You should really check out this online hockey simulator that alot of us have gotten addicted to. It's called "Power Play Manager", and you can check it out here:
PowerPlayManager
Essentially it's all fake players and teams, but it's pretty robust: You're the GM of a new hockey franchise: You get to buy/draft/train your players, build up your arena (seats, snack bars, skyboxes), upgrade your facilities (ie- Training Facilities makes your players train faster, Sports Academy makes you draft better player), etc.. It's something that you can play casually as well. I am a huge fan of Fantasy Sports, so I got into this game pretty quickly. Your team plays 3 league games a week, and you can fill up the rest of the days by playing other teams in "Friendly" matches.
There's no concept of "trading", which threw me at first, but in the long run it's better since you don't get as much collusion and people being shifty-like. Instead they've got a very Fifa-esque transfer system going, which I surprisingly enjoy.
There's a number of strategies you can employ as well. I went for the "putting my money towards the future" strategy where I didn't really spend alot of buying players, but instead upgraded things like my Sports Academy and Training Facility so that I could draft good players, and increase their stats faster. Others choose a more financial approach where they upgrade their stadium and their Human Resources/Marketing to earn money and then buy players.
The game is totally free. There is the concept of a paid "Pro Pack", which gives you additional options, but it's not necessary for enjoying the game. You can donate money for "extra features", in the form of the "Pro-Pack". But I would recommend waiting before you decide if you want to spend money on the game. The reason being is you get to try out the "extra features" if you stick around a play for a bit to see what you're missing.
There are many tips and tricks that've been shared in this thread, feel free to address questions in the thread.
Tips:
Scoring
Tip for you guys that I've noticed: My key producers all seem to have good passing... even my top scorers. Seems that the Passing attribute may be very important in determining goal scoring, as well as setting up goals for others.
My lines are setup so that I've got two forwards with high Shooting, and at least one forward with high Passing. Might be something that'll work for you next time you re-jig your lineup.
Tactics
What I usually do is scout my opponent and see what importance and tactics he usually plays on. Not a lot of people know how to use tactics, and most just leave them as "Normal".
There are certain tactics that seem to "beat" other tactics... Kinda like rock/paper/scissors. Only instead of winning it gives a slight advantage.
For example, alot of managers play "Breaking up the Play" against someone who normally plays "normal", so it seems that "Breaking up the play" has a slight advantage against "normal" tactics. If someone plays offensive, I usually play Defensive. You can see what's now known as the "Tactic Matrix" in the blog here:
Awesome Blog
Energy
I NEVER play 3 lines. Reason being is that your players get more tired, and as such don't train as quickly.
Notes about player energy:
There are two "energy"'s with players: Daily and Seasonal. Both start off at the beginning of the season at 100.
1) Daily energy is how much energy a player has for a game/training. It's maximum value is the Seasonal Energy, which I'll get into later. Training is contingent on how much daily energy your player has. Since bench players don't use energy, cuz they're not playing, they train faster.
2) Seasonal energy affects your players ability to be effective in games as the season wears on. For example, if you play a league game of low importance, your seasonal energy goes down 0.08 points. If you play a league game at Normal Importance, it goes down by 0.4 points. If you play a league game on High Importance, it goes down by 2.0 points. For friendly games, the rates are different: 0.02, 0.08, and 0.4 respectively. This number also affects your player abilities and team rating. (ie- if your players have an average seasonal energy of ~90, they're playing at 90% of their ability.)
So a few things: Don't EVER play on High Importance unless it's a CRITICAL game. Playing on High is like having your players play 5 games on normal. I play Low as much as possible and when I come up against a guy who could give me a run for my money, I play Normal. I usually don't play high until the playoffs come.
Player Ratio
I'm going on the assumption that low secondaries essentially truncate your primary, using the theory that:
if (secondary or tertiary < 1/2 of your primary)
primary = 2 x secondary or tertiary
If I'm correct, and I'm not 100% sure if I am or not, so take it with a grain of salt:
Goalie #1:
45(Goa)+24(Pas)+28(Agr) = 97 in "Positional" OR
Goalie #2:
38(Goa)+19(Pas)+32(Agr) = 89 in "Positional" OR
Goalie #3:
32(Goa)+22(Pas)+16(Agr) = 70 in "Positional" OR
Goalie #1 is clearly the best player of the bunch.
