NBA 2K17 Badges Distort AI Gameplay In MyLeague - mcdowell31's Blog

mcdowell31's Blog

NBA 2K17 Badges Distort AI Gameplay In MyLeague

Posted on January 21, 2017 at 09:00 AM.

On a high note: I have developed a slider set that works for me and gives me great basketball AI and animations. I am a YouTube fan of TruthChaserProtocol for NBA 2K and RyanMoody for Madden. Both of them seek AI and animation improvements from the development teams that are logical and close to real world for those respective games.

Despite having great sliders, I was still seeing �X-Men Basketball�: Players using psychic powers to make steals, manipulate opponents, and occasionally warping to make impossible plays. That is hard to digest when you have any level of real world experience as your brain whispers "that is illogical or biomechanically impossible".

Over in the slider forums someone (I can't recall who) mentioned disabling all player badges to improve gameplay. I had been avoiding this because it is slightly work intensive. Usually I am ready to play right away; disabling badges for an entire team takes 7-8 minutes. Feeling I had maxed slider performance, it seemed the only alternative left.

I wish I had disabled the badges for MyLeague play months ago when I read about it. If you have read this blog, you know I love College Hoops. It is simple, straight-forward, unadulterated basketball. It is far from perfect, but does not get in it's own way by �Doing Too Much� (ESPN His and Hers).

Epiphany: The badges are better suited for the �superhero� basketball of MyPark, MyCareer, and ProAm; makes perfect sense. Like the MMORPG's, those modes are for large crowds of players that are more interested in �video games� (stealing The Czar's phrase) and less in basketball history and realism that would be more the strength of MyLeague and MyGM.

Now, I am not saying the above disparagingly: Whenever I watch ProAm or MyPark I see a highlight every other play. Many of the plays are not physically possible by Zach Lavine on his best day, much less Vince Carter 15-years ago. However, given the nature of MMORPG's it is more than acceptable, and understandable even to those who lean more toward history and reality.

I was a season ticket holder with the original Charlotte Hornets back in 1992. The first time I saw Michael Jordan and the Bulls I had high expectations. The Bulls did what they usually did: The score fluctuated between a 6-12 point lead as they patiently ran their Triangle. For the Hornets: Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, and Muggsy Bogues were still babies finding their way in The League. The Bulls kept a hand on the forehead of the wildly swinging Hornets, holding them at arm's length for 42 minutes. Of course Jordan had no dunks throughout this; as usual the last 6-minutes would be his. He did not disappoint. With 4-minutes remaining Jordan stole the ball, rushed the basket, and... did a rather ordinary Jordan tomahawk dunk. We all arose expectantly; an audible hum rose with Jordan toward the hoop. We cheered politely, but it felt somewhat anti-climactic. It was a great dunk for anyone in The League at that point, but it felt more like Jordan's version of a layup... kinda routine... you've seen one like it in NBA Entertainment Videos. It was not a slam dunk contest dunk; but what dunk is in an actual game? 2-minutes later Jordan repeated the process. We arose expectantly and were a little let down again. It was the dagger in the Hornets though; Phil subbed Jordan out next dead-ball and the game was essentially over. That is the MyLeague experience I crave.

2-hours later I was watching Sport Center at my condo looking forward to my first highlights of a game I attended. Long story short: ESPN showed the two dunks from 2-3 different camera angles. If I had not been there I would have thought Jordan dunked ten times. That would be a badge of some sort and the MyPark experience. As a young fan, that was a peek behind the PR curtain of professional basketball as interpreted by ESPN. I had a similar experience 10-years earlier seeing Dr. J, but that's another story. I was becoming a Tim Duncan fundamentalist advocate 4-years before he entered The League.

Of course, I'm more into Tim Duncan than Blake Griffin when it comes to video game basketball. I definitely get what MyPark and badges are about though.

I would suggest that 2K make a roster with badges for MyCareer and MyGM; or have options for enabling/disabling badges on the league setup screen. Of course if they are used in MyCareer they'd be in MyPark and ProAm as well.

MyLeague does not need badges because they distort gameplay. Finely tuned Player Attributes and Tendencies should be enough. Of course if some badges add animations that is good and they should be used. It is when badges override Attributes and Tendencies that the game becomes tiresome and frustrating as impossible, illogical plays happen.

As an example, I do not see the point of a �Catch and Shoot� badge: It would seem that ability and animation would be built into any player with an 80 or 85 and above Mid-range Attribute. Again, that is the old man in me talking; in the 20th century players were drilled on catch and shoot starting with middle school. It was not unusual, it was a fundamental. Some were better at it than others. Usually these players were good mid-range shooters, and the catch and shoot would just become a part of who they were (an Attribute). Any decent mid-range shooter should be able to do this in order to maximize his/her open-shot ratio. Of course having it as a badge in a MyPark setting might make better sense because it adds flavor to a MMORPG, and everyone in that setting needs things to strive for and decorate their on-screen persona with.

As always, I have nothing but love for ya NBA 2K Development!