Test 2: Player Separation Over the Course of a Season
I think most of us dislike the in-game player separation. It's hard to tell, on-ice, that X player is better than Y, when that same comparison is so clear in real life. Yet at the same time, it's been pointed out that the right players get the higher point totals through an 82-game simulated season. The counter to that has been that those players are getting the higher point totals because of their high ice time. Let's see what happens when the Philadelphia Flyers play one season with normal lines, and one season with the lines completely reversed.
I'm not focusing on NHL results (I will note the Stanley Cup winner each time), but on individual player statistics. No playoff comparison; that's hardly different enough in game to merit a comparison. Injuries are off to maintain the exact same lines through the course of the season. Assistant Coach Edit Lines is set to 'No' for the same reason.
PP Line 1:
Voracek—Giroux—Simmonds
Streit—Del Zotto
PP Line 2:
Couturier—Schenn—Gagner
MacDonald—Schenn
4 Man PP1 (and 4 on 4 #1):
Giroux—Voracek
Streit—Del Zotto
4 Man PP2 (and 4 on 4 #2):
Schenn—Simmonds
MacDonald—Schenn
3 on 3:
Giroux—Streit—MacDonald
Couturier—L. Schenn—Del Zotto
B. Schenn—Gudas—Schultz
XAttacker:
Giroux
Voracek
Let's take a look at the player stats, in descending order of points.
Philadelphia Flyers Stats - 2015/16
Skaters
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
GW
PIM
SOG
SPCT
J. Voracek
82
31
40
71
7
14
266
11.65
C. Giroux
82
27
40
67
4
10
257
10.51
M. Streit
82
7
41
48
0
14
165
4.24
S. Couturier
82
23
21
44
17
40
149
15.44
W. Simmonds
82
21
22
43
9
42
193
10.88
B. Schenn
82
19
23
42
0
67
199
9.55
S. Gagner
82
16
19
35
-13
4
138
11.59
M. Del Zotto
82
2
32
34
-3
8
142
1.41
V. Lecavalier
82
12
20
32
5
24
125
9.60
R. Umberger
82
9
20
29
8
34
127
7.09
A. MacDonald
82
2
24
26
5
38
161
1.24
M. Read
82
11
14
25
-4
8
118
9.32
M. Raffl
82
10
12
22
-6
2
118
8.47
P. Bellemare
82
11
10
21
-8
10
98
11.22
R. White
82
6
13
19
-2
36
109
5.50
R. Gudas
82
3
13
16
10
46
51
5.88
L. Schenn
82
4
11
15
6
54
117
3.42
N. Schultz
82
1
7
8
2
44
50
2.00
This team made the playoffs as a wild card, swept Detroit in the first round, beat Montréal in 5 games in the second round, and fell to Pittsburgh in 6 games in the ECF. Pittsburgh, in turn, fell to the Vancouver Canucks in 7 games in a very good SCF.
I get what your saying and I can almost tell which sliders interact with each other by doing this but your right a more accurate way is one slider at a time. Not sure I have the patience for that LOL. Over all I saw very little difference in the CPU in my game played with sliders minimized and I suspect I will see little difference with sliders maximized meaning they do very little to nothing. Your passing experiment is showing the same. Looking forward to your next one.
Yep, no disrespect meant, long-term gamers can tell which sliders affect what, but for the purpose of the experiment I prefer to keep things simple. Yeah, haha, patience is hard to come by especially for this game.
4 Man PP1 (and 4 on 4 #1):
Gagner—White
Streit—Del Zotto
4 Man PP2 (and 4 on 4 #2):
Couturier—Bellemare
Del Zotto—Schenn
3 on 3:
Bellemare—Schultz—Gudas
Couturier—L. Schenn—Del Zotto
B. Schenn—Gudas—Schultz
XAttacker:
Bellemare
White
Here are the team stats for the last-place Philadelphia Flyers:
Philadelphia Flyers Stats - 2015/16
Skaters
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
GW
PIM
SOG
SPCT
S. Couturier
82
19
36
55
-22
35
162
11.73
M. Read
82
23
23
46
4
2
152
15.13
S. Gagner
82
18
25
43
-19
17
192
9.38
R. White
82
18
20
38
-17
88
165
10.91
B. Schenn
82
23
14
37
7
57
142
16.20
M. Raffl
82
10
27
37
5
10
158
6.33
J. Voracek
82
16
15
31
9
6
122
13.11
M. Del Zotto
82
6
24
30
-24
7
150
4.00
P. Bellemare
82
11
19
30
-23
6
173
6.36
R. Gudas
82
2
27
29
3
105
89
2.25
C. Giroux
82
9
20
29
6
2
118
7.63
R. Umberger
82
14
15
29
-16
41
119
11.76
A. MacDonald
82
3
21
24
-5
22
101
2.97
V. Lecavalier
82
13
10
23
-17
16
122
10.66
W. Simmonds
82
7
16
23
3
32
91
7.69
N. Schultz
82
2
15
17
5
60
109
1.83
M. Streit
82
4
11
15
-14
2
88
4.55
L. Schenn
82
1
13
14
-21
67
122
0.82
In conclusion, the simulation engine works pretty well for player and stat differentiation. Increased ice time for worse players saw their stats jump and lowered ice time for better players led to a decrease in their stats, but the overall point totals were much lower, so that's good.
Nice info. I have always felt the simulated games stat wise were pretty good and accurate to player skill and ice time. It's in the actual played games where the lack of player seperation is evident. I wonder though if they had better player seperation, like we all want, if it would jack up simulated stats.
To go back to Test 1, I played an OHL game to test whether it was a problem with attributes. Perhaps the higher NHL attributes offset the slider adjustments?
The answer is, hell no. I played one game, Test 1 settings with passing accuracy minimized. Here are the brief results.
all this does is prove my theory that EA's answer to creating a more challenging game is by making the CPU cheat and making your CPU teammates stupid. The two CPU's play completely differently when they should be the same. Instead of programing a proper AI, this bull**** shortcut is what we get and what we will always get.
Thanks for the testing and hope to see more results as well. I have seen, as no doubt others have seen, when the CPU was not going to let you win a particular game in offline season mode. You could just feel it, that no matter what you did, you were going to lose. I just assume, that an 'off night' for my team is programmed in, like in reality, when a strong team loses to a weak team. No way to prove that of course, but those games feel different to the rest, at least to me.