Can we appriacte the massive overall to drafting and scouting?

[SlapshotTheMovie]

5th overalls being 81 at the time of being drafted is awesome. 1st overalls being game changers right away is awesome.

The changes this does to franchise mode is massive. No long are basement teams still in the basement 25 yers into the game. Thats huge. In the game i have going now as the kings the sens got the 3 top 3 picks in a row and now have a dynasty winning 4 presidents trophies in a row and 2 cups. All through the draft. f*** YEAH. Thats not even me trying to help them out with favorable trades or some shit like i had to do in last years game.

Also i for the first time ever in one of these games was able to win a cup with an entire team drafted and not put together through trades and free agency. THATS AWESOME! I got a franchise goalie in the 5th round that turned into a 96 over all at 24 years old. Got my top 2 defenders in the 3rd and 4th round. Finding gems everywhere. Also my scounts miss gems and the devils got a high elite LW in the 6th round in year 2025 or 26. Thats so cool to me.

I like the fog of war but i think its still a little broken. No reason vets should be hidden when their is 100's of games worth of footage. Take 15 minutes to scout a vet and have a really good idea of what you are getting in real life.

Also the return of Player Search which is top f***ing notch. In previous years i would use that to make ultimate teams. For example i would get the best goalie in the game and then 12 of the best defensive forwards and 6 best defensive defenders. Play a complete shut down game go like 65-9-8 for the year with all 1-0 games haha. It was the coolest and in every current gen game i wasn't able to do that.

I don;t think this shit fixes all the problems the game has but it easily makes it the best game of this current generation.

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[Its a Trap]

What about in game AI. Are you still winning or loosing games against the cpu where they take only 11 shots per game because they're programmed to wait for the perfect shot or is it more realistic where they toss pucks on net from everywhere?

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

For franchise mode i exclusive sim the game. The fixed it thoguh so if you have a stacked team you don't lose all the time.

As for playing the computer i don't really know but i imagine thats still the same.

 

[Panthaz89]

What about in game AI. Are you still winning or loosing games against the cpu where they take only 11 shots per game because they're programmed to wait for the perfect shot or is it more realistic where they toss pucks on net from everywhere?

The AI is really only noticeably better on defense...a lot better at defending 2 on 1s then they use to be. At least it the AI most of the time on your own team are actually being aggressive enough to put pressure on the other team unlike before. Its hard to find the right difficulty to play on without steam rolling or getting steam rolled. The only thing that annoys me constantly is the passing having some annoying auto aimish effects where I want to go to a player and it goes to somebody else who was covered.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

The AI is really only noticeably better on defense...a lot better at defending 2 on 1s then they use to be. At least it the AI most of the time on your own team are actually being aggressive enough to put pressure on the other team unlike before. Its hard to find the right difficulty to play on without steam rolling or getting steam rolled. The only thing that annoys me constantly is the passing having some annoying auto aimish effects where I want to go to a player and it goes to somebody else who was covered.

HOLY SHIT you are right. That drives me nuts. Especially when there is like 2-3 guys near each other and it goes to the worst possible one.

 

[Raekwon]

HOLY **** you are right. That drives me nuts. Especially when there is like 2-3 guys near each other and it goes to the worst possible one.

Gotta mess with pass assist, definitely helps a bit

 

[Echo Roku]

For franchise mode i exclusive sim the game. The fixed it thoguh so if you have a stacked team you don't lose all the time.

As for playing the computer i don't really know but i imagine thats still the same.

How’d you fix it?

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

How’d you fix it?

EA fixed it. At least so far for me. Besides one season where i had my starting goalie and back up goalie get injured at the same time every season i had a stacked team i was either top of the league or top of my conference with pure simming. As with 2018 i made the playoffs with a team of 75-80 over all players just to prove a point. I don't think i can do that in 2019 but i will check when i start getting board of the other features.


Actually right before posting this i remember i had a 90 over all center and a 90+ defender with an 88 goalie and the rest of the team was scrubs in the low 80's or high 70's and i took 3rd to last in the league so i think the simming so far has been a ton better.

 

[Cor]

Did the change the player switching? There's times where i feel a player is like locked from me switching to them. I was the d-man and wanted to switch to the closest forward coming back, so I quickly point the stick upwards and press RT, and it switches to the other D, and no matter how many times I pressed RT and where I directed the LS, it kept switching between the two. Was quite annoying.

The pass assist was way to boosted. Someone mentioned it above, but lower that slider and the passing will be back to normal again.

