NHL 17 News Post

The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

11:04 AM - November 29, 2016 by RaychelSnr

Earlier this year in an Operation Sports feature titled, “Fact or Fiction: 2016 Sports Gaming Predictions,” I said “NHL 17 will be a sports game of the year candidate in a big way.” With Madden, The Show and NBA 2K showing relatively standard -- yet still very good -- improvements this year, NHL 17 arguably has made the most progress of any of the major sport titles for consoles; it’s a much improved and complete game this year compared to its predecessor.

One of the game’s deepest enhancements has been the expansion of available gameplay sliders. There are far more sliders available in this year’s edition compared to '16, and perusing the slider sub-forum on Operation Sports, I was curious as to how folks were handling this year’s new edition (bad pun) when it comes to adjusting gameplay.

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# 21 superballs @ 12/05/16 04:06 PM

I started NHL17 on Full Sim/Pro.

I'm not that good, but man I almost never feel cheated or a victim of "ice tilt".

NHL 16 was probably the worst NHL game I've ever played. The AI just tac tac tac tac tape to tape like they were a hive-mind and put it in.

I stepped up my defensive play and got better but just felt like if I was an inch out of place it was a sure snipe from the slot.

In 17, it feels like things happen. I mean weird bounces that create insane tense moments, real scrambles for the puck, real fights and scrums against the board with three players stabbing at the puck like mad trying to poke it loose. The stick tie-ups create weird "somebody just get that already" moments, the passing around the offensive zone feels substantial and setting up in front of the net for a deflection with vision control feels so satisfying when you pull it off.

I've also noticed that a LOT of pucks go wide of the net. When watching hockey, I find that this is usually the cause of the relatively low number of shots on net. A lot of shots are taken, but only a few are actually shots on goal, most go over and wide.

Hitting the post is still a little too frequent, but not maddeninly so. In fact, I'd even venture so far as to say when a shot goes off the post, it's enough to make your heart stop in relief or in angst depending on what end of it you were on.

It's not perfect, but I really feel with the substantial stick checking and that "clogged slot" feeling I've never really gotten out of a hockey game, the sloppy, loose puck feeling that made me love NHL2k10 so much, and generally good AI (with exception) assisting you, this is my favorite NHL game since NHL10 and NHL2K10.

# 22 Armor and Sword @ 12/05/16 08:55 PM

I love sliders.

Everyone who knows me around here knows I am an old school Atari 2600/Intellivision kid. And I have played just about all of the console sports games throughout the last 36 years.

When sliders first became available for me to use I was really happy. And it was really simple for me. I play the game on default out of the box settings on my appropriate skill level and get a great feel for how the game plays both on my side and the CPU side. Once I have that feel and a nice sample size I simply ask myself what is the game not giving me that I want. I then turn some knobs and after a few weeks I pretty much am able to hone in the right tuning for my personal taste and what I want out of the game.

I then share it with the community and always....always tell everyone to use it as a base and tweak to your taste.

I also take it to a place of where I share my personal camera settings, the approach I take in playing the game and why and offer community members a way to play the game maybe a little differently than they have before to see if that ups the "simulation" factor for them. I develop my sliders playing the game in the "style" I play it. So I tend to think I am more a niche player slider guy.

I never over think it. I use more of a "feel and see" process then a science process to my sports video game settings and it works for me....and hopefully many members of our community.

But most of all the game has to be fun. Because that is the number one reason I play sports games. Pure fun, and enjoyment.

# 23 Fiddy @ 12/05/16 09:28 PM

Last year I settled on hardcore all star and superstar. No adjustments because of the slider glitches etc.

This year I haven't run into the glitches with the skating like last year and I have been having fun. Sticking to my forumula in my slider thread keeps the game semi default, but with some realistic elements.

I have found a happy medium this year.

I use my sliders on all star for home games and my sliders on superstar for road games.

Doing so gives me games where I can completely dominate and others where I get my butt handed to me. Good times.

# 24 robinson @ 12/10/16 05:53 PM

More options, more people happy.

Its good to have sliders because they can create so many different game play. As a lot of them are intertwined which each other.

I like the 0-100 better because even though its a lot more difficult to get sliders adjusted and finetuned. It allows more ways of creating the style you like personally.

We are still adjusting to get it better as we go along. What nice is to sample what the other good slider creators are using/sampling themselves to make your better or to find thing you wernt necessarily looking for at the time.

Still working on that wicked two way hockey slider set that's realistic and feels good like your on ice.

# 25 Mongo14 @ 12/10/16 09:12 PM

They just automatically reset to default for me

# 26 Mike Lowe @ 12/21/16 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay D


	Just to reemphasize my point made in a probably TL;DR post, the bolded is why sliders nearly ruined my enjoyment of sports gaming. Once I quit searching for the elusive perfect representation, but stated playing and enjoying the competition of the games as they are, my enjoyment skyrocketed back to pre-slider days. I'm not saying we should ditch sliders. But when I read threads about the game, it's pretty clear that the everlasting quest for perfect representation of a sport increases the negativity in the forums. And it does it by a lot. I used to consider messing with sliders like a puzzle game in itself. The tools encourage many of us, and I'm including myself, to game with unrealistic expectations of what sports gaming is. We tweak and tweak, and our inability to find that last puzzle piece leads us to lash out at the developers who we begin to feel can not only not get the game right, but can't even create reasonable sliders. The reason this is a shame is that if we step back and look at the history of sports games, this is an absolutely mind blowing great era of sports games. And instead of enjoying them, so much of our time is spent on improving them, and worse, slagging the developers that make these games.

Well said, sir.

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