Hey all,
thought I'd ask for some advice on ICC 2009 with regards to setting things up for the newer players, the tips from the manual are threadbare personally so I thought I'd give a few sections and ask for contributors... =D
Note: I'm not trying for a "be all end all" guide as in "follow this and you win every game" sort of thing. But some general base pointers for the newer players would be fantastic giving them (and probably some established players) a base on what to operate and experiment on.
---
FC/Test Games:
Batting: -
General consensus seems to be that you should always bat at 2 aggression until 30-50% settled and move onto 3 aggression.
First class games might want to bump up to 4-5 aggression if going for the run points total once the overs are spent.
I personally find dropping aggression to 1 in overcast conditions then bumping to 2 once 30-40% settled is a safer way of keeping batsmen "in" long enough to get settled. I have noticed Aggressive batsmen have a tendancy to continue to play risky shots in these conditions so it may be worth bumping up a more moderate/defensive player if you get stuck in those conditions to save the aggressive batsman for better weather.
Bowling: -
Medium bowlers are flat out lethal in overcast conditions, it's well worth putting them on. I'm unsure if MF/FM get the same effect I've read some posts which say only one of them get a bonus to their wicket taking ability.
I personally advise against having a full pace bowling attack, bring a spinner or two if the wicket is turning.
Aggression ratings - I bowl one short of full aggression if I have a 3-500 run lead and its the second innings. I find that the opposition tend to try and bat it out but, you have plenty of runs to play with to have an attacking field and it generally results in a wonderful batting collapse.
Bowling normally, I tend to open with one off full aggression at batsmens weaknesses and reduce the aggression to 3 once they start pushing around 20-30 runs.
Personal thing - Left arm bowlers always go around the wicket for me >_>
**Any advice on aggression settings? I don't really have that much of an idea on them they tend to be hit and miss for me though I win more than I lose but that's really down to my personal strength of batting within my team >_> **
--------
One day/ODI
Batting:
Openers: One on 5 the other on 4. Bump up to 5 when settled and have one batsman bat on 6 while the other remains on 5 as an "anchor".
All other batsmen should come in on 4 aggression then move onto 5 when settled.
Some advice I've seen on the forums state to bump up to one short of full aggression in the last 10 overs if you have plenty of wickets to play with.
Bowling:
1 bar of aggression during power play
0 bar of aggression at all other times.
I agree with this "lack of aggression" bowling, frustrating the batsmen into losing their wicket seems to be the order of the day here rather than attemping to get them out. Additionally it cuts the run rate down quite a bit.
----
20/20 games:
Batting: I open at 6/7 and once the player faces around 5 balls I bump up to max aggression. If a batting collapse is on the way it's worth dropping back to 3-4 aggression just to "set" him and then go full whack as there's no point hitting the odd six and four if you're down to the 9th wicket by the 10th over.
Bowling:
No aggression, aim at batsmens weaknesses rotate bowlers in a 2 over spell.
A somewhat successful rotation for me has been:
"opener bowler" / "opener bowler" - 2 each (pace)
"Pace bowler" / "Medium bowler" - 2 each (pace)
"Spinner" / "medium bowler continues to 4"
"Spinner continues to 4" / "Pace bowler"
"opener" / "opener"
Obviously don't have to use it or even stick to it, I find it works for my team and the middle gets two bowlers who get "settled" quite quickly while varying both the pace and types of bowling.
---
Field placements:
I'm not an expert on this, I generally make do with the default settings. I do suggest checking where the batsman is taking his runs. For example a batsman scoring heavily on the offside, may warrant dropping a close-in fielder back a bit perhaps even to the boundary to limit his scoring to singles.
Note that this is a rather basic strategy but if the player can't get runs on the leg side and your fielding placement just cut off his offside flow you're likely to frustrate him into an error.
There are some downloadable field placement packs floating around, but I've yet to use them. Any suggestions welcome.
---
Starting a new game:
For those who aren't up to date on the knowledge of cricket, ICC 2009's weakness is a lack of information on your players outside of averages and "play-and-see what happens". There's no stats or "coach reports" to give you an indication of who your best/weakest players are or what areas they need improving in, which personally makes the first season pure guesswork.
I'd say go on the basis of averages for regular team members and try and blood in a few youngsters. At least at the end of the year you can chop and change and rebuild.
I've noticed the lack of player ability stats has been brought up in a few topics and generally tend to be a bit "fobbed" off by those linked to development of the game (which, kind of plays into the hands of reviewers regarding "stagnation and resisting change" - something I kind of agree with considering I picked ICC 2009 up and the last I played was the 98 version iirc, Mike Gatting was still playing... for Middlesex hehe and there's not really much between the two games O_o) Though, that's a discussion for other topics.
