FHM 11 - Wishlist & Suggestions

[boscoJJ]

Import teams with fictional players

[Savoie45]

1. A timer for the NHL Draft and a news splash of some sort after the draft that summarizes the picks made. Something that makes it feel like a big deal rather than just emails.

2. Some indicator of player's interest in signing with a team during Free Agency or even a top 3 teams a player would like to sign with for at least the top free agents. I'd also like to see a news splash of some sort after the NHL season that covers upcoming Free Agency. Listing top upcoming Free Agents and making it feel important.

3. Option to turn off Team Harmony. Until there is more control over misbehaving players outside of trading them, I'd rather not deal with this feature.

4. AI counter offers to trades. Just sitting offering the AI trade after trade until one finally works isn't immersive. I'd like to see the AI offer some form of counter offer at least.

5. Improved options during 2D play. I don't want to have to tell a player to skate or wait. The only options I need are to shoot or pass. and that only needs to be in the offensive zone, not the entire length of the ice. I would also like to see defensive options in the defensive zone. So when a player has a chance to make a check or to try and block a shot I'd like to make that choice. Of course with potential consequences of a missed check leading to a player out of position and potential scoring chance for the other team.

6. 35+ contracts so aging players aren't asking for unreasonable contracts. I'd also like to see players more willing to potentially take a cut in order to stay on a team and help stay under the salary cap.

7. An option to choose static salary cap or and a percentage increase year over year.

8. Ability to train for select attributes so that a player can improve specifically at attributes best suited for certain tactics. I want more control over what my players are improving at.

[Empty]

I'd echo what a lot of people are saying about balancing the drafts, mainly the first three or four that tend to produce far too many NHL players. I also really like that suggestion about allowing us to see the classes from three or four years into the future. That would help with scouting and deciding if you want to trade for/away picks from future classes.

Someone mentioned being able to see all training camp reports from all players in your system, not just on your team. I'd go a step further and suggest adding a development page to each player's profile so that you can track their individual improvement/decline over their season or career without having to skim through all of your messages.

Training itself could use some interactivity such as allowing us to specify which skills to train and which to avoid. I always cringe when I see defensemen improving in faceoffs, or your Lady Byng candidate improving his fighting skill. I get that there should be an element of randomness but the GM/Coach should have far more control. It might lead to later draft picks developing better from having an optimized development path or your top picks becoming busts because you botched their development.

To further this point, maybe some sort of "Practice" screen could be added where you assign drills, and training focuses. I'm not a big fan of the harmony system, but this could tie into it nicely by influencing player happiness and adding a risk/reward for how much and what type of training you do. It could also give more interactivity with your coaching staff who don't seem to do much at the moment once you hire and assign their role.

I think that these would also be improved with more farm team control. At least in online leagues, you have no control beyond sending your players down and calling them up.

An amazing UI improvement for the free agent screen would be to replace the always blank anyways categories of "Cap Hit" and "Length" with what their asks are so that you can sort by them or just get an idea of what a player wants without having to cycle through each individual negotiation screen.

[GMO123]

For attributes give a range of potential/future attributes, as assessed by scouting.

[bmason]

Here's a random one: add to the Game by Game tab for players, what position they played in each game.

When I'm playing GM only and I get an email item that a player is getting better at a new position (especially if it's a position they're not currently listed as at all), I'd like to be able to look at the game by game report and see how the coach has been deploying them.

[CanuckJohnny]

A thought I've had for a while and this may be a place to throw it out there is for defensemen and their position ratings. With the significance (at least in the NHL) of RHD being always at a premium and the rarity of players who consistently play on their off-side I wonder if there would be a way to make a defenseman's handedness tie into his positional skill. Like a RHD would always be 20 for RD and a LHD would always be 20 for LD. The versatile ones could be 20/19 and the ones who only ever play one side could be like 20/10. It's annoying to me how quickly a RHD will switch to being a LD as his primary position, or when I'm looking for a RD some of them are LHD. Maybe it doesn't affect the sim much but it feels weird when instead of finding my stud LD a good RD partner I could just play him on the right side for a few months and voila! a RD.

