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Old 02-12-2020, 06:56 PM   #1
AdequateRandomGaming
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Historical Play and Areas of Opportunity

So, I have been a FHM player since its inception. I focus (specialize?) in historical play and have not played current day since version 2. Over the years, I've done numerous sims, in different eras, and this year I decided to focus on my favorite team and their entrance in the league - the Ottawa Senators. This year is also the year I've decided to start a Let's Play series of my every move. I will not post the link to it because this is not the purpose nor the place, but I do want to mention it because that means there is video proof of some of the points I am about to bring up.


I want to say first, I really like this game. Just like most games out there, there are a few kinks that could be worked on, and I'd like to bring up a few that have been crawling up in my videos as I trudge through the years (I do a month at a time, and just now today reached January 2000, after starting in 1992). Some of those issues have shown up in this iteration of the game - some of the issues, I've seen for several versions now.


This is not meant to be a whiny post, and sure hope it won't be seen as such - I just want to bring constructive feedback in the hopes some of those things can be addressed in the future. I am aware none of it will be fixed by tomorrow, and I'm okay with that. I understand some of them will be for the long haul, if they even ever make the list. And I also understand I am putting this list together knowing there's a good chance the Devs already know about at least a few of them. But I really like this game, and I want for it to get better !


Also, finally, please understand everything I post is tied to my experience playing historical. Some of the issues may not be a thing in current year play. I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page - it's kind of important. Alright, so here goes nothing, and not necessarily in order of any importance.



1 - The Scouting Reports.


So, playing historical, not all the leagues are there, so I don't get to send my scouts out to, let's say, the OHL or anything like that. All you can really do, is send the scouts out to scout "Free Agents", which, for all intents and purposes, comprise every player in the database for the year you're in. It will look at rookies, true Free Agents, your own unsigned draftees, etc. I'm fine with that, I dream (drool?) of a day where historical play would have all the leagues but I am not stupid and know that due to the very complicated hockey history, that wouldn't really be possible, or at least, would be a gargantuan task.


What I would like, though, is for all of my scouts to report at the same time in one email. I'm fine with the email being longer, but as it is, with 8 scouts, I get a scouting report about every other day, and sometimes, it has only 3 players on it. Getting 1 report, let's say, once a month, with all the findings would be a great QOL addition.


Also, as an aside, every year, in June, after Scouts ask for extensions (which I either do or not), I start getting blank scouting reports about every day. That's the only time it happens, so I'm pretty confident it is tied to Scouts contracts expiring and being renewed in that month, but I figured I'd point it out - this has been going on for several iterations of the game.


2 - The AI seems to struggle to identify young talent to retain.


This one might be a bit more pressing, and has also been around for several iterations of the game. Mainly, if you play historical long enough, you will start, after a few years, to see several top end prospects left in Free Agency for you to pick up. In my 1999 offseason, I managed to pick up Pavel Datsyuk, Joe Thornton and Zdeno Chara, one year after getting Patrick Marleau in similar fashion, and having Boston outbid me on Evgeni Nabokov.



This happens all the time and has been happening for years - it is not merely a situation where the scouts for those teams are unable to recognize top talent - and if that truly is the problem, then scouting needs to be overhauled so that talent like that seldom make it to Free Agency. The frequency to which it happens is way too high.



There was also a situation that offseason where I was able to re-acquire Marian Hossa after being forced to trade him due to him not willing to negotiate with me during the season. So I traded him to Calgary for Joe Nieuwendyk, let the season end, and re-signed Hossa on July 1st. So now I have both Hossa and Nieuwendyk, and Calgary has almost nothing. This kind of situation has also been happening a lot for several iterations of the game. That also leads me to wonder if I'm able to put my hands on guys like Chara and Datsyuk in FA because the AI runs into a situation where their young stars in the making refuse to negotiate a new contract (like Hossa did), and the AI just lets them hit FA instead of trying to trade them for other assets.


Either way, it's a problem that probably needs some attention.


3 - Very, very few busts or surprises


For this one, I want to say that for a simple player like me that doesn't know what's going on "under the hood", there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of differences between picking the setting to have players age and develop according to real life or using the FHM engine. I usually pick the FHM engine because I like for history to be altered a bit by a player developing beyond what he ever pulled off, or for a good player to kind of become a bust.


I won't say it never happens ; I've seen it happen a few times, but it is really rare. Now, I wouldn't want for this to go overboard and run into a situation where Mario Lemieux becomes a 1.5 star plug by age 27 or Everett Sanipass becomes a 5 star stud. But there doesn't seem to be many busts or surprises.


What leads me to believe there is not much difference between both settings is purely anecdotal - but after countless sims, there are too many players that follow their real career arc for development...for example, Tim Thomas will always develop late in his career, regardless of if you play him and he does well for you while he's 25. There are also examples of players dropping a full star after having a point per game season, which seems excessive, but follows their career path. In my current sim, Jamie McLennan (1 star in my universe) just had an incredible season with Philadelphia, was their starter, finished with a S% of about .940, won the Roger Crozier award...and remained a 1 star player with no improvements. I'm not saying he should have become a 4 star goalie overnight, what I'm saying is there doesn't seem to be any ratings change tied for statistics. Again, I don't know all the ins and outs under the hood...but great seasons don't seem to affect ratings.



