I will try to explain the rationale behind every tweak I think is conducive to get the results we want - gameplay and stats that reflect what we see on TV today - so fair warning, things can get pretty wordy. Skip 'em if you just want the values.
This set is tested with Player Lock User v CPU with minimal user interference (going along with auto playcalling, shooting/rotating when I should be). These will work best on Player Lock though they should be mostly fine for non-player lock User v CPU - I would probably increase CPU Def Awareness and decrease user shooting values across the board for this. Have not tested for User v User or CPU v CPU and sorry to say but I won't be doing either of those. I do constantly test this set and look to update it frequently so check back if a patch/update drops, no guarantees though.
I recommend turning Offense Playcalling on Auto, Offensive PlayVision on All Plays and PlayVision Display on Lite. You can still call plays manually but you won't have to every trip down the floor and you'll still have a cohesive offense. I get that PlayVision isn't for everyone visually but I like to know where to go and what to do for each offensive set, and tbh it is less visually annoying than the green splashes.
Tested on default 2K roster, no tendency/attribute edits. Only edits were to player current Hot Zones. I would suggest you to do this edit for even more accurate percentages from each zone, but it is a chore and I totally understand if you can't be bothered to. If you're using a custom roster with boosted 3PA tendencies then this set will probably be too much for you.
What you should be seeing with this set is 25-40 3PA and 15-25 FTA consistently. Remember, at the end of the day your playstyle has the biggest effect on the outcome. If you like to drive in for dunks all day, your FTA will naturally be higher; if you fail to find the open man for 3, your 3PA will be lower. Also, it goes without saying the results depends on the team you play as and against.
These are specifically for patch 1.09. If you're in these slider threads you already know 2K love to do their secret tweaks in their patches and updates, so if/when the next major one happens these sliders might perform much differently and become unusable/obsolete. I feel like no great slider set posted in the regular season is forever.
Go to your roster and go to the Game Plan tab, and add 80 onto whatever the default number of Zone Usage is for each coach (eg. Popovic goes from 3 to 83, Stevens 15 to 95 etc). I got this from another thread here and not only does it help a lot with the lack of spacing for 3s in default settings, it also looks a lot more like modern NBA defenses.
Then, go to the Points of Emphasis tab and change every single coach's Defensive Aggression to Play Physical Defense. This will greatly affect the number of shooting fouls you get.
VERSION 1.1 Asterisk denotes changes - updated 29/12
Spoiler
SETTINGS
Game Difficulty: Superstar
Quarter Length: 12 Minutes
Fatigue: On
Injuries: On
Game Speed: 50
Foul Out: 6
Shot Feedback: Off
Game Difficulty: I've played on HOF for many years and tried many HOF-based sets this year. Why I chose not to go with HOF as the base is the discrepancy in your teammates and CPU opponent's speed and shooting capabilities: in HOF your teammates are slower than the CPU and they'll make more shots than your teammates do on equal values. I try the best I can in this set to make things as equal as possible for both user and CPU.
Game Speed:I don't really wanna go higher mainly because I hate having a fast in-game clock, but also because any higher and the AI on both sides seem to just love turning every possession into a fast break.
CONTROLLER SETTINGS
Shot Timing: Shots and Layups
Free Throw Timing: User Timing
Defensive Assist With Intense-D: 10
Boxout Assist Strength: 100
Defensive Assist With Intense-D: I've read about having this up to 80-100. I feel like these are up to personal tastes/skill level, so do with it what you will but personally anything above 10 and I don't feel like I have control over where I wanna be.
CPU/USER SLIDERS
CPU values first/User values second. One value means same for both
Shot Successes: Shooting success is tuned in mind for the CPU, both your teammates and your opponent. On lower values they will really struggle to make anything and the game will be a cakewalk. There is a fairly high variance for the CPU's percentages, especially on 3s. This is highly dependent on whether shots were defended well or not and whether the guys shooting are good shooters or not. You should be seeing FG% anywhere from 38-52%, and 3P% to be around 33-42%. Naturally percentages depend a lot on a ton of variables, ie. if you take a ton of 3s with a poor 3PT shooter your percentage is bound to tank. You should be able to defend Giannis at the rim with good positioning and timing, while end of bench guys won't miss every single shot at the rim. Feel free to tweak to your personal taste/playstyle, but keep in mind they're very sensitive this year so a notch or 2 either way drastically affects the resulting percentages. As previously mentioned, for full team control I would advise dropping User shooting successes down across the board. Also of note, the AI also seems to be hard coded to go on hot streaks and dry spells where everything falls/misses, which seems to be unaffected even by 100 offensive consistency.
Pass Accuracy: Lowered to 30 for a small amount of unforced turnovers. Any lower and the players have difficulty catching normal passes where they get into that jump catch animation too often and as a result lose open shot opportunities.
