Favourite flawed EA NHL logic

Panthaz89

Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Panthers fan
Dec 24, 2016
13,190
5,710
Buffalo,NY
funny, I play that way in EHM as well (FOW setting on)

with NHL18 the only leagues that are worth it are the WHL and OHL. I’m not sure if anyone picked up on that during the time, but the international stage is terrible with prospects in 18
Yeah obviously EHM is better built for drafting and developing than NHL but its built for team building. NHL 20 is a big step up from NHL 18 when it comes to scouting and drafting and it got rid of the goalie problem that was in 19 where there would be so many elite medium potential goalies. Its pretty nice system at this point. The biggest steal I got was a 6th round pick turning into an 88 at 28 currently. I aim for tall 2 way players and its fun to see the team in the game tower over other teams.
 
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MessierII

Registered User
Aug 10, 2011
27,644
16,187
Been playing nhl 20 first time I’ve bought one in years. Yamamoto is an 82 in the last year of his ELC and has top 6 medium potential. His contract ask is 9.6 million a year for 2 years. He had like 58 points or something last year.
 
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jprenkert

Registered User
Mar 7, 2014
656
337
Metro Detroit
Been playing nhl 20 first time I’ve bought one in years. Yamamoto is an 82 in the last year of his ELC and has top 6 medium potential. His contract ask is 9.6 million a year for 2 years. He had like 58 points or something last year.
Yea some of the contracts demands are a little out of wake. Be nice to offer bonuses/NTC/NMC/etc. or even a gauge to show how interested they are.
 

The Great Mighty Poo

Thank You 59.
Feb 21, 2020
5,292
5,486
Scatbox
CPU team can cross check me in the back from in front of the goal all the way up to center ice, no penalty, CPU team runs over my goalie consistently all game, no penalty. I make stick check to puck, CPU player dives like frigging Superman into the boards head first in full stride, tripping call on me, CPU player neither severely concussed/ parallelized/ nor dead on impact.
 
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Hansen

tyler motte simp
Oct 12, 2011
23,710
9,327
Nanaimo, B.C.
It was earlier on this year and I havent seen it at all since, so it must've been patched, but there were so many centre ice goals being scored in the simulator. Like regularly if you watch the simulator UI you would see a clapper from centre ice go right in. It even got so bad that I lost the cup with two of them in one game, one to tie it up with 2 minutes to go and another in OT.
 

drw13

Registered User
Sep 29, 2013
64
96
Not sure if it can still be done in NHL 20, but at least until NHL 18. In franchise mode during the draft you could trade worse picks for better picks straight up, as long as your pick was green (the other team wants it) and their pick was red (the other team wants to give it up). This even worked on hard trade difficulty.

There was obviously still a limit on how far apart the picks could be and it got bigger the later the round you were in. I also think the picks had to come from the same round. But this led to some pretty funny trades that make zero sense. Things like pick #18 for pick #16, pick #47 for pick # 41, or pick #118 for pick #107.

It completely blows my mind how the trade logic could be this bad. Kind of shows how little effort they put in to some areas of the game
 
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jprenkert

Registered User
Mar 7, 2014
656
337
Metro Detroit
I love the logic when a defenceman on my own team, accidentally runs into his own goalie, stumbles around and falls and stays down like he got shot by an elephant gun. But when a player gets checked hard into the boards with the puck, they bounce right back up and maintain puck possession.

Don't get me going on the logic of the AI being able to stick check/steal puck from behind, but when trying that vs them, end up either with a penalty or nothing happens when button is pushed.
 
Jan 21, 2011
5,146
3,797
Massachusetts
I love the logic when a defenceman on my own team, accidentally runs into his own goalie, stumbles around and falls and stays down like he got shot by an elephant gun. But when a player gets checked hard into the boards with the puck, they bounce right back up and maintain puck possession.

Don't get me going on the logic of the AI being able to stick check/steal puck from behind, but when trying that vs them, end up either with a penalty or nothing happens when button is pushed.

when you run into the goalie, the players flail around and continue to act as if they got shot.

to add to your second point, because my fourth line is a huge ENF-GRN-PWF, i'll just take control and love hitting everyone. Can't tell you how many times i'll hit someone at full force from behind, and they get up like nothing happened (I won't even get a penalty from it!)
 
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jprenkert

Registered User
Mar 7, 2014
656
337
Metro Detroit
Let alone if any part of the computer opponent is infront of the shot, (stick shaft, etc) it will always get blocked. Same with touch passing. Computer waits till last second, while, if i tried it, will get "checked in the back" as i am trying to pass and flub the pass.
 

LokiDog

Get pucks deep. Get pucks to the net. And, uh…
Sep 13, 2018
11,625
22,728
Dallas
No appreciable separation in skating between players. In reality any handful of guys like McDavid, MacKinnon, Eichel, etc. only need a half step on a defender and they’re not getting caught. In EA’s hockey, even if the defender has to turn and chase McDavid whose already behind them on a clean breakout, they’ll catch up. No such thing as being caught flat footed, and sliders can’t fix it.

Also, every star player in the league has good to great defensive awareness in order to maintain a 90+ rating that will keep them on the first line. PK specialists and great defensive guys have mediocre defensive ratings to keep them on the third/fourth line.
 
Jan 21, 2011
5,146
3,797
Massachusetts
No appreciable separation in skating between players. In reality any handful of guys like McDavid, MacKinnon, Eichel, etc. only need a half step on a defender and they’re not getting caught. In EA’s hockey, even if the defender has to turn and chase McDavid whose already behind them on a clean breakout, they’ll catch up. No such thing as being caught flat footed, and sliders can’t fix it.

Also, every star player in the league has good to great defensive awareness in order to maintain a 90+ rating that will keep them on the first line. PK specialists and great defensive guys have mediocre defensive ratings to keep them on the third/fourth line.


I also mentioned this on my post above, I have players of 99 and skating, acceleration, agility, and yet they feel so damn slow. How can a defenseman with only 80 speed catch up to my franchise forward?
 

LokiDog

Get pucks deep. Get pucks to the net. And, uh…
Sep 13, 2018
11,625
22,728
Dallas
I also mentioned this on my post above, I have players of 99 and skating, acceleration, agility, and yet they feel so damn slow. How can a defenseman with only 80 speed catch up to my franchise forward?



It’s far from the best video ever, but this was just an example I recorded a little while back. Defense are flat footed, facing my goal. Panarin is behind the defense by a good bit and receives the breakout pass, pretty much in stride. 10/10 times in real life that’s a clean breakaway. In this game it’s nullified entirely. You can see the AI’s legs are literally pumping faster than my player and there’s nothing I can do about.
 

n00bxQb

Registered User
Jul 26, 2010
3,178
524
No appreciable separation in skating between players. In reality any handful of guys like McDavid, MacKinnon, Eichel, etc. only need a half step on a defender and they’re not getting caught. In EA’s hockey, even if the defender has to turn and chase McDavid whose already behind them on a clean breakout, they’ll catch up. No such thing as being caught flat footed, and sliders can’t fix it.

Also, every star player in the league has good to great defensive awareness in order to maintain a 90+ rating that will keep them on the first line. PK specialists and great defensive guys have mediocre defensive ratings to keep them on the third/fourth line.
I've been saying they should scrap overall for years because of this very issue. Everyone gets so caught up in overall rating (look at the cry fest on here every year when they do ratings reveals and it's even worse on social media) that EA basically ends up having every player basically the same but scaling them based on how good they're perceived to be.
 

n00bxQb

Registered User
Jul 26, 2010
3,178
524
In Franchise mode, if a team needs a goaltender, they'll literally bid on every goaltender and sometimes end up getting 2-3 of them.

Case in point, Detroit ended up signing Braden Holtby and Robin Lehner on the same day to multi-year, $7M+ contracts.

I've also seen a bunch of times where a team will sign someone and then trade them like a week later, presumably because it updated their trade block after the signing.
 

jprenkert

Registered User
Mar 7, 2014
656
337
Metro Detroit
In Franchise mode, if a team needs a goaltender, they'll literally bid on every goaltender and sometimes end up getting 2-3 of them.

Case in point, Detroit ended up signing Braden Holtby and Robin Lehner on the same day to multi-year, $7M+ contracts.

I've also seen a bunch of times where a team will sign someone and then trade them like a week later, presumably because it updated their trade block after the signing.
I have had this happen to me. Put in numerous offers and wait to sign one of say 3 guys. hoping for atleast one guy but with FA works, end up with all 3, in capcrunch cause you cant pulled back offers or even increase offers to try and win theplayer(s)
 

LemmyUlanov55

4th line grinder
Apr 3, 2016
5,173
4,136
I got into playing NHL 16 on PS3 again, worked on the rosters and enjoy doing 25 year sims..
Buffalo drafted a winger called Matthew Barnaby (not kidding) in 2026, kid looks like an AHLer but has racked up 3 consecutive 350+ PIM seasons in the minors.
Probably doesn't really fit in here, but I thought it's a worthwhile piece of EA logic. :laugh:
 
Jan 21, 2011
5,146
3,797
Massachusetts
In Franchise mode, if a team needs a goaltender, they'll literally bid on every goaltender and sometimes end up getting 2-3 of them.

