The wishlist thread

[manee]

I don't know if this is the right thread to get these ideas noticed but I think they are pretty good.

I think in terms of appealing to both mass market and hardcore cricket gaming fans, the thing that must be done is concentrating firstly on gameplay and secondly on everything else. If you have really good gameplay, then you have automatic longevity through repeated two-player and one-player gaming. Things like player physiques, UDRS, they won't earn you more buys.

The main things that all cricket games have been missing with gameplay is a variety of shots and other batting animations (ducking, getting hit) for batsmen to play that keeps gameplay realistic and varied. Things get tedious only because in order to beat the field, you have to play the game stupid looking on drive (a shot which no one plays like that in real life) and a bizarre cut over the slips or heaven forbid, the absurd looking advance slog shots.

• These shots are seldom if ever played in real life.
• The lifeblood of good batsmen is a variety of subtly different defensive shots, cut shots, leg glances and straight/cover drives.
• Batting against spin, medium pace (part timers) and genuine pace requires substantially different shots. A paddle sweep along the ground off a 90mph bowler is just ridiculous. Similarly the pull shot played off a pace bowler or a spinner will be totally different hits.

The reason games like FIFA are so good is that no two football matches are even slightly alike. With a massive array of shots and other batting animations, correctly implemented, you can make this true about the cricket games.

How to make bowling fun

I think BLIC2005 was a pretty fun bowling system with the way you could swing the ball after release by pressing the L2 and R2 buttons. I think it is the best system available to have the marker move at a late stage and makes two player really fun. It was one of the reasons that BLIC2005 sold so well, imo.

The only issue with it is that every bowler had the ability to swing the ball both ways, massively and extremely late. A very high percentage of bowlers swing the ball in one direction and not that much. Someone like Hilfenhaus swings the ball away from the right hander but often he swings it 'from the hand' - so make it that you can only swing the ball early, or it isn't available. Spinners tend to get drift very early on and it only tends to be in the opposite direction to the one they spin the ball in. It is rare and worth putting in as impossible that a spin bowler gets late drift.

• Bowler speed has to be fixed from last versions. Pretty sure EA Cricket had the actual speed of the ball in m/s, programmed into the code to make sure it was realistic and it actually felt real.
• Old balls swing less than new balls.
• Worth noting again that only a handful of bowlers swing it both ways and it is not necessarily just 'the best' who do this.
• A simple system where the ball starts swinging 'in reverse' gradually starting from over 60 could be a nice addition.
• With slower balls...it should be such that if most bowlers can only select it at the early stage and so a batsman can tell it is a slower ball. A settled batsman can pretty much pick any slower ball and most bowlers do not have a deceptive one. The way it was focal to bowling as in the last four games, is unrealistic. Slower balls play next to no role in Test cricket because they're mainly effective only when a batsman is hitting.
• Two player just becomes a contest of who can bowl the most yorkers. This is not how cricket is played. The simple fact is that an anticipated yorker is not too hard to play in real life if it doesn't swing. Moreover, if you miss the length of a yorker either way, it will go for runs. This is something that all cricket games to date have missed.

How to make fielding realistic

I think its important to remove the catching system. I only found it tedious and unrealistic to have time slow down and trajectories ridiculous with behind the wicket catches.

I think ground fielding is about being bug free and realistic. I think here, an aspect of minimalism would be okay. No one is buying a game or enjoying a game based on the number of ground fielding animations. The thing that people care about within fielding is catching animations. A small variety of realistic catching animations for different types of catches would be ideal. Slip catching (and close fielder catching, if that is in the game), should be programmed totally different to regular fielding because its all about reactions and you pretty much never have the time to run forward or backward like in International Cricket 10.

I think wicket keeping is again about minimalism but getting what you do animate right. Keepers should go with two hands (unless diving), be able to take balls on the bounce, balls at their shins and balls high. If you have a variety of cool edging animations, then no one will care if what the keeper does is not varied, imo.

EDIT: I've read a number of things about pitches playing differently, rain intervals and players having individual statistics but once you have the good gameplay, these things will not take too long and people will come back time and time again for little tweaks. Rebuilding from scratch will not need to be done again for a long time if batting, bowling and fielding are done right with variety and simplicity in the correct places.

 

[Dutch]

@manee

Good ideas and much the same themes as others are talking aout, which should make it easier for the developers to come to a clear picture of "what the fans want".....in fielding I would add that apart from the catches the actual stopping of the ball is paramount, fielders who really want to stop that ball at all costs with all their might.......

