Personal rules throughout career ??

[Oilfield316]

Heya folks,

I've been playing this game for what seem's forever lol, I'm sure alot of you's can relate!

I've came to the conclusion I trade alot! almost too much... so I've introduced myself with a few rules.

- I can only have 2 transactions per season, Deadline day or week I only allow myself (if needed) to only do 2 transactions Players involved is unlimited
- I only allow myself to have (1) contract buyout per every (2) seasons
- I can sign as much players as I want, claim as much players from waivers I want but...... I also do not relish the fact my payroll can get out of hand quick so this keeps me in check.
- I can only fire 1 staff member per year. I can only hire (3) staff members every off season to plug holes when needed from retirements and staff's contracts not renewed

- I coach the games and assign each player they're own orders and customize all my lines
- No RESIM'S allowed!! Golden rule
- If any players / Picks traded in the league is bogus, for example Brayden Schenn to Columbus for a pile of picks then I intervene and trade them back!
- If I find young rookies being wasted away on teams rosters only being played a few games here and there I send them back to juniors or to the farm for that team and yes eliminating the computer GM in the process.

Is anyone else out there like me ? or am I a special snowflake here ? haha I find the more authentic I can play this game the more I actually get invovled if that makes sense to yas. Feel free to list any personal rules you give yourself Id love to add or change my own.

[batdad]

YOu should try the challenges. I pretty much do the same things, save for the interfering in other teams' matters. However...I may look into doing that as well

[B. Stinson]

I do the same, but my approach is more subtle. Instead of concrete rules and regulations, I simply tell myself to "play realistically". Basically, if I don't think it would happen in real-life, or I wouldn't do it in real-life, I don't do it in the game. Or if it would happen in real-life, I'll do it.

I find that this approach eliminates all those little AI quirks and deficiencies that tend to make the game easier. Instead, you're dealing with the AI as you would real people, regardless of what the AI actually lets you get away with.

For example, real managers would have a tolerance for trade offers. You wouldn't be able to sit on the phone all day throwing random players around the offer table until you find that perfect formula that they'll accept. GMs probably want you to already have something in mind when you call them, otherwise, come back when you do. So you shouldn't be spending a lot of time on the offer screen, mixing and matching to find the best offer the AI will accept. Same with constant offers - I doubt many GMs will keep taking your call day-after-day for Player X. If your first few offers to the AI aren't a success, you should give it a break.

[Sjuchov]

I always set up personal rules when I play these types of games, it's just a hell of a lot more fun that way. It just makes it seem a little bit more 'real', and I absolutely hate taking advantage of the AI. When I was younger I used to restart the games a lot just because I couldn't handle losing, that has changed now though, I play without reloading. It's way more fun that way. Also, I usually try to not trade that much, and I never read up on players that others recommend. I want to find my own gems, and I try to not trade the same players to my team over and over in different saves. That just takes away a lot of the fun in my opinion.

[B. Stinson]

I always set up personal rules when I play these types of games, it's just a hell of a lot more fun that way. It just makes it seem a little bit more 'real', and I absolutely hate taking advantage of the AI. When I was younger I used to restart the games a lot just because I couldn't handle losing, that has changed now though, I play without reloading. It's way more fun that way. Also, I usually try to not trade that much, and I never read up on players that others recommend. I want to find my own gems, and I try to not trade the same players to my team over and over in different saves. That just takes away a lot of the fun in my opinion.

You sound a lot like me

I always hated that "formulaic" playing, where you always acquire the same players, or look-up the "best players". I see a lot of this in the Football Manager community, and I never understood it. I've even heard of people who restart their games once regens start appearing, because they want to play with the real players that they're familiar with

[Tasku]

I have my own set of rules aswell.

First of all, I don't follow what the AI teams do, so that I don't have to bang my head on the wall if they make silly trades. I also don't really trade that much myself. Usually I sign players that are UFAs or on waivers. I also only trade for players that the AI teams have placed available. And even then I always "Inquire" first. Usually if I don't get a counter offer I leave it there. Or I may offer a prospect, if I really need the player I'm trading for. But, like Stinson, I won't look for more than one or two suggestions, and only players that are as good, or close to the player I want for myself.

