Big BAP problems
There seems to be few big issues with BAP this year. When I play as a goalie, my team (Stars) can't score more than max 2 goals a game. Skaters make weak shots, if they even are able to make the shot. Slap shots which they take in stupid situations especially take for ever and the puck is usually picked by opponent. If they can make some weak shot they are hitting the posts in a rate that is ridiculous. Defence makes so many own goals (both ends) that it just kills immersion. After 80% of rebounds they try either move the puck to a goalie who is still recovering from the save. Sometimes they just shoot the puck against goalie and if the puck is free on the crease the own defender is the biggest threat. After one season as a goalie I've yet to see any saved situation by my defenders but dozens of own goals. Pass interceptions by opponents are ridiculous when I play as a skater. It doesn't matter if opponents are facing the puck or not, they will intercept every puck without even seeing the pass. They never miss. They must have some kind of bat radar? Whereas BAP player development was maybe a bit slow grind in previous games, now it is too fast. After one season, I'm already OVR 94 goalie... Sure I took the starter position at the latter half, won Stanley cup and received Conn Smythe but still. Ceiling is coming on very quickly. P.S. Last update 1.2.0 Improved many things. Form Score improvements and play time adjustments in lower lines was great improvement. NHL Goalie Jerseys got a bit better. They a still pretty hideous but a LOT better than they were. So thank you for those EA. Now try to balance the game play in BAP Skater and BAP Golie and I will be a happy camper since the core BAP game (I never play any other mode so I wouldn't know their problems) is a big improvement from last year.
Penalties still not fixed
It is kinda unacceptable that a hockey sim, which has a base code that is anything but new, has been out nearly 2 months and the dev team can still not figure out something that its predecessors have had figured out for years. Why, 2 months in to a hockey sim's release, do we still not have any idea why penalties and stick infractions will not be called? Why are the gameplay sliders constantly resetting? Why is there a conflict between the main menu settings and the settings you experience in individual modes like BAP? Why does a person with literally 1 step of skate distance absolutely obliterate someone with a body check? Why did you sell us NHL Hitz. We bought NHL 26. What is the timetable for this to be resolved? When do you start issuing refunds? You didn't give us what you promised. Why is this ok?
Form score is ruining nhl 26 be a pro
Please EA, I beg you. Fix the form score. It's not fun to have to score every night to maintain good form score. I want to be able to pass the puck more and play a more two way type of gameplay. Right now, I have to score every night or I will get demoted quite quickly. Worst case scenario, give me the options to tweak the requirements for every lines and PP or even to completly turn the form score off. In other years, I used to play 1 out of 3 games in the regular season to reduce the number of games I would play in the year. Now if I do that my form score dips like crazy. Also, why is there not a calendar so I can simulate to every sunday and not waste my energy by not using it. Why did you take that option off . It doesnt make sense. Also, how can I not view every teams lines so I could at least see who got traded where like how is that difficult.
Be A Pro is unplayable with multiple large issues
The developer team was on the right track with the changes made this year to the game mode but ultimately fell short in the execution. In this thread I will go over the issues I have noticed with many hours of play time as a multiple year experienced player. 1. The health feature. After each game your player gets fatigued or exhausted and you to spend 2-4 energy points to recover. That would not be an issue if we received more energy points. On average you play 3-4 games per week and you only get 6 energy points. Quite often you will find yourself running out of energy points before your last game of the week, forcing you to play super fatigued. This is very frustrating as you always fall behind the 8ball and it drops your speed, acceleration, endurance, agility and durability by 10-20 attribute ratings. During the season you never have any energy to spend on trait points, X-factor points, or the likability options. A good comparison of a health system that works is in EA's College Football games. In those games you don't have to spend all your points on health as you only play 1 game per week. They pretty much copied the same feature in NHL26, except it's the same amount of energy points but with way more games per week. It just does not add up... 2. Form score. The form score seems to only go by point productions from your player. It possibly may be ever so slightly tied to the coach feedback score, too hard to tell. Your player can play extremely well and get an " A " grade for the coach feedback, but since you did not score a goal or an assist, your form score will be only 20/100. If you are on a line with grinders (like an NHL 4th line), or just don't "finish" the play, you get penalized. The game requires you to have a high form score to make the NHL team, or move up the lineups. This also is a big problem for Defenseman or a 2-Way forward who doesn't prioritize a purely offensive game. 3. Gameplay sliders. The sliders that are set in settings get reset every time you play a game. Even if you set the sliders in settings before you start your Be A Pro, it will not work. Each game they have to be edited. 