Things we can do without...

[79cricket]

It's hard to get right i bet chief.
Selling in the Uk and Aus around ashes time should
not be to hard if you get lots of adds for the game plus
if you want to sell other places like say india then you have to give
them something, the ipl would be perfect for that but my guess that
would cost a arm and a leg so maybe the licenced team there.
Sure if you only got say aus,uk and india then other countries would
not be happy but it's a start.

Good luck to finding that balance, because we all want more cricket
games in the future.

 

[Chief]

It's hard to get right i bet chief.
Selling in the Uk and Aus around ashes time should
not be to hard if you get lots of adds for the game plus
if you want to sell other places like say india then you have to give
them something, the ipl would be perfect for that but my guess that
would cost a arm and a leg so maybe the licenced team there.
Sure if you only got say aus,uk and india then other countries would
not be happy but it's a start.

Good luck to finding that balance, because we all want more cricket
games in the future.

My goal is (still) to reach the "Holy Bail". It's a complex business trying to bring that about, but I think we have the right people in place to make it happen.
I really appreciate the support from you guys: makes me confident we're headed in the right direction.

 

[superfreddie]

My goal is (still) to reach the "Holy Bail". It's a complex business trying to bring that about, but I think we have the right people in place to make it happen.
I really appreciate the support from you guys: makes me confident we're headed in the right direction.

I think if there are enough editing options outside of the licensed teams then other countries can make their own leagues, IPL etc. Then it will appeal to them. It would also help if it was easy to download rosters.

 

[Chief]

I think if there are enough editing options outside of the licensed teams then other countries can make their own leagues, IPL etc. Then it will appeal to them. It would also help if it was easy to download rosters.

I agree, but it's sadly not so much about making the game "appealing" to other territories... It's about whether we can sell enough copies there to make it worth our while, and that's due to a number of factors.

 

[ankitbabu]

Who will be in the commentry team?

 

[Chief]

Who will be in the commentry team?

I'm not sure when this will be announced, but is likely to be much later on: they won't actually do the recordings until later on.

I can exclusively reveal now though that, since my podcast test-run, I *won't* be featuring.

 

[Gurjot95]

Quick commentary ideas: Do add the recording for each landmark like commentators should announce when team or player score reaches 50, 100, 150, 200....till 600 maybe?

Maybe you can record the numbers from 1 to 20 or even more. Will be nice to hear when a commentator tells that I need 15 runs from 7 balls. Similarly for Req Rate/Run Rate for like X team has a Req rate of just above 5/5 and half. (it doesn't necessary has to be in decimals)

Random conversations about cricket history or about ground, something like that.

..or am I asking too much?

 

[Chief]

Quick commentary ideas: Do add the recording for each landmark like commentators should announce when team or player score reaches 50, 100, 150, 200....till 600 maybe?

Maybe you can record the numbers from 1 to 20 or even more. Will be nice to hear when a commentator tells that I need 15 runs from 7 balls. Similarly for Req Rate/Run Rate for like X team has a Req rate of just above 5/5 and half. (it doesn't necessary has to be in decimals)

Random conversations about cricket history or about ground, something like that.

..or am I asking too much?

I actually really hate it when commentary uses numbers: it always sounds false like it's hacked together: "And *PLAYERNAME* has now scored *NUMBEROFRUNS*" etc. It always sounds bad.
However, we've done a lot of work on the commentary so that it is USEFUL to the player: advising the player what the match situation is ("They need to get this run rate up now", "They are so far ahead, they don't need to take any risks here" etc etc).
The idea is that this will be re-enforced by the numbers you're seeing on the screen.

We found that when we did anecdotal stuff about the ground or cricket history, once you'd heard it once it became very irritating to hear it again and again, even once or twice more. I LOVED my first game of FIFA in 2008 when they did the World Cup and had those in, but by the second game I was annoyed by it.
I think in 2009 we had a Tony Greig clip where he ran through his all-time best test team. It was over a minute and a half long, and VERY rarely ended before he was interrupted by an important match event (a boundary, wicket etc)... Tricky to get that right.
There will be some of that, but the focus will definitely be on useful informational stuff.

 

[Gurjot95]

I don't know, I really liked how Fifa commentary is so good in giving match situations and how they had their lines for individual players (Rooney, Messi etc). They probably recorded the names for 3 or 4 different occasions- excitement, normal, shock etc.

