A New Way to Play - Strategy Sliders

[The EVHL]

The whole post will be updated tonight, I just wanted to update this first paragraph to get everyone aware of the coming changes. I have made drastic improvements to this set since I first posted. The game is a lot faster and harder than these ones. I also am running only 5 minute periods so you can actually play games a little more efficiently.


I run an offline 42-team league (OHL, WHL) with all custom teams. These teams are set in a world where eSports took off much bigger and better than they have, and all these teams in theory would have 18 manually-controlled skaters, and the league would be able to run in-game with custom simulation sliders. So, my intention for the stats I see aren't necessarily supposed to yield NHL results (even though they often seem to) but they're supposed to bridge the gap between total video game and real life stats.


As far as what you can expect from gameplay, my goal was to create sliders that provided a challenge to make plays by taking away time and space. I've become a huge fan of the Rocket League eLeague, and these sliders are inspired by the quickness and skill demonstrated by their pro circuit. I wanted a challenge to get to the high scoring areas, and I wanted to severely limit my ability to force passes as it will force me to take more outside shots and get even more creative and skilled with my puck movement. Lastly, I wanted to be rewarded for a hard-pressing shift or vice-versa possibly be punished for getting a line stuck on the ice for too long. Long-story short, I wanted fatigue to come into play without making the last ten minutes of the period feel like everyone is skating in mud and I believe my sliders find that balance. As a hockey coach and NHL fan, I also wanted to try and reduce the huge, ugly gaps we see played by the AI in the neutral and offensive zones. To do this, you need to adjust strategies for every team, so Season Mode is a necessity. I hope one day EA can give us the ability to run a full 31-team franchise mode, but until then, I'll settle for more dynamic and rewarding gameplay over running a true franchise mode.



Last block of text before the good stuff I promise. I absolutely hate the way the CPU scores in this game. I don't find it believable and many of goals seem so incredibly weak compared to the effort the Human player needs to put in to score. To combat that, I make all their shooting accuracies 0 and all my goalie attributes 100. I want my goals to determine the outcomes of games because in my opinion, I score my realistic-looking goals than the CPU. I know it's not for everyone, and I genuinely encourage you to use whatever shot accuracy sliders and goalies sliders you like if you're looking to play the traditional way, but I also encourage you to try my whole setup out. If you can learn to play unbiased, I really think my sliders offer an incredibly realistic challenge.



Alright now to the good stuff! (Red = UPDATED (4/18/19))



Game Settings:

Game Style: Full-Sim

Period Length: 8-9 Minutes

Difficulty: All-Star

Camera: Overhead

Line Changes: User Choice

Shot Aim: Manual



Rules:

Post Whistle Rules: Authentic

Rules: NHL

Fighting: 2/2

Icing: Hybrid

Injuries: On

Offsides: Delayed

Penalties: 4/4

Tie Break: Single OT (5-on-5) I like ties, do whatever you want.

Trapezoid Rules: Off (goalies have no awareness, bugs me)

Penalty Time Scaling: 1/6

Coincidental Time Scaling: 0/6



Gameplay Sliders:

General

Gameplay Version: v1.01

Game Style: Custom

Attribute Effects: 10/10

Broken Stick Frequency: 0/100

Game Speed: 3/6

Fatigue Effect: 100 for both

Fatigue Recovery: 75 for both

Injury Occurrence: 50 for both



Skating

Back Skating 50/100

Hustle Type: Authentic

Puck Carrier Agility 50/50

Puck Carrier Skating 50/100

Player Acceleration (CPU/HUM): (55/57)

Player Speed (CPU/HUM): (50/50)

Skating Agility (CPU/HUM): (62/68)

Shooting (CPU/HUM):

1T Accuracy: (0/46)

Shot Accuracy: (0/49)

Shot Power: (70/70 (was 75))

Slap Shot Accuracy: (0/49)

Slap Shot Power: (55/55)



Passing (CPU/HUM):

Manual Passing: On

Pass Assist: 0

Min Pass Speed: 28/100

Max Pass Speed: 75/100

Saucer Pass Speed: 50/100

Pass Accuracy: (0/40)

Pass Interceptions: (98/100)