[renojedi]

Please just make the 2D simulator have realistic stats and then put more effort into the visuals.

I use "league 2D, rest classic" as many have recommended on this board.

I play every game out so I only get through about 10 seasons in a cycle. So far I am only through 3 seasons as I have waited for patches to try different setups hoping the goals would be more realistic.

Season one goal leaders: Larkin 81, McDavid 71, Pastnak 61
Season one point leaders: Larkin 140, McDavid 131, Draisaitl 121

Season two goal leaders: McDavid 63, Gaudreau 59, Stamkos 58
Season two point leaders: McDavid 141, DeBrincat 122, Larkin 119

The second year was a lot more realistic and I thought the patch had fixed the issue. Now in my current (third) season, with 10 games to go, McDavid has 81 goals and 154 points, McKinnon has 67 goals, and Kyle Connor has 66, and Larkin has 61 and Draisaitl has 52 games and 122 points.

There are a lot of little things I want fixed but this is my number one priority. After that, any additional work on the 2D simulator would also be appreciated..

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by renojedi

Please just make the 2D simulator have realistic stats and then put more effort into the visuals.

I use "league 2D, rest classic" as many have recommended on this board.

I play every game out so I only get through about 10 seasons in a cycle. So far I am only through 3 seasons as I have waited for patches to try different setups hoping the goals would be more realistic.

Season one goal leaders: Larkin 81, McDavid 71, Pastnak 61
Season one point leaders: Larkin 140, McDavid 131, Draisaitl 121

Season two goal leaders: McDavid 63, Gaudreau 59, Stamkos 58
Season two point leaders: McDavid 141, DeBrincat 122, Larkin 119

The second year was a lot more realistic and I thought the patch had fixed the issue. Now in my current (third) season, with 10 games to go, McDavid has 81 goals and 154 points, McKinnon has 67 goals, and Kyle Connor has 66, and Larkin has 61 and Draisaitl has 52 games and 122 points.

There are a lot of little things I want fixed but this is my number one priority. After that, any additional work on the 2D simulator would also be appreciated..

Your current season seems realistic.

[renojedi]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

Your current season seems realistic.

McDavid hit 86 to end the year. With Larkin hitting 81 in the first season, that is the most goals in a season in about 35 years. And it happened twice in three years.

Matthews (in real life) is at 68 which is record for most goals in a season by any active NHL player. Maybe he gets 70 which is unheard of. So, I'd have to respectfully disagree that two 80-goal scorers in 2 of 3 season is realistic.

[#4BobbyOrr]

- Fix AI personnel choices on the PP. All too often a high end player is left off the top PP unit because they have a two way forward or a defensive role in favor of a far inferior player who has an offensive role. Some examples are Wahlstrom (role being a 13 power forward) over Barzal (a 19 counterattacking forward) in NYI, Hayes (14 screener) over Thomas (18 counterattacking forward) in St. Louis, Bennett (screener) over Barkov (tw forward) in Florida and I’ve even seen McDavid left off the first unit as a 20 counterattacking forward before (McTavish, a 17 screener who Edmonton acquired was on the top unit in place of him). The AI also leans too heavily on positions in their PP decisions. In reality the 5 best offensive players always play on the top PP unit, it doesn’t matter if there are three centres on the unit as they all have their own area of the ice they will gravitate towards.

- tactics need an overhaul, especially on the Powerplay. Using a 4 forward unit guarantees whoever is the forward placed at the point on the PP will produce significantly less than the other four players on the unit. Putting somebody’s role as dangler in the regular season is basically a cheat code and can add 20+ points to their production compared to say a perimeter shooter role. Players with high defensive attributes and low offensive attributes never have good defensive stats, they are always among the team leaders in shots and goals against and vice versa, I’ve seen terrible defensive players with great defensive metrics. In real life there are far more high/low event players at both ends.

