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

[Dutch]

Well the idea I had for timing is that we play shots in real time. So basically you pull the right stick when the ball is close, this way you see the line and length before playing the shot and timing feels natural. You should get ur feet ready/in position as the ball is coming down but the bat swing with the right stick occurs when the ball is close.

e.g when playing behind the wicket you wait till the ball is abit in front of you/in line/ slightly past you depending on whether ur looking to use the pace of the ball to run it down or more looking to play a cut shot. so when the ball is close you pull right stick back.

e.g. the ball is full , watching the ball approach you u see that it is full from the trajectory so u press forward, wait for the ball to be close to hitting the batsmen's toe then pull right stick across to flick it through square leg.

e.g the bowler bowls a seam up ball, going off the trajectory you think it will be good length just outside off stump so you are looking to punch it . From the tradgetory you can see its a good length so u press forward waiting for the ball to hit the pitch and approach the batsmen. From this trajectory u are looking to drive it through mid off. However after hitting the pitch the balls seams in , if you pick this movement up you will adjust your shot more straighter or even look to go more leg side. So the bat swing with the right stick is played in real time. If you are good enough to pick up this seam movement off the pitch you will will pull the right stick straight or more leg side. if you do not pick it up you play the straight drive as you were looking to do off the trajectory and are bowled.

Another example would be the ball holding up off the pitch . going off the pace of the ball you have an idea of the perfect time to pull the right stick to play the shot, however the ball grips and holds up off the surface. if you pull the right stick as per normal u might be hitting the ball too early, hitting it down the fielders throat. If you are good enough to realise that the ball held up off the pitch you will hold back a touch before pulling the right stick.

Timing: Pulling the right stick (bat swing) at the right time is all about feel and judgement you just know when its right.

Isn't this way alot easier then the current timing system in the game? This way you get a good sight of the trajectory because you are in control of the shot right till it ball is in line with the batting crease. So you have plenty of time to see the line and length and get your feet set. its a matter of pulling the right stick at the perfect time as the ball is nearing the batting crease. This way it actually feels like you are timing the ball and are able to adjust shots if you are good enough to react to the movement.

Yup get where you are at; basically the game needs to allow you to make a batting choice selection at the very very last millisecond rather than having to be implemented as the ball leaves the bowler although I have found this is possible already andvespecially with spinbowling this is much better implemented but I understand now your idea but it would call for a much better responsiveness in the game than is implemented now.....

 

[cricket_online]

I think it is a point that a better responsiveness and a much greater amount of movement and shot possibilities will make for a better gameplay: do BA have the resources for the many many more animation sequences this requires?

I still believe it's not just about the animations but more to do with the normal process of passing the controller feedback to the game and it being displayed. As an example here's the process for offline mode...

Human reaction time (around 100-300 msecs) + Time needed for controller to pass the information to the console/PC (30-50 msecs) + game processing the information and acting on it (maybe another 50 msecs) + Time needed for the signal to be passed to the TV/monitor with signal processing delays (approx. 50 secs) = approx. 250-450 msecs.

Thus you need to have a lag of nearly half a sec (worst case scenario) no matter what. So the process of selecting and playing a shot on the controller has to start nearly half a second before you would ideally want to start. Now this is the best case scenario for offline mode. When you factor in online gameplay and network latency (with additional msecs if it's wifi and not a wired connection), you need to nearly double this lag. No matter which system/solution you implement, I don't think we have the technology to pass on the human feedback to the TV screen instantaneously. There will always be some lag which forces the users to provide input via controllers a tad earlier.

 

[Dutch]

I still believe it's not just about the animations but more to do with the normal process of passing the controller feedback to the game and it being displayed. As an example here's the process for offline mode...

Human reaction time (around 100-300 msecs) + Time needed for controller to pass the information to the console/PC (30-50 msecs) + game processing the information and acting on it (maybe another 50 msecs) + Time needed for the signal to be passed to the TV/monitor with signal processing delays (approx. 50 secs) = approx. 250-450 msecs.

Thus you need to have a lag of nearly half a sec (worst case scenario) no matter what. So the process of selecting and playing a shot on the controller has to start nearly half a second before you would ideally want to start. Now this is the best case scenario for offline mode. When you factor in online gameplay and network latency (with additional msecs if it's wifi and not a wired connection), you need to nearly double this lag. No matter which system/solution you implement, I don't think we have the technology to pass on the human feedback to the TV screen instantaneously. There will always be some lag which forces the users to provide input via controllers a tad earlier.

But dont most games have this problem and deal with it quite well?

 

[grkrama]

to me DBC batting system is defined by its straight drive, the most important shot in cricket and yet you cant enjoy it in the game as much as it should be!


