Help - Howzat! Play real online multiplayer cricket games in your browser

What are Energy Points?

Your players all have limited stamina, and energy. If you run out of energy points, you can’t play more games until they recharge. Each game takes 3 energy points from your team. You can have a maximum of 12 energy points with you, and you energy points recharge at the rate of 2 points every hour. So, if you run out of points, you can come back 2 hours later to play another game! Alternatively, you can buy energy points to quickly boost your player’s stamina. If you are level 10 or below, you can exchange 100 Cash for 1 energy point. Above level 10, you can exchange 1 coin for 2 energy points.

How do I manage my team?

When you click on ’Manage Team’ on the top bar, you are presented with some options. ’Manage Squad’ lets you make lineup changes, batting order, and composition of your side. ’Team Settings’ lets you change your player kit and player appearance. Some of the main features of the new ’manage team’ page are:

a) Ability to change batting order of side before you start playing
b) Change composition of your side
c) Squad management - you now have 22 players, with bench capabilities. The slots for bench players open up as you level up more within Howzat, or if you choose to open up player slots by exchanging slots for coins.
d) Players can either be Permanent or Temporary. Temporary player contracts can be purchased for a duration of 1 day or 1 week. At the end of the temporary player’s term, users will have one day to renew their contracts. Alternatively, you can remove temporary players from your team.
e) At all times, a squad can only have 11 permanent players. Also, you will always have a team of 11 permanent players irrespective of whether you bought new player contracts.

How does leveling work?

Levelling now depends on two things, as opposed to just number of wins on the earlier version of Howzat. Now, leveling is also tied to the number of friends you add within Howzat.

What are Coins, Cash and what happened to all my previous cash?

Coins and Cash are the two currencies of Howzat. Coins being higher in value, and Cash being the sub-currency. Cash is the equivalent of what was known earlier as ’Points’ in Howzat. You earn cash as you play more games in Howzat, inviting friends, or by winning the daily lottery. You also have the option to convert coins to cash. Coins can be purchased via any of the payment options within Howzat, or by completing offers and surveys. Howzat currently accepts Paypal, Moneybookers, Bank Transfer, Mobile payments and more. Check http://www.howzat.com/payment for more details.

How do I bowl? Why do I see a box now instead of the pointer?

No more nasty yorker spammers woohoo! Bowlers now get to select a square area for where they want the ball to pitch. Higher level bowlers have a smaller square to start with. Once the square is selected, a random point inside the square is chosen where the ball will pitch. The batsman only sees this pitching point and not the square.

How do I bat?

Judge it, time it and WHACK it! Use the direction keys to first select the direction you want the batsman to play into, and then hit Z for ground shot, X for aerial shot at the right timing. Timing is everything.

What are match fees, win bonuses and how does winning work?

When you play a game, you get a match fee and a win bonus. Both of them are dependant on you actually finishing the game. You get the match fee only if you finish the game, even if you lose. This has been designed to reduce the instance of quitting in Howzat. Your win bonus and match fee is based on the Level of your team, and also the level of your opponent.

What is the shop? How do I buy players and how does overall buying/selling work?

The shop is the marketplace for player contracts. When you want to make your squad better, you can spend Howzat currency to get better players. Players can be bought with cash or coins. Coins-based players have no level locks associated with them, but cash-based players do. Players can be permanent or temporary. Players of Level 70 and above will have no permanent option for them. They can only be bought for a day or a week (Temporary contracts).

What is Howzat? What does it do?

Howzat is the World's Social Cricket Game and is free to play. We want to make a new type of social game - one that combines real sports actions with managerial ability and a chance to compete with your peers.

Is Howzat Free to play? Any hidden costs?

Howzat is completely free to play for anyone, anywhere. We want to make sure you never have to buy another stupid cricket game for $75 every again. We do sell optional items from time to time to enhance your game play, such as the ability to play longer matches, etc. However, we do promise that there will always be ways to earn these privileges through other means besides just cash.

Where can I play Howzat?

Right here, on Howzat.com. We're also working on our Facebook application right now. Look for that to launch in January, 2009.

What are Howzat's System Requirements?

CPU with at-least 1.2Ghz of Processing Power, 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Windows XP/Vista/7 or Mac OSX.
Audio Card for Sounds
Adobe Flash 10 Player in Browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome)
An Internet connection 64kbps speed or higher (For optimal download times)

My computer meets the Minimum Requirements, but my performance is still slow.

Each computer is slightly different and so the requirements might differ slightly. Here are a few tips to help improve performance.

Is the game lagging while you play or does loading take to long?
If loading takes too long, it's probably an issue with your internet connection. You should contact your ISP or upgrade.
If the game is lagging, crashing or just generally slow, it's an issue with the computer you're using. Do you have access to a better machine?
If you don't, try to shut as many programs as you can before playing Howzat. This free's up RAM for the game.
Also close as many tabs or browser windows as you can so that the game isn't sharing resources with other sites.
Try a browser that doesn't have too many toolbars or spyware installed by other programs. We recommend Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

I found a bug. How do I report it?

Please email us as much information as you can to us. Some important questions for you to answer:

What computer/OS/browser are you using?
What were you exactly trying to do when the error popped up.
What was the nature of the error? What happened?
Did the error occur repeatedly for you?

You can contact us using the Contact link on this page: http://www.gameventures.com

How do I play against someone?

Once you've logged into Howzat, just head over to the Play page in the Menu. You can either Challenge someone to a game (click the Join button next to available games) or Create a new game and wait for others to Challenge you.

I want to help! How can I?

You can help us spread the word by telling your friends about us. You can use Twitter, Facebook or just good old word of mouth to tell them. If you know someone in the media or an influential blogger, maybe you could tell them about the coolest game since ?