- more variety in award winners. I’ve never seen anyone with under a 4.5* rating win the Hart. If a 3.5* player comes out of nowhere to win a scoring title convincingly they never even get nominated, it’s always the same guys year after year. The Norris nominations are generally the leaders in combined points and plus minus. Goalies rarely win the Smythe.

- A pre game and saved game editor. This would save so much time instead of having to click through the player menus to edit everything.

- Tweaks to logic in valuing draft picks in trades. Top 10 picks all have insanely high value but the 11th overall pick is too easy to acquire. The drop off in pick value should be gradual instead of plummeting between 10 and 11. Also a team outside the top 10 who wins the lottery tends to value their pick as though they didn’t win so it’s a bit of a cheat code in order to acquire high picks.

- AI assessment of defensive defensemen. Every year high end defensive dmen are on waivers. Pelech, Slavin, Lindholm, the list goes on. Meanwhile the likes of Tony DeAngelo always seem to get playing time due to his offensive attributes despite being a complete defensive liability.

- AI goalie usage. Probably don’t need to elaborate here.

- refining results when using 2D simulation. Classic provides far more realistic results in terms of counting stats.

This game is unbelievable and I’ve spent many hours playing it. I think some of the above issues if they were addressed (some have been problems for years) would take the game to another level.

[BlackIce]

- Defensive players / Tough players not being demoted constantly. ie: Radko Gudas, Tanner Jeannot, Brandon Duhaime etc......

- Historic milestones being noticable like Ovie breaking Gretzkys scoring record!

- Veteran Players especially former Stanley Cup winners getting some boosts in leadership and ways of staying relevant during they're later years instead of abilities blowing up too quickly and plummeting to sitting in free agency for years or playing overseas

- Special Abilities added to players during development

- During training to specialize and focus too improve in an ability or a few abilities. Training is confusing and boring !

[csherwood001]

mprove AI trade logic especially in lower level leagues.

I am playing in the WHL. My team was doing awful so I decided to trade away my overage players before the deadline for draft picks. I had Calgary offer me their first round draft pick for one of my overages. Calgary was like 8-30 on the season with no chance of making the playoffs -- why would they trade the potential #1 overall draft pick for a guy who will age out of the league after the season ends?!?!

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by csherwood001

mprove AI trade logic especially in lower level leagues.

I am playing in the WHL. My team was doing awful so I decided to trade away my overage players before the deadline for draft picks. I had Calgary offer me their first round draft pick for one of my overages. Calgary was like 8-30 on the season with no chance of making the playoffs -- why would they trade the potential #1 overall draft pick for a guy who will age out of the league after the season ends?!?!

Change the trade difficulty. Granted it could be better at normal, but the band aid for that is the ability to change the difficulty level.

[mpolitte123]

It would be cool if special abilities were more like x factors in eanhl

[mpolitte123]

Make a drop down like ootp has where you can view player's skills compared to the rest of their league. Playing in chl saves or anything other than the nhl isn't very visually appealing when you have to look at a bunch of super low ratings, having an option to see how skilled they are for their current league would be super nice.

[Greenert11]

