Battrick news from Q&A pt 1

[Napster]

GM-Rascal Does playing under "Go For It" orders have any other effect than increasing the performance levels of your team? Hearsay evidence would suggest that it would also seem to result in unpredictable performances from players, is there any truth in this?
BT-allanf Go For It improves the basic stats of your individual players slightly, not necessary improving the teams performance or theirs for that matter!
GM-Rascal Any comments on if it makes them more unpredictable?
BT-allanf well, no it only does what I was saying above


GM-Rascal Also, will there ever be the facility to create your own OD bowling orders (within a set of guidelines)?
BT-allanf Yes - its on "the list", which is actually starting to get shorter!!

GM-Rascal This should be a nice easy one to answer from Grover
GM-Rascal Are there going to be stats available for FC games, like there are for OD games in team Records?
BT-allanf yes - next season


GM-Rascal colinski and ClintValion both want to know how the experience pops from FC compare to those from one day games? They both feel that FC has far less of an effect – are they correct?
BT-allanf FC should give more experience than OD - we'll take a look just to make sure that it is working as it should be


BT-allanfc The transfer market is a very important part of the Battrick experience and it has to be as inclusive as possible. It is the main way that users will judge the performance of the economy (rightly or wrongly) and we have to keep a close eye on what is happening there with any changes that we make to the way that it works...
BT-allanfc I guess in short that the introduction was to make users think a little more about the way that they use the market, to take some money out of a very high inflation economy. We will continue to monitor the success of it or otherwise. As has been shown in the past, unlike other leaders in my part of the world, I'm not too big to say I'm wrong and change things accordingly
GM-Rascal Follow up …
GM-Rascal Does Allan feel that the fee has been successful in whatever areas it was intended to address?
BT-allanfc We're still looking at data as an ongoing process - its a bit early yet to give definitive answers.
GM-Rascal I've no doubt that the topic will come up again!

GM-Rascal berksowl says - The touting thread is currently very exclusive to only users with higher-skilled players. Can there be the possibility for any player to be touted, or none at all?
BT-allanfc This is handled by the GMs - I understand that it is currently restricted, but I will look into it for you
BT-allanfc we're getting the focus group to look into it and taking feedback from the boards as well
GM-Rascal I can confirm that the Focus Group have been discussing this
GM-Rascal So one to come back to you all on :-)
GM-Rascal OK

GM-Rascal Next up - Next up - introducing new countries – zinc and Fingers_up have both asked if there are any plans to add some more nations such as Scotland, Ireland, Holland, etc
BT-allanfc yes, but not imminently - it is something that I have always been keen on doing, but it needs to be done right and at the right time

BT-Jargon Part of deciding what the right time will be, will depend on one of the new features that will soon be released. You will soon be able to choose which nation you want to have for your youth pull.

BT-Jargon There's many reasons for this - one is to increase the availability of potentially better players to the smaller nations.

GM-Rascal Thanks Jargon - his first ever Q & A answer ....
GM-Rascal ozNoz has a question on sub levels!

 

[Napster]

pt 2


GM-Rascal Are there sublevels for any of the following: pitch; leadership; weather conditions; bowler type? i.e. can some "Dusty" pitches be dustier, and give a greater advantage to spinners, than others?

BT-allanfc no (not yet), yes, no, no (but nice idea!)
GM-Rascal That was a nice straightforward answer!
GM-Rascal So moving swiftly on .... some questions on FC games
GM-Rascal First question is from Jebmidgley and concerns FC attendances
GM-Rascal I've noticed that day 3 gates for FC matches can drop noticeably compared to days one and two. If a match result is pretty much nailed on after day two does this impact the turn out for day 3? If not, what is the explanation?
BT-allanfc There are a number of factors that can determine the attendance at matches including weather and match position.

