NBA 2k15 Beluba Q&A

[jersez]

Hey, Everyone it's Jerseymade93 here and for the last couple of years Mike Wang(beluba) has graced us with some pretty dope Q&A's regardingGameplay in the new games. This year I'm going to start the Q&A off with 10 questions and I'll update the original post with Answers

Keep in mind Mr.Wang works on Gameplay so asking about other modes and features he did not work on may not be answered.
Just a couple of rules, please avoid complaints for example cpu shot making for my career which may be addressed in a patch or the server issues, I don't want this thread derailed. Feel free to ask your questions.

1. What improvements were made outside of signature sizeups for the dribbling system?

Quote: Originally Posted by Beluba

This hasn't been talked about too much, but quite a bit has changed with the dribbling system for 2K15. For one, all of the core movement was refreshed (first steps, cuts, autocrosses, etc.) I tried to bring back some of the fundamental feel that 2K11 had with its dribbling. 2K13-14 saw a lot of "flavor" injected into the dribbler, sometimes at the cost of responsiveness. I did my best to trim a lot of that fat out of the movement.

2. Player movements have a lot of momentum this year, how do I gain full control over him?

Quote:

This was one of the biggest changes to gameplay overall this year, and it will continue to see significant improvement as we continue to refine it. My best advice is to try and read the ball handler, anticipate, and don't over commit. It's also important to manage use of Turbo, understand how feathering the stick works, and also make use of the Right Stick Quick Steps. Another big mistake I see people routinely make on defense is continually hugging up too much on the ball handler. When you're guarding a good ball handler, I suggest gapping off more often than not. Sometimes that's all you need in order to have enough time to react and cut him off. That being said, we still need to do a better job at tightening up movement on both ends of the floor. That's something you can expect from us going forward.

3. I know you wanted to go away from using canned animated dribbling, why did you bring them back this year?

Quote:

I wanted to get away from canned dribbling that you couldn't interrupt. It took a while, but our new tech allows us to branch out of the "canned" sig sizeups at any moment, so I was happy to bring them back. You just can never achieve the signature look of ball handling by stitching short dribble moves together.

4.How do I get past a cpu defender.

Quote:

There are a number of suggestions I can make here. At a basic level, you should try to get your defender moving or biting in one direction and then take what he gives you. Bait him, make him make a decision, and then take advantage. Here's a "script" that I often use with a quick ball handler: 1. From the top of the arc, back out to the half court line. 2. Drive hard at a 45 deg. angle toward the free throw line extended 3. Hit the defender with a hard stepback move (Turbo+RS away) 4. At this point, if the defender has dropped too far back to take away your drive, you might have a nice look at a jumper. If he closes on your stepback, you can yo yo your defender by driving or doing a hard cross launch out of your stepback. Usually, the defender's momentum will give you just enough cushion to get by him.

5. How do I stop zig zag cheese

6. Can you explain shot fatigue? When does it kick in?

Quote:

There are two types of shot fatigue, jump shot and collision. The jump shot fatigue looks at the player's real life FGA stat and as soon as the player has exceeded the avg. number of FGAs, the %'s start to drop. The penalties can be pretty severe if you go way over the player's real life stats so be careful. Collision fatigue is a cumulative fatigue that drains with each successive collision in the paint (both body ups and contact shots.) The contact shot %'s drop a little bit each time there's a collision and it adds up over the course of the game. For both types of shot fatigue, the badges and ratings you'd expect to matter obviously do, so the penalties are applied according to a player's real life abilities.

7. Which gameplay improvement this year are you most fond of?

Quote:

I can't really name just one because I think a lot of gameplay areas took a massive leap this year. But the one thing I'm really happy about is that, for the most part, the game is balanced and fair. We made a concerted effort to make sure that every offensive action had a legit counter and that users who were skilled on the sticks, but also had a knowledge of the game, would be successful in 2K15. The game is not perfect but we all feel that this is the most rewarding gameplay experience that we've delivered in a long time.

8. How can I get explosive launches out of signature size ups?

Quote:

The launches you get will vary based on when you try to branch out of any given size up. I'd advise going into practice with your favorite players and experimenting with breaking out of the size ups at different points in the animation. You'll find that launching out at some points will be more explosive than others. To explode out of the sig size ups, hold Turbo+Left Stick left or right toward the hoop.

