Some Hockey Sim

May 2012
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Short update

I just checked in after being out of the country for a while and saw that I had loads of comments. I will try to go through them in a later post and try to answer some of the questions.

I really appreciate you guys coming here, and I know that most of you understand that this is a work in progress, but it’s important that everyone understands it. I’m not doing this full time, and there are other things that I sometimes need to prioritize ahead of SHS. The sim is, however, a project that means a lot to me and I will never stop working on it, but the pace goes up and down.

Posted: October 28th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

Random thoughts - Psychology

I’m still quite occupied with my “other” project (which is a business application), but while it’s taking a bit longer than I thought, it will still be finished this month.

However, I was just sitting here at the office thinking about something that seriously moves SHS even further away from a pure replay simulator. As I’ve said before, the focus for SHS is a HOCKEY simulator, not an NHL simulator. I want to emulate the GM-aspect with all that it’s worth, and not focus exclusively on re-creating a previous NHL-season.

I’ve talked about personality traits before, and today I thought about rookies and their initial enthusiasm. I was reading an article about Patrik Berglund, the St. Louis Blues prospect, and he described how last year at training camp he was a little bit intimidated and shy and failed to show the confidence needed to fully blossom. Hence he was sent back to Sweden to play another year there.

However, this year he’s full of confidence, feels more comfortable in St. Louis, and has been centering Kariya. He’s also getting rave reviews from his coach. In the interview, coach Andy Murray talks about how much Berglund has improved but also about the enthusiasm shown by the young players and how it affects their play.

Now to SHS. I was considering having an “attitude” variable for the players. This can be things such as ”Enthusiastic”, “Professional”, “Unhappy” etc, to describe certain moods for the players. An Enthusiastic player might work harder due to an adrenaline rush, Professional players will be at some kind of status qou, while Unhappy players will suffer some negative consequences.

I’ve got several other “Intangibles” as I’ve described before, but I’m also trying to create a more “organic” player than we’ve seen previously in sports simulators. Again, this takes away from the pure replayers, because it makes it more difficult to exactly replicate players’ NHL stats, since statistics generated by SHS will be the combination of several different factors, such as morale, linemates, attitude etc. It will also make a player harder to evaluate since you cannot “only” look at his numerical ratings.

Which brings me to a comment made the other day in my previous post. I see what you’re asking about the “overall” rating, but I want to avoid giving players a number as a quick “tell” as to how good a player is. A two-star player could very well be better overall than a three-star player, but the three-star player will be more one-dimensional. If I were to give a player an overall rating between 1-99, GMs might get too focused on that number and draw a correlation to his numerical skills and thereby completely mis-evaluating the guy.

That’s just my point of view, feel free to give me counter arguments.

Posted: October 7th, 2008 under Discussion, Player Ratings.
Comments: 11

Long overdue update

Been a few weeks, mostly due to non-hockey related issues. Nice to see Face Off Hockey getting some exposure over at Wolverine. I’m positive they’ll be able give both the board game and the computer game a nice boost.

I still don’t think Face Off and SHS are competing for the same users. One of the reasons I would not like to combine the two is because I want to have fictional players, and I want to have situations where players DO NOT perform like their NHL counterparts.

When I want to run a historical league, I want start out with a certain NHL-year, and then draft young players as they entered the NHL the first time around and let the universe “grow” from there into an alternate reality. I do not want to update the attributes of all my players based on how they performed in the “real” NHL each year.

Lets say I start in 1992.. Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny might very well score 76 goals, but in 1993, Mogilny might have a career ending injury.

I’ve also mentioned several times that I want to bring in non-traditional “traits” into the engine; such as trashtalking or natural leader. Having a good leader on your team should affect the performance of others, who in the real NHL hasn’t performed as well as they might. Also, a mentor should quicken the experience growth of young players, and in best case should have them prepared before they were ready to play in the NHL.

