What new features do you want to see in FHM9? - Page 7

jumpSeat · 07-19-2022, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colorado

After first season, Wild trade first round pick to NYR for Filip Chytil (2.5 / 3 stars).

Two weeks later he's put on waivers.

Sorry, but that's just too funny!

RangersKoivu · 07-19-2022, 12:31 PM

Some new features I would like to see:

I would like for more leagues to be playable, for example, the Canadian junior leagues such as the BCHL and SJHL or American juniors like the USHL and NAHL. College hockey would be even better.

I would also love to see rosters being able to be edited more easily at a glance. (e.g. deleting all players in a team, only making players a certain nationality, etc.) It would also be good if we could export these rosters.

Historically accurate juniors/minors (WHL, CHL, UHL, etc.) would be a nice addition too but I understand it wouldn't be the easiest task.

For fictional leagues, one thing I would really like to see is custom drafts. For example, having a draftless league (like majority of the European leagues), have a league only draft players of a certain nationality or region (the LNAH comes to mind) or the ability to draft players from other "major" leagues (e.g. NHL teams drafting players from the KHL, SHL, etc.)

Custom international tournaments in fictional leagues would be nice too.

Also, I am not sure how easy this would be to implement, but there could be an "Enforcer importance" rating. I notice that even after increase the fights per game (especially in major leagues), enforcers do not always tend to fight often. Usually if an enforcer is contracted to a major league team he will be a healthy scratch, sent down to the minors or put on reserve (especially if his rating is 0.5 or 1.0). It would be nice if we could bring back the spirit of old time hockey and give enforcers more importance in our fictional leagues. For example, enforcers would be given a roster spot on a team despite their disparity in skill and their job would be to protect star players and engage the opponent's enforcers.

I would also like to see multiple tiers of minor leagues be enabled for teams, much like the MLB and MiLB.

Lastly, it would be nice to add farm teams for KHL, AHL, ECHL and junior teams. For the KHL teams it would mean creating another VHL team but currently there is no option to create a farm team affiliation. For the other leagues, it would mean a new team automatically getting a generic semi-pro/junior B farm team (e.g. Metropolitan Semi-Pro, Quebec Jr B, etc.) This way expansion teams will not need to put players on reserve.

If you've read until this far, thank you! I just feel like this game has so much potential and I have so many ideas I would like to share

jumpSeat · 07-20-2022, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RangersKoivu

If you've read until this far, thank you! I just feel like this game has so much potential and I have so many ideas I would like to share

And thank you for sharing them!

I especially like your thoughts on the old time enforcer role. It would certainly make historical replays feel more authentic!

wiggleman83 · 07-20-2022, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RangersKoivu

For fictional leagues, one thing I would really like to see is custom drafts. For example, having a draftless league (like majority of the European leagues), have a league only draft players of a certain nationality or region (the LNAH comes to mind) or the ability to draft players from other "major" leagues (e.g. NHL teams drafting players from the KHL, SHL, etc.)

Custom international tournaments in fictional leagues would be nice too

As a big fictional league guy, I love this

boscoJJ · 07-25-2022, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RangersKoivu

Some new features I would like to see:

I would like for more leagues to be playable, for example, the Canadian junior leagues such as the BCHL and SJHL or American juniors like the USHL and NAHL. College hockey would be even better.

I would also love to see rosters being able to be edited more easily at a glance. (e.g. deleting all players in a team, only making players a certain nationality, etc.) It would also be good if we could export these rosters.

Historically accurate juniors/minors (WHL, CHL, UHL, etc.) would be a nice addition too but I understand it wouldn't be the easiest task.

For fictional leagues, one thing I would really like to see is custom drafts. For example, having a draftless league (like majority of the European leagues), have a league only draft players of a certain nationality or region (the LNAH comes to mind) or the ability to draft players from other "major" leagues (e.g. NHL teams drafting players from the KHL, SHL, etc.)

Custom international tournaments in fictional leagues would be nice too.

Also, I am not sure how easy this would be to implement, but there could be an "Enforcer importance" rating. I notice that even after increase the fights per game (especially in major leagues), enforcers do not always tend to fight often. Usually if an enforcer is contracted to a major league team he will be a healthy scratch, sent down to the minors or put on reserve (especially if his rating is 0.5 or 1.0). It would be nice if we could bring back the spirit of old time hockey and give enforcers more importance in our fictional leagues. For example, enforcers would be given a roster spot on a team despite their disparity in skill and their job would be to protect star players and engage the opponent's enforcers.

I would also like to see multiple tiers of minor leagues be enabled for teams, much like the MLB and MiLB.

Lastly, it would be nice to add farm teams for KHL, AHL, ECHL and junior teams. For the KHL teams it would mean creating another VHL team but currently there is no option to create a farm team affiliation. For the other leagues, it would mean a new team automatically getting a generic semi-pro/junior B farm team (e.g. Metropolitan Semi-Pro, Quebec Jr B, etc.) This way expansion teams will not need to put players on reserve.

If you've read until this far, thank you! I just feel like this game has so much potential and I have so many ideas I would like to share

Agreed
Especially your suggestion regarding fictional leagues
they are bare bones until your suggestion is accepted

Xavier's Crown · 07-25-2022, 06:56 PM

FHM9 Hopes & Dreams:

* Ability to disable Hall of Fame voting. Especially when asked multiple times in June for the runoff when there's on 1 candidate left

* Better multiplayer experience regarding staff signing

* End of year timing. Always have trouble with the 50 contract issue when I need to sign prospects last week of June but my expiring contracts haven't been released to FA until July 1st

* More NHL playoff excitement between rounds. I liked the Cup Winner screenshot that appears but perhaps something similar highlighting upsets, top performers and some type of preview of the next round

* The prospect quality seems to really drop off after a few seasons. Not sure why the early ones are so good or the later ones are so poor - but a little bit more balance

* Maybe include an indicator that suggest if a player might be considering retirement in the future - seems to come out of the blue on July 1st

ILR · 07-26-2022, 11:32 AM

I started typing this into the FHM9 wishlist thread but it turned into a novelette, so I'm posting it as a separate FHM impressions thread. FHM8 was my first entry in the series, and I've enjoyed my time with it from ECHL to Euro leagues to the Big Show, both as head coach and as GM only. I've also played Football Manager a decade ago, which frames my understanding of sports management games. I'm not familiar with Eastside Hockey Manager or Out of the Park.

