NHL 13 Sliders: My Be A Pro Sliders Revisited

RULES____________________

Period Length: 20	Offsides: On	Icing: Delayed
Injuries: On	Tie Break: 4 on 4/shootout	Penalties: 3
Post Whistle Rules: Authentic	Penalty Time Scaling: 0	Fighting: 2

GAMEPLAY_________________

Skill Level: Pro       Gamestyle: —

GENERAL__________________

Tuner Set: 1.06	CPU Aid: Hardcore	Broken Stick Freq.: 2
Game Speed: 0		Attribute Effects: 3
Fatigue Eff. Hum/CPU: 4/4	Fatigue Rec. Hum/CPU: 2/2	Injury Hum/CPU: 0/0
Puck Control Hum/CPU: 2/1		Acceleration Hum/CPU: 2/2

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE____

	Created Plays: On
A.I. Learning: 3	CPU Difficulty: 0	CPU Strategy Adj.: 3
Be A Pro Strategy Adj.: 3	Human Strategy Adj.: 3	CPU Faceoff Diff.: 4
Fight Difficulty: 3	CPU Penalties: 4	Teammate Penalties: 4

PASSING___________________

Pass Assist: 4		Manual Passing: On
Pass Speed: 3		Saucer Pass Speed: 1
Pass Acc. Hum/CPU: 3/2	Pass Rec. Hum.CPU: 2/1	Interceptions Hum/CPU: 4/4

SHOOTING_________________

Shot Acc. Hum/CPU: 3/1	Shot Power Hum/CPU: 3/3	Slap Acc. Hum/CPU: 1/1
Slap Power Hum/CPU: 3/3	1 Timer Acc. Hum /CPU: 2/1

CHECKING_________________

Hit Assistance: 3	Aggression Hum/CPU: 4/4	Hit Power Hum/CPU: 2/2
Stick Lift Hum/CPU: 2/2	Poke Hum/CPU: 1/1

GOALIES___________________

Goalie Passing: 2	Goalie Cover Puck: 6
Goalie Screen Effect Hum/CPU: 4/4	Goalie Reaction Speed Hum/CPU: 2/2

Thoughts
My BaP son got drafted 1st overall to the Anaheim Ducks. Good job kid!

This threw one huge knucklepuck at my slider settings. As I suspected when I was tweaking the sliders during the LHJMQ season, getting into the NHL is a whole different stadium. These changes are based off my BaP playing 3 rather difficult games in the NHL pre-season before being happily informed he was guaranteed a place on the Ducks roster, then unceremoniously sent back to the Remparts and informed of the decision after the fact… Fucking corporations!

I’m now tweaking the difficulty with this in consideration. If it makes my LHJMQ season seem too easy, I’m going to treat it as my BaP (who was drafted first overall) is just that much more talented than his peers.

Regardless, know that any tweaks you make during a CHL season (and possibly the NHL minors as well) may need to be looked at again when you play in the NHL. It may be wiser to start an NHL Pro BaP season and play 40 odd games, tweaking the sliders, before you start working on your own pro.

ANOTHER BAP GLITCH TO CONSIDER
My BaP started his career as a 17 year old in the CHL. There is a problem with players under the age of 20. The official NHL rule is you can’t play in the AHL unless you are 20 years old, but if you are talented you can play in the NHL if you are 18 or older. The issue I faced was when my BaP played the pre-season games with the Ducks, no matter how well he did he was sent back to the Remparts after 3 games. This happened even after being assured he was guaranteed a spot on the roster. I believe the coding that dictates no player under 20 can play in the AHL overrides any coding that says the coach wants you in the NHL lineup.

If you start a BaP in the CHL make sure he’s at least 19 years old if you don’t want to spend 3 seasons in the CHL.

CHANGES AND CONSIDERATIONS

Broken Sticks: Broken sticks seem excessive some games. I lowered it down to one notch for a couple of games and I don’t remember seeing a single stick breaking. Another slider that has no happen medium between its lowest settings. It’s kind of cool watching players scramble to the bench and get handed another stick so I’m going to leave it at 2.

