Challenge Questions & Feedback Thread

[archibalduk]

I posted this over in the Mods' Forum and thought it'd be useful to post it here too:

Today I started work on the script to automatically calculate the Challenge points. I don't think it will take much time to complete (ignoring the fact that the next couple of days are busy for me). So far, it can calculate the Bonus A and Bonus B points (these are the points we award for the Q1 and Q3 stats). All that remains is to calculate the points for the end of season stats and the playoff wins stat. Currently it only works with season 1, but it'll be easy to extend it to cover all seasons (it's just easier for testing purposes to stick with season 1 for the moment).

Once the script has been completed, it will need integrating into the site. This will take a little bit of time. But all being well, we should have points awarded for all completed Challenges within the next week or two. After this, the points for future Challenges will be kept up to date much more quickly - i.e. as soon as we have awarded any penalty points for any infractions (but this will only take a minute or two because we keep a note of them as we go along). So we'd be looking at a delay of typically a couple of days between the Challenge completing and us running the script depending on real life time commitments etc (although the script could automatically run immediately upon the end of a Challenge but it'd be misleading because it would be subject to us awarding any penalty points).

It can take at least 20-30 minutes per season to calculate all of points manually plus additional time for the improvements points (e.g. a 4 season challenge can take over two hours to calculate manually) - so the script will save so much time!!

Something the script won't do is award improvement points. I could theoretically add this function, but it would be very time consuming. I asked Bruins72 whether he thought it was worth me taking the time to implement the improvement points and this is what he had to say:

As for the improvement points, I'm okay with tossing them is they prove too difficult to automate. In a way, they kind of reward people for bombing in the first season and then doing really well in the next season. Long-term is almost made it a good strategy to do poorly in the first season because you'd get a great draft pick (later drafts tended to be weaker) and rank higher in season 2 thanks to improvement points.

So it makes sense not to devote the time (and delaying the installation of the script) to implement the improvement points. So points will be awarded as follows:

13.1 Q1 & Q3
After Q1 and Q3, bonus points will be awarded for top three users in the following categories (1st = 3pts, 2nd = 2pts, 3rd = 1pt):

• Highest power play percentage
• Highest penalty killing percentage
• Player with the most goals
• Player with the most assists
• Player with the most points
• Player with the highest +/-
• Player with the most PIM

13.2 End of season
After game 82, bonus points will be awarded for top five users in the following categories (1st = 10pts, 2nd = 8pts, 3rd = 6pts, 4th = 4pts, 5th = 2pts):

• Most wins
• Least losses
• Highest total points
• Most goals scored
• Least goals against
• Highest power play percentage
• Highest penalty kill percentage
• Highest team PIM

13.3 For every playoff game won, the user is award 0.5pts, There is also an extra bonus of 3pts for winning the Stanley Cup. This figure will be rounded up to the nearest whole number (e.g. 2.5pts will be rounded up to 3pts).

13.4 If two users have equal stats for one of the categories in which bonus points are awarded, they will both be awarded the points. For example, if two users are tied third for most wins after game 82, both users will be awarded 6pts each.

However, if anybody has any feedback about what points are awarded for different things, etc then please do post here. We're always happy to improve/tweak the Challenges if it will make things more enjoyable (so long as things don't become unnecessarily complicated).

[archibalduk]

We've got the bonus points script up and running! All points have been awarded for Challenges 23 - 26. From now on, we'll be able to award points quickly after the end of each Challenge.

I'm going through Challenges 23 - 26 and awarding trophies and TBL Points right now. I'll post a news announcement with full details once I've awarded them all.

[smokey]

I've got two questions about the rules concerning non-playing staff.

Are you allowed to promote one of the assisting coaches to head coach at the start of the game, if you can prove that he had been on the team over six months irl on the starting date in the game?

Are you allowed to sign non-playing staff from other teams if you have to pay a transfer fee? In other words, are you allowed only to sign non-playing staff who are unemployed?

edit: These questions relate to the latest challenge with the Sabres.

[Manimal]

no and yes.
We are all stuck with Rolston for six months

[smokey]

That's what I thought. It does make things easier after six months though.

[Vanaja]

Sabres challenge game, season 1

6.3 You may sign your unsigned prospects (prospects who have never previously been contracted to your challenge team) from 1 May until 1 October (inclusive).

How this apply for Dennis Persson? He has not played in NHL, but AHL Rochester and Portland.

Can I sign him from sweden as unsigned prospect?

Edit: thx Manimal for your fast reply.

[Manimal]

Sabres challenge game, season 1

6.3 You may sign your unsigned prospects (prospects who have never previously been contracted to your challenge team) from 1 May until 1 October (inclusive).

