NHL25 Controls

i have been playing thousands of games every year in the nhl franchise ever since 94.

last year i stopped playing in november, because every time i tried to deke, my player would protect puck instead.

i have several friends that stopped playing for the same reason.

i have been anxiously awaiting the new game, hoping that this would be fixed. unfortunately, if its not fixed, i cant see myself playing much. i find it too frustrating. everyone i speak to feels the same way.

@ablauer88 

What control layout were you using? Puck protect moved to clicking down on the left stick. Dekes are performed with LB/L1. You also hold that down in combination with right stick movements to perform different dekes. The face buttons will also perform dekes if using the Total Controls layout. The only real difference with the Skill Stick layout is moving puck protect to clicking down on the left stick. Were you using the old NHL 94 controls previously?

when i said “deking” i meant moving the right stick left and right -“manually deking”

ive always used default controls. so skill stick since 07. last year, i tried both and i had the issue with both

@ablauer88 

Ahh ok. That is actually stick handling. What you were most likely doing is accidentally clicking down on the stick. That triggers the fake shot where you kick your leg. It was for this reason I remapped right stick click to a paddle on the underside of my Elite Series controller. Unfortunately, normal controllers don't have this, but you could disable right stick clicking altogether. Unfortunately, that means it doesn't work for any game/app. I fully understand this is a pain. I'm not saying I agree with the changes to controls. This is just how I dealt with them.

there was that issue too. however it was easy to avoid because i remapped my controls too.

my problem was really during stickhandling that my player would go into the protect puck animation. this was a widespread issue.

online, you could see that people were doing it all the time. it had nothing to do with accidentally clicking in the stick, since i had remapped that button.

seems like for some reason, when your skater has too much speed, they were unable to stickhandle. it makes the game totally unplayable in my opinion. I know many people that stopped playing because of this new way to engage “protect puck”. and im sure you guys were able to see the drop off if you are following user playing stats

if you would like to get in touch with me privately, i would be happy to do a call to show you the exact issue.

it is worth noting that the issue i witnessed seems to be the exact same issue as the original posted in this thread.

you say that user complained that the old protect puck became an exploit. - just remove it from the game, please dont force people to protect puck when all they want to do is stickhandle

@ablauer88 

You only go into puck protect if you're hustling. When you're in hustle and you turn, you'll go into puck protect. This isn't a widespread issue since it's actually intended. Personally, I've liked this change.

To stick handle, you need to let go of hustle. Due to clicking down the left stick when I didn't want to, I remapped that to a paddle as well. It's unrealistic for a player to stick handle when they're hustling so you can't do that. Actually, there was an issue with 24 where you could, but that wasn't intended. Anyway, this is why you noticed you were unable to stick handle when going too fast. You were hustling and therefore, couldn't stick handle and would go into puck protect. This is how it's supposed to work.

How did this make the game unplayable? I don't think you've ever been able to stick handle when hustling. Puck protect when turning doesn't really have any negative side effects. What specifically made you not be able to play the game because of this?

as you can see from replies in this thread, there is clearly a widespread issue. you should really do your best to learn from the feedback rather than contesting it.

any workaround that you are using is a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed. i strongly suggest you treat it that way.

the average user does not think so critically about how to create a workaround, and they dont read these forums to solve their problems. they just stop palying cause its not fun.

it is possible that i was accidentally clicking in the left stick while trying to stickhandle, but it is really difficult to avoid that, since you are moving the left stick to skate at all times.

i am begging you to please take this issue seriously and address it. i promise you it is a major problem that will strongly affect the success of the game for years to come.

I am in product management and i understand the impact of this major flaw in the game. and how i feel about it is validated by the feedback that i have heard around the community, as well as the feedback that we can see in black and white within this exact thread.

@ablauer88 

Thank you for the feedback. Hopefully, we'll have puck protect moved to a different button at some point in the future.

IF ANYONE ELSE IS LURKING AROUND HERE, I URGE YOU TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT AND POST YOUR FEEDBACK.

WE NEED EA TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS ISSUE IS WIDESPREAD AND THAT THE COMMUNITY WANTS IT FIXED