Ashes Cricket 2011 Wishlist

Alright guys bear with me, this will be a long-ass post and probably a little ambitious.

I have a different spin on things....I admit I havent read through each and every comment in this thread but so far I havent seen something similar so here goes:

Introduction:

One of my main gripes with realism in cricket games is the contest between bat and ball and often when I play AC09 I try to imagine the interaction between bat and ball in real life cricket and make a comparison and Ive come to this conclusion.

- Its far too easy for bowlers to swing/seam the ball at WILL in any direction at any given time.

- Carrying on from the abovementioned point, it is even more unrealistic just how easily ANY batsman play these deliveries.

Just imagine a real cricketing scenario...If a bowler gets the ball the seam and swing at will and get it in the right areas most of the time it is VERY unlikely that even THE BEST batsmen out there will be able to survive for very long. Just look at some of the best bowling spells, with great bowlers getting 4 perfect outswingers to beat the bat only for the 5th/6th balls to duck back in and take out off stump. Those are very real scenarios and some incredibly good batsmen have been made to look like complete chops when a bowler is on song.

The problem I have with the implementation of this in game is that it is too easy for any bowler to ball superb deliveries all the time with tons of variation - I can bowl off-cutters following it up with in swingers and slower balls and some outswiginers for good measure at will ALL IN ONE OVER....its unrealistic and if it were to happen in real life the batsman wouldnt simply be able to "predict" it and defend it away 90% of the time.

The reason this is a major problem for me is that it takes the fun out of bowling really good deliveries. It makes special deliveries, or the one that pitches on middle and nips away to take off stump, completely irrelevant and discredits its quality. Isnt that what test cricket (for example) is about? Bowling that unplayable ball to change the course of the match? If every ball you bowl looks like a beauty then it simply makes it ordinary. It is made ordinary because batsmen hardly have a problem playing these unplayable deliveries.


My suggestions:

INTERACTIVE PITCHES / BOWLER WRIST POSITION meter

We seem to forget how important pitches are...Ive never in my life played a cricket game where winning the toss actually has ANY bearing on the game. It has always just ended up being a gimmick and pitches simply cosmetic for the most part.


What I would like to see are interactive pitches with hidden hotspot within them - "virtual cracks" for lack of better term. These hotspot are inivisible so that you can not simply aim the reticule on them every single delivery. What could make this cool is that their properties could change or they could increase as the days go on. They would also function differently depending on the wicket - on a green pitch, pitching the ball on one of these hotspots could make the ball zip through or move off the seam, and as the days go on their properties could change to perhaps some of them staying low.

This "virtual hotspot" idea could tie in with my second suggestion - Bowler Wrist Position meter. We all know the phrase "The fast bowler has great rhythm" - this usually suggests that (from a physiological perspective), the bowler releases the ball with a good wrist position resulting in an upright seam which increases his chances of swinging/seaming the ball.

A combination between this and the interactive pitch idea, one could possibly limit the "swing and seam the ball at will" problem I mentioned in the introduction. Depending on the bowler's skill the wrist meter would determine whether the seam is upright/scrambled on the point of release, hence have a direct impact on the extent to which a bowler is able to get swing or seam. Movement off the pitch is consequently based on both the seam position AND whether the ball lands on a "virtual crack". This would bring excitement back into the bowling, where bowling a seriously good off-cutter actually becomes a skill the player needs to perfect - the way players in real cricket need to do as well. The better the skill rating of the bowler, the bigger the chance of him achieving good rhythm.

In order to combat the batting issue mention at the start, where batsmen seem to play these incredible deliveries with too much ease, their defensive abilities are critical. Adjusting at the last moment to a surprise off-cutter from Dale Steyn at 145kph after a barrage of 5 out-swingers beating the bat should, as in real life, cause problems for a no.8 - not be defended with so much ease (as is currently the case in ALL AC09).

A possible solution to this:

When a bowler has perfect wrist position, hits the "virtual crack" and directs it at the stumps and bowl what one could describe as a severely good delivery, a minigame could pop up which focuses in on the batsman and his task at hand. Sort of like the coloured catching circles where the player needs to stop the meter in the green circle in order to survive the ordeal. I think it would allow for a lot of tense moments and depending on the coloured ring the meter is stopped at, could result in various outcomes:

Green - Safe (manages to keep the ball out at the last moment, perhaps if he's a tailender he inside edges onto his pad)

Yellow - 50/50 obviously...mostly reliant on the quality of the batsman whether he can keep it out.

Red - Very likely to be dismissed by bowled/lbw BUT could possibly result in an edge, which again puts the batter's fate over into the bowling side's hands with the already-included catching minigame.

I think what the game needs are more tense moments similar to the catching-ring setup at the moment. One obviously dont want to saturate the game with mini-games but I think there is a place for it when a bowler (for instance) manages to bowl very good deliveries and therefor involve the batting side in a mini-game of their own....

Ok so thats just a couple of my ideas, feel free to agree or shout at me haha

Excellent ideas there. I'd also add the 'catching ring' minigame to runout situations, so we feel as though we're more involved in fielding, maybe in situations where diving for the ball as well. Games are about being interactive - right now, we're hardly interactive at all in the field.
 
