That's a trick question. Gameplay that sometimes happens outside our control makes the game feel authentic. Its always been one of the best aspects of 2K. We've all had a teammate get a tip-in or grab an offensive rebound. Sometimes we groan as they set an illegal screen or get a loose ball foul, but it all feels authentic. But how much is too much? When do non-user actions run the risk of determining the outcome?
The holy grail of gaming in team sports is getting our AI teammates to follow our directives. Let's face it, most of the players in a game of Madden, 2K, The Show or FIFA will be AI. Whether you're expecting Bakhtiari to effectively protect Rodgers' blind side or anticipating Oblak to be an elite goal-keeper in FIFA 20, the performance of the players we don't actively control has always been a big debate in sports gaming. ZhouProdigy of OS posed it this way: "When are we asking too much? If your AI teammates are perfect, then that's not Sim. But in that case, we really need settings that allow us to, at the very least, make their behavior predictable enough to gameplan for."
He's right too. The right balance has always been a mixture of gameplay being authentic (we dont want to see Dwight Howard hitting threes) and that allows the users to determine the outcomes. We need more options so we can counter what offenses do, but more importantly have our AI teammates execute OUR gameplans. Should there be a complete redesign of how we can use options to address how our AI defenders play? Its a valid question. Similarly, Madden lets defenders go for the big hit, strip or interception or instead play more conservatively and break down and keep everything in front of them. Given those choices I might want Embiid to play aggressively blocking shots--and conservatively reaching for steals.
But whats the right balance? No one wants Madden where holding calls and things like Pass Interference don't even exist. I love the way 2K feels like a real game but bail-out fouls by our AI teammates are excessive this year. Especially because there's no variety between Bad and Elite defenders. Just give us the tools to have the AI follow our directives--let US decide if we want our players to attack the offense that aggressively or not.
Now will those Directives have Risk and Rewards? SURE. Any balanced game makes you choose those. Hell i'm not angry if I get a few loose ball fouls if I elected to crash the offensive glass. That's great Risk/Reward gameplay with depth.
Maybe i've got a really bad defender in my starting 5 (Redick last year for me) am I gonna protect him by hiding him on Rondo or do I expect him to match-up Lebron? If I choose the latter those ARE my decisions affecting the game--to my detriment. The game will never be even as long as we're playing with NBA teams...each has different personnel and strengths/weaknesses. There's stuff that will happen outside our control--and that's fine. Just give the user the ability to direct AI teammates as much as possible so it feels like OUR SHOW.
When I played OKC in 2K19 Embiid wouldn't be able to push Steven Adams around like most centers and it was a given we'd give up some offensive rebounds, that's good. Adams is one of the better defensive centers in the league and ELITE crashing the offensive glass. But Good and Elite defenders just bailing out guys with terrible fouls this year? That's bad. We could stomach if bailout fouls were tied to mismatches, but that's not even the case as bigs will often struggle finishing over guards. Give us the option for Conservative Aggression that will have our AI teammates largely play position D. The downside? Dramatically less steals, blocks and deflections--and giving up open mid-range shots and OREBS. Or an Aggressive setting where we see just the opposite--and Normal that is a mixture of the two. In the end the best idea is to let the user decide how the team plays. Gameplay simply doesn't need a huge number of AI fouls, it has PLENTY of BLATANT, uncalled ones by users that should have serious priority. Its woefully inconsistent to generate AI fouls almost at random before cleaning up the trash heap that is user fouls that the AI just flat out ignores:
If gameplay needs more fouls to be called--there they are. We can get a realistic number of fouls and make sure stars go the line by simply calling obvious fouls that occur. PROBLEM SOLVED. Gameplay can't allow people to abuse the fact that so many fouls go uncalled. I spammed steal to end this game in 2K17 to prove a point:
Neutral Outcomes aren't so NEUTRAL after all are they? AGAIN: Implement a consistent and exploit-free foul standard in the future and very few foul outcomes will have to be scripted into gameplay.
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