Social Introducing NZW Ultimate Team

[tajhay]

Btw i should mention that the pre match preview does not leak anything...think of it as a nrl tv show previewing the game, some stuff it will know as absolutes ie how u have been playing in the past, who is injured, but nothing bout your gameplan etc for week. Odds and expected result for game can possibly change based on what you submit (team list naming is considered).

 

[Inruin]

Good game @tajhay = is that the first Golden point game?

I was lucky SJ wasnt playing.

Few queries from the game
+ seemed like a lot of kicks out on the full which is usually a rarity in games especially ones not involving TMM. Is that a setting thing that needs tweaking?

+Did Adam Blair came back on early? Should have been in the second half not the first half?

+With the Fusitua injury, what was the reshuffle? Comment was Fa'afili replaced him so not sure how my team lined up with Fusitua off?

+Some of rhe commentary seems muddled, saying one player did something then attributing it to another in the next comment. Like Metcalf has over cooked that kick - Boyd kicks out on the full.

 

[Cces]

Well I guess I can't win the comp now after getting 54 rammed into me. Well done to you @roguei

@tajhay, in between conceding intercept tries, a fatigued Karl Temata covered a HIA in the halves even though I had a fresh Nathan Friend on the bench. Friend has superior Kicking, Passing and Game Sense. Why would the sim have chosen Temata? Tevita Latu covered for the Salamanders when they had a HIA in the halves.

Steve Price got injured in the 48th minute & needed to go off but they had no subs so had to carry on. He scored 10 minutes later & then passed 150m.

Also, zero influence of the game but on the very last play this occurred which seemed odd as AKP won the race on the 5th. Was there a second kick?

 

[tajhay]

Good game @tajhay = is that the first Golden point game?

gg mate. yep i just checked it was the first golden point game. i need to stop making comments prior to our games...i think i correctly predicted score of our prior game and just mentioned golden point last week...it might seem like i know results or have an impact on these but i honestly do not.

i had claude go through your questions and analyse:

+ seemed like a lot of kicks out on the full which is usually a rarity in games especially ones not involving TMM. Is that a setting thing that needs tweaking?

2. Kicks Out On The Full
There were 5 kicks out on the full during the game:

• Greg Alexander — 3 (at 8', 46', 48')
• Tanah Boyd — 1 (at 56')
• Luke Metcalf — 1 (at 31')

Why so many? Two factors:

• Both teams were on "long" kicking strategy — this increases the chance of misjudging distance by 25%
• 61 total kicks in the game — very high volume. More kicks = more chances for errors
• Greg Alexander's kicking rating (60) and Boyd's (47) aren't elite — they're more error-prone than specialist
  kickers

Statistically we'd expect about 3-4 kicks out on the full given the volume and ratings, so 5 is slightly above
average but within normal range for a game with that many kicks. The commentary does make it feel like more
because it sometimes reports the same kick-out twice with different wording — that's a display issue I'm looking
into fixing.

+Did Adam Blair came back on early? Should have been in the second half not the first half?

3. Adam Blair's Interchange Timing
Blair came on at the 38th minute (interchange 5/8), replacing Mark Horo just before halftime. This was
triggered by the engine's fatigue system — Horo's energy dropped below the interchange threshold. If you want
Blair specifically held for the second half, you can use Custom Stints on the Game Plan page and set his
"from" minute to 40 or later. That locks him to your exact timing rather than letting the engine decide.

+With the Fusitua injury, what was the reshuffle? Comment was Fa'afili replaced him so not sure how my team lined up with Fusitua off?

4. Fusitua Injury & Reshuffle
Fusitua went down at the 48th minute with an AC joint knock and had to come off. Henry Fa'afili came on as
his replacement, slotting into Fusitua's wing position. Fa'afili then had an absolute monster game — 261 run
metres (most in the match), scored a try at the 73rd minute, and picked up 2 Dally M votes. Sometimes
injuries open the door for a hero!

+Some of rhe commentary seems muddled, saying one player did something then attributing it to another in the next comment. Like Metcalf has over cooked that kick - Boyd kicks out on the full.

