Is there any way to get neutral zone play?

[st67]

I just picked up the game after having my interest in hockey regained (I found a league and started playing again after about 13-14 years of no hockey)... I've usually been the one to put down EA hockey games, I'll be honest, but I'm finding that there's a lot of really good things put into this game that are putting the series in the right direction.

I decided to jump right into some sliders - and saw that Cycloniac's TrueSim sliders seemed to be the most popular. So they're really my only experience with the game.

As it is, I've noticed neutral zone play is not at all coming into play. That is, it's pretty much a pass/skate into the offensive zone and try to get a shot. When it's turned over, you skate right up the ice or pass it and enter the other offensive zone and repeat. There seems to be absolutely no pressuring in the neutral zone, and the AI seems to be unable to check or poke the puck away even when you get to close to them.

Is this a slider or a game issue? I'm also noticing passing is way, way, way too accurate - but I think that's a slider issue; he's got the passing sliders set kind of high, and manual passing is off, which I assume means the AI takes control a bit and decides who I was trying to pass to. I'll probably turn that off.

[Tsuki]

Welcome to world of sim gaming where in order to create a realistic experince you must "tweak the game"

Here is a link too Cycloniac's sliders that will create this type of experince for you offline: http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3-sliders.html

[Tsuki]

im sorry i did not read your whole first post

[laijka]

Quote: Originally Posted by st67

I just picked up the game after having my interest in hockey regained (I found a league and started playing again after about 13-14 years of no hockey)... I've usually been the one to put down EA hockey games, I'll be honest, but I'm finding that there's a lot of really good things put into this game that are putting the series in the right direction. I decided to jump right into some sliders - and saw that Cycloniac's TrueSim sliders seemed to be the most popular. So they're really my only experience with the game. As it is, I've noticed neutral zone play is not at all coming into play. That is, it's pretty much a pass/skate into the offensive zone and try to get a shot. When it's turned over, you skate right up the ice or pass it and enter the other offensive zone and repeat. There seems to be absolutely no pressuring in the neutral zone, and the AI seems to be unable to check or poke the puck away even when you get to close to them. Is this a slider or a game issue? I'm also noticing passing is way, way, way too accurate - but I think that's a slider issue; he's got the passing sliders set kind of high, and manual passing is off, which I assume means the AI takes control a bit and decides who I was trying to pass to. I'll probably turn that off.

I believe there is a sliders for checking and poking. I might be wrong, haven't looked at the screen for a while.

And about the neutral zone.. yea that is kind of how the game plays according to EA. I guess you could tweak every teams tactics and what not to give them a better will to pressure in the neutral zone but not sure if the effects are noticeable enough to warrant the time it takes.

[Segagendude]

Neutral zone defense was fine out of the box, then the patches changed all that.( Probably to cater to the online kiddies who complained about not being able to score 5-6 goals a game..)

I've been tweaking sliders to no avail before throwing in the towel and am now just waiting on 14.

Good luck.

[laijka]

Quote: Originally Posted by Segagendude

Neutral zone defense was fine out of the box, then the patches changed all that.( Probably to cater to the online kiddies who complained about not being able to score 5-6 goals a game..) I've been tweaking sliders to no avail before throwing in the towel and am now just waiting on 14. Good luck.

That's my biggest gripe about online play in most games, it has a tendency to **** all over the offline experience.

Wouldn't it be awesome if Online and Offline used different patches?

[emericaridr11]

Quote: Originally Posted by Segagendude

Neutral zone defense was fine out of the box, then the patches changed all that.( Probably to cater to the online kiddies who complained about not being able to score 5-6 goals a game..) I've been tweaking sliders to no avail before throwing in the towel and am now just waiting on 14. Good luck.

well why not just delete the Patch then?

[Segagendude]

Quote: Originally Posted by emericaridr11

well why not just delete the Patch then?

I actually did. But the constant prompts to download got on my nerves, lol