Patch#2 Notes - Patch is Live

[BigAntStudios]

I disagree, I find batting a lot easier now compared to pre-patch 2

For me at least, Bowling is slightly more difficult and the batting is slightly more easier which is a perfect fit for me currently.

In a nutshell, that's pretty much what we did for patch#2.

 

[Biggs]

The changes in the fullness of the ring is too subtle...

Something something @ethybubs ring fullness something something exclamation mark.

 

[Acid Burn]

Ok , so here is my first observations of Patch2 , after playing about 15 x Pro20`s since it came out. All of this was online , with "Get Best Teams" on a PS3. Obviously multiple opponents , Stadiums etc. etc. Semi Assisted Fielding

First match.

1. I clean bowled the opponent (6) Times , where it did not want to register the wicket.
2. I once had a sequence where the Keeper dropped (2) nicks in a row , ball after that got the "Clean Bowled but Not Out" again.
After 10.2 Overs it disconnected.

I was ready to jump on the Planet Cricket Website , and give BigantStudios a piece of my mind for *&*ing up a good game , but luckily refrained myself and played some more matches.

Second Match

3.Had a situation where the batsmen played the ball , no run , Ball gets thrown to the Keeper , he proceeds to try and whip of the Bail , and meanwhile the batsmen started to meander to the pitch , eventually resulting in the stumping being effected.
4.A bit later on , I hit a ball to Deep Mid On , Strolling through for a single , and next thing the "Bad Luck Mate - Played On" Message Pops up . Game then Disconnects.

I was VERY Dissapointed at this point and could not believe that Patch2 was this bad.

I continued to play the other 13 matches , and much to my surprise , Issue No. 2 & 3 & 4 never happened again. Issue 1 only happened twice again , and once I was the lucky batsmen. This has led me to believe that when the connection is VERY bad , that these anomilies will still feature , but thats my own observation.

I have below summarized some "other" observations I made on the Game after Patch2.

Bugs/Irritations that was fixed

1.The 2 second delay works a charm now when I want to check the field , although because there is no difference in the umpires signal , the bowler might be busy changing his field , and I have to do it again. Maybe a different animation needed , but not a big deal.

2. The Over Zealous Breaking of the Bails has dissipeared.

3. Excessive Speed Difference between Fastest and Slowest Ball has been fixed .

4. Superman Fielders , warping all over . Although I must now mention that they have been dumbed down considerably to the point of lazily jogging/walking to some balls , and for some reason the guys down at Fine Leg now does this weird move when they are posted on the rope , where they reverses , then goes sideways out of the boundary , and then at the last minute dives back in to stop the ball from rolling over the ropes.

Another Variation out on the ropes is that they will get a ball hit straight to them , and then will proceed to dive straight into the direction the ball is coming and after stopping the ball , then only they throw it back in , wasting precious seconds.

(I`m not sure if this is a design decision , but to my experience it needs slight tweaking)

5. Black screen after ball has been hit is gone

6. No more warping bowler when he is in his delivery stride.

7. Dull replays are now a thing of the past , with more relevant replays of what actually happened.

8. The Biggest Killer of them all , the "Out of a rolling ball"

9. The other big Gripe , the runout at non strikers end.

10. The ball hitting pad given as a wide.

11. Bowling first bouncer , and it gets registered as the second/3rd one for the over. It now works correctly.

12. The superman keeper , fielding and catching everything. This is now much more realistic .

13. The keeper animation problem showing the ball has passed the keeper , you trying to pinch a single , and next thing the ball is back in his hands.

Bugs/Irritations NOT Fixed

1. Out bowled not given (as mentioned earlier)

2. The Super Slow bouncer still shows as a "Green" marker sometimes , but when checking after the over , the ball pitched 9 meters in front of the batsmen.

3. Long Hop slow ball from spinners still almost bounces twice , and are marked green sometimes.

4. Wide calls still sometimes arent correct . (Ball well within the line on the off side)

5. When looking for Online Matches in the Custom Games screen , the matches will still show only a Pro20 for anything under a Pro20 . Also no allowance has been made to see if "Normalise Skill" is selected , or any other info regarding the game your entering.

6. Cannot shine the Ball whilst batsmen looks around , so have to wait for him to finish , and then only can rub the ball.

7. Default selected bowler when match starts is still the highest rated bowler , even if it is a Spinner.

8. Bowler will still changes sides randomly , although much less than before.

9. We are still required to change the field placements for every bowler and batsmen , versus a one field for all scenario until the user selects otherwise.

