FHM4 Development

[Chomps]

Jeff,

I know that you guys have moved on to development of FHM4. It sounds like FHM3 saved games will not be playable in FHM4. That is ok, since you are advancing the technology. Maybe eventually saved games will be playable in subsequent versions similar to OOTP Baseball.

Anyway, can you share your vision of FHM4? What sort of improvements to FHM3 do you have planned? I understand that you cant be to specific, but sharing some info would be entertaining.

Thanks.

[DirkGildun]

I'll put in my yearly request now (for the 1st time) to have fictional league game schedule editing/importing added. This would allow us to overcome some of the terrible default schedules for fictional leagues that the FHM2 and FHM3 versions currently have.


Thanks!

[JeffR]

It's a little too early to be mentioning specific features for FHM4 yet - we're in the process of adding a lot of new things right now, so an alpha version where we'll be able to test if they all work together is still a ways off. I don't want to announce something, and then have it turn out that it, say, slows the game down so much that we have to remove all or part of it.

[DFyvie]

Hope you guys keep the tactics element that you introduced for this version. It's a great mechanic and gives you lot's to think about/plan/consider. I found FHM2 basically a game engine with a trade AI attached to it. Not enough to do in-games.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by DFyvie

Hope you guys keep the tactics element that you introduced for this version. It's a great mechanic and gives you lot's to think about/plan/consider. I found FHM2 basically a game engine with a trade AI attached to it. Not enough to do in-games.

Yes we will keep it and improve on it over the years!

[JaBurns]

One thing that I would like to see in the future is an option for historical with random debut of rookies similar to the baseball version. I find that a fascinating "what if".

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

One thing that I would like to see in the future is an option for historical with random debut of rookies similar to the baseball version. I find that a fascinating "what if".

It may be tough to do that one. Our historical database works a little differently than OOTP's, and hockey has some unique issues to deal with, like some player types not making sense in certain eras, or players of certain nationalities getting randomized into dates where they shouldn't be available (e.g., for Russian players, should they be limited to randomized start years from about 1989-now, or across the whole spectrum of seasons but not be signable until the late 80's/early 90's, so Fedorov, Ovechkin, etc. might appear in 1950 and never get to play in the NHL? And the Soviets didn't start playing hockey until post-WW2, so does it make sense to have Russians appearing in 1933?)

[Sebastian Palkowski]

This is not really my area of interest so maybe I get that wrong but if I understand this correctly it would result in (historical) fictional setups anyway so it would not matter if e.g. Russians would play in NA earlier then in reality, right?

Originally Posted by JeffR

It may be tough to do that one. Our historical database works a little differently than OOTP's, and hockey has some unique issues to deal with, like some player types not making sense in certain eras, or players of certain nationalities getting randomized into dates where they shouldn't be available (e.g., for Russian players, should they be limited to randomized start years from about 1989-now, or across the whole spectrum of seasons but not be signable until the late 80's/early 90's, so Fedorov, Ovechkin, etc. might appear in 1950 and never get to play in the NHL? And the Soviets didn't start playing hockey until post-WW2, so does it make sense to have Russians appearing in 1933?)

[Habsfan18]

Originally Posted by Sebastian Palkowski

This is not really my area of interest so maybe I get that wrong but if I understand this correctly it would result in (historical) fictional setups anyway so it would not matter if e.g. Russians would play in NA earlier then in reality, right?

That's how I view it as well.

Same with the thought of certain 80's and 90's goons being essentially useless in say the 1930's. That's perfectly fine since those are the types of things that would be answered in a mode like random debut.

The possibilities are endless in terms of "what if's."

But if the actual database itself wouldn't play well with a mode like random debut, that's another story entirely.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

How does this mode work in OOTP? Do you set up a league (say 30 teams) and the game selects randomly players from the entire player pool of all years, then populates the draft each year with random players as well?

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

That's how I view it as well.

Same with the thought of certain 80's and 90's goons being essentially useless in say the 1930's. That's perfectly fine since those are the types of things that would be answered in a mode like random debut.

The possibilities are endless in terms of "what if's."

But if the actual database itself wouldn't play well with a mode like random debut, that's another story entirely.

[Habsfan18]

Originally Posted by Sebastian Palkowski

How does this mode work in OOTP? Do you set up a league (say 30 teams) and the game selects randomly players from the entire player pool of all years, then populates the draft each year with random players as well?

Basically what happens:

- You select a start year, for example let's say 1985.

- You then choose which database years in terms of players you want to be featured in your game. For example if you start in 85 you can choose to have EVERY player possibly enter your game at some point, or you can stick to say 1970 though 2005 etc. This way, only players from those seasons would be possible in your league.