How this apply for Dennis Persson? He has not played in NHL, but AHL Rochester and Portland.

Can I sign him from sweden as unsigned prospect?

Yes, you can offer him a contract. He shouldn't be available to come over right away, though.

[jesterx7769]

Hang on, I don't think Dennis Persson applies to what he is asking. It says YOUR unsigned prospects. Dennis Persson is a free agent NOT a Buffalo unsigned prospect in this database, if you want to sign him he would fall under the normal FA rules and not the prospect rules. Buffalo drafted him before but no longer holds his rights according to the database we are using.

[Manimal]

Hang on, I don't think Dennis Persson applies to what he is asking. It says YOUR unsigned prospects. Dennis Persson is a free agent NOT a Buffalo unsigned prospect in this database, if you want to sign him he would fall under the normal FA rules and not the prospect rules. Buffalo drafted him before but no longer holds his rights according to the database we are using.

Not entirely true.
Persson left as an RFA and Buffalo holds his rights in the db. However, the game handles rights strangely sometimes and because he wasn't drafted in the past two years, his rights won't show up unless you have Sweden as one of the selected leagues.
I do believe Buffalo has dropped his rights IRL, but I have missed removing them in the db.

I do not suggest that you use Sweden as a selected league. Participating in this challenge requires a NHL start date. Having Sweden selected and not using an earlier start date can cause the game to crash

[Vanaja]

I do not suggest that you use Sweden as a selected league. Participating in this challenge requires a NHL start date. Having Sweden selected and not using an earlier start date can cause the game to crash

I did start game with v5.3d 2006 Non-Patched Rosters, NHL starting date and all leagues selected.

NHL, AHL, ECHL and Canada junior leagues Enchanced. Others are standart.

3.3 You can select your game to 'run' as many leagues in standard or enhanced as you'd like. However, you have to at least set up your game with NHL, AHL, ECHL and Canada's Junior leagues (WHL, OHL, or QMJHL) set to 'Enhanced'. If you are using a the CSD patch version of the rosters, it is suggested that you only select the required leagues set to enhanced. So crashes have happened due to using a combination of the CSD patch, European leagues, and the NHL start date.

I did think that crash problems are only for CSD patch version. Does non-patched rosters crash too?

[Manimal]

I did think that crash problems are only for CSD patch version. Does non-patched rosters crash too?

I can't remember but I think you are right

[jesterx7769]

Are you allowed to trade drafted a players a year after signing them? The way it reads with no trading prospects means you can't but they also fall under the players who have been on your team for a year list

[bruins72]

You can't trade unsigned prospect (drafted players). You can only trade them once they've been signed and on your team (or minor league affiliate) for 1 year.

[mark_htfc]

I'm tempted to give a challenge another go, and hopefully this time complete a season haha.

Just a couple of questions before I do commit though, where are the up-to-date rules located? Also, how long do I have to finish if I was to start the Sabres challenge now? Finally what's the deadlines for posting tables etc.

[bruins72]

Go to this page...

http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/challenge.php

It has the challenge rules on the left. The challenge date is in the challenge info box at the top.

[mark_htfc]

Cheers, I totally forgot that we had a subsection for that. I'll make a start on re-reading the whole rules now.

[kabbott50]

I haven't played a challenge in a while, so I'm a little unsure, but do we still coach the games ourselves?

[bruins72]

Yes. You must coach the games yourself.

If you haven't played a challenge for a while, I highly recommend you re-read the challenge rules.

[kabbott50]

Thanks Bruins. I did re-read them (a couple of times actually), but unless I skipped that part, I don't remember seeing it.

[kabbott50]

Regarding Free Agents - if you sign one, and attempt to send him to the farm, and lose him via waivers, are you allowed to sign another for that salary? I'm assuming not, but hey, it's worth a shot.

[Manimal]

Regarding Free Agents - if you sign one, and attempt to send him to the farm, and lose him via waivers, are you allowed to sign another for that salary? I'm assuming not, but hey, it's worth a shot.

No, you're not.

[TimHorton]

Can we possibly look at playing the challenges without a cap floor? Most teams seem to be really close or under the cap floor after a year so they will not trade with you but since the game has no real penalty for being under the teams have no incentive to get above it. When you only get two trades it really limits you.

[bruins72]

I'm not sure what we could do about the cap floor in regards to the challenge.

[timmy_t]

Well it will be lower with the next version of the database because the cap goes down for the 2013-14 season.

[CeeBee]

THe game was designed with a much lower cap and I think raising it does cause problems with the AI not seeming to deal with it. Maybe its because everybody loses money with a higher cap so teams try to spend as little as possible.