06-21-2022, 04:53 AM_Blitz_ Wrote: So my question is, where is the line on this?

@Amidships made some excellent points about learning the sim and the system and how this new policy will likely hamstring a GM's ability to learn and orient themselves.

I'll take it a step or two further. If I want to sit down and create a test bed to do statistical analysis of goalie builds, is that something I can do? We've benefitted from having some pretty cool articles about that sort of thing in seasons past, is it banned now?

How about building new strategy aids? It feels like going in blind to just set a strategy and have to live with it. There's at least one version out there of a tool that compares strategy effectiveness. Are we allowed to build things like that from harvested data to use as references and tools?

What's the plan for when a team seems to be following the rules but still has some kind of competitive advantage? Are we as a community going to demand their secrets and start a witch hunt?

I want to like this idea, and I think it comes from a good place, but I'm not sure that this coming season is the right season to pull it out of the hat and give it a whirl. It feels like an overcorrection from "Ruthless Data Mining" to "Top Decking with a Blindfold". I would hope that there's some kind of middle ground.

Isn't literally the point of this ban to harmstring the ability of GMs to learn and orient themselves? Also, it's not like FHM is leaving you blind with the tactics, so even if it's not going to be the best line up in the world, someone who is willing to go through FHM's manual can put together a competetive set of lines within an hour, because you get pointers to what works with what and what doesn't. Yes, it's not going to be the most polished strategy you have ever seen, yes you are leaving games on the table potentionally, but at the same time, if the rest of the league follows suit and doesn't attempt to break the rule, so do others.

As for the witch hunts...how do you plan for that? It's nice to "have a plan", but what do you even do as a plan for a situation like that? HO will have to do what they will have to do, and whether it's based on reality or just a bullshit salty ramblings, they will act accordingly. I don't think they really need to share that part with us particularly, it might even be better if GMs don't know what leads HO can use to determine whether someone test simmed or not, if there are some.

Lastly, we were never supposed to be allowed to test sim in the first place. We saw pretty much exactly what we expected to happen if it was allowed. The concerns what happens when we can't do exist, sure, but in my opinion, are pretty small and not that important compared to the issues that are created by allowing test simming.