Ashes Cricket General Discussion

[Sweppy12]

I dunno if it's just cause I'm playing with tweaked sides but the last ball of an over slog is so painfully predictable in ODI. Particularly when it's a batsman's first ball - two wickets down in the second over and BOSH - smashes one over cover point for six.

no it's not tweaked sides... England do it just about every over unless I bowl a good bouncer in ashes mode... Rediculously, Alistair Cook is the worst culprit

 

[cricket_online]

no it's not tweaked sides... England do it just about every over unless I bowl a good bouncer in ashes mode... Rediculously, Alistair Cook is the worst culprit

Coz OOB Alistair Cook is for some reason set up to be a "Brute". IMO the OOB default player ratings, attributes and mentalities are pretty poor and need to be modified nearly for every player and this is especially true for licensed teams - England and Australia.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

no it's not tweaked sides... England do it just about every over unless I bowl a good bouncer in ashes mode... Rediculously, Alistair Cook is the worst culprit

That's where I go back to what I said the other day about the need for team mentalities or team strategies. I was thinking about PES and when you customise a team you don't just change the personnel or the formation you can alter how they play, defensively and offensively. So if you set a team to press all over the pitch, when you play that team they are all over you trying to get the ball back, set them to sit back and you get more time on the ball. It's not necessarily massively in depth like you'd get on Football Manager but you really see the difference from team to team based on how they are set up to play. Ashes just lacks that basic variety. Beyond the individual mentalities - which are patchy at best - there's virtually no sense that teams are going about things in any other way than a set pattern.

It could potentially add much needed nuance if you could set of mentalities for different periods of play, like each powerplay of an ODI or the first 15-20 overs, or even first session of test match.
Starting mentality (maybe the first period of play - 3 to 4 overs of an ODI, 1-2 of a T20, 10-15 of a test)
Offensive mentality (activated if they get through that first period unscathed)
Defensive mentality (if they lose early wickets). It doesn't mean that defensive has to be blocking or that offensive has to trying to hit for six every ball.

Throw in something stuff like:
'Accumulation': 'Boundaries' or 'Singles' or 'Mixed' so a team that is set to play in an attacking manner but also accumulate through singles might look to push for singles, turn ones into twos - open up more opportunities for run outs.
'Creativity/Freedom:' how much players are allowed to play outside of the team mentality. So an Aggressive team that has some conservative players by having 'high' freedom might see the conservative players bat closer to their mentality, 'low' freedom might see conservative players forced to play outside their comfort zone.

You could have a 'team make up' option, which might not necessairly be relevant to casual games, but in career mode if a team like England was set to 'bat deep' you might see a side selected with more all rounders or bowlers that can bat.

Even if individual batting and bowling mentalities were working perfectly it was clear how to set up a player to score at a particular rate or bat in a particular style there's only so much depth it adds. Especially if teams are basically looking to score runs at set run rate all the time. I can't imagine you'd see an approach like Australia took in the real Ashes (seeing off the best bowlers, occupying the crease, grinding it out) would ever really come across how the game is currently set up.

 

[Rumple43]

Great vid. I get the AI playing across the line a lot as well. If I bowl off stump, or 4th/5th stump, most of the time the CPU will look to work me through midwicket.

Unfortunately, they're able to do it 99% of the time. That's why I posted on here about my lack of LBWs. They just don't miss enough on my game. Good to see it here though.

 

[Hester]

Was trying out classic bowling controls last night and noticed there's a separate option for seam position. Pretty cool. But why doesn't standard control option have this? I've been using standard since release....have I missed out on seam positioning all this time?

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Was trying out classic bowling controls last night and noticed there's a separate option for seam position. Pretty cool. But why doesn't standard control option have this? I've been using standard since release....have I missed out on seam positioning all this time?

Because standard controls should be called Basic controls and classic controls should be called advanced controls.

 

[Hester]

Because standard controls should be called Basic controls and classic controls should be called advanced controls.

I see....well, I suck at bowling but there's no way I can go back to not having seam positioning. Practice here we come!

 

[wasteyouryouth]

If anyone has nothing better to do and would be interested in trying a couple of experimental teams - South Africa 92 and another from the 92 World Cup, open to requests - raise you hand.

Having a very interesting bowling spell against the South Africa side. I've reduced their Shot Types and Delivery Types significantly - less than ten even for the best players. Judgement is taken as a purely batting skill and they are skilled fairly consistently. I've also made a few adjustments with the modifiers. For the most part that involves trying to reduce swing, eliminate the magic cutters and reduce the level of bounce for spinners.

I had a little bat against the bowlers and there didn't seem to be any great difference between them and when they have higher delivery type skills. Then simulated because I wanted to see how they batted.

So far, so good. Both wickets were knicks to the slips, there were knicks but not many chances. I've yet to see them try and lob one up to the infield. They still smash sixes to keep up with the run rate but whether the Shot Types have any great influence on in match ability it's not been that apparent. I'd be really interested to see how they perform batting first.

