rainsilent

This is a general user guide. For now it will be split up into 4 sections but I am saving room for one more just in case. Please know that this is never complete and is always an ongoing project with the work in progress label as nobody except for Anders knows everything about this game and even the best of us are constantly learning about this game. This will be bare to start with but I plan on having most of it filled to some degree within about a week or two depending upon the time available to me. The 4 sections will be as follows. Team Basics, Player Basics, Team Advanced and Player Advanced. The 5th I am saving for something unforeseen or not thought of in advanced and may eventually just be used as a frequently asked questions list. If I end up needing more than 5. Umm... Oops. I'll make it work. Team Basics This section is all about the very basics on how to run a team. The topics covered here will be roster, cap, line and tactic basics. The very first thing to do is learn your team. Since player basics is the second part we will be getting more in depth with the player part there and we will skip to the roster in general. Roster basics: The most obvious thing is that you need 18 skaters and 2 goalies at minimum. In an ideal situation you would also want 2 or 3 forwards and 1 or 2 defensemen as scratches in case of injury. Injuries happen. It is inevitable. It is best to be prepared for when it does happen so you aren't scrambling when it does. Beyond this part, in which many have probably rolled their eyes at, the only other things to really address here is team spirit and team reputation. Team spirit has 3 things underneath it. Confidence shows exactly how confidant your team is in its play. It will be more likely to grow with positive overall team results. Teamwork shows how well your team plays together. Winner instinct is basically a teams "it" factor. Does the team have "it" in them to consistently pull out wins in meaningful games. Cap basics: A GHL team has a cap of 60 million to play with. SHL 15 million, BHL 4.5 million, IHL, 1.5 million and LIHL 750k. Every player has a contract that lasts a certain number of seasons. Contracts can have clauses as well. a Promotion clause means that the if the player remains on the team and the team promotes to a higher league the salary of the player will go up in proportion with the new salary. A one way clause means that the player will not go down to a lower league no matter what. Line basics: Each forward line needs 3 skaters. Each defensive line 2 skaters. For the C position any skater can play it so you want to be playing the players with the best face off rating regardless of position. Also you want your best shooter not playing at C to be on the side opposite their handedness. This is called playing the off-wing. It allows this player to get better quality shots on net. Tactic basics: Team tactics work in a rock, paper, scissors fashion. Each offensive and defensive system has strengths and weaknesses. However these tactics have a say in how your players develop, how your team performs and the team has to get familiar with the team tactic. When it comes to team tactics it is best to choose one based upon how you want you team to play in the long run. This is because when you change team tactics there is a "learning" period that the team has to go through and it will perform worse in the process. The players will adapt to the system. Line tactics (aka line settings) however do not work in a rock, paper, scissors fashion. Rather there basically are instructions to the players on how to play within the team system. Also they can be changed game to game without worry of change in the quality of team play.

None of those teams need a goalie to make them successful considering they already have said goalies they need in the ones you want. Not to mention the only returns they should be accepting, (based upon their actual needs) should they accept a trade for the goalies they are building their teams around, are trades that you said in the post above that you wouldn't be willing to make or I know straight up you wouldn't be willing to make. So unless you manage to pull off a(nother) rip off job those trades are so not going to happen. Just be happy with Bublik. For the record I have had about half the current GHL managers PM me their displeasure with your AI trade history at different times in the past so this post isn't me "just being salty" over you dominating the GHL with a team vastly superior to most of the rest of us for what will be 3 and likely 4 seasons. One even went so far as to say that they thought that your team should be forcibly disassembled. Short of the rest of the GHL managers saying such nobody knows if they are aware but I would think most of the rest do since they were around to see it. Before I possibly turn this into a rant due to your audacity to post most of what you did Bouncer I am stopping here. To everyone, including you Bouncer, use this thread only for season 6 trade talk for game world Bravo. That is what this thread is intended for. Leave this part of the discussion for PMs and the chat in the game world as it doesn't belong here.

