What you really want to see in NBA Live 2005...

[Bakerinzee]

When you wanted to trade players on Live 2000 teams said sometimes

LA Lakers feels to weak at center.
76ers feels to weak at point guard.

I want that back for realistic trading

[madskillz]

All i ask for; Improved Graphics, more realistic animation, real time movement... and TV presented view instead of pressbox view.

I also think it would be nice if cpu can cut/move and screen constantly automaticaly like real game by interacting with other cpu. i think 2003 had good cut squence..

[P Dub]

My Two Cents:

PASSING
- more variety - chest passes, bounce passes, one hand bullets, behind the back, fake passing, more alleyoop variety(underhand, bullet lobs, slow and high lobs, bobbled catches and off the hands, not enough "DIMES" ,too much clipping - fix inbound passing AI for cpu so i cant sit in front and tap steal all game(allow player to run down baseline after field goals while inbounding)

FREESTYLE
- create more moves/combos with double taps, add hesitation move, freestyle in the post, have tons of moves that you can unlock and assign like tony hawk, the better the dribbler the quicker you should be able to do freestyle moves, and if you try freestyle too quick with a low rated player he shouldlose control of the ball - also if EA can create freestyle air - they are a brainstorm away from a Dunk Contest or all star weekend

NO COLLISION MORPHING
- take away animations that don't allow you to move while they are happening like the "bumps" and layup/dunk blocks. sometimes players are "ridden" by their defenders when penetrating in real life, so you should be able to drive to the rack with contact and still have control-just less depending on their dribbling rating. Mo- cap players one on one with one player dunking and scoring physically on the defender to get better facials and plays close to the rim in live. live 2003 had better facials - blocking a dunk was the most incredible looking thing, but in 2004 its ugly and looks as if the player gives up on the dunk.

BLOCKING
- needs more control - you should have to press the block button to jump and press it again to swing the arm it would add more control - when not using turbo with the block shot button players should jump with their arm stretched up without swinging towards the ball - when using turbo the defender should jump with the same momentum from running so defenders can block layups from behind and get rid of the "blocks go away from the rim" theory/ when i block a layup or shot close to the bucket the ball goes AWAY from the rim EVEN if I was facing the backboard - THIS is retarded and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to block their layup/shot off the backboard, it was even in live 2003.

VARIATION
- More Variety - more styles of jumpers, make it possible to do set shots (shooting while jumping at the same time not jumping then shooting) More Variety for hooks, LAYUPS, DUNKS, MORE IN TRAFFIC - less "air sliding" - when trying to block sometimes i get slid out the way and don't complete the block-animation.Come up with some VARIATIONS for each animation so one layup can look many different ways(finger rolled, two handed strong, double clutch, reverse, floater, teardrop. more variety on rebounds - allow pressing the shoot button in air to attempt a tip in, allow pressin the dunk button in air to try a put back dunk, allow the jump/block button to become the tip button once you are in the air(tip it like rodman to yourself or a teammate). Most important - more variety of gameplay, the cpu does the SAME SHIT, More Bank shots especially on layups and 10-15 ft jumpers from the "elbows" and the blocks

ROTATION
- Bring back Substitution sets - big man, 3 point, fast, defense -or just create a depth chart for each position like football-1st string could be the starter at that position and 2nd could be the backup, etc
RATINGS
New ratings are needed - Player tendencies-> Inside shooting, Midrange shooting, Outside Shooting, Penetrating, Post up, this way scorers will try to score where they are supposed to

MOVEMENT
- Players don't get open! - 10-man freestyle is cool but they don't use the moves to get open unless you off-ball switch and do it yourself. The Jogging to their post positions is boring, the post up animation needs improvement because you can't defend/work for position - the animation happens by itself once both players are close enough. Nobody moves to get open when double teamed. Defenders can get back to their player before the ball does which is unrealistic along with the time it takes for the "catch the pass animation"

HIGHLIGHTS
- Show replays during play stoppage and halftime and after the game, show the highlights of the game like runs, great defense, and what sealed the victory, show highlights from other games(especially during playoffs)Have awards like Highlight of the Week(or Day)

