NBA 2K13: How Signature Skills Have Changed the Game

[da ThRONe]

Quote: Originally Posted by RyanFitzmagic

For instance, if a person is facing Oklahoma City and it’s a close game in the fourth quarter, it would behoove them to place a Lock-Down Defender on Durant to counter his signature Closer ability. Explain to me how this didn't apply in every other 2K game, with the adjustment being: Place your best defender (best physical matchup + highest Defensive Awareness) on the other team's best closer (best shooter/finisher). 2K and/or its supporters acting like Signature Skills was the only way to make this necessary or imperative is just silly.

I don't make the game so I'm incapable of explaining why the developers thought this was the best course of action. However A) I never said this was the only way to represent intangibles and situational basketball merely that it has merit and B) I assume that the developer felt this was the most efficient way to represent certain intangibles and situational basketball available to them as of now.

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by da ThRONe

I don't make the game so I'm incapable of explaining why the developers thought this was the best course of action. However A) I never said this was the only way to represent intangibles and situational basketball merely that it has merit and B) I assume that the developer felt this was the most efficient way to represent certain intangibles and situational basketball available to them as of now.

Very logical and sound observations. It's far from the best way IMO as I've stated elsewhere, but it's also not the worst way to have done this and it could be used as a building block down the road as long as they don't get too full of themselves because casual gamers love the implementation.

At the end of the day, the game should end up having more depth with these Skills in than it would have been if a few of these distinct areas were left unchanged from 2K12. I can learn to ignore the few Skills that are redundant and/or completely unnecessary as long as the others add value.

[Po Pimp]

Quote: Originally Posted by RyanFitzmagic

I'm pretty sure you just described 2K12's hotspots.

I'm pretty sure hotspots only applied to where players liked to set up. If I have someone on my team rated 80 in 3pters, yet their hotspot suggest they like to shoot the corner 3s, I'm pretty sure they would be able to hit from the top of the key with regularity as well.

Quote: Originally Posted by RyanFitzmagic

For instance, if a person is facing Oklahoma City and it’s a close game in the fourth quarter, it would behoove them to place a Lock-Down Defender on Durant to counter his signature Closer ability. Explain to me how this didn't apply in every other 2K game, with the adjustment being: Place your best defender (best physical matchup + highest Defensive Awareness) on the other team's best closer (best shooter/finisher). 2K and/or its supporters acting like Signature Skills was the only way to make this necessary or imperative is just silly.

True YOU may think to do that, but would the AI? I'm hoping that these sig skills would actually factor into how the AI approaches the game.

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by Po Pimp

I'm pretty sure hotspots only applied to where players liked to set up. If I have someone on my team rated 80 in 3pters, yet their hotspot suggest they like to shoot the corner 3s, I'm pretty sure they would be able to hit from the top of the key with regularity as well.

Hot Spots dictated where a player shot from.
Hot Zones dictated how well the player shot (Scorching/Hot/Neutral/Cold) from that location.

The Corner Specialist Skill was the worst offender as far as useless and redundancy were concerned. This was one of the easiest to duplicate in 2K12 and we could have done it with real-world data so that a player who may have been Hot in the Right corner, but Neutral/Cold from the Left corner would have that accurately portrayed.

It's not worth scrapping the entire list of Signature Skills because a couple of them were redundant, but hopefully 2K can take an honest look at the redundancy and uselessness of a few of these Skills and remove them for 2K14 without putting their own pride first.

[RyanFitzmagic]

Quote: Originally Posted by Po Pimp

True YOU may think to do that, but would the AI? I'm hoping that these sig skills would actually factor into how the AI approaches the game.

Somehow, I doubt it. The article only spoke of the user making these types of changes.

And what can a "Lockdown Defender" signature skill do to tell the AI who to utilize more than a high "On-Ball Defense" rating can?

[jtmoneyb4u]

wonder what brian scalibrine skill gonna be lol the white mamba

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by Po Pimp

True YOU may think to do that, but would the AI? I'm hoping that these sig skills would actually factor into how the AI approaches the game.

If there is an AI change to place a player with the Lockdown Defender Skill on the opponent's best Scorer, then that same change could have been done using the On-Ball Defense and Quickness using any of the past few 2K games. The two don't really go hand-in-hand.

Any AI changes made to accommodate a Skill don't make the Skill worthwhile. It just means that the Skill was the method chosen to represent the change instead of them using their existing tools (Attributes/Tendencies/Coach Profiles).

My biggest fear with the Signature Skills has already sort of come true. The fear is that people will praise Skills for changes that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual implementation of the Signature Skill. That could give 2K the response they need to think this was indeed a great implementation instead of really looking at how to continue to improve the underlying areas that need more help.

Skills are responsible for a player's impact or effectiveness, not how they play.

[Po Pimp]

Quote: Originally Posted by youALREADYknow

Hot Spots dictated where a player shot from. Hot Zones dictated how well the player shot (Scorching/Hot/Neutral/Cold) from that location. The Corner Specialist Skill was the worst offender as far as useless and redundancy were concerned. This was one of the easiest to duplicate in 2K12 and we could have done it with real-world data so that a player who may have been Hot in the Right corner, but Neutral/Cold from the Left corner would have that accurately portrayed. It's not worth scrapping the entire list of Signature Skills because a couple of them were redundant, but hopefully 2K can take an honest look at the redundancy and uselessness of a few of these Skills and remove them for 2K14 without putting their own pride first.

What about the alley-ooper? True, every alley-ooper isn't a dimer, but every dimer should be able to throw oops.