That wasn't me. It was a SHL team trying to take all of the bottom end GHL teams draft picks via very lopsided trades. It was the same person that was being discussed at the top of this thread. I have asked Anders to revert the trades that player made but he is unsure if he will be able to before the next season starts. As for shutting down human to AI trades it would be doable for game world Biscuit that has the player population but for the leagues that are not near as full it isn't an ideal option. In some game worlds there are some leagues where there are only a few human managers. The second suggestion I am not comfortable with and Anders has said such as well if I am not mistaken. Or at the least that is the impression that I have gotten. When Anders has the time, as of current, he can deal with them. They just have to be reported to him. Should this game double in size that may become a bit of a necessary evil to bring in.

Ideally with the most recent changes of hiding potential and greed the gap will get smaller. Mind you an elite SHL team should not immediately be a playoff GHL squad without a few additions no matter what but they shouldn't be bottom of the table automatically either.

My concern was going to a game called xperteleven. That game likely had, and very well still may, at one point over 1000 game worlds due to someones ability to create their own game world outside of the standard tournament one. What happened there is that a number of "gamemaster" level people were caught only allowing the better players to their friends teams in a competitive league.

His friend actually took over a pretty good team that just needed a goalie and a few Dmen to be a seriously competitive team. By the time he came back from his vacation status his team lost about 1/3rd of the best players it had. Some of them for not much in return. As for your better way of having the report button I am completely behind. From there however I don't know where to take it in terms of how to do it. Straight to Anders would just flood him with way too much. Giving a few players control is a rather scary proposition given what I have seen happen on other online manager games. I think best scenario for such a thing might be that a reported trade goes to a "review board" made up of a number of players. The players debate and vote on the fairness. If they say no it goes to Anders for final decision on a revert with the reasoning as to why it was voted no. Even that however has issues. Chiefly that you are potentially asking for a lot of time on the side from a number of people. Not a lot of people are going to have that time to dedicate. Also I would change the ban part to be strictly to making trades rather than banning from the game on the whole. As much as abusing the AI is unsportsmanlike to do it isn't direct cheating like multiple accounts. Thus getting banned from the game for abusing the AI via trades is a bit steep. Losing trading privileges for a time however is more reasonable.

If you don't want to jump up for that reason than you may be "waiting" for 3 or more seasons. Can't say I blame you either. So far as I know there isn't a game world that has gone on long enough to see it the most recent update has leveled the competition somewhat at the GHL level. Also pretty much no matter what there will, and should, be a gap between the best SHL teams and better GHL teams. However the gap as of current, thanks to some managers exploiting the AI, is rather excessive. A very good SHL team should only need a few high end players to be able to keep up when promoting in theory. Thanks to the AI trade abuse that happened in the past you currently need to completely redo your roster. I am really looking forward to several seasons down the road where the advantages from the trade abusing has gone away. As for the user on holiday trades I would be behind a suggestion from the past of not letting the AI decide on trades for your team. Just have the trades sit and wait until the user gets back or is tossed from the team due to inactivity.

Especially when they trade for said player and in return sent the CPU the player you requested in return. That being said the CPU will send trades to human players. The ones I have seen sent my way have been... awkward to say the least. Case in point one I received very recently from the Campbell Nighthawks. The CPU, a number of days after the team went to CPU control, offered Jose Hanson for Leonardo Adame. This is actually the 3rd time that the CPU has offered me a high caliber player for a younger player with a high trade value. All such trades I have declined, at least unofficially as I haven't been able to decline the offer from the Nighthawks because it will not bring the offer up again for me to decline it (I did look at it the day it was offered to me) but it still is there. Current trade offers Team Offered Status Action Campbell Nighthawks 7 days ago Your call Respond

That requires all in the league to be in on it. There are a number of managers that have in the past or do actively exploit the AI in this game world with not many visiting the forums. Thus a gentleman rule likely will not work due to the current situation. A "harder" approach of reporting to Anders is likely the best solution here sadly. Reporting said trades by bringing them up in the game world chat box however will serve as an in world memo that it isn't appropriate to be doing such things for the many that likely don't visit the forums.

