Every NBA2K Rating

[KarateLemonLime]

https://www.nba2kindex.shop/

What my website is made for
I decided to make this thread to show my work trying to database every single NBA player's 2K rating on my website. This includes attributes, tendencies, hot zones and badges. Instead of a website like 2kratings only having the ratings up for a short amount of time and excluding tendencies. My website will hold every player from every NBA2K game without being deleted.

Why I am posting about it
I wanted to spread the word about my website so that more NBA2K players can use my website for whatever purposes they may have. Not to mention, I have a lot of NBA2Ks to buy so more people looking at my website could help in the future. I will also be updating this thread frequently to show updates to the process.

What I want the future of my website to be
I want to have every player databased and caught up with the current NBA2K so I can database by patches rather than by games. I'd also like to create a forum and voting system for people who like giving player ratings, a way to unofficially expand NBA2K. I'd also like to make quality of life changes to my website including better graphics and showcasing NBA2K youtuber who use my website.

How you can help
Give me suggestions/critics and look at the website. Thats about it lol. I don't have a real way to make money using this website yet, so stay tuned for that if that's how you want to help. Hope you guys enjoy. Also, I'm sorry for grammar mistakes, I got work to do lol.

Current Content V1
NBA2K Games Completed: NBA 2K3, NBA 2K7, NBA2K23, NBA 2K24
Quality of Life: Searchable Players (work in progress)
Ads: None
Affiliates: Amazon
Fun Fact: Takes me around 100+ hours to do just one game (I did it by hand)

Edit 1: I made an OCR code in Java Eclipse to save my hands. Acquired Ebay Partnership*. ESPN NBA Basketball is work in progress.
Edit 2: NBA2K 24 has been added to the website
Edit 3: Made the website more visually appealing while also adding a primitive search player feature and ratings for NBA2K23

[vetmin]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

Awesome project. I've long wanted something like this as a resource for retro roster making. Maybe consider monetizing it with unobtrusive ads? You'd certainly get a lot of 'ad impressions' from me!

[jk31]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

sounds great. are you doing it manually or do you have found a way to extract the rating data somewhat automatically?

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

Awesome project. I've long wanted something like this as a resource for retro roster making. Maybe consider monetizing it with unobtrusive ads? You'd certainly get a lot of 'ad impressions' from me!

Thank you so much! As it stands now, I can’t put ads on my website since I don’t meet the requirements to apply for any ad networks that are not scams or have terrible ads. I haven’t found an ad network I can be apart of that keeps my viewers safe and keeps them having a good experience (while also not scamming me lol). If you know any good ones, let me know!

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

sounds great. are you doing it manually or do you have found a way to extract the rating data somewhat automatically?

For 2k3 and 2k7, I did those by hand and that was a pain in more ways than one. I actually finished making a program that can help speed up the process and stops my hand from dying earlier today. It’s not the most complicated program ever but it writes down the values faster than I can. I’m not the best at coding so I have no idea how to look at game files or anything (plus I’m not sure if that’s legal or not). It’s still a very slow process with the progress I’ve made but it should narrow down the times from 3+ months to maybe a month or two with my current schedule.

[Real2KInsider]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

For 2k3 and 2k7, I did those by hand and that was a pain in more ways than one. I actually finished making a program that can help speed up the process and stops my hand from dying earlier today. It’s not the most complicated program ever but it writes down the values faster than I can. I’m not the best at coding so I have no idea how to look at game files or anything (plus I’m not sure if that’s legal or not). It’s still a very slow process with the progress I’ve made but it should narrow down the times from 3+ months to maybe a month or two with my current schedule.

This is essentially what I do in my spreadsheet (logging the default attributes, along with my updates).

(I don't have any files that could help this process, the older games were all on older computers).

It's definitely a slow-burn and not something I would recommend knocking out in a few days. A passion project you pick at slowly rather than something you try to rush up (because I'm not sure if there's much demand for older games).

You will have a nightmare by the time you get to advanced gens because the data explodes. There's something like 40 Attributes and 80 Tendencies, before even factoring Badges. The league also expanded so between Free Agents, Two-Ways, etc we're talking about 800 players instead of the 400 or so you're doing in the 2K3-10 era.

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

This is essentially what I do in my spreadsheet (logging the default attributes, along with my updates).

(I don't have any files that could help this process, the older games were all on older computers).

