Batting too easy on Hard/Hardest difficulty levels

[cricket_online]

Ok folks I've been going on about my batting experience in Ashes cricket and how it's so easy that it's downright broken. I thought this topic deserved its own thread and instead of ranting I would let a sample gameplay video explain everything wrong with the batting and gameplay balancing right now...

In nutshell you can see I've enabled gameplay sliders and in fact the batting sliders except for shot timing are all the way up to 100! Rest of the sliders, including 'Shot Force' are mostly on default. Secondly you can see the default OOB teams I'm using and they aren't over-powered. And last you can see the conditions - Green & soft pitch in overcast condition, i.e. the most challenging for batting especially on the first morning of a Test on 'Legend' AI difficulty level .

And yet as you can see I'm able to get to 50/0 within 2 overs against a 90 rated Starc and a higly rated Hazlewood! Yup folks on Hard/Hardest settings for batting on the first morning of a Test at WACA in green, soft and overcast condition I'm 50/0 within 2 overs!!!

I understand the game catering to casuals and newbies but surely they would want a challenge as well. And I thought that's why gameplay sliders were put in place, i.e. to enhance difficulty levels. It's like FIFA changing the 'Legendary' difficulty to 'Amateur' and honestly I don't see any longevity or replayability at the moment. Also, which casual gamer would want such an easy game to play where there's no challenge whatsoever?

Paging Big Ant folks @MattW , @HBK619 , @BigAntStudios and the beta folks @WealeyH , @grkrama , @blockerdave , @T.J.Hooker as this gameplay balance needs to be addressed ASAP. Without a proper balance between bat and ball the game breaks fundamentally and no amount of good AI fields or AI logic can redeem it.

I'm shelving the game and waiting for a patch that addresses the gameplay balance between bat and ball. Currently none exists.

P.S. - I'm not that great a player either. I'm more of an average or at best a slightly above average gamer and if I'm having absolutely no challenge you can see where the game's headed.

 

[Wealey]

Ok folks I've been going on about my batting experience in Ashes cricket and how it's so easy that it's downright broken. I thought this topic deserved its own thread and instead of ranting I would let a sample gameplay video explain everything wrong with the batting and gameplay balancing right now...

In nutshell you can see I've enabled gameplay sliders and in fact the batting sliders except for shot timing are all the way up to 100! Rest of the sliders, including 'Shot Force' are mostly on default. Secondly you can see the default OOB teams I'm using and they aren't over-powered. And last you can see the conditions - Green & soft pitch in overcast condition, i.e. the most challenging for batting especially on the first morning of a Test on 'Legend' AI difficulty level .

And yet as you can see I'm able to get to 50/0 within 2 overs against a 90 rated Starc and a higly rated Hazlewood! Yup folks on Hard/Hardest settings for batting on the first morning of a Test at WACA in green, soft and overcast condition I'm 50/0 within 2 overs!!!

I understand the game catering to casuals and newbies but surely they would want a challenge as well. And I thought that's why gameplay sliders were put in place, i.e. to enhance difficulty levels. It's like FIFA changing the 'Legendary' difficulty to 'Amateur' and honestly I don't see any longevity or replayability at the moment. Also, which casual gamer would want such an easy game to play where there's no challenge whatsoever?

Paging Big Ant folks @MattW , @HBK619 , @BigAntStudios and the beta folks @WealeyH , @grkrama , @blockerdave , @T.J.Hooker as this gameplay balance needs to be addressed ASAP. Without a proper balance between bat and ball the game breaks fundamentally and no AI fields or AI logic can redeem it.

I'm shelving the game and waiting for a patch that addresses the gameplay balance between bat and ball. Currently none exists.

P.S. - I'm not that great a player either. I'm more of an average or at best a slightly above average gamer and if I'm having absolutely no challenge you can see where the game's headed.

Mate honestly, I must of mentioned this 25 or more times... it didn't seem to get much love!

 

[cricket_online]

Mate honestly, I must of mentioned this 25 or more times... it didn't seem to get much love!

I hear you but IMO it needs to be addressed ASAP as give folks a couple of days to get used to batting animations and they will see there's barely a challenge. And that's why I tagged Big Ant folks coz this is a major issue at the moment - even bigger than the poor AI fields. Without a proper balance between bat & ball what's the point?

 

[blockerdave]

Honestly, there' no point in flagging beta people in this. We have given feedback. Wealey especially.

I've not had quite as extreme results as you or him, but still it's obvious to me that batting is easier and what's more I think it's actually got easier over the post release patches which is concerning.

 

[cricket_online]

Honestly, there' no point in flagging beta people in this. We have given feedback. Wealey especially.

I've not had quite as extreme results as you or him, but still it's obvious to me that batting is easier and what's more I think it's actually got easier over the post release patches which is concerning.

The reason I tagged you is you are the closest to the Big Ant folks and the feedback process, and as you can see balance between bat & ball needs to be addressed ASAP. I mean eventually people will wear off coring 20 ball 50s and 40 ball 100s.

 

[Wealey]

I hear you but IMO it needs to be addressed ASAP as give folks a couple of days to get used to batting animations and they will see there's barely a challenge. And that's why I tagged Big Ant folks coz this is a major issue at the moment - even bigger than the poor AI fields. Without a proper balance between bat & ball what's the point?

Like Blocker said, we can't influence what happens, iv not batted for weeks because of it!

