Patch #2 Must Fixes

[rygers]

Have played the game for a few weeks now, both career and traditional team modes. I think the balance is good but agree that the AI batting aggro is elevated and the AI field settings is dubious. Especially the 5 slips in a T20 scenario.

1 big bug...

Got given out LBW and definitely nicked the ball. Reviewed and hotspot showed the nick...was still given out LBW. Bleak. Has only happened once in career mode. This has to be a bug, not inbuilt crap umpiring. I think I read it happening to someone else but can't remember exactly.

Otherwise the game is RAD Well done boys!

 

[Dutch]

See what they have done to my thread Phil!

Ah well, it always happens. Every single thread ends up being the same old soup.....

 

[thevicky]

1) The ability to view pitch conditions before selecting my line up

2) The ability to view/compare players skills and attributes when selecting my lineup

3) ditto when changing bowler + see innings figures so far + fatigue

 

[0601731]

The bowlers losing pace is the biggest issue for me.

 

[The_Pharoah]

Okay, I've posted a bit all over the place but thought I'd summarise all my issues/points in one post so here goes (note these all relate to Career mode):

1. Issue: AI fielding sets; Description: 5 slips in a T20 match. Nuff said.

2. Issue: AI needlessly attacking stumps; Desc: AI continuously attack stumps, including keeper. Need to stop. Doesn't impact gameplay but annoying as hell.

3. Issue: Wandering Batsman (someone else coined this); Desc: on cancelling run, sometimes a batsman will wander towards the crease regardless of what buttons are pressed (such that he gets run out).

4. Issue: Batting difficulty; Description: batting is very difficult primarily due to very short time to judge the ball combined with batting controls (eg. you need to press 3 buttons to block...3....and .1 of a second to figure that out)

5. Issue: Super accurate fielders; Desc: fielders are still super accurate esp with throwing at stumps. I had a fielder running AWAY from the stumps do a back pass from about 20m that hit the stumps....at speed.

6. Issue: AI Batting; Desc: I believe the AI batsmen bat the same way for 4 Day/T20/One Day mode. There should be a noticeable change in the longer forms of the game. In addition, batsmen esp in 4 dayers wildly accelerate scoring through boundaries/6's which is a bit unrealistic. Ref to issue 1 which probably contributes.

7. Issue: Cancelling run animation; Desc: When you've blocked a ball, your back foot is still in the crease. However, hit the Cancel run button, and the animation will move the batsman OUTSIDE the crease (usually resulting in a stumping). This shouldn't occur.

8. Issue: Leg glance animation; Desc: when performing a leg glance (but your LAS isn't exactly straight down but perhaps slightly offcentre), your player will MOVE 1 foot to the right. Imagine you're trying to leg glance a ball on leg stump only to move 1 ft to the right = bowled.

9. Issue: Outfields; Desc: majority of straight drives don't go to the boundary but stop. The momentum of a straight drive should carry a ball to the boundary esp off a pace bowler. This doesn't always occur.

10. Issue: Lazy superman (my name for him); Desc: There seems to be an issue with the fielder at Wide On who will sprint 30m to take a catch near Long off, but will WALK (yes walk) or jog to the ball pushed to mid on. Something not right there.

11. Issue: Super fieldsmen; Desc: I've been caught a number of times at Mid off by the guy at Mid on off a drive. Yes, a drive (which pops up a bit) and yes thats about 20-30m that he has to sprint from the time I've hit the ball which is about 1-2 seconds...thats faster than Usain Bolt! I'm happy to be caught at Mid Off if there's a guy there and I hit it straight to him.

12. Issue: who's messing with my field setting?; Desc: okay maybe a bug/maybe not - I'm a leg spinner and as such I bowl to the field I set...however every now and then SOMEBODY moves my field and doesn't tell me. Then I offer up a juicy ball for the batsman to hit down long on where my preset fielder awaits....only to find he's been moved to mid wicket. Either preset fields need to be kept during your over or you need to be notified this has happened.

My requests
Below is a list for consideration by BA for upcoming patches:

1. Slow the bowling or push the bowling back a little bit to reduce difficulty in batting. We don't all have lightening reflexes.
2. create an Amateur career mode (Fast bowlers bowl at Med-Fast speed, med-Fast bowl at Medium, medium bowl only slightly slower) - allows players to get a chance to bat for long periods (and actually enjoy the game).
3. Allow changing of players throughout a season - my understanding is that the team doesn't change for the whole season regardless of form.
4. Please give me (us) the ability to change controls eg. I want to be able to change LAS and RAS so that I can use the LAS for shot selection/direction and RAS for footwork.
5. Please give me (us) the ability to save a custom field. Every time the AI changes my specific field setting, I have to spend valuable playing time setting it up again...multiply this by 20 times and you get the frustration.

