Feedback + Wishlist

[Atishksingh]

I wanted to add a couple things that I noticed while playing NHL 14 again recently.

When a home team player was injured in a game from a hit, whoever hit him got booed every time they touched the puck.

Also in a playoff series in season mode this would continue as the series went on that player would get booed in road arenas.

Also guys would comeback from injury with a face mask on for protection.

Another thing was when the Home team was hemmed into their own zone for over a minute the home crowd would start booing in displeasure. 

Personally I hope we can create players without helmets again..  here's hoping we get a patch for NHL 21.

[AEZ1]

Franchise Mode:

- Show player ratings and potential in Draft. You can see it in their CHL rosters, why can't it display in Draft? I turn off Fog of War, but that feature has always seem to apply to the Draft, so I always just Auto Draft.

- Allow more user control in Player Edit. I auto-draft and wind up with an Elite Grinder (what even is that?), and before could at least change them to a 2-Way or Power Forward (or anything really), but on NHL 21 the Player Type is unchangeable. We want more control, not less.

- Player Edit, ability to change face and hair. Tyson Foerester does not have Sideshow Bob hair and looks ridiculous in championship celebrations.

- Player Edit, ability to change Role. I should decide if an 85-rated player is 2nd line, not 4th line. And yes, I can manually move them, but over 82 games, that gets annoying. It would be nice to set and save default lines, in place of Best Lines options that really isn't 'best.' 

- Player Edit, ability to change Position, like we can in Rosters (basically all functionality we have in Rosters: Edit Players should be available in mid-Franchise play)

- Player Edit, faces. Been made fun of for years, but how does Ivan Provorov have a generic face when Andy Andreoff in spot-on? Travis Konecny was an All-Star and has the same generic face as Scott Laughton, but Connor Bunnaman is an exact match? Take some time, get the veterans with 'hundreds of games in the league' updated. 

- Career Stat totals in AHL. Love that it was (finally) added for NHL players, would love to see career AHL'ers numbers. It's tracked, and displayed in game when they hit a milestone, so the data is there.

- Please finally get the Flyers Captain & Alternate font right. You have it on their Retro Reverse and on the Phantoms, but their Home & Road font is wrong, has been for years. And it should be black on the home whites, not white on white and almost invisible.

[klausboop]

I think this is the best version of NHL in several years!  Here are a couple of suggestions for make NHL 22 even better:

EASHL

This mode is what introduced me to the game, and I've been playing it weekly with a couple of friends from across the country since around 2013.  Here's how we'd like to see it improved in NHL 22:

• I'm in a 3 player squad, and something that happens to us all the time is that a computer player will hold on to the puck way too long even though we're open, so we finally call for the pass...and at that very moment the computer decides to pass it so as soon as we get it we just send it flying.  So frustrating, and happens so often, regardless of line strategy   Please tweak that algorithm so that we don't end up passing when we're just trying to call for a pass.
• Give us more flexibility in what gets unlocked.  My team has a favorite logo (the traffic safety cone), and some years we unlock it in the first couple of months, while other years it doesn't become available until we've been grinding for 10 months and we only even get to see it for a little while.  We enjoy the advancement aspect, especially with the stadiums, but Instead of random hockey bags I wish winning games and other achievements gave us points we could spend in a marketplace or something along those lines, to have more control instead of just getting a new font or another sock.
• I wish there was a way to realistically practice EASHL offline.  This year I started using the offline modes of HUT for that purpose, but since there's no way to position-lock in HUT it's not really the same as EASHL play.  I used to use Be A Pro for this purpose but it is so much slower than EASHL that it doesn't suit the purpose.

Hockey Ultimate Team

This is my first year playing HUT. I'm an offline, free-to-play player, I enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to starting right at the beginning of the next release.

•  My understanding is that this is also the first year for HUT Rush.  I love HUT Rush.  Please keep it!  Despite all the years playing EASHL, the fact is that I'm not very good at this game, and the HUT Rush challenges (i.e. score 25 wrist shot goals, score 10 goals with a defenseman, score with one-handed tuck) really improved my gameplay, as well as my hockey IQ.  I've seen some people crap on HUT Rush...I loved the challenges, the bite-sized nature of it so I could fit into my schedule, and the substantial HUT rewards.
• I wish the auction menu was always the same.  Sometimes when I'm looking at a player, the only choice is "Auction."  Other times I also get "Search Auction House."  Other times I also get "compare prices".  I'd love to have all the choices available all the time.
• Speaking of the auction house, it would be amazing to be able to see some kind of high/low/average/most recent-type of statistics on items in the auction house, too
• As a first-year HUT player, it was awesome to occasionally get HUT rewards from playing EASHL.  More of that kind of inter-mode stuff, please!
• As noted above, I wish there was some mode in HUT where you could position-lock, to provide offline practice for EASHL while getting rewarded.  That probably doesn't fit HUT, since all HUT gameplay involves switching positions, but hey...that's why this is a wishlist, right?

Be A Pro

Be A Pro used to be how I'd practice and improve offline between sessions of EASHL, but once I started playing HUT it filled that role and took up all my former Be A Pro time.  That said:

• While greatly improved from NHL 19 and NHL 20, Be A Pro still feels slow.  The HUT modes and NHL threes show that there's plenty of horsepower to have all the AIs fly around the ice, so it's always been a mystery to me why Be A Pro doesn't operate at that same pace.  I hope that can improve.  Again, pace vastly improved from recent years, but could be even better.  Now that I've discovered HUT I probably won't go back to Be A Pro.

