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I agree with this - to an extent. We have some good tools - better even with advanced stats. The randomness Paul alluded to above is fine as well, and I completely buy his point that it makes the game more interesting and challenging, much like it would be in real life. Certainly I wouldn't complain about it or consider quitting GPHM because of some lack of transparency or challenge. That said, there are a few things in this game that simply do not make sense when they happen, and there simply are not enough tools or consistency in what is visible, to be able to make conclusions based on it. Now, GPHM is already fantastic and full of great features, so to me, this is just part of the future as Anders and co improve the game. But here are some things that currently, I just do not understand: 1. Periods of Poor Goaltender Performance: There are games and stretches of games when goalies are simply absolute trash. I expect this multiple times throughout the season now, and it can happen when they are fresh off a rest, when they are Heroic, when all tactical info is green (i.e. you perfectly match an opponent's tactics), and usually for 3-5 games at a time. Sometimes they simply lose you games and end up with a 50 - 60 rating for extended stretches for no particular reason. Some may say that in real life, goalies and players may go through similar stretches (i.e. Bobrovsky at the beginning of the current season). But in a sim like this, it would at least be good to know where this is coming from - i.e. is there a randomness element to player performance, and it just happens, or is this something we as managers can fix? 2. Team Winner Instinct Decreasing: This has happened to me multiple times, and I believe someone else mentioned this as well. A team's Winner Instinct will go down a level, usually from Heroic to Strong, over the course of a few games - and stay there. This happened to me during a) stretches of wins and good performances, b) without any trades or player moves, and c) on teams with an optimal, or close to, balance of player traits. Mystery. 3. Underestimating Opponent Teams: My teams have consistently underestimated conference leaders and teams on hot streaks higher than them in the standings, as well as teams with better reputation. What this makes me think is "Underestimation" is based on the OVR of a team's players/lines/squad, rather than their position in the standings. Given that there is a clear directive in the design of this game to treat OVR as a loose guideline, this seems like a poor design choice (if true), especially because it can impact games heavily. 4. And finally, the dreaded: "The team struggled to gain possession in the neutral zone and had to start all attacks in the defensive zone" assistant report item. I get this sporadically in games I lose, and usually lose comfortably, but I have no clear idea of what it means. I've gotten this when my defence played Aggressive Forecheck, and I've gotten this when I've played Spread, as well as all kinds of combinations of attacking tactics. I initially thought this had to do with an opponent playing Dump and Chase and keeping my team in our own zone, but I've also had this in games where my team had more O-zone time. All I know is that I inevitably lose games with this message, it seems to appear without rhyme or reason, and though there is clearly something going on here, I have not yet discovered what it is. Interested to hear more thoughts on these and any other specific items - whether the other managers here agree or not.

Free Agency is complete and here are some big name players that went to new teams . How I run Free Agency is in two phases. First phase is each free agent (Players hit free agency in their 4th, 8th and 12th years in the league) has a percentage chance of staying with their current team based on that teams winning percentage. For starters, the formula is .75 times team winning percentage. For backups, it is .25 times team winning percentage. So for instance, a starter for the Washington Federals (12 wins out of 14 total games or .857 winning %), would have a 64% of keeping their starters and a 21% chance of keeping their backups. On the other end of the spectrum, the New Jersey Generals (.285 winning percentage) would only have a 21% chance to keep their starters and a 7% chance to keep their backups. Simply put, players want to stay on better teams and leave worse teams. And backups want to be starters, so they will go for those opportunities on other teams. The franchise tag is available for teams twice in consecutive years. Once the players have decided if they are staying or leaving their teams, I then take each teams winning percentage, square it, multiply that by 100. So for instance, the Washington Federals has a 73% chance of signing any free agents they want and the New Jersey Generals only has a 8% chance of signing any free agent they want. I then assess team needs and off we go with free agency. I pick the top free agent (based on criteria I have set) and roll 2 10 sided dice for Washington, the team with the highest free agency percentage. Roll is 73 or below, Washington has signed him. 73 and above, Washington doesn't then I go to the next team that has a need at that player's position. So the below are some of the major free agents that switched teams: All Pro G Alan Faneca leaves Chicago for Tampa Bay All Pro DT Brian Young leaves Arizona for Washington WR Peerless Price leaves Arizona for Michigan G Mike Wahle leaves New Jersey for Arizona WR Travis Taylor leaves Los Angeles for Chicago WR Dennis Northcutt leaves Philadelphia for Los Angeles DE Brandon Whiting leaves Washington for Michigan (He was a back up for Washington and a starter for Michigan) CB Fakir Brown leaves Tampa Bay for Michigan WR Donald Hayes leaves Birmingham for New Jersey (Another backup leaves for a starting job) S Deon Grant leaves Philadelphia for New Jersey C Hank Fraley leaves Birmingham for Oakland (Another backup leaves for a starting job) HB Thomas Jones leaves Arizona for Philadelphia (Another backup leaves for a starting job) CB Tebucky Jones leaves Chicago for Washington (Another backup leaves for a starting job) Washington is going to be strong again. They signed some studs in free agency.

I agree on that we need more tools and more transparency to determine what works well and what does not. The advanced stats are great, but they only go so far. I understand that RNG is always a part of the game, and it should be, a random chance of luck is a large portion of a real hockey game as well. Sometimes, and quite often actually, it feels like stuff is happening without clear understanding of what exactly is wrong, and that is not something I like in a manager game. It leaves me in the dark concerning pretty much everything. Great example is the current season. I started strong and won the first five games, then I dove deep and borderlined a crisis team, and then, out of nowhere, everything clicked and I began to perform well. Why? I didn't do anything drastic. I had a balanced team to begin with. My winner instinct sucked in the beginning and it keeps on sucking to this day, but it doesn't seem to have any effect to my team's performance. Suddenly everything just seems to work like a dream. My 1st and 2nd goalies are both doing well now, but they both had a streak of really bad games... why? A single game is easy to swallow. Okay.. shit happens in a real hockey game too, but over a longer period of time good players can turn it around and excel. In GPHM it seems to be quite random.... why? I just want to know more about why things happen the way they happen, so I can adjust accordingly.. you know.. like a hockey team manager would.

Thanks Chris! I'll see to create some new screenshots and marketing materials when I get some time.

Hello everyone! i got the free 90 day email so i jumped back in. Didn't really want to leave but making the monthly payment just got to be too big of a hassle. living in the USA, i would have to alert my bank before each payment came out (alot of hassle for a $2 payment). i went out of town for a couple of weeks and that was that. Anywho's it's good to be back. Lets get after it!

USFL was awesome. Too bad it went under the way it did...