Just to reinforce...I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS GAME. Yes it has some bug bears but its still THE BEST cricket game ever made. My suggestions above are points to consider.

 

[Orangzeb]

Okay, I've posted a bit all over the place but thought I'd summarise all my issues/points in one post so here goes (note these all relate to Career mode):

1. Issue: AI fielding sets; Description: 5 slips in a T20 match. Nuff said.

2. Issue: AI needlessly attacking stumps; Desc: AI continuously attack stumps, including keeper. Need to stop. Doesn't impact gameplay but annoying as hell.

3. Issue: Wandering Batsman (someone else coined this); Desc: on cancelling run, sometimes a batsman will wander towards the crease regardless of what buttons are pressed (such that he gets run out).

4. Issue: Batting difficulty; Description: batting is very difficult primarily due to very short time to judge the ball combined with batting controls (eg. you need to press 3 buttons to block...3....and .1 of a second to figure that out)

5. Issue: Super accurate fielders; Desc: fielders are still super accurate esp with throwing at stumps. I had a fielder running AWAY from the stumps do a back pass from about 20m that hit the stumps....at speed.

6. Issue: AI Batting; Desc: I believe the AI batsmen bat the same way for 4 Day/T20/One Day mode. There should be a noticeable change in the longer forms of the game. In addition, batsmen esp in 4 dayers wildly accelerate scoring through boundaries/6's which is a bit unrealistic. Ref to issue 1 which probably contributes.

7. Issue: Cancelling run animation; Desc: When you've blocked a ball, your back foot is still in the crease. However, hit the Cancel run button, and the animation will move the batsman OUTSIDE the crease (usually resulting in a stumping). This shouldn't occur.

8. Issue: Leg glance animation; Desc: when performing a leg glance (but your LAS isn't exactly straight down but perhaps slightly offcentre), your player will MOVE 1 foot to the right. Imagine you're trying to leg glance a ball on leg stump only to move 1 ft to the right = bowled.

9. Issue: Outfields; Desc: majority of straight drives don't go to the boundary but stop. The momentum of a straight drive should carry a ball to the boundary esp off a pace bowler. This doesn't always occur.

10. Issue: Lazy superman (my name for him); Desc: There seems to be an issue with the fielder at Wide On who will sprint 30m to take a catch near Long off, but will WALK (yes walk) or jog to the ball pushed to mid on. Something not right there.

My requests
Below is a list for consideration by BA for upcoming patches:

1. Slow the bowling or push the bowling back a little bit to reduce difficulty in batting. We don't all have lightening reflexes.
2. create an Amateur career mode (Fast bowlers bowl at Med-Fast speed, med-Fast bowl at Medium, medium bowl only slightly slower) - allows players to get a chance to bat for long periods (and actually enjoy the game).
3. Allow changing of players throughout a season - my understanding is that the team doesn't change for the whole season regardless of form.

Just to reinforce...I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS GAME. Yes it has some bug bears but its still THE BEST cricket game ever made. My suggestions above are points to consider.

These all should be added to first post .

 

[blockerdave]

8. Issue: Leg glance animation; Desc: when performing a leg glance (but your LAS isn't exactly straight down but perhaps slightly offcentre), your player will MOVE 1 foot to the right. Imagine you're trying to leg glance a ball on leg stump only to move 1 ft to the right = bowled.

to be fair, this is as much a user error as a bug/glitch/animation issue. if you press straight you won't move across and you'll get the leg glance right.

 

[The_Pharoah]

I know but how easy is it to get it exactly right? All the time?

 

[blockerdave]

I know but how easy is it to get it exactly right? All the time?

I want the game to be hard... I've probably already put more time in to this game than any other, I'm still playing on pro difficulty and I am not very good... I love that.

There's a tough learning curve here it's very frustrating at times, but I embrace that. If I was averaging 50 in my first career mode I'd be getting bored already. It's awesome that we have a challenge on our hands.

 

[Master Khan]

Top issues for me ATM are.

1) Super human fielders (running like wind and taking catches after covering a lot of ground and 90% hitting the wicket directly from inside the circle).
2) No Custom Field saving preset available in game.
3) More Edges to Slips and Gully region.
4) Reducing heights ball are taking when hit in the air, I was able to complete 2 runs most of the time if I am caught.

yeah I think this is what needs fixing.
the fielders are like usian bolt lol.
they really need to fix this stumping glitch. I got out 3 times in row because of this stumping glitch.

 

[fanirama]

yeah I noticed that. I don't see many tip and runs esp from AI batsmen or even gentle pushes.

Yeah, this is one thing I liked from IC2010. It had the option to do soft or hard shots and with the circle shot selector I could place it where I wanted mostly.

The game had its problems but that feature here of being able to soft hit or hard hit shots would be awesome.

