NHL 24 Gameplay Tuner Updates - May 23rd, 2024 A new gameplay tuner will be released tomorrow at 1 PM ET. Here are the details: Community Feedback: The current accelerated clock in the last minute of the game and OT reduces some fun, climactic finishes to the game. Updated the final 60 seconds of the 3rd Period and OT to be 60 real-time seconds. Developer Feedback: We want to continue to create more incentives to use underutilized X-Factors and allow players to develop new strategies: Shnipe - Increased Shnipe Zone/Superstar bonus to shot power on settled wrist shots by 50%. Off Rush Slapshots - Increased Off the Rush Zone/Superstar bonus to shot power for in-stride slap shots by 50% Crease Crasher - Increased Crease Crasher Zone/Superstar bonus to shot power on rebound shots by 150%. Total Eclipse - Increased Total Eclipse Zone/Superstar impact to goalie screens by 20%. No Contest - Increased No Contest Zone/Superstar bonus to 50/50 puck battles by 10%.

I can appreciate the concise post but I think it'd be really cool if you guys could disclose what the multipliers actually sit at post-update, rather than just how they've shifted. I'd like to be able to compare the Close Quarters and Make it Snappy multipliers to that of Crease Crasher to see if it's worthwhile, you know? Just trying Crease Crasher for even 5 games isn't likely to demonstrate anything as clearly as the numbers would. Either way, adjustments on abilities at this time of year is a good approach. I just think that there's a good amount of information that should be better communicated. Having the ability multipliers discoverable in-game would especially be better than "Greatly increases" or whatever the descriptions are right now. I would like to add that this would have probably clarified that the update to Truculence was not worth panicking over, as so many did. If we have numbers for Crease Crasher, you'll get less people saying "yeah, I don't know if it really does anything" and the dreaded "Impossible to quantify." I think that's a very effective way of building "incentive" to try them as is your goal

@TTZ_Dipsy wrote:I want the AI to play positionally perfect too. I need them to stop dumping the puck on a powerplay. I crave for them to stop waiting for me to cross the blue line before passing.These frustrate me to no end as well. I play EASHL 5s, though our LD only plays occasionally, so often time we have an AI defender. I try to be realistic, its going to be impossible for them to make AI that--while using the same ruleset as a human player--can read the play as effectively. However, there are definitely some mind bogglingly bad habits that should have been smoothed out of the game ages ago. Some go back a few years:Waiting to headman/breakout pass a puck, even with a wide open lane, until its too late. You know they were targeting you as they will eventually throw it, but by then you are either offside, been covered, or full stopped as they sat there holding it.Flipping or dumping the puck without any contextual awareness. Maybe you are down by 1 late in the game and desperately need puck possession. Lord help you if you are on the PK and the compy gets it. Always throws it down the ice, even if you frantically call for the pass.Bum rushes toward their own goalie with or without the puck that often result in own goals. Not AI specific as it happens with humans too (a slap the puck out of the crease mechanic would help), but at least humans can adapt how they approach.The complete lack of interest in playing defense on some (not all or even most) rushes. Will just back up slowly and stand there. No attempt to angle off. No attempt to hit or poke,And most frustrating, the AI's propensity to leave the LD spot and zip over to within a foot of our RD. We've tried it with all different strategies set and its not a result of him trying to cover for one of us out of position. The RD is there already, the forwards are deep and attempting to stay away from the LD. He should be generally at left point, not glued to our RD.

@KidShowtime1867 wrote:@llamaverox wrote:When trying to defend passing lanes, pucks going right through players, as offense has 100% puck pickup on passes but defense is completely out to dry on it.You can absolutely be in a passing lane and guarantee 100% interception if you properly position your player in order to do so. If you can't, then you engage the intended recipient. Defence 101. Let's not exaggerate. You can absolutely be in good position to pick off a pass and prevent the offensive player from getting a shot off and still get screwed by the game mechanics.This happened just the other night. Defensive player facing the incoming pass, in a glide and in body position such that the offensive player should have no way to get their stick on the puck. Instead of picking off the pass or at least disrupting it with his stick the game chooses to use a kick animation which fails. Then the offensive player quite literally phases his stick through both the defender's feet/legs to get a shot off. The icing on the cake is the goalie failing to make the save because he's trying to stop a completely different shot.And no, I don't think the correct play here is for the defender to turn his back to the play and try to shove the offensive player.

