Things to Fix in NBA Live 14 (Constructive Posts ONLY)

I've reached out to the NBA Live 14 development team and they are definitely keen for quality feedback as they look to develop patches for the game (as well as NBA Live 15), so I thought I'd create a thread for us to compile said feedback. And here it is.

NOTE: Constructive stuff only in this thread. If you want to bash and trash the game, please keep it out of this thread. You're free to do that here in the NLSC Forum, we're not going to encroach on your right to express your opinion, but like the bug thread, this particular thread is for constructive, civil and on-topic posts only.

Without any further ado...

• Animation quality; more realistic looking movement, better transitions between animations.
  
  
• Fluidity of controls. Sometimes, the controls feel a little stiff when trying to break ankles or keep pace with an opponent. On occasions, there are also delays when jumping to rebound or block a shot.
  
  
• Some animations seem a bit slow, particularly passing. It's a little more difficult to whip the ball around the perimeter than it should be, allowing the defense to keep up with rapid passes that should beat them.
  
  
• Players in general should move a little quicker. A slider would definitely be handy here.
  
  
• Defenders should move a little quicker when in a defensive crouch. It would also be good to be able to move around (albeit not as quickly) when using the "hands up" defense to keep a hand in the defender's face.
  
  
• The CPU tends to knock the ball loose too often on shot fakes, compared to what happens at the other end of the court.
  
  
• We could really use a clear guide in the player indicator for optimum release windows on both jumpshots and free throws.
  
  
• A Practice Mode - even if it's just a single player free shootaround mode - would be most welcome, if it can be patched in. More tutorials or even drills would be fantastic.
  
  
• It would be great if we could tweak things like block frequency and shooting percentages ourselves, to tune the game to our liking. If there's any way that gameplay sliders could be patched in, I believe it could help immensely.
  
  
• There could stand to be more collisions, especially in the paint, so that there are more free throw opportunities.
  
  
• If there's any way that in-game injuries could be added, it would definitely add to the experience in Dynasty Mode.
  
  
• Most points are scored in the paint. It would be good if we had a bit more balance here, with more midrange jumpshots.

More to come as I think of it. Feel free to add your suggestions for the most pressing issues to address.

• Add some balance to under-the-hoop dunks, its an automatic score for big guys no matter how many people are around them. Only way to stop them is a lucky block. Adding a collision would help.
  
  
• Add something to the player indicator showing places where a player can and cannot shoot from. To be subtle, changing the indicator to be thinner in "cold" spots and thicker in "hot" spots would help. Either that or bring back the L3 hot spots display.
  
  
• Allow the defender to collide with an offensive player attempting a spin move, to prevent spin cheese.
  
  
• Do not have the player move forward when spamming the behind the back dribble.
  
  
• Increase frequency of collisions during offensive player's gather animation for dunks & layups. Currently the defender can only collide in midair, creating a balance issue.
  
  
• Tweak shot timing to be even easier. Reward the player for getting open, not for being able to time the shot as much.
  
  
• Increase the sensitivity of pick vs defender animations, many times a defender will just forcefield into/against/around a screening offensive player.
  
  
• Add some kind of minor movement "reset" for the player's legs, so they don't stand awkwardly when still. Same with free throws, I've seen some very weird generated stances. (btw, it is awesome that the legs are pretty much their own entity in the game, just needs some minor tweaks)
  
  
• Allow the ball to collide with player's legs and torsos.
  
  
• Would love an increase in speed for the sprinting animations, to balance maybe have the offensive player fall if they collide with a defender?
  
  
• Give Kelly Olynyk's hair physics.
  
  
• Update faces for Faverani, LeBron, and anyone else you can.
  
  
• Add an option to goto the ESPN wrapup screen in the endgame menu. I love watching that, but I don't like sitting through the post-game highfives and top replays to get to it.
  
  
• Add adjustable gameplay cameras.
  
  
• Add some viscosity to the replay cameras. When focused on the ball, the cameras are 1:1 with its movement creating jerky movement, that needs to be smoothed out.
  
  
• Decrease minimum clipping distance for replay cameras, I want to fisheye lens (zoomed all the way out) some close shots but can't.
  
  
• Bring back BounceTek. The ball warps and ghosts way too often. Punish the user for colliding, make us learn.
  
  
• Decrease usage of mipmaps, if possible. Textures pop-in and get blurry waaaaay too quickly when zooming out.
  
  
• Always have the chair models loaded in the crowd, they should never be removed, arenas look terrible with no seats when zoomed out.
  
  
• Add anti aliasing to the PS4 version of the game, there are way too many jaggies at 1080p.
  
  
• Add gameplay sliders for as many parameters as possible.
  
  
• Add collisions to the shotclock and other backboard pieces for the ball (and arms if possible).
  