It's definitely a slow-burn and not something I would recommend knocking out in a few days. A passion project you pick at slowly rather than something you try to rush up (because I'm not sure if there's much demand for older games).

You will have a nightmare by the time you get to advanced gens because the data explodes. There's something like 40 Attributes and 80 Tendencies, before even factoring Badges. The league also expanded so between Free Agents, Two-Ways, etc we're talking about 800 players instead of the 400 or so you're doing in the 2K3-10 era.

Thank you for your thoughts! It makes me feel a lot better that there is no faster way to do the process (and also makes me feel worse lol). I’m ready for the grind, it’s a passion project built for the community. If I ever get caught up maybe I could add community rosters and other resources. I appreciate the knowledge!

[vetmin]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

This is essentially what I do in my spreadsheet (logging the default attributes, along with my updates).

(I don't have any files that could help this process, the older games were all on older computers).

It's definitely a slow-burn and not something I would recommend knocking out in a few days. A passion project you pick at slowly rather than something you try to rush up (because I'm not sure if there's much demand for older games).

You will have a nightmare by the time you get to advanced gens because the data explodes. There's something like 40 Attributes and 80 Tendencies, before even factoring Badges. The league also expanded so between Free Agents, Two-Ways, etc we're talking about 800 players instead of the 400 or so you're doing in the 2K3-10 era.

Thank you for your thoughts! It makes me feel a lot better that there is no faster way to do the process (and also makes me feel worse lol). I’m ready for the grind, it’s a passion project built for the community. If I ever get caught up maybe I could add community rosters and other resources. I appreciate the knowledge!

I would actually advise holding off on the advanced gens for now because there are indeed much faster methods for extracting data from them (using PC-based roster-editing tools). For instance, if we subtract game installation time (like if I had 2K20 through 2K24 simultaneously installed on my PC), it shouldn’t take more than a workday to at least have complete and ready-to-post vitals, attributes, tendencies, and badges for all rostered players on all five games. Expanding the scope to free agents and/or additional types of data (like sigs, accessories, etc.) would add an hour or two or three to the process but nothing drastic.

I only have a lot of hands-on experience with the tool for 2K20-24, but for 2K14, if I’m not mistaken, you could knock out the whole player pool (including free agents) in under an hour. Maybe ditto for 2K13, since I think the 2K14 tool (made by someone who is now one of the 2K devs) has a 2K13 version as well.

If you asked me, “Would I be able to save a ton of time extracting roster from [WHICHEVER NBA 2K] using a PC-based tool?” …then here’s my answer for each 2K since 2K10:

10: Probably
11: Probably
12: Probably
13: Definitely (with a TON of time saved), assuming the 2K13 tool is essentially the same as its 2K14 counterpart
14: Definitely (with a TON of time saved)
15: Not sure
16: Not sure
17: Probably
18: Not sure
19: Probably
20: Definitely
21: Definitely
22: Definitely
23: Definitely (with a TON of time saved)
24: Definitely (with a TON of time saved)

It’s the 2K9-and-earlier era that I really haven’t even glanced at. Even there though, if no tools were available, could you OCR screenshots of the in-game tables?

P.S. While I know there can be discrepancies between gens in terms of roster data, since sometimes certain attributes, tendencies, or badges might be on one gen but missing from the other, I don’t think it’s anything egregious (and if you wanted you could just do those specific areas by hand and automate everything else).

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

I would actually advise holding off on the advanced gens for now because there are indeed much faster methods for extracting data from them (using PC-based roster-editing tools). For instance, if we subtract game installation time (like if I had 2K20 through 2K24 simultaneously installed on my PC), it shouldn’t take more than a workday to at least have complete and ready-to-post vitals, attributes, tendencies, and badges for all rostered players on all five games. Expanding the scope to free agents and/or additional types of data (like sigs, accessories, etc.) would add an hour or two or three to the process but nothing drastic.

I only have a lot of hands-on experience with the tool for 2K20-24, but for 2K14, if I’m not mistaken, you could knock out the whole player pool (including free agents) in under an hour. Maybe ditto for 2K13, since I think the 2K14 tool (made by someone who is now one of the 2K devs) has a 2K13 version as well.

