New version update?

[G-Nuke]

With the official release about a week away, is there any word on the last pre-release Beta? 9.56 has a lot of glitches/bugs... it would be nice to see where the progress has gotten us to before 1.0?

[Crombeen]

At August 21th, by JeffR

Originally Posted by JeffR

There will be another update before release, but I'm not going to give a precise date on when it'll be available. We're making very good progress, but I want the AI roster handling, contract rules, and all trading (user-AI and AI-AI) to be on a good footing before this update goes out (improvements in some other areas, notably game stats and custom mode, will likely not be in until the release version.) I'm looking at a build now that deals primarily with AI-AI trade improvements, and those are much better now; Sebastian's just finished a round of tuning based on what I saw in it, and we'll be giving the next build to the testers later tonight, I hope.) Probably one more round of tuning after that and it should be OK, then there'll be some more work on various transaction/roster issues before it's update time.

So I would expect the next Beta update tomorrow (end of the week) or early next week..

[fredreed]

If you read the newsletter then you would know that the next beta update was an unstable version for the PC but If you are running this on a mac the next beta version was fine. Make sure that you read the newsletter concerning the next beta version for the PC.

[archibalduk]

Originally Posted by fredreed

If you read the newsletter then you would know that the next beta update was an unstable version for the PC but If you are running this on a mac the next beta version was fine. Make sure that you read the newsletter concerning the next beta version for the PC.

No, he's referring to the next beta release - not the one that was inadvertently linked to in the newsletter.

The devs are working flat out on the game (all hours of the day). It's getting better with every internal beta release. I'm sure once they're happy with the AI and bug fixes, etc they'll have something for everybody to try.

[JeffR]

Aiming for late Monday (early Tuesday in Europe) for the last one, so we can get this week's data updates in it.

[tcblcommish]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Aiming for late Monday (early Tuesday in Europe) for the last one, so we can get this week's data updates in it.

Very nice, thank you.

[G-Nuke]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Aiming for late Monday (early Tuesday in Europe) for the last one, so we can get this week's data updates in it.

Very cool! Are you guys still aiming for Sept 3rd for the full release? I would think you guys would want the open community to at least have a week with it to see what bugs sneak in....

Thanks for the update!

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by G-Nuke

Very cool! Are you guys still aiming for Sept 3rd for the full release? I would think you guys would want the open community to at least have a week with it to see what bugs sneak in....

Thanks for the update!

It's already open to the community, It's an open beta.

I expect this to be a substantial update activating most features that are currently disabled since it's the last one before the release but more importantly I expect this one to get rid of the major bugs we've seen so far. From there actually is an additional week before release to get all other bugs/major issues corrected. This is going to be an exciting week and a huge crunch for the fhm. Best of luck.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by G-Nuke

Very cool! Are you guys still aiming for Sept 3rd for the full release? I would think you guys would want the open community to at least have a week with it to see what bugs sneak in....

Thanks for the update!

Yeah, the 3rd is carved in stone, short of our servers catching on fire or something of that magnitude. We've got time blocked out near the end for dealing with any bugs that reveal themselves this week.

[BabyLemonade]

Hello..Just got into FHM though i bought it from the beta start.And it is a good game-to say the least-. Really like the way players are presented,the coaching decision depth(it feels like every strategy decision i make, has part to the outcome of each game i play). Also i like the way scouts and personel is presented and i m really curious how the right decision in hiring stuff and scouting assignments will alter the outcome of my team.
Because is the beta version i have had some crushes. For example i cannot alter the Ice Time of my lines-whenever i try to change it the game crushes-. Also i would like to see a better in game description.It is helpfull(for to make in game decisions) but it only refers to the shot and the distance.No hits or other highlights are refered-at least as i saw from the 3-4games i played.

Another thing is that filters have to work better(it is time consuming at the moment)and that a better access to the shortlist and the players list in general is needed.

I' am really excited to see how FHM will be when it is officially released and with all features of the community (facegen, team logos etc) but my first impression is that we will have yet another great game from OOTP.
One question. When you gain experience in coaching do you have better teams offering you a job?Meaning if one starts with a small team and do good will there be an opportunity to get job offers from bigger teams -so to have a kind of career-?
Thanks

[fredreed]

What exactly will be included in this version in terms of features and fixes? I don't expect a full listing of everything that will be fixed but a general idea would be nice. What about the features that have been disabled or turned off. Will there be some sort explanation on the remaining features that will be included as well as those pesky bugs and glitches?

