Yann Rock

The big thing that needs to be done now is CPU draft picks (and maybe even prospects) be locked so they can't be traded. This trade is the perfect example as to why. It IS exploiting the cpu for what was undoubtedly going to be a top 5 pick for a crap return. I also think trading with CPU teams should only be limited to leagues that only are at most half filled with human managers.
 
 
I see them all as the same. That same being bad. What you did is no worse than the example here. Also success is relative. You haven't prevented me in doing anything other than in being able to provide a competitive team against you. The one season where that wasn't the case was one weird anomaly that shouldn't count. The only reason you "got away" with what you did is because Anders was away when you made the trades and by the time he got back and saw my messages regarding your trades it was too late to revert them. The players you got are getting near the time they should start to decline. What was done by you is done and, almost in every literal sense, in the past. The only reason I snapped at you in that other thread is because you were flaunting your success while trying to trade a few players. I shouldn't have snapped at you as there are better ways of talking to you about the flaunting and avoiding it.
 
I want to move on from that. All of it. I want to move on to a league where manager skill and savvy determines the outcome more than cheap trades that heavily bolster a lineup. This trade in question only goes to preventing that from being possible. I want to do a regular season preview for each team in the GHL before the first game, maybe even do a halfway one too. I want to do playoff series match up previews. However I can't do them without the "this team is the best and here is everyone else" rhetoric if trades like these keep happening. It isn't interesting to do when there is one clear cut team that everyone is chasing because they happened to exploit the AI to acquire an edge over everyone else.
 
Koekefix if you want to right the wrong with this trade what should be done is draft either Justin Yu, Robin Strass or Miroslav Senko (they are the three best players available in my opinion and it makes it simple) with the pick you got and trade the player back for everything you traded for the pick, including the player the CPU picks with what should be your draft pick. If you wanted that draft pick you could have made a much more fair offer like your 1st round pick and either 2nd or the 75 ovr D man you traded for it as well.

As I said prior in this thread I want to do such stuff but I am not interested when trades like what is being discussed would only leave me going; "Here is the team that will finish 1st because they exploited the CPU to build a nearly unbeatable team. Here is everyone else."

I usually try to stay away from the trade drama around here because the managers that have abused the system either think they didn't do anything wrong, don't care or are not willing to fix their mistakes. I feel like nothing will change unless more drastic measures are implemented by the game in prevention of abuse of CPU trades.
 
That being said, I find the sense of community in our game world a little lacking. I may be wrong, but it seems we all chat here with each other when there is a conflict over a trade others disagree with, but we never actually chat about our teams, our league, players, potential trades,direction of the game, etc.
 
 
Just my two cents, back to lurking now

I usually try to stay away from the trade drama around here because the managers that have abused the system either think they didn't do anything wrong, don't care or are not willing to fix their mistakes. I feel like nothing will change unless more drastic measures are implemented by the game in prevention of abuse of CPU trades.
 
That being said, I find the sense of community in our game world a little lacking. I may be wrong, but it seems we all chat here with each other when there is a conflict over a trade others disagree with, but we never actually chat about our teams, our league, players, potential trades,direction of the game, etc.
 
 
Just my two cents, back to lurking now

I usually try to stay away from the trade drama around here because the managers that have abused the system either think they didn't do anything wrong, don't care or are not willing to fix their mistakes. I feel like nothing will change unless more drastic measures are implemented by the game in prevention of abuse of CPU trades.
 
That being said, I find the sense of community in our game world a little lacking. I may be wrong, but it seems we all chat here with each other when there is a conflict over a trade others disagree with, but we never actually chat about our teams, our league, players, potential trades,direction of the game, etc.
 
 
Just my two cents, back to lurking now

It took 3 weeks to get enough people to report you to the game to suspend you. That manager is likely to get a suspension as well but enough players have to report them first. That will not happen overnight.
 
Edit:
 
 
This isn't a good solution. First all draft picks should be locked. Second what determines top x? Overall, which is mostly meaningless, or position in the lineup, which is just as meaningless?
 
