Hi all,
We'd like to share with you our progress so far by releasing Ashes Cricket 2009 V1.1 Open Beta 1. This Beta concentrates on Single Player, with Play Online currently disabled. We are currently working on some online improvements, but rather than wait until we're happy with those changes, instead we'd like to make the current build available for you all to try. Please keep in mind that this is a *Beta*, and not a final release of the patch. Tell us what you think of the changes, in how matches play out, the pacing, the difficulty, and just basically the fun of the game!
What's in the patch?
A broad summary of the changes for V1.1 Open Beta 1 are as follows:
- Addressed suicidal run outs with smarter running between wickets.
- Improvements to bowler speeds and improved bounce.
- Edges now often carry through to the slips fielders.
- Numerous improvements to batsmen AI - including aggression, pacing and shot selection.
- Improvements to bowling and bowling AI, including improvements to hot spots, spinners, tactics and the types of deliveries the AI chose.
- It's now easier to bowl and LBW the AI batsmen, especially when employing a degree of strategy.
- Modifications to the English and Australian team line ups.
- Added support for antialiasing. (PC Only)
- Improvements to task scheduler fixing problems where game would run unnaturally slower on high end machines (PC Only).
- Various bug fixes.
A more detailed list is in the readme.txt for more information. We've also added a basic check for updates, so you'll be notified when a newer build becomes available.
How to install and keep the Retail version on the same system.
More than likely, you'll want to keep your retail 1.0 build on your PC, especially since Open Beta 1 doesn't include online support. To do this, simply copy your Ashes Cricket 2009 installation folder, to keep your v1.0 installation, and then proceed to install the patch.
Hey, what happened to my save games?
For Open Beta 1, we've decided to use a different folder for save games, so we don't risk damaging your existing save data. If you'd like Open Beta 1 to use your existing save games, simply copy your existing save data in your "My Documents\My Games\Codemasters\Ashes Cricket 2009" folder to the "Ashes Cricket 2009 v1_1 Open Beta 1" folder.
What to do next
Play the game! Tell us what you think by posting your impressions on the forum here. Pay particular attention to any critical balancing issues, pacing or problems with difficulty. We want to avoid any one major issue negatively impacting on the experience.
Open Beta 2
Hopefully later in the week, we'll be providing another Beta Update with online re-enabled with the following improvements:
- A new 5-star 'Match Completion' rating to deal with quitters.
- Leaderboard data now updates even if you don't complete matches.
- Improved handling of lag during bowling.
Thanks a lot for your feedback to date. We've worked really hard to try to listen closely to feedback and address as much as we can, and we sincerely hope you'll find Open Beta 1 a valuable improvement. Special thanks to all those that have been involved with the Closed Beta, we really appreciate your open and honest feedback.
Where to from here?
We'll pay attention to feedback from Open Beta 1, and try to address any new major issues that may appear. We'll be following up with Open Beta 2 later in the week that will have Play Online re-enabled. Once we're happy that the beta of v1.1 has no major new issues, from there we'll be gearing up for a final v1.1 release for PC, while submitting this title update for owners of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.
Please keep in mind that the purpose of this patch is to address major game play issues, not to add new features or make the perfect game. We listen to all feedback and suggestions, but just can't possibly get to everything. What we can do is focus and prioritize our efforts on what we think matters the most to most people who bought the game on all platforms.
Anyways, enough reading, get downloading and playing!
Transmission Games
:hpraise
.........thanks