• More details about suspensions in the news article that include different types of infractions, boarding, cross-checking, slashing, charging etc. As it stands every suspension is caused by an illegal check to the head.
• Fix the high amount of back to back games generated by the schedule. For the NHL’s current season, the median team plays around 11-12 back to backs in contract to my custom league where each team is averaging around 20 back to back games per season.
• Ability to type and add custom league notes for leagues and save. Would help explain custom leagues' backstories and universes from quickstarts.
• Ability to change the color of the bar that has the “standings” “schedule” “roster”. Would add a little more character to each league. For example you could have the early NHL with an orange bar to reflect the league logo and time period.
• Teams before the start of the WHA should let the majority of their players remained unsigned until July 1st whilst retaining their rights. This will give the WHA a better shot at signing NHL talent when it joins the universe and better reflect the early years of the NHL before the NHLPA.
• Ability to better manage junior draft pools in custom leagues. If you have 2 major leagues you still cannot have them both draft young players from the same crop of junior leagues.
• Ability to add/deactivate leagues in standard and historical games as well as deactivating a league in a custom game,
• Ability to hire assistant coaches straight into vacant positions similar to how you can hire a trainer straight into their role.
• Ability to set what age players become UFA/RFA
• Ability to export rosters and be able to upload them into different saves similar to the import historical team option but with any roster from any save.
• Option to toggle team harmony/finances off. I don’t care about these but other players seem to mind.
• Option to lock arena settings. I hate setting up a custom team with a real life arena and they go renovating the arena every offseason often resulting in lower average attendance.
• Ability to enable/disable a draft lottery system where the user can input the amount of draws each team gets. Custom leagues do not have a draft lottery system whatsoever so even a basic one would be a great improvement.
• A team “Attractiveness” rating that has an impact on your ability to sign free agents. Winnipeg = Very hard, Florida = Very Easy. With an option to disable/enable it.
• More flexibility with playoff formats using a simple seeding system so you can have weird 7 team playoffs or anything without hard limits.
• Ability to schedule only 1 game against cross-division or conference opponents. In huge leagues, I want teams to play against every team but still have most of their matchups be against their own division rivals.
• Add a “Team Records” tab similar to the Game Records. I want to see the most amount of goals a team has scored in a game or the most shots made.
• A Newsletter when a player/league record has been broken for example getting notified when the most goals scored in a game has been achieved. Or if Ovechkin beats Gretzky's all-time goal record.
• International tournaments in custom leagues.
• Change milestones to be more realistic or editable. No milestone for 1000 points instead its 900?
• A “Release all Staff” button under team edit. When taking over a team via commissioner mode sometimes I don’t want to manually fire/remove contracts from all the current staff. When a new team is also added to the game start it with no staff and then fill it after simming a day so it doesn’t instantly fill the roles with subpar staff.
• Pre season games should be strictly against divisional opponents in leagues with multiple divisions and conferences. The Calgary Flames are not playing the Tampa Bay Lightning in pre-season.
• Include playoff results and matchups under team history somewhere. The only information we get on post-season details without manually going into each seasons history is whether the team won the league championship or not.
• Ability to negotiate your own contract or have the choice to not renew with your current team instead of being auto re-signed every time.
• A “team futures” rankings list that ranks teams based on their 22 and under players and potential so you can gauge how well a team is set for future success.
• On player pages include their nicknames in between their first and last name at the top. The only way to see their nickname is to go to their bio and this would add more personality to the game.
• When setting a team color you cannot edit the color HTML code unless you click pick screen color select a random color and then type in the code. This has never worked properly since I started playing FHM.
• A last 10-game record on the standings tab like the NHL website to see which teams are hot or not.
• Addition of team secondary colors on trading cards for more customization.
• Add a cheer for when the home team scores in 2D mode. There is only a boo for when the visitors score.
• Add a year-inducted date in the hall of fame so you can sort players by induction year.
• There is no way to view a player's ATOI on the career stats page. It only appears at the bottom of their profile page.

[GMO123]

replays in 2D.

[Javs]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

Change the trade difficulty. Granted it could be better at normal, but the band aid for that is the ability to change the difficulty level.

Overagers are worth nothing, as per design in the game.


I wish the CHL In general got some attention, lots going on there

[GMO123]

Manual should give more details about various coaches/assistants/AI.

For example in Roster,Action Menu - there is 'Assistant: Dress players' and 'Create Lines'. Who is the assistant? How is it determined?

Also in Roster, Action Menu, there is 'AI set Roles' and 'AI set tactics' - who/what is the AI and how is that determined?

With the 'assistant' and 'AI', what do the Head Coach and assistant coaches do? How are they different from the 'assistant' and 'AI'?

Also under Manager Options the 'assistant' can do scouting etc.
Who is the 'assistant'?

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by Javs

Overagers are worth nothing, as per design in the game.


I wish the CHL In general got some attention, lots going on there

I agree