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International Test Cricket

 

This page will detail all the features you would like to see in Cricket Manager (my comments are in italics). Please look at the current features planned and existing wish lists. Please also bear in mind the game will be based on International Test Cricket before submitting a wish list. I don't promise to include all wish lists in Cricket Manager but will look at all suggestions received.

Matthew Partridge suggested

bulletOpposing computer managers have different personalities this will affect their:
- 1 day and 4 Day decisions (declarations etc)
- Buying decisions (whether they will go for youth or spend their money on stars)
- Financial Behaviour (will they concentrate on squad building or expand the club stadium)
(Reason : Like in the game Railroad Tycoon variable AI personalities will make the game more challenging).

I like this idea of different syle A.I.s although I would probbably base it mainly on match decisions as opposed to financial ones.
bulletOption to vary how much time the bowlers take to bowl (i.e. you could tell the bowlers to try to bowl the minimum number of overs possible if you needed to stop the opposition in a 4 day match).
You will though have to bowl a minimum number of overs per day but suppose you could be praying for bad light. Also possibility of fines for slow over rates.
bulletNeed to deal with media.
bulletGive Pep talks to players.
bulletGeneral man management.
bulletVariable difficulty levels (e.g. an 'Tyro' level will have the simulation biased 25% in favour of the player, 'easy' will have it biased '10%' in favour of the player, 'county' level will have it biased 5% in favour of the player, 'international' level will have no bias while 'legend' level will have it biased 10% in favour of the AI. Obviously this could be tied in with some final point score with players on the easy level getting only 50% of their required points (and having to retire early), players on the county level getting 80% of their points, international level 100% and players on the 'legends' level getting 105% of their points and getting a special bonus league, comprising 10 of the best teams of all time) Perhaps a version with just the easy level could double up as a demo, or the unregistered version.
Had already consider a weighting option for skill levels.

Finance Option (if a finance model is included)

bulletAbility to hire an assistant to oversee financial aspect.
bulletAbility to deal in club stocks and shares.
bulletAbility to take over and merge with other clubs.
bulletAbility to negotiate loans.
bulletAbility to invest in ground safety (and consequent fines for disasters!)
bulletAbility to invest in shops, pyjama strip retailing, and sales of video highlights.

What about: Ultimate Cricket Manager, Cricket Boss, Country Chairman Unlimited, Total Cricket, Sensible Cricket, Virtual Cricket Manager for the name?

Aaron and Jono suggested

Sides from non-test playing countries (i.e. Kenya, UAE, USA). Nice idea but harder to get accurate player details. Would only happen if someone actually sent in the data.

End of Season Awards for Most Runs, Most Wickets, Best fielder, Best All Round Player etc. Also Man of the Match awards. Some of these may well appear.

Include individual umpires in the game etc. Steve Bucknor, Dickie Bird. Different Umpires will have a differing view on LBW decisions and run outs and will add a new dimension to the game. A nice idea to have different umpires but would not necessarily make much of a difference in your tactics.

Conduct a Pre-Season tournament prior to the Season proper based upon the wildly successful Cricket Max from NZ - two innings per side, each innings has ten overs and double points are scored if the ball is hit within a special zone within the ground. Teams generally have to score 10 runs an over to be competitive. Definitely not. Cricket Max is not proper cricket and is practically unknown outside of New Zealand.

There should be a curator facility within the game - order your own pitch for your opponents. This idea is one I have already considered and will probably implement.

Indoor Stadiums - a guaranteed result every time. They don't exist in real life!

Crowd numbers accurate to the performance of the team. Revenue is raised from the sale of tickets. If a finance model is included in the game this would happen.

There should be a Captaincy option within the game. Different players will have a different outlook to the game. For example, since S Waugh took over as Australian captain, they have played more aggressively than under Taylor. This can only work for computer controlled teams as you are effectively captain for your own side. Definitely an idea worth pursuing so playing different teams may require different tactics.

There should also be an assistant coach option - the computer gives you hints. Nice idea that might be worth considering.

Option to decrease the size of the ground for one day matches. Would not exist an option as doesn't really add anything to the game.

Campbell suggested

I think one of the most interesting aspects of a management simulation is player development. A few general comments/queries

1. In addition to the visible player attributes, there should be several random 'hidden' attributes ('mental toughness'; consistency). These should have sufficient effect that over the medium term an astute manager can surmise which of his or her players are really worth more (or less) to the team than their skill levels suggest. Would love to to be able to include hidden values like these but difficulty would be in accurately assigning correct values to ALL existing players in the game.

