Pitch sliders - Asked the question for C22, now onto initial tinkering and discussion

Rumple43

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After last playing Ashes and taking Cricket 19 off, I think I am going to take the plunge early doors and pick up Cricket 22.

For me, the cricket pitch is probably the most important part of a cricket game. Simply put, it dictates everything, especially in red ball cricket (which just happens to interest me the most).

Some may be aware of this thread I put together for Ashes Cricket: https://www.planetcricket.org/forums/threads/around-the-world-in-80-pitch-sliders.112469/

I wasn't really sold on how the default pitches evolved over days 1-5 of a test match and wanted a strip to feel different all over the world outside of the limited dry/grassy/dusty etc. settings from the set up menu.

Far from a flawless endeavour that got everything right (interpreting sliders is far from an exact science), I was still happy with the results and what it added to my tests against various opponents. Others seemed encouraged by it as well, which was nice.

As I didn't have Cricket 19, I wanted to ask how pitches played on that game as a potential starting point for Cricket 22. It may be the pitches in that game were much better, fingers crossed anyway!

So to ask Cricket 19 regulars, did pitches noticeably evolve as a match wore on? Either good or bad?

Were they noticeably different across the world using the default settings?

And depending on the above, if I looked into some data on pitch differences now as a starting point, would people be interested in a semi-detailed pitch slider set for Cricket 22?

Looking into this for the next few weeks should help me get into the mood (plus be of interest to me in general, I don't get out much these days).

Thanks guys!
 
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cricket_online

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As far as Cricket 19 was concerned I didn't see too much of a difference between a Day 1 pitch and a Day 5 one gameplay wise. While batting I could score as easily Day 5, session 3 as I could on Day 1 or Day2. And the same is the case across different pitches, i.e. I didn't see too much of a perceptible difference across pitches from grassy to grassy/dry to dry etc. I struggled against the spinners across all sorts of pitches and found pacers easier to handle and that experience was consistent irrespective of the pitch type.

The major difference I could see was in the pitch bounce where 'Hard' had more bounce than 'Medium' or 'Soft' and mostly made the Hard pitch unplayable due to amount of byes. But other than the pitch hardness attribute I wasn't able to differentiate too much across pitches and hopefully it changes in this iteration of the game. The only other aspect of stadium/ground which where I could see a perceptible difference was in the outfield speed. Some stadiums had a fast outfield speed where the ball fairly sped to the boundary while some stadiums had outfield speed set as 'slow' where even the well timed shots (good or ideal in terms of timing) struggled to reach the boundary. Unfortunately you could not change the outfield speed attribute for OOB stadiums, which I thought should've been part of the match creation setup allowing users the flexibility to select the outfield speed instead of tying it to the stadium. Hopefully this is rectified as well in Cricket 22.

IMO fielding and field sets need the most improvement as no matter how the pitches vary across various types, it won't mean much if you still have field sets which don't take match situation and/or format in consideration (only 2 or 3 out in shorter formats, or changing them randomly every ball in longer formats), or you have infielders unable to stop singles, or very frequent overthrows & byes. Once Big Ant have a handle on the basics around fielding and field sets they can focus on pitch types, physics (including collision detection), leg side shots such as flick to fine leg not nerfed etc.

That being said I found Cricket 19 to be the best iteration of DBC series since DBC 14, and if you didn't play Cricket 19 I would recommend going with Cricket 22 as so far Cricket 22 seems to be a more polished version of Cricket 19 based on early access nets.
 
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Rumple43

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As far as Cricket 19 was concerned I didn't see too much of a difference between a Day 1 pitch and a Day 5 one gameplay wise. While batting I could score as easily Day 5, session 3 as I could on Day 1 or Day2. And the same is the case across different pitches, i.e. I didn't see too much of a perceptible difference across pitches from grassy to grassy/dry to dry etc. I struggled against the spinners across all sorts of pitches and found pacers easier to handle and that experience was consistent irrespective of the pitch type.

