NBA 2K16's Sixth Patch Finally Balances MyPark and Pro-Am

[RaychelSnr]

NBA 2K16 released its sixth title update last week on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (PC users are still waiting to receive the patch), fixing some of the most popular gameplay exploits in the Pro-Am and MyPark modes.

Ninety-foot outlet passes finally fly off-target at an acceptable rate (though I'd like to see the error percentages increased even higher), paint campers can't reset their three-in-the-key count by stepping out of bounds, and the dance between dribblers and defenders has become more believable with the elimination of unnatural speed boosts. Certain hop steps (Stephen Curry) and hesitation moves (#3) still animate much faster than the highest-rated defenders in the game are able to react. But this is probably as balanced as NBA 2K16 can be without significantly reducing the speed of those lateral dribble moves, or adding some new defensive slide step animations that can keep pace.

The purpose of this article, though, isn't providing gameplay impressions (there's already a 400-post thread discussing that), it's figuring out why it has taken until May (seven months after the game's September 25 launch) for Visual Concepts to finally achieve reasonably balanced gameplay in their online MyPlayer modes.


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[The 24th Letter]

Completely agree with the feedback and steps that need to be taken to reach that next level. They need to carry momentum into 2k17 wothout taking steps back.

That said, I didnt expect the entire tone of the article to be 'what took you so long"

I personally won't remember 2K16 for speedboosting, I'll remember it as a game I eat playing deep into the next year because gameplay was balanced. I appreciate the effort.

[jarredmiles0320]

Heres my gripe with pro-am/RTTF:

1.Un-realistic player sizes and rating caps
Ex. 1 The max height restrictions need to be reduced. Centers need to cap at 7'0". That alone eliminates a lot of the paint cheese. Also the rebound cap should vary based on height. 7 footers should not have 94 rebound rating. There should be a penalty for being taller just like the guards and small forwards.
Ex 2 Outside players should not be able to dunk unless they are 6'5" and above. And even then it should be in the low 60s.
Ex 3 The draw foul rating should be reduced for outside players. Inside players should have the highest. Free throw rating cap should be reduced for inside big men as well. (deandre Jordan effect). That will cut down of just forcing standing dunks all game. Makes bigs think twice about going to the free throw line.

Road to the finals should have been about winning games instead of about stats. A ranking points system should have been inputted. Playing against an evenly matched team in was basically a waste of a game.

Also it should have been mandatory 5v5. And if the other team lost more than 2 players they should be auto disqualified. Disqualification should resulted in a 1 event suspension as well to prevent people from quitting.

[iloveosalot]

While i agree the balanced gameplay is better, i haven't been a fan of dribbling all year. Now instead of one or two dribble moves actually being effective (which i tried to get speed boosting down once and wasn't consistent and felt cheap whenever i did lol) i just wish the fake hesitations and broken dribble animations didn't happen at all.

Having the defense snap to a ball handler after being shaken was bad enough in the beginning, now its a combination of slow dribbles, broken animations, and unforced turnovers even with elite ball handlers.

That's just something that sticks out every time i play this game. I thought last year was bad with the unnecessary hitches, but this year they advertised foot planting, physics, and even marketed the new signature size ups before release only to have patched out the effectiveness of every single dribble in this game.

At the moment there is one single cross, just a standard cross, that doesn't hitch and break and that applies for every character even with 50 ball handling.

The issue with the kobe size up was not that every one used it. Its that it was the only cross that was halfway successful with any player regardless of ball handling rating.

That's a direct affront to players who paid real money or their hard earned vc to upgrade their ball handling.

The fact that there's no restriction on which animations players can equip and zero separation between elite ball handlers and non ball handling positions at the moment is not what i would call balance.


Forcing my player with 90 speed to walk up the court in transition regardless if I'm holding turbo and letting players with vastly inferior speeds get chase down blocks because of slow dunk and lay up animations is the reason every park and pro am game are constant 3 point contests.

My fondest memories of 14, 15, and now 16 have all been early in the year before the twitter feed started to get their way. In 14 you were required to catch at least ONE alley oop in career to have the tendency necessary to catch one in the park.

