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.

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# 21 BlueNGold @ 07/01/11 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nddurst


	Anyone else catch this tidbit?

Yeah, but apparently we're still not going to get in-game goalie injuries this year. Strange considering we have goalie collisions now, but whatever.

# 22 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 01:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	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.

I think they've just added to their database each year since NHL 08 or maybe 09. I remember one of the years the players just had the previous season's stats. Then the following year they had two, then three, etc. Kind of lame.

Also, since attributes are now part of the sim engine I hope that I we won't see Detroit missing the playoffs and the New York Islanders locking up a top seed. Kind of annoying.

# 23 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	Yeah, but apparently we're still not going to get in-game goalie injuries this year. Strange considering we have goalie collisions now, but whatever.

Really!? That sucks, bad. Hopefully they actually added fatigue to players this year. While its not uncommon for a player to play 82 games, they should grow somewhat weary by their 75th game. Players should actually benefit from days off and be more tired when they play, say, a home-and-home. I'd especially like to see goalie fatigue so that I don't have to pretend my goalie is tired and start my backup every once in a while for realism's sake.

# 24 BlueNGold @ 07/01/11 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	Really!? That sucks, bad. Hopefully they actually added fatigue to players this year. While its not uncommon for a player to play 82 games, they should grow somewhat weary by their 75th game. Players should actually benefit from days off and be more tired when they play, say, a home-and-home. I'd especially like to see goalie fatigue so that I don't have to pretend my goalie is tired and start my backup every once in a while for realism's sake.

Not sure about player fatigue but it looks like we got goalie fatigue:

Luongo appears to be the goalie with the most games played at 60. The rest of those guys are all below that.

# 25 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 01:45 AM

I don't recall seeing any goalies play 82 games on NHL 11. I think the CPU played the backup a fair amount of times. I can't remember for sure.

# 26 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 01:47 AM

Also, I forgot to mention, I guess EA is still under the delusion that Roberto Lou-Dongo is actually the best goalie in the league. What a total joke. Unless of course they drop all of his ratings by 20 when the playoffs starts, then I'd buy it. My happiest moment this year was the look on his face after they lost game 7. I hope he never wins a Cup.

# 27 actionhank @ 07/01/11 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	Also, I forgot to mention, I guess EA is still under the delusion that Roberto Lou-Dongo is actually the best goalie in the league. What a total joke. Unless of course they drop all of his ratings by 20 when the playoffs starts, then I'd buy it. My happiest moment this year was the look on his face after they lost game 7. I hope he never wins a Cup.

That's kind of harsh. I don't much like Vancouver, but as a person, it sucks to see someone not just lose the cup, but implode like that.
Also, as much flak as he gets, Luongo is a solid goal tender. While the whole team was good all season, you don't win the President's Trophy with a lousy goaltender. He just has problems when the pressure is applied. (Hell, even in the Olympics, i think they only won two of their games by 1 goal, and he did allow that tying goal in the Gold Medal game with under 10 to go if i remember right.) But he's still a really good goalie. He just may never have the composure to keep steady in the playoffs (Something that would be an interesting feature. Playoff ratings, and regular season ratings...Ovechkin and Luongo would suffer there.)
Speaking of, i've had Washington miss the playoffs in my mostly simmed two seasons in Be a GM which is ridiculous. I could understand if they made it and then went out early, that would be pretty realistic, but they aren't even making it, while teams like the Islanders have skated it.

# 28 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by actionhank


	That's kind of harsh. I don't much like Vancouver, but as a person, it sucks to see someone not just lose the cup, but implode like that. Also, as much flak as he gets, Luongo is a solid goal tender. While the whole team was good all season, you don't win the President's Trophy with a lousy goaltender. He just has problems when the pressure is applied. (Hell, even in the Olympics, i think they only won two of their games by 1 goal, and he did allow that tying goal in the Gold Medal game with under 10 to go if i remember right.) But he's still a really good goalie. He just may never have the composure to keep steady in the playoffs (Something that would be an interesting feature. Playoff ratings, and regular season ratings...Ovechkin and Luongo would suffer there.) Speaking of, i've had Washington miss the playoffs in my mostly simmed two seasons in Be a GM which is ridiculous. I could understand if they made it and then went out early, that would be pretty realistic, but they aren't even making it, while teams like the Islanders have skated it.

It may be harsh, but it is my obligation as a Blackhawks fan. If Sharpy would have put that puck in overtime 6 inches to the left, the Canucks would have not made it to the second round.

Oh, well.

My point though was that its a little silly that Lungo is consistently the highest rated goaltender in the game. Should he be rated high? Sure. The best, no way.

# 29 ComaFaction @ 07/01/11 04:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	It may be harsh, but it is my obligation as a Blackhawks fan. If Sharpy would have put that puck in overtime 6 inches to the left, the Canucks would have not made it to the second round. Oh, well. My point though was that its a little silly that Lungo is consistently the highest rated goaltender in the game. Should he be rated high? Sure. The best, no way.

In all fairness, all that picture shows is that he led the league in some goaltending categories. Much like he did this past season IRL.

