NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

[K_Dub]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Thanks for taking the time out to do this Q&A Mike. My questions are mostly MyCareer related.

1. Is there any way to get your teammates to pursue rebounds and loose balls more aggressively? They rarely, if ever, box out and many times seem not to even jump for rebounds even if they have position.

2. Do teammates have the ability to change shots mid-air? Playing on the Bulls, I regularly see Derrick Rose drive the lane and lay the ball directly into a shot blocker instead of attempting to avoid the block.

3. In the second season of MyCareer, I've seen seemingly random changes in the starting lineup throughout the 1st quarter of the season. I displaced Butler from the starting 2 spot (though I was rated lower at the time) and while McDermott has been the regular starter, Butler and Snell have seen 2 or more starts. Taj also had a 6 game stint as a starter. These were not due to any injuries. Is there any rhyme or reason to these changes? For instance, why isn't Butler permanently starting as the now 2nd highest rated swingman on the team?

4. Why do teams offensive sets devolve into isolate, drive, and pull up for a paint jumper after a play is completed or broken instead of seeing freelance tendencies kick in? There's never a pick and roll or a shooter run off of screens.

5. Big men seem to go exclusively to fadeaway to score in the post. Rarely do you see a hook shot or a drop step. Also, big men have no patience on the block. There is a post play where the 2 dumps the ball into the post and is supposed to cut through and clear that side of the court. The big men don't survey the court and usually put up a shot within 3 seconds of receiving the ball. Is this being addressed?

[TheBigTicket205]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

The AI in my career on the higher difficulties is insane... Average NBA players seem to score at will and make impossible contested shots. On the other end my teammates cant throw it in the ocean. They miss wide open shots and players like Lebron and Kyrie don't play like they're real life counter parts. Seven point deficits are hard to recover from. I play well but my team struggles. Will there be a patch or is the a setting ls solution you could recommend. I like the harder difficultly because I receive more a VC but I had to scale down to Allstar/Sim to keep the game realistic.

[GollyImGully]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

what was the reasoning for stripped down online leagues? the lack of options is insane

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

1) what would be your advice on timing with shot blockers? In real life i block a surprising number of shots for my height with timing, but timing in 2k seems to be a little different than real life.

Shouldn't be too much different than real life principles. You probably have to anticipate earlier this year compared to past years. We're doing a much better job now of respecting the defender's momentum in this year's block system so you can't just stop on a dime for shot blocks when your momentum doesn't agree with where you need to target the ball. So try to make sure you're measuring the shooter up with your steps before your block attempts and gap enough to give yourself time to compress and get off the floor at the right time.

2) has any attention been given to making the hedge man more aware of containing the ball-handlers penetration? The big makes no attempt to stop penetration when the handler goes away from the screen, and when the handler turns the corner, the hedger often leaves and tries too soon and allows a drive.

Our AI engineers spent quite a bit of time on pick and roll defense this year. It's difficult to say for sure whether what you're seeing is by design or a bug without knowing what the screen defense is being set to. I'll ping OG and see if he has any insight.

3) does the pass vision rating have any effect on hum controlled passers?

I believe pass vision affects the accuracy of human controlled passes, how well a player can thread the needle, etc. Might be used for pass selection too but I'm not sure.

4) in what situations does a players lateral quickness rating kick in, because on superstar Roy Hibbert is quite agile lol

Lateral quickness is used to adjust the onball defender's defensive slide quickness. Not sure what's up with Hibbert. I'll mention it to Jerson.

5) I know its been said that pass speed is tricky, but what about certain slow animations that look as of they'd only be done in practice? Are they used for balance with the momentum system?

No. We don't put slow pass animations in to counter balance anything. Probably a bad asset that needs to be removed.

6) What are some cool Easter egg animations you've added over the years we might not have noticed?

I don't know, OS is pretty on top of finding these kinds of things out. Surprised nobody mentioned Perkins' YOLO jumper last year. I thought that was cool. Zach put some more funny free throw antics in that I haven't seen mentioned yet. And there are a few goodies in the Park that most won't see for a couple months. I'd tell you but then they wouldn't be Easter eggs any more.


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[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

This is my biggest issue right now. I feel like I have no control of my guy (offline). These guys are elite athletes. They should be able to change directions much quicker than they do now when pressing on the sticks.

There seems to be way too much hesitation/lack of responsiveness when controlling your guy. Whether it's pulling off a crossover/spin move, jumping to block a shot, or just changing directions in general. Everything happens a second too late. Even pump fakes. You tap the shoot button, and then they do the pump. They should pump the ball as soon as the button is tapped.

This is all offline BTW.

Is any of this being looked at for a patch?

Thanks a ton for answering our questions. Much appreciated.

Yeah we've been trying to figure out what people are seeing when they talk about input lag. Defensive movement responsiveness is something Jerson is looking into for the patch and there have been a couple fixes for dropped block inputs. But beyond that, we're hearing mixed feedback.

I'm curious, how many people are playing with wireless controllers and have you tried playing wired? The only significant lag I've seen throughout development was related to my ps4 controller's bluetooth connection.


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[Bornindamecca]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

The AI in my career on the higher difficulties is insane... Average NBA players seem to score at will and make impossible contested shots. On the other end my teammates cant throw it in the ocean. They miss wide open shots and players like Lebron and Kyrie don't play like they're real life counter parts. Seven point deficits are hard to recover from. I play well but my team struggles. Will there be a patch or is the a setting ls solution you could recommend. I like the harder difficultly because I receive more a VC but I had to scale down to Allstar/Sim to keep the game realistic.

