EHM The Blue Line

I'm sure that we are all very familiar with the Team Practice setup in EHM07.

Archibalduk has an excellent guide:
http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... php?t=2638

Is there anything that could be added or changed to make it even better?

(i don't know if this happened in EHM) if you practice say defensive strategies all the time, it would be neat to have a offensive (one minded) forward to get disgruntled...but that's all i got .

I raised this in the Tactics thread. I think EHM really misses the boat on the relationship between practice and tactics. Practice shouldn't simply be what the individual players work on to improve their attributes. Practice should, to a large extent, involve practicing tactics that will be used in-game.

For example, a team should absolutely suck at the Neutral Zone Trap during a game if they haven't actually practiced that tactic in pre-season or on off-days.

ArtVandelay wrote:I raised this in the Tactics thread. I think EHM really misses the boat on the relationship between practice and tactics. Practice shouldn't simply be what the individual players work on to improve their attributes. Practice should, to a large extent, involve practicing tactics that will be used in-game.

For example, a team should absolutely suck at the Neutral Zone Trap during a game if they haven't actually practiced that tactic in pre-season or on off-days.

I totally agree! Like I was saying in the tactics thread, I've got some ideas on how this should work. You can have

Weight Room - the time you team will spend working out, lifting weights, and doing off-ice exercise
Skating - skating practice, good for stamina and improving skating ability
Even Strength - the even strength tactical scheme your team will practice
Power Play - work on your power play tactics and set plays
Penalty Kill - work on you penalty kill tactics
Individual Skills - run drills to help improve certain skills

The Even Strength, Power Play, and Penalty Kill would have a drop down where you select a tactical scheme that you would practice (Neutral Zone Trap, Dump and Chase, and so on). Each of the tactical schemes in those categories would have a proficiency level. You could be fully proficient in Neutral Zone Trap and about half way on Dump and Chase but you might not have any proficiency in Run and Gun, so you wouldn't use that in a game.

During the season, you'd probably have most of your practice time put into Even Strength, Power Play, and Penalty Kill, with a decent amount in Skating, and a little in the Weight Room and Individual Skills. During the off-season you'll drop ES, PP, and PK down to nothing and split the time between Skating, Weight Room, and Individual Skills. Then when training camp starts, you might go with a more even split between all 6 areas.

I'd also have the option for "Extra Practice". This would give your team an extra practice session for that day. So if you're working on learning the Umbrella Power Play tactical scheme, you might gain 2% proficiency instead of 1% that day. Of course these extra practices come at a cost. They can wear on a player's condition and sometimes certain players might have negative morale due to it.

How about punishment practice? Mike Keenan was big on these. Skating drills until people would fall over from exhaustion.

there should be some sort of morale impact from practices, too, I think.

The punishment practice makes me think of the movie "Miracle".

I think if you included a "Punishment Practice" option, you'd have to make it have a serious impact in both results and possible negative effects. I could see it causing serious problems with some player personalities.

bruins72 wrote:The punishment practice makes me think of the movie "Miracle".

I think if you included a "Punishment Practice" option, you'd have to make it have a serious impact in both results and possible negative effects. I could see it causing serious problems with some player personalities.

I thought of Herb Brooks, too.

Yup - agreed with both positive and negative potential effects.

I like what I read, would be nice with something like that. Not sure about the Punishment thing tough

Are you happy about the different areas you can practice in NHL:EHM or is there anything you want added?

These areas are in NHL:EHM:
General
Fitness
Skating
Shooting
Offensive skills
Defensive skills
Tactics
Goalie

Perhaps Fitness could be split into Strength, and Conditioning?

So you mean like this:

Strength = pure strength, improved by weight lifting ?
Conditioning = stamina, improved by running or riding a bike ?

I am trying to map the different practice areas to which attributes they represent, so any clarification would be welcomed.

