Latest update ruined SB
February 11, 2020 1:59PM
edited February 2020
I am not great player, good, but not great. My overall record was 385-194-31 with about 80 percent of games played on superstar. I finished elite 1 or 2 nearly every time. I could count on wins against any team rated 86 or lower and won regularly up to 88-89 (again on superstar). Then the Jan 30 update. Now I struggle against teams rated 79 or higher (My teams a 95 BTW). What changed? One handed tuck no longer works. Skill zoning no longer works . Changing players has become less pedictable. Puck control is suddenly non existent. Player ratings (both individual stats and overall) are completely arbitrary now. Honestly, how is it 96 speed cans just blow past Dom bronze or silver defensman with an 80-whatever speed stat. How does Gretzky or Lemieux get stoned by the back-up from Halifax or miss an open net from 4 feet?
It takes 20-30 minutes to play a game and for that investment you earn 1000 or so coins. If you place in elite 1 you receive 75 gold players and some random stuff. Yes, sometimes you get lucky and pull an 87 or better but mostly it 81 TOTW/PT or one gold/icon collectible (everything useful costs 9-21 of these so...do the math...it takes months to earn one MSP who will be obsolete in another couple weeks)
My point is that it seems,like always, that the real 'issue' that EA has addressed with is latest patch is that people who play the game often are now at a point where they are no longer needing to spend real money. The psychological idea is that 'if I only had one more......)
For me this game has become simply a hockey card collecting simulator. It's more fun to flip cards in the marketplace than to actually play hockey. Although I enjoy hockey card collecting, I do not enjoy the constant feeling of being manipulated or cheated. This will be the last season for me. This will be the last EA product I buy retail (maybe Dragon Age or whatever used on eBay so EA gets absolutely nothing)
[Removed - CM]
It takes 20-30 minutes to play a game and for that investment you earn 1000 or so coins. If you place in elite 1 you receive 75 gold players and some random stuff. Yes, sometimes you get lucky and pull an 87 or better but mostly it 81 TOTW/PT or one gold/icon collectible (everything useful costs 9-21 of these so...do the math...it takes months to earn one MSP who will be obsolete in another couple weeks)
My point is that it seems,like always, that the real 'issue' that EA has addressed with is latest patch is that people who play the game often are now at a point where they are no longer needing to spend real money. The psychological idea is that 'if I only had one more......)
For me this game has become simply a hockey card collecting simulator. It's more fun to flip cards in the marketplace than to actually play hockey. Although I enjoy hockey card collecting, I do not enjoy the constant feeling of being manipulated or cheated. This will be the last season for me. This will be the last EA product I buy retail (maybe Dragon Age or whatever used on eBay so EA gets absolutely nothing)
[Removed - CM]
Post edited by EA_Blueberry on
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Replies
You got some of main differences since the update pretty spot on. Although, in some other points, you seem a little off. I agree that there’s a difference since the update and you might have to change how you play depending on what you used to do to win. With more higher end players coming out also, the games get harder even if the computer only has a few good players, they will play way better than with only 80 overall players. I don’t think it is that harder though.
The main differences (and you pointed them out) are that there’s more loose puck, stick lift are more successful and passes interceptions more frequent. The goalies might be slightly better also, but not by much, they still let a bunch of garbage goals in.
To counter the changes, you just need to protect the puck more and be careful with your passes. If you’re able to do that, you won’t have any problems beating any team with any team (high or low overall). Overalls have differences in success rate, but it is not as pronounced as it was a couple years ago, so you can win with pretty much any players if you are good. The only thing with the low attributes players is that they miss more. So you might need to take more attempts to finally get what you want.
I don’t even use my beast squad (97 overall with no player under 92) and still win pretty easily. Some games are harder, but usually, you take a timeout, change your strategies and should be able to at least have the win.
I don’t know if it will help you. If you have any questions, I can try to help you...
For the Squad Battles though, the new update seems to make the game more realistic than it was before. Before the update, the pucks were sticking like magnets to the sticks and where super hard to dislodge. Now, it feels more like it should in my opinion. For the passes, at the beginning of the year, they were intercepted unrealistic (behind the back and all), then they made them almost impossible to intercept and finally with that update, it seems to be pretty much how it should be.
Anyway, you’re totally allowed to disagree and want different things. If most people think like you, they might change it. It seems to be pretty divided in the community though, so I wouldn’t put my hopes too high.
