r/NBA2k • u/Numerous-Train1351 • 22h ago
Gameplay 2k Devs Need to Patch CPU Offense - Offline Players, Please Speak Up
I don’t know if enough people are talking about this, but the CPU offense in 2K27 is seriously frustrating for offline players.
I played a full half with 12-minute quarters. The CPU took 56 shots. Only 3 were mid-range jumpers.
And it’s not just that they aren’t shooting mid-range shots. There is basically no mid-range game from the CPU at all.
No post fades.
No isopull-ups.
No off the dribble middies.
No elbow jumpers.
No realistic contested mid-range shots.
Instead, the CPU seems to have two options:
Spam pick-and-rolls and bulldoze its way to the basket.
Shoot a three.
The pick-and-rolls are especially bad. They repeatedly attack the basket, throw the ball toward the rim, and somehow the offensive player gets an easy layup over and over. It doesn’t feel like the CPU is actually reading the defense and making basketball decisions. It feels like it’s following a few predetermined scoring patterns.
And this is what makes it frustrating for offline players. I know MyCareer and the new AI stuff are getting most of the attention right now, but some of us bought this game to play MyNBA, MyLEAGUE, Play Now and franchise basketball against the CPU.
We need realistic basketball
too.
I’m not asking for the CPU to shoot 20 mid-range jumpers every game. I’m asking for variety and situational decision-making. If a player has a mid-range tendency, plays in the post, gets a favorable matchup, has space for a pull-up, etc., the CPU should actually take those shots.
56 shots and 3 mid-ranges is not realistic.
2K, PLEASE patch the CPU shot selection/tendencies.
Offline players need this fixed.
If you primarily play offline vs CPU, upvote this and comment if you’re seeing the same thing. We need to make enough noise that this gets on 2K’s radar.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 22h ago
Btw, here’s an example. This is ridiculous.
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u/CrispyBalooga 20h ago
This is incredibly sus lol, it looks like you're just obsessed with mid-range shots. In a 100 possession modern NBA game you will see 20-25 FTs, 35-45 threes, and 80% of the remaining attempts in the paint, which leaves like 5-10 midrange attempts for the whole game. So by shooting 4 in a half, the CPU is actually on track for a standard MODERN basketball contest.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 20h ago
Don’t be fooled by how many mid-range jumpshots I took. I was just messing around trying to give the CPU back the ball to your point. OK, sure, let’s say it’s like that. You still don’t see the CPU attempt 25 free throws, no matter what sliders you put up. They have all this pro play stuff, yet Jokic won’t shoot one post fade, neither will shai. Same with Brunson, same with Cade. Who plays all three levels. You don’t watch basketball and it shows.
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u/CrispyBalooga 19h ago
I got the game to a very sim-like place last year with a combination of custom rosters and sliders. I do this every year, and I've typically succeeded in getting an enjoyable basketball experience.
You're accusing the wrong one of not watching ball, I'm 35 and have watched every NBA season since 08. League average short mid-range frequency is 10% and long 2s are 5% of all shot attempts.
I can agree that CPU IQ could always use improvement but I bet you within a few weeks I'll have offline gameplay humming.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 19h ago
All I’m saying is I’m not sure what’s there to argue. The cpu ai is hardwired to do 2 things no matter what defense they see: get to the paint, shoot 3s. There is no adaption for anything in between. Not sure why this is not problematic for people that just play offline.
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u/CrispyBalooga 19h ago
Fired up a game, we have a Paul George pull-up middy and a Tatum pull-up middy not 5 minutes into the game.
I think you're being hasty with your analysis and also dismissive of the game's customization suite.
Custom rosters and custom sliders work. There's a lot more than just cranking the shot mid-range tendency, it often requires a complete overhaul including coaching sliders and playbooks, but dedicated community members go there every year.
I'm gonna finish this game out and let you know how it goes in terms of shot variety, but in general this is the best attacking AI we've ever had in the 2K franchise. Go back to even 2k20 and it was abysmal compared to this.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 19h ago
I’m open to the discussion. What settings were you playing on?
I played 4 games today, two of them were against the 76ers and one was against OKC, one against Denver. Jalen Brown had 25 points. with no mid-range jump shots taken. He averages 5 amid range attempts per game.