 

[manee]

@manee

Good ideas and much the same themes as others are talking aout, which should make it easier for the developers to come to a clear picture of "what the fans want".....in fielding I would add that apart from the catches the actual stopping of the ball is paramount, fielders who really want to stop that ball at all costs with all their might.......

A variety of great infield stops would be great but I'd rather an array of different shot animations. I hate to keep going on about it but BLIC actually did have loads of shot animations in it, it was just that you barely saw a lot of them and had no control over which one you played (not necessarily an issue, tbh).

You saw 'much the same themes as others are talking about' but I get a little annoyed when I see people mention things like statistics, career mode, bowl outs and UDRS.

Talking about bowling once more, I think it could be as fun if not more fun than BLIC to keep trying to bowl a big inswinging yorker and failing time and again and being punished for bowling a half volley or a low full toss (something which I think is tremendously important for online and two player play)* with not much swing and then finally one does swing and rips through the batsman. The big swinging ball sort of lost its appeal after a while in BLIC because you'd know every ball was gonna swing (or it was gonna be a 40mph slower ball, but that is another issue altogether).

*Cannot mention this enough and will keep repeating it. A low full toss or half volley is a DEADLY delivery in all cricket computer games. In real life, these are going to be hit for runs by any good batsman unless the ball is swinging massively. Not even a new ball swings massively enough to justify consistently bowling a half volley length to a top or middle order batsman.

 

[Allrounder18]

Atleast 3 animated version of every shot in the game , 1)For Proper batsmen 2)For lower order/unorthodox batsmen , 3)For tailenders (number of animated shots can be limited for tailenders as they dont have many shots)

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As manee pointed out even in the conditions favoring fast bowling not every ball should swing let me say with an eg. (for eg a fast bowler with 90 rating for inswing and 80 rating for outswing tries to bowl inswing in a favorable condition then there should be the law of probability implemented i-e 45% chance that he will get big inswinger ,30% chance that he will get normal swing and 25% chance he will get very little or no swing) and if the conditions are unfavorable then these % can be reversed i-e 45% chance ittle or no swing , 30% chance normal swing and 25% chance big swing) and on sporting wicket these % can be 30% no or little swing , 45% normal swing and 25% big swing)

 

[avinashdhoni]

1st try BCCIs license for indian players

 

[Biggs]

Atleast 3 animated version of every shot in the game , 1)For Proper batsmen 2)For lower order/unorthodox batsmen , 3)For tailenders (number of animated shots can be limited for tailenders as they dont have many shots)

C09 actually had a few different animations for batting, problem was they were more due to "timing" the ball than actual different shots.

Rather than three different animations for different Skill levels, I'd actually prefer different animations by COUNTRY. What I mean is, Indian/Sri Lankan and Pakistani players have very different movements and shots to Australian, English and South African Players. I'd prefer a variety of animations by continent, rather than by skill level.

When I play as India, there should be a visible different between batsmen (and bowlers) from different countries. Within those countries, there's also specific players with a specific style as well, which is going to get harder to animate and more specific and time consuming, but you could potentially have a "Malinga" a "McCullum" and a "Gayle" for each team that has specific shots or deliveries than only they can use, that the animation is specific to those players. Dilshan plays a scoop shot that is very different to McCullums scoop shot. The latter is more static, whereas McCullum throws everything into it and it's a "moving" scoop shot. It's quite incredible, to not have that kind of variation of animation in a game would be criminal, you know?

Perhaps it's a "Star Player" type concept. Maybe it's something that's an unlockable achievement? Ie, hit certain benchmarks and you unlock a specific style of scoop shot?

 

[manee]

As manee pointed out even in the conditions favoring fast bowling not every ball should swing let me say with an eg. (for eg a fast bowler with 90 rating for inswing and 80 rating for outswing tries to bowl inswing in a favorable condition then there should be the law of probability implemented i-e 45% chance that he will get big inswinger ,30% chance that he will get normal swing and 25% chance he will get very little or no swing) and if the conditions are unfavorable then these % can be reversed i-e 45% chance ittle or no swing , 30% chance normal swing and 25% chance big swing) and on sporting wicket these % can be 30% no or little swing , 45% normal swing and 25% big swing)

I'd probably have these percentages cut a lot lower. A big swinger should be unplayable, as in real cricket, but it should be a rare occurance. Also, I wish to make it clear that barely any bowler would be able to swing the ball both ways with proficiency. Most bowlers would have a rating approaching zero for one direction of swing.

