Maximizing the Offensive Defenseman

kanada22 · 01-14-2025, 07:17 AM

In the last couple of versions, i've occasionally tried to come close to monster seasons from OfD's, like Roman Josi's (96p, 85p) or Karlsson's (101p).
FHM 10 i tried it with Winnipeg and Florida for 2 seasons each, this year i've tried it with Nashville.
I've tried to build my offense around OfD, but i fail everytime to get near those numbers. On average i have mid 50's and can't even come close to PPG, although i've seen AI do crazy stuff, even Makar scoring 50 goals one season.
Here are Josi's and Radivojevic's stats:
https://imgur.com/TNvLPFV - Josi
https://imgur.com/tk0QOww - Radi
Maybe 26/27 season would be the best, since Radi had 33 PPP and Josi only 12, but still.
I just can't do it.
Here's the tactics that i was using:
Forsberg (Power forward, Garbage collector) - Stamkos (Sniper) - Evangelista (Setup man)/Chinakhov (TWF) later
Josi (quarterback) - Carrier (TWD, Stay at home)

Seems very logical, Stamer and Forsberg were ~PPG players, with Stamer being almost a 40 goal scorer (38 avg in 4 years), Evangelista and Chinakhov mid 50's and logically i would assume my OfD to fill that gap, but it usually a forward from the second line that gets the points with Steve and Fil

Nash IRL stats - https://imgur.com/buDd4YH
IRL Josi already has 12 ppp, in my game he had 20 and 19 full season

Quite a long and messy post, i guess i ask you to share your experience, your suggestions or further questions, because i really want my elite OfD play like IRL defensemen in production

kanada22 · 01-16-2025, 10:35 AM

Yeah, i guess i know the answer now. The issue was is that i played on 2d (all league) and was getting underwhelming results, but i run a couple of tests, playing as Vancouver on full classic and 2d. Same roles, same tactics, same everything. On classic, Hughes had 83 points (33ppp) in 82 games. League leader Gustav Forsling had 85p (18ppp) in 81 gp.
On 2d, Quinn had only 57 points (28ppp) in 82 games and he was 5th in production. League leader Bouchard had 68p (24ppp) in 82.
I then loaded my Stl Blues save where i started season 3 and turned on classic sim, here are the results:
https://imgur.com/aHhDwMr
The difference is HUGE
Dahlin - https://imgur.com/SthIJ96
Bouchard - https://imgur.com/H2SZ5qU
Josi - https://imgur.com/XQt4iia
Fox - https://imgur.com/kobgkcI
Hughes - https://imgur.com/Rv1DebO
Etc etc.
The biggest difference is their PP production. I took top 5 defenders this season and compared their pp totals. 2d sim, on average, they have 16.2 PPP. This season on classic - 30.6 PPP. And in general PP goals are more realistic.
But there's a drawback - i had 0 fun whatsoever playing this season. For some reason my tactics, that were working on 2d, seemed like a nonfactor on classic sim. At some point it was so bad, that our best player Robert Thomas had -28 in 29gp. Also i'm not liking the game ratings and the shots amount, but maybe we are indeed a bad team and 2d was deceiving me, but i don't think we are that bad to allow 35 S/G.

To conclude, if you want yours and AI defenders to rack up points, more scoring in general (McDavid had a monster 153p season) - play on classic mode. If you want your tactics to have bigger impact, have better GR, but less Dmen production and less PP goals in general - play on 2d. I'm gonna play s4 on classic again to decide for myself what i want more, but i wish that 2d sim had a closer look by the devs and had somewhat of an update.

renojedi · 01-16-2025, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanada22

I'm gonna play s4 on classic again to decide for myself what i want more, but i wish that 2d sim had a closer look by the devs and had somewhat of an update.

Me too. A few years ago, the developers said the plan was to move off of the classic engine to 2D. So I moved over and haven't (and won't) go back to classic. So, it is unfortunate that 2D still isn't the more accurate engine at this point. On FHM 11, I have played out every game of 4 seasons on "2D own league" on default settings and in all of them there are one or more 70 goal scorers and even an 82-goal scorer (McDavid) in 2026-27 as well as 2 160+ point seasons from McDavid. None of those came from my team so it wasn't something I did with some kind of gamebreaking tactic. I don't mind a "this hasn't been done in 30 years" season but when every season is like that, it definitely breaks immersion. It has been this way for at least 3 iterations of FHM so I also wish this would be a focus area.

