NHL 09 First Look
Moderators: Bill_Abner, ScoopBrady
A gameplay dev is posting on OS. Here's a partial list of the patch:
Here are a few things I can confirm have been worked on for the patch:
-Reduced the amount the goalies flop to make desperation saves
-Wraparound slapper / Short side glitch goal problems reduced significantly
-More injuries in dynasty -- this really needs a slider for people to tune to their liking so that is something we will have in future versions (not in the patch unfortunately).
-More interference calls -- clearing the front of the net will still be ok
-99 attrib glitch fixed
-Stick lift effectiveness weakened
The changes have to make it through QA before we can say definitively what fixes made it in. It will be a few weeks before the patch is through all of the verification process and released.
There suposedly is more, but he won't say until he gets the "green light".
Another tidbit I learned, holding down RB lets you do manual slap passes, and ringing the puck around the boards... (I think I knew the last part already...)
Here are a few things I can confirm have been worked on for the patch:
-Reduced the amount the goalies flop to make desperation saves
-Wraparound slapper / Short side glitch goal problems reduced significantly
-More injuries in dynasty -- this really needs a slider for people to tune to their liking so that is something we will have in future versions (not in the patch unfortunately).
-More interference calls -- clearing the front of the net will still be ok
-99 attrib glitch fixed
-Stick lift effectiveness weakened
The changes have to make it through QA before we can say definitively what fixes made it in. It will be a few weeks before the patch is through all of the verification process and released.
There suposedly is more, but he won't say until he gets the "green light".
Another tidbit I learned, holding down RB lets you do manual slap passes, and ringing the puck around the boards... (I think I knew the last part already...)
gamertag: Ace EZ
Once a Dragon, a Dragon for life!
Once a Dragon, a Dragon for life!
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RallyMonkey
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 1459
- Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2003 4:00 am
Yes!RallyMonkey wrote:Does anyone know how/if it's possible to alter your online player? Not your BAP player, but the one i use in our club.
Go to 'Performance Tracker' in the main menu. Here you can 'Edit Be A Pro' which will allow you to adjust the player you use for online Club games (as well as any online OTP game with 'club rules' set to 'on').
If you have points to spend, you can do so in 'Edit Attributes.' If you want to change your player type (grinder, playmaker, etc.) or physical attributes, facial features, or equipment, you can 'Edit Pro.' If you change your type, you can re-assign all of your earned attribute points, so if you're up to Superstar or Veteran, you have a bunch of points to play with. So you can toggle your type, confirm back out, then toggle back to what you were and then you can assign all your earned attribute points all over again.
If you start a new offline BAP career, it will use whatever is set in your Edit Pro here in the Performance Tracker as the starting point, I believe.
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sportdan30
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 9120
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:00 am
- Location: St. Louis
Latest patch released for PS3...soon for 360.
This puts the estimated 360 release date on or about 2/27. Here are the patch notes as per a forum moderator on the EA Message boards:
"Exploit fixes:
-Prevent players from entering games with attributes that are raised beyond the level they can reach with the card they are entitled to have. Players who have elevated their attributes this way should reset their character by changing the type and reassigning their points.
-Limit the size of human goalies in OTP/EASHL games to 6'4" (NOTE: it will still allow them to be set larger, but the actual height in game will not go above the new limit).
-Fixed some problems that could cause the game to hang or go out of sync when pausing.
- Prevent use of LB to get up instantly after being knocked over.
-Reduce accuracy of shooting while using vision control to skate backwards.
-Prevent high, accurate slap shots from in close to the net.
Other changes:
-Reduced the ease of beating the goalie on the short side.
-Decrease the tendency of the goalies to use a desperation save unnecessarily.
- Strict calling of interference, though you can still clear players directly in front of the net without getting called for interference.
-Added stick lift to Classic controls using LB+X(XBox) /L1+Square(PS3). It is also on R3 (press Right Stick).
-Fixed shot targeting using the Always Up control when skating down ice.
-Added new NHL rule to locate face- offs in the attacking zone to start a powerplay.
- Prevent CPU players from getting delay of game penalties frequently while clearing the puck from their zone.
- Prevent puck from being poke checked away from the goalie when he has it covered under his glove.
-Reduced the amount of time it takes to get control of the last man back, holding RT(Xbox)/R2(PS3)
-Reduced the amount of time it takes to get control of the goalie, holding LB+A(Xbox)/L1+X(PS3)
-Reduce the range of heights on randomly generated CPU players, including goalies.
- Eliminate the ability to accelerate and maintain high speed which stick lifting.
-More penalties for high sticking when stick lifts are done from behind the opponent.
- Made the colours of the OTP/EASHL indicators more distinct (yellow and orange).
-Made face-off outcomes slightly more random and slightly less dependent on attributes.
- Added assistance to prevent one-timer and shot attempts from leading to accidental hits and interference penalties.
-Goalie tuning to increase goal-scoring a bit to compensate for taking away the easy short-side high goals.
-Improve hit stat tracking to not count all of the small bumps in front of the net.
-Increased injuries caused by CPU teams.
-Prevent puck from being launched with very high speed following a hit.
-AI tuning for superstar. The Aggression slider now affects how intense the CPU team is on that difficulty level."
This puts the estimated 360 release date on or about 2/27. Here are the patch notes as per a forum moderator on the EA Message boards:
"Exploit fixes:
-Prevent players from entering games with attributes that are raised beyond the level they can reach with the card they are entitled to have. Players who have elevated their attributes this way should reset their character by changing the type and reassigning their points.
-Limit the size of human goalies in OTP/EASHL games to 6'4" (NOTE: it will still allow them to be set larger, but the actual height in game will not go above the new limit).
-Fixed some problems that could cause the game to hang or go out of sync when pausing.
- Prevent use of LB to get up instantly after being knocked over.
-Reduce accuracy of shooting while using vision control to skate backwards.
-Prevent high, accurate slap shots from in close to the net.
Other changes:
-Reduced the ease of beating the goalie on the short side.
-Decrease the tendency of the goalies to use a desperation save unnecessarily.
- Strict calling of interference, though you can still clear players directly in front of the net without getting called for interference.
-Added stick lift to Classic controls using LB+X(XBox) /L1+Square(PS3). It is also on R3 (press Right Stick).
-Fixed shot targeting using the Always Up control when skating down ice.
-Added new NHL rule to locate face- offs in the attacking zone to start a powerplay.
- Prevent CPU players from getting delay of game penalties frequently while clearing the puck from their zone.
- Prevent puck from being poke checked away from the goalie when he has it covered under his glove.
-Reduced the amount of time it takes to get control of the last man back, holding RT(Xbox)/R2(PS3)
-Reduced the amount of time it takes to get control of the goalie, holding LB+A(Xbox)/L1+X(PS3)
-Reduce the range of heights on randomly generated CPU players, including goalies.
- Eliminate the ability to accelerate and maintain high speed which stick lifting.
-More penalties for high sticking when stick lifts are done from behind the opponent.
- Made the colours of the OTP/EASHL indicators more distinct (yellow and orange).
-Made face-off outcomes slightly more random and slightly less dependent on attributes.
- Added assistance to prevent one-timer and shot attempts from leading to accidental hits and interference penalties.
-Goalie tuning to increase goal-scoring a bit to compensate for taking away the easy short-side high goals.
-Improve hit stat tracking to not count all of the small bumps in front of the net.
-Increased injuries caused by CPU teams.
-Prevent puck from being launched with very high speed following a hit.
-AI tuning for superstar. The Aggression slider now affects how intense the CPU team is on that difficulty level."
I'm torn. I like what they're trying to do but I played around 10 online games last night and I kept commenting to myself how great the goalie play was. Not too unbeatable (I had one 6-5 game) but still good enough to put up an occasional goose egg (one 1-0 game). If it ain't truly broke...sportdan30 wrote:Latest patch released for PS3...soon for 360.
-Reduced the ease of beating the goalie on the short side.
-Decrease the tendency of the goalies to use a desperation save unnecessarily.
-Goalie tuning to increase goal-scoring a bit to compensate for taking away the easy short-side high goals.
