Making bowling more enjoyable, seeing weather/pitch effects etc. - invitation to playtest

Well I made an important discovery last night. As I have repeated many times the amount of aerial shots the AI plays has been an issue that has really taken away any enjoyment from the game for me. After stumbling upon this discovery I bowled 40 odd overs and could count the amount of aerial shots on one hand and it doesn't involve any attributes changes either.

Basically when bowling with the seam bowlers, bowl your stock delivery as close to the 4 metre line as possible. To do this you need to release the ball so that the needle is just touching the green zone but isn't actually in it.

Once I started doing this it felt like test match cricket. As my attribute settings for veteran are really low for batsmen, I had a quick bowl against a team that contained batsmen with a 4 helmet rating with similar results.

This is very encouraging.

@blockerdave

Give these settings a go also mate. Keep the BB/FF and bowling attributes however you have them currently set and just change offside/onside/straight/flat to one increment for all. I will end up increasing these but the game I have just had on veteran has been fantastic and I'm starting to think that having these set low results in finer edges. Had 2 from cut shots which I have never seen before. Proper ones to slip opposed to the usual weird thick ones that go to the keeper.


Do you think these settings will encourage the AI batsmen to actually behave according to their attributes? I had another rage quit back to AC 09 after Keegan Meth slapped 68 against my Australian all stars line up from 100/7.
 
Australia v West Indies

Day 1 Tea

West Indies: 247-5

By Far my best session of Test Cricket.

2 edges to the keeper
1 LBW
1 Caught at cover off the spinner going for the drive

and one caught at silly mid off off the spinner. Not a bat pad. But the batsmen almost timed the defensive shot too well and straight into the fielders hands!! Looked very nice

There have been a leading edge and an edge between the slips!

All batsmen have 2 increments and are all precise or conservative!!
 
Australia v West Indies

Day 1 Tea

West Indies: 247-5

By Far my best session of Test Cricket.

2 edges to the keeper
1 LBW
1 Caught at cover off the spinner going for the drive

and one caught at silly mid off off the spinner. Not a bat pad. But the batsmen almost timed the defensive shot too well and straight into the fielders hands!! Looked very nice

There have been a leading edge and an edge between the slips!

All batsmen have 2 increments and are all precise or conservative!!

On veteran ?
 
Do you think these settings will encourage the AI batsmen to actually behave according to their attributes? I had another rage quit back to AC 09 after Keegan Meth slapped 68 against my Australian all stars line up from 100/7.

Would this be the same Keegan Meth with 5 first class 50's to his name? ;)

As I have said before there is nothing you can do to make a batsman behave differently, the game isn't programmed this way. Giving a batsman high offside attributes for example doesn't seem to result in the batsman playing more offside shots, but what it will do is hit the ball better when these shots are played so in effect a greater number of runs will be scored on the offside than in other areas.

I don't have these settings set to one to make the batsman easier to get out as such but I have done it because it results in them finding the middle less often and as a result the shots seem to have a greater variation in both direction and strength. They possibly have a slight effect on edge frequency also, but BF/FF seems to be a bigger factor for these.

In my experience the way to make a batsman poor is to minimise BF/FF and anticipation. I've been dreading bowling to the tail on veteran yet first time around I bowled the last 4 batsmen out for under 30 runs. I'd roll out the tail 7 times out of 10 on pro but every now and then I would get a stubborn partnership, but this happens in cricket so it doesn't bother me too much. It remains to be seen whether I can get the same results in veteran.

I set my tailenders up as follows: zero for all batting attributes incuding BF/FF, anticipation @ minimum, strength minimum +2 increments for aggressive and brute, minimum for all other batsman types.
 
Just to carry on from what I was saying.

Day 2
West Indies 412- All Out
118 Overs

Simply the best Innings I have bowled on this game. Something must of changed.
Hard Pristine pitch
Pro Mode
Each Batsmen with 2 increments for each.

Wickets were:

3 Caught by the keeper off the seamers.
1 Caught at Second slip off a seamer
2 LBW
1 Bowlee
A RUN OUT!!!!!
Caught at Cover
Caught at Silly Mid Off off Spinner.

Went back and forth and genuinely punched the air after the Windies had reached 287-5 when I took the new ball. Johnson took the edge to the keeper to break the partnership with the new ball.

On top off this, there were 4 edges that did not go to hand!!

Innings was summed up in two balls from Johnson 4 overs into the new ball. Bouncer that was top edged and dropped short of keepers. Next ball was full and wide of off stump. Batsmen drives and snicks off to keeper.
 
