Ask NHL: More NHL 16 Questions Answered, In-Game Sims Are Back, EASHL Questions

[ericromain]

If EA NHL can't keep up with the pace of NHL roster changes, they should just give the community the power to maintain the official roster. I understand there's some complicationssuch as when new NHLPA members can be put in the game, but i think the community would make for a faster more efficient partnership that could make everyone happy.

Just give more power to the community. Custom music, custom roster sharing, player edits, custom mask paint schemes, custom board ads. Give us the tools, we'll create it and only share it amongst our selves at no profit to anyone.

[Perceptor]

I was disappointed last year with the game and while it looks like features are coming back, the game is still missing something.

I agree that player editing would be awesome in terms of managing rosters. I still think that somehow the roster guys need to figure out how to get the updates out regularly.

I also keep on hoping that we can do multiplayer Be a GM. Look at 2K sports and NBA 2K15. You could customize almost everything and play as all the teams. This is something the devs should look into. It's been 7 years and it seems GM mode's improvements just hasn't been as good as I hoped. I think the mode needs the FIFA Career treatment.

[cmutat17]

In light of the upcoming Stanley Cup final. The more experienced Blackhawks seem to be the favourites.


My question is: Will Playoff/Stanley Cup experience matter in NHL 16? With the new player morale you'd think it would, but I'm sort of having trust issue's with the EA NHL team, so I was hoping if any of you guys would know.

[scottyo60]

I've read a few of these Q&As and I'm glad to see some ea rep in here. If there wasn't I wouldn't even risk posting this...

So far from Q&A I've been really underwhelmed. I'm not worried about environment. That's lacked. I've never touched EASHL. I worry will we get a hockey game that's fun? Realistic but also can be tweaked to fun? I understand some areas are easier to score from but it feels like once those are discovered in EA it's game over. We are fighting to save those spots. I want to rule against me but I had many lopsided scores with me vs. CPU

Ultimately my Q is I want to know why I should purchase 2016 over just rehashing rosters which EA took control of. I feel other games are trying to make changes or progress while NHL is trying to play 5th fiddle to madden, nba 2k. Mlb the show and FIFA. I feel like every post I'm left with less hope that what I started with. Most of all this is a series I've bought since 08 and this year I feel like no is my option.

[Pezell04x]

My advice to everyone would be to get ready for them to say (or us just find out) that player editing is not in the game. The way they treat the player editing question is reminiscent of how they treated last year's EASHL/OTP question: mute until about a week before release.

Nothing outside of EASHL really grabs me and tells me that this is going to be amazing. The problem for me is that my WhatsApp/EASHL team is already saying things like "Man I can't wait for EASHL this year". I think EA knows that people are crawling up the walls for EASHL too and that's why they can slowly release/rebuild/whatever you want to call it things like player editing.

What I was incredibly disappointed about was how the team sounded re: roster updates. I get that the scope of their updates are larger than Madden or NBA, but it seems that FIFA has a massive player base and what is their roster updating situation? I feel like it was almost daily, if not weekly. I am perplexed as how it could be such a problem for EA (hell, even create a contracted position for just the season) that they can't push out a weekly roster update instead of once a month/every two months.

Quote:

We are currently assessing the feasibility of more frequent roster updates. The most challenging part for us is the total number of leagues and players that need to be updated and are often dependent on one another. As an example, we cannot update just the NHL without making the corresponding changes to the AHL for players that have moved up or down.

This entire quote bothers me because games are already doing that, like MLB The Show. The Show will send players up and down at will in their Live Updates.

Maybe EA's hockey division didn't anticipate that their consumer base would actually want some sort of live update system and/or roster share, but it should be high on their priority list.

And the thing is, with all of that off of my chest, I'll be getting the game on release day so I can play hockey with my buds strewn across the US and Canada again.

[Perceptor]

Well said. To me, the FIFA and Show roster updates should be what NHL should look at. Live updates are what we need; not the infrequent once in a blue moon rosters that players have had for the last few years. I understand resources will always be an issue and dedicating of staff to other important faucets of the game. Having said that, this is something that the community has asked for in previous years. Hopefully this will be addressed at some point

[Leafs fan 2112]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

Confirmed: no custom players in OTP. So lame!

I, for one, loved OTP. I met a lot of good people and played a lot of games with my created character when my friends in club were away. It's a damn shame. Has EA given an explanation for why this isn't in the game?

[Leafs fan 2112]

Quote: Originally Posted by Perceptor

Well said. To me, the FIFA and Show roster updates should be what NHL should look at. Live updates are what we need; not the infrequent once in a blue moon rosters that players have had for the last few years. I understand resources will always be an issue and dedicating of staff to other important faucets of the game. Having said that, this is something that the community has asked for in previous years. Hopefully this will be addressed at some point

They should take a page from 2k in their NBA series and let people upload their own roster updates alongside EA's. But, since they said that edit rosters isn't in this game this year, we won't get it sadly.