Do Superstars Play Like Superstars?

[fjccommish]

Maybe the better question is do teams play like teams, but what I notice is that superstars don't lead their teams. Superstars don't take over in crunch time. And often, superstars don't even make an impact in the game.

That's the question for 2K14. Association: Pro: Sim: I am the Bulls, locked onto Noah.

Game vs Kings. Bulls win 100-82. In real life Thornton led them with 18.7 PPG, with 15.7 shots taken per game. Cousins is second at 18.1 PPG and Evans 3rd at 16.7 PPG. In this game Isiah Thomas had 14 points (more than his real life 11 PPG average.) Cousins at 10, Evans 0 and Thornton 6. Thornton did take 14 shots.

Now it's on to the Lakers. Coming into the game Kobe leads the team with 30 PPG (simulated games).

[Patr1ck]

My first game against the Lakers resulted in Nick Young launching 3s at every interval, and Kobe didn't become aggressive til the fourth quarter. It was on exhibition, pro , default sliders with game speed at 60.

[fjccommish]

VS Lakers: Bulls win 92 - 85

Rose led the Bulls with 33 points. AI Rose played like a superstar.

Lakers Scoring:

Bryant 15 points on 5-14 shooting, 5-5 FT. He had 7 points in the first quarter on 7 shots. He took 0 shots in the second quarter, 5 shots in the 3rd, and two shots in the 4th. His only two 4th Q shots came in the first two minutes of the quarter. He didn't shoot the rest of the way, including after the Lakers lost the lead and including when the game was tied at 80 with 3 minutes remaining.

Jacson 15 points

Kaman 11 points

Young and Gasol 10 points each.

In both games it was the same thing. Nobody scored more than 20, nobody shot a lot in crunch time, a bunch of guys had 10-15 points.

That's 2-2 games so far that the team's real life and in game (sim) leading scorer didn't even break 20. This kind of scoring distribution, a bunch of guys with 10-15 points, was constant in 2K13. Every game is the same - the superstars don't do more than any other player. It's like a random distribution as far as who is taking shots. It doesn't feel like NBA basketball.

[fjccommish]

"My first game against the Lakers resulted in Nick Young launching 3s at every interval, and Kobe didn't become aggressive til the fourth quarter. It was on exhibition, pro , default sliders with game speed at 60."

Young was launching 3's, but he was missing them. Also odd was that, despite rotation subs, my Bulls starters left the game near the end of the 1st and didn't return until 4 minutes remaining in the 2nd. Kobe was in the game against the Bulls' bench for the whole 2nd Q, but Kobe never shot the ball.

[fjccommish]

Bulls vs. Miami: Bulls win 95-82

So far in three games the opposition hasn't reached 90 points (Pro, Sim, 12 minute quarters. As the difficulty rises, scoring decreases...on HOF the scores are in the 60's-70's.

Rose led the Bulls with 28 points.

Lebron and Chalmers led Miami with 20 each. Lebron blocked a shot and scored 6 to start the 4th. That led Miami back from 12 down to within 2. But Lebron didn't score after 9:23 remaining.

Wade scored 14 points. He only scored once in the 4th quarter.

Allen was 0-3 from the 3pt line. So far he hasn't hit a 3 in any game I've played against the Heat.

[fjccommish]

Me playing as Bosh on the Heat was better.

Bulls win 102 - 99

Rose led the Bulls with 31

Lebron led the Heat with 29 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists.

[JaoSming]

3min Quarters, Casual Sliders, Many Rules Turned Off, yea man, you are just playing the game wrong

CPU Heat

[deluxxe]

My first game against the Lakers resulted in Nick Young launching 3s at every interval, and Kobe didn't become aggressive til the fourth quarter. It was on exhibition, pro , default sliders with game speed at 60.

This was not my experience at all. I just played the NBA Today Warriors / Lakers game and Kobe got the first 8 points for the Lakers and was completely dominating me. Played a lot like Kobe as far as I could tell... minus the spazzing at his teammates and whining about every foul call

I was playing on All Star, default slides, game speed 55.

Think we might need a larger sample size.

I think I also need to put the difficulty to Pro as I am getting spanked in every game. #rusty.

[volsey]

My first game against the Lakers resulted in Nick Young launching 3s at every interval, and Kobe didn't become aggressive til the fourth quarter. It was on exhibition, pro , default sliders with game speed at 60.

See the exact same thing is happening to me with Jeremy Lamb on the Thunder. I'm at bigman in MyCareer so there's little I can do on the offensive side to avoid this from happening. Lamb just chucks up a shot every slight opening he gets. Currently averaging ~23 points a game on 41% shooting.

Meanwhile Durant rarely seems to get many shots until the 4th Quarter. I'm fiddling with difficulty, running plays setting, etc. right now to see if any of that helps for MyCareeer. I'd assume it's a combination of too loose on ball pressure and too high (or working too well) shot tendencies.

[fjccommish]

I don't think we need a larger sample size. I think the difference is different play methods. If someone plays without locking onto one player then they probably switch to guard Kobe when he receives the ball. Kobe manages to get by or get an open shot. But in myplayer or player lock play, the CPU is generally guarding Kobe when he gets the ball. He eventually passes the ball, because he can't get around the D.

