NHL 14: Thoughts on Patch v1.01 - Wiggy's Blog

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Wiggy's Blog

NHL 14: Thoughts on Patch v1.01 Stuck

Posted on October 17, 2013 at 08:38 AM.

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EA has released patch v1.01 for NHL 14, and it affects almost all aspects of the game. Some users on the EA forums are (rightfully) annoyed that certain gameplay issues weren't addressed, but at least EA did address a lot of bugs, glitches and balance problems that were present in the various modes on offer for NHL 14.

Here's the official release from EA.

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	Gameplay Updates - Fixed an issue where the user would not receive a bonus for picking and holding a side at a faceoff if it was held too long. (This should address the issue of faceoff spamming) - Fixed issue where the user could press LB/L1 to instantly popup a player from being injured on the ice. - Fixed rare crash that could occur if the controller was pulled during a potential Left Stick hit. - Fixed issue where the user was unable to chop the puck using Alternate controls (will now work the same as NHL13). - Added the potential for tripping penalties to be called for players that trip an opponent using the shot block. - Fixed a rare crash that occurred if the user scored a goal knocking the water bottle off the net at the same time a player was being called for goalie interference. - Added logic to break up fights if the user is holding opponent in the hold down state too long. - Fixed an issue where a disallowed goal would actually be awarded if a player from the team who scored touched the puck in the net.

There are several meaningful changes here, as well as a few glitch and bug fixes. The most noteworthy change is in the addressing of faceoff spamming. By correctly awarding the bonus to players who commit to a faceoff tactic and stick to it, this should alleviate the issue of those who spam by constantly trying to draw the puck back. The ideal would be for spammers to be thrown out of the faceoff circle, but that's likely a feature for a future game. From what I played last night with my EASHL team, we didn't encounter anyone trying to spam, so hopefully it's mostly gone. Some anecdotal posts from the EA forums also suggest its been truly fixed.

The fix for players being able to pop out of an injured state is also welcome, as that's just a silly error to have slipped through in the first place. The same goes for the hold-down state in fights having an end point, as the fight can just linger on forever without it. It's rare to see the hold-down state executed successfully, but it's nice that there is some balance to the move now.

The other change worth mentioning is the addition of tripping penalties to shot block situations. I actually had this exact thing happen before the patch was out, as I went down for a shot block and effectively dropkicked an opponent in the skate and knocked him down. Needless to say, it was hilarious; at the same time, it was a penalty. I hope there is a proper grace period so that someone can't just skate into when you're on the ice and expect a penalty, but this "shot-blocking trip" is something worthy of a penalty here and there.

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	Presentation and Graphics - Add a missing puck texture for the Wild Wings of the DEL. - Updated Ilya Kovalchuk main menu image with Martin Brodeur when favorite team is New Jersey Devils. - Updated St. Louis Blues 06-07 jerseys with proper art. - Updated the following player portraits with correct image: Matt Murphy (Halifax), David Moss (Phoenix), Brandon Archibald (Saginaw), Matt Halischuk (Winnipeg), Joel Armia (�ssat), Xavier Ouellet (Blainville), Kevin Porter (Buffalo), Danny Groulx (Chicago AHL)

All of these look like solid fixes, as they address incorrect images, missing/incorrect artwork and even the proper jersey for St. Louis's '06-07 season. The Blues have always had cool jerseys, so I'm glad that little issue is fixed.

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	Hockey Ultimate Team - Fixed a crash accepting a game invite from the Player HUB when accessed through HUT leaderboard or HUT Seasons leaderboard. - Fixed an issue that prevented users from redeeming the collection completion bonus for multiple teams unless they rebooted. - Fixed issue where Simulation Game Style was not properly being carried over into offline HUT games. - Fixed issue where the consumable level search filter only worked for the first page of results. - Fixed issue where some players were being tagged as retired preventing the user from advancing to gameplay with them. - Updated the art for common Gold player cards. - Added Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels for Logo, Jersey, and Head Coach cards. - Fixed an issue which allowed users to keep training items applied to their players indefinitely.

There's a whole host of bug and exploit fixes here, including some game-invite issues and a correction to the search filter for consumables. The addition of bronze, silver and gold to logo, jersey and head coach cards is a nice change, as it parallels with all of the other tiered cards in the mode. It'll be easier to gauge the rarity of these items and assess a pack of cards at a glance.

