FHM11 Update 11.2.31 Now Available

[JeffR]

he first content update for FHM11, version 11.2.31, has just been released.

To apply the update:

-If you are playing the FastSpring version, just download the setup file and install it over your current installation. There is no need to uninstall or unlicense your current copy! However, you should quit the game before installing it, of course.
-If you are playing the Steam version, the game will auto-update if you have that option active. If you don't see the update in your Steam update queue, you may need to exit and restart your Steam client.

Download link for PC (FastSpring):
Main server: PC Installer Fastspring

Download link for Mac (FastSpring):
Main Server: Mac Installer Fastspring

The first content update for FHM11 is here! In addition to updated rosters (as of December 11, so no Cam Fowler trade), we've added some new things to the game: in historical mode, the Central Hockey League (1963-1984) joins the American Hockey League as a playable minor league; the recent US college rule change allowing players from the Canadian major junior leagues to be recruited has been implemented; multiplayer games can now be created from quickstart files; your contract renewal is now optional again; and we've enabled editing on a bunch of fields at the team and league level that were previously locked. In addition to those, we've made the usual fixes and adjustments in other areas.

Barring the need for a hotfix to repair any game-breaking issues that are discovered in this update, the next update will be the second content update, to be released in early February.

Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game. Some fixes, however, are data-dependent and may require starting a new game before you see them.

New additions:

-The NCAA's decision to allow former major junior players to be recruited has been implemented. Obviously, no one's quite sure at this point how this will play out, so this is just a best guess on our part, and we can adapt it if needed. The first in-game change is a new check on 19- and 20-year-old major junior players near the start of the season (i.e., prior to the verbal commitments) that can change their junior preference to the college option. Players with a higher intelligence rating will be more likely to make this choice, but only if their potential isn't too high - it seems unlikely to us that good NHL-caliber prospects will take this option (although others seem to disagree, so we'll see.) Then, those players will be eligible for the verbal commitments and national signing day "drafts", just like any other player with the college preference. If they join a team on national signing day, their college "contract" will take effect the next July 1 - which, for players going into their 20-year-old season, may mean that the player foregoes their overage year in junior, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to anticipate that we'll see some players do that rather than spend another year riding buses to Moose Jaw. Additionally, the changes made in the last update will tend to pull more Canadian and US players towards playing major junior first, but we did go fairly conservative with those changes until we see what really happens. In general, there'll be a noticeable number of guys moving from the CHL to NCAA each year, often guys who can immediately be college-level stars, but it won't be an overwhelming flood of players.
-the Central Hockey League is now playable in historical mode. This is the 1963-84 Central League (formerly the Central Professional Hockey League in its first seasons in the sixties), not the later low-minors league of the same name that ended in 2014.) It will work pretty much exactly as the playable AHL does, with NHL affiliations switching at the appropriate times. As with the AHL, anyone who played at least one CHL game is now in the database (if they weren't there already), and the playoff seasons and schedules have been simplified a bit in some years (although the CHL's format was never particularly complex, so it's not as noticeable as with the AHL) The process of adding the CHL went smoothly enough that we're optimistic that we can add the remaining two leagues that had a large number of primary NHL affiliations, the old 1940s-1970s Western League and the post-1984 portion of International League, in the remaining FHM11 content updates. One note, though: it'll save a bunch of time if I can wait until later to add the arena histories for all leagues at once, so I'm going to hold off until we're adding the last one instead of doing the AHL's arenas earlier.
-It's now possible to create multiplayer games from quickstart files (there's now a Multiplayer checkbox on the "Load a Quickstart" popup, selecting it makes the gmae multiplayer)
-Added back the option (on the manager option screen) for the users to disable automatic renewal of their GM contract - you'll still get the contract offer if the team wants to renew it, but you can now turn it down and become unemployed
-Added a number of new editing options, specifically:

