NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

[MartanCJ]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Hi, any news from EA about other leagues than just NHL? Or we can expect nothing as usual?

[dmacgreg37]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

ATTENTION!

ChaseB badly WANTED

He mentioned in another thread that he's been super sick, and was hoping to get to some questions this week.

[GetThePuckOut]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

He mentioned in another thread that he's been super sick, and was hoping to get to some questions this week.

Oh ok, didn't know the "hoping to get to some questions this week"...
But thank you for clarifying 👍✌️

[ChaseB]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Alright, daddy's back, let's try to get through some of this. Anything I ignore it's likely because I either don't know or did not have access to it. I had ZERO access to stuff beyond gameplay more or less so that's why I don't have much for franchise mode/BAP:

What are the biggest changes from last year.

Will we start to see a bigger difference in the next gen version of the game, any major features that theyve added on next gen platform

Gameplay stuff I called out in the article, with hip checks, icon passing, Pressure system, and the general sloppiness out on the ice with the increased physicality.

I think every EA dev I have spoken to across all the games can't wait to ditch the last-gen consoles since it is slowing up how they implement things at this point for sure, but obviously it's not up to them.

1. Will a full presentation be brought back?

3. Are there any updates to AI to better represent defenseman taking shots instead of the offense only shooting from close in to the slot/front of the net?

1. No, I don't believe full presentation is back, nor do I think we're getting that back any time soon.

3. Yes and no. I spoke about this in the other thread a bit but as a SECONDARY option once teams setup in the zone, I do think it has improved. As a PRIMARY motivator and first option when entering the zone, no I don't think it's been especially improved. They're going for the slot/front of the net first and foremost and there's not much of an idea of dumping and chasing or just entering the zone and letting a shot go from the point.

Thank you for giving us this forum. As a long time EA NHL player, have to admit I didn't play as much as years past due to staleness in presentation and even game play (though it did improve), but also that other sports video game franchises like NBA 2K took giant leaps with their ERAs Franchise addition.

I am most interested in learning more about:
I. Presentation: what has been done? i.e. new cut scenes between periods? new
before/after game scenes? Stadium atmosphere authenticity?

**Presentation needs such an overhaul.

II. Gameplay: better differentiation of players based on talent/skill level?

IV. Other: Pheonix Coyotes Mullet Arena in the game?
Reverse Retros in the game (with Adidas out)?
Real NHL coaches?

I think reading my article will give the most for the presentation aspect, but I do think they know their presentation was pretty cheeks last year. They're doing what some other sports games have done trying to find a way to tweak the TV-style presentation aspects for a video game, which includes doing stuff now like putting stats on the boards rather than ads etc.

I. The presentation changes they made this year are all positive to me, but they didn't make enough still year-over-year since they were starting from such a negative last year that it would be hard to make up that difference in a single cycle.

II. Still don't think this is where it needs to be (and they'd admit it as well I think). More just comes down to abilities etc. players have (and also if it's user control or not) more than the AI standing out with stars vs. scrubs and how they're playing.

IV. I know real coaches aren't in the game (remains a Coaches Association licensing thing, which has been the same for years).

Also, will NHL 24 utilize Hypermotion V and SAPIEN like Madden?

They didn't talk about it, so I would guess no they did not. I don't think the game needs these things for the record, they just need to make their physics work right. Plus, they have all these ways to edit players right now (strides etc.) that they don't use enough anyway right now. So if they want to improve how players move and feel (and stand out from each other), then starting there seems more logical than implementing new tech.

are strategies(CPU and User and BAP) gonna be 0/15 across the board? increased from 0/6, is attribute effects gonna be 0-50 or 0-100? is AI learning gonna be increased to 0/100 and is CPU difficulty adjustment gonna be 0-100 now? , dying for some offline slider news man.

Super! I actually thought of this question before going into my gameplay session so I did go and look at the sliders. Admittedly, I know almost nothing about NHL sliders and how they look but I can tell you what I looked at and maybe that's enough to help answer these Qs by listing off some of the values I saw:

-AI learning goes from 0/6
-CPU Difficulty Adjustment 0/6
-Attribute Effects from 0/10
-Game speed from 0/6
-Puck Control tab (one example, among like Skating, Shooting, etc.) goes from 0/100

Also I dunno if you knew this but they don't touch goalies going from Rookie to top difficulty level. Other sliders etc. change but the goalies technically stay the same regardless of the level you play on.

