Re: Is anything being done about Truculence?

X factor Shrug it off: seems to help

X factor relentless: does help

hitting is really bad compared to 22....no consistiency

@belair_col 

im fine with the idea of xfactors, but not when they put literally zero effort into balancing them. It’s like 90% of them are just completely useless, while the other 10% are brokenly OP. Not to mention the amount of complaints about truculence last year, yet they double down on how OP it is for this year now by nerfing stick checking, but leaving truculence the way it is and not adding penalties into 3v3. 

The game this year is not going to last, my club is already checked out and done with it and we played literally the entire year last year. Defence feels awful to play, truculence is stronger than ever and almost a requirement in 3s, playing 5s with AI goalies Is nothing but rebound simulator because no skilled plays go in because they decided goalies need to be brick walls and determine games. Drop ins, the trolls are already in full force and it’s mind blowing there’s still no penalty or enforcement being done for it. Not to mention anyone who stopped playing the game last year, which was most people, have no reason to stick around for this one because it’s basically the same game outside of some bad gameplay choices made by the devs that actually made it a worse game overall than 22. There are definitely some good changes they have made to 23 compared to 22, but the * outweigh the pros by far at least for me. 

The devs making the decisions, are completely backwards to what should be done. Maybe it’s time I just accept that my idea of the way the game should be, and the thoughts of the devs are just never going to align and I just cut my losses and move on from the series 

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

@belair_col 

im fine with the idea of xfactors, but not when they put literally zero effort into balancing them. It’s like 90% of them are just completely useless, while the other 10% are brokenly OP. Not to mention the amount of complaints about truculence last year, yet they double down on how OP it is for this year now by nerfing stick checking, but leaving truculence the way it is and not adding penalties into 3v3. 

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Exactly. They see customers claim they're having fun with truculence and likely won't touch it because of that. Needless to say, plenty of people who play this game and don't post on social media despise this META. I also think it's high time EA stop catering to 'influencers'. I understand they get eyeballs on the game from overzealous streamers who laugh like hyenas when scoring 'sick' goals - but allowing the META to be influenced by these people is wrong.

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

@belair_col 

The game this year is not going to last, my club is already checked out and done with it and we played literally the entire year last year. Defence feels awful to play, truculence is stronger than ever and almost a requirement in 3s, playing 5s with AI goalies Is nothing but rebound simulator because no skilled plays go in because they decided goalies need to be brick walls and determine games. Drop ins, the trolls are already in full force and it’s mind blowing there’s still no penalty or enforcement being done for it. Not to mention anyone who stopped playing the game last year, which was most people, have no reason to stick around for this one because it’s basically the same game outside of some bad gameplay choices made by the devs that actually made it a worse game overall than 22. There are definitely some good changes they have made to 23 compared to 22, but the * outweigh the pros by far at least for me. 

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I consistently came to the defense of EA throughout the past few years, but '23 may have done me in. Notably for the reasons you've mentioned. the changes to gameplay have been minor. You're still seeing LTers dominate all competitive modes because they're able to sauce-backhand pass with 100% accuracy while skating backwards with their stick curled on the forehand. Like.. show me a single video of an NHL player doing this in every game they ever play. 

Our Club is sticking with '22 due to the lack of intergenerational cross play but more notably; it's hard to justify the AAA price tag on a game that literally has provided ZERO quality of life improvements in areas of the game where we've been asking for these things for AGES. 

How about a vote-to-kick? "No, it will be exploited, and people's feelings might get hurt"

How about not allowing people to pause the game? "No, people need to be able to adjust their settings"

How about not allowing people to call for the puck from an A.I. in drop-ins? -silence-

How about improving the pause menu so that it has quick access to important settings while it overlays the action rather than pausing it for 11 other people? -silence-

How about allowing us to play in NHL arenas with NHL jerseys? -silence-

How about having no intermissions in drop-ins? "No, people need a break"

It's almost as if constantly catering to these things is resulting in a game mode that people find incredibly cumbersome to play?

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

The devs making the decisions, are completely backwards to what should be done. Maybe it’s time I just accept that my idea of the way the game should be, and the thoughts of the devs are just never going to align and I just cut my losses and move on from the series 

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I think there's someone at the helm of gameplay producing that is trying their darndest to get the core gameplay up to snuff. There's been some clear progressions in animation, physics and such - but you can quickly become disconnected from those changes when a drop-in troll decides he's the main character and requires an instant pass from everyone all the time, or he's skating his goalie to the blue line to get the attention his parents robbed him of. Or you play some HUT only to come up against someone with all the top cards from paying real $$ - LTing and figure skating with impunity due to the neutering of body checking, the various responsibilities being applied to defenders with no equal responsibilities being applied to puck carriers all in some kind of attempt to get streamers to promote this product as 'fun and exciting' rather than a true hockey experience.

