Schedule Challenges

[harryl]

EDIT Update:

This is by no means complete, but want to maintain a list, on this first post, of Schedule Challenges that players have completed, so that we know which are free from glitches. If anyone posts additions in this thread, I'll edit to reflect.

Known Completeable Schedule Challenges:

• 76ers
• Bucks (Seen reports of completion, and also of a bug: in Game 9, supposed to hold Hornets under 40 points...need to do that and not score over 40 with one's own team. Defensive grind fest.)
• Bulls (Maybe glitched Game 20: hold Magic under 8 Dunks. Solution may be to allow them to dunk over 8 times and win.)
• Cavs (Glitch in Game 13: Must use EXACTLY 5 Cavs, not more or less.)
• Celtics
• Clippers
• Grizzlies
• Hawks
• Heat
• Kings (Glitch Game 20: hold other team and yourself to less than 16 Assists.)
• Knicks
• Lakers
• Magic
• Nuggets
• Pacers (Fast Break Points req glitch: you need 10pts, but in-game counter counts baskets, not points. You'll be fine with 10 points. And you do not need to let opponent get 10FB pts.)
• Pelicans
• Pistons
• Raptors
• Rockets
• Spurs (Glitched Game 14: supposed to hold other team to under 10 fast break points...have to not only do that, but also need to score less than 10 fast break points with one's own team, too.)
• Suns
• Timberwolves
• Trailblazers
• Warriors
• Wizards

[Original Post Below]

For those of you who haven't done more with Schedule Challenges but play the first few games: these are a huge grind.

Roughly 20 out of the 30 games are 4 quarters long. Many are shorter, mostly 4 min quarters, but the overhead of loading time, cutscenes, etc. remains the same. And some of these are not easy and will require most people to replay one time or more.

I just finished Game 29 of the Grizzlies schedule and while I was surprised to have blown out the Current Spurs on Superstar with this crap team...

http://2kmtcentral.com/18/lineups/66691/grizzlies-sched-mode-game-29

...I am not expecting that I'll win easily, or even at all on my first try, against the All-Time Grizzlies.

All told, I think EACH franchise's schedule is going to take at least half the time it takes to do, say, Current Domination. I think probably more like 60-75% of the time. But even at 50%, that means, to get Ruby Iguodala (complete 10 Schedules), that requires doing 5 Dominations (but probably more like 7 or even 8).

Not only that, but these can be expensive to do, if you don't already own a bunch of players from a franchise.

That Ruby Iguodala sure looks nice, and I like the odds that it'll be a card with low salary, but man...I doubt I can do 10 Schedules in time for that Ruby Iguodala to still be a super attractive card to play.

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

What Schedule Challenges have you completed?

I'm really interested in seeing if we can complete a list of Schedule Challenges that are NOT glitched. If I do invest time into this, I don't want to waste more time by getting part way through a team that has a glitched Challenge.

I am (hopefully) about to complete the Grizzlies and had no glitches. Well, one: the game that required 10 Assists, the first time I tried it, didn't start counting my Assists until AFTER I got 10. Basically making the requirement 20. But it counted fine the 2nd time through. And I have since completed the one that requires 20 Assists and, while I had to play it a third time, it counted Assists properly all three times.

Making the Most of Your 3 Gold / Cheesing the CPU

At the end, when you have to use a lineup that is limited to 3 Gold (rest Silver and Bronze) and you have to use 7 or 8 players from the franchise, these requirements make it tough to field a good team.

If the franchise has enough Silvers for you to play, then you have the luxury of having free choice in your 3 Gold. Here's some general tips:

