27 Changes That Would Help Pro Am's Gameplay Resemble NBA Basketball

[lowsingles]

Shooting cannot be that way.... in pro-am. There are 20 minutes in a game. Contested and open threes in real life have a difference of at most 10 percent. The only discrepancy in the NBA is the talent of the player, but in 2K every player in the tournament will be near maxed out. Assuming you get around 30-40 shot attempts in a game the threshold would be 3-4 shots made difference AT BEST between a team that chucks garbage all game and a team that plays perfect basketball. Real life shooting percentage turns the game into a RNG, and you cannot have a RNG for 250,000 dollars... unless you upped the quarter length to 12 minutes for the actual tournament.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

I really wonder why 2k doesn't take advantage of capping some archetypes with silver badges. What's the point of the silver badge tier?

I feel like 2k17 mycareer is missing some "flavor" . The archetypes feel generic and one sided. Not to mention that HOF badges are overkill. You make a sharpshooter. Literally all your badges are shooting. Etc ... that's boring and not very creative.

[de5m0n]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rockie_Fresh88

I really wonder why 2k doesn't take advantage of capping some archetypes with silver badges. What's the point of the silver badge tier? I feel like 2k17 mycareer is missing some "flavor" . The archetypes feel generic and one sided. Not to mention that HOF badges are overkill. You make a sharpshooter. Literally all your badges are shooting. Etc ... that's boring and not very creative.

Only point of silver badges is for you to spend vc to get through them on your way to gold. I am really curious what next year brings. They set themselves up for a huge release or a major disappointment.

I hope the NBA cancels their deal with 2k if they release the same garbage as this year.

[Junior Moe]

I'm not a pro am player, though I have enjoyed MC this year. So forgive my ignorance. I think that the way to make it truly unique is to have it be totally organic and based off of a rolling average of how you play. Then your archetype adjusts to your actual play. Say if I'm a 6'3" playmaker PG. But over the course of 10 games I'm averaging 5 points and 15 assists. Then, my archetype changes to pass first (or whatever equivalent). If I go back to scoring 25 a game with 5 assists then it goes back to playmaker. If I keep averaging 15 assists a game for say 25 games then I get the bronze dimer badge (is that still in). Do it for 50 games and I get the silver badge, so on and so forth. But If I change my playstyle completely, my badges regress and even disappear. My archtype also changes. But it would be fluid and cool. I think that would really open up creativity online.

[DreamTeam]

Incredible list jyoung! I know so many people this year who were long time fans of the 2k series just simply give up on the game after only 1-4 months. Some of them used to like playing the myplayer, old crew mode, and the 2k16 pro am mode.

Most of the reasons I heard for why they quit playing the game, was the poor unbalanced gameplay favoring heavily towards cheesy offense and just flat out terrible animations. Everyone I've talked to has complained about and simply hated the defensive side of things this year. Some of them hated the idea of trying to be forced to play park just to simply upgrade their players more, after grinding excessively already with all the practices, cutscenes, etc. Pro am itself and the gameplay in general they all complained about it being far too arcade this year and being bland, boring, and frustrating after just a short period of time.

I agree with them and many of the things jyoung listed. While I still do play 2k17 on occasion its few and far between from how much I used to play the game in years past. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to 2k18 to try and win back many in the basketball gaming community.

[ILLSmak]

I'm actually unhappy with the fact that pretty much every myplayer on 2k can dunk well. I wanna see some lay up artist guys instead of dudes just banging.

-Smak

[nobody17929]

Quote: Originally Posted by ILLSmak

I'm actually unhappy with the fact that pretty much every myplayer on 2k can dunk well. I wanna see some lay up artist guys instead of dudes just banging. -Smak

Totally agree with that. Also that fact of playing online and people just spam turbo while holding square. Most of them have terrible dunk packages equiped and get easily blocked. As a shot creator archetype i've really learned how to use my arsenal of layups and floaters, really improved the game play for me as I now selectively dunk.

[infemous]

Quote: Originally Posted by ILLSmak

I'm actually unhappy with the fact that pretty much every myplayer on 2k can dunk well. I wanna see some lay up artist guys instead of dudes just banging. -Smak

I think this is because each tower for attributes has too many varying skills being jammed together.

There is no way that your contested 3 point shooting and your open 3 point shooting should be exactly the same.

Likewise, your offensive and defensive rebounding (altho I don't know if I said it in this thread but I don't think that should be a rating)

My proposal for the ratings is to simply give us a certain number of points within a tower system.

So if I can explain this... You earn a level within each tower (shooting, passing, dribbling, defending, athleticism) each one goes to 10. If you get a tower to 10 it means you can unlock ratings up to 95 (level 9 to 85 etc.)

now within each level you are given lets say 40 attribute points to distribute around the skills included in that tower. It is up to you to determine which attributes you want increase within each tower.

You would then have to choose say in defensive ratings whether you want to upgrade your steal ability, your blocking ability, your lateral quickness, your hands etc. and you are only allowed to fully max 3 of say 5 skills with the others not improving at all, or you can evenly spread them, max one and spread the others, etc. etc.

Naturally your physical attributes determine just how high these ratings can go in a similar fashion to how it is controlled now. Long arms for dunking and defense, but with significant hits to shooting and dribbling, short arms for shooting and dribbling but with significant hits to dunking and defense.

You would be able to then successfully create an all around player who maybe has one solid skill set, or create a very specific and elite player at a certain skill set but be limited at others.

Now the important thing here, is to enable users to effectively preview before creating the character what the maxes of their build will be.

Also, badges should be able to be earned in Park or Pro Am only, in the same way they are earned in MyCareer. Hit 5 catch and shoot shots in 5 consecutive games in either mode, earn the bronze level of that badge, hit 10 in 10 consecutive games, get silver, hit 15 in 15 games for gold.
3 poked ball loose animations in 5 consecutive games for bronze pick pocket etc.

Badges would not transfer between modes.

This means that there will be NO BORING *** grinding through mycareer. MyCareer players can enjoy the mode, and park and pro-am players can enjoy that mode.
Earning badges through mycareer literally ruins the mode in which 2k invest the most into. I can't engage in the story or the fantasy of being a real NBA player when I've got the game on rookie and putting up 50 points every game. and I tried playing the mode earnestly first time around and was so bored with having such a limited player and such a long grind to get him to a point in which he was fun to use.

Sorry this post got kinda long but I feel this is a viable approach as a middle ground that can suit the desire to constrain and limit cheesy play, but also give us freedom to make the player we want.

(maybe in MyCareer you can earn extra attribute points for skills in your tower that don't apply beyond the mode by winning season awards - and the amount of points you get is directly tied to the difficulty you play on - so a HOF player who sweeps a bunch of awards can essentially create a demigod player within MyCareer and have as much fun with that as they like.)