Overall I am really enjoying franchise. I like how the scouts do a decent job scouting on their own. So If I'm a contending team (like my Leafs play through) I don't necessarily need to spend the time scouting like crazy, but if I am Buffalo, I'd be setting up who each scout goes and scouts and what not.

Only complaint, is I wish the NHL or AHL scouts will go and scout other teams rookies. I get to like January of year 2, and players drafted this year in real life are still unscouted, while AHL lifers are 4 bars. So it's a pain that those are the only players you need to actually tell your scout to scout.

I also am still not sure what the "find prospects" option does for Amateur Scouts.

 

[Tak7]

I'm still very undecided about Fog of War - it seems like they've just taken a bunch of information you'd expect to have, and hidden it, until it's revealed to you later in a very "gamey" way, rather than something that really adds to the experience.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I'm still very undecided about Fog of War - it seems like they've just taken a bunch of information you'd expect to have, and hidden it, until it's revealed to you later in a very "gamey" way, rather than something that really adds to the experience.

It adds realism. It's what FIFA has been doing for years. It makes it much more interesting once you get past the first few seasons, and you can't just spend a few minutes to find the best trade target. You have to scout your trade targets, and scout potential free agent signings.

You can still look at their stats to get a general idea of what they currently are, but like in real-life, scouts are needed to determine the best fit for your club.

 

[RandomChickenWing]

The new scouting is amazing and I'm loving it as an exclusive franchise mode guy. Improvements I'd look for would be to be able to make scouting specific players quicker. some of the stuff in the menu for scouting isn't necessary such as the players' teams. replace that with times scouted or something that gives more information about each prospect. I wish that they used a different colour gradient for scouting accuracy as some of the differences in greys are difficult to differentiate.

I find fog of war a bit tedious especially when your own scout over evaluates one of your own players. It'd be nice to see how other GM's view your players on "their side" of the fog of war. Otherwise only we're being taken advantage of for undervaluing our players or overvaluing theirs, or at least it feels that way.

 

[milehigh11]

I cheat horribly in the NHL game. It lets me so I do it. I always saved my game before the draft and see where all the Elite talent gets drafted and make a note. Then I proceed to get as many as I can.

 

[Tak7]

I cheat horribly in the NHL game. It lets me so I do it. I always saved my game before the draft and see where all the Elite talent gets drafted and make a note. Then I proceed to get as many as I can.

You get what you put into the system.

If you want to cheat and go easy mode, you can.

I always find this leads to really boring franchises that lack challenge.

 

[haveandare]

Anyone find a good overview, written or video, of how scouting works now? I've only been able to play in really short windows and scouting seems a lot, lot cooler now but also a lot more complicated. Trying to get a feel for how it works so I can make the most of the time I actually have to play with it.

 

[DollarAndADream]

It's funny to me, the Islanders are still dogshit 6 years into my simulated Canucks Franchise Mode. They keep drafting top forwards who are now over 90 overall, but keep missing playoffs.

 

[Matt93]

I love that EA Sports now shows the players stats when they are playing in Junior or International leagues. I can now see how my draft picks are doing before signing them or how they did before drafting them.

 

[Habby Gilmore]

I really like the changes they made to the scouting this year, right down to having to hire the scouts. It’s way better than in years past.

 

[Habby Gilmore]

Who are some of the best draft picks you guys have picked up so far? What year and rounds did you draft them in? I found a franchise goalie in the 3rd round of the 2020 draft, can remember his name though lol.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

Anyone find a good overview, written or video, of how scouting works now? I've only been able to play in really short windows and scouting seems a lot, lot cooler now but also a lot more complicated. Trying to get a feel for how it works so I can make the most of the time I actually have to play with it.

I have kinda mastered it i think so i can answer any questions.

you only get 20 scouts and have a pretty low budget for their salaries so you can't hire exclusivly the best. As far as what you want to do with them changes depending on if you are playing with fog of war or not and if you are rebuilding or not. THe most fun is rebuilding and the draft so i will start with that.

For me when i know i am just trying to collect picks and draft great talent in the late rounds i do the following with 18 of the scouts.
2 in each of the canadian territories and 1 in every other territory. That will be a full 18 and if you make sure they are an A+ in they area you are putting them in and at least a b over all you are going to find gems with every pick.

Once i draft a good amount of talent and need to focus on finding pros in the nhl and ahl that all changes but thankfully firing and hiring scouts is super easy. If you just let the scouts do their thing they will find the bulk of information for you but lets say you were trying to trade for a player 5 years in. You can have a scout target that player and in like a week you will have all the info you need on them. So if you know what you need to upgrade and you have a rough idea who you want to target you can start doing that after December (since thats the last big boost or drop to stats for the season and everthing is more subtle after that) and then pull the trigger whenever you need to or at the trade deadline.

