cricket_online
ICC Board Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2009
- Online Cricket Games Owned
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - PS3
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - PS4
Ok folks I have spent a lot of time batting post patch 3 on PS4 across various difficulty levels and here's my feedback. First of all I must say that it's clear Big Ant have put in a lot of effort in improving the batting experience. You can now hit the ball to more areas on the field, especially through the offside & behind square on the leg side and the spinner doesn't block all the straight drives. Batting is almost there and needs minor tweak(s) to get to the next level. IMO item 3 (feedback mechanism) and details regarding the same at the end in P.S. (edited part) mention more details regarding the same.
1. Control Factor: Ability to play the shot you want to play and hit the ball in a specific area/direction consistently. In cricket one of the most enjoyable aspects of batting is to be able to hit a shot and place the ball in the gap you intended to. You can get a 4 by inside edging the delivery but it's not as satisfying as threading the gap between fielders on the off side as you intended. Result is the same (4 runs) but level of enjoyment and satisfaction is different.This is what's lacking in DBC 17 post patch 3.
Before the patch you could only hit shots a few directions but you could place the ball where you wanted to consistently. Post patch 3 the result seems a bit random. As an example I drive the ball through the covers and the ball may go to the Cover area (most times) or Extra Cover region (occasionally) or to the Point region (again sometimes). I hold the LS & RS in the same direction and I seem to get slightly different results depending on the AI field. If AI has a Cover fielder the ball tends to go in that direction, or if a Cover Point fielder is present then the ball goes there more often. Another example is leg glances. With a very similar input I can either hit a fine glance or a squarish glance. But I don't know which one will be played even though I seem to have provided similar LS & RS input. And the game doesn't help me figure out how to get which result. This takes away enjoyment from the game even though you can score in more areas. It would be great if we know when a particular shot hits the ball in a particular direction and the process is repeatable.
2. Tolerance Level or Control Input Range: The range allowed for a particular shot and handover from one shot to another. This seems to be true for leg side shots. It looks like a specific control input range is assigned to on drive and if you go beyond that range then the hook/pull shot is activated. The problem is the range for drives seems to be so limited or small that you accidentally end up playing a hook/pull shot more often than you want. Same with glance & hook/pull shot when you intend to play a glance and end up with the hook/pull shot. It would be great if there's an enhanced control input range for on drives and glances so the hook shot is not easily activated. Same issue with the footwork as you accidentally end up going front & right or front & left when you wanted to go straight forward (12'0 clock on LS).
3. Feedback Mechanism: Game's ability to let you know what you're doing wrong and how you can improve. This is one of the key omission from the game. The batting feedback mechanism is not helping and doesn't provide any valuable input. I've no idea what I'm doing wrong when my batsman moves all across the stumps to the offside and getting bowled behind my legs. I keep on getting 'Ideal' for footwork, shot selection and timing yet I get bowled behind my legs. Clearly I must be doing something wrong but I don't know what. The feedback mechanism may as well not be present the way it's functioning right now. IMO items 1 and 2 can be addressed by a better batting feedback mechanism on the lines of the one mentioned at the end in the edited P.S. section.
4. Enhanced Tutorials/Training - Another suggestion would be to revamp the batting tutorials so that it's explained how to play various shots (straight drive, various cover drives, on drives, glances, cut, late cut, hook/pull shot, sweep, reverse sweep, special shots) and how to hit the ball to various parts of the field. This should address some of the problems mentioned in point 3.
@MattW would be great if someone from Big Ant can take a look and consider these points in the future.
P.S. (Edit): IMO I wouldn't tweak the batting system too much as it's definitely much improved and comprehensive than prior to Patch 3. I suspect items 1 and 2 can be solved by a proper batting feedback mechanism and revamping the batting feedback system is the way to move forward. I would prefer a simple feedback mechanism which shows your timing along with your LS & RS position when you played the shot. This way you can figure out the exact position of your footwork and figure out where you went wrong or what you did right and it will help you in the future. As an example I can't seem to figure out how to play backfoot leg glance with accuracy. Sometimes I manage to play the glance shot but many times the weird hook shot to fine leg is triggered to a similat line & length delivery at the same height (chest level). If i could see the position of my LS & RS on the screen as part of the feedback along with the timing I would know what's going wrong or right and adjust accordingly moving forward.
@BigAntStudios , @MattW , @HBK619 was wondering if such a feedback mechanism can be incorporated as it will be extremely useful in helping with the learning curve and providing the feedback which can be used to improve. This way whenever you nail a shot down (say on drive to widish mid on) you can take a look at the feedback system, see the position of LS & RS and know what needs to be done in the future to play a similar shot. Same with when you get dismissed as the position of your LS & RS along with timing will give you much more valuable information to improve instead of seeing 'Ideal', 'Good' or 'Bad'.
