Alright everyone, we want to get an early start on our Wishlist for NBA 2K20, so here is our official NBA 2K20 Wishlist thread. This is the place to post constructive feedback that will be submitted to the NBA 2K Development Team; that means anything from bugs that need fixing, to features that you want to see added or improved upon, to anything else you feel would make the next iteration of NBA 2K better.
A couple of notes and important suggestions on how to give the most comprehensive and useful feedback (based on previous conversations with developers):
Important Notes & Suggestions
Please keep this stuff in mind as you're posting your ideas!
- One suggested format is to post your top 15-20 wishes/suggestions for the game, ie. the 15-20 most important things that NBA 2K20 needs to do/add/improve upon. If you have a couple of extra points, that's fine, but try to prioritise. If you don't have that many suggestions, that's fine too; just post the feedback you have and want to share with the developers.
- Alternatively, post your top ten or so suggestions you have for different aspects of the game, such as gameplay, game modes, presentation, features, and so on. Again, if you have less than ten, no problem. That's a strongly suggested maximum for the lists, not a minimum.
- Make sure that you elaborate and post further details where necessary. There's no need to write an essay - there's nothing wrong with being brief, direct, and to the point - but saying things like "better gameplay" doesn't give enough feedback. Explain how you want gameplay to get better, what changes are required to see an improvement. Mention specific issues, along with relevant improvements and fixes you want to see. A few sentences or subpoints are fine, and will add clarification.
- Be constructive! No insults, flaming or bashing in this thread. If you're not interested in providing actual feedback and discussing ways to improve the game, please move along. If you want to vent about NBA 2K19, please feel free to make use of other threads in the Forum, but this is a thread for constructive feedback only. You don't need to sugarcoat things, or hold back on talking about stuff that needs to be fixed, just don't be abusive or needlessly snarky. Explaining what you think is broken or unsatisfactory, and what you want to see changed, is useful feedback. Telling the developers they're stupid, suck, and you hate them, on the other hand, is not.
- Lists of bugs that haven't been resolved in the NBA 2K19 title updates are also most welcome.
That's about it. Feel free to start posting your ideas and if you have any further questions, just ask. We'll be passing along all feedback, and will likely look at compiling a "Top Wishes" section as the Wishlist takes shape.
NLSC NBA 2K20 Wishlist
This is the official NLSC NBA 2K20 Wishlist. It represents a comprehensive overview of what our community most wants to see added and fixed in NBA 2K20 and beyond. Thanks to everyone who helped to compile this year's Wishlist!
Key Points/Overview
- Achieve better balance between offline and online play.
- Strive for better balance in gameplay, particularly when it comes to player builds in MyCAREER and the connected modes.
- Continue to fine-tune the motion system to reduce skating and improve physicality, without compromising the fluidity of the controls.
- Continue to polish up player/team AI and overall strategy. Ensure that ACE makes more of a difference in all single player modes.
- Implement fairer prices of items, increase VC earnings, or add different currencies for use in upgrading players and purchasing cosmetic items.
- Reduce the tedium of the grind in MyCAREER and the connected online experiences.
- Expand in-game customisation options even further.
- Improve player ratings, especially for Legends.
- Implement better/actual matchmaking in online modes, so that users face opponents of similar skill level while they're getting better at online play.
- Make the PC version more modder-friendly, with roster and art files that are easier to work with.
Gameplay
- Find a way to fine-tune online and offline gameplay independently of one another, so that changes to one don't mess up the other.
- Reduce the amount of skating/floating and clunky changes of direction, fix speed breaks, and improve foot planting, while retaining the responsiveness of the controls.
- Improve physicality and reduce clipping. There's far too many instances of the ball warping and clipping through players, steal attempts that swat right through the ball, and so forth.
- Better balance between the user and CPU. The CPU is able to keep control of dribbles that the user loses, suck users into animations, have poor defenders stick with great offensive players, and basically play by a different set of rules.
- Ensure the Adaptive Coaching Engine has more of an impact on games, across all single player modes.
