Re: NHL 21 roster update

The roster update is really the big thing for people in this thread, and people who want to play franchise/be a pro but can't.

@Higgy-Baby924 

I definitely get the frustration with facing players that do the same thing over and over again. The good thing is that they're very predictable. Try setting your strategies to collapsing and protect net. That can help clog the slot and block more shots. Personally, I like to play the carrier closely and try to not let them get those passes off. Obviously, that's easier said than done, but it's the best I can recommend at the moment. We'll have to wait and see if an update addresses this or if it's a situation where we all need to adapt to with defending.

As far as the errors go, it sounds like they are random. That's definitely not good and we don't want it happening. What system are you playing on?

@DiecastReviews 

I for sure understand many are upset about not having current rosters. I really don't know when we'll have everyone included from the draft as we need to wait until they play their first NHL shift before they can be added. That's not up to us, unfortunately.

That's what it seems like

@leplehhhhhh 

It's possible there could be an update sooner, but it wouldn't include any of the rookies as they need to play their first NHL shift before we can add them.

How can you add rookies to madden before they play their first game and not NHL 21? When madden comes out every year in August rookies are on teams before the season ever starts. Sounds like this is just a typical EA excuse for laziness. It's understandable that with the draft just happening and free agency just underway that a new roster update might take a week or two. However, not getting one till the season starts, which could be december the earliest is unnacceptable. Also the game is still missing prospects already drafted from 2 drafts ago like Darren Turcotte and Vasily Podkolzin. To me this is unnacceptable. Put them somewhere. Also, you have young guys all over this roster who are now a year older since NHL 20 and havent seen any progression with the same overalls from last year. Again, unnaceptable. EA you said you were delaying this game a month to fine tune some things and it was apparent nothing was done. Your lack of attention to detail is so evident. When trying to purchase the game on my Xbox I can see where it still says pre order and save 10% but theres no actual 10% discount. You really need to get your act together. EA how long do you think people are going to continue to buy your less than par product??

This is bs you had huges in NJ before the season ! Go ask the big boys and come back with a real answers! It’s not difficult 

@KAOSA6ENT 

The issue with Hughes was explained in this thread along with assigning players to their current teams.

Yes. We understand the Hughes exception. But not having a roster update at least PLANNED for sometime around release for players that are ALREADY IN THE GAME to be assigned to their proper teams is unacceptable. Giving an answer like “we don’t know when there will be a roster update” meant there was none planned in the first place. And don’t give me the BS about “we didn’t have enough time”, because I can go through the roster right now and assign all rookies and FA to their proper teams MYSELF in less than a couple of hours. The problem with this work around is they are considered undrafted rookies and when you load up franchise it messes with the potential ratings.

Despite your claim that “franchise is working and completely playable right now” is so tongue and cheek and condescending. Those of us who play franchise require our mode to reflect some form of realism. Having Lafrenierre drafted #1 overall in 2021 is not the answer. Also when you make the the adjustments yourself several of the top prospects such as Quinton Byfield’s potential drops to Top 6 for some strange reason. Again, also not an option for those of us who crave realism.

I think the point your missing is we are upset that you claim to not have had enough time to fix the BASE roster due to time constraints, when you had time to make sure that Alex Lafreniere had his rangers card added to ultimate team? Why is it a priority to make sure you can try and milk customers for more money, but giving them something that has become a basic feature of your $60 purchase is not?

@nutnnice626 

Amen !

Just the fact that they cant even give us a date show how much they dosent’ care anymore about everything thats not call HUT. 

@nutnnice626 

We have never announced roster updates far in advance. There will be an update, but we don't give out dates. Normally, they are announced the day before.

It was not meant to be a condescending comment. I'm stating the fact that the mode is technically playable. It's not broken. It takes time to put updates together and especially right after the draft/FA, there's a lot of movement. If we put out an update today, most likely people would be upset that it didn't include yesterday's moves. Normally, by the time the game releases in mid-September, rosters are pretty accurate. Once the new season starts, an update releases shortly after to include rookies and additional moves. Since it's only been about a week, it's going to take time to get the update complete.

I absolutely get the frustration. We want rosters to be up to date and will do all we can to get this to happen as fast as possible. If we could snap our fingers and make it happen, we would, but there's a lot more involved than you're thinking as there are hundreds of players across all the leagues to assign.

There's also no date for updates for any of the other modes. If we truly only cared about HUT, that's all that would be available. We also wouldn't have significantly updated Be A Pro if that were the case. There wouldn't be so much of a focus on WoC as well or gameplay for that matter. It's not all about HUT, but that's the assumption people make when they feel their particular issue isn't being addressed.

Then push the game back, I get it’s not your fault , but if you can’t release a game that has every game mode realisticly playable, then you shouldn’t release the game yet, id much rather wait for a game that I don’t have to wait to start franchise than a game where I’m only logging onto to check for roster updates 

Mostly agree, good post. 

What I am seeing is that they've done an update in early Oct for early accessors and planning to do another one... But due to the current NHL situation, there are still signings happening right this second.  Therefore, I get the hesitancy because as soon as they release an update more complaints will come in.

That being said, NHL 21's official release date is tomorrow and most of the star players have signed and trades are simmering down.  If I'm EA, I want to quickly get out a brand new roster update in the next day in time for the official release date to maintain trust with their 'users'.  I would be extremely disappointed if we get anything less... Personally, I think a lot of this thread is fair but maybe a bit premature.  This EA guy obviously doesn't know anything so lets wait a day and see if their team comes through on release date.  I would bet that they have something in the works if they want to maintain any customer trust.