Wow I can't believe the AI scored that many on pro with the attributes set as low as you have them. Are BF/FF set at 2 also and what have you set seam at?
 
Yeah everything was at two. Outswing was 3 inswing was 2.

The edges were so faint and super realistic. The silly mid off catch was low and he just scooped it up diving forward.

The only think Im doing different. Is I have no mid on and mid off. This eliminates the stupid dismissals. It allows them 1 down the ground normally. But at 3.7 an over it ticks along nicely.

I will do another innings tomorrow and record it all to see how it goes and ill post it up.

Another thing is I always deliver the ball with the good length button and adjust the length by the needle!

I would say hand on heart i did not have a single crappy dismissal. Even the runout out was a push into the covers and a scrambled single ruined by a direct hit!
 
Kane Williamson edges to second slip but he can only manage to parry it into the air, first slip dives backward and across an gets his hands to it but only to drop it!! Williamson resumes on 69 not out
 
Well I made an important discovery last night. As I have repeated many times the amount of aerial shots the AI plays has been an issue that has really taken away any enjoyment from the game for me. After stumbling upon this discovery I bowled 40 odd overs and could count the amount of aerial shots on one hand and it doesn't involve any attributes changes either.

Basically when bowling with the seam bowlers, bowl your stock delivery as close to the 4 metre line as possible. To do this you need to release the ball so that the needle is just touching the green zone but isn't actually in it.

Once I started doing this it felt like test match cricket. As my attribute settings for veteran are really low for batsmen, I had a quick bowl against a team that contained batsmen with a 4 helmet rating with similar results.

This is very encouraging.

@blockerdave

Give these settings a go also mate. Keep the BB/FF and bowling attributes however you have them currently set and just change offside/onside/straight/flat to one increment for all. I will end up increasing these but the game I have just had on veteran has been fantastic and I'm starting to think that having these set low results in finer edges. Had 2 from cut shots which I have never seen before. Proper ones to slip opposed to the usual weird thick ones that go to the keeper.

I can second that the 4 meter length is the best to bowl in my opinion! it's like the ai struggles to pick up the length a little. Same with bowling a fuller short ball.
 
Would this be the same Keegan Meth with 5 first class 50's to his name? ;)

As I have said before there is nothing you can do to make a batsman behave differently, the game isn't programmed this way. Giving a batsman high offside attributes for example doesn't seem to result in the batsman playing more offside shots, but what it will do is hit the ball better when these shots are played so in effect a greater number of runs will be scored on the offside than in other areas.

I don't have these settings set to one to make the batsman easier to get out as such but I have done it because it results in them finding the middle less often and as a result the shots seem to have a greater variation in both direction and strength. They possibly have a slight effect on edge frequency also, but BF/FF seems to be a bigger factor for these.

In my experience the way to make a batsman poor is to minimise BF/FF and anticipation. I've been dreading bowling to the tail on veteran yet first time around I bowled the last 4 batsmen out for under 30 runs. I'd roll out the tail 7 times out of 10 on pro but every now and then I would get a stubborn partnership, but this happens in cricket so it doesn't bother me too much. It remains to be seen whether I can get the same results in veteran.

I set my tailenders up as follows: zero for all batting attributes incuding BF/FF, anticipation @ minimum, strength minimum +2 increments for aggressive and brute, minimum for all other batsman types.


What concerns me is that he had only one skill point for everything batting related. I haven't played with attributes. I was unaware they made any difference and for some reason they only go down to halfway
 
What concerns me is that he had only one skill point for everything batting related. I haven't played with attributes. I was unaware they made any difference and for some reason they only go down to halfway

Not everything batting related. BF/FF are set higher which along with anticipation is how I determine the quality of the batsman.

At the end of the day what is your main concern, batsmen and team ratings or gameplay? For me it's gameplay. You only have to set up the AI team in this manner which will take all of 10 minutes and considering a test match played in it's entirety takes hours to complete it's no time at all. If your not happy with how it plays just change it back.

Edit: oh sorry Langeveldt are you talking about Keegans attributes or my previous post?

Just to avoid confusion regarding skills and attributes. Skills can be reduced to zero while attributes can only be reduced to 50 percent which is why I refer to them as minimal as opposed to zero.

