Development Diary - Historical Play

[Sebastian Palkowski]

The first Development Diary is a writeup on Historical Play in FHM from one of the researchers.

Overview

First, by way of introduction, my name is Jeff Riddolls. I've been working on Franchise Hockey Manager since shorly after the game was first announced; before that I spent several years working as researcher (among other things) on the NHL Eastside Hockey Manager team, and I've been playing various computer and board hockey games going back 30+ years. I've been doing a variety of different things for FHM, but my pet project is the historical game. I've been playing OOTP Baseball's historical mode for many years, and, like a lot of you, I've always wanted a hockey version. And now here's our chance.

I realize that there are a number of different ways OOTP's historical game can be played - using fictional teams or players, modifiying league structures, and so on. But this preview will just focus on FHM's basic, vanilla version - historical leagues with historical players. I don't know at this point how many other options will be available; that's probably dependent on time and available ease of coding, so that will likely be addressed by Sebastian in more detail at some later point.

That said, let's start with the basics: the game will let you pick a season and play from there - if you want to start in 1955, you get the teams and rosters that actually existed then. Every year, the new rookies will be added, and depending on your preferences, you can have them either show up on their historical teams or be available for drafting and signing. Hate that your team traded away a future Hall of Famer for a guy that broke down a couple of years later? Now you can avoid the mistake. Were they ruined by year after year of incompetent drafting? Well, do it yourself and see if you can make better picks. Been waiting four-plus decades for a cup? Go win one yourself.

The Player Ratings

Obviously, the nature of baseball statistics makes it easier to create an accurate picture of players just using the numbers. Hitters will hit precisely the right number of homers, pitchers will walk the right number of guys, fielders will make the right amount of errors. With hockey, we're not so lucky - often all that's available, particularly for older seasons, is a handful of basic counting stats like goals and assists. There's really no way to make workable player ratings from those, and you're left with the immense task of manually rating each player. Not an attractive option for a small, volunteer research team, and it gets vastly more daunting if it has to be done for every season a player was active. What to do, then?

We came up with a couple of answers. First, to ease the task of entering all the ratings manually, there's the template system: break down players into various types (for example, offense-oriented wingers who tend to shoot more than they pass and don't take a lot of penalties, tough stay-at-home defencemen, and so on - we came up with about 50 different ones) and then build a fully-rated database entry - the template - for an "average NHLer" of each type. Then, every real player gets assigned one of those templates and four simple "target" ratings - offensive, defensive, mental, and physical. If the target is above-average, for example, the ratings the player gets in that group are raised from the average level in the template; below-average and they go down. (Additionally, any specific attribute ratings that are entered for a player override the template numbers.) So by selecting a template and entering four numbers, I get a reasonably accurate depiction of a player without having to enter 30-40 individual attributes.

The second answer deals with the need to enter ratings for a player's whole career. It was inspired by a similar system in OOTP's boxing game, Title Bout Championship Boxing (check them out just a couple of forums down from us on this board.) Every player gets five career dates entered - start, pre-prime, prime, post-prime, and end. Those dates are used to further tune the ratings in the templates, so if a player starts the game in a season right before his prime, his ratings will be lowered a little to reflect that.

Now, will these systems give you the kind of statistical results that OOTP does, where the numbers can match real life almost perfectly? No, there's just too much abstraction involved, and there are some things that just can't be handled accurately like major mid-career changes in a guy's playing style. But I think this will get us very close, certainly enough to give you an accurate picture of what a player was like and how he fit into the context of his team and league. We've given the template system a test run by using it to help calibrate the ratings guidelines for the current leagues (it can be used for active players as well), and if I showed you the ratings it was producing, you'd have difficulty telling that they hadn't all been entered manually.

And, as I mentioned before, the templates can be overridden by entering specific ratings. That'll be an ongoing process that makes the historical database more and more accurate as time goes by. To make an analogy, think of a player's ratings in this first version as a simple pencil-sketch portrait of the player, something that over the years will get refined and coloured so it ultimately becomes a nearly photo-realistic rendition.

