Live '07 Wishlist (several ideas grouped into one post)

[ycsj29801]

Hello everyone, this is a great site, this is my first post but hopefully I'll have time to post more.

right, right. Stuff for '07

First off disregard the perhaps disrespectful tone of this post. I like Live '06. It's the first game in the series since 2000 that I haven't uninstalled within a month. Some of the things just seem they could be fixed so easily and yet year after year, they never are. If there's a condescending or annoyed tone it's just because these games seem to be on the verge of greatness but there's always a few things that are just so much more frustrating than they need to be. My apologies if this stuff has already been brought up.

Presentation Wishlisht:

SMALLER FONT: In live 2000, you could see the entire roster on the screen at one time. There is way too much unecessary scrolling in all the pages. We should be able to see more than the top 6 teams when checking the season standings, and there's no reason we can't view all the players on the rosters in the trade players page. The less buttons I have to press to get to where I want to go, the better.

MORE INFORMATION: When you view a player, it won't even tell you what they are averaging in the season, only the totals. This isn't football. Totals don't mean nearly as much as averages. I don't want to have to take a calculator out or go to the players stats page just to find out what a player is averaging per game. Also in regards to more information, let us know on the trade players page how long the contracts are for. At the moment it gives us only the amount. A contract that lasts 6 years is far different than an expiring one in terms of value, let me know what I'm dealing with here. Don't make me have to go back to the GM'S desk to check the contracts for their team. Again, let me spend my time analyzing if a deal is worth pursuing, not ineficiently clicking through the pages back and forth to get all the information I need. This isn't about being lazy, it's about not wasting time so I can get back to playing.

A POSITIONAL DEPTH CHART: Madden has one, but Live could use it so much more. Versatility is the name of the game in basketball and as such I'd love to have the opportunity to set up my depth chart to take advantage of this. If a player is set to go into the game at two positions, the player would go in at the position he's the lowest at that wants to sub him in.
A great hypothetical example of this would be last years portland with with Abdur-Rahim and Randolph. Both are natural power forwards, but Rahim was playing SF. With a positional depth chart, one could simply put Abdur Rahim second behind Randolph and the rest would take care of itself. If Randolph were to get subbed out while Rahim is still in the game, Rahim would automatically switch to the four, while the backup small forward would enter the game. If Randolph were to return into the game and Rahim is at the power forward, than Abdur Rahim would revert back to small forward, or head to the bench depending on fatigue.
A more current example could be with the Spurs this upcoming season. They have Nazr Mohammed and Rasho Nesterovich at Center, but they also have Tim Duncan should they choose to play him there. With a depth chart, you could decide simply who goes in first, and when, if at all, Duncan is to play Center. With a positional depth chart, one could set up their substitution pattern and have it happen automatically instead of requiring the constant pausing and manual subsitituations that happens now. And if one still wants to have that hands on feel, they could simply turn off automatic subs and play it the way they always have. Live NEEDS this.

Dynasty Wishlist:

MORE VARIABLE DRAFTS: This has been a problem for Live for years it seems. The highest players are almost always forwards. I have yet to see a season (Granted I'm only in my fourth), where the highest rated player was a point guard. This was a problem in 2000, and for the few seasons that I played through '01, '03-'05, it was a problem then as well.

MID LEVEL EXEMPTION: The constantly increasing cap helps, but there always seems to be players that sit out the season as opposed to playing for the minimum since almost all the teams end up over the cap. At the moment I have a 32 year old Antawn Jamison sitting at home in free agency simply because no one can give into his contract demands. I went through with the editor you provide here (A wonderful tool I might add), the season before to get some players willing to play at less of a cost, but the less manipulation I have to do the better. It doesn't feel right forcing him to take less money than deciding what team to trade him too taht needs a small forward. If every team has a midlevel exemption, that's up to 30 more players that could be signed beyond the current amount. That would solve alot of the problems with free agents that should not be sitting at home.

MORE INFORMATION FOR THE DRAFT PROCESS: There's a few things here I'd love to see.
First off is give us the information of players during the actual draft. Correctly me if I'm wrong but if I recall correctly, when the draft is going on, you don't have access to a players hieght even. Only the grades the scout has seen in their visit. That's information I should have at the draft without having to write it down.
Second is expand on the information the scouts give you when they visit the players. In madden the scouts will say, this player reminds them of so and so, or what not. At the moment all live does is tell you his greatest strength and weakness, but you can already tell that by the grades. I want to see a little more. Give me some hype. If he's a can't miss prospect let the guy state it. If he's a high energy guy, let the scout say he reminds him of Najera. Let the information get more detailed as you visit more often just like in Madden, but do so in a way that makes sense. For instance the first time the scout visits a player say for offense, give the grades as you do now, but throw in some general opinions of his offensive game. Now if you go again for offense, fill in the offensive gaps in grades(if any), but give a more thorough evaluation of his game, and a third time more specific. Same with defense and athleticism. This would give you 9 levels of information to get in scouting a player, which makes the drafting a little more strategic. At the moment if you scout intelligently you can basically get all the informatio you need on every player in the first round and some in the second. With this though do you go for more information on a player or do you fan out some more?
In all if you scout someone you like, this would really give you some hype heading into the offseason to bring that guy in for workouts far more than simply grades can bring. Or it can keep you from wasting your time. The better the scout, the more they may have to say in regards to that aspect of his game.
Finally in regards to the draft. Let us have draft day trades. Correct me if I'm wrong but at the moment you can't make deals on draft day. I want to make trades leading up to the draft and at the draft. If I don't like the players that I've played 1-1 against in scouting and they are the best options at where my spot in the draft, let me try to trade the pick down or up.

