Need advice for developing Players

And after playing through a player through two 150 goal seasons - 250 points, I was disappointed to see them go from med top 6 to high top 6 to high top 9.  They didn't move from 87 between the second and third seasons there.

I am thinking it is possible that EA is doing a 1 byte variable there and looping when it goes over rather than having it stay - they used to do that with all the stats.

Looking at it more.  That player got 281 points in that season - this can explain the drop in her potential from a High Top 6 to a High Top 9 - EA played their cards.  Clearly EA is using a rolling counter that measures the points a player has in a given year that runs from 0 - 255.  When she scored her 256th point it rolled over to 0 - and at 281 she was credited for only 25 points - a poor season, hence her potential dropped.

@EA_Aljocan you tell the team developing NHL 23 that they have to make that hidden points counter not roll over from 255 to 0 for the next game?  Only a 10 minute fix I'm sure and we don't need players only scoring 40 more points than Gretzky fizzling out because of the rolling error.  This is the opposite of a simming penalty.  They can add a line:

if (player[x].seasonpoints==255) break;
else player[x].seasonpoints++;    // I'm sure programmers will get this even if they find it archaic

Or they can calculate it from adding the season points from different teams into one int variable bigger than 1 byte, and apply the bonuses that way, or they can just use a second byte per player to store that data.  Any of those should fix the issue.

Thanks, @VeronicatheCD. I'll pass this on for you.

All my testing on this issue has ruined the experience for me with simming in franchise mode. Indeed, there are two factors:

1. Manual games (lots of points for your players) makes the most difference. 

2. Throwing players with high potential (or any potential) into the AHL is often pointless, just trade them away (maybe the AI sim engine will up their stats over time and you can trade for them again).

Just simming usually nothing happens with prospects. And playing 30-35 games a season even manually has not helped them much. Am I going to play every game manually? No. With just simming it is kind of lame; maybe in 10 years of simming you might see a single prospect jump up and become something decent, but you have no agency in developing them past playing every game yourself manaully and giving them unrealistic seasons, which defeats the purpose of simming anything in franchise mode or franchise mode period. 

I had hoped that even top 6 or low top 6 players that I gave ice time to in sim games (and playing manaully when I feel like it) would give me some agency in developing them, being able to say they are my player that I trained etc, but it is mostly smoke and mirrors and a mysterious algorithm at work here. 

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@heavydutyrammer wrote:
@3c10yn2rqqxoYeah I’ve asked EA mods before, to ask the dev team how to ACTUALLY develop prospects.. properly, according to the coding/algorithm… have been ignored every time… we shouldn’t have to TROUBLESHOOT a video game lol… and the lack of communication from EA’s team is outright disheartening, and kind of concerning… it means they either don’t care if we enjoy the video game or not and don’t care enough to tell us…. Or they don’t have an official explanation… offline players are easily the most neglected community… they will answer actual on-ice gameplay questions and concerns all the time… but only once in a blue moon will answer an offline mode question… and it’s usually “don’t have information on this topic” or “if I hear anything I’ll let you know”.. which means we won’t hear back about it lol…

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Yeah. this thread proves your points quite well. The Silence from the devs on this issue is telling. I won't be surprised if franchise mode is retired as well at some point in a future release.