I don't really even enjoy trading that much. I like to hold on to my players -- many of my players have long careers, with only one team: My team. Ofcourse I do leave unsigned with contract extensions the ones I don't really need. In general, my team changes mostly due to contracts being offered or not. Not so much by trading. Even waivers I rarely claim, although sometimes I do.

I also don't pick my own practice schedules. Only exception if I want to train a player to a new position.

And I've never reloaded a game because I'm loosing.

[Sjuchov]

I always set up personal rules when I play these types of games, it's just a hell of a lot more fun that way. It just makes it seem a little bit more 'real', and I absolutely hate taking advantage of the AI. When I was younger I used to restart the games a lot just because I couldn't handle losing, that has changed now though, I play without reloading. It's way more fun that way. Also, I usually try to not trade that much, and I never read up on players that others recommend. I want to find my own gems, and I try to not trade the same players to my team over and over in different saves. That just takes away a lot of the fun in my opinion.

You sound a lot like me

I always hated that "formulaic" playing, where you always acquire the same players, or look-up the "best players". I see a lot of this in the Football Manager community, and I never understood it. I've even heard of people who restart their games once regens start appearing, because they want to play with the real players that they're familiar with

Yeah! I don't get that either. For me, Football Manager is way more fun once the game has more regens than 'familiar' players. I just don't like doing the same thing over and over again, I'd rather buy different players and use different tactics instead. Sure, I may play with the same club, but it's usually in a different way. I always set up a couple of rules for how I want to play, and I sometimes add to it as well. It's just more fun that way.

In all honesty, scouting may be the most exciting part of manager games. I just love looking through smaller nations teams in search of gems that other clubs haven't found. It's just so much fun, although it takes a lot of time.

[AaronRStanley]

I always play with the Leafs, and generally, I try a rebuild, so I give myself a few rules.
#1. Any player coming to the organization must be 25 years old or younger.
#2. No unrealistic trades, so no Tavares for Connolly and four 2nds.
#3. Play it realistic, most teams rebuild through the draft. So that's what I do.

[Oilfield316]

I'm usually the leafs or the Hawks lol. Hey thanks for the comments guys, I'm going to start a new career here as I just got my product ID to activate my game a week ago. I'm on a laptop and my prior license was left and destroyed on the HD from the old PC. Finding time just isn't easy anymore!! lol I forgot to add that I use notepad in the background so I an actually log my daily thoughts on players and specific data or entries I wanna remember from previous days or games.

If I forget what's going on in my hockey season I always have a refresher from my notes

Merry christmas and all the best folks!

[Loosie]

If I start unemployed I generally wait for a job to be offered rather than activley look for one. Otherwise I usually play as the Leafs or the Sudbury Wolves. I try not to tottaly rip the team apart, in fact I tend to be quite loyal to my current players and are very reluctant to trade them away.

[hockeysauce]

Just a few off the top of my head...

I always start unemployed and look for a job in the CHL.

I do not try to do too much in one "day". IRL you only have a certain amount of hours in a day, so I try to keep that in mind, especially during the off-season. It's tempting to spend an hour on July 1st and get all my contract offers out, trades submitted, etc etc, but realistically no GM in the world can do everything in one day.

I always name myself Head Coach. I recently got the GM job in Tampa Bay, and Neil Smith was their head coach. His stats were good so I didn't want to fire him, but I wanted to coach, so I offered him a new contract as an Assistant Coach and he accepted.

I run my own practice, but do not mess with it too much. I set the coaches up, change the percentages (Full, PP, PK) more often than anything else, but do not mess with the practice schedules too much. All goalies are set to "Goalies" during the season, and "Goalies OS" during the offseason. Players are set to "Practice" during the season, "Training" during Sept and camp, and "Offseason" during the offseason.

I set my own player numbers, for the most part. Too many people choose non-traditional numbers when you select "Auto" (lots of players in the 40's, 50's and 60's) so I try to set more traditional numbers for players. Also, players are never given a number until they've earned one. I also create a jersey for them from JerseyDatabase.com to use as their player pictures once they've "earned the sweater".

I normally set my best checker to shadow the other teams top offensive threat, and will slightly adjust tactics based on the pre-game scouting report and previous games versus the same opponent.