Don't be so quick to say any of that guys. First I PMed Anders about it already. Second the person traded with teams that are 13th through 16th in the GHL standings. If all 3 of those teams demote ALL of the draft picks the person is trading for become SHL draft picks. It is why I have been trying to really encourage Steve, with the currently 14th place team, to do what he can to stay above 15th and doing everything I can to get those other teams teams to demote. (Edit required here. Sorry to the "new" person with the currently 14th place team but I want to see your team demote because of what this guy did before you took the team over. Should Anders revert all the trades involved with what the player in question did my stance completely changes.) Of course one will have to lose down to the SHL in the playoffs but we can ask Anders to revert the latest trade at least if not all of them. I also traded for the persons own draft picks that they traded to one of the AI teams because should the person promote than their picks become top 4 GHL draft picks. I will be asking Anders to revert said trade that I made for his picks after the playoffs begin so the AI team he gave the picks to will keep them so the player cant trade back for them should the person wise up so to speak. Yes the person is exploiting the AI to an extreme degree but they are really failing hard at doing it since at least 2 of the picks will end up SHL draft picks (not high end GHL draft picks) if Steve can keep his team 14th or better. Also this is the same manager that for 2 seasons was at the bottom of the GHL Biscuit standings (with a lot of bad signings to go with it) so they aren't very good at running a team as it is. Edit 2: fun fact they were running one of the teams that they took a 1st round pick from just last season. No exploiting the AI, or any game mechanics for that matter, isn't directly cheating but it is on the same level and very unsportsmanlike to do. That is why so many online games punish players via bans for using exploits. Exploiting the AI via trades should not be accepted, it should be brought up in the game world chat box (NOT IN THE FORUMS, the chat box is on a much more private level and brings attention to the exploit trade for all in the world to see. Also do not slander the person of offense. Just bring up the trade in question for others in the game world to see so it can be reported and investigated) and exposed to Anders via some type of report to him. Someone smarter than this guy could be stealing what are likely to be top 4 GHL picks though by going after the right picks which is why I have been asking Anders to lock draft pick trading with AI teams before this person started these trades.

There would be some good to it for us, which I would really enjoy, but it really would mess with the point of team familiarity regarding the tactics making it a pointless thing to have when we really need it badly. Thus I really do think it is a bad idea to add into the game. Take for example what I would do. I would have 2 polar opposite styles like puck possession and dump and chase for offense and moderate forecheck with say spread. What this would do is allow me to use 2 very different systems and basically have 2 different teams at both ends at the ready at a moments notice. No NHL team can do that. The LA Kings don't have a speed possession game in their pocket that they can turn to and the Penguins don't have a heavy power game that they can turn to yet your suggestion would basically give me that if I wanted it. The point of the team familiarity is to basically lock a team into one tactical system making you make a tough decision on how you want your team to play. Like in the NHL if you make a change it will bring a noticeable negative impact in your teams play until they get familiar with the new system. Also like the NHL it allows other teams to read into how your team plays and potentially counter it my making adjustments within their own system. This system has a very positive effect on this game. I have played other hockey manager games out there without this familiarity system and managers were abusing tactics changes that would be impossible to do in reality. Personally I'd rather have the realism effect here. Also one final thing to add that would make your suggestion that much more tricky. The tactics you have set influences your players training. The skills most required for the tactics you have chosen will be trained slightly more than others not as relevant. How would this be modified to work with your 2 system suggestion? You can't have both affecting training. That would allow managers to abuse said system by having 2 tactics that either train the same skills to boost certain skills that much more or by using 2 different systems to train the ultimate players faster. Overall while your suggestion is a good one from our perspective of the managers game play wise it is only going to have far reaching negative impacts. Ones that we really could do without. Edit: sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I made everything as clear as possible.

Actually real life teams don't have a "secondary" tactic. They use 1 tactic that the players freelance with in game. However different lines will play with different styles and focuses within that same system to accomplish different things. This is represented in game quite well. In terms of game to game adjustments there are no major changes done as teams stick to the one tactic and just do different things within it. The issue with this game tactically is that it is extremely basic and tries to combine a lot into very little. It is done for simplicity's sake so as not to overwhelm players that don't have a lot of in depth knowledge of hockey. As a result a number of things get combined that really shouldn't be. For example breakouts and offensive zone styles are combined into one as your offensive systems as is forechecks and neutral zone systems to make the defensive systems. Sure they blend into each other but they are not the same. Also there is no true defensive zone system in this game to choose from outside of when your team is on the PK. Trying to code a more realistic and complex tactical set to use is a massive amount of work and time and if implemented would likely completely overwhelm all but the more astute in hockey tactics among us here. The current system in place is, although not perfect, pretty good for what it is compared to other games. There are flaws with it sure but having a second tactic definitely isn't one of them. Professional teams don't use a second tactic.

