NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

[blaziruku]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

The PP/PK especially is frustrating. When you go for a line change after surviving full pressure, the AI ALWAYS forces a player (whether it be you on the PK or AI) to use all of his 0 energy to run all the way down the ice to do nothing instead of line changing. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. If a team dumps it down they will all line change.... Why the hell would a tired player then run all the way down and then basically cause a 5 on 3? Forcing line changes doesn't fix it either until you manually swap to the player to force them off (which is only a bandaid fix as sometimes I like to play as one position so I literally can't force them off).

The AI is much better than 24, but it still has a lot of problems that hopefully they continue to update. It's kind of weird in this game where IRL players will often dump and chase because it's actually hard to skate into the zone, but in the game you just... walk in like it's nothing. It's extremely rare you have to dump it in.


It's nice there are new masks, and they added Todd but it's kinda weird we still never get player portrait updates. Just feels wrong players who are in the game just not having them like Celebrini. I think they mentioned the NHL sends them the pictures but surely they could ask or something? The images seem to be the same ones they use on nhl.com.

Also please for the love of god, change the awful color system. Stop reinventing the wheel. We have an established, EASY to use color system across many games, software, etc, and yet here you get this triangle that makes literally 0 SENSE and is a pain in the *** to navigate. You can't even choose specific numbers you have to like "oh let me "TRY" to get to it.

[KvltBear]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

Always appreciate AI updates. Watched a couple games last night to see how the CPU handled the changes. My impressions were:

1. Noticeably improved AI forechecking. Much, much improved. I really wasn't impressed by the last forechecking tweak back in December or whenever. But this is much better. Much better angles taken, positioning, attempting to go around player models to get the puck near the boards instead of getting stuck on them (so badly needed). Should really help the AI in retrieving dumped pucks now. However...

2. I noticed in the 4 nations patch that the AI was dumping far less often than before and no real slider tweaks were affecting it. Seems to be even more pronounced now. I saw one singular dump in the 2 games I watched. They'd much rather skate it in even though with the forechecking improvements it's not as easy as before. Still very rarely dumping.

3. Hit festival. Not really sure what happened but it's like the AI just stopped poke checking and stick lifting to remove the puck from players. In my first game I had like 50-60 hits each side by mid-game on 8 minute periods. So I boosted poke and stick lift and nerfed hitting sliders and...it's weird, it's like the animations are just gone now. All they want to do is use the body to separate the puck carrier from puck. Very odd.

4. The AI really, really wants to just shoot the puck off the rush. Every patch seems to make them abhor cycling more than the last and now it's like they're hell bent on 0-1 passes before shooting. I tweaked every checking slider in the 2nd game to see if anything would make the player models respect the defenders and actually try to avoid them. Nope. They continue to just skate right into/through defenders or force a shot through them. The couple times they tried to "cycle" it was usually 2 d-men right next to each other at the point in the middle of the ice passing to each other. It's like the AI doesn't know what cycling is or what it's supposed to accomplish. Passing to someone right next to you without doing a give and go or anything is pointless.

I don't know guys. This game is feeling more and more like an arcade game with every patch. Yea, the forecheck is great now, can't dispute that. But I want to know why I loaded up NHL 23 over the weekend and plugged my sliders in and it resulted in better gameplay than 25. AI is much more inclined to cycling, give & gos, D to D passing, actually cycling down low in the zone, skating animations for protecting the puck and driving to the net, stick on stick animations, actually using the glass and dumping the puck, realistic hit numbers, actual neutral zone play, etc. Also the animations flowed together much more smoothly than 25. Really not understanding why they seemingly gutted the whole system after 24.

[MiracleMet718]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

I think even aside from the cage, the ability to edit the base color on the mask would be great. Did an expansion franchise for a season, and was already set before I realized that finding a mask that came close to my base jersey color was nearly impossible.

They can actually solve this by making all WOC equipment available offline. Not sure why they haven’t already but they have a bunch of cool looking masks of all colors that can be used to fill in the blank of having a custom mask creator.