• enabled editing of team cap hit penalty and team Local TV Deal value
• enabled assists per goal editing on July 1 (League Info tab, just below Fights/Game - this controls the frequency with which the league awards assists; very low values will restrict, but not totally eliminate, first as well as second assists in 2D mode, but the classic engine will only reduce the frequency of second assists, it can't reduce the number of first assists)
• enabled editing of Number of Overaged Players on July 1 (Rules tab, just blow Max Foreign) (only for use in leagues with an upper age limit, this will limit the number of players allowed per team of the league's maximum age)
• enabled editing of Maximum Veterans, Veteran GP Limit, and Veteran League Rep on July 1 (these can be used to enforce limits on the number of veteran players in the league, with veterans being defined as players with > career games played above the specified limit in leagues above the specified reputation limit.)
• enabled editing of league National TV Deal value on July 1

The database is updated as of December 11 for the playable leagues (although there have been some moves in other leagues as well.) The issue we had with a small number of players being assigned to generic Under-20/-18/etc. teams should be completely fixed now.

Other changes and fixes:

-relocated goalie selection on the pregame lineup screen to the 5-on-5 tab
-added reminder popup near the end of the month when a captain's invervention is available on the team morale screen (and a morale problem exists)
-in the csv exports, we've added to player_master.csv a "Rookie" column, that's set to 1 if the player meets the "rookie" qualifications for the league he's currently in (as defined in the rookie option for the search filter) or 0 otherwise (or if he doesn't have a league)
-On the Team-Upcoming Free Agents screen, the "Est. demand" amount will no longer occasionally be shown as "Leading offer" rather than the estimated demand
-owners will no longer give the "better goalie" goal when the team has a contracted goalie with potential >3.5 stars
-reduced frequency of "hire a local scout" owner goal
-prospect playing time owner goal will now complete in midyear if conditions are met
-"do not re-sign" owner goal will no longer target first-line(ish) level players, and if the targeted player is traded or released the goal will auto-complete
-right-clicking on the postgame screen no longer generates a page history error
-lowered frequency of blockbuster-type trades
-at lower resolutions, the parent and farm teams sections of the team data screen are no longer so short that they can't display any data
-added link to boxscore in all-star game news stories
-agreeing with the media is now much more likely to improve the GM-media relationship
-owner changes will no longer drop GM's job security number to a dangerously low level (although it may still decrease)
-lowered frequency of offseason GM firings
-players will no longer request the "fringe player" supplementary role in a contract (and then proceed to refuse it)
-head scout draft evaluations will now ignore Iron Curtain players in years where the Iron Curtain rule is active
-reworked creation of generic owners for teams that were missing them
-Colorado/Columbus 23-24 thing fixed for good now, hopefully

[JeffR]

One small data issue that slipped through: Givani Smith, Jacob Trouba, and Mackenzie Blackwood are still contracted to their previous team. If you start a new game, I suggest going into commissioner mode and changing their contracted team to their new team, otherwise ownership will revert back to their old team on July 1. My bad, I edited the NHL trades in manually and either missed updating their contracts or didn't save it properly. The remaining traded guys since the last update are correct, though.

[mochuck]

have tried to download fastspring version several times now and every time after about 15 seconds... it fails and download stops

[Swedishgamefreak]

Originally Posted by JeffR

One small data issue that slipped through: Givani Smith, Jacob Trouba, and Mackenzie Blackwood are still contracted to their previous team. If you start a new game, I suggest going into commissioner mode and changing their contracted team to their new team, otherwise ownership will revert back to their old team on July 1. My bad, I edited the NHL trades in manually and either missed updating their contracts or didn't save it properly. The remaining traded guys since the last update are correct, though.

Will there be a hotfix for that soon?

[renojedi]

On a previous thread you had mentioned wanting to make some changes to the 2D simulator in this update. Did you get a chance to do that and, if so, what were those changes?

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by renojedi

On a previous thread you had mentioned wanting to make some changes to the 2D simulator in this update. Did you get a chance to do that and, if so, what were those changes?

