Build Your Franchise from Scratch: Expansion comes to FHM 2: (Part 2!)

[Cole]

Check it out, part 2 of the blog series on expansion is now live:

Build Your Franchise From Scratch: Expansion Comes to Franchise Hockey Manager 2 (Part 2)

And in case you missed it, here's part one: .

[BlackIce]

Those are some fairly tough teams there even if they are expansion teams... I see the Aces signed Orr there in one picture.

If your interested in running a team of your own Cole, you should join up with one of the online leagues that are looking for players at this time.. you arn't afraid to ice a team with some muscle lol .. I'd love to ice a team and look forward to playing ya haha

Awesome stuff as usual and can't wait for this game to release!

[checkyoursixx]

Thanks Cole..

Looks like a lot of fun!

[PortoMarco]

Hey Cole,

Can you post the Quebec Nordiques final team stats? How bad were they?

Thanks

[Rizzo]

Love expansion teams and can't wait to get my hands on one.

[Lord PichuPal]

I can't wait to implement the expansion teams into my fictional league and see how well that goes, too. But it's definitely cool to see how it all works beforehand.

[deanwells1234]

Initial Read through thoughts:

1) that line up screen is so amazing! things like actually make sense on there!
2) Not really a thought but a question about free agency, Is it like what my expansion team in OOTP is like where big names won't even let me offer as they have no interest in playing for me, or will anyone entertain an offer... also dang Frenchies! (lolz jk love you quebec dont leave Canada please!)
3) those stats... ouch! look like the old Predators offence haha

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by Lord PichuPal

I can't wait to implement the expansion teams into my fictional league and see how well that goes, too. But it's definitely cool to see how it all works beforehand.

I think expansion will work only with the NHL,AHL and ECHL.


I plan on turning the NHL into a fictional league so I can use the expansion feature.

[tward13]

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

I think expansion will work only with the NHL,AHL and ECHL.


I plan on turning the NHL into a fictional league so I can use the expansion feature.

Why does it need to be fictional to expand?

[Cole]

Originally Posted by BlackIce

Those are some fairly tough teams there even if they are expansion teams... I see the Aces signed Orr there in one picture.

If your interested in running a team of your own Cole, you should join up with one of the online leagues that are looking for players at this time.. you arn't afraid to ice a team with some muscle lol .. I'd love to ice a team and look forward to playing ya haha

Awesome stuff as usual and can't wait for this game to release!

I would love to join an online league and plan to eventually, but for the launch of the game I'll have plenty to do .. I wouldn't want to be an absentee owner.. So I'll wait for things to settle down a bit.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by PortoMarco

Hey Cole,

Can you post the Quebec Nordiques final team stats? How bad were they?

Thanks

My apologies.. I had actually thought I had taken that screenshot and had meant to post it. I have gone back to post it now... So go refresh the blog and you should see that screenshot now at the bottom.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by deanwells1234

Initial Read through thoughts:

2) Not really a thought but a question about free agency, Is it like what my expansion team in OOTP is like where big names won't even let me offer as they have no interest in playing for me, or will anyone entertain an offer... also dang Frenchies! (lolz jk love you quebec dont leave Canada please!)

I had no issues getting first offers in to those I offered, but I do believe not everyone will always talk to you ... But generally as I said, in this sim I wasn't even given a chance to reoffer in some cases ... They would quickly sign with other teams, who I presume they had much more interest in playing for... It's not simply as easy as deciding what free agents you want and then just signing them.. the AI is quite aggressive and competitive with offers.

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by tward13

Why does it need to be fictional to expand?

I could expand the NHL but only to 36 teams.


I want to move some NHL teams(moving players manually one at a time to reform a team) and put them in the AHL and have the AHL as a competing league and use the ECHL as the top minor league.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

I could expand the NHL but only to 36 teams.

I am still not 100 per cent sure on the max amount of teams you can expand to ... I will try to get a definitive answer on this soon.

I know one of our beta testers had done a test with 10+ teams added, but when I was speaking with Jeff he mentioned it was an issue where it did need to be capped at some sort of finite number... and it might not actually be feasible to allow it to expand that large.

I am not sure the details on this myself and haven't yet tried a league with that many expansions but.. fictional, or a real NHL league, the number of teams you can expand to will be the same. There wouldn't be a difference in this regard.

[Hank1974]

LOL!
Mike Richards can't even crack the top 9 forwards on an expansion team.
And something tells me that Richards and Vegas wouldn't mix - unless you were into tabloid drama, haha.

Thanks for posting this info Cole!
Greatly appreciated!

[Penfold75]

Thanks for yet another insightful post regarding how expansion is going to work in FHM2. Expansion is definitely the way I am going to go really want the challenge of building a team from scratch. Was good to see how the first season panned out for both expansion teams and who they signed in the expansion draft and first free agency period. Very interesting to hear how aggressive the AI controlled team was in trying to build their roster. I would probably go the same route you did in trying to build a young core for a team. I would look at not being too good for the first few seasons and try to build round that core with the draft and a few good free agent moves. Thanks again.

[Penfold75]

Having criticised the FHM2 team for poor communication in the past it is only fair that I give praise where it is due. Cole you really have to be commended for the way you have been posting, updating the forum and answering questions over the last few weeks. Having seen the facegen pics when I got out of hospital, the improved UI and then the two posts on Expansion I am really excited about the release of FHM2 again.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Penfold75

Having criticised the FHM2 team for poor communication in the past it is only fair that I give praise where it is due. Cole you really have to be commended for the way you have been posting, updating the forum and answering questions over the last few weeks. Having seen the facegen pics when I got out of hospital, the improved UI and then the two posts on Expansion I am really excited about the release of FHM2 again.

Thanks very much for your kind words. I will do my best to keep everyone informed as best I can going forward!

[PortoMarco]

Thanks Cole. One last request, if you can or cannot; no biggie.

How did Quebec do in matches against its traditional rivals -- Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo. Montreal in particular.

Thanks

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by Penfold75

Having criticised the FHM2 team for poor communication in the past it is only fair that I give praise where it is due. Cole you really have to be commended for the way you have been posting, updating the forum and answering questions over the last few weeks. Having seen the facegen pics when I got out of hospital, the improved UI and then the two posts on Expansion I am really excited about the release of FHM2 again.

COuldnt agree more.. If there is a positive that has come out of everything on these forums its the way Cole has handled things. I'd like to put him in for a raise.