Re: Practice mode in eashl

A return? Pretty sure this has never been implemented before even though year after year it's been one of the most demanded feature requested by any eashl player out there. I remember vaguely having my old man shoot pucks at me around 2014-15 but to my recollection this was done by going into practice mode, not eashl. 

@CombatEX 

There was a practice mode in the previous generation of the game. The dev team is aware of the request for it to return, but there have been other areas of the game that needed attention first. It would be great to have it back. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

I get that PR wise that's what you have to answer about most of whats being dished at you and I commend you for doing it but if sparking a discussion about the decision making your employer(s) makes year after year, it seems to me that going backwards is a popular trend in order to be able to maximise profit rather than being able to deliver a product to their fanbase they could be proud to show off rather than * on year after year.

It's not rocket science at this point or day and age. If ea wants to sell me a yearly product I want to see stat sheets and reports on what exactly is being utilised and played the most. Generate a list of possible ideas that is being repeatedly requested year after year that could be added onto those top 3 or 4 modes and send out progress report quaterly to let everyone know, hey bros, we see you, here's what's going on.... Why on earth would we need a practice mode in VS Play, VS a mode that literally requires you to spend time/energy/coordination in order to compete in the 3s or 6s team play that your employer is apparently trying to push or promote somehow. It's like giving me an exam to do in order to rate me but not giving me a pencil or pen to write on the paper... Here's my exam back sir. Let me know what you think about it (opens up coach's advices).

- Oh practice and use more my slap passes and what not, okay let me take a retest with no pen again and hopefully my slap passes will land better next playoff game. Oh wait nvm my team kicked me out, they saw I was taking up everyone's time and effort by trying to do your test without a pen... (?_?) I mean...

Please tell me at the very least you also see this... I have but the upmost respect for CMs and your obligations, as long as we're on the same page here... 

Your employer promotes a team game but doesn't give us any tools to actually improve on the mechanics that any indie publisher would hand out freely by some form of means either by a releasing it with the actual fully priced game or a separate client down the road that can replicate the environment. Literally all they have to do is copy what ever practice environment they have already in VS mode offline or what ever it is, but instead of picking off players from the Buffalo sabres, have the team generate the players off your current load out. Even if it is released 3-4-5-6 months into the games release, hallelujah, the Devs have blessed us by listening to our feedback and gave us a bone after being faithful to them year after year! 

Better yet, once they release NHL's yearly subscription, have them release the engine and code to the public and do like starcraft or Warcraft does with custom map building. Ea gets paid, we get our game, dedicated people get to fiddle around with the games mechanics and the really really die hard nhl fans out there starts to goet cracking on what everyone's been asking in the course of the last 2 decades now lol.... 

I'll stop here but as much as I do understand your 2 minute reply to our 20 years of loyalty, I don't buy into it and never will. There is a zillion other possible solutions out there to make everyone happy and satisfied but 1 player doesn't want to play fair and it wants to keep feeding us year after year fairytales about how they are hard at work with this new 3on3 outdoor rink concept nobody asked for to begin with and maybe spend some time on what ever is already in the actual game. But what ever, here's 70$ and an extra 100 for any packs I'd may or may not buy just in case ea needs it. See ya next September with da rent money boys... I'll make sure to throw out any cards I acquired over the year out the window to make place for the this year's cards cause digital artwork doesn't transfer well enough from one media to another... 

Okay now I'm done... Sorry again.... 2 decades has been building up here... Had to come out someday... Cheers! 

-Everyone 

I remember my dad being so hyped about walking through our front door with something in his hands and gave me that looked that said everything, nhl had released their new game and it was time to sit down and dissect it from top to bottom. My family wasn't super rich but every year not only did he buy a copy of NHL, he would without even a shred of hesitation, buy 2 copies of the game, no matter what the cost was, just so I wouldnt feel left out or get left behind by not being able to practice and play. Then we got into EASHL. That was another 70 to 90$ each on top of the 150$~ he'd dish out to buy the game since we were competitively playing the game at its highest level of form and lord knows if you didnt start off with those slots unlocked, good luck trying to keep up for the first few weeks of the game's release. All of this said and done... The bond  and rivalry this game created between me and my dad is to me one of the most greatest thing that we  actually work together on. We even ran and hosted our own league starting from nhl2000 up to nhl2006 ish that required us having to sacrifice our entire kitchen room in order to have 2 computers that would play the game, 1 computer that would run the lobby room 24/7 in order to have our members/GMs able to log into their teams and work on them when ever they had a chance to and another computer that could host a web server and a team speak server or what ever we were using bakc then for comms in order to have 14 of us fortunate enough to play out what is essentially is today's hut and EASHL  over the course of a season.

