This Game is ridiculous

@XUnpluggerX 

I know the AI can be more aggressive when playing 3v3. You can try setting your strategies to be more conservative. That might help, but I know the dev team is aware of their behavior.

When it comes to 6v6 though, they are more dependant on the strategies you set as well as how the humans are playing. I see guys play out of position very frequently. When that happens, the computers will step up to take their place and cover the open ice. Strategies are more important in that mode as well. I always set the D to High Pressure. They step up more for hits that way. 

With passing, they always look for not only an open lane, but at your coverage. Get more open and chances are good they'll pass to you. Not every time, but probably more than they are now. Most of the time forwards just take off for the neutral zone and tap their sticks not paying attention to their coverage or defenders between them and the carrier. You gotta be careful about calling for passes in that situation. We're all guilty of calling for a forced pass hoping it'll get through. Previous to 19, chances were decent it would. Over the last couple of releases, you've had to really be mindful of open lanes especially.

The double pass turnover is quite frustrating. I hear ya, but keep in mind that had you been a little more patient, like half a second more patient, that wouldn't have happened. Try to get in the habit of holding off for a moment to see if they're going to pass.

Not can; the ai is definitely more aggressive than they are suppose to be when put on defense, no matter your settings. This was a problem from last year that never got fixed. I think a lot of this has to do with the offensive zone blue line - since everyone is at the line and the computer has better acceleration I think they just take it upon themselves to go up.

With just 2 human players it's always recommended to play as a C and D (you can be a Sniper in this mode; it doesn't matter much) and just have the AI stay F since they aren't very good at defense and will move up anyway.

AI passing is a weird one because yes, they do look for open lanes but they definitely aren't aware of human coverage. AI offense and defense stick with their scripting and are unable to think like humans. Yes, in normal situations that pass probably would have worked, but there have been so many times (more in 6's than 3's), where the computer just passes right back to you when you're swarmed by 2 or 3 guys. Them not passing when you call for it (especially on 2on0 breakaways) is just plain unacceptable.

I don't know anybody who uses the touchpass mechanic on purpose but Aljo is right, it's still something you can technically control.

Not saying it's perfect at all though - ai passing is random at best and plays happen so fast it's a total rage inducer to just launch the puck up when you would of had a perfect opportunity.

At the end of the day you just have to assume your ai will screw you over. It might go against your team's nature but you just have to take things slow, especially in threes. Dance around a little and force your ai back on D - The other team can't afford penalties so make the most of it.

The fairy twirling and one-timers will always be deadly like real life, but you'd think they'd bring BAP's "ai learning" over to EASHL to help alleviate certain problems

@TTZ_Dipsy 

Computer players are aware of coverage from defenders. That is used to help determine if they're going to pass or not. I'm not saying it's perfect every time, but I still see more humans passing to players that are covered or forcing passes in general than humans. We're not as good as we think we are at passing.

AI passing can seem random, but it's really not. In those instances of one-touch passing because they just passed to you, it's a lack of patience. Had you waited for half a second more, that wouldn't have happened. Again, I see humans call for bad passes all the time. Then blame it on the AI being bad. I play with guys that regularly do this and it's pretty frustrating. The AI surely aren't the greatest, but the play better than people realize. They're just an easy scapegoat. That doesn't mean they can't be improved. Their AI is always something looking to be improved upon.

I use one-touch passing very frequently. It's excellent for catching players out of position as well as getting rid of passes right before you get hit. If you're not using this, you're at a disadvantage against the guys that know how to whip around passes with this mechanic. I love it for cycling in my O zone. So many people chase the puck so it's good for catching them out of position which often leaves wide-open passing/shooting lanes.

@EA_Aljo 

There are clear instances of the ai refusing to pass to you when you specifically call for it and they have the perfect opportunity to do so - this shouldn't be a thing. I don't care if you call for it and it leads to a giveaway; sloppy calls should punish bad players and reward players for calling the puck and getting a decent play off.

In the offensive zone, the AI prioritizes human players over other computers and this is extremely frustrating when they just insta-pass back to you when you are swarmed or try to make some boneheaded pass up the center of the ice which almost always results in a giveaway. As I have said before, the left defensman, in particular, is really stupid and needs some fine-tuning - Ever since we replaced him with a human (and this guy likes to just switch over to RD so the other computer has a better hand -- something that we should be able to customize btw), we've gone on at least a 10 game win streak - this isn't pure coincidence as we are playing the exact same.

I'm not denying that touch-passing will be deadly if you master it, I have just never seen anybody use it on purpose - 95% of the time it's when they call for a pass (again, you can't rely on the computer to pass to you so you're forced to call for it), and then they lose it.

Again again... I play up to 2v4 (we've beaten one 5's team but nobody else wants to play us) so there are more ai players than you are used to. The game is insanely different with more ai players so the team has to acknowledge not all logic and plays are universal.

@TTZ_Dipsy 

Yes. I have seen times when they won't pass. I understand it's frustrating. I'll pass on that feedback for you.

No game is exactly the same though. I get you're playing the same way, but there are a ton of different variables. It's near impossible to have every game play exactly the same. I understand why you feel the way you do. The AI can be a challenge at times. Especially when you don't just let them do their own thing. I've gotten used to letting them decide when to pass and that has helped a lot. Regardless, in most cases when you call for a pass, they will pass it. The AI LD is exactly the same as the AI RD. You're also not considering the other humans and how much they have an effect on the LD. It's not surprising that you're doing better with a human player though. That really is the intent. You're typically going to have better chemistry with humans you frequently play with. Much about being successful in team sports is having good chemistry with your teammates. 

