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NBA Live 2005 FAQ
Written by Dusan "FreeSB" Jankovic
Version 1.1
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Index
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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Version history
2.0 Main menu
2.1 Play now
2.2 Game modes
2.3 NBA All-Star weekend
2.4 FreeStyle Challenge
2.5 My NBA Live
2.6 Team Managment
2.7 Options
2.8 EA SPORTS Extra
3.0 Strategy Central
3.1 Shooting
3.2 Crossover
3.3 Pro Hoop/Power dribble
3.4 Backdown
3.5 Dunk/Lay-up
3.6 Steal
3.7 Pick and Roll
3.8 Passing
3.9 Rebounding
3.10 General defensive strategies
3.11 General offensive strategies
4.0 FreeStyle
4.1 FreeStyle Slam Dunk
4.2 Alley-oop passing on Slam Dunk
4.3 360 dunks
4.4 Slam Dunk Showdown
5.0 Dynasty Mode
5.1 Dynasty Mode tips
6.0 Final Words
6.1 Credits and Special thanks
I will try to cover all aspects of NBA Live 2005 PC version. Since it is for PC
version, I will not cover dual analog sticks FreeStyle control. This FAQ is
written by me and only me. I did not use any information outside of what I
learned by playing the game itself. Only outside info is about emulating
FreeStyle control on keyboard. That information I gathered on some forum,
therefore it's public information. This FAQ is written mainly to help other
people shorten the learning curve of playing the NBA Live 2005. It's my first
FAQ and it's darn ugly and plain. But it holds good info, so read it. This
guide is copyrithed by me, and it's not meant to be used on any other site
besides www.gamecopyworld.com. If you would like you to use this guide on your
site, contact me by e-mail for approval. And last but not least, I apolagise
for any spelling and syntax mistakes in this guide, since English is not my
mother language.
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1.1 Version history
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Version 1.0 - First version, preaty much complete. If you think that something
is wrong or missing, send an e-mail to adress showen on the bottom of the FAQ
Version 1.1 - Added VERY little new info, corrected almost all spelling and few
syntax mistakes. Added new copyright notice. And also added the realy ugly
ASCII art boxes to titles.
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2.0 Main menu
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When the game loads up, you will be presented with the main menu. It will
consist of following choices
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2.1 Play now
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Play now is exhibition game. When you click on it it takes you directly to
team select menu. Deafault teams are LA Lakers and Detroit Pistons, which many
will recognise as last NBA season Finals matchup. On this screen you can select
wich teams you want to play with, as well as select controlers for each team.
When you slide the controler icon under the team you want to control with that
controler, you can click on controler icon to select which controler profile
you want to use, and to select wheter you want to use player lock and wich
player position you would like locked. Player lock is basicly being able to
control only one position while CPU takes control of the rest of your team.
When you slide the control icon to one of the teams the starting lineups button
appears next to team info. Here you can change starters by hovering the pointer
over the player you want to sub and than clicking on arrows that appear on the
sides of his name until the player you want on that possiotion appears. Next to
a team selection arrow is a dice. Click on it to let computer choose a team
randomly. Above the "next" button is the team info button, which when clicked
shows you some info about teams currently selected. Info is showen by four
sliders. Eachs shows you what kind of gameplay each team preffer. When you are
finshed picking teams and controls click the forward button in the bottom of
the screen. The next screen is where you pick which jerseys you want to use for
each team. Note that initaly some of the jerseys are locked. How to unlock them
will be explained further in the FAQ. Next screen is the general options
screen. On that Screen you choose your difficulty level, quater lenght,
basketball court on which you wanna play the game and the camera position you
would like to use. Above the "next" is the settings button. It takes you to the
same screen as the options button from the main menu, with exception of
load\save menu. The next screen is the game itself :)
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2.2 Game modes
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Clicking this option gives you a sub-menu. I will explain each option as it
comes.
Play Online
This option takes you to online play against remote opponents. It is divided
into three selections. EA SPORTS Online, which is the only thing i can't help
you with since i never played over EA SPORTS Online. Creat Online Game, which
is for hosting the direct IP game. Inside it are options for choosing game
rules and some more tweaks, which all are found in other menus which i will
cover and are general so i will not explain each individualy. The one thing
important to mention is your IP adress which can be found in the bottom of the
menu. Take note of it since you will need to send it somehow to your opponent.
SMS, or IM over any common messnger, phone call, your pick. After you finish
editing options click vreate game and wait. After the opponent joins in, you
will be taken to team selection screen, which is the same as in every other
game mode, with one exception, you can only choose one team, other team is
chosen by your opponent. After you make your pick click next and wait for
opponent to do the same. Next screen is jersey selection. Than the game starts.
Season
This option takes you to a single season game mode. It is similiar to Dynasty
mode only simplified. You are able to play only 1 season, there is no post
season, no rookie scouting, no GM rating, no upcoming free agents,
no managers statement, no Dynasty extras, no PDA, no My NBA menu and no
Training camp at the begining. You can only trade players and sing free agents.
The menus that ARE avaliable are similiar to the ones in Dynasty mode, which I
will explain in detail in separate section, so for all info on them check the
Dynasty mode section. One thing that Season mode has, and Dynasty mode doesn't,
is the custom divisons. You can change team allocations in divison in the first
menu that apears after clicking on the season button. Click arrows next to team
names to swap them. You can use clear division button to clear the divison and
make it from scratch. Other options are same as in Dynasty. To select team/s to
control in season click on the CPU text next to the team name to switch it to
user. One option that you dont have in Dynasty mode is the Modify CPU roster
option. If set to YES you can change CPU controled teams Rosters. That option
is also avaliable in Playoffs mode, but it's not avaliable in Dynasty mode in
which it is always set to NO.
Dynasty mode
Dynasty mode is the most complex of all game types, so I will dedicate one
whole section to it. For more info check the Dynasty mode section.
Playoffs
Playoffs mode is same as Begin Playoffs in Dynasty with exception of same
things as in Season mode. At the first menu you can change the team machups.
