NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

[Comduklakis]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

good call on the trades during the draft. Several times I've seen situations where I would love to trade down after a guy I was targeting got picked, or trade up if there is a run on a certain position, but you can't. It would add some great realism, whether controlling all 30 or just one team. Also agree about the FA signing and 2nd rounders. If you control all 30 you can just choose not to sign them right out of the draft and they go in the FA pool. I just pretend they played in Europe for a year or something. And if you edit the D-leaguers ages, some of these 2nd rounders they don't get signed, will wind up in the d-league.

[BroMontana82]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

yeah great ideas. but like pared said about sliders, shouldn't we not have to control all 30 teams to get the same benefits? in the best situation, no need for slider tweaks, turning off features, or controlling all teams.

[chezzie11]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

2. I saw LeBron average 42 ppg with 10 boards and 10 assists.

[Pared]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

2. I saw LeBron average 42 ppg with 10 boards and 10 assists.

And this was using one of 2k's rosters?

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

And this was using one of 2k's rosters?

I don't know about him, but he averages about 28, 10, and 10 for me after a couple seasons of association. He's won MVP all 4 years of my association.

[500bloc]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

Association Improvements PT. 2
(by me & others on OS)

Draftee Comparisons could go deeper. For instance if their is an undersized SG in the draft, you may say he's a "poor man's Ben Gordon" or a "rich man's Eddie House". If a SF plays like LeBron, tell why.

Draftee sizes are often too big. Many Center's are too large, a 7'2 NBA caliber center is a rarity. Yet their are atleast 2 or 3 in every draft. Also they are extremely large weight wise. My suggestion would be to subtract 2 inches from the Center Draftees and 20lbs from their weight.

Draft day trades should be a reality. They should also happen in real time with teams looking to unload a certain contract, improve their draft position, or bring in a key player.

Draftee Secondary positions are improving, but one thing would be to allow their secondary position to be dictated by their size and skill set. If a Center is 6'11 280lbs, he should be listed as a C/C, but if he were 6'11 220, he would be a C/PF. Other positions in the draft should also follow suit. There are too many SF/SG and not many SF/PF or PF/SF for that matter. If their skill set allows it, let their secondary position read N/A, so their able to play more than 2 dictated positions. I'm sure many users would like to see a SF/None or a SG/None, but make sure not to saturate the game with it.

Height should be greatly desired in the draft by the CPU, and it should have an effect on the players rating. Moreso than it currently does in the game. (For instance Iverson at 5'6 is a 1 point differential than he would be at 6'7) Also many Draftee PG's are maxed out at a height of 6'3 and a low of 6'0. Their should be more variety in their height. From 6'5 to a low of 5'8, and if any two PG's are of similar ratings than the CPU would covet the taller one. This should not just be limited to just PG's but all positions.

Draftee appearances should vary and be randomized. There should be tattoos and random accessories from the automated draft classes. It adds an element of reality to the league.

Draftee portraits. Similar to CH2K8, the player should have an a still picture or facial animation in place of the silhouette. In a couple years in the Association, the league will have a considerable number of blank photos. This can be remedied by having a "real" portrait of the draftee instead. Similar to how Brandon Wallace had his picture in NBA2k8.

There should be more Metric Stats, such as double-double's, triple doubles, & Per 48 minute stats of players in Association Mode. Similar to ESPN.com, as this could help them in many ways as to see who is performing and at what level. Some stats should be added on the "player card".

Assistant Coaches should be able to be promoted to Head Coach, either by their own team or hired by another team. They also should have a position they specialize in, Patrick Ewing is a great help for Dwight Howard and every big men on the team, but probably couldn't offer as much to the guards. So this should be reflected in Ewings ratings.

Enlisting a website like DraftExpress.com would be a wonderful addition for Association Mode, especially if the contract with 82games is not renewed.

When a CPU team drafts a player, they should be able to change his position (in accordance with his ratings), to one that will benefit the team the best.

Head Coaches often retire too early, age and years coached should play a significant part. Many coaches would continue to coach until their age permits it or until they have reached certain goals (championships, games won, etc.)

Customization. I cannot tell you how great it would be to edit every NBA Coach, Assistant Coach, D-Leaguer, Team Record, NBA Record & League History as a user pleases. For PC users this is possible to an extent, but not for console players as they can only dream. It would also be great if we could create-a-coach. For the players, we should be able to make them a PG/PG or C/C at our discretion.

Draft Scouting should be able to give me a bit more info if I scout a player 3 - 6 times in a year. Their should be college stats similar to NFL2K5. You should be able to set priorities on who my staff scouts (similar to CH2K8). I would also like to know about their Coachability, Character, Desire, & Conditioning, while being less concise with their wording. Scouting should also extend to the D-League, giving the user a heads up on talent there.

