NHL 21

[ThorNton Apologist]

Anyone have any idea about developing players in GM mode? Either I’m doing something wrong or I’m just getting bad draft luck but every single player I’ve had with elite or top 6 potential just stalls out in the low 80s. I play them in their roles and make sure they have good line chemistry but they just don’t get better.

They get a massive boost through the season and I think it’s working when they’re up at like 85/86 OV but then it just turns out to be statistical growth and they go back down to 81/82.

I have noticed something similar. If I have a player do well and gain statistical growth, the player will have negative natural growth to offset the statistical growth. It even happens with players in the 20-24 age range. So far I have only had two elite players grow higher than 85 and one was a 3rd round pick

 

[belair]

It’s really not.

I played a club game last night against a team full of top 100 players on Xbox. They rarely lose. Defending against top teams is a lot more complicated than protecting the front of the net.

Teams that are proficient with the poke check will limit your options on zone exits. They'll out-man and win countless puck battles. Unless you're constantly the better team, yes, defending is exceptionally difficult.

 

[Whiston532]

The free agents menu still doesn’t actually sort in order when you sort by any of the metrics for the specific left/right defenceman pages.

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

You can go above .500 by simply having your Dman lay vertically in front of the goalie. Half the teams don’t even attempt a shot if the cross crease isn’t there

 

[belair]

You can go above .500 by simply having your Dman lay vertically in front of the goalie. Half the teams don’t even attempt a shot if the cross crease isn’t there

I'm not sure what you mean by above 0.500, but I'd be more than happy to play against a defenseman that lies down in front of his goalie. You would never see that in competitive play.

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

I'm not sure what you mean by above 0.500, but I'd be more than happy to play against a defenseman that lies down in front of his goalie. You would never see that in competitive play.

You don’t know what I mean by above .500?

Its not really up for debate that teams are wearing out the cross crease and it’s extremely easy to stop

 

[Flamesfan62]

I played a club game last night against a team full of top 100 players on Xbox. They rarely lose. Defending against top teams is a lot more complicated than protecting the front of the net.

Teams that are proficient with the poke check will limit your options on zone exits. They'll out-man and win countless puck battles. Unless you're constantly the better team, yes, defending is exceptionally difficult.

I am one of the top G’s on PS4 and play with top guys so I guess it’s a bit different from my perspective. We always match up with other top guys it always ends 2-1 or 3-2 with a low amount of shot totals because the defenders know how to defend. The forwards will still create chances sure because they’re the best out there, but the defence limits them drastically. If you’re a casual club playing a top club sure you’ll get lit up, it doesn’t mean it’s hard to defend.

 

[belair]

You don’t know what I mean by above .500?

Its not really up for debate that teams are wearing out the cross crease and it’s extremely easy to stop

You're saying that you'd win more games than lose by laying vertically in front of your goalie. I think that's ridiculous. There are many other effective ways of scoring in CHEL.

 

[belair]

I am one of the top G’s on PS4 and play with top guys so I guess it’s a bit different from my perspective. We always match up with other top guys it always ends 2-1 or 3-2 with a low amount of shot totals because the defenders know how to defend. The forwards will still create chances sure because they’re the best out there, but the defence limits them drastically. If you’re a casual club playing a top club sure you’ll get lit up, it doesn’t mean it’s hard to defend.

Yeah, it's definitely perspective. I think you're simplifying the Dman's job. I mean yeah, reading the play and being positioned accordingly isn't exceptionally difficult, but that's a small portion of the battle.

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

You're saying that you'd win more games than lose by laying vertically in front of your goalie. I think that's ridiculous. There are many other effective ways of scoring in CHEL.

Yeah maybe you just didn’t understand what I was saying.

read my post again, especially the last sentence

 

[belair]

Yeah maybe you just didn’t understand what I was saying.

read my post again, especially the last sentence

I know what you said. I'm telling you you're wrong. The only time I see players laying in front of the net is because they don't know how to read the play.

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

I know what you said. I'm telling you you're wrong. The only time I see players laying in front of the net is because they don't know how to read the play.

You don’t know what I said because you’re still quite clearly not interpreting it correct.

 

[Flamesfan62]

Yeah, it's definitely perspective. I think you're simplifying the Dman's job. I mean yeah, reading the play and being positioned accordingly isn't exceptionally difficult, but that's a small portion of the battle.

It also helps when the goalie is vocal in my experience, letting your D know to take a certain player or angle. Little things like that can make a big difference at that level.

 

[belair]

You don’t know what I said because you’re still quite clearly not interpreting it correct.

