10-05-2019, 05:54 PM(This post was last modified: 10-05-2019, 07:17 PM by PremierBromanov.)
ready for grading. 5,348 words. In instances where i copied directly, i put them in quotes. Subtract these words accordingly, they have not been reflected in the word count
In this article, we seek to find and eliminate inconsistencies within the "Comprehensive Rookie Tutorial", as well as condense and organize some of the information to limit the number of tabs a player needs to keep track of while figuring this shit out and eliminate deprecated processes. I feel qualified to attempt an update having been a brand new SHL player in the S50 draft class. I have never done simulation hockey before this. I feel like this is an article worth writing to encourage discussion around the best way to handle this sort of thing AND because I can make some money doing it, hopefully. For the sake of avoiding plagiarism, we will rewrite the whole thing. This does not mean these parts need be updated, simply that I should not copy and paste the article.
Without futher adieu, lets begin Welcome to the Simulation Hockey League!
You're probably wondering what the SHL is and how it works and how you are meant to interact with it. So we'll run you through a few quick concepts before we teach you how to create a player, update his stats, and make money.
You Are:
You are a user onthis forum. You are the one that decides who and what your player will be. You are a teammate to your team. You are sometimes synonymous with your current player. As a new user, you will have one player. Your player will be run through a simulation every day. He will shoot, pass, deflect, skate, score, make saves, hit, take penalties, draw penalties, and do all the sorts of things a hockey player would do. Think of this like Dungeons and Dragons for hockey nerds, but on a much larger scale. The simulator will be the Dungeon Master, and your players stats will determine how he behaves. There is room for role-play when making media for the league (more on that later). Users are limited to one active player. Creating a new player will retire the old one.
Active users in the SHL speak with each other on discord and interact on the forum. They write articles about the SHL or create images to make (fake) money. Money is used to purchase training for your player and to buy equipment. Being active in the SHL usually means completing tasks, doing a job, and/or buying training weekly to improve your players stats. Your player will also sign a contract with a team when you are drafted that will give them money to spend every season. We will explain these concepts more in depth-below. But for now, understand some of the expectations of you as a user and a player. You can invest as much or as little time into your player if you wish. We highly recommend spending time in the discord getting to know the team that drafts you.
Some users act as General Managers for different teams. GMs are responsible for setting lines, drafting players, offering contracts, and making trades. Just like in the real NHL, GMs talk to other GMs and to players to help them run the team the best they can. They often act as your coach as well. GMs have limited resources to spend on players and as such, have to make decisions on how much money to offer free agents and unrestricted free agents. After you create your player, a GMs will reach out to you to determine what kind of user and player you hope to be moving forward, to help them determine where to draft you.
As a rookie, you will begin your career in the SMJHL, which is where juniors play. After your rookie season, you will be drafted to an SHL league, but you will probably keep playing in the junior leagues until your player is good enough to play in the big leagues.
You Have: Attributes You have a player, and your player has attributes, just like an RPG. Each attribute goes from 0 to 99. You spend training points (hereafter referred to as TPE) to increase your attributes. The higher the attribute, the more expensive it is to increase. You also have 1 weakness and 3 strengths, which are attributes your player is bad and good at (respectively). It is more expensive to update a weakness and your cap is lower, while strengths increase the cap of that attribute. Attributes follow an update scale as follows
For forward and defensive skaters, you follow this scale
0-60: 1 TPE per attribute
60-70: 2 TPE per attribute
70-80: 4 TPE per attribute
80-90: 8 TPE per attribute
90-99: 12 TPE per attribute.
Strengths: cap is 99
Weaknesses: cap is 85 and costs double to improve
All else are capped at 90.
For goaltenders, you follow this update scale
0-70: 1 TPE per attribute
70-80: 2 TPE per attribute
80-90: 5 TPE per attribute
90-99: 8 TPE per attribute
Strengths: cap is 99
Weaknesses: cap is 95, costs double from 0-85, then normal after.
All else is capped at 95.
So let's run through a hypothetical example. You have a forward with 50 passing and 60 scoring, neither of which are weaknesses. During the week, you earned 4 TPE. You decide to apply 2 TPE to passing and 2 TPE to scoring. Following the update scale, it costs 1 TPE to increase passing by 1, because it is less than 60. So your 2 TPE increase passing to 52. For scoring, since you are at 60, each point costs 2 TPE to increase this attribute by 1, so your 2 TPE will increase scoring to 61.
