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Depch

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Posts posted by Depch

  1. This game had some sick tunes for the PC version. Jeff Van Dyck offered some really heavy / industrial mixed tunes for the menu, I used these later on in some newer NHL games as well. Twas such a treat just hanging around the league menus and letting these songs play in the background. It was also the third EA NHL Hockey game for PC and the first that got away from the engine that was used in NHL94 as well.

    Sick intro!
     

     

     

     


     

     

     


    Intermission (could not be embed):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N53Ht4BmY7w

     

     

    • Like 1
  2. The PC Version intro & menu music kicks ass! I actually like the 96,97,98,99,00,01,02 menu themes from PC as well, each of them have several of them. Should implement them here to a single thread here. Lots of great songs by Jeff van Dyck. I actually liked them so much that I modified the more modern PC menu soundtracks to have those oldschool songs instead.
     

     

  3. I will add my own commentary after watching this to provide better information for the insights that happened from my side as well.

    I just have to comment on the Coffey rush'n stop #2 @ ~5:00. I didn't try to do a slapper, I tried to pass it to Lebeau for onetimer, but Gilmour rushed in and took the puck so there was no onetimer and instead Gilmour skated it to the goalie then.
     
    Things to look from the defensive aspect of Washington. Looking at goals scored by Plabax.
     
    0-1
     
    I did make mistakes resulting on this goal. The first fail was on AI though, AI was skating forward with Coffey and carrying on the momentum to go for the puck, so I had to commit with Coffey for that and he just did not pick up the puck. We all have had these lapses happen to us. The mistake #1 was when I failed to CB-check Gagner with Fetisov. That is a situation that I translate to a succesfull check most of the time, but it did not happen there at all. The goalie play is just either aggression or try to guess it right and I failed on that one.

    - One AI mistake and 2 my own mistakes resulting for the goal. Easy goal for Plabax.

    2-2
     
    @ 17:00 I saw Rusty getting the breakaway pass so I was ready to take the goalie control, but when I saw him make a backhander I just switched it off. The AI goalie (Joseph) failed to make the save and there's a juicy rebound there. I sometimes try to do a rebounds from that position and it's possible Plabax tried that as well, if it was a failed onetimer attempt, then it was a lucky break for him. I don't see Plabax go for rebounds much usually so I'm guessing the latter one. It's a very opportunistic goal for Plabax, but good players find ways to get opportunistic.

    - Nothing I could change here, AI failed to make the save. A very opportunistic goal for Plabax.

    2-3

    The one thing that annoys me in NHL94 sometimes is that D sitting on place rarely happens for BOTH teams at the same time for a longer sequences within the game. When the other team has the AI D-men sitting down low, the other team has the D-men running around, usually. There are many things that could result to this and perhaps momentum is one as I'm guessing as you see later on. That is also one of the reasons I would like to find a way to eliminate momentum from the game or reduce it to a minimum effect at least or at least find the strict science behind it.

    @ 18:10, just look at those D-men lining up down low as AI straight from the faceoff. I know Plabax intercepts those passes effectively so I tried to not push my head to the wall with keeping to go for the diagonal pass from the corner so I skated back upwards to find some room to make a play, kinda like with Coffey earlier. I had an option for onetimer or snap it in with Lebeau. I just got real unlucky that Gilmour didn't pot that goal in and if that's not enough, getting double unlucky to give a bounce on a clear after making manual save with Joseph and trible unlucky that Coffey missed the puck, blocked the goalie and could not block the shot with the stickcheck like they sometimes are able to. Just everything going against me here, a terrible sequence in the game. Looks like momentum for Plabax in this situation for sure. It could be verified from the krecs and checking the crowd.

    - There is not much I could do differently here. I would make that onetimer 9/10 instead of the snap and I would also make that manual save with a goalie but the bounce is weird. I guess it's because of the sliding movement of the goalie that he makes that animation, just overall bad goal to give in. A couple AI failures as well.

    3-4
     
    @ 21:40 In my mind this is another goal that should not have happened. My AI D-men start to fall back, but when Plabax starts to rush the puck deep with L.Murphy, Coffey turns on his AI aggression all of the sudden and blocks Gilmour. Even after that negative turn of events Gilmour manages to hit L.Murphy even though it's not a 100% direct hit, but that's usually a hit that takes the player down near the boards. Here Gilmour just pushes Larry forward. Double misfortune here, first Coffey blocking Gilmour and then Gilmour failing the check to the boards, you can see the check making a contact with Larry especially when the focus is on Fetisov in the replay, see how Murphy gains lateral movement from Gilmour hitting him.