Thanks for doing this Chase!

All I will say is this and even Nasher/other guys are saying the same thing; This is the make or break year for the NHL series. The excuses/minimal changes are no longer acceptable. Time to put everything into this game...enough of the gimmick "chel" and take this year seriously. Put your best foot forward with this entry

What changes are coming to gameplay to make the game more realistic? How is the AI?

Any updates to goalies/new animations? They still do not react realistically to pucks behind them.

What are the differences between the past couple years and NHL 24?

Any commentary updates/changes? What is new with presentation? The same cutscenes have been in the series for years and are far too repetitive.

Think reading my article will be the best bet here for answering most of this in-depth. I do think this is the first year in a longggggggggggggg time though where they're going for it with gameplay. Again, I don't think it's all going to hit or even be warmly embraced, but the game feels different and it's time to start moving this game in some direction at least rather than just being stagnant and dying out due to boredom. If the franchise is going to go down, at least let it go down because people hated the direction it went rather than just becoming so bored by it they just stopped playing.

A few additional questions came to mind:
1. Is EA bringing back black eyes, cuts following fight scenes?

Thanks!

1. I did not see a black eye/cut after the two fights I was in. Maybe for Chel or something, but I did not see it in a normal game.

I know others have mentioned this, but I figure I'll bring it up as well (squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing), but is there any change to the overall presentation and broadcast? As an NHL fan I buy this game for the NHL experience and ever since they dropped the NBC package the presentation and broadcast have been terrible. Also, will they bring back the "True Broadcast" camera?

Is there any improvement to cpu time management? This has been a pet peeve of mine forever. The cpu's clock management at the end of games is dreadful, especially when they're losing by a goal or two. They never use their timeout and they always wait too long to pull their goalie.

Thanks for asking the questions!

Yeah, so again, probably best answered in the article, but it's better presentation. I'm still not calling it "good" or even hitting the high notes that came with the NHL on NBC presentation (which admittedly was also bad for large stretches but at least had some cool one-off stuff). But the direction overall I don't mind, if they actually try to improve it more going forward.

My guess is you're going to be disappointed in the CPU clock management. I don't think stuff like this ends up as a priority in like any sports game sadly.

Looking at the Twitter photos…

Why are they doing motion capture in August? Surely that’s too late.

They do mo-cap all year. The games are always technically in development so they're always just grabbing stuff even if it's not used until next cycle etc. I wouldn't read much into it beyond that.

I know what I am doing if goalies do in fact get fatigued easily, I am putting most of my points on endurance and durability, I did notice in NHL 23 players and goalies weren't getting as tired easily, I literally had to put fatigue effect to 100 and fatigue recovery to 4-8, franchise and be a pro are much different, the franchise you can use higher up settings and be a pro u need to use lower fatigue recovery to make 4 line play, to make second and third and fourth line play 7-12 minutes, am using like ten minute periods, so... NHL 24 might just benefit me a lot, cause I know the system so well now.

The question is will NHL 24 let you use Human and CPU sliders work or will be just CPU Sliders that will just work, in NHL 23 I think I figured out it was just CPU sliders that worked in all-star full sim mode.

it seems like for both All-Star and SuperStar, you need to just use CPU sliders and put all of Human Sliders down to 0, to be a pro, not sure about the franchise. never tried the concept in a franchise before.

Yeah, sorry I wish I knew how sliders would work, but it's not something I have time to mess around with during limited time with the game. Goalie fatigue is DEFINITELY a thing right now though in the game. Fatigue in general is noticeable with the Pressure system especially.

Thanks Chase for doing this…

Maybe it’s too late, but mine is not really a question, but a request to them…

Can they PLEASE treat ONLINE and OFFLINE as a SEPARATE entity ? How many times an "online" patch/request by HUT and CHEL players, screwed up the OFFLINE portion of the game ? Way too many times is my answer !

For Slider/Roster makers this is a nightmare…. I still wake up in the middle of the night being scared of a patch/update 😮😳

Thanks !

So, the dev team is aware of this split, and they are going to be more proactive in terms of making tuners etc. How that plays out for offline vs. offline I don't know, but tuners can be separated (and they are in other EA games and sports games), and there is an option to use latest tuner or not offline in the settings.

