NHL 24 patch 1.4.0 is available today, alongside a new roster update, building on their recent January tuner update from last week. The focus of the update revolves around improved goalkeeping, with an emphasis on making smaller goalies a more viable option. The team also updated goalie X-Factor abilities to provide incentive to actually use them.
Additional uniforms have been either added or updated, along with a new feature allowing players to jump into the glass near the boards after scoring a goal. A new roster update is also available today with a full list of changes here. It’s a fairly sizable update, so check out the patch notes below.
Gameplay
Goalie X-Factors
- Community Feedback: Certain Goalie X-Factor Zone Abilities don’t provide enough incentive to use. This results in players feeling like they have limited choice when assigning Goalie X-Factors.
- Goalie X-Factor: LIGHT WORK has been updated to provide more gameplay benefit:
- Added a boost to Goalie Precision vs Wrist Shot / Snap Shots.
- Added a boost to Goalie Precision vs any shot within 20ft of the net.
- Goalie X-Factor: EXTRA PADDING has been updated to provide more gameplay benefit:
- Added a boost to Goalie Precision vs Slap Shots.
- Added a boost to Goalie Precision vs any shot further than 25ft of the net.
- Goalie X-Factor: WHIRLWIND has been updated to increase incentive to equip Zone Ability and provide more gameplay benefit:
- Increased the Zone Ability Teammate Energy boost
- Goalie X-Factor: HANDLED IT has been updated to more gameplay benefit:
- Increased the Zone Ability Teammate Energy boost
- Goalie X-Factor: ENERGIZER has been updated to provide more gameplay benefit:
- Increased the Zone Ability Teammate Energy boost
Goalie Size Balancing
Community Feedback: There is not enough incentive to use smaller goalies over larger goalies. Larger goalies feel like they cover more physical space and are harder to score on. In EASHL, this results in the majority of players creating large sized goalies and in HUT, players primarily dressing tall goalies.
- Save Reach is now scaled by the height of the goalie.
- Smaller Goalies will receive less penalty when making far Reaching Saves.
- Larger Goalies will receive a higher penalty when making far Reaching Saves.
- Currently, Save Reach scaling is only enabled when Light Work or Extra Padding is equipped.
User Goalie Save Accuracy
Community Feedback: User Goalies who are square to the puck are too inaccurate at making saves, allowing pucks to squeak through, while User Goalies who are out of position are making too many highly accurate reaching saves.
- Increased the max accuracy of a User Goalie when making saves with a high Precision score. Precision score is calculated when attempting a save and is influenced by multiple factors (attributes/screen/fatigue/reach/etc.)
- Increased bonus applied to Precision score when User Goalie is square to the puck and requires less reach to make a save.
- Increased penalty applied to Precision score when User Goalie is out of position and required to make far reaching saves.
Push Checks in Front of Net
Community Feedback: Recent changes increased the chance of getting called for a penalty when Push Checking in front of the net. Defensemen want a way to clear the net, allowing for better defending in close proximity to the crease to prevent screens/deflections/tap ins.
The defending team can push check and knock down their opponent within [20ft] of the net with reduced risk of drawing an interference penalty.
However, multiple push checks within a short time frame, regardless of distance to net, can result in Cross Check penalty.
Other Improvements
- Added new Goalie save animations for quick saves to the glove and five hole.
- Adjusted Goalie Save animations when diving to their glove side to keep blocker higher.
- Players can now perform Jump on Boards celly if celebration triggers while along the boards.
- Fixed a rare crash bug that could trigger when taking a slapshot.
- Fixed an issue where Skaters would accelerate faster than expected while preparing for a Shoulder Check.
- Goalie will transition into proper stance when coming off post in VH stance, allowing them to make quicker saves from shots from the corner.
Be a Pro
- Fixed an issue where the coach could tell the user goalie that they are not meeting expectations even if the user has good stats
- Fixed an issue where saving changes in Edit Player reset the play-by-play name to A.J.
