Tips for Defending in '23
Seems like many people have some gripes about defense - myself included. Over the last couple of weeks, I've refined and adjusted defensively, and I feel that I've gotten more comfortable in defendin...
Forum Discussion
@EA_Aljo wrote:It wasn't just the influencers. There was a huge amount of feedback from the community that they hated playing against the "skill zone" style of play. The game is meant to have as much manual control as possible. Not just sit in the middle of your own zone and let the AI players defend for you.
While I get they are similar, there's still a big difference between your offensive players getting open and defensive players not taking action. They still get in to position like offense does. Offense also doesn't shoot for you whereas skill zoning had defenders playing defense for you.
Getting into a scoring position where the user can just hold 'shoot' after a pass (for a one-timer) is literally the a.i. scoring for you.
Like I said, the CPU A.I. doesn't need to 'play defence for you' but they absolutely should take some actions here:
Literally right on top of the puck carrier:
Why am I being forced to frantically swap defenders due to an effort to coherce 'manual control' whereas the offensive player just needs to wait for their A.I. to get in to position to score with the added luxury of being able to just skate through the 4 other players I have no ability to control at the same time?
Literally in a perfect spot to strip the puck... but nothing.
Meanwhile, his A.I. gets in to the perfect spot to obtain the loose puck:
While the defensive A.i. is aloof to the puck carrier in front of him:
What's even more insane is when the 'muted a.i.' takes active steps to expose you defensively:
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerI'll agree with you on the AI exposing you. We're very aware the AI could be improved. As far as your other examples go, I get what you're saying, but they can also be manually defended. These also are often the result of someone not taking control of their defenders and letting someone walk in and get a good scoring chance. Had they stepped up and defended that play to begin with, they wouldn't have made it that far.
@EA_Aljo wrote:they can also be manually defended.
Ya I'm not disagreeing with that. However, there's an imbalance of responsibility regarding the offensive/defensive side of the puck and the puck carriers are getting a clear advantage over the defenders.
@EA_Aljo wrote:These also are often the result of someone not taking control of their defenders and letting someone walk in and get a good scoring chance.
Again - we don't have a button or a mechanic that allows us to control all 5 skaters on the ice at once. The HUT players complaining about skill zoning simply lacked the skills to play against the 4 other CPU defenders that they need to contend with. As a result of their complaining (and the subsequent ignoring of people on the other side of the puck) - they were awarded with the ability to play against 1 defensive player while simultaneously being given the luxury of the A.I. getting into open scoring lanes for them.
Meanwhile, the people (like myself) in favor of more CPU actions are told they aren't 'taking control of their defenders' and we're 'letting someone walk in'.
When we do swap controls to take the puck carrier, we get met with this:
It's completely imbalanced and unfair and players know this and abuse it.
Here's a case where you can see the offensive player has free reign in my zone. This isn't due to me not swapping controls of players. He only has to contend with ONE defender trying to strip him of the puck - while I need to meticulously swap control of defenders, ensuring I'm covering the open scoring lanes. He does the same tired tactic of circling down low, enticing a chase because he knows the other 4 defenders are flat footed - so when I swap control, they KNOW they've already got a step on me:
At the end of the clip when he scores, I swap control, he rolls off the hit and now he has the slot-goal (which he scores) but also an open man to the side of the net - which required ZERO input from him:
- EA_Aljo
@KidShowtime1867 wrote:
When we do swap controls to take the puck carrier, we get met with this:
Swapping controls isn't always going to result in this. Of course there are going to be times it happens, but in this case, control was swapped early enough that a poke check could have broken this up. There were also other opportunities in that clip to switch control and potentially defend this. Obviously, we all know you're excellent at defense. Your clips and breakdowns have been fantastic and very much appreciated. I'm not trying to say this is a case of play better D. You're also trying to make the point that it's unfair that offense has players that get in to position. Isn't that what the AI D is doing also though? You can't actually shoot or pass until you have the puck. Even a one timer means holding up on the stick before the receiving player makes contact with it. AI defenders are also getting in position so control can be swapped and manual defense can be performed.
Obviously, we can't manually control 5 players individually at once. We need to have AI players, but using them to play defense for you is pretty clearly relying less on personal skill. We get complaints that there's no skill gap and have taken measures to increase that. Returning defensive actions to AI players would go against this. I'm not saying it will never happen. I hope it doesn't or if it does, I hope there's a way to still keep or increase the skill gap from it somehow. We want as much of the game to be user controlled, but in a game where you have 12 players on the ice and 2 humans controlling them, there's going to need to be a hefty amount of automation.
@EA_Aljo wrote:
@KidShowtime1867 wrote:When we do swap controls to take the puck carrier, we get met with this:
Swapping controls isn't always going to result in this. Of course there are going to be times it happens, but in this case, control was swapped early enough that a poke check could have broken this up. There were also other opportunities in that clip to switch control and potentially defend this. Obviously, we all know you're excellent at defense. Your clips and breakdowns have been fantastic and very much appreciated. I'm not trying to say this is a case of play better D. You're also trying to make the point that it's unfair that offense has players that get in to position. Isn't that what the AI D is doing also though? You can't actually shoot or pass until you have the puck. Even a one timer means holding up on the stick before the receiving player makes contact with it. AI defenders are also getting in position so control can be swapped and manual defense can be performed.
Obviously, we can't manually control 5 players individually at once. We need to have AI players, but using them to play defense for you is pretty clearly relying less on personal skill. We get complaints that there's no skill gap and have taken measures to increase that. Returning defensive actions to AI players would go against this. I'm not saying it will never happen. I hope it doesn't or if it does, I hope there's a way to still keep or increase the skill gap from it somehow. We want as much of the game to be user controlled, but in a game where you have 12 players on the ice and 2 humans controlling them, there's going to need to be a hefty amount of automation.
Aljo, we all know that player switching is spotty at best as well and I swear to you since the last patch it feels even more off. Sometimes there's even a delay between when I take control of a player, and when I can move him. That split second is all it takes. Also, even using the right stick to select a player often times gives you control of a player in the direction you want but only it's the player behind the play. Why can't we have icon player switching?
