Hockey EQ A.I
September 27, 2020 9:26AM
edited September 2020
I dont even know where to put this, but I have a wish for the AI in this game, so this wish mostly concern VS play.
I feel the AI is most help for thoose that 'need' them the most, I wish it was more to the opposite, the more hockey EQ you got, the better back up from the A.I you get.
Its not that often I loose the puck to my opponent's player thats in control, it's more common I somehow loose the puck to he's AI and he gets a free bonus with a puck I dont always feel they worked pretty hockey wise to get.
If the AI could somehow recognize good hockey plays and support that better and the same way but the opposite if your opponent play a hockey that the A.I don't really recognize as hockey, he's on his own, and cant expect the A.I to help out that much.
If this would work, it would encourage everyone to play as hockey like as they can, to get the best support on the ice.
* Exampel: on defense, if you standing really passive with your own guy, the rest of the team should do the same..
I feel the AI is most help for thoose that 'need' them the most, I wish it was more to the opposite, the more hockey EQ you got, the better back up from the A.I you get.
Its not that often I loose the puck to my opponent's player thats in control, it's more common I somehow loose the puck to he's AI and he gets a free bonus with a puck I dont always feel they worked pretty hockey wise to get.
If the AI could somehow recognize good hockey plays and support that better and the same way but the opposite if your opponent play a hockey that the A.I don't really recognize as hockey, he's on his own, and cant expect the A.I to help out that much.
If this would work, it would encourage everyone to play as hockey like as they can, to get the best support on the ice.
* Exampel: on defense, if you standing really passive with your own guy, the rest of the team should do the same..
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Two things made this possible, he's AI, that manage to collect the puck in he's defensive zone so that he could start off by a stretch pass and a 2 on 1 situation. And a good keeper, but he played like a goalie suppose to do at least.
And if you don't play defense how you suppose to do, it should be way harder to start with the puck that the A.I of he's pick up... Maybe if the speed was reduced or something, that would make it harder to go forward direct he gets the puck. It's like he can start with the same speed and momentum I build up after alot of hard work. I just hand it over for free, with nothing in return.
Oh god thats horrible. Ive been shut out before by a team that meat me 1 to 0 and only had one shot. Guess when it came? Last min of 3rd on some weak bounce off the goalies blocker and right in from a soft wrister at the top of the circle. I had like 26 shots...he had 1, and won.
But im not complaining about 'ice tilt', what ever that is.. Im more after how the A.I can support a guy thats constant in the wrong place when it comes to being in position as the defending team.
If you can park in the o-zone for over 10 min,(and your not one of thoose that just glide forth and back in 10min on one side of the rink) and fire off 39 shots, it's not my offens thats good, it's hes defense that suck, but just by letting your player stand in the center and skate out against the D's with desprete pokes to get in the way for shots, it's often well enough to get a chance to win, beacuse he's A. I can always pick up lose pucks around the board and from there, all he has to do is start skating forward. I wish that moment, when he's AI conquer the puck would be more hard to proceed from, cause its almost like he can start over with all the momentum I build up mean while I get that so importen 1 second behind.. And not beacuse he played great D, no beacuse he's A.I manage to pick up the puck for him.. At the same time he was out in the blue.
I wish the A.I would be more a refleaction of your own actions, especially in the defensive zone. It should be more of an warzone then it is, cause by some way the A.I often manage to save the day no mather how little defense the opponent I play against actually do.
This is where the complaint of ice tilt comes from though. Where you pretty much dominate on every stat in the game, and still get edged by a team that didn't deserve it at all.
I think we can all agree where there's games where puck luck for another team you're dominating just happens, but this is just how the game works. Period. And it always seems to work for poor play teams to give them wins when it shouldn't even be close.
I made this thread ( https://forums.ea.com/en/nhl/discussion/263431/explain-this-to-me-part-2#latest ) and explained that when playing teams of our CR, record, and skill, the A.I players and goalies are usually on par with each other. However, when we're playing a team that's well below our skill level, the AI (usually D-men and Goalie) are buffed. AI forwards are another matter entirely when they always recover a shot off the rebound and will shoot three times in a second before it goes in.
EA says all AI are equal, but you couldn't pay me a million dollars to believe this statement.