  
• Allow offensive teammates to break their animations to set user initiated screens faster.

That is good for now. I want to simply say "fix player lock gameplay" because the game plays so differently during player lock....but I honestly have no constructive ideas on how to fix it.

Not giving a whole list of feedback but I have a couple things to say.

1. It would be nice to see the crowds disperse when they normally would, for instance; In a blowout at the home team's game The crowd would leave likely at the start of the fourth or middle, only about 300 fans would stay till the end I'd say.

Haven't looked at any lists just gonna go off the top of the head:

- CPU running plays is broken, I don't think the CPU is running team specific plays
- Controls are too stiff, BounceTek not fluid enough
- Dunk Sounds are horrendous, gotta change the sound of the slam, no dunk sounds like that
- Commentary sounds too choppy
- Add weight to players, Point Guards can knock down Big men in the lane
- Crowd is not precise enough, especially during peak times and 10-0 runs in the game. Crowd doesn't go crazy
- Playoff Atmosphere is broken, I have to change favorite teams in order to get NBA Finals atmosphere, or Eastern Conference Atmosphere
- Also the Playoff atmosphere disappears once you go into head to head mode
- One handed steals are unrealistic
- CPU can pump fake and get away with multiple fakes, while the user gets the ball stolen if it's attempted
- Animation Fluidity (Try to focus on TRUE realism for Live 15)
- Some dunks gotta go, especially that one handed piece of sh*t that shakes the whole basket
- Check this video out ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVGD3AQSGXU
- Remove some of the cheesy blocking animations
- Tweak player acceleration, NBA Players can switch speeds a lot faster
-Change the back down button to Y. And Remove the Hop Step
- Modifier should be the left trigger instead of left bumper, easier access to pull of tier dribble moves
- There's an animation when you come out of the post, lags, you have to wait for the animation to finish before you can pass

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I wrote a blog on game play enhancements for NBA Live 14, so I'll post them here since it's relevant

- Controls are way too laggy for my liking, they need to figure out how to make the controls more precise with the game play, especially bounceTek.

- Speed up Player acceleration. The game is too slow; the ability to play the game fast should be optional or at a reasonable speed, pressing turbo should give speedy player a more aggressive push to get down the floor.

- Defense recovery is poor, especially in the paint. Try to reduce the amount of sliding. The defensive stance button is broken, doesn’t seem to work so it’s hard to stay in front of the ball handler on defense.

- Quicker inbound animations (was in Live 09). After every bucket, players walk the ball out of bounds giving the other team a chance to set up their defense. Adding 1 or 2 animations for quicker inbounding would be useful

- Better elevation on jump shots. It’s so easy to get blocked on the perimeter. It’s like player on defense don’t have to jump high enough to block shots. Should be tweaked somehow.

- The ability to spin off a box out in the paint. Once a shot is taken, and you get boxed out, you can’t fight for the rebound, should be able to avoid the box out somehow, even if you get called for a foul. Just need that option

- Players feel too light, add mass to players, so point guards can’t knock over centers like they’re Shaq

- It’s way too easy for the CPU to score in the paint. Sometimes you have to control your 4 or your 5 to reduce points in the paint, but in most cases the CPU will score about 50+ points in the paint.

- The ability to pass out the post doesn’t work properly, maybe due to the problems with the controls, but you have to press pass like 5 times to get a pass out.

- Add game play sliders, and enable us to edit player ratings. It may interfere with the Synergy data, but who cares.

- Player movement should be as fluid as FIFA 14 next-gen in terms of player movement and quickness. Also with better controls.

- Commentary timing is way off. Some of those Wav files need to get chopped up properly so that they flow with each other properly

- The ability to switch the modifier to the left trigger, rather than the left bumper

- There’s a bounce pass to the post that’s glitched, it’s an automatic turnover

- A small suggestion, maybe have shoe technology in the game, similar to having cleats or skates in NHL

I may have more down the line, but this is what I can come up with during my time with the game yesterday!!

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More to come

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EDIT:

Recovery after a block is slow
All Arenas sound the same (Xbox One) (same organs especially, very annoying)
Delay on the time out in the inbounds (easy clean up)
CPU Points in the paint remains a problem. Unstoppable.
A lot of the "In between" animations interrupt the flow of the game at times, needs to be cleaned up more than anything
Dribble controls need to be perfected
Defense rotations are slow in the paint
Put a button for diving animations, able to call time out on the floor (just an idea)
Lighting on the players should be like this: http://youtu.be/upXXhDQ76bk?t=1m17s (Not hard light, but Soft light)

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Too much sliding in the paint, can't get proper positioning leading to a lot of free baskets down low
Passing needs to be ramped up, too many lazy passes. They need more zip *Also find a way to make passing much faster, and add touch passing mechanics. Passing needs a lot of work

Last edited by ThaLiveKing on Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:51 am, edited 5 times in total.