The Good Stuff

To start on the positive side, match simulation in FHM8 - which is the core of the game - works wonderfully. The results for individual games, scoring leaderboards, and whole seasons are predictable in the sense that the best constructed rosters tend to end up high in the standings, but they also manage to reflect the chaotic nature of pro hockey where a President's Trophy winner can be swept in the first playoff round or Jamie Benn can run away with an Art Ross trophy if the stars align for one season.

Your (the one playing FHM) ability to only indirectly influence the outcome of matches as a head coach is also captured well. The matches aren't deterministic: a first line LW will not score a hat-trick each game if you set his role as Sniper instead of Backchecking forward, but he might attempt more shots (which may or may not end up on the scoreboard), especially if the rest of his linemates are set up to facilitate that. It's possible to win matches with silly tactics, but in the long run, success requires maximizing what types of players you have. It's part of the recurring core puzzle in the game, which probably has no correct answers. Should a 4th line attempt to provide depth scoring against opponent's worst players or should they be a defensive matchup line? Which will contribute more to winning this playoff series? It's impossible to say for certain, but rewarding to attempt nevertheless.

Playing as GM

The management side of the game is more lacking in comparison. I'm not sure if these types of things are even intended to be the focus of the game, so parts of the next paragraphs might be completely irrelevant.

Overall, I'd like to see more things to _do_ as a GM, and more depth into the things I'm doing. Here are some suggestions:
* More detailed contract negotiations for myself. What are the team representatives expecting to get when they sign me? What am I committing to? What metrics is my performance being measured on? Will I oversee a youth movement over the next 3 years as the current veterans' boat anchor contracts expire, or try to squeeze as much success while the old guard still has something in the tank
* Long-term/short-term planning meetings with the owners/directors. The owner wants to see recent 1st round draft picks start making the team, but I think the current core still has a playoff run or two in them. What kind of compromise can we reach?
* More detailed Restricted Free Agency. A Qualifying Offer should have a salary based on the current CBA, and the QO might be higher than what the team perceives the player's value to be, which makes for an interesting decision whether to extend a QO at all for that player, making him a Free Agent. You see some judgment calls with the RFAs every summer in NHL. Will Danton Heinen receive a QO, will Ethan Bear? If they do, will they sign the offers?
* While we're on topic, why not a salary arbitration mechanic for RFAs
* More things on the Player Management side. The players are an ambitious bunch, they should have expectations for the team as well, usually with regards to their playing role or ice time. As an example, Phillip Danault reportedly refused to re-sign in Montreal because he wanted some powerplay time, which the Canadiens weren't willing to commit to. Maybe someone wants to be the designated shootout guy when negotiating a new contract, maybe someone is getting itchy playing a 3rd pairing role behind 2 world-class right-side defensemen and wants an increase in playing time - on the left side if need be - or he threatens to hand in a trade request. As it is now, there's only the minor drama with the player numbers (which should be handled during contract negotiations as a requirement from the player's side. For example I think Messier had a clause for #11 jersey in his contract with Vancouver).
* Some sort of career paths/ambitions for coaches. Successful assistants might get poached to KHL/AHL head coaching gigs. That sort of thing.
* More interaction with the farm team. How many players in which positions will they expect to receive from you for next season? Do I want to put icetime requirements for my raw, but rapidly developing youngsters, or is the AHL coach free to play his preferred veterans in a quest for the Calder Cup? And vice-versa if you're the GM of an AHL/ECHL team.
* Better (and more detailed) contract negotiations. Does the player want PP/PK time? Icetime in general? A guaranteed NHL roster spot from his 2nd contract year onwards? If I and the player want different contract lengths, I should be able to lock the length and hear a counter-offer from the player's agent (or maybe it can be non-negotiable for them, that happens too)
* More interaction with the Head Coach. I want him to play the hotshot rookie higher in the lineup, but he insists on working on the prospect's two-way game in the 4th line first.

Once you get the hang of the game, it's relatively trivial to ice the best, most cost-effective roster in the NHL because the other teams will keep shooting themselves in the foot constantly. I had to start running a francophone-only Canadiens save to get a reasonable challenge in the game. Sure, the real-life NHL GM's misevaluate talent on occasion and there's an occasional buyout or negative-value contract, but FHM still makes it way too easy to capitalize on their mistakes. The 2 most severe examples are:

* Every July 1st, there are a few unsigned 4th overall picks from 3 drafts ago who have been the 1st team all-star in OHL twice since his draft year, but the team that drafted them never bothered to offer an ELC so now here's a highly skilled 21 year old on an upward developmental curve for 900k/year. Essentially free money.
* The other GM's keep extending overpaid veterans to an absurd degree. You might see a declining 35yo goalie with a 4,5M contract who's been buried in AHL for the last year get an extension for close to the same money. And he'll be in AHL the next season too, eating millions off the team's cap.

Overall, the salary requirements from players aren't quite what you'd expect. There seems to be too much inertia: young players' requirements rise too slowly, and old ones who are clearly on the decline fall too slowly (though this is arguably how it works in real life too). A budding superstar with an 70-point ELC season under his belt should not even consider a $2,200,000/3y bridge deal, nor a $3,500,000/7 y extended offer that I put in front of him. There are no Josh Norris or Andrei Svechnikov contracts in the game.