RUMORS: On the upcoming free agent page, give a ranking for the chances of the player leaving or not. Increase the chances of a player that is more likely to leave to get traded. But PLEASE let it be logical. If a player is on a 60 win team and a defending champion, make it less likely that he would leave and so on. If a player wants more playing time or a bigger role have it so you can offer that to them in free agency. Lets say you are going after a backup from some team, we'll say Earl Watson. Have it so you can check a box that says guaranteed to start next season as a way of trying to convince him to go to your team. It might not work, but maybe it would improve the chances. If a player gets signed this way, have them locked into the starting lineup for that season.

TRADE ACTIVITY SLIDER: Some people like lots of trades occuring around them and offered to them, others don't. I'm somewhere in the middle. There aren't a lot of deals, at least through four years, in my dynasty. As said, some might like it, others might not, but give us the freedom to control the volume of activity. If we want players flying all over the place, or never leaving unless free agency, let us control it.

ABILITY TO CONTROL OTHER ROSTERS: While a lot of players might use it to cheaply make other teams worse, a lot of us would probably just use it to correct ridiculous mistakes. For instance in my second year Chris Paul was benched for speedy claxton despite being rated 5 points higher overall. In the third season it fixed itself, but for that season it was something that annoyed me. Not in a great deal, but still it was something I should have been able to fix without manipulating the data through an editor. Another example would be in my most recent season, Ben Gordon signed as a free agent in Miami, but rather than start alongside Wade, they started Jason Williams and Wade and benched Gordon and his 85 ranking (he's been flying up the ratings). I went in through the editor and changed it but again I shouldn't ahve had to do it that way. One final example would be the Hawks. In the second season they had the first pick int he draft and used it on a 7'0 269 power forward. Their second round pick they used on a center of basically the same dimensions. When the season started, the second round pick was the one starting at center, and the first pick in the draft was on the bench despite having a much higher rating simply because he was first and foremost a power forward. Unfortunatley the editor won't let me change the roster order for atlanta (it simply says both are starting at center and refuses to bench the other center even after I changed the first pick in the draft to center and his secondary position to power forward). If people want to use the ability to manipulate to cheapen the experience let them. They paid their money for the game, let them enjoy it as they see fit. I just want to help the other franchises make more logical decisions. Starting the top pick in the draft over a second round pick of the same height and weight when both can play center is a logical decision.


Gameplay Wishlist:

GIVE PLAYER LOCK PLAYERS A BUTTON TO SET SCREENS: Is there one and I'm simply missing it? At the moment the only thing I can do with screens is call one for myself. But what if I'm not the franchise player? For instance in my Dynasty I'm Memphis and playing mainly as Shane Battier through player lock. If I want to set a screen for Mike Miller or Damon Stoudamire while they are on or off the ball, I can't. If the programmers didn't want to add in the extra AI required for the computer palyers to decipher which way to go on the screen, let them handle it the same way superstar optionsa re handled. Let me press a button and hold it, than press a different button to say what kind of movement I'd want them to do. pick and roll would be one button, pick and pop out to the free throw line or midrange would be another, having the guy run through and set up at the three point line would be one, while having him go to the opposite side of the court with a double screen along the baseline would be a fourth. These are just hypothetical obviously, but at least doing it as such would allow someone to help other players get open without having the ball in their hands.

LET US LEAD PLAYERS ON ENTRY PASSES INTO THE POST: If a player is getting fronted, let me pass the ball towards the rim. At the moment it's sort of a crap shoot in hopes that my player throws the ball in a way that the defender doesn't get it. If this is possible and I simply don't know how to do it, please let me in on it.


BRING BACK THE MID RANGE GAME: Live '05 was the first year they really tried to have a mid range game be the focus, and while it was a disaster due to the ridiculous amount of blocks, I thought the idea itself was great. In '06, there's some midrange game still, but it's far more minimized. It's a shame because since the blocks were reduced in effectiveness (THANK G-D!), the midrange game would have been far better this year. Yes it was unplayable in '05 but it was worth keeping.

LOWER OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS!!!: I've noticed this has been stated plenty in here so I won't go into it. One thing that has helped me outside of dropping offensive rebounds to 0 and increasing defensive to 100 is going into the defensive matchups, and placing every player on both teams with a 'no' for double teaming. This makes it more likely that a player will box out as opposed to run out and try to block a shot which is usually what aids players in getting offensive rebounds. Players like Shaq and Duncan and other superstars you may want to keep on 'auto' or 'yes', but outside of that force single coverage when you can.

MAKE PLAYERS LESS BLIND: I'm not referring to court vision. While yes the lack of ability to notice a player standing in the middle of the paint alone, or the fact that Pau Gasol is being defended by Earl Boykins is infuriating, I can understand why AI is difficult to create in a basketball game. So while I hope those things will improve, I'm not gonna gripe too much about it. What I do take issue with however is these stupid adjustments players make on layups which often have them shooting the ball behind the backboard. I've actually lost a game bacause damon stoudamire went up for a layup and got pushed into an adjustment and sent the ball intot he back of the backboard. This should never ever happen. Another thing I see way too often is a player trying to dunkt he ball from a position they can't dunk, so they go through their dunk andimation and just end up throwing the ball at the rim from 2 feet away. If an animation is gonna send the ball out of bounds on a shot from close range, don't allow that animation to occur. I can't imagine that being too difficult an AI issue to fix up. Speaking of animations...