I don't really care about numbers and agree it will be messed. However, one thing I do like about PES 2013 otherwise terrible commentary is that the game recognizes when player reaches landmark (for reaching top of the table in Most Goals list by scoring a goal during match) but then again we need stats tracking for that to happen.

 

[79cricket]

Commentary can always be updated to chief, maybe by DLC.
Also roster updates with licenced faces.

We all understand you guys need to sell as much as you can.
I don't know what the goal is there with your managers but
as most people here we have jobs and as a fellow high up in my job
i understand goals very well, i don't want to get into my job as well this
is a cricket forum and no one cares about stuff like that but we understand.
Also bigant are releasing a cricket game next year as we all know.
So you have to have the right features to sell over bigant game.

I will end this by saying just because it's a ashes game does not mean
just ashes licences need to be there, good luck. p.s no chief commentary
that a shame dude, maybe a cheat code a chief

 

[Chief]

Commentary can always be updated to chief, maybe by DLC.
Also roster updates with licenced faces.

We all understand you guys need to sell as much as you can.
I don't know what the goal is there with your managers but
as most people here we have jobs and as a fellow high up in my job
i understand goals very well, i don't want to get into my job as well this
is a cricket forum and no one cares about stuff like that but we understand.
Also bigant are releasing a cricket game next year as we all know.
So you have to have the right features to sell over bigant game.

I will end this by saying just because it's a ashes game does not mean
just ashes licences need to be there, good luck. p.s no chief commentary
that a shame dude, maybe a cheat code a chief

Yeah: Additional commentators via DLC is a nice idea and a possibility. I'll give that some thought.
My mum would be an excellent addition to commentary team, featuring such classics as "Ooooh! He's hit that hard!", the ever popular "What's he sliding around for? Look at those green stains on his nice white trousers!" and, my personal favourite, "So... How long does this go on for?"

 

[79cricket]

All jokes a side chief not a bad idea to have some secret
commentary in the game to make us laugh, maybe a cheat code

 

[MattW]

I think in 2009 we had a Tony Greig clip where he ran through his all-time best test team. It was over a minute and a half long, and VERY rarely ended before he was interrupted by an important match event (a boundary, wicket etc)... Tricky to get that right.

I'd fix that fairly simply, record a few 'as I was saying' lines, and then just have the longer commentary have little checkpoints on the beginning of parts of it you can start off again from. Perhaps with a few lines of 'well I give up' if the player can keep interrupting the same spiel.

The other thing about commentary - change the commentators during the match! Such a little thing would make a big difference, the lines will spread themselves far more if the commentary paring isn't the same for the whole match.

 

[zimrahil]

The other thing about commentary - change the commentators during the match! Such a little thing would make a big difference, the lines will spread themselves far more if the commentary paring isn't the same for the whole match.

THIS

and use commentary sparingly - it then takes longer to become repetitive

 

[CaptainOZ]

THIS

and use commentary sparingly - it then takes longer to become repetitive

This is a good idea.

Usually, when the batsman blocks the ball and goes no more than 10 metres, nothing has to be said. You don't always need to say "fielded in the covers" or "straight back to the bowler" like Richie Benaud did in one of the older cricket games.

Sometimes the English commentators on Sky don't say anything at all for 4 or 5 deliveries. That's because nothing needs to be said.

Only those events worthy of commentary are needed, e.g. wickets, runs, match or player milestones, or if the match is tense. Otherwise, just throw in the occasional story if things are quiet e.g. 3 maidens in a row.

A summary of when commentating is or isn't required:

Always:

When a wicket falls - an accurate description of what happened: "bowled him!" or "edged and caught" or "big appeal for LBW" etc.

Personal or match milestone: "that brings up a fine century", or "that's India's 150 up" or "he's taken 5 wickets now"

Boundaries, sixes and threes: "good shot, they'll come back for three" or "lovely shot, that will go all the way" or "a big hit that will clear the rope"

Start or end of session: "and that's tea"

Close to the bat's edge "ooh, that almost got the outside edge"

Extraordinary fielding: "oh what a great stop at gully"

Sometimes

Single: "he'll pick up a single" - 90% of the time
2 runs: "and they'll come back for two" - 95% of the time
Defensive shot: "defended back to the bowler/into the covers" - 20% of the time

Rarely

Stories during quiet periods "this reminds me of the Test in Karachi back in 1986 when..."