Community ManagerThere is a huge amount of misinformation in your post. You're welcome to share your thoughts, but you're making claims that these are facts when they really are not. Other than there are no other hockey games like ours. Currently, that's the case, but that doesn't mean there's no investment in development on our end. You're making a lot of assumptions.
@EA_AljoCan you be more specific as to what is misinformation? I can pull articles.
The last game added..
Cross play.. but it was only half done. There are also posts about how the two games don't behave the same.. so I would suggest that means it's broken..
Added female skaters to HUT.. that's more of a roster update rather than anything new..
Updated the presentation.. what was added was extremely over hyped and upset a lot of people.
Last chance puck movement (was Zegras flip added this year or last?) .. this was the big animation addition. I see it once every few games..
Made stick lifts pointless to try.. no updates were made, you've admitted to this in the past.
We still have constant dressing room kicks, freezing when leaving the dressing room, getting randomly booted in eliminator is still around..
Community Manager
@rsandersr47 wrote:
@EA_AljoCan you be more specific as to what is misinformation? I can pull articles.
The last game added..
Cross play.. but it was only half done. There are also posts about how the two games don't behave the same.. so I would suggest that means it's broken..
Added female skaters to HUT.. that's more of a roster update rather than anything new..
Updated the presentation.. what was added was extremely over hyped and upset a lot of people.
Last chance puck movement (was Zegras flip added this year or last?) .. this was the big animation addition. I see it once every few games..
Made stick lifts pointless to try.. no updates were made, you've admitted to this in the past.
We still have constant dressing room kicks, freezing when leaving the dressing room, getting randomly booted in eliminator is still around..
Cross play is not broken. It was the same way in FIFA as well. It's entirely possible this is going to expand after its initial introduction.
I see last chance puck movement in almost every game.
I said stick lifts are being investigated. I'm in agreement they need to be tuned better, but I've also gotten used to them and don't take penalties often now.
Not everyone gets kicked from the dressing room. I haven't had that happen once yet. I'm not saying there's no problem, but not everyone has the same issues.
I hate the issue with presentation as well. Hopefully, it returns. It was not intended to be removed, but had to be.
To the broader community, anything less than full crossplay is going to be seen as "broken" - while not technically correct, it's sorta just the accepted buzzword. I don't personally think full crossplay with consoles will change much but I guess we'll see.
I only started seeing last chance things happening in the last few games I played about a month ago and they just kept happening - it was so jarring and I felt like it was messing up what I was trying to do (like I couldn't even get hit properly if that makes any sense).
Stick lifts have always needed tuning -- after getting 5 penalties in a row a few years back I decided to never stick lift again - best thing I've ever done, NHL-wise.
Never once gotten booted from the dressing room due to any error? I honestly can't believe that; you need to buy a lotto ticket lol.
While I don't get booted too too often, there is a constant need for my buddy and I to exit WoC/reset/manually leave the dressing room because it feels like matchmaking freezes up and/or *something* weird is happening.
Community Manager
We see a lot of claims that the game is broken and unplayable, yet those same accounts have hundreds or more games played on them. When a game is broken, you can't play it. I get that it's a buzzword, but it's also highly inaccurate and gets used most often when something happens that someone doesn't like. Stick lifts are another example. They are working as intended. They aren't broken. This is the same with crossplay. Could they both be improved? Absolutely. The limited crossplay in 23 was a very big feat. I think it's better to get some crossplay in rather than none. It's also good to learn from its implementation to help with fully adding it in the future.
In 23 I can't recall getting kicked from the dressing room. I don't know what magical combination my friends and I have, but we encounter almost 0 errors. There have been a couple times one of them were changing gear or editing loadouts in the dressing room and that's known to cause this problem, but it's extremely uncommon with us.
I don't know if connections have anything to do with it, but I haven't disconnected or gotten the unexpected error issue this year in WoC and haven't disconnected in HUT. Not that I recall at least. We haven't had to reset the dressing room either. It's always relatively easy to get matched. However, I also have a very solid connection. Again though, I'm not saying there are no issues. The team is aware of these reports so hopefully, we'll see improvements at some point.