10. After over completion , the balls bowled will still show up on impossible random positions on the pitch map.

11. No number on the above colours , so its a mind game to try and remember which colour reflects Ball No. 2 etc.

12. Only the default umpires are officiating , regardless of what the user selected.

13. The animation where a correct LBW/Caught behind shout is given . This is a minor issue , but just takes the suspense out of it , when the batter already does his famous "turn and walk " sequence BEFORE the Umpire has given him out.

14. The Nicks for caught behinds , are sometimes not heard by the batsmen , and never vibrates on the controller , so its a lottery to review them as you yourself received no feedback whatsoever , but the Hotspot will show a huge edge.

15. After keeping a ball , the keeper will just sprint of into a random direction (This one is just funny!)

And Finally some "New Bugs"
1. Ball will sometimes be hit , then nothing happens for a moment , and then the game will skip to the end result.
2. Bowler will start to run in from the "wrong side" (Over/Around the wicket) and then 3/4 of the way to the crease will suddenly be back on the correct side of the wicket and play continues.

*Both the above new issues have only been experienced once each in my small 15 game sample , but they are there none the less. Also smells like bad latency/lag to me.

Overall Feelings :

The Online Game is much more polished , and plays differently with Batting slightly easier , and the bowling defnitly more challenging. Nicks to the keeper have seen a massive increase , to the expense of yorkers being less effective.

From the list above it looks as if there is still alot of issues , but most are very minor in nature , and can be tolerated easily. Here`s hoping Patch3 nails the final touches required for the perfect cricket game.

I commend @BigAntStudios (and @HBK619) for their perseverance and dedication to this game , and must say that the future of Cricket Games looks bright again.

PS. I have not spammed the other threads with all the various issues brought up in here , as I feel this is a much better way for you to have my personal views/experience/issues summarised for easy future reference , so please bear with me. I have obviously ONLY played Online post Patch2 , so did not cover any Career or other formats issues etc.

 

[maxwasim]

In a nutshell, that's pretty much what we did for patch#2.

my batting is at an all time low post-patch... and t20/odi bowling hasn't changed much for me, getting wkts in bulk

 

[ragson]

No Turn for the Spinners

Hi Ross(Big Ant Team),

Thanks for the Patch 2 which have improved lots of things but there is no turn for the spinners after pitching which is the most basic thing in any cricket game and the wicket keeper should come up to the stumps on medium pace bowlers.

I request you to add these in patch 3 which will give the game more realistic form.


Thanks

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[Gamer Pradosh]

I feel that ball is going too much in the air after patch#2 in Legend level as I play only on that level...And my favourite shot in the game i.e Pull shot doesn't look smooth as its more in the air shot now as you cannot keep it down no matter what and "The great wall of china" i.e the bowler stopping every shot is frustrating even when it off the middle he stops it....I loved batting before patch#2 as it was more what I wanted to play and where I wanted to play but its not so and the foot movement also doesn't respond the way it did before....Bowling becoming hard is the best thing after patch#2...

Fielders sometimes don't respond or respond very late after the ball is past them when it was easy for them to catch the ball and sometimes the fielders near the boundary are dead slow to the ball and at times the fielders runs towards the boundary when the ball comes directly towards them..Its like run back 7-8 steps and then field the ball and throw [this needs to be looked upon]....

 

[Toecrusher]

I've also noticed that pitch conditions don't really seem to vary too much. I remember playing Shane Warne (Brian Lara) '99 and things played very differently (and credibly) across the pitch types.

Damp: It kept low and you couldn't quite get the pace (insinuating the bowler wouldn't quite be able to generate so much pace running in on the wet). Spinners fairly ineffectual except for being a change of pace to using pace bowlers.

Green: Much more lateral movement off the pitch for pace and spin. Seemed to be a smaller timing window, so more wickets fell.

Normal: A good balanced pitch for batting and both bowling types, leaning more towards pacers than spinners.

Hard: More bounce, pace and a smaller timing window for facing the quickest bowlers. Could really crack the ball off the bat too.

Dusty: A bouncy spinning wicket, where you needed to get your timing much more on the money for facing the spinners and pace still had something to offer although it was noticeably better to have an extra spinner for these games. The ball could be thumped well if you timed it, but that was again slightly harder to time than Normal.

All of these wicket types played fairly accurately to how they promised back then and made the game all the more enjoyable. The ball travelled off the pitch in ways that directly related to the selected conditions.

I'd almost recommend having a few of the BA guys playing a couple of games of that old classic on various conditions and seeing just how well balanced those differences are.

I love the current game and yes it's cricket as we've never seen before, although the best things in life have a little of the old and a little of the new.

Completely agree with this. BLC 99 absolutely nailed the pitch conditions aspect....just adding a lot of depth to the gameplay. I remember playing with 4 fast bowlers and 4 slips on a green top, and 3 spinners and men all around the bat on a dusty turner...fun times!