Ball Security: Teams average about 15 TOs a game and this is about the only way to get it even close, increase this value back to default if you don't really care about getting realistic turnover numbers.
Body-Up Sensitivity: Also for turnovers, but essential for drawing shooting fouls and good for stopping unrealistic fast break opportunities.
Pass Speed: The bump in passing speed helps players to be able to get their open shots off. When the ball travels too slowly shot opportunities get closed out too quickly by the AI.
Pretty standard stuff here. The contact frequency is obviously to draw fouls. In real life, contested shots don't mean missing 90% of the time, unlike the game. Initially I tweaked jump shot gather and release to combat this, but the CPU has trouble either making or missing anything when you mess with their gather/release. At default gather/release and increased shooting values, shot makes aren't entirely dependent on being wide open but good shot defense still matters.
Acceleration/Speed/Lateral Quickness: A +2 bump on all movement for more realism, but not overly fast so they run on every opportunity.
Ball Handling: Slight decrease so not every guard is a dribble god that can blow by anyone.
Hands: For increasing turnovers.
Dunking Ability: Guys don't nearly go for dunks as much in real life as they do in the game. Insane Ja Morant posters will still happen, just less frequently.
Blocking: Ever since launch blocks have been way too overpowered and easy. At 33 you should be seeing 4-7 blocks per game, which is what teams in real life average. Of course when you go up against or use the Anthony Davises and Rudy Goberts of the world, you'll see the higher end of this spectrum.
Off/Def Awareness: These are incredibly important to generate 3PA. At default the CPU loves to stick to their man like glue, and this helps them create the space to get the CPU looks from 3 - most of the time the CPU needs to be at least semi open for them to attempt a 3.
Offensive Rebounding: Another issue since launch is CPU having an unfair advantage on the offensive glass. For some reason they get to every loose ball quicker than you and haul in rebounds quicker while you're still in shot contest animations, so this nerf in offensive rebounding equals the playing field. 25 and 26 seem like an insignificant difference but on 26 the opponent is far more aggressive than your teammates on the offensive glass. You should see 8-12 offensive rebounds for each team with these values, given you're not fielding a team of midgets vs a team of giants (do not take Offensive Rebounding totals in the team comparisons into consideration. As said by many others this isn't the actual offensive rebounding total; check the real ones in the boxscores by adding up the totals yourself).
Defensive Rebounding: Nerfed so big men don't automatically gobble up every rebound and end up with 20-30 boards. Better rebounding numbers spread across all players on the court.
Off/Def Consistency: I'm trying to get consistent stats so I want all players playing to their abilities consistently. Moreso good for testing purposes so I don't have to worry about an ice cold Donovan Mitchell or something, but you are welcome to turn it down to 50 if you want to see those ice cold streaks in your game.
TENDENCIES
Take Inside Shots: 10
Take Close Shots: 5
Take Mid-Range Shots: 5
Take 3PT Shots: 100
Post Shots: 50
Attack the Basket: 15*
Look for Post Players: 50
Throw Alley-Oops: 50
Attempt Dunks: 35*
Attempt Putbacks: 50
Play Passing Lanes: 100
Go for On-Ball Steals: 100
Contest Shots: 100
Backdoor Cuts: 50
Tendencies: Don't worry about all those tendencies at 5; the CPU will still drive in for dunks and layups plenty. Shot distribution is still fairly even and they won't really go for mid-range shots, most teams will focus on either layups or 3s.
Play Passing Lanes/Go for On-Ball Steals: Increasing TOs. Necessary evil.
Contest Shots: At 100 is the only way you'll consistently get those FTA numbers up. With this up as well, it makes up for the low Defensive Awareness so while the defender may not be in great defensive position, they'll still go and try disrupt the shots. I see about 1 jump shot foul on a 3PT attempt every few games with this, which is a lot more than never before this tweak.
No, I don't get any charging fouls, and no, I don't know how to get them. Other than that you'll see plenty of ticky-tack fouls to up those foul numbers. Illegal Screen for some reason feels like the only foul slider that's sensitive, if you go up to 70 you'll see about 3-4 illegal screens a game, which seems way too much.
MOVEMENT
Speed with Ball (Max rating): 65
Speed with Ball (Min rating): 45
Acceleration with Ball (Max rating): 65
Acceleration with Ball (Min rating): 45
Speed without Ball (Max rating): 70
Speed without Ball (Min rating): 50
Acceleration without Ball (Max rating): 70
Acceleration without Ball (Min rating): 50
Just a slight nerf to on-ball speeds, and a slight boost to slow players without the ball so they don't take forever to get up and down the court. Since 1.09 I felt they sped up ball handlers too much and it leads to way too many fast breaks where there shouldn't be.
