IRC-Galleria

Jumalauta!

Kanadalainen kaverini on kirjoittanut kaiken sen mitä itsekin olen EA Sportsin NHL-pelisarjaan aina toivonut (valmentajarallia ei tosin mainita, mutta hyvä näinkin).

Ja mikä parasta: kaikki uudistustoiveet on mahdollista toteuttaa nykykonsoleilla. Nyt vain sitten toivotaan että tätä listaa on luettu tarkkaan pelintekijöiden keskuudessa.

Alkuperäinen linkki löytyy toivomuslistan lopusta.


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NHL 08 WHISTLIST

Gameplay

Puck Size: I want to mention this again since it does relate to presentation and authentic, but mostly to gameplay. The size is too big, it looks wrong from a presentation side, and in a gameplay side, it cause the puck to possibly hit the post or the goalie make a save that wouldnÂ’t have happened if the puck was the actually size.

Defensive Pair Lines Changes: I think itÂ’s about time users have the ability to chose their defensive parings lines. We could use the advantage of ONLY changing the D lines, or make a special paring of scoring and defensive lines, instead of the CPU automatically picking a random pair for us when we pick a new line. This addition would do wonders for us users and even the CPU if it doesnÂ’t already with coaching control.

Penalty Custom Time: Too add more customization to the game for a user, giving them the ability to create how long a powerplay is would be good for them. They can pick anytime between 2mins - :10secs, and it would be multiplied by two on double minors. Majors would stay 5 minutes.

On the accelerating game clock, the time would slow down to the preferred penalty time.

Game Clock Real Time: Remember back in the days of 3-d gen (Playstation, N64, ect.) when the clock would be in real time and could start going down at normal speed from 10 minutes or whatever period length you picked? How about we bring that option back for some users that want a real time period length clock? The reason for this is it would affect the playing time stat the most.

Users would also have the option for this real time clock to effect OT, meaning that 25% of the period length you selected would be the OT period length.

So if you selected 7 mins, then the OT period would be 1:45.

The same feature could be applied to Power Play times, or can be done with the custom penalty time.

Home Ice Advantage: One thing I forgot to mention was that fan support impacts how much impact and how easy it is to build up the crowd noise. If a team has high fan support, the home games for the team will be louder then a team with a lower fan support. It will also be easier to bring up the noise. If a team has low team support, it wonÂ’t take much to get the crowd out of the game.

A perfect example is a team such as the Flames. They have now gained the reputation of the loudest places to play, and that relates to great fan support and good team play. A team such as the Blues however, has low fan support right now, causing the arena to be quite quiet.

The home ice advantage relates a lot to the crowd reactions suggestion listed later in this list.

Controls tweak: In the previous list (Gameplay pt. 2) I introduced the skill stick that gives more controls to a players deke. To fix the problem of it causing too many mistakes, R1 would be a modifier button for pulling advanced dekes. To pass, hold L1 and move the right analog to the intended target. This could be also used to dump the puck around the board when the user is in the attack zone. To do a saucer pass, hold L1, hold down R3 and move the right analog (this may be a bit tough to use at first).

Rival Games: Emotions should be more spirited and aggressive during rivalry games. How aggressive the emotions are depends how much intensity is in the rivalry currently.

Just because itÂ’s a rivalry game doesnÂ’t mean the game should become an NHL 2005 hitfest, even on the highest intensity, it shouldnÂ’t be physical. On the highest level, players would of course be more physical, and most intensity from player, but will not be looking around to only kill people (unless heÂ’s a pure enforcer thatÂ’s job is to fight and cause a little trouble). The lowest level to classify for a rivalry would be just a game was players are more physical then just a regular game against a team they donÂ’t play much.

Rivalry games may be also dirtier with play with cheap shots.

There would be two levels are rivalry, one level would be minor rival, which is a small rivalry between teams, and the second level would be major rival, which is a rivalry which is truly a rivalry. Divisional opponents would most likely fill that spot.

Fans will also be more excited during rivalry games, and advantages (home ice and normal) could be built and lost easier.

Rivalry could be built from playoff series, constant games between each team (constant losing or close games), a event which caused bad blood (attempt to injure goalie or player), ect.

All-Star game goalie change: During the All-Star game in dynasty mode, goalies should be automatically changed each period. If this means an special exception must be made for 3 goalies to be dressed, then so be it.

Stand-Up Goalie position: Something I forgot to mention in the last list as well was that all goalies in the game play a butterfly style of goaltending, even if they are a stand-up goalie.