Picking team/s to control is same as in season mode.
1 On 1
In this mode you play 1 on 1 game. 2 players play against each other on a
street court. Rules are little different here than in the 5 on 5 game. Only
rules are the shot clock, out of bounds, traveling and goaltending. There's not
even the back court violation. Each 2 pointer is worth 1 point, and each 3
pointer is worth 2 points. Winner is decided when one player scores enough
points ( 11, 15 or 21 ). If players tie at one point below the goal ( example
10-10 on 11 point game ) winner is decided when one player makes a 2 point
differential ( example 13-11 ). There are three possesion rules to choose from.
On winners' out player who scores gets the ball back. On losers' out player who
scores gives the ball to other player ( like in a 5 on 5 game ). After 3 is
slightly more complicated. Until player scores 3 points losers' out rule is
applied to him. When he hits his 3rd point ( or 4th if he scores a 3 pointer
when having 2 points ) he gets winners'out rule AKA on his 3rd point he gets
the ball back and until the end of the game he is on winners' out rule. The
other player also needs to score 3 points to get winners' out rule. The After 3
rule treats each player individualy. Now for the menus. When you click on the
1 on 1 button it takes you to player selection screen. There you can pick wich
players will play against each other. Top most are two sets of selection
arrows. One set is team selection, and other is court selection, gym or urban.
Under that is the current selected teams roster. To select a player, click on
his name and choose either you want him to be home or away player, or you can
click cancel if you accidentaly clicked on the wrong player or you have changed
your mind. Please note that home player shoots the 3 pointer at the begining of
the game to determine who gets the first posession. Next to players pictures is
the dice icon, which is your random selection button. Next screen is controler
selection screen, which is the same as in any other mode, except instead of
team logos there are players pictures, and there is no player lock option,
since there is only 1 player per "team". Next screen is the settings screen.
Play game takes you to the game. Rules lets you change the four rules avaliable
for 1 on 1. Preferences is same as in any other mode. 1 on 1 settings screen
has some global setings which are ever presented, and two 1 on 1 specific
settings. Points to win where you choose your point "goal". And possesion rule
where you choose possesion rules :) explained above. And the last one is the
immortal select jerseys screen.
Slam Dunk School
This is where you practice that FreeStyle dunking. First option is EA SPORTS
FreeStyle Air, which gives you a www link to a FreeStyle Air tutorial on EA
SPORST web site. Than there is Beginner practice, in which you practice basic
dunking. On the court there will be textual instructions that will tell you
how to master basic dunking. Alley-oop practice will take you to more advanced
self passing practice. The textual instructions will foucs on teaching you how
to time your alley-oop dunks. And Advanced practice mode is just you and a gym
court with frestyle dunking turned on. It enables you to practice all day long
without interference. Slam Dunk school helps a lot, you should spend some time
in it. After any of the three options comes the player selection screen. It's
same as the one in the 1 on 1 mode, except theres only 1 player, and the team
rosters are filtered to big dunkers. Next is control selection, and finaly the
settings screen. Settings are few. Play now - guess what it does. Preferences
same as ever. Immortal Jersey. And Slam Dunk School settings, which is only
difficulty setting and camera setting.
Practice
Noting much to say about this one. Similiar to Slam Dunk school. Only FreeStyle
Dunking is off. In this mode you play by yourself. You can shoot, you can
dribble, you can back down and you can rebound your misses. Noting more. Opions
and selection screens are same as Dunking School, with exception of all players
avaliable for selection and no Slam Dunk School settings screen. Use this mode
to practice your shooting. Thats why it's there.
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2.3 NBA All-Star weekend
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This mode lets you play the whole All-Star weekned show without having to play
Season or Dynasty mode. There is Rookie Challenge game, 3 Point Shootout, Slam
Dunk competition and the All-Star game. One thing to note is that the Rookie,
Sophmorne and All-Star teams are fixed in this mode, and 2 point shootout and
Slam Dunk are not. In those 2 modes you can choose which player you want to
participate. And also you can choose the AMOUNT of players that will
participate. Everything else is the same as in Dynasty mode.
FreeStyle Chalenge is mainly for Human vs. Human competition. Ofcourse you can
always play vs. CPU. This mode is divided to Slam Dunk showdown and 3 point
showdown. In each mode players compete against each other in split-screen mode
Both players play at the same time. 3 point shooting is same as ever. Only
settings are the Jersey :) and the level of difficulty. Slam Dunk is little
diffrent that ordinary Slam Dunk competition. There are no jugdes and the
scoring system is much more flexible. Instead impresing jugdes, each dunk is
worth a fixed amount of points. Players compete to reach pre-set amount of
points. Settings are Jeresey :), difficulty and amount of points needed for
victory ( 10.000, 20.000 or 30.000 ). Strategies for both Slam Dunk ( both
competition and Showdown ) will be given in Tips Section.
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2.5 My NBA Live
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In this mode you do couple of thigs. In the NBA store you unlock new gear,
shoes and Jerseys :). In the EA SOPRTS Hall Of Fame you see all awards you have
ever won. You see all the records. Records are the actual NBA standing records,
but if you beat them in a game the record book is updated to your new record.
You can also see the Jerseys you retired in Dynasty mode. In the EA SOPRTS
lounge you can see the link to NBA Live FreeStyle tutorial video. You can also
use the jukebox to choose which of the avaliable songs you want to hear trough
the game and in which order. And in the NBA Codes you enter cheat codes. You
navigate through the menus by the small D-Pad in the bottom right part of the
screen. To enter subsections press "next" button. To buy any item in the store,
select it with the D-Pad, click next, click Unlock. Note that in order to
unlock items you need to have enough NBA Store points. Each item has it's own
price which you can see when you select an item. NBA Store points are gained by
completing the task from the task list you can see in the in-game menu. Task
list is only avaliable in 5 on 5 game modes. Note than when completing tasks in
Dynasty mode not only nets you NBA Store points but it nets you the sam amount
of Dynasty points. More on that in Dynasty section. The Hall of Fame is easy to
navigate, same as everything in My NBA Live. In the Lonuge when you select
jukebox a new menu will appear. The menu is actualy a track list. Next to each
track is the circle with on or off under it. what on and off means is obvious.
