As a guy who has not only played goalie in real life, but has been an EA NHL goalie since NHL 08 when Goalie Mode was introduced, and an EASHL goalie since NHL 13, I like a lot of people was very interested to see how the "Control The Crease" feature EA revealed a month or so after the main feature list would fare. I was especially intrigued by how they would play from the user side after the video of the new motion capture came out.
After a few days playing the EASHL Beta and loving Control The Crease, I swung by the forums to see the reactions and impressions. I noticed a trend in comments as far as goalies were concerned: complete bedlam. The responses that were all over the forum seemed very negative: “goalies suck now!”; “I can‘t control them!”; “goalie’s are completely broken!”. I started wondering if I was crazy, or maybe I just was looking at it from a different perspective.
Since the tuner came out the response seemed to curb a bit more towards the positive, but those initial comments had me a bit worried that things would get tuned away from the foundations of realism they set out for, simply because of the drastic learning curve that Control The Crease required.
I would like to try and address many of the points that stuck out in an effort to help people who may not understand the finer points of netminding understand what the Control The Crease system is asking of them. I would also like to attempt to analyze another side of what EA is actually trying to accomplish with the new goalie controls and systems, as I believe I may have stumbled upon a potential reasoning behind their choices -- a "method to the madness" if you will (if you are only interested in that theory, feel free to skip to the "In Closing aka TL;DR" section of this post.)
Core Movement
"There is nothing wrong with your controller of choice." Okay, so that's a terrible paraphrase of The Outer Limits opening, but it gets the point across. The control scheme, while vastly different, is fine. The biggest issue I'm noticing from others is the fact that now goalies must adhere to exactly what everyone was clamoring for. They are now weighted down by properties found in reality, and some players aren't very comfortable with that, and were using the controls in the incorrect ways. Here's the simplest way to break it down.
Goaltending 101 tells us this: you T-Push (left stick) to cover the pass; you shuffle (left trigger + left stick) to cover the puck carry.
Let me just say, the control scheme is exactly how it should be right now. It takes time to get used to it, but it works perfectly when your muscle memory catches on. T-pushing absolutely SHOULD be the default movement style. Shuffling should stay on the left trigger. Look at how a goaltender moves in reality. Watch how he attempts to cover the cycle. Take these great videos from YouTuber Sensfan0206 of two of my favorite goaltenders, Ray Emery and Sergei Bobrovsky:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yj9h5FVU5po" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1o0wdElCsO0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Notice how both of them move around the crease, despite their obvious "style" differences. They t-push around to track the puck, making precise (left trigger) moves only to fine tune their positioning. If you swap those controls, you take out a very real usage of a t-push. You need to be able to fire off a t-push movement as a quick reaction because it also can work as one of the primary tools of a goalie's recovery (as these videos illustrate).
The best results I've obtained were when I was swapping from Precision to T-Pushes (with an occasional Butterfly Slide thrown in) when the situation called for it, just as it should be. The lone thing I've noticed is sometimes moving around the crease with just Left Stick can cause your goalie to not even look at the puck, but that is exactly what left trigger is for. It works not only as a precision movement modifier, but also as a "square body to puck" adjustment as well. This is how playing goal in EA NHL now grants success - by adhering to the philosophies these men are using in real NHL games. It's not perfect, but it's certainly not broken either.
Input Delay
This one is tricky. Lag is such a user specific experience. In 25 games in net during the Beta, I had only experienced input lag severe enough to hinder my play two or three times max (On the other side of the coin, I did have a few games as a skater where I was a good one or two seconds behind my inputs, and that was brutal). From my experience, the inputs aren't necessarily "lagged" in my opinion, they just aren't as super responsive as they used to be, because now the goalie has to actually dig in and make the strides, instead of being pulled around the ice like a rod hockey figurine. This isn't to say that there weren't hiccups in what I wanted to do and the animation firing off (I would say my input fired off the proper animation about 90% of the time), but it's extremely hard to say if that's a beta issue, or an issue deeply buried in the system at this time.
