ktulu explains Hockey Arena (from 2005!)
Hi guys and girls? let me introduce myself first...My name is Lukas aka ktulu and I want to present you one online hockey manager - Hockey Arena-> http://www.hockeyarena.net.
Some facts about HA->
1. game is free...
2. over 40.000 users
3. 42 countries(from Canada,USA,Slovakia,Finland,Sweden to Australia,Belarussia,Brasil... )
4. 26 languages
What is Hockey Arena all about? Every player from nearly 40 thousand registered ones is the owner of a hockey team, fully under his control. You decide on training regimes, you are preparing the lineups for matches, and many more management based activities. The fate of the team is completely in your hands. Only you will decide whether to bring new players from the trade market, whether to expand your training facilities, hiring cheerleaders for the team, and many more out of the money you receive from revenues gained--both from tickets sold or from the team's sponsors. You have to decide whether to invest in training facilities and youth schools to build from within, or to invest large sums on bringing players (such as free agents) from the transfer market. Every dollar spent has a direct impact on the future of the team, which is why it is very important to choose a strategy wisely, weighing in the benefits and flaws of each approach.
If you have decided to give Hockey Arena a try and create a team, you will automatically be placed into one of the leagues in your country. Of course, you will not find yourself in the highest league right from the start. If you want to compare with the best teams, you will have a long road ahead of you—every season lasts 70 days, during which you play 30 league matches in the regular season (A home and away set between the 16 teams in each league). The 8 best teams in regular season will advance to the playoffs, the two finalists promoting to a higher league. Aside from league play, there is the National Cup played on Wednesdays. If you are eliminated from the National Cup you can schedule friendly games to your off-days. Friendly matches are best to test new lineups, new tactics and give your starters a rest. There is also a World championship played once every two seasons, the best players from each country compete under the guidance of a National Manager, elected by all the managers from his home country. Will you be able to amass yourself such a successful reputation that you will become the National Manager for your country?
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NHL33 (aka The Budaj Bugati) gives new teams some Important Advice
Don't worry about winning games right now.
First, go around through the various menus. Click on the "?" button where appropriate for information. Secondly, read the overall guide found under Home --> Guide. Third, ask lots of questions. Discussion --> Canada. I think Canada might have a mentor program...I know the U.S. does, so if Canada does, apply for a mentor. Else I know Canada has some newbie / Q&A threads which you should go through. Long read probably but that's life.
For now you want to just build up your stadium (Team --> Stadium), this means spending every dollar you can every week whenever to upgrade. This means: spend up to the $14 million in debt allowable (you'd have seen this if you read the guide!) on training and regeneration. Both should be upgraded simultaneously, as both are equally important in daily improvements to your player. You want to get Y.S. to 20% ASAP as well. After that you can slack off on Y.S. and go the 40/40/20, 60/60/40, ... , 100/100/80 route on Training/Regeneration/Youth School.
Every Wednesday you get money for your sponsorship, $5100 for every member in your fan club (Team --> Info). For league games, the home team pulls in revenues...for friendlies, the money is split. Challenge higher leagues for more revenues, although it gets more difficult for the very high leagues since they stick to their own usually. :S
A playoff game in friendly means continuous O.T., a normal game means ties...go with the latter. It'll potentially save energy. Go around and challenge the V or VI or IV teams for friendlies for all your off-days. NOT DOING SO MEANS LOSING MONEY, expenses are daily regardless of whether there's a match.
This will be a tedious process for you, and you won't build your stadium up significantly for a while yet. Training your players is not very effective until you hit 80% in T/R, and it's quite amazing the differences between, say, 100% and 60%. Every 10% you get a boost, the maximum boost at 20%...but that's kind of off-topic for now.
Every other Sunday there is a youth pull. This Sunday there is none. Basically, that means junior players arrive and you can "build from within". Unfortunately, since building from within is most effective at high levels of T/R, it's not very feasible. All the same, this is a great opportunity to make a lot of cash if you hit the jackpot--look out for young players (19 or under) with high quality (90+ is excellent, 80+ is very good, 70+ is good) and preferably high potential. A player with 100% Quality will sell for a LOT on the market...if young. Older players, say, 25 years old? Not so much.
