Cricket Captain 2015 release date, feature list and trailer

[DaveK93]

As a Cricket Manager these are things that you have to handle on a Day to day basis and that's what I wanted to bring in. I agree this makes the game a bit more complex but don't you think it adds more depth? Its not just the media feature..that's just a small part of it. To have your character traits affect the team as in real life is something which gives the game more real life touch.
And what about Mentoring? And also the struggles as an Associates manager to get your team recognized by the big boys.I believe these will add more depth to the game design rather than making it a similar game everytime. All the changes that you've mentioned are all cosmetic "a complete overhaul of the menus, and in-game graphics. This year, we've had a dramatic change to the highlights package,". ...where is a new feature in the last 5-10 years in the game?

Let me also bring in some excerpts from the in game Strategy feature:

Strategies:

Strategies refer to the in-game changes that can be made while a match is underway. This can be field placement, bowler change, setting aggressiveness, sledging options.Proper field placements and making a bowler bowl to that field mostly determines the aftermath of a match as does choosing the correct batting order and when to decide to accelerate the scoring and when to dig down. When a bowler is set to aggressive the field placements become aggressive automatically and fielders start throwing themselves at the ball more. On a down side this aggressiveness might back fire and end in leaking more runs. The manager need to study the opposition batsmen and their preferences before setting fields and choosing bowlers against them. sledging is something which can be done while batting and bowling. while bowling if you feel the batsman is low on confidence and not middling the ball as such sledging helps in unnerving him further. sledging can have +ve or -ve effect depending upon the batsman on whom sledging was done. If the batsman is high on confidence the effect of sledging is nullified and might result in the player being pulled up by the umpire. Excessive sledging might lead to warnings and subsequently ban from 1-2 matches. Hence the manager needs to be careful as to when to use this weapon.


Thoughts?

Firstly I note where you cut my quote to make a comment about new features, you conveniently cut the bit about a new feature i.e Indian Domestic leagues.

The game doesn't need sledging. Why would you need to tell your players to swear at the opposition, the notion is just ridiculous.

To sum up, the changes you have suggested across both posts would turn the game into an arcade game. This is a simulation, not arcade. If these changes were to be implemented, I can't imagine for one minute I would enjoy the game as I do now. You may as well introduce multiballs and power ups, they are as about as logical as some notions you suggest.

I'll finish by noting a subtle difference. The game is Cricket Captain, not Cricket Manager. In terms of dealing with a captains responsibilities, the game is fairly spot on. Granted, contracts are something different, but that is a necessary evil. Turning it into a manager game would overcomplicate the system, and practically make it unplayable. Seasons would take much longer, and would start to get tedious. As it stands, if I want to do a season, it takes very little time to do so.

[dkadeekal]

As a Cricket Manager these are things that you have to handle on a Day to day basis and that's what I wanted to bring in. I agree this makes the game a bit more complex but don't you think it adds more depth? Its not just the media feature..that's just a small part of it. To have your character traits affect the team as in real life is something which gives the game more real life touch.
And what about Mentoring? And also the struggles as an Associates manager to get your team recognized by the big boys.I believe these will add more depth to the game design rather than making it a similar game everytime. All the changes that you've mentioned are all cosmetic "a complete overhaul of the menus, and in-game graphics. This year, we've had a dramatic change to the highlights package,". ...where is a new feature in the last 5-10 years in the game?

Let me also bring in some excerpts from the in game Strategy feature:

Strategies:

Strategies refer to the in-game changes that can be made while a match is underway. This can be field placement, bowler change, setting aggressiveness, sledging options.Proper field placements and making a bowler bowl to that field mostly determines the aftermath of a match as does choosing the correct batting order and when to decide to accelerate the scoring and when to dig down. When a bowler is set to aggressive the field placements become aggressive automatically and fielders start throwing themselves at the ball more. On a down side this aggressiveness might back fire and end in leaking more runs. The manager need to study the opposition batsmen and their preferences before setting fields and choosing bowlers against them. sledging is something which can be done while batting and bowling. while bowling if you feel the batsman is low on confidence and not middling the ball as such sledging helps in unnerving him further. sledging can have +ve or -ve effect depending upon the batsman on whom sledging was done. If the batsman is high on confidence the effect of sledging is nullified and might result in the player being pulled up by the umpire. Excessive sledging might lead to warnings and subsequently ban from 1-2 matches. Hence the manager needs to be careful as to when to use this weapon.