In the SMJHL, there is a cap on how much TPE can be applied to your player. In the first 2 years, this amount is 350, and in the final 2 years, it is 425. A dedicated player can reach the first cap by the start of their 2nd season. You can keep acquiring TPE even past the cap, because if you get called up to the SHL, the cap will not be applied to you there. Your GM will help you with this when you reach that point.
Each attribute has an effect on what your player does and how well they do it. Most attributes are improved by other attributes as well. When you create a player, your stats will start at the following values and you will have 155 additional TPE to enhance them for your starting build.
Forwards and Defensemen CK = Checking: 40 FG = Fighting: 25 DI = Discipline: 62 SK = Skating: 40 ST = Strength: 40 EN = Endurance: 40 DU = Durability: 50 (do not add TPE here, injuries are turned off) PH = Puck Handling: 40 FO = Face Offs: 40 PA = Passing: 40 SC = Scoring: 40 DF = Defense: 40 PS = Penalty Shot: 40 Goalies SK = Skating: 50 DU = Durability: 50 (do not add TPE here, injuries are turned off) EN = Endurance: 50 SZ = Size: 50 AG = Agility: 50 RB = Rebound Control: 50 SC = Style Control: 50 HS = Hand Speed: 50 RT = Reaction Time: 50 PH = Puck Handling: 50 PS = Penalty Shot: 50
Below we will explain each attribute, how it affects your player, and what attributes help it. You can read detailed descriptions of each attributehere. For now, we will be brief. When we say an attribute is "Enhanced by" another attribute, we mean the on-ice product, not the actual value of the attribute. ie, Endurance does not improve the value of Checking, but it does mean you player is able to throw more hits before becoming tired. Enhancing effects also do not have the same impact as on other attributes. One attribute can be affected greatly by another, but have an minor impact by another.
Skaters Checking (CK) Effect: How often your player will go for a hit. Enhanced by: Endurance, Skating
Fighting (FG) Effect: How often your player will start or participate in a fight. Enhanced by: Endurance, Strength
Discipline (DI) Effect: Your ability to take fewer penalties Enhanced by: Endurance, Skating, Checking
Skating (SK) Effect: How well and how fast you skate, as well as how often your player will carry the puck as opposed to pass or shoot. Enhanced by: Endurance, Strength
Strength (ST) Effect: Helps resist checks, out-muscle a player for the puck, knock other players off the puck with checks, and win face offs Enhanced by: Endurance, Skating, Face-offs
Endurance (EN) Effect: Allows you to play harder longer. Affects many stats. Enhanced by: None
Durability (DU) Effect: Nothing, since there are no injuries in this league. Do not put points here. Enhanced by: None
Puck Handling (PH) Effect: Prevents the puck from being stolen from you and helps you strip the puck from other players Enhanced by: Endurance, Strength, Skating
Faceoffs (FO) Effect: Your ability to win face offs. Your position will determine how often you take a draw (ie, centers face off much more often than wingers) Enhanced by: Endurance, Strength
Passing (PA) Effect: How often your player will pass the puck (as opposed to shoot or skate). Helps make the pass to the right place at the right time. Enhanced by: Your line mates, Scoring
Scoring (SC) Effect: How often your player will shoot the puck (as opposed to pass or skate). Enhanced by: Your line mates, Passing
Defense (DF) Effect: Helps you position yourself in offensive and defensive zone. Offensively, helps you position for shooting, passing, and skating. Defensively, helps you position for skating, blocking, checking, poke checking, etc. Enhanced by: Endurance, Strength
Penalty Shot (PS) Effect: Makes you better at shoot out and penalty shots. Enhanced by: Opposing goaltender penalty shot rating, luck.
Quote:When your player has the puck they have three options; Pass, Shoot, or Carry. Each of these options are represented by PA, SC, SK. Their ratings will determine how often you attempt something as well as determine how well you do it. PA:50, SC:50, SK:50 is just as likely as PA:99, SC:99, SK:99 to choose any task. However, PA:99, SC:99, SK:99 will perform those tasks better. Keep this in mind when you're building your player. A forward line who are only spec'd with high SC is less likely to perform well against a line that has balance, or a line who has players who fit specific roles. A line of three Wayne Gretzky's will get run over by a line of McSorley, Kurri, and Gretzky.