CUT OUT SOME OF THE DUMB ANIMATIONS: How often does a player truly throw the ball at the rim from his hip while turned backwards? Is this really something I need to see occur 15-20 times a game? Worse still is that stupid jump animation taht a palyer does when recieving the ball in the post or in several other areas. A player doesn't need to jump when catching a pass from someone who was 5 feet away. The animation adds nothing to the game. Let it go.

CHANGE POST GAME FOCUS: Too often players just barrell into the defender. The post is primarily hooks nowadays with some jumpers and moves into the paint. Improve the AI on post players to make it more realistic. I can understand if this one is a difficult one that would take a few years.

PHYSICS MODEL: Isn't it about time Live had a substantial physics model? Right now players can be seen flying across the court and stopping on a dime and changing directions. This needs to be improved sooner or later. We're heading into next gen, it's time to get it taken care of.

FREE THROW SUBSTITUTIONS AFTER FIRST FREE THROW: Most of the time it seems like substitutions occur after the second free throw, nto the first. The problem with this is if they miss the second free throw and you need to make the switch you actually have to end up calling a timeout. This should be easily fixable but this isn't the first time this has happedn in a live game.

INBOUND PASSING STUPIDITY: How many times have you seen the computer player throw the ball to someone at halfcourt or just simply throw the ball nowhere near anyone and out of bounds? This happens at least three times a game for me (and it's not me they are passing to, ti's computer to computer stupidity. I'm the small forward, they jsut seem to not want to pass the ball to Stoudamire at times). Seriously this should not be as annoying a problem as it is.

WEIRD PASSING SPEED: Is it just me or are some of the passes just really odd? The ball goes way high in the air sometimes, even if the guy isn't even 20 feet away. I guess they want to use that jump animation as much as possible.

I think that pretty much covers it. If there are any others I'll add them in but I don't think I have anyting else to say.

YCS

[ycsj29801]

Dang. Forgot one key one.

Sorry for the spam of making two of these, I didn't know what spamming was before I did this one the first time.


LET US SAVE GAMES IN THE MIDDLE! PLEASE!!!! I want to play 12 minute quarter games. Spend some tmie playing a quarter here or a quarter there. We had this in 2000. Bring it back!


On another note. Is it possible to save replay's in '06 and I just can't figure out how? Any help would be appreciated.

YCS




WISHLIST PART 2.

Now that I've had some more time with the game.


Game play Issues:

- FIX THE G-D DAMN OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS. This isn't even part of a wishlist for '07 anymore, this requires a patch. This is an abomination and i'm honestly about ready to uninstall the game. If I do uninstall this one I will not be buying Live ever again. i'm not stating that as a big deal or anything, merely as a fact. Uninstall a game once shame on you, uninstall a game 4 consecutive years in a row, and shame on me, it's about time I learn my lesson. At times this game becomes unplayable as a result when at times Golden State and mainly Mike Dunleavy will get 6 SIX!!!! offensive rebounds in one set down the court against my 7'1 small forward, Hakim Warrick at power forward who's a high flyer in this game and my 7'5 center all of whom are good rebounders. I'm not saying it doesn't work the other way either, my team gets way too many offensive rebounds as well, but what this creates is the feeling of 'I can't get a stop at the end of the game', and for the most part I can't, and it's not because I'm a bad player or not even because I'm not boxing out, if that were the case my team wouldn't get so many offensive rebounds. it's because there is a ridiculous flaw in the game that absolutely must be fixed and before '07. '06 came out about a month or so before the season even started, why couldn't they jsut take an extra month and fix this horrible problem?


Take out 'zones' where you automatically get the ball: I'm player locked with Shane Battier, I'm probably the worst offensive rated player in my starting lineup 5 or so years into the franchise, and yet if I move to the top of the key, I'll ALWAYS get the ball passed to me. To test this I just went from in a straight line from sideline to sideline at the top of the arch, and ever time I reached it, I'd get the ball passed to me. This happened maybe 3-4 times in one offensive set. This is stupid for a few reasons. First off, you give us the ability to force a pass to us simply by pressing the pass button. This is great, I try to minimize it's use but it allows me to have some control of the game. This is beautiful, and it's enough. Now with this zone at the top of the key, I have to do awkward cuts just to make sure I don't get the ball. If I'm on the wing and I pass the ball to a higher scoring player at the baseline corner and I want to get out of his way, I can't move to the top of the key because he'll just pass me the ball back. So to get to the weakside I either have to try to go through the paint and risk getting locked in that annoying post up animation (which I understand why it happens so I don't complain about it but it is annoying nonetheless), or I have to go around the zone which means I have to go almost to halfcourt and then back to the other side once I've passed the zone. In two words. This sucks. Doesn't need a patch for this year though, it's just something that needs to get fixed.

Fast Break AI: It needs a lot of work. It's a good start for a first year attempt, but too many times it end up with players just stopped and passing the ball too each other next to the basket. The timing of passes and shots is way off more oftne than not. Don't dismantle it like you did the midrange game from a year ago, it just needs to be worked on.