But in terms of being wholly separate games, no, I don't think that will be a thing and it's not a thing in any sports game.

Another presentation question, will we have more replays like we used to? I ask for two reasons. First, replays add to the overall feel of a true NHL broadcast. Second, replays allow time for manual line changes. As it stands right now unless a goal is scored there are no replays on any other stoppage of play and the game immediately jumps to the ensuing face-off, leaving us little to no time to pick our line combinations.

Yeah, valid point about line changes and such. There are more replays (including after stoppages), and there are post-goal replays, but there still are not enough replays overall in terms of variety.

Don’t remember what year it was, but I certainly remember an NHL game that you could put custom music for custom events…

Like I said, it’s your game, you’re offline, you can do whatever. Would add so much ! I don’t understand why you say "most users will never use" ?

I know a bunch of people that would that’s for sure 😉

Again, custom music is not allowed based on the console platform these days. It's not an EA thing. It's the same reason SDS had to stop doing it on new consoles for The Show. This is out of their control and has zero to do with offline vs. online etc.

[PernellKarl076]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Thanks Chase for doing all of this and that probably means that you're back in shape 😉😀

As an offline only player, NHL24 doesn’t entice me one bit… They didn’t touch offline again this year and it’s a shame…. EA is going into a Fortnite business type with focus on selling packs, season pass and so on 😫 I guess clown gear and fluorescent skates are cooool for 12 years old 😧 They are also removing stuff that was there before such as Hybrid Control and so on…

As a simulation freak type gameplay wise, seeing all these icons, Logos on the Ice and everywhere makes me wanna cry to be honest.

Will stick with my version of 23 for years to come and I’m not sad one bit.

Thanks Chase !

[phillyfan23]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Hey chase,

You mentioned in your preview that cpu dmen take more shots in 24 especially during pressure situations. Could you elaborate on this issue?

Itd be nice not to make player edits if the dmen are already tuned to take shots at appropriate times from the points whether it be a powerplay or a zone cycle situation, faceoff win, etc.

Thanks


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[PernellKarl076]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Hey chase,

You mentioned in your preview that cpu dmen take more shots in 24 especially during pressure situations. Could you elaborate on this issue?

Itd be nice not to make player edits if the dmen are already tuned to take shots at appropriate times from the points whether it be a powerplay or a zone cycle situation, faceoff win, etc.

Thanks

He responded in another thread about this….

I talked about this in the preview, but I'll clarify a bit more. In my 4-5 games on All-Star I don't think teams are playing very different from one another, and it's not as if it's now magically going to be CPU guys coming into the zone and then letting it rip from the point. I did not see a lot (or really any) of that, which obviously still is a bummer. First and foremost, they're not dumping and chasing much or anything, they're trying to gain the zone, get to the slot and get premium chances first and foremost.

IF they don't lose the puck and then actually settle into working it in the zone (which they are more prone to do now, in part I would imagine because of the new gameplay mechanics tied to time on attack) then it's more likely you're going to get more of those point shots. My early guess (assuming no major changes happen) is we're still not going to get enough chances from the point not because they don't do it at all, but because possessions are ending too fast either with the first decent shot to have you get grinded down enough by the CPU to then get the point shots.

I think this will be something you can tweak with sliders at this point, but out of the box I would guess it's still not quite right. Teams/players still needing more variety is a separate point, and it's something I would guess the EA team knows they don't do well (and most sports games suck at it as well).

As for goalie fatigue, there's a slider for recovery of fatigue and all that, but I'm not sure if you can wholly turn it off since it's tied into the Pressure mechanic.

I guess it doesn’t look promising 😧

[phillyfan23]

NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

He responded in another thread about this….



I talked about this in the preview, but I'll clarify a bit more. In my 4-5 games on All-Star I don't think teams are playing very different from one another, and it's not as if it's now magically going to be CPU guys coming into the zone and then letting it rip from the point. I did not see a lot (or really any) of that, which obviously still is a bummer. First and foremost, they're not dumping and chasing much or anything, they're trying to gain the zone, get to the slot and get premium chances first and foremost.



