Developer Update Thread (last update: 11/14/2013)

[Duranium]

Originally Posted by Mordrehl

Except ... why is the software industry given a pass on releasing half finished/buggy software? Do you buy a pair of jeans then wait for the manufacturer to release an update so the zipper works? I don't think it's unreasonable for anyone to expect the product they purchased to operate as advertised. Currently, FHM is in a state where in my opinion it does not do this. The balance issues with player development and the AI releasing top prospects in order to horde marginal players makes this game unenjoyable to the point of unplayable to myself. Why simulate a multi-decade career when the AI doesn't have the whits to develop it's talent? All I have to do is wait for the off-season and sign their first round draft picks when they release them.

If FHM hadn't released in such a poor fashion, with the bugs and balance issues it did I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't be as impatient as they are.

Unfortunately you´re absolutely right on this special issue - the trade, draft pick system are a mess atm - sign all available mediocre FA´s and keep on trading them to other teams for all draft picks you want....i tried one game to test this out and i gathered 10 1st round picks for 2014,15 & 16 w/o giving up even 1 core player from my Pens roster

P.S. The same goes for historical mode - there it´s even easier to pick 6-7 times in the 1st round every year

[omjo]

Originally Posted by Duranium

Unfortunately you´re absolutely right on this special issue - the trade, draft pick system are a mess atm - sign all available mediocre FA´s and keep on trading them to other teams for all draft picks you want....i tried one game to test this out and i gathered 10 1st round picks for 2014,15 & 16 w/o giving up even 1 core player from my Pens roster

P.S. The same goes for historical mode - there it´s even easier to pick 6-7 times in the 1st round every year

To be fair though, you can do this with NHL 14 as well (well, I haven't played it but forsure in NHL 13). Only in NHL there is a penalty for it (you lose GM rep).

[traveler99]

Originally Posted by omjo

To be fair though, you can do this with NHL 14 as well (well, I haven't played it but forsure in NHL 13). Only in NHL there is a penalty for it (you lose GM rep).

If you never played NHL 14 :P how do you know it has this issue?

[Bruins86]

Every EA NHL game i have ever played it was always so easy to rip the AI off. Just trade my 1st round (usually 25-30 overall) and a second rounder maybe one other pick and get the 1st overall. Works just about every time lol.

Edit: Also the reason i cant play the GM mode, no self control lol.

[PromisedPain]

Originally Posted by Bruins86

Every EA NHL game i have ever played it was always so easy to rip the AI off. Just trade my 1st round (usually 25-30 overall) and a second rounder maybe one other pick and get the 1st overall. Works just about every time lol.

Edit: Also the reason i cant play the GM mode, no self control lol.

It's really hard to balance out the trading system. Even in a game like Football manager, which has been in development for years you can rip off some teams.

[GMO123]

Trading is very difficult to program because the logic must take into consideration all possibilities.

Maybe the best way to start is to determine the goals of the GM and owner. Do they want an offensive team, a defensive team, a balanced team? Are they aiming to win the Stanley Cup this year or are they building a team? How much is the owner willing to spend?

How good is the GM? How experienced is the GM for the AI team in FHM?
How rigid is he? (An extreme example - the GM wants a very defensive team. A Wayne Gretzky clone is available. Does the GM try to get this very offensive player or not?).

Does the AI GM get better (and decline) with time, and how fast?

There are many more situations and possible scenarios that must be programmed into the AI logic for trades and drafting.

A lot of thought must go into it and it would be very time consuming, but I have hope that the FHM team will do it right in the future.

As for EA NHL 14 and GM mode - People have been complaining for years about the terrible decisions the AI GM makes but EA, being EA, ignores most of it.

[Masterbatter76]

And the check is in the mail.

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by GMO123

Trading is very difficult to program because the logic must take into consideration all possibilities.

Maybe the best way to start is to determine the goals of the GM and owner. Do they want an offensive team, a defensive team, a balanced team? Are they aiming to win the Stanley Cup this year or are they building a team? How much is the owner willing to spend?

How good is the GM? How experienced is the GM for the AI team in FHM?
How rigid is he? (An extreme example - the GM wants a very defensive team. A Wayne Gretzky clone is available. Does the GM try to get this very offensive player or not?).

Does the AI GM get better (and decline) with time, and how fast?

There are many more situations and possible scenarios that must be programmed into the AI logic for trades and drafting.

A lot of thought must go into it and it would be very time consuming, but I have hope that the FHM team will do it right in the future.

As for EA NHL 14 and GM mode - People have been complaining for years about the terrible decisions the AI GM makes but EA, being EA, ignores most of it.

This is not uncharted territory. I'm sure the logic exists to some extent in OOTPB

[Penfold75]

Trading certainly works extremely well in OOTP Baseball. Maybe it is about time that people working on the baseball game shared some knowledge with the hockey people and helped to fix trading. I'm tired of hearing how these are two separate games when they are made by the same company. Communicate, confer, share knowledge and fix :-) Simples

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by Penfold75

Trading certainly works extremely well in OOTP Baseball. Maybe it is about time that people working on the baseball game shared some knowledge with the hockey people and helped to fix trading. I'm tired of hearing how these are two separate games when they are made by the same company. Communicate, confer, share knowledge and fix :-) Simples

EXACTLY! Software companies do it all the time.. Do you think the Total War franchise does not carry over features from version to version? Although baseball and hockey are different sports much of the logic could simply be ported over...

