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.

NHL 13 GLITCH: Injured BaP Players Not Returning To Roster

So last night, this happens to me;

Not fun. And the problem is so easily verifiable, I’m surprised Electronic Arts did not catch this. This is why I never pay more than $30 for a game. The fact I only paid $25 for NHL 13 is the only thing taking the sting out of such negligent programming and product testing.

This glitch breaks the Be A Pro game mode. So much so I even contemplated scrapping my BaP altogether and concentrating on season/GM mode gameplay instead.

THE PROBLEM
This happened during the REGULAR SEASON not the playoffs. When your Be A Pro player gets injured he is removed from the roster. When the medical staff reports his/her well being and inevitable return to the roster, your BaP remains in injury limbo until another player is injured, THEN you miraculously appear on the roster again.

This not only happens to your BaP but to the CPU controlled players on your team (and presumably on the other CPU controlled teams) as well.

HOW I VERIFIED
I made multiple saves of the game after the problem appeared. At first I simulated one to the end of season and verified that at some point my BaP returned to the roster. I loaded again and simulated a couple of weeks at a time. At some point the game informed me that Right Wing, F. Roy was injured and some changes to the lines were in order. I paused the simulation and verified that I had returned to the roster. F. Roy’s injury lasted a couple of weeks. When the game informed me that he was well and would be returning, he too remained in injury limbo until Defensemen, R. Culkin was injured several weeks later.

SOLUTIONS

• EA Sports fixes this glaringly obvious coding error. (whispers) Good luck with that.
• Simulate until you see an injury and are put back on the roster.
• Temporarily max out your injury sliders and simulate until you see an injury and are put back on the roster. Hopefully maxing out the injury sliders will get you back on the roster quicker without demolishing your teams chances for a playoff spot.
• Turn off injuries.

NHL 13 Sliders: My Current Be A Pro Sliders

RULES____________________

Period Length: 20	Offsides: On	Icing: Delayed
Injuries: On	Tie Break: 4 on 4/shootout	Penalties: 4
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: 4/4
Puck Control Hum/CPU: 1/0		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: 5	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: 1/1	Shot Power Hum/CPU: 2/2	Slap Acc. Hum/CPU: 1/1
Slap Power Hum/CPU: 3/3	1 Timer Acc. Hum /CPU: 2/1

CHECKING_________________

Hit Assistance: 5	Aggression Hum/CPU: 4/5	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 way of thinking has changed a little since I wrote my NHL 13 Sliders posts. I slowed down my saucer passes for instance. This was done more because these sliders were based off a version of Cycloniac’s and I don’t tend to use saucer passes much in the game (that doesn’t stop the coach from praising a regular pass as a saucer pass for some odd reason!) Alas, this is something I will probably tweak a bit more later on.

I believe this to be my slider’s sweet spot and I won’t be changing them much from here on. Right now I am tweaking for difficulty. That is why I have aggression higher for the CPU. I only just made this change and my entire team is under a cold streak and the team we played last is running normal to hot streaks across all its lines. So it’s a little hard to gauge the effect this is having. We lost miserably in that game. Was it because of the aggression slider change or the hot/cold streak situation? I don’t know yet. This is why you have to test your changes over a series of games not just one. I turned aggression down for the human controlled team in an attempt to curb the amount of goals my team will score during the simulations.

Currently my BaP’s stats are a bit over the top. A little over half way through the season and he has 90 odd points with 51 goals and 40+ assists. This is to be expected as you tweak the sliders and get used to the game. For a while I was using auto aim. I’m using manual these days and now that I’m tweaking for difficulty my BaP isn’t scoring in every game.

I’m starting to think about the more obscure sliders, like injuries. It’s hard to judge how well this is set until you’ve played one or two seasons. I’ve seen a few injuries on the ice and my BaP even managed to score a goal while injured during a game (I only know this because of the achievement it awarded me) but he hasn’t missed any games. I’ll focus on this more when I hit the minors and the NHL.

My last two games were solid. In game one my Quebec Remparts faced off against the Shawinigan Cataractes. My line must of been on a cold streak because we could barely get a shot off. Luckily the rest of the Remparts lines were up to snuff and we managed to squeeze off a 2-0 victory. Our next game was against the Victoriaville Tigres and it was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever played. They drew first blood and we managed to tie it up towards the end of the first, but from the start of the game I felt like my Remparts were just chasing their tails out on the ice. Going into the third period we were down 4-1. I took a deep breath and stopped going for the net and played the boards more, hoping to set up my teammates. With ten minutes left we were down by just 2. With three minutes left, we scored right off the face-off with a slick tie up and kick to my defensemen. With just 3 seconds left and an empty net in our end Patrick Roy stretched the twine and threw us into overtime. Roy then went on to score in the shootout and win the game.

