[Check Ability]

1 hour ago, aqualizard said:

Just wanted to say I appreciate the detailed analysis!  (Someone should bake a grid of all this data. Not you, you did your share just writing it!)

Onyl one guy can check Lindros successfully? Sheesh. Guess we gotta A-Hold and pray.

Yes, Kjell is the only one to have have the ability to consistently check Lindros succesfully as a manual check and Lindros being the puck carrier (perhaps as AI as well). I've had it all wrong for a long time. Lindros is still vulnerable to B-checks. But it's very hard to perform a B-check for a player that is coming in for the onetimer, I can't see much to be done there except focus on intercepting the pass. It's so much more easier to B-check the puck carrier due to the distance to the puck.

My Fetisov (CA 11.6) cannot C-check Andreychuk (11) succesfully, I have tested it in the morning multiple times.

But like I said, I think AI can have different results, boardplay is another thing and perhaps there is a difference is the player to be checked puck carrier or not, I have not confirmed that.

[Check Ability]

This is interesting knowledge and increases the importance of high checking ability d-men, especially for the more mobile ones for players who can't B-check and for others as well who want to have the ability to play the man on onetimers instead of intercepting. Then there are the few heavyweight players who have resistance to B-checks as well (not 100%  obv).

Fetisov has chk rating 11.6 and he can take down Lemieux / Messier (weight 10). So that is perhaps rounded up then at least. I tried with Smehlik 10.9 for example and he could not do it, at least not on a regular basis (0 successes).

CHK Ability required to check down Lemieux, Messier, Jagr, Bourque = 11.6
CHK Ability required to check down Hull, Coffey = 10.6

D-men able to C-check at least 10 weighters and below (some plus):

10 = Bourque
11 = Stevens, Fetisov, Kasatonov, Richardson, Iafrate, Smith, Featherston
12 = Hatcher
13 = -
14 = K.Samuelsson, McSorley, Krupp (the slugs)

D-men in addition that can check players with 9 weight:

8 = U.Samuelsson
10 = Daneyko, Rouse, Diduck, Smehlik, Zalapski,
11 = -
12 = Ludwig, Zmolek

I have to say I'm surprised and have had this all the way wrong, I thought checking ability - checking resistance = succesfull check if the sum is positive. This would say that someone like Blake (10.3) can't succesfully check 9 weighters with C-check. Post here if you find this wrong via experience in the game, perhaps it's not absolute? According to my memory from past experience in Blitz, there is some variance in this, but this should be correct now then for the succesfull 100% checking results as least.

edit:

As an addition example for 11 weights (Andreychuk, Otto etc) = Succesfully only the slugs + Bourque & Stevens, not even Hatcher! And according to this it would only be possible for Kjell Samuelsson to C-check Lindros.

This only applies for open ice hits vs manually controlled players as well. As I have seen even AI controlled Hogue check succesfully some higher weights and board play is a completely different matter where lower weights are succesfull as well.

 

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

3 hours ago, Uncle Seth said:

I take issue with this "elitist" term you and Depch have placed on our vision of what a league should be.  Neither of us have ever been against lower level players in the league.  If elite to you means we want strict enforcement of clearly laid out rules, then yeah, you could call us that.  Not wanting slackers and those with crappy connections, that's elitist?

I brought up the term to elitist approach from my past experiences and how I see similarities here with the current situation. What Plablegs has done is great, it was greatly needed to work as a cultural change towards slacking and while in general I would have given Ice & Chef a chance to get their games in the next day, it probably was required to boot to have that sensation that the league has not failed to provide on those strict rules. This league or a league of such type has a place for the hardcore gamers, it must exist to keep the core happy. Such a fast pace and such strict rules cannot however be placed upon the whole community or the pool of players will become very short and the rules on micro scheduling will not be able to save the community in the long run.

Just don't attack other leagues leagues like they are taking something away from you, there must be room for many kinds of leagues and for those as well who need a bit more flexibility in a less paced league, slack rules can still be implemented and no one wants to go back to how things were. That the other leagues don't use Plablegs rules does not mean it doesn't provide a cultural change to things. Attacking other leagues if they don't follow your mean is elitistic and that cuts you off from the rest very rapidly. Players still have the ability to choose what leagues they want to play in.

I think this is just a misunderstanding here, both want the same thing, but there is just a failure in communication. People care about the community so it also gets emotional forcing your own viewpoints of things.