There seems to be an odd plateau in the 3.5M - 4.5M salary range where a lot of long-term players end up in. Cedric Paquette wants about that much, as does Yanni Gourde. Which one is a better catch? It's obvious. You'll go far just avoiding the obvious overpayments.

The other teams should be more aware of their own needs, and make decisions based on that. A run-of-the-mill backup 30yo 2-star goaltender with a 1,5m one-way cap hit shouldn't have much positive or negative value, but in FHM you can trade him to another team for 3 5th round picks, even if the team in question has 3 goaltenders with one-way contracts already. He'd be more of a liability to them. Overall, I think contract circumstances aren't reflected that well in the way AI values its players. If 2 players are about equal (let's say a bit above replacement level) in their ability, but one is signed for 1m/2yr and another for 4,5m/4y, the first one should be much more valuable, but the AI doesn't really behave this way. It appears it's more likely to put the first one to waivers.

Game presentation

I'd also like to see improvements in game presentation/look-and-feel/QoL experience:
* The list views should not get reset like this! For example, I've sorted players by their potential rating in my Watch List. I right-click on a player --> Remove from Watch List. The list sorting resets back to default. Very frustrating.
* I should be able to select multiple rows on a list and perform the same action on them. Removing players from a list one-by-one (or all at once) is arduous.
* Don't notify me when my players are about to return from injury (especially during offseason). Only let me know when he's fully fit again. There doesn't appear to be any way to toggle this.
* Be consistent with notifications, sometimes players get injured (game unavailable for 1-2 weeks) with no notification. Sometimes (as a farm team) I receive players from my parent team without getting notifications from them. Sometimes they get recalled without notification.
* (as a farm team) Don't demote/IR my players automatically when the parent team sends me a new guy! Even if the daily roster goes over the roster limit.
* Some more depth into the newsfeed. So-and-so was the player of the month? Ok, what was his statline during the month? Who's riding a point streak, who's cold?
* Convert draft picks into their absolute order once the lottery is over. I have 3 2nd round picks: my own, Detroit's, and Washington's. I want to make a draft-day trade, how do I know which one of them is pick #46?
* There's a lot of screen real estate available. The pre-match screen could have points leaders, last 5 games from both teams, line combos. The sim screen could have a longer list with goals+assists=points instead of 3 separate ones with generally recurring players. There could be a ticker of the day's matches and scorers.

Other stuff

Some other assorted nitpicks/improvement suggestions:
* Separate news feed for suspensions. Now they are filling up the General News category
* Warning about unqualified RFAs / expiring contracts / unsigned draftee deadlines.
* Some way to disentangle coach & GM awards in annual awards ceremony. Now they go to the same team almost always
* Traded pick naming inconsistency in draft-related news items (Detroit mentioned as having won the draft lottery even though they traded their pick to team Y)
* Add Compare To... to player page action menu
* Cap hits visible in Watch List/league trading block page please
* Re-signed RFAs (that have spent time as free agents) need time to adjust into the team
* End of season performance review skips over points allocation if you click continue while waiting for the achievements to get listed
* Over 100% attendances (standing room) aren't counted as sellouts
* AI has somehow managed to sign one-way ELCs
* Supplementary role can't be changed for goalies in the player screen, only in roster screen
* Too few penalties called overall
* After contract negotiations have broken down, last proposed contract is immediately signed (if it is suitable for him) by the player once negotations are resumed. I think these should start over from scratch, or at least avoid the auto-accept feature. The team's roster composition might have changed a lot during the month the player was unwilling to discuss a contract extension.
* My own GM contract should not be automatically renewed
* Conn Smythe impossible for goalies to win? Haven't seen one in 30 years of GMing
* RD players get consistently low ratings in classic sim, LDs way too high
* Give championship ring to players who match the NHL criteria (40 regular season games or 1 game in finals, I think). Now it's possible to lose a regular player to a season-ending injury at 70 games, win the cup, and have him not included among the winners.
* Coach ratings should have a more pronounced effect to the game. Martin St.Louis has 0s for all attributes, but Montreal seems to play about as expected in all new saves.
* Generated players diverge from real-life players somewhat (maybe this is the player development model). Real-life players seem to have only scoring range or accuracy, but generated players improve on both. Also, fighting attribute is pretty much an on/off skill for current players (they either have some skill, or none at all) while for generated players it's distributed more evenly.
* There should be more distinguishable player types. Good players are generally good in most things instead of specializing in their core tendencies. Ray Sheppard was a notoriously sluggish skater even though he was an effective scoring wing, so he gets 15 for speed & acceleration. Martin Necas has game-breaking skating speed that he can't utilize properly so he produces like a generic hot-and-cold middle-sixer. He too gets 15/16 for speed & acceleration.
* Add option to search players by their home region / languages.
* Players get an Icetime morale minus after they've been chosen to the all-star game and play only 12 minutes there
* Add a dynamically rising/fluctuating salary cap as a selectable feature
* There are too many player roles. What's the difference between Setup Man and Playmaker? Old-school Defenseman and Shutdown defenseman? Enforcer and Goon? The differences are too marginal to matter.
* Different player roles for special teams. I want my Shadow to play as Screener on the powerplay.
* Goalie starts with an AI head coach are wonky when the playoffs begin. The coach will start dressing the .889 backup after he posted a shutout in the last regular season game, and ride him as the first-choice goalie in the playoffs. Other times this will go the other way around. My first round opponent never let their Vezina-winning goalie (who had something like 55 starts during the season) on the ice against me, because they had a guy with higher star rating who had played like ass in his ~30 starts) for the whole season and fell out of the coach's favor. (I don't mind, his shoddy play continued in the playoffs)
* Line balancing tendency as a coach attribute. Who rides the 1st pairing guys for 25+ minutes? Whose 4th liners play 12 mins of EV time?

