Ashes Cricket 2013 General Discussion

[79cricket]

Got to wait till they turn on all the HD graphics right Mike. PS My laptop is about a year or so old as I broke the last one. But I will be getting both bigant and ashes 2013 on PS3(pc versions are a maybe at the moment)

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Also Mike Zimrahil asked some very important questions above, if you have time can you have a look as these are some of the problems need fixing from ic2010.
1. Short pitch bowling was crap.
2. Spinners were crap.
3. ai field placements must be taken from real test match fields like cooks and Clarke having different options would be nice. I would love to play different teams with different tactics than the same over and over again.

 

[angad]

Does the delay make a demo more likely so I can find out before purchase?

Bluntly, considering how the game looks, I can't understand why it would be so demanding.

What's more surprising is that the pc system requirements haven changed much since everything was turned off

 

[MattW]

What's more surprising is that the pc system requirements haven changed much since everything was turned off

It's also just totally out of the ballpark for other PC games being released, my machine is a bit over two years old now and was mid-range when I bought it - but looking through the requirements for games just released and coming soon on Steam, my PC would be fine with the majority of them and meet the minimums at least on everything else. Even the stunning looking F1 2013 is less demanding than AC2013 is listed.

 

[angad]

It's also just totally out of the ballpark for other PC games being released, my machine is a bit over two years old now and was mid-range when I bought it - but looking through the requirements for games just released and coming soon on Steam, my PC would be fine with the majority of them and meet the minimums at least on everything else. Even the stunning looking F1 2013 is less demanding than AC2013 is listed.

Well it's all your fault....you wanted a good looking marker on the pitch...which obviously took up all the resources Matt

 

[79cricket]

Do you have a console matt ?

 

[MattW]

Do you have a console matt ?

Yeah, but it's an Xbox 360 which is mostly used as a DVD player on the loungeroom TV - I prefer playing on PC, especially with the ability to patch the game and not having to pay for online play.

If Big Ant's game runs fine on my PC, and based on the Cricket Academy being very smooth at full res, I think it will, then for a game without as many gameplay modes and until they prove otherwise, worse graphics; why would I go out of my way to play it on a console?

 

[Mike Fegan]

Aussies are going to win this third test mike. PS Thanks for answering so many questions all at once, not even ross does that but I guess he doesn't have to right.

Thanks for keeping faith in us and rest assured we will be working hard over the next 12 weeks to bring you the game you can enjoy. Go Aussies too!!!

 

[cricket_online]

@Mike,
Can you pls answer this query....
http://www.planetcricket.org/forums...s-cricket-q-thread-81575-291.html#post2563038

Thanks!

 

[Mike Fegan]

Ah!OK! I thought it'll be one generic bowling action for different bowling types. BTW, I would like Mike to tell the no. of different bowling actions in game.
And there would be no player editor, right??

Rest assured, there is a player editor in the game!

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Hello Mike. Were the PS4 & XBox-One brought up in the discussion too. If not are there chances of the game being ported to next generation consoles on some later date now that the release has been delayed till November?

It is an option for the future as Unity should place us well for PS4 & XB-one as they have already signed major dev agreements with Sony & MS.

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Its hard to believe that you guys are having trouble to render a few screenshots with all the graphics turned on just to show us the capability of your game. There is no need of AI or animations in that. Just pure rendered static images?

Hi Angry, I am not making the same mistake twice of rushing art assets to market when they are not ready. I have already caused enough angst with our publisher 505 Games despite the best efforts of their Marketing Director so please be patient as we need to get it right now that we have been thankfully granted more time.

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Well,firstly great to have you here Mike.I support your decision of delaying the game.I'm loving the way your replying to each and every post and clearing our queries.I still have hopes after seeing your enthusiastic attitude towards the game.Forget what all happened,those bad memories and reviews by people.
Lastly,I wish you all the luck to do well and produce a great cricket game.

Thank you!

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Hi, Mike! I know these days will be busy for you, but you also should keep the fanboard (Facebook, Twitter) Updating regularly, especially Facebook as you got around 35,000 People who is actually waiting for the game I know it's hard, but when you start revealing the features do reveal it on facebook

Will do!

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Mike,
I raised the following concern to Chief/Jamie and will do so again as I think this issue has potential to kill online gameplay...

