Be a Pro Mode

[teravaineSAROS]

So in NHL 20 I got drafted as a Two-Way Forward and started the season on the 3rd line while being put on the 1st Power Play and Penalty Kill lines...

Now EVERY. SINGLE. SHIFT. begins with me having to kill another penalty. I get like 10 minutes of icetime a game and im spending almost all of it on the PK with the odd few PP opportunities because my team gets penalised a lot more than the other team.

Adjusting the teammate penalties slider hasn't helped much so far. My pro doesn't even know 5-on-5 hockey exists yet.

 

[MikeyDee]

So in NHL 20 I got drafted as a Two-Way Forward and started the season on the 3rd line while being put on the 1st Power Play and Penalty Kill lines...

Now EVERY. SINGLE. SHIFT. begins with me having to kill another penalty. I get like 10 minutes of icetime a game and im spending almost all of it on the PK with the odd few PP opportunities because my team gets penalised a lot more than the other team.

Adjusting the teammate penalties slider hasn't helped much so far. My pro doesn't even know 5-on-5 hockey exists yet.

Which penalty slider are you adjusting? The one in the RULES section or the one in the GAMEPLAY section? In my experience, the one in the RULES section has more effect on the number of penalties called in a game.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Which penalty slider are you adjusting? The one in the RULES section or the one in the GAMEPLAY section? In my experience, the one in the RULES section has more effect on the number of penalties called in a game.

Yea the one under Rules helped, the last few games were pretty even in terms of penalty minutes per game. I don't know why my team kept having 3 times as many penalties as the opposing team before that.

 

[MikeyDee]

Yea the one under Rules helped, the last few games were pretty even in terms of penalty minutes per game. I don't know why my team kept having 3 times as many penalties as the opposing team before that.

BAP definitely has some eccentricities compared to any other mode.

 

[Hammettf2b]

What are the differences in the different starting positions in your career? Like, if I start out getting drafted vs starting on a team. Do my age and ovr change or do that always start the same or how does it work?

 

[JuJu Mobb]

What are the differences in the different starting positions in your career? Like, if I start out getting drafted vs starting on a team. Do my age and ovr change or do that always start the same or how does it work?

When your drafted, you start your carreer at 18 years old with an overall in the 60's.

When you pick your team, your overall is slightly higher but you start your carreer at 20 years old.

I think...

 

[Panthaz89]

This game mode is in such disarray.

I've never witnessed something so unfulfilling and unjust in a video game. Ever. My Pro has been hopping from team to team every 2-3 years or so because the GM :

1) Let's everyone (the stars mainly) walk in free agency.
2) Refuses to sign/trade for anyone younger than 31.
3) Signs bottom pairing Ds and grinders to $5 mil deals.

How is it possible that I join a team that have been perennial contenders, go on to have a 120 pts juggernaut season and only two years later, we're in the bottom 5 of the league. And this happens with every. single. team. Let's not even talk about the AI's complete ineptitude in every facet of the game. They don't shoot, they don't check, they don't stick check, don't poke, don't win faceoffs, hell, can barely make a breakout pass. Nothing. They just skate around aimlessly waiting to pass you the puck at the exact moment you're surrounded by 3 guys from all sides. Impeccable programming.

This game is pathetic.

I feel like most of my teammate AIs do well in most games...feels like everytime your team is on a winning streak my wingers play hard and tend to score a ton of goals of rebounds and getting in the right passing lanes. The annoying part is when the D leave someone open in front of the net..but hey the Sabres love doing that every now and then so I just accept it because eventually someone has to make a mistake though passing backwards on a breakaway is straight up idiotic.

 

[unknownbrother]

I started my Be a Pro today. Won the Memorial Cup with Spokane as a RD and went 1st overall to the Devils.

Here's where I get a bit annoyed. So many players who are in contracts with teams were signing with other teams as if they were all UFA's. Jack Hughes is on the Devils so if I went 1st overall when did they pick Jack? Also some teams were shopping players around for trades that don't even belong to that team IRL. Things Mike Green being shopped by Dallas. Hall and Oshie are in Anaheim. Josi in in Washington. The Rangers let Georgiev sign in Minnesota. For some reason the Devils picked up Derrick Brassard, Matt Irwin and Jaro Halak. Vatanen is in Tampa. Chara is on the Leafs.

