There is no input and reaction lag on the AI's part so it can definitely seem like something's up - I'd still recommend adjusting your strats to be purely defensive and for you to stay in the middle since your ai puts highest priority on covering what they deem to be positional mistakes.
NHL only ever gets 1 or 2 patches so that's why the tuner number is so low. Plenty of real players have played thr game so I know they have a lot of real feedback in that regard
Thank you for your reply. As it stands I can’t really play this game any longer. It’s so unlike hockey that it can’t be designed by people who know the sport. It’s gone downhill over the years and I should have heeded the reviews, I’ve tried everything. Moved the sliders, changed the difficulty, used a highly defensive team. Nothing seems to work. The AI is just atrocious. You can’t touch the computer but the computer touches you and your flat on the ice while they are scoring against a great goalie with the highest slider rating in every category. It’s as if the goalie isn’t even there.
I’ll just let the game sit dormant and hope for an update to strengthen the goalies and defense and stop catering to the computer, because as it stands, the game is completely unplayable unless you put it on super easy and tie the hands to the computer so much that they look like bumbling fools out there. I don’t know what EA was shooting for but this game is still an arcade game and nothing like a sim, even though I have it near full sim. It’s almost like HtThe Ice. Remember that game? This is that game.
I hear ya - you notice it a lot when circling with the puck and going for pokes; the ai just seems to always be able to counter. In these types of situations though I tend to launch up and immediately change players to pincer to cause a big juicy hit.
I remember seeing a fairly decent ice hockey game from an indie developer on the store last week but that'd probably be more akin to 3on3 arcade. In any case, a break will always do some good -- PS+ has been killing it lately and Game Pass is top notch
THat was another thing I have a problem with. You mentioned circling the puck and the AI always counters. I've noticed, not just in this game, other NHL titles by EA as well, that the computer is always faster than you, no matter who you use. Even if you increase every players speed the computer will always have a huge edge on you. Which makes it much harder to poke check or get in front of the computer to get the puck or stop the play.
I know these sports games are nothing more than copy/paste code from previous years and they add a couple new features and call it a brand new experience but this time around they seemed to forget to add defence and turned up the computers difficulty while spending no time on player ability. I do hope they come out with another patch and tuner soon.
Community ManagerEvery time there was a new tuner, people complained it ruined the game. We also get accused of adding stealth changes that aren't in the patch notes. This is also a reaction to the complaints every year that the beta is better. So, the dev team only makes a tuner update when it seems to be absolutely necessary.
Community ManagerThe game is not copied and pasted. There's a lot that goes into the game with each new release. Of course, it's built on top of the previous generation of games, but we don't take last year's game and change the year on it.
The computer players aren't faster, but they are excellent at conserving their energy. Humans tend to hustle when they don't need to. They also rarely let their goalie cover the puck. When you pass it out, your players just get that much more fatigued which lowers their attributes. You'll probably see a difference by covering the puck and manually choosing which lines you want to use. I play on Superstar and have had no problem keeping up with the AI players, but I'm also very careful about managing my player's fatigue.
I appreciate the response but the goalies are absolutely horrible. Like I said, even at the highest rating in sliders the goalies are chain link fences and the puck is a BB. I can share the shots on goal for the computer and show video of how easily they score 90% of the time they shoot. This is by far the worst NHL to date and I just bought it yesterday and am about to uninstall it for NHL 19. That's how bad the defense and goalies are. It's a complete mess. Every year EA boasts of all the changes and better goalies and whatnot but do far EA hasn't lived up to their word. I'm getting tired of seeing the computer skate to the net, make a move and score every single time, regardless of my defense. I've been playing NHL games since the days when you made them for Genesis. From the beginning. I've bought each year except for last year and was contemplating this year and went ahead anyways. I regret that decision. I should have heeded the reviews saying how bad the goalies were this time around. Please, fix this mess. This is not hockey, this is not even a sim, it's arcade hockey where the goalies belong in peewee hockey. These goalies are horrible. They stop nothing. I switched it to rookie and still the computer scores goal after ridiculous goal after pathetic goal while my goalie just sits th3re looking like he's taking a dump. It's horrendous.
Community ManagerAre you seeing 90% of shots for and against you count as goals? I haven't been experiencing this personally and we're not getting other reports of it. I'd like to find out why this is happening to you.
I'm seeing the computer dance on in and do a couple moves and they beat the goalie every single time. It's like my goalie isn't there. I appreciate that it may not be happening to you, that's usually the case with developers for some reason, but for us, the players, it happens frequently. I've bought games where I experience bugs but the developers say they didn't and never fixed it for we the ones who have experienced the issue. I see it a pot in games these days. Games get the green light but they are put out half finished. Cyberpunk ring any bells? Money was their desire, not a finished game. Same goes with other developers. Sims 4, another EA title, has the same bug that EA refuses to fix. I really wish an EA rep would contact me on that game too. This is the hockey game we are dealing with however. I've loved the NHL series since it began but I just can't play this one. The goals against are not realistic. Not at all. I don't know why the goals against are so easy for the computer but all I know is that the game needs some proper AI adjustment patches immediately. As it stands it's like having a pulled goalie. He's useless in net.
Community ManagerWe're not getting many reports about this. If you're letting AI players skate around until they get good scoring chances, they're probably going to score on you. If you can get some video showing the problem, that will help. Are you playing manual defense or do you control one player and sit in the middle while letting your AI teammates defend for you? What difficulty level are you playing on?