Give us the ability to turn off the tenths of a second hand in the final minute: I undertsand that there are a lot of types of video cards out there and some will have problems with tihs and it's probalby very difficult to make sure taht every card that otherwise works great won't start stuttering during the final minute because of that tenths of a second. Whatever the problem is, I'm not gonna ask that you fix it, merely give us the option to turn it off so we don't have the problem. give us an option in the setting to make the final minute look just like the rest of them.

ANIMATION ISSUES:

correlate animation speed with game speed: If EA already does this then it needs tweaking. I play the game at roughty 76 game speed, and the scorer animations and the dunk animations, the lead pass catching animations they all seem to be in slow motion as if to say 'look! ISN'T THIS AWESOME?!" No it's not. It'd be awesome if it went the same speed as the rest of the game.

Catching lead pass animation needs work: too slow and just weird looking.

correlate certain animations to sliders: For example if I want to lessen in air collision foul frequency, that means for the most part I want their to be less collisions in the air so therefore less fouls get called, not for players to get hammered and simply lose the ball since the ref swallows the whistle. lowering the foul frequency doesn't lower the collisions it just makes them even more annoying because they still happen, and now the ball will go out bounds, and against the player who couldn't even get the shot off since it technically wasn't a block.


That 5-5 motion animation capturing or whatever it is. It isn't working: The problem with this seems to be that certain animations get triggered by others which means individual players don't respond unless something triggers it. The problem with this is if a player is setting a baseline pick, and the player that's supposed to come around gets stuck and does his little running in mid-air thing, the player setting the pick will just stand there with this hands clasped together till a 3 in the key gets called. You've got to give these players individual abilities to read and react. Or at least just react. A player doesn't just sit in the paint setting a screen forever. And this is if we're lucky here. If the player is out of the paint setting the pick, then he'll sit there for far longer till the player gets unstuck and comes around. This creates some animations which are nice, but it makes you feel like you're playing a game. When someone blocks a shot from behind jumps at the exact same moment the layup is being taken it's too easy to see they are linked. It's time to stop linking animations. It was a good idea, and when I first heart aobut it, I thought it could be great, but it's not working. To me all it seems to be is another way to not have to actually improve the AI of the game now.

DYNASTY ISSUES:

FIX THE DRASTIC PRIMACY CHANGES!!!!!: Players will go from 90 Primacy to 10 without even a warning or injury. All of a sudden Dwayne Wade, Ben Gordon and Carmello Anthony, they of 89, 90, and 92 overall ratings, went from scoring 24 a game to less than 11 at times within the past three dynasty years. In some of their box scores they were taking more than 5 shots a game and sometimes took only 1. What is that?! Seriously I'm not kidding what is that? This should probably be patched before '07. I have to keep an eye on all box scores every day just to make sure franchise players and all stars don't become 10 point scorers in the middle of the season? I really think Live '06 leads all video games for complete waste of time having their fans do things like look in primacy of certain players in an editor three or so times a dynasty season or going through countless screens to get the information they want. Is this really something we should have to deal with? But it does explain something I couldn't figure out before....

Drastic changes in PPG: I couldn't figure out why this was happening but I think it has to do with the previous one. For half the season some player would be in the top, for example last season Carmello Anthony was at the top at 29.7 PPG. All of a sudden within a month and half Anthony wasn't just gone fromt he top, he had dropped about 3-4 points a game and by the end of that same season he wasn't even close to the top. Something like this happened almost every year and I couldn't understand it, but primacy changes I'd have to imagine is the main problem.

Here's an idea since you have ESPN licensing now I believe:

Create two things to look through, the PDA, and ESPN.com NBA website.

The reason for this is two fold:

One) It would take a lot of the stuff that rings on the PDA off of it, so if we're simulating we don't get bothered by some assistant coach on some lottery team workiing on some player and teaching him to tie his shoes. Rather than have this, give us the website and have a section titled rumors that we can click onto and see it if we want. The season standings would be in the website, so would box scores and stats. What would come up on the PDA are things that would be considered for the team. Trade proposals, your own coaches development of players, the owner, your own injury issues, your own scouting, and maybe the awards/allstar weekend stuff so we don't miss on them. That's it.

Two) It would cut down the beeping and be a good tie in to ESPN. It would give us a navigation template that most of us are probalby already familiar with, and it would be easy to see teams. It could probably be tweaked a little bit so you could easily go through team to team using arrows and stuff, but for the most part hte template would be there for you and it cleans up standings and stats from the menu's and lessen's all the constant beeping.

- Do not have fatigue drastically affect players ratings:

Should anyone really have an 18 fatigue rating just because they are young or don't play? Fatigue is something that should be pretty even for all players, sure some should be down some, and for others higher, but just because Darko Milicic doesn't play, doesn't mean he should tire quickly when he does. Granted I like fatigue having an impact on ratings so I can use it to manipulate players overall ratings without changing their actual ones too much, but I'd much rather have fatigue not be a big impact even if it means more work to do to get the ratings the way I consider them.

