IneffableLeafs

I'm reading through this thread and from what I can see, an "RFA" will basically be a 21 year old too good for his league that is willing to negotiate in a lower league because that is the team that drafted them. Yes, this will undoubtedly increase the amount of homegrown players, but it will also be very much abusable by top GHL and SHL teams who are able to stockpile talent, especially with the new affiliate team system. It's simply not feasible or realistic to have one of your prospects automatically sign with you just because you drafted them, if they are way above your league. Two realistic suggestions/solutions to this is either: Force "RFA's" to sign with you no matter what, but for a fixed salary above the league average (basically an overpriced entry level contract)$1,000,000 in Gold$500,000 in Silver$250,000 in Bronze$100,000 in Iron$50,000 in Lower IronWhen a player is drafted by your team, increase their loyalty so that their interest in signing with you increasesOtherwise, I can't see RFA's working in this game.

Has anyone in the GPHM community tried researching if this game in fact (like many other manager games) has regenerated players? For those that don't know what a regen is, when a player retires, an identical young player will be generated to take his place, usually with the same nationality, potential, and position. I would find it quite interesting if there were regens, that's why I'm asking.

@Matt Lol, I didn't shortlist McCready because my messages box will be flooded! I'm okay with Chao though.

Or you could just put a low salary cap on the affiliate team?

You lost the series 2-1. Therefore you are eliminated from the playoffs.

Been there, done that. Your team most likely has many high rated players for division iv (or IHL), I'm assuming. I myself was able to win a lot of games despite having only good teamwork. Since I don't know what type of players make up your team, I'll try to help. 1. Your team's confidence is only ok or uncomfortable because your players are not suited to your tactics. Check your offensive and defensive tactics, and see if the majority of your players match your tactic's player characteristics section. Some tactics require high physical players in relation to the rest of the players in your league, while some require good skating, and others good puckhandling. Scout the rest of the teams in your league that have good confidence and see if their players all have specialties, or one or two stats that seem much higher than the first. You can also read the thread in help files for further help. 2. Your winners instinct from what I understand does not significantly change based on your game results. It is based off of your player traits, such as friendly, cocky, determined, anxious, etc. I personally find the winners instinct the hardest to increase, but in general, here are some tips. Limit the amount of nervous players on your team to below 5. Same with anxious players. Fill your team with determined and heroic players, but make sure they make up no more than 2 thirds of your team (around 7-12 players is good). Don't be deceived by the compassionate and friendly traits. These massively increase your teamwork, but too many of these players, and your winners instinct will fall into the toilet. It takes a lot to drop your teamwork once it is high, so don't be afraid to dump some of those players for cocky and arrogant players. I found it a bit confusing myself when I was a new manager, but yeah, basically teamwork and confidence are based off of game results, but confidence is mainly based off of how your players find your tactics. Winners instinct is hard to get high, but you should master it with a bit of experimenting. Hope this helped.

If you mean player traits as in: Friendly Tough Motivator Anxious Ambitious Then these never change.

+1 to the waiver idea, you guys can work out the details though.

Sounds like you need to work on your penalty kill eh?

I tried and I can't get into MWiles' team page either, if that helps. It gives the classic "this can't be good page"

Hey Matt, welcome to the forums! 1. Players usually start to sign contracts with their new team during the offseason, so basically during playoffs. Side note: The only case where you won't get that message is when you've already extended a player's contract before. For example, I sign John Smith to a one year deal, then renew the contract again next season. I'm able to negotiate with John Smith during season 2. 2. When the team is promoted, they get a salary bonus, and no, it does not add an extra year. If you are promoted with a player on a 1 year PC, you will have to re-sign them before the season ends. I forget the exact bonuses, but this link may help you: http://forums.gmgames.org/topic/3812-player-contracts/ Hope you enjoy the game!

@Euph I gotta respect your opinion, but some of the points you outlined make no sense to me. First of all, you said there should be a single promotion spot. I think a whole bunch of people would leave the game because of this, because it massively favours the GHL. As far as I know, no sport has a promotion/relegation system where 1 team goes up and one team goes down. Though I think this is done in international hockey in IIHF, so kudos there. Then you said, what would a 3rd place or worst SHL team do in the GHL? Keep in mind that it's not that hard to build a good team in the GHL. The only thing you need to worry about is being stupid in free agency and offering the wrong players the wrong deals. And then you contradicted your previous point saying the first EIGHT teams go into a playoff, even though the first place team would be automatically promoted. So now I'm assuming that it's actually positions 1-9 that have a chance at promotion, 1 going up automatically. Okay, a team placed 7th (that's mid table mate!) can go to the golden league. A lot better than 3rd for sure. Then, you said that 4 teams currently have the possibility of promoting. Keep in mind that my outline specified that 3 teams would be promoted/relegated, which is less than you said, and also what you apparently desire (less teams moving leagues). Finally, why can't I compare the English and German football systems? It's in relation to this game, and I used it to help people understand what I'm trying to say. I'm an Arsenal fan and really I don't understand why I can't talk about my topic using analogies that I (and probably a lot of other people) know. Nevertheless, it's fine if you're against my suggestion, but I just wanted to point out a few things in your post.

