Calgarypuck's PS3 NHL 13 Connected GM League

[Reanimate]

So close to being a GM. soooo cloooooose.

[Russic]

I think I'm done playing against the computer. It's unfortunate because this is a league I really enjoy playing, but the difficulty is so lopsided it is far more frustrating than fun for me. The computer actually moves it around the zone and stuff, whereas I (and I'm not even exaggerating) haven't made a pass from one defenceman to another in several games. All I do is go end to end on every single rush and dangle like a crazy person because literally any pass I make has about a 40% chance of being an icing.

I've played some of the guys in the top 10 and it's been awesome. Granted I still lost, but they were super close and entertaining (my games against Ottawa and Chicago were among my all-time favourites). I don't think I'm overly good at the game, but I don't think I'm overly bad at it either.

I'm more than happy to admit when I'm in the minority, and this could be one of those times, but am I alone in thinking the team controlled by AI has an immediate and unfair advantage? Does anybody play the cpu and consistently beat up on it?

[Stealth22]

I've practised a few times against the CPU, never actually played against it in a league game.

I lost a few times to it, especially in the beginning, but got steadily better. Granted, I still lose to it, I think I might have beat it 2 or 3 times in 5 or 6 attempts.

Unfortunately, the bigger issue for me is I'm 2-9 against other league teams. I've made some roster changes, so hopefully that helps it out a bit.

[Diverce]

I have issues with the passing. I think Superstar and Normal would've been fine since there is at least some pass assistance. I made my team offline, and I'm playing a season on hardcore and all star just to get the practice in with regards to passing. I don't even care if I win, I just want to be able to cycle the puck and make a d to d pass lol

I enjoy playing against humans. I would rather not play against the cpu, I rather take my chances with the sim at the advance date.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Diverce

I have issues with the passing. I think Superstar and Normal would've been fine since there is at least some pass assistance. I made my team offline, and I'm playing a season on hardcore and all star just to get the practice in with regards to passing. I don't even care if I win, I just want to be able to cycle the puck and make a d to d pass lol

I enjoy playing against humans. I would rather not play against the cpu, I rather take my chances with the sim at the advance date.

I do not have any issue with the passing to be honest, but it could be that I have played EASHL for many years and the passing has always been unassisted. It could also be that I pass more in 1 EASHL game then you do in a year

You do bring up a great point on how people are playing tho.

I am mixed on the CPU vs User controlled games and I will outline why.

I am not always available which is why I made it so my team could be CPU played (was gone the first 5 days of the season). However there is some teams that hide out till the advance so all their games can be SIMs so they avoid playing both the user and the CPU. Additionally the CPU does some stupid stuff like throwing good young players on waivers just so old scrubs can be in the starting lineup, the CPU also approves trades (both have happened to me) all by itself.

Originally I knew this was going to be an issue when I saw the divide in the original thread between the sim only and play only camps. I think it boils down to some people doing whats best for the league vs whats best for their team. I do know that if the computer does one more stupid trade for me I am switching back to user only.

Like most people here I would rather it go to the advance SIM and take my chances then lose to a team that has a user avoiding playing other users in hopes they can rape the easy mode CPU.

This dodging will have an effect when the season starts getting into the 40 game mark and teams like the Flames who are laying waste to everyone will have an issue finding a game because people would rather take there chances on the SIM advance then getting a guaranteed loss. I think the GM would be choked if he starting losing a large amount of games to SIM advances because I'm pretty sure he plays all his games.

But how can this be fixed? Will there be sour grapes if a user loses in the playoffs to a SIM player or vise-versa?

Real life takes precedence here and if someone gets sick or is busy at work they cant be expected to be online 8 hours a day hoping to match up with someone. I absolutely do not think we should have time scheduled games or force anyone to play user games but I think there might be some issues down the road.

Maybe some people can chime in and let me know their feelings as I want to know if I am just seeing the cup half full.

[ComixZone]

I think the playoff games should absolutely be USER Vs. USER and there should be no wiggle room on that.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Conman57

Eff, my computer put 2 players on waivers. I'm gonna buy out some scrubs so this won't happen again.
Russic should I trade your player back for one of my worse ones, or is there a better way to do this?

I think your CPU put him back on waivers already..lol

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Conman57

Eff, my computer put 2 players on waivers. I'm gonna buy out some scrubs so this won't happen again.
Russic should I trade your player back for one of my worse ones, or is there a better way to do this?

Actually one of the players the computer placed on waivers was my guy, so I just scooped him back. Hope that works for you!

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Russic

Actually one of the players the computer placed on waivers was my guy, so I just scooped him back. Hope that works for you!

assuming you win on waivers

[Russic]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I think the playoff games should absolutely be USER Vs. USER and there should be no wiggle room on that.

While I basically view the sim-only crowd as a separate class of sub-human (jk), this does seem unfair. There will be people who sim all year to utilize the fact that the cpu is extremely hard, but there will also be people who sim the whole year because they actually want that. I don't think it's fair to punish the guy who joined the league wanting to sim. On the other side of the coin, I don't think it's possible under our current system to weed out those who are siming because it works to their advantage.