I tried to also bring up the discussion of a macro schduling for the leagues on this community and what we could afford to play without players getting overcommited and drained up with the current player pool. What Plablegs changes is the micro schedules to be able to the keep macro rolling properly. It's just a small part of the solution to problems, but a good place to start. We still have to create more structure overall to the site leagues and to make the site more efficient, appealing, better marketed to make the community grow. We have had good ideas in the thread.

What Plablegs has done is only part of the solution. It's not the whole solution, but an important part of it.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

 

10 hours ago, Lupz27 said:

TBH I think a lot of the reason for the lost interest in 94 is the game is getting older, and less people are interested as they get older, and younger guys for the most part don't want to play an old Genesis, or Super Nintendo game with players they never heard of.

The game is 20+ years old. The oldschool guys who played it in the 90's are getting older, but the game is still great and the controls are simple and what you can do with those simple controls is amazing especially in the Gens version. It's very addictive once you're drawn in to it and get the hang of it. The game will keep it's popularity whether or not community X exists or not. We thought our community in the Finland was the only one playing this and all the sudden there was interest in another forum for it and they kicked up a 20+ player league in a modified rom that they played for a couple of seasons. Things bloom and gloom, that is life. Retro gaming is also a thing nowadays and the live events and what Mikey has been doing has shown that the game is still reviewed as great. Potential is huge. Does this community capitalize on that is another question. This community is just a part of the NHL94 world and NHL94 does not need this to be reviewed as great and popular.
 

10 hours ago, Lupz27 said:

Also another thing that I think is HUGE is the emulator, Kaillera, Hamachi for Genesis sucks balls, and the SNES version of the game sucks balls.

I have tried to also bring up the talk about about the rerecording version of the game that offers lag compensation. That option has a clear cut difference for the response the game has online. I have also tried to bring up talk about the audiovisual settings affecting online response, going from the lightest to heaviest and asking response for that. It's been confirmed as well. There just has been no interest in looking in to that more and what the reason behind it might be. At best we could have a much better experience online as well, but I think it's already great. I know it requires effort and perhaps some of the pro:s at programming level to take a look in to that once they have experienced it and taken interest in the case as well. Kaillera P2P is just fine, it's gens that adds to a bulky feel of online gaming sometimes and that we can look in to or not, up to us.

Kega would offer a more closer experience to real gaming in how it emulates the game, but if I'm correct it is much worse online over long distances and it doesn't have the netplaysave as of current that works with the nhl94online.com uploads so it would require tons of work?

 

10 hours ago, Lupz27 said:

I've been here playing since fall 2014, and the same elite guys are elite, literally in the last 2 years not one person who wasn't already here has even challenged for an A title, or an elite league like GDL title, so this tells me there just isn't enough interest in this game anymore, or you would be getting gamers coming in, and quickly challenging, and that is not the case

It seems the only new guy who has made that jump was Plabax just around that time or a notch before. The learning curve is quite steep in this game and majority of the A guys are oldschoolers. There has been a big rise in the level of B talent in the past year. What makes this game great is the fundamentals behind it however and that must be spot on for the top level, just look at Princes vs Paupers currently the A guys are still doing well, even surprisingly well.

True gamers are interested in prizes. Get some prizes going on and optimatization for the sites for good marketing and you might get some new blood to top level as well eventually, some of them are always on the look for easy money or prizes. Especially if a huge live tournament comes to existence from a yearly base now on it would be easy to build upon.

Whatever this online community does will reflect on the future of it. It can diminish so only Classic leagues are being run by the current administrators (even that would be totally cool) or it can thrive if people put the positive mind to it and the effort, if there is enough will. Up to us. Nothing is to say that a new core group would not pick things up on a later date should this core wither down, the framework is there to improve and this is one of the most classic sports game of all time.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

Thinking of what Hokkee suggested as well, perhaps there even would be a calling for a gentlemanly B/C-level league aimed for newcomers and casual players to make a transition easier where CB/B-shots etc. are not used (Classic C / some separate league). Those who want can then take a jump towards the more competitive leagues. The community as a whole cannot be made to adapt to such things.

League types:

A ) KO94 based ladder?
B ) Classic
C ) Plablegs type eliteleague
D ) GDL?
E ) Wbfixed dynasty type
F ) Velocity (Modern rosters)
G ) Newcomer/gentlemans (or implement this to Classic B/C-league)?
H ) Random tournaments/small leagues (fantasy, oldschool rosters, princes & paupers etc.)

