EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

[NoSkillz50]

Can somebody explain this to me or point me in the right direction. I briefly searched for a topic, but couldn't find one. I've been hearing some stuff like you have to choose between equipment and cards, but equipment gives you more a unique way to level up your character, where as cards it's already spread out evenly between offense and defense or something, but I can't find anything from the developers.

[tgalv]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

it seems like it's been purposefully left in ambiguity because they want some uniformed *******es to prematurely spend ms points/money on stuff they don't need. real shady and as someone who has played and enjoyed all of EA's next gen games, i don't appreciate it.

[NoSkillz50]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

it seems like it's been purposefully left in ambiguity because they want some uniformed *******es to prematurely spend ms points/money on stuff they don't need. real shady and as someone who has played and enjoyed all of EA's next gen games, i don't appreciate it.

i don't like the idea, but i would consider just buying the upgrades to get it over with because unlocking upgrades through achievements the way they did it last year with the card system so unreasonable at time and made the game unnecessarily frustrating.

if they want to do something like scoring 3 goals in a period in this years game or score 6 goals in a game or something like, i'd rather just pay and save myself the grief. not that i can't do it, i'm probably gonna do it, i've done it before more than once, but it's such a small percentage that its' going to happen in any given game. it could happen next week, or it could not happen until november, if i can pay $1.50 and not have to worry about that and just get on with focusing on winning i'll do that.

i don't want my player to be worse or better than somebody because of EA's arbitrary rules of leveling up and i don't want to have to be thinking about reaching these goals while i play. I averaged like .85 goals and .85 assists a game with a really low PIM tally on an 80-90% winning team and my overall grade just wouldn't hit A- from B+ because of the screwy team play score. i was always a team player, but the computer is just such a horrible judge of it. and my position score was A- also and i was at the mercy of having to decide between following the arrow or positioning myself in a way that would help my team more, because the arrow is wrong a lot, it's good for beginners, but that's it. and meanwhile both our defensemen got legend cards because the scoring system favored them, defensemen are naturally going to have a better takeaways/turnover ratio and hits and stuff like that.

I'm not proud of it, but me and a friend took turns playing against each other doing silly things that would boost those god forsaken ratings. i would never use the 99 glitch, but i felt so wronged by the messed up system that i was ok with cheesing to get a legend card.

i played like 800 eashl games, if $10 or something will spare me from all the ridiculous hoops they are going to try to make me jump through, i'd be more than happy to pay it. i want to play hockey, not play "hey guys let's try to get me 3 goals this period so i can get my player better so we're not playing against other people who are faster and stronger than us"

not that paying is the best option. a better option would be to have palyers play a certain amount of games so you know where you stand with unlocking stuff, you don't have to focus on ratings or achievements and can just focus on playing the game the right way.

[tgalv]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

i actually thought the rating system was pretty well done but people like yourself just cheated around it making it pointless.

[NoSkillz50]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

how can you say that? it was terrible.

here's my thought process. i can either follow the arrow, or just play positionally how i want, because i'm capable of doing so better than the AI and i'm more effective if i ignore it, yet i'm oddly compelled to follow the arrow because i need the points. seems like a pretty big problem to me. again this is great for people who don't know hockey, but if this is a criteria to weed out the best of the best? i'm not a super competitive gamer, but in this game i got a group of 5 guys and we really took to this game and enjoyed competing and it just really sucked to put so much hard work into this game and have a sloppy system like that hold any power over how i played.

i shouldn't have to dump the puck in the zone in a situation just because it would be better for my teamplay score than to try to make a play. the computer doesn't have any context for a lot of these situations, it just labels all penalties bad, all turnovers bad. if you save a goal with a trip it kills your team play score, if you try to force something instead of dumping even if your team is down late in the game they judge it as bad. and it doesn't even out either because these same situations keep popping up. you have to start thinking like the computer if you want to play LW and get an A- grade.

our team was very good, we even had a winning record against top 10 teams and nobody once on our team tried a goal line goal, or the pop up glitch, or the 99 glitch or anything. if our center was the only forward who deserved a legend card (because taking face-offs makes you more of a team player apparently) then the system was [expletive deleted].

[tgalv]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

no worries everyone gets a trophy these days. doesn't matter if your youth basketball team went 0-15 you deserve it!

[NoSkillz50]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

is that supposed to mean something.

[Redshirt_EA]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

Can somebody explain this to me or point me in the right direction. I briefly searched for a topic, but couldn't find one. I've been hearing some stuff like you have to choose between equipment and cards, but equipment gives you more a unique way to level up your character, where as cards it's already spread out evenly between offense and defense or something, but I can't find anything from the developers.

I've said some stuff about how it works on another webpage:

For each type of equipment (gloves, stick, skates and helmet) there are a variety of models that give you from zero to three boost slots. The slots can be filled in with boosts of +1, +3 or +5 to a specific attribute that is associated with that piece of equipment. Both the gear and the boosts are unlocked separately. There is also a boost pack for each player type that gives you upgraded stats using up the gloves, stick and skates (you can still use a helmet and its boost slots).

Without the boost pack you can still use the experience card points to upgrade attributes, similar to NHL 09, but with the boost pack you cannot.

Overall, a boost pack raises a skater from the low 70s to the low 80s overall. You can get to the same ballpark with individual pieces of gear combined with the experience points, the advantage of that route being that you have more fine control over how your attributes are distributed.

As for the concern that you will need to use inauthentic gear to be top rated, this was a controversial topic on the team too. The way it is set up you cannot choose any gear you like to get the most boost, but there are choices for the best (three slot) gear and some of it looks authentic.