Do you not find a problem with the way you entered this conversation? You come in and say something that is completely contrary to what's being discussed and then suggest that it's 'not up for debate'. You realize this is a discussion forum, right?

Regardless of the way your player is laying, any straightforward thinking person would use your body as a tool to prevent your teammates from blocking high quality shots from the middle of the ice, because the idiots that lay in front of their net trip their teammates too.

You're suggesting that over half the population in CHEL is bad at the game? Great. So when they leave after falling behind 1 or 2 nothing, Diego Martinez or one of EAs overpowered AI sprites comes into replace them and proceeds to skate around your corpse dropped in front of the crease and scores at will.

There's a thread on the EA forum that shows how overpowered the cross-crease in the game is. There are still shots of pucks going through skates, limbs and sticks added to the countless animations of opposing forwards reaching backwards through opposing Dmen to pickup loose pucks despite having poor body position.

Stop giving EA a pass. The mechanics in this game took a massive step backwards in a year where they added nothing of value to the game.

 

[belair]

It also helps when the goalie is vocal in my experience, letting your D know to take a certain player or angle. Little things like that can make a big difference at that level.

Without question that helps. If you look at my previous post, you'll see the problem that I'm having personally has a lot to do with the animations in the game. Positionally, I rarely have issues. But when I'm relying on the game to decide whether or not I get full control of a puck, it's very difficult to move the puck fluidly, which is necessary playing against elite competition.

I've seen it cause issues with Gs also because the puck has a tendency to move/bounce/skip in a way that would change the angle where a shot may be coming from.

When it all comes down to it, for me to get to that 'elite' level, I'm not really improving at the facets of 'hockey', I'm now mastering the flaws of the game's mechanics and animations. Which to me is pretty frustrating and ultimately pretty boring considering defense isn't terribly interesting to begin with.

I don't think I've come across anyone who doesn't think they're making it easier to score. And to me that's moving the game in the wrong direction.

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

Do you not find a problem with the way you entered this conversation? You come in and say something that is completely contrary to what's being discussed and then suggest that it's 'not up for debate'. You realize this is a discussion forum, right?

Regardless of the way your player is laying, any straightforward thinking person would use your body as a tool to prevent your teammates from blocking high quality shots from the middle of the ice, because the idiots that lay in front of their net trip their teammates too.

You're suggesting that over half the population in CHEL is bad at the game? Great. So when they leave after falling behind 1 or 2 nothing, Diego Martinez or one of EAs overpowered AI sprites comes into replace them and proceeds to skate around your corpse dropped in front of the crease and scores at will.

There's a thread on the EA forum that shows how overpowered the cross-crease in the game is. There are still shots of pucks going through skates, limbs and sticks added to the countless animations of opposing forwards reaching backwards through opposing Dmen to pickup loose pucks despite having poor body position.

Stop giving EA a pass. The mechanics in this game took a massive step backwards in a year where they added nothing of value to the game.

All of this because you misunderstood my post. I wasn’t joining any conversation, that’s why I didn’t quote anyone. I made an observation based off the games I have played so far.

no one ever said teams have a Dman lay in front of the net. The post simply illustrated there are many teams that will go for a cross crease and nothing else.

I am not sure how we got to the point of “giving EA a pass” when my single post was so far from that there’s no possible way to draw a correlation

 

[belair]

All of this because you misunderstood my post. I wasn’t joining any conversation, that’s why I didn’t quote anyone. I made an observation based off the games I have played so far.

no one ever said teams have a Dman lay in front of the net. The post simply illustrated there are many teams that will go for a cross crease and nothing else.

I am not sure how we got to the point of “giving EA a pass” when my single post was so far from that there’s no possible way to draw a correlation

If you're stating something contrarian, you're joining the conversation regardless of whether or not it's a response to someone's post. How would you expect someone to interpret your post any other way than how it's presented? Because there are players out there who actually do what you stated.

Yes, most drop-ins are riddled with players who only look cross crease and gather in the middle of the zone regardless of position. The quality of player in drop-ins is poor on average. But anyone who can aim a pass effectively or throw a well-timed saucer pass will still hit the cross-crease with ease if they're given enough opportunities. So again, defending against it isn't 'easy' when we're focusing on players who aren't your average drop-in.

 

[CharaBadSenyshynGawd]

If you're stating something contrarian, you're joining the conversation regardless of whether or not it's a response to someone's post.

Yes, most drop-ins are riddled with players who only look cross crease and gather in the middle regardless of position. The quality of player in drop-ins is poor on average. But anyone who can aim a pass effectively or throw a well-timed saucer pass will still hit the cross-crease with ease if they're given enough opportunities. So again, defending against it isn't 'easy' when we're focusing on players who aren't your average drop-in.