I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the FHM engine doesn't seem to be "aggressive" enough for a lack of a better term and seems to mimic real life just a bit too well.


4 - I cannot lose a player to Waivers, ever.


That one is also tied to roster management from the AI, but for the past 2 iterations of the game, it doesn't matter who I try to send down, the player never gets claimed. The AI will claim players from other teams than mine (rarely, but it happens). I am pretty certain that in iterations of the game prior to FHM5, I would sometimes lose a player through Waivers. It has not happened in FHM5, nor has it happened in FHM6. And I've waived some 2 star players that would fit in more than half the league (no salary cap yet in 2000).


5 - The AI does not know how to trade star players.


That one should be rare, but should still happen. Patrick Roy was traded, Gretzky was traded. Brett Hull moved teams. So did Scott Stevens and Jaromir Jagr. But those names pretty much die on the team they start with. There are trades for good players, but star players never move. In my current universe, the biggest trade I was not a part of was NJ trading a young Brendan Morrison to the Rangers for Tony Amonte. Good players, but not stars.


I know, the computer doesn't know names. I understand that part. But it understands ratings and perceived talent. 4 or 5 star players in historical don't get traded.



6 - Every month where hockey games are played, someone gets hurt helping a friend move.


This one is more annoying than anything. I understand the reason why it's there - off ice injuries happen in real life. Can we please get some writers to write a few more different story lines for that to happen so it doesn't happen every single month ?


In years past, we had kind of a similar issue with the flooding of sewage that would happen every month. It looks like it just got replaced by somebody lifting heavy couches.


7 - The Attendance Dilemma


So, starting as the Sens at the very start of their return to the league in 1992, I lost a lot of games. I still did better than real life Sens, but I still lost a lot of games. Which has put me in a hole I cannot seem to climb out of as far as attendance goes. Since losing a game = losing a fan interest point, well, here I am 8 years later and I still don't crack 10k fans at home games with consistency, despite winning and icing star players. That is too severe of a system and probably needs to be looked at. Now, I play with the wonderful "Cannot be Fired" box checked so it doesn't affect my "job" per say, but for someone who plays with that box unchecked and is quite dependent on game revenues, this is probably near unplayable.


8 - The disappearing players and players holding on to their old jerseys



This one is just a graphical glitch and I know the Devs are aware of it although last I read they don't know how to replicate it, but about once a season, I have to delete and rebuild the photo database because everybody just shows as their right arm.
Also perhaps tied to that or not, but something that's been going on for several iterations of the game as well - players (usually goalies) wearing their old team Jersey in the Pre Game window. It sometimes takes a couple years in game for that to fix itself.


9 - Some messages have had grammatical mistakes or missing components for a few years now

This one is pretty self explanatory, I will sometimes get a message and it will either have brackets with error messages at the top, or some grammatical mistakes are present, or today I got an injury message that says "So and so got hurt while playing Dallas at the ." I believe the name of the arena is supposed to be there ? I think ? That particular mistake has been there for several iterations of the game.


10 - Teams firing a coach and rehiring them the same day


I was actually surprised when I saw that one pop up in this play through as I was pretty sure that got fixed before, but sure enough, after a bad season, the Leafs fired Pat Burns and hired...Pat Burns to replace him. It seems it only happens if the coach is being fired in the offseason, I have not seen that happen during the season, or at least, not in a few years.


So, those are things that I have noticed. Some are a bit anecdotal, some are probably more important than others, but I am only bringing all of this up for the game to get better.


And since I said I was doing this to give constructive feedback, I also want to point out new additions to the game that I think are awesome (Again, as it pertains to Historical Play) :


1 - Getting the email on July 1st to point out the new additions to the team


I cannot stress how much I love this addition. It used to be that in past iterations, on July 1st, I would have to go in my contracts window and figure out who was new so I wouldn't "miss" them joining the team. Now I get an email telling me who to look for. It's mostly a QOL implementation, but it's an awesome one, so thank you so much for adding that !


2 - Getting all the real coaches/personel


Another awesome addition was all the real life coaches and other recognizable names in there (like team owners - Firestone was my first owner when I started my current play through). This must have been a pretty hefty task, but I know for one really appreciate it being in there.


3 - Fixing the way the playoff tree looks like


Another mostly QOL aspect, but I much prefer having it separated by East on one side and West on the other than everybody bunched up on the left hand side of the window.


Well, that's it for me today. Sorry for the lengthy post...I can be a bit wordy sometimes. Please just see this for what it is - constructive feedback. I love the game and am in no way trying to bash it.
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Old 02-12-2020, 08:46 PM   #2
Adam B
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I'll likely read more of this later (and possibly respond to some), but you're incorrect in stating Scott Stevens was traded. That never happened.


Edit:

8 - There's an issue with Facegen that is inconsistent to say the least. It's not appearing in everyone's game, and it doesn't appear in every start either deleting all photos and flipping game skins appears to get the images to regenerate.