If the circle has small lines emiting from it it means that the track next to
that circle is the one curently playing. to disable a track click on it and
than click on disable track button. to move track up or down the list, click
move up or move down buttons respectivly. TO enter codes go to NBA Codes, click
enter codes button, enter the code and press enter. If the code is typed in
correctly under it will be written what is unlocked, and if it was the shoe
that was unlocked there will even be a small picture of the shoe. Codes i will
not list here since they can be found on www.gamefaqs.com.
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2.6 Team Managment
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Here you can do all the kind of roster adjustments you find fit. You can swap
players betweem teams, release and sign players, make new players, or even edit
the existing ones. You can practicly update rosters yourself. Updating manualy
is a long and hard process, but a rewarding one. And ofcourse you can make your
own fantasy rosters. First is the Create Player menu. This menu divides in 3
sub-menus. Create Player lets you make new player from a scratch. I will not
cover all the options in create player menu, since there is WAY to many. But
it's all rather self explainatory so i belive you wont have much problems with
it. If there hapens to be something you dont understand, by all means, send me
an e-mail and I will do my best to help you. Edit Player menu lets you modifie
all the players in the game both original players and created ones. Please note
that appereance and some of the information options will be greyed out for
original players. You CAN change the gear, preffered positions, jersey numbers
and ratings of original players. And one more thing, some original players have
unique gear ( Like Ben Wallaces' and Reggie Millers' wristbands ) and that gear
you can not change. Delete player menu lets you delete previously created
players. In the Roster Managment screen you choose which players are starters,
which players are on bench, and which are on the injured reserve in each team.
Noting much to it. Theres team selection arrows, and to swap players click on
one of the players whom you want to swap places and get it's name written in
yellow, than click on the player with whom you want "yellow" player to swap
places with. You can also see players ratings by sliding the slider which is
under the players names. Also you can see each players stats and ratings
individualy by clicking view player, or you can compare two players stats and
ratings by clicking compare players. Than you have Trade players menu. In it
you trade players between teams. Unlike in Season and Dynasty modes, you are
not limited by salary cap. Only limitation is 12 players per team cap. To trade
players select the 2 teams between whom you want to trade players, than click
players you want to trade in each team and than click trade. If trade is not
possible for any reason game will notify you and tell you what reason is that.
As in Roster managment you can see each players ratings individualy or compare
them with another player. Sing/Release players let you releas players from team
to Free Agents pool or singin players from Free Agents to team. Also no salary
cap, just the 12 players per team cap. Last is Reset Roster which resets the
roster to the starting roster. Roster will be like when you first started the
game. Quite handy when you play around too much. The last option in Team
Managment is Stats Central option which lets you see team and players stats for
the all the seasons betweem 83-84 season and 03-04 season. I noticed 1 mistake
in stats. If you pay attention Peja Drobnjaks' stats are apsolutely same for
both 02-03 and 03-04 season. Since Drobnjak is from the same country as I am
( as well as Marko Jaric, Peja Stojakovic, Vlade Divac, Vladimir Radmanovic,
Aleksandar Pavlovic, Darko Milicic, Zarko Cabarkapa and Zeljko Rebraca ) i find
that as a HUGHE mistake by EA :). Last option in Stats Central is Task List.
It tells you what task you need to complete to achive points for NBA Store.
Next to each task is how much points it gives you when you complete. Task are
self explainatory so i will not go trough them.
Now the bread and butter of fine tuning your game. Here you can change preaty
much anything. From graphics, to sound, than rules, and even sliders ( which
means tempering with the games calculation methods, in example, how often do
players tend to get injured, or how fast they get fatigued ). On the RUles menu
you choose which rules you want to be effective during the game. if you hate
when you slip out of the bounds by accident, or something like that, you can
turn off the rule and you will not be charged in game. You can also set how
many personal fouls is needed for fouling out, if set to 0 than there will not
be any fouling out. In Preferences you set volume level for each audio
sub-group, as well as amount of auto replays and wheter you want to see player
names under the players they you control or have a control of a ball. On the
Game Play settings you adjust sliders. You can choose betwen Simulation and
Arcade Sliders. There are too many options to sort them out but i will give
a general headliner. Take for example User interception ability. In game when
CPU passes by your defender the chance of your defender intercepting is
determined by his steal and defensive awareness rating and the passing players
pass and offensive awareness ratings. Now the slider also comes into play, now
I'm not APSOLUTELY positive on this but I'm quite certain it is calculated like
this. If your Interception slider is 50 than all that is involved in formula is
your players steal and def. awar. rating and passers pass and off. awar.
Now if you raise the slider you give a aditional bonus to your side of
calculation and if you decrease the slider it gives penalty to your side of
calculation. Similiar is to shooting. You can adjust shooting sliders for each
of 3 ranges. Let's take long range as an example. Long range is 3 point
shooting and further. Now lets take an open 3 point shot for example.
If you release the shoot button in the perfect moment the percentage chance of
your player draining it is the same as his 3 point with the small effect of
field goal rating. Now if you raise the slider to the max of 100 the chance of
draining it will go up by +50% of the current chance. Now say that your player
has 50 rating in 3 pointers. with slider at 100 his chance of hiting it will
not be 50% but 75%. If you lover the slider to 0 chance will be 25%. I hope
this helps. Bottom line is the higher your slider is in each of the categories
the higher is the chance if your player succeding in that category in-game.
Lower it is lower the chance. Same goes for CPU. Modifying this will change
your game experience. Temper with it on your own risk :). Luckly there is
Restore to Defaults button. Personaly I dont touch the sliders, I play the game
the way developers made it. But if you must, feel free to experiment. The next
menu is the In-Game settings. Here you choose your dificulty, quarter lenght,
wheter you want CPU assistance or not, wheter you want to control shooting
yourself or let CPU do it for you, do you want to see the stamina bar under the
players name and the camera view you preffer. Let's explain CPU assistance.