I all but ignore the advice of my Asst GM in the trade window.

I all but ignore the draft suggestions of my staff.

Rarely do I sign or dress a player that has less than 10 in speed. I find speed, and skating ability in general, can make up for a lack of technical skills.

I have many scouts set permanently to the NHL, CHL leagues, AHL and Europe. The other scouts I send to the Entry Draft, World Champs, WJC's, and whatever I'm in the mood to scout (shortlist, my team, my prospects, etc)

I try to get international GM jobs, but I do not coach them unless the competition is taking place during the NHL off-season, or a break in the NHL season (Olympics). I am the Head Coach of my NHL team, so it would make no sense for me to be coaching the international team as well.

I do not hold onto players rights just for the sake of having their rights. If I know they will never make my team I allow them to move on with their careers.

[Prowl]

I used to sign all the players recommended, but that got a little too easy. I'm like a lot of people where I won't make unrealistic trades and would prefer to build through the draft and player development. I might sign the odd free agent, but even then, I use discretion because I don't want them to impede any prospects I might be developing

[tscyadi4]

I use the lidas rosters because I start at the beginning of this year. I am the ducks and I trade alot
I trade dan ellis, andy sutton, sheldon brookbank, marco cosineau, timo pielmeier, nate guenin, and mark mitera.

I acquire keith yandle, petteri nokelainen, harrison ruopp, kale kessy, philip lane, lauri korpokoski, goncharanov, nicklas hagman,andrew cogliano, ryan omarra.

[boyledshark22]

I use the lidas rosters because I start at the beginning of this year. I am the ducks and I trade alot
I trade dan ellis, andy sutton, sheldon brookbank, marco cosineau, timo pielmeier, nate guenin, and mark mitera.

I acquire keith yandle, petteri nokelainen, harrison ruopp, kale kessy, philip lane, lauri korpokoski, goncharanov, nicklas hagman,andrew cogliano, ryan omarra.

See this is the problem with this game Dan Ellis, Andy Sutton, Sheldon Brookbank, Marco Cosineau, Timo Pielmeier, Nate Guinin, and Mark Mitera... a lot of these guys are absolutely untradable in real life, and even the best of them are worth a 2nd or 3rd round pick. Even if you traded all the tradable ones at once in a package to Phoenix, you would never get Yandle, especially from a division rival.

So already that one trade ruins the game, your game is compromised. If stuff like that hasn't been fixed then the game is still pointless. Has this been fixed since? Or am I reading this wrong and you mean you acquired Yandle separately, in an actual fair trade not including the rubbish you mentioned?

[nino33]

If stuff like that hasn't been fixed then the game is still pointless

Couldn't you simply choose not to exploit the AI?

[archibalduk]

Unfortunately the AI cannot be changed as it is hardcoded. Most of us who continue to play EHM (and believe it or not the community is bigger and busier now than it has ever been!) choose simply not to exploit the AI. A common approach is to ask yourself whether the trade would likely happen in real life. If that's not acceptable the perhaps you're better off waiting to see how OOTP's plaaned game pans out.

I don't agree that it renders the game pointless - it can be overcome if you're willing to change your trade strategy.

[boyledshark22]

If stuff like that hasn't been fixed then the game is still pointless

Couldn't you simply choose not to exploit the AI?

What's exploiting it and what's not? Where do you draw the line? As a GM your job is not to go "oh I hope this trade doesn't help me too much, hope I don't win the trade by too great a margin, in fact maybe I shouldn't make it because it might help me too much." Your job is to engineer the best trades you can. If you're having to police the whole thing and ask "Is this just bad A.I?" with every trade proposal it takes you out of the experience completely, and it's a bad game. The whole point is to have a realistic, dynamic, creative AI that gives you a challenge but is also realistic, fair, and allows you to be creative yourself and make cool moves.

i mean with the 1st round picks, it's pretty simple. That's not difficult at all to program. Next year's first round pick has a value of X. Then two year's from now it's a value of 0.75X, three years from now 0.6X. Just for example. You just devalue the picks the further in the future they are.

