Challenge #38 - Shark Attack! - Discussion Thread

[visualdarkness]

This game is so extremely random to say the least. I am not sure that anything I do actually matters, results are just randomly generated without any real coupling to my decisions.

The games I played but failed to save:
3rd place
About +20
PP 10%
PK 91%

Now by repeating basically exactly the same things when re-playing them:
10th place
-5
PP 2.7%
PK 83.1%

This is complete and utter bull and why I get - - - - - with the game.

[nino33]

Now by repeating basically exactly the same things when re-playing them

Yeah, but no one else did the exact same things, and everything that can be variable for your team is also potentially different in a different sim.....I think this is considered a positive of the game (replayability), not a negative

You seem to think the game is rigged so you'll fail, but there are also people that say the opposite (game's to easy, can win with any team)

[visualdarkness]

Nah, it doesnt feel rigged, exactly the opposite. We have yet to score a PP goal and let in two shorties in the re-played games by doing exactly the same setup.

That makes it feel like tactics are pretty much a moot point except for the best GMs here. So frustrating as I put in hours and hours in trying to find correlations and reading threads and guides with everything just feeling random anyway.

[Sesyde]

Camp has been done for Season 3 and we am now heading in to our first game.

I am going to try out some new lines to start with, changing it up from last season.



New in the team this season is:

Teräväinen - Our new first line C. Came expensive from Blackhawks but I really hope he will create magic with Domi
Konecny - Had an outstanding season in AHL last year and his stats are really developing very nicely. I will try how he does in the top line with two great players beside him.
Hischer - Also had a good season in AHL playing with Konecny. I was thinking of puting this guy higher up, but I don't know if I want to bump down my 2/3 Centers. Not to start with at least.
Also Both goalies are new for this season, I hope they do well

[visualdarkness]

Hischer was my stud first line C in the last challenge, I would love to have him again!

[bruins72]

Got my first 20 games of season 2 done. Our hot start didn't last but we're still doing better than last season. Right now we're in 11th place and just a hair under a .500 record. Stalock and Grosenick are doing okay but not great. Ullmark might do a bit better but right now he's killing it in the AHL with an 8-3 record, 5 shutouts, a 1.34 GAA and a 9.38 save %. I'll let him get those starts and get better. My defense still disappoints me. I really need these guys to start stepping up.

[visualdarkness]

Woho! Coyle had a 5 goal game.

[bruins72]

Nice job, vis!

I have been struggling far more than I thought I would in this second season. I wasn't the worst team in the first set of 20 games. I'm close to wrapping up the second set of 20 games for the season and I think I might be the worst again. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong that I can't get these guys to click. I know I definitely misjudged my choices when trading for defensmen to start the challenge. I think I may have judged them thinking they'd turn out like they did in the last challenge. Whether it's changes in the new version of the DB or if it's just the randomness, these guys just didn't turn out as good as I expected. They're all 5-6 defensemen and not any real top pairing guys. I need to be able to trade most of them or replace them from within. I also need a better #2 center. Grigorenko or Boyko just isn't cutting it.

[visualdarkness]

Now this is the biggest surprise ever for me in a challenge, we are in the Final!
I had already given up on the Western final after falling to 0-3 in games against the offensive machine called the Oilers. I threw Högberg in the must win game, we won that on, I put Säteri back in who came back from the one game benching in splendid form and we swiped them the rest of the series.

Wish me luck against the Rangers as I am gonna need it. They outclassed us during the season and the 38 year old Lundqvist is playing his best hockey ever.

[visualdarkness]

Argh, we lost the finals 4-0 to Lundqvist, just like I foresaw.

Nice job, vis!

I have been struggling far more than I thought I would in this second season. I wasn't the worst team in the first set of 20 games. I'm close to wrapping up the second set of 20 games for the season and I think I might be the worst again. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong that I can't get these guys to click. I know I definitely misjudged my choices when trading for defensmen to start the challenge. I think I may have judged them thinking they'd turn out like they did in the last challenge. Whether it's changes in the new version of the DB or if it's just the randomness, these guys just didn't turn out as good as I expected. They're all 5-6 defensemen and not any real top pairing guys. I need to be able to trade most of them or replace them from within. I also need a better #2 center. Grigorenko or Boyko just isn't cutting it.

Boyko is a nice fill-in for a top two injury but I would never have him as a regular there. He is a good third line C though.
I got lucky with my D rookies being great already in their first seasons. I was scared about Chad Krys before this season but he have been playing like a veteran all year.

[visualdarkness]

So to summarize the fourth season:

In November I traded away Marincin and Johnson for Bowey, Meloche and 7th due to their awful stamina. This proved to be a good one as they both played better and provided more space for Chad Krys in the line up.