 

[graham]

When first got the game it felt really good batting lots of nicks then the patches started and no nicks !
It’s need to be made challenging for the cricket gamers .

 

[Wealey]

When first got the game it felt really good batting lots of nicks then the patches started and no nicks !
It’s need to be made challenging for the cricket gamers .

If im honest even through testing I wasn't getting nicks, so count yourself lucky that you had some.

 

[grkrama]

The whole lofted shots are easy to connect and mainly even ones that come of top of bat go to six easily.

Front foot square drive is another shot that needs to be made risky. Right now its easiest scorer.

Also edges for batting is something WealeyH has been at for quite some time.

To me mainly once edges are introduced for misjudhing length so that you're not able to cover drive of good length so easily and variety of edges like top edges leading edges under edges are introduced.
This should be done with visible movement of delivery either swing or seam.

If they can do that will be good.

Right now they have got the feel of shots when perfect but risk for footwork, and lateral movement need to be added. Mainly for green crumbling etc against pace bowlers

 

[cricket_online]

Like Blocker said, we can't influence what happens, iv not batted for weeks because of it!

IMO your comment in itself should be a re flag to Big Ant folks, i.e. if someone so close to the game doesn't like a part of the game so much how do they expect others to buy in? I've been a Big Ant supporter, and still am, given they've backed cricket video gaming but this iteration of the game is one of the poorer ones I've seen, specifically the batting and balance between bat & ball. Steve Smith & Maxwell batting animations are all fine but it's all fluff if underlying gameplay doesn't hold up. At the moment it doesn't.

And my frustration is we can all see how close they are to the holy grail but somehow they mess up in one of the crucial gameplay areas - sometimes in gameplay balancing, sometimes related to stats and other times with AI fields/logic.

 

[Wealey]

IMO your comment in itself should be a re flag to Big Ant folks, i.e. if someone so close to the game doesn't like a part of the game so much how do they expect others to buy in? I've been a Big Ant supporter, and still am, given they've backed cricket video gaming but this iteration of the game is one of the poorer ones I've seen. Steve Smith & Maxwell batting animations are all fine but it's all fluff if underlying gameplay doesn't hold up. At the moment it doesn't.

And my frustration is we can all see how close they are to the holy grail but somehow they mess up in one of the crucial gameplay areas - sometimes in gameplay balancing, sometimes related to stats and other times with AI fields/logic.

I wouldn't agree with poorest.
Bowling is far superior to previous games with variation of dismissals and play and misses etc.

Batting is also good, but it's broken with how easy it is.

If that was sorted, for me it would be the best iteration.

 

[grkrama]

The thing is this round of patching they focused on bug stuff more than gameplay, they sure do listen think next round we should have balanced gameplay and improvements.

 

[cricket_online]

The whole lofted shots are easy to connect and mainly even ones that come of top of bat go to six easily.

Front foot square drive is another shot that needs to be made risky. Right now its easiest scorer.

Also edges for batting is something WealeyH has been at for quite some time.

To me mainly once edges are introduced for misjudhing length so that you're not able to cover drive of good length so easily and variety of edges like top edges leading edges under edges are introduced.
This should be done with visible movement of delivery either swing or seam.

If they can do that will be good.

Right now they have got the feel of shots when perfect but risk for footwork, and lateral movement need to be added. Mainly for green crumbling etc against pace bowlers

To me it's a simple exercise in data gathering, analysis and cricketing logic. If I've to go about addressing the logic this is what I would do at a simplistic high level...

1. Look at various shots and determine their success/failure rates. Say cover drive is successfully played 70% of the times. That means there's 30% chances it's miscued. Then figure out how many times the miscue results in an edge. Say 15% of the miscues result in an edge.
2. Then factor in the conditions. in flattish and non-overcast conditions this failure rate drops down to 5% and in green, overcast condition it bumps up to 20-25%
3. Then look at the length of the delivery. Fuller the length, the failure rate goes down further and it increases the shorter the length you are trying to cover drive.
4. Factor in the line of the delivery. If line is closer to the batsman, failure rate drops else it increases.
5. Factor in seam/swing.
6. Factor in batsman's strengths & weaknesses.

The thing is there can't be a simplistic answer/solution to edges. It can't be "cover drive on a green pitch is an automatic edge". Oh and this has to be done for all shot types andAnd that's why I suggest giving more control to the end users by adding a 'Edge Frequency' modifier. Either one generic modifier for all edges or two - one for drives and one for horizontal (cuts & pulls). Or maybe give a 'Edge frequency' modifier for each common shot type - cover drive, straight drive, on drive, glance/flick, cut, pull/hook. I'm more in favor of going the modifier route to solve the problem as Big Ant can crowd source the gameplay balancing and also folks can adjust their own gameplay experience.

 

[cricket_online]

I wouldn't agree with poorest.
Bowling is far superior to previous games with variation of dismissals and play and misses etc.

Batting is also good, but it's broken with how easy it is.

If that was sorted, for me it would be the best iteration.

And that's what I alluded to the "frustration" part in my comment. The reason I'm calling it one of the poorer ones is coz at the moment I can't play it given the imbalance so rest of the positives don't matter.

 

[DeadShot]

Most of the time I myself give away my wicket trying different things. None of my dismissal stands out where AI really bowled a beauty and got me out. No LBW so far. DBC14 and DBC17 was better in this regard.

On contrary, bowling is far far better and challenging.

Soon, I'll start simulating batting until it is fixed. If it is not getting fixed, then this game goes to shelf.