Ashes Cricket 2013 General Discussion

[Biggs]

I'm still going through the first test results, heard Aus were 300+ on the red in game two though... CricInfo is taking forever to load on my mobile.

Think PC needs another pass at those numbers, Mr Fegan...

 

[barmyarmy]

If you look closely you'll see that the bowlers are all averaging more than the batters. When Pattinson got injured Aus lost one of their best batsmen...

 

[max8619]

Hi Mike

Will the issue with stumping in the last game be resolved? i.e. in the last game if you came down the track, missed the ball, and then instantly pressed the button to return to your crease you will always get back before you are stumped regardless. Are the keepers now improved and will sometimes be quick enough to stump you, sometimes drop it, sometimes be too slow, sometimes be real close etc depending on the difficulty of the stumping e.g. if its down the leg side should be harder, to resemble real life situations.

Cheers

 

[zimrahil]

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.

Ok sure - will await to hear from you

 

[whiteninness]

In all honestly it wasn't Big Ant as I sure the game will sell well off the back of the Ashes licenses, marketing prowess of our publisher 505 Games and our reputation of making cricket games for Codemasters in the past. The decision to not release the game to make a short term gain was made by 505 Games because the game simply wasn't good enough. Personally, I just hope there is room for both games, one licensed and the other generic so you guys are the ultimate winners and you can get your hands on two cricket games for a change! Also competition is healthy as it keeps everyone on their toes and the really cool thing is both games are coming out of independent Aussie game studios which has to be good for the local industry!

I don't think that's a fair statement. Aside for just two teams, Ashes is just as "generic" as BA Cricket. Furthermore, the Australia and England teams are uneditable in Ashes so they will be out of date shortly after release.

And, to get around having just generic teams in BA Cricket there is an extensive team and player creator, editor and sharer, whereas for Ashes it seems like there is an editor and that's it, so if anyone wants to make the teams realistic they'll have to do everything themselves. Maybe this will change, but this is how I understand it at present.

I do agree that the competition is good and it was a very smart and brave decision to postpone the game. We want independent Australian studios to be strong and putting out poor games can't do that.

 

[Mike Fegan]

The broken online play never being fixed. I think I managed to finish one game of IC2010 online. It's basically all that's discussed about IC2010 - http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/online/quitters-disconnections-problem-67544.html

While pre-release engagement with the community is great - it's post release that matters far more.

Agree - But is the publisher who has the call on the post release side and we have a contractual obligation to carry out this work if our game code is at fault.

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Have u worked for EA Mike?

No, I worked for Acclaim Entertainment but my business partner and co-founder, Tony Parkes worked for EA for many years and ran their "Need for Speed" team out of Vancouver for 7 years.

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I lost my faith in this game as I was an ardent supporter in the beginning, however, I think what I have heard from you I will not cancel my pre-order and get this game because there is almost nothing that hard work, commitment, and honesty can't achieve. Mike, I must take my hat of for you, this could not have been easy especially with your honesty. I really hope this game can be a success, you have got hard work ahead of you but this is clearly not your first innings. I really hope you get a break or two as clearly the ball has not been bouncing in your favour recently, Good luck to you Mike

Thanks for the kind words but it really up to us now to redeem ourselves over the next 12 weeks which we will be working hard to do. From an "eye candy" perspective you starting see what the real game is form next month so please keep hanging in there.

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You may have convinced us(people in contact with you here or at fb) but how will you be able to convince a large number of potential buyers(who are not aware of all this happenings) who pre ordered the game but cancelled it due to couple of delays? How would they know that this game was not good enough to release, which leaded to delay? I don't think they will risk in pre ordering it again after the debacle as they do not know the truth actually.

The major challenge know for us to turn people's opinion around about the AC2013 game and the only way we are going to do that is to show them the game ASAP and that will start in September. It is them up to the general public to make their decision wether they are going to buy the game or not. We have a lot of work to do over the next 12 weeks so stick with us and make a call at the end of this period that's all I can ask.

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Mike will my pc run this game?
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Central Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
User Name Valued Customer
Graphics
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Video Memory 512.00 MB
Screen Resolution 1024 x 768
Storage
Total Memory 3.25 GB
Free Memory 1.97 GB
Total Hard disk 922.23 GB
Free Hard disk 800.81 GB

You are good to go!