Very few goalies play Stand-Up anymore, but still would be good to have two animations styles for two different goaltending styles, especially for create a player that wants to be a stand-up goalie.

Presentation

Road Crowd: ItÂ’s great to see away fans in the crowd now, but sometimes it seems to be a bit too many away fans, especially depending on the fan base of the team. It may be a good idea to tone down on it a little bit for exhibition. That will be our maximum away fans base.

During Dynasty Mode, how many fans appear at away games depends on the fan support. If fan support is high for the team, the team is more likely to have fans in the crowd during road games. Not only that, but it depends the distance between the home team location and the road game location.

A perfect example of this is the Leafs. Leafs are an automatic to at least get 15% of the seats in Canada and short plane trips around T-dot.

Last, but not least, home fan support is also very important. If a team has high fan support, itÂ’s gonna be hard for the road team fans to get tickets either way, especially if itÂ’s a rivalry game. Or if itÂ’s aÂ…PLAYOFF GAME! When it come playoffs, road fans are gonna be a very, very low percent of the crowd, especially in markets that have good fan support.

Crowd Chants: Crowd Chants are a very big part of the game atmosphere. Hearing the chant “GO FLAMES GO!” during the game when the crowd looks for the team to either comeback in the game, get a big goal, or to just encourage them on in their good play really adds a great part to the game. Same with crowd chants to goalies, trying to throw them off their game or to congratulate them for their good play…or bad play.

Crowd Reactions: Work on making the crowd react to the play better in real time. Game tempo also impacts the crowd atmosphere. If a game is really exciting with play, they would be louder then a game with simple, slow paced play (however, if a team has good fan support with fan that are exuberant, then they can still be loud).

Playoff games are a greater chance for the crowd to be loud!

Zamboni Machine: Year after year the community asks to see a feature that was in the days of NHL Faceoff 99 and 2000 to return to hockey gaming and be introduced to the NHL seriesÂ…The zamboni machine cleaning the sheet of ice during the intermission.

ItÂ’s one machine that is a huge part of hockey heritage and identity. Seeing that in a video game would be a great bonus.

The zamboni could be painted with the team logo and color, and the other one with a EA SPORTS logo and white background. During the intermission when you have the intermission meun pop up, the background could show the zambonis come on to the ice and clean the ice, then exit off the ice and then the background could just show the camera showing arena shots afterwards.

However, for the Intermission show suggestion mention later in this list, the zamboni could be going on in the game background while your watching the show. After itÂ’s done, it would intervene with zamboni background (if itÂ’s not over already)

ItÂ’s not humongous, but something cool to see or watch while your making some intermission adjustments or looking at the stats.

Mascots: Pretty much all teams have mascots in the stands doing side entertainment. Seeing a mascot in the crowd doing what a mascot does wouldn’t be a bad thing. Seeing “Harvey the Hound” in the Pengrowth Saddledome would sure be cool.

Goal Horn lengths: The problem with the current goal horns in the game is that they feel too generic. TheyÂ’re also the same horn length sequence (how long the horn lasts each time its blown) and in general, is too short. The whole goal horn length is usually about 10 seconds long average. The first sequence of the horn may be short if itÂ’s three horns, the second sequence is longer then the first horn, and the third sequence if necessary, is the longest length.

Take the flames horn for example:

The first horn is about 3 seconds, the second horn is 5 second, and the last horn is 7 seconds.

Some horns may also have the horn quickly blown again in a sequence. Listen to all the teams goal horns and try to incorporate them into the game as authentic you can.

Puck Shadow: It takes away from game authenticity when there is a big shadow under the puck. At least give the user the option of taking it off. It shouldnÂ’t be mandatory.

Player Sweat: Players sweat would be sweet to see and maybe even a bit disgusting if it looks so good. How much a player sweat should depend on their amount of energy they have put forth, and how recently theyÂ’ve been resting on the bench (or been to the bench period), because players do wipe their faces to get rid of the sweat and do drink water.

Players Long Hair: Some players in the NHL have some pretty long hair (and some ugly ones too). Seeing players have theyÂ’re head flying around while theyÂ’re moving on the ice would be a nice element.

Some players have different type of hair from others (such as Anson Carter), meaning theyÂ’re hair shouldnÂ’t should be the same as Ryan SmythÂ’s hair in the game (unless they have the same type of hair).

Cut Scenes: Cut scenes shouldnÂ’t be pre-scripted clips all the time. It should be done by showing players reactions or such after plays real time. Other scenes that could be included after play could be arena visuals, and anything worth looking at on the ice.

