The Blocking Issue

[Donatello]

This has been discussed in several different threads, but never really in-depth with alot of feedback. I would like to know..............

It seems alot of people on this board say the amount of blocks is really high in nbalive2005...........i haven't seen this. I hardly ever get blocked.

have you all found a high number of blocks?

[bryantK]

yeah that happens all the time. i think its all about the sliders, but i like the high amount of blocks. it makes the game exciting. i was playing with the lakers and brian cook was blocking a bunch of shots. cook is not a good shot blocker in the game (according to the ratings).

[mp3]

Ive never really had a problem with blocks either, it is all about the sliders. The one good thing that came out of having to wait a month longer for the game then our US friends was that i knew just what expect and how to adjust.
There is a big problem with the blocks as we all know, the only time it gets on my neves is when the shot clocks running down and you have to force it up, 8 - 10 i will get blocked inside but you just have to work around it.

[WildStyle]

i have been blocked an unsually high number of times in this game... its not so much the fact that its a large number of times but its the fact that the blocker comes from an impossible position to block the shot which gets a little annoying....

its like every layup is for sure gonna be blocked on Superstar... so you better be sure if you drive its with a guy who will most likely dunk cuz the computer cant block a dunk as much as a layup...

you could just avoid driving or going inside to avoid being blocked... but thats not how it is in real life... you could also change the sliders... but its hard when you play online or with friends multiplayer to agree on an acceptable slider... most people settle with the defaults so that its fair for both sides....

then there are the no calls... where you and the defender go up and it looks like the defender gets no ball at all but a lot of contact and the ball just drops and never touches the rim and theres no call by the refs... even the commentators say "there was a lot of contact and no call so the player had to adjust his shot" and its recorded as a steal... theres a lot of that non-sense...

real ballers know that once you get the defender in the restricted area and draw contact it should be a no brainer - its a foul... i guess the designers of the game havent figured that rule out yet... just like the substitutions after the last free throw... that just baffles me... they make such great looking games but some of the simplest rules they dont know about or dont put it into the game.... how long have they been making NBALive... geez you'd think they'd know by now...

those are my beefs with the interior defense in this game...

[paradizecityz]

blocks in my game are realistic so i have no problem with it, i use to have problem with it until i tweak and made my own sliders to realistic gameplay

[TheGuRu]

I barely get blcok. But i was 1 on 1 Carmello vs Lebron... Lebron blocked all my fade jumpers but i wasnt surpised. He was playing real def. which is realistic and that only happened once.

I havent experienced it. You guys just cant shoot on the comp like the comp does to you you no talent bastuds

[cyanide]

I rarely get blocked, but that's because I learned how to avoid it. It is a real problem though, because there's hardly any blocks in a real NBA game. You can't even shoot a normal jumper without doing a fake. It is impossible to take a normal jumper in front of your man in the paint. You can see Vince Carter or Ray Allen just quickly take a shot after just standing there staring down his man without getting blocked. Instead, with this game, you have a wide open three and out of nowhere, Udonis Haslem comes out from the paint and blocks your three. No doubt, that's unrealistic. The point is, the only way to avoid blocks is to do fakes and to be completely away from your man. Even with sliders at "0" the problem is still there.

[WildStyle]

i totally agree... you can definitely learn to avoid blocks in the game but its not the same... i dont want to constantly avoid laying up knowing that it will be block... i dont want to be forced into becoming a jumpshooting team just because thats the way the game's AI is setup... i want Wade to take it to the rim on a fast break without worring about Lamar Odom of all people soaring in from the free throwline and swatting him from behind...

and changing the sliders is not fun either because when you play with your friends its kinda cheap to change the settings because only you know how the calls will be made and what type of shots to avoid because a certain type of foul will be called more than others.... while the other guy has no clue how you set up the sliders and he keeps getting calls against him and by the time he clues in he's far behind and in foul trouble....

[Andrew]

Having reduced both blocking sliders to 0 and grown accustomed to the gameplay, the blocking numbers are quite realistic for me, though it's not perfect. It is much better than my initial impression of the game though.