NBA Advanced Scouts make around 700K annually, in the game some make make way too much. Prospect scouts make less then NBA Scouts. Both jobs should also be more detailed, here are some examples. (Link 1 & Link 2)

Players should not get upset and demand a trade when "they" continue to foul out of the game early, and are upset at the lack of PT they get as a result of it.

There should be smarter GM A.I., teams should factor in the age of a player, the number of contract years, the team's budget & cap space over time. Also, ability of players should be noticed too, if the team is a running team they would have no need for Shaq. If they were a half-court team, than they would not look to a Josh Smith or Hakim Warrick. The players should be conscious of this also. There should also be sign and trades.

Teams should take note of who they have on their team already when they go into Free Agency. It's tiresome to see teams stockpiling a single position.

Teams & Franchises should be in different modes; Rebuilding, Contending & Championship Run. This in particular is very important in knowing contract details, a players age & the teams cap space in coming years. Also this should take effect in lineups, giving the younger, less talented players a chance to start over veterans who are past their prime in rebuilding situations.

Loyalty. This is the main reason why many marquee players don't test Free Agency. When a player's loyalty is edited down to become less loyal, they are more inclined to test the waters. This is something that should be watered down since players want to see LeBron & Co. in different uniforms.

D-League. I like the idea of the D-League, but the players are rated too high and in the off-season FA, they get big time contracts, also because of their high rating the players sent down don't get enough PT because of it. Also players in the D-League don't want to accept 10-day contracts because of their high ratings. It would help if they were no higher than a 55 or 56 rating.

All-Star Game & All-NBA Teams should be awarded as Guards, Forwards and Centers. At the current moment they are assigned as PG, SG, SF, PF & C. Also their needs to be better minute allotment during the all-star game. Currently some players get very little minutes.

Being able to edit injuries heading into a season, for instance if I want Yao Ming injured for the entire season, I want to control that at my discretion. If I want Blake Griffin out for a couple months, then I should be able to. Also when a player gets injured, he wears protection for that injury. Like for example if a player injures his knee in game and he returns, he should wear a knee guard and keep wearing it till it is healed.

Hiring coaches in the off-season should be somewhat similar to Free Agency. Not as drawn out but making the coaches have a say in where they want to go, not just the first job that pops up. Coaches should factor in player personnel during the hire also. Coaches should make their decision alot quicker in-season than they would in the off-season. Combine the head coach and assistant coach pool.

Player's should be knowledgeable about their contract situation, age & state of their organization. If they are in the prime of their career with just a decent contract, they should want to get a top contract. If a player has reached his potential in his career, and has a big player option coming up (Michael Redd & Kenyon Martin), they are more inclined to accept. Buyouts should also be included.

During free-agency, players should have certain teams favored over others for different reasons. For example a player will go to his hometown team over a big contract (Wade). Or a player will go to a big market team over his current team (LeBron). A player may want some more help on the court and is tired of shouldering the load (Wade). The player may just want a big payday (Boozer). Or the player may just want to be a starter on a decent team (Nate Robinson). One thing is that players should value big market teams over smaller ones, LeBron or Wade would never take Minnesota over NY. Also journeymen and undrafted FA's should be quicker to sign a contract then anyone else and for alot less money.

The CPU should also take advantage of off-season training camps, it seems like cheating if only the user participated in making their team better while the CPU's is exactly the same.

A trading tendancy slider should be added in the options menu. This would help curtail alot of complaints and allow players to customize their own Associations.

Teams trading should be doing it for a specific reason. The key piece for a contending team, or bringing in talent to make current player(s) happy.

NBA.Com plays of the week. I think it would be great to have a weekly show to honor the top plays and players of the week, and also at the end of the month and year. Their should also be a NBA Draft Show.

Rumor mill could be upgraded some. The ability to add coaches in the hot seat after a bad start perhaps? Players in their contract years discussing if they will stay or go for the money. What team will make a push for a big acquisition during the season or off-season.

Players/Teams take rating hits for players playing out of position, especially a non point guard, playing point guard. The same way a team with everyone playing at the right position should be rated higher.

The option to retire jerseys during the course of the Association. Their should be an option to go through and retire any number for any NBA team during association mode. Tim Hardaway recently had his number retired for the Miami Heat and I would like to add this in my Association. Also teams should retire jerseys on their own if a player has contributed long-term success to the team (i.e. Tim Duncan, Paul Pierce or Nowitzki).

Being able to split the Mid Level Exception. Also the ability to go over the salary cap and adding the MLE. (I.E. if I want to sign LeBron and I'm $3 million short, I should be able to use the MLE to help out.)