Horizontal score overlay: Horizontal seems to be the future of score overlays since pretty much all sports broadcasters are using this, and I donÂ’t blame them, it looks really good. So itÂ’s only fair for NHL to have a next gen score overlay.

Below I have pictures that show each stage of my created score overlay that I would like to see in NHL 08 with little brief descriptions of what extra they feature and how itÂ’s different from others. I used the Madden NFL template here since it looks the nicest.


This is the default stage of the overlay. It features the period, clock, the teams playing in their primary team colour, score in a black shadow (to make the score most viewable), the play notification (for offsides warnings, icing, frozen puck, delayed penalty, out of play, and shot speed meter) and last but not least, a league score ticker (for dynasty mode and online purposes. If playing in exhibition, it will show real world stats from the NHL).


This is where things start getting creative. The background left background colour has changed to the Islanders colour. When a team is on the powerplay, the left background changes to the team colour with the advantage.


When a goal is scored, a little notification pops up, and the score is updated. You scored a goal, letÂ’s make it flashy!


What is featured here is when there is one minute left in the period, the clock turns yellow to stand out more and make the user more aware of the time left. As well as a fully featured score ticker on the bottom of the score ticker. This score ticker is basically like a TSN/ESPN bottom screen ticker that pops up. It gives you more in depth with other game stats such as goal summery, goalie stats, and it also gives you league transactions and news updates. You can also set an option to actually have the ticker store data from the real world, using the ESPN ticker in the main menu (this is when it will only pop up in exhibition match, or else it wonÂ’t come up at all).


This is how the shootout score overlay would look. The left background would be in the current shooter team colour. The numbers in the score section represent the round (if the rounds go past 3, it will update to the next 3 rounds. i.e, 1, 2, 3 are completed and sudden is needed, so the display would change to 4, 5, 6) and our coloured to represented the round passed with a result. A number in red means the attempted failed, a number in yellow means the attempt was successful in a goal, and whit number represent that the result for the round is to be determined still. To the right, the player that is shooting is shown along with his main offensive stats for the game (if he has no goals and assists, then itÂ’ll look for shots).



This displays a team based statistic. It shows the stat being shown, stats for the game, stats for the season and the ranking in the NHL (sometimes it may be done in conference or division).

This could also work the same for players.


This displays the team comparison stats. The stats being presented starts off, then Team 1 stats for the comparison are shown, followed by the leading player in that category, and likewise for the other team).

This could also work the same for players.

There are some games that are a special event/game, meaning it should have a special look on the score overlay, hereÂ’s an example of the ones that should be faced.




All-Star Overlay: the primary colour of the All-Star logo/hosting team is the background. On the right side, the event logo is shown, and the event that is being presented is worded.


Playoffs Overlay: The game the conference is in would be the background colour. The playoff logo would be displayed on the right side. The round and the series record would be displayed as well.




Stanley Cup Finals Overlay: The team leading the series (or if itÂ’s the first game, the higher seeded team, aka, the first home team) would have itÂ’s primary colour be the background colour. The Stanley Cup Final logo would be displayed on the right side. The round and the series record would be displayed as well.

For all three of these, if there happens to be a penalty or an event that needs to change the overlay, the overlay would be substituted to the appropriate display.

There are no quick score ticker on the overlay for these games due to there either wonÂ’t be any games on that date, time, or only one game would be playing at the same time (during quarter finals), which is why a special design is substituted.

For the All-Star and Stanley Cup series overlay, the logo may replace the EA logo at times because itÂ’s an very special event. The way I picture it would look in live action is the overlay pops up with the event logo, and then spins around back to the EA SPORTS logo.

Stats!: Stats, stats, stats! Which hardcore hockey fan doesnÂ’t love stats? We should see some more stats in NHL 08! Stats such as all-time matchup record, team and player individual streaks, lineup stats, all time record stats and streaks, all the stats you can possibly think of! There is an official NHL record book, show that would be a great reference.

Now, there is a point for having more stats in the game, especially for dynasty mode. It will provide for more information towards the game for the play-by-play, mentioning some interesting stats you hear always may learn while watching a game on TV. Also stats for NHL records that a user can attempt to break. Stats can also including the age the record was broken at as well. So records for the youngest player, or first/only player to do this after this certain age, ect.

Cameras (gameplay and presentation): Cameras in gameplay should be editable, being able to make a user defined camera. We can pick a camera we want base of off such as classic, and then be able to edit it to our preference. Such tools we should have is zoom (zoom in, or zoom out with the camera), camera height, and angle.