The AI bails out badly positioned teams. A lot. I have seen an AI LD go across the entirety of the ice to pick off a pass where the RW should have been. Meanwhile, your AI doesn't know if he's playing hockey or taking a mid-summer's nap.
* which of course leads to an unfair feeling, it's like a 10mile race, you run 9 miles before another one steal your place and time, and finish of first, just by running 1 mile.... Maybe bad example, I dont know.. But thats how it feels.
* And thats probebly the same reason why it is so popular strategy to just switch player to the closest (cause the A.I is often in a decent position) and then just turn all your force in that players direaction.. Over and over until there's no one left to pull out of position. Usally works pretty good and it's a low cost considering of every player he gets out of position by doing that.
People will say "dont let them get that shot off" but theyre always gonna get a couple by with how gimped defense is, but to me this points to a huge problem and its that there are shots that go in way too much to begin with. In real life if a team kept doing the same shot over and over, the goalie would catch on and shut it down. In ea nhl, youre rewarded for going against every fundamental of hockey, and punished for playing realistically. I wouldnt be upset at losing if it didnt feel cheap. I would also be happier winning if i knew my hockey skill beat his...not because i know how to shut down someone who does the same thing all game.
It should ALWAYS be a disadvantage to play selfish hockey. Passing creates chances irl, but in this game being a puck hog is more rewarding and pays off more often. Hopefully this "updated ai" will help but judging on what the tech test players said, its just more of the same if not worse.
This is the “skill gap” we like to pretend exists in this game lol? Let’s breakdown the two scenarios as a goalie, shall we? Scenario one (5 year-old skating straight doing nothing) is a due who just kind of shoots a weak backhand while skating laterally a bit at a slow speed. As a goalie, I come out to take the angle since it’s a breakaway, he hasn’t moved his stick once so I’m not frozen, he then takes a slight turn to my blocker side so I take a half shuffle right and actually try to take more ground as I recognize it’s his backhand making the shot harder to read off the blade, I then make a routine chest save off the flipping backhander the guy took while slowly moving because that move couldn’t even be considered a move.
Okay now scenario two, it’s a 2-on-1 and my defender has made it clear he’s taking the pass so I’m going to be patient with my telescoping and try to force this shooter to delay his shot long enough to either force a shot into my mass or two, buy enough time for a backchecker to eliminate the chance entirely. Shooter is coming in his strong-side so I have to respect the fact that he can really change the angle of the shot towards the middle of the ice which means I need to keep a relatively aggressive depth. Now, I recognize the toedrag to the inside, my defender allegedly has the pass so I need to make a small adjustment towards the middle and take a small step out actually because now I’m fully expecting the shot and I want my angle to be as aggressive as I can without totally being exposed back to the near side. He then PASSES right through my defender who I’ve assumed had his man covered which means I have to go from almost no momentum, pivot, and explode to the back post as fast as possible because I am definitely behind this play. This should be a super explosive, desperate leg/arm extension attempt due to all the factors that went into the play, and I’m mote than likely giving up a goal here unless the shooter doesn’t get the shot off clean or I somehow get my lead leg to the post which is behind me and there’s no elevation. I mean, this diagonal pass especially when having to respect the shot or deke is one of the hardest scenarios I could think of for a 2-on-1 because there’s just too much to worry about/respect.
EA Hockey:
First scenario is a clean goal, second looks like it was routine shooting drill butterfly save from someone out beyond the tops of the circles lol. “Skill gap”
They treat this game like basketball where open shots from a reasonable area have to be considered points against. As if getting scored on is inevitable. Goalies are pretty talented athletes. They make saves from the “EA Danger area” (tops of the circles, no screen) about 97% of the time in the NHL. Guessing the 3% that aren’t a saved weren’t setup by someone barely moving, slowing gliding, and shooting it top glove lol. The goalies in this game on shots from out there remind me of the family guy Star Wars episode:
“Where'd they go?”
“Oh there they are, slowly drifting to the left!”
“Man, this guy’s got some maneuvers!”
Then read my previous post and try to comprehend the rhyme or reason to why goals go in. It makes literary zero sense to me, especially as a goalie. I wish I wasn’t a goalie so I could not think twice about what goals go in and what don’t because it’d be that much easier to accept and like the outcomes of said “skill gap” that exist.
