Thoughts on improvements needed

[Eckstein 4 Prez]

So I've been playing this for a few weeks now. Generally I like it, and given that dynamic sports such as hockey are harder to model than baseball it's probably on par with where OOTP was when I first started playing that. (OOTP 4.) That said, it's also a bit of a mess, much like OOTP 4 was.

I don't really know hockey at all, so others are going to have to make those constructive criticisms. But here are a couple things I've seen with my historical sim, which is currently in the 1924-25 postseason.

- Overall, good work going through the meticulous tedium of getting league structure changes down even when they didn't last. In 20 years of OOTP, we still haven't had anyone do this over there, so it's nice to see.
- That said, the dates for the playoff pairings need to be fixed. Maybe they were set where they were because of historical accuracy, but here's something that happens a lot in the 1920s: western Canada playoffs go the full distance so that they aren't decided on the day the Stanley Cup finals are supposed to be scheduled, game just skips past the finals and nothing gets scheduled. In my league we had no Stanley Cup finals in 1922-23 because the western Canada playoffs weren't done in time. I'm terrible with computers and even I can see this is an obvious fix.
- The AI logic for awards is awful, just awful. I love that players often perform better or worse than their star ratings would indicate, but don't tell the AI that because it seems to rely HEAVILY on those ratings when giving awards out. It leads to all kinds of problems. I'm not digging through old threads to find out, but if I'm right about what the AI is doing there are going to be people here who are frustrated because the same player always wins (e.g.) the Hart Trophy even though his performance fluctuates and he doesn't always deserve it. Maybe I'm wrong about the specific thing the AI is doing but whatever it is, it's yielding the wrong result on the regular.

I'll keep posting things in this thread as I see them, though as I said I don't really know hockey well at all, so I can't comment on things like whether scoring is realistic, etc.

[Orioles1966]

There is a lot of free space on the game engine.

That could be used for up to the minute players and goalies stats,out of town scores ,standings,etc.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

In case you mean "game screen" (not "game engine"):

We have to respect the minimum screen resolution (1280*800). If you start your game with that screen size you will see that there is no free space at all.

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

There is a lot of free space on the game engine.

That could be used for up to the minute players and goalies stats,out of town scores ,standings,etc.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Eckstein 4 Prez

-That said, the dates for the playoff pairings need to be fixed. Maybe they were set where they were because of historical accuracy, but here's something that happens a lot in the 1920s: western Canada playoffs go the full distance so that they aren't decided on the day the Stanley Cup finals are supposed to be scheduled, game just skips past the finals and nothing gets scheduled. In my league we had no Stanley Cup finals in 1922-23 because the western Canada playoffs weren't done in time. I'm terrible with computers and even I can see this is an obvious fix.

Actually, it looks like the finals are scheduled at the correct time in 1923, a week after the later of the two league finals ends, but for some reason one or both teams aren't being sent to the 'tournament' between the two leagues that occurs while the western league is active. My first suspicion is the total-goals final series in the NHL being the problem, but we'll have a look and get whatever's causing the schedule failure fixed.

Edit: looks like it is being played, just not on the listed date - the game said it was supposed to start April 10, instead it began on April 14. Still something wrong there if that's happening, but the final does get completed.

The AI logic for awards is awful, just awful. I love that players often perform better or worse than their star ratings would indicate, but don't tell the AI that because it seems to rely HEAVILY on those ratings when giving awards out. It leads to all kinds of problems. I'm not digging through old threads to find out, but if I'm right about what the AI is doing there are going to be people here who are frustrated because the same player always wins (e.g.) the Hart Trophy even though his performance fluctuates and he doesn't always deserve it. Maybe I'm wrong about the specific thing the AI is doing but whatever it is, it's yielding the wrong result on the regular.

The ratings component of the MVP award is small, just enough to tilt the decision in favour of the guy with a bigger 'reputation' if the statistical difference isn't that big. The equivalent of adding maybe 10-15 points to the scoring total of the best guy in the most extreme case I imagine, and typically fewer than in most cases, e.g. in McDavid-Crosby, McDavid would get a boost that worked out to maybe half a point.

[Harveytime]

Hey Jeff one little bug ive noticed from playing (OHL Dynasty) was I have 2 scouts whose regions were Ontario Junior Hockey League and were set to Ontario Junior Hockey League the entire season and both scouted all JrA guys from WHL region all year the past two years. I thought I messed up at first but realized I had them set to OJHL which should be ontario Jr A guys I think right?

[Orioles1966]

Are there complete in season player and goalie stats?

I only see current players on the team stats and would like too also see the players listed that are no longer on the team( sent to minors or traded,etc).

I have some fictional teams use 6 or 7 goalies and I only see the current goalie stats.

[Orioles1966]

On the standings page I would like to see playoff and non-playoff teams separated or maybe a different color.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Harveytime

Hey Jeff one little bug ive noticed from playing (OHL Dynasty) was I have 2 scouts whose regions were Ontario Junior Hockey League and were set to Ontario Junior Hockey League the entire season and both scouted all JrA guys from WHL region all year the past two years. I thought I messed up at first but realized I had them set to OJHL which should be ontario Jr A guys I think right?

I think I see the problem, the OJHL region includes the entire US, so when you scout it it's going to look at guys playing in western states (including visiting players, so that'll catch all the BCHL guys because of the team in Wenatchee, WA.) I'll cut that down to just the states that tend to send the most players to the OJHL, that should fix it. Looks like some of the other Junior A regions have the same issue.

[Harveytime]

sweet thanks Jeff