Either way, any advice for new gamers / non cricket experts as to determining their best squad once they start a new county game? (note: "Play the game and find out" is not sound advice as I would assume people would be intending to play the game anyway but looking for some form of overview of what to look out for.)
Things brought to my attention:
Batsmen who average over 60+ in the first few games have been said to have a short life-span. In other words they'll score freely and quite highly early in their career and then drop bringing their final average down to 20-30 midway to late in their career. The higher their starting average the quicker the "bang" and "peak". I've yet to run into this.
Players generally need 15 matches before you can judge their general ability. I personally let them go for around 30-40 matches, 15 to get the experience and a further 15+ to show what they can do with that experience. I personally feel only then, should you make a judgement call on their ability.
An example on international level in a game I'm running: Samit Patel averages 40 with the bat and 28-32 with the ball (numbers a bit off) for FC games. In his first 15 test matches (debuting against Australia no less) his scores vary from 0 - 20 his average with the bat hitting 25 and with the ball 38. Continuing with him however his batting and bowling figures are much more healthier, he hit his first 50 and continued with two scores of 48 in his following three matches and his bowling figures continue to drop his average. I fully expect him in this game at least to become a lethal all-round player.
Side-note: Personal experience may vary, I feel there is (or should) be some scope of randomness to each new game. This means if I play a new game and plump for Patel he could in that game be quite crap leveling out with a batting average of 10 and a bowling of 130 for example. Outside of the "core" established players expect some fluctuation between abilities with each game, though it's not "wrong" to rely on players you take a liking to as we all have done at some point in Football Manager for example.
---
Issues:
Form bug - There seems to be a form issue regarding bowlers. Unless you get 5/10 wickets a game bowler form seems to never rise above three stars. I haven't read the latest patch notes yet so this may have been fixed but it has been brought to my attention through the forums.
Any contributions? Advice for the newbies and established players? =)
--Conclusion--
That's about everything I can think of.
Feel free to throw in some more information, probably regarding transfers and coaching - I haven't really contributed to those as I've not really experimented in those areas yet. =)
Cheers,
-Rob
thought I'd ask for some advice on ICC 2009 with regards to setting things up for the newer players, the tips from the manual are threadbare personally so I thought I'd give a few sections and ask for contributors... =D
Note: I'm not trying for a "be all end all" guide as in "follow this and you win every game" sort of thing. But some general base pointers for the newer players would be fantastic giving them (and probably some established players) a base on what to operate and experiment on.
---
FC/Test Games:
Batting: -
General consensus seems to be that you should always bat at 2 aggression until 30-50% settled and move onto 3 aggression.
First class games might want to bump up to 4-5 aggression if going for the run points total once the overs are spent.
I personally find dropping aggression to 1 in overcast conditions then bumping to 2 once 30-40% settled is a safer way of keeping batsmen "in" long enough to get settled. I have noticed Aggressive batsmen have a tendancy to continue to play risky shots in these conditions so it may be worth bumping up a more moderate/defensive player if you get stuck in those conditions to save the aggressive batsman for better weather.
Bowling: -
Medium bowlers are flat out lethal in overcast conditions, it's well worth putting them on. I'm unsure if MF/FM get the same effect I've read some posts which say only one of them get a bonus to their wicket taking ability.
I personally advise against having a full pace bowling attack, bring a spinner or two if the wicket is turning.
Aggression ratings - I bowl one short of full aggression if I have a 3-500 run lead and its the second innings. I find that the opposition tend to try and bat it out but, you have plenty of runs to play with to have an attacking field and it generally results in a wonderful batting collapse.
Bowling normally, I tend to open with one off full aggression at batsmens weaknesses and reduce the aggression to 3 once they start pushing around 20-30 runs.
Personal thing - Left arm bowlers always go around the wicket for me >_>
**Any advice on aggression settings? I don't really have that much of an idea on them they tend to be hit and miss for me though I win more than I lose but that's really down to my personal strength of batting within my team >_> **
--------
One day/ODI
Batting:
Openers: One on 5 the other on 4. Bump up to 5 when settled and have one batsman bat on 6 while the other remains on 5 as an "anchor".
All other batsmen should come in on 4 aggression then move onto 5 when settled.
Some advice I've seen on the forums state to bump up to one short of full aggression in the last 10 overs if you have plenty of wickets to play with.
Bowling:
1 bar of aggression during power play
0 bar of aggression at all other times.
