Playable Leagues

[CeeBee]

This may have been mentioned or touched on in other threads but I think it needs a thread of it's own. I'm curious what the plan is for playable leagues, first version and onward. Obviously the NHL will be front and center and then probably the major European leagues as well as the NHL affiliations. I'd like to know if there are any future plans to have major junior playable and maybe even lower junior someday. I'd be quite happy to have major junior but it could also be fun to manage junior A or even junior B as the challenges would be quite different. Thanks for any bits of information that you are willing to share

[JeffR]

Re: the junior leagues, it's too soon to say for certain, but I'd like to see at least major junior in the first version, and hopefully Junior A (CJHL and the two US leagues) too. Once the CHL leagues are working, the other leagues shouldn't be that big of a step, other than being a pain to research (and the Royal Bank Cup and the regional championships leading to it are probably going to be a challenge to get working right.)

KIJHL, though, not happening this time, so no Chase Heat for you. Junior B would be a big job to implement for a bunch of reasons - the inconsistency between leagues across the country, the sheer number of leagues and players, the talent pool overlap between them and midget, and the difficulties in getting good data for them. It's something that would take several months to do right, so maybe next time at the earliest.

[highquality]

Just for clarification, does anyone have an idea which European leagues will be included? Secondly, what are the chances of European minor leagues, for example: Czech Extraliga (Major), Czech 1.Liga (Minor)? Thanks in advance for the replies.

[grazza]

I ain't played OOTP baseball manager but get the impression it allows users to create their own league structure. I do hope this is the case as the Eastside community done a lot to keep EHM going despite there being limitations in changing leagues etc. Would be handy to have the north American structure in terms of the pyramid of levels and affiliations and NHL and Canadian leagues for drafting.

Would be handy if the college system was put in though recruitment would be very different with that and more challenging. In terms of Euro leagues probably easier to let the community deal with that and see how well they get on then maybe some leagues could go in from scratch. Though the KHL, DEL, Finnish and Swedish leagues would be handy to have with many players from these areas.

Would imagine that the top juniors would hopefully be in and leagues such as AHL, ECHL, CHL. Beyond that it could be left to the community at least the first couple versions.

[geckon]

I certainly hope there will be KHL at least from European leagues. Of course I'd love to see Czech leagues playable as well

But unless I am mistaken I think there should be possible to make every present league playable (even if it's not playable by default). Playable by default should be every league the game has enough info about (about players, teams, etc.). At least I think I have read something like that somewhere.

[Cryomaniac]

I hope the EIHL is playable. I'll probably play mostly fictional (as I do in OOTP), but it would be cool to GM the Nottingham Panthers in a game.

[Stat]

I remember Sebastian posting that the game will have 6 playable leagues and at least 40 non-playable leagues at start but will add depending on their rosters getting researched. Their goal is to ship with at least six leagues that work and add through updates.

IIRC, the leagues are NHL, AHL, ECHL, OHL, WHL, and QMJHL.

I know Archibalduk has been getting logo information from every league including the Euro top and minor leagues so nearly everyone will be covered.

[Djungelurban]

I don't really understand why everyone worries so much about which playable leagues it'll ship with. Haven't people understood that the game will ship with an editor, either stand alone or built in, that will allow you to add or delete any league you want? Personally I plan on spending the first few days after release just rebuilding most if not all leagues the way I want and add several that aren't in there yet, both real and fictional. It's gonna be great!

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by Djungelurban

I don't really understand why everyone worries so much about which playable leagues it'll ship with. Haven't people understood that the game will ship with an editor, either stand alone or built in, that will allow you to add or delete any league you want? Personally I plan on spending the first few days after release just rebuilding most if not all leagues the way I want and add several that aren't in there yet, both real and fictional. It's gonna be great!

I was just going to say the same thing. The only real problem would be with fictional players instead of real players. I have been playing OOTP with real players and have no plans to go back to fictional players. Every game is more interesting if you are familar with all the players or with most of them.

One question that hasn't been answered-can you have fictional historical minor leagues when it only mentions a reserve roster?

[Stat]

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

I was just going to say the same thing. The only real problem would be with fictional players instead of real players. I have been playing OOTP with real players and have no plans to go back to fictional players. Every game is more interesting if you are familar with all the players or with most of them.

One question that hasn't been answered-can you have fictional historical minor leagues when it only mentions a reserve roster?

I'm not too sure but this is from the Historical Development diary:

Minor Leagues

I've never been a fan of the way minor leagues worked in OOTP's historical mode. Rather than try to make them work here, the minors will just be abstracted as a "reserve list" where teams can place a limited number of players not on their active roster. In a later version, maybe we can make this a little more realistic, but this is how it'll work for now.

From the sounds of it, it'll be added in later if it is.

[dave1927p]

10 leagues or 10 country leagues?