When I am locked, most CPU offensive sets end with a shot at the shot clock buzzer.

I tried the 72 win Bulls vs the current Heat both with me playing as the Bulls' center and CPU v CPU. Jordan scored 14 and 22, Pippen 10 and 12, Lebron 14 and 15, and Wade 20 and 11.

In order to enjoy a game like this a gamer has to suspend disbelief. The game looks real, so gamers expect somewhat realistic results. It's one thing to never have guys like Deng, on my team, score more than 4 or 5 points. But at least if Rose is scoring in the 20's with a few assists, I can suspend disbelief. When opposing superstars never have big games, never score 30+, never make me worry about stopping them, it's impossible to suspend disbelief.

NBA2k14, like it's predecessors, looks like basketball, and on the surface plays like NBA basketball. But it breaks from real NBA basketball in too many key ways.

I asked Amazon for a refund. They obliged.

[JaoSming]

So, what are you going to play now?

[fjccommish]

I generally play Out of the Park Baseball. It's fun, and it gives me practice with play codes for my MLB job.

I'll wait for next year's basketball games in the hopes superstars play like superstars.

[JaoSming]

no Xbone/PS4?

[hova-]

Shot tendencies rarely work out of the box. Wait for some roster updates or just change them yourself for the superstars (should not be too hard).

[fjccommish]

"Shot tendencies rarely work out of the box. Wait for some roster updates or just change them yourself for the superstars (should not be too hard)."

OK, this was a valid suggestion. I re-purchased the game. This time I only paid nothing because of some additional credits Amazon gave me from other transactions. For example, I bought some tire innertubes. Amazon refunded all but 86 cents from the purchase. For the "trouble", Amazon gave me a $5 credit.

Lakers - removed all plays keyed to other players besides Kobe. Set Kobe's shot tendency to max, set Kobe's touch (freelance) to max. Set all other players' shot tendencies to 0. Set all other players' shot tendencies to 0.

Pro, Default, CPU Lakers v CPU Pacers

Game 1: Kobe scored 14 points on 15 shots. Young scored 14 points on 18 shots. Gasol scored 13 points.

Game 2: Kobe 18 points, Young 14, Gasol 14.

Game 3: Kobe 14 points, Young 15, Gasol 12

[JaoSming]

any luck with the touches and other tendencies?

[Patr1ck]

There are coach profiles for team tendencies and global tendencies and they have a large effect. Especially the global tendencies. Not only that, but check Kobe's pass tendencies as well. You may need to lower them.

Bottom line, I have yet to see 2k get all the superstars right and each year, the roster needs customization.

EDIT - Just discovered a bug thanks to Jaosming that may have been the cause of your latest issue. Last time I played, the coach profiles were all reset to 50 and they weren't like that before. Also, player movement and passing was a lot slower, similar to how it was in 2K13. Jaosming said it was the roster update, which it was. So, I copied the roster.iff file from the 2K14 game directory to the "\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\2K Sports\NBA 2K14\Online Data\downloads" directory and set the file to read only. I played the NBA Today game as the Nuggets against the Lakers, default sliders, pro difficulty, game speed 60, 8 minutes. Coach profiles were back to normal and Kobe had 23 on 10-18 shooting in 22 minutes. Pau took 1 shot, but had 10 rebounds and Wesley Johnson and Nick Young had double figures. Kobe's playstyle was aggressive, and he got plenty of touches in the fourth but I kept him from heating up and won by 4.

[fjccommish]

This was happening before the roster update. But I will check the coach profiles.

[fjccommish]

This is using the rosters with good coach profiles instead of the roster update.

Lakers v Bulls with youngest Jordan on Bulls. I edited Kobe, lowering pass out of post to 0, while increasing shot tendencies for every shot situation by 10 points. Hall of Fame, Custom: Sim with O Awareness bumped to 100 for both user and CPU.

In 2K13 scoring was much harder and the CPU scored less on HOF, SIM. But so far in 2K14, the CPU scores more, and scoring isn't as hard in HOF as it was in 2K13, where scores were around 70 pts for both teams HOF, Sim.

Game 1 - CPU v CPU: Bulls 107 - Lakers 93 - Superstars played like superstars,

Jordan 27pts, 5 assists; Rose 24 pts, 15 assists.

Jordan scored 18 points in the second half, including 12 in the 4th quarter.

Kobe 36 pts, 6 assists; Young 14 points; Gasol 12 points, 9 rebounds.

Kobe scored 14 points in the 4th quarter.

Game 2 - CPU v CPU: Bulls 115 - Lakers 110 - Superstars played like superstars.

Rose 30 pts, 8 assists; Jordan 38 points, 6 rebounds

Jordan and Rose each scored 10

Kobe 34 points, 2 assists, 5 steals; Young 19 points; Gasol 14 points

Kobe scored 10 in the 4th, including a layup with :34 that brought the Lakers to within 2 points. Kobe stole the ensuing inbound pass, but missed a three pointer that would have given the Lakers the lead.