@rsandersr47 wrote:
@PernellKarl027What are your ideas for how loose pucks should work?
Having just random winners and losers for loose pucks all game just doesn't sound like a fun game to me I guess.. I love real hockey and watch a little over 100 games a year but in a video game? If i want real hockey I'll go play real hockey. At some point it will just feel like I'm literally simming a game if the puck is as loose as it should be.. it would be fun for offline play, sure. But a competitive game? No, that would just cause mass frustration if it played the way it should. I think if I had a franchise or be a pro I'd like the game to feel messy as it should be but not in EASHL. Messy diminishes a skill gap. If NHL wants to grow an esport market within EASHL that's what they don't want.
This is the same reason many (like myself) don't want broken sticks or now broken glass.. it stops play and shrinks the skill gap (mostly the broken sticks) why add randomness to a game that you want to play competively? It's like playing a game like pokemon, you have moves that can 1HKO but about a 10% chance of it hitting moves like this can and have destroyed competitiveness. At 10% its a random outcome. You can try to plan for that but it's not ideal as it's a low percentage chance. Again, these things are fine when I play offline. If that's your cup of tea, cool. But if you just want the game to cater to you to close the skill gap and make the outcomes more random online.. yikes. Competive coin flip competitions aren't my thing.
See, that’s where and when I’m talking about confusion, lol ! Cause I never, ever talked about ONLINE or EASHL when I made my points…
Im certainly not the expert for Online portion that’s for sure 😉😂
But saying all of this, the REAL NHL game is as competitive as it can be. No ? And hockey is FULL of randomness. Why would it be different if I would play On or Offline ? So that if I would play ONLINE to keep a good record and not random things screw that up ?
At the end of the day, hockey is hockey and random and unpredictable stuff can and will happen all the time. Just ask the 80's USA Miracle on ice team 😉
Would you rather lose a game of EASHL that you’ve been hit about 20 times with a Hip Check that made you fall face first on the ice, or losing cause your stick broke on that last Slapshot that MAYBE would have gone in ??
@rsandersr47 wrote:
@PernellKarl027I wouldn't want either of those things? Why should we have to choose between those? We have to choose hockey chaos or complete randomness?
Offline I'm fine with your ideas.. but online it does have to be different if you want a skill gap and for esports to be taken seriously. This is why puck control needs to have limits in place.. personally I would like to see those limits have parameters. I think it would be great to see players lose the puck from time to time if their guy had bad hands and went forehand backhand too fast or passes not received as clean, etc. But your stats should increase/ decrease the likelyhood of these events happening.
I just think a video game needs to do what it can to create the game we see and love, while simultaneously negating as many events that are out of our control, create randomness/ chaos, and decrease the possible skill gap. I guess I can see where that confusion can be but I think there is a happy middle.
Tbh your AI changes could be fun, especially if I had a franchise with my friends.. when I play EASHL I want to play competitively though and want less random events. Then when I play threes I love the chaos.
There doesn't need to be 2 separate games but there SHOULD be "sim" hockey "competive" hockey and "arcade" hockey. Each of those should feel different.
You can create those scenarios with tuners. Puck control and how much it dictates things is an actual slider that affects loose puck pickups and how quickly you go for the puck after having been knocked off it. Passing speed and passing reception and type of puck reception can all be tuned that if you throw a rocket pass (aka 75% of passes in this game) that it fumbles off your stick or requires time to stop it and pick it up again.
The devs were aware of rocket passes hindering eashl and online experiences last year and the year before and even came out in interviews wanting to address it for competitive play.
They didn't.
Let's just face it, the direction whomever is in control of this game wants to go to more arcade. All indicators point this way. The only thing that is slightlyyyyy more realistic is the pivoting and skating in certain modes like VS.
