New Community Manager

[Adam B]

Hello everyone,

As you may be aware, OOTP Developments recently had a shift in marketing and PR. Brad has left marketing and PR of OOTP, and Cole has shifted his focus back to creating content for the games. With Cole's shift, I will be taking over as Community Manager of Franchise Hockey Manager.

Two of my passions in life are hockey and video games. I've been a fan of both since the first time I laced up and had a controller in my hands (although not at a same time). I hope to bring this love of the game to this job. I know Cole did a great job, and I hope to continue in his footsteps.

As the new community manager, I have taken over both the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the game, so feel free to reach out to me there. Or you can find me on the forums here!

I look forward to helping the continued growth of this great community.


Thanks!

[Bruins86]

Welcome

[geckon]

Welcome and good luck in the job

[Mickeyb37]

Welcome to the community and the forums.

[Duranium]

welcome

[Smetana]

Welcome aboard!

[Evok]

Welcome home buddy !

Be prepared for a rough ride ! (but i swear we'll be kind this time ! Maybe ...)

[Adam B]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I'm really excited about some of the things planned for the future and hope to get your (and by your, I mean people on the Forums) on what to do after that.



In the mean time, you may notice the Twitter and Facebook feeds have changed and will continue tot change. I am just starting to dabble into the game and can see how many great things are going on, so I would really appreciate if you would take some screenshots of what's going on in your games/leagues and share them with me so I can hopefully make sure everyone else can see that too. You can send them in a message on Facebook, post them on Twitter, or throw a message on here if you prefer.

Thanks!

[Spirits]

Welcome, I hope these changes kickstart the forum's heart, it's been a bit quiet in here lately. I'm aware that it's basically holiday break everywhere, but still...

[Adam B]

Hi everyone,


I thought about writing this as a new thread, but I decided against it. I want to keep the continuity here.

As I previously told you, I've been working on a lot of Social Media things, mostly trying to reinvigorate the communities on Facebook and Twitter (and Thank you to everyone who has participated thus far) posting a lot of Historical Facts.

I myself am a big History fan, so I naturally went to the rich history of the game to find cool facts that I'm finding and posting daily. With FHM2 have access to so many great modes (including those in the past), it seemed like a great place to start as well.

But now that I have gotten my new PC (a new MSI laptop if you were curious), I feel I can finally be on the forums as much as I want to be.

I have seen many people comment that they forums need to be..well, to borrow from Spirits post "kickstart"ed, I want to ask you what you want to see.


For my part, I'm still early into learning the game. I'm chronicling everything right now that I'm experiencing in what will be the first of at least 2 Blog posts going on the site (and likely videos as well) for a small "Getting Started" series.





But what would you like to see? What would you like to help me do?

[ike121212]

Honestly, what people want to know is what's being worked on, other than bugs. There's been so many posts on substantive issues that aren't simply bugs, and very little interaction since release. I have no idea what they think it is working well, and what they are actively working on, or planning to address, in this version.

I'll challenge you to take over an NHL team, and just draft for it for 10 years. You'll see how the scouting is working, what the draft experience is like, and how the AI is handling players and your picks. It won't take long to see the type of core issues that I'm referring to firsthand, and keep me from playing.

[pens66]

Originally Posted by ike121212

Honestly, what people want to know is what's being worked on, other than bugs. There's been so many posts on substantive issues that aren't simply bugs, and very little interaction since release. I have no idea what they think it is working well, and what they are actively working on, or planning to address, in this version.

I'll challenge you to take over an NHL team, and just draft for it for 10 years. You'll see how the scouting is working, what the draft experience is like, and how the AI is handling players and your picks. It won't take long to see the type of core issues that I'm referring to firsthand, and keep me from playing.

I'll second this mostly. The majority of the posters on these forums want to know what's happening behind the scenes. We own the game and we play it - or would like to play it. There's no need for us to read blogs about features or mechanics.

Rather, we know what features/mechanics don't work as desired. And I just get a chuckle when you promote the game with nice stories about famous historical players, while I have played enough FHM2 to know that way too often these star players sit around at home in their living room for years because the AI has problems managing their rosters/players/signings.

[Adam B]

Originally Posted by ike121212

Honestly, what people want to know is what's being worked on, other than bugs. There's been so many posts on substantive issues that aren't simply bugs, and very little interaction since release. I have no idea what they think it is working well, and what they are actively working on, or planning to address, in this version.

I'll challenge you to take over an NHL team, and just draft for it for 10 years. You'll see how the scouting is working, what the draft experience is like, and how the AI is handling players and your picks. It won't take long to see the type of core issues that I'm referring to firsthand, and keep me from playing.