AI is critical. Younger players with high Q/P can be trained best and molded by teams with good facilities. So, I think you can see why the stadium is so critical to the game. Not only can you improve, but you NEED to do so for higher levels where the opposition does as well. Depending on the market, where prices are inflated, is a bad idea. Luckily, you're intelligent and will listen to us and do as we say and BUILD UP T/R (and Y.S. to 20%) and not fall into the trap. Don't waste money on scouting, don't worry too much about upgrading cheerleading or marketing regularly for now. Maybe give it the odd upgrade, but shouldn't be a concern nor should it interfere with you upgrading T/R (& Y.S.).
Right now, you're going to lose. A lot. If you go on the market, don't buy. Go watch how prices are, learn what are good stats to train for various positions, etceteras. If you're smart you'll spend hours on the market before actually buying...since you want to conserve money right now for your facilities.
Goalie: 1. Goaltending, 2. Speed, 3A. Passing (say 10) / 3B. Self control (say 7)
Center: 1. Attack, 2A. Shooting / 2B. Strength, 3. Passing (say 10)
Wingers: 1. Attack, 2. Shooting, 3. Speed (passing also imp.)
Defensemen: 1. Defense, 2. Strength, 3. Speed
*Important Market Info* Focus on #1 and #2 stat categories for the positions. As you grow older in the game, several seasons from now, more complementary statistics will grow in importance. For right now, to stay competitive at the lower level as you build up your stadium, if you DO purchase players, look for Q+P >= 120, with Q>60. For AI aim for the following:
19 years - 65
18 years - 50
17 years - 35
Try not to waste money. Spend at most, say, $100K. Use your judgment. Look for good AI totals at cheap cost with decent quality...DO NOT waste your money on veterans. Not only do they have higher daily salaries, they train slower, and right now building up you don't have much a use for them.
You might want to, say, get a good goalie for about $12 million at season's end or such. Throw it at a goalie with Q >= 60, about 21-22 years old, goaltending = 50, speed = 40, sco = 5.
I might be inflating the stats or such. I don't remember what are good starting numbers...but basically get a good goalie. DO NOT OVER PAY. Best thing to do is look several hours ahead and ask about players, say some goalie, and ask for an approximation of what he'll likely get or how much he's worth spending, etc.
Keep asking questions. No matter how stupid your question seems, it's probably been asked by at least 5 of us in the past. Keep building up your facilities. Don't worry too much about money.
Since this IS a sim game, it might not be appropriate for you. A lot of patience will be required, and the fruits of your labor will be sweet, but some either get frustrated, bored, or whatever. So, choose to spend your time wisely. I highly recommend the game and so do others, just make sure you're having fun and remember it's just a game. Don't let things beyond your hand get to you.
Hope this helps. It better. NHL33 (aka Budaj Bugatti) wasted some time typing it up.
Interesting Links HA-Tools - this is a nice way to get more information about your team as well as all of the teams in your league. Updated every few days. (created by react) HA Statistiky - This will give you interesting information about players, teams and leagues. Updated every couple of weeks. (created by jogo) HA-Extra - This FIREFOX add-on puts HA-Tools links right into the hockey arena web pages. It'll add one to team pages to see individual teams, one to your calendar to do a comparison with that opponent, and one to your league standings to do a league wide comparison. (created by Lamma|MOD)
We have another newbie guide from kdunbar. It covers a lot of the same stuff as NHL's, but it's got numbers!
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"THE CANADIAN NEWBIE LIST"
A few words / warnings / for new guys ...
1) Many of your players have temporary free contracts. They will be automatically signed within a week. (Don't worry about it.)
2) Don't spend too much more than 100K until you are more comfortable with the game's economics. You start with 3 M, but this disappears fast and comes back slow. It's easy to overspend when an auction heats up. Give yourself a limit.
3) Building your Training / Regeneration / Youth School / Marketing to 20% right away. There are bonus on multiples of twenty. Consider Training and Regeneration to be equal and opposite, they don't really do anything different from one another. It's difficult to see at first, but just build them evenly and figure it out later. Assuming that your Training and Regeneration are equal, set your "Training Intensity" to 85%. More decreases your player's energy, less wastes training. Set training schedules immediately, never let your players idle for even one day and lose that training.
4) Don't add seats until you begin to sell out many league games. When you do decide to add seats, (many sell outs in a row, ticket price is above league average, etc...) build it in an increment that will have the purchased seats available for your next home game (not a friendly).
