Ashes Cricket 2013 General Discussion

[Chief]

and the same reason why Football Manager can use names of clubs and stadiums without having licenses to particular leagues.

Football Manager has literally PAGES of licenses... It takes an AGE to get into the game because they have to credit them all.

 

[whiteninness]

Football Manager has literally PAGES of licenses... It takes an AGE to get into the game because they have to credit them all.

But not Olivier Kahn.

 

[Mike Fegan]

Mike

Will Australia have all 4 of there kits?
When are you going to name the stadiums in the game?

Yes, Australia and England will have all their licensed kits in the game. As previously stated we have all the licensed Ashes stadiums for England and Australia. We will confirm all stadiums in the AC2013 game next month.

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I think (and Mike could prolly elaborate) but the licences relate to the name of the stadium, the official layout of the ground and signage (etc). You've always had "Melbourne" in Cricket Games since Zeus was a thunder-thowing tiny tot, but as far as I know it's never been officially licenced as the "Melbourne Cricket Ground" with the proper layout and so on... at least, that's what we were told in the Trickstar/505 presentation that it's the first time it's officially been licensed. I'm assuming you can have similar LOOKING grounds, but never 100% accurate ones. For example, the name "Eden Park" (for Auckland) is a trademarked brand name, therefore you can't ever call it "Eden Park" or have the stadium logos in a game without paying for the rights to do so, but you could have a similar looking stadium called "Auckland". That's my rudimentary understanding of how it works... Basically, the same way you can have "Andrew Fluntiff" playing for England in game, but not Andrew Flintoff.


...only the finest humans in our society shall educate today's youth.

Your licensing assumptions are basically correct and in the case of the MCG stadium license this is the first time the MCC have licensed their stadium for a cricket game. I have tried over the years with the MCC to acquire the MCG license but it was always very expensive but fortunately this time around we were able to come to a fair deal for both parties. They do have an overarching l rights deal with the AFL here in Australia, to allow the AFL to sub license their stadium in any officially licensed AFL game which has been done in the past.

 

[Fast bowler]

LOL, Drama at its very best

 

[whiteninness]

I know that you aren't discussing Ashes 2013 gameplay mechanics yet Mike but I would like your opinion on this aspect of Ashes 2009 and IC 2010:

I thought that the bowling mechanic was very poor in these games. The game introduced the concept of telling you how good the ball is based on the colour, so green = good, yellow = okay and red = bad. From memory you would see the colour on the bowling reticule before you even bowled. The ability for the computer to hit the ball was then altered based on the colour.

This completely removed all strategy in bowling. There are two main parts of bowling: execution and thinking. In this game the only thought required was "do I bowl a yorker, good length or bouncer?" because only three spots on the pitch were green. There really was no point of bowling anywhere else because the batsman had a higher chance of scoring and a lower chance of getting out.

There was no thinking element and even if you were to bowl an amazing ball in real life, e.g. a leg cutter pitching outside leg and taking out middle, it would be hit for 4/6 on the highest difficulty because it was not in the green zone.

Previous games had pitch markers and no-doubt had mechanisms for judging how good certain balls are but it was hidden to the user.

For me, bowling in A09 and IC10 was just an elaborate game of darts, trying your best to hit the green zone and then hoping for the best.

Anyway, would just like an opinion on this

 

[dadarocks]

^ Plus events after the ball being bowled - that is the reaction of fielders, ground physics, etc relied on the user input - that's the pitch marker and execution meter heavily... (IMO)

Hope such things won't occur in this edition.

BTW about the batting system - the idea of giving the user 360 degrees to place the ball into the gaps was good, but if similar batting system's in this game, I hope it's refined. That is you don't end up playing a hook when leg glance was in your mind.

Also, the behind the wicket shots when ideally timed, sky rocketed like lofted straight drives. Please address these issues as well...

 

[whiteninness]

^ Plus events after the ball being bowled - that is the reaction of fielders, ground physics, etc relied on the user input - that's the pitch marker and execution meter heavily... (IMO)

Hope such things won't occur in this edition.

BTW about the batting system - the idea of giving the user 360 degrees to place the ball into the gaps was good, but if similar batting system's in this game, I hope it's refined. That is you don't end up playing a hook when leg glance was in your mind.

Also, the behind the wicket shots when ideally timed, sky rocketed like lofted straight drives. Please address these issues as well...

Yes from BLIC 2005 it felt for the first time that you could really aim between fielders and this was great. Not having separate front and backfoot buttons was crazy.

