2009 Features Requests

[pyjamarama]

.

I am a huge fan of this game, especially this version but to make it even better it would be fantastic if...

I would definitely like to see domestic leagues for other countries, definitely Aus.

Higher scores in 20-20. More 6's and 50 plus individual scores (even 100's)

Seperate ODI and test squads for tours.

Lions tours and development squads

Knowledge of where you are playing prior to a game and the conditions expected. Never quite sure who to put in a 12 man squad. Also, the game never tells you the venue you are playing at.

Better use of occassional bowlers. Mal Loye and Yousuf bowl about 30 overs between them for Lancs? You also see these types of bowlers given the new ball!

More realistic default AI squads, the squad that NZ sent to England in 08 on the game bore practically no resemblance to the one that was actually sent. Vettori was in the squad but wasn't picked?!

More situation aware batting, particularly AI sides. You should not be farming the strike when needing 8 off 3 balls for instance.

Away teams should always call at the coin toss.

AI teams to use nightwatchmen.

May seem a strange thing to say but theres not enough rain on the game. You never get rain affected one day games, no results, D/L's etc.

Option to move county during game.

Option to have yourself as a player in the game, you'd feel more like a captain if you were actually playing in the game!

Changes/alterations option to one day kits each season.

Third umpire referrals on run outs, as well as run outs that are not just direct hits.

ICC Trophy, world 20-20.

Negotiating schedules with tourists/home country. eg 3 tests, 7 odi's 2 t20's. Not just the default 3 test, 5 odi and 1 t20.

Batsmen crossing for caught dismissals.

Less lbw's and clean bowleds and more wkt keeper/slip catches.

A wider vocab for Aggers!!

Retirements being announced prior to end of season so youth players can be groomed, signings planned.

The option to spend more on coach/physio at the start season screen. Why can't you spend more than £50,000 if you have it??

This is a personal gripe but I wish that when you are playing a county/International game, your domestic side's players are looked after in your absence with physio sessions etc. Whenever I come off England duty, about nine or ten of my Middlesex players are down to like 1 bar of fitness!!

[rishi]

very nice points up there!!

[Rickripper]

Something I noticed that isn't that realistic: A shy at the stumps will always result in a direct hit, I've never seen a batsman be short, but the ball missing the stumps. It's like you have a field of AB De Villiers.

[harsh.wasu]

ipl

hey how about adding a whole new format of the ipl

[qpeedore]

That would involve money to buy the license. I'm guessing it's not cheap, and it's very possible that the extra cost would come down to us, the consumer.

[aus5892]

There will possibly be new leagues present in next year's version, depending on the licensing.

[Manickam]

there should the ball's speed
more injuries
higher scores in 20-20
better training facility

[Hootington]

I dont know if this is possible, and may be complete rubbish. But i was think about a create your own player type thing. Its probably not a great thing for a manager type game, but it would be a cool addition if you could actually be the captain. You could start off with random skills that you can re-roll, and choose your player, ie, be a bowler, or a batter, or an allrounder. Then you can level up as you perform better, and eventually become the england captain, or whatever country your from. You could have stats like amount of spin, swing, pace, bounce, accuracy, aggresive/defensive shots and then specials like if your a leggy, the specials would be the variation deliveries like a googly or a flipper. I dont know what you think about this idea, but i have a thought of things to build on this idea, so reply to this if you think its any good, or just ignore if its rubbish

[tenpoundfortytwo]

Just had a thought, though i guess it might have been mentioned... what about the speed of the pitch? We've already got turn and movement indicators so why not speed?

Faster pitches would generally mean quicker runs but combined with the pitch moving about would mean people getting skittled for low scores. Slower pitches might be harder to score runs on but also harder for fast bowlers to get wickets.

Places like Sri Lanka, notorious for having slow and low pitches could then be replicated and so could grounds like the WACA and Old Trafford- rapid pitches.

Not sure if this might be a lot of work in terms of game balance, but would definately be cool.

[Chewitt]

1. I'd love to see you have a backroom staff, where by you could have specified coaches to help with player developent and perhaps the ability to have one of your coaches be a 'scout' and give you a report on the next team you're playing. Ie. Best players, in form players, injuries and unavailalbe players.

2. I don't know about others but i'd find a vice-captain feature very useful indeed, especially when it comes to field settings, i'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to fielding layouts so to be able to ask an assistant to do this for me/give advice would be a massive help. This could also be expanded into asking him for his view on the squad, performances etc.

3. The ability to name seperate squads for ODIs and Test Matches, this can't be too hard to implement and links well with my 4th point.

4. There should the ability to recognise specialist ODI, 20-20 and Test Match players and what individual player strengths/weaknesses in each format of the game.

That's all for now.

[Screenwriters CC]

Lots of great suggestions so far. With so much time dedicated to the game from all those who play it, it is extremely good to see a thread where players of the game can submit improvements to the designers themselves.

My suggestions focus more upon game features rather than game mechanics and here are those that I think are important:

1) When playing as a County Team, I would like to see the seconds team have a proper fixtures list with the ability of seeing scorecards from each match, rather than relying on looking at the averages or individual scores of each player separately. In this you could also see which youth team members are making it in to the extra spaces within the seconds as well, before having the option of signing them at a later stage.

2) Once a county season is finished and your players go off to represent their countries during the winter, I would like to see a feature that makes it much more easier to find out how they all did, rather than going back to each country’s tours and looking at each match or by checking your players scores individually. Possibly the introduction of an International Players Winter Tours page/box could be looked in to, stating the matches your players were picked for, their scores and if they were man of the match for instance.

