Make ProAM more competitive and less grindy

[triplechin]

Whether it be ProAM or another new mode, I think we need a more competitive and less grindy 5on5. I know VC issues and 2K would probably make less money off of this so it porbably won't happen, but throwing it out there anyway.

First, complete cut off from anything offline. No brainless grinding against AI should impact anything online.

They should make progression either a slow increase from playing in this mode only and scaled by teammate grade, or have no progression at all and have players at a certain overall like 85 or 90 or whatever number you think is best. Additional "incentives" to play can be unlocking cosmetics for your team and for your character in this mode.

You should be able to freely switch your characters archetype and position whenever you want so you can enjoy the entire game while playing the mode you want to.

Within these archetypes, you should get X amount of points to spend on your build so you can make him a little more unique to your playstyle, but there are still caps on how far you can increase. (Can't pick glass cleaner and then boost your 3pt up to 99 for example).

For balancing, each build can choose from X amount of badges (or even better, get rid of badges, but that's a different discussion). The same goes for hot zones and cold zones, you get X to allocate instead of connecting it to dumb offline play.

There should be divisions like FIFA Pro Clubs so you can match up with other squads much easier and have competitive games. Assign roles in the menu like you can in FIFA as well (Inbounder, Tech FT shooter, blah blah blah).

And speaking of this, let us do all this from a menu instead of the giant hassle of loading into MyCareer and inviting people through a stupid cell phone.

I think this would make ProAM way more fun and competitive.

[Vroman]

Its grindy not because they can't figure it , but because its intended. There are many little things in general through out online modes that could tremendously improve user experience, but thats clearly not interest for 2k . We came to this terrible point where 2k don't need to put some extra work anymore no matter how much more revenue they generate and instead focus on marketing "fluff" to gain as much new people to buy the game as possible.

[redsfan4life]

They are heavily invested in the 2k League so I think you can count on significant improvements to Pro Am.

[Thrustie]

They could literally just make it the same as the 2K League where you pick pre-set builds and it would mostly accomplish the points you mentioned. If they really wanted to achieve competitive balance, that’s what they would do hence why they used that model for their league. I don’t see that happening though as it would siphon off a lot of players who dump money into their myplayers now. And that’s not me being negative or bitter - just realistic.

For me, I’m torn. I like progression in games. It’s fun and makes you more engaged and invested in your toon. On the other hand, it is grindy and often it comes at the expense of competitive balance.

[YourHairlineTrash]

What I can't understand is why you have to grind a second character, whatever level you're at with 1 player should just transfer to the next and the equivalent badges should already be upgraded. I avoided making multiple players this year because I didn't want to sit through the god awful cutscenes and have to start to push the boulder back up the hill again.


It's really an awful experience for the consumer.

[triplechin]

I agree that VC would most likely prevent this from happening but I just wanna dream haha

[Thrustie]

Quote: Originally Posted by YourHairlineTrash

What I can't understand is why you have to grind a second character, whatever level you're at with 1 player should just transfer to the next and the equivalent badges should already be upgraded. I avoided making multiple players this year because I didn't want to sit through the god awful cutscenes and have to start to push the boulder back up the hill again. It's really an awful experience for the consumer.

The decision to make cutscenes unskippable is truly baffling. I mean skippable cutscenes are pretty standard in all gaming genres but should be even more expected in a sports games where it’s even more likely the player will just want to play the game. I can’t even discern the reason for it other than to frustrate players. If anything, it makes players less likely to spend money on VC because they don’t even want to create another player. It’s a really terrible design choice technically and financially.

[YourHairlineTrash]

Quote: Originally Posted by Thrustie

The decision to make cutscenes unskippable is truly baffling. I mean skippable cutscenes are pretty standard in all gaming genres but should be even more expected in a sports games where it’s even more likely the player will just want to play the game. I can’t even discern the reason for it other than to frustrate players. If anything, it makes players less likely to spend money on VC because they don’t even want to create another player. It’s a really terrible design choice technically and financially.

I know exactly why the cutscenes are unskippable, like most things with 2k it's anti-consumer & greed that drives it. For one, they have a lot of advertisements littered all throughout their cutscenes, everyone would skip through B-fresh eating cereal if they could but Reese's probably paid them to get that spot, there are plenty of other examples but that was the most obvious one. Secondly, the cutscenes are there to artificially increase the time it takes you to earn VC, from the pointless conversations with the doorman to the ballboy, even something as mundane as walking to the locker room and the pre-game shootaround is there to sap your time. The more of your time they can waste with cutscenes, the more likely you are to just buy VC to skip all of it, that's why no matter how much people want to they haven't given anyone the option to skip their trash cause even though the game is dead they're still trapping new players buying the game on discount now.

2k is about as anti consumer as it gets, and everything they do is to rob you of time so that you feel like you have no option but to buy VC.