NBA 2k15 simulation ideas/wishlist

[JDrew8]

GAMEPLAY

1. More Signature Movements= There should be signature movements for jogging, sprinting, jogging with the ball, sprinting with the ball and first steps. They don't have to be for every player but for certain playstyles. (Finesse(MJ or Kobe), old school(Magic or Bird), Big(Centers), Fast(John Wall), and Freight Train(Strong; LBJ)).

2. More Chess-match Like Offensive/Defensive Footwork = Now with ecomotion, foot planting is more apparent and each step seems to matter more which is the key to more fluid animations. Next year, each first step or blow by animation should vary depending on the defenders positioning or shading direction.

3. More Intuitive On-ball Defense= When you hold the left trigger, you should automatically jump into a certain defensive position on the ball handler IF ONLY you are close enough. As always, intense d should take more stamina but I have an idea where whenever you are below a certain stamina level, you go into an exhaustion mode where a set of moves can now be used on the you. When in position, you should be able to shade how you want with the right stick and keep up in the SAME pace as the ball handler when holding the left stick the right direction. What I mean by keeping up in the same pace is that defenders shouldn't just slide all over the place, they should only lose their positioning(get faked) when holding it for too long. Shading the wrong direction and not moving at all should trigger specific blow by or first step animations when the handler tries to pass. It should also be key that keeping up with the defender after shading the wrong way or having a late reaction should be noticeably harder due to a blown by contextual stage where the player is basically trying to get his footing back. Also, whenever a defender is on the verge of losing his footing due to holding the left stick for too long, a bar similar to the ones in 2ks previous dunk contests(not this guitar hero stuff)should pop up where you hit a certain area in the bar. Timing it should be harder depending on the handlers ball handling skill, your on-ball defensive skill, how bad your positioning is, or how tired you are and when timed right, you can get back in the appropriate position.

4. Specific Defensive stances and Levels= when a player eclipses certain attributes for on ball defense, he should automatically be able to use a particular defensive stance. There should be a couple of times where this happens and the higher level defensive stances, the easier the defender will be able to keep up with the offensive man.

5. 3 Stages of Dribbling= There should be stages of dribbling for better chain dribbling and setting up for passing a defender.
Protective-access by moving the right stick: less effective but less risky and more protected. appearance- low dribbles while the player is using the best of his ability to incorporate his hands and body to protect the ball.
Isomotion- access by holding the left trigger and moving the right stick: more risky, takes more stamina, and more exposed for the defender to steal but are more effective. appearance- flashier and wider dribbles that have more juke type movements(crossovers).
Stunned- accessed whenever sprinting right into a teammate or defender in iso-stage or being in the exhaustion stage: taking lots of stamina from anxiety, highly risky and prone to be stolen dribbles. appearance- the player is anxiously struggling to protect his dribbles and is constantly losing ball control. To get out of this stage, you have to jog away to a certain range, wait a couple seconds, or just pass it away.

IMPORTANT iso-stage moves: Gather moves should be accessed while holding the left trigger again. While jogging down the court, briefly hold the sprint button and left trigger when near the defender who is not in intense d or in exhaustion stage for a millisecond. In that brief instance, move the right stick up then down and then immediately let go of all the buttons to initiate a between the defenders legs dribble. After this dribble, hold the right trigger again to sprint or else the defender will steal the ball. When doing a jab step near a defender not in intense d or is in the exhaustion stage, quickly hold the left and sprint trigger for a millisecond. In that small amount of time, move the right stick up to down(when not in intense d or not shading) left to right(shading you to the right) or right to left(shading you to the left) and let go off all the buttons except the sprint trigger to initiate a through the legs dribble.

6. Footwork Attribute= There should be a footwork attribute that indicates how far each first step can go. Keep in mind, a far enough first step can basically give the offensive man a head start so a footwork specialist like MJ should blow by defenders with ease compared to others. This should also help making gather moves work more, take away more stamina from the defender, and make their postmoves less guardable.