Pass Reception Ease: (30/33)

Reception Reaction Time: (50/15)

Puck Control Effect: (50/50)

Puck Speed Effect: (50/50)

Pickup Type Effect: (60/60)

Bouncing Puck Ease: (40/52)



Puck Control (CPU/HUM)

Incidental contact puck loss: Stick, Legs, and Body

Stick Contact Immunity: 0/100

Puck Control: (0/25)

Deking Impact: (50/11)

Spin Deke Impact: (50/43)

Skating Impact: (50/43)



Goalies (CPU/HUM)

Cover Frequency: 40/100

Goalie Passing: 70/100

Cross Crease Reaction: (20/100)

Save Reaction Time: (45/100)

Deflection Reaction Time: (10/100)

Screen Effect: (100/60)

Screen Persistence: (65/60)



Checking

Board Effect (Both): 0/100

Hitting Assistance: 30/100

Stumble Threshold: 100/100

Fall and Stumble Ease: 62/100

Aggression: (50/50)

Hitting Power: (0/0)

Size Effect: (55/55)

Speed Effect: (70/70)

Check/Balance Rating: (100/100)

Preparedness Effect: (51/51)

Incidental Contact: (35/35)

Poke Check Accuracy: (30/30)

Poke Check Power: (50/65)

Stick Lift: Default



Penalties (CPU/HUM)

CPU Penalties: 66

CPU Teammate Penalties: 0/100

Everything default except...

Elbowing (20/20)

Boarding (50/2) you still see it, but it's called more correctly

Charging (50/2) same as above

Holding (50/0) trust me, equals board play out due to high CPU pickups

Interference (3/0) allows for more tie-ups without penalties



AI

AI Learning: 6/6

CPU Difficulty Adjustment: 0/6 I hate hidden bonuses

Faceoff Difficulty: 45/100 I'm terrible, raise if need be

Fight Difficulty: 75/100

All strategy adjustments: 0/6



Team Strats (needed for full results of my sliders)

Forecheck: 2-3

Neutral Zone: 1-4

Trap/Forecheck Tendency (change these if you switch teams like I do, and I should add that user is totally user preference) User: 4/6 CPU: 1/6

Offensive Pressure: Aggressive

Defensive Pressure: Normal

Defensive Strategy: Tight Point

Penalty Kill: Passive Box

Powerplay: Umbrella

PP Carry/Dump: 0/10

Control Breakout: Strong Slide Slant (User Choice)

PP Breakout: Carry Option (User Choice)

Quick Breakout: Stay Wide (User Choice)

3on3 Offense: Aggressive



Forwards

I've had the most success with this but find what works for you:

Line 1: Overload

Line 2: Overload

Line 3: Crash the Net

Line 4: Crash the Net

*I like to set tendencies to 10/10 dump on every line, so that the CPU plays a lot of dump and chase. Reduces their zone-time and ping-pong garbage they like to do when finally setup. Also, I like watching them forecheck. They do put some good pressure if you lose the race/are rushed so I like that added challenge to breakout.



Defense

Hold Line/Pinch: 5/10

Cycle/Shoot: 10/10 Makes CPU dmen shoot and end the ping pong faster



Well there you have it everyone! There's my complete slider + Strat All-Start sliders. I know that I play a very non-traditional way to play, but it's the way I've found the most enjoyment out of this game. I actually am a very big "sim" gamer with all of my sports games, and I truly find this setup to give me enough of that sim + competitive feel I'm looking for in a video game. Hope some of you plug this and try, and maybe I'll even convert you to the weird side!

[The EVHL]

Hello all,

I will be making some updates to my original post to reflect my final build to these sliders. Again, in-order to get the best hockey experience possible out of this game, you need to play in season mode and adjust the strategies for all opponents. I have changed the strategies a lot in my final build, and I have made some slight tweaks to the gameplay sliders as well to get the most competitive, realistic, and most importantly FAIR challenge the computer can offer.

The main thing I have switched is pass assist being dropped to 0. Full-manual passing is essential for dynamic gameplay that presents a consistient challenge. Any amount of pass assist has lead to high scoring games for me as I don't want to tune the goalies to make fifteen highlight-reel saves a game to keep the scores between that 1-4 range.