[Steve [The Spiderman]]

I feel the same way Andrew...

[Pylon_Man]

My team averages 20 blocks a game(note that the Pistons just recently had 16 team blocks, the highest since 1982), and I user-lock on Lebron and average about 1.5. ALL block sliders are set to 0. 12min quarters on allstar. Obviously, the problem here is not my own. In fact, I'd probably be losing a lot more if there wasn't this issue.

I personally get blocked very seldom, but then again, James plays a SG so he tends to be taller than his defender. Which brings up the point that blocking in 2005 is mostly about height, where in the NBA its about timing and athleticism. Also, if I pick&roll and a big guards me, unlike the CPU, I will not just take a jumpshot, I'll drive to the basket and either make a dish to the mismatch downlow or throw it down.

I don't know why but I find that fade-away shots seem to be blocked easier.(odd considering they should free up about 1/2 a foot of space) Any one see this?

I can't speak for unlocked NBA Live players but the fact is in a game with more CPU control there WILL be more blocks. The CPU always seems to have decent to good timing and height advantages are almost an automatic block on jumpshots.

Sliders don't seem to cut it here because the variables they control don't really change much. With blocking set to zero shots should rarely be challenged at all.

[-BHZMAFIA-]

i rarely get that many blocks. when i play online for ps2 (which the sliders arent changed), i get alot of blocks. so it all depends on how realistic you play, and your sliders.

[Ninjoid]

As a test I've edited an earlier version of Andrew's rosters and radically reduced the block ratings of each player...eg SG/PG are now at 0, Shaq is about 28, no player has a block rating above 30...playing the game using Andrew's sliders on All star, 12min cpu v cpu - there are still too many blocks...some games a team can have 20, however, some games it gets reasonably realistic with about 8 or so...I'm wondering since I've adjusted the block ratings whether this has any effect (it must you would think) on the gameplay..as I say cpu v cpu - maybe the AI isn't clever enough to do what you guys do to avoid blocks...like I say interesting.

[weed manus]

Having reduced both blocking sliders to 0 and grown accustomed to the gameplay, the blocking numbers are quite realistic for me, though it's not perfect. It is much better than my initial impression of the game though.

I've done the same, set at zero the blocking is pretty even...But what I really hate is when I do get blocked my player is as stubborn as a rubber boot trying to get back in play, while after blocking the CPU they tend to recover very quickly & most times regain position of the ball!! Piss me off!!

[Seonadancing]

My frustration is having my shots blocked by none shot-blockers.

[nicosantos76]

The main problem I find is that players guarding my players, when I'm on offense, recover way too fast from double teams, they seem to get everywhere, is almost imposible to find an open look unless off course you have a great 3P shooter and this has a lot to do with the high number of blocks in the game. Maybe turning each players speed and blocks down by 10 or more and adjusting some sliders here and there may solve this problem but why am i supposed to spend a month changing all this things in an effort to make the game work the way it should work. What are the EA crew thinking when they create the game?? well, i don't know, but surely they are focusing in dunking and many others useless features intead of focusing in the game. isn't it ironic that EA Sports "is in the game", come on, those are empty words.

[Ninjoid]

Maybe turning each players speed and blocks down by 10 or more and adjusting some sliders here and there may solve this problem but why am i supposed to spend a month changing all this things in an effort to make the game work the way it should work. What are the EA crew thinking when they create the game??

Agree - they should watch some cpu v cpu games to see how the AI handles situations - the blocking is a prime example...if you watch an AI game the number of blocks is way too high...I'm now editing the jump ratings to see if this helps a little...we'll see....roll on 2006 when this will all start again....