You’re still very confused. If you think I read all the posts before posting you’re nuts.

I made zero mention of drop in games.

you misunderstood my initial post and don’t want to admit it. I don’t know why, but that’s where we’re at.

 

[ArchAngel55]

I had a 1st ever tonight. I was playing a drop in game and was booted for bad team play. I just took a penalty in the 3rd and it was my only one. I was a +3 with 3 assists. We were up 5-2. I didn't play out of position or play bad. My penalty was laying down to stop a cross crease on a 3 on 1. The guy skated over me. This game is glitchy. I've never seen that before.

 

[Leafs87]

The free agents menu still doesn’t actually sort in order when you sort by any of the metrics for the specific left/right defenceman pages.

The free agency is also highly unrealistic. Every free agency you have you pick of top line centres, elite goalies and top D men. I wish they’d have a setting where you can turn down the quality of free agency cause it’s really not fun. I stay away from signing all the free agents but still.

 

[thrillermiller89]

It’s so hard to find people who want to play 6’s... I miss the days where we had lobbies.

My buddy and I play 2’s and it’s fun and we win... but we want to play with a crew that enjoys talking on the mic, cycling, and playing 200ft hockey.

 

[Flamesfan62]

It’s so hard to find people who want to play 6’s... I miss the days where we had lobbies.

My buddy and I play 2’s and it’s fun and we win... but we want to play with a crew that enjoys talking on the mic, cycling, and playing 200ft hockey.

Try Discord and Facebook if you haven’t, always active lobbies looking for guys to play/ join their team.

 

[John Price]

Gamers suing EA for "making NHL too hard"

EA Sports It’s In The Game Difficulty Federal Lawsuit California – Sportico.com

A new federal lawsuit asserts that Electronic Arts unlawfully increases its sports games’ difficulty in order to induce gamers into paying the video game publisher additional money.
In Zajonc v. Electronic Arts, a trio of California-based gamers—Jason Zajonc, Danyael Williams and Pranko Lozano—have sued EA for deceptive practices, false advertising and related claims under California law. Their case, which they hope becomes certified as a class action, concerns the 2017 to 2021 versions of Madden, FIFA and NHL. The trio is represented by, among others, California consumer rights attorney Jack Fitzgerald. EA has yet to answer the complaint in court, and has until early next year to do so.
The lawsuit contends that EA dupes many gamers through “utilizing one or more artificial intelligence technologies that adjust game difficulty dynamically.” EA, the plaintiffs charge, neglects to tell consumers about these technologies or their impact on games. Relying on “heuristic prediction and intervention to adaptively change the difficulty of matches, and influence or even dictate the outcomes,” EA keeps gamers “more engaged”—almost as if EA knowingly exploits an addiction.

 

[GOilers88]

Gamers suing EA for "making NHL too hard"

EA Sports It’s In The Game Difficulty Federal Lawsuit California – Sportico.com

A new federal lawsuit asserts that Electronic Arts unlawfully increases its sports games’ difficulty in order to induce gamers into paying the video game publisher additional money.
In Zajonc v. Electronic Arts, a trio of California-based gamers—Jason Zajonc, Danyael Williams and Pranko Lozano—have sued EA for deceptive practices, false advertising and related claims under California law. Their case, which they hope becomes certified as a class action, concerns the 2017 to 2021 versions of Madden, FIFA and NHL. The trio is represented by, among others, California consumer rights attorney Jack Fitzgerald. EA has yet to answer the complaint in court, and has until early next year to do so.
The lawsuit contends that EA dupes many gamers through “utilizing one or more artificial intelligence technologies that adjust game difficulty dynamically.” EA, the plaintiffs charge, neglects to tell consumers about these technologies or their impact on games. Relying on “heuristic prediction and intervention to adaptively change the difficulty of matches, and influence or even dictate the outcomes,” EA keeps gamers “more engaged”—almost as if EA knowingly exploits an addiction.

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.

If people put half as much time and effort into doing something constructive with their lives as they do trying to sue their way to some quick money the world really would be a stellar place. Hope this gets absolutely laughed out of court.

 

[Cor]

This f***ing game is f***ed man.

There’s a bug or glitch or error or something like that where your custom roster can essentially be overridden and any edits you do, be undone.

Went to continue my roster editing, and everything’s f***ed. All the D back to RD/LD - LD/RD, most of the ratings have changed (not sure how some have, so haven’t...) potentials reverted.

And I don’t do basic changes either. I was doing complete overhauls, using JFreshhockey’s roster sheet as a basis.

I am so pissed. This company is f***ed.