IC2010 should've continued. It would likely have evolved into the control scheme of BigAnt today which I like to an extent.

 

[isrararrafi]

Well, i score a lot more if i pre-meditate my shots vs if i try to read the delivery (which i fail at). I just take a stance outside off and score everything off the leg side. It works because AI mostly bowls on the leg. So a patch that can make reading the ball easier and the AI varying the line would be great.

To add to it, i am playing in veteran. Pro mode is too easy to bat in with the above mentioned method.

 

[zimrahil]

IC2010 should've continued. It would likely have evolved into the control scheme of BigAnt today which I like to an extent.

Unlikely imo

BA took big risk with completely redesigning controls, couldn't see Trickstar/whoever taking that chance when had easy option of sticking with what they had

 

[fanirama]

Unlikely imo

BA took big risk with completely redesigning controls, couldn't see Trickstar/whoever taking that chance when had easy option of sticking with what they had

That is not true. The control scheme did evolve from the arrow keys and fixed shots to the analog stick direction one. Other companies are just as good if not better than BigAnt. Why would they not take a chance? That is how all games everywhere keep evolving...

Similar to baseball games where one iteration will make a change and rest will be minor tweaks.
Same with this game, next version of DBC will not make drastic changes but make slow improvements to this model till a few iterations go by and another major leap is introduced. (could be because of HW, controller type such as Move Cricket having PS Move etc.)


But now that IC games are done, we'll never know for sure now will we?

 

[Biggs]

There's a tough learning curve here it's very frustrating at times, but I embrace that...

Good point, but here's my counter point; how much fun is it long term? Part of the challenge of batting is surmounting the unpredictable field, which isn't fun. I've played the exact same shot to the exact same delivery back to back and through either a minute change in the movement of the sticks or bad luck, I've been caught at square leg. One was a beautiful flick off my legs that raced past the fielder and the other was taken millimetres off the ground in a diving catch... I can accept that "fun" of that happening every now and then, but it's 1:2 ratio is still too far in the frustrating column, now 6 years into career mode.

I understand you have to play shots according to field sets and play for the gaps, but even minute changes in the field incur massive penalties for the career batsman, which is simply unfair at best, not fun at worst. Once you achieve a basic level of skill to get consistent 20s and 30s with the bat (especially in T20s where the batting is the most forgiving) you're still at defcon 5 in the field avoiding hitting directly over the bowlers head because he WILL get you caught and bowled.

The AI sets an ENTIRELY offside field, including a fielder directly behind the bowler as he runs in (??) which happens every game I play now, so you're forced into dragging deliveries from the off stump and pulling them onto the onside, where you're either out LBW, nick it to keeper/slips or pushing it for a single to a deep square leg.

I can easily get to 20-30 now off around 15-20 balls in a t20 if I'm batting first and there's no run rate to chase. The minute your team is batting second and staring down the barrel of 9 an over in the 8th or 9th over, which as a number 5 batsman in career mode happens more than it doesn't, it's impossible to lift the runrate without taking on these same ridiculous field sets and the AI's Norse god abilities in the field, especially the bowlers ability to field everything off his own bowling.

Straight drives should not get fielded by the bowler. At all. Just shouldn't happen, it's so infrequent in real cricket because of the reflex time they have, yet it's stopped 90% of the time I drive a ball down the ground... Should I miraculously get it past the bowler and mid on/off dive to stop it which, again, shouldn't really happen as frequently as it does.

Couple that with the sluggish pace of the ball off the bat in the air and you get little niggly frustrations happening every match that make the game not a lot of fun in career mode because the RISK is not worth the reward because you want your player to start to succeed more than he fails, something incredibly difficult to achieve even 6 years into career mode because of, again, the fielding AI.

If I was to do career mode again, if be a batter/bowler because being a pure number 5 that bowls a little spin I average 8.5 with the ball, have taken at least two wickets every time I'm called on to throw the arm over with a little spin, but batting is simply not as easy and my wickets are mostly all diving catches caught by mid on or square leg, so even the AI can't beat itself!

Since I'm putting all my effort into making the T20 sides as that seems to be the most forgiving format currently, I'm getting somewhere in career mode, but I'm doing it by quitting matches before the game can autosave the run-out glitch or impossible catch glitch. It means I have to start each match all over again but I'm fine with beating the game like that to finally see progress with my career player, because I want to have fun with this game again. The arcade mode just isn't the challenge for me to beat, career mode is that challenge but it's not much of a fun challenge, certainly trying to get milestones as a pure batsman don't occur at the comfortable fun vs. realistic balance we are looking for here.

Look, bit of a rant/whine and bowling is where it's at for career mode, for sure. But as far into career mode as my batsman is the time investment vs the reward just isn't as quick as maybe it should be in a cricket game.

Key word being: Game.