5. Commentary Mix-ups
You're right that some commentary lines attribute a kick to one player then the next line names a different
player. This is a known issue with how the broadcast engine generates play-by-play — it sometimes picks the
five-eighth for the setup description but the halfback for the execution. I'm working on tightening that up so the
same player is named consistently through each play sequence.

 

[Cces]

4. Fusitua Injury & Reshuffle
Fusitua went down at the 48th minute with an AC joint knock and had to come off. Henry Fa'afili came on as
his replacement, slotting into Fusitua's wing position. Fa'afili then had an absolute monster game — 261 run
metres (most in the match), scored a try at the 73rd minute, and picked up 2 Dally M votes. Sometimes
injuries open the door for a hero!

Fa'afili is down as starting & playing all 86 minutes

 

[Inruin]

gg mate. yep i just checked it was the first golden point game. i need to stop making comments prior to our games...i think i correctly predicted score of our prior game and just mentioned golden point last week...it might seem like i know results or have an impact on these but i honestly do not.

i had claude go through your questions and analyse:

2. Kicks Out On The Full
There were 5 kicks out on the full during the game:

• Greg Alexander — 3 (at 8', 46', 48')
  
• Tanah Boyd — 1 (at 56')
  
• Luke Metcalf — 1 (at 31')
  

Why so many? Two factors:

• Both teams were on "long" kicking strategy — this increases the chance of misjudging distance by 25%
  
• 61 total kicks in the game — very high volume. More kicks = more chances for errors
  
• Greg Alexander's kicking rating (60) and Boyd's (47) aren't elite — they're more error-prone than specialist
  kickers
  

Statistically we'd expect about 3-4 kicks out on the full given the volume and ratings, so 5 is slightly above
average but within normal range for a game with that many kicks. The commentary does make it feel like more
because it sometimes reports the same kick-out twice with different wording — that's a display issue I'm looking
into fixing.


3. Adam Blair's Interchange Timing
Blair came on at the 38th minute (interchange 5/8), replacing Mark Horo just before halftime. This was
triggered by the engine's fatigue system — Horo's energy dropped below the interchange threshold. If you want
Blair specifically held for the second half, you can use Custom Stints on the Game Plan page and set his
"from" minute to 40 or later. That locks him to your exact timing rather than letting the engine decide.


4. Fusitua Injury & Reshuffle
Fusitua went down at the 48th minute with an AC joint knock and had to come off. Henry Fa'afili came on as
his replacement, slotting into Fusitua's wing position. Fa'afili then had an absolute monster game — 261 run
metres (most in the match), scored a try at the 73rd minute, and picked up 2 Dally M votes. Sometimes
injuries open the door for a hero!


5. Commentary Mix-ups
You're right that some commentary lines attribute a kick to one player then the next line names a different
player. This is a known issue with how the broadcast engine generates play-by-play — it sometimes picks the
five-eighth for the setup description but the halfback for the execution. I'm working on tightening that up so the
same player is named consistently through each play sequence.

From a realism point of view 5 kicks out on the full seems excessive.

had all my subs on custom. Blair was supposed come on in the second half for his second stint.

Fa'afili was already playing on the opposite wing so not sure how my team lined up once Fusitua was injured

 

[Cces]

Fa'afili was already playing on the opposite wing so not sure how my team lined up once Fusitua was injured

Fien came off after 30 but ended up with 68 mins. Fus went off 38 minutes before fulltime. With Egan finishing with 58 mins it looks like Fien had a go on the Wing

 

[tajhay]

@tajhay, in between conceding intercept tries, a fatigued Karl Temata covered a HIA in the halves even though I had a fresh Nathan Friend on the bench. Friend has superior Kicking, Passing and Game Sense. Why would the sim have chosen Temata? Tevita Latu covered for the Salamanders when they had a HIA in the halves.