I want SHS to be about the GM making the most to improve his team, and that includes making personell changes that go beyond a season at a time. Look at Tampa this year. They draft Steve Stamkos, knowing full well that he will not dominate right away. However, to aid his progress they bring in respected leader/mentor Mark Recchi to help Stamkos’ transition into the big leagues. This cannot be emulated in Face Off.

I have so much more to say about this, but I’ll save it for another time. However, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have nothing against Face Off, as I definately think it’s the best engine out there, it’s just not suited for what we’re trying to achieve with SHS.

Posted: September 14th, 2008 under Discussion, Sim Engine.
Tags: Face Off, Player Ratings, Stats, Update
Comments: 12

More player stats

Last week was a busy week, unfortunately not on the sim, but that’s just my life. Too much work sometimes.

I did however, get some work done on trying to generate “player files” for previous seasons. As I’ve mentioned, I have access to every NHL-players statistics since the dawn of time.. uh.. I mean, since 1914. Unfortunately, these statistics are limited to GP, G, A to begin with, then around the 40s we get PIM, and SOG, but a bunch of stats (SHG, PPG, +/-) aren’t available until th 60s.

Either way, I’ve decided that the historical rosters to be provided will be “organic” rather than “mechanic”. I will create a set of basic ratings initiated by statistics. Scoring and Passing will be a number between 1-15, Defense a rating between 1-10, Potential will then be between -2 and +2, indicating whether a player for this particular year was on his decline or on the way up.

Thus, a player might look something like:

1979, Wayne Gretzky, Scoring 12, Passing 15, Defense 5, Potential +1

These “basic” ratings will then be used to generate a more complete “SHS-player”, using all ratings available. For things such as Skating, Injury etc, ratings will have to be randomly generated, but could be based on an overall value in the basic profile. Exactly how to do this is my next step, since the above data is generated through statistics. Also, when loading a file like this into SHS to start a historical season, the user will have the option to randomize the ratings further, i.e. Scoring 12 might be randomly modified up or down a few points. This would be optional, however, to make sure that if you want to play Gretzky with identical numbers each time you load up his 1980 profile, this would also be possible.

Now, these are historical files that I will attempt to create and have available. I call them “organic” rather than “mechanic” because they are not straight replay-rosters. With hockey you cannot guarantee that Teemu Selanne scores 76 goals in his rookie-season “no matter what”, and the ratings generated will not be intended to be used that way.

If you prefer straight replay like that, I would recommend something more akin to Strat-O-Matic or Face Off Hockey; two excellent game engines.

Posted: September 1st, 2008 under Player Ratings, Ratings from Stats.
Tags: Ratings from Stats
Comments: 7

Alternative Sims

As I was going through my visitors statistics, I found that some of you have been kind enough to place links to this blog in other forums. I appreciate the willingness to spread the word. I’ve been a bit conservative on the “marketing” front on purpose, but as I come closer to any kind of release (be it a free alpha/beta or even a commercial release), I will start talking more “loudly” about the sim.

Anyway. Just because hockey is missing a good Multiplayer-sim doesn’t mean that there aren’t any simulators out there today.

Eastside Hockey Manager is probably the most recognized one thanks to Sports Interactives decision to publish it a few years back. While the commercial version has been discontinued, you can still purchase it. I believe you can also still download the freeware version.

Through a post on the EHM-forums (where I found the link here), I found a link to another simulator that follows in the footsteps of EHM. It’s a Quebec-made simulator, so the main language is French, but there is an English translation as well. The main product will be released on October 3rd from what I can see. Check it out here. I think this will be more suited to singleplayer gaming than SHS will be.

Then there is two sims more focued on pure replay than career mode (which is what SHS is focusing on.. career multiplayer). Face Off Hockey and Strat-O-Matic hockey. While you can play out seasons using their computer versions, it’s at the coaching level they excel. They’re also very much dependant on roster-disks/updates based on previous NHL-seasons.

I think all these simulators serve a purpose, just to different crowds. Sure, there are those of us who enjoy all types of play, but not all. I know that SHS will not appeal to every hockey fan out there, so with this post I wanted to give those of you who find SHS lacking som alternatives.

