NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

[SonicBoom2040]

Beluba...I have 2 questions and they are short and sweet..
When u pump fake a standing shot like say a 3...will we be able to get the shot off without seeing the player run into me and just call a foul?
Second one is kinda simple...let's say same situation but after the pump fake can we sidestep to a side like steph and klay do ? Hope it all makes sense

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Bit of a bummer since I'm an exclusive shot stick user and it seems a bit weird to have some shots split between the button and stick. I liked the previous 2K standard and preferred way of playing, where all shots could be performed on the stick in a (somewhat) intuitive way and can flow out of dribble moves naturally.

How are step back shots performed this year, now that the right stick deflection direction is used for shot accuracy? Are context sensitive directional jumpshots still a thing?

Stepback jumpers are done by tapping the Shot Button. Same with spin jumpers (Sprint+double tap).

[Vni]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Defensive Assist is back to being a slider, the pressure sensitive thing didn't work out the way we wanted. Also, it's OFF for online play, so you shouldn't be getting pulled away from where you're trying to go any more.

That's huge. Well done.

[Hustle Westbrook]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Defensive Assist is back to being a slider, the pressure sensitive thing didn't work out the way we wanted. Also, it's OFF for online play, so you shouldn't be getting pulled away from where you're trying to go any more.

Thank you!!!

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Mike in regards to rebounding, can the user manually use swim moves while boxed out to improve their position when fighting for the board?

I'm just trying to get a sense of whether the rebounding skill gap has been improved like how dribbling has(in terms of user skill)

You use the Left Stick to improve your positioning. Push toward the other guy to push him out of position, left or right to swim around that way when you're boxed out.

[Jrocc23]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

I think the issues with greens automatically falling is when you make them so difficult to obtain, you expect to be rewarded for your precision.

If they were easier to get, but you missed a few here and there, it probably wouldn't be as annoying to people.

It's a psychological thing really.

Which is why I believe it should have stayed the way it was. Back then I barely heard people talking about missing greens.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LorenzoDC]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Mike, I just want to shout out to you and the dev team for how you collectively have observed and analyzed your own game, identified areas to improve, and (more than likely) executed on those targeted areas for improvement.

That's a very substantial undertaking. Seriously, it gets short shrift among your buyers and most people here. But what's really standing out to me, as I absorb all this and your answers to questions, is the level of clear eyed review you all did about the places where game play was weaker and could improve.

OS'ers offer a fair amount of analysis on those lines, some better than others, but you guys have taken all that and your own assessments to identify areas in a short cycle where you could make real changes - physicality, animations and post play, defensive movement on ball and off, and so on -and translated it into technical projects you can focus on and complete.

Nevermind all the project management and testing and coding and frustration that comes out of all that, which is itself huge. I'm just really appreciative of the genuine effort and intelligence that goes into really trying to make the game better as a basketball game.

Yes there may be areas where you don't execute as well as you hoped, and yes there are choices to make about developmental resources that leave some players disappointed. That's a given. But other game teams don't engage the hard core fans the way you do to help you target areas to improve and enhance design.

So thank you. I wanted to call that out.

[eko718]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Mike, question about dribbling. Some of the community day guys have mentioned that defensive players were falling way too frequently. Is this already being addressed? I can see that become old pretty quick and taking the joy away from actually breaking ankles skillfully.

[KoolAidNoSugar]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Will 6'11 bigs be able to compete with 7'3 bigs in rebounding battles? On 2K16 smaller bigs just gets rebounds taken over their head by these 7'3 monsters.

Will the difference in Veritcal & Lateral Quickness actually be noticeable? As that's what 7'3 bigs get penalized for the most.

People tend to go towards 2 7'3 C and it clogs the court in ProAm/Walk on. If the undersized bigs could compete that would grant more spacing on the court.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

To piggy back on that, if a ballhandler stops in the lane and a defender runs into him from behind, is that going to start being called? That's the go to tactic for a lot of point guards past and present.

We did add fouls for defenders ramming into a stationary ball handler. But they've been tuned back quite a bit because they would often fire off in cases where people were just trying to get back into position. They're in there though.

[Sundown]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Great post, Sundown. I actually started off the dev cycle how you just suggested. More frequent greens, high-ish success rate, but lots of misses. People, at least the handful that tested it, didn't like it at all.

I can actually make that change right now and you'll get it when you play Prelude next week... but my guess is that it won't go over well.

Do it. You know you want to. >8)

I can definitely see folks not liking it, if at first-- it would take a while to undo the expectations set by a couple of years of programming. If there's a chance of them accepting it, there would still probably be a pretty big adjustment period.

I think greens are rare enough that it doesn't spoil the drama, so I don't really think that's too much of an issue. Maybe I can kill them off completely next year or tune them to be super rare this year and let them slowly die off. Still debating that one.

With their rarity, they probably won't spoil things too much, but I'd prefer to be unsure of every shot's success until it goes through the net. That matches more closely to how I experience basketball and there could the rare game where a big shot in the clutch shows up green. I'm probably kind of weird this way but when that happens it's a bit anticlimactic for me.

Or you can just kill them slowly. With fire.

[HPShizzle]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Hey Mike, awesome post but I have a question: I plan on making a Sharpshooter PF and running the stretch 4 spot similar to a Dirk Nowitzki in ProAM but i'm worried about how I will do against other teams who will likely run two Glass Cleaner C's who have better rebounding and vertical stats. My question is how will user skill affect the battle for boxout positions and cleanly grabbing rebounds? And to add on to that, how will height effect that same battle? It felt like there was no reason not to use a 7'3 big in 2K16

[harryl]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

I think greens are rare enough that it doesn't spoil the drama, so I don't really think that's too much of an issue. Maybe I can kill them off completely next year or tune them to be super rare this year and let them slowly die off. Still debating that one.

Personally, I think it makes the most sense to make them 100%, but to make them extremely rare. If they're not going to be 100%, then they shouldn't be a totally different color/animation.

Defensive Assist is back to being a slider, the pressure sensitive thing didn't work out the way we wanted.

Really? I ended up playing with it at 5 or 10 because, it "felt" necessary to have it on slightly to keep correct orientation, but dialed way down to provide more precise control. And I tried to be as conscious as possible about varying pressure on L2 for when I was digging in, versus trying to move rapidly and laterally.

So now how can we control the balance between digging in/lateral quickness? Or is this somehow made a moot issue due to the new collision/body-up dynamics?

And what if we want to just simply break out of a defensive posture and run as normal? Do we have to shuffle until we get to some pre-set distance, and then we break into the "normal," non-defensive movement animation?

[Beluba]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

Appreciate all the work you guys put in for NBA 2K17, Mike. Quick question for you: how does the shot stick timing affect step back jumpers this year? I'm assuming they're still triggered by the shot stick as well as the button + left stick combo. Also, will step back jumpers be more effective this year, specifically for the guys that use them often in real life? A lot of the animations seemed too slow to me to effectively create space for a good shot in 2K16.

Stepback Js are off the Shot Stick this year. You tap the Shot button to get them now. Timing works the same way though, after the stepback finishes and the player starts to gather, the meter starts to fill.

They're pretty effective this year with the right guys. Pullups, spin jumpers, and stepbacks all got a decent boost for the guys that can actually do them IRL.

[NoLeafClover]

Re: NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

With timing layups being a thing, all I know is that the SERVERS better be up to scratch this year as mis-timing layups due to lag will definitely get people raging.

Working the ball inside was a good fall back way of scoring in previous years if the game was laggy and made timing jumpshots difficult...

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk