Revert The Goalie Update
It's time to admit you had no idea what you were doing when you made the AI goalies dumber, the game is somehow in even worse shape afterwords. The AI goalies now let in everything from everywhere, ...
Forum Discussion
@KlariskraysNHL wrote:@SummerOfDekesGoalies is by far the hardest thing to get right if ever. If the same shots were to never go in then goalies would be godlike. The problem is the simple routine ones also get mixed into that RNG and cause these problems. My personal fav goal against is the one where they shoot it from along the boards and the goalie simply doesn't react at all to the puck on the ice. And I blame a bunch of the goals on set animations. If we could get separate limb movement it could be awesome, but also very hard to program I would imagine and make look realistic. I'm not a fan of the goalies getting "tired" and I really hate the fall on their rears animation when it's simply not needed at all.
I do think goalies have gotten so much better in robbing people side to side and stopping breakaways more often when reading the side they are going to properly. At least human wise they have.
Again, it's not so much pucks just finding their way into the net, it's how the goalies handle these easy shots - the overreaction to low danger shots. If a guy absolutely nails the corner of the post on a shot from distance, or a puck takes a deflection, etc., fine. But, why the overreaction, sprawling, flopping-around animations from such weak shots? Again, watch the second clip. Whether it's humans or ai goalies, the goalies are always overreacting to routine plays.
I've posted this clip before, but it illustrates one of the main problems with goalies.
https://www.xbox.com/play/media/TBKHCSCuNm
Simple, low danger shot from the boards. No screen, goalie's in good position. Puck hits the goalie in the chest, drops down between his pads. Instead of just covering the puck with his glove or squeezing his pads together, my goalie freaks out and ends up kicking the puck into the net.
It'd be one thing if pucks just randomly found their way into the net, but the goalie ai in this game has such poor situational awareness that simple plays cause the goalies to spaz out and start doing Booker T spinaroonis in the crease for no reason.
And just to really illustrate my point, here's a screenshot of a save I DID make.
https://www.xbox.com/play/media/ZupnjzAegN
Goalies are so backwards in this game. They make dumb saves they have no chance on, but easy plays end up in the net.
@SummerOfDekesPlayoffError explained what I was trying to get at.
Also that goal you showed in your 1st video used to happen in the PS360 era too. And yes I agree a good deal of times they make the "WOW" moment saves that sometimes are just too unbelievable.
Good discussion thus far, goalies need a lot of work. To offer some opinions on what is being said...
-there does need to be some element of randomness. Hockey is a fluid and chaotic game, and even in an online competitive environment it should reflect this so that it feels like hockey. But the occurence of long distance bad goals is misproportioned. Should be something we see very infrequently instead of every couple games.
-regarding goalies flopping, one thing we have noticed in EASHL is that if our defenseman makes a block, even if its just a simple knock down and gain of puck possession, our goalie will freak out like he's Dominic Hasek defending a 3 on 0. Goalies seem to treat anything slightly "off script" by over reacting terribly. Goalies should NOT be flopping if our defense knocks down a shot. For some reason its triggering desperation mode ahen not warranted.
To be fair, even on FIFA the goalkeepers are bad. It's tough for sports games to nail. Make them too OP and everyone skillzones, make them like NHL 23 which was non existent and the goal count goes up to 15 lol.
My biggest issue is height being too much of a factor. 67 Boyko will outperform a 95 Hasek. Makes literally no sense.
I don't have the experience playing as a goaltender, but they are too much at the mercy of X-Factors, screening is too wide (and they don't look around them properly), the covering animations are horrendous (and poorly timed), the poke checks (computer goaltender) are predictable and can be taken advantage of, they give up terrible rebounds too often (professional goaltenders at least attempt to deflect pucks to the corner), scrambles are too frequent and the goaltender tires too easily, own goals or the goaltender knocking the puck into his own net are way too frequent as well.
That's one big messy paragraph of some of the things that need to be looked at off the top of my head.
https://www.xbox.com/play/media/NKHqMmFWpE
This is what needs to be eliminated from the game. Relatively simple wrist shot that nails the goalie in the logo. Instead of being able to calmly gather the puck, the goalie plays hacky sack with the puck like he's Freddie Prinze Jr in 'She's All That' before knocking the puck into his own net.
