NHL 16 Q&A Update - Updated Commentary, Defender Control, Goalie Fatigue & More

[Steve_OS]

The NHL 16 team continues to answer questions about the game at their Ask EA page. The Q&A is copied and pasted below for easier reading. Other Q&A sessions have been posted here in the same fashion.

Is there a specific technique that determines opponent matchups in EASHL? ie - country origin, games played, total users per team?

Hi Nick, matchmaking in EASHL takes multiple parameters into account when looking for an optimal opponent. Most prominent ones are: geographic location, Team DNF (average DNF of club members in that session), users on the team and Seasons division.

Is there couch co-op for EASHL and HUT also? Or is it just for online versus?

Couch co-op is only available in Online Versus mode.

When simming through a season, prior versions have taken absurd amounts of time prior to the trade deadline. This version too?

Hi Mike! You will see improvements to simulation speeds in NHL 16 compared to 15.

Can we assign a 3rd uniform in HUT or EASHL?

At this time players only have the option to assign a home and away jersey for their Hockey Ultimate Team. In EASHL, you will have access to 3rd/alternate jerseys from around the hockey world, but you will have to assign those as your home or away jersey.

Will goalies become fatigued if you play them multiple games in a row in Be a GM mode?

We do not have goalie fatigue in the game but with the new Player Morale system you will have to manage your goalie tandem's playing time because if your backup doesn't play any games for weeks he will eventually become disgruntled and can affect your locker room chemistry. So make sure you keep him happy by giving him some time in the crease.

I would like to know is there going to be a season mode that i can choose all 30 teams ? Is there going to be a playoff mode, that i can choose all 16 teams ?

Yes, Season mode with control of all 30 teams and Playoff Modes with control of all 16 teams is in the game.

Will there be more preset names for created players, ie- set someone with 'Kryg' as 'Craig' on play by play?

Yes. We have continued to add many more play by play names to cover as many of the players in each of our leagues as we can. These names will be available when you create a player in NHL 16.

What ultimately led to the decision to end production on PS3/360 iterations of the NHL franchise?

Hey Matt…Great question. With more and more of our fans making the jump to the Xbox One and PS4, we want to ensure that we're delivering the best experience possible on the new consoles. With our goal of delivering new features and gameplay innovation for NHL 16, we needed our team solely focused on that product.

Will Your be a pro character be fully customizable including hair and facial hair ?

We have added a lot of customization to our players this year. The prime starting point was to ensure that we not only added variety to character creation but that everything we added also allowed us to make our NHL players more authentic. We looked through the top stars in the NHL and added items such as ear guards, visor types, stick and sock tape styles among others to help in hitting that authenticity and variation. We didn't focus on custom hair styles this year but did add a lot more variation to our player head selection and also added the long requested feature of playoff beards this year and since they can grow dynamically in the playoffs, this has also allowed us to add quite a lot of variation/length differences to our facial hair styles.

Will there be more commentary phrases on NHL 16 than NHL 15?

Yes. We had multiple recording sessions this year with Doc, Eddie and Ray for NHL 16. We covered many areas including but not limited to new intros, multiple facets of play by play, season analysis, replays and in game and post period/game recaps.

Is there a better way of controlling the defender in NHL 16? As apposed to just standing in the way of a player ? (Like tying an offensive player up in the zone for example)

We are still tuning balance so not everything is complete yet but there has been a big focus on giving defenders control over their positioning and ensuring that defenders will be successful when in the correct position. They should do a much better job on average of both deflecting and intercepting passes. We have also fixed some issues in the past where stick lifts weren't breaking up one timers and sometimes players would still get shots off when defenders had done a good job bumping them off the puck. This is working much better now.

Will you change the achievement list instead of recycling from previous NHL games?

We will be updating the achievement list for NHL 16. The exact number of new achievements is still TBD.

[canucksss]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steve_OS

Will goalies become fatigued if you play them multiple games in a row in Be a GM mode? We do not have goalie fatigue in the game but with the new Player Morale system you will have to manage your goalie tandem's playing time because if your backup doesn't play any games for weeks he will eventually become disgruntled and can affect your locker room chemistry. So make sure you keep him happy by giving him some time in the crease.

I hope this would work, since there's no goalie fatigue - plus 1 here.

[Devilsfan3026]

How many times have they been asked: Is there an edit player function? All these nice, fluffy answers. Oh well. At least some features are back in.

[Simple Mathematics]

The goalie morale sounds nice. I just hope it's not overdone so you don't have a backup goalie complaining all the time and bringing your whole team down. I can't say I've ever heard of that happening in the real NHL.

But all of this is pointless with no edit player since I won't be buying this year without it.

[canucksss]

Quote: Originally Posted by Simple Mathematics

The goalie morale sounds nice. I just hope it's not overdone so you don't have a backup goalie complaining all the time and bringing your whole team down. I can't say I've ever heard of that happening in the real NHL. But all of this is pointless with no edit player since I won't be buying this year without it.

Yea, i know we dont hear this hear this much, but how often goalies complain about playing time esp. if you're just a back-up? Unless EA program that starting goalie complains for too many games he's in. I would prefer the stamina factor than morale, but we need to see how EA implements this. I have a clue, but I'll just keep silent about it for now until we see how this work out.

[Sheba2011]

All these answers are reading the same "we are still looking into that" or the generic "there will be a change from 15". If by June you don't already know what is and isn't in your game that releases in a few months, that sounds like a huge red flag to me. I do like how they are recycling questions that have already been asked (like season mode) and skipping anything to do with editing which has been asked numerous times by myself alone.

[Gangrel]

I'm pretty sure they already have said there is no editing so I'm no sure what you all are waiting and getting frustrated for??????

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[manosayeo]

skipping anything to do with editing which has been asked numerous times by myself alone.