A few things you can do to make the game better

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

Thats good that you noticed the same things with these passing sliders. I have been having a blast with them.

I have also been trying something new with the goalies. I set the goalie passing and puck playing frequency both to four. I found especially with the puck playing frequency at four, you see fewer of the " hungry hippo" animations. I have also been playing around with changing all of the goalies to "stand up" style. It seems to help them play the angles better and kick out the rebounds a little better to the corners. As well they seem to challenge shooters a little more. They still drop down into the butterfly, only they do it a little later. So far I like what I see and seem to get a lot of close games and the goals seem to be a little more legit.

[Cycloniac]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

Thats good that you noticed the same things with these passing sliders. I have been having a blast with them.

I have also been trying something new with the goalies. I set the goalie passing and puck playing frequency both to four. I found especially with the puck playing frequency at four, you see fewer of the " hungry hippo" animations. I have also been playing around with changing all of the goalies to "stand up" style. It seems to help them play the angles better and kick out the rebounds a little better to the corners. As well they seem to challenge shooters a little more. They still drop down into the butterfly, only they do it a little later. So far I like what I see and seem to get a lot of close games and the goals seem to be a little more legit.

Have faceoff totals been affected by the goalie slider changes?

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

The faceoff totals should still be the same. The goalies still hold the puck as much as before. The biggest difference is that they don't try to cover pucks that are too far away from them and instead just try to block the shot and then smother a closer rebound. I usually play as Montreal and Price is one of the goalies that plays the puck a lot in this game, so far so good. I did change him from a Hybrid to a Stand Up style. I think that the standup style actually plays more as the hybrid should anyways.

[Cycloniac]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

The faceoff totals should still be the same. The goalies still hold the puck as much as before. The biggest difference is that they don't try to cover pucks that are too far away from them and instead just try to block the shot and then smother a closer rebound. I usually play as Montreal and Price is one of the goalies that plays the puck a lot in this game, so far so good. I did change him from a Hybrid to a Stand Up style. I think that the standup style actually plays more as the hybrid should anyways.

Without changing goalie styles, having both at 4 didn't go well, combined with the sliders I'm using.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

Interesting, I will pop your sliders in some time this week and see what is going on with them. It could be the goalie styles, but it could also just be the level that you started on.

Were you seeing the goalie playing the puck, instead of holding it?

I think I might try a few different game levels and see what that does first. I know you get boosts from each level you go up, so that could be part of it.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

I tried your sliders, here is what I found/saw.

On Pro level, the goalies give up a lot of soft goals and especially five hole. To lessen that, I would suggest you decrease the screen effect slider to zero. That will help them make a few more saves. I would also change all the goalies to stand up. One other thing you might want to do is set the goalie consistency attribute to zero.

The other thing I noticed on your sliders is the shot speed. For some reason the shot speed registers higher on pro level, when compared to All-star (same with game speed). No idea why that is...but lowering the shot power to 1, will help with rebound control. Its those soft wristers that are always and issue, I think its because the power on them is too high causing unrealistic rebounds.

Overall I like the game feel on Pro level, but the goalies kill it unless you try to help them.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

This is how I would have my Pro level sliders setup:

Rules
Skill: Pro
Period Length: 12 minutes
Penalties: Maxed
Post Whistle Rules : Authentic
Penalty Time Scaling: 2
Fighting: 3


General

Tuner Set Version: latest
CPU Aid: Hardcore
Broken Stick Frequency: 2
Game Speed: 1
Attribute Effects: 3
Fatigue Effect: 6 H, 6 c
Fatigue Recovery: 2 , 2
Injury Occurrence: 6, 6
Puck Control: 0 , 0
Player Acceleration: 4 Hum, 6 cpu


AI

AI Learning: 0
CPU Difficulty Adjustment: 0
CPU Strategy Adjustment: 1
Human Strategy Adjustment: 0 or 1 if you don't want to set it yourself
CPU Face Off Difficulty: 4
Fight Difficulty: 6
CPU Penalties: Maxed
CPU Teammate Penalties:4