In AC2009 online players abused the manual/user field settings by packing offside with fielders with 2 of those close to the bat and bowling way outside off. You could hardly do anything coz if you tried to hit the ball either you ot caught by one of those 2 close positions (silly point/shortcover, short mid off) or you hit the ball to the fielders for no runs. Essentially it became a game of 6 or out and totally ruined the online gameplay

We would really appreciate it if you can impose some fielding restrictions in online gameplay, i.e., only allow default field settings for online gameplay. You can do all you want in offline gameplay or even online friendly games but for online ranked games, you need to impose field restrictions else online gameplay would be reduced to joyless games with glitchers.


Online gameplay is what lends the game longevity coz after you know how to beat the AI, which in a cricket game doesn't take too long, online gameplay is what keeps the game playable. I think online gameplay is what made AC09 such a popular game as it was the only cricket game which supported a working online gameplay on consoles before the online servers were turned off

Your thoughts regarding the same and how you intend to handle the online field setting glitch?

I will pass on your comments to our tech director and networking programming guys who are a lot smarter than I. Thanks for making these points and we will try to cover in this forum (& Facebook) your comments over the next 12 weeks.

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hehe, sneaky. Delaying the game to thieve some of the easily implemented features of BA xD

Though Mike. Any chance this time round of being able to select the weather/state of batting track. Great feature, was in EA07
Also; please try and have a more realistic run rate, edges carrying further and make it harder to score runs. More Simulation options would be top if possible.
Finally, totals of simulations need a look at. In A09 they were consistantely too low, in EA07 they were too high. If you could find a nice balance etc.
One more thing; please God let batting momentum have a big part, requiring a radical change or bit of bad luck to get them out and not a mediocre catch in the deep. Gratis
Late game had another real issue with extras. Please God make them far and few, and not just no balls, but wides/bi's for 4 etc.
Also an issue with difference between new ball and Old ball. In short, there wasn't a difference.

Hi Nathan, thanks for all valued comments and suggestions which I'll pass onto our producer but I think we have most of this covered. On the feature set side we locked down what features where going in the game over 12 months ago. Now we have 12 weeks to get is many in as possible without causing any further delays to the release of the game.

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Thats fine but you can atleast tell if it would be different from the traditional bowling and batting controls?? There will be no manual fielding too, right??

As previously stated I will covering all these topics on a weekly basis over the next 12 weeks. There is no manual fielding in the traditional sense but strategically you need to work with your bowler and field placement but I'll cover that later too.

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Hi Mike

I have a specific question regarding the game & PC's involvement in it

As you obviously know, members at PC were asked to provide assistance in the game regarding player stats and default fields. When it comes to creating the fields, a critical aspect is knowing how the game plays out

E.g. when human batting:

Are spinners easier to hit than pace men
Where are the easy scoring opportunities off each type of bowler
Are bat pads possible
Easier to score off short pitched bowling?
Certain fielding positions always resulting in easy catches (e.g. in IC10, 2nd or 3rd slips for spinners meant getting loads of unrealistic catching chances for shots played off back foot on the off side)


Knowing the answers to things like the above is crucial in knowing where to set the fielders.

However for AC13 we were told that, unlike in AC09 where select people had access to testing the patch that was finally delivered (and one patch that eventually turned up in IC10), no such beta gameplay testing was possible

This meant default fields being created completely 'blind' (and basically based on IC10 gameplay, even though you have started from scratch), and subject to being rendered almost useless if the AC13 gameplay meant scoring runs was too easy using them

Now that AC13 is being put back to November, does this open up an opportunity for some beta testing of game to ensure fields are up to scratch?

If so then great news, however if you state fields presented to you few months back are now not being used, then a lot of man hours were wasted by PC which would be a bit of a kick in the guts?

Hi Zim, Can we take this conversation offline as I would like our Senior Producer to get involved and talk to you more about your comments and you offer of Beta testing. I will get back to you shortly on this.Cheers,
Mike.

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Hi Guys,

We won't be doing a PS Vita port at this time as the publisher hasn't asked for it. Wii U is on hold until we get XB360 & PS3 versions right as we have to prioritise platforms based on popularity.

Hi Mike, first of all thank you for your honestly regarding the delay over the release of the game.
This might be a silly question but when you say that the Wii U version is on hold, does this mean it won't be out in November?
I am looking forward to playing a cricket game on the wii u along with more great games coming out later this year for the console.
Sorry if this is long winded!!

No problem, the honest truth is this is a publisher call and I have no doubt we will be discussing it with them over the coming weeks but I can't give you a straight answer right now but keep checking back here.

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Mike thanks for putting your head on the chopping
Block on planetcricket forum.
I just like to wish trickstar all the best and
I hope you get out of this hole!
Q. Have you made the AI tough but fair
eg can we can get lbw through skill ,
Peirce the field better so to make 1day games more
Real ?
Changed my mind not cancelling my ps3 and pc order with
Amazon ..
Good luck mike ..