Personally I'd rather see the difficulty setting drop a tick, but I understand not everybody would want that. Ideally if we could keep the settings where they are and just add some pass assist it would turn things around quite a bit, but I don't think the settings this year allow for that (it's either all-star/superstar and default/hardcore I believe).

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I think the playoff games should absolutely be USER Vs. USER and there should be no wiggle room on that.

You can't make that decree after the league was already decided to be up to each user.
Example: If playoffs fall on a week where a USER is away for work they are not going to take their PS3 with them; and they cannot be forced to put their Team into CPU mode under the current rules. So then what? Roll the dice on the advance i guess.

Now you can see what I'm getting at.

This was never decided to be a USER vs USER league .
You can bet there will be a lot of simmed playoff games.

I want to be very clear though, I do not support changing the rules and that turning this into a USER vs USER league is completely and utter unrealistic.

[Stealth22]

I wouldn't say that I NEVER pass, but if I get a chance to run away on a 2-on-1, most of us are more inclined to shoot rather than dish it off to the other forward (like I used to do ALL THE TIME in NHL 12), because we don't want to risk losing the puck on a pass attempt.

I'm not sure what Joborule has access to, but if the settings can be customized (i.e. not just all-or-nothing default/hardcore), then it would be nice to have at least SOME pass assist.

Because right now, and I've noticed this quite a lot in 11 games, most people will not pass, unless its a very easy pass to make from behind the net up the boards. Everyone just tries to go end-to-end and dangle their way through 5 guys. There's no strategy to the game, and you can't cycle the puck without losing it. Right now it feels like your skills as a General Manager have absolutely no bearing on your team's record; it's all about how well you can slice-and-dice your way through the opposition's defence. It really doesn't feel that realistic. Maybe I'm just off my rocker, but that's really how it feels to me.

My $0.02.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

You can't make that decree after the league was already decided to be up to each user.
Example: If playoffs fall on a week where a USER is away for work they are not going to take their PS3 with them; and they cannot be forced to put their Team into CPU mode under the current rules. So then what? Roll the dice on the advance i guess.

Now you can see what I'm getting at.

This was never decided to be a USER vs USER league .
You can bet there will be a lot of simmed playoff games.

I want to be very clear though, I do not support changing the rules and that turning this into a USER vs USER league is completely and utter unrealistic.

I'll be pretty angry if come playoff time I get bounced in the first round due to being unable to play the games (whether that be against the CPU or a USER)

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Russic

Personally I'd rather see the difficulty setting drop a tick, but I understand not everybody would want that. Ideally if we could keep the settings where they are and just add some pass assist it would turn things around quite a bit, but I don't think the settings this year allow for that (it's either all-star/superstar and default/hardcore I believe).

I think its already too easy, considering I have 4 losses and no wins when a user plays my CPU. If we drop it even further there is no way I would let a user play my CPU, instead I would turn off CPU playing and wait for the advance.

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

I think its already too easy, considering I have 4 losses and no wins when a user plays my CPU. If we drop it even further there is no way I would let a user play my CPU, instead I would turn off CPU playing and wait for the advance.

What if we turned up the pass assist a little bit and put the CPU difficulty on Superstar?

EDIT: Wait, no, I don't like that idea either. Because if someone wants to just sim games and not play against anyone, then I'd probably be in for a guaranteed loss if I play against the Superstar CPU.

[CsInMyBlood]

Is there somewhere where you can see how many times teams are playing the CPU/USER or leaving the games to Sim?

To tell you the truth, I thought the whole point of this league was USER vs. USER. I understand sometimes a guy can't play and has to set his team to CPU on occasion, but why join this league if you had no intention on playing people?

[secol]

really? i have only 1 W out of 3 or 4 tries versus CPU i think

[secol]

well i was one of the people who wanted sim-only because then it would be true GM'ing and not skill based like it is now....but since it is not sim-only i have been playing every game possible (except CAR since they couldn't play)

[likwid888]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

Is there somewhere where you can see how many times teams are playing the CPU/USER or leaving the games to Sim?

To tell you the truth, I thought the whole point of this league was USER vs. USER. I understand sometimes a guy can't play and has to set his team to CPU on occasion, but why join this league if you had no intention on playing people?

Because the point of this league is to be a GM and manage a team. Some users may suck at the actual gameplay itself, so they may choose to just run their team and sim most games.

[bspec]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

Is there somewhere where you can see how many times teams are playing the CPU/USER or leaving the games to Sim?

To tell you the truth, I thought the whole point of this league was USER vs. USER. I understand sometimes a guy can't play and has to set his team to CPU on occasion, but why join this league if you had no intention on playing people?

This goes back to our initial debate before the league was even created, and back then and still to this day the decision to be SIM-only or User v. User-only hasn't been unanimous.

An argument for the former was that the mode is a GM mode, meaning the emphasis is on managing the team roster/contracts, lines and strategies (and everything in between). This is why we've left it up to the user whether to opt to sim games or play them.