40 Fixes for NBA 2K11 (Part II)

Feature Article

Submitted on: 05/28/2010 by Kushmir Hassan

Kushmir Hassan detailed his first 10 gameplay fixes many moons ago, and here now are the next 10 fixes that would put the NBA 2K11 gameplay completely over the top. Check back in the near future for fixes 21-30.

11. Pump Fake

I have been a NBA 2K fan since 2K2, and since that time the pump fake has always been an overpowered weapon that can be used against defenders. While it can certainly force a defender out of a proper defensive stance and make a drive to the basket less difficult, rarely should we see defenders leave their feet on the perimeter. In a nutshell, I would like to see defenders fall victim to the pump fake far less, but I would also like to see more of a risk-reward structure regarding the pump fake as well.

Users on Superstar difficulty and above have become used to the fact that CPU defenders are able to poke the ball away during a pump fake. However, most online users are unable to strip the ball like the CPU defenders. For this reason, there needs to be other risks when using a pump fake. Scorers that "pump and drive" are frequently called for traveling violations because they shuffle their feet. Perhaps this aspect should become a reality in NBA 2K as well. If a defender does not fall for the pump fake, I also want to see him sometimes crowd the offensive player and take away his dribble -- perhaps even animations where pump fakes result in jump-ball situations would be beneficial. Lastly, there is a trend online where cheesers get behind the 3-point line and rapidly pump fake until they draw a shooting foul. Needless to say, 2K10 needs to be the last version where that is a passable strategy.

12. Make the Online Experience Feel Like the Offline Experience

At this point, the pursuit should be to make everything that is available offline also available online. However, it also means the developers have to make the experience feel the same both offline and online. As of now, the online package is still spotty at times when it comes to performance issues, but beyond that, it is the lack of options that hurts it most. You cannot set your own online rotations, play ranked games of longer than five minutes, set your playbooks, etc. Simply put, too many of the things that make the game great are not available online.

13. Pick and Roll Defense

The pick and roll has been relatively unbalanced for long enough, and hopefully steps are being taken to tone it down just a bit. Along with a greater percentage of deflected passes, one of the things I would really like to see are varied, configurable ways to defend it. Give us the ability to choose how we defend each pick and roll situation. By allowing us to hedge, have defenders switch or fight over the top of the initial screen, users might be able to better defend the bread and butter play in the NBA.

14. Assignment Basketball

Who else is tired of watching their power forwards or centers let the guy they are guarding run freely up the floor for an easy dunk or layup? What is with the frequency of the post defenders helping to guard the point guard at the top of the key in transition, which thereby allows the opposing big to slip behind the defense for easy baskets?

Check it out here: http://community.2ksports.com/commun...ediaid=1198858

While deflected passes out of bounds will counter much of this, we need to see our players better cover their assignments. We love help defense, but there are too many instances where a player in the lane who has a defender between him and the basket will still draw help defenders, which then allows an easy pass into the paint. This doe not make sense. Here is to a better, more logical defensive rotation in the future.

I have included another example of what I'm talking about here: http://community.2ksports.com/commun...ediaid=1181763 (watch Elton Brand leave his man to guard a player in the lane who is already being defended)

15. More Shooting Fouls

Users mash buttons to get blocks and steals without any regard for fouls. This needs to stop. The blocks-to-fouls ratio is horrible. Button-mashing defenders simply make too many miraculous defensive plays (particularly in one-on-one situations) and this is unrealistic. The gameplay needs more shooting fouls, and consistently whistling these block and steal attempts is where it should start. Shot blocking should be entrusted to the true shot blockers with good blocking ratings.

It would also be great to see more help-side blocks because these are far more frequent in real life than on-ball blocks. As much as we love to watch replays of LeBron’s block on Jason Richardson or Tayshaun’s famous rejection of Reggie Miller, these are miracle plays that should happen about as frequently as half-court shots.

Miracle "strips" are in the same boat. Players below a certain steal or hands rating should be whistled consistently when they try to strip a player attempting a shot. These necessary changes will dramatically increase the amount of shooting fouls, which the gameplay needs.

