Bought it, played it - some questions, please read

[jonthefon]

I don't know, maybe you're unlucky.

Defending really is a steep learning curve. But after a while, you develop reflexes like a cat and can pretty much anticipate them shooting. Just keep working on it.

I'd say keep fiddling with FT sliders until you shoot realistic percentages with all players. I've been shooting 90% with Dirk in my dynasty, 60ish% with Dampier and 84% with Harris, all close to real-life numbers.

[JT_55]

Are you using manual shot control or automatic? If you are good at timing your jump and release, manual should be a bit better cause the CPU will sometimes miss easy shots for you because of the "cheating" factor.

[Leander]

I use manual shot control. I used to play with cpu control as I didn't want my skill to affect a player's scoring (with training players would shoot better and better in my dynasty...but their FG should only be calculated by the players' ratings)...now I play with user control as I can adjust shots and have better control.

Maybe I just replay with Charlotte vs. Chicago and cpu control this time.

Concerning freethrows I have to say that the ratings have nothing to do with FT% in my case. I almost hit every shot with players that hit approx. 65% of their FTs while I have difficulty with players shooting 85%.
A fast moving T-meter has a certain rhythm...I know when to press. But a better player has not this rhythm, the T-meter moves too slowly to have a rhythm...and I press too early, fall asleep and so on. LOL
(I'm talking about Live 2003 here)

[Leander]

I'm getting better!
Played with Charlotte against the Bulls, with cpu shot control.
The game was tied for 3 quarters (tied or 4 behind)...finally, I lost by 6.

I found out that my D was wrong. I still played Live 2003-D where there is no bumping. In 2003 I go for interceptions and blocks. In 2005 it is important to have body contact during man to man defense. Having only the C controlled and timing his jump to reject the shot doesn't work like in 2003.

The commentary is a bit stupid. "... is entering for the first time"...although he even started. LOL

I held Ben Wallace to 6 rebounds. He also had foul problems, with 3 early ones and a total of 5. Threes went in all the time although guarded. And I still can't avoid easy driving baskets. But all in all I played better D than the games before.

Question: how do you run a fastbreak? I have only 4-6 fastbreak points in a game. The cpu is really good but my players aren't. I pass...the player catches the ball and STOPS. Slow passes all the time. Why is that? Is this a bug? Or is there a gamepad combination? Pass...ball caught...stop...pass, ball caught, stop. Slow as hell. Moreover, I run and run...my player is defended but my teammates don't run with me, they just stand around. That's why fastbreaks are frustrating.

Here are the game stats:

Current Game Chicago Charlotte

Pts 99 93
Rebs 35 41
Ast 15 14
Stl 5 8
Blk 7 4
Fouls 23 15
TO 12 10
FG/Att 42/79 36/79
FG% .532 .456
3P/Att 5/14 4/17
3P% .357 .235
FT/Att 10/17 17/36
FT% .588 .472
O. Reb 7 13
D. Reb 28 28

I got more rebounds for the first time! And could have won if my players made more FTs. The problem is that Gerald Wallace and Okafor are bad shooters from the line.

Here is the boxscore. Sean May is really good. Played well in two games.

[jonthefon]

Again, keep fiddling with FT sliders until you shoot them well enough

[Leander]

Jon There is midrange shooting, user and cpu.

1) What if I change the user shooting BUT play with shotcontrol = cpu? Is it still affected?

I play with shotcontrol cpu and want to lower my opponent's FG% while increasing mine. How to?

2) I played vs. Toronto and they took 28 3PA. They either went for a layup or shot from downtown. Also, the guards shoot so much. How can I change this?

3) Why is Manu Ginobli called number 20 and not called with his name?

[jonthefon]

1) I don't know, I've never used CPU shot control. I think user shooting affects CPU shot control anyway. With CPU options, I think you can reduce their shooting sliders.

2)There's nothing much to do, except for really to play the perimeter really tight and hope the guards pass inside.

3)Player package issue, I'd say. Try this: open the players.dbf file with DBF Commander, go to the column "PLYRPKG" and find "EMGINOB". Change it to "MAGINOB" and if you want, change his cyberface name in the sgsm folder to "MAGINOB" as well. Hopefully that works, I think the audio uses the "MAGINOB" player package.

[Leander]

Thanks, I'll try this.

I also have a question concerning offensive plays. No matter what set I use - my players don`t move much. They only move for one second after the PG called a set...and then just stand around. No constant moving.

