Version 1.6.2 Game Update Now Available

[Empach]

YAY!
After about six tries since the Beta started I finally got past June 30! Before the newest patch every game I started crashed there. Such a relief.

Game is improving, still lots to work on but it's moving in the right direction.

[Stark]

Great to see new patch been released! I think I will wait for the properly installing version for Mac. I've had enough compatibility issues with Mavericks and different softwares.

Also, i've had good times playing FHM. It sure has had its problems and a few of my saves became non-playable, but I'm still rooting for the game and will report any upcoming issues and bugs. Just want to thank you guys at OOTP for good work. There definitely is a place for a new hockey manager game.

That being said, I also jump on board with the HEAD COACH WANTED -ship. At the end of the day, head coaches really can make or break a franchise and at the moment they aren't having a role big enough in this game.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by jh95

When I start a game in 1991 RW John MacLean is listed as a Free Agent and can signed. That´s wrong. He was with New Jersey at the time!

Looks like I didn't set up the 91-92 season for him properly, when he missed the whole year when he blew out his knee. I'll get that corrected.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by jh95

Historic Mode 1.6.2:

The Playoff Format for the 1981-82 to 1985-86 seasons is still wrong.

@JeffR: Is this fixable in the database?

This is pretty annoying...

A bug has been created for this months ago!

Yeah, I'll have to split the shared playoff rules for those seasons up in the database, but it'll require some testing. We didn't have time to address the historical playoff formats this update.

[Crombeen]

For some reason I can't get OHL players to score more points.

I've simmed 5 first seasons and all season the league leading scorer had around 70 - 76 points.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by jh95

Historic Mode 1.6.2:

Started a game in 1991 with only Option "Generate Players at 17" turned off.

On July 1st, 1992 the 18-year old Players that should be available for the Entry Draft can be signed as free agents.

Also no players are available to be drafted in the following Entry Draft!

This might have someting to do with the 1.6.2 mentioned fix for:
- In historical mode with "Draft at 17" off, players who enter the database at older ages should no longer be impossible to sign

Added a bug with attachments.

It's a little more widespread than that, and I suspect it actually happened when Malte made a late fix to correct signing eligibility during the WHA years. It was near the top of the fix list I sent them this morning, we should be able to get that corrected quickly.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Crombeen

For some reason I can't get OHL players to score more points.

I've simmed 5 first seasons and all season the league leading scorer had around 70 - 76 points.

Stats generation will be changing quite a bit when we update the match engine. We didn't make any changes in that area for this patch, since it's all about to be replaced anyhow.

OHL scoring jumped by about 5% in real life this year, too, so that's lagging behind in the game, which uses the 12-13 scoring levels right now.

[howeandhowe]

Is it necessary to scout your own team or your minor league affiliates?

"Players belonging to your own team will always be advanced to the maximum scouting level when joining you"

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by howeandhowe

Is it necessary to scout your own team or your minor league affiliates?

"Players belonging to your own team will always be advanced to the maximum scouting level when joining you"

Only to see players on the affiliate who are contracted to them (or another team), not your own guys.

[JeffR]

The Mac file at the download link has been updated (but is still version 1.6.2) to upgrade properly from 1.5.20, so I've removed the special installation instructions from the patch notes. The new file will also fix the missing icon for those of you who installed 1.6.2 already.

[Peter-]

"Too many foreigners on the active roster" appears when I try to offer a contract to a free agent. I am a GM for Luleå Hockey in Swedish Hockey League and it's no restriction for how many foreigners you could have in a team. What to do?

[batdad]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Only to see players on the affiliate who are contracted to them (or another team), not your own guys.

I am afraid I do not like this. Teams always misvalue their players, and think too highly or too little of them. Having the maxed out top level scouting, I hope does not mean that we will have an "absolutely perfect" view of what our own contracted players can do in this game.