My club uses one-touch passes on purpose in every game. I use it very often in head to head games as well. When you get good at it, you'll see your good scoring chances go up. We make way more intended one-touch passes than accidental ones. However, we've learned to be pretty patient with the AI players. It still happens. We're not perfect and neither are the AI, but this is nothing new. It's been happening for a very long time. I wish we could move one-touch passing to a different button. I think that would help alleviate this, but would also possibly complicate the controls.

Yes. Having more AI players makes a big difference as the AI players tend to be pretty great together. Especially if you have 2 or more AI forwards. Normally there's at least 4 of us playing. We won't play teams with just 2 humans. It's a lot more fun to play against more humans than AI players as they can be pretty deadly.

As a human RD, the LD ai moves so far into your zone and won't go back until you hug the boards - this leaves a gigantic gap that is easy for the offense to take advantage from. Switching from RD to LD has alleviated so many problems there is no way we can believe they are all the same. RD ai doesn't try to cover you when you get close to centre ice and all cases of the left-to-right blue line interceptions are entirely human-caused. My LD always goes over to the right and we haven't seen the new makeshift LD make any of the same plays. It's still just me and my buddy so we notice how differently they play.

Obviously going out of position isn't recommended, but that's how the whole simulation vs arcade system clashes in a bad way. The computers CAN play well when you let them set up but there are many situations (top cheese setups, if you will) that only humans are capable of - Why do you think players purposely hack and slash the ai in a game of threes if they happen to first get a penalty on a human? Computers have 2 modes - just skate into the net and be a total waste of programming or start doing crazy dekes they never do in normal play.

The sheer amount of cross-crease goals a team would get if only the ai would know to pass to you is staggering; pulling back on the right stick for a manual one-timer requires too much input for such a small window of opportunity.

The easiest thing the team could do is just allow us to have custom mapping - you could complicate or simplify as much as you want and this should dismiss any touch-pass/hip check/interference  etc. mishaps

Ehhh a team with more humans should know how to use their numbers to their advantage, especially with everyone on the mic and a mix of builds to better compliment the game. AI is AI and can be exploited as such - DSS, dumps, and cheese goals are much easier so you really should be wanting to play fewer players

@TTZ_Dipsy 

If you get any video of the LD, or any other AI, playing that far out of position, try to get me some video of it. We need to see what conditions are possibly causing them to play so far out of position. Knowing what strategies you're using is also important.

I know manual one-timers are fun, but they have the exact same chance to score that an auto-one timer has. They don't get a boost.

I've also seen the AI make some pretty amazing passes. Yes, they are definitely choosy about when they pass. Making them more aggressive will have them take more chances as they look to get rid of the puck sooner. It's not perfect though. There are times I see them not pass when someone appears to be the best option. 

When you say custom mapping, do you mean created plays like there used to be in the previous generation?

I imagine AI will always be able to be exploited. They're computers that are basing their decisions on a set of conditions being met. However, you can also exploit humans that have common reactions and noticeable patterns. I can absolutely understand the frustration since you can't control the AI and of course yelling at them doesn't help like it might a human teammate. The best I can recommend is that you play with as many humans as possible if the AI are too frustrating. Yes, that's not ideal for you and many others, but that's the best you can do for now. I know the dev team is always working to improve them. Changes are made every year and often in tuning/patches. 

@EA_Aljo 

I no longer play RD and my friend and I alternate who goes LD so there are now 0 issues with the LD messing up now. We can even skate over to the right side and become a right defensmen so the new left D will be right handed for shots except now he's smart because he keeps his huge sexy RD brain.

If anyone does want to test this, they just need to go RD with an ai LD. In the offensive zone just skate near the center of the blue line and watch the LD refuse to move from the spot on the blue line directly south of the faceoff circle dot. This leaves the entire left side open until you force him back by almost hugging the boards. It's essentially just the LD trying to cover for you when you get sorta out of position, but then doesn't move back when you've righted yourself.

I'll get a few clips next time I play RD.

Oh no, I meant manual one timers are sometimes the only way to force the ai to pass to you for a cross-creaser. They are, at best, 50/50 when it comes to cross cheesers; you can count on them taking a weak shot.

I mean full key/button binding freedom -- touchpad for jump dekes and option button for slap shots, that kind of freedom, though having the ability to make our own plays would be amazing. AI will still play based on calculations and stuff, but at least the humans would be able to better control how they want those calculations to be processed if that makes sense? Hard to explain.

The best my team can do is play with 3 humans - we're just a tight-knit group of friends, no outsiders allowed to besmerch the almighty TTZ, but yes, I totally understand what you're saying.

@TTZ_Dipsy 

Thanks for all the details. If you can get me those videos, I'll pass them on to the studio. The LD should be moving around to cover the empty space or at least reacting to the strategy that is set for them.

I can understand wanting to play with just your friends. I have the same group of 5 guys I've been playing with since NHL 09. I also play with a lot of others on different clubs through playing in LG, but I definitely know why you'd want to keep your club limited to specific people.