- Bring back the player development chart or at least something simlar to it:

Right now it's just too hard to deal with offseason issues. At the end of every season I have to write down what my players were rated before, I have to go to the upcoming free agents and write down the ratings of key free agents and those who I might be interested in going after. Not to mention I write down every lottery picks ratings after they are drafted, so when their rookie contracts end, I can compare them to their first years, and see if they are worth signing. All this is basically because the players development charts were eliminated. Once again simply more wastes of time. Personally I'd love it if the development charts were a year behind so you couldn't tell if the player improved or not for the upcoming season, but rather had a general trend going into it, and the new ratings would only be given to us after a few games were played, this way you'd still have the players trends but you wouldn't know if the player had peaked or if they were still improving or perhaps going downhill now. It would make free agency more of a crap shoot than simply knowing I'm about to sign a player who I know is breaking out this year. I know I'd be in a huge minority on that so I won't ask for it. However back to the point. A players devleopment chart or something that accomplishes the same goal is essential so we can stop wasting time.


Superstar effectiveness slider:

We have a free style effectiveness slider, a superstar one needs to be created as well. If we're really wishing, one slider for each type should be created so we could really personalize the gameplay as we see fit. That way if you think the power moves need to be minimized, but the outside scorer is fine, you could implement it as such.

That's it for now, hopefully.

YCS

[koberulz]

Presentation Wishlisht:

SMALLER FONT: In live 2000, you could see the entire roster on the screen at one time. There is way too much unecessary scrolling in all the pages. We should be able to see more than the top 6 teams when checking the season standings, and there's no reason we can't view all the players on the rosters in the trade players page. The less buttons I have to press to get to where I want to go, the better.

Too true. I haven't played anything earlier than 03, but having to scroll all over the place to get somewhere is a pain in the ass. The font size could really do with adjustment, or make the resolution higher.

MORE INFORMATION: When you view a player, it won't even tell you what they are averaging in the season, only the totals. This isn't football. Totals don't mean nearly as much as averages. I don't want to have to take a calculator out or go to the players stats page just to find out what a player is averaging per game. Also in regards to more information, let us know on the trade players page how long the contracts are for. At the moment it gives us only the amount. A contract that lasts 6 years is far different than an expiring one in terms of value, let me know what I'm dealing with here. Don't make me have to go back to the GM'S desk to check the contracts for their team. Again, let me spend my time analyzing if a deal is worth pursuing, not ineficiently clicking through the pages back and forth to get all the information I need. This isn't about being lazy, it's about not wasting time so I can get back to playing.

Totals in basketball really mean nothing. If you were told that someone had a 30,000 point career, the first thing you'd be asking: What did they average? Totals don't mean little in basketball, they mean fuck all.

A POSITIONAL DEPTH CHART: Madden has one, but Live could use it so much more. Versatility is the name of the game in basketball and as such I'd love to have the opportunity to set up my depth chart to take advantage of this. If a player is set to go into the game at two positions, the player would go in at the position he's the lowest at that wants to sub him in.
A great hypothetical example of this would be last years portland with with Abdur-Rahim and Randolph. Both are natural power forwards, but Rahim was playing SF. With a positional depth chart, one could simply put Abdur Rahim second behind Randolph and the rest would take care of itself. If Randolph were to get subbed out while Rahim is still in the game, Rahim would automatically switch to the four, while the backup small forward would enter the game. If Randolph were to return into the game and Rahim is at the power forward, than Abdur Rahim would revert back to small forward, or head to the bench depending on fatigue.
A more current example could be with the Spurs this upcoming season. They have Nazr Mohammed and Rasho Nesterovich at Center, but they also have Tim Duncan should they choose to play him there. With a depth chart, you could decide simply who goes in first, and when, if at all, Duncan is to play Center. With a positional depth chart, one could set up their substitution pattern and have it happen automatically instead of requiring the constant pausing and manual subsitituations that happens now. And if one still wants to have that hands on feel, they could simply turn off automatic subs and play it the way they always have. Live NEEDS this.

Personally I like to do all subs manually, and most of the time my starters all play 48 minutes. However this would really come in handy for injury and foul out substitutions. Almost every time there is an injury, I have to sub out the replacement for the injured player because the CPU made a crap sub.

Dynasty Wishlist:

MORE VARIABLE DRAFTS: This has been a problem for Live for years it seems. The highest players are almost always forwards. I have yet to see a season (Granted I'm only in my fourth), where the highest rated player was a point guard. This was a problem in 2000, and for the few seasons that I played through '01, '03-'05, it was a problem then as well.

I've never concentrated on that sort of thing, but if it happens, it needs fixing. The best players, in my experience, are generally small forwards or shooting guards, and centres (in real life)

MID LEVEL EXEMPTION: The constantly increasing cap helps, but there always seems to be players that sit out the season as opposed to playing for the minimum since almost all the teams end up over the cap. At the moment I have a 32 year old Antawn Jamison sitting at home in free agency simply because no one can give into his contract demands. I went through with the editor you provide here (A wonderful tool I might add), the season before to get some players willing to play at less of a cost, but the less manipulation I have to do the better. It doesn't feel right forcing him to take less money than deciding what team to trade him too taht needs a small forward. If every team has a midlevel exemption, that's up to 30 more players that could be signed beyond the current amount. That would solve alot of the problems with free agents that should not be sitting at home.

Fek yeh. In 04, once the season started, everyone would sign for minimum. That sucked. They fix that problem, but they're missing a key part of why they couldn't do it properly in the first place. So often I've needed one player to complete a kick-ass team, found him, and been unable to fit him in the cap. With this, I could sign these players.