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Thanks again mike the last few days have been well good on ashes forum for once. PS When I talk fields I do mean the ai not when I am bowling, I have only thought bowling in all cricket games was just ok for a short period of time.

I love to bat and maybe this will change with these 2 games or stay the same, I guess there is a huge reason way every cricket game has had sim overs in it. Thanks.

I get you the whole batting and bowling system for any cricket game is a massive undertaking and I can tell from a development perspective the work the guys put into it here is massive as I'm sure any game dev studio will attest too as well. Also this is an evolving process and you hope with every iteration of a new cricket game you get it better & better as we all strive for perfection.

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I hope you pass the feedback regarding manual/user field settings and online gameplay to your team and I look forward to hearing from you how you handled the issue.

Will do and I'm sure we will talk more about this in coming weeks.

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This is a thing I really liked about patching the EA game's you could really make the ball bounce after playing a stroke, will this be the case in your game? Because pre-patch in all of the EA games the ball would always roll 100% on the pitch which made finding the gaps hard.

Here's an example; Sachin Tendulkar's 100th Century Highlights - YouTube

I think this will be an evolving thing in the sense of what we achieve in the next 12 weeks and at the end of this period we will be evaluating what needs to be sorted out. If we do our job right we should not be looking at a day one update or patch. I guess we will have to wait and see.

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This is a thing I really liked about patching the EA game's you could really make the ball bounce after playing a stroke, will this be the case in your game? Because pre-patch in all of the EA games the ball would always roll 100% on the pitch which made finding the gaps hard.

Here's an example; Sachin Tendulkar's 100th Century Highlights - YouTube

Also thanks for the Sachin Tendulkar YouTube link as I was at The Oval on the 5th Test England against India and he went out for 98 just short of 100th century back then. I thought I would witness a piece of history right there but it wasn't mean't to be.

 

[79cricket]

I can promise you something mike, I will find every good point with your game and also the bad, well both games in that way. PS You said this time the spinners will spin the ball, did you ever play ic2010 mike. They spin the bowl like shane warne twins but the fields were well stupid. Leaving huge gaps when I hit 4 and 4 then plugging it and forgetting it like the next over. PS Lucky the wicketkeeper had super powers and could catch the ball like 6 feet away from him or I would never get out.

 

[Mike Fegan]

Mike, do you like movies with Gladiators?

Seriously though, why have Australia been such a bummer in the Ashes? Also, who got the dunce hat in the office for releasing images with the bat stickers on backwards? Finally, can the PC guys go back and tweak Agar's batting stats for you please? I think we may have got that'un wrong...

Mr.Biggs, I have been waiting for you to ask me questions and I was going to ask about you. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of Gladiator movies I'd rather spend my time watching sports of other kinds preferably football, soccer or cricket. I have to say I'm not looking forward to the 3rd Test tonight and like the Australian side you are right we as a dev team are also on the back foot right now.

The dunce in the office was me I am suppose to vet anything leaving the studio and that screenshot I let it go through to the keeper but it won't happen again. I also think we are little like the Aussie side at the moment in the sense that with our new cricket game engine we have some new parts to it that just haven't fired yet and so far we have lost two tests so far with the two delays in the game.It is up to us to get the whole thing working like a well oiled Aussie cricket team to go onto to win but we have challenges ahead. I hear what you are saying about Ashton Agar as he is a local Richmond lad and thankfully we have him in the game (33 players in the Aussie) squad but it is a bit disconcerting when a bowler is your highest run maker on tour right now.

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Hi Mike

Will the issue with stumping in the last game be resolved? i.e. in the last game if you came down the track, missed the ball, and then instantly pressed the button to return to your crease you will always get back before you are stumped regardless. Are the keepers now improved and will sometimes be quick enough to stump you, sometimes drop it, sometimes be too slow, sometimes be real close etc depending on the difficulty of the stumping e.g. if its down the leg side should be harder, to resemble real life situations.

Cheers

Hi,Yes we have resolved this as we haven't used anything from our old cricket games. We have been building a new cricket game engine that we hope will carry us through for a number of years but our priority right now is to produce a good quality AC2013 game for November release.

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I don't think that's a fair statement. Aside for just two teams, Ashes is just as "generic" as BA Cricket. Furthermore, the Australia and England teams are uneditable in Ashes so they will be out of date shortly after release.