Also, I'm doubting any leeway with the KHL and USHL U18 players as the deal between the NHLPA and EA only activates upon first game per contract.  That may be already mentioned though.

@nickholton99 

Pushing the game back doesn't make much sense when there are other modes where rosters aren't an issue. If you guys need to wait until the rosters are more accurate, that's definitely understandable, but I don't see the point in holding the entire game back because one mode doesn't have players that moved in the last week.

so if i manually trade lafreniere from rimouski to straight rangers ?

he's still gonna be drafted 1st overall in the draft in the franchise or be a pro mode ? 

sorry for my english ...

With some players not being in the game, even the ones drafter a year or two ago, typically happens with the KHL players.  EA does not own the rights to the KHL so they cannot include players from that league into the game.  As soon as those players play 1 game in the NHL then they are members of the NHLPA, they then can be included in the game.  But until then, it is illegal for EA to put a KHL player in the game because they don't own any KHL rights. 

It’s not just franchise it’s be a pro too, the game mode that was most advertised isn’t playable for most the fanbase until a roster comes out, the game is just hut and world of Chel right now, and hut wouldn’t even work for me, couldn’t purchase packs, kept getting an error message saying the pack is no longer available

@EA_Aljo 

First of thank for you answer and patience we get that its not fault.

Its just that you dont seems to understand why people are upset and every answer you give seems to * off people more and more.

People are frustrated because even if yes the game its complete because everything is playable NHL 21 its not complete because the BASE roster of 2020-2021 is not in the game right now. We all get that the time was shorter this year but why not disclause it at launch ? I would not have buy the game with that information. Thats why I feel rip off by EA and I think a lot of people are.

We get that there is a lot of player movement right now but most people ask for the draft update not the full up to date update. We can move UFA to their new team and manually edit their new contract , however we cannot edit a player to be draft. 

You want us to understand that this is a special year but you dont seems (EA) to understand , OK normally you dont announce roster uodate in advance , but why its so complicated to do it for this time ? Most people who play Franchise and Be a pro dont play the game right now because the base roster its not up to date and dont want to sink a lot of hour into customize the roster only to have an update next week. 

The full on release is tomorow and the base roster its still not ready but again , EA dosent disclose it. If there a % of player who feel rip-off since 2 days imagine how people will feel rip-off tomorow. Why not more transparancy on you’re part ? 

We feel HUT its only you care because its the only mode up to date , but its seems obvious that there is still a large of player who buy the game for franchise mode ou Be a pro , and still EA dosent give any info on when we will be able to play it with a base roster up to date.

Again its not your fault but you’re asking people who feel rip off by 100$ to understand be patient bu you cant even give us something...
We are in our right to ask for answer and to be pissed off.

@nickholton99 

That message normally means you have hit the limit for that pack. You can see the limits on the HUT home screen in the main tile.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@nutnnice626 

We have never announced roster updates far in advance. There will be an update, but we don't give out dates. Normally, they are announced the day before.

It was not meant to be a condescending comment. I'm stating the fact that the mode is technically playable. It's not broken. It takes time to put updates together and especially right after the draft/FA, there's a lot of movement. If we put out an update today, most likely people would be upset that it didn't include yesterday's moves. Normally, by the time the game releases in mid-September, rosters are pretty accurate. Once the new season starts, an update releases shortly after to include rookies and additional moves. Since it's only been about a week, it's going to take time to get the update complete.

I absolutely get the frustration. We want rosters to be up to date and will do all we can to get this to happen as fast as possible. If we could snap our fingers and make it happen, we would, but there's a lot more involved than you're thinking as there are hundreds of players across all the leagues to assign.

There's also no date for updates for any of the other modes. If we truly only cared about HUT, that's all that would be available. We also wouldn't have significantly updated Be A Pro if that were the case. There wouldn't be so much of a focus on WoC as well or gameplay for that matter. It's not all about HUT, but that's the assumption people make when they feel their particular issue isn't being addressed.

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@EA_Aljo 

I get where you guys are coming from. But I guarantee you nobody would be upset if you didn’t have ALL of the free agent moves made. All were really asking for is the rookies to be assigned to their teams. We can add the free agents to the teams ourselves.  It where franchise mode is getting broken is not having the rookies rights assigned to their proper teams.

But I understand the hold up at the same time. I just feel bad for the people who already bought the game thinking they were going to be able to start up a franchise or BAP right away. A lot of people purchased this game specifically for those modes. I understand you guys can’t give us a concrete date because people would blow their tops if you couldn’t meet it. But the right thing to do would have been to tell people “hey, because of circumstances out of our control we weren’t able to update the rosters for the base roster. The rosters will basically be NHL ‘20 rosters so if you guys like franchise mode or BAP and want accuracy, it’s probably best to hold off on purchasing until we get an update available”. We could all live with an answer like that. It’s the lack of transparency that bothers the consumer.

okay we get there was issues with updating the roster and you guys can’t give us an exact date, but a heads up like we hope to have one out by “mid to end of November” would go a long way and no one would be complaining. But as of right now we don’t know if an update is planned for November. December. January???? Shoot they are talking about not starting the official NHL season until February, will we have to wait until then for an update??? 

I’m cool on waiting. I didn’t pre-order. Was planning on buying the game tonight because I thought there would be a day one roster update. But I will hold off for an update. But people who pre-ordered and already own this game are owed some transparency. Especially since every piece of online marketing portrayed Lafreniere in a Rangers jersey which would mislead one into thinking they were getting updated rosters. Don’t you think?

It was the first pack I bought..... I opened a bunch of loyalty and preorder packs  before if that had something to do with it