- Improve CPU playcalling and team differentiation.
- Decrease the amount of lapses by AI teammates when defending the pick and roll, and improve logic for defending the pick and roll in general.
- Improve animation selection. Sometimes, it feels success is based more on the game being kind in the animation that is triggered, rather than the input (even when using the Pro Stick).
- Improve help defense and rotations, especially on pick and rolls. CPU teammates still make poor decisions, and sometimes even actively scoot out of the way to let opponents straight through to the basket.
- Improve intelligence of AI teammates, especially in MyCAREER. Too often they'll make unnecessary fakes, take too long to make their move, or choose an ill-advised shot.
- Reduce the amount of canned fouls. A single press of the steal button shouldn't result in wild grabbing and slapping at the ball (though spamming it should).
- Penalise excessive use of the steal button in online play
- Ensure that body steals are kept to a minimum. Patch 1.08 for NBA 2K19 seems to have done a good job of reducing them; please keep that balance!
- Tone down AI interceptions. AI opponents pick off passes like Michael Jordan in his prime, even if they're weak defenders and have superhuman awareness and reflexes, even when their backs are turned. Also reduce the tendency for teammates to run behind defenders after you've made the pass, sucking the ball into an interception.
- Reduce canned moments in general: passes going straight to way out of position AI defenders (as confirmed by examining the trajectory of the pass in instant replay), getting sucked into two-man animations, etc.
- Bring back NBA 2K17's shooting mechanics for free throws. This is where stick aiming is appropriate for shooting.
- Address the issue with super fast dunking animations for tall players. It makes 7'3" MyPLAYERs in particular very cheesy, because they dunk at superhuman speed.
- Get rid of the awkward animations when players receive an inbounds pass after a basket (mostly happens with MyPLAYERs).
- Improve directional passing. Even with adjustments to the controller settings, it still goes to the wrong teammate way too often, contributing an the inflated number of cheap interceptions.
- Reduce the amount of ugly shots/air balls, especially when players aren't smothered by the defense.
- Bring back signature layup packages, and/or expand the range of generic layup packages.
- Remove some of the awkward layups/push shots in the paint.
- Ensure gameplay is balanced, with as few cheap and frustrating moments as possible. Challenge should come from smart play, and not feel artificial.
- Crack down on zig-zag cheese. Every year it gets patched, and then finds its way back in again, resulting in the same old cheese online.
- Add a bigger variety of body models.
- Improve the ball's interactions with the rim and net.
- Reduce the speed of size-up moves for more realism. This is especially a problem for historic players, who could use some era-specific animation packages.
- Mo-cap multiple running animations for players of varying athleticism. There are currently more options for custom running animations in The Neighborhood than in NBA gameplay!
- Add an attribute that determines the way a player is likely to affect team chemistry/morale.
- Add an attribute that determines the animation speed of catch-and-pass and catch-and-shoot, as well as how likely a player is to fumble passes and dribbles.
MyCAREER
- Ensure that there are no builds that are either cheesy or broken. There are still a lot of builds that aren't viable, or aren't viable both online and offline.
- Overhaul the grading logic so that there's more balance between rewarding good play and punishing mistakes, as well as better logic when it comes to evaluating shot selection, defensive breakdowns, lucky rebounds (or being overpowered by a bigger player), transition offense and defense, and so on.
- Bring back an actual free throw rating and let us improve it, instead of the lengthy grind of the Free Throw Ace Badge. Also make the starting free throw rating higher for shooting Archetypes.
- Make gameplay less reliant on Badges. It's resulted in a Catch-22 where you need Badges to do things like complete alley-oops, but need to complete alley-oops to earn the Badges. They're also very overpowering, especially online.
- Change the requirements for certain Badges. Alpha Dog should be leading the team in scoring, not padding all five stats categories.
- Increase XP earnings for Badges and cap breakers. It shouldn't really slow down until you're well past 90 Overall.
- Improve teammate AI and team strategy. As noted above, AI teammates often make silly decisions at both ends of the court.
