Is there any way to make your computer defenders not suck?

[jyoung]

And by suck, I mean standing around, never pressuring the puck carrier, never picking up forwards who are skating into the crease, etc.

Are there any strategy combinations on the d-pad that you can use to make them play good enough to not want to pull out your hair when human players come down and exploit the same bull**** goal line cross-crease pass all game long?

[catcatch22]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

And by suck, I mean standing around, never pressuring the puck carrier, never picking up forwards who are skating into the crease, etc. Are there any strategy combinations on the d-pad that you can use to make them play good enough to not want to pull out your hair when human players come down and exploit the same bull**** goal line cross-crease pass all game long?

I find that if you have teammates with high ratings come in as defenseman and leave the game, the game will play with those players and if they have good ratings they will play extremely well. Same thing if you have a teammate with good goalie ratings. He comes in as a goalie then leaves. The goalie will still be your friend but controlled by the AI. That way your team can play more games and not always be 6 guys playing the same game. Can get more wins that way.

Also different teams have different default strategies. I find the best one for AI defenders is "collapse" or "tight point". With "normal" pressure or "protect net" defensive pressure. If you can't field a team of 6 then find a team that has the default strategies that you want to run already there. You can't change all of them unfortunately (Penalty kill, offensive zone strat) so dependent on your team and the AI's your gonna use either defensive or forwards then you need to look up team strats.

[jyoung]

I am mostly referring to EASHL club play, where we usually have 3 or 4 human players playing for us the majority of the time.

Sure, we could throw two of us back there on defense every game, but then it becomes extremely difficult to score when you have to rely on the computer to help you out with offense.

Like I said, I am basically just looking for strategy settings to combat the stupid cross-crease one timer that everyone seems to exploit.

[Scheib43]

Actually our team prefers when we have 4 to play two human defenders. The two on D can cycle the puck better, take point shots, and not get stuck with 3 guys deep while watching the opponents skate in for a 2 on 1. As long as you have guys that aren't constantly hitting RT to call for the pass from the computer winger the two men on D is the way to go. I'd rather as a team score one goal less than give up 3 extra easy goals.

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

Like I said, I am basically just looking for strategy settings to combat the stupid cross-crease one timer that everyone seems to exploit.

If you have a human center, it's his responsibility to stay in the slot/front of the net area to support the D-men. This will help cut down on the cross-crease opportunities. Ask Scheib43...

[Scheib43]

The center on our team is OK, he does a few things well. LOL

Also, Weeman, I don't see how the cross crease is an exploit. Sitting a player on the post to knock in easy shots isn't an exploit in my opinion. With the two CPU defenders they do a better job of attempting to stop it, but will never get deep enough to stop the "exploit" of pass, shoot, score.

[jyoung]

The play blatantly exploits the AI of computer defensemen, who are programmed to sit back, let the puck handler skate unimpeded to the goal line, then stand still and watch while the other player skates right up to the crease (and sometimes, right into it) to receive the one timer without even trying to put a stick on the pass or a body on the skater.

In short, it is a play that real defensemen would stop 9 times out of 10.

But because of the game's poor AI programming, it is a play that results in a goal 9 times out of 10.

Most of the teams we play in the EASHL do nothing but run this play all game long.

And unless we happen to have a pair of human defensemen, we are essentially powerless to stop it.

Point is, it shouldn't be a necessity to put human players back there to shut down a play that has no right to be as successful as it is in the game.

[Money99]

You know, I was playing this game last night and I noticed something interesting.
When playing BAP or 'position lock' the CPU will go bananas when you have possession of the puck. But when your CPU teammates have it, they're as passive as *****cats.
And unfortunately, it works like that on both ends.

When playing online, check out how much more aggressive your CPU teammates react towards the human player you're going against.