Feature Requests

[Slowcoach]

Needs to include every Test and ODI player who has ever played to make All Time Great Series more interesting.
Current selection of players in All Time Greats is so poor it is not worth playing.

[Isura]

I'd love to see a facegen technology used in the same. It would really add life to the regen players in long careers, and doesn't have copyright issues like using real player photos.

[footy99]

I second bringing back the 2-player game. And also being able to change the players' names. Both were possible in earlier versions and we used them a lot.

Of the other ideas mentioned here, some way of measuring wicket keeping ability would be very handy. Otherwise I like how it is not overly complicated currently and I'd be wary of adding too many features which might push it that way.

[Isura]

I agree with not adding too many new player attributes. The match engine is just about perfect (except CPU AI should be more aggressive and creative IMO). I want to see the game focus on adding more management features like deeper contracts, more leagues, more training options, controlling youth academy and 2nd XI teams.

[Raver]

Yes I agree with Isura on that. Its a remarkably well balanced game engine i think.

[bestie_96]

My two cents:

- Second teams. Ok, they kind of exist, but I feel like it would be nice to have a whole squad of youth players so you can develop players without having to throw them into your first team. Would allow you to call up a reserve WK in the instances that all your first team ones are injured, too, which seems to cost me about 60 byes per innings.
- A teams at international level. Pretty obvious and self-explanatory.
- Fielding coaching - nice addition but it's flawed. I would rather have the option for the whole team to undergo fielding coaching, especially when it's hard to judge which players will be automatically thrown in at slip. I seem to have a heck of a lot of dropped catches despite going for loads of coaching, so I can only assume I pick the wrong players. Maybe the whole team could undergo training at the cost of some of your other "normal" coaching.
- Run outs. Happen too often for me in FC/Tests, including when players are playing defensively when it should almost never happen. Should also be mainly a thing that happens for inexperienced players, when it seems to happen to me all the time with any players, although I get this is bad luck!
- Retiring hurt. Happens waaaaayyy too often, when in practice it is pretty rare - in most cases, guys can still bat, even if it's just blocking out (Hameed vs India, O'Keefe vs Sri Lanka). Should also not happen that a guy gets hit by a medium-paced bouncer and then be out for 4 weeks! More likely for players to get injured bowling or fielding.
- Agree I'd like to see more on wicket keepers and how their keeping adds to the team - also maybe how keeping affects their batting (AB, Sanga). Could even just be a brief summary on the personal page - "good keeping vs spin", "struggles diving" or whatever. Or just "excellent", "competent" and "poor" - and with coaching to improve (see Bairstow).
- Also agree above about being able to multi-coach all-rounders. Seems with young players, you have to choose which discipline to develop. Sam Curran in my save averages about 28 with the ball and 26 with the bat. Quite possible that's how he'll go long-term (although I doubt it, kid is special) but it would have been nice to develop his batting as much as his bowling. I guess you can alternate between both, but it's hard to judge how much a guy is improving and so when to change from bowling to batting.

[AGPO]

1. Base the award of international contracts on firm and appearances rather than the current formula, something like the current incremental contracts would be great. Perhaps even leave it to player discretion and give greater control of training for centrally contracted players. Moeen hasn't played a test in three years in my current save but still has a central contract. Borthwick has played every one and isn't included.

2. Rather than coaching individual players, allow us to sign specialist coaches and assign them to work on particular jobs with the whole team or sections of it. For example bringing in a specialist to work with your keepers or spinners, or a fielding coach. Perhaps even a mentor to work with a specific player.

3. As a chinaman bowler, please can we be included?

4. Make the MCC start of season game more interesting. At the moment it's just like the university games but it would be great to see a team made up of veterans, fringe internationals and young prospects. Perhaps let the computer pick a squad with the best XI without central contracts, plus the best regen from that year. It would make it a nice bonus for winning the championship to test your side against the best of the rest.

5. This last one is wishlisting, but the ability to create a player with your own attributes at the start so that you can be part of the team. Just picking bowling and batting style and having points to put into each would be great.

[hitthestump]

Some great ideas in this thread. Just thought I'd cut and paste some thoughts I made in last year's forum:

1) I think player regeneration is a key issue for playing long saves and the main thing I'd love to see changed. Perhaps we could make all regen players youth teamers (aged 16-19) and develop it so that improvement is much more gradual. In that way players will slowly grow into becoming international class players and the timeframe would seem more realistic. Weaker nations with more limited resources might select such players earlier but England, Australia, India and so on will probably not select them until 4-5 seasons after they have played domestic cricket. The odd freak - like Amir - might be ready to play top level cricket at 17 but this should be very rare in the game. Some nice additions this year but if the database contained more real-life young players (at least the full squads for the U-19 WC, for instance) it would negate the need for too many regen players too quickly.

2) The setting of board or club targets and the possibility of getting sacked seems to me a very simple way to improve the longevity, realism and competitive edge of the game.

