NHL 16 News Post

Ask NHL: More NHL 16 Questions Answered, In-Game Sims Are Back, EASHL Questions

09:46 PM - June 1, 2015 by RaychelSnr

EA Sports is busy answering questions again about NHL 16 on the Ask NHL page. Here are some of the highlights from tonight:

Will there be in-game simulation in be a gm?

Sim Intervention is back in the game and will be a part of Be A GM.

Will we be able to hire coaches this year in GM mode? If not, are there plans to add this in the future?

You will not be able to hire coaches this year in GM Mode. It is something that we are continuing to look into.

Will there be a Zamboni racing mode?

There will not be a Zamboni racing mode.

Will there be warmups?

No. There won't be warm-ups in NHL 16. We have spent all of our time as a gameplay team this year focusing on the core balance of the game during play with a specific emphasis on core mechanics.

Are the animations back where the offensive players try hard to stay on-sides by dragging their leg a little at the blue line, or any other animations to help the players stay on-sides better?

Yes, one of our gameplay engineers spent time specifically tuning how players use a dragged skate to stay onside. We have seen some great moments where players are just barely onside using the technique before receiving a pass.

In EASHL, will we be able to play 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 5v5 (like in the past) or is 6v6 the requirement?

Playing 6s in EASHL is a great way to experience the game mode. However, we know that isn't the only way our fans want to play the game (that plus sometimes it's just difficult to get your friends together to play at the same time!). You will be able to play the same way as before where teams can enter gameplay with at least 2 human controlled players.

Can you update the roster more frequently in NHL 16? For comparisons sake, MADDEN updates the rosters weekly.

We are currently assessing the feasibility of more frequent roster updates. The most challenging part for us is the total number of leagues and players that need to be updated and are often dependent on one another. As an example, we cannot update just the NHL without making the corresponding changes to the AHL for players that have moved up or down.

Can you still play as your EASHL pro in Ranked OTP?

Hi Martin, thanks for your question. You can play as your EASHL Pro within EASHL while OTP players will use skaters from the authentic team rosters.

Can you show us some of the excitment and pitch up and down of Doc's voice that you promise? I think it was awesome they way you changed from Gary Thorne etc but Doc is all about his excitement so that was a bit dissapointing. But good that you fix it! Do you have any plans on making the intros longer? I love them and always watch them, feels more like a real game on NBC.

We have added a lot more contextual intros so that Doc and Eddie can follow along even closer as you progress through a season and take on different opponents. As examples of the detail, they even understand how you have fared on a long road trip or how important the final game of a home stand is before heading out on the road. They will track team and player success in the league and the new NBC overlays will back up all the stats and provide even more detailed information. As far as Doc's level of excitement, that was the great challenge our audio team took on when Doc joined our team. For NHL 16, we wanted to try and get even closer to the level of energy fans have grown to expect when Doc calls a game. Doc can now get extra excited when a team is really putting on the pressure or trying to score late in a close game. Extra attention was also put into his goal calls.

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Member Comments

# 41 ozcore @ 06/02/15 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KidShowtime


	Here is a good preview of the menu speed, which has become much more responsive: https://youtu.be/r3NFCibHfj8

but they didnt show in the video about saving a file lol

# 42 Syzchmenev @ 06/02/15 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	Not likely. That all costs $$$ for the rights.

No need to buy rights for authentic BIP songs and goal horns,just bring back Custom Music option.USB- Create playlist and done.This is no unsolvable problem..

# 43 KidShowtime @ 06/02/15 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syzchmenev


	No need to buy rights for authentic BIP songs and goal horns,just bring back Custom Music option.USB- Create playlist and done.This is no unsolvable problem..

Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the consoles - and not a feature that was removed by choice.

Although consoles have made some great steps forward in this generation, disappointingly - they've had to re-write certain functionality (Music streaming outside of the Gaming Hypervisor - coordinating in-game actions) and features like this just haven't made their way back to this generation.

# 44 Syzchmenev @ 06/02/15 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KidShowtime


	Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the consoles - and not a feature that was removed by choice. Although consoles have made some great steps forward in this generation, disappointingly - they've had to re-write certain functionality (Music streaming outside of the Gaming Hypervisor - coordinating in-game actions) and features like this just haven't made their way back to this generation.

How pathetic!Actually big silence about the music..

