Cheap strategic exploit, any suggestions to stop

I play this game with a friend of mine, and I think he discovered a pretty cheesy way to play, but it may prove to be effective.

What he does is; instead of playing defense, he just cherry picks. He gets one of his players (ie. Shaq) to camp out near my net, while I'm playing offense. His computer controlled players play defense with his remaining defenders.

Yes, I know what you're about to say. Most times I manage to score. Actually almost all times I manage to score. With a 5 vs 4 advantage, of course I'm gonna score 95-99% of the time.

But before you miscast me as a "bad player" for letting him defend me 1-5% of the time, think of the logic behind this strategy. When his computer defenders are defending; most times they'll scatter around and at least do a sufficient job of plugging up the key. So although I'll occasionally find a way to get a layup or dunk, many times, the layup/dunk is not guaranteed due to his defenders. He'll once in awhile get a block, or I'll just have a layup or dunk that misses due to defenders in the way. So the natural solution is to go for jumpers right? But even those aren't guarantee to hit everytime. Yes, open shots hit most of the time, but they often do miss as well.

Now once he goes on offense, he just makes quick passes to Shaq who's cherry picking in my end, and gets an easy uncontested 100% dunk everytime. So which is better? 100% uncontested-no defenders dunk? (which my friend gets) or a 95% 5 vs 4 situation for me? He has the advantage because he's playing stupid. So how do you defend this?

Now I'm gonna point on some suggestions I know I'm gonna get before you make them:
- no he doesn't make bad passes from a long ranged pass because he doesn't just throw one huge long hail mary pass to Shaq from his end. He just relays it across with fast passes between 1 or 2 teammates before he gets it to Shaq. This happens very quickly and insures that it won't be an inaccurate hail mary pass.
- I have tried intercepting the deep passes, but often times they are too quick and its hard to gauge the angle with a pass from his end. Try it yourself; its extremely difficult and the interception is not guaranteed even with a guy on him. Given the distance, angle and sheer quickness of the passes, this is not something I could see many players doing. Quick passes are not easy to intercept.
- I've tried intercepting the entry pass, but upon doing this once, he finally caught on to it and just got his guy open enough. I mean how many times can you intercept the entry pass right? Eventually he'll be able to get open and once I miss that interception, he'll just do his relays to Shaq under my basket for an easy dunk.

Any suggestions to stop this? Should this game really reward people using such cheesy unorthodox strategies?

Last edited by castorius on Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

I doubt EA has taken this particular way of playing into mind. Since it's just so ...stupid.

Not really sure what to do, hit him very hard every time he does it perchance?

set the foul out rule to 0 so that players don't get fouled out. then, once you friend gets the ball, press intentional foul, that way, when they inbound, your players will be back in time....
other than this, I have no idea how to defend this.
Otherwise... you could.... use player lock... then keep ur defender on the otherside guarding Shaq as well. Then it would be a 4 v 4 game on the otherside, where you could still command the cpu controlled players to shoot, pass etc. But I guess it wouldn't be as fun.

Out of curiosity how would they guard these strategy in real life?

Hack-a-Shaq

Ok, ok, how bout if it isn't Shaq and instead he decides to use a decent free throw shooter.

And besides, I don't think I can get close enough to him to hack him anyways, he usually dunks it before I'm even remotely close.

Out of curiosity how would they guard these strategy in real life?

I actually saw this strategy used in my high school inter-school bball competition once.... Its simple really... you just end up playing 4 on 4 bball on the other end with a person on the offensive team "guarding" the man on the other side of the floor.

In the game... if you wanna go for hack-a-shaq, you might as well play hack-allda-other-players, when they get the ball, foul, so tht when they go for an inbounds pass, you have time to get back on defense.

i do this sometimes in my dynasty, but i dont do it so extreme. i jus take marion or amare and run towards halfcourt wen a shot goes up... basically starting a fastbreak oppourtunity, as the comp doesnt like to run upcourt ahead of the ball very often

Out of curiosity how would they guard these strategy in real life?

I actually saw this strategy used in my high school inter-school bball competition once.... Its simple really... you just end up playing 4 on 4 bball on the other end with a person on the offensive team "guarding" the man on the other side of the floor.

In the game... if you wanna go for hack-a-shaq, you might as well play hack-allda-other-players, when they get the ball, foul, so tht when they go for an inbounds pass, you have time to get back on defense.

