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

[richowebbo]

again you wonder about the quality/quantity of testing that went on, when aside from some of the basic bugs we've seen there's this major effect on gameplay that went through and at no point in over 12 months of people complaining about the AI performance, bowling issues and lack of edges did anybody at Big Ant say "our play testing indicates if you adjust the skill levels you will get a better competitive balance..." yet we've been told they played the game lots... did they really? some of these issues were apparent immediately.

I agree. When there are obvious flaws in the game, you do wonder who was doing the testing. I remember before release BigAnt released a video of an edge (can't remember if it was to the Keeper or Slips). They must have had to have played many many overs for this to happen, yet this was not revealed to us. They must have known that bowling was an absolute slog and pretty much pointless if they'd played the game and must have seen that 80% of wickets were chips to mid on/off.

I'm not having a go at the guys, they've produced a good cricket game which is unheard of, but its taken 12 months and a member of this community, and a few of us playing hours and hours adjusting stats to make bowling part of the game.

Have we heard from HBK yet?

 

[richowebbo]

Has anyone tried with batsmen stats at 0-1 for straight bat/flat bat? Above Pro? If not, I will do it. Perhaps the edges would increase, and we know what the starting base would be for those levels?

I think that we are concentrating on edges a lot. Although edges are a big part of the game (especially Tests) I think thee alterations have made bowling rewarding and the game feels more like a Test Match It isn't perfect yet, but its a hell of a lot better, and I'm happy to bowl an entire innings.

 

[blockerdave]

Has anyone tried with batsmen stats at 0-1 for straight bat/flat bat? Above Pro? If not, I will do it. Perhaps the edges would increase, and we know what the starting base would be for those levels?

I think 0 doesn't work; rather than give them actual 0 they have some random ability.

 

[blockerdave]

I think that we are concentrating on edges a lot. Although edges are a big part of the game (especially Tests) I think thee alterations have made bowling rewarding and the game feels more like a Test Match It isn't perfect yet, but its a hell of a lot better, and I'm happy to bowl an entire innings.

Yeah for me it's not just about edges, though they're a big factor, but the whole bowling experience.[DOUBLEPOST=1429035927][/DOUBLEPOST]

Have we heard from HBK yet?

If you consider how long before release we were asking for guidance about skills/attributes and the time since release, it's 18 months without them saying anything much about it - I'd be surprised if that's gonna change now.

 

[Krokenoster]

I think that we are concentrating on edges a lot. Although edges are a big part of the game (especially Tests) I think thee alterations have made bowling rewarding and the game feels more like a Test Match It isn't perfect yet, but its a hell of a lot better, and I'm happy to bowl an entire innings.

Agree completely with you. My thing is just, that playing a game at Legend at the moment, and in 138 overs, there has been only 1 edge, from 1 of my spinners (but it was wide of 2nd slip, so no wicket, and had 4 wickets from catches). So if I can find a balance somehow, I'll be happy.

 

[Liam hughes]

Wow, reading this makes so much sense. Just out of curiousity, who skills the players for the get best teams? Like are they the pre set skills from the original in game players or do the creators of the get best also skill them?

 

[Cricket_god]

So sorry you have 11 increments for everything??

YUP.[DOUBLEPOST=1429060814][/DOUBLEPOST]I really enjoyed ballance struggling after getting his fifty somehow after tea session.I beat his and hit him many times for 5-6 overs and finally he edged to keeper defending a ball form around the wicket .I go them allout for 280 odd run ate was low 2.7.May be have to look at roles.Conservative is the way for batsman like cook and precise for attacking batsman anything else just makes them play too many slogs.

 

[Cricket_god]

As weakness plays a major role may be worth trying giving batsman offside weakness to see how it affects edges.

 

[cooks1st100]

Has the new ball proven to have an effect in this setup?

Definitely Dutch, I'm actually starting to notice the stages the ball goes through and overs 50 through to the new ball can be fairly slow going at times. The video that Krokenoster posted has further enhanced the new ball advantage for me.

I'm in the middle of a game at the moment and something very interesting has happened. It was at 46-3 and Luke Procter and Ashwell Prince are now batting. Procter is scoring well 36(52) while Prince has gone completely into his shell and has scored just 5 runs from 66 balls. He is pretty much blocking or leaving and letting Procter do the scoring. It's fascinating.

 

[cooks1st100]

fast/fast-medium/medium bowlers: max (or close to) seam, and either outswing 10 and inswing 6 or vice versa for openers, or 9 and 5.5 for 1st/2nd change. slower ball and cutters 7 or 8 for all of them.

I think you should try lowering the swing a little more Dave and I almost guarantee you will see an increase in edges. Set up the opening bowlers with outswing 5 and 3 and inswing 2 and 1 respectively.

 

[blockerdave]

I think you should try lowering the swing a little more Dave and I almost guarantee you will see an increase in edges. Set up the opening bowlers with outswing 5 and 3 and inswing 2 and 1 respectively.

I'll give it a go...

 

[blockerdave]

Wow, reading this makes so much sense. Just out of curiousity, who skills the players for the get best teams? Like are they the pre set skills from the original in game players or do the creators of the get best also skill them?

They should have been done by the original creators. Thing is, they were done according to try and get helmet ratings to a certain level. These new lower ratings generally result in helmet ratings 1 or 2. But they're determined by (to us) an observed effect on gameplay

 

[Krokenoster]

So, this is where I am at now. New test match Strikers VS Worcestershire

Difficulty : Legend
Weather : All clear skies
Pitch : Random

NB : For this match, I have made ALL AI batsmen skills as follow :

Standard for @blockerdave 1st setup, BUT, I have changes Front Foot, Back Foot, Straight Bat, and Flat Bat to have ONLY 1 increment (1 in total)

The rest stayed the same.....

I have taken 3 wickets from edge....2 x Batsmen edges the ball onto the wicket, 1 x edged to keeper.
The other wickets were caught in the outfield. None of the outfield catches were taken in the same spot/from the same shot (Loving this!)

There were more edges, but I either did not have a fielder there, or I dropped the catch (I play manual fielding).

The AI is still losing out on plenty of runs, by not running when it's safe/turning around and not completing the run.

Run rates aren't too bad at all I reckon?

Edit : One of the main reason I use manual fielding, is to eliminate the chances of caught and bowled. If I don't push up, the bowler doesn't catch. And there were many, many chances of that happening in this match.

 

[Acid Burn]

So all in all , we re-visit a topic , that was brought up by many at release , about the Poor Playtesting that resulted in most of the obvious bugs etc.

Only difference is now , no one is on the White Horse coming in to the rescue of the Saviour of the Cricket Gaming Franchise , with the "How Dare You critizice them" etc etc. attitude.

Interesting times ahead .

If we could just get some feedback and more info regarding what exactly is the train of thought regarding Patch 3 , so that all can continue on this path of trying to figure out the attributes or knowing it is being taken care of "internally" by BA via the Patch , would help so much.

It just feels that with the immenent release of another title , we have (again) been shifted on the backburner . Here`s hoping after this release , DBC will receive the long overdue attention it is in dire need of.

@BigAntStudios , @HBK619 , @fiction

 

[Chief]

If we could just get some feedback and more info regarding what exactly is the train of thought regarding Patch 3 , so that all can continue on this path of trying to figure out the attributes or knowing it is being taken care of "internally" by BA via the Patch , would help so much.

I suspect that their hands (and tongues) are tied - Ross has quoted elsewhere "We are not the publisher of the game, we do not get to decide when patches get released."