2. The effect of training and experience on skill should be 'uneven' rather than predictable (i.e. some youngsters develop their full potential relatively quickly, others take more time or don't quite get there at all). It should also be possible for a player to go "backwards" if they do particularly badly, just as a very high score or a bag of wickets may lead to a relatively high increase in skill. Training would never hopefully be predictable. You will not be able to continually train a player and just improve him. As a players gets older/better it will be much harder to improve him. Training without proper match experience would also be ineffective.

3. This is an aspect of 1. - form should be highly variable (as at present) but the extent to which skill varies for a player should be dependent to some extent on the 'hidden' variable of consistency. The other hidden variable I mentioned (mental toughness) would be relevant in situations which are especially tense. mentally 'frail' players would see their skill level drop significantly (along a sliding scale). All I have to do is be easily able to tell programmatically when a match is tense and players can toughen up or go to pieces. Would be a great idea if it can be achieved.

Sean Tomasinski suggested

Since it is a World League the league could be split up into Geographical Divisions. Could be setup similar to the NBA Basketball with Conferences or have the top teams from each Geographical Division into a UEFA type league.

Not sure how NBA works but don't want a system like NFL where you play the same teams every season. With a proper league structure and relegation/promotion you can see how well you are improving by the teams you play.

An import limit on players from different countries e.g. 3

Not a bad idea as it would encourage you to maybe use youth players rather that just 'buying' the best players .

A confidence or morale stat would be good. That way an out of form player can be down for awhile and may need to be dropped to regain confidence and form, for example high confidence can give a temporary increase to the overall skill rating, Average confidence keeps it the same and low confidence lowers the skill rating temporarily that way confidence can have a true reflection on form. And confidence can be regulated by Team Form, Personal Form, Injury Status. That way a champion winning team would be hard to beat as there players would have high confidence like the old West Indies teams who were always expected to win or the recent English teams who have been plagued by bad results

Morale already exists in ITC and it will be carried forward and improved upon in Cricket Manager.

John Clemens suggested

How about sponsors and upgrading stadiums, television deals...ticket prices. Unhappy fans due to high ticket prices or no TV coverage. Also like soccer management games have many financial options.

Repeating myself here - Not sure about this as financial is not really the realm of a cricket manager. I know this option is common in football management games but I want to concentrate on the cricket simulation side first not add-ons.

I thing you should go for a new modern professional look rather than the OLD ITC look - it should be more like ICC without the graphics of course. CD-ROM prices should be considerably lower.

I would love to have a better look to the game but I am not a graphic artist. If someone offers to help with graphics then hopefully the look can be improved. I doubt it will be in the same league as ICC as they had professional graphical artists. Anyway graphics do not make a game the gameplay does.

Not sure what you mean by CD-ROM prices should be considerably lower. If I do it on CD it will not be a commercial print run so I would have to charge more for CD-ROM. I am hoping to keep it down to a reasonable size so it can be downloaded. The final price will reflect what I reckon the game is worth considering the time and effort I will have put in to it.

Daniel Cumming suggested

This is an idea I had a couple of days ago when playing ITC. I simulated about 1000 tests, and as expected, Atherton averaged just under 39, Stewart averaged just under 41, etc. Now this may sound a bit silly, but this is very predictable, and almost too accurate in a way. Sure, in one series a player with a batting skill of 50 will average much less than this, but over say 100 tests the accuracy of the simulation means you know basically what is going to happen.

This perhaps doesn't affect ITC as much as it could affect Cricket Manager. From what I read on your webpages, it sounds every bit like a game you would expect to buy from a huge software company, very detailed and very accurate. The reason it could affect Cricket Manager more is because ITC is basically just a "what if" game, great for those scenarios but with no time frame, whereas CM will have a clear time frame. This means that if there is a young player who is say, 17 years old then you will instantly know how good this player is by looking at his skill. After all, Brian Lara doesn't have "Skill 55" stamped on his forehead. now I'm not sure whether you were already planning to use this idea or not but perhaps instead of a skill rating, you would see a different rating, which would be how good, as a manager, you perceive this player to be. For instance, J.Bloggs smashes a triple century in 200 balls and as a result of this you perceive him as the next Bradman, but really this is a freak occurrence and he will average 5 in the rest of his career, and so on. This rating you see may be higher, lower, or exactly the same as the "real" skill rating but the point is, you just don't know.