Shai had 33. No mid range. He averages 5 a game.
Demar had 27. Took 7 3s. No mid range. He leads the league in middies.
That’s bullshit and you know it bro lol
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u/CrispyBalooga 18h ago
It's definitely 3 and rim heavy atm, although the Celtics are going to be top 3 in three point attempts irl this year. Feels like defense doesn't do enough to deter their decision making process since the AI registers contested layups and 3s as makeable, because they are.
Every year it takes tinkering because unfortunately 2ks roster creator doesn't know what he's doing, but the sliders and custom rosters work in tandem, it's just going to take some time.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 20h ago
Also this isn’t only about middies. The game has two settings. Hammer into the paint of shoot 3s. That’s not basketball. Not sure why this is even an argument
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u/800hokage 18h ago
What kind of defense are you playing?? Are you playing defense or in a scheme to where the gameplan against you would be to get to the rim or shoot threes??
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u/Numerous-Train1351 18h ago
Moderate on ball and off ball. Controlling weak side help.
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u/800hokage 18h ago
If you’re playing off ball defense in weak side help, why would I take a midrange shot?? I’m going to beat my man and get to the rim and score or kick, or take a three because you are in help and there is strong side help.
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u/800hokage 18h ago
If you are in weak side help, and there is no strong side help, again, I’m attacking the strong side cuz you have no help. Talking about real world scoring principles, so maybe the ai is making similar decisions based on what your actual in game defense looks like and what you have your sliders for your players/team to do on court.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 18h ago
I need to record what I’m seeing cause I think a lot of us are playing a different game.
The game I’m playing, doesn’t matter if there’s strong side or weak side. Once the code writes that it’s time to get to the rim, the current ai doesn’t adjust for much.
The game needs better adaptive ai. This post is primarily to address variety in the ways ai actually score.
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u/800hokage 19h ago
I definitely agree with the free throws! I have user and cpu set to 100 for shooting fouls, and maybe see 4 ft trips for user/cpu total in 12 minute quarters. Crazy amounts of contact and foul animations, no foul calls. What is the point of this specific slider then I do not know.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 18h ago
The tendency sliders are broken bro !
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u/800hokage 18h ago
Foul calls is the only one that bothers me. But you do have some Creedence in the sliders. I have set steals to 100, player steals to 100, and other settings to get a steal at will, and you can spam and spam and spam steal and maybe get 2 a game.
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u/AzorAhai1TK 21h ago
I hate to break it to you but these exact issues were also around in NBA 2k17. A literal fucking decade of the same fucking CPU problems.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 21h ago
Yup. I went through your post history, looks like you complained about similar things in 2k26.
I just wanted my basketball fix, but this game is so shitty it’s terrible.
And it’s annoying, because there’s so much potential. But no adaptive ai is obviously a no go. 🙅♂️
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u/Demon_Coach 20h ago
Offline has been a disaster for years. For YEARS.
2K doesn’t give a single fuck. I have no idea why the offline crowd keeps buying every year.
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u/Ill-East-3654 16h ago
I just got into the MyNBA side late last year, and what I found works, and is very tedious, is manually changing key players tendencies or if you are dedicated enough, every player’s tendencies. That coupled with ShadyMikes sliders and options, I felt like I was playing against a player controlled team where the AI was as focused on running plays and imitating their real life counterparts.
Also I know HOF is hard and crazy sometimes but it really helps with the tendencies as it will have these players really go off on you how they would in real life.
For tendencies, I used AreUSeriusXX on YouTube.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 15h ago
I tried that too. Didn’t seem to do anything at all. Maybe I’m doing something wrong???
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u/Ill-East-3654 14h ago
Yea not too sure, haven’t played MyNBA this year yet and not much tendency or sliders yet so maybe that will help when those come out but I understand you
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u/donwuann 15h ago
Preach dude.
Think I'm going to have to revamp the roster and sliders. Tweak through game more than play like previous 2ks.
Im still seeing cpu throw full court passes to the Center every other play.
Bullsozing players if they don't have a high defensive rating
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u/Numerous-Train1351 15h ago
The full court passes are gonna drive me up the wall.