[jonthefon]

Live offensive plays don't work

[Leander]

Really? Is this a joke, a bug or whatever?

Another thing: in Live 2003 you could see players develop. You could watch their progress, their ratings etc.

I couldn't find something in 2005?

[jonthefon]

No, it's really hard to run anything more than the basic plays.

Player development involves trainings sessions and off-season training, but you can't really "observe" their progress.

[asgsjb]

I have also found offensive playcalling to be relatively poor with Live '05. Basic plays are it.

As for development, (1) the players automatically develop at year's end, much of it based on PT, and (2) the more dynasty points you get, the more you can buy training sessions (either for the whole team or for individual players, which costs about half as much as for the whole team), which develops players (and there, you can see how you improved the players, in what categories, and by how much). You get dynasty points for various things...scoring X amount of points per game, having X amount of assists, winning by X amount, etc. Dynasty points are given for individual efforts as well as for team efforts. Basically, the more you kick butt, the more dynasty points you will get to apply towards developing your players.

Player development also is impacted by their "potential", which is something you see when you draft new players. You will find that average potential players will stop developing in any given year if you have developed them a few times, while higher potential players can keep getting developed. Even higher potential players will stop at some point if you keep focusing on developing that 1 player each time...for example, I kept trying to develop Okafor defensively and, at some point, I could not develop him defensively any more in that particular season and had to wait until the next year for more defensive improvement. But I could contine to work on his offense or conditioning, etc.

[Leander]

Jon Ginobili is still referred to as #20. I changed the playerpkg to MAGINOB but still no chance.

Does it work for you?

EMGINOB is in the original players.dbf...but it doesn't work either for the NLSC 07/08-roster.

[Leander]

Could somebody answer this please?

Also, I am a bit frustrated with the game. Everything is so static. My players don't play D (cpu D), the opposite team doesn't run plays, my players don't move. I can either dribble and shoot or pass to a player that shoots. But no combinations. Pretty boring.

The cpu team does the same, too. They either take threes or - very often! - just run with the point guard towards the basket, bump into my defender and get an offsensive foul. Don't know but this should be the best game of the Live series? The point guard bumping into my defender and getting charged for that happens every second possession. It's like he's running against a wall. "Oooh, here I come...dribble dribble, from my own court right to your basket, dribble dribble...no passing, just straight to the basket...with the head against the wall, oops, I ran into the defender and get an offensive foul...nevermind, I'll do this again on the next possession"....

[jonthefon]

It's pretty frustrating. I do suggest you use Seushiro's MM07 aiact, the CPU runs pick and roll and isolations sometimes, they post up, they take mid-range pullups and they don't drive unless it's an open lane, plus they lean into you if you jump too early. Unfortunately, your own CPU team-mates still don't contest. But I think it makes things more realistic.

[Leander]

I know all of the aiacts. MM07 is nice but it has its flaws, too.

+ computer players under the basket dunk all the time, which can't be stopped, even with two defenders
+ the computer doesn't play defense. I pass to a guy and he just stands there unguarded. I wait 2-3 seconds, then take the shot. I play on All-star as I don't like cpu cheating on superstar. But with this aiact All-star is too easy. I can easily take open shots, drive to the basket and so on. The cpu defenders just watch me play sometimes and do not seem to follow the ball.

What sliders do you use, Jon?

[jonthefon]

Well, I play superstar and it kinda sits fine for me. I do have some annoyances with the game (mainly shooting problems, ridiculous adjusted shots and no over-the-back fouls, where another player would try to dunk put-back over me as I rebound, pushing the guy away while another CPU gets the offensive rebound )

I say you should turn freestyle effectiveness up just so you get an extra option instead of passing it around the whole time, since the MM07 freestyle is a lot harder to beat defenders with. Maybe turn down shooting sliders a little, and turn down dunk frequency and turn up adjusted shot frequency for CPU if you don't want them to dunk. Just keep twiddling.

[Leander]

What are your freestyle sliders? I just played with normal AIACTS. The problem (I played on Allstar) was that I can't pass when players don't move, don't run plays. It's so static. And I can't get past defenders even with good dribblers. I can push the right analog stick left...right...don't use turbo, then suddenly move the left analog stick to the left with turbo...want to shake off the defender. Doesn't work. Only seldomly. And the only move I can get past a defender is the spin move...also only a few times. I get the ball...I can fake a shot...or move the right analog stick without dribbling. Shoulder fake etc.... but it only works if a very bad defender is guarding me. Overall PGs stick to my PG like glued.