When turned on it gives the non controled part of your team advanced AI. They
will be more independant. They will atempt more steals, blocks, picks and stuff
then usualy. Basicly rest of the team would play the same as if it was the CPU
vs. CPU game. Some people like ti on, some like it off. I like it off, gives
you more control. Now Shot control. If it's set on User then you control the
shot. meaning the player will release the ball when you release the shoot
button. If it's on CPU all you have to do is press and hold the shot button and
CPU will release the shot when he thinks it's the best. You still control when
shot is made, but not how its made. Please note that setting it on CPU does NOT
mean that your player will shoot the best they can. But for some people it
does mean that, since some people suck at shooting. And ofcourse it gives the
game more "tactical" feel. Like you are just telling your players WHAT to do,
not HOW. More coach style that way. I preffer it on user myself, but hey, it's
your choice. And the stamina bar is useless unless you put some weight on
fatigue slider which is on 0 by default. Next is Detail settings. This is your
common, seen in every game out there, display setup. If the game is slow on
your PC, decrease some details and stuff, if it'f fast, add some and find the
best looks vs. speed ratio. Next is Load/Save where you manage your save files.
Here are your Roster, Dynasty, Season and Playoffs save files. You can delete
or load them all, and from here you can save only roster. Other saves come from
within each of the modes. And last is the Controler config. Here you choose
controls layout on your keyboard. This is totaly personal preference.
I will explain all the moves during the later sections. After you make the
setup you like, save the profile under the name you like :)
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2.8 EA SPORTS Extra
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Just the Credits
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3.0 Strategy Central :)
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Here I will cover in-game strategies. What to do to get better at NBA Live.
I will first cover some separate stuff, like shooting, rebounding and stealing.
Later on I will cover some general gaming tips and strategies. And even later
the almost ultimate Slam Dunk guide.
Shooting is the bread and butter of the Basketball. It is, without doubt, THE
MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the game. So practice it. To learn to shoot properly,
you must spend lot of time shooting. When you are open, or under a low block,
the best time to release the ball is little before the peak of the jump. Now,
even if you do it all right, there is no guarantee that you will hit it. But
you do it right, chances are way better. I have noticed, that there are atleast
three different shooting stiles for players in NBA Live 2005. Better said there
are 3 slightly different anumations for the classical jump shot. The aniamtion
depends on two factors, players position and height. Small players, like Ray
Allen, or Steve Nash shoot with pulling their legs slightly in front of them.
For player like them the best point to release in somwhere at the second third
of the rise. Just when their jump starts slowing down. For medium tall players
like Rashard Lewis, Ben Gordon, Vince Carter, the perfect spot is almost always
right at the tip of the jump shot. They jump straight up and are like a candle
in the air, even their hands are preatty much straight, thats the animation.
Release literaly moment before tey stop in the air. For tall players like Brad
Miller, Peja Stojakovic and such, the animation is straight jump, but they move
their hands a lot, like they are adjusting the shot, or to some like they are
doing a litle fake in mid air. For them best is between the first two described
shots. Practically just as they begin to adjust their hands. Now I don't know
if this made any sence to you, but thats how i learned shooting. The best thing
is to pick your favourite team. go to practice mode, set difficulty to all-star
and take the guy with best FG in that team, and start pouring some shots. Don't
stop shooting until you are able to pour 30 in a row from the free trow line
distance, than shoot from farter away, and repeat. When you get so hot with
that player, switch to a player with second highest FG, than get hot with him.
Than the third highest, and repeat, and all the way to the worst FG player in
your team. Now if your player is a C with 20 FG rating, don't try to shoot from
too far away. Adjust the distance to each player. Than do the same for 3
pointers. In both cases dont go to shooting with players below 45 FG, it's
painfull :). Now when you got hot with that 45 FG guy, now you change
difficulty to superstar, and start all over again. Now what will all this do
for you? It will help you find that perfect release time. You start at all-star
since it has a decent tolerance rate. Starting at the lower levels is fruitless
since it's too easy. And because you use players with lower and lover FG, the
tolerance decreases. So you are narowing your release point. And when you
switch to superstar, than you REALLY start to learn, since on superstar, the
tolerance is almost non-existent. People reported of having 0% in deep FG on
superstar games. Now you must understand that up mentioned differences are
slight. And its always better to hold the the button a slightly longer, than
shorter. You will know that you held too short when player throws the ball like
it's a hot potato. You will know you held too long if your player starts
falling down. Now the contested shot. when you see that you will get blocked at
that perfect time, its better to shoot earlier or later than get blocked. You
can also consider passing the ball, but that can be risky. if you are more than
like 4" higher than the guy gurading you, you can shoot with little fear. It
will still be contested shot, but will only degrade chances to hit a little.
One more thing to consider, when player which is not much taller or not big
blocker is two body lenghts or more away from you, feel free to shoot. Most of
the times the shot wont be contested, or will be contested just a little. Or
you will draw a foul. After you mastered basic shooting, head to practicing
fade aways. There are 8 fade aways total for eight directions you can jump.
Each of them has a slightly different timing. You will get it by practicing.
Use fade away when you MUST shoot over the defender, or when you bump into the
deffender and both of you go backwards a little. As soon as you recover, pull
a fade away. Now remeber, dont excpet too much from Centers and PF who are not
especialy good at shooting to perform well from outside the key. For shooting
goes, practice makes perfect.
Crossover is a nice thing, since it tends to force CPU into missed steals, that
gives you open lanes or open shots. Lear to exploit that. Don't over do it, if
you can't dribble pas the defender in like 4 atempts, give it up. Often you
will lose the ball, or make offensive foul. Dribbles are most effective when
there is some separation between you and the defender. Use the rolling when
you are further away from oponent, and use crossover when you are nearer.