All in all, I might not be the core market for FHM since I'm uninterested in simming historical seasons or creating custom leagues. But despite the detailed gripes I've listed with the game, I've enjoyed my 200 hours with FHM8 a lot. In an ideal world, I'd like to create an avatar in a persistent, simulated game world that's a reasonable facsimile of our own, and live out a career in hockey management in there. If anyone has experience with the other hockey management game, is Eastside Hockey Manager more oriented towards that play style?

redtiger7 · 07-26-2022, 11:38 AM

In historical, after records are cleared, have people who get voted into the HOF to actually appear in it.

redtiger7 · 07-26-2022, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xavier's Crown

FHM9 Hopes & Dreams:

* Maybe include an indicator that suggest if a player might be considering retirement in the future - seems to come out of the blue on July 1st

I've gotten 1 email from a player considering retirement, so it is there, but rarely is used.
It'd be nice if we could brooch the subject with players, ask about their future plans, to help us better plan for next season.

jumpSeat · 07-27-2022, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILR

* The list views should not get reset like this! For example, I've sorted players by their potential rating in my Watch List. I right-click on a player --> Remove from Watch List. The list sorting resets back to default. Very frustrating.

You make a lot of good points and thanks for sharing your thoughts in such an articulate manner. With all the good content in your post, it seems to me a little strange that I would fixate exclusively on the above quote, but this one drives me positively batty - so I just had to add a +1!

fanat1k · 07-31-2022, 06:14 AM

1

fanat1k · 07-31-2022, 06:14 AM

Hi all. Before that, I had never played hockey managers, I didn’t even know about their existence, I tried FHM 8 and I really liked it. Before that, I played fifa manager until it came out. The football manager didn't come in, too confused and confused. I would like to recommend displaying positions and stars in the lines section of an already built lineup, otherwise it is quite inconvenient to navigate. First you look at the player in a triple or a pair, then in the left corner you look for his position and level, which is extremely inconvenient, since I would like to insert a screenshot. The second thing I would really like to ask is to add other languages. The menu itself is clear and you can play it this way, but incoming mail, the response of a scout or player during negotiations or tooltips is a rather complicated topic and it turns out that 70 percent of the game is occupied by Google translator. I know you don't have a lot of money to translate the game, at least make it possible for a clumsy translation. Just translate what I'm asking into Google Translate and make it possible to play with this text, that way everything will become much more understandable. So far, it is extremely difficult to play because of the complexity of the translation and I don’t plan to buy FHM 9 because of this, but if at least a clumsy translation comes out that won’t take you much time, I would buy the game again. Sorry for my English

CanuckJohnny · 07-31-2022, 11:23 AM

@ILR that was an amazing, deep and articulate post. Well said.

Three things have been bothering me lately that I really hope get fixed:

1) To beat a dead horse (out of sheer frustration I suppose), the Goalie starting AI is driving me nuts right now. Kills the realism a bit when teams with a clear number one just roll with their backup almost all year (really, Calgary, Vladar over Markstrom?). Although with how little goalies actually impact the game and how little their ratings seem to matter, maybe this doesn't affect the outcomes a lot but it's just so silly. Plus if I'm GM only I'm stuck with my coach's random and asinine decisions on who to start.

2) This is to echo what was said above by @IRL and maybe seems like a minor QoL improvement, but please, can we see the cap hit of players on most screens somehow? I scroll through trade block or waivers and all the players have a cap hit of $0 (I'm assuming because currently they don't cost anything against the cap of MY team, since they don't play for me?) which is not only useless to know, it makes it very hard to find the fairly critical information of what their cap hit really is. This should be readily available, at the very least on most menus and possibly even on those little popups that have the stats, etc, on them when you mouse over the player's name.

3) Trading is a very empty and frustrating endeavour. It would be really good if there was more interaction with other GMs somehow. I should be able to inquire the price of a player somehow. I'll see the Leafs are shopping Marner, for instance, then try to offer them any amount of my best players only to hear, we want something back for a quality player. I could offer them Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, Vasily Podkolzin, and a first rounder and they'll still say this. For a guy they're shopping they're crazy over valuing him at that point. It would be a stupid trade for me and they still won't even consider. But that's not even what is mostly bothering me, it's that I should be able to at least ask the Toronto AI GM, what kind of package do you want for this player? Maybe he says, I'll never trade him to you no matter what. Maybe he names some outrageous price. But at least I'd have some kind of a starting point what he's expecting or if there's a chance of a deal being made. Right now it seems a total guessing game. (I am happy that it's very difficult to trade for marquee players - it should be, and I should have to give up one or more high quality pieces for a star player. And some superstars should be practically untouchable - McDavid or Makar for instance. But it would be nice if some players/picks could have the potential to get traded once in a while for a crazy return. Maybe 1st overall pick should just about never be on the table for less than a king's ransom. But the 5th overall pick should be in consideration if a star player in his prime, another first rounder, and a high end prospect and another good young NHLer are being offered. It seems impossible to make some trades even if you offer up your whole team. And there's no feedback to help you understand. If some computer GM just wants no roster players, or nobody over 22, or whatever, it would be good if you could see that or find it out somehow. Anyways, end rant.

CanuckJohnny · 07-31-2022, 11:23 AM

sorry double post.

jumpSeat · 08-01-2022, 04:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanuckJohnny

Three things have been bothering me lately that I really hope get fixed:

1)...

2)...

3)...

1) Yes...
2) Yes...
3) And yes...

Maaka · 08-01-2022, 02:52 PM

Preferably, I'd like to have some sort of "print screen" when on a stats page (overall team stats, i.e.), but most important, to be able to filter out the stats where a player played for multiple teams during a season. I'd like to be able to see in the exported stats how a player fared for my team only, not just total stats playing in a league. And where a player played for different teams in different leagues, I'd like to see said player's stats for each league/team.
Unless I'm doing something wrong, when I export to csv now, I can only see a certain player's stats for one league (i.e., a player played both in the AHL and NHL, and was traded, so played for 2 teams in each league, but the exported stats just shows the records for the total stats in one of the leagues).