I know I would have a hard time participating in all of them and I would become exhausted being involved in all of them if they interlapse with eachother. So the problem comes down to player base that has been the talk here and league planning in a larger sense with the schedules.

In a sense KO94 type league/ladder would interlapse with Classic league type, but Classic is so traditional that is it possible to move away from, it's one of my favourite leagues as well. KO94 type of thing would be a thing to make a jump forward towards the way events are played live, I think online should have a mimic of that. Perhaps there is room for both if KO94 would be a ladder but not a league. Monthly rewards for KO94 ladder, albeit small ones.

Plablegs type eliteleague where luck is reduced and is mainly an invitational is a thing that is required to keep some of the hardcore players interested, but not all leagues can take this approach.

I am not much of a fan of the wbfixed league type, especially now that CB has brought the classic physics and wbfixed ones closer to eachother. I wanted especially give my support to one now because there is no Classic for Gens this spring. But there is probably popularity among this with the ones who are not yet that adapted to CB. I understand that Velocity already runs as wbfixed league as well. Perhaps Brute league could act as more newcomer friendly like he said himself in his previous post.

GDL has a huge tradition so it would be a shame to see it go shambles, but it did happen to Blitz as well. There is evolution in leagues as in life. It is overlapping a bit with the idea of Plablegs so running them both at the same time could be harmfull and causing overcommitment. GDL is open to everyone getting in though. Perhaps a longer break is due here, it can be revived on a later date. Requires much thinking what to do with it.

There are surely people that want to play with modern rosters, so a league with real teams or draft based on current rosters is surely answering for a call in Velocity.

I have also always liked fantasy type leagues, we ran a few of them in Finland and the tournament run by Donny was fun as well. It also provides more room to modify team to your liking and reduces the luck part even more, perhaps the some of the elite league seasons could be run as a fantasy type so it doesn't have to be an additional one. Also the Princes and Paupers is a nice change and challenge for A players with B guys.

---

Scheduling the leagues:

A ) KO94 Ladder is run 24/7
B ) Classic every fall and every spring
C ) Plablegs type elite league whenever there is calling, not much related to the other leagues and it can be ongoing and very active as the core of this league can be very selective about the others as well.
D ) GDL would have room for a once per year thing at max in my mind if we want to keep it alive. Summer time is quiet usually so it definately should not be there, more like mid winter to reduce the overlapse with Classic leagues as much as possible.
E & F ) I think the current Brutus league type or even Blitz & Velocity have a call whenever there is just enough players up for them. It can clearly be an ongoing thing. Perhaps there could be some shared interest in these ones (As do options A/B, C/D).
G ) No clue are there enough players for such league as of current, only if things improve, perhaps it can be implemented to some of the existing ones and if not, then as Classic C (or B if others are put to A) barring enough interest. 
H ) Whenever there is a calling for whatever.

I would be most interested in A-D types and think I could commit to them easily without getting drained out. I might even give support to the gentlemans league especially if it was in Classic. The others as supportive to help others get games in, but not as a 100% participant rate, very much depending on situation in current energy and interest levels.

We also have to remember that for the live events players might want to get to know the other platform as well, so there is the interest in SNES as well for some.

This is just my suggestion about the macro schedules for building more structure to the site, but here I am opinionated on my own perspective of what is popular and what I like. Scheduling & deadlines then for the specific leagues (micro schedules) to keep the macro rolling properly. This requires some planning as the community as a whole and Chaos willing to share some load for others being able to kick off some leagues and playoffs is necessary also for nhl94online.com to keep the pace up once things get rolling.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

I think this is what was needed to have some constructive thoughts and to clearly clear some air of the thoughts of how to make things go forward and steer the online community. There is no need to dwelve in to personal matters. This topic and thread can be turned in to a real beneficial topic.

Do I think that leagues were prolonged too much and slack was allowed? Yes, Hokkee was right there. There should have been a more proactive way to things earlier and not be afraid to be more strict to some players and lose them. I don't want the slack be allowed to continue how it was before, but as strict as plablegs does not perhaps work for all, but there is definately need for such a league as well for the hardcore players. What I also don't want is that we don't close the door from players by only having closed leagues.

Now understand this, yes it's important to keep hardcore players happy as they are the core of the group carrying the torch onwards. Having _ONLY_ strictly selective leagues will result in the leagues _ONLY_ be run for the means of the few and like Brutus understood eventually only for the few.

