NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Talk about NBA 2K20 here.

NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby sticky-fingers on Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:04 am

from Reddit :
Hey there, 2K basketball fans! It’s that time of year where I finally get to pause for a minute and talk about some of the amazing work that the gameplay team has put into this year’s installment. NBA 2K20 is a huge leap forward for on-court play and there’s plenty to reveal so let’s get into it.

https://i.redd.it/jn0ixyqtcne31.jpg

Motion Engine Upgrade
https://i.redd.it/lk0tnhvwcne31.jpg

Proper footwork is a core foundation of basketball, and replicating that properly is vital to balancing the interplay between offense and defense. Without realistic movement, everything else falls apart.

In NBA 2K18 we introduced a new motion engine that moved away from the “animation-driven” systems of earlier 2K games. The improvements to feel and responsiveness were immediately apparent when we made the switch, but the new tech surfaced some challenges that caused us to lose some of the control that we had over animation selection, sacrificing some of the authenticity of the motion. In short, some aspects of movement looked and felt way better, some took a step back.

Our motion team spent the past couple of years developing an upgraded motion engine with the aim of finding a happy medium. And thanks to their hard work, movement in this year’s game has taken a huge leap forward. Some of the advances that you’ll immediately see and feel when you pick up NBA 2K20 are better foot planting, momentum modeling, and motion style variation. Players have a much better sense of weight and plant their feet properly when cutting or exploding from a stand. And thanks to the addition of motion styles, you’ll quickly feel the difference between a lumbering big vs. a quick, explosive guard. The motion team spent a lot of time researching and analyzing sprint speeds and acceleration times of real NBA players. This helped us tune our player speeds to more accurately depict the speed of the NBA game, especially in the open court. This research also led us to re-design how sprinting works. We really wanted sprinting to be a valuable resource and not something that everybody automatically does everywhere they go. This year, you’ll notice a flashing yellow effect around the Stamina bar when your energy level drops below a certain threshold. Once hit, you’ll quickly ramp down to a run speed and get tired much faster. So it’s important this year to pick and choose when you want to explode with your first step and not abuse the Sprint trigger all game long.

Handles and Sauce
https://i.redd.it/2rddm5hycne31.jpg

Ball handlers now have contextual awareness of specific situations on the court that they didn’t have before. Pick and Roll wraps/splits, situational cuts, and backcourt vs. frontcourt movement are a few examples of where we made the ball handler aware of his surroundings. Signature Dribble Styles were another key focus for the motion system upgrade, allowing us to accurately portray the myriad of movement styles across the league. We added new concepts such as stop variation – dead leg/punches, hesi lifts, inverts, etc. Cuts and first steps also vary greatly from one style to the next, allowing us to differentiate speedsters (De'Aaron Fox, John Wall) from players like DeMar DeRozan who move with more “wiggle.” Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, and legends such as Kobe Bryant and Tim Hardaway have signature dribble idle stands. Magic Johnson and John Stockton set up their offenses with their unique movement bringing the ball up court, while open floor players like Russell Westbrook and Giannis Antetokounmpo get different sprint acceleration animations in transition. There are 27 different styles that you’ll see across the league that you’ll also have access to in MyCAREER to create the type of ball handler you want.

Here’s the list of styles: Base, Big, Power, Fundamental, Quick, Slasher, Shifty, James Harden, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Jerry West, Dennis Johnson, John Stockton, Allen Iverson, Tim Hardaway, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Isiah Thomas, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Stephen Curry, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard

Being a successful ball handler is so much about rhythm and change of pace. The new system gives you many tools to do that, just by using the left stick. But if you want to make your defender look bad in the process, you’re going to need some “sauce.”

This year, we’re introducing a new size-up mechanic that allows you to chain standing dribble moves together in a cleaner and more realistic way. Every move is performed one to one by flicking the Pro Stick and there are no pre-scripted sequences this year. Players have full control over whether they want to lull defenders to sleep with a slow rocking crossover or pound the ball hard with quick machine gun style crosses. James Harden has his patented between legs setup moves, Kyrie Irving has an array of streetball handles, Allen Iverson has his big hesi cross, and the list goes on. The new size-ups really give you the freedom to create your own unique rhythm. When mastered, you’ll be able to break off even the best on-ball defenders. But when over-dribbling or trying to perform the wrong moves at the wrong time, you’ll see players fumbling the ball or easily getting ripped by their defenders.

We’re also giving players access to new advanced moves including behind back wrap escapes, Luka Doncic’s fake stepback, stutter chop steps, new shammgods, and the fake sham hesi that Will Bynum pulled out at the Big Three. And even before you put the ball down, triple threat offense has been expanded as well, with a plethora of new moves including: directional jabs, mid-stepovers, shimmies, and new first steps. I’m excited to see how creative the community gets with all the new ball handling tools at their disposal. Ankles beware.

Read & React
https://i.redd.it/w1omjcwzcne31.jpg

But don’t worry, we didn’t neglect the defensive end of the floor. On-ball defenders will be happy to hear that we’re providing more tools to help them lockdown their checks as well. Internally, we’ve been calling this Read & React Defense. When guarding the ball, defensive players will see a small arrow under the ball handler, indicating where they’re leaning or attempting to go. The arrow shows up at different times based on the defender’s abilities, modeling the different reaction times between a poor defender and a great one. Anticipating the ball handler’s movement properly and cutting off their attack will yield much more predictable outcomes such as stonewalling the dribbler, forcing a pickup, or causing a fumble. Thanks to the motion engine upgrade and its improved defensive footwork, as well as a greatly improved body-up ride system, 1-on-1 battles now resolve in a much more predictable way, showcasing the differences between attacking a flat-footed defender vs. highly skilled Lockdown.

Under the ball handler, you’ll also notice the indicator ring change from a solid circle to broken up lines as the ball handler moves around the court or performs moves. The more broken up the circle, the more vulnerable the ball handler is to losing the ball. To further emphasize this, we re-tuned on-ball steals to be much more predictable. So for NBA 2K20, it’s more important to read what the ball handler’s doing and reaching at the right times rather than running around randomly spamming the Steal button.

Shot Solutions & Paint D
https://i.redd.it/ycu0ir81dne31.jpg

Attacking and defending the rim was another area of focus for the gameplay team. I talked about the concept of Shot Solutions a few years back. The basic idea in real life is that good slashers can find unique solutions to get through the defense when attacking the rim. For NBA 2K20, we’ve completely re-architected layups and dunks to be a fully branch-able mechanic. Last year we introduced the ability to branch from certain layup gathers to dunk finishes… but for layups, once you hit the button you mostly just watched a sequence play out from ground to air. The new gather feature allows you to kick off an advanced gather on the floor, read the defense, and select how you want to finish that gather by re-deflecting the Pro Stick as you takeoff. Say, for example, if you started a euro gather but saw the defense close in, you could re-deflect the Pro Stick down to branch to a floater finish to avoid contact. This also allowed us to introduce the concept of gather resolutions. Forcing a gather into heavy traffic or directly into a defender will lead to jam ups, but choosing the correct gathers in open spaces will let you knife right through traffic. In addition to the euro-step, cradle, hop step, and spin gathers you had access to before, you can now also perform half-spin and cross-spin gathers to get past your defender.

Just like the floor game, playing above the rim is also accompanied by a beefed up defensive counterpart. This year, we captured hundreds of new in-air collisions, hard fouls, grab blocks, and swats to let the rim protectors have their presence felt. Paint defenders who have good timing and decision making will be a force to reckon with and you’ll definitely have to think twice when going head to head against them inside. Zion Williamson, welcome to Team 2K!

