Coach does lineups

[Tangerino]

I dont understand whats going through the 'coaches' head...

LW Nylander 4* C McDavid 5* and RW is a 3*... coach puts them on second line... my first line is LW 2.5* C 3* and RW 3*...

is this due to the 2.5* having good line chemistry with the others?

It's just frustrating have McDavid such a lethal threat on the 2nd line getting very low points for who he is.. I also traded away like 3 different 3*-3.5* centers who were replacing mcdavid on the first line, hoping that mcdavid would take over but the coach just puts other 3* or 2.5* wingers in that role!

I simulate month by month so taking control of the lineups isnt really ideal for me. thank you.

*Edit*
McDavid is in his prime too 29... should be on the first line no question. Also since I've made this post Nylander was moved to the first line

[JeffR]

Working on some issues with the lineup selection at the moment. It looked like we had it fixed, but there's a strange preference for very conservative offensive tactics and checking forwards that's proving strangely hard to break. It may be a combination of a few things causing it, we're digging through those right now.

[micpringle]

Just started a new game with the Penguins, and the AI put Malkin as LW on the first despite being a Center, Reaves on the first at RW even though he's 1.5 stars, Kessel on the 2nd and Guentzel on the 4th. The AI also chose to pick Wilson, a winger, as the Center for the 4th.

So it would appear as though the AI is not only picking players for the wrong lines, but also for the wrong positions.

As someone new to hockey I relied on the AI to pick my lines in FHM3 so this is somewhat of a game breaker for me.

[JeffR]

Malkin has a fairly high rating at LW, so it's not out of the question for the AI to use him there. Reaves on the first line is very odd, though - what tactic are you using? And this is with version 4.0.35 of the game?

[Sabres2000]

how do we allow the coaches to do the lines during the season but allow us to put together the lines for training camp

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Sabres2000

how do we allow the coaches to do the lines during the season but allow us to put together the lines for training camp

Just go to the manager options screen and change "Setting Lineups" to your assistant during the regular season, but move it back to yourself during the preseason.

[micpringle]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Malkin has a fairly high rating at LW, so it's not out of the question for the AI to use him there.

Malkin is rated 12 for LW, but 20 for Center, and is 5 stars. Guentzel, who I'd expect to be the LW on the first line is rated 20 for LW, but 3 stars. Does that mean the AI chooses a higher rated player with a much lower positional rating over a lesser rated player (who is still pretty damn good) with a much higher positional rating?

And even if that is the case, I'd still have expected Guentzel to make LW on the 2nd line, rather than being demoted to RW on the 4th.

This also tends to mess up the other lines, since ideally I should have strong Centers on both the 1st and 2nd, but the way the AI chose I now have 1 strong Center on 1st—Crosby—and then two much weaker Centers on 2nd and 3rd, and finally a 1.5 star LW with a 14 Center rating as the Center on the 4th.

Originally Posted by JeffR

Reaves on the first line is very odd, though - what tactic are you using?

Yeah, Reaves—1.5 stars—is on 1st, Kessel on 2nd, then Rust, and then Guentzel. Sheary, who the Penguins actually play as RW on the 1st, only made LW on the 4th, which is just mind-boggling.

I use Stretching the D—Half-Ice Overload, which I had a ton of good fortune with in FHM3. This is the entire lineup as picked by the AI.

Originally Posted by JeffR

And this is with version 4.0.35 of the game?

Yup. I use the Steam version, and AFAIK that's the only version available via Steam.

[JeffR]

Hmm, I thought Malkin's LW rating was higher than that. At 12, it should be very unlikely for him to get placed there on the first line. I think something may be going wrong with the position rating adjustments, we'll have to look at that when we make the other changes.

But I did find the cause of the bigger problem, Reaves and Sestito being on top lines. There's a problem with the punishing forward role, we'll have to make some adjustments there to keep goon-type players in that role from pushing better players out.

[micpringle]

Thanks Jeff—I'll go back to my FHM3 save for now until these issues are ironed out.

[micpringle]

This doesn't appear to be fixed in the latest build Jeff. If anything, it appears to have gotten worse.

I've just started a new game after updating, dressed the squad, and asked the assistant to create the lines. Using the same tactics as before—Stretching the D and Half-Ice Overload—I now have a first line of Hagelin, Crosby, and Malkin, and both Guentzel and Kessel have been demoted to the fourth.

Here's the entire pick by the AI...



I'm also baffled by the decision to put Archibald at Center despite his low rating of just 10.

There also appears to have been some re-rating of players, perhaps in an attempt to resolve this? In the previous build, and as I mentioned above, the AI put Malkin as LW on the first despite a rating of just 12. In this build the AI puts him as RW on the first, his LW rating has changed to 11 but his RW rating to 14.

[JeffR]

It looks like some of that is a particular interaction between those two tactics - if I switch the defensive tactic to the 1-2-2, for example, I get Kessel on the top line and Malkin as the second-line centre with Guentzel on his wing.

Hagelin on the first line appears to be partly a ratings issue, and partly the "speedy forward role" not placing enough emphasis on offensive skill. His strengths happen to fit exactly into that weakness in the definition, and his weaknesses don't get much consideration. I'll make some more adjustments there.

[micpringle]

Cheers Jeff.

Just as an aside, I use the same tactics in FHM3 and haven’t run into any of these issues.

[JeffR]

Yeah, I made some changes to the tactics requirements that had some unintended effects. I've reverted some and adjusted others, but there are still some like the speedy forward thing that only apply to a small number of players (like Hagelin, who has an odd combination of good skating and poor offensive ratings) that are harded to catch.

[tcblcommish]

Mike Hoffman for the Senators is a weird one. I fired Boucher and hired a pure offensive coach with the new patch and he is still playing on the 4th line yet plays on the 1st PP unit. Burrows who is doing nothing is playing on the top line

[haneman]

we need a quick fix to solve this problem, its a game breaker when good players a stuck in 3th an 4th line

[Sabres2000]

Since this is a line up question not about coaches line up my question is in the line up screen is there so say for training camp is there a lines save feature so that say i want to split my pre-season between 2 sets of lines i dont have to change the lines every few games between the two says i can just hit load lines?

[JeffR]

No, there's no way to save lines right now.

[Sabres2000]

I know if i set the lines setting the coach selects the players and lines.. Is there a way for me to pick which players play in preseason but the HC selects which role on which line they play?

[JeffR]

If you just dress the players and select Assistant: Create Lines, the lines and roles will be selected for you.

[Sabres2000]

Is that with the job of gm and HC or just GM