It's a bit funny when you think about it. Everyone wanted more realistic goalies, but it seems like a lot of user goalies didn't fully understand what would come along with that: goalies who aren't hair trigger responsive. They will have to push, and dig, and will slide out of position if you aren't careful with your control selection. Even if they sped up the response time, the goalie will still have to push to get over, and will still have to stop himself in the slide. These are the properties with which they have implemented, and will remain so even if your tendy can react on a hair-trigger again.
I think the only adjustment I could see benefiting the user base as a whole would be to bring back the anticipation use for Left and Right RS moves only when the left trigger is held down. This would include auto desperation saves like before if the player is anticipating in the proper direction. I only offer this as a suggestion if they do not tune the Butterfly Slide (right stick left/right) to be more reactive from precision movement. Sometimes I simply don't feel it's intuitive or consistent enough to move over to try and cover a pass to a guy on the doorstep with left trigger held at the moment (attempting the Butterfly Slide while holding Left Trigger was where a lot of my input drops seemed to happen), and I think that if they don't end up tuning it so the Butterfly Slide can still be fired off quickly and consistently while Left Trigger is held down, bringing anticipation back might help alleviate the helpless "no man's land" effect that seems to stem from that situation.
Reaction Speed and In Closing (aka TL;DR)
Okay, so here's the real stuff. Yes, goalie's are definitely slower to get over on cross-crease passes. This is something the tuner didn't really seem to address, but I believe that is because this is a deliberate move on EA Canada's part. If what EA has preached from the beginning is that EASHL 2.0 is meant to be a full-team game, where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts, then that is a philosophy that isn't exclusive to offense. It means EVERY facet of a win has to be a full team effort, including defense. Don't want to get cross creased? With far more active sticks now, your defenseman should park their keister's on their proper sides of the goalposts, with your center covering the high slot. With sticks protecting the front of the net, 99% of the time the cross ice pass will get tipped or picked off, and the goalie won't have to lunge post-to-post. Your team has to help your goalies more now than ever before. They, like everyone else, cannot superstar their team to a victory. Everyone has to pick up everyone else. If the defense keeps the shooters out from dangerous areas, and clears out rebound chances so the goalie only had to make the initial save, I have seen first hand that good results can and will follow.
Now I'm not saying the goalies are perfect. There are a few angles that literally make the hug post spaz out to the point where it's actually a complete hindrance. Even post tuner, I got scored on from a goal where I was simply trying to go post-to-post from the VH, and as my goalie transitioned he -- for some unexplained reason -- turned his body as if it was trying to face the puck carrier behind the net as he moved to the other post. This hiccup was enough for the wraparound to score. From certain angles the post hug animation transition works exactly as intended. From others, it's a hassle and fight to get where you want, which is worse when you have a player threatening in your zone and the post hug is what will save a cheap no-angle goal. There are also a few times where it doesn't seem like the direction you push on LS triggers the T-push animation that should correspond to your input.
However, the majority of the comments I have seen are more fluxed by the drastic change, rather than looking at what EA is trying to do. They have made you think as a goalie would in real life. You have to have certain mental abilities to be a good goaltender now. You have to be able to read the play as it unfolds in front of you. You have to be able to analyze the scoring threats. You have to remain focused on the puck even when your teammates have it in your zone. You have to be able to anticipate without committing until the right time, because:
Being a good goalie in EA NHL now comes down to proper positioning, anticipating the plays that can unfold in front of you, and having your teammates support you, just as in reality.
EA has made these paramount with their goalie changes. If you aren't comfortable in net, that's okay, maybe goalie isn't for you. Just like in real life, it's not for everybody. You have to be a special kind of crazy to man the crease. The position is finally specialized in EA NHL. Joe Schmo really can't just pick up goalie because every other position is taken and expect to be a phenom. This is how it should be. It takes time, effort and dedication to get good at stopping the puck. Here at Operation Sports, we always clamor for more realism. With the goalies in NHL 16, we definitely got a step towards it, and now comes the time where we simply have to step up and embrace the realism we clamored for.