Post scorers can also look forward to a refreshed post game with new fakes, backdowns, and moves… while post defenders will have access to an expanded post body-up system that will help them lock down spins, drives, dropsteps, and hopsteps on the other end.

Working Off-ball
A couple of months ago in the “Ask a Dev” segment on 2KTV, I teased that an upgrade to off-ball play was coming. Players spend 90% of the time on the floor without the ball, so we wanted to make sure that aspect of our game was fully featured.

On the offensive side, NBA 2K20 brings back an old beloved feature… off-ball juke moves. We really wanted these moves to mirror the functionality of the ball handler, so not only have they returned, they’ve also improved. With simple Pro Stick gestures, players have access to fake first steps, spins, and stutters that you can chain together or immediately branch out of to perform flare cuts, dive to the hoop, or spot up for open J’s. The moves are also broken down into three levels to separate elite off-ball players from the rest. The combo of new moves and off-ball movement make playing away from the ball much more of a skill game and let you re-create the epic battles we saw Klay Thompson and Steph Curry have against the Raptors in the playoffs.

Defensively, off-ball collisions were reworked from the ground up to take advantage of the technical advancements we’ve made to our body-up system over the past couple years. If you can read where your off-ball offensive opponents are trying to go, you can cut them off and put them in a box, making them work extra hard for every look.

Screens, both on-ball and away from the ball, were also rebuilt and feature much better interactions between screeners and screen defenders. The new content offers complete control to help defenders navigate around screeners much more effectively and get into better position without getting stuck on other players. We’re also introducing the concept of quick screens, performed by tapping the Set Screen button. It carries a high risk/reward and must be used sparingly, but can be a great tool to quickly rub your cutting teammate’s defender and slow him down just enough to help your teammate get open. You’ll see loads of additional new content, including better roll/fade transitions, screen rejects, slips, screen blowups and hard hitting brick wall screens. And for you simheads, we’re also giving you manual switch controls. Simply hold the Swap Player button or double flick the right stick to call for a switch and manually override your coach’s screen defense strategy. You’ll also notice that AI teammates have the capability to dynamically roll/fade to open space, whereas before they were always sent to a static location.

The Next Step in AI
Our team prides itself on having the best AI in any sports game, and NBA 2K20 continues to push the envelope in that area.

On the offensive side, check out the new Dynamic Freelance engine. Your teammates will create intelligent off-ball motion without ever having to call a play. Look for them to automatically run smart offensive actions for your best players (driven by the Adaptive Coaching Engine or On-the-Fly Coaching), including off-ball screens and cuts, to create scoring opportunities for themselves. This new system, in conjunction with the continuing evolution of ACE, makes running a structured offense much simpler for the masses.

Savvy strategists can also take advantage of the new play action buttons. These are quick-to-access mini actions that can be called to create your own offense: Floppy, Receive Screen, Isolation, etc. And if you want to go even deeper, you can also create a “Favorite Plays” list in place of the play action buttons – assigning up to 8 of your favorite go-to plays. Last year, we introduced Series Actions, which were a big hit with the sim community. Their one request for this year was user-created series, which we heard and are bringing to NBA 2K20. Now you can turn your favorite plays into your own personal series action, and even control how that series is run (repeat on success, run through, called in order, dynamic, etc.)

AI defense is stepping up its game as well. The transition defense module has been re-written and introduces some new options, including “Protect the Perimeter” and “Wall up” (the transition positioning used against elite downhill players.) Also look out for new team-specific and player-specific adjustments in ACE, including:

- Utah’s on ball adjustments to Harden in the playoffs

- Toronto’s top lock deny scheme against Curry

- Player-specific Takeover awareness

- Legendary team and player adjustment adds and improvements

And one last note on the AI. In past 2K’s, the AI has always used Real Player % when it came down to determining makes and misses. This could often lead to robotic, predictable outcomes. This year, we’ve implemented the same shot timing mechanics for the AI that players use. The result is a much more human-like opponent and a more even playing field. So while you can gap shooters more often when playing on Rookie or Pro and see them brick some open shots due to bad timing, you’ll definitely want to hug up on shooters when playing on the higher difficulty levels to avoid getting lit up with “green lights.” Speaking of greens, you can now customize your shot meter to have a green flash, splash, or splat effect. I know how much you guys love customization.