The one hand tuck still works. It might not be as easy, but it's still a good way to score. Skill zoning was diminished long before this update as we had a huge amount of feedback about people letting the AI play for them instead of taking a more active role in defending. This helps the skill gap as well since those that are good at manual defense are going to cause more turnovers than someone who skill zones. With the recent update, they won't intercept as many passes so it would be best to raise your skill at defending.
Player switching didn't change with the update so I'm not sure why you're seeing a difference there.
Can you get me video of a player with 96 speed getting beat by an 80 rated player?
You may not have *intended* to change player switching, but it *is* very different now, in fact it's virtually random what player is selected now. It's extremely frustrating, and it wasn't that way before the last patch.
It is not random, it is like it used to be. If there’s bugs and it selects players that doesn’t make sense, you can record it and send the video to them. I am sure that they will fix it. You can also use the right stick to aim toward the player that you want and it will force the selection of that player, mostly useful when you want to select a player farther from the puck carrier or just not the one that the game will select.
Can you get some video showing what's happening? I've played dozens of games since the update and haven't noticed a difference with player switching. If you could capture a clip of several minutes worth of play, that should show us what's happening.
I understand player switching may not be perfect and give you exactly who you want every time. You can, as @boumbidiboum mentioned, manually choose who you want to switch to. Hold in RT/R1 and flick the right stick in the direction of the player you want to switch to.
No, something is definately different since the last patch. I've been playing this game for years, long enough that I can usually predict who automatic switching will select. Since the last patch, I often have no idea who'll I get control of, and it's far too often a player who isn't involved with the play. It wasn't that way before.
I can't get several minutes worth of video... the maximum Xbox will record is 3 minutes. Here's a clip of it costing me a goal:
https://gamerdvr.com/gamer/mikey630/video/87295233
My opponent takes the puck from Larionov in the corner. I want control of #4 or #13 to stop the pass to the slot. Instead it gives me Mikita, who isn't anywhere near the play, then gives me control of Larionov again, who can't possibly help. Meanwhile #4, controlled by the AI, just watches my opponent go by him. I finally get control of #13, but it's too late, the AI already (inexplicably) moved him out of position. My opponent scores to tie it.
As an aside, after this goal, my AI completely gave up playing defense for the rest of game and I lost 4-1. What do you do when this happens? I tried switching strategies, but the AI wouldn't cover anybody no matter what strategy I choose. It hadn't been that way prior to this goal.
Back to the topic at hand, I'm aware of manual switching, but I find it difficult to use. I can get the topmost or bottomost player, or the sides, but how do you choose someone in the middle? And how do you know ahead of time when automatic switching won't work?
On that play, it seems like a manual switching moment. I agree it can be hard to know when to do it or not, even more in quick moment like in your clip. When you press to switch player, you’re still pretty close to the puck carrier. This is probably why the player is selected instead of any of the two in front of the net. At the end, you can see it switch to one on the front of the net, but too late. As soon as you lost the puck near the board and saw that you were behind chasing, you should have manually switch. It is harder to do than to say though, I get caught sometimes too. I get it more on 2-1, when I have a player chasing the two offensive player and try to switch to the dman, if the player chasing is closer to the puck carrier, it won’t switch. So, you need to manually do it or stop chasing and then switch.
To switch, you just aim toward the player that you want. It doesn’t matter where on the ice the player is, you aim like you would aim for a pass (but directly toward the player). It is based on where the new player is in relation to the player that you are currently controlling. I don’t know if it makes sense how I say it.
That is some pretty rough switching. I can understand the frustration. Switching has never been perfect every time. While I get the player I want almost every time, there are those occasional sequences where I'm not getting the player I want and it leads to a goal against. However, that's the way it's always been. Nothing changed in the most recent update that would make switching behave differently. I'm not saying it's ok. I'm just saying it's behaving the same way it did before the patch.
As far as getting a player in the middle goes, that is more of a challenge, but it's not that often I'm trying to get them. Normal player switching usually takes care of that, but there have been times I wanted to manually switch to a player in the middle and had a difficult time making that happen. Hopefully, this improves in time.
Thank you for the video. It's very much appreciated!
Pro 1 rewards are not the best though, so it can be understandable that you don’t pull super good players. I’ve finished Elite 1 most of the weeks since September and got just a couple of cards over 85 overall that weren’t base cards. I got an 89 Kozlov a couple weeks ago, but that’s just a bonus when it happens. You still have all the other gold cards to use in set or sell, so it is still better than nothing.