I know some have said I will get better results with "2D own team, classic rest of league" but I would think all teams in a league should be on the same sim engine for fairness.

In case you are interested, here are some examples of this topic from previous editions. There are more but these were two I remembered and bookmarked.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=334299

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=348067

01-14-2025, 07:17 AM	#1
kanada22 Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2020 Posts: 5	Maximizing the Offensive Defenseman In the last couple of versions, i've occasionally tried to come close to monster seasons from OfD's, like Roman Josi's (96p, 85p) or Karlsson's (101p). FHM 10 i tried it with Winnipeg and Florida for 2 seasons each, this year i've tried it with Nashville. I've tried to build my offense around OfD, but i fail everytime to get near those numbers. On average i have mid 50's and can't even come close to PPG, although i've seen AI do crazy stuff, even Makar scoring 50 goals one season. Here are Josi's and Radivojevic's stats: https://imgur.com/TNvLPFV - Josi https://imgur.com/tk0QOww - Radi Maybe 26/27 season would be the best, since Radi had 33 PPP and Josi only 12, but still. I just can't do it. Here's the tactics that i was using: Forsberg (Power forward, Garbage collector) - Stamkos (Sniper) - Evangelista (Setup man)/Chinakhov (TWF) later Josi (quarterback) - Carrier (TWD, Stay at home) Seems very logical, Stamer and Forsberg were ~PPG players, with Stamer being almost a 40 goal scorer (38 avg in 4 years), Evangelista and Chinakhov mid 50's and logically i would assume my OfD to fill that gap, but it usually a forward from the second line that gets the points with Steve and Fil Nash IRL stats - https://imgur.com/buDd4YH IRL Josi already has 12 ppp, in my game he had 20 and 19 full season Quite a long and messy post, i guess i ask you to share your experience, your suggestions or further questions, because i really want my elite OfD play like IRL defensemen in production

01-16-2025, 10:35 AM	#2
kanada22 Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2020 Posts: 5	Yeah, i guess i know the answer now. The issue was is that i played on 2d (all league) and was getting underwhelming results, but i run a couple of tests, playing as Vancouver on full classic and 2d. Same roles, same tactics, same everything. On classic, Hughes had 83 points (33ppp) in 82 games. League leader Gustav Forsling had 85p (18ppp) in 81 gp. On 2d, Quinn had only 57 points (28ppp) in 82 games and he was 5th in production. League leader Bouchard had 68p (24ppp) in 82. I then loaded my Stl Blues save where i started season 3 and turned on classic sim, here are the results: https://imgur.com/aHhDwMr The difference is HUGE Dahlin - https://imgur.com/SthIJ96 Bouchard - https://imgur.com/H2SZ5qU Josi - https://imgur.com/XQt4iia Fox - https://imgur.com/kobgkcI Hughes - https://imgur.com/Rv1DebO Etc etc. The biggest difference is their PP production. I took top 5 defenders this season and compared their pp totals. 2d sim, on average, they have 16.2 PPP. This season on classic - 30.6 PPP. And in general PP goals are more realistic. But there's a drawback - i had 0 fun whatsoever playing this season. For some reason my tactics, that were working on 2d, seemed like a nonfactor on classic sim. At some point it was so bad, that our best player Robert Thomas had -28 in 29gp. Also i'm not liking the game ratings and the shots amount, but maybe we are indeed a bad team and 2d was deceiving me, but i don't think we are that bad to allow 35 S/G. To conclude, if you want yours and AI defenders to rack up points, more scoring in general (McDavid had a monster 153p season) - play on classic mode. If you want your tactics to have bigger impact, have better GR, but less Dmen production and less PP goals in general - play on 2d. I'm gonna play s4 on classic again to decide for myself what i want more, but i wish that 2d sim had a closer look by the devs and had somewhat of an update. Last edited by kanada22; 01-16-2025 at 10:37 AM.