Passing

Pass Assist: 2 bump this up by one if you have trouble passing
Manual Passing: Off
Pass Speed: 4
Saucer Pass Speed: 0
Pass Accuracy: 6 , 6
Pass Reception Ease: 0 , 0
Pass Interceptions: 6 , 6


Shooting

Shot Accuracy: 0 , 0
Shot Power: 1, 1
Slap Shot Accuracy: 2 , 2
Slap Shot Power: 5 , 5
One-Timer Accuracy: 0 , 0


Checking

Hitting Assistance: 6
Aggression: 5 , 5
Hitting Power: 0 , 0
Stick Lift Effectiveness: 4 , 4
Poke Effectiveness: 1 hum , 6 cpu ( they only poke on loose pucks)


Goalies

Goalie Passing: 1
Goalie Cover Puck Frequency: 4
Goalie Screen Effect: 0 , 0
Goalie Reaction Speed: 1 , 1

[Cycloniac]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

I tried your sliders, here is what I found/saw.

On Pro level, the goalies give up a lot of soft goals and especially five hole. To lessen that, I would suggest you decrease the screen effect slider to zero. That will help them make a few more saves. I would also change all the goalies to stand up. One other thing you might want to do is set the goalie consistency attribute to zero.

The other thing I noticed on your sliders is the shot speed. For some reason the shot speed registers higher on pro level, when compared to All-star (same with game speed). No idea why that is...but lowering the shot power to 1, will help with rebound control. Its those soft wristers that are always and issue, I think its because the power on them is too high causing unrealistic rebounds.

Overall I like the game feel on Pro level, but the goalies kill it unless you try to help them.

With shot power at 2, and the goalie sliders I'm using, I haven't seen many soft goals. I had shot power at 1 before, but there were way too many low scoring games. It seems as if goalies act naturally and are pretty hard to beat, but lowering shot power much more just makes it a shutout or 1-0 score fest.

I'm the kind of person that prefers higher shot power to mirror the NHL, so having to lower them so much this year goes against the grain for me. Gameplay and stats are the most important things for me with sliders.

I take into account a few things when determining goalie and shooting sliders:
-Powerplay goal percentages
-Faceoffs
-NHL averages for scores
(Keep in mind I used the Revamped Roster for the making of these sliders)

But to each his own, of course. I don't think you should adjust every single goalie to Stand-Up though, because not every goalie plays the Hybrid style the exact same way. Some goalies stand-up more often, some go down into the butterfly more often.

[Cycloniac]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

Also, why do you have reaction speed at only 1, and acceleration so high?

I've found that if reaction speed is too low, goalies are way to vulnerable to the rebound.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

Yeah, I like the lower scoring games and thus the lower shot speed. I just found that the Ai was too effective from far out with a high shot power. They can still snipe in the slot, but a shot from the boards is gobbled up easily.

Like you said, the stand up style does not represent the goalies for all styles, but I do think they play better overall and that is more important to me. This at least, has been what I have noticed ( but it could be more placebo, lol).

I kept the goalie reaction slider low, so that they don't overplay shots. It keeps them a little more grounded and makes it so they are less likely to over anticipate. I did not like how they were always out of position and overplaying every shot. Also, since my shot speed is lower, there are fewer large rebounds (except on slapshots). The goalie can corral them a little easier.

I have the acceleration high, because the Ai has issues with turning and it creates a huge disadvantage. They can still get burned if they step up on a play, but they are able to turn and try and cut off a player and adjust properly with a high acceleration setting. It gets rid of the herky, jerky movements.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

As a test, i changed all my goalies back to their original styles and I then went into edit attributes and set all starting goalie consistency to zero (0). Having a consistency of one, allows far too many soft goals. I still see a few too many short side goals, but with the defence playing better its not as bad.

I also set my goalie passing slider down to one, they still come out to stop dump ins but not as aggressive with puck movement.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

I made some adjustments to my custom Ai and WOW did it make a huge difference! The Ai are a lot more aggressive and more creative with passing. It has worked out so well that I can even lower the aggression slider by a notch, down to four 4. What I plan on doing is playing with four for the regular season and then ramping it up to five for the playoffs. (tested with my All-Star sliders)

I was surprised at such a difference this has made.

