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!
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!
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