MORE INFORMATION FOR THE DRAFT PROCESS: There's a few things here I'd love to see.
First off is give us the information of players during the actual draft. Correctly me if I'm wrong but if I recall correctly, when the draft is going on, you don't have access to a players hieght even. Only the grades the scout has seen in their visit. That's information I should have at the draft without having to write it down.

I'm not sure if you're right or wrong here because I haven't got to a draft yet, but this is a serious problem. You dont want to accidentally sign a 5'3" centre.

Second is expand on the information the scouts give you when they visit the players. In madden the scouts will say, this player reminds them of so and so, or what not. At the moment all live does is tell you his greatest strength and weakness, but you can already tell that by the grades. I want to see a little more. Give me some hype. If he's a can't miss prospect let the guy state it. If he's a high energy guy, let the scout say he reminds him of Najera. Let the information get more detailed as you visit more often just like in Madden, but do so in a way that makes sense. For instance the first time the scout visits a player say for offense, give the grades as you do now, but throw in some general opinions of his offensive game. Now if you go again for offense, fill in the offensive gaps in grades(if any), but give a more thorough evaluation of his game, and a third time more specific. Same with defense and athleticism. This would give you 9 levels of information to get in scouting a player, which makes the drafting a little more strategic. At the moment if you scout intelligently you can basically get all the informatio you need on every player in the first round and some in the second. With this though do you go for more information on a player or do you fan out some more?
In all if you scout someone you like, this would really give you some hype heading into the offseason to bring that guy in for workouts far more than simply grades can bring. Or it can keep you from wasting your time. The better the scout, the more they may have to say in regards to that aspect of his game.

Yes, I often find there is very little reason to do anything but send out one scout per skill per player, which should get deep into the second round, and then draft the highest rated one on the day. Wasn't that fun?

Finally in regards to the draft. Let us have draft day trades. Correct me if I'm wrong but at the moment you can't make deals on draft day. I want to make trades leading up to the draft and at the draft. If I don't like the players that I've played 1-1 against in scouting and they are the best options at where my spot in the draft, let me try to trade the pick down or up.

This is something that's been on all the 06 wshlists, and the 05 wishlists, and so on back in time. And EA still ignores us. 2K6 looks good, doesn't it?

RUMORS: On the upcoming free agent page, give a ranking for the chances of the player leaving or not. Increase the chances of a player that is more likely to leave to get traded. But PLEASE let it be logical. If a player is on a 60 win team and a defending champion, make it less likely that he would leave and so on. If a player wants more playing time or a bigger role have it so you can offer that to them in free agency. Lets say you are going after a backup from some team, we'll say Earl Watson. Have it so you can check a box that says guaranteed to start next season as a way of trying to convince him to go to your team. It might not work, but maybe it would improve the chances. If a player gets signed this way, have them locked into the starting lineup for that season.

I don't really see this as something immediately necessary. There are other things that EA needs to concentrate on in the meantime. A good idea, but not necessary.

TRADE ACTIVITY SLIDER: Some people like lots of trades occuring around them and offered to them, others don't. I'm somewhere in the middle. There aren't a lot of deals, at least through four years, in my dynasty. As said, some might like it, others might not, but give us the freedom to control the volume of activity. If we want players flying all over the place, or never leaving unless free agency, let us control it.

This is a good idea, and one I haven't seen before. Every year there's a whole host of complaints about the number of trades, and this would really solve a few problems. If you really want to make it difficult for EA, how about different sliders for them accepting your trades, and for them offering to trade with you, cause imo they accept your trades too much and offer you trades to little.

ABILITY TO CONTROL OTHER ROSTERS: While a lot of players might use it to cheaply make other teams worse, a lot of us would probably just use it to correct ridiculous mistakes. For instance in my second year Chris Paul was benched for speedy claxton despite being rated 5 points higher overall. In the third season it fixed itself, but for that season it was something that annoyed me. Not in a great deal, but still it was something I should have been able to fix without manipulating the data through an editor. Another example would be in my most recent season, Ben Gordon signed as a free agent in Miami, but rather than start alongside Wade, they started Jason Williams and Wade and benched Gordon and his 85 ranking (he's been flying up the ratings). I went in through the editor and changed it but again I shouldn't ahve had to do it that way. One final example would be the Hawks. In the second season they had the first pick int he draft and used it on a 7'0 269 power forward. Their second round pick they used on a center of basically the same dimensions. When the season started, the second round pick was the one starting at center, and the first pick in the draft was on the bench despite having a much higher rating simply because he was first and foremost a power forward. Unfortunatley the editor won't let me change the roster order for atlanta (it simply says both are starting at center and refuses to bench the other center even after I changed the first pick in the draft to center and his secondary position to power forward). If people want to use the ability to manipulate to cheapen the experience let them. They paid their money for the game, let them enjoy it as they see fit. I just want to help the other franchises make more logical decisions. Starting the top pick in the draft over a second round pick of the same height and weight when both can play center is a logical decision.

Isn't it good to own the PC version? This could be added in. Sure people might abuse it, but how fun is beating a team comprised entirely of rookies?

