Seeking some clarification on difficulty settings

[benuffindell]

I have read back through everything in the forum I could find already, so I know this isn't the first thread on this issue, but the answers reached previously seem to be contradictory or uncertain. So I wondered - more time having passed - if there are clearer answers to this now, or if someone with reliable experience could help me.

I understand that the official line is that match difficulty affects how the AI plays, and batting and bowling difficulty affect your timing windows for each.

This would mean, in theory, that batting would be no easier were I to switch down from Pro to Amateur, except I'd get easier balls from my opponent.

I've been playing on Pro/Medium/Medium, and I find batting quite challenging but appropriately so, and bowling I find more difficult - I really struggle to pick up wickets and restrict my opponents to low scores, so I wanted to make things a little bit easier all round, but particularly when it comes to bowling.

(I should note I'm talking about playing full matches in competition mode, here)

At first I just experimented by switching down to Amateur/Medium/Medium to see what it would do. Bowling seemed to get no easier, though I think batting was substantially easier, and it even felt that way with regards to timing window, too?

I guess the question I have is, if I want to make picking up wickets easier, will turning down the bowling difficulty actually help? I figured switching to Amateur would, because the AI would bat worse, but they don't seem to be.

I'm a little skeptical, to be honest, that changing the match difficulty does anything at all, and I was wondering if anyone here had any concrete knowledge or extensive testing about what each difficulty setting actually does? Playing around with this to test seems quite frustrating and time-consuming when I just want to be able to adjust overall difficulty to something I find challenging but playable.

Just looking for anyone's thoughts on this re: what do the settings actually do? Do the bowling/batting difficulty settings do more than we think? Does the match difficulty do less than we think?

 

[Spoobir]

I'm guessing you're playing limited overs? I've found it's much, much harder to take wickets in limited overs (50 overs being the hardest with t20 being a bit less difficult) compared to FC/Tests. This is regardless of the difficulty level.

 

[Skankhunt 42]

Play with Custom. And in legend.
Check this and read the thread for more clarification.

 

[Cloud Starkman]

I have read back through everything in the forum I could find already, so I know this isn't the first thread on this issue, but the answers reached previously seem to be contradictory or uncertain. So I wondered - more time having passed - if there are clearer answers to this now, or if someone with reliable experience could help me.

I understand that the official line is that match difficulty affects how the AI plays, and batting and bowling difficulty affect your timing windows for each.

This would mean, in theory, that batting would be no easier were I to switch down from Pro to Amateur, except I'd get easier balls from my opponent.

I've been playing on Pro/Medium/Medium, and I find batting quite challenging but appropriately so, and bowling I find more difficult - I really struggle to pick up wickets and restrict my opponents to low scores, so I wanted to make things a little bit easier all round, but particularly when it comes to bowling.

(I should note I'm talking about playing full matches in competition mode, here)

At first I just experimented by switching down to Amateur/Medium/Medium to see what it would do. Bowling seemed to get no easier, though I think batting was substantially easier, and it even felt that way with regards to timing window, too?

I guess the question I have is, if I want to make picking up wickets easier, will turning down the bowling difficulty actually help? I figured switching to Amateur would, because the AI would bat worse, but they don't seem to be.

I'm a little skeptical, to be honest, that changing the match difficulty does anything at all, and I was wondering if anyone here had any concrete knowledge or extensive testing about what each difficulty setting actually does? Playing around with this to test seems quite frustrating and time-consuming when I just want to be able to adjust overall difficulty to something I find challenging but playable.

Just looking for anyone's thoughts on this re: what do the settings actually do? Do the bowling/batting difficulty settings do more than we think? Does the match difficulty do less than we think?

Ok I have done a bit of testing and have found that playing on pro difficulty batting easy bowling medium I can make good scores and get the AI out for under 200 but the AI play the same shots and there is no variety in dismissals eg same fielder takes all the catches its not much fun at this level
So to make the AI score decent totals I play on legend difficulty batting and Bowling on hardest and AI score 400 plus but only when bowling but you don't get many caught behinds I find veteran is better for dismissal variety but AI make ordinary scores so it is abit of a balancing act to try and find where the best diffculty is
I like good competition and my games to play out realistically it is time consuming and hopefully BA get it right in the next patch
I play tests and ODI as the whole team but you just have to mess about with it and I reckon the batting and Bowling difficulties do effect AI

 

[Jerm]

Ok I have done a bit of testing and have found that playing on pro difficulty batting easy bowling medium I can make good scores and get the AI out for under 200 but the AI play the same shots and there is no variety in dismissals eg same fielder takes all the catches its not much fun at this level
So to make the AI score decent totals I play on legend difficulty batting and Bowling on hardest and AI score 400 plus but only when bowling but you don't get many caught behinds I find veteran is better for dismissal variety but AI make ordinary scores so it is abit of a balancing act to try and find where the best diffculty is
I like good competition and my games to play out realistically it is time consuming and hopefully BA get it right in the next patch
I play tests and ODI as the whole team but you just have to mess about with it and I reckon the batting and Bowling difficulties do effect AI

Try Legend/Veteran but do batting/bowling on CUSTOM and fiddle with the game modifiers have fun!

 

[passwordistaco]

I found playing on pro with easy batting difficulty to be so much easier than pro medium batting difficulty

 

[suddyz]

I found playing on pro with easy batting difficulty to be so much easier than pro medium batting difficulty

Yeah I completely echo this. I had initially started playing on Pro with Easy batting / Easy bowling and had managed to average over 100 in T20's and pick up at least 3 or 4 wickets minimum per match in T20's, but then I decided to step up to Pro Medium / Medium and as @Jerm pointed out in one of his posts the removal shot replacements in easy mode was a bit of a steep learning curve, however it is more satisfying when you do well. I'm averaging around 40 now in T20's since the swap and my strike rate has almost halved. I'm still picking up a similar amount of wickets but finding that I'm bowling more no balls so my average has gone up a bit. Don't think I'm ready to switch it up another notch yet but perhaps soon.