Badges & Takeover
Badges have become one of the main ways a player can set themselves apart from another. We know how important they are to the game and to the community, so one of the first things we did this dev cycle was sit down (in many meetings) to re-imagine what badges we should have in the game and how they should work. We came away with an impressive list of around 80 badges that allow players to express different strengths in various areas of the game. We put in a ton of work to ensure that each badge was valuable and unique enough to cater to just about any imaginable playstyle. We even added Neighborhood-specific badges that enhance the physicality and flashy play of the Playground.

Takeover returns in NBA 2K20 with more content and new features, and thanks to all the feedback from the community and another year of testing under our belts, we’ve tuned the Takeover abilities to be much more balanced across positions and playstyles.

There’s tons more to talk about when it comes to badges, attributes, Takeover, and the improvements to player builds, so look forward to more info on that soon. We’re very confident that you guys are going to love the direction we’re taking with it.

Closing Thoughts
Hope you enjoyed the blog and got a sense of what to expect when you pick up the game next month. I think I’ve highlighted most of the big ticket gameplay items but there are plenty more goodies to share as we get closer to launch. Just want to give a big thanks and shout out to all the gameplay engineers and producers who worked tirelessly to make NBA 2K20 the best playing basketball game on the planet. And believe me, this is just the beginning. I can’t say enough about the entire dev team at Visual Concepts who always manage to pull off (in one year) what most teams wouldn’t even attempt in a multi-year cycle. So stay tuned in the coming weeks as we roll out more info on all the modes and features packed into this year’s game! We can’t wait till you get your hands on it and we’ll be lurking in the virtual streets scouring for feedback! We couldn’t do what we do without all of the 2K fans around the globe, so on behalf of the team, thank you for all your support!

Mike Wang (@Beluba), NBA 2K Gameplay Director
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Andrew on Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:11 am

The whole blog is definitely worth a read as there's some great news in there, but a quick overview (copied from my front page news post) is as follows:

  • The Motion Engine has received an upgrade, improving foot planting, animation selection, momentum modelling, and realistic differentiation in player weight and speed. Sprinting has also been reworked to make it harder to abuse, with more visual feedback when a player is getting low on energy.

  • Ballhandlers now have contextual awareness that they didn't before. More dribble moves and animations have been added, with a focus on signature styles. A new size-up mechanic will allow moves to be chained together more cleanly, and without pre-scripted sequences.

  • An arrow will assist in movement on defense, showing which direction a player is leaning or attempting to go. The arrow shows up at different times, according to the defender's abilities. The player indicator will also change from a solid circle to a broken line, indicating how vulnerable they are to losing the ball on steal attempts. Steal spam has also been addressed.

  • Gathers have more flexibility this year, allowing offensive players to react to defense collapsing on them in the lane and branch into different finishes. Hundreds of new animations have been added including in-air collisions, hard fouls, grab blocks, and swats. The post game has also been enhanced with new moves on both sides of the ball.

  • Off-ball control has been expanded with juke moves, as seen in older games. Moves are performed with the right stick when playing off the ball. Off-ball collisions have also been improved, and a new quick screen control has been added.

  • Further enhancements have been made to AI at both ends. This includes improvements to the Adaptive Coaching Engine, and a new Dynamic Freelance engine. There are also new play action buttons, which you can customise with your favourite plays. Transition defense has also been re-written with new options.

