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Biggs, you're spot on... sometimes batting in career mode really isn't fun at all when you're getting out for low score after low score, no end in sight, it's a frustrating grind. that's when i'll usually go and play a quick T10 or two in casual mode, just getting used to hitting the ball and not worrying if i'm out, i've got another guy along... usually helps me a bit.
i keep at it, and still find it fun "overall" because a)i'm still bad enough that i think 90% of my dismissals or more are entirely my fault and i can usually pinpoint what i did wrong, and b)the speed of the first patch makes me confident the other things will be addressed.
to bring this back to an element of on topicness, for me, Big Ant should take longer over the second patch but make sure the following things are patched:
1) Pace bowler stamina/speed cliff - the speed reductions and not getting back up for 2nd or 3rd spells is uber ridiculous
2) AI field settings - come on, every cricket game in history (even Ashes 13!) knew what a realistic field looked like
3) fielder abilities -
i) as you say, they cover a FAR wider area than they should... i had it illustrated yesterday, one ball i hit a drive, well timed, probably , 15 metres to the right of extra cover - not only did i not get my four but i didn't even have time for a single. very next ball, an even better timed shot 15 metres to the left of extra cover with the exact same result. That's 8 runs i've been robbed of and when I average less than 8 that's enormous.
ii) as i mentioned elsewhere, for every "metre" the fielder has to cover, there should be an appreciable reduction in their ability to catch or even stop a ball. running 50 metres and taking a diving one-handed catch should be something that happens every 100hrs of gameplay, if ever, not once every game.
iii) as you say, the bowler should not be stopping everything going near him... he should have an appreciable "follow through" and during the follow through window his ability to stop anything that doesn't actually hit him should be reduced by circa 95%
4) improve AI batting to make career bowling more of a challenge or at least add variable difficulty to allow say batting on pro bowling on veteran.
almost every other issue, including people moaning about the difficulty of batting will be improved by fixing these four issues. every thing else is cosmetic, or misunderstanding the cause of the issue. i appreciate these may not be easy fixes, but i would honestly rather the next patch come in 5 or 6 months and fix these than be rushed out before the PC release and be more "cosmetic". i would lose a lot of enthusiasm for the game and big ant in general if a patch was released that didn't fix these fundamentals.
as i say, i appreciate that some or all of these are probably not easy fixes, and i am hugely sympathetic to the issue of trying to fix one issue but that resulting in big changes that causes a lot of issues in other areas. that's why i say let the patch wait, get it right. we don't need another patch in a month that just stops the keeper knocking down the stumps or gives us a nicer scorecard.