Now, when you're planning your training, you should find a player ratio that you think works best, and train accordingly.
Posts
Which is fairly impressive.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Yeah, I initially didn't think the US was a big threat this year, the team seems pretty young, and theres a bit of a drop off in the current US forward group from previous teams, but Miller could steal them games easily.
Zhedev is a KHL guy too. And I thought the russians snubbed kovalev? Did someone get injured, or did they just change it?
Also, Russia is supposed to have a secret taxi squad that might be late additions to the team from the rumors I've seen around the internets.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Also, news for Canadians who have Shaw for their TV, at least in the Vancouver area, Shaw has shifted TSN on to Basic Cable for the Olympics.
Now, whether or not IP addresses outside Canada will be able to get in on that, I do not know. Or maybe you'll get hosed like we do with Hulu, unless you use a proxy or something.
Outside of the family, it's the one thing I'll miss about this hellhole.
Though Cherry has descended into self-parody and it makes me sad.
Where are you at in michigan again? I was back up there for Coast Guard fest up in grand haven over my birthday last summer, but I don't go back as often as I should.
Ann Arbor.
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
He was on the Caps' second line last season. Also was inexplicably playing defense in OT when they got eliminated.
Looking forward to the final Leafs game tomorrow!
Me too, should be fun. Also, it's worth mentioning, there's only something like 3 or 4 days that trades can be made in. As there's a roster freeze over the Olympics, which runs until Feb 28th, and the deadline is March 3.
Brian Burke has also pulled out of the opening ceremonies for the USA for fairly obvious reasons.
Poor guy. Also, Corvus, I'll write up a little blurb on PPM for ya.
"WITH THE PASS"
*whistle noises* WEEE WOOO WEEE WEEE WOOO
I believe the Blades of Steel fighting rule to be the best one. You lose the fight, your team gets a penalty. :P
I get a little over a mil, and I'm not sure if that is reasonable/above/below average. And since the season is nearing the end, I want to know what I should be looking for in the off season.
I'm in my 2nd season as a manager and I get 2.8 million a week.
Soundwave calls it the "Bore Stove" and I call it "oh gawd, why the hell can't I press X to go to the next period".
My sponsor gives me just over a mil as well, the contract is rated as having three stars.. *shrug*
I've got 14 staff applicantions waiting, will waiting for my econ department to finish upgrading (L3) affect their quality - or should I just check now and start hiring? I'm in no rush to get guys in for my game tomorrow.
Start hiring those staff members. Even if you've got cruft at a staff position, it's better than not having anyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4MiMm5U6W8&feature=player_embedded
You are generally not allowed to jump when you check people, also you are not allowed to check people that haven't played the puck, admittedly these rule do not apply to AO, so I guess you are right. The Ref's were out to get you guys.
I am not sure why you don't think that is goaltender interference
saint2e, it doesn't help to wait until my upgrade is done to check the applications? Right now they're just in the inbox, but my theory was that when I check them my facility level will impact their quality.
It, rightfully, did not count. AO checks Gill into the goalie, then continues to push while lying on the ice until the goalie, the dman, and he himself is in the net.
Yes, it was interference on AO, but he probably didn't get a penalty for it. If he didn't get a penalty there is no reason to disallow that goal. I mean, you NEED to give that penalty if you are going to disallow the goal, because there is no other reason to disallow it other than calling the blatently obvious intereference.
And from Habs Eyes on the Prize, a la puck daddy comes an explination for why there was no inteference call
That's a grey area. Kinda like waiting until your sports academy is upgraded before checking players in the academy.
If you've viewed the staff members already, what you saw will be what you get. But it sounds like since you know how many staff applications there are, you've already gone that far... I don't believe it will change as the staff members will have been generated by the system already.
You can so call penalties after a play has been whistled down. Just look at how many players get "coincedental minors" for roughing after a play has been whistled down and they start jostling around the net.
Still, that shouldn't have been a goal. If anything, I would've called AO for charging. He clearly left his feet.
None of those rules apply, sorry.
The defender was playing the puck, Ovie did not leave his feet on the check, the goalie had not made a stop.
It was incidental contact and it's pitiable you would side with officiating error.
Hockey justice will be had.
It's happened a number of times since then.
It's not really a new thing.