Starting Point

The earliest year available will be 1947-48. I know a lot of people were hoping to be able to start a lot earlier, but with the major rule changes the game was undergoing up until the mid-forties, it just poses too much of a challenge to adapt the game engine to them in the first version of FHM. Next time around, we'll work on getting the game able to handle things like forward passes being illegal, minor penalty shots, and so on, and we can go back further. 1947 is actually a few years past the point where the rules had settled into a recognizably modern form, but starting there also gets us clear of the odd effects wartime replacement players would have on the database.

The Database

Unlike OOTP, the historical database will not be in a physically separate file. Everything is in one database. That complicates things slightly with currently active players, but we've figured out some ways to make that work. I don't want to get into too much detail about the nuts and bolts of how the database works, but it makes some interesting things possible for the historical game - a few months ago, I would've laughed at the possibility of incorporating non-major leagues, but the way the database handles league structures and rules, that just might be possible in the far future, coding complications and research material permitting.

Right now, the bare bones (all players and their career records) are in place, and I'm in the process of doing the ratings. Another major difference from OOTP: players will not have "missing" seasons. If a guy's career consisted of a single game in the 1955 playoffs and then 15 more seasons as a journeyman minor leaguer, when you start a game in 1965 he'll still show up as property of the team he belonged to then. That will avoid the typical OOTP problem of a lack of players in early seasons of the historical game; you should always start with at least half a farm team or so of surplus players. Time permitting, I'll also try to include significant players who never made it to the show (although I'm not going to do totally ahistorical things like making Soviet players available in the pre-Gorbachev years. If someone wants to edit them in, they can.)

The WHA

The existence of the WHA presents a bit of a complication for us. If you've ever tried to make the Federal League's two seasons work in OOTP, you know the game struggles with handling a league that suddenly appears mid-game and then shuts down a few seasons later. And the fact that the WHA had teams fold, sometimes in mid-season, makes for even more problems. So, our plans are a bit tentative at this point. Ideally, we'd like to have it work just as it did in real life, but if that proves impossible, there's a backup plan that will have the league's presence in the 70's abstracted in a way that will affect the pool of players available to the NHL.

Minor Leagues

I've never been a fan of the way minor leagues worked in OOTP's historical mode. Rather than try to make them work here, the minors will just be abstracted as a "reserve list" where teams can place a limited number of players not on their active roster. In a later version, maybe we can make this a little more realistic, but this is how it'll work for now.

Stats in Different Eras

One of the nice things about the game engine is its adaptability to different levels of scoring and penalties. So the 1980's can look like the real 1980's in the game, with 100-point seasons being commonplace and a sub-3.00 GAA outstanding.

Summary

Well, that's the basics of it. Nothing vastly complex, but it should give us the essence of what we want: a hockey game with a real history-based mode. If anyone has questions, we'll answer them as best we can. I know that, in the interests of keeping this short and accessible to everyone, I've glossed over a bunch of specific issues OOTP historical players will be wondering about. And, of course, please keep in mind that the game is still a work in progress and very much subject to change, so anything I've described here might turn out a bit differently in the final version.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

By the way: feel free to post here, I just sticky this threads for new user to have a better overview.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Sebastian Palkowski

By the way: feel free to post here, I just sticky this threads for new user to have a better overview.

Okay.

Some questions that come to mind:

(1) Will historical leagues be able to have the financial management aspect to them? That is, negotiate with players over new contracts, manage the revenues and expenses, etc.

(2) If the answer to #1 is yes, how will the transition from reserve clause to free agency be handled?

(3) Will the historical NHL schedules be included for the NHL historical seasons which can be played?

(4) Related to #3 is the question of post-season scheduling. Will it follow the practices of the time or will it use modern-day scheduling principles? (I'm assuming there is a difference. There may not be; it's not an area I've actively investigated. There were differences in how MLB scheduled its post-seasons.)

(5) How are the strike/lockout shortened/affected historical seasons handled? Will the 1994-95 season only be 48 games long, and there'll be no 2004-05 season? Or will users have the option to play out those seasons in full as if the labour disruptions had never happened?

[dave1927p]

I'm really hoping you can find out a way for a WHA like league to work in this game. If not i'll be content with it being on the list for the next version.