Now other things seemed to have been improved which is great, but I hope the graphics person gets some time on this game before the match engine patch, so that this absolutely amateur UI can be repaired and this game can have a first impression that has a wow factor, not a blah factor.

And before everyone jumps on me for this, sure the game has improved. But if you go back and look...there I was calling for the UI to be repaired on day one along with what...a ton of very very experienced Hockey Manager and other Management sim people such as:

archibalduk--anyone give him any credit for knowing what he is talking about?
Alessandro--yeah, think he has a clue even though sometimes we disagree.

and several others, I believe including several really old timers that I remember from the SI Boards such as smetana.

I mean archi and alessandro are on the testing team. Not sure who else is, but I am pretty sure that these super experienced and well informed people should be listened to by the developers, and I hope they have been and are being listened to.

Other than the match engine, the #1 priority to make this game good and successful now....FIXING THE UI.

archi made a monster post about it way back when (I am not going to look for it) and I read every word of it. But funny enough Sebastien and Jeff...nothing commented so cannot even be sure it was read by the development team.

Sebastien and Jeff-if there are plans to rework the UI great, but lets get it done. IT is really clunky and blah right now.

again, so everyone gets it, and does not come yelling at me....this is something that has been asked for from day 1. It is a major thing, not a tiny little fringe thing like expansion, or custom leagues, or an add on like online.

THe look of the game right from the get go, scares people off of it. It is like going to a car store and seeing a rusty old clunker with dents and dings all over it, being advertised as a new car.

I really hold out hope for this game, but I will not touch it again until the UI is fixed and looks decent, and works simply and not ridiculously difficult and finicky. I mean if I have to change my tactics every single game to the same thing, and there is no save tactics...ugh.

I will not look at buying the next game either until I know the UI is good. And the opinions I will trust (should they continue with the game themselves) are the guys who have been working on EHM since what 2000? 1999? in some way shape or form, and have put their personal time into FHM as well.

HOpefully they will be listened to and things with the UI will come along.


Please note...somewhere in this I may have typed AI...everywhere I typed AI please read as UI.

Good luck to all, and hope this game comes around

[djskek]

Originally Posted by Peter-

"Too many foreigners on the active roster" appears when I try to offer a contract to a free agent. I am a GM for Luleå Hockey in Swedish Hockey League and it's no restriction for how many foreigners you could have in a team. What to do?

max. 8 foreign players in swedens shl

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Peter-

"Too many foreigners on the active roster" appears when I try to offer a contract to a free agent. I am a GM for Luleå Hockey in Swedish Hockey League and it's no restriction for how many foreigners you could have in a team. What to do?

There's an 8-foreigner restriction in the game. The problem is, while there's no written rule restricting the number of foreigners in the SHL, teams do voluntarily limit the number they sign. When we tried having no restrictions on foreign player usage, AI teams brought in a large number of players from countries like Canada and the USA, since those countries have bigger pools of players than Sweden and the SHL pays better than any North American league other than the NHL. We've tried a few different methods of avoiding this, and we'll continue to work on it, but for now the best way of representing the actual roster composition in the SHL is the rule limiting the number of foreign players.

[djskek]

oh no, all tactics settings are not applied. Imagine back again and again.

Ah okay, the Problem ist the Head Coach. If you sign Head Coach, then you can't make any tactics settings.

[thepete]

Originally Posted by djskek

oh no, all tactics settings are not applied. Imagine back again and again.

Ah okay, the Problem ist the Head Coach. If you sign Head Coach, then you can't make any tactics settings.

Tactics didn't work (?) in the previous versions and looking at the notes it hasn't been tinkered with for this patch.

[Puckhead]

Originally Posted by batdad

I am afraid I do not like this. Teams always misvalue their players, and think too highly or too little of them. Having the maxed out top level scouting, I hope does not mean that we will have an "absolutely perfect" view of what our own contracted players can do in this game.


