hard mode. Green pitch. Overcast conditions. Cool. England (me) vs. Australia (CPU) at Northampton.
If you can time the ball well, and pay attention to the ball that is coming at you, you can hit a good score here. There is a good quantity of edges ? it is nice to see this has not been overdone. The slow outfield means taking more singles and twos, and 6-hit shots are not as difficult as I was expecting.
Test Batting. Hard mode. Dusty pitch. Sunny conditions. Humid. India (me) vs. Pakistan (CPU) at Faisalabad.
Playing the spin bowling is quite tricky. The ball turns a lot, and there is maybe slightly too much bounce. I found the slog sweep and back foot straight drive were the easiest scoring shots. The back foot glance can get you caught at silly mid on with the ball going like a rocket at the fielder who must have Velcro hands! I had no edges though, even when playing against the spin, and the forward defensive problem made this very tricky.
Game play (User Bowling):
Test Bowling. Hard mode. Hard pitch. Sunny conditions. England (me) vs. Australia (CPU) at Northampton.
The Australian batsmen are playing aggressively from the 1st ball. Not 6 hits as a rule, but not many defensive shots. The run-rate is high, (I was trying a few things to see what they would do), but at lunch day 1, they have lost 6 wickets. Punishing the bad ball is great - that's the idea, but they are approaching this like a 1-day game. I have been cover driven to balls that would have hit middle and leg. My LBW came from a slog sweep attempt against Giles after the batter had faced 3 deliveries.
Technical bit: This over-aggression confused me at first because the CpuRequest, CpuReward, CpuBattingMatchType and CpuTacticsDefend values (which are actually very good) in the u_hard config file should not produce attacking play to this extent. On further investigation, I noticed that a lot of the shots that are "Moderate" or "Aggressive" by default have been set as "Defensive" in the .SAF files.
When testing a bowling patch, I will use the in swinging yorker ball every time it is offered to me. Hayden and Ponting (1st ball duck) succumbed, but no one else has had any trouble with it, so I think the balance may be about right.
It is possible to get a good range of wickets. I've had genuine bowled, LBW, caught close in and on the outfield, and a nice C & B. (i.e. I got these by bowling normally, not full tosses, slow balls pitched by the umpire's head, or 8 fielders in the covers and bowling outside off stump)
Suggestions:
A few lines of feedback for Boss. Please note these are purely here to give you some ideas. Do not feel obliged to use anything if you do not want to include them in your next release.
1: A few tweaks to the fielder types used in certain positions and maybe bring the slips slightly closer for a medium pace bowler.
2: More edges on pitches other than green.
3: Change the forward defensive animation for the ball played outside off stump so that it doesn?t get used if the ball pitches on the stumps.
4: I would like to see the power reduced slightly on the mistimed shots, especially the drives. More boundaries are hit from mistimed shots than correctly timed ones.
5: Reduce the aggression of the CPU batsmen. (It is possible that the shot files for 1-day and test have been swapped over in the download).
All comments and suggestions here are purely my views and the patch was reviewed without prejudice.
I wish you all the best for your next release and I am looking forward to your next version.
John.
View Boss' thread here
Download the patch here
Reviewer: John / FishBowlMan
Date: 030406
Review Category: Test match batting & Test match bowling
Rating: 8/10
Summary:
This is an excellent batting patch, allowing you to play shots all around the wicket. It is suitable for all levels of play, as there is a large difference in shot timing between the three difficulty modes. A well implemented risk / reward aspect means you need to concentrate if you are to post a decent total.
While bowling is good fun, the CPU bats as though it is playing a 20 over game. I would suggest autoplay if you want the CPU to post a decent total.
This patch contains an up to date roster with some player stats edited to reflect player abilities more accurately (although it appears that James Anderson has suddenly learnt how to bat
). (Note: only the international teams have been edited in this way). Also provided is a set of fields. These are by and large a good improvement on the default fields that come with the game.With a few tweaks from the patch maker, this will be a brilliant all-round test match patch. As it stands, take a deep breath, turn off your phone and bat for your country. You?ll enjoy it!
Detailed Review:
Roster:
An updated roster has been provided with this patch. It seems a good representation of current international squads.
Stamina has been reduced to virtually nil, but only of the main bowlers. Fielder's throwing accuracy has also been reduced. Changes are only to international teams so take care if playing a tour as e.g. Essex is rated higher than Australia!
