Online Hockey Sim - MetroHO

[Travis]

Also, if any of you has a highly rated sniper (90+) you need to clear for cap purposes, I'm in the market for one. Preferably not many years left in their deal (more looking for a rental than anything). I know it's not likely, but just in case

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Travis

So far my recommendation would be to save double the number of credits you need to purchase the level 2 and 3 arenas when you go to buy those (so that you can immediately purchase all the upgrades) and to only upgrade to those levels just prior to the playoffs starting (as playoffs are always sellouts).

For level 4 and 5 arenas, save 1.5x the upgrade cost and upgrade immediately once you hit that number. It'll get you all but the restaurant upgrades and the increased capacity of the arena ensures that you won't get a drop off in attendance like the lower levels. Your income will almost always increase right after upgrading to level 4 from level 3, so no need to wait for the playoffs to do so, and the increase in income is pretty huge.

I have a level 2 arena right now but am some 3,000 credits shy of being able to purchase a level 3 arena. I wish there was an option to sell players for credits!

[RendeR]

Originally Posted by Travis

Rating: 93
Age: 28
Contract: $2.7 million (1 year)

Whats he looking for in a new contract? My current guy is pretty much the same but on his second contract and its pricey.

[Travis]

He's asking for 6.5 to extend right now, but I'd assume he'd sign for somewhere in the 5.75-6.00 range after the season (assuming no other offers). I haven't tried signing goalies in free agency so I'm not sure how firm to their demands they tend to be.

[samifan24]

Quick question: Does a player's salary automatically increase if his ratings improve over time?

For example, let's say I sign an 18 year old, 60 rated player to an eight year contract at 400,000 per year. Now, let's say that the player improved to a 70 in one year (unlikely but just follow me). Since the 400,000 salary is only available to free agents rated between 50-69 (the lowest ratings group), does that mean that my player's salary will increase as his ratings increase?

I don't think that the game does this but I just want to make sure. I was reading some hints and tips in the game forum and suddenly wondered about the correlation between minimum salary and rating.

[Travis]

From what I've seen, his asking price goes up as his rating does, so it's just whenever you make the offer.

I've made offers to pending FA's at the beginning of a season that they've accepted once the season ends even though their asking price by the end of the season is higher due to in season rating increases.

Or am I reading your question wrong?

[samifan24]

Let me rephrase my question: If I sign a player to an eight year contract at 400,000 per year, am I guaranteed to pay only 400,000 per year regardless of how much his ratings increase?

[bbor]

yes...he only gets the 400 000 for 8 years.

[RendeR]

Yes, thats exactly the case. Thats the key to this game, find them young, sign them to a long term contract at garbage salary and develop them into superstars.

I had a 90+rated guy making 1.2 million last season. So it can happen. =)

[samifan24]

My team has really been struggling all around, especially defensively, so I posted a question on the MetroHo forums. It turns out that almost everyone plays their home games by hand except me. I did it my first season but stopped after that because I thought the games took too long. I've started playing them out again and haven't had much luck. I'm in an all levels league and am a level 5 although two level 3 teams are running away with the league. I think my team is probably more like a level 3, I have no idea how we got to be level 5.

Anyway I was wondering if you guys have any tips for managing your defense. Here are my team's stats:

Goals For: 85 (5th of 15 teams)
Goals Against: 96 (15th of 15 teams)
PP %: 18.3% (15th of 15 teams)
PK %: 74.5% (3rd of 15 teams)

My defensemen (Rating, Offensive/Defensive, Plus/Minus):

95 (O, +14) - 83 (O, +12)
78 (D, -1) - 77 (D, Even)
76 (O, -11) - 74 (D, -12)

Lately I've tried putting one of the high 70s defensive defensemen on the top unit with my top guy but it hasn't had much effect. I need to do something about my third pairing but I don't want to pay through the nose for an older free agent with a rating between 70-79.

My starting goalie is a 94 and my backup is a 91.

Any suggestions on what I can do to shore up my defense?

[bbor]

You definatly need to get your top 4 guys in the mid 80's.I usually only use 70 guys on my 3rd pairing and they only get minimal icetime.

[Travis]

Yeah, for D you want your top pairing to both be 85+, your second pairing to both be 80+ and your third pairing to be 75+. Ideally you'd bump each of those around 5 points and be 90/85/80 but that takes more luck than anything to achieve.