Whoever designed the game obviously did not understand that 1st round picks five years from now are not as valuable as the ones for the upcoming draft, and that's a problem or an oversight with the game's developers. I mean that's just a simple thing, I don't know how that falls through the cracks, but it hurts the game. Is there a way around it? Maybe I could set the rule that I just never use my 1st round picks outside of the immediate one in trade negotiations, but then what if I'm someone who if I were a GM in real life I would use a future 1st round pick, even if it was only worth 2/3 as much as the immediate one, in a trade? Now you're asking me to limit what I would do if I were really a GM, so either way I can't be realistic. If I use my 2014 1st round pick in a trade I'm exploiting the A.I., and if I don't I'm limiting my ability to manage. What I really want to do is be able to offer it with the appropriate, realistic value, but I can't because the game is poorly designed.

This would be like saying in a first person shooter, if the designers forgot to design your player so you can move normally by running or walking, so you can't move at all, it's like saying "well just use the jump button over and over again and po-go stick to your objective! That's how you can still move!" Or if, when you execute a head shot, you die instead of the person you shoot, due to a mistake in the game's coding. So now in order to play the game you have to jump around like a bunny, shooting your enemies in the legs over and over again, instead of actually playing the game you wanted to play.

What I mean is, eventually, when there are so many things you have to suspend disbelief on, or play differently than you want to because the game is messed up, it just means that the game sucks, was poorly made, and it's ruined. You can't have so many problems, so many hoops to jump through. This is a management sim, the absolute most important aspects of it are the trade engine (or whatever it's called), the free agent and signing engine, and the match engine. Well, I've played football manager ever since its first match engine and even the first one, EHM07's engine is 100x worse than. It's basically a disaster. You can't see stickhandles, you can't see where shots enter the net in terms of height, the "players" sort of just bob around all over the place and bob around. When your guy skates by a defender or gets stopped, there seems to be no reason visually why one occurs or the other. Players will just skate by defenders with ease while the defender just stands there, it looks like they're doing nothing. I suppose that is the match engine's way of saying the skater stickhandled by the defender but they don't actually show the stickhandle and it just looks ridiculous.

So if the match engine is going to be that bad, there has to at least be a good trade engine, right? I wanted to buy the game and try it again with the new patches, but you're making it sound like it's still broken. I mean I can self-impose the no trading of future draft picks passed the immediate draft, but what about trading players? Is that still ridiculous and broken too? Didn't someone just in this thread say they traded Dan Ellis and a bunch of rubbish for Keith Yandle, in division no less? Did I actually read that right, and does that still happen? Or no?

What Im asking is if I impose the limit on the trading of draft picks, will the player for player trades still be realistic, or do I have to police those, too?

[timmy_t]

Have you ever tried one of the challenges? We have one right now with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Very strict trading rules. In fact you can't even make a trade the first season, and after that its straight-up one for one. No draft picks allowed. The rules on signing free agents are strict too.

My point is, instead of bashing a game that was released in 2006, try playing a different way and maybe you'll enjoy it.

One last thing-- you can't compare this game to FM. It's not even close, so stop. Please.

[mchose]

I try personl rules, but don't usually last over a season without taking control of another team and fleecing them in a trade

I will do it one day though....

[batdad]

boyledshark is special. Those are a beautiful 10 posts. Thanks for coming...you make me look less grumpy.

[Tasku]

Blah

I have a suggestion to you: Don't trade. At all.

[Círyatan]

I'm sorry, boyledshark, but what exactly is your point? Are you trying to prove that the game is not perfect? Well, there's no need for that. I can assure you we already know it. People who spend hours of their time doing the editing – like Archi, Manimal, Nino – probably know it best, and they're doing their damnedest to make the game more realistic and as up-to-date as possible. They do a terrific job. Unfortunately, they are not omnipotent.

So yes, we know that the game is not perfect. And yet, we still decide to play, and it somehow gives us great enjoyment. Others have already suggested various ways you can try to make the experience more enjoyable for you. It's up to you if you want to try them out or not, and we can't guarantee you'll like it. In the end, it just might not be your thing. Sometimes it happens.

My advice is: do whatever makes you happy. Persistent nagging is not going to make anyone happy.

[Retro Warrior]

I have different things I'll based off the league I'm playing.... For NHL I'll either do only Euros, OHLers, WHlers, QMJHLers, Russians or so on. I've done of goons/pests, also.