chaos Posted January 2 Report Posted January 2 The center has 2 specific player assignments: asscentero and asscenterd. These are used by the CPU to determine what the Center should usually do when their team has the puck, or when their team does not. asscentero - Center on offense When the team has the puck, the Center (when he doesn't have the puck) will have the asscentero assignment. Depending on where the puck is, the Center will skate to different zones on the ice. Take a look at the photo of the rink and its colored zones (in this photo, the team is shooting at the top goal. Everything will be referenced like that): The rink has extra areas marked on it. There is a line going up the center of the ice to divide the rink in half horizontally (X direction). I also lightly shaded the area in the offensive zone here the game considers the "slot". The location the C skates to inside the zones will be randomized. - When the team has the puck in their defensive zone, the C will skate to the lower zone right above their defensive blue line. - When the team has the puck in the neutral zone, the C will skate to the upper zone right below the offensive blue line (yellow). - When the team has the puck in the offensive zone, the C will skate to the blue area. - When the team has the puck below the goal line in the offensive zone, the C will skate to the reddish area. Once the C skates to their location, they will stay there. The game uses the puck location in reference to the blue lines and goal lines to determine where to have the C skate to. So in a way, you can "reset" the C position in the zone by moving the puck over one of the lines and back. This will change the RNG, and the C will skate to a different spot in the zone. Defensive Awareness is used by the C as a "timer". The higher the Awareness, the lower the timer. When the timer is up, the game will check if the C should skate to a new location. It will also check if the C needs to switch to defense. So a longer timer (lower DfA), it will take longer for the C to react to the change. I should also note that if neither team has the puck (loose puck), the C will still skate to these zones depending on the puck's location. If the C is the closest to the loose puck, they will end up being switched to assnearest and try to get the puck. asscenterd - Center on defense When the opposing team has the puck, the C will be switched to asscenterd to play defense. Defensively, the C will keep half the distance from the center of mid ice in X and the puck. When the puck is out of the defensive zone, the C will skate in Y half the distance between the high defensive slot and the puck. For example, if the puck is at center ice in Y, the C will skate to a little above their blue line. If the puck is at the offensive goal line, the C will skate to a little below (in the neutral zone) the offensive blue line. If puck is in defensive zone, the C will stay halfway in between the puck and center ice in X, and will stay at in the upper slot in Y. When looking at the rink photo above, if he is defending the top zone, he will stay in the same Y as the second set of light reflections. Defensive Awareness is used by the C as a "timer" here as well. When the timer is up, the game will check which team has the puck. If the other team still has it, the C will stay on asscenterd. If their team has it, they will switch to asscentero. If the puck is loose, the C will stay on asscenterd, unless they are the closest to the puck, which then they will get the assnearest assignment. There’s a bug! If you are defending the top zone, your C will skate towards center ice from your defensive slot as the puck moves towards center ice. Once it passes center ice, the C will actually skate past the puck. If you are defending the bottom zone, your C will stay near the offensive blue line when the puck is deep in the offensive zone, and will skate backwards while the puck moves towards the center line and your blue line. This bug only affects the C. Jamie Baker at the proper location when defending the lower zone: Jamie Baker not at the proper location defending the top zone: 2 Quote
chaos Posted January 3 Author Report Posted January 3 1 hour ago, AdamCatalyst said: So… how to fix the Centre bug? The problem is related to how it checks where the puck is. The other positions, it will check both sides of the rink (goal line and blue line). For some reason, center only checks one side of the rink. In the 92 source, it's checking both sides, so in 92, the C will behave like it should (when puck is in offensive zone on defense, they will sit near offensive blue line). This should be an easy fix, I just haven't looked at it deeply. Quote
AdamCatalyst Posted January 3 Report Posted January 3 2 hours ago, chaos said: The problem is related to how it checks where the puck is. The other positions, it will check both sides of the rink (goal line and blue line). For some reason, center only checks one side of the rink. In the 92 source, it's checking both sides, so in 92, the C will behave like it should (when puck is in offensive zone on defense, they will sit near offensive blue line). This should be an easy fix, I just haven't looked at it deeply. I've been sifting through '92 source code, and come across a few items where it is easy to affect a change in '92, but in '94 it doesn't seem to behave as expelled. The last one I came across was goalie save percentages. Works exactly as commented in '92, you can increase or decrease the likelihood of a goal or save in each goalie pose/position and easily see the result. In '94, the code is extremely similar, but modifying it doesn't seem to do… anything? Quote
