NHL 10 Community Day

[fredr123]

Biggest shortcoming: Not available on the Wii.

[COGENT]

BAP mode. Other lines not changing on the fly equaling 5 minute shifts.

[dobbles]

most of my play has been eashl so thats where i am coming from in my requests. and jobo we have probably talked about most of this stuff over the past few months, but here goes:

fix the microphone issues. i still regularly can't hear certain people on our team. additionally if teams quit before the game starts or mid game, it often fubars the people you can hear and its all choppy. i know you are aware of this as you experience just as many problems as i do, but its something that needs addressed. the functionality is spotty at best.

don't allow teams to quit without any penalty in the matchup screens. there are too many 2 man teams that will only play 2 man teams so they can exploit the lack of defense for cheese type goals. so many times as a large team we are unable to find a game for a long time because teams wont play us.

revamp the dressing room. the inability to have more than 6 people is annoying. i can only imagine how hard it would be to coordinate our team if we didnt have our website. when we have more than 6 people online and need to split up, its insanely impossible to coordinate that in game. they need to allow everyone in there and then 6 people can ready up and go play then everyone else is still there. additionally, i would love it if the chat box would show past messages. if i want to tell people i will be around at 8 pm to play, theres no way to do that in game. if i put that in the DR chat, no one sees it as its not kept for later arrivals.

update the way stats are tracked. we have been manually pulling stats from the ps3 all year because there is no way to track eashl stats online. additionally, when in the setup screen for a game it shows the disconnect % of each player for 1 on 1 games and not eashl games. so many of the stats screen and rankings screens are only for versus play.

as far as the gameplay, i have enjoyed just controlling 1 guy. they have fixed a lot of the issues regarding gameplay in the patches. i would love if they could implement something i saw russic suggest a while back: have 2 checking buttons. 1 for a small nudge to knock a guy of the puck or off his line, and another if you want to crush the guy. right now when playing defense in front of the net and in the corners, your best option is checking. stick lifts and poke checks are just too ineffective against those cross crease passes. so you have to rely on the cross checks. and it just happens so much that you draw a penalty because you crush a guy when you just needed to brush him.

for fighting, i would love if they would allow a few seconds of scrum time after a whistle. so much of hockeys fights and emotion occur during post whistle scrums. yet those have never been a controllable part of any hockey game. i would love if there were a few seconds where you could mess with a guy and possibly start a fight. the current system of a couple seconds of useless free time is fun to try and hit people but has no bearing on the game.

last but not least, please do not rate chelios better than rafalski again next year!!! they did finally change that in one of the roster updates.

[WhiteTom]

They need better/more songs to be playing during the dressing room sessions. Better yet enable custom music support for the PS3 version.

[Crispy's Critter]

they do need to do something with the contracts. I had a damn good season, and because I was a rookie got 3 identical crappy offers. Basically all I had to do was pick which team I wanted to go to. All aspects of the contract were identical; term, money, and something else (bonuses?) Anyway it would be nice if there were some variety in the contracts offered as well.

Also a big thing that I didn't like in BAP mode was the player turnover in the offseason. I've talked to a few people who have completed seasons and they all say that the teams they are on all start the first season with the proper roster, but they all start the second season with completely different players. My flames team right now looks stupid, guys like mike comrie, rob neidermayer, steve ruchin, it's a pretty sad roster. Oh and they traded Iginla straight up for Crosby. Not sure how I feel about that deal.

I'm sure theres a couple other things I'll think of later.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

- Let me see the total salaries for each team. It bothers me when I want to trade with a team and I only get back a message saying that will put your team, or the other team over the cap. The message should be "trading that player puts you over the cap by x" or "the other team has rejected your trade because that puts them x over the cap". Guess I'm lazy and don't want to do math.

Oh absolutely. I hate when you have everything set up and all you really get is a notice saying "that won't work". I'd love for it to be more specific as to what I need to do to fix the problem. This could even be carried over to the injured players. When I sub a guy in and I try to leave I don't want a notice saying "not all of you lines have the correct number of players", I want something to say "you are missing a forward on your 2nd 4 on 4 line".

Originally Posted by COGENT

BAP mode. Other lines not changing on the fly equaling 5 minute shifts.

You know you can just hit triangle and it triggers a line change right? This does remind me of something though ... cpu line changes seem to get "stuck" from time to time. I tend to play dynasty, and I notice that often times 4/5 of the players will change, while the dog-tired centre will stay out and try and huff along even though he's been on the ice for 7 minutes. I notice this also buggers up the icing rule (when the players have to stay on the ice after causing an icing).

Originally Posted by dobbles

i would love if they could implement something i saw russic suggest a while back: have 2 checking buttons. 1 for a small nudge to knock a guy of the puck or off his line, and another if you want to crush the guy. right now when playing defense in front of the net and in the corners, your best option is checking. stick lifts and poke checks are just too ineffective against those cross crease passes. so you have to rely on the cross checks. and it just happens so much that you draw a penalty because you crush a guy when you just needed to brush him.

for fighting, i would love if they would allow a few seconds of scrum time after a whistle. so much of hockeys fights and emotion occur during post whistle scrums. yet those have never been a controllable part of any hockey game. i would love if there were a few seconds where you could mess with a guy and possibly start a fight. the current system of a couple seconds of useless free time is fun to try and hit people but has no bearing on the game.

I totally forgot about that idea of mine ... damn what a great idea! How many times do you go to knock a guy off the puck only to cross check him in the throat? Much like baseball games have a regular throw and a hard throw (less accurate, more risk), I'd love to see hockey have a standard simple check and a slightly more risky, more power driven check (where the elbow could come up from time to time). The latter would have a higher risk of penalty if slightly out of position, but be more devastating if in proper position.