Goaltenders
Skating (SK) Effect: Helps you move across the crease and retrieve dump-ins. Enhanced by: Endurance, Agility
Durability (DU) Effect: Nothing, since there are no injuries in this league. Do not put points here. Enhanced by: None
Endurance (EN) Effect: Consistency between games and ability to stop pucks. Higher endurance lets you play effectively more often. Enhanced by: None
Size (SZ) Effect: Makes you appear bigger in net, makes holes behind you appear smaller, helps stop pucks. Enhanced by: Endurance
Agility (AG) Effect: Helps you move side to side and turn quickly to stop pucks. Enhanced by: Endurance, Skating
Rebound Control (RB) Effect: Helps you control the rebound and makes them less dangerous. Enhanced by: Endurance
Style Control (SC) Effect: Your ability to stay cool and calm to help stop pucks. Enhanced by: Endurance
Hand Speed (HS) Effect: Helps you move your glove and blocker more quickly to stop a shot and makes you quicker to cover a puck. Enhanced by: Endurance, Reaction Time
Reaction Time (RT) Effect: Helps you read and react to plays on the ice. Very important. Enhanced by: Endurance, Hand Speed
Puck Handling (PH) Effect: How often you go to the puck behind the net and your ability to corral it and not turn it over. Enhanced by: Endurance, Skating
Penalty Shot (PS) Effect: Your ability to stop penalty shots and shoot out attempts. Enhanced by: Opposing skaters penalty shot, Luck
Types and Position You have a position. Just like in real hockey, your choices are Left Wing, Right Wing, Center, Defense, and Goaltender. All Wings and Centers are considered Forwards.
You also have a player type. Your player type determines what strengths and weaknesses are available to choose from when you create your player. Your type is different from your position, and your position determines what types are available to choose from. Types do not determine what you do directly, but they do affect how you build your player. An enforcer will have a much harder time getting their scoring to the same value as a sniper.
You will have exactly 3 strengths and 1 weakness. Please note that when making choices, you cannot have duplicate strengths. Weaknesses will be harder to improve and are capped lower, strengths are capped much higher. The types are as follows
Forwards All Right Wings, Left Wings, and Centers are considered forwards, and they can choose from the following types. Enforcer*:
Strength 1: Checking
Strength 2: Fighting
Strength 3: Strength
Weakness: Scoring
Sniper:
Strength 1: Scoring
Strength 2: Attribute of your choice (cannot be passing)
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (cannot be passing)
Weakness: Checking or Defense
Playmaker:
Strength 1: Passing
Strength 2: Attribute of your choice (cannot be scoring)
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (cannot be scoring)
Weakness: Checking or Defense
Offensive Forward:
Strength 1: Scoring or Passing
Strength 2: Attribute of your choice (including scoring or passing)
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (including scoring or passing)
Weakness: Checking or Defense
Two-Way Forward:
Strength 1: Scoring or Passing
Strength 2: Defense
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (cannot be Defense)
Weakness: Passing, Scoring, Checking, Skating, Puck Handling, or Strength
Power Forward:
Strength 1: Checking or Strength
Strength 2: Attribute of your choice (including checking or strength)
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (including checking or strength)
Weakness: Passing, Scoring, Skating, or Puck Handling
Defensemen [b]Enforcer*[/b]:
Strength 1: Checking
Strength 2: Fighting
Strength 3: Strength
Weakness: Scoring
Offensive Defenseman:
Strength 1: Passing or Scoring
Strength 2: Attribute of your choice (including scoring or passing)
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (including scoring or passing)
Weakness: Checking, Defense, or Strength
Defensive Defenseman:
Strength 1: Defense
Strength 2: Checking or Strength
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (including Checking or Strength, but not Defense)
Weakness: Scoring
Two-Way Defenseman:
Strength 1: Passing or Scoring
Strength 2: Defense
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice (including Passing or Scoring, but not Defense)
Weakness: Checking or Defense
*Please note that Enforcers are in very low demand around the league (just like in the NHL). We do not recommend your first player be an enforcer.