SHS will be a simulator for people who enjoy flexibility and career play using either “real” players or fictional, but we will not be offerring an exact replica of the NHL. Both of us who are working on SHS come from a background of running our own leagues using the FHL-software, which is a great tool for multiplayer leagues; just not as feature-rich as SHS.

Posted: August 26th, 2008 under Discussion.
Tags: Face Off, FHL, Other Sims, Strat-O-Matic
Comments: 5

The people behind SHS

I don’t know what kind of impression this blog has given, but maybe there hasn’t been enough mention that I’ve never considered myself as the only part in this project. Throughout my attempts at sims I’ve had a good friend coming up with ideas, testing and developing techniques to solve certain issues. I have mentioned this sort of “by the way”, but not straight out like this, which isn’t fair to him.

Yes, I’m the only coder, but this friend of mine has always been my “go-to” guy when discussing an idea I’ve had, and he’s been a great fountain of ideas himself. He does watch a hell of a lot more hockey than I do too, but lately he’s been more into baseball and I blame OOTP for that. I was hoping to get a sim out to steal him away from the batting-cages.

Posted: August 22nd, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 3

Not an NHL-sim

I bet that subject line got some people to look. What I mean is that SHS is a Hockey Sim, not an NHL-sim. However, that doesn’t mean that you will not be able to emulate the NHL, quite the contrary. The sim is built around an NHL concept with a “Main Pro” league at the top and minor leagues below.

However, the pro league could just as well be WHA as it could be NHL.

I noticed someone on another board expressing a certain amount of skepticism about SHS for a few reason. I understand every one of them. 1) I do not guarantee a release and 2) I do not acknowledge EHM anywhere.

The reason I “don’t acknowledge” EHM is because EHM is a completely different beast altogether. I do not have the ambition to do what EHM did. SHS is something different. I would much rather you thought of SHS as OOTP on ice.

Will I attempt to bring in NHL-like transfer rules? Definately. Will these rules be optional/customizable? Definately. Stuff like UFA age and RFA age are adjustable in the league options, and could be manually changed.

You will notice that a lot of things are adjustable in SHS. Draft-age, draft rounds, percentages of nationalities in the player generator, etc etc. This is because just as much as I want SHS to be a “game”, it is also a tool. A tool to run online leagues. I might alienate people with that statement because I know there are many people looking for a singleplayer experience, and only that.

I’m going to be honest though, or else I will only create disappointment, but SHS will not be that fantastic singleplayer experience that emulates the NHL down to the smallest detail. SHS will allow you to create a league, either based on a roster set or with fictional teams and players, and run that league year for year.

There will be free agency, according to dynamic rules set by YOU, there will be drafts and retirements and there will be injuries and even waivers, also with adjustable rules. I’m also hoping to find a good way to create roster-sets based on statistics, so that you can select to create a league that looks like the NHL of a selected season.

Expansions will, initially, be a manual routine. Add a team and allocate players to that team, either by moving them from team A to team B or filling said team with fictional players.

Once again, I realize this is not what many of you want, but it’s always been my intention to create an alternative to an aging FHL in the spirit of OOTP. Please understand and accept this. If this means the game is not for you, then I am sorry and hope that you will change your mind down the road, but there’s not much I can do about it.

Posted: August 21st, 2008 under Discussion.
Comments: 6

Statistics and replays

More about ratings based on statistics. When I asked for suggestions on how I could derive a defensive rating from statistics, I meant for when/if I were to import past NHL-seasons for simulation. I have access to player statistics since the beginning of the NHL, but there’s definately not enough to generate a whole set of ratings.

I mentioned scoring in a post the other day, and how I could derive that from goals scored in a season. While this isn’t perfect, since most players are dependant on their linemates etc, it’s at least a start. Passing is similar. Number of assists can be used, but there too it’s not entirely accurate. A great passer surrounded by poor shooters won’t get the credit he deserves for example.