  • CPU players now utilise shot timing mechanics, rather than Real Player %. Takeover has been tuned to be less OP and there are new Badges. According to a Tweet by Beluba, some Badges have also been removed.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby kingpnp on Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:52 am

Lol at the arrow on their foot telling them the direction the offensive player is going in. can I say live 19 anyone? but thats a good feature so props to them for hi-jacking it.

this one got me "...But when over-dribbling or trying to perform the wrong moves at the wrong time, you’ll see players fumbling the ball or easily getting ripped by their defenders."

Stop it 2k. the moment these my career guys choose a playmaker/shot creator is going to be a dribble fest. and no you wont be able to make them lose the ball like you should. This is one of my pet peeves with 2k when it comes to dribble gawds as they call them. These guys are not great at shaking you. they are great at dribbling for 22 of the 24 seconds until an ankle breaker animation kicks in for them or a pick comes. but you can't rip them most times, jam them up, or make them lose the ball a bit, most of the time. it just wont allow you to do that. ESPECIALLy if you dont have a defender as your primary archetype.
Guys will go side to side...side to side...side to side. even if you cut one side off they will still do it and more or less dribble the ball thru your body. Because the ball isnt live enough to be deflected by that contact as it should be.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby [Q] on Tue Aug 06, 2019 8:59 am

Size ups sounds like something Mike Wang had in Live 10
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Andrew on Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:39 am

It sounds like they're going the NBA Live route with less pre-scripted dribbling sequences. There'll be the signature styles, but you'll have more control over branching moves and putting them altogether. It'll be interesting to see how that's received by a userbase that's more used to triggering the animation and letting it play out.

We have heard about the risks of over-dribbling before, but it hasn't really come to fruition. If nothing else, it hasn't been a big enough factor, and zigzag cheese has always found its way back into the game. If it is indeed finally sorted and better balanced, then that will be great news.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby [Q] on Tue Aug 06, 2019 2:42 pm

Can't wait for the "choppy animations" complaints that Live gets for that stuff
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Andrew on Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:01 pm

If the trailer is any indication, they may have gotten it right in ways that Live hasn't been able to. Having smoother animations to begin with helps, of course.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Nick on Tue Aug 06, 2019 8:18 pm

I like the 8 favourite plays thing.

I LOVE the sound of the sprinting/motion philosophy.

Slightly worried about the CPU not using RealPlayer% anymore but we'll see how it goes. I like the concept, but i'm concerned about the execution in year 1 of the change.

Nothing else really stood out to me
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby bongo88 on Wed Aug 07, 2019 11:00 am

Da_Czar chatting about the the 2k20 Gameplay Blog

I haven't watched it all, just saw the notification. Posting it here in case y'all are interested. Skipped to a few parts and it seemed interesting, but haven't watched the whole thing.

phpBB [video]
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Andrew on Wed Aug 07, 2019 12:55 pm

Might give that a listen while I'm working on a few things.

It's probably something that'll have to wait for the next generation, but I'd really like to see less canned moments when it comes to interceptions, turnovers, and rebounds. As I said in a Monday Tip-Off article, at the very least I feel they need to find a way to better mask those inner workings so that it looks and feels organic, even if it is contrived under the hood due to technical limitations.

Implementing real-time physics and having everything work satisfactorily is easier said than done, but in lieu of that, the smoke and mirrors need to be better. It's painfully obvious when the game has artificially forced a steal or turnover, or the ball clips/changes direction in midair to ensure the rebound goes to a specific player when another one clearly should've been able to grab it. As I said though, it feels like something that'll have to wait until next gen.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby sticky-fingers on Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:07 pm

There's another video on his channel (gameplay is from 2K16, so you must LISTEN, not just watch) :

phpBB [video]
Last edited by sticky-fingers on Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby maumau78 on Wed Aug 07, 2019 6:50 pm

So is this 2k20?

Where is the improvement to player movement?
They all look the same to me :-(

Not happy at all....
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby ThePointForward on Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:07 pm

Keep in mind that this might have been recorded on some build that didn't have some of the stuff in yet.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby sticky-fingers on Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:32 pm

maumau78 wrote:So is this 2k20?