7. Physicality Attribute= This attribute should contribute to how well you can shoot contested shots, the less stamina you lose from intense d or contact, and the more you can body other players defensively. Legends should significantly have higher physicality attributes than modern players due to how soft the NBA has gone so sorry Lebron lol. In addition, it would be cool if you can change the rules and let players hand check while whenever modern players are handchecked, their attributes go down by 5 points.

8.Better Rebounding= After a missed shot, there should be a circle where the ball is about to land on the floor that closes in as the ball gets closer to the ground and the person who gets to time it right 1st gets the rebound. Again, there should be a meter where you have to hold a button until the line gets to a certain area. There should be a hidden equation where the higher your rebound rating, your physicality attribute, your hustle, how much closer you are to the rim, how tired you are, and if you are winning a box out battle, the easier it is to reach that section.

9. More Realistic Momentum System= When an off-ball player decides to change direction, there should be several animations for it. Right now, every change of direction off-ball feels like I am doing suicides. My idea is when you hold Lt you go in some sort of juke mode similar to the iso-stage where it takes more stamina but off-ball. In this stage, you should be able to do the harder juke moves using the right stick while the player is running in a quick stuttery manner. Also, whenever a trailing person catches a ball, there should be more hopping animations for diversity.

10. Better Defensive Animations= in the past few years, we have been stuck with some of the same lame steal and block animations. Most of them have actuaally brought down how the game looks due to the constant clipping. One suggestion is to have a stealing system where the defender goes into animations where the arm stretches its way more to the side where the ball is and not just the body. Kf the ball is exposed enough,, 2k should finally bring in a rip stealing animation. Steal animations should also be quicker and directed below the knees. To add to that, players in intense d should have quicker or stuttery slides instead of the extremely wide and slow slides they currently do. The same goes with off-ball players too. The guys trying to guard the paint should have slower, wider, larger but more aware or specific steps to secure the paint. Not to mention that blocks have always looked so clunky. There should now be different block animations for when a player is on your right, left, in front, slightly behind to the left, and slightly behind to the block.

11. Athleticism Should Matter= One suggestion is for 2k to give players actual verticals ranging from 1-55 instead of this 1-99 bs. There should be a hidden equation where each inch should give you 0.1-1.0 seconds of hangtime depending on the situation so players like MJ can have more in-air time which is realistic. Also, there should be a new flexabity attribute that determines if you can do more acrobatic dunks and better clutch layups. Lastly, speed really needs to be improved. 2k should have a new speed rating system where it ranges from 2.9-6.0 seconds of a sprint for 3/4 the court or 4.0-7.0 second range for a 40 yard dash.

12. More Momentum Signature Shots= It has been a question wandering in my mind that why doesn't 2k add sig jumpshots from slight movements like jogging when it happens constantly in real life. From now on each jump shot base should include sig shots from slightly moving(jogging or taking several steps) to the right, left, or in front. These animations should be shots that are slightly shifted to a direction(not like drifters of course). Another suggestion is a catch and shoot animation that should be triggered whenever pressing the shoot button before catching a ball directed to another player. As a matter of fact, I would like to bring up that every setup shot should include a pivot foot that is COMPLETELY planted and the non pivot foot that quickly gets in position. If for some reason, the planting seems extreme for each setup shot then they should make drag animations to replace the stupid sliding.

13. Momentum Based Collision System= whenever a player gets too closeor bumps into a defender during a mid air drive, then the offensice man should go into a stage where all his momentum is going straight down and the player has to move the right stick in the direction the defender is not leaning on for a higher percentage shot. Keep in mind, you can be flashy but that depends on how high your shoot in traffic, layup, flexability, and vertical rating is. With plenty of momentum along with a high strength or speed rating, you should be able to blow by(speed), body out your way(strength), or tank through(strength and speed) the defender.

