I was watching a video by Da Czar about OTFC Offense and realized once more that we are at a point with the 2k series, where barely anyone has any knowledge about which options actually work and which options do what exactly.
For example in his video he states that as soon as you turn ACE off on offense it means you cannot set the offensive tempo and offensive rebound behavior anymore. And it was like that for years. I was like "wow how can sth like this be for years and nobody actually knows about it if you're not watching a video in 2k23 where the developer states it in a side sentence".
The same when I read the collection of Q&A with Da Czar where he stated that soft hedge results in drop defense. How can anyone know that? The text in the game states "the defender drops down to defend against the drive" for "NO HEDGE" while for "SOFT HEDGE" it states something different. So without any additional knowledge just by looking at the information the game gives us, anyone who wants to achieve drop defense will set the pnr defense to "NO HEDGE".
So maybe it is a good time to just start a collection of knowledge about all the settings in the game to get some kind of database where people can look stuff up. I am talking about all the lets call it gameplan options that we have, so stuff like Coach Settings, the on the fly stuff (shrink the floor, junk, etc.), the defensive settings and so on.
So lets add together our knowledge and discuss it.
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1. Coach Settings:
ACE: If offense is turned off, Offensive Tempo and Offensive Rebounding (OTF Menu) cannot be changed anymore and will be set to "AUTO".
2. Offensive Settings
3. Defensive Settings
On-Ball Coverage: All seem to work.
Off-Ball Coverage:
Leave Him: Does not work
Gap, Moderate, Tight: According to
alabamarob they do work, though there is only a small difference
Pick and Roll Handler:
Go under: works
Go over: works
ICE: only works very rarely
Switch: Does not work consistently. Most of the times it has to be triggered by holding "A".
Pick and Roll Hedge
No Hedge: ?
Soft Hedge: = Drop defense, though going by the description and basketball theory, it shouldn't be.
Hard Hedge: ?
Catch Hedge: ?
Double: ?
Force Side: Works as intended
Drive Help Rules: (all seem to work as intended)
Automatic: Does not really mean AUTOMATIC but HELP AND ROTATION (according to Da Czar)*
Help and No Rotation: First help triggers, no rotation afterwards*
No Help: No Helpside, everyone stays with their man
*from my experience the help rotation only triggers as soon as the ballhandler sets a foot inside the paint. So to achieve the earliest rotations possible, "FORCE MIDDLE" will get besser results, as the ballhandler touches the paint earlier than with "FORCE BASELINE".
Pick and Roll Help Rules
Same as with DRIVE HELP RULES
Double Team Perimeter:
Double on Drive: Works*
Double on Catch: Basically works, but only if a players receives a pass in the front half of the court. Meaning a Point Guard won't get doubled until he receives the first pass in the front half.
*basically a good way to make up for bad/slow help side rotation and lack of the "PRE-ROTATE" setting. Somehwat aggressive but you can lock down the paint.
Pre-Rotate: Does not work
On the Fly Menu Settings
I basically do not know anything about all these settings. What do they do? Do they work?
4. Coaching Sliders
Help Defense: ?