Author's Notes:
Would be great to hear thoughts on anything I discussed. I would also love to team up with the goalie guru's around here (betweenthepipes; jmoney2346) to create an "OS Ultimate Guide To NHL 16 Goaltending" when the game drops to help usher inexperienced or aspiring goalies into the new system. Can't wait for September 15th!
WX
After a few days playing the EASHL Beta and loving Control The Crease, I swung by the forums to see the reactions and impressions. I noticed a trend in comments as far as goalies were concerned: complete bedlam. The responses that were all over the forum seemed very negative: “goalies suck now!”; “I can‘t control them!”; “goalie’s are completely broken!”. I started wondering if I was crazy, or maybe I just was looking at it from a different perspective.
Since the tuner came out the response seemed to curb a bit more towards the positive, but those initial comments had me a bit worried that things would get tuned away from the foundations of realism they set out for, simply because of the drastic learning curve that Control The Crease required.
I would like to try and address many of the points that stuck out in an effort to help people who may not understand the finer points of netminding understand what the Control The Crease system is asking of them. I would also like to attempt to analyze another side of what EA is actually trying to accomplish with the new goalie controls and systems, as I believe I may have stumbled upon a potential reasoning behind their choices -- a "method to the madness" if you will (if you are only interested in that theory, feel free to skip to the "In Closing aka TL;DR" section of this post.)
Core Movement
"There is nothing wrong with your controller of choice." Okay, so that's a terrible paraphrase of The Outer Limits opening, but it gets the point across. The control scheme, while vastly different, is fine. The biggest issue I'm noticing from others is the fact that now goalies must adhere to exactly what everyone was clamoring for. They are now weighted down by properties found in reality, and some players aren't very comfortable with that, and were using the controls in the incorrect ways. Here's the simplest way to break it down.
Goaltending 101 tells us this: you T-Push (left stick) to cover the pass; you shuffle (left trigger + left stick) to cover the puck carry.
Let me just say, the control scheme is exactly how it should be right now. It takes time to get used to it, but it works perfectly when your muscle memory catches on. T-pushing absolutely SHOULD be the default movement style. Shuffling should stay on the left trigger. Look at how a goaltender moves in reality. Watch how he attempts to cover the cycle. Take these great videos from YouTuber Sensfan0206 of two of my favorite goaltenders, Ray Emery and Sergei Bobrovsky:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yj9h5FVU5po" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1o0wdElCsO0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Notice how both of them move around the crease, despite their obvious "style" differences. They t-push around to track the puck, making precise (left trigger) moves only to fine tune their positioning. If you swap those controls, you take out a very real usage of a t-push. You need to be able to fire off a t-push movement as a quick reaction because it also can work as one of the primary tools of a goalie's recovery (as these videos illustrate).
The best results I've obtained were when I was swapping from Precision to T-Pushes (with an occasional Butterfly Slide thrown in) when the situation called for it, just as it should be. The lone thing I've noticed is sometimes moving around the crease with just Left Stick can cause your goalie to not even look at the puck, but that is exactly what left trigger is for. It works not only as a precision movement modifier, but also as a "square body to puck" adjustment as well. This is how playing goal in EA NHL now grants success - by adhering to the philosophies these men are using in real NHL games. It's not perfect, but it's certainly not broken either.
Input Delay
This one is tricky. Lag is such a user specific experience. In 25 games in net during the Beta, I had only experienced input lag severe enough to hinder my play two or three times max (On the other side of the coin, I did have a few games as a skater where I was a good one or two seconds behind my inputs, and that was brutal). From my experience, the inputs aren't necessarily "lagged" in my opinion, they just aren't as super responsive as they used to be, because now the goalie has to actually dig in and make the strides, instead of being pulled around the ice like a rod hockey figurine. This isn't to say that there weren't hiccups in what I wanted to do and the animation firing off (I would say my input fired off the proper animation about 90% of the time), but it's extremely hard to say if that's a beta issue, or an issue deeply buried in the system at this time.
It's a bit funny when you think about it. Everyone wanted more realistic goalies, but it seems like a lot of user goalies didn't fully understand what would come along with that: goalies who aren't hair trigger responsive. They will have to push, and dig, and will slide out of position if you aren't careful with your control selection. Even if they sped up the response time, the goalie will still have to push to get over, and will still have to stop himself in the slide. These are the properties with which they have implemented, and will remain so even if your tendy can react on a hair-trigger again.