This series used to be so much fun to play, meet people and just goof around while trying to win but with all the garbage that these devs have been pushing out lately, it is showing just how out of touch that they really are. Just look at the "highlights" they show all the time. It's basically nothing that resembles hockey anymore it's just exploits and stupidity because the game is so far overpowered towards offense. 

There is no way these guys actually play this game at all. If they do, im sure this is the kind of hockey that they like, the forward that can hold the puck out and get that invicibilty bubble agan and you almost have to try to lose the puck. This game is an absolute joke and normally I defend this comment when it is said but thwy should 100% be embarrassed about the pathetic game they have put out. 

Fix the defense and your game might actually be worth it because there would be some balance. Though, you'd have to hear idiots like nasher conplain and you won't get to see the youtubers jumping up and down like 5 year old at Christmas time yelling "let's go, that was so sick bro"

If I could figure out the reverse hitting, I imagine that could be a good way to counter truculence, but I haven't been able to pull it off yet, if anyone can or has lmk..

First let me say I agree with the original poster on this topic but its true how underdeveloped EASHL has become. At this point we should be setting up in a virtual dressing room with the ability to control our avatars as we wait for our buddies to get in there. This is 2023 and NHL 2K5 had more innovative and advanced ideas than this game does. I really can't believe that in EASHL we can't play in the NHL buildings or any of the buildings that are already modelled in the game. Add some prestige to get MSG or whatever.

I’m honestly tapping out for the year. Not spending another year dealing with this when I play 12 club games tonight and 10 of them have 2 forwards running truculence. Good luck all my forum buddies and I hope you guys can enjoy it, but I simply cannot.

Back to WoW for me until I hear about some positive changes for the game, later dudes!

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

I’m honestly tapping out for the year. Not spending another year dealing with this when I play 12 club games tonight and 10 of them have 2 forwards running truculence. Good luck all my forum buddies and I hope you guys can enjoy it, but I simply cannot.

Back to WoW for me until I hear about some positive changes for the game, later dudes!

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Sounds like my crew is running '22 this year and we're tapping out of '23 as well. Haven't even burned through the 10-hour trial yet and it's already feeling cumbersome just to get a decent game of hockey going.

EASHL flooded with truculence, drop-ins allowing trolls to laugh like jackals while they ruin everyone's game, OVP and HUT still allowing LTers to dominate with unrealistic movements all in the name of 'creativity'.

Too high of a price tag with no quality of life changes. Sure, new animations and such are neat, but the stagnation of everything else takes away from those improvements. 

I'll play more when it hits EA Play in the spring or if the price falls to $10 for black friday. 

I thought NHL 15 was bad. '23 is shaping up to be one of the worst launches. Like most of you, this is coming from someone who has bought every game since NHLPA Hockey in 1993 for Sega Genesis. It's a sad day. 

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@KidShowtime1867 wrote:

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

I’m honestly tapping out for the year. Not spending another year dealing with this when I play 12 club games tonight and 10 of them have 2 forwards running truculence. Good luck all my forum buddies and I hope you guys can enjoy it, but I simply cannot.

Back to WoW for me until I hear about some positive changes for the game, later dudes!

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Sounds like my crew is running '22 this year and we're tapping out of '23 as well. Haven't even burned through the 10-hour trial yet and it's already feeling cumbersome just to get a decent game of hockey going.

EASHL flooded with truculence, drop-ins allowing trolls to laugh like jackals while they ruin everyone's game, OVP and HUT still allowing LTers to dominate with unrealistic movements all in the name of 'creativity'.

Too high of a price tag with no quality of life changes. Sure, new animations and such are neat, but the stagnation of everything else takes away from those improvements. 

I'll play more when it hits EA Play in the spring or if the price falls to $10 for black friday. 

I thought NHL 15 was bad. '23 is shaping up to be one of the worst launches. Like most of you, this is coming from someone who has bought every game since NHLPA Hockey in 1993 for Sega Genesis. It's a sad day. 