I agree with this "lack of aggression" bowling, frustrating the batsmen into losing their wicket seems to be the order of the day here rather than attemping to get them out. Additionally it cuts the run rate down quite a bit.
----
20/20 games:
Batting: I open at 6/7 and once the player faces around 5 balls I bump up to max aggression. If a batting collapse is on the way it's worth dropping back to 3-4 aggression just to "set" him and then go full whack as there's no point hitting the odd six and four if you're down to the 9th wicket by the 10th over.
Bowling:
No aggression, aim at batsmens weaknesses rotate bowlers in a 2 over spell.
A somewhat successful rotation for me has been:
"opener bowler" / "opener bowler" - 2 each (pace)
"Pace bowler" / "Medium bowler" - 2 each (pace)
"Spinner" / "medium bowler continues to 4"
"Spinner continues to 4" / "Pace bowler"
"opener" / "opener"
Obviously don't have to use it or even stick to it, I find it works for my team and the middle gets two bowlers who get "settled" quite quickly while varying both the pace and types of bowling.
---
Field placements:
I'm not an expert on this, I generally make do with the default settings. I do suggest checking where the batsman is taking his runs. For example a batsman scoring heavily on the offside, may warrant dropping a close-in fielder back a bit perhaps even to the boundary to limit his scoring to singles.
Note that this is a rather basic strategy but if the player can't get runs on the leg side and your fielding placement just cut off his offside flow you're likely to frustrate him into an error.
There are some downloadable field placement packs floating around, but I've yet to use them. Any suggestions welcome.
---
Starting a new game:
For those who aren't up to date on the knowledge of cricket, ICC 2009's weakness is a lack of information on your players outside of averages and "play-and-see what happens". There's no stats or "coach reports" to give you an indication of who your best/weakest players are or what areas they need improving in, which personally makes the first season pure guesswork.
I'd say go on the basis of averages for regular team members and try and blood in a few youngsters. At least at the end of the year you can chop and change and rebuild.
I've noticed the lack of player ability stats has been brought up in a few topics and generally tend to be a bit "fobbed" off by those linked to development of the game (which, kind of plays into the hands of reviewers regarding "stagnation and resisting change" - something I kind of agree with considering I picked ICC 2009 up and the last I played was the 98 version iirc, Mike Gatting was still playing... for Middlesex hehe and there's not really much between the two games O_o) Though, that's a discussion for other topics.
Either way, any advice for new gamers / non cricket experts as to determining their best squad once they start a new county game? (note: "Play the game and find out" is not sound advice as I would assume people would be intending to play the game anyway but looking for some form of overview of what to look out for.)
Things brought to my attention:
Batsmen who average over 60+ in the first few games have been said to have a short life-span. In other words they'll score freely and quite highly early in their career and then drop bringing their final average down to 20-30 midway to late in their career. The higher their starting average the quicker the "bang" and "peak". I've yet to run into this.
Players generally need 15 matches before you can judge their general ability. I personally let them go for around 30-40 matches, 15 to get the experience and a further 15+ to show what they can do with that experience. I personally feel only then, should you make a judgement call on their ability.
An example on international level in a game I'm running: Samit Patel averages 40 with the bat and 28-32 with the ball (numbers a bit off) for FC games. In his first 15 test matches (debuting against Australia no less) his scores vary from 0 - 20 his average with the bat hitting 25 and with the ball 38. Continuing with him however his batting and bowling figures are much more healthier, he hit his first 50 and continued with two scores of 48 in his following three matches and his bowling figures continue to drop his average. I fully expect him in this game at least to become a lethal all-round player.
Side-note: Personal experience may vary, I feel there is (or should) be some scope of randomness to each new game. This means if I play a new game and plump for Patel he could in that game be quite crap leveling out with a batting average of 10 and a bowling of 130 for example. Outside of the "core" established players expect some fluctuation between abilities with each game, though it's not "wrong" to rely on players you take a liking to as we all have done at some point in Football Manager for example.
---
Issues:
Form bug - There seems to be a form issue regarding bowlers. Unless you get 5/10 wickets a game bowler form seems to never rise above three stars. I haven't read the latest patch notes yet so this may have been fixed but it has been brought to my attention through the forums.
Any contributions? Advice for the newbies and established players? =)
--Conclusion--
That's about everything I can think of.
Feel free to throw in some more information, probably regarding transfers and coaching - I haven't really contributed to those as I've not really experimented in those areas yet. =)
Cheers,
-Rob
: They SAY ICC10 handles it better. I certainly hope so.