Hi Graham, Firstly thanks for keeping the faith in us as we have made good cricket games in the past and we will be working hard over the coming weeks to make this happen again. To answer your questions I would say the AI is lot harder this time around but this is a balancing thing as you can't make it too hard or too fair or the game play gets boring fast and that was one of the major criticisms of our previous cricket games. To try to offset this we have made the commentary "pro-active" rather than "re-active" in the game to give you prompts to improve your skill level. I think you are going to like the Field Editor feature but more to come on that front. Cheers, Mike

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Field is automatic and all players will have same height, weight, width etc with just different face. No nets, mini game controls... once you ball put your joystick down and see what the ai does in the field... repeat.

'Surpass BigAnt cricket 14' lmao.

We made the decision in the design phase to make fielding more automatic as the general feedback with our previous fielding system was "boring" so I guess we will have to wait and see on the how the new fielding system is received. To counter this we have introduced two new feature "line & length bowling" plus "Field placement" to make the whole bowling experience more strategic but more to come on these fronts over the coming weeks.We also didn't go with mini-games and tutorial/learning path stuff as you guys also found that boring too and just clicked through. Overall, we went back to basics and focused more on a new batting & bowling systems. More will be revealed over the coming weeks so hang in there!

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i would say majority of people just stimulate bowling and they just like to bat!

We haven't seen Big Ant's AI and gameplay yet, you can't say anything yet!

Mike might mean "Suprass BigAnt cricket 14" with their gameplay and hard AI, which will make game more fun and hard to master...

Spot on!

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Does the delay make a demo more likely so I can find out before purchase?

Bluntly, considering how the game looks, I can't understand why it would be so demanding.

Hi Matt, I am afraid there will be no demo I would rather focus all our efforts and making a great game play than divert valuable resources to making a demo at such a late stage of development. The next 12 weeks are about turning on all the HD content, networking, bug fixing and lots of polish!

 

[dadarocks]

Mike, since you confirmed that there is a tournament creator option in game, I'd like to suggest a way to set it up -

It should allow us to set up all the stages of tournaments, instead of just choosing one pre defined style of tournament and going on...
(This I think will make sure that we can make any possible tournament coming in the recent years.)

Other than the usual bilateral, triangular series, there should be many team tournaments.

For the many team tournaments for preliminary round, a choice between different styles like -

1. Round Robin
1.1 Single-Round Robin - where each participant plays every other participant once.
1.2 Double-Round Robin - where each participant plays every other participant twice.

2. Knock-out tournaments - exactly what was there in AC09, so no need to elaborate. Nevertheless a pre quarter stage would be good.

3. Group tournaments - with a variable number of members per group, and to choose between two/three/four groups would be good.

4. Just a league style tournament where the team with most points are the winners.

For the above tournament style, points could be awarded on batting/bowling too, as in LVC championship - here too, toggle ability would be good.

For the second round, it could be -

1. (Quarter final - optional) Semi final,
2. Play offs,
3. Round robin league like super6 or super8 and then to a quarter/semi/playoff.

And for the third and final round, a choice between a final or best of three final.

We should be able to at least choose a country for the tourney to be played during the creation itself, not for every match. A home ground feature would be a plus.

These are just my suggestions, there are many other ways in which you can set this up, and I hope there's adequate depth in the tournament creator.


Another suggestion is just a catching system. Is there any remote possibility to implement it? (Ignore this if there is none) Just a bike speedometer like system as in BLC 05 would've been good...

All the best, go on with the devolopment...

 

[Mike Fegan]

Got to wait till they turn on all the HD graphics right Mike. PS My laptop is about a year or so old as I broke the last one. But I will be getting both bigant and ashes 2013 on PS3(pc versions are a maybe at the moment)

----------

Also Mike Zimrahil asked some very important questions above, if you have time can you have a look as these are some of the problems need fixing from ic2010.
1. Short pitch bowling was crap.
2. Spinners were crap.
3. ai field placements must be taken from real test match fields like cooks and Clarke having different options would be nice. I would love to play different teams with different tactics than the same over and over again.