# 30 Money99 @ 07/01/11 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RealmK


	Hey Hank, think this could be the year finally or what? keeping my fingers crossed

Haha, I hope so.
The screenshot showing the scoring leaders grabbed my attention. The numbers look great and the usual suspects are all present and accounted for. That's great news!

I'm really liking what they've shown so far in the physics hitting clips and now with the stats.
It also sounds like they've revamped BAP and BaGM modes. Music to my ears!

I'll have to create a guy for EASHL too. Anyone know a team that needs an offensive d'man who stinks at D and ignores his teammates in the offensive zone because he's fallen in love with his 65MPH slapper?

# 31 Splitter77 @ 07/01/11 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	Also, I forgot to mention, I guess EA is still under the delusion that Roberto Lou-Dongo is actually the best goalie in the league. What a total joke. Unless of course they drop all of his ratings by 20 when the playoffs starts, then I'd buy it. My happiest moment this year was the look on his face after they lost game 7. I hope he never wins a Cup.

same here. He is arrogant. I cant believe the comments he made after game 5. Especially considering he let up 12 goals in games 3&4.

# 32 JsMcbain @ 07/01/11 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	Not sure about player fatigue but it looks like we got goalie fatigue: Luongo appears to be the goalie with the most games played at 60. The rest of those guys are all below that.

Or maybe that screenshot was taken after 63 games played.... That would suprise me as players stats screenshot shows 82 games...

# 33 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JsMcbain


	Or maybe that screenshot was taken after 63 games played.... That would suprise me as players stats screenshot shows 82 games...

Nah, I'm sure that's after a full season. There would be no reason to show stats while the season was still going.

# 34 speels @ 07/01/11 11:52 AM

As much as I am not a Vancouver fan let's look at this objectively. His team scored 8 goals in 7 games. Not even the best goaltenders in history would have won a 7 game series getting that weak a display from the rest of the team. It doesn't matter that he gave up 12 goals in 2 games, his team scored 1 in those same 2 games. I get tired of people blaming Luongo when not one other player had ANY impact. He won those 3 games at home all by himself and is still arguably one of if not the best goalie in the league. Oh my goodness you have no idea how much that actually pains me to say!!!!

Back to the thread, I hope they add hot and cold streaks to the sim engine. I want someone like Iginla to end with around 40 goals, but score 85% of them in Feb and Mar.
I would laso like to see some break through players like Callahan of this year, as well as great players that play very mediocre like Brodeur. As long as there is some randomness in there like this, then I think that the new engine will be amazing.

As for goalie injuries while playing, I think EA has to find a way to make it fair before those are added to the games that are played. IRL no one would intentionally run a goalie to injure him, but when there are really no consequences, like a video game, it would happen lots, so EA needs a way to make it realistic but rare. Maybe random injuries should be in, but no contact injuries.

# 35 Money99 @ 07/01/11 12:44 PM

I wonder how the sim engine will handle injuries and call-ups.
If a top 6 forward is injured will it know to put him back in? Will he automatically go to the same spot?
What if a rookie is hot? Will someone else get bumped down to compensate?

# 36 Gagnon39 @ 07/01/11 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speels


	As much as I am not a Vancouver fan let's look at this objectively. His team scored 8 goals in 7 games. Not even the best goaltenders in history would have won a 7 game series getting that weak a display from the rest of the team. It doesn't matter that he gave up 12 goals in 2 games, his team scored 1 in those same 2 games. I get tired of people blaming Luongo when not one other player had ANY impact. He won those 3 games at home all by himself and is still arguably one of if not the best goalie in the league. Oh my goodness you have no idea how much that actually pains me to say!!!! Back to the thread, I hope they add hot and cold streaks to the sim engine. I want someone like Iginla to end with around 40 goals, but score 85% of them in Feb and Mar. I would laso like to see some break through players like Callahan of this year, as well as great players that play very mediocre like Brodeur. As long as there is some randomness in there like this, then I think that the new engine will be amazing. As for goalie injuries while playing, I think EA has to find a way to make it fair before those are added to the games that are played. IRL no one would intentionally run a goalie to injure him, but when there are really no consequences, like a video game, it would happen lots, so EA needs a way to make it realistic but rare. Maybe random injuries should be in, but no contact injuries.

Well, good point. And he's not a bad goalie, I've just never liked him because I hate the Canucks.

# 37 plaidchuck @ 07/01/11 02:59 PM

I don't mind Luongos numbers. but Neuvirth with 40 wins?

# 38 Money99 @ 07/01/11 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plaidchuck


	I don't mind Luongos numbers. but Neuvirth with 40 wins?

I know! Did he play the Pens 40 times??? I kid! I kid!

# 39 TNA Equalizer @ 07/01/11 03:18 PM

Good blog about the new sim engine. Hoping to share what I can when I have a green light to do so.

# 40 plaidchuck @ 07/01/11 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money99


	I know! Did he play the Pens 40 times??? I kid! I kid!

Haha well even if they went back to their run and gun style I think their window is closing for one of their goalies to have those kinds of numbers... but I'm not figuring in shootout wins I guess.

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