Star Players don't play well

Here is a major issue that should be addressed in 2005.

When playing against the CPU, the only player that has a good game is generally the point guard. If the point guard is well defended, it's easy to defeat the CPU team. Star players don't play aggressively, creaters don't create.

Here is a typical stat line for an opposing team. In this game I played against the Lakers and led 89 - 62 after 3 quarters (10-min quarters with Andrews sliders.) My team was the Chicago Bulls...exactly as-is. All I had to do was control Payton. Kobe took only 3's and fast break layups, while Shaq did absolutely nothing.

Payton had 24 points on 8 - 15 shooting.

Bryant had 9 points on 3 of 12 shooting.

Shaq had 3 points and 3 rebounds, and only took 7 shots.

All of Bryants points were threes or layups on fast breaks. He never tried to drive, never shot off screens. In other words he never did anything a star player would do. Neither did Shaq.

Playing against the computer is largely the same every game. Star players do nothing, different teams have no difference in their style of play, and if the point guard is controlled the game is an easy win.

Any ideas or comments?

I know,
get killed by point guards all the time

But have you ever played NBA Live 2003??? That's a game where the point guards dominate... Derek Fisher can't go a game without nailing atleast 10 three pointers.

I experience a lot of trouble with star players. Especially with small forwards. I don't know why, but the likes of Marion, Hill, Carter etc. always hurt my team big time. Inside players aren't that much of a threat as they should be... Garnett and co should get the ball more often cause those guys are next to unstoppable inside.

The AI still has a lot to prove, but it is way better then it was in Live 2003... And that's for sure.

I have trouble with the stars... Am I the only one???

Stars need to be double teamed as in real life to stop them from scoring. Or deny them the ball by fronting them. Have a shot blocker challenge every shot the star puts up while letting the CPU teammate defend him.

i had this problem a lot when first playing the game. but i figured out how to adress this problem (besides the fact that i now play smarter d than before) adjusting the sliders.
try to adjust "on-ball defense assist"(+) and "physical defense"(+) in HUMAN(!) slider settings and "freestyle effectiveness"(-) in CPU slider settings. i noticed that it effects

1) to what degree the ai prefers taking the ball to the hoop over taking an open shot
2)getting the ball to the cpu´s best offensive weapon
i cannot directly say which slider does effecticely what, but using the 3 mentioned above should result the cpu being less aggressive in trying to take the ball to the basket, be more willing in taking the open midrange shot and distribute the ball more realistically.

but be careful. overdoing it (especially raising physical defense and lowering freestyle eff.) may result in the cpu not being able to post up or get by you at all and c´s and pf´s taking 3´s with the shot clock winding down.

with default sliders pg´s like marbury, kidd and parker constantly burned me for 30+, 40+ points while taking way too many shots, while players like kenyon martin and duncan scored only 10 on 4 shot attempts or sth.

now i get a very realistic distribution on cpu offense with the star player getting many points and the pg only taking open shots and going to the hoop mainly if i defend poorly or on fastbreaks.

it´s a bit tricky to get the sliders right (took me 3-4 weeks). if you want i can post mine.

So my problem is that star players don't shoot enough and take too many 3's...and the suggested solution is to increase defensive effectiveness of my team and tweak freestyle so the AI shoots MORE from outside?

yall need to learn how to play the game better.. you guys must score quick or your doing something wrong.. i guard with everyone on my team whoever has the ball that who im guarding and i just played a game against the warriors and Troy Murphy put up 18pts. oh yeah MIke Dunleave went for 35pts Nick van exel went for 10pts Jrich for 15pts and Clifford Robison had 9pts. against me.. and im playin with the lakers.

it would also depend on the offensive set of the team you play. There are certain set plays which will give the ball more to the PG, SG,SF,PF or C, then they wil be able to dominate you.

from experience, when the set play is left on dynamic, in other lives, especially 2003, PG really dominate as in others have said. but this year, this has toned down quite considerably. it would still be better if you set the plays of your oppnents.

here's some tips.

for star PG, leave it on dynamic or use box plays (if they average a lot of assists, use the motion play, PG would also score a lot in this)

for teams where SG's usually do the shooting, use the stagger play. secondary break also does this but i go more with stagger.

for star PF's, either use the Flex plays or just leave it on dynamic. Double high also gives them some FGA's. Zone motion also gives the PF more opportunities to shoot.

for star C's, definitely sideline triangle. of course if you go doubleing the C's, they'd pass the ball out and the opther polayers are forced to shoot.

for star SG's and SF's, the best is the Box play.

for star Sf's with good 3pt shootin and star Pf's, use the Zone Buster play. I use this when i play against Larry Bird and Mchale's Celtics

hope this helped.

All of this offensive plays and stuff is just wrong... The AI should recognize who is his best offensive threat and then select a play that usually ends up with that player taking the shot.

You could do this with a simple process of counting all the scoring categories together and then subtracting the smallest number to get a total for each player. And then go with that. Then select a play that the AI would try from some possibilities and with some random factor selecting a play that would enable the number two/three guy taking the shot as well.

Why do the subtracting you ask... Cause centers and great inside players have very poor shot from the outside so this would easily lead to someone like Derek Fisher taking a lot of shots like in 2003. The stats included into this counting would be Field Goals, 3Pt Shooting, Inside Scoring and Dunking. Shaq would have the tops on this cause this fg, inside and dunk are all 99. So he would be the go to guy. Kobe would probably end up as the number two option. With Malone and Payton following close by. This could be called as the raw offensive value of a player. Then factor in some randomness for "state of the day" and you would get a pretty good shot selection for all the players for the AI.

This almost like the process us players do in our heads as we look for our own goto guy. If I was playing the Lakers I wouldn't hesitate to put the ball inside in almost every attack cause no one can stop Shaq!