Boss has stated that part time bowlers will not bowl many overs. Unfortunately, Ponting was first change, bowling 8 overs of rubbish (including 4 wides that the batsman couldn't have reached with a clothes prop) before Warne came into the attack.
Bounce & Outfield settings:
The bounce on the pitches results in quite a realistic feel to the shot, although I managed a 2-bounce 4 with a back foot cover drive; the 1st bounce was right by my feet!
There is a good feel of the ball slowing up on the outfield on all the pitches meaning that not everything that pierces the infield goes for a boundary.
Autoplay:
I autoplayed 6 complete test matches using hard difficulty. The findings are very good. England vs. Australia on a hard wicket produced 2 very high scoring draws and an Australia win where England had a massive collapse. Scores ranged from 138 all out to 749 / 3 declared.
Eng vs. Aus on a green wicket yielded an Australian win before lunch on day 3. Scores averaged about 170, suggesting a large difference in the pitch types.
India vs. Pakistan on a dusty track was a draw. Scores were between 350 & 700 / 5 declared.
SA vs. USA on a normal pitch was a comprehensive SA win. 461 / 4 was replied with 121 all out and 159 all out with the follow on.
In all games, each side scored at between 2.5 and 3.3 runs per over, which is an excellent result for an autoplayed test match innings. There appears to be a weighting in favour of the higher ranked team. This is good. As shown, closely matched teams (statistically) generally had close games, whereas SA would expect to thump USA.
Field settings:
There are some nice fields in this package. The aggressive fields are excellent - a big improvement over the default ones. The fields for the spinners are also good. A square leg is missing from many fields, but as the leg glance is hard to time, this is not really a problem. A few fields have the wrong "type" of fielder set - slip fielders in the silly mid off position, and a couple of close fielders in the outfield (especially in the covers). The slip positions to a medium pace bowler may be slightly too deep as they are set as for a fast bowler.
Strokes:
The actual strokes are the same in all 3 difficulty levels. Mistiming each shot can get you in trouble. Really badly timed shots tend to loop in a wide range of directions. Play slightly early or slightly late and the ball will go pretty much where you expect, only in the air. I like the "risk / reward" feel to the shots.
All shots have good variation in their direction. Playing exactly the same stroke will result in a slightly different path on the spider.
The power of shots has been set reasonably low, but with a very large "random factor" set. This can lead to some slight oddities where a well timed shot will barely clear the infield, and is therefore not rewarded, whereas a mistimed shot can race to the boundary. You can certainly beat the infield without resorting to the 6-hit, which is nice, although some of the shots end up being incredibly powerful.
The properly timed 6-hit cover drive could maybe benefit from more consistent power. When it has decent power, it?s a lovely looking shot, but the large random effect means I've had the computer caught in the covers several times while hitting this.
The slog sweep and 6 hit drives are fairly easy to hit properly, and often result in the ball being blasted out of the ground. Similarly, advance shots are generally incredibly powerful.
Cuts, hooks and pulls are hard to time. The main factor is picking the correct length ball.
Some leading edges are perhaps a little too powerful as well.
I find myself needing to mention forward defensive shots here. I love the way that you actually have to time these properly or balls will pop out all over the place. Maybe the badly timed ones could have a little more variation in direction to make it worthwhile having a short leg to a fast bowler. There is also the possibility of a play and miss when your confidence is low.
My only problem with defending is this: There is an animation that is used for defending a ball that is about 6 inches outside off stump. Unfortunately this can get selected if you are defending a ball on middle and leg. Result: LBW, even if your timing is spot on. I have no problem in missing a straight one and being out LBW from time to time, but this just seems to be a little unfair.
Game play (User Batting):
Looking at the config files, the main differences between hard, normal and easy are the shot timing, and edge probabilities. There is a large difference between shot timing on these modes, which provides a good step between the levels. I will concentrate mainly on hard mode in this review.
Mistimed shots have a better chance of going to the boundary than those hit with correct timing. I think this is a little unrealistic.
The backfoot 6-hit straight drive can score a lot of runs. The ball will generally clear the mid on and mid off fielders, and give a comfortable single, two or four depending on the "random" power.
Even on a green pitch, it is quite easy to score quickly if you pick the right shot for each ball. I found minimal edges resulted from all except green wickets.