I wish there was some way to "coach" the goalie mid-game or too adjust the way they are making saves that would take away from the opponents tendencies but perhaps open up another way to score. Does that make sense? Sort of akin to tuning your car during NASCAR '09. Maybe between periods you'd get some feedback letting you know where the other player is focusing their shots and then you could "talk" to the goalie and tell him to watch the 5-hole more, or look for the one-timer more frequently (i.e. leave the puck dependent side of the goal more quickly for a possible pass if a forward is on the far side unguarded).
No question about it. How many updates for this game does this make? Three? Four? I don't know if there's even been one yet for FIFA, especially to address online and OTP gameplay issues.GameSeven wrote: This alone is damn cool. I really have to give props to the EA NHL team for supporting their product this year. It should also give NHL 10 a leg up on the new year when the time comes around.
Every one of these patches seems to have addressed problems in all modes of the game, from franchise, to head to head, to online and OTP, not just individual patches for franchise, and then online next month. Not to mention that there have been rules fixes, elimination of exploits, and fer crissake limiting of goalie height for online games is next? That alone lets you know these guys are playing this game in the community, and that they get frustrated just like we do with the things that are screwed up about it or that get exploited.
Keep it coming.
I have the PS3 version and this was definitely fixed. I haven't seen one yet in a handful of games. Penalties in general are more plentiful and varied. I'm pretty happy with the game offline. The patch made a great game even better.sportdan30 wrote:- Prevent CPU players from getting delay of game penalties frequently while clearing the puck from their zone.
I actually play 5 min periods on all star, with the only changes being to maximize shot power and accuracy. This allows me to get plenty of scoring for both teams in a short amount of time (NHL 2K9 spoiled me in this regard), and shot totals usually end up in the high 20s/low 30s for each team.MizzouRah wrote:Is the general consensus for mins per period at 10?
BTW, this is with the 360 version, so I don't have the new patch yet.
Just to update, I actually finished an entire season while playing every game, somthing I haven't done in many years. I decided to play out the first season on pro level, then I switched to all star for my second season.
I ended up going 54-24-4 in the regular season and finished with the top seed in the East by one point over Toronto (ha!). I beat the Red Wings in the finals to win the Stanley Cup. Crosby won the Art Ross and Hart trophies, with 105 pts. Malkin finished 8th in scoring with 91 pts. Gonchar won the Norris trophy with 65 pts, and Malkin won the Conn Smythe with 41 pts in the playoffs (wow!).
I decided not to re-sign high priced UFAs Sykora, Satan, Fedetenko and Gill in the offseason, and replaced them by signing Kovalev, Pominville and Jack Johnson. I also have two of my draft picks playing for me as rookies (both rated in the upper 70s overall). So far, season 2 on all star has been much more challenging and rewarding, although my record is pretty terrible as I adjust to the new level.
I'm really looking forward to the new patch, as I have read it improves goalie play (the biggest weakness when comparing to 2K9 IMO), and also improves penalty and scoring variety. I'm very happy with the game as is though, and extremely impressed with the post release support EA has provided. This has to be their best supported game ever, at least that I have owned.
I ended up going 54-24-4 in the regular season and finished with the top seed in the East by one point over Toronto (ha!). I beat the Red Wings in the finals to win the Stanley Cup. Crosby won the Art Ross and Hart trophies, with 105 pts. Malkin finished 8th in scoring with 91 pts. Gonchar won the Norris trophy with 65 pts, and Malkin won the Conn Smythe with 41 pts in the playoffs (wow!).
I decided not to re-sign high priced UFAs Sykora, Satan, Fedetenko and Gill in the offseason, and replaced them by signing Kovalev, Pominville and Jack Johnson. I also have two of my draft picks playing for me as rookies (both rated in the upper 70s overall). So far, season 2 on all star has been much more challenging and rewarding, although my record is pretty terrible as I adjust to the new level.
I'm really looking forward to the new patch, as I have read it improves goalie play (the biggest weakness when comparing to 2K9 IMO), and also improves penalty and scoring variety. I'm very happy with the game as is though, and extremely impressed with the post release support EA has provided. This has to be their best supported game ever, at least that I have owned.
I'll be curious to see what the net results of this patch will be.
