Do you have the right strategy to take your team to the top? FHM 2 gets tactics overhaul
 

Hi all,

Our latest blog post on Franchise Hockey Manager's revamped tactics system is now live:

Do you have the right strategy to take your team to the top? FHM 2 gets tactics overhaul

For my initial impressions, I will say this ... And I hope this reads more as a fan of simulation sports games than as someone who you guys know obviously works for the company...

In sports simulation games, I am not much of a micro-manager usually.. I like to get through seasons and like to sim pretty quickly.. doing more of the GM stuff and merely seeing careers play out, but putting my input in on the 'micro' level when needed.

With that in mind, until I started putting this blog together, I hadn't really played around too much with the tactics systems (instead just leaving it to my assistants and simming, etc) ...

But in talking with one of our developers Jeff about the mode and getting the nitty gritty details and playing around with it myself, I must say, it got me pretty excited - and possibly even changed my mind about how much micro managing I will do in FHM 2. It truly is a very well thought out and very deep and immersive system.

Those who love micro-managing this type of stuff and wish they were behind a hockey bench with a whiteboard mapping stuff out, you will love this. You have your options, you have your virtual whiteboard... eat your hearts out coaches!

Wow.. I need to channel my inner Scotty Bowman..

I'll most likely end up as a Dallas Eakins though.

Looks great, can't wait to try it!

Love it!

I must say that I, like you don't really enjoy the micromanagement much either. I like my quick sims and concentrating on some good trades, drafting, and personnel management. With that said, how good are the AI coaches at handling this? Do they tailor for each game based on their own aptitudes or maintain the limited modifications, sort of preset by their style. I don't expect the AI coach to make up a play but I would like to know that they do use everything in the game arsenal to try to win.

Different AI coaches will have different tendencies and preferences that will dictate what kind of tactics they prefer to use - more or less aggressive, more offensive or defensive minded, more balanced, etc.

Obviously, like anything with AI, this is something that will be consistently improved and expanded on in future patches and versions.

As per always, you rock Sir Cole!

Wow, love all the detail going into this. I'm like you though, rarely ever do I focus on game-to-game tactics. My favorite part is all the GM aspects and then just simming the games to see what happens. Every now and then I'll step in and make some decisions which is what I expect real GM's must do once in a while. One thing Cole, I love OOTP's Real Time Simulation page where the time is running and you see all the box scores as the games unfold, etc. From what I remember FHM didn't have that so there was no way I could just sim a day and watch as the league played out. Did they add that feature?

No that's not included.

Well... nuts... hope for the future then haha. Ah well, at least I can still sim the games without having to 'play' them with decisions.

This is what I wanted to see!! Facegen is nice and watching McDavid and Eichel's sims was alright. This takes the cake. My biggest gripe with FHM 14 was the tactic system and match engine. This looks very promising and if implemented well, would be awesome.

I'm much more willing to micro-manage in an online league where the seasons will play out at a specified pace. If it's left up to me to play games out, I'll blow through seasons with reckless abandon. These tactics sound great for the online leagues I'll be joining!

The more I see of FHM2 the more excited I am about its impending release. Definitely a completely different game from FHM2014. Looks great.

In screenshots tactics 1 and tactics 5,
what sort of offensive idea would want to have the RD (markov 79 in 1) and (Sekera 4 in 5) to be forechecking in the right corner while the right winger is slotted higher along the boards?

Is that just a layout error or is something missed there?

You aren't looking at the screenshot correctly. In number one, this is "offensive setting" meaning Montreal has the puck in the left corner (denoted by the yellow outline) and that's their own end. So Markov has the puck in the corner and the wingers are there for outlet. The opposition zone is on the right.

Same idea for screenshot 5.

If it was the puck in the far right corner you would see what you would expect... defenseman at the point, winger in the corner, etc.

Well that makes sense.

Then could i recommend that on the screen above each of the three areas of the ice you put (own zone, neutral zone, offensive zone) or something like that so others don't make the same error. Small addition but might save confusion down the road

Cheers

Not a bad idea, but it becomes pretty obvious once you play with it a bit.. And there's also little descriptions of which end is which when you hover over the 'offensive settings' and 'defensive settings' button.

How similar is this to the tactics/engine overhaul that the final patch for FHM14 is getting?

It will be quite similar, although obviously the FHM 2 systems will be the ones getting improvements and adjustments going forward.

Does the new engine do anything to address the issue of Defensemen not scoring enough goals, and getting too many assists?