NBA 2K16 Gameplay Blog With Da_Czar

[Crunky]

I've got goosebumps just thinking about the possibilitys since they are emphasizing footwork. The game is all about footwork in real life that's what seperates the greats. I've seen in the blogs shuffling of feet on defense and footplanting on offense simply amazing. They took madden true step philosophy and made it for both offense and defense unlike madden.

[LorenzoDC]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoFri

one thing i find annoying in assigning plays is the sequence and missing plays. for instance in 2k15, i can never assign a p&r play for Shaq or Kanter as he is more of a post player. for sequence, i usually un-assign and assign the plays in the playbook to try getting the desired sequence of plays. it would be great if 2k16 enhances the plays assignment to make it more 'user' friendly? Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not sure if I'm thinking what you are, but I hope that the system makes it easier to make your plays from your playbook appear in the order you want in your players' play calling menu option in the game.

I went through a lot of this last year, and got some help from Sam Pham but I still encountered situations where the system would just not allow me to assign plays in exactly the order I wanted so that they would faithfully appear in that order for individual players' play calling menu options.

And oh yeah, sometimes plays that should appear for a player don't. It's not just because the player maybe needs to be designated as a play initiator or not. Even with the right designation for the play sometimes the plays just don't show up in the player's play calling menu screen. It's a bug that is specific to some players, because the missing plays will show up for similar players with the same play types assigned.

I'm hoping that may be better this year.

[FloorGeneral]

Quote: Originally Posted by LorenzoDC

Spoiler Not sure if I'm thinking what you are, but I hope that the system makes it easier to make your plays from your playbook appear in the order you want in your players' play calling menu option in the game. I went through a lot of this last year, and got some help from Sam Pham but I still encountered situations where the system would just not allow me to assign plays in exactly the order I wanted so that they would faithfully appear in that order for individual players' play calling menu options. And oh yeah, sometimes plays that should appear for a player don't. It's not just because the player maybe needs to be designated as a play initiator or not. Even with the right designation for the play sometimes the plays just don't show up in the player's play calling menu screen. It's a bug that is specific to some players, because the missing plays will show up for similar players with the same play types assigned. I'm hoping that may be better this year.

Seriously, it was a pain in the rear end to get your playbook (PB going forward) situated correctly last year. I may ramble a bit so instead of wasting page space, I'm gonna spoiler both the quoted post and my response. Sorry in advance.

Spoiler

First of all, say you picked the 50 plays you wanted. Theoretically, the easiest way to get them all in, (and in the order you so desire), would write them down (or type, I'll just use write) in order from most preferred to least, with the play type order being Iso, PNR, Low Post, High Post, Cutter, Mid Range & finaly 3pt.

With them written down in your preferred order, you would then (again, theoretically) go into your PB, completely empty it (well, save for one play, as it won't let you COMPLETELY empty it), and then start adding your plays in reverse order (obviously your first move replacing the last play left in the book). So you'd start from the very bottom (with the least preferred play in 3pt, and work your way all the way up, ending with the most preferred Iso play).

Now, I've said "theoretically" twice, because while this process would be ideal (though admittedly a bit time consuming), it doesn't work in 2K15, because if you completely empty a PB, when you go to re-add plays, it stops at random numbers for teams (I.E., it doesn't let you fill it back to 50. It could be 46 or 47, whatever. We'll use 47 for this example). Once you hit 47, then when you go to add your 48th play, it will instead randomly replace one of the previous 47 plays you already added. Now, it IS possible to get to 50 using this route, but it's a pain because you have to add a play, then chase the replaced play around (figure out which play #48 replaced, put it back in, re-add #48, if it replaces another play, find out which play was replaced, put it back in, re-add #48, and you get the idea). Eventually the playbook will get back to 50, but it takes way too much effort for something that should be relatively simple.

Now, the way that I always got my book to it's full 50 (told you I was gonna ramble. Again, sorry), is starting with a default PB (again, we'll use the 47 play example, though I can't remember if any default PBs had that many). With a default PB, add another 3 plays to get to 50. This works, no issue. Then, what I would do is go through and replace every single play with an Isolation play (reason being it's gonna be the last added, and also, outside of Cutter, the play type that should have the least amount of plays in your PB). You should now have a playbook with 50 Isolation plays in it.