The whole batting system is too timing dependent and too on the rails for its own good! The shot variations in the way they react of the bat should be way more!


the timing shouldnt be gamey like ideal is good, early and late is bad instead should expand a bit more in parallel with sport, late cut should be late, now when i play a cut late of a spinner even with a wide shortish one there is high chance of edginess!

another example would be jamming the bat on a wide yorker etc, a batsman would be looking to slog but when you get a quick wide yorker just thrown the bat on it and run, in DBC14 once you play a tad late you will just move away from stumps crouch and sway bat in air.

Its these game play stuff on the other than perfect scenarios that needs to be improved in batting, as in cricket often the imperfect shots and scenarios highly over-weigh the perfect ones!

 

[cricket_online]

But dont most games have this problem and deal with it quite well?

I would be interested to see how baseball handles this lag issue. A game like Golf would be perfect as you are not tracking a moving ball so the lag issue goes out of the window. I mostly play Madden, Tennis (Top Spin 4 on PS3) and occasional FIFA and in all those games, especially Madden and Top Spin 4, there is always certain amount of lag. E.g., I can't hit a shot in Top Spin 4 the way I would do in real life and have to press the button quite early.

In fact this process of handling the "lag" is what is commonly referred to as "getting used to timing in the game". Every game has some sort of lag associated with it and it's how the game handles it for an enhanced user experience. But I've yet to see something like a scenario described above, i.e. you wait till the very last moment after factoring in seam and swing before you play the ball. The best case scenario I can think of is that the game allows you to play a shot when the ball hits the pitch for a fast bowler but I can't see for the controller feedback process to begin anytime after that as it will be too late IMO.

 

[Dutch]

to me DBC batting system is defined by its straight drive, the most important shot in cricket and yet you cant enjoy it in the game as much as it should be!


The whole batting system is too timing dependent and too on the rails for its own good! The shot variations in the way they react of the bat should be way more!


the timing shouldnt be gamey like ideal is good, early and late is bad instead should expand a bit more in parallel with sport, late cut should be late, now when i play a cut late of a spinner even with a wide shortish one there is high chance of edginess!

So what we are really looking for is being able to simulate the effects of the physics of and on the ball as it moves through the air and comes off the pitch and a gameplay modus that allows that to be done in a way that feels like cricket but allows for various degrees of competence....I loved the way the ball behaved in The Art of Cricket, a game that was being developed 10!years ago...

 

[Dutch]

I would be interested to see how baseball handles this lag issue. A game like Golf would be perfect as you are not tracking a moving ball so the lag issue goes out of the window. I mostly play Madden, Tennis (Top Spin 4 on PS3) and occasional FIFA and in all those games, especially Madden and Top Spin 4, there is always certain amount of lag. E.g., I can't hit a shot in Top Spin 4 the way I would do in real life and have to press the button quite early.

In fact this process of handling the "lag" is what is commonly referred to as "getting used to timing in the game". Every game has some sort of lag associated with it and it's how the game handles it for an enhanced user experience. But I've yet to see something like a scenario described above, i.e. you wait till the very last moment after factoring in seam and swing before you play the ball. The best case scenario I can think of is that the game allows you to play a shot when the ball hits the pitch for a fast bowler but I can't see for the controller feedback process to begin anytime after that as it will be too late IMO.

I still feel the slider system could help in this direction allowing the player to find a balance in various aspects of the game that suits them....

 

[grkrama]

that feels like cricket but allows for carious degrees of competence....

Lol i dont know were you got that idea from! The point is not the player competence, im pretty good and can nail any shot in the game, the point is being able to feel natural doing that, A cut shot is somethign thats played late, or if you play a flick early you get a leading edge etc, right now in dbc if you play flick early it goes to and between midwkt!

This is because the game doesn't have much variations for the timing zones other than ideal timing! Even those shots play way to railed!


my point the number of perfect shots we play should be way less rather than the timing dependent system that offers now, and the way the imperfect ones, are the natural ones play are way too gamey, its liek you know what you pushed the Right stick late, so im going to do a hoola dance!

I would take a leading edge or top edge are something that feels crickety instead of a game that bats only like cricket on timing rails!

 

[Dutch]

Lol i dont know were you got that idea from! The point is not the player competence, im pretty good and can nail any shot in the game, the point is being able to feel natural doing that, A cut shot is somethign thats played late, or if you play a flick early you get a leading edge etc, right now in dbc if you play flick early it goes to and between midwkt!

This is because the game doesn't have much variations for the timing zones other than ideal timing! Even those shots play way to railed!


my point the number of perfect shots we play should be way less rather than the timing dependent system that offers now, and the way the imperfect ones, are the natural ones play are way too gamey, its liek you know what you pushed the Right stick late, so im going is hoola dance!

