NBA Elite 11 Gameplay Q&A Follow-Up

[Andrew]

The following are answers to some questions I sent in via Yaw as a follow-up to our gameplay Q&A with NBA Elite 11 producer Novell Thomas.

• Unfortunately there are no in-game injuries again this year, as the focus was on implementing the new Hands-On Control and laying the groundwork with the physics engine.
  
  
• Putbacks and tip-ins are both contextual and user-controlled; that is, they are contingent on a player being in the right position to attempt a tip or putback dunk (as well as their ability to dunk in the first place when it comes to putbacks) but it is possible to position a player in the appropriate spot adjacent to the basket and then attempt a putback or tip-in by going up for a rebound. This means there aren't any separate controls to force a tip or putback attempt as there were with Freestyle Air, but with appropriate positioning you can perform those actions on the offensive glass.
  
  
• Self alley-oops can be performed as you're heading towards the basket with no one in front of you. Press the right trigger on Xbox 360 (R2 on the PS3) and up on the right stick at the same time to toss the ball off the backboard. Continuing moving towards the basket and your player will go up and slam it home.
  
  
• Changing shot arcs is apparently achieved by movement on the right stick as you're attempting a shot. Further clarification will be forthcoming.

Thanks again to Yaw for clearing up a couple of matters there. Check back soon for our next Q&A which will cover game modes, thanks to everyone who submitted questions for consideration.

[JaoSming]

shame about the injuries thing since if you play all of your dynasty games, technically you'll never game injure anyone (aside from practice injuries i guess)

the only thing I really dont like is that self alleyoops are the same control input as a normal dunk, so situations seen in the bad Elite24 videos may come up where the game thinks youre open but really not. how do the glass alleyoops work? same as 2k?

actually, not that happy about no forceful way to choose to do a putback....in PC Live games rather than take a buzzer beater I normally shoot with a few seconds left so I can try to tip in a miss....whereas with 2k I dont even try that since I cant manually control if the player will tip it back in time or come down with the ball.

thanks to Yaw though

[Axel The Great]

One thing I'd like to know about the gameplay: At the end of close games, when the CPU is trying to intentionally foul, is it possible to run away and vice-versa? Or are we still getting sucked into the animation?

[Andrew]

Yeah the lack of injuries is a bit of a blow for Dynasty Mode. Hopefully that'll be among the things they implement in the second year of real time physics, in the meantime we'll have to go back to some old solutions (dice rolls, random injury generators, mimicking real life) to put players on the shelf outside of simulation, if so desired.

I'm guessing glass alley-oops will occur when you trigger the backboard pass with one player but another player is in better position to continue on for the dunk. Is that similar to how it works in 2K?

I'd prefer more control over the offensive rebounding a la Freestyle air as well and I think it would be for the best if that's brought back in future games in the spirit of giving the player total control. I'd say we can make it work though, putbacks were handled like that in NBA Live 2004 and that was a fun game.

[JaoSming]

in 2k its done with the same button press as a normal alleyoop, the trailing player's position tells the game if it is going to be off the glass or not

[Patr1ck]

But in 2K, to trigger it you have to point the left stick towards the basket. I can throw alley oops to a trailing player without going off the backboard by pointing towards the trailing player when I press the alleyoop buttons.