I imagine this would work in real life, as your defender can just cover the cherry picker like a defensive back in football. However, in this game, intercepting isn't quite so simple. First the camera angle makes it difficult to position your guy properly. And secondly, sometimes you can have your guy between his passer and the receiver and it still won't intercept it.

Also, there is no way to get your computer defenders to defend in such a way, so you have to do it manually; which means you'll pretty much let your team play offense on their own.

I don't see why he would do that, he just makes the game really boring for himself...

I think if you concentrate on Shaq he is easier to stop than you make out.. Always double team him as soon as he gets the ball if he bulldozes 50% of the time its an offensive foul. I'm played against Shaq and not one team user I have played against has had Shaq score more than 25pts on me..

I don't see why he would do that, he just makes the game really boring for himself...

Some people have the mentality of winning = fun

none the less... he does it... and im pretty sure he does have a good time doing it cuz he's scoring... 100% of the time... heheh

im not sure exactly how he's beating you down court with 300 pound Shaq... but since he is... i suggest you forget trying to cover anyone else... forget interceptions and run any defender down to the paint and time your block extremely well... if you have it on default slider settings its quite possible to get a block even with a tiny guard like nash on shaq... or at least the ever so popular 'no call'... the worst you can do is foul him

Amare and Marion are nice shot blockers but you need bigger guns against someone like shaq... try Yao, Duncan or the Wallaces... you might not get blocks all the time but you could force him to go into a layup animation that may miss instead of the dunk animation.... or like i said you can force him into a 'no call' foul...

but the key is you gotta get your defender back in the paint... you have to crush that turbo button on your controller like theres no tomorrow heheheh.... cuz there's no way Shaq is beating you down court...

First off your friend sucks big time for doing that but why he would want his biggest baddest defender standing at half court is beyond me. if i was going to cherry pick then it would be with someone like wade or jones.

Not much you can do about it really, apart from mybe puching him in the eye.

Most of you guys are missing the point.

Its not about Shaq. Forget I even mentioned Shaq. He was just an example. If he doesn't use Shaq, he'll use somebody else, it really doesn't matter.

I'm not saying that Shaq or anybody else is unstoppable. I am talking about the strategy he's using.

Let me explain it again:
Shaq (or whoever) is not beating me down the court. HE IS ALREADY THERE. You see he just camps one of his players (ie. Shaq) under my net while I'm playing offense. He doesn't bother defending, he lets his other 4 guys defend (CPU controlled) and just sits and waits under my rim.

Now it makes no difference whether its Shaq under my rim or anybody else. There is nobody there to defend him in time. Right after I score, he quickly relays passes over to his player under my rim, and dunks it before I even have a chance to get close. Wanna know what makes this even worse? If I don't score; or I make a turnover or I miss my shot (ball stolen, intercepted, blocked, I miss my shot - he gets the rebound) he can quickly relay passes up to his guy under my rim (quick transition score).

What makes Shaq even more lethal than most players to do this tactic is; even if I happen to get one guy relatively close to guard Shaq, he already has my guy deeply hemmed in the key, so all he does is dunk over me (in most cases; my lone defender is helpless with no help, and already deep in the key). Also, often times I can't be selective in who my defender is and it is often a small guard who is totally outmatched by Shaq.

BUT REMEMBER: its irrelevant whether its Shaq or anybody else. The point is; if he had Dwayne Wade under my rim waiting, he'd still have an easy uncontested basket most of the time. Which is a hell of alot better than the 5 vs 4 advantage I have on the other end against his defense.

And you guys are right that this is a lame strategy.

He doesn't actually use this strategy much or really at all. He actually just started doing it during one of my blowouts against him and he started mounting a comeback because of it. I just don't like it hanging out there as an option for him to use if he's losing or if things get close and he needs to pull it out to win. How would I regulate it?

I haven't played him since. But I don't really like making house rules for games. Should I make a house rule that states that you can't cross the half court line until the ball has been inbounded (your CPU controlled players can do what they want, you just can't manually press your players towards the offensive side until the inbound is in)?

Like I said; I'd rather find a strategic solution to this problem. However, if I have no choice, then house rules it is. But thanks for the suggestions so far, its good to hear feedback at least.

Just beat him with brains, not brawns:
Practice shooting jumpshots and practice playing 5-on-5 against CPU and ALWAYS use pick-and-roll. Trust me, it DOES come in handy, even for a guy who doesn't use the playcalls. Everytime you come off a screen, study their defensive rotation pattern and also spot the man they left open. And if you can master 5-on-5, you can definitely master 5-on-4.