Timing on hard mode is very difficult, although I was able to score quite freely, even with a batsman that was new to the crease. If your timing is out though, you will give a lot of chances from all shots and post a low total, so you do have to concentrate.
The CPU tends to select "standard" fields for batsmen when their score is between about 30 and 70. The problem here is that virtually every straight and on drive will pierce the field and go to the boundary. None of the mistimed strokes will go close enough to the fielder to provide a catch, and because the power is generally high, it?s easy scoring for the next 40 runs or so.
A combination of reduced accuracy and a large cursor size means the CPU bowlers will bowl a varied length and line, allowing a full range of shots to be played all around the wicket. This may be a touch overdone though, as some bowlers will really spray the ball around.
Test Batting. Hard mode. Green pitch. Overcast conditions. Cool. England (me) vs. Australia (CPU) at Northampton.
If you can time the ball well, and pay attention to the ball that is coming at you, you can hit a good score here. There is a good quantity of edges ? it is nice to see this has not been overdone. The slow outfield means taking more singles and twos, and 6-hit shots are not as difficult as I was expecting.
Test Batting. Hard mode. Dusty pitch. Sunny conditions. Humid. India (me) vs. Pakistan (CPU) at Faisalabad.
Playing the spin bowling is quite tricky. The ball turns a lot, and there is maybe slightly too much bounce. I found the slog sweep and back foot straight drive were the easiest scoring shots. The back foot glance can get you caught at silly mid on with the ball going like a rocket at the fielder who must have Velcro hands! I had no edges though, even when playing against the spin, and the forward defensive problem made this very tricky.
Game play (User Bowling):
Test Bowling. Hard mode. Hard pitch. Sunny conditions. England (me) vs. Australia (CPU) at Northampton.
The Australian batsmen are playing aggressively from the 1st ball. Not 6 hits as a rule, but not many defensive shots. The run-rate is high, (I was trying a few things to see what they would do), but at lunch day 1, they have lost 6 wickets. Punishing the bad ball is great - that's the idea, but they are approaching this like a 1-day game. I have been cover driven to balls that would have hit middle and leg. My LBW came from a slog sweep attempt against Giles after the batter had faced 3 deliveries.
Technical bit: This over-aggression confused me at first because the CpuRequest, CpuReward, CpuBattingMatchType and CpuTacticsDefend values (which are actually very good) in the u_hard config file should not produce attacking play to this extent. On further investigation, I noticed that a lot of the shots that are "Moderate" or "Aggressive" by default have been set as "Defensive" in the .SAF files.
When testing a bowling patch, I will use the in swinging yorker ball every time it is offered to me. Hayden and Ponting (1st ball duck) succumbed, but no one else has had any trouble with it, so I think the balance may be about right.
It is possible to get a good range of wickets. I've had genuine bowled, LBW, caught close in and on the outfield, and a nice C & B. (i.e. I got these by bowling normally, not full tosses, slow balls pitched by the umpire's head, or 8 fielders in the covers and bowling outside off stump)
Suggestions:
A few lines of feedback for Boss. Please note these are purely here to give you some ideas. Do not feel obliged to use anything if you do not want to include them in your next release.
1: A few tweaks to the fielder types used in certain positions and maybe bring the slips slightly closer for a medium pace bowler.
2: More edges on pitches other than green.
3: Change the forward defensive animation for the ball played outside off stump so that it doesn?t get used if the ball pitches on the stumps.
4: I would like to see the power reduced slightly on the mistimed shots, especially the drives. More boundaries are hit from mistimed shots than correctly timed ones.
5: Reduce the aggression of the CPU batsmen. (It is possible that the shot files for 1-day and test have been swapped over in the download).
All comments and suggestions here are purely my views and the patch was reviewed without prejudice.
I wish you all the best for your next release and I am looking forward to your next version.
John.
View Boss' thread here
Download the patch here
Last edited:
cricket doctor
International Cricketer
Official review no. 2:
Review by: Heyado on Version 7 of the patch.
Detailed review:
Well, I've been playing PC cricket for more than 12 years now, through Allan Border Cricket, EA Sports Cricket 96, Shane Warne 99 and the newer EA games, and CGP7 without a doubt gives the best, most accurate and complete gaming experience I've come across.
