Cricket Heroes - testing & feedback

[kurtkz]

Don't forget that shots are "pressure sensitive" now. The longer you hold in the direction key, the harder the batsman will hit it. I'm still not sure whether or not this works well.

 

[kurtkz]

Hmm, I have some minor tweaks lined up for the next patch, but I'd also like to do some work on the UI. Does anyone have any inspiration that I can draw on? I think a dark UI with high contrast could work given the amount of information on screen at any given moment.

Or possibly something like this, but in a dark palette...

 

[Pat]

I am not a fan of that UI style. It looks a little old school to me. I would suggest you make the game menus flat and minimal. Suggestions:

1. Get high-res images related to Cricket through Google Image Search. There is a filter to show only those images which are "Licensed / Labeled for re-use". You can use such images as backgrounds in your menu without worrying about any legal ramifications. You can dim these backgrounds in the menu if needed, so that the text visibility is improved.
2. Go for flat and minimal style. Something like this: http://static9.cdn.ubi.com/en-GB/images/Option-videotcm2150122.jpg
3. Ensure you use scalable icons (or high-resolution vector ones) to ensure your menus don't look odd on high-resolution displays.
4. Font rendering: I don't know why but the fonts that you have used now don't look very sharp on my full-hd display.
5. UI scaling: Ensure your UI scales wrt the display resolution so that buttons, text, progress bars etc. don't look too small on high-res displays.
6. Keyboard control: Enable keyboard controls to navigate through the menus.
7. Scrollable Lists: Make the squad selection and other long lists scrollable using mouse (I think you already can?). Also, it will be great if you can enable "drag and drop" to move players from squad list to starting XI or vice-versa.

Also, please use a high-resolution circular loading indicator. The current one is really bad. You can try finding one here: Buffering Stock Illustrations, Cliparts And Royalty Free Buffering Vectors

 

[kurtkz]

Thanks, Pat - I'll see if I can put together something tonight. I like the flat style, but I thought the UI that I attached previously would suit the cartoon-style graphics better. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be able to replace the current 3D models (lack of funds/no-one wants to redo them pro bono) so I'd like to match the UI with them. What do you suggest?

 

[Pat]

That's a fair point. But I would still suggest at-least modernising the in-game menu as it would be visually more appealing and also help forming a good first-impression on someone who is trying the game for the first time.

 

[kurtkz]

I probably should never have gone for the cartoony look in the first place I'll try out 2 interfaces. One flat, one cartoony. If I have enough time I'll try to get it out before Friday.

Thanks for your input, Pat. Always appreciate your responses

 

[kurtkz]

Bah, Pat, you were right. The cartoony GUI doesn't look right. I'll be testing out a dark flat UI soon.

Oh, ibad17, I finally found the reason for the crash you were getting when playing the game as one of the league teams. I'll try to get a patch out tonight sometime.

 

[ibad17]

@kurtkz Any updates on the patch.

 

[ibad17]

@kurtkz Any news or update??

 

[kurtkz]

I should have something ready by tonight hopefully.

 

[dancingmongoose]

Is it possible we could get a timeless test mode?

 

[kurtkz]

@DM: That's an interesting idea actually - how did that work again? Each team just played on and on until the game was finished? Were there declarations and such?

 

[ibad17]

@kurtkz Also we don't see much aggression in the last 4-5 overs in T20 or ODs and also the players play defensively while chasing in the dead overs.

 

[kurtkz]

@ibad17: What are the skills of the players in those last few overs? I'll up the aggression in the dead overs.

 

[ibad17]

@ibad17: What are the skills of the players in those last few overs? I'll up the aggression in the dead overs.

Random players. In reality even tailenders try to be aggressive but in this sim even a batsman block or leave the ball in the last few overs.