Announcement: Franchise Hockey Manager Release Date, Preordering, and Beta

[tcblcommish]

Because it uses the e licence thing for the game, I believe it is 2. It wouldn't make much sense if it was just 1 for FHm and 2 for ootp so I would say 2

[highheat42]

If we Pre purchase and install on windows, will we be able to also install a Mac beta if/ when that comes out as well and the official release version?

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by Afino

Considering this is the first version of the game, I appreciate the time and effort to ensure a smooth as possible opening release in order to not possibly turn off future customers with a rushed, buggy game.

Nice job reaching a reasonable compromise for those who have been waiting a long time while still dealing with the realities of developing a new game.

Well put, Afino. That's exactly what I was thinking.

For 10 years, I've caught myself wondering how much fun it would be to play a hockey game like OOTP. I can handle waiting one more month at this point.

I know it won't be "like OOTP" on March 4, but it will be a WHOLE lot closer to that status than any other game out there. Count me among the people who will be pre-ordering on March 4. I've never beta-tested a game, and I'm thinking it might be fun to look back at FHM one day and think "I was one of the people who did a little bit to make this happen."

[croatian]

how many seasons we can play in beta ?

[Hanson Bros]

count me in on buying it in March!

[Mafarfloune]

Originally Posted by croatian

how many seasons we can play in beta ?

Until the game crashes is my guess.

[OpusTheFowl]

Originally Posted by croatian

how many seasons we can play in beta ?

You have the full version as you paid for it...it just happens to not be finished...no limits or caps...just some bugs...

[diesel230]

I have the same question as "Highheat". If i preorder and use my girlfriends laptop with windows (which will become my computer once my addiction on March 4th starts, which happens to be my Birthday) will my beta preorder work in September on my Mac?

[tcblcommish]

I'm almost positive that the licence is only pc or Mac, not both

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by sting004

Out of curiosity, what is the process for determining the individual attributes of each player? Is Michael doing the entire NHL for the detail work or is it being split up among different people?

It'd tale a while to explain the whole process to determine attributes, but basically it'll work on a budgeting system - researchers get leaguewide guidelines for giving each player four target abilities that cover groups of attributes (these also drive the template system that 'fills in the blanks' for unrated attributes), and those targets will provide the points that can be spread across the attributes within a group. So, as long as the target abilities stay within guidelines (and it's easy to check if they are), the individual attributes can't stray too far out of the correct range.

We're going to see how it works this week with Mike doing all of the NHL attributes, then he'll let me know if he's going to need additional help to be ready for the beta.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by lubongo

i did try searching on this but couldn't find anything: now that all the feature priorities have changed with the extra time before version one, can you give a rough idea on when you could get a 2D match engine coded in? obviously i'm definitely not expecting it for version one but with all the features already announced i'm struggling to think of anything else i would like to be included! i know it's not high on the list, and obviously ironing out bugs and stuff is much more important, so is version two possible for this? if not might it be included at some later point? it really helped me get immersed into EHM2007 over the text-based versions before it.

That'd be Sebastian's call, since he's probably the one that would be coding it, but my advice to him will be to wait a long time. After the EHM 07 experience, 2D match engines scare me. That ate up a ton of Riz's coding time that year, and he had the advantage of working within shouting distance of the FM guys, with years of experience handling their own 2/3D match engines (having Paul Collyer around for advice on that topic is a little like having Scotty Bowman on board to design coaching logic for a hockey game.) We'd need to have cleared just about every other thing off the wish list before I'd want to tackle that.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

I wonder how the WHA will work as far as teams folding during the season? Will there be two options,play the season complete or play with teams folding?

No, the teams that folded midyear in real life will play out the entire season. And teams that changed location in midyear will stay in their original city - so the New Jersey Knights, Baltimore Blades, and Ottawa Civics won't appear.

[geckon]

Originally Posted by JeffR

That'd be Sebastian's call, since he's probably the one that would be coding it, but my advice to him will be to wait a long time. After the EHM 07 experience, 2D match engines scare me. That ate up a ton of Riz's coding time that year, and he had the advantage of working within shouting distance of the FM guys, with years of experience handling their own 2/3D match engines (having Paul Collyer around for advice on that topic is a little like having Scotty Bowman on board to design coaching logic for a hockey game.) We'd need to have cleared just about every other thing off the wish list before I'd want to tackle that.

If I remember it correctly I think Sebastian mentioned elsewhere that if he ever makes 2D/3D engine then it must look realistic.

[AESP_pres]

Originally Posted by JeffR

No, the teams that folded midyear in real life will play out the entire season. And teams that changed location in midyear will stay in their original city - so the New Jersey Knights, Baltimore Blades, and Ottawa Civics won't appear.

That would be a good idea to talk with Markus about that as it is something we can do "easilly" with OOTP. Of course it's manually using the schedule and league editor, but this is how we can simulate the 19th century baseball as it happened (works perfectly with all the team relocation in the Union Association).

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by JeffR

No, the teams that folded midyear in real life will play out the entire season. And teams that changed location in midyear will stay in their original city - so the New Jersey Knights, Baltimore Blades, and Ottawa Civics won't appear.

The 1974-75 Michigan Stags made the big mistake of waiting till late in the season for playing Gordie Howe and the Houston Aeros at home. If they had played those games earlier in the season,it may have saved the franchise.

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by JeffR

No, the teams that folded midyear in real life will play out the entire season. And teams that changed location in midyear will stay in their original city - so the New Jersey Knights, Baltimore Blades, and Ottawa Civics won't appear.

We can't change the names of the teams when they moved in real life?

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

We can't change the names of the teams when they moved in real life?

Oh, sure you can, I just mean it won't happen automatically.

[AESP_pres]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Oh, sure you can, I just mean it won't happen automatically.

As I said earlier talk to Markus. We can do that with OOTP...

You just need to had the teams in the league structure at the season beginning and use the real schedule. When the first team move or fold, you just had to do the player transfers manually to the correct team and the new franchise will take over. No need to edit team name in the course of a season...

[Orioles1966]

Will we be able to play exhibition games between leagues like you can in OOTP?

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by AESP_pres

As I said earlier talk to Markus. We can do that with OOTP...

You just need to had the teams in the league structure at the season beginning and use the real schedule. When the first team move or fold, you just had to do the player transfers manually to the correct team and the new franchise will take over. No need to edit team name in the course of a season...

If I recall correctly,the 1974-75 WHA schedule tacked on a Houston/Baltimore game to the end of the season because after the Stags moved to Baltimore they were unable to schedule the original game.