NHL 24 Franchise Mode Improvements Revealed

The NHL 24 development team revealed their improvements for Franchise Mode including what’s coming in patch 1.01 when early access releases tomorrow, October 3 at noon EST.

• X-Factor evolve/devolve logic based on attributes/potential/playstyle/age
  • The X-Factor progression system will give players zone and superstar abilities based on their individual attributes as well as their age, playstyle and potential factoring in.
    • Prospects in the Draft who are NHL ready can still have abilities at the time they are drafted, and players ranked later in the Draft will have to grow into a higher overall to earn abilities.
  • Players under 27 years old can earn abilities, while players over 32 years old can lose abilities during the season.
  • Factoring in Playstyle reduces the likelihood for some abilities to generate on players with certain playstyles, however as an example a Two-Way Forward can still get an offensive ability like Puck on a String if it truly fits the player’s attributes.
• The Franchise interface has been darkened to reflect the changes made across NHL 24.
• Coaches utilize the secondary position of players more when constructing lineups
• Coaches set up even strength & powerplay lines better based on coaching style, time of the season, and standings rank
• +4 line chemistry added to help coaches construct lines
• Coaches slotting the right players in powerplay roles better
• Shot frequency setting is now default to High (this will increase scoring across the league but keep goalie SV% respectable)
• Fixed an issue where an unsigned prospect that gets traded to a CPU team sometimes didn’t get signed
• Qualifying offer amount is now shown when offering a contract to an RFA
• CPU teams will now utilize buyouts
• Teams without a goalie will prioritize trying to sign a goalie at the start of Free Agency
• Tuning for stat-based trade value mods which will also impact wild salary expectations when a player has a poor/good season
  • This will help address scenarios where backup level free-agent goalies don’t get contracts and teams walk into the season with worse goalies than what’s available
• We have increased the creation limits on XBSX & PS5:
  • 30 extra maximum teams
  • 1500 extra maximum skaters
  • 200 extra maximum goalies

NHL 24 Patch 1.01

• X-Factor evolve/devolve logic
  • Players of all ages can receive X-Factors once statistical growth kicks in after the season, as long as they have a high enough overall, and attributes that have become high enough to warrant gaining an ability.
• LD/RD positions now shown when selecting a player to add to a trade
• Progress Reports screen shows X-Factors on the correct player
• Fix for the default penalties slider being too low for all offline modes
• Fix for generated players being given the new generic helmet & bubble cages
• Fix to allow the user to send players down to the minors when the team is over the maximum salary cap
• Changes to the way we import minor/junior/elite league players into the mode for custom leagues
  • For a NHL pro team, always give them their minor, junior and elite league players that have matching pro teams regardless of how they are placed in the league.
  • For minor league players, players are only grabbed from the minor teams that are actually in the mode.
  • For a custom or elite league pro team, they get all the players on their minor team unless those players belong to a NHL pro team that is in the league. Custom or elite league pro teams do not get any players from juniors or other elite league teams
  • Don’t import junior and elite players that belong to a pro team that isn’t in the league
  • Authentic and 33 Expansion league creation should be unchanged.
• Fix to improper home ice advantage scenarios when using specific custom league settings

Planned Post-Launch Improvements

• Adding a contract response for when the player accepts a qualifying offer compared to a normal contract offer
• Adding Regulation Wins tiebreaker to Standings spreadsheet
• Conn Smythe winner presentation overlay will now show correct playoff stats

The team mentioned they didn’t put a lot of focus on Franchise Mode this year but all of the gameplay changes will be in all modes. That includes the day one patch adding Hybrid Controls as an additional option, alongside of Skill Stick and the new Total Control scheme. They will also add the option to use the new Goalie Tether control scheme or the standard Goalie Control system from NHL 23.

NHL 24 releases on October 6 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For those that pre-order the X-Factor Edition, it arrives three days earlier on October 3. EA Play members can get early access with the NHL 24 trial on October 3, along with member-only rewards throughout the season.