If you asked me, “Would I be able to save a ton of time extracting roster from [WHICHEVER NBA 2K] using a PC-based tool?” …then here’s my answer for each 2K since 2K10:

10: Probably
11: Probably
12: Probably
13: Definitely (with a TON of time saved), assuming the 2K13 tool is essentially the same as its 2K14 counterpart
14: Definitely (with a TON of time saved)
15: Not sure
16: Not sure
17: Probably
18: Not sure
19: Probably
20: Definitely
21: Definitely
22: Definitely
23: Definitely (with a TON of time saved)
24: Definitely (with a TON of time saved)

It’s the 2K9-and-earlier era that I really haven’t even glanced at. Even there though, if no tools were available, could you OCR screenshots of the in-game tables?

P.S. While I know there can be discrepancies between gens in terms of roster data, since sometimes certain attributes, tendencies, or badges might be on one gen but missing from the other, I don’t think it’s anything egregious (and if you wanted you could just do those specific areas by hand and automate everything else).

I actually started using OCR today since I'm doing the older games before the newer ones. I'd love to know where I can find the tools to make the process go faster and more accurate (I'm perfectly fine with doing by hand just not every single game). My OCR program doesn't do much and it still takes tons of time to do, probably because I'm not good at coding lol. I appreciate this information, I feel like it will save me headaches for down the road!

[vetmin]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

I actually started using OCR today since I'm doing the older games before the newer ones. I'd love to know where I can find the tools to make the process go faster and more accurate (I'm perfectly fine with doing by hand just not every single game). My OCR program doesn't do much and it still takes tons of time to do, probably because I'm not good at coding lol. I appreciate this information, I feel like it will save me headaches for down the road!

This forum is the main place people discuss old 2Ks on PC (and where they discussed them when they were new): https://forums.nba-live.com/viewforum.php?f=107

Even though it says NBA Live in the URL it is focused on basketball games in general (mostly 2K of course at this point). A lot of old tools are also available via the Downloads section: https://forums.nba-live.com/downloads.php

[jk31]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

This forum is the main place people discuss old 2Ks on PC (and where they discussed them when they were new): https://forums.nba-live.com/viewforum.php?f=107

Even though it says NBA Live in the URL it is focused on basketball games in general (mostly 2K of course at this point). A lot of old tools are also available via the Downloads section: https://forums.nba-live.com/downloads.php

but keep in mind that 2k9 was the first nba 2k game that was released for pc. so for older games there are no tools available, as the games were console only.

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

This forum is the main place people discuss old 2Ks on PC (and where they discussed them when they were new): https://forums.nba-live.com/viewforum.php?f=107

Even though it says NBA Live in the URL it is focused on basketball games in general (mostly 2K of course at this point). A lot of old tools are also available via the Downloads section: https://forums.nba-live.com/downloads.php

Thank you so much, I'll be using this for the future once I get done with some of the older 2K games and when I get the funds to do so. It already takes a decent amount of money just keeping the website up, but I'll get to the new gens when I can. Thank you again!

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

but keep in mind that 2k9 was the first nba 2k game that was released for pc. so for older games there are no tools available, as the games were console only.

Thank you for letting me know! I'll focus on the old ones first!

[KarateLemonLime]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

I've been fooling around with the tools that you linked me, but I don't see how I could be done with NBA2k24 in less than a month let alone an hour lol. I may have missed something, but I can convert the tendencies, badges and hot zones somewhat easily using NBA2k Tools (it'll still take over a week by themselves). When I try using the same method for attributes, the numbers are messed up completely. I tried using file explorer but I couldn't find a file that stores the ratings or anything else. I feel like I'm overlooking something trying to convert the data into a spreadsheet format. I don't mind the process taking a while, I just want to make sure I'm the resources I know of to it's highest abilities.

[jk31]

Re: Every NBA2K Rating

I've been fooling around with the tools that you linked me, but I don't see how I could be done with NBA2k24 in less than a month let alone an hour lol. I may have missed something, but I can convert the tendencies, badges and hot zones somewhat easily using NBA2k Tools (it'll still take over a week by themselves). When I try using the same method for attributes, the numbers are messed up completely. I tried using file explorer but I couldn't find a file that stores the ratings or anything else. I feel like I'm overlooking something trying to convert the data into a spreadsheet format. I don't mind the process taking a while, I just want to make sure I'm the resources I know of to it's highest abilities.

with the 2k roster tool for nba 2k24 you can mass export all player data simultaneously. it gets exported in some kind of XML format that you then just need to get into a spreadsheet format. so as soon as your template for that is ready, its really a thing of a few minutes. setting up the template though will take some time. and on previous 2ks you werent able to multiselect all players at once, so here you would need to do it player by player.