Case in point kuensami. Never did I say you were a tool or egocentric fool. Just that liking your own posts gives the impression that that is what your character is. It would really behoove you to recognize the difference between "looking like" and "you are." I said look like and looking like. Never did I say you were. Not trying to be rude, just giving it to you straight. This community is small not because of any community negativity but because the game is very new and has had virtually no exposure beyond word of mouth.

It is an extreme measure when there are still a number of leagues in which there are too few human managers that want to trade or even just to trade with. Also putting the blame on the inanimate thing is extremely absurd. Especially since the inanimate thing is not the problem in any way. Blaming the inanimate thing completely bypasses the fact that people are abusing said thing. People abusing is the issue. Not said thing being abused. Finally since you seem to be rather oblivious to sections of my prior post that you responded to, and my post history in these forums, I am very much concerned about the population of this game and the well being of new players. Your solution is much more likely to seriously hurt and hamper new players until this game gets a much bigger population rather than actually help. New players can only join at the BHL level or lower. Most CPU trade abuse is happening at the GHL and SHL levels. That is above and out of touch of new players if you can't tell. To reiterate on what he means by "it makes you look bad" in a still relatively forum friendly manner you look like a tool doing it. However, to put it more blunt, if you don't mind looking like an egotistical fool go ahead and keep doing it.

The ability to trade with the CPU is not ruining the game. Players abusing the CPU via being able to trade with them is ruining the game. There is a massive difference. Your putting the blame and responsibility of the issue on an inanimate thing rather than the people abusing the thing. Thus you are wanting to take an extreme measure to fix said issue. Completely removing the ability to trade with CPU controlled teams is an extreme measure that should only be used as a last resort. It still is a critical feature that, in some leagues (note I said leagues not worlds,) is still very needed due to the lack of managers that are either willing to make a fair trade, understand negotiating a trade or just have too few human players to trade with. Thus removing the ability to make a trade with the CPU would only be a big negative impact. I get why you and others are calling for the removal of trading with the CPU but it isn't the best solution to the problem at hand by far. The player population is still just too low, at least in the game world I am in, for that solution to be a good one. The ability to trade with the CPU is not ruining the game. Other players abusing the CPU in trades is. Fixing the CPU trade logic to lessen the ability to abuse the CPU in trades is the way to go given the entire picture with this game. Also you guys could be sending PMs to Anders about such abusive trades asking for them to be reverted. You also could be posting them in topics although that is a seriously bad way of going about it. Either way it would be a lot of extra work for Anders if there were a lot of trades to revert.

If I may point out other managers showing blatant disrespect to other fellow managers playing the game by exploiting the cpu in trades has nothing to do with the game being properly thought out in any way. It is just other players being ****s because they can. It is a problem in every game with some form of multiplayer. Anders is taking steps to make it harder for such players to continue to do this in the future. Also you could try asking Anders to revert (undo) these trades that you take issue with. I get that a number of players currently with top teams got them, to varying degrees, via exploiting the cpu via unfair trades. However this game is definitely heading in a direction where manager skill will trump those that are currently finding success via exploits rather than any sort of skill. If you are just too fed up and would rather leave that is your call, and it would be disappointing to see you go, but I would push that you try to stick around as this game is going in the right direction in regards of attempting to make it more difficult for players to exploit the cpu.