Goaltender Stand-Up Goalie:
Strength 1: Size
Strength 2: Style Control, Hand Speed, or Reaction Time
Strength 3: Style Control, Hand Speed, or Reaction Time
Weakness: Skating, Agility, or Rebound Control
Butterfly Goalie:
Strength 1: Rebound Control
Strength 2: Style Control, Hand Speed, or Reaction Time
Strength 3: Style Control, Hand Speed, or Reaction Time
Weakness: Skating, Agility, or Size
Hybrid Goalie:
Strength 1: Style Control, Hand Speed, or Reaction Time
Strength 2: Style Control, Hand Speed, or Reaction Time
Strength 3: Attribute of your choice
Weakness: Skating, Agility, Size, or Rebound Control
Player Page and Updates
As a player, you have two very important threads in the forum. Your Player Page and your Update thread.
Your Player Page is where all of your current attributes sit and it is where the simulation will grab those values from. When you create a player, a page will be created for you. you cannot edit this post. An updater (a user whose job it is to update players) will edit this post to reflect your new values.
Your Update thread is where you will post updates to your player. An Updater will read this thread and apply the update your your Player Page. When you earn TPE, there will always be an associated form post with that TPE. Sometimes it will be a post you made, sometimes it will be a post an admin makes indicating that you have earned a certain amount of TPE by completing a task (these are graded). For training, there is a transaction page that you will link. We will go over how to do this later. Your updater will verify that the information is correct and let you know when your player has been updated.
You Can:
As a user, you have many ways to improve your player. Your primary resources are TPE and Money. Money will help you earn TPE and TPE will increase your attributes. But how do you acquire these things?
TPE There are many ways to earn TPE. The most common and consistent ways are to post in the Activity Check threads weekly, which earns 2 automatic TPE, and to purchase training, which awards a certain amount of TPE based on how much you spend. Every week during the season, there will also be a task to complete to earn TPE. These are graded by users who manage the league and usually entail writing something (150-300ish words) or creating an image or making a prediction. Each task will be very specific about who the task is for and how to earn TPE from it. If you have questions about these tasks, ask your GM for help. There are many tasks made specifically for SMJHL rookies to help you get a lot of TPE. There are also league sanctioned activities, like fantasy SHL, to help you get even more TPE.
Money Money makes the world go round. In the SHL, it helps you purchase training and equipment. Once a season you can buy equipment that will give you TPE in specific areas. Once a week, you can purchase training to get 1, 2 or 3 TPE. It's far less efficient to buy 3 TPE with training, but you can only buy it once a week, so it is recommended that you train every week. Training is usually more important than buying equipment, so make sure you have enough money every week to train your player so you dont miss out on that TPE!
There are a variety of ways to earn money.
Contracts: Every season, you will earn a salary based on the contract you signed. As a rookie, you'll sign a standard 1 year contract with your SMJHL team. After that, you'll be drafted and signed by an SHL club. You can still play for your SMJHL team while under contract by an SHL team. Don't be afraid to really discuss the contract. You have value as a user and a player. Some GMs draft and sign players based on which users they want in their locker room.
Media: There are two forums for media, one for each league. Take a moment to find it from the home page (https://simulationhockey.com/index.php) under League Media. Here you can earn money by writing about anything related to the SHL or the SMJHL. For every 100 words you write, you will earn $100,000. A user will come by and grade your article and deposit the money into your bank, if it is their job to do so. So, if you write 1,200 words, you will earn $1,200,000. A grader can subtract earnings from an article if it has poor grammar or has too much "fluff" or is otherwise low quality. In general, shitposts earn little to no money. But don't be afraid to get creative! As long as it has to do with the league, its teams, or its players. Feel free to write about your view as a player, or a good time you had with your team, or an in-depth analysis of the draft class, or something else!
If you're not into writing, you can also start a podcast. You can record this however you like and will be awarded $50,000 per minute, up to a maximum of $3,000,000 for one hour. Your podcast can be longer but you will only get paid for the first hour. You can only get paid for one podcast per week. Youll get paid as long as the topics within are about the SHL or the SMJHL.
