*Detailed* Questions and Answers

[Hunbbel]

There were a lot of questions about bowling and skills in the recent Cricket Academy update. MikeM will be online here soon to answer all your queries.

Important Rules:

1. Please keep this thread only for questions about bowling, batting, gameplay and skills in Cricket Academy.
2. Questions about release date are strictly prohibited.
3. Kindly do not post anything other than the question. No comments, no thanks, no suggestions, etc. This thread is solely dedicated to the Q/A.
4. If you need further clarification for any answer, you are free to ask more questions.
5. Please read the queries posted by others before posting your own. If the question you want to ask has already been asked, please refrain from repeating it.

MikeM can come online and answer all the questions in the order they were posted. Use the 'Thanks' button to acknowledge the answers, so we can keep the thread clean and more meaningful.

For MikeM: It would be great if you can mention the questions that you cannot answer at this stage. It will refrain members to keep asking the same question. Thanks

 

[whiteninness]

Hey Mikey!

1) Could you please give an insight how short-term tactics work, by which I mean tactics that last a couple of overs. Will the AI bowlers try to set you up with lots of in swingers before throwing in an outswinger? Perhaps more difficultly, when you bowl to the AI batsman if you bowl the same way would the AI batsman begin to play for inswingers and then be surprised by an outswinger?

I think the extent this has gone to in previous game is in IC 2010 where if you bowled like 3 bouncers then a yorker you'd like get a bowled/LBW. I essentially would like something along those lines but more more complex than the IC 2010 example.

2) Do the bowlers have an intelligence/patience level? As an example, a captain may be setting an offside field to defend against drives, but an impatient and dumb bowler might start throwing in bouncers? Would the captain take him off?

3) Will the AI ever open the bowling in 2020s with spinners? Or even in test matches if in India, for example?

 

[TripleM]

You've had a lot of experience playing this game now.

1) Does the AI still pose a challenge to you? Or do you find it relatively simple to win?

2) Ross has mentioned things have been set up so that the AI score at reasonably 'normal' run rates. Is the same true when you are playing from the human side of things though? Ie, can you actually get away with hitting out like a T20 when playing a test match, and get unrealistic scores easily? Or do all of the aspects of the gameplay result in this being far too dangerous, and lean you towards an optimal strategy of batting more like 'normal'?

 

[Hunbbel]

Questions:

1. Can every bowler in the game bowl those 'special deliveries'? For example, I created an off-spinner in CA and he has the option of setting his 'leg-break' abilities - which doesn't seem real. In other words, selecting a specific type of bowler (e.g. an off-spinner) doesn't restrict certain bowling deliveries, e.g. the leg-break. Can every bowler bowl all kind of deliveries? What's the difference then?

2. What determines the pace of a fast-bowler? Does his height/build have a serious impact on his pace? (I apologize if this already has been answered but I couldn't see its option in my brief stint with the CA). In other words, I can see the skills allocated to bowl an off-spin for an off-spin bowler. These varied skills will determine how different bowlers will generate different amount of spin. How the pacers will get different speeds then?

3. We know that AI is very intelligent in DBC'14 (believing on what you guys have told us so far) but to what extent, is yet to be answered. Can you kindly give us an example of a match that you played against the AI and with its abilities to judge the match situation, it totally bamboozled you? It would be great to tell us a story-type scenario for that

Thanks for you time, MikeM

 

[Snowy]

1a. Are we able to dictate the batting order the CPU uses? For example, if we are playing England in a Test match, we wouldn't want to be playing their ODI lineup.

1b. Are we restricted to the default batting lineups, or do they just act as a base from which we can further chop and change?

2. Any plans to introduce sweatbands for bowlers?

 

[whiteninness]

Is there a way to have batsman who are compulsive hookers, for example? (or never hook?) Will batsmen play to their strengths? If a guy has a high rating for front foot but low for back foot, does that just mean he's better at one than the other or does it mean he will actually attack more on one and defend more on the other as well?

 

[brown]

The players on default teams are all so good! Even players at teams like Derbyshire have 1 or 2 skills maxed out, will they all be this good when the full game releases?

 

[mikeymerren]

Good Idea on the thread - thanks,

I'll take it from the top and do the best I can. I may not be able to answer everything, but I'll try my best, if there is anything I don't know off the top of my head, I'll let you know and will talk to everyone on Monday to get you an answer.

So, Beer 1, here we go.

 

[Gamer Pradosh]

Even if I bowl according to the field,Will the batsman get innovative with his shot selection like moving on the crease or try to hit on the off when the field is set for on-side??

 

[xtrahot]

Is there sledging in game by fielders?

 

[angad]

a) In the BARS video (the one with the LBW ) we could see the batsman sliding/gliding on the crease to get into a position before playing the shot. Does that happen on hard difficulty levels as well or only on easy levels?

b) The bowling controls for a spinner states that the direction in which you move the LAS would determine the direction of spin. So if we choose a direction which is opposite to the bowler's style (e.g. googly for a leg spinner), will it show a change in the wrist position and the release of the ball.....or will everything still look like its a regular leg spinner?

c) We have read that the RAS is used to control the bat. Can you tell us a bit more about this? Will the bat mimic the RAS exactly? How does it work? Can we control the backlift?

d) We have read that the LAS is used for feet movement? Could you elaborate a little more on this.

e) How do the defensive and attacking triggers work? If I dont press either of the two triggers what kind of a shot would the batsman play?

f) What are the benefits of fielding manually as opposed to AI fielding?

g) What kind of unorthodox shots are available in the game? Can we choose a particular type of unorthodox shot or is that decided by the AI?

h) What is legacy mode

 

[mikeymerren]

Hey Mikey!

