Phil Talks: TPE Update Scale
It’s very hard to do an analytical piece when you do not have access to the VHL. I suppose that’s why I have not been writing Hall of Fame articles recently. I do have lots of time to do them at work when I open at 6:30am, but unfortunately, the site has been blocked so I have to resort to finding other ways to write up original ideas. What I should probably do is screenshot each season of their careers, including the standings page, team scoring, and individual leaders. I feel bad for @Victor because I’ve been meaning to do Matt Bentley’s HoF article for a long time. Perhaps I’ll try that and see if I can write it at work. It’s just the summer’s pretty busy at work so I don’t have a lot of time in front of the desk. After Labour Day I’ll pump them all out.
So what should I talk about instead? I would like to give my thoughts on a suggestion and idea that has been thrown around. The first one being the hot topic in the Board of Governors as of late: the TPE Update Scale.
Now the one thing you all must understand is that since its inception, the TPE scale has not been changed. This is relevant because the amount of TPE you can earn now is vastly bigger than what it was back in its first decade of seasons. A great, active player earned 400+ TPE, and the TPE whores would barely manage 700. Now, we can have a semi-active player easily surpass 600 TPE and actives are eclipsing 1000 TPE with great ease.
Let’s look at this. We all know the update scale. To get an attribute maxed it take 30 (from 40-70), plus 20 (from 70-80), plus 30 (from 80-90), plus 36 (from 90-99), to equal 116 per attribute. A player who earned 700 TPE in the first few seasons would rarely have more than 3 attributes maxed, because they’d have to play it wisely for depreciation. Now, actives like me have 1000 TPE before they’ve even hit depreciation, and can max out everything.
When I entered the league in S18 as Phil Gerrard, username ssdd911, I worked harder than you all know, bar @Knight. I put in hundreds of hours into the site creating and compiling records etc blah blah. I ended my career with 996 TPE, the most TPE ever in the VHL as a first gen. I was considered the last before TPE inflation. Basically what I’m saying is that if I did the same amount nowadays, I would have shattered the TPE record.
But here’s my angle for the update scale: It stifles activity. My second player was Phil Rafter. I went inactive with him during my last two seasons after jumping from Davos, and yet I still managed to surpass Gerrard and eclipse 1000 TPE. I lost interest… because I had maxed out my stats and there was nothing for me to work towards. So what’s the point? It’s even worse now. I had reached 1000 TPE before I was even depreciated with Hamilton. I have resorted to upgrading discipline and penalty shot because there’s nothing left. I believe we'd have more activity if every Point Task actually meant something.
My biggest concern is that there’s no player builds left. It’s only 99 everything. Kudos to @der meister for so far sticking to his word and creating a pure playmaker. But there’s too much TPE floating around to not see this as an issue… and an issue that I’ve been telling everyone about since the mid S20s. No one would listen.
Creating a tougher update scale would encourage people to really think about which attributes you’d like to excel at. The would bring back the player build. So what if an inactive or semi-active can’t max out some attributes, or for that matter, an active? Because I will let you in on a little secret – you don’t need everything, or even anything maxed to make a super-star.
That’s right, you just simply don’t. Just look at an NHL video game. How many players in those games have more than 3 attributes at 99? How many even have 99? Does that mean they aren’t any good players? Obviously not... 99 means as close to PERFECT as you can get. How realistic is it that everyone has God-status here?
I would propose a harsher update scale to the one @Mr. Power proposed. I wouldn’t worry about Primary and Secondary attributes. I would just change the scaling.
40-50 – 1 TPE
51-60 – 2 TPE
61-70 – 3 TPE
71-85 – 4 TPE
86-95 – 5 TPE
96-99 – 6 TPE
Shocking! I am proposing that in order to get ONE attribute to 99, I would have to spend 194!!
Okay, if you are done sobbing into your diaper, let’s just look at a random average active member would very realistically get 700 TPE before depreciation. I am going to try to create a player build as a scoring first-line center:
Checking: 50
Fighting: 40
Discipline: 40
Skating: 90
Strength: 60
Puck Handling: 90
Faceoffs: 80
Passing: 50
Scoring: 95
Defense: 70
Penalty Shot: 40
Experience: 63
Leadership: 40
Hey! That looks like a realistic player build! Of course, some will get more, some will get less.. depending on your activity. But here we see that if you can only gun for a couple of attributes to get into the 90s and I like that. We’ll be more focused on creating different builds and GMs will need to more carefully select draftees and FAs. Those stats are good enough for you to perform well in the sim. All it will do it really separate those who are active from those that are inactive and not just when depreciation hits.
I would also suggest that the two player store purchases relating to depreciation be cheapened. Currently it costs $16,000,000 for both the Jaromir Jagr and the Old but Not Forgotten, which stops depreciation of one attribute, and decreases the hit on your depreciation by one season, respectively. I think this is key in all of these talks about changing the update scale. Make these more affordable and that way your hard-earned 90 can be recovered more easily.
I could go on and on about this, but I’m already well over 1000 words. At the end of the day, things need to change and it’s ridiculous that in the VHL we have over 10 players with 99s in more than 5 categories and inactives challenging for Top trophies. Reward activity and forget inactivity.
.png.ed69a7260a477fcf4feead7a0e4b7506.png)