I can definitely understand why so many are unhappy with the performance of the game and it certainly has bugs to fix, tuning to be done and general issues, but to say the whole game is broken and unplayable is just not correct. Unless there's a very specific part of the game that makes you not want to play it. For example, if the lack of full crossplay makes you not want to play, then you'll deem it to be unplayable, but that doesn't mean it is for everyone. As an example, I don't play our new golf game due to multiplayer not being turn based. It's not unplayable though. I just lose a ton of the fun factor without it.
@EA_Aljo wrote:Stick lifts are another example. They are working as intended. They aren't broken.
The best part.
@RSall14 wrote:
@EA_Aljo wrote:Stick lifts are another example. They are working as intended. They aren't broken.
The best part.
The hate for stick lifting in its current state is comparable to the change to poke check that required more responsible use: Those who don't take the time to understand the nuance that EA wants you to respect (positioning, location of your stick) will insist it's 'broken' while the rest of us understand it needs to be used sparingly and only when you're absolutely certain your chances of getting a penalty are low..
This opens the ice up more as people are no longer able to resort to a stick lift from behind when they've been outplayed. Previously, you could steal the puck from someone and all they needed to do was mash stick-lift and suddenly the puck carrier stops skating while his stick is lifted, allowing the beaten defender to simply regain the puck from an incredibly unrealisitic play.
Something to remember: stating that we know to use it sparingly and only in certain situations is not confirmation that we think it's perfect. I'd like to see the action be more dynamic based on the pressure being put on the stick-lift button, and I'd also like to see puck carriers retain puck possession (by way of a small 'battle' animation) more often versus just handing out a penalty every time.
“Unplayable” is another one of those buzzwords that isn’t 100% factually correct, but technically true. If there is a part of the game that does have an annoying bug/feature and it causes me to play the game less and less to a point I’m just turning it on to see if I can get any enjoyment out of it, I think it’s fair to call it “unplayable.”
I would completely agree that the updates to the actual on ice gameplay each year are pretty minimal. Not that I’m saying that a complete overhaul is needed or that the game is as bad as some make it out to be, but I feel like there is so much more that can be done to improve it.
It’s not as noticeable online because sliders can’t be adjusted, so they can essentially release a tuner every year and it feels like a new game.
And I only bring this up because when features like last chance puck and the Zegras assist are introduced we always hear “it’s hockey how, much can you change?” But I will not stop beating this drum that all defensive stick checks should be controlled by the right joystick. I want to see all pokes, stick lifts, slashes and hooks being controlled by the joystick. Even tips in a player lock or 6’s scenario. Open ice battles and board play also need reworked in my opinion as well as a number of higher things.
Community ManagerWhat you said was this - "I'm not sure how many programmers they currently have but it is shocking how few things can be added AND broken... maybe something as big as sticklifts wouldn't be broken for an entire year. I get not updating the game to focus on the next.. but sticklifts being broken for a year is pretty unacceptable."
As well as this - "Cross play.. but it was only half done. There are also posts about how the two games don't behave the same.. so I would suggest that means it's broken.."
You didn't say everyone. I was saying that there are still many people that don't get this error. That doesn't mean there is no problem though of course.
Presentation is a different issue. It had to be removed. It wasn't something we wanted to do by any means.
I'm not posting clips of my own play to protect my privacy since I play on my personal account.
Your misinformation are assumptions and opinions on our development along with why other games are no longer around. You're saying we have no reason to fix bugs, which really isn't true at all.
The change to stick lifts was based on community feedback and their own vision for the game. We had a lot of complaints that they were too easy and being used in situations they shouldn't be. I get that people here feel this should be easy to get perfectly right, but that's really not the case. The intent this time was to have them not be overpowered and used appropriately. I don't think we quite hit the mark there, but it is better than getting lifted from behind. Which, was a big complaint. It also has always been pretty easy to take a penalty with it. It's been widely known as "the penalty button" for years. There are of course those that are good at using it with taking few penalties.