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by fredreed

What exactly will be included in this version in terms of features and fixes? I don't expect a full listing of everything that will be fixed but a general idea would be nice. What about the features that have been disabled or turned off. Will there be some sort explanation on the remaining features that will be included as well as those pesky bugs and glitches?

They will have a change/fix list once the update is released.

[bsimons77]

Will there be an email that goes out to inform everyone?

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by bsimons77

Will there be an email that goes out to inform everyone?

there hasn't been for any of the other updates so I wouldn't count on it happening with this one.

[creepshow]

in my experience the best course of action is to frantically hit "refresh" (F5)

I haven't been this excited about a sim game in years....

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by creepshow

in my experience the best course of action is to frantically hit "refresh" (F5)

I haven't been this excited about a sim game in years....

It wouldn't surprise me if it came up in another couple hours. Either way getting to late for me. Will have to check back tomorrow

*hits F5* yup, tomorrow.

[JeffR]

Ran into some problems, unfortunately. Some on the technical side, but there was also an annoying issue with free agents that stubbornly refused to allow itself to be fixed. That's been dealt with, but it's past 3 in Hamburg right now, so Sebastian and Malte will get some badly-needed sleep while the testing is going on and we'll get things back on track with the update release when they're awake later in the morning.

I'm writing up the patch notes as I test, so I'll post those when I'm done and you guys can at least see what's coming.

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Ran into some problems, unfortunately. Some on the technical side, but there was also an annoying issue with free agents that stubbornly refused to allow itself to be fixed. That's been dealt with, but it's past 3 in Hamburg right now, so Sebastian and Malte will get some badly-needed sleep while the testing is going on and we'll get things back on track with the update release when they're awake later in the morning.

I'm writing up the patch notes as I test, so I'll post those when I'm done and you guys can at least see what's coming.

Thanks for the update. Too bad but glad you are waiting to get it corrected before releasing it. I'd rather wait another day or two then run into the frustration when playing it. Some people here might not see it but in the end great decision. Also glad to see they're getting some sleep. Much easier to focus on solutions after a decent nights sleep.

Also am I wrong to think that we will now no longer see top RFA in the FA pool as UFA and signing with other teams?

[JeffR]

Changelist section of tomorrow's patch notes:

*** Comments ***

I'm just going to go with a list of the major changes this time, rather than a list of every fix. A lot of what we've been doing has involved a big change followed by incremental work refining it, so a huge chunk of the log would be fixes to problems you never got to see (aside from the ones in the accidental 0.9.59 release - again, sorry about that.)

Underpinning most of the AI changes is a new 1-10 rating system, replacing the old OOTP-style five stars. Generally, players rated between 8 and 10 should form the core of your top two lines and defensive pairs, while those rated 6 to 8 fill the remaining roster spots, and those lower than 6 are, at best, useful as short-term replacements. As with the stars, the scale is always relative to the level you're currently at (if you're unemployed, it defaults to NHL-level.) So if you're playing with a team in the ECHL and look at an NHL roster, most of the players you see will be star-caliber by your league's standards (including, potentially, ratings higher than 10.0 - there's no cap on the top end of the scale.)

Keep in mind that it's not just a straight-line conversion of ratings to an arbitrary scale - to reach the 'first-line' levels of the scale players need skills that are relevant for the top lines (i.e., offense is weighted heavily), while getting a rating near the top of the ratings group associated with the bottom half of the roster requires more defensive skills and intangibles. That way, for example, a one-dimensional offensive forward who isn't good enough for the top 6 tends to drop right off the roster instead of getting a third- or fourth-line job - the "Keith Aucoin" effect. Finally, there's a special "goon bonus" for enforcer-type players that increases their ratings to a level where the AI will treat them realistically (the game lineup AI isn't doing that yet, though - that's coming as part of the game engine work this week.)

At the start of the game, most of the ratings you see will be fairly accurate representations of player skill. But newly-generated players can have significantly inflated or deflated apparent value. That's where your scouts come in: assigning them to a geographical area (particularly if they're from that area themselves) will reduce or eliminate the effects of inaccurate information about players in that area. (The geographical areas have also been significantly simplified.) I'll be elaborating on that in a systems discussion later this week.

The cap rules now allow the accumulation of cap space as in the NHL. We've presented this in what we think is the easiest-to-understand way, by showing your cap limit as an amount that will gradually increase during the season if you stay under it. That way, you can easily see exactly how much cap hit you can take on via a trade or free agent signing (rather than having to do a bunch of math with daily payrolls and remaining cap room.)