There's so many things wrong with what teams are doing and so many messed up rosters.

I was happy to start my career as a stud dman for the Devils but now I kind of don't want to play it at all.

What the hell is going on, EA?

 

[Patmac40]

I started my Be a Pro today. Won the Memorial Cup with Spokane as a RD and went 1st overall to the Devils.

Here's where I get a bit annoyed. So many players who are in contracts with teams were signing with other teams as if they were all UFA's. Jack Hughes is on the Devils so if I went 1st overall when did they pick Jack? Also some teams were shopping players around for trades that don't even belong to that team IRL. Things Mike Green being shopped by Dallas. Hall and Oshie are in Anaheim. Josi in in Washington. The Rangers let Georgiev sign in Minnesota. For some reason the Devils picked up Derrick Brassard, Matt Irwin and Jaro Halak. Vatanen is in Tampa. Chara is on the Leafs.

There's so many things wrong with what teams are doing and so many messed up rosters.

I was happy to start my career as a stud dman for the Devils but now I kind of don't want to play it at all.

What the hell is going on, EA?

The way they do the draft when you go right into the Memorial Cup is, since it's the 2019 Memorial Cup and the 2019 draft has already happened, they have an entirely new quasi-supplementary draft where they have all computer generated players and you to pick from. They hold a whole 7 rounds like this and I actually kind of like it because you get some really cool, elite, computer generated players that are stars within a couple years.

The FA part is a little weird where it's as though the UFA's with a year left burn the last year of their contract before the 2019/2020 season starts. I'm not sure why that's the case but that's what it is. Once again, it's something I kind of like because the league looks different as soon as you get there. If you played an entire season in junior and got drafted in 2020 instead then all these UFA's would have moved before you got to the NHL since their contracts would have expired.

 

[Coaches Coroner]

I started Be A Pro a couple weeks ago, playing my draft year in the OHL. It seems largely unchanged from last year, but the gameplay and AI are so much improved that I'm having much more fun with it. I've been playing every game, just hoping the draft is worked out a bit better than the past. Only issue's I see is you probably have to fully flan your skill tree path ahead of time and I'm not sure if it's worth spending 6 points on the top end of the tree, versus having a several other lower tier things. The differential between your balance versus resut of your skating can be huge, same with passing versus the rest of stick skills. Wrist shot power is hard to earn and easy to lose IME as well.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

So in NHL 20 I got drafted as a Two-Way Forward and started the season on the 3rd line while being put on the 1st Power Play and Penalty Kill lines...

Now EVERY. SINGLE. SHIFT. begins with me having to kill another penalty. I get like 10 minutes of icetime a game and im spending almost all of it on the PK with the odd few PP opportunities because my team gets penalised a lot more than the other team.

Adjusting the teammate penalties slider hasn't helped much so far. My pro doesn't even know 5-on-5 hockey exists yet.

I am in the same exact boat current;y. This mode is rough.

I made a sniper first and when i was 26 needed a new contract. In 5 years i had 5 scoring titles and 5 rocket richards. Only got 3 offers and none for more then 6.5m. I am putting up 70 goals and cant get more then Kevin Hayes? Thats when i made a right handed offensive defender to get that KArrslon money but i got tired of playing D. Then i went two way and i cant get any 5v5 time. Game is so bad this year.

 

[haveandare]

Only a dozen games into the season as LW sniper. Got drafted by the Sabres and am playing with Eichel and Skinner. AI seems a lot better than in past years - Eichel and Skinner are dangerous shooters and set me up with nice chances pretty regularly. Dahlin sends solid breakouts but isn’t quite the offensive force he should be. Goals actually get scored both ways when my player isn’t out.

The actual gameplay of the mode seems better than in years past. Still disappointed that it hasn’t caught up with like decade old versions of Madden in terms of making money meaning something, making off ice choices as a player and teammate that effects things, etc.

