Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

[Steve_OS]

The folks at EA dropped an NHL 20 deep dive on Friday to show off the...

Written By: Joel Smith

Click here to view the article.

[Peter_OS]

Nice writeup Joel!

When you see a franchise like NBA 2K manage to improve their modes year after year, and take depth and community feedback to heart to ensure that their franchise modes get new touches each year, it’s encouraging to see what*NHL 20*has in store for its fans of franchise mode.

Can't say EA listens to their community on feedback on the actually gameplay on the ice which is atrocious at times. Kudos to the team that worked on making the franchise mode more deeper and playable this year. Just wish the other teams working on the game had the same effort and dedication. Here's hoping we see changes to this part of the game in the future.

[SocialAssassin]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

What's this about classic teams?

[michdb8]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

nhl franchise devs are the only team in EA sports company who are able to make a good feature every year, and these game sales are far from FIFA or madden numbers.
the only solid franchise modes I see right now are nba2k, NHL, Maximum football and Axis football.

[Roscosuper]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

"After watching and dissecting the franchise breakdown video, I can say the effort by the NHL franchise team seems quite ambitious, so hopefully it works as advertised and as intended."

And if none of it was properly integrated to the actually on-ice gameplay, it's all for nothing. It's all "wait for next year".

This is what we can't seem to find an answer to. If you put in all this work with these new additions and then you get out on the ice and the AI just follows the same script as it has been doing for the last some-odd years, it's all a big waste of time. It all proves to be worthless. It's just another half-baked addition that will take 2, 3, 4-year cycle to "sort of" work right. I hope I'm wrong, but mums the word over on the EA boards.

[Rwings832]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

What's this about classic teams?

I agree, It would be nice to see if they come out with a little bit more detail what this will Entail? Is it all Alumni and Icons, or do we get specific years that we can substitute an Existing team for? I am pretty sure he is referencing All-Time Teams as that is what he said in the video for Edmonton. Looking forward to hearing anything more related to these Classic Teams?

[SocialAssassin]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

Would be some pretty sweet sauce if I could play as the 1999-2000 Devils.

[kariya05]

Cooper Toms got that benjamin button.

But really all this is nothing more than a placebo until they have some player separation on ice. If I'm gonna spend that much time on my team I'd like to see it be crucial to performance. Maybe in a few years, all this will actually matter.

[Sparkles]

Can we edit coach names and models?

[sfpxgalaxy]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

"After watching and dissecting the franchise breakdown video, I can say the effort by the NHL franchise team seems quite ambitious, so hopefully it works as advertised and as intended."

And if none of it was properly integrated to the actually on-ice gameplay, it's all for nothing. It's all "wait for next year".

Pretty sure the only effect it will have on gameplay is that some ratings will be altered. This would be decent enough normally but since player separation is practically inexistent this will have no impact on gameplay.

Player separation is the solution to everything. It would even help their HUT mode. I'm pretty sure they actually want to increase player separation but this would require some serious work on the AI...a thing they are not willing to do because it's too much work and has a certain associated risk.

[SocialAssassin]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

Can we edit coach names and models?

[CarolinaSharks]

LoL!! Can't stop laughing at that head! I think it's time for bed!

[scitychamps87]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

The EA NHL series really needs the Superstar X-Factor system Madden has. It is a game changer for gameplay and player separation.

Sent from my XT1650 using Operation Sports mobile app

[Roscosuper]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

Pretty sure the only effect it will have on gameplay is that some ratings will be altered. This would be decent enough normally but since player separation is practically inexistent this will have no impact on gameplay.

Player separation is the solution to everything. It would even help their HUT mode. I'm pretty sure they actually want to increase player separation but this would require some serious work on the AI...a thing they are not willing to do because it's too much work and has a certain associated risk.

Well, player separation is a whole other issue. That needs to be addressed with or without these new additions.

My point was that if you're going to hire these coaches as GM and the A.I. teams are going to hire coaches, and these said coaches are going to implement somewhat unique "tactics and schemes" respectively, then when you get out on the ice these variables have to be present to validate them being introduced into the mode. If, when playing the actual game, it plays just like "19, '18, '17, etc. and the "new variables" have not been weaved into the gameplay, then there's no point to it.

For example: if the Devils hire a coach that is "defense first" and "rolls four lines" and then you play them in game and that coach's tendencies are not being used and the Devils are just following the game script that we've been playing against for the last some odd years, (ya know the one where they put the 4th line out in the last minute when they need a goal and the one where they don't know how to use a timeout), what's the point.

Likewise, if I go through all the trouble of hiring a coach only to have to do all the coaching myself when playing an actual game, it makes the coach and his system irrelevant. Then the whole thing is reduced to just a simplistic system of juicing player ratings that can probably be easily manipulated. Isn't that what HUT is?

I mean, I don't know what we're getting, but it's hard to be optimistic as this same discussion is getting no response on the EA boards.

[Rhudey]

Re: Taking a Hard Look at NHL 20’s Franchise Mode Trailer

Well, player separation is a whole other issue. That needs to be addressed with or without these new additions.

My point was that if you're going to hire these coaches as GM and the A.I. teams are going to hire coaches, and these said coaches are going to implement somewhat unique "tactics and schemes" respectively, then when you get out on the ice these variables have to be present to validate them being introduced into the mode. If, when playing the actual game, it plays just like "19, '18, '17, etc. and the "new variables" have not been weaved into the gameplay, then there's no point to it.

For example: if the Devils hire a coach that is "defense first" and "rolls four lines" and then you play them in game and that coach's tendencies are not being used and the Devils are just following the game script that we've been playing against for the last some odd years, (ya know the one where they put the 4th line out in the last minute when they need a goal and the one where they don't know how to use a timeout), what's the point.

Likewise, if I go through all the trouble of hiring a coach only to have to do all the coaching myself when playing an actual game, it makes the coach and his system irrelevant. Then the whole thing is reduced to just a simplistic system of juicing player ratings that can probably be easily manipulated. Isn't that what HUT is?

I mean, I don't know what we're getting, but it's hard to be optimistic as this same discussion is getting no response on the EA boards.

You nailed it with this post, this is exactly how I feel as well, if it translated to the teams on the ice actually playing unique styles this would be awesome. The way it is now it feels like you are playing the exact same team every game with different jerseys. You don't go into a game thinking "oh no, it's Ovechkin, how do I shut him down?".