9 - When you find those, please report it. We can't fix what we don't know.

Also 10 - Do you still have that save? That was fixed, but if it's happened again, we need to know. I don't believe it's been seen in quite some time.

Last edited by Adam B; 02-12-2020 at 08:49 PM.
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Old 02-12-2020, 11:52 PM   #3
AdequateRandomGaming
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam B View Post
I'll likely read more of this later (and possibly respond to some), but you're incorrect in stating Scott Stevens was traded. That never happened.


Edit:

8 - There's an issue with Facegen that is inconsistent to say the least. It's not appearing in everyone's game, and it doesn't appear in every start either deleting all photos and flipping game skins appears to get the images to regenerate.

9 - When you find those, please report it. We can't fix what we don't know.

Also 10 - Do you still have that save? That was fixed, but if it's happened again, we need to know. I don't believe it's been seen in quite some time.

I was very careful with my wording - I said Scott Stevens moved teams, not that he was traded. Even if you were to disregard that particular name, my point still stands. 4 and 5 stars players don't get traded or left in Free Agency (except for the really high potential players as I mentioned - but they are all 1 star at most at the time of signing).



I still very much have that save with the coaches being fired, but I'm many years past the incidents (I believe it happened with 2 different coaches in the same offseason - I remember Pat Burns for sure but I think there was another one). Like I said that one surprised me because I remember it being a thing in the first few iterations of the game, but I can't say I remember seeing it in FHM5. And it only happened that one year.



Would it still be useful to get the save even if I'm several years past the incidents ?


As for point 8, it does regenerate the pictures, but the issue crop back up at a later time. I've had to do the quick fix a few times already.
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Old 02-13-2020, 12:35 AM   #4
Adam B
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AdequateRandomGaming View Post
I was very careful with my wording - I said Scott Stevens moved teams, not that he was traded. Even if you were to disregard that particular name, my point still stands. 4 and 5 stars players don't get traded or left in Free Agency (except for the really high potential players as I mentioned - but they are all 1 star at most at the time of signing).
Players do occasionally move, at least I've seen so in many of my games. But my point is Stevens was a bad example. He didn't really move. He once signed a RFA deal, and the other he was awarded. That's not a fair comparison to others.

But it's not always easy to replicate exact circumstances and for lack of a better term, make the game feel "fun" for many people. Being forced to trade a player because your budget is being slashed isn't enjoyable, or worse...brings up unfortunate memories for many of us.

The other is a lot of those guys were being past their prime when they did move, or weren't superstars when they were traded. Hull was before he became something, and Jagr was not the same player he was even 4 years before. Still, Jagr for Anson Carter is still a...interesting trade.
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Old 02-13-2020, 05:11 AM   #5
JeffR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AdequateRandomGaming View Post
Also perhaps tied to that or not, but something that's been going on for several iterations of the game as well - players (usually goalies) wearing their old team Jersey in the Pre Game window. It sometimes takes a couple years in game for that to fix itself.
To clarify here, are you only seeing the old jersey in the pregame window and nowhere else? i.e., if you check on the team's roster screen, is he wearing the correct jersey there?
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Old 02-13-2020, 09:19 AM   #6
AdequateRandomGaming
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Originally Posted by JeffR View Post
To clarify here, are you only seeing the old jersey in the pregame window and nowhere else? i.e., if you check on the team's roster screen, is he wearing the correct jersey there?

Yes, it's only in the pregame window. I don't "play" games so not sure if it would show that way there, but the jersey is fine in all the other windows like the roster window, league leaders, etc. It also seems to be affecting mostly the Away jersey.


In my universe, I picked up Tommy Salo from waivers off of Atlanta. He had been picked up for expansion from Buffalo. Whenever I play on the road and Salo starts, he is wearing his Buffalo jersey, but wears his Ottawa jersey when I play at home.


I had the same thing happen for a few years with Ron Hextall, who made a trip to Detroit before I picked him up and he wore his Red Wings jersey for road games but had his Ottawa jersey for home games.


I'm not sure if that helps...it's mostly a graphical glitch, and thought it could potentially be related to the one where the pictures get cut to just an arm.
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Old 02-16-2020, 12:05 PM   #7
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Here is a screenshot of one of the messages that has mistakes. Another one popped up during that recording for Steve Duchesne getting his 500th assist and was similar to that one, but since I was recording and already had taken a screen of that one without going to save (didn't want to disrupt my recording much more) I didn't capture that one, but it looked almost the same.
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Old 02-16-2020, 01:07 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam B View Post
I'll likely read more of this later (and possibly respond to some), but you're incorrect in stating Scott Stevens was traded. That never happened.


Edit:

8 - There's an issue with Facegen that is inconsistent, to say the least. It's not appearing in everyone's game, and it doesn't appear in every start either deleting all photos and flipping game skins appear to get the images to regenerate.
I have the same problem, I have reported it also, changing skins sometimes does not fix the problem at times, I make jersey's for my leagues and historical leagues, I like to see them in-game before I post them to make sure they work.
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