To add a bit to this look at the Blackhawks. They are an extreme example due to a number of very high contract players but there are a number of teams near the cap in the NHL for various reasons. Either way there are a a few FAs each season that the team that had them could not resign them due to cap and the player ended up in FA, some instances the player gets traded at the deadline but either way they end up in FA. Do I think there needs to be an increase in the cap? I don't know. I haven't seen what a GHL looks like 10 years after the start. However what I will say is that the ONLY reason the cap needs to be increased for the GHL, in my opinion, is if there are a number of high end GHL players are going unsigned in FA due to every team not having the cap space to sign said players because player demands have become universally too high. Until that happens top teams should be facing salary crunches so skilled players get spread across the league. Having the best team should come down to skilled and smart managers. That does not involve cap increases that allows top teams to keep their high quality teams by giving them more cap space to keep more of the best players. As I said teams should be facing salary crunches. That would force managers to get creative and smart when it comes to managing player contracts, utilizing players available and cap space to maximum effect. I'd rather a post 2004 NHL like situation where teams have to seriously consider cap space over a pre 2004 NHL like situation where certain teams can basically get and keep the best players available. It has been said that a one time increase is planned for the next update. For all we know there is evidence that many of us have not seen where an increase is justified. I know if I ran this game that I would be running a private hidden league for research and testing purposes related to changes that may or may not work. This game does have its own version but it is semi public. My big question is how big of an increase are we talking about?

Ok so this is what I guess is what is happening. Your team was relatively fine last year due to team confidence being high as it made up for the lack of familiarity to a degree. However it also really explains why near the end of last season why your team suddenly struggled in a stretch of games as your team performance still did drop off. However at the start of the new season due to confidence being reset your team defensively has been much more fragile while making mistakes as they have continued to learn the defensive system and other teams that are familiar with their offensive systems have been scoring on your team as a result when usually they wouldn't. Thus I think it is safe to say that what is going on is a great example of what happens when you switch your offensive or defensive tactics later when there are a number of set teams thus justifying my advice I give of just pick the tactics you want to use early no matter what players you have and just stick with it rather than switching later. As the game from today showed your team will start playing to up to its full potential if you show patience. Also there is no fn way your team is relegating. Its too good to stay near relegation. You switching defensive tactics is likely the source of all of this havoc going on with your team. Once your team is familiar enough with the new defensive tactic your team will rebound and it will start dominating and making its way up the standings. Your team will be in the playoffs short of some extreme events, or you switching tactics a few more times. Edit: Finally in my opinion the defensive tactic switch, if it was in play during the playoffs, cost you a near sure championship last year. Granted that it is hard to say how the series would have gone if the finals had been you and Yann but I would have put my money on you. A seriously hampered by key injuries Protons team beat yours in a very exciting to watch for me 2-1 series. I don't know if the defensive tactic switch was in play or not but if it was it cost you the series and very possibly a championship.

Bobrovsky would like to claim otherwise. Granted he didn't have a great team in front of him. The Avs of the late 90s to early 2000s also got to really slow starts however that was due to team play rather than Roy. I have no idea what is going wrong with your goalies nor do I have any idea on how to fix it because how do you get your goalies to play better when your team isn't playing particularly bad in front of them? Heck one of your goalies is one of the best in the game world easy. I can't make you stay but it would be a shame to see you go. I at least understand your frustration but even I am puzzled by what is going on. Out of curiosity is your team familiar with your defensive tactics? I would imagine so at this point. The only other thing that I can think of, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me due to your results with it last year, is that your team just isn't taking well to your "newer" defensive tactics.

It seems more random in the first week or two at the start of a season. I think player and team confidence is a big part as to why as these sort of results pretty much stop happening by about halfway for pretty much everyone. Honestly the first two weeks of the season nearly scare me to death because it is completely possible for a great team to fall behind very quickly and playing catch up the rest of the way is not very fun when your team should have been at the top to begin with and can be really frustrating to go through. The harsh reality is this happens a lot in professional sports. A great hockey example is the Colorado Avalanche when Patrick Roy was the starting goalie. They were extremely notorious for very slow starts to the season. The most difficult thing for you, and it would be for me too, is that your team is actually playing well in front of your goalies. Your goalies are just having bad games. They are both good quality goalies. Heck one of them is great in being one of the best. The only thing you can really do is sit it out and wait for your goalies to play in the manner in which they should be. And that is an extremely frustrating thing to go through.