You Want To Help Fix The 2K Series? Let's Do It Here!

[Mos1ted]

This post is a continuation of my previous post...

Like I said in a previous thread, every team wants to win games and win championships, but it's a goal that is more realistic for some teams than others. With that being the case, there are some owners in the NBA and other professional sports leagues who have more reasonable expectations for their team. The Minnesota Timberwolves owner knows that his team does not have a realistic chance of winning an NBA title anytime soon. As a result, his focus is likely on improving his bottom line: What can be done to still drive revenue while the team won't be winning a lot of games? Have an exciting and entertaining product on the floor.

Insert Ricky Rubio and Zach Lavine. Will those two bring Minnesota an NBA championship? Nope, but chances are, they're likely to be one of the most exciting backcourt tandems in the NBA this upcoming season. They have the excitement factor that will still bring fans to the arena.

Now consider signature skills for both players: Ricky Rubio, a flashy passer who can also deliver well-placed alleys; Zach Lavine, a freakishly athletic dunker who can easily oop those alleys placed by Rubio.

So here, I have signature skills that are easily identifiable -- flashy passer, alley ooper, highlight film -- that helps me (as the GM) construct a team to my owner's wishes, one that is exciting on the court and will attract fans. When I'm building a team based on excitement, I'm mostly looking for players with signature skills based around excitement. The same principle applies to other team philosophies.

And best of all, even if I'm a casual NBA fan who only knows the top tier players of the league, I can still easily identify players who fit a specific purpose because I don't have to thumb through a bunch of numerical attributes to find that player. A quick glimpse at his profile let's me know if he fits the mold or not for the team I'm trying to build. Also, players who are normally rated in the low 60's or 50's still serve a purpose.

[UniversalNoob]

So, where is the Google Doc?


My request:


Remove or weaken the momentum effects on the Game.
At the moment it is always that one of the two teams is either favored by momentum or gets completely struck down by it. I play in three different online leagues and in nearly every game this is happening. Especially with 3 pt percentage...in wins I hit an incredible 60+% from outside! In losses its just 30%... And it is nit just the which causes a margin of 30%. Sometimes my opponent is so bad ad defending and I can get an open shot every time, but I will miss everything Yes I know, this happens in real life, too. But does it happen that often - nearly every game? Either me or my opponent will be crashed by 2k. Most of the times not the players themselves play out whos better, but 2k decides by favouring one side.
=> This completely destroys the online experience for most people in the 3 leagues I'm playing in.



Court Spacing has to be more intelligent
Example: I call a quick Pick and Roll on the right wing. What most of the times will hapen is that one guy is standing top of the key. This makes the floor far too tight. Both he AND his defender are now standing in the way of the Pick and Roll. Normally he should clear the ballside and drift a few steps to the weakside. The weakside wing now has to go in the weakside corner.
Examples like that happen very often. Teammates just standing in the way of the ballhandler.


Help-Defense
Before the release of 2k14 you guys said you rebuilt help-defense from the beginning. I feel like it is worse than before now. On the one hand guys which are not supposed to help (e.g. standing one pass away from the ball, defending the wing player) are coming to help out. But on the other hand the weakside big men under the basket, which is supposed to be the first guy in the help-rotation often misses it, runs out of bounds or whatever he does, but he is not helping! Me as a human defender can just control one of the five players on the court.


Controlled Opponent Player Identifier (Online)
Please make it visible which player the opponent is controlling (in online matches). It is so annoying to play online just to be defended by the AI. In many online leagues it is forbidden to defend off ball all the time, and by not seeing who the opponent is controlling, you open all doors for doing this. Wouldn't be that much of an issue, but now I get to my next point:


Weaken AI On-Ball Defense
AI Defenders are way to good in guarding the ballhandler 1on1. Even the worst, immobile big men you can imagine are capable of guarding every ballhandler on the perimeter, als long as a user lets the AI do the job. AI should net be beaten all the time, but when I isolate against a slow big on the wing, I should be able to beat him nearly all the time. This is nearly impossible right now.