• It makes sense to choose 2 Gold with a Duo to maximize performance. And then choose a 1 Gold / 1 Silver Duo for the same reason. I initially went with Melo/Porzingis and Dirk/Seth Curry. But when I had to play 7 Grizzlies, I had to start using my Gold Damon Stoudamire, so was left only with Melo/Porzingis as non-Grizzly Golds.
• There's not very many Gold/Gold or Gold/Silver duos in the game. Go to the bottom of this long page to see what you can choose from: http://2kmtcentral.com/18/players/delta/15-09-2017
• Silver Ben Simmons is invaluable because he can be a go-to scorer for you in various ways. A) Play him at PG and drive past, or post-spin on smaller PG's. B) Play him at PF and run 4-5 P&R. Depending on matchup, it's likely to be 2 slow bigs who can't defend the action. Surround Simmons and your 5 with 3 good shooters if you can.
• Going back to Melo/Porzingis: Porzingis can actually be a P&R BH in 5-4 P&R. Depending on defender, can also just explode past slower bigs in a drive.
• Melo can burst past almost anyone from ISO, other than elite, strong wing defenders. You can try to cheese his relative speed if you play him at 4, or his relative strength and size by playing him at 2.

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

STRATEGICALLY SELECTING WHICH SCHEDULES TO DO

Like probably a ton of people I did a few of the 76ers Schedule at first, for no other reason than it's listed first. I decided to start over with the Grizzlies as I thought they'd have one of the weaker All-Time teams. They can field a lineup full of strong players, but no single one of them is an overpowering sort of force. Meanwhile, the 76ers have Dr. J, A.I., Wilt. Actually not that great as an All-Time Franchise, TBH, but there's probably a good number that would be easier.

I feel pretty certain that you're not going to want to have to deal with All-Time versions of the Lakers, Celtics, Warriors, Bulls, Rockets, and Spurs, at least, when you have to play within a 3 Gold cap. At least not right now, early in the game, before we have a lot of Silver and Gold Moments additions to our options.

There's other considerations to selecting the team, other than the strength of its All-Time Roster. One also needs to consider the 3 Gold limitation one will run into, as well as the requirement of playing 6, 7, and then 8 players from the franchise. Once you have to play 7 or 8 players from the franchise, with 3 Gold limitation, you may also want to consider how many and how good the franchise's Silver (and Bronze) players are, in the game.

Number, Quality, and Cost of Franchise's Silver and Bronze

With the Grizzlies, I didn't anticipate, but came to learn the disadvantage of choosing a franchise that only has 3 Silver players in the game. In the final games of the Schedule, one can't play Conley/Gasol or any Historic Grizzlies Emerald/Sapphire/+, because of the 3 Gold limitation.

So then you have to play real minutes with Silvers. Maybe even a Bronze or two. This is the team I had to play when the requirement was 7 Grizzlies, max 3 Gold:



For the final game, with the requirement being 8 Grizzlies, max 3 Gold, I'm either going to have to: A) play a Grizzly Bronze significant minutes off the bench (maybe Troy Daniels at 2, since he can at least shoot), or B) play the Stoudamire/Vince Carter Gold Duo, and split up Carmelo/Porzingis, choosing one of the latter.

Some of the other franchises that have a bunch of Silvers might be better Schedule targets. Especially if they have Silver/Silver or Silver/Gold duos. Especially if they have less strong All-Time teams. And especially if their Silver/Bronze players are not atypically expensive on the AH, due to their Current Collection Ruby Reward.

Quality of the Franchise's Golds, Especially Historic

Pay close attention to the number and quality of the franchise's Historic Golds (and their price). The Grizzlies only have 3 Historic Golds: Old Vince, Bonzi, and Stoudamire. They all suck.

But some franchises actually have some nice options amidst their Gold Historics. It's nice if the franchise has nice Golds and Silvers, as that will give you more leeway in going off-franchise for other Golds or Silvers.

Some Good Potential Schedule Targets

Dallas Mavericks

• Their All-Time lineup doesn't have much in the way of scary offensive threats. Perhaps Dirk, but Dirk is also a defensive liability and I'd rather deal with preventing Pick & Pop looks and tolerating a few cheesy contested post-fades than having to deal with some crazy slasher who will constantly be driving for dunks and at least getting fouled in the process.
• Shawn Bradley might be a shot-blocking machine if you go straight at him in the paint, but at least he presents big liabilities in transition and by being sucked into high P&R.
• They've got 8 Silvers. And also 3 Gold in their Current collection. And Dirk/Curry are a duo, and Gold Barnes has a Silver Duo partner with Silver Thunder Doug McDermott. And they've got 5 Gold in their Historic Collection, though I don't think I'd use a Gold slot on any of them.
• And I'm guessing their Current players are all on the cheaper side, since I doubt anyone really wants Ruby Jason Terry.