Of course then people might say "this makes the game totally luck based" but there is a way around that too. As your manager score (in the features already) raises, your ability to judge players raises. When you start a new game, you are just a rookie coach and will sometimes make bad decisions through no fault of your own, just like real life.

Now I know this will probably be nigh on impossible to fully implement into the game for programming reasons, but I personally think it would make CM a much better game, and potentially the best sports management sim ever.

Players will have a skill rating like ITC but unlike ITC these will alter during the game. A young player will start with a lower rating and then as you play him and he gains experience plus any training he gets his rating may well improve. Each season his rating may alter to reflect previous seasons experience and training. At a certain age his rating will start to decline gradually each season until he retires.

Adam suggested I think there should be a financial system where you have to pay the players and various bills ,etc. Then you could also upgrade your stadium, e.g. more seats, better facilities, etc. Or even buy a new stadium. With this it will make the game a lot more fun. Not sure about this as financial is not really the realm of a cricket manager. I know this option is common in football management games but I want to concentrate on the cricket simulation side first not add-ons.

Amit Patel suggested

Management should be very technical and detailed.

Staff:

Players should be able to chose there own staff. For example, there bowling coach, batting coach, physio, youth scout, etc.

Other levels of cricket:

The game should have 2nd XI cricket, under 17 cricket and under 19 cricket. This way as a manger you can see which players are doing well in the second eleven team and also the colt teams. Trouble with this is researching player names and stats. May appear but is more likely to be randomly generated names and initials stats.

Training:

When managing a team, there should be pre-season tours and training. You can select to appoint players from the past to train players. Always has been plans to be able to recruit retired players as coaches.

Managers:

Managers should be able to change club during the season. So if they are doing well other bigger clubs will offer them a job.

Managers should also be fired if they are not doing very well.

A managers ranking system where there is a list of all managers under a ranking. When a player start a game they will be bottom and they have to work there way up to the top of the list. Managers could also be made to start managing at either under 19 or 17 level and then they can progress up to 2nd XI cricket and then to 1st XI cricket. Like the idea of a manager ranking system so you can see how well you are doing. No to starting at under 17 level though.

Pitch:

There should be many types of pitches. The pitch conditions should change during a match. Already exists in ITC and will be carried over.

Weather:

The weather should affect the pitch conditions during a match. The D/L method should be used during matches when there are rain interruptions. Weather will affect pitch conditions - already does in ITC. The D/L method is only valid for One Day matches and is not easily discovered. Would like to include it though.

Day/Night Cricket:

There should be day/night matches. You should be able to decide if you want to have lights at your ground and then also select which games you would like to be day/night games. Then you can ask the team you are playing against and if they agree then you can play that game as a day/night game. Not likely to be implemented.

Omar Ferreira suggested

bulletInternational and domestic cricket (busta cup, benson and hedges cup etc.) There will be no International Test Matches or ODI's. Note the game is not based on any existing league system. It will be a World league so one week you would be playing Essex, the next Barbados and the next New South Wales.
bulletTraining, so that bowlers can become batsmen and batsmen become bowlers. Training is already listed as a planned feature although it might not be possible to totally change a bowler in to a batsman and vice-versa.
bulletRetirement due to life injuries.
bulletNormal retirement from first-class, ODI or Test cricket.
bulletNormal injuries.
bulletManagers CAN be fired if they are doing a poor job. Will consider this.
bulletAt least ONE Stadium for each test playing country (in West Indies one for each country from which players are selected). There will be one home stadium for every team.

Matthew Partridge suggested

New Players

bulletYouth Scout (i.e Like PM97)
bulletLook for new players with skill in one or more categories (fielding, bowling, batting, wicket keeping, running between wickets)
bulletA 'grace' period where training can improve basic skills at double the rate of normal (i.e middle aged) players

All of these are good ideas and I will try and include them all.

Training

bulletHire famous players like Bob Willis for specific skills (i.e bowling) Geoffrey Boycott (Batting) Graham Gooch (Fitness and Fielding) or hire 'general skill coaches' (like PM97) or all round coaches (like Imran Khan)
bulletPossibility of investing in training grounds to increase the effect of fitness
bulletTraining improves base ability faster in younger players and not at all in players over a certain age

I already was going to allow retired players to be used as coaches. Not yet sure about finances within the game. Certainly makes sense you can influence a player more when he is younger.

Call ups

bulletInternational experience improves base ability

The game is not based on any current season structure and won't actually have international call ups.

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Cricket Manager Wish List

 

Revised: Saturday, 16 March 2013.
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