If you control a really fast and quick guy, with high dribble rating, you can
preaty much dribble pas anything. But mainly use dribble to get a open shot, or
to make a lane for a dunk when there are no standing big blockers in the key.
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3.3 Pro Hoop/Power dribble
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In NBA Live 2004 this was a cheap move. In 90% cases it got you past that
defender in front of you. Not anymore. Now it is one of the most riskiest moves
in your arsenal. If not used properly it will draw tons of turnovers and
offensive fouls. Use it only when you are really far away or when defender is
not in line with you. Use power dribble to sneak past defender. Don't use it
to go TROUGH the defender like in NBA Live 2004. If your move backwards and
press power dribble you will make a small, quick backwards jump. Use this when
you out defender of balance by bumping into him, or by making him do a missed
steal Pro Hoop is different. Use it when you are backdown to the defender and
only if the defender is in the dotted line circle under the hoop. In that case,
chances of making an offensive foul are slim, and the reward of doing it
properly is defender off balance and a free dunk :). Experiment with those
moves when you have a nice 20+ point lead in the 4th quarter :). But when you
master them, they can be a game decider moves.
Use backdown to get little closer to the basket while porotecting the ball.
Also when shooting while doing the backdown move, you will shoot the sky hook.
Use this in the key with guy with high inside scoring, PFs and Cs.
If you backdown a defender and release backdown, and at the same time press
left or right, you will atempt a roll over move. It rarely works right,
but you don't need to go all the way around, you just need some seperation to
dunk wihout being bumped, or drawing an offensive. Notice how CPU uses
backdown to slip past your big guys with his big guys, and do the monkey see
monkey do routine. Backdown is one of the hardest moves to really use properly.
IMPORTANT!!!! AVOID USING DUNK AND LAY-UP WHEN THERE'S A BIG BLOCKER WAITING
FOR YOU IN THE KEY. AVOID USING DUNK AND LAY-UP WHN BIG BLOCKER IS BEHINF YOU.
Except, ofcourse, if he is more than 5 body lenghts away from you. Dunks and
lay-ups are the highest percetnage shots, if you know when to use them. In NBA
Live 2004 blocking was even huger than in 2005, but even in 2005 big blockers
are way too capable. When blocker is standing and waiting for you to dunk, or
when he is tailing you by a small distance, he will block your dunk or lay-up
almost 90% of times. Dunk only on fast breaks when there are no big guys in the
key, or when you throw the big guy out with pump fake or crossover when he goes
for missed steal. Also if you dunk right after the rebound, you will rarely get
blocked. If the big guy is behind you just shoot from point blank range, it's
MUCH more effective. You can't get blocked from behind, you are harder to be
bumped without foul AND if you DO miss, its easier to rebound the ball back.
Ah, the steal. My personal record of steals in one 5 minute all-star difficulty
game is 23 with one player and 30 with whole team. Only atempt steals with guys
than have steal ratign of around 60 and above. Guys with lover steal will miss
the steal much more often then acutaly stealing the ball. And vs. CPU missed
steal equals open shot which CPU rarely misses. And, yeah, when guardin
opponent guard with your guard, and he passes to his C, imediatly run to C and
atempt one steal while he is steal holding the ball. Lot of steals will come
from that. But remember only 1 steal and run back to avoid leting up an open
shot. If your guys steal rating is 75+ repeatedly attempt steals on his player.
And, ofcourse, always stay in those passing lanes on "throw ins". Passes are
easiest to intercepted when standing still.
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3.7 Pick and Roll
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This is the ONE play EVERY player must have in his quick plays. It gives you a
lot of good. Call for pick for that clutch 3 point atempts. call for pick when
nothing else works. Call for pick whenever you are out matched by the defender.
For you who dont know pick is when one of your big guys comes to one of your
outfield guys and stands next to the defender and stands still. Than your guy
with the ball can use the his big guys side for some open space. You can either
use that space to shoot, or to make so moves. Thats plain pick. Pick and ROLL
is more complicated. When you call for pick, and the defender that was guarding
your big guy, comes with himto the outfield, lure both the ball handlers
defender and the big guy defenders to the ball handler. Than your big guy
starts runing to the hoop. As he starts to gather his speed throw him the ball,
and than shoot or dunk, since your big guy will be preaty much unguarded. Pick
and roll is much harder to do right than plain pick. the timing is important on
pick and roll, but when mastered is a really, really usefull tool. Don't be
hesistant to use pick a lot in the game. Even real NBA teams use it a lot.
Passing is easy, if you are patient. Rushed passes are easily intercepted.
First rule, avoid passing the ball when there are two ore more opponent bodies
between the passer and the target. Avoid passing in the crowd with the guys
who have a low pass rating. Leave risky passing to your PG. Avoid backward
passes with your big guys, unless they are double teamed. If they ARE double
teamed, than throw to your open guy and shoot :). Thats how Vlade Divac was
13th on the assist list last season, and he's a C. Be smart, look before you
leap. Like with dunking, dont atempt something that just CAN'T work. Avoid
passing over half of the court. And imporant too, when throwing in under your
hoop, make sure your reciving guy is a ghost AKA that he is wide alone. And if
you can, please be still while reciving the ball. If you run up court, lot of
times you will bump in to one of defenders and miss the catch. Take advantage
of direct passing. You dont wanna lose the ball, or open shot/dunk chance
because stupid game passed to the wrong guy.
Golden rule of rebounding. DON'T JUMP UNTIL THE BALL HITS THE RIM. It's better
to wait and see where the ball will bounce, than just jump blindly. If you jump
as soon as the ball hits the rim, ball will quite often fall on oposite side of
you, or even over you. When rebounding you want to jump so that IF you catch
the ball you would catch it at the peak of your jump. If you do it that way
and still dont get the rebound, than it was a hard ball from that opsition.
You might sometimes catch the ball with blind jump, which you wouldn't catch
otherwise, but you will net more rebounds waiting for right time. When I play
versus my friends they freak out over my rebounding. Some of them think I cheat
because I get inase amount of rebounds. Thats only because I'm 6' 2" and I
always play center cause my two best frineds are shorter than me. I play under
the rim against guys which are 4" and above taller than me all my life.
