NHL 2k3 My Positive Criticism
DollarIn
Let me get my one disappointment out of the way.
Playing 10 min periods, accel clock, slightly slowed down play speed, which
seems right. Still too many shot on goal, 15-20 a period. I tweaked up the
defense, also turned the goalies down cause they saved too many shots, upped
the shot accuracy, plays better. Still to many shots. My only major gripe.
Graphics could have been better, no biggie, and camera angles closer and
better. Unfortunately, the most enjoyable graphics are replays, and not
gameplay.
Now for the good stuff.
The days of grabbing a puck and bull rushing up ice are over. You have to
think hockey, and play hockey. Gain possession in your own zone? You might
rush it out 2 out of 10 times, but you might better consider regrouping
behind your net, where get this....a forward might skate around to get the
puck from you. Awesome.
The play and mucking along the boards is great, an integral part of hockey.
Sloppy play, loose pucks.
Setting up on the power play.
Deflections in front of the net.
Forechecking.
If only there were some way to reduce those darn shot totals playing 20 mins
real time, it could be considered an almost perfect sim. All the elements
are there.
Still one of the best sims, which can still pass for some playable arcade
fun, ever.
Just those darn shot totals.........
Joe M.
news:cMfD9.157468$c51.47...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
> Almost the best hockey sim ever made, certainly in the last 10 years.
> Let me get my one disappointment out of the way.
> Playing 10 min periods, accel clock, slightly slowed down play speed,
which
> seems right. Still too many shot on goal, 15-20 a period. I tweaked up the
> defense, also turned the goalies down cause they saved too many shots,
upped
> the shot accuracy, plays better. Still to many shots. My only major gripe.
> Graphics could have been better, no biggie, and camera angles closer and
> better. Unfortunately, the most enjoyable graphics are replays, and not
> gameplay.
I play 7 minute periods (accelerated so the game clock is 20:00) and I
usually get 30-40 shots per game with the opposition lower but realistic. I
think 10 minutes is too long to have realistic shots and not be frustrated
by the lack of goals (if you bump up difficulty enough to stop your shots
you probably won't score more than 1 goal per game). Looks like 7-8 minutes
is a good length for realistic stats.
> Now for the good stuff.
> The days of grabbing a puck and bull rushing up ice are over. You have to
> think hockey, and play hockey. Gain possession in your own zone? You might
> rush it out 2 out of 10 times, but you might better consider regrouping
> behind your net, where get this....a forward might skate around to get the
> puck from you. Awesome.
> The play and mucking along the boards is great, an integral part of
hockey.
> Sloppy play, loose pucks.
> Setting up on the power play.
> Deflections in front of the net.
> Forechecking.
I agree. It looks like hockey, smells like hockey, feels like hockey; it
must be hockey. ;0) Haven't scored 2 similar looking goals yet. Neat new
feature is the goalie animations which string together. Other games require
the goalie to return to a ready position between every save (EA-bots where
the goalie dives, stands up, splits, stands up, dives, stands up, etc).
Here the goalies can transition their animations to any realistic position
and it looks fabulous. I've been robbed a few times by goalies doing the
Hasek twist (where the net appears open but they spin on their back from a
seated position and block my shot with the back of their arm or body).
Amazing. As the Rangers I've scored with a slapper by Bure that clanged off
the post, off the goalies back and in the net; Holik has a few goals off
scrambles in front; and Lindros has a nice deflection from a point shot
(just to name a few).
> If only there were some way to reduce those darn shot totals playing 20
mins
> real time, it could be considered an almost perfect sim. All the elements
> are there.
> Still one of the best sims, which can still pass for some playable arcade
> fun, ever.
> Just those darn shot totals.........
>
Not sure what you mean about playing 20 minutes real-time? Most games don't
scale well for real-time periods. I believe it's a design decision to make
realistic stats appear in the 5-10 minute range to accommodate the large
majority of gamers who play that period length. At 20 minutes per period,
with stoppages, games would take almost 2 hours and I don't think most
gamers spend 2 hours per game.
Not sure if you realize that if you set time to accelerated all periods
display 20 minutes but they just run faster (10 minute period runs double
time, 5 min runs quadruple, etc.). As I said earlier, realistic stats can
be easily had at 7-8 minutes. The only down side is PP's feel very short
(40 seconds real-time).
