Questions for Chris

[GrahamB]

I hope you don't mind me starting this thread Chris.

- how much does age affect an older player's performance? Is there a set age where deterioration kicks in?

Another question.
Will coaching technique have any benefit at all for players older than 24, or is it a waste of time using it on them?

[MarksNotts]

just to back up the excellent question above by Graham, there has long been an unwritten rule among the ICC community that technique coaching is usually only used up to the age of 24/25, is this correct?, or does it only benefit youth players?, i think it would save a lot of expensive coaching points if we knew the correct age bracket for technique coaching.

[Chris Child]

Net coaching is useful at any age. Technique works until players reach their peak (usually at 26/27). Individual skill training (back-foot etc.) is still effective after that.

[MarksNotts]

Many many thanks Chris.

[GrahamB]

Many many thanks Chris.

Yes - thanks Chris.

[Blocky]

Chris..

In every single simulator I've ever played, there are easy ways to check the "value" in skills that each player possesses. You can work out their potential, where they're good and plan accordingly, your game has never had this - I'd love to know how strong/weak my players were in respective areas and should be something I as a coach/captain should know about my players.

Secondly, every simulator I've ever played has had a good database editor which adds way more playability to the game, will you ever release a database editor that will allow you to edit attributes of playing staff too? Some of us like to think "What if I was playing for New Zealand and had the same skill as Bradman"

Thanks
David.

[Chris Child]

Player Abilities

This is great. Really appreciate the ideas here.

Just to address one for now that seems to be generating some debate.

Player abilities - I've always said that you shouldn't be able to see these because you don't get that sort of information in real life. Half the fun of Cricket Captain is working out who your best players are. If you could just read off their abilities it would remove all that guess work and make the game pretty dull. Players have individual abilities for all sorts of things internally (such as test, ODI, one day etc.) and you get an impression of some of their strengths and weaknesses. Everything else you can get by watching the players play - just as you would in real life. Take note of the play & miss percentage; watch where they score their runs. Obviously it would be easy to make these all visible, but where's the fun in that? Would England have picked Rampracash for years if they knew he'd always freeze when he was playing a test match? I guess it's still debateable whether he's over that - the computer seems to want to give him a run this year...

Editor - this is related to the above. If you can see players’ abilities in the editor then that's the intrigue gone again. Also - the challenge is to take what you have and build them up through coaching etc. I think you'd get bored of 100% players pretty quickly and not play again. There is obviously scope for a limited editor which wouldn't ruin this (or the on-line game) and we've always had it on a "wish list". I can see a use for limited editors obviously, but we always have a limited budget for features and it's never quite hit my top priority.

There are lots of other points in this thread and they're all going on the "wish list".

[MarksNotts]

Chris
My question regards ridiculous high totals on worn 4th day pitches, i know it has been mentioned a few times but it happens on a regular basis, all of us that play and watch cricket know how hard and rare it is to score 300+ on a 4/5th day pitch and when it does happen it usually sets a record.
Is this something you are trying to address for future versions or is it just my bowling tactics?, i regularly bowl sides out for 250-300 in the first innings, then bat and get a good lead and set the opposition 300+ with my bowlers rubbing their hands in anticipation on a wearing 4th day wicket only to see them wacked all over the park and the opposition scoring 350 -400.

[Chris Child]

4th Innings total

This is a tricky one. I've seen this posted a few times and have experienced it myself to some extent, but not enough to be unrealistic. It's a very fine balance between over-doing pitch conditions and getting these sort of scores. In general I think it's about right, but we probably do need to introduce an extra level of wear in pitches for the end of matches given the number of posts on the subject.

Something that clouds the issue is when you do get a few low scores in the first innings (probably with some cloud cover if you'll excuse the very bad pun). If three innings are out of the way in the first 2 days then you can end up playing a 4th innings on a 3rd day pitch in blistering sun and scoring heavily (as you should). The recent England vs. NZ test was an example of this, and there are lots of other rain affected draws with the same sort of pattern.

So, yes, I'll certainly look at it as it's probably one of the few remaining areas of the match engine that's not quite right.

[GrahamB]

This is a tricky one. I've seen this posted a few times and have experienced it myself to some extent, but not enough to be unrealistic. It's a very fine balance between over-doing pitch conditions and getting these sort of scores. In general I think it's about right, but we probably do need to introduce an extra level of wear in pitches for the end of matches given the number of posts on the subject.

Something that clouds the issue is when you do get a few low scores in the first innings (probably with some cloud cover if you'll excuse the very bad pun). If three innings are out of the way in the first 2 days then you can end up playing a 4th innings on a 3rd day pitch in blistering sun and scoring heavily (as you should). The recent England vs. NZ test was an example of this, and there are lots of other rain affected draws with the same sort of pattern.

So, yes, I'll certainly look at it as it's probably one of the few remaining areas of the match engine that's not quite right.

Thanks for taking another look at this Chris. I feel that in most fourth innings situations, it should be more difficult to score runs. Perhaps if you coded in a slightly slower scoring rate capability for fourth innings, it could help.

I've not played the subcontinent teams with their spinners yet, but did you manage to fix the spinner dominance problem that occurred in international games?
I'm quietly optimistic because Panesar didn't do all that well against me in the England v NZ series.

I used the technique training on Greg Hay while he was on the England tour. By the time the home series came up against the Windies, he'd changed from a very defensive batsman to a defensive one.
If a young player undergoing technique training gets horribly out of form, should one switch to net training, or is it better to persist with the technique training?

[GrahamB]

Perhaps the fourth innings coding isn't too bad. Did you change it at all Chris? I think you just need to make scoring runs quickly more difficult than for other innings (as mentioned previously).

[Sureshot]

Chris, how easy or difficult would it be to implement a Duckworth-Lewis system in the next ICC game for rain affected OD/T20 games?

Would it require a license? I'm also presuming it would be quite a complicated piece of code.

[MarksNotts]

Chris, My question regards technique training, i read in another forum that technique training does not work on youngsters who play in the 1st team, is this true ?, ie will a talented youngster (say for example Stuart Broad) need technique training if he is playing regularly for the 1st eleven ?, or is technique better for youngsters who havent broken into 1st eleven cricket.

[Myrmecophaga]

Chris, how easy or difficult would it be to implement a Duckworth-Lewis system in the next ICC game for rain affected OD/T20 games?

Would it require a license? I'm also presuming it would be quite a complicated piece of code.

D/L is very simple, as far as I am aware. Certainly is conceptually.

You have a simple table/formula for the "Batting Potential" of a team with x overs and y wickets, where 100% potential is 50 overs, 10 wickets, and then you just scale up totals using that.

[jonnyboy21]

Chris, assuming you release a patch, could you please put Middlesex's new pink and blank "harlequins" style OD kit in, and also their pink T20 kit, along with other teams' T20 kits? I know it's not essential but it would be nice to have the updated kits in the highlights. Thanks.