A deeper rookie name datatabase. Having more names called instead of jersey numbers is always a plus.

Fully intergrated All-Star Weekend, switching the venue in different years and including a slam dunk contest.
A depth chart would be appreciated, something resembling this;
PG: D. Fisher, Shannon Brown, Farmar
SG: Kobe, Vujacic, Shannon Brown
SF: Artest, Odom, Walton, Kobe, Morrison
PF: Gasol, Odom, Powell
C: Bynum, Gasol, Mbenga, Odom

It would be nice if users had the ability to edit whom players guard defensively. For instance an undersized SG like Iverson or Ben Gordon, priority number one for them defensively would be to guard the PG then the SG. Or make it possible that we can assign certain players to guard the best wing or post player.

Being able to turn autosave OFF during Association mode.

Add a feature where you have the option of starting an Association with the real draft pick allocations, or the option to keep it balanced (all teams with a first/second per year). Since certain teams have future draft pick compensation (New Jersey receives Dallas' 2010 first round pick (unprotected) as part of the Jason Kidd trade.) www.draftexpress.com/transactions.php

More realistic injuries. Too many play 82 games unscathed. Their should be more injuries.

Better lineup rotations. Too many play in all 82 games, including bench players and scrubs.

Retired players should be able to become assistant coaches, then be able to work their way up to head coach. But just because a player is a superstar, doesn't mean he will be a good coach!!!

Playoff crowds. Teams have certain color schemes for fans to wear. (Warriors, Heat, Magic, etc.)



GM IQ:
Trades (The way the GM trades for) - Team Needs / Talent / Balanced

Signings (The way the GM signs players for) - Team Needs / Talent / Balanced

Trade Frequency (How often the GM trades throughout a season) - Rare / Medium / Frequent

Trade Skill (How good the GM is at trades that make the team better) - A-F

Contracts (How good is the GM at manuvering around bad player contracts, trading or signing) - A-F

Team Building (How good the GM is at turning a bad team into a contender within 2 or 3 seasons) - A-F

Transition (How good the GM is at keeping a team good) - A-F

Drafting (How the GM drafts) - Team Needs / Talent / Balanced

Drafting Top 5 (How good the GM is at drafting with a Top 5 pick) - A-F

Drafting Lottery (How good the GM is at drafting with a Lottery pick) - A-F

Drafting Late (How good the GM is at drafting with a Late pick) - A-F

Team Outlook (How the GM or Coach wants the team to be built & the personnel for it) - Offensive / Defensive / Balanced

This way GM's all have a personality of there own and conflicting offers will null most stupid trades. Also the players GM IQ will change based on how they build there team

FRANCHISE OUTLOOK:
Ability To Set Team Focus (Rebuilding, Contending & Championship Run) - Should be done at the beginning of every season

City Market (This will make it where players choose the kind of city they want to play for when a FA) - Small / Medium / Large

Owner Goal (This determines what the owner want the GM to have the team do) - Don't Care / Make Playoffs / Title Contender

Owner Financing (This determines how much money the owner is looking to make) - Don't Care / Don't Lose Money / Make Money

Owner Luxury Tax (The way the Owner feels about paying the Luxury Tax) - Avoid / Minimum / Don't Care

* Bring back Owner Firing Option
* Bring back Luxury Tax
* Contract Buyouts
* Realistic Trade & Cut Rules (not being able to trade a player for a 3 months & having to wait 30 days to resign someone you just cut)

[Altimus]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

Most important thing that needs to be worked on is AI logic.

Although I enjoy controlling all 30 teams and doing all the managing I would also like to just control 1 team and see how the computers builds on them.

Better trade logic

Better signing logic

Better drafting logic

How can this be done? With team profiles. In the first season have default or established profiles. For example, a team like the Wolves are in a rebuilding stage. Have them make there moves in the next couple years based on that strategy unless they start winning sooner.

Team like the Celtics are in win mode. However, lets say they lose in the Playoffs year 1 and are a lottery team year. Based on age and past time to rebuild mode around Rondo. Trade players for picks, young talent, etc.


Now this is all very advanced but I want to see logic behind moves. Some kind of logic. I don't want to see the same player get traded 5 times anymore. We have seen that way too much in past years. I don't want to see teams stack up on a billion points guard.

Franchise mode is a very hard thing to do with management but 2K has a very good foundation between all the options. Now they just need logic for the AI.

[Heiks]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

I totally agree, the game needs better AI logic. I'm not really sold on set profiles, we would have to change those ourselves three season into association. Here's an overall idea or two they could build on.