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To anyone who doesn’t know… kid has been accused of working for EA on the 21 and 22 message boards. If he is being critical of the game, you know it’s more than fair. 

I actually don't even completely blame truculence. Firstly defending in this game is an awful experience. Defensive awareness doesn't seem to matter at all as all builds can intercept pucks at about the same rate, poke checking seems pretty much the same with any build, and stick lift is currently broken. Also poke checking if you miss is a goal, if you poke and it has no power (which you don't control) is likely a goal as they will reach back, grab it, and go around you before your skater can get his feet moving again. So we have one option that works "most" of the time in hitting, and that's even a stretch because sometimes you bounce off because they turned their body in a way that doesn't allow for a hit due to their poor canned animations or worse you "hit" them and you stumble for a second and they stumble for .5 seconds and go past you. I get forwards in these boards being upset that they can't score due to getting hit but it's the best tool defenders have apart from general positioning. It's also the only zone ability that really feels like it makes a big difference shutdown seems to work well too. Any build can now tip pucks, screen goalie, passes are either intercepted if there is a guy in the slot or not, 1 timers rarely work (not complaining too much about that,).. I mean things in this game work or they don't so most abilities and attributes seem rather pointless outside of speed and shooting.. and well, hitting. I mean yes, balance needs to be created but as of now, I don't blame anyone running truculence because defending is just SO bad. 

This game is just bad.  Especially bad for defense.  I actually think truculence allowing you to smash people is fine.... But they need to severely reduce the time frame people have to land a hit after an opponent getting rid of the puck.  They also need to start calling boarding and hitting from behind.  Yeah you can crush people, but call the damn undisciplined penalties.  And finally the magnetization on truculence is a tad too strong.  Otherwise yeah if you have the trait and properly line stuff up people should be blown up.

@KidShowtime1867 

Ya man I know you have been a huge defender of EA and the game in general over the years. Like I’ve said in the past, they need to stop listening to these HUT pack warrior content creators, or these GM mode simulator menu streamers, and actually listen to the top end talent in the game and balance it around that. I’ve said it many times that if the game is balanced around the top tier level of gameplay, than it’s balanced for everyone.

Your average player who logs in to have some Beers and play with the boys is completely ignorant to many of the flaws in this game. They get scored on and either don’t care, or if they do, they blame it on something that’s not actually the real reason they got scored on in the first place. 

You get EA listening to the same babies that complain about 1 man show ballerinas, but then ask for cross creases to be nerfed to the point that know it doubles down on the amount of 1 man shows and rush style offense because actually setting up in the zone is meaningless, considering when you finally open up a scoring chance you’re getting a save of the year against you anyways. I see it time and time again, these people contradict themselves in what they are even asking for, but these are the casuals that EA listens to.

This is such a fragile minded community as well, where I don’t blame EA for being forced to listen to the casuals who cry about getting dominated and blame the game rather than realizing it’s a skill issue. Instead EA implements ways to keep games as close as possible by making the game less rewarding year after year so that your average Andy’s can stay close in the game and think “we were close we got them next time”, which in turn keeps them playing the game rather than logging off after what should have been a 15-0 game. 

This game is nothing but crybabies that quit at a 2 or 3 goal spread constantly, because nobody can handle adversity, or actually realizing they aren’t the top tier dangle snipe and celly hero they actually think they are. This game not only doesn’t enforce shady tactics, but it promotes them. The majority of the players who consider themselves “top players” in this game are given the tools to choose their opponents every time they log in, and compete on leaderboards and rack up their points per game against nothing but silvers, with zero punishment for backing out against top teams. Who gets punished instead???? The top teams who have to go back to the lobby and search for a new game, or get the “lost connection to opponent” before puck drop and sent back to the Eashl menus where you have to invite your whole squad back and search again having your time wasted, while the other team gets rewarded for finding that silver team of monkeys and have no punishment for doing so. 

Tried doing some drop ins a few days ago, played 4 games with 3 of them having complete trolls skating offside and purposely taking penalties. You know what punishment there is for them??? Absolutely none… the only ones getting punished are the ones trying to play the game properly. The fact nothing has been done about this year after year when the devs have fully admitted they know this is an issue is a complete joke.

Look at Eashl playoffs… you want to win the title and prove you’re the best????? Well your only shot in doing that is to cherry-pick your opponents, Ea thought they were clever blacking out the names in the pre game DR, but never thought to check the triangle button that tells you Who’s on the other team anyways. So now in order to win, the teams that cherry-pick their opponents and take the week off work are the ones who win, rather than actually having a real ranking system for the playoffs. Just play the most games against the most scrubs and you got yourself a championship.