Injury Occurrence: Because of the BaP injured player not returning to the roster until another player is injured glitch, I lowered this to 0/0 (there are still plenty of injuries at 0). I’d rather have an unrealistic season with no injuries than run the risk of having several of my star players missing until other players get injured. This glitch is game (mode) breaking, I am considering turning injuries off altogether. To be honest, because of this egregious error in the coding, I’m losing interest in BaP mode.

Puck Control: Changed from 1/0 to 2/1. I felt that a setting of 1 does not accurately reflect a skilled puck handler’s ability to stay on the puck after being jostled a little. I raised the CPU to 1 in the interest of fairness.

Player Acceleration: I experimented with this at 3/3 for a few games and ended up back at 2/2. There is no happy medium between the two settings. Sometimes 2/2 feels too slow but at 3/3 there is too little ice resistance/physics applied to the players.

Penalties: A.I. Penalties changed to 4/4 (CPU Penalties/Teammate Penalties) from 5/4 and I experimented with the Rules penalties slider at 3, but raised it back to 4 after two games.

Some games have 10-15 minutes of penalties per team; this is entirely plausible according to this NHL chart. I tend to notice every power play and penalty kill during the game because my BaP is out on those lines. This causes me to constantly think I need to tweak the penalty sliders. Be aware of situations like this. After some experimentation and research I’m convinced these settings accurately represent the proper ratio of penalties in an NHL game. Not only in my BaP career but in my GM/Season as well.

In my sliders series I explained that you would want to set your teammates penalty slider lower than the CPU penalties slider because your BaP will also be taking penalties. In my case, my BaP is a playmaker and as such rarely takes a penalty. In the interest of fairness and difficulty I have made these sliders an even 4/4. If you are playing a tough guy, grinder, defensemen or any position more prone to taking penalties my initial wisdom is still sound.

In one game the team I was playing took 35 minutes in penalties. Again, I thought my penalties sliders needed work. Then I looked at the hits… They had something  like 30-40 hits to my team’s 17 (they were on home ice). They were playing goon style hockey and the 35 minutes was probably justified. The moral of this story? Always remember to look at all the game’s stats before making a slider adjustment.

Passing: This was a difficulty tweak, I moved the CPU pass accuracy from 0 to 2 and pass reception ease to 2/1. Pass completion stats for both teams averages around 70-75% per game in the LHJMQ. Probably a little higher than I’d like. However, the few games I played in the NHL pre-season suggest this may change once my BaP is playing in the NHL and thus we are leaving it as is for now.

Shooting: Shot accuracy changed to 3/1. When I started my BaP season I was influenced by the settings of my play now/season sliders and I would use auto shot aim. I’m now using manual shot aim with my BaP and made this adjustment to better represent his shooting capabilities and my lack of. My BaP has a wrist shot accuracy of 90 and even with this slider advantage against the rookie goalies in the LHJMQ he does not score every game. In the 3 games he played in the NHL pre-season he only scored one goal, and that was a freak accident! While this may give him too much of an “advantage” in the LHJMQ, I’m residing myself to the fact that he is much more talented than his peers.

Aggression: From 4/5 to 3/3 or 4/4. Yeah, when I got to the NHL the opposing team was all over me like flies on $%#! I could barely get a shot off! I still believe this is the slider you need to look at to incrementally increase/decrease difficulty not only in your ice time, but during the simulated segments of your games as well. In the LHJMQ, 4/4 gives me the right amount of challenge, but when I reached the NHL I felt overwhelmed and had to bring it down to 3/3.

Final Words
It’s all how you look at it. I don’t find consistently thinking about and adjusting the sliders a pleasant experience. I’m only suffering through it because of my love of hockey. I really just want to turn the game on and play. Sure, it’s giving me something to blog about, and I enjoy helping the gaming community (if this can be seen as that) but I’d rather be writing my fiction. Some of my rationalization may seem silly to you but it’s what I need to do in my head to come to terms with an imperfect hockey game. You have to find your own zen.

About these ads