The best way to prevent abusing the CPU teams while still allowing CPU trading is; 1st by getting more strict with the trade values of players (Too many players with great trade values,) 2nd restricting the number of players involved in the trade and the trade value difference of involved players must be equal (aka no 2 good trade value players for a great one. It must be great for great and no greater difference than a 2 to 1 or 3 to 2 with no more than 3 players available to be added per side,) 3rd improving the computer trade logic in regards to what is coming its way vs what it is giving up (This would prevent the CPU from accepting a trade where they give a highly skilled relatively young great trade value player for an old vet that isn't near as talented yet still has the same trade value.)

I just reviewed the transactions in SHL where 8 of the 16 teams are CPU, so understandably, trading is going to be hard to do without trading with these teams.  
 
TWO of the top four teams in SHL have a total of 14 trades with CPU teams this season.  Of those, I'd say roughly half are tilted in the players' teams favor.  
 
I think part of the problem is that the CPU AI over values the draft picks.  One could say this is true in real life too, some GMs wanting youth and picks over a current roster, but when you look at the trend over a large sample of trades, the CPU (which I assume is more or less the same for each team) values the picks over current players.  
 
Even if players (in every level) exploit this apparent weakness to stack their team (but sadly leave a team almost wrecked for any new player joining, which I feel is worse), once they move up a level, they are going to have to start all over again and assuming the next level up has more player managers, probably unlikely to be replicated, especially at the GHL level in Biscuit.  
 
So even though this is somewhat self policing, I think tweaking the AI in the CPU teams to make it damn near impossible to trade with them without giving up a lot is possibly the quickest or most long term solution.  

Maybe make something similar to the Olympics with this game and have an international tournament every few seasons.
 
The tournament would have 12 teams divided into 3 groups of 4, such as this.
 
Group A
Canada
Czech Republic
Germany
Austria
 
Group B
Sweden
Finland
Russia
USA
 
Group C
Slovakia
Switzerland
Norway
Italy
 
I know the groups aren't balanced but I'm just trying to get my point across.
 
There could be an automatic qualifier to the tournament so the best players are showcased since there are so many small hockey nations in GPHM (Italy, Norway, Austria, France, UK, Denmark, Slovenia, etc.) By this I mean the countries are ranked in terms of combined player overall and the top overall nations get to participate.
 
Whereas the best nations automatically get a spot in the tournament (Canada, Sweden, Russia, USA, Finland, etc). Sort of like coefficients in soccer/association football.
 
This would offer managers a break during a certain point in the season to regroup and make trades/signings (depending on league position), and it would be interesting to see how your players play against the best.
 
Maybe players would be able to manage international teams?
 
What do you guys think?

Hi,
 
not an instant request, but for a sentimentalist like myself, I'd like to suggest the Transfer History option.
Doesn't need to be anything fancy, but a page where you can review your transfers per year for example would be nice. That way you can see whether a player you let go turned into a star after all, or vice versa. 
 
Apart from the Transfer History, maybe it's also nice to have a hall of fame for the most legendary players in a league over time, or per team. Kind of similiar to the already available player reputation, but a longer lasting one. Perhaps a certain ranking on points, goals, MVP etc list per season eventually leading to a certain player being put in the hall of fame. 
 
Just thinking out loud here. Glad to hear what you all think

I believe it's much harder today than it was a couple months ago to exploit computer teams. As mentioned above you have to give up valuable players to get your trade accepted. With that said, it's still possible to exploit the system.
 
I still have a few ideas on how to improve the computer trading AI further without having to introduce any restrictions in trading. I believe we're making progress, even if it's one small step at a time.
 
Regarding trade moderatorsI have still to decide if it's the best way to go. I like the basic idea and it would probably help the community to get involved. But what happens when there isn't anyone signing up to be an officer? Or even worse, if the officers themselves decides to exploit the system for their own benefit?
 
How about this instead:
Maybe we could create a system where you could "up" or "down" vote a trade adding positive or negative value to the managers trade reputation. That way we could easily spot which managers are exploiting the system and avoid trading with them. I could also make computer teams aware of this reputation and therefore more likely to reject trades from those managers.
 