BTW, how many goals per game do you score and give up? This is my only
gripe. I cannot get the cpu to score more than 2 goals against. My typical
games are 1-0, 2-0, 3-1, 3-2. Haven't seen 4 goals yet for me and 3 for the
opposition.
--
Joe M.
Jonathan Diehl
and let me know how they work.
I've been using these settings, which are a comination of a couple of sets
that I found over in the Thunderpuck forums, plus a few tweaks of my own
that I've adjusted after playing a bunch of games against the computer.
Most games that I've played against the computer have very realistic stats.
Everything is measured in the number of clicks from the left (minimum):
Skill Level: all star
Game Speed: 0 (probably the most important setting to keeping your SOG and
breakaways down).
Period Length: 7 or 8 Minutes, depending on your style of play
Game Clock: Accelerated
Penalties: 5
Fighting: 10
Controller: Advanced
Pass Aim Assist: 1 click
Shot Aiming: Manual
Auto Puck In Air Grab: On
Puck Protection: Manual
Goalie Skill: 1 click
Defense Skill: 9 clicks
Offense Skill: 6 clicks
Speed Burst Effect: 2
Speed Burst Time: 2
Speed Burst Recovery: 10
Fatigue Effect: 7
Fatigue Recovery: 4
Fatigue Time: 8
Hit Power: 1
Shot Accuracy: 3 (I started a zero, but was missing too many wide open nets)
Pass Accuracy: 0
Pass Speed: 4
Rebounds: 3
Shot Blocking: 10
Puck Friction: 4
Ice Friction: 5
Puck Retention: 5
Puck Control: 3
Freeze Puck Time: 3
Pinning: On
camera: 3/4 with default zoom
Jon
"DollarIn" <Rig...@nowhere.net> wrote in message
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Bill Harris
hockey. I set these before I even played my first game last night, and I was
completely blown away. Very impressive.
"Jonathan Diehl" <jbd...@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
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Joe62
<NoEma...@spamfree.com> wrote:
>The only down side is PP's feel very short
>(40 seconds real-time).
That's why I went for 10 minute periods. At one minute the powerplay
is just long enough to have some meaning.
> I cannot get the cpu to score more than 2 goals against.
Playing on the skill above pro, with high shot accuracy and weak
goalies, Detroit beat me (Vancouver) 4-2 the other night.
Joe M.
news:qm7ttuo714bdro065...@4ax.com...
I played a game on Hall-of-Fame and beat TB 1-0. I tried Colorado and they
only managed 1 goal. This is with 6 clicks on shot accuracy, zero clicks on
goalies, and 10 clicks on offense. I'll try higher shot accuracy. Do you
know if this effect MY shot accuracy? I like the realism of missing the net
and don't want to compromise that aspect. Still the best damn hockey game
every. I'll live with 3-2, 2-1, etc.
PS-Maybe I'm just too damn good. Great, another talent that doesn't pay $.
;)
--
Joe M.
Aaron Menchions
There was a post somewhere on thunderpuck or op sports that said the goalie
skill slider works like this:
MOve it all the way left, your goalie kicks ass while the AI goalie sucks,
the middle is even, and all the way right is vice versa. I think all the
"skill" sliders work like this too. I had a game with my goalie slider at
0, and offense and defense all the way right.
My poor Tommy Salo faced 69 shots, but only let one in. :) and I couldn't
do anything because their D was all over me. I then set all 3 of the
sliders somewhat in the middle, and the game was WAYYYY better......
I currently have them about one click in my favour.....
I wish Sega would post how each slider works as it's a tad confusing.......
"Joe M." <NoEma...@spamfree.com> wrote in message
news:gO-cnacvFMJ...@comcast.com...
Jonathan Diehl
I just read this same post over @ Thunderpuck and I'm thinking the same
thing as you.
I'm going to put my Goalie Skill, Defensive Skill and Offensive Skill
sliders all in the middle (5).
Leaveing them at default makes the computer (and your players) play at the
skill level you have selected (ie. all star, pro, etc)....rather than what
the slider is telling them to do.
The guy taking the lead on the slider settings discussion "hrudey32" is
trying to talk to one of the game's developers to figure out for us what
each individual slider does exactly.
Jon
"Aaron Menchions" <amenc...@rogers.com> wrote in message
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Joe M.
used to impact play for both teams (i.e., if we BOTH gain skill in the same
area it's a wash and really doesn't change anything).
