I think I got a pretty good picture of what is causing this…
I could be wrong and there could be multiple factors/problems involved, but below explanation makes sense.
Like I mentioned in my earlier posts, I did not have much ”game speed”-problems in NHL21. But slow game speed existed.
I have top equipment a very good ISP and good knowledge. I play from Sweden and in NHL21 I was usually matched with players from Sweden, Finland, Noway, sometimes also with players from Russia, Germany, and occasional Denmark and others. I believe the NHL21 HUT server was located in Stockholm area, but I am not sure.
When I played certain players (not all) from either Russia or central Europe, eg Germany I could notice the game lag/slow speed even in NHL21.
So for NHL22 I started asking myself these questions…
Why is this input lag so much noticeble in NHL22…? What changed…?
Why are some players subjects to these problems while some are not?
Also, why am I always matched nowdays with players far away (eg in central Europe)?
Yesterday I was trying Online versus to see if lag existed in this mode as well (hut mode was unplayable). I was matched vs a German player. I forgot to check the performance graph at the start, but when I experienced the slow game speed I checked and saw that the network graph was 44ms, not flat line, but rollar coaster-like. IE opponent did not have a nice fiber connection. 50ms is quite common when playing p2p between Sweden and Germany. Normally at game start I check the graph and drop out of the game if graph is too bad.
But in HUT you cannot 1) check if connection is good, because it will always list your connection to the game server 2) you will loose the game if you drop out.
Now why does this input lag problem happen in NHL22 HUT online mode?
In my case, I play the PS5 version of NHL22, simply to utilize the upgraded version.
But the problem is that I will only connect to other PS5 players, not PS4 players.
To look at the numbers:
for PS5, 13.4 million units were sold
for xbox x, 8 million
for PS4, 116.6 units were sold.
source
Now the player base for NHL has always been very small, compared to other online games, and reducing the amount of available players will create a sparse layer of potential opponents.
if there are 13.4 million PS5 consoles sold worldwide, and considering the small player base I will not have that many potentional opponents in my country of neighbor countries. The math is simple.
This would explain why quite many players also have no problem at all (including twitch streamers) as they have a much better scope and density of opponents while using PS4 version.
And to be clear, its not the PS5 itself, because I played PS5 fine with nhl21, in NHL22 it is related to the scope of available players and the ”poor” matchmaking.
Also looking at the feedback in this thread there are both PS5 and xbox x users, I cant confirm its the same for xbox versions, but quite certain about it.
In PS5 you can see who you are facing in rivals game (which is hidden by design) in a menu not related to NHL so its quite easy to track.
So today I downloaded the PS4 version of the game, but when I realized the hut mode is separate from PS5 I could not bother to proceed with testing further.
Restricting the game-matching per console version was not a good move to be honest.
What can be done?
For starters give us an improved performance graph for HUT games, which takes into account all factors in an online game. I am usally at 18-20ms, while looking at the graph, but this does not represent my games performances.
Even though its limited per console version, EA can improve the matchmaking, I rather wait for minutes, even hours!! If I could find an opponent which would give me equal conditions in terms of game play speed.
Maybe give us the possibility to filter on opponent radius?
Perhaps something can be done to improve games with players far apart, but I doubt it, this has been around for a long while now.