I was experimenting with auto aim off and on for a few games and I’m not noticing any difference in the type of goals scored. With auto aim off I tend to shoot low at the goalie’s pads. I do this for two reasons. One, five-hole goals are more frequent in this iteration of the franchise and two, I’m hoping one of my teammates can pick up the rebound. With auto aim on, I’m a bit more confident with shooting at the net and tend to go top shelf corner a lot. That being said, now that I’ve tweaked for a reasonable amount of difficulty, I’m not noticing a huge difference in the amount of goals my BaP scores with auto aim on or off. Granted, this could be because I suck big jobs. Where I do notice the difference on auto aim is on reflex or knee-jerk reaction goals near the front of the net, amidst a lot of action. Rebounds when there are 3-4 guys fighting in front of the net (you know, those times when you can’t see the puck and you start frantically pushing up on the right stick in hopes that you snag it and push it home) will almost always go in with auto aim on.

Now the issue is how much more difficult do I make it? As far as my ice time goes, it’s pretty challenging for me. I don’t get points in every game and sometimes I barely get a shot off. However, my team mostly wins. If I don’t produce, one of my teammates will come to the rescue. If I start tweaking too much for the simulation part of the game it may make my actual ice time so difficult my boy will never make it off the fourth line. I’ll finish out the LHJMQ season with these sliders because I think the game will get harder when I get drafted into the NHL and I’m playing amongst players that have higher overall ratings. We shall see.

FOR MORE DEAD CONSOLE SOCIETY ARTICLES ON NHL 13 SLIDERS CLICK HERE

NHL 13 Sliders: My Play Now/Season Game Sliders

RULES____________________

Period Length: 10	Offsides: On	Icing: Delayed
Injuries: On	Tie Break: 4 on 4/shootout	Penalties: 4
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: 4/4
Puck Control Hum/CPU: 1/0		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.: -	Human Strategy Adj.: 0	CPU Faceoff Diff.: 4
Fight Difficulty: 3	CPU Penalties: 6	Teammate Penalties: 5

PASSING___________________

Pass Assist: 4		Manual Passing: On
Pass Speed: 2		Saucer Pass Speed: 3
Pass Acc. Hum/CPU: 3/0	Pass Rec. Hum.CPU: 3/0	Interceptions Hum/CPU: 4/4

SHOOTING_________________

Shot Acc. Hum/CPU: 1/1	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: 2	Aggression Hum/CPU: 3/3	Hit Power Hum/CPU: 1/1
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

To be honest, I haven’t played a season or play now game in NHL 13 in over two weeks. After I tested these sliders for a few games I was so invigorated by the gameplay I jumped into Be a Pro and got wrapped up in tweaking the sliders for that game mode. These are a version of Cycloniac’s sliders with a few tweaks here and there to account for my skill level and preferences. I’m no longer following Cycloniac’s thread or suggestions because I am at a point in my search for the perfect sliders where I have found my comfort zone for what I consider to be a “perfect” hockey game and I’m tweaking for personal preferences and difficulty. Occasionally I may try other sliders for shit and giggles, to see how they compare to my own. Really though, I just want to play the game.

I was using these sliders with auto aim on. The theory on Cycloniac’s thread for doing this is that it makes the goals more varied and therefore the game more realistic. I’m not entirely sold on this and as I get better at the game I’ll be going back to manual. I think EA Sports did a real good job with the goalies and eliminating glitch goals (not saying they eliminated them entirely, just that that aren’t as glaringly obvious as they used to be). A lot of goals go in through the five hole and trickle in off the goalie. I honestly have not noticed much of a difference in the variety of goals when I played my Ranger’s Season with auto shot on, and when I play my BaP using manual shot.

The games I played with these sliders got me pumped and excited about the game. As I wrote them down here for you I questioned some of the settings (like shot speed versus goalie speed), but I’m being influenced by my experiences in BaP games. I have to remember every game mode plays differently and you have to tweak the sliders exclusively for that game mode.

FOR MORE DEAD CONSOLE SOCIETY ARTICLES ON NHL 13 SLIDERS CLICK HERE

NHL 13 Sliders: Putting It All Together

Welcome to the fifth and final part of my series discussing the NHL 13 sliders and settings.

Finding your perfect game is no easy task with all the choices EA Sports titles give you. On one hand I truly appreciate the options, but sometimes I long for the much simpler SEGA Genesis days of just popping the cartridge in and off you go. Sliders are the main reason I never invested much time in FIFA12. I love FIFA 12. I still play it, but I have yet to find a happy medium with it. It’s either too easy or too hard. Lucky for us I’m a bit more persistent when it comes to hockey!