Sega should simply put a BAR in the middle with plus (+) and minus (-) at
each end to indicate the net impact to the human player (all the way left is
max benefit/middle is balance/right is max detriment):
GOALIE
(+) **********|*********** (-)
That's my visual interpretation of the slider. ;0)
I will try the sliders based on this new info and report back.
Thanks again.
--
Joe M.
"Aaron Menchions" <amenc...@rogers.com> wrote in message
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Alan Bernardo
Goal Skill, Defensive and Offensive Skill in the middle (no advantage to
either side, if interpretation is correct), and on Pro was able to win, 2-0.
Before, when the skills for offense and defense were at 9, I was having a
hard time winning at Pro.
It's only one test but this all looks about right. If all the other sliders
work in the same way, this changes things drastically.
The key here is a competitive game with realistic SOGs and scoring,
according to one's own ability level. I'm still thinking that no matter the
sliders that I've used so far, ten-minute periods with an accelerated clock
still produces too many SOGs for both sides.
Alanb
"Joe M." <NoEma...@spamfree.com> wrote in message
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DollarIn
the first 4 minutes of the game, and won 2-1.
I am aware of the accelerated clock feature, and you're right , 20 real
minutes is too long a game, but would qualify it as a simulation.
I have been tweaking the fatigue settings. I noticed the 3rd and 4rth lines
never get on the ice cause the first two are always fresh. I adjusted the
three fatigue settings to maximum fatigue, which helped greatly. Now I need
to tweak it a bit. More playing to be done yet.news:lM-dnYE_MZv...@comcast.com...
DollarIn
speed. But what is the ramification of playing all star? A lot of games on
all star ignore player ratings.
"Jonathan Diehl" <jbd...@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
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Joe M.
relative for some settings (+/-5). I just went to "neutral" (5 clicks which
is visually in the middle) on most sliders with Pro difficulty and the
gameplay is much more realistic, fair, and had proper flow. I just lost to
Detroit 2-1 with 10 min periods. Using the thunderpuck slider settings
things were wacky. I was blocked constantly (defense 10 which we now know
means +5 opposition) and my goalie was UNBEATABLE (which makes sense since
zero goal skill is ACTUALLY +5 to the human goalie).
BTW, there are a few sliders that must be absolute (0-10), such as: puck
friction, ice friction, puck freeze time, and the like since a relative
scale (+/-5) doesn't make any sense.
Still not sure whether these are absolute or relative: all three speed
burst sliders and all 3 fatigue sliders. Sega must release a help guide to
straighten this out. When it doubt I'm leaving things in the middle.
--
Joe M.
"Alan Bernardo" <alanbe...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:%zAD9.106480$NH2.6964@sccrnsc01...
Jonathan Diehl
I like All Star better because I don't win nearly all of the faceoffs like I
do when I play it on Pro.
Since this post, I've changed the goalie, def. and off. skill sliders to the
default (5) and it's much better.
"DollarIn" <Rig...@nowhere.net> wrote in message
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DollarIn
Effect Full
Recovery Zero
Time Full
Now you will have 4 lines rotating. Granted a little tweaking may be
necessary, but the concept of the sliders will become apparent.
I am going to incorporate these with the thunderpuck settings at 10 mins
acc clock, tempered with the unanimous midslider opinions for goal, def and
off skill settings.
"Jonathan Diehl" <jbd...@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:utts3kn...@corp.supernews.com...
Alan Bernardo
The speed burst is a concern. Most of the recommendations on Thunderpuck
say to set recovery to the maximum.
What exactly does this mean, in light of these new findings? Does it mean
that the CPU has a big advantage here?
All I know is that when I set defensive and offensive sliders to the middle
(5) I get some decent play on Pro. After winning 2-0 the first time through
with these settings (all else the same, based on hrudley (sp?), I gave the
CPU a +1 advantage (6 clicks from all the way left) on Goalie, Defensive,
and Offensive and still came up with a 2-0 win, next time around.
Not sure what's going on here but certainly I will be looking at this
further.
Well-- off to Columbus!
Go Bucks.
Alanb
"Joe M." <NoEma...@spamfree.com> wrote in message
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Joe62
>There was a post somewhere on thunderpuck or op sports that said the goalie
>skill slider works like this:
>
>MOve it all the way left, your goalie kicks ass while the AI goalie sucks,
>the middle is even, and all the way right is vice versa. I think all the
>"skill" sliders work like this too.
