Test: Dribble Penetration

[Kushmir]

While dribble penetration is a welcome addition to 2K18 and aids in how beautiful and free flowing the game is.....it has to be better balanced. Early H2H gameplay has shown that the balance aspect is lacking. This isn't calling out the devs...you never know about some issues with balance until millions of people get their hands on your game--many with the intention of breaking it. The issues with dribble penetration are as follows:

1) There's no emphasis on going AROUND or BY the defender by requiring the user point the stick off-center. Many guys are simply dribbling right into the defender and pressing turbo.



2) Charges are non-existent. This is probably the biggest issue....dribblers have no conscience attacking when over-aggression isn't punished...and in this case its rewarded, often with shooting and blocking fouls.



3) There aren't enough loose balls. Turboing into defenders should result in turnovers almost as a rule. VOILA! another chance to show off the loose ball system.

4) The dribble interactions aren't held to a hardcore standard. This sticks out when so many other areas of gameplay are...look at how contested/physical the paint is. The shot-meter demands you have skill, the improved passing? The list goes on and on. When the dribbler is forced to turn his back it should serve as gameplay "warning" players that no progress is being made...continuing to hit turbo or make contact after that should result in Losing the ball and Offensive Fouls. Look at how long it takes for Derozan to lose the ball here (Covington's on-ball defense IQ is 89)



5) The success rate is too high. There's almost no situation where the dribbler fails. They can collide with the defender until they get a favorable animation. After a few unsuccessful tries, Derozan simply walks Covington to the basket here:



What should happen? Well in addition to losing the ball and turnovers, lets see more guys redirected off their intended path when they aren't successful, like happens here:



Lastly, I took Richaun Holmes my 76 rated backup center (speed with ball rating: 44) and simulated 20 instances where he drove the ball into a defense. I went right at the defender and pressed shoot when I was in position. He was stonewalled (forced to turn his back) on only three occasions. The others saw him drive easily on the defender and get into the lane...good position defense forced him to pull up twice and he was driven out of bounds two times. There are no fouls so we can only imagine how many times he would have gotten a whistle--but I can think we call can agree that success rate is HORRIBLE.

See for yourself:



NOTE: The end of the video got cut off--but trust me there were 20 of them.

[jeebs9]

Totally agree. The flow is 20 times better. I don't feel like I'm in mud. Which was what stopped my from enjoying last year's game.

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[El_Poopador]

Honestly I like where it is now. In most of the examples, it didn’t result in a score, but rather an ugly contested shot. I much prefer that to being stonewalled on 95% of drives.

Online I can see maybe tweaking it, but I hope they don’t touch it for play against the CPU. This is the first time in years where it’s actually fun and rewarding to get a mismatch on the perimeter.


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[Kushmir]

Quote: Originally Posted by El_Poopador

Honestly I like where it is now. In most of the examples, it didn’t result in a score, but rather an ugly contested shot. I much prefer that to being stonewalled on 95% of drives. Online I can see maybe tweaking it, but I hope they don’t touch it for play against the CPU. This is the first time in years where it’s actually fun and rewarding to get a mismatch on the perimeter. Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

I'm more focused on him getting into the lane by turboing into the defender because Demarcus Cousins WON'T MISS those shots, and WILL DRAW those fouls, feel me? And believe me...I support you having fun with the game. I think mismatches are important too...but systems that lack a risk and reward will be broken/spammed by players.

[El_Poopador]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kushmir

I'm more focused on him getting into the lane by turboing into the defender because Demarcus Cousins WON'T MISS those shots, and WILL DRAW FOULS, feel me? And believe me...I support you having fun with the game. I think mismatches are important too...but systems that lack a risk and reward will be broken/spammed by players.

I definitely get where you’re coming from. I just don’t want them to ruin a great thing for offline play to balance online. I wonder what would happen if the defender tried to draw a charge in those situations.


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[jfsolo]

It seems good offline right now, but yeah, they don't like to punish out of control User behavior online as severely as they should.

[iLLWiLL9105]

It's fine. Most times in the NBA guys can drive past their man and get guys on their hip. The help defense is the most important part of defense and I'm glad 2k has finally started to transition into that. Guys just have to learn to play actual defense now instead of getting their hands held


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[Kushmir]

Quote: Originally Posted by El_Poopador

I definitely get where you’re coming from. I just don’t want them to ruin a great thing for offline play to balance online. I wonder what would happen if the defender tried to draw a charge in those situations. Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Yeah I tried that in this clip--and promptly got walked to the basket. Rating obviously plays a HUGE role (Derozan is a 92, Redick a 79) but this is much of what you're seeing across the board. It was no different when I switched Covington on him, save 2 to 3 poke-away steals.