I cant really complain about much when it comes to individual players. It was just my defensive fourth line that struggled and got mighty minuses, but after I put Fiala in there as a counter attacker at the end it got better. Kalfirt won the league in takeaways by a margin once again so I can accept his minus.

Special teams atrocious with PP 7.0% with too many SH against, PK at only 79.3%

At the end we looked like this:

Huberdeau - Couture - Coyle (All high up in the scoring)
Nieto - Hertl - Wingels (way more scoring and plus this year)
Goldoblin - Boyko - de la Rose/Hartman (nice secondary scoring)
Fiala - Kalfirt - Samuelsson (my PK stash)

Chychrun - Dumba (Developing into a solid very offensive nr1 pairing)
Krys - Meloche (the all offense rookie success Krys gets stabilized by the defensive Meloche)
Müller - Bowey (Solid but my board hates Müller)

We luckly managed to sneak into the playoffs at the spot but lost out to a red hot old boy Lundqvist in the SC finals.

Traded away ORegan for 3rd, 6th and 7th as I have no use or space for him.

I got way too many centermen so I went into the draft promising myself to avoid grabbing more, but that failed as they were to only decent ones in it. This draft was even worse than the one last year, horrible!

#16 Claud Snyder (2-3rd playmaking C, like Konecny but with no defense)
#46 Slavomir Rob (2-3rd goalscoring forward that can play anywhere up front)
#69 Ahto Tuominen (Flashy 1st LW/C with no shot, creativity or puckhandling)
#76 Gary Raymond (3rd playmaking C, poor mans Tierny!!! with quicker feet)
#106 Jakob Carson (backup goalie, looks pretty bad right now. 13 in stickhandling though!)
#126 Nolan Foote (2nd quick big LW. Got some brutal red atts in key areas)
#136 Sami Klingberg (3-lim skilled C with some solid offensive atts already)
#159 Brant Knowles (3rd checkin RW with good speed)
#166 Igor Mayorov (All defense 7th D, think a poor mans Hatcher)
#183 Ric Topping (Unscouted C with some decent offensive atts, only 3 in stickhandling)
#189 Ivan Semyonov (same as Mayorov but 3rd pairing an 20 years old)
#196 Fred Deeves (very mediocre 4th offensive C, got decent stats in OHL)

[visualdarkness]

First time I have seen this!

[CeeBee]

In 07 the drafts may have been too good but in EA they are downright horrible. I understand that the first few depend on the DB but even after 5 or 6 years there are usually few players better than 3rd line. Even with the best scouts 5 star players are few and far between. Takes a lot of the fun out of drafting and team building that way.

[visualdarkness]

In 07 the drafts may have been too good but in EA they are downright horrible. I understand that the first few depend on the DB but even after 5 or 6 years there are usually few players better than 3rd line. Even with the best scouts 5 star players are few and far between. Takes a lot of the fun out of drafting and team building that way.

Dont get me started on goalies. One or two two star goalies are usually the best goalies in the draft, followed by about five one star ones. Atts like recovery above red values are rare.

[Sesyde]

In 07 the drafts may have been too good but in EA they are downright horrible. I understand that the first few depend on the DB but even after 5 or 6 years there are usually few players better than 3rd line. Even with the best scouts 5 star players are few and far between. Takes a lot of the fun out of drafting and team building that way.

Dont get me started on goalies. One or two two star goalies are usually the best goalies in the draft, followed by about five one star ones. Atts like recovery above red values are rare.

Olle Eriksson-Ek is turning into a beast in my save. 2017 draft I believe. Close to 93% in AHL the first year as a 18 year-old, now I am thinking about using him as one of the two in NHL as a 19 year-old.

[visualdarkness]

Olle Eriksson-Ek is turning into a beast in my save. 2017 draft I believe. Close to 93% in AHL the first year as a 18 year-old, now I am thinking about using him as one of the two in NHL as a 19 year-old.

That is the draft before the abyss, just wait...

[bruins72]

Just to give everyone a heads up, this challenge will probably be extended. Things are slowing down here at TBL and we're just not getting enough visitors to justify a new challenge. I'll be away on vacation for a week starting the 16th of this month, so I'll be extending it sometime the end of this week.

I'm finally getting some time to play my challenge game now that my work move is complete. We had a horrible second quarter and I was really desperate to make a move. We've been having a terrible time scoring and I was looking at moving Couture because he seemed to be holding back his wingers. I was trying to swing a deal with the Flames for Monahan. They weren't biting. They wanted Couture though. On the same day I got the message with them refusing the deal for Monahan, I got a new offer of Bennett and Quennville for Couture. I had no interest in Quennville but I didn't want to risk them changing their minds if I tweaked the deal, so I accepted. It's only been a few games but so far it looks like we're doing better.

