I know there are people on this forum who doubt such a thing exists, and then there are people who swear by it. I used to dismiss the equalizer until about three or four weeks ago, and then have been so tired and fed up with it to where I didn’t play much Supermax after I secured Dave Debusschere. I have now come to an understanding that there is a way to combat “player engagement”, and simply having 3 golds or bronzes seeing 0 minutes on the bench is not going to affect the equalizer at all. Rather, having players on your squad which actually see minutes and play throughout the game whom ARE WORSE than any of your opponents’ players definitely affects it. Take a look at this lineup (I ran Jerry West in place of CP3 and Shaq in place of Kareem) below:
I am having much success in running this lineup, as my Finley is an offensive force and Sapphire Middleton is a great budget 3&D player (check his stats). I used to run Diamond 97 LBJ in Finley’s place, and 97 Ray Allen in Middleton’s place, and the difference between that old lineup and this new “Sapphire-implemented lineup” is vast. Not only does Hakeem make his close shots and standing layups, but he also makes post hook shots! On the bench, PG13 actually plays like a basketball player and not a soccer player! I’m sure that some of you who think they have a budget squad with a blend of ruby and amethyst players feel the equalizer when going against similar teams, or doubt it exists when going against diamond teams. But most budget teams now can afford players better than nearly all Sapphires.
Try putting a sapphire on the court with your God Squads or Amethyst/Ruby lineups; you should see a vast difference in how your other players perform in Supermax (and your sapphires will play much above their rating!).
i run sapphire valanciunas off the bench. i feel like ive been winning or competing better with him. i think there is a little bit to this theory. rest of my team is diamonds except for amy durant. and pd lonzo
What is your record in super&^$& this round? I am off to my worst start, and I believe it has more to do with algorithms automatically favoring one team regardless of cards on the floor. I am given a tiny tiny window of opportunity each game to try and overcome like a 20 point deficit. I have literally only had one game where I felt free from any animation fuckery, lack of intangibles, and my team moved on the court like a real squad. I won handily like 112-75. In these 7 other games in which I am an abysmal 1-6! I repeat 1-6 (never in my life seen a record like this)! I am blowing open dunks, live dribbles are consistently tipped by defenders bodies (they all off-balled so it was just the cpu steal after steal), passes are sailing high and wide or through my hands, and I cannot for the life of me hit an open 3 in the clutch. I mean WIDE OPEN. My last opponent shot like 15 off dribble contested 3’s and made 8-10. The teams are even in terms of firepower (diamonds, etc). I have the slightest clue why this happens like this. We all have seen it. It’s so frustrating, and defeating to be honest. Save me.
I am 5-0, I won three of them to rage quit in the third quarter, but one of those three netted me neither a win nor a loss. So technically I am 4-0 this round, and was 3-0 in the Pre-Season.
It’s definitely not about the cards you’re running. More about the tier, current winning/loosing streak and how close you are to the reward. You’re not supposed to reach it too quickly, but you need to win too, so you keep playing.
im 8-3 in the ruby tier. tbh it sounds like you need to play a more defensive game. winning 112 to 75 is good! but if you let in 75 when you win id hate to how much you let in when you lose. honestly i just try my best to off ball and keep centre around the paint ready to protect the rim. unless his 5 can stretch the floor
As stated in the other thread I started an experiment with a lesser team.
In my starting 5, I have one Diamond (Lebron at SF), 2 Sapphire (Khris Middleton and Larry Sanders) and two Rubies (Iman Shumpert at PG, and Al Harrington at PF
On the bench, I have one Amy (MJ at SG), one Sapphire (Porzingis at PF) and three rubies (Brent Barry at SF, Manute Bol at C and Baron Davis at PG).
The three last spot are reserved for the 4th quarter : Diamond Payton, Diamond Kemp, and Pink Diamond Nate Thurmond, to play alongside MJ and Lebron.
I had 4 games so far (I plan to play around 10) and went 3-1 : 2 closes games against all diamond squad, 1 blow out win and 1 blow out loss against a 5 outter with Pippen and Lebron at PG.
What i can say so far is that I made way more contested layup inside the paint, I hit my open 3 points at a decent clip (nothing too crazy actually), and more importantly, I don’t fumble the ball, don’t lose the ball to bump steal, and my opponent don’t score as much on fastbreak, it seems that I give less FT and the offensive rebound are about the same for me and my opponent so far.
I may be biased but it didn’t seem my opponent missed that much open shots but they did fumble the ball a lot more, and had some bump steal.
The only game I lost so far felt that the equalizer was against me : fumble the ball, lose the ball on every reach, open/contested three goes in. So obviously the equalizer doesn’t happens everytime.
Somehow it feel less obvious than last year, but I’ll continue my research and go back to my regular team to see if I feel any difference (I have a 4 Diamonds and the rest Amy team). So far I’m glad I don’t give up as many offensive rebound than usual.
First off, I will not Offball – not when the server connectivity can be spotty depending on the opponent (I have premium Internet capabilities so server lag is not on me). Secondly, I cannot remember the last time an opponent has scored over 63 points on me. Maybe a few months ago, but not in the round which I got DeBusscehere and definitely not the 8 games I have played in the past two days.
I agree with the defensive talk, but these teams have literally been shooting around 70%, it’s unfathomable. I cannot get enough stops when I’m crippled on offense and can barely make a single open shot or convert a drive/draw a foul. I know tomorrow I’ll probably see the opposite and go like 9-1 in a 10 game stretch, because I’m favored throughout. Idk, that’s what I make of it.
I think in the terms that any 2K algorithm that influences how certain cards play depends on that card’s Overall, Total Stats, or color/card tier. I would use Sapphires because many of those budget Ruby teams that get the benefit of the equalizer still do not run Sapphires – mainly a blend of Ruby, Amethyst, and cheap Diamonds.
I run sapphire Simmons on the Bench and only two diamonds on the court at the time which I make sure they are needed diamond, Jerry West and harden cousins and Hondo. Shots are a lot better and defense iq is smoother. The rest are amy but badged out. I also get more points a win so maybe it’s based on attributes aswell? Plus u tend to play smarter too with players with less stats
Did you happen to look at my thread on the subject of “Gameplay and Card Tiers”? Your findings appear to be consistent with what I saw in Kinsman’s thread on 2mtcentral and what I have found in various parts of the MyTeam mode (online and offline). It is kind of interesting to build teams with various levels of cards, but it is a bit of a bummer that highly rated teams can feel heavily penalized at times.
One of the more unfortunate parts of difficulty sliders this year is the increase of body contact/impact when difficulty level increases. That definitely accounts for the increase of bump steals.
Look at the sliders in Play Now: there are ratings maximums and minimums for certain stats (speed, speed with ball) that can be floored and capped depending on the difficulty. If such an aspect of the game is that easily manipulated, then who knows what they are doing in Supermax.
Actually, I started my experiment because of your thread
I’m not going for the reward so I’m just having fun bringing random Sapphire into the game.
Ideally, I would like to find the optimum combination of color to not be equalized and still be competitive against god Squad.
I’m still working on it but a mix of Diamond, Amy, and Sapphire migth be the answer
