Passes not being intercepted
This happens all the time I will get more clips, in this case you can actually hear the puck hit my stick while directly going through my legs while I am face up to the puck. I have also been on the ...
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EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community Manager
@SummerOfDekes wrote:
https://www.xbox.com/play/media/n9rw9KcgzF
@EA_Aljo, I just wanted to get your thoughts on this clip. I'm of two minds on this clip, tbh.
It's hard to tell when slowed down, but this is most likely due to reaction time.
@EA_Aljo wrote:
@SummerOfDekes wrote:https://www.xbox.com/play/media/n9rw9KcgzF
@EA_Aljo, I just wanted to get your thoughts on this clip. I'm of two minds on this clip, tbh.
It's hard to tell when slowed down, but this is most likely due to reaction time.
Do you mean the reaction time of the player or the AI component not being able to resolve to an interception animation in time?
Again, I'm very much of two minds here with this clip because one defender lets the scorer past him, the other sticks his stick out to try to poke check, and the other defender just gets the puck slipped between his skates. I could see the justification for that puck getting by any of the 3 players. But, it also feels like a tough pill to swallow when there's a sea of players between the eventual goal scorer and none of them so much as graze the puck.
I understand that these kinds of passes happen in real life, that's not my issue. My issue is more so the rate at which we see these kinds of passes. It's pretty much every game, multiple times a game. It definitely feels like defenders aren't being rewarded for good positioining, generally speaking.
All of that said, I don't necessarily think that these passes should just always result in a clean interception, but I do think passes like this should bounce off skates and sticks more often than they do. I think maybe part of the problem could be a lack of specific blocking animations. In real life, you'll routinely see players angling and positioning their skates in an attempt to block passes, not just crouch blocking or diving.
Thanks for your response.
- EA_Aljo
Yes. I'm talking about the reaction time of the players.
I've seen plenty of these passes also not get through. They can be forced of course, but there's no guarantee it's going to be successful.
I think in general intercepting passes is in a better place now than it was in NHL 23, but there's still a lot of work to do. There's still too many plays where defenders in good position are punished by either pucks going through/under sticks or just bad animation choices outside of their control.
Here our opponents had been forcing passes all game to the point where we weren't even worried about anything else. My partner tries to block the passing lane by going down on a knee while I've got the inside position on the target of the pass. My stick doesn't touch my partner ( see the angle at the 7s mark ) and it looks like my player goes into a pass interception animation but for whatever reason decides to lift his stick off the ice just enough to let the pass through.
This one just goes through my stick blade. Again, I have the inside position, I'm in a glide and still get burned by factors outside my control. TWF build with 85 defensive awareness and stick checking on this one too.
And then there's the poor animation choices that burn defenders.
This one's been around for a few years. Again inside position and plenty of time to react to the pass but the game decides I want to pick off the pass in a spot where it allows the offensive player to get it first.
Here I make a bad pass to a defender in good position. Initially it looks like he's going to block the pass with his stick, but at the last second the game decides that kicking it towards his own net is the better option. A completely undeserved goal for. "Punished for playing defense" is a phrase that comes out of me and my teammate's mouths way to often playing NHL 24.
Here again I force a pass towards a defender in good position. All he needed to do was keep his stick on the ice and he picks off or at least disrupts the pass. But the game decides he wants to lift his stick up and over the pass instead leading to another undeserved goal.
- EA_Aljo
I agree there's room for improvement with interceptions. I know the team is aware of the feedback we've received on this as well.
As far as your clips go, the 1st one is certainly curious. Not sure what happened there.
The 2nd looks to possibly be an issue with players coming in contact. I realize it's slight though. It looks like their skates were touching. The puck can't be played when this happens.
In the 3rd video, #11 not making a play for it is most likely due to being too close to react. It would have been nice to see 14 make a play on the puck sooner rather than waiting for it to pass him. At that point, it's grabbed by the opposing forward. This is possibly reaction time based as well.
The 4th clip is definitely frustrating. I wish players had more awareness of how close they are to the net so they would instead angle the puck away.
I think clip 5 is related to contact being made between the 2 players.
Thank you for gathering all these. It's most definitely appreciated.
- @EA_Aljo I appreciate that there's reasons these plays turn out the way the do, but from a gameplay perspective they come uncross as undeserved goals and are unrewarding as a result. Not easy to address I'm sure but over the last couple of years, more and more goals for and against just don't feel right. I think that feeling it's causing a growing problem with the community.
Regarding clips 2 and 5 ( especially 2 ). If these played out the way they did because of contact between the two players, it's one of the more frustrating aspects of the game since contact only seems to impact the defensive player's ability to play the puck. - EA_Aljo
I'm in agreement with you. We'll just have to wait and see if this is improved in the future.
https://www.xbox.com/play/media/EisDaQdyLd
I took this clip last night. Skater near the boards forces a cross-ice pass, the defender in the slot is in pretty good position to pick off the pass and even starts a puck pick-up animation, but then the animation abruptly stops and the puck goes between his skates and right to the offensive player for an easy tap in goal.
When defenders complain that the game feels rigged in favor of forwards, this is what they're talking about. A defender in the passing lane with more than enough time to intercept a pass has his player stop doing a puck pick-up animation just so that the pass can go straight through him to the forward.
@SummerOfDekes wrote:https://www.xbox.com/play/media/EisDaQdyLd
I took this clip last night. Skater near the boards forces a cross-ice pass, the defender in the slot is in pretty good position to pick off the pass and even starts a puck pick-up animation, but then the animation abruptly stops and the puck goes between his skates and right to the offensive player for an easy tap in goal.
When defenders complain that the game feels rigged in favor of forwards, this is what they're talking about. A defender in the passing lane with more than enough time to intercept a pass has his player stop doing a puck pick-up animation just so that the pass can go straight through him to the forward.
My guess is the pickup animation was stopped in favor of the kick-with-the-skate animation. This failed and the puck went through.
I can see how some people see this and think the game is 'rigged' - but what attributes are at play here? If the defender has a poor defensive awareness rating, it's not uncommon to see mistakes like this - much like you'd see a mistake from a real NHler. Real-world experience will tell you that a pass in the skates is always hard to disrupt due to the lowered reaction time.
same vibes as this
#97 should've played the body on #20 and eliminate attribute RNG as a factor in these scenarios.
- EA_Aljo
Thanks for the clip. I'll send this over to the team.
https://youtu.be/es-asnvKtiQ?si=w-Nvi_09TxcvnbKY
The amount of times I get these chippy pickup attempts on defense sucks, not just in this clip but in general.
- EA_Aljo
Thanks for sending this over. Appreciate it.