1) Could you please give an insight how short-term tactics work, by which I mean tactics that last a couple of overs. Will the AI bowlers try to set you up with lots of in swingers before throwing in an outswinger? Perhaps more difficultly, when you bowl to the AI batsman if you bowl the same way would the AI batsman begin to play for inswingers and then be surprised by an outswinger?

I think the extent this has gone to in previous game is in IC 2010 where if you bowled like 3 bouncers then a yorker you'd like get a bowled/LBW. I essentially would like something along those lines but more more complex than the IC 2010 example.

2) Do the bowlers have an intelligence/patience level? As an example, a captain may be setting an offside field to defend against drives, but an impatient and dumb bowler might start throwing in bouncers? Would the captain take him off?

3) Will the AI ever open the bowling in 2020s with spinners? Or even in test matches if in India, for example?

1. There are a number of factors, skillset's of both batsman and bowler, either weakness or strength, fatigue levels of the bowlers, run rate requirements - does the bowling team need to contain or go for wickets, the types of delivery will then be selected, bowling to the set field, but also mixing things up.

2. If the bowler doesn't bowl to the field and run rates increase then yes of course the chances are that a change happens,

3. Yes there is a chance of this - depends on the bowling lineup of the team, skills of all those bowlers and the conditions of the pitch.

----------

You've had a lot of experience playing this game now.

1) Does the AI still pose a challenge to you? Or do you find it relatively simple to win?

2) Ross has mentioned things have been set up so that the AI score at reasonably 'normal' run rates. Is the same true when you are playing from the human side of things though? Ie, can you actually get away with hitting out like a T20 when playing a test match, and get unrealistic scores easily? Or do all of the aspects of the gameplay result in this being far too dangerous, and lean you towards an optimal strategy of batting more like 'normal'?

1. We've got 5 difficulty levels in the game, on very easy, I can smash the ball around pretty easy, but with players getting tired I still find myself getting caught in the deep quite often if I don't keep my wits about me. On very hard, I still believe it's extremely competitive, you get those deliveries that once you've gone to an edge through to the keeper, you realise that it was just one of those deliveries that "might" have been possible to leave.

sorry, missed number 2

2. As a human player you can choose how you want to play the game, you are highly likely though to give away your wicket and find that the AI just bats you out of the game.

 

[Gamer Pradosh]

a)How is the fatigue level determined: Depending on the build, nature of bowler ,the effort taken for each delivery?

b)What happens when we bowl a bowler with lower fatigue level?

c)Will the bowler bowl over and around the stumps often?

 

[Hunbbel]

1. In previous cricket games, we have seen that 'higher difficulty' means less timing window and that's it. There is no factor of 'strategy' involved in, which ascends along with the higher difficulty levels. Is it any different in DBC'14? That at easy difficulty, the AI still makes a couple of stupid mistakes that could cost them the game, but in higher difficulty they are astute in their decisions and have a perfect strategy for each player, and THIS IS WHAT making the game difficult. Is that the case?

2. How does a T20 match and a Test match differ in difficulty, if both are on the same difficulty level, say for example, difficulty level 5. I'm asking this question - and it's an important one - because if there is no difference in the difficulty of these two different formats, then either we end up with a scoring rate of 3 in a T20 match or with a run-rate of 8+ in a test match - which has been the case with every single cricket game we had so far. As the fielders are not usually spread out in a test match, we end up with an even higher run rate than in T20s.

It should be something like 'you can't play the same shots, at the same difficulty, and with the same ease, in T20s and Tests. They are different formats, and even in the same difficulty level, require different levels of attention'. Can you please shed some light on this important issue?

3. If we are playing as a captain in career mode, what options do we have to 'guide' a bowler or batsman. Can we suggest the two batsmen in the middle (by sending a message or anything like that) to keep wickets in hand and not to go for any risky shots, or vice versa? Can we ask a bowler to try bowling a particular line and length, as we are the captain and have formulated a strategy against a certain batsman?

Thanks

 

[cooks1st100]

Hi Mike apologies if these questions are repeating other people, I have just copy/pasted my post from yesterday.

Will there be a noticeable difference in the accuracy of bowlers e.g. Stuart Clark compared to Mitchell Johnson, added to that, how will tiredness affect it?

I hope that stamina has been thought out so that you could bowl, say Siddle happily for 12 overs without too much risk but not be able to do that with Ryan Harris before something gave way!

We finally will have a game where height is a factor, this is going to be fantastic for both bowling and batting with the added challenge this brings to the game. Is the difference noticeable in play?

Some bowlers swing the ball early while others late, not expecting this in this version but could it be implement in the next edition? (now that's faith!!)

I have noticed in DBCA there is no attribute for pace. Does this mean that all fast bowlers ( for example) will have the same top speed or will there be a method to individualise them?

Cheers for giving us the opportunity to ask these questions