    - AI failed me here big time and there was the freak dodge of the check on Murphy as well. There is not much anything I could have done differently here but try to make a succesfull manual save with the goalie.

    3-5

    Good lateral pass by Plabax to get Jagr going from the wing. I try to block the route to make a move with Jagr and I get Jags down as well with my goalie but the puck slides in to the goal before getting shot.

    - I should have played that better with my manual goalie, I did the correct play with my goalie, but left the angle too wide for short side so the puck slipped in carrying on the diagonal movement from Jags.

    I felt like Plabs did not have to work much for the goals but could just stay opportunistic and look for counter offensive most of the game and the zone statistics tell the same 6:26 vs 3:49. Nevertheless a good game that broke my back in the series. I feel strong about going onwards with my game in top competition this year.

  4. 1 hour ago, Pearate said:

    What is exactly the "Home crowd" theory ?

    I have to break down it to a few things first. There have been a few speculations going on how the home / away advantages go.

    Plabax has said that they'd be related to hot/cold aka the variation of player attributes according to the code in the game. And it's backed up by that you almost never see a player with 4 stickhandler toddle to b-checks at away, but it happens at home quite a few times for Muller for example at Montreal. Static rom cancels this out so there is no necessity to change home/away advantages in those roms if this is purely the case.

    Regarding the crowd. I've been taking a notice that whenever you have those open net misses or a several in a row the crowd is always at 90db or plus. I've also taken notice that it's usually the visiting team that has those misses going on for them, so I started to speculate that maybe the home/away advantages could be related to crowd as well. Like how easily the team can get that crowd bonus. According to the manual home teams are always at an advantage and the visiting team is always marked to have a "disadvantage". So "home crowd" theory was that crowd always is working for the benefit of the home team. This is not true though as is evident in the game Raph did go through and what I've seen from a small sample size of games in Brutus league as well, where the home/away are set to minimal (still does not necessarily make a difference, just probably been more observant there now).

    Crowd theory still seems to apply that the frequent misses happen at 90db+ but it can happen for either team at a time in a sequence within the game, not usually for both. So either team can wield the power of the crowd for gaining the "momentum". Fact is there are fluctuations within the games that are not explained by variance in user skill or changes in player attributes according to the roms. I would also think that I have enough observations of this to not make it out for it just being part of the randomness. Regarding the theory it's that perhaps home team can amass crowd bonus easier than the away team, but away team can still take control of it as well. Periods start at 65db and the normal play is carried around usually at 80db-89db where nothing out of the ordinary takes place. Stuff like that starts to happen when the crowd is at 90db+ db for either team. Regarding the science in the crowd I know for certain that visiting team checks & stickchecks constitute for a +1db to the crowd even during off play, but home team does not have the exact same result there to it. I've been too lazy to research it out. There could be some real science behind amassing the crowd and it could give you a hint do you need to change your style how you approach the game in some areas.

    Would it have any real meaning or results for gaming? I doubt that it would change anything much, but I know that at least you would not need to wonder about it in the games if it was 100% known and we'd have uncovered another "secret" that NHL94 still holds after all these years.

    Ps. Players say that momentum plays a much bigger role in SNES, that it's much more evident there. I'm fairly sure it's not nonexistant in Gens.

  5. That was actually nice to watch.

    Gilmour had a real bad game offensively there.

    Cutting some things down and I now understand why I felt so frustrated after the game.

    -I had one wonky goal vs Plabax 2 wonky goals
    -Me 3 "surefire goals", that resulted in missing the net and two of those resulted in counter offensive where Plabax scored vs 1 poor angle open net onetimer missed by Plabs
    -2 Posts vs none
    -Plabax run out of time in first period for a clear goal

    I did not like the way my AI handled the D either, was just rushing and no consistency on a low sitting D. On another time the score would've been very different and perhaps lead to a different result in the series as well.

    Next game was a blowout, I guess I just lost it mentally after this frustrating loss.

    Plabax GC & mental approach is top notch. And a good mental approach results in good opportunities.

    My "home crowd" theory does not apply here as it's clearly working against me in the latter part of the game, but the crowd theory in general still applies the misses dominantly happen in high 90+ db crowd for the other team.

    Thanks for doing this, was fun.