All of this on our own free time, dime and space. We learned how to network 4 computers together before a router was even made available to the public lol. I'm just saying that if EA would be as half as motivated as we were in order to make this game a good experience  rather than these threads of discussion I see go by year after year which is essentially the same message that tries to get a cross to EA, this game would be amazing and the amount of money it could actually generate through an actual eSports scene is beyond my wildest imagination. I've been playing with 13-15 year olds lately in eashl since they're mostly bored from what ever battle royale they've been binging on and they are light years ahead where I was at their age when I was playing this game... But the feedback I get immediately from them usually goes like this

-wtf just happened? 

My answer? 

-E___A___ SPORTS___IT'S IN THE GAME.....

At this point, I'd be even more than willingly sit down with anyone at EA thats been working on the game for the last 5 years or so and hear them out as to why is this such a mess/train wreck year after year. Explain it to me because whenever I try to make comprehension of it and or start adding up revenu numbers that this game potentially generates yearly, nothing adds up... Just like the blue ice in drop in, it doesn't make sense.

@CombatEX 

Is your issue mainly that there is no practice mode for EASHL? While I understand the frustration with that, there is a limited amount of time to work on the game each year. When the dev team evaluates what goes into each release, they heavily consider community feedback as well as their own vision for the game. EASHL practice is one that's requested each year by a small number of people. We definitely want it back, but when there are requests by bigger parts of the community for other things to be worked on, that typically gets listened to first. As far as 3v3 play goes, I get that you and your friends didn't request it, but we have had a very large number of requests for this to be added. Especially playing outdoors. It has proven to be an extremely popular mode.

As far as not being able to practice as a team goes, there's always private matches against another team. I know, it's not the best solution, but it can work. My club(s) regularly play together to build chemistry and work on plays. It would definitely be nice to have a practice environment for this as well and I very much ope that it happens.

We definitely appreciate all the feedback. Thank you and feel free to keep it coming.

Nah my issue is with the game as a whole and how I keep hearing how bad/toxic the community is and to me one of the main reasons why people are just fed up the point where every mic is muted unless someone * up a play is because EA has been throwing people around in a lions den and hoping for the best. Player makes bad play, teammate tells him to stop doing said bad play, player gets angry because teammate is trying to tell him what to do, player goes into rage mode and from there anything goes. All along this could of been avoided had ea been working on tutorials/practice ice for eashl in question and have the player learn the * fundamentals of a 6 on 6 or 3 on 3 teamplay before even getting the option to step onto the ice. Since that player has no real way to know exactly what's going on in an environment where every player has a role, what that role is, what is the objective for said role and what to work on to become better at thst role, the objective instead is be as less of a nuisance possible to the others ans hopefully the puck goes in more than the other team gets to put on us.

To this day, I am not 100% sure how to positon my self offensively as a winger and be as helpful to the team as I possibly can therefore I don't even bother trying to play there since trying to learn anything in drop in play is pretty much a detriment to how you're supposed to play in clubs. Soo..... * it.... My clubs needs a winger that day? Damn sorry boys, ea doesn't want me to practice that position In a way where I'd be comfortable to be useful... Thinking you're learning anything in drop in other than spotting out what is a bad play and how to manoeuvre around bad decisions the best you can is unfortunately the only way we can practice our build, player and strategy other than sacrificing someone's club

Like I said, pin pointing my issues with the game is as pointless as neon green skates. I'm just giving feedback at this point. 

@CombatEX 

I don't think practice mode for EASHL is going to stop people from being toxic. Yes, practice mode may help people play better so they don't get yelled at so frequently, but people will still find other reasons to be toxic.

We all had to start somewhere. When I first started EASHL with NHL 09, I wasn't too good. Over time, I got better just by playing drop-ins and club games with friends. Yes, some people are going to be rude and demean your play, but others are also going to help. I learned a lot by watching others play and taking the advice of helpful players. Part of a team sport is chemistry with your teammates. Individual practice is going to help learn positioning and what role you should play, but it's not going to help with chemistry. The best way to get that is to keep playing with the same people. There's also the On-Ice Trainer for helping with positioning as well as learning the rules. If someone needs to learn the basic rules and positioning of the game, most any mode is going to help with that. They can also play Be A Pro to learn more about their position and how to play it.