NBA 2K13 News Post

NBA 2K13 Screenshot Captures Kevin Durant's Signature Skills

06:27 PM - August 31, 2012 by Steve_OS

During the 2K Live-stream, we managed to capture Kevin Durant's Signature Skills for NBA 2K13. As Ronnie explained, Durant will have the Shot Creator, Microwave, Deadeye, Closer and Finisher Signature Skills. The image also shows a glimpse at what Jay-Z has been working on, as Executive Producer.

LD2K mentioned via Twitter the following.

Quote:


	The difference between a FINISHER & a CLOSER is: CLOSER: This player raises his game in clutch moments. FINISHER: This player is adept at finishing contact layups and dunks at a higher rate than others. More details in the Dev writeup (and video) coming Sunday via the Live-stream.

Game: NBA 2K13Reader Score: 8.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 75 - View All

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Member Comments

# 161 Thunder Storm @ 09/01/12 02:09 PM

The funny thing about all of this is that there are people out there who are REALLY good at fixing ratings and the like. I have no idea why the 2K Insider still has a job. Others can do 100x better for free.

# 162 youALREADYknow @ 09/01/12 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stillfeelme


	I think it probably comes down to memory 30 new categories for each player for the whole league would be roughly 10,800 sig skill ratings for the whole league. I would guess that is the reason.

I doubt memory is an issue anywhere outside of the 3D In-Game Engine. Therefore we're talking about 24 players in the engine with boolean values (signature skills) instead of integers (abilities) or floating point numbers (attributes or tendencies).

The most obvious answer is usually the right answer. Signature Skills were a design decision since the change/addition required resources to be spent on both the game UI and game engine.

Some of us believe that it was a poor design decision and I personally agree with most of what RyanFitzmagic has said despite his somewhat over the top tone about the issue. It's a dumbed down version of what we already had and from everything we've heard so far there are only two parties that would benefit from the move: 1) casual gamers and 2) "The 2K Insider".

The additional animations that were added to correspond with Signature Skills could have also been linked to thresholds in Attributes, Abilities, or Tendencies.

# 163 JasonMartin @ 09/01/12 02:21 PM

Will 2K regulary update these signature skills? What if a not so famous like eg. Roger Mason Jr averages 5 putback dunks a game, can they add this skill? Will they?

Or will they only update the famous teams and famous players?

# 164 Thunder Storm @ 09/01/12 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonMartin


	Will 2K regulary update these signature skills? What if a not so famous like eg. Roger Mason Jr averages 5 putback dunks a game, can they add this skill? Will they? Or will they only update the famous teams and famous players?

what ...

edit : nvm. I just realized it was a hypothetical question.

# 165 JasonMartin @ 09/01/12 02:35 PM

Glad you figured that out.

# 166 ojandpizza @ 09/01/12 03:22 PM

Dude per 36 minutes does not mean "in the clutch" I don't know why you ever assumed that was the same thing?

# 167 threattonature @ 09/01/12 03:32 PM

I think some of these signature skills will be sort of pointless and unnecessary, but I'm looking forward to some of the other ones. In previous games there was no way to account for a point guard that does great at setting up his teammates and making them look better than they are. Or to account for what Tyson Chandler or Garnett or a Dwight Howard do on defense that makes their teammates look like better defenders.

To me signature skills should go beyond ratings for an individual player and should be more geared to the affect they have on teammates. I think a clutch rating should for a player should give a slight boost to his teammates in the clutch since those players usually draw more defense to them and create better opportunities for their team in the clutch. They should have a dunk one for players like Blake Griffin that gives his teammates a momentum boost or an overall boost for a minute or so after throwing down a monster dunk since you often see that in real life. Those are the ratings I'm looking more forward to seeing. Things that can't be encompassed by simple individual player ratings.

# 168 stillfeelme @ 09/01/12 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ojandpizza


	Dude per 36 minutes does not mean "in the clutch" I don't know why you ever assumed that was the same thing?

Did you even look it up there are two columns one is per 36 as in non clutch how does the player perform, the other one is clutch per 36 minutes. Read my post again and look up the link. What NBA.com did was show you both so you can compare. Clutch minutes are few because it only happens in the last 5 minutes when you are up by 5 or down by 5 and are actually playing. You will have only a few clutch minutes during a season if you are getting blown out or blowing out other teams you may not even be in the game so no clutch opportunity.