Other points, have you hired staff? Setting your team strategy to reflect your head coaches rating seems to make a difference. Also, how do you have your forwards arranged style wise? If you have a majority of offensive style players (Snipers/Playmakers/Power Forwards) you're prone to giving up more goals.

Also, I've got 3 teams on the go and I've never played out a full game (aside from the first playoffs I went through). There is supposed to be an advantage to playing home games out (I think mostly being able to select your best lines for PP/PK).

As for checking relative strengths in those all levels leagues, better to check your power rankings and compare that way than levels. The levels would even themselves out if people were forced to play the level leagues, but with the all levels, because some people didn't have full lineups set when the initial rankings were done, the normalizing adjustment of the regulation system never gets a chance to even out the playing field.

Not saying that's a bad thing, just why you'll see some level 3 teams that are stronger than level 5's and the reverse when you check the power rankings.

Not a perfect system, but I think still better than leaving everything generic.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Travis

Other points, have you hired staff? Setting your team strategy to reflect your head coaches rating seems to make a difference. Also, how do you have your forwards arranged style wise? If you have a majority of offensive style players (Snipers/Playmakers/Power Forwards) you're prone to giving up more goals.

I have hired staff. I usually play the first option for game strategy but lately I've tried the other two options. I have a pretty good mix of fowards so most lines are Sniper-Playmaker-Checker/Two-Way with the Playmaker always at center. I'm fine with scoring goals although my top line scores much more than my other lines (hence the high +/- ratings for my top two defensemen).

I train most of my young players the most since I've found that hardly anyone over 25 improves through the drills. My top sniper is a 90 and has been a 90 for the last five or six seasons and I haven't trained him once (he is 28 years old).

[RendeR]

Switch your play style to the trap. Your defense needs all the support it can get right now with those ratings.

Also I've had a lot better luck pairing defenders 1 offensive with 1 defensive and setting their individual play stypes to +1 off for the offensive guy and +1 def for the defensive guy.

really depends on your players though. If you're getting pasted start experimenting. It can't get any worse? =)

[RendeR]

Ok, who owns the cementheads? He's gotta be smoking crack.


offers me a trade:

My 93 rated defenseman

for his 72 rated defenseman and a 3rd round pick


W


T


F?

[Travis]

Hey, before you accept that deal, I'd totally upgrade that to a 75 D and a 2nd.

Actually wait, how old is your D first?

[RendeR]

LOL

[RendeR]

Sidney won't be going ANYWHERE =)

[Travis]

Okay fine, a 75 D, a 2nd and a 3rd.

You're killing me, but I'll give in to your demands.

[RendeR]

LOL

I do have a 92 rated goalie on the block. My younger and cheaper guy just drilled up to 92 as well so maclin's my guy now.

80+ rated sniper or picks to be determined gets him.

[Travis]

Just wrapped up my 7th regular season with my main team (3rd in level 5 leagues) and for the first time since the levels were introduced the dominance trophy is going to be won by a team with 45 or less wins (right now two teams are tied at 44 with one team having one game left to play). Usually there's still somebody in that 48-50 win range but this season there's two at 44, myself at 43 and two more at 40 wins. Been an absolutely insane league competitively speaking. I think I might look for an all levels league to just recharge a bit before diving back into trying to beat the game developer, heh.

[Travis]

How are you boys doing so far in the new league? I just went 2-1 on the road to even up my playoff series at 3 with the deciding game 7 tomorrow on home ice to decide who gets to face Adam for this season's Cup (which is likely bad news for me as this guy is 2-5 at home but 5-1 on the road so far).

And Render made a suggestion earlier of compiling team cups/stats. Do we want to start a new thread once this is collected (haven't seen 21C too much in this thread lately)? What info would we want included?

[samifan24]

This season has been really rough for my team. It looks like this will be the first time I miss the playoffs.

We're 27-28 and the #11 seed in the "Excellence - S3" all levels league. I've never seen such a strong league before. The top team is 38-24 and the #9 team is 30-27. I should add that my team has given up 168 goals in 55 games, the third lowest total in the entire league.

Are you suggesting creating a FOFC records thread separate from this thread?

[Travis]

Not necessarily a separate thread, but start a new thread, have that info in the first post, then just continue on with any comments/discussion in that thread and let this one fade away.

And speaking of, I know I've got Samifan on my friends list over there, is there any interest in using that feature more? Just used it to check in on the league you're in sami, and wow, you aren't kidding. Only 3 teams really out of the hunt right now, but only a 9 game gap between 2nd and 12th? 5 games between 5th and 12th, yeesh. Going to be a hell of a stretch run in that league.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by samifan24

This season has been really rough for my team. It looks like this will be the first time I miss the playoffs.