5) You get roughly 7M every Wednesday from fans. This is all that keeps your team afloat for awhile. As such, don't panic if you go into the negative balances - you can go as low as -15 M but with no available money but you might miss out on a good buy on the market or other opportunity. Again, wait until you better understand the economics.
6) With that being said, you will be able to find players for 100K who will become immediate starters. Check out the market either way, and get to know it. Also, don't fire anyone with 60 Quality or more without trying to sell them on the market.
7) Quality - Arguably the single most important stat a player has. It's how fast a player improves. Make sure your best quality players are playing, these players will be your stars in five seasons.
8) Potential - The longevity of your players. Your players lose approximately 6 potential points a year, and once they hit 0, they stop gaining skills. They also go beyond zero and start getting worse. (94 - 88 - 82 - 76 - 71 - 65 - 53 - 47 - 41 - 35 - 29 - 24 - 18 - 12 - 6 - 0 - -6 - -12 etc...)
9) Scouting - All your players "actually" have one of these values for potential. If you look though your players though, you'll see all kinds of numbers, falling in between these numbers. This is because your scouts haven't sized up the player yet. You learn the player's exact quality at 18 and potential at 22. Until then, your scouts make a guess. Under Team -> Scout you can choose a player to learn their exact value. This is important, players can be off by as much as 20%.
10) example A player with 90 Q and 60 P player compared with a player with 60 Q and 90 P with the same AI stats. The 90 Q guy will reach a higher AI level, but the 90 P guy will be around 5 seasons longer.
11) Book up all free days with friendlies to help with the cash flow. If possible, try to book away/visiting friendlies against high league opponents (I.I II.1 II.2). They have better stadiums than you and will make more money per game. Friendly income is split between the two teams.
12) Read and ask lots of questions! We'll help you out.
Well once again the Flying Pigs win a match in USA V.11 (Hint Hint ), this time over the South Side Steel 6-0 Grega Radman scored two more goals and Jan Mokry scored a goal to get two goals ahead of Edward Rouse of The Lodgers in the best goalscorer category.
In other news, I have decided to sell Valentín Košík as he simply has not worked out the way I wanted him to. I figure that he will fetch the most money right now as some teams will be trying to get ringers for the playoffs. I'm going to do it tomorrow morning so he will be timed perfectly with all the European players who easily outnumber players over here.
Put a bunch of filler on market, maybe some of you in lower leagues could find a few of them of interest...
Jachym Gladis - 65Q, +? - OK probably not him Aladar Dinic - 83Q, -2 - decent Dman, though the P doesn't look good. Viktor Kuzmany - 73Q, -? - P looks good so I guess he could make decent C. Ambroz Brziak - 72Q, +? - another mediocre D. Alfonz Bohuslav - a pull I sold, buyer fired him and I re-signed him. 64Q, -?. Carlos Moretin - 90/53, -3. I'd advise against buying him unless -3 doesn't scare you. And even then the P is bleh.
Hey guys, I just got my Training and Regeneration and Youth School all up to 40%. Where would you guys recommend that I go from here? Finances are hard to manage while updating all three every two days. I would imagine the first two would take precedent over youth school.... but what else needs my attention now? I haven't updated anything else and my stadium only seats 3200. This is my first season of HA.
T/R > YS >> scouting > rest, IMO. I wouldn't bother with the rest and capacity until I'd get T/R up to 100. Then YS and maybe increase stadium size if you get some big money for season bonuses/player sales. Once first 3 are all 100, you can develop the rest if you wish. I like scouting but then I make a lot of 1-day scouts.
Hey guys, I just got my Training and Regeneration and Youth School all up to 40%. Where would you guys recommend that I go from here? Finances are hard to manage while updating all three every two days. I would imagine the first two would take precedent over youth school.... but what else needs my attention now? I haven't updated anything else and my stadium only seats 3200. This is my first season of HA.
I'd let go of youth school for a while and keep going with Training & Regeneration, those are supremely important.
Took a 2-1 loss on high to a team I beat earlier 1/7 on the PP Their goalie definitely outplayed mine. Puts me down to 7th.. and I now need to win what I figured would be the tougher games.
I've made an important decision. If I don't promote back to II.1 this season, I'm going to blow it up and go with the youth. I've got the highest AI in III.1, but I've let my payroll spiral out of control, so profits aren't looking so good. Added a 280 AI winger last week to help with the playoff push, so we'll see where it leads. I'm trying to nail down second place so that there's no chance I'd meet Acadmus in the promotion round, but a 2-1 loss last night hurt that chance as well.