CUSTOMIZATION
- Allow total player and team creation - allow setting eye height, width, and droopiness along with eyebrow shapes, allow eye color changing in game, allow setting how a headband is worn - angled, straight, covering the ears, allow cheekbone, jawbone, ear, and cranial shaping using width, and height sliders allow drawing your own tatoo, and custom placing of tattoos on the body, moving jerseys/shorts, custom shoe creation, custom band creation, more hair types/colors. Create Teams - Create Jerseys - Create Stadiums/Courts Allow Dynasty expansion/team generation, Instead of generating all new players before a draft allow retired (in-game) players to comeback young rookies or slap a Junior on the end of thir name to make the league more interesting, Once known players are retired their is a lack of motivation to play with generated nobodies. Classic Courts like Boston Garden - more outside courts like rucker or venice Allow commentators to use first names if that first name is common or in the nba already, a substitute for a name could be a letter for instance Michael Jordan is also MJ no more of that "number 23"

PRO HOP/TWO STEP
- Change the pro hop so that if you press pro hop while holding turbo your player will take two steps like he's bout to go up and dunk or layup. Allow players to travel if you don't shoot or pass before the 3rd step

MOST IMPORTANT
- RE CODE anything good from previous lives like animations, I wanna see career stats when i view a player including the team(s) he played for each year. bring back Player Progression, team progression, hot-cold streaks. Allow players to go weight lift or send a rookie to summer ball to improve their attributes, should be able to switch teams during a dynasty by an option. You cut corners trying to make the game challenging like "SUPER SPEED getting back on D" - either get rid of it or allow the user to do it too. allow Breaking Backboard.

[qt_kid21]

ei..elo..im here again..im the one that requests..a figthin sequence in the game..well..its ok if u cant agree on that because of too much violence..but this one might be now non violent...its like that..when somebody gets fouled...(VERY HARD X() ) on the game...both will will just glance on each othe...then emediately..the other players will seperate them form each other..then he referees will have to think about whose fault this is...(NOW..THIS iS WhAT I CaLLeD NON_VIOLENT) ;peace

[Andrew]

Again, there will never be fights in the NBA Live series (I've recently checked and the following is still true) because:

- EA does not want to add fights to the NBA Live series
- The NBA will not allow them to add fights to the NBA Live series

I highly doubt they'll allow technicals or even shoving matches given their stance. Like I said, it's fruitless to add it to the Wishlist or beg EA for it, because they legally cannot include those elements of the game in NBA Live.

[sixerfan03]

I want to also see the ball tipped out when a rebound is not secured...I have never seen this in any other game yet and it would add more realism

I agree completely. Battles on the boards. Balls tipped into the air, or tipped towards teammates. A player who pulls the ball down, but loses it to a guard with quick hands. Yao Ming going up for the rebound, but Ben Wallace rips it out of his hands ont he way down. Players banging elbows in the paint, boxing out, and allowing a guard to fly high for a rebound.

The commentary should be more 'intense' during more intense moments. Like if you take a flop w/ no call they might say "AND KOBE GOES DOWN! NO CALL! JORDAN GOES TO THE RIM! OH MY GOODNESS! (etc)"

Also, that's perfect with Marv Albert. "IVERSON FOR THE LEEEEEAAAADD...........YES!!! 3 point jump-shot for Allen Iverson"

All the refs should have their own 'AI'. This game shouldn't be "charA took charge too late, call blocking foul". It should be "refA sees charA get run over. refB sees charA commit blocking foul. Discuss." Basically, not every call is gonna be 'right'. There should be disagreements between refs, and possibly (rarely though) the wrong call will be made. Maybe the commentator might say, "Now that was a bad call."

It should be as common as it is in the NBA. On close calls, the refs should make mistakes. Hometown teams get a slight edge.

The commentators should comment on the calls "That was close. It really could have gone either way."

or

Marv: "Charging foul, and Jim O'Brien doesn't like it. He is really mad."
Color Commentator: "And he is right. Look at this one more time. Clearly you can see Bowen is still moving his feet latterally."
Marv: "Well that will be 3 on Iverson. Spurs ball."

PASSING
- more variety - chest passes, bounce passes, one hand bullets, behind the back, fake passing, more alleyoop variety(underhand, bullet lobs, slow and high lobs, bobbled catches and off the hands, not enough "DIMES" ,too much clipping - fix inbound passing AI for cpu so i cant sit in front and tap steal all game(allow player to run down baseline after field goals while inbounding)

Magic Johnson should throw his no look passes and get really fancy on the break.

And again, the commentators should say something.

"Magic...Oh what a pass."

PRO HOP/TWO STEP
- Change the pro hop so that if you press pro hop while holding turbo your player will take two steps like he's bout to go up and dunk or layup. Allow players to travel if you don't shoot or pass before the 3rd step

That would take a little bit to get used to, but I would like the Pro-Hop to be involved with traveling.