Graphics: There is one graphics forum, under League Media, take a moment to find it from the front page. You can earn money by creating up to 4 graphics every week. These can be anything pertaining to the league, like a stat breakdown of a game or a "sig" for players. The graphics department will grade each piece for quality and pay you for it. You can also work by commission to receive money from other users. Graphics add an element of artistry and flash to the league, so if this is your game, go crazy with it! Many tasks that earn TPE can be completed by creating graphics instead of writing media.
League Jobs: The league is run by users who have league jobs. Once you are familiar with the SHL, you can apply for league jobs to earn a seasonal salary. You can find a list of job postings from the main page under Community > Announcements > Job Postings. The user who updates your player has a league job. The user who grades your articles and graphics has a job. Even your GM has a league job. There are even jobs for hosting awards shows and running game threads.
Twitter: Twitter is a fun way to earn a little extra cash. Every week you can earn up to $200,000 by making 3 tweets. Each tweet has to be on a different day and has to be related to the league and it must contain the hashtag #shlhockey. The twitter account can be personal or one you created for your player and does not require any followers. To claim your money, post the 3rd tweet of the week here [TWITTER DEPOSIT LINK GOES HERE]
Lets Get Started
By now you're like "Just let me create my player already!" and you'd be entire justified in that desire. We're going to hold your hand through this processes so there will be as little confusion as possible.
The first step is to create your account go to the home page (https://simulationhockey.com/index.php). In the top right corner, select "Create Account". This works like any other website. Your username will be the name that appears next to all of your posts, so name it something that you would like to be known by. This will NOT be your player name. After that, we can create your player.
Go to the home page . From there, at the top of the page, click "Create a player". This will take you to a form you will fill out that will automatically create a Player Page for you.
First/Last Name: This is the name of your player. It is the name by which he or she will be known by. It will appear in the simulation and is how your follow players and GMs will know your player Position: This determines the position your player will play. Remember that Left Wings, Right Wings, and Centers are all considered "Forwards". Don't worry too much about what the league has need of, but take note that goalies are a little bit harder to find room for. Shoots: The side your player shoots on. Has no real bearing on the simulation. It's more for flavor Recruited By: Here you can put the username of who recruited you, or the recruitment thread from another website. Not required. Player Render: If you have a real world player you want your player to look like, put it here. This can always change later. This mostly helps graphics artists find photographs and videos to use for your player. If you're not sure, leave it blank Jersey Number: Not super important but required. This can always change, just ask your GM. Height/Weight: The sim takes into account how big your player is for certain things. Light, heavy, short, and tall players have all be seen in the league. Don't worry too much about this. There's no real wrong answer. Birthplace: This actually matters. Your birthplace determines where you play internationally. The SHL has an international league that plays between seasons and you will automatically be placed in the junior team of the country you were born in. This does not mean you will actually play. If you're not sure where you want to play, you can select "Other" and get placed into a team later. The countries with teams are: Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. After your rookie season, you are eligible to be traded or signed to other countries' teams. Each federation is run by different GMs, just like the SHL and SMJHL. Player Type: As we discussed earlier, your player type determines your strengths and weaknesses. Please read the section on player types if you havent. Strengths: You will need to select 3 strengths. The dropdown has a list of all the strengths available based on your type. Do not select duplicate strengths. Weakness: You need to select 1 weakness from the dropdown.
Player Attributes: Finally you can start building your player. You have 155 TPE to spend, so spend it wisely. As a general rule, skaters with high fighting don't do well in the league and penalty shots arent very important. The form will keep track of how much you've spent and how much is available. There's not a whole lot you can screw up in this process, so don't worry! Your GM and team will help you form a build to work towards as you get more TPE. As long as you don't spend too much in one category, your build can be salvaged from here. But, a good build will help you get drafted sooner. Go with your gut, create a player you think would be successful in the NHL!
After you click submit, a player page will be created on the forum. Remember that you cannot edit this post, an updater will do that for you. A member of SMJHL Head Office will swing by the Create a Player forum shortly to approve your player and register you for the upcoming draft class.
Next Steps
Now that you've created your player, lets try improving him or her. This section will get you started on how to get TPE and make money.
[Editors Note: here is where we can condense and simply the first task. As of right now, the Guide and the first task link to eachother and have redundant information.
Your first task. Your first point task can be found here. Follow the instructions within. This task will give you free money. However, it won't go over how to apply the TPE you earned.
