NHL 16 Continues to Improve

[TheFoss1957]

I am fan of much of the NHL series, especially the "Be a Pro" mode...but, there are major frustrations for me, in the NHL 16 iteration.

1. Line change logic...It just kills me, that I keep getting downgraded Defense grades and minuses when, AT LEAST TWICE PER GAME, I am dumped on the ice 150 feet BEHIND the play that inevitably scores.

2. AI Defense logic...adding to my minus stats, AI defensemen turn the puck over by skating into the net side, or worse, just coughing the puck up in the low slot...over and over. Good hockey dictates a clear UP THE BOARDS, and NEVER a diagonal pass through the slot.

3. And as others have pointed out...AI goaltending is still awful. As a Be a pro Center, on a Junior team, my BEST goaltender had a mere 79% sv. pct. and the backup was worse. Much of this was due to item #2, above.

4. AI puck support is non-existent. It often does no good at all to pin or poke check puck carrier, when no teammate comes to collect the free puck.

5. Playing Defense is geometrically harder than scoring goals on all difficulty levels. No way to tie up sticks, poke checking is only marginally effective, and stick lift almost always guarantees a slash, highsitcking, or hooking call. Bodying up nets an interference. And the offensive play just rolls off and gets a quality shot anyway.

Playing as a Center, on the back check, one can never be sure that one of the AI D-men isn't going to abandon the offensive guy by the crease, to take the trailer, that you, as Center, are trying to guard.

6. There is a bug, if a player takes a penalty in the last two minutes of the 3rd, or in OT. You don't get released from the penalty box, unless the game gets to the shootout, and, I believe that your team is shorthanded the rest of the way.

As hockey junkie, I can overlook much of this and keep playing, however, my more casual fan sons get frustrated enough to move on to other games.

I am hopeful that some of these annoyances get addressed eventually.

[Pythons80]

Good article, thanks for the info. Can anyone tell me if you can do a Season with a CHL team like you could in the past?

[Capitol P23]

I am a basketball player hands down. I enjoyed the crap out of this game during my trial on XBOX one. I guess plainly put I never really gave the other sports titles (MLB, NHL, PGA) a shot. This year going into 2016 may be the first year I own all the sports titles across the two MAJOR consoles and NHL may be a close 2nd to 2K. If one of their patches breaks the game like last year then you guys will have converted me into a hockey gamer. Now if only I could learn some advanced tactics i'd be on my way lol.

[crosbie87]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake19ny

Not sure what they did but it's just better. I was ready to trade it in but in glad I didn't. As far sliders there are a whole bunch in the sliders thread, I even posted my set. I'm sure they are all good but since we all play differently it's best to read through some of the slider threads and try a few until you find the one that suits you best.

Okay but it must have been a patch that fixed it right ? Which patch was it ?

[RoyalBoyle78]

I have to start playing again haven't touch the game in a while.

[AdamJones113]

Quote: Originally Posted by AdamJones113

snip Man-to-man is another story. I'll make a chart of my defensive interactions (poke/stick lift/check) later today, snip That's why a defensive skill stick would be an incredible addition to the series.

Ok, going to get to this tonight. What I think I'll do is, I'll stream a game and save that to Twitch, then go back and analyze every defensive interaction with time stamps. I tried to do the chart of man-on-man interactions, but there are too many variables that make the graph too complicated and obtuse. So, expect a stream in a few hours. Will post here and in the Let's Test... thread.

[AdamJones113]

Sorry, had some tech issues but here's the first little bit of a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. I'm the Leafs.

http://www.twitch.tv/adamjones113/v/30847241
(I'd advise having this in one tab and reading the analysis in a second)

Here are the human defensive interactions (will get to CPU later)

Twitch timestamp—CPU action—defensive result

1:15—Windmill deke—Cleared loose puck
Hedman (CPU) tried to cut to the middle with a windmill deke. I tired to step up to stop him (up on RS) but Reilly (Human) gained control of the deke in the middle of the deke. Having pressed up on RS, that became a shot, which was directed to the side of the boards.