This is not the project where we should be reinventing the wheel.

[omjo]

Originally Posted by traveler99

If you never played NHL 14 :P how do you know it has this issue?

Because NHL 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, and 13 have been like that. Can only imagine 14 is no different

[Duranium]

I´m currently working on a Player-pic pack from 1967 on (very likely i will do pics back to the 40´s too if there´s demand).
As i´m doing the pics in portrait/trading card style (as it saves time, looks cooler and is way easier to do) i was wondering if it might be possible to move the teamlogo on the player pages from beneath the faces to the right of the player´s name/team/position ?

As you can see on the attached pics it really looks kinda nice and all the historical buffs who might be interested in the pic-pack would certainly appreciate such a small cosmetical UI change

LMK if possible at all (don´t know a thing about coding) and what you think about it

Here we go......

[kohut]

As complicated as trading is to program. I would be content with the computer wanting MORE to acquire players. Make the players have to be almost ripped off to make a trade. I am not saying we have to offer a 8 player to obtain a 7 but if I am going to acquire an 8 player from the computer make me offer a player with 8 potential (prospect) and good draft choices.

I would LOVE to see some of OOTP features incorporated into this game. Shop player around is one of THE BEST features of OOTP. I really would like to see that option. Also I would like to see computers trade draft choices at the draft or give manual teams a good chance to move up in the draft.

I am curious if the developers have any plans with regards to:

TOUGHER computer trading
SHOP A PLAYER AROUND feature like in OOTP
TRADE OFFERS FROM THE COMPUTER during the draft

Also a few errors I see haven't be repaired:
- Phoenix Coyotes not Arizona
- in historic mode the Winnipeg Jets are playing out of Jobing.com arena
- Current mode Jimmy Lodge Jets draft choice is listed as being taken 1953 overall in the draft or something silly like that.

[Duranium]

Agreed, trading should definetly be harder

[Rayzor]

Originally Posted by Duranium

I´m currently working on a Player-pic pack from 1967 on (very likely i will do pics back to the 40´s too if there´s demand).
As i´m doing the pics in portrait/trading card style (as it saves time, looks cooler and is way easier to do) i was wondering if it might be possible to move the teamlogo on the player pages from beneath the faces to the right of the player´s name/team/position ?

As you can see on the attached pics it really looks kinda nice and all the historical buffs who might be interested in the pic-pack would certainly appreciate such a small cosmetical UI change

LMK if possible at all (don´t know a thing about coding) and what you think about it

Here we go......

Very cool looking....I like it.

[Parker27]

Originally Posted by kohut

Also a few errors I see haven't be repaired:
- Phoenix Coyotes not Arizona

Next year it will be Arizona. So i dont have problem with this. They cant code that team name change after one season. So they decided to put Arizona insted of Phoenix.

[BradC]

RE the Coyotes: What Parker 27 said is the reason why we have the team name written that way. Don't expect that to change.

RE trading: Of course knowledge is shared among the developers. Sebastian works on both iOOTP and FHM, and iOOTP took a lot of its trading logic (or maybe all of it) from OOTP - and, of course, Markus helped Sebastian a lot with the first version of iOOTP, so obviously there was a lot of knowledge sharing there.

Plus, all the programmers are in Germany and meet in person quite often. Jeff and I are the only ones in North America.

The problem, though, is that you can't just take the trading engine from a baseball game and stick it in a hockey sim. GMs take a lot of different things into consideration in each sport, so I don't see how much could port over from OOTP to FHM, beyond some high-level AI logic (i.e., is the team looking to rebuild or win now, how much spending room does it have, etc.).

Beyond that, though, how do you translate the logic when a baseball team is looking to fill a hole at third base? What is the hockey equivalent of that? I think that's where the porting ends and the coding that's unique to hockey begins.

[fredreed]

I think that It's pretty safe to say that the developers will probably continue on fixing these bugs as well as the same bugs that are still there before adding in things editing the league structure and adding the ability to have custom teams in the game.

[thepete]

I'm amazed by the lack of communication from this company. Not a goddamn word since the last patch, no acknowledgements, no updates on the patching, no nothing.

If you're trying to alienate your customers then you're doing a damn good job of it. It's been a long time since I spent 35 bucks in a poorer way. I have more patience and understanding for game development than most, having been part of a half dozen, but this takes the cake.

Taking 5 minutes out of your (understandably busy) day to answer a few questions, give updates weekly on what you're working on, we're working on this and that, we hope to improve this and that area...you have to do it, if you want to keep people as customers. Saying "well we're a small team and we don't have time" isn't a viable option nor an acceptable response in 2013.

[Germaniac]

When you look at how much participation from us users has fallen off ...

... I guess most of the FHM2014 customers have given up, just like me.

I defended this game (and the developers) for a long time, but I consider it a complete waste of money and several weeks ago I uninstalled the game.

We've had a grand total of 3 patches in almost 4 months and the game still is nothing else than a beta, full of minor and major bugs.

And all you hear from the developers is ... nothing.