Playing an Australia vs Bangladesh test at Dhaka on a normal pitch was the setup.
Australia bats first and Hussey and Hayden keep things moving nicely until Hayden plays back to a skidding arm ball from Rafique and is LBW, Australia 1/56.
Well, from then on it became a rout. The ball was keeping low and Australia wouldn't come onto the front foot as Rafique took 6/53 and Mortaza 4/84 with 4 lbw and 4 bowled. A real life Aussie collapse, I thought.
Javed Omar Belim and Nafees came out and took it to the Aussies as you'd expect, with Gillespie coming in for a pasting and being removed from the attack after Lee and Clark did a good job with the new ball.
Warne and MacGill started tieing the middle order down and then took some wickets. In the end all five bowlers shared the spoils and closed Bangladesh down from 3/200 to 281 all out.
Australia's second dig needed to be slow and steady, and they needed to play on the front foot. Hussey, Ponting, Martyn, Clarke and Lee all passed 50 but none converted it into a century. I eventually declared at 7/439.
Setting 355 to win, early breakthroughs were a must. Lee picked up Nafees early and then it was a procession, all out 103 as the pitch got lower.
Other observations:
POSITIVE
* The complete array of dismissals. Bowled, LBW, caught behind, caught slips, caught and bowled. It was great to be able to get batsmen LBW because they played it too late or early, as it is in real life.
* Shots. The spider showed shots to all parts of the ground. Shots could go for runs or be cut off. The unpredictability of a shot coming off was wonderful, and it was very pleasing to see that the standard shots carried lower risk of dismissal compared to the power shots.
* AI tactics. They moved the fields and rotated bowlers. When batting, they opened up at times and would go back into their shell at others. Run rate could go up to almost 5, then drop back to 3 when Warne came on. Super stuff.
NOT SO POSITIVE
* Had more trouble with the spinners than you'd expect. Opened up the roster file and found that Ponting and some of the others weren't given a "spin expert" rating. I think you'd agree that the Aussies are by and large great players of spin, Ponting especially.
* AI bowler accuracy. This is just a personal thing I guess. I found the accuracy and discipline settings too high and changed them down. Reducing discipline back to around the 30 range gave a wider array of lengths, but I really found the Bangladeshis were too accurate. Their real life counterparts have their moments of brilliance, but at times an hour could pass in the game without a ball wide enough to drive or cut to the fence. This is a personal preference, and changing the accuracy back into the 60s and 70s worked for me.
* Bowler fatigue. I thought the bowlers were on too long without being affected, with Mortaza bowling a 16 over spell at one stage before tiring.
OBSERVATIONS BASED ON OTHER PEOPLE'S FEEDBACK
Sometimes shots do pop up in the air in real life cricket when you play what you think is a safe shot. It's called getting out.
I found the drives on a normal pitch did have the element of risk occasionally and would pop in the air. Obviously on a "road" you can drive for four all day. The WACA in Perth is a classic example. If the AI moved a fielder around to deep mid off you'd never get a boundary. It's more an AI problem than anything related to the stroke.
You get smashed about early when bowling. It happens in real life too. The solution is to customise your field and put in a deep cover, maybe a third man, push mid off back and just bowl outside off stump. Keep some guys close in for the catch. Ponting had to do this recently when Nafees went beserk in the 1st Test.
Batasman plays the wrong forward defensive stroke and you get bowled.
Well, that's how Bradman got out in his final test innings, he played the wrong shot. You have an idea in your head of what you want the batsman to do, but occasionally he won't do it and you get out. These factors, I feel, have to actually be in the game for realism.
I think some players want a 100% guarantee that their choice of shot will have the desired result. That's not how the game is played in real life. So many variables of speed, swing, pitch, timing come into play on every delivery. The CPU in this patch has a chance of getting you out every ball, and you have a chance to score runs every ball. That's how it should be.
In closing, this really is a wonderful patch. As you can see from my notes, any changes I'd make are in the roster as opposed to the AI in the game itself, and that's a sign that you're on a winner.
In closing, the best patch ever for a cricket game on PC, IMHO. :hpraise
With much respect and thanks from Australia,
Heyado
Review by: Heyado on Version 7 of the patch.
