Hey NHLGamers,
A new NHL 19 Tuner carrying the version number 1.0.2 has been released. Before we jump into the tuner notes, let's have a little talk. If you are active on social media and the NHL community, you know that there has been a lot of harsh feedback about NHL 19 and there's been claims such as:
- They ruined the game - it was already perfect during the beta!
- The patch/tuner turned the game back into NHL 18!
- The skating was perfect, but now I feel like a tank again!
Let's take a moment to think about this. Could some of this backlash also be a community overreaction? I mean, we're having the same discussions annually. People that are familiar with marketing surely know that word of mouth works in a snowball effect, maybe that's a part of what's happening here? Understandably everyone can't like the changes but have they actually been as dramatic as the community has made it seem?
I myself usually love playing the game in the first weeks it comes out - sure, it feels the same in many ways, but it's still fresh and people don't know how to play exactly and how to score in the most efficient ways. Fast-forward a few weeks: The game isn't as easy as it was on the week of the release. Your competition has also got in some game hours and has learned a trick or two. The bliss of having a new, amazing product has faded and you've become familiarized with the grind it takes to stay at a competitive level in the game.
So a new patch or tuner comes out and someone tells you "this and that is completely ruined". You start focusing on it more. You notice new things that perhaps aren't actually new things, just things you didn't pay attention to before. But surely it's real - everybody is talking about it!
Do I think the game is perfect? Far from it. I have spent countless hours giving constructive feedback about it this year alone. But constructive is the key word. If you want something to be actually improved, you can't expect it to improve if your feedback is at the level of "This is trash! Fix your game!". I know there are many members in our community that actually put in the time and effort to provide valuable and well constructed feedback. I believe we could all benefit from taking a look at our approach to feedback, whether it is at a Burger King or a web forum.
Honestly, I have been too busy with working on the website and broadcasts to get in as many game hours as I would like to and because of that, I know that many of you are better qualified to actually discuss the pokechecks, stick lifts and skating. So please do discuss it in the comments, using words, videos and graphs or whatever you need. Let's just drill into the specifics of the issues and look at why things work or don't work the way we expect them to. It's also worth keeping in mind that if you release a patch that aims to fix everything in one go, it's could to be really hard to say what change caused an unexpected change to the game balance.
NHL 19 Tuner 1.0.2 - Change log
QuoteOctober 11th @ 2am PDT - Tuner 1.02
- Improved consistency of penalty calls from errant stick lifts
- Increased deking success rate in keeping the puck. Player attributes still provide a big range in ability but all players will be improved from where they were with the change.
- Improved consistency of blocking incidental stick contact if the stick collided with body geo first
- Improved pickup solve consistency
- Players will no longer drop their sticks
- Improvements to AI goalie decision making when playing the puck out of their net. Mostly impacts goalies that were too aggressive
- AI goalie puck tracking improvements
- Reduced the chance ai skaters will put the puck over the glass for delay of game penalties in World of Chel
Source: EA Forums
Ok, so on to the important stuff of what's new in this tuner. The tuner is now available, but I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. There are several parts that at least on paper sound like they issue many of my main complaints so far:
- You should not be able to smash that stick lift irresponsibly without getting called for penatlies.
- It should be easier to pull off some dekes with any player type now (I've felt it's too hard to get successful dekes even when the player isn't pressured)
- It's felt like it's been a bit too easy to knock the puck lose just by the opponent trying to hit you, but in the process their stick has touched the puck, often through your body. This should be improved now.
- I've often been confused with whether or not I've been able to pick up the puck or not and I don't know if I should leave the situation or not. Hopefully now the outcome will be more obvious and make reading the game a bit easier.
- Earlier broken sticks were removed (from competitive play) and now the dropped sticks. While I liked it as a thing that happens in real hockey, let's face it - it was very random and thus unfair.
- I've actually been quite happy with the goalies this year, but I imagine these tweaks are to hinder some glitch.
What do you think about the new tuner? What is your main gripe with NHL 19? Let us know in the comments.
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