Release the Full-Game on PC
And my last point: Please release the full next-gen version of the game on PC. If you want, raise the price, I think everybody would still buy it, if it has all the features, the consoles have!

[jeremym480]

A few other things that would be nice for Association/MyGm would be:

a) the ability to set protection for draft picks while trading

b) in Free Agency let the "Big Fish" sign first. Here's an example of mine from another thread:

Spoiler

Quote: Originally Posted by jeremym480

One thing that I would like to see happen in Free Agency is I would like to see the big names sign first. Most teams would wait on a Lebron on Carmelo before moving on... For example, in my current MyGm Carmelo waited pretty late into Free Agency, but ended up getting a realistic deal for around 4 years / 81 mill. Albeit, it was from Cleveland, but that's neither here nor there... Now Lebron waited until the very last day to sign and I guess most teams already used their cap room because he ended up signing with Chicago for 4 years and just under 10 million. If those guys signed in the beginning and dictated Free Agency rather than the other way around, then that should help alleviate situations like happened with Lebron.

Although, I think both of these could be difficult to code, I still hate seeing stuff like that left out (A) happen (B).

[El_Poopador]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mos1ted

I welcomed the addition of signature skills when they were first introduced, but that was under the impression that they would replace the numerical attributes a la All Pro Football 2K8. I, too, think it's redundant to have signature skills and high ratings for that particular skill. I believe it was Kendall Gill who last week spoke on signature skills during one of the summer league games. He was saying how in order to make an NBA roster, you have to have an NBA skill, something that you do really well. Obviously, there are players who can do multiple things well and players who can only do one or two things well. That's what separates stars from role players, not some magical overall rating that doesn't exist in real life. So here are my suggestions on how 2K can replicate this fact: 1.) Eliminate numerical attributes from the game. Get rid of the ratings altogether -- overalls, 3pt shot, etc. Realistically, no one looks at Player A as says, "Well, he's really shooting the ball like he has a 90 rating." Either Player A can shoot or not. The cut and dry approach is what separates shooters from nonshooters. The same applies for every other basketball skill. 2.) Going with Kendall Gill's opinion in that you have to have an easily identifiable NBA-ready skill to make the roster, then obviously every player in the game should have a signature skill of some sort, whether it's one skill or 20. First, identify every relevant basketball skill and apply them to players appropriately. Also, you want to have the ability for players to gain or lose signature skills over time in MyGM/Association mode since players' skills progress and regress due to age, development, etc. 3.) Skills should only be given for something the player does really well. By revamping the Signature Skills system this way, it helps make player evaluations more efficient. We're no longer spending countless hours thumbing through attribute after attribute for each player when most of the attributes are irrelevant to players anyway. For example, unless a center is known to have a consistent 3 point shot, do I really need to know his 3 point rating? Most basketball-minded people know that centers don't shoot three's; their job is to play near the basket. Also, this makes player roles more defined. The way it is now, a player is either a star, starter, 6th man, role player, prospect, or benchwarmer. We all know that while players may be identified as such on the surface, their roles within the organization are much more defined. For example, Anderson Varejao isn't just a starter for the Cavaliers. He's in there for his hustle and energy, rebounding, etc. By identifying him strictly by these skills, it eliminates the need to evaluate the other aspects of his game, most of which are either nonexistent or nonessential to the reason why he's on Cleveland's roster.

I wouldn't say numerical attributes should be removed completely. The only way that should happen is if the devs can make each player play true to their real-life counterparts, which is what they should strive for, but clearly isn't happening any time soon. Having numerical attributes allows us to go in and fix what they got wrong, or at least make it better.