[MiracleMet718]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

Always appreciate AI updates. Watched a couple games last night to see how the CPU handled the changes. My impressions were:

1. Noticeably improved AI forechecking. Much, much improved. I really wasn't impressed by the last forechecking tweak back in December or whenever. But this is much better. Much better angles taken, positioning, attempting to go around player models to get the puck near the boards instead of getting stuck on them (so badly needed). Should really help the AI in retrieving dumped pucks now. However...

2. I noticed in the 4 nations patch that the AI was dumping far less often than before and no real slider tweaks were affecting it. Seems to be even more pronounced now. I saw one singular dump in the 2 games I watched. They'd much rather skate it in even though with the forechecking improvements it's not as easy as before. Still very rarely dumping.

3. Hit festival. Not really sure what happened but it's like the AI just stopped poke checking and stick lifting to remove the puck from players. In my first game I had like 50-60 hits each side by mid-game on 8 minute periods. So I boosted poke and stick lift and nerfed hitting sliders and...it's weird, it's like the animations are just gone now. All they want to do is use the body to separate the puck carrier from puck. Very odd.

4. The AI really, really wants to just shoot the puck off the rush. Every patch seems to make them abhor cycling more than the last and now it's like they're hell bent on 0-1 passes before shooting. I tweaked every checking slider in the 2nd game to see if anything would make the player models respect the defenders and actually try to avoid them. Nope. They continue to just skate right into/through defenders or force a shot through them. The couple times they tried to "cycle" it was usually 2 d-men right next to each other at the point in the middle of the ice passing to each other. It's like the AI doesn't know what cycling is or what it's supposed to accomplish. Passing to someone right next to you without doing a give and go or anything is pointless.

I don't know guys. This game is feeling more and more like an arcade game with every patch. Yea, the forecheck is great now, can't dispute that. But I want to know why I loaded up NHL 23 over the weekend and plugged my sliders in and it resulted in better gameplay than 25. AI is much more inclined to cycling, give & gos, D to D passing, actually cycling down low in the zone, skating animations for protecting the puck and driving to the net, stick on stick animations, actually using the glass and dumping the puck, realistic hit numbers, actual neutral zone play, etc. Also the animations flowed together much more smoothly than 25. Really not understanding why they seemingly gutted the whole system after 24.

I’m still tinkering with sliders, but I’d agree that my two biggest gripes about the game are cycling/regrouping by the AI and also the line change decisions by the AI as well.

For the last one, they used to let you as the human team line match as the home team, but for some reason they got rid of it. Either way there doesn’t seem to be much thought on the AI side as I routinely see tired lines thrown out there or 4th line taking an offensive zone draw when other lines are more fresh.

I’m enjoying the game so much more than the last 3 years and I know it’ll never be a true sim, but just some basic hockey things on the AI would make it more challenging/rewarding and looking a little closer to real hockey.

[KvltBear]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

Yeah I've been really disappointed in coach mode with how you can't really tactically do line changes. The game just plays like normal with the replays and everything. Most of the time I couldn't get the line change done before they lined up again which was irritating. Much less match the away teams last change or put my 4th line out there for d-zone draws etc.


As for cycling, usually increasing preparedness effect and incidental contact under checking make the models respect the danger of defenders and actually work to do some creative stuff. And nothing more is needed. In the 2 games I tested it seemed to make little difference, a stark change from earlier versions of the game. Then I tried boosting poke and stick lift, almost no reaction from the puck carriers. Then I tried increasing hitting assistance which the AI usually reacts to. I saw a slight reaction but it just made them throw pucks on net and not want to get the puck deep since it's too easy to get hit down there. The only thing I forgot to try was increasing the stumble sliders to a very high amount, that also makes defenders seem more dangerous to the AI, but I really don't like the effect it has on gameplay.


Also I have puck control around 20 so they were less confident to skate into defenders and not lose the puck. I really doubt boosting this will lead to anything other than more rush style play. It's just the AI on the dev side that's the problem right now. My same slider set works great in 23 because defenders are much more of a threat in the code, also much more aggressive about not letting teams just skate through the neutral zone and into the slot. Could also be that the models are larger and the poke check seems overpowered in that game.


