THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

[Dyowman]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

My main issue with the hof difficulty is when playing the CPU and a guy like Kim English for the Detroit Pistons come in the game for a good 5 minute stretch and I have to guard him like he's Paul George. Only because there is a small gap between star players and scrubs. If you doube off anybody they will destroy you. And Kim English barely sees the court. It's very unrealistic. But I have no problem scoring and winning games, I've been playing HOF mode since it was introduced in 2k11 as a unlock. Offense for me is easy, it's just the way the CPU plays offensively that make playing defense hard.

[Dyowman]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

With a +30 almost every player in the game will have 99 awareness and hands. It shouldn't be like that. There has to be a better way to implement the hof mode besides increasing everyone's ratings to that degree. I could understand the stars taking over more and dominating more in the hof mode like Kobe lebron KD melo, guys like that, but not the Kim Englishes and andres beidrins of the league. I should be able to double off guys like that, not focus too much on them offensively and be rewarded for my good strategy and not punished for leaving an open man every time.

[kongemeier]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Big gap between pro and allstar. Why not a difficulty with everything 0?

Absolutely this!!

It's basically impossible to play a game in MyPlayer without having either the CPU or your teammates playing above or under their ratings!?

(Yes I know there are tools for changing sliders in MP, but still...!?)

[sirjam]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

I would just like a level where the ratings of players matter and that the difficulty is jus that higher levels mean the cpu is smarter, uses their moves, makes better subs, recognizes and adjusts to matchups etc. Not one where they cheat to win.
I can win on Hof but its not fun bc I will play great defense only to have a scrub hit a shot just bc its on hof.

[jersez]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

I agree with coach2k, on hof difficulty, while pro and all star gives a realistic and fun gameplay, blowing the cpu out makes the game boring to me. Hall of fame I may get a big lead but I know I have to continue to play well or the cpu will come back. It makes you focus and keep that focus, I've played on pro and all star a lot for this 2k13's life cycle, and once I've gotten a big lead, I rarely if ever had a cpu comeback win. I don't agree with how they make the gameplay difficulties but it keeps the game challenging.

[BluFu]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

the only thing that is should really change from rookie to hall of fame is awareness. i play on all star and boost their awareness significantly.

[sreckless]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Couple thoughts:

1. There are no "scrubs" in the NBA. Everyone at that level is an elite player. So it really should not be surprising that on Hall of Fame mode, role players and reserves can make shots. You see it almost every game even in the playoffs -- unknown guys stepping up and seemingly scoring at will.

So when non-stars make shots on HoF mode, that makes the game more realistic, not less. A game where bench players couldn't make open shots even on the hardest difficulty would be a terrible simulation of the NBA.

2. A lot of the time I hear people say the game should play "smarter" on HoF mode. As we've already established, what the CPU does on HoF mode is eliminate mistakes.

At the pro level, that's what playing smarter is -- eliminating mistakes. Listen to all your top coaches, that's what they emphasize. You don't generally see the CPU players on HoF mode doing things they can't do. You don't see Rondo shooting threes, you don't see Steve Nash throwing down poster dunks. They are mostly playing to their full potential within their abilities, which means eliminating mistakes.

To me that's exactly what HoF mode should do.

[Optik]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Couple thoughts:

1. There are no "scrubs" in the NBA. Everyone at that level is an elite player. So it really should not be surprising that on Hall of Fame mode, role players and reserves can make shots. You see it almost every game even in the playoffs -- unknown guys stepping up and seemingly scoring at will.

So when non-stars make shots on HoF mode, that makes the game more realistic, not less. A game where bench players couldn't make open shots even on the hardest difficulty would be a terrible simulation of the NBA.

2. A lot of the time I hear people say the game should play "smarter" on HoF mode. As we've already established, what the CPU does on HoF mode is eliminate mistakes.

At the pro level, that's what playing smarter is -- eliminating mistakes. Listen to all your top coaches, that's what they emphasize. You don't generally see the CPU players on HoF mode doing things they can't do. You don't see Rondo shooting threes, you don't see Steve Nash throwing down poster dunks. They are mostly playing to their full potential within their abilities, which means eliminating mistakes.

To me that's exactly what HoF mode should do.

I have no idea why you're trying to explain away HoF's obvious flaws. At least Coach 2K acknowledges them.

First, there are most certainly scrubs in the NBA as there are in any other major sports league. These scrubs aren't in college anymore. They aren't going to be compared to the average pick-up player because that is irrelevant in a pick-up game. No, you don't see almost every game random players seemingly scoring at will. These one-off games are very rare in a season. The fact that you use this to try to justify the nature of HoF is silly. Players don't need their stats boosted between ten and thirty points to make an open shot.