16. Balanced, More Responsive Double Teams

I am always puzzled when users are not given the ability to toy with the double-team settings online. I do remember how this was abused in past versions of the game, but here is the thing, I have also watched gameplay evolve to the point were it punishes us when we attempt behaviors that would be unwise in reality (at least for the most part). Simply put, punish the excessive use of double teams with fouls.

Reaching fouls should be called at an extremely high rate when people excessively double team. In addition, fatigue should be a factor. Constant double teaming should result in players tiring at the same rate they would if they were sprinting. Consequences like these will go a long way towards resolving cheesy double-team tactics, but at the same time, they will not limit users who do not seek to circumvent the realistic way to play the game.

It is also harder to pass out of double teams now. However, this tweak only rewards cheesers more. While we should have to make quick decisions when passing out of a double team, if there is an open man, getting him the ball should be relatively easy. On the defensive side of things, one also has to also wonder why there is not a one-button command to double team the ball with the closest defender. It is virtually a necessity.

17. Reaching Fouls

Yes, these are still an issue after all this time, especially online. The fact that reaching fouls still are not called at a frequent enough rate is perplexing and hampers gameplay. Calling plays is too often an exercise in futility because we leave ourselves a sitting duck for button mashers. The NBA game is one of position defense and playing the passing lanes, not poking away for on-ball steals. Gamers like the animations where "reachers" get out of defensive position (I would love to see more of them), but nothing will resolve this for good like calling frequent and consistent fouls.

18. Full-Court Press

Here is another one of the online cheese tactics that we have seen for too long. If you are constantly full-court pressing, your team should be gassed. There should also be more reaching and contact fouls to dissuade behaviors like this. Finally, the players that receive the inbounds pass should aggressively come back to the ball instead of passively allowing defenders to get between them and the inbounds pass for easy steals.

19. Varied Difficulty Levels in Ranked Lobbies

Users who play on higher difficulties want to play ranked games on the settings that they are comfortable with. This should be an option in the future.

20. Shooting Percentages

Hypothetically speaking, this one should be easy to tweak. While I am sure the high field-goal percentages in the game have a lot to do with the fact that a default quarter is five minutes, I happen to think accurate field-goal percentages are much more important. You can routinely see field-goal percentages in the 70 percent range for a half, which is obviously too high. More specifically, I think the field-goal percentages in the paint are what need to really go down. While the paint is closest to the basket, this is also where the defense is the most physical and challenging, and the gameplay should clue you into this fact.

Since five-minute quarters will not yield realistic scores anyway, displaying realistic field-goal percentages should be a higher priority.

NBA 2K11 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 richmo @ 05/28/10 01:10 PM

I think only admins can see the first link:

http://www.operationsports.com/feature.php?id=1033

There it is for us peasants.

# 2 jeebs9 @ 05/28/10 01:24 PM

Chris....do you know that there are other risk when pump faking? You can cause the steal animation about 80% of the time. If your really tight on the offensive player. All you have to do is press L2 and Steal just before they are pump faking. And it will either be a steal or off their body and out of bounds.

Also I haven't experience any of those pump fake for a 3 users yet. And I've been playing way before release day...lol Sad I know.

# 3 bearschicago @ 05/28/10 01:25 PM

Everything he said here is on my wishlist: http://www.operationsports.com/forum...shlist-54.html

I agree with him but why limit it to 40? I can think of hundred if not thousands of things to fix for 2K11 if I really put the time in.

# 4 bearschicago @ 05/28/10 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeebs9


	Chris....do you know that there are other risk when pump faking? You can cause the steal animation about 80% of the time. If your really tight on the offensive player. All you have to do is press L2 and Steal just before they are pump faking. And it will either be a steal or off their body and out of bounds.

But CPU rarely does this. I also want the CPU to utilize the 'leaning towards defender to draw a foul' animation when the user is jumping all over the place playing undisciplined defense.