    • Like 1
  6. Cutting down my games with Ottawa:

    vs A: 3-5 (2-0 vs Smoz SJ, 1-1 vs Kingraph ANA, 0-2 vs Ice TB, 0-2 vs FPB FLA)
    vs B: 8-2 (2-0 vs Aqua BUF, 2-0 vs J&J VAN, 2-0 vs Coach DET, 1-1 vs Atomic CHI, 1-1 vs Jer MTL)

    I was mostly disappointed with losing both games to Ice & FPB. I expected to tie them up like with Raph. FPB gave me my biggest trashing in the season, but the second one was close one goal deficit. Vs Ice the second game I let him on for a huge lead, had to make adjustements and got the game to overtime but it was not enough.

    I expected to have most problems beforehand scoring with my players against Belfour and Roy and I got my losses from B guys against them.

    Predictions: I would say Ice dominated, he is 12-4 with 2 games to go vs Smoz and it takes a lot from Smoz to be able to win. So expecting Ice to go with record 14-4 and that a dominating effort with TB, at least in the manner of being able to grind the wins out, perhaps not as per dominating IN games. FPB has to face Raph and I'd expect a 1-1 series there which would make Ice the winner and FPB tying up the second place with two B guys and making me the fifth, but anything can happen.

    Fun experiment and should something like this happen again, I would recommend a fantasy type of approach but with Classic teams I would not participate (tiny perhaps with Anaheim). I'm sure players learned quite some from this as well.

  7. Gz to Plabax.
     

    4 hours ago, Uncle Seth said:

    Plabax takes the crown with suffocating D, along with better: passing, possession, playmaking, intercepting, AI from his fwds and D (i'll never figure out why), and shooting accuracy.

    I noticed that when I got more to a possession mode in games 5 & 6 vs him in the semis he went more to the turtle mode (krecs avail in other thread). I do not know was it me being able to push the game so much and forcing him to turtle or was it him baiting me to commit so he could find some open room from counter offensive (swos type approach). In more open end to end hockey I think I liked my chances in that series, but I was poor at reacting to the change and started to think about it too late, just had my focus on pushing the offence. Simply put he just had a better mental game.

    Accuracy is often related to crowd I see. High crowd tends to make the other team miss nets much more, there are a few other things I've started to guess it affects as well (when either player misses a lot or an open net, pause and check crowd, I'm sure you'll see it over 90db, the casual play is usually around 80-90 when that stuff doesn't happen, period starts with a 65db).

    Also as you guys have come to see I'm full of random theories, sometimes even closing to the to the state paranoia (never de facto unless proven) I also think that responsiviness can have an affect on how your AI reacts in comparison to the opponent, if response is not 100% even the other team has the advantage in initiative. Settings (esp. lag comp) can have an effect there, if the difference is clear cut.

    But I also think winning momentum/crowd plays a role and if the latter is bigger part of it and it's something your style can have an effect to. I would like to know the science behind it so I don't have to think about it in the games. I should have a lot of nice records of these as examples to show that can raise up questions, if I just ever find the will to go through them.

    For the sheer theory what I'd like to see in possible future plablegs is stopping the check counts after whistle at least so at least we can eliminate any chance of that having effect on play itself, the activity to keep yourself "warm" off play can still persist then. Also reducing the advantages & disadvantages to minimum as in Brutus league, I think I've seen home team miss nets more there during the small sample size. I'm still guessing they affect how the crowd affects the play, there are fluctuations within the games that are not explained changes in player attributes and the missing shots (open nets etc.) in general is related to the crowd.

  8. I have learned to spot now some of the effects better and I know that this has been used by at least by one player the past few years (perhaps a few, don't want to name anyone). As there is no way for a clear cut proof of any way to say if anyone is using it by version numbers or anything I can only see that it is serves the community to try to be as much open about it as possible so people will learn and force people to use them by using it yourself as well so no one will have the advantage of knowledge in this case.

    Settings I will be running during Et' tu Brute are the following:

    Gfx:
    Vsync = off
    Render = interpolated scanline (it looks quite bad, 25% is still ok)
    Full screen (you can change the render in full screen with F11-F12)
    Lag compensation = 4 (It's maxed out. I noticed I needed to up this from 3 when I use sound off or I'm seriously behind in team AI performance vs Habs & FPB at least)

    Sound = on, stereo 22050hz (I had to change this from having it off even with lag comp 4, leaving it on off just felt like it gave too much advantage to opponent AI initiative so I just put it to default settings, the game still feels very smooth with the low render even with this.)

    Explanation:

    The latency I usually get to play with NA guys varies from 100ms to 220ms so that is in between 4-7 frames of delay to your controls from latency alone. If you use added frames when hosting, then it gets even worse. People should not use added frames at all, just in the case of bad networks (jumpy ping) and majority of the networks today are just fine. 