Literally every aspect of this game either caters to the complete casual, trolls, or shady scrub hunting teams/players, while everyone else has to suffer. The fact theirs technologies out there that other games have to combat these issues, and Ea doesn’t even attempt to use it is a joke. Look at Overwatch with their quitting games penalty, other games have vote to kick options for trolls… I mean they have HUT champs already in the game which should be implemented for Eashl playoffs. Have the regular season kinda count as rivals games to earn your way into the playoffs, then have the same style of playing 20 games of playoffs and however many wins you have of those 20 is the tier you finish in, and give actual club rewards and titles based on that..: Not perfect, but would be much better than the system of just take the week off work and play as much as possible that we have now…

The fact this game has 5 levels of prestige, yet you have everything needed unlocked at level 50 is a joke… once people hit level 50 all that means is they freely get to quit every game they are losing and there’s nothing to gain for sticking around… There needs to be some form of incentive to finish games even if you are losing, or some form of punishment for leaving a certain amount of games in a 24 hour period… the best fix for this IMO would be to add in a currency you gain when completing a game, which is then used to buy your xfactors, zone abilities, boosts, chel custom gear. Same goes with club, when completing club games you gain currency for arena unlocks, as well as used to buy your clubs way into the playoffs. Make it a grind to purchase things and spread it out rather than giving it all in the first 50 levels, then people will be willing to stay in games to make sure they get the currency used to progress their skaters strength, appearance and club…

So tired of the backwards mindset of EA and what gets rewarded in this game…

@TITAN_NHLI hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the offense is not just surviving, but thriving. Even with Truculence. As for the defense, this is what we have to work with:

Poke causes player slowdowns.
Bad poke to puck physics.
DSS causes inane player slowdown.
Slow backward to forward pivot speed.
Barely functional hitting without Truculence.
Stick checking non-existent.
Unhelpful position play.
Shots through sticks.
Shots through bodies.
Unrealistic offensive retention.
Etc.
Etc.

vs

9 Day Points totals for Top 5 players = 5,002.
9 Day Goal totals for Top 5 3's clubs = 4,425
9 Day Goal totals for Top 5 5's clubs = 2,282
9 Day Goal totals for Top 5 6's w/ goalie clubs = 2,161

I hate to see what the numbers for something like 3's drop-ins would be, but the game isn't even 10 days old and scoring is in the thousands and people want to further gimp tools that help with defense. There's a problem here, yes, but I don't think it's the skill of the defense. More like, you can do everything you can technically do to defend in this game to include positioning, but the odds are wholly still stacked against you. I honestly can't understand anyone who looks at those numbers and thinks there needs to be further nerfs to provide even more scoring in this game.

@Deeboo_91 

I get what you’re saying and I’m not saying scoring is low. The problem is that it’s high because of the amount of trash goals that go in, and plays that require no skill to set up, yet the skilled plays and goals that should go in aren’t. It’s literally once a game someone just drives it to the net without even shooting and loses it into the net. Or the constant rebounds that a peewee goalie would be taught to handle. 

My whole point is that backwards mindset of Ea that they gimp the Defensive tools of the humans on the ice and make up for it with superhuman AI goalies which is not what should be happening. It needs to be reversed to where human D are given tools to succeed and if they make a mistake they are punished. The AI goalies aren’t the ones who are going to like or dislike the game, the humans playing D and getting burnt on a play they should be rewarded for are the ones who are going to dislike the game. Or the forwards that set up 10+ beauty cycling plays throughout a game just to be denied by an AI goalie, are also not going to enjoy the game. Now you have nobody enjoying it and no reward for the actual players using the controllers. EA could program the game so you could just shoot the puck at the blueline and score 50% of the time, doesn’t mean scoring is fine just because there’s an abundance of it… 

Your mindset aligns with the backwards mindset of EA. You’re saying truculence is fine because it’s the only tool D really have now, whereas the mindset should be to nerf truculence and buff stick checking. Yet EA comes in here and hears people defending truculence and thinks it’s fine rather than fixing the actual flaws 

I mean penalties exist in 3v3 OT in the NHL, what world would EA decide it shouldn’t exist in their game, but leave in stick checking penalties ?