2:04—Carry into zone—Poked away for a turnover
Johnson (CPU) attempts to carry into the zone after some horizontal NZ play by the Lightning. P.A. Parenteau (Human) cuts him off with a poke check (R1). Johnson loses control in a weird direction (but a viable one) and Polak (Human) gains control of the puck with a nice little puck corral animation.

2:21—Cross-ice pass in DZ—Poked away
The Lightning try to pass across the defensive zone with two Leafs forwards near the passing lane. The Lightning passer (Drouin I believe) had open space in front of him, but made the risky pass and wound up stalling the breakout. P.A. Parenteau makes another good play, reaching behind with his stick to foil the pass. His deflection is recovered by the Lightning.

2:27—Adjustment to the middle—Poked away for a turnover
Drouin again (I believe) makes a poor play. He tries to pivot so that he can get off a pass to the point man/a cutting forward, but Polak makes another good play and pokes it away, to be picked up by Kadri (Human).

2:35—Puck carry—Attempted stick lift by teammate CPU for penalty (hooking)
The Lightning (Johnson once again) are just trying to get the puck to the boards here when Parenteau makes a poor play: he attempts one sticklift, misses, and then attempts a second at a bad angle (at about [S10°W]), which triggers the infraction animation. 2 minutes for Parenteau.

2:38—Breakout pass—Missed breakup
I simply add this (a cross-ice breakout pass) because it's one of the ones where you think hey, should have intercepted that.

2:40—Carry into OZ—Missed hit, dislodged puck
I don't know what happened here, exactly. The Lightning forward tries to carry it into the zone, and the Leaf defenseman tries to intercept him at the blue line. The defenseman, going west>east, skates calmly through the stick of the north>south forward, bumping the forward slightly and dislodging the puck, but skates himself out of the play and the forward recovers the puck easily.

3:09—Attempted point wrist shot—Poke check, dislodged puck
Interesting situation here. JVR (Human) rushes to the point after the Lightning win the faceoff, and he makes a good play to poke the puck off the defenseman's stick before he can get the puck off (was in shooting animation). JVR has a bit of a hard time picking up the stationary puck (a bit odd that it was stationary, but whatever). When he finally gains control, he automatically tries to bring the puck to his forehand, but that means going through some legs. The puck goes through, but JVR's stick is stopped, so he loses the puck.

Skip to 3:59, sorry

4:01—Attempted cross crease from point—Intercepted
Good interception here by JVR, fairly clean as it should be, since he was right in the passing lane.

4:17—Attempted carry in deep—Hit dislodges puck
The Lightning forward tries to carry the puck in deep, but Gardiner (Human) knocks him off the puck with a shoulder. Gardiner grabs the puck, but a moment of indecision (and a poor pivot—I wanted to go left, so the pivot tried to get me to face left, which led me into the hit) gets him up against the boards and he turns the puck over.

Stop at the next pause, hit a tech issue, so don't bother watching the pause screen for the remaining 10 minutes.

And that's where we end. Ran into some tech issues and couldn't finish 7 minutes of the first period, even. But, got this up. Feel free to take away whatever you want from these descriptions. What I took away: solid stuff. Obviously these interactions come out of how I play defense. I tried to minimize that variable in my descriptions, but it's still there.

My takeaways:
1. Pivots need more work. They are often wonky and arbitrary, and that's not a fun combo to have in a game.
2. CPU AI needs more awareness of where other players are on the ice. Be it defensive AI problems (we've all had those) or that cross-ice pass example above, a better CPU awareness would be seriously beneficial to the overall correctness of gameplay.
3. Stick lifts are effective when they should be effective, which is: rarely. The only times sticklifts work for me (as they should) are (usually up against the boards) are at a ~90° angle. They shouldn't work too often, and, as illustrated above, using them at a bad angle has more consequences than benefits.
4. Puck and stick physics still need some tuning. Can't say this enough. Sticks through boards, sticks or pucks going through what should be solid objects, going through each other—I love the liveliness of the puck, but puck/stick collision detection with inanimate and animate objects needs to be worked on—especially if we continue to be without the option of having the game have full stick/puck solidity, as the devs have indicated is possible.

[Nas160]

I'm very impressed with the game. I'm just wondering when we're getting create-a-team back.