# 45 Zuke @ 06/02/15 04:13 PM

I would like to know if players AHL stats can influence player progression/ pot change in BGM. I believe I read in years past they did not.

I would like to see it help guys who have AHL pot jump to bottom 6/7th D pot if they had a great season.

Also would like an explanation on how/why pot changes.

# 46 ericromain @ 06/02/15 06:23 PM

If EA NHL can't keep up with the pace of NHL roster changes, they should just give the community the power to maintain the official roster. I understand there's some complicationssuch as when new NHLPA members can be put in the game, but i think the community would make for a faster more efficient partnership that could make everyone happy.

Just give more power to the community. Custom music, custom roster sharing, player edits, custom mask paint schemes, custom board ads. Give us the tools, we'll create it and only share it amongst our selves at no profit to anyone.

# 47 Perceptor @ 06/02/15 07:12 PM

I was disappointed last year with the game and while it looks like features are coming back, the game is still missing something.

I agree that player editing would be awesome in terms of managing rosters. I still think that somehow the roster guys need to figure out how to get the updates out regularly.

I also keep on hoping that we can do multiplayer Be a GM. Look at 2K sports and NBA 2K15. You could customize almost everything and play as all the teams. This is something the devs should look into. It's been 7 years and it seems GM mode's improvements just hasn't been as good as I hoped. I think the mode needs the FIFA Career treatment.

# 48 scottyo60 @ 06/02/15 07:50 PM

I've read a few of these Q&As and I'm glad to see some ea rep in here. If there wasn't I wouldn't even risk posting this...

So far from Q&A I've been really underwhelmed. I'm not worried about environment. That's lacked. I've never touched EASHL. I worry will we get a hockey game that's fun? Realistic but also can be tweaked to fun? I understand some areas are easier to score from but it feels like once those are discovered in EA it's game over. We are fighting to save those spots. I want to rule against me but I had many lopsided scores with me vs. CPU

Ultimately my Q is I want to know why I should purchase 2016 over just rehashing rosters which EA took control of. I feel other games are trying to make changes or progress while NHL is trying to play 5th fiddle to madden, nba 2k. Mlb the show and FIFA. I feel like every post I'm left with less hope that what I started with. Most of all this is a series I've bought since 08 and this year I feel like no is my option.

# 49 Pezell04x @ 06/03/15 09:34 AM

My advice to everyone would be to get ready for them to say (or us just find out) that player editing is not in the game. The way they treat the player editing question is reminiscent of how they treated last year's EASHL/OTP question: mute until about a week before release.

Nothing outside of EASHL really grabs me and tells me that this is going to be amazing. The problem for me is that my WhatsApp/EASHL team is already saying things like "Man I can't wait for EASHL this year". I think EA knows that people are crawling up the walls for EASHL too and that's why they can slowly release/rebuild/whatever you want to call it things like player editing.

What I was incredibly disappointed about was how the team sounded re: roster updates. I get that the scope of their updates are larger than Madden or NBA, but it seems that FIFA has a massive player base and what is their roster updating situation? I feel like it was almost daily, if not weekly. I am perplexed as how it could be such a problem for EA (hell, even create a contracted position for just the season) that they can't push out a weekly roster update instead of once a month/every two months.

Quote:


	We are currently assessing the feasibility of more frequent roster updates. The most challenging part for us is the total number of leagues and players that need to be updated and are often dependent on one another. As an example, we cannot update just the NHL without making the corresponding changes to the AHL for players that have moved up or down.

This entire quote bothers me because games are already doing that, like MLB The Show. The Show will send players up and down at will in their Live Updates.

Maybe EA's hockey division didn't anticipate that their consumer base would actually want some sort of live update system and/or roster share, but it should be high on their priority list.

And the thing is, with all of that off of my chest, I'll be getting the game on release day so I can play hockey with my buds strewn across the US and Canada again.

# 50 Perceptor @ 06/03/15 01:14 PM

Well said. To me, the FIFA and Show roster updates should be what NHL should look at. Live updates are what we need; not the infrequent once in a blue moon rosters that players have had for the last few years. I understand resources will always be an issue and dedicating of staff to other important faucets of the game. Having said that, this is something that the community has asked for in previous years. Hopefully this will be addressed at some point

# 51 Leafs fan 2112 @ 06/03/15 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	Confirmed: no custom players in OTP. So lame!