After you come off a screen, there are 3 of the best possible outcomes from pick-and-roll:
1. You will be left open for a jumpshot or even for a dunk.
2. They will double-team your man and your screener will be left open. Pass the ball back to the screener for the jumpshot or even for a dunk.
3. At least 2 defenders will come to help. They will also leave one player outside in the corner for the 3 pointer. Usually this happens if you come off a pick at the top of the key. Make sure that at least 2 of your PG-SG-SF can definitely shoot 3 pointers.

Good luck. Beat him for playing good ball, not ordering your CPU-teammates to play.


And if you're not playing pick-and-roll, swing the ball around the arc and continue passing until the defense breaks down and you find an open man.

Just beat him with brains, not brawns:
Practice shooting jumpshots and practice playing 5-on-5 against CPU and ALWAYS use pick-and-roll. Trust me, it DOES come in handy, even for a guy who doesn't use the playcalls. Everytime you come off a screen, study their defensive rotation pattern and also spot the man they left open. And if you can master 5-on-5, you can definitely master 5-on-4.

After you come off a screen, there are 3 of the best possible outcomes from pick-and-roll:
1. You will be left open for a jumpshot or even for a dunk.
2. They will double-team your man and your screener will be left open. Pass the ball back to the screener for the jumpshot or even for a dunk.
3. At least 2 defenders will come to help. They will also leave one player outside in the corner for the 3 pointer. Usually this happens if you come off a pick at the top of the key. Make sure that at least 2 of your PG-SG-SF can definitely shoot 3 pointers.

Good luck. Beat him for playing good ball, not ordering your CPU-teammates to play.


And if you're not playing pick-and-roll, swing the ball around the arc and continue passing until the defense breaks down and you find an open man.

I could play almost flawless ball. Its not even about that. I can score with 5 vs 4 pretty much most of the time. Its the few rare times where I don't hit an open jumper or my guy doesn't get the layup/dunk where I lose ground. You can't guarantee that your guys will hit open jumpers 100% of the time even if your release is perfect.

The problem occurs on the other side of the ball. I have no defense against his one guy cherry picking under my rim. It has nothing to do with my ability or anything I'm doing wrong. Its the fact that I'm playing normal, and he's doing something really strange (putting his one guy under my rim and not playing defense).

So I get a 5 vs 4 situation where I can score 95% of the time (missing the occasional open jumper or not succeeding with a dunk/layup). While he gets a 99-100% situation where he gets an uncontested basket against no defenders.

It has less to do with what I'm doing, and more to do with what he's doing that's causing the problem. I could be playing stellar defense or normal defense, it doesn't matter; his strategy will still work. The only way to counter the problem might be to do something strange myself (ie. attempt to guard him even when I'm playing offense)

Before the game starts, set the game difficulty to "rookie" without him realizing it. And maybe increase the free throw difficulty so that he won't notice that something's strange.

And if all fails, play the same tactic as he does by selecting Shaq's greatest rival, YAO!!

I got the number one solution-- Dont play with your friend,

Ok, I have played guys like that before. They play 4 on 5. So, just put ur best three point shooter at the psoition he is cheating from and bomb him into submission. As long as u score he will not get to throw the long pass because he has to realease the cherry picker to inbound. Play a half court zone like the box and 1 or 221 half court. O, and pick a very good team like memphis, spurs, sac, etc with many shooters. Run a motion offense too. The wing should amost always get an open look with him cheating down court, because the center or big man rotates from the wing or corner (outside in). But the major key is stopping him on the possessions where he cannot throw the long pass. That is the only way you can win. Sorry, but the wierdos have an advantage here. Whup his cheating booty, peace.

I got the number one solution-- Dont play with your friend,

nice one.. hehehe

So, just put ur best three point shooter at the psoition he is cheating from and bomb him into submission.

Do that and change the user 3 point slider to 100.

If a competitor was gonna cherry pick and I see that it works for them.. gives them quick points etc.. Then you may as well lock a player to guard that player or run offensive sets where a large guy is outside the 3 point line.. that way if the shot goes in there is a good chance that he gets back there b4 Shaq can get it.
There is always a solution to stop this sorta problem. Try a few different ways.. Once one u get works then he'll have to change strategy.

This is where the rules in a video game should differ from real life rules. In the NBA one person isn't in control of the five guys on the floor.

There could be a rule that could be turned off or on that would force players to play both sides of the floor. Something like if a single player is on one side of the floor for too long, or alone (similar to the 8 second rule in detecting) there is a tech and a free throw.