Hello. I've been playing since early February and making regular notes for most of that time. I've come up with a lot of ideas and suggestions for the team at BA, many of which have been mentioned before. I've put the stuff I regard as most in need of addressing at the top of the list. The game would be awesome if even half of this stuff was included/addressed. The foundation is clearly there and it's not that far away from being an excellent game, especially if a few key things are improved. I have tried to remove the points that I believe have been addressed since I first noted them, though it's possible there are still a few things on this list that are no longer applicable. I hope this is helpful
@MattW. This first list is for gameplay. I have much smaller lists for aesthetics and bugs.
Gameplay
* AI batting is always poor now, resulting in low scores every single time, whether it’s AI vs AI or AI vs human – wasn’t the case until sometime in March
* Serious issues with AI’s handling of spin – ruins the game at present
* Lines to LHBs are still too straight (leg side, easy runs) – fixing this really must be prioritised
* The striker takes too long to set off for a run
* The batters touch down to complete runs way over the crease, which costs them time and therefore sometimes runs
* Fielders hit the stumps
far too often – when you’re not going to make your ground they hit from the in-field literally every time
* Fielding still substandard, now including regular dives right over the ball when dives aren’t even required
* Too many stupid AI run outs attempting suicidal second runs
* Mistimed aggressive ground strokes should not fly so far in the air that they carry all the way to a fielder on the boundary or go straight up in the air – if timed early then they could travel at catchable height through the circle or to a fielder on the edge of the circle, but late timing should result in plays and misses, chopping the ball into the ground or inside edging
* Late-timed balls should not go straight up in the air unless it’s a top edge from a horizontal bat shot
* Batsmen often look up very late, just in time to face the delivery, both human and AI
* Wides are adjudicated far too harshly in long-form matches – AI bowled thirteen in an innings, no more than a couple for height
* Can’t run an overthrow when the AI hits the stumps
* Should be the occasional edge from a poorly timed defensive shot
* Sometimes feels difficult to play to the on side if the ball is even just a little outside off
* Cut shot animations are horrible – always a dab or glide instead of a proper flourish
* Difficult to glance fine down the leg side – this might be related to the fact that a lot of my attempted fine glances are interpreted as late cuts, even when I feel like I’ve moved the stick to the correct side of vertically downwards (depending on the handedness of the batter)
* AI blocking balls down the leg side – should be smashing those
* Result of appeal given away before umpire makes their decision, including by commentators
* Wicketkeepers and bowlers take too long to remove the bails for stumping and run-out opportunities
* Both human and AI bowlers are unable to attempt relatively simple caught and bowleds sometimes, and sometimes don’t field off their own bowling, allowing singles that would otherwise not be available
* Obvious over-reliance on wicketkeeper catches
* Wicketkeepers regularly dive in front of slip fielders, while other edges go very square, resulting in few slip catches
* Teams chasing in ODIs should be getting bowled out more often than unsuccessfully batting out the overs, as per real life – this might have been an issue before the AI batting became terrible, didn’t have a lot of data on it
* AI sweeps and flicks always seem to go to short fine leg rather than either side
* Umpires never seem to make the wrong decision with caught behinds
* Too many edges go straight into the ground – not sure whether this would be alleviated by tinkering with the edge sliders
* Seems like outcomes when bowling have less to do with user skill than they should – user input should have a greater influence on outcomes when bowling, obviously not total influence by any means
* Should be some lofted balls plugging in the outfield – never seen this in any BA game
* Third umpire decisions are made without us seeing the replay first
* Too much playing of the ball to the leg side from outside off stump by the AI – rampant in the death overs of a 50-over match (made this note a while ago so not sure if it’s still an issue)
* AI consistently pulls full bulls – could happen occasionally but probably result in a play and miss, a bowled or an lbw more likely than runs, depending on pitch bounce
* Wicketkeepers sometimes wait for outfield returns metres behind the stumps instead of over the bails as they should do
* Three-metre rule for lbw appeal could be included
* Bowler knows you’re coming when you charge and drops it short – should be no on-pitch clue such as a raised bat but something on the HUD instead to indicate you’re going to charge
* Balls being smashed off the toe of the bat – well executed yorkers should not be smashable for four or six by the AI or by a human player, but the occasional inside edge for four is realistic
* It would be great to see a colour-marker distinction between yorkers and full tosses, maybe on a spectrum of blue where dark blue indicates a perfect yorker and attempting to smash this will almost certainly end badly
* Forced to concede a six despite taking a catch – no juggling option
* The AI seems too reliant on boundaries in T20 and faces a few too many dot balls – not a huge imbalance but could do with a tweak
* AI pacing now seems mostly good but have seen AI batters ducking under a short ball with 13 needed from 3 and another instance when 6 were needed off 2
* AI batsmen have to try for the hopeless run when they have nothing to lose on the last ball of a run chase and they need one to win or tie
* Spinners constantly deliver from too wide on the return crease, which IRL constitutes a no ball
* It feels like shots occasionally don’t go where they’re placed on the right stick – probably not worth tinkering with if there’s a risk of making something else worse
* Human bowler changing from over to round the wicket or round to over – the bowler goes all the way over, so to get back requires three button presses instead of one
* The height on some of the charge-down-the-wicket sixes is excessive
* If an AI bowler is getting spanked, he/she should be taken out of the attack
* Top edges off spinners sometimes go miles in the air, which is very unrealistic
* I’ve seen outside edges behave like inside edges from spinners (going in the wrong direction)
* AI striker should call for runs in career and star player modes when hitting in front of the wicket or when the human player hits behind the wicket, as per real life
* It’d be nice as captain in career/star player modes to be able to instruct your AI teammates to bat naturally, defensively or aggressively – would just help balance the AI and add more depth
* Human players should not be tasked with reviewing unless we are the bowler or the wicketkeeper – AI to call for reviews in these situations, or else you could reinstate the teammate confidence meter that appeared in the Bradman games
* Keeper moving leg side in anticipation of an inside edge – obvious scripting, please remove
* Non-striker backs up far too far at times in career/star player modes
* Changing the rope distance in match type editor makes
no difference whatsoever
* Some AI sliders appear to make no difference whatsoever – I set wicket chance to 0 and bowled the Renegades out for 106 with seven spinner wickets and three run-outs
* The rope is much too short in women’s matches and you haven’t even allowed us to change it
* I have never understood how your footwork grading works – gradings often seem counterintuitive
* Scripting still very obvious from time to time – I tested it by resetting when hit for a boundary and it happened again the next three times, irrespective of the ball bowled or the field set
* AI bowling management in one-day cricket – frontline bowlers bowling out too soon and fifth and sixth options bowling in tandem at the death – I remember this being better in previous games
* Don’t bother asking us to select the no.11 batter as the next-in
* Extreme slow balls from spinners on default sliders seem to have been introduced recently
* Fielders taking forever to bend down and pick up the ball after making a diving save
* Why does the fifth bowler bowl an early spell in first-class cricket and then is never seen again no matter how long the innings goes?
* Slow-motion batting animations are very annoying, particularly when ideal timing is achieved – don’t understand this at all
* Not enough dropped catches by the AI
* It’d be good if it were possible to bowl the AI on a misjudged leave