But overall thanks for Patch 3 Team Big Ant. We appreciate your backing the game and the improvements made
1. Control Factor: Ability to play the shot you want to play and hit the ball in a specific area/direction consistently. In cricket one of the most enjoyable aspects of batting is to be able to hit a shot and place the ball in the gap you intended to. You can get a 4 by inside edging the delivery but it's not as satisfying as threading the gap between fielders on the off side as you intended. Result is the same (4 runs) but level of enjoyment and satisfaction is different.This is what's lacking in DBC 17 post patch 3.
Before the patch you could only hit shots a few directions but you could place the ball where you wanted to consistently. Post patch 3 the result seems a bit random. As an example I drive the ball through the covers and the ball may go to the Cover area (most times) or Extra Cover region (occasionally) or to the Point region (again sometimes). I hold the LS & RS in the same direction and I seem to get slightly different results depending on the AI field. If AI has a Cover fielder the ball tends to go in that direction, or if a Cover Point fielder is present then the ball goes there more often. Another example is leg glances. With a very similar input I can either hit a fine glance or a squarish glance. But I don't know which one will be played even though I seem to have provided similar LS & RS input. And the game doesn't help me figure out how to get which result. This takes away enjoyment from the game even though you can score in more areas. It would be great if we know when a particular shot hits the ball in a particular direction and the process is repeatable.
2. Tolerance Level or Control Input Range: The range allowed for a particular shot and handover from one shot to another. This seems to be true for leg side shots. It looks like a specific control input range is assigned to on drive and if you go beyond that range then the hook/pull shot is activated. The problem is the range for drives seems to be so limited or small that you accidentally end up playing a hook/pull shot more often than you want. Same with glance & hook/pull shot when you intend to play a glance and end up with the hook/pull shot. It would be great if there's an enhanced control input range for on drives and glances so the hook shot is not easily activated. Same issue with the footwork as you accidentally end up going front & right or front & left when you wanted to go straight forward (12'0 clock on LS).
3. Feedback Mechanism: Game's ability to let you know what you're doing wrong and how you can improve. This is one of the key omission from the game. The batting feedback mechanism is not helping and doesn't provide any valuable input. I've no idea what I'm doing wrong when my batsman moves all across the stumps to the offside and getting bowled behind my legs. I keep on getting 'Ideal' for footwork, shot selection and timing yet I get bowled behind my legs. Clearly I must be doing something wrong but I don't know what. The feedback mechanism may as well not be present the way it's functioning right now. IMO items 1 and 2 can be addressed by a better batting feedback mechanism on the lines of the one mentioned at the end in the edited P.S. section.
4. Enhanced Tutorials/Training - Another suggestion would be to revamp the batting tutorials so that it's explained how to play various shots (straight drive, various cover drives, on drives, glances, cut, late cut, hook/pull shot, sweep, reverse sweep, special shots) and how to hit the ball to various parts of the field. This should address some of the problems mentioned in point 3.
@MattW would be great if someone from Big Ant can take a look and consider these points in the future.
P.S. (Edit): IMO I wouldn't tweak the batting system too much as it's definitely much improved and comprehensive than prior to Patch 3. I suspect items 1 and 2 can be solved by a proper batting feedback mechanism and revamping the batting feedback system is the way to move forward. I would prefer a simple feedback mechanism which shows your timing along with your LS & RS position when you played the shot. This way you can figure out the exact position of your footwork and figure out where you went wrong or what you did right and it will help you in the future. As an example I can't seem to figure out how to play backfoot leg glance with accuracy. Sometimes I manage to play the glance shot but many times the weird hook shot to fine leg is triggered to a similat line & length delivery at the same height (chest level). If i could see the position of my LS & RS on the screen as part of the feedback along with the timing I would know what's going wrong or right and adjust accordingly moving forward.
@BigAntStudios , @MattW , @HBK619 was wondering if such a feedback mechanism can be incorporated as it will be extremely useful in helping with the learning curve and providing the feedback which can be used to improve. This way whenever you nail a shot down (say on drive to widish mid on) you can take a look at the feedback system, see the position of LS & RS and know what needs to be done in the future to play a similar shot. Same with when you get dismissed as the position of your LS & RS along with timing will give you much more valuable information to improve instead of seeing 'Ideal', 'Good' or 'Bad'.
But overall thanks for Patch 3 Team Big Ant. We appreciate your backing the game and the improvements made
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