The wait is over.

Jeez this thread exploded! @rainsilent The GHL/SHL playoff is definitely the issue. The rest of the talent gap seems to be ok. I've seen in the lower leagues two teams go up with playoffs before, but it's debatable that those teams going down are CPU teams that have been ravaged by human teams, which is a whole other issue. I may be a bit biased because I've only finished 1st with my fishbowl team until two seasons ago when I finished 3rd (you can reread the story above if you want). So I don't specifically know if this is true in other leagues, but yes, the talent gap was my main reason for posting this. Either way, I don't think players are developing as fast anymore, except the really good prospects. Therefore, in fishbowl at least, this problem should mend itself over the course of the next 5 seasons. Just think about it again though, just in the GHL-SHL format. It's more competitive because 3 teams are automatically going down, the 3rd place SHL team that beats his 2 SHL counterparts will have the same chance to build a solid roster in gold like 1st and 2nd, and it gives managers more confidence for the season. They can safely say they don't have to aim for 1st or 2nd, but they can go for 5th, and still make the gold league. I think most of the replies have reiterated or summarized what I was trying to say, so thanks.

Ok guys, the season is winding to a close, 14 games/days to go. Sorry I didn't do a weekly update, no time. Here are the current standings: 1. Larson 96 2. Wildwood 94 3. Hawkeye 89 4. Cedar Rapids 85 5. Cuba City 79 6. Sellwood 76 7. Horn Lake 70 8. Wolfe 70 ----------------------------------------- 9. Jolly 68 10. Montmorency 66 11. Urbancrest 61 12. Pinewood 61 ----------------------------------------- 13. Blenheim 57 14. Mississauga 55 ----------------------------------------- 15. Wynyard 42 16. Canuck 35 Just comparing the standings to my predictions, Wildwood jumped 10 positions upWolfe jumped 7 positionsWynyard fell 6 positionsLarson is 15 points from clinching a playoff spotCanuck is sure fire getting relegated, as I predictedThe same contenders, except Jolly, sit in a playoff spot, with Jolly just 2 points back, as predictedThere is a tight battle for 7th and 8th as predicted, with 7th placed Horn Lake and 10th placed Montmorency sitting a meager 4 points apartI also noticed that there is a surprising lack of point per game scorers this season. Anyone else notice? Only Alexander Sobchak, and Loucas Lang, rated 86 and 84, sit at a point per game pace (Yet another one of my former players lighting it up!). Good luck for the final stretch everyone, its gonna be a tight one!

If you happened to use anything other than numbers in your contract offer (a comma for example), it will give you that error message. For example, you may have typed this in: "26,000", but you have to put it in like this, "26000". If this isn't the case, I would try to contact an admin, as it's probably a bug.

Welcome John! You're right, this game is great. It's not difficult to master. The help files forum should help you with any questions and concerns you have. If you have some time, read over this, it will teach you the basics. Good luck in lumber, it's four games per day I think, and a season ends in a few weeks.

I wouldn't worry about remarks like that. A sniper doesn't prevent the opposition from creating scoring chances, a TWF or grinder does that job. Threw away all scoring chances is only relevant when your player is performing under 70, then your player either is not suited to your tactics, or is not good enough for your league.

Can you give some examples? Different negatives are fixed in different ways.

Assuming you got relegated from the BHL, your draft picks are changed into IHL level picks.

Yeah, I recently dealt my first round pick, and it vaulted me up the standings. If you're bothered by it, then you can report the person, but personally I don't really care if someone stockpiles picks. I mean, I've managed to acquire 3 GHL 2nd round picks to make up for me not having a first.

I'm pretty sure someone else posted (don't quote me on this) that MatchLine essentially sets your defensive assignment to that of the corresponding forward line. For example, if your second forward line is set to "two way", and your second defense pair is "MatchLine" then your defense will be "two way"

My best guess would be that lazy players give away the puck the most. Basing this on logic as well, snipers and playmakers (who do the most with the puck) would be more prone to giveaways than players with simpler assignments, such as enforcers, two way forwards, and grinders. Again based on logic, arrogant and cocky players would be selfish and thus give it away instead of pass, for example. In terms of takeaways, the opposite. You'd probably want purposeful players or ambitious players. Grinders comes to mind as that is their job, to takeaway the puck by any means necessary.

@AIBot It's nice to see one of my former players leading the league in scoring.

Does anyone in fishbowl GHL have any interest in acquiring my first round pick for a high quality forward or a decent performing bottom 6 center?