EA Sports released the latest patch for NHL 17 this past week. Inside this patch is the second tuner update for the hockey game, but the biggest reason for the patch is the addition of a new game mode for NHL 17.
Hockey Ultimate Team Competitive Seasons puts a different spin on the popular Ultimate Team mode as users can compete in monthly seasons to obtain in-game rewards. Every “season” consists of four rounds and for every three games that a player plays, points will be posted to the leaderboard. After every round, players receive a reward and season points that will be counted towards the season total.
The goal of Hockey Ultimate Team Competitive Seasons is to finish as high as you can at the end of each monthly season. The better you finish, the bigger the reward you will receive after the season is over. The best part of this mode is that after a month, you can do it all over again so if you bomb in January, you could put your best foot forward in February.
The rest of the tuner update consist of fixes to numerous aspects of the game with a major focus being put on goaltender play for players. Changes such as increasing the reaction time of user controlled goalies to get in position on rebound saves is something that is a must for players who has the guts to control their goalies.
What’s more, the jerseys from NHL’s Outdoor Games are also introduced to NHL 17 in this patch. The Outdoor Games jerseys include someof the most anticipated games of the hockey season and players will be able to play with their favorite teams in them.
Below is the full list of fixes from the latest patch for NHL 17 . How is the game now playing after the patch? Let us know in our comment section.
GAMEPLAY (Tuner 1.02):
ALL MODES
Player Updates:
- Tuned down puck carrier’s reaction speed to reacquire a puck after losing it.
User Goalie Updates:
- Increased ability to make saves in tight to their body and decreased ability when reaching to reward better puck tracking and cutting off angles.
- Increased ability to make saves on cross grain shots by tuning movement so goalies will stay square even if the user is requesting to move away from the shot direction.
- Increase save success on blocking saves.
- Decreased the impact goalie movement to help promote puck tracking so that good angles and positioning mean the most for a goalie’s ability to make a save.
- Decreased screen effect slightly.
- Increased goalie speed for post-to-post movement.
- Increased AI goalie’s awareness for a possible shot off a faceoff.
- Increased ability to react after a save to increase their chance of getting back in position and making rebound saves.
- Rolled back change from previous patch for the goalie occasionally getting stuck in butterfly as it was causing a worse knock on issue.
EASHL MODE ONLY
EASHL Player Class Updates:
Goalies
- Increased all goalie classes height to 6’2”.
- Increased speed and agility of all goalies and added variance with Standup being the highest and Butterfly being the lowest.
- Increased Hybrid goalie’s recover rating so that he is now faster recovering than the Butterfly goalie.
- Increased rebound control of all classes. Standup goalie’s will still have the lowest rating while Butterfly goalies will have the highest.
- Increased poke check ability for all classes. Hybrid has the best poke check rating of the three classes and Butterfly has the lowest.
- Hybrid goalie now has the best stick side and paddle down rating of the three classes.
- Increased vision for all classes. Butterfly is still the lowest and Standup is still the highest.
- Increased 5-hole rating for both the Hybrid and Butterfly classes to separate them from the Standup goalie.
- Increased rebound control for the AI goalie class.
Players
- Lowered hand-eye ratings for all classes and rebalanced the category to see more realistic deflections and bat-ins across the different player classes.
- Lowered shooting attributes of Grinder, Power Forward and Enforcer Forward.
- Lowered passing attribute for the Grinder.
- Increased balance of the Two Way Forward and Hitting Sniper class.
- Increased the ability for defensive builds to intercept passes but still kept the same variance in abilities relative to each of the classes.
- Increased the minimum rating a player needs to get a saucer lift on a regular pass. Now Playmaker, Jumbo Playmaker and Puck Moving D will be the only players with the advantage.
- Raised discipline of the Two Way Dangler.
- Tuned down puck carrier’s reaction speed to reacquire a puck after losing it.
PRESENTATION:
The following uniforms have been added:
- Added Toronto Maple Leafs Centennial Uniform.
- Added Detroit Red Wings Centennial Uniform.
- Added Chicago Blackhawks Winter Classic Uniform.
- Added St. Louis Blues Winter Classic Uniform.
- Added Philadelphia Flyers Stadium Series Uniform.
- Added Pittsburgh Penguins Stadium Series Uniform.
- Added Frolunda Indians Home and Away Uniforms.
- Added Linkoping HC Home and Away Uniforms.
- Added Baie-Comeau Drakkar 3rd Uniforms.
The following arenas have been updated:
- Pittsburgh Penguins Arena now named PPG Paints Arena.
The following items have been updated:
- Fixed Regina Pats Medallion to correct logo.
- Fixed Buffalo Key Bank Arena scoreboard signage.
- Fixed camera clipping issue in Semi-Pro arena in EASHL.
EASHL:
- Region and Skill-Based Matchmaking restrictions were removed from Private PIN Group Matchmaking.
- Anti-griefing logic was removed from Private PIN Group Matchmaking.
FRANCHISE:
- Fixed an issue where player fighting bias was being set to 0 when the league year changed from year 1 to 2.
BE A PRO:
- Fixed an issue where player fighting bias was being set to 0 when the league year changed from year 1 to 2.
