NBA 2K17 Gameplay Blog with Gameplay Director, Mike Wang

[Leasim96]

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

Our AI engineer who works on rebounding had this message for you...

"One of the main problems with huge guys is that they jump higher and farther when playing the exact same animation. Last year, we added vertical counter scaling to make them jump only as high as everyone else got to jump even though they were massive. This year we’ve added counter-scaling in the X-Z plane as well so the big guys won’t be able to cover more ground horizontally than others just because they are big. This should definitely help de-emphasize height in favor of positioning with respect to the rebounding game. In addition, we added more low-jumping rebound content so that we could lower the allowable jump height of our more vertically-challenged players."

Amazing - looking forward to testing a 6,7 to 6,9 Glass Cleaner PF and seeing f it feels as effective somehow as bigger builds. I'm all about testing builds.

[lhanstracy]

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

It's so cool that Mike Wang is out here answering questions. Js

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[Insight23]

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

Have injuries in game returned?only injuries for human players were through simulation.

[Trackball]

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

"gotcha" post with "proof" You're over doing it. Just stating what i saw with added proof as a bonus. I mentioned your name because you and a couple of other guys like Wii sports have easy names and avatars to remember. I'm not trying to out do anyone. I just want the game to be the best it can be. Also I'm not disregarding the ACE system in the game. I'm fully aware of adjustments being made. I just know the difference between adjustment's being made and artificial attribute boost happening. I've been playing basketball for 15+ years. Adjustments and adapting simply don't work that way. But like i said. I just want the game to be the best it can be. I'm not looking to compete with anyone over the internet.

So, no code?

[MarkWilliam]

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

I hate it. The Euro step was so easy to perform on the shot stick. I've never understood why the community seems to have had such a tough time with it. All you had to do was release turbo and push the shot stick down at a 90º angle—left or right, depending on the position of your defender—when you were driving to the basket.

I struggled with it to be honest. I'm a broadcast guy and I just kept doing floaters instead. Poor stick skills perhaps....

[Chemthethriller]

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

Question about post play.

1. Is there better flow? ie If I drop step, I shouldn't just stop and be faced up (2ft from the basket) as the intent of the dropstep was to dropstep then immediately go up with the ball.

2. If a defender is in from of you, but you are within "dunking" range of the rim, can I go up for a dunk or will I be required to pump fake then go up?

3. This question goes back to flow, I felt like a lot of the post moves (post hop step, drop step, post spin) looked nice but the finishing ability was never there. I'm playing on a 7'3" 300 lb Center, and I felt as if I had the hands of a 7 year old because I had no strength going up with the ball, and if anyone at all was near me it was a turnover 8/10. It felt like it turned post play into post fades, pump fakes, and the very rarely up and under.

4. Is there better passing out of the post, ie I have someone posted up and someone cuts behind me and my defender, I attempt a bounce pass and it goes to the wrong side and hits my defenders legs.

5. Can I avoid shooting fouls on defense this year? It felt like people would come into the post and pumpfake, and sometimes simply holding the RS up made my guy jump into them. Sometimes I just want to put my hands straight up and that's it.

6. Can I set picks on the low block this year?

[Americas Team]

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

I struggled with it to be honest. I'm a broadcast guy and I just kept doing floaters instead. Poor stick skills perhaps....

yup same here, could not pull it off with consistency especially in broadcast camera.

[MarkWilliam]

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

yup same here, could not pull it off with consistency especially in broadcast camera.

Double tap is more instinctual aswell which I like. I just avoided doing euros because it often didn't quite happen and would mess up my possession. As a result I wasn't mentally equipped to do them on instinct.

Double tap is nice - so long as the rest of the game won't allow abuse. Which it appears it won't based on Mike's blog.

Happy days.

[tt500]

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.

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.

Yes please make green releases super rare. It'll be rewarding to get it off and will keep the drama of shots intact in the game. Some guys online and park play so much that green can start becoming pretty occasional moments in matches.

The green release can be too overpowering when you got a green bar for defense but the offense was perfect due to players remembering the shot animation rather than playing good basketball.

[thormessiah]

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

I don't know if anyone has asked this yet or not, but have chase down blocks been nerfed this year for players who shouldn't/can't block from behind? I don't wanna see J.J Reddick blocking Demar Derozan in transition this year.

[Jrocc23]

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

I hate it. The Euro step was so easy to perform on the shot stick. I've never understood why the community seems to have had such a tough time with it. All you had to do was release turbo and push the shot stick down at a 90º angle—left or right, depending on the position of your defender—when you were driving to the basket.

I am not sure how I feel about it either because a lot of people will be doing it. I can do it, but it's certain angles that made it hard to do on broadcast. And sometimes simply doing what you said would be iffy. But I also don't like it being so easy as double tap X.

Hopefully, it doesn't draw a lot of fouls like it did back in 2K11 because a lot of people will be doing them now.


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[BluFu]

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

It's confusing I know.

2 years ago, you picked a release and base and we blended those two animations to create a frankenstein jump shot.

Last year, you could only pick a single motion captured animation.

With the shot creator, you can pick two releases and set how much we blend toward one or the other. So for example...

this would be a perfect tween between 2 guys:
Kobe release = 50%
Steph release = 50%

this would mostly look like Kobe, but some of Steph's motion would be there:
Kobe = 80%
Steph = 20%

Then you pick a base (how the player jumps)

So essentially, you're frankenstein-ing 3 animations together. It's pretty cool tech. but basically, just play around with it until you get the jumper to look the way you want in the previewer. Then play around with it in practice mode to see if it feels right to you.

And you should note, the Shot Creator isn't instantly available in MyCAREER. It comes as a reward in the mode.

1. Is this 'Shot Creator' available in the Edit Player screen?

2. With the boost being added to the shot stick, are you aiming to remove button shooting altogether in the future?

3. Have you considered making the button exclusively for layups/floaters/push shots? (To prevent unwanted jumpshots in the paint)

Thanks Mike!

[jyoung]

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

Will we be able to make a human player to human player dribble handoff this year in modes like MyPark, Pro Am, and Team Up?

In 2K16 the dribble handoff move (holding B on Xbox One and holding circle on PlayStation 4) could only be done if the recipient of the handoff was a computer-controlled teammate.

[Sundown]

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

Not sure if you can pull these off exactly like the vids. But if you get the right post engage (hold LT/L2) then pull off a shimmy shot (RT/R2+RS Away) you can get pretty close.

I'm a little confused about how to control these shots without the contextual directional shot stick.

How do we control which direction to shimmy in the post and which direction we turn to shoot the turnaround? Is it the same controls close to the basket (where a close hook shot would be performed) as it is farther from the basket (where a turnaround shot would be taken)? Can we shimmy fake without actually shooting?

The system we had in 2K16 seemed so intuitive-- there wasn't much need to remember the modifier buttons for specific shots and dribble moves, and where they were necessary they were themselves pretty intuitive. If I wanted to shimmy/fake, I just tapped in the direction I wanted to fake. If I wanted to chain a shot in another direction afterwards, I just pushed the shot stick in that direction.

I understand many of the controls had to be moved away form the shot stick for the shot accuracy feature, I feel a little like a noob again having to remember button combinations for basic shots again, and it almost seems like going a bit backwards. Are a lot of the directional fakes and shots controlled with the left stick now?

[hear me now]

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

Oh ok. That's different. If there are individual anims that are killing the flow we would have to identify them and remove them.

One of our engineers did try to change the inbound logic to have the closest guy inbound. Seemed to help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHZUYjx2zko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp3GA62kaOQ

That won't happen?