Ashes Cricket General Discussion

[Dutch]

It would be VERY easy for anyone reading here to believe that there's nothing else wrong with the game and that other areas will receive little to no attention.

I don't believe that to be the case: the ratio doom scenario posts to hopeful ones is about 10 to 1....anyone reading this thread will think that BA have left the room with bits of wire dangling out of a console that has had coffee poured all over it. The reason to post anything at all from out of the beta team is to give those people who have faith and are having to sit on a long journey can have some hope and belief that the game will fall together and be a fantastic game. Also we do none of the work: we just complain, nudge, exalt, cry, swear, plead, laugh, joke, tremble, worry, play.....'people' at BA do all the hard work: with passion, care and dedication, juggling umpteen other responsibilities and a with belief in the game and with a love of cricket, and with a real care for the community though some will doubt that.

 

[cricket_online]

I don't believe that to be the case: the ratio doom scenario posts to hopeful ones is about 10 to 1....anyone reading this thread will think that BA have left the room with bits of wire dangling out of a console that has had coffee poured all over it. The reason to post anything at all from out of the beta team is to give those people who have faith and are having to sit on a long journey can have some hope and belief that the game will fall together and be a fantastic game. Also we do none of the work: we just complain, nudge, exalt, cry, swear, plead, laugh, joke, tremble, worry, play.....'people' at BA do all the hard work: with passion, care and dedication, juggling umpteen other responsibilities and a with belief in the game and with a love of cricket, and with a real care for the community though some will doubt that.

Coz actions speak louder than words. The series which promised so much initially with DBC 14 has regressed over the subsequent iterations. The older bugs remain and newer ones crept in with each iteration. It says a lot that the original entry in the series is still the best one. "We back our product" is all good till we actually see any evidence.

So far three months since the event the game was named after is over, we are still waiting for basics to be fixed. Unfortunately there's no "global" release for Ashes Cricket which is planned so forgive folks for doubting Big Ant given their track record post DBC 14 where DBC 17 was left by the wayside and Ashes Cricket is hoping for the bugs to be fixed by the "one patch which fixes all".

 

[Mondy]

I just go back to Ross’ statement for this version of the game that it would be easy to play but hard to master. I’m not sure that’s been true of any interation of the game except for the early days on DBC14. It sounds like, though, that the ‘hard to master’ might finally make it to the game.

 

[Kass D]

BA dont need to diffend them self over here anymore. They have people to do that for them. Of course we need to have patiences and have to be grateful for whatever they patch and no matter how late it is. After all it was a FREE game. Non of us paid for it, or did we hmmmmm

 

[andrew36]

It would be good if they added duke and sg ball in the game
As well as have batsman that wear thigh guards and rib protecter and sweat towel

 

[blockerdave]

Its a beginning: get gameplay right, exquisite in fact and then work on other things. Also take Full Ace tennis for example: now in anybody's book the graphics are not great, the umpires static, the ball boys do nowt, the shoes are terrible.....but in the game you look past because the gameplay is second to none. Of course things need to be fixed but gameplay is king. The above two scorecards shows where work is being done now: pitch characteristics and visible and tangible pitch wear.....the new ball did its work in the first session.....in the second the batsman ruled, towards the end of the second session and in the third spin has started to play a significant role......

So in summary in the last couple of weeks masses has been done towards getting the human batting experience right up there: you can now play the ball as it pitches.....there are risks and rewards and you will collapse if you go to hard.

Bowling has been significantly tweaked to get Ai bowling a tighter and more pitch appropriate line.

Seam and cut movement has been tweaked to make it less arcade.

Mentalities and attributes are now very significant factors in a players make-up, both human and AI.

Work is ongoing to make pitches both visually and in terms of play much more significant and a real factor in the various stages of the game.

This is but a small segment of the work that has been done and the improvements are very enjoyable.

And all they need to do is release an incremental patch and show that and blow away all the negativity. But no cuz the forums are too negative. Go figure.

Sounds great btw. Really looking forward to those improvements. A lot of my personal priorities are in that description.

 

[hammadahmed88]

Genuine question: Will Ross Taylor be able to dominate post-patch...at the moment he seemed a bit arcadey.

 

[Gamer Pradosh]

And all they need to do is release an incremental patch and show that and blow away all the negativity. But no cuz the forums are too negative. Go figure.

Sounds great btw. Really looking forward to those improvements. A lot of my personal priorities are in that description.

I second that..

 

[Dutch]

Coz actions speak louder than words. The series which promised so much initially with DBC 14 has regressed over the subsequent iterations. The older bugs remain and newer ones crept in with each iteration. It says a lot that the original entry in the series is still the best one. "We back our product" is all good till we actually see any evidence.

So far three months since the event the game was named after is over, we are still waiting for basics to be fixed. Unfortunately there's no "global" release for Ashes Cricket which is planned so forgive folks for doubting Big Ant given their track record post DBC 14 where DBC 17 was left by the wayside and Ashes Cricket is hoping for the bugs to be fixed by the "one patch which fixes all".

