Terrible roster AI management

[jwr38]

Currently the game has terrible roster management that to me is ruining the fun of fantasy and long term NHL leagues. It is so bad that my rookies of the year in the league never develop. Their rookie total is also their best.

But this is not the worst. The most pressing thing I have found is how it manages the farm roster and in turn how this affects the main roster.

Every year I take a look at Free agency. One thing I have noticed is a lot of good young talented guys who are released by their teams. Below is a fantasy league but same thing happens in NHL (but NHL is a slower sim)

Here you can see a search for a 18 -24 year old player with the ability of at least 3.5 and potential of 3. Of course our guy has potential of 4 and is 24


It's only one guy but remember the team released him. Not a bad player, pity the team never played him in the minors. He was on their reserve list.


But is it really that bad? He is a search for young players with ability of 3 (that were released) 53 players .... damn. I am in a 18 team league. When I did this search for any age I got mountains of players (498 .. twice my league there).



But here is the issue. They don't develop any players. Over 15 years of siming not one player is even a half a point game player. I have defencemen leading their draft class in more than one season. None and I mean NONE of the rookies of the year become any better. Their winning season is often less than half a point a game or worse. I do get the close to point a game player .... next season drops off for a bad season before winning the scoring title the next year. Only a generated player at the beginning was able to be in the scoring race every year.

The farm teams over load in one area and don't look to develop players. Often old guys are brought in and block younger guys on the farm. When players get to their 2nd or 3rd contract (around the 20 - 24 mark), they are release and no one picks them up. Instead they end up playing players who they drafted the year before ..... from the 4th to 7th round with no ability and potential ..... in the main club. These players only get one season before they never make the team again but this happens every season.



As you can see. They were drafted the year before and in my full 68 game season. You can see that many are 4 round picks or more and just to let you know ... those guys have ability of about 2.5 and no potential. Mind f'in boggling.

So do you think the developers will do anything soon? Currently in single player mode (which this game is mainly for) is only good for one season because after that, it is in my opinion completely awful.

[jwr38]

So how bad is it really? Good news last year a player that was created by the sim, developed in junior won the scoring title.



Only issue was he sucked the year before .... and the year before that was in the minors ...



not too pretty but the next winners are at least doing well





But take a look at their age .... then when they were created ... yup, before the sim had too much time to develop them.

The winners in later years all look like the first player ... Looks like a throw of the dice really.

[jwr38]

I can only do 5 pictures upload at a time

take a look at a "developed guy"

[jwr38]

Rookies of the year. They all repeat this pattern. Did no one sim and check this at all???






I have more information but I will leave it here. I have a few more leagues where this happens ... well every league I have tried. please can other people look at their leagues if they have simmed more than 5 seasons.

[JeffR]

Just to be clear, you're only running fictional leagues, right? It sounds like there may be an issue with the way the AI is handling prospects in fictional games (possibly related to an old one we killed in the historical AI a while ago), but I want to be sure it's confined to those leagues only.

[jwr38]

No I have this in NHL leagues I believe but I've only run through 4 seasons because of the sim speed in NHL is really slow.

I wanted FHM for the fantasy leagues but with the roster management I have stopped completely.

[gmarko]

Like I said in other threads in my game (from 2015/16 on) teams like Carolina and Ottawa signed and then waived and released all of their players from draft in 2016, even those they drafted in first round. I know those two teams in real world have the two most cheapest owners but players on ELC getting waived 2 months after being drafted?

[jwr38]

What do the farm teams look like mid way through the season in the NHL game? Are they like mine where they are full of old players with no potential playing on the top two lines?

My NHL farm teams are full of old players so the young guys never get any playing time. That and they often have 8 centers 1 left wing and lots of defence (example).

[gmarko]

Originally Posted by jwr38

What do the farm teams look like mid way through the season in the NHL game? Are they like mine where they are full of old players with no potential playing on the top two lines?

My NHL farm teams are full of old players so the young guys never get any playing time. That and they often have 8 centers 1 left wing and lots of defence (example).

Now I'm in second season and to be fair my prospects are playing top minutes but those the most youngest but those from 22-27 years old. But trades are terrible, like for example Martin Jones whp gets traded for Jon Merril (straight up trade) the same offseason as he was traded to SJ (in real world) and every time I start a new game the trade that always happen is 20 year old Frederick Gauthier (20, Toronto) for Jagr (42, Florida) and Toronto is suppose to be in rebuild. Players like Jake Allen and Curtis Lazar (on ELC) getting waived...

