The NBA Live 2000 Wishlist was compiled using the suggestions of the NLSC Team and fans in the community via email and the NLSC Forum. It was submitted to the production team on April 20th, 1999.

The Top 10 Wishes

• Put ALL focus on the AI and the Realism and try to make it as intelligent and real as possible, esp. on the more difficult levels
• Make sure the computer opponent distributes his shots fairly, i.e. stop center and point guard dominance
• Spend A LOT of time playtesting and don’t rush the game out
• Enhance the GM Mode by introducing Salaries and the Salary Cap option with all its rules, 10-day contracts, free agency etc.
• Add a Slam Dunk Competition
• Add polygon player introductions of the starting five on the courts just like in the NBA, i.e. first the bench players come in, then it gets dark, laser show starts, starters will be announced with court depending music
• Make the presentation more real, e.g. add a second commentator, intelligent crowd, different sounds for different arenas
• Add polygon referees, coaches, bench, etc.
• Add signature moves for certain players
• Show stats, stats, stats during the game just like in real-life NBA TV presentations

General

• Make sure that when in five years time people remember the “year 2000 bug” they will not think of NBA Live 2000. Better yet, accept bets that you will not succeed to release Live 2000 without major bugs
• Do not give the game a face-lifting but a brain-transplantation instead, i.e. focus on the AI/Gameplay/Statistical Accuracy parts of the game

Videos

• Try a less hectic cut, so you see more of a single scene

Menus

• Try to make the menus as simple and fast as possible. Reduce the number of mouse clicks necessary to navigate from point to another and avoid graphics that slow the menus down too much
• In the stats screens allow more room for the actual numbers so you can see more stats at a time without scrolling
• Bring back the information window for each shot in the shot display (as in Live 97)

Presentation (Visual)

• Add polygon player introductions of the starting five with spotlight, laser show etc.
• Add specific sounds for each arena, e.g. organ music in MSG
• Make the arenas as realistic as possible
• Add polygon bench players and coaches instead of cardboard cutouts
• Add polygon referees
• Add polygon cheerleaders and mascots
• Make the Crowd Artwork 3D instead of 2D
• Add crowd excitement in the stadium after winning the championship, e.g. fireworks
• Add individual player-stat recaps during the game, e.g. a comparison of FT% for career, season and game
• Show some more stats during the game, e.g. bench scoring, leading scorers, FG% by quarter, a scoring flow-chart etc.
• Improve the “current run” feature, so e.g. it can show a 19-2 or 35-4 run
• Add Excitement after someone makes a great shot, i.e. game-tieing shots or after a close game or the championship has been won
• Improve the Zoom option to allow the camera to be further away so that you can see a bigger portion of the court – this is important for fast breaks (Live 95’s SVGA mode was perfect in that respect)
• Add a Doom-style first person camera view
• Make backboards crash after hard dunks
• Auto-save some highlights during the game and show it during time-outs or after the game
• Add more possible screen resolutions like 800×600
• Show stats, stats, stats during the game just like in real-life NBA TV presentations
• Add that the players and the crowd celebrate after important shots and buzzer beaters
• Put the Playoffs and Finals Logos on the floor
• Add an Arena 3D Fly-By before the game (as in NHL 99)
• Allow different shoes for different players on the same team

Presentation (Audio)

• Improve color commentary by adding a second commentator
• Allow a combination of arena announcer and play-by-play commentator
• Allow different announcers and commentators for different games
• Improve the crowd AI so that they’re louder when the home team has a lead or a good run – in a season they could be less enthusiastic when your team has a bad record
• Add more player chatter like Trash Time, Play Calling etc.
• Add option to add your own music to the game

Animations

• Reduce hand changes on layups and generally check some of the layup animations. Often, the angle seems to be a bit off
• Allow dribbling and shooting with the opposite hand
• Add signature moves for certain players
• Add signature Free-Throw Rituals
• Improve the passing animations. They sometimes look odd, also it can take players years to get off a simple pass over two feet
• Add some jerky and odd-looking animations for players with low ratings, e.g. centers not dribbling as smoothly as point guards

Handling

• Make it easier to commit intentional fouls
• Add a hotkey to call timeouts
• Add keys to do finger wiggling, pointing etc. on your own
• Add opportunity to select a player for a throw-in
• Add opportunity to control crowd (home games only), e.g. different ways to disconcert free throw shooters
• Add a pause key that only pauses the game without loading the Pause Screen
• Add a boss key that instantly takes you back to the system from anywhere in the game
• Add option to shorten the FT process (CPU and User) by pressing a joystick button that is available on every gamepad
• Allow joystick/keyboard combinations so that when your joystick or gamepad does not have enough buttons you can use the keyboard for some less common functions like Pivot or Fake
• Add an option to make adjustments (strategy, team settings etc.) before the game without having to go to the tipoff and press ESC then
• Add the opportunity to save default team strategies like “crash boards on”, “box-out on” etc.
• Save the last user setting so that you don’t have to select your User Log for each Season game
• Add an option where you can create your own playsets
• Make Joystick/Keyboard Configurations dependent on the User Log, not the Joystick/Keyboard Slot
• Add a DirectLayup Button

