Features you want to see in next iteration of Big Ant Cricket

[whiteninness]

Okay, I didn't think I'd have the time to write a list, but here we go. No particular order of importance.

Please note that these are suggested feature improvements, not gameplay improvements. We'd all like the gameplay and AI to improve (from its really good initial foundation) but I won't go into that here.

1: Different bowling actions. BLIC 2005 had this. At least have half a dozen varieties. The current ones are beautiful but needs others
2: Ability to mod attributes in bulk. The academy has lots of inconsistency from team to team. Often players are rated well against each other within the team but not against other teams. Have a slider to scale all of the player attributes in the team together.
3: Career mode that isn't static. This has been covered many times
4: Feedback on timing and shot/foot selection for batsmen, at least on easier difficulties
5: Easier modability. Let users share custom images and jersey templates in the academy. Make it such that if I want to download say a 1999 WC team I can get the team, roster, adverts and all in one.
6: A much easier field editor in the academy. It's okay to use in game, but awful to use in the academy
7: Make it harder to bowl swing. In real life it is much easier to bowl a ball straight than it is to swing, yet in Bradman the two are the same. The only added difficulty with swing in Bradman is how to aim it but simply getting the ball to swing should be difficult. I am not sure how exactly, and don't want to over-complicated it. Spin works well because it takes skill to get the ball to spin a lot.
8: Way more stats and different graphical overlays
9: Save the BARS data such that it can still be seen when you reload a save. When playing a long game, you never do it all in one hit. And even if I do, I often save and reload just in case there is a crash or bug in the game. This kills the BARS stats.
10: And on this note, please add a manual save button.

 

[MattW]

Very very true. My big concern for the next iteration however is that if there's no way to transfer from the DBC14 academy the new game's team selection may be somewhat limited - I don't see myself ploughing all that time into team/player creation again

What would be a reasonable amount of work to redo - like if you had to fix up some team settings (kits, home grounds, etc.) and had to reskill the players?

I'm not asking with any knowledge of the technicalities behind it, just a guess at the elements that would be substantially different in the next version. I don't know how different the player modelling would be, or how much of a restraint maintaining compatibility would be.

 

[whiteninness]

What would be a reasonable amount of work to redo - like if you had to fix up some team settings (kits, home grounds, etc.) and had to reskill the players?

I'm not asking with any knowledge of the technicalities behind it, just a guess at the elements that would be substantially different in the next version. I don't know how different the player modelling would be, or how much of a restraint maintaining compatibility would be.

The faces take a while to make if you want them looking decent. That's the #1 thing IMO.

Do you think you could import Bradman faces into RLL 3, with its updated "academy"?

 

[MattW]

Do you think you could import Bradman faces into RLL 3, with its updated "academy"?

My understanding is that it wasn't possible - but I don't know how much of that is that the base model for the rugby player is quite a different shape to a cricket player, and how much would be a technical limitation between the different game engines.

 

[blockerdave]

What would be a reasonable amount of work to redo - like if you had to fix up some team settings (kits, home grounds, etc.) and had to reskill the players?

I'm not asking with any knowledge of the technicalities behind it, just a guess at the elements that would be substantially different in the next version. I don't know how different the player modelling would be, or how much of a restraint maintaining compatibility would be.

Yep, I think reskilling and fixing the few team settings is fine; what I don't want to have to be doing is essentially recreating from scratch.

Regarding skilling/re-skilling, I'd suggest DBC has it backwards. Instead of me setting skills/attributes and the game working out a level for that, I should set the players level & strength/weakness and the individual skill levels should be defaulted from those. I can then accept them or tweak a couple. This would speed things up no end

 

[blockerdave]

My understanding is that it wasn't possible - but I don't know how much of that is that the base model for the rugby player is quite a different shape to a cricket player, and how much would be a technical limitation between the different game engines.

my hunch is that unless the work/expense makes it impracticable, it should be explored.

remember that in the pre-DBC months, there were no other cricket games for me or others to play and therefore the opportunity cost of player/team creation was low. Even if BA released the "Cricket Next Fan Hub" (or whatever) today and said the actual game was coming 8 months later, there's DBC to play in the meantime.

 

[whiteninness]

Yep, I think reskilling and fixing the few team settings is fine; what I don't want to have to be doing is essentially recreating from scratch.

Regarding skilling/re-skilling, I'd suggest DBC has it backwards. Instead of me setting skills/attributes and the game working out a level for that, I should set the players level & strength/weakness and the individual skill levels should be defaulted from those. I can then accept them or tweak a couple. This would speed things up no end

I agree. This would also fix the issue of some downloaded academy players having zero skill.