VERSION 1.0
Spoiler
SETTINGS
Game Difficulty: Superstar
Quarter Length: 12 Minutes
Fatigue: On
Injuries: On
Game Speed: 50
Foul Out: 6
Shot Feedback: Off
Game Difficulty: I've played on HOF for many years and tried many HOF-based sets this year. Why I chose not to go with HOF as the base is the discrepancy in your teammates and CPU opponent's speed and shooting capabilities: in HOF your teammates are slower than the CPU and they'll make more shots than your teammates do on equal values. I try the best I can in this set to make things as equal as possible for both user and CPU.
Game Speed:I don't really wanna go higher mainly because I hate having a fast in-game clock, but also because any higher and the AI on both sides seem to just love turning every possession into a fast break.
CONTROLLER SETTINGS
Shot Timing: Shots and Layups
Free Throw Timing: User Timing
Defensive Assist With Intense-D: 10
Boxout Assist Strength: 100
Defensive Assist With Intense-D: I've read about having this up to 80-100. I feel like these are up to personal tastes/skill level, so do with it what you will but personally anything above 10 and I don't feel like I have control over where I wanna be.
CPU/USER SLIDERS
CPU values first/User values second. One value means same for both
Shot Successes: Shooting success is tuned in mind for the CPU, both your teammates and your opponent. On lower values they will really struggle to make anything and the game will be a cakewalk. There is a fairly high variance for the CPU's percentages, especially on 3s. This is highly dependent on whether shots were defended well or not and whether the guys shooting are good shooters or not. You should be seeing FG% anywhere from 38-52%, and 3P% to be around 33-42%. Naturally percentages depend a lot on a ton of variables, ie. if you take a ton of 3s with a poor 3PT shooter your percentage is bound to tank. You should be able to defend Giannis at the rim with good positioning and timing, while end of bench guys won't miss every single shot at the rim. Feel free to tweak to your personal taste/playstyle, but keep in mind they're very sensitive this year so a notch or 2 either way drastically affects the resulting percentages. As previously mentioned, for full team control I would advise dropping User shooting successes down across the board. Also of note, the AI also seems to be hard coded to go on hot streaks and dry spells where everything falls/misses, which seems to be unaffected even by 100 offensive consistency.
Pass Accuracy: Lowered to 30 for a small amount of unforced turnovers. Any lower and the players have difficulty catching normal passes where they get into that jump catch animation too often and as a result lose open shot opportunities.
Ball Security: Teams average about 15 TOs a game and this is about the only way to get it even close, increase this value back to default if you don't really care about getting realistic turnover numbers.
Body-Up Sensitivity: Also for turnovers, but essential for drawing shooting fouls and good for stopping unrealistic fast break opportunities.
Pass Speed: The bump in passing speed helps players to be able to get their open shots off. When the ball travels too slowly shot opportunities get closed out too quickly by the AI.
Pretty standard stuff here. The contact frequency is obviously to draw fouls. In real life, contested shots don't mean missing 90% of the time, unlike the game. Initially I tweaked jump shot gather and release to combat this, but the CPU has trouble either making or missing anything when you mess with their gather/release. At default gather/release and increased shooting values, shot makes aren't entirely dependent on being wide open but good shot defense still matters.
Acceleration/Speed/Lateral Quickness: A +2 bump on all movement for more realism, but not overly fast so they run on every opportunity.
Ball Handling: Slight decrease so not every guard is a dribble god that can blow by anyone.
Hands: For increasing turnovers.
Dunking Ability: Guys don't nearly go for dunks as much in real life as they do in the game. Insane Ja Morant posters will still happen, just less frequently.
Blocking: Ever since launch blocks have been way too overpowered and easy. At 33 you should be seeing 4-7 blocks per game, which is what teams in real life average. Of course when you go up against or use the Anthony Davises and Rudy Goberts of the world, you'll see the higher end of this spectrum.
Off/Def Awareness: These are incredibly important to generate 3PA. At default the CPU loves to stick to their man like glue, and this helps them create the space to get the CPU looks from 3 - most of the time the CPU needs to be at least semi open for them to attempt a 3.
Offensive Rebounding: Another issue since launch is CPU having an unfair advantage on the offensive glass. For some reason they get to every loose ball quicker than you and haul in rebounds quicker while you're still in shot contest animations, so this nerf in offensive rebounding equals the playing field. 25 and 26 seem like an insignificant difference but on 26 the opponent is far more aggressive than your teammates on the offensive glass. You should see 8-12 offensive rebounds for each team with these values, given you're not fielding a team of midgets vs a team of giants (do not take Offensive Rebounding totals in the team comparisons into consideration. As said by many others this isn't the actual offensive rebounding total; check the real ones in the boxscores by adding up the totals yourself).
Defensive Rebounding: Nerfed so big men don't automatically gobble up every rebound and end up with 20-30 boards. Better rebounding numbers spread across all players on the court.
