Product: NHL 21Platform:Sony Playstation 4How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Simulate? Changing settings? I don't know why it happens Edit: Morale Meetings being on apparentlyWhat happens when the bug occurs? Stuck on "Simulating" and never ends. If you cancel simulating it's stuck on "Finishing"What do you expect to see? This to never happen on an 80 dollar game. People have reported this happening since NHL 16Was the issue in online or offline mode? OfflineInsert Game Mode or Feature here Franchise ModeWhat time did you see the bug? (HH:MM AM/PM) 2021-02-17 4:10PMWhat is your time zone? EST (IET) - GMT - 5:30What is your gamertag/PSN ID?PS4 Crash Reporting: Please copy the text you put in the crash report here. N/AEASHL issues? Please insert your Club Region.What is your game language? EnglishN/A Just stuck simulating

@davehoehn970 Morale was one of the worst additions. I would be very happy if they just removed it since they will never be able to get it to work realistically.I find owner mode to be really meh. I would prefer more focus on the GM aspects like making the GM AI better, trade values actually fixed, have the chemistry issues addressed, everything that I’ve been talking about since launch

@kguy1900 I’ve had FM stuck simming with morale off too, but it might be less common with it off. I usually get stuck around the start of Free Agency

@kguy1900 We never will get to the point of having a working FM, in nhl 21. And my hopes for a working FM in nhl 22 are slim, considering how backwards they went this year, and how unsupportive they have been for FM. Very few critical bug fixes, and then nothing despite the abnormal abundance of bugs.I’ve had this bug in previous instalments as well, so I know it’s definitely not new. Just another bug that they’ve left in the game

@kguy1900 @SkylerJames13 Man, makes me glad I haven't bought since '15, if it's been going on that long, but at least I haven't encountered this (yet) on '21. Someone said in the Progress Reports bug thread(s) that turning off Morale Meetings fixed that one, too, but I've had that off the whole time, and no luck there... no Progress, no Franchise. Of things worth adding to enhance FM, "morale" ain't it, to me. I shut off pricing hot dogs, too.

@davehoehn970 Even though I know all the EA mods don’t like me, and I’ve been super critical and whiny about this game, I do it for a reason. I don’t want to be the only one. I’m trying to rally others so that we actually have a voice. They can’t listen to us if they don’t hear us.Even then, they likely still won’t anyways. But we can at least try

Franchise Mode Stuck Simulating | EA Forums

15 Replies

kguy1900
5 years ago
Since EA only seems to respond to Online/HUT issues I did some settings changes for anyone with this issue.
For some reason, it seems that changing Morale Meetings to "Off" fixes this, although I had them on before this issue and had no problems simulating.
After turning them off and simming forward, I turned them back on to see if the problem repeated, and it did.
The newest update is what broke morale meetings I'm guessing?
TL;DR: Try turning off Morale Meetings
SkylerJames13
5 years ago
@kguy1900 I’ve had FM stuck simming with morale off too, but it might be less common with it off. I usually get stuck around the start of Free Agency
TTZ_Dipsy
Hero+
5 years ago
Looks like the game is struggling to process background information.
Do you have a base model system with a regular drive? If NHL is bring played off an external HDD I suggest moving it to system storage - Normally I would say next year's game should be better but unless you're lucky enough to snag a PS5 I can only assume the same problems will persist
kguy1900
5 years ago
No, no external HDD. Completely base PS4.
I'm just wondering when we get to the point where bugs are fixed during the current game instead of saying "I hope it's better next year". The offline players shouldn't get shafted for an entire year, then be expected to just buy the next one in *hopes* of it being better. I also hope that this was an issue presented by the recent update and will be fixed with the next one as I did not have any issues beforehand, although others have had it dating back to NHL 16 at least. Probably since the series moved to the PS4-XboxOne generation.
I'm guessing you're right about struggling to process a mechanic/information, in this case seemingly morale meetings, but the guy above said he's had the issue with morale meetings turned off, so who knows. I'm no expert
SkylerJames13
5 years ago
@kguy1900 We never will get to the point of having a working FM, in nhl 21. And my hopes for a working FM in nhl 22 are slim, considering how backwards they went this year, and how unsupportive they have been for FM. Very few critical bug fixes, and then nothing despite the abnormal abundance of bugs.

I’ve had this bug in previous instalments as well, so I know it’s definitely not new. Just another bug that they’ve left in the game
davehoehn970
5 years ago
@kguy1900 @SkylerJames13
Man, makes me glad I haven't bought since '15, if it's been going on that long, but at least I haven't encountered this (yet) on '21. Someone said in the Progress Reports bug thread(s) that turning off Morale Meetings fixed that one, too, but I've had that off the whole time, and no luck there... no Progress, no Franchise. Of things worth adding to enhance FM, "morale" ain't it, to me. I shut off pricing hot dogs, too.
SkylerJames13
5 years ago
@davehoehn970 Morale was one of the worst additions. I would be very happy if they just removed it since they will never be able to get it to work realistically.
I find owner mode to be really meh. I would prefer more focus on the GM aspects like making the GM AI better, trade values actually fixed, have the chemistry issues addressed, everything that I’ve been talking about since launch
davehoehn970
5 years ago
@SkylerJames13
Yeah... those are all way more important to fix. At least we can shut "Owner Mode" off... we turn off "Morale Meetings", but we still get all these other flawed behaviors apparently related to morale. Sucks bad.
I suppose that's why I've joined your chorus on these forums... would have been better if I sought these out before buying. Didn't even occur to me. My thought process was "I like NHL, I haven't bought for a while, I don't know if the league is playing for real this year, it's on sale, buy". My fault for wanting something that doesn't exist, I guess.
SkylerJames13
5 years ago
@davehoehn970 I mistakenly read the FM Deep Dive posted by EA. They, obviously, highly touted the “new features” and the “trade value revamp” and I was excited. I was hopeful.

Same with the BAP “rework”. I thought that they actually did something for us offline players. But they absolutely murdered the BAP mode. Took out the juniors, made it a handholding extremely linear ‘story’ mode that forces you to play to a single path, instead of becoming your own unique player.

I partly blame myself for wasting money on this sad broken game, because I listened to EA and believed them when they hyped the ‘new’ BAP and FM, when really all we got was a broken, buggy mess that barely resembles anything we’ve been asking for.

From now on, I’ll be looking on the forums, and FM Facebook group I’m in, before I buy another NHL from EA. And honestly that goes for all EA games. They’re all pretty meh, because lots are focused on multiplayer and the loot boxes. The pay to win games.

Maybe nhl 22 will be different. Maybe they will show us up, and we’ll have to put our feet in our mouths. I would gladly shut my trap if they delivered.

But I almost guarantee they won’t, and the bugs will remain.
SkylerJames13
5 years ago
@davehoehn970 Even though I know all the EA mods don’t like me, and I’ve been super critical and whiny about this game, I do it for a reason. I don’t want to be the only one. I’m trying to rally others so that we actually have a voice. They can’t listen to us if they don’t hear us.

Even then, they likely still won’t anyways. But we can at least try