Sounds really interesting. I take it that we can tweak the nationality of leagues as well somehow? I don't want any russian players or coaches coming over to the NHL in the 50's or 60's or something of that nature. Europeans didn't even want to play in the NHL then like they do now and in the late 70's to 80's. Having the ability to say "Only North Americans" or something of that nature is vital. I'm sure you have that covered...

I can't begin to imagine the amount of time that took place for all these players to be rated and added. Sounds great.

[Bluenoser]

Minor Leagues - Reserve List. Can you explain a little more please.

Is this like a "Reserve Roster" rather than minors?

So we can't send our newly drafted prospects/signed players to our AHL affiliate? In other words, NHL Teams won't have affiliates?

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Minor Leagues - Reserve List. Can you explain a little more please.

Is this like a "Reserve Roster" rather than minors?

So we can't send our newly drafted prospects/signed players to our AHL affiliate? In other words, NHL Teams won't have affiliates?

I take it that stats for these players are still simulated somewhat?

Also how does european leagues fit into historical play?

I wouldn't mind mixing some historical play with some major fictional play

[Cryomaniac]

I know it has to be done, but one worry I would have is that the level of abstraction might make it more difficult to add or fix stuff later (of course, if the game is programmed the right way it wont be an issue but it's been an issue in OOTP in the past and still is with stuff like 19th century play.)

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Minor Leagues - Reserve List. Can you explain a little more please.

Is this like a "Reserve Roster" rather than minors?

So we can't send our newly drafted prospects/signed players to our AHL affiliate? In other words, NHL Teams won't have affiliates?

The way I read it is that it will be similar to OOTP's reserve roster option—no actual minor leagues, but players on the reserve roster would be treated in terms of development as if they were playing actual games.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

The way I read it is that it will be similar to OOTP's reserve roster option—no actual minor leagues, but players on the reserve roster would be treated in terms of development as if they were playing actual games.

That's the impression I'm getting too.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

The way I read it is that it will be similar to OOTP's reserve roster option—no actual minor leagues, but players on the reserve roster would be treated in terms of development as if they were playing actual games.

That makes sense. It would be pretty cool to eventually have minor leagues though.

[rudel.dietrich]

I will probably never play a historical league. But the mere fact that this much detail is going into them makes me confident that modern day leagues and fictional leagues will be just as detailed.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

The way I read it is that it will be similar to OOTP's reserve roster option—no actual minor leagues, but players on the reserve roster would be treated in terms of development as if they were playing actual games.

I hope this is true just for the historical side of things. One of the best parts of EHM was that it simulated the entire hockey universe and player movement in that universe.

From midget hockey to juniors to major juniors to the ECHL/AHL to the NHL. And European players had their own league or would join the CHL foreign player draft or be drafted by the NHL and could continue playing in Europe or come over to the CHL.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I hope this is true just for the historical side of things.

I think the article makes that clear.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Okay.

Some questions that come to mind:

(1) Will historical leagues be able to have the financial management aspect to them? That is, negotiate with players over new contracts, manage the revenues and expenses, etc.

(2) If the answer to #1 is yes, how will the transition from reserve clause to free agency be handled?

Yes, and to #2, basically the same way it's handled in OOTP - you'll have to manually switch some league rules at the appropriate time. I'm not sure how much detail we'll be able to get into re: the different free agency systems the league has used, but I'd at least like to be able to show the difference between the severe "restricted free agency only, with tough compensation" Vachon/McCourt-era and the relative freedom today, and hopefully some of the progression along the way.

(3) Will the historical NHL schedules be included for the NHL historical seasons which can be played?

Yup, those are already done.

(4) Related to #3 is the question of post-season scheduling. Will it follow the practices of the time or will it use modern-day scheduling principles? (I'm assuming there is a difference. There may not be; it's not an area I've actively investigated. There were differences in how MLB scheduled its post-seasons.)

Practices of the time - the game has to be flexible enough to account for multiple playoff systems to deal with the present-day non-NHL leagues anyhow, so that's not a big challenge. So that weird 1 vs. 3, 2 vs. 4 opening round the NHL used for decades should be there.