Maaka · 08-01-2022, 03:01 PM

I'd like to be able to change decimal symbols, or value separation symbols. When exporting to csv, a lot of data becomes wrong in the spreadsheet, due to the data exported having English values, when the spreadsheet has another language setting. My spreadsheet (and my region of the world) uses comma (,) as a decimal symbol and dot (.) as thousand value separator. When those are reversed, a number like 9.34 (or 9,34 as we'd write it) is displayed as "september 1934", because the spreadsheet interpretes it as a date.
If we're able to modify those decimal and separation symbols, it'd be a lot easier when exporting stats.

TheAlaskan · 08-01-2022, 08:35 PM

Couple notes from a diehard WHL GM...

- When scouring through U15 rosters, provide a filter for Junior preference vs. College preference

- Auto-assign Junior B leagues as farm teams for CHL expansion teams

- Let NHL teams communicate with you regarding players they draft and send back to juniors

- Revert the "box score" simulation page to the playoff tree simulation page when simming during the playoffs

- Provide better indication whether an international player might sign with a North American junior team. I've pretty much stopped participating in the CHL Import Draft

- Show if any of my players are rated in any of the NHL draft rankings before the NHL draft

- Please don't fix the championship-winning celebration message. I like it when my 16-19 year old players are drenching each other in champagne.

jumpSeat · 08-02-2022, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAlaskan

- Please don't fix the championship-winning celebration message. I like it when my 16-19 year old players are drenching each other in champagne.

Have at 'er boys!

jmetrow · 08-02-2022, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAlaskan

Couple notes from a diehard WHL GM...

- When scouring through U15 rosters, provide a filter for Junior preference vs. College preference

- Auto-assign Junior B leagues as farm teams for CHL expansion teams

- Let NHL teams communicate with you regarding players they draft and send back to juniors

- Revert the "box score" simulation page to the playoff tree simulation page when simming during the playoffs

- Provide better indication whether an international player might sign with a North American junior team. I've pretty much stopped participating in the CHL Import Draft

- Show if any of my players are rated in any of the NHL draft rankings before the NHL draft

- Please don't fix the championship-winning celebration message. I like it when my 16-19 year old players are drenching each other in champagne.

