NHL 16 - Be a GM: Player Morale
Being a GM in NHL 16 is about more than just getting the best players, it’s about getting the right players to play well together. Every player on an NHL or AHL team has a unique personality that you will have to manage. Deal with trade demands, teammate relationships, and much more by calling team meetings or adjusting your roster to directly affect your team’s on-ice performance.
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NHL 16 software engineer Brian Krause provides an in-depth look at the innovations made to Be a GM and Player Morale:
The principle goal for the feature was to represent the players in our game with personalities that would be affected by the events going on around them, or happening directly to them. Our goal was to model all the things that could happen to a player throughout any given year of an NHL season.
Every player in our game features a personality type upon entry into the league or when created for the first time (in the case of generated rookies for the Entry Draft). Each personality type includes a number of traits that impact how they react to certain events. Finding the right balance of players with the right traits and personalities can give your players boosts to their ratings and model a harmonious locker room.
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Above we see that Henrik Sedin lists Daniel Sedin as the player he has the most room chemistry with. It is possible for a player to have ‘Best Locker Room Chemistry’ with a player on another team. It is important to keep in mind player relationships and who they have ‘High Locker Room Chemistry’ and ‘Low Locker Room Chemistry’ with on the team. For example, if you trade or demote a player that Henrik Sedin has high chemistry with, it may negatively impact his player morale and overall rating.
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Every player's personality is different. Certain personalities will be happier if the team is winning and won’t put much stock in the makeup of the locker room. Other personality types will put more priority on locker room harmony morale and care less about the decisions that the team may make, such as who they may sign, release or send down to the AHL.
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This year also introduces ‘Team Meetings’ into the mode, which allows the user to interact with the team based on almost 30 different key events that can happen to a team in a season, such as being on a winning streak, playing a rival, or facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Each of the Team Meetings, and the speech you choose to give to the players based on that meeting will impact the players on the team based on their personality type and the situation.
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As a result of each Team Meeting, every player on the team will consider the situation they were in and how you spoke to them, which will impact their morale and overall rating. Learning what to say and when, based on the makeup of your locker room will be an important factor in maintaining high morale for your players.
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There are also Player Meetings you can have with players. There are over 20 different specific conversations you can have, ranging on topics from the recent team performance, failing to renew the contract of a teammate, to being made Team Captain. Each conversation may have an impact on personal morale.