Gameplay Wishlist:

GIVE PLAYER LOCK PLAYERS A BUTTON TO SET SCREENS: Is there one and I'm simply missing it? At the moment the only thing I can do with screens is call one for myself. But what if I'm not the franchise player? For instance in my Dynasty I'm Memphis and playing mainly as Shane Battier through player lock. If I want to set a screen for Mike Miller or Damon Stoudamire while they are on or off the ball, I can't. If the programmers didn't want to add in the extra AI required for the computer palyers to decipher which way to go on the screen, let them handle it the same way superstar optionsa re handled. Let me press a button and hold it, than press a different button to say what kind of movement I'd want them to do. pick and roll would be one button, pick and pop out to the free throw line or midrange would be another, having the guy run through and set up at the three point line would be one, while having him go to the opposite side of the court with a double screen along the baseline would be a fourth. These are just hypothetical obviously, but at least doing it as such would allow someone to help other players get open without having the ball in their hands.

This button exists. It's one of the shoulder buttons.

LET US LEAD PLAYERS ON ENTRY PASSES INTO THE POST: If a player is getting fronted, let me pass the ball towards the rim. At the moment it's sort of a crap shoot in hopes that my player throws the ball in a way that the defender doesn't get it. If this is possible and I simply don't know how to do it, please let me in on it.

Passing is retarded. Just don't do it.

BRING BACK THE MID RANGE GAME: Live '05 was the first year they really tried to have a mid range game be the focus, and while it was a disaster due to the ridiculous amount of blocks, I thought the idea itself was great. In '06, there's some midrange game still, but it's far more minimized. It's a shame because since the blocks were reduced in effectiveness (THANK G-D!), the midrange game would have been far better this year. Yes it was unplayable in '05 but it was worth keeping.

Maybe you can't have one without the other? If EA can find a compromise it would make life so much easier than having to act like the midrange area doesn't exist.

LOWER OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS!!!: I've noticed this has been stated plenty in here so I won't go into it. One thing that has helped me outside of dropping offensive rebounds to 0 and increasing defensive to 100 is going into the defensive matchups, and placing every player on both teams with a 'no' for double teaming. This makes it more likely that a player will box out as opposed to run out and try to block a shot which is usually what aids players in getting offensive rebounds. Players like Shaq and Duncan and other superstars you may want to keep on 'auto' or 'yes', but outside of that force single coverage when you can.

Slider and other adjustments get rid of most of the problem though.

MAKE PLAYERS LESS BLIND: I'm not referring to court vision. While yes the lack of ability to notice a player standing in the middle of the paint alone, or the fact that Pau Gasol is being defended by Earl Boykins is infuriating, I can understand why AI is difficult to create in a basketball game. So while I hope those things will improve, I'm not gonna gripe too much about it. What I do take issue with however is these stupid adjustments players make on layups which often have them shooting the ball behind the backboard. I've actually lost a game bacause damon stoudamire went up for a layup and got pushed into an adjustment and sent the ball intot he back of the backboard. This should never ever happen. Another thing I see way too often is a player trying to dunkt he ball from a position they can't dunk, so they go through their dunk andimation and just end up throwing the ball at the rim from 2 feet away. If an animation is gonna send the ball out of bounds on a shot from close range, don't allow that animation to occur. I can't imagine that being too difficult an AI issue to fix up. Speaking of animations...

You'd think that would be easy to implement.

Code: Select all

if player<2" from baseline
         DON'T RUN THE FEKKIN ANIMATION!!!!

CUT OUT SOME OF THE DUMB ANIMATIONS: How often does a player truly throw the ball at the rim from his hip while turned backwards? Is this really something I need to see occur 15-20 times a game? Worse still is that stupid jump animation taht a palyer does when recieving the ball in the post or in several other areas. A player doesn't need to jump when catching a pass from someone who was 5 feet away. The animation adds nothing to the game. Let it go. [/quote

God am I sick of that shoot from hip animation. Time to move on, EA.

CHANGE POST GAME FOCUS: Too often players just barrell into the defender. The post is primarily hooks nowadays with some jumpers and moves into the paint. Improve the AI on post players to make it more realistic. I can understand if this one is a difficult one that would take a few years.

It's EA. It'll take decades. If they tried, they could probably do it, but I don't see that as a major point.

PHYSICS MODEL: Isn't it about time Live had a substantial physics model? Right now players can be seen flying across the court and stopping on a dime and changing directions. This needs to be improved sooner or later. We're heading into next gen, it's time to get it taken care of.

Again, a fair point but not a major one.

FREE THROW SUBSTITUTIONS AFTER FIRST FREE THROW: Most of the time it seems like substitutions occur after the second free throw, nto the first. The problem with this is if they miss the second free throw and you need to make the switch you actually have to end up calling a timeout. This should be easily fixable but this isn't the first time this has happedn in a live game.

It only ever seems to happen to the CPU, normally my subs happen after the first. But isn't the rule (well the international rule at least) that other than a sub on the shooter it has to happen before any of the free throws?

INBOUND PASSING STUPIDITY: How many times have you seen the computer player throw the ball to someone at halfcourt or just simply throw the ball nowhere near anyone and out of bounds? This happens at least three times a game for me (and it's not me they are passing to, ti's computer to computer stupidity. I'm the small forward, they jsut seem to not want to pass the ball to Stoudamire at times). Seriously this should not be as annoying a problem as it is.

Seriously, I see some ten year olds at the local rec centre with better inbound IQ than EA.

[Andrew]

Nice list. We'll have to start compiling the 07 Wishlist soon.