There must exist more open leagues like Classic for everyone to participate and perhaps the B / C levels for possible newcomers. Also something like a ladder (KO94 style, bo3?) could be nice for those who even don't have the chance to complete more loosely scheduled leagues but still sometimes want to play a game or few.

Let's say 50$ shared for KO94 ladder top places by charity to gather some minor interest per month. I'll throw in 10$ a month for that charity pot. No matter the amount, some gamers are always attracted to money and it might keep the activity up as well there. Just check the legal rights worked out so it's not illegal, have server in such a state where it's fine.

I must repeat that this community lives of NHL94 and NHL94 and it's popularity has nothing to do with our leagues. At best a community tries to bring everyone together and once it starts cutting themselves off from the rest, it's due to go downhill.

And while a lot of the criticism and improvement suggestions seems to go back to the guys who have made this community thrive in Chaos, Halifax, Evan etc. by amateur work without any wages. It is just the energy and will from people to see the things take a leap forward. We must thank you and I don't think many of us remember to do that often enough.

And if we the critics are not willing to put any work to go in, there probably is no room to be a critic at all. We must also ask what can I do to help here? Plabax took a step forward in creating a top competitive league and showing example with more strict rules, that was needed to clear some air. Brutus has taken off a fair share of running some leagues and organizing drafts and Raph has put some work in as well. I'm also available to be used as well if help is required somewhere. I know I have not taken much of a proactive way to help the newcomers for example so perhaps I will promise to be more active helping them out on the boards and not overlook things. We all have to watch the mirror too.

And Brutus, I'm not perhaps smarter than they are as per intelligence, but I do think I draw off from a broader viewpoint of things. Thinking things of multiple perspectives, not only my own. I'm a gamer, a thinker, a visionaire, artistic, I create and combine theories, some spot on and some horribly wrong and that's okay, usually more spot on. Poor at executing things to their end, so I'm more of a dreamer than a doer, working on to change that.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

1 hour ago, Uncle Seth said:

This is where I'll probably get a lot of backlash.  But I think the outreach to people at these live tourney's has been a complete failure.  Numerous lost opportunities to expand the membership here.  All these tourneys with non-forum attendees, what % of them are even joining the site?  I'm not placing blame on a single person.  But clearly, there have been avenues (the live tourneys) to gain coaches, and nothing comes of it.  If we want to grow the site, you have people in the palm of your hand at these live events, why isn't more being done to get them on board here? 

This is great! Exactly what we need, to fuse our brains together on such issues and make it better. Improve the marketing for a chance for online playing as well, I have no clue what the events are like, just that there is huge potential.

I've been constantly talking about unifying the site. Making it more simpler and appealing for the guys who are 30/70 or 50/50 what they were even looking for when they google nhl94 or nhl online games. For me I would not even stumble upon nhl94online.com, but go to nhl94.com and from the quick look it doesn't seem very appealing and it's also a rule that if things are too many clicks away from getting your interest, people will just leave it. I would like to see leagues in nhl94.com as well directly. Make a ladder there, increase interactivity directly there. There should be a main button for leagues there (edit: I see there is online gaming button, which has league links under that, I even missed that first, lael, blitz link doesn't work though). Sure there are news, but people don't go in to wall of texts when they are unsure what they are looking for, it doesn't catch anyone. I'd check the leagues out for sure via button and that might interest me. Prizes would be cool as well and a small company of affordable men could provide some charity for a league pot. That pot would always interest some people, that hey, this game is being played for money as well like so many others, might look in to this. Online pots don't have to be big, I could afford to support 50$ a year easily.

ps. I also must remind that this community lives off NHL94, the existence of NHL94 and it's popularity is not about this community, this community is just a small part of it all. At best this could bring many of the people together, that is the main thing. We must not put ourselves ahead of all of that. At best this community serves everyone.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

Just now, Uncle Seth said:

There's a rule in business that states that it's much easier to keep your existing customers than to try to gain new ones.  I think it applies here.  If you lose or alientate your core constituency, you're doomed and will always be in rebuild more.  But maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Yes, wish it was here earlier so it could've helped with some players not losing interest. Like I said I have seen this happen in other communities already, if you do not acknowledge that and think this is a special case, then we must disagree. This is not black/white, there must be a way to serve everyone like I tried to imply. This is what is happening in Plablegs and what Brutus provides now, keep things open, in such a small _online_ community there is no room to become strictly elitistic here or that is surely the death of it all here. Please do not attack the leagues, they both serve needs.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

1 minute ago, Uncle Seth said:

But the opposite has been occurring.  The casual players who continually refuse to change their behavior or just unable for whatever reason to adapt, are the ones driving away the committed coaches.  The coaches who are the most serious about fixing things are the ones who will leave when their complaints and suggestions aren't considered.  The casual people will always be around because they could care less either way, strict league, lax league, anything goes for them. 

