We Have a Wheels Problem

Personally, I think the devs are just pushing people to have full teams of humans in WoC. The mode is FOR teams of humans. Online vs is for cpu and humans. If you run with a cpu in WoC then you SHOULD be at a disadvantage. A CPU should not be a crutch or even base level. That's just my opinion.  Gone are the days of teams cherry picking while a cpu d man breaks up a 2 on 1 and then perfectly bounces a saucer off the boards onto a wings stick for an easy goal. EASHL will be FAR better when games are played with max humans.

Why should some players be at a disadvantage for not having teams or 5 of 6? How does that make sense? If players are put at a disadvantage for not having 5 players then all that does is encourage them to not play the game.

 Why not make improvements to the cpu D so they actually play like decent defenseman? Again, not looking for Makar here. Im talking a defenseman who doesnt blindly wave their stick at the puck. One who actually takes a decent angle with the forward before they get burned. Decent passing. 

Or better yet, fix the exploit. It's a glaringly obvious. Everyone plays multiple teams like this a night. 

Make it more playable for all team sizes. Not just for the 5s. 

Been playing since 2008. I know everyone says it but this could be the last year for me. 

I don't think the original intention was to force teams into using all human players, it's just way easier than actually fixing all the cpu issues. In EASHL I do not want to play with random scrubs, I do not want to play with people who are not my close friends - I'm forced to play alongside computer players from time to time and it's beyond frustrating, even if we still crack the top 100.
I can play forward and defense, I've played as a goalie - I know what i'm talking about when I say there are tons of flaws that need to be addressed...

Why should teams who have a bad human be at a disadvantage when playing a better cpu? 

There are also 4's and threes...

Dipsy, I by no means am saying the game doesn't have issues. I post them in most of my posts. All I'm suggesting is that EASHL is for humans, it is more fun to play with and against humans. CPU players ruin the experience, either they're too good and bad players complain that their club can't beat a team of 2 humans, or theyre bad and a team of 2 is frustrated they cant beat a team of 5. The fix is to get all teams to be 5 or have a match room size. It's frustrating to play with people who don't know what theyre doing but you play a few games and meet a few good players and add them on the game. All my friends have gotten too frustrated with the lack of development and the overall direction and they've all quit. Met a few people in these forums that I play with now. 

TTZ_Dipsy wrote:

I know what i'm talking about when I say there are tons of flaws that need to be addressed...

Yes but you often disregard the role that human inputs play on the actions taken by the A.I. You're very quick to blame "cpu issues" and not so quick to point out where humans can influence them. I'm not sure if you just don't 'believe' that the inputs humans make on the controllers have a direct impact on Ai or if you just don't agree that it's the case. 

fredo911 wrote:

Why not make improvements to the cpu D so they actually play like decent defenseman?

They do if the humans are positionally sound and aren't making too many errant decisions when it comes to what actions they're taking. 

Ai positioning and decision making is directly related to what the humans are doing. If your AI is performing poorly, then you need to take a step back and see what mistakes you're making as human players both positionally and with the actions you take.

For instance (using a recent thread as an example); 2 players end up above all 3 opponents, leaving the CPU all by themselves as the lone defender in the face of those 3 opponents generating straight-line speed.

 Had the players recognized they wouldn't obtain this rebound and backed up to a defensive posture, the CPU D would've aligned themselves accordingly and helped snuff out any ability to generate the speed required to 'blow by' anyone.

fredo911 wrote:

Or better yet, fix the exploit. It's a glaringly obvious.

Exploiting poor decision making by your opponent should not be 'fixed'. 

Hello Kid, 

Your explaination  is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The comment about the forwards is completely irrelevant as this will not change what the D needs to do on a 3 on 1. 

What the defenseman needs to do in this position is reconize that there are 3 forwards with speed on the rush now. Back skating at the blue line of his offensive zone would not be the correct decision. It would be to turn around and skate toward his own goalie with speed in order to not be burned and allow a clean breakaway. Would this for sure save a goal? Not at all. But any defenseman with a little common sense would recognize the threat very early on. 

For further education. Youtube search "Mackenzie Blackwood Foils Penguins' 3-on-1 Rush With Massive Glove Save"

Watch New Jersey's left D and how he does not allow the forwards to get behind him. Should this be a goal in chel? Sure. But job #1 of the defenseman on the rush is keep the forward in front of you. 

There are a lot of people who don't like 3s, as it isn't .. anything close to "hockey",  and they don't have 5/6 people to play with.  Sure you can fill in a random drop in but that experience is poor 7/10 games at minimum.

Making the AI better in general improves every single mode in the game.  Adding more humans to WoC is great but the AI in the game is still awful.

fredo911 wrote:

Your explaination  is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

Oh boy, I can't wait how you explain this...

fredo911 wrote:

The comment about the forwards is completely irrelevant as this will not change what the D needs to do on a 3 on 1. 

If you honestly believe that 'the forwards are completely irrelevant', then you don't understand the flow of hockey. 

fredo911 wrote:

What the defenseman needs to do in this position is reconize that there are 3 forwards with speed on the rush now. Back skating at the blue line of his offensive zone would not be the correct decision. It would be to turn around and skate toward his own goalie with speed in order to not be burned and allow a clean breakaway. Would this for sure save a goal? Not at all. But any defenseman with a little common sense would recognize the threat very early on. 

You're absolutely correct. However, why does the defenseman need to recognize 3 forwards with speed? What sequence of events takes place so that a defender is staring down 3 opponents all by himself. I want you to walk us through how this scenario comes into existence. Not what the D should do when this scenario happens, but I want you to lay out EXACTLY how a defender ends up in this position. 

fredo911 wrote:

Mackenzie Blackwood Foils Penguins' 3-on-1 Rush With Massive Glove Save

You're attempting to claim that a 5 on 5 scenario is exactly the same as the 3 on 3 scenario we're discussing. 

But even in your example, you can CLEARLY see the NJ defender losing speed while he adjusts laterally:

Which results in the Penguins getting a quality scoring chance.

Now.. why did this scenario play out? Because the other Dman made a wrong read, and all forwards were in front of the net:

Kid, you want to talk about the forwards but nobody is talking about the forwards. We are talking about the D. And how a D plays a situation. Rewatch the YouTube video, look how the D plays. Then play chel and watch how the defense does not do that in the exact same scenario. 

I am "attempting to claim" that the defensemen do not behave like actual defensemen in these situations. It does not matter how they end up in this situation. It's how they function in this situation. 

fredo911 wrote:

Kid, you want to talk about the forwards but nobody is talking about the forwards. We are talking about the D. And how a D plays a situation. Rewatch the YouTube video, look how the D plays. Then play chel and watch how the defense does not do that in the exact same scenario. 

Yea, nobody's talking about the forwards because nobody wants to accept responsibility. Just wanna blame the CPU and ignore that the CPU actions are based on what the humans do.

If the humans literally collapse in front of the opposing net, leaving a Defender all by himself against speedy forwards who are able to gain top straight line speed, I want you to explain to all of us how that's solely the defenders fault.

People are not clamouring for "better AI", they want AI that will bail them out for making mistakes.