Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

[Geandily]

I've lurked for a few days now and I haven't seen anybody ask these questions so I figured I would!

A few things first about what I'm trying to do. I haven't played a basketball videogame since the SNES so I really have no idea what this is going to be like. Well, I played that Freestyle Street Basketball game for awhile, got tired of that and quit because it was so unrealistic, lagged and the controls sucked.

The only other sports game I've played recently has been Madden and boy oh boy does EA suck or what? The same bugs have existed in that game since it first went 3D.

I have 8~ gamer friends that want to play this, there's a few of them that have played sports games before but not recently, most of them watch the NFL or the NBA so they understand sports at least to a degree and they're all pretty good gamers.


OK, this is getting way too long, I'm just gonna get to my questions, sorry for the delay! I realize that some of these questions you guys will be unable to answer but I figured if anybody besides the developers could answer them it would be you guys.

Here we go!


1. Were probably not going to have enough people to do two teams of 5v5, is a 5v4 or a 3v4 going to be possible with the AI controlling one person?

2. Are there going to be ranked 5v5 games? Were 2v2 games ranked in previous titles? (if they existed that is, did they?) If 5v5 games are ranked, will there be individual ranks, team ranks or both individual and team ranks?

3. How popular are 5v5 games going to be? Are we going to have to sit around for 20 minutes looking for a game?

4. Will 5 person teams be forced to play against other 5 person teams or would it be possible for 5 people to play against 1 guy?

5. Do you guys think that 5v5 games will lag? Do 1v1 games ever lag? (keep in mind I've never played on X-BOX live)

6. How do you choose what players will be on your team? How will teams for ranked games work for 2v2, 3v3etc work? Are you assigned a certain amount of points to purchase NBA players? Will you just choose an NBA team or will you create your own players?

I'm mostly curious about how ranked teams will work, so if custom players are out for ranked play then we probably wont use them that often.

7. How will player positions be assigned when everybody is on the same team? Will positions be assigned any differently in 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5?

8. How easy will it be for all of us to get on the same team? Is there a clan feature like Madden has or what? Can we get our team formed up, select players and all that before we play?

9. Will there be 3 on 3 games? With 6 players on the court I mean. What about 1v1 or 2v2?

10. Will you prefer to play as one guy on a team or play the classic way by controlling an entire team?

[eDotd]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

I'll try and answer. Keep in mind that I'm in the dark as much as you are, so if anyone cares to chime in with any corrections, feel free.

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1. Were probably not going to have enough people to do two teams of 5v5, is a 5v4 or a 3v4 going to be possible with the AI controlling one person?

Pretty sure you won't need 10 people to start a game in a custom match (AI will fill in). Not so sure about ranked matches.

2. Are there going to be ranked 5v5 games? Were 2v2 games ranked in previous titles? (if they existed that is, did they?) If 5v5 games are ranked, will there be individual ranks, team ranks or both individual and team ranks?

Yes there are 5 vs 5 ranked games. You will recieve a grade depending on what kind of player you are. Being beneficial to the team earns higher grades, while being a douche (not helping the team in anyway) results in lower grades.

There are 2v2 (4 people on the court) ranked matches but only in street mode.

3. How popular are 5v5 games going to be? Are we going to have to sit around for 20 minutes looking for a game?

Kinda hard to say since the game isn't out yet. I doubt you'd spend 20 minutes looking for a game though.

4. Will 5 person teams be forced to play against other 5 person teams or would it be possible for 5 people to play against 1 guy?

See question 1.

5. Do you guys think that 5v5 games will lag? Do 1v1 games ever lag? (keep in mind I've never played on X-BOX live)

There wasn't much lag in 2K8, the problem was how often you were disconnected from games (contradicting, eh?). Basically the servers were really unreliable.

In 2K8 you were randomly disconnected sometimes during games. There would be no lag leading up to the disconnect, it would play as if everything was fine, then boom, Connection Lost. Some people say it was when you made mass subs, others say otherwise, I personally still don't know why.

Anyway, it's kinda hard to answer until the game is out and the servers are tested.

6. How do you choose what players will be on your team? How will teams for ranked games work for 2v2, 3v3etc work? Are you assigned a certain amount of points to purchase NBA players? Will you just choose an NBA team or will you create your own players?

I'm mostly curious about how ranked teams will work, so if custom players are out for ranked play then we probably wont use them that often.

You will not be able to create your own players and play with them online. In ranked games you will be assigned a player on a team. In custom games you can select what player you want to be. You don't "purchase" players.. (not sure what you mean here)


7. How will player positions be assigned when everybody is on the same team? Will positions be assigned any differently in 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5?

In custom matches you can choose who you want to be. In ranked matches you'll be assigned a player. There are no 2v2 (4 ppl on the court), 3v3 (6 ppl on the court), 4v4 (8 ppl on the court) in Team Up. There will always be 10 players on the court, either human-controlled, or human & AI controlled.