9. What factors go into the miss dunk animations?

Quote:

We look at the dunker's driving dunk rating as well as the Posterizer badge level if applicable and the defender(s) blocking ability when determining what the dunk outcome should be. The defender's impact is greater the closer he can get to the ideal intercept point as the dunker is getting to the rim. In other words, if you can get your defender to jump between the dunker and the hoop just as he's trying to flush it, the chance of a miss dunk goes up dramatically.

10. What are some of the offensive strategies, the adaptive ai tracks? For example will they track dribble or post moves?

Quote:

How often they like to drive, what Iso moves they like to make, how often they pullup vs. go to the rim, and I think post move drive side tendency. There are other strategies but I don't remember off the top of my head.

In regards to clipping

Quote:

Nope. that would be a bug. Usually when you see this it's because we've made the ball invulnerable... probably to reduce an overabundance of unwarranted blocks. We're looking at better solutions for blocks for 2K16

Discussing Shot meter delay and charges

Quote:

We were looking into offensive rebounds today and found a few issues that we hope to address in a patch. The timing online is dependant on the quality of your connection. It should be identical to offline in ideal conditions. But if your connection is poor it might feel a little delayed. The inbounding thing is a bit annoying. I swear we addressed this several years ago. It'll get added to the to do list, but I'm not sure when it will be addressed. You should be able to draw charges on dunk attempts. I've seen several throughout development.

Discussing success rate with shot meter

Quote:

It's possible there's a bug there but there is a minimum threshold you have to get above before perfect releases are even achievable. Maybe the players you're struggling with just can't get a high enough % making the perfect window impossible to hit? Doesn't seem right though. Let me investigate that one.

Walking the ball up court

Quote:

I'm working on making it easier to walk the ball upcourt if that's what you're asking

POE TIPS

Quote:

You might want to set your POE setting to manual. Then your coach won't change it up on you. As to how they work, that's a loaded question that would take way too long to answer. For Get Shooters Open you have to be patient. If you rush your offense you might not be giving your teammates enough time to run your shooters off screens. For the Play Through POE, you should see more play calls for the player you choose. Also if you run your offense through him properly you'll get bonuses to your attributes... many of the POEs work that way.

How to choose who sets the Pick

Quote:

Tap the pick control button and you'll see player icons show up. Press and hold the action button corresponding to the player you want to set the screen and he'll come over instead of the auto selected guy.

My Career Answer's

Quote:

Yes. The badges you earn in your offline career are applied to your guy in the Park and rec center.

Quote:

Dimer for sure is earned based on racking up assists. Flashy passer I'm not sure about. Zach would be able to tell you if you tweet him. Favorite sig size-up would probably either be kyrie's or Jamal Crawford.

Discussing Patch

Quote:

We are currently working on a patch that has a number of game play fixes in it. I don't know when it will be released to the public. But it will be the next one that goes out. Yes, I'm working with my shots engineer on CPU 3PT attempts. We're getting close to NBA averages but are still tweaking

[jersez]

I just want to add that this is posted at 8:30am est and Beluba is on West coast time but feel free to add your questions now, So I can add to the original post. Thank you

[DonWuan]

Is clipping in by design? Only talking about reduced blocks but hand clearly going through ball.

[jersez]

Quote: Originally Posted by DonWuan

Is clipping in by design?

We're keeping the questions to just gameplay.

[starks1903]

hi beluba.

will you guys patch the transition defense? it is really too easy to find open shots , especially 3s on transition aganist cpu. there are guys opening threads about this so this is one of the major complains about the game. the game is great by the way.

sorry for my bad english.

[ThatMichiganFan]

If this is not part of gameplay, then don't answer but do you now how to get more foul calls? Does it have something to do with all the new contact animations or something else?

[LorenzoDC]

Will the design team consider making it possible to make some d-pad only gameplay functions available in the game's pause menu, such as POE selection and freelance option selection? What is the logic behind making those things possible only when the game clock is running, when other functions, such as substitutions and match ups, are available during game pauses?

It seems this year that the cameras available during practice scrimmage mode are limited, and don't include common in game player options like broadcast. Was this on purpose, or will the full camera options be patched in? It really diminishes the utility of practice if you're practicing on an unfamiliar camera you won't use in games.

[rawdog805]

Why is there no way to control what side of the defender the pick is going to be set? Far too often the screener sets the screen on the opposite side of what I want him too.