Along with that, how about we add a REAL broadcast camera. Not a side camera, a camera that is fixed to the center of the ice on the side of the penalty box (at least in most rinks) and the angle is adjusted towards the play. Some hardcore fans either like to watch CPU vs. CPU games, or they like to play in that camera.

Now for the presentation side, add more cameras along the arena for replay purposes. Perhaps add a high corner camera, above goal judge camera, net cam, corner camera, and a invisible rail cam. Other camera views can be used just for arena visuals during play stoppages like in Madden.

Real Audio Player Chatter: It would just be plain cool to hear actual audio clips from the pros on the ice during the season make it into the gameplay of the game to the player videogame counterpart. Just don’t randomly put it into the game however. When they say something, it actually fits the play. So if someone says “WHERE’S THE CALL!?” He is not gonna say it when nothing related to even a penalty or play stoppage happen during play. He would say it when their was a play were a penalty could have been called.

Gamebreaks: Your down to your final game of the season, you can win the division if your team wins and the team currently on top loses in their final game. Your playing in the Midwest of America, while your current nemesis is playing in the east coast. Your almost done your game and looks like your gonna get the win, but you donÂ’t know of the current situation of the other game. Last time the ticker showed the score, it was tied late in the game.

Play is stopped, and the broadcast shows a “gamebrake”, and the announcer at the studio says they’re showing the highlight of the result of the game your curious about.

You see the replay of the highlight that will determine your season.

The team you were siding for to win won the game in a last second goal.

If you win, you win the division.

This is one of the great moments that could happen if you brought in a feature that showed out of town highlights during some stoppages of play and in the intermission.

And not just pre-scripted highlights, REAL-TIME gameplay replays!

This feature wouldnÂ’t just be exclusive to the Dynasty Mode, it can also be used for online play to show top ranked players games highlights, if both users have a friend both on their lists, and it can also show a highlight from that user game, or online events games that your part of (tournaments, leagues).

ESPN Score Ticker: Knowing the results of other games as youÂ’re playing you own game is a great feature in dynasty/franchise modes. This shouldnÂ’t need much explain except for donÂ’t be lazy on implementing a real-time score ticker. While youÂ’re playing your own game, other games will be playing at the same time as your game, depending on the game starting time. If a game stated earlier, then it will be ahead of you in progress (unless the game is moving VERY SLOWLY), if a game started the same time as the game your in, then the time will be around the same time your game is (behind, or ahead in game time, depending on game progress speed). If the game being played started ahead of another game, then the game being played would be ahead of the other game in game progress. HereÂ’s three example of what I mean:

Example 1

Game 1 started at 7:00 PM ET

Game 2 started at 10:00 PM ET

Game 1 should be over by the time Game 2 starts, or may be in late OT/Shootout

Example 2

Game 1 started at 3:00 PM ET

Game 2 started at 3:15 PM ET

Game 1 would be a bit through the first period when Game 2 starts.

Example 3

Game 1 and 2 started at 10:05 PM ET

Game 1 and 2 would start at the same time, and would be around the same ballpark with game time depending on game progress.

This implementation of the score ticker would add extra depth and dimension.

And for the sake of implementing ESPN, let’s make it “presented” by ESPN.

Spotlight/overlook: Players overlook are things that take work on. IÂ’m not sure how the PBP works this year on 360, so IÂ’m just give my way on how I think it should be done, and hopefully you have some of these, if not all down to par.

When doing player overlooks, generally the player that would be looked over during the stoppage of play would be an superstar player, or a player that is doing well in the game or has been doing well in the past few games. When talking about this player, things that should be mentioned are things that are related to his attributes, how well he has played in the game, past few games, season, or career. If a player has good speed, is small size, and is starting to put points on the board after a slow first couple of seasons, then mention that about the player (BUT DONÂ’T RANDOMLY SAY IT ABOUT EVERY PLAYER, ESPICALLY IF HEÂ’S NOT SMALL!!!).

An example of how that may sound in dialogue would be this:

“Player x is really starting to show that he can be a great asset for this team, he has put up x amount of points this season and is now starting to set off his career after a slow first couple of season.”

“And don’t forget he has blazing speed Ron. For someone like him being a small size, that speed sure comes in handy, which have contributed to him to be able to set up plays or get the puck in the net.”

Other things that could be mentioned are milestones and records the player could reach if heÂ’s in close range of it.

Player spotlight is not limited to players only, spotlights and overlooks should be done for goalies, lineups, and teams, and even the team matchup. Which are huge for the Pre-Game.