Decide what you want out of the game first and be honest.
Look, if a game makes you so mad that you throw your controller across the room or worse, into your expensive LCD TV screen, you need to see a shrink about your anger issues or start playing the game on an easier level. Games should be fun, I can’t say that enough around here. If you’re not having fun you should not be playing them. Don’t give me that “pro-gamer” shit either, you can count the number of people that make money gaming on your fingers. I have a better chance of becoming the next J.K. Rowling (even though I barely write a page a day sometimes) than you do of becoming the next Johnathan Wendel. If you’re the type of person that thrives on challenges and can handle the pressure without exploding on the people and things around you then, by all means, crank that difficulty up all the way. Most of us aren’t like that though, we tell our employers we are so we can get the job, but we’re not. Be honest about what you want out of the game.

When I play regular games I want a reasonable challenge–a game should not be another job, it should be fun–I don’t want to win every game and I don’t want to loose every game. I want to relax with two to three beers or a few glasses of wine and have a blast. After 43 years on this shit hole I’ve come to accept that it’s the journey that matters not the end result. It’s not whether you win or loose it’s how you play the game. I play in the moment and losing a video game does not bother me as much as it does others. My current season with the Rangers has the lads sitting at 5-7-4. I’m still searching for my regular game slider’s sweet spot. That being said, I’m not minding the difficulty the current sliders are giving me because the games are a rush of endorphins each and every time, win or lose; I’m having fun.

Playing Be a Pro is a little bit different. I’ve mentioned before that I like to think of my BaP as my own flesh and blood playing in the CHL. The son I never had on his way to becoming the next Wayne Gretzky. I don’t want the game to be so difficult that my boy is a fourth line scrub his entire career. His pop is a scrub in real life. This is his pop’s fantasy. Fantasy needs to be better than reality. Then you have the entirely unrealistic expectations of your AI coach. Let’s face it, if you set the sliders too challenging you’ll never meet his expectations. Especially if you are playing 20 minute periods and simulating to your next shifts. I want a fairly realistic experience but I also want my son to shine quite a bit. That being said, I have a tendency to tweak the BaP sliders just shy of moderately difficult.

Find a good starting point and tweak from there.
As I’ve been playing a lot of BaP, I’ll use my experiences in this mode as an example of my thought process.

In my BaP I started off with my regular season sliders and tweaked them as I played further into the CHL season. I’ll admit my boy’s stats are a little over the top, but there are some things to consider. For one he is a 71 overall rated player. The closest to him in the entire league is rated 65. Logically, he should be outshining his peers. I’m also thinking that playing in the NHL will be a bit tougher because there is more talent and when he gets there he won’t be skating circles around his peers anymore. His stats are pretty high right now (90 odd points, half way through the CHL season) because I’ve been playing every game since the start of the season and tweaking the sliders along the way.

What should you be considering when tweaking the sliders?

• Don’t simulate games until you have found your sliders sweet spot.
• Don’t tweak the sliders during the games. Play the entire game out with the sliders you’ve selected.
• Before you start a game take a look at your team’s reports as well as that of your imminent opponent. Are you on hot streaks or cold? Is your opponent on hot streaks or cold? If your entire team is cold and theirs is hot, the next game should be very difficult. You should probably loose and if you win it should only be by 1 or 2 goals. If you win by 5-0, chances are it’s way too easy. Check these reports after the game as well, cold streaks can go hot in an instant.
• I’ve had games were I was hot, the other team cold, and they won by one or two goals. It could be they overcame their cold streak. It could be the game cheating in its underhanded Artificial Intelligent way to keep you from winning too much. I don’t know. I guess so long as they only win by 1 or 2 goals then it’s completely plausible. The Kings came out of nowhere last year to win the cup. Anything is possible.
• Pay attention to all the game’s statistics. In one BaP game I played we had 61 shots on goal. I was like, wtf? Then I saw the other team had taken 18 minutes in penalties to my team’s 4. I remembered we had a lot of 5 on 3 situations and that explained the shot total.
• Don’t let one game be the defining factor. I just mentioned that in one game the opposing team took 18 minutes in penalties. That’s pretty excessive, even for a minor league game and my initial instinct was to tweak the penalty sliders. It was the first time I came across this. I left the sliders alone and the next game’s penalties were more reasonable. Only tweak the sliders if you see a consistent problem across several games. Unless you immediately notice something odd that can be directly attributed to a setting you just tweaked, like when I tweaked shot power to 3 and in the next game nearly every shot my BaP took flew past the goalie.
• In BaP consider your pro’s attributes compared to everyone else. Should you have scored 3 goals in that last game? If your accuracy is above 80 and the goalies overall rating is 55, then you probably should have scored those 3 goals.
• Consider how the sliders affect the simulation segments of your games. Cycloniac recently went to an extreme and raised passing accuracy up to 6 and aggression up to 5 (amongst a few other changes). When I tried these, the actual gameplay was pretty challenging (though it started to feel like a job), but the simulation was way off kilter. Seemed like every time I simulated a shift the opposing team would score and there were so many penalties it was ridiculous. It was obvious right away these sliders did not work well during simulations.
• Watch how the sliders react to one another. I raised my shot speed to 3 and three out of my first nine shots touched twine. The goalies reaction speed was 2. I lowered my shot speed back down to 2.
• Look at your team’s standing as well as those close to you. If you are in first place and the second place team is close behind you then I’d say you are having a pretty realistic season.

