Re: NHL 21 - hint for EA

@JeremiahJr1313 

It's not a side effect. It simply does not exist. The game does not pick and choose the winner and then make the game play out accordingly. That's not the kind of game we would want to play ourselves as well. It would mean you weren't in control of the outcome of games and could just put down your controller to let it play out however the computer wants. It's absolutely not true though. The outcome of games is decided by the inputs from the humans holding the controllers, the ratings of the players on the ice and the strategies being used.

Ok... 🙂 they may be not as good friends of yours as you may think 😃

So many topics about that on reddit, fb groups, here and there.

@JeremiahJr1313 

Yes. There are many topics on this over the years. No matter how many times we say it's not true, people still believe it is. The thing is, if people stopped blaming the game for the outcome of their games and looked at what they can do to improve their own play instead, they'd probably see a lot more games end in their favor 😉

"Stop blaming the game for the outcome of their games" seems like an easy excuse not to get into this trouble field from our point of view.

As I investigated all of the posting from last few months here, you have clearly an explanation of the problem. It occurs when there's significant overall difference in line rates. I noticed that as well - especially when I play with opponents with almost the same rates as mine, but either 4 D line is way weaker than the rest, or goalie is way worse than mine (mine is 97 Kuemper, but he seemed to be doing way worse than 91 Anderson on the other end) 🙂 😬  My team just seem a lot slower than way worse lines of the opponent. When I play with a very similar team it's almost equal in speed, chances, save %, everything seems to be in my hand when I play and the most important thing THE GAME IS FUN. I dig it even when I lose. It happens every time. Regularly. Coincidence? 🤔

@JeremiahJr1313 

Yes. It's a coincidence. There is nothing built into the game that is giving you all your wins by scripting the outcome.

Nahh... From what you're posting, you don't have this under control. It's way too easy to experience not to believe that sth is wrong with it. It just ruins the fun and spoils the time in the game. I talked to some winning players and they admit they take advantage of this bug. Stating these are "easy games" with sets of lines this way. How they do it? Check it out: they are 1-2div players, starting from the bottom with 2nd or even 3rd team with 87-91 lines (plus 99 Kuzi or Kopitar, and one or two 92-95 players). If 96-99 opponent sets any kind of strategy different from as defensive as it can be (everything to left) it is a "highway" to win and most of the times ends of with disconnection. This is exactly what they say, laughing hard. They also add something about your company, but it wouldn't be appreciated here, for sure 😃 I'd surely add their nicknames here, but they problably don't want to be blocked, haha.

Are you even passing on these information to the development team? 😃

PS one of them knows you and you know him @EA_Aljo 😃 😃

@JeremiahJr1313 

The dev team is aware of this theory. Nothing has been done about it because that's all it is. A theory. It's not actually real so there's nothing to "fix". There are a ton of assumptions about this game that aren't true. We see them every day. This is the result of confirmation bias. If people are making it to the top 2 divisions, it's due to their skill with the game and not because they can place a lower-rated player in their lineup to gain a boost. Using full defensive strategies has been the meta for the last couple of years so that wouldn't be it either. They're just making it harder for offense by collapsing their defense and trapping. 

Ha, you should really carry out a survey on 100 players in HUT and collect data on this topic. I talked to few of them and everyone is saying the same thing, that you're denying - it's not about the skill only.

It is also up to difference between overall rating (here's where AI suppose to get crazy), setting strategy (you say there's nothing to "fix" - how come if it is a def metha strategy for years, nobody's doing anything with that? it sets limited option for gameplay, doesn't it?) and reading other team (checking how good players are in front and adjusting strategy to get advantage).

Something's wrong here! People's been saying that here and in my interviews - your game engine isn't favouring players willing to get better skills but using the game AI and getting clever with setting lines. It's all because of game engine failure. I'm seriously not talking about bad/medium players, but 1-2div guys. I send the thread to one fb group and waiting for their comments.

@JeremiahJr1313 

Are you now saying some are able to set certain strategies within the game to activate some kind of boost? Which strategies are doing that? Can you get some video showing how people are manipulating the game to gain unfair wins?

"Are you now saying some are able to set certain strategies within the game to activate some kind of boost?"

Kind of, from what I understood they were saying - yeah. But it usually goes the other way, they set strategies depending on the overall of opponent. If you have a 99 overall team, you'd get problems playing against team of 83-87, as I had a chance to play against. 14shots, 7:0 loss. My opponents 83 Barrie left 99 Kuzi behind, my 99d could stop him, top shelf slapper on 97 Kuemper, hahaha. Div1 player getting fun of beating up 99ers with 3rd team 🙂 all gold card players, regular ones

"Which strategies are doing that?"