I learned a thing or two about rebounding :)
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3.10 General defensive strategies
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Defense is where I excel the most. You have to play physical. Guard your
opponents tight. Always put a body on them. Dont give them room. If you give
opponents PG a body lenght of space, he will score on you like always. Always
push into opponents. Use steal rationaly. Double team only star players. Always
contest the shots. No matter how far away you are, just jump. Be patient when
opponent is near the key. Don't get suckered into leaving your feet early.
CPU will always punish you for that. better jump late than early.
Play man to man against shooting teams, play zone against inside teams. When
opponent keeps runing into you press shoot/take charge button. Don't press
the same button when player is dribbling near you or standing still. Never
press take charge when opponent is backdowning you, thats a sucide move. Try to
anticipate opponents moves. Look for patterns. Finaly BE PATIENT. Don't go for
big moves, go for preventing free shots and dunks, and big moves will come.
...............................................................................
3.11 General offensive strategies
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Don't hurry, unless losing by much in fourth strech. Look for high percentage
shots. If something doesnt work, don't be stubborn, give it up. If you can't
dunk over the big guy, than DON'T. Use pick and roll a lot. Not only is it a
good play by itself, it often puts other players in motin and opens new
opportunities. If you think you willl get blocked on dunk or lay-up, press the
dunk button again, you will adjust, and sometimes avoid block. NEVER shoot when
realy close to the rim, like under it. Don't relay on threes to win games.
Use 3 pointers when they are open, or when you have height advantage. Move a
lot, pass a lot. Standing still will make everybody else stand still too. When
having a good missmatch call the isolation play. Observe the situations in
which CPU decides to shoot. Do the same when you are in the sam situation. On
fastbreakes run diagonaly away from the basket, than cut in near the basket.
Don't dribble near the half court line or the out of bounds line. Avoid
shooting when there is none of your big guys under the rim, excpet when you
have an open shot with good shooter. Never dunk when there is a guy pushing
you. Don't relay on offense to win you games. Especialy not on all-star and
superstar. I know I told this a lot of times, but I can't stress it enough,
how much it's important. BE PATIENT. Don't rush anything. Don't risk unless you
have to. Play it safe and you will win. Don't cry how game is unrealistic, just
bend to it. Shooting wins games, not dunking. Learn to shoot. Each time any of
your guys recives a ball and is guarded atempt a pump fake. And finaly, when
there are no big guys under the rim, and you have a guy with atleast 50 in
dribbling, dribble like crazy until you reach the rim.
On a forum, I found out how to emulate FreeStyle control on keyboard. It's not
as flexible as the one on dual joypad, but it DOES give you some new options in
gameplay, and it enables you to do the aley-oop passes in Slam Dunk. Before
this remarkable discovery, only FreeSTyle control avaliable on keyboard, known
to me, was when you just recived the ball and was standing still. Than you
press the crossover button, keep it pressed, and with your movement keys you
change stances. Now you are able to do that funky behind the back and
betweem the legs dribble CPU uses all the time with his PG. You are also able
to do one more runing crossover. On defence you are able to guard the player
with your hands in the air, like you automaticly do when staying near the guy
which is trhowing in the ball. How to do that you ask? well like this:
What you have to do is find the control cofig file for the profile on which you
want to use FreeStyle on. it is located by default in:
My Documents\NBA LIVE 2005\configs
You are looking for a file with the name of the profile you want to adjust
and with the KFG extension ( example jhon.kfg ). When you find it, open it with
the notepad. It should look something like this:
Ofcourse yours will probably look diffrent since you will probably use diffrent
keys. Now you need to add two new lines:
bind K_# RYAXISCHANGE
bind K_@ RXAXISCHANGE
Only instead of the # and @ signs you should enter the keys you want to use for
FreeStyle. you add them to the top of the file, I will show my file for example
When you have done this, just save the changes on the file, start the game and
test your new keys. I will not tell you exactly what each of two keys do in
game, since my knowlege of them is not final, and its better to let you
experiment with them, since you might come up with something new. If you do,
send me an e-mail :). So far I know that one button is rolling on offense, and
steal at defense. And other is new runing crossover and new standing crossover
on offense and hands up on defense. Both keys work in Slam Dunk. What they do
there i will tell in next chapter.
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4.1 FreeStyle Slam Dunk
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How to Slam Dunk? Rather easy. Basicly you have 4 gather/dunk keys and two
modifier keys. To learn to dunk go to basic dunking school. Start moving in
the grey area and hit one of 4 gather keys, than while your player is gahtering
press and hold one of the dunk keys. Keep the key pressed and your player
should jump and rise in the air. Animation of him will get slower and slower,
Matrix style. You have to release the key just before the animation comes to
full stop. If you do it right you will slam dunk. Now practice all kinds of
gather/dunk combinations. Now add the modifier buttons. To apply modifier to a
gather or a dunk press the modifier than the gather/dunk key. Now if you start
a gather with one of modifiers, you don't how to dunk with it. You can, but you
don't have to, you can while in gather press other modifier key, or not press
any of them and than while holding one of them, or not holding any one of them
press and hold one of the dunk keys. Do you now see where did that 10,000 dunk
combinations from the splash screen info came? Throw in dozens of alley-oops
and you see that it gets really creative. So te remise:
1. Move around gray area, press and release gather key
2. While gather animation runs press and hold dunk key
3. When dunk animation near full stop release dunk key
4. If you miss the dunk read the text above you to see what you were doing
wrong ( This is all assuming that you are in basic dunking school mode )
1. Press modifier, move around gray are, press and release gather key
2. Release, press other or keep pressed modifier key ( depending of what dunk
you want to pull of ) and than press and hold dunk key
3. same as above
4. same as above
It realy isn't that complicated. After you slam your first modified dunk, and
get the picture, from that point it's all experimentig to find the best dunks.
I myself have found 5 basic dunks that give you 10s across the board in slam
dunk competition.
