Hey there NHLGamers,
Coming sometime today (1st of October) will be the first content update (often also known as a patch) of the year for NHL 20. Contrary to last year, EA will not be releasing a tuner just yet. Releasing tuners often is something they have done for the past few years, which especially last year was criticised by many players for changing the game for the worse or simply too often. As such, the main focus of this update will be to fix bugs that have been reported across many modes, from World of Chel to Franchise. That is not to say that there are just bug fixes, as they have tweaked some aspects of the game in order for the user to have a better experience when playing the game.
In the content update notes the community manager "Clappy" gives the details about the update, but also points out the development team in Vancouver are monitoring and would like feedback about:
- Interceptions from behind
- Inconsistency of low relative speed hits from console to console
- Puck loss when pivoting at high speed
The team is also looking at the ping (=one way of measuring connection quality) in Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) not reflecting the user experience in responsiveness of gameplay. Be sure to give your opinion in the comments below.
On the updated side of things, there is a lot of added art and fixes to things such as presentation and lots of "nice to have" things, but there is also a good amount of things that could really improve your gameplay experience, such as:
- Fixed a case where players could get their limbs stuck in the net
- Fixed multiple cases where the puck could go through the goalie’s pad
- Improved cases where slap shots would be missed when taken near the boards
- Various goalie animation fixes
- Fixed cases where goalies were sometimes trying to perform controlled/redirect saves when the puck had a high chance of being deflected and would leave them more vulnerable than they should be
- Improved goalie tracking when the puck is behind the net
- Improvements to shot angle selection logic for some rare cases
- Improved cases where players on loose pucks would perform a snap shot when a slap shot would be expected
- Fixed rare cases where one-timers would miss the puck completely
There have also been many fixes to issues such as the game crashing or the game desyncing (often called looping or the "faceoff loop" and competitive HUT players will be happy to hear that the opponent name will not anymore be visible before the faceoff, so the ability to dodge players by leaving without a loss against tough opponents should be much harder to pull off now.
Below you'll find the full changelog for the update:
QuoteHello NHL Community,
The newest content update for NHL20 will be live tomorrow on October 1st! This includes newly revealed adidas jerseys, Franchise Mode updates as well as a fix for the HUT loop/desync.
Although we usually release a tuner around this time, we believe there is a consensus that the gameplay in NHL20 is in a good place so we don’t want to make any changes as of now. But there are a few areas we are monitoring and would like your feedback on:
Interceptions from behind
Inconsistency of low relative speed hits from console to console
Puck loss when pivoting at high speed
On top of this we’re investigating some users suggesting that the ping shown in-game is not matching their in-game HUT experience.
Please continue to voice your opinion on these and any other topics as we will continue to provide more gameplay and content updates throughout the year.
Thanks,
Clappy & The EA SPORTS NHL Dev Team
Here are the Content Update notes:
Gameplay
General
- Added NHL 2019-2020 season rule change for puck out of bounds
- When the attacking team is responsible for the puck going out of play in the attacking zone, in all instances, the face-off will be conducted at one of the two face-off dots in the attacking zone
- Fixed a case where the player is sometimes unable to pick up the puck after a penalty shot in Threes
Physics
- Fixed a case where players could get their limbs stuck in the net
- Fixed multiple cases where the puck could go through the goalie’s pad
- Improved cases where slap shots would be missed when taken near the boards
AI
- Improved a case where the weak side defender would overcommit on an odd man rush allowing the puck carrier a breakaway
- Fixed a case where AI players would start to accelerate when passed to without player input
Goalie
- Various goalie animation fixes
- Fixed cases where goalies were sometimes trying to perform controlled/redirect saves when the puck had a high chance of being deflected and would leave them more vulnerable than they should be