 

[Khelandros]

Only a dozen games into the season as LW sniper. Got drafted by the Sabres and am playing with Eichel and Skinner. AI seems a lot better than in past years - Eichel and Skinner are dangerous shooters and set me up with nice chances pretty regularly. Dahlin sends solid breakouts but isn’t quite the offensive force he should be. Goals actually get scored both ways when my player isn’t out.

The actual gameplay of the mode seems better than in years past. Still disappointed that it hasn’t caught up with like decade old versions of Madden in terms of making money meaning something, making off ice choices as a player and teammate that effects things, etc.

What needs to happen is they need to implement Madden QB passing into NHL 21. I want dedicated buttons for the other five players on the ice with me. I try to pass cross crease for the one timer but the man in the middle thinks its for him. Every time he intercepts. How hard would it be to assign the buttons to players when you hold the pass button?

 

[MikeyDee]

What needs to happen is they need to implement Madden QB passing into NHL 21. I want dedicated buttons for the other five players on the ice with me. I try to pass cross crease for the one timer but the man in the middle thinks its for him. Every time he intercepts. How hard would it be to assign the buttons to players when you hold the pass button?

Have you tried to raise the pass assist? Not the perfect solution, but it may help.

 

[MikeyDee]

I started Be A Pro a couple weeks ago, playing my draft year in the OHL. It seems largely unchanged from last year, but the gameplay and AI are so much improved that I'm having much more fun with it. I've been playing every game, just hoping the draft is worked out a bit better than the past. Only issue's I see is you probably have to fully flan your skill tree path ahead of time and I'm not sure if it's worth spending 6 points on the top end of the tree, versus having a several other lower tier things. The differential between your balance versus resut of your skating can be huge, same with passing versus the rest of stick skills. Wrist shot power is hard to earn and easy to lose IME as well.

As a forward, I usually spend my first point on skate power then, shot accuracy, then the next couple towards whatever category relates to the kind of player I am (i.e. playmaker, sniper, power forward, etc.). After that most of my points go towards skate power or skate acceleration until max'ed out.

 

[Khelandros]

Have you tried to raise the pass assist? Not the perfect solution, but it may help.

That doesn't help. It just improves your chances of getting a pass through sticks and skates and the ability of the the man to get the puck. I'm talking about actually telling by button press which man it goes to. Moving the directional stick to make a pass is Pejorative Slured.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

So in NHL 20 I got drafted as a Two-Way Forward and started the season on the 3rd line while being put on the 1st Power Play and Penalty Kill lines...

Now EVERY. SINGLE. SHIFT. begins with me having to kill another penalty. I get like 10 minutes of icetime a game and im spending almost all of it on the PK with the odd few PP opportunities because my team gets penalised a lot more than the other team.

Adjusting the teammate penalties slider hasn't helped much so far. My pro doesn't even know 5-on-5 hockey exists yet.

SAME. EVERY. DAMN. TIME!!

I've had to delete my BAP 2-way center save since I spend most of the time on the PK and (of course!) when it's over, they want me back on the bench immediately.

I've been thinking about playing as an Enforcer. Has anyone done it before?

 

[jprenkert]

May be a bit old but I started a BAP in NHL 18, as a offensive defenceman who is only 16 years old. My team has gone undefeated through about 30 games so far. My player is leading the league in points at about 3 pts per game. Ive been using the Flint Firebirds, so they don't have that many good players. Is it normal to basically have games be 10-1 ish every time? I have it set up as medium difficulty for the BAP and noticed my teams AI controls the game pretty well. Just feels strange and is getting old/boring quick. Any one else experience this?