Brooklyn Nets

• They've got some nice offensive pieces in their All-Time squad. Dr. J is sure to be a killer. Don't leave Drazen open. Expect Kidd to dice you up. But aside from Dr. J, there's not much in the way of scary forces of nature. And bad rim protection with Lopez as starting 5 and I don't know who plays 5 off the bench...Buck Williams? Kenyon Martin? Darryl Dawkins? Lack of a very good defensive 5 makes cheesing with 1-5 P&R way easier.
• While their Current lineup has 0 Golds, they do have 11 Silvers, which is atypically high. D-Lo and Crabbe have a Silver/Silver duo. Their Historic Collection has 4 Golds, none of them big standouts, but AK-47 and Thad Young are playable. Main point, though, is that they have 11 Silver, so once you get to 8 Players requirement, you can fulfill that entirely with Silvers, who are at least playable off the bench. Then you select 5 off-Franchise, including your 3 Gold.

Okay, I'm too lazy to keep going in detail right now. But other franchises I'm thinking are good early targets would be the Clippers, Raptors, Timberwolves, and Pelicans.

[BruhBruh]

Re: Schedule Challenges

This is a great post, thank you. A couple things that I am wonderin about.

There is a requirement called "Acquire 10 '18 subcollection rewards" I am assuming that means you need to complete a team and get the ruby player like kerry kittles, 10 times?

I was thinking since you were saying you need 8 grizzlies in the last challenge, it might make sense to do a schedule, while collecting them for the subcollection and then once you are done you can sell them all or finish what you needed. Wouldn't make sense to keep the players get the reward and sell them and then need to collect them again when you go for that requirement if people are going for some of the checklist goals!

I haven't done a schedule but will keep an eye out on this thread for suggestions of schedules to do.

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

There is a requirement called "Acquire 10 '18 subcollection rewards" I am assuming that means you need to complete a team and get the ruby player like kerry kittles, 10 times?

Something like that, but there are subcollections one completes and gets Rewards for that one might not think about, beyond the player collections.

By going through all of Current/Historic Domination, I think you complete a Ball collection. You complete two historic jersey collections. And I think the rewards themselves compose one or two separate collections.

In total, I think you end up completing something like 6 or 7 collections. So if you want 10, then you only need to do a few player collections.

And I don't think it's necessarily true that it's not worth it to get players for Schedules, and then sell off, and then buy back later to lock in for Reward. The reason is that there are collections/players that are still quite expensive and which will end up being cheaper and cheaper over time.

It depends on the Franchise, but take the Spurs as an example. All the Silvers are basically 2,000+ MT. Some more like 4-5K. With inflated values, it makes more sense to sell while inflated, then rebuy when deflated.

If you're not in a rush, and if you want to be stingy with MT.

[Erithtotl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

I'm doing the Raptors. Still a long way to go but Ibaka/Valen DD (both golds) is nice because Ibaka gets an open 3 of like 87 and Jonas is a very good rebounder. It's a pretty cheap collection because Ruby Damon Stoudamire isn't very good (due to his poor speed, size, defense and dunking).

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

Took me 6 attempts and almost cost me my sanity, but finished the final game in the Grizzlies Schedule last night. Ultimately, it shouldn't be that hard. I think I could have won the first attempt, or maybe 2nd or 3rd by just simply slowing down and playing with more care and eliminating mistakes to the minimum.

That said, these final games are tough. Against the All-Time lineup for the franchise, on Superstar difficulty, and with a cap of 3 Gold for your team and a requirement to play 8 players from that franchise. The 3 Gold limit makes it a challenge to field a high-quality team, but the 8 Player thing is the real limitation. There are a some very good Gold and Silver players in the game who are very effective cheesers, but the 8 Player req limits you to using 5 off-franchise players total.