There was a game back in the day that had scrums. Not all out fights mind you, but if you nudged a guy after the play or got too close to the goalie after a whistle the Dman would give you a bump back. It was really cool.

[KevanGuy]

I only play online, with the Fata's or comm games. My biggest pet peeve as a defenseman occurs when I'm skating backwards into the neutral zone and the other team passes to the wing skating out along the boards, if the puck comes close to me (but not right at me) my player stops skating for a second. It totally messes up the timing and gives the wing a clear path into our zone. Drives me nuts.

edit: Oh, and thanks for giving us the opportunity for feedback Jobo.

[Kipper is King]

There have been times when playing an EASHL game where I have had to answer the phone or something for a few minutes, leaving my teammates shorthanded.

I'd like it if you could have the option to hop onto the bench and let a CPU player take over temporarily during EASHL play.

Also, an online practice mode would rock!

[CMPunk]

When you're playing BAP...no one ever seems to take penalties, even when I have them cranked. I'd like to see the CPU start a fight with another CPU player every now and then

[koop]

one other thing, variable season length in Dynasty mode. I like to play most of the games, but 82 seems like too much, and I just end up simming a bunch of them. So it would be a good option to have.

Another thing with dynasty is RFA status. I know the 2K9 series has offer sheets, and while it isn't a big deal it wold be a cool thing to see.

[Weiser Wonder]

Dynasty mode needs to be totally revamped. I love Madden's franchise mode and would LOVE that in NHL 09. More realistic trading, free agent signing and drafting.

The simulation of games also needs to be redone. If Sidney Crosby is virtually a perfect player why does he struggle to hit 80 points some seasons? It ruins the fun of having Crosby on the team if he's just going to be a decent first line center.

[cheung31]

I am not a fan of the gameplay patches released. The original version released at launch was completely different from the game now being played, in that it feels much more predictable/scripted and arcadish. When playing on Superstar difficulty, you used to struggle to score goals and win, but not anymore.

I'm just frustrated as someone looking for a good sim, and I think they had a good game when NHL 09 was originally released. Hope they don't do the same thing this year. If the patches are made to address online gameplay, then the developers should make sure it doesn't affect the offline gameplay.

[browna]

Lots of good tweaks above that would be useful for sure.

A few other things come to my mind...for the most part, goal celebrations are ok..potting the 6th goal against the CPU or a online manual goalie wearing pink pads and a green blocker aren't cause for that much celebration, but playing FIFA 09, after goals you have a bunch of preset options for choosing your goal celebration for the 5-10 seconds before the rest of the players gather around you and it fades to replay. Probably can be implemented to in NHL, without going too over the top.

Really, if you want to get closer to a sim, which is what they want when releasing that patch, you may as well also cut out the after whistle battle royale/last man standing. I'm as guilty as anyone especially online of looking for the guy to nail who's either hacking at the goalie or completely unaware, and its not a big deal, but it would make it more realistic.

If possible, selecting the other CPU players from an arbitrary list that you play with online if you don't have 6 guys. This could be hit and miss if you don't understand their ratings right, but for example, sometimes you get a really good CPU centerman who knows where to go, shoots (they all usually pass if at all possible) and forechecks ok, sometimes you get a guy who tries the "L1 RS" deke at the red line and loses it...same with goalies...some stand on their head and make 30+ saves, others let in 40 foot shots along the ice and between their legs.

[Kipper is King]

Originally Posted by cheung31

I'm just frustrated as someone looking for a good sim, and I think they had a good game when NHL 09 was originally released.

Playing online, the cheesers at first were horrible. At least the patches reduced that.

[TSXCman]

*****
I hope i'm not late on this input session, but they should bring back 1 vs 1 vs 1 vs 1 game mode from a few years back. half court style with one goalie, you get to pick a superstar each. 10X better idea than the 3 on 3 arcade.


I do have a lot of more serious things to add but would rather concentrate on trying to bring back that mode instead

[Kipper is King]

^^^ I agree! That was called Free 4 All BTW! That could be really fun online.

[Hemi-Cuda]

let the player edit the lines when in BAP mode. obviously you'd be unable to change your own position, but i hate how screwed up the lines get when the CPU starts doing all the trading and shuffling. i made my Theo Fleury recreated pro a LW so that he could play with Iginla eventually, but after i finally get called up i find out that the CPU has stuck him on LW with Cammalleri at center and Bertuzzi on RW. the other lines are just as butchered, takes away from the immersion factor

[Jayems]

1) Changing lines online is totally fubared. You'll pick one line, and then by the time you go to the face off, the computer has automatically picked another for you. That, and you have to scroll through the entire line bars once to even activate a line change. So stupid. They'll always put out the most fatigued line when you're in a PK too, i think it's their little way of trying to keep the games close.

2) Save your edited lines for online.

3) Remove curve wrister... AGAIN

[Crispy's Critter]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

let the player edit the lines when in BAP mode.

Don't think this would be very good, IMO. BAP is meant for you to be at the mercy of the coach and GM, just as you would be in real life if you were a hockey player. In that sense it works very well, even if frustrating at times.

[Bibtin Tex]

i would love it if the CPU shot the puck more, because I hate playing BAP goalie and facing 10 shots in a game.

I also think the flow of the game could get a bit faster, but thats not really a problem.

BAP should be more fun, like you start in the WHL or some european league and then get drafted and have to "tryout" for your NHL team to be able to play

It would be great if goalies had more desperation moves, and if there wasn't any glitch goals (there will defentiely be some )