# 169 masterofpuppets242 @ 09/01/12 03:44 PM

All lebron should get is the flopper skill..... :-)

# 170 RyanFitzmagic @ 09/01/12 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by threattonature


	I think some of these signature skills will be sort of pointless and unnecessary, but I'm looking forward to some of the other ones. In previous games there was no way to account for a point guard that does great at setting up his teammates and making them look better than they are. Or to account for what Tyson Chandler or Garnett or a Dwight Howard do on defense that makes their teammates look like better defenders.

Yes there was. They're called ratings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by threattonature


	To me signature skills should go beyond ratings for an individual player and should be more geared to the affect they have on teammates. I think a clutch rating should for a player should give a slight boost to his teammates in the clutch since those players usually draw more defense to them and create better opportunities for their team in the clutch.

So how exactly is that not capable of being represented by ratings? I'm still waiting for an answer to this question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by threattonature


	They should have a dunk one for players like Blake Griffin that gives his teammates a momentum boost or an overall boost for a minute or so after throwing down a monster dunk since you often see that in real life.

The game already has a momentum system like that.

# 171 DatGD12guage @ 09/01/12 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by youALREADYknow


	Most of these skills are dumbed-down gimmicks. Giving a player a Clutch "skill" while others don't have it is no different than giving those same players a Offensive Clutch rating of 75 while giving everyone else 25. The difference is that we lose the ability to scale and therefore lose control over the effect from player to player. All we can hope for now is that there are sliders or another way to configure the impact.

Hold up now cuzo we do have to get a definition as to what these skills are so I wouldnt jump the gun. Clutch could just simply mean that players will get the clutch player the ball or run a play for that player in a clutch situation at the last seconds of the game. It cant be that simple, I'm sure it had to cross their mind that wait........why do we need a sig clutch skill if there is a clutch rating.

# 172 stillfeelme @ 09/01/12 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by youALREADYknow


	I doubt memory is an issue anywhere outside of the 3D In-Game Engine. Therefore we're talking about 24 players in the engine with boolean values (signature skills) instead of integers (abilities) or floating point numbers (attributes or tendencies). The most obvious answer is usually the right answer. Signature Skills were a design decision since the change/addition required resources to be spent on both the game UI and game engine. Some of us believe that it was a poor design decision and I personally agree with most of what RyanFitzmagic has said despite his somewhat over the top tone about the issue. It's a dumbed down version of what we already had and from everything we've heard so far there are only two parties that would benefit from the move: 1) casual gamers and 2) "The 2K Insider". The additional animations that were added to correspond with Signature Skills could have also been linked to thresholds in Attributes, Abilities, or Tendencies.

Good points. I definitely agree with your point about this being done for casual gamers. I said this from the start as soon as I heard it. I don't know the details of programming but even when they added abilities in 2K12 they went to letter grades instead of numerical. I do agree that some of this was already in hot spots or tendency related. I guess you have to pick which resources you want to spend on designing the game. Some of these sig skills have less than 10 people in the whole league worthy of the sig skill. So looking at it from that perspective I see no reason to give the entire league a rating scale that such a small % should be using in the first place but I do see your point.

Overall I am not not too worried about it because it seems if implemented right it will have things that were already in 2K12 but expanded on further and still be able to separate the stars from the average players.

# 173 RyanFitzmagic @ 09/01/12 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DatGD12guage


	Hold up now cuzo we do have to get a definition as to what these skills are so I wouldnt jump the gun. Clutch could just simply mean that players will get the clutch player the ball or run a play for that player in a clutch situation at the last seconds of the game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DatGD12guage


	It cant be that simple, I'm sure it had to cross their mind that wait........why do we need a sig clutch skill if there is a clutch rating.

I think it'd be foolish to give 2K that much credit.

# 174 threattonature @ 09/01/12 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyanFitzmagic


	Yes there was. They're called ratings. So how exactly is that not capable of being represented by ratings? I'm still waiting for an answer to this question. The game already has a momentum system like that.

You tell me how exactly a player's affect on teammates can be represented by ratings. Right now there's not much of a difference between Dwight Howard and Javele McGee on defense.

With the way things are done now if you have a Dwight Howard he can be affective only if you drive the ball in to him. In real life he allows his teammates to play much more aggressive defensive and funnel everything in to them. Hence their on-ball defense being much better than it would without him. In a normal defensive scheme they couldn't attempt to play that kind of defense without a smart capable defender behind them. That affect isn't accounted for with Dwight currently. His ratings only affect him as is.

