NBA 2K15's Mike Wang Answers Your Questions (Interview)

[bxfinest15]

I just sent a Google Doc to Ronnie that he "says he's forwarding to the gameplay devs" who knows? but yeah he took the diplomatic and business route in answering these questions, it was nothing genuine. SMH I think it's time for some staff changes over at 2K because it's gotten progressively worse over the years which is much backwards. Teammates get killed on the boards every night despite maybe having a better rebounding team, the same shots the opposing team makes ours can't and we get no foul calls on blatant pushes in the back... They need specific AI sliders and teammate AI sliders or just get back to basics like before in previous games where stats were actually correct. Seems like ever since Sliders got integrated the games got tainted.

[bxfinest15]

Burter I noticed that too... Just playing D with no or little turbo and not hitting the lock on D button works best and that's stupid as **** but that's 2K for you.

[BezO]

I missed asking MW directly, but maybe someone else can help.

I've always had trouble exploding out of dribble moves. I saw MW's answer to exploding out of size up dribbles, and sweet, it works great.

Problem is I often want to explode out of a simple crossover, between the legs or in & out dribble. Still can't putll it off.

My question is, is it not possible to explode out of these basic dribble moves or am I not timing it correctly? If it's a timing thing, I'd appreciate the help on the appropriate timing.

[badmrfrosty7]

Good info and good to know they're working on what they can in the upcoming patch. These attentions to detail get me excited about future iterations (the body contact, to shot release mechanics for instance).

Couple of takeaways though:

--- On My Career AI - A: The biggest difference between your AI teammates and your AI opponents is there are certain bonuses and influences in place to make your teammates "cooperate" with you, and in the case of MyCareer, involve you more than they normally might another AI teammate of the same caliber. This is done in an attempt to make playing MyCareer more interesting for the average user. So AI teammates might shoot shots they'd normally pass up because you're telling them to shoot or because they're trying to help you get assists.


I think this is the reason I eventually can't stand MyCareer. My player becomes a star (even though I'm rated in the low 70s) because the team already revolves around my player essentially from the start. I wish they'd give you the option at least to have default AI versus MyCareer-focused AI because the experience could be potentially more interesting for players that want to feel like part of an NBA team and not strictly a superstar. But I should also probably give up on this ever being a sim mode.


---- Q: Can you explain shot fatigue? When does it kick in?
A: There are two types of shot fatigue, jump shot and collision. The jump shot fatigue looks at the player's real life FGA stat and as soon as the player has exceeded the avg. number of FGAs, the %'s start to drop. The penalties can be pretty severe if you go way over the player's real life stats so be careful. Collision fatigue is a cumulative fatigue that drains with each successive collision in the paint (both body ups and contact shots.) The contact shot %'s drop a little bit each time there's a collision and it adds up over the course of the game.


We definitely saw an example of shot/contact fatigue irl for Russell Westbrook last night. Hit everything and looked unstoppable for the first 2-1/2 to 3 quarters, but with the combination of playing that relentlessly, getting little rest (due to a thin bench), playing stellar defense against Lillard, and getting little offensive help (someone else who can create their own shot), all of the same spectacular pull-ups and contact lay-ins weren't falling anymore down the stretch.

The biggest thing to adding it to the game though is I think it has to have some sort of indicator, just like fatigue. Otherwise, there might as well not be a fatigue meter either and play it close to real life in that respect also by gauging who the player is (age, condition), their minutes, etc.

Overall I like the idea of shot fatigue. Playing 12 minute quarters, I like the idea of having to mix up my play-calling and riding various hot hands when possible while managing rotations, so that I don't have players tired or cold down the stretch. It's very realistic in that sense. However the game should guide users to such strategies because it could go a long way to both educating gamers on sports strategy, as well as really sell the depth and realism to 2k's gameplay.

[bxfinest15]

BezO there's still too many animations tied with dribbling to me so it's hard to do some of those things. I think certain departments from 2K and Live should come together because they both have areas in which one outshines the other

[badmrfrosty7]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nathan_OS

Still really no answers on fouls. Welp.

Does this not answer that or are there other foul concerns? I'd assume this would mean foul calls will be closer to normal whenever the big patch hits.

Q: Will something be done to 2K15 to improve contact recognition on gameplay animations? We all know the current issue with the low amount of foul calls during gameplay.

A: I'm working on this right now for the next patch. For now, crank your shooting foul sliders to the max.

[bxfinest15]

Exactly... Too much work put into storylines and not enough into gameplay... I mean storylines is cool but perfect the gameplay first and it's sad to see that these NBA don't have much input into the gameplay being that they're the ones that actually know the game in and out and how things flow and another thing is in what game unless it's a blow out which doesn't come much often do you see a team shooting 60 plus % from the floor and like 50% on threes for a game? This should be something that should never be an issue even just looking and basing it off average stats.

[DBMcGee3]

I'd just like to know what's up with the post-game replays. I'm loving the game, but damn, it's a pretty big kick in the nuts to play a 48 minute game and get zero eye candy at the end.