14. Better Mid Air Layup and Dunk Control= Whenever holding the Left trigger with enough momentum to dunk, play around with the right stick to do flashier dunks. Whenever holding the left trigger with little momentum or clutching out a dunk, move the right stick around for flashier layups or clutch layups. It depends on the players vertical, flexability, layup rating, shoot in traffic rating, and momentum on how much hangtime and flashy layups he can do so guys like MJ will be the kings of this. Making these layups depend on the players physicality, shoot in traffic, and layup rating.

15. Contextual Movements= Dribbling in the paint at a half court setting should result contextual running with smaller lunges, more specific footwork, and a bit of reliance on quickness due to how crowded it is. Going coast to coast or sprinting from way beyond the 3 point line however results with the same sprinting animations but quicker blow by but riskier dribbling and footwork animations that may result getting tripped up in the paint.

PRESENTATION(cool additional stuff)

1. Diversified Home Crowd Noises= Next year, I am hoping that there are a couple levels of excitement from fans.
Level 1(loyal fans level 1)- normal shots
Level 2(loyal fans level 2)- shot clock buzzer beaters, open dunks, 1st shots in the game
Level 3(Holy sh!t Level 1)- dunk ons, mini-ankle breakers, 1st-3rd quarter buzzer beaters, winning
Level 4(Holy sh!t Level 2)- posterizers(which are far worse than dunk ons), flashy dunks(360s etc), deadly crossovers
Level 5(Holy sh!t Level 3)- ankle breakers, full court shot(1st-3rd quarter)
Level 6(loyal fans level 3)- game winners, winning against rival team
Level 7(loyal fans level 4)- full court game winners, NBA championship

2. Diversified Away Crowd Noises= There should also be levels of booing
Level 1-losing
Level 2- losing a game in the playoffs, getting blown out
Level 3- losing a playoff series with a rival team, Lebron James is introduced

3. Sounds and Actions of Anticipation/Ovations= In these moments, the crowd should start standing on their feet and giving an ovation or trying to get the team pumped up. Its similar to disrupting free throws by being rowdy but in a more motivated manner.
Level 1= tip off of a game, first jump shot attempt of the game, last minute of the game with assured win
Level 2- Close game at the last minute of the game, 2 stars are matching up after a while or the 1st time in the game, star player takes his 1st jump shot, last second shot before shot clock expires
Level 3- Close game at the last minute of a playoff game, last minute close game shot attempts
Level 4- An assured win of a playoff game, last minute close playoff game shots, potential game winner shots
Level 5- An assured win of a playoff series, potential gamewinner on an elimination game or win of a playoff series

4. Attitude Attribute and Technicals = I know this might be gameplay but it is still not a relevant gameplay aspect(in my opinion). From now on, there should be technicals in the game, not just through thedumb@ss kinect. This attitide attribute should never be raised in mycareer with vc or skill points but with experience. The lower the attribute, the less likely he will get tangled up in a game or complain at the ref which both lead to technicals when too pissed off. I'm not saying they should go in fist fights(I know David Stern won't allow it), but he should go face to face to another player in a pissed off manner at least while players hold them back. In orderto get pissed off, the guy probably had to be dominated the whole game or they are getting blown out.

5. Interactive and More Realistic Crowd= I know 2k did it to an extent this year and they should expand on that. To illustrate my expectation, there should be little kids that players could high five and trash talkers that try to bring down and argue with low attitude rated players. It would be also awesome to see if players could fool around and jump into the crowd in hustle plays or when they run with too much momentum. Also, I don't know if they brought this back but celebrities were cool in 2k13. In addition to all this, I know all of us have experienced a time when we swatted the ball to the 8th stands so wouldn't it be logical if the fans could catch and throw it back?

6. Uniform Customization= There should be choices for both jersey and shorts size. You should be able to choose jersey sizes between tight(Melo), loose(Kobe), and normal while you should be able to choose shorts sizes between baggy(Melo) and normal.

