17 December 2011 Update
Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:50 pm
Hello everyone,
A couple of months have passed since the last update and it really feels like time flies by. I will start this update with some bad news; Dron who recently joined the project has left the team due to personal reasons and the fact that he didn't feel he had enough experience to be part of a big project like this. Hopefully he will be able to come back one day when he feels more ready for the task.
Initially I was planning on going into details about the player creator in this update but I realized that there is quite a lot to integrate of what I have been doing lately so if chances are required I better carry them out before explaining how it works in case things change. I hope to be able to include this in the next update instead.
Jatahati's main focus has been on creating a replacement for the online database editor which we no longer can use. The new solution is a standalone database editor/importer software which will make it possible to add data from csv-files and excel-files or enter data directly into the database. The reasearchers have done an amazing job so far but all data are yet to be imported to the database hence the need for this software. Jatahati let me try it the other week so I know it has come a long way and should be ready soon.
In the mean time I have been working on implementing a way for players to gain weight, as I mentioned I would in the previous update. This turned out to be more time consuming and challenging than dealing with player height growth; after all we do not want unrealistic height/weight combinations. The implementation I have come up with now takes height growth and strength changes into consideration; mostly the latter (players will be able to lose weight too). I have done lots and lots of tweaking, and I believe there will be more, at this point and generating millions after millions of players just to make sure no unrealistic output is generated. Given bad input unrealistic output is still possible though. In order to limit or hopefully prevent players with strange body proportions I have introduced modified BMI. Regular BMI would consider many hockey players of good size being overweight or even obese but by modifying the intervals of what is considered underweight or overweight etc. I have manage to get pretty good results and a good way to limit the risk of players becoming emaciated or obese. Players who are outside the normal interval are likely to stay in the interval they currently are or move towards the normal interval thanks to a compensation factor which is included in the calculation of a weight increment/decrement. I do want to point out that we will still end up with players like Dustin Byfuglien who is actually interpreted as obese by BMI but not by my modified version. I am going to conclude this part by showing some numbers. The starting values, which are based on data from the Swedish Tv-Pucken tournament, for each player below are 178 cm (constant height growth) and 76 kg. A total of one million players were created.
[table][th]Height (cm)[/th][th]Weight (kg)[/th][th]Quantity[/th][th]Percentage[/th][th]BMI[/th]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]84[/td][td]36[/td][td]0.0036[/td][td]24.02128[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]85[/td][td]265[/td][td]0.0265[/td][td]24.30724[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]86[/td][td]1120[/td][td]0.112[/td][td]24.59321[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]87[/td][td]3597[/td][td]0.3597[/td][td]24.87918[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]88[/td][td]10893[/td][td]1.0893[/td][td]25.16515[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]89[/td][td]26856[/td][td]2.6856[/td][td]25.45111[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]90[/td][td]54427[/td][td]5.4427[/td][td]25.73708[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]91[/td][td]91754[/td][td]9.1754[/td][td]26.02305[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]92[/td][td]130339[/td][td]13.0339[/td][td]26.30902[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]93[/td][td]165829[/td][td]16.5829[/td][td]26.59498[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]94[/td][td]180877[/td][td]18.0877[/td][td]26.88095[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]95[/td][td]148676[/td][td]14.8676[/td][td]27.16692[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]96[/td][td]96028[/td][td]9.6028[/td][td]27.45289[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]97[/td][td]52648[/td][td]5.2648[/td][td]27.73885[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]98[/td][td]25401[/td][td]2.5401[/td][td]28.02482[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]99[/td][td]9047[/td][td]0.9047[/td][td]28.31079[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]100[/td][td]1876[/td][td]0.1876[/td][td]28.59676[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]101[/td][td]321[/td][td]0.0321[/td][td]28.88272[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]102[/td][td]10[/td][td]0.001[/td][td]29.16869[/td][/tr][/table]
Finally I have some news regarding the research. We are happy to announce that YZG has been assigned the Head Researcher position where he will coordinate the research going forward with assistance from our newly appointed Assistant Head Researcher scout1982. YZG is preparing the research spreadsheets for phase two as we speak and will together with scout1982 start looking for researchers to help out. If you are interested keep an eye on the forum as YZG will make an announcement with more information when everything is ready.