We're 27-28 and the #11 seed in the "Excellence - S3" all levels league. I've never seen such a strong league before. The top team is 38-24 and the #9 team is 30-27. I should add that my team has given up 168 goals in 55 games, the third lowest total in the entire league.

Are you suggesting creating a FOFC records thread separate from this thread?

Excellence s3 is the bane of my existence.....currently in 5th...barely hanging on to a play off spot.On the bright side my 84 sniper has 61 goals...if he goes down i am screwed.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by bbor

Excellence s3 is the bane of my existence.....currently in 5th...barely hanging on to a play off spot.On the bright side my 84 sniper has 61 goals...if he goes down i am screwed.

Yeah I saw that your guy is leading the league in goals. How do you get him to perform at such a level for so long? He's playing way above his rating!

[bbor]

Playing with a 100 playmaker helps

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by bbor

Playing with a 100 playmaker helps

Wow I had no idea you have '92-'93 Pat LaFontaine on your team! Wow!

[Travis]

Sweet, took game 7 at home to advance to the finals. Odd part is that I've made the finals in every odd season with this team (winning in seasons 1/3, then getting a finalist trophy in season 5) but have never made the finals in an even year.

Looks like next season is pretty much toast already, heh.

[Travis]

Nice way to start the day. Took a road game against Adam's team to go 1-2 in the first 3 games of the finals, but I have some hope as all 3 games were 1 goal affairs (two of them went to OT including the one that I won). Hopefully I can take at least 2 at home tomorrow to at least force a game 7 (already been to game 7 in each round prior to this during this playoff run, may as well do so in each series).

Also stole a road game in a deciding game 3 with one of my other teams (the Lynx) to advance to the finals in that league's playoffs where I'll have home ice advantage. Only hitch there is the team I'm facing just swept the top seed in the semi's, so home ice may not be that big of an advantage against these guys.

For anybody interested in using the friends list over there, these are my ID's (I believe the number is all you need to add somebody as a friend/rival):

Knights - 182
Hunters - 466
Lynx - 467

[samifan24]

My team number is 174 if you guys want to add me too.

[Travis]

Here's my fun trade request of the day:

Enforcers offer me:
Bramlette (85, 21 yr old sniper, $4.5/7)
Higgens (73, 22 yr old playmaker, $400,000/4)
Parrish (69, 20 yr old power forward, $400,000/6)
1st/2nd/3rd round picks

for my:
Boda (96, 23 yr old playmaker, $1.3/7)
Scheidegger (89, 24 yr old offensive D, $550,000/2)
Ayo (80, 26 yr old power forward, $400,000/6)

So yeah, 85, 73, 69 and picks for 96, 89, 80.

This is an offer from the (currently) 1st place team to the 3rd place team so he couldn't even try and sell this as me wanting to sell assets due to being out of the playoff race. I mean, why even offer a deal like that? I'd need both the first and second round picks to be out of this world for this deal to come even close to evening out.

[samifan24]

I've only ever received two or three trade offers in the six or seven seasons I've played and they've almost always been ridiculous offers.

I'm also getting tired of the free agent process where I miss out on a guy because the team that got him offered 5,000,001 or 5,001,000 and I offered 5,000,000. It's getting to be like eBay. Good thing I only use free agency to sign complimentary guys and spare parts.

[Travis]

I hear you on FA though that said, I treat it like you. If I can sign an under 30 guy who has a 77-79 rating then I'll do it, otherwise it's just rentals each season (and usually looking for guys to fill holes until I can draft a suitable player for that spot). I think I likely overpay most of the time but I don't want to get rooked by a buck or two so I'll throw an extra half mill in the offer to avoid going through the process again.

Beat Adam in 2 of 3 today (I think all 3 games were 1 goal affairs) so the series is tied at 3 and I've scored 1 more goal than him through 6 games.

So for the third time in these playoffs for my team, it's time for game seven, except this one isn't on home ice :S

[bbor]

Good Luck!

[samifan24]

It's you and me Bbor! If you lose your last game, we're tied at 37-35. I'm not sure the tiebreaker rules but we could conceivably tie in goals for as well, which is probably the first tiebreaker. Of course, if you win, it won't matter and if the teams behind me win, it won't matter either.