If you laptop is just a year old you should be OK but send me the configuration and I'll check it for you. To answer your questions we have 2 out of 3 already sorted and I'll make sure we cover the "short pitch bowling was crap" problem

 

[angad]

We made the decision in the design phase to make fielding more automatic as the general feedback with our previous fielding system was "boring" so I guess we will have to wait and see on the how the new fielding system is received. To counter this we have introduced two new feature "line & length bowling" plus "Field placement" to make the whole bowling experience more strategic but more to come on these fronts over the coming weeks.We also didn't go with mini-games and tutorial/learning path stuff as you guys also found that boring too and just clicked through. Overall, we went back to basics and focused more on a new batting & bowling systems. More will be revealed over the coming weeks so hang in there!

Well...previous fielding system was boring, so you decided to make it automatic rather than find innovative ways to make it more interesting? Not a good approach in my books!!

Line and length bowling was there in IC2010 as well, what exactly has changed? What is the meaning of line and length bowling anyways.....?

There is a difference between a tutorial mode and nets.

What is the new batting system?

 

[Mike Fegan]

Mike, since you confirmed that there is a tournament creator option in game, I'd like to suggest a way to set it up -

It should allow us to set up all the stages of tournaments, instead of just choosing one pre defined style of tournament and going on...
(This I think will make sure that we can make any possible tournament coming in the recent years.)

Other than the usual bilateral, triangular series, there should be many team tournaments.

For the many team tournaments for preliminary round, a choice between different styles like -

1. Round Robin
1.1 Single-Round Robin - where each participant plays every other participant once.
1.2 Double-Round Robin - where each participant plays every other participant twice.

2. Knock-out tournaments - exactly what was there in AC09, so no need to elaborate. Nevertheless a pre quarter stage would be good.

3. Group tournaments - with a variable number of members per group, and to choose between two/three/four groups would be good.

4. Just a league style tournament where the team with most points are the winners.

For the above tournament style, points could be awarded on batting/bowling too, as in LVC championship - here too, toggle ability would be good.

For the second round, it could be -

1. (Quarter final - optional) Semi final,
2. Play offs,
3. Round robin league like super6 or super8 and then to a quarter/semi/playoff.

And for the third and final round, a choice between a final or best of three final.

We should be able to at least choose a country for the tourney to be played during the creation itself, not for every match. A home ground feature would be a plus.

These are just my suggestions, there are many other ways in which you can set this up, and I hope there's adequate depth in the tournament creator.


Another suggestion is just a catching system. Is there any remote possibility to implement it? (Ignore this if there is none) Just a bike speedometer like system as in BLC 05 would've been good...

All the best, go on with the devolopment...

Hi Aravind, Well I'm impressed and thanks for taking the time to pass on your suggestions. However, to be totally honest with you we have locked down any new changes or content in the AC2013 game as simply can't miss our November release date for obvious reason. I will take this information onboard and pass it on to our game designer for the next iteration of our cricket game now that we have gone through so much pain (& money) building the new cricket game engine. Thanks again, Mike

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Well...previous fielding system was boring, so you decided to make it automatic rather than find innovative ways to make it more interesting? Not a good approach in my books!!

Line and length bowling was there in IC2010 as well, what exactly has changed? What is the meaning of line and length bowling anyways.....?

There is a difference between a tutorial mode and nets.

What is the new batting system?

Please be patient all will be revealed over the coming 12 weeks if I spilled all the beans now you would soon get bored with me so hang in there!

 

[angad]

i would say majority of people just stimulate bowling and they just like to bat!

We haven't seen Big Ant's AI and gameplay yet, you can't say anything yet!

Mike might mean "Suprass BigAnt cricket 14" with their gameplay and hard AI, which will make game more fun and hard to master...

People simulated bowling because it was just plain boring....that was the main issue!! Aim the reticule and time the meter. Is that bowling?

Well we have seen sports games from both the developers in the past. One has been praised for their AI while the other never cracked it. Also with BigAnt's gameplay mechanics, the difficulty and randomness does not arise from AI and cheating in the game, while AC13 using the same old bowling/batting system ensures that they would need to get the AI to cheat to increase the difficulty levels + randomness as the whole game is just scripted.

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Please be patient all will be revealed over the coming 12 weeks if I spilled all the beans now you would soon get bored with me so hang in there!

I have heard you say the coming 12 weeks for the last 3 days now.....so it would be nice if you could tell us from when you plan to start giving out the info?

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

Hi Mike, since you are also answering the configuration queries -

Processor - Intel Pentium B950 @ 2.1GHz
I read it somewhere that it also beats the the first gen i3 processor in some areas. But I think mine is based on Dual Core.(?)
For the graphics, I have Intel HD 6 series (768 mb) something like that. I've run Battlefield BC2 on my laptop, and it wasn't that laggy