Ideas for Ashes Cricket 2010

[MasterBlaster76]

I agree here, rather than having to go into a change menu.

Also on the subject of weather rain delays would be more realistic.

Also the bowling marker should appear at a random point on the pitch, the earlier in a spell the later it appears, as well as appearing later as stamina decreases. At the 'optimum point' there will be more time to position the marker. This would help the idea of bowling in spells, and make it more difficult to send down perfect ball after perfect ball.

Also I have an idea for 'manual' batting controls. For a right handed batsman, the right analog stick would control the footwork, and the left analog stick the bat. It would work in a similar way to Fight Night. It would be virtually one-to-one control, it's quite hard to explain.

Hmm...I wouldn't mind seeing it trialled in some kind of beta, who knows, it might do for Cricket what it did for boxing games (I could never go back to the buttons, could you?)

As to rain, etc - I think it's essential, given that tests now have the chance to go for five days unless you/the AI/both have a really bad collapse or two.

 

[Brook]

Hmm...I wouldn't mind seeing it trialled in some kind of beta, who knows, it might do for Cricket what it did for boxing games (I could never go back to the buttons, could you?)

I only ever played the demo, but it was much better. It sounds left field I realise, but I'm tired of the computer moving the feet to get behind what would be a dangerous shot to play. For example you could choose how far forward to step, which would be good for playing spinners. Also a big expansive shot (a swish of the left analog stick) would be harder to play than a defensive (you'd have to combine footwork and swish and get the swish right).

EDIT: Also I know this is minor, but can the fielders stop dropping every throw that comes to them. Pleeeeeeeeeease.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I only ever played the demo, but it was much better. It sounds left field I realise, but I'm tired of the computer moving the feet to get behind what would be a dangerous shot to play. For example you could choose how far forward to step, which would be good for playing spinners. Also a big expansive shot (a swish of the left analog stick) would be harder to play than a defensive (you'd have to combine footwork and swish and get the swish right).

It might also allow the game to let you move your feet even when the ball is on it's way, which will make the batting more realistic (and harder). You know, I really think you might be onto something there!

 

[Brook]

It might also allow the game to let you move your feet even when the ball is on it's way, which will make the batting more realistic (and harder). You know, I really think you might be onto something there!

Yeah you could step across the stumps or move down the track. The other thing would be that the analog sticks would reverse for a left hander, to make it different.
I just think that there's a limit to how hard 'one button and direction' could be, you need to change the mechanism, like they did in Top Spin 3 (where they made the act of hitting a tennis ball difficult)

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Yeah you could step across the stumps or move down the track. The other thing would be that the analog sticks would reverse for a left hander, to make it different.
I just think that there's a limit to how hard 'one button and direction' could be, you need to change the mechanism, like they did in Top Spin 3 (where they made the act of hitting a tennis ball difficult)

I love this idea and I hope TG are listening: we could have an option for this sort of control, or the control we have now! It's always annoyed me a little that you can't move your feet yourself to get to the pitch, with this system, I believe you could. I'm going to add this to the list I'm compiling which I'll post nearer the time of the new game, just in case it gets lost, because it is a great idea. I have given you full credit.

 

[Brook]

I love this idea and I hope TG are listening: we could have an option for this sort of control, or the control we have now! It's always annoyed me a little that you can't move your feet yourself to get to the pitch, with this system, I believe you could. I'm going to add this to the list I'm compiling which I'll post nearer the time of the new game, just in case it gets lost, because it is a great idea.

Thanks, it's something I've been thinking about for a while, it might be a bit much for the next edition but it could be an idea for the long term. That's a good idea to have it as an optional thing: it wouldn't be easy to learn.

 

[Valaskjalf]

Now THIS is my kinda thread!

Love the posts above about better stats tracking, its an absolute must in a cricket game.

Adding on to the post about 25 year career mode kinda idea:

• 
  Id love it if hey added a rating system in the game for best batsmen / bowlers / allrounders, sort of like the ICC rankings for players. And as you progress through the season you would have the added goal of becoming the best test playing nation/ODI etc and also to become the no.1 bowler or batsman. After each game/series you would get un update showing how your players are performing on the world stage, adding more incentive and logevity to the game....giving the opportunities for further unlockables etc.

• 
  Readily available replays, with freecams and all sorts of angles such as the ones you find in football games and the ability to save - disappointing that this was not included in current version.

• 
  As previously mentioned, different player models with height etc affecting the amound of bounce a bowler, for example, gets out of the pitch in order to facilitate for different degrees of bounce extracted from a specific pitch.

