I realize this is a bit granular but I decided to hop in Online Team Play (OTP) just to see if anything had changed and honestly not a lot has. I know you are saying OTP is a wretched hive of scum and villainy and I agree but nothing happened that was an OTP specific problem. Players played their positions for the most part, played defense, tried to pass, etc. We did have multiple players quit after the first goal but everything can't be perfect. The main game was mostly five of us against two or three of them with CPU goalies.
So off the get go I am playing center and the opposing center is doing the hitching cheat faceoff that EA can't seem to fix (incredibly lazy this is still an issue). It took me a while to adjust but I managed to battle the guy to a draw on the faceoffs (I am normally like 65% in club, I blame rustiness and of course the other guy cheating). We outchanced the other team about 30 to 5 and I managed an assist (double rebound netmouth scramble so no skill involved) and a tip in goal (decent positioning but obviously a bit lucky). That was it for our scoring. I don't remember the other team's first goal but the 2nd was on a quick turnover in our zone that a CPU forward shot past our goalie from like the dot (no skill at all). The game went to three overtimes (because why wouldn't it?) and the game winning goal was a 5 hole goal off of a rebound from around the dot (no skill).
So just to summarize we outchanced the other team badly and lost in triple OT and 4 of the 5 goals in 5+ periods of hockey were not skill based. If it's in the game it's in the game.
I will try to play some with my club when I can get them back together but it is looking like play human goalies or just give up for this year because trying to score against the CPU is just laughably bad.
Scoring against the CPU is easy, I find it almost too easy this year actually. The goalie can stop one play well. One play. That's it. There are so many different shots you can beat the goalie with this year, it's just a matter of which one can you pull off.
ReplyDeleteSo you are the only one who has figured this out? I haven't seen anything approaching a reliable shot in this game. Describe all these shots that you can beat the goalie easily with (and not breakaways).
DeleteI'm hardly the only person that knows this, lots of people that play club can score at will. Snipers can pick the top corner pretty easily coming down the left side when there are defenders there (for a left handed player) using a drag shot. My LW in club can do this 6/10 times. I also do this pretty often in HUT with Patrick Marleau.
ReplyDeleteGoing 5-hole is probably the easiest thing you can do. Make the goalie move side to side and dump the puck in the slut basket. Simple as that. I have done this tonnes of times when I get a little room in the slot. The goalie opens up his 5-hole all the time because he's programmed to move side to side so much. Probably half of all my club's goals are 5-hole.
Shooting from the slot above the circles while the goalie is moving is also very easy to do. I'm not a natural scorer myself (TWF and TWD), but I have pulled this off many times. You want to drag the shot into the slot and release as the goalie is coming off the post.
Of course rebounds can be very effective, but the placement of your shot will determine how often this becomes a viable chance. I describe a high percentage chance my team calls the "duck and dingle" in my NHL 13 blog pretty well, and though my team rarely uses this now, it can have up to an 80% success rate when performed right.
I was frustrated with this game during the first month and couldn't score very well, but at this point I have adapted and it is quite honestly easy. This is maybe due to all the time I have dumped into this game. The best thing to keep in mind is that the goalie over compensates ALL THE TIME. Try a cross crease, but instead of the recipient getting the puck on the other side of the goalie, receive the puck on the same side of the ice as the pass came from, and watch the net open up.
There are a lot of ways to score in this game, and very little of them worked well in NHL 12. Keep that in mind.
Thanks for the insight. If we ever play against a CPU goalie again we will definitely try some of those things.
DeleteFWIW, we played a few against the CPU last night and it was largely the same as I have seen before. 90% of the goals scored were pure luck on fluke plays having nothing to do with skill. You claim you have figured out scoring but from your team page you guys shoot maybe 1-3% better than we do. Given we shoot for rebounds a ton I would say our percentages are about the same with you guys having maybe a 1% advantage which isn't a lot. So what gives?
DeleteI don't really know what to tell you, we cycle the puck a lot, pass all the time, and have been playing together for quite some time now. If I had to guess, one of our game changers would probably be our defensive play. I like to think we play above average D, while a lot of top clubs dominate with staggering offense. We are by no means the best club out there, but we always have a winning record and are usually in the Elite division.
DeleteThis game can definitely be decided by luck, I don't deny that. But more often then not, I feel we are deciding the outcome of the game. I'd say maybe 15% of the time there's little to nothing that you can do about lucky bounces, soft goals, bad penalties, ect. The other 85% of the time solid D and puck control seems to do it's job. At least that's what I find, and probably why we continue to play the game.
No I mean if you have really figured the CPU goalie out why are you shooting maybe 1% better than we are (given all our rebound shots)? If you were shooting 20%+ or something it would make sense but you are barely shooting better than we are. We cycle like Lance Armstrong and setup dozens of great plays but none of that seems to matter when there is a CPU goalie in net.
DeleteWe get a lot of chances. We regularly out-shoot the other team and set up our offense fast. We also have a RW who likes to take 10+ shots a game. We give our defensemen a pretty decent amount of chances from the point as well. I guess we don't really score on more chances then your average team, but for whatever reason, we usually find a way to solve the goalie. And once that happens, the floodgates usually open up and we'll score 3 or 4 more. Now that I think about it, I believe our offensive success is due to my team having a wide variety of goal scoring methods, not just a couple of plays.
DeleteNever forget that this game routinely feels as if it's stacking the odds against you and your team, even if you're dominating the play. My team finds a way to overcome this more often than not, and I believe it to be a result of relentless pressure, variation and a very physical game. We average something like 15 - 20 hits a game, and our RD injures people all over the place.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete