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What do we know of Off/Def awareness attributes?


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Has these awareness values beeen put to any tests? It's all how A.I. moves on the ice isn't it.

Would it be possible to generate a save state from a game situation where e.g. an A.I. controlled D-man is deciding to turn back and rush towards his own goal. Have a bin with these D-men having off and def awa set to 0 and run couple short simulations with the load state, then edit the bin to turn awareness values to 6 and load again, is there difference?

I did this kind of test:

base bin: GDL_SeasonXFINALV2 (all teams have equal team attributes). Didn't apply smozoma hot/cold patch.

copied over SJ players, goalies and lines to STL. Renamed SJ to ident0 STL to ident1. Changed all ident0 player off and def awa attributes to 6 and all ident1 off def awa attributes to 0. Goalies awa attributes remained untouched. Original Hextall played in goal for both in all matches. Then simulated matches (gdl rules) between these teams with fast forward (frame skip 8).

home-away (shots from some matches in brackets):

ident0 - ident1 2-3 2-1ot 2-1 1-0 1-0 1-0 2-2(9-13) 3-1(14-12) 2-1(11-17) 3-0(15-11) 0-3(13-15) 1-0(13-13)

ident0 being the "aware team" playing home wins 9 of 12 home games, one tie and 2 losses.

ident1 - ident0 2-1 1-0 0-2 0-2 1-1 0-1 0-1 4-2 3-2ot 1-2 1-3 3-2 0-3 2-1 2-1

ident0 as an away team wins 7 of 15, loses 7 of 15, one tie.

First after ident0 home games it looked like that there is some definite proof of something with the awaress attributes, but after the away games not so sure. Of course it is possible that the cpu is not able to take advantage of the situations the same way a human player could.

..Should run the initial load state test next..

Edited by floating
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I thought when you change anything in the ROM, such as the ratings of a player, and try to load a previous savestate, it doesn't work. I haven't tried in a while, but if you can do this, I'll also like to test this.

It's been reported on the forums that defensive awareness causes the AI to clog the middle, which is great if true. I'll try to record a single defensemen, and watch what that player does in a few situations (using the instant replay function, focused on that player) with defensive awareness set to 1, 3, 6. I'll try to get a minute or two of video for each setting and then compare the results visually. If I can do it via savestate that'd be great as I can hold all other variables constant.

Thanks for sharing your ideas/test!

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I think player attributes are loaded when they are put on the ice, so swapping the ROM between gameplay savesstates won't work in a directly-comparable way. And it does some weird calculation on the values, so it's hard to modify the RAM to do it.

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okay.. maybehhave to forget the load state test then. Tested something else today

notes from couple test matches:


D-men a.i. movement. 6 awas vs 0awas insta replay test - observations

6 awa team puck possession:

When puck poss. has started from own defensive zone, and a teammate carries the puck towards the attacking zone, the d-men or d-man(if the puck carrier is the other d-man) will sit next to their own goal until the puck carrier crosses opponents blue line (or more precisely some 1m before blue line), whereafter the d-men will start to rush towards the attacking zone. However if the puck carrier delays the advancement to the attacking zone some way, after 2-3 seconds the d-men will start to rush forward keeping 1.5x blue-redline distance.

If there is a loose puck, the d-men will act as if the puck is in their teams' possession. When puck is carried over blue line to attacking zone, the d-men will rush tiwards inside the blue line, and will be there in around 3 seconds later if puck poss. is not lost.

So even with 6/6 def/off awa it is not good idea to lose the puck possession around 2-3 seconds after entering the attacking zone, because the d-men are on the move forward, which will lead to easy breakaways for opponent.

0 awa puck possession:

Same behaviour as with 6 def/off awa values. Teammates sit in front of own goal until blue line, unless puck carrier slows down the advancement.


the 6 awa team gets turned over:

When the opponent has the puck in their defensize zone (after a turnover), in my test match the my a.i. controlled Bruce Driver with upgraded 6/6 awa's (chk 3 agr 2) who was one of the nearest to the puck, went forward a meter or two and checked the puck carrier. In most situations though, the d-men turned and started to move towards their own defensive zone when the opponent had a puck in their defensive zone.

When the opponent turnsover the puck in neutral zone, the d-men will turn and rush towards defensive zone (to park near their own goalie), unless the turnover is a result of a scenario described in begin of the post (puck poss. started from own defensive zone, in which case the d-man already sit at their own end.) In the other scenario where the d-man are somewhere near their own blue line or somewhere in neutral zone, they turn either by curvve turning which is slow and the attackers may drive past them easily, or they might brake and turn. (players other attributes+actual game situation might affect which way they do it?)

the 0 awa team gets turned over:

Opponent turns over at my attack zone (def guys had advanced to the attacking zome already), Bruce Driver closest to the opponent puck carrier rush forwards towards the puck and opponent gets an odd man rush. Same behaviour as with 6 awa attack zone turnover.

Opponent turns over at neutral zone, both d-men were sitting in front of my goal. Again it's mr Bruce Driver who rushes towards the puck carrier right when the opponent got the puck control. Maybe same happens with 6/6 awas under same circumstances. During that test game there was probably no similar situation (turnover in neutral zone -> closest a.i. controlle player is d-man-> he rushes towards puck carrier). Have to note though, that the forward player who was in my control was nearest to the puck carrying opponent, yet the 2nd closest, the closest a.i., Bruce Driver decided to rush for turnover. He was not even close to the puck carrier.

The d-men who were sitting in defensive zone started their rush to attacking zone if the puck was dumped with A button from neutral zone(and didn't wait for the puck or teammates to cross the blue line or idle 2-3 secs)

The neutral zone turnover this time showed d-men backing down even during loose puck: (probably nothing to do with off/def attributes, but noted)

Above in detail: The d-men who were sitting in defensive zone were moving towards neutral zone while puck was held in neutral zone with idling teammate, but when the puck was lost (though the puck was in neither teams control, this time though the defensive pair started backing down again. (before this, every time the puck was in no team's control, the d-men were behaving as if puck was in teammates control.)

0 awa a.i. opponent team notes:

on one-home match the 0 awa opponents didn't try turnover (check/trip) the puck carrier if the puck carrier stopped in defensive or neutral zone. When the puck carrier passed to the attacking zone, the 0 awa opponent went for turnover aggresively.

6 awa a.i. opponent team notes:

on one-home match the 6 awa opponents didn't try turnover (check/trip) the puck carrier aggressively if the puck carrier stopped in defensive or neutral zone. However in neutral zone, the opponent forwards first surfed very near the puck and eventually Nelson Emerson checked the puck carrier and took the puck. After this neutral zone turnover, the closest a.i. player from my team Sergei Fedorov rushed towards the puck carrier and checked him and took the puck back to my teammates control.


thoughts:

* No apparent difference between 0 and 6 def&off awareness d-mens behaviour when controlling the puck anywhere on the ice.

* With turnovers, slightly different behaviour, but due to possible differing scenario. The d-man, namely Bruce Driver was the guy who in all tests decided to rush towards a puck carrying opponent. 6/6 awa Bruce in attacking zone, and 0/0 Bruce in neutral zone and attacking zone. Should run more tests. Perhaps some other attributes contribute to the behaviour which oddly only happened to be the case with Bruce. Or maybe Calle would have done the same had he been the LD and Bruce RD. The other D-man on the ice was Calle Johansson who also has 3 chk 2 agr.

* The opponent a.i. players seem to more aggressively try turnover when a human controlled player is idling with the puck in neutral zone, if the off/def awareness attributes are set to 6. Would need to test again if it is the case..

Edited by floating
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