• 
  Ability to flight the ball for spinners. Only bought the full game 2 days ago so Im not sure whether this was included but as of yet I cant find anything resembling flight or drift for spinners.

• 
  As mentioned, more stats tracking and ability to have access to wide range of stats over a long period of time - perhaps the occurrence of injuries during tours which would add another realistic dynamic.

• 
  Form guide to players over the course of a series. Perhaps a rating system for each player after a game giving you a succinct summary of which of your players are performing and who are not, in order to aid in team selection etc.

 

[Cheweydog_aust]

How about a SAVE/LOAD option Online Multi play ?

Tests go for a while so whould be great to save when u get tied or gotta go & can we have a chat option too ?

also 2 vs 2 online would be great if it could work

cheers i will think of more hopefully

 

[Brook]

Now THIS is my kinda thread!

Love the posts above about better stats tracking, its an absolute must in a cricket game.

Adding on to the post about 25 year career mode kinda idea:

• 
  Id love it if hey added a rating system in the game for best batsmen / bowlers / allrounders, sort of like the ICC rankings for players. And as you progress through the season you would have the added goal of becoming the best test playing nation/ODI etc and also to become the no.1 bowler or batsman. After each game/series you would get un update showing how your players are performing on the world stage, adding more incentive and logevity to the game....giving the opportunities for further unlockables etc.

• 
  Readily available replays, with freecams and all sorts of angles such as the ones you find in football games and the ability to save - disappointing that this was not included in current version.

• 
  As previously mentioned, different player models with height etc affecting the amound of bounce a bowler, for example, gets out of the pitch in order to facilitate for different degrees of bounce extracted from a specific pitch.

• 
  Ability to flight the ball for spinners. Only bought the full game 2 days ago so Im not sure whether this was included but as of yet I cant find anything resembling flight or drift for spinners.

• 
  As mentioned, more stats tracking and ability to have access to wide range of stats over a long period of time - perhaps the occurrence of injuries during tours which would add another realistic dynamic.

• 
  Form guide to players over the course of a series. Perhaps a rating system for each player after a game giving you a succinct summary of which of your players are performing and who are not, in order to aid in team selection etc.

All good points, I think saving hasnt really been mentioned yet but would be sweet

In all honesty though, I think most would settle for a few graphical and animation brush ups, stats, custom tournaments, custom replay and a few tiny tweaks and additions, like drift and sweeps. The correct decisions on wickets would be nice. More depth.

 

[CaptainOZ]

Also I have an idea for 'manual' batting controls. For a right handed batsman, the right analog stick would control the footwork, and the left analog stick the bat. It would work in a similar way to Fight Night. It would be virtually one-to-one control, it's quite hard to explain, but it would give the user full control but also make batting more difficult and realistic I think.

I'm pretty sure EA Cricket 07 had something like this - their 360 degree batting control. It only involved one of the sticks though. Using the two together as you suggest seems fun and puts more control and responsibility on the user.

 

[lazy_chesnut]

I thought of the idea of the footwork and bat controls a long time ago, and have thought a lot about it since - I'm actually considering it as the subject of my dissertation for my MSc this year, which is why I've never mentioned it before now!

There are however, a certain number of problems and limitations with it. The main issue I can think of is getting power differences in there. You could say that the speed/distance you move the bat stick controls the power, but the amount of travel in one of those sticks is small, and might make it very hard to control. In EA's game you could play gentler shots by moving the shot stick a lesser distance, but I don't think anyone did because your natural tendency is to move it the entire way.

It should allow you to play some creative shots, like putting your foot out towards the off side and hitting over mid-wicket, for example. But what about a sweep shot compared to a mid-wicket drive? How do you tell it it's a flat-bat shot instead of an upright bat shot?

This is all stuff you can solve with extra button presses, but it might just be getting way too complicated, once you have buttons for power differences, lofting, etc.

I'm still thinking about it, so hopefully I can come up with a way to work it so I can implement it for my dissertation, and then license it to TG!


And about EA's Century Stick - that was a complete pile of nonsense. It's actually no different to the control system in AC09 - all it did was map the front-foot/back-foot selector to the right stick, and take the timing from the left stick. It still just played canned animations, and you had no control over your footwork except for front/back selection.

 

[Brook]

I thought of the idea of the footwork and bat controls a long time ago, and have thought a lot about it since - I'm actually considering it as the subject of my dissertation for my MSc this year, which is why I've never mentioned it before now!