(5) How are the strike/lockout shortened/affected historical seasons handled? Will the 1994-95 season only be 48 games long, and there'll be no 2004-05 season? Or will users have the option to play out those seasons in full as if the labour disruptions had never happened?

It just won't work to stop the league for an entire year, so 2004-05 will be played with the as-planned schedule. For 94-95, that'll be up to the user - I think I'll leave the 48-game season in as the default, but the full schedule will be there in the files if someone wants to swap them around.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Minor Leagues - Reserve List. Can you explain a little more please.

Is this like a "Reserve Roster" rather than minors?

So we can't send our newly drafted prospects/signed players to our AHL affiliate? In other words, NHL Teams won't have affiliates?

Right. It's there to cover for any situation where "we have this guy signed to a contract, but he's not on our active roster or injured." Minors, juniors, loans to Europe, whatever.

Originally Posted by dave1927p

I take it that stats for these players are still simulated somewhat?

No. The reserve list simulates multiple different leagues, so it doesn't make sense to generate stats for the players on it. The only stats recorded in the historical game will be those for the major league(s).

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

The way I read it is that it will be similar to OOTP's reserve roster option—no actual minor leagues, but players on the reserve roster would be treated in terms of development as if they were playing actual games.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

I know it has to be done, but one worry I would have is that the level of abstraction might make it more difficult to add or fix stuff later (of course, if the game is programmed the right way it wont be an issue but it's been an issue in OOTP in the past and still is with stuff like 19th century play.)

Generally, the abstractions in the game should serve as placeholders for better systems to come. But I won't kid you, it's going to be a big task getting lower-level leagues functioning in the historical game. Consider that, for a long time, the farm systems for the NHL extended down into the junior leagues. How do you represent that in the game, and how do you do the transition to the post-affiliation juniors? What about a league like the old IHL, which went from a second-level minor league to one with mostly top-level affiliations to a semi-independent WHA-wannabe back to an affiliate-dominated league - and then died entirely? And there are many issues beyond those. It's just too big a project to tackle in the early versions of the game.

[CONN CHRIS]

1) Will this database be such that we can set up fictional leagues and pull historical players from it into those leagues?

2) Will we be able to add to or edit this database?

I understand that #2 may be a long way off with a database in its infancy but I ask #1 because despite your intitial comments suggesting that this will not be the case, you said this:

Every year, the new rookies will be added, and depending on your preferences, you can have them either show up on their historical teams or be available for drafting and signing.

While I don't know programing from rototilling, it would seem that if you could dump to a draft pool and have the Rocket end up in Boston why couldn't the user set up a fictional league with a team in Springfield, MA that drafts the Rocket?

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Generally, the abstractions in the game should serve as placeholders for better systems to come. But I won't kid you, it's going to be a big task getting lower-level leagues functioning in the historical game. Consider that, for a long time, the farm systems for the NHL extended down into the junior leagues. How do you represent that in the game, and how do you do the transition to the post-affiliation juniors? What about a league like the old IHL, which went from a second-level minor league to one with mostly top-level affiliations to a semi-independent WHA-wannabe back to an affiliate-dominated league - and then died entirely? And there are many issues beyond those. It's just too big a project to tackle in the early versions of the game.

Yeah, by the looks of that it's actually even more complicated than baseball on that front (although no doubt LGO will prove me wrong on that lol). In a way that would be one area that an American Football (and actually soccer as well) sim would have it a bit easier. American Football essentially only has feeder leagues (NFL Europa and the World League excepted), and soccer, at least in Europe, has well, youth free agents (although I think British soccer would benefit from a draft system, but this is now severely off topic...).

[Habsfan18]

Hurry up and take my money!

Can't wait guys! Sounds absolutely incredible.

[Kehi7]

can you put players from the 80's with present day players (Crosby, etc..)??

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Kehi7

can you put players from the 80's with present day players (Crosby, etc..)??

You could edit them so they're active and on current teams, but you'd have to fill in most of their ratings yourself, since the way the historical data is set up, they won't have a set ratings that reflects one single season.