The "Game Speed, Speed/Accel Attributes, and Movement" Sliders Explained

[EccentricMeat]

Update for Next-Gen 2K25

It's been a while, and things have changed quite a bit over the years. Let's get started:


The Basics

- The Movement sliders set the Max and Min speed/agility of players on the court WITHOUT the ball in their hands.
- How fast/slow overall player animations/ball movement looks and feels is controlled by the Game Speed setting.
- The "Speed w/Ball" attribute (unfortunately there is not a slider for this) controls both the speed and agility of ON BALL movement.
- The Speed and Agility attributes and sliders only have an effect on OFF BALL movement. They do not effect movement with the ball in any way.


Lower Agility = more weighted movement (think foot planting instead of floating as you change direction), and you won't instantly snap to full-speed. Lower Speed = slower movement, players will reach a lower top speed while sprinting.


What does Agility control?

Spoiler

According to 2K: "Without the ball, affects how fast the player can accelerate, move in short bursts, and move laterally".

For acceleration, agility only affects the first 1-2 steps when holding the left stick, but does NOT effect acceleration when holding R2 to sprint. When holding R2 (without the ball), all aspects of speed and acceleration are controlled by the Speed attribute/slider.

Moving laterally, specifically when constantly shifting side to side a few steps to the left or right, makes the differences in Agility rating VERY apparent. Most noticeable when trying to stop and change the direction you're moving on defense, high agility will feel smooth and responsive as you stop, start, and accelerate quickly. Whereas low agility will feel slow and heavy as it takes longer to start moving the opposite direction as well as to accelerate back to full speed.

Check out this video by NBA 2K Tutes for a quick breakdown and visual examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNUeOB9syys

What does Speed control?

Spoiler

According to 2K: "Affects how fast the player can run or sprint around the court without the ball".

Pretty self-explanatory. This attribute/slider controls the players' movement speed while holding the left stick in any direction, with or without holding R2 to sprint. And when launching from a stand-still while holding R2, Speed also controls those first 1-2 steps, not Agility.

Note that this does not effect movement with the ball, only without.

Check out this video by NBA 2K Tutes for a quick breakdown and visual examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFSbZpr-ns0

What do the Movement sliders control?

Spoiler

Non-surprisingly, these are the most straight-forward sliders of the group. These sliders are all correctly labeled in a common-sense way, and they simply affect the difference between the fastest and slowest players when it comes to movement without the ball. You want the quickest players to really stand out? Increase the Max settings. You want slower players like PFs/Cs to still be able to move NOT in slow motion? Increase the Min settings.

How do I make certain players more explosive with the ball?

Spoiler

You have two options here: Increase their Speed with Ball rating in the roster you're using, or give them the Lightning Launch badge. By increasing the Speed with Ball rating, not only will they have a faster speed boost, but they will walk/run and sprint with the ball at a higher top speed as well. If you don't want to increase the player's top speed, but still want them to be a bit more explosive launching out of dribble moves, give them the Lightning Launch badge (or increase their badge level if they already have it).

Check out this video by NBA2KLab for a quick breakdown and visual examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROLaLV04aGM

Suggestions

Spoiler

For faster, more explosive animations for all players (step-backs, shot contests, dribble speed boosts, two-player animations when driving to the rim, etc.) - Increase the Game Speed setting. The higher you set Game Speed, the faster animations will play out.

To have more fun and success in Iso situations - Simply put, learn the new dribble system. Launches and speed boosts are a little different this year, so you will likely be hindering yourself with old habits. For the best non-cheese dribbling tutorial, check out this video by Kevin Cruz here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eka-guQQ1R8

If, for whatever reason, you are looking for details and suggestions for much older titles (2K21 and before), I have retained all previous updates to this thread below:

Spoiler

Update for Next-Gen 2K21

ALL of the below information is still accurate for the next-gen version of 2K21, EXCEPT for a noticeable change with how the Acceleration attribute slider affects the player with the ball. Whereas in years past the Acceleration attribute sliders had very little affect to the player with the ball, in next-gen 2K21 the Acceleration attribute slider has essentially a 1-to-1 affect here. That is to say, if you set the Acceleration attribute slider to 0, off-ball AND on-ball movement will take forever to get to top speed. Strangely enough, the Speed attribute slider still has no noticeable affect on the speed of the player with the ball.