Also, I'd like to see seam movement make a comeback. I remember in EA Cricket 07, occasionally a ball on a green pitch would seam sharply and be unplayable. Unfortunately, the game neglected to animate any sort of batting animation or allow the keeper to stop this ball so it would always go for four byes, but it was a really nice idea I'd love to see more of. You cannot really control if one seams but if you persevere time and again with an upright seam (regular delivery), it does happen.

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C09 actually had a few different animations for batting, problem was they were more due to "timing" the ball than actual different shots.

Rather than three different animations for different Skill levels, I'd actually prefer different animations by COUNTRY. What I mean is, Indian/Sri Lankan and Pakistani players have very different movements and shots to Australian, English and South African Players. I'd prefer a variety of animations by continent, rather than by skill level.

When I play as India, there should be a visible different between batsmen (and bowlers) from different countries. Within those countries, there's also specific players with a specific style as well, which is going to get harder to animate and more specific and time consuming, but you could potentially have a "Malinga" a "McCullum" and a "Gayle" for each team that has specific shots or deliveries than only they can use, that the animation is specific to those players. Dilshan plays a scoop shot that is very different to McCullums scoop shot. The latter is more static, whereas McCullum throws everything into it and it's a "moving" scoop shot. It's quite incredible, to not have that kind of variation of animation in a game would be criminal, you know?

Perhaps it's a "Star Player" type concept. Maybe it's something that's an unlockable achievement? Ie, hit certain benchmarks and you unlock a specific style of scoop shot?

I disagree. I think different animations for different levels of timing and subtly different lengths is the way forward. The only thing that is needed is lots more animations. I think different animations for different countries is completely against the true nature of cricket.

 

[Biggs]

I think different animations for different levels of timing and subtly different lengths is the way forward. The only thing that is needed is lots more animations. I think different animations for different countries is completely against the true nature of cricket.

"Against the true nature of cricket" is a bit dramatic, don't you think? Sub Continent players bat (and bowl) in a totally different style to the way players from Australasia do, as one example. On a micro level West Indian players (especially Gayle) tend to "Punch" the ball, where batsmen from England and Australia almost stroke through it. You watch Shane Watson bat, then you watch a similar player like McCullum and there's two totally different bio mechanics going on... Foot movements, bat swings/lifts all vary drastically from continent to continent. That's the reality (and beauty) of the international game. You have vastly different styles of spin bowling coming out of Sri Lanka than you do anywhere else in the world. The variety that you speak of shouldn't be just limited to "lots of different, but similar style animations" ...in an ideal world, it should truly reflect the international game. You can cut down on the required amount of animations by doubling up specific players, the obvious candidates I've used in my examples would be Gayle and Sehwag, who are similar "Punch/Low Footwork" players... including specific 'specialist" shot animations like the "Helicopter" shot by Dhoni, Reverse and Scoop sweeps and so forth add variety to certain players and are duplicated across a few different teams, with small changes (See Dilshan/McCullum) and you simple have a "Style' set for Asian/English and Australasian players, of similar but subtlely different stock animations for drives, pulls and so on.

It's a wish-list! ....it might not be practical though.

You're not going to get a game that's going to reflect all those little variances, that simply is unrealistic... but I think a cricket game needs to reflect the ethnic differences a little better than "these guys appeal in an Indian-sounding accent" or "this player has white skin"

However...

It's called "Ashes Cricket" so it's unlikely my concept would be considered, since it's focus (based on the title only) is going to be more English/Australian in nature. So either way, I think you're correct in terms of the necessity in the increasing amount of animations available. It's how engrossing that experience is in the game and if you truly feel like you're playing against a side, or just another copy-paste name slapped international team with similar animations. In an ideal world, I should've played through a test match for 4 - 5 days and only seen a handful of repeated animations (Blocks, Drives) with some unique differences between medium, spin and fast bowlers.

 

[SiriusBlack]

edited

 

[alexczarn]

I just want it to be extremely easy to mod everything like Cricket 07.... It's a nice change making good stuff for a good graphic game....

+1 Yup.