[WildStyle]

okay... i just captured one of my blocks with Nowitzki on Rip Hamilton with the Fraps program on video... and i kept replaying it over and over cuz it was SOOOOO false and unrealistic

its pretty big so i cant post it anywhere on the net...

but what happened was (in baseline low) Nowitzki was on the left side of the key (not standing in the paint but where people line up for free throws)... Rip drives... i jump... Nowitzki goes straight up (still on the left side) while Hamilton is still grounded... Rip takes it to the right side of the basket for a layup and finally jumps... Nowitzki goes into its "blocking animation" and instead of jumping straight up and down... Nowitzki goes straight up... then magically glides to the right side of the paint to block Rips layup... and ends up landing about 7 feet from the basket on the otherside from where he came from... then he does this gorilla arm flex at Rip hamilton to taunt him... HAHAH

hahahah.. its so funny.. and false... if only i knew how to compress my video capture

[King_James88]

Yeah, I hate that animation, especially on fastbreaks when the defender is 10 ft away. It seems as if every shot blocker has a bit of Tayshaun Prince in them.

[Ninjoid]

Well after several ratings tweaks with blocking and jumping I think I'm at the point where I'm reasonably happy with the blocks - for cpu v cpu games...I've also had to change the simeng.txt file to allow for the changes and get the season stats correct too..see what you think with this OT game:

Code: Select all

November 3, 2004

Game 11/11        1st     2nd     3rd     4th     OT      TOTAL   
Portland          25      23      22      30      15      115     
Golden State      33      24      20      23      18      118     

Portland         
Player            POS     MIN     FGM-A   3PM-A   FTM-A   OFF     REB     AST     STL     BLK     TO      PF      PTS     
Z. Randolph       C       37      12-25   0-0     2-4     0       6       0       1       1       1       6       26     
S. Abdur-Rahim    F       33      9-16    0-0     8-8     2       5       1       0       0       1       4       26     
D. Miles          F       40      1-6     0-1     4-4     0       4       3       1       3       0       6       6       
D. Anderson       G       37      5-10    2-3     0-0     0       5       3       2       0       1       5       12     
D. Stoudamire     G       44      9-19    3-4     5-7     0       4       6       1       0       1       2       26     
N. Van Exel               13      3-5     0-1     0-0     0       0       2       0       0       3       1       6       
R. Patterson              14      2-4     1-2     0-0     0       1       0       0       0       1       1       5       
T. Ratliff                18      1-3     0-1     2-2     0       5       0       0       1       0       2       4       
Q. Woods                  13      1-2     0-0     2-2     0       0       1       0       0       0       0       4       
S. Telfair                2       0-0     0-0     0-0     0       0       1       0       0       0       0       0       
V. Khryapa                3       0-0     0-0     0-0     0       1       0       0       0       0       0       0       
V. Stepania               17      0-2     0-0     0-0     1       10      0       0       1       0       1       0       
TOTAL                             43-92   6-12    23-27   3       41      17      5       6       8       28      115     
                                  .467    .500    .852   

Golden State     
Player            POS     MIN     FGM-A   3PM-A   FTM-A   OFF     REB     AST     STL     BLK     TO      PF      PTS     
D. Davis          C       30      6-13    0-0     3-5     1       7       0       1       1       0       4       15     
C. Robinson       F       39      8-11    1-1     1-1     5       15      0       0       2       0       5       18     
M. Dunleavy Jr.   F       44      8-18    2-4     6-12    2       6       0       0       0       1       2       24     
J. Richardson     G       44      8-26    0-3     15-16   1       5       1       1       0       1       1       31     
S. Claxton        G       44      1-4     0-1     7-10    0       0       2       1       0       4       1       9       
T. Murphy                 24      3-5     0-0     3-4     0       11      1       1       1       1       0       9       
D. Fisher                 10      0-1     0-0     2-2     0       0       1       0       0       0       0       2       
A. Sesay                  10      2-4     0-0     0-0     0       0       0       0       0       1       0       4       
A. DeClercq               14      1-1     0-0     0-0     0       6       0       0       0       0       1       2       
A. Biedrins               DNP -- Coach’s Decision                                                                       
E. Najera                 DNP -- Coach’s Decision                                                                       
C. Cheaney                9       2-3     0-0     0-0     0       0       0       0       0       0       0       4       
TOTAL                             39-86   3-9     37-50   9       50      5       4       4       8       14      118     
                                  .453    .333    .740   


6 and 4 blocks respectively - 12min quarters on All star...

[Pylon_Man]

Wow! What did you do with the ratings exactly? How low were you setting jump?