GM-Rascal On the same theme T-Unit asks - are there any additional factors contributing to the sometimes large fluctuations in FC attendance other than weather?
GM-Rascal But you've answered that unless there are more factors that impact?
BT-allanfc Peoples mood that day, whether there is a big footy game on the tele, a school sports day, those sort of things
GM-Rascal You've factored all that in? :p
GM-Rascal So a random factor it is then :)

GM-Rascal Next FC question
BT-allanfc ;)
GM-Rascal ClintValion asks - with 4 teams going down in FC there is far less the bottom sides to play for at the end of the reason resulting in lots of thrown games. Is anything being done to address this?
BT-allanfc We are looking at promotion and relegation issues in the FG. FC league structure is something that I personally am taking a big interest in.
GM-Rascal Any thoughts of restructuring the leagues?
BT-allanfc I'd be lying if I said no, but no timescales or definite alternatives yet

GM-Rascal A follow up from ClintValion
GM-Rascal The current FC gate receipts system encourages the home team to draw the match out for 3 days to maximise income. Is anything being done to combat the need to tactically elongate games for financial reasons?
BT-allanfc Its the same in the real world - if the games dont go on the distance, then the clubs dont get the money from receipts. I remember Australia not enforcing follow ons to ensure that there was 5th days play in test matches not too long ago...
GM-Rascal The Aussies would do that?
BT-allanfc All in all though, let me say that we are looking very seriously behind hte scenes about the way that FC is fitting into the BT world, including questions such as is there too much cricket, as well as the ones asked above


GM-Rascal Due to when training and member updates occur, it gives an incentive to focus on OD games rather than FC. Are the updates going to be changed to move the focus more to FC?
BT-allanfc We'll definitely take a look at that along with the rest of the things

GM-Rascal Fishy follows up with:
GM-Rascal The soft cap still seems to be based on the OD league, once again diminishing the importance of FC. Is this going to change. If so, when (I assume when 1st div FC has no bots), and how?
BT-allanfc yup - will be next season and by means of a rather clever and complicated algorithm

GM-Rascal OzNoz notes that Allan suggested in the last Q&A (#12 – 18/11/07) that FC multiview might have come in this season (9) – any closer?
BT-raptornex Yes, you'll have it for next season's games.

GM-Rascal Hitarth1987: Also One more thing Rascal, will BT-20 Matches be planned to affect more revenues and more influence on members confidence ?
BT-allanfc At the moment, BT20 matches are just being considered as a fun way to keep you interested during the off season - this may change, as it appears to have IRL

GM-Rascal Next one ... My question is, in future does BT is planning to have a Youth acadmey by its self, where we can have a saparate youth team and we can train them and when they become the age of 19 we can transfer them to the senior team etc?
BT-allanfc Its a definite possiblitily

GM-Rascal Dazz: Several seasons ago it was spoken of that there would be multiple pitches on a block and that groundsmen would play more of a role in the game. Anymore to branche out on this of recent?
BT-allanfc Not going to be in the next release, but probably in the one after


GM-Rascal Schorpie: Even more serious question: Will any measures be taken soon to discourage "camping"?
BT-allanfc Camping is a big part of what the FG have been looking at this season - Raptornex?
BT-raptornex Yeah, it is a difficult one. There are a lot of arguments going on in the FG about it (pretty contested topic) and certainly there have been some massive threads on the Dev board about this.
BT-raptornex I think the attitude we'll be taking is to encourage promotion rather discourage camping
BT-raptornex But then again we need to really look at it - we can't just throw more money at people to promote without considering the impact on the economy
BT-raptornex However we are looking at other ways to get around this without just considering money - ie. sponsors, member confidence etc
GM-Rascal The FG are looking closely at this particularly with the play offs next week and we hope to have some recommendations for the BTs in due course

GM-Rascal Is the Fantasy WC planned to run during the Nats WC?
BT-allanfc not this season - my crap communication to everyone has sort of meant that we've not really got the time, so sorry about that

GM-Rascal Dazz: Will the Cup draw be again done like last season or will the ranking system come back into play?
BT-allanfc it will be as last season, pretty much. Thinga being considered are that the lower ranked team will always get home advantage, and gates being split 50/50, but the team that you play will still be random

