Hey y’all. Tired of waiting for other people to have the ideas that this game could use to genuinely improve. If you like my list please add your own ideas but let’s try sharing this as widely as possible in the hopes that EA hears even 10% of it.
The game play itself has gotten stale. The AI and some of the physics need an update. You can’t move your feet and stick handle at the same time. When the skill stick first came out I understood that limitation, but in 2024 that’s pretty inexcusable. In general neutral zone play and dump in/cycle games are not present, and again, I understand that it’s tough to implement accurately but it can certainly be improved.
Also, can we improve the attributes? Is checking how good they are at checking or how often they hit? Is aggressiveness how often they hit or how overall aggressive they are on the ice - you can have a really high motor and be tenacious on the forecheck and backcheck without being very physical. If aggressiveness influences how aggressively you’re pressuring on offense and defense than what is offensive and defensive awareness? Isn’t poise kind of awareness? How do all of these attributes interact? Can we have a backhand attribute? How about an attribute for release quickness? Some guys have a great, wicked wrist shot but they don’t score with it a lot because they don’t have a great release. Some guys have an insane release on a medium power shot and nice accuracy. Can we work that into the game? How about an overall effort slider? You have guys like Semin who are super talented but not the hardest working and you have guys like Crosby who are both super talented and hard working and you have guys like Fast who aren’t that talented but very hard working. Instead of offensive awareness, etc. how about “anticipation”? And - or, at a minimum - just publish an in depth article not only explaining what each attribute does but how they interact with each other. How much does strength impact shot power or checking? Does it influence balance? If you have high balance and low strength what happens? What about low strength but 99 shot power? 99 checking? What does strength do? Don’t just tell us it effects the other traits - tell us how and to what degree.
Give the AI and human controlled players a lot more situational animations. If you’re going around the net, make them pull the puck in tighter automatically. Make them jump at the blueline to hold in pucks or reach with their skate. Make a little cushion on the blueline when you are controlling the point man so that he’s aware of going offside accidentally. Let the D make hand passes when knocked down in their own end. Have pucks occasionally blown dead for a high stick, not only on goals.
Skating stances was a good idea but don’t leave everyone set at the defaults. Randomize it or put effort into giving players unique body positions (like they do with goalie stance) so that not everyone looks the same. Don’t give everyone the same default lame goal celebration. I don’t want to go and edit every player in the league to have various animations. Also, please more realistic celebrations and less dumb f***ing **** like spinning on their head or doing push-ups. Or keep that crap for the online crowd but just give the NHL realistic celebrations. We have Ovie dropping the too hot stick that he did once but no one jumps into the glass?
Please improve BAP if it’s going to stay. The interviews and teammate interactions are so repetitive and the answers are so lame. Anyone who is a half talented writer and genuine hockey fan could script BAP better. Hell, I will do it for free as a passion project. Don’t lock answers behind silly categories like charisma that you have to poor attribute points into - just allow your character to have a personality. Allow us to go through the draft route but with custom rosters. No one wants to play BAP in January with the default roster from opening night. There’s been changes. Let us use the current up-to-date roster if we want. It’s our game - right now if you choose to go the draft route instead of choosing your team, you start with default rosters (I get the logic, those were the rosters at the draft, but no one cares - we want to play with accurate rosters).
Oh, and let us edit player heights, weights and hair. If I can make Sidney Crosby a 60 overall and give him a giant beard, why can’t I give Karlsson long or short hair, since he changes it year to year. Why can’t I make Jack Hughes a little heavier if the game still has him at his draft weight?
There’s tons more to fix about actual AI and mechanics, but those things I listed are implementable and I believe they’d significantly improve the experience.
The game play itself has gotten stale. The AI and some of the physics need an update. You can’t move your feet and stick handle at the same time. When the skill stick first came out I understood that limitation, but in 2024 that’s pretty inexcusable. In general neutral zone play and dump in/cycle games are not present, and again, I understand that it’s tough to implement accurately but it can certainly be improved.
Also, can we improve the attributes? Is checking how good they are at checking or how often they hit? Is aggressiveness how often they hit or how overall aggressive they are on the ice - you can have a really high motor and be tenacious on the forecheck and backcheck without being very physical. If aggressiveness influences how aggressively you’re pressuring on offense and defense than what is offensive and defensive awareness? Isn’t poise kind of awareness? How do all of these attributes interact? Can we have a backhand attribute? How about an attribute for release quickness? Some guys have a great, wicked wrist shot but they don’t score with it a lot because they don’t have a great release. Some guys have an insane release on a medium power shot and nice accuracy. Can we work that into the game? How about an overall effort slider? You have guys like Semin who are super talented but not the hardest working and you have guys like Crosby who are both super talented and hard working and you have guys like Fast who aren’t that talented but very hard working. Instead of offensive awareness, etc. how about “anticipation”? And - or, at a minimum - just publish an in depth article not only explaining what each attribute does but how they interact with each other. How much does strength impact shot power or checking? Does it influence balance? If you have high balance and low strength what happens? What about low strength but 99 shot power? 99 checking? What does strength do? Don’t just tell us it effects the other traits - tell us how and to what degree.
Give the AI and human controlled players a lot more situational animations. If you’re going around the net, make them pull the puck in tighter automatically. Make them jump at the blueline to hold in pucks or reach with their skate. Make a little cushion on the blueline when you are controlling the point man so that he’s aware of going offside accidentally. Let the D make hand passes when knocked down in their own end. Have pucks occasionally blown dead for a high stick, not only on goals.
Skating stances was a good idea but don’t leave everyone set at the defaults. Randomize it or put effort into giving players unique body positions (like they do with goalie stance) so that not everyone looks the same. Don’t give everyone the same default lame goal celebration. I don’t want to go and edit every player in the league to have various animations. Also, please more realistic celebrations and less dumb f***ing **** like spinning on their head or doing push-ups. Or keep that crap for the online crowd but just give the NHL realistic celebrations. We have Ovie dropping the too hot stick that he did once but no one jumps into the glass?
Please improve BAP if it’s going to stay. The interviews and teammate interactions are so repetitive and the answers are so lame. Anyone who is a half talented writer and genuine hockey fan could script BAP better. Hell, I will do it for free as a passion project. Don’t lock answers behind silly categories like charisma that you have to poor attribute points into - just allow your character to have a personality. Allow us to go through the draft route but with custom rosters. No one wants to play BAP in January with the default roster from opening night. There’s been changes. Let us use the current up-to-date roster if we want. It’s our game - right now if you choose to go the draft route instead of choosing your team, you start with default rosters (I get the logic, those were the rosters at the draft, but no one cares - we want to play with accurate rosters).
Oh, and let us edit player heights, weights and hair. If I can make Sidney Crosby a 60 overall and give him a giant beard, why can’t I give Karlsson long or short hair, since he changes it year to year. Why can’t I make Jack Hughes a little heavier if the game still has him at his draft weight?
There’s tons more to fix about actual AI and mechanics, but those things I listed are implementable and I believe they’d significantly improve the experience.
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