Thoughts?

Ok, I signed him for new contract - I will report if I see any change
 
I'm starting him in 3rd pair and in case good performance, I will move him up in my roster.

I find that one of the issues with trading with human players is the lack of communication by most. If a trade is rejected, a counter offer or a message saying why they are not interested would be awesome.
 
Often I get a trade rejected and don't receive a counter offer or a reason why they are not interested. IF you don't want to move that player, make him unavailable or tell me what it would take or simply tell me I don't have anything you want for said player. This is something I miss from H-D, where there was some sort of negotiation and a active chat for this purpose. Here the game world chat is barely used and could help negotiate and keep in touch with other managers.
 
Also I had decent players available all season and had to trade them to CPU teams since no one  made offers or counter offers on them even though they were available almost form the start of the season.

I would love to have the Roster screen sortable.  For instance, being able to have all the centers, forwards, and defensemen sort by overall ability, age, ratings, contract length, cost, etc. 
 
Thanks,
Steve

Thanks for all your feedback! And sorry for not being so active in these kind of questions. I'll try to do better.
 
Regarding game masters: I worry that not all game worlds actually has enough committed managers to carry that responsibility. I also worry about the possible abuse from these game masters. But maybe there is a way to solve this.
 
What do you guys think of the following scenario?
 
A couple of trusted mangers will get the role of Game World Moderators who then has the rights to revert trades and suspend other managers. But they will only have that right if the manager in question has gotten enough Cheater votes or Bad trade votes. The latter will then be a new feature allowing managers to down vote trades that they feel are bad or abusive. If no game world moderators exist (or responds) a message will be sent to me when a manager gotten enough votes. That way I can revert the trades or suspend managers.
 
Please feel free to comment or make other suggestions!

Part explanation for the lack of communication from the community I find to be due to the forums being a mess and requiring different logins, not being accessible within the game and the pm system being kind of a mess right now.
 
What I'd like to see is game world specific forums added inside the game and pms being rewritten into different mailbox than the rest of the game "messages". Or into a chat window like the one found at the bottom of this page. This way the players couldn't not notice the forums or other messages, which I feel quite many don't realize exist as of now. Also I'd like to see some sort of in-trade-chat at some point, so instead of having to keep multiple tabs open when trading, you could have your chat on the other side of the popup screen and the trade assets on the other, with rewamped compare and add in / out methods. But that's a long way from now and would need redesigning the whole UX/UI (which I think should be done anyways).
 
This is just mumbling now and I'll leave it here. But I find that the separate forums are really a big disadvantage we have in GPH.
 
 
 
When it comes to rainsilent's point, I agree the players shouldn't be totally banned from the game, just not being able to trade at all. And the board seems like a good idea and something I'd like to be part of personally. But then again, not if it happens via these forums and not in game somehow.

Kind of taking an idea from another game that I played. Team press releases are always a fun thing to add to experience of owning and managing a team. In the other game during the season me and a couple of the other managers that had become familiar over the game would write weekly press releases about the our team, take friendly digs at the others teams. I feel it could add to the community aspect and add another level of realism.
ncik

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.

EXXEO: Best rule of thumb, if you would not accept the trade, don't offer it to someone else.
If everyone followed this, the game world would be a better place.

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.

Is adding more statistics to the game in the pipeline for improvements? I believe we have a good set of base stats available, but it's rather hard to fully analyze a players performance. For example, if I want to know if a player played well defensively all I can go off of is +/- and taking a shot in the dark at guessing what the performance number could mean. A good starting point would be adding a stat like corsi (shots for minus shots against while player is on the ice). Managers would get a good indication of a players puck possession.
Anyways just me nit picking, keep up the good work Anders.
ncik

This is so cool!

Assistant manager
 
To make trades easier the assistant manager will give you notes on both which players that might be interesting for you to target but also if he thinks that a trade offer is good or bad.
 
Salary cap
 
The trading UI will also display both teams salary cap situation.
 

This looks really good. I look forward to seeing it all unfold. This is going to be my third season with this game. I have loved it since I started and now it looks like it is going to be even better. Great Work!!!