Yes, this is true. As I said early I wish this would have existed earlier, however I do not see that this is the sole fix to the problem. The problem as a whole is much larger. Who knows how many of the coaches were losing interest due to slack/lengthened seasons or just because it was time. Old players will always move out and some will come back, but if there is no new pool coming up, that's the problem and things will eventually just quiet down. I have seen this happen before multiple times.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

Plablegs is great, it's been fum with the pace, actually I could even prefer a faster pace to keep an intense feel on it. It is a prime model for how to run an elite league. Wish it would have existed earlier, that alone would only have been a temporary fix to prolong interest of some players.

There is the problem, if only such leagues would exist there would be very little left for casual players and that cuts the elite leagues from pool of players as well and things would only wither down. Only that model is a result for a dying game. NHL94 has been around for 20+ years, nothings gonna happen to that, even if one online community would fall, somewhere it's still played and a communities can rise again. Been there, seen that. I have seen communities of old games die off a couple of times and it always starts with low player pool and elite players not being satisfied with how things are with the rest.

This is a really tough problem to solve and that requires a lot of effort especially from the guys working with the site and they have already provided so much. We have the external marketing going on well with nhl94 documentary coming up and Mikey started the run on live tournaments as well. There is a huge potential, just requires a lot of work, maybe too much. Player base online must grow for there to keep everyone happy, some other ideas are welcome and perhaps the ladder to main site could work for guys who don't play so often but want their share online and just can't keep up with "eliteleagues".

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

Well yes this thread cannot be used as a way to build guilt on other people. The issues run deeper and I do not believe there was not much to be done reacting then to that of how things have become more strict in leagues now.

Maybe a nhl94online / nhl94.com built in ladder will offer something to the more casual players and have some strict leagues for the more active ones. That way no one will be left out of anything, also some leagues for everyone like Classic. Focus on the positive not the negative for negative energy will self manifest more easily.

[What if the community had listened to hokkee?]

Some people take things more emotional and he was probably the first to burst out openly on a very real issue but I don't recall much constructive stuff, but it was a reaction to a real problem. His emotional bursts did kinda assasinate his character so not many took him seriously, he did that to himself but it was a reaction to real problems, he was just more sensitive.

There are two types of players, those who take the game very casual for the fun and for a small escape to get your mind off from work and family stuff, they might also like the retro feel and live the nostalgia. Then we have those who still want to compete with the game actively.

The player base is not very big currently so the leagues run are only a few. We also have the problem of playing the game under two different platforms which creates even more separation with the player base. The separation between casual players and active ones was a big reason for Plablegs and it rejuvenated the active player base at the start at least. Leaving the casual players out however would leave them out of the leagues all together and cut off even more player base. How to approach the problem without shooting yourself in the leg in long run is important. If casual players are left out, things will only wither out and die slowly. I have witnessed this type of thing in multiple old gaming communities where elitist approach cuts themselves off from a pool of new possible players and it stays alive but little by little withers away as no new players get in.

In the end this is an emulator game that is related to the mid 90's game, but a great one indeed. We have two separate platforms that creates more player split. We have the competitive gamers and we have the casual players. We don't have enough active players for multiple leagues. We have multiple sites for nhl94 that can be confusing to the random player googleing up nhl94 in nhl94.com, nhl94online.com, nhl94rocks and then we have the forum. New playerbase must mainly come from the younger generation that in general to my understanding has a low attention span / read things fast is it interesting or not, walls of text are usually not and they might move on from nhl94.com fast. Unifying that stuff and making it interesting and simple will be one key thing. Separate forum & AIM are things of old in my mind, there are no other gaming communities under AIM, AIM apps don't work in mobile outside of NA etc. Only the most interested ones will make the jump to register, but not the ones who are split in between decision of to take the effort to look in to this or not.