 

[Neil Racki]

I’m not a big gamer, I have a few questions, any help is appreciated. I’m a LW power forward.

penalties - I had to turn them down to 0, most of my mins were on penalty kills. I think I might move it to 1/4. Is this the right approach?

defense - we the comp carries the pick into my O zone none of my teammates pick up guys skating right towards the front of the net so I dip down to cover them, then notice a teammate will be covering my d guy responsibility. I try not to pinch but if I don’t it’s a goal for the comp. should I just hang back and mark my man? I try to pinch deep if it’s real bad but it’s real bad a lot

wrap arounds - I try to just walk it across the goalie or around the scrum if there’s one in front of the net but I get lit up a lot.

deking - I use the r stick but man my guy just loses control of the pick a lot

 

[Conor Edwards]

Someone should make a game entirely on the Be A Pro side of NHL games, but it has about as much effort in it as Madden or The Show.
I miss the idea of in-game cutscenes, choices that affect morale of different parties, brand sponsorships, and I'd love to see other things like:

• A popularity meter, that shows the amount of people in your team's fanbase and the league overall. This would affect simple things like crowd volume when you touch the puck or how many fans wear a jersey with your name and number on it to big things like brand sponsorships and how many people vote you into the All-Star Game.
• Giving your pro overarching goals for the season (simple, like score X goals or get Y hits) (within a given time frame or over the course of the season), and this having an affect on your contract, or how much you're worth to the organization.
• A mentor system, where you'll be assigned a veteran player and will more often than not play on your line or defensive pair, and will give you advice in the locker room, are more likely to pass to you, and your success would mean the mentor's morale would go up.
• A rival system: Whether it be a teammate, former teammate, or a player on a bitter rival, over the course of your career you will develop animosity towards a player, whether it be your success or theirs. Rivals are more likely to hit you when you have the puck rather than stick check you, are more aggressive towards you, and would be more likely to fight you.
• A dialogue system while you're on the bench or in a faceoff. Whether you're the captain, and you want to give directions on the power play, or you're a teammate trying to cheer up the goalie that just got pulled, an on-the-ice dialogue would add some depth to your on-ice career, and you can boost the morale of your team, or (and this relates to the last thing) you can chirp your opponents to try and take them off their game.

 

[Conor Edwards]

I had some time to think and I have a few more.

• Practice mini-games: Yeah, it's stupid in practice, but on paper, being able to practice to upgrade your skills and not just picking a few general upgrades would be incredibly more immersive, and wouldn't feel like a slow grind. You could also do some drills with your teammates for morale, and your mentors, captains, and coaches could give you pointers.
• Level-specific drills, team tactics, etc: It's wierd and jarring in EANHL that nothing really changes from the NHL to the AHL and the CHL. It needs differentiation in the level of drills, tactics, and indeed the level of difficulty. It should feel like you're progressing as a player and as a person (as weird as that sounds).
• I cannot stress enough how important it would be to make the difficulty more overarching, and I think you would do it like this:
  • Rookie: You gain the most XP from events, you and your team usually gain more morale than they lose, everyone likes you, and the transition from CHL-to-AHL-or-NHL is near-seamless.
  • Semi-Pro: The testing grounds. XP is earned, Morale is streamlined, team and overall relationships are more important, you're more likely to find a rival, and the transitions get slightly harder. In this mode, the coach introduces you to Draw Plays, where he writes on his board where he wants you in certain situations. Following his directions gives XP, and its good for your relationship for your coach.
  • Pro: It all gets harder from here. XP is skimmed, and so is the morale given out. If you don't practice too often you can sometimes get away with it but not too much. You're much more fresh-faced, the team will ask for more out of you, your coach will give you more complicated jobs, and you're more likely to be under a mentor figure.
  • All-Star: Forget being the 1st Overall pick. XP is given only when you earn it (coaches' direction, good plays, smart defense, etc), Your teammates start out at neutral rather than having a good relationship with you from the outset. You're more likely to get hit, more likely to recieve smaller minutes, you can't get away with not practicing, coaches CAN and WILL bench you if you get too lose and wild. Finding sponsorships are harder, being an All-Star, big shot player is harder, you have to earn your spot on the team.
  • Superstar: This isn't your everyday difficulty. This is Ultra-Nightmare, the biggest challenge. There is no on-ice hud to see what you're doing, no gadge in-game to see your stats, morale changes to your team until you're in the locker room, coaches expect you to remember what they said on the ice in practice and on the bench with the board. If you don't, expect your minutes to drop. You can't mess around in the locker room too much or your teammates will get antsy, Older veterans immediately don't like you because they know you're taking their job. Players remember if you got a dirty hit on them the month before, Players remember if they had a good friend who was traded for you and won't like you for that. Your team expects the best and they should, for there is NO changing the difficulty mid-game if you choose this one. Scratch and claw your way to the top and once you're there, try and hold on for as long as you can.