# 5 jeebs9 @ 05/28/10 01:35 PM

He was talking about user vs user...Not CPU vs Users.

# 6 jeebs9 @ 05/28/10 01:57 PM

I do agree with number 19...Alot!!

Reaching Fouls is pretty hard thing. You don't want it to for every missed time steal there should be a foul called. That would be too frustrating for the casual gamer. I think these things should be adjustable with sliders. But the failed steal attempt animations are a perfect counter for button smashers. I totally agree on your point that we need more of those animations

About the double teams....I think the biggest problem is really that 2k didn't really give controls of what you can do to beat them. I don't think many people know that you can move while in a double team. Or even dribble out of one. But for the most part. When my friends jam on the steal button. They are more likely to get a reach in foul.

# 7 Boilerbuzz @ 05/28/10 02:16 PM

LOL. Really? Make online same as offline? How about keep it limited. Cheesers abound. Get rid of them and I'm sure they would love to keep both the exact same.

Good list though man.

# 8 NINJAK2 @ 05/28/10 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeebs9


	I do agree with number 19...Alot!! Reaching Fouls is pretty hard thing. You don't want it to for every missed time steal there should be a foul called. That would be too frustrating for the casual gamer. I think these things should be adjustable with sliders. But the failed steal attempt animations are a perfect counter for button smashers. I totally agree on your point that we need more of those animations .

If they based it off a players combined defensive awareness/steal rating average I'd be ok with it. For example if someone is jabbing on the steal button relentlessly with a low rated defender he should be called for a foul every failed attempt or every other failed attempt. The higher your rating the more leeway you get in that regard.

# 9 jeebs9 @ 05/28/10 02:25 PM

I don't know what level everyone plays on. But this has been my experience. If I press the steal button. And get a fail attempt animation. I would say about 90% of the time if I try again (and miss). I will get a foul called on me.

# 10 khaliib @ 05/28/10 02:56 PM

I'm playing right now to get my fix until NCAA comes out.

Something I didn't see on the list:
There needs to be a Strength rating that is based off of Height & Weight of players so the Shaq's/Howard's can really move player's in the "Post".

There needs to be a Power rating that determines a player's ability to exert force during contact (Pierce, Kobe, LeBron, D. Williams etc...) that allows them to play through that contact.

Smooth out or include setup steps/momentum into jumpshot (NCAA Basketball 10)

NBA inside Drive on Xbox had the perfect Block from Behind animation that's needed.

CH 2k8 Player Shoot around during Pre-game talk up.

NFL 2k5 type interviews with player's/coaches.

More pass variations (low spin bounce, one hand Shaq etc...)

# 11 BlackRome @ 05/28/10 04:00 PM

Allow Ranked Hall of Fame games. That will leave the cheesers on the superstar level.

# 12 BlackRome @ 05/28/10 09:23 PM

2k needs to take a look at their leader board. I often take a look at their shots selection . If you look at the last game the user played at the top of the leader board they normally score all of their points right under the rim. 2k8 had all but eliminated the abuse of the paint. They did it by making the block and steal in the paint more effective. I was ranked in the top 20 on 2k8. You did not see this type of abuse then.

Users learned you could not live in the paint. You also could disrupt the center running right down the middle.

All of that has been changed.

# 13 TheKasmar @ 05/28/10 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kushmir Hassan


	Calling plays is too often an exercise in futility because we leave ourselves a sitting duck for button mashers.

This has happend to me so many times online. Instead of calling a play, the steal spammer can move your offensive player all the way across the court without a foul call. Even when I haven't moved the left stick.

# 14 TUSS11 @ 05/29/10 07:14 AM

Adding to #16, A.I. teammates should react better when you're being double teamed. The players should come back to the ball to provide relief for the ball-handler.

