Desired features/changes for Cricket Captain 2016

[gtbunbury]

I haven't seen one of these threads go up yet, and I'm aware it will likely only be a few months before news starts to come out on the next edition. What features are people looking for? And what changes? Is it time for the series to reinvent itself or should it keep releasing the same game every year?

I for one would love to see a better AI, especially in selection. Instead of seeing a team with opening batsmen at seven and eight, say. And less overpowered regen players, especially in England, you get batsmen averaging 70+ for seasons on end.

Also, a great feature would be the ability to take a new job, leave clubs in the off-season, or even get sacked. While it verges on Cricket Coach territory, it's something that's hard to get past when, five seasons in, you get fed up with a squad and want to try a new one.

A teams, or associates, working your way up the coaching ladder?

The ability to sign associate players? There are a lot of Afghanistan players and other associates who I'd love to put in county sides.

And scrapping the not being able to sign overseas players of the same nationality. Why can't we sign two Australians, and why not sign a number of overseas to cover certain months like reality? Perhaps a more specific time system, so rather than "yes" or "no" 100% availablity the ability to see when they might get picked for international series or ipl etc?

[KK Star]

We should be able to assign contracts when captaining International sides.

[DaveK93]

We should be able to assign contracts when captaining International sides.

The risk you run with that is that people will abuse the system. I'm not saying the current way of doing it is perfect, but I'd be loathe to hand control to a person, especially in joint Intl/County saves.

[KK Star]

I agree with DaveK93 but without contracts the game feels unreal. We can allow it only for 'only international' saves. We should be able to monitor domestic matches if we are captaining AUS, ENG or IND which have domestic.

Speaking on a different topic, I have seen unrealistic bowling performances in domestic matches while captaining International Sides. I have seen a bowler with 40+ average having figures of 7-224. In real, will the captain give so much bowling ? I have also noticed that (no. of runs/ no. of wickets) is perfectly divisible.

What about adding the no. of balls faced and overs bowled in the form analysis.

[Graham_5000]

I don't have an issue with regens being instantly amazing (providing it doesn't happen too often). Rabada has in effect appeared from nowhere and made it internationally as a really young player - this is similar to a regen getting selected to play for his country aged 19-21 after a mere dozen FC matches. In fact, Rabada was first selected to play for SA as a 19 year old - younger than many of the regens in Cricket Captain.

I know in Football Manager (which has got to be the most well resourced sports game!) young players often have a random potential rating, which can only be moderately altered by coaching. That said, I think things work reasonably as they are. Perhaps regens could arrive younger (and less skilled?). Perhaps players should improve at a more rapid rate around the ages of 24 & 25, so that existing 23 year olds aren't pipped as often to the national team as regens? I don't really know? These are all rhetorical questions!

Anyway, here are a couple of ideas I have (for what they are worth):

Matches & Tactics:

- I'd like there to be the option of "rotating the strike". One can of course kind of do this manually (ball by ball) by alternating the "farm the strike" icon after every single! There would be both risks and potential benefits to such a tactic of course. It might force a player to try riskily attempt to score a single off a jaffer, or attempt a risky run. A bad time to use it might be at the start of a Test, when leaving the ball would be preferable to getting bat on anything in order to seek a run. A good time to use it might be when the field is spread and spinners are on - especially in the middle overs of a 50 over game.

- I would love to see the batsman and bowler settledness indicator make a return. If possible, it would also be nice if bowlers "hang on" to some of their "settledness" when they are taken off for just one over, e.g. when changing ends. I have always thought that settledness for batsmen could vary according to the situation in game (e.g. dropping slightly after losing a batting partner).

Training and Development:

- 10 coaching sessions would be nice if controlling a nation.

- "A" teams - personally I would like to set up the training and squad selection for such teams, but not control the matches themselves.

- I wonder whether all players should automatically get net sessions and improve their form randomly, for example by -1 to +1.25 stars per x days of nets? If that were the case, the extra training would only need to be technique training, in which case 8-10 sessions would be excessive. I realise this idea contradicts my first training suggestion of course, but that suggestion was made with regards to keeping training as it is!

[Raver]

Some really good ideas in here.

My personal thing would be having a bit more customisability introduced. For instance the ability to customise the chance of injuries, the quality of regen players across the board, ability to generate a player to represent yourself, and even the structure of international agendas and the county cricket competition (personally I would like fewer FC games in england and more one dayers).

At the least I think there should be a higher chance of injuries to fast bowlers, and some attention to the default field settings in shorter form games.

[finney]

Would definitely like to be able to see information on international fixture dates when looking at potential overseas signings so as to get a clearer idea of the periods they might potentially miss. That way you can sign a reserve who you know will not be away during the same periods

The ability for international captains to name a larger squad for home fixtures would be welcome too. The squad is selected before you know the conditions and you can't cover all bases with 12 players. On a seamer's wicket you might want to play 4 seamers and 6 batsmen, on a turning deck you might want 2 spinners, add in your wicketkeeper and that's already 13 players you'd need just to cover those 2 scenarios. Allowing international captain's to request a specific type of wicket as in domestic competitions would also be a good addition I think.

