NBA 2k13 Association Mode Improvements

[Hassan Darkside]

Sort of been thinking about this for a while and Czar is currently having a show about the playoffs and Association mode and I've finally got around to making a thread. I've been playing my Association for a while and have thought about some things that would make it better. Please add on.


Injuries/Fatigue - This year they finally have CPU teams benching their players that are considered day-to-day. I believe the last few years once their status was upgraded to day-to-day they'd be inserted into the lineup. There should be some risk/reward when handling injuries. More serious injuries (say torn ACLs since they seem to be popular) should offer higher risks for playing guys who have now reached day-to-day status. I also don't think there's been any risk of re-injury in the game. Guys coming off of long injuries or something of that nature should suffer reductions in the stamina and durability ratings for a brief period of time.

Player Personalities - This is sort of where I feel 2k needs to take the next step. Listing guys as "Laid Back" or "Unpredictable" or whatever just isn't enough. I think there should be a handful of personality characteristics such as Leadership, determination, confidence, cooperation, etc. Doesn't have to be anymore than 5 or 10. Anyway, high ratings in these traits should drive the value of players up. Teammates of Tyson Chandler, for instance, always talk about how great of a teammate he was. He should have high leadership, fairly high determination, and high cooperation. This should make him more desirable for teams to add and should positively influence team chemistry, maybe raise it at higher rates than normal.

Contrarily, teams with players with low leadership, determination, confidence, etc would suffer, like the Wizards or Bobcats. Players should also be able to improve in these throughout their careers. As of right now, there's little incentive to spend money on guys like Tyson Chandler or Grant Hill over guys like DeAndre Jordan or Alonzo Gee.

I also think that similar to MyPlayer press conferences, you should have player meetings. After reading Jerry West's autobiography, I realized that the front office often has a personal relationship with the players. They should bring back something like this:


Saying/doing the right things should keep your stars happy. Making mistakes should turn your stars into Dwight Howards and Carmelo Anthonys. One thing that really isn't touched on at all in sports games are relationships with your players. We often build faux relationships with recruits in our college games but in the end, everybody seems to be the same.

That's all I can think of right now, I'll add on as I recall more. Feel free to add any input.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Absolutely love all of those ideas.

Off the top of my head:
- I think rotations are something that still needs to be tuned
- I'd still like to see them fine tune the trading some more to make it more realistic, although that's something that they've gotten better with.
- Implementing some sort of player roles kinda thing so that for example, a team like the Lakers might focus on finding a bench player that can provide a scoring spark or a team like the Celtics might try to find some young legs. Another way I think this could work is with rookies. If a team spends a top 3 pick on someone, they should get a good amount of playing time basically right away. Moreover, if a team picks a PG with a top 10 pick, they shouldn't go out and trade for a PG whose overall is 2 points higher and then bury their early 1st round pick on the bench.
- Building off of my last point, I'd like to see teams have more of personalities. For example, the Thunder like having a defensive stopper starting at SG, so even though Harden is clearly better than Thabo, Thabo would start. Stuff like that.
- I'd love to see something around the trade deadline that lists some players that struggling teams would be willing to trade to contenders, some contenders that are looking to add that extra piece that puts them over the top, some teams looking to start the rebuilding process, etc.

[phlstar]

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeah...THAT Guy

Absolutely love all of those ideas. Off the top of my head: - I think rotations are something that still needs to be tuned - I'd still like to see them fine tune the trading some more to make it more realistic, although that's something that they've gotten better with. - Implementing some sort of player roles kinda thing so that for example, a team like the Lakers might focus on finding a bench player that can provide a scoring spark or a team like the Celtics might try to find some young legs. Another way I think this could work is with rookies. If a team spends a top 3 pick on someone, they should get a good amount of playing time basically right away. Moreover, if a team picks a PG with a top 10 pick, they shouldn't go out and trade for a PG whose overall is 2 points higher and then bury their early 1st round pick on the bench. - Building off of my last point, I'd like to see teams have more of personalities. For example, the Thunder like having a defensive stopper starting at SG, so even though Harden is clearly better than Thabo, Thabo would start. Stuff like that. - I'd love to see something around the trade deadline that lists some players that struggling teams would be willing to trade to contenders, some contenders that are looking to add that extra piece that puts them over the top, some teams looking to start the rebuilding process, etc.

This is like MLB: The Show where it tells you what teams are rebuilding and such.

[SaylaB]

I'm a fan of the more diverse personalities idea. I was creating a player and was reminded of how few personalties there were to choose from. I think adding in some more personalities or roles would be a great addition to association.

Maybe some better computer generated rookie classes too.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by SaylaB

I'm a fan of the more diverse personalities idea. I was creating a player and was reminded of how few personalties there were to choose from. I think adding in some more personalities or roles would be a great addition to association. Maybe some better computer generated rookie classes too.

This reminds me. I'd love to see them tune player progression and draft classes. All they really need to do is spread the potentials out more.

[kjjnesb]

I'd like to see them expand the loyalty, financial security, and Player for winner, player profile things. Like perhaps they should add a wants that is "wants play in big market" because according to 2K since leaving Miami Lebron is this unloyal mercenary and once his contract expires in 2K he'll sign with pretty much any team from the Bucks to the Suns.

Also they should have a personality trait where a player is ok with coming of the bench even more so if you're team is winning. In 2K12 you could possibly see a 70-80 rated player on the bench who has the laid back trait and who is upset even though you're entire starting five could be 90+ rated and you're 82-0 and said player has 1 yr left on his contract. Like that one guy will tank you're teams chemistry and way to often you see guys who are bench players get signed to 5 yr deals and ruin that teams chemistry for yrs.

Also maybe a work ethic rating or trait would be good we could call it the drive or desire rating. That way we can have guys with high potential that may never fulfill it and his overall value decrease (Think Kwame Brown).This would also really add to the draft because teams won't draft solely off potential they may go with the "safe high work ethic" over the guy with the higher potential. That could also give us motive to sign good coaches to develop our players and not surround them with guys with the expressive or unpredictable trait or a poor drive or desire rating as it would hurt your young players development.

[Angel_G]

They need to re create the "Free Agency" period in the offseason. Every time the period ends there is stupid moves. The CPU randomly signs players based off "Team Needs". I have simmed it several times and I keep seeing that the Bucks sign Jeremy Lin as their backup PG to Brandon Jennings.

[JL1015]

I think that they should adress the crippling factors of association mode before actually making improvments to it.

For one, the player development should be more position-centered. There shouldn't be centers shooting 3% from 3 because their 3 point tendency jumped 30 points from a 2 point 3pt shot increase.

Another issue of note is the generated rookies, there shouldn't be a draft class every year with 1-2 80s and 3-4 70s.

The player loyalty thing confuses me as well. A player labeled as "Not Loyal" but also has "Very Important" for Play For Winner should never leave a defending champion for the same amount of cash in the offseason.

Of course, your mentioned improvements are very good ideas, I concur.

There should be magazine covers/cutscenes of various actions a la NBA Live 04, imo. It made the mode seem so deep, lol. Summer leagues should be implemented as well. Suspensions should be implemented for "Unpredictable/Expressive" types (i.e. poor handling of the media, off court issues). Arena builder would be nice, and possibly the ability to try to convince retiring players to not retire/sign up as an assistant immediately after retirement seems fun.

Of course, jersey retirement is crucial. Oh, and career playoff stats as well.