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4.2 Alley-oop passing on Slam Dunk
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To toss yourself an alley-oop pass in slam dunk, press one of the two FreeStyle
keys you now have. Each key will perform different alley-oop pass. But thats
not all. If you press and hold a key, you will perform yet another alley-opp.
So now you have four different alley-oops. But, wait, theres more. If you tap
them in sequence ( take for an example that the keys are 1 nad 2 ) 1-2 or 2-1,
you get two more alley-oops. So now you have six of them. Thats all of passes
i found, but it has been reported that you might be able to perform even more
alley-oops with those two buttons. So feel free to experiment. If you do find
them please send me an e-mail so I can update the guide. Pressing and holding
modifiers will determine where the passes will be throwen. I found out three
targets. Pressing the modifier key which is backdown/protect ball in game, you
throw the ball off the backboard. If you press and hold both modifiers before
atempting an alley-oop the pass will hit the shot clock. And if you press and
hold the turbo modifier, or not press any modifier you will throw the ball
that will fall in front off the rim. EXPERIMENT. And one more thing you will
probably like :). When you throw yourself and alley-oop pass, press and hold
the backdown modifier and than press 1 foot gather. You will perform that funky
hand flip gather. Make sure you throw the alley-oop from farther away from
basket. Oh, and one more thing, when you throw the ball and press the gather,
que the dunk imideatly, even if you dont have the ball. You do alley-oops the
same way as basic dunks, only difference is you have to pick the right moment
to start a gather. There is no way to explain how to know when to start a
gather, just experiment, and of course use the Alley-Oop Slam Dunk School.
The text will tell you how to improve the timing.
This section is the reason why this guide ISN'T ultimate slam dunk guide :).
In theory, to perform 360, you need to start any of the two 180 gathers, then
press and hold left or right directional button, que the dunk, and when in air,
press the oposite directional key from the one you used on gather. I never
succeded on a 360. My player rotates, but I always hit the rim. If someone
out there knows how to do 360 properly, please send my an e-mail so I can add
the info.
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4.4 Slam Dunk Showdown
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Here some strategy tips for Showdown. Until you get the money ball ( the yellow
text apperars in bottom notifying you that the current ball is money ball ),
do the more simplier and less points dunks. When you get the money ball, do
some better dunk, preferably with an alley-oop. Don't do the same dunk more
than twice, since the penalty is bigger than reward. Just prepare an arsenal of
dunks that you can performe at high percentage and slam as fast as you can. I
was able to defeat CPU at superstar level, wihout having the alley-oop keys.
Just try not to miss dunks, and save the good ones for the money ball.
DYnasty mode is the most interesting mode, since you get to be a NBA manager
for 20 seasons. When you select that mode, you have an option to start a new
Dynasty, or load an old one. If you select to start a new Dynasty you will be
taken to team selection screen. There you select the Team you want to lead in
Dynasty. After you pick your team, you go to Dynasty settings screen. Please
note that after starting a new dynasty, your roster is is reseted. That means
that in the Dynasty you will play the roster you seted up before entering the
Dynasty, BUT when you return to main menu from it, the rosters will reset, and
all created players will be moved to free agents. So if you like your current
roster, save it in the options menu, so you can load it up when you return from
the Dynasty. On settings screen you select the following things:
Schedule type - Here you select wheter you want to use original NBA schedule
for your team, or random schedule. NBA schedule is always the same for the same
team, and it's locked to 82 games per season. If you want to play the NBA
schedule, you have to play 82 games per season. If you choose random schedule,
you can pick betwwen 29, 58 or 82 games. Random schedule means that the game
will generate a new schedule each time you start the Dynasty mode.
Season lenght - Here you select how many games per season you want to play. If
you choose NBA schedule, that this is locked to 82. Otherwise you have 29, 58
or 82 selection.
Sim quarter lenght - This basicly determines the average points simulated games
will have, and average stats for yours and CPU simulated games. Higher this is,
and lower your quarther lenght is, the harder is for your players to win
awards.
Playoff lenght - This determines how many games you will play during the
playoffs.
Simulation injuries - If turned off, than no players will be injured during the
simulated games. This means that no CPU players will be injured, except when
playing against you. You can also turn off the injuries during the games you
play in the global sliders menu. If turned on, than players will get injured
sometimes on simulated games.
Fantasy draft - If turend on, next screen is similar to rookie draft. Only this
time all the players on the rosters are in draft pool. You can randomise your
draft position to where you like it to be. You pick 12 players from the current
roster in the same manner as in the rookie draft. This enables you to tailor
your team to your specific strategy, while still maintainig balance with other
teams.
Simulation type - If turned to regular, yours simulated games will be simulated
briefly and the end score will apear. If turned to intervention, your games
will be simulated much slower, and score will appear for each quarter. If you
see your team is doing bad, you can click on intervene button to enter the game
from the last displayed quarter and finish teh work yourself, and hopefull win
the losing game.