I wonder what the new one will have. If there are no separate front and backfoot buttons yet Bradman 14 has a complete joystick for foot movement then the games will starkly contrast.

 

[Mike Fegan]

I know that you aren't discussing Ashes 2013 gameplay mechanics yet Mike but I would like your opinion on this aspect of Ashes 2009 and IC 2010:

I thought that the bowling mechanic was very poor in these games. The game introduced the concept of telling you how good the ball is based on the colour, so green = good, yellow = okay and red = bad. From memory you would see the colour on the bowling reticule before you even bowled. The ability for the computer to hit the ball was then altered based on the colour.

This completely removed all strategy in bowling. There are two main parts of bowling: execution and thinking. In this game the only thought required was "do I bowl a yorker, good length or bouncer?" because only three spots on the pitch were green. There really was no point of bowling anywhere else because the batsman had a higher chance of scoring and a lower chance of getting out.

There was no thinking element and even if you were to bowl an amazing ball in real life, e.g. a leg cutter pitching outside leg and taking out middle, it would be hit for 4/6 on the highest difficulty because it was not in the green zone.

Previous games had pitch markers and no-doubt had mechanisms for judging how good certain balls are but it was hidden to the user.

For me, bowling in A09 and IC10 was just an elaborate game of darts, trying your best to hit the green zone and then hoping for the best.

Anyway, would just like an opinion on this

As previously stated high on the list of the negative feedback from IC2010 (& AC2009 by default being the same system) was that it after a short period to darn easy to hit runs. This is one of the main reasons in AC2013 we have a completely new batting & bowling system implemented in the game. Also for the first time in our cricket games you can also change the pace of the ball and linked with all new animations from all new motion capture we believe the new game is far more challenging. Also for the hard core players you can turn off the various HUD options to make it even more difficult to play. I hope you like the new batting and bowling systems when you finally get your hands on the game

 

[whiteninness]

As previously stated high on the list of the negative feedback from IC2010 (& AC2009 by default being the same system) was that it after a short period to darn easy to hit runs. This is one of the main reasons in AC2013 we have a completely new batting & bowling system implemented in the game. Also for the first time in our cricket games you can also change the pace of the ball and linked with all new animations from all new motion capture we believe the new game is far more challenging. Also for the hard core players you can turn off the various HUD options to make it even more difficult to play. I hope you like the new batting and bowling systems when you finally get your hands on the game

I'm actually not complaining about the batting engine but the bowling engine. Batting did become easy over time but at least could be fun. Bowling always felt lifeless.

Glenn McGrath would have been smashed in IC2010 because he didn't bowl at a "good length" but slightly short of that, which was not green but yellow in the game and therefore got dispatched with ease. I hated that the only way you could get better at bowling was by being able to aim the ball closed to the green zones. There was no sense of becoming smarter as a bowler because the game already told you what "smart bowling" was.

I am eagerly anticipating what you have delivered this time. I'm curious and a bit skeptical about this randomisation. If it's just the same process as before but with a Gaussian blur then it will be very underwhelming (but marginally better).

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Also for the hard core players you can turn off the various HUD options to make it even more difficult to play.

In previous games it was almost impossible to bat & bowl with the HUD off. Have you made it slightly more easier or is it still the same concept?

 

[zimrahil]

batting with HUD off against a fast bowler was pure guess work - no skill involved whatsoever

Using a controller, once you had decided what shot to play the next delivery was being bowled

 

[srk121]

The other major flaw was how AI use to bowl as well! either it will be 6 yorkers or 6 short bowls. There was hardly any strategy or any randomization.

 

[dadarocks]

Will this game EVER be released?

Well ,that's the Trickstar CEO's wish.

 

[Gone4aDuck]

I'm actually not complaining about the batting engine but the bowling engine. Batting did become easy over time but at least could be fun.

Spot on for me too. The batting would have been fine if pitch/weather conditions meant a damn. If you set it to overcast/humid/green pitch then it should have been as hard to bat as it was easy. (If that made sense)

 

[Biggs]

I think a lot of that came down to the AI ...by the 5th day of a test, the AI wouldn't be using spinners on a 'ruined' wicket with an old ball and would still be bowling it's seamers or something weird like that. The whole AI set in AC2009 really started to fall apart in the longer formats, which is frustrating for a title called "Ashes Cricket" where you'd think the AI settings, especially the bowlers and field-sets, would have been a little more aggressive and smarter.

The shorter-the-format the better the arcade-style experience was/is in AC2009/IC10. Again, vastly better than previous iterations but as you said - the longer you played it the more it kinda fell apart.