4. Draft stock media interview. The media interview right before draft day is absurd. It is not realistic at all to be able to drop 20 spots in the draft from answering questions that seem like a good response. A simple fix would be making the worst answer -1 draft stock, the best answer +1, and the 2nd best/worst being 0 change. Also, make it more apparent what your goal is (to answer questions closest to your higher likeability- being management, teammates, and brand). 5. Chapter challenges/lineup challenges. Unless your player goes on an offense masterclass in the pre-season, you will not make the NHL team. This goes back to #2, where I spoke about form score. It is not realistic to require such a high production to make the team. Second which, once sent down to the AHL, you have 8 games to maintain a 65 or higher line score. If you make the NHL team, you are stuck on the 4th line where you play only a few shifts per game (even on 20 minute periods). You do not have enough ice time to produce at the rate required to make the 3rd line. It's at the point where you need a higher points per 60 minute stat than the top players in the league to progress. As a defense player, this makes it absolutely impossible to move forward. The coach grade feedback also needs to be adjusted per ice time. You can have all your 4 shifts where you play well and go from the C- starting point, to a C+, which is never high enough to grow. If the developers can make the correct tweaks, this game mode has such good potential. I recommend either adding more energy points per week, or reduce the fatigue you gain per game you play. At the least, have a setting to turn off the health feature like in other EA sports games like CFB25/26. There also needs to be adjustment on the form score. It needs to be more related to your coach feedback and your player role/position. They needs to be tweaks for both of those metrics for the ice time you are allocated. Those simple fixes will make a massive difference in this game mode. I have not seen any player, YouTube, or Streamer happy with how this game mode plays and I have not heard any response from the EA team on this topic. Please give us hope for this game!
Be A Pro needs to be fixed
It is insanely unrealistic and not a fun mode to play currently. I think that form score has completely ruined my motivation, as well as many others, to play this game mode. The expectations are ridiculously high and make no sense. You barely play on the 4th line when you are able to get there. There is no reason why I should have to have 40 points in 20 games to keep moving up lines. It has been a month and not even a consideration towards the mode has been made. Please fix this, I spent a lot of money on this game with high expectations only to have them shot down.Should you buy NHL’26 for BAP?
If you want the short answer, the short answer is no. As it is right now the answer is no. This game has potential, but at the current state before the patches and improvements, NO, just wait until Jan or Feb because after that, EA wont update the game any more because no doubt they are working on NHL’27 already. But first a quick rant. This game is frustrating. It doesn’t suck, but it’s frustrating. I too saw the BAP deep dive video and went okay, a new re-fresh, new scenes and we are looking pretty good. What we got is a new paint job on our 1989 Ford Escort. But before the Devs get mad, I will tell you why I say dont buy (as it currently is). I wont criticize without explaining. Now, mind you I play BAP goalie only and cant speak for the forward or D-man. Those that do, maybe you can chime in. Okay let’s go. What I do like is that you can start in the World Jrs, then you play in either the CHL or Euro Tourney, then go thru the draft while you use your new ranking up system to get your 68 rated player to about a 75 before your first pre-season game. What I don’t like is that you cant do this and use the current NHL roster. You cant go thru the list and play with Marner in Vegas, he is still with Toronto, You cant play with Ehlers in Carolina or Dobson in Montreal because it will use the default rosters. If you want to use the current roster, then you must choose the option to play in the NHL and start off at a 68. Lame. The new ranking up system is definitely different. But not without its flaws. You only get 6 “energy” points to use and you can only have a max of 12 at a time. When you are in the offseason, the system works well and progression I feel is slower than previous years, but the Achilles heel is that when you play 2 or 3 games a week, you must use half of your “energy” points just to maintain a decent energy level. That leaves you with 3 points you can use to rank up your player. How is a player supposed to rank up their player? Good idea, but needs to be adjusted. Increase the number of points or lower the energy needed to level up. I miss the days I could use my XP to decide what I want. A new system is the interviews. I do like this idea. I like that you can go thru the interview process with the media instead of 2 or 3 individual teams and in the end you can pick the team you want to play for anyways or have the option of letting fate decide. BUT the downside is. You cant play with the current roster. It’s an either/or choice. Lame. Now let’s get to the BAP dash board. If you decide to