Thoughts?

[GrahamB]

I've been an ardent follower/player of Cricket Captain all the way from 2000 and has pretty much played all the revisions. To be frank we haven't seen any leaps and bound improvement in new features for the game. I've been working on this Game design document for Cricket Captain and I had tried contacting someone from Childish Games for quite some time to make them take a look at it. Please share your feedback and thoughts on these. Below are some of the excerpts from the document itself:

I'm happy with the game as it is.
I don't want it to become as detailed and complicated as Football Manager, etc.
I agree with what DaveK93 had to say.

[DaveK93]

I've been an ardent follower/player of Cricket Captain all the way from 2000 and has pretty much played all the revisions. To be frank we haven't seen any leaps and bound improvement in new features for the game. I've been working on this Game design document for Cricket Captain and I had tried contacting someone from Childish Games for quite some time to make them take a look at it. Please share your feedback and thoughts on these. Below are some of the excerpts from the document itself:

"Demands"

You seem to forget, budget-wise I would imagine the game is nowhere games like Football Manager, where I note a fair few similarities. I play FM probably too much, and to be honest, I really enjoy the simplicity and uncomplicated-ish nature of this game. It's a nice change of pace.

A lot of the demands that I tend to see are often unreasonable. There is also a lot that aren't necessary. For example, the media stuff you mentioned. We don't really need that in CC, it would make no difference to us playing the game.

I would much rather see an accurate match engine, than being able to talk to a journalist, or calling myself "tech-savvy". I play the game for the matches, not because I desire to have arguments with my players, I have enough of that on FM.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the last couple of years have seen pretty hefty overhauls, which will have taken time. Last year, we had the move to steam, a complete overhaul of the menus, and in-game graphics. This year, we've had a dramatic change to the highlights package, we've had a new league system put in, and once again, we have a solid, stable cricket game in which I'll be able to sink many hours into.

Compare that to the other "cricket game" on the market, Cricket Coach. Quite frankly, it is an abomination of a game. Fine, you get an editor, and you get associate nations. The novelty wears off very quickly. That's if the game hasn't crashed after 5 minutes of game play. The match engine is shoddy and not accurate either. Quite frankly, I'd rather spend my money on a brick wall to smash my face into than play that game.

There are always improvements and changes you can make to games, including Cricket Captain. But I'd rather see changes that would affect gameplay, or add new things in, rather than changes that would maybe give you 5 minutes of media interaction.

I have more points, I'll edit this post should I feel motivated to carry on.

[dkadeekal]

Suggestions/Features for International Cricket Captain

I've been an ardent follower/player of Cricket Captain all the way from 2000 and has pretty much played all the revisions. To be frank we haven't seen any leaps and bound improvement in new features for the game. I've been working on this Game design document for Cricket Captain and I had tried contacting someone from Childish Games for quite some time to make them take a look at it. Please share your feedback and thoughts on these. Below are some of the excerpts from the document itself:

As the Ultimate cricket manager you get to coach/captain the various clubs and countries of the Full members of ICC and also among the Associate Members. Your role as the manager is to take the team to absolute glory. As a manager you’re entitled to control player transfers and Contracts, mentoring, public relations, strategies,training needs, team budget and talent scouting. An additional challenge will be handling your personal life along with these.

At the start of the game you get to customize your character traits and former experience. A player can select up to 2 character traits and 1 experience history. Once locked this cannot be changed during the game play.