Correct me if I am wrong, tactical training is more of a team practice and not individual practice so I don't think that is reflective in any player attributes in the game. Only thing that comes to mind is a player's ability to accept certain tactics perhaps.

dabo wrote:So you mean like this:

Strength = pure strength, improved by weight lifting ?
Conditioning = stamina, improved by running or riding a bike ?

Yeah, that's exactly what I had in mind.

dabo wrote:Correct me if I am wrong, tactical training is more of a team practice and not individual practice so I don't think that is reflective in any player attributes in the game. Only thing that comes to mind is a player's ability to accept certain tactics perhaps.

That's a good point. I would think tactical training is a team-wide session, rather than a personal thing. I think EHM's only beneficiary of Tactics training is the Teamwork attribute.

dabo wrote:Are you happy about the different areas you can practice in NHL:EHM or is there anything you want added?

These areas are in NHL:EHM:
General
Fitness
Skating
Shooting
Offensive skills
Defensive skills
Tactics
Goalie

I'd rather have a tad more depth for goalies, though I am not an expert

Sure, how can we divide the goalie area then?

dabo wrote:Sure, how can we divide the goalie area then?

Reflexes
Rebounds/Recovery
Blocker
Glove
Positioning

Or we can group them a bit:
Movement (Positioning, Rebounds, Recovery)
Catching (Blocker, Glove, Pockechecking, Reflexes)

I would prefer groups. Anyone know how goalies practice? and what attributes are affected in each practice area? Like McQwak wrote, movement and some kind of glove/blocker practice has to take place. I wish we had a goalie/ex-goalie/goalie coach at the forum. Maybe stick handling could be one area as well.

I only played goalie one practice when I was like 10 years old...

Philosophy For Training Goaltenders

http://www.vaughnhockey.com/page.asp?id=36

Thanks, will see if I can map that to the current attributes.

Ogilthorpe wrote:Philosophy For Training Goaltenders

http://www.vaughnhockey.com/page.asp?id=36

Hm, seems like goalie's strenght is very important attribute, wonder if its so in EHM? Should I look into goalies strenght attribute more?

One thing that nearly ruined NHL:EHM for me is the set way you had to do practices. You had to start the year doing conditioning then setting the players to the right training based on their players. I often struggled to develop players and it was frusterating. I want to be able to develop players my way, not be forced into developing only one way. Flexible potential based on training should be included.

Didn't know that, I have never changed any practice settings and my players usually develop fine, perhaps not optimal but good enough to become really good (if they are high-end prospects of course).

The plan right now is not to force you to practice specific areas in any order.

dabo wrote:Are you happy about the different areas you can practice in NHL:EHM or is there anything you want added?

These areas are in NHL:EHM:
General
Fitness
Skating
Shooting
Offensive skills
Defensive skills
Tactics
Goalie

To me, most of these are things that all players will generally work on no matter what. Think about the things that are done at practices:

Skating Drills
-"Herbies" and other kinds of painful skating drills
-Agility work
-Speed work
Shooting Drills
Breakout Drills
Passing Drills
Stickhandling Drills
Scrimmages
Weightlifting/Strength Training
Endurance Work (Exercise Bike)
Flexibility

Then there will be specific practice of certain tactics to be focused on during the scrimmages and some other drills. Things like Neutral Zone Trap, Left-wing Lock, etc.

If you look at any team, over a given period of time, that team will work on ALL of the above. Variation will occur by small degrees based on the coach's perception of what is needed more. If a team seems to have trouble playing the full 60 minutes, the coach might emphasize Skating and Endurance more. If they're getting outworked in the corners, Strength may be focused on. If they're giving up too many scoring chances, the coach might want to try working on the Neutral Zone Trap (in practice before having the team do it in a game).

I think it would be cool to be able to select one or 2 areas to focus on and to be able to select a tactic to practice. I think EHM goes too far in having us select levels for all kinds of things that, in real life, are getting done anyway. My idea actually simplifies it from a user perspective (maybe not n the coding, though).

Also, if a coach tries to get his team to play with an unpracticed tactic in a game, there should be problems for that team unless the players generally are very smart or just so skilled they can overcome anything.