And, to get around having just generic teams in BA Cricket there is an extensive team and player creator, editor and sharer, whereas for Ashes it seems like there is an editor and that's it, so if anyone wants to make the teams realistic they'll have to do everything themselves. Maybe this will change, but this is how I understand it at present.

I do agree that the competition is good and it was a very smart and brave decision to postpone the game. We want independent Australian studios to be strong and putting out poor games can't do that.

Don't disagree with your comments it all comes down to licenses and the licenses we need to include international teams is just not available so you have to go with what you have got. Totally agree on you comment about Aussie game studios as we have all been through some really bad times over the last 5 years with a strong Aussie dollar and the cost of development here in Australia but don't get me started......

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I can promise you something mike, I will find every good point with your game and also the bad, well both games in that way. PS You said this time the spinners will spin the ball, did you ever play ic2010 mike. They spin the bowl like shane warne twins but the fields were well stupid. Leaving huge gaps when I hit 4 and 4 then plugging it and forgetting it like the next over. PS Lucky the wicketkeeper had super powers and could catch the ball like 6 feet away from him or I would never get out.

Point taken and this was a recurring negative that it was just too damned easy to hit 4's & 6's after a very short time. This has changed in AC2013 so I'll be interested to get your opinion when you finally get you hands on the game in November.

 

[79cricket]

33 Players in the aussie squad Mike, cool and 30 stadiums is also good. How about the English squad mike ?

 

[NathanScott45]

Hey Mike... Me again :S

#1: Please make some sort of returning to the crease automatic. I hated it when you advanced, played and missed and the keeper (2nd point coming up) threw the ball and hit the stumps. I think sure there should be a quick returning to crease button, yet also a slower automatic one, so fielders don't wait until you've returned.
#2: Please make fielders (especially Keeper's) throwing accuracy far more realistic. Anything inside 10 meters was an automatic run out in A09.

 

[savvart]

Appreciate the communication Mike...

Keep it up this time - pplleeaassee, from a mad cricket game lover...

 

[Nikhil V]

Please kindly take away the super natural powers of the wicket keeper.

The last time I played he was catching the ball that was going with
140+ kph speed & 7/8 feet height when a 'leg glance' or 'late cut' is played.

 

[79cricket]

It's a hard thing to get right Mike, how hard is to hard and how many 4s and 6s should there be. PS How many difficulty levels are there, maybe a very hard would be nice for us hardcore cricket nuts.

 

[Mike Fegan]

mike i have core 2 dou 2.93ghz can i run it

Sorry kind of unknown at this time, anything less than the i5 is unsupported it may run fine with the quality settings in medium/low or at lower resolutions etc.

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33 Players in the aussie squad Mike, cool and 30 stadiums is also good. How about the English squad mike ?

35 players to choice from in the England squad.

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Hey Mike... Me again :S

#1: Please make some sort of returning to the crease automatic. I hated it when you advanced, played and missed and the keeper (2nd point coming up) threw the ball and hit the stumps. I think sure there should be a quick returning to crease button, yet also a slower automatic one, so fielders don't wait until you've returned.
#2: Please make fielders (especially Keeper's) throwing accuracy far more realistic. Anything inside 10 meters was an automatic run out in A09.

OK, I have passed on your comments to the team.

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Appreciate the communication Mike...

Keep it up this time - pplleeaassee, from a mad cricket game lover...

Don't worry you are stuck with me for the next 12 weeks and when the game is released in November I can take a well earned holiday watching the Ashes Test series live on TV right from my couch!

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Please kindly take away the super natural powers of the wicket keeper.

The last time I played he was catching the ball that was going with
140+ kph speed & 7/8 feet height when a 'leg glance' or 'late cut' is played.

Don't worry he has has definitely gone and moved on to work for Marvel in one of their next superhero movies. All jokes aside, everything is new in the game.

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It's a hard thing to get right Mike, how hard is to hard and how many 4s and 6s should there be. PS How many difficulty levels are there, maybe a very hard would be nice for us hardcore cricket nuts.

The guys here tell me it can be really "hardcore" especially when you completely turn off the HUD when batting which I have seen for myself. More information to come over the coming weeks.

 

[MattW]

Can you comment on comments that Unity is in beta for the PS3? You mentioned when attempting to put the game through submission that the Xbox 360 version was submitted but you were still waiting on PS3.

Will it be possible to overcome those issues in the month you have between now and needing to start the submission process on PS3 to release in November?