It would be amazing to have dynamic CPU GM logic that is based on the performance of the team. All signing and trading logic would have to be tied to the goal of the team:

Bottom of conference - rebuild, keep young players with high potential, surround them with couple of veterans, keep spending low
On the edge of playoffs - something in between the ones before and after
Playoff team - keep superstars, try to move other pieces to get better, try to keep under/near the luxury tax
Contender - keep core, trade only bench players and draftpicks, not worried about finance

Of course the logic has to consider the time factor, so team wouldn't go rebuilding after a 0-5 stretch in the beginning of the season or so.

Another vital thing, the CPU GM MUST RECOGNIZE POSITIONS! We don't want to see those wild rosters, that have 6 PFs and no guards, etc. Every single team should draft/trade based on need. If the team wants to upgrade and get a 90 OVR PF over their 80 OVR PF, then trade away the 80 OVR. If teams trade for cap relief, then waive the 1 year big contract, etc. Even if they draft the best player available and crowd one position, then they should trade shortly after that, based on need.

These should be the couple of mainlines, all the other little details would complement this even more.

All in all, the association should be about teams management, so developers should try to put some life and logic into the CPU teams.

[Pitfighter87]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

1)Love it.Would like to maybe be able to move teams around and create a stadium,raise ticket prices stuff like that.I dont play baseball games but I hear from alot of people this was huge in "The Show".Also different atmospheres.Like playoff,rival games,etc.Also REAL dynamic attendence.The worst team in the leauge shouldnt have a packed house or just a few open seats.It needs to be like it was in college hoops 2k8,as you get better the more people start to show and this would also co sign with the ticket sales. 2)Little issues nothin to rant about 3)PLEASE PUT PICS INSTEAD OF BLANKS IN THE FACE COLUMN!!Even if they are computer pics.People are makin these draft classes so real anyways i cant tell the difference.I hate seein my startin lineup in pregame with jennings,Bogut,and three blank faces. 4) no problems here

[Pitfighter87]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

Also, a note about the D-League, we should have the ability to use either randomly generated players or force the NBDL to fantasy draft from the free agent pool. I'm not a big fan of these random players.

YES!!!!!!!!

[Comduklakis]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

lots and lots of great suggestions in this thread. Just remember though that any idea that puts one market or team as being "more important" than another will be squashed by the NBA. They don't want an AI that makes NY a destination and Memphis the place of last resort. I can't imagine 2k crossing them on that, the same way they wont' cross the NBA on technicals.

Couple other points. For me Lebron has consistently been 28-30 and 9 and 9. Season after season until his late 30s. Also the idea of guys being knowledgable about their contract situation as they get older is good, but I have no problem with how it is now. Guys like Redd, Brad Miller, Crawford, etc. do take big paycuts. What I would like to see though is guys reducing their price through the 30 day FA process. That way Dalambert might start out high after his monster deal expires and then lower it as he discovers he isn't that valuable. As it was, I was able to sign him for 700K the first day after a year that he averaged 10 reb and 2 blocks per game. I'm sure he could have got more if he would have held out longer.

[K_Dub]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

Also the ability to go over the salary cap and adding the MLE. (I.E. if I want to sign LeBron and I'm $3 million short, I should be able to use the MLE to help out.)

No. In 2k you can already use the MLE even if you start the off season under the cap (which you're not supposed to be able to do). It's an exception for teams that are over the cap. If you're $3 million short of that nearly $17 million contract that Lebron's gonna be getting you either need to trade some players to create some more cap space or use that $13-$14 million on some other people.

[BobbyColtrane]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

it would be nice to have a floating luxury tax line as well. so if i want to manage my team conservatively i can, but if i want to go all in and pay the tax, i can do that too. obviously we need an owner mode to do this.

[Hassan Darkside]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

lots and lots of great suggestions in this thread. Just remember though that any idea that puts one market or team as being "more important" than another will be squashed by the NBA. They don't want an AI that makes NY a destination and Memphis the place of last resort. I can't imagine 2k crossing them on that, the same way they wont' cross the NBA on technicals.

This is one thing I would like to see, Market as an area of importance for players. Perhaps factor that in with player personalities too. Guys that are from big cities should be more likely to want to play in big markets (also depending on loyalty).

And 2k needs to figure out a way to accurately create a player's value. Right now from what we can see, there's some kind of combination of the overall rating, potential, and whether or not the contract expires. More needs to go into the formula. Player value should be equal to a combination of overall rating, age, team need, potential, contract length, durability, and contract value.

[Pitfighter87]

Re: NBA 2K11 - Let's talk about Association improvements

This is small but after you win the NBA finals it would be nice to be acknowledged next season as the defending champs.Im in my 8th year and they are still saying the Lakers are the defending champs when I play them.Unless they already do this and my game is glitchin........