What I would say is that if they want to keep the numerical ratings, they need to add a lot more. Like you alluded to, each action a player takes on the court has multiple skills associated with them. To account for that, each skill should have an accompanying rating. Rebounding takes awareness, strength, timing, positioning, hands, etc. Just the same, awareness for rebounding is different than awareness for passing, or shooting. On-ball awareness is different than off-ball awareness, which is different depending on where the player you're guarding is on the floor (post, perimeter, etc.). Each action on the floor needs to be broken down that way to really accurately depict a player's skill set.

[iTofu]

Suggestions off the top of my head:

GAMEPLAY:

1. Delayed passes. This is my biggest frustration with 2K. I'll hit pass to spot up shooter around the free throw line while moving. Magnetic animation occurs, spot up shooter moves, is covered. I get out of the animation near the baseline, then the pass is thrown and of course it's an interception at that point, because it's a terrible pass by that time.
2. Play development. Plays need to happen faster, players executing with urgency. This isn't high school, there is a shot clock.
3. Pick 'n' Roll, I like the system for the most part, but I think you have to hold down too long to get to pick 'n' pop. I'm sure part of it's my own fault, but I get in a lot of trouble while dribbling around as I hold down the button forever waiting for it to get to pick 'n' pop.
4. Quick play dribble hand offs.
5. Flashy pass button. I'll never use it because I don't necessarily know who the ball is going to.
6. Player automatic defensive matchups not simply based on position. If someone puts LeBron James at center and the center at PF, don't make me go into the menu and switch all the matchups, then make me switch them again. Imagine that in real life, unrealistic.

MyGM SUGGESTIONS:

1. Please commit some analytic employees to anazlying the effects of rookie classes. Veterans are made obsolete at an alarming pace.
2. Please commit some analytic employees to anazlying the effects of players' statistics in simulation. A lot of players are very incorrect. Some of the problems can be fixed by making rosters more consistent and fixing shot tendencies. However, I think there should be a focus on making certain statistics are coming closer to reality.
3. Rookie tattoos. Why do players get random team tattoos. Oh look, the star rookie on the Lakers has a Celtics tattoo on his arm resembling a clear car bumper sticker. lol
4. Don't put roster restrictions that handcuff people from updating contracts in imported rosters. If it's a VC problem, then remove VC from MyGM, you become overpowered anyway.
5. Bring back multiple player. The way I used association the most is playing with friends. One of my friends will not be buying 2K15 because it was the only reason he played at all. That's disheartening. In addition, I know many people like controlling all 30 teams. Maybe just seperate Association and MyGM.
6. Free Agency. Fine tune the player interests to make free agency more interesting. Warm weather and large market should be two additional factors in the player interests portion along with loyalty, winning and financial security. Perhaps give some players a "preferred team", for example LeBron James' could be Cleveland. Too often I see a star who wins a championship then signs with some obscure small market franchise that has a boatload of cap room, terrible weather and no chance for success.
7. Sign and trades should be available. Trades should be available the entire time.
8. I love the direction of MyGM, talking to players, negotiating in person. Let's expand on that! Some voices would be nice, I know that's a tall order though.
9. The business menus, where you change prices and similar activities, are not user friendly. User spends too much time trying to understand them.
10. More intrigue with other teams. It'd be cool to see situations where other teams' have interesting situations, such as owner wants to win now, GM wants to keep job and coach wants the long view. Then GM overpays middle range person and coach is fired.
11. More visibility into the motives of other teams. Think about the situations with Chandler Parsons this week:
    1. Rockets want to sign someone big.
    2. Allow Parsons to become restricted to protect themselves from unrestricted next year.
    3. Rockets court Melo.
    4. Parsons signs an offer sheet with Dallas.
    5. No Melo, Bosh is available.
    6. Rockets are scrambling to get rid of Lin and Asik to make room to sign Bosh before that offer sheet expired.
    7. Rockets felt they had Bosh, Bosh goes to Miami.
    8. Rockets scramble to find another free agent, sign Ariza.
    9. Then evaluate Parsons and allow him to walk.
    That entire situation was exciting, but it's difficult to get visibility to that in MyGM. I know that will be difficult, but I think it'd be cool.