Yes. For some, with having offline mode issues, the game is unplayable. I get that. That's not what I'm talking about though. Your example of Crash Bandicoot is a good one, but again, why play a game that is deemed broken for hundreds of hours or more?
Community ManagerYou can still see my club abbreviation and such. I'm just not comfortable sharing sharing this, but I'll try to go in to a replay and get some clips. That should be relatively anonymous.
@RelentlessJ84 wrote:
@EA_Aljo
I still see people in perfect position try stick lift and get penalized, so if that is what you call "working as intended" then there's something wrong with that.
Again. This is why I'm saying it could be improved. There are times positioning is good and penalties are still being taken. It's possible this is an animation issue where it's not lining up with when the stick lift is initiated. Stick lift was made to be more difficult to be successful with. That part is working as intended. In no way am I saying it's perfect and without issue though.
It's fairly quick but i'm pretty sure the game shows both player name and gamertag so it can be tricky to properly edit videos and stuff.
I've seen a few of the devs online and have been told a lot of people play regularly outside of work hours (which can be quite taxing coming from previous game tester). What's most important is the regular community providing as much info as possible - proof the team can't just refute on paper.
A bicycle with a broken handlebar or pedal can still technically be ridden (rode?). I wish people wouldn't use buzzwords all willy nilly but here we are lol. Some things like presentation needed to be removed and goalies... well, you could literally remove em entirely and it wouldn't make a difference so ehh ** shrugs while balancing hands **
@KlariskraysNHL wrote:
@EA_AljoThe problem in my eyes was they overtuned the sticklift penalty. They always seem to take the extreme with things 1 way or the other. Now I get the community hated the sticklift from behind stuff but now we have lots of times you can be right beside someone and go for a lift that results in a penalty. The whole sticklift feature needs reworked to be more of a lift and swipe motion as a way of taking the puck. Also that part of the community hates defense in general.
There should be an option for a hard stick lift (higher risk/reward) and a regular one based on the pressure put on the stick lift button. Regular one is an automatic whiff (no penalty) unless PERFECTLY positioned, and the other one is a gamble with the risk/reward ratio adjusting based on positioning.
Community Manager
@KlariskraysNHL wrote:
@EA_Aljo The problem in my eyes was they overtuned the sticklift penalty. They always seem to take the extreme with things 1 way or the other. Now I get the community hated the sticklift from behind stuff but now we have lots of times you can be right beside someone and go for a lift that results in a penalty. The whole sticklift feature needs reworked to be more of a lift and swipe motion as a way of taking the puck. Also that part of the community hates defense in general.
I agree stick lift should be reworked. I really hope that happens. As far as taking the extreme route with things, it's not that we're looking to specifically take that route, but it can also be very challenging to find that sweet spot where it's perfect and doesn't cause other issues.
@EA_AljoThey should never have nerfed Yoink. They have ruined the identity of a TWF by being below average overall. I see Playmakers doing the same amount of defense. TWF should be all about the stickplay imo but oh ya they complained about Yoink because they wanted to hold onto the puck too long in dangerous situations. I'm sorry but if you have 90 stickchecking and 90 def awareness and not lifting from far behind you should be taking that puck vast majority with no penalties.
Roles are meant to succeed where they should regardless of how people feel.
Community ManagerI don't ever recall hearing about people being upset about Yoink. I don't recall hearing about it being nerfed either. Regardless, the feedback is definitely appreciated. I'd love to see the classes balanced better as well.
@EA_AljoIf I recall correctly it was this update that caused a change. https://mp1st.com/news/nhl-22-update-1-20-patch-notes-skates-out-for-added-likeness-more-this-nov-4
When you used Yoink it was like a super high chance you were taking the puck away. It was an NHL 22 thing used early on before whatever changed.
But I don't view balancing builds how they should be hard at all. You just don't make the strengths strong enough and weaknesses weak enough. Obviously values would need to be reworked as their strengths should offer less for lowering them and weakness costing more to invest higher into.
You raised too many stats in builds which is what created god-like builds where you should be using them. We all know the Puck-Moving Dman is way too good all-around.
