Thoughts On The NHL Feature Set?

I personally love the fixed class sets. It really separates the skilled players from the average gamer.

As for the dmen being too fast? Are ya nuts? A two-way dman SHOULD be able to catch a pwr forward from behind. A OFD SHOULD be able to chase almost anyone down due to reserved energy. There's been plenty of times where I made my turn a hair late and still couldn't keep up on the break. Play some D for a little and you will see. Dmen have to make their turn or back-skate VERY early to keep up with a breakout pass. Stupid early...like don't even go in the zone early lol.

Each class has its ups and downs. As a somewhat skilled dman I don't have the time to grind out for hours a day and gain level to max out a superset. That doesn't mean I'm not a skilled player. So yeah, I like the set classes as they are. Could use a few tweaks.

 

I'm not sure that custom builds being gone has equated to a decrease in skill gap as much as a new game that is much slower paced and simplified has done. Give the top teams of 14/15 the same builds stat for stat as their opponents and they would destroy the worse team at a pretty significant success rate (shoutout to the shitty rebound/max HE/OA build Kody and I ran for a day or two) whereas this year literally anyone can beat anyone if the Gods decide it(especially if they abandon all hope of trying to play EASHL and resort to Yuri's Turd Simulator 2016). If custom builds were reintroduced this year or in 17, I'm not sure much would change unless the stat caps were significantly higher than they already are. Sure, it might be a little bit faster and more fun in terms of feeling like you can control your player more, but the fatal flaw of the game at this point is the inconsistencies and seeming luck factor that decides if I'm going to pick up the breakout pass I've been staring at backwards for 3 seconds before letting it go right under my stick, or if the boards are going to decide to eat me/the puck on my clear attempt, leading to a goal against, or if I'm going to get a pickup animation that kills my momentum as I'm splitting a lane and should be on a breakaway. That being said, I miss the build screen and build testing a lot, edit pro specifically. It kept my interest more because there was more than just EASHL Club Challenges to play because everything else is pointless and boring to me. No lobbies, Drop Ins are bad, no pro to edit except the hue on my pink equipment.

Sure, builds and stuff would be fun, but there's way more issues at this point than builds. The game caters to a more casual player who wants to see some cool animations and score some sick goals with only 1/2 of their input being the cause. Hopefully EA distinguishes EASHL from the other modes and at least gives us the option to be able to play a legitimately competitive NHL game. Some of the things mentioned here are positive steps, but as we all know it comes down to implementation, not concepts with EA. I think this is their first full Dev cycle with Next Gen established and the Gamechangers, so I think it's now or never more than ever before.

Brodie, I've spent more time on builds alone in NHL 15 than I have on the game this entire year. Get me on the build creating committee.

 

All good points here but I am really referring to past years. I mean, the max overall for our EASHL players has always been somewhere around 81 or so for forwards and maybe 86 or so for defensemen. If you look at the ratings for the actual NHL rosters, the forward ratings translate approximately to 3rd or 4th line talent. Why won't they let us play with top end talent? I don't see the reason. It's not like it's gonna give anyone an extra advantage if everyone is better. I dunno. Maybe I'm missing something. Is there a reason for it?

 

this was easily the best nhl in years in terms of equal playing field. no more ridiculous builds, no backhand bubble, cant walk through a poke check. this game has made people actually play real hockey. you have to make a good to an open player, and cant just continously force cross creases. you cant just skate straight into an opponent and magically still have the puck on your tape. all they need to fix is the "seemless" puck pickups, tieups in front of the net, and most of all goalies. many players had their skills exposed this year with the realistic play.

 

Yeah, you're right. There's definitely no bubble still and people don't walk through pokes anymore. I personally see a lot of real hockey where hockey players can fly around behind the net and break their spine quick wrapping, get eaten by the boards, and have defensemen fly forwards trying to poke a puck that shouldn't be within their reach. Nothing about this game screams real hockey, or if it does its at a level not worthy of the NHL tag. You just like this year because the game gives you a chance, and given your Pro Series record, you still need more help. You're right though, nobody who was good last year or in 14 is good this year, and shitters in previous years aren't still shitters with an occasional win with 0 deserving.

People like you are the reason the game is shit. I'm just thankful people like you don't actually matter in the development on the game and people who have a brain and thumbs' opinion do.

Help me out with these shitters @Buddy Roberts

 

the randomness is no such thing. its ashame some people cant grab the simple concept of playing smart hockey. if you play smart hockey (realistic) , you have no problem adjusting. its only the people who abused the glitches and gameplay disasters from previous years who complain. this game doesnt even up anything, but it does make you not play like a 5 year old. no more glitching off backhand bubbles or walking through 3 defenders. the players who are actually good, are still good. nhl 16 exposed alot of players who just abused gameplay from before. so now they cry about how broken it is.

 

The game speed is more realistic on EASHL where OTP is more video game like. Is this what people miss? The rediculous speed of the skaters? Sure sometimes you skate right past a puck...but what direction was your head facing? Don't get me wrong there's plenty of bugs that need to be addressed but for the most part, that shit happens! In REAL hockey. Some of you have virtual skills you wish you had in real life and I'm willing to bet you've never stepped foot on ice at anything higher than pond hockey level. Go ahead, skate with your stick on the boards. Guess what...you're gonna lose control of the puck! Skate sideways at a loose puck on open ice with someone bearing down on you. Yup! You guessed it you will probably skate right past the damn puck. It needs work sure but as is, it's pretty damn close to "real" hockey.

 

well said, idk how people can argue. unless they refer to the goalie glitch sliding on their ass or a few other obvious things.