I had it on semi pro but the computer was scoring cheap goals, you know, like crashing into the goalie and the puck trickles in. One of the bugs that has never been fixed in years. Even one where the goalie gets pulled out of the way when he's crashed into and another computer player gets the puck and puts it in the net easily. I switched it to the easiest setting but there is no challenge as even my goals go in easily on this level. The whole difficulty scaling is so unrealistic and has been for years. Easy is too easy, semi pro is harder, much harder, and pro is forget about ever scoring at all and getting scored on easily.
And the same issue where the computer is way faster than any of my players, even when I'm controlling the guy close to him. It's almost as if the AI knows I'm going to switch to that character. As soon as I switch they get rid of the puck. And so forth. It's not very realistic. I skate with the puck and they just barely touch me and I lose the puck. I skate faster and it's hard to keep up with the computer players. They are way too fast to be realistic. I even had to turn off penalties because in the last few years you poke check and they trip up so easily and a penalty is drawn. The computer does it to you and they draw no penalty. So I made it fair by turning off penalties completely. Only fighting gives me a penalty. Goalies are at 100 but the sliders are useless.
I want to like this game, coming from NHL 19, which I most likely will go back to since I doubt there will be an update for 21, but I just can't get behind it. I end up turning it off when the computer starts getting goal after goal in a matter of seconds. Seconds apart from each other. My AI teammates are a joke. They are never in place to receive passes, they don't cover me, they are always behind the play, they are hardly ever open. Like I said, I've played previous installments and never had this many issues. I don't know what else to do. I even lower the difficulty in the AI, AI learning, etc, but the computer disregards it completely.
Community ManagerYou might see better AI placement on the higher difficulties, but I understand that might be too high a challenge for you. If you can get some video of the issues you're seeing, I'll try to advise on how you can keep your teammates in position better. What mode are you playing exactly? Since you're changing the sliders, I assume this is Be a Pro, Franchise or Play Now? You should be able to get an appropriate challenge by adjusting the sliders and difficulty though.
I'm playing Franchise.
Community ManagerYou have a lot of control over how the game plays since the sliders can be edited. It would be good to spend some time experimenting with them. There also is a great community of offline players at Operation Sports. Our own forums have some slider suggestions as well.
Honestly my friend, just sounds like.you need more practice at the game. I always complain about game modes n stuff not included but the gameplay is very fun and competitive.
I've been playing the franchise for years and it has nothing to do with me needing more practice. The goalie AI has gotten worse over the years and it doesn't matter how great you are at defense the computer mostly scores on the goalie almost every single time they shoot. Not only that but the computer AI is always faster than your skater, all the time. When it's my AI Player chasing after the computer with the puck they overtake them easily. The moment I switch over to the player manually is when the speed drains and they leave me in the dust, even if I'm holding or tapping the speed button. Makes no difference. There is something in the mechanics that needs fixing. It's been like this for years and hasn't changed.
What difficulty are you playing? I just had Connor Hellebuck make 40 saves on me. My goalie also played great.
I play on semi-pro
So about fatigue... how exactly is that computed regarding the length of the game? Can you wear a team down to where in the 3rd period even though it says they have full energy it will decrease at a much more rapid pace due to taking hits and how much the player has expended energy in previous periods? It's so hard to get the details of what actually matters vs what does not like even on the attributes what all they mean etc. Shouldn't EA have the details spelled out much better somewhere?
Community ManagerThe previous periods aren't taken into consideration. Energy is maxed out between periods and drains as they play. Hits and hustling are the biggest contributors to fatigue.
So essentially you can't grind down a team over the course of a game. At least I know now. thanks
Community ManagerCorrect, but you can grind them down over the course of a period.
Semi pro the goalies will let in lots of goals
I’ve trie pro and it’s even worse. You are barely touched by the computer and the puck is easily taken away from you. The computer is faster than you by far and scores easier and more quickly. And, that’s not true. In NHL 19 I also played semipro with the same settings that I have now and I was ending in shutouts. So your assessment is rather flawed.
19 and 21 have vastly different mechanics so while difficulty might remain the same, your results will differ using the same playstyle
I’ve noticed a few differences like no more Mike Emrick, and Ray Ferraro is no longer repeating the same thing over and over and over, but I haven’t noticed much else about the skating, shooting, passing or goaltending. It seems like a copy/paste with a few added celebrations and cutscenes. I don’t think one can say that the play style is vastly different than that of a few years ago. If you played both games side by side with the sound off and showing one skater skating from one side of the ice to the other, you couldn’t much tell the difference unless you knew the platform well. What I have been trying is Be A Pro and I’ve been liking just that aspect of the game because now I can focus on just one aspect, the person I’m controlling. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose because all they are looking at is how my player is doing. It’s gotten a little more in-depth, like MLB The show, and I like that they added the extra elements. Wish there were more text options to choose from than the same responses you choose from in every dialogue (at this point I’d like to turn those off because they are repetitive and redundant) but I usually just choose the same responses which yields the same answers regardless.
Anyways, I get it. NHL 19 on semi-pro - goalies were better and saved a lot more goals. NHL 21 on semi-pro - new mechanics means that goalies are much more terrible and save less goals than in previous offerings. I think that is what the other person was trying to say. Wouldn’t that be a step backwards though? Shouldn’t the game improve and not regress? New announcer is a nice improvement. I liked Emrick, but it’s nice to change every few years or so. And it’s nice not hearing Ray Ferraro repeating the same stuff over and over, although I haven’t been playing much and when I do it’s mostly Be A Pro as I enjoy that a lot better than franchise or any other part of the game. I don’t like to play online so I’ll never do that. I kind of like 3’s so I play that sometimes.
