Version 1.6.2 Game Update Now Available

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Arkon

As for coaches, is there any plans to implement a cap on the number of coaches and scouts an organization can have? In my second season there are only a handful of coaches/scouts left to hire.

We're going in the other direction with that - if there aren't enough free agent staff in the offseason, the game will generate more.

Also I just noticed that in the NHL, AI teams are not being held to the contract limit. I have teams that are over the limit, such as Florida with 54 out of 50 contracts, while most teams due to huge salaries are stuck sitting at only 34 out of 50 contracts.

Not seeing this in the most recent test build, I looked at a 2019-20 save and nobody's over 50 in midseason, while most of the league is in the 45-50 range. Two teams are in the high 30's, but it's not budget-related, they both have lots of room to sign players.

[asilvermtzion]

in my current save, i have dallas with 57/50, st louis 51/50, and winnipeg 56/50. its feb 12, 2016. dallas actually continues to sign players too.

i also have a player who is taking up multiple lineup spots. 1st and 2nd line lw, and both lw and center on 5 on 4 pp and 5 on 3pp.

[asilvermtzion]

also just noticed that every team, when viewing from the roster overview screen, has a different salary cap number. for example, the ducks have a cap of $81,289,661, the coyotes have $90,667,862, the red wings are have $74,530,831. all of the floor numbers are the same, $44,000,000, and all of the teams are under the actual cap, which i think was $71million something.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by asilvermtzion

also just noticed that every team, when viewing from the roster overview screen, has a different salary cap number. for example, the ducks have a cap of $81,289,661, the coyotes have $90,667,862, the red wings are have $74,530,831. all of the floor numbers are the same, $44,000,000, and all of the teams are under the actual cap, which i think was $71million something.

That's how accumulated cap space is displayed. The amount will gradually increase through the year, so you know how much annual cap hit you can add. Saves you the trouble of doing a bunch of extra math to figure out how much cap hit you can afford to add.

[Aliean]

Originally Posted by JeffR

That's how accumulated cap space is displayed. The amount will gradually increase through the year, so you know how much annual cap hit you can add. Saves you the trouble of doing a bunch of extra math to figure out how much cap hit you can afford to add.

would be good to have it all there

[Arkon]

Originally Posted by JeffR

We're going in the other direction with that - if there aren't enough free agent staff in the offseason, the game will generate more.

So what is the benefit of having more than a normal number of assistant coaches on a team. If a team has 10 assistant coaches instead of say the usual 3-4, is there a benefit?

[Arkon]

On the topic of scouting, I usually manually control scouting for the first 2/3rds of a season and then let the AI take over. I am noticing that they will continue to insist on sending scouts week after week to the same location despite every week reporting there was nothing to find. In my case that was 10 scouts+ all to Atlantic Canada.

[TheAdamBn]

Originally Posted by JeffR

It's looking like next week right now. Some of the contract-related issues turned out to be a little more complex than we thought, so Malte's been getting that straightened out. That'll also allow us to get some data changes made, since the new database version will be ready after the research deadline on Sunday night.

Contract demands for young guys on their second deal are significantly lower now, but there are still a few quirks that need adjustment, and we're going to extend the reductions to older, inexperienced players as well, since those were higher than they should be. We're also still getting the kinks out of the RFA system; offer sheets work now but there are problems with matching, as well as issues with players being qualified properly.

Coach firing has been toned down, but the initial efforts went too far in the other direction (down to 1-2 per season), so we're tuning that.

I think we're going to increase the starting cap in the March 5 update to $71.1m, the amount it will be next year, to alleviate some of the issues the AI has with managing the post-deadline, high-cap hit rosters.

The dumping of csv reports to the install directory, problems with undraftable players in historic mode, incorrect ECHL cap hits, and a few dozen other things have been corrected or adjusted. The fix list for 1.6.3 had 40 items, 4 of which are still unverified as fixed at this point; we'll begin testing 1.6.4 tomorrow starting with confirming the fixes to those outstanding items, as well as 15-20 new changes.

Will the new match engine be included or is there an rough eta for it?

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by TheAdamBn

Will the new match engine be included or is there an rough eta for it?

No, that'll be the patch following it. No definite date yet, but there'll be a few weeks in between them, for sure.