# 175 RyanFitzmagic @ 09/01/12 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by threattonature


	You tell me how exactly a player's affect on teammates can be represented by ratings. Right now there's not much of a difference between Dwight Howard and Javele McGee on defense.

Dwight Howard should have higher Defensive Awareness and a lower foul tendency, which translates into better, more active, more intelligent interior defense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by threattonature


	With the way things are done now if you have a Dwight Howard he can be affective only if you drive the ball in to him. In real life he allows his teammates to play much more aggressive defensive and funnel everything in to them.

How is that not the case already? If you have a good shot-blocker, you can afford to play tight on the perimeter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by threattonature


	Hence their on-ball defense being much better than it would without him. In a normal defensive scheme they couldn't attempt to play that kind of defense without a smart capable defender behind them. That affect isn't accounted for with Dwight currently. His ratings only affect him as is.

Dwight doesn't make anyone's defense better. He just allows them to play defense DIFFERENTLY. Hedo is still a defensive liability, with or without Howard.

# 176 DurtySoufReppin @ 09/01/12 04:33 PM

I think it's great that they have "Acrobat" and "Finisher"

This separates the different type of finishers we have, finally.

You have "Acrobat" for the elusive players who go around defenders to finish (Rose, Rondo, Westbrook,Wade).

Then you have "Finisher", the players who are better at finishing with contact and will get to the line more and get more AND 1s. (Lebron,Howard,Kobe,Wade,Melo, Durant,Griffin)

This also plays a major part in the post. Seperating the elite scorers from the 2nd-tier.

Good job by 2k.

# 177 RyanFitzmagic @ 09/01/12 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DurtySoufReppin


	I think it's great that they have "Acrobat" and "Finisher" This separates the different type of finishers we have, finally. You have "Acrobat" for the elusive players who go around defenders to finish (Rose, Rondo, Westbrook,Wade). Then you have "Finisher", the players who are better at finishing with contact and will get to the line more and get more AND 1s. (Lebron,Howard,Kobe,Wade,Melo, Durant,Griffin) The basic "lay-up" rating wasn't good enough to seperate the two. Good job by 2k.

Then add "Acrobatic Finish" and "Contact Finish" ratings. Not difficult.

# 178 liberaluser @ 09/01/12 04:49 PM

So this is basically a semantics debate. For many people the word skill = rating.

2K should have called these "signature tendencies" so certain stubborn people could see how they are different from ratings and add unique gameplay flavor to players who have them.

But instead of being glad we are getting a greater diversity of animations and gameplay styles, people bitch about how it's implemented in the 1st year 2K is trying this system out and having not played it yet either.

# 179 youALREADYknow @ 09/01/12 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by liberaluser


	So this is basically a semantics debate. For many people the word skill = rating. 2K should have called these "signature tendencies" so certain stubborn people could see how they are different from ratings and add unique gameplay flavor to players who have them. But instead of being glad we are getting a greater diversity of animations and gameplay styles, people bitch about how it's implemented in the 1st year 2K is trying this system out and having not played it yet either.

It's the exact opposite of a semantics debate. I'll make this as simple as possible with the following scenario:

Signature Skills = Boolean/Binary, 2 total options, 0 and 1

If 2K announced that every player in the game would have a Speed rating of either 25 or 99, then would that be an acceptable response to the Speed problems in 2K12? Of course it wouldn't, but that's exactly the same as what was done with some of these Skills.

The only difference between the above example and what was done with SOME (not ALL) of the Signature Skills is that most gamers don't care enough to look into the details of how the game of basketball is being played and only care about the surface-level visuals and controls.

Some of the Skills are indeed very useful based on what information we've received. Acrobat is a great addition that couldn't be accounted for previously. Chase Down Blocker is another. Out of the 20 or so skills that we know about right now, most of them could already have been reproduced in 2K12 and the options to create differentiation between players were far greater.

Trying to create a simulation of a sport requires millions of options and variations and we've just had variation go from 74+ to 2 in some of these areas of the sport. It's not a good thing for the simulation basketball crowd in my opinion.

# 180 cleandoe @ 09/01/12 05:15 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7lS4t0kglY
D. Rose Signature Skills

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