No, time was a little tight so I decided to hold off on that until the next one, where Sebastian and I will have a few weeks to go back and forth with experimental iterations of the 2D engine. There's also a new thing I want to do with that engine that would make sense to slide in with the other changes, and that definitely wasn't happening in time for this one.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by mochuck

have tried to download fastspring version several times now and every time after about 15 seconds... it fails and download stops

Try it now, I've pointed the link to another location for the file.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Swedishgamefreak

Will there be a hotfix for that soon?

No hotfix unless there's something completely game-breaking in the update. If we have to do one, we'll fix those three guys as well.

[Swedishgamefreak]

Like renojedi said, I would have liked to see the changes to the 2D engine but if it's not ready yet, that is fine. However, i did another test to see if the salary demand decrease problem was still in the game and after the first season, Adin Hill was free agent. At July 1 he wanted 7 mil. At August 1 he wanted 4 mil. At September 1 he wanted 3 mil. At the start of the regular season he wanted 6 mil. This issue will make some free agents stay as free agents during the whole season or, in some cases, sign with a team in europe for way less money. It does not make sense.

The realistic solution would be that at the start of the season, Adin Hill would be willing to sign a contract on a low AAV on a 1 year contract just to make sure to stay in NHL.

[chessarmy]

For the GM re-signing now being optional - do I need to start a new game to see the effects?

[Hawkeye21]

What does 'Veteran League Rep' indicate in the league rules section? Just noticed that in the new update

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye21

What does 'Veteran League Rep' indicate in the league rules section? Just noticed that in the new update

It's the cutoff point for what level of league is considered when counting a player's career games played for purposes of the veteran rule, e.g. if a player has 100 games played in a league with 0.7 reputation and 50 games played in a league with 0.9 reputation, and the league rule considers players veterans if they've played 100 games with a Veteran League Rep setting of 0.8, then he wouldn't count as a veteran. If the setting was 0.7, he would.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by chessarmy

For the GM re-signing now being optional - do I need to start a new game to see the effects?

Nope, the setting's on the manager options screen, it can be changed in existing games.

[Hawerchuk10]

In historical mode the Grand Rapids Griffins is not affiliated to Detroit Red Wings(has been since 2002), instead Red Wings share Bridgeport Sound Tigers with New York Islanders as an affiliate.

[Lastgasper]

Originally Posted by JeffR

No, time was a little tight so I decided to hold off on that until the next one, where Sebastian and I will have a few weeks to go back and forth with experimental iterations of the 2D engine. There's also a new thing I want to do with that engine that would make sense to slide in with the other changes, and that definitely wasn't happening in time for this one.

Disappointing. 2D/PBP etc always seems to be at the bottom of the list.

[JPL86]

Hopefully, these very, very, very long time issues will be part of the upcoming 2D fix (for custom games):

1) Ice-time settings in "Lines". Specifically setting the ice time distributions in the PP and PK screens.

2) RFA offer sheet signings. This never works properly. I never get any picks when another team signs my RFA after the RFA rejects my contract.

3) Teams trading their first round pick multiple times.

4) Excessive shot totals by D-Men.

For some reason 2D is always at the bottom of the fix list. But this is getting ridiculous. Some of these issues have been problems for over 5 years.

[renojedi]

When rosters are updated, is it only player movement or are there also rating or role updates?

[Sabres2000]

A couple of things

a) when playing AHL/ECHL you only get one pre-season game is there a way in the future to add more like the NHL where they have 6-7 pre-season games

b) on July 1st if you edit the amount of games say for ECHL they play 72 games, can you increase that on July 1st in a standard game or is that hard coded?

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by renojedi

When rosters are updated, is it only player movement or are there also rating or role updates?

Mostly movements, but I'm pretty sure Jeff does small attribute tweaks to some players if they are standing out or not performing as well as expected.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

Mostly movements, but I'm pretty sure Jeff does small attribute tweaks to some players if they are standing out or not performing as well as expected.

That's about it, but there'll be a more thorough NHL review in the next update, I've been going through every player over the holidays.