[asilvermtzion]

is there going to be a rating system at any point to see how the players are doing, similar to what fm has with its 'last 5 games' rating and ehm had with its average rating thing?

[IvanIvanovich]

Originally Posted by asilvermtzion

is there going to be a rating system at any point to see how the players are doing, similar to what fm has with its 'last 5 games' rating and ehm had with its average rating thing?

The one in EHM don't really work that well. It's more a measure of how much ice-time the player has been given than it is about how well he's played. It's one of the weak areas in that game and shouldn't be copied by FHM.

Ivan

[asilvermtzion]

i didnt mean that a fhm version should be exactly like either system, just that they exist and id love to have one implemented in this game.

[thepete]

If you absolutely don't want a rating system, which is understandable, there should be some way to scout your team on a game-by-game basis. I'm not sure the current one is cut out for that task, however.

- You assign your scout to give you reports after each game.
- His abilities and preference (ie physical defensive/technical or flashy offensive) color his reports and analysis of the game.

[IvanIvanovich]

Originally Posted by thepete

If you absolutely don't want a rating system, which is understandable, there should be some way to scout your team on a game-by-game basis. I'm not sure the current one is cut out for that task, however.

- You assign your scout to give you reports after each game.
- His abilities and preference (ie physical defensive/technical or flashy offensive) color his reports and analysis of the game.

A good idea.

An Assistant GM (like in EHM) doing it is an other option. We need an AssGM (configurable) to help with various tasks anyway.

Ivan

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Arkon

So what is the benefit of having more than a normal number of assistant coaches on a team. If a team has 10 assistant coaches instead of say the usual 3-4, is there a benefit?

4 assistants is the maximum useful number - one guy each with a high rating in coaching forwards, defencemen, goalies, and prospects. More than that won't have any effect.

[Duranium]

Originally Posted by JeffR

4 assistants is the maximum useful number - one guy each with a high rating in coaching forwards, defencemen, goalies, and prospects. More than that won't have any effect.

what happens if i don´t have a Head Coach appointed ?

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by asilvermtzion

i didnt mean that a fhm version should be exactly like either system, just that they exist and id love to have one implemented in this game.

The problem is, though, that any ratings system is going to have big flaws - if I draw one up, it wouldn't have the same problems the EHM system does, but I guarantee it's going to have some. Hockey's very difficult to measure in that way, and you also have to account for the player's role - if Colton Orr plays five minutes with no shots or points and fights twice, that's a pretty good game for him. If Phil Kessel does that, it's terrible.

So one way or another, you wind up with a flawed system, but that's not the worst part of it. Where it really screws up the game is when you start making other things dependent on it: it's very convenient to tie player happiness, reputation, development, and similar things to a system that claims to measure how well a player is playing. But then you wind up with the problems in your ratings system creating issues throughout the game.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Duranium

what happens if i don´t have a Head Coach appointed ?

You're the head coach. So you should generally try to have assistants with good ratings in the four categories mentioned above, since your numbers won't be as good as theirs (eventually, it'd be nice to have the user's ratings and reputation develop over time, but that doesn't happen right now.)

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by thepete

If you absolutely don't want a rating system, which is understandable, there should be some way to scout your team on a game-by-game basis. I'm not sure the current one is cut out for that task, however.

- You assign your scout to give you reports after each game.
- His abilities and preference (ie physical defensive/technical or flashy offensive) color his reports and analysis of the game.

We want to do something like that, but the game-to-game reporting would come from an assistant coach, not a scout. The Football Manager coach feedback is close to where we'd like to wind up eventually, but that will take a while to implement.

[thepete]

Originally Posted by JeffR

We want to do something like that, but the game-to-game reporting would come from an assistant coach, not a scout. The Football Manager coach feedback is close to where we'd like to wind up eventually, but that will take a while to implement.

That's fine I suppose, but keep this in mind: by the sound of what you're saying, I'd be hiring an assistant coach just based on his talent/skill/potential evaluation and style of play. That moves us into what I'd call a pretty unrealistic scenario - teams wouldn't do that in real life. Sure, their assistants might have input but they're not the only pair of eyes watching a team.

That's why I'd want a scout doing that, since that's their only job: watching the games. It's "fine" to hire a scout just to watch your team.