Now just scroll all the way down, and start adding your plays as detailed above (starting with last 3pt, ending with first Iso). No big deal right, everything's done you say. Well, no, not quite. It all goes back to your initial problem: having the plays in the order you want. While you added them in your preferred order, they aren't necessarily in that order. It's almost as if (and this could admittedly get confusing, AND, I don't even know if this is the case, as I never actively tested this theory) when adding plays on top of plays (like going through and replacing every play with an Iso), the replacement play (Iso) acted as a type of placeholder.

So say you replaced 3pt 6 (last play in default PB) with Iso 1 (first Iso play added via replacement). Wherever 3pt 6 appeared in the play calling screen, whichever 3pt play you add in it's place will appear in the same place. However, if you add, say a PNR play, over an Iso play that replaced a 3pt play, then that PNR play will go to the front of the PNR line. Yes, confusing, and really unnecessary.

So what do you do? Well, here's where it gets really time consuming. You've already written down your preferred order of plays right? Well, after replacing all plays in your PB, and adding those 50 plays, now it's time to head over to the Assign Play screen so you can see the actual order the plays are in in-game. What I would do (and there is no 'Right' way to do this, you do it how you wish), is first, clear all play types from any single player, then, starting give them one play type at a time, and in each play type, write down the play order on your already written down preferred order. So on one side (left) you have your preferred order, and next to them (right) the actual order the plays are in. Then it's a game of add and switch.

You find the first play (on the right) that doesnt match up with the left column, and replace it with a random play from the same play type (important). What I found was that the very first play in each play type worked fine, as it was rarely a play that was actually used. Then you take the play you just replaced, and put it in it's proper place (by finding it on the left column, and replacing the play that's next to it in the right column), then you take that newly replaced play and put it in IT'S proper place, and on and on (at the same time, I would erase/cross out/delete each play from the right column as it is properly placed, thus keeping track of my progress). Eventually you will work your way back to the random play, though if there's alot of plays in your play type (PNR for instance), you will often have to add that random play a couple of times, as you will get back around to it without getting everything in it's correct order the first time around.

Eventually, you will move through each play type and your right column will be cleared out, and you now have a fully stocked PB with the plays in each type in your preferred order. It's still not perfect, as each play type is grouped in the play call screen, so you can't really put the plays in any order you like, but you this will atleast give you some organization.

So yeah, read that mini-novel or don't, but suffice to say it was a real pain to get your PB organized in 2K15. I'm not expecting the ability to organize plays in ANY order, regardless of play type, but hopefully it's easier to get them ordered in a specific way. Hopefully that glitch with emptying a PB and not being able to fill it again is gone, and I'll be fine with that.

[MGSW]

Customising playbooks last year was a nightmare. I completely forgot how bad it was.

[vannwolfhawk]