As far as attributes having an effect on batting the only ones as far as I can tell are strength and anticipation. Consistency certainly doesn't have any effect on a players rating but I have a feeling that it is linked to simulating games. I tend to set it according to how a player is in real life so someone like Steven Smith would have high consistency while Ian Bell while having a decent average would have minimal consistency as I feel that he is an inconsistent Test batsman.

But this could be completely wrong and consistency could be linked to bowlers instead but as I bowl far more than I bat, I have not spent any time on AI bowling.
 
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Thanks for your detailed response.. My over riding concern is with individual ability, else what is the point in the academy? You may as well have 11 identical 'cricketers' playing against each other.. I'm beginning to understand a bit more about it now, and it's somewhat annoying we've had absolutely zero input from Big Ant regarding the academy and skilling, and it appears that a lot of the facets are only cosmetic, or for the simulation. I have no problem with the actual feel of the game and the gameplay, which I think is superb. I've just never got the impression there is a lot of difference between a Pommie Mbangwa and a Herschelle Gibbs with the bat.

I havent played around at all with attributes but I'm going to bowl at some Zimbabwean tailenders with one skill point for batting, and minimal attributes, and report back.
 
I'm aiming to have a solid set up by the Ashes so can play the whole series.

I'm still surprised at the lack of info regarding skills etc or any chat about edges.

I cant for the life of me find a decent set up that gets 4-5 edges behind the wicket on Veteran!

i'm plowing through on veteran, i want to complete a tour so changes i make won't take effect during that anyway... i know i'm not bowling as well on veteran as i was on pro, but in general the experience is much worse. getting some edges behind the wicket, especially off spinners. slips seem to be merely decorative, sadly.

Thanks for your detailed response.. My over riding concern is with individual ability, else what is the point in the academy? You may as well have 11 identical 'cricketers' playing against each other.. I'm beginning to understand a bit more about it now, and it's somewhat annoying we've had absolutely zero input from Big Ant regarding the academy and skilling, and it appears that a lot of the facets are only cosmetic, or for the simulation. I have no problem with the actual feel of the game and the gameplay, which I think is superb. I've just never got the impression there is a lot of difference between a Pommie Mbangwa and a Herschelle Gibbs with the bat.

I havent played around at all with attributes but I'm going to bowl at some Zimbabwean tailenders with one skill point for batting, and minimal attributes, and report back.


the skills and attributes are overpowered, and this is why you need to do all of this settings malarkey because that's why you'll see players playing too well. I think if you get the right balance you'll see a difference. I think I've got the rabbits playing right, and i'm noticing a difference between the number 11's and the number 8s...

now and again even the rabbits will stick around, but on pro certainly I was getting great results with the tail. my current experience is a bit skewed, because i'm playing South Africa 1982 and all of their players down to number 10 averaged (FC) +25 (numbers 9 & 10 had 40 FC 50's between them!) and their number 11 averaged 16.7 but the results vs the SA Colts and Western Province sides was fine - in multiple games on Pro I had only one large lower order stand and that was only 8th wicket anyway.
 
I've always had rabbits down at 1 skill point for all settings and I've been frustrated a lot by 30's, 40's and 50's which happen once in a blue moon with your McGrath's etc in real life.

However today I lowered the attributes for the tailenders too (strength and anticipation) and have had some interesting results (Pro mode, soft grassy pitch, no bowling assistance)

Cremer - B Johnson 14 (50) - Driving at a beautiful inswinger
Meth - C Haddin b Lyon 13 (17) - Reverse sweeping Lyon, faint edge behind
S Masakadza - CB Johnson - 2(8) Driving and caught and bowled
Jarvis 0 (5) Not out

I noticed a difference in power between the wicket keeper and the tail, and at no stage did I feel like they were getting away from me.

I'm going to have a bowl at the Aussie batsman now to see if they feel different.

EDIT - Australia 29/1 off 5 (Rogers flicking to deep fine leg and getting caught)

Far more aggressive intent, far more power, and I'm enjoying the more aggressive AI running
 
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That's good to hear that you are getting decent results with the tail with the lowered attributes @Langeveldt.

@blockerdave I've found something else out that may be of interest to you. I can push a batsman helmet rating up to a level 3 while keeping skills fairly low. They need to be set as follows:

BF/FF:14, straight and flat:7, onside/offside:2.

These are the lowest the values can be set otherwise the batsman will drop down to a level 2. They can not be traded off either, so say I increased straight to 10 and decreased flat to 6, the batsman rating would still drop down to 2.

Strange that on and offside can be set so low though. I haven't yet played with these settings but will have a go later and pass on my observations.
 

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