Again my quote gets turned into something which it was not meant to be but which I perhaps also have not worded correctly: there are people at BA doing a good job. That the company as a whole has taken a certain direction or does things in a way that some people perceive as being this or that is one thing. There are people who work within that company who very much fit the description I gave.

 

[blockerdave]

I don't believe that to be the case: the ratio doom scenario posts to hopeful ones is about 10 to 1....anyone reading this thread will think that BA have left the room with bits of wire dangling out of a console that has had coffee poured all over it. The reason to post anything at all from out of the beta team is to give those people who have faith and are having to sit on a long journey can have some hope and belief that the game will fall together and be a fantastic game. Also we do none of the work: we just complain, nudge, exalt, cry, swear, plead, laugh, joke, tremble, worry, play.....'people' at BA do all the hard work: with passion, care and dedication, juggling umpteen other responsibilities and a with belief in the game and with a love of cricket, and with a real care for the community though some will doubt that.

It's unfortunate that there is a bunker mentality.

The fact is the doom and gloom would be shattered by an incremental patch, or greatly lightened by an actual post from BA. We have a ludicrous circle where BA have deemed the community to negative to interact with - with absolutely zero acceptance of their role in creating that atmosphere - and so they don't interact, and so yes the cycle of doom persists.

DBC17 we talked about all the improvements and how much better it was gonna be. But the last patch dropped and it made some improvements but introduced new issues and left other things unfixed.

Ashes we talked about how great the gameplay was, but it was based on a build that ended up never seeing the light of day. Then they butchered it further within the first 2 days.

So It's natural if there is still concern. Even if some of it is oddly focussed - e.g. fixing inverted batting won't help multiplayer co op if the AI isn't addressed, or ball physics or pitches.

But pretending the forums are irrationally negative and it's not a natural response to the situation and BA don't bear the bulk of responsibility for it is dishonest.

 

[blockerdave]

Again my quote gets turned into something which it was not meant to be but which I perhaps also have not worded correctly: there are people at BA doing a good job. That the company as a whole has taken a certain direction or does things in a way that some people perceive as being this or that is one thing. There are people who work within that company who very much fit the description I gave.

I agree whole heartedly about the dedication of certain individuals. But equally some of those individuals are senior members of the team. Their individual effort and engagement in the "safe" environment of the beta cannot be wholly divorced from their part - as senior members of the team - in the broader strategy of disengagement from the community.

An overly emotional response to a tiny minority of trolls in the deano mould has caused them to trash their reputation with a much larger subset of forum members who while critical of elements of the games were until recently still supportive of BA. They have done that eyes open - Why read any shit posts when we can ignore the community and they will still buy our games as they've nowhere else to go.

 

[Langeveldt]

I don't believe that to be the case: the ratio doom scenario posts to hopeful ones is about 10 to 1....anyone reading this thread will think that BA have left the room with bits of wire dangling out of a console that has had coffee poured all over it. The reason to post anything at all from out of the beta team is to give those people who have faith and are having to sit on a long journey can have some hope and belief that the game will fall together and be a fantastic game. Also we do none of the work: we just complain, nudge, exalt, cry, swear, plead, laugh, joke, tremble, worry, play.....'people' at BA do all the hard work: with passion, care and dedication, juggling umpteen other responsibilities and a with belief in the game and with a love of cricket, and with a real care for the community though some will doubt that.

It stems out of frustration that new builds and patches have actually made the game worse, that's the worry. Like the more they do the worse it gets. I don't doubt their effort or work rate at all. We also wonder how much they engage with you guys and whether they are listening in the first place.

Your post does fill me with hope however. I'm not the only one who appreciates the finer points of cricket here, thankfully.

 

[Pat]

I know this has been said before but I really hope that enough testing also happens on the limited overs formats - especially with respect to AI fields, AI pacing when chasing etc.

 

[Dutch]

It stems out of frustration that new builds and patches have actually made the game worse, that's the worry.

Your post does fill me with hope however. I'm not the only one who appreciates the finer points of cricket here, thankfully.

The current builds have taken the game forward each time in a positive way.[DOUBLEPOST=1520409048][/DOUBLEPOST]

I know this has been said before but I really hope that enough testing also happens on the limited overs formats - especially with respect to AI fields, AI pacing when chasing etc.

We are not just testing test matches! Although that is a genuine test enviroment because you get to see how things play out over extended periods of time but there are people testing one day and t20 gameplay. The pitch wear and pitch characteristics are now starting to play a definitive role: bat first or not becomes much more of a question regardless of format. It may still need to be tweaked as things are come across but....it is working!

 

[Dutch]

It is steadily becoming possible to tweak a player to play in a certain way, that certain shots are go to shots and others have more risk etcetera. Whether it should have been like that from the start is one thing. The fact is that it is working now.