I don’t wanna hear Devs talking about making defense Fun… just make it Functional

[Charles Bliss]

I just want defense to matter this year especially in MyCareer. The defense of CPU is abysmal. Same old. Transition defense is terrible, CPU is bunching up and leaving shooters open.

The CPU teammates are incapable of switching on double screens and only switch when you manage to get around the screen and keep defending your guy but you get penalized for not switching to opposing center for no reason.

We need defensive settings in MyCareer not having them is a major problem!! The A.I. wouldn't be so dumb and the mode would actually be more fun. Overall MyCareer is unplayable and a ****ty version of 2K basketball. At the end of the day I just want to play basketball.

[Masai]

The community and 2K make this harder than it needs to be, their can SEPARATE defensive functionality for each mode (MyCareer, Rec, PNO etc.)


but instead they have global defensive settings were everything is tied in together and modes that are supposed to be NBA sims become arcade as soon as the Park community complains about their mode..

[ksuttonjr76]

Quote: Originally Posted by Masai

The community and 2K make this harder than it needs to be, their can SEPARATE defensive functionality for each mode (MyCareer, Rec, PNO etc.) but instead they have global defensive settings were everything is tied in together and modes that are supposed to be NBA sims become arcade as soon as the Park community complains about their mode..

What be killing me about the Park players (and no disrespect intended), the mode is ALREADY arcade like. I dabbled in the mode on NBA 2K20, and admittedly...it's fun. I don't have anything against the mode. However, I viewing the mode as a "sim" player, and even I can accept the outrageous stats simply because it's Park. I'm no tryhard, but I can put up some crazy numbers here and there. What blows my mind is what I consider be "crazy" numbers, the diehard players would consider the game broken. Broken! That's wild to me.

[Guard-ian]

I think they should separate NBA gameplay from the "Myplayer/MyTeam" gameplay....

I think every year NBA gameplay is a little bit less realistic due to all these arcade stuff added to please the masses... let's do that, but please, keep also NBA gameplay relasitic at least in their own modes like MyNBA...

Now with next-gen tech and engine there is a new opportunity to make a difference, I know VC team can do it, they just have to separate a little bit MYTeam and MyCareer stuff from MyNBA...

Speaking aboyut defense, definitly we nee more love on that end of the floor, the easy blowby has been one of the main issues for me this year, along with the % of contact layups that went in... besides post game should have some more love and not make it unusable just with people standing hands up...

I want to believe! ;-)

[jyoung]

It's no coincidence IMO that the best overall 2K games on the previous generation of consoles (2K16 > 2K17 > 2K19) had the best overall defense.

And the the worst overall 2K games (2K18 > 2K21 > 2K15) had the worst overall defense.

When you feel like you have just as good a chance of getting a stop by switching as far away from the ball as possible and setting your controller down on the floor as you do by clicking onto the nearest defender and guarding the ball manually, then there are some serious problems with the game's offense/defense balancing act, as there were in those three worst games ('18, '21, '15).

It doesn't help us that 2K still refuse to let the right people test their game before it launches.

They should've been bringing in dribble heads like Steezo and BP every year to try and find all the glitchy moves before the game launches instead of letting those guys race each other from release day forward to see who can break the game the fastest--which usually happens by the end of the first week, at the earliest, or by the finish of the first month, at the latest.

One of the reasons that 2K16 was the undisputed GOAT on the previous gen was because it actually had its biggest gameplay exploit/glitch patched mid-cycle:

2K15 = 7-foot demigod glitch
2K16 = full court breakstarter passes
2K17 = walking the sideline/baseline to trigger fouls + brick wall knockdowns
2K18 = snatchbacks + blowbys
2K19 = protect ball button glitch + dpadding to quickly change direction off-ball
2K20 = tweening up the court + shove button cheese
2K21 = speedboost glitch

The only other exploit/glitch on that list to get patched mid-year was the shove button cheese in 2K20.

So if 2K's going to continue this pattern of not properly policing and maintaining their game after it launches, then they need to do a much, much, MUCH better job of testing it before it releases. IRL security and tech companies will contract hackers to find the loopholes and weak points in their software, and 2K needs to start setting up those types of NDA playtest dates with each of the main modes' top cheesers (Ante-Up, MyTeam, Pro-Am) instead of letting all these viral influencers continue to worm their way through the community, post-release, and ruin the game every year for the people who just want to play some fair and friendly cyber hoops.

[jyoung]

And please start making all these point guards pay for their bad decision making and poor ball control.

I've lost count of how many times this year a PG has dribbled the ball through my defender's hand/body, but that number is definitely in the hundreds, if not the thousands.

Plays like this need to result in loose balls, at worst, and turnovers, at best:

Spoiler

PGs in 2K21 will just come down the floor and punch in the same dial-a-combo all game long like it's their homegirl's phone number because they have ZERO fear of the defender's ability to disrupt their dribble spam.

The ball handler should need to have some SPACE before he's able to get fancy with his dribbles. But 2K21 has these Ed Bighead PGs looking at every lockdown like they're Casper the Friendly Defender.

2K21 is out here protecting these bad apples' dribble moves like the courts are out there protecting out-of-line officers' unjustifiable actions. End qualified immunity in 2022, and end ball handler immunity in 2K22.

[MrWrestling3]

I feel like the growing trend in 2K has been to increasingly market to what makes them the most money, and that would be the micro transaction heavy modes (e.g. MyTeam,Park,etc.).

While this makes perfect sense from a financial prospective, I think it does have a detrimental effect on the core gameplay by introducing a "power creep" effect where the game allows players to perform in an increasingly more arcade like manner to keep them interested in the grind(and the spending of money via micros) which in turn increasingly throws fundamental game balance out of whack, and even more so in modes which are not micro transaction dependent.

[EccentricMeat]

If 2K split the game into two different gameplay bases (“Sim” for offline play and “Competitive” for the online arcade crowd), and could patch/tune these two bases separately, it would go a very long way in fixing the issues with conflicting feedback from offline and online players.

“Sim” could have realistic defense, fouls, and shooting that doesn’t rely on green-or-miss mechanics; “Competitive” could have the dribble spam, defensive turnstiles, and the green-or-miss mechanics. When online players complain about issues against other players 2K can independently tweak the “Competitive” base without effecting the “Sim” base, and vice versa.

Offline modes would allow you to choose if you want to play Sim or Competitive, online modes would be Competitive only except for online MyNBA which would give the commissioner the choice.