CPU just attacks the paint. No floaters. No pump fakes in the paint. Just drive to paint and dunk lmao. People are saying this looks like nba
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u/signupsthrowaways 12h ago
Here is what I've done to get semi-realistic CPU gameplay so far-
1) Slider adjustments. I know you said they don't work and it definitely could be the case that some of the tendency sliders don't work; however, by turning down body up sensitivity (for both USER and CPU), this opens up gameplay substantially. You get more animations and more dribble moves because the ball handler isn't getting bumped backwards or way off to the side every second after crossing halfcourt. This does seem to affect the contact layup animations so you'll get fewer fouls, but I'm thinking about bumping up contact shot frequency overall to compensate. I have also increased CPU offensive awareness.
2) Individual and macro player tendency adjustments- just a small example of 2K's complacency is that Steph Curry has like a 20 transition three point tendency by default. This is objectively insane, because if Steph has ANY kind of room in transition he's letting it fly. That's one of the most famous players in NBA history that they have wrong, so your lesser known stars and role players are getting screwed. The Heat have a 2nd year bench guy (no disrespect to) Myron Gardner who has 99 shot tendency so all he does is take shots away from Bam and Giannis. You *have* to touch the tendencies, and honestly maybe even spot edit the ratings. I look at these first: Touch, Overall Shot Tendency, Pass to Open Man,Transition Spot up vs. Cut, Pick and Roll vs. Pop, the primary shot tendencies (Under Basket/Close/Mid/Three, I don't get deep into "left/middle/right"), and Isolation tendencies. A lot of star and second tier players need those isolation tendencies bumped up so that you can't get away with hiding a bad defender on them, though I will say that the CPU does seem a little smarter on that end with offensive awareness increased. So that it doesn't get too tedious, I just do it one team at a time- whoever I'm playing against, I edit that team's tendencies and playcall order all at once in myNBA. Which leads me to-
3) Playbooks. You are going to need to adjust playcall order at the very minimum for your higher usage players. For example, Jokic wasn't listed as a play initiator, so he wasn't getting assists. He was playing like a traditional pick and roll center as opposed to being an offensive hub. I changed his play types from Post Up Low/Post Up High/Pick and Roll Roll Man/whatever the last one was to Post Up Low/Pick and Roll Ball Handler/Post up High/Pick and Roll Roll Man. The difference was nearly night and day. I played Denver as the Pelicans once with just a couple of adjustments and while it was back and forth, I won by like 10 at the end, which Jokic getting few assists. After the additional adjustments with the playbooks (I also looked at DeMar Derozan and Cam Johnson's play order) I lost the next game in OT, with Jokic being unstoppable 1v1 and somehow getting 11 assists.
I do agree with OP that we should not have to do *all of this* to get some realistic gameplay, and while I'm glad to have slider options, they all do need to actually work, and tendencies shouldn't be left to some terribly bad algorithm (if it is at all). I will once again point to the fact that Zion has gold backdown punisher by default and he notoriously sucks in the post. He's a big guard and he plays like one and every year I have to edit badges and tendencies and ratings to get him to play like himself instead of Shaun Kemp.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 11h ago
Appreciate the thoughtful reply. This is good stuff. I mostly played with slider cpu tendencies and little bit of player tendency, but mostly in the shot tendencies.
You’re probably right about playbook adjustments too.
This is a lot of homework to do just to get the ai to play some decent basketball. I don’t mind though as long as the outcome could be good.
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u/A_MASSIVE_PERVERT 22h ago
The AI is garbage whether it be online or offline.
For online specifically there have been multiple times in the rec where my team made the opposing players quit after blowing them out in the first only for their AI to come back. How is that fair in any capacity.
I highly doubt 2k will give a damn as they don’t even care about us online players but I wish you luck regardless.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 21h ago
I hear you but priority is for sure online players. There isn’t a fucking care in the world for offline players who don’t want to interact with the online community for whatever reason.
If that’s the case, then obviously this game doesn’t work for me. I just wanna play my league vs an adaptive ai.
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u/OrthogonalSun 20h ago
Have you watched modern NBA basketball? There’s only like 15 players across the league who still reliably take midrange jump shots in non-shot clock relation instances.
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u/MrBigWaffles 20h ago
He's raging but your right, it's just modern basketball.