IF they don't lose the puck and then actually settle into working it in the zone (which they are more prone to do now, in part I would imagine because of the new gameplay mechanics tied to time on attack) then it's more likely you're going to get more of those point shots. My early guess (assuming no major changes happen) is we're still not going to get enough chances from the point not because they don't do it at all, but because possessions are ending too fast either with the first decent shot to have you get grinded down enough by the CPU to then get the point shots.



I think this will be something you can tweak with sliders at this point, but out of the box I would guess it's still not quite right. Teams/players still needing more variety is a separate point, and it's something I would guess the EA team knows they don't do well (and most sports games suck at it as well).



As for goalie fatigue, there's a slider for recovery of fatigue and all that, but I'm not sure if you can wholly turn it off since it's tied into the Pressure mechanic.



I guess it doesn’t look promising [emoji47]

Thx PK, woulda missed this nugget of info. Yes doesn't sound too good. But who knows, EA one year gets dmen right, the very next year, they botch them. Maybe its the other way round in 24. Here's to hoping....

Btw: what happened to the chat room in discord?


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[iaxy]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Two questions on presentation:

1. Will there be a new broadcast (side) camera?

2. I noticed the arcade-style identification circles are back (under the skater). Is this the only way to identify skaters, or will we have the option of using the (much more congruous) small triangle on the top of the skater?

Thank you

[PernellKarl076]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Thx PK, woulda missed this nugget of info. Yes doesn't sound too good. But who knows, EA one year gets dmen right, the very next year, they botch them. Maybe its the other way round in 24. Here's to hoping....

Btw: what happened to the chat room in discord?

No problems buddy… Well the DMen have been butchered since 21. So that will be 4 years in a row now.

I had high hopes when I saw that they took Makar to be on the cover. I thought they would have at least touched up on these guys. And you know me by now, I LOVE when they play like the real thing 😉 Makar plays like Makar in my setup, why wouldn’t he play like this in the official versions ?? Last night was playing against the Rangers, and Fox took the puck near his blue on a turnover and went deking a couple of guys and scored a beauty 😀

As for the discord, I wondered why you were being soooo quiet in the past few days, lol ! Will send you the new link by PM.

[SuperGoalies]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

thank you Chris for answering my question so late, It is interesting, that they didn't expand on the Attributes effects and AI learning and other strategies and CPU difficulty, I wonder why they didn't expand on it this year, Would think attributes would've raised the cause of Connor McDavid and other whose who play like him now.

[ChaseB]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Two questions on presentation:

1. Will there be a new broadcast (side) camera?

2. I noticed the arcade-style identification circles are back (under the skater). Is this the only way to identify skaters, or will we have the option of using the (much more congruous) small triangle on the top of the skater?

Thank you

1. Yes.

2. Not sure, didn't look at that.

[fiddlerpaul]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

Look at this!!! 😳

So, technically no Problem... NHL24 why "it's (not) in the Game" ?

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/stat...J9-w53Keg&s=09

Wow that would be incredible in NHL...No more jerky fake looking skating animations.

[johnnydrum]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

OFF LINE OLD FART ANCIENT CRUSTY OLD NHL GAMER here.
Great idea for this thread.
I am going to list some things, i fully apprecaitte that noone may actually know, but these are questions I ask myself , in the late hours, lol

#How improved is the Presentation?
Last years was truly terrible (despite pre release EA claiming it had been vastly improved)

#Season Mode?
Not talking about Franchise mode here, but I enjoy SM (I can control all the teams and keep the trades current myself)

#Can we EDIT the EA players appearences?
(Compared to MLB the Show and other games, the NHL players faces are terrible--seemingly EA cant even get hair colours, hieghts, weights close)

# Clunky Goal Scoring Celebrations?
(The last few years , its very very common for a scoring player to either stand in front of the net celebrating / awkward graphics celebrating in a weird bunch. If the game wasnt so expensive, it would be hillarious..lol

Thank you everyone, I will buzz off and wait.
With regards
JD

[johnnydrum]

Re: NHL 24 - Questions About the Game? (Ask Here)

1. Will a full presentation be brought back?

2. Will we be able to edit players inside franchise mode (like Madden)?

3. Are there any updates to AI to better represent defenseman taking shots instead of the offense only shooting from close in to the slot/front of the net?

4. Any updates to CPU trade/team logic inside franchise?

5. What kind of updates (if any) will be made to Be A Pro logic/scenarios?

Points 1, 2, 3.....my goodness, I bloomin hope so