The latter ideas could possibly just solve the problem with enhancing interest and making it easier for new players to hop in and increase the player base slowly. The live tournaments do their own share and Mikey is doing great promotion with his documentary, but perhaps live tournaments are full of casual players outside of the regular visitors from this site. There is potential, however that requires much effort from the guys running the show and people have to make a living as well.

["Et tu, Brute?" League ***NEW LEAGUE- SIGN UP***]

I might be looking to trade down as well, but will wait for draft day to see which 2 goes first.

[What happens when you take some of the best A Guys...]

1 hour ago, aqualizard said:

We need to see the scores

Actually you were one of the guys he played, not J&J, recalled that wrong. I have the savestates and krec as well, will be taking records of all games.

Scores from my games were Ott @ Det 6-2 & Det @ Ott 4-7. I was expecting the games to be a bit more low scoring.

I'm expecting a much harder time scoring against Roy, Fuhr & Belfour with these guys. Barring any defensive lapses J&J might have McLean should eat the goals similarly as Chevy did on the chances.

[What happens when you take some of the best A Guys...]

Yes, confidence & will translates to results in a positive environment.

So far I have knowledge of only the league games Coach has played. He said he is currently 1-7 and he split with FPB (Others Jer,J&J,Depch).

Going in to the games I had no clue what to expect result wise. In a sense I think Coach was much better than I presumed, like a year or two ago who would have said that bottom B players would even try pass shots. Very positive to witness that. My team had the defensive structure spot on so Coach could not utilize Detroit speed much. The second game Coach got a late rush in goals and if the game had been prolonged 1 more period I might've lost it.

[What happens when you take some of the best A Guys...]

It will be interesting to see at least.

Smozoma has not been very active so he could struggle with SJ a lot. Someone like J&J knows pass shots and has improved his game as of late as well.

Of the active A guys I can say that Ice propably has the best team of the bunch. Kasper & Bradley will provide a good low weight duo with Kontos or whoever you want to put there as third. I don't like the D Tampa has, but their goalie is 2nd best after Beezer in Florida. I have always sought out Ice to rely more on speedy guys so seeing this out will be interesting, I think he will surprise me with his effort and level of play with craps as well.

FPB I have played the least and I can base very little on his gameplay so I have to use hearsay as well to predict here. I have understood that he relies usually on superstars and abusing their power and when I went through the bottom 3 teams (Ott,Fla,Ana) Florida has absolutely the worst offence the only guy on the level of the other crap teams have to offer is Lomakin. Florida has the best back end and goalie of the bottom 5, so maybe FPB will surprise me there. FPB totally surprised me with the team pick he made, I totally expected Fla to fall to Ice.

Kingraph will be just fine with Anaheim, it's a pretty balanced crap team. Semenov & Yake offer some great chemistry and onetimer power also Kasatonov is a regular face from Kingraph and whoever he throws next to him will provide an ok defence. He will battle for the win for sure.

I myself with Ottawa will be interesting. I have a lot of experience of playing with poor players and historically I am also used to playing with underdog teams. I am happy with the situation. Offence I will be using Lamb-Baker-Smail so it will be relatively low weight and perhaps the best of the bottom 3 trio, but I don't know will it offer the chemistry Yake-Semenov has. Defence will be with MacIver who at least had a defensive awareness 4 and pair him with Shaw or Rumble for CB. I cannot make an estimation here, anything between bottom and win.

 

[GENS Player Attribute Survey]

23 minutes ago, Premium said:

I also believe the higher the defensive awareness, the easier it is to knock the puck off of your opponent's stick just by putting their stick blade against it (without pressing any buttons). This I'm not 100% sure of, but there was something (I can't remember) that made me think it's the case.

This is 100% true, I've been stating it for multiple occasions. You don't even need to put your stick on the other players stick, just shadow skate right next to him and a 6/5 def awa player is able to steal the puck from 6 stickhandler (It is possible that my skating motion was doing the stick to stick according to computer, just that the range is better with high def awa), I noticed this especially in Velocity league. Datsyuk was gold at shadowing and stealing pucks just by skating. I have noticed that defencemen who have defensive awareness below 4 are usually worse at intercepting passes, but perhaps it is total awareness + some other factors, because Coffey is quite good at it (perhaps it is the same thing - pass reception/intercepting passes)

[GENS Player Attribute Survey]

6 hours ago, The Russian Rocket said:

Off AWR also works for pass receptions and possession in the Ozone

I have not noticed the difference in pass receptions in regards of offensive awareness. I also remember that there has been a speculation of offensive awareness enhancing offensive abilities at one point. Even Gretzky fumbles passes, to me it's more of pass speed / pass angle thing and also if the crowd is working against you as a visitor. Short passes get fumbled much easier from behind the receiver and the other scenario is very long passes to fast players when you don't take control off the receiver yourself, Russ Courtnall gets hit by the puck to skates very often. This is just my experiences and notices, I might be totally wrong.