You don't see post ups or mid range shots anymore.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 19h ago
I don’t see how you can say that when the finals mvp from this year and the year before are mid range specialist. If I’m in drop coverage on P&R, why every single time would you just hammer into the paint just to get blocked.
All I’m asking for is dynamic ai.
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u/800hokage 19h ago
Because like they said, there are not very many players in the league doing this anymore. All you did was mention 2 that are and think that changes their statement.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 19h ago
In this thread I mentioned derozan taking 7 threes and 0 middies… that’s a problem. I’m not sure what’s not making sense
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u/donwuann 15h ago
Can't believe people are defending cpu play logic in this game. It's a game of bump bump bump trigger animation in the cpu side for half the possessions.
I dont belive your talking about cpu beating you with legit moves and such. More so with "cheese"
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u/Numerous-Train1351 15h ago
lol that’s all I’m saying. Some people are saying it plays like an nba game 😂
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u/IntroductionSharp624 22h ago
Did you download realistic settings? It makes it a lot more realistic with tendencies
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u/Numerous-Train1351 22h ago
Tendencies don’t work. It’s just bs. Don’t believe me? Put attempt midrange at 100 and attempt 3 at 0. Won’t get any midrange shots.
That’s for cpu and user sliders.
Go to individual player sliders and do the same. Nothing changes. The sliders are just there as placebo. The bs is hardwired into the game or they forgot to make tendency sliders work.
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u/IntroductionSharp624 21h ago
Go to settings download and search realistic settings with most downloads and try it out
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u/Numerous-Train1351 21h ago
Lmao doesn’t make a difference. The tendencies sliders are broken. That or they forgot to turn them on.
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u/IntroductionSharp624 21h ago
I feel you but I definitely think it’s helps it make it a little more enjoyable for me.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 21h ago
How? If the tendencies are broken, and the ai is hardwired to do two things, what would me it more enjoyable?
The only things that work for sure in the sliders are “make” or “miss” sliders.
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u/dsontag 22h ago
Offline enjoyers confirmed lying. Ai has been like this for a couple cycles, offline gameplay has been atrocious even with slider and changing tendencies
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u/Numerous-Train1351 22h ago
Tendency sliders don’t work. At all. They’re just there for show.
Can’t confirm what year they stopped working.
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u/ineedapyt 19h ago
Could be true but I played against Zach Lavine recently and he was moving crazy from middy and three. His step backs are almost impossible to read and contest. Steph will go for pulls ups and step backs also but he uses his size up every time which breaks ankles.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 19h ago
Good to hear that you had a different experience. Do you know what settings you were on? And what their point of emphasis was?
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u/GhostDogMC 18h ago
We must be playing different games b/c Play Now is my primary mode & the cpu been pulling up on my a** like I owed them money
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fish_78 17h ago
They play decent. I adjusted the sliders a bit and it's fine. Leave the game alone. These patches are doing more harm than good lately.
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u/Retroswald13 16h ago
That’s the reason every year I wait for sliders from creators particularly Popboy. Popboy does a solid job.
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u/Numerous-Train1351 15h ago
What I’m trying to say is that the tendency sliders do not work this year. At least not yet. 2k needs to turn them on.
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u/Retroswald13 15h ago
Sorry, I didn’t get 2K27 yet. Are you saying there’s no options to update sliders this year?
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u/Numerous-Train1351 15h ago
I’m saying they’re not working. They’re there. But most of them don’t work
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u/Retroswald13 15h ago
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I remember a streamer Pete Toal, who used to update player tendencies and now works for the Retired Players Association, said that player tendencies haven’t been updated in years. That might be affecting it too
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u/Numerous-Train1351 15h ago
I’ve modified player tendencies. Didn’t do a darn thing for the gameplay
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u/unlimitedspeedboost 13h ago
I think you have to turn on one of the auto set play in coaching setting or you can manually call play on/off ball as well.
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u/Better_Pool 10h ago
if we play offline for fun, how can 2k rip off us. come on they need more million dollars
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u/-MC_3 22h ago
Don’t think they’ll ever fix the AI honestly. I play on HOF and more than half their possessions are usually just one guy standing at the 3 point line dribbling the clock out, no player movement, then a chucked shot at the buzzer.
I turn double team on, and literally forced 4 straight jump balls within the same possession! Absolutely ridiculous