TWEAKING FOR DIFFICULTY
I’ve found certain sliders to be more effective in nudging up (or down) the game’s difficulty as you get better (or worse) without having too much of an effect on the games realism. I would try manipulating these settings before raising Skill Level from Pro to All Star. If you do make a drastic increase in difficulty by raising your skill level, I would also look at the following settings to tame it a little.

• Aggression (under Checking) - For me, this one is the most effective in adding the right amount of difficulty when I need to. Higher settings may place players on both teams out of position but if you’re using realistic settings on game speed and player acceleration this shouldn’t be too much of an issue, even for you hockey purists out there. Can have an effect on penalties and the simulated segments of your BaP games, so watch for this.
• Goalie Reaction Speed - 2 and 3 are the sweet spots here for realism IMHO. Anything higher and goalies may start to over-react and become glitch goal magnates for players who can easily manipulate. Though it is really cool to see some of the incredible saves they’ll make. They also have a tendency to come too far out the net at times with a higher reaction speed.
• Shot Accuracy - The more you play, the better you will get. If you get to that glorious moment when everything you throw at the goalie touches twine, it’s time to lower your accuracy to a more realistic level.
• A.I. Learning - I have not experimented much with this slider but the logic is sound if you want to boost the difficulty a little, have the CPU use its razor sharp senses to clue into you faster.
• Pass Assistance - In the interest of realism (accurate pass completion percentages per game) I would look at this slider to increase/decrease difficulty for yourself before touching the pass accuracy and reception sliders.
• Other sliders to visit to add more challenge: Hitting Assistance / Strategy Adjustment.

All I’ve said here is my own philosophical approach to the game and gaming in general. You have to find your own Zen and run with it. Good luck and remember, always have fun and enjoy the moment.

FOR MORE DEAD CONSOLE SOCIETY ARTICLES ON NHL 13 SLIDERS CLICK HERE

NHL 13 Sliders: Finding Your Perfect Game: Passing, Shooting, Checking & Goalies

Welcome to the fourth part of my series discussing the NHL 13 sliders and settings.

PASSING
Pass Assist: 4 for me right now. They say it’s better to have it at zero and learn how to pass without it but I call bullshit. There is so much going on, you’re skating in one direction with the Left Thumbstick and trying to pass in another direction WITH THE SAME LEFT THUMBSTICK. Yeah, you try putting Pass Assist at 0 and watch every pass you make be an automatic icing. That being said, this setting depends on your skill and comfort levels. There’s a point where a game becomes less of a game and more of a fracking job. Use your completed passing average to decide if you need to raise or lower it. 60% is a good, reasonable range to be in.
Manual Passing: On. Holding down the Right Trigger will increase the speed of your pass. Great if you have a forward breaking away in the neutral zone when your defense just gained puck possession.
Pass Speed: 2 or 3. Mine is 2. But with Manual Passing on you can pass faster/harder when you need it therefore I’m not sure if this is relevant to a human controlled player with manual passing on.
Saucer Pass Speed: 3. A Saucer Pass is a sort of desperation pass. It’s like, okay, there’s all these opposing players between me and my partner heading for the net so I’ll just try and flick it over all these sticks and pray out of all these highly skilled players the only one capable of lifting his stick a foot off the ice and successfully controlling the puck is my teammate. I’ve played a little hockey and I know you have to add a little more juice to the puck to lift it off the ice, it makes sense to have this one higher than your normal pass speed.
Pass Accuracy Human/CPU: 3/0. Remember when I said compared to you the CPU is perfect? Yeah? Well, deal with it. And this (setting its pass accuracy to 0) is how you deal with it. Trust me, the CPU will still complete 75% of its passes or better. You’re not being mean to it. This is another slider to look at when you want to increase difficulty for yourself.
Pass Reception Ease Human/CPU: 3/0. For the exact same reason as stated above.  This is another slider to look at when you want to increase difficulty for yourself.
Interceptions: 4/4. This causes a fair amount of discourse on the ice and replicates real ice antics well enough.