Lots of good stuff mentioned above.

The biggest fix imo

- Animations (most of them simply do not resemble real athletes playing bball)

1. Increase specific player movement/animation input response:

• When controlling a player without the ball and using the left stick to move from a stand still or changing direction on both offense and defense. General movement on both offense and defense has an exaggerated delay. Players often take 3-4 steps to stop before changing direction when it should just be 1-2 and a pivot depending on player speed, weight, inertia, and sprint button usage.
  
• Especially during turning animations.
  
• When pressing and not pressing the Sprint button. It should have a quicker acceleration to full speed but slower direction changes and more exaggerated pivots, while not using sprint should cover less ground but have quicker direction changes.
  
• Right stick defensive slides and lateral defensive movement. Increase response to balance out offensive movement.
  
• CPU moves to a position and the delay/momentum/inertia takes them out of bounds when receiving a pass. Improving the response/tightening the direction changes should stop this from occurring.
  
• Passing/receiving ball player animations. Increase these should help balance out the defense that already recovers too fast due to the length of time between ball path/receiving animations and the receivers initial movement.
  
• When using hands up. Let us move our player when we initiate this animation.

----I believe increasing that response time will also improve online play.

2. CPU AI / Synergy intelligence

• There are plenty of plays to run, but the game tends to run the same 2-3 plays over and over again, with the AI unable to recognize that you are playing the passing lane telegraphing passes(offball player should be improving position to receive pass or the play should have an option).
  
• Needs to use "money" plays for late game situations.
  
• Bug fixes for shot clock violations- cpu losing by a small amount of points dribbles the clock out; double team on post player before backdown animation with defender is initiated results in player attempting to initiate the backdown animation for the duration of the shot clock until a violation.
  
• Recognition of open opportunities when a defender loses their assignment off ball( like staying in the backcourt)

3. Bug fixes

• Usually a small forward or power forward thinks they are on the other team and will move behind the baseline attempting to be the inbounder when the other team is inbouding the ball. That same player may get stuck in an AI loop or in an animation somewhere on the court as well. Possibly localized to Rising Star mode.
  
• In Rising Star, after simulating until substituted, the commentators will think that every three pointer is from the other side of the court.

4. Options/Sliders

• Instead of a static accelerated clock, give us a dynamic accelerated clock with the option for the amount of actual minutes we want each quarter to be while still retaining a 12 minute game-clock length.
  
  Sliders -
  
• Freethrows(allow a range rather than static number)
  
• Steals(on-ball/passes)
  
• Blocks
  
• Bouncetek
  
• Offensive/defensive rebounding and tips
  
• Contact frequency
  
• Game speed(overall)
  
• AI reaction time
  
• Pass speed(allow range from slowest pass to fastest)
  
• Post hooks
  
• Layups
  
• Dunks
  
• 3's
  
• Leaners
  
• Drifters
  
• Fallaways
  
• Contested shots
  
• Contact shots
  
• Off dribble shots
  
• Catch and shoot shots
  
• Defensive contest ability effect
  
• Perimeter on-ball defense
  
• Pick and Roll defense
  
• Help defense off-ball rotation
  
• Double team effectiveness(cause bad passes, affect shots, easier to strip ball)

5. Camera fixes/additions

• Improve/add dampers and viscosity to smooth camera transitions when the ball is moving between players or bouncing off the rim an backboard. Could especially improve replays as the camera jumps around during dribbling and other actions when the ball is a target.
  
• Allow height(pitch-adjusted)/distance/zoom customization to the current cameras.

During games, the way timeouts/substitutions should be adjusted. CPU Coaches do not call timeouts when the opposing team goes on a run. Nor do they call them when players are tired or to get their rotations in. Players just sit on the side line until a foul is called or an out of bounds.

Overtime period times should scale better. 5 minute OT for a 6 minute quarter game is too long.

Overtime period times should scale better. 5 minute OT for a 6 minute quarter game is too long.

This is something I've thought about ever since Live 2005/06. Totally agree.

Also, that video you posted on facebook where you got to call unlimited timeouts at the end of the game which allowed you to play the foul game and come back from 7 down

Yep, got that in the bugs thread (that was awesome though)

Tweeted Scott OG that more layups need to be banked. Small issue but should increase realism if applied.

Good stuff so far, everyone. I'll post more as I think of it, but a lot of stuff that I left out of my post has since been covered.

EA Sports NBA Live devs should utilize their motion capture software, not only for dribbling, but for running, shooting, off-ball defense, celebrations, and more.

They do.

They do but EA are also known for taking the wireframe of their 3D models and inserting their own (basically hand animated) animations. Either they think they can take short cuts (example of the one motion captured dunk being tweaked to also be used for a layup, put back etc) or that it helps them with transitioning from one animation to another. But it actually makes things look worse.