Defense, on the other hand, completely lacks stats that could be used to generate ratings. All I have for past seasons is +/- since 1967 (which I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like) and goals allowed _for the team_, which I believe should at least be an indicator, even though it’s a team stat.

So, again, any ideas in the area are welcome. I know several people have already found their way here, and discussion would be a good way to solve problems in this area. Depending on how many people show up here, I might end up setting up a forum later.

As for development updates, expect to see some more news there tomorrow. Busy evening today.

Now, back to work.

Posted: August 20th, 2008 under Player Ratings, Ratings from Stats.
Tags: Player Ratings, Statistics
Comments: 1

Thanks for the comments

First of all, thank you for everyone’s kind comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it and hope that you all understand where I’m at with this project. I love hockey and have always wanted an “OOTP-like” hockey sim, more so than an Eastside Hockey Manager sim. EHM is a great game, but it lacks certain customizability that I would like.

Now for some responses to comments

casa101: About the name

I hear you.. Some Hockey Sim sounds a bit amateurish.. but while I consider it more of a project name than a product name, it does have a certain ambiguity about it that I like. You could see it as “oh, it’s just some hockey sim.” or you could see it as “That’s some hockey sim you’ve got there”. Oh well.

dave1927p: About traits

Some great ideas, but at the same time I’ve realized I might have to tone down the traits a bit. Speaking to a friend of mine who’s been very involved with the sim along the way, I realized that too many traits makes rosters VERY hard to create for a third party. If you wanted to re-create, lets say the 1971-season, how would you go about putting traits on every player?

The way I’m thinking at the moment, which is slightly scaled down from previously, I’ll go with around 10 traits at the most. Then I will have traits as a “league option”, i.e. you can play the game without them if you want. I do agree that they create more personality for the players though.

dave1927p: Expansion and relocation

This isn’t something I have planned for an initial release. While I agree that it certainly adds to a game to have this as part of the engine, computer initiated relocations will have to wait, as will support for expansion. Moving a team “manually” will be part of the game though, sort of like early iterations of OOTP.

Posted: August 20th, 2008 under Discussion.
Tags: Comments, Expansion, Name, Relocation
Comments: 1

Some thoughts about stats

Today I haven’t done any coding, but instead I’ve focused on something that could be a very important part of the simulator. I’ve said multiple times that generating rosters from just stats is not going to be a part of the simulator. However, what I will try to do is generate my own rosters, trying to come up with formulas that at least covers some of the ratings. Then I’ll have the game read these ratings and “fill out” the rest.

So today I started a small sideproject to try to generate stats-based ratings, but only for ratings that I can have a good formula for. As you can see in one of the screenshots, I have 13 ratings for skaters, but Draw Penalty might go away in favour of a trait.

The absolutely easiest rating to determine based on statistics is obviously Scoring, for which I will use the following formula:

Scoring = (Goals/Games Played) * 82

Then depending on whether it’s a forward or a defenseman, the rating is multiplied by 2.2 or 1.5 to even out the scoring-skill. This means that a defenseman who has scored 20 goals will have a higher rating than a forward, but at the same time he’ll have fewer “quality”-shots.

For example.. 2007/08, league leader Alex Ovechkin scored 65 goals.. that converts to a 98 Scoring ability. Second best scorer was Ilya Kovalchuk with 52 goals in 79 games.. that means a rating of 81.

Those of you who are used to EA Sports NHL-games might consider the ratings low, but to me that’s pretty much perfect. I want 50 goals to be very good, but not the best there is. I’m still not sure how to tackle earlier eras, but basically I want ratings for NHLers to average around 50ish, maybe even lower.

I’ll cut this post here, but there’s lots more to discuss about ratings. However, I’m asking for a few suggestions from any readers I have.. how do I come up with a good stats-formula to figure out defense? That’s pretty tricky..

Posted: August 18th, 2008 under Player Ratings, Ratings from Stats.
Tags: NHL rosters, Statistics
Comments: 4