General Discussion

Introduction
An idea arose out of Sydney McStallions thread (what other team would have the intelligence and creativity to come up with such an idea anyway?) to develop our own homegrown cricket simulator (homegrown is better anyway--even in the case of cricket simulators) given that the Cricksim simulator we have been using since the inception of PC Cricsim has been exposing its inaccuracy in frustrating amounts recently.

The purpose of this thread is to brainstorm the possibility of developing our own simulator and the features it should include. Feel free to voice your opinions on this page about features, user interface and implementation language as well as anything else you consider important. You can also use this thread to voice your volunteering interests--especially when it comes to project design and coding.

Project Status
Brainstorming

Implementation Detail
Programming Language: C#
Database: TBA (SQL Server, PostGreSQL, MySQL, SQLite)

Feature Team
sohummisra - Project Manager
Abhas
tassietiger
Harrypotter_fan
Kshitiz_Indian
pal

Please volunteer if you have the time to contribute to this project. I do not want the project team to be too large--probably 10 people maximum. State your programming skills as well, as this will help us maximize our resources.

I certainly want to help in this.

I can program in C++, and a few others. (I understand OOP concepts and general programming functions pretty well, so that should be sufficient for me )

As far as the Programming Language is concerned, C++ is quite powerful to manage this thing easily. Java / VB.net could be used as well, but from what I've heard, VB.net is not flexible enough.

Sounds like a good idea. If i had programming skills I would help

Good luck with this guys!

My initial thoughts and suggestions:

- Use C# as a development language. Java is a little too slow and clunky for my liking and C++ still scares me quite a bit.
- Fix the simulator to use the correct cricket rules (up to and including Powerplays and the new no-ball rule with free hits)
- Have Twenty20, OD and FC modes
- In-built statistics tracking
- Players can specify two attributes that define their behavior in game situations--for example "Slogger" or "Wall" or "Finisher"
- Players maintain a single profile over all the different competitions

sohummisra added 3 Minutes and 20 Seconds later...

Abhas said:

I can program in C++, and a few others. (I understand OOP concepts and general programming functions pretty well, so that should be sufficient for me )

Click to expand...

Yup OOP is a must. How good are you at program design? We probably want to build something flexible enough to expand in the future if we so wish.

Abhas said:

As far as the Programming Language is concerned, C++ is quite powerful to manage this thing easily. Java / VB.net could be used as well, but from what I've heard, VB.net is not flexible enough.

Click to expand...

C++ is good and pretty flexible but maybe a little too flexible, haha. I would be more comfortable in C# since it is Java-esque but it runs much faster than the JRE would allow it to.

sohummisra added 9 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

I have updated the first post with some more details. I think we should decide between C#, C++ and Java for implementation. Obviously, this will depend on the feature team's background and abilities.

Also, I think we need some sort of backend functionality to store data (as this has been quite an issue, eh?). To that end we will also need a database designer so that we can store the data nicely. SQL Server would be ideal but it would not be portable across the simmer's machine (because of cost issues). To that end MySQL or PostGreSQL may be better.

I can program Java and VB, but by the sounds of things you're at a higher level than me in programming. Still reckon I could be useful just because it helps to have people who know how programs work.

I reckon the main focus should be getting the probabilities of each result a ball could have to be as accurate as possible. The random result of a ball should incorporate the bowler's skill, the batter's skill, the run rate required, the overs remaining, the wickets fallen. Don't ask me how to include it, I'm hardly in a thinking mood at the moment, but to me, the biggest problem with Cricsim is the lack of influence the match situation has on what happens. You'll see maidens when teams are chasing 7 an over. Madness.

I think that the best way is to keep it simple. Don't go out trying to do lots of different things that won't work well. I say you create 3 player behaviour profiles: 5 day, 50 over, 20 over and leave it at that. It would be nice to have something for Pro40 and the 4 day competitions around the world, but it would be much easier to keep it at 5 days, since that is the test length.

Remember that match situation would be a great thing to include if possible. That way, batsmen are more aggressive when the Required run rate is higher, and in the last 10 overs and during powerplays. In tests too, when a team is chasing a total in a short time, perhaps to go more aggressive. I have no idea if this is all possible or how in depth you could go, but it's one of the most annoying things in cricsim.

In addition, a feature to keep all stats and be able to export them would be great. A competition feature could be good if possible, so we can play tests outside the competition, or just the option to not have it work.

This is sounding like a fabulous idea. Good luck to everyone participating.

Good luck to you guys.

Should be great!

yes good luck to you guys, when I get my million vCash you will get some (on friday or saturday.)

Seeing as it'll assist the PCPL Could i volenteer to do some custom rosters?

I can get international rosters.

Great idea guys, hopefully it will go all the way (I'm sure you'll keep it up! )

:cool:

Looking forward to it!

I can't help with the program but if you need any testers I will help

Same as above

Regarding the database, no use spending money on SQL Server. MySQL is a better alternative, but I'm unsure of compatibility with the programming languages.

I was thinking of MS Access as well, but, again, I'm unsure of compatibility.

We can even try developing a web-based program using php / asp. I have ASP knowledge, so i can easily code in that. (though i feel i'm the only one around who's comfortable with that.)