Quote: Originally Posted by FloorGeneral

Seriously, it was a pain in the rear end to get your playbook (PB going forward) situated correctly last year. I may ramble a bit so instead of wasting page space, I'm gonna spoiler both the quoted post and my response. Sorry in advance. Spoiler First of all, say you picked the 50 plays you wanted. Theoretically, the easiest way to get them all in, (and in the order you so desire), would write them down (or type, I'll just use write) in order from most preferred to least, with the play type order being Iso, PNR, Low Post, High Post, Cutter, Mid Range & finaly 3pt. With them written down in your preferred order, you would then (again, theoretically) go into your PB, completely empty it (well, save for one play, as it won't let you COMPLETELY empty it), and then start adding your plays in reverse order (obviously your first move replacing the last play left in the book). So you'd start from the very bottom (with the least preferred play in 3pt, and work your way all the way up, ending with the most preferred Iso play). Now, I've said "theoretically" twice, because while this process would be ideal (though admittedly a bit time consuming), it doesn't work in 2K15, because if you completely empty a PB, when you go to re-add plays, it stops at random numbers for teams (I.E., it doesn't let you fill it back to 50. It could be 46 or 47, whatever. We'll use 47 for this example). Once you hit 47, then when you go to add your 48th play, it will instead randomly replace one of the previous 47 plays you already added. Now, it IS possible to get to 50 using this route, but it's a pain because you have to add a play, then chase the replaced play around (figure out which play #48 replaced, put it back in, re-add #48, if it replaces another play, find out which play was replaced, put it back in, re-add #48, and you get the idea). Eventually the playbook will get back to 50, but it takes way too much effort for something that should be relatively simple. Now, the way that I always got my book to it's full 50 (told you I was gonna ramble. Again, sorry), is starting with a default PB (again, we'll use the 47 play example, though I can't remember if any default PBs had that many). With a default PB, add another 3 plays to get to 50. This works, no issue. Then, what I would do is go through and replace every single play with an Isolation play (reason being it's gonna be the last added, and also, outside of Cutter, the play type that should have the least amount of plays in your PB). You should now have a playbook with 50 Isolation plays in it. Now just scroll all the way down, and start adding your plays as detailed above (starting with last 3pt, ending with first Iso). No big deal right, everything's done you say. Well, no, not quite. It all goes back to your initial problem: having the plays in the order you want. While you added them in your preferred order, they aren't necessarily in that order. It's almost as if (and this could admittedly get confusing, AND, I don't even know if this is the case, as I never actively tested this theory) when adding plays on top of plays (like going through and replacing every play with an Iso), the replacement play (Iso) acted as a type of placeholder. So say you replaced 3pt 6 (last play in default PB) with Iso 1 (first Iso play added via replacement). Wherever 3pt 6 appeared in the play calling screen, whichever 3pt play you add in it's place will appear in the same place. However, if you add, say a PNR play, over an Iso play that replaced a 3pt play, then that PNR play will go to the front of the PNR line. Yes, confusing, and really unnecessary. So what do you do? Well, here's where it gets really time consuming. You've already written down your preferred order of plays right? Well, after replacing all plays in your PB, and adding those 50 plays, now it's time to head over to the Assign Play screen so you can see the actual order the plays are in in-game. What I would do (and there is no 'Right' way to do this, you do it how you wish), is first, clear all play types from any single player, then, starting give them one play type at a time, and in each play type, write down the play order on your already written down preferred order. So on one side (left) you have your preferred order, and next to them (right) the actual order the plays are in. Then it's a game of add and switch. You find the first play (on the right) that doesnt match up with the left column, and replace it with a random play from the same play type (important). What I found was that the very first play in each play type worked fine, as it was rarely a play that was actually used. Then you take the play you just replaced, and put it in it's proper place (by finding it on the left column, and replacing the play that's next to it in the right column), then you take that newly replaced play and put it in IT'S proper place, and on and on (at the same time, I would erase/cross out/delete each play from the right column as it is properly placed, thus keeping track of my progress). Eventually you will work your way back to the random play, though if there's alot of plays in your play type (PNR for instance), you will often have to add that random play a couple of times, as you will get back around to it without getting everything in it's correct order the first time around. Eventually, you will move through each play type and your right column will be cleared out, and you now have a fully stocked PB with the plays in each type in your preferred order. It's still not perfect, as each play type is grouped in the play call screen, so you can't really put the plays in any order you like, but you this will atleast give you some organization. So yeah, read that mini-novel or don't, but suffice to say it was a real pain to get your PB organized in 2K15. I'm not expecting the ability to organize plays in ANY order, regardless of play type, but hopefully it's easier to get them ordered in a specific way. Hopefully that glitch with emptying a PB and not being able to fill it again is gone, and I'll be fine with that.

Sounds about right. It was a pain and that was just 1 team.

This leads me into a question for da czar. Can we reorder plays without having to do this workaround to get the plays we want in the order we want? Has anything changed as far as how the CPU ai will call plays? Is it random? Will they call a play more often at the top of a play type as opposed to the last play in a play type?

Has anything changed for us as users here? Any little nuggets of info us play callers will appreciate? What was done to specific plays this year? Add more branching situations and options within plays this year. I realize if you dive more into this in your blog it would have been 30 pages like you said. Just curious on any new play information you got for us hardcore sim play guys:-)

[Da_Czar]

Quote: Originally Posted by vannwolfhawk

I'm still curious if we can set freelance offense during a timeout? We could not before and it took 5-6 seconds to do as you had harassing defender on you which was annoying. On top of that it took a possession before it kicked in (czar gave me heads up on that before I even knew so I know he was aware of it) so was that fixed this year?

No on the first one. We made them start immediatley when selected. I have mentioned before that there are still times when you need to pass first. But in general they should start when you switch them on.

[Da_Czar]

Quote: Originally Posted by Goffs

Czar does the attack module work with the CPU post up player? Will let's say Zach Randolph do a plethora of post moves against you?

No. Post is still it's own deal. That might be something in future.

[Da_Czar]

Quote: Originally Posted by Vni

How does the AI decide to switch from freelance offense to plays ? Is it based on IRL team's tendencies ? Is there a logic behind it ? Are every teams different on that aspect ?

Ace handles that as part of the gameplan.