At minute 18, Temata was subbed off (Matulino replaced him at Prop). At minute 20, Leuluai (#6 FE) got the HIA.
The engine's reshuffle logic:
1. Blake Green (#7 HB, secondary: Five-eighth) shifted to #6 FE ✓
2. Now #7 HB was vacant — the engine checked all bench players for "Halfback" fit
3. Neither Friend NOR Temata have Halfback as primary or secondary — both score 0
4. When all bench players score equally (0), the engine picks the first available by bench slot order — Temata was
in the lowest slot since he'd just come off

This is a legitimate weakness in the engine — when no bench player has a positional match, it should use skill
ratings (kicking, passing, game sense) as a tiebreaker rather than slot order. Friend would have been the clearly
better choice for a halves cover based on skills. Fix in progress for next round

Steve Price got injured in the 48th minute & needed to go off but they had no subs so had to carry on. He scored 10 minutes later & then passed 150m.

Steve Price playing through injury — Price got bruised ribs at 48' with no interchanges left. The engine
applied a 25% effectiveness reduction (effectiveness *= 0.75). He then scored at 59' and passed 150m. The 25%
penalty reduces his carrier selection weight and play impact, but doesn't prevent big plays — a 75% effective
version of a strong prop can still score. The penalty should arguably be harsher (50% for "needs to come off"
injuries) to better reflect real NRL where a player with bruised ribs who can't be subbed is essentially a
passenger. Fix in progress for next round.

Also, zero influence of the game but on the very last play this occurred which seemed odd as AKP won the race on the 5th. Was there a second kick?

This is a sequencing bug. Fix in progress.

 

[Mr. Brownstone]

What is a level of fitness where performance isn’t significantly compromised?

 

[tajhay]

had all my subs on custom. Blair was supposed come on in the second half for his second stint.

Fa'afili was already playing on the opposite wing so not sure how my team lined up once Fusitua was injured

2. Adam Blair's Interchange Timing
I traced this one through the game data and found a genuine bug. Your custom stints had Logan Swann replacing
Blair at #12 from the 25th minute, with Blair scheduled to return to #13 LK at the 50th minute. Here's what
happened:

• 25' — Swann ON at #12, Blair goes to bench ✓ (as planned)
• 38' — Engine brings Blair on early to replace a fatigued Mark Horo ✗ (NOT planned)

The engine's auto-rotation saw Blair sitting on the bench and treated him as an available player — it didn't know
he was supposed to stay benched until 50'. This was a bug and has been fixed. Players displaced by custom
stints who have a scheduled return time are now locked out of the auto-interchange pool until their return minute.
So in future games, Blair would stay on the bench from 25' until his planned return at 50'.

3. Fusitua Injury & Fa'afili
You're right to question this. Looking at the data:

• Fusitua (#2 Wing) went down at the 48th minute with an AC joint knock
• Fa'afili was already on the field at #5 Wing — he was your other starting winger
• All 4 bench players were forwards/hooker — no wing cover on the bench

What actually happened is the engine had no bench winger to bring on, so it did a positional shift —
Fa'afili effectively covered both edges. But the commentary incorrectly said "Henry Fa'afili comes on as the
replacement" which made it sound like he was coming off the bench. This was a commentary bug — the engine
was doing the right thing (shifting an existing player) but describing it as if someone was being subbed on. Fixed
for future games — it will now say "Fa'afili shifts across to cover Wing" when an on-field player moves to cover
an injury rather than a bench player coming on.

All three fixes are in for the next round. Cheers for the detailed feedback — this level of scrutiny is exactly
what helps make the sim better.

 

[tajhay]

What is a level of fitness where performance isn’t significantly compromised?

