Choose from 24 different Jumbotron styles for your custom arena. Once you have chosen your Jumbotron, you can choose from a number of different animation packages that will play on your Jumbotron (yes, your uploaded customs logos will play here!) as well as the LED marquees that span the circumference of the arena.
- Select custom sound effects that play in your arena during key events in the game (e.g. after a made 3PT shot by the home team, when the away team commits a turnover or misses a free throw, when the home team makes a FT, and so on). This was a late touch we added that really puts the icing on the cake. No custom sound uses here (only what we provided on-disc). I’ll see what we can do for 2K17 on this front!
- And, the best for last. You have COMPLETE control over how you build your court floor:
- Choose from a selection of different wood patterns for your court floor.
- Choose how you want to color the wood. You can break this down by zones on the court (in the key (the key is even broken down into sub-zones), inside the 3PT line, between the 3PT lines, etc.). Whatever you want.
- Full control over every single line on the court. I’m talking the out of bounds lines, the half-court line, jump ball circle, hash marks in the key, media box where the camera guys go, EVERYTHING.
- Choose a center court logo for your custom floor. Once again, you can choose from our on-disc selection or upload your own over on our website.
- Choose secondary court logos (these appear next to the key near the baseline) by selecting one of ours or uploading your own.
- Choose arena name logos (think STAPLES CENTER, ORACLE ARENA, etc.) by selecting one of ours or uploading your own.
- Choose from a large selection of fonts and write whatever you want on the two baselines (e.g., put ‘SAN ANTONIO’ on one baseline and ‘SPURS’ on the other) as well as the sideline text in front of the team benches. This text is fully colorizable to match the theme of our floor.
But wait there’s more! When you are done with the in-game experience, you next need to deck out the concourse of your arena with various facilities. These all cost money and come out of your owner’s contribution bonus in addition to the funds you have accrued by completing goals from your owner. So what can you buy/upgrade for your new arena?
- Luxury suites for your upscale clientele (5 upgrade levels to choose from)
- Parking garages (5 capacities to choose from; more parking = more parking revenue)
- Concourse Merchandise shops (5 sizes to choose from; bigger = more revenue)
- Concession Stand types (5 types to choose from)
- Restaurants offered (5 types to choose from)
- In-Arena Seats (4 types to choose from)
- Green Initatives (4 upgrade opportunities to go ‘green’)
- Public Transportation Hub (do you want to build an on-site Bus or Train terminal to increase attendance?)
- Amenities (Children’s Play Area? Medical Facilities? Baby Changing Stations?)
- Digital Services to increase attendance (in-arena Wifi, in-seat power, etc.)
The overall quality of your arena will have a big impact on whether your relocation gets approved or not. If you want the owners in the relocation committee to take your application seriously, you are going to need to ensure that your custom arena includes a number of luxurious upgrades.
At the very top of this Team Relocation section, I mentioned how amazed I was at what we had accomplished, looking back. I think you’re starting to understand the elation I’m feeling, and the deep respect I have for this development team. Let’s keep going…
Design Uniform
Time to create your threads. The uniform creator is rooted with one simple philosophy: Complete Customization. You’ll be creating both a Home and Away uniform for your team. For those wanting a quick experience, we’ve created a number of a presets for you to choose from. For those wanting a robust experience, you will have the ability to choose from:
- Full colorization of the base uniform itself.
- A selection of collar types on the jersey (U-neck, V-neck, etc.)
- A selection of different design patterns for both the jersey and the shorts.
- A selection of stripe patterns for the Neck, Shoulder, Jersey Side, Shorts Side+Bottom, and Shorts Waist regions of the uniform. Full colorization within these patterns are fully supported.
- Full control over player names and numbers anywhere on the uniform. This includes sizing, placement, selection of font, and colorization of all aspects. You can even apply a curvature to the text if you really want to get fancy.
- Full support for uploading your own team logos and images for use on the uniforms. You can skew, resize, and rotate images to your heart’s content.
- Full layering support. This allows you to intricately stylize your uniforms by prioritizing which layers take precedence over others. An example of this is in action is the Warriors uniform where they cleverly place the jersey number within the logo on the front of the uniform. With our robust uniform creator, you will have the same tools at your disposal to create whatever you can imagine.
We invested a lot of time and energy into this particular area of the Team Relocation process. How your team looks and feels on the court is a big piece of the relocation process, and we wanted to make sure you feel rewarded for your hard work and efforts in relocating your team.
Application Submission + Relocation Committee Voting
The deadline to submit a relocation application is on March 31st. Any applications not complete before that date will have to wait until the following season. Once your application is accepted by the league office, it will go to the relocation committee, who will mull over your proposal and decide if this relocation is in the best interest of the league.
During this time, you will have the ability to speak to the other owners and get their thoughts and opinions on your relocation. Through conversation, you will be able to uncover why they are voting the way they are, and what you can do to potentially sway their votes. These owners aren’t pushovers, they are highly intelligent businessmen. If you try and relocate a team to say, Anaheim, don’t expect to ever get a yes vote from the owners of the Lakers or the Clippers. They don’t want to share the market any more than they currently are. Teams are very savvy, and they have their own motivations as well.
League Realignment
I’m particularly proud of this feature addition to the team relocation process. I’ll never forget how many conversations, meetings, and frankly, how many engineers came up with different algorithms on how to best model divisional alignment based on new geographical location. It was a stern reminder to me just how serious we take even the most seemingly small features in our game.