Will update soon, hopefully I can get some feedback and a discussion going this time around. To test easier, just do a "play now" game, and edit the strategy sliders for both teams and try a game out the way I play. Trust me, it will change your opinion of this game, and it might save it for some of you who find the AI play to be inconsistent and boring.

Thanks everyone!

[ChubbyD]

I'm firing this game back up now that its playoff time, and am interested to see if you've updated this at all. Do you have any team-specific strategies, or still using the generic one listed for all?

[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChubbyD

I'm firing this game back up now that its playoff time, and am interested to see if you've updated this at all. Do you have any team-specific strategies, or still using the generic one listed for all?

I haven't updated these at all considering the lack of interest lol. I have made some big changes to the way I play and the sliders. I feel like I've found the best possible way to play for me, and instead of updating this thread I've just had fun playing. The biggest change I've made is adjusting strategies mid-game as I find the CPU plays the trap pretty well, and as a user I like to forecheck so I adjust the tendency slider accordingly.

The strategies I use are universal, so every team uses them. The strategies I use and the sliders I use have the goal of making this game frustrating yet rewarding. I think the biggest problem with the CPU offline default is you get far too many grade-A chances which makes the goal scoring way too high.

I will updated my posts tonight when I get home now that I see someone actually take interest in my post! For now, I will update the strategy part as I know those adjustments by heart.

[The EVHL]

Post officially updated. The way I play sounds the same, but I added a line about how I manually adjust strategies in-game and I updated the final sliders I've had the most fun with!

[ChubbyD]

Sliders are legit. The only thing I had to change was to put the user goalies down to equal the CPU goalies, because I couldnt give up a goal. Other than that, the game plays balanced and fair.

I couldnt load the CPU team strategiess though in playoff mode. Why does EA handcuff stuff like this? Is there a way to put them in rosters and load up those in playoff mode? I couldnt find anywhere to do it.

[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChubbyD

Sliders are legit. The only thing I had to change was to put the user goalies down to equal the CPU goalies, because I couldnt give up a goal. Other than that, the game plays balanced and fair. I couldnt load the CPU team strategiess though in playoff mode. Why does EA handcuff stuff like this? Is there a way to put them in rosters and load up those in playoff mode? I couldnt find anywhere to do it.

I haven't had the chance to test that, and yeah I usually play this game in my own weird way, but I was hoping they weren't too far off for people who were looking for an actual 1-team experience. I only play in season mode with full roster control and obviously the ability to change sliders.

One workaround for you would be to start a playoff mode controlling every team, and if there's no menu to update strategies before the game, you could always start the game on the CPU team, adjust the strategies there, select sides back to your team and go from there. It is somewhat annoying but it could solve the issue you're running into.

Glad you're liking the sliders though! I feel like they are a really fun balance between video game accessibility and a solid amount of effort and skill required to setup plays. How are you liking the CPU goalies? I feel some games I score a lot, others I score little to none and it's normally based on the defense (which is kind of true to the real NHL). Are you feeling that you're rewarded enough for good plays? Are the goalies good enough to stop some backdoor plays every once in awhile? Are there any "go-to" moves you feel are too easy? I feel like the attribute effect at 10 mixed with the 100 fatigue effect is making the "cheese" shots somewhat hard to miss as sharp cuts and speed really have a high impact on the shot accuracy. I'm always looking to find a new challenge which is why I made these sliders, so let me know if you've adjusted anything to fit your specific play-style or if you're seeing anything painfully wrong that you've tried to address!

I've scored some really pretty screen goals where the goal location wasn't terribly realistic (five-hole from above tops of circles) but the scenario was realistic which makes up for the lack of seeing-eye shots in this game. Overall, the puck is way more loose off shots where the goalie doesn't have a lot of time to react, I'm seeing less reactionary saves and more blocking saves on in-tight chances which are leading to more engaging scrambles.

Overall, I've just genuinely enjoyed playing this game since I've started this method. Easily the most fun I've ever had playing a hockey game.

[cgm110]

I love these sliders, but am hardly giving up any goals 5v5-- but these are awesome