by dwayne2005 on Sun Sep 20, 2009 2:33 am
If the game weren't so fast, it would be irritatingly simple. Such is the case when I've slowed it down. Over testing various 'ranges', I've gone from say down 10 at quarter time to doubling my opponents score. The only way I can slow the game down to more realistic levels and get any competition out of it is if I set it on Superstar, but that skill setting is so very frustrating. Right now I've got JoJo White from 1975-76 scoring against me at a rate of about 40 PPG. He is shooting a crazy amount of shots. I went through and removed the PRIMACY rating from the .dbf's entirely and it had zero effect. I have to wonder if that rating even does anything in this game at all! If I adjust the FG% down so I don't hit 90% from the field, the PC shoots 30%.
This game is so crazy fast and full of action because underneath it all there really isn't anything of a basketball engine behind it. I've had some decent games on later lives at All Star difficulty, but I have no choice but to work with superstar here or perhaps make my ranges arcade-like.
By the way, Superstar difficulty is kind of like the arcade version of NBA Maximum Hangtime (which is, despite the fact, arguably the best basketball game ever so long as its the arcade version). At the hardest difficulty setting, you can't retain a lead. The lead constantly seesaws to and fro with comeback after comeback meant to lure the player into inserting more coins. The AI adapts all the time. I've got to believe this isn't unintentional by EA, they done it on purpose using these secretive methods that were employed in some coinop games so that you can't actually say you adapted to the game on the hardest difficulty setting. And chances are, after a while, Superstar would have been as much a breeze if it were just a notch up rather than adaptive. I always thought they made games relatively simple, though, so that you would finish it and buy the next one. I guess if it's not fun because it's adaptive, you will wind up buying again anyway.