7. More Character Molds and Customization= if there are 100 people in the park, there should be at least a hundred bface choices or the ability to construct your own face. We also need to be able to choose our chest sizes too similar to the wingspan and shoulder width customization.

[Pacoheadley]

Great post, I would have to agree with most of it.
I would also add better rotation AI by the computer teams. Teams always seem to follow their rotation to a tee, no matter how good or bad someone is playing. Have a 3 point specialist playing 9 minutes a game who just hit 3 in a row? They bench him anyway. I don't know how difficult it would be, but no teams in real life play the same players the same amount of minutes every game like 2K is apt to do.

[kwabalicious]

Cool ideas, but most of this is waay to nitpicky.

[dlxsf18]

Quote: Originally Posted by kwabalicious

Cool ideas, but most of this is waay to nitpicky.

I disagree, alot of these ideas are centered around player movement which in my opinion could use work for next year. Dribbling has always felt kind of rough, and the same goes with off ball action as well. The next big advancement in the series should be focused on refining player movement to be smoother and more responsive.

My suggestion to the developers is to look at adding more physics to the game and to move away from animations. Has worked well with other gameplay mechanics in different games.

[Optik]

Terrific post.

[Ramboooo]

a lot of nice ideas there, gj man.

only one I don't agree with is the rebounding one with display. I wouldn't want that to be the standard and definitely an option to turn it off. just seems too hand-holding of a feature.

[RogerBlack]

Some good ideas presented, but most seem like future 'tweaks' of the existing Eco-Motion engine.

(Not trying to knock you at all OP, you did one HELLUVA JOB taking time to create all those ideas. So BRAVO - Kudos to you!! Well Done. I applaud you.)

ON A SIDENOTE:

Personally, I would prefer if 2K Developers spend more of their time fixing bugs, or working on missing 'game modes'.... instead of creating more 'moves' for the players.

Because in this latest release of 2k14 for next-gen consoles, we have already seen exactly what happens when the 2K developers put too much priority on the 'moves' & mechanics'... while letting all the popular 'Game Modes' fall by the wayside.

The whole game becomes unbalanced.

And we get...

- Total Emphasis on 'on-the-court' mechanics, details & appearance.
- No CAP Tools / or "One Size Fits All'-Player Customization
- Incomplete / or Missing Game Modes
- Lackluster CPU AI and trade logic
- VC Everywhere (to exploit Casual Gamers)

Now everything 'on the court' looks hot.
But everything 'off the court' is hot garbage. smh.

This year, there is no balance.

Instead of inventing new 'marketing lingo' to sell...
They should make a promise to sell 'quality'. Nothing more.

How can do they do that?

On My Wishlist...
For 2K15, the 2K developers would...
DEVOTE 1 WHOLE YEAR TO JUST FIXING EXISTING BUGS.

ALL OF THEM.

OR AS MANY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE TO FIX IN JUST 1 YEAR.

That's all. Nothing More.

And let's see how that works for EVERYONE.

For just 1 full year, it would be GREAT if we could ALL see just how well this game could REALLY shine, if the 2K Developers had all the time they needed to code, compile & test EVERYTHING properly.

But instead, every year 2K rushes to out to invent more & more IP like "shot sticks" and "eco-engines" and when things go south.... they disappear completely.... or they get on these OS forums and tell the fans...

'We just did not have enough time to... yada, yada, yada".
yeah right.

smh.

Now when I say "fix the bugs" what I mean is... get back to the benchmark that 2K11 set, and 2K14 cg continued. Bring back the missing modes & keep what's in there today, minus all the VC everywhere.

NBA 2K15: THE BUG FREE EDITION

or call it...

NBA 2K15: REMASTERED


Who else wants to see THAT?
Or is it just me?

[MurdaTre4]

Bring back regular create a player mode should've never been throwed away I hate having to build a player up through myplayer only it's annoying especially with the VC points