GM-Rascal Ragingsheep: Currently, it is possible for a team to use GFI almost ever week in OD games. The PFL losses are managed by playing weakened sides in FC. Is this something that you are happy with?
BT-allanfc nope - prehaps I should penalise you more for a GFI... we will put a stop to this shameless tactic :)
Ragingsheep In HT, they reduce morale everytime you MOTS, are you happy with that?
BT-allanfc Am I happy with what HT does?
Ragingsheep As morale loss as a penalty i guess
Ragingsheep or are you considering other methods
BT-allanfc I consider most things - morale does not seem to be very realistic though

GM-Rascal One from Mop now and I know this is something he has strong opinions on!
GM-Rascal mop: Two related questions - could alan explain what purpose form serves in the game;; could he say whether large and prolonged form drops that are not fixable by any of the means stated in the rules are a feature or just a byproduct of the way form works
BT-allanfc Form determines whether a player can play to his full ability or not. Long periods of poor form are unusual, but will eventually turn round
mop do the prolonged periods simulate injury?
GM-Rascal Can you give us some guidance on how much difference poor form makes? Is someone half as good if they are on worth less form?
BT-allanfc mop - not as such, the guy can still play, and if he is really good, then will no doubt still pay reasonably well. This sort of answers Rascal as well, and its about as much an answer as she is getting :)

mop Cheers Allan. I guess I've just been unlucky :)
GM-Rascal Now we have a question from one of our resident troublemakers ...
GM-Rascal GM-Drew: Can Mr. Allan confirm that those teams with first round byes in the cup can organise a friendly instead
BT-allanfc cannot confirm as of this point in time,

GM-Rascal Can you tell us what was the planned surprise for NT/U19 players for the mid-season break, or at least why didn't it happen?
BT-allanfc It was a test match and 4 day FC games for U19 - the code was not ready, so it did not happen. My fault again for being optimistic and commiting myself too early
GM-Rascal Any chance of it happening next season?
BT-allanfc There is a chance

GM-Rascal Is it possible to develop the fielding function (allow nets training for close / slip / boundary fielders) & instruct your captain who to use and where?
GM-Rascal That one is really more match orders than match engine to be fair
BT-allanfc This is something that we hope to add into the engine at some point. My major focus over the next few months is going to be a reworking of the engine. What exactly that will add in I'm not going to make public yet, but I will try and keep you informed of what to expect as soon as I possibly can so that there is plenty of time for oyu to adapt

GM-Rascal Allan we've had a lot of mails about the 'BT collapses' in OD matches - will you be looking at that area?
BT-allanfc We will certainly be looking at that area
GM-Rascal Will you be overhauling the match engines for all forms? FC, OD and BT20?
BT-allanfc Eventually yes, but probably not all at the same time

 

[Napster]

pt 3


GM-Rascal There's currently almost no point in promoting anyone older than 17 years from the academy. Is there anything under consideration to make 18-20 year olds more attractive, particularly perhaps for new teams who may need players to slot in to their starting lineups immediately?
BT-allanfc Thats a very good question - I'll take a look at that one
GM-Rascal Feel free to throw it at the Focus Group for discussion!
GM-Rascal And moving on ....
BT-allanfc take it to them!
GM-Rascal Allan has previously dodged questions about whether batsmen have a preferred position from the moment of their creation, or if it was somehow otherwise determined. I'd like to put it to him again, and add that there's no way I can see of the user base working this out for themselves with so many other factors in batsmen's results.
BT-allanfc There is a very good chance this will be either removed completely or made completely visable when the engine is updated
GM-Rascal Interesting! What's the thinking behind that?
BT-allanfc My brain is a strange and wonderful place that is very difficult to put into words
GM-Rascal Apparently so! :p
GM-Rascal Mat Sykes sent in a lot of questions - here are a couple of them
GM-Rascal Again this may be theory rather than fact but it seem that there is an advantage in close games to the team batting second. Is Allan aware of this, does he think it does exist and is he happy about how it works?
BT-allanfc I suspect theory rather than fact, but again, with the work on the engine coming up its certainly something that will be simulated and studied