Now other things seemed to have been improved which is great, but I hope the graphics person gets some time on this game before the match engine patch, so that this absolutely amateur UI can be repaired and this game can have a first impression that has a wow factor, not a blah factor.

And before everyone jumps on me for this, sure the game has improved. But if you go back and look...there I was calling for the UI to be repaired on day one along with what...a ton of very very experienced Hockey Manager and other Management sim people such as:

archibalduk--anyone give him any credit for knowing what he is talking about?
Alessandro--yeah, think he has a clue even though sometimes we disagree.

and several others, I believe including several really old timers that I remember from the SI Boards such as smetana.

I mean archi and alessandro are on the testing team. Not sure who else is, but I am pretty sure that these super experienced and well informed people should be listened to by the developers, and I hope they have been and are being listened to.

Other than the match engine, the #1 priority to make this game good and successful now....FIXING THE UI.

archi made a monster post about it way back when (I am not going to look for it) and I read every word of it. But funny enough Sebastien and Jeff...nothing commented so cannot even be sure it was read by the development team.

Sebastien and Jeff-if there are plans to rework the UI great, but lets get it done. IT is really clunky and blah right now.

again, so everyone gets it, and does not come yelling at me....this is something that has been asked for from day 1. It is a major thing, not a tiny little fringe thing like expansion, or custom leagues, or an add on like online.

THe look of the game right from the get go, scares people off of it. It is like going to a car store and seeing a rusty old clunker with dents and dings all over it, being advertised as a new car.

I really hold out hope for this game, but I will not touch it again until the UI is fixed and looks decent, and works simply and not ridiculously difficult and finicky. I mean if I have to change my tactics every single game to the same thing, and there is no save tactics...ugh.

I will not look at buying the next game either until I know the UI is good. And the opinions I will trust (should they continue with the game themselves) are the guys who have been working on EHM since what 2000? 1999? in some way shape or form, and have put their personal time into FHM as well.

HOpefully they will be listened to and things with the UI will come along.


Please note...somewhere in this I may have typed AI...everywhere I typed AI please read as UI.

Good luck to all, and hope this game comes around

I know that quoting such a long post can be annoying for people who come to this thread and have to scroll all the way down, but I just want to make sure that this doesn't get lost. Great post! I'm totally on your side, the match engine and (especially) the UI have to be updated asap. I tried to play the game again, but after a short period of time I was just turned off by the clunky UI and closed it. It's just sad because the game itself got a lot better over the months and it's great how much the player is able to customize.

@dev-team: so, is the fixing of the UI your next top priority? I would really like to hear your plans about it.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by batdad

I am afraid I do not like this. Teams always misvalue their players, and think too highly or too little of them. Having the maxed out top level scouting, I hope does not mean that we will have an "absolutely perfect" view of what our own contracted players can do in this game.

A-level scouting definitely doesn't mean "absolutely perfect", even with great scouts. There will still be inaccuracies in the way a team views its own players.

Now other things seemed to have been improved which is great, but I hope the graphics person gets some time on this game before the match engine patch, so that this absolutely amateur UI can be repaired and this game can have a first impression that has a wow factor, not a blah factor.

And before everyone jumps on me for this, sure the game has improved. But if you go back and look...there I was calling for the UI to be repaired on day one along with what...a ton of very very experienced Hockey Manager and other Management sim people such as:

archibalduk--anyone give him any credit for knowing what he is talking about?
Alessandro--yeah, think he has a clue even though sometimes we disagree.

and several others, I believe including several really old timers that I remember from the SI Boards such as smetana.

I mean archi and alessandro are on the testing team. Not sure who else is, but I am pretty sure that these super experienced and well informed people should be listened to by the developers, and I hope they have been and are being listened to.

Other than the match engine, the #1 priority to make this game good and successful now....FIXING THE UI.

archi made a monster post about it way back when (I am not going to look for it) and I read every word of it. But funny enough Sebastien and Jeff...nothing commented so cannot even be sure it was read by the development team.

