This shouldn't take 2 years to fix!

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@hiperay wrote:

please go look and rethink your thoughts on this one.

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I LOL'd hard at reading that

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

Had the skates been directly hit with the poke, chances are excellent tripping would have been called.

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It appears as though incidental contact causes the puck to become dislodged, as there's a slight 'stumble' animation being shown by the puck carrier:

I don't disagree with your penalty logic regarding the initial poke animation needing to interact with a moving-player's feet in order to trigger the trip, however, something needs to be looked at in terms of incidental contact and Defensive Skill Stick / Poke checking. 

This may be why OP is stating that poke checks are overpowered. Chances are (and I've seen this a lot in online versus as well) that incidental contact during a poke check animation is causing a loss of puck possession when in reality, some type of penalty should be called. 

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@hiperay wrote:

The second one you cannot just hold your stick out and the player is forced to go around. He has no position on that ice. Meanwhile I have position and I am protecting the puck away from the oncoming defender on my backhand. He has to have stick discipline and withdraw his stick or face taking a penalty. At least this is how it is in normal hockey rules as far as I know.

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in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with this play at all:

This is exactly one of the changes made to stick physics in '23 which adds much more realism. Rather than calling an arbitrary penalty just because the user threw an errant input (in this case, poke check) - the game is letting the play progress without any impedance to the puck carrier. This is especially crucial in this situation because the initial poke check (that has more force behind it) is aimed right at the puck , albeit far away, and doesn't cross the plane of the skates at all. The subsequent movement from the puck carrier is then allow to proceed rather than exeucting a trip animation, which would've negated the scoring chance.

@hiperay 

The way the mechanics of the game work is that you will only take a tripping call on the outgoing thrust of the stick when it contacts the skates. In the first video, the stick is out already and the carrier skates in to it. This causes them to stumble and lose possession. It's a similar situation in the second video.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@hiperay 

The way the mechanics of the game work is that you will only take a tripping call on the outgoing thrust of the stick when it contacts the skates. In the first video, the stick is out already and the carrier skates in to it. This causes them to stumble and lose possession. It's a similar situation in the second video.

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In the 2nd video, it looks as though the skater's leg movement is causing the defenders stick to interact and dislodge the puck

@hiperay 

I think you are still responsible though. If you just go haphazardly poking, your chances of a tripping call are a lot higher. We get a lot of complaints about defense already being challenging so I think making poke checks more difficult wouldn't really be an improvement. That's just my own personal opinion. I'd much rather see less of a slow down since that already forces you to sparingly use the poke. The auto-aim doesn't guarantee you'll hit the puck, but it will cause a big reduction in speed which will leave defenders in the dust if they're spamming pokes.

@NihilistWolfe 

Thanks for your feedback on this. It's appreciated. If changes are made, we'll make an announcement.

@EA_AljoRemoving the slow down I'd say you would have to revert if you DID go to Full Manual Poke Checking. I think adding slow down is not how it should have been nerfed. It looks dumb to just see a player hold his stick out and that slows themselves down drastically. I would say if you wanted to do something like that than it should be when they are making "large movements" with the stick such as trying to swing it to push the puck away. Then you could have a very minor slowdown mechanic incorporated where now they lose a step on the player.

Defense is challenging yes I would agree but that's because of the other mechanics in the game that are of an issue. Defense is challenging because pucks are forced across the crease and defenders cannot pick it up. It goes through their legs, off their skates and somehow gets to the One Timer on the other side. I see numerous times my player facing the passer and watch as they slide the puck between my legs, with quick pick and 90 awareness to the other guy with gold OneTee.

Defense is challenging because there is something (thanks season 3) called Big Tipper that you could be right on top of the guy and yet somehow he can still get his stick out to tip the puck in the back of the net.

Defense is challenging because you can't tie up said player in front of the net or along the boards because he is moving just a little bit but enough that you hold the button down to perform the tie up and nothing happens. Only to let go of it and your guy sometimes stick lifting in open ice and slashing someone because things cannot be cancelled except passes in this game.

I understand that defense is challenging and you want to make the game more offense minded. But, turning up the Hot water (poke check power) to compensate for the Cold (defense in general) is not the way to do it. Again this is my opinion based on many hours of this game. It should be a nice even balance. Yin and Yang.

EDIT: By the way I personally am all for making defense the hardest, most punishing and skill-based thing in the game. Then only the elite will be able to show themselves out there. But watching a puck go through my legs when I am in position to a guy with OneTee on the other side is not skill, its RNG.

I uninstalled the game. I am no longer supporting this franchise until they figure out the balancing. I'm done. Ciao.