I've been playing through my first season on CC21 after picking it up recently and have some thoughts/questions regarding the new bowling options.
In CC20 it was rather simple; higher aggression bowling had the ball aimed down the middle and fielders crowding the wicket with multiple fielders in the slips. Going to the middle (3 bars) aggression setting it was still down the middle with 2 slips. Dropping to lower aggressions saw the ball aimed outside-off with slips reduced to 1 and then 0, for the lowest aggression and most defensive fields.
In CC21 with the added bar it seems to be less linear. The top 2 bars (red and orange) are still down the middle with crowded wickets, and dropping to 4 bars (the highest in green) seems to be the old 3 bars, aimed down the middle with 2 slips. Dropping to 3 bars now shifts the ball to be aimed outside-off with 1 slip, but dropping further to 2 bars aims the ball back down the middle instead of outside-off, with 1 slip. When you drop down to 1 bar you're back to outside-off again, but now with no one in the slips, and then 0 bars puts it back down the middle with no slips.
Those are for seamers with no fielding restrictions active.
I'm curious about the changes. Previously the less aggressive your bowling was set, the more defensive the field and the more the ball was aimed outside-off (by default). Now the field still gets more defensive but the ball aim zig-zags around.
Is there a reason why, for instance, 3 bars in the middle of the aggression settings defaults to outside-off but 2 bars and 0 bars are both back at the middle setting? This is a very different approach from previous CC versions where the lower bars were strictly defaulted to outside-off. I guess it just feels a bit odd after so many years of the older settings that now less aggressive settings take more aggressive lines.
One thought was that maybe it's implying that 3 bars is now the 'defensive' setting for First Class games, being outside-off with 1 slip, and lower aggressions are meant for white ball? That would explain why 2 bars then defaults to a middle line and 1 goes back to outside-off, if they're intended to be the go-to settings for the shorter formats, but then it doesn't explain why 0 bars t the most defensive setting suddenly defaults back to being aimed down the middle rather than outside-off.
I know that these are just the defaults and we can adjust whatever we need, I'm just curious about the reasoning in those settings as it feels some of the less aggressive bowling bars have more aggressive lines and fields than some of the higher bars. It's also meant a bit of extra time for me to adjust things when bowling, particularly for white ball, as one of my go-to settings from previous versions was 1 aggression (outside-off, 1 slip) and that now exists at 3 bars in the middle of aggression.
Along with wondering about the new aggression settings I have to say it's taking some time to get used to the new buttons for adjusting line and length. I still keep going to click on the specific target I want, only to realise after bowling a ball/over that it had cycled in the opposite direction instead as they're now cycle toggles rather than specific selections. I'm sure I'll remember in time, but it does seem to involve much more clicking and double-checking.
I've also had an issue where clicking on the arrow to set which side of the wicket I bowl from actually toggles the pitch length rather than the side. It seems like some visual parts of the arrow head are actually outside the area of the button itself, and overlaying the 'short bounce' area instead, so when you click there it changes the wrong thing. There are also parts of the 'body' of the arrow where it fails to register clicks at all, and hovering the mouse over that part can actually make the arrow just disappear. That's an inconvenience more than anything, but again it can add extra time to double check that changes actually registered and changed the correct thing. It's something I didn't have in previous versions where my clicking always changed what I'd intended to change.
Anyhow, it could all just be me getting older and going "grr, changes bad", but I'm curious how others are finding the bowling changes - particularly the default settings for the different aggression bars.
In CC20 it was rather simple; higher aggression bowling had the ball aimed down the middle and fielders crowding the wicket with multiple fielders in the slips. Going to the middle (3 bars) aggression setting it was still down the middle with 2 slips. Dropping to lower aggressions saw the ball aimed outside-off with slips reduced to 1 and then 0, for the lowest aggression and most defensive fields.
In CC21 with the added bar it seems to be less linear. The top 2 bars (red and orange) are still down the middle with crowded wickets, and dropping to 4 bars (the highest in green) seems to be the old 3 bars, aimed down the middle with 2 slips. Dropping to 3 bars now shifts the ball to be aimed outside-off with 1 slip, but dropping further to 2 bars aims the ball back down the middle instead of outside-off, with 1 slip. When you drop down to 1 bar you're back to outside-off again, but now with no one in the slips, and then 0 bars puts it back down the middle with no slips.
Those are for seamers with no fielding restrictions active.
I'm curious about the changes. Previously the less aggressive your bowling was set, the more defensive the field and the more the ball was aimed outside-off (by default). Now the field still gets more defensive but the ball aim zig-zags around.
Is there a reason why, for instance, 3 bars in the middle of the aggression settings defaults to outside-off but 2 bars and 0 bars are both back at the middle setting? This is a very different approach from previous CC versions where the lower bars were strictly defaulted to outside-off. I guess it just feels a bit odd after so many years of the older settings that now less aggressive settings take more aggressive lines.
One thought was that maybe it's implying that 3 bars is now the 'defensive' setting for First Class games, being outside-off with 1 slip, and lower aggressions are meant for white ball? That would explain why 2 bars then defaults to a middle line and 1 goes back to outside-off, if they're intended to be the go-to settings for the shorter formats, but then it doesn't explain why 0 bars t the most defensive setting suddenly defaults back to being aimed down the middle rather than outside-off.
I know that these are just the defaults and we can adjust whatever we need, I'm just curious about the reasoning in those settings as it feels some of the less aggressive bowling bars have more aggressive lines and fields than some of the higher bars. It's also meant a bit of extra time for me to adjust things when bowling, particularly for white ball, as one of my go-to settings from previous versions was 1 aggression (outside-off, 1 slip) and that now exists at 3 bars in the middle of aggression.
Along with wondering about the new aggression settings I have to say it's taking some time to get used to the new buttons for adjusting line and length. I still keep going to click on the specific target I want, only to realise after bowling a ball/over that it had cycled in the opposite direction instead as they're now cycle toggles rather than specific selections. I'm sure I'll remember in time, but it does seem to involve much more clicking and double-checking.
I've also had an issue where clicking on the arrow to set which side of the wicket I bowl from actually toggles the pitch length rather than the side. It seems like some visual parts of the arrow head are actually outside the area of the button itself, and overlaying the 'short bounce' area instead, so when you click there it changes the wrong thing. There are also parts of the 'body' of the arrow where it fails to register clicks at all, and hovering the mouse over that part can actually make the arrow just disappear. That's an inconvenience more than anything, but again it can add extra time to double check that changes actually registered and changed the correct thing. It's something I didn't have in previous versions where my clicking always changed what I'd intended to change.
Anyhow, it could all just be me getting older and going "grr, changes bad", but I'm curious how others are finding the bowling changes - particularly the default settings for the different aggression bars.
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