 

[manee]

"Against the true nature of cricket" is a bit dramatic, don't you think? Sub Continent players bat (and bowl) in a totally different style to the way players from Australasia do, as one example. On a micro level West Indian players (especially Gayle) tend to "Punch" the ball, where batsmen from England and Australia almost stroke through it. You watch Shane Watson bat, then you watch a similar player like McCullum and there's two totally different bio mechanics going on... Foot movements, bat swings/lifts all vary drastically from continent to continent. That's the reality (and beauty) of the international game. You have vastly different styles of spin bowling coming out of Sri Lanka than you do anywhere else in the world. The variety that you speak of shouldn't be just limited to "lots of different, but similar style animations" ...in an ideal world, it should truly reflect the international game. You can cut down on the required amount of animations by doubling up specific players, the obvious candidates I've used in my examples would be Gayle and Sehwag, who are similar "Punch/Low Footwork" players... including specific 'specialist" shot animations like the "Helicopter" shot by Dhoni, Reverse and Scoop sweeps and so forth add variety to certain players and are duplicated across a few different teams, with small changes (See Dilshan/McCullum) and you simple have a "Style' set for Asian/English and Australasian players, of similar but subtlely different stock animations for drives, pulls and so on.

It's a wish-list! ....it might not be practical though.

I don't think batting styles across countries are contrasted in the way you think because they are not the same within a country. Gayle bats nothing like Chanderpaul. Dravid batted nothing like Tendulkar. Cook batted nothing like Pietersen, etc.

However...

It's called "Ashes Cricket" so it's unlikely my concept would be considered, since it's focus (based on the title only) is going to be more English/Australian in nature. So either way, I think you're correct in terms of the necessity in the increasing amount of animations available. It's how engrossing that experience is in the game and if you truly feel like you're playing against a side, or just another copy-paste name slapped international team with similar animations. In an ideal world, I should've played through a test match for 4 - 5 days and only seen a handful of repeated animations (Blocks, Drives) with some unique differences between medium, spin and fast bowlers.

Agreed.

 

[kayj1995]

Names and Numbers on the back of shirt in ODI's and T20's

 

[deepuparayil]

In all the older games while batting, a bowling marker is shown which indicates where the ball gonna pitch and what kind of ball it is. Now my suggestion, For talented bowlers in the team there is a bowling marker which shows where the ball gonna pitch, but two or three types of possible deliveries shows on the screen and Batsman need to make a decision which ball it is going to be. Eg: Steyn is the bowler and the bowling marker is just short of a good length. Now the possible deliveries displayed on the screen are outswinger and inswinger (lol) and Batsman needed to decide which ball it is gonna be and select a shot for that ball. This way realistic edges and misses can be implemented. Even clean bowled's and lbw's can be realistically implemented using this. (by wrong shot selection). May be this can be integrated with confidence or form of the bowler, ie this only possible when bowler had good confidence or is in good form. For part timers, they can only bowl their stock ball. But if they manage to bowl 4 dot balls in an over(only in ODI and t20), they unlock their special delivery which goes the other way.

Also while batting there needed to be three types of defending(off,straight, leg). Defending in the wrong direction will result in ball to be missed, edged, clean bowled and lbw.

 

[Dutch]

In all the older games while batting, a bowling marker is shown which indicates where the ball gonna pitch and what kind of ball it is. Now my suggestion, For talented bowlers in the team there is a bowling marker which shows where the ball gonna pitch, but two or three types of possible deliveries shows on the screen and Batsman need to make a decision which ball it is going to be. Eg: Steyn is the bowler and the bowling marker is just short of a good length. Now the possible deliveries displayed on the screen are outswinger and inswinger (lol) and Batsman needed to decide which ball it is gonna be and select a shot for that ball. This way realistic edges and misses can be implemented. Even clean bowled's and lbw's can be realistically implemented using this. (by wrong shot selection). May be this can be integrated with confidence or form of the bowler, ie this only possible when bowler had good confidence or is in good form. For part timers, they can only bowl their stock ball. But if they manage to bowl 4 dot balls in an over(only in ODI and t20), they unlock their special delivery which goes the other way.

Also while batting there needed to be three types of defending(off,straight, leg). Defending in the wrong direction will result in ball to be missed, edged, clean bowled and lbw.

I really like the idea of unlocking a delivery for one ball in an over so that certain deliveries are not available all the time but have to be earnt....

 

[barmyarmy]

How is that different from IC10 where it was based on bowler confidence?