Random info from EA about NHL 16

[Ruffy]

Hard to comment on poke-check changes until we see it in action.

Poke check-spamming was annoying as it was TOO effective.

But it is a hard one to fix....I've been playing hockey once a week for a long time and plenty of my opponents sort of poke check spam.

Hoping that just positioning and actually getting a bit of a body on a guy is enough to cause loss of puck control or turnovers.....last year guys could one-button deke right through you....your only hope was to spam the poke check and pray you didn't get a trip.

[Haze88]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

Player Switching - This is a tough one for me to claim that we have fixed all your worries as sometimes player switching is subjective. Some people want to just be goal side, others want the closest backchecker first as long as he has a chance to make a play, etc.. All I can say, is that we have done work against player switching and gone through a couple of iterations trying to fine tune and make it better. I have seen comments in this thread that you just want the player closest to the puck but from having people playtest, that isn't always true. It isn't even always true that you want the player closest to the puck that is goal side (as an example, what if the closest player goal side is caught in a pivot going the wrong way and by the time you pick them, the puck carrier will already be by them?). We take a lot more into consideration using those base rules but then also looking at your ability to intercept the puck carrier based on both yours and their current speed/trajectory. We then use other logic to ensure we pick someone closer to your own net if the puck is traveling that way so that we don't send you backwards. We also don't want to walk you back switching back and forth across the ice so we try to limit how far away horizontally on screen it will switch as well (assuming you are playing with a up/down camera angle). Our engineers could tell you in a lot more detail what the code is doing but thought you would like to know that we took a good crack at making it better and trying to appease the many ideas of who the next best player to switch to is for all people.

Why not do what NBA 2K has done for years and have icon switching?

[bigwill33]

Quote: Originally Posted by Haze88

Why not do what NBA 2K has done for years and have icon switching?

A million times "yes!" Been saying this for years.

[giantsharks]

Quote: Originally Posted by lions67

not sure what it is that worries you. this all sounds like a very good step in the right direction.

I don't know, im imagining what thats gonna look like in this game and i feel like a stumble animation is going to be weird looking and happen way too much. Who knows, we haven't seen it yet but when they implement stuff i feel like they over due it. I'd rather see a kinda of tie-up situation where you have to actively protect the puck while someone is bodying you up

[Pezell04x]

Quote: Originally Posted by Haze88

Why not do what NBA 2K has done for years and have icon switching?

This has been something that NHL has desperately needed. I felt the last gen switching was abysmal and while I never played 15 on current gen, I bet it was the same. I hope it certainly is improved but you never know how much they tweaked it.

[The Visualizer]

thanks for putting this all together bigwill. FYI I reposted this on NeoGAF and gave you credit. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1079524

Regarding the topics:

Battles in Front - I agree with the dev's assessment that this should have been removed due to the suction effect. In the future they should look to implement a more dynamic contact animation kind of like FIFA has when a defender leans on a player without the ball that takes into account strength so that stronger players are harder to dislodge from a spot in front of the net.

Player Switching - I didn't play enough of NHL15 on current gen to comment, but on last gen I didnt have a big problem with the player switching other than when I played co-op and it did strange things.

Auto Zoom Camera - very interested to see this in action. In EASHL I toggled off the puck from time to time playing defenseman, if this camera does what it says that might be a nice alternative to consider.

Shielding - good to hear this was addressed. It was a bit OP in 15, anything that prevents puck carriers from being able to carry thru traffic too easily is welcome.

Spam Poke Check - the changes sound good to me. I have to say im guilty of relying on poke check as my primary way to defend but am in the camp that believes its not really overpowered. The problem to me is more that players whine about poke check because they want to carry the puck everywhere and not play real hockey so they get dispossessed too frequently for their liking. Players who understand this protect the puck well, dump the puck in the neutral zone when necessary or move it down low in the zone instead of try to be a hero everytime.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Visualizer

thanks for putting this all together bigwill. FYI I reposted this on NeoGAF and gave you credit. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1079524 Regarding the topics: Battles in Front - I agree with the dev's assessment that this should have been removed due to the suction effect. In the future they should look to implement a more dynamic contact animation kind of like FIFA has when a defender leans on a player without the ball that takes into account strength so that stronger players are harder to dislodge from a spot in front of the net. Player Switching - I didn't play enough of NHL15 on current gen to comment, but on last gen I didnt have a big problem with the player switching other than when I played co-op and it did strange things. Auto Zoom Camera - very interested to see this in action. In EASHL I toggled off the puck from time to time playing defenseman, if this camera does what it says that might be a nice alternative to consider. Shielding - good to hear this was addressed. It was a bit OP in 15, anything that prevents puck carriers from being able to carry thru traffic too easily is welcome. Spam Poke Check - the changes sound good to me. I have to say im guilty of relying on poke check as my primary way to defend but am in the camp that believes its not really overpowered. The problem to me is more that players whine about poke check because they want to carry the puck everywhere and not play real hockey so they get dispossessed too frequently for their liking. Players who understand this protect the puck well, dump the puck in the neutral zone when necessary or move it down low in the zone instead of try to be a hero everytime.

It would be nice if they had defensive skills to take the focus off of poke checking. I think poke checking is more of a symptom of neutered defensive skillsets than people just abusing an easy trick (Though, with online play, it's definitely still probably a bit of abuse).

My frustration (I know I've said it a million times before) is that on defense, you're so restricted in what you can effectively do. There's no real finesse when defending. You're pretty much stuck with a few options. The light bump, where you skate into a guy, but miss the check, and kind of hope to accidentally cause him to stumble.
You can go for the big hit, which will leave you both completely out of the play, which definitely makes that one risky, but frustrating, considering there's not really anything hit wise, besides the big hit.
And lastly, you can try and poke check. But, since you're pretty limited in your ability to aim your poke check, you're stuck just hitting it, and hoping the AI points it in the right direction.
Stick lifts can be helpful, but unless you're practically in the guy's lap, you're pretty much just hitting the penalty button.
I wish EA would give us the equivalent of the Skill Stick for defenders. Something that takes your skill into the process, along with the attributes and positioning in game.

From poke checks, to slashes, to stick lifts, it's all just mashing a button and hoping for a favorable outcome. It could be so much more fun if you had that ability to actually be more precise. Try and smack the stick down to break up a shot or pass, and risk a slashing call if you do it too hard across the middle of the stick. Flick the control stick up to try and go for a stick lift, but at the risk of taking yourself out of the play with your stick in the air, or catching someone in the face with your blade.
How many times do you see guys in the NHL get hip-to-hip with a forward, and start to reach with their free hand, while slamming their stick around with the other, all in an attempt to work the puck free and get someone else in to pick it up?

So many small details could make huge changes to the way defense plays.

Edit: Oh, and clearing off of the boards. That one would be massive. If I have to try and slap shot a puck out on the PK, only to see my defender turn and fire it straight at the wall next to him, instead of up the ice through the seam in the other team, I might have a rage-stroke.

We've got the puck dump, but we just can't get the accuracy needed to use it to actually clear the puck.