The removal of a glitch/exploit that allowed users to keep training items applied indefinitely has also been addressed, and this type of fix is an absolute necessity to keep a modicum of fairness in HUT.

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	Be A GM - Fixed issue where RFA players would delay contract offer responses if they received a contract offer and then a qualifying offer. - Fixed an issue where the Scout returns from the wrong place after sending him out from the "I've been waiting a few days..." popup. - Updated Division names with New NHL names. - Tuning changes to how players are growing in the mode.

I'm curious to see how the player growth model has been affected in the mode, as this is always a contentious issue for people who are passionate about an accurate sim. It's nice to see the proper division names get added as well, since the implementation was only halfway without them. Some users are still upset about the goalie rotation in Be-A-GM, but it appears to be better than it was before.

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	Live the Life - Fixed issue where the user was unable to change the simming penalty after creating a BAP save game. - Fixed issue where post game XP appeared to not be awarded to the user for completing coach�s tasks. - Fixed issue where the task for breaking a teammate out of a slump was not being unlocked. - Fixed a crash that occurred when advancing on the calendar after the Memorial Cup around September 10th. - Updated Division names with New NHL names. - Fixed issue where Legend Milestone for scoring on you first shot of your first shift was not being awarded. - Fixed a crash that occurred when loading a BAP save file after playing a split screen offline shootout game.

There are several bug and crash fixes here, as well as the addition of new division names. I actually encountered two of these glitches, as I (seemingly) wasn't awarded XP after completing some AHL games, leading me to watch my player card and post-game screens pretty closely after that. I also had a crash when advancing to the memorial cup the first time, but luckily I had saved beforehand. It's good to see these issues addressed.

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	GM Connected - Fixed issue where wrong player is displayed on the contracts screen after the user buys out another player. - Fixed a rare crash that could occur when advancing to the trade player screen in leagues with a high number of users. - Updated Division names with New NHL names.

Just a couple of glitch fixes here for GM Connected. Also cool to see the division names added here as well.

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	Online Team Play / EASHL - Fixed an issue where some users were unable to purchase +7 boost vouchers in the Hockey Shop if they had a large number of +3 boosts unlocked. - Fixed a crash that occurred when attempting to view a Club Invite message from the HUT leaderboards. - Fixed a crash that could occur after a hit is thrown in a one on one practice session - Added the ability to turn game misconducts off for EASHL/OTP via tuner update. Player will still earn the 5 min major and then come out of the box.

Just a few glitch/crash fixes here, other than the one big change that affects EASHL/OTP. Personally, I liked that people were getting chucked out of games. Our club never seemed to have a problem with game misconducts, and anecdotal evidence on various boards suggest most competitive clubs didn't either. I totally agree that the application of major penalties is inconsistent, but if you play like a sensible person and let the hits come to you, you're not going to get thrown out or assessed five-minute penalties very often.

There was some talk on the EA forums of making things parallel by having game-ending injuries as well as game misconducts. This way the there would be a risk-reward to throwing a big hit. It's also still an idea to have a player who has been ejected "become" an AI drone for the rest of the game, but I don't think EA wants to go down that road of having people play as random CPU dudes.

I'm glad that EA has just added the functionality to turn this feature on or off, as I think it might be something that needs to be revisited in the near future.

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	Audio/Custom Music - Fixed Custom Music issue where the Off Play game event was not playing in game. - Fixed a crash that could occur when the Home team won if the user had every Custom Music game event assigned with a playlist.

Just a couple of glitch issues here. It's nice that users' playlists will work as they should for all events now.

Final Thoughts

While I'm a bit hesitant about the removal of game misconducts to OTP/EASHL, it's nice to see stuff like faceoff spamming get addressed in a fairly effective way. There are also plenty of bug and functionality fixes across all modes, especially HUT, and it's nice to see the proper division names present in all relevant modes. Hopefully this is the first of several patches for EA and NHL 14.

Comments

# 1 Fiddy @ Oct 17

face off spamming is still in..

its hilarious that they had game misconducts AND just 5 min majors the last 3 years. yet this year, it has to be one or the other now? LOL..