- Improve substitution logic so you don't get yanked in the middle of a tightly contested game, where you're having a big impact. It's frustrating for that to happen and get subbed in again with the game out of reach.
- Allow NBA game accessories to be set without advancing to the locker room first. They should be accessible in the MyPLAYER Clothes menu.
- Add shortcuts to load directly into Pro-Am, Walk-On, or your MyCOURT when you enter MyCAREER.
- Further increase Virtual Currency earnings, or reduce prices of items. As it stands, several items cost more than a game's salary. Some clothes have an in-universe value of thousands of dollars!
- Retain the ability to skip the story. Better yet, take an approach similar to MyGM, and allow gamers who don't want to play through the story even once to begin their NBA career immediately.
- Tone down the effectiveness of Takeover (if the mechanic is still in the game).
- Allow us to practice free throws on MyCOURT. Leave improvements to the rating to training sessions, but let us freely practice our timing and learn our form.
- Allow us to skip the short, repetitive scenes such as the coach talking to us before a drill, walking from the locker room to the court, and so on.
- Allow all Archetypes with sufficient dunking ratings to dunk more often, and possibly unlock flashier dunks. With some of the other unrealistic elements in MyCAREER, it's odd to be a stickler for realism here.
- Add multiple starting points for your MyPLAYER depending on the path you want to take (e.g. different starting ratings with differing difficulty of levelling up), and meaningful roleplaying/story branching options.
- Add more varied responses to in-game text messages, and allow responses to in-game Tweets.
- Fix issue where assists don't count on passes that are slightly deflected or bobbled, are intercepted by a different teammate, and sometimes simply don't register on alley-oop attempts.
- Fix issue where steals are tallied inconsistently when two players are involved (i.e. sometimes the person who poked it loose gets the steal, sometimes the person who picks up the loose ball gets credited instead).
- Change the button for the menu so it isn't rebound (this is more for Pro-Am and Walk-On, where you can't rebound during the shootaround).
- Allow us to zoom in and view the trophies in our cabinet in our MyCOURT.
- Add transaction listings and other resources, so that you can keep better track of what's going on around the league.
- Add pop-up notifications (that can be disabled) when there's a major event like a player being injured or someone gets traded (especially when it's on your team).
- Cut down on the number of repetitive post-game interviews. It'd be nice to be able to immediately skip them altogether as with other cutscenes, as it's too easy to end up seeing the same ones over and over.
- Remove the whole Gatorade Turbo Boost, or lower the level required for the Gym Rat Badge. It's just pointless busywork every five games.
- As you win Division, Conference, and NBA Championships, add the respective banners to the rafters.
- Add more hairstyles and facial hair options.
2K Pro-Am
- Ensure that there are no builds that are either cheesy or broken. There are still a lot of builds that aren't viable, or aren't viable both online and offline.
- Bring back the minimum of three players required to play Pro-Am or Walk-On/Jordan Rec Center. If need be, only match teams with less than five users with other teams that have less than five.
- Add better matchmaking so that teams of similar skill level and experience in 2K Pro-Am match up against each other more often.
- Include Casual and Competitive matchmaking options, similar to Rocket League. That way, experienced/hardcore/elite teams will play each other, while those who want more of a "social league" atmosphere will play each other.
- Have "seasons" during the year where your record/rank resets, once again similar to Rocket League.
- Penalise players for constantly disbanding and creating new Pro-Am squads (or at least, offer less incentive to do so).
- Overhaul the grading logic so that there's more balance between rewarding good play and punishing mistakes, as well as better logic when it comes to evaluating shot selection, defensive breakdowns, lucky rebounds (or being overpowered by a bigger player), transition offense and defense, and so on.
- Ensure that private matchmaking works properly.
- Unlock team customisation with image importing after a set number of games, rather than wins/winning percentage. If nothing else, make the qualifications for getting to higher tiers clear, consistent, and readily available to reference.
- Tune long passes so that easy ones can be thrown and caught more often. It's frustrating to have players refuse to even try to catch easy long passes because a canned turnover has been triggered.