I mean if anyone knows how to get the AI to settle down and set up in the offensive zone I'd love to hear it. I just don't know what else can be tweaked on the user side.

[MiracleMet718]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

Yeah I've been really disappointed in coach mode with how you can't really tactically do line changes. The game just plays like normal with the replays and everything. Most of the time I couldn't get the line change done before they lined up again which was irritating. Much less match the away teams last change or put my 4th line out there for d-zone draws etc.


As for cycling, usually increasing preparedness effect and incidental contact under checking make the models respect the danger of defenders and actually work to do some creative stuff. And nothing more is needed. In the 2 games I tested it seemed to make little difference, a stark change from earlier versions of the game. Then I tried boosting poke and stick lift, almost no reaction from the puck carriers. Then I tried increasing hitting assistance which the AI usually reacts to. I saw a slight reaction but it just made them throw pucks on net and not want to get the puck deep since it's too easy to get hit down there. The only thing I forgot to try was increasing the stumble sliders to a very high amount, that also makes defenders seem more dangerous to the AI, but I really don't like the effect it has on gameplay.


Also I have puck control around 20 so they were less confident to skate into defenders and not lose the puck. I really doubt boosting this will lead to anything other than more rush style play. It's just the AI on the dev side that's the problem right now. My same slider set works great in 23 because defenders are much more of a threat in the code, also much more aggressive about not letting teams just skate through the neutral zone and into the slot. Could also be that the models are larger and the poke check seems overpowered in that game.


I mean if anyone knows how to get the AI to settle down and set up in the offensive zone I'd love to hear it. I just don't know what else can be tweaked on the user side.

What’s funny is the AI PP actually moves the puck around the perimeter pretty well. It’s just ES that they seem to funnel it to the middle too much. I protect the slot a lot so they do pass a bit more, but everything seems to try to funnel to the net every time instead of using some other players down low. They do use defensemen much more now and you see a lot more AI shots from the point. I just wish they had some sort of cycling play because it would balance out the offense since they’d have 3-4 styles for creating offense.

[Fiddy]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

Played the 3rd period in about 9 franchise games to catch up to the actual season..

Could just be me but I feel like the sped up the pace of the game again more towards what it was out of the box. I felt the last update or two one of them slowed the game down a bit, but now it's back to what was normal and I basically use default speed/acc combined with 100 agility.

[MiracleMet718]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

Played the 3rd period in about 9 franchise games to catch up to the actual season..

Could just be me but I feel like the sped up the pace of the game again more towards what it was out of the box. I felt the last update or two one of them slowed the game down a bit, but now it's back to what was normal and I basically use default speed/acc combined with 100 agility.

What do you use for attribute impact slider? If it’s at 10, it slows it down a bit. If it’s at 5, it speeds it up.

[Fiddy]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

What do you use for attribute impact slider? If it’s at 10, it slows it down a bit. If it’s at 5, it speeds it up.

It was at 10. I’m aware of what that does, but the pace that I liked with it at 10 etc drastically changed a patch or two ago. Now it seems to be back to where I enjoyed it. For now. Lol.

[stooge 1010]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

i was thinking it sped up some too, i play on game speed on 2 with att effects all the way up, seems like it is faster to me too.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Fiddy]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

i was thinking it sped up some too, i play on game speed on 2 with att effects all the way up, seems like it is faster to me too.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Just crazy that this happens with this game more than any other sports game with sliders. They somehow unintentionally mess with the way the game feels or how some sliders work.

What's wild to me is that I'm a stickler for having more sliders to mess with the better, but at this point this game needs less LOL.

My favorite sport and least favorite video game to play and that drives me mad! Yet here I am, I keep coming back like a dang addict. Bah!

[MiracleMet718]

Re: NHL 25 Patch 1.5.0 - Patch Notes

I’m tinkering with sliders again, but it’s really noticeable how much better the CPU AI are playing on offense on superstar difficulty. Not enough cycling, but I used to dominate shots after the last two patches and now they are actually peppering my goalie with shots. Still would like to see their TOA go up, but having a lot of fun so far. Next I may need to tweak the goalies, but I’m scoring some nice goals so I don’t want to tweak too much.