NHL 18 before and after the patch
So I have read the patch notes, but it still doesn't add up to me. I actually liked NHL 18 on release. Let's be honest, it still sort of sucked, but for me it was an improvement over 17. Then the patch hit.
This game literally became NHL 17 again after the patch. What gives?
These games just keep getting worse and worse, and finally when there is a slight improvement, it is patched to become worse again.
I am just so sick and tired of dominating teams in puck possession, shots and passing (high quality beautiful plays!) only to lose to a much weaker team due to WHATEVER THE **** IT IS THEY ADDED THAT CAUSES THIS TO HAPPEN FAR TOO OFTEN.
Oh and I think penalty shots are broken with the latest patch. My friend and I were tripped up twice each in a game last night (on clear breakaways of course) that made our players go into the sliding on your knees animation and not only were there no penalty shots called but no penalties either.
This game is so depressing.
This game literally became NHL 17 again after the patch. What gives?
These games just keep getting worse and worse, and finally when there is a slight improvement, it is patched to become worse again.
I am just so sick and tired of dominating teams in puck possession, shots and passing (high quality beautiful plays!) only to lose to a much weaker team due to WHATEVER THE **** IT IS THEY ADDED THAT CAUSES THIS TO HAPPEN FAR TOO OFTEN.
Oh and I think penalty shots are broken with the latest patch. My friend and I were tripped up twice each in a game last night (on clear breakaways of course) that made our players go into the sliding on your knees animation and not only were there no penalty shots called but no penalties either.
This game is so depressing.
1
Howdy, Stranger!
Replies
I would prefer that stick collisions be higher. There are a lot of scrums in hockey when sticks come together. That's just how the sport is. If you want constant breakaway fests, play shootouts or NHL Threes.
They couldnt reduce the strenght of the AI goalies in the last few years because they made defense a glorified cone but now that defense has a bit more tools to stop one timers and push players to the outside, there is no reason for the goalie to be there to bail them out if they fail and get beat.
One timers should go in way more often. The whole point of finding open lanes is making nice passing plays that often should result in one timers. Its the go-to play in the nhl because it forces the goalie to move a lot while tracking the puck and have minimal time to square to the shot before attempting a save. As such, the goalie is severely disadvantaged but the good news is that the defense blocks 95% or more of those one timer attempts in an NHL game.
They got it all backward in this game. The cheeze wristers where the goalie is square to the shot go in all the time but the one timers where the goalie should have little chance to stop they stop all the time. Fix that, and you will have rewarded players for playing good defense and you will reward offense for beating that defense.
The other solution is to encourage more human goalies to play but this is harder because:
1-Statistically speaking most people dont want to play goalie. It takes a special guy to do so
2-Goalie position must be rewarding to play but not OP. hard to balance.
3-They need to restore multiple dressing room or clubs wont ever be large enough to accommodate 6s most of the time and playing outside of 6s with a human goalie is usually not feasible for most clubs because:
4-AI goalies are too strong and humans will let in more goals than AI (usually) which brings us back to my first point about AI goalies needing to be toned down)
Guys, it's been this way EVERY year. Threads like this are on the internet every year.
They can change very little or close to nothing from beta.
It's just that as the game feels little fresher at the very beginning and you get the feeling that it's better.
But as play little more you soon realize that it is basically the same game as year before, which was very similar to year before and so on... And magic is gone.
So it's not worse, its just that it's the same game you played for 3 or more years and you get bored and frustrated after few hours with it.
I will concede that it's very possible that could all be in my head.
But.. I was amazed at how different 18 felt from 17 in the beginning, and since the patch, If you told me I was playing 17, I wouldn't argue with you. Players feel like 3 wheeled shopping carts again and are spinning all over the place when I'm trying to cycle in the offensive zone.
But, I have no proof anything has changed and it might very well not have at all. Good chance that's all just in my head, I really don't know.
..and the magic is gone
I am getting enjoyment out of the game this year for the first time in many years though. It's getting better, but still not where it needs to be after 4 years of dev cycle on next gen.
I honestly would give NHL 17 an F- and I would give NHL 18 a C+ in comparison. There are things that are clearly better gameplaywise this year and they are nice improvements to build off of going forward.
I'm still an advocate of getting away from TPS, however.
Fair enough.
I'm curious what you say about the improvements (or lack of them) in a week or two, when the "magic" is gone completely
What "magic" are we talking about here? You sound like the typical strawman argument guy. Creating your own narratives and then having arguments with yourself over them.
Lipstick on a pig?
You go on a lot about spiderman goalies . Did you and your team not play with human goalies? Why not just eliminate the AI from your team and then you can blame yourselves for a defensive mistake or the goalie if they make a mistake(all competent goalies should know when they f'd up).
For all your talk of being a top player, you certainly complain about scrubby things. Or maybe you need predicable ways to score on ai?
Either way, your Spider-Man goalie complaints are bushleague at best.
Git good posts like yours are the only thing scrubby here.
We’re obviously not reading the same posts.