The major difference I could see was in the pitch bounce where 'Hard' had more bounce than 'Medium' or 'Soft' and mostly made the Hard pitch unplayable due to amount of byes. But other than the pitch hardness attribute I wasn't able to differentiate too much across pitches and hopefully it changes in this iteration of the game. The only other aspect of stadium/ground which where I could see a perceptible difference was in the outfield speed. Some stadiums had a fast outfield speed where the ball fairly sped to the boundary while some stadiums had outfield speed set as 'slow' where even the well timed shots (good or ideal in terms of timing) struggled to reach the boundary. Unfortunately you could not change the outfield speed attribute for OOB stadiums, which I thought should've been part of the match creation setup allowing users the flexibility to select the outfield speed instead of tying it to the stadium. Hopefully this is rectified as well in Cricket 22.

IMO fielding and field sets need the most improvement as no matter how the pitch vary across various types, it won't mean much if you still have field sets which don't take match situation and/or format in consideration (only 2 or 3 out in shorter formats, or changing them randomly every ball in longer formats), or you have infielders unable to stop singles, or very frequent overthrows & byes. Once Big Ant have a handle on the basics around fielding and field sets they can focus on pitch types, physics (including collision detection), leg side shots such as flick to fine leg not nerfed etc.

That being said I found Cricket 19 to be the best iteration of DBC series since DBC 14, and if you didn't play Cricket 19 I would recommend going with Cricket 22 as so far Cricket 22 seems to be a more polished version of Cricket 19 based on early access nets.
Solid feedback, thanks for that matey.

The bounce leading to excessive byes was an Ashes issue, maybe even before that. Gutted it still remains.

Some pitches are meant to play hard and fast. Hopefully that can still be achieved without busting the game.

We shall see.
 

Wealey

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Jul 25, 2009
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After last playing Ashes and taking Cricket 19 off, I think I am going to take the plunge early doors and pick up Cricket 22.

For me, the cricket pitch is probably the most important part of a cricket game. Simply put, it dictates everything, especially in red ball cricket (which just happens to interest me the most).

Some may be aware of this thread I put together for Ashes Cricket: https://www.planetcricket.org/forums/threads/around-the-world-in-80-pitch-sliders.112469/

I wasn't really sold on how the default pitches evolved over days 1-5 of a test match and wanted a strip to feel different all over the world outside of the limited dry/grassy/dusty etc. settings from the set up menu.

Far from a flawless endeavour that got everything right (interpreting sliders is far from an exact science), I was still happy with the results and what it added to my tests against various opponents. Others seemed encouraged by it as well, which was nice.

As I didn't have Cricket 19, I wanted to ask how pitches played on that game as a potential starting point for Cricket 22. It may be the pitches in that game were much better, fingers crossed anyway!

So to ask Cricket 19 regulars, did pitches noticeably evolve as a match wore on? Either good or bad?

Were they noticeably different across the world using the default settings?

And depending on the above, if I looked into some data on pitch differences now as a starting point, would people be interested in a semi-detailed pitch slider set for Cricket 22?

Looking into this for the next few weeks should help me get into the mood (plus be of interest to me in general, I don't get out much these days).

Thanks guys!
This thread makes me so happy! I’m hoping for a more realistic and solid base from the lads at BA. I certainly banged on enough about it in previous Betas!
 
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Dutch

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Post automatically merged:

After last playing Ashes and taking Cricket 19 off, I think I am going to take the plunge early doors and pick up Cricket 22.

For me, the cricket pitch is probably the most important part of a cricket game. Simply put, it dictates everything, especially in red ball cricket (which just happens to interest me the most).

Some may be aware of this thread I put together for Ashes Cricket: https://www.planetcricket.org/forums/threads/around-the-world-in-80-pitch-sliders.112469/

I wasn't really sold on how the default pitches evolved over days 1-5 of a test match and wanted a strip to feel different all over the world outside of the limited dry/grassy/dusty etc. settings from the set up menu.