Where is the improvement to player movement?
They all look the same to me :-(

Not happy at all....

No :lol: He talks about how AI reacts now in comparison with ... 2K16.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby R4zoR on Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:35 pm

Guys the gameplay was from NBA 2K16 that Da_Czar showed in the video named "NBA2K20 Play Action Buttons"
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby maumau78 on Wed Aug 07, 2019 8:03 pm

sticky-fingers wrote:
maumau78 wrote:So is this 2k20?

Where is the improvement to player movement?
They all look the same to me :-(

Not happy at all....

No :lol: He talks about how AI reacts now in comparison with ... 2K16.


So this is not 2k20 right???
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby ThePointForward on Wed Aug 07, 2019 8:05 pm

Fair enough, personally didn't get to watch and listen to it yet.

maumau78 wrote:So this is not 2k20 right???

No.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby sticky-fingers on Wed Aug 07, 2019 8:52 pm

it's 2K16 dude !!!!
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby kingpnp on Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:57 am

Andrew wrote:If the trailer is any indication, they may have gotten it right in ways that Live hasn't been able to. Having smoother animations to begin with helps, of course.


^THIS.

Truth is. you can break out of any animations within reason if you want it to play and look realistic. its like once momentum was entered into video game sports titles. before that, if you changed direction it was an instant change of direction. and if they just stopped allowing that without the in between animations of momentum where your weight shifts first, then comes to a stop then starts the other way again. they would've had horrible looking animations with people TRYING to play the old way. it's the same concept. make sure you have the in between animations to fill in the gap(s) of a transition change. Dont allow someone to stop their crossover mid cross from right to left into an around the back move. thats not realistic. and it would look super wonky if allowed.

Make that person finish that initial cross over after they pass a certain threshold on the right analog when pushing from right to left. once you get to far and hold it to long. its a crossover, there's no turning back from it. so the new complaint will be for those use to games doing things on the spot at that exact moment without realism. those people will be disappointed early on. but 2k has to stick to its guns if it was done properly and wait for/allow people time with the game to get use to the new way /more realistic way of handling the ball. one of their main problems is, being so big on the scene they have a lot of cry baby fans. and they bend to those tears way to quickly in a lot of scenarios because at the end of the day they are trying to serve their most prominent /loudest customer.

But with a new system like this. You can break out of a crossover from right to left into inside and out move. thats IF you start the cross over and yank it back to the right from which the ball came before you pass that crossover threshold i spoke of above. and what should happen is, if people still trying to force break animations after they've completely committed to them. start making guys have lose the ball animations. because thats what happens in real life if you aint got that tight handle. you start trying to do things outside of their proper timing and you will end up losing the ball a bit.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby kingpnp on Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:05 am

Nick wrote:I like the 8 favourite plays thing.

I LOVE the sound of the sprinting/motion philosophy.

Slightly worried about the CPU not using RealPlayer% anymore but we'll see how it goes. I like the concept, but i'm concerned about the execution in year 1 of the change.

Nothing else really stood out to me

even though i dont play a ton of offline i still understand your possible fear for the real player% vs shot timing. The reason they are changing it i believe is because leaving it at real player % means that the cpu will make shots when you are all over them defensively. not because they found away to create space. but purely based on the formula that says they better be within X% of the players real shooting percentage or else its a failure. They are saying we're taking that out. and now when you play the cpu its as if you're playing a human player. therefore you will get more realistic/random results.