The big thing you want to accomplish here is to make the PBP feel like itÂ’s live, they know the player or whatever topic they are overlooking, and to give information to the users.

Pre-Game/Intermission/Post Game: To make the user feel like heÂ’s watching the game on TV, a Pre-Game, Intermission, and Post Game (in the order of priority) will be a great feature on the presentation side.

Pre Game

Before the players come to the ice, the PBP team would be introduce themselves, present the venue, game, and the matchup. They may mention stuff related to the home team (most likely fans) and then get into more depth of the matchup. Mentioning things such as the stuff related to their matchup history (if significant enough), news/key notes with the teams, current strengths, weaknesses of the teams, and keys of winning the game for both teams.

While theyÂ’re talking, about three quarters through the segment, the lights will go out for the introduction of the teams and music will start playing in the background, and after the commentators are done talking, the home team would make their way out. The announcer introduces the home team as the goalie and players make it to the bench and onto the ice, and the away teams come out after. The announcer will then start naming the starting lineup for the home team as the players skate around.

After that part is done, the national anthem is sung (doing the last verse of each anthem would be good enough. Get one person of each sex to do the anthems, one for Canada English, one for Canada French, and the US anthem) for the home venue country, the commentators introduce the starting goalies with their stats as well and a note of their current play, the announcer pumps up the crowd, players get ready, and the puck is dropped.

Intermission

During Intermission, the broadcast could actually head over to an NHL panel studio with ESPN (or TSN) personalities that would acknowledge the how the game is going currently, the strengths and weakness of the teams and then tell the keys for the losing or winning team to have success, and commentate on the highlights of the current game. After that, highlights of other games could be shown in the dynasty league (or online), and then the intermission pop up would come up.

Post Game

Post game would be a lot like Intermission, just for post game purposes. The game would show the 3 stars, and then the PBP would head the broadcast over to the NHL panel, which would breakdown the game just played, mention the standings or any other stats result from the game result (if significant enough), and any other notes to pass on. Highlights of other games would be shown with commentating, and then that would be the end and you head to the game final meun.

Player Emotions, reactions and facial expressions: Hockey can become a very emotional game, and Next Gen brings the ability to make players more alive. Players becoming more alive in NHL 08 would enhance the presentation. Players reacting real time to the play would make the game feel more authentic. Players shaking their head at missing a wide open net they tried shooting at and missed or the goalie saved, players smacking their stick on the ice on a missed opportunity in a frustrating game, or a player harassing a player when they want to fight. Other reactions include after play players auguring a call or missed call. Goalies may also take a quick drink of water after play sometimes.

When it comes to goals, player celebrations shouldnÂ’t be doing one celebration right after the goal, and then do something completely different in a cut scene. The way it should work is a player does a celebration right after the goal as they do now, and then a different style camera comes in doing a close up while the player(s) are still celebrating. Other players would come in during the celebration for the congratulations and hugs. PlayerÂ’s celebrations reactions should variety between the impact and effect of the goal. If a huge goal is scored, such as a playoff OT/GWG, a GWG in a very important game (clinch one of the final playoff spots), or an very close and exciting game possible game winner, the player most likely would be doing an exuberant or ecstatic celebration along with his teammates. If a casual goal is scored, the celebration would be pretty moderate. If another goal is scored during a game where the goal scoring team is winning big, then the celebration wouldnÂ’t be too big. Special goals such as first goals or milestones would have special celebrations with the player receiving the puck and all players congratulating them, and the record would appear on the scoreboard (if the player is on the home team). Record breakers would also get a very special celebration with the same type of treatment (except it doesnÂ’t matter if the player is home or away). For goalies, reacting after goals is also pretty big. They could shake their head at a goal they felt they should have saved, angry at letting another goal in, or be cool and just drink it off with a quick take of water from the bottle (which reactions could vary from as well).

Now the final part to include is facial expressions. Players when hit, or feel feeling pain somewhere should result in a facial expression. Other expression includes a player breathing, which vary between how fatigued a player is, playerÂ’s eyes following the play, puck, player, or the net.

The whole goal here is to make the players feel more alive. And I almost forgot, included the bench with all these player reactions to play. Have them look at the play, stand up if there is a huge scoring chance such as a , and celebrate if thereÂ’s a goal. Even all flood out of the player bench when a OT goal is scored for theyÂ’re team.

Play-By-Play: Play-by-play will be described in the Play-By-play article that hopefully I will get out soon.

That's it!

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