[Wolverine Studios] DDS: Pro Basketball 2016 Dev Diary #2 – A Look At What’s New

[GM Games 252]

With each new Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball, there are small but key new changes that get overlooked in favor of flashier new features. This dev diary looks at these subtle additions to show how they can have a key influence on your success in the new game.

Gotta save your pennies to make a run at KD

First is a brand new magazine that revolves around free agency. It’s actually two reports in one. During free agency itself, it lists the best players still available and where they’re currently leaning toward signing. During the season itself, this report shows you all of the upcoming free agents and their contract status so you know who might be on the market the following summer. That way you can dump salary in tanktastic fashion…er plan accordingly for the next big free agent bonanza. While it was possible to do this manually in previous versions, it took a lot of time, so this streamlines the process, and allows you to view critical information at a glance.

Easy access to team stat comparisons

Stats are always an important part of the game, but in the past it’s been time intensive to find just exactly how your team stacks up against the rest of the league. Like the Free Agency magazine, the Team Stats screen has been totally redesigned for more integrated and seamless gameplay. Now you can easily compare your team to everyone else in offensive, defensive, and miscellaneous team stats. Not are only the basic stats listed, but advanced ones, too, such as Offensive and Defensive Rebound Percentages.

A look at a long and hall of fame caliber career

One of DDS:PB’s most requested enhancements is increased historical information and the ability to access it. DDS:PB 2016 now saves all historical information, and record keeping is built in, so you can compare your players against the greatest in history. View the best performances over the history of the entire league or view every single season any player played for a franchise. Retired player information is now much more complete and easier to view with the introduction of player cards for retired players. Click on a player and you’ll see all of his seasons line by line and the accolades he racked up over his career in one easy to view location.

Get feedback from all of the coaches on each player

But quicker access to information and better record keeping aren’t the only new immersion improvements. There’s also a new dynamic rating feature that gives you the option to play with a fog of war setting. With dynamic rating enabled, player ratings are shown as a general public consensus of the player based on his performance. What does that mean to you? It means you’ll be looking at a player being rated based on his stats instead of what his actual ratings are. But the opinion of your staff still matters! We’ve introduced a brand new feature on the player cards this season where your coaching staff will give you real-time (and changing) opinions on a player’s ratings. This is different from past editions of the game, where your coaches’ ratings only updated when the development changes for players took place. You’ll now have a whole range of opinions to choose from in evaluating just how good a player really is. Like the old ratings system better? You can do that, too – dynamic ratings are an option.

Making the most of your screen space

With more and more gamers owning higher resolution screens, we’ve taken advantage of that by adding more information to the larger screens. One of the changes is in the 2D gameplay. Now in addition to seeing the players on the floor, you’ll also see who’s on your bench. Now you’ll know exactly when a player is rested and ready for action without having to pull up the substitution window. We’ve also made watching the game less work on your mouse with the introduction of hotkeys to play, pause, and change the speed of the action.

Better integration, information, and immersion. A more user-friendly experience. These are what our smaller features bring to DDS:PB 2016. Our next dev diary will explore in more depth the new historical replay feature.

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