Far from a flawless endeavour that got everything right (interpreting sliders is far from an exact science), I was still happy with the results and what it added to my tests against various opponents. Others seemed encouraged by it as well, which was nice.

As I didn't have Cricket 19, I wanted to ask how pitches played on that game as a potential starting point for Cricket 22. It may be the pitches in that game were much better, fingers crossed anyway!

So to ask Cricket 19 regulars, did pitches noticeably evolve as a match wore on? Either good or bad?

Were they noticeably different across the world using the default settings?

And depending on the above, if I looked into some data on pitch differences now as a starting point, would people be interested in a semi-detailed pitch slider set for Cricket 22?

Looking into this for the next few weeks should help me get into the mood (plus be of interest to me in general, I don't get out much these days).

Thanks guys!
Used these settings both in Ashes and cricket 19 and woudl be awesome to see you working on them in Cricket 22
 

cricket_online

ICC Board Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Online Cricket Games Owned
  1. Don Bradman Cricket 14 - PS3
  2. Don Bradman Cricket 14 - PS4
Solid feedback, thanks for that matey.

The bounce leading to excessive byes was an Ashes issue, maybe even before that. Gutted it still remains.

Some pitches are meant to play hard and fast. Hopefully that can still be achieved without busting the game.

We shall see.

Cricket 19 was a solid foundation and hopefully Cricket 22 builds on it. As long as Cricket 22 is a step forward and we don't have the same issues/bugs from earlier iteration(s), I'll be more than happy.
 

Rumple43

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As a quick update, I've just stumbled upon the fact that the ICC website has Hawkeye data for what appears to be all games played around the world.

That means the ability to analyse pretty much any ball by any bowler, at any ground.

So, stick with a constant, say, Jimmy Anderson since he's played pretty much everywhere, then see where a ball from Jimmy Anderson lands and bounces to around the world.

1635181019250.png

This is England v Australia from 2013. As you can see, trajectory, pitch map, speed map and bounce are all offered, with a range of sortable options to fine tune what balls/deliveries you're looking for. Beehive is there but annoyingly doesn't seem to work for me. It glitches and doesn't display an overlay of a batter/stumps.

I can see me getting my excel on and plotting some stuff over the next week or two, should be fairly useful. Nothing can ever be 100%, but it may well give some usable data that can in turn be ported into the game.

Working out other settings could be more difficult, but bounce should be easy at least!
 

wasteyouryouth

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As a quick update, I've just stumbled upon the fact that the ICC website has Hawkeye data for what appears to be all games played around the world.

That means the ability to analyse pretty much any ball by any bowler, at any ground.

So, stick with a constant, say, Jimmy Anderson since he's played pretty much everywhere, then see where a ball from Jimmy Anderson lands and bounces to around the world.

View attachment 256575

This is England v Australia from 2013. As you can see, trajectory, pitch map, speed map and bounce are all offered, with a range of sortable options to fine tune what balls/deliveries you're looking for. Beehive is there but annoyingly doesn't seem to work for me. It glitches and doesn't display an overlay of a batter/stumps.

I can see me getting my excel on and plotting some stuff over the next week or two, should be fairly useful. Nothing can ever be 100%, but it may well give some usable data that can in turn be ported into the game.

Working out other settings could be more difficult, but bounce should be easy at least!
I've tried doing this myself in Cricket 19. However, you could try and set the bounce fairly accurately for a seam bowler but it's not consistent with spin bowlers and vice versa.
 

Rumple43

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I've tried doing this myself in Cricket 19. However, you could try and set the bounce fairly accurately for a seam bowler but it's not consistent with spin bowlers and vice versa.
That already crossed my mind. Wouldn't surprise me that a setting for a realistic bounce for a fast bowler is utterly unusable for a spinner.

That would be annoying, to say the least.
 

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