GM-Rascal Myself, and it seems a number of other people, think that adjusting player orders (v.defensive vs v.attacking) have very little effect. (I still actually think that a defensive player set attacking will play worse and hence score slower than they would on defensive orders) Are you happy with the effect these orders have on players and can you comment further.
BT-allanfc Again, I will be looking at this amongst the rest during the rewrite. Not sure whether there is anything to it though

GM-Rascal Lots of people have asked when we will be getting more stats and add ons
GM-Rascal Any news on that for us?
BT-allanfc Thats a great question that allows me to shamelessly plug a big release that will be coming out next season. Raptornex and Jargon have done a lot of great work getting most of these features ready for you, so I will let them give you the snippets

GM-Rascal Final question for Allan
BT-raptornex A few 'live match' features - i.e. scorecard, graphs. The scorecard will initially be only for OD games.

GM-Rascal spit-fire: Who does Allan think will win the Premier League today and who does he want to win it?
BT-raptornex Plenty of player graphs too (done by Jargon) and FC multiview... there will be a BT shop coming in at some point also.
BT-Jargon The graphs include player statistics graphs (with cup and OD games innings split), and some of the match graphs (like partnership) will be "live" too with any luck.

BT-Jargon There'll also be some other minor enhancements. One for the sledging, ability to sort by player form, some tweaks to the menus (some already in place), easier to remove shirt numbers - simple things that frustrate users by them not being there currently.


GM-Rascal the4horsemen11: also will there be a break down of cup and OD stats?
BT-raptornex Ideally yes, at least there will be for the graphing side of things as Jargon mentioned in #battrick
BT-Jargon Certainly the new player graphs I've been working show Cup games results innings differently to other OD games.

GM-Rascal Ragingsheep: Another question, will we ever see more descriptive commentary? So that we can how many dropped catches there are for example.
BT-raptornex This will come in in the rewrite, but I can't say too much
BT-raptornex Descriptive commentary is on the way though, rest assured.

BT-Jargon One idea that I like, that was described on the Dev Ideas board, is having a welcoming line at the top of the commentary, based on if it's a special day etc. I'm keen to find a way to implement that - just adds a bit of variety to it all.

GM-Rascal Now that the userbase has pretty much worked out the precise relationship between BTR, wage and skills (hats off to zinc, Scuffer, et al), how long until you change the calculations? ;)
BT-Jargon How do you know that they've "pretty much" worked them all out?
BT-raptornex I was tempted to out of spite, but I think it'll stay the same :) Allan did mention toning down the effect that form has on BTR though.
BT-Jargon Any changes will obviously be considered carefully - we have, I think most will agree, a fairly balanced game, even if some areas aren't quite so ideal yet.

GM-Rascal Hitarth1987: Also, when are the MOTM for FC gonna be introduced ?
BT-raptornex Well for OD games it does (or did) generate a huge amount of debate for something that, realistically, counts for nothing at the moment. FC would be quite a bit of a greater challenge just to 'weight' performances... I think we'll try and progress further with it when we can at least make it a decent achievement to get MOTM (and count for something).

GM-Rascal When a FC game finishes there are noticeable 'extra' PFL hits. (best seen when a final day lasts a couple of overs and a lot of team members drop over ½ a level).
GM-Rascal Are these extra hits
GM-Rascal (i) proportional to how long the game lasts
GM-Rascal (ii)proportional to what a player actually does (so all rounders may take bigger hits)
GM-Rascal (iii) or the same for all players and constant for every game
BT-raptornex In additional to PFL hits based on performance in the game, there is also a hit for just playing a game which all players get. This is the same across the board.
BT-raptornex And it is the same regardless of what day the match finishes on I believe.
BT-raptornex (I think...)

GM-Rascal mop: "are all the new fancy graphs we're getting are instead of having the site output XML or is that still coming?"
BT-Jargon The XML output is coming - we're just not sure when. As most will know, we've had some unfortunate hosting issues that means the reliability of the site has been a bit dodgy of late - until that is sorted, and we have spare server resources to play with, then allowing third-party apps to start requesting XML from us as well is just suicide for the rest of the users.