Adding to the faces that need to be scanned and or corrected, I did a quick 2 minute photoshop job. To me, if you fix James' beard and eyebrows he actually looks more like the real Lebron than the 2K14 Next Gen version.

They do but EA are also known for taking the wireframe of their 3D models and inserting their own (basically hand animated) animations. Either they think they can take short cuts (example of the one motion captured dunk being tweaked to also be used for a layup, put back etc) or that it helps them with transitioning from one animation to another. But it actually makes things look worse.

Adding to the faces that need to be scanned and or corrected, I did a quick 2 minute photoshop job. To me, if you fix James' beard and eyebrows he actually looks more like the real Lebron than the 2K14 Next Gen version.

A lot of the motion capture stuff they're using is from previous games, years ago. They're using their libraries. They should have just went in and did new animations for everything. It's a lot of work, but the results would be a lot better. That one handed rebound, the one handed dunk from the baseline and the two hand cradle dunks are really annoying because they don't look realistic

Since they've mentioned an ability to push through new animations for NBA Live 14, it'll be interesting to see if they can accomplish that. If nothing else, it's something for them to work on in NBA Live 15. Getting back to NBA Live 14 fixes though...

• I'm guessing it may not be possible, but if there's any way to patch in roster management functionality and local roster saves, that'd be great. It would allow for custom rosters to be used in Dynasty Mode, even if it's just the official rosters that have been saved before a particular trade took place. At the very least, it's something that should be kept in mind for NBA Live 15.
  
  
• Speaking of the roster management functions, since we can view the rosters in NBA Live 14, it'd be handy to be able to scroll backwards through the teams. It's annoying to have to go scroll through every team again if you want to see the previous team or if you've scrolled one team too far.

• Speaking of the roster management functions, since we can view the rosters in NBA Live 14, it'd be handy to be able to scroll backwards through the teams. It's annoying to have to go scroll through every team again if you want to see the previous team or if you've scrolled one team too far.

Hold L2 to drop down a list of teams. It's still annoying and just a step backwards. I don't know how this one-way team cycling made it from concept to implementation.

I'll have to remember that, that's a little better I guess. Still, if the old method can be patched in, so much the better.

Since they've mentioned an ability to push through new animations for NBA Live 14, it'll be interesting to see if they can accomplish that. If nothing else, it's something for them to work on in NBA Live 15. Getting back to NBA Live 14 fixes though...

• I'm guessing it may not be possible, but if there's any way to patch in roster management functionality and local roster saves, that'd be great. It would allow for custom rosters to be used in Dynasty Mode, even if it's just the official rosters that have been saved before a particular trade took place. At the very least, it's something that should be kept in mind for NBA Live 15.
  
  
• Speaking of the roster management functions, since we can view the rosters in NBA Live 14, it'd be handy to be able to scroll backwards through the teams. It's annoying to have to go scroll through every team again if you want to see the previous team or if you've scrolled one team too far.

My rosters barely update on the Xbox One. Lance Stephenson still comes off the bench, and I have to start him every time, things like that shouldn't be a problem. I still can't believe they didn't put Roster saves in the game, need to give us that option. The whole daily updates should be only for online matches and mini games

It's more than that. Yeah the rosters are horrible (which is really unforgiveable given the actual fans themselves could do a daily roster better than a billion dollar company), but the bugs where they put random players on rosters kills it.

I've said it before, but for a while there, the Pacers were starting Solomon Hill at PG in game. I've had Sebastian Telfair and others from the free agent pool starting for teams as well. Both in quick game and dynasty mode. It's a joke.

Absolutely, the official rosters need to be improved (and more consistently updated). It's surprising because the daily updates worked out a lot better in NBA Live 09 and NBA Live 10. It's good to see they have resumed at least, at last check they were pretty much up to date. More roster management tools (so that we can customise them ourselves) definitely wouldn't go amiss, though.

The EA Sports NBA Live devs mentioned on twitter that they're full speed ahead on NBA Live 15 as well as improving NBA Live 14.

They are the masters at saying stuff that never pans out though...

In terms of patching Live 14... I can see it now.

With the face scans only taking place in Orlando, EA will say the simply didn't get them all done and we need to wait till Live 15 for the new faces.

The promise (during the EA apology) of new animations and fixed graphics... will not happen.

We will get tweaked AI and a practice mode. And while I am a fan of this game and will stand up for it in the areas it deserves, that is still not good enough. EA lied to us yet before the launch and have yet to fulfil their promises.

If they do the same in backing out of the fixes suggested in their apology, they deserve to have their NBA license revoked tbh.

They seem to be getting through them fairly swiftly. In any case, we're drifting into a conversation that is certainly welcome, but should be kept out of this particular thread, which is for constructive suggestions and compiling lists of issues that need to be resolved.