SHOOTING
Shot Accuracy Human/CPU: 2/0. I currently have mine set to 3/0. I plan to bring it down to 2 as I get better for now the CPU is still whooping my ass. Do I need to repeat my bit about the CPU being better than you? The CPU will still score on you, don’t worry. If you get so good at defense that the CPU rarely gets a decent shot on you then you should look at raising its chances a little, until then this will be shiny.
Shot Power Human/CPU: 3/3 or 2/2. Depends on how high you have Goalie Reaction Speed set. Slower shots may never have a chance in H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS to see the twine if you have super-goalie in the net. On Cycloniac’s Slider Thread they start talking about the 2/2 setting producing more save variety from the goalies, but at that point in the thread they’ve really started to experiment, I think they may have upped Skill Level to All Star and they are using auto aim for shooting.
Slap Shot Accuracy Human/CPU: 1/1. Slap shots are cool but they rarely go in the net. It’s less of a ‘watch this sweet goal’ thing and more of a ‘drive the freaking puck towards the net as hard as possible and if it doesn’t go directly in or take someone’s head off then maybe it will ricochet off something and if that don’t work hopefully one of my pals will pick up the rebound’ thing.
Slap Shot Power Human/CPU: 2/2. This seems to be working for me right now but I have an inclination to want to raise it to 3/3. Slap shots are fast and hard if highly inaccurate (in pressure situations). If I get around to testing it at 3/3, I’ll update.
One-Timer Accuracy Human/CPU: 2/1. The CPU just loves the one-timer, eh? (See how I slipped that little nod to our Canadian brothers in, eh?) And you can be darn-tootin sure that the CPU is cheating to try and pull off this most difficult shot.

CHECKING
Hitting Assistance: 1 or 2. I have mine set at 2. I’m barely getting 10-15 hits per game. Not sure what is standard these days, I haven’t seen a game in a while and hit statistics are iffy at best. I’m happy with it for now. In my BaP game this is set to 3 and I had it at 4; it’s hard to gauge effectiveness because I’m playing a playmaker and he doesn’t have a high checking skill.
Aggression Human/CPU: 3/3. Player’s aren’t recklessly chasing you (as Cycloniac puts it) and everyone tends to play more positional (real) hockey than that on-line chase the puck like a chicken with your head cut off arcade hockey. Raising the Skill Level to All Star makes the CPU quite a bit more aggressive. Adjusting it here might be an option if you go to that route.  This is another slider to look at when you want to increase difficulty for yourself. Keep an eye on this during the simulated segments of your season or BaP career. If this is too high your CPU teammates and opposing team seem to get a vast advantage. I had it set as high as 5/5 during my BaP CHL season and every time I hit the bench someone would score during the simulation. This is a good slider to visit if you want to incrementally decrease or increase the difficulty.
Hitting Power Human/CPU: 2/2. Most checks aren’t over the top, while solid board checks and hip checks can flatten someone.
Stick Lift Effectiveness Human/CPU: 2/2. Your stick lift will most likely result in a slashing penalty. The CPU’s stick lift will most likely result in you losing the puck… It’s something I’ve noticed a little bit in the games I’ve played. It’s just not affecting me much that I want to start compensating for it, yet.
Poke Effectiveness: 1/1. Anything higher and the poke check is comically effective. I’ve been getting pretty good with it at 1. I rarely draw a tripping penalty anymore. It’s all about timing and if you miss for God’s sake, don’t start spamming it, else end up in the sin bin.

GOALIES
Goalie Passing: 3. I’ll be honest here. I tried AL_TITO’S sliders first and felt good with the way he had the goalie set and never changed it when I tried Cycloniac’s. So far it’s working for me. Goalies seem to be doing all the things that goalies should be doing.
Goalie Cover Puck Frequency: 5. For the same reason as above.
Goalie Screen Effect Human/CPU: 3/3. For now the right amount of screened shots are making it through.
Goalie Reaction Speed Human/CPU: 5/4. I had this at 4/4, but had to make a personal skill adjustment. The CPU was having too easy a time scoring on me and I’ve got Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes! This is one of those settings that, in the interest of fairness, you want to be the same number for both the CPU and Human; eventually. Keep this setting too high (as I have here) and your goalies may over-commit too much, leaving plenty of open nets. Which–if you are using manual shot aim–may be a good thing, but if you are using auto shot aim it may make the game too easy.

