NBA Elite 11 Blog: Defense

Check it out here.

- Ensure “Hands-On Control” applied to defense just as much as offense.
- Reward defenders for good positioning using the new Real Physics system
- Provide the user the tools to be proactive on defense.
- And most importantly - making defense fun to play.

I'd say they've certainly got the right approach with that checklist, hopefully they've achieved satisfactory results across the board.

On Ball Defense – the most important aspect of defense is guarding the ball. This year we’ve developed a great system for dribbling the ball using a combination of the left and right analog sticks. This gives the offensive player the ability to pull off any type of dribble move, at any time, in any direction, while always maintaining user control. It’s a very powerful game play mechanic that could have been very unbalanced had we not put the same emphasis on guarding the ball.

That's encouraging to hear, especially as some of the videos seem to have been geared towards showing the offensive moves, as is often the case.

We also have an advanced control using the left trigger and left stick called the defensive hop. So if you want to cut off your man and beat him to a spot you can tap the left trigger in combination with the left stick for that bigger push slide to cut off the ball, lunge in for a steal or get back into position. If you misuse the defensive hop feature you can put yourself out of position, off balance and likely to get your ankles broken. Once we achieved skill based defense where the user was in control of their actions we had to apply ratings so that we could differentiate good defenders from bad ones.

Pat and others have mentioned that move in their hands-on impressions. Sounds like there's a little risk/reward in that with both player and user skill coming into play. Hopefully it'll be a useful tool if used effective and with a good defender, but at the same time not to be too powerful for either the user or the CPU.

To steal the ball just tap down on the right stick. This year we give you full control over your movement and the hand will track the ball at all times. We use player ratings to determine how quick and how well a player will track the ball. Since the steal system is not a canned scenario, steals are possible in all different situations. The ball can be stripped while dribbling, during pump-fakes, euro steps, hesitation dribbles, and pretty much any time the ball is exposed to the defender. Players with high steal ratings can attempt to move around the ball carrier to get a good angle at the ball, but risk being put out of position if the ball carrier anticipates the steal and crosses them over. As an advanced control you can also choose which hand to steal with by moving the right stick left or right and rolling it down.

Like it.

In the past a player would have a set of block animations and when a block started the blocker would select one animation and play it out with the hope of contacting the ball. To assist the block, some warping was done that made the defender look unnatural and floating. In some cases a two player block scenario would play out that would be identical each time it triggered. In the new system the user has full control of the jump direction and jump timing. The upper body can dynamically adjust to the ball position and contest or swat through the duration of the defender flight. This means that while timed jumps will be more successful as the defender will be able to attempt the block at the apex of the jump. Early or late jumps may still block the ball, but it will be less frequent as the ball will tend to be further away from the defender. Since the upper body is actually adjusting to the ball position, no warping is required to get the defender in the correct position. If the ball is slightly to the right, the animation will adjust by blending to block animations so that the hand still makes contact with the ball. Ratings are factored in to determine how quickly the blocker can react to the ball position, the blockers ability to properly time the swat and the range at which the blocker can adjust to reach. With this dynamic system, uncanned and exciting blocks emerge naturally rather than being pre-scripted. When you see great moments like big swat blocks, fingertip deflections or chase down blocks of the backboard - they are always different. The same technology also applies to rebounding and great players can dominate the boards by boxing out their man, throwing their weight around and timing the rebound attempt. It’s cool when you can see the shot going left or right as it’s going towards the rim and adjust your rebound positioning. I can watch the release of any jumper to know if it’s going to be long or short. Rebounding now takes skill.

That too.

You can contest a shot with either hand by holding the right stick to the left or right. The cool thing about this feature is that you can actually see the effect the shooters ability to hit a shot. At anytime in instant replay you can see the shooting HUD on the player who’s controlling the ball. Depending on skill level and the player – the shot contest will shrink the shooters aim and power making it a tougher shot (this obviously has a similar affect when you actually try and block the shot). Using the contest mechanic instead of a block will allow the defender to remain in position while having an effect on his shooting ability. You can also contest the shot with both arms up by holding down the left trigger and moving the right stick up. This mechanic is great to use inside when you want to contest but avoid the foul.

Nice. The controls are a little more complex than they were with Freestyle control but at the same time aren't too contrived in my opinion and should be easy enough to master. Hopefully contesting shots will have a bit more of an impact than it did in NBA Live 10.

Just like everywhere else the right stick acts as your arms/hands and you can block/deflect passes by moving the right stick either left or right. There’s no better feeling than giving your opponent a passing lane and then sticking your arm our to bat down the pass.Take Charge – Although take charge is not completely new feature we had to do a lot of tuning. Due to the new ways to attack the basket (eurosteps, one-foot, two take-offs, prohops and spin gathers) we had to tune it to ensure people wouldn’t exploit all of the new ways to attack the hoop. The mechanic is very simple – hold the left trigger to set your feet to take the charge. You can also use this in combination with the defensive hops to get in front of you man for the charge attempt.

Good stuff. Sounds like they've got the basics covered with the controls, here's hoping it's as good as advertised.

The defensive hop was not in the game at the community event. Sovartus was the one who suggested it to the developers. I'm glad they put it in. I suggested the rest.

Show off.

The defensive hop was not in the game at the community event.

My mistake. I'm sure it's been mentioned in subsequent hands-on previews though.