Off/Def Consistency: I'm trying to get consistent stats so I want all players playing to their abilities consistently. Moreso good for testing purposes so I don't have to worry about an ice cold Donovan Mitchell or something, but you are welcome to turn it down to 50 if you want to see those ice cold streaks in your game.
TENDENCIES
Take Inside Shots: 10
Take Close Shots: 5
Take Mid-Range Shots: 5
Take 3PT Shots: 100
Post Shots: 50
Attack the Basket: 10
Look for Post Players: 50
Throw Alley-Oops: 50
Attempt Dunks: 50
Attempt Putbacks: 50
Play Passing Lanes: 100
Go for On-Ball Steals: 100
Contest Shots: 100
Backdoor Cuts: 50
Tendencies: Don't worry about all those tendencies at 5; the CPU will still drive in for dunks and layups plenty. Shot distribution is still fairly even and they won't really go for mid-range shots, most teams will focus on either layups or 3s.
Play Passing Lanes/Go for On-Ball Steals: Increasing TOs. Necessary evil.
Contest Shots: At 100 is the only way you'll consistently get those FTA numbers up. With this up as well, it makes up for the low Defensive Awareness so while the defender may not be in great defensive position, they'll still go and try disrupt the shots. I see about 1 jump shot foul on a 3PT attempt every few games with this, which is a lot more than never before this tweak.
No, I don't get any charging fouls, and no, I don't know how to get them. Other than that you'll see plenty of ticky-tack fouls to up those foul numbers. Illegal Screen for some reason feels like the only foul slider that's sensitive, if you go up to 70 you'll see about 3-4 illegal screens a game, which seems way too much.
MOVEMENT
Speed with Ball (Max rating): 65
Speed with Ball (Min rating): 45
Acceleration with Ball (Max rating): 65
Acceleration with Ball (Min rating): 45
Speed without Ball (Max rating): 70
Speed without Ball (Min rating): 50
Acceleration without Ball (Max rating): 70
Acceleration without Ball (Min rating): 50
Just a slight nerf to on-ball speeds, and a slight boost to slow players without the ball so they don't take forever to get up and down the court. Since 1.09 I felt they sped up ball handlers too much and it leads to way too many fast breaks where there shouldn't be.
Forgive me for the lack of screenshots but I've been testing and tweaking this set endlessly and I haven't been satisfied enough with the results until now. In no way will I claim this set to be absolutely perfect, but it works well enough most of the time to achieve the numbers I'm hoping to see. You can take whatever part you like and put them into your own sets, just bear in mind that values in slider sets really do work in conjunction with each other - once you edit something it's almost definitely tied to something else.
I don't care about credit as I'm no annual slider maker, in fact I've never posted sliders and only did so because I want others hoping for the same kind of realistic gaming experience to be able to achieve those results for yourselves. I've always relied on this community for great slider sets but this year with the amount of tweaking/patching 2K do and less community slider sets, I thought I'd pull a bit of my own weight and do something that could help the community. So please give them a fair shot, and if you do feel free to share your results and thoughts, positive and negative all welcome.
zniv - great post. Thank you for the explanations. While I'm working with some concepts that are a little different than your set, your descriptions have me re-thinking a few things and changing some of my sliders. Very thoughtful and helpful context.
hey which console are you on? if your on ps4 can you please post the roster and slider set you are using? thanks.
I’m on PS4, but as I said in the OP I’m just using the official 2K rosters. The slider set isn’t uploaded, maybe I’ll do it tomorrow but I don’t mind if anyone wants to post them on whatever console.
Will players like Kobe still utilize their mid range jumper with these tendencies?
Honestly I’m not sure, I designed this set specifically to play like the modern NBA. I didn’t test it with any retro teams so while the players should still play similar to how they should, there would be way too many 3PAs and layups/fouls at the rim and not enough mid-range attempts relative to the mid-range heavy eras.
If you mean for the guys in today’s game with a lot of mid-ranges tendencies like LeBron, DeRozan, Kawhi, and half the Knicks then they will still play like themselves and play a lot in that area, as long as their tendencies haven’t been tweaked with.
zniv - great post. Thank you for the explanations. While I'm working with some concepts that are a little different than your set, your descriptions have me re-thinking a few things and changing some of my sliders. Very thoughtful and helpful context.
Glad it could be helpful. I wanted to show my math I suppose behind the sliders so at least the user will know exactly what it is they’re tweaking, and if anyone wants to use that info for their own tweaks they’re more than welcome to.
Will players like Kobe still utilize their mid range jumper with these tendencies?
Like with all sliders I always suggest tweaking things for you own playstyle and preferences.
I look for key concepts. These sliders have certain settings i have not seen with most others like def awareness being so low. But the comments explain why and you can make changes to tweak.
I personally have midrange at 25 to get a little more mid range game.
12-22-2019, 05:34 AM