There are however, a certain number of problems and limitations with it. The main issue I can think of is getting power differences in there. You could say that the speed/distance you move the bat stick controls the power, but the amount of travel in one of those sticks is small, and might make it very hard to control. In EA's game you could play gentler shots by moving the shot stick a lesser distance, but I don't think anyone did because your natural tendency is to move it the entire way.

I was thinking about this, perhaps a simple and not very powerful shot (like a defense) could be a simple movement like moving the analog stick forward fully in the direction you want to play, but a more difficult and powerful shot like a cover drive could involve moving the stick back and then making a half circle with it, a la Fight Night

It should allow you to play some creative shots, like putting your foot out towards the off side and hitting over mid-wicket, for example. But what about a sweep shot compared to a mid-wicket drive? How do you tell it it's a flat-bat shot instead of an upright bat shot?

Perhaps the standard would be straight bat, and then cross bat would involve a modifier (perhaps LB on the 360 controller) and a modifier for coming down the pitch on the other side.

This is all stuff you can solve with extra button presses, but it might just be getting way too complicated, once you have buttons for power differences, lofting, etc.

I'm still thinking about it, so hopefully I can come up with a way to work it so I can implement it for my dissertation, and then license it to TG!

Just my thoughts/

 

[Stephen Bailey]

• 
  Ability to flight the ball for spinners. Only bought the full game 2 days ago so Im not sure whether this was included but as of yet I cant find anything resembling flight or drift for spinners.

Personally I think we need more control over bowling speeds full stop. It would allow for more variation in bowling, rather than just bowling at full speed and the slower ball with the seamerrs. It's certainly needed for the spinners, they currently bowl at one speed from what I've seen.

Perhaps use the right analogue stick (on a 360 controller) as a speed control (pushing it up or down) with a bar on the right hand side somewhere showing you what the speed is set to. That could then tie into stamina, no balls and other things, although that might get a bit complicated. I'd certainly like a different solution to the way no balls happen, very frustrating at the moment.

I thought I saw some mention player sizes but I can't find it now. Anyway, this is something else that would dramatically add to the gameplay. Say you are batting against Steve Harmison and Fidel Edwards (I know, not likely...). With one everything is going to be up around your ribs and neck, whereas Edwards is a shorter, more "skiddy" bowler. The last time (and indeed the first time!) we saw different player sizes/heights was Cricket 2004 and it made a difference to that game.

Plenty of others have mentioned stuff on statistics so there's no point in me going into that.

Sounds. There is currently no atmosphere in most of the grounds. I play a fair bit in Australia grounds simply because they seem to have the best atmosphere, but even then it's not great. General sounds need improving as well. I think MasterBlaster mentioned somewhere in this forum about checking out BLC '99 sounds. That would be a good thing to do.

The default field need settings need to be completely re-worked. It's been a recurring problem in cricket games. I'm sure there are plenty of guys here that would be willing to help out in this department. Currently the AI doesn't seem to have the same field from one over to the next. If it was little changes it wouldn't be so bad, but they make massive changes. Still on the subject of fields, it gets a bit annoying having to change fields every over if you have a spinner and a seamer bowling at the same time.

Let us save online games. I'm pretty sure the majority of us here would like to play test matches online. I personally got bored of the constant T20's and something with a little more substance was needed. Also let us choose the difficulty level online.

Proper variable weather needs to be in there. Again, it's a hugely important aspect of the sport that is missing from AC2009. I liked what Brook posted about weather and pitch conditions in post #12.

Little bonuses would be more grounds (in addition to the current grounds, not instead of) and more licensed stuff, but there are more important things than that.

One of the things that I absolute love about AC2009 is the different boundary sizes. Perhaps a slightly odd thing to pick up on with all the other good things about the game (since the patch), but it's something that really adds to the game. Maybe some boundaries could do with being smaller (Lord's?) whilst others could be bigger (Australian grounds). Once the power of the lofted shots is sorted then you may find yourself having to aim for the smaller boundaries to clear the ropes. It's little things like that that help to make AC2009 the best cricket game there is.

 

[barmyarmy]

I thought I saw some mention player sizes but I can't find it now. Anyway, this is something else that would dramatically add to the gameplay. Say you are batting against Steve Harmison and Fidel Edwards (I know, not likely...). With one everything is going to be up around your ribs and neck, whereas Edwards is a shorter, more "skiddy" bowler. The last time (and indeed the first time!) we saw different player sizes/heights was Cricket 2004 and it made a difference to that game.

Height and weight are in the roster but unimplemented.

 

[MattW]

Height and weight are in the roster but unimplemented.

Unimplemented visually, or at all?