Second, yes I haven't seen Steve Nash posterize anyone IRL but I haven't seen him play defense like Rondo either. You do see the latter on HoF, and you will see Rondo make threes at a rate abnormal for him.

I thought it would be obvious to everyone, but the fact that the stats are boosted on HoF shows that the players are playing ABOVE their full potential, not TO it. That isn't realistic.

[2K Labs]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

To argue 'realism' when you're talking about difficulty levels seems a little silly to me.

How does it realistically work in bizzaro-world? Does each team comes with 5 clones, each progressively better?...or do they just have a dial on their shoes that sets their difficulty?

[sreckless]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

I thought it would be obvious to everyone, but the fact that the stats are boosted on HoF shows that the players are playing ABOVE their full potential, not TO it. That isn't realistic.

Well who says what their full potential is? As the OP showed, the biggest stat boosts are in the categories that determine "smart play" and minimizing mistakes. The other categories gets relatively small changes.

I look at the default ratings at what each player does in an average game against an average opponent. The HoF ratings may be what they are capable of doing at their best.

To argue 'realism' when you're talking about difficulty levels seems a little silly to me.

How does it realistically work in bizzaro-world? Does each team comes with 5 clones, each progressively better?...or do they just have a dial on their shoes that sets their difficulty?

Right. What most of these comments really boil down to is people think HoF mode is too hard.

Like I said, if you saw Nash dunking or Kendrick Perkins going behind his back, that would in-arguably be unrealistic -- but you don't. So beyond that we're just arguing over how difficult the game should play.

[Optik]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Right. What most of these comments really boil down to is people think HoF mode is too hard.

No, they aren't. People think boosting stats on HoF is unrealistic... because it's unrealistic.

[sreckless]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

No, they aren't. People think boosting stats on HoF is unrealistic... because it's unrealistic.

Why? Who says what the "right" ratings are? In real life no one has ratings that determine what they can and can't do on the court.

[kmiree16]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Why? Who says what the "right" ratings are? In real life no one has ratings that determine what they can and can't do on the court.

Ratings in 2K are based off of what players are capable of in real life. Players doing things in 2K that they aren't capable of in real life = unrealistic.

[mustardnmayo]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Why? Who says what the "right" ratings are? In real life no one has ratings that determine what they can and can't do on the court.

But this game aiming for realism does determine what they can do using ratings so that's what we have to go by.
So I guess that slower center all of a sudden gets a +6 speed and quickness boost outrunning and running down a smaller player, that had a higher default speed and quickness rating than him before the boost is realistic right, I think not. And players who don't and can't dunk in the game get a dunk rating boost are now able to dunk at will because of a rating boost also realistic right.

Bottom line is we would like a harder difficulty without certain stat boost to CPU players. Sure stats like awareness boost are ok to help them play smarter but physical attributes are just silly and not authentic which is all that is being asked for.

[ffaacc03]

Re: THE REAL DIFFICULTY BREAKDOWN!!!

Why? Who says what the "right" ratings are? In real life no one has ratings that determine what they can and can't do on the court.

On a pro level, what dictates what they can or cant do is the team offensive and defensive phylosophies, those are nowdays based on facts and facts are sustained with meassurable data ... meassurable data is of what ratings and tendencies should be based of ... you said that how do we know what the full potential of a payer is, I ask you how does 2k knows, how does +30 or +2 does the trick, why not +1 or +3 0r -5 ...

Again, as long as 2k sticks to its way of managing its roster and updates and subsequently its difficulty levels, we are bound for unrealistic gameplay, which is nothing other than unsim play ... we need a frequently automathed system, based on meassurable data, that can help us better portrait players/team oncourt behaviors ... we need certaint ratings to relate to certaint phylosophies, like higher defensive awareness making players double team hot opponents from the strong side, make them help on D on missmatches if their own man is out of his shooting range, that high on ball defense ratings may lean opponents onto help D, a higher offensive awareness makes players try and create missmatches, makes them more conscious of their strength and weaknesses, etc ...

What we are asking is, to base the distinction of levels on both, the reduced timing for actions (already applied) and the application of those phylosophies rather than ratings edits ... anyways, given that difficulty levels blur the signature nature of players and teams (realism), whatever approach is taken, is going to be a controversy, I understand that ... then again, since we already have sliders to alter ratings, why not take a shot at this approach, when many people are asking for a different take.