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NHL 13 Sliders: Finding Your Perfect Game: Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the third part of my series discussing the NHL 13 sliders and settings.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (A.I.)
Created Plays: I don’t use created plays (yet) but I leave this on anyway. It doesn’t hurt.
A.I. Learning: 3 is a good starting point. This controls how fast the CPU clues into you and adjusts. At 3 I can pull off the same faceoff move two or three times before the CPU tries something different to stop me, usually successfully. I’m using faceoffs as an example, this could apply to any situation on the ice. You think that cross crease pass will net you more than a couple of goals in a game? Think again. The new A.I. in NHL 13 is the most improvement the franchise has seen since it went full 3D. This is a good slider to visit if you want to incrementally decrease or increase the difficulty.
CPU Difficulty Adjustment: Leave it at 0 (for now, maybe forever). AL_TITO13 explains this slider as a boost the CPU gets to all its attributes. I’m not sure how this slider relates to something like the Skill Level selection and how they differ but I’ll take AL_TITO’s word for it and leave it alone for now. If AL is correct and this does in fact boost CPU players attributes I would look to other sliders to increase the game’s difficulty before resorting to this one.
CPU Strategy Adjustment: 3 is a good starting point. Maybe a good final point as well. This regulates how much the CPU adjusts its strategy against you. Do they defend the lead or go balls to the wall and try to embarrass you. The trick here is to find a happy medium where the CPU adjusts to your tactics without resorting to knee-jerk reactions.
Be A Pro Strategy Adjustment: Same as above but applies to the CPU coaching your team in BaP. This is going to be user preference. You might want to coach your own BaP team. I have it somewhere between 2 and 3 for my BaP. My thinking is I’m a player not the coach, actually, I’m the son my wife and I never had playing in the CHL (gave him a huge forehead, light brown eyes and dark brown hair to boot… Apparently he got more of his mother’s Asian genes than mine!) Anyhoo, you can see where I’m going with this. Maybe, if he ever gets promoted to Assistant Captain or Captain I’ll move this slider down to 0 and coach myself, until then—it’s above my boy’s pay-grade.
Human Strategy Adjustment: To be fully immersed in hockey gaming goodness you will need this set to 0… EVENTUALLY. While you are still getting used to the new game dynamics I suggest raising this to 3 and let the CPU take care of coaching while you get a handle on being on the front lines and trying to win the games by scoring goals.
CPU Faceoff Difficulty: I started at 3 because I had to get used to a whole new faceoff system (remember, I’ve been playing NHL 10 till recently). I bumped it back to 4 after several games. This is one of those sliders that will perform differently when taking the A.I. Learning slider into consideration. With Faceoff Difficulty at 4 and A.I. Learning at 3 I can’t pull off the same faceoff move more than twice without the CPU trying something different to stop me. This could change if I set A.I. Learning higher, therefore making a Faceoff Difficulty of 4 possibly too difficult. This premise obviously needs to be tested more, for now I’m happy with the way it is.
Fight Difficulty: Fighting in the NHL franchise is merely eye candy. Don’t get me wrong, if you are like me and use it in context, say after some goon injures your star player and you just can’t have that, then it’s time to take 5 for the team. 10 and a game misconduct if you’re lucky. But the fighting mechanics are basic to say the least. I find more success by repeatedly pushing the Right Thumbstick up as rapidly as possibly than I do by trying to strategically think the fight through like it’s some sort of Fight Night mini-game. Start this at 3 or 4 and adjust accordingly.
CPU Penalties: I have mine maxed at 6 and feel I have a good and fair amount of penalties in my ten minute period games. For shorter games I would suggest lowering this. A five minute period in which half your guys spend more than half of it in the sin bin won’t be much fun.
CPU Teammate Penalties: I have it set to 5. AL_TITO explains this best, “I want my teammates to take penalties, but not as often as the CPU team because I will also be taking penalties.” In short, the CPU has to force itself to screw up whereas you probably screw up on an hourly basis (ask your wife or girlfriend if you need verification of this). The caveat to this is if you are playing a position that is not prone to penalties, like playmakers or snipers. For example, if your BaP isn’t much for taking penalties (he’s not a tough guy, grinder, defensemen, or any position that is prone to getting called a lot) then in the interest of fairness you would want to keep this even with CPU penalties.
* Use these two penalty sliders to fine tune your penalties rather than the one under Rules.

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NHL 13 Sliders: Finding Your Perfect Game: Rules, Gameplay & General

Welcome to the second part of my series discussing the NHL 13 sliders and settings.

LETS TALK DETAILS
I’m going to talk about the individual sliders a little more in depth now and give you my feelings on them. I’m no expert, there are lads out there (like the guys at Operation Sports) that have done detailed testing on the sliders and you should take the information I am posting here with a grain of salt and remember it’s not how I feel, it’s how it feels to you. I have plenty of experience with this franchise, but I don’t have the time to conduct extensive testing on the settings. This is more gut-feeling backed by familiarity with the franchise than it is controlled lab room experiment.