When you relocate a team, there is a strong chance that the divisional breakdowns will no longer make sense, with respect to the chosen city for your relocation. For example, does it make sense to keep the Knicks in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference when you have chosen to move them to be the third team in Los Angeles? Of course not! Following an approved team relocation, the league offices will realign divisions and conferences to geographically account for the new location(s) of all the teams in the league. This means the Knicks will be the newest member of the Pacific Division in such a move! It can be viewed as a small addition, but to me, it really accentuates the level of detail the team has gone into in creating this experience. And let’s be honest, it’s pretty fun to see how the league reshapes itself based on your decisions.
Team Relocation in MyLEAGUE
As you all know, MyLEAGUE is our ‘sandbox’ franchise mode, where anything goes. In this experience, you will be able to rebrand and relocate teams without the requirement of going through the application, voting, and approval process. If you want to move the Thunder to Seattle, you can do that right away. Go ahead, no one is going to stop you!
The All-New Offseason
The offseason, and the elements within it, is one of the oldest modules in our backend code. Not anymore! We’ve spent a considerable amount of time revamping (and adding!) many time periods that occur in the NBA offseason. I’d like to take a few minutes and go over some of my favorites:
Draft Lottery
This is an all-new take on the Draft Lottery with a fresh presentation that adds suspense to each pick that Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum reveals. We have a reporter on-hand to give you analysis of each team as every pick is revealed. It’s a simple, yet elegant execution that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you cross your fingers in hopes that the ping pong balls bounce your way.
One of the things I didn’t like about our previous draft was how difficult it was to skip through picks and/or get to your next pick quicker. We’ve addressed this complaint of mine with our new design. On the presentation side of things, the first three picks in the draft receive a robust unveiling complete with full vitals, college stats, tweet reactions from the fans of the drafting team, and so on. It’s a draft. It’s fun. I think you will all like it.
Summer League
Here’s another feature that has been on the table for a solid five years that we have wanted to do. In 2K16, it’s a reality. There are actually two Summer Leagues in the game this year: 1) The Samsung NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, and 2) The 2K Summer League. Your team will get an invite to one of the summer leagues each offseason.
The setup of the Summer League in Las Vegas completely mirrors the real-life setup of the actual event. This is a tremendous chance for you to play with your newly drafted rookies, with and against the best of the undrafted rookies from the previous draft, and with the younger non-rookie players on your roster.
Staff Hiring
Internally, we refer to this time period as the Staff Carousel. Why is that? We’ve completely overhauled how Staff Hiring works. The end result is a feature that is endlessly more compelling than what we offered previously. It is no longer a ‘fill open slots and press start to advance’ type of experience.
This time period now lasts 7 days, and features a full promotion system. You now have the ability to hire staff away from other teams, or promote from within your own. If you think Nate McMillian is doing a solid job as the assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers, you can approach the Pacers and ask for permission to speak to him, to see if he wants to take a promotion and become your head coach. Not all coaches have the same ambition. Some are content with their careers as an assistant. Others dream of one day becoming a head coach and will jump ship at the first offer for such a position. Be careful, this totally works against you too! Other teams will come to you asking for permission to speak to members of your staff. If you decline the option for teams to speak to a member of your staff, that staff member may become frustrated with you and your organization and pine for a move on his own. This isn’t always true, and really, it comes down to the motivation and drive of each individual person. On the other hand, declining the approach is a surefire way to make sure your top talent doesn’t get poached. It’s a delicate game, and one that should be played with caution.
Getting back to the progression, over the course of a franchise, you will likely see a Head Scout eventually become an Assistant Coach. If he performs well enough and develops his skills properly, he might one day become a Head Coach. If he has the business acumen, you may even one day see him as an Assistant GM or GM of another team. You will see fired Head Coaches try and get back into the game by latching on as an Assistant Coach elsewhere in the league. This ebb and flow is how this feature, at least internally, came to be known as the Staff Carousel.
In my most recent MyGM, Ray Allen was picked up by a team as an Assistant Coach. After a couple years, the Hornets took a shot and hired him as their head coach. Fast forward a good many number of years, and I was negotiating a trade with the Celtics, and low and behold, good ole Ray Ray was the GM I was haggling with on the other side. It’s rooted in a reality, and it’s a really cool thing to see in action. Quite an upgrade year-over-year to say the least.
NBA Draft
I’ve always liked our draft presentation. Even today, I think it is head and shoulders better than offerings in any other sports game out there. But, for me, it was getting a little long in the tooth. With the offseason being such a huge focus for us this year, I wanted to make sure the showpiece was fresh. We’re no longer in Madison Square Garden itself, but nonetheless, we are still offering a full presentation helmed by none other than the Commissioner, Adam Silver.
A quick anecdote from an experience I had a couple weeks back while playing through the summer league with my beloved Clippers. We had a game against the 76ers that we were doing quite well in, up 10 midway through the second quarter. The 76ers decide to make some substitutions and bring in a new big. I about jumped out of my seat when I saw Greg Oden stroll onto the court. He was trying to make a comeback, and the 76ers were willing to give him that shot. It was a completely unexpected moment, and I loved it. Spoiler, he ended up not making the roster. He wouldn’t have played anyhow in that frontcourt. That’s life.
2K Hoops Summit
This is a small thing we chose to add, but we’ve found it to be a very fun way to conclude the offseason. This a single game you are able to play with the best players in next year’s draft class. The USA team is comprised of the best domestically born prospects, while the World team is comprised of the best international prospects. It’s your first look (on the sticks) at what the next draft class has to offer, which may be key in you deciding if moving up in the draft will be worth your time. Can you spot the next LeBron? If so, you may want to start working the wire for some high potential lotto picks…