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

# 21 CavsTakeItAll @ 05/31/10 10:39 PM

I hate 14

# 22 Phreezy P @ 06/01/10 04:22 PM

Hey do you know when III is coming out? Im not rushing you just askin

# 23 Kingpage @ 06/03/10 05:35 AM

Its also so unrealistic how little point guards get treated when driving to the basket on this game, they get there shot blocked most of the time. People like Allen Iverson, Chris Paul, and others know how to avoid getting there shot blocked while going for a layup why not make it happen on NBA 2k11.

Also I see a lot of unreal things like the ball going through a defender when it clearly should have been a turnover, and player literally running through player for a layup like some type of hollow man

# 24 Kingpage @ 06/03/10 05:42 AM

there has to be a way to where you can control how your players shoot the ball so that if he makes the shot or misses its because of you. Some games I would shoot and make all my shots, and other games where I would miss all my shots and I swear I was pressing the button exactly the same way as when I made all my shots. Also on this game just because you are good at stealing the ball like chris paul does not mean he can do that all game against other Super Stars like D Wade or Allen Iverson its so fake.

# 25 theworm91 @ 06/03/10 05:46 AM

your right kingpage..also.. when small players lay it in underneath the basket.. the ball hits bottom side of the rim because of their short arms.

# 26 theworm91 @ 06/03/10 05:49 AM

there are also hook shots or jump shots that hits the back of the board.

# 27 theworm91 @ 06/03/10 06:07 AM

"TECHNICAL FOULS" this may make it more realistic/exciting. How? all players will have a "patience/sportsmanship" rating on the roster file.. then when a player with a low patience rating gets frustrated, fouled, pushed, hustled, etc. this player will start to react, complain, be more emotional to the referee or to its opponent..if this players frustration continues then this player may push, flagrant foul, fight or even trash talk its opponent or the referee which will lead to a technical foul. To avoid technical fouls you being the coach may substitute this players before they totally lose it. There will be noticeable signs but if you neglect them too much and the players frustration continues then it may result to a technical foul. there will also be an on-off switch in the rules menu if you don't want technical fouls being called in the game. - suggestion

# 28 theworm91 @ 06/03/10 06:17 AM

also fake passes and fake hand-out passes while posting

# 29 bonbonan @ 06/03/10 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theworm91


	also fake passes and fake hand-out passes while posting

Yeah it is quite fake but that's cool!

# 30 theworm91 @ 06/03/10 11:42 PM

I would also like to see MJ's tounge to stick out in dunks/layups or pre-dribble/drive. Also frequent gum chewing

# 31 theworm91 @ 06/03/10 11:46 PM

the Playoffs/Championship feels exactly like an exhibition match. I think this needs a lot of improvement too.

# 32 Boge @ 06/07/10 03:33 PM

What about the controls!? The momentum thing has killed the controls in this game, along with whatever auto defense is happening. Bring back the defensive crouch and get rid of the auto defend. It's like in 2K10, your player is guessing which player you mean to defend, and then you just find yourself out of position because the movement is terrible.

This is the biggest problem with 2K10.

# 33 Jackmouv @ 06/08/10 08:29 PM

So, I like a lot of the sentiment behind some of the issues, BUT...

First of all, every list (even half of another list) should begin with getting the servers running; I and the people I play with spend the better part of the nights we ATTEMPT to play, getting kicked out of more games than we play. It�s usually 30 minutes to an hour before we can get 8 guys in a game together, and I have yet to see a 10 man game run to completion with no one getting booted. Getting 10 players in a game should bare minimum.

As for the points that you raised, here are my comments. And keep in mind that I am an avid gamer, on and off line. I run leagues and have almost every online game made for PS3. Not that that makes me an expert, but I play a lot, am very familiar with the sport of basketball and get a lot of feedback from the over 500 players registered for my Basketball leagues.

11. Offline, I think the Pump Fake is just right for the vast majority of players. Except on both extremes, players with good hands should not be able to get stripped are much and opposite for players with bad hands.

Online, it�s up to you to not go for the pump fake and maintain your position. If you really watch basketball, big men that use the pump fake properly tend to have more success in the paint, you are closer to the basket and there is less reaction time so there is more guessing, except for players that have a quick jumping ability, they can afford to be a bit more patient.

12. Totally agree. Although, consider this: If they allowed you to change all the setting on ranked games, it would be hard to compare stats and rankings would be useless. On the other hand you can setup a private or custom game and change all the settings you want, but no ranked. I doubt you can have both worlds without having multiple ranking ladders, which would be pointless.

