Post your questions about the game here!

[cricket_online]

This is my point and you've just more or less confirmed what I'm trying to say. There's no point trying to play legend at the moment and therefore what's the point in it being there. By making all batting easier in general to balance the bowling you have legend available for those who are seriously good of the game/have put a lot of effort into practicing it.

I'm playing career mode on Legend and absolutely loving it. I'm in my 4th season and have just managed to get selected for Pro 40 (my home team is Western Warriors in Aus). So far I've managed 4 100s in FC and in my 4th season have managed to score 2 in List A. I wouldn't want Legend mode to be changed. If you want to add another difficulty level between Amateur and Pro, I'm all for it but I wouldn't want to dumb down the existing difficulty levels.

Just to prove a point, I've played on Legend difficulty for about 90% of my time playing DBC'14. If it was removed or changed in any way shape or form, I'd be bitterly upset (maybe make bowling a touch harder, or at least the AI less likely to throw their wicket away to a bad shot to a close fielder).

Couldn't agree more. Playing on Legend and scoring runs feels like an actual achievement. I was over the moon when I scored my first FC and List A 100s and managed to get a Pro 40 contract.

 

[Blinder]

This! Go casual match, grab Australia Current, set the pitch up to be nice and hard and give a short ball a shot. Don't go for late release with a short pitched delivery, just go ideal timing.. that'll give you as much pace as possible and still have enough bounce to get it in the head/neck region.

Then follow up with a quick yorker and almost be guaranteed a wicket (happened for me!).

I wouldn't say it 'almost guarantees a wicket' from my experience (might be different in other difficulties cos I bowl in legendary), but its a worthwhile tactic. Pretty much Johnson's go to plan in the real thing!

I also like using the bouncer by, again, following simple real world tactics. Put two men back, bowl a heap of full balls then dig it in short and hope for a skied pull shot. Have pulled it off a few times.

AI likes to do the same. Except they like to put six men on the boundary, including three behind square

 

[Frostyvegi]

I wouldn't say it 'almost guarantees a wicket'

I suppose I should 'disclaimer' by saying I tried it the once.. seriously, loaded up the game in casual, Australia bowled first.. first bowler was Johnson.. first delivery smacked the guy plumb in the head, second just full pitched and plumb on the pads. Nothing felt better (only because I have yet to score a 100 in career).

 

[Jadel]

ok... i can sense i am being trolled but i will take you at face value.

This from the guy who has spent the last few pages trying to break the all time record for most ignorant and aggressive posts, and doing well.

I have no idea why you have decided that anyone who isnt as good as you at playing a video game is somehow effeminate and deserving of disdain. Or why you think that line of thought is acceptable. Or for that matter why you havent been banned for pursuing it repeatedly and with such venom.

You have however amongst the vitriol made some good points.

how is making amateur difficulty available in career not catering to the whole range of abilities, but making pro difficulty simpler is? that is ridiculous.

There are a few issues with this game that are related to the issue some of us are discussing.

1. Batting is much harder than bowling
2. The jump from amateur to pro is too extreme
3. Career mode is locked for the many people who find pro too hard.

I dont see how any rational human being can argue with any of that, its simply facts.

Fixing these problems might be quite hard from a programmers perspective but from a basic gamers viewpoint there are several solutions. My preferred solution for each one...

1. The AI needs to be improved to make it more capable of dealing with human bowling. Less stupid shots/suicidal runs for a start. Also super human fielding needs to be toned down. The bowler is unbeatable, the silly mid positions are walls and the outfielders can cover ground faster than usain bolt with a cape.

2. They need to rework the levels. I cant believe there is anyone who actually plays on novice level. Amateur is so easy that it has to be low enough for the starter level surely. Assuming they can fix the things in point 1 then make the difficulties.

Amateur -- same as it is, but its now the lowest level

Journeyman -- Bowling pretty much the same as pro is now, perhaps slightly larger green zones. --Batting has Lateral movement assist and slightly larger ideal timing zone than pro now. Also add the late/early/ideal timing feedback in game.

Pro and beyond the same as currently but benefiting from the fixes.

3. Make all levels available in career. Why is this not already a thing? What is the problem, is it the leaderboard issue? Never looked at that and never will. But for those that want to have their ego stroked then specify the level next to the score, or dont include stats from anything below pro.

 

[BigAntStudios]

DBC checks most of the boxes and I guess one minor tweak will make it even more popular and accessible to casual gamers. All @BigAntStudios/Big Ant need to do is have a setting in the game which you can customize to decide how early you want to see the line & length circle around the ball. Depending on he challenge you want or depending on your reaction time, you can select a setting which gives you ample time to see the line & length circle or appears at the very last moment.

Against AI, the circle can even appear as the bowler is running in so you have ample time to decide the footwork, and in multi-player mode (online & offline), they can slow down the bowler the way they do now in online so the batsman can see the line & length circle in time. This will allow casual gamers to determine line & length early enough to play a non-premeditated shot, and also provide enough challenge for hard-core gamers as they can select a setting which doesn't allow them that much time to see the line & length circle. This option is still much better than the pitch-marker option as the batsman still doesn't know where the ball will land on the pitch and only provides some information regarding what the line & length might be.

Definitely on the same page as myself, the issue is we cannot calculate the exact placement of the ball until release but we may be able to represent what we do know to help.

 

[Blinder]

DBC checks most of the boxes and I guess one minor tweak will make it even more popular and accessible to casual gamers. All @BigAntStudios/Big Ant need to do is have a setting in the game which you can customize to decide how early you want to see the line & length circle around the ball. Depending on he challenge you want or depending on your reaction time, you can select a setting which gives you ample time to see the line & length circle or appears at the very last moment.