Same game where you can’t poke an outstretched puck without surgeon-level precision otherwise you’ll be penalized, allows forwards to blindly shoot pucks without any speed, movement, screen, or general knowledge of how goals are scored in hockey and have decent success.
Maybe if the AI actually worked to cut shooting angles down and didn’t literally back away from a shooter, you’d be able to have screens plays a bigger role and buff goalie competence on unscreened shots. Maybe if defenders were allowed to actually use their sticks like real life, you could allow screens to play a bigger part.
But no, HUT brahs like scoring uncontested goals from the top of the circle with no screen because the defender is too worried about taking a penalty. Also is too concerned with his backside AI teammate’s tendency to just skate away from his assignment, so can’t “commit” to turning his back on the play (lol) and trying to glide int eh orb of the shooter to hopefully dislodge the puck in an area where a useful puck pickup animation will trigger which will allow him to get the puck.
I LOVE That scene. Here's the entire thing:
And come to think of it, that actually sounds like what EA imagines their customers are like. We're just a bunch of idiots who can't keep up with the "maneuvers" they pull to try to pull a fast one on us.
EA: "Hey, we've improved the AI. I mean A LOT!!"
Customer: "Really?"
EA: "Yeah, just look at this gameplay trailer for NHL 21"
Customer: "Uh... It looks exactly the same..."
EA: "No, no! See last year the AI would just stand there by itself and do nothing. Now the AI do nothing as a team."
Twitch/YT Influencer: "Woah! Did you see that? They added the Michigan goal! This game is SO improved!!"
Dude, you're so busted for bugging EA offices. Can you get in trouble for posting their meeting transcript? Lol. But yeah, it's disgusting that they think hockey is played this way. Ive been way more critical lately and saving replays of everything and going through it carefully and omg the amount of inconsistency you see is terrible. Pucks and sticks going THROUGH the goalie for goals, goals scored against me where passes will go THROUGH 2 defenders and you literally watch them automatically move their stick OUT OF THE WAY and let the pass through.
Oh and my fav, when the play is coming toward your net and you know hes going cross crease cheese so you try to switch defenders to get ahead of it and it either wont switch players or itll switch to a forward BEHIND THE PLAY. How about when you are racing for a loose puck and poke at it 5 feet in front of another player only to have it magnetize to his stick at the same time while your stick is extended and you get a penalty. Its quite obvious they dont want people to have effective defensive tools to counter the op offensive tools. I didnt know the term was "gimping defense wins championships". Apparently EA didnt ever hear that one. All they hear is $$$, and whatever the hut stream bros tell them. Nevermind the people that actually played hockey and know how its actually played. Our opinions dont matter.
Haha yeah that episode is great, loved reading the actual dialogue and your little addition too! I booted up NHL for the first time in a week last night and my sliders went from a nice, slowish-paced game where there were a lot of loose pucks and missed nets and actual enjoyable gameplay to this perfect passing, no fatigue, absolute snipes from everyone, no loose pucks, no bumps, no loss of possession hockey with absolute muffin goals to top it off. Two 9 combined goal games after playing these settings to 2-1, 3-2, 4-2 games a week ago...what happened? How does the game speed get jacked up and all of the added looseness to the game just disappear? I didn’t change a single setting. I’m tired of having two drastically different experiences when I haven’t moved a slider one click. It’s ridiculous.
Welcome to the club. Happens to me on a weekly basis.
Skill gap man. It’s why you miss tap-in backdoor shots while the other team shoots an unscreened wrister from the top of the circle glove side for a goal. They’re just better at the game than you. Creating a situation through some puck movement where someone can be open on the backdoor isn’t as impressive as slowly gliding from a non-threatening position. Pure “skill” determining outcomes, you love to see it.
Nah its strategies man. Their strat settings apparently cause you to be slower, not grab pucks, and your goalie turns into a slice of swiss cheese. Funny, those strategies dont exist in my game. Do they have to be gotten in hut packs or what? Lol
FYI:
EQ (equalization) is what you do to your stereo. It's IQ (Intelligence Quotient)
https://www.psysoft.com/eq-i-2-0-training?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqoXCrKeW7AIVAtKyCh1towaeEAAYASAAEgJQj_D_BwE
You're Welcome to do the test.. 😏
Anyhoo. IQ is what you meant. Thought you'd like to know.
whatever works for you - my point remains.
Sorry what was the point exactly? Of your emotional IQ test?