Football Simulation Engine v3

2 Years ago I published my first node package module (npm) in npmjs to allow football match results to be simulated. Yesterday I uploaded the latest version FootballSimulationEngine-v3.0.1 which can be installed by running:
          npm install footballsimulationengine

What's New?

startPOS and relativePOS have changed

The biggest - and breaking - change was to update the arrays used to track where players currently are on the pitch (startPOS) and where players are moving towards (relativePOS). These were not very descriptive and resulted in several GitHub issues so they have been changed to better reflect what they do. "startPOS" is now "currentPOS", "relativePOS" is now "intentPOS".

"currentPOS": [340,0],

"fitness": 100,

"injured": false,

"originPOS": [340,0],

"intentPOS": [340,0],

Tests tests tests

I have been reading more and more about the importance of tests and clean code, in fact its been prominent on this blog:

• https://aidensgallyvanting.blogspot.com/2019/03/observations-of-test-driven-development.html 
• https://aidensgallyvanting.blogspot.com/2019/03/enforcing-test-driven-development-into.html
• https://aidensgallyvanting.blogspot.com/2019/05/practising-clean-code-in-nodejs.html

As described, I have added lots and lots of tests into the code making it more readable, easier to make code changes, has led to variables and functions being named more accurately. The result is 143 passing (199ms) tests and roughly 55% test coverage.

55.88% Statements 1401/2507

44.32% Branches 655/1478

82.13% Functions 170/207

53.14% Lines 1227/2309

Penalty Position - Corner and Freekicks

Players no longer form an arbitary collection of bodies at a set location for freekicks and corners, instead they now gather in the penalty box which is a defined dimension on the pitch. This makes corner taking more realistic and improves goal opportunities from corners.

Identifiers

Previously, the current ball holder and the team they were playing were matched against their names for certain logic. i.e. can the player kick the ball? First, we need to know if that player has the ball. Now each match, player and team are given an identification number during initiation. 

{

"matchID": "78883930303030001",

"kickOffTeam": {

"teamID": "78883930303030002",

"name": "ThisTeam",

"rating": 88,

"players": [

{

"playerID": "78883930303030100",

 

Red Cards

Players who get red cards will no longer be part of the playing action. This is shown by current position being set to ['NP', 'NP'] which means 'Not Playing'. If the current position is set the player will not be targeted for passing and will not make any movements.

Skill Rating Utilization

Player skills are better utilised including to make shots on or off target depending on their skill against a random number generation i.e. players with shooting skill of 40 will be less likely to shoot on target than players with shooting skill of 70. This is also applied for saving shots that are in the box with the skills of the goalkeeper determining if the ball is 'saved' or not when in reach. 

Future iterations will take this further for more sophistication. If you have any thoughts for how to do this be sure to raise an issue in GitHub.

Player Stats Improvements

Player statistics from during the game have been greatly improved with statistics for fouls, passes, shots and tackles. This will improve reporting of player information. 

If there are others that can/should be added, raise an issue in GitHub.

'goals': 0,

'shots': {

'total': 0,

'on': 0,

'off': 0

},

'cards': {

'yellow': 0,

'red': 0

},

'passes': {

'total': 0,

'on': 0,

'off': 0

},

'tackles': {

'total': 0,

'on': 0,

'off': 0,

'fouls': 0

}

Conclusion

There are still some improvements to be made, to player movement (which still isn't quite there), passing statistics, intelligence of decisions being made and whole lotta tests to be added. I'll be blogging soon about how I've used this latest version to simulate the 2019/2020 season to showcase how the engine can be used to simulate a season for a football manager game.

Let me know what you think, either in the comments, or by raising an issue on Github or emailing me on aiden.g@live.co.uk! Happy footballing!

Football Match - Using football simulation engine

I recently created a football simulation engine for npm which I talked about here.

I also posted a youtube video of me demonstrating the code, and after some interest I thought I would upload the helper code I used in order to visualise the match!

You can access the github page here: https://github.com/GallagherAiden/footballsimulationexample



Here's the read me:
# Football Simulation Example

## Install
1. Download the project onto your system ({dir})
2. cd {dir}
3. run ``npm install``
---
## Run the Game
1. load your team into the {dir}/teams directory (you can use an existing team as an example)
2. in '{dir}/server.js' change either
```
readFile("teams/team1.json").then(function (team1) {
```
to your newly created .json file i.e.
```
readFile("teams/myTeam.json").then(function (team1) {
```
3. Set the pitch size by changing the ``pitchWidth`` and ``pitchHeight`` in '{dir}/server.js'
*Note: Any changes will need changes made to the start positions of the players*
4. run ``npm start``
5. Go To ``http://localhost:1442/match.html``
---
## Playing A Match
1. Press ``start match``
- This starts a new match where the pitch size is displayed on the screen and the players are in their correct positions.
2. Press ``play match``
- This runs '10' iterations, moving the players and give iteration logs for each iteration.
i.e. `Iteration 50: Closest Player to ball: Louise Johnson,Closest Player to ball: Aiden Smith`
3. Press ``play match`` until the iterations reach 5,000
- We can make this quicker by changing the number of iterations per "play" in {dir}/public/js/match.js
```
function getMatch() {
var iterations = 10;
for (i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
movePlayers("/movePlayers");
}
}
```
to
```
function getMatch() {
var iterations = X;
for (i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
movePlayers("/movePlayers");
}
}
```
where X is the number of iterations to do at a time.
4. Press ``start second half``
- This flips the players to opposite sides
5. Press ``play match`` until the iterations reach 10,000
6. Record the results

Game Example Results:

Match 1 - Team1: 5 - 3 :Team2  (same json)

Match 2 - Team1: 3 - 4 :Team2  (same json)

Match 3 - Team1: 9 - 2 :Team2  (same json)

Match 4 - Team1: 2 - 5  :Team2  (team2 higher skills)

Match 5 - Team1: 0 - 7  :Team2  (team2 higher skills)

Match 6 - Team1: 8 - 1 :Team2  (team1 higher skills)

Match 7 - Team1: 3 - 0 :Team2  (team1 higher skills)

Have fun! Let me know if you need any help: aiden.g@live.co.uk