    When I play Coach I get 220ms ping to him, that equals a 7 frame delay to response, if I use a lag compensation of 4 it should equal to 3 frame delay, which is much better to play with. When I play Habs at his home I get around 180ms latency which equals to 6 frames, if he uses additional frames in hosting to balance out a jumpy network it's usually 7, which is quite impossible to do quick moves and fast pass shots with so lag compensation is highly recommended to make the game competitive and show what you can do. If only the other side uses lag compensation it's a really unfair advantage as he can skate circles around the opponent because of knowledge, not skill alone.

    Gens is also a very old program, so the code honestly said sucks. You know when you use Gens it's not as smooth as Kega or RetroArch when you test NHL94. When I decrease my sound settings and screen render I get a much smoother gaming experience, I also have an old laptop, but this was the same with my quite a good desktop unit a year ago so I think it's only the code in Gens. It also seems to have an effect on my opponent over online play. The gaming experience overall is much nicer for both.

    Kega netplay sucks for long distances and I think lag compensation offers a better online experience than Kega that way. RetroArch has not been tested online, but damn it's smooth offline. These alternatives come with the problem of not having the netplaysave in the form that nhl94online supports.

  9. Updating Boston lines:

    Line 1:
    C: Hogue
    LW: Reichel
    RW: Ronning
    LD: Bourque
    RD: Fetisov
    X: S.Young

    G: Burke

    Line 2:
    C: Ronning
    LW: MacLean
    RW: Semenov
    LD: Konstantinov
    RD: Konstantinov
    X2: S.Young
    G2: W.Young

    Basically just swap Bourque to LD then roles for Fetisov & Konstantinov from current ones and Marchment over McCrimmon.

  10. I'm posting the .krec here for those who want to view these playoff games in Gens. These are done with the new kaillera and you need the plugin to record or use the player in kaillera netplay to view the games. I'll add the links to those if anyone outside of the current community should ever want to check out the games. Just unzip the recorder plugin to your Gens/kaillera folder to be able to use the player from Gens netplay.

    Bin required: plablegsiFINAL.bin
    Kaillera: http://p2p.kaillera.ru/wip/kailleraclient.dll
    Recorder/Player plugin: http://p2p.kaillera.ru/wip/okai_recorder.7z

    Round 1 vs Zep:
    g1&2: 58a73bd40102.krec
    g3&4: 58a7403f0202.krec
    g5: 58a7464e0102.krec
    g6: 58a748780202.krec
    g7: 58a74adb0102.krec

    Round 2 vs Plabax:
    g1&2: 58abd7b90102.krec
    g3&4: 58abdc0f0202.krec
    g5: 58abe0720102.krec
    g6: 58abe2b40202.krec

    ps. It would be so much better if the match page on nhl94online.com would be updated so the .krec files could be uploaded to there instead.

    • Like 1
  11. We currently have Plablegs still running thas had filled that void to a degree. We're also currently kicking off the Brutus league that will last at least 2-3 months from now. After that it's summer time when it's quiet anyways. I don't think there are enough people or interest for any large leagues during the summer time.

    I'm willing to take part on a possible GDL after the summer, but if classic is coming back in fall, which I hope then perhaps even closer to late fall/early winter. I'm fine if they're run at the same time, just don't prefer them to start at the same time.

  12. Updated my "card" to chronological order.

    While sorting the leagues out and looking back to it, I think of it I have the capacity to play in a 2-5 large leagues in a year. So there really should be some unification on thinking how to run the macro schedule of leagues with the current core of players in this community. Overcommiting to anything is something I want to avoid, not only in games but in life general. That will only lead to deflation in interest. I will be taking breaks during the summers at least.

    Also perhaps what I've been writing as commentary to my league experienced and how I've experienced a certain year it could be part of a blog under a player. So everyone can write their experiences there.

    Bio - Awards - History (competitions history, stats etc) - Blog

    Perhaps something like that.

  13. I hope this is right. Been a long time since I did this properly. Not that it's a big deal to do it at the game, but makes it faster if it works. I want Ronning to step in as C if Hogue gets injured for Reichel-Ronning-Semenov. If Reichel is injured I'd prefer MacLean taking that place. The D is set so when Konstantinov is PK/Injured the lineup is Bourque-Fetisov, does the computer follow the logic of taking Bourque as the #1 replacement to Konsatntinov on left and bumping up Fetisov to the right?