Case in point, Detroit ended up signing Braden Holtby and Robin Lehner on the same day to multi-year, $7M+ contracts.

I've also seen a bunch of times where a team will sign someone and then trade them like a week later, presumably because it updated their trade block after the signing.

I made a post here before on exactly this point! Happened on NHL17

Had an Elite Danish stand-up goalie who was an RFA. I had enough cap space, but Montreal came in and wanted to sign him (can't turn down free 1st overall picks!). I let him go, and first week of preseason he is already on the block and traded during the preseason

I got into playing NHL 16 on PS3 again, worked on the rosters and enjoy doing 25 year sims..
Buffalo drafted a winger called Matthew Barnaby (not kidding) in 2026, kid looks like an AHLer but has racked up 3 consecutive 350+ PIM seasons in the minors.
Probably doesn't really fit in here, but I thought it's a worthwhile piece of EA logic. :laugh:

I find that as you go deeper into the years, you'll find some weird development curves. I'll stick with 17 for example, I had my top-line left wing sniper have only 4-star skating and shooting(!!??), but yet has 5-star physicals and 5-star defense. My Med-Elite centerman will only have 70 faceoffs while my fourth-line enforcer has 5-star skating, 5-star offensive rating and had a 75 in faceoffs. I've seen a high 90-overall player put yet their 'max potential' is an AHL Top-6
 

BigRig4

Registered User
Feb 22, 2014
3,037
1,049
That I can rip like 20 goals in a postseason with righties but elite 5 star shooting lefties can't get more than like 5-6.
 

jprenkert

Registered User
Mar 7, 2014
656
337
Metro Detroit
Love when D winds up for a shot from the point, shot gets blocked by AI, they do the whole "hit by puck" animation and still keep possession of the puck, or beat your defenceman to the puck.

OR when you go to block a shot from the point, and your guy bends down with stick laying straight out, with legs spread like a tripod and player shoots it between his legs like nothing. Why would a player bend down head first into a shot block??!?
 

Khelandros

Registered User
Feb 12, 2019
3,926
4,410
Love when D winds up for a shot from the point, shot gets blocked by AI, they do the whole "hit by puck" animation and still keep possession of the puck, or beat your defenceman to the puck.

OR when you go to block a shot from the point, and your guy bends down with stick laying straight out, with legs spread like a tripod and player shoots it between his legs like nothing. Why would a player bend down head first into a shot block??!?
That animation is for blocking a pass, not blocking a shot. L+R is what you are looking for.
 
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LemmyUlanov55

4th line grinder
Apr 3, 2016
5,173
4,136
I find that as you go deeper into the years, you'll find some weird development curves. I'll stick with 17 for example, I had my top-line left wing sniper have only 4-star skating and shooting(!!??), but yet has 5-star physicals and 5-star defense. My Med-Elite centerman will only have 70 faceoffs while my fourth-line enforcer has 5-star skating, 5-star offensive rating and had a 75 in faceoffs. I've seen a high 90-overall player put yet their 'max potential' is an AHL Top-6
Yeah, agreed. It's frustrating how many players in later years are pretty much useless because some of the ratings stay a black hole throughout their whole career. Can't beat EA's engine creating 6'6" defender monsters skating like Scott Niedermayer, having a shot like McInnis and hands like John Scott. Thanks a lot. No idea if NHL20 is better at this, would be about time.. :dunno:
 

Dicdonya

Registered User
Jul 21, 2011
4,438
2,586
I've been saying they should scrap overall for years because of this very issue. Everyone gets so caught up in overall rating (look at the cry fest on here every year when they do ratings reveals and it's even worse on social media) that EA basically ends up having every player basically the same but scaling them based on how good they're perceived to be.

I think having an Overall is fine and can stay, but they need to add a position rating, and have that position rating matter for line combos/expectations, not the overall. The overall should be there if you want to build a well rounded team, but that will be technically lower rated.
 

tsujimoto74

Moderator
May 28, 2012
29,802
21,844
I think having an Overall is fine and can stay, but they need to add a position rating, and have that position rating matter for line combos/expectations, not the overall. The overall should be there if you want to build a well rounded team, but that will be technically lower rated.

I wouldn't be mad if they hid overalls and just gave individual attributes + player role. I doubt they'll fix attribute ratings until they're no longer trying to force, e.g., Patrick Kane to be a 93 overall player even though we all know he's not playing Selke defense.
And, on the flip side, guys who are downright excellent role players get shafted because you can't have those pesky good defensive attributes the player actually possesses 'falsely' inflating their overall.
 

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