I think overall, they made the scoring too hard. There are many occasions where you get the goalie out of position on a one-timer effect and the puck at best hits the post or crossbar and often goes way wide. This is from point-blank range.
Meanwhile, CPU-controlled players in OTP games would hit slap shots from just inside the goal line and not only are they rockets, they're dead-on accurate.
Getting rid of the goalie flops is good but sometimes, that's the only way you get goals and they're good chances.
Also, anyone notice that hard shots are snatched by the goalies but if the shot is deflected or slowed down in other ways, the goalie lets the puck loose right in front of him. Almost like he can catch any fast shots but the slow ones, he can't catch cleanly.
I think overall, they made the scoring too hard. There are many occasions where you get the goalie out of position on a one-timer effect and the puck at best hits the post or crossbar and often goes way wide. This is from point-blank range.
Meanwhile, CPU-controlled players in OTP games would hit slap shots from just inside the goal line and not only are they rockets, they're dead-on accurate.
Getting rid of the goalie flops is good but sometimes, that's the only way you get goals and they're good chances.
Also, anyone notice that hard shots are snatched by the goalies but if the shot is deflected or slowed down in other ways, the goalie lets the puck loose right in front of him. Almost like he can catch any fast shots but the slow ones, he can't catch cleanly.
I haven't noticed this. I'm putting up 2-3 goals/match although I had a 7 goal game recently with the Sharks so I'd have to disagree that the goalies are all that difficult. You can always adjust the goalies settings if you really can't figure out how to score but I'd recommend changing your style of play and see if that helps. The skill stick makes scoring on goalies even a bit easy sometimes. When playing ranked matches online I basically attempt three different plays to try and score goals.wco81 wrote: Also, anyone notice that hard shots are snatched by the goalies but if the shot is deflected or slowed down in other ways, the goalie lets the puck loose right in front of him. Almost like he can catch any fast shots but the slow ones, he can't catch cleanly.
1) Bring the puck down low, behind the goal line and look for the one-timer. If your opponent is smart they'll cut this off immediately but all it takes is one successful pass and a slight mistake by the D.
2) Get the puck to the point (usually you have to pass the puck around to set this up) and snake the defender. Once past the defender shoot a hard slap shot into the mid-near post. If you're doing this with a sniper (i.e. Selanne or Cheechoo) it tends to works better.
3) Move the puck around like a mad man until the defense gets all out of whack (usually impossible with a patient opponent who knows how to play D) and pass into the post. Then set-up a point blank slap shot into either post. When I do this I'm looking at the goalie to see which side (if any) his momentum is carrying him to and I shoot at the opposite corner.
Couple more quick suggestions...
A) Always RB the puck when the goalie is in possession. I've scored multiple times like this and when you're playing 2-1 or 3-2 games that extra goal makes all the difference. This is not cheap, its smart hockey.
B) Learn how to effectively use the LB juke. This doesn't help against the goalie but can give you a lot of room against a pressuring defender. If you time it right and the defender is trying to check you then you're basically one-on-one against the goalie.
I know all this seems kinda basic but its been working well recently for me in ranked matches. My record is something like 55-45 and I just got the 5 Ranked Wins in a row achievement a couple nights back so I'm definitely getting better.
If you're not too busy playing 2k9 tomorrow, the 360 patch is finally going to be released tonight.
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jsp ... 1&tstart=0
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jsp ... 1&tstart=0
gamertag: Ace EZ
Once a Dragon, a Dragon for life!
Once a Dragon, a Dragon for life!
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Gangrel wrote:If you're not too busy playing 2k9 tomorrow, the 360 patch is finally going to be released tonight.
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jsp ... 1&tstart=0
Ten penalties a piece is too much, I would settle for five on each side maybe six max. However, try lowering the slider on penalties and see if anything changes.wco81 wrote:They went a little too far with penalties the other way.
Seems like each team is getting 10 penalties a game now.
Lot of Interference penalties, many by CPU-controlled players.
Now they call some check from behind and boarding penalties which they never used to.
Man, being away again really sucks for me, first I miss on MLB 09 and I really want to play this game with the new patch.