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@kyl_35 wrote:

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@KidShowtime1867 wrote:

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

I’m honestly tapping out for the year. Not spending another year dealing with this when I play 12 club games tonight and 10 of them have 2 forwards running truculence. Good luck all my forum buddies and I hope you guys can enjoy it, but I simply cannot.

Back to WoW for me until I hear about some positive changes for the game, later dudes!

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Sounds like my crew is running '22 this year and we're tapping out of '23 as well. Haven't even burned through the 10-hour trial yet and it's already feeling cumbersome just to get a decent game of hockey going.

EASHL flooded with truculence, drop-ins allowing trolls to laugh like jackals while they ruin everyone's game, OVP and HUT still allowing LTers to dominate with unrealistic movements all in the name of 'creativity'.

Too high of a price tag with no quality of life changes. Sure, new animations and such are neat, but the stagnation of everything else takes away from those improvements. 

I'll play more when it hits EA Play in the spring or if the price falls to $10 for black friday. 

I thought NHL 15 was bad. '23 is shaping up to be one of the worst launches. Like most of you, this is coming from someone who has bought every game since NHLPA Hockey in 1993 for Sega Genesis. It's a sad day. 

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To anyone who doesn’t know… kid has been accused of working for EA on the 21 and 22 message boards. If he is being critical of the game, you know it’s more than fair. 

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More like a decade, not many of the old old forum guys left. He finally sees the game for what it is.

@KlariskraysNHL 

Yep, I’ve heard about this as well. It’s literally just every shady tactic under the sun in this game that EA promotes and it just degrades the whole game to a point of it just being a waste of time joke to play.

I mean, it’s already a waste of time to play when you consider how many games out there either run off a season pass, or expansion type of system where everything you do and all progress you make stays with you for the whole games lifespan. Yet here we are, grinding to prestige 5 year after year to unlock the same crap we already unlocked, all our stats wiped out, all the money spent in HUT by players just wiped out 12 months after the game comes out. As soon as a game starts making you feel like your time is wasted, or it doesn’t respect the time you’ve put in, especially in an aging community where it’s hard for them to retain new players to replace the old ones leaving, it’s doomed 

@KlariskraysNHL 

ya exactly, like how many years can we be expected to the same grind for the same thing we’ve already previously done and accomplished. Imo until EA adopts a season pass style of play where they do away with a yearly release, this game is never going to be anything other than mediocre at best.

You would think in the year 2022, a gaming company would realize that when you NEED crossplay in your game just for your playerbase to actually be able to find games, that free to play with a season pass is probably something you should be looking into considering it will create a much larger potential for new players into your game without someone having to spend $90 on a game with a dead playerbase, one of the greediest gaming companies, and non stop negativity surrounding the game whether it’s forums, Reddit, etc just to be able to TRY it. Especially considering this game has no in game way of helping new players find others to play with, and actually get into Eashl 

Gaming in general is honestly just in such a horrible state. It’s like every company is just hungry for micro transactions, while putting as little as they possibly can back into the game, treating their playerbase like they are idiots. There’s no creativity anymore, or anyone trying to actually set the bar higher with video games. It’s just about how quick they can pump out a game for a AAA title price.

It’s like the gaming industry went from developers who had a passion for gaming and wanted a platform to express their creativity and actually take pride in their work, to now where it’s like the devs don’t even play their own games and are so out of touch with what gamers actually want and instead are just creating games for multi billion dollar companies with guys in suits that haven’t played a video game in decades. 

@MATTDALOR1AN 

Imagine a world where someone in the same response, says “this isn’t hockey”, but defends being able to board and charge people all game long because penalties for it don’t exist..

this is the NHL community in a nutshell 

My problem is that people defending truculence, are the same people that probably literally don’t even play 3v3 Eashl, and think I’m just asking for D nerfs. I’m asking for penalties, which exist in the real 3v3 NHL…. Adding penalties to 3v3 Eashl literally does not affect any other mode in this game. If you don’t play 3v3 Eashl than you shouldn’t even be giving your opinion in this thread, and if you do play 3v3 Eashl you must be blind to not see that this is an issue, and if you would like proof that it’s an issue, by all means I’ll get my club to run 3 truculence players and play your team in club and see how it goes.

These are the types of people EA listens and caters this game to. “I want real hockey”, but wants real penalties left out of the game. “I hate ballerinas”, but fine with goalies robbing back door plays, leading to more ballerinas since it’s essentially a passing nerf. Etc