[madskillz]

I had this idea in my head for sometime..

adding 'Player Lock' Feature for online game/match-ups; you get to have four other real gamers playing each players/positions on your team. so good team work and knowing 'Plays' will add a little more fun playing on the internet. furthermore, it would be also very nice to be able to "WATCH"/"VIEW" these scheduled match ups thru online.


but i dont know if this feature exist at this moment... so if there is, disregrad this posting... otherwise what you all think about that?

[Alcoholic]

I want to also see the ball tipped out when a rebound is not secured...I have never seen this in any other game yet and it would add more realism

This happens rarely, someone will jump up for the rebound, but the ball will slip out of their hands and usually go out of bounds. (usually a defender rebounding).

You can have player lock in multiplayer, just use ur own profile with player lock. I don't know if you can have 5 real players, but if you can, each can have his own profile, and player lock different positions.


Also, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but plays should be done much more better. Take the triangle for example. Let's say it's a part where the 2 forwards set a double pick for the SG. You should actually see them both set up a pick, the same way the big man comes and does a pick when you call for it. Then the defenders can bump into them and such, and the SG can get free. Also when running plays, I notice when CPU players make cuts and such, they tend to get stuck in the post, (bad pathing I guess) and it looks real unrealistic to stand there for a few seconds till they get it through their head how to get around. You should see players jogging a little more 'energetically' trying to get open and do their twists and turns and such.

[beau_boy04]

Man I have read so many good things in this thread. I'd be more than happy if EA could translate all that Madden 2004 into a basketball environment... this would be a huge improvement for Live 2005.

Here's a list of my own:

1. The graphics are amazing in 04 but there's always room for improvement.

2. Better dynasty mode (if they can copy Madden 04 owner mode) that would be great! =)

3. Allow the user to disable automatic roster re-ordering.

4. In game saves!!!!

5. More than 2 teams trade off. Also be able not only to trade same season draft picks but also next season. Example: T-Mac is traded to the Bulls and the Magic received in return 2004 first round pick and 2005 3rd round pick. ( oh my gosh I thinking football stuff, not sure if # 5 is accurate I just havent seen too much Nba draft only NFL most of the time)

6. Team Coaches should have a bigger role in the team success/failure. It is just ridiculous to have the same coach for the span of 25 years franchise. Specially in todays Nba with all the East Conference coaches firing. Coaches should have ratings as well. Some should be really good in the offensive scheme and others in the defensive side of the game and some great in both side of the court. They should also have a motivation and teaching skills.

7. A new rating should be added to all players. I think the word "chemistry" is good for this category. Let's say Jason Kidd has a great chemistry with K Martin and R Jefferson and with the Nets right? however if Kidd gets traded to the Sacramento Kings his chemistry would be much much lower because the Kings already have a superstar PG and they will be sharing minutes therefore their stats wouldn't that great and this would displeased them and lower their chemistry with the team. Plus who wants to be traded to a team when you know there is already a superstar in the same position you're playing or maybe a great player soon to be become a superstar (determined by careerPkg, etc). I think that's why Jason Kidd chose not to be a Spurs 'coz of T Parker. Just look at him right now he was playing Payton for a fool. Also Payton chemistry with the Lakers is not the greatest thing in the world however when he was a sonic it was great at least they had a couple of successfull season.

8. Create a Player feature should be enjoyable and personalized.

9. Gameplay is a MUST! Live 2000 has the best gameplay of all. Those trillions of fast break we see in Live 2003 and 2004 are very unrealistic.

10. Dstats needs to come back ! for more realistic stats... Live 2004 in 2nd season and on all the stats are messed up. EA you are so lame what a pitty.

I think thats it for now. We as customer should not I repeat "SHOULD NOT" put up with mediocre products anymore. EA makes enough money and profit to at least come closer to that 100% customer satisfaction. I mean come on EA you guys are making millions out of us and can't even make a great game. And dont tell me the time isn't enough because I heard you start working on the game with 2 years in advance so there is prenty of time for everything. And all these programmers, producers,etc should have at least a bachelor degree to be on that team. Therefore they must be able to produce a quality products out of all that education and knowledge. I'm not trying to put them down just trying to find the reasonable logic behind all his Live failure. You don't need more time EA, it is year 2004 and you still haven't come up with a good product. I expect to see a good quality game in Live 2005 and be able to make us say "whoooo they did it!!!!!" instead of "at least they tried". If L 2005 is another total failure, the producing team needs to get fired real badly! and hire new, knowlegable, motivated and qualified personnel.