Spoiler: Scorecard

[DOUBLEPOST=1517045911][/DOUBLEPOST]

I see....well, I suck at bowling but there's no way I can go back to not having seam positioning. Practice here we come!

The classic pace bowling controls are so satisfying when you master them. It's worth the practice.

 

[blockerdave]

I'd give it a go @wasteyouryouth

 

[Dean johnes]

Because standard controls should be called Basic controls and classic controls should be called advanced controls.

No point giving a control called basic.
How can player play with basic control with less features.
And legend control classic with additional features.
Sounds like a joke.
If it's called easy to control hard to master then they should look at being both the control equal to each other.
Strange game design

 

[CDG]

I find it intriguing at the complete lack of good balls bowled by AI bowlers. I played my first Sheffield Shield game in my career mode and all I was getting where half volleys and short stuff to hit. I got maybe one good ball an over which is not realistic as you should be getting about 4 or 5, at least 3 good balls an over at that level

 

[Langeveldt]

If anyone has nothing better to do and would be interested in trying a couple of experimental teams - South Africa 92 and another from the 92 World Cup, open to requests - raise you hand.

Having a very interesting bowling spell against the South Africa side. I've reduced their Shot Types and Delivery Types significantly - less than ten even for the best players. Judgement is taken as a purely batting skill and they are skilled fairly consistently. I've also made a few adjustments with the modifiers. For the most part that involves trying to reduce swing, eliminate the magic cutters and reduce the level of bounce for spinners.

I had a little bat against the bowlers and there didn't seem to be any great difference between them and when they have higher delivery type skills. Then simulated because I wanted to see how they batted.

So far, so good. Both wickets were knicks to the slips, there were knicks but not many chances. I've yet to see them try and lob one up to the infield. They still smash sixes to keep up with the run rate but whether the Shot Types have any great influence on in match ability it's not been that apparent. I'd be really interested to see how they perform batting first.

Spoiler: Scorecard

[DOUBLEPOST=1517045911][/DOUBLEPOST]
The classic pace bowling controls are so satisfying when you master them. It's worth the practice.

So ... Is Andrew Hudson down as conservative?

I get the impression a lot of the attributes are just for show and have no bearing on anything, which shows BA to be a real fraud. I remember in DBC 14 they made no difference despite people putting hours and hours into tweaking their favourite teams. I remember with no fondness Tendai Chatara hitting 105 not out against Johnson, Siddle and Harris on a minefield and put the game away for eternity.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

So ... Is Andrew Hudson down as conservative?

I get the impression a lot of the attributes are just for show and have no bearing on anything, which shows BA to be a real fraud. I remember in DBC 14 they made no difference despite people putting hours and hours into tweaking their favourite teams. I remember with no fondness Tendai Chatara hitting 105 not out against Johnson, Siddle and Harris on a minefield and put the game away for eternity.

Hudson is precise, but lower skilled than Wessels or Kirsten.

The theory I came up with while playing was that, even if the Shot Types skills made a difference in DBC 17, perhaps because of the new mo-capped animations they are somewhat rendered redundant. Cause it's not like there's a skill for 'Prod Shot'. That or none of the skills matter. I just bowled in an ODI against the SA line up, they batted first. They got 301/9 in 50 overs. That's with the shot types reduced to 8 max, a few tweaks to the modifiers and me not trying to bowl magic cutters - which seem to have been nullified by reducing seam revolutions. There was some nice looking wickets in there too. A few too many prod shots but that could because I've not changed many of the batting styles and they are set at 1. Although three wickets were from prod shots, including a bowled which was exceptionally satisfying.

 

[UnknownSoul]

my view/recollection is people did ask for a separation of difficulty, separate batting/bowling/AI difficulty.

these, and the timing customisations have their place.

the physics customisations shouldn't be in the game.

I feel the physics sliders should be 'hidden' then each of the pitch variations settings should add/reduce the corresponding trait attribute. Then as each day in a test passes for example it would then add/reduce on top of that and so on. Even in a ODI a 'due' factor could be done with that. I know i may not be explaining it very well more of a ramble but when i first heard of sliders i thought this was the main thing for it. There so much you can do with them to bring a new experience EVERY match. If they had a algorithm for it.

 

[Langeveldt]

Hudson is precise, but lower skilled than Wessels or Kirsten.

The theory I came up with while playing was that, even if the Shot Types skills made a difference in DBC 17, perhaps because of the new mo-capped animations they are somewhat rendered redundant. Cause it's not like there's a skill for 'Prod Shot'. That or none of the skills matter. I just bowled in an ODI against the SA line up, they batted first. They got 301/9 in 50 overs. That's with the shot types reduced to 8 max, a few tweaks to the modifiers and me not trying to bowl magic cutters - which seem to have been nullified by reducing seam revolutions. There was some nice looking wickets in there too. A few too many prod shots but that could because I've not changed many of the batting styles and they are set at 1. Although three wickets were from prod shots, including a bowled which was exceptionally satisfying.

Okay, so shot attributes don't matter at all.

I don't mean to be overly dramatic, as it is only a cricket game after all, but how do BA get away with all this? Third iteration now!?