Free Throw Woes

[Andrew]

I thought about including this in the shooting/jumpshots topic, but it's kind of its own issue, and I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. Does anyone else feel that the free throw shooting took a step backwards this year?

It's not so bad in 5v5, where everyone has their own Free Throw rating, but in MyCAREER and its connected modes, where it's governed by the Free Throw Ace Badge, it just feels...broken. So many times, I'll miss free throws that allegedly had an 85% chance of going in. As Arcane has mentioned on the NLSC Podcast, he's missed free throws that supposedly had a 95+% chance of going in! While anything less than a Perfect release obviously has some chance of missing, something doesn't seem right when I miss back to back free throws that both (again, supposedly) had an 85% chance of going in. It doesn't seem to match the odds in the shot feedback.

Has that been anyone else's experience? I had no issue with free throws last year, and in fact, with the right stick aiming, managed to shoot a great percentage once I'd ground my way through the drills and upped my rating accordingly. While that shooting system was problematic for jumpers (too cheesy, especially online), it worked great for free throws. In fact, I'd even place it above my beloved t-meter in terms of my favourite free throw mechanics.

Still, what's done is done, and it's been changed. With that in mind, have you been struggling to knock down free throws, missing a lot of ones that supposedly had a high chance of going in? If not, which free throw animation are you using? Any other insights? I'm hardly a novice when it comes to basketball gaming, so I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking, or whether free throws are indeed just kind of broken this year.

[Valor]

It's really weird this year, as a two guard (esp one that's supposed to know how to shoot) I expect to be a good free throw shooter, which I was definitely not until i managed to grind up the bronze level of the FT badge. It has improved since then and I hit about 83-85% of my Free Throws both online and offline, even obtaining the Silver level badge now.

In the recent weeks following the last few patches, however, it's gone erratic again and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing anything different. Less perfect releases, more strange misses when it was supposedly good timing like you and Arcane had.

No idea what they've done, but they really should've left the rating in. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it was bad enough when we started out with poor free throw shooting for a position and Archetype that should (on average) at least be competent from the foul line, though at least we were able to grind it up and freely practice foul shooting last year. With it being Badge based this year, we can only play Free Throw Golf three times in a training session (four with the Freshly Squeezed boost), and then that's it. At least we can earn some progress each time, but I like the idea of being able to practice over and over, even if you're not levelling up. You can at least practice the mechanics and become familiar with your animation that way. You can actually keep doing Badge drills after maxing out a Badge (you just won't earn any more XP), but again, you're limited to 3/4 per session, and it means you have to give up gaining XP in another area.

I've mentioned it in another topic, but the Badge system in general is problematic in that there's a Catch-22. You've got to succeed to earn the XP to gain and upgrade the Badges, but to succeed, you need to have the Badges. In this instance, you need to make a bunch of free throws to get the Free Throw Ace Badge, but you need the Free Throw Ace Badge to be able to hit a lot of free throws. And so, we painfully grind.

But you know, all that wouldn't matter if shots went in according to their percentages. What were your percentages when you missed that pair in last night's session? I'm guessing in the 80s at least.

[Valor]

What were your percentages when you missed that pair in last night's session? I'm guessing in the 80s at least.

Yeah I think both were full white bar, 85%.

More than anything free throws should purely be using ratings + timing. Good timing with good rating should go in 9/10. But of course, they had to mess with what was working...

[Andrew]

That's the frustrating part. They had great free throw mechanics in NBA 2K17, especially if you did want to use the stick for aiming.