 

You do realize how flawed of an argument this is right? What direction was my HEAD FACING? In a video game where people can barely control their player's legs to make them skate appropriately without automatically veering off the path, you want us to look at our player's HEAD POSITION. Give me a button sequence to control my players head so that I can make him face the right fucking direction, because right now I don't stand a goddamn chance at doing that. No shit some people wish they could do the shit they can do in video games, welcome to why people play the fucking game. I can't backwards spin to a toedrag to a a slapshot IRL (nevermind standing on skates). I can't control if my guy's stick phases through the boards and the puck doesn't, I can't help that my guy warps into the boards anytime he's near. Should I avoid the boards because the game doesnt always handle them correctly? Or should I expect a video game that simulates "Real Hockey" to not let sticks and the puck magically disappear through the boards? You're telling me that if a puck is loose and im skating towards it, circling to pray it allows me to pick it up after walking directly over it once already that it makes sense if there's a guy near me? I'm a POWER FORWARD. I shouldnt be afraid of picking the puck up with a person behind me and taking it in stride. You can't compare a video game to real life, its preposterous. People like you amaze me and terrify me at the same time.

 

so same height weight stick curve skate blade radius fopr every player build?
booooo..>>> EA not every sniper in the NHL is the same cookie cutter player but hey if it saves time on programming and peep buy the game anyway etc... $$$

I doubt anyone here knows about Crushem league? It was the first online ea league (nhl 2000)

I will be hanging up the skates I guess.

 

ok

 

My biggest problem with NHL 16 would be the randomness that you mentioned. The worst games are ones when you're crushing a team on TOA, shots, etc but you're losing due to missed wide-open nets (and I've seen up to 10 per game at its worst), not picking up easy passes offensively and defensively, uncalled penalties, not having the ability to pick up the puck and the other team seemingly having priority over you in that regard, one team's computer players being awful while the other team's are insane, etc.

I understand that these types of games happen in hockey, blah blah blah, but it is an awful feeling to lose games like that. It's really the question of where the line should be drawn between realism and video game. Yes, people miss wide open nets and easy passes, but should that be happening so often in a game? That's how you really lose the skill gap between the best and average players. I believe EA said that they're making the game more competitive and skill-based with preset builds, which is a fair argument, but in a game like League of Legends, for example, your abilities don't randomly just don't cast due to RNG (random number generator) so it's hard to argue that a wide open net off of a beautiful play should be missed sometimes. I'm not saying that a sniper should be able to come up and rip it top corner every time, but maybe there's a way to give a large shot accuracy boost when a certain part of the net is wide open and the shooter aims properly. Little adjustments like that would go a long way.

As for the preset builds, I think they're okay. It's nice to not have to worry about which attributes work and things like that but at the same time making your guy and progressing him was a biggest reason I would play club, and I know that many people feel the same. It's odd that EA would switch to a method that doesn't reward playing their game. I've always felt that FIFA does it best in that regard. Maybe there could be a compromise between preset builds where we could get pre-made classes like now but could also a limited amount of boost slots to slightly give certain stats a boost like before except maybe not +3,+5, & +7's but +1,+2, and +3 if EA is worried about classes being too different. Or maybe another way to go about it would be to have hybrid preset classes. For example, there could be the basic classes we have now like playmaker, two-way, grinder, etc. and in addition to that there could be combinations of two of these classes like a playmaker/two-way mix who could have slightly upgraded skating, deking, and passing but slightly downgraded defensive abilities, poke checking, and hitting. That would (slightly) solve the customization complaint that many people have and would also bring more player classes to the game to boost variety.

I'm sure EA is working on glitch fixes, but please tell me they know about the board glitch where the puck will occasionally go off your stick if you're on the boards. That glitch can be game breaking since it's is often a free breakaway if it happens in the right place.

Other than that I really did enjoy NHL 16 (once the huge delay problems stopped) and I think NHL 17 will be a step in the right direction.

Thanks for spending the time to read this. Hopefully I didn't repeat a lot of things that have already been said in this thread.

 

I dont know if it has been posted before but ill take the chance

It was determined that nhl 17 will have the same pre set build for eashl. What i would like to see is the build attributes with numbers

What i mean by that is when you start an eashl game you choose your player class and you can see a bar which definies the attributes.

What i would like is for us to be able to press r3 which could bring us to a more detailed attributes page with numbers just like it does when you check an nhl player on a NHL roster

 

I just don't get it. All the polls and creating gamechangers to find out what fans want and then just ignore all that.

 

did you really think EA cares about our small nhl community? as long as people buy the game (and bitch), they have no need to listen to any "expert" who tells them how it should be done.

 

lol for 1 they clearly dont care. this community is all about eashl. they dont care about drop ins, offline, hut etc etc. yet the last 3 years people have been furious about the lack of commitment to eashl and ea hasnt changed. why you ask bc they dont care. for example when they took lobbies away knowing this community ran on them. its one thing if you want to call it "reality", but its not. its actually called facts and the facts show ea doesnt up until this point anyway, take the community's feedback.

also enough with the randomness bc the less superior teams have the same issues with missing open nets and passes. dont make excuses and adjust, the top teams still find ways to win, even with all the "randomness". and again its much better then previous years randomness. last few years you would have 3 defenders in front and the cross crease would still randomly get to him. or someone would have skated right into you only to randomly use the bubble. or someone also could randomly deke right into 2 defenders and always regain the puck as soon as he lost it. ill much take this years "randomness". also its funny you claim ea sports supports the randomness considering the company for a few years couldnt admit that ice tilt or momentum was a thing. lol all im all, i like league play, and i like the franchise. but i will disagree that ea has cared in the past and that this year wasnt a BIG step in the right direction from last few years.

 

I hope being stupid isn't genetic for your child's sake.

 

im sorry that you dont have the intelligence to comprehend basic knowledge. they say the crazy thing is, really smart people sound dumb to unintelligent people.