This game is honestly a chore to play

[Sportsgamefan]

Quote: Originally Posted by PernellKarl076

For what it's worth, cause I think I'm alone in my world... Thinking I should give up slider sets... I even get thumbs down from the OS people on my vids, lol ! I just raised the aggression slider to 94 for that next game. Let’s see the result of that 1st period... I know it's easy to point everything that's wrong with the game, but I'll continue to focus on the opposite, the positives... After I'll leave it alone, you have your way of looking at it and I have mine Again, yes the AI needs improvement, I agree, but let's look at what they do right... - Good play by Chara and nice breakout by McAvoy. - Very Nice passing play by the B's to get out the zone and an amazing play by Bergeron. Then O'Reilly comes to save the day ! - Nice cut pass by Pasternak and then it's off to the races. - Good pressure by Pareyko to cut time and space and nice hit to finish. That was just in the first 2 minutes of the game... BOS vs STL 1st period Wonder how people would react if the AI was always perfect and never made a mistake... That would be fun to play against !

This started by me offering my view on why this game doesn't really look like the real thing. There is nothing wrong with your sliders, that's about how I have always setup my games too, I actually like the gameplay you get.

The problem is still there though. There are no sliders in the game to affect how players position themselves and how they act with the puck on their stick.

I don't think anybody has asked or wants for the AI to play perfectly. I'd like for it to get the fundamental basics right. How to keep positions, not chase puck carriers, when to shoot/pass. On top of that what I would want from it would be some diversity. Players playing according to their ratings, traits etc. For instance, if you play Boston like you do here, you would have to expect them to feed Pastrnak for the one-timer from top of the faceoff circle on the PP. You don't see any of that. The AI just passes it around with no plan, trying to feed it into the middle.

It just doesn't keep interest for me when I don't see any change in who I'm playing against or who I get on my team. You get the best defensive d-man in the game and I guarantee you he plays just like Bear earlier.

[PernellKarl076]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sportsgamefan

This started by me offering my view on why this game doesn't really look like the real thing. There is nothing wrong with your sliders, that's about how I have always setup my games too, I actually like the gameplay you get.

Great, thanks for that !

For Pasternak, I get what you are trying to say believe me... But, the dumb AI coach didn't even put him on the ice, lol ! He was probably busy talking to Snoop Plus, they didn't really get settled for long on that PP...

I believe that they are not that far from having a better all around AI, it's much better than it was before and it's not all doom and gloom for me. I've seen great plays by McAvoy, Faulk, Parayko and Pietrangelo in that 1st alone...

Must be a great a great slider set to try human vs human, tho ? Unfortunately, it's just against the AI for me, lol ! But, last night, I took control of the entire team and I had a blast, on the edge of my seat the whole time

[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by PernellKarl076

For what it's worth, cause I think I'm alone in my world... Thinking I should give up slider sets... I even get thumbs down from the OS people on my vids, lol ! I just raised the aggression slider to 94 for that next game. Let’s see the result of that 1st period... I know it's easy to point everything that's wrong with the game, but I'll continue to focus on the opposite, the positives... After I'll leave it alone, you have your way of looking at it and I have mine Again, yes the AI needs improvement, I agree, but let's look at what they do right... - Good play by Chara and nice breakout by McAvoy. - Very Nice passing play by the B's to get out the zone and an amazing play by Bergeron. Then O'Reilly comes to save the day ! - Nice cut pass by Pasternak and then it's off to the races. - Good pressure by Pareyko to cut time and space and nice hit to finish. That was just in the first 2 minutes of the game... BOS vs STL 1st period Wonder how people would react if the AI was always perfect and never made a mistake... That would be fun to play against !

You're not alone! I run my own offline league in NHL (40 teams) and am constantly tinkering with sets. I play 1/s the game with each team, and one thing that has really helped get more realistic gameplay is the strategy slider adjustments. I make sure I set teams to weak side lock, move the emphasis more towards a forecheck (4 out of 6) then I set offensive pressure to standard and defensive pressure to contain puck. I also set my defensive pairs to pinch (9 out of 10) on every pairing. I then set the "CPU AI Adjustments" to 0/6 to make sure those settings stay static.