RULES
Period Length: This one is up to you. What do you have time for? Back in ‘97 when I was running a local (dial-up) NHL league we used full 20 minute periods. I don’t have the time or the patience to play a single game for an hour these days. In NHL 10 I used 5-7 minute periods. I’m really enjoying playing NHL 13 and have started to use 10 minute periods and feel this is a good compromise on my time versus simulation requirements. In Be A Pro I use authentic (20 minute periods) settings because I can sim to the next shift and find this is the best way to get more accurate and life-like statistics out of my CPU teammates and the rest of the league.
Offsides: Delayed, always. It’s not real hockey if it isn’t.
Icing: On.
Injuries: On, it’s hockey. People get hurt playing hockey.
* Because of a game (mode) breaking glitch I came across in my BaP season in which injured players do not return to the roster until another player is injured you may want to consider turning injuries off entirely in game modes that give you have no control over the roster.
Tie Break: Personally, I prefer the way the NHL used to handle ties because I’m not a huge fan of shootouts. However, for the sake of authenticity I go with the NHL standard of a 5 minute 4 on 4 to a shootout.
Penalties: I have mine maxed right now and I am pleased with the results I get in 10 minute periods. Adjust this slider in accordance with how long your games are. If you are only playing 5 minute periods, then 2 or more penalties per period will feel like 2 too many, especially if you’re the one sitting in the sin bin. Use this NHL chart to guide you and keep in mind raising other sliders like Aggressiveness will have an effect on penalties and use the penalty sliders under A.I. Intelligence to fine tune.
Post Whistle Rules: Authentic. If you are going to be a prick after the whistle blows you need to pay the piper.
Penalty Time Scaling: I set mine to 0. This way a 2 minute penalty in a 10 minute period will only be 1 minute. It feels more authentic to me. You may prefer a penalty to last longer, it’s up to you, but if you are going for a simulation and don’t have time for full 20 minute periods then 0 is the way to go here.
Fighting: I have mine maxed and rarely come across a fight. I also do not go out of my way to start them. Fighting happens in hockey but not as much as people want to believe it does. There are certain factors that need to be calculated that I don’t believe the game takes into consideration. Things like age old rivalries, is the team struggling to get into the playoffs, is it the playoffs, did Brashear injure one of your players last game; there are a lot of things that influence whether a fight will happen in hockey. It’s never as simple as your team is losing so start a fight to get the lads going (though, this does happen).

GAMEPLAY
Skill Level: Rookie will be too easy. Start with Pro and go to All Star if Pro gets too easy. My sense is that this level selection affects how ‘perfect’ the CPU plays. This is one of the settings you should look at to make adjustments as your skill level increases. Adjusting the skill level also changes the feel of every other slider. It’s hard to explain, but when you feel good enough to increase your skill level, expect to tweak the rest of the sliders a little before you settle into your new found uberness.
Gamestyle: This changes ALL the sliders to preset conditions. Once you start futzing with the sliders this switches to ‘Custom’. Start at ‘Hardcore’ if you need a starting point otherwise this setting is inconsequential for our purpose.

GENERAL
Tuner Set: Most of the time I leave mine at Current. My most recent settings are using 1.06, because of Cyclonic’s recommendation.  Tuner changes are usually adjustments to game mechanics that you have no real control over. Like dropped sticks, and such. Most of the time the changes are for the better, so stick with ‘Current.’ Most of you won’t notice the difference between them. If you need more details and advice on tuner sets, try:

• EA Sports NHL forums at Operation Sports
• NHL 13 PATCH AND TUNER NOTES at EA.com

CPU Aid: For now, I have mine set to ‘Normal’ because I suck and need all the help I can get. As I get better switching this to ‘Hardcore’ will be one of the first adjustments I’ll make.
Broken Stick Frequency: I have mine set at 2. It seems to produce the right amount of broken sticks playing 10 minute periods.
Game Speed: If you are searching for realism 0 or 1 are the way to go here. Anything higher and you’re playing arcade style hockey.
Attribute Effects: 3 is the sweet spot. Raise it higher and mediocre stars becoming superstars. Lower, and they become scrubs. 3 makes them perform at a more appropriate level.
Fatigue Effect Human/CPU: 4/4 is the happy medium for me with 10 minute periods (even with 20 minute BaP periods). It’s a good starting point at least. Keep in mind, you are not going to get a true feel for this until you start making line changes yourself. If you’ve been following my advice this is something you need to worry about AFTER you have all the other settings at a level that pleases you.
Fatigue Effect Recovery Human/CPU: 2/2 seems to be about right for 10 minute periods (and 20 minute BaP periods). By the end of the period all your lines should be showing some level of fatigue. They should all be finishing the game running on empty (yellow bars). Keep in mind this works in conjunction with Fatigue Effect, if you have it set so low fatigue does not effect you, you’ll hardly notice the recovery either.
Injury Occurrence Human/CPU: 3/3 seems to be the sweet spot for 10 minute periods. Players get injured all the time in hockey (isn’t that right Kari Lehtonen?) It’s a tough sport, you got hard ice, sharp and fast skates, young adults and grown men with sticks wearing suits of padded-plastic armor, all of them slapping a chunk of vulcanized rubber around the ice at speeds in excess of 90 miles an hour. Yeah, in what world does this not end well sometimes?
* Because of a game (mode) breaking glitch I came across in my BaP season in which injured players do not return to the roster until another player is injured you may want to consider turning injuries off entirely in game modes in which you have no control over the roster.
Puck Control Human/CPU: 1/0 is working for me. Remember the CPU is perfect so a human needs a bit of advantage. How do you gauge how much advantage you need here? If the puck sticks to you like glue, you have it set too high. Even Ovechkin gets bumped off the puck and only The Great One could possibly pull off a one-hand-windmill-toe-drag-drop-to-skate-juke-deke through two defensemen and still retain the puck to score. Possibly.
*Recently raised this to 2/1 in my BaP season and I’m happy with the results. I don’t feel my skater with a high puck control rating should be knocked off the puck with every tiny bump. But keep in mind I did this after raising Hitting Power to 2/2.
Player Acceleration Human/CPU: 1/1 or 2/2. 1’s will force you to play positional defense more (as Cycloniac mentions). 1’s are a tad too slow for me, there’s times when I feel like I’m skating in mud. I prefer 2/2. Try 3/3 if you want a faster paced game but it borders on a little too arcade.