GM-Rascal Are PFL hits for bowlers in FC matches dependant on bowler type (Spinner v F), personality or bowling orders or are all players affected similarly?
BT-raptornex After a brief conference Jargon and I are quite sure it's the same across the board (for bowler type), though its something to consider changing at some point as I don't quite agree that F bowlers take the same hit as those fat spinners.
BT-raptornex Bowling orders and personality don't play a part

 

[Napster]

pt 4

GM-Rascal Sports Psychologists: the Rules say they'll help keep morale up even when losing, but nobody seems willing to support this with evidence from their own team. Do SPs really have anything to do with morale?
BT-raptornex We aren't quite sure and can't say anything convincing without Allan here

GM-Rascal Has a 'transfer compare' function similar to the one on HT ever been discussed for BT?
BT-Jargon Nope, not that I know of. Can't see it on the Dev Ideas board either.
BT-raptornex Every time it comes up there are a lot of HT players ready to scream "Don't do it"
BT-raptornex It's not something we have planned.


GM-Rascal What are the "official" reasons behind not removing PFL hits on friendly games?
BT-raptornex We certainly appreciate that the introduction of FC games has certainly put a strain on people trying to run friendly comps etc and we understand that this is a big part of the game for many users. At the moment the official reason lies with "realism" however it is something we're definitely considering.

GM-Rascal GM-Drew: Can I add a follow on to the morale question. Morale for the national teams has been an ongoing issue. Is the fact that national teams have no SP's the reason why nat'l morale does not mirror results at all
BT-raptornex Again we can't say as we're not sure of the exact impact that SPs have on morale.
BT-raptornex Allan would know, Jargon and I don't

GM-Rascal Can we please have the ability to see what a players PFL was within historical data (as in old games)?
BT-raptornex Once our server status is a little more clear cut we will probably add in historical data for things like PFL, form, training etc. Can't really afford to store that much data for so many players at the moment.

GM-Rascal Are the declarations in FC going to be reviewed to allow for flexible declarations?
BT-raptornex Yes.
GM-Rascal Any time frame?
BT-raptornex Advanced match orders etc... we know that having to log in every night for FC games is not ideal so we're keen to add in support for those sort of orders
BT-raptornex Can't commit, it's in Allan's area
BT-raptornex He'll no doubt be working on it over the coming season


GM-Rascal Myself, and it seems a number of other people, think that adjusting player orders (v.defensive vs v.attacking) have very little effect. (I still actually think that a defensive player set attacking will play worse and hence score slower than they would on defensive orders) Are you happy with the effect these orders have on players and can you comment further.
BT-raptornex They do have an impact - quite a significant one - however it is not something you can measure. How do you know that your batter is smashing the bowler through skill differences or attacking orders? You can't tell, but I know exactly how the code interprets orders and I can say that it is quite satisfactory

GM-Rascal Dazz: Any thought to adding more skill levels now that multiple players are reaching Elite? Even the possibility of Elite+1 etc.
BT-Jargon We have thought about this, and it would certainly seem to make sense, especially for those playing at national / under-19 level.
BT-Jargon Not sure what the descriptors would be yet though.

GM-Rascal colinski: Are the BT's worried about the longetivity on the game in any way? IE when a lot of teams have reached a peak due to wages or even anything thing that could also cause problems along those lines
BT-raptornex We would hope that teams that do hit the 'ceiling' can still win through superior tactics... but that falls back on advanced orders etc. We dont' really know where the ceiling is yet though
BT-raptornex Teams are still improving
BT-Jargon This game is never supposed to be easy - only a limited number of managers and teams can make it to the top flights, or to win the cup, and staying there is a whole new challenge.
BT-Jargon If users are happy playing the long game in the middle levels of divisions, then that's how they want to play the game.

GM-Rascal Ragingsheep: Do we know if certain bowler types are more rare than others?
BT-raptornex Not 100% sure, I think they're equal.
BT-raptornex though I certainly see less F bowlers...
BT-raptornex Jargon is going to check the code..
BT-raptornex Ok, they do have some weighting :)

GM-Rascal Where he asked about separate stats for OD and the cup
GM-Rascal the4horsemen11: was will there be a tab in the stats section for OD and Cup separately
BT-raptornex Yes, no timescale.