NHL 16 EASHL Beta Opens Next Week For NHL 15 Xbox One & PlayStation 4 Users

[jayman504]

At first I was sorta cheesed about not having player progression etc. but I realize I've been playing with the same group of guys since EASHL started and we try and play REAL hockey. NOW it's a matter of playing team hockey and having the right mix of players rather than 3 snipers playing upfront.

I think it has a lot of potential to be an awesome game mode personally.

[BigDisk]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

Yup, and EA has yet to do anything to counter it after all of these years. No vote to kick players, no tracking these player's movements and suspending them from the mode because of their actions, no automatic kicking of players that leave the controller idle for any amount of time. Anything that could be done to improve the situation. And they drag out what should be a 15 minute game to over half an hour with all the pausing, fighting, and needless whistles. All it takes is one clown to ruin the entire experience and there seems to be one in every game, and they usually end up on my side. Nothing like picking defense when you have no intent on playing it, then proceeding to get in the way the entire game of me on offense. I hope that there is a special place in hell for people like this, ha.

You nailed most of the in-game issues. It's so true, they should absolutely allow people to "Downrate" trolls. But allowing people to kick others would be so easy to abuse, that's why it's not in.

You score 2 quick goals and the other team starts a kick vote. 4 guys from the same club don't want you as their 5th teammate 'cause they're elitists ****s and they start a kick vote. You see where I'm going here...

Allowing for some kind of "gentleman" up/down rating could solve that, where you get dropped along other players with similar "gentleman" ratings. This could be abused too, but if the rating takes your last N games into account it could work. But I'm not convinced either.

A potential fix would be removing the position selection race. Why can't we just pick the position first? I mean, even before you hit the Drop In button. That would put you in a queue where you are auto-joined on one team on the position you want, 100% of the time.

So kids that only want to play wing would always be on the wing. Queue times would be higher for wingers. Want a quicker or almost instant game? Learn to play D. The position contingency would balanced itself organically.

They could go further and skip the whole team AND position selection screen. It's useless and it's a waste of my precious time. Just make it like any classic Arena eSports games (DOTA/LoL/HotS): you choose your hero (position) first and you get in the matchmaking queue alone or with your party. Once teams are composed, the game loads and the action starts. The whole ****ing around the game lobby where idiots never pick a side and cause everybody to leave at the 3 seconds mark would be gone.

The matchmaker does the rest and does its best to match players around the same ratings and balance both teams. These eSport games use an ELO/MMR rating system to compose the teams and it's proven, tested and it just works. It results in a win% very close to 50% for most people, which could mean more close, hard fought games in hockey, and we all loooooove close and hard fought hockey games.

The OTP trolls exists because of an unbalanced matchmaking. 95% of these trolls would absolutely be competitive and stop trolling it the games they were in were balanced, IMO.

Maybe in NHL17.

[bigwill33]

I've suggested picking positions outside of the team selection screen. It's not a foolproof idea, but could be better than what we have now. They should keep the current lobby system, too. Just use the other way for drop-ins.

It still wouldn't solve the trolling. Like when someone cries that they aren't getting passed too and then goes berserk and offside all game. Or the people that just lay down wherever. For that I would prefer a boot system or ratings system.

Have it shown in the lobbies what your teammates vote you as. If your rating drops below a certain point you can't play OTP for a while. Or if your positioning score is an F and you have 5 or more offside in a period you can be voted to be kicked by your teammates. It's pretty simple.

Taking the "grind" out will only make OTP worse. People used to play OTP rather than club to rank up. At least early on they would try so they could progress. Now if stoner420guy is online alone and his teammates are done for the night, there is a good chance you will get into an OTP game with him and see him everywhere but on his RW position. And never play D during penalty kills. Fun times.

[BigDisk]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

Have it shown in the lobbies what your teammates vote you as. If your rating drops below a certain point you can't play OTP for a while. Or if your positioning score is an F and you have 5 or more offside in a period you can be voted to be kicked by your teammates. It's pretty simple.

I hadn't thought of that. That's actually a great idea to prevent exploiting the kick-system. Threshold about what's punishable could be tweaked to make it exploit-free.

I also agree about making your rating public and actually showing it everywhere could help promote fair play... Players must be help accountable of their actions.

I think it's gonna be EASHL first, then Be A GM when my mates are offline for me.

There's so many ways this game could be improved, it's ridiculous. At least EA's showing its commitment to listen to fans and keep on improving.

[BellSKA]

Has there been an official 'drop time' for the beta tomorrow? I apologize if this is in another thread.

[bigwill33]

Quote: Originally Posted by BellSKA

Has there been an official 'drop time' for the beta tomorrow? I apologize if this is in another thread.

Haven't seen anything other than "varies by time zone."

[BellSKA]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

Haven't seen anything other than "varies by time zone."

Thanks. Trying to determine if waking up with an 'illness' will even pay off tomorrow.

[speedtrucker]

as of 7.00am CST, the beta link hadn't popped up on my NHL15/XB1. wanted to start the 6gb download while I was at work but no dice...