There has never been a sim hockey game, every year the game is arcadey. It's even more arcadey now than it has ever been. People want simulation style games. They want to replicate the sport they see on TV and the assertion that they don't is why this game gets disliked. If you have a passionate fan base word of mouth sells your game as we bring people into it. Making an arcade game and hoping people like it doesn't do that. It's just not correct in what brings people into video games I'm sorry. The highest selling games are hardcore that brings in casuals because the fanbase is rabid. You can see it with every game that gets big. They have arcade visuals with hardcore systems of gameplay.In sports games you cite Madden and FC and for years they have gotten bad community reviews yet they still sell because the sports are popular not because the games are great. You literally own the rights to football it's the only football game people can play. Madden sells because of that. NHL is the same way. You are the only hockey game on the market. You get sales because of that. Not because your gameplay is amazing.

@KidShowtime1867 The community not initially understanding something isn't a reason not to do it. It just means that there needs to be more of an effort to educate players on why things happen they way they do. Doing this in a clear and constructive fashion goes a long way. Nobody's born with the knowledge of how stick interactions work in EA NHL video games. The fact that you and I and many others understand the current mechanics is proof that people can learn.There's always going to be a sub-set of players who either are incapable or unwilling to understand explanations of gameplay mechanics, but I don't think EA's strategy moving forward needs to be based around them.

NHL 24 Gameplay Tuner Updates - May 23rd, 2024

115 Replies

KlariskraysNHL
Hero
11 months ago
Back to the sweaty minute! Lots of interesting changes.
Aubekov
11 months ago
I can appreciate the concise post but I think it'd be really cool if you guys could disclose what the multipliers actually sit at post-update, rather than just how they've shifted. I'd like to be able to compare the Close Quarters and Make it Snappy multipliers to that of Crease Crasher to see if it's worthwhile, you know? Just trying Crease Crasher for even 5 games isn't likely to demonstrate anything as clearly as the numbers would. Either way, adjustments on abilities at this time of year is a good approach. I just think that there's a good amount of information that should be better communicated. Having the ability multipliers discoverable in-game would especially be better than "Greatly increases" or whatever the descriptions are right now. I would like to add that this would have probably clarified that the update to Truculence was not worth panicking over, as so many did.
If we have numbers for Crease Crasher, you'll get less people saying "yeah, I don't know if it really does anything" and the dreaded "Impossible to quantify." I think that's a very effective way of building "incentive" to try them as is your goal
CorrosiveJake
Rising Traveler
11 months ago
Is Off The Rush x factor still bugged? It's supposed to act as the slap shot equivalent to Make it Snappy but it only activates one time after you enter the zone, once you take a shot it won't activate again for subsequent shots. Nor will it activate if you skate around/cycle in the offensive zone a bit while before shooting while Make it Snappy does.
FourZeroVI
New Scout
11 months ago
@CorrosiveJake wrote:
Is Off The Rush x factor still bugged? It's supposed to act as the slap shot equivalent to Make it Snappy but it only activates one time after you enter the zone, once you take a shot it won't activate again for subsequent shots. Nor will it activate if you skate around/cycle in the offensive zone a bit while before shooting while Make it Snappy does.

I think you misinterpret the ability, the equivalent to make it snappy for slaps would be thunder clap, off the rush because the multiplier is so much higher so you only get 1 slap, if you would like it to be for every slap, use thunder clap instead, less % boost, but activates on all slappers
FourZeroVI
New Scout
11 months ago
I could see a big reason to these changes being that alot of players dont use these abilities. So it makes sense to increase their value.