Player AI

• Further improve the CPU shot selection, e.g. by using the Primacy rating. Right now, some players still take way too many shots, especially outside shooters
• Improve the AI even more (hey, the Live 99 AI is very good already), so that superstar mode will be difficult due to the AI and not because the computer “cheats” by blocking your shots and stealing the ball at will or by letting you miss easy baskets
• Improve centers’ and power forwards’ behaviour when going for rebounds. All too often, some shooting guard will come away with it, because the big men forget to jump
• Improve the AI in the final minutes. If the CPU is down and defending by just a few points with less than 24 seconds to go, they must foul. If they have the ball and are down by three with just a few seconds to go, they must attempt a three pointer
• Stop the CPU from only shooting three pointers when they’re behind in the fourth quarter
• Add an option for your teammates to never double-team. Nobody.
• Stop centers from leaving their men too often to intercept the pass or double team the point guard
• Improve the ability of CPU players on the user’s team to pick up loose balls
• Add lead passes
• Add lob passes
• Fix the bug that players jump for rebounds even after they caught the ball
• Stop Players from missing the easy shots under the basket
• Let the CPU run more fast breaks

Coaching AI

• Improve auto-subs reacting to foul trouble. Two early fouls should not make a superstar miss most of the first half
• Extend trash time if the score is lopsided enough (losing AND winning team)
• Let CPU coaches react to their players doing badly by benching them, e.g. after they commit turnovers or brick shots (but do not exaggerate this)
• In arcade mode, let the CPU choose the less conservative strategies, e.g.3 point shooting instead of isolation or full court press instead of quarter court

Realism/Refs

• Check the fatigue issue twice before you release the game. Simulate an entire game and check the minutes the CPU players stayed on the court
• Improve foul calling. In Live 99, often shooting fouls are called even when the fouls clearly happened before the shot
• Fix the bug that fouls are called when players jump out of bounds afterloose balls. Live 99 seems to think that they were pushed out of bounds
• Stop the computer from running towards the 3-Point-Line and then shoot a fadeway which will nearly go in all the time
• Fix the bug that no travelling is called when you press Fake and Pivot repeatedly so that the player walks
• Improve illegal defense calling so that it works outside the paint as well
• Do not make injuries and flagrant fouls depend on each other, e.g. let a player sprain his ankle when landing after a dunk
• Add tie-up and jump balls
• Have players dive to the floor after loose balls
• Add 10 second FT and illegal isolation rules
• Allow the human player to select a free throw shooter when a player is fouled and injured
• Add officials’ timeouts (“TV timeouts”) and 20 second timeouts
• Add opportunity to shout at refs
• Add trash-talking
• Add an option to have “human referees” who make mistakes or favor certain players (don’t worry about what the NBA will think, they won’t notice ;-))
• Make the Overall GamePlay slower, at the moment it’s too hectic
• Don’t let Jump Shots happen when directly under the Basket, instead allow only Layups/Dunks
• Add more Offensive Fouls
• Do not let the players jump that high

Season Play/GM Mode

• Make the GM a Dynasty/Franchise mode like in Madden 99 with Salary Cap, Free Agency, Retirement, Drafts, Contracts etc.
• Older Players should get worse faster while younger talented players improve faster
• Add long-term injuries, i.e. players missing many months
• Add more awards like Player Of The Week, Player/Coach Of The Month, Finals MVP, Play of the Day, etc.
• Improve the computer-generated game results: there need to be blowouts as well as overtime games
• Add a suspended list and allow fewer than 12 players on the active roster even with players on IR
• Keep track of record books to mark NBA and individual, season-high and career-high performances
• Improve the trading AI, so a team won’t end up with 7 centers and no guards as it sometimes happens in Live 99
• Let the CPU initiate multi-player trades
• Let players have minds of their own, demanding to be traded etc
• Implement the salary cap with all its rules
• Add a training camp
• Turn the allstar game into an allstar weekend with 3 point competition, rookie game, $1.000.000 half court shot etc.
• Add pure coaching mode
• Let Players’ Ratings change during the Season
• Let the Crowd react to how the team is currently doing in the season, i.e. if you’re doing bad the arena will not be sold out; also if a team who is doing great during the season visits the arena will be more crowded
• Increase the crowd noise and activity during the playoffs.
• Allow to see actual Game Reports for each calendar day
• When calculating Season Stats, make them depend on the Ratings and not last year’s stats
• Add an Award Ceremony after the Season where Awards are handed out
• Let Players have slumps/bad periods during the Season

Creating/Editing Players/Teams

• Allow editing of a player’s career stats
• Allow use of own sound files for player names (either via external WAV Files or a built-in solution)
• Have a dialog box come up that asks for the new jersey number when you trade a player
• Add an Option where you type in Stats and the game automatically calculates Ratings from them
• Add even more faces, hairstyles and accessories like Tattoos and Biker Shorts
• Allow more editing of non-created players, also during the season
• Add more Jersey, Logo and Court designs for Custom Teams, if possible let the user make their own graphics
• Allow editing of the non-created players hairstyles

Multiplayer

• Add a Remote League mode like in NHL 99 with a Commissioner, exchanging games via Email, etc.
• Add Internet play as a supported feature

Miscellaneous

• Add a Slam-Dunk Contest Mode like in the old Jordan vs. Bird game where you can perform various dunks and they will get rated
• Add Legend Players and Teams
• Add the Dream Teams
• Improve the Practice Option so that you can take more players onto the Practice Court, e.g. One-On-One, Two-On-Two, etc.
• Allow two on one, two on two, three on three etc. games
• Add an Option where you can practice on an NBA Court
• Add an Option to practice Free Throws
• Add great teams and players from the past
• Add more locations and teams from all over the world
• Add some funny and silly stuff to Arcade mode, e.g. a flaming ball
• Add Option that the CPU will NEVER call time-outs for your team
• Remove the waiting time before you can make a throw-in
• Let someone else than the SF make the throw-in