I would take a leading edge or top edge are something that feels crickety instead of a game that bats only like cricket on timing rails!

What I mean with various degrees of competence is that the level that a player plays at should give them a satisfying sense of playing the game whilst enabling them to play the game within the boundaries of their wishes/abilities
So like with a racing game I can have steering and braking help or whatever and still have the sense of taking part in a competitive race...


The game needs to be much more physics based than timing based is what you are saying? I.e a much wider range of outcomes depending on my inputs......

 

[grkrama]

What I mean with various degrees of competence is that the level that a player plays at should give them a satisfying sense of playing the game whilst enabling them to play the game within the boundaries of their wishes/abilities
So like with a racing game I can have steering and braking help or whatever and still have the sense of taking part in a competitive race...

you could say that, but my point is more about the way the game batsman plays rather than the competence of the player itself!

Im saying that the game doesnt react well other than for that perfect shot scenario which is defined by the game and not cricket! I think the way the shots are defined are too narrow , confined and soemtimes a tad unrealistic as well

like i said in above examples, how a cut played late plays well in IRL but in game its not! pulls again are way to safe with no top edges, etc in real cricket you would often get out by top edging a pull that chance is almost 2% at best in DBC!

stuff like these making it behave more like the real life variants, rather than making it more accessible to player competency!

 

[grkrama]

The game needs to be much more physics based than timing based is what you are saying? I.e a much wider range of outcomes depending on my inputs......

yup totally

 

[blockerdave]

It needs to be widened, but i do feel that you can play certain shots in DBC later than others successfully, including the late cut.

It does feel sometimes in DBC however that the physics is rather constrained. Though shots don't go on exactly the same place they're not as varied as you'd like.

 

[Dutch]

It needs to be widened, but i do feel that you can play certain shots in DBC later than others successfully, including the late cut.

It does feel sometimes in DBC however that the physics is rather constrained. Though shots don't go on exactly the same place they're not as varied as you'd like.

I have the sense that the game was much more unpredictable in a positive sense in the beginning but through the various patches different aspects were dumbed down so as to be less potential gamebreakers; not a critisicm but it would be good if there was a much wider spectrum of outcomes and possibilities....

 

[UnknownSoul]

I know that my idea kinda sucks and late to the party but i been thinking about it for a while and thought i might as well put it here. I know it's unlikely but might as well get it out of my head. So apologies in advance if already spoken about or just complete rubbish

I think it would be cool if you could go into great detail for the conditions in the match settings screen like maybe a sandbox mode or something where you can choose exactly what pitch/conditions you really want. Even create extreme conditions to play with friends or AI.

There are just examples so don't shoot me
Some are already in the game (dbc14) but it would be nice to have even more variation that's what im looking for
- Humidity %
- Grass %
- Pitch moisture %
- Outfield speed
- Ground sea level ? * this one is very unlikely i know im just putting options here
- Pitch carry (hardness)
- Pitch condition (day 1,day 2.... ect.)
- Pitch cracks
- Time of day
- Weather (Where you could choose multiple weather (Sunny very hot, Cloudy, cloudy with chance of rain.) and it would transition to them at set times or random.)

Like i said go easy on me as i know this is probably a load of rubbish. The point im trying to make i guess is id like much more Verity in Dbc 17 throughout Thanks for reading.

 

[Dutch]

I know that my idea kinda sucks and late to the party but i been thinking about it for a while and thought i might as well put it here. I know it's unlikely but might as well get it out of my head. So apologies in advance if already spoken about or just complete rubbish

I think it would be cool if you could go into great detail for the conditions in the match settings screen like maybe a sandbox mode or something where you can choose exactly what pitch/conditions you really want. Even create extreme conditions to play with friends or AI.

There are just examples so don't shoot me
Some are already in the game (dbc14) but it would be nice to have even more variation that's what im looking for
- Humidity %
- Grass %
- Pitch moisture %
- Outfield speed
- Ground sea level ? * this one is very unlikely i know im just putting options here
- Pitch carry (hardness)
- Pitch condition (day 1,day 2.... ect.)
- Pitch cracks
- Time of day
- Weather (Where you could choose multiple weather (Sunny very hot, Cloudy, cloudy with chance of rain.) and it would transition to them at set times or random.)

Like i said go easy on me as i know this is probably a load of rubbish. The point im trying to make i guess is id like much more Verity in Dbc 17 throughout Thanks for reading.

Dont think its rubbish at all. The condition of the pitch is a core factor in this wonderful game we call cricket: I should be groaning when I lose the toss and am
put into a bat by the AI on a green
pitch on a cloudy morning and the ability to adjust the pitch parameters would be great...