I ended up winning with this lineup:



I tried other stuff. Tried using the Stoudamire/Vince duo. Tried Porzingis at 5 and Thon at 4. Tried Cauley-Stein at 5, KP at 4. Tried using Nate Thurmond at 5. I felt like the lighter, more athletic guys ended up being way too much of a liability on D against the Gasol brothers. And with Thurmond, the defense doesn't need to respect his shooting at all. As it was, even with Ewing at 5 and KP at 4, the Grizzlies grabbed something like 15+ offensive rebounds...in the game in which I beat them.

Dillon Brooks is listed twice because I played his new Moments Silver on my bench...and had his Bronze on my deep bench. Didn't plan it, but apparently he's glitched and multiple versions can be played.

Playing a Bronze major minutes was necessary to allow me to play 3 non-Grizzly Gold players and, in this case, the matchup was generally Tony Allen, so it was fine.

All this said, I cheesed relentless in this game. And all three of my Golds were wearing shoes to give them better Contest ratings. I was tired of Shareef and the Gasol Brothers constantly nailing contested post shots against me. They still do, and the whole Grizzly team still misses almost no open jumpers. They will also nail at least 2 or 3 heavily contested or otherwise ludicrous threes on you. They will gobble offensive boards. Rudy Gay will look like Miami LeBron out there. The cheese on the CPU side is strong. Cheese it back without remorse.

[BruhBruh]

Re: Schedule Challenges

Nice job on finishing the Grizzlies schedule.

To your comment to me above, thanks for pointing that out. I completed current domination today and I got 2 total subcollections done (the balls for the east and the ball for the west)

I am curious as to what "Earn 30 reward cards" checklist goal means. Does that count like Ron Artest and the balls? As well, there is one called "Earn 20 player reward cards" Does that count Ron Artest then, or only players like kerry kittles?

Starting historic domination tomorrow, does that mean I will be fine getting historic jerseys for that subcollection, I am assuming it will be patched.

What is the next schedule you are planning on doing?

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

I am curious as to what "Earn 30 reward cards" checklist goal means. Does that count like Ron Artest and the balls? As well, there is one called "Earn 20 player reward cards" Does that count Ron Artest then, or only players like kerry kittles?

Any card that is given to you by the game, for free, for completing something. So the Collection Reward cards qualify and so do all the individual reward cards, such as Artest, Lever, McDyess, Russell, Penny, Hayward, etc. Also the Weekly Challenge Token Rewards and SuperMax and Packs'n'Playoffs Rewards.

That's my understanding, at least.

Starting historic domination tomorrow, does that mean I will be fine getting historic jerseys for that subcollection, I am assuming it will be patched.

Glitch is patched.

What is the next schedule you are planning on doing?

Ugh. I don't know. Not sure enduring 4 more is worth a Sapphire and really not sure 9 more is worth a Ruby. They'll be really nice ultra-salary-cheap options to have on a Super Max lineup. Can probably be at least final 3 bench spot worthy until very deep in the game. J.R. costs 100 and Iguodala only 125, as of right now.

The only reason why I might do it is because I'm too cheap to field a really high quality lineup in SM right now (won't lock collections for Rubies) and while I just sort of tread water and hoard MT, I might as well play PvCPU content.

That, and at least most of these games don't have a goal, so they can be good PvCPU practice.

I was thinking Nets or Mavs before as next to move on to. But I actually think I might do the 76ers and not worry about their best All-Time players. I already played the first 5 or so. They have the most Silver players in their Current roster and a pretty decent bench lineup can be made up from their Silver...I'm thinking:

Simmons - Redick - Covington - Saric - Okafor/Amir Johnson.

If all the Moments cards are glitched and don't get patched and it's possible to play duplicates, it'd be pretty nice to be able to play Silver AND Gold Simmons and Covington. The more top-quality Golds that a franchise has, the more space one has to cherry-pick the very best of the Silvers available from all franchises.

But all the Schedules will get increasingly easier to handle as we get more and more Gold and Silver Moments to add more options there.

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

Played Games 5 and 6 in the 76ers Schedule Challenge last night. 5 was cake, and I think was on Pro. Gave me a Bronze player, I think, which I sold for 1750. For those who earn MT through grinding gameplay, after Dominations, I imagine it might make sense to just play first 5 games of all Sched Challenges for all the Bronze players, and sell. Contracts are worth MT too.