[Asher413]

Quick update this time.

DIdn't win the lottery, still got Veleno. At least this pre-season seems to be going much better, so there's hope. We are still predicted to be last place, but the media never gives any love. No real major incoming players since the last update- all the trades this time were for picks, there really weren't any great players being available for what I had.

HEre's the plan going into the year, of course fluid based on performance.

Hertl-Johansen-Nieto
Goldobin-Girgensons-Hartman
O'Regan-Veleno-Barabanov
Carlsson-Zubarev-Sorensen

Hanfin-Andersson
Muller-Morrisey
DeMelo-Oleksiak

Ullmark-Filoneko

Here's to hoping I'm not in contention for the #1 pick yet again...

[visualdarkness]

Hertl-Johansen-Nieto
Goldobin-Girgensons-Hartman
O'Regan-Veleno-Barabanov
Carlsson-Zubarev-Sorensen

Wow, that forward squad looks rough. It is basically my line up but without the first line.

[radiskull]

I overcame my boredom and finally finished 4th season. Even more domination. Definitely my last season in this challenge and probably this game for a long time.

Mascherin was injured for 45 games, that's disappointment. But Wingels decided to take his place and scored 110 points. That's the best result for my player in all 4 seasons. I don't know why Wingels is such a beast.
We grabbed almost all of the awards for the season. 4 players in first All-star team and that's only because Mascherin was injured.
Well, this game became pretty boring really fast.

[visualdarkness]

I overcame my boredom and finally finished 4th season. Even more domination. Definitely my last season in this challenge and probably this game for a long time.

Mascherin was injured for 45 games, that's disappointment. But Wingels decided to take his place and scored 110 points. That's the best result for my player in all 4 seasons. I don't know why Wingels is such a beast.
We grabbed almost all of the awards for the season. 4 players in first All-star team and that's only because Mascherin was injured.
Well, this game became pretty boring really fast.

You are simply too dominant at the game, just suck a bit more like the rest of us.

[m0fownz0r]

I overcame my boredom and finally finished 4th season. Even more domination. Definitely my last season in this challenge and probably this game for a long time.

Mascherin was injured for 45 games, that's disappointment. But Wingels decided to take his place and scored 110 points. That's the best result for my player in all 4 seasons. I don't know why Wingels is such a beast.
We grabbed almost all of the awards for the season. 4 players in first All-star team and that's only because Mascherin was injured.
Well, this game became pretty boring really fast.

Your dominance brings back memories from ehm 05.. I was going to ask you for advice but then I realised, the longer the game remains challenging the better. It takes the fun out of it, at least for me, once you are able to breeze your way thourgh a season in such manner.

Great work though!

[radiskull]

Yes, it definitely takes fun out of it, but I always found more fun for myself in the process of determining optimal strategies in games. And in other parts of life.) So I had many interesting hours in the game searching for the ways to win. But after I found it, my brain says "Ok, good job, our work here is done, let's go find another problem to solve".

[Sesyde]

Yes, it definitely takes fun out of it, but I always found more fun for myself in the process of determining optimal strategies in games. And in other parts of life.) So I had many interesting hours in the game searching for the ways to win. But after I found it, my brain says "Ok, good job, our work here is done, let's go find another problem to solve".

Would you consider that optimal strategy in this game even remotely realistic, or would you consider it a game solution not really usable in real life hockey? I know there are some buggy things like all-intense practice etc. but strategies etc?
I don't want the solution, since I like the challenge, but it would be fun to know if the game is realistic or not

[bruins72]

So I've wrapped up the regular season for season 2. Once again, we failed to make the playoffs. That being said, we made a considerable improvement over that last 22 games and went 12-9-1 over that stretch. The key difference for us was trading Couture for Bennett. Couture was just hold my top line back. Bennett had 37 points in 39 games after joining our club. That tied him for 5th place in scoring on our team, just in those 39 games. He also had our team's best Average Rating and was 2nd in +/-. Beyond that, we still have changes we need to make. I've got to do something with our defense in the off-season. I need to strengthen up the right side. I've also got to find a better #2 center than Boyko. He had only 39 points in 78 games and I feel he really held back the second line. I might see if I can deal Fiala since he had such a strong season. He scored 40 goals but I just don't like him that much. Also, I feel I could bring up Goldobin and get the same results out of him. So if Fiala's value is inflated due to his hot season, maybe I can parlay that into something better? That being said, I've still got Hertl (who does nothing for me) wasting away on my third line. My scouts still say he's got the potential to be a first line guy. I never made my 24 and under trade this season because I could find a deal I wanted. I bet I'm going to wish I had though. I still have to get through the playoffs and all that so I can post my screens. Maybe I can deal one of my younger guys before the draft?