I, for one, loved OTP. I met a lot of good people and played a lot of games with my created character when my friends in club were away. It's a damn shame. Has EA given an explanation for why this isn't in the game?

# 52 Leafs fan 2112 @ 06/03/15 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perceptor


	Well said. To me, the FIFA and Show roster updates should be what NHL should look at. Live updates are what we need; not the infrequent once in a blue moon rosters that players have had for the last few years. I understand resources will always be an issue and dedicating of staff to other important faucets of the game. Having said that, this is something that the community has asked for in previous years. Hopefully this will be addressed at some point

They should take a page from 2k in their NBA series and let people upload their own roster updates alongside EA's. But, since they said that edit rosters isn't in this game this year, we won't get it sadly.

# 53 ricky24 @ 06/03/15 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	Confirmed: no custom players in OTP. So lame!

It's very lame but from the sounds of it there are not really custom players in eashl to begin with. Sucks they brought the mode back only to nuke it.

# 54 bigwill33 @ 06/03/15 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leafs fan 2112


	I, for one, loved OTP. I met a lot of good people and played a lot of games with my created character when my friends in club were away. It's a damn shame. Has EA given an explanation for why this isn't in the game?

I agree. And they have not.

I can promise that I will never play OTP in 16 without being able to use a created character. OTP in 15 is awful. Not being able to play with your friends without hoping for the luck of the draw is brutal.

Playing only club, all of the time, with a created character that cannot rank up in any fashion will surely lose its appeal quickly.

And sometimes you just need a break from club with your teammates. Hopping in an OTP game and being able to work on different plays, positions, or try out new players that want to join your club was key in years past. Forcing us to use NHL players in that mode is awful to me. Getting randoms that only wish to sabotage your game with no repercussions (like striving for a higher gamer card) is a nightmare and seems to happen about half of the time anymore.

OTP menus are clunky, the team selection system and position selection system is deeply flawed, the lack of options to set lines, call timeouts, look at who is in your game or see personal stats, 3 pauses per team (why?! For what purpose???), everyone can change lines and adjust settings at any moment making it a mess, too many fights, and players flopping all over the ice from idiotic collisions; all make OTP pretty much useless to me.

The mode just consists of constant trolling from people changing to the same team as yours, wearing the same color jerseys, changing to a super team in the last 3 seconds, people leaving the game with under 5 seconds and you getting stuck in a game that you know won't be played, constant pausing, fights at every faceoff, teammate offside trolling, no punishment for playing out of position except for losing (which doesn't seem to bother most people), and just a mess of everything game play wise.

Makes no sense to me that OTP wouldn't feature the ability to play as either real players and teams AND/OR the ability to use our created players and play with our friends from a lobby system and not drop-ins.

# 55 Ruffy @ 06/03/15 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Millennium


	I am not going to say this again: You are going to be constructive, or you are going to be banned. I have instructed my mod staff to keep an eye on this forum from now until release and treat it like we have the Madden forum and the NBA 2K forums on release. I've given you guys enough warnings and enough leniency, and it's become painfully obvious that you just can't do things constructively and resort to name calling and bashing devs. Consider this the final warning. The next one anyone gets will be their permanent ban.

Cheers to this. I am getting tired of decent conversations and threads going south with this type of stuff.

# 56 Kolbe31 @ 06/04/15 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThaLiveKing


	"I hope they get asked about player differential and separation soon. I'd like to know if they addressed the issues in NHL15 that were pointed out in that recent Youtube clip" I asked them this on the first day, my question got ignored

Maybe you should mix this question in with a question about Doc's excitement levels? They've answered that question like three times.

# 57 ricky24 @ 06/04/15 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juice2142


	Lets be honest, you all are going to buy it because on EASHL. I know I am. Nothing like it in any other sports games. I've never had the need to edit players in any of my sports franchise games, so I am ok with that. Thankfully there is no Zamboni racing- that'd be a waste

Honestly I'm not buying it because of the eashl changes. I'll buy nhl again when they put the mode back in the right way because it is one of my favorite things in sports gaming. Well it was in 2014 anyways. Another year of waiting For Nhl to hit the access vault for me.

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Ask NHL: More NHL 16 Questions Answered, In-Game Sims Are Back, EASHL Questions