My New Cricket Sim

[IsuraE]

I've begun to develop a cricket simulator (similiar to ITC) so I thought I'd post my progess here. Actually, it's a project I started last September but haven't worked on it seriously for about 3 months. I think this will become my final year/master's thesis (I'm in 4th year comp. engineering now) so now I have a good "excuse" to spend lots of time working on the project.
For my initial game engine I only plan on taking into account batsmen and bowler skill (ie no weather effects,etc) until I get something reasonably realistic. I hope to have a running version in a month or less, so one can run some simulations (single match, series,). I eventually want to incorporate tactics and make the game similiar to ICC (but with a twist offcourse) with team management, training etc.

I will post my progress here and also on my website (waiting for server space on my campus network).
I'm pretty open about my algorithms in the match engine so I'll discuss my ideas here freely, I welcome comments and suggestions in this regard. I'll have a progess report in about a week or so (and maybe a small working prototype).
Finally, I haven't decided yet the theme of the game, for example whether to have international cricket or county/club cricket or something like beach cricket. Well, back to work on the game. Will be back soon.

Isura

 

[Tom Halsey]

Good luck!

Watching this space.

 

[IsuraE]

Progress Report:
I've been the last couple of days on the software design of the game/sim. I spent most of last week working on a rudimentary version of the match engine; basically it factors in the batsmen and bowlers skill level and determines the ball outcome.
The ratings i'm using are between 1-8 for batsmen and 1-4 for bowlers. I know it's not much variation, but it simplifies testing. It will be no problem later to scale these ratings. The match engine is pretty realistic, now i'm just laying some code around it to actually simulate a full match. Hope to have a prototype running within a few days. I'm designing the system to be very flexible, this I hope will enable me to add new features rather painlessly.
Will keep everyone posted.

Isura

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Let's hope it's so flexible as you think

Good work mate

 

[IsuraE]

The game is coming along slowly, but it is coming along. I'm currently working on a flexible framework for statistical tracking. I'm trying to design the software so that it will be relatively painless to add new statistics that the game can track. This way, as the game gets better I can add more stats to enhance the enjoyement of the game. I've been reading the laws of cricket, learning how to properly score extras, etc. Just a few questions I have about scoring:

1) If a noball, wide, bye, or leg bye occurs, does the ball faced count against the batsmen's stats ?
I know no balls and wides are rebowled, but do they still count as a delivery against the batsmen?

Any help with this question is appreciated.

Isura

 

[marc71178]

The only one that doesn't count as a ball faced is the wide.

 

[IsuraE]

Thanks for that marc.

 

[kears_falcon_9]

if u want any help with any stats or any thnig at all give me a buzz

kears_falcon_9_89@hotmail.com

 

[IsuraE]

Been looking into scripting languages, it should allow me write some simple match scripts and get the program out so others' can play around with the data files and see the results. I will definitely need people to create data files for testing the match engine, will let you know when I reach that point.

Isura

 

[IsuraE]

I've been rethinking the concept of the game, I've decided to change the concept a bit. Instead of striving for 100% accuracy, I want to make the game fun, and unique. I've been thinking something along the lines of the 20 cup. Also, instead of real players, maybe it would be something like club cricket or school cricket, where the players/teams would be made up and you would play for imaginary cups. Possibly something like "Tennis Ball Cricket Challenge"... I would like some input on other game ideas. I have a basic match engine working at home, so I'm focusing on making a cool user interface and creating a nice storyline. Suggested wanted on more game ideas.

Isura

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I've been rethinking the concept of the game, I've decided to change the concept a bit. Instead of striving for 100% accuracy, I want to make the game fun, and unique. I've been thinking something along the lines of the 20 cup. Also, instead of real players, maybe it would be something like club cricket or school cricket, where the players/teams would be made up and you would play for imaginary cups. Possibly something like "Tennis Ball Cricket Challenge"... I would like some input on other game ideas. I have a basic match engine working at home, so I'm focusing on making a cool user interface and creating a nice storyline. Suggested wanted on more game ideas.

Isura

Well, maybe you could make the game so that you started out as a club cricket player with 20-overs cricket, and if you did well you would progress towards 50-over cricket, First Class cricket, and eventually international cricket. And also be able to access the sims of each type of game freely without making a game...because we still don't have a really accurate simulation of cricket (bar ICC, which one can not edit...yet).

 

[kears_falcon_9]

i agree it would be nice to have a fairly accruate sim game but with a twist in it

i am not that creatitive and have no ideas about what the "TWIST" could be but i am willing to help out if u want a hand.

 

[IsuraE]

originally posted by Samuel_Vimes
And also be able to access the sims of each type of game freely without making a game...because we still don't have a really accurate simulation of cricket (bar ICC, which one can not edit...yet).

This is a good idea. I think I have my head wrapped around the mathematics around building a good simulation, I have something running that is fairly accurate and can continue to improve it. I can release updates of this where the user can change the database and simulation various scenerios. This feature will not have user input, it will be only a simulation. I still also want to build a game, so maybe I can release the game as a separate application. This will be a real game, with user input (tactics, etc) and a nice interface. I think it is important to get a basic prototype running early in development, so maybe the user can play 20 overs match say, but still simulate test/odi cricket.

 

[Tom Halsey]

1) If a noball, wide, bye, or leg bye occurs, does the ball faced count against the batsmen's stats ?
I know no balls and wides are rebowled, but do they still count as a delivery against the batsmen?

Just for the record, byes and legbyes are not rebowled.

 

[IsuraE]

Update on the game:

I've been working pretty hard lately on the matchengine. I've worked out a decent player rating system, and can control batting/bowling averages pretty well now. I'm focusing now on getting the simulation fairly accurate. The first release willl most likely be a simulation; the user can choose can choose the teams and simulate a match/series. The results will be displayed, with some stats. I'll make the database in plain text format so it will be easy to modify it.
Also, I'm probably going to release the software as open source. My ultimate goal is to start an open source cricket game/simulation. I think this will be the first open source cricket game (correct me if I'm wrong). Help with the game is welcome, I want to get more developers involved and really make the project go far. Finally, my final school exams are starting next week, so development will be put on hold for a few weeks.
Come may, the project should be in full swing.

Isura

 

[kears_falcon_9]

any new updates man? would realli like to no