I second all of this as someone who mostly plays as an OHL GM

07-26-2022, 11:32 AM	#127
ILR Bat Boy Join Date: Feb 2022 Posts: 9	FHM8 Detailed Impressions and Improvement Suggestions I started typing this into the FHM9 wishlist thread but it turned into a novelette, so I'm posting it as a separate FHM impressions thread. FHM8 was my first entry in the series, and I've enjoyed my time with it from ECHL to Euro leagues to the Big Show, both as head coach and as GM only. I've also played Football Manager a decade ago, which frames my understanding of sports management games. I'm not familiar with Eastside Hockey Manager or Out of the Park. The Good Stuff To start on the positive side, match simulation in FHM8 - which is the core of the game - works wonderfully. The results for individual games, scoring leaderboards, and whole seasons are predictable in the sense that the best constructed rosters tend to end up high in the standings, but they also manage to reflect the chaotic nature of pro hockey where a President's Trophy winner can be swept in the first playoff round or Jamie Benn can run away with an Art Ross trophy if the stars align for one season. Your (the one playing FHM) ability to only indirectly influence the outcome of matches as a head coach is also captured well. The matches aren't deterministic: a first line LW will not score a hat-trick each game if you set his role as Sniper instead of Backchecking forward, but he might attempt more shots (which may or may not end up on the scoreboard), especially if the rest of his linemates are set up to facilitate that. It's possible to win matches with silly tactics, but in the long run, success requires maximizing what types of players you have. It's part of the recurring core puzzle in the game, which probably has no correct answers. Should a 4th line attempt to provide depth scoring against opponent's worst players or should they be a defensive matchup line? Which will contribute more to winning this playoff series? It's impossible to say for certain, but rewarding to attempt nevertheless. Playing as GM The management side of the game is more lacking in comparison. I'm not sure if these types of things are even intended to be the focus of the game, so parts of the next paragraphs might be completely irrelevant. Overall, I'd like to see more things to _do_ as a GM, and more depth into the things I'm doing. Here are some suggestions: * More detailed contract negotiations for myself. What are the team representatives expecting to get when they sign me? What am I committing to? What metrics is my performance being measured on? Will I oversee a youth movement over the next 3 years as the current veterans' boat anchor contracts expire, or try to squeeze as much success while the old guard still has something in the tank * Long-term/short-term planning meetings with the owners/directors. The owner wants to see recent 1st round draft picks start making the team, but I think the current core still has a playoff run or two in them. What kind of compromise can we reach? * More detailed Restricted Free Agency. A Qualifying Offer should have a salary based on the current CBA, and the QO might be higher than what the team perceives the player's value to be, which makes for an interesting decision whether to extend a QO at all for that player, making him a Free Agent. You see some judgment calls with the RFAs every summer in NHL. Will Danton Heinen receive a QO, will Ethan Bear? If they do, will they sign the offers? * While we're on topic, why not a salary arbitration mechanic for RFAs * More things on the Player Management side. The players are an ambitious bunch, they should have expectations for the team as well, usually with regards to their playing role or ice time. As an example, Phillip Danault reportedly refused to re-sign in Montreal because he wanted some powerplay time, which the Canadiens weren't willing to commit to. Maybe someone wants to be the designated shootout guy when negotiating a new contract, maybe someone is getting itchy playing a 3rd pairing role behind 2 world-class right-side defensemen and wants an increase in playing time - on the left side if need be - or he threatens to hand in a trade request. As it is now, there's only the minor drama with the player numbers (which should be handled during contract negotiations as a requirement from the player's side. For example I think Messier had a clause for #11 jersey in his contract with Vancouver). * Some sort of career paths/ambitions for coaches. Successful assistants might get poached to KHL/AHL head coaching gigs. That sort of thing. * More interaction with the farm team. How many players in which positions will they expect to receive from you for next season? Do I want to put icetime requirements for my raw, but rapidly developing youngsters, or is the AHL coach free to play his preferred veterans in a quest for the Calder Cup? And vice-versa if you're the GM of an AHL/ECHL team. * Better (and more detailed) contract negotiations. Does the player want PP/PK time? Icetime in general? A guaranteed NHL roster spot from his 2nd contract year onwards? If I and the player want different contract lengths, I should be able to lock the length and hear a counter-offer from the player's agent (or maybe it can be non-negotiable for them, that happens too) * More interaction with the Head Coach. I want him to play the hotshot rookie higher in the lineup, but he insists on working on the prospect's two-way game in the 4th line first. Once you get the hang of the game, it's relatively trivial to ice the best, most cost-effective roster in the NHL because the other teams will keep shooting themselves in the foot constantly. I had to start running a francophone-only Canadiens save to get a reasonable challenge in the game. Sure, the real-life NHL GM's misevaluate talent on occasion and there's an occasional buyout or negative-value contract, but FHM still makes it way too easy to capitalize on their mistakes. The 2 most severe examples are: * Every July 1st, there are a few unsigned 4th overall picks from 3 drafts ago who have been the 1st team all-star in OHL twice since his draft year, but the team that drafted them never bothered to offer an ELC so now here's a highly skilled 21 year old on an upward developmental curve for 900k/year. Essentially free money. * The other GM's keep extending overpaid veterans to an absurd degree. You might see a declining 35yo goalie with a 4,5M contract who's been buried in AHL for the last year get an extension for close to the same money. And he'll be in AHL the next season too, eating millions off the team's cap. Overall, the salary requirements from players aren't quite what you'd expect. There seems to be too much inertia: young players' requirements rise too slowly, and old ones who are clearly on the decline fall too slowly (though this is arguably how it works in real life too). A budding superstar with an 70-point ELC season under his belt should not even consider a $2,200,000/3y bridge deal, nor a $3,500,000/7 y extended offer that I put in front of him. There are no Josh Norris or Andrei Svechnikov contracts in the game. There seems to be an odd plateau in the 3.5M - 4.5M salary range where a lot of long-term players end up in. Cedric Paquette wants about that much, as does Yanni Gourde. Which one is a better catch? It's obvious. You'll go far just avoiding the obvious overpayments. The other teams should be more aware of their own needs, and make decisions based on that. A run-of-the-mill backup 30yo 2-star goaltender with a 1,5m one-way cap hit shouldn't have much positive or negative value, but in FHM you can trade him to another team for 3 5th round picks, even if the team in question has 3 goaltenders with one-way contracts already. He'd be more of a liability to them. Overall, I think contract circumstances aren't reflected that well in the way AI values its players. If 2 players are about equal (let's say a bit above replacement level) in their ability, but one is signed for 1m/2yr and another for 4,5m/4y, the first one should be much more valuable, but the AI doesn't really behave this way. It appears it's more likely to put the first one to waivers. Game presentation I'd also like to see improvements in game presentation/look-and-feel/QoL experience: * The list views should not get reset like this! For example, I've sorted players by their potential rating in my Watch List. I right-click on a player --> Remove from Watch List. The list sorting resets back to default. Very frustrating. * I should be able to select multiple rows on a list and perform the same action on them. Removing players from a list one-by-one (or all at once) is arduous. * Don't notify me when my players are about to return from injury (especially during offseason). Only let me know when he's fully fit again. There doesn't appear to be any way to toggle this. * Be consistent with notifications, sometimes players get injured (game unavailable for 1-2 weeks) with no notification. Sometimes (as a farm team) I receive players from my parent team without getting notifications from them. Sometimes they get recalled without notification. * (as a farm team) Don't demote/IR my players automatically when the parent team sends me a new guy! Even if the daily roster goes over the roster limit. * Some more depth into the newsfeed. So-and-so was the player of the month? Ok, what was his statline during the month? Who's riding a point streak, who's cold? * Convert draft picks into their absolute order once the lottery is over. I have 3 2nd round picks: my own, Detroit's, and Washington's. I want to make a draft-day trade, how do I know which one of them is pick #46? * There's a lot of screen real estate available. The pre-match screen could have points leaders, last 5 games from both teams, line combos. The sim screen could have a longer list with goals+assists=points instead of 3 separate ones with generally recurring players. There could be a ticker of the day's matches and scorers. Other stuff Some other assorted nitpicks/improvement suggestions: * Separate news feed for suspensions. Now they are filling up the General News category * Warning about unqualified RFAs / expiring contracts / unsigned draftee deadlines. * Some way to disentangle coach & GM awards in annual awards ceremony. Now they go to the same team almost always * Traded pick naming inconsistency in draft-related news items (Detroit mentioned as having won the draft lottery even though they traded their pick to team Y) * Add Compare To... to player page action menu * Cap hits visible in Watch List/league trading block page please * Re-signed RFAs (that have spent time as free agents) need time to adjust into the team * End of season performance review skips over points allocation if you click continue while waiting for the achievements to get listed * Over 100% attendances (standing room) aren't counted as sellouts * AI has somehow managed to sign one-way ELCs * Supplementary role can't be changed for goalies in the player screen, only in roster screen * Too few penalties called overall * After contract negotiations have broken down, last proposed contract is immediately signed (if it is suitable for him) by the player once negotations are resumed. I think these should start over from scratch, or at least avoid the auto-accept feature. The team's roster composition might have changed a lot during the month the player was unwilling to discuss a contract extension. * My own GM contract should not be automatically renewed * Conn Smythe impossible for goalies to win? Haven't seen one in 30 years of GMing * RD players get consistently low ratings in classic sim, LDs way too high * Give championship ring to players who match the NHL criteria (40 regular season games or 1 game in finals, I think). Now it's possible to lose a regular player to a season-ending injury at 70 games, win the cup, and have him not included among the winners. * Coach ratings should have a more pronounced effect to the game. Martin St.Louis has 0s for all attributes, but Montreal seems to play about as expected in all new saves. * Generated players diverge from real-life players somewhat (maybe this is the player development model). Real-life players seem to have only scoring range or accuracy, but generated players improve on both. Also, fighting attribute is pretty much an on/off skill for current players (they either have some skill, or none at all) while for generated players it's distributed more evenly. * There should be more distinguishable player types. Good players are generally good in most things instead of specializing in their core tendencies. Ray Sheppard was a notoriously sluggish skater even though he was an effective scoring wing, so he gets 15 for speed & acceleration. Martin Necas has game-breaking skating speed that he can't utilize properly so he produces like a generic hot-and-cold middle-sixer. He too gets 15/16 for speed & acceleration. * Add option to search players by their home region / languages. * Players get an Icetime morale minus after they've been chosen to the all-star game and play only 12 minutes there * Add a dynamically rising/fluctuating salary cap as a selectable feature * There are too many player roles. What's the difference between Setup Man and Playmaker? Old-school Defenseman and Shutdown defenseman? Enforcer and Goon? The differences are too marginal to matter. * Different player roles for special teams. I want my Shadow to play as Screener on the powerplay. * Goalie starts with an AI head coach are wonky when the playoffs begin. The coach will start dressing the .889 backup after he posted a shutout in the last regular season game, and ride him as the first-choice goalie in the playoffs. Other times this will go the other way around. My first round opponent never let their Vezina-winning goalie (who had something like 55 starts during the season) on the ice against me, because they had a guy with higher star rating who had played like ass in his ~30 starts) for the whole season and fell out of the coach's favor. (I don't mind, his shoddy play continued in the playoffs) * Line balancing tendency as a coach attribute. Who rides the 1st pairing guys for 25+ minutes? Whose 4th liners play 12 mins of EV time? All in all, I might not be the core market for FHM since I'm uninterested in simming historical seasons or creating custom leagues. But despite the detailed gripes I've listed with the game, I've enjoyed my 200 hours with FHM8 a lot. In an ideal world, I'd like to create an avatar in a persistent, simulated game world that's a reasonable facsimile of our own, and live out a career in hockey management in there. If anyone has experience with the other hockey management game, is Eastside Hockey Manager more oriented towards that play style?

07-31-2022, 06:14 AM	#131
fanat1k Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2022 Posts: 27	1 Last edited by fanat1k; 07-31-2022 at 06:27 AM.

07-31-2022, 06:14 AM	#132
fanat1k Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2022 Posts: 27	Hi all. Before that, I had never played hockey managers, I didn’t even know about their existence, I tried FHM 8 and I really liked it. Before that, I played fifa manager until it came out. The football manager didn't come in, too confused and confused. I would like to recommend displaying positions and stars in the lines section of an already built lineup, otherwise it is quite inconvenient to navigate. First you look at the player in a triple or a pair, then in the left corner you look for his position and level, which is extremely inconvenient, since I would like to insert a screenshot. The second thing I would really like to ask is to add other languages. The menu itself is clear and you can play it this way, but incoming mail, the response of a scout or player during negotiations or tooltips is a rather complicated topic and it turns out that 70 percent of the game is occupied by Google translator. I know you don't have a lot of money to translate the game, at least make it possible for a clumsy translation. Just translate what I'm asking into Google Translate and make it possible to play with this text, that way everything will become much more understandable. So far, it is extremely difficult to play because of the complexity of the translation and I don’t plan to buy FHM 9 because of this, but if at least a clumsy translation comes out that won’t take you much time, I would buy the game again. Sorry for my English Last edited by fanat1k; 07-31-2022 at 06:26 AM.

07-31-2022, 11:23 AM	#134
CanuckJohnny All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2022 Posts: 554	sorry double post. Last edited by CanuckJohnny; 07-31-2022 at 11:25 AM. Reason: double post, dunno how to delete

08-01-2022, 02:52 PM	#136
Maaka Bat Boy Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Sørum, Norway Posts: 16	More detail to exported stats Preferably, I'd like to have some sort of "print screen" when on a stats page (overall team stats, i.e.), but most important, to be able to filter out the stats where a player played for multiple teams during a season. I'd like to be able to see in the exported stats how a player fared for my team only, not just total stats playing in a league. And where a player played for different teams in different leagues, I'd like to see said player's stats for each league/team. Unless I'm doing something wrong, when I export to csv now, I can only see a certain player's stats for one league (i.e., a player played both in the AHL and NHL, and was traded, so played for 2 teams in each league, but the exported stats just shows the records for the total stats in one of the leagues).

07-19-2022, 12:31 PM	#122
RangersKoivu Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2021 Location: Singapore Posts: 27	Some new features I would like to see: I would like for more leagues to be playable, for example, the Canadian junior leagues such as the BCHL and SJHL or American juniors like the USHL and NAHL. College hockey would be even better. I would also love to see rosters being able to be edited more easily at a glance. (e.g. deleting all players in a team, only making players a certain nationality, etc.) It would also be good if we could export these rosters. Historically accurate juniors/minors (WHL, CHL, UHL, etc.) would be a nice addition too but I understand it wouldn't be the easiest task. For fictional leagues, one thing I would really like to see is custom drafts. For example, having a draftless league (like majority of the European leagues), have a league only draft players of a certain nationality or region (the LNAH comes to mind) or the ability to draft players from other "major" leagues (e.g. NHL teams drafting players from the KHL, SHL, etc.) Custom international tournaments in fictional leagues would be nice too. Also, I am not sure how easy this would be to implement, but there could be an "Enforcer importance" rating. I notice that even after increase the fights per game (especially in major leagues), enforcers do not always tend to fight often. Usually if an enforcer is contracted to a major league team he will be a healthy scratch, sent down to the minors or put on reserve (especially if his rating is 0.5 or 1.0). It would be nice if we could bring back the spirit of old time hockey and give enforcers more importance in our fictional leagues. For example, enforcers would be given a roster spot on a team despite their disparity in skill and their job would be to protect star players and engage the opponent's enforcers. I would also like to see multiple tiers of minor leagues be enabled for teams, much like the MLB and MiLB. Lastly, it would be nice to add farm teams for KHL, AHL, ECHL and junior teams. For the KHL teams it would mean creating another VHL team but currently there is no option to create a farm team affiliation. For the other leagues, it would mean a new team automatically getting a generic semi-pro/junior B farm team (e.g. Metropolitan Semi-Pro, Quebec Jr B, etc.) This way expansion teams will not need to put players on reserve. If you've read until this far, thank you! I just feel like this game has so much potential and I have so many ideas I would like to share