Against AI, the circle can even appear as the bowler is running in so you have ample time to decide the footwork, and in multi-player mode (online & offline), they can slow down the bowler the way they do now in online so the batsman can see the line & length circle in time. This will allow casual gamers to determine line & length early enough to play a non-premeditated shot, and also provide enough challenge for hard-core gamers as they can select a setting which doesn't allow them that much time to see the line & length circle. This option is still much better than the pitch-marker option as the batsman still doesn't know where the ball will land on the pitch and only provides some information regarding what the line & length might be.

As Ross said, you cant get an early indication of line and length because user input for bowling is required right up to the point of release. Its not like former games where this was all pre-determined at the beginning of the run-up. When bowling, the right stick is moving the whole duration of the action sequence.

The only way around this I think is slowing down the ball mid-flight.

 

[ethybubs]

Nothing is better than playing, failing, and trying to appreciate where you went wrong rather than being like @ethybubs sister and crying that it's too hard

That definitely wasn't me in a dress.

 

[handsome]

Definitely on the same page as myself, the issue is we cannot calculate the exact placement of the ball until release but we may be able to represent what we do know to help.

If this is implemented then this will become like any other game. No one will play the way it is now. Keep it this way even though the learning curve is difficult

 

[grkrama]

Definitely on the same page as myself, the issue is we cannot calculate the exact placement of the ball until release but we may be able to represent what we do know to help.

something like the batter's Eye in the baseball game

The TELL should be visible depending on the skills n Attributes, so that a good player gets the TELL and is able to judge length early(before ball is released as Full, Good or SHORT) than
other.Also this need not be 100% accurate and can vary at times.

This will also add to the realism of the game and not disturb it, as you will feel what it is to judge the ball as lara or srt or as zaheer khan, instead of myself picking the length for all the eleven players, hope im making sense.

A gamer has only one set of eyes so he will pick the ball same for SRT as well as mitchell johnson, if this Length tell is implemented it will add individuality to the players, also help a lot for batting in career mode and strive people to work for the skills even more to attain this tell.This will add as the feature of being able to tell the ball of the hand instead of OFF the pitch.

This will give people a feel of playing as ponting or kallis instead of Kallis or Ponting playing like them. @Ross @BigAntStudios would like to hear your thoughts on this......

 

[Blinder]

If this is implemented then this will become like any other game. No one will play the way it is now. Keep it this way even though the learning curve is difficult

Noooo waaayyyy! Anything that gives us a little more time to pick up line and length to play a ball on merit rather than premeditate will set this game even further apart from the crap that has come before.

 

[barmyarmy]

Definitely on the same page as myself, the issue is we cannot calculate the exact placement of the ball until release but we may be able to represent what we do know to help.

Practice mode tutorial available in matches would allow this. I've used that to improve my batting by actually playing the correct shot to the ball.

 

[Chief]

Its not like former games where this was all pre-determined at the beginning of the run-up.

Is there any good reason (for the AI) why it *shouldn't* be pre-determined? (Apart from the batsman moving in the crease, which may change the bowler's mind near the end of the run up)?

 

[angad]

Is there any good reason (for the AI) why it *shouldn't* be pre-determined? (Apart from the batsman moving in the crease, which may change the bowler's mind near the end of the run up)?

Whats happening in the crease with DBC14 has an impact on:

a) Where the front foot lands
b) Where the ball pitches (both line and length)

Not only can you change both of these at the very last moment, the overall process feels natural and ensures variability in bowling.

 

[Chief]

Whats happening in the crease with DBC14 has an impact on:

a) Where the front foot lands
b) Where the ball pitches (both line and length)

Not only can you change both of these at the very last moment, the overall process feels natural and ensures variability in bowling.

Yeah, when YOU are controlling it. Understood.

I'm talking about the AI.

 

[Mr Snrub]

If this is implemented then this will become like any other game. No one will play the way it is now. Keep it this way even though the learning curve is difficult

No way would this make it become like any other game. You wouldn't know where it's going to land on the pitch for a start. You might just know the length colour, for foot selection, yellow red or green. This would likely only be implemented in the delivery stride or last two strides etc and show as a colour around the hand.

We're talking about it appearing maybe 0.2 or 0.3 of a second earlier before you play your shot. Not being there for 10-15 seconds like previous games. It'll actually stop a lot of premeditation, which is surely not what Big Ant had in mind?

On top of all that, the option would presumably be (seeing as Ross is along the same lines as Cricket Online (and myself) with this) switched off as a default.

This wouldn't likely impact you if you don't want it. At all.

I swear there are so many people trying to tell others that they should never be allowed certain options, because they themselves don't want them. It's very dictatorial.

I literally right now have a friend around who's playing a game on pro. He's considering buying the game and I'm having a hard time convincing him to. On Pro, he premeditates shots and goes out. On Amateur he's slaying the opposition. I've spent the last two weeks trying to convince him to buy it and he keeps telling me, "I just don't have the time to become that good". He's a semi-casual player and would play 2-3 games a week if the right difficulty was available and 99% of the problem is length premeditation.

We need options, if casuals are to keep this game and not re-sell. The hardcore audience can still have every bell and whistle, but if we keep hearing "nope, nup, no, no way" to casuals, it'll eat into potential profitability.

Finally as a suggestion for the option menu listing, I'd like to suggest, "Delivery Length Indication" and On/Off, with Off default.