 

[Biggs]

It took me hours to get the shade of pink just right on my mohawked Biggs' fast bowler, please don't make me do that again. I'll reskill, no worries. What @blockerdave said...

 

[Dutch]

the best thing would be able to have a whole array of sliders and toggles that will allow the user to dictate to a high degree the visuals and the physics of the game. Cricket Heroes for example allows you to determine the range of pitch bounce, speed and type of deteriation, ball wear and shape and many many other things. If we can get the possiblities to edit gameplay it really opens up huge possibilities (and problems i am sure!)

 

[IceAgeComing]

I bought RLL3 today because it looked cool and I want a half-decent Rugby game and League is close enough. I started my career mode with my young half back (position picked mostly at random to be honest) playing for some League 1 side (Swinton I think). I got picked for one of the earlier pre-season games, had a good game (may have had the difficulty a little low, we won 49-0 and I scored three of the tries) although I committed a few high tackle penalties during the game. Apparently this led to me being put in front of a disciplinary panel, and I got banned for two games. I was then dropped for the first few League games and have been re-selected for a Challenge Cup game, in which we are going to get utterly hammered against a Super League team.

The reason that I am posting that here is because it shows how much deeper the RLL3 player career mode is compared to the DBC one, and I'd really like to see some of those things (not necessarily the being sanctioned thing, but lower levels below Championship/Shield sides, dynamic teams and the fact that you could get dropped from some sides). It'd make career mode much deeper and more interesting to get through, compared to now where in comparison with other similar modes in other games it feels a bit flat. Its especially important since its a mode that works very well for cricket in game, and if you flesh it out it could be something that really sells...

 

[cooks1st100]

The reason that I am posting that here is because it shows how much deeper the RLL3 player career mode is compared to the DBC one, and I'd really like to see some of those things (not necessarily the being sanctioned thing, but lower levels below Championship/Shield sides, dynamic teams and the fact that you could get dropped from some sides). It'd make career mode much deeper and more interesting to get through, compared to now where in comparison with other similar modes in other games it feels a bit flat. Its especially important since its a mode that works very well for cricket in game, and if you flesh it out it could be something that really sells...

Completely agree, I'd like to see your player start at a grass roots level and work his way up from there. Add second XI teams for counties/districts also. Maybe start at a younger age say 13/14. Hopefully this would mean a few more smaller intimate grounds would be created to play on.


On another completely different note, I'd like to see a far better incorporation of weather. Clouds that really build up or burn away as a day progresses, thunder in the distance as a storm approaches for example. it would be great if these changes in weather conditions could be linked to the commentary. If it's going to rain the commentators could say something like "we are expecting rain in the next half an hour, we have been informed that it won't be heavy, but we may lose some play".

Extremely hot conditions, should have a greater effect on players, especially the seam bowlers.

 

[sameerkarkhanis]

So from my point of view I would love to see following major changes to the New Don Bradman Cricket game (DBC 16):

1. Improve commentary and have a team of professional commentators just like we have in real life matches which keep changing after a certain period of time.

2. Have License Tournaments like ICC World Cup, T20 World Cup and others with their own respective trophies.

3. Different Shots respect to the the players should be added, for example Dhoni's Helicopter shot or Ross Taylor's flick to the legside.

4. More and Realistic Stadiums.

5. Career mode should be enhanced so that players start their career in their respective countries domestic competitions, Indians in Ranji Trophy etc.

6. IPL auction kind of thing should be added so that a Career player can be taken into a team which bids on him the higher, offcourse this should depend upon the scores and wickets the player has taken in his career mode till then.

7. Injuries should be added so that there can be rehabilitation programs, physio therapy sessions before the player can make his come back in to the teams.

8. More realistic reactions and celebrations from both Batsman and Bowlers point of view, just like FIFA's player reaction/celebration pack.

 

[Biggs]

Dhoni's Helicopter shot

IPL auction

just like FIFA

YAHTZEE!!!

physio therapy sessions

...I look forward to the Big Ant Crotch Massage Simulator feature in DBC->NEXT ...call it "Big Crotch" and accessible at all times from the menu. That one might need keyboard controls.

 

[MattW]

YAHTZEE!!!

I need to update this.

 

[Biggs]

I forgot all about that, you'll need to patch that sooner than later with all the [HASHTAG]#Patch3[/HASHTAG] and [HASHTAG]#DBCNext[/HASHTAG] cliches