Do Ratings Really Matter?

[ChampIsHere42]

I was playing against a friend, he was the Preds and I was the East All-Stars. He beat me and I felt like I just had a regular team. It didn't feel like an All-Star team to me.

[Money99]

No.

[actionhank]

It's something that's been harped on plenty around here, but the frustrating part of the game is that there isn't a lot of disparity between players of certain skills, because the attribute ratings either don't weight heavily enough into how the game plays, or there's not enough of a gap between players.

I have equal luck scoring in the game with 4th liners as I do forwards like Tarasenko, mainly because there just isn't enough of a skill gap between the two. Sliders can help to an extent, but there's only so much you can do.

It's all made more frustrating by the fact that editing/sharing players is difficult if not impossible (can we please get a system that lets us search for players by name, position, etc). When you do manage to edit a team, it's painfully slow, because you're stuck going attribute by attribute and editing everything down/up, and you're not able to type numbers in and be done with it. Then even if you do have a good slider set/roster, you can't share it, or get the roster/sliders from someone who knows better.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by actionhank

It's something that's been harped on plenty around here, but the frustrating part of the game is that there isn't a lot of disparity between players of certain skills, because the attribute ratings either don't weight heavily enough into how the game plays, or there's not enough of a gap between players. I have equal luck scoring in the game with 4th liners as I do forwards like Tarasenko, mainly because there just isn't enough of a skill gap between the two. Sliders can help to an extent, but there's only so much you can do. It's all made more frustrating by the fact that editing/sharing players is difficult if not impossible (can we please get a system that lets us search for players by name, position, etc). When you do manage to edit a team, it's painfully slow, because you're stuck going attribute by attribute and editing everything down/up, and you're not able to type numbers in and be done with it. Then even if you do have a good slider set/roster, you can't share it, or get the roster/sliders from someone who knows better.

Well said.
I'd like to see the same differential at the NHL level as is present in the CHL.
I've played games with some of my favourite OHL teams, and the stars are much more noticeable than when I play as an NHL club.

What year was it that EA Canada had a goon out to their studios?
It's when they introduced the 1st person fighting engine.
That year, the devs spoke about how even goons could do incredible things on the ice.
They forgot to mention that it's usually in a practice, with unlimited time and space.
In games, you never see these guys threading needles or removing jock straps.
Yet, because some scrub dangled in their EA studio, they went ga-ga and decided every player should be separated by 2 OV points.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

Well said. I'd like to see the same differential at the NHL level as is present in the CHL. I've played games with some of my favourite OHL teams, and the stars are much more noticeable than when I play as an NHL club. What year was it that EA Canada had a goon out to their studios? It's when they introduced the 1st person fighting engine. That year, the devs spoke about how even goons could do incredible things on the ice. They forgot to mention that it's usually in a practice, with unlimited time and space. In games, you never see these guys threading needles or removing jock straps. Yet, because some scrub dangled in their EA studio, they went ga-ga and decided every player should be separated by 2 OV points.

Yeah, I think that was NHL 10. I don't even mind that guys like Ryan Reaves sometimes score a goal. But in the game, there's literally no real incentive to putting Tarasenko out over Reaves, especially with default sliders.

The AI is what I think needs the biggest work, but in terms of gameplay with non-brain dead AI, attributes and ratings play a huge part too. Defensive forwards should be less likely to get a penalty and more likely to steal the puck, especially from lower skilled forwards. In the game as it stands, you just don't notice who's good at what. I imagine if there was a way to make everyone look the same physically, and remove their jersey numbers, you would have a hard time telling who is good at what by their in game actions.

[Money99]

It's always been this series' Achilles heal.
I'd throw Lidstrom on the ice to shut a line down or secure a 1-goal lead in the last minute of play, but it really didn't matter if he or Ericsson were on the ice. Both guys were the same when it came to the defensive side of the game.
And honestly, like you, at times I'd throw a 4th liner, or 3rd pairing dman on the PP or top lines and they'd produce just as much as the 1st liners.

I think that's why EA doesn't even bother to allow the user to match lines. Why bother.
Outside of skating speed, everyone on the ice is the exact same.

EDIT: I know this horse has been dead for years, but to get a few more licks in, NHL2K10 really did a fantastic job of not only separating stars from scrubs, but also player types.
Thornton felt and played a lot differently than Crosby.
And I loved getting the puck to snipers like Ovie.

[Simple Mathematics]

According to the article below, it looks like we will have a larger ratings spread this year. I'd still like to see even more separation, but this is a great start nonetheless.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nh...8-preview.aspx


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[GlennN]

Quote: Originally Posted by Simple Mathematics

According to the article below, it looks like we will have a larger ratings spread this year. I'd still like to see even more separation, but this is a great start nonetheless. http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nh...8-preview.aspx Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

I think this is the most encouraging thing I have seen about NHL 18 yet. Like the folks above, this has been one of the main issues for me with the NHL series. Why build a franchise if players are generally fungible? I will be paying close attention to the early tests of the game to see if they were true to their word. Even if the ratings gap is bigger, that is only half of the issue - the players still have to play to the ratings (and that is not something I have seen in the game).