As far as gameplay goes, with all of the equipment and experience boosts a player will be able to go from their initial rating in the low 70s to the low to mid 80s overall. This is comparable to the difference between a player with no cards and one with a Legend card in NHL 09, so there's not a great different in that regard. The effects of the attributes have been improved.

One of the guys on EASHL forums summarized it more concisely:

You're options for adding points are the following:

1. You can earn your card just like 09

2. Position specific boost packs

3. Individual pieces of gear with boost slots

Now here's where it gets tricky, so concentrate.

Using boost slotted equipment (3) adds attributes to your current build. Which means it adds onto your card points.

Using position specific boost packs replaces your card, and it's a package of gear - stick, gloves, and skates. So you can't use custom boost slotted gear on top of the position specific boost pack. But you can still use a helmet with boost slots, as the position boost packs don't come with helmets.

Simply:

card + boost slots = Yes

card + boost pack = No

boost pack + boost slots = No, aside from helmet

So, for max attributes, you will have to wear non-authentic equipment. Though the Kane equipment has boost slots, I hope there's more than a single option of authentic gear with boost slots, or about 70% of EASHL players will be wearing the exact same gear once the novelty of childish pretend gear wears off.

The two most economical ways to approach the system (IMO) are:
1) Unlock stuff by playing, and level up with experience (this is what I'm doing -- I'm not planning to buy anything) -- if you only want to play online you'll have trouble with this, but if you are willing to play through 40 games and the playoffs of a Be A Pro season (you can sim the rest) you can unlock a lot of stuff fairly quickly with one well thought out season.
2) Buy a Boost Pack, use that to be strong early on then switch to individual gear when you have enough stuff unlocked that you are better off that way.

Since a Helmet can be equipped with a Boost Pack with the second route you could either buy or unlock the helmet and attribute boosts for it.

If there are any specific questions about any of it I'd be happy to answer them.

[NoSkillz50]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

thanks. seems a lot better than last year to be honest. i can handle the "play X number" of games things. i know where i stand, i can go do that challenge. where as last year i was completely at the mercy of pleasing those ridiculously generated rankings with no alternatives

edit: well a couple questions. 1. do the boost packs cost real money?

2. are you saying that a card+boost slotted items is the best way to go if you want to maximize your player?

i was kinda hoping i could ignore that altogether, nothing worse than playing a great game and winning 5-0 getting 4 assists and then getting a C- in team play because of inconsequential turnovers or something that nobody even noticed.

[Redshirt_EA]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

thanks. seems a lot better than last year to be honest. i can handle the "play X number" of games things. i know where i stand, i can go do that challenge. where as last year i was completely at the mercy of pleasing those ridiculously generated rankings with no alternatives

edit: well a couple questions. 1. do the boost packs cost real money?

2. are you saying that a card+boost slotted items is the best way to go if you want to maximize your player?

i was kinda hoping i could ignore that altogether, nothing worse than playing a great game and winning 5-0 getting 4 assists and then getting a C- in team play because of inconsequential turnovers or something that nobody even noticed.

1) You can buy Boost Packs or unlock them. Buying them costs 240 Microsoft Points (and a similar equivalent on PS3), they are not easy to unlock, generally requiring tasks that will take a minimum of 120 games to complete.
2) Yes, you will generally be better with cards+slotted items than boost pack (even with an equipped three slot helmet). I think the overall player ratings are in the same ballpark (low to mid 80s -- I don't actually have any of the Boost Packs unlocked myself so I can't check at the moment) but with cards+slotted items you have control over where the points are spent -- and also more control over how your player looks, if that is a factor to you.

[Stranius]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

I saw the boost packs costs 240 MS points, now there is gear with +5 points for almost every category, like +5 agility for 160 MS points.

How many of these these +5 gear you can use with your player? Or is the 240 MS points package pretty much the best it can get with boosts for you player (+ the helmet).

[RealmK]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

I saw the boost packs costs 240 MS points, now there is gear with +5 points for almost every category, like +5 agility for 160 MS points.

How many of these these +5 gear you can use with your player? Or is the 240 MS points package pretty much the best it can get with boosts for you player (+ the helmet).

Its capped at +9 for any single attribute. I would imagine you could mix and match +5's but from the sound of things, actually playing and earning xp & unlocks along with slotted equipment is the most optimal way to go about it.

Either way for me, I'll just play and see what I manage to unlock through offline BAP. Hey Tgalv still a slot for me even though I haven't played like at all in over a month? heh

[Stranius]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

Its capped at +9 for any single attribute. I would imagine you could mix and match +5's but from the sound of things, actually playing and earning xp & unlocks along with slotted equipment is the most optimal way to go about it.

Thanks, that what I needed to know basicly.

I'm of course planning to go with the cards and slotted gear, was just thinking if it makes any sense to purchase a boost pack for the early days. Playing in active top team cards should be unlocked pretty quickly if the standards are anything like last year.

[RealmK]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

Thanks, that what I needed to know basicly.

I'm of course planning to go with the cards and slotted gear, was just thinking if it makes any sense to purchase a boost pack for the early days. Playing in active top team cards should be unlocked pretty quickly if the standards are anything like last year.

Yeah I hear ya, the pain for me is going to be playing all the NHL teams with a Euro team to unlock the college cage mask. Really not looking forward to that, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for gear on top of buying the game. At the very least having some challenges I guess makes it feel earned by doing it the hard way, I'm ok with that.

[Stranius]

Re: EASHL Player Development: Cards Vs. Equipment

Yeah I hear ya, the pain for me is going to be playing all the NHL teams with a Euro team to unlock the college cage mask

Bit less pain for me this one coming from Finland, still something I would rather not do though. I'm playing goalie in EASHL pretty much exclusively though, so have to see what kind of challenges they have for unlocking goalie gear. All in all 17th when some stores in here should have it can't come soon enough.