So again, all the below information is true EXCEPT that the Acceleration attribute slider affects both on-ball AND off-ball acceleration.


*The information beyond this point remains in its original un-edited context*


Alright, after spending the better part of the last 2 weeks focusing on trying to correct animations, player movement with/without the ball, giving players "weight" while not limiting the explosiveness of playmakers, etc. I have FINALLY come to understand how all of the different speed and movement sliders work together in NBA 2K18 (EDIT: Details below are still accurate in 2K20).


Game Speed

Spoiler

This setting is the most wide-ranging in its influence, as it affects the speed of animations (jump shots, dribble moves, shot contests, low post moves, ride-the-hip animation, etc.), the speed of the ball in the air, as well as the speed/fluidity/weight of players with the ball.

That last part is most important, as many have complained about players feeling "floaty", sliding around the court, and not feeling like there's any weight involved. The Game Speed setting is the culprit. At higher settings you'll get more explosive animations, sure, but you'll also have players gliding around the court like it's an ice rink. With lower settings, animations aren't quite as explosive, but players with the ball finally feel like they're walking/running instead of skating, with the added benefit of allowing the game to trigger more context-based animations (dribbling in traffic without the game ignoring the on-ball defender).

"But Eccentric, we have the Speed, Acceleration, and Movement sliders, so why does Game Speed really matter?"

For that answer, continue reading...

Speed, Acceleration, and Lateral Quickness

Spoiler

Now these are the sliders you would THINK control everything movement-related, more or less. And in a way, they control what you'd expect them to. BUT, they don't control all movement equally. Let me explain.

There are two versions of movement: with the ball, and without the ball. The Speed and Acceleration attribute sliders DO control both, but not anywhere near equally. If you set either one to 0, you'd think the game would feel like everyone is stuck in the mud, but give it a try and you'll see that's not the case.

With Speed and/or Acceleration set to 0, you'll notice that movement without the ball is affected as you'd expect, with players moving at a snail's pace. HOWEVER, you'll also notice that movement WITH the ball is barely effected. What??? That's right: The Speed and Acceleration attribute sliders have a huge affect on the movement of players without the ball, but a very minimal affect on players while they dribble.

Lateral Quickness controls the speed at which players can pivot and change direction (only noticeable on defense or playing off the ball, not while dribbling), so think of this as the "turn the corner" defensive slider. If this is set low the player with the ball can just walk into the defender and the game will trigger a blow-by animation, no change of direction or dribble move required. With this set high the defender will stick with the ballhandler and the game will trigger a "ride the hip" animation or a "brick wall" animation. If it's nearly impossible to blow-by any defender you'll want to set Lateral Quickness lower. If you can blow-by Kawhi, you'll probably want to set this higher.

Movement Sliders

Spoiler

Non-surprisingly, these are the most straight-forward sliders of the group. These sliders are all correctly labeled in a common-sense way, and they simply affect the difference between the fastest and slowest players. You want the quickest players to really stand out? Increase the Max settings. You want slower players like PFs/Cs to still be able to move NOT in slow motion? Increase the Min settings.

Summary + Suggested Tweaks

Spoiler

"OK Eccentric, thanks for the essay... But I'm not a college professor, I'm a slider guru. Can you break this down so I can tweak the game to play the way I want it to?"

Alright alright, so I got a little wordy here, but I'll summarize it as best as I can and lay out a series of suggestions:

In the simplest terms, the Movement sliders set the Max and Min speed/acceleration of players on the court, and then the ACTUAL movement speed/acceleration (i.e. how fast/slow overall player animations look and feel) is controlled by the Game Speed setting (for ON BALL movement) and Speed/Acceleration (for OFF BALL movement).

Lower Acceleration = more weighted movement, as you won't instantly snap to full-speed. Lower Speed = more realistic movement, stopping the game from looking like it's in fast-forward.

Suggestions

For more realistic, responsive, and explosive animations (step-backs, shot contests, two-player animations when driving to the rim, etc.) - Increase the Game Speed setting. The higher you set Game Speed, the faster animations will play out.

