NHL 12 News Post

NHL 12: Sim Engine Blog

05:03 PM - June 30, 2011 by Skeptikal

A new blog has surfaced discussing the new and improved Sim Engine in NHL 12.

Quote:


	The new Sim Engine was developed entirely in C# (a programming language) which isn�t typically a language used for console game development. Using C# allowed me to quickly set up and prototype various aspects of our new approach without having to worry about integrating it into the consoles until a later date. Anybody familiar with the NHL Development team also knows who Gurndeep Sumal is, our resident stat junkie and all around walking sport encyclopedia. Gurn and I collaborated on prototyping and designing the Sim Engine brick by brick, layer by layer, so that after many months of development, we could prototype any action in a hockey game, and analyze the results using graphical and statistical harness/outputs to ensure we received realistic stats.

For the full blog, click here.

Game: NHL 12Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 26 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 cup4blues @ 06/30/11 05:28 PM

It's great to use attributes in the sim engine but when a sniper has 90 accuracy and an AHL callup has 80 accuracy does it really make a difference?

# 2 actionhank @ 06/30/11 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cup4blues


	It's great to use attributes in the sim engine but when a sniper has 90 accuracy and an AHL callup has 80 accuracy does it really make a difference?

Hopefully the small difference in numbers will equal a big difference in results.
I can't imagine he's spent all of this time coding it and hasn't made sure it's getting him accurate results.

# 3 theglory @ 06/30/11 06:05 PM

This is great, but if the below average - average player ratings are still iffy it will only really be marginally different then what we already get.

# 4 BlueNGold @ 06/30/11 06:32 PM

Damn, that sounds good. The screens look good as well. Notice that the most games played by a goalie was Luongo with 60? Goalie fatigue?

Of course they leave us with a cliffhanger though, lol. I'm curious what could be so groundbreaking when it comes to the sim engine.

Also, did anyone catch this?

Quote:


	1. Game prepares for a Face Off, both teams (assuming it’s not an icing call) have a chance to determine the players on the ice for the coming face off. Each team will field its roster of players based on awareness of the score, face-off circle, and how long the current players have been on the ice. A determination is made as to whether either center behaves in such a way as to require the ref to eject them from the face off, and bring in the left or right winger instead.

Are we getting face-off ejections in-game too?

# 5 BlueNGold @ 06/30/11 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theglory


	This is great, but if the below average - average player ratings are still iffy it will only really be marginally different then what we already get.

Goalies not playing basically every game and the stars producing like they should barring injuries is already a huge change from past years.

Hopefully we got some tuning on the award logic too. It annoyed the hell out of me that goalies always won the Conn Smythe and a lot of times the Hart as well.

# 6 MFarrer74 @ 06/30/11 06:58 PM

Getting really excited for this game to come out. I hope it's as good as advertised.

# 7 savoie2006 @ 06/30/11 07:38 PM

I'm curious what the "big win" we have yet to hear about and will change how we play the game.

# 8 RM938 @ 06/30/11 08:02 PM

Im guessing the big blog will come tomorrow. hopefully

# 9 BlueNGold @ 06/30/11 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RM938


	Im guessing the big blog will come tomorrow. hopefully

Pretty sure it is. The community day guys said they were told to wait until then to post their thoughts/impressions on Be A GM because EA is posting a blog on that tomorrow.

# 10 savoie2006 @ 06/30/11 08:12 PM

Another thing...if the new sim engine is based on the attributes and Ea generally has poor attribute ratings(according to fans), then the results will suck too right? That is... unless the big addition is updated attrributes through something like NBA Live had. After all that would be directly connected to the sim engine.

# 11 BlueNGold @ 06/30/11 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by savoie2006


	Another thing...if the new sim engine is based on the attributes and Ea generally has poor attribute ratings(according to fans), then the results will suck too right? That is... unless the big addition is updated attrributes through something like NBA Live had. After all that would be directly connected to the sim engine.

The ratings aren't terrible, it's just (IMO at least) they aren't stretched out enough to create a noticeable difference between stars and 4th liners.