After you make your selections click next. The Dynasty mode will greet you,
after you click OK, you will be presented with the Training camp screen. There
you can select wheter you want to enter the training camp, simulate it, or skip
it ( not recommended ). If you select to enter it, you will get a screen with
4 sliders. Unlike 2004 where you had to put atleast 20 in each one of them to
avoid your players losing some ratings, now you can crank your shooting, or
wahtever you like to any amount you like, even 100, without loosing points in
other ratings. The more points in one category better the chance of some
players raising ratings in that categories ratings. Shooting covers Field goal,
3 pointers, Free throws and Inside scoring. Defense covers Block, Steal,
Defensive rebounds and Defensive awareness ratings. Offense covers Pass,
Dribble, Offensive rebounds and Offensive awareness. Conditioning covers Speed,
Quickness, Jumping, Strenght and Stamina ratings. Adjust them to your teams
needs. If your Teams lacks in shooting, add more points to shooting. It's
simple. If you can't decide pick the Sim Training camp option. Than the CPU
will adjust the sliders for you. If you press skip training camp, than your
team wont improve, but other teams will. After the training camp is over you
will be on the schedule screen. Here you can select to see each of upcoming
months and see which games are when. To advance the game time, you click on a
date to which you want to go and click simulate. If you click on a date which
has some event in it, you will be presented with options either to participate
in that event or simulate it. Get familiar with schedule screen. in the upper
right corner of the screen is your PDA. Here you will recive messages from
various sources. You will know that you have unread messages on your PDA when
the letter icon is flashing. When you enter the PDA, hover over the icons end
you will see how many messages are there from that source, and how many of them
are unread. To read message click on it. If a message has a checked circle in
it click on it to see some more info. PDA is rather self explaniatory. Don't
neglect it AKA read messages as soon as you get them, because of you don't,
your team owner will complain. If you bid well during the course of the Dynasty
eventualy you will recive new PDAs. Fuctions of the new PDAs are the same, they
only look different. Click back to go back to schedule screen. On schedule
screen click back to go to Dynasty Main menu. On main menu you have:
Schedule - explained above
Dynasty Extras - Here you Scout rookies, schedule new training camps, and
purchase dynasty extras. Everything here costs some Dynasty points. Dynasty
points are recived same way as the Store points. You get them by completing
tasks from the Task List during the Dynasty games. Scouting rookies is good
but don't overdo it. It's best done in last quarter of the season, since then
you will have general idea of your draft depth. The better you are, the worse
pick you will have. Scout rookies that are within your reach. Once scouted,
rookies will have grades instead of question marks under for ratings. Grades
give you the general idea of how good player rating is in each category. A+ is
the highest E is the worst. Dynasty extras are short or long term boosts too
your team. Each is explained on screen. I avoid taking those, since they are
expensive, while not permanent. It's better to collect points for new training
sessions. Training session is the same as training camp. Only difference is
that you recive results imediatly.
Team mangment - This is preaty much the same as the main menu one. Only
addition is the injury report. You can see all the injuries in the league, how
bad are they and how long will take for players to recover. You also see what
ratings are affected by injury. Other options are same as main menu, except
you can only manage your team. Trading is slightly different. You can now add
draft picks to the deal, and trading is harder, since you have a salary cap
to consider, aswell as the other teams interest in trade. You can't get Kevin
Garnet by offering some 50 overall player. Next to the players names are the
interest bars. Higher the bar is the more is other team interested in that
player. To get who you want, you must give plyers for who other team has
interest in. Salary cap is a burden, since not only you have it, other teams
have it. So you are limited to who you can bring to your team. Use this screen
to buy players you find fit for your gaming style. Free agent singning is also
harder because of salary cap. Each player will expect a certain contract. If
you can't provide such contract because of salary cap, you can't sing him.
Note that both singing and trading takes one or more simulated days for
response to come to you. So save before trading, so you can atempt trading
again without having to play the games.
GMs' Desk - Here you track all the revelant stats during the season. There
isn't much to say about this one. Since you can't DO anything here. Use this to
see how well is your team and players performing compared to the rest of the
league, and to track the MVP candidates and players of the month.
My NBA Live - This is same as one in the Main Menu
PDA - This takes you to your PDA
Settings - Gives you settings menu. Same as Main Menu, with additon of Dynasty
settings. Dynasty settings holds some of the settings from the start of the
Dynasty mode.
Load\Save - Self explainatory
When regular season comes to the end, the Schedule menu is replaced with Begin
Playoffs. Some of the managment options are unavailable in playoffs, so make
sure you get everyting tidy before entering playoffs. After playoffs end comes
postseason. Save before entering it, because you can't save while in it. During
postseason, all avaliable managment options are on schedule screen AKA you can
only perform certain things in the certain date. First comes the draft lottery
where draft depths will be assigned. Than the rookie scouting, where you put
rookies in 1 on 1 games vs. your players. Than comes contract renegotiationg.
Than singing free agents, and finaly the trading period. After all that you get
to the next free training camp, after which the next season starts. Enjoy :)
Save points for training. Scout few players. If you plan to use the same team
for all the 20 years, or for the most part of it, make your team as young as
possible. Younger players train faster, improve better at the end of the
season, and "last" longer than old players. Old players with high overall also
usualy have hughe salaries, so getting rid of them might be hard. Remeber in
Dynasty you need to make a good Franchise, not one or two season team. Try to
colect awards, and to complete the end of the season task from task list. Those
tasks give you hughe amount of points for the next season. On the end of the
season you will sometimes be aproached by other teams. They will usualy offer
you to takeover their teams, plus they will offer some extra dynasty points.
This is great if you start to get bored with the current team. In offseason use
the rookie scouting time to put all the interesting rookies on 1 on 1 games
against your players. This is great to get a better picture of how good rookie
is. Take advantege of rematch option when playing rookies 1 on 1. That way you
can play 1 rookie infinite amount of times in 1 day. Don't release players with
big salaries. Wait for their contracts to expire, or even better, try to trade
them for similiar players with smaller salaries. When you release the player,
you still have to pay him the contract for 1 year. The main thing in dynasty is
to make a good overall team. You won't, and in most cases, can't make a team
full of stars. MAKE TEAM AS YOUNG AS POSSIBLE :)
...............................................................................
6.0 Final Words
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I hope this helped. I understand that this is a little confusing. It's a little
hard for me to explain all of this in English. If you have any contributions to
give ( which will be credited ) send and e-mail on:
youcanlickmyskinnyhairyass@yahoo.com
This is a real e-mail
Use the same e-mail for love/hate mail, spam, chit-chat, anything you like.
6.1 Credits and Special thanks
Credits so far:
ME
Special Thanks:
Pepsi Cola - For being the best bewerage out there, and for doing wonders on my
digestion.
copyright 2005 Dusan "FreeSB" Jankovic, so therefore this document is
copyrighted by me. Use of this document ( both whole or a part of it ),
without my written permision, will result in insane amount of hatred in me,
chanelled to you ( my grandmother is a voodoo priest ).