Detailed review:
Well, I've been playing PC cricket for more than 12 years now, through Allan Border Cricket, EA Sports Cricket 96, Shane Warne 99 and the newer EA games, and CGP7 without a doubt gives the best, most accurate and complete gaming experience I've come across.
Playing an Australia vs Bangladesh test at Dhaka on a normal pitch was the setup.
Australia bats first and Hussey and Hayden keep things moving nicely until Hayden plays back to a skidding arm ball from Rafique and is LBW, Australia 1/56.
Well, from then on it became a rout. The ball was keeping low and Australia wouldn't come onto the front foot as Rafique took 6/53 and Mortaza 4/84 with 4 lbw and 4 bowled. A real life Aussie collapse, I thought.
Javed Omar Belim and Nafees came out and took it to the Aussies as you'd expect, with Gillespie coming in for a pasting and being removed from the attack after Lee and Clark did a good job with the new ball.
Warne and MacGill started tieing the middle order down and then took some wickets. In the end all five bowlers shared the spoils and closed Bangladesh down from 3/200 to 281 all out.
Australia's second dig needed to be slow and steady, and they needed to play on the front foot. Hussey, Ponting, Martyn, Clarke and Lee all passed 50 but none converted it into a century. I eventually declared at 7/439.
Setting 355 to win, early breakthroughs were a must. Lee picked up Nafees early and then it was a procession, all out 103 as the pitch got lower.
Other observations:
POSITIVE
* The complete array of dismissals. Bowled, LBW, caught behind, caught slips, caught and bowled. It was great to be able to get batsmen LBW because they played it too late or early, as it is in real life.
* Shots. The spider showed shots to all parts of the ground. Shots could go for runs or be cut off. The unpredictability of a shot coming off was wonderful, and it was very pleasing to see that the standard shots carried lower risk of dismissal compared to the power shots.
* AI tactics. They moved the fields and rotated bowlers. When batting, they opened up at times and would go back into their shell at others. Run rate could go up to almost 5, then drop back to 3 when Warne came on. Super stuff.
NOT SO POSITIVE
* Had more trouble with the spinners than you'd expect. Opened up the roster file and found that Ponting and some of the others weren't given a "spin expert" rating. I think you'd agree that the Aussies are by and large great players of spin, Ponting especially.
* AI bowler accuracy. This is just a personal thing I guess. I found the accuracy and discipline settings too high and changed them down. Reducing discipline back to around the 30 range gave a wider array of lengths, but I really found the Bangladeshis were too accurate. Their real life counterparts have their moments of brilliance, but at times an hour could pass in the game without a ball wide enough to drive or cut to the fence. This is a personal preference, and changing the accuracy back into the 60s and 70s worked for me.
* Bowler fatigue. I thought the bowlers were on too long without being affected, with Mortaza bowling a 16 over spell at one stage before tiring.
OBSERVATIONS BASED ON OTHER PEOPLE'S FEEDBACK
Sometimes shots do pop up in the air in real life cricket when you play what you think is a safe shot. It's called getting out.
I found the drives on a normal pitch did have the element of risk occasionally and would pop in the air. Obviously on a "road" you can drive for four all day. The WACA in Perth is a classic example. If the AI moved a fielder around to deep mid off you'd never get a boundary. It's more an AI problem than anything related to the stroke.
You get smashed about early when bowling. It happens in real life too. The solution is to customise your field and put in a deep cover, maybe a third man, push mid off back and just bowl outside off stump. Keep some guys close in for the catch. Ponting had to do this recently when Nafees went beserk in the 1st Test.
Batasman plays the wrong forward defensive stroke and you get bowled.
Well, that's how Bradman got out in his final test innings, he played the wrong shot. You have an idea in your head of what you want the batsman to do, but occasionally he won't do it and you get out. These factors, I feel, have to actually be in the game for realism.
I think some players want a 100% guarantee that their choice of shot will have the desired result. That's not how the game is played in real life. So many variables of speed, swing, pitch, timing come into play on every delivery. The CPU in this patch has a chance of getting you out every ball, and you have a chance to score runs every ball. That's how it should be.
In closing, this really is a wonderful patch. As you can see from my notes, any changes I'd make are in the roster as opposed to the AI in the game itself, and that's a sign that you're on a winner.
In closing, the best patch ever for a cricket game on PC, IMHO. :hpraise
With much respect and thanks from Australia,
Heyado
Last edited by a moderator:
