NBA 2k12 and the V.I.P. System...Does NBA 2k12 Dream of Electric Sheep? - Galarius's Blog

Galarius's Blog

NBA 2k12 and the V.I.P. System...Does NBA 2k12 Dream of Electric Sheep?

Posted on October 7, 2011 at 04:44 PM.

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Ever since NFL2k5, 2k Sports have been the pioneers of one of the most underutilized innovations in videogaming history...V.I.P.

It wasn't until last year that I think 2k got the V.I.P. system to a point that is very close to perfect.Other than the 'backcourt' glitch where my V.I.P.'s would pass backcourt 3 or 4 times a game, the occasional back and forth passing, and sometimes holding the ball until shot clock was winding down, I had the most memorable and unpredictable games in my sports gaming history.None of these glitches happened enough to cause serious problems for me, and in the case of the backcourt I simply turned backcourt off(how many backcourts do you actually see in an average NBA game anyways?)....I haven't played a game yet against a V.I.P. profile this year, but hopefully this weekend I will be playing many.

One fairly unique thing I have been doing since NFL 2k5 was to create 'team specific' VIP's...That is, profiles that I only use for one specific team.The idea is to get the play styles and playcalling as close to the teams methods as possible..Or at least my version of what I think their methods are...It seems like 2k has gone a step further this year in the 'stock' A.I. and I get a diffrent feel against different opponents, which is great because I expect the VIP system to be even better as well.Between the stock logic, coach's profiles,sliders, and(if using) VIP there are 4 layers of A.I. that are affecting CPU play...Fantastic! No other sports game offers this level of customization.

A few years ago 2k had the option to download VIP profiles from player's online play.Last year I think this option was not there, but hopefully(although I kinda doubt it) they have brought it back this year.That way you can play against your friends or other players virtual identity profiles as well(which would be great, because the process of building a profile, let alone 10-15 of them, is a lot of work)As Chip Douglas once quipped"The possibilities are endless"

..And indeed the possibilities of HOW you can use VIP are more than meets the eye.Here are the different ways that VIP can be applied.Later I will put forth some ideas of how I think VIP could be expanded for even greater cusomization.

1)Straight up CPU opponent in 5 vs 5 gameplay....You control every player and simply assign your main(or other profile you have created) to control the team you are playing against.As with all VIP features, you can ONLY use in Exhibition games...Which kinda blows, but I basically just do tournamnets this way and write down certain results in a notebook.Results of gameplay will record into the VIP profile you are playing with, which will further your statistics and tendencies, effectively evolving you VIP

2)5 vs 5 with a VIP opponent AND a VIP team member...I don't think too many people know about this one, but in addition to palying against a VIP profile, you can also assign a vIP to YOUR team in the options screen where you also assign the opponent team VIP..This is not the same as the profile you see at the team select screen, that is the profile you already have assigned.This is a profile you can assign to play with you against the CPU, effectively putting a virtual human on your team.You can assign the same profile you are already using, or choose a different one if you have several as I do.One thing about using this method.Your results and tendencies will not 'record' to your profile if you have a VIP team member.I don't know why this is, but it will not.But it is a lot of fun...You also need to 'lock' onto a position for this to work, and you will be able to tell it is working because you will see 2 guys on your team with colored circles under them....Some games i played this way when I was locked onto the PG position had the CPU guys passing back to me too much.I got by this by making sure I called plays, or simply not playing as the PG.You can lock onto any position in the controller settings.

3)Player Lock..as with above, results of playwer lock games will NOT record to your profile.You may go and save and it will save, but when you go to VIP viewer and look you will see that any games you play this way didi not record and eveolve your profile further.Basically you are controlling one guy on the team and the CPU is controlled by whatever VIP profile you assigned to it.

4)Coach Mode...While you can simply play a game of coach mode, it is far better to assign a VIP profile to your team in the options screen(at Exhibition game options)and also assign player lock to a position you want your profile to control..You can swith the player lock anytime during game if you want the profile controlling a different player ...You will see one guy on the team doing crazy stuff and generally being more 'human' while you coach your way to victory!YAY!

5)Watch Mode:Just what it says...assign a VIP to each team in options window, put your controller in the middle and simply sit back and watch your virtual identity profiles duke it out

I will definitely say that you need diffrent slider sets for the different methods described here...When playing regular '5 vs 5', you are going to have sliders that work great for that but will need to have another for say coach mode, another for watch mode....The first 3 methods will work with sliders that are the same , or at least pretty close, but spectator mode and coach mode will need to be a bit more modded.

In the future I hope 2k will introduce a system where you record VIPs that will record individual players..If I need to use player lock to do that I would be ok with that.Then I would like to take a profile and assign it too every single player/position on both my team and also the opponent.It would be like having 10 humans playing at once.Also, definitely bring back the ability to download othehr profiles form the internets, if they didn't do so already(Haven't checked that yet to see if they did)...I would also like too see more than the 'top 5' plays you like to use displayed and tracked in your profile.It should be more like top 10, or top 15 plays, and you should be able to see percentages on how much you call them in your VIP Viewer.

Now to get started on more VIP creation..Let's see..Jordan, Bird, Magic, Hakeem, Penny, Zo, Isiah, Kemp, Malone, Dr J...whew!Lots of work to do...Another thing I might mention is play your 1st 5 games aginst mid to low level teams when creating your VIP..You want your early 5 vs 5 games to have a good 'base' logic.That way when you play against them they will be tough!Gradually increase the level of teams you are playing against and this will work great.Trust me, the CPU will be a lot more fun to play against, and also a bit more 'fair' when playing VIP opponents.