While I am not anywhere near 10 years in (still in my first year), I will be sure to make note of what I see come up. If there's a particular list you want to me look at, please send me a private message, and I will. I'm not on the development side, but I still like knowing as much as I can.

Originally Posted by pens66

I'll second this mostly. The majority of the posters on these forums want to know what's happening behind the scenes. We own the game and we play it - or would like to play it. There's no need for us to read blogs about features or mechanics.

Rather, we know what features/mechanics don't work as desired. And I just get a chuckle when you promote the game with nice stories about famous historical players, while I have played enough FHM2 to know that way too often these star players sit around at home in their living room for years because the AI has problems managing their rosters/players/signings.

I understand the frustration you must be feeling, but as I stated earlier, this has been a time of transition for the team.

I am not a developer, so I can't guarantee that all issues will be fixed, but I am listening, and reading. I will be bringing up community concerns with Jeff when I talk to him, to make sure he knows. If you have a list you would like to send, by all means please let me know (preferably by PM, but if you want to post here, I'm okay with that too).

This is a small team working on the game, and some things have priority over others. We may not be able to discuss every last detail on what's coming, but what we can, I will make sure we will. Please let it be known we appreciate that you care this much about the game and are working diligently to create a better playing experience for everyone.

[dave1927p]

Welcome to the Dragon's Den, Adam

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by ike121212

I'll challenge you to take over an NHL team, and just draft for it for 10 years. You'll see how the scouting is working, what the draft experience is like, and how the AI is handling players and your picks. It won't take long to see the type of core issues that I'm referring to firsthand, and keep me from playing.

Believe it or not, these are all things that EHM still struggles with to this day! It's understandable to ask for improvement on those items. I want it too, but AI is complex and takes multiple versions and years to build upon. OOTP still works on it each version and that's after 16 versions.

Now things like top line players being bought out and released is always something that they look at with each update - this was all due to teams capspace and I agree it is frustrating to see that stuff. Any sort of game immersion breaker is always noted. But even OOTP baseball typically does not say all the bugs, features etc will be addressed with the next update.

I encourage you to post screenshots, or better yet upload game saves indicating the bug or immersion breaking problems that you might find. That way it better documents any issues. Bugs, or what you or others consider major AI issues, are better documented when provided factual documentation (ex. Saved Games). That way the devs can bury into it and explore the causing factors. This is what us testers try to do as best we can.

However, as mentioned above, the issues identified are not lost. The developers just don't have the time to answer each and every post - I wish i was around to help answer, but the last month I have been quite busy myself with work and coaching.

[ike121212]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

Believe it or not, these are all things that EHM still struggles with to this day! It's understandable to ask for improvement on those items. I want it too, but AI is complex and takes multiple versions and years to build upon. OOTP still works on it each version and that's after 16 versions.

Now things like top line players being bought out and released is always something that they look at with each update - this was all due to teams capspace and I agree it is frustrating to see that stuff. Any sort of game immersion breaker is always noted. But even OOTP baseball typically does not say all the bugs, features etc will be addressed with the next update.

I encourage you to post screenshots, or better yet upload game saves indicating the bug or immersion breaking problems that you might find. That way it better documents any issues. Bugs, or what you or others consider major AI issues, are better documented when provided factual documentation (ex. Saved Games). That way the devs can bury into it and explore the causing factors. This is what us testers try to do as best we can.

However, as mentioned above, the issues identified are not lost. The developers just don't have the time to answer each and every post - I wish i was around to help answer, but the last month I have been quite busy myself with work and coaching.

I've played OOTP extensively since v2. I've seen the evolution of it's roster management. I'd certainly hope FHM is leveraging everything learned from OOTP. This is a $40 title under the OOTP label, the bar is set higher than EHM. I can't recall the last time I saw OOTP release a top prospect, but it's been years.

I've posted, in some detail, my experiences after sims. They were met with absolute silence.

[tward13]

Yep, weird stuff happens after awhile in the historical leagues. I started one back in the beginning and stopped after a decade. Then I picked up at that point with a new game and it lasted about 20 seasons before good players start getting released and winning gets too easy.

[JeffR]

Weird coincidence: Adam happens to be from a little town in Manitoba that's a 20-minute drive from the little town my mom was from, and played in the same converted-schoolhouse arena my cousins grew up playing in.

Re: the roster AI, aside from the continuing work on the existing system, a big overhaul of that is going to be the main behind-the-scenes change in the next version of the game.