Dynamic game difficulty balancing
I had high hopes this time around. I tend to get an all Oilers line up. This year with the added luxury of having Smyth (94) and Kurri (91) available.
So I worked the market. Sold of players just before the big drops and kept grinding until I could have a really good competitive squad. Before this I played with random RUB-players with lower stats.
I played allright with the lineup I had before getting my all-star Oiler squad. So what happens when I put my hard earned Oilers to use? Well, they are slow as hell. Connor McDavid can't controll a pass tape-to-tape. The whole teams is a catastrophy. So I remove Smyth and Kurri and add some low end players and voilà! They play like a team and can acutally recieve a high percentage pass.
But this weird phenomena does not exist in a normal Ranked Online Match. Nor in Draft Champion.
So, what going on? I'd say it's the classic Super Mario Kart rubber banding. When you the last driver you get better power-ups so you can catch up. Also called Dynamic game difficulty balancing (read the examples regarding FIFA and Madden) . There is no doubt in my mind that this is what's going on in HUT.
So what are the consequences? If you have a high rated squad, make sure you play other high rated squads. Or play other game modes than HUT. What EA seem to be missing is that players themselves want to affect the game and that the game should be as realistic as possible. We don't want the NHL-series to be the hockey equivalent of Mario Kart, we want it to be Forza or Grand Turismo.
I'll just stick to Online Games and keep my money away for HUT.
So I worked the market. Sold of players just before the big drops and kept grinding until I could have a really good competitive squad. Before this I played with random RUB-players with lower stats.
I played allright with the lineup I had before getting my all-star Oiler squad. So what happens when I put my hard earned Oilers to use? Well, they are slow as hell. Connor McDavid can't controll a pass tape-to-tape. The whole teams is a catastrophy. So I remove Smyth and Kurri and add some low end players and voilà! They play like a team and can acutally recieve a high percentage pass.
But this weird phenomena does not exist in a normal Ranked Online Match. Nor in Draft Champion.
So, what going on? I'd say it's the classic Super Mario Kart rubber banding. When you the last driver you get better power-ups so you can catch up. Also called Dynamic game difficulty balancing (read the examples regarding FIFA and Madden) . There is no doubt in my mind that this is what's going on in HUT.
So what are the consequences? If you have a high rated squad, make sure you play other high rated squads. Or play other game modes than HUT. What EA seem to be missing is that players themselves want to affect the game and that the game should be as realistic as possible. We don't want the NHL-series to be the hockey equivalent of Mario Kart, we want it to be Forza or Grand Turismo.
I'll just stick to Online Games and keep my money away for HUT.
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It's hard to see the point in acquiring your Ultimate Team if EA is going to punish you for it.
"The recent FIFA series by EA has also started to introduce a difficulty balancing system. The Ultimate Team game mode has been known to lower the performance of players on the winning side's team. However, although the Madden developers has admitted to their handicapping system, the FIFA developers have yet to admit to it, raising question about their motives for it."
What makes you think HUT would be any different than FUT? There is some rubber-banding mechanic in HUT that is not present in EASHL, DC or Online match. I've played the series since mid 90's. Have well over 1000+ games of HUT. I think I would notice if my team all of a sudden lost all of it's artificial intelligence.
Since HUT is the game mode that is almost alone with the association with Dynamic game difficulty/rubber-banding/ice-tilt I think this sort of discussion should garner more traction. Especially considering the fact that people actually spend money on the game mode.
Expecting a correlation between money/effort/grinding and your squads ability on the ice should be natural. The lack of such correlation should worry the average gamer and EA for that matter.
So many people on here say you can't buy wins. It's true you have to know how to play. I have noticed when you get a new player there is a learning curve understanding how to play with said player.
i agree
It's not like I'm the first or only person noticing this. It keeps coming up every year. And why is it that Dynamic game difficulty only can be found in HUT? I play other modes a ton. Have no complaints there. But in HUT, rubber-banding is in effect no doubt.
With NHL17 I only played 35 games so far. For all these games I only used players with 84-87 ratings (currently I keep my 88-89 players for later), for now I just want to learn the basics of this years version. Overall I like the game play far more compared to last year. Better defence work, less penalties, less cross bar shots and even my 86 Lehtonnen has a 91% safe percentage (all my high end goalies had 88 safe percentage last year). On the other hand it`s currently more difficult for me to score on my own. Instead of 12:4 on allstar I only win 7:1. I really realize the speed of guys like Cogliano from time to time, I really can move away from the defenders. The game is also more fluently.
Futhermore I can currently experience an improvement with higher rated (86-87) players but not with all of them. E.g. 86 Nyqvist is a scoring machine while 86 Boedker has only one goal and five assists in 15 games. So with these slight improvements my team gets better without a recognizebale balancing boost of the AI. On the weekend I intend to start with my 88-89 team, I´m excited to see if the AI balancing is still similar to last year?
I can write a Wikipedia page and confirm once and for all that Ice Tilt does not exist.
Then there might be a momentum engine in the game, sometimes teams/players are hot or cold. That's been in there in the past, so I don't think it's been removed. And you certainly see some odd things in singleplayer games which might account for this type of thing.
There would be completely legit ways of 'momentum' affecting gameplay, like a big hit, or the goalie making huge save, someone scoring a hat-trick etc. But as far as I can see, hitting doesn't have ANY effect on gameplay. In singleplayer i throw three big hits in a couple of seconds, and that has no discernible effect on the game flow, I feel.