NBA 2K11 Video: From the Demo at Gamescom

AI – preventing the ball handler from penetrating and getting to the hoop. When we first began development on NBA 2K11, revamping the defensive movement model was one of our top priorities - from both user-control and AI standpoint. This is essential especially for onball defenders. We could write the most intelligent defensive AI, but without the responsive and tight movement system to complement it, the whole system would feel broken. As often is the case with basketball games, the dribbler feels like they have so many tools at their disposal to break down the defender. With this new movement model, our AI defenders can easily keep up with the dribbler and react to moves and quick changes in direction. On top of that, we gave our defenders a cutoff move this year. It’s a quick hop move (in any desired direction) that allows our defender to react to the dribbler’s first step. Our onball AI defender, based on their defensive rating, will utilize this move at the first sign of a drive from the ball handler. The user can also execute this same move, but we can touch upon that on later Insights about controls. Going back to anticipating a drive/attack, the defender will sag off and give space when the dribbler sizes him up on the perimeter. That extra space could mean the difference between getting beat and getting a body on their man.



Logic for shading has also been improved. Defenders will shade their matchup to their dominant hand and force them to drive on a non-favored side – our Off-Hand Dribble rating plays into steal successes, making shading a valuable tool. The AI will be smart about this and will take into account the ball handler’s dribbling ability when shading, so you wouldn’t see a defender shading Chris Paul, who can pretty much go either way. Another aspect of the game where shading is utilized is forcing a player baseline from the wing, using the out of bounds line as a second defender (add in the backboard as a third). As a side note, the baseline cheese has been addressed in NBA 2K11, making this part of the court difficult to exploit this year. Forcing them to baseline can yield dribble-loss from bodyups (losing the ball or picking up their dribble) and tough baseline contact shots.

Help defense has also been given an upgrade this year. One of the issues last year was that our help defender took the shortest route possible to pick up the dribbler. It really killed them in the end because by the time they get close enough to the threat, a clear path to the basket is already available to the ball handler. What we’ve done this year is make the defender smarter by taking into consideration where the basket is at when committing to help. Instead of homing in like a missile, they will look for the driving lane and estimate the best point of intersect. Their priority is to close out the dribble lane, thus denying an easy look at the basket. Help defenders also now reduce pressure and sag off their man as they detect an incoming threat. This puts them in a better position to make that play at the ball.



Overall, our chase and pursuit logic has been reworked to better position the defenders on the court. For offball (and onball) defenders, they will now cut under the traffic when chasing after their man out in the perimeter. This way, they do not get tangled and get beat especially if their man is making a cut to the basket. It was pretty frustrating last year when AI defenders put themselves in a bad situation because of a poor pursuit angle and decision making. This is much better now with NBA 2K11.



Double teaming in the post has been improved to detect mismatches on the floor. Guys will now help out a vulnerable/overmatched defender – resulting from switches and rotations – when he’s being backed down. This way, when you find Nash being backed down by a big, best believe you will get some help down low.



Defenders are also smarter now in reacting to pick and rolls. Guys will hedge out to help his teammate. They will also drift towards the basket with the cutters, making you think twice about making that pass.



Rotation has been completely refined for 2K11. We’ve made it so that the rotation system is consistent; making it a part of the pick and roll, double team, and offball screen system. Whereas in years past they were handled separately by whatever system triggered it, it’s now centralized. What this means is that you will get consistent and smarter switches on the floor.