Custom Controls / Control Suggestions (with illustrative diagrams)

Because everyone has their own preferences when it comes to control settings, you guys should simply offer more control layouts and control customization / button mapping.

Here are a few suggestions/preferences of my own.

Defense:

Full Control Defensive Skill Stick (with Photo)

I would love to have more defensive control over my stick.

If you remove hitting/checking from the skill stick, then the entire mapping of the skill stick can be dedicated to the defensive player’s stick positioning and movement (much like the offensive skill stick).

Simply moving the right stick alone would move the player’s stick around in a close proximity to their body.

Clicking and holding down R3 while moving it would move the players stick in an extended (one handed) proximity form their body.

-These changes would give people a fighting chance against players with good puck skills without having to overpower push/shoulder/hip checks.  

-These changes would also allow the defensive player to position their stick without starting the move with a debilitating poke check that they didn’t even want to do in the first place.  (As it currently stands, you can only manually sweep the stick by pressing RB/R1 which starts as a poke check.)

-Of course, the defensive ratings of the player being used would affect the quickness and accuracy of the stick movement.

As for Chopping the Puck with this arrangement, because the game doesn’t allow for rapid fire poking, I think this would be a good fit since quickly double tapping RB/R1 doesn’t result in two quick Pokes anyway.  Because you have to wait for the first poke animation to stop before being able to poke again, a quick double tap of RB/R1 could activate a chop animation.

    OR

Better yet, Chopping the Puck could be the same mechanics as the current offensive skill stick Slap Shot, which would make sense because it’s pretty much a wind up and slap at the puck (maybe a toned down wind up animation for the Chop compared to a Slap Shot).

I’ve added a photo to illustrate my suggestions. I believe it adds so much more control without sacrificing anything.  

Stick Lifts

If the right trigger is used for Stick Lifts rather than Switch Player, the trigger’s pressure sensitivity can be applied to the height of the stick lift.  Naturally, a higher stick lift will be more effective but also more risky.
This change would also help prevent users from accidentally passing when they’re trying to switch defensive players and happen to take control of the puck at the same time. [Based on my suggested control mapping, it would be better if offensive Reverse Hit was mapped to X (for XBox) so as to prevent accidentally reverse hitting in the same scenario I just mentioned.]

Board Pinning

In the photo above, you’ll notice that I’ve tied Board Pin to the Push Check button.  This makes plenty of sense because  holding a “push” on someone at the boards is exactly what a pin is.  I also think that this would start more scrums on the boards which would be more authentic to the game of hockey.

Offense:

More Control Offensive Skill Stick

I would also love it if I could use the skill stick on offense without accidentally shooting or winding up for a slapper.

Since lofted dump passes aren’t really used in the offensive zone, give people the option to use RB/R1 as a prerequisite to shooting with the skill stick (when in the offensive zone). This way, if you’re not trying to shoot, the skill stick can be toyed with a little more freely without accidentally shooting.  This would also allow for more puck control between the forehand and backhand since forward on the skill stick wouldn’t be Shoot.  And while you do hold RB/R1, you can still control the puck as you normally can; however upward and downward on the stick are now shooting mechanics (again, while you’re holding RB/R1).

When you want a Wrist/Snap Shot, you hold RB/R1 and press up on the skill stick (much like a dump pass, but since you’re in the offensive zone it won’t be a dump pass);

and when you want a Slap Shot, you hold RB/R1 and pull back then press forward on the skill stick.  

(One timers would not need RB/R1 to be pressed.)

Drop Passes

Drop passes are so common in real hockey, but are rarely used in EA NHL due to the difficult/clunky nature of the controls.  If you could map it to a single button, I believe it would be utilized much more adding to the authenticity of the game.

Goalie:

Easier Access to Goalie Control

I would really like to be able to switch to the goalie without any difficulty.  As of now, you need to perfectly time a combo of LB and A (XBox) to switch, and it is incredibly hard to pull off. 

On Xbox, LB and View Button are used together to pull the goalie and it seems to work without any flaws because they don’t need to be pressed at the exact same time.

Maybe if you just press the View Button alone, you could switch to the goalie. 

This would be useful for:

-fast breaks

-handing opposing puck dumps

-cleaning up passes that go awry

-etc.

The goalie isn’t tied to the crease all the time in real hockey and should be much more accessible in the game.