If players moved and ran plays it would be great but lazy players and defenders glued to me annoy me. Now I ask you:

What about Live 06? Is it better? What is it like concerning offensive plays? AI player movement? What are the pros and cons compared to 2005?

[jonthefon]

Graphically, Live 06 is miles ahead of Live 05. And they've got a great community overhaul going on the 06 announcements. I'd say though, that the gameplay still doesn't quite stand up to 05 in some parts, especially FSS. I don't think you can run any more effective plays than in 05 (where you could basically successfully use post up, isolation and picks), nor do the AI. But there's some good little gameplay features, it's a 50-50 toss up.

After Live 2003, EA reduced freestyle effectiveness dramatically. I tend to turn up the freestyle effectiveness to use it only as a last-ditch way to get past defenders (basically just a quick first step, behind-the-back crossover dribble or normal crossover, rather than a full behind-the-back Jamal Crawford shake n' bake that you can do.)

[Leander]

Which gameplay features?
I don't care about graphics much because my PC wouldn't be able to run high settings if I used them. Just 128 MB ATI Radeon graphics.

I just had some FUN. Wow, fun. I wanted to increase freestyle effectiveness but then changed my mind and decreased cpu on-ball physical defense. Gotcha! This slider has given me nightmares all the time. I changed it from 33 to 18. Increased freestyle from 50 to 55. Instead of losing by 15-20 points I won by 12. I think I can even reset freestyle effectiveness to 50. On-ball physical defense is the key to a better game.

The cpu's FG% dropped to 41, from over 50. And I shot 54 % and not 40. It was too easy so I will have to increase on-ball.... again. Or lower user shooting. I played with New Jersey vs. the Spurs. With on-ball ... set at 18 I could pass around well, got assists and could get past defenders almost all the time. I'm happy that I've found the key to end my nightmare. Vince Carter had 31 points in 40 minutes, was 14/15 from the field. I took many, many jumpers (midrange) and he almost hit all of them. Ah, and I used the default AI and ANIM. And guess what...the PG driving the computer normally uses was reduced drastically. Parker drove to the basket 2 or 3 times. Had jump shots instead. Don't know why...I will have to fiddle around with sliders some more but now I know how I can change the game. No AIACTS needed. The lowered on-ball physical defense of the computer also resulted in some fast breaks. Defenders don't get glued to you as soon as you get the ball. Overall, I had more room to move. Too much room...

Another flaw was the easy paint. Tim Duncan had no chance when I passed to my C or PF...bumped with pro hop and made a layup. This was too easy. Even average substitutes could score against Duncan with ease.

Anyway, with these findings I will stick with 2005. You could also try to lower on-ball... and reset freestyle ... to normal settings.

[jonthefon]

Well, you could turn down pro-hop effectiveness. 2004 was the year of the uber pro-hop.

In some ways, you have to deliberately handicap your own ability to make things realistic. I can probably abuse teams by driving and dunking again and again, but instead, I only use it when I have to or when there's an open lane, and instead try to work the ball around for an open shot.

[Leander]

Ah well. I can't win a game. I couldn't win a single game on Allstar so far. Even if I lead with two minutes to go the computer has his magic moments and hits his crunch-time shots.

I don't know...maybe I should continue with my Live 2003 franchise. Passing is possible, getting assists, rebounds, points is possible. The computer takes shots...

I can't defend the cpu in Live 2005. It's so boring...he either drives to the hoop or takes threes. His layups go in, the PG gets loads of points (ANY PG)...or gets charged. Or blocked from behind. Such blocks are great but they just don't haven sooo often. In Live 2005 they do happen often.

Something different:

1) In dynasty mode ALL players go for three. Noticed that? I simmed 82 games...Shaq, Yao Ming etc. all had about 20 3-point-attempts each.

2) Can Shaq be defended by the computer? I played with the Suns...he wasn't doubled...and he can dunk again and again. A move, some backing-down...dunk, dunk, dunk. Over his defender (even Tim Duncan...played vs. Spurs). It just happens with Shaq...others lose the ball or miss their shots...but Shaq is invincible.

3) Offensive 3 in the key...I thought it is called when a player without the ball stands in the key for 3 seconds. I controlled O' Neal and backed down...or moved with Stoudamire...and got the 3 in the key call. My player had the ball and moved...is this a bug or are the rules as such?