wasteyouryouth
Verified
I think temperament would be more of a attribute or skill. It could be seen as an extension of the mentality. A player with a 'Calm' temperament might be more predictable, a player with 'Erratic' temperament might do things that you don't expect. Depending on that temperament could be how great an impact on their ability to take their skills and execute them. An Impatient player should react poorly to his scoring rate being kept down or not being able to play strong shots.
To a certain extent the game feels like it has the skill for batsman working, it's not perfect, but a good batsmen is better than a bad one. I mentioned before the area I think it could be improved is in that mental approach. I always think about other games I've played and how they work and something like X-Com, as a turn-based game, is perhaps a good example.
It has a set of enemies that all have different movements, attacks and defences. So they'll act differently and it's like a game of chess trying to decide when to attack or defend, predict how they are going to react in their next move based on what you've learned from observing how each behave. What you do can also nullify their abilities or strengthen them if you mess up.
I suppose 'behaviour' is a good term to group the set attributes, preferences and in-match approaches that could make the AI batting (and definitely bowling) more varied. If there are a set of behaviours available (via the academy) to allow us to create a varied set of 'enemies'. So, if you're going from a blank slate when creating a player in the academy what behaviours do you need to create a batsman like Alastair Cook or a bowler like James Anderson? Then what level variety is needed across behaviours to allow you to create a Jos Buttler or Sunil Narine.
This isn't an exhaustive list, I'm sure there are other things that could be added to it (by me or others). Moreover, I understand that each level of complexity added creates a greater possibility of issues arising in the game. But at the moment AI batting and bowling feels very one dimensional.
You want to know:
Skill level - things like footwork, timing and shot control
Approach to scoring - level of aggression, are they a big hitter, do they look to rotate the strike or wait for a bad ball? It'd be great if there were a situation that you saw two batsman with a strike-rate of 100 but one is smashing four and sixes while the other is rotating the strike.
Where in the pitch they generally do/don't score runs
What bowling they prefer/dislike to face
Conditions they prefer/dislike
Batting style - orthodox, unorthodox somewhere in between? (you don't want Alastair Cook playing dilscoops in the first over of a test match - not that I've seen that in game)
Do they settle quickly, or take their time
How able are they to adapt disliked bowlers or conditions - the classic 'they can't play in English conditions' comes to mind
With bowling:
Skill levels - control of the ball (seam, spin), ability to impart swing/turn,
What line/lengths do they generally look to bowl
What balls do they generally look to bowl
Conditions
Which batsman they prefer to bowl against
Bowling style - are they a very routine in their approach, like a Glenn McGrath, or maybe a spinner who bowls a lot of a variation
With Anderson - he's skilled with swinging the ball, controlling the seam - ok, so what does he do with that? He's not bowling bouncers he's looking to get the edge behind.
I don't know if any of that makes sense.