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NHL 13 Sliders: Finding Your Perfect Game: The Starting Point

As with any EA Sports title, not all is copacetic out of the box. You will need to spend some time adjusting the sliders to your taste and skill level and keep adjusting them as you get better. But how do you go about doing this? My next few blog posts will look at this endeavor a bit more closely.

FINDING YOUR STARTING POINT
The pre-programmed sliders in the game will either be too easy for you or too hard. All of them fail to recreate a true simulation of hockey. If you are new to the series or it’s been a while since you last delved in, your approach here should be to find the out of the box settings that give you a difficult and close game every time. If you are getting trounced on, the game is too hard. If you are not winning much (if at all) but the score is always close then this is your starting point.

Your next task is to try and recreate a more accurate simulation of hockey. The sliders and settings that effect the overall feel of realism or hockey simulation in NHL 13 are (basically): Offsides (delayed), Icing (on), Injuries (on), Tie Break (5 min 4 on 4, shootout), Penalties (maxed or close to it), Post Whistle Rules (authentic), Fighting (maxed), and Game Speed (0 or 1). I will go over these settings in a bit more detail in future posts in this series. For now, know that this is where you start if you are looking for an authentic hockey experience.

Alternatively, you can find many well thought out slider settings at the Operation Sports EA Sports NHL Sliders forum. Try them out and when you zero in on something that feels good to you, start tweaking for your skill level. I’ve tried AL_TITO13’s sliders but found the All Star setting too intimidating. I then punched in Cycloniac’s TrueSim NHL 13 Sliders and have been tweaking them to my taste and skill level over the past few days.

After you have selected your starting sliders, the next step is to tweak the sliders to your skill level. Is the CPU constantly scoring on you? Raise your goalie’s Reaction Speed. Are you missing the net a lot? Raise your Shot Accuracy or try a few games with Auto Aim on (you can find the option for Auto Aim when you start a game, after you have selected sides and jerseys). You can always readjust these sliders as you get better.

Use your stats to adjust to your skill level. If you won 100% of your faceoffs during the last game then your faceoff slider is too easy. Too many completed passes and you need to reexamine your Passing sliders. Pay attention to your shots on goal (30 is average in an NHL game), turnovers, time on attack and puck possession time. If you have possession far too much or too little look at your Aggression, Puck Control, Interceptions, Stick Lift Effectiveness and Poke Check Effectiveness sliders.

While you are making these adjustments it is important that you focus on the gameplay. Make line changes automatic and turn up Human Strategy so the CPU takes care of coaching for you.

Another thing to consider is the CPU cheats. Okay, maybe cheat is too strong a word. Lets put it another way… Compared to you; the CPU is perfect. This can be easily demonstrated by lowering the CPU Shot Accuracy down to zero and counting the goals it will still score on you. Set the CPU’s Pass Accuracy to 0 and it will still finish each and every game with a 70% or better passing percentage. The CPU can’t help it. It was programmed that way. The point being, don’t feel like you are cheating because you set the CPU Shot Accuracy to 0. The CPU was born with a pretty shifty advantage over you. It’s faster, smarter, and in most cases it has a better personality. It also doesn’t have those pesky fat fingered pie shovels you call hands slowing it down. When the CPU wants to pull off a deke all it has to do is think about it, you’re the one that has to perform it.

Another thing to consider is slider settings that work well in Season mode or Play Now may not necessarily translate well to Be A Pro or Be A GM. The length of the game will also have a sincere effect on the sliders you choose.

We’ll start covering the sliders in more detail in my next blog post.

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