Hey guys, I just got my Training and Regeneration and Youth School all up to 40%. Where would you guys recommend that I go from here? Finances are hard to manage while updating all three every two days. I would imagine the first two would take precedent over youth school.... but what else needs my attention now? I haven't updated anything else and my stadium only seats 3200. This is my first season of HA.
In your first season that is quite good progress. Personally, I would prioritise YS next, at least until you get to 40, but most here say T/R. Those three are definitely the big 3 though, there is no reason to touch the rest at this stage.
Thank you Frish and Hluraven! I think i'm probably going with T and R once the YS gets to 40%. That is a load off for a while. I am in position to really get paid by the league standings so when that happens i'll be ready to go.
Well so far it hasn't been bad for me as I rolled to a 10-0 win over Dogmode to clinch first place in the regular season. Richard Červeň scored four goals to lead my team to victory. Only bad news is that The Lodgers, the one team that scares me in the league, has lost two in a row and is now only in 3rd place by goal differential.
By the way, what is this new stuff about shooting/passing and experience/form? I just noticed it and am seeing I'm a good deal ahead of my league on shooting, but the rest of it brings me much closer to the top 3-4 spots.
I've been emailing my opponents letting them know I'm using my younger line-up. Everyone has been cool about until today. Rink Rats used a line-up that averages 243AI. Cockhole. We lost 0-9 (serioously? only 9 goals against 18 & 20yo goalies? Your teams sucks.), but we had 5 of the top 10 trainers. So **** the Rink Rats.
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Originally Posted by Rune Forumwalker
Does this mean that as a result all those who are trying to promote won't, and everyone else will fall below the bad line and relegate?
I've made an important decision. If I don't promote back to II.1 this season, I'm going to blow it up and go with the youth. I've got the highest AI in III.1, but I've let my payroll spiral out of control, so profits aren't looking so good. Added a 280 AI winger last week to help with the playoff push, so we'll see where it leads. I'm trying to nail down second place so that there's no chance I'd meet Acadmus in the promotion round, but a 2-1 loss last night hurt that chance as well.
Don't worry about facing Acadmus in the promotion round. You're almost guaranteed to promote if you play him
Honestly, I wouldn't bother getting back into II. You make less money and you're not competitive. It's pointless. The only bonus is slightly better experience. I started playing PPM because of this stupid league.
Don't worry about facing Acadmus in the promotion round. You're almost guaranteed to promote if you play him
Honestly, I wouldn't bother getting back into II. You make less money and you're not competitive. It's pointless. The only bonus is slightly better experience. I started playing PPM because of this stupid league.
It's not really less money. Just less money than you would expect. In every other league I promoted to, I was able to charge for regular season games the same amount that I charged to sell out in the playoffs of the lower league. I charged 2000 in the playoffs of III.2. That was good for 17M per game. That's what I expected to make when I promoted. If I charge 2000 in II.1, I might make 14M, but there's also a chance I get 10-11M. I've made less than that a couple of times. It's pitiful. It's like that for every price I've tried to use. It'll work great for a game or two, then I get nothing.
It's just frustrating when I could charge around 1400 in III.2, sell out every game and make 12M guaranteed. No guessing. No worrying about a crappy opponent screwing me. I never had to change ticket prices and I sold out all the time. I even made similar money in friendlies. Maybe I wasn't making the maximum amount of money possible, but I also wasn't losing millions of dollars because I accidentally charged 25 more than the fans were willing to pay. On top of that, my team was competitive.
EDIT: I made 269M in ticket sales in III.2 last season. That includes 3 playoff games. I've made 214M in II.1. I have one regular season home game (14M if I'm lucky) and 17 friendlies for around 1.6M each (27M). That's 255M total. If I had 3 playoff games up here, that would give me a few million more. It's just not worth it to me.
Closing out my first season playing HA and I'm in first place. I finally have a star on my team but would appreciate some advice in regards to how much merchandise I should buy. If it helps in any way, I have a fanbase of 1704 and a marketing team of 30%.
), this time over the South Side Steel 6-0 Grega Radman scored two more goals and Jan Mokry scored a goal to get two goals ahead of Edward Rouse of The Lodgers in the best goalscorer category. 
1/7 on the PP 
