What happened to gameplay?

Mark E

School Cricketer
Joined
Jan 26, 2004
Online Cricket Games Owned
In my opinion it is gameplay that is important. I appreciate that the graphics and stadiums make the game more appealing to the eye but that doesn't really matter to me. I want good long play appeal. I much prefer to have a long test series rather than a one day match. The main bugs in my opinion are:-

Custom Fielding Positions

It was great news to find that the game had included far more stats regarding fielding. But when you set your custom field how you like with players in particular positions, the computer just replaces your players in positions you don't want. For example, when you place Harmison at long leg to utilise his strong arm for throwing the long distance, the computer puts him at gully! equally it is Butcher who ends up at long leg and we all know that he can't throw over long distances to save his life. I worked out how the computer didi it. When you custom your field and place particular players where you want and leave the editing, the computer replaces players from left to right on the positioning screen starting with your opening batsman i.e. Number 1 then number 11,10,9,8 etc. What this means is that bowlers who should be on the ropes are in gully and slip positions where they are useless. What is the point in having special fielding positions for players when the computer makes it obselete.

Conditions Shown

When you are playing a test series you need to be able to adapt your team depending on conditions. For example if it is a green pitch you will only need two fast-medium bowlers and instead more batsman to cope with the pitch. So it is really annoying that you can't choose your team after you've seen the conditions.

Run Outs

Enough said. I think 5 an innings is slightly unrealistic

These problems only require simple changing. It wouldn't be hard to show conditions just before picking the team. Surely makers of the game use game testers to discover these problems that can be easily changed but if left alone can ruin the gaming experience. Overall i was very dissappointed with the game and i honestly believe that Cricket 2002 is almost on par for gameplay.

What do you think? Please reply.
 
THere's also about 20 more bugs etc. that you could've listed- just start downloading patches
 
not seeing what the conditions of the pitch are is very frustrating. Is there any way round this?
 
You can see pretty much what it is in the background of the team select thing
 
I thought that but a pitch that looked dry and dusty suddenly changed to green :( Messed my team selection up completely lol. 3 spinners on a seaming green pitch! DOH!
 
I agree totally Mark, but you've only scratched the surface bugswise.

The gameplay is basically as bad as in the previous version, except that, at random, the computer will move a fielder to try and cover an area where you've just hit a boundary. On one of the field settings, this means that you can have up to 4 people at deep backward square leg! So apart from stable door captaincy, that seems to be it in terms of the 'improved AI' promised by HB Studios.

Glad someone else has picked up on the positioning of individual fielders.

Based on what you've noticed about the way in which the computer reorders the fielders, I think there may be a solution.

If you reorder your batting line up at the outset when you're selecting the team (I spose just reverse the order so that your openers are at 10 & 11 and so on), it would be possible to ensure that you've got the people you want in the slips etc etc.

You'd just have to remember to change the batting line up when you're batting each time you lose a wicket. I don't know whether you can do this before your innings begins. If not, then you'd be opening with your strike bowlers....

I'll give it a go.
 
Originally posted by sparky

Glad someone else has picked up on the positioning of individual fielders.

Based on what you've noticed about the way in which the computer reorders the fielders, I think there may be a solution.
.


The only solution is to hex edit your user profile file. The settings are at the bottom of this file and you need to swap the values around. However you need knowledge of what positions the values are referring to.
Alternately, the values come in blocks of 9 for the outfield positions.
So if for example you see

2f 1d, 2b, 1a, 48, 17, 38, 53, 54

2f = player no 1 in lineup
1d = 2nd player in lineup etc.

So even without knowing the positions the values refer to you can swap the hex values around by giving the tailenders the opening batsmans positions and vice versa etc

eg 2b, 53,38,54,2f,17,1a,2f,1d



Probably doesn't make much sense I know but its the only known way at present
 
Fire those game Testers. NOW!

Has anyone got a viable reason why the game testers were unable to at least notice and change some of the bugs that are obvious within 10 minutes of playing the game? They need replacing for when cricket 200? comes out in the future or we are going to have the same issues again.

What do you think?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top