Question on League Creation and Playoff Format

[servo75]

Hi, I'm new to this game and am confused by a few things when it comes to league creation that I don't see explained in the manual. I wish it would go into more detail about all the options in league creation including playoffs format.



1. In playoffs, what does "division leader seeded" mean?



2. Can we get an explanation on the different types of playoff formats? THere are several options for 4 and 8 teams that I'm not sure of. For example, what is the difference between "8 teams", "8 teams / 4 per div" and "8 teams seeding?" I would figure the last one would put the two division winners as first two seeds, then the next 6 overall, like the NHL did before the current format. The first would take the top 8 and put them in bracket format, and the second option would have 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 in each division. However I made two test leagues 6 x 2 divisions=12. One with 8 team 4 div playoffs and one with 8 team 4 div reseeding. It looks like the playoff matchups were 1 vs. 3 and 2 vs. 4 instead of 4-1 and 3-2. Can we control how matchups work, would they all be like the NHL with 3 div winners and 2 wild cards? Does it make a difference if we do 6 teams each in two divisions with no conferences or 6 teams each in two conferences?


3. I find I'm unable to change league value. In a custom league, it must be "major" and I try to type in something like 0.90 but won't type.

4. In custom leagues if I add a new league, I can't add real minor leagues. So if I change my mind and hit cancel, the game undoes EVERYTHING and goes all the way back to the main screen so I lose all the teams I just entered! I found that kind of annoying.

[Greenert11]

1. Division leader seeded means the top team in each division will qualify for the playoffs, regardless of league standings.

2. The playoff formats are based on past NHL playoff formats, the seeding may be weird because that is the seeding they used in real life, 1 vs 3, 2 vs 4. I believe you can set a custom playoff format to correct the seeding.

3.You cannot change the value of the first major league it is locked at 100 because that particular league is the equivalent of the NHL, you can however change the value of every minor league, junior league and additional major leagues.

[servo75]

Thanks for replying, but I've taken a look at all these possibilities, building about 8 test leagues going through all the permutations, custom or not, and am more confused than ever.


There seem to be no options for playoff format in "Custom."
I pick variations of the "8 teams" in format, I get everything but what I'm looking for. I'll either get 1st to 2nd round the winner playing the winner in an opposite conference, or just the top 8 league teams regardless of

I have to say this is REALLY disappointing. I realize there is so much customization in this game already but we should be able to say, "8 teams in each of 2 conferences, each conference 1v4 2v3." I've taken so much time to build test leagues under all these permutations of choices, can't get the result I want yet. The options on the playoff type screen are too confusing and I wish they would be more flexible or explained more, or make it so we can export the playoff format and just make it ourselves.


I wonder if the devs can give us a more detailed explanation of the options on these screens. The documentation gives only passing reference and does not explain all options.

[BKL]

I’ve been able to do two conferences with four teams per conference, 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3, without any problem.

One suggestion that I found helpful is to set up a “mock” league and then just simulate the results until playoff time to see if it works as I hoped. On July 1 you can change the format to test out different formats until you find what works. Not ideal but you can make sure it’s what you want. Easy to sim a season in 10-15 min to experiment with formats.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[servo75]

Originally Posted by BKL

I’ve been able to do two conferences with four teams per conference, 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3, without any problem.

One suggestion that I found helpful is to set up a “mock” league and then just simulate the results until playoff time to see if it works as I hoped. On July 1 you can change the format to test out different formats until you find what works. Not ideal but you can make sure it’s what you want. Easy to sim a season in 10-15 min to experiment with formats.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which setup did you use to get that to work? I actually spent half the day Sunday setting up 8 different mock leagues with all permutations of 2 division vs. 2 conference and all the variations of 8 team playoff formats, simmed to playoffs and none of the options gave me what I'm looking for. Mostly I got either division winners 1 & 2 with the rest wildcards, or 2nd round matchups being between two conferences.


I also tried using "Custom" but then I can't even control the number of playoff teams; I will always get all 8 teams per division, i.e. 16/16 making the playoffs.

This is unfortunately a MAJOR negative for me for this game. They say it's customizable but not really, is it? You can choose the standard or custom but cannot mix the two. I can choose custom playoff format but not even be able to choose how many teams make the playoffs. I can choose from a bunch of options that I'm not sure how they work (mock leagues, though I did try that, should not be necessary. A simple manual explaining the options isn't that difficult) and have no control over playoff matchups with that or with custom option. Even if I want to play the real NHL with just a few tweaks like different number of games or assigning 3 points for regulation wins, the only way I can do that is by creating a custom game, adding the NHL but then the options for expansion draft and minor leagues all disappear and I can only add custom minor leagues.

This is a HUGE negative in my view and honestly I'd return it at this point if I still could. If you're going to charge nearly AAA money for this game I'm going to have high expectations and you'd better be able to deliver the goods. League format, scheduling and playoffs are the backbone around everything else, without that the game is half worthless in my opinion. If I just wanted to straight up manage an NHL franchise, I can do that with EA Sports NHL, and actually play the game with high definition 3D graphics and animations. I'm willing to give the fancy graphics up for flexibility, but now it appears I have neither. The devs really dropped the ball on this one, not even being able to give us a thorough manual and putting complex options in there without even bothering to explain them?!

[BKL]

Well, perhaps it is because I use no divisions, just two conferences. 14 teams in each conference. Top 4 from each conference make the playoff. I use a custom format. I start at quaterfinals. Keep conference separate box checked. No divisions to confuse anything. 80 game season, 2 games against each inter conference team and 4 games against each team in your conference. Works out well for me.

[servo75]

Originally Posted by BKL

Well, perhaps it is because I use no divisions, just two conferences. 14 teams in each conference. Top 4 from each conference make the playoff. I use a custom format. I start at quaterfinals. Keep conference separate box checked. No divisions to confuse anything. 80 game season, 2 games against each inter conference team and 4 games against each team in your conference. Works out well for me.

Hmmm okay. When I used custom, the same way you do, except with 8 per conference instead of 14, I find it just puts all 8 (i.e. 16 of 16 teams) in the playoffs.

[BKL]

When you customize the playoffs, are you selecting the right round to start in from the drop down - ie, if you want only 4 teams per conference (8 in total for the whole league) then you have to start in the quarterfinals.

Also, do you hit the save button after you make your changes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk