[archibalduk]

I don't know when the next data update and/or beta is due for public release, but you'll hopefully find some noticeable improvements in the UK game:

1) With the exception of 12 players (because I accidentally missed them!), I have added TA ratings to all players in the British leagues and all free agents with British/Irish nationality who didn't already have TAs. This will allow the game to create random attributes for those players at the right sort of skill level. So that's roughly 175 players updated. These players didn't have ratings before either because they were newly created or free agents (and I'd been prioritising the playable leagues - i.e. EIHL, EPL and NIHL-1).

2) The past 2 or 3 weeks' worth of transactions have been implemented. Unfortunately news of Rylan Galiardi's move to Sheffield came through too late for me to add this week, but it'll be in next week. There are 3 transactions from the UK to other leagues which I can't guarantee will be done by the end of today (e.g. Galbraith). It all depends on the researchers responsible for those destination leagues. But if they've been missed, I'll drop those researchers a message. I have also left it to Mike, our French researcher, to move Hartung to Fife because he has been working on his attributes this week.

3) Jeff has made some changes to the NIHL playoffs and so hopefully they will now work in game. Also, the relegation issues in my previous post have hopefully also been fixed thanks to Jeff. The same goes for the Moralee schedule. We won't know for sure that they've been fixed until we can test them out with the next beta.

4) Jeff has added the salary levels for the playable British leagues. As mentioned the other day, the salaries might not work in game to start with because of a game bug, but hopefully once it is fixed you'll see a difference.

5) This is a pretty minor thing, but I've added the 2012/13 game stats for all British teams (i.e. the EIHL, EPL, NIHL 1 & 2 and SNL). It looks like there has been an issue with the Editor when some changes were made to the team stats screen a few months ago which has resulted in some of the team names being switched (i.e. you might see the historical names being muddled - e.g. the stats may refer to Deeside Dragons rather than Flintshire Freeze or vice-versa, etc). I've fixed some of them, but I'll have to leave the rest for another time because obviously the player rating work is more important.


As for what I hope to do over the next two weeks before release (time permitting, of course):

* Set TAs for the 12 players I missed.
* Add PAs to any players missing them (mostly UFAs and newly created players)
* Add Checking and some offensive attributes to players (and set Leadership ratings for any players missing them).
* Add some goalie attributes (I've already put these into a spreadsheet, I just need to copy them to the Editor).
* Make free agents those players who have not confirmed whether or not they're signing a new deal with their team from last season (only where those teams already have virtually complete rosters).
* Review the staff on the NIHL-1 & 2 and SNL teams (EIHL and EPL already complete).