- Improved goalie tracking when the puck is behind the net
Shooting
- Improvements to shot angle selection logic for some rare cases
- Improved cases where players on loose pucks would perform a snap shot when a slap shot would be expected
- Fixed rare cases where one-timers would miss the puck completely
Presentation
- Added ability to preview the play-of-the-period replays in action tracker
- Various environment camera clipping fixes
- Player lineup animation and camera improvements
- Play-of-the-period/game animation and camera improvements
- Various Play of the Game/Play of the Period selection logic fixes
- Multiplayer hug improvements
- Fixed cases where penalty replays in EASHL don’t show the penalty being taken
Franchise Mode
- Added the season standings to the calendar screen
- Added Auto Staff Setting that allows the CPU to assign scouts for the user team
- Fixed an issue where Alumni Player’s Ages don’t show correctly in a fantasy draft in Franchise Mode
- Fixed an issue where the PP and PK columns in Hire staff were reversed
- Misc stability improvements
Art
NHL
- Updated Nashville Predators Scoreboard
- Center Ice Changes
- Updated the following Center Ice layouts
AHL
- Binghamton Senators
- Canadian Hockey League
- London Knights
- Cape Breton Eagles
Uniforms
The following uniforms have been added to NHL 20
NHL
- Buffalo Sabres Alternate
- Chicago Blackhawks Home and Away
- Edmonton Oilers Alternate
- Carolina Hurricanes Away
Canadian Hockey League
- London Knights Home and Away
- Tri-City Americans Home and Away
- Cape Breton Eagles Home and Away
SHL
- Farjestad BK Home and Away
- HV71 Home and Away
- Rogle BK Home and Away
Liiga
- Mikkelin Jukurit Home and Away
- Lahti Pelicans Home, Away and Alternate
- Tappara Tampere Home, Away and Alternate
EBEL
- Dornbirn Bulldogs Home and Away
- EC Panaceo VSV Home and Away
- EC-KAC Home and Away
- EC Red Bull Salzburg Home and Away
- EHC Liwest Blackwings Linz Home and Away
- Hydro Fehervar AV19 Home and Away
- HC TWK Innsbruck Home and Away
- Graz 99ers Home and Away
- SPUSU Vienna Capitals Home and Away
HUT
General
- Fixed a desync issue which was causing the opening faceoff to loop in some Online Games
- Fixed an issue where players could see their opponent’s PSN ID/Gamertag before loading into a Competitive Seasons/HUT Champs games
- Fixed an issue where Goalie Mask items may have become invisible when navigating the Apply Consumable screen
- Fixed some issues where items may have not been properly revealed in Choice Packs
Squad Battles
- Save last-used difficulty as default (complete games only)
- Now display ‘Possible Points’ for each opponent as difficulty is selected
World of CHEL
Improvements
- Having heard the community feedback, we are reducing the requirements for the World of Chel weekly challenge card. Now, user will only need to complete a reduced number of the 5 columns to earn that week’s Special Reward.
- Added a link to Edit Player from the Recent Items screen so the user doesn’t have to manually back out and enter the flow from the WoC HUB
- Added the ability to have EA Custom Stock Team Branding uniforms be equipped by clubs. Stay tuned throughout the year for future uniform releases that can be earned by clubs through hockey bags.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where the current leader in Ones was not displaying correctly after the user has won the final Ones Eliminator round
- Fixed an issue where we display the wrong error message if a club is in a Threes Eliminator dressing room, and the session falls below the minimum users
- Reskinned the “Waiting for All Users to Resume” screen that comes after the pause menu so that the text is more legible
- Fixed various clipping issues and enabled several additional goalie intro animations that previously had clipping issues
- Fixed a failed to retrieve data issue that could occur when trying to enter any Dressing Room without the Lead Profile
- Fixed an issue where a user could crash upon another user closing the game while loading into gameplay
- Fixed a timing issue where desync’s could occur when a Player Class Tuning file or a Gameplay Tuner Set upload happens while games are about to get underway from the Dressing Room
- Fixed an issue where very long club names could overlap each other in the dressing room after matching up in a clubs game
What do you think about these changes? What else would you like fixed? Let us know in the comments below.
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