NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing & More

[Steve_OS]

NHL 17 Producers are answering questions on their Ask NHL page, similar to how they did it last year. If you have questions, make sure to submit them here.

We've posted some of the questions and answers below, click here to read them all.

Will there be improvements to stick on body/stick on stick collisions?

Yes, we have made improvements to how we recognize stick-on-stick and stick-on-body collisions to determine if the puck should come free. We still don’t run full physics reactions for stick on stick though as players don’t currently have enough control to pull their stick through and evade in ways they can in the real world. That is why we still want to produce the right incidental contact effect on the puck though to reward defensive positioning. We have also made updates to how the puck comes loose when it collides with sticks, skates and bodies to ultimately reward good defensive position.

Has Opponent (or team) AI improved?

Yes, there have been a lot of improvements to both Offensive and Defensive AI to improve the flow of the game and the reliability of your teammates. You will see off puck defenders doing a much better job of sticking with their man and recognizing potential passing options as bigger threats. Those players will also utilize net battles to tie up players in front unchecked for long periods of time. On offense, the AI is smarter how they are moving the puck and in general has more flow during breakouts.

Will there be any added camera views for game action in '17?

We have added a new camera for goalies that will be available at launch.

What improvements have you made to make goaltending more fluid and stand out verses previous years?

For goalies we have introduced a new save mechanic where they can make blocking vs reactionary saves. When they have the ability to get their body in front of a shot, they will -- using their chest and shoulders to block pucks rather than making reactionary limb based saves. For Player Controlled Goalies we have also updated the mechanics to get to the post quicker using reverse VH and butterfly leans to really seal up against the post. We have updated our precision movement to give more control and allow you to control the speed using the analog stick. We also made a lot of improvements to responsiveness by allowing you to exit out of animations – for example if you want to drop back down to butterfly before fully standing up. That's just some of the improvements we've made to goaltending this year.

Will you guys consider the ability to make public rosters to share throughout the online community? It's a huge success with Madden and it generates over 13,000 shared rosters, playbooks and sliders per year.

Shared rosters will not be a feature for NHL 17 but we will consider it for future iterations.

[kariya05]

No shared rosters = no buy. Whoever does their ratings are by far the worst of any sports game.

[Retropyro]

No shared rosters, no connected franchise mode. Seriously?

[Caniac94]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

Yeah no roster sharing is a huge deal breaker for me. Not worth the purchase for the same game.

[AdamJones113]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

I still like to delude myself into thinking I started the movement to get reverse VH in the game

[brandon27]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

Meh... no roster sharing may be enough to make me pass on this one. Especially given how awful EA's rosters always are.

I really dont see a whole lot of improvement going on here. I'm going to have to really think about this one. I don't think I'll be buying at launch now though unless something changes between now and then. With this coming out in September though, with Madden before it, FH3, F1 racing, new nascar game. I just dont think I'll find the time right away for this game and EA's struggle with rosters and ratings.

I'll get it at some point, I know that, it's fallen down the list though.

[qdas]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

A lot of "no, but...." answers sprinkled in with some fluffy, brag to us about the new features questions. No roster sharing is a massive issue. The inability to create a custom camera is pretty pathetic as well. They don't seem to really be listening much to their community at all. These exclusive licensing deals with the various sports leagues have got to go. You know damn well roster sharing would be in this year if there was another game offering it. Not updating season stats during the season as well. A few days of coding for one person and it's there. There are wish lists full of this stuff and somehow it gets passed over. I'm in the no buy category as well.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

Ugh, they are having trouble integrating the ECHL into Franchise. That sucks. I've said it for damn near a decade now. Franchise needs all leagues in the game integrated into one franchise, GM, owner, whatever mode like FIFA's career mode.

I know, enormous work and no resources for the NHL team.

[Simple Mathematics]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

If EA would give us roster sharing, then I think the Revamped Rosters would be the equivalent of the OS Full Minors rosters for The Show. All OS rosters seem to get insane amounts of downloads and I would love to see what the Revamped Rosters could get in NHL.

Also, what is the point in adding the ECHL if we can't use it in franchise mode?

[ttrobbins84]

They won't put roster sharing in because no one wants nor asks for it. Duh. They over rate sooo many players. It's so frustrating to see it, and then their updates throughout the season are weak and forums are filled with frustrated fans.

It may just be me, but this Q&A is feeling more and more like deja vu. I was leaning towards buying it, because it's the only game out there. Now I'm thinking I'll just stick with 16. I wish there was some competition in the market to drive them to do more every year.

The ECHL not being integrated means that they probably will rarely get used. I may be wrong there. I was super excited about ECHL being in the game, and now I don't care.

Each year, lots of hope and it seems like it ends the same. A game that feels like it's on the right track, but just not quite there. I'd die for an NHL game to be featured like a FIFA/NBA 2K game as far as franchise mode goes.

Do we know if the world cup is integrated into franchise? I didn't see it, or could have missed it.

[Moose24x]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

I've never really understood how people were getting excited over ECHL inclusion (unless they personally have and follow an ECHL team they specifically have been wanting to play as) because, even if it WAS incorporated in franchise mode, the ECHL would have such a minor actual effect. First of all, if you follow hockey closely, not very many prospects spend a lot of time in the ECHL. It's not a development league like the CHL or NCAA, nor does it produce young draft eligibles like European top leagues. It most often sees goalies who may have an NHL future and is otherwise populated by players a notch below AHL quality or who are being crowded out of an AHL roster spot. I'm not saying that's its exclusive function, but that is the reality. The ECHL is hardly an essential addition and wouldn't have a large impact on franchise play anyhow.