To make players with the ball feel less "floaty" and more weighted - Decrease the Speed/Acceleration with Ball (Max/Min) movement sliders. Start with your fastest players by just tweaking the (Max) settings. Once you're happy with the look and feel of dribbling with fast players (Harden/Westbrook, Lebron, Kawhi/PG13, Kyrie, etc.) give the ball to your slowest forwards/centers and increase Speed/Acceleration with Ball (Min) until they are no longer moving in slow-motion.

To make off-ball/defensive movement feel less "floaty" and more weighted - Decrease the Speed/Acceleration without Ball (Max/Min) movement sliders. Start by controlling your fastest players and running around on defense. Tweak the Speed/Accel without Ball (Max) settings here until these fast players move and feel the way you want. From here, run around with your slowest forwards/centers and increase Speed/Acceleration without Ball (Min) until they are no longer moving in slow-motion. (I recommend setting the Max settings somewhere between 70-80 so the fastest players can stand out, while setting the Min settings to somewhere between 50-60 so slow players can still close out on shooters, protect the lane on help defense, and maneuver around the court realistically.)

Here's hoping my weeks of suffering before figuring all of this out is worth it to some of the other Slider Guru's out there.

If you have any questions at all or need suggestions to fix a specific movement issue, ASK! Be as detailed as you can and I will be happy to help!

[GamerKeima]

So what game speed do you recommend? And between the 40-50 for sa min rating what do you use?

[GamerKeima]

So what game speed do you recommend? And between the 40-50 for the* min rating what do you use?

[EccentricMeat]

Quote: Originally Posted by GamerKeima

So what game speed do you recommend? And between the 40-50 for the* min rating what do you use?

This post isn't to recommend exact settings, just to give a better explanation to how all the different movement settings interact.

You can have high Game Speed and low Movement sliders to compensate, or low Game Speed and high Movement sliders. There's really no perfect setting (or at least, I haven't been able to find one yet anyway) so try to find what feels/looks best to you and tweak from there!

[GamerKeima]

Can you update your sliders on psn with this new movement slider?

[EccentricMeat]

Quote: Originally Posted by GamerKeima

Can you update your sliders on psn with this new movement slider?

I haven’t finished any updates yet. This post is not to say “here’s the settings for perfect movement” as unfortunately there’s no such thing in 2K18. This post just breaks down how different facets of movement can be manipulated by the sliders to get the results you’re looking for. There’s no one correct way to tweak movement.

I’m still working on perfecting MY version of how I want movement to look/feel/play.

[vannwolfhawk]

Good stuff! I am not sure to thank you or scold you! LOL! I went down this rabbit hole last night for 6 hours after reading this to test and see what I could get. I was pretty happy with my previous set except a few minor things. This changed it all though. It really comes down to user preference in speed they like.

I was playing at speed 52 as I thought that was what controlled off ball speed and movement in plays etc... I have gone with 48 now and adjusted from there. Only problem I had to start over with where before I had great balance in foul calls, blocking fouls, charges, etc and had to really tweak the on ball D, lateral quickness, and drop the CPU fouls believe it or not to get that back.

I agree with everything you said though and it all worked great in the end! Thank you!

[EccentricMeat]

Quote: Originally Posted by vannwolfhawk

Good stuff! I am not sure to thank you or scold you! LOL! I went down this rabbit hole last night for 6 hours after reading this to test and see what I could get. I was pretty happy with my previous set except a few minor things. This changed it all though. It really comes down to user preference in speed they like. I was playing at speed 52 as I thought that was what controlled off ball speed and movement in plays etc... I have gone with 48 now and adjusted from there. Only problem I had to start over with where before I had great balance in foul calls, blocking fouls, charges, etc and had to really tweak the on ball D, lateral quickness, and drop the CPU fouls believe it or not to get that back. I agree with everything you said though and it all worked great in the end! Thank you!

See how much more enjoyable it can be to tweak sliders when you have a decent understanding of what those sliders do? If only 2K could come out and post these types of threads so that WE don’t have to [emoji28]

Glad it helped man!