[Travis]

I'm not 100% on this, but I think the first tie breaker is +/-

Lost to Adam today in game seven, which unfortunately means the better team did win, but I was hoping to get a steal. Forced a 3rd and deciding game in the other finals I'm in right now. So far the road team has held serve so I have to hope that pattern changes tomorrow if I want back to back titles for the first time with any of my teams.

[samifan24]

bbor and I finished tied at 37-35 but he made the playoffs with the #8 seed and I missed as the #9 seed. I see now that the tiebreaker is team goal differential, which means I missed the playoffs by seven goals.

[bbor]

Oil rig could still catch me i believe.

[Travis]

I see bbor, samifan and I are in a league together right now. Good luck gents and if either of you are looking to make a trade, let me know

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Travis

I see bbor, samifan and I are in a league together right now. Good luck gents and if either of you are looking to make a trade, let me know

As a matter of fact, I just put a few players up on the block today. I'm trying to free up some cap space to resign a couple of guys before the season ends. I have a 93 rated young goalie with several years left on his 1M contract available if you're interested. I can also part with a few young scorers, too.

[samifan24]

I had a great day today and went 5-0 on the day. My team has found its consistent scoring touch and just in the nick of time, too. The only problem I see is that I am too aggressive on the PP and have given up six shorthanded goals in 54 games this season, more than any whole season total in my team's existence.

[bbor]

5-0 ...NICE!.....god i wish my team could play on the road

[RendeR]

I don't think I'm in a league with any of you atm?

Titanics Are fighting for a dominance trophy in level 3 league
River Rats got demoted to level 2 and are wiping the floor with their league
Galacticans are a level 1 test platform and I'm currently leading that league as well.

My original team, the one I started and played before I actually knew anything is by far my weakest squad, fighting for a home playoff game in the level 3 league the Titanics are in. This team might just Implode at the end of this season.

[Travis]

Heh, just lost to Adam again in the playoffs. Hopefully I can reverse that trend next season.

[samifan24]

Travis I sent you an offer to your Hunters team. I'm looking to make a couple of moves before the deadline. By the way, I saw you trained a defenseman from the high 50s up to a 91. I see you trained him over 100 times. Do you train the same guys every day?

[Travis]

Sorry man, just style wise I need to hold on to him for next season.

As for training, a majority of my drills go to the same guys. I'll generally go with anybody within a couple of a ratings boost (so guys close to 90, 85 or 80), after that it's all about youth.

[samifan24]

If anyone is looking to make a deal, I need to move some salary this off-season. Well, ok, my team is just starting the playoffs tomorrow but we can have a deal in place once I'm out of the league.

Available players:

Owen Dudek - 90 R - Sniper
Age 29 - $8,775,000 salary - 5 seasons left
Career: 554 GP - 383 G - 712 PTS
41 PTS in 42 Playoff Games

Terrell Rehagen - 94 R - Goalie
Age 29 - $3,510,000 salary - 4 seasons left
Career: 266 W - 2.52 GAA - .914 SV % - 35 SO in 460 GP

If you are interested in other players, just ask. I'm looking to get younger and gain salary cap flexibility.

[RendeR]

Well the Bengals and Titanics ended up facing one another in the first round of the playoffs...for the THIRD straight season!!! GAH and the weaker Bengals won! They then went on to lose in the second round. So two of three teams that had saolid seasons got knocked off right away.

The Cincinnati River Rats who played so poorly they got relegated to Level 2 this season dominated their league and then went on to WIN MY FIRST METRO CUP!!!!!!!

WOOOOOHOOOO WEEEEEEEEE are the CHAAMPIONS MY FRiendss..........

Its nice to finally win one after being a finalist so many times.

The Galactians got knocked off in the finals of their level 1 league and then got promoted to level 2.

So now I await the results of the ending of seasons so I can dig into the offseason work. The Galacticans needed nothing but some draft picks so they're on their way in a new level 2 league.

The Buffalo Bengals might well fall totally apart right now. We're hard on the cap and we've got 5 or 6 stud players ready to get new contracts and its just not going to happen. This team will fail miserably in its next league and most likely get relegated back to Level 2 as well.

The River Rats will most likely get Elevated back into level 3, lets hope they can maintain their solid play.

The Titanics are an enigma. Great players, solid Goaltending, just not winning the big games. *shrug* They're also in the best shape offseason wise. With only 3 players up for contracts and one of them I will not be retaining which opens up the cap space to resign the other two. Life is Good in Titanic land.

[samifan24]

I'm free from my league now if anyone wants to make a deal. Team # 174.