Thank your time.

R

By the way EA should not be adding newer stuff until they come up with a valuable solution to all these bugs and glitches we see in Live 2004. I realized that new features to the game are excitiment but what about the bugs? EA, we dont want to see improvement over bugs, we or at least me want fixes.

Again thank you for your time and have a great day.

Adios

[Ruff Ryder]

1. The graphics are amazing in 04 but there's always room for improvement.

3. Allow the user to disable automatic roster re-ordering.

That's a good one. They should also let the User re-order cpu rosters in dynasty mode.

Create a Player feature should be enjoyable and personalized.

They should take a page from NBA Ballers and Madden. I hate the generic faces. They look like dolls or something.

I think that's why Jason Kidd chose not to be a Spurs 'coz of T Parker.

Actually, it was because his wife didn't want to move again.

[ludacris06]

Gir rid of the computer comeback thing, It makes me not even want to play live 2004, and if it's in 2005, I'm going back to ESPN.

[guillus2670]

Ive tried to read as most as i could so if this has already been said...
Things i would like and haven't seen yet is an injury rating like vince carter, baron davis, webber would be more risk to take on ur team.
Also something to make players have bad nights. For example when they come back from injury or have played too much and get tired, or they're not happy on their team or with the minutes there playing, or the ratings would get higher or lower depending on how u play for example if u shoot too bad at 3's with peja his rating would start to go down (not too quickly but it would force to play well).
A lot of things have already been said so i wont com back on that but there are a lot of other things id like to see improved too.

[Bang]

I wonder how it would be if you controlled the power/accuracy of the shot and layup. I know that if you press the button long enough then the shot goes in better and all that, but what about complete control. Kind of like MVP baseball. Yes, it will make it harder to shoot...THAT IS THE POINT. Same thing with layups. I don't know if I want a bar to show up every time I shoot, but something like that would be interesting and would eliminate the problem of a jacked up FG%.

[Terry]

Allow the player to turn off the "come back" code and add a "give up" code.

Anyway, I think the most important thing for 2005 is: CLEAN ALL THE BUGS AND ERRORS IN 2004

[misow]

nba half time show back!!!
just for the fun

[hmm]

.

[misow]

yes homer (3pt in) half time show...all star WE...

[Bakerinzee]

yeah you guys played live'99 too
Great game, do you remember the cyberfaces, much more realistic than they are nowadays. I remember the faces of Tim Hardaway, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, They were so real!!!!

So let them pick some graphics of Live'99,the gameplay of Live 2000(with better rebounding) , and I really liked the menu of live 2001 and it would be a great game

--And I really want an expansion draft--

[NIMOGT]

well, the practice gear could be way better, EA only has to look on reebok.com and find the warmup tees and other stuff to make practice gear better. ALso they should put more effort into making shoes because every single rbk shoe in 04 had the A6 sole, open up .fsh, you will see
-better shoes will definitely be a plus

[madskillz]

a Simple request.

i wish theres a button for walking/jogging and running. just like FIFA.

[guillus2670]

A new FT system.
This one is getting really too easy even with slider on 100.
If they cant come up with anything they could have a cpu shooting them for us to make it realistic even if i would prefer a manual way.

[madskillz]

Idea

A cut/pass button makes your teammate(cpu) to cut around your very realistically and buttons for each available players will appear on top of players head. defense team will have to also have to press one of the buttons to intercept the pass. I think this type of play call will make the pick and rolls more fun and make passing more fun. after all cut/pass is big part of the game.

[deus]

There's been a lot of comments in this thread, so I'm not going to post my 1000 item "Must have" list. Instead, I'll limit myself to just one:

I play Dynasty mainly and I've always fancied having custom All Star teams. For example, we have the 70s, 80s, 90s stars - why not have a team comprised of the best 15 players of 2001-2010, 2011-2020 and 2020+ ?

It's always a shame when you finish a dynasty and have to leave your favourite players behind.

[[Q]]

I wish that cpu teammates would set picks for you when you don't have the ball so oyu can get open. they need to be smarter!

[username2004]

Create - a - Player:

Be able to wear your jersey outside of your shorts
Be able to put periods and apostrophes in names
Bring back ability to color compression shorts
Shoes should be able to come in special colorways (This was in '03)
More headshapes (that vary, all the darker skinned players all look alike, or not realistic)
More hairstyles (and be able to color them)
A deeper bio (Even if they only had pre-programmed bios, I want the announcers to profile my guy at the beginning)
More tatoos