[jwr38]

Originally Posted by gmarko

Now I'm in second season and to be fair my prospects are playing top minutes but those the most youngest but those from 22-27 years old. But trades are terrible, like for example Martin Jones whp gets traded for Jon Merril (straight up trade) the same offseason as he was traded to SJ (in real world) and every time I start a new game the trade that always happen is 20 year old Frederick Gauthier (20, Toronto) for Jagr (42, Florida) and Toronto is suppose to be in rebuild. Players like Jake Allen and Curtis Lazar (on ELC) getting waived...

so the youngest players on other teams are playing and getting good ice time or just on your team?

They know about the trading AI and the young for old swapping that is going on. I already pointed out that the computer often does trades that are not in an area of need .... but end up making their team unbalanced.

[tarashnat]

AI for Canadiens has Plekanec on 4th line and sent Semin to the minors in 2015-16 season. Semin has 10 goal in 33 games. Tied for 3rd on team.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by tarashnat

AI for Canadiens has Plekanec on 4th line and sent Semin to the minors in 2015-16 season. Semin has 10 goal in 33 games. Tied for 3rd on team.

Cap issues?

[mgom27]

Cody Porter should be a RFA but isn't because none show under Unsigned Prospects for my team.

[jwr38]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Cap issues?

cap issues having Plekanec and waiving semin tells me ... computer AI signed guys it didn't need.

Take a look at my rookies of the year. you know most of them are now free agents .. mainly because of terrible roster management.

I will be checking the patch this friday. If it is not fixed then this game was a waste of cash (36 dollars for a single season game ...yuck)

[gmarko]

And general overview of the game is pretty bad in my opinion.

[jwr38]

Overall I would like the game if teams better managed their rosters, especially if that did that through Owner, GM, coach combinations. Right now I see players signed because they have cap space that season and not caring about if that was a need or not.

Take a look at your leagues half way through a season. How many teams are either carrying 23 or 20 players. How many are in-between. In my leagues they either carry 23 players or 20 ....split around 50%. Why is this happening?

Take a look at the team management here. This team has 23 players on it. 6 are defence, 2 are goalies and .... the rest are forwards. Now take a look at the ability/age of those players. now remember I have hundreds of free agents with an ability of 3 or better, doing nothing.


Here we have the .... goalie at 18 on the pro team being a backup. His ability is 2 ... so not good enough for the pros and I still have no idea if development is a combination of game play and potential but .... really? You'll not see but this team also loves right wings (6) which they all signed last year when they had none. (CAN YOU SPOT THE BUG YET??)

[jwr38]

And this is why the game fails for me. Because of the bad roster development you can't play single player. You might get away with a year or two but after that you are wasting your time as the game is getting easier. But there are clear "easy cheats" if you play more than one season.

this is the top team in my fantasy league. As you can see great defence ... crap balance ... top players (not developed by game ..aged 33). 2 real centers but the LW can also play C ...I also believe next season they will have 5 centers because it will just go crazy with the 3 expiring contracts.


Funny team to be winning. No balance, ability 2 guys on the team. Now my worst team ...... well now ... on paper it is better than the top team ... better balance ... the RW you can't see have either 4 or 3 in ability. but it doesn't have as many older great guys. (aged 33). L mcDonald has played 17 games this season .... in the minors none in the pros. He is just sitting there wasting away.

[jwr38]

I've pointed this out before but wasn't fixed in the patch. Like it matters anyway. Phoenix has the best old guy. They have no need for good personal.


And head coach .... he need those 18 year olds on the team .. cause he sucks at coaching anything else.




The Petrels have a better head coach (and the players have better defensive stat ratings) and yet the worst team.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Just thinking, may this be rather an issue with scouting than the AI? Maybe the scout who generated those ratings is crap...

[jwr38]

These are the free agents in the middle of a season. Filter shows only those that are skilled 3 or higher. Now that is a lot of players .... especially when teams are playing 2 - 2.5 ability players.



49 players with no job with an ability of 3.5 and above. You can see they are 33. They are also the better-developed players. The ones you want if you want to win.



There you have more info to chew on.