The purpose of control breakouts and the trap

Zkibu

First of all I have nothing against the trap, it can be exploited in the game and is very useful in some situations in real hockey. About the control breakouts, I was happy to see that these were implemented in NHL 15, but still 6 years later I believe that they are still half baked. Shame really, the control breakouts are a direct counter for the dreaded neutral zone trap. Instead of dancing around with L2 (which is of course legit thing to do if you are skilled enough) you could regroup into your zone with 5 players and use to the space to build up speed to get past the trap. It could happen with possession, using the gained speed to reach that dumped puck first or at least start the forecheck in very good position. Currently the set up for the three different systems are wonky and they are more about stretching the game than attacking together as a group or a team.

This might be a case about differences hockey cultures. They don't really use "all together" slow breakouts as mentioned earlier in NHL. Those are a absolute must for coaches in KHL, SHL and Liiga. In the NHL the defenders use long stretch passes to the forwards whose task is just to direct the puck straight to the opposing end (can't do in the game). Also I do understand that European slower breakouts might slow the game down a bit too much for Online 4 min periods. What if instead of creating a proper tactical toolkit to counter the trap, just remove the trap in the game?

RoscoChronicle

I think the "tactics" serve the offline modes better than online. Although, they barely work offline and I think they are just a shallow feature to attract suckers like me into thinking I can play a "sim" style hockey game.

You can also say they were introduced and never fully developed because HUT, loot boxes, and compulsion loop coding were made priority.

Either way, they're just another useless (or barely useful) feature this series has added to its list of useless (or barely useful) features.

That being said, because this series is so bogged down with legacy issues and its development progress is truncated by greed, online "strategy" has become its own thing. That is, learning to exploit and defend that particular year's glitches.

Zkibu

I believe that "shallow" is correct word to use here, also stale is another one. I mean when did the classic crash the net, overload and behind the net were introduced, 98? Outside of Xs and Os, it's baffling that no focus on lines matching has never been introduced into the game or what about advanced statistics? I am totally a sucker who gets the game nearly yearly with hopes of redemption. Obviously there are some bright moments in the offline and online games, but in the end the game ends up being a fun attraction during parties, which is fine I guess, but it's still frustrating. It could be so much better.

Sega82mega

You clearly got some interesting points here, zikibu. But it's really hard try playing hockey, (online), when alot of people dosent really care and just drive for the cross creases as maniacs.

Takes two to tango..

*But at least it should be a advantage to the once that play more to strategy then to thoose that just run n gun, with players all over the ice.

Zkibu

Certainly knowing some actual hockey systems can sometimes help. Like you and I talked before, if the player has time and the opponent is not pressing heavily you can sort of create those slower breakouts with d to d passes where you can continue with third pass to the defender or pass to the forward into the space.

But yeah the online can get frustrating, with those damn Guy Lafleurs hustling like maniacs thankfully there are also some decent matches.

Sega82mega

Zkibu wrote: »

Certainly knowing some actual hockey systems can sometimes help. Like you and I talked before, if the player has time and the opponent is not pressing heavily you can sort of create those slower breakouts with d to d passes where you can continue with third pass to the defender or pass to the forward into the space.

But yeah the online can get frustrating, with those damn Guy Lafleurs hustling like maniacs thankfully there are also some decent matches.

Hehe true indeed. You know what's coming, when you see that Guy Lafleur in the first line in pair with Gretzky and Mcd on the other wing...

I like to think when I play my games, hockey is much about a quick mind, take right decisions. But it's abit sad to loose against a Guy Lafleur thats just go full blast. It's often enough.

But 21 is better then ever and I really looking forward to see what a patch can do for this game.

Zkibu

I agree hockey is about quick wits and outsmarting your opponent. Good system certainly helps with that.

Yeah 21 has some gameplay upgrades over previous versions from this gen, sadly the strategies are lagging behind. Oh well, hopefully we'll see some fine patching