How could the EASHL be improved?

[Qb]

Redshirt_EA has told me that there are still some "details to finalize" regarding the EASHL, so community feedback could help to make (or re-visit) decisions. Let's try to keep this EASHL-only so it's easier to follow...


I'll kick it off with a few simple suggestions:

1. Lock the player indicator icons to position. For example, the center is always green, the RW is always red, etc. This would eliminate confusion that happens occasionally... I know I've caught myself watching the wrong guy early in a game, especially if we just played a multiple-OT game.

2. Have the captain's 'C' on the designated 'captain' for that game. Perhaps this seems small, but I always thought it would be a nice little touch. Maybe some of the more creative of you out there can think of ways that the captain designation could be of significance...

3. Require three players for an EASHL game. This one is obviously a much bigger issue than color indicators or Cs on jerseys, but it's on my mind. Something about playing two people has always bugged me. I know a lot of times it can be an easy win for a competent team of four or five, but I'd much rather play against (and with) human players.

[Scheib43]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

1. Better Matchup system - Hope that a playing with 5 would be most likely match up with a team of 5, then 4, then 3, etc. It would save time when teams of 2 constantly quit at the matchup screen.

2. More goalie abilities - Little things like not getting stuck on the post or being able to cover a puck laying next to the net. Also, the goalie should have a limited range while holding LT to skate. There is no way that human player should be able to skate to center ice

3. Goalies become the random player when penalty is called - If there is a human goalie, let the human become the 6th player even if it is a random player with random abilities.

4. Fighting in EASHL games needs to be changed - It shouldn't be tied to the fighting portion of the character entirely. You should be prompted to press some button to accept the fight challenge. It's not fair that a player automatically gets thrown into a fight if someone on the other teams hits the Hook/Fight button

5. Improve length of games - Don't allow so many timeouts per team per game and there shouldn't be so many replays during the game. Leave a single replay for a goal and then during the time between periods. It should take no longer than a minute to move to a new period.

6. Show team ranking/division before or after games - Most D1 teams seem to avoid playing others outside their division, but it would be nice to see what the rank of the team you are matching up against and that leads to...

7. Division rankings need to be less confusing - Even if it's not changed completely, all the rankings shouldn't be based on points based on games played. I'm not saying that teams that play more don't deserve to get some more points, but it penalizes teams that can't get 2000 games played.

8. Name CPU Players - I know it's probably silly, but I think it would be a neat little touch to be able to name 5 players and one goalie for your team so if you are playing with less than a full team the CPU named player will play. I can only handle so many Ramjingsings on my team


Other than that, the game plays almost perfect online. The main glitches are gone. I hope you keep the same base that you have after patch 2 and go from there. It's by far the best online experience in any sports game ever.

[Qb]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

I can only handle so many Ramjingsings on my team

And what about Bob Gatsis? FTR, Mr. Gatsis was a CPU winger who took 5 tripping penalties IN ONE GAME for us. Bit of a running joke on our team...

[tyler289]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

I'd just like to see more face/hair/equipment options. Along with everything else you guys posted, which are all great ideas.

[LanteriX]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Make larger teams I guess would be something I'd like to see. Not sure if anyone would ever have that many people for a club, but maybe allow teams to have multiple lines and implement some kind of fatigue system?

[tgalv]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

i think the league should be strictly 6 vs 6 but if they don't want to do that, at least have an option to search for how many players you want to play against. and also whether you're going to play manual goalies or not.

fix the game logs. make them go back a lot longer and not have games disappear when teams are deleted. then actually do something if people are cheating.

the current dressing room system is horrible.

should be able to view recently played teams without manually searching for them.

how about a team feedback system? display it next to the team at the matchup screen. would be nice to not waste my time playing against teams that no one else has had a positive experience with.

team practice mode.

[catcatch22]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Practice mode where you and your team can hit the ice and just run dls and team strategies alone against the AI or have no opposition on the ice at all.

Similar to the practice mode that is already in the game but incorporated online.

[Solucopa]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

what they said ^ and get rid of the stupid *** flippy glitch goal, ya its not as bad as before but those who master it can still score it at will pretty much. The little flip's only use seems to be that goal(besides looking fancy)... so why not just take it out of the game.

[LanteriX]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Also, lock people into their positions. If you're setup as a forward then you should not be able to choose defense, and vice versa.

[tgalv]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Also, lock people into their positions. If you're setup as a forward then you should not be able to choose defense, and vice versa.

dude your ideas are the worst. why would you want to limit people like that? you want people to be further discouraged from playing D? multiple lines? are you kidding me. it can take half an hour to find a team with just just one full line to play.

[LanteriX]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

dude your ideas are the worst. why would you want to limit people like that? you want people to be further discouraged from playing D? multiple lines? are you kidding me. it can take half an hour to find a team with just just one full line to play.

Um, gee I don't know, because forwards aren't supposed to play defense? Nothing more annoying than seeing a 5'7" dangler playing defense (and getting away with it because there's no punishment to playing out of position.

If you want to play defense, make a D-Man. Not a difficult concept. If you don't, then don't. Seeing as half the people that pick defenseman because it's the only position available, don't even play the position right. They try to play forward and it screw up the rest of the team. It's asinine.

[tgalv]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

in game free-agent menu. let people sign up, put their positions down, maybe write a short comment.

have all the stats in the performance tracker viewable during a game.(turnovers, takeaways, blocked shots, bad pass calls, etc..)

starting lineup screens would be neat. list the positions, gamertags, and player names of everyone about to play. keep it viewable throughout the game, so you don't have to try to make random guesses at who people are.

[catcatch22]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Um, gee I don't know, because forwards aren't supposed to play defense? Nothing more annoying than seeing a 5'7" dangler playing defense (and getting away with it because there's no punishment to playing out of position.

If you want to play defense, make a D-Man. Not a difficult concept. If you don't, then don't. Seeing as half the people that pick defenseman because it's the only position available, don't even play the position right. They try to play forward and it screw up the rest of the team. It's asinine.

I'm a Power Forward and I play defense. Although I see your point when it comes to random OTP games. What they should do is have everyone pick a position when you enter an Online Team Play game before it starts.

Example - I create a session and then I am given a choice of which position I want and pick it right away. The next person that enters the room then picks his position and so on and so fourth. This limits the amount of drops and quits from people who want a position but lose out on the race to the spot.

So when you enter a room you know right away where you can play at and with who when playing community OTP.

[jyoung]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Great ideas so far; I second pretty much everything in this thread.

I'd like to see computer players completely eliminated from the ranked games considering how much their presence affects the game (negatively, of course).

If people want to play with teams that aren't full, let them play unranked games, I say.

Otherwise, the playing field for ranked games needs to be kept equal by putting all teams on equal ground in terms of how many AI players are out there (ideally, none).

Having a decent free agent system would help teams fill those roster holes pretty quickly, I think.

Having the online CAPs locked into their default position would also be a plus, and should probably be limited to: defender, winger, center, goalie.

I also think the number of ranked games teams can play in a day should be limited, so that teams with more time on their hands aren't rewarded for quantity of wins over quality.

Teams who miss a couple days' worth of games should be able to play catch up and make those missed games up, though.

Aesthetically, it would be nice if more customization of players was allowed (face-mapping like in the Tiger Woods games), and if teams could make their own logos/uniforms.

And for god's sake, please fix the height/weight system so that it has more realistic limitations and can't be abused for physic-defying speed/strength bonuses.

[tyler289]

Re: How could the EASHL be improved?

Forcing teams that are less than 5 or 6 to play unranked games is ridiculous. That eliminates the majority of teams that are playing at any given time.