This has lead to a lot more pinching, a lot tighter neutral zones (because the AI is always up pinching) and has really made the game a lot more fun imo. If you're not a franchise mode player (meaning Season Mode/Play now/anything where you can control the starts for both teams) I really suggest editing those to get a better AI. Sure, everything isn't perfect, but it's definitely a huge improvement IMO.

[PernellKarl076]

Quote: Originally Posted by HipNotiiC_x

You're not alone! I run my own offline league in NHL (40 teams) and am constantly tinkering with sets. I play 1/s the game with each team, and one thing that has really helped get more realistic gameplay is the strategy slider adjustments. I make sure I set teams to weak side lock, move the emphasis more towards a forecheck (4 out of 6) then I set offensive pressure to standard and defensive pressure to contain puck. I also set my defensive pairs to pinch (9 out of 10) on every pairing. I then set the "CPU AI Adjustments" to 0/6 to make sure those settings stay static. This has lead to a lot more pinching, a lot tighter neutral zones (because the AI is always up pinching) and has really made the game a lot more fun imo. If you're not a franchise mode player (meaning Season Mode/Play now/anything where you can control the starts for both teams) I really suggest editing those to get a better AI. Sure, everything isn't perfect, but it's definitely a huge improvement IMO.

Gooood, welcome to the club, lol ! I'm already adjusting strategies where in my season I control all the teams... I also set the sliders on shooting to the max on line and dpair strats... Out of the box, the AI is pass happy and this helps allot

[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by PernellKarl076

Gooood, welcome to the club, lol ! I'm already adjusting strategies where in my season I control all the teams... I also set the sliders on shooting to the max on line and dpair strats... Out of the box, the AI is pass happy and this helps allot

Yep, I do that as well! Try the pinch slider and the weakside lock. It's been a great change!

[PernellKarl076]

When you put AI Strategies adjustments at 0, do the AI coach remove the goalie if need be ?

I know that the AI strategies adjustments slider only affect ''team strategies'', but not ''line strategies'', which I like, from the testing that I have done...

Good to see I'm not the only abnormal guy around here, lol !

Did you test my slider set ? I just know, I'm always on the edge of my seat playing it and it completely changed the game for me...

Also, do you have one ? and if so, I would like to test it Thanks !

[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by PernellKarl076

When you put AI Strategies adjustments at 0, do the AI coach remove the goalie if need be ? I know that the AI strategies adjustments slider only affect ''team strategies'', but not ''line strategies'', which I like, from the testing that I have done... Good to see I'm not the only abnormal guy around here, lol ! Did you test my slider set ? I just know, I'm always on the edge of my seat playing it and it completely changed the game for me... Also, do you have one ? and if so, I would like to test it Thanks !

I actually did test your set and it made me completely change mine lol! My league is a fictional "eSport" league so I'm wanting a good mix of realism and flow. Your gameplay was fun from a realism perspective, but I like to play shorter periods and have a bit more flow so I'm currently building my own set off of what I liked from yours and what I liked from my previous set.

My old set used game speed 4, and I found that game speed 2 is my sweet spot after playing your game. It's fast enough where I think there's potential for an audience to like it, but it's a tad slower than vanilla.

I will for sure post my set over in the slider section when I nail it down. I'm very close, but I'm sure my goalie section will be a tad different, as I created custom goalies for all of my teams with the same exact stats. They're all 6'4" and 88 overall (tall to combat the top-shelf cheese shots) so I normally need my screen effect, reaction time, and screen persistence sliders lower/higher than most of the sets on here.

Thanks for posting your set and talking. Glad to see there's someone as crazy as me that still tries to get the most out of this game offline! The online community is an absolute joke, and I've never been happier since the day I decided I'm done with competitive EASHL lol.

[PernellKarl076]

Quote: Originally Posted by HipNotiiC_x

I actually did test your set and it made me completely change mine lol! My league is a fictional "eSport" league so I'm wanting a good mix of realism and flow. Your gameplay was fun from a realism perspective, but I like to play shorter periods and have a bit more flow so I'm currently building my own set off of what I liked from yours and what I liked from my previous set.

WOW , good to know, you should have told me, I was about to quit sliderville, cause I thought no one gave a damn, lol ! Good stuff !

You lost me at fictional esport league tho, lol... What is that ?

I hear you about the online stuff, never played, only saw vids and no sir, not for me, lol !