Posted by jack_duck on 10/22/2012 3:53:00 PM (view original):
Oops, I did it again.
With my Rose Hulman team in Wooden. This time against D2 simmys instead of D3. At least I lost this time, but only 12 TO's each game. Where it actually seems to be hurting me is in shooting percentage. And maybe a little in rebounding...but my team's rebounding ratings are uninspiring anyway.
I really don't like this. I don't know what it means. It has made me notice, that other than on certain plays (assists or TO's), the PBP really doesn't tell you who's handling the ball. Maybe there's a reason for that.
there is a reason the PBP doesnt tell you who's handling the ball. simple: nobody handles the ball. if someone could link the sim engine description i think it would be helpful for this discussion. effectively, outside some miscellaneous bullshit, the engine starts the possession by deciding who has the ball. then, there is the infamous TSF decision - turnover, shot, foul. the player has one of these 3 outcomes. note, pass and dribble are NOT options. if shot, theres some logic if he makes it, and it sort of goes like that for the rest of it.
thats pretty much it. the sim engine broken down to 3 sentences. is it possible to realistically capture the mechanics of basketball like this? no. that is why (IMO) the WIS guys published an article back in which the miami heat WITHOUT chris bosh actually had an INCREASED chance of winning a potential series. in what reality can LOSING CHRIS BOSH HELP YOUR WINNING CHANCES?? i mean its not the 1992 dream team we are talking about. its the miami heat. lebron and wade are already starting. WHO CAN YOU POSSIBLY REPLACE CHRIS BOSH WITH WHO DOESNT START ON THE HEAT THAT MAKES THEM BETTER??? PLEASE. TELL ME NOW AND I WILL NEVER SPEAK ANOTHER ILL WORD AGAINST THE HD SIM AGAIN.
this is why the game just doesnt make that much sense, and why ive started, stopped, and started again making my own sim engine about 15 different times. i mean, come on. the first real decision is who has the ball? it just doesnt pass the ol' litmus test. assists are PURELY cosmetic in this game - window dressing - so totally ignore them in your study about the bigs playing guards - it has nothing to do with anything (how can a good sim engine have assists be TOTALLY FAKED??). i mean, you can back-door some of this **** through creative equation creation after that TSF decision. but only in an artificial manner.
ive studied game results extensively, ridiculously extensively you could say. and as a extremely proficient software developer, i can often see beyond the results, to guess the code working behind the scenes - and it leaves me appalled. that is actually the #1 reason i have been retired in place the last 3 years - sure, i can spend the time, and win titles - but at what benefit? i see the sim engine for what it is, and it repulses me on a deep level. if i was still winning left and right, i would be doing it in a way that has little to do with real basketball and now that the thrill of reverse engineering a simulation game has passed (having largely completed that), i just want to play a bastketball game - and this aint it. the way i ran my unstoppable teams does not follow conventional basketball wisdom at all. in the new engine, im *just* finally at the point of getting back into it, to figure out what makes it tick with sebles changes - and once again, it has pretty little to do with conventional basketball wisdom (Admittedly, i am not an expert of that, but i know enough. and i am an expert about the HD sim itself - i can honestly say i was not a top 50 d1 recruiter in HD when i won 5 d1 titles in 9 years in the "coin flip dynasty" days when nobody was dominating - one of the greatest accomplish in all of HD history. and by the way, i had 6 d1 seasons IN MY LIFE at the point i pulled that off, so to say i was not a top 50 recruiter is the understatement of the century. my success was PURELY a result of knowing that sim engine inside and out better than anyone. and i can tell you, having looked at it at that depth, its just not pretty. its a hacked up piece of **** by my standards, and its a god damn miracle it passes for a basketball sim. i think its because most people dont have the math and theoretical computing backgrounds to break it down for what it is. good basketball tactics just dont work enough, and i think people all suspect it, they feel it, and people complain about it all the time. but they also have too much uncertainty about the sim's inner workings to be confident what they are doing SHOULD work and that it just isnt because the SIM just isnt good enough, and what about the sim makes it that way).
well that concludes my daily rant. ill try to keep it to one today, i think i was pretty drunk the other night (well, no doubt about that) and had a few rants around the board, although i think i found and deleted most of them. i think ill let this one stand though... at least for a couple hours. its just one of those subjects that gets me going because HD could be so big and they **** it up so bad in so many ways. and as my mastery being theoretical problem solving, the approach of the TSF decision kills me. i would have to literally shoot myself in the head before i could create something so poorly designed, from a theoretical standpoint. and OF COURSE, it manifests itself in the eventual quality of the sim. no, you shouldnt be able to run a 5 big lineup and make sweet 16s and **** regularly. no, you shouldn't be able to run a 5 guard lineup and do the same. but you can, because this sim engine is a poorly thought out product, plain and simple.
honestly its 100% the enjoyment i get from interacting with the community, especially my dearly, dearly beloved GLV tark conference (the strongest longest non d1 conf dynasty HD has ever seen, which has had a phenomenal group of guys over the years), that keeps me here. its not the sim. at this point, i am making a push to get back into the game. why? because i cant stand the random comments i hear from time to time doubting me as a coach. i was basically as successful in my prime as any coach has ever been and i would like to prove that was no fluke before i retire. plus, i expect by the time i finish the 1 year push, hopefully taking home a handful of titles (ill never get where i was - i just am too disgusted by parts of this game to spend a half hour a day actually playing ever again - i still spend more time talking about HD than i do playing my damn teams, by a long shot, and that will never change - but still, i can at least win a few). and then ill be able to retire, hopefully with a sterling reputation in terms of my understanding of THIS sim engine, which i hope will help me get coaches to try MY version of the sim engine - when you know what is wrong in version 1, you should always be able to make a superior version 2. its just a side project now, but i would love to make it my full time job - and i will, if i can get the damn project finished and get enough people playing to support my family as i try to take it to the next level.
10/22/2012 5:17 PM (edited)