3) I would join many of the other people within this thread in that I would now like to see the winners of the domestic Twenty20 tournaments (and the IPL if added) enter The Twenty20 Champions League. And the domestic English (and West Indies) (if their domestic league is added) Twenty20 Cup Champions also entering the Stanford Super Series alongside the international teams.

4) This one is possibly particularly important for the next game, if it is released next year. The domestic season in English cricket is about to have some drastic changes as it moves from 2009 in to 2010. In 2010 the English Premier League taking over from the Pro40 Leagues (which will be disbanded) and the Twenty20 Cup will moving to later in the year (although it will still be that tournament that denotes who goes through to the Champions League). Within the game, I would like to see the 2010 season and onwards reflect these changes, although the game having to run one type of season in 2009 and then a different type for the rest of it, may be quite a large problem, I really don't know? If the EPL is added of course, more overseas players must be made available to the counties just for this tournament.

5) I also think it a very good point made many times above, that if your international player is called up or injured, you should be able to sign a replacement. I also think to avoid these scenarios, you should be able to ascertain the prospect of overseas call-ups before you decide whether you want to sign the player or not. On the international players page, it could possibly state that a player will be called up during your season, is likely to be called up, will possibly be called up, probably won't be called up or is not currently featured in the country's plans as well as providing the dates of any call-ups/the games they would miss for you. Actual counties would not sign a player without knowledge of this, so I think it right that we have it in the game. Again not sure how easy or hard this would be to implement.

6) At the end of a domestic season, it lists the tournament winners and a very few of the best performers. I would like to see more stats such as most runs and wickets for each different format of the game plus the most victims by a keeper again in each format as well as an overall tally in each discipline. I know these stats can be looked up on the player details page, but there is a sense of pride if a player of yours makes it on to that end of season box!

7) I also think a nice International Feature would be to have the ICC awards every year to include all of their usual awards such as Batsman, Bowlers, Captain, Emerging Player of the year as well as naming their Test and ODI Teams of the year. If this is integrated in to the game, I think it equally important that the nominees be named as well.

8) Regarding the players’ profile page, season-by-season stats would be a useful addition as well, rather than just “current”, “last season” and “career”. I would also like to see it list the awards/tournaments they have won during their career.

9) I have to say that I agree on the rained off matches, no results and D/L suggestions as well, which have been commented on many times already…

10) I would also like to see the yearly PCA awards added to the end of the English Domestic Season as well, with all of their awards, teams of the year, MVPs and the sixes league (which of course doesn't have to be sponsored by Sky within this game!). And referencing point eight, with any awards won then being shown within the winner's profile page as well. And linking to the PCA and possibly the strangest request although it would be a very nice feature, would be for the PCA MVP Rankings be available all year-round, but that would involve learning and implementing their formula.

11) Several teams (both domestic and international) now have an entirely different Twenty20 kit compared to their one-day kit. Will these be implemented as well?

12) Going for realism, longer and more substantial injuries could be added in to the game. Some injuries as you know can be season length and older players (especially bowlers) could be more susceptible to these.

I have to also add that I would support the previous suggestions of the away team calling the coin toss, the county caps (and going along with Point 8 again, if awarded, it should be mentioned on their profile and for which team(s)), the ability to be fired from your team due to bad performance/deciding to move county during the game, higher scores in OD and T20 formats, some players (but not all) announcing their retirement before it happens (for example: a player announces that this will be his last season or that he will retire at the end of a season) and the hiring of specific coaching staff with all of the players benefiting from training. Going with my Point 12, the recovery from injuries could depend on the ability of your strength and conditioning coach for instance and users would get an estimate from this coach once an injury happens. The reliability of the coach's estimate again could come down to their own abilities/strengths and experience.

[Chewitt]

Very good suggestions there SWCC, however from what i understand the game seems to be produced on a fairly limited budget which is a shame as there's so much room to make it an even better game. So i imagine new features will have to be implemented in dribs and drabs. Of course they may prove me wrong with the next realise but i remain sceptical.

[Sureshot]

5) I also think it a very good point made many times above, that if your international player is called up or injured, you should be able to sign a replacement. I also think to avoid these scenarios, you should be able to ascertain the prospect of overseas call-ups before you decide whether you want to sign the player or not. On the international players page, it could possibly state that a player will be called up during your season, is likely to be called up, will possibly be called up, probably won't be called up or is not currently featured in the country's plans as well as providing the dates of any call-ups/the games they would miss for you. Actual counties would not sign a player without knowledge of this, so I think it right that we have it in the game. Again not sure how easy or hard this would be to implement.

I thought that players weren't available for selection if they faced international call ups throughout the season?

10) I would also like to see the yearly PCA awards added to the end of the English Domestic Season as well, with all of their awards, teams of the year, MVPs and the sixes league (which of course doesn't have to be sponsored by Sky within this game!). And referencing point eight, with any awards won then being shown within the winner's profile page as well. And linking to the PCA and possibly the strangest request although it would be a very nice feature, would be for the PCA MVP Rankings be available all year-round, but that would involve learning and implementing their formula.

I imagine that something like the Sky Sports Sixes League is copyrighted. It's an interesting idea though and would be a good side-feature of the game.

[Screenwriters CC]

I thought that players weren't available for selection if they faced international call ups throughout the season?

Thanks for the feedback Sureshot. In answer to your question, most overseas players still make it on to the available transfer/signings list at the end/beginning of the season (when choosing your new players) and some that will definitely receive a call-up if their international team faces games during the domestic season. Some however you can be unsure of (especially when you're at the stage of all new/computer made players) and that's why I think it should specify their international status at that stage (in the way suggested in my previous post above) as well bringing in the ability to find a replacement if a player does get called up during your season.

[Sureshot]

Maybe knowing the fixtures of their countries for the next season would be useful?