Fitness affects TWO things:

1. Starting effectiveness (line 113): mult *= 0.70 + (fitness / 100 * 0.30)
- 100 fitness = 1.0x (full effectiveness)
- 80 fitness = 0.94x (6% reduction)
- 70 fitness = 0.91x (9% reduction)
- 50 fitness = 0.85x (15% reduction)
- 0 fitness = 0.70x (30% reduction)
2. Fatigue rate (line 133-134): baseRate = 0.018 - (combined / 100 * 0.012) where combined = 60% fitness + 40%
endurance
- 100 fitness = 0.006 per set (tires slowly)
- 80 fitness = ~0.008 per set
- 70 fitness = ~0.010 per set
- 50 fitness = 0.012 per set (tires 2x faster than max fitness)
- 0 fitness = 0.018 per set (tires 3x faster)

The sweet spot where performance isn't significantly compromised is around 80 fitness. At 80 you lose only 6%
starting effectiveness and your fatigue rate is only ~33% faster than a fully fit player.

 

[tajhay]

Fien came off after 30 but ended up with 68 mins. Fus went off 38 minutes before fulltime. With Egan finishing with 58 mins it looks like Fien had a go on the Wing

That is exactly correct and what happened due to no cover backline on the bench. A good way to have cover on the bench for injuries to the backs is to have a back on the bench with a custom stint of say around 70 mins replacing another back (would be good if he is not needed before anyway and ensures that you utilise that bench spot for some benefit).

 

[Inruin]

2. Adam Blair's Interchange Timing
I traced this one through the game data and found a genuine bug. Your custom stints had Logan Swann replacing
Blair at #12 from the 25th minute, with Blair scheduled to return to #13 LK at the 50th minute. Here's what
happened:

• 25' — Swann ON at #12, Blair goes to bench ✓ (as planned)
  
• 38' — Engine brings Blair on early to replace a fatigued Mark Horo ✗ (NOT planned)
  

The engine's auto-rotation saw Blair sitting on the bench and treated him as an available player — it didn't know
he was supposed to stay benched until 50'. This was a bug and has been fixed. Players displaced by custom
stints who have a scheduled return time are now locked out of the auto-interchange pool until their return minute.
So in future games, Blair would stay on the bench from 25' until his planned return at 50'.

3. Fusitua Injury & Fa'afili
You're right to question this. Looking at the data:

• Fusitua (#2 Wing) went down at the 48th minute with an AC joint knock
  
• Fa'afili was already on the field at #5 Wing — he was your other starting winger
  
• All 4 bench players were forwards/hooker — no wing cover on the bench
  

What actually happened is the engine had no bench winger to bring on, so it did a positional shift —
Fa'afili effectively covered both edges. But the commentary incorrectly said "Henry Fa'afili comes on as the
replacement" which made it sound like he was coming off the bench. This was a commentary bug — the engine
was doing the right thing (shifting an existing player) but describing it as if someone was being subbed on. Fixed
for future games — it will now say "Fa'afili shifts across to cover Wing" when an on-field player moves to cover
an injury rather than a bench player coming on.

All three fixes are in for the next round. Cheers for the detailed feedback — this level of scrutiny is exactly
what helps make the sim better.

All good learning and helps with the development. None of these affected the result, just the margin

I also like how you have given up a mid season game with a close result against you to keep up the illusion of no match fixing.....

 

[tajhay]

I also like how you have given up a mid season game with a close result against you to keep up the illusion of no match fixing.....

tryign to be nice here so just accept it. i just couldnt handle more whinging about match fixing from you so had to give in a lil to continue the charade

 

[Inruin]

tryign to be nice here so just accept it. i just couldnt handle more whinging about match fixing from you so had to give in a lil to continue the charade

All jokes aside, its a very impressive set up. Appreciate all the work that's gone in to the game. Whoever plays next season will be getting a great rugby league manager experience.

Any thoughts of expanding to a 6 man bench next season?

 

[tajhay]

All jokes aside, its a very impressive set up. Appreciate all the work that's gone in to the game. Whoever plays next season will be getting a great rugby league manager experience.

Any thoughts of expanding to a 6 man bench next season?

Yeah 6 man bench tbh is on list to get done this year. But interchange is a really complex scenario and could be better user experience in setting up for franchises. I know its not easy esp custom stints esp for newbies so need a better way to do that before i start fiddling to incorporate 6 man bench because the list of permutations vreatly increase with it. Hence please keep reporting oddities, or ecen clarifications where required or feedback.