- If there are CPU teammates (or when a user is removed from the game), make sure the AI plays a smart game of basketball.
- if there are CPU teammates, make them real NBA players (underscoring the Pro in Pro-Am). The quality of NBA teammates could depend on the team's level; the better your record, the better the random NBA player you get.
- Replace fictional AI teammates with randomly drawn NBA players, to underscore the "Pro" part of "Pro-Am" (and avoid the lousy teammates we're so often stuck with).
- Allow us to rebound when shooting around in the team arena/Jordan Rec Center. As mentioned above, changing the button for the MyCAREER menu would be helpful here.
- Punish cheaters and hackers on PC; clean up the experience.
- Make 2K Pro-Am as fun and balanced as the NBA 2K League Combine reportedly was.
- Fix issue where assists don't count on passes that are slightly deflected or bobbled, are intercepted by a different teammate, and sometimes simply don't register on alley-oop attempts.
- Fix issue where steals are tallied inconsistently when two players are involved (i.e. sometimes the person who poked it loose gets the steal, sometimes the person who picks up the loose ball gets credited instead).
- Tone down the effectiveness of Takeover (if the mechanic is still in the game).
- Remove the whole Gatorade Turbo Boost, or lower the level required for the Gym Rat Badge. It's just pointless busywork every five games.
- Crack down on zig-zag cheese. Every year it gets patched, and then finds its way back in again, resulting in the same old cheese online.
- Have Walk-On games take place in arena where only you and your opponent is playing. Having other games go on in the background only leads to lag and framerate issues, especially for international gamers.
The Playground
- Ensure that there are no builds that are either cheesy or broken. There are still a lot of builds that aren't viable, or aren't viable both online and offline.
- Overhaul the grading logic so that there's more balance between rewarding good play and punishing mistakes, as well as better logic when it comes to evaluating shot selection, defensive breakdowns, lucky rebounds (or being overpowered by a bigger player), transition offense and defense, and so on.
- Add some sort of matchmaking so that players of similar skill levels and experience in The Playground match up against each other more often.
- Add private matchmaking so that you can square off against friends (or add some Playground animations and gameplay to MyCOURT games).
- Add some sort of instant matchmaking to bypass the whole "Got Next" system. We get replicating the whole experience of playing at your local park, but it leads to a lot of standing around waiting, effectively simulating the most tedious part of any activity: waiting in line.
- Add more two-on-two courts, and bring back a single four-on-four or five-on-five court on a permanent basis (not just as a special event).
- As mentioned above, balance the gameplay and in particular, the hybrid Archetypes.
- Reduce the cost of basic celebrations. As it stands, it's a blatant VC gouge.
- Punish cheaters and hackers on PC; clean up the experience.
- Fix issue where assists don't count on passes that are slightly deflected or bobbled, are intercepted by a different teammate, and sometimes simply don't register on alley-oop attempts.
- Fix issue where steals are tallied inconsistently when two players are involved (i.e. sometimes the person who poked it loose gets the steal, sometimes the person who picks up the loose ball gets credited instead).
- Tone down the effectiveness of Takeover (if the mechanic is still in the game).
- Fix issues where VC rewards aren't given after participating in Neighborhood events.
- Remove the whole Gatorade Turbo Boost, or lower the level required for the Gym Rat Badge. It's just pointless busywork every five games.
- Crack down on zig-zag cheese. Every year it gets patched, and then finds its way back in again, resulting in the same old cheese online.
MyLEAGUE/MyGM
- Continue to improve sim engine and stats generation so that the results are more realistic, at least while the league remains relatively the same as real life (without major slider adjustments).
- Continue to fine-tune player movement and trading logic so that it's mostly sensible (without major slider adjustments).
- Tone down coaching changes so that there's more sensible logic behind them. Gregg Popovich shouldn't be leaving San Antonio, teams that are winning shouldn't be quick to dump coaches, and so on.
- Make it easier to edit the pool of generic/fictional coaches. They should be accessible to edit without having to first sign them.