Games are about being interactive - right now, we're hardly interactive at all in the field.

Exactly...theres a distinct lack in tension within the game. And I feel adding that tension to both batting and bowling where you zone in on tense situations within periods of a game will increase the longevity and interactive quality of it. Like I said, the mini-games wouldnt be over-used and would only occur at key moments in the game, putting the human-controller right in the middle of things as we have with the catching.

The fielding aspect you bring in with the runouts is a good idea as well - I would love it if cricket in all its facets get interactive in this way, where its all about the BIG moments which can change the course of the game because thats the way it is in real life. Up to now no cricket games have made use of key moments during play and thats one of the reasons why Im not immersed in the games for very long.

Lazy_chestnut mentioned that mini-games might slow the game down, which could be true, but personally id much rather bring in these "big moment" plays to add depth and significance to the gameplay. Cricket is a pretty slow sport in general, the cricket games made of them have always been quite rapid actually yet still pretty boring. Might sound counter-intuitive, but I feel having these smaller "sub-games" within the whole could in fact make the game more exciting even if they do end up slowing it down very slightly.
 
1. In-depth stat tracking like on cricket revolution site and game. If a newbie Paki game developer could do this, it shouldn't take that much work to implement such features.


2. Balanced bowling. Bowling in Ashes 2009 online was Crappy. As. Hell.

Basically, every pro player will spam as many Fast and Fast medium bowlers as he can, as if you try spin bowling against experienced players, you will get whacked around the ground for sixes no matter what you do. Once you get the secret of timing spin bowling, you can blast every ball for 6.

3. Announcement, trailers, screenshots already.
 
A few of these may have been mentioned before.

1. Different batting styles. (Aggressive, Moderate, Defensive, Tailender)
For the aggressive player the shots should be slogger style shots and the
batsmen should gain "extra" confidence when executing those aggressive
shots correctly. The same for the other batting styles.

2. The meat and toe of the bat should some how come into play. Like if
you're chasing a wide one it hits the toe and just drops dead.

3. Proper player statistics and tracking.

4. A "Be a pro" style season mode revolving around your player. This should
last for 4 years and end once you lead your team to a world cup victory.

5. The use of both analogue sticks for batting. Left - Direction, Right - move
player left, right and in and out of crease.

6. Proper T20 style intros and player stats HUD when a new batter comes in

7. More realistic player movements

8. The bowling marker disappears as soon as the bowler gets to the crease
to make batting more challenging

9. Have different game modes. (Arcade and Authentic) Arcade being an
easier unrealistic mode which any person can enjoy. And authentic for the
true cricket fan. (Proper physics and realistic bowling, batting, scores,
tactics, etc)

10. Edges should fly to the keeper and slips.

11. Fielders should dive along the boundary

12. A history mode. Play some of the greatest matches. (438, Saf v Aus 99
Semi-final, the 2006 Ashes test, etc)

13. Unlock legends such as Bradman, Viv Richards, etc.

14. Commentators change during games.

15. Commentators should commentate in their own country or when their
team is playing.

16. Proper replays and camera angles that change when the ball is hit
instead of just following the ball

17. Maybe the introduction of Hot Spot and the Referal system

18. IPL mode

19. Proper Licenced players and tourniments

20. Players actually emerge from the pavillion

21. Licenced umpires. (Billy Bowden, Rudi, Simon, Asaad, Aleem, etc)

22. Should get commentators to commentate on a live game instead of
reading scripts. This will give the game a more realistic feel to it. Like Bill
Lawry's trademark "Bang Four", "You Beauty", "It's All Happening At The
G", and my favorite, "Hussey's The Key Here"

23. Have Tony Grieg etc. do a pitch report and maybe show the groundsmen
working on the field and the players training at the beginning of the match

24. Being able to change your opening batsman before an innings, as well as being able to retire a batsman.

25. And just for fun and realism, Rain, Streakers, Side Screen Failures, and
the Gatorade truck for drinks breaks
 
i dont know the purpose of this thread, is it under works still ? now that transmission closed down....
 
i dont know the purpose of this thread, is it under works still ? now that transmission closed down....
There will still be future cricket titles from Codemasters and every single cricket game they've released has been done by a different developer from the previous one.
 
There will still be future cricket titles from Codemasters and every single cricket game they've released has been done by a different developer from the previous one.

well thats good to know, but their lack of future support for the game, is kinda disappointing....i will now think twice before buying any codemaster game
 
There will still be future cricket titles from Codemasters and every single cricket game they've released has been done by a different developer from the previous one.

I've noted a couple of quick recent posts by you which suggest (to me) that you have inside information to the effect that another cricket game will be released this year. That's good news; I'll take it. Hopefully something is announced by May-June by Codemasters or whomever.
 
I've noted a couple of quick recent posts by you which suggest (to me) that you have inside information to the effect that another cricket game will be released this year. That's good news; I'll take it. Hopefully something is announced by May-June by Codemasters or whomever.

Wish granted :)

MattW is either an industry insider or a psychic
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top