If Colin thinks he's being ignored and I'm not "giving him any credit for knowing what he's talking about", he's doing a very good job of not letting on when I talk to him. Just because you don't see our discussions on the public forums doesn't mean they're not taking place. That's what internal testing and research forums are for.

Can the UI be improved? Of course. Is it ever going to be identical to EHM's? No, it isn't, and I realize that's going to irritate some people. And since you were on the SI forums during the old days, you must remember how many people complained, when the first version came out, that using the Football Manager UI had "ruined" Riz's freeware EHM? A lot of the freeware EHM fans, some of them on the research teams, walked away from the game at that point and continued to cling to the old version (and some still do, years later.)

The FHM interface is going to resemble OOTP's, just like EHM's resembled FM. With a small development team, it would be a ridiculous waste of resources to develop two completely different UI's.

The next version of FHM will likely incorporate big parts of the interface changes that will be introduced in OOTP15. It'll look better, and we'll continue to look for ways to improve the way it works in our game. I particularly want to present things like stats in a way that's more familiar to hockey fans, and add things like interesting data visualizations - SI made big strides in that area after the end of EHM, and I see a lot of people online doing fascinating things with the presentation of hockey data. It's a very logical thing to do with a game that's numbers-heavy.

But we're not going to overhaul it right now. That would make no sense, not when we're going to be re-working it anyhow in a few months for the next version. The rebuilt match engine will bring some significant interface changes with it, particularly to the game presentation and tactical options, but other than that, big changes to the UI won't be happening in this version.

I will not look at buying the next game either until I know the UI is good. And the opinions I will trust (should they continue with the game themselves) are the guys who have been working on EHM since what 2000? 1999? in some way shape or form, and have put their personal time into FHM as well.

Well, hopefully that trust extends to the FHM guy who worked on EHM the longest (winter of 03-04 for the SI version, actually, research started the previous summer), and spent many hundreds of hours of his personal time working on FHM before being hired by OOTP.

[Peter-]

Originally Posted by JeffR

There's an 8-foreigner restriction in the game. The problem is, while there's no written rule restricting the number of foreigners in the SHL, teams do voluntarily limit the number they sign. When we tried having no restrictions on foreign player usage, AI teams brought in a large number of players from countries like Canada and the USA, since those countries have bigger pools of players than Sweden and the SHL pays better than any North American league other than the NHL. We've tried a few different methods of avoiding this, and we'll continue to work on it, but for now the best way of representing the actual roster composition in the SHL is the rule limiting the number of foreign players.

Ah okey I see, but in SHL we now have no restriction:
"Ice Hockey Federation has decided that from next season abolish the limitation of foreign players in the premier division teams.
Hockey Association chairman Christer Englund says to Expressen that it is now settled law that, starting with this fall's free-for elitserielagen to use an unlimited number of players from non-European countries.
In the current situation is a regulatory framework that limits the maximum two per team."
Source: Elitserien tar bort importbegränsning - SHL: - Ishockey | Sveriges Radio

But I understand that it's hard to fix in the game, it would be very nice though

[Sebastian Palkowski]

"archibalduk--anyone give him any credit for knowing what he is talking about?
Alessandro--yeah, think he has a clue even though sometimes we disagree."

Before this gets blown up for no reason: both are part of the research team, both are highly respected (as is every other researcher on the team) by us and of course we listen very carefully to the feedback (as we do to the feedback in the public forum!). But as Jeff wrote, we have limited resources (time, men/woman-power) to work with and so we have to think twice about the priorities.

On a general note: GUI is always a lot of personal taste, some like FHM/OOTP, some don't, same with EHM (which I never liked the GUI, despite the game being great) or FM (I have big troubles to navigate the newest version). We know that FHM has a few bottlenecks in navigation, we know what people (e.g. archibalduk) would like to change to improve it and we will address it at some point.