[GENS Player Attribute Survey]

13 minutes ago, TexasPachyderm said:

Prob similar to others:

Actually I'm quite different from you here and also different from Lupz (Both of the ones that have been updated since CB came around)

I have began to emphasize a lot of the AI attributes that effect AI behaviour without the puck more. Especially the awarenesses on forwards are the other way around for me. I don't find offensive awareness meaningfull at all, it has no supportive contribution other than the reaction to team with the puck. Klima is great at 3 OA, my C at fantasy tournament was great with 0-2.

Also stickhandling was great before CB, but now it's lost a lot of it's mojo, it still sucks if you have 2 or perhaps even 3 stickhandling in the zone, but having 5 or 6 is less important now as toddling does not happen much at all.

[Princes vs Paupers: A League Idea]

So I have the chance to take Anaheim, but instead I'll go with Ottawa!

Reason behind this was that even though I love Anaheim chemistry a lot (Semenov-Yake is gold), I went through the teams one by one and was surprised that Ottawa actually had quite an ok roster skating wise. In Jamie Baker & Mark Lamb we trust! Florida was the worst for me, just a horrible horrible offence in skating and everything.

[Princes vs Paupers: A League Idea]

I'm good with Anaheim, just don't give SJ to Raph!

[GENS Player Attribute Survey]

CB Update for me here:

Forwards

Weight - 2 (High weight better AI checks & CB power, low weight more agile, good team has both ends of these)
Agility - 5 (Most important)
Speed - 5 (Speed creates room)
Shot Power - 3 (Possibly 4, provides range for onetimers, from close even Gretzky 2/2 is efficient)
Shot Accuracy - 2 (Accuracy only becomes more important when outside the goal horizontally, players seem to miss more then)
Stick Handling - 2 (CB has reduced how important this is, before CB it would've been 5)
Pass Accuracy - 2 (Having this as high results in better pass shots, but not a primary skill to sought for)
Off Awareness - 1 (Reaction to your team having the puck)
Def Awareness - 4 (Intercept & strip pucks, reaction to opponent having the puck)
Checking - 4 (AI Power & help with CB)

Defencemen:

Weight: 5 (Very important in player matchups)
Agility: 5 (Very important)
Speed: 2 (You can burst your way back even with Fetisov very well who has a speed of 2, Coffey & Housley have other uses than D as well as an exception)
Shot Power: 1 (I don't care about slappers from D-men, a good shot is just a bonus)
Shot Accuracy: 1 (-""-)
Stick Handling: 2 (Not too important)
Pass Accuracy: 4 (Opening passes are important to get the puck moving fast)
Off Awareness: 1
Def Awareness: 5 (Intercept & strip pucks, reaction to opponent having the puck)
Checking: 4 (AI power & enhances ability with CB)

[Princes vs Paupers: A League Idea]

14 minutes ago, aqualizard said:

Ok, what do you guys think of these rules:

1. 8 guys, 4 As, 4 Bs
2. B level picks from complete Classic list, A level pick from bottom 5
3. Each team plays the other team 2x (home and away), for 14 games total
4. Aim for 7 games per week, so: season complete in 2 weeks
5. No playoffs. Whoever has most wins, wins

Atomic and I (might be able to) tweak nhl94rocks.com to keep track of league stats, so even though it is a small, tight league we can still track stuff like nhl94online.com does. (It is always fun to see stats, right?)

Sounds good to me

[Princes vs Paupers: A League Idea]

Out of the bottom 5 I like Anaheim & San Jose. San Jose is on a different level than the other 4 imo, just solid speed all around for offence. That's why if we can't have 5 I'd rather have no one take SJ. Then I'd be good with Anaheim.

[Princes vs Paupers: A League Idea]

This should be more of a fast tournament/league type that lasts max for 1-2 weeks for me. So nothing too big. Players who are able to get their games in with ease.