Fictional only league

[darkcloud4579]

I am trying to navigate the user interface of FHM9 and finding it extremely hard to grok as a longtime OOTPer because it's as if nobody tested this stuff before unleashing it on us. Lots of hidden menus, with things hard to find and buried behind things. I can speculate as to why the two games don't share the same UI.

Seems the only way to load the foreign leagues is through the standard menu, but there doesn't seem to be an option to play that with fictional players. Is it possible to clear out the entire league's players and add fictional ones in their stead?

It's very easy to do in OOTP, but I can't figure it out as easily in FHM.

[Flying_Canuck]

It has been a while since I created my league and I just keep transferring the save to each new edition. It is definitely possible to have full fictional league with fictional players. That's what I play with.

However, I am not sure if "standard game" can do that. I used "Custom game" for my league, and set up the teams/rules mirroring real life (but with all fictional players).

[reverist]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

I am trying to navigate the user interface of FHM9 and finding it extremely hard to grok as a longtime OOTPer because it's as if nobody tested this stuff before unleashing it on us. Lots of hidden menus, with things hard to find and buried behind things. I can speculate as to why the two games don't share the same UI.

Seems the only way to load the foreign leagues is through the standard menu, but there doesn't seem to be an option to play that with fictional players. Is it possible to clear out the entire league's players and add fictional ones in their stead?

It's very easy to do in OOTP, but I can't figure it out as easily in FHM.

I know that in a standard game, you can go into each team's "edit" screen (if you are in commissioner mode) and release all players. However, this will simply move all such players into free agents and does not automatically generate fictional players. You could create a bunch of random guys by clicking on "create a player" and not really looking to see what any names/settings are, and assign each of them to a particular team. That is incredibly tedious though. You are better off doing the following:

1. Create a custom game.
2. Create all and only leagues you would like to see (Liiga, DEL, SHL, NHL, etc.). Downside: you will have to choose one and only one of these at setup as your "main" league in the world. If you want the leagues to be close, you can always set the other league levels at 0.99, which places them at 99% of talent/strength as the main league.
3. Create all real-life teams in these real-life leagues.
4. Use the forum's mod sections to import all real-life logos and jerseys for all teams.
5. During initial game set-up, be sure to select "fictional players."
6. On July 1 (make sure this is your start date), go through each league and ensure all set-ups are as you desire (avg. goals, penalty minutes, waiver/buyout rules, etc.).

Now you have a universe containing real leagues and teams but all fictional players!

[Whomario]

That's insanely tedious as well ... I am guessing this has licensing issues at the root of it?

Would love that option as well for Standard.

[reverist]

Originally Posted by Whomario

That's insanely tedious as well ... I am guessing this has licensing issues at the root of it?

Would love that option as well for Standard.

To be fair, the graphics stuff is all optional. You could run the game without real jerseys, logos, and such. Standard doesn't have them for the other leagues either. I do believe it's a licensing thing for that.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by reverist

I know that in a standard game, you can go into each team's "edit" screen (if you are in commissioner mode) and release all players. However, this will simply move all such players into free agents and does not automatically generate fictional players. You could create a bunch of random guys by clicking on "create a player" and not really looking to see what any names/settings are, and assign each of them to a particular team. That is incredibly tedious though. You are better off doing the following:

1. Create a custom game.
2. Create all and only leagues you would like to see (Liiga, DEL, SHL, NHL, etc.). Downside: you will have to choose one and only one of these at setup as your "main" league in the world. If you want the leagues to be close, you can always set the other league levels at 0.99, which places them at 99% of talent/strength as the main league.
3. Create all real-life teams in these real-life leagues.
4. Use the forum's mod sections to import all real-life logos and jerseys for all teams.
5. During initial game set-up, be sure to select "fictional players."
6. On July 1 (make sure this is your start date), go through each league and ensure all set-ups are as you desire (avg. goals, penalty minutes, waiver/buyout rules, etc.).

Now you have a universe containing real leagues and teams but all fictional players!

Appreciate you taking the time to lay this all out.

[reverist]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

Appreciate you taking the time to lay this all out.

Oh, one more thing! In the initial league set up, you are able to set the initial population demographics of the leagues you create. So, if you create the KHL, you can make it to where 85% of the initial fictional player pool is Russian, 10% rest of Europe (not sure if that's a setting, haha), 5% Canadian. You can also fix the draft nationalities at whatever. This way, you can mirror real-life as much as possible, or set it up to where you wanted the KHL to undergo a huge transition from real-life to snagging up a lot of real North American players (in this case, either KHL would need to be your top league or else .99 of the NHL). Just some more thoughts.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by reverist

Oh, one more thing! In the initial league set up, you are able to set the initial population demographics of the leagues you create. So, if you create the KHL, you can make it to where 85% of the initial fictional player pool is Russian, 10% rest of Europe (not sure if that's a setting, haha), 5% Canadian. You can also fix the draft nationalities at whatever. This way, you can mirror real-life as much as possible, or set it up to where you wanted the KHL to undergo a huge transition from real-life to snagging up a lot of real North American players (in this case, either KHL would need to be your top league or else .99 of the NHL). Just some more thoughts.

It's way too tedious right now for me to go and recreate the real leagues, I wish there was a way to do it without having to do it manually...it's clear the developers didn't think about the fictional crowd -- which, I guess you have to prioritize the main audience -- and so I'm somewhere between giving up on the game entirely and getting a refund or trying to decide whether I can deal with slowly building out custom leagues and doing all that manual stuff...

But yeah, I've seen what you're saying about creating the league balance as I've gone and tried to create a few fictional leagues, but the immersion (or lack thereof) is kinda ruining it for me at the moment. We'll see! Thanks again.

[Thunder175]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

It's way too tedious right now for me to go and recreate the real leagues, I wish there was a way to do it without having to do it manually...it's clear the developers didn't think about the fictional crowd -- which, I guess you have to prioritize the main audience -- and so I'm somewhere between giving up on the game entirely and getting a refund or trying to decide whether I can deal with slowly building out custom leagues and doing all that manual stuff...

But yeah, I've seen what you're saying about creating the league balance as I've gone and tried to create a few fictional leagues, but the immersion (or lack thereof) is kinda ruining it for me at the moment. We'll see! Thanks again.

I'm in the same boat. It definitely is a lot more tedious than OOTP for example and the dev's here have stated some of that is due to hardcoded things in the back to make the simulation work. I've been waiting since the original FHM for the flexibility of OOTP custom/fictional leagues to be ported over and continue to be disappointed every year.



That being said I have made a fictional game or two thus far with decent results after hours of tedious clicking and setting up all the teams. But without an export/import league structure like OOTP it really is a futile effort short of having multiple quickstart saves to "save" your universes structure periodically.