[Heiks]

Good stuff, didn't bother to read it all but some great and some usual ideas (but EA can't even handle them). One thing that I noticed:

LOWER OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS!!!: I've noticed this has been stated plenty in here so I won't go into it. One thing that has helped me outside of dropping offensive rebounds to 0 and increasing defensive to 100 is going into the defensive matchups, and placing every player on both teams with a 'no' for double teaming. This makes it more likely that a player will box out as opposed to run out and try to block a shot which is usually what aids players in getting offensive rebounds. Players like Shaq and Duncan and other superstars you may want to keep on 'auto' or 'yes', but outside of that force single coverage when you can.

Slider and other adjustments get rid of most of the problem though.

Sliders do not fix this. I have both CPU and user offensive rebs @ 0 and defensive @ 100 and I've had games where my offensive/defensive rebounds are even (24-24).

I'll check it again later and comment the other stuff aswell.

[Null17]

Getting the first one would be great

[shadowgrin]

TRADE ACTIVITY SLIDER

Nice idea, but it would be much better if EA fixes the way trades are made in the game. I don't want the CPU to offer a player with a 76 rating in exchange for my player with a 64 rating.

[Cable]

A POSITIONAL DEPTH CHART: Madden has one, but Live could use it so much more. Versatility is the name of the game in basketball and as such I'd love to have the opportunity to set up my depth chart to take advantage of this. If a player is set to go into the game at two positions, the player would go in at the position he's the lowest at that wants to sub him in.
A great hypothetical example of this would be last years portland with with Abdur-Rahim and Randolph. Both are natural power forwards, but Rahim was playing SF. With a positional depth chart, one could simply put Abdur Rahim second behind Randolph and the rest would take care of itself. If Randolph were to get subbed out while Rahim is still in the game, Rahim would automatically switch to the four, while the backup small forward would enter the game. If Randolph were to return into the game and Rahim is at the power forward, than Abdur Rahim would revert back to small forward, or head to the bench depending on fatigue.
A more current example could be with the Spurs this upcoming season. They have Nazr Mohammed and Rasho Nesterovich at Center, but they also have Tim Duncan should they choose to play him there. With a depth chart, you could decide simply who goes in first, and when, if at all, Duncan is to play Center. With a positional depth chart, one could set up their substitution pattern and have it happen automatically instead of requiring the constant pausing and manual subsitituations that happens now. And if one still wants to have that hands on feel, they could simply turn off automatic subs and play it the way they always have. Live NEEDS this.

This is something I would love. I hate it when the CPU subs out your C and puts in a PF at C, but what should really happen is your PF who's on the court should move to C and the new PF should come in at PF. I like to keep auto subs on, but what happens is really unrealistic. This could also probably be somehow merged into the roster screens too, so if the Heat traded for Gordon like you said, he would be the starting SG instead of on the bench. It can't be that hard to do, although EA ...

[Heiks]

It's all great stuff, pretty important aswell. Especially the passing animations. Another important thing is the menu resolution/font size. How long do the PC users have to put up with a menu built for consoles!?! And what I'd really like is more different stats and averages as you pointed out.

[ycsj29801]

'This is something I would love. I hate it when the CPU subs out your C and puts in a PF at C, but what should really happen is your PF who's on the court should move to C and the new PF should come in at PF. I like to keep auto subs on, but what happens is really unrealistic. This could also probably be somehow merged into the roster screens too, so if the Heat traded for Gordon like you said, he would be the starting SG instead of on the bench. It can't be that hard to do, although EA ...'





And if it did this and gave players control to edit other lineup orders, we could literally fix any stupid problems ourselves. The problem is it's relying on it's AI and doesn't give the user the ability to fix gross mistakes, and we all know how well the AI works in trades, roster moves, and in game.

YCS

[NBAFAN2005]

Please also fix some of the bugs. I notice sometimes the pg for the cpu will drive to the net but run straight out of bounds, or atleast 4 times in a game will a player just be right under the net and dribbling for about 10 seconds before they shoot. Also i've noticed that they call back court violations when they do not occur, they always says a buzzer beater shot counts (the animation) and also i've noticed sometimes the ball does not go in the net, it'll skim the mesh and they count it as a basket. Also TAKE OUT THE F***KING CATCH UP BUG. IT'S STILL IN THERE EVEN THOUGH EA CLAIMS TO HAVE GOTTEN RID OF IT!!

[(sic)park]

Hey great ideas there ycsj29801. Just so u know, I also experience Marion, after the opp. scores, inbounding the ball to an unmarked Nash at halfcourt by throwing the ball way high so he has to jump to catch it. Its scary cos it looks like one of those times where the balls just gonna go way over and out of bounds.
Something I havent seen anyone mention yet is the problem with the Dynasty Store points. For example, after a game, if i have 2 players from my team achieve the SAME Player Task, such as 30 points in a game, then ill only be awarded for it ONCE. I find this VERY annoying because if either ONE of those players had scored 20 points while the other scored 30, then I will end up with more Store points than if they both scored 30. It doesnt bother me as much in Live06 as last year's game, because this year you can only use the Store Points for gear which I dont really bother with. However, in previous Lives these Dynasty points could be used to improve player ratings, and I was extremely frustrasted with the system. I hope EA notices the error here.

[Jing]

yo man... love the wishlist. it is simply amazing and so filled. i like totally agree