I think the only adjustment I could see benefiting the user base as a whole would be to bring back the anticipation use for Left and Right RS moves only when the left trigger is held down. This would include auto desperation saves like before if the player is anticipating in the proper direction. I only offer this as a suggestion if they do not tune the Butterfly Slide (right stick left/right) to be more reactive from precision movement. Sometimes I simply don't feel it's intuitive or consistent enough to move over to try and cover a pass to a guy on the doorstep with left trigger held at the moment (attempting the Butterfly Slide while holding Left Trigger was where a lot of my input drops seemed to happen), and I think that if they don't end up tuning it so the Butterfly Slide can still be fired off quickly and consistently while Left Trigger is held down, bringing anticipation back might help alleviate the helpless "no man's land" effect that seems to stem from that situation.
Reaction Speed and In Closing (aka TL;DR)
Okay, so here's the real stuff. Yes, goalie's are definitely slower to get over on cross-crease passes. This is something the tuner didn't really seem to address, but I believe that is because this is a deliberate move on EA Canada's part. If what EA has preached from the beginning is that EASHL 2.0 is meant to be a full-team game, where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts, then that is a philosophy that isn't exclusive to offense. It means EVERY facet of a win has to be a full team effort, including defense. Don't want to get cross creased? With far more active sticks now, your defenseman should park their keister's on their proper sides of the goalposts, with your center covering the high slot. With sticks protecting the front of the net, 99% of the time the cross ice pass will get tipped or picked off, and the goalie won't have to lunge post-to-post. Your team has to help your goalies more now than ever before. They, like everyone else, cannot superstar their team to a victory. Everyone has to pick up everyone else. If the defense keeps the shooters out from dangerous areas, and clears out rebound chances so the goalie only had to make the initial save, I have seen first hand that good results can and will follow.
Now I'm not saying the goalies are perfect. There are a few angles that literally make the hug post spaz out to the point where it's actually a complete hindrance. Even post tuner, I got scored on from a goal where I was simply trying to go post-to-post from the VH, and as my goalie transitioned he -- for some unexplained reason -- turned his body as if it was trying to face the puck carrier behind the net as he moved to the other post. This hiccup was enough for the wraparound to score. From certain angles the post hug animation transition works exactly as intended. From others, it's a hassle and fight to get where you want, which is worse when you have a player threatening in your zone and the post hug is what will save a cheap no-angle goal. There are also a few times where it doesn't seem like the direction you push on LS triggers the T-push animation that should correspond to your input.
However, the majority of the comments I have seen are more fluxed by the drastic change, rather than looking at what EA is trying to do. They have made you think as a goalie would in real life. You have to have certain mental abilities to be a good goaltender now. You have to be able to read the play as it unfolds in front of you. You have to be able to analyze the scoring threats. You have to remain focused on the puck even when your teammates have it in your zone. You have to be able to anticipate without committing until the right time, because:
Being a good goalie in EA NHL now comes down to proper positioning, anticipating the plays that can unfold in front of you, and having your teammates support you, just as in reality.
EA has made these paramount with their goalie changes. If you aren't comfortable in net, that's okay, maybe goalie isn't for you. Just like in real life, it's not for everybody. You have to be a special kind of crazy to man the crease. The position is finally specialized in EA NHL. Joe Schmo really can't just pick up goalie because every other position is taken and expect to be a phenom. This is how it should be. It takes time, effort and dedication to get good at stopping the puck. Here at Operation Sports, we always clamor for more realism. With the goalies in NHL 16, we definitely got a step towards it, and now comes the time where we simply have to step up and embrace the realism we clamored for.
Author's Notes:
Would be great to hear thoughts on anything I discussed. I would also love to team up with the goalie guru's around here (betweenthepipes; jmoney2346) to create an "OS Ultimate Guide To NHL 16 Goaltending" when the game drops to help usher inexperienced or aspiring goalies into the new system. Can't wait for September 15th!
WX
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