- After league setup a randomly selected group of historical players will be made available in a league wide draft based on the settings you would have entered in the example above. Player ages are also selected at random. For example, a 23 year old Sidney Crosby, a 36 year old Bobby Clarke, a 28 year old Kent Nilsson, a 32 year old Gordie Howe etc..

- From this point forward, every off-season draft will feature a new number of randomly selected historical players based on the settings you set at league startup. From now on however, each player that is generated into the game world will come in as a 17-18 year old rookie. So maybe Mario Lemieux is in the 1988 draft pool, Maurice Richard in the 1997 draft pool etc..

Essentially it would work exactly like the normal historical mode but with players from all eras coming into the league at random times. It would be fascinating to see how a guy like Wayne Gretzky might do in the 50's, or how Bobby Orr would do in the 90's. Plus thinking of all the neat line combinations of players from different eras. The potential for an amazing experience is there.

[redtiger7]

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

Basically what happens:

- You select a start year, for example let's say 1985.

- You then choose which database years in terms of players you want to be featured in your game. For example if you start in 85 you can choose to have EVERY player possibly enter your game at some point, or you can stick to say 1970 though 2005 etc. This way, only players from those seasons would be possible in your league.

- After league setup a randomly selected group of historical players will be made available in a league wide draft based on the settings you would have entered in the example above. Player ages are also selected at random. For example, a 23 year old Sidney Crosby, a 36 year old Bobby Clarke, a 28 year old Kent Nilsson, a 32 year old Gordie Howe etc..

- From this point forward, every off-season draft will feature a new number of randomly selected historical players based on the settings you set at league startup. From now on however, each player that is generated into the game world will come in as a 17-18 year old rookie. So maybe Mario Lemieux is in the 1988 draft pool, Maurice Richard in the 1997 draft pool etc..

Essentially it would work exactly like the normal historical mode but with players from all eras coming into the league at random times. It would be fascinating to see how a guy like Wayne Gretzky might do in the 50's, or how Bobby Orr would do in the 90's. Plus thinking of all the neat line combinations of players from different eras. The potential for an amazing experience is there.

That sounds cool

[mgom27]

Another problem in a Historical League if you add like lets 2017 League in to it all guys might from 2017 will either Retire at end of season or in the future or be Injured to a certain year.

League Evolution including Minors? Edit League Structure? World Templates? Trades with other Leagues?

[Burnsey]

"Just to clarify, are you talking about controlling 6 teams in the regular 1974-75 NHL, or setting up a six-team custom league using historical players? The latter isn't possible right now, you're limited to the actual historical league structure - you can't vary the number of teams or divisions, rules on contract length, annual changes, etc.."

Hi Jeff. You asked me this in the Historical Question area.

I wanted to draft six teams using the 1974-1975 database of players, unsure if this is the former or the latter.

In the future how many of the things listed above will be available in either FHM4 or later?

Do you have a database with Wayne Gretzky from 1985-1986, or Wayne Gretzky's rated based on his career, or both?

What if I wanted to replay the 1976 Stanley Cup Finals with a healthy Bernie Parent?

http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index..._had_been.html

Montreal might still win, but I'd like to think it wouldn't be in four straight.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Burnsey

I wanted to draft six teams using the 1974-1975 database of players, unsure if this is the former or the latter.

You can't set up a 6-team league using the 74-75 players, you can only start in the actual 74-75 season. If you wanted to change the rosters of 6 of the teams, that could be done in commissioner mode.

In the future how many of the things listed above will be available in either FHM4 or later?

It won't be in FHM4, but is likely to happen at some point in the future, just not sure when at this point.

Do you have a database with Wayne Gretzky from 1985-1986, or Wayne Gretzky's rated based on his career, or both?

He doesn't have specific ratings for each year, but a set of peak ratings that get modified by the career stage (defined separately for each player) he was in during a given year.

What if I wanted to replay the 1976 Stanley Cup Finals with a healthy Bernie Parent?

You can't specifically replay an individual final like you can with a World Series in OOTP (yet), but if you were starting in 1975-76 Parent probably wouldn't get injured during the season and would be healthy for the playoffs.

[kicktothehead]

I have logged lots of hours over the past week since buying this.
Excellent game.
The only things I can think of immediately are ease of life things ..
like clicking a player - adding him to a line and having a choice to fill all the spot per say ... like if a defenseman gets hurt for DTD you need to click so many times to replace his spot in RD, PP RD, SH RD, 4/4 RD, 3/3RD etc ... it is tedious.
Also a comparison button would be nice to compare player attributes.
Small minor enhancements as I think the game is great as it is now ... having lots of fun

[TNIRISHFAN]

Thanks ahead of time for any response.

[ajimithing]

Mobile iOS version PLEASE

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by ajimithing

Mobile iOS version PLEASE

This is on our list for the future but at the moment the desktop version has our full priority.

[skipjack]

Saving formation/tactics under Strategy feels like a must have for FHM4.