MyCAREER:

1. Dynamic goals are sometimes really bad. Score 10 straight points. Get a brilliant assist, FAIL! lol
2. Bring back D-League.
3. I get to be a superstar pretty quick but the RPG script doesn't recognize it.
4. Crew mode. hehe
5. Change Park mode. I like watching games every now and then, but park mode pretty much emulates the worst part of pick up games... Waiting to get on the court. lol

ROSTER SUGGESTIONS:

1. Create a player.
2. Ease the process of making a roster. There are community members who make great rosters and strange rosters. 2K please ease the process of roster making and allow those players to help keep players playing 2K longer each year.
3. Be more consistent with ratings. Many stats are or should be based on statistics, such as 3PT, Shot Medium, Shot Close, Free Throw, Pass, Offensive Rebound, Defensive Rebound, Shot Tendencies, etc. Update all of those based. In fact, build an automated program to update those regularly. When you analyze something like Shot Medium (NBA 2K14: Finding a "Shot Medium" Rating Formula), it's currently very ugly.
4. Playbooks need to be more dynamic. I'm not certain how, maybe less "Spurs playbook" and more "Triange", "Horns", etc.
5. This will never happen, but oh well. Can we just get rid of PG, SG, SF, PF, C and make it PG, wing, big? 2K could be revolutionary and add the 10 positions of basketball, but that's even less likely. Here's my problem: When you have a large SG, for example the portion of the season when Paul George was listed as SG. The computer will routinely make terrible lineups with Paul George a 6'9" SG with a scrawny 6'5" SF. Not only does it create matchups you need to manually fix, it's just a facepalm situation.

[Mos1ted]

Quote: Originally Posted by El_Poopador

I wouldn't say numerical attributes should be removed completely. The only way that should happen is if the devs can make each player play true to their real-life counterparts, which is what they should strive for, but clearly isn't happening any time soon. Having numerical attributes allows us to go in and fix what they got wrong, or at least make it better. What I would say is that if they want to keep the numerical ratings, they need to add a lot more. Like you alluded to, each action a player takes on the court has multiple skills associated with them. To account for that, each skill should have an accompanying rating. Rebounding takes awareness, strength, timing, positioning, hands, etc. Just the same, awareness for rebounding is different than awareness for passing, or shooting. On-ball awareness is different than off-ball awareness, which is different depending on where the player you're guarding is on the floor (post, perimeter, etc.). Each action on the floor needs to be broken down that way to really accurately depict a player's skill set.

I get what you're saying. However, I reiterate my point as to how exactly is that measured in real life? We all know that Al Jefferson has a wider array of post moves than Dwight Howard. When we compare that aspect of their respective games in real life, we don't assign a numerical rating to it; we simply say that Al Jefferson is skilled in the post; Dwight Howard is not. Dwight Howard is still the best center in the NBA because he possesses other key skills that set him apart from the competition; post moves just isn't one of them.

I agree with what your point about adding even more attributes to address aspects of the game. You bring up the example of rebounding in how it's more about just being a good rebounder; it's about timing, positioning, hands, etc. like you mentioned. However, do we really need the minute details of how each individual player is rated in this category, or could we just get by with knowing he's a good defensive rebounder? I'm not saying get rid of the attribute system. I'm saying to hide the attributes and just tell us what the player excels at. The attributes themselves can play out under the hood like All Pro Football did.

[Gosens6]

Alright guys, I've put together the first copy of our board effort fix list.

I tried to get everyones ideas in there without making it too cluttered. Although there were a few EXCELLENT posts in here that were fairly long that I'd like to give there own standalone section in the document.

For now, this is what we have, and for a first copy, I think we have a pretty darn good start. I'm posting it here for everyone to take a look, then I'll be forwarding it to LD2K and hopefully he'll give it a look!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

[DMTS]

Not going to write a paragraph, I just have one request.

The ability to create motion with one button. Cuts and off ball screens.

A good example of this is in "NCAA Basketball 10"