The most unrealistic thing I see is D. Stoudamire shooting close to 50%.

[Ninjoid]

Hi Pylon Man - I've basically fiddled with the block and jump ratings...I've really lowered the block ones drastically...eg Shaq is now 28, Ben Wallace 24...I've tried to do this as uniformally with every player I could...the higher rated blockers still have 'decent' ratings, some as low as 2..most pg's and sg's are 0

Jump ratings I reduced by about 40 points per player - ratings permitting...I now have nobody with a jump rating above 60..Kobe for example is 55

The stats I've been getting a pretty realistic, yes you get games where the blocks can be slightly high but it's a lot better than it was...please remember this is cpu v cpu..

Here's another log..sorry it doesn't fit too well

Code: Select all

November 3, 2004

Game 8/8          1st     2nd     3rd     4th     TOTAL   
Denver            24      22      20      23      89     
Indiana           22      26      19      14      81     

Denver           
Player            POS     MIN     FGM-A   3PM-A   FTM-A   OFF     REB     AST     STL     BLK     TO      PF      PTS     
M. Camby          C       37      5-7     0-0     4-4     3       6       0       1       1       2       3       14     
K. Martin         F       37      6-8     0-0     3-4     0       9       0       0       3       2       3       15     
C. Anthony        F       35      7-15    1-3     3-4     0       5       1       4       0       2       4       18     
D. Johnson        G       30      7-14    2-5     2-2     0       1       0       0       2       3       1       18     
A. Miller         G       31      2-13    0-0     4-4     0       3       4       1       0       2       0       8       
E. Boykins                18      4-8     1-2     1-1     0       3       3       1       0       0       0       10     
Nene                      15      0-0     0-0     2-2     1       5       0       0       0       1       1       2       
R. White                  14      0-3     0-2     0-0     0       1       2       0       0       0       1       0       
B. Russell                14      0-1     0-0     0-0     0       1       1       0       0       1       1       0       
N. Tskitishvili           9       1-2     0-0     0-0     0       1       1       0       2       1       0       2       
F. Elson                  2       0-0     0-0     0-0     0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       
G. Buckner                5       1-1     0-0     0-0     0       0       0       0       0       0       1       2       
TOTAL                             33-72   4-12    19-21   4       35      12      7       8       14      15      89     
                                  .458    .333    .905   

Indiana           
Player            POS     MIN     FGM-A   3PM-A   FTM-A   OFF     REB     AST     STL     BLK     TO      PF      PTS     
J. Foster         C       34      4-4     0-0     2-3     2       10      0       0       1       1       0       10     
J. Bender         F       35      12-17   0-0     4-7     1       4       1       3       2       3       4       28     
A. Croshere       F       35      2-9     2-5     0-0     0       3       0       1       0       3       2       6       
R. Miller         G       37      2-9     1-4     4-5     0       3       3       3       0       4       2       9       
J. Tinsley        G       34      5-16    1-2     1-2     0       4       1       1       1       1       3       12     
S. Jackson                17      3-10    1-3     2-2     0       0       0       1       1       0       1       9       
F. Jones                  6       0-1     0-0     0-0     0       0       2       0       0       0       0       0       
E. Gill                   15      0-0     0-0     0-0     0       0       1       1       0       1       0       0       
A. Johnson                DNP -- Coach’s Decision                                                                       
J. Jones                  11      1-4     0-0     0-0     1       3       0       0       1       0       0       2       
S. Pollard                15      1-2     0-0     0-0     0       3       0       0       1       0       3       2       
D. Harrison               6       1-1     0-0     1-2     1       1       0       0       0       0       0       3       
TOTAL                             31-73   5-14    14-21   5       31      8       10      7       13      15      81     
                                  .425    .357    .667   



[ShivaSquad]

i dont c the point. in my dynasty the blocks for cpu players are realistic. the league leader is at 2.57 or around there.

[Ninjoid]

Joe - this is for watching games as cpu v cpu, not just simming them using the sim engine...some of us like to play it that way...hope that clears it up.

[ShivaSquad]

ooo ok wasnt catchin on