Hi Ross,
Firstly, thank you for the interaction, it's great to be able to have someone so heavily involved in designing a cricket game communicating directly with a community like this. And thank you for making this game! It already sounds fantastic.
Just a few questions:
1. Will you be able to play career mode/seasons with domestic sides? For instance a full domestic season (sheffield shield and ryobi cup in australia)?
2. In career mode, will you be able to manage/play as national sides and have a full selection pool of domestic-based players to select from? Will these players play their own domestic matches "in the background" and have players in good form knocking on the door for international selection? I think that'd be great, players like Phil Hughes or Steve Smith regaining form and pushing for international selection, or others like Alistair McDermott and Mitch Marsh emerging with runs/wickets in shield cricket to warrant a spot on tours.
3. Will the career mode also encompass world cups every 4 years and say every year/season normally having 2 away test series, 1-2 home test series and 1-2 ODI tours with warm up matches etc?
4. How will player attributes work? Cricket 07 had a considerable amount while Ashes 2009 only had about 4 or 5 per category. I'd like to see it somewhat like FIFA, in that there are mental attributes, physical attributes and technical attributes - particularly because mentality is so important in cricket. Things like aggression, patience, leadership, tactical knowledge, composure should be included, as well as focus on batting strengths - ratings for front and back foot, off side, leg side etc.
5. As mentioned by someone else I think, it'd be cool to see specialties that make a considerable difference and they earn them depending on their attribute ratings and combinations of attributes (again, like FIFA) - death bowler (Lee, Bracken), run-chase specialist (Hussey, Bevan), defensive wall (Dravid), slogger (Warner, Afridi), driver (Ponting, Watson), leader (Steve Waugh), bucket hands (Mark Waugh), line and length (McGrath, able to always hit a length), pace/speed (Akhtar, Lee), reverse swing (Steyn), bamboozler/tweaker (Warne, Murali), acrobat (Warner, Smith), bullet throw (Warner), strokemaker (a natural who has excellent timing e.g. Mark Waugh), all rounder (Flintoff), workhorse (can bowl long spells and/or bat all day i.e. great stamina e.g. Hussey, Cowan, Laxman) - I'm sure there are others that I haven't thought of too but they are just some ideas off the top of my head. Having these specialties will make it easier and more realistic when selecting a balanced team, and obviously players can have multiple specialties.
6. Something that I think all games have missed is difference in player heights and builds etc and how this impacts them i.e. taller bowlers getting more bounce, shorter batsmen being able to play off the back foot easier. I think this should be of high importance as it is something that makes a massive difference and will add much more realism to the game - and the career mode impacting with player ages is great too. Would love to see younger players getting technically and mentally better as they get older while older players slowly decline towards the end of their career, perhaps their technique etc remains the same but timing and composure decrease along with physical attributes?
They are just a few of what I've come up with, sorry if it's a bit overwhelming I'm a little excited haha. And sorry if I'm going over stuff people have already mentioned.