07-25-2022, 06:56 PM	#126
Xavier's Crown Minors (Single A) Join Date: Apr 2014 Posts: 95	FHM9 Hopes & Dreams: * Ability to disable Hall of Fame voting. Especially when asked multiple times in June for the runoff when there's on 1 candidate left * Better multiplayer experience regarding staff signing * End of year timing. Always have trouble with the 50 contract issue when I need to sign prospects last week of June but my expiring contracts haven't been released to FA until July 1st * More NHL playoff excitement between rounds. I liked the Cup Winner screenshot that appears but perhaps something similar highlighting upsets, top performers and some type of preview of the next round * The prospect quality seems to really drop off after a few seasons. Not sure why the early ones are so good or the later ones are so poor - but a little bit more balance * Maybe include an indicator that suggest if a player might be considering retirement in the future - seems to come out of the blue on July 1st

07-26-2022, 11:38 AM	#128
redtiger7 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 1,178	In historical, after records are cleared, have people who get voted into the HOF to actually appear in it.

07-31-2022, 11:23 AM	#133
CanuckJohnny All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2022 Posts: 554	@ILR that was an amazing, deep and articulate post. Well said. Three things have been bothering me lately that I really hope get fixed: 1) To beat a dead horse (out of sheer frustration I suppose), the Goalie starting AI is driving me nuts right now. Kills the realism a bit when teams with a clear number one just roll with their backup almost all year (really, Calgary, Vladar over Markstrom?). Although with how little goalies actually impact the game and how little their ratings seem to matter, maybe this doesn't affect the outcomes a lot but it's just so silly. Plus if I'm GM only I'm stuck with my coach's random and asinine decisions on who to start. 2) This is to echo what was said above by @IRL and maybe seems like a minor QoL improvement, but please, can we see the cap hit of players on most screens somehow? I scroll through trade block or waivers and all the players have a cap hit of $0 (I'm assuming because currently they don't cost anything against the cap of MY team, since they don't play for me?) which is not only useless to know, it makes it very hard to find the fairly critical information of what their cap hit really is. This should be readily available, at the very least on most menus and possibly even on those little popups that have the stats, etc, on them when you mouse over the player's name. 3) Trading is a very empty and frustrating endeavour. It would be really good if there was more interaction with other GMs somehow. I should be able to inquire the price of a player somehow. I'll see the Leafs are shopping Marner, for instance, then try to offer them any amount of my best players only to hear, we want something back for a quality player. I could offer them Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, Vasily Podkolzin, and a first rounder and they'll still say this. For a guy they're shopping they're crazy over valuing him at that point. It would be a stupid trade for me and they still won't even consider. But that's not even what is mostly bothering me, it's that I should be able to at least ask the Toronto AI GM, what kind of package do you want for this player? Maybe he says, I'll never trade him to you no matter what. Maybe he names some outrageous price. But at least I'd have some kind of a starting point what he's expecting or if there's a chance of a deal being made. Right now it seems a total guessing game. (I am happy that it's very difficult to trade for marquee players - it should be, and I should have to give up one or more high quality pieces for a star player. And some superstars should be practically untouchable - McDavid or Makar for instance. But it would be nice if some players/picks could have the potential to get traded once in a while for a crazy return. Maybe 1st overall pick should just about never be on the table for less than a king's ransom. But the 5th overall pick should be in consideration if a star player in his prime, another first rounder, and a high end prospect and another good young NHLer are being offered. It seems impossible to make some trades even if you offer up your whole team. And there's no feedback to help you understand. If some computer GM just wants no roster players, or nobody over 22, or whatever, it would be good if you could see that or find it out somehow. Anyways, end rant.

08-01-2022, 03:01 PM	#137
Maaka Bat Boy Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Sørum, Norway Posts: 16	Change decimal/separation symbols I'd like to be able to change decimal symbols, or value separation symbols. When exporting to csv, a lot of data becomes wrong in the spreadsheet, due to the data exported having English values, when the spreadsheet has another language setting. My spreadsheet (and my region of the world) uses comma (,) as a decimal symbol and dot (.) as thousand value separator. When those are reversed, a number like 9.34 (or 9,34 as we'd write it) is displayed as "september 1934", because the spreadsheet interpretes it as a date. If we're able to modify those decimal and separation symbols, it'd be a lot easier when exporting stats.

08-01-2022, 08:35 PM	#138
TheAlaskan Minors (Single A) Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 96	Couple notes from a diehard WHL GM... - When scouring through U15 rosters, provide a filter for Junior preference vs. College preference - Auto-assign Junior B leagues as farm teams for CHL expansion teams - Let NHL teams communicate with you regarding players they draft and send back to juniors - Revert the "box score" simulation page to the playoff tree simulation page when simming during the playoffs - Provide better indication whether an international player might sign with a North American junior team. I've pretty much stopped participating in the CHL Import Draft - Show if any of my players are rated in any of the NHL draft rankings before the NHL draft - Please don't fix the championship-winning celebration message. I like it when my 16-19 year old players are drenching each other in champagne.