For nations that use that system, allowing international captains to decide who gets a central contract and to subsequently decide when those players are available for domestic cricket would also be good, giving the option to ensure that players are not going in to international games with low fitness levels. I see that some people have raised concerns about this but i presume from their comments that they are referring to online games?

[DaveK93]

Would definitely like to be able to see information on international fixture dates when looking at potential overseas signings so as to get a clearer idea of the periods they might potentially miss. That way you can sign a reserve who you know will not be away during the same periods

The ability for international captains to name a larger squad for home fixtures would be welcome too. The squad is selected before you know the conditions and you can't cover all bases with 12 players. On a seamer's wicket you might want to play 4 seamers and 6 batsmen, on a turning deck you might want 2 spinners, add in your wicketkeeper and that's already 13 players you'd need just to cover those 2 scenarios. Allowing international captain's to request a specific type of wicket as in domestic competitions would also be a good addition I think.

For nations that use that system, allowing international captains to decide who gets a central contract and to subsequently decide when those players are available for domestic cricket would also be good, giving the option to ensure that players are not going in to international games with low fitness levels. I see that some people have raised concerns about this but i presume from their comments that they are referring to online games?

My concern isn't so much about online, because I rarely use it these days. I'm considering it more from the financial stand point. Feasibly, you could sign 12 of your county team on central contracts, wiping out a lot of budget for you to use in the contracts phase. It would massively overbalance it.

[finney]

My concern isn't so much about online, because I rarely use it these days. I'm considering it more from the financial stand point. Feasibly, you could sign 12 of your county team on central contracts, wiping out a lot of budget for you to use in the contracts phase. It would massively overbalance it.

Oh right yes, I see what you're getting at now.

Personally, once I've earned the international job I just find having to deal with my domestic team a massive inconvenience and would like to see a restoration of the feature that allowed me to quit my domestic team at this stage, so this method of 'cheating' would be of no interest to me, but I can see how it could be abused by those that retain an interest in their domestic team beyond this point.

However, if it's not an online game then anybody choosing to abuse such a feature in that way is not having an impact on anybody else. It seems like a fairly unsatisfying way to play the game to me, but if that's what somebody chooses to do, then as long as it doesn't affect anybody else's enjoyment of their own game, does it really matter?

Most games have loopholes that can be exploited, in this game you could save and keep reloading until you win, in football manager you could add a manager to another team and make them buy all your unwanted players for massively over-inflated prices etc. It's just that most people who want to get some pleasure from the game choose not to abuse these features.

I just don't think that those of us who want to use a good new feature in the spirit it was intended should be denied that improvement because somebody else wants to manipulate it to cheat, particularly when their actions have no consequence for the rest of us.

I suppose you could even include at as an optional feature that could be turned on or off before you start your career.

[KK Star]

Can there be an option to alter the number of Tests, ODIs & T20s. When you progress to about 2030-40, we notice teams like Bangladesh are stronger and maybe WI weaker so you really want that feature to edit no. of matches. I will appreciate if there are more friendly matches for nations.

We can add more tours with associate nations.

[Angus]

Can there be an option to alter the number of Tests, ODIs & T20s. When you progress to about 2030-40, we notice teams like Bangladesh are stronger and maybe WI weaker so you really want that feature to edit no. of matches. I will appreciate if there are more friendly matches for nations.

We can add more tours with associate nations.

I think for the world cup you should be able to choose any team. we should have the cplt20, ram slam for more t20 comps. Also there should be a player mode e,g your kevin pietersen and you pick and choose what tournaments you play in, who your sponsor is.

[DaveK93]

I think before we start adding random T20 competitions, lets work on bringing in some more domestic systems. Would balance out the international game a bit.

[Sureshot]

I think before we start adding random T20 competitions, lets work on bringing in some more domestic systems. Would balance out the international game a bit.

This is very much our thoughts about adding more competitions to the game, we'll add complete first class structures within a country, rather than lots of 20 over comps at once. Okay, we didn't do that with India, but that's quite different to other countries.

Some good ideas in here guys, keep them coming.

[gtbunbury]

I agree. The addition of more domestic competitions (e.g. South Africa and New Zealand) is preferable to a whole bunch of T20 competitions that will, fundamentally, be the same - plus, with the addition of domestic structures, you'll likely get some of these competitions anyway.

Some form of A-team structure operating concurrently would be interesting for international careers, especially if you want to look at players without waiting for a tour to Zimbabwe or Bangladesh.

[Raver]

I agree. The addition of more domestic competitions (e.g. South Africa and New Zealand) is preferable to a whole bunch of T20 competitions that will, fundamentally, be the same - plus, with the addition of domestic structures, you'll likely get some of these competitions anyway.

Some form of A-team structure operating concurrently would be interesting for international careers, especially if you want to look at players without waiting for a tour to Zimbabwe or Bangladesh.

I agree, but i would like to see these added domestic competition combined with some options around the shape of the season. NZ for instance has such a small number of domestic teams that the current structure of domestic cricket in this country results in barely any cricket in a season! 6 teams, 1 round.