New Developer Insight "Making a Smarter Game"

[JaoSming]

http://community.2ksports.com/community ... 96112&l=11

One way we attempted to satisfy all parties was to introduce a new option called Game Style. Changing this option will significantly change the way you experience NBA 2K11. So when you get your hands on the game this October, play around with the different settings, as well as the difficulty level setting, to see what best fits your style of game and experience level. Here’s a quick rundown of what we were shooting for with the different settings:

Default: Kind of a hyper-realism. Shooting %’s will be slightly higher than real life, there will be fewer fouls, slightly more dunks, more and 1’s, etc. “Let ‘em play hoops” so to speak.
Casual: This is the setting you want if you like up and down play with lots of dunks and highlight moments. There won’t be a whole lot of stoppages and you’ll see higher scoring across the board. Arcade-style play is probably the best way to describe it.
Simulation: Real life stats. This is my game style of choice. With 12-min. quarters, you will easily see NBA averages across your stat lines. Don’t expect anything easy in the paint, you’ll have to work a lot harder and execute good basketball strategy to be successful in Sim.
Custom: If you manually modify sliders and settings on your own, the game slider will automatically change to Custom.

Here are some of the new tendencies that we added for 2K11:

Tendency to use glass
Tendency to Give an Go
Playmaker tendency
Touches tendency
Tendency to attack strong
Tendency to use the new shots
Dribble Move Tendencies
Tendency for putback dunks/layups

That was a pretty impressive Insight on Offense and Defense...I'm glad they are going to cater to little arcade spazzes like me when i just want to fuck around and I love all the things they are doing to the help defense....2k10 was a good game but it looks like they are going to take care of almost all the griefs I had with the defense.

[Andrew]

Sounds great. I expect I'll going with Simulation, though I'll give them all a try to see how they differ and the different experiences that they offer.

[BrotherJRB]

I am so glad they have mentioned the playbooks in the last two "Insights". That is what has been holding 2k back for years.

I can't wait until we can get this on PC and start modding it. Sounds like some more tendencies.

[Dan's Brain]

I'll probably be looking at Simulation as well, with a couple of inevitable tweaks (hopefully only minor ones). Also like the new tendencies that have been added.

What would "Tendency to use the new shots" mean?

[JaoSming]

in the insight they mentioned that would be multiple tendencies for all the new kinda of shots....I'm guessing that would include stuff like hanging on the rim and other stuff mentioned in the other insight.

[Dan's Brain]

in the insight they mentioned that would be multiple tendencies for all the new kinda of shots....I'm guessing that would include stuff like hanging on the rim and other stuff mentioned in the other insight.

Hmmm. Fair enough. Interesting that they would include a tendency specifically for the new shots, rather than just having them fall under the umbrella of whatever shot type they are.

This also made me happy:

End of game logic was a big one as well. There’s nothing worse than having an epic back and forth battle with the AI only to have it make a bone-headed decision in the closing moments to seal its fate. Too many times the AI would dribble out the entire shot clock when needing a quick basket, fire up a long deuce when down by three, or rush in for a forced shot when it could’ve dribbled out the clock for a win. We spent a lot of time cleaning up those types of issues in NBA 2K11.

This took a significant back step in 2k10. Glad to see that they've acknowledged it and have hopefully fixed it. Hopefully they've also fixed the blowout logic. The trailing team should use its garbage time players as well as the team that's leading, and the CPU's insistence on using the full court press at the end of games that it can't possibly win gets a bit grating.

And good fixes for the transition/fast break game too.

[dennis09]

this sounds really good especially the difficulties I prefer simulation so that no more guys like lebron can drive easily at the paint hahahah
Also the defense also are being improve like theyre real - life counterpart they really giving the attentions especially the AI in locking down the defender can wait till my hands get this game

I HOPE THEY WILL FIX THE ACCESSORIES ESPECIALLY LEBRONS 2rubbers

[Deyman]

I'll be using all of them actually. But I'll set Simulation as my default. I'll use the other 2 occasionally though. I'm looking forward to NBA 2K11

[shadowgrin]

Simulation for association play and Default for specific games like the ASG & Rookie Challenge.

End of game logic was a big one as well. There’s nothing worse than having an epic back and forth battle with the AI only to have it make a bone-headed decision in the closing moments to seal its fate. Too many times the AI would dribble out the entire shot clock when needing a quick basket, fire up a long deuce when down by three, or rush in for a forced shot when it could’ve dribbled out the clock for a win.

Very few instances these happened to me in 2K10 as compared to 2K9 (which was a lot). Haven't experienced the cpu forcing a shot, it always dribbles out the clock, it even has better clock management than me. As for the first two, the instances I've seen it happen was when the non-superstars have the ball. No AI problems when superstars like Kobe or Wade had the ball.
All in all, it's a good thing that they're refining end game logic for 2K11.

Another big area of improvement is in our “Freelance” offense.
So, for example, if you break down your initial defender and drive the lane, your bigs should give you space inside, while your perimeter players look to spot up for jumpers or trail you in for a dish off or offensive board.
A lot of times your perimeter players on the weak side would creep into the mid-range or post area in NBA 2K10. This caused the defense to be a lot more compressed, resulting in an annoyingly packed interior. Now, everyone spaces the court much better, allowing for more realistic driving lanes and kickout opportunities.

Among other things, you’ll see changes like: improved pacing, players taking more intelligent lanes, running the break all the way through rather than spotting up unnecessarily, and players no longer crossing paths on their way up the court.

most significant AI-related offense change for NBA 2K11… revamped plays! Up until this year, plays in 2K basketball have been generic.

Finally.

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

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.

Amen. Hopefully the shading is improved from 2K10. I always thought shading in 2K9 was better than 2K10.

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. This is much better now with NBA 2K11.

Yeah! Stupid AI teammates.

Guys will now help out a vulnerable/overmatched defender – resulting from switches and rotations – when he’s being backed down.

Used to happen so much in 2K10 that I've adjusted to it when playing defense. No biggie but still good that they addressed it.

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.

Yeah! Stupid AI teammates. Just when I learned to effectively neutralize pick and rolls in a videogame (I sucked even in Live) stupid cpu teammates destroys all of it by leaving opponents open for the shot/drive after the screen due to bad rotation.

[hova-]

I hope that the defense will finally be able to defend the stupid passes inside. Without touching the sliders about 70% of the CPU's points come from exactly under the basket. Defenders have so many problems right now to stay between their opponent and the basket which is a must in basketball.

Some of these improvements sound really promising, whereas the screens do not look way better than last year.

[George7]

I will use the default,as it seems it's a more fancy version of simulation and more active.
Simulation couldn't be prefered(by me) unless you play 12 minutes.

[Andrew]

Well, that's what it's there for.