- Allow the use of custom rosters in MyGM.
- Add pop-up notifications (that can be disabled) when there's breaking news, such as a trade or major injury.
- Allow relationships between players and teams to become fractured to the point there are trade demands and advance notice that a player will refuse to re-sign.
- Add historical league options (Four Divisions, less than 30 teams, retro rules) for old school custom MyLEAGUE games.
- As you win Division, Conference, and NBA Championships, add the respective banners to the rafters.
- Improve stability for MyLEAGUE Online.
- Have players and coaches physically age through the years.
- Allow head coaches to be demoted/accept assistant positions if they don't have any offers to be head coaches. This could also be a way for them to become head coaches again, if they're the assistant for someone who gets fired.
- Fix randomisation in generated Draft Classes so that there a fewer silly appearances, and ratings that don't match Archetypes.
- Tune Progression, Potential, Peak Start and Peak End, so that the league isn't overflowing with 90+ Overall players.
- Allow player tendencies to change and evolve over their careers.
- Add more player personality options, e.g. players who are adamant about starting and get upset if they're benched, egos that are more difficult to manage, etc.
- Expand player personalities and add attributes for a player's relationships with their coaches and teammates, which will affect morale and how likely they are to want to be traded/leave via free agency as soon as they can. Also provide more feedback on why a player's morale is low.
- Add cash considerations and further pick protections to trading options.
- Have CPU teams experiment with their lineups, especially if they're losing (or tanking!), a bench player earns more minutes, or someone is slumping.
- Improve historical Draft Classes with generic players that at least mimic the skillset of the players they're standing in for. Obviously, appearances, names, and other bio data will have to remain generic for legal reasons, but the less editing required for the generic players, especially in older classes with fewer real players, the better.
- Deeper scouting reports. Allow us to read a synopsis of a player's strengths and weaknesses, tendencies, projected role, background information, etc.
- Add playable Draft workouts/the Draft Combine.
- Add a playable training camp, with options on what to focus upon.
- Increase the amount of free throw attempts in simulated games.
- Make good team chemistry harder to attain, but have more of a positive effect when you do.
- Increase the influence of playing time and role on player progression.
- Account for different attitudes towards playing time for different players; young players eager to prove themselves, veterans willing to sacrifice and ring chase, etc.
- Add more sliders to control simulated stats.
- Add a slider to control how likely a team is to shop players who have low morale and want out. As it stands, CPU teams often don't bother trying to trade unhappy players.
- Add a monthly in-game magazine that covers the league's top stories.
- Add Badges for coaches in MyLEAGUE, and attributes for player development and player relationships. Have these attributes affect both gameplay and roster/morale management.
MyTEAM
- Improve pack odds and content. One player per pack often results in poor value for the cost. Reduce the cost, or offer better value.
- Throwback packs should only have throwback content, not a "small chance" of getting a historical player. Even if it isn't necessarily a star player, it should always be a retro player.
- Have a few more Legends be available at launch.
- Allow users to buy individual cards at a premium MT price. This could also set the market value for the Auction House to some extent.
- Ideally don't make the Auction House unlockable, but if it is, don't require users to play any of the online modes to unlock it. At the very least, do not make it a requirement to win; poor sports and pay-to-win mechanics get in the way of that.
- Lower the requirements for unlocking full team customisation.
- Implement better matchmaking, according to skill, experience, and quality of team.
- If we're part of a 2K Pro-Am squad, allow our teammates to be unlocked for use in MyTEAM.
- If the Token system is retained, choose better players for each tier. Some of the Emerald and Sapphire cards were puzzling/disappointing, but had to be acquired in order to unlock the next tier.
Roster Management & Customisation
- Expand Edit and Create Player to include access to full bio data and attributes, including Draft information and any currently hidden tendencies that will affect gameplay.
- Enhance facial editing in Create Player. Borrowing assets from WWE 2K would be ideal.
- Expand the total number of Created Player slots from 150; preferably as many as technically possible.
- Bring back Create-a-Team, with the ability to export and share team files to be imported into any roster.
