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

I'll write a detailed post when I've got time but from tinkering over the weekend I've found...

When I had equal stats for both my team and the opposition (similar to what Blocker suggested; probably a tad less):

- As everyone else, A LOT more playing and missing.
- Sadly, no increase in edges of pace bowlers (and only 2 off spinners) in a total of 160 overs bowled.
- Still too many wickets caught in the outfield.
- One lbw and one bowled.
- Too many cuts.

When lowering the oppositions batsmen to 2 bars for each skill and my bowlers to 3 helmet rating:

- Still no edges off pace bowling in 70 overs bowled, yet loads of playing and missing
- 1 edge off a spinner which was a played on.
- Still a lot of aerial slogs, despite the batsmen being conservative and having very little skill.
- Too many cuts and too many on-drives.

This makes me conclude that it's not only skill that has an effect, I think it is also batting position, i.e. an opener with 2 bars skill will always play better than a number 11 with the same skills.

One other thing I noticed was that the last ball of the over the opposition always try to slog it!


you will find you are most likely getting a lot of aerial slogs because you have set the batting attributes too low, I also get the feeling that you have not lowered run/ accelaration /anticipation. As for the lack of edges have you reduced the swing if so how have you set it? It is a sum of many parts.
 
- Slogging was happening both when the attributes were very low (2 bars) and when they were set near to what Blocker suggests in his first post.

- All the attributes, such as acceleration, anticipation etc...were left as default, i.e. 50%.

- Again, both when swing was very low and at the level Blocker suggests in his first post the same amount of edges occurred, none.

Conversely, playing with exactly the same teams (and pitch and weather) in a T20 and in my new match type has resulted in lots of edges! From 3 in 230 overs (Test matches) to 7 in 21 overs...food for though for sure!
 
- Slogging was happening both when the attributes were very low (2 bars) and when they were set near to what Blocker suggests in his first post.

- All the attributes, such as acceleration, anticipation etc...were left as default, i.e. 50%.

- Again, both when swing was very low and at the level Blocker suggests in his first post the same amount of edges occurred, none.

Conversely, playing with exactly the same teams (and pitch and weather) in a T20 and in my new match type has resulted in lots of edges! From 3 in 230 overs (Test matches) to 7 in 21 overs...food for though for sure!

Was seam high? Also, was the bowling timing for jump & release consistently good?
 
Yeah there are definitely more edges in the in the day formats as I posted yesterday regarding veteran level. It just seems strange that the issues you have mentioned are the ones that lowering the attributes appears to have fixed. My only other thought is that maybe your bowlers are set too high( seam) for the batting settings which is causing an imbalance and making the AI play poorly again.


My personal opinion is that the swing that Dave suggested in his first post is too high and that you will see far better results if you reduce outswing to 5 and inswing to 2, this is almost as important as the batting attributes, probably more-so regarding edges.
 
Something I did notice while playing, the AI was still late cutting a fair bit for 2 or so overs, but completely stopped once I actually put a deep 3rd man in position. Setting a more "realistic" field also seemed to have contributed to more realistic batting by the AI
 
I have started a little project off lowering the stats for all the Intl teams, i played a T20 match yesterday with Pak v Aus and here is a small little video off 2 dismissles i got, i have to say the warner dismissal was beautiful, i will continue to play around with this and report back with new updates.

 
Was seam high? Also, was the bowling timing for jump & release consistently good?

Seam was 100%. I have to admit pace bowling isn't my strong suit, but I get enough good timing the majority of the time. I made a post in another thread a while back about get 5/6 edges in an ODI from pace bowling (I'll try and find it), so I don't think it's my timing exclusively, although it does probably contribute. The amount of edges I get from spin is a testament to my epic spin skills.
 
Update on the current match:

- They are 56/3 after 23 overs, which is a slower scoring than in my previous (test) matches.
- First wicket: the video on the previous page
- Second wicket: very similar (batsman coming down the pitch) but edged to keeper off an off spinner
- Third wicket: edged behind to the keeper off the same off spinner.

Loads of playing and missing and loads of LBW shouts - probably too many, but this is much more realistic for me than playing a proper test match. Next game after this will be exactly the same but i'll up the opposition to 4 bars (from 2) and then go up in increments of 2 each time.
 
I only play T20 matches these days and I have applied the settings blockerdave posted in his initial post for Australia and found there were more edges, play and misses, LBW's and a lot of edges through areas I have not seen before. It makes you want to set more aggressive fields and some custom fields to ensure you grab the edges. It makes the gameplay more realistic as the edges do not all go in one place. Also lowering the skill of the batsman has not impacted on their aggression and they still score at a good rate for T20.
 
Another interesting thing I have noticed after reducing the batsman skill is being able to make use of the surprise ball. The first two balls of my over where dispatched for boundaries as I bowled down the leg side. The next ball I bowled a faster bouncer which struck Haddin on the head. The next ball I bowled an inswinging yorker which trapped him in front:

Also, here are some examples of edges going in random directions which makes the game more enjoyable:

 
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Had probably my best ever LBW today with the Eng/WI sides - an in swinger that went past the forward defensive, struck just inline and clipping the top of off stump... Great dismissal. They are currently 250-7 off 80 overs, nearly all dismissals have been realistic - even a bowled off the legs from a spinner had big turn into the pads to beat the shot.
 

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