LOL. That's not a question.

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Mike, do you think superstars play like superstars?

It's not perfect by any stretch but I think we've done a decent job getting stars to play more like themselves and have them take over in the correct spots. We still have a long way to go before we'll be content though.


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[Soundtrack2C]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Yes. All factors being equal, a user-controlled defender will affect the shot more than the AI.

Not sure about the MyTeam question.

I knew this from day one, this is ridiculous. Its unfair and also doesn't make sense that my AI teammates have less of an effect on shots than I do as a defender.

I knew it, I can't believe that this is set up this way. This is whats making this game such a pain to play for guys like me who player lock or for those who play my career.

Can this please be fixed? I don't see any reason for why my contest and a contest from my teammates is being treated differently. This is whats "breaking" the game for me. this is why the cpu keeps making such a high % of their shots, because my teammates "hands" aren't as effective as my hands.

This makes player locking such a pain. I've been player locking since nba live 01. This is the first time I've truly felt that my teammates have been "gimped" on either end.

Please tell me that this is being looked at for both my career and player locking in general. I can't play this game any other way, I don't like controlling everyone and this is whats making the cpu make such ridiculous shots.

Thanks for reading and please fix this, there is no logical reason for my AI teammates to have less of an effect on shots than a user.

[ggsimmonds]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

I knew this from day one, this is ridiculous. Its unfair and also doesn't make sense that my AI teammates have less of an effect on shots than I do as a defender.

I knew it, I can't believe that this is set up this way. This is whats making this game such a pain to play for guys like me who player lock or for those who play my career.

Can this please be fixed? I don't see any reason for why my contest and a contest from my teammates is being treated differently. This is whats "breaking" the game for me. this is why the cpu keeps making such a high % of their shots, because my teammates "hands" aren't as effective as my hands.

This makes player locking such a pain. I've been player locking since nba live 01. This is the first time I've truly felt that my teammates have been "gimped" on either end.

Please tell me that this is being looked at for both my career and player locking in general. I can't play this game any other way, I don't like controlling everyone and this is whats making the cpu make such ridiculous shots.

Thanks for reading and please fix this, there is no logical reason for my AI teammates to have less of an effect on shots than a user.

Actually there is. They made it this way a couple of years ago because in online matches most people were playing off ball defense and letting the AI handle on ball defense.

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Hey Beluba thanks for taking the time to answer questions I have 3,

1) One thing that has bothered me on various installments of NBA 2k basketball games and is very present in 2k15 is the CPU ability to recover from contact, forcing it's way into the paint creating contact and then able to go up for a perfect released shot, should there not be a mili-second of recovery to gather then go up for the shot or just more of forced release animation.

Yes. This bothers me too. Bad news is, we can't do much about this in a patch as it's quite a widespread issue. Good news is that it's a big focus for 2K16. The main issue is that our dribbler and body up systems don't do a good job passing information to our shot systems. We're looking at solutions for this now.

2) The CPU alot of the time when faced with tough defense will wait until the final second of the shot clock to take a shot, where in reality a player under pressure may shoot with 2-3 seconds left on the clock, basically not waiting until the clock hits 1, is there anyway to make this situation vary and not just 1 second left then shoot.

This is almost always a result of a broken play. This is just a pressure relief situation that we need to detect and handle better. Da Czar's on it. ☺

3) If there anyway to have the CPU more aware of shot block attempts , what differentiates human players and the CPU is that awareness which will cause differences in release time, I don't see a lot of variations in shot releases from the CPU no mater the situation, I would think a 5-9 pg going up again 2 7 footer would not go with a conventional shot in that situation .

I think we've come up with a good solution for this but it will have to wait for next year.


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[Soundtrack2C]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Actually there is. They made it this way a couple of years ago because in online matches most people were playing off ball defense and letting the AI handle on ball defense.

I don't play online, so why should offline users and people who play my career suffer?

can't they leave the "gimp" for online games only and not handicap those who choose to player lock and those who play my career?

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Could this be why some people are seeing the AI team shoot a high percentage in mycareer?

I know the user controlled bonus is fairly small, but it does seem like the AI makes a high percentage of contested jumpers when guarded by my teammates in mycareer.

And tell czar that sim nation demands more strategy/coaching insights videos! If he does not respond well to demands than tell him we politely request it

This effect would be miniscule in the grand scheme so it's more likely a general tuning issue. I'm actively working on AI shot %s right now. What difficulty are you on?


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[Soundtrack2C]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

This effect would be miniscule in the grand scheme so it's more likely a general tuning issue. I'm actively working on AI shot %s right now. What difficulty are you on?


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Ive had this issue in any mode that you can player lock in, plus in my career. On superstar difficulty.

If AI controlled teammates shot contests counted the same way a user shot contest does, it would be less of an issue for those of us who player lock or for those who play my career. However the opponent AI does need to be tuned on superstar and hall of fame.

[Walt Frazier]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

I'm working on this issue right now. It will be fixed in the next patch.

Thank you Mike. Put backs are ruining the game for many.

No kick outs....no second possessions = nothing like the flow of a real game of basketball.

Very relieved to hear it is being fixed.

[Shakedowncapo]

Re: NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

Wassup Mike,

Got an issue with MyCareer where I get doubled teamed in the beginning of the game. My players stats are very good, yes, but no NBA team outright doubles someone without seeing how the game is going. I score about 6 points in the quarter and then when running a play, it gets interrupted because the computer sends another man at me and it keeps happening when I cross half-court.

Wondering if you guys are seeing this as well at the office?

Thanks.