Not only strategies - you gotta have a overall difference between opponents for this game boost to be on. I noticed that setting everything on the left in strategies minimalises this speed gap (as I stated before - not only speed, shot/goal %, defensive effectivness etc.), but it still bothering.

"Can you get some video showing how people are manipulating the game to gain unfair wins?"

I could ask them to record sth, I don't have time to deal with it, cut and edit

Btw. one of the readers asked me if you were a human being or a bot, authomathic answering machine haha 😃 😃

PS I'm collecting a lot of the data, maybe you can hire me 🤓

I'm not sure I fully understand. But yeah, they're in the point that every problem we're pointing out here is that we lack skills or can't play.

@JeremiahJr1313 

Thanks for the details. There's nothing built into the game that would cause this to happen, but we'll keep an eye out for it.

Wow, I really didn't expect your "we'll keep an eye out for it" here. So far, it's been anything but cooperation as I read few entries here.

I'm so off to play hut lately, haven't played online for few days, stuck in 4th div, 96 overall, after losing 5-6games in a row with the same scenario over and over again, wasn't playing with players but trolls that hide behind the net, so called glitchers, switching players and letting AI do the work for them (it's not season mode for God' sake!!!).

I just gave up, it's just ridiculous, waste of my time, frustrating instead of fun.

I'm in touch with few players that have the same problem. Two of them are blocked here and there, and can't post to prove their point and tell you directly this. I've written down few user names they played with and who major in this "game boost gaining thing". If you have a way to do that, you can't examine their lines, results and recent games. Everyone of them uses the same scheme in builing lines - lowering the overall (in general to playing style - keep the puck deep, showing that stats doesn't matter in this game while the game adv thing in on), just to get a game slow (make 99ers slow and playing like they were tipsy) and take advantage that's (supposed to be) for rookies and them keeping up with better players (yeah, yeah, you told us, nothing like that exsist).

Listen to this - from what I've just heard, Fins have a yt tutorial how to get an adv in NHL20, I'm hoping to get a link for it 😃 😃 So funny!

Here you go. List of shamefull players: [Removed]

Yes, this is how angry they are, they make list 😃 It's published on one of fb groups, nothing secret here.

Edit: Please do not post gamertags/PSN IDs. That's considered naming and shaming. This breaks the following rule:

Don't "name and shame." If you see a suspected cheater, please report them by using the appropriate tools. We can't take any action against such accounts on Answers HQ, and such posts can lead to harassment.

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@JeremiahJr1313 

Thanks for the additional details. If we have any news, we'll update here, but so far, there is no evidence showing that there is a boost for using lower overall players.

Sorry about that, I can send you names privately, if needed.

Just letting you know, from my perspective - it's not only that low rated skate faster. It's more like there was a player's speed penalty on ~99ers (also shot/pass acc., goalie attributes, etc.). It's like their skill was suddenly around 70-75. But it's my feeling, I get that everyone experiancing this may get it slightly different.

@JeremiahJr1313 

Thanks for the info. If I have any news, I'll let you know, but so far this is just a theory and due to confirmation bias.

You have a lot to do guys, if you really wanna straight this thing out. Sometimes this "game advantage thing" is just too much.

Another story picturing this problem. 95 overall vs a team with 3-4 98-99ers, most of the the team 93-95, 2-3 89-90, 99 Roy defended by 90 Lindell and 84 Phaneuf 😃  Played with feeling where you struggle to keep your team skating straight, not positioning well. Penalties in most of the contacts, but not the best skilled opponent I must say. He got a one timer goal and game it got even 3min before the game. Most of OT on powerplay, but with this frustrating feeling of the players having not sharpen blades, broken stick or being hangover 😃

Have a look at the video. How this warrior (😃) from Finland won the game in penalty shots with a puck in goalie's glove, but light on (not even close to goal line). Hilarious. Nothing going on there? And you still don't believe sth wrong here? 😃

PS I talked to one of the Fins and he told me that it requires very good skill to win in this kind of play. He's in Div1 with 2nd team in div2 (overall 86).

@JeremiahJr1313 

Can you make the video public? I'll take a look at it.

Done.

@JeremiahJr1313 

It's hard to tell from that video, but most likely the puck was in the glove when it passed over the goal line. Thankfully, this is rare, but obviously it can happen. Hopefully, it'll be resolved for future games.

Haha, it's easy to tell. Stop the frame when the glove is catching. Unfair win, again...

@JeremiahJr1313 

Without changing the camera angle, I can't tell for sure if the glove goes over the line, but I've seen this happen before so most likely that's the case.