taming down the offence

[thehab]

so ive been a huge fan of the game since it came out,and think its awesome that the crew here has kept the game alive,and put in all the hours to do so.ive been visiting the forums for awhile now,and i havent really come across an answer for my question,and im not really sure if this is the right place to ask,but what im wondering,is if there is an easy way to lower offensive output in the game.i have tweaked players CA's and attributes slightly,and have even improved every goalies CA's and attributes,and albeit that helps slightly (goals down roughly .30 per game,per team) they still arent that of actual teams averages this year.......still near a half goal per game over actual team statistics.has anybody else noticed this trend?i just hate seeing matthew lombardi getting 90+ points a season,and the 50th best scorer in the league still having a ppg average.im sure by raising goalies attributes even more,i could get it down to a more realistic level,but because of regens,prospects,minor league goalies,and that sort of thing,i figure that within 5 seasons,it will probably be ack up to where it was,plus,no goalie prospects will ever crack line-ups over the current backups with jacked up atty's.im sure alot of u like haveing 5 or 6 players get 80+ points per year,but im also sure that alot of u dont,and would rather see stats closer to their real life counterparts.anywho,just wanted insight onto fixing this problem if it is possible

[B. Stinson]

I can only assume that these high production levels are hard-coded... so apart from messing with all the attributes, I don't think there's much that can be done.

[thehab]

so i did some more minor tweaking,and ive simulated through a few seasons,and my results are actually really good,most guys are within 10 points give or take of their actual statistics.gone are the days where alex tanguay finishes top 20 in scoring,jere lehtinen gets 75 points,and the buffalo sabres have 6 PPG players.league scoring is very similar to actual teams scoring this season.the only thing i wasnt able to accomplish was high scoring defenseman.altho most are within reason,i couldnt get more then 55 points or so out of guys like duncan keith,dan boyle,andrie markov or mike green.team standings were also very similar,as only 4 teams to actually make the playoffs in real life,missed out on the game,the only anomoly being that the lightning won their division ( with the talented roster they have,its not really a surprise,they should actually be a better team IRL).and in the west the blackhawks missed the playoffs.other then that,the 2 teams in the east that missed out were the bruins and sens,so nothing too odd there,and in the west,the flames made it over the avs,just barely,which could have actually happened anyways.14 teams finished at or within 1 of their actual final position,with the oilers and leafs finishing in the basement of their respective confrences.the flyers and habs finished exactly as they did,7 and 8,with the rangers finsishing 9th right behind them.and in the west,the bottom 4 teams all finished exactly how they did in the real life standings.so all in all,i think i was fairly successful of accomplishing my goal of getting scoring down to where it should be,and in the process,actually making league standings very much like the nhl this year.the only major adjustment that i made,was raising every goalies CA by 5 (making a 150 into a 155),and adjusting their major attributes by 1 across the board ie.glove,blocker,agility etc. (aside from goalies like jon quick,tuuka rask,jaro halak,ilya bryzgalov,and a few others,whose attributes were all very low,and needed to be raised between 2 and 4 for their attys).also,i ran about 15,1 season simulations,and tweaked players whos scoring was far too high (alex tanguay,matt lombardi,marco sturm,dainius zubrus,olli jokinen,keith tkachuk,mikhail grabovsky,and many others)until i got them to around their realistic numbers.on a side note,something weird that i noticed...........75% of my sims,ended in danny briere being traded to the islanders.....weird,i bet it happens IRL next year,eastside is good for stuff like that

[selne]

@thehab: Do you have any plans to make it further realistical? Any idea to make the defensemen better?

I did something similar.. i just went through every player in one database once and lowered the weight of every player with potential of >120 so that the maximum was about 190 lbs. It worked for statistics of course, but it made the game a bit less realistical with all the slim guys around.

[bruins72]

The only problem I have with this is that it mostly just affects how the league sims. You'll get more realistic results for the league. But if you take one of these teams with an improved goalie, you can dominate, even if your offense isn't as good. With the right tactics, you can make about any team perform well.

