Ideas for Progression System/Practice mode

[clipperfan811]

I like where you're going with this, definitely thought provoking. To keep in line with the concept of self governing, I'd think maintenance of existing strong points should be a factor.

Taking the Roy Hibert example Junior moe mentioned. Sure if you want to dedicate the time to SLOWLY and PAINFULLY turn him into a 3pt threat, you either do it over the course of a few seasons (3-4 seasons) while having the time to maintain his current strengths or you get it done over a quicker timeframe (1-2 seasons) but you suffer in previously strong areas of your game.

I don't have an issue with it being doable as long as it's a huge grind to get it done, as it should.

I definitely like the concept of actual practice time being the factor affecting progression, this would add an on court factor to the offseason too. There's a ton of balancing issues to try to get just right with something like this though.

I've also always felt that practice time should affect how smooth certain plays are run by your team. That would be a great use of team chemistry. As the core of a team plays more seasons together with the same coach, plays should be run quicker and smoother. I mean I know that would be a pretty complex thing to implement but I think it's worth aiming for that level of detail.

I love the concept of cementing your practice gains by meeting in game goals. A tiered reward system would be good here cause how much would it suck to miss your in game goal by like 2 made shots and lose ALL of your practice progress; I can see controllers being smashed already lol.

I'll check out the full blog post when I get a chance but just wanted to drop in and say I think it's definitely a path worth exploring, expanding and refining!

[jordankobewade7]

Quote: Originally Posted by clipperfan811

I like where you're going with this, definitely thought provoking. To keep in line with the concept of self governing, I'd think maintenance of existing strong points should be a factor. Taking the Roy Hibert example Junior moe mentioned. Sure if you want to dedicate the time to SLOWLY and PAINFULLY turn him into a 3pt threat, you either do it over the course of a few seasons (3-4 seasons) while having the time to maintain his current strengths or you get it done over a quicker timeframe (1-2 seasons) but you suffer in previously strong areas of your game. I don't have an issue with it being doable as long as it's a huge grind to get it done, as it should. I definitely like the concept of actual practice time being the factor affecting progression, this would add an on court factor to the offseason too. There's a ton of balancing issues to try to get just right with something like this though. I've also always felt that practice time should affect how smooth certain plays are run by your team. That would be a great use of team chemistry. As the core of a team plays more seasons together with the same coach, plays should be run quicker and smoother. I mean I know that would be a pretty complex thing to implement but I think it's worth aiming for that level of detail. I love the concept of cementing your practice gains by meeting in game goals. A tiered reward system would be good here cause how much would it suck to miss your in game goal by like 2 made shots and lose ALL of your practice progress; I can see controllers being smashed already lol. I'll check out the full blog post when I get a chance but just wanted to drop in and say I think it's definitely a path worth exploring, expanding and refining!

First off thx so much for dropping in and getting a reply. I feel really good about the idea as a whole and i think it definitely has its place in this generation of consoles, mostly because the current system just isnt realistic at all in most cases.

To your point, i really like the idea of having how smooth plays run being dictated by practice time and team continuity with both coaches and players. I actually think this can be done with the current team practice option we have in the game already. I really do like the current practice option we have for association anyway, and I would motion to keep it even with my idea as a way to simulate team practices.

I really was interested in individual practices because i think that we should be able to mold ANY nba player into ANY TYPE of player we want, mostly because they themselves can do this in real life if they chose to. Just like you said it would be much much harder for players to improve in areas they are really weak in, but not impossible.

I really dont think itd be too difficult to balance such a system, just because it will balance itself based on how much you attempt to do at once and with how many players, and also (mostly) because you have to consider fatigue. All of your practices take place in between games AND regular team practices. If you practice too much you're just gonna run up your overall season fatigue and be useless for one, and another idea would be to make your player more injury prone, or at least have their durability rating take a hit.

You literally have to plan out how often you practice your players to manage season fatigue levels. Imagine how cool it would be to actually be looking forward to those 3/4 day layoffs and the all star break during the season, just so you can have some time to practice and progress your players. That sounds so cool just thinking it as i type it! Additionally, since practice time would be so precious, it would make us have to make sound decisions on what to practice so that we can take advantage of the practice time. The more scarce something is, the more important and valuable it becomes and this would have value by default simply because of everything else that going on within a season of basketball.

Things like giving players the night off to save fatigue ala popovich sounds cool. Especially when you are trying to win games and manage a team over a season. There are just so many levels this would add to the depth of the mode its just astounding to think about.

As I mentioned before we would have to make tough decisions about how to proceed with our team. Do we take the time to develop a certain player to do what we need, or do we maybe look to sign/trade/draft a player that can already do those things? This is the part that makes it fun, gets you invested/immersed and makes you have to make tough decisions. Thats what the game should be all about. We should care about what goes on with our teams in association and we should become invested so that we are playing 9, 10, 12 seasons instead of the usual 1/2 seasons that i think most players get hung up on before getting board with it and starting a new one.

I want to think of ideas as a whole that extend my experience in the game to where as i progress in my association i value my decisions and my experience more and more. This should be the direction of the 2k series in the area of association IMO.

thx again @clippersfan811 i really appreciate the discussion on my topic