A few things you can do to make the game better

[Cycloniac]

Quote: Originally Posted by drog1602

The penalties vary from game to game, but I did drop my ai teammate penalty slider as they were taking too many for me and creating an unfair advantage. Passing also varies depending on teams but its around 50 -60% most of the time. I find that with the lower passing speed and the increased interceptions level that it offsets the higher passing accuracy and makes a balanced game.

That's actually a really good idea, will test that and see how it goes. 50-60%? Good stuff.

[CelticHeart]

i have made 3 games test....it always cpu around 85% pass percentage....human around 45-48%

[Cycloniac]

Quote: Originally Posted by CelticHeart

i have made 3 games test....it always cpu around 85% pass percentage....human around 45-48%

That's right. The passing sliders here didn't help at all for me either. With passing speed so slow, the CPU is actually more likely to receive the pass, and the "pass reception ease" slider is nulified.

Simply put, the higher passing speed is, the more the pass reception slider works. After all, what is easier: receiving a 90 MPH pass, or a 45 MPH pass?

Common sense. ^^

Try raising your pass speed sliders and see if that works. If not, decrease CPU pass accuracy.

[drog1602]

@Cycloniac

You were right about the passing speed. I bumped it up to four (4) and I like the way it plays a lot more. You now will see the Ai have a few more missed passes on the long ones as well as really hard passes. I found if you go higher than four that there are then issues when trying to make simple passes to the point or from point to point.

I also left the saucer pass speed at zero. The reason for that is typically a person does not put as much on these kinds of passes.

Making this passing speed change has really made the game that much better. I would say, that if someone is still having issues completing passes on the human team, to bump up the passing assist slider by one (to 3).

As far as the Ai passing numbers, I don't think its accurate anyways and the Ai tend to make a lot of smaller easy passes that the human players does not. I usually judge by how the game plays and you can see them make some mistakes with the new settings, but still play at a pro level.

I thought I should give my view on passing, since if you look at my sliders and see my accuracy at max, most might question why and think I like an arcade style game. This is far from the case. I feel though, that in order to replicate NHL or even AHL clubs that the passing needs to be accurate. Players at that level do not miss easy passes, if the players are open and with a clear passing lane. The idea that passes should be going wide all the time is just not realistic to NHL hockey (this is more pee wee style). Usually the reason for missed passes are the opposition puts themselves into go position to deflect and intercept passes, that is what creates that loose puck, turn over game. So that is why I choose to set my sliders the way the are, to better reflect pro hockey. I want loose pucks to be a result of good defence and not just poor passing.

Try this adjustment and let me know how it plays out for you.

[drog1602]

I also forgot one of the biggest things you can do to make the game better:

Set up your custom Ai ( though you can only load opposition "custom Ai" in season mode or play now using the option of making all human controlled teams and then before the game set the custom Ai option for the other team.
EA made a huge mistake in missing this in BeAGM ( as you can only load your team custom Ai)

Here is what I use
- I leave the team strategies as they are set for each team
- Max out the NZ slider for each team, this makes it so that they forecheck more

Line 1
Carry /Dump- 9
Cycle/Shoot - 4
Efficiency -10
Block - 5

Line 2
Carry /Dump- 9
Cycle/Shoot - 4
Efficiency -10
Block - 6

Line 3
Carry /Dump- 10
Cycle/Shoot - 5
Efficiency -10
Block - 8

Line 4
Carry /Dump- 10
Cycle/Shoot - 8
Efficiency -10
Block - 10

Def Pair 1
Hold/Pinch - 9
Cycle/Shoot - 5

Def Pair 2
Hold/Pinch - 8
Cycle/Shoot - 5

Def Pair 3
Hold/Pinch - 7
Cycle/Shoot - 6

[Cycloniac]

Gonna plug those passing sliders into my set now and run through a play now game, will post feedback.

[Cycloniac]

I like the pssing sliders. Contrary to what one would believe, it's not an arcade feel at all. Players passing skills clearly differ. You'll deffiately be more careful when passing on the rush with Giroux, when compared to someone like Jody Shelley.

On the AI side, players do miss the passes they should. By lowering saucer pass speed, they're harder to receive for sure when they're passed across the ice.

On the powerplay and in the offensive zone, you deffinately feel like you're in control of professioals. In contrast, if you're up against a solid defense, you won't be able to consistantly set up plays as you'd like.

I'll be using these passing slider tweaks going forward.

[drog1602]

Thats good that you noticed the same things with these passing sliders. I have been having a blast with them.

I have also been trying something new with the goalies. I set the goalie passing and puck playing frequency both to four. I found especially with the puck playing frequency at four, you see fewer of the " hungry hippo" animations. I have also been playing around with changing all of the goalies to "stand up" style. It seems to help them play the angles better and kick out the rebounds a little better to the corners. As well they seem to challenge shooters a little more. They still drop down into the butterfly, only they do it a little later. So far I like what I see and seem to get a lot of close games and the goals seem to be a little more legit.