3) It's clear that, nowadays at least, groundsmen prepare pitches to suit home teams in international cricket as well as domestic cricket. When playing as a test nation you should probably have some input into what pitches you would like when playing at home.

4) Playing as an international team at home you should also be able to have knowledge of the pitch and weather conditions before you pick your 12 man team for a test match. Currently in the game, home nations are actually at a disadvantage compared to touring teams because their squad is that much smaller - this is odd because in reality home nations benefit from the knowledge and resources of playing at home. For example, if you only have room for one spinner in your 12 player selection but then end up playing on a spinning pitch the touring team (which has 15 or 18 players to choose from) can select two spinners. A very simple alternative would be to allow you to select a 15 man squad for every game.

5) Pitches could be rated for speed as well as bounce and turn. Quick pitches can be great for fast bowlers on day one even when the bounce is true (like many Australian wickets) whereas a slow pitch, even with variable bounce, is easier to bat on. I think this would add quite a bit to the match engine!

6) It would be nice to have more variety in the players, especially bowlers. For example, in the game a RFM is always more likely to take wickets by swinging the ball in overcast conditions. But in reality some fast medium bowlers barely swing the ball at all and take their wickets through variations of pace, cutters and so on (Mostifizur Rahman seems to be the latest of these). The batsmen currently have preferences but the bowlers aren't differentiated at all. It would be good to have a sense of difference between different players (eg. likes to bowl yorkers, good death bowler, preference for bowling to lefties etc etc).

7) Training is limited at the moment and its tricky to gauge its effectiveness. Maybe just a series of coach reports would be a quick fix for this and give the players more individuality - a coach report might tell you, for example, that a batsman has improved his back foot defence but is getting old and his running between the wickets has detiorated. Or perhaps the ability to select or even view net sessions? You could then have data as to how many times a player nicked off after facing 60 balls or see what other strengths and weaknesses they had against different types of bowling.

Cheers!

These are fantastic suggestions, can't disagree with a single one.

[Cam]

I like that list, however i think point 4 is one of the best made. As Captaining an International Team we should be able to select what pitch we want.
I am currently playing as Aust, and in 2024 i have numerous good spinners, but i cant get a good turning deck, its frustrating.

I would love to see the selection of the A team. This has been mentioned on this forum for probably the last 10 years ( yes i have been playing this game since 2001 or 2002) i love the game (my wife hates it). i cant understand why there hasn't been any major developments in the game. Being able to control more things at the club like ticket prices, stadium development, player development etc.

An explanation on Training and what it does for what age people would also be great, i just do the same thing on the players that i have the last 10+ years and i seems to work.

I love this game, but it is getting a bit stale in how we play it year in year out.

[Peter A]

I. Player history

List the teams that a player has represented in their career.

II. Fielding statistics

When a player is fielding, it should be possible to view the number of times they misfielded, dropped a catch or made a good stop.

It is extremely difficult to know whether a player could benefit from fielding training. One possibility would be to display a "fielding attribute". But another solution, which I prefer, would be simply to extend the statistics which the game already shows. When a player is batting, we have always been able to view the number of times they were dropped, played and missed or miscued a shot. Why not display similar statistics when a player is fielding?

III. National team selection

National team selection should be more sensitive to performance as opposed to inherent skill.

Of course, there are limits to that proposition: too much sensitivity to form would mean an unrealistic degree of variation in selections. However, too much sensitivity to inherent skill may also produce unrealistic results. To take one example from my current save, is it realistic that England would never once have called up a twenty-something wicketkeeper who averaged 44 in first-class matches and 58 in one-day matches (over 200 matches combined)?

In statistical terms, I suggest that the distribution for national team selection should have "fatter tails". It should be more probable that outstanding performers are selected notwithstanding inferior skill.

[beedub]

Some changes i would love to see, some more realistic than others.

1. Bowlers increasing and decreasing speed as there careers develop or end. (ala bowler in his 30's goes from RMF to RFM etc)

2. Some form of praise and critise players to potential boost form or increase performance.

3. Better database of record keeping for the club you coach (a list of players first class runs and wickets just for the club not all the clubs they have played for.)

4. Improved kits especially for ODI and t20's

5. Pitch conditions that improve for batsmen during a match especially, pitch conditions only ever seem to deteriorate which isn't always the case in real life

[hitthestump]

Training is a bit random at the moment. It needs a little more guidance and depth. A coach report on certain players would be amazing.

[Michael H]

These are fantastic suggestions, can't disagree with a single one.

Thanks! The match engine is brilliant but I hope some of these changes - and lots of the other fantastic suggestions on this thread - can be added for 2017.

[Raver]

I agree. These have the feeling of changes that might not be too involved, yet have a fairly profound improvement on the game.

[Blade007]

Winning the world cup in either T20 or ODI does nothing to the Ranking.

I suggest the you get some sort of reward for winning a Global Event