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How do I make my AI play defense.

How do I set my ai that is clearly in the D spot play defense? I'm playing club 3s with my friend and I'm center he's wing but for some reason our AI d man just pushes up and plays wing in the o zone. And when he does sit back he just stands there like a disabled kid in special hockey and let's them walk past him so our goalie can go spread eagle for the 80th time and let them walk it in. I have a pylon on the other end of the ice that occasionally slides down deep in the o zone.

Replies

  • If you're playing 3s with an AI your best bet is to put a human in the D slot. A lone AI in 3s is far too easily exploited to be consistently relying on them to defend the rush so you'll need a human back there anyway. But if you really want to run with an AI D there are some things you can do to mitigate the problems the AI has.

    I believe there are three pressure settings for the offensive zone in club 3s ( it's possible there's four, I can't remember 100%). In my experience it really boils down to two settings for the AI. There's "passive" which gives you an AI that will never, ever go deep into the offensive zone. Even on clear two-on-none opportunities the AI will bail out just inside the blue line. All the other pressure settings are pretty much the same. The AI defender will insist on playing deep in the offensive zone even both his teammates are already there. It sounds like you want the AI in the offensive zone to be on the "passive" setting. Just keep in mind that the AI will be useless in the offensive zone so you'll essentially be playing 2v3 on offense.

    On the defensive end, you're best bet it to set everything as aggressive as possible. This will allow the AI to occasionally play the body and poke-check the puck. Anything less will result in a completely passive AI. This has a major downside to it though. The AI will chase the puck blindly. It won't care about where other players are or who it leaves open it will follow the puck no matter what. You'll need to anticipate this behavior and account for it.

    In the end though, if you're relying on your AI for defense in 3s you're going to have a bad time. If you're running two forwards that means you need to have at least one human reading the play well enough that they can bail out of the zone and defend against the rush. If you're getting caught two men deep on a regular basis you're going to give up a lot of goals.
  • The AI D when on their own or paired with human D in club has always been terrible. Constantly come to the other side of the ice, or now in 3s is constantly doing I don’t even know it’s that bad lol.
  • IceLion68
    1624 posts Member
    The AI D when on their own or paired with human D in club has always been terrible. Constantly come to the other side of the ice

    Exactly this. Tho playing goalie I notice its a little better when it's 2 AI D vs 1 human and 1 AI. I also notice they for some reason always race - and somehow beat - you to the puck when it's dumped back in the defensive zone on your side.
    Dad. Gamer. Rocker. Geek.
  • IceLion68 wrote: »
    The AI D when on their own or paired with human D in club has always been terrible. Constantly come to the other side of the ice

    Exactly this. Tho playing goalie I notice its a little better when it's 2 AI D vs 1 human and 1 AI. I also notice they for some reason always race - and somehow beat - you to the puck when it's dumped back in the defensive zone on your side.

    AI doesn’t have to adhere to the physics engine like we do, that’s why. They get to turn on a dime and go from 0-100 instantly. One of the many things that makes slider modification offline a headache. Two different sets of rules.
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