Anyway...Game 6 drove me crazy. Felt like one of those Weekly Challenges that end up MUCH harder than they should be. In my first attempt, with a Gold and Silver team, I went up by one with 2 seconds left, and then CPU has Lonzo Ball chuck up a full-court desperation heave after inbounds and...swish.

Then proceeded to lose the next four attempts. So I got mad and switched to a high-end squad. Lost again. Then finally won on what I think was my 6th attempt.

Lonzo was playing Steph-esque so much. Everyone was nailing all open shots. Whole thing felt hinky. But I was probably on tilt.

Don't know why I subject myself to this BS...

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

I edited the first post to include a list of Schedule Challenges that have been reported as glitch-free and which can be completed. I can't imagine anything more maddening than doing a dozen or more games and then finding that it's all been a waste of time until/if 2K fixes it.

Does anyone have a link or have a list of all the game conditions for each game? I think the progression/conditions are basically the same for each team? I'd like to put up an authoritative list on stuff for all 30 games, such as:

Game 04: 4 Quarters | 4 Minutes | Pro Difficulty | 1 Player Required
Game 05: 1 Quarter | 4 Minutes | Tied at Start of 4th Quarter | All-Star Difficulty | No Restrictions
Game 06: 2 Quarters | 4 Minutes | Tied at Start of 2nd Half | All-Star Difficulty | 1 Player Required

The description often does not clarify how many quarters will be played and certainly never tells you how long the quarters are.

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

Had a rough time with the 29th game of 76ers Challenge, which is against the Current Celtics on Superstar, with game requirement being to get 20 or more Assists. Player req is 7 x 76ers, only up to 3 Gold.

The Celtics are actually a little tough to beat with 3 Gold and get 20 Assists. I spend a few games beating my head against the wall of Al Horford's really strong defense, trying to spam 1-5 P&R (to score and get assists steadily). In my first 3 attempts, I either couldn't get the 20 Assists, or lost while trying to get the 20.

And then I switched to playing a shooting 5 and ran 1-4 P&R with Amir Johnson at the 4 as my screener/roller and...problem solved. Got 25 Assists easily, and beat the Celtics by almost 30 points. Scored over 1300 MT in the game.

[Crazytwisted123]

Re: Schedule Challenges

EDIT Update:

This is by no means complete, but want to maintain a list, on this first post, of Schedule Challenges that players have completed, so that we know which are free from glitches. If anyone posts additions in this thread, I'll edit to reflect.

Known Glitch-Free Schedule Challenges:

• 76ers
• Bucks (seen reports of completion, and also of a bug)
• Cavs (also have seen reports of completion/bug)
• Clippers
• Grizzlies
• Lakers
• Magic
• Pelicans
• Spurs
• Suns
• Trailblazers
• Warriors
• Wizards

[Original Post Below]

For those of you who haven't done more with Schedule Challenges but play the first few games: these are a huge grind.

Roughly 20 out of the 30 games are 4 quarters long. Many are shorter, mostly 4 min quarters, but the overhead of loading time, cutscenes, etc. remains the same. And some of these are not easy and will require most people to replay one time or more.

I just finished Game 29 of the Grizzlies schedule and while I was surprised to have blown out the Current Spurs on Superstar with this crap team...

http://2kmtcentral.com/18/lineups/66691/grizzlies-sched-mode-game-29

...I am not expecting that I'll win easily, or even at all on my first try, against the All-Time Grizzlies.

All told, I think EACH franchise's schedule is going to take at least half the time it takes to do, say, Current Domination. I think probably more like 60-75% of the time. But even at 50%, that means, to get Ruby Iguodala (complete 10 Schedules), that requires doing 5 Dominations (but probably more like 7 or even 8).

Not only that, but these can be expensive to do, if you don't already own a bunch of players from a franchise.

That Ruby Iguodala sure looks nice, and I like the odds that it'll be a card with low salary, but man...I doubt I can do 10 Schedules in time for that Ruby Iguodala to still be a super attractive card to play.

i did the knicks n/p

i too am trying to grind for that iggy while rubies are still relevant. i have 9 more to go lol

[Crazytwisted123]

Re: Schedule Challenges

What Schedule Challenges have you completed?