Applying your TPE: Now that you've claimed your first TPE and created an update thread, it's time to post in your update thread in order to apply that TPE. If you havent created an update thread, go to this subforum and click "New Topic" in the corner. The title of your topic should be your player name followed by "Update Thread". For example, "John Smith Update Thread". This thread will exist for the entirety of your career and will be moved around to your respective team forum.
You'll link your training and your TPE claim in a new reply and indicate where you want that TPE to be spent. Every time you earn TPE, you will edit this post with the new TPE values in. Later, an updater will come along and update your player. Then they post "Updated!" to indicate that your player is updated. After the updater posts, you will need to create a new reply in that thread. Updaters only look for replies in your update thread that happen after the last "Updated" post. Be sure to keep track of how much TPE you've earned in the week and how much you've earned total. Do not use decimals for partial attribute points, but instead use the whole fraction. ie instead of .5, use 1/2 and instead of .75 use 3/4.
Here is an example of an update reply.
You need to link to the posts or bank transactions that earned you TPE. To do this, click on the link button and follow the instructions. Then, next to your link, indicate how much TPE you earned.
Every time you earn TPE, you'll have a link to a post or bank transaction. Now, total up the TPE you've earned like in the image above. Ignore the "Cap" part for now, this applies only to SHL players and you will learn about it next season.
Now you can improve your player by assigning the TPE to the attributes you want. Remember to follow the update scale! (see above). Updaters will check that your math is right and leave any notes if something is inaccurate. Try your best to do it right, but don't worry if it's wrong! You won't get in trouble, but you will make the updaters life more difficult. Having partial attributes is okay! The sim will round fractions down to the nearest whole. Be sure to keep track of these partial attributes between updates.
That's it! You've done everything you can do for now. Feel free to explore the site and get ready for the first draft! Keep an eye on your inbox for messages from GMs looking to draft you!
Additional Resources
Quote:Now that you've got the basics down, here are a few handy links and sub-forums that you can look through while you're finding your bearings on the site.
SHL Fantasy - Every season, you can sign up to be part of a fantasy league on the site. Similarly to ESPN or Yahoo! fantasy leagues for the NHL, you're scored on the performance of the players you draft over the course of the regular season. The only difference is that the players that you're drafting are SHL players! Signups open every offseason for the upcoming season, just post in the signup thread and you'll be good to go! For merely completing the draft every season, you'll earn $1m, and if your team does well enough, you can earn up to 10 TPE as a bonus reward. The fantasy subforum has all of the guides you'll need to do well in this activity.
SMJHL Games - This is where the index threads for the SMJHL games can be found. Every day during the regular season, the index will be updated, and our simmer will drop a note in the thread indicating this. You can follow along with your season through this index, and it'll be clearly labeled with the season.
SMJHL Media - This is where you'll be posting media about your player or the SMJHL, and reading other members' media as well.
Post-Game Shows - During your rookie season in the SMJHL, you can earn up to 15 TPE by participating in this system. There is a more detailed explanation in the subforum, but the gist of it is that you'll be summarizing and commentating on games throughout the season like a color commentator.
Same IP thread - If you bring anybody onto the site that may be sharing an IP address with you at any point, make sure to post in here to let us know!
How to Build a Sig - You'll find that most members of the site have some sort of signature under all of their posts providing links and information pertaining to their players. This is a tutorial on how to create one for yourself!
Rulebooks - Make sure to take a peek at the rulebooks for the different leagues. While you don't need to know them back to front, a working knowledge of them would be useful to make sure you're not inadvertently breaking any rules
Team GMs - This post contains a list of all the SMJHL and SHL GMs, along with links to their profiles and team information.
I would love suggestions on how best to handle some of these things. for instance, to what degree should we encourage or discourage weird height and weight combos, or fighting and checking.
10-05-2019, 07:06 PMPremierBromanov Wrote: I would love suggestions on how best to handle some of these things. for instance, to what degree should we encourage or discourage weird height and weight combos, or fighting and checking.
10-05-2019, 07:06 PMPremierBromanov Wrote: I would love suggestions on how best to handle some of these things. for instance, to what degree should we encourage or discourage weird height and weight combos, or fighting and checking.