chaos Posted January 3 Author Report Posted January 3 19 minutes ago, AdamCatalyst said: I've been sifting through '92 source code, and come across a few items where it is easy to affect a change in '92, but in '94 it doesn't seem to behave as expelled. The last one I came across was goalie save percentages. Works exactly as commented in '92, you can increase or decrease the likelihood of a goal or save in each goalie pose/position and easily see the result. In '94, the code is extremely similar, but modifying it doesn't seem to do… anything? 94 uses Puck Control. It has all those look up tables, then does nothing with them. Which is a real shame, because I thought that was a great idea. The Glv/Stk ratings of a goalie in 94 dont matter. Quote
AdamCatalyst Posted January 3 Report Posted January 3 Damn! Well, that explains it. I liked how easy it was to tweak the "hot spots" for shooting at the goalie in '92. Quote
Sauce Posted January 4 Report Posted January 4 8 hours ago, chaos said: 94 uses Puck Control. It has all those look up tables, then does nothing with them. Which is a real shame, because I thought that was a great idea. The Glv/Stk ratings of a goalie in 94 dont matter. Hi @chaos - perhaps I misunderstood your response (or the context) but, I thought the Glv/Stk ratings for goalies do matter? I thought (I read) that they determine how effective a goalie is at stopping shots at the blocker/stick side or glove side (in particular, a one-timer or slapper). When you update those attributes, in NOSE, the goalie's OVR goes up between 1-4 points suggesting it has an impact. Are you confirming that it doesn't actually do anything in NHL94? Quote
chaos Posted January 4 Author Report Posted January 4 12 hours ago, Sauce said: Hi @chaos - perhaps I misunderstood your response (or the context) but, I thought the Glv/Stk ratings for goalies do matter? I thought (I read) that they determine how effective a goalie is at stopping shots at the blocker/stick side or glove side (in particular, a one-timer or slapper). When you update those attributes, in NOSE, the goalie's OVR goes up between 1-4 points suggesting it has an impact. Are you confirming that it doesn't actually do anything in NHL94? In 92, according to the source code, Glv and Stk rating were used to determine if a rebound would occur, or the goalie would hold onto the puck. It also took in account the frame animation. So the higher the value, the sooner in the frame animation the goalie can make the save. This code is still there in 94, with some changes. But, the code never uses the value in any calculation. It just ignores it, and uses Puck Control instead. The GlvR is the only one used, in a case where the goalie can make a glove save if the value is above a 2.2 (so a 2 with a +1 Hot/Cold rating). This is used during save selection, which is a whole different routine. I'll do a writeup soon about goalies. I haven't done all the research on them yet, since its much different than how 92 does it (you can skate with a goalie and control it in 94, unlike 92), but I am 99.5% sure the Glv/Stk ratings don't matter. 1 1 Quote
Sauce Posted January 4 Report Posted January 4 30 minutes ago, chaos said: In 92, according to the source code, Glv and Stk rating were used to determine if a rebound would occur, or the goalie would hold onto the puck. It also took in account the frame animation. So the higher the value, the sooner in the frame animation the goalie can make the save. This code is still there in 94, with some changes. But, the code never uses the value in any calculation. It just ignores it, and uses Puck Control instead. The GlvR is the only one used, in a case where the goalie can make a glove save if the value is above a 2.2 (so a 2 with a +1 Hot/Cold rating). This is used during save selection, which is a whole different routine. I'll do a writeup soon about goalies. I haven't done all the research on them yet, since its much different than how 92 does it (you can skate with a goalie and control it in 94, unlike 92), but I am 99.5% sure the Glv/Stk ratings don't matter. Thanks for the additional info! Interesting and strange that it doesn't matter as it impacts Goalie OVR rating. I'm guessing it was just a programming thing that was not removed in 94? Anywho... I look forward to your continued findings! Quote
AdamCatalyst Posted January 4 Report Posted January 4 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Sauce said: Thanks for the additional info! Interesting and strange that it doesn't matter as it impacts Goalie OVR rating. I'm guessing it was just a programming thing that was not removed in 94? Anywho... I look forward to your continued findings! The overall player ratings seem to just be one of those completely cosmetic things. You can set what attributes to include, and how to weight them, but the output number only has perceived value to the user. Edited January 4 by AdamCatalyst 1 Quote
chaos Posted January 4 Author Report Posted January 4 3 hours ago, Sauce said: Thanks for the additional info! Interesting and strange that it doesn't matter as it impacts Goalie OVR rating. I'm guessing it was just a programming thing that was not removed in 94? Anywho... I look forward to your continued findings! Yeah, I did a lot of testing to see when the Glv/Stk values are read and used. I think the Ovr is just a holdover, and like @AdamCatalyst said, the Overall isn't saved anywhere, it's just calculated when needed. My guess is they made this change to improve the goalie. Though the Overall does favor Agl, PkC, and DfA, which are the most important attributes for a goalie. Quote
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