Afraid I haven't had a chance to read everything people have put into this thread but since people are talking about
Career Mode and that's my most played I'll throw out some ideas.
- I'm sure others have said this but the way skill points are awarded and allocated needs a revamp. I kind of like the way Fifa career mode does it where you complete drills to increase your skills in different areas but obviously for this to work the drill mini-games have to be fun or risk becoming tedious. A combination of this and the way things worked in DBC14 where how you played in matches affected how your stats increased would probably be best. This would mean our skills would both develop naturally and yet we'd also have some control of what we wanted focus on through training, a very true-to-life system imo. I would also say that skills you don't work on in games or training should decline over time, slowly when you're younger but at an increased rate as your player gets older (yes, bring back aging please
).
- Some sort of contract system instead of just picking whatever team you want from a given league. Eg. If you are a spin bowler, a team that really needs a spinner will offer you a better contract than one that already has good spin options. The money you earn doesn't really have to do anything or could be used to buy bats/sunglasses etc. Maybe different bats could have different attributes (eg more power or slightly easier timing).
- A more dynamic selection policy. This could be integrated with the short-term goals system others have mentioned in order to make it more clear about when you are going to move up/down in your career. For instance a goal could be "Average X runs across the next 3 matches" and if you achieve the goal you will move closer to the next level, be it county call-up, international etc. You could have different goals for different formats so if you're really good at T20s you could fire on all the way up to international level but still be nowhere near the test team. Failure of goals multiple times in a row could also lead to being dropped a level (would recommend adding 2nd XIs at county level) and cause you to have to work your way back up again by completing your goals. It could be made so that the longer you're at a given level the more leeway you will get. For example if you fail in your first test series you are likely to get dropped immediately but if you have proven yourself for a while at that level you will have to play multiple poor series before getting the boot. I think this would really add some great moments to career mode, imagine scoring a hundred when you know you are right on the verge of being dropped. Or actually being dropped from your international team after a poor start and working your way back up to become one of the top players in the world.
- Not directly related to career but the simulation when you're not playing needs to be improved
a lot. This causes a lot of problems currently in Ashes as a bowler, your team-mates get thrashed all over the park while the game is simulating and leads to the AI playing very defensively against you. It's quite dull.
- Fielding drop-ins when simulating could be fun, giving you a chance at a catch or run-out. Would make playing a keeper more interesting too as they'd get many more chances including stumpings etc.
- A system to manage your fitness to avoid becoming fatigued/injured. This would mean you can't just play every single match you're eligible for while also spamming the training modes. Obviously the dynamic selection would need to take this into account as well. Maybe when your fitness gets low the coach will come and ask you if you feel fit to play in the next game, then you can say no to get a rest or play anyway and risk injury and being out for weeks/months. Probably make this an optional feature as I'm sure many would get annoyed at missing lots of time from a random injury, but for a realist like me it would be great.
- Maybe just a fun little thing like a "twitter" feed where you can see people trashing you if you do badly
- Nightclub fighting simulator needs to be added for extra realism.
