Cricket Coach 2007 - first opinions and thoughts

[Glenn Stiemens]

You can revert back to ball by ball or over by over play. Just move the slider to the left.

 

[RabbleRouser]

Ahh. So you can. Thanks, makes it far easier. =)

 

[ross_ntu]

Two majors issues for me so far- firstly I must say I have only played a few games, so this could be non representative. However, in my experience I have to agree that the amount of runs scored in first class games is ridiculous, and while the results look ok, when you actually look the runs are being scored far too quickly, with one team I bowled out getting 260 on the first day followed by my 100+ by the close of play. I looked at the other first class games that day and they were all scoring 400+ in a day. While this is possible, it is rare. I am seeing 160 odd runs scored in the morning session. Is this just me or are others noticing this.

Second issue - one that is less significant- is that there are too many dropped catches - in about four matches Jaques Rudolph has dropped multiple chances, as have others, including regular keeper drops. There also seem to be very few slip catches.

One other thing - Martyn Mockson (sic) is actually Martyn Moxon as far as I know.

Ross

 

[hassan]

downloadin the demo... got high expectations

 

[Isura]

Okay, here is my quick review. Started international career with Sri Lanka. I've played 2 3-match ODI series, but no tests yet.

Game/Match Interface:
- I love the new autoplay features during a game. Much more user friendly and enjoyable. One thing though, the simple match screen could use a bit more detail or be laid out a bit cleaner. Still just a minor complaint.
- I'd like to see an option to sim more than a 1 day at a time. Maybe 1 week, or until your next match. It would take longer, but I want the option to skip over meaningless matches when my team is not playing.

Game AI:
(Note, I'm new to cricket coach so keep that in mind. )
- Batting is fun. I think I've figured out a decent strategy for ODI games, but perhaps I need to workout how to slog it better in the last 10. Overall, its very realistic and you can post good modern day totals of 300 on good pitches.
- Bowling is harder. Bowling in powerplays is very tough. Perhaps I need to tweak the field settings and bowling plans, but haven't tried that yet.
-The CPU pacing can be a little off. They go hard in the first 20 overs, but sometimes they lose their way. Example, NZ was chasing over 300 against me, but didn't keep up with the rate and finished at 240/4 in 50 overs, kind of odd. But in the other matches it has been pretty good.
- There are too many 'close' FC games. No less than 5 times during the english season, a team came 15 runs or less from victory and the match was drawn.
- There also seems to be too many draws in tests, even in England!

Bugs:
One other thing, I don't know how to change lineups before the match (you're supposed to right-click, but it doesn't work for me). Is this just in the downloaded trial or a bug?

 

[Glenn Stiemens]

Isura - you now drag and drop. Also, if you want to skip to your next match/required match, you can do so from your profile screen.

 

[Isura]

Thanks Glen!

 

[Leicester Fox]

yeh i've had a bug where a player )not in a match i'm playing) took 1fer and the game thought he got 11fer and a record in a listA game. It also said Somerset win by 0 wickets. A bit of a freak result and i haven't got the screenie anymore i don't think

 

[The Mongrel]

There is a real bug in my game with Lancashire where every home game is an absolute road (I am talking eight wickets in four days).

For some reason, the pictures for ball bounce and ball turn are just red 'X's, I'm assuming that is what is making everything flat.

Just a few stats to show how flat a pitch it has been.

7 scores of above 300 in just THREE matches! All in Lancashire games!
Stevens 405*
Hodge 403
Clarke 393*
Chilton 339*
Key 316*
Troughton 304*
Horton 300*

In addition, my bowling statistics for the three matches.
Muralitharan 1-718
Anderson 7-600
Cork 1-641
Mahmood 3-479 (Though at least that sounds realistic!)

I'm sure it is just a bug and not intended , but I thought it would be good to let you know.

 

[Glenn Stiemens]

Thanks for that - yes, there is a minor problem with the game occassionally producing extremely flat wickets. Hopefully we can resolve this for a patch.

 

[PhilD123]

I'm pretty impressed with this really, the HTML output is fantastic! Won the test series 3-0 out of 3 games against the West Indies. That could be changed, as there should be 4 against the West Indies and 3 against India. I hit over 500 in all 3 innings as I batted first every time and won by an innings every time after making them follow on every time. I like the autoplay feature, although if you accidently skip to manic it can be annoying as it can be a bit before you can change batsmen/bowler settings. Oh and Andrew Strauss got 50 off 17 balls for me in the twenty20!

Off to start a game with Lancashire now!

 

[The Mongrel]

Thanks for that - yes, there is a minor problem with the game occassionally producing extremely flat wickets. Hopefully we can resolve this for a patch.

Mind you, it has only happened to me in one career - and it happened for every game there.

Apart from that, the game really is a massive improvement from the last game and is good fun! Match engine also much more realistic, although there can tend to be too many dropped catches (and therefore chances given) and it seems that when there is one LBW appeal - there tends to be three or more back to back.

 

[Yorkshire_No1]

Encouraging reports, downloading now and from the sounds ill be buying

 

[The Mongrel]

Also, another issue I noticed is that when one is setting the centrally contracted players and whether they can play domestically or not, when you scroll down and try to allow someone to play domestically, it only works on someone like seven or eight spots up meaning the last seven or so on the list don't play cricket.

 

[ross_ntu]

Just had another crazy high scoring game - I was Yorkshire and we bowled Kent out in 90 overs for 315. Fine - no problems there. I then went on to score 1137, with Younis Khan scoring 505* , Jaques Rudolph scoring 292 and Matthew Wood scoring 176. This took 264 overs, 25 overs of which were on the first day when I had reached 96/1 and I declared about 4.30pm on day 3. For most of the time the batsmen were on normal aggression, except at the end when Khan went onto full aggression. There were 4 300+ partnerships. Day 2 and 3 both saw approx 500 runs. I still had time to bowl Kent out for 297 just after tea. Kent had lost by an innings and 500 runs despite scoring 600+ runs in their two innings.

This to me seems a really strange result. Not sure whether part of it is to do with the number of overs being bowled in a day- 125 overs seems an awful lot, given that test teams struggle to bowl 90 at times in a day. Is this the reason the scores are so high? Not sure as I said, whether this is a "excellent pitch bug" or a combination of that and an "excessive overs in a day bug".