Even before these increases but especially with any increase to shooters I personally would like to see an overall 5% boost to Goalie Precision Score, the overall feel to goalie feels too inconsistent, if youre a solid goalie you should be able to pull .800 without too much of a struggle (and I dont feel like thats asking too much). I understand the player base is 83% skaters who want to score so its understandable you dont want goalies to stop every shot but were also playing a game where 90% of players dont play consistent defense (and unfortunately dont see this changing any time soon) which makes goalie a very difficult position to play as well as to be happy in. This boost would likely make goalies feel like they have a chance to be a real impact player, yet not too over powered that they feel like they could steal every game. Thanks.
CorrosiveJake
Rising Traveler
11 months ago
@FourZeroVI wrote:
@CorrosiveJake wrote:
Is Off The Rush x factor still bugged? It's supposed to act as the slap shot equivalent to Make it Snappy but it only activates one time after you enter the zone, once you take a shot it won't activate again for subsequent shots. Nor will it activate if you skate around/cycle in the offensive zone a bit while before shooting while Make it Snappy does.

I think you misinterpret the ability, the equivalent to make it snappy for slaps would be thunder clap, off the rush because the multiplier is so much higher so you only get 1 slap, if you would like it to be for every slap, use thunder clap instead, less % boost, but activates on all slappers

I have not. The ability description for Make It Snappy and Off The Rush are the exact same except for where it says Snap Shots and Slap Shots respectively. Thunderclap and Heatseeker are the equivalent of each other, both requiring to be from distance when taking the shot.

If they want more people to use these abilities they have to fixed the bugs associated with them. First off by making Off The Rush work like Make it Snappy but just with Slap Shots.
MTinman88
11 months ago
Why can’t you guys work on fixing the dump button? To me that’s a major issue in the game
BabyPuncher525
Rising Vanguard
11 months ago
@CorrosiveJake Despite the descriptions off the rush only grants one buffed slap shot per zone entry as far as I can tell, really a useless perk compared to thunder clap after they buffed it earlier in the games life cycle as far as appropriate ranges to actually go for a slap shot. Power forward would do better with access to gold thunder clap over off the rush in so many situations compared to off the rush. Either re work off the rush or give pwf a different shooting ability imo.
Tigidooh
Rising Ace
11 months ago
I dont get the point of the reduced last minute.
A period is 20 minutes at the same speed from the first seconde to the last. If you make the last minute slower or doubled in time...then it turn a 20 minutes period in a 21-22 minutes period if we consider the last minute taking the equivalent of a 2-3 minutes regular in-game speed.
So we're not really playing 20 minutes period anymore.
If you couldnt score in the 19 first minutes...why should it be slowed down to give extra chances to the losing team?......What about the winning team, dont they deserve the game to keep on the same timer speed to preserve their lead?
FourZeroVI
New Scout
11 months ago
@CorrosiveJake wrote:
@FourZeroVI wrote:
@CorrosiveJake wrote:
Is Off The Rush x factor still bugged? It's supposed to act as the slap shot equivalent to Make it Snappy but it only activates one time after you enter the zone, once you take a shot it won't activate again for subsequent shots. Nor will it activate if you skate around/cycle in the offensive zone a bit while before shooting while Make it Snappy does.

I think you misinterpret the ability, the equivalent to make it snappy for slaps would be thunder clap, off the rush because the multiplier is so much higher so you only get 1 slap, if you would like it to be for every slap, use thunder clap instead, less % boost, but activates on all slappers

I have not. The ability description for Make It Snappy and Off The Rush are the exact same except for where it says Snap Shots and Slap Shots respectively. Thunderclap and Heatseeker are the equivalent of each other, both requiring to be from distance when taking the shot.

If they want more people to use these abilities they have to fixed the bugs associated with them. First off by making Off The Rush work like Make it Snappy but just with Slap Shots.
Ok, fair assessment. But also at this point we know the descriptions have not been what the actual abilities do unfortunately. That would be the appropriate fix. Being more specific and open about abilities and what they do AND by how much...