You know how amazing it was to throw an oop and watch someone come back down and throw it out of bounds? That's not cheese, that's learning to play the game.

In 15 early in the mypark championship no one wanted to play against rivet because they could dunk on anyone. Instead of "balancing" it, they introduced the dunk animation where you literally get the explosion to the basket you want and instead of throwing it down, you lay it up and its a turn over. I've never seen that in the nba, ever, and in 15 & 16 it seems that's the only animation i get when i have 90 on my dunk , gold posterizer, and I'm huge.

I've seen my center buddy miss more standing dunks by rimming out or terrible block animations from guards who have no business in the park.

My gripe is 2ks idea of "toning down" is "break".

Dont get me started on alley oops this year.

That was and is the most offensive and blatant hatred of athleticism i can think of. Ever.

Little 6 foot guards skying 7 feet in the air to grab catch an alley oop attempt from deandre jordan and blake griffin gtfoh...

[jattnanga]

I like the ideas presented here. The MyCareer mode should be separate entity than the online competition without a doubt andt he player builds are almost a necessary next step to allow user skill to shine and emphasize team play.

The only area I would disagree with would be the choosing of move-sets. Individuality is so much a part of basketball compared to other sports, the shot animations and dribble moves (and really even passing animations) should be customizable but should be a matter of preference rather than one having a discernible advantage over the others.

[NINJAK2]

Good read. I think 2k released this patch to prepare people early on for the direction they will be going with the gameplay for 2k17 so they can gauge feedback(At least I hope so).


I think 2k went overboard in regards to capping the SF's based on that position being abused in 2k15, especially in the ball handling department. I like your idea of the base model (Ex: Wall, Dirk etc.). Go back to the old 2k in the sense that you select base positions such as pass 1st pg, defensive specialist sf, etc. I think 2k needs to make a user establish early on one or two categories where the user will focus on as a primary strength and go back to stat building by individual categories rather than the terrible grouping together of things like they did this year.


Given how profitable 2k has been in regards to their current "pay to get better faster" system it's hard to see them stopping that all together unfortunately.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Really liked this article and I don't understand why this took so long to fix an exploit especially with 250k on the line smh .

I won't remember 2k16 for speed boosting because I was pretty good at guarding it . But break starter was just too much and too unrealistic . M

I also agree . The grind is very heavy for a guy who likes to have multiple players . I just want to pick up and have fun. I like the pick your style a lot and I hope 2k introduces this . Many games have had that feature.

[ILLSmak]

Quote: Originally Posted by NINJAK2

Good read. I think 2k released this patch to prepare people early on for the direction they will be going with the gameplay for 2k17 so they can gauge feedback(At least I hope so). I think 2k went overboard in regards to capping the SF's based on that position being abused in 2k15, especially in the ball handling department. I like your idea of the base model (Ex: Wall, Dirk etc.). Go back to the old 2k in the sense that you select base positions such as pass 1st pg, defensive specialist sf, etc. I think 2k needs to make a user establish early on one or two categories where the user will focus on as a primary strength and go back to stat building by individual categories rather than the terrible grouping together of things like they did this year. Given how profitable 2k has been in regards to their current "pay to get better faster" system it's hard to see them stopping that all together unfortunately.

I dunno if I agree cuz being a pass first pg, assuming it grows into a good player is no different than being whatever crazy badge heavy thing they have this year; should still make the same money.

The issue is they HAVE to make it so that you have an advantage. Like put silver/gold dimer as a pass first only badge. Or create a new badge that makes it so that you can impact the game by playing pass first PG.

Same with like bruiser PF. If they don't make them excel at something, people will just roll tall 3 point shooters.

It's almost like they need to make it so that each player has a set height/weight. I know that sucks, but... if they rolled out like 50( mixtures of pure positions and tweeners) total types of players, it would be alright. Then they could actually balance it. Give each player potential badges and max attainable badge levels.

If they wanna make an e-sport... they need balance. If they achieve balance, they may realize that people don't care as much about LOL99 players as they think. Dudes just wanna ball out and be as good as they can be. Let them grind for gear or something, not badges.

-Smak