8. How easy will it be for all of us to get on the same team? Is there a clan feature like Madden has or what? Can we get our team formed up, select players and all that before we play?

Lol, there are clans in Madden? You'll be able to match up with your buddies via custom matches. I'm not sure if you'll be able to play with 4 of your friends on the same team for a ranked match. I think you will be assigned a random player and then graded on how well you performed. You're assigned a random player so the grading system actually means something.

ex: So if you're assigned Chris Wilcox, you should not cry and ***** about it, you should do something to help your team win. Crying, bitching, and being a douche will lead to poor grading.

9. Will there be 3 on 3 games? With 6 players on the court I mean. What about 1v1 or 2v2?

Not in Team Up. You can play 2v2 (4 ppl on the court), 3v3 (6 ppl on the court) in Street Mode.

10. Will you prefer to play as one guy on a team or play the classic way by controlling an entire team?

Entire team.

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Hope that helps. Again, not 100% on any of these so if anybody catches anything misleading, feel free to chime in.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

The Ranked Matches will be like NHL 2K9 where you just get dropped into a lobby, and I believe it will be the same where the host actually chooses the teams before creating the match. The issue with this is that if you want to do a ranked match with your friend, you would have to hope that you end up on the same team, as if you enter at the same time, you'll be assigned to opposite teams.

To my knowledge (again, assuming it's the same system as NHL 2K9), the host cannot move people to a different team or change teams once the match is created. You are automatically assigned a position depending on when you joined (in NHL, the first people to join are the Cs on each team, then LW, RW, etc. show up as more people join). Also, there is a 1:30 time limit which automatically starts the game, as long as there are at least 2 people in the room. The toom is you shooting aroung most likely, and you can just talk to people on the mic, but there are not really any options to adjust -- you can just view people's profiles/ranking and then the game will start when the timer runs out.

There will be enough people playing NBA that you shouldn't have many 2 on 1 matches starting like in NHL, but that 1:30 time limit (with no option for the host to not start the game) is still kind of limiting... but this mode will be much nicer in NBA than NHL just doue to the amount of users online at any time.

The Unranked matches will have an actual lobby where you can choose teams, sides, and positions. This is where I will be playing, because I don't much care about playing lobby ball to get Team 2K points when I oculd be playing sim 5 on 5 games with friends in the Unranked lobbies.

[eDotd]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

Stumble, can you spectate at all in NHL?

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

Nope, not that I saw.

And FYI, I basically confirmed most of this with SimBaller (that the system is the same as in NHL), but I don't know if they have any plans to change it or if there are additional features for NBA vs. NHL. I was very unhappy with the Ranked Team-Up in NHL 2K9 and so I wanted to check on NBA... the main problem with NHL was the lack of players actually using the mode (partly because everyone is trying to level up in Team 2K playing regular ranked matches). That should be mostly remedied for NBA, and I think that most of us have enough NBA friends that we can probably fill up an unranked lobby pretty easily, so this issues shouldn't be so pronounced. Seemed almost impossible to find a Ranked Team-up game in NHL that had more than 3 players in it.

[eDotd]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

If the only problem in NHL was lack of players then NBA should be just fine. Kinda sucks that you can't spectate. I was hoping that you'd be able to pick a seat in the arena and just watch the game..lol. That'd be tight.

[Geandily]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

So you guys don't think that you're going to be able to have a set team of 5 people for a ranked game?

Also thanks for the responses!

[Al_Bundy]

Re: Lots of questions regarding 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 & 5v5

There are 2v2 (4 people on the court) ranked matches but only in street mode.

This is two human players vs. two human players (from four consoles), correct? AFAIK, in NBA2K8, you can play ranked 2v2 (or 3v3, 4v4) matches but with only with one human player vs. another human player (max., two consoles). For the custom matches, you can co-op or play versus in 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 games. But again, only one console vs. another console. So the only difference between ranked and custom matches was you could play co-op for custom matches.

For NBA2K9, I'm hoping that we can play up to 4 humans vs. 4 humans (4 consoles vs. 4 consoles) in the BlackTop mode. Ranked or unkanked, doesn't matter to me.

I'm in the same situation as the OP. I have a lot of sports gamers that comes by to play. I have two questions that I'd really appreciate if you could provide an answer:

1. For offline play, can you play with more than four human players for either consoles (PS3, X360)? The Xbox 360 has a maximum of four connected controllers at once, so I'd think the answer is "no". The PS3, however, can connect up to seven controllers at once.

2. For Team Up or BlackTop mode (online), can more than one human player from the same console play with and against human players from other consoles? EX., can my friends and I, on my console, play with and against another two friends from another console, and another friend from another console? Which means ten human players combined from three consoles.