Presentation
- HUT – Player Card is now present during Flex Moment goal celebrations
- Classic Goal Celebrations – Players can now celebrate by jumping into the boards during classic goal celebrations (contextual – player needs to be close to boards)
- Classic Goal Celebrations – Celebrations trigger more immediately after button press
World of Chel
- Fixed an issue where user’s goalie settings do not persist through title reboot in World of CHEL
- Fixed an issue where Users cannot assign Alternate Captaincy in Club Members
- Fixed an issue where the Club Finals records are not being displayed in accordance with the new Finals playoff structure.
- Fixed an issue where Ones Eliminator and Threes Eliminator modes were not accessible during Club Finals leaderboard auditing.
- Fixed an issue where the World of CHEL Club Finals Elimination Retry pop-up only triggered on exiting and re-entering World of CHEL, not in Dressing Room after elimination.
- Fixed a failed to retrieve data (FRTD) issue that users were encountering when entering the World of CHEL store.
- Fixed an issue where being a Special Character in the Dressing Room, previewing items in the World of CHEL Store would cause the avatar to break when returning to the Dressing Room
- Fixed an issue where the goal celebration preview button was nonfunctional in the item preview screen in Battle Pass & World of CHEL store.
- Fixed an issue where some users with EA Play subscriptions couldn’t view or receive EA Play incentive offers in the WOC Store
- Fixed an issue where the purchase text is missing for EA Play Membership Chel Coin Rewards
- Fixed an issue where the EA Play Rewards headers were missing in the World of CHEL Store
- Fixed unlocalized text that was present in the World of CHEL Store descriptions.
- Fixed the Great Britain Player Banner Background so it shows the correct flag.
- Fixed an issue where users would lose functionality trying to open the Battle Pass after completing an online World of CHEL game.
- Fixed an issue where EASHL matchmaking would change to the Finding Opponent step even if the user doesn’t find any Teammates.
- Fixed an issue where Matchmaking doesn’t advance to Finding Opponent after five seconds when skater positions of a dressing room are filled.
- Fixed an issue where users could hear the opponent’s VOIP in the pre-game matchup screen for EASHL game modes.
- Fixed an issue where a customized club jersey logo color wasn’t displaying in the game correctly.
- Fixed an issue where a Clubs Away logo wasn’t brought into gameplay.
- Fixed an issue where the Jersey preview is not correct after one club changes jersey selection in the EASHL matchup screen.
- Fixed an issue where the default player equipment didn’t appear in Club Identity correctly.
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes show players wearing the Anaheim Ducks jerseys when returning to the dressing room after a game.
- Presentation – NIS Logic – Intro/ Outro – Special character player classes are cut off in Clear Player Intro
- Fixed a rare crash that would sometimes occur when quitting the match after puck drop.
Hockey Ultimate Team
Uniforms
The following uniforms have been added or updated in NHL 24
NHL
- New York Rangers Third
- All-Star Uniforms
AHL
- Calgary Wranglers Third
- Colorado Eagles Third
- Utica Comets Third
ECHL
Canadian Hockey League
- North Bay Battalion Third and Fourth
- Halifax Mooseheads Third
- Prince Albert Raiders Third
- Cape Breton Screaming Eagles Third
On February 2nd, 2024 from 1pm to 4pm ET, in the first NHL LAN event of the EA SPORTS NHL 24 World Championship esports season, the EA SPORTS NHL All-Star Open will feature the top four finishers from All-Star Open qualifying – CadCooks (Samuel Landry) representing the Washington Capitals; Deeks (Dany-Karl Lavesque) representing the Montreal Canadiens; Geimer (Matthew Geim) representing the Calgary Flames and Polgz (Ethan Kerr-Polgar) representing the Toronto Maple Leafs. The EA SPORTS NHL 24 All-Star Champion will take home a $2,000 USD cash prize and championship trophy. In addition to their appearance at the All-Star Open Final in Toronto, the four All-Star finalists have automatically qualified to the EA SPORTS NHL 24 North American Bracket, joining 64 players from the Club Championship and 56 players from Online Open Play – with play beginning on March 9. For more tournament information, please visit www.nhl.com/NHL24.