I'm really interested in seeing if we can complete a list of Schedule Challenges that are NOT glitched. If I do invest time into this, I don't want to waste more time by getting part way through a team that has a glitched Challenge.

I am (hopefully) about to complete the Grizzlies and had no glitches. Well, one: the game that required 10 Assists, the first time I tried it, didn't start counting my Assists until AFTER I got 10. Basically making the requirement 20. But it counted fine the 2nd time through. And I have since completed the one that requires 20 Assists and, while I had to play it a third time, it counted Assists properly all three times.

Making the Most of Your 3 Gold / Cheesing the CPU

At the end, when you have to use a lineup that is limited to 3 Gold (rest Silver and Bronze) and you have to use 7 or 8 players from the franchise, these requirements make it tough to field a good team.

If the franchise has enough Silvers for you to play, then you have the luxury of having free choice in your 3 Gold. Here's some general tips:

• It makes sense to choose 2 Gold with a Duo to maximize performance. And then choose a 1 Gold / 1 Silver Duo for the same reason. I initially went with Melo/Porzingis and Dirk/Seth Curry. But when I had to play 7 Grizzlies, I had to start using my Gold Damon Stoudamire, so was left only with Melo/Porzingis as non-Grizzly Golds.
• There's not very many Gold/Gold or Gold/Silver duos in the game. Go to the bottom of this long page to see what you can choose from: http://2kmtcentral.com/18/players/delta/15-09-2017
• Silver Ben Simmons is invaluable because he can be a go-to scorer for you in various ways. A) Play him at PG and drive past, or post-spin on smaller PG's. B) Play him at PF and run 4-5 P&R. Depending on matchup, it's likely to be 2 slow bigs who can't defend the action. Surround Simmons and your 5 with 3 good shooters if you can.
• Going back to Melo/Porzingis: Porzingis can actually be a P&R BH in 5-4 P&R. Depending on defender, can also just explode past slower bigs in a drive.
• Melo can burst past almost anyone from ISO, other than elite, strong wing defenders. You can try to cheese his relative speed if you play him at 4, or his relative strength and size by playing him at 2.

Silver Eric Gordon/Gold Tony Kukoc duo is lit. Both have an 88 3ball

Silver Kuzma and Mike james are both sleepers as well

And of course dont forget to bring along your original Thin Maker.

[harryl]

Re: Schedule Challenges

i did the knicks n/p

Thanks, added that to the list.

i too am trying to grind for that iggy while rubies are still relevant. i have 9 more to go lol

I am personally beginning to find it really hard to believe I can plow through to Ruby Iguodala while he's still good enough to not just be a starter, but even a 2nd-string wing.

Silver Eric Gordon/Gold Tony Kukoc duo is lit. Both have an 88 3ball

Silver Kuzma and Mike james are both sleepers as well

And of course dont forget to bring along your original Thin Maker.

I totally agree on Kuzma and also Mike James. And of course Thon Maker.

Kuzma is basically a Gold in Silver form. As is Thon Maker. Also Iguodala, IMO.

I started using Mike James halfway through my 2nd Sched Challenge, and he's really effective for basic P&R tactics because he's such a good dunker. Can also be trusted to take an open 3. And while his Contest is HORRIFIC, if he doesn't have to defend a really athletic driver and/or are able to bring help to back him up, he's not as bad a liability on D as I imagined he'd be.

I've been cheesing Simmons as starting PG and run James as my bench PG, ahead of P-Bev, D-Lo, Lonzo, Collison, etc.

We all know how good Thon Maker can be and to me what really dramatically makes him so useful is that he can hold his own as a Stretch 5 and having a 5 who can shoot reliably allows one to run 1-4 P&R instead of 1-5 P&R and avoid having to struggle against what are often very defensively strong opposing Centers that can make 1-5 P&R cheesing a tough way to score points.

When one gets to the final handful of games on Superstar with a 3 Gold allowance, one needs the cheese to be viable.

The last few days, I've been beating my head against the final 76ers game. I'm usually neck-and-neck with the All-Time 76ers for most of the game, even maybe holding a slight lead for most of the game. But I've been losing to them by a handful of points in four attempts now, I think.