Character Traits
Short Tempered -> +10 Player performance, -10 PR skills.
Dirty Hands -> +10 team morale, -10 Strategist
Tech savvy -> +10 strategist, -10 player performance
Media Mogul -> +10 PR skills, -10 team morale


Experience History
Masters in Sports Psychology from a reputed college.
+10 Team Morale, -10 Strategist
Been part of the National playing 11 for the past 10 years.
+10 Player performance, -10 Team morale
State Captain for past 5 years. Moved on to Team management voluntarily.
+10 PR skills, -10 Player performance
Past National Captain who won the world cup twice.
+10 Strategist, -10 PR skills


Associate member teams can get a chance to take part in regional tournaments in Full time member countries considering the manager pitches for it. Manager would need to invite Board members from the targeted full member country to attend at least 5 matches. Depending upon the performance of the team,the Board members might decide for or against the appeal to take part in the regional tournaments of Full time Member.

Mentoring:
Throughout the game several challenges will be thrown at the manager by the players. As the manager you’d need to take a stand and advice the player. Below is a list of challenges that the players will throw at the manager at various phases of the game.



Lack of form causing lack of confidence.
Ego clash with a fellow player.
Weakness in a particular area of the game.
Mistreatment by seniors

etc..

Public Relations:
Public relations depict the media interaction the manager has to give with regards to announcements he has to make and to respond to comments from players, ex-players, commentators, Public. Again the manager will be provided with choices which in turn will affect his public image and also his standing with the team.
Scenarios where Manager would require to exercise his public relations skill are listed below:
Announcement of the team.
Public outcry regarding why a particular player has been left out.
Allegations against a player.
Reacting to comments from commentators/media about a particular player/team.



And so on..the document is quite exhaustive and still under progress. I had started work on it 2 years back and then had put in in the back-burner as there wasn't much motivation.

[GrahamB]

Are fielding and wicketkeeping skills visible in any way in the game (eg. in the player's profile)?

I usually go by the catches per match stat for keepers.

[Donners]

Enhanced Coaching: new fielding and wicket keeping coaching system.

Are fielding and wicketkeeping skills visible in any way in the game (eg. in the player's profile)?

Also, does this mean that 2014 will not be receiving any further patches?

[Alrounder80]

Left handers now bowl closer to the stumps over the wicket (to the right of the wicket), so they have more chance of pitching in line with the stumps for lbw decisions.

Ah, that's good to hear. Seems like my steam review where I say "There are many more little improvements for the better that you will find out as you play the game" is proving to be correct

[cricfan1]

One thing really distracts to me Why You have provide 18 Player selection Policy for any tour , when there is 15 Player selection Policy for each format of cricket

[Chris Child]

Left handers now bowl closer to the stumps over the wicket (to the right of the wicket), so they have more chance of pitching in line with the stumps for lbw decisions.

[Alrounder80]

By the way, is it still more beneficial in game to bowl around the wicket as a left arm bowler against right hand batsmen as opposed to staying over the wicket?

[Chris Child]

I couldn't agree with this more, the game is a superb addition to the series

Great to hear. Thanks. We're pleased with it. A lot of work has gone into this release.

Please post a review on Steam. It helps us massively if we get some decent reviews on there. Doesn't have to be more than a sentence or two.

[DaveK93]

I think you guys are going to be stoked with ICC2015.

I'd like you to know that Chris and Nigel have put an immense effort into improving most aspects of the game, so I hope that you'll appreciate that.

I couldn't agree with this more, the game is a superb addition to the series

[cricfan1]

As I watched the score of ashes click in mind of ICC 2015 released , Looking to download now

[Sureshot]

I think you guys are going to be stoked with ICC2015.

I'd like you to know that Chris and Nigel have put an immense effort into improving most aspects of the game, so I hope that you'll appreciate that.

Thanks for the kind comments, Graham. The rest of our team and TickTock have been amazing too. Always a big effort to go in to making the game, particularly this year with the new stadiums. Getting these working has been a real challenge.

You have been a massive help for us in testing, Graham. Once again, thanks for your efforts. We greatly appreciate your efforts and the efforts of all of our testers.