Seeing as how the promotion/relegation system is in place in most leagues in europe it would be shame for them not to include the 2nd division leagues

I would say that the NHL, AHL, Major Jr, NCAA, KHL, Cze, SML, SEL are all but guaranteed in. I would also include the DEL and NLA. I was always surprised by the amount of people from England who played EHM (and stuck with it) so for that reason i would include the EIHL over the DEL to try and get some of them over to this franchise. That would be my 10.

However, to not include the second divisions for the european leagues would make it tough...hopefully they are there with at least fictional players by default.


Orioles1966, my guess, and it's only a guess, would be no. From what i've read my interpretation is the minors won't be an option at all in Historical Mode.

[archibalduk]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

I was always surprised by the amount of people from England who played EHM (and stuck with it) so for that reason i would include the EIHL over the DEL to try and get some of them over to this franchise.

That's so true - there do seem to be a lot of British fans. Eight and a half years on and an Englishman is still running an EHM fansite!

I was thinking the same as you - is it ten leagues or leagues from ten nations? The Twitter post is very unclear (and without meaning to sound like a broken record, it really bothers me that all of the news, etc is being posted on Twitter and not on the forums).

Originally Posted by dave1927p

Orioles1966, my guess, and it's only a guess, would be no. From what i've read my interpretation is the minors won't be an option at all in Historical Mode.

Yeah - that's what Jeff said in his post. As I understand it, the minor league will consist simply of a reserve list. I don't think it's going to be possible to customise what leagues feature in historic mode - it'll purely be the NHL (and I think there is some mention in Jeff's post about potentially the WHA - but that is extremely uncertain).

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

10 leagues or 10 country leagues?

Seeing as how the promotion/relegation system is in place in most leagues in europe it would be shame for them not to include the 2nd division leagues

I would say that the NHL, AHL, Major Jr, NCAA, KHL, Cze, SML, SEL are all but guaranteed in. I would also include the DEL and NLA. I was always surprised by the amount of people from England who played EHM (and stuck with it) so for that reason i would include the EIHL over the DEL to try and get some of them over to this franchise. That would be my 10.

However, to not include the second divisions for the european leagues would make it tough...hopefully they are there with at least fictional players by default.


Orioles1966, my guess, and it's only a guess, would be no. From what i've read my interpretation is the minors won't be an option at all in Historical Mode.

Will minors be an option in Fictional Mode?

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by Orioles1966

Will minors be an option in Fictional Mode?

Again only my interpretation of what i've read but my guess is 100 percent yes. Not much has been said about fictional mode but with such a mode it would be impossible not to have that ability.

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

Again only my interpretation of what i've read but my guess is 100 percent yes. Not much has been said about fictional mode but with such a mode it would be impossible not to have that ability.

Fictional American Hockey League with the real teams,here I come,as soon as the game arrives. And I hear the Western Hockey League not too far behind.

[scuffleball]

Feature list from email just received (not complete list)

• Windows and Mac support
• Two game modes: Modern and Historical
• 2012-13 game start with these playable leagues: NHL, AHL, ECHL, QMJHL, WHL, OHL, KHL, DEL, Elitserien and EIHL
• Over 1,000 teams, comprising nearly 100 leagues, that are non-playable but are stocked with real players
• Start any NHL season from 1947-48 through today, with players appearing on their actual teams or in a draft
• Real stats, finances, and rules
• Detailed player model with over 30 skills in 5 main categories
• Trades, player transfers, RFA/UFA signings, and more
• Set lines and tactics and make changes on the fly during games that feature a huge, editable play-by-play database
• News engine featuring a database packed with thousands of articles
• Stat keeping, including CORSI and Fenwick
• Almost everything is editable, from logos and colors to data to league rules and more

[frisland]

Originally Posted by scuffleball

Feature list from email just received (not complete list)

• 2012-13 game start with these playable leagues: NHL, AHL, ECHL, QMJHL, WHL, OHL, KHL, DEL, Elitserien and EIHL
• Over 1,000 teams, comprising nearly 100 leagues, that are non-playable but are stocked with real players

So what has to go into making a non-playable league playable?
Also will the game be able to handle relegation, since none of the above leagues have lower leagues playable?

[Finnish Leaf]

Shame that SM-Liiga is not playable league. Maybe fans create it or modify it somehow to playable.

[archibalduk]

Originally Posted by frisland

Also will the game be able to handle relegation, since none of the above leagues have lower leagues playable?

Yes, I believe so - I'm sure this was mentioned somewhere previously.

What I'm unclear about is whether this is the definite list of leagues, or whether additional leagues may be playable upon release. The announcement notes that it isn't complete, but rather a top-level view - I just wonder what this means exactly in terms of playable leagues. Perhaps it's too soon to say.

[Afino]

Originally Posted by Finnish Leaf

Shame that SM-Liiga is not playable league. Maybe fans create it or modify it somehow to playable.

I was disappointed in that fact as well. It's a noticeable exclusion.