AI teams now have a more logical approach to cap management if they find themselves over the limit, instead of dumping half their roster if they need to make space. They'll try to resolve the problem by sending players down first, but if that fails they'll try to move their lowest-valued high-salary players to another team for a draft pick or picks. There are still some teams taking radical steps to get under the cap, but at least now they're not ditching half their roster. The ultimate source of the difficulties is the new CBA rule that deters minor-league salary dumps - when the largest amount of cap space you can gain via sending someone down is $375,000, that severely limits your options and makes writing cap-management AI much more complicated. We've also got multiple NHL rosters that are currently taking advantage of the 10% off-season cap cushion, but will need to be cut down somehow when the season starts.

The AI's trading logic has been completely overhauled, and trades between AI teams will now occur at realistic rates and times (more of them at the deadline, for example) and be significantly more varied in composition than they were before. I'm still not seeing as many draft picks moved as I'd like, so I suspect something's off in the way they're valued (also via a new method, one that takes into account the strength of the draft class), we'll be investigating that further. It also tends to overvalue older players.

AI teams should also evaluate your trade offers a little better; among other things, your trading partner will now specifically say if he's refusing the trade because you're giving him more salary than he can afford, which will let you remove some players or take salary back to fix the deal.

For now, AI teams will only make offers to you for players that you've put on the trading block (and those offers should come at a fairly dependable, but not annoying, rate.)

It's now possible for teams in leagues that allow soccer-style transfers to purchase players from other such teams; right now, this is mainly enabled in the European leagues. At the moment, pending better data on how much cash actually changes hands in these transactions, typical transfer costs will be an amount around 90% of the player's annual salary. Both the player and AI can make these deals.

Some loopholes in free agency that allowed the signing of ineligible players (other teams' draftees, underage players, etc.) have been closed; you now should only be able to open the offer screen for a player if it's possible to sign him.

Players who are RFA's on the expiration of their contracts should now be properly designated at the start of the game, but there still appear to be some issues with the AI's qualification-offer logic.

The historical database is now complete through the 2008-09 season. I also spent some time today making a few changes that will model high-PIM players more accurately. On the downside, the new trade engine isn't working in historical mode yet, but that's coming.

The match engine now includes more varied text for shot and faceoff events; there'll be a lot more coming, but you can see the basic outline of how it'll work - we just need to add the text triggers to things that are already occurring in the game, but not being reflected in the text (e.g., all the giveaways, takeaways, hits, penalties, etc. that you see in the stats.)

The new researchers are getting up to speed and there's been much more editing activity in the last three weeks. That'll continue post-release, we'll be working continuously on the database and posting regular updates.

YZG continues to add to the player name-generation files, we're gradually taking advantage of the new naming-by-state ability to get more accurate regional names.

The Norwegian GET-Ligaen is now playable; thanks to Gorane, our new Norwegian researcher, for his work there. We have a couple more leagues that are very close to being ready for playable status, but those will come post-release, since there's not enough time to test them properly right now. And there are more that will follow them as the research gets completed.


What's Left

With a week to go, the three areas we're going to be concentrating one are the full implementation of custom play, adjusting several things in the match engine to improve stats generation for star players and defencemen and increase the effects of toughness and leadership, and getting facegen working. Those items are already in various stages of completion, but weren't suitable for inclusion in this update in a partial state.

Facegen ran into an aesthetics problem: when you take the baseball caps off OOTP's players and replace them with the hair options we have available, the results vary from funny to hideous, leaning towards the latter. So for now facegen players will get draft-day style portraits, with the ballcap on.

The match engine work will also include some non-stat fixes, including, I hope, the return of the shot view screen (it'll be viewable by clicking items on the highlights list.) We'll also be recording some additional stats, including things that will allow us to calculate Corsi/Fenwick - you can see the beginnings of this in the bottom section of the player season stats screen, with some dummy values (PDO is there and calculated correctly, though.)

See the description of custom mode I posted a few days ago for the outline of what we'll be doing there.

Aside from those big-ticket items, we'll be continuing the usual database work and have time blocked off before the deadline to deal with last-minute issues, particularly stability-related ones (and, if those aren't too bad, some non-critical bugs.)

[bsimons77]

Looking forward to the new patch, and I think the new rating system is a great idea. I also like the "enforcer" addition, as a Bruins fan that means I can play the "Merlot" line (Campbell-Paille-Thornton) without getting my rear end handed to me!