Here are my new Custom Ai set:

- I leave the team strategies as they are set for each team
- NZ - FC slider for each team, set at five (5)
- Set the PP carry -dump slider to six (6)

FWD Line 1
Carry /Dump- 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

FWD Line 2
Carry /Dump- 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

FWD Line 3
Carry /Dump- 8
Cycle/Shoot - 5
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

FWD Line 4
Carry /Dump- 8
Cycle/Shoot - 6
Efficiency -10
Block - 10

Def Pair 1
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4

Def Pair 2
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4

Def Pair 3
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4

[Cycloniac]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

The only downside being that these strategy adjustments aren't usuable in BAGM mode, where they're actually needed.

The game also plays differently in BAGM, so one cann't even say that they'd work as well in a mode heavily affected by line chemistry, hot and cold streaks. Yes, I still believe that line chemistry still exists.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

@Cycloniac

Yeah, I don't know why they decided to leave the custom Ai option out of BeAGM/GM connected. You can load it for your team only, but that defeats the whole point of using it. They really missed a great opportunity here. That is the main reason I play Season mode instead.

I agree that there still seems to be hot and cold streaks in GM. Interesting thought about how line chemistry would affect the game. Would/do they program it so the guy is never in the right spot on the ice??? This is the kind of thing, along with intimidation, that EA needs to remove from the game. Its impossible to program some kind of human emotion and response.

[drog1602]

Re: A few things you can do to make the game better

This is my final set, I am extremely happy with the way the Ai plays. The changes are with attributes at max, load custom Ai, adjust the consistency for the goalies. You will see nice pass, great defence, fantastic saves and a variety of goals (with few strange or soft ones). Shots average for mid 20's to 30 per game. The more physical teams will out hit the lesser team, powerplays can be deadly.

I will load some video of one of my games, later.


Rules
Skill: All-star
Period Length: 12 minutes
Penalties: Maxed
Post Whistle Rules : Authentic
Penalty Time Scaling: 2
Fighting: 3


General

Tuner Set Version: latest
CPU Aid: Hardcore
Broken Stick Frequency: 2
Game Speed: 0 *changed
Attribute Effects: 6 *changed
Fatigue Effect: 6 H, 6 c
Fatigue Recovery: 2 , 2
Injury Occurrence: 4 , 4 *changed
Puck Control: 1 , 1 *changed
Player Acceleration: 4 Hum, 6 cpu


AI

AI Learning: 0
CPU Difficulty Adjustment: 0
CPU Strategy Adjustment: 1
Human Strategy Adjustment: 0 or 1 if you don't want to set it yourself
CPU Face Off Difficulty: 4
Fight Difficulty: 6
CPU Penalties: Maxed
CPU Teammate Penalties:4


Passing

Pass Assist: 2 bump this up by one if you have trouble passing
Manual Passing: Off
Pass Speed: 4
Saucer Pass Speed: 0
Pass Accuracy: 6 , 6
Pass Reception Ease: 0 , 0
Pass Interceptions: 6 , 6


Shooting

Shot Accuracy: 0 , 0
Shot Power: 1, 1
Slap Shot Accuracy: 2 , 2
Slap Shot Power: 6 , 6
One-Timer Accuracy: 1 , 1 *changed


Checking

Hitting Assistance: 6
Aggression: 5 , 5
Hitting Power: 0 , 0
Stick Lift Effectiveness: 4 , 4
Poke Effectiveness: 1 hum , 6 cpu ( they only poke on loose pucks)


Goalies

Goalie Passing: 1
Goalie Cover Puck Frequency: 4
Goalie Screen Effect: 0 , 0
Goalie Reaction Speed: 2 , 2

Custom Ai set:

- I leave the team strategies as they are set for each team
- NZ - FC slider for each team, set at five (5)
- Set the PP carry -dump slider to six (6)

FWD Line 1
Carry /Dump- 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

FWD Line 2
Carry /Dump- 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

FWD Line 3
Carry /Dump- 8
Cycle/Shoot - 5
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

FWD Line 4
Carry /Dump- 8
Cycle/Shoot - 6
Efficiency -10
Block - 10

Def Pair 1
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4

Def Pair 2
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4

Def Pair 3
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 4

All starting goalies had their consistency attribute set at zero (0)