by Nick on Wed Mar 13, 2013 7:31 pm
If even half of the goals you guys have for this mod can be achieved then it would instantly become my favourite ever mod in my entire 10+ years at this site. I'm actually getting giddy just imagining the possibilities. Association mode has always been my favourite mode throughout my basketball video gaming days, but has always been neglected by the companies who are trying hard to produce games that sell (fair enough i suppose) which has left me feeling generally dissatisfied and wanting something deeper and more realistic.
So here's some of the things that comes to mind for a project like this. (It's not player personalities ideas but alas...)
- The integrity of winning seems to have no bearing in the game. If the Clippers win the title, then no way Chris Paul declines his player option and then signs with a losing team in free agency. A 30 year old 6th man will choose to sign with a playoff team over a losing team, whereas a 24 year old 6th man would choose to sign with a team where he can have the opportunity to start or have lots of money, regardless of win%. Teams should have an 'integrity' rating, that is dictated by their winning ways (maybe their win% over the past 3 or 5 years? (random idea, maybe integrity can be split into long-term and short-term. Short-term integrity is based on their win% over the past 3 years. Long-term integrity is based on their win% based on the past 10 years.)). Team integrity affects FA decisions, but also can have other perks (like maybe negotiation power? or more merch sales? ticket sales? or more likely to lure star players or something?)
- Teams seem to have no sense of direction when they trade. This can be fixed by applying a "team direction" attribute to teams. Kind of like player personality attribute, it dictates the teams ambitions in transactions. Team directions include:
1. Win-now phase (focused on short term winning, i.e. more likely to stack their rosters with vets, spend cap, trade draft picks away, etc, more focused on basketball strategy than economic strategy. - Think Lakers, Spurs, Boston, Heat, Mavs, you know the teams.
2. Rebuild phase (weak teams that are selling up shop. Trade aging stars/vets, more interested in draft picks/youth/assets and cap flexibility. They're looking to shed their skin and start fresh. - Think Orlando, Charlotte, probably Boston soon, probably Mavs soon etc
3. On the upward (Not sure what else to call it. These teams are the ones loaded with maybe 1 or 2 or 3 young stars, but the overall team isn't elite yet. They're trying to build around a guy or 2 and take the team to the next level. These guys sort of in between "rebuild" and "win-now". Their intentions share traits from both directions. They want to reserve flexibility but also try to build a winning team on the basketball court. They've already "shed their skin" in rebuild phase and now they're ready to take what they've built to the next level. They're looking to trade some of their young assets for a stud. - Think Houston, Cleveland, Minnesota, Philly, the OKC of 3 years ago, the Clippers before the signed Chris Paul, Memphis last year, Portland before Roy/Oden went down, etc
4. All Business (Not sure what else to call it. These are the teams that are less focused on the basketball strategy and more focused on generating dollars. Their owners see their teams as a brand. They're looking to improve their team's integrity, as to improve their brand. They're all about marketing, and all they want essentially is bums on seats. These are the teams that will trade for a highlight reel player who can score frequently but doesn't play defense or win games. These are the teams that will sign a player just so they can sell his jersey. They're more interested in name power than basketball ability. They're more interested in what a player can bring to the merch income than the actual basketball court, and often find that their teams are a directionless rabble. They often make moves that appear dumb to the general public. These teams will do anything within their power to stay under lux cap. (We'd have to create some sort of advantage to generating merch sales and stuff like that though for this particular attribute to make sense.) - Think Sacramento, Phoenix, Toronto, Detroit in the past, Milwaukee in the past, Washington in the past, Atlanta to an extent.
^I'm not sure exactly WHAT would dictate the CPU's teams "direction". Maybe their overall ranking? Maybe their W/L record? Maybe their place in the power rankings? Maybe their team's top 7 players ages vs the ovrl rating vs salary? Either way it would have to be a dynamic attribute that changes every once in a while based on their roster/results.
- I don't know if there is a way to customize player progression, but it would be sweet if potential was more likely to be fulfilled IF THEY'RE GIVEN OPPORTUNITY. A rookie should not improve 4-5 points in the following offseason if they didn't get any playing time. But a rookie that was given 20-30mpg should (if they have a potential rating that allows for it). This makes player progression more of a "farming" thing. If you give a young player the necessary game experience, he will develop much faster than if he was limited to just training in the practice facilities. As it stands now, ANY player with a potential rating over 80 is going to end up being a star, which saturates the league in the future full of talent. In the NBA we all know that there is no such thing as a sure-thing. There are surprise stars and there are surprise busts. There are no busts in 2k.
That's all i got for now. I might brainstorm player personalities a bit later, but i just wanted to get the stuff i said above off my chest first.