get drafted. You cant see your lines, you cant see who your teammates are. Your offseason choices are extremely limited. In the deep dive video at 1:38 You see the word “Calendar” in the BAP dashboard. That doesn’t exist in this current version. You cant sim to a particular day, you cant sim to a game, you cant see when the trade deadline is. This was in previous years titles, but its missing here. Will it make a comeback? I dont know. Oh, you also cant see stats from the AHL or NHL respectively. Gone are the days that if you are in the NHL, you cant see the stats of anyone in the AHL or even the standings. A feature that was in NHL’25. Lame What I would like to see and what the community has been asking if not begging for. The ability to see transactions, the ability to see the injury list and how long will a player on your team or other teams will be out. The ability to see other teams lines, the ability to negotiate contracts. Presentation wise, other than the new cut scenes you see, you’ve seen them all. EA blew its load when it came to the new opening presentations. They didn’t re-imagine these since it has been in previous years titles. No first NHL solo skate around the ice. Heck even Celebrini said he remembers his first solo skate and its not in this version. The opening scenes are still 10 seconds long when other games like EA NFL is about 60 seconds long. When you win a playoff series the over the top celebrations are still the same. I cant speak for the Stanley Cup yet since I haven’t reached that part yet. The same mistakes are still in this version. The home town crowd still cheers for the other side, your controller settings still doesn’t save which has been reported in 2023. Then you have other issues, like my goalie uses the glove hand as a blocker instead of a glove and tries to deflect shots with his elbows. The new goalie animations look terrible, the limbs of the goalie are disjointed and again, the glove hand looks and acts more like a claw as a glove. (If you want pics of video of this, I got you, let me know). The name bar was kinda fixed but it’s not 100% fixed. My goalie faces the wrong way at times when the puck is behind the net, when he hugs the post it looks ugly. But the limbs look unnatural and extremely disproportionate. Will it be fixed? Probably not. Not holding my breath so I have to look at my goalie uses his elbow deflect the pucks instead of catching them. Lame. Now this is just part of a wish list for the BAP goalie: Update the freaking Masks!!! You still have the Ducks Old web feet logo on two of the three masks. Why cant we design our own mask for BAP? Give us a template and let us use logos, shapes, numbers, designs? You already have the rights to use the logo, and no one owns the rights to numbers, or letters, fonts, colors, or shapes like circles, squares, triangles, pentagon, and so on. Then there is the new “form score” system, I think it works fine for the goalie, but for other positions, it’s frustrating. I see and read that you are a 4th liner for life.. But there was a new patch for that. Just other little annoyances are still there (for me at least). The menu sound when you select something is still annoying and cant be muted or adjusted and now they have added the “form score” micro ticks that is super annoying and cant be muted or adjusted. Game play is frustrating and problems still exist. Own goals are still there. I dont know how many goals my own goalie has kicked in by himself. They have fixed the defensemen swiping the puck into your own net, so that’s a plus. Sliders are still frustrating, Difficulty sliders are too little or too much, and penalties seems to be an issue. I have the sliders up to 95/100 on just about everything just to get 4 penalties per game. This game is far from perfect. It frustrating at best because they could have done so much more. There are so many issues I have to ask “did they not play this before hand? Did they not test this? How can they not see this?” Some issues are so obvious that a tester should have seen these things right away. But this is the BAP that EA will have for the next 4-5 years before we see a refresh. I might skip the next few years unless they give what the community wants.Be a pro penalties sliders
We all know that be a pro has this lack of penalties glitch and it’s been brutal. Today played one game and something when I just tuned broken stick frequency a bit, suddenly there was five different type of penalties handed in one game! All were taken by AI/cpu players. Seems to me that something is on wrong place with sliders, and somehow changing broken stick freq 50 to 65 suddenly did big changes to the penalties! Note: I have cpu penalties settings set up 100/100 and how much penalties given to 4/4. Something is very weirdly wrong with sliders in be a pro! Solutions needed!EA_AljoRoster disasters
What in the heck? I intentionally restarted my BAP season (meaning I deleted and started over) once the Oct 20th rosters were released so my BAP started with current rosters. I'm in the third preseason game as a member of the Dallas Stars. Rasmus Ristolainen is on the Dallas Stars. Real life he's never played for the Stars, he plays for Philly. Luke Hughes is on the Winnipeg Jets. One of the famous Hughes brothers. Never played for Winnipeg. He plays on the Devils. This is just 3 games into the pre-season and already very egregious errors. These aren't minor league players that could be mixed up. And I haven't even started the regular season to see how much worse it's going to get.