I wish Be A Pro was like this, honestly. It seems so easy to breeze through, and there's really no reward to demolishing the league and winning every award and breaking Gretzky's records. I feel like if a game was ENTIRELY focused on that side of the game, it would be extremely interesting. Of course you should add a multiplayer to this, and the skill tree is perfect for a MULTIPLAYER-AIMED experience. Have Ones (with punishments for being an ass who trips everyone), have Threes, have EASHL, all those things are perfect in a multiplayer environment, but what we need for Be A Pro is a different system.

 

[Mke Lemke]

So I am in year 3 in BAP. I have heard stories about trade requests. I was actually traded both times I asked for one. But now in my current season the request trade option is not there. Any ideas why?

 

[Lyons71]

I wish there were a way to turn off board pinning. I skate within 15 feet of the boards and I get pinned by the computer so fast. They also will instantly take the puck and skate away with it before my guy finishes his pinned animation.

Also, anyone else having a heck of a time getting assists? My teammates can't score without an empty net, and the computer defenders make blind, no-look-behind-the-back lighting speed poke checks to intercept most any good cross crease pass. My goals to assist ratio is like 3-1.

 

[Lyons71]

I’m not a big gamer, I have a few questions, any help is appreciated. I’m a LW power forward.

penalties - I had to turn them down to 0, most of my mins were on penalty kills. I think I might move it to 1/4. Is this the right approach?

defense - we the comp carries the pick into my O zone none of my teammates pick up guys skating right towards the front of the net so I dip down to cover them, then notice a teammate will be covering my d guy responsibility. I try not to pinch but if I don’t it’s a goal for the comp. should I just hang back and mark my man? I try to pinch deep if it’s real bad but it’s real bad a lot

wrap arounds - I try to just walk it across the goalie or around the scrum if there’s one in front of the net but I get lit up a lot.

deking - I use the r stick but man my guy just loses control of the pick a lot

For deking, turn player puck control to 100% in the settings. I think there is another setting for deking impact. You turn that one down. Loose puck dekes will suck until your guy gets a decent rating.

Defense is a clown show. Your team's players will do nothing to stop an opponent. If you dare stay on your man, he will pass it to one of the many players your team abandoned and that CPU will get a free chance on goal. I just camp in front of the net and home the CPU gives it to me.

The mechanics of this game are pretty good (the skating is silly but whatever, I can deal with that). HOWEVER, the AI is so bad. I will get breakaways because the d will just randomly stop skating backwards and pause. Same thing happens the other way. The d zone coverage AI is bad because the computer will randomly switch who it thinks it needs to cover at very inopportune times. This leads to guys being left all alone in front quite regularly.

Personally, I just embrace my penalty kill role. Turn them down, but not all the way. Special teams has a place.

 

[Neil Racki]

Also, anyone else having a heck of a time getting assists? My teammates can't score without an empty net, and the computer defenders make blind, no-look-behind-the-back lighting speed poke checks to intercept most any good cross crease pass. My goals to assist ratio is like 3-1.

1. Patience around the net and in high scoring areas. Ive been paying attention to all the blocked shots Ive been having against me. Before I would usually automatically shoot if I get the puck in a high scoring area (the slot or top of the circle). But so many times it would be blocked. Now I hold off on the quick trigger for half a sec and it gives me a chance to see if i want to shoot (window open) or pass, finding myself making a lot more passes down low.

2. 2 on 1s are kinda instant assists.

3. breakouts. Hitting a streaking winger and sometimes the AI/comp does the rest, i get a secondary assist.

These are my big 3 ... and the random rebound assist. Im probably 1-3 goal to assist ratio on superstar.