kcarr1
May 29th, 2007, 10:52 PM
First off I would like to say this is easily the best basketball simutation I have ever played but that being said it is still far from perfect. These are some things I think could improve it.
Ok, first with the actual gameplay, too often when running fast breaks it seems that my teammates just get to the 3 point line and go into the offense. If we have numbers then they should either automatically fill their lanes and attack the hoop or I should be able to tell them to. Also, in the half court offense it is way to easy to dunk and to pass into the paint to someone who isnt posting up or holding his defender at bay or anything. I should not be able to just throw from the point to the middle of the key at will, have my center who is like a 53 overall turn around and dunk over 2 other guys. He should be forced to make a move or something to get these hoops. Also on this whole dunking thing, if I have anyone with like over 70 in dunking and get them within 6 or 7 feet from the hoop I am jumping into and over people and dunking. On a few rare occasions I get a charge called or get blocked, but still, most of the time its successful as long as they go into a dunk annimation. Now I play at hall of fame level and by this point the cpu should be able to stop this stuff. Next, penetrating guards who can't dunk the ball are pretty much worthless in this game. It seems nearly impossible to finish a layup with any contact when really if you watch even a highschool game most layups are contested and still finished a good percentage of the time. Defensively, in a zone the players should have their hands up and be ready for the passes, this is something even junior high teams do and these college teams dont do it. Also with man to man, almost noone plays with a weak side defender playing right up on their man, these people should be dropping down into the lane to help.
Next with playcalling, first the plays should have more than one option involved and the players should know what to do in that situation. I know there is a way the ball is supposed to move but even if I pass it to a different side than normal this shouldnt stop the play and require a reset, they should just run the play to the other side. Also, the AI should make players with at least decent offensive awareness cut to the open spots and move around without the ball other than just the very stuctured movement of the offense.
Another thing that needs to be improved is individuality of the players. This can be done with more post, dunk, layup, ballhandeling, passing, and shooting animations as well as more ratings. For instance a single dunk rating does not cover everything that you need for dunking. There should be one for accuracy, one for power, one for flashyness, one for ability to take contact and still finish ability with left hand and with right hand, etc. There should then be annimations for different dunks depending on these different levels. layups can use most of the same ones as well. Shooting can be split into more than just the close, med, and 3 point shooting. You should also split it up into the different angles, baseline, wing, straight away, and it should have different ratings for set shots, moving shots, contested shots, changed shots, setting yourself up or coming off the pass. Also consistency/streakyness would be nice. Ballhandeling and passing should at least be split into left and right hand, flashyness, and ability to avoid turnovers, and maybe split down into different abilities for different moves. Post moves should definatly have different ratings for each move with left and right hand, as well as ability to get position, hold position, back down. Defense should have a rating to match each of those also. Stealing should also be split into on ball, in trap, and intercept. There should also be a rating for trapping. Injury rating should be split into areas of the body so if someone has bad knees then the will be more likely to continue too or a bad wrist or whatever. There should be ratings for driving and cutting explosiveness and cutting awareness, shotblocking on ball, on help, layup/dunk. Shotblocking could also be split into power, accuracy, ability to force changed shot, and avoid foul. There are probably others that could be added, this is just off the top of my head, but adding this will give players more variety so that every 7'0" power center isnt pretty much the same or every 6'3" 3 point shooter isnt the same etc. I realize this would make it harder so just glance over the list and see how good a player is so you use the old ratings as like overall for each area and use that same player card with this ratings to show their abilities in these areas.
Ok, in legacy I would like to see the ability to set up practice schedules to improve your team, maybe even the ability to run those practice, but you should be able to also sim them and get at least average results. Also the ability to talk people into staying and the ability to make different pitches there and in recruiting. Also, with scouting make it more of like a list of strengths and weaknesses as the main focus with a list of letter scores as kind of an overview. Also, with scouting you could maybe like send a coach to scout games of opponents or watch their film etc to get a scouting report. Also, coaching abilities should be expanded. Offense and defense can be split into different position. Teach can be split into positions and ability areas. Scout can be split into different positions and also into scouting players for ability in different areas and scouting other teams for their strengths and weaknesses. Also, it would be nice to have like a budget you had to split between upgrading facilities, hiring coaches and trainers, and recruiting.