- Add the ability to edit the All-Star teams.
- Add the ability to use the rebranding features (complete with image importing) outside of MyLEAGUE, MyGM, and MyTEAM, so that teams can be modified as part of a custom roster.
- Add more hairstyles and facial hair options, for both MyPLAYERs and created players in general.
- Add a bigger variety of body models.
- Add sliders that allow for more "crazy" moments in offline play, for gamers who want to change things up or increase the amount of highlight plays.
- Allow sorting and ranking in 2K Share, to help filter results and find what you're looking for.
- Add Quick Edit options for physical attributes.
- Add chest protrusion and neck thickness to body editing.
Other Modes, Features, & Content
- Add retro rules options, or the ability to customise the rules, so that we can play with old school teams under era-specific rules.
- Add a standalone All-Star Weekend mode, so that we can play the Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Shootout anytime.
- Add some sort of challenge mode that utilises all of the historical teams (or at least the retro squads, if not the All-Time teams).
- Bring back a Creating a Legend-type career mode, for a more streamlined career experience.
- Try to work out deals with Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller, as well as other missing historical players.
- Improve facescan app so that it doesn't result in many errors and failed attempts to scan. Results also still leave something to be desired.
- Make all hairstyles and facial hair styles immediately available when creating your MyPLAYER, especially if you're going to charge to change them at the Barber Shop later on.
- Allow pre-order content to be shared between different MyCAREER saves.
- Overhaul ratings and tendencies for historical teams and players, for greater accuracy.
- Add more historical teams; preferably more interesting and significant ones.
- Add FIBA teams.
- Remove three-point line from the courts of teams from before 1980; have shots from three-point range count for two when playing on those courts.
Presentation & UI
- Secure authentic broadcasting license (perhaps NBA TV, given the mix of voice talent already in the game) for even more realistic presentation.
- Allow us to pick presentation/atmosphere settings in Play Now: Pre-Season, Regular Season, Playoffs, Conference Finals, NBA Finals, and special events (St Patrick's Day, Christmas, etc).
- Allow camera cuts when the ball is being chased down on a dead ball situation, instead of having to wait for it to be retrieved. In other words, allow us to skip straight to the inbound with a button press.
- Allow us to quickly skip through halftime shows and stats screens during dead balls, or add an option to disable them altogether, should you want a more streamlined experience.
- Allow us to dismiss the "Update Required" dialogue box, at least until the current game is finished. It's distracting, intrusive, and ruins the presentation.
- Change the button for the menu in MyCAREER so that it isn't the same as rebound (thus taking that control away when shooting around in the Pro-Am arena and Jordan Rec Center).
- Add options for retro filters and presentation, as in NBA's Greatest in NBA 2K12.
- Increase the number of save slots to share between MyLEAGUE, MyGM, and MyCAREER.
- Add the option for always having player introductions.
- Improve lighting and stadium sounds for a more realistic environment.
- Add a filter for a more authentic broadcast appearance.
- Enhance replays for more authenticity, and make them less stuck on the ball. In manual Instant Replay, allow the camera to be moved more freely.
- Add more stats overlays that "tell the story" of the current game, as well as the season overall in MyLEAGUE/MyGM and MyCAREER.
Miscellaneous
- Demonstrate goodwill and balance in the implementation of microtransactions and pay-to-win mechanics across the board.
- Make the PC version more modder-friendly, with roster and art files that can easily be opened with readily available software (or better yet, some official tools).
- Optimise the PC version. Performance is still often disappointing on great gaming machines that run other demanding games without any problems.
- Reduce the amount of random CTDs with no error message in the PC version.
- Don't have Trophies/Achievements that can be made unknowingly difficult to attain, or ones that encourage microtransactions.
- Allow all sound to be captured along with video on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It would be a tremendous help to users without a capture card. If there's an issue with copyright, block the music from being captured, but at least allow commentary and sound effects.
- Allow the creation of custom soundtracks (at least on PC, where music files can be dumped into a folder); possible Spotify integration?