Sim Testing: Results

[JiriHrdina]

Ok folks here are the results of our testing.

First here's how I set up each scenario:

Scenario A: Coaching off, Morale off, Scoring throttled down
Scenario B: Morale off
Scenario C: Coaching off
Scenario D: Coaching and Morale off
Scenario E: No Changes

Overall Scoring (From highest scoring scenario to lowest)

A: 3.43
D: 3.29
C: 3.07
D. 2.71
E: 2.5

Ranking according to number of first place votes

A: 8
C: 7
D: 6
B: 4
E: 3

Ranking according to number of last pace votes

E: 9
A/B/C: 5
D: 4

So a few easy conclusions here:
- Overall our current setting scored the worst across the board. So clearly a change is needed.
- The two top scenarios both involved Morale and Coaching both being turned off. I did the fifth scenario (putting scoring down) based on the fact that the number of high scoring players (e.g. number of guys with 100 or more points) was REALLY high.

Based on all this my strong recommendation is to move forward with Scenario A: turning off both coaching and morale and throttling down scoring.

I think this exercise was interesting. Based on the results, I think it is clear that the sim isn't "Random". Rather - there is more to this game then simply acquiring good NHL players and/or players with high ratings. Clearly a big component is understanding how to piece together a team with players of complimentary attributes.

So if that's the type of league experience you want - I hope you will stay. If you, however, are looking for a fantasy experience that is more closely tied to the NHL - that's what yahoo/keeper leagues are for. A sim league introduces an entire different layer of complexity to the equation. No harm in not wanting that, but at least moving forward everyone should be understanding what this game involves.

One outstanding question is whether we should dump coaches altogether. Certainly I don't think its fair the teams pay different coaches different salaries considering they will have no impact on the game, but do teams still want to have a guy as coach just for fun?

Any other concerns or questions? Thank you all for taking part.

[Da_Chief]

Screw the coaches, I'm the coach and don't wana pay for a non-factor.

[3thirty]

I'd say getting rid of the coaches is ok too. Thanks for doing this, interesting results for sure. Funny that putting scoring down lead to the most goals, although the coaching and morale off would be the biggest reason.

[Knut]

Essentially Morale and Coaching were having a large effect on the sim then. Coaching off is an easy one.

What I didn't like about Morale was that adding a low morale guy in a trade would often send your team into a tailspin. That was my concern with the SIM the way it was set up. Essentially a team looking to get better by adding players was often penalized. Having it a non-factor could open up more trading.

Thanks for doing this Grant.

[TurdFerguson]

Good stuff - thanks for the time setting up and coordinating this Grant!

Knowing that coaching impacts sim results is good. I think the black hole is that coaches are rated but those ratings are not visible (unless I'm missing something) so it is really hard for teams to evaluate the impact of the coach (hence the perceived randomness). I guess it comes down to how close you want this to be to the real deal. Coaches absolutely can make a good team bad or a bad team good, and for that reason, I like keeping coaches as an element of the sim. However, only if the ratings and review process is done similar to that of players.

I also think some interesting game components are possible if coach ratings are public and mean sometihng. You would then need to build a team/pick a coach around a collective strength - some interesting strategy type stuff there.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Hesla

Essentially Morale and Coaching were having a large effect on the sim then. Coaching off is an easy one.

What I didn't like about Morale was that adding a low morale guy in a trade would often send your team into a tailspin. That was my concern with the SIM the way it was set up. Essentially a team looking to get better by adding players was often penalized. Having it a non-factor could open up more trading.

Thanks for doing this Grant.

Yeah that's how I see it too.

Frankly I'm happy to see coaches go away. We never had a good way of rating them - so it's always felt like a bit of an unfair component of the game that was largely out of anyone's control.

I think these results show that this game is complicated enough without having another component like Morale influencing results.

[Cheese]

If the coach will have no bearing dump them...no sense hanging on to them.

Good job Grant...Scenario A is fine with me.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Thanks for doing all this work Grant. I am happy without any coaches as well. Really looking forward to not having morale prevent trading as I know last year that was a big thing with me, once I found some chemistry I tried to limit the moves because so many times one new player just destroys the team.

[Tilley]

Great work in identifying the potential short falls within the sim and systematically testing scenarios. I agree that removing coaching from the sim appears to be the way to go. Does this mean additional cap (no longer having to pay coaches)?

Is morale simply off or on? Is there a way to ramp down the influence of morale? I enjoyed going on a bit of a run in the playoffs and watching morale increase with each win, but if it is an all or none situation I would agree to remove it as well.

[Goffie]

Thanks for doing this Grant. Happy to see the coaches go as well as Morale turned off. I too decided to trade less last year as once I got on a roll I was terrified to kill momentum.

[Flickered Flame]

I've never been in favor of having the coaches so I am very happy to get rid of them. Thanks for doing this extra work Grant!

[Cheese]

Funny...I never had the issue of my team fading when making trades...actually had the opposite effect last year.

[Goffie]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Funny...I never had the issue of my team fading when making trades...actually had the opposite effect last year.

I think it was 2-3 years ago that I brought in Tyutin to bolster my defense and my team went something like 3-11. I traded him and won 7 straight.

[Swayze11]

I would like to still have coaches attached to a team, even if they have a salary of 0.

It would be nice to have someone to blame each year when my team loses in the first round.

[DFO]

Just wanted to say thanks for the effort testing the sim guys - interesting results.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Tilley

Great work in identifying the potential short falls within the sim and systematically testing scenarios. I agree that removing coaching from the sim appears to be the way to go. Does this mean additional cap (no longer having to pay coaches)?

Is morale simply off or on? Is there a way to ramp down the influence of morale? I enjoyed going on a bit of a run in the playoffs and watching morale increase with each win, but if it is an all or none situation I would agree to remove it as well.

Morale can also be throttled down instead of turned off but I had it near the bottom already last season

Teams will get cap back for coaches

[devo22]

thanks for doing this, Jiri. I for my part won't shed a tear if we get rid of coaches and morale.

also a big thanks to mbeauchamp again, his graphs visualizing all the results were extremely helpful!!!

[MJK]

Are you sure the isn't a Team USA: F^ck Yah slider to turn off?

I like turning coaches and moral off but if we do so let's just get rid of the coaches totally and put whatever money they are making back into the account!

Well done for spearheading this project Grant and kudos to you for seeing it through and being open to change.

[droopydrew19]

Originally Posted by Swayze11

I would like to still have coaches attached to a team, even if they have a salary of 0.

It would be nice to have someone to blame each year when my team loses in the first round.

I agree... have coaches in name only

[Hanna Sniper]

I love the coach's but I'm not married to it.... I'll make up my own coach regardless

Morale - I'll be the first to piss on that buggers grave before the dirt has time to settle. Once you got behind the 8-ball there really wasn't any chance of recovering unless only trading with high morale teams... and you had to do that before your dressing room depressed the hell of the new player first