# 15 Kushmir @ 05/29/10 10:15 AM

agreed Black Rome - but making steals and blocking EASY hurts too many other aspects of the game, feel me? i'm not a game developer but the number one issue is the ease that we can pass into the paint...the minute they add more defenders taking away post position and pass deflections out of bounds (because too many steals makes the game sloppy) 2K gets TONS better in my opinion. second, the "contact shots" animations are good as well..they've done alot to show the physicality in the painted area.

what i think makes it comes full circle? expanding the "hands up" defense animation to one that basically just makes the defender try to challenge the shot from any angle. this way we'll have an option for non shot blockers to try and bother offensive players without getting a high amount of foul calls.

this would finally allow us to play post defense alot better and would dissaude the "just get close to the basket and press shoot" mentality...because YOU GUESSED IT! an open 15 foot jump shot would have a higher chance of going in than dwight howard in the post with kendrick perkins draped all over him.

while sometimes (though not much) we could get hit with fouls, i'd love to see a TON of challenge shot animations that lower the chances of an offensive player converting. the closer the defender? THE BETTER and MORE EFFECTIVE THE ANIMATION.

here's an example of Jermaine O'Neal challenging Mareese Speights without fouling him. Even though there is light contact no foul is called. speights still converted but a shot like this should go in maybe 40% of the time...although speights is a one-dimensional good offensive player, the defender and his skill level and timing were good enough to make this low-percentage.

http://community.2ksports.com/commun...ediaid=1292497

the block button get abused waaay too much with players like ray allen, kobe bryant, jason kidd, rip hamilton and hell even ron artest who are solid defenders--but AREN'T shot blockers. they should get whistled regularly when they try to block shots. expanding our ability to challenge shots finally gives these guys their proper weapons/tools on defense. bruce bowen was the best perimeter defender in the NBA for a good five years and he was NOT a shot blocker...he moved his feet, crowded and bothered the hell out of scorers tho...and we need to see that in a SIM as good as NBA 2K.

@ TUSS11 - you couldn't be more CORRECT, we need players around a player being double-teamed and especially versus full court presses to be LOTS more aggressive coming back to the ball.

# 16 jonesha2000 @ 05/29/10 10:55 AM

#18 #18 and #18

I HATE the fact that the game lets the defense set up before you can inbound the ball against the press. And then when you inbound the ball you are sucked into the defender. I agree that running full court should severly punish the user by sucking energy just as if you are using the turbo button.

# 17 Kaanyr Vhok @ 05/29/10 07:14 PM

There needs to be more fouls but also more blocks. When you consider how often people try to score in the paint there really isnt that many blocks.

# 18 rp71284 @ 05/30/10 05:34 AM

Online play is a joke. It takes me & a buddy an hour at least to get a full My Crew game in. This is because either we both get booted, one of us gets booted, or the game we're in is full of 7'5" PG with 99 3-pt ratings.

2K needs to make it so cheesers have to at least play a bit realistically.

Oh and My Player needs some work too. You shouldn't start as a 40. Heck, if you were that bad, you'd never get invited into a camp. But they maybe need to make max rating for some positions too. A center should not have 99 3-pt or 99 speed. Just like a 5'7" PG would never have 99 dunk. Or if they don't put a max, make it so you can't edit those ratings. My Crew could be as fun as the EASL in NHL, but it was a big let down this year.

# 19 Phreezy P @ 05/30/10 02:09 PM

14,15 are the most needed to fix imo

# 20 luv_mist @ 05/31/10 06:44 AM

That was a good article about fixing those things that would put the game ahead. It's a great game that brings out the frustration in the simplest player. I will say that this title has left me more satisfied than the previous ones where I didn't desire to go back to those ones. This is more realistic minor the little nuances that aren't true enough to simulating reality.

I was playing my friend today. I couldn't explain to him why Shaq wasn't capable of block Carlos Boozer's shot when he was beat and out of position. Shaq was at a peak vert where his neck was about the same level as the net while they we a good 7-10 feet away from the basket. Discouraging when I mmanipulate a situation like that only to be rewarded with an unrealistic result.

Fouls aren't called enough and the hyperness of button mashing is t rewarded with the proper whistle enough either. They need to step up that game and cause players to improve their mental when they approach the game.

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