13. I�ll just say this: When you figure out how to stop a good pick and roll offense, there are millions waiting for you in the NBA as a coach. There are things that you can do to mitigate the damage, but that�s part of the game, figuring that out, and some time you just have to face the fact that you can�t stop something, now what? There might be a support group for people that played against MJ, Kobe, Stockton and Malone and Parker and Duncan. Hey, some things are just unstoppable, if you don�t know how to stop them. The key with the pick and role is organized help defense (not ZONE), and picking your poison. Are you going to stop Stockton (PG) or Malone (roller), you can�t focus on both. You have to stop (and when I say stop, I mean slow it down) it as a play, not as two players. But even it you know the theory on slowing it, it still takes execution.

14. First, that example you gave is a bad example. You can�t tell if they are playing zone or man, you also can�t tell if a double team was called. And for all we know, Brand was user controlled and chasing the ball. To me it seemed like Brand want trying to pick up Garnett, who would be his man in man coverage and #11 should have rotated to guard the paint, but like I said, you can�t really tell what was going on and what was called.

I do know that on defense, if you don�t guard your man correctly, there is always going to be some help that rotates. You can�t just say, �That�s your assignment, PERIOD�. No one would ever score in basketball if there were no defensive breakdowns, which is the purpose of running offensive plays, to get favorable matchups and break down the defense. �Watch Elton Brand leave his man to guard a player in the lane who is already being defended�, it�s called a double team, happens a lot in basketball. If you don�t like it you can change the setting, but that has pitfalls too. Then it�s �watch Brand stay with his man that doesn�t have the ball and not help on defense�

15. I somewhat agree with you, but it�s hard to tell. When I play all I see are people passing up wide open jumpers to drive and try to dunk on 4 taller defenders, EVERY PLAY. Do you want to further reward that with a foul every time they do? Seem to me to be mostly offense initiating the contact and defenders jumping straight up. When it�s one on one, the offensive player seems to get the call, but if you run in there on 3-4 defenders, seems like mostly you don�t get the call and I think that how it should be. I also see a lot of 6 foot guards getting layups over the entire front line, so I don�t know what to think. The way that me and my buddies play this is not a problem.

16. This is another one I am on the fence on. One the one hand I am sick of seeing people dribbling all over the court till they get a shot, and doubling is all you can do to slow them down. If you are passing the ball and using proper spacing, double teaming is almost impossible. On the other hand, there are some situations where the game doesn�t let you react properly. But my inner coach says, PASS the ball and you won�t have to worry about double teams. If you can good spacing and good court vision, you can stay one step ahead of the double teams and 2 or 3 wide open shot later, they will stop.

17. Agreed. And furthermore, they should change the button assignment so that you can call plays while you are moving, ie. when walking up the court. They should also let star players call plays when they have the ball, not just the PG. Kobe and Lebron call lots of plays. But again, strategic passing will cut down on all the reaching, as they do it most if you are dribbling around. 2K already took steps to decrease the success of the steal.

18. Full court is easy to beat, but again it involves passing which seems to be taboo online. You can just say increase the fouls simple because they are pressing, just beat the press and they will stop. There is an inherent risk involved in full court pressing (except in short clock situations) which makes it a bad gamble if you make them pay.

19. See First paragraph.

20. I have gone back and forth on the shooting percentages, but I think that the real problem is lack of defense, if I take my crew online, we can routinely shoot 70-80% from the floor, both it�s mostly because 70-80% of our shots are wide open looks. If people committed to defense the way the commit to offense, those numbers would go way down. I play tough position defense, and you won�t shoot 70% against any team that I am on. Also, if you are seeing those numbers against the CPU, just mod the sliders. That is what they are for. Put it on hall of fame and mod the sliders, the see if you shoot 70%. They brought the game base as far as they could to appeal to the widest group; you have to mod it, if you want to be more specific.

My conclusion: Whether or not I agree with you on all the points, these are all valid points that you bring up. But I think the biggest thing is playing with people that don�t try to win by exploiting the shortcomings of the game. There will never be a game that is completely �cheese� proof.

I think this game is great and if they ONLY fixed the servers so that you could play online 5 on 5 without issue, I would buy this same game again.

So I say Fix the Servers, Fix the Servers and Fix the Servers.
Oh yeah, and have a BETA, so we can be sure that you fixed the servers.

# 34 kenjanpogz @ 12/03/10 03:55 AM

How To Download?

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