For me though i have always wanted to win a cup with a team exclusively of players i drafted and i have been able to do that 4 times already with different teams. Its actually super rewarding unlike past years where winning felt meh and losing with a clearly better team was frustrating. the game is far from perfect but was a good step in the right direction.

 

[izzy]

What about in game AI. Are you still winning or loosing games against the cpu where they take only 11 shots per game because they're programmed to wait for the perfect shot or is it more realistic where they toss pucks on net from everywhere?

they shoot even less

defense dont take shots anymore unless they have a definite clear lane

 

[haveandare]

I have kinda mastered it i think so i can answer any questions.

you only get 20 scouts and have a pretty low budget for their salaries so you can't hire exclusivly the best. As far as what you want to do with them changes depending on if you are playing with fog of war or not and if you are rebuilding or not. THe most fun is rebuilding and the draft so i will start with that.

For me when i know i am just trying to collect picks and draft great talent in the late rounds i do the following with 18 of the scouts.
2 in each of the canadian territories and 1 in every other territory. That will be a full 18 and if you make sure they are an A+ in they area you are putting them in and at least a b over all you are going to find gems with every pick.

Once i draft a good amount of talent and need to focus on finding pros in the nhl and ahl that all changes but thankfully firing and hiring scouts is super easy. If you just let the scouts do their thing they will find the bulk of information for you but lets say you were trying to trade for a player 5 years in. You can have a scout target that player and in like a week you will have all the info you need on them. So if you know what you need to upgrade and you have a rough idea who you want to target you can start doing that after December (since thats the last big boost or drop to stats for the season and everthing is more subtle after that) and then pull the trigger whenever you need to or at the trade deadline.

For me though i have always wanted to win a cup with a team exclusively of players i drafted and i have been able to do that 4 times already with different teams. Its actually super rewarding unlike past years where winning felt meh and losing with a clearly better team was frustrating. the game is far from perfect but was a good step in the right direction.

So, if to start I'm primarily interested in drafting well, I can fire my pro scouts and hire amateur scouts to replace them? Right now I have all my amateur scouts scouting the regions they're A or higher in to "find prospects." Not sure where to go from here.

 

[Cor]

So, if to start I'm primarily interested in drafting well, I can fire my pro scouts and hire amateur scouts to replace them? Right now I have all my amateur scouts scouting the regions they're A or higher in to "find prospects." Not sure where to go from here.

You can technically run with 20 amateur scouts.

However you would essentially not be able to confidently trade at all, because you would have little information on other teams players once you get like 3 or 4 months into it, with the exception of the star players.

I generally hire the 4 NHL scouts and 4 AHL scouts, and then the remaining 12 are all amateur. One scout for each of the CHL leagues, and one scout for the the USA regions. Then I have a scout dedicated to the main overseason leagues, SHL, Liiga, Russia, Allsvenskan, NLA, and then I fill out as many of the minor overseas league as I can, and the 2 remaining leagues are get scouted in the 2nd half by one of the scouts scouting one of the other minors league.

That said, I have only played a quick Expansion play through really. Once we get the big roster update, and I go through and do all my overall/potential editing and what not, then I will likely play around a bit more.

For example, I might reduce my AHL staff to 2 guys, switching them between the divisions say, every two months, in order to have more scouts in the CHL. At least for the first few drafts while the CHL is heavily populated.

 

[DollarAndADream]

I like how you don't even need to hire a good scout. Just hire a scout that's good in the specific region you're sending them to.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

I cheat horribly in the NHL game. It lets me so I do it. I always saved my game before the draft and see where all the Elite talent gets drafted and make a note. Then I proceed to get as many as I can.

I do the same Haha. I call it McDonalds gaming. It's low quality fun but still feels great and let's me quickly, easily have fun. It's like god mode in starcraft or the all weapons cheat in gta 4. Sometimes it's just fun beating the ever loving shit out of everything and everyone thx to god mode.

I'm doing it in an old madden. I took control of teams I hated irl OR teams who dare to take a pick I was targeting right before it was my turn. I'd dismantle their team to accumulate 1st round picks. Thank you balt, ne, Carolina and buffalo. Thx to you I control 27 picks in the 1st round next draft LOL.

Back b4 EA greedily removed it I played eashl the majority of the time so I was always getting my challenge from that. (Yea its back. Idc.) Haven't bought an NHL game since 13 tho. f*** EA

I did get nhl 15 used last year for 5 bucks but I dont count that bc the online was dead and it was used so EA got no money from me