    Boston Bruins

    #1: Reichel #26 - Hogue #33 - Ronning #7 - Konstantinov #16 - Bourque #77
    #2: Reichel #26 - Ronning #7 - Semenov #20 - Bourque #77 - Fetisov #2
    #3: MacLean #15 - Semenov #20 - Young #48 - Fetisov #2 - Daneyko #3

    G: Burke #1
    G2: Young #31

  14. Just adding this up here from AIM chat.

    Depch
    - there is something more to c-checks than what smoz & plabs explained. I just c-checked kjell samuelsson with lidstrom. Yesterday I also saw that J&J did a CB and he checked Bourque in our exis, don't remember who that was and I know CB is fixed.

     
    KingRaph - depch, if you c check kjell with lidstrom 20 times, how many times will kjell go down
     
    Depch - Raph: 0, 1 or 2. Just saying there is something random added to it as well
     
    KingRaph - I agree Depch, it's not an exact science formula -- even smozoma said in his weight bug fix explanation that there is some s**t in the check formula he doesn't understand -- and I also think CB check has a greater success than regular check, even if the "CB turned off" is applied.  CB off just means the weight bug is fixed for CB checks as wlel
     
    Depch - Yes I'm probably just going to keep using CB-combination in this league as well
     
    Depch - even though it's turned off, doesn't harm at all
     
    Lupz  - It works on occasion Depch
     
    Lupz - I got a couple open ice hits with Theo and Gilly last night against L Richardson
     
    Lupz - But it is like 1 and 10 if not more
     
    Depch - Yeah, I've noticed. It's just basically an AI check. Hogue does AI agro checks on heavier guys a few times a game
     
    Lupz - But Suter, and Chelios take down more guys with C checks then I thought they would in open Ice, like if both have skating momentum already, and I square up the hit they take down Mario
    Lupz 27 - It's chasing from behind where they don't succeed well like a Stevens does
    Lupz - By head on they are capable

    Depch - yes I think speed can make a difference as well, but not sure, this would explain why I've felt that Coffey would be good at checking, but just hypothetical with that
     
    So something random is involved in checks sometimes in addition to all of the above. But the above still applies for what the players can check consistently.
     
  15. I posted this in the aim chat, but it's fitting here as well. I also had some time on my hand in the morning to make a list of the defencemen A/B have picked, I wanted to see if there is a difference in checking ability there and how this "new" information applies to that (basically just fixed information).

    A:
    Brutus: K.Samuelsson, Coffey = 12 &  6
    Depch:  Bourque, Fetisov = 11 & 10
    FPB:    Blake, Ellet =  8 &  8
    Habs:   Zalapski, Duchesne =  9 &  5
    Ice:    Iafrate, Hatcher = 10 & 10
    J&J:    Kasatonov, Richardson, Manson = 10 & 10 & 8
    Raph:   Stevens, Weinrich = 11 &  8
    Lupz:   Suter, Chelios =  7 &  7
    Tex:    G.Murphy, =  7 &
    Zep:    Wesley, Leetch =  6 &  3

    B:
    Aqua:   U.Samuelsson & Smehlik =  9 & 9
    Atomic: McSorley, Krupp = 11 & 11
    CBK:    Desjardins, Housley =  8 & 3
    Chef:   L.Murphy, Sweeney =  8 & 4
    Coach:  Tinordi, =  8 &
    Darko:  Smith, MacInnis = 10 & 6
    JV:     Patrick, Numminen =  8 & 5
    Jer:    Diduck & Macoun =  9 & 7
    Pea:    Chiasson, Brown =  7 & 6
    Skip:   Lidster, Johansson =  8 & 7

    It is the other way around that I thought it "should" be. There is more talent in B-checking in A, so there is less requirement for C-ability except for the heavy stickhandlers. The number on the right side indicates what weight can the defence check. If you put a lineup above that to a guy who has no talent in B-checks, then you are expected to dominate, especially with the more slick heavy guys.

    Mogilny is an exception with 7, he is so fast and agile that he can easily get away from the direct check so he often uses his stickhandling to just toddle like he would be b-checked. It happened a couple times vs Fetisov and Bourque testing on the exi rom.

    In the future I will be appreciating weight more in certain situations, but I will never go to the "slugs", they are just too slow for me. I am also surprised how weak Manson, Blake & Ellet for example are in comparison to Suter for example. There are not any stick 5+ 8 weigh forwards, so the difference of to be able to take down 7 weights or 8 weights is nonexistant, at 9 weights I start to see some advantages again over 8.

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