The time it took to code all of the ECHL teams, record dialogue for ECHL play and figure out where on the rating scale these ECHL players should fall all could have been devoted to significantly more meaningful and much more frequently asked for improvements. Really, any other improvements would have ultimately been preferable. Ditto World Cup. As I'm sure it will be stand alone only and not integrated into franchise play, it is just trying to capitalize on the buzz that the World Cup may be generating right around the same time frame as the game's release. In no way does it actually make the game better and the (likely minimal) time it takes to include it, the jerseys, new commentary, etc. would have simply been better spent elsewhere.

That said, I'm not angry that it is included or anything. And due to the relative ease with which it probably was included (probably part of the reason it is; what can we include with minimal effort but hype as a big selling point?) I realize that it's not as if it was included at the sacrifice of anything major. I just personally would rather see even a small handful of more minor improvements, like better forechecking and breakouts or just having players occasionally tossed from the face off circle, than I would have the ECHL. Like I said, if you're actually a fan of an ECHL team, I see why you'd be happy. If you just want the best NHL game (and make no mistake, the game is called NHL 17, not HOCKEY 17) than I would rather they cut all the excess BS and just improve the damn game.

[Toewsface]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

Q - What improvements did you make this year?
Honest A - Well, surprisingly very few. All of the previous year's glitches are still here and we're touting features that we had several years ago as new features.

Q - And what about rosters this year?
HA - Despite years of our fans pleading for roster sharing or sensible ratings, we've decided to ignore all of that. As always, our rosters will be completely unusable trash where every 4th liner is indistinguishable from Mario Lemieux and we won't enable any way for you to correct it yourself without the user investing tens of thousands of hours of work. And of course, that work won't mean a hill of beans because you can't share it with the community and our player progression system is thoroughly broken.

Q - Can you tell us about the addition of ECHL in this year's addition?
HA - Well, we added them, but you can't actually use them in our new, super awesome Franchise Mode tm because why would we want such basic functionality.

Q - And what improvements have you made to goalies in this year's game?
HA - We're going to tout a new system, but really the goalies are going to let in the same exact goals as they have in the past 8 years editions. But we added a few new animations that we're really excited about.

Q - How have you captured EA's slogan, "If it's in the game, it's in the game."
HA - Well as you know, none of our programmers have ever actually watched a hockey game so we're really hoping that our idea of what hockey is like is as close to real life as possible. When your player hits the shuttlecock, we're sure you'll feel like you hit a homerun!

Q - You don't really have any respect for your customers, do you?
HA - Of course not, we're EA and they'll shell out $60 for the same garbage with minor, wholly inaccurate roster changes that we won't release until mid-December every year.

[Rufio2031]

I remember when NHL was one of the better titles EA had to offer. It has been absolute garbage for 4+ years now with no real signs of improvement. Looks like it's going to be the exact same yet again. At least it seems the community is finally realizing it. They can't even get passed creating a passable menu system for crying out loud. But EA doesn't care, they're putting hardly anything into the title and still getting sales.

The whole stick on stick paragraph is such crap and a great example of how EA is NOT in the game. I like how they want to reward defensive positioning by faking incidental contact. Because every Hockey fan knows the best way to get the puck loose from the puck carrier is by accident/luck. Basically, if you're close to someone they'll "more intelligently" randomize the puck coming loose. Only to be instantly re-gained by the AI team of course; followed by them skating right through you as their stick clips through the core of your body all while NOT losing possession of the puck.

[jake19ny]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

I went to the EA Ask page and read all the questions. Someone asked about custom goalie masks and of course that's not in the game. Roster share and gameplay are way more important but it's annoying that they haven't updated and only added a few new masks over the 6 years. You can infer by his answer that it's going to be the same this year too. Again not a top priority but come on get a little creative with the goalie masks. Besides old shoe, some are downright lame.

PS. ROSTER SHARE ALREADY!!!!! Geez

[Freakywwe]

Re: NHL 17 Q&A #2 - Collisions, AI Improvements, New Goalie Cam, No Roster Sharing &

Q - What improvements did you make this year?
Honest A - Well, surprisingly very few. All of the previous year's glitches are still here and we're touting features that we had several years ago as new features.

Q - And what about rosters this year?
HA - Despite years of our fans pleading for roster sharing or sensible ratings, we've decided to ignore all of that. As always, our rosters will be completely unusable trash where every 4th liner is indistinguishable from Mario Lemieux and we won't enable any way for you to correct it yourself without the user investing tens of thousands of hours of work. And of course, that work won't mean a hill of beans because you can't share it with the community and our player progression system is thoroughly broken.

Q - Can you tell us about the addition of ECHL in this year's addition?
HA - Well, we added them, but you can't actually use them in our new, super awesome Franchise Mode tm because why would we want such basic functionality.

Q - And what improvements have you made to goalies in this year's game?
HA - We're going to tout a new system, but really the goalies are going to let in the same exact goals as they have in the past 8 years editions. But we added a few new animations that we're really excited about.

Q - How have you captured EA's slogan, "If it's in the game, it's in the game."
HA - Well as you know, none of our programmers have ever actually watched a hockey game so we're really hoping that our idea of what hockey is like is as close to real life as possible. When your player hits the shuttlecock, we're sure you'll feel like you hit a homerun!

Q - You don't really have any respect for your customers, do you?
HA - Of course not, we're EA and they'll shell out $60 for the same garbage with minor, wholly inaccurate roster changes that we won't release until mid-December every year.

This really isn't necessary