 

[blockerdave]

Completely agree with this. BLC 99 absolutely nailed the pitch conditions aspect....just adding a lot of depth to the gameplay. I remember playing with 4 fast bowlers and 4 slips on a green top, and 3 spinners and men all around the bat on a dusty turner...fun times!

true... @Ross may disagree but so far as i can tell the pitch conditions here are entirely superficial. you simply don't more lateral movement on a green top, more spin on a dry pitch etc... and you certainly don't get any noticeable difference in bounce on an "uneven" pitch.

i think partly this is a function of there being so little lateral movement/spin etc. in the game in general. it's odd because swing and drift are in, and quite visible and have an effect, but spin is minimal and seam essentially non-existent. so it's almost as if there is nothing for the conditions to effect.

 

[AdamFreeman]

whether the game saves is pure luck for me right now, just had a 2 hour session in the field in career, having a good battle with the batsman so the gameplay is so much better, but when im losing so much gameplay due to crashing when the game should save Ive already given up :@

 

[Mr Snrub]

you certainly don't get any noticeable difference in bounce on an "uneven" pitch.

Agreed about all the rest of your post too. I'm just adding to this comment by saying that in my opinion an "uneven" pitch would be the last thing I'd be looking for in a game with anyone.

Grassy (green top), Hard, Dusty (cracked and worn), normal (something balanced for all) and heck even damp (low playing, low scoring, slightly lower speed bowling due to potential to slip) are all pitch types I'd be keen on trying, so essentially what Lara got right.

Uneven though? Okay after all other options are there and right maybe, but I'm not sure I want something that's going to play well enough when certain parts of the pitch are hit and like a minefield when certain spots are hit or whatever. Why would you sit down to have a clash with a mate and say "hmm, let's make this pitch uneven", who cares who would've won on an even pitch under certain conditions.

Also brings to mind what the difference is between a hard pitch and a dry one. Is dry meant to be DBC's normal? I suspect so. Anyhow it's all a little moot as they don't play noticeably different unfortunately.

Also agree about the rest. Swing/drift is there in spades, but there's not so much spin off the deck, or seam off the pitch.

I vaguely remember that even BLC '99 had somewhat different sound effects for a ball spinning/turning off the pitch on a dusty pitch than a damp one etc. Almost a muted, duller sound on damp and a slightly crunchy one on dusty etc. At any rate they nailed that area.

I guess it's only now all these years later that we can see how hard they must've worked to get all that right.

 

[cricket_online]

I guess it's only now all these years later that we can see how hard they must've worked to get all that right.

Agreed. There are a few things various prior cricket games have gotten right...

1. BLIC 99 - Pitch Types and how they played.

2. EA Cricket 2004 - Depth in tours and tourneys.

3. BLIC 05 - Fast bowling and cartwheeling stumps. Playing or bowling with pacers touching nearly 100 mph was fun and also how stumps could be uprooted. Implementation of swing using shoulder buttons wasn't too shabby either.

4. EA Cricket 2007 - Century stick control on PS2 (DBC 14 has elevated to a different level altogether but kudos have to be given to EA for trying it out nearly a decade earlier) and Stats. The depth of stats (for tours & tourneys, manhattan, bar, wheel, worm etc.) in the game was outstanding. Even the default fields were pretty good in the game.

5. AC09 - Online gameplay. People may slate Codemasters & Ashes series but it nailed the online gameplay. It was fun, addictive and extremely stable nearly 5 years back!

6. DBC 14 - Cricket game controls, both batting & bowling. It is the best simulation of playing cricket and if it can add things which some of the earlier cricket games got right, hopefully over the next iteration, it would be in a category all its own.

 

[sanjivcena1]

@Ross..what abt the game start time, one day matches starts at default 1:30 even aftr changing it to any other time for tours and competition. Only in casual mode it works. Is it a bug or this is how the game is????

 

[Mr Snrub]

@Ross..what abt the game start time, one day matches starts at default 1:30 even aftr changing it to any other time for tours and competition. Only in casual mode it works. Is it a bug or this is how the game is????

I've set games to be day/nighters in created competitions and not had them end up going into a night situation at all. Also, it seems odd to set one time for an entire competition, you can't make some day matches and some day nighters from what I've seen. Could be a bug maybe.

 

[Synnical]

In a nutshell, that's pretty much what we did for patch#2.

Well, thank you kindly for doing so. You've made the game play experience much more interesting and fun for me. It feels more rewarding now when you tear through a batting line up IE I recently got a 7/21 playing a List A game and on average at present I'm getting a maximum of 3 wickets per game, which made me appreciate that 7/21 much much more.

 

[thegr8anand]

The game just updated on steam, around 40mb. Any way to know what are the changes?