My settings are based on the
@wasteyouryouth school of thought. Maybe he can chip here in too.
I don't do the whole change the settings every day thing. I wouldn't remember to do it, so there's no point. I would say, for those that do, isn't there an argument for reducing the pitch a little at the change of innings when a roller would be used?
I think bounce is a bit lousy with spinners in general. The ball just doesn't get up like it does for a seamer. That is more of an issue for me. With spinners you get shin to knee high bounce, if you increase that you end up getting wildly high bounce for seamers and it brings in the four bye issues again. Although there are times when you see a spinner ripping it on Day 1 on a pitch you would not expect it and not ripping it on ones you would.
Just had a little play around and tried reducing Spin Drift to 0 and I got almost a ball height more bounce. Was only one delivery but that might be something worth pursuing, for me anyway.
The only sliders that I think are going to help the pitch, or effect of the ball off the pitch, are:
Pitch Friction - this increases the grip of the ball when it bounces on the pitch. So it's going to stick more and I'd assume react to what's going on with the ball more (e.g. a lot of revs, more spin just seems to create more grip, so more spin. You can reduce the spin revolutions but, being a stickler as I am, I don't see bowlers getting less spin because they don't rev a ball as much on certain pitches and on other they do.
Pitch Bounce
Ball Friction
Ball Bounce
Spin Revs - personally I don't think it's realistic for a spinner to bowl less revs because they are on a certain pitch, so it's up to the person changing if they want to do that.
Pace Revs the same - it'll change things, but you're essentially minimising the influence the player has on the ball, rather than the physics of the ball/pitch.
Not that either spin or pace revs couldn't be increased or decreased to get a more realistic delivery. I actually think cutters are a little undercooked.
I don't know how much pitch friction effects seam - I see grass making the biggest difference there. Maybe cutters though.
Bowling speed might too, I've noticed a bit more bounce with higher bowling speeds. But I've not tested a great deal. In general I have nearly always played on default settings, when I up the pace I get the byes and wides. So I don't go too high.
If I was going to modifiy the ball friction or ball bounce I'd probably do it on the basis of increasing ball bounce for England the West Indies or another Dukes ball using country.
Or you can tweak away at the PF, PB, BF, BB until a better balance is found but that'd probably take a lot of testing.
The spin bowling modifiers are related to the actual bowling modifiers you use when you control the player.
'Spin Bowling Bounce: Increasing this slider will increase the amount of bounce that spin can get
when using the bounce modifier.'
Turn Spin Bowling Bounce up to 100 and then bowl one with the Bounce modifier and you'll get an absolute dart. But for other balls it'll be the same
There is also the fact that I think with the sliders you are, like with the AI difficulty, reducing from a specific base. So 0 won't be no bounce, it'll be 50 less bounce than you get on, for example, a Grassy/Hard pitch. That's an assumption I'm not 100% on it but it seems consistent.
There's probably more going on with pitches and conditions than in the past, but I don't know how well it works or comes across. And I think a lot of us will make a judgement after one game or session instead of over multiple matches on different surfaces or conditions.