Practice Modes

I was really glad to see the practice stuff introduced a year or two ago, hope it continues and is expanded (i.e. maybe to all dekes?).  Appreciated the ability to practice as a team in EASHL.  Only used it a couple of times but it was really nice that it was there.

Next-Gen consoles (edited to add)

I'm assuming NHL 22 will be available natively on PS5 and XBox:X.  Please please make it so that we can still play alongside our teammates (i.e. in EASHL) even when there's a mix of current- and previous-gen consoles.  

Thanks for the chance to chime in, @EA_Blueberry , and see you in NHL 2022!

[Villito]

@klausboop While I understand this is a wishlist and everyone is allowed to voice an opinion, I want to voice an opposite opinion on you wish on BAP. If BAP feels slow for you, you can simply adjust the game presets to arcade, that's why they exist. I stay away from HUT and threes exactly because it is so arcade flying down the ice and often feels like has nothing to do with realistic hockey. There's a place for total arcade, and EA has created especially Threes for that purpose. However, many people want the option to play realistic hockey, so it shouldn't be taken away from offline modes.

[klausboop]

@Villito Totally fair and to your point: if BAP is meeting your needs in its current config, then keeping it the same is hub on your wishlist!

What I'm really looking for is a way to practice EASHL offline. Be A Pro used to meet that need but hasn't for a couple of years. I'm not looking for arcade in Be A Pro (like Threes), I'm just looking for EASHL (which feels "real" to me). But thank you for the suggestion, maybe there are more subtle tweaks to Be A Pro that I could already use to suit this purpose!

[EA_Aljo]

@klausboop 

You could probably create a custom player that has the same stats as your EASHL player and take them into practice mode.

[Villito]

@klausboop I totally understand your point of view. And no problem! I think either the Game style preset Arcade (1/4) or Traditional (2/4) could fit to your purpose of training for eashl as they make the gameplay faster. Good to have those presets and sliders so we can tweak the gameplay more to our liking. Other than that though some aspects of gameplay could be better in my opinion as well, at least the AI teammates behaviour.

[Villito]

Game modes and general 

- For some reason the world tournament doesn't exist in game anymore, I really wish it would be added back.

- Roster sharing

BAP

- Make the teams actully follow the Salary cap, it doesn't seem to exist in current BAP

- Add back option to play full league seasons before getting drafted

- Add back option to play in CHL junior leagues/AHL after getting drafted with an addition of playing European leagues (like Detroit's Seider this season).

- Lookalike tournaments of World Junior Championships and World Championships (and why not Olympics). You could get selected to your national team for those tournaments)

- Further adjust the likeability meters, they are maxed too quickly, in only one season, and especially your Brand doesn't build overnight but takes several in real life.

- Legacy meter fills out too quickly (only in one season if you win a few trophies and the Cup)

- Add back the training reminder and make an option if the user wants it pop up or not (as there is in the weekly gained xp report). And make it accessible from calendar (less time wasted to navigating in menus, especially during offseasons)

- AI behaviour: Make the AI teammates to poke check and hit the opposing players too.

- Ability to choose on which attributes to use the XP earned in games when developing your BAP player. At least within the category "shooting", "puck skills" etc.

- Option to create a preset of our slider settings in BAP the same way it can be done in other offline game modes

- Add back the activity feed, so you can see the trades etc (can't really catch the trade news now)

Franchise Mode

- Propect growth or at least some prospects CPU generated prospects stats are way off, like 99 shooting, 70 skating, those should be fixed

- International tournaments in Franchise mode. The international teams could bring more value and content to both BAP and Franchise mode. In Franchise mode it could work the way it does in FIFA, along with being a team manager, you could be offered to take a job of managing international team too. (only if your NHL team doesn't make the playoffs, as they are played simultaneously)

[MattK2020982000]

Wishlist for NHL 22:

1. Better body checking (intense hitting, through the glass, into the bench, into the net etc)

2. Custom goal celebrations, better atmospheres. Custom goal horns

3. Different commentary

4. Need to patch the glitch goals - frostbite engine could contribute to this if possible.

5. Revamp the outdoor ice get rid of it all in CHEL

6. Be a pro improvements like spending your entire career in Europe if you want to, playing at the world championships for your country and Olympic Games.

7. Fix franchise mode

8. Full international teams (I find it insulting that there are fake names on the GB roster - surely us brits deserves more respect as a nation?).

9. New leagues including EIHL, NCAA, KHL

10. Get rid of hockey bags

11. Better after whistle melees

[EA_Aljo]

Hi there, @MattK2020982000.

Thanks for the feedback! Just a quick tip though, when you say something needs to be fixed, but don't give any details, it doesn't let us know what you'd like to see fixed. For example, you mention glitch goals. Which goals are being scored due to a glitch in the game? These would be goals caused by things like the puck passing through a goalie or the back of the net. High percentage shots such as cross-crease and short side snipes are not glitches. You also mention fixing Franchise Mode, but don't give any examples. It's really important to provide these so the dev team knows what bugs you're experiencing. Thank you!