There are even times in 2k when playing Humans, especially online in the rec center or pro am gym with your my players. where I know for a fact that 2k has programmed in hot streaks and cold streaks. and I'm not talking about 1 gamer hot streaks cold streaks. like over the course of 3 or so games. your guy is MONEY. splash. splash splash. eurostep, layup, beat him to the basket DUNKED ON. its all going your way. and you can play the exact same team of players same archetypes 2 games later. and all of a sudden your green releases will not be full bar whites, In and out, In and out. all the way down...then out. Here you go with a breakaway layup. Blown layup with a weird looking animation that doesnt even make sense to the context of the current play happening. WHY? because the AI said you WILL NOT go 7 for 7 this game even if I have to stop you. lol. This is why the game is so frustrating at times. you're not only playing vs your opponents you're also playing vs the computer too. which is insane when the reason you're playing online is to play other humans not cpu bots.


I'll take it a step further with another example of CPU players making shots they have no business making in past games. and why what 2k is saying their doing if done right will be better for you offline guys.

a 100% healthy Klay comes off the screen in 2k19 or live19. whatever his rating is, in that context. even with defense on him. he just missed the last 2 due to your defense. The AI literally can't allow him to miss this next one because if the AI allows that Klay's FG% will be so far below his real life versions FG% that is in the game. where the game's AI will force a make even though you have kawhi and you ran thru that screen perfectly and you perfectly timed your block attempt. all of a sudden you watch in the replay as your hand swings straight thru the basketball and the Klay Thompson shots goes swish. you're about to rage quit and throw the sticks. you can't believe what you just saw. how is that not a block/deflection or something? now you know why. AI is porgrammed to give Klay his real life percentage give or take a few % up or down.

There's a difference between the AI saying he better make it. vs He better release at the proper time based on real life data of his releases being within a nice make zone 70% of the time. that wont stop a better defender from blocking every single perfectly released jumper. IN 2k they some what tried it this year where you can occasionally have your green layups blocks or green close up jumpers blocked even though they are green releases. in the past that would've never happened. green release would've automatically went in..over hell or high water.
Last edited by kingpnp on Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:15 am

kingpnp wrote:even though i dont play a ton of offline i still understand your possible fear for the real player% vs shot timing. The reason they are changing it i believe is because leaving it at real player % means that the cpu will make shots when you are all over them defensively. not because they found away to create space. but purely based on the formula that says they better be within X% of the players real shooting percentage or else its a failure. They are saying we're taking that out. and now when you play the cpu its as if you're playing a human player. therefore you will get more realistic/random results.


I get the impression it's going to work the other way too, meaning you can't just leave CPU players open and let Real Player % even out a lacklustre defensive effort by playing the shooting percentages. Leave a good shooter open, and the CPU will be able to get Greens like a human opponent. If it works out, they should be more effective when guarded poorly, and more realistically affected when you're right up in their grill on defense.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby kingpnp on Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:20 am

Andrew wrote:
kingpnp wrote:even though i dont play a ton of offline i still understand your possible fear for the real player% vs shot timing. The reason they are changing it i believe is because leaving it at real player % means that the cpu will make shots when you are all over them defensively. not because they found away to create space. but purely based on the formula that says they better be within X% of the players real shooting percentage or else its a failure. They are saying we're taking that out. and now when you play the cpu its as if you're playing a human player. therefore you will get more realistic/random results.


I get the impression it's going to work the other way too, meaning you can't just leave CPU players open and let Real Player % even out a lacklustre defensive effort by playing the shooting percentages. Leave a good shooter open, and the CPU will be able to get Greens like a human opponent. If it works out, they should be more effective when guarded poorly, and more realistically affected when you're right up in their grill on defense.

thats pretty much what i meant in a nutshell. defense will matter. so will a lack of defense. as it should be.

you get tired of me lighting you up. do something about it. come guard me. Then lets see if i can make the right chess move(s)-counter(s).

thats what basketball is all about. read and react on either end of the floor. and anticipation aka educated guessing.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:22 am

Hopefully they have the right balance, but it sounds good in theory.
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Re: NBA 2K20 - Gameplay Dev Blog

Postby sticky-fingers on Wed Aug 14, 2019 7:30 pm

New video on Da_Czar's channel :
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