Since this is the last update this year everyone involved in this project wants to take this opportunity and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
A couple of months have passed since the last update and it really feels like time flies by. I will start this update with some bad news; Dron who recently joined the project has left the team due to personal reasons and the fact that he didn't feel he had enough experience to be part of a big project like this. Hopefully he will be able to come back one day when he feels more ready for the task.
Initially I was planning on going into details about the player creator in this update but I realized that there is quite a lot to integrate of what I have been doing lately so if chances are required I better carry them out before explaining how it works in case things change. I hope to be able to include this in the next update instead.
Jatahati's main focus has been on creating a replacement for the online database editor which we no longer can use. The new solution is a standalone database editor/importer software which will make it possible to add data from csv-files and excel-files or enter data directly into the database. The reasearchers have done an amazing job so far but all data are yet to be imported to the database hence the need for this software. Jatahati let me try it the other week so I know it has come a long way and should be ready soon.
In the mean time I have been working on implementing a way for players to gain weight, as I mentioned I would in the previous update. This turned out to be more time consuming and challenging than dealing with player height growth; after all we do not want unrealistic height/weight combinations. The implementation I have come up with now takes height growth and strength changes into consideration; mostly the latter (players will be able to lose weight too). I have done lots and lots of tweaking, and I believe there will be more, at this point and generating millions after millions of players just to make sure no unrealistic output is generated. Given bad input unrealistic output is still possible though. In order to limit or hopefully prevent players with strange body proportions I have introduced modified BMI. Regular BMI would consider many hockey players of good size being overweight or even obese but by modifying the intervals of what is considered underweight or overweight etc. I have manage to get pretty good results and a good way to limit the risk of players becoming emaciated or obese. Players who are outside the normal interval are likely to stay in the interval they currently are or move towards the normal interval thanks to a compensation factor which is included in the calculation of a weight increment/decrement. I do want to point out that we will still end up with players like Dustin Byfuglien who is actually interpreted as obese by BMI but not by my modified version. I am going to conclude this part by showing some numbers. The starting values, which are based on data from the Swedish Tv-Pucken tournament, for each player below are 178 cm (constant height growth) and 76 kg. A total of one million players were created.
[table][th]Height (cm)[/th][th]Weight (kg)[/th][th]Quantity[/th][th]Percentage[/th][th]BMI[/th]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]84[/td][td]36[/td][td]0.0036[/td][td]24.02128[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]85[/td][td]265[/td][td]0.0265[/td][td]24.30724[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]86[/td][td]1120[/td][td]0.112[/td][td]24.59321[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]87[/td][td]3597[/td][td]0.3597[/td][td]24.87918[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]88[/td][td]10893[/td][td]1.0893[/td][td]25.16515[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]89[/td][td]26856[/td][td]2.6856[/td][td]25.45111[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]90[/td][td]54427[/td][td]5.4427[/td][td]25.73708[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]91[/td][td]91754[/td][td]9.1754[/td][td]26.02305[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]92[/td][td]130339[/td][td]13.0339[/td][td]26.30902[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]93[/td][td]165829[/td][td]16.5829[/td][td]26.59498[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]94[/td][td]180877[/td][td]18.0877[/td][td]26.88095[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]95[/td][td]148676[/td][td]14.8676[/td][td]27.16692[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]96[/td][td]96028[/td][td]9.6028[/td][td]27.45289[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]97[/td][td]52648[/td][td]5.2648[/td][td]27.73885[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]98[/td][td]25401[/td][td]2.5401[/td][td]28.02482[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]99[/td][td]9047[/td][td]0.9047[/td][td]28.31079[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]100[/td][td]1876[/td][td]0.1876[/td][td]28.59676[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]101[/td][td]321[/td][td]0.0321[/td][td]28.88272[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]187[/td][td]102[/td][td]10[/td][td]0.001[/td][td]29.16869[/td][/tr][/table]
Finally I have some news regarding the research. We are happy to announce that YZG has been assigned the Head Researcher position where he will coordinate the research going forward with assistance from our newly appointed Assistant Head Researcher scout1982. YZG is preparing the research spreadsheets for phase two as we speak and will together with scout1982 start looking for researchers to help out. If you are interested keep an eye on the forum as YZG will make an announcement with more information when everything is ready.
Since this is the last update this year everyone involved in this project wants to take this opportunity and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
