Taking a quick glance at the player attributes, it is easily seen that defensive and offensive awareness have a significantly disproportionate impact on a player’s overall rating; on average raising or lowering these attributes by 2 or 3 points will change a player’s overall, something that isn’t seen with any other attribute. There are currently 25 attributes, divided into 6 categories, and while they do capture the necessary aspects of a hickey simulator, they are very surface level and need to be improved. More attributes are needed to enhance gameplay. Overall spreads seen above can also be used for the new individual attributes, which are seen below
Shooting Attributes (currently: wrist shot power, wrist shot accuracy, slap shot power, slap shot accuracy). Suggested changes below
Puck Skills (currently: deking, hand-eye, passing, puck control). Suggested changes below
Skating (currently: acceleration, agility, balance, endurance, speed). Suggested changes below
Physicality (currently: aggressiveness, body checking, durability, fighting, strength)
Defense (currently: defensive awareness, faceoffs, shot blocking, stick checking)
Instincts (currently: discipline, offensive awareness, poise). Suggested changes below
Puck battles
Another thing that needs to be addressed is the impact o that individual attributes have on the overall rating. Currently, to have defensively deficient players have an overall that is at the bare minimum acceptable, they need to have above average defensive categories. This should not be the case, and a change needs to be made. Exceptional offensive players like Jonathan Huberdeau and Tony DeAngelo should have poor defensive attributes, yet equally good overalls. Conversely, a player like Zach Aston-Reese should have an exceptional defensive category and a below average offensive one to complement it. The current system is a bit more forgiving with this kind of player, but it is still far from ideal.
In short, attributes should be able to complement each other: elite offensive players who are defensively deficient should have their offensive attributes make up for their defensive shortcomings; and vice-versa.
Further, position should play into the impact of the attributes. In NBA 2K, specific attributes are likely to give 5 different overall ratings between the 5 positions, something that simply does not happen in EA NHL.
The introduction of the shoot/pass bias is certainly an advancement. I suggest that this continues with the introduction of further player tendencies. Ideally, the introduced tendencies at least consist of the following. More options can easily be added, but I feel these are the most essential.
I’ll admit that I have my gripes with the X-Factor system; it feels like an easy way out to fixing the current attribute system. While it has helped, it is far from perfect and can be improved by looking at other major title sport games. NBA 2K and Madden both have systems that I would like to see implemented. Both games have a tier system when it comes to their badges/X-Factors, which helps further separate players like Steph Curry and Josh Allen from the rest of the league. By adding a tier system, Connor McDavid’s speed will be far different from that of Nathan MacKinnon or Dylan Larkin; Alex Ovechkin’s on-timer or Adam Pelech’s shutdown ability will also be significantly more impactful to gameplay.
@johum2886 wrote:
- Cycle/shoot
- Efficient/energy
- Block shot/don’t block
- Body check/stick check
- Preferred line strategy
In my opinion, QoL fixes to these categories would make the biggest impact overall. I absolutely loathe how the AI opts to just dump the puck and start swinging their sticks wildy when they really shouldn't.