But judging from the screenshots the results look pretty good. I'm also guessing either the results are scaled to the ratings they have (so that a forward in the low 70s produces like a bottom 6 forward, since usually low 70 OVR players tend to be those players) or they re-did their ratings like Donny Moore did in Madden 10.

# 12 NYwRiter94 @ 06/30/11 08:36 PM

They already have that, it's just not as drastic.

# 13 Kobalt @ 06/30/11 08:46 PM

Lots of good info.

# 14 Money99 @ 06/30/11 10:03 PM

Great info! Thanks for posting!
I've been dying for a more realistic sim engine since 07. This is great news indeed!

# 15 mercalnd @ 06/30/11 10:13 PM

I've never been too bothered by player stats produced by the sim engine but I really hated seeing Detroit, Philly and Boston regularly miss the playoffs in year 1 (I don't mind if they fall off as the years go by) while teams like Florida, Edmonton and the Islanders were winning their division.

Hopefully this new sim engine is a big improvement. Everything sounds good but it can't be easy balancing these things.

# 16 Gagnon39 @ 06/30/11 11:12 PM

Fantastic news. This is awesome!

I am hoping their other announcement will be that you can play out CHL seasons. Not that I would do that, but I would love to see who the leading scorer is in the QMJHL, WHL, OHL, who wins the Memorial Cup, etc.

If EA covers these next two things, this game will be everything I've been asking for since I was 12 years old.

1) Allow the user total control over jersey numbers and captaincies. Or at least have the CPU better regulate them (retired jersey numbers, correct captains after being resigned, etc.)

2) Allow draft picks to progress quicker and have busts and diamonds in the ruff. Should be baseed (somewhat) on how they do in the CHL (statistically).

# 17 Gagnon39 @ 06/30/11 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	Goalies not playing basically every game and the stars producing like they should barring injuries is already a huge change from past years. Hopefully we got some tuning on the award logic too. It annoyed the hell out of me that goalies always won the Conn Smythe and a lot of times the Hart as well.

YES! Me too. I won the Cup with the Hawks and Toews was the clear winner, but low and behold, Turco was given the award. Even though I pulled him twice in the Stanley Cup Final.

# 18 BlueNGold @ 06/30/11 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	Fantastic news. This is awesome! I am hoping their other announcement will be that you can play out CHL seasons. Not that I would do that, but I would love to see who the leading scorer is in the QMJHL, WHL, OHL, who wins the Memorial Cup, etc. If EA covers these next two things, this game will be everything I've been asking for since I was 12 years old. 1) Allow the user total control over jersey numbers and captaincies. Or at least have the CPU better regulate them (retired jersey numbers, correct captains after being resigned, etc.) 2) Allow draft picks to progress quicker and have busts and diamonds in the ruff. Should be baseed (somewhat) on how they do in the CHL (statistically).

This is a good point.

Considering they mentioned simming games with any team in any league, maybe we can now look at the stats players in the draft put up and also follow junior players that will be entering the draft in future years. So maybe if you see some young player in the CHL consistently be a goal-scoring machine, you put more effort into scouting him and trying to draft him. Also the fact that the sim engine seems like it's going to be less random and more a result of attributes means that that prospect putting up a ton of goals will actually be a sniper and not some 3rd line grinder.

One other thing I hope that gets covered with this sim engine improvement is the statistical history of every player. It's annoying that you can only see about 3-5 of a player's past seasons, even if it's someone like Daniel Alfredsson or Nick Lidstrom who have been in the league for a long time.

# 19 nddurst @ 06/30/11 11:54 PM

Quote:


	ii. It is also possible for the goalie to get injured in this case...

Anyone else catch this tidbit?

# 20 Moses Doughty @ 07/01/11 12:04 AM

Impressed by what I saw. It'll be nice to see the big names actually leading the points race and have more than 90 a season as it seems, looking at Sids 130. And nice to see that Quick looks good, he wasnt all that good in NHL11

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