[thehab]

i beleive that to be the case regardless.since the game started,including all of the updates every year,i could take over the habs and win the cup at least 3 out of the first 4 seasons,before i stop playing for a bit,and start over again.not that the habs arent a good team,but they certainly arent the dynasty they were in the 70's (or any decade before the 90's for that matter).and u cant tell me that there arent 100's of guys that play as leafs and prolly win the presidents trophy every year.there is no doubt that the game isnt that difficult to win championships.also,i improved goalies across the board,not just for certain teams,with the exception of a few goalies that i improved more so then the rest,but if u look at those particualr players,their attributes are quite low to begin with.i definatly dont see it as being the difference between winning and losing.....its the same advantage for every team,all that it accomplished was lower league avreage scoring.i have been playing this game since it first came out,and i have put 1000's of hours into it since then (including my tweaked database work before lidas started doing it for us all),and the one thing that i kept noticing was the goal scoring trend,and i personally am sick of it.again,im sure there are alot of guys who like seeing 5 of their players break 80 points,but this isnt the 80's and your team probably isnt the oilers.im sure there are tons of guys who want a database that doesnt consist of all the players mentioned in previous posts and their inflated scoring stats.as far as simming goes,i have simmed whole seasons as the canadiens,without actually tweaking the tactics (i did however set it so that the head coach takes control) and in doing that,they finish far closer to the middle pack of nhl teams then the top.now im sure that if i take the everyday controls of the team over,and set tactics myself,i would likely be able to have them compete for the division,but thats not something that i wasnt able to do before i lowered scoring.i just figured in doing that,it would be level playing ground to review stats and tweak,until things came out just right.obviously it didnt turn out perfect,which it never will.....in any given sim,u can have a player get 40 points in the first season,90 the next time thru,and 60 the time after that.thats what great about the game,its unpredictability.altho i did notice that trend as well,as long as a player was consistently within 10 points of his actualy stats,i left him alone.but that being said,when ovechkin only got 80 points in one of sims,i didnt freak,and raise his attys,i left him alone,cause he was around 110 the previous 8 times i did it,and the 4 or 5 times after that.players have bad years,players have good years,and i did account for that as well.i made lists and stats for players that were not performing like their real life counterparts if anybody is interested,i could post it in this thread,also i saved my last sim thru if anybody wants screenshots to compare to their favorite teams.

[thehab]

@thehab: Do you have any plans to make it further realistical? Any idea to make the defensemen better?

I did something similar.. i just went through every player in one database once and lowered the weight of every player with potential of >120 so that the maximum was about 190 lbs. It worked for statistics of course, but it made the game a bit less realistical with all the slim guys around.

well,all i did really was raise their key attributes slighty,such as their passing,shooting and skating,and other then that,i raise their offence roles number to 19's.it worked for the most part,but i cant really do much more then that,or else they could be a little too skilled with all those green spots on their attributes,if u know what i mean.for the most part,it wasnt that bad,and they were still able the get close to their real stats......i mean,my goal here was to lower scoring,and still find that balance between lowering the overall scoring,while raising it for defenceman........i think it turned out quite well.i just think that by default,ai controlled team tactics,arent really that in which the defence can score 75+ points as mike green did this year,but to get him to around 60 in my opinion was an accomplishment,considering that i lowered the whole leagues scoring.

so u accomplished this same goal by just lowering players weights?????i never thought to do that,but it seems kinda weird,you would think that it would play the same,if your lowering weights across the board.

[selne]

The only problem I have with this is that it mostly just affects how the league sims. You'll get more realistic results for the league. But if you take one of these teams with an improved goalie, you can dominate, even if your offense isn't as good. With the right tactics, you can make about any team perform well.

My impression is especially in the playoffs top goalies seem unbeateable. There is always a Loungo or Kiprusoff shutting out my team. And the team that wins the cup always got one of the top goalies of the league. You are right, it's quite risky to make them even better to lower the offensive output because then the best goalie will win the cup.

[thehab]

i get what ur saying,but i made sure not to raise the important game attribute......and they can always be lowered if that became an issue.......but i definatly like the way u did it as well,i didnt realize that by lowering weights,it would have lowered scoring