This is all I can think of for now, more may be added later
Ok, first with the actual gameplay, too often when running fast breaks it seems that my teammates just get to the 3 point line and go into the offense. If we have numbers then they should either automatically fill their lanes and attack the hoop or I should be able to tell them to. Also, in the half court offense it is way to easy to dunk and to pass into the paint to someone who isnt posting up or holding his defender at bay or anything. I should not be able to just throw from the point to the middle of the key at will, have my center who is like a 53 overall turn around and dunk over 2 other guys. He should be forced to make a move or something to get these hoops. Also on this whole dunking thing, if I have anyone with like over 70 in dunking and get them within 6 or 7 feet from the hoop I am jumping into and over people and dunking. On a few rare occasions I get a charge called or get blocked, but still, most of the time its successful as long as they go into a dunk annimation. Now I play at hall of fame level and by this point the cpu should be able to stop this stuff. Next, penetrating guards who can't dunk the ball are pretty much worthless in this game. It seems nearly impossible to finish a layup with any contact when really if you watch even a highschool game most layups are contested and still finished a good percentage of the time. Defensively, in a zone the players should have their hands up and be ready for the passes, this is something even junior high teams do and these college teams dont do it. Also with man to man, almost noone plays with a weak side defender playing right up on their man, these people should be dropping down into the lane to help.
Next with playcalling, first the plays should have more than one option involved and the players should know what to do in that situation. I know there is a way the ball is supposed to move but even if I pass it to a different side than normal this shouldnt stop the play and require a reset, they should just run the play to the other side. Also, the AI should make players with at least decent offensive awareness cut to the open spots and move around without the ball other than just the very stuctured movement of the offense.
Another thing that needs to be improved is individuality of the players. This can be done with more post, dunk, layup, ballhandeling, passing, and shooting animations as well as more ratings. For instance a single dunk rating does not cover everything that you need for dunking. There should be one for accuracy, one for power, one for flashyness, one for ability to take contact and still finish ability with left hand and with right hand, etc. There should then be annimations for different dunks depending on these different levels. layups can use most of the same ones as well. Shooting can be split into more than just the close, med, and 3 point shooting. You should also split it up into the different angles, baseline, wing, straight away, and it should have different ratings for set shots, moving shots, contested shots, changed shots, setting yourself up or coming off the pass. Also consistency/streakyness would be nice. Ballhandeling and passing should at least be split into left and right hand, flashyness, and ability to avoid turnovers, and maybe split down into different abilities for different moves. Post moves should definatly have different ratings for each move with left and right hand, as well as ability to get position, hold position, back down. Defense should have a rating to match each of those also. Stealing should also be split into on ball, in trap, and intercept. There should also be a rating for trapping. Injury rating should be split into areas of the body so if someone has bad knees then the will be more likely to continue too or a bad wrist or whatever. There should be ratings for driving and cutting explosiveness and cutting awareness, shotblocking on ball, on help, layup/dunk. Shotblocking could also be split into power, accuracy, ability to force changed shot, and avoid foul. There are probably others that could be added, this is just off the top of my head, but adding this will give players more variety so that every 7'0" power center isnt pretty much the same or every 6'3" 3 point shooter isnt the same etc. I realize this would make it harder so just glance over the list and see how good a player is so you use the old ratings as like overall for each area and use that same player card with this ratings to show their abilities in these areas.
Ok, in legacy I would like to see the ability to set up practice schedules to improve your team, maybe even the ability to run those practice, but you should be able to also sim them and get at least average results. Also the ability to talk people into staying and the ability to make different pitches there and in recruiting. Also, with scouting make it more of like a list of strengths and weaknesses as the main focus with a list of letter scores as kind of an overview. Also, with scouting you could maybe like send a coach to scout games of opponents or watch their film etc to get a scouting report. Also, coaching abilities should be expanded. Offense and defense can be split into different position. Teach can be split into positions and ability areas. Scout can be split into different positions and also into scouting players for ability in different areas and scouting other teams for their strengths and weaknesses. Also, it would be nice to have like a budget you had to split between upgrading facilities, hiring coaches and trainers, and recruiting.
This is all I can think of for now, more may be added later