Can we talk about 'muted' A.I.?

@KidShowtime1867 

Yes. I get that too, but just saying to keep this in mind with clips in the future. The AI are specifically muted in HUT to help curb skill zoning. Which, I know most everyone is aware of. If this is happening in modes outside of HUT, it would be good to see video of that. 

Even in club games the AI seems 'muted'.  This is just an example of something that happens on a regular basis.  The puck is carelessly exposed by the offensive player but the defensive AI does nothing.  In fact their stick just bounces off the offensive player's stick with no consequences.

@rsandersr47 

I dunno what NHL you're playing but the AI I play with/against are complete garbage lol. My friends and I are pretty good but the majority of the time, the reason teams of 4+ humans lose is because they can't communicate. I mean, y'all have dedicated builds while I'm forced to play a utility build AND worry about my turkey AI messing everything up.

@rsandersr47I'm going to have to agree with @TTZ_Dipsy here.  I'm not sure where people are seeing these super-AI players that dominate games, but I can't say I've experienced it.

The big reason I've ended up playing more 3s than 6s in recent years is to limit the number of AI players in the game.  And it's not because the AI is too good, it's the opposite.  Any time I play with or against AI players they're terrible.  The only time the AI is the best player on a team is when the humans are just plain bad.  And it's not that their AI plays better in those situations, it's just that they are better in comparison to truly bad human players.

Can the AI make the occasional competent play?  Sure.  But as a general rule they are terrible at passing, shooting, hitting and being in the right position offensively or defensively.

All I'm asking is for a minimum level of competence from the AI.  I don't want them to snipe the other team's goalie or single handily defend odd man rushes for me.  I just want them to be somewhat positionally sound and  to make simple plays when they're in position to do so.  Like in the clip I posted in this thread.  There is zero reason the AI shouldn't have made a play there.

There is some hope. Our club noticed improved a.I. when it came to using less than 6 humans. They tend to read bad plays from human players quite well, and even can sometimes demonstrate some good finish too:

They even properly position themselves in front of the net which is a significant change from last year

Less humans on ice, more overpowered the AI will be. This is why we evade 2s altogether. Let the AI do all defence and wait for the puck on opposing blue line. Don’t get me wrong, AI is still dumb as a boot, but can enter in god-mode where they are allowed to cheat game mechanic. 

@Greyinsi 

"Let the AI do all defence and wait for the puck" LOL get outta here. 

Sure, they can randomly decide to turn on the jets but 9.999999999 times out of 10 they literally just stand there and let you mosey right past. Their passes are incredibly bad when they're not outright refusing to give you the puck after manually calling for it, they don't know how to attack and defend on 2on1's, they slow down when reaching the blue line and force a ton of offsides, they travel up from D to attempt a goalie screen even with you there, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I'd love to see someone post some AI playing consistently well with 2+ humans on the ice.

Versus

Okay it is way worse than 22 is.

Can't there be a way to make the ai muting situational? I can't play both D men on a 2 on 2 right? But right now that just means my opponent makes a pass towards my ai and it goes right past him probably 95% of the time. I've played and still play very high level hockey and have watched countless hours of even higher levels. My IQ is very high and I know where to be and when, and what types of plays to make. I don't say that to sound cocky, but I say it so that you know I'm not some kid who has never played real hockey before and I understand the game. I will make near perfect decisions in my D zone and get scored on all the time because a pass goes right under my D man's stick or right past his skate. Loose pucks are completely ignored at an alarming rate as my ai just stand there. As for some really realistic plays, how about angling? I'll angle my opponent into one or two of my other players and they just stand there as the other guy just skates right through them. Sorry for no video (although it looks like others are sending in plenty of examples) but I had an instance where my opponent was on the boards with Hedman and he was literally surrounded, a guy on. each side, one being controlled by me, (6'6 220 lb Tage Thompson) my hit bounces off like a cheap toy, and he skates right through, drives the net past one of my other guys, and bam, free-er than free goal. The hitting is an entirely different conversation. Why Take Thompson can"t run over some 5'5 girl going full speed in a straight line, I'm not sure. But one thing is for certain, you guys need to turn the ai up. HUT is virtually unplayable right now unless you drop bags of money on the game and can just get bigger and better players than everyone else. I understand your goal is to make money but you have to cater to your largest audience which I think I can say with confidence is the free to play market.

Another example of how the A.I. needs to do SOMETHING in some situations. This is ridiculous:

19 looked like, “why are you bumping into me? Just skate by and leave me alone!”

Another example of the A.I. doing nothing and actively avoiding the puck carrier - meanwhile the human controlled player successfully knocks the puck loose, but the opponent simply skates through and snags the loose puck without issue: (Note: I've got no problem with goal being scored. I mistakenly decided to cut the pass off and gave the scorer a wide open shot. My issue is the lack of any action by the A.I. and the fact one of them actively avoided the puck carrier)

The A.I. does nothing while literally being in the most perfect position for a body nudge/check and/or a stick lift check without a penalty:

After CGY just walks through 2 players, the A.I. yet again gets in to perfect position to take any action whatsoever and does nothing:

Why is this A.I. actively skating away from the puck carrier??

If the HUT bunnies who cry about "skill zoning" get the benefit of having their offensive A.I. set up perfectly for their behind-the-back-saucer-pass to one-timer, then as a defender, I should get the benefit of my defensive A.I. taking any action whatsoever while literally being on top of the puck carrier.

@KidShowtime1867First off, I agree the AI needs to be able to engage with the puck carrier in 1v1 modes.  Making them glorified pylons is not the best way to combat "skill zoning".  It might be the easiest from a development perspective, but it's not the best for the game.

That said, I think that entire sequence is a good example of EA not thinking their changes all the way through.  In previous years, even with the pylon-AI, that player would have lost the puck due to incidental contact.  This year EA has greatly increased the ability of offensive players to recover lost pucks immediately and greatly nerfed the effects of incidental contact.  This has turned the pylon-AI from a weak but still somewhat effective tool into something completely useless.

Here's an example of how incidental contact has changed.  The defender here is AI in EASHL ( so they should do something right? ).  In previous years if the puck carrier moved their stick into the defender's stick they'd lose the puck due to incidental contact.  Now they just shove the defender's stick out of the way and maintain possession like nothing happened.  If you don't engage DSS or poke check stick-on-stick incidental contact is incredibly weak this year ( although it's not much better when you do actively use your stick to defend ) which makes the pylon-AI even more worthless.

---

@PlayoffError wrote:  If you don't engage DSS or poke check stick-on-stick incidental contact is incredibly weak this year ( although it's not much better when you do actively use your stick to defend ) which makes the pylon-AI even more worthless.

---

Exactly!

I'm finding that incidental contact doesn't happen unless the human controlled player takes some kind of action on the right stick and/or the poke check/DSS.

For example, I can be controlling a player and skate directly through the stick&puck of a puck carrying opponent with zero incidental contact. 

However, in that same scenario, if I simply flick right stick or engage DSS, suddenly my skates will disrupt the puck possession. 

IMO, if I skate right into a stick&puck of a puck carrying opponent, my skates should cause some kind of disruption regardless of whether or not I'm throwing a Right Stick input. The same philosophy should be applied to A.I. players. I believe this lack of any action by the A.I. is directly responsible for the proliferation of the ridiculous goals being pulled off and personally, I feel this is a demonstration of how feedback from top HUT players is ruining some of the gameplay elements in this franchise. 

Just going to add this to the pile:

I get away scott free! I don't want the A.i. to be completely dominant, but if my body is literally touching their body, they should take SOME kind of action.