Very interesting ... has Sega confirmed this?
And if true, how do these sliders work in human vs. human games?
Joe62
Joe62
>Now this makes sense, thanks! I was wondering how a single slider could be
>used to impact play for both teams (i.e., if we BOTH gain skill in the same
>area it's a wash and really doesn't change anything).
According to Chris Busse's (an NHL2K3 developer) post on Thundepuck,
te assumption in this thread appears to be mistaken. I quote:
"Move the slider to the right to increase the function, move it to the
left to decrease the function for all players on the ice."
Joe62
Aaron Menchions
beleive anymore!
WAZ on Thunderpuck supposedly got a document from a guy at Sega that
explains all the sliders, with graphs and everything, but it has been posted
yet as far as I can see.....
I also just read on Tpuck that Puck Retention is actually for the goalies,
so if you put it at 0, no more hoover goalies..... I'll try that now.
The other thing I noticed is that even though I have shot accuracy full (at
least I think it's full, unless *it's* one of these middle sliders too????)
that I can't hit what I'm aiming for. I.E. I'm in the slot, and want to try
to take a wrister at the top corner..... well, I push up on the stick, and
the puck 9 times out of 10 appears to only go about half way up the net, or
even worse, straight into the Goalies chest. I know you can't hit what you
want all the time, but this seems extraordinarily bad........
"DollarIn" <Rig...@nowhere.net> wrote in message
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DollarIn
at full defense, and both defenses were better, and the shots on goal around
10 per period.
BTW, I just had my first game crash, with 0.1 secs left in the game. Anyone
else have this happen? My Xbox is new, I haven't had one until now. The only
thing I added today was a 9 ft controller extension.
"Joe62" <NOSPAM...@shaw.ca> wrote in message
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DollarIn
not about human vs. computer, but just as they appear.
With the afore mentioned settings from thunderpuck board, combined with my
fatigue settings, and setting defense at max, and offense at 1 click, I am
able to enjoy some realistic hockey, as much as can be expected. I also
turned the goalie down, but I can't remember to what, maybe number 3.
With respect to lockups, I have since had 3 repeat lockups with 0.1 secs
left in a period. I removed the Catz gamepad extension cable, and was for
the first time able to complete an error free game since I added it. I will
play more games without it to verify it was the cable.news:2MUD9.87239$Em.28...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
Jonathan Diehl
lockup in the 1+yr that I've owned my Xbox.
It might not be the cables, are you using Microsoft controllers?
"DollarIn" <Rig...@nowhere.net> wrote in message
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DollarIn
yesterday, had 5 straight lockups in hockey. The only time I finished a game
last night is when I took the extension off. When I have a chance I'll play
more today and see if it happens without the extension. If it doesn't, I'll
look for a different brand.
If it does, either the XBOX or the game has to go back.
"Jonathan Diehl" <jbd...@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
Joe62
>According to Chris Busse's (an NHL2K3 developer) post on Thundepuck,
>te assumption in this thread appears to be mistaken. I quote:
>
>"Move the slider to the right to increase the function, move it to the
>left to decrease the function for all players on the ice."
Of course, he also has posted that you turn down the sliders to "make
the game easier" ... which kind of implies the opposite, that it's a
balance (i.e., it wouldn't make it easier if *both* goalies were
affected).
And, he also says the sliders are very simple so no one should be
confused by them. ;-)
Joe62
Jonathan Diehl
w/o an extension in there (which I doubt has anything to do with it...maybe
it was just coincidence).
Jon
"DollarIn" <Rig...@nowhere.net> wrote in message
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Joe62
<amenc...@rogers.com> wrote:
>WAZ on Thunderpuck supposedly got a document from a guy at Sega that
>explains all the sliders, with graphs and everything, but it has been posted
>yet as far as I can see.....
The doc is here:
DollarIn
I can see that I must play at least on all star level. I wonder if the
goalies can be turned down enough to get better save %'s. Quite possibly a
roster editor will be needed, if such a thing can even be down on a console.
I guess one could manually tweak all goalie attributes if necessary.
"Joe62" <jmcgin...@radicalREALLYNOSPAM.ca> wrote in message
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Jonathan Diehl
is not enough to score enough goals (at least with some of the sliders sets
that I've been using).
I think I might try auto aim for shooting, or increase rebounds which might
help more scores on my end.
"DollarIn" <Rig...@nowhere.net> wrote in message
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