How does FHM handle short, promising careers?

[Big Six]

I had an idea for a project involving FHM, and before I started it, I wanted to know if anyone could give me any insight on how the game handles the careers of stars, or potential stars, whose careers were tragically cut short.

Will a player like Michel Brière, who enjoyed one promising season before his death, have a chance to develop into a star if I don't recalculate ratings each season and let the FHM development engine shape his career? Or, is there something built into the code that will limit how good a player with a very short career can be?

Any insight any of you could provide would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

[AdequateRandomGaming]

Originally Posted by Big Six

I had an idea for a project involving FHM, and before I started it, I wanted to know if anyone could give me any insight on how the game handles the careers of stars, or potential stars, whose careers were tragically cut short.

Will a player like Michel Brière, who enjoyed one promising season before his death, have a chance to develop into a star if I don't recalculate ratings each season and let the FHM development engine shape his career? Or, is there something built into the code that will limit how good a player with a very short career can be?

Any insight any of you could provide would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

As someone who has focused on historical replays since the inception of the game, I will say - probably not. I've made a lengthy post a few months back, and this is one of the things I've pointed out that could use some improvement - that even when using the game engine to handle development, it still follows real career arcs a little too closely.


I've ran maybe 100 historical sims from the 90's up to 2040 or so. I'm a Sens fan. I've never seen Daigle reach potential, not even once. Things like that.


Now, I've seen a few surprises. One time Chris Neil developed into a reliable 20 goal scorer for many seasons. Those are extremely rare though.


So with your project, I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying you may have to run several sims to get that one result that will stick out.

[Habitant4Life]

From my experiences in historical seasons, Michel Brière will play his rookie season and retire in the offseason. If you did a non-challenge mode season and wanted to mess around with the player editor, you could probably figure out a way to disable Brière from retiring early. I'm not 100% certain, but it's worth a look.

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by AdequateRandomGaming

As someone who has focused on historical replays since the inception of the game, I will say - probably not. I've made a lengthy post a few months back, and this is one of the things I've pointed out that could use some improvement - that even when using the game engine to handle development, it still follows real career arcs a little too closely.


I've ran maybe 100 historical sims from the 90's up to 2040 or so. I'm a Sens fan. I've never seen Daigle reach potential, not even once. Things like that.


Now, I've seen a few surprises. One time Chris Neil developed into a reliable 20 goal scorer for many seasons. Those are extremely rare though.


So with your project, I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying you may have to run several sims to get that one result that will stick out.

Thanks for replying. I found your post and read it, and I appreciate your insights. I can understand why what you're saying could be built into the game. I'm sure many FHM players who run long historical games want to see the "right" names on the career leaderboards, rather than seeing a player who, let's say, scored 8 points in an 8-game career in the early 1970s turn into Marcel Dionne.

I'm guessing, then, that the game engine would be better able to handle a player like Pelle Lindbergh, who had several good seasons before his untimely death.

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by Habitant4Life

From my experiences in historical seasons, Michel Brière will play his rookie season and retire in the offseason. If you did a non-challenge mode season and wanted to mess around with the player editor, you could probably figure out a way to disable Brière from retiring early. I'm not 100% certain, but it's worth a look.

I was afraid that might be the case. It's a shame, because it would be fun to find out what kind of career Brière might have had. It's the kind of scenario that's only really possibly with a game like FHM.

I suppose I could play with the editor in non-challenge mode and see what happens. Thanks for your insights.

[JeffR]

Missed this thread earlier.

Generally, this depends on what player development mode you're playing in. Annual recalculation will retire the players when they stopped playing, i.e. no Briere after 1970.

Using the regular development mode will allow them to continue beyond that point, however, their aging attribute will still have a big influence on their career length, and for that type of player I've generally set those to push the players towards a shorter career. You can, however, edit that attribute (in commissioner mode) if you want to do a what-if to give them a more typical career length (12-13 will give you an average NHL career, check some of the longer-lasting players to get an idea of how they scale up; Gordie Howe is a 29.)